Ok, so here's the deal with Darren McCarty. The Wings have offered him a two-way contract for one season so he'd get paid one figure if he was playing in the NHL and a much lower figure if he's playing in Grand Rapids. GM Ken Holland talked to McCarty's agent, Patrick Morris, in early August. He "told them to take the month of August, explore their options."

As a result, Morris is looking at other clubs who may be able to offer McCarty an NHL contract instead of a two-way deal. If Morris is unsuccessful, McCarty is expected to take the standing offer in the beginning of September at the earliest.

Thanks to the salary cap, the Wings are unable to offer McCarty an NHL contract so you can't blame him and his agent for looking elsewhere for a better deal.

While his veteran experience and low salary cap may be an interesting option for a team, I think McCarty is going to end up signing that two-year deal with Detroit.

The Detroit Red Wings added two individuals to their coaching staff. Brad McCrimmon and Keith McKittrick were hired to fill the vacancies left by Todd McLellan and  Jay Woodcroft, who left for the San Jose Sharks this summer.

McCrimmon is a former defenseman (who even played three seasons for Detroit) with previous coaching experience. He was Atlanta's assistant coach for four seasons and also worked on the coaching staffs for Calgary and the Islanders. He signed a three-year contract.

Keith McKittrick will be the Wings new video coach for the next two seasons. He is leaving Michigan State where he was their video coach for three seasons. Before MSU, McKittrick was the assistant to video and scouting coach with the Minnesota Wild, where he was "responsible for creating video scouting reports, breaking down game film and assisting with U.S. and European-born player research."

Assistant coach Paul MacLean was re-signed for another three seasons so head coach Mike Babcock, MacLean, and McCrimmon's contracts will all expire at the same time.

Time will tell how well these two additions mesh with the current coaching staff, but I trust in GM Ken Holland and Mike Babcock to make strong hiring decisions.

According to a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Detroit Red Wings will face the Chicago Blackhawks on New Year's at the historic Wrigley Field.

According to an NHL source, the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings will participate in the league's second outdoor Winter Classic on New Year's Day.

The game will take place at Wrigley Field. An announcement is expected next week before the inaugural "Blackhawks Convention" at the Chicago Hilton.

Last New Year's Day, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout in front of an NHL-record crowd of 71,217 at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

What's my reaction? Well, I'm excited about the opportunity to watch the Wings play in this year's Winter Classic. However, I would have preferred to see the Classic occur on a day other than New Year's for a couple reasons.

1) Michigan football is kind of a big deal around here. While our team won't be as good this year, I still think they'll be playing on New Year's, which is a known football holiday. Many Michigan fans are also Wings fans so which game will they tune into if the game times overlap?

2) The Wings only season tradition is their annual New Year's Eve game, which is a favorite among fans (myself included). Unfortunately, the Wings will be unable to host their traditional game if this report proves to be accurate.

In addition to the date problem, I really really wanted to see the Wings face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Michigan Stadium. I attend the University of Michigan and would love to have seen these two huge rivals (admittedly from back in the day) play in the biggest football stadium in the US and shatter the hockey attendance record. If the Wings are playing the Blackhawks at Wrigley, we can kiss that dream goodbye.

But I guess I can't complain too much since this will be an exciting opportunity and I'm going to do everything I can to be there whether I'm working it or just freezing my butt off in the stands.

The Detroit Red Wings certainly did not have the flashiest day, but it's hard to argue with what they did do and they didn't break the bank in the process.

GM Ken Holland re-signed Brad Stuart to a four year contract averaging $3.75 million per year. The price is definitely above what Holland was looking to sign, but I think Holland believes that the Wings are in good shape when it comes to the 2009-2010 salary cap so he could reward Stuart after a great postseason.

"They were pretty sure he could get $4 to $4.5 million," said Holland. "We paid a little bit more than we wanted to and he took a little bit less than he wanted to. But all deals made a compromises. He's got a home now." "We're obviously done on defense," added Holland. "We're still looking for a back-up goalie. If we can find a forward on a short-term deal to fill out our needs, great. But will that be this week or later in the summer, who knows."

GM Ken Holland got a veteran goaltender on board via a one-year contract with former Penguins back-up goalie Ty Conklin. At only $750,000, this seems like a very sound signing since Conklin was arguably the top available goaltender who would likely be relegated to back-up duty. Jimmy Howard can still earn the back-up role, but he has to outplay Conklin by a lot during training camp according to an article on MLive.com.

"Ty Conklin has the inside track, but if Jimmy Howard is the obvious No. 2 guy (in training camp and the preseason), we'll reassess," general manager Ken Holland said. "Do we carry three (goaltenders)?" Conklin, 32, received a one-way contract, meaning he will be paid the same whether he's on the NHL roster or in the minors. And there's a problem with sending him to the minors. If the Wings send him to Grand Rapids and he clears waivers, and then try to bring him back up on re-entry waivers, they will be responsible for half of his salary if another team were to claim him. The Wings have the option to send Howard down to Grand Rapids for one more season without clearing waivers.

All in all, it was a great first day of free agency for Wings fans. Mats Sundin is still available and considering a two-year, $20 million Vancouver Canucks contract. I still think the Wings have a strong shot at him because the guy wants to win a Cup, but it's going to come down to this question: "Would I rather make more money or win the Cup?" Only Sundin can answer that question and we'll find out the answer soon enough.

Hello. My name's Joe Hass. You may remember me from such Behind The Jersey blog postings as "Every Home Game Of The 2008 Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings" and "The Flaming One On Mitch Albom"

Christy graciously introduced me a couple weeks back around here, and thanks to an insane work load at the office (combined with some sort of sleeping issue), I haven't had a chance to actually post something here, until now.

I want to start with an explanatory post about me that also serves as a bit of a caution to Olympia.

My favorite baseball team (in fact, my favorite sports team in general) is the Chicago Cubs. Living in the Detroit area for more than 90% of my life, I get a rather common response to this fact: "How did you become a Cubs fan if you've lived in Detroit most your life?"

In January, 1983, my parents moved to the northwest suburbs of Chicago after a 14-month stint in suburban Milwaukee. Nine months later, I began fifth grade under a teacher, John Katzel, who was a huge Cubs fan and tipped me off to watching the games on WGN. Over the next two years, I became a Cubs fan while keeping my allegiance to the Tigers. The rationale was simple: I had an American League team and a National League team.

When we moved back to Detroit in September, 1986, I discovered two things: Hockey Night in Canada and the Detroit Red Wings. With that, I started falling in love with hockey. It was also good that, at the same time, Jacques Demers took over the Wings and started the incredible streak the team has been on since then.

Over the past twenty years, my love for the Cubs grew, and I started to care less and less about the Tigers. When they made the move to the new stadium, that pretty much did it for me.

So why do I tell you that story? Well, the one team I didn't mention was the Chicago Blackhawks. I mean, I lived in Chicago for three years. They played in an incredible old barn, with an history that couldn't be beat. Why did I never fall for the Blackhawks when I lived in Chicago?

The short answer is this: the Blackhawks never cared. I never saw the Blackhawks on TV (because they refused to show games on TV, especially home games, because the owner, Bill Wirtz, felt that televising home games threatened ticket sales. They never marketed themselves to anyone (much less kids). I vaguely knew *of* them, but I can tell you that I never watched a single game of hockey when I lived there. And we had cable, so we had the ability to watch the cable games (USA had the cable rights, then ESPN had them).

What's amazing is that, in spite of all this, the Blackhawks fans still cared. I dare you to watch Wayne Messmer perform the National Anthem before the 1991 NHL All-Star Game, played the Sunday after Desert Storm, and not be moved. That was the energy level in that building every night! (For the uninitiated, the fans cheered the Anthem every night, with Messmer singing it every time.) When I went to a game the night after my wedding in 2003 at the mausoleum, I mean, United Center, I knew how badly the franchise had fallen.

By the time Wirtz died at the start of the 2007-8 season (a moment, by the way, that was greeted with lustful boos in the ceremony before the home opener), the franchise was effectively dead in the water. Attendance was abysmal. They had chased off their legendary play-by-play guy, Pat Foley, who was now doing Chicago Wolves games (the AHL franchise that plays in Rosemont). Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, and Tony Esposito one of the legends of the team, would have nothing to do with the club. To put this in perspective: imagine if the Red Wings had fired Mickey Redmond and Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsey, and Steve Yzerman all refused to set foot in Joe Louis Arena. That's how bad it was.

So why do I share this? Because, as I write this, here's what the Red Wings have done in the past year:

* Signed a 10-year deal with FSN to put every game not on NBC or Versus on cable.
* Had exactly one open practice for fans: every other event has been closed to the public or has required $50-$200 admission.
* Watched as their season-ticket waiting list has gone away.
* Continued their circa-1997 in-game presentation for home games.
* Kept John Hahn as their minister of non-information, who one media member refers to as the "PR Nazi" for his miserable treatment of media.

The Olympia management continues to believe that all they have to do is open up the doors and 20,000 people will flock into the building. I'm sure the Blackhawks would be happy to dissuade them of how long that'll last.

Meanwhile, the Blackhawks, in the past year:

* Have gone from no home games broadcast to eight (and the only reason it was that low was because they made the deal after the season started) to all home games on TV, then signed a deal to put 20 games on WGN.
* Announced the first-ever Blackhawk Convention, which proceeded to sell out the day tickets went on sale
* Announced they're bringing back Pat Foley.
* Had an public reconciliation with Mikita and Hull.
* Hired away the president of the Cubs, John McDonough, to take over as the president of the Blackhawks, a stunning move that shocked both the baseball and hockey worlds.

The Blackhawks, in a word, get it. The Red Wings do not.

I promise my next post won't be this wordy, nor this inside baseball. I would love for the Wings to reach out to the fans. I would love this organization to win Stanley Cups and grow their fan base and get the next generation into hockey.

Would, unfortunately, is the key word.

I would like to apologize for the lack of posting over the last week. I've gone back and forth from Detroit/Chicago three times, started a new internship, and moved to a new city so there's been a lot of adjusting at my end. Since I'm about to head to work, here are some quick Wing notes to hold you over.

Goaltender Dominik Hasek retired after winning his second Stanley Cup in sixteen seasons. After being replaced by Chris Osgood in net after four games this postseason, you just knew that Hasek didn't like not being No. 1 in net. And when you're 43, just won a Cup, and didn't play the role you had hoped in the playoffs, it's a fairly easy decision to retire.

"When I was kissing that Cup, I had made the decision," said Hasek, 43, who made his exit from the game at a Monday morning press conference at Joe Louis Arena. "I didn't feel I needed to wait. I know it's 100 percent the right time."

Head coach Mike Babcock has signed a three year deal worth approximately $1.5 million per year plus bonuses. The deal was pretty much done before the playoffs, but they had to wait until the end of postseason to nail down some specifics regarding minor contract details.

"For me, this place has been fantastic," said Babcock, whose deal is worth approximately $1.5 million per season plus bonuses. "I love coming here to work. I love where I live. Our staff here has the same passion that I do. They love and care about hockey."

"We're excited about the opportunity here," Babcock said. "We're looking forward to the next three years. I don't think we're going away. The core players we have coming back will give us an opportunity to be successful."

Todd McLellan, one of the Wings assistant coaches this past season, is heading to San Jose where he will be the head coach of the team for three seasons after Ron Wilson was fired. While I hate to see him go, he is certainly deserving of this position.

"It's a very good feeling," McLellan said in a statement released by the team. "From the first moment Doug called to the moment he offered the job, I felt comfortable. I think the Sharks have done a tremendous job. You don't get that close to 50 wins for a number of years in a row without a lot of talent. It's a matter of getting over the hump. There are some real parallels between the Wings and the Sharks."

Early this morning, the Wings lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in triple overtime after having a 3-2 game lead with 34.7 seconds left in the game. A win would have meant the Stanley Cup, but the Pens rode goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to a victory and a chance to head back home for Game #6.

Unfortunately due to inconvenient timing, my summer internship in Chicago started yesterday. In the past 48 hours, I have driven to and from Chicago, worked 7 hours in Chicago, worked 3.5 hours in Detroit, taken a train back to Detroit, and then crashed. I'm still completely exhausted and trying to adjust to a new place and job so I'm going to ask for you to read the game recaps from two other SBN blogs: PensBurgh for the Pittsburgh view and Pride of Detroit (Detroit Lions) for the view from a Wings fan. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Feel free to vote in the poll below on what you think the outcome of Game #6 will be after an exciting Game #5 in Detroit.

After a 3-2 loss against Pittsburgh last night, the Wings have another concern to add to the list. Forward Tomas Holmstrom left the game with just over six minutes remaining after a Hal Gill cross check (update: trip) and did not return. He was seen limping as he exited Mellon Arena.

Despite this, GM Ken Holland believes that Homer will play in Saturday's game.

He felt OK this morning," Holland said. "Sometimes in the first 24-48 hours, you get significantly worse. He wasn’t any worse today, so that’s a good sign."

Teammates weren’t overly concerned.

"They said he was limping out of the arena," Zetterberg said, "and I said he does that a lot of times."

Now it's not incredibly unusual to see Holmstrom with ice after the game after the beatings he usually takes in front of the opponent's net, but he did miss the end of the game which concerns me a bit. Still, it's the Stanley Cup Final and Homer would have to be in a ton of pain to not play in Game #4. It's not like Johan Franzen, who missed six games with concussion-like symptoms and you had to be cautious because it's his brain. This is an alleged knee injury. Slightly different story in that regard.

Correction: I was appropriately corrected by a Pens fan over at PensBurgh that the injury did not come from a Hal Gill cross check, rather more of a tripping motion. My bad.

Update: Holmstrom practiced this morning on the first line, but is still not a 100% yes to play tonight. He is a game-time decision and Homer will be the one deciding whether he plays tonight or tonight. I expect him to play based on Babcock and Homer's comments.

Last night, the Detroit Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in convincing fashion, 4-0, at home. They are now three wins away from the Stanley Cup. Now let's not get ahead of ourselves, there is still plenty of hockey to be played. I know that the Wings really picked up and capitalized on the Penguins mistakes. I know Pittsburgh has the talent to perform better and it's only game. There is plenty of time to turn things around so I would most certainly not write off the Pens by any stretch of the imagination.

Some interesting takes from the game (and if you want a look from the other side, be sure to visit Pensburgh):

1) Sidney Crosby had just three shots in the game. Evgeni Malkin? Just one.

2) Detroit won 53% of the face offs. Kris Draper won 68% of his 19 face offs. Valtteri Filppula won 75% of his 8 face offs. Jordan Staal? 38%. Crosby? 48%. Malkin? 40%.

3) For being the bigger team in terms of size, the Penguins were outhit by Detroit, 31-25.

4) Detroit's secondary scoring got two goals from Mikael Samuelsson and a goal from Dan Cleary. Neither of which had scored in the Western Conference Finals so it was great to see some goals from new sources.

5) Chris Osgood was the reason why the Wings weren't down at least a goal in the first period. After playing undisciplined and going on almost four consecutive penalty kills, Osgood had to make some huge saves. And he did. The crowd kept chanting "Ozzie, Ozzie" during the first and it was certainly earned praise by the netminder. I find it hard to imagine the Joe Louis crowd chanting like that had Dominik Hasek been the goalie in net making those saves. But maybe that's just me.

6) The Pens had their fans in full force last night. I didn't interact with any of them, but I only heard them cheering "Lets Go Pens" and while I don't like seeing a lot of visiting team fans in our arena, it's not so bad when they are just cheering for their team (instead of trying to insult the opponents). I also saw way too many Crosby jerseys last night. I got excited when I saw a fan with a Gonchar jersey and that's just because it was something different.

Tomorrow night's game will be a great battle. If Pittsburgh can split the games at the Joe, it'll be considered a big success for them as they head home. If Detroit can head to Pittsburgh up 2-0 in the series and with the chance of Johan Franzen to return to the line-up, it's going to be tough for the Penguins to climb back into this series.

If you are interested in seeing how the two teams measured up statistically before the Stanley Cup Finals, please check out Stros Fan's fanpost here.

Detroit sport fans aren't too happy with the Stanley Cup Finals schedule that's shown below:

Game 1: Saturday, May 24 @ 8:00 PM ET: Pittsburgh at Detroit on Versus, CBC
Game 2: Monday, May 26 @ 8:00 PM ET: Pittsburgh at Detroit on Versus, CBC
Game 3: Wednesday, May 28 @ 8:00 PM ET: Detroit at Pittsburgh on NBC, CBC
Game 4: Saturday, May 31 @ 8:00 PM ET: Detroit at Pittsburgh on NBC, CBC
Game 5*: Monday, June 2 @ 8:00 PM ET: Pittsburgh at Detroit on NBC, CBC
Game 6:* Wednesday, June 4 @ 8:00 PM ET: Detroit at Pittsburgh on NBC, CBC
Game 7*: Saturday, June 7 @ 8:00 PM ET: Pittsburgh at Detroit on NBC, CBC

*If necessary.

If you'll notice, three games are on Saturday, which benefits the TV networks particularly CBC with their Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts.

For Detroit fans in particular, the schedule requires fans to choose which game they want to watch- the Detroit Pistons who are in the Eastern Conference Finals or the Detroit Red Wings? Or do you flip back and forth between the games?

What about those fans who wanted to attend a game? I was hoping to attend the Pistons' game on Monday, but since the Wings also play at home on the same night, I will be unable to do so. I won't even be able to watch the first two Pistons' home games in this series.

But Detroit sports fans aren't the only ones unhappy with the schedule. Here are some thoughts from other bloggers and media members:

Jes Golbez @ AOL FanHouse:

Yes, I realize that the Super Bowl often has a week or two of waiting before the big event, but the NHL's Stanley Cup Finals is not a one-off event. The longer you make the fans wait, the bigger the risk you have of losing the casual fan.

I know the NHL is hell-bent on having Saturday as their big day, but don't people watch more TV during the week? I'd think ye olde average commoner is more likely to be in front of the tube on a Thursday, when the nightclub/bar/hot date doth not beckon, rather than a Saturday night.

Eric Adelson at ESPN.com:

Those who grew up in Michigan watching "Hockey Night in Canada" on Channel 9 -- and full disclosure, I'm one of them -- know most Canadians love hockey enough to tune in anyway if these games started at, say, 7 p.m. So, I'm offering a week's worth of Timbits to anyone at CBC who can give Detroit fans a chance to see an extra hour of hockey and an extra hour (on the backside) of hoops. But this really isn't about CBC. It's about the NHL.

Brown calls it "one of those freakish things that happen," and wants to know "why the NBA doesn't move its games." Even if the NBA does decide to accommodate Detroit fans by delaying tip times by an hour -- and remember, those hoops games were set before the NHL Western Conference finals ended Monday night -- that would only be regarded as yet another fan-friendly move by David Stern. Can't Commissioner Gary Bettman be the hero instead?

A disgruntled reader at The Big Lead:

"Isn’t Detroit the one NHL market that gets really good NHL ratings, so by putting them on against the Pistons, is the NHL purposely trying to losing ratings in arguably its best market? The Finals will probably get better ratings than the NBA Conference Finals, but what about fans that have tickets to both teams? And the bar owners who would love separate nights of crowds? Games 1 and 2 are on Versus. Game 3 of the Pistons-Celtics is on ABC … why would you want to go against the one night where the NBA is on network TV? [The NHL] treats a storied franchise and its fanbase like crap."