We've know this for awhile now, but it's about to become officially official.

The 2013 Winter Classic is coming to the great state of Michigan.

The league has announced two press conferences scheduled for tomorrow regarding a "MAJOR announcement" about the Red Wings (can't imagine what it could be). The first presser will be at 10:30a ET at Comerica Park and the second presser will be 1:15p ET at Michigan Stadium. Both will be streamed on the Red Wings official website and NHL.com.

In a press conference this morning at Comerica Park in Detroit featuring the best owner in pro sports, the league and the Wings announced that the 2013 Winter Classic will indeed be held at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. There is a follow-up presser to be held at Michigan Stadium today at 1:15p ET where reps from Michigan will speak about the opportunity to host such an event.

Next January 1st, myself, J.J., Graham and 115,000 of our friends (and some enemies) will be packed inside the Big House in Ann Arbor to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs take on our beloved Detroit Red Wings in the biggest hockey spectacle ever. The game should easily break the current hockey attendance record of 104,173 that was set by Michigan State and Michigan at The Big Chill at the Big House in December 2010.

The Winter Classic will be the first to feature a team from outside the United States. The Maple Leafs history with the Red Wings, large fan base in both Canada and the United States, plus Toronto's close proximity to Michigan without a doubt factored into the leagues decision to include them. The game will feature two die hard fan bases that will easily sellout the game. I can't wait to see the aerial shots of the stadium and seeing giant sections of red (and a little bit of blue). And! Michigan Stadium (and the entire U of M campus) does not allow the sale of alcohol, but part of the agreement between the university and the NHL is to allow the sale of alcohol at the game. So if the Winter Classic is anything like H2H2, you'll want to be around the WIIM gang.

More on the event after the jump.

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The diggers are reporting that Brad Stuart was held out of team practice today in Phoenix while he battles the flu. Lay it on us, Helene St. James (@FreepWings)!

Per Holland: Stuart is at team hotel. Got same bug that kept Lidstrom out of Montreal game.

As our intrepid Graham asks, does this mean a million "Life after Stuart?" questions if the Wings lay an egg?

Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) has a bit more on Cleary as well:

Danny Cleary left Wings skate early. Been bothered by fluid in knee lately. will update shortly

If you remember, Cleary went to the hospital last week when a bursa sac in his knee burst. My limited medical knowledge is that it's going to hurt, but won't necessarily keep him out of the lineup. Expect that he'll have the knee drained when the team returns to Detroit.

No word yet on MacDonald or Conklin in net tonight. We'll update the post as soon as we know.

[Update: Cleary and MacDonald in]

The All-Star weekend has come and gone. The game ended roughly as fans expected, with Team Chara defeating Team Alfredsson 12-9. However, Pavel Datsyuk and Jimmy Howard weren't the only two members of a winning team this weekend. As you've no doubt followed, we had a friendly competition with the fine fellows over at The Production Line to see which side could draft among the All-Stars and get the best team.

At the end of the weekend, the big winner of the entire deal was the Humane Society of Michigan who, thanks to all of the awesome pledges, will receive $1,218 worth of donations.

Of course, the lesser winner of the deal was us, Winging It In Motown, who pulled out a a 56.5 - 48.8 victory for our loyal fans. TPL got the biggest contributor on the night when Chris Hollis snatched up Marian Gaborik with his 2nd round pick, but team WIIM, led by the 8.5 points of Zdeno Chara (drafted by yours truly) was able to pull off the come-from-behind victory. At one point, team WIIM trailed by 13 points, but made up ground in the 2nd period of the game and completely overcome the deficit with a strong third period. Pavel Datsyuk's three assists and +4 rating on the night helped (although it would have been nice if he wasn't feeding those goals to TPL's Hossa and Gaborik).

I just wanted to thank the guys at TPL for another great All-Star weekend and to thank everybody who donated. It's been a great weekend.

Reports coming out of the morning skate in Montreal today are that Nicklas Lidstrom left the skate early and may miss tonight's game with what Ken Holland is calling "Flu-like symptoms".

MLive's Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) has the money Tweet:

Wings' Commodore, however, will play if Lidstrom can't. Lidstrom likely will play but wasn't feeling well, left arena right after the skate.

If it does turn out that Lidstrom will miss tonight's game, don't fear, because you'll still get to see him tonight if you have NBC Sports. Lidstrom will be the third NHL athlete featured on their '36' series, in which they have cameras follow and document 36 hours of an NHLer's life. The episode will air tonight prior to NBC Sports' coverage of the Red Wings' game in Montreal.

This will be a great opportunity for fans of hockey to get a glimpse into the life of a truly generational talent and consummate professional. I wouldn't miss this.

[UPDATE: Per the Official Red Wings Twitter, Lidstrom will not play tonight. Both Commodore and Kindl are in]

Nick Lidstrom (illness) will not play against Montreal tonight.

Despite our #VoteJimmah campaign failing to get Jimmy Howard voted in to the All-Star Game next month in Ottawa, the NHL did the right thing by recognizing that Tiberius has been one of the 6 best goaltenders this season and picked him to participate in the All-Star Game. Joining Jimmy will be Pavel Datsyuk, making his 4th appearance at the game.

While we're all very excited that Jimmy is finally getting the recognition he deserves for his stellar season, Wing fans are going to be up in arms that TPH Nicklas Lidstrom was not picked. Now I know that Wing fans are going to be PISSED that Lids won't be playing, what with him being the greatest defenseman of the last 25 years, but there are 2 things to remember here; first, he may very well have been picked and declined (not that we'll ever know), and second, it's based on this year and is not a lifetime achievement award.

Personally, I'm glad that Lidstrom is going to have an entire week off to rest. 42 year old bodies don't heal as fast as they used to, and any extended time off he can get is only going to serve the Wings well going forward.

The full list can be found here. Congrats to Jimmy and Pavs.

Late breaking news from the NHL, as it has been announced that the NHLPA has withheld their consent on the proposed realignment plan.

Per PHT, who got a hold of the press release, here is the statement from Bill Daly:

"It is unfortunate that the NHLPA has unreasonably refused to approve a plan that an overwhelming majority of our clubs voted to support, and that has received such widespread support from our fans and other members of the hockey community, including players," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. "We have now spent the better part of four weeks attempting to satisfy the NHLPA’s purported concerns with the plan with no success. Because we have already been forced to delay, and as a result are already late in beginning the process of preparing next season’s schedule, we have no choice but to abandon our intention to implement the realignment plan and modified playoff format for next season."

"We believe the union acted unreasonably in violation of the league’s rights. We intend to evaluate all of our available legal options and to pursue adequate remedies, as appropriate."

So, we're back to status quo for next year, as the divisions and conferences will remain the same for at least one more season. There's something else going on next season. What could it be? Oh, that's right: the expiration of the current CBA.

Is this the NHLPA puffing out their chest and declaring war on the NHL in preparation for some very tense negotiations? Were the majority of the players really that upset with the proposed plan? If it was due to some of the players worried about travel and the playoff schedule?

Regardless of the reasons, this does not bode well for the Wings, who are stuck in the same division facing the same travel schedule for at least another year. One can't help but think that Ken Holland and Mike Illitch are not very happy with the current development.

Is this the first volley in a war that could lead to another lockout? Despite the doom and gloom that seems to exist around the interwebz, I say no, because neither the NHLPA nor the NHL is stupid enough to risk losing what few casual fans they have with another lockout. I think that this is simply a negotiating tactic by the PA before they get down to business. They have do something, but the PA is going to try and use this as a way to get something else from the NHL.

The rhetoric has already begun. Strap yourselves in because it's going to be a very interesting ride.

UPDATE: The Red Wings' front office has spoken, and they are none too pleased with the NHLPA's response. From Jimmy Devellano:

I'm disgusted and disappointed but not entirely surprised by that union

Very strong words from the Wings' Senior Vice President. I think it's safe to say that we have now have definitive proof that the Wings were not one of the 4 teams that voted against the realignment plan last month.

Ian Cole of the St Louis Blues has been suspended 3 games for his hit on Justin Abdelkader. The hit occurred last night in the first period of Detroit's 3-0 win over the Blues, and marks the second time that a Blue has been suspended following a hit on a Red Wing.

Here's the video from Shanahan explaining the reasoning for the suspension:

I'll admit I was a little surprised at the length of the suspension, although he definitely deserved to sit a game since it was a direct hit to the head. Hell, I was shocked that he didn't get 5 and a game since it was pretty obvious at the time. Cole has no history of any supplemental discipline, and thankfully Abdelkader was ok, but this is exactly the type of hit the NHL is trying to get out of the game.

Per the Red Wings official Twitter feed:

NEWS: The Red Wings have removed Jan Mursak from IR and assigned him to @griffinshockey of the AHL.

This is good news for the speedy right-shooting Slovenian who broke his ankle in an ugly collision with the boards during a preaseason which looked like it would have ended with him earning a full-time roster spot with the club.

The terms of the CBA allow the Wings to send Mursak down to play with the Griffins for no more than 14 days without forcing him to clear waivers. Mursak has been skating with the Wings when he could, but this will give him some game experience to get back up to speed. Counting tonight's game at the Lake Erie Monsters, Grand Rapids will play six games during the two-week stretch in which Mursak is eligible to remain with them: Two home games this Friday and Saturday, then two back-to-back road games at Abbotsford next week before a final home game against the Houston Aeros on his last day of eligibility.

Mursak's return from the conditioning stint will likely run very close to the return of Patrick Eaves from the broken jaw he suffered on November 26th against Nashville. It will be very interesting to see how the roster shakes out when both of them return. If Mursak can pick up where he left off in camp, he very well could find himself in a rotation for a regular roster spot and push Cory Emmerton off the roster.

A lot of things can happen before then though. We'll keep you posted on additional developments.

Here's the official press release:

Detroit, MI… The Detroit Red Wings today announced that forward Jan Mursak has been activated and assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL) on a conditioning loan. Mursak, 23, has been on Detroit’s Injured Reserve List since late-September after fracturing his ankle during a pre-season game versus the Chicago Blackhawks at Joe Louis Arena.

A native of Maribor, Slovenia, Mursak was originally selected by Detroit in the sixth round (182^nd overall) of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. The 5’11”, 190-lb. winger has appeared in 19 games with the Red Wings (1G-0A-1P) and 184 games with the Griffins (39G-47A-86P) thus far in his professional career.]