The NHL has finally announced the public sales process for the 2009 Winter Classic. Yes, you'll be in line behind the Blackhawks season ticket holders and "NHL Winter Classic partners," which for all we know could be anyone.

To enter the drawing for the scraps, visit www.chicagoblackhawks.com after Noon ET on Wednesday, November 5. go to http://blackhawks.nhl.com/tickets/wctickets.htm. You have until Noon ET on Friday, November 28 to register. As usual, one entry per person.

(we'll pause here for the snickering to stop for the "one entry per person" line).

Good luck!

A heads-up: The NHL is offering a free trial of their new online product, NHL GameCenter Live, this Thursday, October 30. This is their online version of Center Ice, but with a lot more game data and such.

The only reason I don't have this product is the lousy Internet connection I have at the hotel I'm staying at (you need at least a 700 kBps connection; you can test your connection here). It's a brilliant adaptation of video and data, and shows why the NHL truly gets how to manage and promote their product on the Internet. Check it out over at nhl.com/gamecenter.

In a heartwarming announcement, Gary Bettman has made it clear that if you're not a Chicago Blackhawks season ticket holder, you're gonna have a problem getting tickets to Winter Classic 3:

"This game is going to be sold out. Most of the tickets, not all, will be going to season ticket-holders of the Blackhawks. They are our first priority and the Blackhawks' first priority. We're not going to have the massive public sale like we did in Buffalo last year when we were playing in a 72,000-seat facility. Some tickets will be made available to the public, but if you want to be assured, you have to get season tickets."

This should not be a surprise to Wings fans who are used to being treated by the redheaded stepchild of the league for years, but let me just throw out a math question:

Assume you can fit 40,000 into Wrigley for this game. The last number I've heard for Blackhawk season ticket holders is around 15,000 (keep in mind that the United Center holds 20,500 for hockey). Unless my math is bad, that leaves 25,000 seats. The NHL obviously will take a portion of these seats. But how many?

Remember, this is, according to the league, an NHL-run game, which means the league gets to control who gets how many tickets. So why not give a decent portion to Red Wings season ticket holders (at a minimum)? Oh, that's right: because the Blackhawks have turned into the new poster boys of Toronto and New York.

You know what'd be nice? If the Red Wings front office actually grew a spine at some point and stood up for their fans. Ah, we can only dream...

I was graciously given a pair of tickets to last night's Rangers/Wings game. Some thoughts.

• There's no better feeling than paying cash to park, then when leaving seeing the sign changed to "Prepaid passes only"
• The pregame "ceremony" for Ted Linsday was very disappointing in its shortness. No video of the pre-opening dedication ceremony; some SVP of business operations pulling the black curtain off the print that everyone had seen.
• I have absolutely no qualms with giving Ted, Alex, or Gordie statues. However, given the limited amount of concourse space, I grow frustrated with putting more things fans have to work their way around.
• We sat directly in front of a group of fans who were a bit rambunctious (read: drunk). They didn't feel the team was being physical enough. And I have to agree with them to a point.
• There's nothing I like more than a quick goal to penalize those who feel that there's no need to get there for the start of the game.
• Full and complete credit to Bill McCreary and Tom Kowal for calling a great game. They kept the whistles out of it and let two teams play. Hey, Gary Bettman: send this tape to the rest of your officiating crews and tell them this is how to do it.
  
• For all intent and purposes, Budd Lynch isn't doing PA anymore. Yeah, he announces the Wings starting line-ups, and the shot totals after the periods, and that it's the "last minute of play in this period," and the three stars of the game. But someone else announces the goals and penalties. I'm kinda surprised this hasn't gotten more play. I have more to think about this, but I'll save it for another post.
• Whomever told "Tunes By T" (the JLA Musical Director) to stop playing the line "it's nine o'clock on a Saturday" from Billy Joel's "Piano Man" at 9:00 on Saturday night games: take an extra $20 from petty cash.
• The Hossa goal was as pretty as you'll see in hockey. Magnificent job by Pavel Datsuyk to set him up.
• Based on the way these two teams played tonight, I think we could see this matchup again in eight months.
  

If you watched last night's game, you saw a flaw in the NHL's video replay rule. It's Rule 39 in the NHL rulebook.

The rule clearly explains what to do about time, especially after a goal:

"In the event that a video replay shows a goal was scored prior to the play being stopped, the Video Goal Judge will inform the Game Timekeeper and Official Scorer of the time of goal and the amount of playing time left to be reset on the game clock."

But what it doesn't cover is what happens *after* the goal was scored. In this case, Tomas Holmstrom's tip of Pavel Datsuyk's shot hit the back support bar and bounced right out. Moments after, Brian Rafalski was called for interference. The penalty was left on the board, but pushed back to the time of the goal.

That makes no sense. In theory, since time was placed back on the clock to the point the goal was scored, what happened after the goal was scored should have disappeared as well.

I'm sure it's happened, but you could have a situation where a goal was scored but not noted, the other team could go the other way and score, and both goals could appear at the same time on the score sheet.

Last night marked the first of seven Wings games exclusively on Versus. It is, of course, fashionable to bash the NHL for putting their games on a three-digit channel for anyone not on Comcast (which owns a portion of the network).

I've always believed that the NHL took an calculated risk when they took the money from OLN (the former name of Versus) as opposed to the profit-sharing structure that ESPN offered after the lockout. At that time, there was serious talk that OLN was going to try to reposition themselves as a true competitor to ESPN by also trying to get MLB and NFL rights. As it turns out, they didn't get either, and the NHL was isolated on the little network that promotes themselves with attitude as opposed to actual content.

What frustrates me as a hockey fan is the fact that the NHL argues that they felt the would be ignored on ESPN, but I don't think Versus does a whole heckuva lot to push the NHL either. I noted during a live blog last year that Versus didn't do any sort of pre-game show during the playoffs (at one point showing MMA as the lead in). Versus doesn't do a nightly hockey show. Before the Wings game, instead of talking hockey, we got the opening of a Def Leppard concert. Add to that the embarassment from last year when they accidentally cut away from a multiple-overtime game to show an informercial.

Then there's Mike Emrick. Let me be clear that I'm aware that I'm in the minority on this topic, and that people liking or disliking announcers is a purely personal choice. But I can't stand Emrick. I mean fingernail-on-the-blackboard can't stand him. He's stunningly obvious at times, prone to overexcitement, and gets easily distracted. He had more than a few stunners last year during my live blogs. For my money, Ken Daniels is the gold standard (I can't believe the CBC didn't steal him away as the phase out of Bob Cole continues).

What frustrates me is that ESPN is so ready to face real competition in this world. There's a part of me that would've loved it for ESPN to face real competition, and I thought Versus might be there. But their coverage of the NHL just reminds me of how far away we really are from that point.

USA Today had it as their cover story in their sports section the other day: the seemingly inevitable postseason decline of the Stanley Cup champion the following season. To put it simply: since the Wings repeated in 1998, no Stanley Cup champion has advanced past the second round. Since Dallas in 2000, no Stanley Cup champion has advanced past the first round.

I agree with Christy on the Wings doing it again (then again, I thought the same thing about the other team I love, and I believe the official scorer of Game 1 of the NLCS will charge a Cubs infielder with an error out of habit). But I also don't doubt the Wings are going to be looking at a long season after a short offseason.

I'll add a couple factors:

* There is no reward for doing well in the regular season. Simply having home-ice advantage in the playoffs isn't enough, as we've seen too many 8-over-1 and 7-over-2 wins. Since 1996, there have been 15 major first round upsets: just more than one a year. In an average year, there are five seeded upsets.

* The regular season is just too long, both in games and calendar time. The idea tossed around earlier this year to add games at the start and reducing preseason games is the solution for the wrong problem.

* The geographical imbalance of the league puts Western Conference teams at a brutal disadvantage. Remember: all 15 Eastern Conference teams are in the Eastern Time Zone. The 15 Western Conference teams are spread across all four time zones.

So how do we fix this?

* Reduce the regular season to 71 games: 4 games against every team in your conference (and get rid of the stupid three-division format and just go to a 15-team conference). The trade off: The playoffs expand to 10 teams per conference, with a 7-10 and 8-9 first round matchup for a best-of-five (or even best-of-three).

* Reward the top-two seeds with an extra home game in their first playoff series. Play the first three at the higher seed, then the next two at the lower seed, then the final two back at the higher seed. If the top seed advances, they get an extra home game in the second series as well.

* Replace the east/west conference alignment with a baseball-style conference system in which each conference goes from coast to coast. Balance the playing field to force each team to play from coast-to-coast.

It's no guarantee that the best teams will always win, but it makes it a lot more likely.

While this isn't about the Wings, it's still quite a good read. Ian Winwood at The Guardian writes about the NHL openers played overseas this weekend: he was in Stockholm (Pittsburgh/Ottawa), with the other opener (Rangers/Lightning) in Prague.

Thanks to a friend, I was able to attend the Red Wings season ticket holder "puck drop" party. I have quite a few photos (and a couple of beefs), but I'll save those for another post. As part of the party, they had an open Q&A with Jim Nill, Mike Babcock, and Steve Yzerman, which for the most part turned into the "Stevie Y Love In" (it was rather amusing to see Nill and Babcock sit there while Yzerman was asked question after question).

But the last question of the session did provide some news: Nill confirmed that Wings season ticket holders will have a crack at Winter Classic tickets. He noted that the Wings allotment will be "a few thousand," and that they know nothing about where the seats are or cost (since the NHL, which is running the show, hasn't announced anything about them yet).

So to all the Wings season ticket holders I know: Have I told you how much I love you lately?

Hearty props to Number 7 in the rafters, Ted Lindsay, for being named a Lester Patrick award winner for 2008. He becomes the fifth Wings player to win the award (Gordie Howe in 1967, Terry Sawchuk in 1971, Alex Delveccio in 1974, and Steve Yzerman in 2006).

The Lester Patrick is more of a lifetime achievement award, and heaven knows Ted earned it, not just for his 15 seasons on the ice (which is mentioned in the USAH presser), but for his role in establishing the players union and being run out of Detroit in 1957 (which, conveniently enough, is not).

It's far, far too easy to take potshots at sports unions now, but remember: players in professional sports were treated like crap prior to the 1970s. It was Lindsay who helped try to organize the players into an "association" in the 1950s (the very phrase "union" was conisdered to be too dramatic of a step), going after the Leafs and the Wings in particular to get such outrageous things as a pension plan and a minimum salary. Jack Adams (who was under the thumb of Bruce Norris) would have none of it, and not only sent Lindsay to the Blackhawks, but also created a phony contract that made it look as though Lindsay had a significantly inflated salary, which created resentment against Lindsay.

Lindsay's response was to file an anti-trust suit against the NHL. He had the league dead to rights, and about a year later, the NHL settled, "Settled" in this case meaning "gave in to almost every demand."

Bully to you, Mr. Lindsay. Enjoy the award.