Red Wings Rumblings
While Team USA and Team Canada prepare for the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship Thursday night in Boston, it’s back to business for every Red Wing not named Dylan Larkin. The team has returned for practice in a “mini training camp style.” There’s a lot of preparation as the Wings will return to action Saturday night and jump right back into it on Sunday. Both games are at home so hopefully the crowd will be amped up and excited for hockey to be back in the D.
Speaking of 4 Nations, a little confusion and chaos for Team USA as Charlie McAvoy won’t be able to play Thursday due to an upper-body injury with some sort of infection. News broke yesterday that USA was summoning star defenseman and former Michigan Wolverine Quinn Hughes. The confusion was — well, is he going to actually play? It seems unclear at this point, but at the end of the day and after much misconception due to NHL insiders not having the full story, Hughes won’t be able to play unless there is another injury for USA. Same treatment Canada got with Thomas Harley. Elliotte Friedman penned a column about this topic. He believes everyone should be able to play, and I agree. It’s a best-on-best tournament. It’s clear the NHL is comfortable changing the rules on the fly.
Staying with 4 Nations, I saw some notes that the NHL has caught “lightning in a bottle” with this new tournament. While I agree that this event has topped expectations and provided some real entertainment for fans both casual and die-hard, it’s not hard to see why this tournament is so successful. Hockey fans absolutely love competitions where the best players are representing their countries. We’ve been deprived of Olympic action for long enough, and this has given fans a little taste of what that’s like again. I know that I’m feeling more excited for the NHL’s return to Olympiad, what about you?
And what should the NHL do going forward? I’m not so sure doing 4 Nations every year is viable. I think the overwhelming opinion is that the NHL should keep this premium event as a compliment and precursor to Olympic action. That means keeping the All-Star Game (or something like that) in the mix and have the 4 Nations on “off years” to build momentum and hype for the real international action. Am I confident the NHL will do the right thing here? Not really. We’ll see though!
We’re getting real close to the Stadium Series matchup between Detroit and Columbus at the Horseshoe. The NHL has already started building out the rink. We’ve got some more content coming your way later today. We’ll take a look at how Detroit’s prospects are doing so far this season. Stay tuned!
On a more somber note, I wanted to take some time here and mention the news about Andy Isaac, also known as WorldofIsaac on Twitter. Many of you who have been involved in Detroit sports social media communities know of him and his hilarious antics and die-hard fandom for everything Detroit. Andy posted on Twitter yesterday that his battle with cancer has worsened and he has made the decision to enter hospice care. It’s heartbreaking news, and I really hope that we can all wrap our arms around Andy and his family to give them the strength and love that they need right now.
