Mark Spizzirri: Wings over Kings

Watched the game on TSN, all I can say is wow, is Detroit ever a force to play against at home. Even though the Kings aren't the greatest team (actually the worst record wise) but Detroit sure looks in synch out there. It must be something for a team knowing no matter who you put in net, you dont need to worry, because you are so dominant offensively, being able to roll 4 lines all night long. Their powerplays tonight at times were simply dominant, but was it just me, or did I notice ALOT of empty seats? I knew Detroit was having attendance problems, but I didnt think it was THAT bad. Then again, maybe the Kings arent the biggest draw, but with Cammy, Frolov, Kopitar, Brownie and O'Sully, they defineatley arent the least exciting team to watch.

Wings are great-its a fact jack
- I think we all saw a little bit of what is to come from Nik Kronwall-he is sort of stuck behind Rafalski and Lidstrom on the depth chart, and will be for a couple more seasons-but he can still be a great 3rd d-man.
-If the wings can play like this Hasek can be OK in goal and they can still win-
I still like the way Osgood plays though.-lets see what the team can do on Thursday vs. the blues.

Why do you guys keep winning?

This has nothing to do with the win tonight, but do you know how damn lucky you guys get at the draft?? jeez man.

Zetterberg. Picked #210 overall. (7th round)
Datsyuk. picked #171 overall (6th Round)
Holmstrom picked #257 overall (10th Round!!)

No one on your top line was picked before the 6th round.. Damn!

This has nothing to do with the win tonight, but do you know how damn lucky you guys get at the draft?? jeez man.

Zetterberg. Picked #210 overall. (7th round)
Datsyuk. picked #171 overall (6th Round)
Holmstrom picked #257 overall (10th Round!!)

No one on your top line was picked before the 6th round.. Damn!
- kings#7

Haha, most will say that's just how good the Wings' scouting staff is... though if they honestly had an idea of how those players would have turned out, one would think they'd have drafted them earlier. Either way though, we have too many really good late round picks for it to just be luck and coincidence.

As for attendance... yeah it's bad. The Wings are really struggling to even come close to filling the building. There's just as many fans watching on TV from what I can tell, but people aren't spending money to go to the games. Personally I've been to one game this year, and might go to one or two more. Granted, I'm a broke college student, but I think other people are having the same problem.

As for how good the Wings are... show me five games against Ottawa, Anaheim, Dallas, Colorado and Vancouver and then I'll tell you.

This Detroit team is SO incredible... Wish I was a Detroit fan!
It's almost impossible not to like watching this team play!!!

Only question is this: Why so much empty seats in this arena? That's incredible!!!

The attendance is a little misleading though. The Wings aren't selling out games right now, but they're still probably selling out 90% capacity.

I'm pretty sure most (if not all) ofthe empty seats you see on tv are already sold to season ticket holders (since they're in the lower bowl). I think Detroit has around 16,000 season ticket holders (maybe a little less this year but probably at least 15,000) out of a little over 19,000 total seats at the Joe.

In the past the season ticket holders would have sold those tickets to someone else (usually for a little markup) and kept the really good games for themselves. That's just not happening this year, because of the horrible economy and number of other reasons (regular season doesn't mean much with the Wings, unbalanced schedule, high parking/food expenses, people don't want to go to Detroit, Pistons are good again, etc).

Why do you guys keep winning?
- LeafnsNxt2Godlyns

Although I'm the biggest die-hard Wing fan, I live in Toronto and enjoy seeing the leafs make the playoffs because of how energized this city gets about playoff hockey - it's truly incredible. So I can understand your wonderment as to why the Wings just keep winning year after year and the leafs just never seem to be able to get it done.

As it has been mentioned a few times in this thread, it's largely due to Detroit's ability to draft talent in later rounds but it's also because they surround themselves with disciplined players - every player plays a pivotal role and is committed to our system. It's a formula that has worked for years and is managed by very intelligent hockey minds. The Detroit Red Wings are just a class act all around and seem to do all the little things right (starting to seem a little biased here but what can i say? )

Go Wings Go!

Mark, you have the best blogging position ever. How can you write anything negative against the Damn Wings? Impossible. What a hockey team.