Red Wings- 4 Maple Leafs- 0

(Photo credit to Fox Sports Detroit) 

Opening night of the 2015-16 NHL season probably couldn't have gone any better than it did for the Red Wings as they defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-0 and beat Mike Babcock in his return to Joe Louis Arena. 

It all started from basically puck drop. Toronto took an early penalty and the Red Wings power play capitalized just a minute and fifteen seconds into the game as Franzen took a shot that rang of the post and Justin Abdelkader put home the rebound for the first of the season for the Wings. 

On the second goal, Dylan Larkin making his NHL debut, sent a great pass to Abdelkader who put it by Berniers' blocker for a 2-0 lead. Larkin with the assist got his first career NHL point.

At the beginning of the 2nd period, Zetterberg sent a pass to Larkin at the blue line who blows by the Leafs defender and goes top shelf to score his first career NHL goal, which chased Leaf goalie Bernier from the game.

Later in the 2nd, Larkin and Abdelkader found themselves on a 2 on 1 in which Abdelkader fired it past Reimer to get his 2nd career hat trick and put the Wings up 4-0 which would be more than enough as goalie Jimmy Howard was big when he needed to be and got a 22 save shutout.

During the first TV timeout the Red Wings had a tribute for former coach Mike Babcock which after the game said that "It was a nice thing to do. They obviously didn't need too since I don't coach there anymore.". 

With the win, coach Jeff Blashill gets his first win as head coach and the Red Wings get off to a great start as they looked pretty strong. Very fast and hard on the puck. They blocked shots very well, and were seemingly always there to backup a teammate if need be. Overall about as close to a perfect performance as you could possibly have. 

The next taste of Red Wings hockey comes tonight as they take on the Carolina Hurricanes at 7pm on FSD. Petr  Mrazek will be getting the start.   

Who will make the playoffs?

Since the season officially starts tonight, and the rosters for every club are pretty much clear, it's time to make predictions for a the playoff picture, and yes, a Stanley Cup winner. 

Eastern Conference: 

Atlantic:

Tampa Bay Lightning 

Detroit Red Wings 

Montreal Canadiens 

Metropolitan:

Washington Capitals

New York Rangers

New York Islanders

Wildcard:

Pittsburgh Penguins 

Columbus Blue Jackets 

Western Conference

Pacific Divison:

Anaheim Ducks 

LA Kings

San Jose Sharks

Central Division:

St. Louis Blues

Chicago Blackhawks

Dallas Stars

Wildcard: 

Calgary Flames

Nashville Predators 

Conference Finals: 

Anahiem Ducks vs LA Kings

Detroit Red Wings vs Washington Capitals

Stanley Cup Final: 

LA Kings vs Detroit Red Wings

Stanley Cup Winner: 

Detroit Red Wings

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Today is the opening night of the 2015-16 NHL season! After a ridiculously long offseason (well, only three months) the NHL will kickoff the season with a 4 game slate. The Toronto Maple Leafs kick it off against the Montreal Canadiens at 7 EST. Followed by, CHI vs NYR (8pm EST), CGY vs VAN (10pm EST), and then LA vs SJ (10:30 EST) to wrap it up. Chicago vs New York can be seen on NBCSN on Wednesday Night Rivarly night. What do you expect from the 15-16 season? This season is undoubtedly going to be fun one! 

The kid did it! Dylan Larkin makes opening night roster.

Forward and Red Wings top prospect Dylan Larkin has officially made the opening night NHL roster. Larkin at only 19 years of age becomes the first teenager to crack the Wings roster since Jiri Fischer in the 1999-2000 season. 

Larkin who really had to earn his spot since GM Ken Holland said he didn't want him up if he wasn't going to be in the top 6 forward group. After a tremendous preseason, Larkin obviously did enough to convince (with some help from Jeff Blashill) Holland to keep him in the NHL. 

Keeping him on the roster by no means guarantees he stays on the roster for the entire season. With the likes of Datsyuk, Helm and others on injured reserve, Larkin who is waiver exempt is certainly a candidate to be sent down to Grand Rapids when those players return. Until then, the kid gets to show what he's made of on a line with Zetterberg and Abdelkader come opening night Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

2015-16 Season Preview: 5 Bold Predictions.

Excitement is certainly in the air with the season just days away (3 to be exact) most teams are now cutting down their rosters getting ready for opening night. Once the Wings make their final cuts, I will make a full post about that as well. Until then, how about some predictions? Here are 5 predictions for the NHL season.

1. The Tampa Bay Lightning will finish first in the Eastern Conference AND win the Presidents Trophy. 

With the offense they have (1st in the NHL last year) and the stellar play of goaltender Ben Bishop, who can actually match up with them and be expected to win? Certainly not very many. 

2. The Chicago Blackhawks will NOT make it past the 2nd round of the playoffs. 

The salary cap situation really impacted the Hawks this season (just like in 2010) in a big way. They were forced to trade away some very big pieces of their core. Forwards Patrick Sharp and Brandon Saad were both traded away, forward Brad Richards signed with the Red Wings and defenseman Johnny Oduya signed with the Dallas Stars. As a whole, the Blackhawks look very different.

3. Phil Kessel will score 45 goals. 

Phil Kessel was traded by the Toronto  Maple Leafs over the summer in a blockbuster deal. Kessel during his six seasons in Toronto was their leading scorer all six years. His lowest goal total (besides the lockout shortened season when he scored 20) was 25. On a horrifically bad team, he still managed to put up 25 goals and 36 assists for 61 points. The biggest argument was Kessel never had a true number one center the entire time he was in Toronto. Now he gets to play with Crosby, or Malkin. That's a bit better than Bozak right?

4. The Detroit Red Wings extend their playoff streak to 25. 

The Detroit Red Wings have made the playoffs for 24 consecutive seasons. The longest active streak in all 4 of the major pro sports. With the additions of Mike Green and Brad Richards, and the play of the rookies in the preseason, the Wings showed they have massive depth. New coach Jeff Blashill has been successful every where he's been and the team as a whole is better than last year. Why wouldn't it continue? 

5. The Florida Panthers, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Dallas Stars make the playoffs. 

Three teams that were not in the playoffs last season, will be this year. Columbus ran into serious injury problems last season, and have now added Brandon Saad will almost certainly make a run for the postseason. The Dallas Stars were also another case of bad injury problems with the likes of Tyler Seguin going down. Seguin who has been phenomenal since being acquired by the Dallas Stars was arguably one of the best scorers in the entire league until he went out with an injury. While the Florida Panthers rode goaltender Roberto Luongo all the way a few points shy of making the playoffs, the young guns will be another year older and another year better. Defenseman Aaron Ekblad at only 19 years of age was absolutely wonderful and won the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year because of it.

NHL Expansion Talk

One of the big NHL news stories going around in the last few months is whether or not the NHL will expand. Currently the league sits at 30 teams with 16 in the East, and 14 in the West. You don't have to be great a math to realize that there is a lack of balance here. 

The NHL offered a chance for any potential city interested in possibly getting an NHL team a chance to apply for one. While multiple cities have rumored interest such as, Toronto, Las Vegas, Quebec, and Seattle, only two cities even applied. Quebec, and Las Vegas. 

Of the two cities that have applied, most people believe Vegas is basically a given to get a team. They would for sure be a Western Conference team, they have an arena that will be ready to go very soon, and the NHL wouldn't have competition from any of the 3 other major sports.

Now Quebec on the other hand, is a bit of a question mark. The Canaidan dollar has dropped to about 75 cents of a dollar in the U.S. The NHL wants $500 million dollars as a fee for each expansion team. That would cost the Quebec group  somewhere in the $600 million dollar price range in Canadian money. 

For obvious reasons, it would be really nice to see both places get a team. How exciting are new teams? The NHL hasn't expanded since 2000 and one of the more recent expansion teams actually ended up moving (Atlanta to Winnipeg). Having a team back in Quebec would immediately create a rivalry with the Montreal Canadiens, and bring hockey back to a very passionate hockey market. Not to mention, how cool does it sound to have the Quebec Nordiques back in the NHL? 

What are your thoughts? Do you want to see the NHL expand? If so, one team, or two teams? What would you name the potential franchises? 

Detroit Red Wings Season Preview: 5 Must Watch Games.

The season is only 9 days away. With how the season ended last year, I'm sure Red Wings fans and the players are chomping at the bit to get the season underway and prove they are a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference and the NHL. Here are the top 5 must watch games of the 2015-16 season. 

Number 5: Detroit Red Wings vs Toronto Maple Leafs, October 9th, 2015. This game is an absolute must watch for an obvious reason. Former Wings coach Mike Babcock left this offseason to join the Maple Leafs on an 8 year 50 million dollar deal making him the highest paid head coach in the NHL. How nice would it be to win in the first matchup since he decided to leave? 

Number 4: Detroit Red Wings vs Tampa Bay Lightning, October 13th, 2015. This one is also probably pretty obvious and maybe a little painful. The Wings season ended at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning in an extremely hard fought seven game series of the 1st round last year. It's even very arguable that the Wings outplayed Tampa in the 7th game of that series. 

Number 3: Detroit Red Wings at Edmonton Oilers, October 21st, 2015. The Oilers who ended up winning the draft lottery and getting the first overall pick for the fourth time in the last six seasons, selected highly touted prospect Connor McDavid. McDavid has been called "the next Sidney Crosby" some have said he may even end up being better than Crosby.

Number 2: Detroit Red Wings vs Pittsburgh Penguins, December 31st, 2015. In the Red Wings annual New Years Eve game, they will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. An already high scoring team will now be even better offensively as they acquired for Leaf Phil Kessel in the offseason. Kessel was the Leafs top scorer all six seasons he was a Leaf. 

Number 1:  Detroit Red Wings vs Chicago Blackhawks, March 2nd and 6th, 2016. In the only two games these rivals play this season (and upcoming seasons) they play a home at home at the tail end of the season. Seemingly every single time these two get together it makes for some of the best hockey of the year. The Blackhawks are coming off their third cup in six seasons and a whole lot of change. Sharp, Oduya, Saad, and now Red Wing Brad Richards all are no longer Blackhawks. The Patrick Kane investigation could also change the Hawks lineup even more if he's found to have done any wrong doing. 

Are these the games you had in mind? What games do you think are a must watch this season?