The NHL announced its national televised schedules this week. I was surprised to learn that the Wings, the defending Stanley Cup champs, have only seven games on national TV. The Wings may have the headline TV attraction, but they are  not the most televised team. Five other teams will have eight games televised on Versus.

The seven games do not include the one guaranteed game to be shown on NBC, the Winter Classic. The Wings will likely have more games shown on NBC, but they have yet to be determined.

Fans will get to watch two Original Six franchises, the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings, face off in legendary Wrigley Field.

"What a way to start the New Year with two of the storied names in hockey playing in one of America's venerable stadiums," NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer, said. "The Winter Classic has become a great addition to what already was an appointment-viewing date on the sports calendar."

Added CBC's Hockey Night in Canada Executive Producer Sherali Najak: "This 'Original Six' city provides us with the ideal stage to showcase some of the NHL's brightest stars."

The NHL Winter Classic is only one of the more than 300 nationally televised games the League announced Thursday in unveiling the national TV broadcast schedules for 2008-09 for NBC, CBC, RDS, VERSUS and TSN.

According to George @ Snapshots, the Penguins got more televised games in Canada than the Wings did. CBC will show Pittsburgh ten times and the Wings only three times. TSN has the Wings slated for five games and the Penguins just one. In total, the Penguins have 19 scheduled televised games in North America and the Wings only 15 games.

Personally, I would rather watch Wings games on FSN Detroit instead of Versus so I'm not really hurt by getting one less game than five other teams. Surprised? Certainly. But I'm quite content with having one more game on FSN than Versus.

The Detroit Red Wings added two individuals to their coaching staff. Brad McCrimmon and Keith McKittrick were hired to fill the vacancies left by Todd McLellan and  Jay Woodcroft, who left for the San Jose Sharks this summer.

McCrimmon is a former defenseman (who even played three seasons for Detroit) with previous coaching experience. He was Atlanta's assistant coach for four seasons and also worked on the coaching staffs for Calgary and the Islanders. He signed a three-year contract.

Keith McKittrick will be the Wings new video coach for the next two seasons. He is leaving Michigan State where he was their video coach for three seasons. Before MSU, McKittrick was the assistant to video and scouting coach with the Minnesota Wild, where he was "responsible for creating video scouting reports, breaking down game film and assisting with U.S. and European-born player research."

Assistant coach Paul MacLean was re-signed for another three seasons so head coach Mike Babcock, MacLean, and McCrimmon's contracts will all expire at the same time.

Time will tell how well these two additions mesh with the current coaching staff, but I trust in GM Ken Holland and Mike Babcock to make strong hiring decisions.

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.

So Gordie Howe is interviewed in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix last week, and he's asked about how his Wings team would do against the current one. A pretty standard question. But it's his response to this question that reminds me why I love Howe:

The SP: Would you put up with Tomas Holmstrom being in your goalie's face all night?

Howe: Nope. He'd be wearing tape on his head. (Laughs)

Don't ever change, Mr. Howe.

(p.s. I have my own story on meeting Gordie Howe. Another day.)

I blew past this earlier, and it's to my own shame and neglect that I did.

Dallas Drake retired this month after a 15-year NHL career. He was the "Let's Get Him His First Cup" guy on the 2007-8 roster, having been originally signed by the Wings way back in 1989.

When I started hearing Drake's name mentioned this year, my first thought was, "He's back? When did he leave?" Shockingly enough for me, his previous season in Detroit was 1993-4, when he was traded to the Jets mid-year.

So I went back and looked at his career stats: 1009 GP, 177 G, 477 Pts. He's no first liner, but he was always a solid penalty killer and tenacious player on the ice.

Most of all, Drake reminds me why I love this sport. Here's a guy who played in the league for 15 years, rarely made the papers, just chugged his way through. He's married, three kids, and I'm sure they enjoyed moving from city to city. I never thought about Drake until they mentioned after Game 6 that it was his first Cup, which was one of those "Oh, yeah, that's right!" facts I had filed away right next to the street address of my former elementary school in Barrington, Illinois. Watching him skate around the ice with the Cup...knowing how much of a reward that must be.

Life does not necessarily reward those most deserving, but every once in a while, the fates throw a bone to let us know that while the deck may be stacked, it's still possible to draw the proverbial five to our 16 with a king showing.

Godspeed, Mr. Drake, and thank you.

The quote about Scotty Bowman: "You hated him 364 days a year. And on the 365th, you picked up your Stanley Cup rings."

When I was watching the 2002 Cup celebration (and wondering whether the angry mob in downtown Royal Oak would get to my former apartment), and the news broke about Bowman announcing his retirement, my first thought was good for him. My second and more enduring thought was "What a prick, taking away this moment from his players."

The next day, the papers played up Bowman's retirement, and every single player on that roster was asked about Bowman. Here, at the greatest moment of their professional lives, the attention was taken away from them and thrust onto their coach, who felt he just couldn't keep his cakehole shut for one day.

As much of a genius as Bowman is, those of us on the outside always kinda knew he looked after exactly one person: himself. That's why those rumors about him going to Toronto last year were a bit nerve-wracking: because as much as Bowman and the Red Wings kept denying there was anything to them, you knew that if Bowman wanted to jump, he would, and without a second of doubt. His "I didn't dump you, you dumped me" speil in January just made me even more irritated with him

Now, with Bowman going to the Blackhawks to be with his son Stan, he closes the book on a 15-year career with the Wings. And I can't quite put into words how I feel about this. The fact he's going to work with his son is something enviable, and Bowman has certainly earned the right to write his own ticket. Ken Holland went out of his way to sing Bowman's praise. There was no "we wish him well on his future endeavors" presser out of 600 Civic Center Dr.

And yet...there's always going to be that moment of pause. He was, without question, part of the inner circle of the Wings. What does he take with him, to a team within our division (yes, I know that divisional thing doesn't really matter much anymore, but still)?

It's interesting to observe that, for almost any other team, Bowman leaving would have the columnists in a panic about "what do we do now?" But for this team, it still leaves Holland, Jim Nill, Steve Yzerman, and Hakan Andersson: as solid a nucleus as you'll find in the NHL.

There were, on a couple of nights during the playoffs, wide shots of the press-box level at Joe Louis with the three of them: Holland, Bowman, and Yzerman, looking like the Detroit Politburo: all in grey suits, with no expression on their faces. We'll wait to see who sits in the wide shot now.

The Wings lock up another one: Valtteri Filppula signs a five-year, $15 million deal.

What I find most interesting amongst the coverage is small hint of a dice-roll on this. The CP article (via TSN) has this as their lede:

The Detroit Red Wings made a subtle move Wednesday that could prove to be a spectacular one if Valtteri Filppula lives up to his potential.

Maybe it's me, but I think the '08 playoff run validated that he's a solid member of this team. He's shown he can do what the Wings hoped for when they drafted him back in 2002.

Icethetics has the Winter Classic II Logo:

That'll be on a t-shirt in my house as soon as they make one.

If you can find a copy of Inning 9 of Ken Burns' Baseball, one of my favorite segments is of Bob Costas talking about being in the Boston Red Sox locker room in the bottom of the 10th inning. The Red Sox had taken the lead in the top of the 10th on Dave Henderson's home run, and they had started putting up the protective sheeting and bringing in the risers. But as soon as Calvin Schiraldi let loose with a wild pitch that scored the tying run (with two outs and two strikes on Mookie Wilson)...well, let me let Peter Gammons describe it:

With "eerie efficiency," as Costas describes it, the visiting clubhouse was cleared of the riser, the trophy, the champagne and the Red Sox owners in less than one minute.

So, with that set up, here's a video from savingstanley.com. The set up: Game 5 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, in overtime, with the Hurricanes up 3-1. Carolina has just gone on the power play to try to put the stinking game away. Meanwhile, the keepers of the Cup, Phil Pritchard and Craig Campbell, are tucked away somewhere in the RBC Center with the Conn Smythe and the Stanley Cup, watching the game.

Three minutes to exit the building.

My question: I'm vaguely familiar with the locker-room area of Joe Louis Arena. Where, exactly, were they hiding for Game 5?

From the Toronto Star: It appears Tomas Holmstrom's cousin got to use the Stanley Cup for a baptismal font:

The forward, a member of the team that beat Pittsburgh in this year's final, suggested the creative use of hockey hardware to his cousin, Robert Sundstrom. He baptized his 7-week-old daughter, Alva Felicia, yesterday during a ceremony near Holmstrom's hometown of Pitea in northern Sweden.

As the uncle of a three-month-old, I applaud this idea, if for no other reason than as a cheap way to meet Phil Prichard.