T-Minus 64 Days...

Until the home-opener against Anaheim.

Oh hey, things are happening in the hockey world that don't revolve around Ilya Kovalchuk's contract! Maybe I should make a post!

Mike Modano signed with the Red Wings, finally. In the end, I knew it was either here or retirement. And he signed for a reasonable price, in my opinion; $1.25mil. isn't terrible. As a side-note here, my blog is the Wings blog you go to when you want to hear the positive spin on things [or that's how I try to make it, adding in laughs every now and then]. Now, there has been a lot of pessimism about Modano coming here. It comes with any player: Ovechkin to Detroit? We'd have to deal with his ego. Crosby to Detroit? Please, let's not get started. Kovalchuk to Detroit? Sure, if you play for $500,000. Byfuglien to Detroit? Sorry, we have a better Homer - the original one, actually. And a Mule, too.

Okay, maybe those are all mainstream examples. But you get the point I'm trying to make: there's always a pessimistic spin on these things. I'm an optimist through and through, so don't try to tell me that it's a bad signing for us; Holland said from the beginning that he wanted a reliable veteran and Modano was one of the better, reasonably priced choices on the market. And don't give me that "he's too old" crap. The last time we won the Cup, we were the oldest team in the NHL: Chelios, Hasek, Lidstrom, McCarty, Drake. Sometimes being old isn't a bad thing - and Wings fans should know this by now.

And don't tell me the Modano signing screwed up Helm and Abdelkader signing. Who's that on the front page of TSN? Oh yeah, that's Darren Helm, people. Signed for two years, $1.825mil. And that sounds good to me. The next step is Abdelkader, and I don't think that's going to take very long.

While I'm extremely disappointed that the summer is coming to a close and I'll be forced to start going to classes come September 2nd, it means that hockey is coming closer and closer. And boy, do I need that in my life again.