Tonight We Are All Red And White, Not Blue.

" This is the year (Montreal) makes the next step. (Detroit) keeps getting better with age. (The Red Wings) don't look like anybody will stop them... again. "
~Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Yes ladies and gentlemen, the dawn of a new season is now. Tonight, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Montreal, and twenty-seven other teams begin their chase for the holy grail of the National Hockey League, Lord Stanley's Cup. While thirty teams are trying to get it, only one already has it. The Detroit Red Wings are the defending Stanley Cup Champions. And as such, "Hockeytown" (as Detroit is so called) is buzzing over their beloved team. Along with the special raising of the banner ceremony prior to tonight's game, Detroit will also have the presence of Def Leppard as they kick of the '08-'09 NHL season with Face-Off Rocks at the Fox Theatre near the Red Wings home, Joe Louis Arena. People all around the city are donning their Red Wings Merch. As the game slowly approached, eight hours, then four, then two, there became a buzz in the air. Sitting on facebook, there was one status, then another, and then like a bag of popcorn, everyone having a status with some form of cheering for the Wings.
Parties forming, Bars having specials to bring people in, people everywhere getting together.

It's funny how in the midst of everything going on, something as trivial as a sport can rally people together and create unity. Just a day earlier, facebook was populated with politically charged status in support of Obama or McCain. Many were support messages, while some were vulgar and perverse attacks against their political opponent of choice. If it wasn't politics creating a schism, it was the economy. Its plummeting...quickly, and many people are suffering. Some are saying bail out, other want to know how that could possibly help. The undertones of a foreign war of questionable intent seems into conversation every now and again. But none of this matters. With the skates on the ice and Def Leppard rocking across the street I can safely say that we are not Democrats, or Republicans. Peacemakers or Warmongers. For tonight,

We Are Hockeytown.

S.T.