Hockeytown Winter Festival canceled by NHL

The two week festival was to take place at Comerica Park.

Hockeytown Winter Festival will be canceled if there's no Winter Classic

There will be no Winter Festival if the NHL cancels the Winter Classic.

2012 GLI will move back to Joe Louis Arena if Winter Classic is canceled

The ongoing National Hockey League Lockout might alter the plans for the 2012 Great Lakes Invitational, via @MSU_Hockey:

If Winter Classic is cancelled, GLI will move to JLA, and dates will change to Dec. 28-29.No idea when that decision will be made.

— MSU_Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) October 4, 2012

The NHL announced on Thursday that the first two weeks of the 2012 regular season have been cancelled, and if the league has a prolonged labor dispute, as has happened in the past, it is likely the Winter Classic would be cancelled.

Normally, the GLI is played at Joe Louis Arena, but this year it was to be held at Comerica Park to coincide with festivities for the Winter Classic. No Winter Classic means the GLI will return to the JLA.

As of right now, the Great Lakes Invitational is to be held on Dec. 27 and 28 at Comerica Park. Michigan, Michigan State, Western Michigan and Michigan Tech will compete in the event, with two games on each day – semifinals on Dec. 27 and the third-place game and championship on Dec. 28.

Winter Classic Alumni Game: Red Wings Add Red Berenson, Aaron Ward, Others

The Detroit Red Wings have been adding some very solid names to their Alumni Game for the Winter Classic festivities at the end of the year. Previously, they added in Vyacheslav Fetisov and Igor Larionov to unite one of the most explosive pairings in hockey's storied history, and now they've got some more solid names to add to the roster.

According to the official website, Dennis Polonich, who is notably the shortest drafted player to play for the Red Wings, has been added to the roster. On top of that, defenseman Aaron Ward and forwards Red Berenson (the University of Michigan's hockey coach) and Jimmy Carson have also been added to the game's roster.

Polonich had a storied career, and there's plenty of quotes on the official website, as well as some stories about his high-profile career in Detroit. He notes that it's a huge honor to be playing in the game with some of the names that have already been announced, and it's very clear to see that he's truly happy to come back and put on the Red Wings' colors once again.

For more on the Detroit Red Wings, check out Winging It In Motown. You can check out more hockey news from around the league at SB Nation's NHL page.

Winter Classic Alumni Game: Red Wings Add Vyacheslav Fetisov, Igor Larionov To Roster

The Detroit Red Wings are very excited for the 2013 Winter Classic, and everything pertaining to it is a big announcement for them. Of particular note is the Alumni Showdown on New Year's Eve -- always a big part of festivities. The game drew huge attendance in the last Winter Classic, and the Red Wings are doing their best to make the alumni roster exciting and interesting for fans.

According to the official website, the team has added Vyacheslav Fetisov and Igor Larionov, so they're doing just that: making things interesting. The pair, joined with players like Vladimir Krutov, Sergei Makarov and Alexi Kasatonov, took the Russians to five world championships and the 1981 Canada Cup. They were part of some of the most dominant lines in hockey history.

And that includes their time on the Red Wings. Detroit acquired Larionov in a trade during the 1995-96 season to unite him with Fetisov, Sergei Fedorov and Vladimir Konstantinov. There's plenty more on both guys and their achievements on the official website. For now, suffice to say that there's some exciting names on the Alumni Showdown roster already known and this should be a good one to watch, especially for nostalgia's sake.

For more on the Detroit Red Wings, check out Winging It In Motown. You can check out more hockey news from around the league at SB Nation's NHL page.

Winter Classic Alumni Game: Scotty Bowman, Pat Quinn To Coach Respective Squads

We've heard a lot already about the Winter Classic Alumni Game, including the preliminary rosters. The game itself is between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and it seems like it's getting bigger and bigger every year. And on Thursday, the game got just a little bit bigger with the addition of two legendary coaches to take part in the game.

According to the Red Wings' official website, Scotty Bowman and Pat Quinn will be the primary coaches facing off against one another. Bowman is the former Red Wings coach who won three Stanley Cups with the organization (1997, 1998, 2002) and spent 11 years with the team. He's also the winningest coach in NHL history with 1,244 career wins.

Quinn is the NHL's fourth winningest coach of all time and has had some impressive wins outside of the NHL, with a Team Canada gold medal in 2002 and a 2004 World Cup of Hockey victory in 2004. Red Kelly will join Quinn, while Barry Smith will join Bowman.

These two have a big history together -- check the link from the official website for more -- but it's Quinn that holds the head-to-head advantage in this matchup, with a 14-12-4 record against Bowman's squads. The Alumni Showdown is scheduled for Dec. 31.

For more on the Detroit Red Wings, check out Winging It In Motown. You can check out more hockey news from around the league at SB Nation's NHL page.

Winter Classic Alumni Showdown: Preliminary Rosters Announced

During a Wednesday afternoon press conference at Comerica Park, the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs announced their preliminary rosters for the Alumni Showdown. The event will be held on Dec. 31 as part of the lead-up to the 2013 Winter Classic, and Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said that there could be two games in order to allow more former players to take part in the action.

For the Red Wings, Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Alex Delvecchio are going to be coaches and ambassadors. Here's a look at the players currently committed to play in the Alumni Showdown: Mark Howe, Chris Chelios, Chris Osgood, Darren McCarty, Dino Ciccarelli, Jiri Fischer, Joe Kocur, John Ogrodnick, Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper, Larry Murphy, Luc Robitaille, Mickey Redmond, Igor Larionov and Mike Vernon.

More players will be added at a later date, and Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson, who played for the Red Wings in the 1970s, is expected to be one of the additions.

You can check out the Maple Leafs' current roster here.

Tickets for the Alumni Showdown are going to be available via a lottery in mid-August. Tickets for the other Hockeytown Winter Festival events at Comerica Park will go on sale on Aug. 1.

For more on the Detroit Red Wings, check out Winging It In Motown. You can check out more hockey news from around the league at SB Nation's NHL page.

Winter Classic 2013: Preliminary Alumni Game Rosters To Be Announced Wednesday

The Detroit Red Wings are very excited to be taking part in the 2013 Winter Classic and have scheduled a press conference to announce a few details regarding many of the attractions and festivities that will be going on alongside the actual game. One of those attractions is the Alumni Game - the 2012 iteration of which drew 45,000 fans.

According to Helene St. James on Twitter, the Red Wings will have a press conference on Wednesday to announce a number of things, most notably the Alumni Game's preliminary rosters. Not much is known off-hand, but it was already mentioned months ago that Steve Yzerman would likely not be playing in the game, which is unfortunate. That being said, it should be a very fun game with two very storied franchises having a plethora of players to pick from.

Ansar Khan followed up on the press conference on Twitter, saying that it will be at 12:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday at Comerica Park. He also mentioned the Alumni Game, lending more to the belief that the press conference will mostly focus on that announcement, though there should be other things of note as well.

For more on the Detroit Red Wings, check out Winging It In Motown. You can check out more hockey news from around the league at SB Nation's NHL page.

Hockeytown Winter Festival Schedule Announced By Red Wings

The 2013 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium is the main event, but there are a lot of fun events that will be held at Comerica Park on the undercard in the weeks leading up to the game. Specifically, the Detroit Red Wings are going to hold the Hockeytown Winter Festival in the month of December. Earlier this week, the schedule for the Hockeytown Winter Festival was announced.

We now know that the Great Lakes Invitational will be held on Dec. 27 and 28 at Comerica Park. Michigan, Michigan State, Western Michigan and Michigan Tech will compete in the GLI, and there will be two games on each day -- the semifinals on Dec. 27 and the third-place game and championship on Dec. 28.

On Dec. 29, a doubleheader featuring teams from the OHL will be held at Comerica Park. The Windsor Spitfires will play the Saginaw Spirit in one game, and the Plymouth Whalers will take on the London Knights in the other.

The action will continue on Dec. 30 with a game between the Grand Rapids Griffins and Toronto Marlies. These teams are the AHL affiliates of the Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Finally, the action at Comerica Park will come to a close on Dec. 31 with the Red Wings-Maple Leafs Alumni Showdown. This should be a fun event with so many former players coming back to take part in the game, and it should be a nice lead-in to the Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium on Jan. 1.

For more on the Detroit Red Wings, check out Winging It In Motown. You can check out more hockey news from around the league at SB Nation's NHL page.

Great Lakes Invitational 2012 To Be Held At Comerica Park, Feature All-Michigan Lineup

The 2012 GLI will be played outdoors at Comerica Park and feature a lineup of four teams from Michigan.

Hockeytown Winter Festival To Feature Alumni, College, AHL, OHL, Youth Hockey Games

The 2013 Winter Classic will be played in Ann Arbor, but there will also be quite a bit of hockey played in Detroit at Comerica Park next December.