Betcha didn’t think there’d be much University of Michigan news today that had nothing to do with basketball. Guess again! The 2014 Winter Classic is being played at Michigan’s “Big House,” where the Red Wings and Maple Leafs will party like it’s 1959. Bring your hot cocoa, we’ve got more photos after the jump.

The Detroit Red Wings were trailing the Nashville Predators 3-2 with less than 7 minutes to go last night. They put Pavel Datsyuk on the ice, asking him to be Pavel Datsyuk. He picked up the puck in his own zone, ahead of just one Predator. He beat the second Predator to the blue line, then quickly overtook the third. The fourth tried to hit him, or something. It was futile. The fifth came in to help. Datsyuk was a split-second ahead. That left Pekka Rinne, perhaps the best goalie in the NHL. Datsyuk beat him, too. Pavel Datsyuk was especially excited, because even Pavel Datsyuk doesn’t normally do this.

Detroit Red Wings prospect Riley Sheahan made the rounds on the internet on Tuesday for his arrest over the weekend. The details were particularly hilarious, with Sheahan being arrested for having a BAC four times the legal limit and showing the police an ID that was not his own. Oh yeah, and he was wearing a purple teletubby costume (Tinky Winky, for the unenlightened).

Welcome to our third installment of Top 5 Dead Or Alive. In case you missed our piece last Friday on sports video games, we want you to know that this feature is designed specifically to make life hell for our employees. Each week, we’ll ask one of our writers to come up with a definitive list of the five best people, places or things in a particularly subjective category — then, we’ll ask you to tell him who or what is missing from the list. Feel free to be a total dick.

One of the greatest defenseman to ever play the game of hockey announced his retirement earlier today. Watch him singlehandedly win a Stanley Cup Finals game, and read more on the great Nicklas Lidstrom, after the jump.

What is it about flashing lights in the dark that is so cool? Hard to say. But if the Detroit Red Wings aren’t pumped up after this pre-game intro, then nothing will do it. Watch the coolest looking crowd in the NHL, after the jump.

The NHL playoffs started with a bang as Shea Weber took exception to being hit from behind and slammed Henrik Zetterberg’s face into the glass – WWE Style.

During the late 1990s, no rivalry in the NHL – and possibly in sports, period – ran hotter than the one between the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche. It was a perfect storm – they were both in the Western Conference and were good every year (they combined to win five of the seven Stanley Cups between 1996 and 2002), so they were battling one another for conference supremacy pretty regularly. Oh, and also, they hated each other.

Hockey announcers are all the rage the last couple days. First, the Bruins’ Jack Edwards yells at a Montreal Canadiens player from the booth, and now…this.

It’s a major reason for the appeal of hockey: guys flying into the glass boards surrounding the rink. The high-speed collisions between players, the sound of players hitting the boards – what’s not to like? Well, if you’re the St. Louis Blues’ Carlo Colaiacovo, plenty.