As I sit here and watch my Detroit Tigers hold a tenuous 1-0 lead over the Yankees after 3.5 innings, my thoughts still shift ahead to tonight's premiere game: the Red Wings opener against Vancouver. There are a lot of question marks surrounding my team, but I don't know if we're as bad off as a lot of people want to believe. Remember how everyone said they would flop with a cap? Sure they got ousted by the Oilers in the first round, but that could've been prevented if Pavel Datsyuk could've found the net! (And while Manny Legace was far from spectacular, he wasn't the reason they lost. Everyone blamed Curtis Joseph when they were swept by the Mighty Ducks in 2003, but any time who only scores 6 goals in 4 games is not usually going to win a series.)

Will Detroit take the President's Trophy? I doubt it. First in the conference? Probably not. Even first in the Central? I don't know, that's a tough Nashville team. But for the first time in a while this team looks like it trade all the regular season success for a run in the playoffs.

For starters, they brought back Dominik Hasek. Now I was against this move from the beginning, but it could be worse; we could've gotten stuck with Ed Belfour. Part of me wanted to see the Wings platoon Chris Osgood with a promoted Jimmy Howard, but wisely they decided to give Howard some more professional seasoning in Grand Rapids (with a chance to improve on his All-Rookie Team season). GM Kenny Holland has instead said that Hasek will only start about 50 games in order to make sure he is healthy for the playoffs. Good call. While Ozzie struggled at times last year, after the Olympic break and down the stretch he returned to the form that made him a 3-time all-star in the mid-late '90s.

The defensive corps is just as strong as almost anyone's. Nick Lidstrom and Mathieu Schneider posted great numbers last year and there is no reason they can't do it again. Danny Markov was a very solid addition and will provide some much-needed grit to the blueline and should mesh nicely with Nicklas Kronwall. It will be great to finally get a full season from him. Chris Chelios and Andreas Lilja have a lot of experience and toughness, and smooth-skating Brett Lebda should provide some punch here and there.

Detroit also has a talented group of forwards, although losing the leadership of the great Steve "The Captain" Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan certainly hurts. But look for this to be the year that Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg really take control of this team. And with super talented Jiri Hudler finally sticking on one of the top two lines, this team still has some offensive pop to it. Although players like Tomas Holmstrom and Mikael Samuelsson need to come close to duplicating, and perhaps bettering, their output from last year.

One thing really missing from this group of players is the grit and toughness that previous teams have had (the Grind Line doesn't do as much of that as it did when it was Kris Draper centering Darren McCarty and Joey Kocur). From losing McCarty and Shanahan over the last two seasons the Wings have lost a lot of physical intimidation. And even in a league where fighting is way down, not many players on the team are ready to drop the gloves. Brad Norton's signing will help bring in some size and toughness, as will Markov on the blueline, but what would really help is to have a fully healthy Jiri Fischer back there throwing around his 6'5" frame (best of luck to your health issues, Fisch). To be perfectly honest, the one player Detroit has lost that has hurt them the most over the past 10 years was Vladimir Konstantinov. What I wouldn't give to see Vlad the Impaler punishing people again.

Also of note tonight is the naming of the Red Wings' new captain. If Lidstrom doesn't get it then there should be an investigation. As far as alternate captains, I would name Zetterberg and Draper. Draper wore an "A" a lot while Yzerman was out, and I strongly believe that Zetterberg is their future captain once Lidstrom retires. So give him the other "A" now and let him learn the role so he can take over in a few years.

Well that's all for now. Time to see if my Tigers can hold onto their 4-3 lead with an inning to go.