The Winter Classic is Today!

Happy new year way more readers! Hope everyone had an awesome night filled with magic, whimsy, and egregious amounts of alcohol. And what better way to spend National Hangover Day* than to watch some good ole' fashion hockey?! Yes the Winter Classic is today at the Big House in Ann Arbor Michigan as the Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Detroit Red Wings in a classic battle of two original six teams. This should shape up to be a pretty decent game between 6 and 7 seeds in the East who will jump up to 5 with a win today.

Both teams have been struggling lately though. Toronto got out to a hot start winning 14 of its first 23 games but have come up short lately, only winning 6 of their last 17. They have a weird goalie situation where you never really know who's going to start because both goalies are solid, but Bernier has been getting the nod lately and stepped up. Toronto has the fourth best save percentage in the league but because they have the puck in their zone for so long they get caught and lose a lot of games by not being able to advance the puck. That being said, they also have 1 US Olympian Phil Kessel and possibly another in JVR who know how to play good puck and should be effective outdoors today,

The Red Wings also haven't looked particularly good coming into today, due to the number of injuries they've had to face this year. Datsyuk and Zetterberg have both been banged up all year, but Zetterberg is looking healthy again and still leads the team in most offensive categories. The other major injury Detroit had to deal with this year is with goaltender Jimmy Howard. Howard came back from his injury earlier this week against Nashville but didn't look good, as the Red Wings went on to lose that game 6-4. The goaltending is a big question mark for this game for Detroit, but maybe the home town crowd will help get the blood pumping in the snow.

PREDICTION: This is going to be the biggest crowd in the history of hockey today. They're expecting upwards of 104,000 people to be at this game, so you know Detroit is going to come out amped. I expect them to score a quick goal or two early, but the Leafs are pretty solid defensively. Couple that with the fact that I absolutely DEPISE the Red Wings and think they're a bunch of whiners who ruined one of the best rivalries in sports, I like the Leafs in this game. The away team has won four of the five winter classic and I expect today to be no different, Toronto gets the job done on the road.
Toronto Maple Leafs: 4 vs. Detroit Red Wings: 3 OVER 5.0 goals scored

Enjoy Puckheads!

PS - US Olympic hockey roster announced today, expect a info on that later

PPS - Go watch the HBO series leading up to this game if you haven't already. Intern Hank and I are big fans.

*Not a nationally recognized holiday.

*Not a nationally recognized holiday