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“The Day in the D” takes a look back at the five most important local sports stories of the past 24 hours
1. Michigan Moves Up. The Michigan Wolverines scored a win in East Lansing on Saturday night taking over the solo Big Ten lead from the Michigan State Spartans. As a result, they also made a move in the Associated Press poll this week, surging into the top 10. Michigan State fell four spots to seventh place. Of interest to both fan bases? The Big Ten teams that are trailing both Michigan and Michigan State. They include Wisconsin (14), Iowa (15) and Ohio State (24). All are currently significantly behind the Wolverines and Spartans.
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2. Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk Remain Shelved. After struggling their way through December and early January, the Detroit Red Wings have rebounded nicely, collecting points and going 3-1-1 in their last five games to vault back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture. If they want to collect more points prior to the Olympic break though, they’ll still have to do it without the services of their two best players.
Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk aren’t making the trip to Philadelphia for Tuesday night’s game against the Flyers. Zetterberg is fighting a sore back, and despite the fact that Datsyuk has been skating, he’s been out since January 1 and is still considered day-to-day. There is no set timetable for either to return, though Zetterberg could play Friday against Washington. Jimmy Howard is expected to return from his knee injury.
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3. Lions Tickets Get A Little More Expensive. The Detroit Lions did the unthinkable in the minds of many fans, raising the prices of their season ticket packages just weeks after the team finished off an embarassing NFC North collapse and a coaching search which didn’t immediately draw rave reviews.
Detroit will now have a variable system, meaning fans will pay less for preseson games and lower rated games and more for prime time match ups, the Thanksgiving Day game and contests against better teams. All told, the increase should be around 8.2 percent. The increase is a necessary evil business decision which will keep Detroit’s ticket prices amongst the highest in the league.
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4. They’ve Got Their Eye On The Tigers. Even though it’s the dead of winter and another polar vortex is plunging the mercury further south, it’s not too early to start thinking about spring training and the eventual thaw, which will lead to another seaon of Tigers’ baseball. In the midst of an offseason of change, many aren’t sure what to expect from the newfangled team. One person is projecting Brad Ausmus’ club to collect the best record in baseball. Clay Davenport, a sabermetrician from Baseball Prospectus, projects the Tigers to go 91-71 and win the Central Division again. Just behind Detroit at 90-72 are the St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays.
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5. Plenty Of Pistons’ Problems. The Detroit Pistons are uninspiring again, wallowing in the midst of another four game losing streak which has seen the team slip one game out of the playoffs in the putrid Eastern Conference. Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press examines some of the team’s latest issues, wonders about the trade future of Greg Monroe and discusses what changes could be made to the starting lineup to potentially shake things up and help end the funk.
Detroit’s next game comes on Tuesday night against the Orlando Magic. Safe to say if the Pistons lose at home to the 12-33 Magic to fall 10 games below .500, they may have already edged closer to rock bottom for 2014. Consider the fact that the year is only four weeks old.
Max DeMara is a senior editor at The Detroit Sports Site. You can find him on Twitter @SportsGuyTheMax
