Everywhere longtime NHL coach Dave Tippett goes in Seattle http://www.minnesotawildteamshops.com/a … mba-jersey , people ask him two questions.“One, ‘What’s the name going to be?’ And two, ‘Where do I get my tickets?'” Tippett said.The more immediate question is when — not if — an NHL expansion team is coming to Seattle as the league’s 32nd franchise and first in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The prospective owners will make their pitch to an executive committee of owners in New York on Tuesday with a vote by the full Board of Governors possible as early as December. It is a virtual certainty the puck drops in Seattle two or three years from now.Seattle’s pursuit of an NHL team is led by an ownership group featuring Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer and it includes a successful deal to renovate downtown’s KeyArena. Fan interest is a given, with 10,000 season tickets selling out in 12 minutes and 32,000 total deposits secured. On the heels of Las Vegas hitting it big with the Golden Knights in a city that had no history of major professional sports, excitement is brewing for the potential of bringing NHL hockey to the Emerald City.“I talked to a lot of people out there and they want this team,” said Capitals winger T.J. Oshie, who grew up outside Seattle. “It’d be great for the area. I think fans there are very devoted to their sports teams. That’s going to be pretty cool not having the family have to drive up to Vancouver to see me every year.”For decades, the 2½-hour drive to Vancouver has been the only chance for the people of Seattle to see the NHL up close. The Seattle Thunderbirds and Everett Silvertips of the Canadian major junior Western Hockey League have a presence in the area, and before that, the Totems played minor-league games there from 1944-1974.From a pro standpoint it has been almost a century since the 1917 Stanley Cup-winning Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association folded. Seattle has been without the NBA since the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder in 2008, leaving it as the biggest American market without a major professional winter sports team.“We turn out for our teams, and we love the grit that comes with hockey,” Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said. “We have some of the most innovative companies in the world, and so we’re continuing to grow and build a whole range of innovating leaders and wealth. But at the same time, we have that old, middle-class, ‘let’s go mix it up’ point of view Mikael Granlund Jersey , and that’s hockey.”Seattle as a sports town is unquestioned based on the support for the Seahawks of the NFL, Mariners of Major League Baseball, Sounders FC of Major League Soccer and the champion Storm of the WNBA. Tippett, now an adviser for Seattle Hockey Partners LLC after coaching the Stars and Coyotes for 14 seasons, knows all about that because his daughter, son-in-law and his “sports-crazed” grandchildren call Seattle home.“It’s incredible the passion of the sports people here,” Tippett said. “It’s built into the community.”Hockey, too? Tippett said there are roughly 140 adult hockey teams in Seattle, a major difference from when Tom Bissett grew up there in the 1970s.There weren’t many rinks in the city when Bissett followed his older brothers into organized hockey and helped win two national titles by beating established teams like Detroit’s Little Caesars.“It was kind of a, ‘Who are these guys from Seattle?’ type of thing,” Bissett said.Bissett looked forward to trips up Interstate 5 to Vancouver to see NHL games with heroes like Totems alum Bobby Schmautz. Bissett made it, too, skating in five games with the Red Wings in 1991 as the only Seattle-born player to appear in an NHL game. It’s an honor that makes Bissett dream of attending games in his hometown.“It would be a bucket list thing for me,” said Bissett, who now works in insurance and coaches high school hockey in Michigan. “To have that now in the local town where I was born in the Swedish hospital in downtown Seattle, I just think it would be awesome.”The NHL seems to be on board. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the league has been intrigued about the concept of a franchise in Seattle and found no concerns or red flags about the market.Bruckheimer, majority owner David Bonderman and brothers Tim and Tod Leiweke — the CEO and team president — have spent significant time making sure of that. While the return of the NBA was for many years the focus of potential owners, the Seattle Hockey Partners made the NHL the first order of business and put the arena piece in place to make it possible.“This is going to happen,” Tim Leiweke said. “This is now about greatness. … It’s about the NHL and doing something that is spectacular.”While the Board of Governors could vote to approve a Seattle franchise in early December and set off a domino effect of moves to begin putting together a hockey team Youth Mikko Koivu Jersey , the celebration hasn’t begun yet.“You have a mindset of the timeframe, but we’re working hard to assure everything is done properly to give us the best chance to get a franchise,” Tippett said. “Nobody’s jumping up and down here saying, ‘We have it’ yet. There’s a lot of work to be done.”Still, Durkan already senses something spectacular happening after the City Council voted 8-0 for the arena plan and after people lined up around the block to see the Stanley Cup in August.“I think Seattle is going to be probably one of, if not the premier, NHL hockey towns,” Durkan said. “There is a fervor here. Winter is coming.”As one of a handful of players from Washington State, including Tampa Bay’s Tyler Johnson, Edmonton’s Kailer Yamamoto and Calgary’s Derek Ryan, playing in Seattle would represent a special milestone for Oshie.“All those kids that are in the youth rinks around there, that was me I guess a long time ago now,” Oshie said. “It would mean a lot to me and to my family to go back to where it all started.” DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit Red Wings home game looks and sounds a little like a memorial these days.The lights are dimmed as images of the franchise’s glorious past flash digitally onto the ice before the puck drops, reminding the relative few fans in the stands how good things used to be. And, they were good. Really good.Detroit’s 11 Stanley Cup banners are lowered from the rafters where retired jerseys are also displayed, rekindling memories of the four titles from 1997 to 2008 and the seven championships from 1936-55. The most successful U.S.-based NHL franchise has had some of the game’s all-time greats wear its sweater, adorned with a winged well, from Gordie Howe to Steve Yzerman and Nicklas Lidstrom.The good times fade during the lights-and-sounds pregame show as the pace of the music picks up and a video montage shows the current team, mostly a mix of role-playing veterans and not-ready prospects. When the lights are turned up closer to game time http://www.minnesotawildteamshops.com/a … ter-jersey , more seats appear to be empty than occupied on some nights.Detroit is among the worst teams in the league this season — as expected and by design. The Red Wings hope a painfully poor season will help get them on the fast track to retool with difference-making players in the draft along with some help from veterans in free agency.“I knew it was coming and I was prepared for it,” said Red Wings senior vice president Jim Devellano, who is in his 37th season with the team and his 52nd in the NHL. “I don’t like it. It upsets me, but not to the point that I’m going to go off the deep end.” The Red Wings appear destined to miss the playoffs for a third straight year after a remarkable run of 25 consecutive postseason appearances. Other than the current players and coaches, who are trying to win every game, losing is seen as a necessary evil. Some fans, though, appear to be so fed up they don’t even sit in seats they paid for to attend games.In an effort to make the sparsely filled sections at Little Caesars Arena stand out less in person and on TV, the backs of red seats have been temporarily covered in black. They will eventually be replaced by black chairs at a considerable cost in a 1-year-old arena that is the centerpiece of a $1.2 billion project.Detroit got off to the worst start in franchise history by opening with seven losses and winning only one of its first 10 games. The Red Wings have bounced back with four wins in their last five.“I wouldn’t say it takes the sting out of the slow start, but it’s something to build off of for sure,” forward Justin Abdelkader said during the recent surge.Winning could prove to be counterproductive for the Motor City’s hockey team this season.Part of what has held the Red Wings’ rebuilding effort back is the fact they haven’t had a No. 1 overall pick in the draft in recent years to get a generational player. If they lose enough this season and have some luck in the NHL draft lottery to get the top pick, Jack Hughes would give the franchise and its followers a desperately needed boost. Hughes is a playmaking center for USA Hockey’s 18-under team, which trains and plays in suburban Detroit. His skill would help the team on the ice, though perhaps not right away, and his presence would provide a boost in interest for a team struggling to regain its standing as one of the most popular in a sports-crazed state.The Red Wings have also hurt their chances of continuing the success they had for two-plus decades by drafting players, particularly on the blue line, that didn’t pan out. And while Detroit is close to the bottom in the NHL standings, its payroll is larger than about 20 teams in the league.The team has invested in its 2014 first-round pick, 22-year-old center Dylan Larkin  Brandon Manning Jersey Womens , by giving him a $30.5 million, six-year contract last summer. It is trying to surround him with players to push the franchise back toward the playoffs and eventually championship contention.“We’ve got to rebuild by drafting, developing and being patient,” general manager Ken Holland said early in his 22nd season in charge and 36th with the franchise. “I believe we’re headed in the right direction with a lot of young kids we think are ready to come of age.”Chris Ilitch, the most powerful person in the organization, seems to agree with him. The president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings, which owns the team and the arena, gave Holland a two-year contract earlier this year to continue guiding a long-term rebuilding project that is counting on 30-plus draft picks from 2017-19.“Kenny Holland has done a marvelous job at accumulating picks, which are so important to executing a successful rebuild,” Ilitch said. “I think you’re starting to see the fruits of the labor.”GAME OF THE WEEKThe defending champion Washington Capitals host Pittsburgh on Wednesday night, the first meeting between the teams since the Penguins won their season opener. Pittsburgh has lost a season-high four straight games after a strong start, while Washington has dropped three of five.LEADERSGoals: David Pastrnak (Boston), 12; Assists: Mikko Rantanen (Colorado), 19; Points: Mikko Rantanen (Colorado), 24; Wins: Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay) and Frederik Andersen (Toronto), 8; Goals-against average: Jaroslav Halak (Boston), 1.45; Save percentage: Jaroslav Halak (Boston), .952.