Sports: Red Wings Re-Tool for the Post-Datsyuk Era

The Red Wings are 3-0-1 in pre-season and play in Chicago tonight against the Blackhawks. After that, the Wings have three more pre-season games, ending Saturday.  The regular season starts Thursday the 13^th in Tampa. It’ll be the first season in 16 years that the Wings won’t have

Pavel Datsyuk on the ice, after he left the NHL to return to Russia to be nearer to his daughter.    With newcomers such as Frans Nielsen, the Red Wings hope they finish well enough to earn a 26th consecutive postseason appearance.  Nielsen, a 32-year-old center from Denmark, had 119 goals and 349 points with the New York Islanders since making his debut with them ten years ago.

Monday Night Football

The Minnesota Vikings are 4-0 by after beating the New York Giants, 24-10 on Monday Night Football.   Sam Bradford threw a touchdown pass to tight end Kyle Rudolph and Matt Asiata and Jerick McKinnon each ran for a touchdown as the Vikings rushed for a season-high 104 yards.

Tigers

Tigers’ first baseman Miguel Cabrera has been voted American League Player of the Month for September.  Cabrera batted .347 with 10 home runs and 27 RBI over 26 games to claim his sixth career Player of the Month Award, last winning in September 2014.  Others receiving votes for AL Player of the Month included teammate Justin Upton.

MLB Playoffs

The Blue Jays will host the Orioles in the AL wild-card game tonight at 8pm on TBS, with the winner heading to Texas to play the Rangers starting Thursday in the division series.  Cleveland will host the Red Sox on Thursday.

The Giants will take on the Mets in New York on Wednesday at 8pm on ESPN as the two wild-card teams battle for the right to face the Chicago Cubs on Friday in the National League Division Series.   The Dodgers will be at Washington on Friday.

A housecleaning has begun in Arizona, where the Diamondbacks have parted ways with general manager Dave Stewart and manager Chip Hale following a second straight losing season. The team also announced in a release that it will discuss an appropriate role for Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa in the future. One of La Russa's first moves when he joined the team in 2014 was to hire Stewart and Hale despite their having no previous experience at the major league level.

Walt Weiss is out after four seasons as manager of the Rockies.

Rick Renteria has been named the new manager of the Chicago White Sox, promoted from bench coach just a day after skipper Robin Ventura announced he would not return to the job next season.

College Football

The WMU Broncos are 5-0 to start the season, and host Northern Illinois this Saturday night at Waldo Stadium. The Huskies got their first win of the season on Saturday against Ball State.  Kickoff is 6:30pm, and WBCK has tickets to the game.

Lions Football

Detroit coach Jim Caldwell is shrugging off speculation about his job security just a quarter of the way into the season.  The Lions' 17-14 loss to Chicago on Sunday dropped them to 1-3 and Caldwell's future came into question at Monday's news conference. Caldwell’s four-year contract runs through next season.  The Lions host the Eagles this Sunday at Ford Field.  Broadcast time is 12 noon on WBCK.

Boys’ Soccer

Charlotte 2, Harper Creek 0.

Girl’s Golf

At the Interstate Eight Tournament at Bedford Valley….It was Hastings winning it.   Marshall was fourth and Harper Creek fifth.   Harper Creek’s Sydney Leatherman earned All-Conference honors.

Boys’ Tennis

Coldwater won the Interstate Eight Conference title in boy’s tennis, beating Parma Western.   Individual conference honors go to Marshall’s Cole Varvatos.

In the SMAC Tourney, Lakeview finished third, followed by Gull Lake.   Portage Central was first and St. Joseph placed second.

Hillsdale beat Galesburg-Augusta 7-1.

MSU Forward Needs Knee Surgery

Michigan State forward Ben Carter will have surgery after injuring knee over the weekend.  The graduate transfer from UNLV had season-ending knee injury in January with the Rebels. Carter had a chance to play a key role for the Spartans, who had four players move on to play in the NBA and two players transfer from last season's team.  Michigan State coach Tom Izzo will be counting on perhaps the best recruiting class he has had led by 6-7 freshman forward Miles Bridges.