GameDay: @ LA (3-1-0, 6 Pts) 10:30 ET

Tonight is the first of four games between the Wings and the Kings this season. In 2003-2004, the Wings swept the season series 4-0. Detroit is coming off a disappointing 4-2 loss to the Canucks on Monday. They had won three games in a row, including their sixth straight season opener (5. Oct against the Blues, 5-1). On Sunday, they rolled over the Flames, winning 6-3 at home. On the 6th, they held off the Blues in St. Louis to win 4-3. This game is the first in a very short West Coast road trip for the Wings in which they will also play Phoenix (Saturday). When they return home, they will face two more West Coast teams, San Jose and Anaheim over the course of next week. The Kings are riding a three-game home win streak after blowing their season opener in Dallas on the 5th (they had been up 4-0 and lost 5-4). Their three wins came against the Coyotes (3-2), Wild (2-1) and Oilers (3-1). This game is the second-to-last in a 5-game homestand for the Kings, who, after playing Columbus on Sunday, will go on the road to visit Colorado and Dallas next week. Manny Legace will get the start for the Wings. The Kings, who have been alternating goaltenders every game, should start Mathieu Garon (Conan LaBarbera started their last game, against the Oilers). Expect to see Steve Yzerman on the ice for the first time this season tonight. Both Detroit newspapers (Freep and News) are reporting that he practiced yesterday and is ready to go, finally. Babcock has him slated to play with Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper as his checking third line. Johan Franzen, who had been playing with Malts and Drapes, will be moved to the fourth line with Dan Cleary and Mikael Samuelsson. Mark Mowers had to be pushed off the roster in order to make room for The Captain. As for the rest of the lines, expect to see Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom and Pavel Datsyuk playing together as well as Robert Lang, Brendan Shanahan and Jason Williams. Chris Osgood is still not ready to return from a groin injury, though he may be by next week. In that case, he would be sent down to Grand Rapids so he can get some playing time under his belt before returning to the main roster. Don't expect to see Jason Woolley yet. Even Mike Babcock doesn't know when he'll make his return to the ice. This will be the first time since the 2000-2001 season we'll see Jeremy Roenick on a Western Conference team. I'm looking forward to it, though I hope the Wings can shut him down. We'll also see former Blues player Pavol Demitra for the first time this season. Former-Red Wings forward Sean Avery continues to get in trouble for his mouth. The Oilers have filed a complaint with the league about comments Avery supposedly made to Edmonton forward Georges Laraque Tuesday night. Avery has already put himself in hot water this season by making derogatory comments about French-Canadian hockey players. Laraque is both French-Canadian and African-Canadian (?) so it's not hard to imagine what Avery may have said. I recall Laraque being a rather large, tough man and I cannot imagine insulting him, especially if I were as small as Avery is. He'll pay, I'm sure. I'm glad he's not in the Winged Wheel any more. It should be a good game tonight. The Kings have some solid scoring ability and seem to be getting some good goaltending. I'm glad the first late night game of the year came on my Fall Break. Otherwise, it would be a short night tonight since I would usually have a 5:00 AM start for work tomorrow. Note: As for those personal issues I mentioned earlier, the situation is pretty static now (though it was not a positive outcome) and so I'll try to keep up a regular posting schedule as much as I can. Thanks to Christy for keeping the site as up-to-date as she did.