Stadium Journey is…

a brand-new web venture. Our goal is to become a world-class community resource for sports fans, built around optimizing the experience of traveling to and attending live sporting events. We provide top-notch editorial content and reviews of sports stadiums. We rely on fans to provide tips and information about their favorite home stadium, or a first time impression. By sharing our knowledge, we can make every trip to the ballpark, stadium, or arena the very best it can be. Enjoy the journey!

I also found some other reviews of stadiums in our great state of Michigan, give them a read if you’re thinking of heading to a game!

Comerica Park – Detroit Tigers (My View: I love Comerica Park, but miss the closeness of old Tiger Stadium. You’re so far away from the action, but that’s how stadiums are built today.)

The Palace of Auburn Hills – Detroit Pistons (My View: I’ve had many great memories from games and concerts. Grant Hill vs. Michael Jordan was one of my favorites!)

Ford Field – Detroit Lions (My View: It looks great from the outside!)

Joe Louis Arena – Detroit Red Wings (I’ll always remember my first game at Joe Louis Arena. We were sitting in a suite of a friend’s uncle and we had a blast! Bob Probert had some monster hits and the Wings defeated the hated Chicago Blackhawks. I don’t remember the score, can’t find the ticket stub right now, but I know I didn’t leave the arena hungry!)

Photo courtesy of Stadium Journey

The Detroit Red Wings gave up three quick goals before battling back to lose to the San Jose Sharks 4-3.

Joe Pavelski broke open the score sheet tonight for San Jose before Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi added to the lead within a minute and a half. Dan Cleary cut into that lead with Detroit’s first goal. In the second period, Johan Franzen cut the advantage to one before Pavelski scored his second of the night early in the third. Brian Rafalski scored right afterwards, but no one else netted a puck again.

The Red Wings got caught early in the first after giving up a powerplay goal and found themselves in a quick 3 goal disadvantage. Afterwards this game was mostly the Red Wings. Detroit dominated the face-off circle in the final two periods and Evgeni Nabokov didn’t look great after the first either. San Jose was without Patrick Marleau, one of their top three forwards, tonight. Marleau missed the game because of an illness.

In Play! Man of the Game: Joe Pavelski. Pavelski was the only Shark who seemed to never have a bad shift. He finished the night with three points but didn’t contribute to San Jose’s minus-5 team rating.

GAME ONE HIGHLIGHTS

The Detroit Red Wings demolished the Phoenix Coyotes 6-1 to win their first game seven road game since 1964.

Pavel Datsyuk was the first on the score sheet tonight, but followed his rebound goal with a beautiful breakaway deke to score tonight’s second goal. Vernon Fiddler gave Phoenix some life, but Brad Stuart, Todd Bertuzzi and two goals from Nicklas Lidstrom put the Coyotes to bed in the desert.

Pavel Datsyuk has a history of embarrassing Ilya Bryzgalov on breakaways and shootouts, and tonight Bryzgalov just wasn’t the same after that goal. Adding to that was the pure domination that Detroit had over this game. Detroit now moves on to San Jose, the number one seed, and will likely play Thursday. Detroit is the only bottom four seed team in the Western Conference to continue to the next round.

In Play! Man of the Game: Pavel Datsyuk. Datsyuk had the first two goals tonight and several other chances. Had Datsyuk not scored on that breakaway goal, Detroit may have lost this game.

The Detroit Red Wings broke a 1-1 tie in the third period to go on to a 4-1 win and take a 3-2 lead in the series.

Drew Miller was first on the board tonight with a goal that was kicked in by Phoenix’s Vernon Fiddler. Ed Jovanovski tied the game during the second. In the third, Tomas Holmstrom and Pavel Datsyuk scored two quick goals before Henrik Zetterberg scored an empty netter to finish the night.

The Red Wings played 40 solid minutes of hockey tonight. They were outplayed during the second period but were bailed out by Jimmy Howard, who played a great game tonight. Detroit just dominated play in the first and third periods. Nicklas Lidstrom was on the ice for all four goals scored by Detroit. Today Lidstrom was not announced as a finalist for the Norris Trophy for just the second time since 1997.

In Play! Man of the Game: Pavel Datsyuk. Datsyuk won the face-off that lead to Holmstrom’s goal and netted his own shortly afterwards. He also recorded stats in every column on the sheet today except he failed to record a hit or giveaway.

NEW YORK (April 22, 2010) — Center Matt Duchene of the Colorado Avalanche, goaltender Jimmy Howard of the Detroit Red Wings and defenseman Tyler Myers of the Buffalo Sabres are the three finalists for the 2009-10 Calder Trophy, awarded “to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition,” the National Hockey League announced today.

More here…

The Detroit Red Wings rallied back from an early no-goal call to tie the series with the Phoenix Coyotes 2-2 moving back to the desert on Friday.

Henrik Zetterberg opened the column tonight with a powerplay deflection. Pavel Datsyuk drove that lead further late in the third with the second goal of the night before Zetterberg buried the hatchet into Phoenix with his second of the night just 25 seconds later.

Detroit not just opened the door to the Coyotes net tonight, they kept their penalty box busy, giving the Coyotes five power plays and stopping them all. Jimmy Howard controlled his rebounds tonight but made a rallying save on a rare rebound despite losing his mask. The absence of Shane Doan, Phoenix’s captain, from this game played a huge part, allowing the Wings to take better control of the puck around the boards and allowed Detroit to dominate the physical play, out hitting the Coyotes 43-27.

In Play! Man of the Game: Jimmy Howard. Howard stopped all 29 of the Coyotes shots and recorded his first career playoff shutout.

Post game audio from both teams.

The Detroit Red Wings have lost the opening game of the playoffs, falling 3-2 to the Phoenix Coyotes.

Tomas Holmstrom scored first tonight, but quickly that lead was equalized by Keith Yandle. Late in the first period Nicklas Lidstrom scored to put Detroit to a lead again. In the second, Wojtek Wolski tied the game before Derek Morris game Phoenix the game winner in the third.

This game was down the wire through two, but was all Phoenix in the third. Phoenix just outworked Detroit in the final stanza and took over the game. Detroit was a train wreck today on the penalty kill, giving up goals on all of the first three times shorthanded. Tonight there were issues with consistency on penalty calling. While Phoenix accumulated more penalties than Detroit, the game winning goal was scored because of interference that was worse than the interference that had put Phoenix on the man advantage. Phoenix also wasn’t penalized when Lidstrom was high sticked while handling the puck midway through the third. That lack of a call cost Detroit a four minute powerplay as well as cost them the use of Lidstrom for roughly a quarter of the period.

In Play! Man of the Game: Derek Morris. Morris finished the game with three points (2 assists and the game winning goal) as well as a blocked shot and one of Phoenix’s 43 hits.