Senators Go Up Against Goliath In Season Opener... Plus...Vintage Wings Stuff

Now that we're under 48 hours until puck drop at Joe Louis Arena, the focus for the Senators now turns to the near impossible task of beating the Detroit Red Wings on the road with a team full of rookies.

These two clubs have faced each other 24 times since the Senators re-entered the NHL in 1992 and Ottawa's record against the Wings is 8-13-1-2, which is actually not bad at all considering how good the Wings have been since 1992.

Here's a quick stroll down memory lane of a few of the more recent encounters between the two teams, as rare as those are (although that could change if the Red Wings slide into the Northeast division next year - a very real possibility)

Senators fans won't like reliving this first memory. Johan "The Mule" Franzen dropping a 5-spot on the Sens in Ottawa last season.



Scary move by Pavel Datsyuk in 2008 that doesn't end up in the net. Still...



The Captain puts one home from the point on the power play past ex-Sen Dominik Hasek in 2008. The best thing about this video is colour commentator Greg Millen calling the shot a "seeing-eye dog". Classic.



Not the best quality but you can still see Foligno score one of the nicest goals of his short career.



An HD package of highlights from a game in 2010 at the Joe.

There was a little ceremony before the game where all the Olympians from both teams headed to Vancouver took a turn at centre ice. Obviously a big Swedish contingent on the far right but it's hilarious to see Jarkko Ruutu standing there between two kids with a huge black eye (click for bigger size). Just like the Hanson's in Slapshot when they're standing for the anthem.

I've always liked this pic. From the 2009 Finals.

Brad Marsh played for parts of two seasons with the Red Wings under coach Bryan Murray before joining the Senators for his final year, as seen here.

Let's go back a bit further and check out some vintage Red Wings memorabilia, such as this game programme from 1954.

A souvenir programme from 1931 when the Wings were briefly called the Falcons, playing out of Olympia Stadium which had just opened in 1927.

And let's end it with two of Detroit's biggest legends. Here's the famous 1952 Ted Lindsay photograph where he turns the stick on the Maple Leaf Gardens crowd after scoring the winning goal in overtime during the playoffs. He and Gordie Howe had received death threats before the game, and Lindsay skated to centre ice after it was all over and pulled this stunt.

And this is not Gordie Howe. This the New York Rangers Lou Fontinato after fighting Howe in 1959. Fontinato, otherwise known as Leapin' Louie, was one of the toughest fighters in the game at the time. No problem for Howe as he bulldozed him in what was probably the most famous fight of the original six era, if not of all time.

As defenseman Brad Park once said, “We get nose jobs all the time in the NHL, and we don’t even have to go to the hospital.”