Vancouver Canucks No. 1 goalie Roberto Luongo announced Wednesday that he has opted out of the NHL All-Star Game scheduled to take place on Jan. 27th (in Atlanta, Georgia) so that he could spend some “quality time” with his wife, who is expecting the couple’s first baby.

“I struggled with this decision but I think family right now is more important to me and this is a good opportunity for me to spend some time with my wife and the baby,” Luongo said.

The All-Star starting lineup is chosen by the fans and Luongo picked up 263,221 votes, the most of any NHL netminder, to make him a starter. Missing out on the All-Star Game will prevent the popular goaltender from incurring any possible injury, but more important than that is the opportunity to see his pregnant wife after being months apart.

“It’s a good chance for me to spend some quality time with her, something I haven’t done all year,” Luongo said. “It hasn’t been an easy situation to be apart like that and that’s why I came to this decision.”

Luongo will also miss out on the Canucks’ first game back after the All-Star break, but coach Alain Vigneault isn’t worried.

“He’s going to go home. That’s his number one priority - and it should be,” Vigneault said.

Did the NHL’s Winter Classic boost it’s profile with the U.S. sports-viewing market? That’s debatable. While the 2.6 rating NBC pulled for the “Snow Show” in Buffalo was a pleasant surprise- in fact it was a 12-year high for a sport that has long resided in T.V.’s outback in the U.S.- it was perhaps, more than anything, seen as a spectacle or curiosity by the casual American viewer. Certainly not enough of an attraction to get people fully on the band-wagon. But maybe enough to persuade them to watch the occasional indoor ice-rink game.
Personally I could use an outdoor classic once a year as opposed to every other year- and forget about staging the games in Canada, which has a long and venerable tradition of outdoor hockey- let’s keep the spectacle going in the U.S., which needs to be exposed more to the greatest game in sports. That being said, here are our picks for the best venues, with seating capacity, for staging the next outdoor classic:

1. Yankee Stadium, New York (57,545)
2. Fenway Park, Boston (39,195)
3. Wrigley Field, Chicago (41,118)
4. Comerica Park, Detroit (41,070)
5. Coors Field, Denver (50,445)
6. Texas Stadium, Irving, TX (65,812)
7. Heinz Field, Pittsburgh (65,050)
8. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, (56,000)
9. Lincoln Field, Philadelphia (68,532)
10. an outdoor stadium somewhere in Europe- perhaps Sweden.

Yes, it’s awfully early in the year to be calling the NHL champions. But we do this for a reason: to praise the Detroit Red Wings as clearly, overwhelmingly, the best team in the league this season.

Every once in a while, you get a team that has it all: goaltending, scoring, team defense, youthful energy, veteran savvy, depth and smart coaching. Detroit has these things in spades. The Red Wings were at the top of the league standings at press time at 31-8-3, going 22-20 against the spread and avoiding the chalk monsters at 12.36 units in the black – third-best in the NHL behind upstarts Boston and Columbus.

The Red Wings have a goal differential of plus-1.38. Ottawa, the best team in the Eastern Conference and a favorite to return to the Stanley Cup finals, is far behind in second at plus-0.83. And this dominant performance by Detroit is coming out of the superior Western Conference. Game over.