Ohio
Detroit Red Wings hit the ice under the lights at Ohio Stadium: ‘It was awesome’
Red Wings on practicing at Ohio Stadium: ‘It was great’
Detroit Red Wings Patrick Kane, Dylan Larkin, Todd McLellan, Moritz Seider, Cam Talbot & Lucas Raymond, Feb. 28, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Dusk had fallen by the time the Detroit Red Wings took to the rink laid out inside the horseshoe that is Ohio Stadium, the ice gleaming in the fading sunlight.
“It was awesome,” Lucas Raymond said. “Just looking up, seeing the big stadium and all the seats — it’s going to be great.”
From above, the rink looked like an island, with wide spaces separating it from the stands that by the time Saturday’s game starts around 6:30 p.m. are expected to number around 90,000 spectators. The game took on a redemption angle for the Wings after their flat performance Thursday at home against the Blue Jackets, a team the Wings are neck-and-neck with in the NHL standings.
“That’s a great challenge for us to show up as a team and get right back in a spot where we want to be,” Moritz Seider said, “and get two crucial points against a team that’s tied with us right now.”
Friday evening’s practice — the Wings took the ice around 6:30 p.m. — served as a rehearsal, topped by a family skate that left everyone in a good mood. Take it from Dylan Larkin, former Michigan Wolverine, who described the scene on the ice.
“It was great,” he said. “There’s a lot of excitement with the guys. Pretty cool to just do something different. It’s probably the ugliest stadium I’ve ever been in, but it’s cool to play hockey outside. It’s always special to have the family skate out there, so it was really special.”
Goaltender Cam Talbot, who is slated to start, joked, “hopefully the wind works in my favor and slows the shots down a little bit, but I think that’s just wishful thinking.”
It was windy, and it’s supposed to be gusty from the north again Saturday evening.
“I’m sure the ice will be a little better with it being colder,” Patrick Kane said. “Tonight I noticed skating into the wind, and then the other way you have it at your back. I think that’s something that could come into play, where maybe they switch the teams and switch the sides with 10 minutes left in the period. We’ll see how it shakes out.”
Seider said the ice “felt great. Ice was really good, I thought, and we had good speed. It feels a little special because there’s nothing coming back — it’s a very hollow feeling overall.”
While Seider and Raymond are among those new to the experience, Talbot and Kane are at the other end, having played in at least seven each. That should be an advantage Saturday.
“For the players who have played in these, and I asked Patrick Kane — he has a pretty good idea of what to expect as far as conditions, starting with ice, boards, spatial awareness,” coach Todd McLellan said. “It doesn’t feel the same. The crowd is further away. For those who have played in them, it’ll come back quicker. For the new ones — I jumped on the ice with Alex Lyon and he was like a kid in a candy shop. ‘So cool,’ I think he said, ‘this is so cool.’ So some of the players were in awe a little bit. But once the puck drops, it’s hockey, just in a different environment.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.
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Her latest book, “The Franchise: Detroit Red Wings, A Curated History of the Red Wings,” was released October 2024. Her books, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” and “The Big 50: The Men and Moments that made the Detroit Red Wings” are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
Have a question for Just Askin’? Email us.
The Just Askin’ series aims to answer the questions that no one seems to have an answer for, except maybe Google.
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It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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