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Hasek, Red Wings start season against defending champs

Oct 3, 2007 - 1:01 PM Anaheim (1-1) at Detroit (0-0) 7:00 pm EDT

DETROIT (Ticker) - The Anaheim Ducks may have been the best team last season, but the Detroit Red Wings have been one of the league's best for the past two decades.

Dominik Hasek will hope to kick off his 16th NHL season with a win when the Red Wings host the Ducks on Wednesday.

A future Hall of Famer, Hasek enjoyed a successful 2007-08 campaign, posting a 38-11-6 record with a 2.05 goals-against average and .913 save percentage. The 42-year-old netminder is 9-7-4-1 with a 2.06 GAA and five shutouts against Anaheim in his career.

In their last meeting, Hasek made 25 saves en route to posting his 75th career shutout in the Red Wings' 1-0 triumph over the Ducks on March 26.

The Ducks' goaltending situation is not quite as solid at the moment. Jean-Sebastien Giguere has missed the first two games of the season, recovering from sports hernia surgery. In his absence, Ilya Bryzgalov gave up three goals on 23 shots in Saturday's 4-1 setback in London to Los Angeles and Jonas Hiller made 22 saves in his NHL debut, a 4-1 victory on Sunday.

Giguere is not the only one missing for Anaheim. Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne are both still undecided about their futures in the sport and will not dress for the contest.

Former Red Wings defenseman Mathieu Schneider is still out with a broken ankle and center Samuel Pahlsson will also miss the game as he also had sports hernia surgery in the offseason.

This marks the debut of Brian Rafalski for Detroit, which finished with the best record in the Western Conference. Rafalski will join a defensive corps which already boasts eight Norris Trophies with Nicklas Lidstrom winning five of the past six and the 45-year-old Chris Chelios collecting three in his 24-year career.