November 1 Detroit Sports Temperature Check

In case you are still feeling a candy hangover from Halloween, here’s the outlook for each Detroit pro sports team heading into November:

Detroit Tigers – The only of Detroit’s four teams not active at this point on the field has not remained far from the front pages. Brandon Inge was resigned and it looks like Jhonny Peralta may join him, at a discount. The team has been rumored to be going after Carl Crawford, Jason Bartlett and Victor Martinez among other players. At this point, don’t expect anything major until the season concludes in a few days.

Detroit Lions (2-5) – All is well around Ford Field these days. The team is generally healthy, Calvin Johnson and Matt Stafford are a terrific two-some, and the squad showed an incredibly gritty performance against a self-destructing Redskins team. The Lions special teams were incredibly suspect, but the team was able to put enough points to make up the difference. The next three games are all potentially winnable for this team: vs. Jets, @ Buffalo, @ Dallas.

Detroit Pistons (0-3) – The good news: the team has led in all three games in the fourth quarter. The bad news: this team has folded faster than a laminated map. The scariest thought of them all – Coach Kuester is looking for more energy from rookie Greg Monroe, a player notorious for being low energy at Georgetown. This team is still looking for an identity and it will be a “wait and see” for many fans this season. I would not be shocked to see the following happen by the end of November: 1) the team is sold, 2) attendance for a game drops below 10,000, 3) the team uses a starting lineup that reinforces why you won’t attend a game this season.

Detroit Red Wings (6-2-1) – This is by far the hottest of all Detroit sports franchises right now. They are in the NHL’s best division and they find themselves two points out of first, held by a Chicago Blackhawks team that has played four more games. Pavel Datsyuk looks like he’s ready to take over this season. Goaltending has been overall pretty solid and Jimmy Howard has a new found confidence for this team. The offensive fire power will get a real test on this upcoming road trip to the west.