'A REALLY COOL EXPERIENCE'

DETROIT - Nothing remains of the old barn, but for the memories that linger on Steve Yzerman Drive.
Home to the Red Wings for 38 years, beginning in 1979, Joe Louis Arena has now been decommissioned, dismantled, and replaced with a swanky new house that suitably captures both the history and essence of HockeyTown.
Except, of course, for smell of decades-old pizza and hot dogs, the solid wood benches, cream-coloured seats, and loose nails that may or may not have cost this reporter a new pair of dress pants.
The players, though, paying a visit was always a treat.
"I actually played in The Joe, my first year," Noah Hanifin beamed following practice at the state-of-the-art Little Caesars Arena. "That's pretty lucky, to be able to play in a historic arena like that when I was super young. I remember it being a classic arena. It actually kind of had a Saddledome vibe a little bit, with it being one of the last old-school rinks.
"The showers were all broken, but it was awesome."

Hanifin, of course, is a proud Bostonian - but as an American, and with dreams of one day donning his nation's colours on the international stage - Michigan was home for one of the most important seasons of his hockey career.
In many ways, it's where his path to the big leagues began coming into focus.
So, while his two trips to the Joe remain a cherished, lifelong memory, Detroit and the surrounding hockey-mad market has been good to the blueliner for as long as he can remember.
"It's tough leaving home when you're that young," said Hanifin, who stuffed his life in a suitcase and moved west to Ann Arbor, Mich., at only 16. "The high school I went to - Saint Sebastian's back in Boston - I had a great experience going there and all my best friends were there, so it was really hard to leave. But from a hockey standpoint, you're not going to find a better place to develop on and off the ice.
"You grow up real fast. I had a billet family and my parents (Bob and Tina) would come out every now and then to catch some games. But honestly, it was so much fun. It was a great experience to go overseas and play in all those international tournaments, to play in the USHL... It's a really good program."
Hanifin joined the U.S. National Team Development Program's U-17 squad, which included the likes of Matthew Tkachuk, Auston Matthews, Zach Werenski and others that went on to play in the NHL.
"If you look at the team I was on, like 80% of the guys are playing pro right now," Hanifin said. "I think being able to play with some of the best guys in the country and play together for a year or two, you really push each other and I think that makes everyone a lot better.
"From that standpoint - the competition alone - that was definitely what drove me to want to pursue it."
Hanifin played 25 games with the U-17 team, scoring five goals and 12 points, before being promoted to the U-18 roster as an underage player.
That 2013-14 season was a thrill ride that included a gold medal at both the 2013 Under-17 Four Nations Tournament in Prievidza, Slovakia, and the 2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Sydney, Nova Scotia, where served as the team captain.

That's what makes the NTDP unique.
The program assembles the top players in the country in an effort to strengthen their international performance, while competing regularly against opponents in the USHL.
"The whole experience was amazing," Hanifin said. "We were pretty busy with the schedule we had, but we did get a few opportunities to be a fan, too. We went to a few Red Wings games here and there whenever we could. So, whether it was going to the Joe, or going to the Big House to catch a lot of Michigan football games, it was a really cool experience living out here."
Thursday will mark Hanifin's eighth trip to Michigan since graduating from the U.S. program and emerging as a top pick in the draft, thanks to a stellar freshman season with Boston College in 2014-15.
We often marvel at how quickly this player has come along and made a name for himself. Frankly, it's unimaginable how - at only 26 years of age - he's already played 567 games in the best league in the world.
So, when he steps on the ice at Little Caesars and plays top-pairing minutes on the Flames blueline, it won't be the first time he's done that around here.
But he's doing it, now, better than ever.
"The coaches are holding me to that standard," Hanifin said of a monster night in Manhattan, where he played 24:01, was constantly up in the rush, and set up the tying goal for Andrew Mangiapane. "When I'm moving my feet, my whole game clicks. Even defensively, when I'm skating, I feel I defend and check a lot better. It's just about being engaged in that aspect of the game. And hey, sometimes it's hard to find ways to get up in the rush and be moving your feet, but when I do that, I tend to play pretty well.
"I definitely had a little bit of jump and I want to keep that going.
"That's the important thing."