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Nothing like an early-season test between Original Six rivals to get the juices flowing.

Detroit hosts Chicago on Thursday night in its home opener at Joe Louis Arena. The Red Wings are trying to avoid an 0-3-0 start, while the Blackhawks hope to make an early statement in their bid to wrestle away the Central Division crown.

It's early, to be sure, but when you talk about sending messages ...

"Every game against Detroit for us is real big," Blackhawks forward Andrew Ladd told ESPN.com on Wednesday. "It's a huge rivalry. Everyone on both teams I think gets pumped up for it. ... If we can put them down 0-3-0 and put us up 2-0-1, that would be good."

I began my phone conversation with Wings coach Mike Babcock by saying I was trying not to get too caught up in the third game of the season, but that's where he cut in.

"I'm caught up in it; you may not be, but I am," Babcock said. "We're 0-2."

Babcock isn't fun to be around when his team isn't playing well. Dropping a season-opening pair to Central Division foe St. Louis in Stockholm did not sit well with him. So, yes, he's jacked up for tonight against the young-and-rising, Cup-contending Blackhawks, who grabbed three of four points from Florida in Helsinki.

"I watched their games because they played before us, and to me, they got up and down the ice really well," Babcock said of the Hawks. "They've got tons of offense. I was impressed with their young players."

He's beginning to get to know these Hawks quite well. The Wings beat them in the Western Conference finals this past spring, and Babcock then got a close look at Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith in August.

"I had four guys from the Blackhawks that were at the Canadian Olympic camp," Babcock said. "I've got a pretty good feel for those players. They're going to be a handful."

Just what Babcock needs, right? It's going to be hard enough trying to finish ahead of the Hawks this season without those four core players having the extra incentive of playing the game of their lives every time they face the Wings because they want to impress the 2010 Canadian Olympic coach.

"Hey, that's the way it is," Babcock said. "What are you going to do?"

It's not just those four Hawks who want to play their best against the Wings; it's the whole team. The Wings represent the standard in the Central Division, and it's what Chicago, St. Louis, Columbus and Nashville have tried to emulate for years.

"Definitely, I think they're the standard around the NHL, really," Ladd said.

The Wings have to shake off the cobwebs. Star center Henrik Zetterberg missed all but the last of his team's nine preseason games with a sore groin, and his rust showed in Stockholm. His line with Todd Bertuzzi and Daniel Cleary has to get going. Pavel Datsyuk centers Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom, and they've got room to improve, as well.

"I thought in our first two games, [Valtteri] Filppula's line was our best," Babcock said of his third line. "I've got nothing against Fil; he's a heck of a player, but I don't need to be telling the media every night that Filppula's line was our best."

Getting a few saves would be nice, too. The goaltending duo of Chris Osgood and Jimmy Howard, as my ESPN.com colleague Scott Burnside aptly wrote about in Stockholm, wasn't very good in the opening two games.

Again, it's early, but given what should be a close battle for the Central Division title, there's just a little more on the line in tonight's game than your usual October fare.

"We want to get off to a good start against them," Ladd said. "If we want to judge ourselves against good teams, we have to accomplish big efforts. So why not start right away."