from Neal Rubin of the Detroit Free Press,

The Detroit Red Wings have silently said so long to Karen Newman, whose rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was the last thing fans heard before the sound of slashing skates for more than 30 years.

Essentially, she's been ghosted — an inelegant thing to do to the team's most consistent performer through more than a thousand games. But she's powering through it, the same way she did on those nights when her throat was raw but duty called.

"People have asked me: 'Aren't you upset? Aren't you mad?'" Newman said. "No. It's bittersweet, but nobody ever made me a promise it was forever."

Last season, she said, the team called a few days before the opener and told her she was being cut from 41 home games to four, making room for some new voices.

“Nobody has called me this year one way or another,” she said, “so I’m just going to assume I’m not singing.”

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