Third Man In

On one hand, there's blame to go around after that one: in the top of the 8th the offence failing to add to a lead with the bases loaded; in the bottom of the 8th a bad bounce on Inge leading to an error and a ball sneaking under Everett's glove prolonging the inning before Rolen's bomb. But you could also tell Leyland had no confidence to go to the bullpen in the 8th and stuck with Jackson longer than he wanted to. I hope Lyon's getting that out of his system. Jackson, Cabrera, and Inge look great. I'm with you rwfan007--some people love to dump on him, but Brandon's been my favorite for years too.

In a surprise move, the Tigers have released Gary Sheffield. The move makes a lot of sense because the Tigers already have a lot of DH-type hitters, and bringing Sheffield here in 2007 never made a lot of sense to begin with. I'm surprised by the timing of this though, since he's seemingly healthy for the first time in a long time. Why didn't they do this last year if they were going to do it?

Here's a good article from ESPN(!)on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the game. It includes a link to the boxscore which is impressive in its own right. Hmm, not a peep about this on the Avs' boards today. Wonder why.

I just heard about Kell during the Wings game tonight. That is sad. I grew up watching him and Kaline broadcast games. FSN said they were running a special later this week:

Poor Willis just doesn't have it for more than a batter or two at a time. Porcello's been great, as has Perry if anyone's gotten a chance to see him. But I'm wary of rushing along a kid and them having arm problems later (Wood, Prior, Liriano, even Bonderman come to mind). Robertson looked much better his last start. If he can get on a roll I'm happy with him in the 5th spot.

That was such an important goal. It got the Wings close to the Cup that year and really laid the groundwork for last year's Cup. If Lang doesn't score and the Wings go down 3-1, they probably lose that series and go out in the second round after going out in the first the year before. Here's one of my favorites. Never been able to find a good quality version of it:

"Swingin' Octopi like Bettman Swings off Crosby's..." Well, you get the picture.

fair enough

The Hawks aren't self-destructing. As lots of other people said, the Kane injury hurt, and the Hawks are still a young team, so you should expect some inconsistency. They've got two real good lines, a good back end, and goaltending that, while somewhat unpredictable, is basically going to keep them in it every night. I'd love to see the Wings play them--in the second round.

I believe it that TSN is using a formula--a formula can still lead to results that one finds counterintuitive (the BCS comes to mind...) And again, TSN's rankings change slower than some others. A good approach with power rankings (as with polls) is to look at a number of them. Any single poll could be an outlier. But looking at power rankings from a number of sources is a much more objective idea of how the teams are doing at a given moment of the season.

You should ask questions first before laughing, akustyk. Clearly I was only referring to this ranking, which was the OP's topic, and never claimed otherwise. It was others, including yourself, that were making the logical leap from the Wings not being higher than 4th in this ranking to allegations about pro-Canadian and anti-Wings bias. And you really shouldn't lecture others on statistical significance when you supply a single, vague piece of subjective evidence in support of your argument. As you admit, your argument is as subjective as anyone else's. It's an opinion, and that's all it's going to be until it's worth your precious time to support it. There's nothing wrong with an opinion--just don't attack other posters' arguments for being subjective and relying on statistically insignificant evidence when yours do the same. While it's a sample size of one, it makes you look a bit pretentious and more than a little hypocritical.

Also, on the supposed Canadian-bias on TSN: where's the evidence that this is reflected in the power rankings? Vancouver's the highest Canadian team at 7, which sounds about right at the moment. Calgary held steady at 10, which again sounds defensible since they have a better record than the teams immediately in front of them but have struggled recently (except for our gift to them last week). Montreal is #14, appropriate for a middle of the pack team playing inconsistently but currently in the playoffs. The others three are in the bottom 10, even Edmonton, who is currently in a playoff spot and perhaps a bit low. Sorry, but I just don't see the evidence of bias.

All power rankings are different. Cullen's are less volatile than most (on the other end is Scott Morrison's rankings on CBC.com, which can fluctuate widely from week to week). Cullen also factors in key injuries, which he explained to me as "top six forwards, top four defenceman and starting goaltenders." I don't think Cullen is unjustified in having the Wings at 4 right now. Yes, they had a good weekend against two mid-range teams, but the recent poor games against Nashville, Columbus, and Calgary together are a good argument that the Wings shouldn't be #1 right now. Don't worry--if the Wings keep playing like the last two games, they'll move up soon enough.

Welcome to the boards, detroitrocks. But turn off the bold, eh? It hurts my eyes.

Seriously. If people can't bring themselves to congratulate Ozzie on his accomplishment and are considering taking the occasion of his 300th victory to dump on him, please just stay out of this thread.

The Blues' game of musical goalkeepers was amusing today. I didn't realize Keenan was back coaching the team.

Congrat Ozzie! The team was much better overall, and the secondary scoring the team continues to get (Kopecky, Lebda) is outstanding. I'd still like to see us close it out better. But Ozzie was clutch today--he stood tall for the team when they needed him, especially in the 3rd. Hopefully that gives him and the team confidence going forward. Way to go! Usually I'm not big on starting goalies in back-to-backs in the regular season, but I'd trot Ozzie right back out there tomorrow and see if he can get on a roll.

Ozzie! Ozzie

Hate to burst everyone's bubble, but there was just a wee bit of sarcasm in Babcock's voice when he said that. If the Wings really have to rotate goalies like this in the playoffs, they're done.

He's always been a solid D-man and a good shot blocker. That being said, he still had a tendency to turn the puck over in his own end last year. That tendency has disappeared this year, which is a good thing considering the rest of the team is doing it more.

There haven't been nearly as many people dogging him in here this year. He's leading the team in blocked shots and is second in +/- amongst defencemen. He's finally come into his own and has been rock solid all year.

If I had a dollar for each time I've seen three Red Wings chase the puck carrier in their own end this year, I wouldn't need NFM's lottery numbers.

The Wings are still chasing the puck around in their own end. They still look like they've forgotten how to play position defence.

Word. Go Flip!

Boring? If the Wings are on their game, they've got the puck the whole night and they hardly give you a sniff. They are boring because they are better than you. That being said, based on the number of games with 4 and 5 goals against, the Wings have been pretty far from boring this year.