Electrophile

If at the beginning of the season, you said that the following teams would NOT still be in the playoffs come LCS time, people would have thought you were nuts: Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies. I'd like to see a Tigers/Brewers World Series for the sheer fact it would give Bud Selig a heart attack. I know he probably has a soft-spot for the Brew Crew, but he's also all about ratings.

Absolutely! It's a wonderful thing he's doing.

Alright Wings, let's get a winning streak going!

Why not, let's go for double-digit goals tonight.

Boy this team looks good. I know it's just one game, but damn.

Nice to see the Wings setting the tone early, not just for the game but for the season. A win on Opening Night is a great thing.

Today is my mom's birthday, and while she's not a big hockey fan, a win would be nice none the less.

Congrats to Kronner. What a great honor. I'm sure he'll wear it well.

Congrats to the Tigers. You're a great team, and you played hard. You deserve to be in the ALCS, and I hope you beat the Rangers. We just didn't have the pitching this year, but we knew that before the season even started. It sucks to lose, but the better team won. At least that can be said. Good luck.

I too can see both sides of the issue. The Wings need a new arena, but the Joe is full of such charm, and history.....it would be a shame to part with it. My only hope is whatever is built for them in the coming year(s), it does NOT have the name Amway Arena. Good God, that sounds as bad as where the Coyotes play. The team's history alone warrants it something better than *Insert Corporate Name Here* Arena.

Another death. This has not been a good year for the NHL or its fans. One can only hope 2012 will be eons better. My condolences to his family and friends. He is at peace now, and one with the stars.

We were going to have to pen warming in the 1st, regardless of what Burnett did. No one had any faith in him, and that sounds so utterly horrible, but it's true. He hasn't inspired a lot of confidence in his fans this season. The joke was that Hughes was going to start warming up following the first pitch, in the even the first pitch was a HR.

Neither can I. I penciled AJ in for the loss when it was announced he'd be pitching Game 4. I figured either we'd need to sweep or win in 5, if we were going to win at all, since that was a guaranteed loss. I don't know what Rothschild said to him between the 1st inning and the 2nd, but whatever it was put the fear of God in him. That, and Curtis Granderson saving his huevos not once, but twice.

Look at the bright side; at least someone cares about proper grammar and punctuation. So few people do anymore.

3 man rotation, Hughes is in the pen with Gas Can Burnett since unlike AJ, he has experience coming out of the pen. Our rotation for the ALDS is CC, Nova, Garcia. CC is very good on short rest in the playoffs, so if we need him again in this series, he can pitch. For the ALCS/WS should we be fortunate enough to advance that far, I would suspect that AJ would be the 4th starter and Hughes would stay in the pen as a long-man/bridge guy. There's no way Girardi would stick with a 3-man rotation in a 7-game series, not if we'd be playing teams like Tampa or Philadelphia. I want no part of Philadelphia anyway. Lee and Halladay twice? f*** that.

For argument's sake, let's say the NHL outlaws fighting. What are you going to do - quit watching? Baseball fans grew to accept the DH, divisions, the Wild Card......if worse comes to worse and there's no more fighting in hockey, fans will accept it or they'll cry about it and find something else to watch.

Why should I be nervous when AJ Burnett will be in the bullpen for the ALDS and Bartolo Colon isn't even on the playoff roster? I can't be nervous about something that isn't going to happen, referring to Colon or Burnett s***ting the bed. They aren't going to be given the opportunity. Our pitching has been suspect all year. No sense pissing my pants over it now. We've won with worse pitching, we've lost with better pitching. I think your team has a better rotation to be sure, but that's why games are played on the field, not on paper.

Poor hygiene on his lady friend's part, then. Tuna goes in a salad, not in your pants.

If you really believe Girardi threw the game, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you. If you actually watched the game last night (not that I'd expect any of you to give a s*** about the Yankees, obviously) you'd have noticed Girardi played all the regulars for the bulk of the game, and then when it was apparent it was a blow-out, began substituting them for the bench players. That's nothing no other manager wouldn't do in a blow out. He'd said that Rivera wasn't going to pitch, which meant that Soriano and Robertson weren't going to pitch either. So our three best relievers would see no action, no matter the score/inning. Our bats were on the bench, our best relievers weren't playing, and the dregs had to hold a 7-run lead. They didn't. That happens. It's not throwing the game, it's not tanking the game, it's not phoning it in. It was not a necessary game for the Yankees, meaning you weren't going to see an injured Alex Rodriguez make a PH appearance at any time, nor were you going to see the above-mentioned relievers in the game either. It was up to the scrubs and the bottom of our pen to hold Tampa down, and they were unable to. The fact that Girardi actually started all his regulars last night and even said before the game he was doing so because in essence, he didn't want people to think that the Yankees were intentionally losing games to keep the Red Sox out, should be evidence enough that there was no intentional tank job going on. If Girardi really wanted to phone it in, he'd have not started any regulars last night and had Nick Swisher and his 0.00 ERA pitch. THAT would have been throwing the game.

He's going to "over do it" in what way? Are you suggesting he'll punish Wings players more harshly to avoid any inference of impropriety? I'm not sure I follow where you're walking, here. The fact that the way the rules are being enforced now would have put him on the hot seat more often as a player has nothing to do with his ability to do his job.

Verlander has the Cy Young award in his back pocket, and he's walking out the door. He has a strong showing for the MVP as well, but if Pedro Martinez in '99 didn't get the MVP, Verlander won't get it this year. Don't ask me why, it makes no sense, but the writers are hesitant to give the MVP to a non-everyday player. I don't think that's fair, because a pitcher can absolutely be the most valuable player on their team, and in the whole league, but I think the last pitcher to get the MVP was Clemens in the 80s. Though if they did break with tradition and give it to him, he'd absolutely deserve it.

You're probably right, but I'd rather he be hated because he's doing his job, than hated because he's not. The last person to be in charge of doling out suspensions/punishments did a piss-poor job of it. At this juncture, anything more than piss-poor is a step in the right direction. What will be telling is if he doles out any punishments to a Wings player on par with what he doles out to players from other teams. If they're comparable, he shouldn't get lambasted by anyone.

I've got the same feeling in my stomach as I did after Vladdy's car accident. That same, "What the f*** is wrong with life?" feeling. It ******* sucks.

I don't even have the words to describe how distraught and saddened I am by this. I can't remember an off-season for any sport I follow being as horrible as this one was re: death. This season can't start fast enough.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's the Red Wings' turn to suffer a tragic death in the off-season. This is just unreal. All of them have been suicides or somehow self-induced (drugs/alcohol).....it's turning creepy. Enough with the dying already. These people are my frickin' age, and it's scaring me to death.