BlueMonk

Hartnell has injured quite a few players.

Hull is pretty funny. There's some good irony in his comment about how the Wings are crazy if they think they can just play a perimeter game without going to the tough places on the ice. Hull probably thought that was someone else's job on the team when he played here (and in fairness, it probably was), but still. Nobody epitomized an unwillingness to actually work hard out there more than Hull during those last couple of seasons in Detroit.

You don't f**k around with concussions. I realize not everyone here understands how serious they are, but they're a growing problem in lots of sports. Doctors are learning more and more that if a player returns from a concussion too soon, it can cause irreversible damage.

Really? Can you point me to one? Everything I've read is basically a 7 game series win for Detroit or a Calgary win. Clement says Wings in 7, Buccigross says Wings in 7, Phil Esposito picked Calgary, Denis Potvin picked Calgary, Don Cherry and Brett Hull seem to favor Calgary. I haven't seen a single forecast picking Detroit in less than 7 games.

There's some good advice in here. Here's some more. For dieting, a good balance of protein, high quality fats and high quality carbs will do you the most good. Not just over the course of a day, but at each meal as much as possible. There's no one perfect diet, and people disagree on what works best. But most agree that a balance of good carbs, good fats and quality protein are important. Good carbs are especially veggies and whole grains. Fruits can be good, too, although even they have a lot of sugar in them, so you don't want to eat too much of them. Choose wheat bread over white, choose brown rice over white. Lean protein sources are lean meats like chicken breast, turkey breast, fish and lean cuts of beef or even pork. Also, lowfat cottage cheese, skim milk or protein supplements. Good sources of fat (unsaturated fat) are things like olive oil, nuts and fatty fish like salmon and tuna. You don't want to eliminate fats from your diet completely. It's not good for you, and it will leave you feeling hungry all the time. Don't go for the whole zero fat grams thing. At the same time, fats exist naturally in many foods, such as even lean cuts of meat, so it's not like you have to go out of your way to add them to your meals. Don't be afraid to exercise. Not just cardio, but strength training. Add some muscle, and you'll burn more calories even when you rest. If you do strength train, don't neglect legs! Too many beginners just work their "t-shirt muscles," like arms and chest. Squats, deadlifts, stiff-legged deadlifts and lunges are great exercises that build large muscle groups. There are all sorts of benefits to this kind of training, including stronger support muscles that will help you avoid injury doing normal daily things like picking up a heavy box or moving a piece of furniture, etc. One thing though, if you haven't done weight lifting before, you should make sure you learn how to properly do it, so as not to injure yourself. A lesson with a personal trainer is the best way. And above all else (IMO), don't be afraid to give yourself a "cheat day" every now and then. Every week or two, just eat the food you want and don't worry about it. One day of cheating won't undo all the other efforts you've made. Plus, it boosts your BMI (basal metabolic rate), which is a good thing to help you continue making progress in your dieting. Keep on keepin' on, Legionnaire!

OK, thanks!

Even those picking the Wings to win are saying 7 games. Which is basically like saying you don't have any idea who's going to win. Buccigross takes the Wings in 7 games, but said he went back and forth a dozen times before making up his mind who to pick. Clement said the exact same thing on XM 204 yesterday. He settled on Detroit in 7, but had trouble making up his mind. Phil Esposito picked Calgary. Definitely strange seeing a 1 seed's chances evaluated this way.

I read it yesterday. It's extremely well written, and to think it's from ESPN is amazing. Definitely worthwhile reading.

scotzman, what the hell is the story behind that avatar?

Wings have to win both games 1 and 2 to have a real chance at winning this series. That just got much harder.

None of them. Red and white for me, Winged Wheel all the way. Hey, I love D-Mac and Iginla is one of the great players in the game. But against the Red Wings? I want absolute failure for them. I want the wheels to fall off. Zero goals, tons of turnovers, get in fights with soft Euros and lose, whatever.

I'm not as confident, either. I'm giving the Flames a lot of credit for being able to turn it up when they need to. But they kind of did need to during this past few weeks as the Avalanche made their run, and the Flames didn't look like they had another gear. But hey, they made it to the dance, so they obviously did enough. I do think the dependence on a really old defense corps, as good as they may be, will be an achilles heel for the Red Wings. Calgary's forwards will forecheck and just try to punish those guys and grind them down over the course of the series. So I can't argue with your choices for series scapegoats, either.

I like the Sharks in 6 games. I'm rooting for Nashville, though. If the Wings miraculously advance to round two and the top seeds all advance, they match up better with the Predators.

I like Calgary's chances in this series, but the 2003-4 team was much tougher and I believe a better equipped team to make a deep playoff run.

I was one of the people who thought about the problems with putting the sensor in the center of the puck. Around the edges solves that, though. One thing that would be a little weird is having the goal light on and the goal horn sound after the refs blow the whistle, which would probably be enough to really upset the fans and even the players on a no-goal situation.

I keep bringing this up, but you can't count on the Flames to play the same kind of hockey in a playoff series that they played in the regular season. Look at Edmonton last year. Did anyone expect the Oilers to start trapping? I think the Flames will try to play defense, forecheck and hit everything in sight. I think Kiprusoff will be in peak form. In other words, I expect something very similar to what the Wings faced in 2004.

Flames in 6 games.

I'm pretty sure it was a sarcastic post.

I don't know. I'll give you Roenick and Hull. But did those other guys really talk more, on or off the ice, than guys like Avery, Maltby, Cooke, Danton, Tyson Nash, Tucker, Barnaby, Claude Lemieux, Ribeiro or Gauthier? And Hull is Canadian born. If you're going to include him, then Donald Brashear should probably be considered Canadian, since he grew up there despite being born in the U.S. And that's not even including the European players.

The thing is, no other team can boast consistent playoff success, either. All the other top teams in the league suffer failures in early rounds, or they flat out don't make it to the playoffs some years. The standards of Red Wings fans are simply unrealistic. No team in the NHL can say it hasn't had failures like the Wings have had. Part of it is, the Wings finish near the top of the standings every season, which gives the impression that they should win it all every year. You can look at that as not living up to regular season success, or you can look at it as having unparalleled success getting to the playoffs every year. People tend to look at it as the former rather than the latter, but again, show me the team that can live up to that standard.

This is pretty funny. I'd say a sound majority of Red Wings fans was pulling for Colorado to grab the 8th spot. Really bush league reporting by Kiszla, not that I'd expect anything else.

Well, that's the problem with stopping a guy like Iginla. You put your best defenders on him and it frees up others.

Last year, when Edmonton clinched the 8 seed, I remember thinking, "Whew! Finally, a first round playoff matchup that favors the Red Wings!" Like a lot of other people, I expected the Wings to face a team that liked to play run and gun hockey and wouldn't just clog up the neutral zone with the trap. Then the series started, and it was clear that Edmonton was going to reinvent itself completely. They played completely out of character and basically clogged up the neutral zone and slowed the game down. They figured it was their best and only chance to compete with a high flying team, and they figured right. I don't think the Flames have the same kind of trickery up their sleeves, necessarily. They'll still try to be physical and use their forecheck to punish the Red Wings' puck possession style. But I do think they're capable of playing a lot better than they've played during the regular season. Everyone's saying they're not as physical and Kiprusoff isn't as invincible. I'm not so sure. They're an experienced playoff team now and they understand that you don't win the Cup during the regular season. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Flames tighten things up, escalate the hitting and physical play, and get superlative goaltending from Kiprusoff in this series. I think the Red Wings are much better equipped for a series with this kind of team than they were last year. And I think the Flames are a different team than they were in 2004. But I also expect Calgary to be a brutal team to face, regardless of how inconsistent they were during the regular season. And don't be fooled by that bad road record. That's not going to be a problem in the playoffs for them. Bottom line, this is going to be a very, very tough opponent. This series could go either way.

Welcome!

I hope nobody is comparing Dominik Hasek to Manny Legace. I really hope nobody is doing that. Obviously, this year's team has a huge, massive, GIGANTIC upgrade in goaltending over last year's.