betterREDthandead

Yeah, that's kind of the idea, Hudler's as well suited for goalie as Cheli is for the point

Maybe they should start. Their current formula certainly hasn't brought them much success. The other thing I'd like to know is, how is Matthias "another" wasted prospect? That is, how many prospects have the Wings traded away that ended up flourishing? THe only one I can think of that even comes close to fitting the bill is Fleischmann, and he hasn't exactly threatened to win any awards.

So does Chelios. But while we're having Crazy Time, let's try out Hudler in net.

A couple I can think of.... - Yan Golubovsky was traded to Florida to get Larionov back. He played 6 games for the Panthers and never appeared in the NHL again. Good trade. - Max Kuznetsov was sent to the Kings as part of the Avery-Schneider deal, played 19 games there and went back to Russia. - Anders Eriksson was traded to Chicago as part of the package for Chelios. We still have Cheli; Eriksson's bounced around to Chicago, Florida, Toronto, and Columbus, as well as various stops in the AHL, Sweden, and Russia. Those three represent our 1st rounders from '93 to '95, by the way. Good trades to salvage poor selections.

Dallas's blue jerseys actually look kinda sharp. I can't stand the sight of the white ones, and I think that's because I hate the Cowboys period and you almost always see them in the white - never the blue. As far as looks go the white one is pretty bland. As for the Chargers, I think the new look is a big winner, except for the unnecessarily thick white stripe on the pants. Other than that it's even better than the powder blue, which I think is wayyyyyyyy overrated.

What's offensive is the way she twisted the kid's words ("I get nervous before games"....who doesn't?) and used it as an excuse to call him scared. She took an isolated episode of him laughing on the sidelines and claimed he doesn't have the right attitude. She takes her own isolated observations and writes a slam piece. What's even more offensive is the snooty, we're-the-media-and-we-can-write-anything-we-like approach taken up by the myriad writers that defend her. Carlson isn't some dips*** calling into a sports talk station or a drunk frat boy on the sidelines. She's a reporter, and she needs to understand the responsibilities that come with print media. I don't think it even matters that Reid is a college kid. If he were a multi-zillionaire quarterback in the NFL I'd take his and Gundy's side on this too. And I really don't see what's so inappropriate about Gundy's reaction. He lost his temper. Big deal! Jenni Carlson stated her opinion in an everlasting medium, and now the media condemns Gundy for doing the same. Should Carlson be allowed to speak her piece immune from criticism and Gundy be forced to keep his opinion under wraps? Besides, as you say, Reid probably hears worse every Saturday from the fans. And yet he continues to play when called upon. Now Carlson gets the equivalent of a little heckling and suddenly she's a victim. I wonder who really has the problem of running scared?

I'm still holding out hope we'll get to see Ericsson - maybe not at the beginning of the year, but sometime this season. My favorite of the assortment of defensemen at the bottom.

The worst uniforms in the league are still the Denver Broncos. The numbers can make or break a uniform (why do you think the Bears look so damn good?) and the Broncos have the worst numbers in the league. Plus they started that whole trend of stupid piping on the sides stretching up to the front of the shoulders. Nike took one look at that, got to work, and football uniforms have never been the same. The Bills are second worst. Those colors.....yecchh. The numbers don't match the rest of it, and that shoulder block is awful. Honorable mention goes to the Bengals and to the Saints when they wear black jerseys with black pants and black socks.

He was pointing at Carlson, the writer of the column that pissed him off. And I'm with Blak 100% - the first coach that calls out Rob "The Hater" Parker like that gets my eternal gratitude. All this episode has done is to highlight the astronomical arrogance and overall douchebaggery of the media in general. Consider Dennis Dodd of CBS: Are you friggin' serious, Dodd? What an arrogant piece of s***. "We're going to write our opinions. You shut the f*** up because you're not a journalist and free press doesn't apply to you." And this little gem from Mike Griffith of the Football Writer's Association of America. A more private and appropriate manner? Like a newspaper column?? That private enough for you? How dare Gundy make his side of the argument public. If Gundy had taken Jenni Carlson aside and politely discussed the issue, it would never have seen the light of day. Now we all know how Carlson feels, and we know how Gundy feels. Sorry the fragile media's feelings have been trampled on.

By the way....you want a schedule format that really stirs up interest? Make the number of games you play against every team more or less even, but double the points a game is worth against divisional opponents. That'd kick-start interest in those divisional games. Actually, my own "ideal" format is a far more radical change, but it involves expansion and movement.

I'm pretty sure that's the gist of what I said. You get 30 people throwing out 30 different ideas, it's no wonder it took til now to even let on to the public they were discussing it. And people wonder why this didn't happen in three days in January. I'm betting we won't hear what next year's format will be until at least February of '08, and likely later.

I find this hysterically funny. I see everyone and their mother, aunt, and cousin's wife's sister's best friend has their own ideas for a "perfect schedule." And that's just a small representation of a fan board. Now take 30 owners and 30 GMs, who actually have a huge financial stake in how the schedule plays out, and no doubt have 30 different ideas as well. And you people think it would have been so easy for Bettman just to snap his fingers and change the schedule willy-nilly at the whim of the fans?

Vancouver needs to do only one thing to fix their jerseys.

You know what the problem is with Notre Dame sucking so bad? It's screwing up the evaluation of every team that's played them. How can you tell who's good when they get blown out every single week by more or less the same margin? Michigan has beaten Notre Dame, and beaten a team that played Notre Dame. And Virginia just beat Georgia Tech (sweet) which might be a nice barometer of how good the 'Hoos are, except Tech's only wins are - you guessed it - Notre Dame, and D-IAA Samford.

Because the schedule was already planned to be this way for this season when the CBA was agreed upon. What they voted to do was not spend a relatively short midseason meeting upending a plan that was already in place and trying to hash out a whole brand new one. As I've said in the past, any new schedule would take a fair amount of time to work on because no schedule you can think of will make everyone happy.

I've also heard that stretching is best after a short warm-up. Cold-stretching doesn't help at all according to that school of thought. Me, I don't stretch at all before I run.....call me crazy, but I've yet to hurt myself, and I just don't notice any difference. Maybe I'm not the best example. The only thing I do is a shin stretch because I get the awfulest shin splints and it helps to stretch those muscles a bit. Personally I find the treadmill insanely boring as well, but that's because I think all forms of cardio exercise are boring. The iPod REALLY helps though. Music is what keeps the workout from being boring. And what I like about the treadmill is that unlike other forms of cardio, it's really the only one that you don't have to provide the force. You work the bike, you work the elliptical, and you do the work when you run outside. The treadmill works you, and that's why I prefer it. As for my own workouts.....I've fallen off the wagon a bit in the past few days, because homecoming is coming up very soon and I've been busy! But I got in a run yesterday. All uphill too. (The damn ship was heeling slightly to starboard.....and the treadmills face port ) In just a couple days I'll find out my "official" weight from this cruise, by standing on the same scale I did when I left.

Jon Kitna = Kenny Rogers? Calvin Johnson = Justin Verlander? Roy Williams = Joel Zumaya? can I do that now, or do I have to wait? Philly's 0-2, and if everyone had to pick the team in next week's matchup at Philly that was 2-0, nobody'd have said the LIONS. Half the people on this ship of mine here are Seahawks fans as we are out of Washington state, and every single one of those bastards who gave me hell about Michigan the past two weeks, heard it in stereo when the Cardinals knocked them off. Either Albom or Wojo - can't remember which - said it perfectly: When's the last time you saw the fans at Ford Field/the Silverdome cheering for the starting quarterback coming back into the game? That's partly a reflection on Kitna and partly a reflection on the fact that Orlovsky needs to be elevated to #2 as soon as that toe's feeling better.

Thoroughly agree about Mallett. What's to lose? Notre Dame is going to try and unleash their golden boy too. Hart should get his 30 carries, but when Mallett passes, they really need to go for those big 20 and 30 yard plays. Michigan needs a huge dose of confidence right now and dinking and dunking the way down the field isn't the way to do that.

I wouldn't jump into the Atkins so quick. You can stop eating carbs, but, like with any diet, you have to do it forever. And it's not healthy. Here's what I've found helpful in losing 20 pounds: - Don't eat so much. That's the only eating rule. Whatever extra stuff you eat, cut it out. Don't swear off anything entirely ("I will never drink another drop of Dr Pepper!") because it'll just make you miserable when you see someone else drinking it. Moderation is where it's at, because carbs are not as important as calories. - Run on a treadmill instead of outdoors. Yeah, it's boring, but for me, music keeps the boredom away. Where you get a real advantage from the treadmill is you can control your speed. I started running three miles right away, but at a slow pace. Now I'm running anywhere between 3.5 and 4.5 miles, every time I run, and faster. You can run longer and farther that way and that's the real key to burning fat. Running outside means you only have your own brain to set the pace and you will always, always run too fast. Remember that a mile run is the exact same, fat-burning wise, as a mile walk. - Make sure to lift some. Muscle burns fat. - Read BlueMonk's post from a while back in this thread. The thing that I remember best from it, is that one pound is roughly 3500 calories. So if you can cut down 500 calories a day, you will lose a pound a week. That's a good, sustainable weight loss target in my mind. For me, running for 30-40 minutes on the treadmill burns about 450-600 calories, depending on pace.

Good news: The Raiders had the best pass defense in the league last year and Kitna shredded it. Bad news: The Raiders offense is garbage, and the defense gave up three touchdowns. I really like the matchup this week against Minny, though. The Vikings' offense is no great shakes and their real weak point is pass defense. Oh goody. But the Lions won't make believers out of anyone unless they show up to play in Philly next week.

I really don't like this new trend of vertical stripes and piping running up the sleeves or up the sides. Or both.

Agreed. And I hate that template.

I know not this Huddles you speak of Huddles is not a particularly flattering nickname for a hockey player. Perhaps you mean Rex?

By "slowed the game down" I think he means that in the Nick Lidstrom sense. That is, Grigorenko wasn't actually detracting from the pace of the game, he was figuratively "slowing the game down" in his mind so that he was reacting quicker than everyone else and seeing things they weren't. Gasping for breath coming off of shifts when everyone else isn't......getting beat to pucks in the third that he'd have gotten to in the first....getting knocked over easier and being slower to get up than earlier in the game.....there are lots of signs. No, you wouldn't see them if you were only watching the game, but someone who's there watching a particular player, as I'm sure people were doing with Igor, they'd notice.

Uh-huh. And I'm sure that would have NOTHING to do with all the 'roids you take.