betterREDthandead

Update time for me! I just weighed in about 15 minutes ago and the bad news is I didn't lose any inches off my waistline. But the good news is I dropped almost 4 pounds since last weigh-in a little over two weeks ago. So I've gone from: 195.9 - May 11 194.5 - May 23 190.7 - June 8 Five pounds in about as many weeks, so I'm on track.

Then you need to stop chugging the Kanada Kool-Aid. A quick Google search turns up instances in Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto. It's so easy to find that I'm pretty convinced you purposely blocked it out of your mind. It happens on both sides, so you can get off your snooty high horse. P.S. - Were Canadian fans being classier than American fans when a Buffalo Sabres fan was assaulted in Ottawa? Oh, yes. Very classy of you. Way to demonstrate all that Canadian class you've got. Racism is the classiest thing I can think of.

A few of LGW's Community Supporters have gotten together to sponsor a surprise contest. The thread for Red Wings fans from outside the great state of Michigan has produced some terrific stories, and we think the best of the best deserve a little recognition. The thread is linked below. Non-Michigan fans: How did you become a Wings fan? Those CS'ers who donated to the prize fund have nominated their own favorite stories and the list has been narrowed down to the top three favorites. Now we need everyone's help. Please read the stories linked below. Here are the chosen three: Drake_Marcus zaxx bellarina First prize will be one of the 30,000 limited edition Steve Yzerman commemorative books that were sold at the Jan. 2 retirement ceremony. The two runners-up will have a little something sent to them as well. A poll will be up shortly in the poll booth and linked right here in this post - we are asking everyone to take part and vote for their favorite story. Voting will last a week and close at 3:30 AM Eastern on Friday June 1. **VOTE HERE** Drake, zaxx, and bellarina, if you accept the prizes, please PM a mailing address to vladdy16, who has the prizes and is ready and waiting to send them out. She's plenty honest and promises not to use the address for other than the intended purpose.

This discussion is embarassing. I guarantee you we wouldn't be even considering this notion if the Wings won based on a questionable call here or there. "Them's the breaks" we'd say in unison and congratulate our boys on a hard-fought, well-earned, job well done. Frankly, it's a huge black mark on Wings fans to lose in the playoffs and then start to complain that the league has a fix on. This s*** is beneath us and it's thoroughly embarassing.

Voting is now closed. (Sorry, I closed it a few hours later than I meant, I still have absolutely no idea what time it is back home right now.) Congratulations to the winner, zaxx. vladdy16, if you would please do the honors and distribute the prizes. Thanks to everyone that voted! And thanks again to all the people who provided us with such excellent stories, reminding those of us who were born into Red Wing Nation how lucky we are to have such an outstanding team representing our own hometown/state.

He needs to demonstrate a season of healthy playing before he's tradeable. Personally I think the Wings missed the boat if they wanted to trade him, his value was high mid-season. Sure, he's had health problems, but those don't explain his mental breakdowns and giveaways. The Wings have Kindl, Quincey, Meech, Ericsson, and Lebda - Kronwall, what with his lapses and apparent inability to maximize his potential, is expendable.

No, moving Atlanta makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Just because they're technically a couple miles west means crap-all nothing. Think about it. With Nashville gone, there would be no Western team within 500 miles of Atlanta. Detroit, Columbus, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta??? Atlanta will stay in the Southeast. GUARANTEED. If the Preds move to Hamilton and go East (which I think is quite possible but not a guarantee) then Pittsburgh will be the likely West mover, as it's in much closer proximity to the teams in the Central. I swear to god I will stamp out the notion of Atlanta moving West if it's the last thing I do. Being three miles west based on longitude does NOT make it logical to move it OUT of a division where the furthest team is STILL closer than the closest team in the new division.

New York has 8 million people in the city alone, plus another 4 or 5 within TV rights distance. When Southern Ontario can put up those kinds of numbers, then we'll talk comparison. Buffalo is a small market and they already have to compete with the Leafs for the Niagara Falls/St. Catherine's area of Canada. They'll just love to have competition in Hamilton too. Also, I think it's cute how so many of you think Bettman has a say in the matter. You must be the same folks who think it was his idea to put a team in Phoenix and Raleigh. Finally, why would anyone jump to the conclusion that a Hamilton team would move East?

You're talking in completely unrealistic terms. First, where would you propose a new convention center be built? Second, the proposal to renovate and expand Cobo is expected to cost roughly $900,000,000. And that's on land the city already owns. Just imagine the cost of building a whole new center somewhere, including the cost of land acquisition. $2 billion? $3 billion? And again? Where would you put it? Cobo Hall is considered a very good convention center, but a smallish one. No need to tear it down and start over, that's totally unrealistic. Besides, Cobo's in as good a spot as it can be in. Convention centers belong downtown. Mostly, it backs up to the freeway, so it's not blocking anything off except for the Joe. I don't think you could find a better place anywhere in the whole tri-county area for a convention center than right where Cobo is. And don't even get me started on trying to build an entertainment district on the land the Joe is on. Yes, Detroit needs more bars/clubs/restaurants/etc. outside just Greektown. If you haven't noticed, there are quite a few places like that downtown already. For those places to succeed, they need visibility and street presence. They will get ZERO visibility hemmed in by the river, freeway, Cobo, and fences. Nobody's going to go back there, it would be quickly abandoned and horrendously unsafe in two years tops. I think it's basically inevitable that the Wings vacate the Joe and both it and Cobo Arena are torn down to expand Cobo Hall's exposition space. There's no other solution that makes anywhere near as much sense. If you want to create a downtown riverfront destination area for out-of-towners to have a good time, the Ford Auditorium site is the place to do it.

Milbury sucked as GM, yeah. But Charles Wang has got to be one of the most bizarre-thinking owners in the league. As long as Wang owns the team, I think there will still be cause to point and laugh at the Isles. That is, if it weren't such a shame to have a perfectly good NHL team not playing on level ice with everyone else because of bad ownership.

The hell I want to see Maroth in pinstripes. Maroth is one of my favorite Tigers (possibly my favorite, depends on my mood) for the way he handled himself during the '03 season. Pure professionalism all the way. Seeing him in a Yankee uniform would make me barf. My take is, we got tons of starting pitching both on the big club and in the system. Guys like Maroth and Durbin can be used out of the pen, and so can Jurrjens and Tata, etc. Why trade a pitcher to get a pitcher when we can just use what we got and probably be just as effective? If we're going to trade a pitcher, it had better be for a first baseman. I like Casey, I know he's a Leyland favorite and he's terrific with the glove, but he must be the lightest-hitting first baseman in all the league. Trading some of that pitching for a first baseman with even an average bat for the position would give the Tigers a nasty lineup.

Article Bettman believes the Preds will stay put. (Of course, one would hardly expect the commissioner to announce otherwise until the ink is dry on the moving van contract.) But the long and short of the article is that there are a number of hurdles that Sillyballs would have to overcome to move the team anywhere - it's not just a simple matter of deciding attendance in Nashville is too small and packing up.

Obviously it wasn't, because the common sense contained inside was totally lost on you. And everyone else who would rather froth at the mouth over some photoshop image than spend five minutes reading about the truth. Fact is, that dumb picture of the "new Red Wings jersey" is some yahoo's imagination based on the WIngs' colors and the All-Star template. Everything Wingfan191 said is true, but you decided to just roll your eyes at it anyway. Way to be.

Andrew Miller had better not pitch another game out of the 'pen ever again. I think patience is in order. In a couple months Zumaya will be back and so will Rogers, and Durbin can be bumped to the pen. He hasn't been pitching so bad lately after a horrible start.

Exactly what would you put there? On the south is the river, so nobody's coming in from that direction. On the east is Cobo Hall. On the north is the Lodge Freeway. And on the west is the fenced-in Riverfront Apartments. Nobody is going to find their way to a club or bar located over there, that is the worst possible place. The whole parcel of land that the Joe is on is good for one thing and one thing only: Space for Cobo to expand. For those of you who are hoping for a non-corporate name for a new arena, dream on. The extra revenue would be part of the whole point of having a new arena. Plus it would lessen the cost of building, so that Ilitch has more money to make it just that much nicer instead of cutting back. Oh, and it won't be Little Caesar's Arena, either. What would be the point? Not to derail the thread too bad, but let's give credit where credit's due: Kwame has managed to balance the city's budget against a declining tax base and without hiking taxes. Straight-up fat-cutting from the budget. I wasn't a Kwame fan during his first term but I'd say he's learned his lessons, done his due diligence, and straightened out the city finances. I only wish Two-Penny Jenny would learn the same.

Yeah. Andrei Markov. Being that the season's not yet over it isn't legal for teams to be offering contracts to other team's players so I don't think we have to worry about the Habs raiding our blueline just yet.

Where is there room to do that? In case you havent noticed the Joe practically butts right up against the Lodge on one side. The Joe has only three things going for it: 1: Cool name 2: Place where Steve Yzerman played 3: No suite level between upper, lower decks Meanwhile, it's ugly, it's in a godawful location, hard to get to, it's in the way of a desperately needed Cobo expansion, and it's got zero amenities. Renovation would require the team figure out some arrangement with the Pistons to temporarily play at the Palace, or use the Silverdome or something, because a renovation would take probably just as long as building a whole new place. It's time to retire the Joe.

They'd still pitch a fit. The Leafs have some serious clout and the Wings would likely join them, whether or not the Preds move to some point which happens to be outside an arbitrary line on a map. After all, even if Kitchener/Waterloo aren't actually inside the Leafs' territory, the Preds would still stake out territory of their own, which would include a huge chunk of the Leafs' sphere of influence. Besides that, Kitchener/Waterloo aren't exactly corporate meccas. All the corporate behemoths that would theoretically lend their support to such a team are in - you guessed it - Toronto. You can bet the Leafs are already working on a little hell-raisin' to do whatever it takes NOT to have a team in Kitchener. And frankly, if the Preds must move I'd like to see them go somewhere that doesn't already have four NHL teams, one AHL team, and countless OHL teams within a 200-mile radius. If that's not enough hockey for people I don't know what would be.

I would think that Winnipeg would be the most obvious place not to relocate. Especially the Predators. The Jets left town in part because of a lack of corporate support - how would that solve the problems of a team that is seriously lacking in corporate support? Conference alignment carries zero weight at all when it comes to determining where a team should go. The league will have its teams wherever the economics of it makes the most sense and only after the teams are placed, adjust the conferences accordingly. By the way, the Leafs aren't the only concern if the idea is to move a team to southern Ontario (which I hope does NOT happen.) The Sabres and the Leafs pitch some fierce territorial battles over southwestern Ontario (Niagara Falls/St. Catherine's area.) The Wings and Leafs would both stand to lose ground if a team were near Kitchener or London. That's two powerful O6 teams plus Buffalo that would more than likely stand in strong opposition to the idea. Sillyballs already tried this idea once, if you recall, not too long ago with the Pens, and that didn't fly. I don't think all hope is lost for Preds fans in Nashville. And frankly, I'd like to see the team stay put.

Please read the thread here before voting!

Never in the history of mankind has the phrase "It seemed like a good idea at the time," been more appropriate. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill ban you

I strongly believe Ilitch has already decided to build a new arena and is simply waiting to have ALL the land in place before any official announcement. Remember when Comerica Park was being built? It was kind of a fiasco. Once they made the announcement, Ilitch still didn't have all the land, and the prices skyrocketed, and the owners who had already sold sued because they wanted the new high price instead of the old price, and Chuck Forbes made a big stink and they had to actually pick up and move his Gem Theatre, and the whole project was delayed years. Ilitch doesn't want to go through that again. He'll announce like the day before they break ground.

I'm aiming for one pound a week on this cruise, which would take me to 177. But, I'm only 5'7" and when I did weigh 175-ish, I was still pudgy around the waist. I weighed 145-150 coming out of high school but that was my swimming weight with my muscles built for endurance, not for strength. I've put on muscle since then, but at the same time I was getting fatter because I wasn't swimming any more in college. I just spent too many words saying I don't know what my "fighting weight" ought to be. But I'm guessing between 155-160.

Is there a hockey team anywhere in the world that has as passionate and dedicated a following across the continent and around the globe, as the Detroit Red Wings? Just think, this is where it all comes together. Thanks for everything, Matt!

Five of you went to Game 5 against Calgary, huh? Make it six, I was there too. (Thank you thank you thank you to YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.) Lot of fellow LGWers at that game, and I'll bet we're not the only six. Very memorable game. There are a few Red Wings memories that are burned into my mind for all time - some random goals, some highlight-reel plays, some low times, some gutsy efforts, some dirty shots. Cleary's penalty shot goal and McLennan's battle-axe slash are both now included.