betterREDthandead

I gave my Wing-tinted goggles to Jiggy_12, it's why he's so bummed already after only one period

Tigers break

Good first period of the playoffs. Pretty good aggressiveness. Keep that up all series and things will turn out fine.

um guys, I hate to break it to you....Sammy's stick was between Lombardi's legs and Lombardi fell over. That will be called EVERY time. Even when McGeough isn't reffing.

Well that's good to know

McGeough just needs a buffet table to regain his direction...

never ever ever quote Hawk Harrelson ever again! haha thanks, Brad Stuart!

2-0! seeing-eye puck from Nick!

Man....NIFTY pass by Franzen. Nice!

Sooooooo.....college basketball....who's excited? If you're lucky enough to be a fan of an ACC team, college basketball is one of the best things going. ACC basketball is the only conference in any sport where the conference is excellent top-to-bottom and every game is dangerous. Even in SEC or Big Ten football, there are teams you basically just don't lose to. Vanderbilt, Illinois, etc. Not so in ACC basketball. Every team is good. so Go Hoos! We start the season by hosting Arizona on the 12th. Got the best guard tandem in the conference in Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds. Got a big gumpy Lithuanian (Laurynas Mikalauskas), the only center in the conference who can bang with the feared Tyler Hansbrough of UNC. And we got a brand new, sparkly shiny, 15,000 seat arena. Can't wait for the season! Oh yeah....Michigan looks good this year too. Assuming they can finally stop getting hurt. They'll get to the tournament if they're finally healthy.

I love Thorne for hockey. I think he's a good announcer all around, but hockey's his best sport. He sounds most comfortable there.

If so, most completely failed PR move. EVER

With or without Bertuzzi?

Agree with timothy, I don't think the hitters played an excellent game at all. Monroe had a double and the slammer, which was nice, but they left a lot of guys on base overall. The pitchers tossed a gem though. And this was a perfect display of Leyland's influence on the game. I swear there is magic in his words - twice he came out to visit the mound when the pitchers got in a jam and boom, they came out dealing and snuffed the rally. As the Baltimore announcers pointed out, Leyland doesn't come out there to have a conversation, he's the only one talking. Any other manager, and we lose this game. P.S. I didn't know Gary Thorne was calling O's games for the local station, when did that happen?

Um actually I think the Wings are being given something of a slight outside shot to win because, uh, they're the #1 seed. That might have some small influence on people's selections. Honestly, do we have to rely on Flames fans and the national media to give the Wings any credit, or would our fans like to start sticking up for them at some point?

I can't wait for this game!! Thought you guys should know that. Behold! The octopus cometh....

In Wayne's defense, that management team is really the only one he's ever hired. And now he and the rest of the ownership has made the decision that's not working. Mike Barnett was Gretzky's agent - that says it all right there. Hopefully for this next round of hires, Wayne-o will learn not to just hire his friends, and he'll go out and hire an actual GM with actual experience. If he doesn't learn that lesson and his next management team is another quasi-nepotist hiring that keeps Phoenix on the mediocrity track, then we can truly say the problem is Gretzky.

If I'm not mistaken the pick is protected if it's top 5 this year. So we're not really getting a lottery pick - the best we can do is pick at whatever position the Magic get if they don't win the lottery, since the lottery only chooses the top 3 picks.

Man, hell of a pitchers' duel. Picked a good game for my first of the season to be able to catch on TV

Barnett was an agent? I didn't know that. That makes a lot of sense though: agents make awful GMs. You can't just switch from one side of the bargaining table to the other and expect it to work.

Home sweet....home? An account of the "home" game the Indians played against the Angels in Milwaukee. Pretty neat, actually....they had a real crowd on hand (thanks to $10 tickets), the Brewers put out the welcome mat and used the Indians' usual scoreboard stuff which was emailed to them. The Milwaukee fans got behind the Indians all the way. I'll bet that would have been a lot of fun.

Welcome! Calgarypuck is the only hockey forum that can hold a candle to LGW, and vice versa. I don't know about Wings fans in general (though there seems be a lot of negative nancies complaining that Calgary has a great home record and we're usually not good in western Canada), but myself, I'm confident.....I think Kipper steals one game, the Flames scoring comes alive in another, but overall, the Wings should be too strong. After all, if Wings fans are scared that Calgary has a great record at home, I think Flames fans ought to be even more scared of their road record. It's amazing how many Wings fans don't see both sides of that though and would prefer to think ahead to "What happens to the roster if we lose this series???"

Monroe is kind of just there, and you always get the feeling the Tigers can do better. But he was out there leading the charge out of the clubhouse to go celebrate on the field with the fans after toppling the Yankees. And he's not spectacular but he's actually pretty consistent - it's fair to say you can pencil him in for 20-25 HR and 85 RBI, which are nice numbers no matter how you slice it. Plus he is a member of the 2003 Club, which I have crazy respect for. If there's some guys I'm not wild about, it's Perez and Mesa. Newcomers, really.

Probably not coincidence that the Tigers' September slide last year started when Polanco went down with a shoulder injury (making a spectacular catch, appropriately enough). Polanco is a ballplayers' ballplayer. Seriously, who's not to like on this Tiger team? Each and every one of these guys personify what a ballplayer should be.

I don't think it's any more of an advantage for Calgary than it would be if there were a day off. It's only an advantage for Calgary because it's a home game. Both teams are gonna hop a plane about 8 PM and land roughly the same time in Calgary. Some might call it an advantage for the Wings because their sole focus for about 36 hours will be hockey and the team, whereas the Flames are gonna go home and have all the distractions that come with it. Bottom line is, I don't think it's an advantage for the Flames any more than Games 3 and 4 are. I don't think the back-to-back games somehow exacerbate that.