betterREDthandead

I forgot about Dandenault being a Hab. That sorta gives me a reason to lean toward Montreal. But since the winner plays Buffalo, I think a Sabres-Leafs series would be a really fun way to open up the Eastern playoffs. So basically I just made a whole post to say nothing, cause I still don't care who wins

This is fun....a nice early taste of the playoffs. I don't care who wins, they're both O6 teams.

Some very encouraging word on Patrick Patterson: Further encouraging because Patterson wasn't too happy about Donovan's flirtation with the Kentucky job - Patterson hasn't been very revealing so far, but one thing he did come out and say was that he was disappointed because Donovan had given him the "I'm a Gator for life" spiel. Only one problem with this blurb: It's from the Daily Progress - the Charlottesville newspaper. So maybe not the world's least biased source.

Is it too early to panic over the bullpen? They've blown two games and tried to blow a third.

Convenient idea if you're a Wings fan, eh? Top draft picks every year to make sure the Wings are the best - forever. Terrible idea, actually. I can't think of a better way to make sure talent NEVER gets distributed throughout the league. Three-quarters of the league will lose pretty much all their fans as it becomes abundantly clear that the same three or four teams are going to be the only ones to win the Cup ever.

Regular season Western champs. Which is nice, especially in light of the fact that the Wings were picked to struggle - some even had them out of the playoffs. So it's a little sweeter this year than most. But there's work left to be done.

Because he's not gritty, duh

"Don't sell yourself short, judge, you're a tremendous slouch."

Man, you're really on about the Wings losing in Western Canada. Calgary can do no wrong, apparently, but the Wings go out past Ontario and start crying for mommy. Give it a rest already.

You mean like $7 million/year huge? I'm guessing 4 years, $25 million.

seriously people......cut the personal attacks. and Jdog21, if you're going to claim that Ozzie is the worst goalie we have in the whole system, minors included.....well, I'm afraid I just can't take you seriously when you say stuff like that.

I don't. Maybe Eastern Conference fans do. I do see that a lot. But the Wings don't have to go through them to get to the Finals and haven't met in the Finals either, so I've got really no reason to hate the Sens. The only thing I don't like about them is that stupid ugly logo they wear on the stupid ugly curvy-stripe red jerseys. They looked damn sharp when they first started out - one of the few teams to wear the all black licorice-look well.

I think he's always had the moves. I think he's slowly been looking at the net more - he used to look four different places for the pass before he even thought about the net. Now he's shooting more, which in turn opens up the passing lanes.

I'll probably be rooting for Pittsburgh throughout most of their run through the East. The Pens have long been my second-favorite team.

You guys are all way off. The single best scenario for the NHL would be a Thrashers/Wings final. With good teams and Cup winners in Carolina and Tampa Bay, those teams are slowly but definitely gaining a solid loyal fan base. Take a look - Tampa especially did very, very well in attendance this year, and Carolina was none too shabby either. Carolina fans really took to their team during their runs to the Finals in '02 and '06. Proof that a good long playoff run is one big key to acceptance in a city. So here we have the Thrashers, a team that has some dynamic players and a smallish group of extremely loyal fans, playing in one of the hugest markets around. The thing that American sports fans love to watch more than anything else is the classic David vs. Goliath matchup. The Wings are the most accomplished and most glamorous team in the West right now - the Thrashers are a nice little story on their first ever trip to the postseason. The perfect David and Goliath matchup. A lot of casual hockey fans and many hardcore ones would be pulling for the Thrashers; many other hardcore fans would be pulling for tradition to win the day. Either way, it's win-win for the league. David wins, the Cinderella story comes true, it's all very feel-good, and interest in the league picks up. Goliath wins, all the David fans have a target for their passion and anger, and interest in the league picks up. The media might latch on to a New York team in the Finals, but the reality is most people in the country just roll their eyes and tune out when New York teams get all the attention.

Except for going out to Vancouver and beating them twice to jump start the 2002 playoff run. Anyway, good thing we don't have to go out to Western Canada as much as they have to come to Michigan.

Not a chance. Patterson's indicated he's "not going up there, it's too cold." Whatever, dude, West Virginia ain't exactly balmy come winter time. Still.......COME TO UVA! It's nice and warm most of the time, and the coaches aren't leaving or even thinking about it. Latest news is that he's waiting to see what happens with the Kentucky search, which kind of tells me Kentucky is high on the list.

1, that just means they're awful on the road, and they don't have home-ice advantage. 2, once the playoffs start, the regular season trends are like the points in Whose Line Is It Anyway, that's right, they just don't matter.

Friday: Atlanta @ Carolina Florida @ Tampa Bay Anaheim @ Dallas Saturday: NY Islanders @ Philadelphia Buffalo @ Washington Chicago @ Detroit Phoenix @ Los Angeles Vancouver @ San Jose Ottawa @ Boston Montreal @ Toronto Florida @ Carolina Tampa Bay @ Atlanta Anaheim @ Columbus NY Rangers @ Pittsburgh St Louis @ Minnesota Nashville @ Colorado Edmonton @ Calgary Sunday: Chicago @ Dallas Buffalo @ Philadelphia NY Islanders @ New Jersey Vancouver @ Phoenix Calgary @ Colorado

Congratulations, your plan pisses off EVERY season ticket holder, who coincidentally are either your most loyal fans or your biggest cash cows. Both of which are essential to the team. I would be FURIOUS if I were a long-time season ticket holder and lost my tickets because they made me get in line with everyone else. Ilitch will change the name to the Pink Wings before he cancels all season tickets. On another note, I really hope that building demolition plan really is a step toward a new arena. My own personal hypothesis: Ilitch has already long since decided that there will be a new building, but he doesn't own all the land he needs and wants to quietly buy it up at market prices. Having learned his lesson from building a baseball stadium, he doesn't want to make the land prices skyrocket and delay the arena by making the grand announcement early. Buy the land, get the paperwork out of the way, and then make the announcement. What's funny is my mom was predicting this eight or ten years ago: Ilitch is sort of building a little empire of entertainment. Got the Tigers, the Fox, Hockeytown Cafe, maybe a new arena soon.....the area bordered by Brush, Adams, Grand River, and 75 is going to be known as Ilitchania.

It was a lot easier for me to work out when I was at school. I could go right at 4 or 5 o clock, which is my favorite work out time, the gym was free, and I could grab a smoothie afterwards (AMAZING SMOOTHIES, and they were healthy too cause they were actual fruit and they'd make me eat a lot less dinner.) Now in the Navy I'm on nothing resembling a set schedule and working out suffers. Oh, and I MUST have music. Running sucks and the only way to make it tolerable is to be listening to music. Plus I loooooooooooooooooooove Taco Bell and Dr Pepper. We should definitely make this a thing.

The Extra Innings package will remain on cable. Hooray! Selig and his band of cronies got this right for once. It won't actually help me this year, because I'll be overseas most of the summer and it doesn't make much sense for me to shell out for the package, but I'm glad I'll have the future to look forward to. Now if only the NFL will put Sunday Ticket on cable too, then I can watch the Lions be putrid all year long instead of just Thanksgiving.

I would be down for an LGW Losers Club or something. I weigh entirely too much. I'm not a big guy, only 5'7", but right now I weigh in the 195 neighborhood which is about fifty more pounds than I weighed in high school. I probably should be around 155-160.

BRTD will be in town from the 17th to the 29th. Nudge nudge wink wink?

Well, first of all, both the blurb quoted above and the actual Insider article say Zetterberg isn't likely to return before the playoffs, which technically says nothing about Game 1 itself, so I don't understand why the panic. Second, here's the actual Insider blurb. Not normally smiled upon by ESPN types to post Insider stuff on message boards but whatever, the panic needs to stop. After all, this is taken from a local source.