betterREDthandead

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

The Lions have exactly as many championships as the Tigers do. They just came closer together. In fact, since 1950, the Lions have more. Just cause it wasn't the Super Bowl doesn't make it less of a championship. As for the Bucs, Broncos, and Chargers.....the Broncos, I personally think, made a colossal mistake. The Bucs had only been in the creamsicles for just over 20 years. The Chargers change all the time - they don't have any common traditional look at all, except for the lightning bolts on the helmets. The Honolulu blue and silver dates back to 1930 and the Portsmouth days. It's older than most of the league's traditional looks, like the Raiders' silver and black or the Steelers' black and gold, or the Browns' orange and brown.

This: The Lions don't suck because of Honolulu blue jerseys. They suck because of two men: Matt Millen and Bill Ford, Senile....uh, Senior. The Buffalo Sabres have a much better winning tradition in red and black than in blue and gold and that didn't stop them from realizing they'd made a mistake with their colors. The Tigers sucked donkey ass on the same historical levels the Lions do and I bet you'd have been almost as pissed as I'd have been if they'd gotten rid of the old English D for a black uniform.

Dude. The Honolulu blue is tradition. The black jerseys are awful, and anyway, everyone and their aunt has black jerseys. Black jerseys are "tough" and "intimidating" and all that bulls***, so everyone wants one. Anyone see this, now? That Matt Millen might still be "in charge" behind the scenes? How big of a clown show would that make WCF? I don't mind that Dominic Raiola mouthed off, and I hope the fans really get on him and the rest of the team in two weeks in the final home game. I normally don't at all condone bad fan or player behavior, but frankly, WCF needs to be humiliated. If they lose, I want it to be ugly. Birds get flipped, trash gets thrown, security gets involved, and the margin of loss is 40 points minimum. The lasting memory of 2008 needs to be as brutally ugly as possible. I want to see WCF completely embarrassed, it's the only way anything will happen in the offseason. Nah, Bodden's a bum. Take him and Culpepper off the list and add Megatron (as mentioned) and Kevin Smith. Cut the whole rest of the team. At 0-16, even the dregs of the free agent market have to be better than this crap.

Fan of Stevie's knee? I think he clearly despises Stevie's knee.

Chris Osgood.

I think the inconsistency is mainly because this isn't actually a remarkably talented team, outside of Harris and Sims. The seniors are in primarily supporting roles, and the team depends a lot heavier on freshmen than MSU does. And the best player is a sophomore. But there's a lot more good than bad going on. It wouldn't surprise me to see another Savannah State game in the next four somewhere (EMU, Oakland, FGC, NCC), but I expect there'll also be another Norfolk State beatdown or two.

How bout a ranking for Michigan this week, eh? I think they deserve one with UCLA and Duke as notches on the belt. If they can avoid any bad losses in the next four games before the Big Ten season starts, a tournament berth will be theirs with a .500 season in the conference. Bring on Sparty! Only one game this year and it's at Crisler.

UNC is a fricking machine this year. I could honestly see a perfect season out of these guys. Anyone who loses to them by nine or less should consider it a moral victory. All five of their starters could have jumped to the NBA last year, and their bench would still be good enough to earn a single-digit seed in the NCAAs. I will be completely shocked if anyone but UNC is the national champs. These guys are the best collection of talent on a college team since I don't know when. It's ridiculous how good they are.

It makes me young enough not to remember the times when they'd "play Toronto for nothing." Like I said.....12-year-olds have an excuse for not remembering the rivalry. And maybe it just so happens that a lot of us here, like me, were impressionable teenagers when the rivalry burst on the scene. I dunno, my degree isn't in psychology. All I know is that I'm a Wings fan first and a hockey fan second, and with that territory goes No Avs Jersey Ever in my mind.

Damn writers always getting things wrong. That ornament belongs to Ty Conklin.

I think Clausen was better this year than last year because his offensive line wasn't purposely missing blocks once a game this time around.

I guess I can see how a younger fan could see it being OK to wear a Turnip jersey. They'd have to be no more than about 12 though. Too young to even remember the Statue of Liberty or 7-0. Any fan my age - that is, any fan who was a fairly impressionable 14 or so when Clod smashed up Draper's face, and watched that s*** live on TV, and grew up watching the fights and the battles and all that - should be ashamed to be seen in public, or even a mirror, with one of those things on. The rivalry such as it was may be dead, but still: f*** the Avs.

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

All I know is this: alcohol firebombs sugar in the end, and you're the one coming out like Dresden. So I don't like the caffeine in that matchup.

I got a backhoe you can use, but first you need to relax. Have a beer to calm yourself down.

Even though my alma mater is an ACC school, I'm pulling for the Big Ten just so they don't pull the plug on this, because I happen to like it. Predictions: Duke over Purdue Clemson over Illinois Miami over Ohio State Minnesota over Virginia Iowa over Boston College North Carolina over Michigan State Wake Forest over Indiana Maryland over Michigan Florida State over Northwestern Penn State over Georgia Tech Big Ten keeps it even after the first day of games (not counting tonight) but the ACC runs away with it on the second day. Potential slaughters: WF over IU, Iowa over BC, Miami over OSU.

Yes. The only "litmus test" for the Wings is last year's Wings. If the team doesn't play as well as they did last year, then they're not playing like Stanley Cup Champions. It's not about the other 29 teams in the league. None of them are worth comparing to because we should expect to beat all of them.

Heavens no. Maryland's got some nasty good guards. If Michigan beats them, Sims will probably have to have a stat line of like 35/20, because they're not so good down low. Manny's good and all but he's only one guy. Maryland's got some of the best backcourt depth in the ACC.

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

It's weird. I stay at the same weight for weeks. Then between Monday and Friday, I'll drop like four or five pounds and then stay at that new weight for six more weeks. I've been hovering at 172 or so for about three weeks now. Before that I was around 177 for like a month and a half.

Yeah, doesn't Tressel have a vote in the BCS?

In that case they might send Penn State or USC. I would hope the BCS voters have enough damn sense not to choose Texas as the best team in the division but OU as the best team in the land. Or vice versa.

If the league mandates it, then the Wings should pull a page out of the Maple Leafs' book and rebel. Make a tiny, unnoticeable change - a slightly thinner stripe, say - and call it their third.

I always like when Texas plays for the national title. My mom went there so it's one of the few times I don't hate both teams involved and have someone to actually root for. Yeah, timothy, you're right about OSU, I keep forgetting about Utah. Not that I'm terribly heartbroken to be wrong. The only beef I have with your BCS guess is that I think the Sugar would take Utah over Cincinnati. The ACC championship game could either be really good (Georgia Tech vs. Boston College) or it could be a Meteor Game (FSU vs. VT.) Pulling for UVA (obviously) and BC this weekend.