betterREDthandead

Did they take Hakan Andersson along? Might find a 2016 draft pick on that youth hockey team.

You are right: Maltby had 2:06 of PK ice time per game last year, 10th on the team, though really 9th among regulars because Quincey was third. HOWEVER! Among forwards, he's fourth on the team, though only 3 seconds per game behind Z, and ahead of Datsyuk. Maltby still has all the PK skills he used to, unfortunately he's kind of a PK specialist these days and could probably be replaced.

I don't think that's even a question. I think the real question is: Is Phelps the greatest athlete in the history of the world? He has more gold medals than anyone who ever participated in the Olympics, and he's only going to keep racking them up. If he wins the 200 IM that's coming up later this week, the eight golds are his because nobody's going to beat him in the 100 fly and our medley relay team will be nearly as untouchable as that relay last night. Speaking of which HOLY s***. WOW. That was an awesome race not only because of the domination, but there was actually a real good race going on for second place too. The relays this year have been nothing short of spectacular.

With a lot of Spartans fans, going 0-12 wouldn't even bother them as long as Michigan went 1-11. In fact it'd probably be their favorite season ever, because it'd be Michigan's worst.

So if they'd lost the bronze medal game it would have changed everything? Tell me, why do you watch any regular season hockey? It's so uncompetitive. The Wings win the division every year. Just out of curiosity, what are you watching this year? Seems you're not watching the swimming, at any rate. Beach volleyball is probably out. Track and field sprint events are out. When looking for a competitive Olympic sport by your definition, what do you settle on? Fencing? No, probably not, the American ladies swept the medal podium. Equestrian?

Gold number three for Phelps! Ahead for all 200 meters of that swim, from pull-out to the wall. He's got a weird stroke, his strokes aren't even. Some swimmers are doing the same as him but nobody as much. And watch his finishes - he's always perfect. Never has to reach for it. Seems like his strokes always end up in just the right spot for touching the wall.

And I'm at least a little bit convinced that the offensive linemen loved that whole press conference thing so much that once a game they let a couple pass-rushers through on purpose

I don't think they'll be as good as people say they will. Returning a whole bunch of people from a team that went 3-9 isn't exactly a good thing. Their schedule isn't all that rough though. They play an assortment of bad and mediocre teams in BCS conferences - Washington, Pitt, Syracuse, Stanford, BC, Purdue, MSU, and I'd add UNC to that list except UNC is good this year. 6-8 wins, I think.

Once again: Such a talent level was not good enough for gold or even silver in 2004. So apparently, all the heart in the world did some good for them after all. At least, it worked out for Argentina and Italy. Tell me, if the talent level is so unstoppable, what happened in '04? Speaking of unstoppable, congratulations to Alain Bernard and the French on their silver medal in the 4x100 relay. I speak some French, but I didn't know that "smash the Americans" was French for "choke on the last length of the relay." Simply awesome.

Zetterberg was the deserving candidate, and he won.......so why even start the thread then?

All teams are motivated. If playing for your country in the Olympics doesn't motivate you, then you should go home. Which, incidentally, is what the US team ought to have done in 2004. If you think the Chinese didn't come to play today because it was practically a foregone conclusion, then I don't know what to say to you. I would have thought 2004 and the US losing to Puerto Rico would make it pretty damn clear that all the talent in the world only takes you so far. Sorry it makes you so bitter that we're so damn good at basketball. The point of watching is because it's my country on the world's biggest stage. Why shouldn't I enjoy seeing them do well?

Apparently that is a pretty popular sport around the world. I had never heard of it until I met an officer from Uruguay at work and he showed me some pictures of it. Some places it's second only to soccer. The world has some pretty crazy sports. It would be cool if sepak takraw became an Olympic sport. It's like a cross between volleyball and soccer, but it's really only popular in southeast Asia. It's really something to watch.

The '04 basketball team clearly did not give a s***, and I think watching a disinterested bunch of whiners muddle their way to a bronze was far worse than this will be. And the only reason they won that bronze is because they realized they were on the brink of being the bunch of losers that couldn't even bring a lousy medal back home to the States. It would have been a label that stuck with them. Couldn't watch a game without looking at them and knowing most of them didn't want to be there. It sucked even though the "competition" was better. I like watching a team that's motivated. I don't care if that means the rest of the world is fighting for silver. I'm looking forward to turning on the TV in a few minutes and watching a seriously focused basketball team stick it to the Chinese on their home court.

So the swimming is pretty much just as awesome as always. Some thoughts: - Michael Phelps is a freak of nature. It's like he's not even tired after the race. Meanwhile they pan over to Ryan Lochte and he looks like he ran a marathon. - How much would it suck to swim a race faster than anyone else in the history of the world has ever swam it, except for the guy who finished .3 seconds before you? I mean, I guess not that much cause you get a silver medal out of it, but still. - Dara Torres is also a freak of nature. And yes, I do believe her that she isn't doping. Too bad she and her teammates couldn't quite pull off the gold, but at least they beat the Aussies - Relays are the s***. The best will be the medley relays. Always the biggest lead changes, it's back and forth the whole time with some swimmers being stronger than others in the various strokes. - Local boy Peter Vanderkaay juuuuuuust got touched out. Bummer. I was pulling for him. Never actually swam against him but a couple of my teammates did, in the state meet, and I've seen him swim there. Anybody who's ever been involved in swimming in Michigan has heard the name Vanderkaay, there are several brothers in that clan.

They don't give out joint Conn Smythes. So no.

It's fairly painful to admit, but Chaminade beating UVA in I think 1982 is so far beyond Appy State it's not even funny. A Final Four team and the #1 ranked team in the nation losing to a team that's not even a member of the NCAA? Unthinkable.

I think HHT hit the nail on the head. A pretty sizable portion of Cheli's salary will have to be bonuses, otherwise the Wings will completely run out of cap space trying to sign him. (I suspect the Flip salary was done for a touch more than they were hoping for.) As it is about half of this year's cap space will be gobbled up thanks to the minimum salary.

We Detroiters tend to have the "little brother" attitude toward our city - we'll make fun of it all we want but we'll kick the ass of anyone we find messing with it. Metaphorically speaking. Our city gets picked on a lot so when people want to take what we do have, we get touchy. And even if it was just a marketing slogan, so what? You Texans would probably be more than a little annoyed if somebody walked around going "don't mess with Oklahoma!"

No worries there, we have about thirty years of material.

I remember Emrick saying that the only reason it was ever spelled Kronvall was because of a typo. It's always been Kronwall in Swedish and English, and further the only reason it was ever pronounced with a v is because of that typo (according to Emrick.)

I dare anyone to tell these guys they may not touch the Cup. Or, I dare you to go and tell them they have your permission. Seriously, who are we? Like I'm gonna draw that line. I think it's pretty damn presumptuous of us to even discuss it. If some scrub-ass wants to go touch the Cup, it's not my place to even have an opinion whether he should or not. Personally I've never even seen the Cup in person but if they let me, you bet your ass I'd go touch it, and I'm not sorry if that offends anyone who thinks I don't deserve to because I don't play in the NHL.

That may be, but I guarantee you if you ask some random dude anywhere in the country what are the football towns, he'll say Dallas, Philly, Chicago maybe. Ask the same dude what are the hockey towns and the answer will be Detroit, Minny, Boston. And let's not kid ourselves: high school football coverage is lukewarm at best in Detroit and the state overall.

Did they really? That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of ever. And it's complete bulls*** as Favre was the one "cheating" in the first place. Where do the Vikings come into all this? Are they the mailman?

They say interval training where you sprint then walk, sprint then walk is helpful, but it didn't work for me all that well. When you're exercising, your body uses sugars and carbs and stuff like that for the first 25-30 minutes or so, then runs out of that and switches over to burning fat. Fat isn't as energy efficient as sugar and carbs, so a lot of times you can tell when the switch has been made because you feel like you hit the wall. So I think the best way to burn off fat is to run for about 40-45 minutes at a slowish pace or even longer if you have time for it. I think it's probably even better to run in the late afternoon before dinner or early morning before breakfast when your body has already processed and burned up a lot of whatever sugars and carbs were in the last meal and switches to fat sooner.

Truest thing you've said so far......hell it's been that way since 1970