betterREDthandead

I don't think Kenny "knows" he can do anything. Nothing's a given. But the Wings are a first-class organization and rarely seem to have any trouble keeping the players they want to keep. Says a lot about the way the organization conducts business. I'm extremely confident the Wings will lock up Flip the same way they've held on to Cleary, Kronwall, Datsyuk, etc.

Way too many injuries this year for Michigan, not to mention guys getting kicked off the team for stealing teammates' identities or whatever the hell sleazy stuff Kevin Quick was up to. Jeez, here's hoping they can just survive a simple first-round series.

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

Plus the best teams attract the best drivers, because the best drivers want to drive the best cars. There's no such difference in sports like hockey or baseball - it's not as if the Yankees have better bats and gloves than the Royals.

Marquette and Orchard Lake St. Mary's played in the Division 1 hockey championship and the game ended in a 1-1 tie after 8 OT's. High school plays 15 minute periods and 8-minute OT's so it's not quite the same as the pros. I don't have any problem with the decision, except that they didn't consult the coaches beforehand. They ought to have simply declared a longer break between OT's and used the time to talk to the coaches to get their input.

Sure, the Wings have all but locked up a spot, but mathematically it's still possible they could be knocked out, if they manage to lose all their games and others get hot. Clinched means there's no mathematical possibility of losing the spot.

Nashville, if they win all their remaining games, can earn 102 points, which is six more than the Wings have. And the Wings would win the tiebreaker, which is most wins. So if the Wings win three more, they clinch the division and thus, a top-three playoff spot. That'll come before clinching a non-division-champ berth (which is the usual way of doing it) because the Central has reverted to the suckitude of last year.

Man. Lousy season for my 'Hoos and it ends up with a 10th seed in the ACC tourney....but we ended in style! Senior night at the JPJA means it's Sean Singletary's final home game at UVA, and we beat hated rival Maryland 91-76. And he scores his 2000th career point to put some icing on the cake. Curtain call and a fitting cap to a fantastic college career. Hopefully we get a nice run in the ACC tournament too. Can't put into words what Singletary's meant to UVA over the past four years. The skill, the hustle, the signature plays.....he's been like our Steve Yzerman for the last four years. Singletary's small for an NBA player, but mark my words he will carve himself a niche somewhere in the League.

All this messing around and losing to GLIAC schools is pretty much over with and the season's about to kick off for real. Michigan kicks off the season on Friday with a home game against Radford and UVA starts up on Sunday against Vermont. I'm pretty happy about the scheduling that both my schools have set up this year. Michigan's got an absolutely nasty nonconference schedule. Going to play Butler in Alaska. Two ACC schools - Boston College in the Challenge, and Duke on the road. Home games against UCLA. And then there's Oakland, which is a dangerous game IMO. UVA's got some tough ones too, on the road at Arizona and Xavier and a home game against Syracuse. Not to mention the fact that the ACC is a killer every year. Best conference in any sport in the whole country, IMO. And if you see a see a scrappy li'l dude wearing #44 in the orange and blue, sinking shots that mere mortals have no business taking, following his misses while everyone seems to be standing in tar, and generally bringing that Philly heart and guts to every single play of every single game - just remember the name Sean Singletary, and hope to hell your favorite NBA team drafts him. If you forget, just check the list of All-Americans at the end of the year.

I don't think being a fan for the longest also makes you the "biggest", but let's see. I remember watching players like Gerard Gallant, Yves Racine, and Paul Ysebaert, and I remember the end of Jacques Demers' tenure behind the bench. So I guess that's about 1987 or 88, which would make me 5 or 6.

Pleased to see that Robby Gordon was given back his points from the appeal. Interesting that they hit Carl Edwards with the exact same penalty for the oil cap.

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

I mean, if you're gonna criticize Lilja, have some basis in fact. No wonder some of us think the Lilja-bashing is beyond ridiculous. Deflects pucks into his own net every game? Gonna need to see some tape of that. I think I remember that happening once. Unfortunately for your absurd claim, there've been 60-odd more games this season where it hasn't happened.

Feh. It's my opinion that Rodgers isn't the guy to lead the Packers to greatness. Or even goodness. I wasn't impressed with him even before he was drafted - college quarterbacks that have only one good year that causes them to be rated highly tend to be busts. Akili Smith, Kyle Boller, etc. With Favre gone, I actually think Kitna is the best remaining QB in the division. It certainly ain't Rex Grossman.

It is a fact - Lions fans the world over have been eagerly waiting for this day to come. Not that it matters as long as you know who is in charge, but still.

If there is such thing as a loving and merciful God, the words "Red Wings" and "third jersey" will never, ever be mentioned in the same sentence except as linked with the words "do not have a". No third jersey for the Wings. Ever.

I more or less believe Favre when he says he's not coming back, but his past indecisiveness (and my own pessimism as a Lions fan) means I won't believe it for 100% sure until I see him not under center when the Packers open their season. Roger Clemens once retired too.

Rooting for Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson is like rooting for the Yankees and Red Sox, only they're on the same team. Plus the 24 is still one of the ugliest cars on the circuit, and the 5 is even worse. It's cool that they race Chevys and all - anything but a Toyota - but Hendrick is too much of a superteam, I just can't pull for them.

Speaking of rooting interests that aren't good now, never were, and never will be, aren't you a Lions fan? Why Robby Gordon? 'Cause he's the last independent owner-driver in NASCAR. I dig that. And he'll race anywhere he can get a race, be it NASCAR, open wheel, even the Dakar rally. And his racing style is very boom-or-bust. One of the few drivers who can appear in someone else's rearview mirror and make them go "ah s***." Gotta get away from #7 before he wrecks us both. Did I mention the independent thing? I really think that's awesome. Not to worry though. Robby Gordon's not the only one I'm rooting for these days. I also found myself pulling for the Penske drivers - Busch, Newman, and this year, Hornish. (I think it's hilarious that a driver named Busch drives the Miller Lite car.) Penske's a huge booster of Detroit, so I want his cars to do well. But in that case, I don't really care who the drivers are, specifically....just the owner. P.S. - it's not all bad, pulling for Gordon. 8th at Daytona - not too shabby

I'm kind of new to this whole following NASCAR closely thing. But yeah, I've heard them criticized fairly heavily in the past for not applying their rules consistently.

I have a Craig Anderson autograph, from his days as a Norfolk Admiral. Just sayin'. No, you may not touch me.

Funny how one win makes everything all better again, at least til the next game. Oh yeah, Maltby. I don't think he needs to be agitating to be effective. We're still getting our money's worth from him on the PK, which is crucial.

I still say the toughest part would be smuggling it into the arena. Cut it into pieces? PEEE-YEEWWWW. At least you can boil the smell away from an octopus. I dunno how the Buffalo radio guys were butchering Filppula's name, but it can't be worse than the CBC guys from the Vancouver game, whose attempt at the name sounded like "Feeyil-Pyoo-Lah," as if Flip were actually born in Sept-Iles or something. I don't think Finnish names are supposed to be quite that tortured-sounding.

Remember all those games from back in November and December when the Wings were housing the entire league? Secondary scoring, outshooting the daylights out of the opposition? Yeah, basically like that. Lillypad made the stop of the game when Hasek got caught on the wrong side of the net, stack-the-pads style. Pure "secondary scoring", the only point from Z or D was a Datsyuk assist on the insurance goal. And Kronwall kinda sorta looked like the defenseman he was drafted to be.

And did you read mine past the so what? And I say it again: So what if it was lucky? You make your own luck. As CW said: Lilja's action saved a goal.