betterREDthandead

So what? You make your own luck. If he doesn't go all out, he doesn't make the play.

I was pretty down on Kronwall last year. Still having way more than his share of bad giveaways and wasn't living up to his offensive potential. He was physical but often doing it at the wrong place and wrong time. We're finally seeing the Kronwall we were supposed to have. We've had him around since 2003, but he's got fewer games played than Sidney Crosby and only a few more than Evgeni Malkin. It's probably fair to point that out. Measure his development in games, not years, and he's matured well.

They might have a tough time smuggling one into the arena.

That's more like the Wings we saw from October to January. Outshooting the living crap out of the opposition. Maybe we just needed February to be over. I hate February anyway, worst month of the year.

Good thing it wasn't a buffalo

NASCAR will be complete hypocrites if they uphold the penalty on Robby Gordon now. They just let Carl Edwards slide even though his crew sent a tire bouncing down pit road. It was really the fault of the TV crew that got in the way, but NASCAR is maintaining that intent doesn't matter in the Gordon case, aren't they?

Saunders definitely has this stuff figured out these days. Check out the box score for the Clippers game last night. Tayshaun played 33 minutes (still quite a bit of rest for a starter) and nobody else played more than 26. 26 minutes for a starter is absolutely unheard of. Johnson and Dixon played more minutes off the bench than Dice, who started. That never happens in the League. Ever. This is gonna be easily the freshest, best-rested team in the whole playoffs. And the West is so top-heavy....whoever makes the Finals from the East will have sailed right through with only one really tough series along the way, while the West beats the crap out of each other. Not too early to keep track of the magic number, either. It's 13 to clinch the division.

Not too late to put this guy on the men's team staff

Lots of those rules are open to interpretation and are even stated as such in the rulebook. Any time you introduce adjectives/adverbs into the rule to describe the nature of the penalty, you leave it up to the ref to define that play. Every hockey fan has seen slashes that he thinks should have been called but weren't, and vice versa. Then there's that "in the judgment of the referee" clause about playing the puck. There's nothing in there for the referees to decide on. Nothing ambiguous about that. Unfortunately there's also that following clause that aflac posted that pretty much means the Wings would have no case with the league if they pursued it. A very stupid clause. There's no excuse for not one single official, out of four, not to be following the puck. If the referee loses sight of the puck in a scrum around the crease, he blows the whistle. This makes sense for safety reasons. Why would they not apply the same standard to a puck in the air?

There's a big difference from a "bad call" made in the heat of the game that may or may not be a roughing penalty, cross-check, whatever. A lot of those rules are open to interpretation. A puck hitting the netting is not open to interpretation. Ball lands out of bounds, it's out. Puck goes out of bounds, it's out. I agree, you wouldn't want to disrupt the flow of the game by making everything reviewable. The refs should be allowed to do their jobs without worrying about whether some obstruction penalty is going to be shown on the board and evaluated. But things not open to interpretation should be reviewable.

Yes. You can't make any kind of convincing argument that there's another defenseman that measures up to Lidstrom. I personally believe Crosby's better than Ovechkin, but you can go back and forth on that. Crosby and AO are probably more talented than Lidstrom. But Lidstrom's got the experience and the know-how, and stands head and shoulders above anybody at his position. The best hockey player in the world, right now, is Nicklas Lidstrom.

Being as Toyota is one of several direct contributors to the decline of my hometown and favorite city, and the better Toyota does the worse Detroit does, it'd be inconceivable for me to root for Toyota when they're in direct competition with Detroit like this. My borderline-irrational attachment to Detroit is the reason I root for Penske as well.

Yes. That was a good trade. They at least made an attempt to address needs. And it looks now like the Bengals deal is dead and Rogers will head to Cleveland for CB Leigh Bodden and a 3rd rounder. Still selling themselves short, but at least they're filling a need and getting 70 cents on the dollar instead of 35.

Screw Gibbs. Toyotas. If there's a particular team I'm pulling for, it's Penske.

I doubt it. I imagine throwing to a base counts as a delivery. 15 seconds is really quite a long time.

Pro wrestlers are tough like Will Ferrell is a race car driver.

Porcello pitched two perfect innings today and the Tigers knocked off the Jays, 3-1.

RRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH NNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH The Lions are getting the Bengals 3rd and 5th rounders in the draft.......for Shaun Rogers. GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...S0101/802290470 I have an idea for Matt ******* Millen. If you have a player, who is the best player on your defense, that you drafted in the second round, and you are trying to trade him, and you cannot get anyone to offer you anything but the pu pu platter in return, YOU DO NOT TRADE HIM. Let me reiterate. Rogers was drafted in the second round. And he is a Pro Bowler. These are a third round and a fifth round pick. Man, it's a good thing Matt ******* Millen held out for that fifth rounder. Dan Orlovsky has been an absolute dreamboat. Of course, it would have helped if they had not declared their intentions to trade him or cut him. That would have helped. Matt ******* Millen does not know the first thing about negotiating with anyone. RRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I don't care about the coaches rules, though the helmets are gonna look pretty strange. I don't like the rules about visiting the mound though.

Can't skate, are you serious?? Skating is one of the best parts of his game. Probably half his points come from outskating some opponent to the puck and shooting it himself or creating a play. Scored a pivotal goal in the Calgary series last year and has been doing it ever since.

I take very strong exception to that. Flip and Franzen are two of the team's biggest hustlers, IMO. Especially Flip. A game doesn't go by without Flip creating a goal by beating someone to the puck, or creating a power play by forcing the other player to take a penalty. And Franzen seems to be the heir apparent to Homer's throne in front of the crease. Hudler, I can't vouch for him quite as much, but I know this: a guy as small as he is does not score, ever, without some measure of hustle to him.

Pistons to sign Ratliff Bringing back a blast from the waayyyy past. Haven't seen Theo Ratliff around these parts since he was traded to Philly for Stackhouse. That'd be back in the teal horse days. I remember watching him get a triple-double in one game, consisting of points, rebounds, and blocks. Probably not likely to see that the second time around, but the Pistons have been looking for a cheap end-of-the-bench big man, and at the very least he's six free fouls.

I imagine you're getting paid to do something, however. Ever make a mistake at work? Forget your TPS cover sheet? No? I'm not saying we should never criticize, but (I'm using someone else's post here) nobody is suggesting you or anyone else get sucked into a jet engine when they screw up at work. Just because they're getting paid doesn't give us the nails to crucify the guy with. It's ridiculous.

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