Flip-check

Do you mean.... 8 games against the Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, Preds, and Blues, then a handful of the Eastern teams? I just can't get people who like other sports. Even basketball - which is a more fluid game than baseball, or football - can't make me interested in it. I'm not sure where actual love for football - and not 'everyone else watches it so, so do I' - starts actually.

Along the same line we should: Trade Ken Holland, sell Mike Ilitch, rename the team the Predators once Smashville leaves for Ontario, let Ozzie's pee-wee nephew be our starting goaltender when Dom (who sucks and is old) finally retires, and sign Robert Lang to a fifteen year $3489034837302934723823098130489234 contract. We will be the best team in the galaxy then.

Don't hate, Marcus. Even the best of us sometimes get our numbers and what they mean mixed up: "We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees," -- Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks.

Right. I was impressed with the battle and case they made, I'd honestly be more upset if they hadn't shown something--even though the fact that they showed they -had- it but didn't play it upset me nearly as much. I don't mean outright domination and spanking (like the '02 squad) though--a better example would be, remember those two minutes somewhere in the beginning of the third, or late in the second, and the guys on Versus(if you watched there) were saying the Wings were definitely building momentum? That was the kind of spunk, spark, charge, cohesion that hadn't been seen much. They did well in the playoffs... and knew how to battle - I might be wrong, but I definitely feel they lacked that click-click-click with eachother that really showed they knew what they were doing. That they could dominate in moments, at least, and use those instants to illustrate that they really are a force.

So in other words, next year's playoffs don't start until September of '08? I know, your parents totally don't understand, though they're right. "WHAT IS THIS CRAP!" indeed!

I believe if they made it to game 7, they would have made it to the Stanley cup finals. That could be totally wrong and they may have lost it or even taken a huge dump on it (like they did in game 6). Or they may have simply continued to bring the same kind of game to Ottawa and gotten trounced. I just think they would've had a chance to win the WC and have some time to get their heads straight before Game 1 of the real deal. It just baffles me--I mean, remember the '02 playoffs Reem? You knew what you got out of those guys. No offense to this year's crew, but I've never gotten that hint of "consistency". It's plagued them all through the playoffs - they managed to overcome it in Calgary, in San Jose, but their lack of real gelling together killed them in Anaheim. You never knew who might be a hero night to night... simply because we didn't have any real domination coming from the team, so anyone might pull one out.

The thing that sucks hardest: that the playoffs are the only important part of the year. The thing that sucks harder than that: the playoffs wouldn't mean as much without the regular season. Luckily I heard that the NHL has decided the '06-'07 are being wiped out and replaced with a far more popular match-up: the 2002 Red Wings vs. Hurricanes. They won't play or televise the Ducks versus Senators, they're simply going to rely on the '02 result to award this year's grail. We just won the Stanley cup, guys! Babs can retire a Wing and Dom may be back another season!

Rabs, we're having a boxing match sometime. We'll spot a concert, then we'll hit a Philadelphia boxing gym and duke it out. Winner gets to have a free pass to One (1) Heroes of Hockeytown's Mom's cooked dinners.

I'm walking out of this library in bare feet, into warm weather, and a starry night sky. Seriously, I'm thinking if I get married, it must be in Hawaii. Or somewhere likewise great. I want this great all-expansive beauty that is... Michigan, but in -summer-. This place sucks so bad in any other season.

It's a day later and I still want some kind of explanation from the guys on how that all happened. I don't care--I'm not mad, because it's a sports game. There are many other parts to life that are far more lovely. But I have no idea how they threw away those two periods. I have no idea. And the painful part is, it would've made all the difference. All the difference in the world.

If we had #91 and Kozlov back, I'd instantly think we'd done a timewarp. It'd be '96 all over again... and I'd be pretty cool with that. I wouldn't be cool with thinking about just entering the ninth grade, but everything else...

I'd have to pay more attention to Sergei next season to have a good idea of his capability, but my gut feeling on it is: yeah, he's still got the skills to put up results. Especially with us, with a team that holds players like Dats, Z, and other guys. I may be wrong, we both may be wrong, seriously, Feds' is a big question mark to me. If we have the 2.2mill available though, it could be a damn brilliant move for the playoff run.

hahaha We'd never pick up any of them. The money on the cap totally isn't there. One day when Lidstrom retires (HOPEFULLY not for another three years), then we might pick up a guy who's around that caliber. But definitely not this post-season, not with some contract signings (like Z) coming up.

Here we go...

I don't even want to think of hockey right now. All I want to do is be outside or hanging out with friends. Maybe I'll do that and make a few calls

It's with those sweet talking skills that we'll both get through this hard time in our relationships with the '07 Wings, Rabs. All we have is our communication and our wit. And Glas... buddy, you and me are going to put up a bunker here in the Water Cooler. 'Cos Gen Discussion? Yeah, there be mortar shells flyin' around over there, I can hear it all the way from here.

I think the message between these two periods has got to be something like: "We're about to face a summer off and the knowledge that we've been beaten by an undeserving team. Do you guys want this? Do you really want this game, this series? We have to pick it up--there aren't any excuses left. Don't show the media. Don't show the fans. Show yourself that you want this. Now." Or even something more effective than that. Babs has got to turn these guys around. This game is awful by them all.

This season will go out on a high note--LGW exploding from the massive onslaught of people saying Datsyuk sucks and we should trash next season and omg let's goon it up. We've got twenty minutes left. It doesn't look promising. No, not at all. The guys have played like s*** out there.. and they've had two or three minutes where they actually had the puck and skated like they knew what ice hockey was. They may be able to turn this around still though. Unlikely, but possible.

Tonight at our playoff finals game someone played The Final Countdown in warm-ups. This is definitely a highly suiting tune here!

Devious, truth be told. While we're killing time like old buds, I'll be having someone further coach Glas to independence. It'll still be a damn good night though, right Bobby?

You're so pimping this. There was another line of business for you somewhere... and you'd look fine in a purple hat. Anyone check NHL.com yet? They got Lang credited with a goal already. It's coming true.

It's definitely due. Hank's been picking up his play lately though, at least from what I've seen. Dats is still lacking that spark in his hands and step that let him cut away from guys. They will need both playing up tonight. Jen, if we pull back these next two games -- Do you know how hard the city will be rocking? I'm not kidding, this'd be the most energy-pumped, momentum-carrying way to fly into the Stanley cup finals. Let alone giving us a manifest destiny mental trip.

Is that for real? Huds is in? Little Jiri will play? Rex is back? If so.... whoop whoop! (On the set of his latest movie... Huds plays the lover, the fighter, the arch-nemesis, and the hero all in one fantastic go!) And as if you could ever forget: *tune up the Kid Rock backdrop* All of you Anaheim reporters, MY NAME IS JIRI!!!!

This man cannot have a bigger part of my heart than he already has. One day Lang and I will have a few drinks together over one of his team's games and talk shop! And reminisce. We will remember that one fine night, back in spring '07, when he single-handedly led the Red Wings to glory over the Ducks in the last two games.... and then disappeared in the Finals again to let the real heroes do their work. Some will say he "sucks" and his clutch goals in San Jose and tonight were flukes, odd balls, quirks of fate, products of a heavily messed up cosmic algorithm that's lost its mind and can't differentiate "reality" from "fantasy". I say he steps up only when he is needed most, like all true heroes out of legends. To vanish upon finishing their deed, to step down for others to take up arms... to lay in the back of our collective memories, until they are needed by the world, once again. He waits and will be there.

You're being such a ho. A huge big baked goods ho. Let's go take a stroll on the Chicago river after a win tonight Rabs. I'll treat both of us to some goodies with the late night vendors and we'll have a grand time recanting each of Bobby Lang's hat trick goals. All while swinging our feet off the end of the Navy pier, looking up at the stars, and searching the night for the right constellation that leads to glory.