Red Reign

Franzen leads the team in goals and Bert has been arguably one of the harder working players this season. Neither of them are my "favorite" players, but I enjoy having them on the team. Hudler is stepping up his game, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if the Holland decided to put him on the trading block after this season. He is a decent player, but I'm not sure if he justifies his pricetag. Still, I like that he has been putting in more effort this season. Cleary can go - he is one of those guys that I tend to forget is even on the team. If we cut him loose after this season, it's fine by me. That said, I would much rather get rid of Stuart and Ericsson than any of the guys mentioned above.

If we were to face the Sharks in the first round, I would feel pretty confident about taking them down. In the second round, though, I start to get nervous. Any team in the playoffs will be a threat - Sharks scare me, as do the Blues (just because of how well they have been playing lately). I think our scoring has been alright, but I would like to see us playing a little better on defense (not that it has been bad, I just want to see Howard get a bit more backup). As much as I would absolutely love to see a Wings/Penguins rematch for the cup, I don't think it will happen this year. With Crosby out, I really don't think the Pens have the guns needed to go very far into the Playoffs.

I think that the author is missing a larger point: it doesn't matter where you live, you have every right to cheer for "your team" when they come to town. Right now, I'm living in Cleveland while I work on my Master's degree - I genuinely like the Cleveland Indians, Browns, Cavs, Lake Erie Monsters, Lake County Captains, etc. However, my heart is still in Michigan - so when the Tigers, Lions, Pistons, Grand Rapids Griffins, or Lansing Lugnuts roll into town, I'll be at the stadium cheering for my "home team." My guess is that a lot of those Pens fans would cheer for the Avs any other day of the week, but once their team rolled into town, it was a different story. Accept that as a sports fan - arenas would be boring if it was only fans of one team - don't act butthurt when the other team has a home game on your ice.

See, if the Avs were playing at Pittsburgh, I'm sure he would have no problem with Avs fans showing up in large numbers and getting loud for their team. Don't like seeing a lot of fans for the visiting team? Tough luck - that's the business. It's unfortunate that he has to kick the proverbial dog just because his team blows and didn't have strong home ice support. This guy should probably just stick to writing articles about how awesome he thinks Tim Tebow is.

Great to hear! Looking forward to seeing him back on the ice as soon as possible!

No one remembers who won the President's Trophy 3-5 years after the fact, but they certainly remember who won the cup. Having said that, I would never argue with winning the President's Trophy, but I'll survive without it.

As long as it's just the weekend, I'm not too concerned. It will suck to potentially lose a game against Chicago because of it, but we'll be fine. Lidstrom could use a breather before the playoffs and Janik could use a bit of playing time. If it turns out to be longer than the weekend, I'm going to be a little nervous.

Right now, my two least favorite are Max Talbot (though I would definitely not complain if he were to play for the Wings) and Malkin (obvious reasons). I would normally say Crosby, but his talent is the one thing that I can give him a bit of respect for - I hate him because he is a cry baby.