Not so heated rivalry

The Detroit-Colorado series has not amounted to much of the animosity that many expected before it began. Of course, that's not terribly surprising when one considers that only a few of the guys on either team actually played in the several series during the '90s where these teams developed a healthy distaste for each other.

What's been even more unexpected is the lopsidedness of the play so far. While I figured Detroit to be a better team, I did not expect to see Colorado get thoroughly outskated for the majority of the first three games. Detroit has certainly capitalized on their opportunities and made the most of the the Avs suffering through the injury bug, but Colorado really hasn't put up the same fight that they showed in battles down the stretch of the regular season and against Minnesota in the first round. Unless there are a couple of turnarounds of epic proportions, it's going to be Detroit and Dallas fighting it out for the right to play for the Cup in May and June.

Detroit could still do a few things better though. It was painful to watch them take two straight too-many-men-on-the-ice penalties last night. Those are brain-dead penalties that shouldn't happen in the first week of the season, never mind the second round of the playoffs. More importantly though, Detroit's dominance of the faceoff circle seems to have diminished. I'm not sure if you can even find this stat anywhere, but I would like to see the faceoff stats that eliminate faceoffs in the neutral zone (because those tend to have very little game impact). Draper and Zetterberg had two of the best faceoff records in the league throughout the season, but I've had the feeling during the last couple games of the first round and throughout this round that both have been losing more than they've won when they count. A little extra focus, especially on those defensive zone draws, might just pay dividends against Dallas. After all, a faceoff win in OT allowed the Stars to set up and score the winner in game three against San Jose last night. That's a scene I'd rather not see repeated against the Wings.

11 Run 6th

Clinging to a precarious 7-6 lead going to the bottom of the sixth inning last night against Texas, Tigers fans were treated to the home team getting three walks, two hit batters, a pair of two run doubles, a three run homer, a couple of sacrifices to score, a one run double and run scoring single. When the Rangers finally managed to get out of the inning, they had dug themselves an 18-6 hole and Detroit added another in the seventh for good measure. That sure would have been fun to watch for the home faithful!

With the win Detroit climbs out of the cellar in the AL Central, just 3 games back of the White Sox. Even with their dreadful start this year, this team is poised to make a run. Now if they could just solidify the pitching a bit ... giving up 6 in the first four innings was not the way to get rolling last night!

On to Round 2

So it's going to be the Avalanche that roll into town Thursday evening to start taking on the Red Wings in round two. The playoffs are always a different story from the regular season (see: Montreal-Boston, where the Habs were 8-0 during the season but needed seven hard fought games to escape the first round upset). But the four meetings between Detroit and Colorado this year make me pleased to see that Detroit isn't going to have to play Calgary. Detroit won the series with the Avs 4-0, outscoring them 11-2 with three shutouts. Clearly, Avs netminder Jose Theodore seem to have stepped up his game a bit in their first round defeat of the Mild (as our local radio station likes to call those folks out of MN), but I like that Colorado plays a free flowing more exciting brand of hockey than Calgary. Detroit will have some opportunity to create plays and not be hung up in the stifling defensive play that less talented teams like Calgary have to utilize to keep up in the league. Also, this series should provide some excitement from the old rivalry, bringing back memories of the great series between these two teams throughout the late '90s when both teams were winning cups and dominating the league. I'm excited for it all to get started! Thursday night is going to be fun!

Figured It Out

The Red Wings finally figured out how to stop the quick back-to-back goal problem ... apparently the game plan is to just not give up the first one! Friday night and this afternoon Detroit did a great job limiting Nashville to almost no opportunities, outshot them 95-41, and managed to make a couple of breaks work for them to finish the series.

Let's hope that the 100-foot goal that Lidstrom bounced in a sign of things to come. When Detroit won the cup in '97, he scored a 70-footer against Hextall and when they brought Stanley home in '02 he scored a 90-footer against Cloutier. Both of those goals turned momentum Detroit's way and that winner today just might turn the tides for the Red Wings again.

The other thing that was most impressive was the play of Detroit's third and fourth lines. Cleary, Helm, Drake, and McCarty all stood out to me for their efforts this afternoon and they're starting to earn extra ice time from Babcock. Giving Detroit a few extra good shifts is going to take the load off of Pavel and Hank a little bit and give them a little more jump if Detroit goes four rounds.

Now ... I'm off to watch SJ-Calgary to find out who Detroit might be playing on Thursday. On to round two! This should be fun.

What's Wrong With These Guys?

Hi kids, I'd like to draw up a play. Faceoff is at centre ice. Someone just scored ... doesn't matter if it's you or your opponent. First, you win the draw. Then you maintain control for a few seconds and manage to get it deep into your opponent's end of the ice. Then you put some pressure on them and keep it in their end for 30 seconds or so. WOW!! Now you know more about playing hockey than the Red Wings. Evidently, not giving up two goals in less than a minute over and over and over and over again is really hard for multi-millionaire hockey players. Of course, they are part of a union ... so the explanation must be that defense isn't not in their job description.

So after a solid 2-0 start, I see my beloved team skating back to town with their tails between their legs after gift wrapping two games back to Nashville to tie the series. Tonight, Osgood will get the start and be under some serious pressure to not stink up the joint the way Hasek did the last two games. While those goals can't all be blamed on Dom, it sure would have been nice for him to play more like the all-everything goalie he's supposed to be and bail out his defense on one or two of them. I'll have my fingers and everything else crossed today in the hopes that we can pull forward into the lead again and polish the Preds off.

Masterful Fashions

Simon on Sports has a great post today using pictures from the first round of the Masters yesterday to try and decide what he should wear in his golf tournament coming up. You can check it out here! I think I might need to consider some of those outfits for the odd round that I'll get in this season.

The Final

How did Memphis collapse so badly? I think the answer is obvious ... they're the Tigers. And Tigers of every sport have stunk this week (especially the baseball kind).

The bottom line though is that coach John Calipari simply got it wrong. He said earlier this year on Pardon the Interruption that if you put together a list of the 25 things that might cost them a game, their poor free throw percentage all season long wouldn't even make the list. In the last 1:15 of regulation, with the game seemingly in hand, the Tigers hit just 1 of 5 from the charity stripe. 20%. Pathetic. It's why they lost. Number one on the list. No question. For the game, Memphis totaled 12 of 19 versus the Jayhawks' 14 of 15. In a game that was forced into OT on a last second prayer, free throws made all the difference.

Now that that's over, let's move onto the Masters. Today is the Par 3 tournament and by the time I make it to office tomorrow, the real action will be underway. Thank goodness for the PVR!

I'm back!

It's a big week ahead for CBS. After carrying the first Final Four ever with four #1 seeds, they'll be broadcasting what looks like a pretty exciting final tonight, then start prepping for Masters week in Augusta, where it will be all Tiger all the time for four days.

I apologize for not having posted in so long, but after I had to tear up my bracket with everyone losing on the first weekend, I lost a bit of the interest in the madness. Have no fear though, I will tune in for the game this evening. With the up-tempo style that both teams play and their surprise chances at glory (come on - who really picked both Kansas and Memphis over UNC and UCLA?!), this one should at least be an entertaining game.

As for the Masters, excitement abounds! For the first time ever, the Par-3 tournament on Wednesday will be broadcast, so I'll set the PVR to take care of that for me. Much time Thursday and Friday will no doubt be spent checking scores and looking in on the online broadcast from Amen Corner. Sunday, after my swim and run I've already ensured that Captain Pants knows I'll be lying low for several hours of final round action. I'd like to see Tiger get another jacket this year, but even more importantly, I'd really like to see Freddie Couples show us some more magic around Augusta. With a 66 this past Sunday to finish in the top ten, we know that he's still got it in him and if there's one place that he's always been able to find it, it's at the Masters. It should be fun to watch!

Finally, the NHL playoffs get under way on Wednesday. There are a few interesting first round matchups to watch. I'm excited to see what the Penguins can do with a healthy lineup against Ottawa and I'm pleased to see Montreal looking so good. Obviously, I'll nervously be watching Detroit hopefully live up to how good they were for the first half of the season instead of how average they looked down the stretch. And I'll be fearfully watching the Sharks who have looked invincible for the last three months as they try to bring the cup to another crappy city that doesn't give a damn about hockey. Let's hope for the sake of all things that are right in the game of hockey that the Sharks start to look like fish out of water sometime soon!