The Pittsburgh Gazette ran an article this week asking why someone would want to leave Pittsburgh for Detroit.   Yes Detroit.  He amended his statement by closing and saying the young kids like to go there because it is a party place.  This all came after Hossa signed a one year deal for the Wings and was offered much more money elsewhere but opted to play in Detroit.  However, he beat up the Wings for signing free agents and suggested no loyalty (for lack of better words) in athletes today.  Imagine that, leaving a team that lost to the Wings in 6 games for the prospect of winning a Stanley Cup. 

 

  He beat the Wings and their free agent signings up quite a bit.  First he mentioned Conklin leaving Pittsburgh and it wasn't as bad as the Hossa comments, but wasn't Conklin the one which carried the Penguins while Andre-Fleury was injured.  Yes, carried them was the remark.  However, after mentioned no loyalties he didn't seem to mention the following free agent signings of Sykora, Thibault, Talbot, Sydor and Conklin.  Slight error on his part?  No, it is because it were the Pittsburgh Penguins signed those guys as free agents.  He beat the Wings up pretty bad about free agents signings and re-stated the "loyalty thing in sports" and playing out the career for the same team.  Guess that statement must have went out the window when Ray Bourque signed with the Avalanche and won the cup.  Sorry Pittsburgh sport writer, no credibility in your statement there, try again. 

 

  As for the Wings free agent signings, lets look at the players that were on their team they drafted.  Kronvall, Drake, Osgood, Zetterberg, Franzen, Datsyuk, Quincey, Hudler, Filppula, Meech, Kopecky, Holmstrom, Osgood and some guy named, Lidstrom.  Do you know how many of them were Number One overall draft picks?  None, nada, nil, zero, zip, zilch, nooooone.

 

  A few hours ago Sports Illustrated writer, Allen Muir wrote this article (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/
allan_muir/07/04/cup.locks/index.html?section=si_l
atest) suggesting that the Canucks go after the Wings Valterri Filppula as a Restricted Free Agent.  Good thinking Muir!!!!!  After the Canucks have lost Naslund as well as the kitchen sink they go after a young, Restricted Free Agent.  If the Wings offer him $2.5 million and the Canucks or any other team offer more, the Wings will get that teams first overall pick in the 2009 draft next year.  Hmmmm, let's think for a second.  Vancouver signs Filppula for about $4 million a year and the Wings get the Canucks first draft pick based on their record and placed finish for next season.  Has anyone looked at the roster?  It is looking worse then the Wings farm team, the Grand Rapids affiliate. 

 

 

  What he failed to mention is Ken Holland must be licking his lips for the Canucks GM or any other to offer an RFA of his a dollar more.  Imagine what Holland is thinking in Detroit.  We won the cup this year, may have a better then average chance to win it next year and the Canucks signed Filppula and the Wings have the very first overall choice in the NHL draft because the Canucks win about 25 games.  No brainer there for Holland.  Filppula is a great young player but this is a business.  (I will whisper this for the Vancouver fans only hear this.  Todd Bertuzzi is looking for a new home.)  Please add this footnote for Bertuzzi and Matthieu Schneider if you would and ask them this question.  "How is that career move to California working out for you after leaving the Wings?"  Now, when is the Wings ring ceremony?

 

 

 

 

I am trying to be objective and read a blog about ESPN.  I did what one guy said to do - set back and watch what they have done.  I let them start with a clean slate and BAM!!!  He was right.  They are very biased towards Boston and it's area teams, especially Boston in general.

It is the Stanley Cup Finals.  Not the Quarter or Conference Finals, but the Stanley Cup Finals.  Seems like that would be the main lead in story since the NBA finals have not arrived yet.  So with Pittsburgh and Detroit in the Stanley Cup Finals, and Game One, of course they would kick off SportsCenter with the SC highlights.  Ahhhh, no.  It was K-G and the Boston Celtics finally winning a road game.  They spent seven minutes on the highlights of the game.  The next segway went into Stuart Scott, Jalen Rose and (everyones favorite big mouth) Stephen A (as in a-s-s) Smith for another two minutes and 27 seconds and then went to the STANLEY CUP FINALS game one highlights!  Those highlights lasted two minutes and six seconds, or 11 seconds less then Scott, Rose and Smith.

Can you be anymore biased to Boston, ESPN?  Of course, the next story for two minutes and nine seconds was the Boston Red Sox and Oakland game highlights and breaking up Oaklands no hitter.  A short time later, they went to Boston's no-hitter.  Of course they related Lester's no - hitter to his bout with cancer and that is an incredible story.  However, let's look at some other storylines.

It is Memorial Day weekend.  There is the Pat Tillman story, the foundation that Lori Piestewa's family set up for native Americans that were also killed in the war, the double amputees that are in the Michigan schools telling high school students about their experiences.

They also are mentioning Matt Ryans' (where did he go to school - Boston College, went into the Boston Pistons game again, showed two scores from the Wings game, the no hitter breakup again and finally, oh yea, a little race called, the Indianapolis 500.

ESPN is continually showing why more and more their ratings are slipping.  Hey, they still have the spelling Bee and the WNBA!!!

After Brett Hull left, Jeremy Roenick was expected to be the outspoken rebel in the league.  Any ideas with who it will be with him gone?

Read the post about "Michael Vick and Dogfighting" he put up.  He relates this issue to starving children.  Then read SavannahGApeach's post, whose father was killed delivering supplies to children.  ALL of us need to stick to the facts and address the topic.   Apologize for your loss Peach and God Bless EVERY family that has suffered a loss.

I know we are all starved for College Football and the NFL Exhibition Season to start, but I have tried to watch that putred show.  Is there anyone else doesn't like it besides me?  It is almost as stupid as ESPN's mock baseball conference in which, Steve Phillips would play the GM for baseball teams that had just completed blockbuster trades or what their upcoming season was like.  Their panel of experts tells who is now and moves onto the next round.  I am sure all of you know the show.  What is going on with ESPN.  If we aren't overloaded with the World Series of Poker, then it is something like this.  I was just wondering what your views were on the show.  And the thought for the day...always travel alone in groups.

Are we regressing or what?  Didn't we get rid of this guy once?  Do we need someone to make us shorthanded more often because he likes to scrap?  At least Peca is a good open ice hitter.  Yashin, well he is just not worth the risk and too much of a head case.  Shanny seems happy in New York and Forsberg, who the hell knows.  Instead of tying up salary for guys like this, lets save the money and let the younger kids play and gain experience.  Why make a move just to get credit for making a move.  Look at next years UFA'a and save the salary for them.  Lord knows Babcock is slow to play youth and thats his philosophy, but if we are going to self destruct, let's do it with a younger group that is giving 110%

While there seems to be a be a bunch of blogs regarding the President, lack of black presidents (although it was eluded to in other blog, there has never been a female or Jewish president either, also eluded to) let me add nothing but my two cents worth.  Can we not stick to sports and if not, here is my political viewpoint?  FoxNews, MSNBC and other places love political viewpoint blogs.  You can see I am retired military and now with the government work as an Investigator with DHS.  We arrested an individual for ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) which spoke absolutely no English, none, nada, zero, zip & zilch.  However, he had a bogus SS Card with an actual number for a soldier that was killed in 2003 taken from the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), and a valid ID from New York State. Do you know what he said when he was arrested?  "I have done nothing wrong. (Despite the fact he had over 270GB's of jpegs with children from around the world and had been exchanging or selling them to other countries, and spending 16 hours a day of this as his sole job.)  Why is it you are arresting me and I have rights?"  Of course he does and he was given a lawyer.  To which he immediately filed a motion to dismiss. His statement to the arraignment judge (since illegals have quicker judicial rights and saw a judge within two days) told the judge that "we were wrong to arrest him since it is not uncommon for Hispanics to do this (stereotyping the hispanics!)."  With that mentality, I replied to the interpretor, "Ask him why the Mexican police arrest Americans from Fort Bliss for having a marijuana joint in Mexico, but Ciudad Juarez, Mexico police don't arrest locals for amounts less then 20 pounds?"  Why, is because they are Americans and are held to double standards and an alien in Mexico. Is there a reason we haven't had a female, black or any other president that falls into a category other then white?  YES, and it's simple, they weren't voted in.  This is America and we are our own worst demons.  If we didn't vote them in it is our fault.  Do you know why so many politicians want the amnesty program?  Because if they push for it, the illegals would be valid and being valid allows them to get a Voter Registration Card.  If you push for me to be legal and give me amnesty, who do you think I will vote for you?  When you talk about 40 million illegals being given amnesty, 40 million votes can swing an election.  And each year, 440,000 more aliens sneak into the country. The bottom line is the reason we don't have a female or black president is because they weren't voted in and every legal American has the right to vote.  It's a democracy and isolating ourselves from the other countries because "taking care of our country before we help other countries" just isn't going to work. So the real question is, "Are you ready for some football?"

FYI:  I forgot to mention, the man posted a $250,000 cash bond to get out pending trial.  Not a 10% bond, but $250,000 cash bond.  It took him less than one hour and one phone call to have the money at the law enforcement center.

Is it time to give up Chris Osgood?  After all Jimmy Howard is waiting in the Wings.  Hasek should be good for one more year, but do we hang onto Osgood or let Howard get in there and get some ice time.  I know there is a chance if Hasek gets hurt, but I don't think they will trade for a more experienced goalie as a backup to Hasek.  Babcock usually doesn't play young guys with a few exceptions, so do we wait until Hasek is hurt and Osgood doesn't do great before Howard gets inserted.  That's a lot of pressure close to the playoffs.  Just curious as to what your views or changes you would make.  The Wings got Rafalski but we did lose Schneider and Bertuzzi.  Just wanting your views.

  Despite not being an SEC Conference fan, but given the SEC their dues by saying it is the toughest conference in football, how is the SEC going to call the PAC 10, BIG 12 and all the other conferences weak?  The Pac-10 is going out of conference to play tough games.  Cal, Oregon State and USC are all going to Michigan, Nebraska, etc. early in the year.  Yet the Pac-10, Big 12 and others are being called weak!  I was looking at the schedule and cannot find and SEC school that is playing a major out of conference opponent the first three weeks.  These are pretty strong words from someone that doesn't want to leave the comfort of his Bayou State and play major out of conference games.  Les Miles at LSU inherited Saban's team.  That's pretty strong words for someone that plays the powerhouse Tulane on the second game of the year.