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I think games like tonights highlite how great the streak was. Poor goaltending happens sometimes. To go 25 games without goaltending doing you in is pretty incredible. Especially since I am sure no one thinks Emery or Crawford are elite goalies.

I am just glad to know that I have contributed to 2 pages of this discussion.

What I do not understand about the Tigers is why not just use Porcello in the bullpen.

My guess is Denard's WAR over the last 4 yrs is quite a bit higher than Swopes

how many people will confuse Swope for Johnny Football?

How come Illinois is not trying to land him?

I like Hitchcock as a coach, but he has not had a lot of playoff success in his career.

Nope. Perhaps cut down on the "staged" fighting, right off faceoffs perhaps, but I'm not even sure about that. McLaren looked like he was going to throw up as he went to the box. Does make you question what the purpose is. Players like Bob Probert and Joey Kocur are the main reason that not only am I a hockey fan but a Red Wings fan. That being said, I think it is time to get fighting out of hockey. Way too much fighting is just staged crap. I think the "dirty" players taking liberties on star players is way over sold by those who endorse fighting. Often it is the goon who is taking the liberties because he is not a good enough actual skater to be an effective hockey player. Truthfully, having a fighter on your team will rarely change how a player like Raffi Torres or Matt Cooke play. Stiffer suspensions for dirty play with repeat offenders given suspensions that will actually give them incentive to not be dirty. That's my take. And I think it will happen in the next 10 yrs. Especially if they want to look like they are serious about player safety. Kind of on topic...has anyone every noticed that the argument to keep fighting in hockey is basically the same as those who say more guns will lower gun violence?

i'm curious what you base this on. not because i disagree, but because i'm having a hard time really pinpointing anything to say that one has a clear edge over the other this year points-wise, there's what i would think a pretty clear argument that the top-half of the west is better than the top-half of the east so far. there's some parity there, so you know competition is tough, and all those jerks have to play the blackhawks. in a year when the blackhawks aren't the greatest thing on earth, there would be a leveling of points amongst those teams. my instinct is to say that the west is better, based on some of that, but it's pretty flimsy so i'm more inclined to think it's about even overall and montreal is the best team in the east, which i think is pretty cool. not just by record, but by 5x5 goal differential, team +/-, etc. they're actually pretty close to the hawks so far, in terms of dominance. my guess would be those two teams in the final then pens are horrible defensively and probably won't get past the second round, so i don't really care what they do. i think carolina and toronto are better I think if you put Boston on top in the East, the East stacks up better. Of course San Jose, LA, St Louis and possibly Minnesota are all probably under performing a bit. I think the Rangers are the only team in the East that you could say that about. Plus I think both Montreal and Anaheim may be playing better then what they are. But like I said, I do not think it is some great advantage. Would the Hawks have lost a game if they played Eastern teams?...who knows.

So does that mean he has 2 more years of eligibility?

Red Wings forums are full of fans crying about how that should be illegal. Meh. It had more forward motion than a spin-o-rama shootout goal -- or Bertuzzi's from last year. exactly. I am sure Datsyuk has made several that should not have been allowed. The NHL is never going to disallow goals like that. It will be top play on sportscenter, draw attention to the league blah blah blah. And to be honest it is really fun to watch if it doesn't happen to your favorite team. So to be honest they should just do away with the rule and move on. Just for kidding around. Ericsson's delay of game penalty would not have been a penalty in 1979-1980. If the Hawks end up passing the Flyers, there is always that quirk for Flyers fans to hang their hat on:)

don't be mad I know. I have been impressed with Kane so far this season. I have been very critical of his overall game since he came up. Today he was very soft, wouldn't go to the corners, got knocked off the puck a lot and didn't hustle back on the back check. And then the way it ended..like I said oh well

Kane was almost the old Kane with 58 mins of soft hockey today...then became the killer. Oh well.

I would really like Groce if he would have rocked the Lou Do

So I really don't care that much about ending the Hawks streak. I just wish the Wings would either just suck or become better. This hovering around mediocre kind of sucks. As the trade deadline approaches I actually kind of fear that we will trade a half way decent first round pick for a average dman(Quincey last season). So as tomorrow approaches I hope we either win outright and it starts a run that puts the Wings in the top half of the West. Which then would make some sense to be buyers at the deadline and the pick would not matter that much. Or just lose, get buried and outplayed which leads to the beginning of the eventual rebuild. Be sellers at the deadline, improve draft slot blah blah blah. Any kind of OT would just be frustrating.

I think this year the East may actually be better than the West. But, I do not think it is significantly better and I think the West has been better to way better for some time.

I heard this morning that Tampa has an 11-game sellout streak going. Was surprised by that. I think they have always had decent support.

So clearly the Florida teams need to move

I always envisioned Abuck being taller

Great Win for Kansas last night!!

I have always thought the Hawks/Wings rivalry was more of a Hawks thing. Though as I contemplated the move, I will miss the Wings playing the Hawks, Blues, Sharks, Avs, Stars and Canucks on a regular/semi-regular basis. And there is really not a team that I am emotionally attached to beating in our new proposed conference...yet

The proposed conferences in that realignment would put Chicago in more of a Central though. exactly. in the new proposal there will not be an Eastern and Western conference. What we kind of think of as divisions are actually conferences. For scheduling there will be no difference in the amount of games The Blackhawks will play against the Sharks as the Wings. So there is not going to be any less late starts if the Hawks were to move to a more Eastern conference.

I'm pretty happy with the way they handled most of the roster. If you set aside the Ian Stewart debate and give them a bit of a pass because there's pretty much nothing out there at 3b, then everything else was handled pretty well. They put together plenty of adequate depth in the rotation, outfield and bullpen. So here is my take on the Lillebridge being the 25th man. He has three main positives. Can play multiple positions, cheap and actually has some appeal to certain fans. Downside is he really isn't very good. That being said he probably is not going to take time from younger players. He is not going to bat lead off on a team hoping to win a championship. He is very expendable and also may have surprising trade value if he were to hit for a decent average. Who else was available that was better? or could have given the Cubs the positives that Lillebridge does. I am not overly thrilled to have him, but this is way different than giving Dusty his toys back in the day.

I was a full time student at a very small Christian school several years ago. It was a program designed for working adults and was mostly online. Only had to be on campus every other Thursday night. I also actually went to a regular class on campus every Tues and Thurs. Anyway, I was not really working at the time and was wondering if I could play on the basketball team. I didn't really want to play as much as I was interested in practicing to help stay in shape. I exercise much better with a purpose. School said no. Though I think they may have been concerned about liability with me being in my 40s. But the excuse given was that BB was only for full time on campus students.

Wasn't he the coach there when they went to the finals against The Stars awhile back?