Paint It Red: Stanley Comes Back to Hockeytown

It's been six long years since the Detroit Red Wings hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup in celebration of a hockey championship, but oh how sweet it was. This season was an amazing step forward for a franchise that was predicted to "fade out" of the new salary cap era. Pundits questioned whether or not the Wings could win without franchise faces like Steve Yzerman, Scotty Bowman, Brendan Shanahan, and Sergei Fedorov. Would they have enough grit? Would the goaltending hold up? Could they win with their puck possession style in the new, goal-oriented NHL? Clearly, after Wednesday night's cup-clinching victory in Pittsburgh, all of those questions were answered with an emphatic yes. This franchise has never ceased to impress me with how well they draft their players, work them through the system, and allow their core group of veterans to shape these up-and-coming stars. Ken Holland is the best general manager in all of sports and his incredible staff of scouts find the talent that you see on the ice for the Winged Wheels. The chemistry between the players is such a huge part of their success as well. No one on the team is condescending. There are no feuds between players or coaches. Everyone is a professional. Every player knows their role and doesn't jeopardize team success for their personal success. That is exactly why this team means so much to me. They are the perfect example of a sports franchise, from top to bottom. It makes me proud just to witness their accomplishments. The consistency of excellence and the professionalism of every aspect of the team is what makes me so happy to crown these men champions of the National Hockey League in 2008. Now, here are my highlights of their amazing, breakthrough season.

The Blazing Start

The beginning of the 2008 season was a great sign of things to come for Detroit. They won 13 of their first 16 games with help from both of their goalies, Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood, who each played eight of those first 16 games. It seemed that the only team that could beat Detroit at the start of the regular season was Chicago, who were responsible for four of the Wings' first six losses. Many hockey analysts predicted that the Red Wings powerplay would struggle without Mathieu Schneider, a top defenseman who left to play for the Anaheim Ducks in the offseason. The loss of Schneider was offset completely by Brian Rafalski, who came in from the New Jersey Devils and became part of the best defensive pairing in the NHL, with linemate Nick Lidstrom. Detroit's first forward line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Holmstrom proved to be the one of the most dominant lines in the league and helped score 37% of the team's goals over the entire season, even with Holmstrom missing 23 games due to injury. Detroit looked unstoppable as they went into the all-star break, having won 37 of their first 51 games. They even had four players in the starting six for the All-Star Game in Atlanta (Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Lidstrom, and Osgood). Everything was on right on track...until February and Ian Laperriere.

The Hiccup

Nicklas Lidstrom, the Iron Man of hockey, has played in 1,252 Red Wings games since his rookie season in 1991. There have only been 1,284 games scheduled since the 1991 season for the Red Wings. That's 97.5% of the team's games over 17 years. So, when Liddy went down with a knee injury after a cheap late hit from Avalanche forward Ian Laperriere, you could have predicted trouble ahead. Captain Lidstrom was out for more than a month and the Red Wings suffered, losing 10 of their 14 games in February. When the month finally ended, and the playoffs loomed ahead, people were beginning to talk about the deteriorating Red Wings and the hard charging San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference. The shining brilliance of the 2008 regular season had been severely dented by the Wings' struggle in February. They were beat up. The list of injured players included their starting goalie (Hasek, at the time), their top four defensemen (Lidstrom, Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall, and Chris Chelios), and the hard working role player Dan Cleary. The good thing about broken bones and bruised bodies is that they heal. So, that's what Detroit did. They used their great start to help keep their conference lead during the losing streak and let their best players come back for the most important months of the year.

The Improbable Switch and the Ozzie Factor

With the regular season title locked up, the Red Wings were faced with a divisional rival in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs: the Nashville Predators. Detroit was heavily favored and experts expected a short, merciless series for the Red Wings. It started out that way, as Dominik Hasek showed his game face and helped the Wings to a 2-0 series lead. Then, things took a turn for the worse and Hasek's bumbling idiot face came into view. He was in bad position on every goal he surrendered; he shook his head; he was awful. He let in goals that wouldn't even be scored in pee-wee's. Exit Dominik Hasek, enter Chris Osgood. Coach Babcock's decision startled me. I had seen the worst of goalie changes in playoff hockey: most notably the Philadelphia Flyers' terrible choice to sit Ron Hextall for Garth Snow in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Wings in 1997. The Flyers were swept in that series and although I knew of Ozzie's greatness, I was still worried. I had seen politicians like John Kerry smolder in the heat of flip-flopping. Goaltending was supposed to be the anchor of the team, especially in the playoffs. This was a new experience. Fortunately, Hasek accepted his poor play, stepped aside, and let Ozzie lead the team to 9 straight playoff wins without complaint. All of sudden, the Wings were up 3-0 in the Conference Finals and one win away from the final round. They blew off a couple games against Dallas but came together for a tough series win in game six when the puck bounced off of Kris Draper's chin and he swatted it in. I won't forget the blood that trickled down the grizzly face of Draper as his great, red beard became greater and redder. It was playoff hockey at its finest.

The Return of Darren McCarty

During the Red Wings' amazing Cup winning seasons in 1997, 1998, and 2002, Darren McCarty was a huge factor. Playing with Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby, he helped the "Grind Line" come to fame and threw the famous punches at Claude Lemieux in the famous 1996 game against Colorado. He was a fan favorite despite his stickhandling struggles and I loved watching him energize a crowd. When he left the team for Calgary in 2004, I was pretty sad. Though I'm usually sad when anyone on the Wings decides to leave, this was worse. McCarty had played on the Wings for so long. He had been through some of the tough times and some of the best times. When he left Detroit, he put his band ahead of his hockey priorities, gained weight, grew a mohawk, was cut by the Flames, and hit the bottle hard. His best friend in year's past was Draper, but the two lost touch when McCarty began living the rock star life. Last summer however, the two reunited. McCarty had been sober for a while then, and he had devoted his life to concentrate more on sobriety and his family. But, something was still missing. He wanted to come back and play hockey in Detroit. So, with Draper's help and workout regimen, McCarty got back in shape and talked to Ken Holland about a tryout. He got his chance and proved his worth in Grand Rapids as he excelled for the Wings minor league team. When he came to the Wings as a role player, he was all about effort and having fun. It was pure joy to see him score his only playoff goal against Nashville in game two of the series. The crowd went insane and the image of his face still remains in my memory. His return to the game was not only an incredible achievement but a fantastic thrill ride for me as a fan. Congrats Darren, and welcome back to Hockeytown where you belong.

Dominance from A to Z

Henrik Zetterberg. Scared yet? If you're not, you should be. The name alone is frightening to opposing teams. And, after leading the team in goals in the regular season, Z exceeded all expectations in the 2008 playoffs. He scored goals. He kept the puck away from four or five players at once. He killed penalties. He stopped Sidney Crosby on the 5-on-3 in game four of the finals. He brought back memories of Sergei Fedorov in his prime, only he's better. He spun around and scored that incredible backhanded goal on the Avalanche in the game four blowout. He led the league in playoff scoring. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy. He showed Sid the Kid that if he wants to win the Stanley Cup, he'll have to go through Z and the Wings. Zetterberg was simply the best and produced perhaps the best overall performance I have seen in my years of watching the Stanley Cup playoffs. I cannot wait for his many dazzling years ahead with the Red Wings. Way to go, Z.

Captain Nick Hoists the Cup

If there's ever been a better defenseman in the NHL than Nicklas Lidstrom, I certainly haven't seen him play. He'll win his sixth Norris trophy this year for the NHL's best defenseman and that will put him only two away from Bobby Orr's record of eight. That means Liddy will only need to play two more seasons to tie him...considering no one in today's NHL is close to his caliber of play defensively and Gary Bettman might as well just hand him the trophy every year without a single vote being cast. He's that good. Oh, and did I mention he was named as Steve Yzerman's successor as the Captain of the Detroit Red Wings? And I already mentioned his incredible fortitude in games played over his career. So, when Captain Nick was finally asked by commissioner Gary Bettman to "come get the Cup," I just about lost it. The first European Captain to win the Stanley Cup. After all of his hard work, he finally got to hoist the Cup as the absolute leader of the team. That was the most special moment of the playoffs for me. I was already ecstatic that the Red Wings had pulled it off and won the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in my lifetime but when Nick hoisted that trophy...it just put him in a class of his own.

Congratulations to the Detroit Red Wings and thank you for a great season. I will savor this championship for a long time to come.

The Detroit Red Wings are the 2008 Stanley Cup Champions!!!

2008 Stanley Cup Champions!!!

The Detroit Red Wings are the 2008 Stanley Cup Champions!!!

Full season analysis will come later. For now, I'm going to celebrate!!! GO WINGS!!!

The Best, and Worst, Day of My Life

As some of you may already know, I spent more than $800 to fly out to Detroit on Monday morning in order to see the Detroit Red Wings play in game five of the Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena. The Red Wings are my favorite team of all teams, spanning all sports and all franchises. My love for them started specifically when I went with my Dad, and some of his friends, to watch the Red Wings beat the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1995 conference finals; I was seven years old. That was, in fact, the last Red Wings game I had seen at Joe Louis Arena, even though I was in the stands for a few open practices that the team held while we lived in the area. So, this was a big deal. Not to mention that the Wings were up three games to one in their series against the Pittsburgh Penguins and could potentially clinch the Stanley Cup Championship in game five. There was no way I could miss this game. So, I woke up early on Monday, drove down to Manchester, and flew out to the Motor City. I checked into my hotel, threw on my Sergei Fedorov (#91) jersey, and got in the taxi that would escort me to the game.

Heaven

I showed up three hours before gametime and took everything in. I took pictures. I saw some of my favorite players arrive in their cars (most notably Henrik Zetterberg, Chris Osgood, Kirk Maltby, and Darren McCarty). Best of all, I was surrounded by fans dressed in red and white Detroit Red Wings uniforms, hats, and shirts. There were no Boston Red Sox hats or Celtics' jerseys. With all due respect to those teams, I just don't care about them. At all. Not even a little bit. But here I was, looking around downtown Detroit at men and women in Red Wings attire and Michigan hats and other things I often wear myself. It was nothing short of fantastic. I was finally part of the majority again. Also, as a side note, does a hot girl ever look hotter than when she's wearing a Red Wings shirt/jersey? I certainly don't think so, but I digress. An hour after arriving, while talking with random fans and getting excited for the game to come, the doors opened sharply at 6pm.

I walked in to see the large statue of Gordie Howe. Mr. Hockey. The famous and familiar face of the Red Wings and of hockey itself. Later, I even saw him at the game, signing autographs of his newest book, Nine. After taking a long look at the amazing statue of Gordie, I saw that to my left were lines of people waiting to buy Datsyuk jerseys and Stanley Cup t-shirts and Lidstrom bobbleheads. To my right sat a large Stanley-Cup-shaped-puzzle with only one piece missing, labeled "16." The famous "Cheli's Chili" restaurant, named for veteran Wing Chris Chelios, was just around the corner. Everything around me was not only cool, it was John-Travolta-in-Grease cool. I had clearly died on my way here, because this was heaven.

So, I spent the remaining two hours before the game in awe of everything. I wandered the concourse, sat in my seat, and overlooked the pristine ice of Joe Louis Arena. Every red seat was littered with a free, white towel for fans to wave in excitement. The rafters hung banners of all of Detroit's accomplishments. Stanley Cup Championships. Clarence Campbell Bowls. Central Division Titles. President's Trophies. Retired numbers of legendary players. The banner with the #19 and a "C" printed clearly in the right corner brought back waves of images of my favorite player, Steve Yzerman, and his time with the Wings that ended only two years ago. There will never be another athlete I will idolize as much as I do Yzerman. His effect on the franchise can still be seen, as about half of the jerseys I saw Detroit fans wearing were in his name.

The players came out for warm-ups. My eyes never left the red swarm of jerseys circling below me. Each player looked ready to play and determined to win the Stanley Cup. As they filed off the ice for the final zamboni cleaning before the start of the game, I tried not to envy the fans who caught pucks that Darren McCarty threw over the boards and into the first few rows of the crowd behind the glass. The suspense was potent. Three octopi were thrown on the ice during the national anthem and giant roars from the crowd drowned out the sound from the gorgeous singer in a red dress. Everyone stood and cheered madly for the team they loved as the starting lineups were announced and the players circled around center ice, ready for the first drop of the puck. It was time.

Hell

The first period was awful. The Wings came out flat and played without any real idea of what was going on. The Penguins scored twice and took a 2-0 lead into the second period, even though they only managed seven shots on goal in the first. I'll be honest; I was scared. I wasn't panicked because I had seen the Wings come back from two goal deficits before but I was still worried. This wasn't how the experience of my lifetime was supposed to begin.

The second period was better, but still left me with an empty and chilled feeling heading into the third period. Yes, the Red Wings were outplaying the Penguins. Yes, the team I had seen in the previous four games of the series was starting to come back. But they were still down 2-1. And, without any knowledge of what was to come, I had chills. What if they couldn't score the tying goal? What if this colossally expensive trip for a college-student went down in flames? I tried to stay positive and looked ahead to the third and, what I imagined to be, the final period.

19 minutes and 25.3 seconds of the third period were absolutely awesome. Detroit kept up the pressure and completely dominated the Penguins in every way. They scored to tie the game and then, they scored to lead it. Pittsburgh was doing everything they could just to keep the Red Wings from turning the game into a rout. Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins goalie, was standing on his head and making plenty of unbelievable saves to keep the different at one. Every time the Wings almost scored to take a two-goal lead, I brushed it off; they could hold a one-goal lead like they did last game. Momentum started to build. The Wings began playing a prevent defense and even then, they stopped the Penguins from creating any sort of offensive attack. The crowd began to chant "We want the Cup!" over and over for minutes on end. Time ticked down. Five. Four. Three. Two. One minute remaining. Pittsburgh still couldn't generate anything. This was it. At that moment, I remember feeling so happy, so giddy, so unbelievably thankful for my life that looking back, I honestly don't think I have ever felt anything quite like that in my entire life. And then, 34.7 happened.

Maxime "Girl's Name" Talbot hammered away at Chris Osgood's left pad and put the rubber disc across the goal line before any Red Wings player could stop him. The puck crossed with 34.7 seconds left in the game. The clock stopped with 34.3. No one in the stands was angry. No one was anything. The chanting stopped. The frantically waving towels lay flat. Every emotion was drained out of the building. Tie game. No Cup. Overtime.

The overtime periods flew by in what seemed like a matter of minutes while the 15 minute intermissions seemed to last forever. I was absolutely drained. My heart had been racing since I came to the arena at 5pm. It was now past midnight. I can't imagine that even a doctor could give me a tougher stress test. Every fiber of my being was exhausted. But, I wanted to see a Stanley Cup winning goal. I could see Brett Hull's winner in triple overtime for Dallas when they beat Buffalo in 1999. I could see Jason Arnott's winner in double overtime for New Jersey when they beat Dallas in 2000. I could visualize any one of the Red Wings doing the same hurried celebration: jumping around, throwing off gloves, letting loose an incredible cry of joy. With that in mind, I geared up for a third overtime session as another 20:00 was put up on the clock and the period number changed from 5 to 6.

Suddenly, everything was in fast forward. Jiri Hudler's stick flew up. Rob Scuderi's mouth bled. Petr Sykora's shot flew in. Mass exodus. Unlike the previous two penalties against Detroit in the other overtime periods, this call was inarguable. A high stick is a high stick. The blood is the evidence and the rule is a four minute penalty. The Penguins scored. They won game five. It was over.

As odd as it might seem, the winning goal was not nearly as heart-breaking as the tying goal. Before 34.7 happened, I was absolutely full of excitement. The Cup was coming. Captain Lidstrom was going to hoist it. I was practically licking my lips in anticipation. Then, when "Girl's Name" scored, all of those positive thoughts and happy emotions left my body with unmatchable quickness. I was completely empty. When the winning goal was scored, I was so tired and strung out from five and a half periods of wild screaming and cheering that I had barely enough energy left to stand up and leave when the Penguins scored. All of the remaining energy drained slowly out of me as I walked out of the Joe with the rest of the zombie-like fans. Everyone was shocked and depressed. I sat in silence on the cab ride back to the hotel. I rubbed my fingers through my hair and massaged my temples, trying to comprehend what I had just witnessed.

Purgatory

As the definition describes, purgatory is a temporary place of suffering or torment. That was today and that is tomorrow until 8pm. Until the Red Wings take the ice again to try and redeem themselves for losing a chance to celebrate in front of their home fans, I remain in a torturous state of the unknown. How will the Red Wings respond? Will the Penguins find new life and force a game seven? Can the Red Wings come back from such a mentally draining loss? And if they can, will they still win? The Penguins proved in game five that you don't have to be the best team to win the game, so what will happen in game six? I can't stand the suspense. All I can hope for is that the Red Wings get their act together, win the next game, and put the series to bed. So what if they have to celebrate at Mellon Arena? Detroit has already proven that they are a better hockey team than Pittsburgh. The only thing that matters now is whether or not they become champions. If so, the pain from the tragic game five will melt away in a sea of happiness and gratitude for a great season. If not, they will be remembered for a historic collapse and the horror that I saw in game five will haunt me forever.

The Disappointing Pistons

I don't have much to write about in this post. In fact, the only reason I'm even writing is because it has been a while since I last checked in at WCWIEL (catchy acronym, I know) and I have created a new page at GooglePages that I will be updating when I go across the Atlantic to England for the summer, starting July 7th. If you'd like to see what exactly I will be doing over there, here's the link to the site and I hope you like it.

While I'm writing, I might as well catch up with what's been going on in my life since my Stanley Cup preview ten days ago.

• I'm not going to talk about the current state of the Stanley Cup Finals because the Red Wings have won every playoff series so far without any updates mid-series and it would be a mistake to buck that trend now. I'm superstitious, what else can I say?
• The Detroit Pistons lost in the NBA Conference Finals for the third consecutive year, making them possibly the most disappointing team I've ever rooted for. Yup, I said it. They are even worse than the Lions or the 2008 Tigers. How could this be, you ask? They've made six straight conference finals and even won an NBA championship, so how could they possibly be that disappointing? Well, I'll tell you how. Each of the past six seasons, this core group of veterans and talented players finish either first or second in the Eastern Conference and head into the playoffs as one of the favorites to win the NBA title. Yet, every season since 2004 when they won the championship, they seem to play like they don't want another ring. Sure, they have won 10+ playoff games for five straight years, but since that magical run in 2004, they lack fight, intensity, and concentration in the games that matter most. Last night, the Boston Celtics *shudder* won in Detroit and closed out the series in 6 games. This game was a complete joke. After three quarters, Boston had basically sat down and said, "Alright, you can have this game. KG is in foul-trouble and you're up by 10. Let's go back to Beantown for another game seven." Instead of seizing the moment though, the Pistons turned the ball over constantly and missed plenty of open shots against the Celtics' bench players. Since the Pistons' weren't closing out the last 10 minutes of the game on their home floor like Boston expected, the Celtics decided to put their starters back in and just like that, the game was over. Now, I'm not going to say Detroit is a much better basketball team than Boston, but they are better. They have a better starting lineup overall, a better bench, a better coach, and much more experience. But they lack heart. You could argue that over the past six years, there hasn't been a team as talent-laden as the Pistons in the entire NBA. But there are many teams, including this year's Celtics, who are much hungrier for a title. And that is why I am thoroughly disappointed in the Detroit Pistons. I don't wish the Celtics any luck in the NBA Finals because they've already received wayyy too much of it from referees and those Boston Garden rims in their trip to the final round. In fact, I will not watch a single second of the NBA Finals purely out of spite; hockey's better, anyway.
• I have another movie review for all you readers, since last night my Dad and I watched a sci-fi classic, 12 Monkeys, starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. Not only was this film incredibly interesting and fun to watch, but Brad Pitt gave possibly his best performance as an actor. I love pretty much any role Pitt plays in cinema, but this one was fantastic. Some argue that he overacted and that made the movie almost unwatchable, but I completely disagree. This movie is a must-see-movie and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. The ending is mind-bending as well, so I hope you all go out and see it...or, since it was released 13 years ago, have already seen it. Final verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Alright, I'm finished with this random entry. I hope you all have a good weekend and I shall be back soon with another post once the Stanley Cup Finals come to an end! Go Wings!

Stanley Cup Finals Preview!

At last, the most recognizable trophy in sports will be up for grabs as the Stanley Cup Playoffs have reached its final round. The Pittsburgh Penguins will represent the Eastern Conference and the Detroit Red Wings will represent the Western Conference, giving the NHL exactly what it needs to create more interest in the league: an incredible match-up featuring the new face of the league, Sidney Crosby, and the best defenseman in the game's history, Nicklas Lidstrom. I'm so excited to watch these two teams face off. Henrik Zetterberg vs. Sidney Crosby. Pavel Datsyuk vs. Evgeni Malkin. You couldn't dream up a better playoff series to end the 2008 season.

As always, I'll take a look back at the previous round and my predictions for those series. In the Eastern Conference Finals, I picked the Pittsburgh Penguins to beat the Philadelphia Flyers in five games and they did just that. The Penguins jumped out to a 3-0 series lead before losing game four in Philly and then closing out the series with a blowout win at home. The Pittsburgh powerplay looked incredible, again, and the regular-season-caliber Martin Biron showed up, which left the Flyers dead in the water. Biron's goaltending was the only reason that Philadelphia even reached the conference finals and so when it disappeared, they had nothing left to match-up with the Penguins.

My psychic abilities were strong in this round, as I picked the Red Wings to beat the Dallas Stars in six games and they confirmed my prediction exactly. Of course, the 3-0 series lead for the Red Wings looked a lot worse when the Stars came back to win two straight games and take the series back to Dallas, but the Wings dispatched Dallas with three first period goals on the road in game six and calmed my nerves. Detroit looked very strong in the first three games and in the final game, using their balanced offensive and defensive attack to jump on the Stars early and force them into mistakes and turnovers. Unfortunately, the Wings looked vulnerable in the two games they lost and need to show improvement if they are to raise Lord Stanley's Cup in the coming weeks.

And now, my preview of the Stanley Cup Final Match-Up:


Offense-Defense Analysis: The Penguins vaunted offensive attack will face many talented, veteran Red Wings defensemen, and it will be very interesting to see who wins that battle. Pittsburgh's 1A line of Crosby, Marian Hossa, and Pascal DuPuis will likely face Detroit's best defensive pairing in Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski, both of whom have won multiple Stanley Cups. The Penguins' 1B line of Malkin, Petr Sykora, and Ryan Malone will likely be up against Niklas Kronwall and Brad Stuart, both of whom play aggressive defense and take away the open ice with bone-crunching hits. The Red Wings will rely on Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg for most of their scoring but they thrive on secondary scoring from experienced guys like Kris Draper, Dan Cleary, and Valtteri Filppula. Another key will be which young duo (Crosby-Malkin or Datsyuk-Zetterberg) can help his team the most, since those four players are their team's best and they will need to play like it for their respective teams if they want to win the Cup.

Goaltending: The Red Wings have a talented veteran in Chris Osgood between the pipes while the Penguins will call on Marc Andre-Fleury to lead them to greatness. Both Osgood and Andre-Fleury have played very well to help their teams get this far, and I think they will both keep their teams in games and play fairly evenly. Andre-Fleury has never played in the Stanley Cup Finals while Ozzie single-handedly helped Detroit win the Cup in 1998 as a 25-year-old. That will help him deal with some of the tough scoring chances he'll face against the great Penguins offense and I see him coming out with a very slight edge over Fleury, who might buckle under the pressure of his first appearance in the Finals.

Most Important Factor: The most important aspect of this series is how well the Red Wings' penalty kill can prevent the Pittsburgh powerplay from scoring. Sergei Gonchar is only a point behind Kronwall for the playoff leading defenseman and he's the anchor on the first powerplay unit for the Pens which often includes Crosby, Malkin, Hossa, and Malone. All of those guys can move the puck, skate fast, shoot accurately and shoot quickly, so it is extremely important that Detroit limits Pittsburgh's powerplay opportunities.

Most Important Factor No One is Talking About: Johan Franzen. "Mule" had 12 goals in the first 11 games of the playoffs but he has been absent in the past five games with concussion-like symptoms. The Red Wings are being very quiet about his status and the severity of these headaches that he's had, but if he can somehow make it back for the Finals, it would make a huge difference. He was the best player in the playoffs for the first two rounds and would be a huge asset to the Wings if he can come back and play at the level he did against Nashville and Colorado.

Best Match-Up: Sidney Crosby vs. Nicklas Lidstrom. The "next Gretzky" has vision on the ice that I haven't seen since...well, the Great One himself. Lidstrom, meanwhile, has racked up five Norris trophies as the best defenseman in the NHL and will almost certainly win his sixth this spring. Crosby's first experience in the Stanley Cup Finals will definitely not be his last, but unless he can force Lidstrom into some mistakes and turn those into goals for the Penguins, his first time in the Finals won't be one to remember.

Prediction: Detroit in six games. As much as I'd like the Red Wings to win at home, I don't think they can close out the Penguins in as little as five games. They are just too good. On the other hand, I don't think the Penguins have enough experience to make the series go a full seven games. As the Prophet Melrose once said, the greats often lose before they win, as the dynastic Oilers did with Gretzky in the early 1980's. I think the Penguins will win multiple Stanley Cups with Sid the Kid and Malkin in the future, but this is the Red Wings' year.

I hope you enjoyed the latest installment of my NHL playoff previews and will watch the Stanley Cup Finals on Versus for games one and two and on NBC for games three through seven. The NHL made a huge mistake with their TV deal after the lockout but a series like this one could help attract the casual fan back to the game and hopefully, an agreement with ESPN in the future. Hope you are all enjoying the month of May and getting ready for those hot, Summer days. Until next time, Go Wings!

Rest In Peace, Papa

I don't even know how to begin to write this one. My grandfather, Ted Ostrem, passed away last Thursday morning after struggling to fight off an infection in his lungs that he caught after his second surgery last week. I've never lost someone so close to me. Losing Grant's Dad two weeks ago was hard, but I didn't know him very well on a personal level. Losing my babysitter and close family friend, Anna Bonde, when I was 13 was hard too but our relationship had barely developed. The loss of my father's mom, my grandmother, happened when I was too young to remember anything about her; I've only seen video of her holding me as a baby and pictures of her with my Dad. I was not prepared for this.

At 20 years old, I've had lots of time with Papa and we've shared so many memories. I would say that the majority of them revolved around our favorite sport and our strongest connection: golf. I remember when he came out to visit and rode around with Grandma in the golf cart at Hales Location for one of my high school golf team practices. I shot 39 that day, finishing the 9th hole off with a long birdie putt that rolled right in. I remember teeing off at Glendoveer so many times with Papa and his friend, Dick. I remember his jerky swing that would send the ball clear to the right or to the left, or on rare occasions, straight down the middle. I remember his knack for scrambling for par or bogey even when he found himself deep in the Oregon trees. I use many of the tricks he used in the forest to improve my own game in those woody situations. I remember arriving at Portland International Airport so many times and seeing his warm smile fill the room when he saw us coming. He would excitedly tell me about all the golf tips he'd read about in Golf Digest that could fix his game, and how I could help implement those tools into his deteriorating swing. I remember him regaling me with tales of his holes-in-one, as he had two in his lifetime. I remember his joy for the game, and his pure sadness when he had to give it up after being put on oxygen full-time.

I remember our trips to the many different driving ranges. There was the one out in Oregon City with the giant schooner wagon. There was Hound Hollow, which closed down when I was younger. There was one out in Eastmoreland. There was one in Tualatin with island greens surrounded by water. Papa always loved watching my swing. "Straight as an arrow!" he'd say, if my ball happened to flutter straight even though it didn't go nearly as far as I normally hit it. "Look at that one fly!" he'd say, if my shot was very long but veered far off course. He always found a positive way to look at a golf shot, regardless of the result. I remember putting on his burnt orange carpet in their house on Southeast Francis. I can still hear the sound of a golf ball rolling into those little plastic cups. Papa would sit on the couch and listen for the connection of polyurethane on plastic and shout out, "Three in a row! You won't forget your old grandpa when you get to the Masters now will ya?" My own Dad always loved golf too, but I don't think I would have ever developed the deep love for the game that I have now if not for my grandfather's influence.

Another one of his favorite things to do was go fishing. I never found it all that appealing as I grew older, but I remember that we used to fish together when I was a kid. He'd teach me how to cast and where to throw the line and how to tie the bait on the lure. I remember walking down those brown rickety stairs and meeting the musty garage smell as I walked through the door to get our rods. We had a cooler completely full of bottles of Clearly Canadian sparkling water, always in either strawberry or raspberry flavor. Papa always knew where the fish were hiding. I'd like to go fishing again this summer in his memory. It's been years since I've gone out on the water to fish and I know if I do, he'll be right there beside me, guiding my line towards the perfect fishing hole.

He used to show me some of his old card tricks. He'd play Rummikub with me and Grandma and my younger sister, Hannah. He loved Grandma's cooking: he ate salads with Kraft Brand Zesty Italian dressing -- his favorite; he loved fresh turkey sandwiches with the spicy brown mustard that had a beaver on the label; he raved about fresh fish and never seemed to have dinner without it. We used to watch Seattle Mariners' games on TV and he'd always cheer on our favorite player, Edgar Martinez, and yell at manager Lou Piniella when he'd send in perpetual disappointment Jose Paniagua, a middle reliever who blew just about every lead the M's ever had in the late 90's. We'd watch the British Open almost every July when my family would visit, and I remember watching the Jean Van de Velde collapse in 1999, right as it happened.

It's still very hard to think that I won't see him when I go out to Oregon to visit. I know he struggled with his health problems and hated being away from golf and fishing, so it is nice to know that he was relieved of those medical anxieties and that he's probably playing endless rounds of golf with his old friends up in the clouds. It's also nice that I'll always have the memories of him to cherish for the rest of my life. But as nice as those things are, I still won't hear his laugh again. That rough, full-body laugh that I would hear as we watched episodes of Scrubs together. I won't see him handing me the sports page of The Oregonian at the breakfast table when I get up at Grandma's house in the morning. It's hard to imagine not hearing his voice again, whether it be cheering me on at the golf course or telling me about the latest problem with the Portland Trailblazers as we watched games together. It's too bad he won't see the team as the franchise begins to make a positive turnaround, since he always used to complain about the "thugs" and "troublemakers" on the team that brought about the nickname of the "Jail-blazers." Now, the team is young and on the rise, led by players who excel on and off the court.

Papa was a very proud man. I'll always admire the way he carried himself and kept a smile on his face even when he felt nothing like smiling. He gave me a great passion in golf and I'm so grateful for his influence on me. He always taught me that it was okay to make mistakes but to realize that it was what I learned from them that really mattered. He's someone who I'll always look up to and remember fondly in my heart. I love him so much, and I will miss him every day. Rest in peace, Papa, and save us a tee time for when I meet you up there in the clouds, many years from now.

NHL Conference Finals Preview!

As the calendar turns to May, we are three weeks into the NHL playoffs and the original field of 16 contenders for the Stanley Cup has been whittled down to four. My predictions for the second round were close, but not entirely correct. If we look back, I chose Montreal and Pittsburgh in the East and Detroit and Dallas in the West, which proved me to be right in three of my four predictions. As usual, here's my recap of the series followed by my preview of the next round.

Montreal proved to be my only incorrect pick, as the Canadiens played poorly and lost to the Philadelphia Flyers in five games. I honestly thought that the Flyers were the better offensive team, but that their goaltending would hold them back and prevent them from reaching the conference finals. Boy, was I wrong. Martin Biron, the Flyers goalie, has been arguably the best goalie in the playoffs thus far, even though he has been a perennial backup in the past due to his inconsistency. Of course, if someone had told me that the Flyers would ride into the Eastern Conference Finals on Biron's shoulders three weeks ago, I would have checked their pockets for a crackpipe. Nonetheless, I admit that I was wrong and that Biron has played excellently; the Flyers would not be where they are without him.

In the other East match-up, I thought that Pittsburgh would end the Rangers' playoff hopes in seven games, and instead they accomplished the feat in a closely contested five-game series. Even though I'm enamored of the Penguins, I still think I've underestimated them. The Rangers have a spectacular team and even they couldn't win more than a game against this talented Pittsburgh squad. Marc-Andre Fleury has kept the Penguins in games during their momentary lapses and the powerplay line of Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar, Hossa, and Sykora/Roberts has been unstoppable. They even have some big guys in Pasqual DuPuis, Hal Gill and Georges Laraque that can hit and punish teams that try to beat the Penguins through physical play. I haven't seen an Eastern Conference team this good in a long time, not since the heyday of the New Jersey Devils in the late 1990s.

Meanwhile, in the Western Conference, the Detroit Red Wings embarrassed the Colorado Avalanche in a four-game sweep and the Dallas Stars pulled out a gutsy series against the San Jose Sharks in six games. I predicted a six game series for Detroit and Colorado, which seemed reasonable at the time but was clearly wrong after Detroit flexed its offensive muscle. Jose Theodore, the Colorado goalie who was fantastic in their first round series victory over Minnesota, was pulled before the third period in three of the four games, allowed 15 total goals, and was nothing short of absolutely dreadful. The Avs suffered from injuries to some of their best players but in regards to that excuse from Colorado fans, it was clear that the Avalanche didn't play well enough to win the series even if they were dressing a lineup of All-Stars. Detroit was just better. Period.

In Dallas, the Stars are still celebrating their quadruple overtime victory in game six that pushed them into the conference finals on Sunday night/Monday morning. The series was more lopsided than I thought, as the Sharks didn't play very well throughout the series and were left in a 0-3 hole before they won two games to make the series more interesting. The Stars were much better and Marty Turco outplayed Evgeni Nabokov to send the Sharks home for the summer. The Stars did show some weakness though, as they almost blew a 3-0 series lead with two chances to win the series at home, but they did get the job done and that's all that counts.

Finally, what you've all been waiting for: a look inside the two match-ups that will decide each conference finalist and who will move a step closer to raising the coveted Stanley Cup.

(2) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (6) Philadelphia Flyers

This will be another great series with plenty of young talent on both sides. The Flyers, who were actually the worst team in the entire NHL last year, have rebounded with an amazing season and qualified for the Eastern Conference Finals with wins over the fan-favorite Washington Capitals and the top-seeded Montreal Canadiens. So, they certainly deserve to be here. The Penguins, who had a good-but-not-great season last year, have proved themselves to be the most talented team in the East by winning eight of their nine playoff games and doing it against the defending East champs, the Ottawa Senators, and a New York Rangers team with plenty of future Hall-of-Famers. I'm amazed at how good the Penguins are as a team, but I've also been amazed with how well Martin Biron has played in these playoffs. It's hard for me to doubt Martin Biron for a third straight series, but I don't see how the Flyers can overcome the superior talent of the Penguins. Pittsburgh in five.

(1) Detroit Red Wings vs. (5) Dallas Stars

Two experienced teams with an even mixture of young guns and old veterans will make this series a very exciting one to watch. The Stars have had a great run in the playoffs and have beaten two of the best teams in the West on their way to these finals: the Ducks and Sharks. I thought that either the Ducks or the Sharks would be facing Detroit in the West Finals so for the Stars to come through and beat both teams is a testament to the way they have played in the playoffs so far. Marty Turco has been stellar in net and Stars captain Brendan Morrow has shown leadership and toughness in key games to lead his team to this point. The Red Wings, on the other hand, had another great regular season and have dominated their inferior opponents in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Johan Franzen has 26 goals in his past 25 games, which is absolutely ridiculous, including a whopping nine goals in Detroit's four-game sweep of Colorado. Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg have also performed well both at home and on the road, which is different than last year's playoff run when they didn't score on the road until the final game of the playoffs in Anaheim, when Detroit was eliminated. I think that the Stars are going to give the Red Wings one hell of a series, but Marty Turco has never, in his entire career, won a game in Detroit and is 2-10-5 lifetime against the Wings. Therefore, I see Detroit winning in hard-nosed fashion and moving on to face the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. Detroit in six.

I'm very excited to see how these series will unfold, though it will be hard to wait another two days before the first game gets underway. On a side note before I go, the NBA playoffs just finished its first round and I was a perfect 8-0 in my predictions. The Celtics looked pretty weak on the road against the abysmal Atlanta Hawks though, and I fully expect them to have a lot of trouble with LeBron and company in the second round. If they can get past King James, then they will have just enough left in the tank to lose to the heroic Pistons, who have looked fantastic against Orlando after a short struggle against the 76ers. Anyway, everyone have a fantastic week of sunny Spring weather and most importantly, Go Red Wings!