Relax Hockeytown - Everything's Alright

Many of you may be wondering, why haven’t the Red Wings had a big time free agent signing this offseason? Doesn’t Ken Holland see the need for some new talent on a team that hasn’t won a cup since 2008 and that quickly approaching the five year mark?  Well Wings fans, I don’t think there is any cause for concern right now because there isn’t the talent out there that I’d want the Red Wings to spend their dollars on. Guys upfront like Filppula, Helm and Emmerton will have to provide some scoring power and on defense you're going to see some new faces who'll have a great opportunity to step up. 

My opinion, I'm glad to see that they didn't make any high profile signings.  I'm intrigued by the fact they've got some young talent in the works that will have the opportunity to have significant ice time this season.  Brenden Smith, Gustav Nyquist Jan Mursak and Jakub Kindl could be the future for the Red Wings.  In past years, playing time has been at a premium but that's changed.

Sure, if they would have added Parise and Suter then we’d be talking about a whole different ballgame.  However, just because they didn't sign either of those two and didn’t waste their money on the likes of Alexander Semin or Jaromir Jagr or Matt Carle doesn’t signal the end of their playoff streak.  I still see the Wings as a dominate team in the Central.  Just by process of elimination they are still on top.  The Predators and Jackets lost key players and the ‘Hawks and Blues but I'm not worried - this division is very much winnable. 

The extra dollars Holland has to work with allows him to reassess the situation and play free agency the right way and not the Joe D way (cough cough 40 million for Charlie V cough cough).  Rest easy Hockeytown, all is well western front. 

Detroit Sports Mount Rushmore

Detroit has had so many amazing athletes through the years and now it’s your chance to tell me who you think should be on the Mount Rushmore of Detroit Sports.  There are no restrictions on this poll.  I want to know who you think belongs and why.  Your explanation doesn’t have to be long and reasons don’t have to be justified.  Just tell me what you think. 

I’ll start it off and give you my picks.

 

Steve Yzerman: Is there a guy that better exemplifies Detroit Sports?  Yzerman spent all 23 years of his illustrious career with the Red Wings. He won three Stanley Cups, was a ten time NHL All-Star and had his number 19 retired by the Red Wings in 2007.  Stevie Y came to Detroit as a young 18 year old kid and turned into one of the most beloved Detroit sports figures of all time.

Alan Trammell: Tram was another guy that played his entire career with one team.  He spent 19 years with the Tigers highlighted by the 1984 World Series Championship and was a part of one of the best middle infield in all of baseball.  He and Lou Whitaker were the Thunder and Lightning of the Tigers during their time together.  He earned three Silver Slugger Awards (1987, 1988, 1990) and four time Gold Glove (1980-81, 1983-84). Tram will forever be synonymous with Detroit Tiger Baseball.    

Barry Sanders: I could not make list without Barry being included.  Probably the best Lion of all time, Barry left the game way too early and had so much more to give.  He won the hearts of this city with unbelievable touchdown runs and his speed and agility made defenders look stupid.  His number 20 was retired by the Lions in 2004, he owns 10 team records and I consider him to be the greatest Lion of all time and one of the best running backs the NFL has ever seen.

Dennis Rodman: Yes I know, it would have been easy to pick Isiah or Dumars but c’mon, the Worm was AWESOME! Rodman was a badass throughout his entire career, won two championships with the Pistons and earned NBA Defensive Player of the Year twice in 1990-91.  Rodman will go down as one of my favorite Bad Boys of all-time.

 

Now I want to know what you think.  Leave a comment or find me on Facebook (http://on.fb.me/INlTqF) and let me know who you think belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Detroit Sports.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter @sportsinthe313 and like me on Facebook.  Until next time, Cooper OUT  

Welcome to Bizarro World

The Weekend Recap from the past weekend in Detroit Sports; the Tigers continued to struggle offensively and defensively as they dropped three of four games against the Rangers and the Red Wings were bounced from the playoffs by the Predators and

A curious story coming out of Tigers camp is how the Tiger fan base has completely turned their backs on Brandon Inge.  I mean, I don’t blame them.  He’s hitting .056 heading into tomorrow’s series with the Seattle Mariners and yet Leyland still trots him out in a shower of boos from the fans.  I wish the Tigers would put him out of his misery.  It would benefit Inge and Tiger fans alike but I don’t see it happening anytime soon, and that is what’s so bizarre. Inge is absolutely delusional and the only reason he plays is because Ilitch loves him.
The Tigers dropping three of four to the Rangers in the big picture is not a problem.  It’s April (in the D), the Tigers don’t have a healthy pitching staff and their offense will come around, it’s just a matter of time.  This division is still theirs to lose and in the end I don’t see that happening but the Inge distraction has to go.  This is a World Series caliber team and the fans do not deserve to watch players who have averages below .200 when they come to the ballpark.  Call up Danny Worth and give the kid a shot.  He was a 2^nd round pick and at this point, what do the Tigers have to lose?  

Moving on, I want to put this Red Wings season behind me and keep this short and sweet.  The Wings are old, the Wings are too cozy and the Wings are in need of a major shakeup before the start of next season.  Here’s a critical question for Wings fans.  Finish this sentence, The Red Wings off-season needs to be __________.  My answer; their off-season needs to be daring!  I don’t think the Wings can afford be anything other than daring because they going to have to veer off the course that has taken them to the playoffs all these years.  This team is in need of a young and big defenseman to replace the loss of Brad Stuart and they need some forwards, especially wingers to anchor their first and second lines.  Zach Paraise, Ryan Suter, Alexander Semin and Teemu Selanne would all be great off-season acquisitions that would greatly help them next season.  If you have thoughts or an answer to my critical question, leave a comment or hit me up on twitter. 

As usual hit me up on Twitter @sportsinthe313, share me on Facebook and check back on Wednesday when I’ll take a look at the Detroit Pistons and what a dumpster fire that franchise has become.

So the Titanic sunk this past weekend...100 years ago

Since blogging is still fairly new to me, I'm trying to incorporate some sort of schedule so there are some consistencies with my posts. Monday posts will be "Weekend Recap" where I touch on all 4 sports and give a little rant about each. I also am going to incorporate more pictures and links to videos pertaining to my posts. So without further adieu...

As I mentioned, the grandest ship of them all sunk 100 years ago on April 15, 1912. On that same day, 100 years later we watched the Detroit Red Wings playoff hopes sink with the same shock and awe as they squandered a chance to reclaim home ice advantage. It's really a shame too because this isn't even quality hockey to watch. This team is good, but not great and what's even worse is that Nashville isn't much better because otherwise they'd be up 3-0 right now. The Wings are a 1 man team. They should be called the Detroit Datsyuk's because he's the only guy that is playing anything remotely close to Detroit Hockey. Franzen, Homer, Filppula, Hudler, Bert, even Zetterberg have all been non-factors in this series so far and it's extremely frustrating to watch, especially when you have the Flyers/ Pens and Rangers/Senators Circus. Now those are perfect combo series where they are high scoring (Wings have scored 7 total goals in 3 games and the Flyers have put up 16 in the last 2 games) and violent games. Big hits+Fights+Goals = great NHL game. And for all you hockey elite out there, save yourself the trouble and don't tell me that the Wings/Preds series is a great watch because it's real hockey. That's a load of crap and you all know it. This team needs a big shakeup this off-season regardless of what happens the rest of this series and beyond. They've made the playoffs 21 straight years having the same team year in and year out. Ken Holland will have to make some tough decisions and I hope we say goodbye to some familiar faces because this team has become too cozy. Tomorrow is a make or break and I don't need to go into that because it's pretty obvious. Get it together Wings or you'll be hitting the golf course much sooner than you want. I'm ready to hop on the Stamkos train - Stevie Y we're coming for him!

Moving on, well this will be short and sweet. I'll revisit the Lions as draft time approaches. It'll be non-stop speculation until then so I'm going to take time off from blowing that team up in smoke. Oh wait, the Lions has already been. (I know, corny joke that's been told over and over but hey, I wanted my opportunity)

Ah I'm just going to skip over the Pistons. I mean what's the point, the team sucks, the NBA sucks and until they realize that tanking is the only way to get better, this team isn't going anywhere. It'll also take a franchise player (found in the draft) to get this team back on David Stern's radar and ultimately back in the NBA.

Tigers, Tigers, Tigers. They take a 5-1 home stand to start the season and then blow 2 of 3 against the White Sox because they...couldn't score runs and couldn't play defense (Thanks Delmon Young but this isn't Dancing with the Stars). I guess they're starting pitching hasn't been too bad but considering that none of their starters (sans Por-cheezy) has a decision, I suppose there may be cause for concern. Verlander goes tonight against the Royals so things are looking up and with the tornado's in the Kansas City area, even Brando Inge could hit one out (scratch that, he'd just strike out, like he did yesterday). And so here it is, my big Inge-tirade. It's on the radio enough and its in the news enough that I don't need to beat the dead horse...again and again but I will say this. I thought it was funny today on the radio when I heard that another player for another team that had some rehab starts to start the year went something like 8-13 with 3 home runs and 7 RBIs in a could minor league games and good ol' Inge went 1-9 in the same span. All of these at bats are against kids, has-beens and never haves and all Ingey says is that they're aren't throwing him anything to hit. What a joke. Ilitch wants him to play because he's supposedly good at defense and Leyland plays him at DH and then to make matters worse, when was the last time any of you watched a MLB game and saw the DH get pulled with the bases loaded. It's become an embarrassment. Ryan Rugburn better start hitting or they better start playing Santiago more. A team with World Series potential cannot be dealing with Inge throughout this season. I say ship him over to New York so Inge and Tebow can have joint press conferences. Now how crazy would that be??

There's no whining in hockey

So playoff hockey is upon us and our Detroit Red Wings start another quest for the cup. Round 1 is against Nashville, a team that I wanted to avoid since the trade deadline. They've done much more to their lineup than the Wings and this is their one shot at really making a run for the cup. Nashville is going all in now because if they don't the next time they have a shot at the cup will be when they're playing in Quebec (fingers crossed). The Wings on the other hand have dealt with injury after injury and honestly their lineup just isn't that great. They have too many "role-players" and not enough plain talent. The drop off from Pavel Datsyuk to Danny Cleary is huge and sure, I like a player like Darren Helm but he's nothing more than a younger version of Kris Draper.

The matchup with the Predators is all wrong. Aside from the experience factor, I think the Pred's have a better line-up than the Wings. They're bigger on defense, better in net and their forwards may not have the street cred that the Wings have but look at the series right now, 1-0 Nashville. The bottom line is the Wings should have avoided this first round matchup at all costs. If Pavel doesn't score the game tying goal in the last regular season game, the Wings are prepping for the Coyotes, a team they've dominated in the playoffs.

Game One last night was a garbage fire of a game, not only for the Wings but for the NHL. You've got referees calling every ticky tack play, disrupting the flow and making for an overall poor showing on the NHL's behalf. I know Bettman was in the crowd, CBC and FSD telecasts both made note of it but that doesn't mean the game is meant to suffer. 13 penalties called, no momentum, no flow, just a tough watch.

But this is what Wings fans wanted. They wanted Nashville, they wanted to not have to travel to the left coast, they wanted Datsyuk to tie the score in the final game of the season to secure the fifth playoff spot. This is what you all wanted and that is why I don't want to hear any of the excuses for why the Red Wings lost that game last night. Don't blame it on Bettman, don't blame it on the officials, don't blame it on bad luck - no blame yourselves.

I don't like picking against my own teams, but I can read a scenario and know that facing Nashville in the first round with a Red Wings team that's been fighting injuries and just isn't as complete as the Predators is an uphill battle. The Wings need to buckle down and play Detroit Hockey. Tomorrow's game is a great chance to steal the series as it heads back to Detroit this weekend. Play hard, play fast and play smart and after tomorrow the next time the Wings play in Nashville they could be a game away from advancing to the second round.

Hit me up on twitter or check me out on facebook, I'm going for a run - I'll check you guys tomorrow.

-Cooper