Forcast for Stanley Cup Final

Going into this selection I have an eight-pick winning streak going. Now it's time for Dr. Sports to come out of hiding and make another selection.

A lot of times when I'm making selections I think: What's the best messenger for who to pick: what you think in your head? Your heart?

In the past I've learned not to allow my wants to interfere with my picks, I've also learned that a lot of times reasoning doesn't work. It's often best to go with your gut instinct and take that team. If you don't have a gut instinct, that's when you start using the reasoning.

If I plug either method into this selection, I'll get the same result. Same goes if I try the heart. It's all the same this time. No arguing.

They all tell me that the Red Wings are going to win.

I am going with the deeper, more experienced squad. The Wings will repeat, once again proving that a European-dominated team CAN go all the way.
Go Wings!

Wings roll past Hawks

Thanks to an overtime goal by Darren Helm, the Detroit Red Wings were able to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they will face the Pittsburgh Penguins in a rematch of 2008. They did this despite the fact that they were without Pavel Datsyuk, Niklas Lidstrom, and Kris Draper. Pretty impressive.

We needed to beat Chicago. They called Kronwall gutless. They said that our goaltending was suspect. They said that our coach hated one of our defensemen.

Chris Osgood proved the second myth wrong by saving 30 of 31 shots on Wednesday night. He was solid. Even the biggest of Osgood's critics were silenced. The man stood on his head. Although the rest of the team played well, none of them, with the exception of Darren Helm, brought their A-game the way Osgood did.

Speaking of Helm, how 'bout that young center? The future Kris Draper killed about half a minute of a penalty, practically all by himself. Fighting off Blackhawk after Blackhawk, he was even able to get a shot off. Play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick called it the best single man penalty kill he had seen since Zetterberg's famous works in last year's Stanley Cup Final.

Helm continued to play like a beast, and was eventually rewarded when he scored the game-winning goal in overtime.

Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Draper out for game 5

Once again, the Red Wings will have to play without some of their top players. Kris Draper, shortly after returning from an "upper body" injury, missed game 4 against the Blackhawks and will also miss tonight's game due to a pulled groin. On the plus side, Draper said that the injury was not nearly as bad as the injury that kept him sidelined until game 7 against the Ducks.

Niklas Lidstrom's lower body was injured and Pavel Datsyuk hurt his foot. Both missed game 4 as well, and were also ruled out for tonight, although they were first listed as questionable.

Draper is a big loss due to his face-off ability, unbelievable speed, and effective backchecking. It's no thrill to lose a defending Norris Trophy Champion and a Hart Trophy Finalist as well. Strangely, however, in game 4 the Wings seemed to be perfectly fine, slaughtering the Blackhawks 6-1.

Tomas Kopecky will miss the rest of the playoffs due to a broken orbital bone. It is unclear when or if Andreas Lilja will return after missing all of the playoff games so far due to a concussion. Chris Osgood, who sat the third period in game 4 due to dehydration, is expected to start game 5.

Wings on fire, could repeat

Following their sweep of Columbus, or Detroit Red Wings had to fight a much scarier seven-game duel against the Ducks. It was close, but the Wings won on Dan Cleary's late goal in game seven.


The way things are looking, the Wings ought to repeat. Why? There are four main reasons:


1. The Mule


You have to hand it to him. The man's on fire. Leading the way with nine goals and nine assists for a total of 19 points, Johan Franzen has been unstoppable throughout the postseason. Just like last year. There's something about the playoffs that just energizes him. Maybe it's the motivation. Maybe he's a clutch guy.



Whatever the case, Franzen has been red hot. This further proves that the Wings are undoubtedly the deepest team in the NHL.

2. Drapes is back

Kris Draper's face-off dominance and solid defensive play has made him one of the Red Wings most important players. Now that he is finally back from his "upper body" injury, the Wings should be even better at preventing goals. Do not underestimate Draper. He is such a crucial player to this squad.

With Draper back, the goals against ought to be very, very low.

3. Chris Osgood

Defying all naysayers, the Red Wings' netminder has been arguably the most solid goalie throughout the playoffs. He's made the stops when he needed to.

Ozzie had quite a rough regular season, but showed a lot of improvement in March and April after being given a ten day rest.

Should Osgood lead the Wings to a Stanley Cup title for the third time in his career, it is likely that the Wings will retire his jersey.

4. They're the Red Wings

Two years ago, this would have been a reason NOT to believe that they will win, but now it's different. The Wings are solid from top to bottom, and have way more playoff experience than the other three remaining teams.

I'm not guaranteeing a 12th Stanley Cup, but I do think it's likely.

Post draft power rankings 11-20: Still no Cowboys

Here are the rankings, continued from Wednesday:
11. Indianapolis Colts It's unclear how things will be without Dungy, but trust me, Peyton and Co. will make the playoffs.

12. Carolina Panthers The Panthers will run on the fuel provided by last year's stunning playoff loss to Arizona. You haven't heard the last of these guys

13. Chicago Bears Yes, QB is usually a problem, but how bad can Jay Cutler be?

14. Green Bay Packers Forget Brett Favre. Aaron Rodgers is the one who wants revenge.

15.Philadelphia Eagles This is pretty much the same team we saw last year. With a defense that good, they deserve to be in the top half.

16. Buffalo Bills With T.O. and Lee Evans receiving, how bad can Trent Edwards be? The main problem here is defense.

17. Miami Dolphins I don't expect a repeat, but with Parcells in town, the Dolphins will at least make some noise.

18. Tampa Bay Buchaneers Good enough to contend. Not good enough to make it.

19. Kansas City Cheifs Pioli's planning something.

20. New Orleans Saints Some pieces are falling together, but they're still a long way off.

I will soon finish this off by giving my rankings for 21-32.

Report: Favre is staying retired (but is he?)

Reportedly Brett Favre told Vikings coach Brad Childress that he is staying retired. His agent Bus Cook also agreed.

Personally, I'm not sure if this is for real, and if Favre does return, I have no problem with it. Let him do what he thinks is best.

Do what you have to do, Brett. Personally, I'd like to see you in Vikings purple.


Update: Apparently the guys who reported this had a few beers. A new report says that Favre will sign if major surgery is not required.

Post draft Power Rankings 1-10- Yeah I broke the golden rule. Bite Me.

Here are some early NFL power rankings. Yes, it's May, and yes, these rankings will probably change in, say, August.

1. New England Patriots Forget the defending champs rule, I respect Pittsburgh and personally am a big Steelers fan, but with Brady back and Joey Galloway added to the roster, this is a no-brainer.

2. Pittsburgh Steelers It's no mistake that they won the Super Bowl. The Steelers are pretty solid from top to bottom. All-around QB? Check. Great players to throw to? Check. Running game? Check. Defense? Check, check, and check.

3. San Diego Chargers Rivers had a great season last year. L.T. ought to improve this year, as should the defense. The special teams are solid, too.

4. Atlanta Falcons Matt Ryan will only get better. These guys are in for a great year, not to mention a likely NFC South title.

5. Baltimore Ravens Yes, four of the top five teams are in the AFC. Is that really that big of a surprise?

6. Arizona Cardinals Who cares if Kurt Warner's 39? Anyone could throw to Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald.

7. Tennessee Titans The defense may decline a bit, what with the absences of Albert Haynesworth and defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, but other than that, the Titans are fine.

8. Minnesota Vikings Best running game, one of the best defenses. This rank may change depending on Brett Favre's decision.

9. Washington Redskins Stop laughing. These guys look a lot better right now. They seem to have finally put the puzzle together.

10. New York Giants How will overrated Eli Manning do without star receiver Plaxico Burress?

Be patient, I will release rankings 11-20 and so on soon.

Favre to Vikings?

Just when you thought that the NFL was finally done with Brett Favre, Brad Childress made you think again.

The former Packers superstar is scheduled to meet with Childress tonight and Friday regarding a possible return to the NFL.

Will he return? I don't know, but let me say this: I would love to see that guy in Minnesota purple. I strongly encourage Brett to go through with this and come back again. Forget about the fact that this goes against what he said earlier. At this point Favre has given more to the NFL than most other players have.

If he wants a little back, then so be it.

Advice for the Wings? Suck it up and move on

Blown call could decide the series- if the Wings let it.

Get over it.

Seriously, focus on the rest of the series.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the blown call in game three last night, allow me to give a brief summary. The Ducks were leading the Red Wings 2-1 in the third period. The Ducks had the puck behind their own net. A Red Wing stole the puck and passed it to Marian Hossa. The puck was laying next to goaltender Jonas Hiller. Hossa poked it in, but the ref blew his whistle and signaled no goal.

Why? According to the official in question, although he blew the whistle after the puck went in, it was his intent to blow it beforehand.

Why? Apparently Mr. Stripes lost sight of the puck while it lay next to Hiller.

Now I can hear the complaints. They're all over the place. But shouldn't the focus really be on the Red Wings trying to recover from this game?

Is this call really enough to decide the series? Change it, perhaps, but decide it? I think not. You think the Lions went 0-16 all because of that controversal call against Minnesota?

For the most part, the players decide the game, not the referees. Usually the only time that the refs decide anything is when you let them. Ok, so maybe they did have an impact on that game. So what? The Wings can still win the series. If they play well enough, our boys will pull it off.

They WON'T pull it off, however, if they go into these next few games with their minds on the blown call. Just forget about it. You can't change it. It's like being pulled over by a cop: even if you're right, they win, they have more power.

What the Wings need to focus on is what they CAN change, like how they play in the next few games.

Caps take game one

Malkin, not Datsyuk, should be Hart longshot

The better team won, and so did the better star player.

Led by Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green, the Washington Capitals took down the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2, despite the efforts of Penguins stars Evegeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby.

Two plays came up big in this tight battle. One was a great save by Capitals goalie Simeon Varlamov. As Sidney Crosby skated in, the Caps' netminder fell over. Crosby fired and thought that he had scored.

He hadn't. Instead, Varlamov quickly extended his goalie stick to make a miracle save, robbing Crosby.

The other big play came during a 5-on-3 Capitals powerplay. Defensemen Mike Green wound up, as if to take a slapshot and fooled everyone. I don't think I've ever seen a more convincing fake. Even as his stick touched the puck it looked like a slaphot, but it wasn't. It was a pass to Capitals' star forward Alex Ovechkin. Penguins' goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was already down. Ovechkin, who probably had seen the whole thing coming, quickly fired the puck for the goal that gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead.

Now, I need to correct an earlier statement that Pavel Datsyuk ought to be the no-brain selection for the Hart Trophy. After what I saw Saturday, I'd say that he and Oveckin are about even.

Both are constant workers. They never stop fighting. Even when they're bad, their good. If their not scoring goals, their getting assists. If their not getting assists, then they're hitting guys.

Both are magicians at times. On Saturday Oveckin could have easily had several goals if not for the solid effort by Fleury. Why? Because he was constantly doing things that so many other players could not.

Right now, no one is playing at the level that Datsyuk and Ovechkin are playing. Not even Malkin. That is why the Penguins' center ought to be the longshot for the MVP award. Even he cannot measure up to the solid all-around play of Ovechkin and Datsyuk.

Yes, he is having a great year. Yes, he has more points than either of them. But no, he is not better when it comes to all-around play.

Feedback: Do you have an opinion as to who deserves the Hart Trophy, or a comment on the NHL playoffs in general?