A Video for you

I don't expect anyone to actually sit through this... but this is my review of the Wings season, then my official opinion on Jimmy Howard... Enjoy

The Best of the Bearded Fellow

SpartanEdge has challenged me, if you will, to write a "best of" blog. A blog post that I would want visible for the entire summer. SInce I am a sports blogger, I thought it would be a tad tricky coming up with a post that would be worthy or timely for an entire summer. Many ideas came to me, in fact I was supposed to tell them what I was writing by Friday... oops. But I didn't know what I was going write until now, so here it is, the "Best of the Bearded Fellow." Enjoy.

Sports, they are involved in our lives more than we know. Sports have a power to unite people under one flag, one common cause. They can distract us from our hardships. They can take us away from the tragedies of the world, even if it is only for a couple hours. Sports are a way for people to escape reality, and just root that their teams bests their opponent.

I know sports aren't as important to other people as they are to me, but sports serve as my outlet. When I'm watching the Red Wings nothing else matters. It may sound cold to just forget everyone because the Red Wings are on, but in reality, it's something I need in order to see things clearly. Sometimes it's hard to find that distraction. Whether someone just died, you got dumped, or you're about to pour your heart out to someone, you need to find something to distract you, even if it's just for a moment. My thing is sports.

My grandma died when I was in 7th grade. I was distraught and didn't know how to handle it. What my cousins and family did was on the day of her funeral, took my brother and I out to play roller hockey. We must have played for 5 to 7 hours of hockey. We never stopped until the sun went down. For food we had one person sit out to go on a Taco Bell run. But that's the power of family and sports coming together. They took my mind off of things with a stick, a ball, and two skates.

Some of my happiest days in life are involved in sports. My dad surprised Joe and I with tickets to game two of the Stanley Cup finals in 2008 against the Penguins, we won 3-0 by the way. I recently went to another playoff game, in which the Wings won 3-0. it's a toss up between those two as the best day of my life. And if you're wondering, it's probably the more recent game I consider the best night ever. How about when Magglio sent us to the world series? I was hanging out with my best friend and after he hit that, we ran up and down the streets with brooms yelling "SWEEP, TIGERS WORLD SERIES!" Sports bring people together, and they've been apart of the happiest days of my life.

Also some of my earliest memories are around sports. I remember watching Red Wing hockey ever since I was a little kid. I barely remember 1996 when Draper got crushed by Claude Lemiuex. I remember where I was in 1997 when Darren McCarty scored that beautiful goal against the Flyers. I remember that we were over a friends house for a party when Michigan won the Rose Bowl in 1997. Sports have been in my life for literally as long as I can remember. I remember my first Tiger game, my first Michigan football game, my first Lion game, so many memories of mine are involved the world of sports. From a very young age, I was a sports fan, and it's the reason why I want to be in sports radio.

Bottom line, sports are a huge influence in my life, and in the lives of many others. Sports have this power to unify people under one cause. For two to three hours, nothing else matters. That's the amazing thing about sports. Entire cities, states, and countries forget their disputes and unite under the flag of their team. Nothing else matters while that team is playing. Sports are the world's greatest outlet, and they are my outlet.

In closing, I have to say thank you to SpartanEdge for imploring me to write this, and as always, GO RED WINGS!

Lion First Round:

Well Round one of the draft is over, and the Lions made a splash. As expected they took Suh with the number two overall pick, but then later traded back into the first round at pick thirty to get Javhid Best, running back from Cal.

I like the players they picked, however my problem is with the Best pick. If he fell to our second round pick, I like it, but we traded up for him. We gave away picks to move up for spots for Best. We have too many holes to be trading away picks. I haven't seen the details, but I know that our pick #34 is now in the Vikings hands. I agree with the pick of Best, just not trading picks.

The Lions needs to address the secondary. If they were going to trade up, they should have traded up sooner for one of the 5 defensive backs taken in round one. Maybe trade up to get Kyle Wilson or Devin McCourty. Detroit has the worst secondary in the NFl, and it needs help at all positions. Delmas is the only guy worth a damn in that secondary. The Linebackers also could use some help, with the losses of Foote and Sims. The other big hole for the Lions is offensive guard. They have the worst guards in the NFL. They need to address this issue later in the draft.

I expect the Lions to take defense with their next pick, then maybe go O-line. Hopefully they don't take a wideout...

Wings win Game 4

couple vids from my trip to the Joe, enjoy.

Lions Trade Sims.

The Lions traded linebacker Ernie Sims in a three team deal that landed them former Western Michigan Tight End Tony Scheffler. The trade makes 0 sense. Even if it means that Pettigrew's surgery isn't going as smoothly, why would we trade a starting, young linebacker for a back-up tight end. I don't have an answer for this trade. The Lions already had a hole at linebacker to fill by failing to resign (or at least making no attempt to) Larry Foote, they create another hole in the leagues worst defense. It makes 0 sense. If they had picked up a good linebacker in free agency then maybe this deal would make sense, but they didn't.

I'm not saying Sims was the best linebacker in the NFL, I don't even think he was the best one on the team (that goes to Julian Peterson) but he was a solid starting linebacker. Players like Zach Follet and Deandre Levy are going to have to step up. It also wouldn't hurt if the Lions got a linebacker in the draft or in free agency. I believe Larry Foote still doesn't have a team. But the bottom line is the Lions traded a guy they needed for one they didn't Typical Lion move, one that makes the fans saying, "What the F***???"

I had hipes for the direction the team was moving, but they just took a step in the wrong direction. I'm not going to abandon hope because of one dumb move, but if it turns into dumb move after dumb move, then it's the Millen era all over again. the draft is coming, and hopefully they have another good draft like last year.

Coyotes Dominate, WIn 4-2

The playoff opener at the Joe was foiled by those damned Phoenix Coyotes. I'm going to keep this brief, but the Coyotes just dominated the play. First period was a good period for Detroit, but anything after that was all Phoenix. Shane Doan got hurt and couldn't return, but Phoenix played better without him. The Coyotes dominated physical play again, and they won the battles of the game. Battles for lose pucks, scrums in the corner, scrums in front of the net, they were all going in favor of Phoenix.

The Coyotes came out wanting the victory more than Detroit. Phoenix's game was refined, Detroit's was sloppy. The Coyotes executed their game plan, Detroit did not. Lidstrom looked like a 40 year old defenseman and Jimmy Howard looked like a rookie. Simple as that, Phoenix wants it more than Detroit right now. The question is, can Babcock light a fire under his team? I think so, this team is better than Phoenix, it's why they play 7. You have off games and lucky wins, but in a 7 game series, the best team usually comes out on top.

Game 4 wil decide the winner of Game 5 in my opinion. If the Coyotes leave Detroit taking two then it's game over Wings fans. Detroit needs to come into game 4 ready to go. They can't afford to play sloppy. Jimmy needs to play like the goaltender that was in net during the second half of the season, not the one before the Olympic break. Pavel and Hank need guys like Bertuzzi, Cleary, Franzen, and Holmstrom to get going. Those guys are the key to Detroit's victory.

Detroit-5
Coyotes-3

Red Wings rebound; Even Series

The Red Wings went into game two down and beaten. Phoenix had dominated the physical play and took every chance they had to hit a Red Wing. Many questions would have to be answered. Can the Wings keep up with the physical play? Can the penalty kill right the ship? Can Detroit turn the momentum and win on the road? Those questions can only be answered on the ice, and Detroit responded like any battle-tested team; they came out with a victory.

The first change made was scratching Jason Williams and dressing Justin Abdelkader. Abdelkader's job was to provide physical play. He's not a big hitter, but he's a young guy who's not afraid to throw his weight around. And that's exactly what he did. He had three hits in his first two shifts. He even managed to score a goal. His job was to counter some of the physical play and he did that and then some. Abdelkader was a key reason why game two went in favor of Detroit.

Phoenix still wanted to out play Detroit physically, the end goal being wearing them down like game one. But Detroit handled the physical play better than they did in game one. The grinders were more physical in game two than in game one. Abdelkader and Eaves were at the forefront of the Wings physical play. Their jobs were to hit Coyotes, and that's what they did.

The first period was exactly how the Coyotes wanted it to go. They continued the physical play established in game one, and ended the period with a 1-0 lead. Detroit faired better this period than they had last game against the Coyotes' physical play. Detroit was down, but in good position to win this crucial game two.

The scoring broke through in the second period. Zetterberg would net the tying goal, quickly followed by Phoenix taking the lead back. Shortly after, Datsyuk would tie it up, followed again by a quick Phoenix goal. Only a minute later, Valtteri Filpula would tie the game back up at 3-3. That was the score going into the third period.

Third period I didn't get to see; I was on my way back from curling. I did catch it on the radio but that's still not the same. Detroit scored first to take a 4-3 lead when Justin Abdelkader found the back of the net after a Coyote turnover. Shane Doan then tied it when we were searching for a clear signal. Detroit then netted the next three goals. Zetterberg's second gave Detroit the lead, the Filpula on a later power play gave the Wings a 6-4 cushion. Zetterberg got the empty netter for the hat-trick and the Wings took game two 7-4.

Important game for Detroit, as they even the series going back home. Now they have to take care of business at the Joe to keep home ice for the series. Game 3 prediction: Wings 4 Coyotes 2.