Red Wings look like the Dead Wings in playoffs

The first team to hit the links in the Stanley Cup playoffs is the one 56 miles north of my house via I-75. The Red Wings showed everything that is wrong with them in losing to Nashville in five. They may be built for the regular season grind. But they were too old, too gutless, too weak and too unwilling and unmotivated to do the little things that are needed to hoist Sord Stanley high in the air for the 12th time in Detroit’s storied hockey history.

Point 1 — Too old: The Red Wings are the second oldest team in the NHL; the Devils being number one in age. Lidstrom is 42, Holmstrom is a worn-out 39. Many others are in their low to mid 30s, and, except for Datsyuk and Zetterberg, their pathetic play against the Predators showed it. The Preds had the advantage in speed, and it showed even to a blind person. Lidstrom was beaten to the puck in the corner many times. That happened a lot to him last year, but no one in the Detroit media had the guts to admit that fact when the Sharks sent them home in the conference semifinals. You can’t count on the young kids to do the heavy lifting in the playoffs, unless the kids’ names are Orr, Howe, Gretzky and Esposito (both Tony and Phil). That’s where the vets have to step up their play, and the old Detroiters didn’t do that.

Point 2 — Too gutless, weak and unwilling: Except for Bertuzzi who went after Weber after he plastered Zetterberg’s head into the glass at the end of game one, the Red Wings didn’t put up much resistance to the Predators’ checking and hitting. I’d say the number of times they engaged their opponents in anything even resembling rough play was maybe one per game. They let Nashville push them around. How many times did the Wings crash Rinne? Maybe once in five games. Driving to the net is a staple in hockey, but only Hudler did it and he scored the Wings’ only goal in the fifth game. The Wings took way too many shots from the perimeter that Rinne caught easily, rarely letting out juicy rebounds for the Wings to fire back at him. The nasty zone in front of the goalie where you know an offensive player is going to get popped was rarely occupied by a player wearing a red-and-white sweater. Needed next year in Motown are more guys who are more than willing to get their noses bloodied and ribs and ankles hacked. That’s how you score goals in the playoffs. Detroit’s pretty-boy European hockey style does not win Stanley Cup titles in the post-lockout era.

 
Point 3 — Lack of motivation was grossly apparent, despite what the players and Babcock continued to tell Wing fans. A lot of fault goes to Babcock. To me, they looked like they could care less after losing game 3 at home. In reality, they looked lackadaisical at the end of March and early in April. How do you lose to the Blue Jackets when you need two points to finish ahead of the Predators? Not only a lack of motivation but a lack of smart thinking did them in. How can you explain a Predator taking three Wings, including Lidstrom and Howard, into the corner with him and then letting him pass the puck to a teammate that gets him a Christmas present for a goal in game 4? The Wings just didn’t have the hunger for the playoffs. Maybe they thought the 23 straight wins at home were good enough for them to live off during the summer. Their last game of the playoff was also their most listless and disinterested one.

Opening Day! Questions about the Tigers.

Baseball's under way. Conventional wisdom has the Tigers walking through the AL Central and winning it by 50 games…at least that’s what the sports pundits think will happen and want us to believe. No other team stands a chance against the Tigers, who are portrayed as the team that has all the talent in the world to get a World Series champs parade in downtown Detroit in November. Well, the Tigers give me pause to ask the following questions as I go position by position, as I am thusly concerned about:

1.       LF -- Can Delmon Young again crush pitches like he did last year as a Tiger, not as a Twinkie?
2.      CF – Can Austin Jackson strike out only 120 times this year instead of 181 and hit better than .250, like last year?
3.      RF – Can Brennan Boesch play the whole season without getting hurt?
4.      3B – Can Cabrera be counted on fielding his new position like Inge does while still hitting .344 with 30HRs?
5.      SS – Can Peralta be counted on to hit.300 with power again? He hit .299 last year with 21 taters.
6.      2B – Can Rayburn finally hit over .250 from April to July 4 instead of his annual .180 and still finish strong after the All-Star game like he always does?
7.      1B – Can Fielder hit 30+ taters while playing 81 games in Comerica Park, a park very friendly to taters only from mid-May to mid-September?
8.      C – Can Avila avoid a huge slump and repeat his fabulous 2011 season of 19 taters and a .295 BA?
9.      DH – Can Leyland find one as good as Victor Martinez was last year?
10.    SP – Can Verlander, Fister, Scherzer and Porcello win more than the 61 games they won among themselves last year? Can Leyland find a 5th starter to win 10 games from the rookies and second-year guys on their roster now or do they have to bring back Bad Penny from the scrap heap in Japan?
11.     RP – Can Valverde save every game as perfectly like last year? Can Benoit be near perfect like he was after May 15th? Can Coke not be a choke against right-handed hitters? Can Al Alburquerque’s right arm heal so he can be Leyland’s go-to-guy in the 7th inning? Can Daniel Schlereth keep the wolfman look at bay by shaving every day and still eat up lefty hitters like last year?
12.    Subs – Can Cringe finally hit better than last year’s .197? [Probably not!] Can Santiago hit more dingers than Inge did last year, 5 to 3?  [yes.] Can Gerald Laird be a decent back-up to Avila and hit over .200 for once in his life? Can Don Kelly be Leyland’s every-position-guy and hit better than last year’s .245?
13.    Coaching – Will Leyland continue to diss the media, win or lose? [Sure hope so.] Will Gene Lamont continue his impressions of Wendell Kim sending runners to an easy out at home plate?

End of the basketball season at UT

All the basketballs on Bancroft Street have been put into storage until October. The Rocket gals ended their season in an 74-73 OT loss to Syracuse. It was tied at 64 after regulation play. The Orange girls outscored UT 10-9 in OT to win the game. The Rockets really played a poor game on their floor by the stats. They shot 31% from the field on 2-point tries, inexcusably missing several layups, and were 7 for 19 for 38% on the 3-pointers. They really killed themselves at the free-throw line, too, making only 24 of 41 shots for 58%. Last year the Rockets beat Syracuse in the WNIT but this year, it went the other way. It was a tough way for them to end the season. No matter, the future of men’s and women’s basketball for our alma mater is looking great.