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A very solid game from the Red Wings tonight and the pressure is now on Marty Turco to play the best game of his life on Saturday to help the Stars win and show they can do it at the Joe.

Dandelions are an impressive weed. Imagine if we could somehow convert dandelions into gasoline....

Being sick is not enjoyable.... blech.

After listening to satellite radio a lot, it's very very very hard to sit through multi-minute commercial breaks on free music radio.

I wouldn't want to be a school principal these days.

I'm tired and don't feel like typing any more tonight...........

Boy the patting on the back was in full bloom after the Tigers swept the New York Yankees last week. Only thing is, that now seems like a lifetime ago following five straight losses to the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox. The scariest part of this losing streak is that it looks exactly like the funk the Tigers were in to start the season. Pitching- stinks. Defense- stinks. Hitting- non-existent.

A blog entry I wrote on March 28, Are the Tigers ready for prime time?, unfortunately seems to have been accurate in a couple of areas. First, the Tigers are not going to be a .500 team after 40 games unless they snap out of this current funk and win the next 6 straight. I'm not banking on that. Next, the pitching has stunk, not only the expected troubles from the bullpen but the starters have been way too inconsistent (other than when it comes to giving up runs). I didn't address team defense in March - but that has suffered and now Leyland has Sheffield playing left field and moved Guillen to the everyday 3rd base spot. Ugh. Finally the hitting has been atrocious, except for Curtis Granderson. Most of the Tigers hits have come at non-key times in these losing streaks - and if I don't see another double play for a month it'll still be too soon.

So what to expect next? My fear is that these losing streaks are going to be an all-too common thing for this team, completely destroying any momentum they build up. Just like what we've seen this week after the miracle in the Bronx.

There have been plenty of calls to move Inge back to 3rd base and have Guillen be the teams DH. That lineup tonight produced all of 3 hits and 0 runs. Not quite a success.

On May 6 the talk has already started... wait 'til next year. While I don't totally agree - yet - someone has to find something to wake this team up, and quickly. Being a baseball fan in Detroit this year is maddening.

The Dallas Stars are a hockey team I have a hard time working up any hate for. Maybe its the local ties with Mike Modano and the fact that Marty Turco was a star for the University of Michigan hockey team. Or that just like the way the Stars play the game. So while it's very easy to root the Red Wings on against Dallas... it won't stink nearly as bad should Dallas win the series.

I don't have a strong feeling for this upcoming series other than it will not nearly be as easy for Detroit like it was against the Avalanche. It should be a 6 or 7 game event and there will be plenty of times when Wings fans will get frustrated and even worried about the way things are going.

The wild cards for both teams- the goalies. Turco has traditionally struggled against the Wings and he'll have to do something he's never done before, win at Joe Louis Arena, if the Stars are to advance. Hopefully Osgood will remain steady for the Wings - I've not like any of the games Hasek has played coming off long breaks.

Can't wait for Thursday evening!

Red Wings sweep the Avalanche out of the NHL playoffs. Check.

Pistons move on to the second round by defeating Philadelphia in 6 games. Check.

Tigers sweep the Yankees in New York for the first time since 1966. Check.

Not a bad week of work, all of it culminating last night with all three teams on the road. We've been very fortunate in recent years here in Detroit with the successes of especially the Wings and Pistons and the return of the Tigers to being competitive. But there aren't very many evenings where all the good things lineup simultaneously. Obviously, there is much more to be accomplished for all three teams, but there's nothing wrong with us fans taking a little time to enjoy things along the way.

As for both the Pistons and Wings, the way both of those teams closed out their series' is somewhat encouraging for the next round. The Pistons should get a good challenge from Orlando, but should still be able to move on to the Eastern Conference finals in another six game series.

Right now it looks like the Red Wings will play Dallas in the Western Conference finals -- that'll prove to be a tough task and I'm guessing that even as well as the Wings looked against the devastated by injury Colorado Avalanche things are going to be much, much tougher against the Stars -- or the Sharks for that matter if they somehow mount an amazing comeback. The most intriguing thing about a matchup with Dallas is what to expect from Stars' goalie Marty Turco. He's struggled against the Wings in the past... but I bet he relishes the opportunity to help push his team past Detroit and into the Stanley Cup Finals.

I'll be watching.

Just got done watching this afternoon's Red Wings/Avalanche game (hooray) and I wonder how I survived without having a DVR before now. Sure, taping programs on a VCR was always possible, but I often overlooked it, or forgot a step, or just got lazy and didn't bother. But using a DVR is so easy, there's no good reason for a lazy sports geek like me to miss another playoff or football game that I want to watch.

Not being home or doing other things is no longer a detriment -- in fact it's an advantage because watching a game when it's so easy to skip intermissions and commercials makes the viewing so much faster.

About the only downside to this technology is from an advertisers point of view. They are going to have to get much more creative in how they reach viewers as more and more of us discover the advantages of these things. Of course, watching something live is probably still advantageous... but no longer necessary.

Been kinda busy with various things around the house and have been ignoring this blog, but I have to comment that I'm happy to see the Red Wings take game one against their re-found rival, the dreaded Colorado Avalanche. Things were looking too easy for a time last night when the Wings held a 4-1 lead. But the Av's rightly didn't show any signs of quitting and fought back to make it a very, very close finish. Probably just like how the series will go.

My star of the game was unquestionably Chris Osgood - all because of the save he made with less than 10 seconds to go with the crowd chanting his name.

One thing's for sure, it's nice to have a series against Colorado to get people fired up about hockey again. You can bet this will be a very tough series for both teams and while I'd like to think the Wings will prevail after 6 or 7 games, it's anything but a sure thing.

Just like it was silly to get too down on the Tigers because of their horrible start, it's also not wise to get overly excited by the two wins over the Minnesota Twins the last couple of evenings. While it's definitely encouraging to see signs of life from the offense, pitching and injuries continue to be a big concern. You never like to see the starting pitcher leave the game because of any stiffness - hopefully Robertson will be fine after leaving early tonight during the 7th inning.

I hope that the come from behind heroics of last night are indeed a signal that the team has turned the corner and they'll start winning more games than they lose. They are still 6 games under .500 - so there is a lot of work left just to get back to "go". Another prolonged cold spell like the one they started the season with anytime soon could spell disaster in terms of playoff hopes later in the season.

The Central Division is certainly not shaping up like people thought it would. The White Sox have definitely improved and will likely be in contention all season long. The two favorites, Detroit and Cleveland, have really struggled out of the gate. Hard to believe that as poorly as the Tigers have played so far, they sit only one game behind the Tribe after tonight's games.

The most ironic thing of the past couple nights of my sports pig out was watching the Red Wings collapse in the last 4 minutes while ignoring the Tigers ... then turning the channel to find that as the Wings lost, the Tigs had totally turned things around. Now we've got to get both teams winning at the same time...