Garret Craig

Video Highlights

I’ll add highlights of the last two games as soon as I have time. These videos video can also be accessed through my Dad’s account on Youtube, or through the play-list I made on my account.

Photos

Click here for pictures of the entire weekend, including Go-Karts and at the Hotel. If you have any photos to add to this collection, please e-mail them to either dean@gotwww.com, dianne@gotwww.com, or garret@gotwww.com. These photos can also be seen on Facebook.

Game Results

Game 1 - Flint Steelers Fire (1), Farmington Flash (1)

(Goal(s) scored by Jared Sterba (1))

Game 2 - Flint Steelers Fire (2), PASS Impact (1)

(Goal(s) scored by Michael Boyne (2))

Game 3 - Flint Steelers Fire (3), ROYSA Renegades (0)

(Goal(s) scored by Kenny Allen (1), Connor Carey (1), Michael Boyne (1))

Championship - Flint Steelers Fire (2), East Lansing (1)

(Goal(s) scored by Kenny Allen (2))

The Detroit Red Wings are aiming for their 4th Stanley Cup in 11 seasons. The Pittsburgh Penguins are trying for their 3rd in franchise history. The Pens go in with just 3 players who have previously lifted the cup. Detroit has 10, 2 of which being their starting and back-up goalies, Chris Osgood and Dominik Hasek respectively.

The Penguins will be led by 20-year-old captain Sidney Crosby, while Detroit will ride the experience of 38-year-old captain Niklas Lidstrom, who has one the cup with the Detroit Red Wings 3 times in 97, 98, and 02.

The average age of the Detroit Red Wings is a still-young 32.3. While the average age of the Pittsburgh Penguins is a much lower 27.9.

I believe this will be the biggest factor as the Red Wings win the cup in 5 games.

The Dallas Stars avoided being swept by the Detroit Red Wings Wednesday night as they beat the Wings 3-1 thanks to some biased “new era” NHL refereeing (Yes, I’m still trying to get over it). But an unbiased read into the statistics says that the Wings will finish up the Stars on Saturday at the Joe.

I’ll start with something that seems to be on everybody’s list already; Marty Turco. His career numbers against the Red Wings are far less than good, 3-13-5. To make things worse, the majority of his problems have been at Joe Louis Arena, where he is 0-9-2 with a goals against average well over 3.

Then comes Playoff history. The Dallas Stars have gone 0-3 in their franchises’ attempts to come back from a 3-0 playoff deficit, however, after game four, they are 3-1 in their attempts to avoid being swept, which they did Wednesday night.

When leading a playoff series 3-1, the Detroit Red Wings have a 14-2 series record and an 8-8 Game 5 record. The Stars, when trailing a series 3-1, are 0-8 in their comeback attempts and 4-4 Game 5 record.

The Stars and Wings may both be .500 in this situation going into the game Saturday, but if you factor in Turco’s struggles, it’s going to be tough for the Stars to even keep this close.

I’ll take the Red Wings, in game 5, 3-2 in OT.

The Detroit Tigers lost a rare pitchers duel last night to the Kansas City Royals, 3-2. With the loss, they fall to 16-23, 7 games below the .500 mark. They finally got a good start from their pitching (Nate Robertson went a strong 7), but the offense failed to convert their nine hits into more than two runs.

The offense (projected before the season to possibly score over 1,000 runs), has shown signs of coming out of their slump since Curtis Granderson came back from the DL on April 23rd, but has still been kept under 4 runs 10 times in those 18 games. You may also find it interesting that they have lost all 10 of those games. For the entire season, they have only lost three times when scoring more than 3 runs.

The bottom line is inconsistency. They score 10 runs, then only 1 run, then all the way up to 6 runs, and then they fall to 2 runs for the next two games. Their starting pitching isn’t helping either, with the worst ERA in baseball. A Tigers starting pitcher has not yet recorded a complete game, which makes them the only team not to have a starter go a complete 9 innings in the AL.

Does this sound like a team that cost $150,000,000? I didn’t think so.

The Tigers batted around Kei Igawa last night in their 6-5 victory over New York, and have now won 2 of their last three games. Despite being held to just one run against Josh Beckett on Thursday night, the Tigers have scored 17 runs over the past three games.

Last night, Ivan ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez went 3-4 with 2 RBI’s, Placido Polanco and Magglio Ordonez each went 2-4 with an RBI, Gary Sheffield doubled in a run of his own, going 1-4, and improving his average to .204.

The Tigers are now 4th in the AL (7th in the MLB) in batting average, and 2nd in the AL (6th in the MLB) in total runs scored. The Tigers also find themselves 2nd in the AL (5th in the MLB) in base-on-balls.

But don’t get too excited, the Tigers pitching is still among the worst in the league statistically. They’ve given up the most runs in the MLB with 204, and they have the worst ERA in the MLB with a staggering 5.10.

The Tigers will try to put a streak together as they play the Yankees today (Saturday) at 3:40p. Jeremy Bonderman will duel Darrell Rasner.

The Red Wings kept up their momentum from Colorado last Thursday into the Joe tonight, as they handled the Dallas Stars with ease winning 4-1 and taking a 1-0 series lead.

Penalties killed the Stars in Game 1, as Detroit went 3 for 7 with the advantage (stats were skewed by two Dallas penalties in the final minute). Dallas was 0 for 4 with the man advantage.

Johan Franzen remains hot, recording the game winning goal at 15:34 of the first period which gave the Red Wings a 2-0 lead.

Chris Osgood refused to slow down, stopping 20 of the 21 shots he faced–plenty of which were quality scoring chances. Meanwhile, Marty Turco stopped 27 of 31 shots as he continues his win-less drought at the Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings win streak continues to 7, while Chris Osgood remains unbeaten in his 7 starts. Detroit also has not dropped a contest at home in 6 games. They will try to continue all of these streaks Saturday night as they try to extend their lead to 2-0 at the JLA.

They just don’t seem to care any more. The moves by Jim Leyland Monday were supposed to give the Tigers some sort of new energy, but the Tigers batters will have none of it. The Tigers, who scored three runs last night, and were shut out 5-0 tonight, are now averaging 2.2 runs in the past 5 games, and 4.7 runs per game over the first 34 games.

Let me take you to the bottom of the 8th inning, two outs, “All-Star” Ivan ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez at the plate. Pudge lines it down the right field line into the corner. Now most players, not making the money Rodriguez is, would be running hard out of the box, putting some pressure on the opposing team and maybe trying to spark a rally. But Ivan Rodriguez, since he knows he’s just an amazing player, trots around the base paths like he just hit a grand slam. This is just one of the many things I’ve seen over the last month+ that tell me this team doesn’t want to win a World Series.

Why? They have no reason to. Most of these players have guaranteed money for many years to come. And good money too. Just as one example, Miguel Cabrera is locked up for 8 years, and if he never hits the ball again in his career, he will be set for life with $153.3 million. That comes out to $120,000 every game in the next 8 years. What incentive does Miguel have to win?

Gary Sheffield, who will make around 13 million this year, and around $80,000 per game, is currently hitting .176 with 2 home runs. The Tigers have him locked up through next year. That sounds promising doesn’t it?

Until now, I’ve been preaching “We’re only a few games back, we’ll be OK.” All I can say now is that Tigers fans have reason to be scared.

So much for a “rivalry sparking playoff duel”. The Wings tossed the Avs to the side Thursday night, winning 8-2, and finishing off a four game sweep of Colorado.

Johan Franzen was sensational, scoring a hat trick by the end of the second period. Franzen has now scored 26 goals in his last 26 games going back to the regular season on Sun Mar 2 @ Buffalo when he recorded a goal and an assist while filling in for the injured Thomas Holmstrom. The “Mule” now leads all playoff scoring with 11 goals. Daniel Briere of the Flyers is a long-shot second with 8 goals.

Mikael Samuelsson and Henrik Zetterberg each recorded two goals of their own in the rout.

Detroit will now go to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight year. They will face either Dallas or San Jose. Tired Wings fans would prefer Dallas, who currently leads the Sharks 3-1 in their series which continues Friday night @ San Jose.