infinite improbability

OK, since women, in general, are new to the whole sports thing let me clue you in on a few things. You can do the same when the invent artificial uterii and men can give birth. Don't get me wrong, men are responsible for women being excluded from sports, but that doesn't mean that recent inclusion shouldn't have some requisite education.

You can't say a team "sucks" that doesn't suck. You can call them overrated, you can call them the evil empire, and you can evil call them the Yankees of the NHL. But saying they "suck" when the truth is clearly to the contrary just makes you look ignorant and like you're "trying really hard" you know, like 90% of the "interviewers" on the sidelines of NFL games.

But in terms of the actual hockey, Tampa Bay is playing a pansy Islanders team in my opinion. Tampa Bay is just too well rounded for the Islanders to beat. The real test for Tampa Bay will come in the second round.

But there's still something really ridiculous about a hockey team from an area that doesn't even have real winters. I thought there oughtta be a law that you can't have a hockey team any further south than, well, Chattanooga.

Well Josiah, it seems I shall have to clue you into a few things myself.

There is more than one way to suck, and when I say that the Red Wings suck, I am not referring to their skill as a hockey team, I am referring to everything else about the Red Wings, and anybody but someone who has been blinded by the evil that is Detroit would know precisely what I mean. Furthermore, seeing as I am the same age as you are, and have been watching sports since I was born, I don't particularly think that you need to school me on anything related to sports. Stop getting your feelings hurt because I insulted your team.

I am a Red Wings Fan, and if you look at it from another perspective...the Red Wings are to Hockey what the New York Yankees are to baseball.

I just hope this year's President's Trophy isn't the Kiss of Death for us....heheheheheheh

LET'S GO RED WINGS!

Kathryn, I'm two years older than you. Unless, you know, you're 25

further, you grew up in a state, that unless you're into college football or the dolphins, has little to no sports ethos, as opposed to say, Michigan, which has great teams in every sport...well, teams with great tradition in every sport, except mebbe table hockey.

But hey, you've got, you know, old people, cubans, jews, and rednecks. Which I respect. My best friend is Jewish & from Florida. That rules.

And you're forgetting the gender issue. I've got some 6 thousand years of "males being into sports" breed into my DNA, you've got, well, like the last 40.

Ok, so you are a couple of years older. My bad. However, I can't believe that you are coming up with some sort of genetic sports fan argument, because sports is entirely a nurture thing, and if you insist otherwise, well then, you're just asking for another pencil to get tossed at you.

Not being a Floridian, you can be excused for not having a clue about Florida sports and sports ethos. Mebby where Mesh grew up there wasn't any sort of sports tradition, but the part of the state where I live has sports tradition coming out of our ears. Football? We may not have the longest pro tradition, but Florida highschools have been turning out future pros for generations, and there isn't anything you can say against our college sports. Baseball? Our professional teams may be new, but you can't fault our highschool baseball programs, which have turned out dozens of big name major leagers. It's a mistake to think that professional sports are the only thing that's important, because Florida highschool sports has the sort of history that other states could only dream of. So it's only been the last dozen years since we got hockey. So what. The Lightning have the regular season single-game attendence record that only got passed when they had a game outdoors in a football stadium. They have a single game playoff attendance record that will probably never be topped. When we get a sport, we support our team.

You know why people hate Michigan sports fans? It's because they think that they are the only people who have anything. It's highly arrogant to have a city that trademarked the name "Hockeytown," especially since the only reason that they've won as many Cups as they have is because they have the kind of payroll that can buy up all the talent. I'm not impressed by fans who root for a team like the Red Wings, because it's pretty dang easy to root for a team that wins, and I'd like to see the number of people who show up for a game if they end up in the basement of the league. Fans will evaporate just like they did with the Lions when the Lions got really bad.

I grew up in Fort Lauderdale/Miami. We have plenty of tradition, thank you. 17-0. The Csonk. Doug Flutie's hail mary, the bum. Flipper. Boston Red Sox spring training, for a time. Dan Marino. Don freakin' Shula.

No one can make a reasonable claim that Florida has a respectable basketball or hockey history. Baseball's a tougher call: it's my opinion that only the World Series has more purity than Spring Training, where hundreds of young hopefuls and aging players spar with the multi-millionare stars. And south Florida's football tradition, with its mid-70s glories and subsequent devistations, can be anybody's football tradition anywhere, any time. Flipper, man.

let me get this right, you're arguing against Michigan's century old college & pro league sports tradition with...Florida high school sports tradition??

That's just silly.

and further, Michigan/Detroit fans aren't known for being hated, you're thinking St. Louis fans or Oakland fans. Michigan fans ARE known for being fiercly loyal, unless you're snorting some bizarre sports history that I've never heard of. Sports team in Detroit have historically been a racially uniting factor and have played some pretty fascinating roles in the history of Detroit.

What's really funny about the Redwings being the Yankees of hockey is that you'd be hard pressed to find a major metropolitan city any more different from NYC. Detroit is a struggling, run-down, post-industrial multiracial metropolis. People root for their teams in Detroit so fiercely because that's all they've got. Plus it's a generational thing. My dad rooted for the Tigers/Lions/Wings/Wolverines and so did his dad.

It's a beautiful thing.

You folks from florida, san Dolphins, can claim to have a sports tradition when a. more than one generation in your family was born in the state
and b. your parents rooted for your team before you were born

Once you meet those two qualifications, then you can join the club, but only as a "newbie" and you certainly can't strut your stuff. It's just disrespectful.

islanders: 2
lightning: 0

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redwings: 2
predators: 1

Gotta give props to vokoun for scoring the second detroit goal