The Sports Post

I think I probably do one of these about once per month, right? Let's hit the circuit.

The Tigers are starting to look like they'll win 95 games again. The offense was cooking last night. Durbin had a 3-spot when he took the mound; that had to feel good for a guy whose ERA was also the amount of his lunch check yesterday. Sheffield and Ordonez just need to be average. Nothing more. Granderson is rockin,' Guillen is doing fine, Inge needs to step it up, and so does Monroe. Just hit, guys! The weather can't be an excuse forever.

Last comment on last night's Tigers game: Zumaya didn't get any calls. Yeah, he was rattled, but he got about 5 bad calls. That was not cool.

Red Wings and Sharks starts tonight. I'm nervous. I think most Wings' fans most vivid memory of the Sharks is April 1994, Game 7, 1st round (or Western Conference Quarterfinals for those who prefer the official NHL lexicon). Osgood tries to clear the puck around the right side boards, Jamie Baker pinches it, keeps it in the zone, and fires it past Osgood to clinch the series for San Jose. A 1-8 upset. It was awful. At that moment, I thought that team would NEVER win a Cup. So 13 years later, the Sharks still make me nervous. I worry that they're a similar team to the Wings with a Shanahan-style scorer in Jonathan Cheechoo. I think this game, and series, will be won in the Wings own end. The Wings need to hold SJ to less than 25 shots every night. Any more than that and they lose.

The real reason for the fear of play in their own zone is what we saw in the Calgary series. In Game 3 especially, good forechecking by the Flames and sloppy passing by the Wings saw a lot of quality scoring chances for Calgary. It doesn't matter how good you are, most goalies are not going to do particularly well against point blank shots from guys like Phaneuf and Iginla. Same goes for Thornton and Cheechoo. PROTECT THE PUCK. Hopefully Zetterberg is back for Game 2 (flu tonight), or things could get tricky. I still take the Wings in 6.

EEEEWWWW. This just in: Zetterberg will play tonight, Holmstrom will miss Games 1-3. Not good.

All of this renders the Pistons game almost unnecessary to watch. "Oh, but Games 1 and 2 were close!" you say. No. No they weren't. Orlando had no chance to win either game. I love Jameer Nelson. He's a very good player. We went to the same university. He was largely responsible for one of the best seasons in St Joe's history. But he turns the ball over too much for Orlando to have a shot at winning even one game against the Pistons. If it's a fast-paced game tonight, it will not even be close. Pistons win by 12.

And a pox upon your house if you're planning to watch the NFL draft. Don't succumb to the stupidity. Kornheiser is basically saying that he'll be there because he gets a check for being there.