lordstanley

https://www.nhl.com/news/topic/quarter-century-team/detroit-red-wings-quarter-century-teams Red Wings' "quarter-century team" (2000-2025) named.

Win! 4-2 final.

I've never been to a game at the Bell Centre, just in their lobby and merch store in the summer. Have been to a few games at the old Forum and it was always electric. Late January game in cold, snowy Montreal when the Habs have surged into playoff position? Should be a great atmosphere. My daughter goes to school there, McGill, and went to a game with her boyfriend before Christmas when he visited from Vancouver, so she can show me the ropes at the "new" place (opened 1996 I believe).

2-goal lead after 2, Wings ahead 4-2. Berggren, DeBrincat, Copp and Larkin with the goals.

Love when the Wings score in dying seconds of period. DeBrincat makes it 2-0 over red hot Habs. I will be in Montreal and expect to see Wild @ Habs on Thursday.

I'm just really bummed we don't get another game out of them this weekend. The offense was a joy to watch all season. Even on Saturday they gave us breathtaking plays like the LaPorta catch and the Jamo end around. Goff who earlier in the season was tossing perfect games completion-wise ignores a wide open LaPorta for a pick 6 and then underthrows the ball into the end zone to end the half. Where does that come from?? I said at the beginning of the game a reasonable objective would be 42 points - three first half TDs and three second half TDs. Even with all the mistakes they were well on that pace midway through the 3rd period, but who knew even that might not be enough. It just doesn't seem right that they're one and done. A loss to Philadelphia this weekend would have been tough to take, being so close to the Super Bowl, but at least then I would have felt they lost to a team that as of late January 2025 had a better active roster. It stings when you shoot yourself in the foot and lose to a team you feel you're better than. Being pushed so hard for the #1 seed and to then bow out immediately reminds me of the Tigers of 1987 finally winning out after the epic pennant race only to be eliminated by the Twins before we knew it.

Johnson signing so quickly after the loss is bad optics, but that may be all it is. It's like if a hitter gets off to a slow start after signing a big contract, fans will jump on him as coasting compared to when he was gunning for a new contract. Is there a psychological letdown after signing a new contract? Ask the player and he will deny it and probably genuinely believe there wasn't a letdown, but maybe it's human nature to have one. Similarly, I'm sure Ben genuinely believes that he wasn't distracted last week and that it didn't impact his game planning at all. But what human could be 100% laser focused if you know you're days away from landing a head coaching position you've been dreaming of and working towards for years, one that comes with a $13mm salary. But blame that on the NFL and it's coaching windows, not Ben. Besides, the more I think of It, Ben's game plan and play calls weren't the problem on Saturday. The Lions moved the ball freely and picked up tons of yardage. Virtually all drives ended either in a Lions TD or a turnover. Of the turnovers, the pick-6 and the interception into the end zone near the end of the 1st half weren't at all Ben's fault, and the interception near the end zone in the game's final minute wasn't Ben's fault and in any event was a garbage time irrelevancy by then. So that leaves two questionable play calls. I'm coming around to the view that the 3rd and 1 play call up 7-3 wasn't horrible, although I didn't like it at the time and still don't love it. The Lions were still 17 yards from the end zone. Yeah, a run on 3rd down probably would have got you a couple of yards for the 1st down, leaving you 15 yards away from the TD. But if the goal is a TD on the drive, and you think an empty set helps in freeing up St. Brown for a quick pass that will get you inside the 10 and that he might even break for a touchdown, then I can see trying that. Expected downside would be an incompletion that sets up a makeable 4th and 1, or at worse a sack that forces a FG. A strip sack isn't caused by a bad play call, it's caused by a Glasgow missed block AND a ASB stumble AND Goff not holding on to the ball better. That leaves the Jameson pass for an interception, a play call I can't defend and that snuffed out much of the remaining hope, but the game at 38-28 was practically lost by then anyways. Even a TD on that drive by the Lions would have been for naught unless the defense made a stop on the Commanders' next possession, which they showed no signs of doing.

Ohio St. beat the #2,#3, #4 and #9 teams of the final AP ranking in the playoff and beat the #5 and #10 teams in the regular season. Rarely has there been a national champion so clearly better than the rest.

Happens so often. Kane has chance at one end, but caught up so comes back other way and Philly wins.

The last minute of a regulation of a tie game is often played conservatively, but the Wings swarmed and had chances to score. Especially Copp. Off to overtime with the Wings seeking just their 3rd win in their past 23 games in Philadelphia.

Chiarot-shaboom! Tie game, now with 11 minutes left in regulation.

No shame in going for 0 for Florida this past weekend, but tonight at Philadelphia is a game the Wings need to win if they are to keep momentum from the coaching change. 1-0 Flyers after 2. Edit: braincramp, it wasn't 0 for Florida. It was losses to Tampa and Dallas, after beating the Panthers last week.

I read 44 books in 2024. Of these, 30 were non-fiction, 14 were fiction. Also of the 44, men wrote 30 of them, women wrote 14 of them. I read almost exclusively on Kindle these days and did a purge/donation of most of my print books a few years ago. So while I don't really have a physical library, I do keep track on a spreadsheet the title and author of each book I read and have done so since 2009. Some of my favorites from 2024, in no particular order: Non-Fiction Endurance - Alfred Lansing (classic about doomed Antarctic expedition a century ago; one of the few books I've ever re-read, which I do every decade or so) A Walk in the Park - Kevin Fedarko (Grand Canyon adventure) Destiny Disrupted - Tamin Ansary (history from an Islamic perspective) How The Word Is Passed - Clint Smith (essays on race/slavery by visiting various sites with historical or modern significance) To The Field Of Stars - Kevin Codd (on walking Spain's Camino de Santiago, which I did this September) Why We Love Baseball - Joe Posnanski (considers dozens of moments and personalities over time, some familiar, some not so familiar) The Teachers - Alexandra Robbins (an educator's perspective on the challenges and rewards of the profession) Revelation For Normal People - Robyn Whitaker (making sense of the final book of the New Testament) Fiction Normal People - Sally Rooney (about two Irish teens growing into adulthood together and apart, made into a BBC TV series available on Hulu) Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (English aristocracy a century ago, made into a TV series in the '80s) Kindred - Octavia Butler (late 20th century black woman who time travels back and forth between the South of the early 1800s and today) A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles (Count returns to Russia around 1918, lives under house arrest in a hotel for the next quarter-century or so) Margo's Got Money Troubles - Rufi Thorpe (fun; a single mom who was the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler; turns to OnlyFans to make a living)

You'll end up with big boobs no matter what.

Campbell will want to beat him hard in head to head games, but is surely thrilled for Johnson. It’s a feather in the cap to Campbell and the Lions too. When before has anyone ever wanted a Lion head coach or coordinator? Johnson did what’s best for himself, his family and his career, just like lawyers and accountants and salespeople and secretaries do all the time when they jump to a promotion with another company.

I've been checking out Twitter. Haven't seen fans turn on Ben Johnson so quickly since he tested positive for steroids 2 days after winning 100m gold at the Seoul Olympics.

I'm not fussed about Ben going to the Bears, but I wish he wasn't grabbing Dennis Allen too. https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/news/ben-johnson-assembling-superstar-coaching-staff-chicago-bears-dennis-allen

And the Lions problem wasn't moving the ball. Their one and only punt was 67 seconds into the game. The only other times the Lions failed to either score a TD or get inside the Skins' 30 were the 1st interception by Goff and the interception by Jamo. The problem was the red zone fumble up 7-3, an interception into the end zone to end the 1st half, and a red zone interception in the final minute of the game. 11 drives: 1 punt, 4 TDs, 1 FG, 5 turnovers.

Highest total yards, 521, of the 8 teams. Only the Commanders were within 100 yards of that. 2nd most points scored of the 8 teams, behind only the Commanders of course. But no team in the other 3 games gave up more than 28 points, compared to the 45 points yielded by the Lions.

What do Chris Smith, Jonah Williams, Morice Norris Jr, Myles Adam and Stantley Thomas-Oliver III have in common? They all took snaps for the Lions on defense on Saturday.

Our coaching staff and players had no real chance. Once the Commanders won the opening coin toss and brilliantly chose to defer, I knew we were doomed and that the game was practically over.

Kasper scores the only goal in a 4-1 loss. Outscored a combined 9-2 this weekend.

Yeah the Stafford love if the Rams had won today would have been over the top, as if he's some magic man. The Lions have had a better record than the Rams each of the past 3 seasons, the Lions beat the Rams in the playoffs last season, and the Lions beat the Rams in the regular season this year. He has his Super Bowl. Great. Well done. He deserved it. But the trade is just as much of a win-win today as it was a week ago.

Wings are coming back down to earth this weekend. After losing 5-1 to Tampa yesterday, they trail Dallas 3-0 after 1 tonight.

Jamo is extremely talented but still a bit of a goofball. Who else on the Lions starts sticking the ball out and prancing around when still 15 yards from the end zone, like he did on his long touchdown. That’s on the coaches for putting Jamo in that position in that time and place. Might as well be throwing to Sewell or Skipper in that situation, not that I would’ve recommended that either!