lordstanley

Scheduling quirk in that 3 of the Wings’ final 10 games are against the same non-divisional opponent, Philadelphia.

San Jose scores late to beat Columbus in regulation while Dallas doubles Pittsburgh in regulation. This and the Ottawa loss makes it good enough day in the out of scoreboard. Wings are 1 pt behind 2nd wildcard Columbus with a game in hand but the Wings have a better point percentage.

Tampa beats Ottawa in regulation. NYI beats Florida in regulation. I'll take it. Means the Wings again control their playoff destiny. Tied with Ottawa but with a game in hand. 3 pts behind NYI but with 2 games in hand. So the Wings are still behind NYI, but if the Wings beat Philly they'd pull back to 1 pt behind NYI with 1 game in hand so would be ahead on points %.

If Ottawa and Detroit both win today AND Columbus and NYI both lose in OT/SO AND Pittsburgh and Boston both lose in regulation, there’d be a 6-way tie at 88 pts with 9 games to go.

I read this when people were chatting about Chris Pittaro the other day. https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-8-1985-detroits-chris-pittaro-lives-up-to-managers-hype-on-celebratory-opening-day/ But when Pittaro hit well over .300 and displayed good instinctual glove work during spring training, Tigers manager Sparky Anderson raised eyebrows, gushing that Pittaro had “a chance to be the greatest second baseman who ever lived.”4 Anderson was known for talking up young players, sometimes out of proportion to their talent. But in this case, Anderson was so enamored with his prospect that he went beyond verbal hype. In late March he controversially reassigned All-Star Lou Whitaker from second to third base to make room for the youngster.5 The switcheroo was met with consternation by Whitaker (and reportedly some teammates), so Detroit’s skipper backtracked a few days later on his head-scratching move that would have broken up the duo of Whitaker and future Hall of Fame shortstop Alan Trammell – widely regarded as one of the greatest double-play combinations in baseball history.6 Still determined to find a position for the “best rookie infielder [he had] seen in 15 years of managing,” Anderson declared that Pittaro would open the season as the club’s third baseman

Today is massive. Teams #5-#10 in the East have between 86-88 points and all are in action today, none against each other, with start times in waves. Fighting for 4 spots. Recall the Wings need to beat 2 of those other 5 teams, with at least one of the two being Ottawa or Boston. In ( ) are pts Amand games remaining. 1pm ET Ottawa (86,10) at Tampa Florida at NYI (87,9) 5pm ET Minnesota at Boston(88,10) Dallas at Pittsburgh(88,10) San Jose at Columbus (87,10) 8pm ET Philadelphia at Detroit (86,10) So all the five the other teams will have finished play before the Wings start their game. Tampa, Minnesota and Dallas might be the best hopes for doing the Wings a favour. Habs (90,11) have put some distance between them and the Wings but I am still cheering for Nashville to beat them to tighten things up.

Struck out the side!

Is McGonigle the Tigers’ best hitter?

Wings match last year’s points total at 86. Most they’ve had during this playoff drought was 91 two years ago when they lost out on the playoffs through the tiebreaker.

Wings win! Only the 7th loss for Buffalo in its past 44 games.

A Kane ENG seals it. 5-2 Wings with just over to go.

Wings survive the frantic remainder of the 2nd period. 3-1 Wings after 2. A win would get the Wings right back into the playoff race but the Sabres look fearsome.

Edvinsson hurt on a late hit

Tage Thompson blasts one. 3-1.

Make it 3!

Great leg save by Gibson on Dahlin.

Another powerplay goal! 2-0

Wings get an early powerplay goal in Buffalo. Need at least 3 points from today and tomorrow.

And seems odd to me that Mickey Lolich and Ozzie Smith were teammates on the 1978 Padres.

It's really hard to finish bottom 5. Look at the Wings' 2022 lineup. Would you have traded leading scorer Larkin? Maybe could have traded 2nd leading score Bertuzzi a year earlier. But not played Seider or Raymond? I don't think having Pius Suter, Sam Gagner, Robby Fabbri, Vladimir Namestnikov or Adam Erne propped up the roster. And yet the Wings still finished with 74 points, which was 11 points above 5th overall. https://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/DET/2022.html In 2023, the Wings finished with 80 points, which was 20 pts above 4th overall and 12th above 5th overall. But their 2nd and 3rd scorers were David Perron and Dominik Kubalik, it's not like the Wings were trying to ice a strong roster. https://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/DET/2023.html

6, of course.

And Sirius XM was only 1 pitch behind my TV today. So I’m fine using it going forward for when I’m audio only. If it was a full at bat behind I’d feel out of sync with the world. Here is a deeper dive into McGonigle’s at bats.

Chris Pittaro’s big moment, narrated by Eli Zaret, at the 2m 50s mark.

MLB.com used to offer one Free Game of the Day. I don’t see them doing that so far this year.