Trying something a little different this time around. Feedback is appreciated so let me know if you'd like to see more of this in the future or if you I should stick to the written word!

In an effort to keep things a little more up to date and fresh around here, I'm going to chime in a little more frequently with my thoughts on some current stories and happenings from all over the world of sports. So here is what I'm thinking about right now:

The Dodgers and Manny Ramirez

Let me start by saying that while the Detroit Tigers are surely my favorite baseball team, I've also always followed the Dodgers and would consider them my NL team. Usually all that leads to is a Yankees type syndrome where I wonder why they spend a ton of money on guys and then inevitably come up short late in the year or the postseason. This year has been different however. While they have spent some money, many of the guys contributing for the team right now aren't exactly household names. They came out of the gates firing and haven't looked back despite the suspension of Manny. He's half way through his 50 games already, but Juan Pierre has stepped in admirably, and LA is going to be faced with an interesting decision when Ramirez comes back. I'd also like to say that I love what Joe Torre has done. How many Yankee fans out there now are still saying "it wasn't Torre, it was the team he had". I think he's proven he knows what he's doing and up until about 2-3 weeks ago, the Yankees probably would have been dying to have him back.


The French Open

I realize most people don't give a damn about tennis, and I don't generally care all that much myself, however the streak of Rafael Nadal has to be noted. The man finally lost on the clay at Roland Garros yesterday, for the first time EVER! He had won 4 straight French Opens and won 31 consecutive matches, which for the record is ALL of the ones he had played there. That's a phenomenal accomplishment and one not likely to be matched there, or anywhere else anytime soon. Roger Federer is struggling this morning as well, maybe American Andy Roddick will finally have a chance at a Grand Slam title?

LeBron James

A couple of points to be made here. Let's just say I'm a bit disappointed in his behavior after Game 6 and I think it's kind of disrespectful to walk off and not even congratulate the Magic on winning the series. Now I understand that the guy is ultra competitive and he probably felt like "his" year was ruined at that point. Everything pointed to the Cavs at the very least making the finals, and quite likely winning the championship after collecting the best regular season record and sweeping 2 straight opponents in the playoffs, but they couldn't solve Orlando. Now, LeBron is usually one of the most respectful and genuinely nice guys you see in the NBA, so I'll give him a pass this one time, but I hope this doesn't signal some sort of change in him. Unhappy and upset as he may have been, and no matter how much he disliked getting beaten, he still needs to show the proper respect and congratulate the opposition as the better team. Additionally, the next year is going to be incredibly annoying, as we have to listen to all this discussion of where he might end up for 2010 nonstop. Many people are going to be very turned off and I'm betting there is some sort of backlash, more so than has already begun, towards James throughout the year, even though it's not exactly his fault.

Stanley Cup Finals

Thus far the Red Wings just have too much depth for the Penguins to do anything about. Detroit has done a fairly good job of neutralizing Crosby and Malkin while also getting scoring from all over their own roster. Marc-Andre Fleury has not looked particularly sharp thus far either, allowing some weak goals along the way. He'll obviously need to turn it around big time heading back to Pittsburgh if the Penguins want to make this a competitive series. As for Malkin's antics last night and the league's subsequent actions, I think it's a complete and total joke. Malkin did what needed to be done in showing some fire and trying to get his teammates to turn up the intensity heading into Game 3, but how he did it was stupid. He basically snuck behind the net and went at Henrik Zetterburg from behind, and the first punch he threw in their "fight" was with his stick still in his hand.

At the time he was given an intstigator penalty, which I think was clearly the right call, he literally is the one that started a fight out of what was just a small scrum (caused by a Penguin poking at Chris Osgood when he clearly had control of the puck, something you just don't do). The problem with that was that if a player is called for an instigator penalty in the last 5:00 of a game, it's an automatic suspension for the following game. Well, the NHL quickly reviewed the incident after the game and deemed that the call was wrong, and that Malkin's penalty would be rescinded, therefore no suspension. Wow, doesn't sound like the league just wants one of their top stars to be playing in the Finals and wants the Penguins to have a shot at getting back in the series at all does it? A complete farce in my opinion and I think most people other than Penguin fans would agree. It's bad enough Sidney Crosby already gets the Golden Boy treatment and is pretty much allowed to do whatever he wants, but I find this quick change by the NHL to be appalling. I was already against Pittsburgh from the outset, but now I think my dislike has grown even more.

ESPN

Now, I've steadily like the network less and less for awhile now, but it just keeps getting worse. Sportscenter is more or less a joke these days with highlights and stats being secondary more often than not (I suggest ESPNews if that's what you're looking for). Now a show looks more like this: NBA Finals coverage, baseball highlights, LeBron did this, tennis highlight (during a grand slam event only of course), Dwight Howard wants to win a title, baseball highlight, Kobe ate dinner, NHL highlight (60 seconds maximum, only for the Cup Finals, and only if Crosby/Malkin are involved), stupid fabricated story, etc. They only care about whatever sports are on their network and the biggest market teams at this point. Even 5 years ago things were much better. Add to this the fact that college softball has been all over their networks for the past week, which I'm sure must be a ratings juggernaut, though, it's still better than marathons of the World Series of Poker all weekend long, and you can see what I'm saying. I know this is the slow time of year in the sports world, and it only gets worse once the NBA and NHL wrap up, but the channel as a whole has become mostly unwatchable to me.

I’ve tried voodoo dolls. I’ve tried playing with an Ouija board. I’ve gone to a tarot card reader and I even altered my picks so much so that I effectively lost the picks competition again this year. But its ok I thought, as long as Pittsburgh loses it will be all worth it. Well not only did I sacrifice my picks, but the Penguins are headed to the Cup for the second straight year. So hopefully, much like last year, the Red Wings will dominate the Pens again en route to another championship for HockeyTown.

I’ll be honest. I watched about two minutes combined of the Eastern Conference Finals. I figured it was wise to benefit my personal health and avoid watching the series altogether. Last Friday night I got that hockey itch and turned the game on, only to turn it off about 80 seconds later when Sidney Crosby had already put Pittsburgh up 1-0. What can I say? The Penguins are good. There, I hope everyone is happy.

(I still don't understand how changing a coach mid-season can be the real reason for this. I say they were tanking it till the switch was made.)

On the other hand it looks like the Hurricanes luck finally ran out. FINALLY. After several lucky wins and even more lucky bounces, karma finally caught up with the Canes. Lucky for them, nobody really cares.

The Blackhawks somewhat disappointed their fans, although I’m not sure if anybody really expected them to win. Their goaltending has been suspect for most of the post-season and a team like Detroit is way too good to not take advantage. Of course, it helps when Brian Campbell tries to be fancy and ends up giving away a game like he did in Game Two. I’m willing to bet the majority of ‘Hawks fans aren’t exactly celebrating Campbell’s big contract one season later.

So here we go; the end is finally near. One more series and we can officially put a wrap on the NHL season and move on to off-season activities. Free agency starts July 1^st and before we know it, pre-season will be in full swing. But before all that, let’s break down the Cup Finals between Detroit and Pittsburgh.

Forwards: Leading the way for Detroit has been Johan Franzen with 19 points in the playoffs. Henrik Zetterberg is following closely behind him with 18 points. Dan Cleary and Valtteri Filppula have 14 and Marian Hossa has tallied 12 points.

Pittsburgh has been led by the obvious tandem of Crosby and Malkin. Both players have 28 points and then there is a dramatic dropoff with Bill Guerin the next in line with 14. Chris Kunitz has 12 and Ruslan Fedotenko has 11.

Advantage: Push. Pittsburgh obviously has immediate impact. Crosby and Malkin are two of the top three players in the league right now. Detroit has an overall advantage in depth. Every single line they roll out has legit goal scorers, where as Pittsburgh is still letting Miroslav Satan’s corpse take the ice. Not to mention the fact that Marian Hossa plays for Detroit. He literally spurned Pittsburgh last off-season because he wanted a legit chance to win a Cup. Don’t think that won’t carry any weight in this series. He’ll be extra motivated to finally win, while Pittsburgh will want to prove him wrong. I have a bad feeling that karma will show it’s ugly head because of this.

Defense: Monitoring the blue line for Detroit is Nicklas Lidstrom (13 points), Brian Rafalski (8), Niklas Kronwall (7), Brad Stuart (7), Brett Lebda (6) and Jonathan Ericsson (5).

Pittsburgh lines up with Sergei Gonchar (12 points), Kris Letang (9), Mark Eaton (6), Brooks Orpik (4), Rob Scuderi (3) and Hal Gill (2).

Advantage: Detroit. Not only do they have more scoring power than Pittsburgh, they have a ton more experience. Look no further than Captain Nicklas Lidstrom. Assuming Detroit can stay healthy…well that’s another story.

Goaltending: Detroit comes into the series with Chris Osgood starting and former Penguin Ty Conklin riding the bench. I haven’t been very high on Osgood this season and with good reason, but he has done well enough to led the Wings this far. He has a 2.06 GAA and .925 save percentage so far in the playoffs to go along with his 12-4 record.

Pittsburgh has Marc-Andre Fleury between the pipes. In between his over the top flashy saves, he has racked up a 12-5 record, 2.62 GAA and .906 save percentage. While he has been shaky at times this year, he seems to know when to step it up. Pittsburgh left him out to dry several times and he literally won them the game which is about all you can ask of a franchise goalie.

Advantage: Push. When I originally wrote the article I was going to give the advantage to Pittsburgh because Chris Osgood doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. But after researching the numbers and realizing that Osgood has been better than Fleury in every category, I changed it to a push. Osgood still doesn’t fill me with confidence, but he must be doing something right.

Coaching: Mike Babcock is behind the bench for Detroit and Dan Bylsma is behind the bench for Pittsburgh. Babcock has an obvious advantage in terms of experience and championships; however Bylsma should get credit for getting Pittsburgh this far. When he initially took over in mid-season, the Penguins were on the outside of the playoffs looking in. That is quite a feat, but if you ask me I’m not overly impressed. I get the impression that Pittsburgh was essentially quitting on former coach Michel Therrien and that anybody could’ve came in and turned things around. I’ll be a believer if they win the Cup…and stay equally as dominant next season.

Advantage: Detroit

My Pick: Detroit in 6

After some rather anti-climatic Conference Finals series, the battle for the best trophy in all of sports is finally upon us. Pittsburgh and Detroit both managed to advance without facing too much opposition and will now go at it once again in a rematch of last year's Finals. This is the first time in 25 years that two teams have made it to consecutive Stanley Cup Finals appearances, and Pittsburgh will be trying desperately to provide a different outcome this time around.

Pittsburgh looks to have hit their full stride at this point, cruising by Carolina in a 4 game sweep that wasn't ever really close. The Penguins outscored the Hurricanes by a 20-9 margin and only game 1 had any real drama to it. Marc-Andre Fleury was the only goaltender of the 4 in the Conference Finals to not have won a Stanley Cup already, but he may have out performed all his counterparts. So far in 17 games of the postseason, his GAA is 2.62 and he has a save percentage of .906. Not stellar numbers at first glance, but when you consider how well the Penguins score the puck, it's been plenty good enough to get them back in the Finals. The race for the playoff scoring title has turned into a 2 horse show, and both those horses belong to Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin each have 28 points so far in the playoffs and nobody else is really even close. Crosby's points have come on 14 goals and 14 assists, while Malkin has 12 goals and 16 assists thus far. Pittsburgh's one downfall though might be that after those two, the scoring falls off dramatically. If Detroit can find a way to even slow those guys down, it might be enough to help them hoist yet another Cup.

Last year, the Penguins made it to the finals as a young, fairly inexperienced team. This year however, they're back and they know what to expect. This group would love nothing more to win the first Cup for Pittsburgh since their only previous wins in 91 and 92. The Penguins looked overwhelmed in the first 2 games of last year's Final, and it ultimately cost them as they recovered a little too late. I wouldn't expect the same to happen this time around. As for Detroit, last year's victory was the team's 11th Stanley Cup and another one this year would put them at half of the mark of Montreal's ridiculous 24 Cups. The Red Wings have proven to be one of the best run organizations in sports for years now and yet another Finals appearance just further proves that.

Detroit faced a very young Chicago team in the Western Conference Finals and didn't have too much of an issue getting past them, as they won the series in 5 games. The series was certainly closer than that in the East though, as 3 of the games were decided in overtime. 2 players top the list of scorers for Detroit as well, though they have a more balanced attack and have had a lot of secondary contributors. Johan Franzen has lead the way with 10 goals and 9 assists, while Henrik Zetterburg has chipped in with 9 of each. All playoffs long, people have pointed to Chris Osgood as the weak link of Detroit, and even I have been somewhat guilty of this. The fact is that it's just not the case though. Osgood comes into the Finals with a 2.06 GAA and a .925 save percentage, both of which are outstanding. Add to that the fact that Osgood has 3 Cup wins to his name, 2 of which he was the starter for, is 10th all time in NHL wins, and has a career playoff GAA of 2.11. Osgood has proven himself and deserves more credit than he gets.

Amongst the biggest keys heading into this series is the health of the Red Wings. 6 regular starters missed Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals for Detroit, yet they managed to walk away with the win. Andreas Lilja, Kris Draper, Tomas Kopecky, and Jonathan Ericsson were all out, but more notably, Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk both missed games 4 and 5 of that series. Lidstrom is perennially the best defenseman in the league, and while he's supposedly going to be back in time for Game 1 tomorrow, whether or not he's at 100% will be a big factor. Datsyuk doesn't appear to be in as good of shape at this point, and while he hasn't provided his usual scoring power in these playoffs (7 points, with only 1 goal), many forget that he is very talented defensively as well. Having him at his best to help try and slow down Crosby and Malkin would be a very important factor for Detroit.

The Red Wings have been getting offense from other players however as Johan Franzen, Dan Cleary and Valtteri Filppula have all stepped up their scoring efforts. Still, contributions from Datsyuk if he comes back and Henrik Zetterburg would certainly go a long ways towards Detroit capturing yet another Stanley Cup. Pittsburgh will need some more scoring from it's support as well though, as relying almost completely on Crosby and Malkin might not continue to work at this point. Players like Bill Guerin, Jordan Staal, Chris Kunitz, and Ruslan Fedotenko need to provide more scoring in support of the Penguins Big Two.

Special teams is another big key factor when looking at this series. Both these teams are dynamite on the power play, but Detroit in particular. The Red Wings have scored 19 times in 74 opportunities this postseason, for a success rate of 25.7%. Pittsburgh has converted 16 of 83 opportunities, scoring 19.3% of the time. 10 of those 16 goals for Pittsburgh have come from the Crosby/Malkin duo however, while Detroit's are much more spread out across the team. On the flip side of things though is where the story might be told. The Penguins have allowed 10 goals on the penalty kill through 61 opposition chances, good for a 83.6% success rate on the kill. Not stellar, but when you compare it to Detroit's penalty killing effort, it looks pretty good. The Red Wings have allowed 15 goals in 57 opportunities so far in the playoffs, killing only 73.7% of their penalties. Detroit simply must be better or must stay out of the box, or Pittsburgh is going to make them pay dearly. While I wouldn't want to give up many PP chances for Detroit if I were Pittsburgh either, they have to feel at least a little more comfortable with their ability to kill off any penalties.

Yet another key to this series, and a storyline which I'm sure television will play up to death is that of the Red Wings' forward Marian Hossa. Hossa was with the Penguins last season and despite a very healthy contract offer after the season, he decided to bolt town, declaring that the Penguins were a one trick pony of sorts and he wanted to go play for a Cup contender. He signed with Detroit, and now he faces his former mates with the biggest prize on the line. Hossa has been solid, but not stellar for Detroit this postseason, chipping in with 6 goals and 6 assists thus far. The capability is still there however as he scored 40 goals along with 31 assists in the regular season for the team. Pittsburgh surely would like to make Hossa regret his decision and I can think of no better way than to beat his new team for Lord Stanley's Cup. It'll be interesting to see how Hossa reacts to the pressure in this series.

Ultimately, this series is a matchup of two teams with outstanding scoring abilities mixed in with some goalies playing at a very high level. It's pretty much what you'd expect from the last two teams standing. How the keys I mentioned above play out will likely end up determining who gets to parade around the ultimate trophy, and in particular, I think the injury issues for Detroit might be the biggest factor of all. If perennial Norris Trophy winner Niklas Lidstrom returns and can play at his usual level and the same is true for Hart Trophy candidate Pavel Datsyuk, the Red Wings will be very tough for Pittsburgh to handle. However, if those guys can't return, or aren't playing close to 100%, the series may very well be the Penguins' to lose.

Since the Red Wings have always been my second favorite team behind Buffalo, along with the fact that I don't particularly care for Pittsburgh and especially Mr. Crosby, my heart tells me to take Detroit. However, I have a bad feeling about this series, and the injuries in particular concern me a lot, so my head says Pittsburgh is going to win. As much fun as it is to pick with my heart, I rarely ever do it...

Pittsburgh wins in 6 games.

In other news, you have may have noticed by now that our site officially has a new address. You can now find us at www.dandssports.com though our previous address will also redirect you to the proper location. Along with the official domain name, we're also toying with some other ideas on ways to change the site up some, so be on the lookout for that in the near future. Additionally, as always your feedback is greatly appreciated and if you have any suggestions for changes you'd like to see here, feel free to let us know. You can shoot us an email at feedback@dandssports.com. Devin will be by either tonight or tomorrow with his preview and picks, as well as updated standings for the prediction contest heading into the Finals. Be sure to check back!