Tuesday, March 30, 2004
And a double minor caps off Wildfong's evening. Shouldn't there be a rule that if you start talking about retirement due to an injury you have to miss at least one game? Jeremy Roenick missed two months!
Props to Fonger for his toughness and tolerance for pain -- a different kind of player might have gone out there with a busted nose and played it soft -- but at this point I'm willing to come right out and say today's hype was completely full of shit. Masterful manipulation by the Mudbugs, which the local media bought into all the way. Seems like only yesterday that Bugs fans couldn't stand the Times (hi Brian!).
That isn't to say I have a big problem with it -- it sells papers, sells tickets and ratchets up intensity. The New York Post, or Ken Hitchcock's favorite Sens scribes, would have played it just the same.
To sum up: Jim Shepherd, not the Anti-Christ. Dan Wildfong's busted shnozz, not the worst injury in the history of hockey. And the incident in general? No one will remember it by Saturday -- they'll be too busy bitching about Leiter or Olynyk or McLean by then.
Early picks: Greg Rajan says Bugs in 5, Bucks in 5.
I say Bugs in 6, Bucks in 4.
I'll probably eat that last one, given that Amarillo won both games of the season series, but what the hell -- no one ever picks a sweep, and the sweeps that do happen are never ones that you expect (Devs over Red Wings '95, Wings over Flyers '97, Bugs over Ice Bats '01, R-Kings over Ice '03).
Besides, I picked Amarillo to make the finals in October so I come out ok either way. Also picked Indy, who I figured would upset Colorado in the semis. Oops.
