Red Wings shell out the bucks, while the Tigers freeze

There's been a few other things going on since the Colin Cowherd crashing The Big Lead (Which is still down, unfortunately) story blew up the blogosphere. Seems about time to set aside my righteous indignation for a few and actually talk about sports...

The Red Wings' Pavel Datsyuk is signed to a 7 year, $46.9 million dollar contract extension: When first I heard the length of the deal, the first words out of my mouth were, "Are they NUTS?! Isn't it all about the playoffs?" It was a knee-jerk reaction, and an incorrect one. Of course it's all about the playoffs, especially in Detroit. But in today's NHL, you HAVE to build around young players. The Wings are hitching their skates to Datsyuk and Hank Zetterberg. To be honest, I don't have any issue with that idea. If Steve Yzerman says that keeping Datsyuk is absolutely necessary, I'm not going to argue. To drive home that this is a fair deal, head over to Gorilla Crouch. Dave compares Datsyuk's deal to other NHL players of his age. It'll surprise you how fair the contract looks in retrospect.

As for the playoffs? I'm holding off my thoughts till we see how healthy Zetterberg, Bertuzzi, Hasik, Lidstrom, et all are, and if the Wings will be playing Calgary or the Nordilanche. We'll know more after tonight.

Mike Rabelo: I-I-I-If I knew it was g-g-g-going to be this F'N c-c-c-cold in the b-b-b-bigs, I'd rather have s-s-s-stayed in Lakekand...

The Detroit Tigers start 2-2: It's much to early to get a read on the Tigers, let alone be concerned. They've been playing in brutal weather more suited for...Well, it's not suited for doing much of anything other than sitting inside and drinking beer. So it would be understandable that the Tigers look somewhat discombobulated. Christ, Magglio Ordonez wearing his, for lack of a better term, head sock, looked as if he was ready to rob a bank, rather than play right field Friday night. It's much too early to make any sort of judgments. Just remember the wise sage Sparky Anderson would always say that you couldn't tell anything about a team till they've played 40 games. That's good enough for me...

Not that common sense is keeping the message board yahoos from getting up in arms. I actually read a post on Motownsports last night that claimed that the Tigers had a "Must win" game today. What have sports talk radio and message boards wrought? An entire generation of Chicken Littles. Get a damn grip people, it's a long, long season.