It has been a while, yes?

Alright. I know whenever something this huge happens there’s going to be a lot of controversy, there are going to be people who care more than others, of course of course. But there are some attitudes surrounding Michael Jackson’s death that are just simply silly. I honestly don’t feel that most of them are worth responding to, because the people expressing them are just looking to ruffle feathers and I’d rather not encourage that. I will, however, give my opinion here, where said feather-rufflers can’t deface it.

I’ve seen lots of people calling Michael Jackson nothing but a child molester and a freak. It even hurts me to type that. How anyone can ignore the simple fact that Michael was a musical and cultural icon, that he gave us timeless music, escapes me. Can any of the people saying they’re “glad” that Michael is dead really honestly say that they’ve never enjoyed his music? They’ve never imitated his dances? No, they can’t. He was (and still is) synonymous with American music and culture, and should be remembered and respected as such.

I’d have to be blind to deny that he became eccentric and, yes, his appearance became somewhat zombie-like. But can you say that you wouldn’t get a little wacky if you never had a single memory of being a normal person? Being a superstar since you were 6? If you never got to go to a grocery store or a bar, never got to meet people on your own? EVER? I know I would start to lose a few screws. People like us can’t possibly fathom that kind of fame. If we can’t fathom the way he lived, who are we to judge how he responded to it? Nobody, that’s who we are. Until you’ve lived your whole life in a fishbowl with millions of people watching you, and until you’ve changed the face of music and culture as we know it, then you should keep your judgemental mouth shut.

I don’t know whether he did anything wrong or not (actually I highly doubt he ever touched a child inappropriately in the first place, but that’s another discussion), the bottom line is this: it doesn’t matter. Everyone has their shortcomings. You’re not perfect. I know I’m not perfect, and when it comes my time to die, I don’t want to be remembered for my mistakes. I only wish that I had the opportunity to do something so incredible that it would totally overshadow any mistake I may have made… and Michael Jackson did that. I suggest getting down from your high horse for a second to respect him for the legend he was, and is. At least for a damn second.

Well, Penguins, we meet again.  We did see this coming from the beginning didn’t we?  Alright then.  Here’s how this series is going to go down.

The NHL doesn’t want the Red Wings to win again, everyone knows that.  They want 12-time Whiniest Girl in Hockey award winner Sidney Crosby and their other teen idols to shine.  The idea of a team with no one poster boy being the best team in the NHL just doesn’t sell.  I mean come on, what would we be teaching our children if we allowed this, a group of people with varied areas of expertise working together to achieve a common goal, with no one person being more or less important than another, to win the Stanley Cup??  That would just be irresponsible.

There’s no question in my mind that the Penguins are going to have plenty of “lucky calls” (as the Ducks referred to Brad Watson’s early whistle during the DET/ANA series that cost Detroit the game) and “judgement calls” from the ever-unbiased excellence of the NHL officiating team, but the bottom line is, Detroit is a better team, and Detroit will win the Stanley Cup again this year.  My guess is in 5 games.

Let’s take the last two games of the Blackhawks series as evidence.  Two of our top players, Datsyuk and Lidstrom, were out for both games.  Going into these games, I’ll admit, I was a little nervous.  But (and Game 5 shows this quite well), the rest of the team did an amazing job of stepping up across the board.  While I definitely hope that Pavel and Nick will be back in the game for Saturday, I’m quite confident that the Wings can beat the Pens with or without them.  They’re just that deep of a team.

So I say bring it Pens, we beat you before, we’ll do it again.

Hossa's disallowed goal. Borrowed from HighlyEssential.com

Nobody is going to argue that Stevie Wonder would have done a better job calling the Wings/Ducks game on Tuesday.  Even Ducks fans can’t argue that they were handed the game on a silver platter by that blind, sorry excuse for a referee, Brad Watson.  There’s enough commentary out there about how silly it was, I don’t need to reiterate it here.

What I do need to stress is that this is not the first time that the Wings (or any other team for that matter) have been robbed of a game because of one referee’s bad judgement.  Why isn’t the NHL talking about this?  Do they not see this as a problem?  What the league needs is a checks and balances system so that the entire game doesn’t fall on one call.  What makes it even worse is this:  Under Rule 78.5 per the Official NHL Rules, an instance of a disallowed goal is:

(xii) When the Referee deems the play has been stopped, even if he had not physically had the opportunity to stop play by blowing his whistle.

So even if a referee doesn’t really blow the whistle, but looks like they’re going to, a goal can be disallowed.  It’s a slippery slope they’re on with this rule, and I sure hope that by the start of the next season this rule gets looked at.

In the meantime, the Wings and Ducks face off at 10:30 tonight for Game 4, and I’ll be watching.  I expect the same “early whistles” for Osgood this time, and if one of the Ducks players digs the puck out from under Ozzie’s glove and tosses it in the net, I better not see anybody pointing at the center line.