Lidstrom, our fearless captain
by Buzz Click Photography

Last night, the Detroit Red Wings fell one goal in a bid to come back from a 3-0 hole in their series with the San Jose Sharks. NHL on the fly has a wrap-up of the 3-2 loss. In Drew Sharp's column in the Freep, captain Nicklas Lidstrom said:

"It's very disappointing that we didn't finish it out like we wanted, but it's impossible not to feel good about the character and heart that we showed to even get ourselves in this position where we could take four straight."

Here's a nice touch of class by the Wings as they thank Hockeytown and all their fans for a season of support.

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5x5 Night is a monthly event in Grand Rapids that allows 5 people to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges who decide how to award $5,000 on the last Tuesday night of every month. The third 5x5 happens tomorrow night at the Grand Rapids Ballet with an afterglow at Founders Brewery. Tomorrow night's presenters and topics sound pretty interesting:

• Bruce Burgess – Mull-it-Over
• Mick Hanna – Easy Crutch
• Phil Lund - The Mars Plan
• William Stewart – Compression Beehive Frame
• Charlie Wollborg - Face-to-Face > Pixel-to-Pixel

Michigan Radio has a cool interview with Rick DeVos and Bill Holsinger Robinson of Pomegranate Studios about 5x5 Night. Learn more at 5x5night.com and Pomegranate Studios.

Last month AJ Paschka got all five votes and $5000 for his very cool Weather Collage idea, but we'll feature Landon Bartley's more locally focused call for a Grand Rapids Sister City Window Webcam Project. You can check out all the pitches on the 5x5 channel.

Photo: Prepping for the first 5x5 Night at the GRAM by pomstudios.com.

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Team Spirit of Detroit by Maia C

The Detroit Red Wings open the 2011 NHL Playoffs at home tonight vs the Phoenix Coyotes at 7 PM at the Joe Louis Arena.

It's their 20th straight NHL Playoff appearance, and Wikipedia tells us that the Red Wings are 2nd in Stanley Cup appearances with 24 and 3rd in wins with 13. Their last Cup win came in 2008 and while the Wings don't skate into the playoffs as an overwhelming favorite, they are seeded third in the West and expected to have a strong showing. A lot of the team's hopes rest on the health of leading scorer Henrik Zetterberg. Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe playoff MVP trophy in 2008 but was last seen wearing a knee brace after being hurt last week vs. Carolina and is out for (at least) tonight.

The Detroit News sportswiters issued their predictions and the Freep's Helene St. James has a very nice breakdown on the Red Wings' playoff chances. Michael Rosenberg writes that it feels like every team in the Western Conference (other than top seed Vancouver) feels day-to-day, saying:

The Wings have as good a shot as anybody. But they also have some concerns, starting with Zetterberg's knee. It sounds like the Wings might need to win this series without Zetterberg -- or at least, without a healthy Zetterberg. That's a concern, and the Wings already have more concerns about this Red Wings team than they normally do at this time of year.

The Wings allowed 241 goals, more than any other playoff team. Their goal differential of plus-20 was 11th in the league. Mostly, though, there is the sense that there is no bedrock there, no clear area of superiority.

During the playoffs you'll want to tune into the On the Wings blog along with Winging it in Motown and the official Detroit Red Wings blog. America Jr has a nice interview with Red Wings Chris Chelios at the Red Wings media event, but we'll take you out with the Red Wings 2010/2011 hits:

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Maia warns you that she likes purple and cats. She writes that the Spirit of Detroit is the iconic statue for the city. When a Detroit team is in the playoffs, the statue is attired in the team's jersey. She says there's a reason one of Detroit's nicknames is Hockeytown (and there's a reason that Detroit is one of the greatest sports towns in the country).

Be sure to check it out bigger. She has tons of great sets including Detroit Zoo Irises 2009, Greenfield Village October 2008, Downtown Detroit and Rivera Court, Detroit Institute of Arts (slideshow).

Skate over to her Flickriver and GO WINGS!!

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...except for last weekend of course, when politics was a welcome relief for UM and MSU fans. After getting pasted by a combined 91-24, the state of Michigan is assured of a Big Ten victory on Saturday as the Michigan State University Spartans travel to Ann Arbor and the Big House to face the University of Michigan Wolverines for bragging rights and the Paul Bunyan Trophy. You can read all about the trophy and the game at Michigan vs Michigan State Football Rivalry from Absolute Michigan.

Over there to the right is just a bit of The Best Thing I Saw on These Internets This Week: The Season of Much Woe by Samara Pearlstein of Roar of the Tigers. Relive all the shock, all the outrage, all the Spazzosaurus and be sure to tell her how cool it is so she'll do the next installment!!

Darren McCarty by radiospike photography

The Detroit Bad Boys are getting ready for the NBA season to start and report that power forward Jason Maxiell will test the waters of free agency next year. Bummer, but hopefully that means he plays harder than ever. In their 2008-09 Pistons Preview, they say (only half-jokingly) that the biggest offseason move was the Flip Saunders for Amir Johnson trade. Over at Ball Don't Lie, crazy Canadian blogger turned crazy Canadian blogger with a Yahoo contract J.E. Skeets has a Pistons season preview that says the Pistons may miss Flip in crunch time and Need4Sheed feels it's Larry O-Brien or Bust for the Pistons core of Billups, Prince and Rasheed.

Finally, in some depressing news, the Detroit Red Wings waived 36-year-old Darren McCarty. If he clears waivers, he'll be assigned to Grand Rapids.

For those of you who are thinking that I forget to mention the Detroit Lions, I didn't.

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Welcome Back, Stanley!, photo by radiospike photography Originally posted at Michigan in Pictures.

Spike writes that this photo was taken at 10:58pm on June 4, 2008 as the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins to secure their 11th Stanley Cup. He has a ton of great Wings shots and says that his complete gallery of Red Wings photos will be on sale within hours.

For a while it looked to Wingnuts like the Red Wings were going to take fans to the edge of heaven and leave them there after a crushing game 5 loss. Last night fans gathered around their TVs, in the Joe Louis Arena and (lucky few) at Mellon Arena where their beloved Wings:

...played a perfect road game Wednesday night at Mellon Arena, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2, in Game 6 of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final to go wire-to-wire as the best team in the National Hockey League this season.

"It's never easy," Wings goalie Chris Osgood said. "Toughest trophy in sports to win; it lives for that name every year, that nickname. It was difficult, again. Pittsburgh is a great young team … gave us all we could handle. Probably one of the most difficult series I've played in a while. They have a talented team. They held on right to the end again. They kept pushing us still."

The Red Wings' players, coaches and staff will participate in a parade to celebrate the 2008 Stanley Cup championship tomorrow (Friday, June 6) starting at 11 AM. The parade will end with a celebration rally at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit. Click for all the details!

You can check Wikipedia's 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs entry for the Wings route to Lord Stanley's Cup. Here's a slideshow of photos from the Detroit Red Wings 2008 playoff run on Flickr (just the photos) and you'll also want check out the Detroit Red Wings group, and this slideshow of Game 6 photos from the Red Wings site.

Give us more!! Post related links, photos, articles, videos and your thoughts about the Wings 11th Stanley Cup in the comments!

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four tops by bkromer
(Lake Erie Metropark)

The big stories heading into the week are the playoff runs of the Detroit Pistons (Eastern Conference Finals v Celtics) and the Detroit Red Wings (Stanley Cup v the Pittsburgh Penguins). Both teams have won 2 (Pistons @ 2-2 and Wings at 2-0).

Photos in the Absolute Michigan pool on Flickr include shots from the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, some of the latest morels we've seen in recent years and a baby fox that rocked the cuteometer to 11.

Our Michigan May Event Calendar says that we can look forward to the Mancelona Bass Festival and the Red Bull Air Race in Detroit this weekend. Monday was of course Memorial Day and you might enjoy this story from last year about Michigan's first Memorial Day.

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This is one of a number of great photos of the Detroit Red Wings (slideshow) that Spike has for your viewing pleasure - a perfect way to warm up for the 2008 Stanley Cup vs the Pittsburgh Penguins.

You can tell from this set - and others like Detroit Pistons and Barack Obama - that Spike really excels in portrait photography. He has all kinds of shots that you can dive into in his favorites and also at radiospike.com.

Go Wings!!!

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Residents of the Straits area were stunned Sunday afternoon when the Mackinac Bridge was mysteriously encased in huge blocks of ice, rendering it totally impassible. While proponents for the 51st State of Superior seized upon the event to renew calls for U.P. secession, most folks on either side of the Mighty Mac were wondering if it would melt in time to get morels and pasties respectively.

Things had pretty much settled back to normal by yesterday morning when strange boats were sighted in the Detroit River firing a mysterious blue beam at the Renaissance Center. While the ice-generating beam initially was the subject of much concern, interest faded when it was determined that the beam had absolutely nothing to do with either the mayoral scandal or the Tigers opening day loss to the Royals.

Thus it was to low ratings that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty commandeered all Michigan TV stations to deliver the following (edited) announcement:

(angrily) "We spend billions of dollars developing a super-weapon and seal your state's two biggest landmarks in SOLID ICE and Honestly you Americans are so obtuse.

"Long have we Canadians enjoyed friendship with the people of Michigan based upon the three pillars of good fishing, open borders and the mutual purchase of duty-free items.

(rather lengthy comparison of Michigan & Canadian syrup with fancy PowerPoint graphs)

(sternly) "Lately, however, all that has changed, and we find ourselves mainly waiting in line at customs and it's certainly not helping that the Red Wings are kicking the Maple Leafs butts!

(long rant about hockey and how money is spoiling the purity of the game)

We therefore demand an end to your new border regulations that are choking international trade, annoying citizens on both side of the border and really putting a crimp in my Aunt Lettie's Keno habit. Failure to comply will result in the the systematic freezification of your major cities, parks and Jeff Daniels.

A poll of Michiganians who have been wondering what the heck was going on with the weather this winter found that 62% were relieved at the news with 27% answering "Spring Break in Florida" and the other 1% answering "Who is Kwame Brown?".

With Michigan's legislature on recess "until a few days before the next budget is due" and Gov. Jennifer Granholm currently aboard the International Space Station as part of her pledge to go anywhere for Michigan jobs, Michigan's highest ranking governmental official was the Undersecretary of   Road Construction Scheduling who pledged "swift and decisive action, probably the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day Weekend."

A spokeswoman for the Detroit Newspaper Group assured readers that while the papers continued to have no interest in the story, "...if you can get Kwame to text it to someone, we'll be all over it."

Thanks to James Phelps for contributing to this story. If you'd like to read more in this vein check out:

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The latest issue of ESPN: The Magazine has their "Ultimate Standings" for US sports franchises. It will come as little surprise to learn that Detroit scored three teams in the top 20 for the 2007 rankings. The rankings are a combination of record, ownership/management, coaching, players, affordability, fan relations, stadium experience and "bang for the buck" and anyone who has been to a game in the Motor City knows there are few better sports experiences anywhere.

The Detroit Pistons lead the way at #5 despite the fact that coach Flip Saunders was rated #73. Fans appear to love the players (#13), the arena (#11) and owner Bill Davidson (#6 - you have to think Joe Dumars is a big part of that as well).

Not far behind at #12 are the Detroit Tigers who are led by skipper Jim Leyland (#2), a great team (#21) and a little thing called the World Series!

At #18 are the Detroit Red Wings whose perennial contention combined with an ownership rated #2 (in large part for their stellar community engagement) ... and hey, they don't call it Hockeytown for nothing!

It seems to be true that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, because the Detroit Lions have fought their way to the absolute bottom of the list #122 out of 122. Fire Millen anyone?

Photo credits:

• 365 67 "DEEEEEEEEEEEE troit...." by Artsy_T
  
• 10,000 by Radiospike
• Hasek by McPhloyd
• Lions by Shogun13

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