Tomorrow!

...especially when her thesis is due in less than 2 weeks

Champions!!!!

Woohoo!!! The Red Wings beat the Penguins last night 3-2 in a too-close-for-comfort game 6 to win their 4th Stanley Cup in 11 years!!! I was so excited! (Katie I'm sorry I tackled you after we won!) The Wings were the better team and deserved to win. I almost cried seeing Nickie lift the the Cup. He was so happy. And Ozzie played great, we couldn't have done it without him. Gotta love Ozzie. I'm so lucky to have such a great hockey team. :) (I guess this is my karmic reward for being a Lions fan.)

Fun facts: Nicklas Lidstrom became the first European born captain to win the Stanley Cup. My Nik (Kronwall) broke a Red Wings record for points by a defenseman in the playoffs. The Wings had more European players than North Americans skating for them. Eight former Griffins are now going to have their names on the Stanley Cup. (That may be the sweetest one of all...watching all my old Griffin boys all grown up and winning the Cup!) I bought a Zetterberg jersey this year and he ended up winning the Conn Smythe trophy (playoff MVP). Coincidence? I think not!

I'm so glad the Wings won the Cup during my last playoffs in Michigan (at least for a few years). What a nice way to go out. :)

Finals Update

The Wings are ahead of Pittsburgh 3 games to 1 and have their first of three chances to win the Stanley Cup tonight at home! During game 4 in Pittsburgh, a Wings fan managed to throw an octopus onto the ice, got promptly kicked out, changed his clothes and used his spare $300 ticket to get back in and watch the Wings win. Too cool. ;) Here's a link to an interview about his adventures.

It has been an exciting series and the Wings are playing very well. Their veteran leadership has helped them keep their cool in all situations, and their team defense has been stupendous! Zetterberg's amazing defensive play during a crucial 5 on 3 penalty kill late in game 4 was particularly noteworthy, and oh yeah he is also our leading scorer!

I really have lost a lot of respect for the Pens' star Sidney Crosby during this series. What a pouty crybaby. (See the humorous Wings fan creations at the end of this post.)

I hope the Wings can continue their stellar play and bring home the Cup, although Detroit officials are careful to note that no victory parade has been planned yet. (Hockey people are very superstitious.) One final note, when the Pistons and the Wings played at the exact same time, the Wings won the ratings war in Detroit (18.2 to 15.9). It just shows Michiganders have their priorities straight.

GO WINGS!!!

It's finals time!!!

For the first time since 2002, the Red Wings have advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals!!!!! We defeated the Dallas Stars 4 games to 2 in a series that took longer than it should have. The Wings led 3 games to 0 but let the Stars win two games before we closed them out in Dallas on Monday. (Please enjoy the above image of Zetterburg scoring a great shorthanded goal against Marty Turco.) However, I think the slight delay might work to our advantage if we can get Johan Franzen back from a concussion soon. If we had started the finals this week, he probably would have missed 3 or 4 games. Now it looks like he might miss only one (fingers crossed).

We will need Franzen against Pittsburgh in the finals. The Pens are the best team we have faced yet, but we are also way better than the teams they have been squashing on their way to the finals. We have a better defense than them (no question) and a lot more experience, but they have an (arguably) better offense, especially if Franzen doesn't come back. Goaltending is a wash in my opinion, as Ozzie and Fleury have both been great, although Ozzie has won the Cup before (like many of the Wings) so his experience should be an advantage. Still, Pittsburgh makes me nervous and no one has any idea who will win this matchup because the two teams haven't even played each other since 2006 (Stupid NHL scheduling).

Speaking of stupid NHL scheduling, the idiots at the NHL scheduled the Cup Finals games at the EXACT SAME TIME as the next 3 Pistons Eastern Conference Finals games. Do you hate Mighigan, NHL? Why are you making Michiganders choose between playoff games??? Granted, playoff hockey (especially the finals!) is WAAAAAAY more exciting than playoff basketball (sorry Steph) so the choice should be obvious, but I would actually have watched the Pistons games if they weren't on at the same time as the Wings. (And I'd guess Steph would watch the Wings if they weren't on at the same time as the Pistons.) The NHL's ratings were bad enough before they made this ridiculous decision.

But let's leave that bitterness behind us. The Wings will be playing in June this year, as they always should be, and it's time to enjoy a thrilling Stanley Cup finals. (See this article for 44 reasons you should watch the Stanley Cup Finals.)

I have one more thing to say: GOOOOOO WINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Isis!

Today is the 3rd anniversary of the day I adopted Isis from the Humane Society. Most of you know the story, but for those that don't: I picked Isis because after I petted her at the shelter and then moved on to look at other cats, she followed me! She knew we were meant to be together! I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful cat!

To celebrate her special day, Isis got a special "cake" made of cat treats and a new mouse toy.

How sweep it is!

Yay! This week the Wings swept our bitter rivals the Avalanche out of the playoffs, winning four games to none! To be fair, the Avs were dealing with a lot of injuries. However, I'm sure we would have won the series even if they were healthy. We were clearly the better team. Johan Franzen set an NHL record with 9 goals just in this series (more than the entire Colorado team scored the entire series!). The rest of our team played great too. Now we await the winner of Dallas/San Jose for the Western Conference finals. Eight wins down, eight to go!

And, for Todd and Katie, here is a quote about how well two of our other players did:
"Pavel Datsyuk (drafted 171st) and Henrik Zetterberg (drafted 210th) were as breathtaking as Genghis Khan and Tamarlaine, sweeping down on the defenceless Denver folk."

You mean grad school doesn't go on forever and ever?

It's official! My Ph.D. defense talk will be on Friday, August 1 at 1 PM in East Lansing (in the same room where many of you recently witnessed Katie's wonderful Ph.D. defense...she will be a hard act to follow!)

I would love to have you all come for the talk! There will be food (aren't you curious to see if Jean can top her bee honey cupcakes with an amazing wren-themed dessert?) and you will get to hear a fascinating talk about bird reproductive behavior, aka "What to do when your mate is sexy". However, if you are too busy with other things, (like work or planning a wedding that will occur less than 48 hours after my defense,) I understand. :) If you need more detailed directions/info, please ask.

Sigh...sad but true

On to round 2

The Red Wings finished off Nashville 3-0 today to take the series 4 games to 2. Ozzie played great in goal and should get the start in Round 2 versus either Colorado or Calgary. My favorite Wing, Nik Kronwall, had another monster hit this game. :) It makes such a difference to have him healthy and contributing on the blue line this playoffs.

I HATE watching Wings games on NBC because the announcers are so obviously anti-Wings. Pierre McGuire is the worst of the offenders, but they all do it. All the announcers (and the maybe the referees, judging by all of the non-calls on the Preds today) clearly wanted Cinderella Nashville to defeat the big bad Wings. However, I was relatively calm and confident (for me) the whole game. I just got the vibe that we were going to win. The better team prevailed and hopefully this is the start of a nice long playoff run (my last in Michigan!).

NHL playoffs are here!

The Wings start the playoffs tonight! Our round 1 opponent is the Nashville Predators. Here is some interesting info about their goalie from that very reputable news source, the Onion:

Goalie Clearly Living In Net

Lets Go Buff-A-Lo!!!

For those of you who haven't heard, I have been offered (and have accepted!) a post doc in Buffalo! I knew it was fate when I found out their school mascot is a griffin! :) I will be leaving in August. I'll really miss my MI friends, but I am excited about this great opportunity.

Merry Christmas!

...oh I mean Happy Easter! Sorry, I got confused about which holiday it was by the FOOT of snow that fell here on Friday. Did I mention I hate snow? Oh and also I'm going to a job interview in Buffalo next week.

March Madness pool advice

Don't know/care about basketball? (Katie) Here is an article with some great advice about how to pick your teams for your bracket:

How to win* your tournament pool

My favorites are "Mascot Fight Club" and "If This School Were a Beer, Would I Drink It?" MSU is mentioned several times for you Spartan fans ;)