In honor of the late, great Joe Falls, it's a Fish Fry Friday!
The Wings have no reason to panic in their best-of-seven first round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
After all, they are just down one game and have a chance to steal Game 2 tonight on the road and come home with home ice.
Sure, they lost, 3-2. But it wasn't as if they could not have won that game against the Lightning. In fact, they had a good chance to win.
Jimmy Howard played well in goal, coming up with a few huge saves in the third period. He finished with 31 saves.
"I liked lots of our game," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said to the media in Tampa. "I thought we did a good job in a lot of areas. I don't like the result, but from a process standpoint, we did good things."
Except when it came to the power play. The Wings were 0-for-5 with an advantage. That definitely has to get better. Detroit needs production.
Last year, the Wings won three of the first five games in this first-round series. But, they lost the final two games and lost the series in seven games.
Pistons vs. Cavs
Pistons' fans have a right to be excited about the playoffs, but there's a big difference between having a chance to win and actually winning a best-of-seven playoff series.
The Pistons, in the playoffs for the first time since 2009, shouldn't be a pushover, a four-game sweep in their first round match up against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Game 1 is Sunday at 3 p.m. in Ohio.
It would take all things to go perfect for the Pistons, the 8th seed, to upset the Cavs, the No. 1 seed in the East. LeBron James is 10-0 is first round series in his career.
The Pistons just don't have the postseason experience that Cleveland does. Last year, the Cavs lost in the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors.
Most NBA experts are predicting a rematch this June.
The Pistons have only one starter with postseason experience in Reggie Jackson when he was with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Still, some point to the fact that Pistons match-up well against them on paper and Detroit beat the Cavs three out of four games in the regular season.
But, as we know, the regular season and the postseason are different animals in the NBA. It would be shocking for this to be a slaughter. The Pistons are inconsistent, but have fight in them. Parker's pick: Cavs in five.
Jackie Robinson Day
The years may move on, but the message and sacrifice will never be forgotten. That is a legacy of Jackie Robinson.
It's been 69 years to that day - April 15, 1947 - that Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball when he played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
And as usual, MLB will celebrate Robinson, a man who changed baseball. Even more importantly, a man who changed this country forever.
Today, all players and on-field personnel will wear number "42" in honor of Robinson's legacy to the game. The touching gesture was first initiated in 2004.
The twist this year is that Robinson, who died in 1972, officially gets an apology from the City of Philadelphia. While Robinson was treated poorly by many in the game as the first black player, most believe the hostility from the Phillies was some of the worst he initially encountered.
Hence, a resolution from Philly's City Council, which passed unanimously, was extended, saying sorry.
"Jackie Robinson is even more alive in the present than I can think about any film we have done," filmmaker Ken Burns said. "Jackie even transcends baseball."
Burns' new documentary about Robinson premiered on PBS recently and is worth a watch. It's something folks should watch with the younger generation. We all need the knowledge about this icon.
As for African Americans, we should never forget him or the idea that baseball is our sport, too. It always has been. Think about it, especially on this special day.
