3-0

Well, I never would have guessed Game 3 would have turned out like this. The Wings held on to win, 4-3, but it was a great save by Jose Theodore that kept the Avs in the game late (on a breakaway by Dan Cleary), and even more surprising, Colorado pulled their goalie with about 1:30 left and not only got no shots on goal, they didn't even get the puck in Detroit's zone.

Andrew Brunette put in a couple of power-play goals that kept Colorado close, but really, this is the difference in talent between the two teams. Despite that, Games 1 and 3 have been great games, and this is what people should remember about Detroit-Colorado playoff series, not that fighting and thugging crap. (Note: pretty much all the cheap-shot players on both teams have moved on. Hopefully Claude Lemieux is having back problems somewhere.) The NHL needs to understand that you can have a really good game between two good teams that doesn't involve dropping the gloves every five minutes. (Don't think the NHL approves of thuggy play? If they didn't want it around, teams like Anaheim and Philadelphia wouldn't be able to play two consecutive games without calling up half an AHL roster: they'd have multiple players serving lengthy suspensions.)

The third period tonight was about as exciting as hockey gets. It's a shame the NHL screwed itself by burning an entire season for greed and settling for some third-tier network that can't even show all the games in HD. The Penguins are one of the more significant stories in sports the last ten years, and chances are most people have no idea at all. (I will say, though, that there are hockey fans around. Last week at BWW, there were some Pens supporters cheering the comeback win against the Rangers. We were surprised to hear cheering that didn't match any of the baseball or basketball games we saw.)