General Thoughts

-Dungy's kid. Man, do I feel for him and his family. An 18-year-old apparently kills himself. That's gotta be the toughest thing a parent can ever endure.

-All this outpouring of support and prayers for Dungy and family has me thinking one thing I cannot shake: teenagers kill themselves every day. Every day in this country parents have to endure what Tony Dungy has been going through. Why is it that we average citizens only seem to care (myself included) when the parent or the teen is a major celebrity? That's just sad, man.

-XM Radio. As Chris alluded to, last night Mike and I got a brief glimpse at its power (and also met for the first time...good to meet you Mike). XM (and, I'm sure, Sirius) absolutely rules! Add this technology to the growing list of things I want (which currently includes a giant HD television and Tivo).

-Preds. Man, what a freaking exciting game last night! Glad to see the Preds come back after Calgary's initial attempt at thuggish bullying. Great win. We're currently leading Vancouver in tonight's game 2-0. For everyone not in the know: the Preds are FOR REAL. They are the real deal. A great hockey team. I cannot freaking wait for the playoffs--I hope to hell I can get tickets!!

-David Legwand. Twice in the last day I have heard radio talk-show hosts or callers questioning Legwand's value to the team. It goes something like this: "Fiddler and Upshall are playing so well, why do we even need the underperforming Legwand anymore?"

Are Preds fans crazy?! I mean...am I the only person in the world who actually pays attention to the games? Sure, the knock on Legwand is that he should be scoring more goals...and maybe we hoped he would. But with Kariya and Sully on the squad...we don't need Leggy to be a scorer.

For the record...for once and for all....Legwand (when healthy) has been playing AWESOME this year. He wins more than 50% of his face-offs. He is fast...almost as fast as Kariya. He passes well. He brings the puck up well. He sees the ice. Legwand sets the table for the offense to feast. He may not have the points total we hoped...but that does not mean he is not valuable to this team. I am sick of fans and analysts ragging on him for his lack of scoring. Leggy is a sparkplug this team really needs. When he returns from injury, we shouldn't send him down. We should party. We should place him right back on the first line and thank our lucky stars we have him. He steals the puck. He dances around defenders. He is EVERYWHERE.

You L&Ners out there who follow the Preds....am I wrong? Do you see things differently than I do?