Pay your Taxes!!

As of 7:30 p.m. on Friday April 13^th, the national debt is roughly 15,652,751,500,000. Tax day is approaching quickly, and a good chunk of our tax money is going to go towards roads, bailouts, and maybe the national debt. So in honor of Tax Day (It’s April 17^th for those of you that don’t know), let’s take a look at what the national debt means in terms of Detroit sports.

With 15,652,751,500,000, you could buy:

• The Detroit Lions, 18,545 times (Per Last Forbes Valuation)
•   3,130,550,300,000 Hot’n Ready Pizza's from Little Caesars (Thanks Mike Illitich!)
• You could pay Shea Weber’s $2,500 fine for slamming Henrik Zetterberg’s head into the boards 6,261,100,600 times.
• You could pay Justin Verlander’s salary for this season roughly 782,637 times.
•  And finally, it would have been like winning the Mega Millions Lottery a couple weeks ago (640 Million), 24,457 times.

So for those of you angry about having to pay your taxes, just remember, at least you’re not the government.

Twitter!!!

Hey everyone-

All of us here at Ab(r)andon Inge are on twitter!  Be sure to follow us all, as we will assuredly be providing some excellent comedy in the form of frustrated sports-related rantings (for a prime example, check out Ryan's timeline over the past few hours)

Brian: @B_Sakowski
Frank: @Frank_Vajcner
Phil: @DoWorkLaRoy
Ryan: @Ryan_M_Pro

Ab(r)andon Inge Roundtable #1: Will the Red Wings Win the Stanley Cup this season?

Good Evening (Morning) ladies and gentlemen-

We here at Ab(r)andon Inge have decided to do a weekly roundtable post, where we all give our insight and opinion on a single question relating to Detroit sports.

This week, the question is:

Will the Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup this season?


Ryan Prohaska (@Ryan_M_Pro):

In short, I do not believe the Wings can win the cup.  Considering they will most likely play 3 of the 4 series on the road, where they struggle, I do not see them being able to pull it off.  I think they will make the conference finals and lose in 6 games to Vancouver.

Phil Johnson (@DoWorkLaRoy):

If you put a fork to my nose and asked me if the Red Wings would win the Stanley Cup, I'd say yes. If you put a fork to my nose and asked me if the Red Wings would win the Stanley Cup this year, I'd say no. The lack of firepower from the team since the 23 game home winning streak ended has been alarming. Unless the power play pulls a Franzen and wakes up in the playoffs, I think this Wings team will bow out in the first or second round depending on the draw.

Frank Vajcner (@Frank_Vajcner):

It’s hard to bet against The Red Wings in the playoffs. With players that have been on the team for at least one cup winning season, you can always expect them to be in contention. This year is no different. The Wings don’t have a dominant 40-plus goal scorer, but they don’t need one when they get balanced goal scoring. Four players (Johan Franzen, Jiri Hudler, Valtteri Filppula, and Henrik Zetterberg) have scored at least 20 goals this season, and the team has gotten an NHL-best 44 goals from their defensemen. Plus Jimmy Howard has been a lot better in goal, posting a 2.14 GAA and a .920 save percentage. On the injury front, the only player that will be out is center Darren Helm. The only knock against the Wings is their power play, which is ranked 21^st in the NHL.

Despite only being able to possibly secure the 4^th seed in the Western Conference, the Red Wings have the talent and coaching to win their 12^th Stanley Cup. The keys to success will be to improve the power play, and avoid a first round matchup with Nashville, or with San Jose without home-ice advantage.  The Wings have not been good on the road, and that is why the wait for cup number twelve will continue until at least next season.

Brian Sakowski (@B_Sakowski):

Admittedly, I'm not the biggest hockey guy.  I love watching the Wings, but that's about as far as my interest in the sport goes.  I do know from watching the Wings this season that they play ridiculously well at home, not so well on the road, rely on 1-2 actually consistent players (Datsyuk, Pavel; and Lidstrom, Nicklas), and then ride the hot streaks of others for X amount of games at a time (Filpulla, Franzen, etc).  If these streaky players decide to catch fire all at once, and maintain it for a month, then yes, I do believe that the Wings will win the Stanley Cup.  However, for the sake of not sounding like a ridiculous slappy, I will say no, not this year.

LGRW

Lions Coverage

Hi Everybody,

My name is Phil Johnson and I'll be your resident Lions contributor. I graduated from Central Michigan University in May 2011 with a degree in Actuarial Science and Statistics. The most important thing you could get out of that is that I really like numbers. I'm working full-time doing things you guys probably couldn't care less about, so I'll spare you the details.

My hobbies include playing tennis, golf, and wishing I hadn't graduated college in three years. Other than that, I'll try and keep everybody on all things Lions related. I may chime in occasionally on a variety topics seeing as I'm fairly well-versed in a variety of areas including MSU Sports, the Wings, the Tigers, and as of recently, the world of gambling.

Comments are appreciated, and I look forward to hearing from some of you!

Phil