Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Go west young man? Careful....

"Go west young man" is a quote normally attributed to American author Horace Greeley. Either that, or it was first uttered by my sadistic instructor when yours truly was on his road test trying to get his driver's license. I think he was the same guy that coined the immortal phrase "3 lefts make a right", but I'm not sure. And good luck trying to keep up with all that when you're 16 years old, already nervous, and trying to navigate your way through a busy downtown area that has more one-way streets than your average partisan politician. This is not to say yours truly may be getting a bit long in the tooth, but I sometimes fondly remember the heady days of hand-cranking a car to get it to run, before those pesky electric starters came on the scene. Nosiree Bob, we didn't have to worry about dead batteries and jumper cables back in those days, because there were no such things. That's when men were men -- I tell ya. But I digress. Where was I? Oh, right. Going west.

That would appear to be a very bad idea when it comes to a couple Detroit professional sports teams, namely the Pistons and Red Wings.

In the NBA, though the Pistons sport a not-so-good 12-14 record, they currently find themselves in a tie for being the 4th best team in the entire Eastern Conference. If the regular season were to end right now, the Pistons would host a first round playoff series. But if they were in the Western Conference, they would find themselves in 12th place -- nowhere near making the playoffs.

Many in the Detroit area were all for the Detroit Red Wings finally going back to the Eastern Conference where they had always belonged, at least geographically. It never made any sense for the Wings to play more games against the likes of Edmonton, Calgary and San Jose, while ignoring historic rivalries like Toronto and Montreal. At last look the Wings sported a 15-11-9 record. Not too shabby, you say? Not so fast. It's deceiving. The Wings have played 35 games and won only 15 of them, for a .428 winning percentage. That "9" at the end of their current season tally reflects overtime and/or shootout losses. Nevertheless, again, if the regular season were to end right now, the Red Wings would find themselves tied as a 5th seed for the playoffs. But if they were still in the Western Conference, their 39 total points would land them in 10th place. Like the Pistons -- woefully out of the playoff picture.

The moral of the story? My driving instructor not withstanding, Horace Greeley likely had the right idea about going west, young men. It was the land of opportunity and manifest destiny awaited.

But when it comes to the NBA and NHL, the Pistons and Red Wings should consider themselves fortunate that they're in amongst the least of the east, rather than dueling it out in the wild west. Yeah, the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers are formidable, and NHL playoffs will forever remain a crap shoot -- but if a team can't get to the playoffs in the first place -- then what does it matter?

Sometimes going west might not be such a good idea after all. Even back in Greeley's day, things could get downright dangerous out there. And what, pray tell, did he or that Marquis de Sade driving instructor know about playoffs anyway?

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