I personally dont lose hope until it’s mathematically impossible. Every time we play I have renewed hope of a turnaround. There is merit in approaching things that way especially with this group as they have surprised me on a number of occassions, winning games they shouldnt have won, or breaking out of slumps just when you thought it wasn’t possible, or coming back in games you thought were gone. They have form for pulling these surprises from nowhere all year long.

But lets be honest about this…..if we make it, we’re limping across the line coughing, wheezing and limping (and I’m not even talking about the flu bug, I’m talking about the way we’ve been playing). Is this really the way we want to arrive in the playoffs? We look like a car with two burst tires and thats just clawing our way desperately to the start line. What do we realistically expect to happen from there? It’s not going to be pretty and when its over, we’ll ask ourselves whether it was worth it.

I’m all for not losing hope but this is obviously one more year of growing pains on top of many years of pains, so I’m not getting excited even if we make it. If games seem tough now, wait til the playoffs starts. It will be brutal. We’re too lightweight for that stuff. Trading Kostin told me everything I needed to know about where Stevie’s head is at regarding whether we are likely to see playoff hockey.

Until the chances are gone there is still hope. Having good reason to hope would be better.

But Bob would rather have Red Wings slappies pretending the season can be saved.