Detroit Free Press

Coffee, tea or . . . double-wide? Clearly believing the nation is in need of a good laugh, Southwest Airlines has ...

Scotty Bowman's eyes were moist, his shirt was soaked and his hair was sticky from sprayed champagne. It had been only two hours since he and the Red Wings recaptured the Stanley Cup, but somehow, in that brief time, something had changed. His voice. It was missing its normal edge. It was gentler now, more reasoned, more resigned, like a drill sergeant who had gone from giving orders to soldiers to taking them from his wife."I wanted to tell the team," said the 68-year-old coach, standing in the hallway outside the Wings' locker room. "I wanted to tell them how great they were."

The gloves were tossed, the confetti came down, and into the happy heap they flew, the old guys and the new guys and the 41-year-olds and the 21-year-olds and the guys who just got a second or third championship and the guys who fnally got their first. They leaped over the top. They barreled in from the side. Yzerman on top of Datsyyuk on top of Lidstrom on top of Hasek. Fedorov on top of Hull on top of Devereaux on top of Larionov. Old on new. Veteran on rookie.

The gloves were tossed, the confetti came down, and into the happy heap they flew, the old guys and the new guys ...

No, he said. He would not go onstage. He would stand near it. He would stand in front of it. But he would not go up on it. Superstition. No stages.And Dominik Hasek would not budge.So the reporters in the Joe Louis Arena news conference had to leave their seats and swarm to encircle him at ground level. Half of them ended up on the very stage that Hasek refused to ascend, poking cameras over his back and tape recorders over his head. It was a hot, uncomfortable crush. Silly, really. But the message was clear:He'd gotten this far doing it his way.

Quietly, like a stagehand moving behind the curtain, Scotty Bowman has ascended to the throne room, sliding gingerly into the marble chair, waiting only for the crown to be placed on his head. He has been in the castle so long, few people even noticed.Bowman will, when this championship is officially handed to Detroit -- quite possibly Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena -- be all alone in hockey history, more Stanley Cups than any coach before him, more NHL finals victories than any coach before him, more everything, pretty much, than any coach before him.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- It was only a number. It was only one shot. And Brett Hull has taken a million shots in nearly ...

Dear Commissioner Bettman:May I make a request, before it's too late? I know it sounds strange, coming from a ...