Detroit Free Press

If I declared myself "The King Of Newspapers," would you want to read this column?If I made a commercial in which ...

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Some sat on bridge chairs. Some sat on the blue carpet. Some just leaned against the wall and sighed. This was awful. They weren't even in uniform. Shawn Burr dug his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Darren McCarty crossed his legs, one sneaker over the other. Reporters filed past, looking them over, moving on."It's like being doggies in the window," McCarty mumbled. "We might as well be in a pet shop."

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Mike Vernon trudged to the bench, lifted his leg and pulled himself over the boards, ...

He looks like that guy who played Baretta on TV -- Robert Blake, his name was, a squat, muscular punk with a short ...

Paul Coffey was on his knees, his left leg throbbing, his head slamming the ice in frustration. No. No. No. No. Seconds before, he had watched a bullet go through the lungs of Detroit's Stanley Cup hopes, and he was helpless to stop it, like some ill-fated soldier in the movies, who reaches, reaches, but just can't pull his friend into the foxhole."Get up! Someone get him up!" you could almost hear the Joe Louis Arena crowd scream Tuesday night, seconds before the goal that gave New Jersey a commanding 2-0 lead in these finals. "Somebody blow a whistle! Somebody do something!"

Each day, the door opens, and the reporters charge inside. They fan across the locker room and surround the biggest stars. Sergei Fedorov gets a big group. Paul Coffey gets a big group. Steve Yzerman gets a big group.Nicklas Lidstrom gets the two guys from Sweden. Day after day. Game after game. They sit by his locker and converse slowly, as if having a cup of coffee. They are there for one reason: to write about Nick. Nick at night. Nick in the morning.Just Nick."What about tonight's game, Nick?" they will ask today.

Well, here we are, the climax of the playoffs, the Stanley Cup Finals, and I have the good news and the bad.The ...

The woman was murdered, stabbed 22 times, the knife left ghoulishly in her mouth. Police investigated. They arrested the boyfriend. A dental "expert" said the boyfriend's teeth matched a bite mark on the woman's face.The accused was put in jail. The door was shut. The light disappeared. At a quick glance, it seemed that justice was done.