Brittany Daniel, who is the rare beast who's looks weren't able to overcome her acting ability. If you look like that, you should be in more movies that people want to see, but since she did "Joe Dirt" she's fallen off the radar a bit. Thankfully, the brilliant people at "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" have kept her career alive.

There were so many reasons for optimism that came out of the Red Wings' Game 1 win against the Coyotes last night. Jimmy Howard was superb, the Red Wings penalty killers were equally great, Pavel Datsyuk continued to own the Coyotes, Johan Franzen continued to be a playoff beast and Jiri Hudler found the back of the net. The Wings, when they're playing at their best, are simply too much for Phoenix to handle, which brings me to the only problem with last night's game, the Wings saw that they can win even if they sleep-walk through most of a period. If Howard is playing like he did last night, the only thing that can stop the Wings is being lackadaisical. But that's just me nit-picking after a terrific win. (Freep)

In Phoenix, fans aren't panicking, which they shouldn't be after a Game 1 loss on the road. But I stand by my point that last night proved what we all knew going in, the Red Wings are simply a lot better than the Coyotes. I do take exception to two of his bullet points, however. Shane Doan is a pest, and it's his job to get under players' skin. But for one, teams have been trying to get under the skin of the Red Wings for years, and the last team that successfully did that was the Colorado Avalanche in 1996. Since then, it's been a better team, ridiculous goaltending or general lack of intensity from the Wings that has cost them series. And if you think getting under Justin Abdelkader's skin (not by grit, but by putting him in a fireman's carry behind the net) is going to win you a series, you're in for a long series. Second, Klesla did not drop Bert, Bert fell. Think Dicky Eklund vs. Sugar Ray Leonard. (Five for Howling)

There were four other games last night: The Capitals beat the Rangers in overtime, but have to be a little concerned about their lack of offense; the Penguins shut out Tampa Bay, showing that playoff experience can out-duel talent; the Canucks got a great game from Roberto Luongo in a win against the Blackhawks; and the Nashville Predators stole one from Anaheim, scoring four goals, which for the Predators is like scoring eight goals. (Puck Daddy)

My initial reaction when Brandon Inge hit his walk-off home run yesterday afternoon was, "Oh shit, the Inge lovers are going to eat this up." My second reaction was, "Hey, a win!" So yeah, it appears my hate for Brandon Inge has reached a dangerous level. (DetNews)

The Pistons closed out their season that nobody cared about with a win. I don't even know who they played. But here's an end of season wrap-up, and hopefully the last thing we have to read about the Pistons until October. (MLive)

Kobe called a ref a faggot and was fined $100,000 for it. Can we agree that this is not a big deal, and if the camera hadn't caught Kobe saying it so ESPN and the Internet could play it over and over again, nothing would have happened? Yeah, it's a shitty word, but if you watch the video, it looks like Bryant just kind of muttered it to himself after yelling toward the ref. Can we also agree that a $100,000 fine is easily enough punishment for doing such a thing? OK, good. Let's move on. (Off the Dribble)

Barry Bonds was found guilty of obstruction of justice, which basically means nothing in his case. (SF Chronicle)

Today's Amazingness shows us that when you mix The Black Keys with rappers, it can be really awesome:

Morning Head: There was a lot to like about yesterday

I got lazy this morning and just typed "bikini" into a Google Image search. Not surprisingly, I just wound up using a picture of Marisa Miller, because there really aren't many people who wear one better. Apparently, she came to this fashion show immediately after getting out of the water. Amazingly, only her body, and not the bathing suit, got wet. Clearly water knows what's up.

We go from the perfect bikini model to the Perfect Human. Bob Wojnowski sat down with Nick Lidstrom for an interview. It's amazing how little we probably know about Lidstrom, and he's probably in the running for Detroit's Mount Rushmore. Really, let's think about this for a second. You've got to go with Steve Yzerman, Al Kaline and probably Barry Sanders. But who's the fourth guy on there? Shouldn't the guy who is arguably the greatest defenseman of all time get some consideration? As much as he's appreciated, I get the feeling that he's totally underappreciated because he's so quiet and has played with the old superstars -- Yzerman, Shanahan, Fedorov -- and the new superstars -- Zetterberg, Datsyuk. But he's always there, being great. (DetNews)

How about some questions heading into the Western Conference playoffs. The West has been better and deeper than the East for years, but this year it seems overly lopsided. I'm just wondering if the team comes out of the West won't be more worn down than the one that comes out of the East. Which would be fine, if it's Chicago or San Jose that comes out of the West. Cause fuck those guys. (Sporting News)

The awful headline here goes perfectly with the awful display of manliness shown by Charlie Villanueva. Villanueva decided to play the tough guy, getting into a catfight with Ryan Hollins, another monster of a man, during the Pistons loss to the Cavs. Apparently, Villanueva was shouting over police and Palace security near the locker room that he was "going to kill" Hollins. This helped to prove a universal truth: That bitchasses are always a lot more tough when they know somebody is going to hold them back. (Freep)

Oh, and Dennis Miller, Derek Zoolander and Mark Cuban had a massive gay orgy, collected their sperm in a cup and impregnated Bruce Springsteen who had a child. That child is now the new owner of the Pistons. (Freep)

Make sure to run out and pick up Alex Ogando in your fantasy baseball league. Wait, don't, because he's sure to have a 5.67 ERA for the remainder of the season, and will spend August in bullpen and September on his mother's couch. But he shut down the Tigers Monday afternoon, because that was the part of the team that decided it was going to be shitty that day. At least the Red Sox are 2-8. (MLive)

It's been a while since we've had a good point-shaving scandal in college sports, so thank you to the University of San Diego basketball team for reminding us that people still do this. Let's make a deal, the first person who writes or says that if we paid college players stuff like this wouldn't happen, gets punched in the throat. (SI.com)

The National Football Post chased a shitty source Monday afternoon and came up with a bogus story on Terrelle Pryor thinking about leaving Ohio State for the Supplemental Draft. This is one of those Internet rumors that can have legs because it kind of makes sense. Or it would, if it didn't later come out that Pryor might not even be eligible for the Supplemental Draft. Details. (The Big Lead)

Hey, we on the Left are plenty capable of making disturbing, probably over the line political advertisements, as well. Does anyone need a high-capacity magazine outside of the military? No. Do we need to see a guy shooting a silhouette of a child to understand this? Hell no. (Huffington Post)

Here's an upbeat song to start (or continue) your day. I very nearly didn't post this thanks to the singer's hair. Yeah, I'm like that:

Morning Head: Charlie V found some toughness ... or not

Megan Fox wore a bikini, which automatically makes her the Morning Head girl today. I'm sure that's why she did it.

The NCAA Tournament is back today, so it's safe to get out of bed again. Seriously, even though we had other sports going on, is there anything like the three-day lag between the second round and the Sweet 16? We go from games on all day, to no games. It's like taking meth away from an addict, not offering any form of rehabilitation, and saying, "we'll give this back to you in three days."

But I'm going to make you wait a little longer for NCAA news, because I read three stories this morning that made me think, "was this really necessary? Didn't we already know this?"

First up, Terry Foster of the Detroit News, who tell us the Heat aren't going win the NBA title because they don't have a big man or a point guard. He apparently took the 1950s-esque, "I'll just wait to watch this team until it comes to my town," approach with the Heat. I just googled "Heat won't win the NBA title" and had more than 13,000 results. "Heat need a point guard" returns 8,580 results. "Heat need a big man" brought me 6,010 results. What I'm saying is, Terry Foster wasted the entire second half of his column telling us something we've been told, literally, thousands of times. In his defense, he also called the Heat "the sexy choice" to win it all, which means he probably had no idea anyone was saying such things about the Heat. I don't know which is worse. (DetNews)

Let's stay local with Pat Caputo, another 97.1 The Ticket radio host, who tells us the playoffs are going to be tough from the beginning for the Red Wings this year. Apparently Caputo hasn't watched the first round of the NHL Playoffs since, well, maybe never. Unlike any other sport, the first round of the NHL Playoffs offer up best-of-seven upsets. The Red Wings have been a team upset by lesser seeds. But that's not really what upset me the most about this waste of Internet space. Caputo tells us the pressure is on the Red Wings, who are only two points ahead of the Sharks for second in the West. They're under pressure because the Kings and Predators are six and seven, both tough matchups for the Wings. So the Wings are under pressure, but apparently it doesn't matter because both of their potential opponents are bad matchups. Oh, and it's going to depend on how Jimmy Howard plays. A team relying on its goaltender in the playoffs? That's a novel idea. (Oakland Press)

Which segues us into a Craig Custance article, which was surprisingly useless. I like Custance, but apparently somewhere along the way somebody informed him that the Red Wings were counting on Chris Osgood in the playoffs, and now that he's injured, it's Jimmy Howard or bust. It's been Jimmy or bust for the last two years. We know that. The Red Wings know that. Henrik Zetterberg's answer to Custance's question seems to imply he thought Custance should know that. (Sporting News)

Here's your NCAA Tournament schedule for the next two days. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) you won't have to take time off of work to watch. My picks: SDSU, Duke, Florida, Butler, Carolina, Ohio State, Florida State, Kansas. (SB Nation)

Everybody, you can breathe again. Chris Brown has apologized for his outburst on Good Morning America. Brown is good at apologizing, probably because he's had so much practice. In fact, I believe his skill list goes, in order, as such: Apologizing, beating defenseless women, beating defenseless windows, bleaching his hair, getting shitty tattoos, singing. (Huffington Post)

Here's your daily Libya update: Gadhafi was all like, "Fuck your no-fly zone" and the French -- the FRENCH! -- were all like, "No, fuck you," and they shot it down. This has been your daily Libya update. (ABC News)

Today's Amazingness is something from the Pistons. I know, right?

Morning Head: It's apparently 'State the Obvious' Day