I’ve hardly got the ol’ laptop fired up and my Red Wings are down 0-1 to the Black Hawks in Game One of the Western Conference NHL Finals.

I shall not panic.

Besides, the Film Babe and I just got back from seeing “Angels & Demons” at our neighborhood movie house.  (You want my take on that flick, tune in in WFPK 91.9 at 8:00 on Tuesday.) And, looking for a hook for this afternoon’s matchups — the above mentioned hockey match and the Rockets vs. Lakers in a Game Seven NBA series — I’m thinking who are the Angels and who are the Devils.

Other than Stuart Scott — obviously the announcing Devil incarnate — that is.

Okay, Dan Cleary just tied it up for Detroit with 11:30 to go in the 1st. A sweet breakaway no less.

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, Angels & Demons.

The Black Hawks are Demons. The Red Wings are Angels. Period.

And, well, Kobe Bryant is a Demon. So, there’s that metaphor. Problem is the Rockets feature a Dookie, Shane Battier. A tolerable Dookie, but, verily, a Blue Devil nonetheless. And Ron Artest . . . not an Angel. But Houston does have Chuck Hayes in the pivot and you gotta love Hayes. What I really used to love was how Tubby would refer to him by his first name with that peculiarly Tubby patois. So Hayes’ angelic qualities overcome the demonic propensities of his aforementioned teammates.

Which is to say, let’s hope that Houston can pull the upset. That’s where my heart is. My rational mind says: No way, Jose.

The Lakers have jumped out to an 8-0 lead after three minutes, and I’m about to declare that one over. In the interests of patience and circumspection I’ll wait until a few more returns are in.

Tonight you got your Celtics and Magic in the perhaps the day’s most interesting match up.

So I’ll be back here now and again during the day and night as developments dictate. I know I oughta be outside enjoying the lovely spring day. But my allergies are out of control, my three separate medications don’t seem to be doing their jobs, so I’m protecting myself from the elements. At least, that’s my excuse.

The Lakers are up 13-2. Houston is 0-11 from the field. Only the ghost of Dan Rather is preventing me from calling this one for Los Angeles. We need to wait for more returns, though it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a long afternoon before we have some definitive NBA results.

– Seedy K