FDH Lounge Show #46: February 18, 2009

By Rick Morris

The 46th edition of THE FDH LOUNGE on SportsTalkNetwork.com (Wednesday, 7-10 PM EST) lives up -- as always -- to our mantra of "nothing is off-topic."

After The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries, we debut a new 5-minute segment called "This Week in The FDH Lounge," where we will spotlight recent developments and material in all manifestations of The FDH Lounge (including our Multimedia Magazine and Twitter content).

Shortly thereafter, we welcome in the newest friend of The FDH Lounge family, Restrictor Plated proprietor and noted NASCAR writer Ben Dyer. In a wonderful example of how this modern age of communication works at light speed, Ben's Restrictor Plate Twitter account started following us on Daytona Race Sunday, we reciprocated and voila, the next thing you know he's booked for this program! We'll examine Ben's controversial thoughts on whether Lil' E is overrated, the Lil' E/Brian Vickers dustup at Daytona, the late start time to the race for a kind of wannabe-Super Bowl/daylong TV effect and the state of motorsports in general in this circling-the-drain economy. By the way, the "Daytona 380" graphic on Restrictor Plated is awesome.

Later in Hour One, we bring back the man who was perhaps the first individual to graduate from mere guest to full-fledged FDH Lounge Dignitary: the man, the myth, the legend, Russ Cohen from Sportsology. Because he's been covering so much topical content lately, we have a lot to discuss: the recent retirement of WWE Diva Victoria, the latest and greatest cartoon and gaming news coming out of Comic Con, three great profiles about the red-hot USA Network program BURN NOTICE, what Eric Mangini's departure means to the 2009 Jets -- and what his arrival means to the 2009 Browns, the spotlighting of the Free Ted Williams website, Bert Blyleven's Hall of Fame credentials, and ARod's weak "apology."

Midway through Hour Two, we start our FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER "show-within-a-show" a half hour early to bring you bonus coverage of fantasy baseball 2009. In our most recent free weekly newsletter, we just unveiled the beta version of our 2009 Top 72 Overall. We'll examine the reasons for some of the slottings, as well as some of our Overvalued and Undervalued Players for this year and the players with the widest ranges of expectations for the season.

In the final half of Hour Three, we bring you as always THE GOON SQUAD, our look at all things NHL. The Penguins just whacked coach Michel Therrien in a shocking move and we must wonder now, what comes next? With the Red Wings now looking to keep Hossa long-term, how will that be possible? Is Brian Burke going to make a Tomas Kaberle trade his first big move in Toronto? And how do we see those pesky playoff standings shaking out? We'll go over it all for you.

It's a loaded program, to be sure, but it's just another day in the life of The FDH Lounge! Watch us live Wednesday night or listen to our archives on-demand at STN.