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Over-by-over coverage as England’s latest pool match
Buttler: ‘We know McCullum’s qualities’ | Email Daniel
If there’s heavy dew, batting first is a big advantage because it makes the ball hard to grip. Both sides have serious batting firepower, but unreliable attacks, so we can expect runs.
Did no one tell Hope that tails never fails? England are fielding as having looked at the stats, they think that’s the play at the Wankhede; Jamie Overton is in for Luke Wood.
Continue reading...Down South, one big conspiracy theory has nothing to do with the moon or JFK.
Instead, the yearslong whopper that ran rampant within SEC terrain centered on conference commissioner Greg Sankey being an “Alabama homer.” A native New Yorker turned elephant backer. Secretly wrote all of his “A’s” in script handwriting.
Professional provocateur James Carville once alleged “collusion” between the SEC office and Alabama. Some might say the Ragin’ Cajun, an LSU alumnus, was the one suffering from bias, but I digress.
Here lately, Sankey sure is acting funny for a supposed “Alabama homer.” He must have forgotten his SEC office in Birmingham, aka East Tuscaloosa, operates as a Roll Tide cabal.
Or, maybe Sankey was just never the full-fledged Alabama homer some fans of rival teams made him out to be. Like most conspiracy theories, this one lacked sufficient proof.
Those old Alabama-SEC collusion claims shriveled last week. Sankey turned heel on Alabama and sided with the NCAA in a lawsuit to determine whether the Tide could continue playing former pro basketball player Charles Bediako in their march toward March.
Days after Sankey filed an affidavit supporting the NCAA, a judge in Alabama ruled against Bediako and in favor of the NCAA. This halted the NBA G League dropout’s days of dunking on college dudes.
Judge Daniel Pruet used legalese to explain his decision, language like Bediako “failed to establish that he would suffer irreparable harm” if he did not receive his desired ruling. He also cited NCAA bylaws.
NCAA “rules do not permit a student-athlete to participate in collegiate basketball, leave for the NBA, and return to the collegiate arena,” Pruet wrote. “All the evidence in the record indicates that the (NCAA) has consistently applied this specific rule.”
Left unwritten: The SEC commish casting his lot with the NCAA surely didn’t help Bediako.
So, what gives? Is Sankey an Alabama homer or a hater?
Neither.
He’s an SEC homer. That comes with the job. If Sankey and his office seemed like an Alabama homer before, maybe that’s because Nick Saban ruled college football. Saban’s high tides (and bountiful trophies) lifted the SEC’s boats.
If Sankey had to stump and maneuver a bit on behalf of Saban’s Alabama, well, that’s just good business.
Three years ago, Sankey summoned every ounce of propaganda he could muster while campaigning for the SEC’s champion, which wound up being Alabama, to get the final College Football Playoff spot, at the expense of undefeated Florida State.
Playoff rejection would have been costly to the SEC’s brand, ego, prestige and earnings. Anyway, what was good for Alabama also was good for the SEC, and it wasn’t particularly bad for college sports. It was just bad for Florida State and the ACC.
In this case, Bediako playing was fine for Alabama, but not especially beneficial to the SEC, on the whole. He didn’t even transform Alabama into a top national championship contender. He just made Alabama better than it was without him.
Bediako playing wasn’t ideal for Auburn when the former pro scored 12 points in Alabama’s 96-92 rivalry win, his final game before the judge’s ruling.
Other SEC teams aren’t playing guys who left college, declared for the NBA draft, played in the G League, and returned to college hoops years later, in violation of NCAA bylaws. As other teams follow the rules, Bediako and Alabama tried to sidestep them in court.
“Permitting former professional athletes to return to (college) competition creates a competitive disadvantage and fundamental unfairness for current student-athletes,” Sankey wrote in his affidavit in support of the NCAA.
Sankey has spent his career working within college sports. He worked in compliance on his way up the ladder. I suspect, at his core, he believes rules are good, a lack of rules is bad, rule-by-lawsuit is messy, and an ability to enforce eligibility rules is key to successful operation of any league.
Alabama coach Nate Oats and Bediako’s lawyer will point to the duplicity of the NCAA restricting Bediako from playing while permitting international players who previously played in foreign pro leagues or in the NBA G League, before later enrolling in college.
Hypocritical? Maybe.
Muddy? Absolutely.
Grounds for an injunction? Not according to an Alabama judge.
When Bediako left Alabama, declared for the draft and signed an NBA contract, NCAA rules said he wouldn’t be allowed to return to college ball. The rules still say that.
A healthy debate can be had about what it really means to be a pro athlete, when an NBA G Leaguer sues to get back in a college uniform, where he can earn more money. Amateurism is dead. Bediako wanted to leave one paycheck from the NBA G League for a better paycheck in college.
An Alabama homer would say, what’s the problem with that?
Sankey saw a problem. He’s no Alabama homer, after all.
Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: By siding with NCAA vs Alabama, Greg Sankey debunks conspiracy theory
The New Jersey Devils season has not gone according to plan. They’re unlikely to make the playoffs when they return from the Olympic break. And because this is supposedly a “win now” team, missing the playoffs entirely is an unacceptable result. People are looking for someone to point the finger at and blame for the shortcomings of the team.
We can all agree that there are issues with this team. Where we don’t necessarily agree is where the biggest issues lie and the way to go about fixing it. I think I’ve made my viewpoint perfectly clear where I blame Tom Fitzgerald more than anyone, and I don’t think any of this changes until the Devils clean house with their front office and scouting departments. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t think Sheldon Keefe is a big part of the problem (he is) or that the players are blameless (they’re not), but much like when weeds pop up in your front lawn, you’re not going to get rid of them until you literally get to the root of the issue. To me, that’s Fitzgerald.
Where I struggle to get on the same page as some of my Devils fan brethren is when it comes to blaming the players. I would agree that there are very few players, if any, on the Devils that have had a good year. My list would probably be Cody Glass and maybe Arseny Gritsyuk and that’s about it. I would also agree that when it comes to the “core players”, they haven’t been anywhere near good enough this season. And with all due respect to the supporting cast, its the Devils “core players” that would significantly move the needle one way or the other in regards to how good this team actually is. It’s not surprising with them all having bad years that the team is bad.
Where I disagree is wanting to cut bait with said players.
For reasons that I don’t quite understand, there are Devils fans who don’t like Jack and Luke Hughes. There are Devils fans who suggest that Nico Hischier is a “bad captain”, whatever that means. Depending upon how wide-ranging you want your “core” to be, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton, and others have had their flaws as hockey players picked apart as much as anybody else on the roster, because that’s what we do as fans when the team underperforms. It has to be someone’s fault, after all. And with the core of this team being together for several seasons now and only have one (1) second round appearance to show for it, fans get restless, throw their arms up in disgust, declare that you can’t win with these guys, and it’s time to trade them.
Never mind the fact that if the player(s) is as bad as you’re telling me he is, why would any other team want them?
Never mind the fact that you’re telling me that the player(s) is bad and needs to be traded while also simultaneously trying to tell me this other team will definitely give up their superstar player in exchange for him.
I’m not saying that the Devils should continue what they’re doing indefinitely when it hasn’t worked. But it also doesn’t take a genius to suggest that trading away good players isn’t the answer either. So this week, I’m going to take a brief historical look at trades where a team gave away a star player for one reason or another, why it hasn’t worked out for them, and why it also won’t work out for the Devils if they were foolish enough to go down that road.
For purposes of this exercise, I’m only going to include deals in the salary cap era. I’m not really all that interested in going back to when the Oilers traded away Wayne Gretzky or Mark Messier, but spoiler alert, the Oilers didn’t win those deals when they got rid of future first-ballot Hall of Famers. Shocking, I know.
This one feels a little bit like cheating since Marner was technically a free agent who was clearly leaving, but the circumstances leading up to it actually share a lot of parallels to what the Devils are currently going through.
The Maple Leafs went through season after season of being unable to to reach a Conference Final, let alone a Stanley Cup Final. They changed the coach several times. They changed the GM. They changed the supporting cast on the roster time and time again. But the core was essentially the same throughout with Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Morgan Reilly as the constants for the Leafs from the late 2010s up until last season.
The Leafs had yet another season where they came up short and “something simply had to change because you can’t keep running it back” in regards to the core. After all, they’ve already changed the GM, the coach, and the supporting cast several times over. Matthews is the new captain and he recently re-signed so he’s not going anywhere. Nylander is signed long-term so neither was he. Same goes for Reilly. So the only pieces that could theoretically change were pending UFAs Tavares (who took a discount to stay) and Marner. Marner was deemed the whipping boy or scapegoat or however you want to phrase it, and he was as ready to move on from the Leafs as the Leafs were ready to move on from him.
How’s that working out for Toronto this season? Not great.
There are other reasons why Toronto will likely miss the playoffs this season….Anthony Stolarz has been injured and hasn’t been very good when he has played, and the Leafs supporting cast is still average. But perhaps no reason is bigger than Toronto essentially letting a player who was a consistent 25-30 goal scorer and chipped in 60+ assists leave for essentially nothing but a bottom six center.
I like Nic Roy. He’s a solid option to have further down in your lineup. But he’s no Mitch Marner, who is having a typical Mitch Marner season in Vegas for a team that is likely playoff-bound. And while it remains to be seen what Marner and the Knights do once they get there, I doubt he’s all that upset about getting out of the Toronto pressure cooker. Especially given where he wound up.
Toronto failed to replace the production that a departing Marner provided, and it’s a big part of the reason why they’re going to miss the playoffs. That’s not to say that they still can’t eventually replace Marner’s production going forward, but as we already know, there’s no player with Marner’s level of production that is hitting the UFA or trade market this summer, and even if there were, there’s no guarantee Toronto gets them.
Long before Marner was the scapegoat for Toronto’s failures, there was Phil Kessel.
Toronto missed the playoffs during Kessel’s last few years there. “It was time to move on” from a player like Kessel, who has a mercurial personality to begin with. Add in the fact that the Toronto media did everything they could to run Kessel out of town and Leafs management finally obliged with this doozy of a trade.
Toronto sent Kessel, Tyler Biggs, Tim Erixon, and a conditional 2nd round pick to the Penguins for Kasperi Kapanen, one-time almost a Devil Scott Harrington (who was later in the Timo Meier trade), Nick Spaling, a conditional first round pick (later flipped for Frederik Andersen), and a third round pick (James Greenway).
Kapanen was the most notable piece that the Leafs got back, and he was ok with 90 points over 202 games for Toronto before being later dealt back to Pittsburgh. Harrington was later dealt to Columbus and was a journeyman defenseman. Spaling was a checking line forward who was flipped at the deadline later that year. Greenway never played in the NHL, and the first round pick was flipped for Frederik Andersen who was mostly good for Toronto before he too was eventually run out of town for Toronto’s failures as a team. Toronto hasn’t gotten past the second round of the playoffs since making this trade, and actually tanked for a couple seasons in the immediate aftermath of said deal, which did land them Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
Is a handful of good seasons by the goaltender and a handful of ok seasons by Kapanen enough of a return for a top line scoring winger in his prime who fit the Penguins like a glove and was a key part of two Stanley Cup winning teams there (and three if we count his final season in Vegas?). Especially when the Leafs wound up accomplishing nothing of significance for the period that Andersen and Kapanen were there before they were eventually moved? Who’s to say?
The backstory with Eichel’s falling out with the Sabres is well documented. The Sabres were a perennial loser with him. Eichel got injured and needed neck surgery. Both sides disagreed on how to proceed with the specific neck surgery that Eichel would get. Eichel, who was already annoyed with the organization given the state of the team throughout his tenure there, got fed up and requested a trade. The Sabres eventually obliged once the situation became untenable, sending him (along with a 3rd rd pick) to Vegas for Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, a first round pick (eventually used on Noah Ostlund) and a second round pick (later flipped to Minnesota for Jordan Greenway).
Eichel eventually got the surgery he wanted, returned to the lineup for the Golden Knights, and has been been better than a PPG #1 center for the Golden Knights since. Eichel was a key member of their championship team in 2022-23 and had a legitimate case for the Conn Smythe award that eventually went to Jonathan Marchessault.
Buffalo got an excellent player on a good contract in Tuch, although he is a pending UFA so it remains to be seen where his future lies. But Krebs hasn’t really developed into anything more than a fourth line center. Ostlund has been ok in his first full NHL season and Greenway has been an average at best bottom six winger. That’s not exactly the type of return you’re looking for when you’re trading away a borderline Top 5 center in the entire league.
Needless to say, Buffalo has mostly struggled since trading Eichel. Their playoff drought will probably come to an end this season, as they’ve been white hot since firing the GM who made that trade. Which is weird, because I’ve been told time and time again that you can’t possibly expect the team to play better after making a change like that.
Generally speaking though, I would disagree with anyone who suggests that Buffalo has been better off without Eichel. They’ll probably make the playoffs this year, but the Eichel trade isn’t the reason why. That’s not to say that Tuch hasn’t been good, because he certainly has been. But Vegas winning a Cup almost immediately with Eichel and Eichel remaining an elite level center for them for the remainder of his prime trumps anything Buffalo has accomplished post-trade.
People in Boston might retroactively try to claim that trading away Joe Thornton was the catalyst for the Stanley Cup championship team they would eventually build that won in 2011.
They’re entitled to their opinion, but that would be revisionist history.
Thornton, who was Boston’s captain when traded and had just signed a 3-year deal the previous offseason, became a punching bag in Boston due to his leadership style and Boston’s failures in the playoffs. The two sides had a contentious contract negotiation the previous summer with each side unhappy with the other, but Thornton eventually put pen to paper on a new three year deal.
With the Bruins struggling in the first season post-lockout, they traded Thornton to the Sharks for three players and no draft picks. Sturm was ok as a Bruin, with 193 points in 302 games over parts of five seasons. But Primeau and Stuart were depth pieces who ultimately left Boston as free agents.
Meanwhile, Thornton immediately turned the Sharks season around with a Hart Trophy season and a playoff appearance. Including the split season between Boston and San Jose, Thornton totaled 970 points over his next 937 games, which is a Hall of Fame-caliber career in and of itself. The Sharks never won a Stanley Cup while Thornton was there….call it a byproduct of playing in the same era as Chicago and Los Angeles when they were winning championships if you want….but the Sharks were a consistent playoff team throughout his 15 years in Northern California. Meanwhile, Boston got nothing of note in return for a future first ballot Hall of Famer in his prime.
None of us have a crystal ball to tell us whether or not Boston eventually wins a Cup had they kept Thornton. We know they won one in 2011 without him, but that team was also significantly better than the ones Thornton was on. Tim Thomas won a Vezina that year. They had Hall of Famers up and down their lineup with a young Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand playing alongside Zdeno Chara and Mark Recchi. Guys like Milan Lucic, David Krejci, and Nathan Horton were young and in their primes. Blake Wheeler and Tyler Seguin would go on to become stars in the league themselves. That Boston team was loaded.
If the argument is that trading Thornton allowed Boston to sink to the bottom of the standings and allocate resources elsewhere, I would disagree with that. Boston was really only bad for a two year stretch in the mid 00s. Bergeron and Thomas were already on the roster when Thornton was dealt. Marchand was drafted in the third round the following season. They did wind up signing Chara that following offseason. While it would be foolish to suggest Chara wasn’t a big part of why the Bruins turned things around, who Boston later acquired after the fact doesn’t exactly make up for what has been universally accepted as one of the worst trades in modern NHL history.
Of course, I fully expect the one trade everyone in the comments section who wants to trade Jack and Luke Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt to point to would be this one.
Context matters however.
The Flames didn’t necessarily want to trade Matthew Tkachuk. They knew how good he is. But the Flames found themselves in that position where they didn’t have much of a choice after Johnny Gaudreau left in free agency and Tkachuk made it clear that he wasn’t going to re-sign in Calgary when his contract was up in a year. Tkachuk had a fairly limited list of teams he was willing to sign a contract extension with (side note, New Jersey wasn’t one of those teams on his list even though his cousin is Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald). And even with that, Calgary probably did better than most of the other teams on this list in terms of getting quality NHL players in return.
That’s not to necessarily say they did great though. Huberdeau has been unable to replicate the 115 point season he had in his final season in South Florida and is in the middle of a long-term deal that Calgary handed him which pays him $10.5M AAV. Weegar has been a top pairing defenseman for the Flames but has struggled this year and is also in the middle of a long-term deal that Calgary handed him. Schwindt hasn’t really taken off as an NHL player and is now back with Florida while the jury is out on what Potter will be. But in the bigger picture, Calgary has been doing their own retool or rebuild or whatever one wants to call it since Tkachuk and Gaudreau left. They haven’t made the playoffs since this trade, and probably aren’t heading there anytime soon as they continue to shop veteran players like Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman, among others.
Of course, all of that pales in comparison to Tkachuk, who was a key member of a Florida Panthers team that reached the Stanley Cup Final in three consecutive seasons since he arrived and won twice.
I don’t know if in an alternate universe if Bill Zito and the Panthers wind up winning a Stanley Cup had Tkachuk gone to St. Louis or Vegas or Tampa Bay instead. Saying they might have won anyways diminishes Tkachuk’s contributions when he was a key piece of that team. But it’s not like Florida didn’t have a good team prior to that trade. A lot of key players like Sasha Barkov, Sam Bennett, Sergei Bobrovsky, Aaron Ekblad, Gus Forsling, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart, and Carter Verhaeghe were already there. Huberdeau and Weegar were the odd men out, but it’s also in a trade to get Matthew Tkachuk.
Zito had an opportunity to make a franchise-defining trade and certainly has no regrets after the fact. Nor should he. But this is also a particularly perfect set of circumstances that played out in his favor and Calgary still wound up doing better than most teams in terms of getting an actual return for trading away a star player. I don’t think this is one that is easily duplicated, in part because most teams aren’t looking to trade away a “Tkachuk-type” if they have one. And even if a team is trading that type away, its usually because they know they’re going to lose the player if they don’t trade him, and the list of destinations is fairly limited.
I could keep going on bad trades that sent a star player out of town, such as the deal that sent Jeff Carter to Los Angeles (helping spur two championship runs for the Kings) or the Roberto Luongo trade that sent him from Florida to Vancouver (where he was runner up for the Hart and Vezina in his first year and helped lead Vancouver to a Cup Final appearance), but I think you get the point.
The purpose of this article isn’t to say the Devils should definitely not trade (insert player name here). When you’ve been as mediocre as the Devils have been for the last several years, I do think you should approach this situation with an open mind.
That said, there’s quite a few things that need to be said.
It’s hard to get talented players in this league. The Devils have never historically been a premiere free agent destination, and as we’re seeing with the Devils the last few years, building a team through free agency is tough to do. You’re paying market rate for said players who are more of the supporting cast types than franchise players, you’re in a position where you probably have to get a little uncomfortable by giving them an extra year and/or no-trade protection, and we’re dealing with players in their 30s when their best years might already be behind them. The superstar players that actually move the needle rarely make it to free agency in their prime, and in the rare cases they do, they’re not picking New Jersey. That includes Dougie Hamilton, who is closer to being a really good supporting cast member than a true #1 defenseman.
Teams that have star players aren’t going to easily give them up. There’s usually extenuating circumstances that lead to the “why” the trade is happening. The team wants to cut costs, or they know the player is going to be a free agent and they’re unlikely to keep them. Maybe there’s bad blood between management and the player for whatever reason, such as the one I pointed out with Eichel. Maybe its a situation where in a hockey-crazy market, the team listens to their fanbase in regards to who not to bring back because its easier to run a smear campaign after the player left town than it is to build a winner around said player. Giving up on talent should be viewed as a last resort, and should only be considered once other options have been exhausted.
And even when you do decide to give up on said player? You’re probably not going to come close to winning said trade. You’re probably going to get a late first round pick back. Maybe two if you’re lucky because one of the picks may have a “if the team wins the Stanley Cup, you get a first round pick” condition attached to it. You’ll likely get a prospect back, but it probably won’t be THE prospect you want from said team because that player has been deemed untouchable by his current team. And you might get a young player back, but that player won’t be nearly as good as the one you’re trading away.
While all this is going on, you’ll continue to lose hockey games because it turns out said player you’re giving up on wasn’t actually part of the problem in the first place. To make matters worse, you’ll probably see said player celebrate newfound success with their new team because their management team and/or coaching staff actually knows what they’re doing and knows how to put players like that in a position to succeed. Tom Fitzgerald has made plenty of mistakes in his time as Devils general manager, but how much worse would things be if he had given up on difference makers like, say, Sam Bennett or Carter Verhaeghe too early instead of Jesper Boqvist and Vitek Vanecek. But hey, maybe those prospects and magic beans you’re getting back will pan out someday.
Nobody is saying that Jack or Luke Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton, or whoever else you want to consider to be a “core” piece of the Devils moving forward is as good as the players listed in the historical examples above. But when you start giving up on players, you better be right about that because the consequences if you are wrong are more significant than giving up on a coach, or a GM, or changing around the supporting cast. Especially when there’s been zero inclination of said players actually wanting out of this situation. The Devils shouldn’t be looking to push their so-called core pieces out the door. Those are the types of unforced errors that can set the franchise back half a decade or longer.
This isn’t the NHL video game where you can propose trading the Hughes brothers to Minnesota to complete the Hughes triforce there, or try pawning off Jesper Bratt on Ottawa for Brady Tkachuk because “we need a Tkachuk-type”. Star player for star player trades aren’t commonplace for a reason. And no, I’m not interested in trading Jack Hughes for some draft picks and a B-level prospect because “you gotta shake up the core” or because he’s “always hurt” or you don’t like the answers he gives to the media. I’d rather have Jack Hughes, who we all know can be a game-breaking talent, flaws and all. If Luke Hughes is as bad as everyone has told me he was this year (and he’s not nearly that bad, to be clear), who is giving you anything worthwhile that’s worth accepting when he’s making $9M AAV for six more years? I’d rather bet on the player and that he’ll ultimately be the player the Devils projected him to be when they drafted him than sell on the player for 30 cents on the dollar.
Nico Hischier might be different in that he’ll be entering his contract year next year. I would expect that he ultimately signs a contract extension, but its not a lock that he does. If, and only if, he decides not to sign would I even entertain a trade pertaining to the Devils captain. But what I’m not doing is trading a guy that people tell me is a bad captain when those people have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to dynamics in the room when they’re not actually in said room.
I’m not drawing a definitive line in the sand when it comes to everybody else in the Devils roster because I do think there’s something to the idea that the mix itself isn’t working and hasn’t worked. But I also believe the Devils have good players on this roster who are having bad years. I don’t know what the reason for that necessarily is, whether its injury-related, a coaching structure that is way too conservative, bad luck, or some combination of the above. But we’ve seen enough good hockey from Jesper Bratt, for example, over the years to where I don’t think he just forgot how to play hockey in his age-27 season.
I’m not saying the Devils shouldn’t consider trading Bratt, or Hamilton, or Meier, or Dawson Mercer, or Simon Nemec, or whoever. I’m not even saying any or all of them are “core players”. I’m saying that it’s easier to change everything else around the players. It’s easier to find a new GM who actually does think skill is important and isn’t just loading up on grinders who play “playoff style hockey”. It’s easier to find a coach who strikes the right balance where maybe you’re not always selling out for offense like they did under Lindy Ruff, but you’re also not suppressing offense for the sake of defense either like they are under Sheldon Keefe. It’s easier to swap out your supporting cast until you find a better mix of players to compliment the skill players you do have.
At the end of the day, you need talented players in order to win in this league. You’re not winning without good players. One shouldn’t be so quick to discard said players because you don’t think they don’t fit the mold of what you think a winning hockey player looks like.
But with that said, if you want to go ahead and trust the regime that whiffed on the Alex Holtz and Chase Stillman picks with more draft capital that they’ll get it right this time, by all means. If you want to trust the regime that can’t figure out how to build a winning team at the AHL level or develop that favorite prospect of yours that definitely would’ve made it if he only got a chance, go for it.
I’d rather keep the bird in the hand than take my chances with the two in the bush.
It’s true that the Devils best players need to be better than what we’ve seen this year. You’re only going to go as far as your best players take you. But the reality of the situation is that almost across the board, the majority of the team is having a bad year. Nobody has been good enough.
It’s also true that the Devils need to do a better job of building a team around the handful of good players they do have instead of kicking those players to the curb because you’re sick of them like a petulant child would be with a toy he got on Christmas that he didn’t like. If it means a GM change and bringing in somebody who has a better vision of what a winning team looks like than the crew currently in charge, so be it. If it means bringing in a coach who knows how to allow the team’s best players to be their best players, so be it.
Maybe the Devils ultimately don’t wind up winning anything with this particular “core”, regardless of who is in it, when its all said and done years from now. But they haven’t exhausted all of their options yet trying to build around said core either. Selling low on good players who are all having a bad year isn’t the answer. The Devils shouldn’t consider trading any core player until it’s absolutely necessary.
As bad as things are, we’re not even close to that point yet.
Captain sidelined out by testicular injury in the nets
Champion batter rushed to Sri Lanka as squad cover
Steve Smith has answered a last-minute SOS and could make a shock appearance at the T20 World Cup following a testicular injury to skipper Mitch Marsh.
Marsh has been ruled out of Australia’s T20 World Cup opener against Ireland in Colombo after sustaining a direct hit to the box at training earlier this week.
Continue reading...The men’s hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics begins on Wednesday.
There will be no shortage of Florida Panthers players and staffers participating in the games taking place in Milan.
In fact, no NHL team has more players who will be on the ice during the Olympics than the Panthers, who have 10 players suiting up.
That includes a pair of Panthers who will be representing one of the most hockey-crazed nations in the world: Latvia.
Veteran defenseman Uvis Balinskis and young forward Sandis Vilmanis are the two Florida players who will represent their Latvian homeland.
Additionally, Balinskis was recently named an alternate captain on Team Latvia, along with longtime captain Kaspars Daugavins and fellow alternate Zemgus Girgensons.
Both Balinskis and Vilmanis appear poised to see plenty of ice time with Latvia.
During early practices, Balinskis was seen skating on the top Latvian defensive pairing with Kristians Rubins while Vilmanis was placed on the left side of the top forward line, along with winger Eduards Tralmaks and Girgensons at center.
Formace Lotyšska na dnešním tréninkovém zápasu proti Švýcarsku! 🇱🇻
— Vojtěch Tůma (@vojtechtuma7) February 9, 2026
Vilmanis - Girgensons - Tralmaks
Ri. Bukarts - Blugers - Balcers
Krastenbergs - Locmelis - Daugavins
Ro. Bukarts - Batna - Dzierkals
Egle/Ravinskis
Rubins - Balinskis
Zile - Jaks
Mamčics - Šmits
Freibergs -… pic.twitter.com/M7W4iFGR8p
Latvia opens their Olympic schedule on Thursday against the United States at 3:10 p.m. ET, followed by a matchup with Germany on Saturday at 6:10 a.m. ET and then a battle with Denmark on Sunday at 1:10 p.m. ET.
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Florida Panthers At The 2026 Winter Olympics: Team Canada
Photo caption: Jan 16, 2026; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman Uvis Balinskis (26) celebrates his goal with left wing Sandis Vilmanis (95) against the Carolina Hurricanes during the second period at Lenovo Center. (James Guillory-Imagn Images)
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Easton Cowan is set to receive some new bling on Wednesday from his junior club, the OHL's London Knights.
The 20-year-old, along with former London teammates Denver Barkey, Sam Dickinson, and Kasper Halttunen, will be given their 2025 Championship rings before the Knights' game against the OHL's Guelph Storm.
Welcoming back some London legends on Wednesday night 🌟
— London Knights (@LondonKnights) February 10, 2026
Prior to puck drop we'll present Denver, Easton, Kasper and Sam with their 2025 Championship rings! pic.twitter.com/8fQjS6nLOe
London won both the OHL Championship and the Memorial Cup last spring.
The Knights unveiled both rings on Jan. 15. One sported the Knights' logo surrounded by what looks to be diamonds, and the other was engraved with the player's number in the centre.
New rings who this pic.twitter.com/HyiV3iC3fo
— London Knights (@LondonKnights) January 15, 2026
Cowan tallied three goals and seven points in five games at the Memorial Cup, earning the tournament's MVP honor.
Cowan played parts of four seasons with the Knights from 2022 to 2025. In 175 games with London, Cowan tallied 84 goals and 220 points. He holds the Knights' record for playoff points, tallying 32 goals and 64 assists for 96 points in 60 postseason games.
The Mount Brydges, Ontario, native also had a historic (unofficial) point streak in his final season with London, scoring points in 65 consecutive games. The OHL deemed the streak unofficial because it spanned across two seasons.
Now in the NHL with the Maple Leafs, Cowan's debut season has had its ups and downs.
The rookie has seven goals and 10 assists through 43 games this season, while averaging 13:31 of ice time. He's played on every forward line with the Maple Leafs and also gets power play time.
Easton Cowan Takes In London Knights Game As Maple Leafs' Olympic Break BeginsCowan returned to Canada Life Place in London, Ontario, to watch his former club take on the Kitchener Rangers.However, the forward was a healthy scratch in Toronto's final three games before the Olympic break.
"As we talked about, (Cowan) needed a little bit of a reset. I think the break will do him well. Nothing changes there," Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said ahead of Toronto's final game before the break against the Edmonton Oilers.
"There are young guys in the league who don't play all the time. There are times they do, but there are times when they don't, and they have little breaks here and there. They benefit from it."
Nevertheless, Wednesday will be a night Cowan will remember for a long time as he caps off a historic junior career with the Knights.
For the second week in a row a member of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins was named the AHL’s player of the week. Avery Hayes claimed the honors this week by producing four goals in two games. Oh, and in between he found the time for a little dalliance in the NHL as well.
Fresh off his two-goal game in the NHL on Thursday, Hayes scored a hat trick against Hershey in a 4-3 OT win that culminated in Hayes scoring that game-winner while breaking his stick.
All in all, not a bad week for Hayes with six goals in three games combining time in Pittsburgh and WBS.
The same could be said for the Pens having a good week, winners of their three games. From Nick Hart at WBSPenguins.com:
Wednesday, Feb. 4 – PENGUINS 4 vs. Hershey 1
Sergei Murashov stonewalled the Bears in the first two periods, leading to a 0-0 score. The Penguins then uncorked four goals in the third period, including Tanner Howe’s first as a pro.Friday, Feb. 6 – PENGUINS 6 at Lehigh Valley 5
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton survived a high-scoring affair down the PA Turnpike thanks to a four-point, hat trick night from d-man Matt Dumba. Ville Koivunen also logged four points (1G-3A). Melvin Fernström made his AHL debut and recorded two assists.Saturday, Feb. 7 – PENGUINS 4 at Hershey 3 (OT)
Avery Hayes came back from a dream NHL debut to give the Bears nightmares before the All-Star Break. Hayes scored a hat trick, capped off with the overtime winner. The Penguins’ other goal came from 19-year-old Fernström, his first in the AHL.
New faces and fresh blood were key, former second round pick and 20-year old Tanner Howe is back from his ACL rehab to get a belated start to his first pro season. Swedish import Melvin Fernstrom has taken to the AHL for his first taste of North American pro hockey and generated three points over the two games he’s played.
No change in the standings, the Penguins remain in second place in the Atlantic Division. WBS is on a five-game winning streak, which is nice but hardly anything compared to first-place Providence’s current 10-game heater. Both first and second place are pulling away big time at this point from the rest of the pack. Charlotte has four games in hand but are 13 points back of WBS. Fourth place Hershey has the four games in hand but are a whopping 20 back of WBS. Good news for getting a bye as a top-two seed in the division.
As a result of the heavy early schedule, things lighten up for WBS. They only have seven games remaining in February and just 10 scheduled in March (compared to the 17 that will be played by NHL Pittsburgh, though the NHL regular season is 10 games longer).
The AHL is currently celebrating their All-Star festivites, the skills challenge event was last night. Tristan Broz and Sergei Murashov are the Penguin representatives.
The overall AHL All-Star challenge is tonight in Rockford Illinois. The WBS Pens will be back at it this weekend with Saturday and Sunday home contests against Syracuse and Cleveland, respectively.
As the NBA has evolved, so too has its midseason showcase.
The league’s 75th All-Star Game takes place Sunday at Intuit Dome and Kelly Flatow, executive vice president and head of the events group at the NBA noted how things have changed since the last time the event was in Los Angeles.
“This will be my 20th All-Star and I joined the events group in 2016, so I was responsible for All-Star when it was here at Staples Center in 2018,” she said. “So it’s great to be back in L.A.”
There is plenty in store for the public this year — both in Inglewood and the downtown area.
One key component of the All-Star spectacle is NBA Crossover — a chance for fans to experience the sport through pop culture, fashion, technology, music and entertainment.
“Every year All-Star grows in different shapes and forms,” Flatow said. “What we used to call a weekend is now an entire week. In fact, the Clippers have done an incredible job making All-Star an entire season long celebration of the game.”
In November, the organization launched a three-on-three tournament, 75 days ahead of what will be the 75th game. It initiated “Homecourt Hoops,” a program which has given away 75 outdoor hoops every day. At the Rising Stars mini-tournament Friday, Clippers chairman Steve Ballmer and NBA commissioner Adam Silver will give out the final set of hoops to deserving families.
“We look at this as a global celebration of the game and given the unique geography of this city it’s important to cover as much of the greater Los Angeles area as possible,” Flatow said. “You’ll see that with our key venues.
"Obviously we’re showcasing Intuit Dome and also the Kia Forum where we’ve held two All-Star Games in the past and this coming weekend we’re going to hold a series of events there. On Friday night we have the celebrity game, which has always been a mainstay of our All-Star festivities, but one of the things we didn’t have when we were here eight years ago is the NBA HBCU Classic. This will be the fifth time for that.”
The All-Star Celebrity Game tips off at 4 p.m. and aims to please as Mookie Betts from the World Series champion Dodgers will coach one of the teams and actor/comedian Anthony Anderson will coach the other. Betts’ squad includes rapper GloRilla, Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and retired Brazilian soccer star Cafu while Anderson’s roster features Canadian actor Simu Liu, Chargers wideout Keenan Allen and former NBA player Jason “White Chocolate” Williams. At halftime the K-pop group Cortis will perform.
The Celebrity Game will be followed by the HBCU Classic between Coastal Athletic Assn. rivals North Carolina A&T and Hampton.
“NBA Crossover is offering even more ways for fans to get in on the action,” said Flatow, who vividly recalls her first All-Star Game as an NBA employee in Las Vegas in 2007. “The Convention Center will be transformed into a fan destination with live performers, customized experiences, retail offerings, NBA partner activations, player [and] talent appearances, panel discussions, memorabilia displays and more. There will be concerts Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This is about putting Los Angeles and our game on the global stage.”
Read more:Complete coverage: NBA All-Star Weekend 2026
Flatow cited 27 different marketing partners and brands teaming up with the NBA. The All-Star Game on Sunday will be broadcast in 200 countries and territories. She also lauded the biggest merchandise village in the history of the event and ticket data confirms there will be fans from all 50 states and from 44 countries.
The Clippers are hosting with their All-Star City of Stars Alliance the DJ Cassidy Pass the Mic Live! event Saturday night at Kia Forum — an ensemble of hip-hop and R&B royalty that will feature Ashanti, Busta Rhymes, Ja Rule, Lil Kim and others.
Three concerts will highlight the Crossover extravaganza — the hip-hop band Cortis on Thursday, rapper Ludacris on Friday and the country, Americana and hip-hop singer Shaboozey on Saturday. A beats & brunch event with DJ Pauly D will follow on Sunday.
“When we were we here in 2018, I don’t know if the phenomenon of influencers even existed yet but certainly now in 2026 creators are such a big part of pop culture so we’ve got some amazing creators,” Flatow said. “State Farm is doing a three-point contest with comedian Druski and we’ve added a Creator Court along with what we’ll call Hardcourt Central, a festival-like area where they’ll be food trucks, musical performances and more. There’ll be lots of opportunities to shoot hoops and meet your favorite players and legends like Oscar Robertson, Dr. J, Robert Horry and Mitch Richmond.”
Late Sunday morning, 24 of the NBA G League’s most dynamic players, 10 of whom were selected by fan vote, will show off their skills in the Next Up Game, part of the Crossover spectacle at the Convention Center. Seats will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
“The G League wasn’t part of the All-Star experience last time we were here in 2018,” Flatow said. “We created a G League Park with an NBA Crossover, so on Saturday one of the things people can do is watch the G League dunk contest, always a fan favorite, then on Sunday at G League Park will be the G League Next Up Game and that’s included in the Crossover entry cost.
"Because there are so many things we’re adding and that we’ll be announcing in the next few days I encourage everyone to go to the NBA events app and see the full schedule, which will be updated in real time.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The 75th NBA All-Star Game will take place Sunday at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. Each year there are new twists to the game and activities during the three-day celebration of the best basketball players in the world. This year is no exception.
Here's what you need to know:
When: Sunday, 2 p.m. (NBC and Peacock)
Where: Intuit Dome
For the first time the All-Star Game will become a four-game tournament between three teams — two with eight players each from the U.S. and one with nine international players. The top five vote-getters (50% fan voting, 25% NBA player voting and 25% media voting) in each conference qualified for the game while reserves were selected by NBA coaches. Since there was an imbalance of foreign players, Kawhi Leonard was added to a U.S. team.
Each game will be 12 minutes. If all three teams go 1-1 in round-robin play, a tiebreaker based on point differential will be used to determine the two finalists.
Team USA Stars
Scottie Barnes (Raptors), Devin Booker (Suns), Cade Cunningham (Pistons), Jalen Duren (Pistons), Anthony Edwards (Timberwolves), Chet Holmgren (Thunder), Jalen Johnson (Hawks), Tyrese Maxey (76ers)
Team USA Stripes
Jaylen Brown (Celtics), Jalen Brunson (Knicks), Stephen Curry* (Warriors), Kevin Durant (Rockets), Brandon Ingram (Raptors), LeBron James (Lakers), Kawhi Leonard (Clippers), Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers), Norman Powell (Heat)
Team World
Luka Doncic (Lakers), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander* (Thunder), Nikola Jokic (Nuggets), Jamal Murray (Nuggets), Alperen Sengun (Rockets), Pascal Siakam (Pacers), Karl-Anthony Towns (Knicks), Victor Wembanyama (Spurs)
*-injured
When: Saturday, 2 p.m.
Where: Intuit Dome
The skills challenge is out this year, replaced by the shooting stars competition, which features four teams of three players. The shooting stars was last featured during All-Star Weekend in 2015. It's a two-round format, with the top two teams advancing to the final. Teams have 70 seconds to score points while rotating through seven designated shooting locations, with all three players on a team shooting at each spot in a set order. Competing are: Team Knicks (Jalen Brunson, Allan Houston, Karl-Anthony Towns); Team Harper (Ron Harper Sr., Dylan Harper, Ron Harper Jr.); Team All-Star (Richard Hamilton, Scottie Barnes, Chet Holmgren); Team Cameron (Corey Maggette, Kon Knueppel, Jalen Johnson).
The three-point contest has eight competitors and features five racks of five balls, four of them containing one “money ball” worth two points instead of one, and one rack of five money balls positioned at the player’s choice. There are also two “Starry ball” pedestals behind the third rack, to the left and right, worth three points. The top three shooters advance to the final round. Competing are: Devin Booker (Suns), Kon Knueppel (Hornets), DAmian Lillard (Trail Blazers), Tyrese Maxey (76ers), Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers) Jamal Murray (Nuggets), Bobby Portis Jr. (Bucks), Norman Powell (Heat).
The slam dunk contest, with a two-round format featuring four contestants, will cap Saturday’s festivities. Each of the four competitors are given 90 seconds to complete two dunks — with three attempts per dunk — for a judging panel. At the end of their time, they’ll be given one last attempt. The top two scorers advance to the final under the same format. Fans can score each dunk via the NBA ID app. In case of a tie, fan voting will be the tiebreaker. Competing are: Carter Bryant (Spurs), Jaxson Hayes (Lakers), Keshad Johnson (Heat), Jase Richardson (Magic).
When: Friday, 6 p.m.
Where: Intuit Dome
A trio of Hall of Famers — Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady — will join not-long-retired Austin Rivers as honorary coaches in the four-team tournament. Three teams have been drafted from rookies and second-year players while a fourth team will be comprised of G League players. The semifinals will be decided by the first team to reach 40 points, while the championship game will be played to 25.
Team Melo
Cooper Flagg (Mavericks), Reed Sheppard (Rockets), Stephon Castle (Spurs), Dylan Harper (Spurs), Jeremiah Fears (Pelicans), Donovan Clingan (Trail Blazers), Collin Murray-Boyles (Raptors)
Team T-Mac
Kon Knueppel (Raptors), Kel’el Ware (Heat), Tre Johnson (Wizards), Alex Sarr (Wizards), Zaccharie Risacher (Hawks), Ajay Mitchell# (Thunder), Jaylon Tyson (Cavaliers), Cam Spencer (Grizzlies)
Team Vince
VJ Edgecombe (76ers), Derik Queen (Pelicans), Kyshawn George (Wizards), Matas Buzelis (Bulls), Egor Demin (Nets), Cedric Coward (Grizzlies), Jaylen Wells (Grizzlies)
Team Austin
Sean East II (Salt Lake City), Ron Harper Jr. (Maine), David Jones Garcia (Austin), Yanic Konan Niederhauser (San Diego), Alijah Martin (Raptors 905), Tristen Newton (Rio Grande Valley ), Yang Hansen (Rip City)
#-injured
When: Sunday, 12:30 p.m.
Where: Convention Center
The G League Next Up game will feature four teams of seven players. It's a three-game tournament, similar to the Rising Stars and All-Star contests. The first team to 30 points will be the winner in each game. The top 10 players in fan voting received automatic invitations to the game, while the G League selected the next 18. They were then drafted onto four teams.
(at Intuit Dome unless noted)
Friday
10 a.m.: Rising Stars practice (NBA app)
4 p.m.: Celebrity Game at Kia Forum (ESPN)
6 p.m.: Rising Stars Game (Peacock)
8 p.m.: HBCU Classic, Hampton vs. North Carolina A&T, at Kia Forum (Peacock)
Saturday
10:30 a.m.: NBA All-Star media session (NBA TV)
1 p.m.: Commissioner Adam Silver news conference (NBA TV)
2 p.m.: All-Star Saturday: shooting stars, three-point contest, slam-dunk contest (NBC and Peacock)
Sunday
11:30 a.m.: NBA G League Next Up Game at Convention Center (NBA app)
2 p.m.: 75th NBA All-Star Game (NBC and Peacock)
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
MILAN (AP) — The Canadian Olympic Committee said it is “heartbroken” by a school shooting in British Columbia that left at least seven people dead and many others wounded.
Team Canada issued a statement at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Wednesday, the morning after the deadly shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.
“We are heartbroken by the news of the horrific school shooting that occurred in British Columbia. Our thoughts are with the families who have lost loved ones, those who are injured, and the entire Tumbler Ridge community. Team Canada stands with everyone affected as they navigate difficult days ahead," the statement said.
Canadian authorities said Tuesday that there were 10 deaths in total. The school shooting left seven dead, authorities said, while two more people were found dead at a nearby home. A woman who police believe to be the shooter also was killed.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said more than 25 people were injured, including two who were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, located in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, has 175 students from Grades 7 to 12, according to the provincial government's website.
The town is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) north of Vancouver, near the border with Alberta.
___
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Men's hockey at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics is more anticipated than it has been in years due to a recent change made by the NHL.
For the first time since 2014, the NHL allowed players from the top hockey league in the world to compete at the Olympics. The NHL is currently on break, with regular season games halted from Feb. 6 to Feb. 24.
That means NHL stars like Team USA captain Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) and brothers Matthew Tkachuk (Florida Panthers) and Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa Senators), will be in action. Canada, the gold medal favorite, is also stacked with some of the top talent in the world, such as Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) and the Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby, one of the greats of the past century.
Team USA's "Miracle on Ice" gold medal win in 1980 was with amateurs, as the NHL had yet to clear its players for the Olympics. That was also the last year Team USA won a gold medal in men's hockey at the Games.
Here's what to know about men's hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics, including why NHL players were briefly unable to play in the Olympics for a few cycles:
NHL players last competed at the Winter Olympics in 2014, when the Games were held in Sochi, Russia. NHL players are returning in 2026 for the first time since, as they missed the 2018 and 2022 Olympics.
The NHL didn't allow participation in 2018 due to a multitude of disagreements by the NHL, the International Olympic Committee and the NHL Players Association, which wanted the chance for players to represent their countries. NHL owners also opposed briefly shutting down the season and didn't view South Korea, where the 2018 Games were held, as a site for growth for the league.
The NHL Players Association later got a clause into the newly negotiated Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2020 to allow players to participate in the 2022 and 2026 Olympics. However, the NHL and NHLPA agreed to withdraw from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics due to the 2021-22 NHL season being impacted by COVID-19, with over 50 games rescheduled.
NHL players have only competed in a handful of Olympics, starting with the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. NHL players also participated in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014.
The NHL, International Ice Hockey Federation, International Olympic Committee and the NHL Players' Association reached an agreement on allowing Olympic competition in 1995.
All 32 NHL teams have at least one representative at the 2026 Winter Olympics, with 148 players in total competing.
The NHL is on break from Feb. 6 to Feb. 24 due to the Winter Olympics.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: When's the last time NHL players were in Winter Olympics?
Olympic hockey, just the NHL, doesn't allow for ties.
A game will go to overtime if it is tied after 60 minutes and there also is the possibility of a shootout if the game remains tied once an overtime period ends.
But there are differences between NHL rules and Olympic rules on how overtimes and shootouts are conducted. The maximum length of a sudden death overtime depends on the round in which the game is being played. And the shootout format is totally different from the one used by the NHL.
Here's an explainer on how overtimes and shootouts work in Olympic hockey:
If the teams are tied after 60 minutes in the preliminary round, a five-minute sudden-death overtime will be played at 3-on-3. Unlike the NHL, teams don't change ends for overtime.
Overtime in a playoff game, along with the bronze medal game, lasts a maximum of 10 minutes. It's also 3-on-3, as opposed to 5-on-5 in NHL playoff games.
In the gold medal game, teams play 20-minute 3-on-3 overtime periods, separated by 15-minute intermissions, until someone scores. Teams don't change sides for the first overtime but do for subsequent overtimes.
If overtime doesn't settle a game outside of the gold medal game, there will be a shootout. The winner of a coin toss gets to choose whether their team shoots first or second.
The format differs from the NHL, with five shooters per team instead of three. If nothing is settled after five rounds, then each round is sudden death as in the NHL. But there's another difference. Olympic teams can use the same shooters multiple times during the sudden death rounds (think back to TJ Oshie in the 2014 Olympics). They also can change goaltenders.
In the sudden death round, the team that shot second in the first five rounds will shoot first. The rounds continue until one team finishes with one more goal than the other. That team is declared the winner.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Overtime, shootout rules in Olympic hockey: How they work
Are you watching the Olympic hockey tournaments? Here’s a reminder that the rules at the Olympics will be a bit different than those seen during a normal NHL game. [PensBurgh]
Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas made several shrewd off-season transactions, including the signing of defenseman Parker Wotherspoon, who has seemingly flown under the radar alongside Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson, but remains a vital part of the top-six. [Trib Live]
Goaltender Stuart Skinner has revitalized his game since being traded from the Edmonton Oilers to Pittsburgh, and his teammates, including fellow goalie Arturs Silovs, have certainly taken notice. [Trib Live]
The Canadian Hockey League has unveiled its top 50 players to commemorate its 50th anniversary. [Sportsnet]
Neck guards are now considered mandatory at all International Ice Hockey Federation games, including these Olympic Games, and veteran NHLers who came into the league not wearing such protection are still getting used to the new rule. [Sportsnet]
Italy’s men’s and women’s Olympic hockey teams at the Milan-Cortina Games include a mix of homegrown players and foreign-born athletes with Italian heritage, since the country chose not to recruit current NHL stars. The blend of backgrounds reflects both a “melting pot” pride in representing Italy and the nation’s effort to build its hockey program for the future. [Associated Press]
Like most Tar Heels, Rasheed Wallace was not popular with Duke fans, but in the NBA, he emerged as an interesting and provocative figure.
Over a 16-year career, Wallace played for the Washington Bullets, Portland Trail Blazers, Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, and New York Knicks.
In this video, Wallace explains “The Slam Heard Round The World,” which was what people started to call the locker-room fight between Ruben Patterson and Zach Randolph, both of whom were his Portland teammates during the Jailblazer era.
Patterson, by all accounts, was a bully and an unusually strong player and Wallace and Bonzi Wells sort of encouraged a fight between him and Randolph, who is also quite large. In the end, Patterson slammed Randolph to the floor and injured his back.
That wasn’t the end of the story.
We’ll let Wallace finish telling it because as it turns out, he’s a pretty good story teller. Just listen for the part where he compares Patterson to the Incredible Hulk. It’s a great story. It is, however, a bit salty and NSFW.
Go to the DBR Boards to find Blue Healer Auctions | Drop us a lineThe world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions. In today’s column, we endeavor to answer three of them
Last season’s 17th place finish was meant to be rock bottom for Tottenham Hotspur; a nadir for the club in the Premier League era that was awkwardly offset by glory in the Europa League. There is, however, no glory in what Spurs are going through this season and no guarantee that rock bottom isn’t still around the corner.
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