Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
APMore pay than play for Jose
The biggest issue hovering over the near future of the Avalanche is their goaltending situation. Peter Budaj looks like he can be a No. 1 goalie for years to come.
Budaj, who's in his second NHL season after being taken by Colorado 63rd overall in the 2001 Entry Draft, has been a real pleasant surprise, and has done a real good job for the Avalanche. Without Budaj, Colorado would have had the curtain close on its playoff chances in February.
That's the good news for Colorado. The not-so-good news is if Budaj is No. 1, Jose Theodore and his $5.5 million salary this season and next is a way-too-highly priced backup. Paying out nearly $6 million to a No. 2 goalie lands a solid blow to the Avalanche's salary-cap situation.
The move by former general manager Pierre Lacroix to get Theodore from Montreal has proven a disaster for Colorado.
Lacroix assumed -- or at least hoped -- that Theodore was going to be able to regain the form he had when he won the Vezina Trophy and the Hart Trophy in 2002. But Theodore hasn't come close to doing that.
Given his lucrative contract, the Avalanche will not find a team to take Theodore. Colorado is stuck with him for next season.
What's happened with Theodore in Colorado is the perfect example of why some NHL owners and general managers would like some kind of specially created buyout clause for a player they consider to have made a mistake on.
Whether it is once every three years, once every five years, whatever, they want some mechanism to get out from under a bad contract, and to not have that deal count against their salary cap. The player would get what's owed him, but that amount would come off the team's payroll -- no longer counting against the cap.
A couple of key steps
The Avalanche are not a playoff team, but they are not a disaster either. They haven't fallen off the face of the NHL map.
They have a highly-respected coach in Joel Quenneville, and that's huge since free-agent players look to a team's coach right away to decide if they'd be interested in playing for that franchise. Quenneville's not only a good coach, he's a good person with solid people skills.
Colorado wishes it had the bundle of money being paid Theodore to go shopping with. But it doesn't and so with the cash Colorado does have to spend this summer, it must land at least a couple of quality defensemen to shore up its blue line.
If rearguards are brought in to strengthen the defense, Sakic re-signs, and Budaj continues to play at such a high level, Colorado can be in the thick of the fight for a playoff spot in the Western Conference next season.
Missing the playoffs this season may only be a temporary setback for Colorado, but there's no question that to make that the case the Avalanche have work to do in the offseason.
A one-year fix could get Colorado to the playoffs next season, but it will take longer than that for the Avalanche to rise to an elite level in the Western Conference -- like the level they were at when they won nine consecutive division titles and two Stanley Cups from 1995 to 2003.
The first step is to make sound signings this summer particularly defensemen, and the second step is to get out from under Theodore's contract next season.
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Check out highlights from the Rangers 3-2 win over the Capitals.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.