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.
Getty ImagesHolland's transition game
The days of the Red Wings spending way more money than most teams and shipping off prospects and draft picks to pick up veterans for a Stanley Cup run are gone. They ended when the lockout ended. But this franchise has made a remarkable transition into the new NHL. General manager Ken Holland is very bright and he deserves a ton of credit for keeping Detroit among the league's elite. Many felt the Red Wings would fall off the face of the planet when payrolls equalized, but nothing of the kind has taken place.
Holland said goodbye to some veterans after last season. Gone are Todd Bertuzzi, Kyle Calder, Robert Lang, and Mathieu Schneider. Bertuzzi and Calder weren't with the Red Wings long enough that they will be missed. They were brought in for the playoffs and were not part of the core of the team that posted the top record in the Western Conference and tied the Sabres for the most points (113) in the league.
Lang had an adversarial relationship with Babcock. His ice time has been taken by Valtteri Filppula, who is in his second full NHL season and has a great relationship with Babcock. The coach believes Filppula can be among the top six forwards on any team. So replacing Lang has not been an issue.
Schneider was a key member of Detriot's blue line. Once he departed as a free agent for Anaheim, Holland went after Rafalski, a top-notch, free-agent addition who comes over from the Devils. While Rafalski won't score as many goals as Schneider, he's a better skater who is excellent defensively with his stick. And on a power play he gets pucks through from the point as well as anyone in the league.
Factors in their favor
There is much talk about Detroit's puck control as the Red Wings play a style that can't be found on a lot of other teams. They want to control the puck more than they want to chip it in and go and get it. The problem with that is when the puck is turned over there's likely going to be a real quality scoring chance the other way. But the Red Wings have a great sense of how to handle the puck and that's why this style works well for them.
What's underrated about the Red Wings is how committed the players are to competing and how hard they play. They are mentally tough, physically durable, and emotionally in control. Part of why this is can be traced to Babcock and part of it comes from the type of players brought in by Holland. Babcock pushes his players hard. They're giving everything they've got every time they hit the ice. That's what makes them so formidable.
The Central Division is again Detroit's for the taking. The Red Wings have won it the last six seasons, but that is not what this team is measured by. The Red Wings are judged by how they fare in the playoffs. Last season they advanced to the conference finals, the first time they made it out of the second round since their Cup-winning season of 2002. They fell to Anaheim, a team that was able to combine finesse, talent, and skill with brute force.
The Red Wings are as good as they were last season. They answered the question of whether they were too old a club by their long playoff run last spring. There's star power on this team and there's depth. This is not a team in decline, but rather one worthy of being labeled a bona fide Stanley Cup contender. It should not come as a great surprise if this season ends with more rings for the Wings.
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.
ProHockeyTalk headlines |
 | Video: NHL from NBC Sports |
 NHLI via Getty Images |
 | Slideshow |
 | NHL All-Stars Take a look at the players who competed in Team Chara's 12-9 victory over Team Alfredsson. more photos |
| Slideshow |
 | more photos |
| Slideshow |
 | more photos |
| Slideshow |
 |
| Slideshow |
 | more photos |
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.
NBC Sports TV and livestream listings
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.