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.
AP1976-77 MONTREAL CANADIENS
Backstory
In 1975-76, the Canadiens, a model of sleekness in a rugged NHL, set league records for wins (58) and points (127) while regaining the Stanley Cup by sweeping the Broad Street Bullies, also known as the Philadelphia Flyers, who had literally beaten the rest of the NHL the previous two seasons.
The regular season
The Canadiens of 1976-77 topped themselves by finishing 60-8-12 with 132 points. The eight losses were also a modern-era low. Montreal set another record with 387 goals, 64 more than the No. 2 scorer in 1976-77, Philadelphia. (Montreal’s goals record was eventually obliterated many times over by Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers.) The Canadiens gave up a league-low 171 goals — 22 fewer than the No. 2 New York Islanders. They also were last in penalty minutes.
Simply put, these Canadiens were the finest hockey team ever assembled.
It was hard to score with three Hall of Fame defensemen — Guy Lapointe, Serge Savard and Larry Robinson, and the NHL’s best defensive forward, Hall of Famer Bob Gainey, fronting Hall-of-Fame goaltender Ken Dryden, who won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goalie in five of his seven seasons. The leading two scorers were Hall-of-Fame forwards Guy Lafluer and Steve Shutt, followed by Robinson and Lapointe, followed by Hall-of-Fame center Jacques Lemaire.
The postseason
The most shocking event was not Montreal, after a bye, sweeping St. Louis in the second round, or sweeping Boston for the Stanley Cup. It was the New York Islanders winning game five in Montreal in their third-round series. That one loss matched the number of home losses Montreal had the entire regular season.
Postscript
The Canadiens finished 59-10-11, with 129 points, to nearly beat their records in 1977-78. They added a Stanley Cup that year, and another in 1978-79, after which Dryden retired and Hall-of-Fame coach Scotty Bowman left after clashing with management, thus ending the Canadiens’ run. It was Bowman’s 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings (62) that broke the 1976-77 Canadiens’ win record, but the points record still stands.
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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.
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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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.
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.
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