Super Bowl XLVI
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 three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Buried on the bench a little more than a week ago, the Knicks' Jeremy Lin is now the toast of New York.
Beyond the Arc: No. 14 UNLV's 65-63 victory over No. 13 San Diego State adds spice to the Mountain West Conference race.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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.
APFor anybody who ever doubted the unbreakable link between the popularity of ice hockey and fighting, this spring provided something of an object lesson. The epic brawl between the Quebec Remparts and the Chicoutimi Sagueneens was a battle for the ages, electrifying the hockey world and the province of Quebec.
If you're a hockey fan and have an elementary understanding of the internet, you certainly have seen the footage from the fight.
For those who haven't seen the video, let's set the scene: With Chicoutimi leading Game 2 of the QMJHL playoff series, 7-1, all hell broke loose as all 10 skaters paired off for an old fashioned brawl that would have brought a smile to the face of Gordie Howe.
Jonathan Roy, son of the Remparts' coach and NHL Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy, skated to center ice to challenge Chicoutimi's goalie, Bobby Nadeau. Though initially restrained by a referee, Roy got free as on-ice officials were overwhelmed in their efforts to quell the fights that had broken out all over the ice.
Roy skated the length of the ice and tore into Nadeau without mercy, even though Nadeau made it clear he did not want to fight. Having made short work of Nadeau, Roy skated to center ice and raised his arms in victory. He made obscene gestures to the home crowd before getting into yet another fight — with Chicoutimi defenseman Sebastien Rioux — before being escorted off the ice.
As reported in Canada's National Post, video of the brawl was in heavy rotation on all of Quebec's television sports programs. At YouTube, one clip of the fight was ranked as the service's most viewed sports video in Canada and the second most viewed video in the country overall.
But such antics come with a price: The QMJHL suspended the Patrick Roy for five games, Jonathan for seven. From that, we learn that flipping the bird is always worth an extra two games.
Predictably, plenty of hockey observers hemmed and hawed at the horror of it all. They have proclaimed with vigor and vehemence that episodes like the Roy brawl forever will keep hockey at the margins of civilized society, dooming it to a continued stretch of obscurity now and forever.
Yet, let's rewind the clock to March 26, 1997, a date so famous in hockey circles it merits its own Wikipedia entry. The site was Joe Louis Arena, where the Detroit Red Wings were playing host to the defending Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche. It was the fourth meeting between the two clubs that season, but the first with Avalanche agitator Claude Lemieux in uniform since he had checked Red Wings forward Kris Draper face-first into the boards during the '96 Western Conference Final.
Draper suffered a broken jaw, shattered cheek and orbital bone, and he had to undergo extensive facial reconstructive surgery. Detroit winger Darren McCarty was enraged and looked for revenge, and he finally got his chance at the end of the first period in that March 26 game. McCarty eventually forced Lemieux to "turtle" and cover up for fear of McCarty landing more blows.
The McCarty-Lemieux fight was a mere appetizer. Roy, not wanting to be left out of all the fun, skated toward the melee looking to fight somebody, anybody. He was blindsided by Detroit forward Brendan Shanahan but recovered in time to get in a few shots against Detroit goalie Mike Vernon.
When the melee was over, the Red Wings went on for a 6-5 overtime victory. More than a few Red Wings credited that fight and that victory with bringing the team together in time to win the first of back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Hockey fans in Detroit and Denver still talk about that fight, as well they should, because the brawl instigated one of the most bitter rivalries in the history of the sport — just the sort of bitter rivalry that draws hockey fans to the arena over and over again.
So tut-tut if you must, but there is no doubt that such brawls warm the hearts of hockey fans everywhere. Without the fights, hockey would be just another sport.
Ryan Callahan scored three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron scored shootout goals to lift the Boston Bruins to a 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators on Saturday.
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Phil Pressey's first 3-point attempt went in off the glass. The sophomore guard, known more for flashy, no-look passes than his outside touch, took that sketchy success and ran with it.
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.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
