Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
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.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
APCrosby, Malkin, Marian Hossa, Ryan Malone and Staal haven't been challenged yet by defensive pairings as good as Detroit's Lidstrom-Rafalski and Niklas Kronwall-Brad Stuart duos. But the Red Wings haven't seen lines as deep as Pittsburgh's, and coach Mike Babcock has the difficult choice of deciding whether Lidstrom is a better fit against the Malkin or Crosby lines.
"It's a great challenge going against him (Lidstrom),'' Crosby said. "Positionally, he's great and has a good stick and he's a big guy. Those are the little challenges within the game that make it fun. It's part of competing and I think we'll all tell you that we love to compete.''
The Red Wings have exceptional scorers in Henrik Zetterberg (11 goals, 21 points in 16 games) and Pavel Datsyuk (nine goals, 19 points). However, their offense has clearly missed Johan Franzen (concussion-like symptoms), who still leads the playoffs with 12 goals but hasn't played since Game 1 against Dallas.
Franzen's status for the finals remains uncertain, and without him the Red Wings were held to two goals or fewer in half of their six games against Dallas. That kind of scoring won't get it done against the Penguins, who have put up four or more goals nine times in their 12 playoff victories.
Pittsburgh, mostly because of Fleury's confident and composed play, also is allowing a playoff-low 1.86 goals per game.
"They've got an elite defenseman, but we have one, too (in Sergei Gonchar),'' Therrien said. "We've got a lot of speed and a threat coming from different lines, so if they want to concentrate on one line, we have other lines that can do some damage as well. They've got some quality players, some world class players, but we've got some, too. So I think it's going to be an exciting series.''
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.