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.
AP
|
For an instant, his focus flashes away from the puck to check out which of the Pittsburgh Penguins superstars is bearing down on him.
"Most of the time when they’re shooting, I’m so focused on the puck itself, I don’t know who it is," Detroit Red Wings goalie Osgood said. "But there are times when I realize it’s (Sidney) Crosby, or (Evgeni) Malkin, or (Marian) Hossa."
He may give them a second look, but Osgood seldom gives the situation a second thought.
Don’t look now, but hockey’s favorite Detroit whipping boy has put the Red Wings to within a win of whipping the Penguins.
A decade ago, when Osgood backstopped the Wings to a Stanley Cup, some labeled him the worst goalie ever to win a Cup.
After Saturday’s 2-1 victory over the Penguins in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals left Detroit up 3-1 in the series and a win away from capturing Cup No. 11, only a fool would suggest that Osgood isn’t a huge reason why that is so.
Generally, the goaltender gets the brunt of the attention showered upon him when a team wins the Stanley Cup. Think Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
Not Osgood. He’s treated like the Paris Hilton of the hockey set. He’s famous, but nobody seems to know why.
To outsiders, Osgood is the perplexing problem in the Wings lineup.
He keeps on winning, pushing legends aside and yet, it seems as if he really isn’t doing all that much behind the defensive dynamo that is Detroit.
That all changed Saturday.
Quite simply, he was the best player on the ice.
"He carried the game for us," Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said of his netminder.
While he didn’t face as many shots (23) as Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury (30), his opposite number, Osgood made multiple point-blank stops on Crosby, Pascal Dupuis and Hossa. He stopped Malkin twice to help the Wings survive a two-man disadvantage for 1:27 in the third period.
After deflecting shots from some of the National Hockey League’s best shooters, Osgood proved equally adept at deflecting the praise for his effort.
"We blocked a ton of shots and we were able to get in the shooting lanes, get the puck, retrieve it and get it down the ice," he said of the successful third-period penalty kill that preserved the win.
Others in the Detroit dressing room are willing to step up and point out that their goalie is their go-to guy.
"Unbelievable," was how Detroit center Kris Draper described Osgood’s performance.
"Not just on the 5-on-3 situation, but throughout the whole game, I thought he made some key saves," added Lidstrom.
You might think facing a smorgasbord of snipers of the variety Pittsburgh can throw at a netminder would give a guy sleepless nights.
Not Osgood. When he thinks about facing Crosby, Malkin and company, he gets all tingly inside.
"It’s fun playing against this team because they skate well and it’s end-to-end action," Osgood said. "These guys are all-stars, world-class players."
The sort of adulation never afforded Osgood, despite his impressive resume.
Osgood jumped into the No. 1 role for Detroit in 1993 at 21 when injuries scuttled the veterans on the depth chart ahead of him.
It seems like they’ve been trying to run him out of town ever since. When the Wings won the Cup in 1997, Osgood took a back seat to Conn Smythe Trophy winner Mike Vernon. He took over for the traded Vernon the following spring and the Wings won again, but what’s remembered more about Osgood’s performance are the long-shot goals he surrendered to Jamie Langenbrunner and Al MacInnis in the run up to the Cup.
Three years later, Osgood was exiled to the New York Islanders when the Wings acquired Dominik Hasek, who backstopped them to the 2002 Cup.
During the 2004-05 lockout, Osgood, now with the St. Louis Blues, sought out help from Stan Matwijiw, a professional goalie tutor based in Novi, Mich. to help sort out his game. "I got a call from Chris the second week of August the summer before the lockout," Matwijiw recalled. "When he first game to me, I was a little unsure about what he was looking for. This was an NHL goalie with 11 years of experience. I didn't know whether he was just looking to fine tune some things, so we talked about it.
"To my surprise, he said, ‘I want you to completely tear my game apart and rebuild it.’"
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 |
 | Slideshow |
 |
The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
| Slideshow |
 | more photos |
 | Video |
 |
| Video |
 |
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.
NBC Sports TV and livestream listings
