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.
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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.
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AP
BUFFALO, N.Y. - After waiting eight full games, what’s another 10 minutes for Steven Stamkos to get credit for his first NHL goal.
The 18-year-old rookie netted his first two NHL scores and added an assist, and Olaf Kolzig made 29 saves in Tampa Bay’s 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
But what everybody already knew, the official scorers didn’t until the first period break. Standing in front of Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller, Stamkos deftly deflected Vincent Lecavalier’s slap shot from the top of the right circle. Problem was, Lecavalier was given the goal that staked Tampa Bay to a 1-0 lead midway through the first period.
During the intermission, the officials fixed the error.
“I knew it hit my stick right from the beginning, and Vinny knew that too, so it was just a matter of them correcting it,” Stamkos said. “I had some butterflies when they announced Vinny as the goal scorer, but he told the ref that I tipped it in. It was obviously a great feeling when they corrected it.”
Lecavalier even had enough foresight to make sure the No. 1 overall pick in June’s draft got the correct puck to commemorate the occasion.
“I went over right away and told them,” Lecavalier said. “It’s a relief getting your first goal. He played an unbelievable game tonight.”
So did the Lightning, who have won three of their past four after starting the season with five losses.
“We really played our best game,” Stamkos said. “We’ve been doing things the last few games that we weren’t doing in the beginning of the season.”
Like scoring goals.
Tampa Bay came in with just 14, the fewest in the league. But the Lightning have now scored eight times during their modest two-game winning streak.
“We’re skating, we’re first on the puck, and we’re aggressive,” Lecavalier said. “We scored five, and I thought we could have scored more.”
Jussi Jokinen, Ryan Malone and Paul Ranger also scored for the Lightning, who snapped a five-game losing streak against Buffalo.
Clarke MacArthur and Thomas Vanek scored for the slumping Sabres, who have dropped three straight, including one in a shootout. Buffalo began the season with eight consecutive games without a regulation loss.
Miller lost for the first time this season in regulation, allowing all five goals on 40 shots. He also lost for only the second time in 13 career games against the Lightning.
“We’re not making plays that are connecting,” he said. “It’s not the kind of hockey we want to play.”
Jokinen made it 2-0 just 39 seconds before MacArthur closed the gap with his fifth of the season at 11:12 of the first. Malone then increased Tampa Bay’s lead to 3-1 26 seconds later.
Ranger made it 4-1 with less than 7 minutes to go in the second before Stamkos scored his second of the game just under 2 minutes later. After accepting a pass from Adam Hall, Stamkos sent a slap shot from the top of the right circle that eluded Miller.
“Everybody loves the kid and they know what he had been going through,” Lightning coach Barry Melrose said about the rookie. “They really rallied around the guy.”
Vanek’s ninth of the season made it 5-2 with just 20 seconds left in the second period, deflecting a slap shot from the middle of the blueline by Andrej Sekera.
“There wasn’t a lot to like about that game,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We’re not firing on all cylinders offensively.”
Notes: Lecavalier had a pair of assists to extend his points streak to 12 games against the Sabres. ... Tampa Bay is in the midst of playing seven of eight on the road. ... Sabres D Henrik Tallinder returned after missing one game because of a laceration above his ankle, while C Paul Gaustad played in his first game of the season after having thumb surgery. ... Kolzig, making just his third start of the season, improved to 3-4 in his past eight games against Buffalo. ... The Sabres have allowed 10 goals in their past two games, both regulation losses.
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.
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Steven Stamkos: The NHL's next big thing NBC Sports' Pierre McGuire talks about the No. 1 overall draft pick and new Lightning center's star ability. |
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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.
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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.