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.
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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.
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.
AP file
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Todd McLellan knows his first two months on the job were a bigger success than a rookie NHL head coach has any right to expect.
His San Jose Sharks are the class of the league through the season’s first quarter, blowing away almost every opponent they’ve faced with speed, depth and a relentless game plan that puts dozens of shots on net each night. The Sharks’ 19-3-1 start through Friday is one of the best in NHL history, even with star goalie Evgeni Nabokov sidelined by injury for several games.
Yet a good early season record isn’t what excites McLellan, who still hasn’t had time to add many personal touches to the office at the Sharks’ training complex that was occupied for 5½ years by fired coach Ron Wilson.
The former Detroit assistant is much more pleased by the confidence and chemistry he sees in a club that had been good for several years, but never discovered the right combination of strategy, toughness and mental fortitude to turn that success into Stanley Cups.
“There’s always a chance” of complacency, McLellan said after his club finished a methodical 7-2 rout of Washington, one of the Eastern Conference’s top clubs, on Monday.
“It’s a human trait that it could happen, and we’re human,” McLellan added. “But we’re doing everything in our power not to let that happen to us. ... We’ve got a bunch of guys here who are all on the same page, who all want to be part of something special.”
The Sharks might be Silicon Valley’s signature pro sports team, but McLellan’s approach is more Microsoft than Apple. Instead of creating revolutionary strategies to solve the Sharks’ problems, the coach borrowed heavily from the Red Wings’ impressive work during last season’s title run, adapting those schemes to a talented roster coming off three straight second-round playoff defeats.
The early results are stunning: San Jose has led the league in goals and shots for most of the regular season while winning 11 of its first 12 home games. The Sharks haven’t lost back-to-back games in regulation this season, and they had a double-digit lead in the Pacific Division over second-place Anaheim by mid-November.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what we’re doing,” said forward Jeremy Roenick, a solid veteran presence in his second season with San Jose since postponing retirement. “It’s tremendous talent and a great system, which is a pretty lethal combination.”
Fans at the always-noisy Shark Tank watch a club with three legitimate scoring lines, all of them determined to generate an endless stream of shots. Captain Patrick Marleau, a longtime center, agreeably moved to a wing spot on the top line with former MVP Joe Thornton and Devin Setoguchi, a breakout star in his second NHL season.
Fans also see a revamped defensive corps led by newcomers Dan Boyle, Rob Blake and Brad Lukowich, who love the freedom to join the offensive rush with aggressive shots that generate rebounds for their forwards. The Sharks don’t neglect their own defensive play, but keeping pressure on an opponent’s goalie allows Nabokov and Brian Boucher to spend an inordinate amount of time all alone on the other end.
“It’s so much fun to play how we play,” Blake said. “With the group of forwards that we have, we want the puck in their hands as much as possible. You come into this locker room before a game and look around at what we have, and you just expect to win games.”
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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The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.