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.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had 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.
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.
It will be interesting to see how the team’s goaltending picture evolves over the next couple of seasons. Gone is Dan Cloutier, who did not play nearly as well as expected and was hurt a lot during his two seasons in Los Angeles. Erik Ersberg and Jason LaBarbera are sharing the load at present but three talented prospects Jonathan Bernier, Jon Quick and Jeff Zatkoff are on the horizon.
The Kings struggle to score as they rank 23rd in goals per game (2.56). In the short-term Murray is stressing to his team to shoot more. But come the 2009 draft it would not be surprising for Lombardi to focus on adding scoring centers and wingers.
Besides having so much promising young talent in the pipeline, another huge factor in the expected transformation of the Kings into one of the league’s elite teams is they have the most salary cap flexibility of any team in the NHL. This season they have about $13 million in cap space. And beyond the 2010-11 season, they’ll have only three players under contract: center Anze Kopitar, who is an absolute blue-chipper, winger Dustin Brown, who is their captain and a young, tough defenseman, Matt Greene.
So with cap flexibility and no financial burden of long-term contracts, Lombardi has put the Kings in great position to fill any needs they might have in what will be a belt tightening stretch by NHL clubs as they weather the storm economically. With the economy in bad shape not only will a lot of teams not be willing to re-sign some of their players who are coming up for free agency in the next couple of years but there’s also likely to be less competition for the services of these free agents as clubs closely watch their bottom lines. That means not only will Los Angeles (providing ownership gives the green light) be able to get help on the open market, it might well get that help at discount prices.
For Los Angeles this season will have its growing pains for sure. But with the youthful blueprint put in place by Lombardi, Kings fans have something to look forward to and it could well be something real good real soon.
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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The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
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.
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.
Paul Pierce has been around long enough to know what Rajon Rondo's performance can mean for the aging Boston Celtics.