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 three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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 title chances now.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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.
NHLI via Getty Images file
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Minnesota fell just short in a dogfight for one of the final playoff spots in the Western Conference.
And with the Wild out of the postseason party, Jacques Lemaire’s eight-year stint as Minnesota’s coach could come to an end.
Lemaire's the only coach in the Wild's history, but it may be time for a change.
If he does leave the Wild, what’s next for him? It may be a return to Montreal, where he starred as a player during a Hall of Fame career, and also coached the Canadiens for two seasons in the mid-1980s. He followed that by moving to the Montreal front office for seven seasons, during which the Canadiens won two Stanley Cups (1986 and 1993).
As a player, Lemaire spent his entire 12-year career with Montreal, winning eight Stanley Cups. Even at 63, Lemaire is still a real passionate, high-energy coach. If he leaves Minnesota, he won’t actively be looking to continue his coaching career, but his coming back to the Canadiens for the short term is not out of the question.
Before last season Lemaire questioned his ability to motivate his players. If the Wild miss the playoffs this season, he’ll be soul searching. It would make a lot of sense for him to go coach the Canadiens. Montreal general manager Bob Gainey is a real influential guy. Gainey could convince Lemaire he indeed still has it behind the bench.
After firing Guy Carbonneau earlier in the season, Gainey became Montreal’s interim coach, but he’s not looking to retain that role come next season. Gainey has let it be known that he feels it’s very important that someone with command of the French language be the Canadiens’ next coach, and Lemaire, who was born in Lasalle, Quebec, fits that bill.
Gainey is a real private man so no one has a clue about who the candidates are he is thinking about to coach the Canadiens. But if in his mind Gainey does not have the perfect candidate to be next season’s coach, it would make sense for Lemaire to return to the Montreal bench, and be an ideal interim coach until Gainey finds his dream coach.
Gainey wouldn’t be bringing Lemaire in to coach Montreal on a long-term deal or with the expectation that the team will win the Stanley Cup. The mandate is always to win, but if Lemaire rejoins Montreal, it will be to solidify and reestablish a lot of the basics, the foundational building blocks for winning, like defensive awareness and structure. Those types of things. Lemaire would be perfect for that.
The book on Lemaire has always been that he is a good defensive coach, and because of that he always wants his centers in good defensive position. He does stress a good defensive posture on the ice at all times, and you can win a lot of hockey games like that.
Over the last couple of seasons, Montreal has moved towards playing an up-tempo and puck-moving style, and as long as Lemaire could come to some agreement with Gainey that he would as the Canadiens coach be willing to watch that style unfold in front of him, then the marriage would work.
Ryan Callahan scored three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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.
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.
