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.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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.
MONTREAL - Paul Holmgren knows he gave up a lot. To get Chris Pronger from Anaheim, Philadelphia surrendered promising young defenseman Luca Sbisa, Joffrey Lupul, two first-round picks and a third round pick.
"Ask me a year from now, a couple years from now if it was worth that," Holmgren said here at the draft in Montreal.
But in acquiring Pronger, he served notice to the Pittsburgh Penguins that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin's days of roaming free in front of Philadelphia goalies are over. In Pronger, they now have that nasty defenseman who will make it miserable on the Penguins and everybody else the Flyers play next season. Holmgren wouldn't call him the missing piece, but his style of play was certainly something the Flyers didn't have. Now they do.
"Through the years we've improved our defense, at the same time we've changed to be more adaptable to the new NHL, the speed of the game but when you get a chance to add Chris - He can play," Holmgren said. "Because of his presence and the way he can pass the puck and help on the power play, he has a tremendous shot - he can bring a lot of things to our team."
Pronger has one more year remaining on his contract and will be a cap-hit of $6.25 million. Clearing Lupul's salary certainly helps and Holmgren said his team is under the cap. But the Flyers will sit down soon with Pronger and his agent to talk about a possible contract extension. You don't give up the assets Holmgren did just to keep him around for one year.
The Flyers are a better team with Pronger and Holmgren made it clear that the winning needs to start now. First-round exits won't be tolerated.
"He's a proven winner," Holmgren said. "He's going to make all our other defenseman on our team better around him. He'll be an excellent role model for all of our young players in our organization."
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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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.
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.
The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.
