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.
AP
ARLINGTON, Va. - Alex Ovechkin’s right knee doesn’t seem to be the issue. He says it’s just sore.
The concern is that he’s now been tossed out of two games in less than a week, and his coach is suggesting that maybe it’s time for the league’s two-time reigning MVP to curb some of his “pretty reckless” ways.
As for Ovechkin, he was candid: “I play risky.” He also said he sees no reason to change.
Ovechkin was pronounced “day-to-day with a sore knee” by the Capitals on Tuesday, a day after he initiated a frightening knee-to-knee hit on defenseman Tim Gleason in a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. He was on the ice in a red Capitals track suit about 25 minutes before the start of practice and skated for less than five minutes but did not move at full speed.
“It’s not a bad injury,” Ovechkin said. “I thought it was going to be worse, but thank God I can walk, I can skate. Of course, it’s a little bit sore, but it’s not that serious.”
Ovechkin didn’t rule out playing in Thursday’s game against the Florida Panthers, but he might not have a choice in the matter. He was given a 5-minute major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct for the hit on Gleason, just two games after he was whistled for a 5-minute boarding major and game misconduct for his hit on the Buffalo Sabres’ Patrick Kaleta last week.
As the Capitals were waiting to hear from the league office about a possible suspension, Ovechkin was already pleading his case. He said he didn’t have time to pull back when Gleason changed directions while attempting to push the puck out of the Hurricanes’ zone.
“I can do nothing about it,” Ovechkin said. “It’s just a moment of the game. I turned and realize I don’t have time to stop.”
Ovechkin was defiant when asked about his style of play. No one scores goals better, but he also loves to hit. He leads the Capitals with 18 goals, 30 points — and 44 penalty minutes. He missed six games earlier this season with an upper body injury, the first time in his career he’s had an injury that cost him more than one game.
“Why do I have to listen to somebody who say, ’Hey, you have to change your game, and somebody going to kill you,”’ Ovechkin said. “Well, nobody going to kill me. I just play my game and I just enjoy my time and I enjoy my life. It’s me, and it is what it is.”
“I play risky,” he said. “I won’t try and hit and make some people get hurt, but people sometimes turn right away and I don’t have time to realize and stop. What can you do? You can do nothing.”
Coach Bruce Boudreau isn’t so sure anymore. After two years of essentially letting Ovechkin be Ovechkin, the coach said it’s perhaps time for a heart-to-heart talk.
“He’s pretty reckless,” Boudreau said. “It’s hard telling a guy that scores 60 goals a year to change the way he plays. At the same time, I don’t want to see him getting hurt. Maybe he has to pick his spots a little better. The open-ice hits, you just look around the league. It’s not only the hitter, it’s the guy that gets hit. ... It’s something that will have to be addressed by us, I guess. ... Not only as a coach, but as somebody who admires him, I just don’t want him to put himself in harm’s way, so we’ll see.”
Boudreau said Ovechkin isn’t trying to play dirty.
“Alex plays hard,” Boudreau said. “All the time. I don’t think there’s a malicious bone of him trying to hurt anybody. He just plays hard and he plays to win every shift. And it’s a really fine line between taking that away from him, and I don’t see how you can take it away other than talking to him and saying, ’We don’t want to put you in that situation any more.’ But when he gets out there, he just wants to win so badly he does whatever we can for that team to succeed.”
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.
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The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.