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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.
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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.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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.
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AP
ST. PAUL, Minn. - NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wants to pair a new labor agreement with rules changes that would bring back offense to a league where defense has been increasingly emphasized for a decade.
The problem: Neither the league nor its players union knows when substantive negotiations will begin on a labor deal, much less when there will be a settlement.
Another problem: In a sport that where even minor changes are fought by traditionalists and hard liners who prefer physical play to prolific scoring, gaining a consensus can be very difficult.
That won’t prevent Bettman from asking NHL general managers to review every aspect of the game starting at their meetings this week, and continuing at their session during the Stanley Cup finals. After that, a league committee will study the GMs’ recommendations and decide what changes should be adopted.
“Goalies handling the puck, goaltenders equipment, bigger nets, wider markings, moving the blue lines, using the tag-up rule, automatic icing, three points (rather than two) for a win in regulation — they’re going to being discussing everything,” Bettman said Saturday.
Goal-scoring has dropped from about 7.5 per game to about 5 per game since the late 1980s, when Wayne Gretzky (215 points) and Mario Lemieux (199) accumulated more than twice as many points during their peak seasons as any NHL player is likely to get this season.
No doubt Bettman worries the diminished scoring is translating into far too many 2-1 and 1-0 games and a less fan- and TV-friendly product. Attendance is down among a third of the league’s 30 teams, and ratings on ESPN (0.5) and ESPN2 (0.2) remain by far the lowest of any of the major pro sports.
“I believe the balance between offense and defense needs to be adjusted,” Bettman said Saturday. “My only view is that more offense can and will enhance this game.”
The NHL is currently negotiating a new U.S. TV contract, amid reports ESPN is willing to pay only about half the $600 million it spent on its current five-year deal. A new contract also might not include any games on network television (ABC).
“If we don’t properly address our issues, people will look back at this moment and say it was critical to this league,” Bettman said.
Much of Bettman’s annual All-Star weekend news conference was devoted to the labor negotiations, which have yet to begin in any meaningful form. As he has for years, Bettman emphasized a league that pays out 76 percent of its revenues to its players badly needs economic reform.
“We had two bankruptcies (Ottawa and Buffalo) last year and a series of near misses,” he said. “We can’t continue this way. It has to be fixed.”
Among other issues, Bettman said:
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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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.
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.
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