Hmmm.
Might not fit on the right hand navigation.
Hmmm.
Might not fit on the right hand navigation.
The worst thing about professional sports?
Trading away the most loved local athlete?
Kevin Lowe may have some grand strategy. Maybe Smyth will be back. But — to me — this looks a huge, terrible mistake.
Ryan Smyth was, for much of his 12-year run in Edmonton, the face of the franchise, the heart and soul of the Edmonton Oilers. And now he’s gone, traded to the New York Islanders …
The loss of Smyth is not only losing the best player on the team and Captain Canada, he was a player who represented their work ethic and values.
edmontonsun.com – Oilers – It took incredible guts to trade Ryan Smyth

I want to thank Bjarne Riis. Good on you for coming clean.
What shred of credibility remained about elite pro cycling has disappeared as 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis of Denmark on Friday became the first Tour winner to admit he used banned performance-enhancing drugs.
… Riis said in a news conference Friday he had taken the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO) from 1993 through 1998, including during his Tour victory. He also confessed to using human growth hormone and cortisone.
“The time has come to put the cards on the table,” Riis said. “I have done things I now regret and I wouldn’t do again. I have doped. I have taken EPO. For awhile it was part of my life.”
Riis, currently manager of the Danish CSC cycling team, expected to be stripped of his Tour de France title.
“My yellow jersey is in a box at home. You can come and collect it,” Riis said of the jersey worn by the Tour de France leader.
I’ll never watch race cycling again.
Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Franklin Junior Elvis Iginla, captain of the NHL Calgary Flames, has been one of the best players in the league over the past couple of weeks.
If he just added Sydney to his name …

At this pace, Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash is on pace to pass his way into the record books.
Nash, the NBA’s Most Valuable Player the past two seasons, extended his stellar start to 2006-07 — and quest for a third consecutive MVP award — with another steady outing in the Suns’ 99-89 victory over the Heat on Wednesday night …
But in lifting Phoenix to its 12th consecutive victory, including its seventh in a row on the road, Nash also is beginning to raise a legitimate question throughout the league: Can he possibly do it again? Could he become just the fourth player in NBA history to win the MVP award in three straight seasons? …
A third MVP trophy would put Nash in the company of three Hall of Famers for a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Larry Bird won the honor a third straight time in the 1985-86 season. Bill Russell (1960-63) and Wilt Chamberlain (1965-68) also won three in a row.
Nash entered Wednesday’s game averaging 20.3 points and a league-best 11.3 assists, both career highs.
When Nash won the first time, everyone cheered that a play maker beat all the big scorers. After #2, Nash got fainter praise. “What about Dwayne Wade? What about Kobe?”
So far I’m voting for Steve again.
Steve Nash is used to being underestimated. His Canadian high school coach Ian Hyde-Lay “contacted 30 American universities to no avail.”
It was almost luck that Santa Clara University head coach Dick Davey finally offered him a scholarship. Nash only went 15th over-all in the NBA draft.
Steve Nash – wikipedia
Though I called for the Flames to win it all this year, they dug themselves into a big hole at the start of the season.
Tonight I watched my first game. The best of the year to date, they dominated and physically destroyed the hottest team in the league. The Red Wings used to be my least favourite team — but tonight I felt sorry for them. Aside from the humiliation, the Flames stopped them from winning a franchise record 10 games in series.
This win puts the Flames to 6 wins in a row.
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HEY. Why are the websites so slow in updating professional sports results? Google News is 6 hours behind. In 6 hours I won’t care any more.
The Flames site, NHL.com, even Technorati all have nothing on the game that just ended.
The first site I found with at least a game summary was … USA Today.

Overall, my swing is getting closer to where I want it. It might sound old, but I just need more repetitions and consistency. The game is fluid and always changing. Am I more consistent? Yes. In my opinion, only two players have ever owned their swings: Moe Norman and Ben Hogan. Will I ever own my swing? We’ll see. I’m still somewhat young in my career. Hogan wasn’t great until his late 30s.
PGATOUR.com – Woods Diary: Tiger looks back and ahead
Never heard of Moe? His oddball behaviours and feats of golf as recounted in 19th hole pubs everywhere are legendary.
Here is the poop: MOE NORMAN – THE GREATEST GOLFER THE WORLD HAS NEVER KNOWN
I keep telling people that Aussie Adam Scott is the next Tiger Woods.
But so far he’s mostly the next Greg Norman.
Though Scott is up to #3 on the money list (he just won the Tour Championship), few are pegging him the guy to knock off Tiger.
In winning his fourth US Tour event by three strokes, he shot four rounds in the 60s, including an impeccable final-round four-under 66, to earn $1.52 million and vault to third on the 2006 money list behind Woods and Furyk.
“My game has come a long way (this year), but I think I’ve come a long way in some other players’ minds, and that’s nice,” Scott said.
As well as boosting his 2006 prizemoney to $6.5 million, Scott consolidated his position as world No. 4, having risen from No. 8.
From an Australian perspective, he has also fertilised the growing belief that he is going to be the player we all long for to replace Norman as an enduring global star.
No Australian has been higher in the rankings since Norman, who was No. 1 for 331 weeks in the late 1980s and 1990s. And no Australian in his mid-20s has been able to look so much in command of his game and his mind in the heat of the last day. Ever.
Scott swims in Shark’s shadow | Herald Sun

Adam Scott and Greg Norman
Not sure I can bear to watch anyway. Calgary is in a huge slump.
But you can stream full-length NHL games and watch them on your own time. (In a very small, low resolution format.)
An experiment on the part of NHL. Will this increase interest, drive up TV viewership?

At the same time, the NBA pulled their videos from Google.