Y! Sports Blogs

Here are your Evening Puck Headlines: A glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• The Anaheim Ducks end the charade, return the captaincy of the team to Scott Niedermayer instead of Stampy, the Leg Slicer Chris Pronger, who gets the 'A' along with Ryan Getzlaf. No word who wears the 'A' upon Pronger's next inevitable suspension. [Kukla]

• Just in time: Patrick O'Sullivan finally signs with the Los Angeles Kings. Per TSN: "Sources say it is worth an average of $2.925 million per year but will pay him $4 million in the upcoming season." Wow, score one for Dean Lombardi. [TSN]

• Nikolai Khabibulin makes the Chicago Blackhawks opening night roster. For now. [Sun Times]

• Among today's waiver wire fodder: Kyle McLaren and his $2.5 million contract for the San Jose Sharks; Boyd Devereaux and Staffan Kronwall of the Toronto Maple Leafs; Matt Pettinger (you sir are no Matt Cooke) and the KHL controversial Jason Krog of the Vancouver Canucks; Peter Schaefer of the Boston Bruins; Aaron Downey of the Detroit Red Wings, who seems chill about the whole thing; and Cody Murphy of the Florida Panthers (congrats, Jaasen Cullimore). Or as we call them, our fantasy hockey team. [TSN]

• Meanwhile, the Detroit Red Wings have sent Darren Helm, Ville Leino and Jonathan Ericsson to Grand Rapids, and are looking to trade Kyle Quincey. [Snapshots]

• National Post headline: "Ducks claim LW Lidstrom on waivers." Uh, make that Lindstrom. Although, recalling the NHL awards show ... [National Post]

• The Atlanta Thrashers unveil their new ad campaign: "Become One in Blueland." Easy: "Sit in any section of the upper deck on a Tuesday." [Thrashers]

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Got an email from my editor today, asking me if I noticed anything strange about this AP photo:

That's from the second Big One. Check out the No. 48 there. Jimmie Johnson is right in the middle of this wreck -- which would eventually claim every single other car in this picture -- and yet he escapes without a single scratch. Coincidence? I think not.

I've decided -- this is the greatest conspiracy ever! Better than the faked moon landing! Better than the one where a stone-cold Delta Force killing machine dresses up as a soccer mom and wins the vice presidency! (Oh, wait. That one hasn't been revealed yet.) Anyway, can you imagine how long it must've taken to plan that wreck to go just that way?

All right, you're up. Have your way with the site. Discuss what you like, but answer me this -- is it me, or do you see the Baby Jesus riding there in the back of the 48 car?

If Alex Auld challenges Martin Gerber's status as the Ottawa Senators' No. 1 goalie, this will be the fourth goalie controversy Gerber has taken part in as an NHL player.

Please recall the Anaheim Ducks' (then Mighty Ducks) post-Stanley Cup finals season in 2003-04, when Jean-Sebastien Giguere came down to earth and Gerber began pushing the Conn Smythe winner for playing time. With the Carolina Hurricanes, Gerber waiting until the postseason to get into a goalie controversy with eventual Conn Smythe winner Cam Ward in 2005-06.

Last year with the Ottawa Senators, Gerber and incumbent Ray Emery passed around the starting job like a rotting block of cheese.

Now, after two games, Coach Craig Hartsburg is having to douse the flames of yet another GerberGate:

"It's not a controversy, really," he told reporters on Tuesday. "We brought Alex in here to be a real good goaltender and in that game he was. He's here to support and be that guy behind Martin and he'll give us quality games."

And who will be in goal against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday? "Gerber's starting," Hartsburg said with a slight smile. "Our plan to start in Sweden was that both were going to play and obviously Alex played well. Unfortunately for Gerbs, he had a tough night but he's going to rebound for us. Martin will bounce back. He's a veteran guy and we've just got to move forward."

Blah, blah, blah ... look, here's a pretty simple question to ask of your starting goalie: Has he been involved in four or more goaltending controversies during his NHL career? If the answer is yes, then perhaps he isn't, you know, a starting goalie.

Please note that Cristobal Huet is one goaltending controversy away from joining that club.

Generally, golf doesn't have a whole lot of trouble with overrating its golfers. Why, I'm sure if you scroll right down this blog here you could find quite a few that you might think have gotten far too much praise for their actual accomplishments.

But what about the underrated golfers? What about the poor guys who toil away, tourney after tourney, year after year, winning trophies but always playing in a larger shadow? Which golfers haven't ever received their proper acclaim? Here are a few nominees:

Billy Casper: Hands down, the most underrated golfer in history. From 1964 to 1970, Casper (right) won 27 tournaments, more than Nicklaus or Palmer over that time. A captain of the Ryder Cup, he ranks seventh in career victories. He's also got three majors under his belt, two U.S. Opens and a Masters. And yet you almost never hear of the dude anymore. Why is that?

Larry Nelson: Nelson was a golf prodigy, breaking -- if you believe the legends -- 100 the first time he played and 70 within nine months of starting to play. While he only won 10 times on the PGA Tour, three of those were majors -- two PGA Championships and one U.S. Open. He's also a three-time Ryder Cup player ... and again, you almost never hear anything about him these days.

K.J. Choi: He's still got time to do some damage, but he's surprisingly anonymous while on the PGA Tour. I'd consider him the most underrated active golfer, but if he can put it together at a major, like he almost did at the British Open this year, he's off the list.

Now it's your turn. Which golfer, past or present, do you think never received his (or her) due? Who could use a little more love? (And don't bother with the overrated. We'll give you a chance to take on that one soon.) The tee is yours, friends.

Via ShareBro Trey, future NBA champion — you heard it here again — Julius 'The Fonz' Hodge of the NJ Nets ices down his boney knees following team practice as part of the 2008 NBA Europe Live Tour at the Stade Pierre De Coubertin in Paris, France.

That is all. Goodnight.

Here's a good question: If TBS and Frank Caliendo keep insisting on showing us ads for a show that most of us have already sworn not to give a chance, couldn't Caliendo have maybe worked up a few baseball-related impressions to mix in the never-ending barrage of commercials?

Apparently not and Caliendo's excuse why will probably raise a few eyebrows among the many who watch the Dodgers on Extra Innings just to hear Vin Scully. 

From the Boston Herald: 

Baseball broadcasters, according to the master impressionist, don't lend themselves to much mimicry these days.

"There's no Vin Scully or Harry Caray, it's not the same," he mourned.

Having seen him memorialized in stone outside Wrigley Field last week, I'll agree with Caliendo on Caray being no more. But Scully? Saw him chatting in the pressbox with George Will before Game Two and he sure looked like he's still available to not enjoy being mimicked on FrankTV.

It warms my heart when people from different areas of the country can come together, share a competitive experience, and part ways with a sense of brotherhood and love. So I was pleased to read that after their successful trip into Philadelphia on Sunday, the Redskins had just the nicest things to say about Eagles fans.

The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg passes along some of the compliments that Redskins players had on Eagles fans and their class, refinement, and ability to pelt a team bus with eggs.

"It was crazy, though, because the egg was actually thrown in front of the bus," [wide receiver Malcom] Kelly said. "It was like a quarterback almost; you throw it to where the receiver's gonna be at. I was very impressed."

"Very impressed," [wide receiver Devin] Thomas agreed. "If they ever had a replacement [team] in Philly, they'd have to get that dude for quarterback, because he hit that thing on point."

And that's not all! Some of the older Philadelphia women were nice enough to show the Redskins their bare old lady tailpipes.

"Grandma's mooning you," Jon Jansen said.

"Oh yeah, definitely," [center Casey] Rabach said.

"I've had some old ladies moon us, oh yeah," Jansen said.

"It's hard to tell from the backside, to tell you the truth," Rabach said.

"Oh, you can tell," Jansen said. "When it's an old lady, you can tell."

Don't ever let anyone tell you that you aren't good at anything, people of Philadelphia. Your egging and old lady can have earned national attention. You're all your own very special versions of Rocky, only you don't knock people out with your fists, you use eggs and wrinkled buttock flesh.

It's been a fairly wreck-free year, and so the NASCAR gods decided to balance the karma scales a bit with a couple monsters this past weekend at Talladega. But which one was the better -- by which I mean worse -- wreck? Your contenders -- the Carl Edwards one that took out a huge chunk of the Chase:

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Or the Vickers one that collected plenty of our favorite drivers:

So? Which Big One was the Bigger One? My vote's on the Edwards one, but I now turn it over to you. Go!

This summer, back at my old digs, I labeled 2008 the "Paterno Farewell Tour," and week by week, JoePa's impending exit seems more inevitable. It's harder now than it was in July to argue that the 81-year-old has lost control of his team, can't relate to the modern game or younger players, can't recruit or has lost the support of key power brokers -- whatever Paterno's role, Penn State is off like gangbusters, the Big Ten favorite and in the thick of the mythical championship hunt. Nobody has ever really given much thought to his soon-to-expire contract.

No, the issue these days, after another game from the coaches' box with a lingering knee injury of dubious origin, is whether Paterno is even physically capable of the job:

This game, on a clear, sunny, comfortably warm afternoon, was a day when Paterno was in obvious pain. He was on the field for approximately 20 minutes during pregame warmups to talk to Purdue coach Joe Tiller and observe drills, then he went upstairs, limping noticeably.

After the game, Paterno wore unmatched shoes and had to steady himself with the podium.

"I have to hold on to something," he said.

At the end of his news conference, Paterno was helped out a side door and into a van, which took him to a waiting Penn State University airplane for the trip home ahead of the team.

An 80-year-old on the sideline is rhetorically dangerous, if you just imagined your grandfather trying to run the show, and this specific situation, in real life, is every bit as fraught as your imagination would suspect. Paterno can't coach with his team on game day or travel with them, and Darryl Clark and Deon Butler both say they're worried about him in the same story, which suggests JoePa can't even stand on his own, much less move around. Contrary to Jay Paterno's optimism, recurring knee injuries at his dad's age don't just get better. It's a safe bet the mismatched shoes were not an attempt to reprise the achingly hip whale pants he once donned for a game in the seventies.

At least he can't punch an opposing player or anything from the box. But the longer this goes on, the less likely it ends well.

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Photo of Paterno at his weekly press conference via the Associated Press.