NHL Raise Salary Cap
According to TSN, the NHL has raised the Salary Cap $6-million from $44-million to $50.3-million. Under the terms of the post-lockout CBA teams are required to spend a minimum of $34.3-million.
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NHL Raise Salary CapAccording to TSN, the NHL has raised the Salary Cap $6-million from $44-million to $50.3-million. Under the terms of the post-lockout CBA teams are required to spend a minimum of $34.3-million. |Upper Deck Attemps Topps TakeoverThe baseball card market looks to get a little bit smaller as Upper Deck has launched a hostile takeover bid for rival sports card maker Topps. | NHL Approves Rule Changes for 2007-2008 SeasonWhile taking a short pause from trying to find Versus on their cable package, the National Hockey League’s Board of Governors has approved four minor rule changes for the upcoming 2007-2008 season.
Nothing too important here and not effect on the game or the players, it just simplifies the rules slightly while maintaining the original intent of the rule.
This could be slightly more interesting in expanding the area of the ice where the referee is allowed to award a penalty shot. That being said, even in the “new NHL†penalty shots are still quite rare (as are “clear†breakaways) and this change may give a team an extra penalty shot every 20 games or so. Even with the extra opportunity on occasion the overall success rate of penalty shots in the league sits at about 30%, so were really talking about maybe an extra goal or two a season.
This rule just gives the referees more flexibility. However, running it through my mind, most actions that would result in an injury during an interference penalty already have their own penalties. The only exceptions I could think of were headbutts and kicks to the groin, but then again you’d probably get punched for that and that would be a fighting major.
This just takes some subjectivity of where the face-offs are conducted when the puck goes out of play. I will be interested to see how they determine between the attacking and neutral zone face-off circles when the puck goes out between them. I don’t expect this rule change to affect too much, but it could be a real interesting discussion if it occurs at a point with 2 seconds left and a team down by a goal. |Soccer Star Escapes Murder AttemptObafemi Martins a striker for Newcastle United and Nigeria appears to have narrowly escaped an attempt on his life in what appears to be a retaliation for missing a game for the Nigerian National Team.
Fortunately, no one was killed in this occurrence. Its amazing that some of these soccer (and Raider) fans can get so worked up over their team they fell some uncontrollable urge to commit random and non-random acts of violence against just about anyone. |Ron Mexico’s Dogfighting House RobbedAccodring to ESPN Michael Vick’s Virginia home was robbed.
So aside from Vick’s bad personal choices, he can’t pick his friends either because this robber does smell of his buddies getting theirs before its too late. Of course it is entirely possible those items may show evidence from dogfighting, but my money is on they just wanted new things purchased by someone else. |Ducks’ Pronger Suspended For Game 4Chris Pronger had his second brain-fart of the Playoffs with this hit on Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond and its going to cost him a suspension for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals. As for the suspension the ESPN “Experts” disagree on whether or not the suspension is the right call. Pronger’s previous actions in the Playoffs made this suspension; I can’t deny he elbowed him in the head and that the player was hurt. Of course the Ducks were one of the most penalized teams in the NHL this season playing consistently on the verge of out of control. There is no doubt this will hurt the Ducks as Pronger plays nearly 30 minutes a game and is one of the cornerstones of the Duck’s defense, power play and penalty kill. Look for Ottawa to win tonight and head back to Anaheim with the series tied 2-2. |Breaking: Kobe Wants To Be TradedIn an interview being conducted right now on ESPN Radio show of Stephen A. Smith, Kobe has said he wants to be traded and no longer wants to play for the Los Angeles Lakers. He also went on to say that Jerry Buss mastermined the Shaq trade, management refused to deal for Carlos Boozer, Jason Kidd, and Ron Artest, told two different plans for the team to Phil Jackson and himself. Kobe has also stated he bit the bullet on speaking out to support the franchise, but the current interview blitz was prompted by a “Lakers Insider” reporting to the Los Angeles Times that Kobe was the reason the Lakers dealt Shaq. More here.
Bad news for the Lakers, the inpet management has driven the franchise into a disaster area. I can’t say I don’t blame Kobe, the team around him stinks. The only a handful of players actually work hard, fewer can stay healthy and many more of them are just bums. He’s carried the team for 3 years and my guess is he is just burned out doing it and staying slient and supporting the franchise. Nice work by the Buss family there. |Lakers Owner Busted For DUIIf Kobe Bryant calling the ownership out, management by committee preventing any moves to improve the team, and bad personnel decisions weren’t bad enough for the Los Angeles Lakers now their owner is making bad personal decisions by driving drunk and getting arrested.
Of course the one bit of humor in this came from one line in the story:
Knowing the reputation of Dr. Buss, it wasn’t his granddaughter. |Blue Jay Vernon Wells’ Sense Of HumorSOme players dont react to hecklers in the best way, Vernon Wells isn’t one of those players. No he didn’t beat the guy or threaten him, he just reacted with humor of his own when he tossed a baseball to a guy who had been heckling him all game.
Give him credit it, its creative AND funny. |College Rugby National ChampionsThe USA Rugby Collegate National Championships wrapped up this weekend with University of California winning the Division I crown (no big suprise there) and Middlebury College winning the Division II crown. Division I Results Division II Results On a related note Penn State won the Women’s Division I (22-21 over Stanford) and Iowa State won the Women’s Division II (26-19 over UC Santa Cruz). | |