NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell followed up the GM’s headshot recommendation by telling reporters that Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke, who gave Boston’s Marc Savard a grade-two concussion with a blindside hit last Sunday, would not face suspension.

Why? Campbell said the ruling was “based on consistency involving similar incidents,” at which point I rolled my eyes and fired up YouTube.

Before we even get started on the video evidence, lets discuss the level of consistency the NHL has shown when it comes to headshots this season.

In late October, Philly’s Mike Richards put Florida’s David Booth out of action for 45 games with a blindside hit and wasn’t suspended. About a month ...

The next time you see a player get blasted with a blindside shoulder to the head during an NHL game, you can rest easy knowing that there will be at least a minor penalty.

That is, if the league, the Players Association and the Board of Governors approve a recommendation put forward by the NHL's general managers to penalize "lateral, back or blindside hits."

With some reports pegging the average number of concussions per season in the NHL over the past three years at about 70, it’s definitely the right time to discuss ways of changing that. While headshots don’t account for all concussions, there’s no question they are part of the problem.

Here’s the exact wording the GM’s went with:

Pittsburgh Penguins captain and Team Canada hero Sidney Crosby is taking some heat south of the border...

No, he's not being accused of whining too much, nor is his offensive output being questioned after not scoring in a couple of (Olympic) games. No, this time Sid the Kid is be criticized for turning down an opportunity to read the Top Ten list on the "Late Show" with David Letterman.

NY Post writer Larry Brooks said on Sunday that Crosby blew the NHL's "golden chance" by snubbing the long-time late night host, also pointing out that last summer Crosby turned down NBC's "Today" show after winning the Cup - leaving him one rejection short of the American hat trick.

Golden chance for what? Brooks is acting like reading the Top Ten on Letterman is the ticket to getting NHL hockey back onto ESPN (or like he’d be the first NHLer to ...

The Edmonton Oilers began last week with back-to-back losses and wrapped it up with two straight wins, as they added and subtracted players from the lineup at the trade deadline.

On Tuesday Denis Grebeshkov, who the Oilers dealt to Nashville a day before, burned his old club with a two-point night in a 4-3 Predators win. A day later, the Chicago Blackhawks scored three third period goals in a 5-2 win over the Oil, who dealt two veteran blue liners away earlier that afternoon.

After two days to regroup and get new bodies like defensemen Ryan Whitney and Aaron Johnson in the lineup, the Oilers beat the Minnesota Wild 2-1 in a shootout on Friday and followed that up with a 2-0 shutout of the New Jersey Devils on Sunday. Another newcomer, Ryan Jones, suffered a sprained knee against the Wild and is out for four weeks.

Prior to the Olympic break, the Oilers lost three of four games – ending in a 7-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

In February, the Oilers went 3-5-0 after going winless in the month of January (0-10-2). With 21 games left in the season, Edmonton is dead last in the league, five points back of the Toronto Maple Leafs and 16 points out of second last in the West.

It’s a busy week for the Oilers as they get back to work with a pair of road games and a pair of games at Rexall Place.

The Nashville Predators are up first on Tuesday night, followed by a trip to Chicago to face the Blackhawks the next night. The Oilers return home to take on the Minnesota Wild on Friday and the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.

If you’re like me, you shake your head in disgust every time you hear anything in the news about the so-called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Why?

Instead of looking at past examples, lets just start with the organization’s latest billboard campaign aimed at getting people to spay or neuter their pets. Before a call from his lawyers, the ad featured a picture of Tiger Woods in an orange golf shirt and reads:

The Huffington Post has the since-taken-down motivation behind the billboard from the PETA blog, which details the benefits of stopping your pets from having kids. What it doesn’t discuss though, is why they decided to go with Tiger Woods…but we all know it’s because they will do anything to get their ...

Oh, Canada!

After a slower start to the Olympics than they might have hoped for, Canadian athletes have been on an absolute tear with medals in five straight days (plus a guaranteed curling medal today and Saturday...Go Cheryl and Kevin!!!!!) and seven medals in the last three days.

One of those was a third straight Gold in Women's hockey...and it came with a bit of post-game controversy!

The LA Times reports the International Olympic Committee is investigating the "behaviour" of our ladies, who apparently came back onto the ice half an hour after the medal presentation, still wearing their gear, downing beer and champagne and smoking cigars!

The IOC was made aware of the situation by an Associated Press reporter and executive director Gilbert Felli says "If that's the case, that is not good. It is not what we want to see. I don't think it's a good promotion of ...

I’ve got to start things off here by giving a shout out to my buddy Mike Robertson, who picked up a silver in the men’s snowboard cross on Monday in Vancouver!

What a rush it was seeing a friend of mine race on the world stage and do as well as he did! He almost won it all too, but he was caught in the last part of the race by the defending Olympic champ from the US – either way, it was very exciting stuff! Go Mike!!!!!

If you’re ever given the opportunity to cover a huge sporting event like the Olympic Games…don’t do this.

Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer is a bit of a hero in his homeland these days for a couple of reasons – first, he set an Olympic record on the way to a gold medal in the men’s ...

It’s an uncertain time in sports right now – the collective bargaining agreement of the NFL is up this year, with the NHL’s and NBA’s agreements expiring next year.

What’s worse, it sounds like none of the aforementioned leagues are going to have it very easy when it comes time to negotiate a new deal.

First up: the NBA.

I came across an article this weekend that surprised me – according to NBA commissioner David Stern, the league is projecting losses of about $400-million this season and has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in every season since 2005.

With their CBA running out very soon, the league is apparently proposing reductions in the salaries of first round picks, a sharp drop in the maximum salary for any player (along with the number of years a guy can sign for) and a reduction in the players share of basketball related ...

This weekend featured a whole lot of slam dunkage – from the NBA’s Development League, to a dunk-in at the Rookies vs. Sophomores game to the big show on Saturday…there was a lot of rim-rockin’ going on.

First up, the D-League dunk contest, which featured a 6-foot-5 guy dunking over a 6-foot-11 guy (1:32):

In the rookies vs. sophomores game on Friday night, which was a rare win for the rooks, first year Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan beat Eric Gordon of the LA Clippers in a “dunk in” for a spot in the main dunk contest on Saturday.

DeRozan, the 20-year-old from USC, opened things up with a between the legs reverse jam and finished it off with a powerful windmill move – Gordon, on the other hand, had a bit of trouble with both of his dunks.

Now, for the main event – the NBA dunk contest, which ...

The 2010 Winter Olympics begin today with the opening ceremonies (and some morning ski jumping, or mountain biking if the snow doesn’t hold up).

I’m sure it’ll be a pretty wild start to the Olympics, because every host country always tries to outdo the last when it comes to large-scale choreographed ceremonies…should be interesting!

Here are the things I’m most pumped for: the hockey tournament (obviously), watching my buddy Mike compete in the snowboard cross event, Edmonton Eskimos running back Jesse Lumsden in the bobsleigh and the luge.

Why the luge, you might ask? Because the stakes just got high for Canada’s team in that event.

An Alberta company is offering $1-million to any Canadian luger who wins gold at the upcoming games, money that would be split between the athlete and the Canadian Luge Association (and if more than one Canadian luger wins gold, they’ll ...

The Mule was back in the Detroit Red Wings lineup on Tuesday night after missing exactly four months with a knee injury, and his return triggered a bit of international controversy.

Sweden’s Olympic hockey team took a bit of heat from some fans for not including Johan Franzen in their lineup, especially considering his return before the Olympic break, but the team stood by their decision and even went on the offensive to defend their choice.

In the past week or so Team Sweden has taken to the newspapers, initiating a war of words with the Red Wings medical staff and trying to fend off criticism by saying Franzen came back too soon.

From the Detroit Free Press:

Could the promise of millions of dollars per year in tax-free money actually lure some of the NHL’s top players overseas?

You might not think it’s possible, but Kontinental Hockey League president Alexander Medvedev is apparently making it his goal in life to make it happen.

According to one of my favorite hockey sites, Russian Hockey Fans, Medvedev attended New Jersey’s loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday and planned to speak with newly acquired Russian superstar Ilya Kovalchuk and his wife afterwards.

Here’s part of what Medvedev told Gazeta.ru:

This story might actually have something to it – Sportsnet's Mike Brophy discussed the possibility of Kovalchuk, even Alex Ovechkin, ditching the NHL for the KHL in an article back ...

What do LeBron James, Sidney Crosby and Peyton Manning all have in common?

For one, they’re all high-end athletes that are fairly dominant in their respective sports, but there’s something else that ties these three together. Any guesses?

LeBron, Sidney and Peyton have all been accused of being ‘poor sports’ for not shaking hands after a big game, whether it's a win or a loss.

James was the first of the three to come under the microscope back in late May when his Cleveland Cavaliers lost in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Final to the Orlando Magic and he stormed off the court without congratulating the victors.

In mid-June, it was Crosby's turn – after his Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings in seven games to take home the Stanley Cup, Crosby was accused of snubbing Wings captain Nick Lidstrom in the post-game handshake, though he did shake some hands.

What a great Super Bowl between the Saints and the Colts on Sunday!

I had picked the Saints to win and honestly wasn’t sure they had it in them after their first couple of drives, but they must have just been nervous early on. All in all it was a pretty solid game – both teams had goal-line stands and big plays at key times, but that Tracy Porter interception in the fourth quarter was probably the biggest of them all.

 

Here are the highlights, incase you missed the game (oh, and for the record, I finished the season at 142-68):

Pardon the cheesy headline, but a week that saw Dion Phaneuf, JS Giguere and Olli Jokinen change teams wrapped up with an even bigger trade.

Last Thursday, former Atlanta Thrashers captain Ilya Kovalchuk was dealt to the New Jersey Devils, with Nik Bergfors, ...

The Oilers finally broke out of that long winless streak with wins over the Hurricanes and the Flyers, before opening up a five-game road trip with back-to-back losses against Minnesota and Colorado.

In Monday’s win over the ‘Canes, Marc Pouliot potted the game-winner in a 4-2 victory over Carolina and Ryan Potulny scored with 17 seconds left to secure a 1-0 win over Philadelphia. The fun ended there though – the Wild scored a pair of late goals in a 4-2 win and the Oilers were outshot 42-20 in a 3-0 loss to the Avalanche.

It’s another busy week for the Oil – they continue their road trip with games in Phoenix, Anaheim and LA, before returning home to take on the Ducks again, a game that will take them into the two-week Olympic break.

While Edmonton did manage to bring that 13-game winless skid to ...

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