Lori

One of the Habs beat guys on my Twitter feed cracked a good one the other night. Halak had something like 6 saves in the first period of one of their games, and he said, "heck, he gets that many on the first SHIFT in MTL." US-Finland it is.

Think it's already been announced that the US is playing at 3pm EST again.

I loved the other guys' reaction: Did he really just say that? And somewhere in Canada, Don Cherry chuckles ...

Couldn't believe my eyes the other night, when I saw 61 on a penalty kill...

Would you say that Crosby and Ovechkin are the best players on their respective Olympic teams? And yet, neither one is wearing the C tonight...

Congrats on your retirement, but Butler had a better career.

The update from Schefter: "To set record straight: McNabb's niece, Tamika Nurse, plays guard for Bowling Green. She has managed to bring McNabb to Buffalo." http://www.toledofreepress.com/2009/11/19/...e-don%E2%80%99/ Nurse is a senior, with just a couple of games remaining in her college career. And with this being the last trip to Buffalo, close to her hometown of Hamilton, ONT, there will probably be a lot of family there. Stand down from red alert, everyone.

Ron Wilson, from the postgame presser: "Chris Drury blocks more shots than you guys make typos in a day, and that's a phenomenal number." Zing!

Bingo. And that's why my only USA sweater has Drury's name on the back.

You are correct. Lockport HS. Fascinating guy who also created the Cannonball Run; I used to subscribe to Car and Driver just to read his columns ...

Apology? Yes. A visit to HR? Probably. A two-week suspension, and rumors that "ESPN corporate has told Kornheiser directly that he is no longer allowed to criticize any ESPN employee for any reason"? Overkill.

http://darynkagan.com/darynsblog.html Even Daryn Kagan thinks "ESPN blew it." Total overreaction.

So, Tim ... with Wawrow and Bucky Gleason both in Vancouver, the question comes to mind: is covering the Olympics on your to-do list? And if so, Summer or Winter?

Yeah, back when the SI Vault made its debut ...

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/billboard/201...ive-chat-1.html http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/...gger-tim-graham Mark's opening statement, re: Andre Reed and the HOF:

If Gailey had hired him INSTEAD of DeHaven, I'd be a lot unhappier. But as an assistant ... I repeat, meh. More concerned about the coaching staff's lack of experience on the offensive side of the ball. And FAR more concerned about getting some starting-caliber OTS and OLBs in here ... and oh yeah, probably a NT and a QB or too, as well.

Nice. Didja hear that the guy who wants to buy the Rams is named Khan? I can just see an entire section of fans turning around to yell that at the owner's box after they lose a game ... As for Kwan ... meh. I'll keep repeating my reaction to the other coaching/front office moves: fix the roster, and then we'll see what we have.

"Worst in the league" would suggest that the Lions' ST squads ranked in the 30s. They didn't. punt ret: 16 ko ret: 26 punt cover: 18 ko cover: 20 Mediocre to be sure, although I'd note that they actually ranked ahead of Buffalo in punt returns. Guess the only thing I'd wonder is, how much of that was Kwan, and how much the Lions' depleted roster? For example, the defense DID rank 32nd in the just-completed season ... and as I noted in the preview for the preseason game, Matt Millen's abysmal drafting has set this franchise back for the better part of a decade:

Not sure that's possible. He is a professional, after all. How you doing, Sphere?

Heh. Courtesy of the @AP_WinterGames Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/AP_WinterGames/statuses/8967478513

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/952394.html

Add to that, I don't see any QB I want at #9. Told Scott I'd still rather use that pick on either a top LT prospect or a front-seven playmaker, but the idea of bringing in McNabb does have some merit.

Did he really compare the October snowstorm to Katrina? Really? Holy !@#$. http://eyesonkatrina.blogspot.com/ http://donhammack.com/?p=269 The first link is to the Biloxi Sun-Herald's Katrina blog. The second is a looking-back post from a friend -- the guy who ran that blog, helping the S-H win a Pulitzer for Public Service even after he knew his own house was gone. Wonder how he'd feel about that comparison? No matter how valid some of his other points might be, as far as I'm concerned, Mr. Root has lost any shred of credibility.

A few years back, when the ESPN show "Dream Job" was on the air, one of the best sportswriters I know wrote a column about his decision to stay the editor at a small-town newspaper instead of taking a high-profile beat job at a major metro. His reasoning: he loved the area, he didn't want to live in a big city, and he'd rather continue to report and write about a variety of topics than lock himself into the grind of covering one team. As I read the piece, I thought, "yeah, that DOES sound like a 'dream job.'" I've learned a little more about it since then. Things that weren't in the column -- the long hours he spends on the road or working the desk, the 60-70 hour weeks during football season, the low pay for those starting out in the business. (And that was before the bottom fell out of the newspaper industry.) And yet ... watching a game, talking to the coaches and players afterward, and turning those observations into something I hope will both inform and entertain our readers, is the coolest thing I've ever done. If I could figure out how to make it a full-time job and still pay the bills, I'd jump at the chance, even if it meant taking a good-sized pay cut from my current job. I realize that's not nearly as noble as what you're thinking about, Jim. If you decide to follow through on your idea, I wish you the best of luck.

Debatable, since both those networks are NFL rightsholders and may not want to give airtime to someone from a competing network.