Cooke gets cooked

Well lookie here, the NHL finally got around to figuring out that maybe - just maybe - Matt Cooke's act in Pittsburgh had finally gone over their very, very thick line.  His latest goon attack landed him a ten game suspension - the rest of the season - and the first round of the playoffs.  Better still is it appears the Pens have had enough too.  Coach Dan Bylsma talked of how the suspension was deserved and he needed to change, and word is Mario Lemieux told him to get his game cleaned up or he'll be gone.  Good for the Pens.

Joel Sherman at the New York Post looks at some similarities between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox: "In fact, the top of the Yankees and Red Sox rotations have some synchronicity: The lefty aces (CC Sabathia vs. Jon Lester), the promising young righties (Phil Hughes vs. Clay Buchholz) and the Florida Marlins refugees trying to recover from a dreadful season (A.J. Burnett vs. Josh Beckett). Win these matchups, and you probably win the AL East.

Love the bomb dropped by Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery, with his team on the outside looking in right now for a Champions League spot next year:  "The Champions League is incredibly important for the team, the club and the fans, the Europa League is rubbish and we have got to avoid that.  The best way is not to even think about that. Playing in the Europa League is no fun at all."

English Premier League club Fulham have announced they're unveiling a statue outside of Craven Cottage, their stadium.  A former star player?  Nope.  Owner Mohamed Al Fayed?  Nope.  Michael Jackson. 

If you missed EpicMealTime on Jay Leno last week, here it is.  Love Harley referring to Leno as "Leno".  What a character. 

Add Tampa Bay Bolt Vinny Lecavalier to the list of NHLers who have a hate on for Montreal Canadiens rookie PK Subban 

Survey says: 25% of Canadians will be watching less hockey because of the mayhem that they've seen the last while.  Way to go, Gary Bettman!

Just what everybody wants to hear: the NFL hasn't ruled out using replacement players.  Yeah, that'll get people paying hundreds for tickets, and in some places, loads more, excited for some football.

Good news for Toronto FC and soccer in Canada: this past Saturday's game in Vancouver drew a TV audience of 280,000, the largest for an MLS game in Canada.  Not bad considering it was prime time, and head to head with Hockey Night in Canada.  Bad news for Toronto FC: the always great MLSE, who could screw up all the best things in the world simultaneously, has played the team's home opener into a non-sellout to date, thanks to four year's of bungling, price gouging and bad blood.  Admittedly, some of these are my own conclusions.  I'm betting they don't sell out more than three games all year.

A member of the Houston sports media looks at a year and change in Chris Bosh quotes from Houston's perspective.  Bosh, of course, is a guy Houston had much interest in.  Some funny stuff.

At Fox Sports, Ken Rosenthal and Kevin Kennedy present their picks for AL and NL MVP's in the coming baseball season (next week!).  My fantasy squad has three of the four selections, with Albert Pujols missing.  Me=happy.  One of the MVP nods goes to this guy, who is killing the ball this spring, and is well on his way to being an all-timer with an all-time team.

Want to see one way to mock a trap in hockey?  And in this case, learn how to count to 16 in French?  Sadly, when Rimouski finally tries to break the trap, they fail and turn the puck over.


There are barely 100 views on this one at this point, so be among the first of the millions - and millions - to check out the latest from Epic Meal Time in "Meat Cars", which will look familiar if you caught the Tonight Show with Jay Loser last week, or checked the clips on RM yesterday.  Does Harley look like Ben Roethlesberger, or is it just me?