Nice weekend for the NHL

Did somebody tell Brett Favre last night was a playoff game?  Sure seemed that way when he tossed a terrible INT in the dying seconds. The New York Jets went house call on it to help cover the -4.5, and win the game 29-20. OHB also set a record last night for most fumbles in NFL history to go with lobbing his 500th TD. The Vikes host the Dallas Cowboys Sunday in a loser-is-all-but-done matchup of surprise 1-3 teams.

The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2 to take their series 3-1. Very classy of the Giants to stop their celebrations on-field to line up and salute retiring Braves manager Bobby Cox, another guy for whom leaving Toronto only meant good things.  They'll start the NLCS on Saturday in Philadelphia. How does Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay starting strike you?

Cliff Lee and David Price will take to the hill in Tampa Bay tonight in their deciding Game 5 of the ALDS. Hard not to bet on the Rangers with a +109 price. Like their offence's chances to do damage more than the Rays to get to Lee.  First pitch is 8:05pm. 

The New Jersey Devils, in a hell of a cap bind, dressed 15 players for their loss Saturday afternoon to Pittsburgh. Three games into the year - with no wins - and Lou Lamoriello is playing cap games to save dimes. Tell me again how great caps are? Oh yeah, and Sidney Crosby is playing on a line with Mike Comrie and Chris Kunitz. Thanks, Cap.

San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York says his 0-5 49ers will still win their division. In any other division, I'd say impossible, but in the NFC West, perhaps there's a slight chance, though being three back of Arizona makes it a chore and then some. Check out their remaining schedule. Laughable.

At the other end of the spectrum - in terms of ownership perspective, but still on the subject of horrible teams - Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson acknowledges that the state of his squad is "bad" and that they're about three years from turning it around.  He also says that at 92, he probably won't be around to see it happen which will bring about a whole other kind of mess for the franchise.   If Pinnacle offers a line, I'm going to bet it takes more than three years, and he's around for more than three.

Is Jon Gruden paid by the word?

The Sportspickle tweets a beauty: "Gamecocks beat Alabama, Bobby Cox's career ends, Brett Favre. It's been a big sports week for Cocks/Cox/cocks."  Guess he didn't notice that Courtney Cox is on the market again.

Euro 2012 qualifying resumes today and no game is bigger than Italy taking on Serbia, with both teams struggling in the early stages.  All the fixtures here.

Damien Cox via Twitter: "Nice Thanksgiving weekend for NHL. One arrest, one obscene gesture, one dirty hit, one player taken off on stretcher." If you're wondering, it was Mike Ribeiro of the Dallas Stars on a DUI, James Wisniewski (video below), Niklas Hjalmarrson with the dirty hit (video below), and both Jason Pominville and Andrej Pavelec taken out on stretchers.

James Wisniewski gives it to Sean Avery...


Niklas Hjalmarrson crushes Jason Pominville, blind side...


The "Carlton" made its long awaited NFL debut in Detroit on Sunday...

Best/Worst Owners Revealed

Sports Illustrated has put together a Top 5 Best and Worst owners in the big four team sports. Here's MLB, and the NFL, and the NBA and finally, the NHL where a certain team in Toronto finished - not surprisingly - with the worst owners in hockey...so much for the economy affecting the NFL. Teams will have a record increase of $12 million to spend on the salary cap, bringing the total to $128 million in the last year of this labour agreement. You'd think they would let teams know what they've got to spend before they actually started spending it, no?...the Pepsi Center in Denver, home of the Nuggets, is booked for WWE Monday Night Raw next Monday. Problem is the NBA wants the arena for Game 4 of the Nuggets/Lakers series the same night and it looks like the WWE is out of luck. Of course, that left WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to needle the Nuggets for not having enough faith to book potential playoff dates earlier. Love it...in addition to today's pic of the day, here are an assortment of Mike Tyson motivational pictures, sure to be a hit with Bukkake...for the first time this year, the Tampa Bay Rays are .500, and you have to think stud prospect David Price is on his way soon from AAA. In his last start, Price tossed 5 innings of no hit ball - striking out 9 - but didn't finish as the Rays are keeping his innings down...the Pittsburgh Penguins won the first game of the Eastern Conference final 3-2. For their part, the Carolina Hurricanes have lost the opener of the last five series they've won. They're now off until Thursday in the first of what could be three two-day breaks. Man I miss the every two days thing that they used to do by conference back in the day, which I believe GBVH also mentioned last week...Milwaukee Brewer 2B Rickie Weeks is done for the year after a wrist injury. Shame for the Brew Crew, who have been rolling of late in winning 11 of 13...the Toronto Blue Jays are off to Boston for a big series. The Sox will see Kevin Youkilis return in the series at some point, as will Daisuke Matsuzaka on Thursday...Mark Teixera continues his hot streak, at the plate where he hit homers from both sides, and in the field where his glove has saved runs each of the last three days. Somehow, despite some pretty solid Minnesota Twins teams over the years, the Twins are in a 3-23 run at Yankee Stadium since 2002 after last night's 7-6 loss. 40 of the 63 homers at Yankee Stadium have been hit to right field...pretty clear I'm becoming more selective on the PTP front. Forcing it wasn't working...have a great Tuesday.

Reveal 'em all, says Schilling

A strange voice of reason in the Alex Rodriguez juicing story - Curt Schilling. Schilling thinks all 104 names on the 2003 list should be revealed and put an end to the speculation and hopes the game can move forward. Generally, I find Schilling annoying, but he makes some good points in a solid piece here...one theory on why A-Rod refused to talk to Selena Roberts of Sports Illustrated is because she's got a book coming out called "Hit & Run: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez". Clearly, an unauthorized bio. An interesting view on unnamed sources comes from this spot...in case you missed the third annual ESPN NHL player poll, you can find that here. Some are interesting, like Marty Turco as the goalie most likely to make the best forward or defenceman, and some are entirely predictable, like Sidney Crosby as biggest whiner...hell of a week for the LA Lakers, with huge road wins at Boston and yesterday at Cleveland, the Cavs first loss at home this year, despite losing Andrew Bynum. Along the way, they added Adam Morrisson. Two out of three ain't bad...so you turn your defence around and make it to the Super Bowl where you narrowly lose. Your reward? Well, if you're Clancy Pendergrast, defensive coordinator, you get fired by the Arizona Cardinals...Manchester United midfield warhorse Ryan Giggs weaved through the West Ham defence and slotted home a beauty to the far corner to give United a 1-0 win - another clean sheet - and another winner for Prime Time Picks, 6-2 on the month now. Your Monday pick will be up by 6pm...honestly, is there anything more out of touch with "cool" than the Grammy's?...of all the footballers paid for by teams in history, none has cost teams more than Nicolas Anelka, now at Chelsea. Second? Once-again Tottenham striker Robbie Keane...Blue Jays fans rejoice! The USA Today list of 100 future stars has Jays outfielder/cannonball Travis Snider listed at second. Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price ranks first...the NFL Pro Bowl goes- oh, wait, missed it...most stunning contextualization of the trillion dollar economic bailout plan in the U.S.: if you were to spend a million dollars every single day since we started keeping score of years, you still wouldn't have spend a trillion dollars...have a great Monday.

1:23 PM - UPDATE - Word is A-Rod will be speaking to ESPN this afternoon.