Dallas Stars Sign Michael Ryder posted by Jeff Ponder

A recent Stanley Cup Champion has been brought in to Dallas.

The contract is reportedly for 2 years, $7 million ($3.5M cap-hit).

Michael Ryder, who had 8 goals, 9 assists and 17 points in 25 games during the Bruins Championship playoff-run, signed a two-year deal worth $3.5 million per season. 

Ryder, 31, scored 18 goals, 23 assists and 41 points in 79 games played for Boston last season.  It was announced Thursday that the Bruins decided to let Ryder walk as a free-agent, which in turn made him a highly sought-after free-agent this summer. 

The Stars were 17th in the NHL in goals-scored last season.  Ryder will not help this rank too much, but he will be a strong pick-up for other reasons.  He adds speed and determination to the lineup, as well as the all-important Stanley Cup experience.  He will grind into the boards and work out loose pucks.  He will probably fit on a second line with Jamie Benn.

Ryder will not fill the shoes of the recently departed Brad Richards, but it’s a good start.

Follow Jeff Ponder on Twitter (@jponder94) for all the latest updates on free-agent signings today.

Major races 4-9-11 posted by Johnny Matheis

I should feel good about picking the exacta perfectly in the Transylvania, but the other races let me down. Still, I feel much better after cashing a superfecta that cost 10 cents and paid over $300. Much better.

For Saturday, 04/09/2011, there are these major races.

PROJECTED ORDER OF FINISH FOR EACH RACE:

PROGRAM NUMBER-NAME OF RUNNER-PROBABLE ODDS-COMMENTS 

RACE 8 AQUEDUCT GRADE 3 BAY SHORE 7 FURLONGS

1 JUSTIN PHILLIP 8-5 Should run down all these frontrunners in the stretch

8 ROYAL CURRIER 6-1 A bit of a stalker, which helps

6 SMOKE IT RIGHT 4-1 Undefeated. A tough cookie.

3 JJ'S LUCKY TRAIN 6-1 Could hit the board

2 BUFFUM 12-1 Probably primed for good effort, but outclassed

7 VENGEFUL WILDCAT 6-1 Would be a mild surprise

4 DR DISCO 20-1 looks outgunned

5 HARLAN'S HELLO 20-1 would be huge shocker

BETS WPS on 1: Exacta 1 with All. Trifecta Box 1-6-8: Superfecta box 1-3-6-8, Wheel 1,8 with 1,8 with 2,3,6 with All, Wheel 1 with 2,3,6,8 with 2,3,6,8 with All

RACE 10 ACQUEDUCT: GRADE 1 WOOD 1 1/8 MILE

5 UNCLE MO 2-5 Hard to go against, but you'll probably be better off in long run to take a stand against

6 PREACHINTOTHEDEVIL 12-1 Looks to be the only one with upset potential

2 TOBY'S CORNER 30-1 was third in Grade 3 Gotham

9 ISN'T HE PERFECT 15-1 looks solid, but has had a lot of tries already

3 FULL OF SCOUNDRELS 30-1 is lightly raced, and could improve

1 STARSHIP CAESAR 30-1 will probably be ready, but looks outgunned.

4 ARTHUR'S TALE 30-1 looks to be no match for the top gun

Langenbrunner is a Star Reborn posted by Jeff Ponder

Jamie Langenbrunner gets to go from the bottom straight to the top. 

The Devils, who are sitting in the NHL cellar with a 10-28-2 record for 22 points, moved their captain Friday morning. Jamie Langenbrunner was sent to the Dallas Stars, the team from which he was originally acquired.

Devils President and General Manager Lou Lamoriello recently fired Head Coach John MacLean in hopes of reviving the Devils’ season, but the Atlantic Division team has responded with just a 1-6-0 since the firing, including a disastrous -13 goal differential.

In return, the Devils received a conditional third-round draft pick in 2011, which could become a second-round draft pick if the Stars win a first-round playoff series, or if Dallas decides to re-sign Langenbrunner at season’s end.

“When it's a quality person who has given you what Jamie has given, been part of success, a Stanley Cup, then certainly (the trade) is difficult,” Lamoriello said. “But if it were easy, anybody could do some of these things we have to do. Unfortunately, the decision with the status that we're in, is being made for the right reasons.”

Langenbrunner was not as gloomy to leave the Devils.

"I'm excited to come back to Dallas,” Langenbrunner said.  “I have a lot of great memories of playing in that organization, that city. I'm excited about where the team is headed and ready to come be a part of it."

It’s no surprise that the Stars were in the Langenbrunner-lottery. Via Twitter, Bob McKenzie of TSN all but said that a Langenbrunner-trade was imminent Thursday night. McKenzie posted teams that were likely to trade for the 35-year old right-wing, which included Dallas, St. Louis and San Jose.

Sporcle.com is awesome posted by Scott Shepherd

www.sporcle.com is awesome. It’s a great place to waste time.

If you’ve never heard of it, basically it is a website that gives you the topic to a list of people, places, or things, and you have a certain amount on time to guess all the answers in the list. 

They have a lot of pop culture quizzes, and some pretty good sports ones as well.

Today, I stumbled across the list of the 80 players to play in an NBA all-star game in the 2000’s. Here’s a link to it. 

I got 55 of the 80. I drew a complete blank on two obvious ones, spent way too much time on them, and didn’t finish in time. I’m pretty disappointed with my score.

How many can you get right in 8 minutes?

Legend Of The Goon Squad pt.1 posted by Goon Squad

Alot of people think fighting in hockey is just about two meat heads who feel like kicking the crap out of each other but it has much more to do with intimidation, defending your team mates and getting into the other teams head.

In the '70s and ’80s, when bench-clearing brawls were a regular occurrence in the NHL, you didn’t dare turn down an invitation to drop the gloves.
But slowly the game is changing.

It wasn’t too long ago when the role of the "Hockey Goon" was a celebrated and integral role on most NHL teams.
Players could adjust attitudes and turn the momentum of a game with the drop of their gloves.

Goons were also called upon to protect the star player or to fire up the team when it fell behind.
The stereotypical goon of the old time hockey was a guy who wasn’t a particularly good hockey player, but he was big and tough and earned a ton of penalty minutes.
He was on what was called the "checking line," the line that put the physical players against the skillful players on the other team.
They tried to slow them down with extreme physical play.
If you saw that both team's checking lines were out on the ice you knew that something was about to happen.

Believe it or not there is an honor code, an unwritten law, when it comes to fighting. First, there is a conversation between the two combatants, then the gloves drop and it's on.

The game of hockey has changed however, and we don't have that big guy, an enforcer, a goon, behind our superstars to make sure that they could do what they do best without being brutalized.

2009 McDonald's All American Teams Announced posted by McDonald's All American Games

At 6:00 p.m. ET today, ESPNU’s Selection Show unveiled the 48 players that will take the court for the 2009 McDonald’s All American Games in Miami, Fla. on April 1. Not only will these young stars have the opportunity to play in one of the most prestigious high school all-star games, they will also be raising money for Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Please visit   www.mcdonaldsallamerican.com or insidethegames.net to view the rosters.

For more information, please contact:

mcdonaldsallamericangames@yahoo.com

Avalanche Recap - 3 Games, 2 Wins, 1 Loss posted by Ryan Boulding

Lets get the loss out of the way by saying: yes, we should have beat Anaheim and played rather ridiculously according my my snobby, high-nosed standards. We did play, however, like we have all year, which is to say we underachieved.

Moving on to the Calgary game. Obviously we won this game because the title says two wins (which also means the next game I discuss was a victory). We somehow cannot manage to win against teams we consistently need to beat in order to gain ground... but we manage to be the thorn in the side of any team trying to gain ground itself. So the Flames, who were hot and crawling up the points ladder met their maker, but not without putting up a fight. Goals for Calgary:  Rene Bourque, Adrian Aucoin, and Jerome Iginla. Goals for the Avalanche:   Marek Svatos(x2), Milan Hejduk, and Ruslan Salei. Svatos, who actually had a decent showing against the Ducks, had a breakout night here, notching two and almost getting an empty netter for the hat. It's always fun to beat a division team and even more fun when that team has lame-ass, sucker puncher, cry baby Todd Bertuzzi on their team. The good news is the home fans never forget and did a nice job booing the goon whenever he touched the puck. Don't know why? Click here.

 Highlights.

 Moving on to last nights thriller against the (hated) Dalls Stars. I hold a very serious grudge against Dallas for Marty Turco's shenanigans in a playoff game a few years back. He charged out to play the puck along the side boards and an Av (think it was Hinote) beat him to the puck, so he checked Hinote and somehow we got a goaltender interference call. That and in a shootout earlier this year he threw his stick against Ryan Smyth and got away with it.

My beef with Bill James posted by David

Last month ESPN.com’s Rob Neyer wrote about Bill James’s comments during an interview with Dugout Central.  Asked if he was concerned about “the steady decline of the American-born Black player in the big leagues over the last decade,” James replied that as long as they were being given an equal opportunity as everyone else to play ball, that it didn’t matter one bit.  To his credit, James said, “I don't see what difference it makes what color the players are.”  But I’m going to have to disagree.

Borrowing only Josh Gibson from the Negro Leagues, I can easily put together an All-Star team of active players who are African American:

P          CC Sabathia

C         Josh Gibson*

1B        Ryan Howard

2B        Orlando Hudson

3B        Chone Figgins**

SS        Jimmy Rollins

OF       Torii Hunter

OF       Curtis Granderson

OF       Ken Griffey Jr.

DH       Milton Bradley

Bench   Prince Fielder, Derrek Lee, Vernon Wells, Jermaine Dye, Carl Crawford, Dmitri Young, Garrett Anderson, Derek Jeter, Frank Thomas

Bullpen  Tom Gordon

Weighing in on Sean Avery posted by Jeff Ponder

“We want him to get better, but we needed to obviously part ways with Sean. It's amicable. The Stars need to move on; the team needs to move on…”

Comments made by Dallas Stars co-general manager Brett Hull tell the tale of Avery’s future and how the team has decided to rip away his chances of playing with the organization again.  This decision by Stars’ management puts an end to a 23-game stint for Avery with the Texas team, who are currently 11-14-4, placing them last in the Western Conference.

In case you have been living under a rock with your fingers in your ears for the past three weeks, Sean Avery was suspended six games and given anger management class for his comments before facing the Calgary Flames on December 2nd when he made this statement to Calgary media:

"I'm really happy to be back in Calgary, I love Canada.  I just wanted to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about. But, enjoy the game tonight."

Avery, clearly talking about how former girlfriend and “Girl Next Door” star Elisha Cuthbert and Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf are currently dating, said this at the morning skate after calling the media over for a statement. 

Why would Avery do this?  It’s pretty obvious.  He wants to get a spark in the game.  He wanted to make Phaneuf crazy and create even more interest in the game that night.  Did it work?  Yes, very much so.  Nothing was able to happen though because hours later, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman suspended Avery until further notice to review the situation, taking him out of the lineup that night. 

Superstars Being Traded posted by Tony McLeod

One of the things that bothers me most in sports is when superstars switch teams. This especially bugs me when it comes to the NBA, and it happens more and more as the years go on. Think about some of the best players of all time Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Bill Russell to name a few, they never switched teams. You can pretty much count Michael Jordan in that group too, most people do not even count his years in Washington.

Allen Iverson was just traded to Detroit for Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess, and Cheich Samb. Both big names Iverson and Billups have switched teams before. So it is nothing new for either of them. It is just something that has always got on my nerves when superstars switch teams. I am hoping Kobe can finish his career as a Laker, he will be one of the only superstars in recent years to spend all of his time with one team. I could see D Wade staying with Miami his whole career as well. The LeBron James sweepstakes are already in full effect so I would not expect him to stay in Cleveland.

The way sports is a business these days I am probably asking too much for superstars to stay on the respective teams that draft them. There is a few stars today who give me hope, namely Kobe, Wade, Dirk Nowitzki, and Dwight Howard. I just remember the good old days when a superstar stayed in one city for most if not all of is career.

Gainey rejoining Stars as senior advisor

Bob Gainey is returning to the Dallas Stars as a senior advisorto the team. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for NHL

Gainey rejoining Stars as senior advisor (Yahoo! Sports)

FRISCO, Texas (AP) Bob Gainey is returning to the Dallas Stars as a senior advisor to the team. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports