"The Decision" NHL style?

NHL free agency opened on July 1 and virtually everyone signed on with a team that day, except for the biggest fish in the pond, 27-year-old sniper Ilya Kovalchuk. Reportedly seeking a 10-year, $100 million contract, Kovalchuk has found no one willing to meet his price even as rumors of talks with the Kings, Islanders, Rangers, re-signing with the Devils and the Russian KHL have come up.

In the wake of LeBron James' trainwreck television special to announce his free agent destination, the New York Post is reporting that one of the Canadian networks is suggesting the same idea to Kovalchuk.

Seriously.

The good news is that Kovalchuk announcing on national Canadian television that he's leaving the Devils probably won't be a stake through the heart of New Jersey since he's Russian and since he isn't exactly Sidney Crosby (Kovalchuk has a 1-8 career record in playoff games, losing both his career series). The bad news is that sports are becoming more and more less fun to follow if reality television is becoming this big a component. I really hope LeBron's show doesn't set a precedent like this but it seems like we're already headed that way.

Bob Probert passes away

During his career, there were few players like Bob Probert. He had the hands to once score 29 goals in a season and the fists to once rack up 398 penalty minutes in a season (and to go over 300 penalty minutes in two other seasons as well).

In an era of the NHL where there were numerous players in the league whose sole purpose was to drop the gloves, Probert was the best fighter of all of them yet also served a real hockey purpose as a player who could put the puck in the net.

Probert died today at the age of 45 after collapsing while on a boat in Lake St. Clair, near Windsor. He was 45 years old.

The cause of the death has not yet been released but one can only hope it wasn't related to the substance abuse issues he faced during his life. He was once suspended by the NHL for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. from Canada and once had a motorcycle accident while having traces of cocaine and three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

In tribute to perhaps the greatest enforcer in NHL history, here are a sampling of some of his fights. RIP.

It's NHL free agent day too

While the NBA has an eight-day negotiating period before free agents can sign, the NHL allows players to sign immediately and thanks to wide-spread tampering, the floodgates open immediately at Noon EST.

Within 15 minutes of the start of free agency, former Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar defected to Ottawa for a three-year deal and no-trade clause, two things Pittsburgh wouldn't give a 36-year-old defenseman. The Penguins nicely replaced him though, signing Paul Martin from New Jersey and Zbynek Michalek from Phoenix. Suddenly the Penguins have a really intriguing defense with these two joining Brooks Orpik, Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski.

The Sharks have signed Antero Niittymaki to be their new No. 1 goaltender. I can't believe he can possibly fail in the playoffs as consistently as Evgeni Nabokov did over the last decade.

Still waiting to see where Ilya Kovalchuk ends up and rumor has it the Rangers and Maple Leafs plan on making presentations to LeBron James.

The start of July

Here's what the next few days have in store for us...

Tomorrow: LeBron James begins his summer free agency tour while Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amar'e Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki, Carlos Boozer, Joe Johnson, Ray Allen and Shaquille O'Neal become free agents as well. (And in another sport, so do Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrick Marleau.)

Friday: World Cup quarterfinal action, Rays-Twins.

Saturday: World Cup quarterfinal action, Wimbledon women's final, Rays-Twins, Strasburg, Ubaldo, NASCAR from Daytona.

Sunday: Wimbledon men's final, Rays-Twins

The NHL draft: 1st 14 picks

Always enjoy the comedy of the NHL draft. Let’s recap it, live blog, stream-of-conscious, Simmons draft diary style…

Versus is on the air with the NHL draft, stealing the TSN Canada feed instead of sending their own broadcast team. Really? They’re too cheap to send out their own crew? This is the American television carrier of the NHL?

On the bright side, Versus decision to just beam us the TSN feed allows us the opportunity to not hear the nonsense that comes out from Brian Engblom and Keith Jones, although the draft does seem to miss Engblom’s mullet.

The draft is at the Staples Center in LA. What do you think is a bigger deal to the Staples people, hosting Game 7 of the NBA Finals last Thursday or the NHL draft eight days later? Yeah, I thought so.

Thoroughly enjoyed the interview with top picks Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin. The two hit the town last night and saw Jennifer Love Hewitt. They admitted she was looking good.

One of the best things about the NBA draft is the personality the players show when interviewed, their flamboyant outfits (like Urkel last night) and their natural ability to communicate. The NHL draft is the same way, only the exact opposite. These kids have no personality, no style, nothing. They looked terrified during their interviews. And this fear, in contrast to the NBA draft, is one of the best things about the NHL draft.

Gary Bettman takes to the podium and gets booed. Loudly. Most despised commissioner in sports. Even people in LA who have never heard of him despise him.

Bettman rambles on about how great this draft is for California. He seems to have lost his voice. I have images of him partying at STK last night, doing body shots off waitresses and waking up next to Lindsay Lohan. This could have happened, right?

Oilers GM Steve Tambellini comes up to the podium and pretends people in LA care about hockey. He then does everything possible to delay the drama: Hall or Seguin. Finally, he selects Hall as Edmontonians throughout Canada rejoice. He’s their next Gretzky, which means he could be traded to the Kings in 10 years.

TSN’s Bob McKenzie compares Hall to Mark Messier, Jari Kurri and Glenn Anderson. No pressure there, kid.

Seguin pretends to be happy for Hall, whom he claims is his friend. Let’s hope these two have an Ovechkin-Crosby type rivalry where Ovechkin is clearly the antagonist.

A woman in the Hall entourage (could be a sister, could be a crazy aunt, could be a stripper he met at Crazy Girls last night) is wearing a black leather outfit that reveals way too much cleavage for someone as large as she is.

Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton is sold out and rocking to celebrate a draft. Clearly, there isn’t much to do in Edmonton on a Friday night.

Versus/TSN cuts to Toronto GM Brian Burke who idiotically traded away this pick last year for Phil Kessel. Apparently he didn’t realize that a crummy roster would likely result in a lousy season and a high draft pick.

As Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli announces the pick of Seguin, team owner Jeremy Jacobs starts initiating trade talks for three years from now when Seguin is up for a new contract.

Love how TSN breaks out the home movies to show highlights of the prospects. That always kills me.

Bettman smiles as Seguin walks to the podium. He’s probably thinking to himself, “this is the last time this guy is going to be happy to see me,” and is probably proud of it. One of my favorite subplots of the Stanley Cup presentation each year is how the winning captain holds back his emotion and excitement when he has to go up to Bettman to get the Cup.

TSN interviews Seguin and Chiarelli together, just as they did Hall and Tambellini. Apparently the general managers become the player’s father upon drafting him.

Interviewer James Duthie reveals that Seguin and his father got matching tattoos. Maybe there’s hope for the NHL prospects after all.

Panthers GM Dale Tallon gets ready to announce their pick. This is the same guy who the Blackhawks fired as GM just before the season started and they won the Cup. Will he make mention of this? Sadly, he doesn’t. On the bright side, Tallon doesn’t go through the usual show of thanking LA, thanking the commissioner and saying hello to the fans watching back in Florida (probably because he knows there are no fans in Florida). Florida takes Erik Gudbranson which is a name you would never see in any of the other sports.

Upon reaching the podium, Gudbranson tells Tallon “I didn’t know Florida still had a team.”

Gudbranson reveals that Florida is the right fit for him. You mean a teenager who has lived in Canada his whole life is excited about going to South Beach? Shocking! Who cares if the team hasn’t made the playoffs in a decade?

The announcer declares that this is the 10th time in their 11-year history that Columbus has picked in the top 10. Donald Sterling smiles as he watches his protégé franchise at work.

Watching this draft makes me appreciate all of the excess ESPN uses during their draft coverage of the NFL and NBA.

Suddenly there is a delay on the floor as the Jackets get ready to make their pick. Did they lose their draft card?

Columbus selects Ryan Johansen, not to be confused with Calle Johansson. Pierre McGuire tells us that this is “excellent, excellent news” for the franchise. “This kid is really good!” I should hope so—he is the fourth overall pick, after all.

Johansen is sporting a done-up hairdo that makes me think he just now started using hair product. “But Mom, we’re going to LA, all the stars use hair gel!” In a weird way, Johansen reminds me of a 20-year-old Corey Haim who I think told his mother the same thing 25 years ago.

Johansen is definitely the youngest looking of the first four picks. He looks like he would be afraid of a razor.

Alyssa Milano makes her way to the TSN desk and Duthie looks like a 14-year-old boy talking to a cute girl for the first time. Amazingly, Milano doesn’t promote her Touch clothing line but does pretend to care about hockey.

Kevin Connolly from Entourage is on the stage. Bob McKenzie spots it, Pierre McGuire has no clue who he’s talking about.

Islanders GM Garth Snow makes the latest selection in a long line of failed draft picks on the Island, Nino Niederreiter. Yes, that’s really his name. No, really. Says McGuire: “He may be from Switzerland but he doesn’t have holes in him like Swiss cheese and he isn’t soft like melting chocolate.” Okay then.

TSN puts up a graphic showing that Nino is the highest drafted Swiss player ever. The previous highly drafted Swiss players on the graphic all have had distinctly undistinguished careers. Islanders fans respond by putting in their DVDs of the early 1980s.

Steve Yzerman gets ready to make his first pick as GM of the Lightning and rumor has it they want injury-prone Brett Connolly. Rumor is he had an MRI on his hip but refused to give it to teams. McKenzie corrects the rest of the desk and says the true story is that teams wanted him to take an MRI but he refused. Sounds like just the guy to take in the top 10 of the draft.

Yzerman sounds terrified. I would be too if I were him—I just selected Connolly with the sixth overall pick. In his home movie highlights, there are no fans in the stands.

McKenzie reports that there isn’t much structure to Connolly’s right hand because he crushed it in a steel gate when he was a kid. The Lightning are now banking on a guy with chronic hip injuries and a damaged hand to help carry them to the promised land. I have to say, this isn’t looking like a good start to Yzerman’s GM career.

Yzerman is being interviewed right now and looks like he just got cold-cocked by Claude Lemieux. Could a black eye from a ’97 Wings-Avalanche brawl have not healed yet?

TSN profiles prospect Jeff Skinner by telling us about his figure skating career and showing home movies of him doing double axels. Fans of every team immediately start rooting for their team to take someone else.

The TSN announcers break down the top six picks by nationality and beams when declaring that no American has been picked yet. Gotta love Canadians proud.

The Hurricanes take Skinner! Too many jokes…too many jokes…

How soon until someone creates one of those crazy Johnny Weir outfits and puts a Hurricanes logo on it with Skinner’s name on the back?

McGuire praises the pick by saying “Anytime you draft someone from the Kitchener Rangers, you know he has strong fundamentals.” I guess that’s settled. McKenzie is positively giddy about the accomplishments of Skinner’s brothers and sisters.

TSN cuts to Cam Fowler sitting in the crowd, looking like he needs to drop a deuce but is unable to. TSN had him ranked No. 4 on their board but now wonder if he’ll fall out of the top 10. Brandon Gormley is also falling, much to the dismay of McGuire.

Atlanta GM Rick Dudley has a goatee, a bald spot and a comb-over. Definitely the appropriate look for an NHL GM. The Thrashers take Alexander Burmistrov, who has a legitimately hot woman in his party. My guess is he met her last night when he went to the Saddle Ranch.

McKenzie tells us Burmistrov has a real “zest for life.” So maybe he really did meet that girl at the Saddle Ranch last night. The Russian players always have more personality than the Canadians do.

This draft is moving way too slow for my tastes.

Wild GM Chuck Fletcher looks like he let his kids cut his hair. Minnesota selects Mikael Granlund from Finland who looks a little like Zack Morris. Why isn’t Kelly Kapowski part of his entourage? McKenzie tells us he has to play in Finland for another year so Minnesota makes a pick that won’t help them at all this year or develop a North American game this year.

Rangers GM Glen Sather looks like a washed up Vegas lounge act. Which, come to think of it, is sort of what he is at this point. The Blueshirts take Dylan McIlrath who is nicknamed the “Undertaker” and “is a whole lot of fury and a whole lot of anger and a whole lot of mean” according to McGuire. A graphic shows he got into 19 fights last year, three times more than anyone else in his league. This is definitely my favorite pick of the draft.

Beau Bennett, a prospect from California, tells us that most of his friends don’t know what hockey is. Probably would be wise to not hold the draft in LA anymore.

The Stars take Jack Campbell, the first U.S. born player in the draft and the first goalie selected. In his photo, Campbell has the most acne I’ve seen since I was in high school and everyone had it. McGuire kills the pick because the team just signed another goalie, Kari Lehtonen, to a long-term deal. Channeling his inner Mel Kiper Jr. The NBA draft lacked such a character last night.

With the Ducks on the clock, the fans in LA boo. There’s a Kings-Ducks rivalry? Who knew? Both McKenzie and McGuire assume one of the falling defensemen, Gormley or Fowler, has to go here since they traded away Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer just retired. “They need defense!” McGuire says emphatically.

The booing fans make the announcers long for a Kings-Ducks series. Probably won’t create quite the same local vitriol as Lakers-Celtics.

The Ducks take Cam Fowler, who McGuire says will be “a difference maker” and a “winner” although not as good as Pronger or Niedermayer. McGuire says he could be the next Francois Beauchemin though. Oh. That leaves Gormley as the one sliding defenseman.

Fowler says “they’re definitely going to get 100 percent out of me so I’m excited.” He looks like he’s excited to hit the Sunset Strip tonight.

The Coyotes are on the clock. Shouldn’t Bettman just announce the pick? He’s the only person left who believes the move from Winnipeg to Phoenix was a good idea as proven by their being no buyer for a team the NHL had to take over.

Phoenix picks Gormley as instructed by Bettman. Keith Gretzky announces the pick, probably his consolation prize for being Wayne’s brother. McKenzie and McGuire both approve.

McKenzie tells us that Gormley’s father is a fisherman, just like Brad Richards’ father. Why he felt we needed to know this is beyond me.

With the Blues on the clock, John Davidson makes his way up to the podium. He looks like he’s aged about 40 years since leaving the TV booth. He has to be regretting that career move. St. Louis takes Jaden Schwartz. Apparently this is a fitting pick because he’s buddies with Gormley.

McKenzie tells us that the Blues went “off the board a little bit” to take Schwartz. This analysis is the NHL draft equivalent of Mel Kiper Jr. ripping the Colts for taking Trev Alberts in 1994.

Schwartz’s sister has cancer and apparently needs a bone-marrow transplant to live. That puts a damper on the whole evening. That sounds like my cue to wrap this up.

No dynasty in Chicago

Is the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup window already closing?

Hard to say at this point but if there is one problem with a hard salary cap it's that teams cannot stay together. Yes, the Blackhawks still have Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook but with an untenable cap situation, they have already begun the dismantling. Today, they traded Dustin Byfuglien to Atlanta.

Byfuglien was only the game-changer for Chicago in the playoffs. His play turned around two series (the West Semifinal against Vancouver and the Stanley Cup Final against Philadelphia). After Toews, he was almost certainly their most valuable player during the playoff run. And now he goes to the Thrashers, a franchise that has made the playoffs only once in its history and never won even a single playoff game. America probably won't hear from Byfuglien for three or four years, when he finally moves on to a franchise that plays games in the spring.

Also going to Atlanta are Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and prospect Akim Aliu. Chicago gets the 24th and 54th picks in Friday night's draft, Marty Reasoner (who played poorly for Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville earlier in his career when both were with St. Louis) and prospect Jeremy Morin. The Blackhawks get to save just over $5 million in cap space with this deal, enabling them to try and re-sign goaltneder Antti Niemi and defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, among other restricted free agents.

Given the way the NHL seems to work now, where hot goalies seem to be more important than good ones, I'm not so sure I wouldn't have just let Niemi go if I were Chicago and signed someone like Marty Biron to pair with Cristobal Huet in goal. But what do I know? It will be interesting to see how the Blackhawks forwards do next spring because this spring, Byfuglien was clearly the catalyst among that group.

Canadiens trade playoff hero to St. Louis

So much for joining a goaltending lineage that includes Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy.

A month or so after completing his run as arguably the signature player of the 2010 playoffs, the Montreal Canadiens have traded goaltender Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues for two prospects (Lars Eller and Ian Schultz).

In so doing, the Habs have opted to go with the younger, more inconsistent and also cheaper Carey Price who routinely was pulled and booed by Montreal's demanding fans. The Blues, meanwhile, make their first attempt to have an upper-tier goaltender since Curtis Joseph was in the nets some 15 years ago.

Devils should consider dealing Brodeur

Would the Devils consider trading Martin Brodeur? Absolutely not, says general manager Lou Lamoriello in response to a rumor making the rounds that the Capitals would trade Alexander Semin to New Jersey for the winningest goaltender in NHL history.

I think Lamoriello should reconsider. Brodeur is indeed headed for the Hall of Fame, does in fact have more wins than any other goaltender in league history and has in fact won the Stanley Cup three times. He also continues to play at a high level.

However, it's also true that Brodeur is now 38 years old and, for all of his regular season success in recent years, his reputation as a big-time, money goaltender has taken a severe hit. He was benched by head coach Mike Babcock prior to the medal round of the most recent Olympics, replaced by Roberto Luongo. And since winning the Stanley Cup Final in 2003, Brodeur has won a grand total of one playoff series despite the Devils often being the favored team (like this season, for example, when the Devils flamed out against the Flyers with barely a whimper in the opening round). His collapse in the final minutes of Game 7 of the Devils first round series in 2009 against Carolina cannot be ignored either.

Brodeur has in fact been a great goaltender but one cannot say with a straight face that he has been one any time recently. Skeptics (not saying I am or am not one) will point out that Brodeur's great reputation as a money goaltender died the moment he lost Hall of Fame defenseman Scott Stevens (following the 2003 playoffs) and Hall of Fame-bound defenseman Scott Niedermayer (following the 2004 playoffs) and that his performance without them just proves that Brodeur wasn't that great and was simply the beneficiary of great defensive play in front of him. Kool-Aid drinkers will say that Brodeur has remained a pillar of strength and the Devils have stopped winning playoff series because they have failed to put quality players in front of him, starting with the failure to replace Stevens and Niedermayer.

Most likely, the answer lies somewhere in between, although there is no doubt whatsoever that Brodeur had the most talented team in front of him at the Vancouver Games and, armed with such power, he managed to cough up his job to Luongo.

I don't think Brodeur is going anywhere simply because I believe he, in addition to having a no-trade clause, is the Steve Yzerman or Mario Lemieux of his franchise and won't ever be traded (and he's not like Ray Bourque, who was traded at the end of his career because he never could win the Cup in Boston; Brodeur has his name on the Cup three times already). But I do think Lamoriello should seriously consider it. And if Semin, 26 years of age, is offered up by Washington for Brodeur, I think Lamoriello should approach Brodeur about waiving that no-trade clause.

Stanley Cup Playoffs: Hockey Night Canada's 2010 Tribute

Stanley Cup Final: Hockey Night In Canada Game 6 Intro

Toews is a leader for a new era

In previous eras, the NHL had leaders like Yvon Cournoyer, Bobby Clarke and Henri Richard. Then it was Denis Potvin and Bob Gainey. The pre-lockout era had Scott Stevens, Mark Messier and Steve Yzerman. The new era finally has its true leader: Jonathan Toews.

Watching Toews in these playoffs was like watching a younger, faster version of the 1998 Yzerman (right down to the No. 19). And the same came through during Canada's Gold Medal run at the Olympics. If any player truly gets it, it is Toews. Named the captain of the Blackhawks at age 19, at 22 he is a Stanley Cup champion and a leader who truly gets it.

Did you see the expression on his face when he was presented the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP? It didn't even phase him, like he didn't care at all. The look screamed, "let's get this out of the way so I can lift the trophy I care about." When he skated away with the Conn Smythe, he pointed at teammates as if to say they were just as valuable as he was, then went to the bench to find someone to hand it off to for safe-keeping. He had a more important trophy in mind--the Stanley Cup. And when he got to touch that, his smile was wider than Lindsay Lohan's vagina. (Sophomoric jokes like that are why I could never be the leader Toews is.)

In the pre-lockout era, hockey fans came to really, really admire Yzerman because he completely changed his game to become a champion. As the Red Wings gradually grew more talented in the second half of his career, he evolved from a center who once scored 155 points in a season into a gritty two-way player who won every key faceoff, blocked shots, killed penalties while maintaining a high standard of offensive play. Toews is already that. No, Toews probably won't ever have a 155-point season but then, Yzerman didn't win the Stanley Cup at age 22 either.

As the Stanley Cup Final progressed, Chicago's top line of Toews, Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien was shutdown for the first three games and two periods by the sass, snarl and slashes of Chris Pronger. Kane and Byfuglien were useless. Toews made himself useful, contributing in other ways, like on the penalty kill and in the faceoff circle (Toews dominating counterpart Mike Richards on draws). Joel Quenneville finally made the move to shuffle his lines in the third period of Game 4, breaking up Toews, Kane and Byfuglien. The shuffle did plenty to improve the offensive situations for Kane and Byfuglien and both capitalized. Toews was forced to play less of an offensive role and in doing so, played his best of the series.

Kane may be the most physically gifted player on the Blackhawks and Byfuglien is the most physical. Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Brian Campbell spring their whole team with their puck-moving ability. But Toews is their best player, their do-everything guy who does it all at a high level. The reason the Penguins are what they are is because of the talent and selfless persona of Sidney Crosby and he, first and foremost, is why we should all expect Pittsburgh to contend for the next decade. Toews is the equivalent in Chicago. The Blackhawks are a young team and their young leader will make sure they maintain their focus and remain a contender for the next decade.

The dream matchup for the marketers and television executives is Pittsburgh-Washington so that they can see Crosby battle Alex Ovechkin. Honestly, I think the NHL's top matchup over the next decade may well be Crosby and Toews. Let's hope they get to face each other in a few Stanley Cup Final series along the way.

Stanley Cup brings Jeremy Roenick to tears

Stanley Cup Final: Hockey Night In Canada Game 5 Intro

Message to Donald Sterling: SELL THE CLIPPERS

The Clippers could dominate the Los Angeles sports scene for the next 10 years. The Lakers have an older team with Kobe Bryant on the verge of entering his declining years and Phil Jackson going year-to-year. The Dodgers have a young core but a divorce in owners ruining the franchise. USC football is awaiting sanctions that could potentially wipe out their 2004 national championship and place restrictions on the program. No one cares about the Kings even though they have a potentially legendary defenseman in young Drew Doughty.

The Clippers have some good young players like Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon. All they need to become a championship contender is one LeBron James. And David Geffen wants to make it happen.

The entertainment billionaire wants to buy a majority stake of the team from the hapless Donald Sterling and believes he can then get LeBron to sign with the team. And why not? What could LeBron possibly do that would be bigger than winning a championship with arguably the worst team in all of sports? Or to challenge and take down the Lakers in the hearts of Los Angeles? LeBron can make that happen.

Sterling cannot. So the only way LeBron could possibly go to the Clippers would be if he ceased day-to-day operations of the team and sold off a majority share. LeBron is far too smart to possibly sign with the Clippers if Sterling is the majority owner. But Geffen? Hmmmm.

Color me intrigued. But I'm willing to bet Sterling will never sell, no matter how much Geffen offers.

Stanley Cup Final: Hockey Night In Canada Game 4 Intro

Wait...what??

Did you know that the Stanley Cup Final and the NBA Finals are going head-to-head tonight? That's right, both start at 8 pm ET.

If you're the NHL, and you're Gary Bettman, how on earth do you allow this? Given the inroads the NHL has made in popularity this year, how on earth do you allow your Final series to go head-to-head with the NBA? David Stern can live with this because he knows more casual fans will gravitate toward the NBA Finals than the Stanley Cup Final, especially given the Lakers-Celtics matchup and the presence of Kobe Bryant. How can Bettman have allowed this?

Shouldn't Bettman have called Stern (his old boss at the NBA, by the way) and worked with him to schedule the NHL games around the NBA games? Not only would that have been in the best interests of the NHL but it also would have been in the best interests of the fans who would like to watch both (like me). Now most fans will have to either go to a sports bar, set two televisions next to each other, or record one on the DVR, hope the other doesn't tell us the score of the other and shut ourselves off from the outside world in order to avoid the result. Really smooth.

There is no reason why these games have to go head-to-head when both sports always offer an off-day between every game. I hope Bettman will be proud when this really, really exciting Stanley Cup Final featuring two major markets and currently tied at two games a piece draws a rating below 1.0 tonight. I'm sure the suits at NBC will be thrilled too. At least they're not paying for the NHL rights.

Marv Albert leaves MNF radio; who should replace him?

Marv Albert has decided the time is right to give up football play-by-play. The voice of Monday Night Football and the Super Bowl on Westwood One radio, the Marvelous one has decided to give up the post.

Marv and Boomer Esiason were a nice listen but Albert has decided to cut back and concentrate on his basketball duties, where he is the unquestioned Voice of the NBA (even if he doesn't get to call the NBA Finals anymore). Esiason will continue on in the role.

So the big question is: who should take Marv's place? In the past couple of years, Westwood One has used the likes of Kevin Harlan, Dave Sims, Dick Enberg, Ian Eagle and Larry Kahn on NFL games. You can pretty much forget about Enberg. He wants to do baseball full-time and at his age, he would be a short-term guy and Westwood One needs to hire someone more long-term. Forget about Kahn too since his name recognition is low. Also, you may as well forget about Joe Buck and Jim Nantz, since they are the faces of their networks and probably wouldn't want to do it anyway. Besides, Buck would be unavailable for Mondays in October because of baseball's postseason and neither could call the Super Bowl for Westwood One when their network is covering the game; Buck will already be calling the next Super Bowl for Fox Sports.

That leaves Harlan, Sims and Eagle as logical in-house candidates and Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is stumping for Harlan, who does the Packers preseason games and whose father Bob was once the CEO of the Packers.

Harlan does a nice job on lower-tier CBS telecasts with Solomon Wilcots and I enjoy him calling NBA games for TNT and March Madness games for CBS. Still, he would be my second choice. My top choice? Marv's son, Fox's Kenny Albert.

Kenny Albert has steadily rose up the charts in recent years and is now Fox's No. 2 NFL announcer, working with Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa. He also seems to have ascended to their No. 2 baseball role, usually working with Tim McCarver when Buck decides he cannot be bothered to call a game. He also is NBC's No. 2 hockey announcer during the Olympics and he and Joe Micheletti did an outstanding job on the games NBC deemed lesser profile. He also calls New York Rangers and New York Knicks games for MSG.

That sounds like quite a full plate. It also sounds like a guy who likes to work and who wouldn't want to be able to call the Super Bowl? Clearly, that isn't going to happen at Fox anytime soon, where Buck is the clear No. 1 voice. Kenny Albert isn't much of an entertainer in the booth but that also makes him ideal for radio, where the description of the action is paramount. He also works really well with analysts, something he clearly inherited from his father who is probably the best ever at bringing the most out of his analysts.

The only possible drawback is that Kenny Albert probably would be unavailable to call a divisional playoff game for Westwood One because of his Fox job but that seems like a minor inconvenience to me. Use Harlan, Eagle, Sims and Kahn on the divisional games. Have Harlan and Kenny Albert call the wild card and conference championship games and give Kenny Albert Monday Night Football and the Super Bowl. Sounds like a plan to me.

Fun Sunday in sports ahead

Big day in sports today:

French Open final (Rafael Nadal-Robin Soderling).

Final round of the Memorial (21-year-old Rickie Fowler leads, Phil and Tiger have virtually no shot).

Yankees-Blue Jays, Padres-Phillies, Rays-Rangers, plus Ubaldo Jimenez tries to go to 11-1 against the hapless Diamondbacks.

Stanley Cup Final, Game 5, Blackhawks-Flyers tied 2-2.

NBA Finals, Game 1, Lakers lead the Celtics 1-0.

Stanley Cup Final: Hockey Night In Canada Game 3 Intro

Pronger controlling Chicago's top line

Philadelphia may trail 2-1 but, with the exception of the third period in Game 1, I feel they have been the better team. Chicago completely clamped down defensively in the third period of what was a 5-5 game through two periods in the opener.

Chicago's problems stems from two facts: Brent Seabrook is having a lousy series and Chris Pronger is shutting down the Patrick Kane-Jonathan Toews-Dustin Byfuglien line. It's fortunate for the Blackhawks that Duncan Keith is having a great series thus far, allowing him to cover for the struggling Seabrook.

As for the big line, I'm surprised Joel Quenneville hasn't shuffled them. No one knows how good Pronger is more than Quenneville, who coached the Flyers' defenseman from 1997-2004 in St. Louis. He should know better than anyone how good Pronger is at shutting down an opponent and how good he is at defending his own end. Early in the second period of Game 2, Quenneville was forced into a line shuffle because of a penalty killing situation. Kane was on the ice with Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa. Pronger was not out against this group and it turned into Kane's best shift of the series and resulted in his setting up a goal by Keith. Quenneville, however, returned to his normal lines soon after and the line continued to struggle against Pronger, although Toews did spring Kane for a breakaway goal in the third (worth noting that Pronger was not on the ice).

Toews, in particular, is really struggling to get his game going. The leading scorer in the playoffs through the first three rounds, Toews has been a zero offensively in this series save for springing Kane's breakaway goal. With Peter Laviolette matching Pronger against Byfuglien, it would be a good idea for Quenneville to play Toews elsewhere to try and force Laviolette's hand. If Toews and Kane play together with, say Kris Versteeg, does Laviolette keep Pronger against the behemoth Byfuglien or against the dynamic Toews-Kane combo? If he's out there against Toews-Kane, then maybe Byfuglien can again be a presence driving the net. If he plays against Byfuglien, then maybe Toews and Kane can deliver in this series with a little more consistency.

I'm very interested in seeing how this battle turns out in Game 4. At some point Quenneville has to do something to get Toews and Byfuglien going, right? If he keeps them together, I think Pronger and the Flyers take it back to Chicago even.