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06/02/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan, Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby have been selected as 2010 finalists for the Mark Messier Leadership Award.
The award recognizes an individual as a superior leader in hockey and as a contributing member of society. It honors an individual who leads by positive example through on-ice performance, motivation of team members and a dedication to community activities and charitable causes.
Messier, a six-time Stanley Cup champion in a 25-year NHL career, solicits suggestions from club and league personnel, as well as fans, in compiling a list of potential candidates. However, the selection of the three finalists and the ultimate winner is Messier's alone.
Doan, who has played for the franchise since the 1990s when it was known as the Winnipeg Jets, has been captain of the Coyotes for the last six years. He presided over the club's best season in team history, which saw Phoenix win 50 games and compile 107 points -- both franchise highs -- while it reached the playoffs for the first time since 2002. All of this occurred as the status of the team was up in the air with bankruptcy proceedings and rumors of relocation swirling constantly.
The 33-year-old has maintained a constant presence in the Valley of the Sun since he arrived in 1996. He currently serves as an ambassador for Coyotes Charities, and works with Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix Rescue Mission and Flashes of Hope -- an organization which allows photographers to visit terminally ill children and take uplifting family portraits.
Miller led the Sabres to a first-place finish in the Northeast Division this past season, and was also the tournament MVP as the backstop for the silver medal winning Team USA squad at the Vancouver Winter Games.
As the primary face of the franchise, Miller works closely with the Buffalo Sabres Foundation during its numerous events within the community. However, his best work comes with the Steadfast Foundation -- an entity Miller himself founded -- which works to benefit those who have been affected by childhood cancer.
Crosby, the Penguins' captain, has helped his club to a pair of Stanley Cup Finals appearances with a Cup victory in 2009. The native of Nova Scotia also etched his name in national lore after tallying the game-winner in overtime for Canada against the USA at Vancouver.
The 22-year-old superstar hosts a suite for underprivileged children at every Penguins home game in conjunction with the Make a Wish Foundation. He funds and serves as an on-ice instructor for the Penguins' Learn to Play Program that introduces the game to youngsters and, with support from Reebok, outfits them from head to toe.
The winner will be announced Wednesday, June 23, during the 2010 NHL Awards ceremony in Las Vegas.
Last year's winner was Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames. Chris Chelios of Detroit won the inaugural award in 2007.
<< Report: Ken Griffey Jr. retires
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ken Griffey Jr. reportedly announced his
retirement from baseball Wednesday just two months into his 22nd Major League
season.
Griffey was said to have informed the team before Wednesday's game and Seat
<< Lakers' Bynum has fluid return to knee
Los Angeles, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lakers center Andrew Bynum's right knee
has not improved after having fluid drained on Monday in preparation for
Thursday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals, though, he's still expected to play.
"It's th
<< Ken Griffey Jr. Career Stats
Year, Team AB R H HR RBI AVG1989, Sea 455 61 120 16 61 .2641990, Sea 597 91 179 22 80 .3001991, Sea 548 548 179 22 100 .3271992, Sea 565 83 174 27 103 .3081993, Sea 582 113 180
<< Rockies activate Morales
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies activated reliever
Franklin Morales from the 15-day disabled list Wednesday.
Morales, out with left shoulder inflammation, was used in five save chances
prior to hitting DL on
Nothing tricky about Pocono for Hamlin >>
Long Pond, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup. Date: Sunday, June
6. Race: Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500. Site: Pocono Raceway. Track: (2.5-mile
triangle. Start time: 1:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 200. Miles: 500. 2009 winner: Tony
Stewart.
Summer stand-alone season begins with Nashville >>
Lebanon, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Saturday, June
5. Race: Federated Auto Parts 300. Site: Nashville Superspeedway. Track:
1.333-mile D-shaped concrete oval. Start time: 8:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 225.
Miles: 300. 2009 w
Bodine looking to extend win record at Texas >>
Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Camping World Truck. Date:
Friday, June 4. Race: WinStar World Casino 400k. Site: Texas Motor Speedway.
Track: 1.5-mile tri-oval. Start time: 9:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 167. Miles: 400
(kilometers). 2
Franchitti riding high into Texas after Indy win >>
Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: IZOD IndyCar. Date: Saturday, June
5. Race: Firestone 550k. Site: Texas Motor Speedway. Track: 1.5-mile tri-oval.
Start Time: 8:45 p.m. (et). Laps: 228. Miles: 550 (kilometers). 2009 winner:
Helio Castr
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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