This Week In Sports: January 25th

NHL:

Another week full of storyline in the NHL this week, but we’ll stick to a topic that has sparked a lot of debate: following the nearly-horrific injury that Taylor Hall suffered from a teammates skate blade in warm-up (while not wearing a helmet), should the NHL make helmets mandatory during the warm-up for all teams? While I think it’s a good idea, I don’t see it happening; I doubt the players would go for it. The NHL can’t get them to wear visors during the games, why would they accept being forced to wear extra protection during a simple warm-up? While this was a fluke accident and probably won’t happen again, it still makes sense for the NHL to want to see its most prized assets as protected as possible. One way that could work would be to grandfather the concept into the game, meaning that from next year all rookies would have to wear helmets in warm-up, and continue that trend until every player in the league has helmets in warm-up. The problem is actually monitoring this; the NHL won’t have someone watching every warm-up to make sure the right players are following the rule.

NFL:

It was a wild championship Sunday as the Patriots and Giants advanced to Super Bowl in what should be an epic rematch of the incredible 2007 Super Bowl. While my score predictions were off, I was correct on the two winners. Seeing as there are two weeks until the big game, I’ll hold off until next week to make my predictions. An interesting aspect of both games was the fact that they each had a couple of clear-cut scapegoats. Wide receiver Lee Evans dropped the game-winning touchdown pass in the end zone with seconds remaining on the clock and Billy Cundiff missed the game-tying field goal with time about to expire, while in the other game kick returner Kyle Williams fumbled at two crucial moments, allowing the Giants to first score a big touchdown in regulation and ultimately kick the game-winning field goal in overtime.

NBA:

It was an average week in the NBA, but several questions came up concerning one current powerhouse and one former powerhouse. The Miami Heat are on a prolonged winning streak without superstar Dwayne Wade in the line-up, and those looking to stir the pot have been asking if Lebron James and the Heat are better off without two huge superstars in their starting five, that they simply need to have one and surround him with solid teammates (like Chris Bosh). Personally, I think the idea is downright silly; while Wade and James haven’t found that perfect, cohesive, unstoppable chemistry yet, they are too good to not find it eventually. When they do, the Heat will probably reach the incredibly lofty goals that they set when they joined forces last summer.

On the other hand, the glory days of the Boston Celtics seem to be a thing of the past, as it appears age has begun to creep up on Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. While they are in 8th place in the Eastern Conference, the trio look slowed by this compressed schedule and it’s been reported that if the right deal (or deals) come along, the Celtics might be willing to move them.

Tragedies:

It’s been a sad couple of days in the world of sports as two prominent figures have passed. The first was Sarah Burke, a pioneer in Canadian freestyle skiing, who died on Thursday due to injuries she sustained from a crash during a training session on January 10th. She was 29. The second round of bad news hit on a much more global level, as it was announced that legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno passed on January 22nd from lung cancer. Paterno will be remembered for his long tenure at Penn State and his status as the winningest coach in college football history, but his name will always be associated to the heavily scrutinized sexual abuse scandal that surrounded the program this past year. Paterno was 85.

-Andrew Maggio runs a dedicated Habs blog, check it out here