What a start to the season for Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Sydney Crosby all of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Three of the games brightest young stars you’ll get to see play together this season, unless of course you live in these ten NHL markets.

It’s hard to believe, but there are ten, yes ten markets that will not be able to see these three stars. Why is this you ask? And who are these teams? Fans in Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Nashville, Columbus, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Colorado & Minnesota will all miss out this year. However, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Colorado & Minnesota at least get to see Alexander Ovechkin as Washington and the rest of its division visit the Northwest division.

Because of the way the NHL schedule is set up, Teams like the Pittsburgh & Washington have a loaded schedule within their divisions and when you add in games against other teams in their conference, that leaves all of ten games against the Western conference teams, split with the rotation of playing five at home versus one division and five on the road versus another skipping the third division. What kind of schedule is that?

With three divisions in each conference, the Penguins will play in Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Anaheim & San Jose this year and won’t return to these cities for another three years. I just don’t see how you can sell the game and the stars for that matter with a format like this.

So I’ve taken it upon myself to revise a schedule that will allow the fans in all markets the opportunity to enjoy a chance at seeing all the stars visit their city at least once.

Divisional games drop from eight meetings a year to six. This includes three home and three road. The rest of the conference you could play each team three times, rotating each year with two home, one road every other year and finally you could play the other conference twice, splitting home games. It’s that simple.

Just imagine if the NBA had this schedule. How bent would Jack Nicholson be if LeBron James only visited the Staples Centre once every three years?

Ah, time to look at the division filled with degenerates.

First I’ll start off by saying that Terrell Owens is a punk ass biatch. There is no way in hell that the Cowboys will go through this season without some kind of turmoil. You know the “Big Tuna”, Bill Parcells will not hesitate one minute to give T.O. a piece of his mind if there is any sign of trouble. Aside from all the drama, Julius Jones should have a decent second year, but losing the likes of Dat Nguyen and La’Roi Glover will hurt the defense despite how good everyone thinks their D is. Get ready for a 8-8 season out of Dallas.

The Washington Redskins did it again this off-season. Their locker room has more guys coming in and out than Paris Hilton’s bedroom. I like the trade that brought T.J. Duckett in from Atlanta. When Clinton Portis went down, I admit, I thought they would be toast but you add a bruising back like that to the running game, they won’t miss a beat. Antwaan Randle El, Brandon Lloyd, Adam Archuleta, just a few of the other big names that will be putting on the Redskin jersey and will help make an impact this season. Losing LaVar Arrington to the Giants will make the two meetings more enticing to watch to say the least. I like what I see out of the Skins this year and see them winning 10 games.

About the only thing the Philadelphia Eagles fans will be able to cheer for this season is the fact that the story of Vince Papale was told in a movie starring Mark Wahlberg. This team is terrible! Yes Donovan McNabb is finally rid of that cancer T.O., but have you taken a look at the roster? The top two picks, Bunkley & Justice are going to be studs, but other than that, this roster is pathetic. When the best off-season re-signing is your punter, your in for a bad year. 3-13 I say.

Last but not least, the team that will win the division hands down, the New York football Giants. I can’t stand their Quarterback, I can’t stand their Tight End. However, that doesn’t mean these guys aren’t good. Eli Manning had a pretty decent year last year as the starter and will only get better as the years pass by. Jeremy Shockey should put up some huge numbers this year too. I mentioned the G-Man acquiring LaVar Arrington from Washington to bolster the defense. Tiki Barber is still the best running back in this division, and that alone is why I like the Giants to go 12-4.

Little League baseball is the latest battleground for the politically correct and bleeding hearts. Apparrently the most important lesson we have to teach today’s kids is “be nice and whatever you do, don’t try to win.”

You’ve all heard the stories by now. Team A intentionally walks a good player to pitch to ‘cancer survivor’ kid to win a game or the other sob stories of the day. The coach of team A gets bashed in the media and this becomes a big story. “What lessons are we teaching our kids is?” the stories all say.

I don’t know about you, but I remember my youth championship teams more than the teams that lost 90% of the time. Those are the memories that stick with you, not the time that everyone pretended to drop the ball so a terrible kid could get his 1st hit. Does the kid feel any better about himself knowing the other team gimped around to let him get a hit? What valuable lesson are we teaching kids here? Feel sorry for people and make sure to treat everyone differently?

Kids aren’t dopes. By the time they hit little league age, they know the difference between right and wrong. They also want to win games. They don’t want to lose so some kid’s feelings don’t get hurt. If the kid isn’t good enough to play little league, let him play softball or something. Does it matter it really matter if the kid isn’t the last out? If he still strikes out every time up, I doubt he feels that good about it.

Just let the damn kids play and quit writing about hard luck stories.

Some thoughts about the weekend that was in sports:

• Someone should tell Brad Radke that guys with torn labrums aren’t supposed to be pitching, let alone shutting out the best offensive team in the AL. Radke’s probably going to retire after this season and we all should salute him. He’s one of those good but not great players who fall between the cracks when they leave the game. His performance this is year is awe-inspiring.
• The White Sox are back in the AL Central race. You’ve read it everywhere haven’t you? I hate to break it to everyone, but the Tigers still have a 5.5 game edge over the Pale Hose. The White Sox still could take the division, but its going to take a serious tank job by the Tigers to make it happen.
• I hate to agree with Jeremy Shockey, but when the guy says the NFL preseason is too long, he’s right. And if you think I’m just saying this because I’m bitter my team lost its best player yesterday, well your damn right I am.
• The National League wildcard race is setting up to be the most embarrassing thing for baseball since, well last year when the NL West winner was barely over .500. I know the point of the Wild Card was to get more cities involved in the playoff chase, but when a team like Atlanta is still alive with a record of 54-62, that’s a joke.
• Two of the best hitters in baseball are Canadian (Justin Morneau and Jason Bay). After years of guys like Larry Walker and Matt Stairs leading our Canadian baseball train, its nice to have guys who don’t look like they were signed off the local beer league to cheer on.
• Jared Weaver is the 2nd coming of his brother Jeff. He’ll be great the 1st couple times through the league, but after team’s catch up to his funky windup, he’s going to have troubles.
• Junior Seau is going to retire tomorrow. I’m torn on the guy, was he really that great a player or just an overrated media favorite? Either way, he had a nice career and will probably get some Hall of Fame consideration, so good on him.
• Annika Sorenstam and family, please stay out of the water. Usually, wet female athletes = hot, but not in this case.

Maurice Clarett was arrested on Wednesday carrying a bucket full of loaded weapons, wearing a bullet proof vest and getting liquored up. Now I’ll admit I’m from Canada and we’re kinda wimpy when it comes to guns and stuff, but I’m pretty sure that’s kinda dangerous. Who the hell knows what he was about to do and what exactly his intentions were, but I do know that its pretty likely he wasn’t going to sing lullabies to his daughter. Yet for some odd reason, the media has decided to portray Clarett as a sympathetic figure.

To paraphrase the great Vince McMahon: “Maurice Clarett screwed Maurice Clarett.” He was the guy who decided to risk his football career by challenging the NFL draft policy. Sucks to him for losing that battle, but no one forced him to do it. No one made him borrow money from whoever was financing him while he was away from football that year. He was the one who decided to live large instead of waiting for his pay day. He was the guy who showed up to the combine out of shape and slower than half the offensive lineman.

Maybe if he would have won his draft challenge and been able to enter the NFL after his freshman year everything would have turned out roses for the guy. But he was given a 2nd chance and he blew it. The guy who’d always had everything handed to him couldn’t handle failure and his downward spiral began.

I feel sorry for the witness who’s house Clarett was allegedly near when he was arrested. I feel sorry for Jim Tressel and everyone else who tried to reach out to the guy even after he screwed them all over after leaving school. I feel sorry for Clarett’s daughter who will have to grow up with her father behind bars. But I sure as heck don’t feel sorry for Maurice Clarett. He screwed up and now he has to deal with the consequences. Every criminal has a story or excuse as to how the system screwed them over. It time to realize what Clarett has become, just another criminal.

Has coach Krzyzewski assembled the right mix to bring home the gold?

I’ll admit, although I am not the biggest Krzyzewski supporter out there, Team USA made the right decision in choosing Mike Krzyzewski as the head coach for the 2006 FIBA championships.

You gotta believe that the players that were selected to be on this team, will buy into the team concept that coach K has taught for years, especially in this type of format. By weeding out the “me first” guys like Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady, Team USA has assembled a great mix of talented players that do more than just score at will.

Theres no doubt that LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony are gifted scoring machines. The good thing about these three guys is that it won’t matter which one is doing the scoring, as long as the team wins the game.  You throw in the leadership of Elton Brand and Gilbert Arenas along with Bruce Bowen’s defensive abilities, and let’s not overlook the talented Chris Bosh who doesn’t get the much deserved attention due to playing in Toronto, and young Chris Paul, you have a coaches dream team.

With two exhibition blowout wins versus Puerto Rico and China, USA edged Brazil by 4 points despite Melo going down with a hyperextended right knee. The injury isn’t expected to keep him out that long, but with the depth this squad has, they can afford to have him ease back into the lineup when he’s 100% ready.

Even though the number of nations in the tournament has increased from 16 to 24, Team USA should breeze through their pool that includes China, Italy, Senegal, Slovenia and Puerto Rico on their way to regaining the status as champions of the world.

Even though the trade deadline has come and gone, the struggling Astros could still grant Roger Clemens his wish to possibly return to Boston.

Its crazy to think this could happen, but why not. The Houston Astros are going nowhere. Roger, at the age of 44, is still putting up tremendous numbers going into Monday’s action. The Rocket is sporting a 2.32 ERA, along with a WHIP ratio of 1.07 after 54 innings since his return.

The Boston Red Sox, having lost two in a row to the pathetic Devil Rays, currently sit two games back of the Yankees for first in the AL East, and a half game back of the ChiSox for the wildcard race. With Boston having only one starting pitcher they can depend on every fifth day in Curt Schilling, they desperately need to make a move to improve their starting pitching. Due to their current position in the standings, this is the perfect time to swing a deal for the Rocket as the teams ahead of them cannot block any trades they would attempt as trades would have to be passed through waivers.

Houston is rumoured to be interested in young pitchers Jon Lester, Manny Delcarmen & Craig Hansen in return. It’s highly unlikely the Sox will deal young Lester, but they could afford to deal the others mentioned for the shot at possibly making the playoffs and who knows, we could have a repeat of twenty years ago. Who can forget the Mets and Red Sox of 1986. Its something to keep a close eye on in the coming days ahead.

So the guy on the left is the new starting quarterback for the Oakland Raiders. Former New Orleans Saint, Aaron Brooks.
The guy on the right is arguably the most successful comedian in the 90’s and the man who first popularized the phrase “Wassup?”. Staring in movies House Party I & II, Boomerang, Bad Boys I & II, Big Momma’s house I & II, we have Martin Lawrence.

Together they make the latest separated at birth list.