AP Photo/Jay LaPrete

By Paul Casey Gotham

It is that time again. Let’s hear from you, readers. We had another week of stellar performances. Pick the ONE (1), UNE, UNO from April 4-10th that stands out to you, and tell us a story.

Jhonas Enroth gets my POTW.

His numbers have not been dazzling, but the 22-year-old net-minder has done what the Buffalo Sabres needed.

With the Sabres’ playoff life hanging in the balance, and Ryan Miller shelved with an injury, Enroth backstopped Buffalo to the playoffs. Enroth made 23 saves on Tuesday as the Sabres downed Tampa Bay 4-2. He followed that making 16 saves in the first two periods as Buffalo went on to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime 4-3 to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Enroth’s work started prior to last Monday when he was thrust into the starting role on March 30th. Since then the Sabres are 5-1 with their only loss coming in overtime.

Who gets your POTW?

By Paul Gotham

Did someone mention PLAYOFFS?!?

Sixes are wild in the NHL. Elimination is possible is in the NBA. And, oh yeah, the Bucks and Hawks will actually play a game.

Thomas Vanek is back in the lineup for the Sabres as they visit Beantown.

Patrick Kane and the Black Hawks look to advance.

The Habs try to stave off elimination.

Can Dwight Howard stay out of foul trouble?

Can Brandon Roy do it again?

Brandon Jennings is on the loose!

All this and more.

It’s not just game day. It’s playoff day. Share your views on “THE PINE!”

AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Frank Gunn

By Paul Gotham

Taking time here on the ‘un-official’ holiday known as Super Bowl Sunday to ponder a sampling of topics going on around the sports world.

The NHL getting it right this time

The last time the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins met, the NHL took a little heat. Critics spewed about the league’s perpetual inability to highlight its marquee games. Instead of putting that  game on a major network on a Sunday afternoon, NHL rising stars, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, dueled on a Thursday night. To make matters worse, the game was pitted opposite the Lakers – Cavs/ Kobe-LeBron match-up.

Today, as sports fans settle in for a long winter’s viewing, they can catch the NHL’s finest on display. Props to the Penguins for doing their finest post man impersonation. Given the record snow fall in the nation’s capital, the Penguins will have to make the trek despite rain, or SNOW, or sleet, or hail, or lots of snow. Wonder if the NHL will be grabbing people off the streets to make sure the seats are full.

The NHL has to figure out a foil to the Kobe-LeBron ad campaign. I love the latest puppet ads with Bryant and James. “LeBron, did you hear that? My shoes started the fire.” That is great stuff.

More frozen pond

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been in existence for over 90 years. Jean-Sebastien Giguere needed two games to etch his name into Leaf lore.

Acquired in a trade on January 31st, Giguere got his first start two days later. The netminder made 30 saves on 30 shots to shutout the New Jersey Devils, 3-0. Four nights later, Giguere repeated the feat shutting out the Senators, 5-0. Giguere is now the first goalie in Leaf history to earn shutouts in his first two starts.

Now, Giguere will need to prove he is worthy of mentioning with Johnny Bower, Turk Broda, and other great Leaf goalies of the past. Of course, Leaf fans would probably be happy to just get out of the Eastern Conference basement.

A small dose of irony for Buffalo Sabre fans when considering Giguere’s feat. Buffalo is 5-0 against the Leafs this year, including a shutout win back in November.  Meanwhile, the Sabres are 0-4 against the Senators.

Buffalo fell for the fourth consecutive time Saturday night. There is reason for concern that Sabre netminder, Ryan Miller, is in need of some rest. The timing is poor considering Miller will be between the pipes for Team USA in the upcoming Olympics. Buffalo currently sits in third place in the conference with a 12-point buffer from the eighth and final playoff spot.

The Sabres schedule after the Olympics is less than kind – at Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia, and at the Rangers in the first week of March.

Did any other Sabre fans just gulp?

Kobe passes West

With 44 points Monday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, Kobe Bryant passed Jerry West on the all-time Laker scoring list. There was some rumblings from Pau Gasol and Phil Jackson that this was not exactly a happy occasion. The two expressed relief in putting the record behind them, so they could focus on team pursuits. This wouldn’t be the first time Kobe put self in front of the team

Maybe I need my antenna adjusted, but I am having a difficult time putting Kobe ahead of Mr. Clutch on my personal pantheon of NBA greats. Okay, Kobe has 25,246 points as opposed to West’s 25,192. It’s important to note that West played 932 games. Kobe has suited up for 999. Something tells me points were more difficult to come by in West’s time. Certainly, money was a lot more difficult when West made his way. I’m thinking Jerry was not afforded as much time to train in the off-season. He probably needed to work jobs to make ends meet.

Nonetheless, I still love the Kobe commercials. Did I mention that already?

Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images

Measure of an MVP

We are about  to find out the value of Chris Paul. The Hornets’ point guard is out for a month, and the team is already two games out of the playoffs. It does not look good for the Cajun Kings.

Props to Hornets for pulling out the Mardi Gras home colors – nice touch.

Much ado about Phil

Scott McCarron apologized. Phil Mickelson accepted. And a wedge has been put in the bag.

I’m still scratching my head.

McCarron accused Mickelson of gaining an unfair advantage with a club that other tour members use.

I’m not even going to pretend that I know much about golf, but the USGA only allows Ping wedges made prior to 1990?

1990?

Am I wrong in suggesting that there have been some significant advancements in the technology of golf equipment since 1990?

Terry loses the ‘C’

No one knows what goes behind closed doors, and soccer proved golf is not alone in sex scandals.

England’s coach, Fabio Capello, announced this week that John Terry has lost his team captaincy. This after allegations became public of Terry’s affair with teammate Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend.

The situation increased on the weird scale when it unearthed a scandal within the U.S. team from over a decade ago. Now we find out why John Harkes was cut from the 1998 U.S. team: he had an affair with Eric Wynalda’s wife.

Ya just never know.

Winter Olympics anyone?

Who’s looking forward to the Games? I know I will make time to watch the athletes. Time for a confession: I enjoy curling. I know it’s crazy, but there is something hypnotic about it.

Got any rebounds and putbacks? Post them here.

AP Photo/Matt York

By Paul Gotham

Just another night at the office

Steve Nash’s numbers on Christmas Day: 14 pts. on 6-10 shooting from the field/ 1-1 from the free throw line and 1-3 from the arc. To go with those points, Nash accumulated eight assists.

The final number should not be overlooked. With eight, Nash had more assists than baskets made.

Phoenix defeated the lowly Clippers 124-93 on Christmas night.

Getting more assists than baskets is a familiar situation for the Sun point guard.  Against Oklahoma City on the 23rd, Nash went 10-17 from the field with 12 assists. Two nights earlier, the Santa Clara grad finished 7-13 against the Cavs with 10 assists.  Nash dished out 15 assists versus the Wizards going 6-12.

Nash has 7,852 career assists with 5,074 field goals.

It can be argued that Nash has more field goal attempts than assists. Imagine if the NBA kepth track of assist attempts. How many lay ups does Nash provide for teammates that go unfinished? Better yet, how many shots does Nash provide where a foul and miss occurs?

Is there any coincidence Phoenix leads the league in scoring? Nash is an old school point guard who thinks pass first and shot second.

Go figure

Pittsburgh’s Penguins rank number one in the NHL with 26 wins. The Penguins’ 121 goals rank third in the league. Sidney Crosby with 22 goals and 24 assists is fifth in the league with 46 points.

Despite those impressive offensive numbers, Pittsburgh ranks dead last in power play efficiency. Pittsburgh has had 169 power play opportunities (more than any team in the league). The Penguins have connected on only 26 of those chances – or 15.4 per cent of the time – 30th in the league.

Miller for MVP

How much longer before Buffalo’s Ryan Miller is mentioned in the MVP conversation? The Sabre netminder has made 913 saves out of 976 opportunities for a league-leading save percentage of .935 per cent.  Miller is second in the league with 4 shut outs (Ilya Bryzgalov leads with 5). Miller’s 1.98 goals against average is second only to Boston’s Tuuka Rask. Rask has played 17 fewer games than Miller.

Don’t hold your breath

USC’s Joe McKnight is under investigation for the use of an SUV. Anyone wonder how long the inquisition will take? After all, we are still waiting for a decision on Reggie Bush.

McKnight. Bush. OJ Mayo. Matt Leinart. Who is the USC compliance officer? How much is that person making? I am about ready to apply for the job.

Timing is everything

Someone please explain why Urban Meyer had to come out and announce he was stepping down over a week BEFORE the Sugar Bowl. Why not wait until after the game? And now Meyer has already changed his mind? Geez. Who is he taking lessons from? Bobby Cremins? Or Brett Favre? Or both?

Forecast calls for…

SNOW in Boston on Friday. Should be a great day for an outdoor hockey game. Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow.

Anyone have a rebound and putback? Post them here.

We are officially done with football until April.  Pitcher and Catchers are starting to report to Spring Training – and I really didn’t have a topic for this weekend. So I decided to see if I could conjure up some discussion on the board and throw out observations on some recent topics in sports. Here we go:

1.  I know we have avoided the “S” question for quite some time on this site, but unfortunately I believe it has to has to be brought to the table again. Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod. Or as the NY Tabloids are calling him – A-Fraud. Aside from being a Red Sox fan, I was disappointed to hear that this story was in fact true. I believe a lot of baseball fans were putting their hopes on A-Rod. Here was the guy that would take over Barry Bonds as the HR King. I congratulate Alex for coming out and being honest about his usage of Performance Enhancing Drugs. That being said, was I the only one that felt his explanation was wishy-washy? It is obvious that major league baseball has not hit rock bottom in the steroid scandal. Yes – I said it – steriods. It is like saying ‘Lord Voldemort’.  Living in Boston, I started to wince every time Curt Schilling opened his mouth – but this time, I think he is right. Release the names of the 104 positive names and let’s move on. I would prefer to see baseball move on from the issue, and not worry that 2 or 3 years down the road another name is going to come out.

2. Did anyone else know that Anquan Boldin has two years left on his existing contract? I also just found out that Drew Rosenhaus is his agent. Hmmm, sign a deal and then re-negotiate halfway through. That sounds familiar. Could it be that Rosenhaus’ other clients (Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson ) have done the same routine?  My first reaction is – let him sit out the next 2 years if he doesn’t like his contract, but that leads me to..

3. Has any team been hit harder then the Arizona Cardinals in this offseason? Already they have lost both their offensive and defensive coordinators. Your starting QB and one of your start wide receivers are threatening to either hold out or retire. And all of this  in less then 2 weeks. Even Jerry Jones has to be chuckling to himself a little bit.

4. We haven’t talked much NHL on here, but the Buffalo Sabres took a HUGE hit when they lost leading scorer Thomas Vanek for a month with a broken jaw.  It will be interesting to see how the Sabres make up for his scoring, as they push for the playoffs. Normally, I would know who they would call up but – who is their farm team now?

5. Does anyone remember a time when we were this close to the beginning of spring training and big names like, Ken Griffey Jr., Bobby Abreu, Adam Dunn, Orlando Cabrera and Manny Ramirez still don’t have a job? I would include Ben Sheets in the equation, but the recent news of elbow troubles makes it likely that he will be out for the 2009 year. Personally, I believe that as long as Abreu and Dunn are available on the market – no team is going to make more then a 2 year offer to Manny Ramirez.

6. Tiger Woods is rehabbing the knee and is starting not only swing the golf clubs – but play rounds of golf. Do you think other golfers are starting to think, “Boy, if I am going to win – I had better do it now!! ” ?

7. Also – did anyone else feel teased by ESPN when they started showing ads for the first 2 rounds of the Masters this week? The tournament is in April – are you trying to drive me nuts?

8. If you haven’t noticed the countdown on the site – the greatest rivalry in all of sports is about to add a new chapter. Duke and North Carolina battle it out in Cameron, Wednesday night. Should be a good one.

Enjoy..

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=TzxokdqQYU0]

NYS Thruway Tolls: $3.50

Pit stop prior to arriving at the stadium: 20:00

Parking: $10

Front row obstructed view seat: $10

Being at the center of the hockey universe for an afternoon: PRICELESS