St. Louis already has won the award twice (2010, ’11), and was a finalist two other times. The 37-year-old ranked second among NHL forwards in total ice time, but was assessed just 14 penalty minutes.

Moulson is a finalist for the second straight season. He had four penalty minutes in 47 games, tied with San Jose’s Logan Couture for the fewest among the NHL’s top 50 scorers.

Kane is a Lady Byng finalist for the first time, after helping Chicago to a Presidents’ Trophy. He played 47 games and averaged 20:03 of ice time, but had just eight penalty minutes.

“Any time you’re up for an award, it’s exciting,” Kane said Thursday. “I thought maybe I had a chance at this one. I think it kind of speaks volumes of where my game has gone since my rookie season. I remember I used to take a lot of penalties that were kind of unnecessary and I kind of got that out of my game a little bit. I’m definitely happy about it. It’s an honor, for sure.”

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With four days before their next game against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night, the Nets essentially are giving Johnson five days to rest his heel and get better.

“We’re just concerned with the four (games) in five (days) and a little bit of the mentality that we had going to the All-Star break,” Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “You have four days (off), so you’re tempted to say we hold him out one more it’ll give him five days to get healthy.”

Johnson missed three games because of the sore left heel before returning for the team’s last six. During that span, he averaged 13 points on 47.1 percent shooting in 33.6 minutes.

He had 20 points in 37 minutes on 8-of-11 shooting in Monday night’s loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Johnson had hoped the injury wouldn’t linger on when he returned, but it has.

In 61 games, the 31-year-old veteran is averaging 16.6 points on 42.7 percent shooting.

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“That’s a pretty good one for me to win,” he thought to himself. “Already got my name on the trophy.”

Hornish survived two restarts in the final 15 laps and held off Kyle Busch to win the Nationwide Series race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hornish led 114 laps in his second career Nationwide victory, but needed a strong finish to outrun Busch, the hometown driver who won the Nationwide race last week in Phoenix.

Hornish credited the win to his dominant car, all the more impressive since the drivers got almost no practice on the 1.5-mile tri-oval due to Friday’s rain.

“You dream about having cars like this,” Hornish said. “I think I used more energy celebrating than I did actually driving the car today.”

Hornish and Busch both went aggressively after the final restart with seven laps to go, with Busch briefly nudging ahead before Hornish reclaimed the lead with five laps left. Hornish got clear of Busch and finished comfortably in a caution-filled race.

With his third top-10 finish in three races this season, Hornish moved atop the points race and gave owner Roger Penske his first victory at Las Vegas in any NASCAR series — and Penske’s first win since moving from Dodge to Ford in the offseason.

Hornish also snapped a 36-race winless streak in his Ford in his 69th Nationwide race overall.

Hornish hadn’t won since November 2011 at Phoenix. His crew chief, Greg Erwin, won his first Nationwide race.

Busch dominated last week’s race, but his Toyota couldn’t catch up to Hornish despite plenty of cagey racing. Hornish had nearly a three-second lead over Busch before the first of the final two cautions.

“Sam was just that much faster than us,” said Busch, who finished in the top 10 for just the second time in 10 races in Las Vegas. “He was beating us a little bit everywhere, all the way around the race track. Certainly, when he stepped on the gas, that thing would go forward in a hurry. Us two were the class of the field, but he was the class of everybody.”

Pole sitter Brian Vickers finished third, with Trevor Bayne fourth — despite an early brush against the wall — and Elliott Sadler fifth. Travis Pastrana came in 10th, four spots ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Vickers echoed Busch’s praise of Hornish’s superior car.

“I couldn’t move around much,” said Vickers, a top-10 finisher three times in six Vegas races. “The car would get out from under me. Seemed like Sam could not only get through the bumps, but he could run top through bottom.

“We just ended up getting too loose. We killed the car on the last run. It was a valiant effort, trying to go for the win.”

Hornish regained his early lead on the 145th lap, but Scott Lagasse Jr.’s late spin and an even later wreck forced him to be resourceful out of restarts.

Shortly after Lagasse’s spin, rookie Kyle Larson’s car ended up in flames after a big collision with Joey Gase and Ryan Sieg. Larson, who also hit the wall on the 87th lap, emerged from his car unharmed.

Larson, a 20-year-old from the Sacramento area, survived a frightening crash on the final lap of the Nationwide race two weeks ago at Daytona, where his car sailed into the fence and peppered the crowd with debris, including a tire, injuring more than two dozen fans.

Hornish leads the Nationwide points standings by 19 points over Justin Allgaier.

The post Sam Hornish Jr. wins at Las Vegas appeared first on IdealCapper.

The Blackhawks set an NHL record for the best start to a season, beating the San Jose Sharks 2-1 on Friday to give them at least one point in each of their first 17 games.

Rookie Brandon Saad’s short-handed goal early in the third period — and with 3 seconds left on a San Jose power play — snapped a 1-all tie and stood up as the game winner. Chicago (14-0-3) won its fourth straight game to break a mark set by the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks, who earned points in their first 16 games.

The Blackhawks equaled that run Tuesday with a shootout win over Vancouver.

“It’s nice to get another win and make history,” the 20-year-old Saad said. “Our group’s had a great year so far, so we never expect anything less.

“We’re celebrating the win now. I’m sure it will sink in a little bit more tomorrow, but it’s awesome to be part of history.”

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville also reflected on the record, but not for long.

“The guys should be proud of the achievement, the accomplishment,” he said. “I just think we shouldn’t be happy with where we’re at. We just want to keep trying to get better.”

Saad scored the go-ahead goal after closing in on the left wing one-on-one with San Jose defenseman Brent Burns. After a quick fake, Saad fired a shot from the circle that beat San Jose’s Antti Niemi just under the glove 2:24 into the period.

“I just took him (Burns) wide and tried to get a shot off,” Saad said. “Luckily, I beat (Niemi) glove side. Sometimes power-play guys drop back a little, and I took advantage of it.”

Burns gave Saad too much room on the play, however, according to San Jose coach Todd McLellan.

“I thought that we let a player that wasn’t very dangerous — not because he’s not talented or anything — but a player in a situation that wasn’t very dangerous skate into a primary scoring spot without even challenging him,” McLellan said.

“I’m not sure if our goalie was on the angle or not,” he added, “but I’m disappointed we didn’t challenge him earlier.”

Viktor Stalberg also scored for league-leading Chicago, which has earned a total of 31 of 34 possible points.

Blackhawks goalie Ray Emery made 26 saves to win his fourth straight start and improve to 7-0. Chicago killed all four San Jose power plays, all of which occurred in a span of less than 14 minutes late in the second and early in the third periods.

“(The record) is a notch in your belt,” Emery said. “It’s special to do something as a group.

“The start of the year is the worst time to do it, I think,” he added. “You’d rather do it at the end, but it’s great.”

Patrick Marleau scored for the Sharks, getting only his second goal in 11 games after getting nine in San Jose’s first five games.

Both Emery and Niemi were sharp throughout most of the game. But a misplay by Niemi led to Stalberg’s goal at 16:40 of the second period, and he seemed fooled on Saad’s score. Niemi stopped 32 shots.

Niemi, who was the goalie when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, also let in a couple of soft goals in a 4-1 loss to the Blackhawks at the United Center last Friday.

Chicago and San Jose faced each other for the third time in 17 days. The Blackhawks defeated the Sharks 4-1 last Friday and 5-3 in San Jose on Feb. 5.

The Blackhawks had a full lineup for the first time since their season opener at Los Angeles.

Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook, forward Daniel Carcillo and goalie Corey Crawford returned from injuries. Seabrook missed Tuesday’s game with a lower-body injury, and Carcillo sat out 15 games after suffering a knee injury in the season opener.

Crawford, who sat out three games with a upper-body injury, backed up Emery.

Chicago forward Marian Hossa was back after being hit in the back of the head by Vancouver forward Jannik Hansen on Tuesday and leaving early in the third period. Hansen was suspended for one game by the NHL.

Marleau broke the scoreless tie late in the first period. He connected with 14.2 seconds left to give San Jose a 1-0 lead.

Emery made a point-blank pad save on Joe Pavelski’s tip of Joe Thornton’s shot from left wing, then Marleau pounced on the rebound in the slot. Emery got his left pad on Marleau’s attempt, but the puck barely slid over the goal line.

Stalberg tied it at 1 at 16:40 of the second on a play from the left corner. From a sharp angle and with traffic in front, Stalberg whipped the puck toward Niemi. It struck the inside of Niemi’s left pad near the knee and deflected in.

Saad’s goal 2:24 into the third made it 2-1.

Then Chicago’s penalty killing and alert work by Emery helped preserve the lead.

“I thought we got better as the game went on, each and every shift,” Quenneville said. “We certainly got some energy off the penalty kill tonight, none more than getting the shortie in the third.”

Niemi was pulled for an extra attacker with 1:10 left, but Chicago kept the Sharks off the puck and off balance. Hossa missed an empty net in the final seconds.

Game notes

The 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks got off to a 12-0-4 start that season and went on to win the Stanley Cup. … The Sharks played the fifth game of a season-high six-game road trip and are 1-3-1. Chicago C Dave Bolland left the game late in the second period with an upper-body injury and is out day to day. … Despite the compressed 48-game NHL schedule, San Jose had played only one game — at St. Louis on Tuesday — since facing the Blackhawks in Chicago a week ago. … San Jose C Scott Gomez and D Justin Braun were healthy scratches. … Former Blackhawks player and current broadcaster Eddie Olczyk, a Chicago-area native, was honored in a pregame ceremony for being inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

The post Advertisement Blackhawks set NHL record for best start to season appeared first on IdealCapper.

“It was really bad,” he said. “It got to the point where there was no way I was going to be able to play, so it makes it frustrating.

“But there wasn’t really an option once we got down to it.”

The 29-year-old says that once the pain started he struggled to find any relief, and things finally culminated in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 27.

“I started to feel it a little bit toward the end of training camp and the start of the season and then it got out of control probably after the second game of the season,” Spezza said.

“It got worse and worse and halfway through the Pittsburgh game, I lost strength in my leg and got real bad numbness and halfway through the game I pretty much knew I’d have to see someone.”

For Spezza, who says he felt almost instant relief following the surgery, back issues are nothing new.

He had surgery after the 2006 season, but continued to miss games the following year because of recurring back pain. He has always had to be cognizant of the issue and undergo ongoing treatment to deal with flare-ups.

“I do play hockey for a living and it’s not easy on the body, but the goal is to strengthen it and have it fixed and not be an issue moving forward,” he said. “If there’s a doctor out there who can give me that guarantee, or I can give you that guarantee I’d love to have it.”

Spezza didn’t want to commit to a return date, but he hopes to return before the end of the season.

“You always aim to push your rehab and you can be a little more aggressive with things, but (Gerry Townend, the head athletic therapist) already talked to me about making sure that we’re doing things right and not getting too carried away,” Spezza said. “The goal is to get back by the end of the season and to hopefully help us to the end of the year and the playoffs.”

The first couple of weeks following surgery are a rest and recovery period and then if things look good, Spezza should be able to start with his rehab late next week.

Despite having two surgeries, Spezza remains hopeful that this won’t be an ongoing problem, and more importantly, a detriment to the longevity of his career.

“Going forward it’s definitely going to be a focus for me. When I plan my summer training, when I do my workouts and when I’m practicing, I have to take it into consideration.

“But there’s been a lot of guys who have played with back problems and gotten over it, so I’m hoping to be one of those guys.”

Game notes
The Senators reassigned D Mark Borowiecki to the Binghamton Senators of the AHL. … G Craig Anderson was given the day off to rest, but Senators coach Paul MacLean didn’t rule out giving Ben Bishop the start Saturday afternoon against the visiting Winnipeg Jets. … Anderson has played the past seven straight, while Bishop has made just one start this season, a 6-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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Howard was scratched from Friday night’s game at Minnesota with a sore right shoulder and returned to Los Angeles to receive platelet-rich plasma treatments.

“It’s extremely sore all over,” Howard told reporters before the game. “[Saturday] after the procedure it was real stiff, but there’s nothing I can do about it right now.”

The All-Star center flew from L.A. to Detroit to rejoin the team Saturday evening but informed the Lakers he would not be able to play as the team boarded the bus Sunday morning on their way to the arena.

“As soon as the pain goes away he’ll play,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Hopefully that’s the next game, but there are no guarantees. It’s just day to day. They’ll check it every day and see when he can go.”

The Lakers play the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday — the team that Howard ranked as his preferred destination when the Orlando Magic were entertaining trade offers in the offseason — but Howard hinted that he could miss that game as well.

“We’ll see how it feels, but right now I’m just going to take it day by day,” Howard said. “We have a couple of days in New York to get some good rest and try to get it strong as possible. But the main thing is for the rest of the season. I don’t want to have this happen every week or two to where I’m fine and then I take a hard hit and I reaggravate it.”

Just as he did following the Lakers’ 92-86 loss to the Suns on Wednesday, Howard would not entertain any questions about surgery possibly being required on his shoulder.

“I don’t even want to think about surgery,” Howard said.

“He’s going to always have to deal with it because it’s not going to go away,” said D’Antoni. “It’s a little bit of a tear that won’t go away. If it gets totally bad then you have to do something [like surgery], but the way it is right now, you just have to deal with it.”

Howard said he hoped the PRP treatments would start to kick in within the next week, and he will rely on prayer in the meantime.

It’s the same injury that kept him out of three games in January; the Lakers went 0-3 in his absence.

Howard aggravated it against Phoenix, when Suns guard Shannon Brown swiped down on Howard’s arms as the big man attempted to bring the ball up from his waist to the basket, in similar fashion to how he originally hurt his shoulder on a hit on his arms from Los Angeles Clippers forward Caron Butler.

“He has to learn to get the ball under his chin and not take it down,” D’Antoni said. “He has a habit of taking it down [by his waist]. That’s when they’re loading up on him and they don’t care about him shooting foul shots, so they just unload on him. That’s a problem, but hopefully he can get that out of his game and not bring it down as much.”

Following the Phoenix game, Kobe Bryant said he suffered a similar shoulder injury in the past and that Howard would have to learn how to play through it. Howard took exception to the comparison.

“Me and Kobe play two different positions,” Howard said. “The position I play, I use a lot of force coming up — whether that’s going up for a dunk or a shot, hook shots … all that stuff you have to make sure your shoulder is stable for it, so it’s a little bit different than, I would say, a guard position. You got guys who are 260-270 [pounds] that you are holding off and you got to really be strong in your shoulder and all that stuff.”

Howard said he will continue to work on his conditioning while he rehabs the shoulder injury and joked that it will give him an opportunity to work on his left hand.

“There are certain treatments that I can do, certain things that I’ll try to work on to get it stronger,” Howard said. “We have the best training staff here in the NBA, so I’m going to continue to work with them on a daily basis to get stronger.”

Pau Gasol started his second consecutive game in Howard’s place as Howard watched the game from the bench in his warm-ups.

The Pistons, meanwhile, are still without guard Jose Calderon, whom they acquired from Toronto in a trade Wednesday. Calderon, from Spain, has been unavailable to play because of unresolved visa issues.

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An MRI on Wednesday revealed that Callahan has a partially dislocated left shoulder.

“Definitely could have been a lot worse than it was,” Callahan said Thursday in a video posted on the Rangers’ website. “After the MRI, we got news there was no structural damage, so it’s just a matter of a little bit of rehab, get some treatment and get back at it.”

Callahan suffered the injury during a fight with Maxime Talbot in the third period of Tuesday’s 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Callahan said he doesn’t know how the injury happened as he got caught in a wrong position while the two were pushing and pulling.

Callahan knew immediately that something was wrong and quickly left the ice, favoring that shoulder as he skated off. He applauded Talbot for recognizing he was injured and letting up during their tussle, and doesn’t believe that the surprise nature of the fight contributed to the dislocated shoulder.

“Any time you miss time, especially in a shortened season like this, it’s hard,” Callahan said. “I wish I was out there, but at the same time, injuries happen during the year and these things are going to happen and it’s just a matter of trying to get back as quick as I can.”

While he injured the shoulder fighting, Callahan has no hesitation about dropping the gloves again.

“It happens. It’s a freak thing,” Callahan said. “I got caught in exactly the right spot to have this happen, and fighting, or whatever it may be, is part of the game and if it presents itself again, you have to do it.”

After Callahan pulled Talbot out of a pile in front of the net, the Flyers forward dropped his gloves and went right at Callahan.

“Just unlucky, I guess,” Callahan said Thursday.

Callahan, 27, said the next few days will focus on allowing the inflammation to settle down, and then he and the Rangers’ training staff will focus on getting his shoulder stronger through treatment.

Callahan said he currently isn’t in too much pain, although the shoulder flares up if he moves it too much.

The recovery timetable means he could miss between four to seven games. If he only needs 10 days, he could return against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 10. If he misses the full two weeks, that could mean a return in a home game against the New York Islanders on Feb. 14.

Callahan last missed an extended amount of games in 2010-11, when he played just 60 after breaking his hand and fracturing his ankle right before the end of the season.

He has two goals this season, both on the power play, and will be sorely missed over the next two weeks. He’s on the Rangers’ second line, is great on the penalty kill and has proved to be the team’s top scorer this season on the power play.

“He’s a huge part of our team,” Rangers forward Derek Stepan said. “But everyone is going to have to step up, take a little bit of his pie and try to do some of the things he does. It’s going to take six, seven, eight guys to fill the role that Cally does.”

Added center Brad Richards: “Hopefully it’s short and he gets back quick. Obviously the mood around here is we want him back as soon as possible. Big part of every part of the game. Power play, penalty kill, 5-on-5s. That being said, we’ve got to push on. It’s part of the game we play.”

One player the Rangers hope will step up in Callahan’s absence will be Stepan. While he’s fifth on the team with four points, he has yet to score a goal. One of the Rangers’ problems this year has been a lack of production outside their top line of Richards, Rick Nash and Marian Gaborik.

“You lose a top guy like that, it shuffles the lineup. Gives other guys chances they probably wouldn’t get if he was playing,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said Wednesday. “I feel comfortable in us joining together as a team and trying to get it solved until we get him back.”

“Individually I’m still working on my game; I still got a lot to sharpen up,” Stepan said. “I think now with Cally out it’s going to be most important to really get it straightened out now.”

The Rangers also will be without forward Chris Kreider for Thursday’s game against the Penguins as he recovers from a bone chip in his ankle. He had a light skate Wednesday and also skated Thursday morning, according to reports.

The post Ryan Callahan discusses injury appeared first on IdealCapper.

Cole’s previous deal was set to expire at the end of the season and at one stage he was expected to leave the Champions League holders.

However the 32-year-old, who had been linked with Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, has agreed fresh terms at the club he joined from Arsenal in 2006.

Cole said on the club’s official website: “I am pleased I will be starting my eighth season at Chelsea.

“I wanted to stay at Chelsea because we are always fighting and challenging for trophies. That desire and the will to want to win things have not gone.”

Cole, who has played 293 games for Chelsea, added: “I have great memories here and I enjoy coming to training every day. The staff are amazing and I enjoy training with the lads.

“I have been able to fulfil nearly all my ambitions at Chelsea. I have won the Champions League, the League, I have won FA Cups here but of course you don’t want to stop winning trophies and being at a big club, you are always fighting to win a trophy.

“Being here for seven years and being at Arsenal before that playing for trophies, you never lose that hunger. I wanted to stay at Chelsea because we are always fighting and challenging for trophies. That desire and the will to want To win things have not gone.”

With Chelsea, Cole has won one Premier League title, four FA Cups, one League Cup and was also part of the team that defeated Bayern Munich in last year’s Champions League final.

Cole said there was a slight sense of trepidation at what might have occurred had he left Chelsea.

Discussing his stay at the club, he said on Chelsea TV: “It’s gone quick. After six or seven years and the trophies I’ve won here and the great memories I’ve got here it was a little bit scary and sad thinking I could have left. But I’m glad to have signed and stay here for another year.”

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