08/12/2008 - Colorado Springs, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Catherine "Cammi" Granato will become the first woman inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame when she and a triumvirate of NHL stars will join the vast list of American greats in a ceremony in Denver, Colorado on October 10.
Brett Hull, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter will join the most recognizable face in women's hockey in the prestigious Class of 2008, as announced by USA Hockey Tuesday.
Granato, an Illinois native, was a 15-year member of the U.S. Women's National Team, pioneering the Americans to a gold medal in the 1998 Olympics -- the first year women's ice hockey was included in the Games. She is the all-time leading scorer for the national team with 343 points (186 goals, 157 assists) in just 205 games.
In 2007, Granato was the first woman given the NHL's Lester Patrick Award in recognition of outstanding service to hockey in the United States, and earlier this year was enshrined into the IIHF Hall of Fame.
Hull, who ranks third on the all-time NHL goal scoring list with 741, won two Stanley Cups throughout his 20-year career. He was a sixth-round pick of the Calgary Flames in the 1984 draft and was traded to the St. Louis Blues four years later, where he spent 11 seasons, including a Hart Trophy-winning, 86- goal campaign in 1990-91.
Hull went on to play for the Phoenix Coyotes, Dallas Stars and Detroit Red Wings, winning championships with the latter two in 1999 and 2002, respectively.
Though he was born in Canada, Hull played for Team USA in national competitions, helping the Americans win the silver medal at the 2002 Olympics, as well as winning the World Cup of Hockey in 1996.
Leetch, born in Corpus Christi, Texas, was an 11-time All-Star that spent the majority of his 18-year career with the New York Rangers before short stints with Toronto and Boston. The ninth-overall pick in the 1986 draft is just one of five defensemen to record more than 100 points in a season (102 in 1991-92) and one of seven to log more than 1,000 points in a career (1,028).
The two-time Norris Trophy winner as the league's best defenseman was the first American-born player to capture the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs in 1993-94, leading the Rangers to their first Staley Cup since 1940.
Richter was the netminder for that curse-breaking squad, was the MVP of the World Cup of Hockey in 1996 and played his entire 14-year career in New York. He ranks first in club history with 301 wins in 666 games. The three-time All- Star is one of just 10 Americans ever to compete in at least three Olympic Games, including the silver-medal winning 2002 squad.
The U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1973. To date, there are 134 enshrined members in the Hall.
<< Petrova wins Cincy opener
Mason, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova was an easy
first-round winner Tuesday at the $175,000 Western & Southern Financial
Group Women's Open, a hardcourt U.S. Open tune-up.
The former Top-10 star Petrova p
<< Georgia loses OT Sturdivant for season
Athens, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - University of Georgia sophomore offensive tackle
Trinton Sturdivant suffered a season ending knee injury on Monday and will
miss the entire season, according to head coach Mark Richt.
Sturdivant started all
<< Donald to miss rest of 2008 golf season
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Luke Donald will miss the remainder of the 2008 golf season
after undergoing surgery on his left wrist Monday.
Donald was hurt during the final round of the U.S. Open in June. He hit a
drive on the 15th tee at Torrey
<< Report: Vikings S Williams to miss opening of season
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Vikings safety Madieu Williams
could miss the first three weeks of the regular season due to a neck injury.
Williams, who signed as a free agent in the offseason, missed Friday's
presea
The future is now for Safina and del Potro >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Perhaps we can stop using words like
"promising" when it comes to players like Dinara Safina and Juan Martin del
Potro, or in this case, specifically Dinara Safina and Juan Martin del Potro.
Both players a
NCAA Football Preview - Wisconsin Badgers >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) -
2007 SEASON IN REVIEW: The Wisconsin Badgers put together a 9-4 campaign in
2007, marking the fourth straight season they've won at least nine games.
However, it was a step back from their 12 wins in 2006. Th
Indians deal Byrd to BoSox >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians traded pitcher Paul
Byrd to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for a player to be named later or cash
considerations Tuesday.
Byrd, 37, was 7-10 with a 4.53 earned run average in 22 sta
NCAA Football Preview - Cincinnati Bearcats >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) -
2007 SEASON IN REVIEW: Not much was expected of Cincinnati before the season,
so the fact that the Bearcats won their first six games in 2007 served as a
surprise to most fans and analysts.
Included in th
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their “supplements” to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this won’t be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a “truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit.” And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. “The plug-necked yahoos on your team,” you can say, “will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.”
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesn’t focus only on your opponent’s team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Where’s your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, “I’ll try to type slower for you next time.” Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, don’t just conclude by saying your opponent is a “twerp who drafts like my grandmother.” Say that your opponent is a “sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars.” By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You won’t be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, I’m sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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