BY: ALEX BOGACH

At this point, considering the fact that the NBA’s most hated team and God’s favorite quarterback are the most polarizing topics in sports, this is a column made in page view heaven. It’s probably good for site traffic when your column format is: What does Extremely Polarizing Quarterback have to do with Extremely Polarizing Basketball Team.

But I’ve actually found an interesting parallel between these two never-ending, heated and Skip Bayless sized argumentative topics. There are major differences. First and foremost being that some believe Tebow (facetiously, for the most part) is the son of Christ while a certain NBA owner may associate LeBron and the Heat with the word anti-Christ, of course, written in Comic Sans type.

However, the main connection between the Heat and Tebow is simply inexplicability. Both Miami and Tebow share between them a complete mysteriousness. Both defy explanation. Both cannot be predicted.

The Broncos’ mysteriousness is self-explanatory. Tim Tebow seems to lack everything that a quarterback should have but seems to make it up with unexplainable intangibles.

OK, give the Denver defense, Willis McGahee and Matt Prater some credit but Tebow has made plays for the Broncos. And you have to remember that when their defense, McGahee and Prater played with Kyle Orton leading the way they went 1-4.

Tebow threw for 316 yards and two touchdowns last weekend against Pittsburgh.

And when it seemed like Tebow magic had run out, he put his best performance together this Sunday against the vaunted Pittsburgh passing defense. It’s this sports movie plotline that’s making Tebow so unpredictable. But what’s more irrational is that it seems like “because it looks like a sports movie” is now becoming an explanation for Tebow’s successes.

And then there’s the Heat. While the Heat are far more predictable now an element of uncertainty rests hauntingly on the horizon. The Golden State Warriors beat the Heat on Wednesday as proof of that.

Every single statistic, metric and basketball fan with two working eyes will tell you the Heat will win the championship this year. The Heat are running away with the season. LeBron looks better (if that is even possible), they added some nice low-key players in the off-season and have had the amount of attention surrounding their play shrink.

The Heat, for whatever reason, are relatively under the radar. With Chris Paul and the lockout hiding the Heat from intense media scrutiny, the Heat don’t have that night in and night out target on their backs.

But remember last year? Remember when the Heat dismantled the Bulls and Celtics? Remember when LeBron looked unstoppable? Remember when it was a foregone conclusion that the Heat were going to trample the Mavericks?

Lebron fell apart in the Finals last year averaging just 17.8 in the six game series.

Well, just like Tebow’s pass to Demaryius Thomas in overtime on Sunday, something completely unexpected happened to Miami in the Finals. LeBron looked more like Rasual Butler, Wade’s attitude and demeanor had shifted and the Heat looked like they wanted no part in raising a championship banner.

On Sunday, something unknown clicked for Tim Tebow and last June it cracked for Miami.

And while everything is pointing to a Heat championship and a biblical meltdown from Tebow this Sunday, there is an element of inexplicableness. There is this mystery surrounding both Tebow and the Heat that despite everything pointing in one direction you just have no idea what the actual outcome will be.

Everything rational I can say about football says that the Patriots will easily take down the Broncos. But if they don’t? Would I even be shocked? I don’t know if I would. At this point, NFL fans are expecting the unexpected.

Same goes for the Heat who seem hell bent on revenge from last June. But can I say it confidently after what I saw from them last June against the Mavericks. What if LeBron goes into invisible mode again? What if the Heat crack under the pressure again? After watching last year’s playoffs, isn’t it a possibility the same way a Tebow victory is this weekend?

I think the Heat will win. I think the Broncos will lose. But this is the ultimate pinnacle of sports viewing. This is why Tebow and the Heat have such appeal. They operate with such mystery and unknowingness that it’s gotten to the point where predictions are less valuable than Hedo Turkoglu’s contract and sports fans need to just simply watch and enjoy.

Because numbers, projections and analysis are useless at a time like this and we need to return to the source—the game—and take it all in. The Heat and Tebow storylines are reminders that while so many great things happen after the game, the truly remarkable moments occur within the lines.

LeBron won’t implode again and maybe Tim Tebow won’t be going to Disneyworld this February. But maybe they will. I don’t know how, but maybe they will.

For more news and analysis from Beating the Buzzer check out @Dustin_Pollack and @the_REAL_alexb on Twitter. You can also Like our Facebook fan page here.

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BY: DUSTIN POLLACK

It was a nice idea. The thought that three rising stars under the age of 22 would lead the Edmonton Oilers to the franchises first playoff birth since their Cinderella-like run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2006.

But just over three months after Edmonton collected its seventh win at the end of October and sat at an impressive 7-2-2 as one of the top teams in the Western Conference, the Oilers season has taken a harsh yet perhaps reasonable turn.

Just nine days into 2012 the Oilers are coming off back-to-back losses over the weekend and they’ve now fallen in 12 of their last 14 games.

But the Oilers current standing in the Western Conference – 13^th place and 12 points out of a playoff spot – should come as no surprise. This is the reality of rebuilding a franchise. Young pieces are slowly brought in and hopefully molded into the players that will eventually lead the team to a Stanley Cup or at least a few deep-playoff runs. And Oilers management has done a great job in drafting young talent, specifically of course, Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and most recently Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

But the harsh reality of a rebuild is that its long process, with no guarantees, and no timetable for success. It’s a process that isn’t easy for fans of the team and one that can’t be easy for the players who are apart of it. Losing, for that matter is never easy.

But the hardest part of all comes for Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini who has to be tempted, at some point or another to stray for the long-term goal of building a winner, by buying a piece that may benefit his team in the short term but hurt them in the long term.

A move like some feel Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke made prior to the 2009-2010 season to acquire Phil Kessel – a move that cost him two first round picks and a second round pick in the entry drafts that followed.

Many Leaf fans believed the move Burke made strayed from the Leafs “rebuilding plan” at the time and it’s a trade that fans will debate for as long as it’s relevant.

For Tambellini that type of opportunity is available to him. Should he want to acquire a top-caliber forward or defenseman, he has the assets in draft picks and available funds to make a move.

Should he walk that road? I’d say absolutely not, but there are others who disagree. Mike Soria, Oilers correspondant for OurHometown.ca wrote a column a few weeks back that headlined Why won’t Tambellini make a move.

In the piece Soria, argued that a 7-14-1 record between November 1^st and December 21^st should have set off sirens in Tambellini’s mind, that a move was necessary citing secondary scoring and defense as two of the teams glaring weaknesses.

Should Oilers GM Steve Tambellini make a move to acquire a big-name talent or stick with his current roster?

Soria’s points are valid, the team’s defense is weak and beyond the strong play of Ryan Smyth, the Oilers have little to no secondary scoring. But a trade isn’t going to solve those problems. Acquiring a top-six forward or highly offensive defenseman would likely cost Tambellini his 2012 first round pick that could turn out to be a highly touted prospect like Nail Yakupov, Ryan Murphy or Matthew Dumba. Both Murray and Dumba are defensemen and could turn out to be large parts of Edmonton’s future on the back end – a defensive nucleus that right now is sub par at best.

And beyond his draft picks what other assets does Tambellini have to move? Nugent-Hopkins, Eberle and Hall are obviously out of the question, both Shawn Horcoff and Ryan Smyth have no-movement clauses and Ales Hemsky and Sam Gagner don’t carry much value at this point considering they’re both underperforming and have underperformed beyond just this season.

So how exactly is Tambellini acquiring something that would immediately turn this Oilers team around?

Odds are he’s not.

Nikolai Khabibulin may become a hot commodity around the trade deadline.

Perhaps one of the only logical moves for Tambellini to make would be to trade resurging netminder Nikolai Khabibulin. The 38-year-old Russian might make for the perfect “rental” come the end of February should a team vying for a playoff spot feel the need to fill a void between the pipes. However, while Khabibulin has put up some of the best numbers of his career this year, currently there are few teams in playoff positions – or in the hunt – who appear to be weak in goal. Tampa Bay, should they turn it on in the second half of the season could make a push for the top eight in the East, but perhaps Steve Yzerman is looking for a more long-term solution after a bittersweet run by 42-year-old Dwayne Roloson in the last calendar year.

Ottawa, at the moment at least, seems like the most realistic option should the Senators continue to play well through the New Year. Craig Anderson has struggled this season and currently the goaltending position seems to be the Sens weakest link.

But even if Tambellini manages to trade “The Bulin Wall” what’s he worth? A second round pick and a bottom-six roster player?

The solution that seems would be most helpful to the Oilers struggles is also conceivably the solution that would be hardest for fans in Edmonton to swallow. Patience. This team was supposed to be exactly where they currently are in the standings – near the bottom of the Western Conference and ways away from a playoff spot. A strong October may have had fans excited, but should Steve Tambellini continue down the path of a rebuild the long-term success in Edmonton will be far greater than any 7-2-2 October record.

And that’s what Oilers fans should be hoping for.

For more sports analysis and news from Beating the Buzzer check out @Dustin_Pollack on Twitter and check out our Facebook fan page here.

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BY: ALEX BOGACH

I’ve always opposed people who believe strongly in the NBA and its sinister conspiracy plots. One of the most famous theories is that the NBA Draft Lottery is rigged. The theory’s momentum is based around the 1985 lottery when the Knicks won the first pick to get Patrick Ewing. Back then, when all non-playoff teams had equal chance at the top pick, David Stern would play BINGO by selecting envelopes out of a round rolling bin, calling out the teams one at the time. People believe that to ensure the Knicks got Ewing, Stern froze the Knicks envelope and just had to pick the cold envelope last. An even more convincing theory is that the Knicks’ envelope had a bend on one of its corners—which if you watch the YouTube video is pretty eye-opening.

But I’ve been against these movements. Does the league want big market teams to be successful? Of course. Some believe the NBA compensates teams with high lottery selections—like Cleveland who landed with the 1st and 4th overall picks in the lottery this year after losing LeBron James. Some believe that the NBA will do anything to see the Lakers and Celtics win with evidence like the foul discrepancy in the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Kings, the Celtics forming around Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce or the Kwame Brown-Pau Gasol trade.

The problem with this logic is that you can form history to say almost whatever you want. How come Minnesota, who has never won the 1st overall pick, never got ‘compensated’ for trading Kevin Garnett, ditto for the Grizzlies giving up Gasol, what about Detroit and San Antonio winning championships? If they love big markets so much—why the hell are were the Clippers the worst managed team…ever.

But even that does not convince the conspiracy theorists. And I understand that. Stern wouldn’t want the Celtics and Lakers to win every title (just 33 of them). The Tim Donaghy scandal appears to be only a “rogue” example and not a league-wide trend—but how do we know for sure? There’s reason to be skeptical.

But here’s what I’ve always said to people that believe in these theories. There is no way that the NBA takes such a large risk for such minimal gains. Yes, they make more money if the Lakers, Celtics and Bulls are successful, but if their so-called conspiracy becomes confirmed they lose everything! If the NBA is rigged, it’s over. The league is done. If ESPN starts getting confirmed reports that the entire playoffs are rigged then the league is done. If the lottery is rigged, there are serious ramifications. If that information exists somewhere and gets leaked, then that’s it. Game over, NBA. It didn’t make sense for the NBA to get involved with these things because the risk is too high.

The league already makes so much money—why do they want to risk it all? They have a successful business model. Why contaminate it with rigging the league? Good basketball brings money to the league. That’s the truth. It’s the reason why last season was such a success. We had good teams battling hard, playing competitively and passionately on TV every night. No need for the league to mess with the product they have.

Vetoing Paul to the Lakers raised suspiction throughout the NBA world.

But amidst all of this finger pointing, conspiracy theorizing and dot connecting, there has been nothing as damning as the Chris Paul fiasco. The league stepped in and ran negotiations for the Hornets and created a clear conflict of interest. We can argue whether they got a better deal than what Dell Demps was hauling in from the Lakers and Houston, but the truth of the matter is that they had no business doing what they did. Maybe they got a better deal, maybe not. The point is that now the NBA has raised suspicion.

The NBA has turned from the guy looking a little suspicious at the airport to the guy fumbling through mysterious wires, cables and unidentifiably metal objects in his carry on baggage. The first guy draws suspicion and an extra look; the second guy will get questioned at every corner he turns.

And that’s where the NBA is now. Every turn it makes, it’s going to get questioned. That argument that the NBA would never be dumb enough to rig the league just lost a lot of weight in the debate. It’s not to say that all conspiracy theories are now true, but rather that if you never thought Stern had the balls to get seriously involved in this league’s basketball operations—we have hard evidence now he’s not afraid to get involved.

I still don’t think the lottery is rigged. I think getting involved with the Paul stuff (despite it being so flat-out dumb) is not as ridiculous as the NBA rigging the draft lottery. At least with Paul, they felt they needed to protect the re-sale value of the team.

But now the NBA is facing a new type of scrutiny. As the Clippers began to pull back from Paul discussions early last week when Eric Gordon, Eric Bledsoe and the Minnesota 1st round pick were required by the league, many people wondered how the Hornets were going to function this year. They had 6 guys signed to contracts in training camp, their team was completely depleted and Chris Paul was still on the roster with pre-season games beginning this week! The NBA needed to find a home for Paul fast while still not taking a sufficiently inferior deal with the Clippers.

[Note: Not getting Eric Gordon from the Clippers would have probably lost Stern forever for me. That would be undeniably saying: “The league just decided where its best point guard should be playing”]

In New York, the signing of Tyson Chandler forced the Knicks to amnesty Chauncey Billups to free up the needed cap room. Billups became subject to a secret auction. All teams under the salary cap could place bids on Billups and the highest bid is where Billups would have to play. He wouldn’t have a choice.

[Note: This was largely to prevent amnestied players, like Billups, from ignoring other teams and simply forcing his way to the Heat/Lakers etc. The NBA restored some degree of competitive balance with this rule because it allows teams to keep good players away from the Heat/Lakers and other over the cap teams. More on this later]

Billups is now in L.A with the Clippers and a backup to Chris Paul.

So, with numerous bids on the table for Billups’ services, it turned out that the Clippers had placed the highest bid ($2,000,032—2 million plus Blake Griffin’s number for good luck) and got Billups! What a coincidence.

Now, what if the league told the Clippers how much to bid. What if they told Clipper executives what to bid, under the condition that they make the deal for Paul and give up Gordon. Or maybe the Clippers were afraid of losing Eric Bledsoe and wanted another guard and the league said “Fine, keep Bledsoe, you can get Billups. You should bid anything over $2 million and you’ll get him”.

Pretty scary, right? The league is not only screwing over the Hornets now, but every other team that made an honest bid on Billups. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports! brought up this scenario as a hypothetical in one of his columns. And what if it did? That would be something that could certainly seriously threaten the league’s credibility and public image. Stern would be done. The league would be facing intense legal action. And oh, remember those fans that were pissed off about the lockout—yeah, I’m sure they’d be forgiving.

Not only that but that competitive balance you’ve been harping all summer becomes a blatant lie. You just took a starting point guard (Billups) and put him on the Clippers so you can trade the best point guard in the league (Paul) to them. Yep, balance.

But I never liked conspiracy theories. I don’t believe in them for the NBA. It just doesn’t make business sense. It’s too big of risk! But after what it’s done with the Chris Paul negotiations, who the hell says the NBA wouldn’t tell the Clippers what to bid on Billups? Isn’t that a totally possible scenario? Isn’t that something we could see the league doing after it seized basketball operations from a team they said they were giving full autonomy!

David Stern never addressed the fact that he told the Hornets just don’t pay luxury tax and you can do whatever you want. He put Jac Sperling in charge of the franchise to avoid a situation exactly like we’re seeing right now!

Devious, deceitful and manipulative behavior from the commissioner’s office has always been a trademark accusation from the conspiracy theorists. Now, with the way the NBA has handled this situation, they’ve opened everyone’s eyes.

Earlier this year during the season, when both the NBA and the players’ association began their PR campaigns while anticipating a lockout, David Stern tried to intimidate players’ union officials by famously declaring that he knew “where the bodies were buried”.

Now in the post-Paul trade era, NBA fans may not know where the bodies are buried they but there’s a dreadful smell coming from the commissioner’s office.

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If it’s at all possible, Sidney Crosby looked better in his return to the NHL after a 10-month layoff than he did when he left (He was on pace for 64 goals and 132 points.) Crosby’s return on November 21st was emphatic; the 24-year-old scored two goals and added two assists, leading the Penguins to a 5-0 victory over the New York Islanders.

But now, less than a month after his triumphant return, Crosby is back on the shelf, for an indefinite amount of time. Once again every hockey fan crosses their fingers and holds their breath hoping he returns sooner than later, better than ever, perhaps even concussion proof although we all know that’s not possible. And the odds of him experiencing another setback at some point are all the more likely.

For a generation of fans, Sidney Crosby is more than just the best in the game right now, he’s the best they’ve ever seen and maybe the best they’ll ever see.

The generation whose parents were merely teens when Paul Henderson scored in 1972; the generation that was far too young to appreciate Wayne Gretzky; the generation that probably remembers Mr. Dressup more than Mario Lemieux hoisting back-to-back Stanley Cups in the early 90’s. We weren’t ready to care about the players who are now legends and now can we can only tune into YouTube or the TSN Top 10 for some of the best moments, the greatest to ever play offered the game and its fans.

Besides the clips I’ve seen on TV and online years after the fact, I admit my memories of Gretzky are few. I vaguely remember him waving to the crowd at Madison Square Garden after he played the final game of his career, and other than that my next biggest memory of Gretzky might be those hideous white and black Nike skates he wore late in his career.

But, I can say that I remember just about all the big moments of Crosby’s career thus far – or at least most of them. The hype that surrounded him during his draft year, the slimy first goal, the first trip to the Stanley Cup, the first Stanley Cup, the Golden Goal, the great battle between him and Ovechkin during the 2009 playoffs, the shootout winner at the Winter Classic in 2008. Crosby – prior to another head injury – was well on his way to hockey supremacy. In fact in many ways, he’s already there.

Prior to his injury (pick between the Steckel hit, the Hedman hit or the Krejci accidental elbow), it seemed as though there was no limit to the accolades Crosby could achieve in his career. In five and a half seasons (if you count the 41 games in 2010-2011) Crosby has done what most never get to do as an NHLer, even if they play in the NHL from 18 years old until 40. A Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold, a Hart trophy, an Art Ross trophy and a Maurice Richard trophy as the leagues leading goal scorer in 2010.

And as we saw in the last month, he’s still got a whole lot in him. Twelve points in eight games, and it only took him one night – his return on November 21st when he had four points – for fans to begin wondering when he was going to take over the NHL scoring lead. But now we’re left wondering the same thing we were after Sid got hit by Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman last January. When’s he coming back?

And when he does will he be the same player? And if he isn’t, it’s fans from my generation (oh ya and Penguins fans) that would lose out the most.

The Toronto Star’s Cathal Kelly wrote a piece just over a week ago on Tiger Woods after his victory at the Chevron World Challenge – Woods’ first victory in two years.

Kelly explained how Tiger, to Kelly’s generation was more than an athlete.

“At some point in early adulthood, you will choose an athlete or two whom you will view as contemporaries,” Kelly wrote. “He or she is about the same age as you are, coming into the wider world at about the same time you are. While you won’t really have anything in common, you will gauge their progress in life along parallel lines with your own.”

Crosby for my generation is that athlete. And it’s possible that, unlike Woods, he may never live up to his potential and unfortunately there may not be another player with his type of potential for a very long time. Compare him to whatever other NHLer who left the game too early because of injury. Eric Lindros, Pat LaFontaine, Bobby Orr, whoever.

The fact remains that concussions could be something that plague Crosby for the rest of his career. They could, for that matter, cut his career short.

I didn’t see them in their primes, but I at least got to watch a little bit of Gretzky, Lemiuex, Messier and other greats.

Concussions could prevent the next generation from even catching a glimpse of Crosby.
And for my generation of hockey fans concussions could prevent us from crowing our “Great One”, the one we watched in awe for more than a decade. And that’s sad.

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BY: ALEX BOGACH

I’m going to write this very slowly to make sure that by the time this gets posted it will still be relevant. With the way things are going so far, I wouldn’t be stunned to see Chris Paul in New York, Tyson Chandler back with the Mavericks and LeBron taking his talents to Beskitas.

I expected this week was going to be wild. I expected it to be jam packed with player movement—and not just any player movement—but perhaps star-studded player movement, including Chris Paul and Dwight Howard.

Here’s the briefing:

After Tyson Chandler committed to the Knicks, Chauncey Billups was getting amnestied, Caron Butler committed to the Clippers and Tayshaun Prince re-signed with the Pistons, I thought today was pretty damn exciting. And with tomorrow being the first day that NBA teams can officially hold training camp and begin trading and signing players, I thought this was going to be a great preview for the week ahead.

As it turns out, we didn’t even scratch the surface of how crazy this week is about to get.

In the late afternoon, a Chris Paul to LA rumor began to gain some steam. And then within a flash, it was a reality. This wasn’t a rumor anymore. It was being reported by ESPN on their front page, ESPNLA had Albert Pujols and Paul on their frontpage in disbelief, NBATV’s David Aldridge was discussing its implication while Facebook updates were screaming at the NBA to stop becoming a top heavy, superstar driven league.

And guess what? The NBA answered your calls.

Because the Hornets are owned by the NBA, once news started to trickle out, the owners immediately stepped in and blocked the trade to the Lakers. The owners told David Stern that Dell Demps (the Hornets’ GM) had no right to trade Paul—the team’s greatest asset.

Stern had insisted over and over again that the Hornets’ basketball decision-making was autonomous. That Demps could make any basketball decision he wanted with full support from the league.

Well, because every NBA owner owns 1/29th of the Hornets, they put enough pressure on Stern to block the trade. If it were MLSE blocking a move by Bryan Colangelo, it would make perfect sense, but because it’s the league (run by all the owners) it draws some suspicion.

Let me simplify it for you. Every NBA owner said: “We don’t want Paul on the Lakers”. And just like that—it happened.

In case you were wondering, this is unprecedented. Completely and utterly unprecedented. Can Paul sue the league? Can the league do this? Will the owners veto every single Chris Paul trade? How does Paul show up to training camp tomorrow and run sets with the team? Is this a joke?

[Note: I’m seeing a lot of bashing on David Stern and he should take the blame for not planning for a situation like this properly, but this is entirely the work of the rest of the owners who saw the Lakers get Paul and made a knee jerk, emotional decision to not allow it to happen. So yes, Stern’s fault, owners’ veto]

Weirdest part of it all is that the trade was pretty fair. According to recent reports, other GMs are applauding Demps for the deal. The Lakers would have ended up with an empty front-court (post trade frontcourt: Andrew Bynum and……..Derrick Caracter) and a long shot to get Dwight Howard.

I don’t even know what to say at this point. As time goes on we’ll learn more about what this means for the teams going forward, but one thing for certain is that the free agency bonanza we all predicted this week just got turned upside down.

You can complain all you want about the league not fixing overpaid players, not caring about competitive balance, not answering to calls for parity or being too greedy in the lockout—but one thing that should have been figured out is a situation like this. For the league, it’s an embarrassment on a year overflowing with blemishes.

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There’s something special about the Boston Bruins. Something unique about how they didn’t have any one player tally more than 70 points or score more than 30 goals last year. Something bizarre in that their three best players combined for nearly 300 penalty minutes  in 2011 — the season they won the Stanley Cup. No forward on their team makes more than $5 million a season and only one player one their roster makes more than $6 million. They aren’t built around a pure sniper or superstar power forward, rather they’re built around three lines that can score, a defensive unit that brings a halt to any sort of oppositional speed and a goaltender who in just five years as a starter is working towards his third Vezina Trophy and second Stanley Cup.

Granted they arguably have the 2012 Norris and Vezina Trophy winners on their roster in Zdeno Chara and Tim Thomas, but the Bruins weren’t always around pieces like Chara and Thomas.

The Stanley Cup that the Bruins paraded around their city last summer is something former general manager Mike O’Connell deserves a lot of credit for. It was under his regime, that the Bruins traded away captain Joe Thornton and drafted key pieces to the current Bruins roster in Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. Trading Thornton to San Jose was perhaps O’Connell’s demise in Boston — Peter Chiarelli took over as general manager at the end of that season — but it was also the first step in building a Stanley Cup winner and perrenial Cup contender.

In seven seasons with the Bruins Jumbo Joe put up 617 points in 532 games.

Sure Thornton went on to win the Art Ross Trophy as the player who tallied the most points in the 2006 season — the same year Boston decided to move him for Brad Stuart, Wayne Primeau and Marco Sturm — but it was the money it would of cost to re-sign Thornton later on that the franchise used to take the Bruins in another direction. They signed unrestricted free agent Zdeno Chara in the summer 2006 to a long-term deal and five years later the 6’9 defenseman and captain of the Bruins was emphaticly hoisting the Stanley Cup over his head. Something Thornton never could accomplish as the captain of the Bruins and something he’s still trying to do with the Sharks.

It would be all but accurate or fair to even consider the current Bruins a dynasty. They’ve only won once. But in a league with a hard salary cap, and one where championships in back-to-back years seems lofty nevermind the at least three championships with the same core of players it would take to call a team a dynasty, Boston seems to have the type of team  — if any — that could get it done.

Because they don’t have a Sidney Crosby that could go down, and take realistic Cup hopes down with him. Remember they’ve been without arguably there best player in Marc Savard, who’s been out for almost a year with post-concussion syndrome.

The Bruins have the chance to become the first team in the post-lockout era to repeat as champions.

They also don’t have a backup goaltender who if Tim Thomas went down wouldn’t be able to carry the load. Tuukka Rask has already proven he can steal Thomas’s job if he given the chance.

And when it comes down to playoff hockey there might not be a more reliable player in the league than Zdeno Chara. A plus 16 rating and near 28 minutes of ice he averaged in the playoffs last year give a glimpse of how important “Big Z” is to the Bruins defense core.

Thornton may have more individual hardware and may have all the statistics, but Chara has done what Thornton seems unable to do. So you tell me, would you still make that trade?

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How do the Raptors escape the bottomless pits of the NBA’s basement? Are we in the worst situation in the league? Is there any hope?

Fear not, young Raptor fans, I’m here to tell you the Raptors are in the perfect opportunity to become a championship contender. With Dwight Howard and Chris Paul teaming up with all the other good players in the NBA, I know what you’re feeling. You’re frustrated. I’m here to answer your questions.

Didn’t we just have a whole lockout to solve this problem? Aren’t we supposed to stop having superteams?

Chris Paul has expressed that he won't re-sign in New Orleans and would like to be moved to the Knicks.

Not really. As much as the owners claim to want more competitive balance, we’re not getting it. Paul and Howard are looking to team up to create superteams. And the NBA is loving it because it doesn’t hurt the league—it helps them! The Miami Heat drove ratings and attendance this year and no doubt the league would love Dwight and Kobe or Paul-Amare-Melo to battle it out with the Big 3 in Miami.

The league has always been run by dynasties. Boston and the Lakers have dominated winning 33 NBA championships combined. The next best is Chicago with 6, who had their own dynasty in the 90s with Jordan. Next on the list is San Antonio with 4 championships—which also have come in dynasty like fashion from 1999-2007. Conclusion: teams that win usually win in bunches.

You’re painting a pretty bleak future for Raptor fans. How do we become a championship contender?

Well, the way the NBA works, you need to have a superstar to win. Magic, Bird, Duncan, Jordan, LeBron, Durant, Rose, Kobe—all of those players have had successful careers because they are superstars. Not stars. Superstars. And no, DeMar DeRozan will not be a superstar.

So, how do we get a superstar?

It’s simple math. Drafting well gets a superstar. Drafting high allows you to draft well. In order to draft high, you simply need to be bad. Luckily, this will be no concern for this Raptors’ team. With no true centre, a point guard who can’t play defense, a star player that looks like he’d rather be eating pasta than rebounding and a general lack of overall talent, the Raptors will have no problem separating themselves from the pack and drafting high up. It seems the only question is how high?

Seems like that puts us in a good situation. How can we screw this up, then?

Trying to become a treadmill team. One of the best things that happened to the Raptors was Chris Bosh leaving. Sure, it wasn’t great losing our best player for virtually nothing—but losing Bosh was necessary. Building around him would have netted us consistent 2nd round exits every year.

Look at Portland’s situation now. They’re paying the luxury tax (which gets way tougher in two years from now) and have no realistic chance of breaking out in the Western Conference with their current roster. They also just traded for Gerald Wallace last February and gave up 2 first round picks sealing their fate to be trapped by the luxury tax to get better and not bad enough (or having any draft picks) to infuse new talent.

That’s the last place you want to be. The biggest mistakes we can make are thinking that what we have now is a legitimate core moving forward. Bargnani, DeRozan, Bayless, Calderon, Davis and Valanciunas are all nice pieces but we can’t commit to any of them long term yet. We need to continue to suck and not get caught up in becoming a treadmill team constantly picking between 8th-16th every year and never having a chance of making a realistic push for a championship.

What kind of moves should the Raptors make in free agency and trades now that the lockout has ended?

Dwight Howard is another superstar in the last year of his contract. He to doesn't seem like he'll re-sign with his current club.

We have the perfect roster for our needs. We need to lose and this roster is built for it. Other than filling in some small holes here and there and maybe making a low-risk high-reward move or two (ie. James Johnson or Bayless trades last year), there really isn’t a need to make a move if you’re the Raptors. Obviously assuming we’re out of the Chris Paul and Dwight Howard sweepstakes.

What about Tyson Chandler? Doesn’t he have a good relationship with new head coach Dwane Casey?

Chandler is 30. He has had an injury prone career. He had a massive impact on the Mavericks winning the NBA title and will be looking to get compensated. Why would we pay him big money to be counter-productive to the teams’ needs (ie. losing games) No sane person thinks Tyson Chandler is turning the Raptors around overnight.

Yes, he’s a good fit. We need a big, defensive-minded centre. But with Valanciunas coming over next year and Chandler likely making us at max a team just scrapping at the playoffs’ bottom rungs—why in the world do the Raptors do this?

We need to build our team from the top down.

What does that mean? How do you build a team ‘top down’?

We have to start with our superstar. If he’s a dominating centre, we find him a point guard to play pick and roll. If he’s a quick point guard, we find tough big men to defend inside. But the key is finding the strengths and weaknesses of our superstar—but we don’t have one yet. So the key is to leave the slate as clean as possible by not committing long term money to players who may or may not fit with our superstar. Until we find that superstar, we need to leave cap space as available as possible so that when the superstar comes over we have the ability to make moves to suit his personal needs.

Oklahoma City did this perfectly. They drafted Durant with boatloads of cap space and have added a second-tier scorer (Westbrook), inside presences (Perkins, Collison and Ibaka), perimeter defenders for the Kobes, Wades and LeBrons (Sefolosha) and bench scoring (Harden, Maynor). But it started first with Durant and then building around his skillset. If you’re an older NBA fan, the way San Antonio built around Duncan is also very similar.

Are you suggesting we start tanking?

Tanking isn’t the right word. No team starts the season actually tanking. Tanking implies that you’re attempting to lose games.

What the Raptors need to do is keep long-term interest in mind at all times. Giving Bayless, Alabi, Davis, Johnson and (eventually) Valanciunas playing time to prove themselves and work on their games? Of course. Playing Alabi forty minutes a night? That’s pathetic.

Players like Reggie Evans, Jose Calderon and Bargnani have value on this roster. They can provide veteran presence, shoulder the burden of an 82 (now 66) game season and ensure that team morale is still high. You don’t want to breed a negative culture of losing, but you also don’t want to build a mediocre team by going all out to try to win this year?

Are you cheering for the Raptors to lose?

No. As much as its beneficial, I don’t start cheering for loses until the standings start heating up towards the back end of the season. I’ll be hoping they win on opening night and probably until after the All-Star Break. I don’t know why, but it feels wrong to root for losses this early in the season. But if they do lose, I’m not nearly as upset. I think that’s the right approach to take.

What should a Raptor fan do now considering that the Raptors should lose and probably, given their talent, do exactly that all season making the entire season useless? I mean, won’t this just be a colossal waste of time? Shouldn’t I just set my Raptors fan clock to the NBA Draft Lottery? I find it so frustrating that I have to listen to Dwight Howard and Chris Paul pushing their way to creating superstar teams while I’m stuck watching the Raptors every night. Why did we even have this lockout in the first place? We’re back in the exact same situation we were before!

…

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BY: ADAM HALBERSTADT

Sitting amidst the top of the cluttered pack in the Eastern Conference, the Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves in a favourable position 24 games into the season.

Led by opportune scoring and a lineup filled with blistering speed, the Leafs have done exactly what many believed they needed to do in order to end seven years of playoff futility – get off to a hot start.

There have certainly been ups and downs throughout the initial stage of the 2011-2012 campaign, but perhaps the best sign of things to come is the fact that there have only been a few games in which the argument can be made that the Maple Leafs did not put forth a valiant effort.

And when you consider that these games came against the defending Stanley Cup champs, all is generally well in Leaf land.

Kessel leads the NHL in goals and points, but back-to-back games against the Bruins this week should prove to be a big test for the 24-year-old.

Riding an October that saw the Leafs vault to the top of the NHL standings with Phil Kessel exploding out of the gate, the Leafs have cooled off considerably in November, but have played well enough to remain competitive as of late, winning four of their last five and riding a three game winning streak to end the month. For a team that has been decimated with injuries over the past few weeks – including a mysterious injury to goaltender James Reimer – hanging in with the pack is all they can ask for.

In large part, this unforeseen success can be attributed to the fact that Phil Kessel refuses to level with inconsistency, something that has often plagued him in his young career. Add in a linemate in Joffrey Lupul that finds himself tied for second in NHL scoring, and suddenly the Leafs possess the type of first line they’ve been desperately searching for over the last five years. And as bodies continue to drop, as was the case in Dallas on Friday when the Leafs lost David Steckel and Carl Gunnarsson to injury, the depth of the organization continues to show its true colours as each AHL call-up is as NHL ready as the last.

Say what you want about the team and its schedule, few people expected the Maple Leafs to be anywhere near the top of the Eastern Conference heading into December, and even fewer expected two of the NHL’s top five scoring leaders to emerge from the city of Toronto this late into the season. Not since Doug Gilmour and Dave Andreychuck have the Leafs boasted the offensive firepower that it does so far this season.

The Leafs have been able to maintain a respectable 10-8-1 record since Reimber went down on Oct. 22nd

Most pundits in today’s league will tell you that American Thanksgiving marks the point in the year when you can truly identify what a team is made up of. Currently at the quarter mark of the season, the Leafs continue to impress on a nightly basis, utilizing foot speed and an aggressive forecheck to win the battles that are necessary to win hockey games. With their number one goaltender set to return in the near future, this Leafs squad seems poised to make believers out of the many that may have doubted them at the beginning of the year.

With continued improvements on the power play and the penalty kill, as well as a return to the crease for James Reimer, the Maple Leafs are no longer concerned with which playoff team they are going to knock out from a season ago.

For the teams on the outside looking in, and two months in the books, it’s now up to them to figure out how to catch the Toronto Maple Leafs

Sounds great for once, doesn’t it?

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BY: DUSTIN POLLACK

Joe Nieuwendyk’s situation in Dallas hasn’t exactly been ideal.

For starters, last season he had to deal with an ownership group unwilling to spend and thus was forced to watch his franchise player Brad Richards head to the bright lights of Broadway, really for no other reason other than Nieuwendyk’s inability to offer him the type of long term, big-money contract that he was looking for.

And it’s not that the Stars didn’t have the money to offer Richards. Currently they’re one of the lowest spending teams in the NHL and have close to $13 million in cap space. The type of money that if a big market team had, could be used to sign two top-line players.

Unfortunately Nieuwendyk’s helplessness when it came to Richards was directly related to the two-year bankruptcy proceedings that former owner Tom Hicks was facing. Hicks didn’t give Nieuwendyk the opportunity to spend, thus leaving him and Dallas management to forge a roster to compete in the NHL’s competitive Pacific division with minimum resources.

Richards signed a nine-year $60 million contract with the Rangers this past summer.

But Nieuwendyk’s inability to go after another big name player to replace the one that left hasn’t stopped the recent hall-of-fame inductee turned general manager from putting together a competitive on-ice product.

Over the 2011 off season Nieuwendyk took separate risks in signing Stanley Cup champion Michael Ryder with the hope he’d return to a 50-60 point producer and defenseman Sheldon Souray who hadn’t played an NHL game since January 30, 2010, but could add a booming shot to the Stars powerplay if he could stay healthy.

Luckily for Nieuwendyk, both Ryder and Souray have taken on huge roles in Dallas and both are reasons why the Stars currently in 3rd place in the Western Conference with a more than respectable 14-9-1 record. Ryder is on pace first his first 30-goal season since he recorded 30 in back-to-seasons with the Montreal Canadiens in 2006 and 2007 and  his two goals sparked the Stars to a 3-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche last night. As for Souray, while he’s has drawn cold in the last stretch of games his 13 points in 24 outings already matches the total he put up in 37 games back in 2010 and he’s second on the Stars in overall ice time this season. Numbers that are more than productive for a defenseman whose cap hit in Dallas is just $1.65 million.

However, while there have been many positives surrounding the Stars this season, including a new owner in Canadian Tom Gaglardi who’s committed to putting a winning product on the ice in Dallas, a groin injury to starting goaltender Kari Lehtonen suffered over the weekend leaves a big question mark looming over the Stars.

In 68 starts last season Lehtonen won 34 games and had a .914 save percentage.

Lehtonen, who Nieuwendyk re-signed back in 2010 and has proven to be a major success story up until now – his 13 wins leads the NHL – has nagged groin injuries throughout his career. In fact it was part of the reason the Stars were able to snag him from the Atlanta Thrashers for so cheap in 2010. All it cost was Ivan Vishnevskiy and a fourth round pick in 2010.

At this point it’s unknown how severe Lehtonen’s injury is, but for now Andrew Raycroft will take the reins in goal. And his 1-5 record this season isn’t so reassuring, he made 35 saves last night and had a shutout for nearly 57 minutes. Last season, his first with the Stars, Raycroft was reliable when called upon winning eight of his 14 starts with a very respectable .910 save percentage.

After just missing the post-season in 2011, many projected the Stars to finish well outside the playoff picture in the Western Conference this season. And while that’s still possible a lot can be said for the work of Joe Nieuwendyk. And with a new owner in place who is willing to spend, there’s huge opportunity for Nieuwendyk to flourish at the helm in Dallas in the near future.

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BY: DUSTIN POLLACK

Thursday, June 23rd 2011. In just one day, the Philadelphia Flyers changed the entire make up of their franchise.

Out was captain Mike Richards and leading-scorer Jeff Carter and in was what the Flyers had seemingly needed for years, a proven goaltender. Ilya Bryzgalov came to Philadelphia with a great track record and was supposedly the one who could put an end to the merry-go-round of puck-stoppers who minded the nets in Philadelphia for years. Most recently, during the 2011 playoffs fans watched three different goaltenders attempt to lead the Flyers to the top of the NHL. All three played a part in the Flyers demise and early second round exit at the hands of the Boston Bruins, the eventual Stanley Cup champions.

So in just one day the Flyers went from a team that relied on depth scoring to one that was committing itself to a game-stealing goaltender. A commitment that cost the franchise $51 million over nine years.

Both Carter (left) and Richards (right) were first round draft picks of the Flyers in 2003.

Some felt it was the right move, in that goaltending was the one thing keeping the Flyers from being an elite team in the NHL, while others felt trading both Richards and Carter would leave too big of a hole up front.

It’s now November 25, 2011 and twenty-one games into the Philadelphia Flyers season. The Flyers currently sit fourth in the Eastern Conference and are just one point behind the conference-leading Pittsburgh Penguins. Meaning that Paul Holmgren’s decision to build a team around its goaltender is ostensibly working right?

Not so much.

Ironically the Flyers are winning in spite of their goaltending. Ilya Bryzgalov’s statistics are among the lowest in the league. An .895 save percentage and a 2.89 goals against average. Not comparable to the numbers he put up in Phoenix when he was arguably the lone reason the Coyotes made the playoffs in back-to-back years.

And the goal scoring that was supposed to take a dive with the loss of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter? It currently leads the NHL averaging 3.67 goals per game.

But how does a team that supposedly lost two of its best players look better offensively without them?

Claude Giroux in on pace to score 42 goals and 104 points this season.

First and foremost, the play of Claude Giroux. In just his fourth NHL season, the 23-year-old Giroux has gone from being a piece of the Flyer offense to the backbone of it. He’s second in the NHL in scoring with 27 points (just three behind league-leading Phil Kessel) and he’s found tremendous chemistry playing alongside Jaromir Jagr, who himself is having an impressive comeback season with 17 points.

But to fill the gap left by two top players the production needs to come from various avenues. Playing major contributing roles are Daniel Briere, James van Riemsdyk and Scott Hartnell.

After an average sophomore season in which he recorded 21 goals and 40 points, van Riemsdyk broke out in the post-season last year with seven goals in 11 games. And he’s continuing to build upon that performance this year. With eight goals and eight assists in 21 games it appears van Riemsdyk may surpass his point totals from last year by the half waypoint of this season.

But, perhaps the most pleasant surprise in Philly however, has been forward Matt Read. The undrafted 25-year-old is in his first NHL season and is on pace to score 39 goals and is averaging over 19 minutes of ice-time per game. While Read won’t likely be able to maintain his pace, it’s performances from a player like him that’s allowed the Flyers to feel like they don’t miss Carter or Richards.

The Flyers will be an interesting story to follow the rest of the season and throughout the playoffs assuming they secure a spot in the Eastern Conference’s top-eight.  While their offense is filling opponents nets, their goaltending is struggling and it only makes you wonder whether the Flyers fortunes be any different than in years past come playoff time.

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