How can this happen I hear you ask? It’s easier than you think.

Whenever you hear that Player A has a $60m contract or Player B has a $40m shoe endorsement, you can immediately cut that by 40% and send it with love to the tax man. After you buy yourself a nice house or two, a few nice cars there’s the family to consider. You pay off your family’s debts, buy your mom a house, pay for cousin Kenny’s college tuition and that’s before you get into the seedy relations that come out of the woodwork. Then you have your entourage, your boys who you surround yourself to tell you how wonderful you are because lets face it, when you’re a superstar athelete you are pretty much detatched from the common man. You move in completely different circles. So you pay for their living costs and pick up the tab at restaurants and pay the bar tab in the VIP lounge. After all, Pepsi just paid you $1m to endorse their latest drink, so what’s a few $10,000 cheques among friends? Maybe you’ve started your own charity foundation and pay Auntie Bettie a healthy sum to run it for you. Uncle Tony can’t do it, because you’re paying him a fortune to run your fan club.

As ridiculous as this may sound, a great number of athletes are living pay-cheque to pay-cheque.

I hope for Iverson’s sake that he has saved a massive amount of those earnings for a rainy day, because storm clouds are gathering. Let’s be honest, that isn’t likely. If you have gambling problems to the point that casino’s in recession devastated Detroit have banished you from frequenting them then chances are you don’t spend a lot of time nurturing your ISA. Without question, Allen Iverson declaring bankruptcy before he even gets to make his Hall-of-Fame speech would set alarm bells ringing among his piers.

Would Julius Peppers buy $350 champagne bottles for everyone in the club after an announcement like that? Would Chad Ochocincho continue to pay for an entire audience to watch a film with him at the cinema? Would Ricky Williams walk away from his NFL career in his prime to go on tour with Lenny Kravitz and smoke weed?

The NBA Lockout (and it’s coming) is going to have massive implications for players who find themselves in similar situations to the one I have detailed above. They will be pushing for the Union to settle a deal, any deal, if it means they start receiving cheques from the owners again. Commissioner David Stern is a very smart man, he knows all of this already. In fact my favourite quote of the sporting year was from someone who saw Stern’s initial CBA proposal in preparation for negotiations with the Unions, and described it as “a Xerox of David Stern’s middle finger”. The owners will win and the players are blind if they can’t see it so here’s hoping a lockout will be a short one and common sense descends.

Carl Edwards made the shocking revelation last night that he intentionally crashed into Brad Keselowski’s #12 Dodge, as the two rivals raced for position at the Sprint Cup event in Atlanta.

Following an earlier minor incident where Keselowski bumped into Edwards after a race restart, things would turn nasty when, with just a couple of laps remaining, Edwards purposely tapped Keselowski into a spin.

What started off as a small tap from Edwards soon turned into disaster for Keselowski. The #12 Dodge snaked across the track, hitting the barrier with some force. Keselowski would then flip upside-down and skate back across the oval on his roof.

Amazingly, Keselowski walked away from the wreck unhurt.

Edwards and Keselowski have history. Their infamous feud began in Talladega last season, where Edwards’ car almost ended up in with the crowd, as he and Keselowski made contact while battling for victory on the final lap.

Carl Edwards seemed to take it all in his stride, as he addressed the incident on his very own Facebook page:

“Considering that Brad wrecks me with no regard for anyone’s safety or hard work, should I: A) Keep letting him wreck me? B) Confront him after the race? C) Wait till Bristol and collect other cars? or D) Take care of it now?”

“I want to be clear that I was surprised at his flight and very relieved when he walked away. Every person has to decide what code they want to live by and hopefully this explains mine.”

It’s all very well for him to show some remorse in his final comment, seeing as Keselowski did walk away from the accident, but it could have been very different.

For me, this just shows plain unprofessionalism on Carl’s part.

We’re not talking about go-karts, but 190MPH stock-cars. This accident could very well of ended up fatal, and with Earndheart’s 2001 shocking crash still in the memory of the entire NASCAR family, even 9 years on, Carl Edwards should know better.

NASCAR has always been about hard, bumping racing. But he’s pushed it too far. Intentionally putting an opponent into a spin is not only dangerous and unsportsmanlike – it’s also damn stupid.

What do you think? Was Carl right to do what he did?

Canada V USA in the pool stages was among the best International hockey games I’ve seen. US jumping to the early lead, Canada bringing it back and the late empty net goal topping an incredible goaltending display from Ryan Miller for a US win. You can just imagine NHL HQ watching that and daring to whisper ‘wouldn’t it be great if they played for gold’ and when it happened it was great.

Already this game has gone down as one for the ages, an instant classic and an example of what we all love about hockey. It was fast, physical, spectacular and couldn’t have been more dramatic. If you weren’t one of those who joined figures of 80% of Canada watching the game, briefly this is how it went.

Canada come out with more jump and dominate the opening frame, Jonathan Toews (Canada’s best forward throughout the tournament) netting the opening goal. Into the second and the US had found their feet a bit with the game remaining tight when Corey Perry put Canada 2-0 up before the halfway point. You started to wonder if the game was already over before Ryan Kesler got the Americans on the board, tipping a Chris Drury shot past Vancouver team-mate Roberto Luongo who fought the puck all night long. Into the third and you started to sense the expectation. Evidently the Canadian team did too as they sat deeper and deeper, inviting the US team on. Ryan Miller robbed Sidney Crosby on a breakaway before in the final minute, with Miller pulled the US gained an offensive zone face off. Time-out. Pavelski wins the face off, puck bobbles its way around the back of the US net before finding Patrick Kane who flicks a puck toward net. It hits Langenbrunner’s foot and falls to Zach Parise who bangs it home. 24.4 seconds to go, 2-2, we have overtime. The break appeared to help Canada more than the US and, with just over 7 minutes having been played Jarome Iginla fed the puck inside to Sidney Crosby who had beaten Brian Rafalski off the half boards and after one touch to settle the puck slammed it under Ryan Miller. Cue celebrations.

It was the perfect moment for Canada and the NHL. For Canada their golden boy gets the winning goal to crown a record setting home Olympics with the gold that mattered most. For the NHL their golden boy nets the winning goal playing against the country where they most want the game to become relevant. Judging by reactions around the various sports networks in the US this game and this team’s efforts were noticed. Time will tell whether this translates to more people turning out for the NHL regular season.

It was, in the end, as you almost knew it would be Sidney Crosby’s moment. That overtime goal has already taken it’s place with Paul Henderson’s goal in the 1972 Summit Series and the Gretzky-Lemieux combination in the 1987 Canada Cup as the greatest moments of Canadian International hockey. For Crosby it always seems to end this way.

At just 22 years old Crosby can now add Olympic gold to his World Junior gold medal in International play. He became the youngest captain ever to win a Stanley Cup last spring and was the youngest player to ever reach 100 points in his rookie season. A season where he was annointed the saviour of the NHL before his blades had ever cut a rut into NHL ice. He was criticised for being too whiny, he has since cut back. He was criticised for his lack of defensive play, he now kills penalties. He was criticised for his face offs, he improved and is now one of the best in the league. He was criticised for not scoring enough goals, he’s challenging Alex Ovechkin for the Rocket Richard this year. There is no question Crosby has received more plaudits than any other player in his years (some would argue more than he deserves) but this was and will forever be his moment. 

Just as you always sensed it would be.

LeBron James

"Cavs, Clippers, Bulls, Heat...."

Cleveland Cavaliers. Whether the King wants the money, or he wants the best chance to won, it doesn’t really matter because his best destination for both is right where he is. The Cavs can offer him the most money thanks to the Larry Bird rule, and other than the Lakers (which just wouldn’t work) there isn’t a better team in the league. Even the if the Cavs were to let Shaq go at the end of the season, that would free up close to $20m in cap room to snag further help for Akron’s favourite son.

Dwayne Wade

Chicago Bulls. It’s ironic that the player who isn’t constantly compared to Michael Jordan might actually end up echoing his career best. Wade is from the south side of Chicago, and the Bulls nifty moves at the deadline have freed up enough cap space to make it worth his while. The current Chicago team is as good if not better than the stiffs he’s forced to play with in Miami, so it’s not like he’s going from the Penthouse to the Outhouse.

Chris Bosh

RuPaul...I think

New York Knicks. Following the humiliating failure to capture LeBron, the Knicks will panic and overpay for a player who Shaq once referred to as the “Ru Paul of Big Men”. Chris Bosh is a great athelete, but the truth is we just don’t know how good he is. Vince Carter and his cousin Tracy McGrady have both treaded the path that Bosh finds himself in Toronto, and both turned out to be just big fish in small ponds. Vince has never played in a Conference Final and as we know, McGrady has never made it past the first round. My point being that being a great scorer and a great athelete does not automatically make you a winner, and at this point I’m not sure Bosh is.

Joe Johnson

New York Knicks. Knowing that Bosh alone will not satisfy their fanbase, I see the Knicks making a run at Johnson but if succesful, it will be at the expense of another free agent, David Lee.

Amare Stoudemire

Miami Heat. Following in the footsteps of Shawn Marion, Stoudemire will move to South Beach and begin regretting the day he decided to sacrifice playing with Steve Nash as his point guard. The Heat will need to spend that money on someone when Wade flee’s and they showed plenty of interest in Amare prior to the trade deadline.

No doubt the destinations will change as we get closer, but if you put a gun to my head, that’s where I see this playing out right now.

The next round of labour talks between the NFL and NFLPA took place this week while the 2010 NFL Scouting Combine was under way, but there were no indications that a new CBA will be reached before March 5 and so the likelihood of a season without a salary cap seems likely to happen as widely predicted. Negotiating committees for the NFL and the NFLPA met for an extended period of time but neither side would comment after the meetings. The NFLPA will address a group of agents and player reps at a meeting Friday. The state of labour talks and how they will impact players and agents will be the main subject of discussion.

Speaking of the combine; all the big quarterback prospects for this year’s draft will not be throwing at the combine. This includes Texas QB Colt McCoy who will not participate. McCoy is not yet “110 percent” recovered from his shoulder injury, and is another key QB who will not participate in drills at the combine. Other big names not taking part include Florida Gator Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford and Dan LeFevour.

The Arizona Cardinals are preaching continuity at the top of the organisation. Head coach Ken Whisenhunt and general manager Rod Graves have each agreed to new contracts through the 2013 season. With several players leaving (Kurt Warner through retirement, Karlos Dansby expected to leave through free agency) the non playing staff are staying put.

UFC

A few bits making the news during a quieter period for the UFC;

Stephan Bonnar plans to appeal his loss to fellow light heavyweight Krzysztof Soszynski from Saturday’s UFC 110 event in Sydney.  Soszynski was incorrectly declared the winner by third-round TKO due to a cut that was actually caused by an accidental head butt. After the somewhat controversial finish, both Bonnar and Soszynski said they wanted a rematch as soon as possible. The UFC are likely to grant the wish.

Ricardo Funch has been forced out of his bout with Matt Riddle which was due to be on the UFC 111 card. Funch pulled out for undisclosed reasons; however the undefeated Greg Soto has stepped in and will make his UFC debut against Riddle. The fight is on the preliminary card of the March 27 event in Newark, New Jersey which features the headline fight between George St Pierre and Dan Hardy.

…and finally in minor news, successful video game UFC Undisputed 2009 will be followed up by UFC Undisputed 2010 which is scheduled for release May 25^th on Xbox and Playstation 3. The game features British fighters including bonus fighters such as Ultimate Fighter contestant James McSweeney.

NHL

Not a huge amount of news to report this week with the Olympics still running and NHL teams only opening their practice rinks back up today. There are a few bits of news to cover.

First the ugly. St Louis enforce Cam Janssen was suspended 5 games for a late, high hit to Washington’s Matt Bradley. Janssen’s suspension isn’t particularly surprising but it is a strange situation to have this announced almost two weeks after the incident actually happened.

Elsewhere a couple of young players have a bit of job security. Nashville have made their long anticipated move to lock up one of their two soon to be free agent goalies after announcing a two year, $6.8m extension for Finn Pekka Rinne. Rinne has been excellent for the Preds this year, posting a 20-12-4 record following his strong finish to last season. In Calgary, winger Rene Bourque who has recently hit a career high with 41 points this season and had his first 20 goal year last season. The new deal will run for the next 6 seasons with a cap hit of $3.3m per year. Calgary GM Daryl Sutter will see tying up Bourque as the next piece to increasing the Flames scoring depth after his acquisitions of Matt Stajan and Niklas Hagman in the Dion Phaneuf deal. Also in the North West division, Minnesota extended agitating winger Cal Clutterbuck for 3 more years at $1.4m per year.

In other news Dallas sent back up goalie Alex Auld down to their AHL affiliate in Texas. This appears to signal that the team don’t believe they will be able to trade Marty Turco and don’t want the distraction of three goalies with the big club. If the Stars were to move Turco Auld would need to clear re-entry waivers meaning any team could pick him up for half salary. Finally, more random moves from Tampa management. With the ship finally seeming to be straightening out with the Lightning, coach Ric Tocchet is said to be upset that GM Brian Lawton have fired one of his assistant coaches, Wes Walz without his blessing. The circus continues

MLB

As teams settle in camp and the nightmare-ish arbitration season is over, most of the talk is about how the players are preparing and performing coming up to the April 5th start.

A few weeks after Mariners fans feared for the health of their new ace, Cliff Lee, the lefty has participated in his first bullpen session and all seems to be good for the former Philly………….Draft sleeper Josh Hamilton has damaged his shoulder and is out of action for the next few weeks………….Rod Barajas, who came off a solid 2009 season, has finally found a team in the Mets who have signed him to a one-year $500k contract…………..The Indians have solidified their first base issues with the signing of veteran journeyman Russell Branyan………….As predicted following the relase of Kevin Gregg, the Cubs have announced Carlos Marmol as their closer…………….Carl Crawford has further added to speculation about his future in Tampa Bay by calling off contract negotiations until seasons end.  If he does become a free agent, expect some big teams willing to trade big with the Rays……….Troubled shortstop Khalil Greene has been released by the Rangers due to anxiety issues.  The Clemson graduate was once hailed as the next Ozzie Smith, but has struggled in past seasons – however, if he can prove to be mentally fit, he could prove to be a capable pick up in mid-season

NBA

Kevin Durant’s streak of consecutive 25-point games ended at 29 on Wednesday of this week against the San Antonio Spurs. Durant scored 30 or more in 23 of those games. Perhaps more importantly, the Thunder have been winning while Durant has been streaking and find themselves as a 5th seed.

As expected, the Washington Wizards waived Zydrunas Ilgauskis this week following this trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers. In an absolute mockery of the system, Ilgauskis will re-sign with the Cavs once the 30 days has elapsed. The Atlanta Hawks have been mentioned as a possible destination for “Z”, but LeBron wants him back, and what the King wants, the King gets.

The Chicago Bulls are certainly treading the wire carefully after the latest trade deadline. Loul Deng is playing hurt because the Bulls severely lack depth after trading away John Salmons. The Bulls have really made themselves a frontrunner to get free-agents by freeing up cap space but they are short on numbers now.

This week saw Denver Nuggets coach George Karl miss his first game on the bench since announcing that he has neck and throat cancer. The Nuggets beat the Golden State Warriors 127-112 with assistant Adrian Dantley at the helm. “George told us just to focus on the game and not worry about him,” Dantley said. “The main thing with George is he wanted the win. We got that. It was weird but I’m glad this game is over.”

USA – Finland

As mentioned in our review of the quarter finals, this game promises to be a war of attrition. Both teams boast great goaltending with Ryan Miller for the USA and Miikka Kipprusoff for Finland being incredibly stingy all tournament long. Miller’s most generous outing was giving up 3 goals to the powerhouse Canadians but he still stopped 42 shots and was incredible in stealing the game for the US. Finland on the other hand has ‘Kipper’ in top form as at no point through the tournament has he looked shaky.

Neither team give up easy goals, both teams have received balanced scoring so far, both teams have strengths in special teams so this game seems to be a very even affair. Throughout the tournament so far USA have received goals from all departments. Their checking unit led by a resurgent Chris Drury (2 goals) have chipped in, their key blue liner Brian Rafalski leads the team with four goals and all in all USA have received goals from ten different players so far this tournament. Apparently they didn’t have depth. What may be the best news for Team USA however was the ‘arrival’ of forward Zach Parise in the quarter final. With no goals prior to the game Parise scored both goals and was a thorn in the side of the Swiss all game. Parise looked much more like his NHL self and that can only bode well in the game against Finland.

Finland apparently, much like the US, has no depth or scoring. However the stats from the group stage speak volumes. Five goals in their first game (five different scorers and two powerplay goals) and five goals in their second game (three different scorers and four power play goals) proved the Fins have good special teams with 6 power play goals and balanced and consistent scoring with ten goals and a spread of scorers. Despite their shutout loss to the Swedes in the group stage its Finland who remain while Sweden is on its way back to Europe.

Keys to the game:  Goaltending. It’s easy to say but when you have two goalies as hot as Miller and Kipprusoff it’s always going to come down to the goal tending. In terms of scoring USA will hope for Parise and their top forwards to make an impact while Finland will hope to continue to get unexpected scoring from the likes of pest Jaarko Ruutu. Olli Jokinen and Nicklas Hagman will be expected to contribute if the Fins are to progress.  

Prediction: USA 2 – Finland 1. It will be joy for the young Americans who edge a close, low scoring game and progress to their second final in 12 years.

 Canada – Slovakia

Let’s hope the Slovaks aren’t expecting too much crowd support in this one. Essential to any kind of Slovakian upset will be the Europeans not wilting under the tremendous noise and home support the Canadians will receive. Many of the Slovaks will never have experienced an atmosphere like they will in Vancouver on Friday.

Team Canada is perhaps hitting form at just the right time. 8 against a weak German side was followed up by 7 against a strong Russian side. However a narrow shootout victory over Switzerland and a loss to the US show that Canada can be beaten. Which Canada will urn up on Friday?

Looking at Canada’s side and its hard to see a weakness. The goaltending has been stabilized since home town hero Roberto Luongo was anointed the permanent starter and the defence has looked stronger since youngsters and first time Olympians Drew Doughty and Duncan Keith took on the bulk of the load on the back end.  It speaks volumes of their development that a 26 year old (Keith) and a 20 year old (Doughty) led the team in ice time against the dangerous Russians considering the Canadian blue line also features star players such as Dan Boyle, Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer. Duncan Keith was especially strong against the Russians with 2 assists and a +2 rating.

And then we come to the forwards. The best thing to happen to the Canadian team was the loss to America. Since then the team have played like they are finally aware that an entire country is expecting and the scoring hasn’t just been one line either. Ryan Getzlaf was excellent against the Russians with 3 points (1+2) while club mate Corey Perry (2 goals) also made the most of his limited time. Given the fact they combined for less than 20 minutes on the ice the Getzlaf Perry combo is starting to prove effective. Jarome Iginla, Rick Nash and Mike Richards have all contributed at various times and will need to play at a high level in the semi final. Nash in particular will need to contribute more. However it’s the top dogs and playmakers that will need to keep producing for Canada’s snipers if they’re going to force their game on Slovakia. Sid Crosby and Joe Thornton were relatively ineffective against the Russians and both will need to play well as Slovakia boasts a goalie in a rich vein of form in Jaroslav Halak.

Slovakia does stand a chance. A lot has and will continue to be written about Canada’s depth, their top end talent, the home advantage etc. but Slovakia has the reigning NHL Norris trophy winner in Zdeno Chara and in the two Marian’s Gaborik and Hossa they possess two of the NHL’s very best snipers. Gaborik (near the NHL lead for goals and points) in particular has started to play better following an injury and with veteran Pavol Demitra playing effectively the Slovaks have one particularly excellent line that the Canadians will have to pay 100% attention to. They may not possess the depth Canada does (no team can match them for depth) but Slovakia don’t rely purely on their ‘big three’ and goalie Halak. NHL veterans such as Lubomir Visnovsky, Richard Zednik, Miroslav Satan, Michal Handzus, Tomas Kopecky and the solid Andrej Meszaros (among others) prove Slovakia have a very strong core and evidence that taking care of just the top unit wont cut it for Canada. It does all begin and end in goal for Slovakia though. If they can’t keep Canada out they have no hope so the red hot Jaroslav Halak will need to keep up his great play and hope he returns to Montreal as public enemy number one. If he can keep the Slovaks in the game then Gaborik and co. may just have enough at their disposal to spring a major surprise.

Keys to the game: For Slovakia its goaltending first and foremost and discipline. They can’t allow the star studded Canadians to set up shop on the powerplay and build pressure and momentum. The longer the game is close the better it is for Slovakia. For Canada this game begins and ends with Sidney Crosby. Not a brave call to make but if he’s on his game and finds his wingers on a regular basis the Slovaks may have a tough time defending the deep Canadians.

 Prediction: Canada 4 –Slovakia 2.  Slovakia will stay in it for the first half but Canada’s talent and home support will give them the extra as the game progresses. Another dream Canada –USA final is on the cards. How will the atmosphere be in that one if it happens?!

Despite finishing her first Nationwide race at Fontana, Danica Patrick struggled all weekend and came home in a lonely 31st spot. Danica says that she “accomplished her goals” from the race, but you have to be somewhat disappointed at her pace.

After starting in 36th position, Danica quickly fell to the back of the pack – lapping an astonishing 2 seconds off the pace of the leaders. To add insult to injury, she was lapped on lap 19 as she struggled to find any sort of balance in her #7 Chevrolet.

After a long trip to pit road in an attempt to improve the handling of Patrick’s car, more mistakes were made as the pit speed limit was broken. When she did return to the track, she did improve her pace slightly, but her personal best for the afternoon was still over a second shy of the lead group.

You could see from her driving that she was not happy with her car, or the 2-mile oval course that she was racing on. She experimented with different lines to try to pick up her pace, but ultimately she could go no faster.

Danica crossed the finish line in 31st spot, 3 laps down on eventual race winner, Kyle Busch – who himself had to avoid Patrick earlier on in the race whilst lapping the rookie. Busch would eventually take the race down to the wire with an impressive final lap overtake on Greg Biffle to win in a green-white-chequered finish.

#48 takes win number 48

Continuing his Sprint Cup dominance, Jimmie Johnson took his 48th victory in the #48 car at Fontana – Jimmie’s “home” race.

Columbian Juan Pablo Montoya took control early on at the front of the pack, leading the field around for the first 30 laps. Montoya’s pace dropped after lap-30 and he started to fall behind. Johnson, and a hard charging Kevin Harvick took over from Montoya at the front, but Harvick’s presence wouldn’t last very long as he was penalised for speeding in pit lane, and would drop back to 26th place.

#48 on his way to win 48

The penalty seemed to put fire into Harvick’s belly as he would make a charge from 26th spot all the way to 2nd, right behind Johnson, with only a few laps to go. Johnson himself had struggled in the second half of the race with the handling of his car, meaning that Harvick was able to close right up on him.

As Harvick pushed hard to pile the pressure onto the reigning champion, he would make a small mistake on the exit of turn four – running slightly wide and making contact with the wall. Whilst only a minor incident, this would be enough to allow Johnson some breathing space on his way to victory lane.

The top-10 finishes from the second Sprint Cup race of the season were as follows:

1.  Jimmie Johnson
2.  Kevin Harvick
3.  Jeff Burton
4.  Mark Martin
5.  Joey Logano
6.  Kurt Busch
7.  Matt Kenseth
8.  Clint Bowyer
9.  Tony Stewart
10.  Greg Biffle

Contenders Frank Mir and Shane Carwin square off inside the octagon at UFC 111 (in Newark, New Jersey) in the co main event alongside George St Pierre vs. Dan Hardy.  That fight between Mir and Carwin will affect who Velasquez – arguably the best heavyweight at present – will fight next and of course how can we forget the current champion Lesnar. The fall out of Mir – Carwin will be intriguing to follow. There’s no doubt that Velasquez’s form warrants a title shot but with the Mir – Carwin fight being for the interim title it’s probable that the winner will face Lesnar. Will Velasquez have to wait for his title chance? Very likely. Does he fight in between and risk his position in the division? It’ll be interesting to see.

Not only are the dominoes waiting to fall in terms of future match ups between the divisions elite but tension is building. To say Frank Mir has spoken openly about his ‘dislike’ for Brock Lesnar would be the underestimate of the year. Speaking in a recent interview Mir said; “I want to fight Lesnar. I hate who he is as a person. I want to break his neck in the ring. I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries. That’s what’s going through my mind.”  Wow. Yesterday however, Mir with Dana White the UFC president very much behind it, apologised for his remarks in a formal statement. The fact he has gone from talking about ’ breaking his neck’ to now ‘respecting Lesnar’ proves the statement is a farce and its safe to suggest Mir’s genuine comments were the outspoken ones. It will be intriguing to see if Lesnar reacts now or waits for the potential fight which would be Lesnar-Mir 3 by the way. Ringside at UFC 111 could be very interesting to follow.

So the heavyweight division is currently awaiting the fight at UFC 111. Frank Mir with a record of 13-4, Shane Carwin undefeated at 11-0, Lesnar as champion at 4-1 and Velasquez at 12-0 are the undoubted top dogs. The big fights in the division will undoubtedly feature these four in the immediate future but the division doesn’t stop there. Despite his devastating loss at UFC 110 Minotauro Nogueira remains a big name and in the mix, especially with a 32-6-1 record however his next fight could be very pivotal for his hopes. The potential resurgence of Mirko Cro Cop (impressive at 110) depends on his next fight and that should come against his originally scheduled opponent at 110, Ben Rothwell. Rothwell himself is a solid fighter and has the potential to upset some of the bigger names at the weight. Cro Cop has recently gone on record saying he wants the Rothwell fight to happen soon and with both fighters willing its surely going to happen.

Despite mixed results recently Cheick Kongo remains a tough opponent and almost forgotten due to Velasquez’s recent performances is the impressive progress of intimidating Brazilian Junior Dos Santos. Dos Santos may be a genuine possibility for Velasquez if he isn’t willing to wait for Mir-Carwin with the winner of that getting the first shot at facing Lesnar. A fight between Velasquez and Dos Santos would be very intriguing (given both fighters aggressive styles) and would without doubt be a huge draw.

There are several more heavyweights making noise right now. Ultimate fighter champion Roy Nelson may not look a threat (to be polite) but he is an awkward opponent and has a solid record. Nelson’s next opponent, the ‘Skyscraper’ Stefan Struve is also very awkward given his height (6ft’11) and sports a nice 23-3 record. Struve has won his last 3 fights.  Unbeaten heavyweight Todd Duffee (6-0) will also command attention if he continues to win.

So what does all this tell us? The heavyweight division is currently stacked and it makes for great viewing, exciting fights and a promising future. Professional boxing’s heavyweight division is currently a mess, UFC’s is anything but. Pick your man; Whether it be Lesnar, Mir, Carwin, the new superstar Velasquez or Dos Santos; wherever you turn the heavyweight division offers UFC fans great potential. 2010 will be very exciting for the division because if there’s one thing that cannot be guaranteed right now it’s identifying who will finish the year as champion in the UFC’s marquee division.

 The widely predicted final took place two rounds earlier than expected when home team and favourites Team Canada took on Russia. One of the favourites was going home and not medalling, a disaster for either team. Goals were a given in this one but its pretty safe to say no one expected Canada to come through 7-3. Ryan Getzlaf early in the first, Dan Boyle, Rick Nash, Brenden Morrow, Corey Perry (with two) and Shea Weber scored for the Canadians while Dmitri Kalinin, Maxim Afinogenov and Sergei Gonchar replied for Russia. On the end of this heavy defeat, Russia’s miserable and underwhelming tournament is at an end with no medal. There will be a lot of criticism in the Russian media so the Russian’s NHL based players will be thankful they haven’t got to fly back to Russia with the KHL contingent. The best player in the world Alexander Ovechkin has never hit full stride for the Russians in this tournament and was again pointless and -2 to cap a personally disappointing tournament for the NHL MVP.

Team USA. At no point in this tournament have they wowed viewers or intimidated opponents with their dominating play. They simply haven’t got the same depth as the Canadians, Russians or even the Swedes but what they do have is work rate, discipline to their system and character in abundance. USA patiently knocked off Switzerland 2-0 last night on the back of two Zach Parise goals (one an empty netter) and solid goaltending from Ryan Miller. Switzerland stayed in it late thanks to goalie Jonas Hiller and the seemingly oversized goal posts. With such determination through a complete 60 minutes USA cannot be underrated as they played a remarkably patient game controlled the puck well and didn’t panic when the puck didn’t go in for them despite a barrage of shots on Hiller. It was indeed ironic that when they got their first (the game winner) it was a freak bounce of the puck from a tip in by Parise. Either way, USA continued to play solid tournament hockey and will fancy a shot at gold from here on in.

The end of an Olympic era happened on Wednesday. Jaromir Jagr (and possibly many of the veteran heavy Czech team) surely played his last game as an Olympian as the Czech Republic lost 2-0 to Finland. Finland keeps getting told they don’t have enough talent or depth but yet again they’re one game away from the Olympic final. Valtteri Filppula and Nicklas Hagman scored for the Fins who much like USA rode strong goaltending to the finish with Miikka Kipprusoff making 31 saves. The semi final between the USA and Finland will be a war of attrition and a classic case of who can last the longest. With arguably the hottest two goalies in the tournament goals may be a premium between the Fins and the Americans.

The biggest upset of the night (unless you count the surprising amount of goals Canada scored) was Slovakia’s 4-3 victory over defending champions Sweden meaning there will be a new champion in Vancouver. Previously unbeaten and statistically perfect goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was beaten 4 times off only 14 shots as Slovakia proved it’s not quantity but quality in terms of shots. Lundqvist’s team mate and star sniper Marian Gaborik opened the scoring off a Marian Hossa feed while Andrej Sekera, Tomas Kopecky and Pavol Demitra also scored for the upstart Slovakians. Sweden did tie it at 2 for a while but could never get ahead in the game despite doubling Slovakia’s shot total with 29. Henrik Zetterberg, Patrick Hornqvist and Daniel Alfredsson scored for Sweden. Slovakia are a dangerous opponent and while they don’t possess the depth of the top 3 nations or even USA they do possess some top end talent with Gaborik, Marian Hossa, Lubomir Visnovsky and Zdeno Chara, players enjoying Indian summers such as Pavol Demitra and (incredibly important in this format) hot goal tending in Jaroslav Halak. Halak was already proving this year in the NHL he can be a go-to goalie and he’s emphasised that in the Olympics. Despite all this, Canada will be delighted to face the Slovaks and not the normally defensively thorough Swedes but they will be wary not to underestimate the Slovaks who are enjoying their best ever Olympics.  The semi finals play out on Friday and the whole of America and especially Canada will be watching.

Now, technically there have been British players in the NHL. In the fairly recent past Steve Thomas and Byron Dafoe (both born in England) spent significant time in the league and Belfast born Owen Nolan still plays in the NHL. The difference is that all three were brought up and trained in Canada.

The closest any British trained players have come are a pair of Scots. Tony Hand was drafted by the dynastic Edmonton Oilers in 1986 and impressed then coach Glen Sather enough to be offered a contract with the Victoria Cougars in Canadian Junior. Despite scoring 8 points in 3 games Hand became homesick and returned to the UK before getting his shot at the big league. Colin Shields is the only other British trained player to be drafted (by Philadelphia) but he never got higher than the ECHL.

So, on to Phillips and how he may make it. Phillips was invited to training camp with the Chicago Blackhawks in the Autumn after he was recommended by Ice Hogs GM Mark Bernard (who had spent a few years playing and coaching in England with Basingstoke). Despite not being drafted he was given a professional try out with no guarantees following his performance in the World Championships with Team GB. GB Coach Paul Thomson was so impressed with the way the 22 year old played he suggested Bernard give him a shot and away he went.

After a few weeks of training with and against the likes of NHL stars (and current Olympians) Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith, Phillips was deemed to have done enough to earn a longer stay in the US and was offered a one year deal with the Hawks AHL affiliate the Rockford Ice Hogs. As soon as he strapped on his skates for game 1 of the season Phillips became the first British trained player ever to play at such a level.

Despite this early success many, including Phillips himself, were unsure whether he would be able to handle not only the increased level of play but also the grind of so many games. In 08/09 Phillips set his career high in games played for the Belfast Giants in the UK Elite League with 71 contests, most of which were played on weekends. The AHL play 80 games in their regular season before moving into the playoffs with 3 games in 3 nights a regular occurence. This wasn’t the only adjustment to make either. He’s now in a league where teams will roll 4 lines of players all with dreams of getting the call from the big club so the shifts are shorter but the intenstity is far higher. He has gone from having maybe 3,000 people at a game for a big match to regularly skating out in buildings that hold 10,000 and upwards and in his first game against division rival Chicago Wolves he lined up opposite future Hockey Hall of Fame defenceman Chris Chelios.

With all of this seemingly working against him and living on a different continent to everyone he knows (apart from fellow Brit Matt Myers who also made the move to the States, earning a job with the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors) no-one would have been surprised if Phillips had a few games in the A’ before being sent down to the ECHL. Instead Phillips has not only earned his spot as a regular in the line up (37 games so far) he has become one of the Ice Hogs most reliable defenceman earning a +13 rating, good for 4th best on the team to go along with 4 assists (0 goals so far).

The only blemish on Phillips record so far was a short demotion to the teams ECHL affiliate the Toledo Walleye for a 6 game stint, although even this was a conditioning assignment as the team wanted to keep him active after the Christmas break. By putting up 2 points (1 goal) in the 6 contests and displaying the same solid defensive play he was called back up straight away as promised.

Now, realistically it’s too early to start pencilling Phillips name alongside Keith, Brent Seabrook and Brian Campbell on the Hawks NHL blue-line but he’s certainly putting himself in the window to ensure he will receive offers this summer to continue his North American adventure. Rockford is one of the better teams in the AHL, currently sitting 5th overall and 3rd in the Western Conference so there’s every chance he’ll be able to show his skills on the biggest stage below the NHL when the Calder Cup playoffs begin. Playing on a team that includes high level prospects such as Corey Crawford, Jack Skille, Akim Aliu and Bryan Bickell certainly doesn’t do any harm and with the Blackhawks salary issues this summer they will surely be keen to make sure they have plenty of options in Rockford to give themselves the flexibility to call up minimum contract players if necessary next year.

So, the $64,000 question is will Dave Phillips be the first British trained player in the NHL? Only Hawks management know for sure but I’d say there’s every chance of him earning a two way contract for next year somewhere else if not Chicago and then he’s just an injury or two away. Either way, I’m sure all British hockey fans will be rooting for him.