my house

Michael Ryder scored twice, Adam Burish had the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, and the surprising Dallas Stars beat Washington, 5-2, Tuesday night to end the Capitals’ six-game home winning streak.

Kari Lehtonen stopped 30 shots for the Stars, who have won four straight and own the best record in the NHL (11-3-0).

Burish put Dallas ahead to stay at 34 seconds of the third period, and Jamie Benn and Eric Nystrom scored in a 32-second span to make it 5-2 with 11:55 left.

Trevor Daley had two assists for the Stars, giving him 100 for his career. Benn also had two assists.

Alexander Semin and John Carlson scored for the Capitals, whose 6-0 start at home was the best in franchise history. Washington has dropped two in a row overall following a 9-2 start.

http://dckl62g.tumblr.com/

Thursday’s NCAA Tournament schedule is packed with great teams and great players.
Many of the guys who will be dominating March this year, will be dealing with a different kind of madness in the NBA next year.
As always, there are several first round picks in sports’ best tournament.  Each one will be looking at the next few weeks as the chance to win a championship.  In the back of their minds, this is also an audition.
Here are the players on Thursday’s schedule who have the best shot to get drafted in June…

http://dckl62g.tumblr.com/

Redskins NFLPA rep Vonnie Holliday isn’t feeling more optimistic about the labor situation despite the league and union agreeing on a 24-hour extension to continue talking.

Holliday told Lindsay Czarniak of NBC4 in Washington that the two sides “are not in the same ballpark” and have not discussed major issues.  He told the Washington Post that owners still haven’t given a formal proposal, so the NFLPA has little to discuss.
wholesale nfl jerseys
Holliday’s words run somewhat contrary to the widespread reports that the league made a proposal Thursday that included some compromise.  Perhaps it wasn’t a formal proposal, but something significant happened Thursday.
http://xocfhip.blog.com/
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen said the league made a proposal that the union viewed in a positive light and it got the ball rolling for progress.  The union also reportedly made some concessions.

Despite Holliday’s comments, an extension can’t be viewed as a bad thing for NFL fans.  Especially if it forces another, longer extension.

http://dckl62g.tumblr.com/

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Lakers coach Phil Jackson didn’t watch Kobe Bryant’s MVP performance in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game. He became aware of Bryant’s stat line only after Bryant told him before Monday’s practice but that was about the extent of his knowledge from a game he has never really cared for.

“I can’t remember the last All-Star Game I watched if I wasn’t coaching in it,” Jackson said. “I’m not a big fan of the game. I don’t think it contributes to basketball. It’s a show.”

Jackson wasn’t the only one who refused to watch the game, which took place on the Lakers’ home court at Staples Center. Lakers forward Lamar Odom, who was hoping to make the first All-Star Game appearance of his 12-year career, didn’t watch the game after being snubbed.

More on the Lakers

For more news, notes and analysis of the Lakers, check out the Land O’ Lakers blog from the Kamenetzky Brothers. Blog

“It was good to be away from the game,” Odom said. “I usually watch it but I wanted to be away. Even though I was home I wanted to be away. I turned the phone off, shut the blinds and just chilled out for a little bit.”

Bryant, who won his fourth All-Star MVP, was still recuperating from a hectic weekend after the Lakers’ first practice at home since Feb. 4. The break, however, didn’t mean Bryant had totally forgotten about the Lakers’ current three-game losing streak, highlighted by embarrassing losses to Charlotte and Cleveland.

“I’m concerned but it’s no different than last season or the season before that,” Bryant said. “There’s always concern, look at San Antonio, they have the same level of concern we do. Just like things are rolling, things can fall apart. Everybody is concerned at this point.”

With 25 games left in the season, the Lakers (38-19) currently have the third best record in the West and the sixth best record in the league. While they might not be able to catch the 46-10 Spurs for the top spot in the league, the Lakers are within four games of claiming the second best record in the league, which would at least give them home court in the Finals if they are able to get past the Spurs.
http://xocfhip.blog.com/
“There’s an excitement to building up to the postseason and getting better each game and we’re ready to go,” Bryant said. “It makes it a lot easier. [The regular season] is a marathon, when you see the finish line you tend to pick up your speed a little bit.”

Jackson said the Lakers’ place in the standings and the amount of games left in the season should raise the urgency of a team which has looked bored at times this season waiting for the playoff to come around.

“It’s a manageable amount of games to look at,” Jackson said. “We’re sitting on less than two months [to] play. We’re very comfortable with where we’re at right now. We’re not happy with it but we’re going to be in the playoffs and we’re going to have a position and we want to make it the best we can have it.”

As much as the Lakers have struggled as of late in losing three straight and six of their last 11 games, Odom said the Lakers are looking forward to this stretch run of the season heading into the playoffs and defending their championship.

“It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a fight,” Odom said. “Other teams are looking to dethrone us and nobody wants to watch us win a third straight championship. It’s going to be competitive and I’m looking forward to it. We’ve become accustomed to play until June and we don’t feel like anything should change.”
http://www.cheapcustomjerseys.us/custom-football-jerseys
After practice, Bryant was still reflective not only about the twilight of the regular season but also the twilight of his career and the opportunity to pass on what he has learned to younger players at the All-Star Game. When Bryant was asked how he feels about being an elder statesman he simply laughed.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “You can’t beat me in June. All the other stuff doesn’t matter.”

Although health insurance premiums rose slightly faster than they did a year earlier, overall spending on private health insurance decelerated as the number of people with such coverage fell by 6.3 million. And the out-of-pocket amount Americans spent on health care barely increased, the figures show.

On the other hand, spending on Medicaid soared – by 9 percent, compared with less than 5 percent in 2008 – as more people qualified for the public insurance program for the poor.

Taken together, the figures, contained in a report released Wednesday by the Department of Health and Human Services, indicate that the severe recession that ended in mid-2009 left a quicker and deeper imprint on the health-care landscape than did other recent economic downturns.

“Job losses caused many people to lose employer-sponsored health insurance and, in some cases, to forgo health-care services they could not afford,” according to the report by economists and statisticians at HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Compiled annually since 1960, it is the most recent version of a snapshot of spending across the health-care system.

Overall, U.S. health-care spending reached $2.5 trillion, or an average of $8,086 per person. The 4 percent increase in spending in 2009 compares with more than 6 percent two years earlier, 8 percent in 2005 and double-digit jumps in 1990 and 1980.

Despite the deceleration, health expenditures continued a long-term trend of gobbling up an ever-larger share of the economy. As the gross domestic product contracted, in 2009, health-care costs accounted for 17.6 percent of the GDP – the largest one-year increase since the government has been keeping track.

The period covered in the report ended months before Congress last year passed a broad law intended to change the health-care system, so the figures do not reflect any effects of the measure.

Welcome to Blog.com.

This is your first post, produced automatically by Blog.com. You should edit or delete it, and then start blogging!