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seven in the morning

Quarterback Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears runs the ball in the second half against the Seattle Seahawks in the 2011 NFC divisional playoff game at Soldier Field on January 16, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois.Andy Lyons

Packers-Steelers for the Super Bowl eh? That has a pretty good ring to it (the Packers have been installed as slight favourites already). There is something to be said about traditional clubs and the emotions they can drum up. Steve Brunt touched on that in his preview of the Bears-Packers NFC Championship game; and it will doubtless be a theme in the next two weeks -- meaning any sentient person will be sick of it by Wednesday, but whatever, it's kind of cool for now. You've got a town that makes Buffalo look cosmopolitan and another that needed a fish to save it's basketball team playing for the most over-hyped trophy in sports. Not bad. We've got all kinds of stuff this morning, including why Jay Cutler of the Bears is probably having the worst day of his life; Sidney Crosby news; the Ottawa Senators taking my advice and a pair of Canadian kids helping make NCAA basketball history. Hope you have a good week.

1. Did Jay Cutler quit?

Normally there is nothing that makes me want to puke than fans/media questioning a professional athlete's toughness, as a good majority of them aren't tough enough to stick to a diet. But when an instant poll of a player's peers start questioning if a guy took the easy way out with an injury? That's something else entirely; and while Twitter may seem like a massive time suck most of the time; the way it provided an instant glimpse into what real, live NFL players were thinking when Bears quarterback Jay Cutler came out of the Bears' loss to the Green Bay Packers yesterday was nothing short of incredible. The general theme: Cutler may have been hurt, but he could have/should have kept playing. And at least some voices - though muted -- came from inside the Bear's locker room: Off the record, several teammates looked at Cutler amid the postgame wreckage and shook their heads. "I aint' gonna say nothing," one Bears player said privately, "but I don't see a brace on that knee. Do you?"

After the game Cutler didn't do himself any favours by being pretty vague about exactly what happened and when: "The last series (before halftime) really aggravated it," a stone-faced Cutler (6-of-14 passing, 80 yards, one interception) said after the game. "It hurt. We're gonna do an MRI tomorrow.

Will the knee require surgery? "I hope not."

Was it the doctors' decision for him not to play?

"We gave it a go there that first series but (I) couldn't really plant or throw," Cutler said. "They kind of pulled me …I was going to keep playing, " he said, "but, you know, they made the decision that giving Todd a shot would better suit the team."

2. Crosby out for the NHL All-Star game, and Malkin too:

This has been hinted at for a while now, but when the beat writer for the Penguins has it in the paper it's nearly official; we're just waiting for the press release from the club at this point. Having Crosby out but at the all-star game is a great opportunity to advance the discussion about head shots and what to do about them in the NHL, don't you think?: Center Sidney Crosby definitely won't play, and center Evgeni Malkin is very unlikely to participate.Neither the Penguins nor either player would comment late Saturday night. However, multiple sources confirmed early Sunday that the players' respective injuries will keep them out of the game -- though perhaps not off-ice all-star weekend activities.The Penguins are expected to declare Crosby out for the all-star game with an official announcement over the next few days. A final decision on Malkin's availability has yet to be determined, but the club considers his chances of playing very slim.Crosby and Malkin were two of four Penguins voted as all-star starters by fans, along with defenseman Kris Letang and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Letang and Fleury will play in their first NHL All-Star Games, barring injury.It is not know if either Crosby or Malkin would travel to North Carolina for participation in off-ice festivities, as Crosby did in 2009 at Montreal even though a knee injury prevented him from playing in the game.Crosby has missed eight straight games because of a concussion. Malkin has missed the past two with a bum left knee and a sinus infection.

3. The best throwaway line ever; but also a interesting story about head shots and lacrosse.

The first time I saw professional lacrosse played in person my reaction was pretty much: shouldn't someone be calling the cops? Or at least a penalty? Tough game? Put it this way: Jay Cutler would not fit in very well. But interestingly enough in the National Lacrosse League they've taken steps to eliminate head shots, which were a big part of the sport, made worse by the fact that it was perfectly fine to use your stick in the act. A big deterrent in changing the culture, writes Roy MacGregor, was hitting players with hefty fines of $1000 or more which, in the budget conscious NLL, is a significant chunk of change: A player who dangerously strikes another in the head or neck is considered to have engaged in "egregious conduct." Not only is it a major penalty, but on first offence the player is given a one-game suspension and fined $1,000. A $1,000 fine for a professional lacrosse player is roughly the equivalent of an NHLer crashing his Hummer through the front window of his Muskoka cottage.

Love that line.

4. Ottawa figures it out first -- time to blow it up:

Turning a franchise upside down to begin a long and uncertain rebuilding program is not an easy thing to do, undoubtedly, but the only mistake the Ottawa Senators have made by committing to blowing up a team that among the NHL's best just four years ago is that they didn't do it before signing Sergei Gonchar and Alexei Kovalev: Ever so quietly in recent days, the team solicited opinions and advice from key figures in its fan and corporate base. The message received was clear: Fans are sick of losing, sick of talking about losing, sick of analyzing why they keep losing. They want to look ahead to next year's games, not back on this year's games. In their minds, this season has been written off. The interpretation of this message has been that the Senators' fan base will not only accept but will enthusiastically cheer a complete rebuilding program. They want to move from the negative to the positive. Owner Eugene Melnyk, under fire recently for his silence on the subject, finally spoke to an Ottawa newspaper on Saturday and conceded that "the time has come to make some of the most difficult decisions that any owner can make." Melnyk says he not only has formulated a plan, but that plan "is now in motion."

5. Great run down under falls short for Raonic:

If 20-year-old Milos Raonic had done this at Wimbledon or the US Open this would be a way bigger story than it has been, but Australia is a long way away and who really knows what day it is there right now anyway? But sometime yesterday or tomorrow or whenever Raonic fell just short of being the first Canadian man to advance to the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam; but getting to the round-of-16 as a qualifier at the Aussie Open is a stunning achievement. If he can build on this he's making an early case as an athlete-of-the-year candidate: Despite the loss, his surprising run equalled Daniel Nestor's showing at Wimbledon in 1999 and Martin Laurendeau's last-16 performance at the 1988 U.S. Open. "There's a lot to learn from today and from the whole two-week experience," said Raonic, who fired just 15 aces in missing a chance to become the first male qualifier to make the quarters in Melbourne since Goran Ivanisevic in 1989. "The biggest thing is I'm not that far away from this level on a week-to-week basis. This is a great motivational thing for the work I've done."

6. Canadians shining in the Texas sun:

Canadian kids heading south to play NCAA Division 1 basketball is not that big a deal these days; but having two freshman starting at a major school like the University of Texas is pretty impressive, but even more so when you factor the kind of season Texas is putting together so far. Ranked 25th to start the season Texas became the first school (Fab Five-era Michigan was the last in 1992-93) to beat North Carolina, Michigan State and No.2 Kansas on the road in the same season when they stormed back to win on Saturday. Brampton, Ont.'s own Tristan Thompson's NBA stock will continue to rise after sending back five shots against one of the better front lines in the college ranks; while Pickering's Cory Joseph keyed the comeback with some clutch shooting; some are calling it the biggest win in Texas history. Thompson handles himself nicely in this i nterview on ESPN as well.

7. Now that's stick save:

Those hard luck Oilers. They appeared to have the game won last night but were foiled by a game-saving stop made by Nashville Predators' goalie Pekka Rinni's dropped stick in overtime last night on the Oilers' Shawn Horcoff. Naturally the Oilers felt pretty put out; they lost the shoot out and feel like they lost the game on a lucky save: The puck was heading straight for the wide open net, only to hit the stick that goalie Pekka Rinne's had dropped on the goal line moments earlier. It's been that kind of a season. "Is that even possible?" said Horcoff, rolling his eyes in disbelief. "The stick not only has to be geometrically perfect to be against the post (and not have the puck bank in), and if there's any wobble on the puck it goes over. Honestly, that's one of the weirdest things that ever happened to me."The rest of the Oilers were just as flabbergasted."I don't think it'll ever happen again," said Andrew Cogliano. "The chances of the stick falling and being in that position is slim to none. That just sums up how things are going."

Except, it looks to me like the only reason Rinne's stick was lying on the goal line was because Horcoff slashed it out of his hands. Judge for yourself, but if that's the case it's more like just deserts than bad luck, but that's just me.



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