Good week; Bad week

GOOD

Fauja Singh

So a 30-year-old hockey player finally made his NHL debut Thursday night? Big deal. Try running your first marathon at 89, and then still be churning out the miles 11 years later. The India-born centenarian, nicknamed the "Turbaned Tornado," became the world's oldest marathoner last Sunday by completing the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. He may not have beaten many of the other runners, but he's doing a fair old job of keeping Old Father Time at bay.

Carson Palmer

While basketball players continue to fight for their rights – and their multimillion-dollar contracts – down on the NBA "plantation," at least according to Bryant Gumbel of HBO Sports, the former Bengals quarterback finally broke free of his shackles in Cincinnati, ending his holdout – and taking a $5-million pay cut – to effect a trade to the resurgent Oakland Raiders on Tuesday. The time to win is now, baby.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Teemu Selanne may have scored 76 goals in his rookie season, but the Finnish slowpoke had to endure the ignominy of waiting until his fifth game to make hats fly for the first time in the NHL. Last June's No. 1 overall pick endured no such public shame, putting three past Roberto Luongo – maybe not the formidable feat it once was – to set an NHL record last Saturday in just his third pro game, albeit in a losing cause.

Michelle Li

As far as the rest of the world was concerned it was the women's badminton final at the Pan American Games, but for this country's concern it may as well have been the Canadian Open. The Markham, Ont., native beat compatriot Joycelyn Ko to win the singles gold on Thursday, just 24 hours after pairing with Alexandra Bruce to claim the doubles title in a golden week for Canada in Mexico.

BAD

Boston Red Sox

General manager Theo Epstein is on his way to Chicago, slugger David Ortiz wants to stay and the clubhouse smell of fried chicken and stale beer has likely floated all the way to St. Louis and Texas. Only one problem – while the rest of baseball has its focus, rightly, centred on the World Series, the stench of the Red Sox' September capitulation continues to reverberate around the sport, detracting from what should be baseball's time to celebrate a season in which the biggest spenders haven't bought their way into the winner's circle once again.