Hockey Team

Nick Aliotti has done a nice job coordinating Oregon's defense if you consider he has to plot each week against two offenses — the opponent's and his. This week, Aliotti is prepping Oregon for Monday's 98th Rose Bowl game against Wisconsin. The Badgers average 44.6 points per game and appear to be playing downhill, against you, on a slanted field. Wisconsin has a running back, Montee Ball, who has scored 38 touchdowns and a quarterback, Russell Wilson, who can run, pass and probably belt out the national anthem.

I have teased the goofs who own the Chargers for more than 25 years. You can just imagine how excited they are about the prospect of one day joining us in Los Angeles. But I hope it never happens. I like work-free Sundays, sitting in front of TV with a pick of entertaining games to watch while not concerned whether our middle linebacker can make bail on a DUI arrest before the opening kickoff. I'll never have to pay to enter the new stadium, but someone in my family will undoubtedly want to go, and I know who will be asked to buy the tickets.

Brazilian prosecutors said Thursday that they are looking again into the death of boxer Arturo Gatti . Brazilian investigators had ruled Gatti's 2009 death a suicide, but a spokesman with the Pernambuco state prosecutor's office told the Associated Press the case is being analyzed again. That comes after private investigators in the U.S. presented evidence challenging whether the Italian-born, Canadian-raised boxer had killed himself. Spokesman Jaques Cerqueira said prosecutor Paula Ismail may ask for the U.S. investigators' findings, which indicated Gatti was killed.

A world-class team and the worldly city it represents absorbed devastating blows Wednesday night. The damage won't easily be repaired for the Canucks, who were thumped by the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, or for Vancouver, where rioters looted in the downtown core after the team's 4-0 loss. The stench of disappointment was overpowered by the smell of tear gas police deployed to quell the vandalism. Cars were flipped and burned, sending plumes of smoke skyward.

Russia's gold-medal celebration went into overtime. And that prevented the team from boarding a flight Thursday morning, a day after Russia won the title at the World Junior Hockey Championships at Buffalo, N.Y. About 30 members of the Russian contingent were asked to get off a Delta Air Lines flight because of their unruly behavior as they boarded the plane, a spokesman for Buffalo Niagara International Airport said. Players and managers spent the day at the Days Hotel across the street ?

Tim Leiweke slugged me. It's probably been a long time coming, but when it happened, it was so unexpected. I'm just sitting there like a dedicated Kings fan Sunday evening, two rows from the ice while wearing my official team sweater, name on the back along with No. 2, no lie, and Leiweke jumps out of his seat sounding almost delirious as he yells, "Kopie, Kopie." I don't even get the chance to say, "Who's Kopie?" Whoever he is, he apparently disappoints Leiweke, and since I'm sitting beside him, I get smacked.

The chipmunk costume was the final straw. A mother's desire for her daughter to become a figure skater led to a young Lisa Chesson in tears at each competition. She so hated to dress up as a rodent that it led to the end of her figure-skating career and the start of one in hockey. That change has led her all the way to Thursday's gold-medal game against favored Canada. "My mom wanted me to be a figure skater because she was when she was younger," said Chesson, a defenseman on the U.S. women's team.

Pushed to the brink of Olympic elimination Wednesday for the second day in a row, Team Canada pushed back. Literally. Playing a relentlessly physical game that shredded Russia's defense and eliminated Alexander Ovechkin from what rapidly became a wildly unbalanced equation, Canada pounded Russia, 7-3, before a roaring crowd at Canada Hockey Place and advanced to the tournament semifinals on Friday. Canada will face Slovakia, a 4-3 winner over No. 2 Sweden in the late game Wednesday.

Team USA's exhilarating upset of Canada on Sunday might as well be ancient history, so far had the players in red, white and blue put it behind them as they prepared for their Olympic quarterfinal playoff game against Switzerland on Wednesday. Criticism of their performance against Canada from their general manager, Brian Burke, achieved its purpose. The top-seeded Americans say they're thoroughly prepared to face No. 8 Switzerland, which defeated Belarus, 3-2, in a shootout Tuesday behind a strong performance by Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller.