Thing About To Get Ugly For Dodgers
After falling to the Phillies in five games in the NLCS, things could be getting really ugly for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Team owner Frank McCourt is going through a divorce with his wife Jaime, and she’s claiming that she owns 50 percent of the team, while Frank thinks she doesn’t own any of it. In an extremely ugly turn, Frank is thinking about firing his wife, who is the team’s CEO, according to SI.con’s Jon Heyman.
This means that the messy divorce, that’s getting worse by the day, could cause the McCourts to sell, or be extremely constrained financially going into an important offseason for the team. Manny Ramirez, Randy Wolf, Vicente Padilla and Orlando Hudson are all free agents, which makes the job doubly tough for GM Ned Colletti, who signed a long term contract extension on Thursday. If the team’s budget decreases next season, it’ll make things really tough for Los Angeles. For the actual baseball franchise, the ball is not in their McCourt going into a potentially turbulent offseason.
UPDATE: McCourt has indeed canned his wife, sources told Heyman, according to his Twitter page.
NHL Week In Preview
Thanks to rookie John Tavares’ shootout goal, the Islanders got their first win on Wednesday night over Carolina. Toronto is the only winless team in the league at 0-6-1 and it isn’t going to get much better this season. The Penguins and Rangers have the most points in the NHL at 16 and 14 and play in the same crazy Atlantic Division. Who would have picked Colorado to lead the west in points with 14? Stop lying, here comes the week in preview.
Thursday
-Canada will get their first look at Tavares as the Islanders travel to play the very slow starting Canadiens on TSN at 7 eastern. Also among the nine games tonight is the red hot Rangers hosting the archrival Devils at 7. The Southeast’s top two teams will fight for first place as Washington visits a hot Atlanta team. The Capitals just sent down Michael Nylander to the AHL after he was really struggling. Surprirse teams match up in three western games as Columbus plays Edmonton, Phoenix hosts Detroit and Dallas battles Los Angeles.
Friday
-Three games on Friday features the NHL leading Penguins hosting Florida, slow starters match up as Minnesota visits plays St. Louis and the 6-1-2 Avalanche hosts ice cold Carolina.
Saturday
-Every team in hockey plays on Saturday night. CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada begins with Toronto looking for its first win against Vancouver at 7 followed by the great Oilers-Flames rivalry continuing in Calgary. The Rangers are in Montreal, Northeast powers clash as Ottawa goes to Boston, San Jose continues its road trip in Atlanta and New Jersey visits Pittsburgh at Mellon. Buffalo is in Tampa Bay, Dallas is in St. Louis, Detroit visits Colorado and the Kings play the Coyotes.
Sunday
-All three Sunday games are good ones. San Jose is still on their east coast swing as the face the slow starting Flyers. Rick Nash and the Blue Jackets are in LA to face the Kings and Edmonton plays Vancouver in a western Canadian clash.
Monday
-Minnesota has had a woeful first three weeks of the season, but they’ll be featured in the Versus game at 8:30 eastern in Chicago as the Wild battles Patrick Sharp and the Blackhawks. The Rangers hosts Phoenix, the Islanders are in Montreal and Toronto trecks to Anaheim.
Tuesday
-The three Tuesday games are sensational, led by Philadelphia visiting Ovechkin, Backstrom and the Capitals at 7 p.m. on Versus. Colorado will be at Edmonton and the defending west champion Red Wings head west to battle Roberto Luongo and the Canucks.
Wednesday
-Brendan Morrow and the Stars host Toronto at 8 eastern on TSN. Other games on Wednesday include the Rangers at the Islanders, Sabres and Devils, Coyotes and Blue Jackets, Canadiens and Penguins, Avalanche and Flames and Kings-Sharks.
Players Of The Week
Goals- Alexander Ovechkin (4), four players tied with three.
Assists- Six tied with four.
Points- Tim Connolly, C, BUF & Daniel Alfredsson, RW, OTT, 5
+/- Robyn Regher, D, CGY (+6), three players at +5
Penalty Minutes- Chris Neil, OTT, 21
Power Play Goals- Three tied with two.
Shots On Goal- Mikael Samuelsson, C, VAN, 20, Ovechkin 19
Wins- 11 goalies tied with two.
GAA with two wins this week- Marc-Andre Fleury, PIT & Pascal Leclaire, OTT with 1.00
Save % with two wins this week- Nikolai Khabibulin, EDM, .958
Shutouts- Ty Conklin, STL, Martin Brodeur, NJ & Tim Thomas, BOS 1
