St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay McKee will be out four to six weeks with a fractured right foot that he suffered in Thursday night’s preseason game at Minnesota. It’s the latest setback for McKee, who played only 23 games last season in the first year of a four-year, $16 million contract. He was hindered mostly by a hip injury.
Teppo Numminen has gone home from a Cleveland hospital as the Buffalo Sabres defenseman continues to recover from open heart surgery. “Teppo was released from the Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday evening and is now resting comfortable at home,” Sabres doctor William Hartrich said in a statement Thursday. “His post-operative recovery continues to be excellent and Teppo’s right on schedule for a full…
Flyers forward Joffrey Lupul has a sprained left wrist and was listed as day to day on Thursday, an improved diagnosis after Philadelphia feared he broke his wrist. “He had some medicine injected into that wrist this morning, and we’re hopeful that with three-to-five days of rest, he’ll be better,” said Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren.
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward has been ruled out of Sunday’s game at Arizona because of a sprained right knee. Ward, a four-time Pro Bowl receiver, has missed only three games to injury in his 10-season NFL career. He sat out two games last December because of a hyperextended knee, and missed a 2005 game that ended a streak of games played at 116.
Houston Texans defensive tackle Cedric Killings surprised his teammates by walking into practice Friday, just five days after fracturing a vertebra in his neck. Killings wore a neck brace and had a black eye from the headfirst collision with Indianapolis receiver Roy Hall on Sunday, but couldn’t keep a huge smile off his face.
Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme walked off the field Friday after missing his third straight day of practice with a strained right elbow, stopped in front of a group of reporters, and answered the question before it was asked. “I don’t know,” Delhomme said of whether he’ll play Sunday against Tampa Bay.
Paul Westhead is leaving the WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury to return to the NBA, accepting an assistant coach job with the Seattle SuperSonics on Thursday. Westhead’s move to join the staff of friend P.J. Carlesimo was not unexpected after the Mercury won their first title two weeks ago. The WNBA crown was the second title for the 68-year-old Westhead, who also won the NBA championship in 1980 as a…
Swept by lowly Florida, the Chicago Cubs shambled out of town Thursday with this consolation: If they make the playoffs, they won’t have to face the Marlins again. The problem is Chicago may not make the playoffs. Struggling to avert another Cubs collapse, the NL Central leaders stranded 10 runners and lost to the last-place Marlins for the third game in a row, 6-4.
Josh Beckett is done for the regular season, and it’s up to his Boston Red Sox teammates to finish things up in the AL East race. Michael Cuddyer and Garrett Jones homered off the 20-game winner in his last start before the playoffs, leading the Minnesota Twins to a 5-4 victory over Boston on Thursday night and preventing the Red Sox from closing in on a division title.
