Vladimir Tarasenko looked quite comfortable at Busch Stadium. Tarasenko scored two goals in the third period, Jake Allen stopped 22 shots and the St. Louis Blues beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 in the Winter Classic on Monday at the longtime home of baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals. Tarasenko is ”a hungry offensive player.
Bills owner fired Ryan when pressed on future
Cavs’ Irving, Dunleavy miss 2nd straight game
Brandon Marshall knows exactly where he wants to play next season. The question is whether the New York Jets want the veteran wide receiver back. ”It was probably my most frustrating year,” Marshall said during a 23-minute session with reporters Monday as the Jets players cleared out their locker for the offseason.
Adrian Peterson declared himself fit to play several more seasons in the NFL, even if that’s elsewhere from Minnesota. The 31-year-old Peterson finished with only 72 yards on 37 rushes over three games, a torn meniscus in his right knee responsible for an abbreviated 10th season with the Vikings that might well have been his last. ”I’d be lying to you to say that I haven’t thought about, ‘Well, what if we’re not able to work things out?”’ Peterson said Monday in the locker room as players packed up for the winter.
Coach Bill O’Brien said Monday he doesn’t know who will start at quarterback for the Houston Texans in their wild-card playoff game against the Oakland Raiders on Saturday. Tom Savage started Houston’s last two games after Brock Osweiler was benched. ”We gave the players a day off (Monday) so I haven’t even seen the quarterbacks.
El Areeb was the dominant winner of the $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct on Monday, the first race of the year in New York for Triple Crown hopefuls. The Jerome unfolded with even-money favorite Takaful setting the pace and El Areeb tracking close behind. Midway on the final turn, El Areeb easily overtook Takaful and pulled clear.
El Areeb was the dominant winner of the $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct on Monday, the first race of the year in New York for Triple Crown hopefuls. The Jerome unfolded with even-money favorite Takaful setting the pace and El Areeb tracking close behind. Midway on the final turn, El Areeb easily overtook Takaful and pulled clear.
Bowles: ‘Bad excuse’ to cite strife for 5-11 year
As the 2016-17 PGA TOUR season resumes at the SBS Tournament of Champions, we are instantly reminded by defending champion Jordan Spieth’s euphoric experience at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort a year ago. “My putter felt great,” said Spieth after leading the field in Maui in strokes gained: putting. “I can sit here and say that my putting certainly is ready for [the] Masters to be next week. It’s a really good feeling to have that confidence with the flat stick.” Indeed, his putter was on fire again at Augusta National three months later, but his eventual run to successfully defend his title in the season’s first major was derailed by failing to execute on the second nine on Sunday. While you perhaps wince in memory of that, consider that his ball-striking at Kapalua was just as sharp as his blade. He led the field in strokes gained: tee-to-green as well and ranked third in proximity to the hole on approach to some of the largest targets on TOUR. The 23-year-old returns anew with another title defense and with the chance at redemption in Georgia on the horizon. POWER RANKINGS: SBS Tournament of Champions Poised to defend. He’s tasted victory again twice since last year’s title, including in Australia in his last official start. Also solo second here in his debut in 2014. With four wins, a second and a T6 in his last six events, the FedExCup points leader is the world’s hottest golfer. Also has a T3 in his only prior visit to Kapalua in 2015. The 2013 champ is making his field-high seventh appearance. Arrives this time positioned at the pinnacle of his career and among best tee-to-green scorers anywhere. Uncharacteristically substandard fall is of slight concern, but he’s averaged 67.63 over his last eight rounds here. Settled for a distant runner-up in his title defense last year. Long-awaited return since concluding Playoffs WD-WD with a sore back. Sparkling record here isn’t surprising: no worse than T10 in three trips, averaging 68.92 in 12 rounds. Kapalua is a playground for the bomber but he has only one top-five finish in five tries (T4, 2013). Still, he’ll be a force on the par 5s. Also 15-under 277 in last two editions. Only one TOUR start in the fall (T45, RSM), but he’s remained busy worldwide. Pair of third-place finishes and no worse than T11 (2014) in four tries at Kapalua. Projects to improve on a T21 in his debut in 2016 thanks to a year of seasoning that concluded with a successful title defense in Malaysia to highlight a strong fall. A timely elixir for recent woes. Kapalua helps hide his inconsistency off the tee. A respective second and T10 in last two editions, averaging 68.50 in those eight rounds. Since last year’s debut two months after blistering form that produced it, he’s been consistently strong. Top 10s in all three starts during the fall and remained warm since. The first-timer is so versatile throughout his bag and he loves himself Bermuda greens. Concluded the fall with a co-runner-up at the WGC-HSBC Champions. Has logged a pair of top 10s here in four starts, but earns this nod on the shoulders of the last five months of 2016. Includes top 25s in all three starts in the fall. Sat out the entire fall after reaching TOUR Championship. The ball-striker ranked second in strokes gained: tee-to-green en route to a solo fifth in last visit to Kapalua (2014). Won Mayakoba in third start after returning from shoulder surgery. Acknowledged maturity and perspective he didn’t possess before. Can stay aggressive at Kapalua (T10, 2010). The South African made seven starts worldwide in the fall but took the last month off. Not necessarily a race horse but the first-timer at Kapalua is terrific tee to green. Spieth’s domination was evident on the scoreboard, too. His five-stroke lead after 54 holes and eight-shot margin of victory were season highs on TOUR. He led the field in both par-4 and par-5 scoring average, checking in at 4.00 on the latter with two eagles, 12 birdies and two pars. The Plantation Course has four par 5s but only three par 3s, so it’s the only par 73 on the schedule. It can stretch 7,452 yards from the tips, but massive elevation changes shrink overall distance considerably, thus allowing a fairer opportunity for all skill sets to shine, even when persistent cloud cover and periodic rainfall prevent the sun from doing the same. Consider that of the 61 longest measured drives of 2015-16, 32 were laced at Kapalua, including five of the longest 11, 11 of the longest 20 and 14 of the longest 27. Last year’s field averaged 69.805 to establish a 13-year low for the tournament. That’s supported almost entirely by a greens-in-regulation clip of 80.82 percent (highest on TOUR) and a birdies-or-better percentage of 34.73 (fourth-highest). Despite the perceived length that the terrain grants, the par-4 sixth and 17th holes (and to some extent the par-4 12th) are outliers. Kapalua’s distance of all drives averaged 292.2 yards, “just” fifth-longest and surprisingly behind tracks like Glen Abbey (RBC Canadian Open) and East Lake (TOUR Championship), which slotted first and third, respectively. Of this year’s 38 qualifiers, 32 are scheduled to compete, 11 of whom are debutants. A first-timer hasn’t won the SBS Tournament of Champions since Daniel Chopra in 2008, while Americans have enjoyed a stranglehold on the trophy what with six consecutive titles after internationals won the previous nine editions. Trade winds are forecast throughout the tournament and will freshen on the weekend, while a seasonable 80 degrees is the targeted high every day. Bermudagrass greens are prepped to run 10 feet on the Stimpmeter. With primary rough growing just two inches, large greens and an omnipresent threat for rain, you can understand why piling up scoring opportunities and taking aggressive strikes on the greens yields success on the northwest coast of Maui. I will rank the remaining 17 golfers in the field in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. ROB BOLTON’S WRITING SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Columnist Rob Bolton will be filing his usual staples leading up to this week’s event. Look for the following features later this week: MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Fantasy Insider, Comfort Zone WEDNESDAY: One & Done THURSDAY: Most-picked players * = Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks, which also publishes on Tuesdays.
