The mantra pops up on Twitter, retweeted with exuberance; it surfaces in a Facebook post drawing dozens of likes; it dominates the thoughts of diehard fans akin to children counting down the days toward Christmas. Suddenly, well, this cold, harsh winter isn’t so bad after all. Ladies and gentlemen, “Pitchers and catchers are reporting”. Soon.

The NHL is back, finally. However, as refreshing as it is to see actual games being played and hockey highlights daily in lieu of witnessing Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr bickering at each other in public in a sad, vain attempt to win a public relations battle, the hockey fan in me is rarely satisfied. […]

Dearest Ray Lewis, How are you? I write to you a couple of days after of your team’s dismissal of the New England Patriots in the 2012 AFC Championship, it’s probably dawned on you that you’re heading to your second Super Bowl. This game in New Orleans in two weeks will be the last game […]

Although Derrick Rose’s absence in Chicago is obvious, the fact that the franchise hasn’t spiraled out of control without its far and away best player is a testament to the rest of the squad around him. Mark Milner takes a thorough look at Carlos Boozer and the rest of the Bulls who have kept the Eastern Conference contender afloat all along.

In killing the trade that would have sent four prospects to the Diamondbacks in his stead, Justin Upton has sent a simple message to an entire city: I’m just not that into you. It was a team already on his no-trade list, so you can’t really blame him, but why? What could one possibly have against Seattle? Harlan Ambrose speculates.

It’s no secret that the New York Rangers are a legitimate NHL contender. Last season, however, the team’s gruelling, physically exacting, John Tortorella-style campaign fell apart when it mattered most. This year, with a shortened season and having had more time to recover over the offseason, look out. Can the lockout be attributed for the New York Rangers being this year’s favorite to win the Stanley Cup?

We’ve seen the grainy footage, we’ve heard the myths, but not until the 2009 release of “Red and Me” have basketball fans taken a good long look at the relationship between Bill Russell and Red Auerbach. Although the book may leave those desperate for historical details wanting, it’s a pleasant summary of what goes down as one of the most successful coach-player dynamics in NBA history.

The London Knights went on a 25-game winning streak which was snapped to ring in the new year in an overtime loss. The point-scoring streak ended this past weekend after 28 games. The domination suggested by the streak doesn’t exactly hold up when look at the in-game numbers, though. Are the Knights really this good, or are they just extreme beneficiaries of gratuitous amounts of luck?

Four big-name quarterbacks wound up on the wrong side of the score this weekend and many have already blamed each of them for their team’s respective losses. It’s understandable, quarterbacks get much of the attention in any game, win or lose. However, just as pivots are often heaped with undeserved praise following poor performances in a win, they often get undeserved criticism after turning in a solid showing in a losing effort. Andrew Bucholtz explains.

There’s no denying that the annual IIHF World Junior Championship produces some of the most fascinating hockey fans of the sport will see in a given year. Lucas di Giovanni weighs in on all the subtleties within the Federation’s unique rulebook that its more famous counterpart – the NHL – could stand to benefit from.