racingmeridian.com

ICE…the San Jose Sharks are winless in their last six games. The embattled team has dropped to second place in the Pacific Division behind the Phoenix Coyotes and are currently the fourth seed in the Western Conference playoff rankings…Montreal puck stopper Jaroslav Halak has a 2.03 GAA and a .921 save percentage in his past seven games. The Habs need to make him the number one goalie and put Carey Price on the backburner…no goalie is hotter than the Nashville Predators Pekka Rinne. He has an 8-1 win loss record post-Olympics, boasting a 1.75 GAA and a .935 save percentage…Jose Theodore isn’t attracting much attention but he’s in the midst of an amazing streak; he’s 16-0-2 since January 7^th. He has wrested the starter role away from Semyon Varlamov and will be on the hot seat as the Caps kick off a playoff campaign that seems destined for glory…are the New Jersey Devils feeling a bit queasy about Ilya Kovalchuk? The high profile acquisition has been bumped to the second line and there are whispers the Russian is at his best on bad teams, where pressure is minimal. Kovalchuk has five goals in sixteen games as a Devil…Alexei Kovalev has, along with his Ottawa Senator teammates, disappeared in March. He has zero points in his last nine games, one of the reasons the Sens have completely stalled…the Calgary Flames, in a desperate fight for the final playoff spot in the West, turned to, gulp, Vessa Toskala last night against Minnesota. Vesa was pulled in the second after a typical sloppy performance, surrendering 3 goals after a mere 12 shots…Flames coach Brent Sutter is a dead ringer for Mr Potato Head…Alex Tanguay, with a piddling nine goals this year, was a healthy scratch for the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday night…

GRID IRON…the Indianapolis Colts are expected to make Peyton Manning the highest paid player in the NFL with a 20 million a year stipend. Manning’s contract was scheduled to be up at the end of the 2010 season…New England’s Tom Brady currently earns 10 million a year. Yeah, he’s living like a pauper…Arizona Cardinal GM Rod Graves has many scratching their heads. The seemingly sane decision maker has signed Derek Anderson and Joey Porter to huge money deals despite the fact the pair have seen better days. Anderson is expected to back up Matt Leinart while writer Adam Schefter speculates Porter will have to have every play responsibilities in order to justify his 24 million dollar package…

PUG LIFE…strange reports out of New Zealand have David Tua waddling around the ring at over 260 lbs. Tua, who faces Friday Ahunanya in ten days, seemed on the verge of reigniting his career after a sparkling win over Shane Cameron. But with less than two weeks to the fight, it sounds like the same old Tuaman; fat and indifferent… Thomas Hauser’s latest article is up on the Seconds Out website. Hauser accompanied Manny Pacquiao in the hours before he faced Joshua Clottey. The most interesting part of the piece is the description of the stupendous Dallas arena where the fight took place…

PONIES…Ice Box earned a 99 Beyer while taking the three quarter of a million dollar Florida Derby on Saturday. Favoured Rule wilted while well-fancied Radiohead suffered from a wide trip after breaking from the outside post. The race was a bit disappointing and the winner does not look up to the challenge of Eskendereya or Lookin At Lucky, the current favourites…the final Kentucky Derby “futures” pool will be conducted this weekend. The timing is strange, coming a week before the Wood Memorial and Santa Anita Derby are contested. Apparently they did not want to run a pool on Easter weekend…

TURN LEFT…with Jimmie Johnsons score at Bristol yesterday, the tracks the 48 cars hasn’t won at was reduced to five (Michigan, Watkins Glenn, Homestead, Infineon and Chicago). Johnson has accounted for three of the first five NASCAR races and has been dominating even when not necessarily having the best car. He’s savvy and ferociously determined, traits that will likely carry him to a fifth successive Championship…I had Kurt Busch backed, so it was a bittersweet day. Busch had the best car but he, like countless others, succumbed to the ruthless strategy of Chad Knause and Johnson…Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle have top ten finishes in all five races this year. Surprisingly, neither of them, nor Johnson, is leading the standings. That honour is accorded to Kevin Harvick…