off Page 242 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The NHL's New Playoff Format, As Explained By Highly Paid Consultants
The NHL rolled out a new playoff format this season, which some have found a bit confusing. To assist, an employee at Accenture—the world's largest consulting company—has passed along a presentation he made for his boss to explain the changes. This is a great pro bono service: Had you personally ask...

The NBA Playoffs' Most Memorable Moments, Animated
The NBA playoffs start tomorrow, and they are the absolute best time of year. To celebrate that, here are some of our favorite moments from the playoffs in rotoscoped animation. ...

Head-To-Head Records Of The NBA Playoffs, As Cool Radial Charts
Over on NBA.com, Andy Bergmann (@dubly) has put together some neat radial charts showing the head-to-head records between this season's playoff teams....

NBA Playoff Interactive Shows Who's Most Likely To Win Every Round
Our friend Ed Feng at The Power Rank, along with Andrew Phillips from Chartball, put together an interactive that shows win probabilities for the NBA playoffs, all the way through to the finals, weighted heavily by adjusted strength of schedule. ...

Nathan MacKinnon Shows The Grown-Ups How It's Done
The Avs pulled off a thrilling win in Game 1 of their series with Minnesota last night, scoring the tying goal with 13 seconds left and winning it 7:27 into overtime. Neither could have happened without rookie Nathan MacKinnon, playing his first big-boy playoff hockey with the coolness of someone tw...

Alex Steen Ends An Exhausting Three-OT Blackhawks-Blues Game
It took five periods and less than a minute to finish the first game of the Blackhawks-Blues series. Within 26 seconds of the third overtime, Alex Steen flicked in a back pass by Steve Ott for the 4-3 victory. Both teams will surely enjoy tomorrow's day of rest....

Joel Quenneville Goes Into Nut-Grabbing Rage While Demanding Penalty
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville wants a delay of game penalty against the Blues, dammit. (He did not get it, and Chicago and St. Louis went to a third overtime.)...

This Is Not A Good Haircut, Hockey Fan
You should not have done this, hockey fan. This was a bad thing to do....

What's The Best Way To Score On Jonathan Quick And Antti Niemi?
Goalie performance is extraordinarily important to success in the NHL playoffs (which began last night, FYI). To get you ahead of the curve, Kevin Woodley of NHL.com has broken down the intriguing "goaltender matchup" between LA's Jonathan Quick and San Jose's Antti Niemi, with the help of some goof...

Canadiens Take First Game In OT, Spoil Steven Stamkos's Stellar Night
On the first night of playoff hockey, we had free playoff hockey, and it was good....

Get Pumped For The NHL Playoffs With The <em>Hockey Night In Canada</em> Opening
Canadiens-Lightning and Blue Jackets-Penguins are already underway, but you can get hyped up for the entire NHL playoffs with tonight's Hockey Night In Canada opening. Just try not to run into a brick wall after watching it....

Players Boycott Return Of Coach Fired For False Child Porn Charges
The story of Todd Hoffner, the former Minnesota State-Mankato football coach who was fired after being falsely accused of possessing child pornography in 2012, took a strange and sad turn today as he attempted to reclaim his old job—and players refused to practice for him....

Facebook Fandom Map Shows Who We're Rooting For In The NHL Playoffs
Just in time for the postseason, Facebook has put together this map showing which of the remaining 16 NHL teams are favored in each American state and Canadian province and territory. ...

<em>Wheel Of Fortune</em> Contestant Flubs "Achilles," Loses Chance At $1M
Dammit, Julian. His opportunity for $1 million was right there, but he couldn't pronounce "Achilles."...

KHL Player Scores Incredible Juggling Goal
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was eliminated from the KHL playoffs today, but not before Geoff Platt—who had cups of coffee with the Blue Jackets and Ducks—scored this ridiculous three-tap goal....

Christian Ehrhoff Tweets Photos Of His Ear After A Puck Slices It Open
Christian Ehrhoff of the Sabres doesn't understand the concept of oversharing, because he tweeted a few photos of his ear after a puck cut it open tonight in Buffalo's game against the Flyers....

What Is Your City's Most Distinctive Starbucks Order?
Over on Quartz, Roberto A. Ferdman and David Yanofsky have mapped out a great dataset from Starbucks (above), showing which sorts of drinks are ordered in different parts of the country....

If MMA Doesn't Change, Someone Is Going To Die
No one needed to see Marlon Moraes continue beating on Josh Rettinghouse. Moraes had outclassed his opponent in every facet of the game for 15 minutes, piling on abuse and bludgeoning his lead leg. Rettinghouse could barely support his own weight, let alone continue to defend himself, and as he hobb...

Sidney Crosby Gets Whacked In The Face By A Linesman
The Penguins, playing for absolutely nothing but trying to turn around a .500 run since the Olympic break, fell 4-1 to Carolina last night. It was this sort of game all around. [Gif by Mike Darnay/PensBurgh]...

This Is The <em>Wheel Of Fortune</em> Equivalent Of A Hail Mary Touchdown
Emil had little help in the Bonus Puzzle of tonight's episode of Wheel of Fortune, with none of his guessed letters showing up. Only two of the provided letters popped up, too. But somehow, Emil still solved it on his first guess, winning $45,000 and stunning host Pat Sajak....