2012 April at BetLM

Leafs Get to Play the Spoiler Card Against Rivals

TORONTO — Leafs coach Randy Car­lyle chuck­led when it was pre­sented to him after the morn­ing skate that he had a chance to make life mis­er­able for the Buf­falo Sabres by play­ing the spoiler card. “We’ve used a lot of cards,” Car­lyle said. “This deck has only got 52.” Plus the jok­ers, of which there had been too many prior to Saturday’s night’s huge exhale of a 4–3 win. Carlyle’s coun­ter­part, Buffalo’s Lindy Ruff, new bet­ter how­ever. His Sabres were weary after a home loss to Pitts­burgh the night before and had lost two defence­man over the past week. And... 

Florida’s Leonard Reinstated, Cleared to Practice

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida tight end A.C. Leonard, sus­pended indef­i­nitely fol­low­ing his arrest on a domes­tic bat­tery charge last month, has been reinstated. Leonard prac­ticed with the Gators on Wednes­day, but coach Will Muschamp says the sopho­more “still has a lot of things to work through before his sta­tus for the fall is addressed.” Leonard was sus­pended from team activ­i­ties for six weeks, although he was seen attend­ing prac­tice two weeks ago. He was arrested Feb. 15 fol­low­ing an alter­ca­tion with his live-in girl­friend. Accord­ing to Gainesville... 

Santana Will Pitch Opener for Mets

Johan San­tana is offi­cially the Mets’ open­ing day starter. Dur­ing a meet­ing Sun­day with man­ager Terry Collins, the vet­eran lefty was told he is clear to pitch Thurs­day against the Braves at Citi Field. It will be Santana’s first regular-season start since Sept. 2, 2010, when he tore the ante­rior cap­sule in his left shoulder. R.A. Dickey, Jon Niese, Mike Pel­frey and Dil­lon Gee will fol­low San­tana in the rota­tion that Collins announced Sunday. “It means that every­thing we have done since I had my surgery to today has really paid off,” San­tana said. “We... 

Dwyane Wade’s Nephew Shot in Wave of Violence in Chicago

Heat star Dwyane Wade’s nephew was one of 13 peo­ple shot — two fatally — in a vio­lence spree in Chicago. Wade said that he learned of what hap­pened Thurs­day night and said his nephew was on his mind as he dropped 30 on the Toronto Rap­tors in a Heat win Fri­day night. From the Asso­ci­ated Press. “I played for him and with him in mind,” Wade said. “I was 9 years old when he was born. I was an uncle at 9 years old. A lot of thoughts go through your mind. … My prayers go out to all the fam­i­lies involved, espe­cially the one fam­ily who lost a child. My prayers go... 

Police: Leaf Broke Into Home to Steal Bottle of Painkillers

HELENA, Mont. — Police in Mon­tana arrested ex-NFL quar­ter­back Ryan Leaf after a month-long inves­ti­ga­tion that cul­mi­nated with Leaf break­ing into an acquaintance’s home to steal pre­scrip­tion pain med­ica­tion, the task force com­man­der who led the probe said Saturday. Author­i­ties believe he may have bro­ken into other homes in search of pre­scrip­tion drugs over the past one-and-a-half years and are ask­ing those vic­tims to come for­ward, said Cen­tral Mon­tana Drug Force Com­man­der Chris Hickman. “We do have some infor­ma­tion that this may not... 

Talbot Looking Forward to on-Ice Rivalry With Crosby

Maxime Tal­bot got used to see­ing a lot of Sid­ney Crosby dur­ing their six sea­sons as team­mates with the Pitts­burgh Penguins. They would prac­tice together, their locker stalls were right next to each other, they even shot a tele­vi­sion com­mer­cial together for Reebok. Tal­bot likely will see a lot more of Crosby on Sun­day, when Talbot’s new team, the Philadel­phia Fly­ers, vis­its the Pitts­burgh Pen­guins (12:30 p.m., NBC) in a game that could be a pre­cur­sor to a first-round Stan­ley Cup Play­off series. “It’s going to be a fun time. Play­ing the Pen­guins... 

NFLPA Has Had Open Invitation to Review Bounty Info Since March 2

Friday’s com­ments from NFLPA exec­u­tive direc­tor DeMau­rice Smith, who crit­i­cized the NFL’s fail­ure to share infor­ma­tion regard­ing the Saints’ bounty inves­ti­ga­tion, cou­pled with reports of the league’s response cre­ated the impres­sion that the league pre­vi­ously hadn’t shown a will­ing­ness to give the union any­thing more than a pair of con­fi­den­tial reports. A source with knowl­edge of the sit­u­a­tion tells PFT that, in real­ity, the NFLPA has had an open invi­ta­tion to review addi­tional infor­ma­tion at the league offices in Man­hat­tan... 

Franklin Gutierrez (Pectoral) Cleared to Begin Throwing

Mariners cen­ter fielder Franklin Gutier­rez was put on the dis­abled list before Wednesday’s season-opener in Japan and won’t be in the Seat­tle start­ing lineup Fri­day when the team gets going state-side. But he should be ready to rock by the end of April. Accord­ing to Larry Stone of the Seat­tle Times, Gutier­rez was recently cleared to begin throw­ing and played catch against a wall Fri­day in Mariners camp. The 29-year-old has been hit­ting for more than two weeks with­out expe­ri­enc­ing any lin­ger­ing pain or dis­com­fort in the area of his once torn pec­toral... 

Kobe Has Day Only Kobe Could Have, Caps It With Game Winner

Sat­ur­day was vin­tage Kobe… or at least vin­tage 2012 Kobe. He looked tired — as he has a lot lately, which is why we have all watched is shoot­ing per­cent­ages drop — and started the game 0–15 shoot­ing with zero points through three quar­ters. Yes you read that right. Zero points on 15 missed shots. Then he went 3–6 in the fourth quar­ter, scored 11 points and did this: For Lak­ers fans that is a vin­tage “don’t shoot that Kobe, no, no no no no.… YES!” moment. He is no longer the Kobe Bryant from 2003. The ath­leti­cism has taken a step back but because he... 

Leafs Win One at Home

TORONTO — If small sam­ple sizes are your thing, go ahead and anoint Ben Scrivens as the Maple Leafs’ start­ing goalie for 2012–13. Jonas Gus­tavs­son, nurs­ing a knee injury, is day to day and could be allowed to walk as a free agent this sum­mer. James Reimer deserves to get a fresh start next Sep­tem­ber, and that’s if his health is up to par. Scrivens was sharp on Sat­ur­day night, mak­ing 29 saves against the Buf­falo Sabres at the Air Canada Cen­tre as the Leafs snapped a franchise-record 11-game home los­ing streak with a 4–3 win. The Leafs, 0–8-3 in that span,...