This Week in Sports: March 28th

NHL:

As the season finally draws to a close, yet another look at the standings reveals nothing in terms of teams breaking away from the rest of the pack at the bottom of both the Eastern and Western conference playoff pictures. It looks to be a three-horse race between Buffalo, Ottawa and Washington in the East for better seeding, but a mere 4 points separate the four teams between 7th and 11th, no doubt signifying another crazy race to the finish line as the teams finish out the last few games of the regular season.

NBA:

In a potential preview of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder came out on top of LeBron James and the Miami Heat, 103-87, with Durant dropping 28 points on the Heat. The Thunder thoroughly dominated Miami, making a huge statement as the shortened NBA season draws to a close and the playoffs appear on the horizon. The teams face-off again in Miami in the upcoming week, and if the Thunder can take down the Heat in their own barn they will seriously be in the heads of the powerful Miami squad.

NFL:

Two huge bombshells were dropped in a matter of minutes this past week; first, Tim Tebow was traded to the New York Jets, stepping into an even larger microscope than he was already under in Denver (a direct result of Peyton Manning signing with the Broncos a few days earlier). A few minutes later, the Twitterverse exploded as the story broke that the Saints had been dealt a huge punishment from the league due to their involvement in a bounty-system that was set up by former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. The system essentially gave defensive players money for taking out star players from opposing teams. Williams was handed an indefinite suspension by commissioner Roger Goodell, but he is currently under contract with the St.Louis Rams so it does not affect the Saints—what does hurt the Saints are the suspensions for GM Mickey Loomis, who got 8 games, and head coach Sean Payton, who got the entire season. Payton will forfeit close to 8$ million in salary and will also be unavailable to lead the Saints to a potential home Super Bowl, as the big game will be held in New Orleans this year.

Golf:

Tiger Woods is… back? Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational this weekend, albeit without Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald in the field, his first win in a PGA Tour event after being shutout for over two years. The real test comes this weekend when Woods and the rest of the world’s top golfers face off at Augusta for The Masters; Woods (and his doubters) ultimately won’t be satisfied until he wins another major.

-Andrew Maggio co-hosts Game Misconduct every Sunday from 12pm-2pm and runs a dedicated Habs blog that you can check out here