This Week in Sports: March 7th

NHL:

Playoff races are getting tighter and tighter as we come down to the final stretch run of the regular season. It's entirely possible that the last few playoff spots could be decided in the final games of the season, which will certainly raise the intrigue league-wide, even for fans of teams that are already out of playoff contention. As it stands, only five points separate the 8th and 13th spots in the Eastern Conference, while in the West the five-point gap is between 7th and 12th place. There will no doubt be plenty of drama and fast-paced action as teams scrap for as many points as they can get their hands on in the fight for a chance at hockey's holy grail this spring.

NFL:

Monday was the deadline for NFL teams to apply their exclusive franchise tag (should they choose to) on one player they wish to lock up for the upcoming season. The concept essentially allows a team to "prevent" losing a player to free agency if a contract extension cannot be reached. The tag essentially buys teams more time to work out a legitimate deal, as is the case with the New Orleans Saints, who franchised their prolific quarterback, Drew Brees, for the upcoming season so that the two sides can work exclusively on getting a deal done. The problem with the franchise tag is that the salary commanded is a number derived from the player's most recent contract, which then gets increased by approximately 20% of its total value; therefore, Brees will be making close to 17 million this season alone, which is not unheard of for star quarterbacks, but it seriously limits a team's flexibility in terms of signing and retaining other free agents.

MLB:

Baseball spring training has begun in earnest, as pre-season games have commenced, giving teams a chance to test the young talent in their organizations while also keeping a close eye on bubble players who may or may not get cut, and keying on any flaws certain players need to improve upon. It also gives fans a preemptive glimpse of what they might see from their teams in the upcoming season. An example of this comes in the form of Brett Lawrie, the fiery, talented third-baseman of the Toronto Blue Jays who is already hearing about the high expectations being placed upon him for this season. He's answered the call, for now anyways; this weekend he hit two doubles in the Jays opening pre-season game against Pittsburgh. Consistency will be the key for Lawrie and the Jays as they attempt to come out on top in what is perhaps the toughest division in baseball.

NBA:

In the marquee match-up of the weekend, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers made a bold statement to the entire league by taking down the Miami Heat in a physical matchup that saw Miami star Dwayne Wade foul out of the game near its conclusion. Kobe extracted a small measure of revenge against Wade and the Heat after Wade broke Kobe's nose and concussed him in last weekend's All-Star game, but there was no real physical retaliation from Kobe or his teammates, so that finally the overblown story can be put to rest.

The other big news that came out of the NBA this weekend was the unreal performance by Nets point-guard Deron Williams, who put up a stunning 57 points in a game against the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday.

MLS:

The Montreal Impact will be making their long-awaited and much-anticipated Major League Soccer debut this Saturday in B.C against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Kickoff is at 6 PM.

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