Each week, The Reporters put their thumbs out to the good and the bad in the world of sports. This week they discuss Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, the "worst rule" in pro hockey, Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper and the NHL trophy finalists.
Cathal Kelly, Toronto Star: My thumb is down to Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment and the way they've handled the hiring or firing of Bryan Colangelo; their president and general manager. At this point, Colangelo should either be in or he should be out. We are a month gone from the NBA's regular season closing and yet we wait. We wait for what; we don't yet know, decisiveness is key here and MLSE has failed on that point.
Steve Simmons, Sun Media: My thumb is down to the worst rule in pro hockey. We've seen it now 20 times in the Stanley Cup Playoffs - the delay of game for flipping the puck over the glass. We saw in Game 2 of the Kings-Sharks series basically costing San Jose the win. You're fighting for every inch of ice in the playoffs and this rule has to go.
Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated: My thumb is down to Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper for lunacy. He went back for a fly ball and collided with the right field wall at Dodger Stadium on Monday in Los Angeles and turned a double into a triple. This was a one-sided game in the late innings and he compounded everything by saying he would do it again. He will always play hard, but play smart.
Dave Hodge, TSN: Thumbs have gone up and down every day lately as the NHL rolls out its trophy finalists. There was an interesting criticism of the Hart Trophy nominees from Ryan Getzlaf, who charged that voters in the East were in bed when he and the other top players in the Western Conference were playing, but, so what? The voters could have stayed up all night and not done better than Crosby, Ovechkin and Tavares. So my trophy beef isn't with the hart, but rather, with the Norris, where the voters mightn't have been asleep, but did they just happen to have their eyes closed every time Zdeno Chara played a game? I'm thinking that's the only way you miss him as a Norris finalist, as big as he is and as valuable as he is to the Boston Bruins.