The national media has done a great job of finding excuses for the Boston Celtics, who are facing a Game 7 elimination Saturday night against a Philadelphia 76ers team that really has no business getting this deep into the playoffs. One of the excuses is that the Celtics are without starter Avery Bradley, who is a nice player but isn’t even one of the Big 4 that people talk about.

A source tells WEEI in Boston that Bradley actually underwent surgery on both of his shoulders on Friday and will begin four-month long rehab process that could take place this summer or he can wait until early fall or mid-late winter. It’s believed that he’ll start now.

This news means that Bradley will be questionable for tonight’s Game 7. He’ll most likely be a game-time decision.

You know, you can’t make this stuff up. You’d think with all of the negative press that the Cincinnati Bengals have gotten over the years for having a collection of turds and/or felons, that they would lay off the players with character issues. Not the case.

Not only did they sign undrafted rookie Vontaze Burfict – teams took him completely off of their draft boards – but they also signed 2011 Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year Brandon Joiner.

What’s Joiner’s issue? Well he was recently sentenced to three years in prison after he was convicted of a 2007 robbery. The plea deal allowed him to graduate before his sentencing.

Yep, he and another guy from Texas A&M broke into a drug dealer’s apartment and robbed him at gunpoint. Police found marijuana, Ecstasy and hydrocodone in his apartment. Awesome.

So, the Bengals signed this guy knowing that he had all this going on. Awesome.

Joiner’s attorney expects him to only serve 6-9 months after good behavior.

“Since this incident, Brandon has conducted himself in an exemplary fashion and I’m sure he will continue to do that,” attorney Jay Cranberry said. “There are a lot of people rooting for Brandon and I’m convinced he’s not going to let anyone down.”

Awesome.

I’ve found it kind of odd that so far in this 2012 season, Roy Oswalt has not been on a roster. It’s not because he can’t pitch anymore. Yes, he does have some injury concerns with that troublesome back, but he’d still be on of the better starters on most staffs.

It has to be that he just wants too much money right now. There are rumors of interested teams, including the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies, but nothing has come of it yet.

And according to Jon Heyman of CNNSI.com, you can add another team to the list of interested parties: The Baltimore Orioles.

“Roy oswalt on ‪#orioles‬ radar. ‪#redsox‬ ‪#phillies‬ ‪#rangers‬ others involved,” Heyman tweets.

No one thought the Orioles would have Oswalt on their radar back in spring training because the Orioles weren’t on anyone’s radar. Now that they are off to this hot start in an incredibly tough division, they could be looking to add troops for their playoff push.

If you’re like me, you’ve been holding on to Michael Morse in your fantasy baseball league, waiting for him to come off the DL. He was shut down on April 11th with a torn lat muscle. Sounds painful.

But, according to manager Davey Johnson, Morse will “for sure” be activated by June 8th for their series against the Boston Red Sox.

“There’s some people thinking it might be accelerated ahead of that,” Johnson added. “We’ll see on Friday how he comes out of that game.”

He’s going to start making his rehab starts this week. Micah’s fantasy team could use him in the lineup. Let’s get going here.

Well, the good news is that this wasn’t much worse. Michael McKean, who is most famous for playing Lenny on “Laverne & Shirley” and David St. Hubbins from “This is Spinal Tap,” was injured in New York City on Tuesday when he was struck by a car.

Reports say that he broke his leg, but is otherwise fine.

Whew!!

Spinal Tap cannot afford to lose any more members. You’ve seen how many people have been in this band, there have been 37 people over the years. Mainly, it’s because all of the drummers have died. Stumpy Pepys, who played with them when they were the Thamesman, died in a bizarre gardening accident that the authorities said was better left unsolved.

So, we’re thrilled that McKean (St. Hubbins) is going to be okay. Seriously, he’s a brilliant comedic actor who we’d miss greatly. Meanwhile, Jack Black is alive and kicking. Go figure.

Los Angeles Lakers big man Andrew Bynum is clearly one of the best centers in the NBA. He broke out this year in his seventh season with 18.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game. He also made the All-Star team for the first time in his career.

However, he isn’t sure what’s going to happen regarding his future with the Lakers. The team holds a $16.1 million team option that the team has to exercise by the end of June. He was asked about staying with the Lakers after his dismal Game 5 performance that led to elimination against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“I’m not sure,” Bynum said. “It really doesn’t matter to me. I’ll play anywhere. I think for the most part I had a pretty decent season and an OK postseason, so we’ll see.”

At least he didn’t turn into a complete a-hole this time and assault J.J. Barea during the loss like he did last year when their season was going down the toilet.

But, one would have to think that the Lakers will find a way to extend the 24-year old. Talented big men don’t grow on trees in the NBA.

“It’s going to depend on what the team wants to do,” Bynum said of an extension. “I would definitely want to be a Laker. It’s going to be up to the team.”

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a bit, but kept putting it off. There has been a recent trend developing in youth sports, where the parents and/or the league decide that they don’t want to keep score. “The kids are too young, and losing could damage them.” You have to be flipping kidding me.

I was reminded to write about this when I was reading Vincent Mancino’s book “Down the Drain Society.” It’s like a lot of political books in that, depending who you are, you’ll agree with some parts of it and disagree with others. Well, this particular chapter called “Who Brings Twinkies to the Game,” struck more than a chord with me. It was an entire orchestra.

Photo Caption: Alan has six goals in a 0-0 game.

Here is some of it and it’s spot on:

You know how they say that forty is the new thirty? Well, I believe that last place has now become the new first place. I played sports throughout my childhood and I don’t once recall getting half the things kids get today. The most amazing thing to me is that everyone is rewarded no matter the outcome, win or lose. Seriously? A trophy for everyone? Who thought this up and why? I dare to say that whoever the culprit is that designed and awarded the same size of trophies for first, second, and third place on down, regardless of the level of play, probably never earned or put in the real work necessary to receive a bigger trophy than the next guy.

When did we forget that playing a sport is about competing and that the winners are supposed to get the bigger reward? It’s about bringing your best ability to the arena and showing the other team your skills. Next thing you know, we’ll stop giving grades out in school. Everyone will get an A+ just for showing up. All C students will be allowed into Yale, because it’s only fair. Should we cancel the Olympics?

No, Vincent, we shouldn’t cancel the Olympics. However, we shouldn’t let our kids watch them! Seeing an athlete on television losing could ruin them for life!

Life is about winning and losing. Life sucks a lot of times. Losing sucks. The sooner kids learn this lesson, the better off we’ll all be.

Plus, even if there is no official score kept at the game, the kids can keep score in their own heads. And most of them do! I know I would have.

You don’t get a trophy for losing. You can get a participation ribbon, that’s okay. But that’s what it is: a participation ribbon. All it says is that you were out there. Rewarding kids with trophies when they didn’t accomplish anything teaches them that you always get something, even if you didn’t earn it. What a great lesson that is!

So please, knock it off. Keep score. In life, you learn way more from your failures than you do from your success. I mean, this is just getting ridiculous.

Well, this doesn’t sound good. Detroit Lions WR Titus Young showed some promise as a rookie, but this isn’t the way you’d want to start your second season.

Young has been banned from the team’s facility for OTA’s after he got into a fight with safety Louis Delmas, according to beat writer Anwar Richardson of MLive.com.

“#Lions WR Titus Young missed OTAs today due to a fight with Louis Delmas last week #NFL,” Richardson tweets.

Richardson also added that he won’t be allowed back on the premise “until the team decides to have him back.”

Ouch.

In case you were wondering whose fault it was, Delmas is allowed at the facility and to participate in OTA’s. This sounds like – unless there is a huge “Three’s Company”-style misunderstanding – that Young is to blame for the altercation.

Fights happen in football practices all the time, but very rarely do you hear of someone getting banished from the facility for them. We can’t wait to find out what really happened.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been pretty clear that they don’t have TE Kellen Winslow, Jr. in their plans. It’s already been reported that they were trying to trade him to the Chicago Bears this past offseason, but the Bears were more interested in getting Brandon Marshall

So now, the Bucs will probably take anything that anyone will give up for him. And if that doesn’t happen, he’ll likely be released outright.

Look for the second thing to happen. Even though the majority of his guaranteed payouts have been payed by the Bucs, he is still due salaries of $3.3 million, $4.5 million and $5.5 million over the next three years.

Ain’t nobody paying that.

And not only that, any team interested in Winslow’s services knows that too. Why would they give something up for him when they know that no one else would either? And they know the Bucs will eventually cut him, so they can go after him then.

With teams emulating the New England Patriots’ two-tight end system, Winslow won’t be on the market for long. There are plenty of teams that could use him.

Ike Davis is considered to be one of the top young players in the New York Mets organization. The first baseman is being counted on to be one of the centerpieces of the franchise moving forward.

Except that he’s been awful this year. He’s got 5 HR’s while hitting .160. Yep, .160. He makes Freddie Galvis look like Ty Cobb.

So, because he’s so young, the next question is: Will he get sent down to Triple A?

“Terry Collins was not saying Ike is going to minors, but he was not as dismissive of possibility either,” tweets Adam Rubin of ESPN.

Ok, so it sounds like it’s on the table. Davis needs to get hot pretty quickly, or he could be sent down when Jason Bay comes off the DL in early June. No pressure though.

Philadelphia 76ers power forward Elton Brand will continue to start games versus the Boston Celtics. That’s what Doug Collins said after the team’s come-from-behind Game 4 win. Brand has been completely ineffective and has been pulled early in games.

He’s averaging just 4.7 points and three rebounds per game in just 16 minutes.

Despite his awful numbers, Collins says that he’s the guy to start.

“I just think [Brand] deserves to start,” Collins said. “He’s one of our proudest players. I admire him and respect him to the ultimate. I’m not going to come in here, in a game like [Friday], and not have him in our starting lineup. I’m just not going to do that. I have too much respect for this game, for him, and what he’s done for our team, and what he’s done for this organization.”

Brand has been dealing with a sore neck that he picked up in the first round against the Chicago Bulls.

“I think his neck is bothering him more than he wants to say,” Collins said. “I’ll say that. Watching him in shootaround [Friday], and it’s hard for him to turn his neck.”

You keep starting him, we’ll keep looking for the quick hook.

While the offense of the Philadelphia Phillies has picked it up a bit as of late (thanks, Chooch), it’s still hardly a well-oiled machine. It’s not the one-run debacle that it was earlier this season, but they could use help.

And according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com, that help could be on the way in June.

He says that there is “a growing feeling” that Ryan Howard (Achilles) and Chase Utley (knee) could re-join the team in June. Howard is considered the first to come back and his return is more certain. Utley just began fielding ground balls and he hasn’t had a chance to see how his knee will react to the increased activity.

Neither player has a timetable for his return.

The Phillies are in the basement of the NL East, but are currently riding a six-game winning streak. Who knows what Howard and Utley will even be when they come back, but it could at least help get other guys to their proper spots in the lineup.

Did you miss the battle between Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and home plate umpire Bob Davidson this week? It was pretty great. Manuel got upset that Davidson got in Brian Schneider’s way as he tried to grab strike three in the dirt. Schneider couldn’t get the ball and the dude was safe at first after striking out.

Davidson screamed into the dugout, “you think I wanted to block his ass?”

Not sure exactly what Charlie said back, but he got tossed and didn’t care for it. The video is here:

After the expletive-laden battle was over, MLB decided that both guys should have a seat for a game. You see players and managers get suspended all the time, but umpires? And better yet, they said Davidson’s suspension was for “repeated violations.” Wow, how about that?

From the press release:

Umpire Bob Davidson has received a one-game suspension for his repeated violations of the Office of the Commissioner’s standards for situation handling, Major League Baseball announced today.

Davidson’s suspension is to be served tonight, when his crew will work the Minnesota Twins-Milwaukee Brewers game at Miller Park. A Minor League call-up umpire will fill Davidson’s spot in tonight’s game.

This guy must be one hell of an umpire to not just get fired. If he’s constantly screwing up, couldn’t they just find someone else to judge whether the little white ball went over the plate or not?

As if Facebook isn’t in the news enough, they are even more talked about this week than usual. Yep, they have that little IPO thing happening and apparently some people care.

You think founder Mark Zuckerberg is awkward now? Well, in this 2004 CNBC clip where he describes his new company, he’s even more awkward.

This took place long before your mom got onto Facebook and before anyone had any clue who this kid was. Seemed like just another internet startup company. I still think Myspace and Friendster are the social sites to invest in.

Check it out:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From good news to worse news for Oakland Raiders LB Rolando McClain. Yesterday, video surfaced of the incident that has him facing charges of third-degree assault, menacing, reckless endangerment and discharging a firearm. That’s bad enough, but now, his co-defendant has agreed to testify against him.

Jaradious Williams has agreed to plead guilty to third-degree assault in exchange for his testimony against McClain in his trial that starts on Thursday. Probably not what Raiders executives were hoping for.

Photo Caption: McClain takes the charges very seriously.

Williams will get about $300 in fines and be sentenced to 30 days in jail.

As for the video that was released, it sounds like it won’t help McClain’s case.

“It’s obvious that McClain has been edited out of parts of it, but it matches up perfectly with (the victim)’s statements of it,” attorney Carl Cole said. “I think this shows that there may be cracks in Willingham and McClain’s circle of friends. They may not all be willing to hide what happened that night.”

The 2012 season has not been too good to the Philadelphia Phillies. They’ve been in last place most of the season and just got their first three-game winning streak of the season on Tuesday. Not good for a team with a huge payroll and World Series aspirations.

Now, the team gets some more good news. One of their reliable starting pitchers (the only part of this team that has been solid this year), Vance Worley, has been placed on the 15-day DL with elbow inflammation.

Anyone see Tommy John in the future?

Not saying that will happen, but elbow trouble isn’t good. GM Ruben Amaro says that they will know more about the inflammation some time on Wednesday. Can’t wait to hear that report.

The designation is retroactive to May 12, but that doesn’t mean he’ll come off of the DL as scheduled.

Phillies fans: Hold your breath. This team can’t afford to take on more water.

Whoops! When Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter named Jim Johnson as the team’s closer, we made light of it, saying basically “who the hell cares?”

Boy, was OTR wrong…again (happens all the time, we’re used to it around here).

While it may not last forever, right now Johnson is smoking hot. He closed out the New York Yankees tonight and now has 12 saves on the year, tied for first in MLB. He has an absolutely insane ERA of 0.54. 0.54!

This is coming from a guy who had an ERA well over six in spring training. In our defense, it wasn’t like Buck Showalter was thrilled to name him as his closer at the time.

But, kudos to Johnson and shame on OTR (for now). This guy is pitching his ass off and could develop into one of the best closers in the league. Unless he doesn’t, because then he won’t.

Well, if this doesn’t warm your heart then you are just an ass. On Sunday, De Graafschap, a soccer team that no one has ever heard of, drew to a 1-1 tie in their second promotion/relegation game.

It was after they lost their first game, and the club ended up getting relegated.

Rogier Meijer was visibly dejected after the game. He sat on the field afterwards, and then had someone come out to console him. Who? His young daughter Saar, who ran out in her dad’s jersey to see if he was okay. He shook his head and laid back down on the pitch.

Check it out, it’s too cute:

The 2012 season of the Philadelphia Eagles got off to a bad start in late March when Pro Bowl LT Jason Peters ruptured his Achilles tendon. There was a smidgen of hope that he might be able to play this year, but you can squash that talk.

A league source tells Derrick Gunn of CSNPhilly.com that Peters ruptured the tendon for a second time. Apparently, he was maneuvering in his kitchen when his Roll-A-Bout device broke. It’s expected to set him back about three weeks.

Peters had to have a second surgery to repair his heel.

Ouch. That sucks.

According to Gunn, Peters plans on suing the manufacturer of the device.

After lighting it up for my fantasy football team in 2011, Tennessee Titans WR Kenny Britt decided it would be a good time to tear his ACL and MCL in his right knee. It not only ended his season, it ended my fantasy season.

So, obviously Britt had surgery to repair the injuries, but it’s possible that he could need more. While no second surgery has been scheduled for him, he could possibly need a second, less-invasive surgery to fully repair the knee.

“I think it always is (possible),” head coach Mike Munchak said. “I don’t know if he will at some point, but I think that’s something that’s common with that injury. Derrick went through it last year. The good thing is that even if you do have it, it’s not a huge setback. It’s not something that sets you way back. But that is obviously part of the process, or could be, if that arises down the road.”

The good news is that a second surgery isn’t expected to set him back much.

“We don’t look at as a big deal. You have to look at it as why it’s happening, but it’s something that with guys who have had ACLs this is very common, something that’s gone on at times,” Munchak said. “Sometimes it happens much sooner than Derrick’s did, and sometimes it happens like Derrick’s did, once you get more active. We’ll see. He’s been doing well, running hard, and we’ll just have to see how the knee responds.”

Ken Rosenthal’s report makes it clear that no trade is immediate, nor is one likely. But, he says that the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies have discussed possible trades including Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino.

It sounds ridiculous, but not when you consider that the Phillies are in last place in the NL East and continue to find ways to lose games and fall farther behind.

Both are in the last year’s of their contracts and if the Phillies don’t think they can resign them, they are likely trade bait. The Phils don’t want to bail on the season before Chase Utley and Ryan Howard come back, but at some point, they’ll have to face reality.

“My job is to keep all lines of communication open, for the good of the club today and tomorrow,” GM Ruben Amaro said. “I can’t shut any doors down. You try to be creative. And there are a lot of creative GMs out there who have different goals.”

I would think Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee would make more sense to move, considering the team needs to get younger and replenish the farm system. We’ll see what happens, right now this is probably a tire-kicking on behalf of the Jays.

Well, this isn’t good. In the early 2011 draft season, there were many mock drafts and experts who had Clemson DE Da’Quan Bowers as the No. 1-overall pick. Yep, the top pick. But, as we got closer to the draft, his stock fell due to concerns about his knee, which had microfracture surgery on it.

Ok, fair enough. But, he clearly had top-end ability, so I thought it was a great move by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when they nabbed him in the second round. And while most of his rookie season didn’t produce much, he did show signs of his ability towards the end of the year, even if they entire defense stunk on ice.

Well, now things just got worse. Bowers will undergo surgery after tearing his Achilles tendon during the offseason program Thursday. This virtually assures that Michael Bennett and Adrian Clayborn will be starting defensive ends this year.

This doesn’t help Tampa’s defense at all, and it was awful before this. If you’re planning on betting on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this year, I’d take the points as they are probably going to be getting a lot of them.

Not sure what to think of Bowers’ prospects moving forward, but microfracture knee surgery and a torn Achilles would certainly have to take its toll on him.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Raiders WR Darrius Heyward-Bey has gotten himself into a bit of trouble. Specifically, he was charged Thursday with DUI after an incident last month.

Heyward-Bey was pulled over around 2 a.m. on April 7 after his 2012 Range Rover was spotted driving erratically. He was given a field sobriety test and failed, although the police didn’t say what his BAC was. 0.08 is the legal limit.

Police said that he was “very cooperative.” They brought him in on suspicion of DUI and was later released.

That is, until now. He’s officially been charged with DUI now and could face discipline from the league. Although it should be noted that he doesn’t have a history of legal issues.

Being a bust is, in fact, legal.

The Anaheim Ducks announced on Wednesday that they signed veteran center Saku Koivu to a one-year contract. The deal is believed to be $3 million and does include incentives.

Koivu gets this contract despite the fact that he’s 37-years old and his production has steadily declined the last few years. He had 38 points last year, which isn’t very good.

Still, the Ducks want to keep him because he’s a two-way player who helps out on the penalty kill. It’s not always all about points scored, and here is proof.

The Washington Nationals are having a good-news/bad-news type of day. The bad news is that they obviously had to place Jayson “I hate all Philadelphia fans and will firebomb that city when my wrist is healthy” Werth on the disabled list. You’ll remember that he broke his same troublesome wrist on Sunday night against the Phillies.

Werth is likely to miss some 6-12 weeks (depending on which reports you believe), so whether he’s on the 15-day DL, 60-day DL, 135-week DL….it doesn’t matter. Cut him from your fantasy baseball team.

But, the Nationals do get some good news here. 3B Ryan Zimmerman will be activated off the DL, so his bat will be a welcomed addition.

We now wait to hear when Zimmerman will go back on the DL, which should be any time soon.

The Philadelphia Flyers are already in a lousy situation against the New Jersey Devils. They are down 3-1 in the series, but it’s much worse than that. The Devils are killing the Flyers in most aspects of hockey. The Flyers can’t even carry it out of their own zone without a huge fight.

And Game 5 just got a lot tougher. According to the Flyers’ Facebook page, Claude Giroux will be suspended for one game following his hit to the head of Dainius Zubrus.

“BREAKING NEWS: Claude Giroux was given a 1 game suspension by the NHL for a hit on Dainius Zubrus during the 2nd period of last night’s game,” the post reads.

He did hit him well after the puck was gone, but he didn’t leave his feet. Still, the NHL obviously thinks he went after his head (which he did hit). What do you think?

On Sunday night, Philadelphia Phillies stud Cole Hamels mowed down the Washington Nationals both literally and figuratively. He gave up just one run through eight innings, and also made sure he plunked Bryce Harper in the first inning.

That wasn’t seemingly a big deal, except that he admitted after the game that he did it on purpose.

“I was trying to hit him,” Hamels said. “I’m not going to deny it. That’s just — you know what, it’s something that I grew up watching, that’s what happened, so I’m just trying to continue the old baseball — I think some people kind of get away from it. I remember when I was a rookie the strike zone was really, really small and you didn’t say anything just because that’s the way baseball is. Sometimes the league is protecting certain players and making it not that old-school, prestigious way of baseball.”

What I still don’t get is why. Because Harper is good? Because he’s young? Because he’s getting a lot of hype? Are any of those reasons to intentionally pop someone?

Well, you can put Nationals GM Mike Rizzo down as not having cared for it.

“Players take care of themselves,” Rizzo said. “I’ve never seen a more classless, gutless chicken [bleep] act in my 30 years in baseball.

“Cole Hamels says he’s old school? He’s the polar opposite of old school. He’s fake tough. He thinks he’s going to intimidate us after hitting our 19-year-old rookie who’s eight games into the big leagues? He doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.”

Rizzo said that Hamels should be suspended.

“With all the bounty [stuff] going on in professional football, the commissioner better act with a purpose on this thing,” Rizzo said. “Players have a way of monitoring themselves. We’re not here to hit people and hurt people.

“He thinks he’s sending a message to us of being a tough guy. He’s sending the polar opposite message. He says he’s being honest; well, I’m being honest. It was a gutless chicken [bleep] [bleeping] act. That was a fake-tough act. No one has ever accused Cole Hamels of being old school.”

There was certainly a brand-new intensity in the Nationals-Phillies rivalry this weekend, but Rizzo says that intentional beanings are a different story.

“This goes beyond rivalry and all that stuff,” Rizzo said. “This points to, you take the youngest guy in baseball. He’s never done a thing. And then Hamels patted himself on the back. Harper’s old school. Hitting him on the back, that ain’t old school. That’s [bleeping] chicken [bleep].”

The Washington Nationals have been pretty damn excited lately and they’ve had good reason to be. They are off to an 18-10 start and own first place in the NL East.

However, they’re taking on a bit of water. 3B Ryan Zimmerman is already hurt, as is Michael Morse, who was supposed to the be the cleanup hitter. Well, now you can add another injury to that list.

Outfielder Jayson Werth dove for a ball Sunday night and tore up his left wrist. And, according to Amanda Comack of the Washington Times, it’s busted.

“Broken left wrist for Jayson Werth. He’ll be out “a while.” Will see specialist tomorrow, consulting w/Mayo Clinic surgeon,” she tweets.

“It’s a clean break,” manager Davey Johnson said. “He’s going to be out for a while.”

Supposedly at least six weeks. That’s a blow to a young team trying to make headway in the division for the first time in…ever.

“All of a sudden we seem to be getting a little more healthy and then boom, another one of our main guys goes down,” Johnson said. “We’ve dealt with it before we’ll deal with it again. We’re not alone. It seems like it’s rampant right now. It’s a tough blow.”

Guess we can kill any idea of Bryce Harper getting sent back down.

Still, for Werth, this is a big issue. He busted his same left wrist back in 2005 with the Dodgers and it was a career-threatening injury. Hopefully, this won’t be similar.

The Philadelphia Flyers have gotten a ton of contributions from rookies this season. Guys like Matt Read, Braydon Schenn and Sean Couturier have all been phenomenal this year.

Couturier, in particular, has been just insane on defense. Not many 19-year old kids are told to shut down Evgeni Malkin…and then are able to go out and do it. So, when he went down with a leg injury last week in a game against the New Jersey Devils, there was cause for concern.

But, Sam Carchidi tweets that he could return on Sunday night for Game 4, which would be great news for Flyers fans.

“Center Sean Couturier is making a quick recovery from a leg injury and is expected to be in the Flyers’ lineup tonight. Officially, it’s a game-time decision. Mez will not play tonight and is possible for Tues,” he tweets.

Mez is Andrej Meszaros, who hasn’t played in forever. So that’s of no consequence. However, getting Couturier back would be a nice addition, even if it wouldn’t solve the Flyers’ problems with the Devils fore check.

It is with a heavy pen that I write about the news of Beastie Boys co-founder Adam “MCA” Yauch passing away today. He was 47-years old and was diagnosed with cancer in 2009. I knew something wasn’t good when he didn’t make it to the group’s Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame induction last month.

I’ll leave the long eulogies to other respectable media outlets. MCA was great, as were the Beastie Boys. I, like millions of others, spent a ton of time listening to their music over the years.

At this point in time, we all know the deal with the Beastie Boys. They made seriously awesome music, even if they weren’t always so serious. On “Licensed to Ill,” they made frequent jokes about hardcore drug use, even if none of it was true.

Well, back in 1986, many people didn’t know who they were or what their sense of humor was like. Check out this clip from Oprah Winfrey during that time. Oh no! The destruction of our society!