Rockies first baseman Todd Helton has agreed to a two-year, $9 million extension with the team, according to The Denver Post.

The newspaper speculated the contract will allow Helton to retire with the organization that drafted him eighth overall in 1995

Click here to read the full article – By Sporting News of tsn.com

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“If it happens, it happens. I’m ready for it,” Svatos said. “I just put it in the back of my mind. We’ll see.”

With right wing Milan Hejduk sidelined Monday because of back spasms, Svatos played on the second line with Matt Duchene and Wojtek Wolski. Otherwise, Svatos’ season has been one long struggle. He has six goals and 10 points in 44 games — and a team-worst minus-11.

“The effort is there; I’m trying. It’s just a question of confidence,” Svatos said.

Svatos is in the final year of his contract, with a cap hit of $2.2 million. Scouts from at least two NHL teams — Chicago and San Jose — were at the game. The trade deadline is 1 p.m. Wednesday.

“I’ve been here six years. It’s been a while,” Svatos said. “I’ve always been happy to be here, but we’ll see what happens.”

Click here to read the full article – By Denver Post

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Is he ready? Does he want to be a leading man, or the best supporting actor?

“It’s an exciting time for me,” said Stastny, 24, who could be the first-line center for Team USA, which begins Olympic play today against Switzerland. “Now I can think about the Olympics and just focus on that, enjoy myself and do well there. We’re going there to win. We feel we’re just as strong as any other team. I guess the message is, ‘Don’t count us out.’ ”

Stastny and Kings defenseman Jack Johnson were given a send-off by Kings fans after the Avs’ 3-0 loss in Los Angeles on Saturday. Fans at the Staples Center chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A!” when the two American Olympians were introduced to the crowd as part of postgame festivities.

“I’ve been getting more excited the nearer it’s gotten and now that it’s here, it feels like it’s going to be fun,” Stastny said.

His father, Peter, and the rest of the family will be in Vancouver to watch him. Peter played for the former Czechoslovakia in the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid before defecting with his brothers, Anton and Marian, to Canada. Thirty years later, Peter’s son is an Olympian, playing for America.

Click here to read the full article – By Denver Post

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The Avs enter tonight’s game against Atlanta with 72 points, three more than they had all of last season under Tony Granato. Sacco is a top candidate for the Jack Adams Award for NHL coach of the year, which isn’t bad for a guy who was the Avs’ fallback choice over the summer after a dalliance with Patrick Roy.

What has been the rookie coach’s secret of success? It takes a village to build a good team, of course, and others deserve credit for Colorado’s resurgence — starting with general manager Greg Sherman’s midnight phone call to Craig Anderson when the free-agent season began. Can you imagine what the state of things would be around here if Sherman had, say, instead signed aging goalie Nikolai Khabibulin to the same bloated contract Edmonton did?

But I think the biggest reason Sacco has succeeded has been his flushing of a pass-the-buck atmosphere in the locker room. It’s hard to assiduously label a pro team, with so many variables that can happen. Sometimes, no matter how good the coach is, it just doesn’t work.

Click here to read the full article – By Denver Post

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“There’s no reason for us to panic. We’re a good team, and we’ll be better (tonight),” Avs coach Joe Sacco said. “It just comes down to hard work. There’s no secret to it. It’s just hard work, not squeezing the stick (and) being confident.”

The Avs’ recent problem is scoring, particularly from their top line and power-play units. First-line center Paul Stastny and linemates Wojtek Wolski and Chris Stewart are pointless in the three-game losing streak, and the power play is a combined 0-of-9 during that stretch.

After winning six consecutive games, the Avs have scored just three goals in their season-high losing streak.

“We know we need to score,” Stastny said. “When you get a chance, you have to bear down and get a gritty goal. We know the responsibility, and we know it’s a matter of time. We just have to stay positive and have short-term memory and forget about it, and just look forward.

Click here to read the full article – By Denver Post

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Once Sundiata Gaines let go of his 3-pointer and the buzzer sounded Thursday night, there was no chance for the lead to change again. Utah 97, Cleveland 96.

It was the first career 3-pointer for Gaines, a rookie who was just signed last week to a 10-day contract and was playing only his fifth NBA game.

“He has a little swag in him and believes in himself,” said Carlos Boozer, who fouled out and had to watch Gaines’ winner from the bench. “I tell you what, he made us a believer in him, too.”

LeBron James had led the Cavaliers on a 22-4 run earlier in the fourth quarter and put the Cavs up by six with 32.5 seconds left, but Cleveland couldn’t clinch it from the free-throw line.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

The Avs then missed out on a great chance to rub a victory in the faces of the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night, losing 6-5 in a shootout at BankAtlantic Center.

Avs goalie Craig Anderson, playing against his former team, was hurt and left the game in overtime after Ballard collided with him following a scoring attempt. Unlike Ballard’s inadvertent stick to the head of teammate Tomas Vokoun in Atlanta on Monday, Foote felt there was nothing accidental about the incident and pounded Ballard behind the net.

“From my view, it looked deliberate,” Foote said. “Whether he was trying to jar the puck loose, I don’t know. Whatever reason it was, it was deliberate.”

Click here to read the full article – By Denver Post

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That’s why it has been painful to see what Budaj has gone through this season with the Avalanche. He is the forgotten man, the goalie who never plays.

The Avs played their 28th game Monday night, a 3-0 victory against the Lightning. Budaj has started exactly two of them. His last start came Nov. 18 at Edmonton, a 6-4 loss in which he allowed five goals on 32 shots. In the three games he has played, his goals-against average is 4.29, and his save percentage is .855.

It’s clear that coach Joe Sacco doesn’t have much confidence in Budaj right now, though he prefers to paint the situation as simply a case of riding a hot goalie in Craig Anderson. Thing is, Anderson hadn’t been all that hot lately, entering Monday night’s game against Tampa Bay having allowed four or more goals in four of his previous five starts.

Click here to read the full article – By Denver Post

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An embarrassment. A humiliation. Losing to a team so bad it is being compared to the worst squads in NBA history barely a month into the season.


“I would have liked to have come out of this with a win, and I would have said the same exact thing, but I think we did need this,” Chauncey Billups admitted afterward. “I don’t like losing, but I think we needed this.”

It was as if Billups had hopped a time machine and returned to the team he joined a little more than a year ago — a team of individual showmen, a team of one-on-one players, a team that thought it could shoot its way out of any hole, no matter how deep.

And why not? It had been doing it throughout this season’s first month. As if reliving its early run- and-gun days, the Nuggets went into Sunday night’s game second in the NBA in scoring at more than 109 points per game, five more than they averaged a year ago when they became acquainted with the concept of defense.

Click here to read the full article – By Dave Krieger of The Denver Post

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