Habs signs Ryder for 1 season.

The Montreal Canadiens and Michael Ryder has agreed on a 1-year contract valued at $2.95 Millions. Ryder is becoming an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2007-2008 season.

Ryder is the only Montreal player who has scored at least 30 goals in each of the last 2 seasons.

Montreal, very surprizingly, has also offered a 1-year/$700 000 contract to defensemen Patrice Brisebois. Brisebois has played 14 seasons in Montreal and won the Stanley Cup in 1993 with the Habs before being traded to the Colorado avalanche 2 seasons ago.

Tursunov ends Dancevic's cinderella story.

Dmitry Tursunov defeated Frank Dancevic in a well dusputed match that ended in two straight sets of 6-4 and 7-5. The wonderful run of Dancevic ended in the final, his best result in career.

A very good result for Frank Dancevic overall. He should now be ranked inside the 100th rank this week with the points he accumulated this week. The road to the US Open has begun and a result like this for Dancevic promises good results ahead during the two weeks of the US Open.

Frank Dancevic on a roll.

The Indianapolis tournament has now become a cinderella story for the canadian Frank Dancevic ranked 109th on the ATP tour.

In his semifinal match, Dancevic has defeated a proven top 10 player in Andy Roddick who is ranked 5th in the world right now.

In two straight sets of 6-4 and 7-6 (7-1), Dancevic qualified for his very first ATP tour final in career.

For the first time since Greg Ruzedski in april 1995, a tennis player from Canada will play in a final of an ATP tour tournament. Dancevic, now at 22 years old, will face in the final the winner of the semifinal match opposing Dmitry Tursunov and Sam Querry.

Dancevic made some comments after his match with Andy Roddick. He first said that it was the best match he ever played in his career. He also mentioned that he took advantage of the fact that Andy Roddick did not serve as well as usual to defeat him.

Before this tournament, Dancevic had never reached the quarterfinal match of an ATP tour event. We wish him good luck for his ultimate match in Indianapolis.

(Picture: Canadian Press)

Bonds, one away from Aaron.

Barry Bonds has hitted the 754th home run of his career yesterday and is now only a home run away from tying the legendary Hank Aaron's mark set at 755 home runs.

After weeks of hesitation, Bud Selig, the baseball's commish will be in attendance to at least witness Bonds' 755th home run in career.

We all heard of the doping suspicions surrounding Barry Bonds since a few seasons already. I personally would've liked if the MLB tested Barry Bonds for doping at random moments during last season and this season. But the MLB and Bud Selig have let the situation get worse and worse by not lifting a finger.

In reality Bud Selig doesn't wish to attend to the record breaking moment because of the doping suspicions over Bonds' head. The crowd reaction is mixed as cheering is as loud as booing when Barry Bonds appear at home plate. Many fans are already putting an asterisk (*) besides Barry Bonds' name inside their total home runs in career charts. As Selig's own reputation is already in a bad shape with all the ridiculous quotes and actions accumulated over the course of the last decade. He really wished not to be present for yet another controversial moment.

Sorry Bud! This is part of the job...

(Picture: Canadian Press)

''This story is not over''.

Luca Cordero di Montezemolo was upset and promised that it wasn't over. Ferrari's boss is very upset with the decision taken by the FIA not to fine and disqualify the McLaren-Mercedes team for this current 2007 season. Another good old espionnage story in F1 racing.

Ferrari is pleading that McLaren spied on them and also managed to acquire fraudulously some informations about their F1 racing car. Those informations were acquired by a McLaren employee named Mike Coughlan.

The FIA judged that McLaren did possess the informations in question but the proof haven't been made that McLaren did in fact used those informations against Ferrari at any point. But the FIA also kept a revision possibility if such a proof is eventually made, a proof that would've clearly modified of the 2007 championship this far.

Ferrari has fired an employee since the beginning of that mini-scandal, Nigel Stepney, the person in Ferrari's organization who transmitted the informations to Coughlan and into McLaren's files. But if mister Luca Cordero di Montezemolo says that this story ain't over, then some more details could appear in the weeks to come.

(Picture: Getty images)

www.hockeyfutures.com

If you are a hockey lover just like me and are looking for some decent ranking for prospects players playing in the NHL or about to begin their NHL career, then a visit at www.hockeysfuture.com should not deceive you.

A list of NHL prospects sorted in a top 50, country team pages, the last nhl draft selections and different links to leagues pages. All that is available for you to browse.

The ressource page is also containing various articles about future players of the NHL. Be sure to keep yourself updated on the fresh talent!

Be ready for your next fantasy pick session coming this fall. Beat all your opponents in your next draft by visiting the blog often and keep you updated on the best among future players of the NHL.

This message was sponsored by www.hockeysfuture.com.

Tour de France: more cleaning up.

The 2007 edition of the Tour de France will be mainly remembered for it's doping ejection and retirement festival. A second team went out on their own yesterday. The Cofidis team completely retired, Cristian Moreni was tested positive for testosterone forcing the team's decision. This is already the second team this year to retire completely of the competition.

Also yesterday the leader of the tour, Michael Rasmussen, has retired from the competition after being under pressure from the team's sponsors only 4 days before the finish. Under investigation, Rasmussen has been caught missing 2 drug tests in may and early june. He officially declared being in Mexico at that time as he was in Italy in reality.

A lot of doping suspicions hung over Rasmussen's head during this 2007 edition of the tour, the sponsor pressure forced him to leave a competition he was actually winning. Those last days have been tough on Rasmussen, the fans booed him during yesterday's stage as some even spitted on him as he was passing by.

As they are getting more and more sour, the number of fans diminished a lot as the tour went on. The competition ends this sunday in Paris. The number of competitiors has drastically fell and is almost forcing the competition directors to cancel the whole thing.

Mixed nuts bag.

Before the start of the race, a chicane of the Nurburgring circuit that is now named ''The Schumacher S'' was inaugurated by Michael Schumacher himself. On board of a Ferrari cabriolet, he went thru the chicane for the cameras.

One of the most exciting F-1 race in years was run today on the Nurburgring circuit. Some rain interrupted the race, followed by a long dry condition scenario. Then the race shifted as another rainy episode for the last 11 laps shuffled the whole deck. The entirety of the race produced a lot of overtaking and collisions, all for the delight of the fans who had a great spectacle today.

At the end, Fernando Alonso on wet conditions got passed the race leader Felipe Massa to finish in first place. The two cars touched as they were both side-by-side. Massa tried to close the door but Alonso was somehow already pointing his nose in front. The two drivers had a bit of a heated conversation after the race behind the podium area in front of the cameras. But both settled down during the post-race interview.

Finishing on the podium, an uninvited Mark Webber in his Red Bull car. A very surprizing result for the struggling team that will now try to build on this result to give some momentum to their season. Red Bull get past Toyota and now challenges Williams in the constructors championship. With David Coulthard finishing 5th, Red Bull most likely had their best race of their young team history.

As for the points leader, Lewis Hamilton, this race was a nightmare as he struggled behind the pack all race long. A few times he made some spectacular overtakings, especially over Fisichella late in the race. But Hamilton was so far behind, that all his efforts were pointless. Hamilton missed the points finishing in 9th position. The worst result in his first F-1 season in career.

The drivers championship is now everybody's ball game from now on. There are 7 races to go until the end of this 2007 season.

Nurburgring Grand Prix top 10 finish:

Winner: Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
2-Felipe Massa (Ferrari) +8.120
3-Mark Webber (Red Bull) +1:05.6
4-Alexander Wurz (Williams) +1:05.9
5-David Coulthard (Red Bull) +1:13.6
6-Nick Heidfeld (BMW) +1:20.2
7-Robert Kubica (BMW) +1:22.4
8-Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) +1 lap
9-Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) +1 lap
10-Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) +1 lap

Drivers championship after 10/17 races:

1-Lewis Hamilton 70 points
2-Fernando Alonso 68 points
3-Felipe Massa 59 points
4-Kimi Raikkonen 52 points
5-Nick Heidfeld 36 points
6-Robert Kubica 24 points
7-Giancarlo Fisichella 17 points
8-Heikki Kovalainen 15 points
9-Alexander Wurz 13 points
10-Mark Webber 8 points

Constructors championship:

1-McLaren-Mercedes 138 points
2-Ferrari 111 points
3-BMW-Sauber 60 points
4-Renault 32 points
5-Williams 18 points
6-Red Bull 16 points
7-Toyota 9 points
8-Super Aguri 4 points
9-Honda 1 point

(Pictures: Canadian press)

Lewis Hamilton leaves on a stretcher.

The end of the Nurburgring Grand Prix qualifying session was marked today by the violent accident of Lewis Hamilton.

A front wheel was not properly fixed and went off on the circuit as the driver was accelerating. Then the uncontrollable McLaren-Mercedes driven by Hamilton went straight into a wall. The driver remained conscious and moved his extremities immediatly after the accident. A few minutes later, Hamilton managed to get out of the car and sat on his cockpit at the arrival of the medic team. By precautious measures he was installed on a stretcher with an oxygen mask. Hamilton pointed his thumb up to the fans to inform them that he was O.K.

After all the smoke cleared, Kimi Raikkonen ended up with the pole position. Raikkonen is on a good streak as he won the last two races. Combined with Lewis Hamilton's misadventure during this qualifying session, the drivers championship looks like it will be extremely well disputed until the end of this season.

Also, Hamilton's series of podiums is in jeopardy as he is qualified in 10th position. A question: Will he be able to drive tomorrow? This question will be answered in less than 24 hours.

Nurburgring qualifying session top 10:

Pole: Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1:31.450
2-Fernando Alonso (McLaren) 1:31.741
3-Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1:31.778
4-Nick Heidfeld (BMW) 1:31.840
5-Robert Kubica (BMW) 1:32.123
6-Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1:32.476
7-Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) 1:32.478
8-Jarno Trulli (Toyota) 1:32.501
9-Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) 1:32.570
10-Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) 1:32.833

(Picture: Canadian Press)

Yashin not in the NHL for 2007-2008.

Alexei Yashin has signed a one year contract with the Yaroslavl Locomotiv, a professional russian club.

Yashin, 33 years old, was an unrestricted free agent this summer after the New-York Islanders have bought back the last 4 years of his 10-year contract signed in 2001. Last season, he finished the season with 50 points (18 goals) in 58 games.

In 12 NHL seasons, Yashin scored 337 goals and totals 781 points. His most productive season was with the Ottawa Senators in 1998-99 as he finished the season with 44 goals, 50 assists for 94 points in 82 games. His work ethic has been rumored to be a problem in the last few seasons.

Will we ever see Alexei Yashin in the NHL again?

(Picture: Getty images)

Meet fit singles.

A different twist about online dating is available at www.fitnessdates.com.

First you have registered, submitted your personnal information, done a small introduction of yourself and added a picture to your profile. Then you can browse among hundreds of fit singles profiles. The name of this new genre is ''fitness dating''. So if you are fit yourself and are looking for your fit equal match, then a visit at www.fitnessdates.com is a must.

This concept is as good as any other. There is nothing more appealing than a strong personnality in a fit body. So don't wait any longer and go check the fitness singles section at www.fitnessdates.com. Maybe a new exciting and fulfilling love story is only a few clicks away.

Alcine receives his belt.

After winning the WBA super-middleweight title during the course of the last week, Joachim Alcine received yesterday his title belt. Right after the bout, Alcine was wearing Travis Simms' belt for the pictures but Simms took back his belt after the photo session. (a championship belt remains the possession of a boxer for all his life, when a new champion is crowned a new belt is made.)

So yesterday, Joachim Alcine received his own WBA belt from Guy Jutras, representing the WBA up here in Montreal. Alcine was also invited by the mayor of Montreal to sign Montreal's golden book earlier this week.

Alcine, 31 years old, said during the press conference that he will be a fighting champion and will defend his title against anyone that wishes a shot at his title.

Therrien extended for 1 season.

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach, Michel Therrien has received a 1-year contract extension yesterday. Last season was extraordinary for Therrien and the Penguins as not only they made the playoffs but improoved their total points by 47 points versus their 2006-2007 season.

Michel Therrien was also nominated this year for coach of the year but finished second behind Alain Vigneault, head coach of the Vancouver Canucks.

Hasta la vista, baby.

Yesterday evening, Arturo Gatti was totally dominated by Alfonso Gomez. The fight finally ended by a KO at the 7th round. Alfonso Gomez improoved his pro record to 17-3-2, adding the name of Arturo Gatti to his trophy case.

After the end of the fight, Gatti said on HBO that this fight was his last of his career. He also said: '' I was well prepared, worked hard but the result shows that at 35 years old I don't belong in the 147 pounds division anymore. Hasta la vista, baby.'' Then Gatti thanked the fans for the support during the lenght of his career.

Arturo Gatti was then transported to the Atlantic city hospital. His face, once again, was swollen from the shots he took during the fight. A sad end of career for a great champion.

Thank you Arturo for the great moments. May your next career be as successful as your boxing career.

No F-1 in Indianapolis for 2008.

Last thursday was the limit date set by the Indianapolis racetrack owner, Tony George, to come in an agreement with Bernie Ecclestone and the FOCA organization.

This week haven't produced any kind of agreement between the two parts. The United States Grand Prix could be presented either in the New-York area or the Las Vegas area in future seasons. Bernie Ecclestone himself wanted to try one of these two locations in the United States for a race. Lets wait and see if any of those locations will be chosen by the FOCA for next season, the 2008 season.

As for Tony George, he declared that he is open for future discussions with the FOCA for F-1 racing at Indianapolis in the future but the F-1 championship won't go in Indy for at least the 2008 season.

The Indianapolis racetrack hosted a F-1 race from 2000 to 2007. In 2005, the race was marked by the retiring of 14 of the 20 cars before the race due to a tire failure with the Michelin brand. A ridiculous race with only 6 cars made the fans angry asking for a refund.

At that time, June 2005, I was really upset about that race because only Ferrari refused to sign an agreement to at least present a race to the paying fans. You can see what I thought of that race in one of my first rant on this blog ever here.

(Picture: Canadian Press)

Gatti says farewell to boxing this weekend.

This saturday in Atlantic city, Arturo Gatti will perform in front of his fans one last time. The last fight in the professional career of Gatti is against Alfonso Gomez.

For his farewell fight, Arturo Gatti hired Mickey Ward to be in his corner. Gatti declared that Ward brings the best in him and will help avoid falling back into his chaotic street fighter style. Ward and Gatti had a trilogy of fantastic fights against each other back in 2003. Mickey Ward won the first one and Arturo Gatti won the following two bouts. All three fights are now considered as classic boxing moments.

Let's hope Alfonso Gomez is ready for such a fight. I am in Gatti's corner, I really hope Arturo will win by a KO, (of course) and I wish him all the best in his next career.

Sometimes dreams come true...

Tonight Russell Martin was in the starting lineup of the National League team at the 2007 MLB All-star game. Martin, in a vote, was favorited by the baseball fans among all the National League catchers.

Russell Martin becomes only the 2nd player from the province of Quebec to be on the starting lineup of the All-star game. Starting pitcher Claude Raymond was, before tonight, the only player from the province to ever appear on the starting lineup of an All-star game.

Every baseball player dreams as a kid to start the All-star game someday. For one of those kids, the dream materialized years later, tonight.

Congratulations Russell!

Classic Wimbledon ending.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were once again head-to-head today. This time the prize was the Wimbledon championships. In a classic matchup, Roger Federer defeated Rafael Nadal in a five set battle of 7- 6 (9- 7), 4 -6, 7- 6 (7- 3), 2- 6 and 6-2.

Roger Federer wins his 5th Wimbledon title in a row, tying the great Bjorn Borg who also won Wimbledon five times in a row in the 1970s. Borg attended to the match today and applauded Federer's accomplishment. For Nadal, it's a match to remember. This year, Rafael Nadal was really only one set away from winning his first ever Wimbledon title.

Maybe next year Nadal will manage to upset the great Roger on his turf...

On the womens side, Venus Williams won her 4th Wimbledon title yesterday in 2 sets of 6-4 and 6-1 against Marion Bartoli.

The 2007 Wimbledon championships can now be booked and remembered as a classic edition.

(Pictures: Canadian Press)

Kimi wins a second race in a row.

Kimi Raikkonen has won a second Grand Prix in a row today and signed his 3rd victory of the season as Ferrari's momentum seems to be building up.

The british fans present at the Silverstone track were hoping for Lewis Hamilton to win the race but the british pilot had to settle for a 3rd place. Lewis Hamilton scores a 9th podium finish in a row and keeps his podium streak alive.

The other Ferrari driven by Felipe Massa had to start from the pit lane, but came back in front to finally finish in 5th place only a second behind Robert Kubica. For the constructors championship, the gap between the two top teams remains the same; 25 points separate McLaren from Ferrari. The drivers championship is getting more and more interesting as Raikkonen and Alonso are getting closer to the young british phenomenon.

Here is the top 10 finish at Silverstone:

Winner: Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
2-Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
3-Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
4-Robert Kubica (BMW)
5-Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
6-Nick Heidfeld (BMW)
7-Heikki Kovalainen (Renault)
8-Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault)
9-Rubens Barrichello (Honda)
10-Jenson Button (Honda)

Drivers championship after 9/17 races:

1-Lewis Hamilton 70 points
2-Fernando Alonso 58 points
3-Kimi Raikkonen 52 points
4-Felipe Massa 51 points
5-Nick Heidfeld 33 points
6-Robert Kubica 22 points
7-Giancarlo Fisichella 17 points
8-Heikki Kovalainen 14 points

Constructors championship:

1-McLaren-Mercedes 128 points
2-Ferrari 103 points
3-BMW-Sauber 55 points
4-Renault 32 points
5-Williams 13 points
6-Toyota 9 points
7-Red Bull 6 points
8-Super Aguri 4 points
9-Honda 1 point

(Picture: Canadian Press)

Alcine wins the super-middleweight WBA title.

Joachim Alcine has defeated Travis Simms by unanimous decision tonight in Connecticut and has taken the WBA super-middleweight title away from Simms.

All three judges saw Alcine as new champion. They scored the bout 114-111, 115-110 and 116-109. Alcine becomes the 9th world champion in Quebec's history and the 19th canadian. Joachim Alcine's record is still perfect as a pro with a shiny 29-0. Travis Simms suffers his very first loss in his pro career. Simms has a 25-1 record as a pro.

A turning point in this fight was Travis Simms' slip after receiving a short jab that was counted as a fall by the referee during the second half of the fight. The momentum shifted from that moment on and Alcine looked stronger as the rounds were advancing.

Congratulations Ti-jua! The new WBA super-middleweight champion.

There's nothing like home...

British race fans were in for a treat today. Lewis Hamilton just gave a great performance to his fans on the Silverstone circuit. At his last attempt of the qualifying session, Hamilton just recorded a lap under 1 minute and 20 seconds to beat Kimi Raikkonen's time.


So in front of a cheering crowd, Lewis Hamilton will start from pole for tomorrow's Grand Prix on the Silverstone racetrack.

Here are the top 10 starting positions for the Silverstone GP:

Pole: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) 1:19.997
2-Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1:20.099
3-Fernando Alonso (McLaren) 1:20.147
4-Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1:20.265
5-Robert Kubica (BMW) 1:20.401
6-Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) 1:20.516
7-Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) 1:20.721
8-Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) 1:20.775
9-Nick Heidfeld (BMW) 1:20.894
10-Jarno Trulli (Toyota) 1:21.240

Wimbledon: decisive weekend.

This weekend we will witness the conclusion of Wimbledon, the third of the four Grand Slam tournaments of the season. Both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are qualified for the semifinals. Rafael Nadal will face Novak Djokovic in the first semifinal of the weekend. Nadal is looking for his first Wimbledon title in career. As for Roger Federer, he will face Richard Gasquet in the second semifinal.

On the women's side of the tournament, Venus Williams will play in her 6th Wimbledon final in career this saturday. She will face Marion Bartoli from France. This is Bartoli's first time ever in a Grand Slam final match. Bartoli was impressive earlier in this tournament as she managed to defeat Wimbledon's multiple time champion Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Free agent singing season has opened.

This last july 1st the NHL teams started doing their summer shopping among the free agents available. The Philadelphia Flyers has signed a deal wih Daniel Briere this week.

During the last part of the season, the Flyers traded away Peter Forsberg. Now with the addition of Martin Biron, Daniel Briere and Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers will have a fresh new looking team for the 2007/2008 season.

As for the Habs and GM Bob Gainey, they signed a 4-year deal with defensemen Roman Hamrlik. And also signed free agent Brian Smolinsky. Hamrlik is coming in to try to fill the shoes of Sheldon Souray, testing his value around the market right now...

The Habs have offered something for the french canadian atacker. A 7 million dollar/season deal, Daniel Briere declined the offer and decided to sign with the Flyers.

Totally Ferrari.

Ferrari have re-launched this 2007 season by finishing 1st and 2nd of the French Grand Prix on the Magny Cours circuit. Kimi Raikkonen surprized his teammate, Felipe Massa, during the last pitstop sequence to get out in front and has won his first race since the Australian GP. Both the drivers and the constructors championships are transformed and are now very interesting.

Lewis Hamilton finished 3rd at 32 seconds of Raikkonen. The young pilot still leads the drivers championship and has kept rolling his sequence of straight podium finishes. He never finished further than 3rd since the beginning of the season.

The defending champion, Fernando Alonso, had problems all race long and finished far behind in 7th place. Honda also finally scored their first point of their horrific season thru Jenson Button's 8th place. Honda is even behind Super Aguri this season in the constructors championship.

French Grand Prix results:

1-Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
2-Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
3-Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
4-Robert Kubica (BMW)
5-Nick Heidfeld (BMW)
6-Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault)
7-Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
8-Jensen Button (Honda)
9-Nico Rosberg (Williams)
10-Ralf Schumacher (Toyota)

Drivers championship after 8/17 races:

1-Lewis Hamilton 64 points
2-Fernando Alonso 50 points
3-Felipe Massa 47 points
4-Kimi Raikkonen 42 points
5-Nick Heidfeld 30 points
6-Robert Kubica 17 points
7-Giancarlo Fisichella 16 pts
8-Heikki Kovalainen 12 points

Constructors championship:

1-McLaren 114 points
2-Ferrari 89 points
3-BMW Sauber 48 pts
4-Renault 28 points
5-Williams 13 points
6-Toyota 9 points
7-Red Bull 6 points
8-Super Aguri 4 points
9-Honda 1 point

(Picture: f1-live.com)