ON THE MARK.

WAKE ME UP WHEN THERE'S HOCKEY, BUT NOT AT 5 A.M.
When my phone buzzed in the darkness yesterday morning, my immediate thought was "Oh, oh, something's wrong".  You know how you are.  Disoriented, groggy and confused.  What day is it?  Did I oversleep?   Only when I reached for my glasses and read the screen did I snap out of my fog.  A tweet from TSNs Bob McKenzie said "Lockout is tentatively over"    Now, I was awake, and since my body was used to getting up early for Canada's games at the World Junior Hockey Championship (and how did that work out?) , it felt like a good time to check out the twitter, turn on the TV, make a pot of coffee and hunker down for a Sunday morning of post-lockout hockey talk with men and women who had spent 113 days in captivity, waiting to be set free.  The fact that a majority of those days were spent in the relative comfort of midtown Manhattan shouldn't take away from the fact that they had to chase guys like Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr around in the hopes of getting a scrap or two, knowing all along that there wouldn't be a settlement until the very last minute.  Didn't I tell you there would be NHL hockey this year?   Oh ye of little faith.
     Frankly, I'm surprised they did a deal on January 6th.   If they wanted to, the NHL could've squeezed even more out of the players by waiting another few days, but it seemed right that a marathon negotiating session would take place all through Saturday night and into Sunday morning, and that folks would be scrambling to get on the air to get the news out to those of us who happened to be awake.   As it was, TSN had anchors Brian Mudryk and Kate Bierness stay all night long to provide updates at the top and bottom of the hour.  The crew in New York, reporter Ryan Rishaug along with Aaron Ward, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreiger had been standing by all night, waiting for any word from the negotiations.   When the word came down at 5:12 a.m., all TSN personnel that weren't already working were dispatched to the studio so that James Duthie, Darren Pang, Mike Johnson and the ubiquitous Bob McKenzie could "break down" the deal and get us up to speed on what needed to be done before they drop the puck on the shortened season.   It was TV at it's best, especially early on a Sunday morning.
    The rest of the day went as expected.  The Raptors, who looked great in the 2nd quarter against OKC, had a bit of a meltdown before halftime and trailed the Thunder by two.   In the third quarter, the Raps fell apart for the second game in a row, and began to look like a team that's 12-22.   Perhaps the talk of "playoffs" was just too much to bear.   Demar DeRozan looked like he had taken two steps back after looking like a potential all-star for a while.  He shot 4 for 16 yesterday and 3 for 11 in the loss to Sacramento.  He's also a 22 percent shooter from 3 point land, which tells me he should NEVER take a 3 point shot, even though he's the "shooting" guard on this team.    Let's face it, when Allan Anderson and Amir Johnson are your top two scorers (27 and 19 pts) you've got a problem.   The homestand continues this week with games against Philly, Charlotte and Milwaukee on Sunday.  The Raps need to win 2 of those 3 or else the fans will start paying more attention to hockey, and we don't want that.
        Finally, I feel sorry for the Washington Redskins and Robert Griffin III.  It was pretty obvious that RG3 was in rough shape, his knee encumbered by a bulky brace which made it impossible for him to run with any speed or shiftiness.   His counterpart on Seattle, Russell Wilson, had no such health issues and led the Seahawks to a 24-14 win, and a date with Atlanta next week.  There's talk that RG3 might've have risked his long term health for short term benefit by playing yesterday but that issue comes up all the time in pro sports.   If the player wants to play and has been medically cleared to play then he's going to play.   The question is, did Dr. James Andrews the noted orthopedic surgeon actually give Griffin the green light to play?   If his knee doesn't respond to treatment and there's damage that needs to be repaired, the Skins might rue the day they allowed RG3 to play.   Let's hope he makes a full recovery.  When healthy, he's one of the most exciting players in the NFL.
      The BCS Championship goes tonight and I like the Alabama Crimson Tide to defeat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish by a score of 24-21.