Winnipeg's Chris Thorburn on ending his 60-game goal scoring drought in last night's 2-1 shootout victory over the Flyers: "You know what? I haven't had that feeling in a while. I tell you what, there's not many feelings like that. I actually turned to the corner for my celebration and no one came to me. It kind of felt odd. It was great, it was awesome. [Ed Tait, Winnipeg Free Press]
Sydney Crosby on the possibility a soft-tissue injury in his upper neck is a cause of concussion-like symptoms: "I hope so. I think the biggest thing to take from it is that [the neck injury] is something I can work on. There's a pretty big possibility that it could be causing some of the issues. I really hope that's the case and hope that with some treatment it will improve and that's, hopefully, the end of it." [Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
Spencer Hawes on when he'll be able to return from a strained Achilles': “When I can really run. If we could just play in the half court, I could be OK and probably cover it up. But when I have to run and get up on my toes and change directions, those are the things I have to continue to work on and be diligent about.” [Dei Lynam, CSN]
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The Bulls could be without guard and Coatesville native Richard "Rip" Hamilton tonight against Sixers: Hamilton responded to playing 36 minutes against the Heat on Sunday by sitting Monday in Washington ... [and] now has missed more games than he has played, 12 to 11. Hamilton guarded Dwyane Wade effectively Sunday, giving a glimpse of his importance come playoff time. But he admitted to feeling like he was "playing on one leg" after that game. [K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune]
Andy Reid on what happened with Steve Spagnuolo: "Steve Spangnoulo, I know, was another topic and one that I understand. He's a fine football coach. Steve and I are good friends and we talked throughout the season as we do every year. When Steve was released from the Rams I did offer him a spot here to coach, if he needed one, a place to land with open arms. And my feeling was that you can have two great coaches on defense and that's even better than just having Juan himself, so that's about as far as it went there. We didn't talk about titles. We didn't go into any of that. He had opportunities to look at other places. He wanted to do that, which I completely understand. And he ended up going to New Orleans." [PE.com]
Bill Belichick on Jason Pierre-Paul's "wow" factor on film: "Probably about five times a game he has plays like that. He comes out of nowhere
and makes a tackle. Or jumps ten feet in the air and bats down a ball.
Or makes an athletic move at the line of scrimmage while keeping his
balance. He’s a rare athlete." [ProFootballTalk]
Aaron Rodgers on the NFC's 1,951-1,347 victory in the Pro Bowl: "I was just surprised that some of the guys either didn't want to play or when they were in there didn't put any effort into it." [ESPN.com]
News
A recruiting analyst's take on how the New England Patriots' Super Bowl run impacts Penn State and head coach Bill O'Brien: "It's not a good thing for Penn State. I don't know the inner workings. I don't know if he said, 'Yeah, I'll take the job, but I need this.' And Penn State was desperate. It's not like people were lining up for the job. It's a tough job. But if you're Penn State, selfishly, you had to be hoping New England would get knocked out in the first round. I've said this before -- Penn State fans should've been rooting against the Patriots, to get their coach on campus." [Albert Breer, NFL.com]