Notes from the sports world

Headlines and sidelines - I realize every one of us should be waving the flag over Canada's world junior hockey championship triumph and that we should just be glad that we've won another world crown.

That's five in a row now...but forgive me if I've lost some enthusiasm. A writer once called this Atlanta Braves Syndrome: fans get so used to things going their way, another season of success just adds to the embarrassment of riches. Even winning can get boring...not that I've had much experience with it.

Only one thing tarnishes (slightly) Canada's win, from my perspective: the shootout. Team Canada's 6-5 shootout victory over the Russians in Saturday's semifinal. I have warmed to regular season shootouts in the NHL, as well as the Maritime Junior 'A' Hockey League. They add excitement at the end of five-minute overtimes - whether your team wins or not - but there's no place for them in a tournament such as the world juniors (no matter what demands are made or not made from television). In those scenarios, just play overtime until someone scores. Shootouts aren't real hockey.

The promotion of Weeks Crushers rookie Stuart Lenehan to the P.E.I. Rocket is good news for him, but not good news for the Crushers. Lenehan is third in team scoring with 14 goals and 16 assists, and his offence will have to be replaced somehow in his absence, however long that may be. Aside from the production they receive from proven veterans Geoff Hum and Shawn O'Donnell, the Crushers are a team that, unless they're playing the Halifax Lions of the world, has trouble scoring goals.

Babe Ruth's widow once said of inflated major league contracts (and this was long before salaries exploded in the 1980s), "in my husband's day, .250 hitters sat on the bench."

I thought of that when I went one-for-four in my hotly-anticipated weekend NFL playoff picks. If you get something right just 25 per cent of the time, you're not very good at whatever it is you're doing. Imagine you are a surgeon with that success ratio - you wouldn't be a surgeon very long, not even in Canada. But, you must keep plugging away and hope that things get better.

Florida Panthers defenceman Bryan McCabe was scheduled to make his return to Toronto last night as his club took on the Leafs. This is being written before the puck drops, but here's hoping McCabe performed down to his capabilities, as he always does: give the puck away three or four times a night, roof one (in his own net) and in general, look like he doesn't care.

Kevin Adshade is a writer with The News