Jan. 26--And in today's sports headlines, 9-year-old Maddie Wright of Powell, Ohio, will get a puppy because her favorite player on the Columbus Blue Jackets scored a goal Monday.
Cam Atkinson actually scored three goals, but Maddie will get only one rescue puppy, per a deal she made with her dad. It was, in fact, a copycat puppy caper: A day earlier, Ottawa youngsters Cole and Reese Jansen held up a sign at the Senators' game saying they'd been promised a dog if Bobby Ryan would score a goal, and Ryan kindly obliged.
Maddie's news was the happiest sports-related story to emerge Tuesday, a day otherwise filled with bleak off-the-field tales.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning ESPN's Marc Stein reported that Clippers forward Blake Griffin had injured his hand in a team-related incident, which was later determined to have been a fight with a member of the team's equipment staff. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer collaborated with Doc Rivers, the coach and president of basketball operations, to issue a statement confirming Griffin had fractured his right hand and had undergone a procedure that will require four to six weeks' recovery.
"This conduct has no place in our organization and this incident does not represent who we are as a team," the statement read. "We are conducting a full investigation with assistance from the NBA. At the conclusion of the investigation, appropriate action will be taken."
Translation: See ya later, Blake. And see ya later, another Clippers season, after they had played well enough to pretty much lock themselves into fourth in the West and get homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They probably won't get far enough this spring to make their usual disappointing second-round exit.
Then there was the announcement from the NHL that Ducks forward Shawn Horcoff, a veteran center prized for his leadership, had been suspended 20 games without pay for violating the performance-enhancing substances program operated by the league and the NHL Players' Assn. He will forfeit $357,526.88 and get a referral to the NHL/NHLPA program for substance abuse and behavioral health for evaluation and possible treatment.
In a statement released via the players' association, Horcoff said that while injured last fall he tried a treatment "that I believed would help speed up the healing process. Although I was unaware that this treatment was not permitted under NHL rules, that is no excuse whatsoever....I accept full responsibility for my actions, and I am sorry."
