Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Nick Lidstrom are among the most famous names in the National Hockey League, but if you were looking to find the most obscure, you might not be too far wrong to suggest it's Jason Garrison.
Jason Garrison? Who?
Exactly.
You might be surprised to learn that Jason Garrison, a native of White Rock, B.C., who played Junior A in Nanaimo and then spent three years at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, is one of the top scorers on one of the NHL's best teams this year.
That would be the Florida Panthers, of course. This fits perfectly with the obscure Garrison because of the NHL's 30 teams, Florida is certainly among the most obscure, even to their dozens of fans in football-mad Florida.
Garrison and the Panthers are rising at the same time, which is probably not a coincidence. When the U.S. celebrated its Thanksgiving holiday in late November, the Panthers had the best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference, a few ticks ahead of Pittsburgh, whose engine was revving again with Crosby back in the lineup.
Florida was not the only relatively obscure team to lead a conference. The best record in the West at U.S. Thanksgiving was Minnesota Wild. Hockey fans all over North America - except perhaps in the hockey-mad state Minnesota - were yawning at the possibility of a Minnesota-Florida Stanley Cup final.
But we digress. Back to Harrison ... sorry, Garrison. Jason Garrison. The 27-year-old, playing his second full season with the Panthers, led all NHL defencemen in goals with eight, leaving Drew Doughty, Lidstrom, Dion Phaneuf, Dustin Byfuglien and other more famous defenders in the dust. He wasn't alone with his scoring exploits from the blue line however, since five of Florida's top nine point-getters were defencemen.
The Panthers offensive charge was being led by castoff forwards Kris Versteeg and Tomas Fleischmann and goaltender Jose Theodore, a former Hart and Vezina Trophy winner with the Habs.
The Panthers are guided by rookie coach Kevin Dineen, one of the early leaders in coach-of-the-year discussions. Dineen had a great six-year run in the American Hockey League, winning 111 more games than he lost. Along the way, he nurtured guys like Jason Garrison, who are quietly - and quite anonymously - skating their way toward a possible flirtation with the Stanley Cup.
Comedy writer Jim Barach: The Houston Astros will move into the American League West from the National League Central division next year. The fans aren't concerned about American vs. National. They are just glad no one has seen fit to put the team where they belong: In Double A.
Rick Reilly of espn.com, comparing the last two Green Bay quarterbacks: "(Brett) Favre ... is Halle Berry in a bikini. But (Aaron) Rodgers is Halle Berry in a bikini carrying an ice-cold 12-pack and the keys to a free Maserati."
This week's groaner, from R.J. Currie: "Pius Heinz, a 22-year-old German, won the $8.72-million prize at the World Series of Poker. Once he got ahead, Heinz had his opponents playing ketchup."
From Steve Harvey's Bottom 10: "And, so, the number of sidelined quarterbacks grew, including Houston's Matt Schaub (bad foot), Chicago's Jay Cutler (bad thumb) and Washington's John Beck (bad passes)."
Barach again: "The wife of an Illinois high school football coach was caught changing the grades of some of the team's players. Remember when the economy was good and coaches could just reward players with money under the table?"
Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: "The Kansas City Chiefs signed Kyle Orton off waivers, and the Chicago Bears signed Josh McCown. That's it, Brett Favre is officially 'chopped liver.'"
After Dustin Brown of the LA Kings made YouTube history by hilariously squirting water out of the bottom of the bottle after holding it upside down, he tweeted: "Heading to the rink early today have to help the trainers mark all the water bottles with arrows."
R.J. Currie again: "The Saints beat the Falcons in overtime after Atlanta got stuffed going for it on fourth down at their own 29. Can't imagine a more questionable gamble - unless another guy agrees to marry Kim Kardashian."
Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press, on the Tigers' Justin Verlander winning the AL Cy Young Award by a 28-0 vote: "Wow. If they can get 28 sportswriters to agree on something, how come Congress can't work like that?"
Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times on recent NFL fines: "Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford's fine for grabbing an opponent's helmet and throwing him to the ground: $7,500. Bears receiver Earl Bennett's fine for wearing orange shoes: $10,000. Moral of the story: Good thing for Stafford he wasn't wearing orange shoes when he did it."
Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post: "As part of their divorce settlement, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has to pay his ex-wife Jamie $131 million. Through force of habit, the Yankees offered her $175 million."
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