Now as you know, Mr. Modano, veteran star player for the Dallas Stars, recently married one-time (maybe once again?) pop singer Willa Ford. As you also know, Ms. Ford (pictured here) was a celebrity contestant on the ABC show Dancing with the Stars a little while back. Well, what you might not know is that she may have done a little bit of horizontal dancing with her partner form that show, Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

According to a story on the entertainment guide This is London, Maksim “admitted to a fling with actress Willa Ford when he partnered her in the 2003 series of the show.” Dude. I hope Maksim stays far from the Staples Center when the Stars play the Kings October 25.

Not sure how high the bidding wil go, but looking at the picture below, I’m betting the spare change from under your couch won’t get you far.

According to andPop, the Dallas Stars player proposed last October and the pair plan to get married next weekend. I’m guessing our invitations must have gotten lost in the mail.

You of course know Modano, who’s 37, as a lifelong member of the Stars franchise starting from when they were in Minnesota and helped the team win a Stanley Cup in 1999. Ford, who is 26, had a minor hit with the single “I Wanna Be Bad” in 2001 and once dated Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. They seem like an unlikely pair, but we of course wish them all the best.

And to Modano, well player sir. Well played.

The games that I was able to catch had one trend. The winning team (except the Rangers) were owned like the girl in this basketball dunk video

Anyway, to recap

• Calgary Flames looked terrible
• Buffalo made the Islanders look like, well, Islanders.
• Devils took it to the Lightning …

I’m glad it’s Friday today so when the Vancouver Canucks / Dallas Stars go to a quadruple overtime I don’t have to get up early. Although, it’s much more likely i’ll be passed out in a chair….

• Ottawa fans were booing Sidney Crosby. Uh, hello? He’s the probably the best player in hockey right now. I don’t think a little boo-ing will really throw his game off. If it does we’ve found his Kryptonite.
• Vancouver fans yell ‘luuu’ whenever Luongo makes a great save. Maybe it’s just me but this sounds a little too close to Booo
• Vancouver fans chanted ‘Turco, You suck’. That’s a pretty mean chant but not quite as mean as ‘Ricci’s Ugly‘

In the first meeting of their quarterfinals series last night, the Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks battled to a 4-4 tie in regulation then took another four overtime periods before Daniel Sedin (of course it would be a Sedin) scored the game winner for Vancouver with about 2 minutes remaining. And there we all were, up until the wee, wee hours so excuse us if we’re a little sleepy eyed this morning.

Oh, and you’re probably wondering about Ms. Ford, who’s fiancé Mike Madono came out on the losing end of this epic battle. I’m sure she’s sleepy too; maybe you can read about it soon on her new NHL blog. That is if she’s not too busy to blog about it since she’s been cast to play Anna-Nicole Smith in an upcoming bio-pic.

The chase for the Cup gets underway on Wednesday when the Penguins of Pittsburgh face off against the Ottawa Senators. The Pens, of course, have that young phenom Sidney Crosby, who led the league with 120 points, including 36 goals. The Sens, meanwhile, have a bunch of players not named Sidney Crosby, but they do have Dany Heatley and goalie Ray Emery. Still, they don’t have anyone named Crosby or Jordan Staal or Evgeni Malkin, so I’m pretty sure Ottawa is going down in the first round (sorry Canada), but this could be the best series of the whole post-season.

Also on Wednesday, the Dallas Stars get their series underway against Vancouver. Now you might be thinking you heard once that Dallas is pretty good, but that was in 1999 when they won the Cup; this Stars team is the one that sorta just gets into the playoffs and then gets booted in the first round. The Canucks, with the Sedin twins and goalie Roberto Luongo will be tough to beat this year.

You’ve also got the Minnesota Wild kicking off their series against Anaheim. This should be a pretty good series, too, since this is Minnesota’s first trip to the playoffs since the first Bush was president and they had a team called the North Stars, so those fans in Minneapolis should be plenty fired up. It might even be enough for them to steal this one away from The Team Formerly Known as The Mighty Ducks.

Lastly, the San Jose Sharks take on the Nashville Predators. The Preds look pretty good on paper, but they play in a division with Chicago, Columbus, and St. Louis, so looks can be deceiving. Still, I’m picking Music City over Silicon Valley because Sharks fans cursed themselves last year by booing the Canadian national anthem.

On to Thursday night and more Eastern Conference action, the Buffalo Sabres start their run for the Cup with a little practice time against the Islanders, while the New Jersey Devils go through the motions against Tampa Bay. The Isles have no hope of making it past the first round, but it’s nice to see them back in the hunt, I guess. The only hope for Tampa is . . . well, there really is no hope for them either.

The last series in the East is the Rangers vs. the Thrashers. The who? That’s right, the Atlanta Thrashers are not only in the playoffs but they are in as a division champion. Of course, saying Atlanta had the best team in the Southeast is like saying you’re the smartest one on the short bus. Still, the mighty NY Rangers aren’t much better and will probably get booted in the first round.

That leaves us with Calgary and Detroit. Yes, Detroit is one of the best in the league and the top seed in the West, but how can you possibly root for the Red Wings? That’s like rooting for the Yankees, yawn. Plus, they’re owned by a pizza empire, a bad pizza empire at that. No, everyone out there should be rooting on the plucky Flames to score an upset here, and they just might, though it’ll mean they have to win at least one on the road, which they haven’t been able to do often this year. But this is the playoffs and everything changes now.

So America, are you ready for some hockey?

There is a little thing called the NCAA Final Four happening on Saturday. UCLA takes on defending champion Florida in a rematch of last year’s title game, while the biggest of the big men — Greg Oden and Roy Hibbert — are set to do battle in the paint in the Ohio State-Georgetown tilt. I know, your bracket was long-ago blown out, but these are going to be some fantastic matchups, so you better tune in.

For those of you hoping to see a fight or two, the NHL is heading into the final stretch before the playoffs. Calgary plays in Vancouver on Saturday looking to hold onto their slim grasp on the final postseason spot in the West, while Nashville battles Dallas in their bid to steal the Central division away from the Red Wings. On Sunday, NBC brings us some riveting action as Detroit takes on the Columbus Blue Jackets. (Sweet Sam Hill, even Versus would have passed on that matchup.)

The playoff picture is shaping up in the NBA as well. Who would have thunk that Toronto would be leading the way in the retched Atlantic division? What Svengali could have predicted the Wizards would have a chance to top the their division? Washington and the Raptors go head-to-head tonight at the Verizon Center. But you don’t care about the East, all you want to hear about is the stinking Suns and Mavericks. Well fine, the top two teams in the West square off on Sunday in Phoenix, with the Suns needing a win if they want to catch Dallas for the top seed. They might do it, too, with Dirk Nowitzki nursing a bone spur in his ankle.

What else? Well, baseball is still in preseason action, but who cares about baseball this early in the year? The MLS is gearing up to start their season soon (you’re a fan, you just don’t know it yet), and NASCAR has short-track action from Martinsville. Oh, and someone is probably playing golf somewhere this weekend (yawn).

No matter what sporting event trips your trigger, though, I’m sure the big plan for this weekend involves plenty of this:

Pretty nifty trick, no?

(Video via Lifehacker via tonari no shibfu)

The west has some crazy competition going on and for the past 2 months or so when one team wins or a team loses they can go from 3rd to 8th. This is all due to the structure of the conference and the whole Northwestern Division.

Anyway, here’s my list.

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