No gossip, no idle chat, just the brass tacks of sports. Let’s hit it.

The Stanley Cup. The 2005-2006 NHL season – which I still think is only a rumor – is apparently winding down, as the Edmonton Oilers will face off against the Carolina Hurricanes Monday night in whichever Carolina the Hurricanes play in. Wow, Edmonton-Carolina! I’m sure the suits at the NHL headquarters are really happy about this marquee match up, as are the 27 fans outside of these two cities that follow the NHL. And I’m equally as sure that ESPN is bumming that they lost out to the Outdoors Life Network on the rights to televise this instant classic.

The NBA Finals. Two words. Miami-Dallas. No, not two of the most humid cities in the States. No, not the match up of Super Bowl VI. Miami-Dallas, you know the Heat versus the Mavericks for the NBA Championship. Shaq goes against Dirk, Pat Riley’s hair against the elements, Mark Cuban versus everybody. Doesn’t that get you going? At least it’s a better match up than Edmonton-Carolina.  Isn't it?

Albert Pujols. Baseball’s best player suffered a strained oblique muscle Saturday against the injury-plagued Cubs and was immediately put on the 15-day disabled list. The Cubs are so jinxed that not only are their own star players hurt, the star players that they come in contact with are also getting hurt. If the Cubs were coming into town to play my team, I’d go with all of my bench players just in case.

The oblique muscle is located on the side of your abdomen, and for any athlete an injury to this muscle could cause a lot of problems, especially for a baseball player. The Cardinals are hoping that their luck is better than the Cubs, and that Pujols will be back in a couple of weeks.

The Jinxed Cubs. Chronically injured Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood missed his last turn in the rotation because of tightness in his surgically repaired right shoulder. Early reports say this is not a big deal and that Wood won’t miss his next turn in the rotation. But anyone who follows baseball knows that a set back like this for a guy like this is always a big deal.

Meanwhile Mark Prior, the Cubs other injured stud starter, pitched well and without injury in a minor league game this weekend, thus giving the Cubs some hope.

The “Bad” Bengals. Chris Henry, a wide receiver with one year in the NFL under his belt, was arrested this past weekend for the third time since December. Henry is quite a fast learner, as most NFL players don’t get arrested for the third time until they have at least three years experience. But seriously, Henry was a problem child in college and because of this, he dropped down in the NFL draft. Now he’s proving to be a problem adult. In December Henry was arrested for – and pled guilty to – possession of marijuana. In January he was arrested on a felony gun charge after getting into a tiff outside of a Florida nightclub; and to complete the trifecta he got collared the other night for driving while intoxicated in Ohio. The January gun charge is very serious, and Henry could face jail time if convicted.