Sabres fans want to pay $10K Ruff fine (AP/SI.com)

Buffalo Sabres fans have something unique in mind — to help pay the fine for head coach Lindy Ruff. Ruff was fined $10,000 for his team’s brawl with the Ottawa Senators late last week.

“Put down the pen, put away the checkbook. This one’s on us,” said Chris Phillips, co-owner of a Buffalo-area pizza parlor, who plans to donate 10 percent of every sale toward what he called, The Lindy Ruff Fine Fund.

Packers’ Favre has ankle surgery (AP/USA Today)

Quarterback Brett Favre had surgery to remove spurs from his left ankle Monday morning and probably will remain in Green Bay.

Panthers have trade in place to send Roberts to Pittsburgh (TSN.ca)

TSN-Canada’s Bob McKenzie is reporting that the Florida Panthers have a deal in place that would send forward Gary Roberts to the Pittsburgh Penguins, dependent on Roberts waiving his no-trade clause.

Canucks add depth at centre (Sportsnet.ca)

According to sources related to Sportsnet.ca, the Vancouver Canucks have added center Bryan Smolinski for a second round draft choice in the 2007 Entry Draft.

More later…

Potential for globalization unlimited (ESPN.com)

ESPN über wordsmith Jayson Stark sits down with Allan H. “Bud” Selig and picks his brain on the future of Major League Baseball.

The 20 most influential: online sports (SportsBusinessJournal.com)

The Sports Business Journal lists the top 20 most influential people in online sports.  Some names you’ll be awfully familiar with (Bill Simmons, Peter King and Will Leitch); others you’ll probably wouldn’t know from a police line-up (Steve Snyder, Brian Rolapp and Dick Glover).

One thing is for sure: we didn’t make the top 1,000, but we promise to work really hard at it for next time.

For the record: Bob Bowman of MLB Interactive Media is numero uno.

Prior held back — just in case (Sun-Times)

Oft-injured Chicago Cubs starter Mark Prior is being held out of the club’s first five or six games as a precaution.  Of course, the Cubs are saying it’s different this time.

Yeah, it always is.

News and notes while rushing out to get pedicures to improve your hoops game…

Some UNC men’s hoops players fancy pedicures (News Observer/The Big Lead) They’ve got all the answers.

Letter writers pick apart Sports Guy’s Johnson tribute (FireJoeMorgan) A sports fact check!

Messier returns home to Edmonton (Sportsnet.ca) The future NHL HOFer returns home for tribute where he’ll likely cry.

Manny comes to camp early! (MLB.com) Well that’s a huge relief — ahead of schedule, too.

Ullrich retires from cycling (AP/ESPN.com) Amid investigations, he decides to shut it down.

Lawyer: Bonds won’t cooperate in Mitchell inquiry (AP/ESPN) It’s just Barry being…(insert what you want here).

News and notes while coming to grips with fantasy baseball draft day decisions…

Artest a no-show as Kings down Pacers (AP/Yahoo! Sports) Perhaps he decided to feed his dogs instead.

Olympian Rulon Gardner survives plane crash (AP/USA Today) First this guy survives severe frostbite a few years back and now he survives a small plane crash. He’s living a charmed life.

The $103,000,000 mechanics of Daisuke Matsuzaka (Hardball Times) The animated gif breakdown of the delivery of one “Dice-K”.

Lennox Lewis denies comeback talk (USA Today) The HBO boxing commentator denies rumors of a comeback to face Vitali Klitschko.

Scorsese finally wins his Oscar (CNN) The great director wins the Oscar for “The Departed”. The movie was also named best picture.

Duke lax off to 2-0 start (USA Today) An emphatic return for a mistakenly maligned program.

Federer breaks Connors’s world number one streak (Reuters) The machine rolls on