A sampling of topics from around the world of sports, including "Spygate," and the playoffs in the NBA and NHL. Let's get started...

It's over, finally!

It's time to move on. Commissioner Roger Goodell of the National Football League has done his job: he fined Bill Belchick a lofty $500,000 and stripped the New England Patriots of a first round draft pick. Apparently this wasn't enough for national pundits who want a head-on-a-stick, or just more information to beat the story into the ground even more.

Matt Walsh, the man behind the camera and the scrutiny, grabbed more headlines than he should have (much of which he never wanted) and didn't turn in the much hyped Super Bowl walkthrough tape of the St. Louis Rams. That's not right… or is it?

ESPN would like to have you thinking the tape existed because they reported it did. Rob Parker, a studio guest appearing often on ESPN's "First Take," went as far as suggesting someone was paid off in order for the tape not to appear. Skip Bayless agreed, as I'm sure do most of the suits behind the scenes at the network.

However, because they didn't get what they wanted, or reported for that matter, someone within the NFL or the New England Patriots must have done something in order for this to have happened. It couldn't have been due to bad journalism, could it? Not at ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports.

The point of the matter is – there was no point, and for the entire 2007-08 football season we were subjected to constant debate over what was going to happen next in that matter that was so unoriginally named "Spygate." A whole different matter, but it seems as though "gate" has become a suffix of its own, entailing profound scandal and drama. Personally, I try to avoid stories that end in "gate" because I might as well be reading the National Enquirer. To think, after the first week there wasn't going to be anymore disciplining by Goodell, and we could have been focusing on other things the rest of the season? I want my free time back.

NBA Playoffs

I thought it was just the Boston Celtics at first, but apparently no one can seem to win on the road anymore. After most of the series were blow outs in the first round, especially in the highly touted Western Conference, only the Celtics proved they couldn't win on the road.

Welcome into the club the Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets, San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Spurs and Jazz both lost the first two games on the road before enjoying some home cooking, winning the next two at home to tie the series.

After dropping the first two in Boston, Cleveland won Games 3 and 4 in their building convincingly. But with NBA officiating, it's easy to see why teams play better at home than on the road. In no other sport is there as distinct an advantage at home as there is in the NBA.

If this is NBA Commissioner David Stern's and the NBA's idea of making basketball exciting, it's not working. I don't want to hear how hard it is to officiate in the playoffs at the NBA level. For years the officiating has been at the bottom of the bucket and nothing has been done to fix it. Diving, flopping, whatever you want to call it happens in soccer, not on the basketball court. As fans, we're not stupid. We can tell what it takes for a six-foot, seven-inch tall man to hit the deck. On the other hand, when the average player in your league has to modify their doors at home in order fit through them, there is going to be some contact on the floor within the game. Can't we find a happy medium?

NHL Playoffs

Everyone knew the Pittsburgh Penguins were going to be among the elite in the Eastern Conference in the near future, but few thought it would happen so soon. The Penguins are stacked from top to bottom, and from the net out, not to mention they are young, very young.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are living up to their much anticipated hype, but after a roller-coaster first few seasons and hampered by injury at the beginning of the season, Marc-Andre Fleury is proving why he was the first overall pick in 2003. After appearing in only 35 regular season games, Fleury looks rested and ready to go the distance in goal, and has only lost one game in 11 starts.

Things went from bad to worse for the Philadelphia Flyers. If it wasn't enough to lose their top defenseman and perhaps best player in Kimmo Timonen due to a blood clot in his foot after blocking a shot in the Montreal series, the man expected to fill his big shoes took a puck to the face in Game 2 just two minutes into the first period.

Brayden Coburn, who is expected to be a mainstay in the Philly locker room and one of their top blueliners, caught a Hal Gill deflection to his left eye requiring 50 stitches and a night off. Having been cleared to play in Game 3, the question remains at what level will Coburn be able to play at after suffering such a horrific injury?

One thing's for certain, the Flyers are glad to have him back, because just his mere presence will eat up ice time allowing the rest of the defense to catch their breath a little longer.