Ryder

TORONTO - Why Michael Ryder? Claude Julien looked across his bench, scanned the names on the backs of those black sweaters, and tried to pick the winning number as if standing in line at Tedeschi's to buy a lottery ticket. No. 73, Ryder? Sure, hey, why not? "Kind of a hunch there, guys," explained the Bruins' coach, breaking into a wide smile not long after Ryder snapped home the deciding shootout goal in a 4-3 win over the Maple Leafs last night before a crowd of 19,258 at the Air Canada Centre.

With the Ryder Cup a little more than four months away, Europe's top players couldn't pick a better tournament to impress team captain Jose Maria Olazabal than this week's World Match Play Championship in southern Spain. The world's top three — Europeans Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood — have all chosen to skip one of only two match-play events on the calendar but No. 9 Martin Kaymer, No. 12 Justin Rose, 2010 Ryder Cup star Graeme McDowell and defending champion Ian Poulter are among the big names present.

Once upon a time, in a land called the early 1970s, New York City was a hole. A bankrupt, dirty, cynical, exhausted sewer of urban blight, light years away from the city's current status as shiny tourist destination. There were movies made about this New York - "Dog Day Afternoon," "The French Connection," "The Out of Towners" - and one of the best, if least remembered, was 1974's "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three," about the hijacking of a subway train and the MTA dispatcher (Walter Matthau)

Michael Ryder scored two goals and added an assist to lift the Dallas Stars over the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Wednesday night. Mike Ribeiro also scored and had two assists for the Stars (42-30-5), who moved back atop the tight Pacific Division. Dallas has a one-point lead over Los Angeles and San Jose, and a two-point edge over Phoenix. Each team has five games remaining. Ales Hemsky had the lone goal for the Oilers (31-37-9), who were 5-0-2 in their previous seven games. Edmonton came close to going ahead early, just eight minutes in, on a short-handed 2-on-1 break, but...

WASHINGTON -- The Army general who reported last fall there was no mistreatment at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq also commands the criminal investigators now pursuing the abuse cases, raising concerns about a potential conflict of interest. Major General Donald J. Ryder was promoted on Oct. 29 to advise senior Army leaders on law enforcement units, including military police, as the service's provost marshal general. The promotion came in the middle of Ryder's trip in which he was looking for management problems and human rights issues at Abu Ghraib and other Iraq prisons.

I'll say it: They really miss Ryder and Kaberle. OK, maybe that's a stretch. Yet it's still frightening when you realize that Ryder has more points this season than David Krejci, and more goals than anyone not named Tyler Seguin, Milan Lucic, or Rich Peverly. Meanwhile, Kaberle has 16 shots on net, more than Nathan Horton, Krejci, or Chris Kelly. I mean, good grief, Mark Recchi has one fewer goal than Krejci this season. A loss against Ottawa tonight and it's creeping closer to the point where Peter Chiarelli may have to make a drastic move.

FOR FAMILIES Parents and children visiting Martha's Vineyard flock to Joseph Sylvia State Beach. Waves are minimal and the beach slopes gradually into the water, so kids can play without getting in over their heads. The beach stretches about 2 miles between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, and there's parking along the road that connects the two — just try to arrive before 10 a.m. on a hot summer day to get a spot. Of all the swimming beaches on the Cape Cod National Seashore, Coast Guard Beach in Eastham (lot parking available)

Five-time PGA Tour winner Dustin Johnson has been limited to six events this year with a back injury, but said this week that he'll return May 31 at the Memorial. Johnson last played at Doral in March, and missed the Masters when he aggravated the injury a week before Augusta. In a statement this week, Johnson said, "I came into this year with some big goals, including making our Ryder Cup team, so I've got some serious ground to make up this summer. " Memorial will also be the next start for Tiger Woods , who announced that he'll be playing in Jack Nicklaus's ...

About two-thirds of the way into the ridiculously satisfying new "Star Trek" movie, opening Thursday, there comes a brief shot of the crew on the bridge of the Federation Starship Enterprise. The film has been picking up familiar names as it goes, but you suddenly realize with a jolt that everyone, at last, is here: young, hopeful versions of Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto), communications officer Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and pilot Sulu (John Cho), Bones (Karl Urban)

DALLAS - Being a Newfoundland native and a lifelong Northeast Division resident prior to this season, Michael Ryder required some seasoning to adjust to life in the Western Conference. "Just the travel, I found, was a little different," said the first-year Star and former Bruin. "The road trips we're having are seven days, 10 days. That's the biggest difference. "You get home a lot later. The time zones, there's so many time zones, so that's different. The road trips take a while to get used to. " Other than that, life in Dallas has been pretty good.

Allyson Mollung is slated to attend the Ryder Cup Junior academy in Florida this July, after she was selected by the New England PGA. She is pictured with Jacy Settles of the regional PGA Junior tour. By Matt Byrne, Town Correspondent The Professional Golf Association of America selected Medford High School junior Allyson Mollung to attend a prestigious golf academy in Port Lucie, Fla., the school said Friday. Mollung, a varsity team member, will attend the Ryder Cup Junior Academy.

There is plenty of evidence that this is a Ryder Cup year. The U.S. players are starting to earn points from regular PGA Tour events, with Kyle Stanley atop the standings based on his runner-up finish and win in consecutive weeks. Davis Love III walks onto the range and players call him "captain. " Love, however, said the race to make the team really doesn't start until late May. That's when two dozen or so players begin getting fitted for uniforms. "When I always played, you went to the Memorial, got measured for clothes, and you started...

Two nights earlier, the Dallas Stars were dominated on home ice by the team with the NHL's fewest points. Motivated by that dismal showing, the Stars proceeded to knock off the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins. Michael Ryder and Loui Eriksson scored power-play goals in the first period and the Stars ended Boston's seven-game winning streak, 4-2 on Saturday night. Trevor Daley contributed a goal and two assists, Tom Wandell also scored, and Kari Lehtonen made 18 saves for the Stars.

DALLAS - Being a Newfoundland native and a lifelong Northeast Division resident prior to this season, Michael Ryder required some seasoning to adjust to life in the Western Conference. "Just the travel, I found, was a little different," said the first-year Star and former Bruin. "The road trips we're having are seven days, 10 days. That's the biggest difference. "You get home a lot later. The time zones, there's so many time zones, so that's different. The road trips take a while to get used to. " Other than that, life in Dallas has been pretty good.

DALLAS - Being a Newfoundland native and a lifelong Northeast Division resident prior to this season, Michael Ryder required some seasoning to adjust to life in the Western Conference. "Just the travel, I found, was a little different," said the first-year Star and former Bruin. "The road trips we're having are seven days, 10 days. That's the biggest difference. "You get home a lot later. The time zones, there's so many time zones, so that's different. The road trips take a while to get used to. " Other than that, life in Dallas has been pretty good.

Michael Ryder scored the go-ahead goal at 6:42 of the third period after Dallas had wasted a three-goal lead, and the Stars went on to 5-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night. With the game even at 3, Ryder skated up the middle and converted Loui Eriksson's setup for Ryder's 11th of the season. Eric Nystrom added an insurance goal for Dallas at 14:19 of the third. Dallas' Alex Goligoski and Mike Ribeiro scored power-play goals over a 24-second span in the second period.

OTTAWA — By 3:01 p.m. yesterday, the Bruins’ roster had the same names that were on it over the weekend, the same cast of characters that clipped victories Saturday and Sunday nights in Vancouver and Edmonton. For another year, the NHL trade deadline came and went, and this time Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli felt the wisest thing to do was to be wise enough to do nothing at all. “We’ve done three deals where we’ve added three good pieces,’’ said Chiarelli, noting trades the last couple of weeks that netted Tomas Kaberle for point duty and Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley for...

Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market: NYSE American Eagle Outfitters Inc., up 48 cents at $13.91 The teen retailer said that its third-quarter net income rose 59 percent and the company said that its holiday sales were off to a good start. Ryder System Inc., up $3.35 at $52.28 A KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst kept his "Buy" rating on the truck rental and leasing company, citing increased lease activity.