Each Wednesday I share links to good articles/columns from recent happenings – with added insights and musings – from around the sporting world.  If you come across good articles, videos, etc. – please pass them along, I’d love to take a look.

National Hockey League:

Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin is out for the year after tearing his ACL and MCL last Friday against the Sabres.  The only good news for the Pens is that Malkin’s injury happened before the trade deadline giving GM Ray Shero time to find some help for Sidney Crosby and the team to make a playoff run (provided Crosby completely recovers from the lingering concussion symptoms).  Not only does this suck for Pens fans, but it hurts the entire league to lose a superstar like Malkin to a season ending injury.  Let’s hope Malkin makes a full recovery.

Photo via committedindians.com

Peter Forsberg announced his return to the NHL and the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday.  Forsberg (pictured above)has some immigration and visa issues to sort out before he can lace ‘em up for the Avs but whenever he joins the team it can’t hurt having lost 6 of their last 7 games.  It will be interesting to see if Forsberg still has “it” and can keep up with the fastest team in the league.

Surfing:

Who is the fastest surfer on tour you ask? Well, we’re about to find out – Quicksilver is putting GPS devices into the contest jerseys for the upcoming Quik Pro Gold Coast contest.  A $2,500 cash prize for the fastest mens and womens surfers should provide some extra incentive.

Surf photographer Daniel Russo took some surf photos of an outer reef on the North Shore of Oahu Monday evening. Russo was out with Sion Milosky, Nathan Florence (John John’s 16-year-old brother), and Nathan Fletcher to catch some bombs before sunset.

You have to see John John Florence’s “winter highlights” posted below.  John John (18) makes surfing at Pipe look way too easy no matter how big the waves are:

Surfline provides a good look at what a full day of surfing at Jaws is like for Ian Walsh.  Walsh is a Maui local and mostly known for his big wave surfing but he can surf it all as evidenced by his run to the semi-finals of last month’s Volcom Pipe Pro.  Anyway, check out the Surfline feature on Ian and Jaws to see everything that goes into surfing the world’s biggest waves.

Speaking of Jaws – ESPN Acton Sports wrote a great piece about the new age of young surfers charging Jaws.  Tyler Larronde (16),  Joao Marco Maffini (15), Chaz Kinoshita  (4-foot-10, 100-pound eighth-grader), Matt Meola (21), and Billy Kemper (20) are among several other youngsters surfing Jaws every chance they get.   Click on some of the links in the article to see some crazy Jaws footage.

College Football/NFL Draft:

For all you NFL Draft/Combine fans – here’s the official NFL Combine invite list.  The Combine is held in Indianapolis, Indiana and runs from February 23rd to March 1st.

Boise State running back recruit Jay Ajayi was recently named to the Parade All-American Team by Parade Magazine. Ajayi is the first Parade All-American to sign his LOI with the Broncos.  Here are some highlights of Ajayi through his first six games of the 2010 season.

National Football League:

This video has been circulating for about a week now but if you haven’t seen it you need to.  Philadelphia Eagles’ DeSean Jackson, Jamaal Jackson and Todd Herremans paid a visit to Nadin Khoury a 13-year-old bullying victim and huge Eagles fan:

If you didn’t hear, there was a ticket fiasco at the Super Bowl on Sunday – more than 1,200 fans either didn’t get the seats they paid for or didn’t get a seat in the stadium.   Darren Rovell of CNBC got a first hand account of the ticket fiasco in Dallas. l I think it’s safe to assume they wont be playing the Super Bowl at Jerry’s World anytime in the near future. Updated – The NFL announced they’re offering the 400 fans that didn’t get a seat in the stadium two options for compensation. Having heard some of the stories and way these people were treated, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them turn down the offers and pursue litigation – we’ll see.

After a bloated Super Bowl in Dallas, it’s time to rein in the big game says Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins.  I can’t say I disagree too much with what Jenkins wrote but then again I’m not a huge NFL fan to begin with.

The Super Bowl commercials were garbage for the most most part if you ask me.  It’s too bad Daniel Tosh’s (from tosh.0) Super Bowl commercial didn’t air during the game:

Disclaimer – I wasn’t planning to rip-off both of these videos from SI’s Hotclicks on Monday. I saw The View clip last week and the Daniel Tosh commercial from his twitter feed. No, seriously.

College Basketball:

Is it safe to say Jimmer-Mania has gotten out of control even at BYU?  A BYU student named Michelle wrote a letter to the editor “annoyed at all the Jimmer worship” and shared the information on her facebook page. Click the link for the ensuing madness/humor.

Running :

Running you ask? Well this story is unbelievable - Belgian runner Stefaan Engels just finished running 365 marathons in 365 days. Yes, you read that correctly.  I didn’t even know that was possible and apparently he set a Guinness World Record in the process.  Pretty incredible.

Any good stories/articles I missed?

Happy Humpday Everyone!