In order to keep the world spinning on its proper axis, we offer a long-weekend version of the musings and meditations on the world of sports. Think of reading this as time and a half well spent.

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LeBron James, the best player in basketball, is out of the playoffs after Cleveland's 97-92 loss to Boston on Sunday.

Photograph by : Jim Rogash, Getty Images

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We certainly will.

- If nothing else, the Dallas Stars' performance Monday night underscores why just two teams in postseason history have come back from 3-0 deficits.

It would appear beating a playoff-calibre team four straight times isn't easy.

Still, the NHL and its fans should be ecstatic over the final that now awaits. They have the marquee team in Detroit. They have the marquee players in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

On paper, it's difficult to say where the advantage lies but when you see the Wings and their stars -- particularly Nick Lidstrom -- playing with such poise and purpose, it's difficult to envision them being beaten by the callow Penguins on the game's biggest stage.

- 0n the other hand, we would point out we called the Penguins to win the Stanley Cup at the start of the season. Of course, we also called them to beat Anaheim but that's not really the point, is it?

Be further advised that if the Penguins take the chalice, it will improve our career prediction record to 11 for 3,987.

- The Iron Curtain was brought down with less time and effort but it seems Alain Vigneault is coming back as the Canucks head coach next season and that makes for an interesting situation.

This could work. When Doug Armstrong was fired, for example, the new GM tandem in Dallas inherited Dave Tippett as their coach and they did all right. If you researched the subject deeply enough, you could probably find another case where a new GM and an old coach found happiness in a forced marriage.

The problem is you can think of scores and scores of examples where it didn't work. Brian Burke and Mike Keenan here. John Ferguson Jr. and Pat Quinn in Toronto. Jacques Martin and John Muckler in Ottawa.

Maybe the Canucks can be the exception to the rule. Then again, maybe there's a reason why this arrangement usually ends badly.

- Now that a world hockey championship has been decided by the worst rule in all of professional sports, can we finally repeal the delay-of-game call where the puck is shot over the glass.

I mean, where exactly did this rule come from? Was there an epidemic of pucks being shot over the glass? Was the game being ruined by a constant stoppages owing to this practice?

No, we just woke up one day and there it was. Why? The rule is worse than Ashlee Simpson. It equates an inadvertent and inconsequential play with hockey's most serious penalties. It's also so petty and small and completely contradictory to the spirit of the game, it is an affront to all right-thinking fans.

And this isn't because Canada was jobbed out of a gold medal. The rule sucked long before Rick Nash was penalized against the Russians. That call just made things clearer.

- Discuss among yourselves. If R.J. Umberger was in the Canucks lineup, would the Canucks scouting department still be the object of such derision?