It's Tuesday

It's Tuesday. Here's what's happening....

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Today is August 7th, the 220th day of 2012. There are 146 days left in the year.

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Similar look as Maple Leafs seek to end drought.

Red Wings agree with 2011 pick Jurco.

Visit the official league website, http://www.nhl.com/.

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Today's Birthdays: Wayne Knight (Seinfeld's Newman, Jurassic Park) is 57; David Duchovny (The X-Files, Californication) is 52; Charlize Theron (Snow White & the Huntsman, Prometheus, Best Actress Oscar for Monster) is 37.

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U.S. Roster Set for International Games at 2012 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp

USA to Face Finland Twice and Sweden Once to Conclude Camp

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- Thirty-four of the initial 45 players in attendance at the 2012 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp will remain to oppose Sweden and Finland in a series of international games here this week.

The players are auditioning for a spot on the U.S. National Junior Team that will take part in the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, Dec. 26, 2012-Jan. 5, 2013, in Ufa, Russia.

"The first three days of camp have been impressive and we have been pleased with the players' level of competition," said Jim Johannson, USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations and the general manager of the 2013 U.S. National Junior Team. "The players being released today are still among those being evaluated for the team in the coming months. For the players retained, this week's upcoming international games in Lake Placid give us an oportunity to further assess their skills."

Among those staying are goalie John Gibson (Pittsburgh, Pa.), defenseman Jacob Trouba (Rochester, Mich.) and forward J.T. Miller (East Palestine, Ohio), who were members of the 2012 U.S. National Junior Team.

For the updated final 2012 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp roster, click here.

USA Blue beat Finland, 5-4, and USA White lost to Finland, 5-1, in the first day of international competition on Monday, Aug. 6. The trimmed Team USA roster will play two more games against Finland and one more contest against Sweden. All games are being played at the Olympic Center's Herb Brooks Arena.

NOTES: Use the hashtag #njec on Twitter to join the conversation surrounding this week's camp ... The online home for the 2012 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp, including the Team USA roster and online bios, can be found by clicking here ... All games from the 2012 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp are being streamed live and are available on demand at FASTHockey.com ... The 2013 U.S. National Junior Team will be selected in late December following a pre-tournament camp from Dec. 19-23 to be held in Helsinki, Finland ... Phil Housley (South St. Paul, Minn.), head boy's ice hockey coach at Stillwater (Minn.) High School, is the head coach of the 2013 U.S. National Junior Team. He is assisted by Mark Osiecki (Columbus, Ohio), head men's ice hockey coach at Ohio State University and Grant Potulny (Minneapolis, Minn.), assistant men's ice hockey coach at the University of Minnesota ... Greg Brown (Scituate, Mass.), assistant men's ice hockey coach coach at Boston College, Joe Exter (Columbus, Ohio), assistant men's ice hockey coach at Ohio State University, Tony Granato (South Hills, Pa.), assistant coach for the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins and Don Lucia (Plymouth, Minn.), head men's ice hockey coach at the University of Minnesota are also participating in Lake Placid as camp coaches ... Jim Johannson (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations, is serving as the general manager of Team USA for the fourth consecutive year. Tim Taylor (Guilford, Conn.) is the director of player personnel.

USA Squads Post a Split Against Finland and Sweden at the 2012 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp

USA Blue Tops Finland; USA White Loses to Sweden

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – USA Blue opened the first day of international play at the 2012 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp day with a thrilling 5-4 victory over Finland that included a hat trick by Mario Lucia (Plymouth, Minn.). USA White ended the afternoon with a 5-1 loss to Sweden. Both games were held at the Olympic Center's Herb Brooks Arena.

"I think the blue team did an excellent job of pursuing the puck on the forecheck and made some great transition plays," said Phil Housley, head coach of the 2013 U.S. National Junior Team. "They were in a tight game and they found a way to win, so that was intriguing to me. They stuck to the game plan. The white team, I thought they got a little frustrated. At times they had some great pressure but I think they got away from the game plan and took some unnecessary penalties, which cost us. Sweden is a very elite team, a very good transition team. We have a lot of work to do. We haven't had any practice time so I'm looking forward to tomorrow to implement some more system work."

The 40-plus players attending the weeklong camp are auditioning for spots on the U.S. National Junior Team that will compete in the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, Dec. 26, 2012-Jan. 5, 2013, in Ufa, Russia.

To begin game one, Finland took a 1-0 advantage at 8:39 of the first period. Over the next three minutes, USA Blue retaliated with goals at 9:04 and 11:20 to take a 2-1 lead. Lucia got his team on the board with a power-play tally at 9:04, while Sean Kuraly (Dublin, Ohio) scored his fourth goal of the week at 11:20.

Lucia potted his second goal of the day at 3:59 of the second period when he finished off a give-and-go play by Stefan Noesen (Plano, Texas) and Patrick Sieloff (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

Finland bounced back in the latter stages of the second period with goals at 13:00 and 16:52 to make it 3-3.

Alex Galchenyuk (Milwaukee, Wis.) put USA Blue back in front at 6:25 of the third period, stickhandling around traffic in front before finding the back of the net.

Finland forced the third tie of the game (4-4) with 4:21 to play on Juuso Ikonen's second goal of the afternoon.

Lucia won the game and completed his hat trick with 35 ticks left on the clock as he rushed the puck up ice on a three-on-two break, looked off passes to either side and lined a shot over the goalie's blocker from the hash marks.

In game two, Sweden got out to a 2-0 lead over USA White on power-play goals at 5:40 and 19:46.

USA White halved its deficit to 2-1 on a power-play goal by Mike Reilly (Chanhassen, Minn.) at 3:23 of the second stanza. Alex Broadhurst (Orland Park, Ill.) and Stefan Matteau (Chicago, Ill.) set up Reilly for the one-tme blast.

USA White had three more power plays during the rest of the second period but did not capitalize. Meanwhile, Sweden cushioned its lead to 4-1 after 40 minutes with tallies at 9:44 and 17:43.

The Swedes capped off their 5-1 win with a goal 15 minutes into the third period.

The United States has a practice day on Tuesday (Aug. 7), before returning to action on Aug. 8 against Finland.

NOTES: Use the hashtag #njec on Twitter to join the conversation surrounding this week's camp ... The online home for the 2012 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp, including the Team USA roster and online bios, can be found by clicking here ... All games from the 2012 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp are being streamed live and are available on demand at FASTHockey.com ... The 2013 U.S. National Junior Team will be selected in late December following a pre-tournament camp from Dec. 19-23 to be held in Helsinki, Finland ... Phil Housley (South St. Paul, Minn.), head boy's ice hockey coach at Stillwater (Minn.) High School, is the head coach of the 2013 U.S. National Junior Team. He is assisted by Mark Osiecki (Columbus, Ohio), head men's ice hockey coach at Ohio State University and Grant Potulny (Minneapolis, Minn.), assistant men's ice hockey coach at the University of Minnesota ... Greg Brown (Scituate, Mass.), assistant men's ice hockey coach coach at Boston College, Joe Exter (Columbus, Ohio), assistant men's ice hockey coach at Ohio State University, Tony Granato (South Hills, Pa.), assistant coach for the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins and Don Lucia (Plymouth, Minn.), head men's ice hockey coach at the University of Minnesota are also participating in Lake Placid as camp coaches ... Jim Johannson (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations, is serving as the general manager of Team USA for the fourth consecutive year. Tim Taylor (Guilford, Conn.) is the director of player personnel.

GAME SUMMARY 1

Scoring By Period

USA Blue 2 1 2 5
Finland 1 2 1 4

First Period – Scoring: 1, FIN, Armia (Leino), 8:39; 2, BLUE, Lucia (Kuraly, Noesen), 9:04 (pp); 3, BLUE, Kuraly (Blackwell, Skjei), 11:20. Penalties: FIN, Tikkinen (high sticking), 8:50; BLUE, Carrick (hooking), 12:51; BLUE, Galchenyuk (tripping), 15:38.

Second Period – Scoring: 4, BLUE, Lucia (Noesen, Sieloff), 3:59; 5, FIN, Maatta (unassisted), 13:00; 6, FIN, Ikonen (Maatta, Aatolnen), 16:52. Penalties: BLUE, Gostisbehere (interference), 6:23; BLUE, Sieloff (high sticking), 7:28; Blue, Reid (hooking), 9:23; BLUE, Schmaltz (hooking), 19:02.

Third Period – Scoring: 7, BLUE, Galchenyuk (Gaudreau, Blackwell), 6:25; 8, FIN, Ikonen (Aaltonen), 15:39; 9, BLUE, Lucia (Schmaltz), 19:25. Penalties: BLUE, Noesen (slashing), 3:35; FIN, Armia (roughing), 7:24; FIN, Salomaki (cross checking), 20:00.

Shots by Period
1 2 3 Total
USA Blue 7 7 8 22
Finland 8 7 5 20

Goaltenders (SH/SV) 1 2 3 Total
USA Blue, Gibson, 31:45 7/8 3/3 0/0 10/11
Gillies, 28:15 0/0 2/4 4/5 6/9
Finland, Ullberg, 60:00 5/7 6/7 6/8 17/22

Power Play: USA Blue 1-2; Finland 0-7
Penalties: USA White 7-14; Finland 3-6

GAME SUMMARY 2

Scoring By Period

USA Blue 0 1 0 1
Sweden 2 2 1 5

First Period – Scoring: 1, SWE, Aberg (Boyce Rotevall), 5:50 (pp); 2, SWE, Zibanejad (Aberg), 19:46 (pp). Penalties: WHITE, Matteau (slashing), 5:30; SWE, Klefbom (interference), 7:54; WHITE, Bardreau (tripping), 17:42; WHITE, Trocheck (roughing), 19:38.

Second Period – Scoring: 3, WHITE, Reilly (Broadhurst, Matteau), 3:23 (pp); 4, SWE, Arvidsson (unassisted), 9:44; 5, SWE, Rask (unassisted), 17:43. Penalties: SWE, Lundberg (boarding), 1:23; SWE, Arvidsson (interference), 7:29; SWE, Zibanejad (interference), 13:22; SWE, Arnesson (slashing), 15:03.

Third Period – Scoring: 6, SWE, Rask (Arvidsson, Lundberg), 15:00. Penalties: WHITE, Nelson (interference), 4:10; WHITE, Hartman (hooking), 10:51; WHITE, Miller (unsportsmanlike conduct), 10:51; WHITE, Bardreau (tripping), 15:33; SWE, Arnesson (boarding), 18:26.

Shots by Period
1 2 3 Total
USA White 7 7 8 22
Sweden 8 7 5 20

Goaltenders (SH/SV) 1 2 3 Total
USA White, Sparks, 29:41 12/14 9/9 0/0 21/23
Stolarz, 30:19 0/0 4/6 10/11 14/17
Sweden, Lundstrum, 60:00 88 13/14 4/4 25/26

Power Play: USA White 1-6; Sweden 2-7
Penalties: USA White 7-14; Sweden 6-12

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ON DVD TODAY - Dr. Seuss' The Lorax; Parenthood: Season Three.

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True to form: Lions defence shuts down Argos for win.

2012 CFL Replay: A look back on Week 6.

Visit the leagues' official website, http://www.cfl.ca/.

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Today is another special day in our house: It's Snoopy's 10th gotcha day and Smoke's 7th birthday. Have fun today boys, we love you!

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VANSTONE: Riders anxious to move ahead.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders look to snap their two-game losing streak when they play at Edmonton against the Eskimos, on Friday, August 10th. Catch the game on 620 CKRM and the Rider Radio Network, with Rod Pedersen and Carm Carteri calling the action. Listen link is on the left side of this page. The game can be seen in Canada on TSN and in the U.S. online at ESPN3.com.

Visit the team's official website, http://www.riderville.com/.

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George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart on this date in 1782.

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Thanks for the yummy juice Mommy.

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Let's see, what's on the agenda for today....WMEL stuff, washing dishes, enjoying Snoopy and Smoke's big day and having fun with Jimmy. How 'bout you?

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St. Petersburg, FL. -- The Rays were off yesterday. Tonight, Evan Longoria returns to the lineup, as the Rays open a three-game home set with the Toronto Blue Jays. James Shields toes the rubber for the Rays, J.A. Happ starts for Toronto.

First pitch is at 7:10pm EDT.

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Today is Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day, a day to shine a light on difficult-to-open packaging.

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Denver, CO.-- Twice Matt Cain was one strike away from escaping the sixth inning with minimal damage Monday night. But a pair of clutch, two-out St. Louis at-bats sent Cain packing in an 8-2 Cardinals win.

Read the rest here.

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Oprah is giving La Toya Jackson her own reality show. [This is a desperate cry for help. From Oprah.]

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Today in Elvis History

1954 - The August 7, 1954 issue of "The Billboard" Magazine included the following review of the "That's All Right"/"Blue Moon of Kentucky" single. "Presley is a potent new chanter who can sock over a tune for either the country or the r. & b. markets. On this new disk he comes thru with a solid performance on an r. & b.-type tune and then on the flip side does another fine job with a country ditty. A strong new talent."

1965 - Elvis Presley began filming "Paradise Hawaiian Style."

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Guys, your mustaches and beards aren't just babe magnets, they're also a boon for your health. A group of Australian researchers found that facial hair provides an effective barrier against the sun's UV rays.

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Today in Beatles History:

1957 - The Quarry Men made their Cavern Club debut in Liverpool. Paul McCartney was not with the band at the debut.

1988 - Paul McCartney refuted author Albert Goldman's statement that John Lennon was gay. McCartney said, "If John were gay, you'd think he'd have made a pass at me at least once in 20 years."

1989 - Paul McCartney's album "Flowers In The Dirt" was certified gold by the RIAA.

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A Nigerian murder suspect accused of killing his brother told police investigators he actually attacked a goat, which was only later magically transformed into his sibling's body.

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Today in Sports History:

1907 - Senator pitcher Walter Johnson won his first major league game by defeating the Indians, 7-2.

1965 - Britain's Jim Clark won his fifth consecutive Grand Prix.

1968 - In his major league debut, Joe Keough (A's) hit a home run in his first at-bat.

1985 - A five-year agreement between the major league baseball players union and team owners ended a two-day mid-season players’ strike. The season resumed the next day.

1987 - Bill Mazeroski's uniform jersey #9 was officially retired from active service by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1999 - Tony Gwynn (San Diego Padres) got his 3,000th hit.

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Jennifer Lawrence is getting a nice raise for the sequel to Hunger Games. She's in the final stages of negotiating a deal to return for Catching Fire that will pay her somewhere around $10 million.

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Coming up:

Tonight --

MLB -- Tampa Bay Rays vs Toronto Blue Jays 7:10pm EDT

MLB -- San Francisco Giants at St. Louis Cardinals 8:15pm EDT

Wednesday --

MLB -- Tampa Bay Rays vs Toronto Blue Jays 7:10pm EDT

MLB -- San Francisco Giants at St. Louis Cardinals 8:15pm EDT

Thursday --

MLB -- Tampa Bay Rays vs Toronto Blue Jays 1:10pm EDT

MLB -- San Francisco Giants at St. Louis Cardinals 1:45pm EDT

Friday --

MLB -- Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins 8:10pm EDT

CFL Football -- Saskatchewan Roughriders at Edmonton Eskimos 9:30pm EDT

MLB -- San Francisco Giants vs Colorado Rockies 10:35pm EDT

Saturday --

Nascar Nationwide Series -- Glen Zippo 200 at the Glen at Watkins Glen International 2:00pm EDT

MLB -- San Francisco Giants vs Colorado Rockies 4:05pm EDT

MLB -- Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins 7:10pm EDT

Sunday --

Nascar Sprint Cup Series -- NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at The Glen at Watkins Glen International 12:00pm EDT

MLB -- Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins 2:10pm EDT

MLB -- San Francisco Giants vs Colorado Rockies 4:05pm EDT

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That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by, I hope that you'll do so tomorrow too. Thanks again!