It’s my Parting Shot for my answers to questions posed on the T-S-N website…..

First question…The Talking Point – Nylander flipping the middle finger…something or nothing? My answer, absolutely something. In today’s world of anger and intense, polarizing views of the world – made worse by a mad man in the Excited States – flipping the bird on camera and in full view of a full arena of people who would’ve seen it on the Jumbo Tron at Scotiabank Arena is brutally unacceptable. There are still rules regarding what can be said or indicated on live main-stream media in the world and I don’t believe that the world should be insisting that flipping the bird where school-aged children can see it from one of their sports heroes is okay behaviour! It’s not okay and William Nylander should own up to what he did and apologize!!

Next question…Who should win N-F-L M-V-P, Stafford or Maye? My answer is Matthew Stafford of the Rams because the M-V-P they’re talking about has already been voted on and is for the regular-season. Really, it’s a stupid question to ask, trying to confuse readers who don’t know or understand the process just to get website views! Matthew Stafford directed the N-F-L’s highest-scoring offence during the regular season – end of story, he’s the M-V-P. However, Drake Maye has a very good chance of being the Super Bowl M-V-P if he can lead New England over Seattle in two weeks time for the Vince Lombardi Trophy!!

Last question…N-B-A trade deadline tiers: Will the Raptors make another big splash? In the article, Toronto is lumped into the third of eight different tiers of teams that could be involved before the February 5th deadline. That tier is titled as wild-card and the suggestion is that the Raps likely won’t be involved – which is fine by me and should be fine with their fan base. Toronto’s N-B-A team is having a nice turn-around season, sitting in third place in the Eastern Conference. It’s the first trade deadline for Bobby Webster as G-M with all the decision-making power, instead of having to run things by Masai Ujiri, who is no longer in the picture! The Raptors have been a bit of a band-aid team all season and should just try and get healthy and see where the group this year can take them, then assess needs and changes in the off-season!

That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk with the Blades in Lethbridge…and it turned out nice again!