three races on short, flat tracks this season.Austin

NEW YORK -- Sometimes its important to take a break from the pool.Swimming has given NBC some memorable moments in Rio de Janeiro, continuing Wednesday with a third gold medal for Katie Ledecky and her American teammates in a freestyle relay. But between the surprise gold medal by Kazakhstans Dmitriy Balandin and the womens relay race, the network aired a seemingly endless series of turgid semifinals.Meanwhile, NBC held back video of the scintillating mens gymnastics all-around competition, one of the showcase sports in any Olympics. Japans Kohei Uchimura, widely considered the greatest mens gymnast in history, won the gold medal over Ukraines Oleg Verniaiev by less than one-tenth of a point.American gymnasts were out of the running. So NBC started gymnastics at 11:37 p.m. The gold medal was decided at 12:19 a.m. Thursday.Were reluctant to criticize Olympics broadcasters for being homers. Its only natural for citizens of any country to be most interested in the performances of their own athletes and want to see when theyre in medal contention.Yet in this case, gymnastics fans have a right to feel cheated.HOOPS SCARE: Seasoned pros Marv Albert and Doug Collins didnt panic, didnt root and didnt hyperventilate when the U.S. mens basketball team had an unexpectedly close game against Australia. Their NBCSN telecast calmly added perspective with a clip of the last time the U.S. team lost, in 2004. This is a game you grow from, Collins said. If youre going to win a gold medal, its not going to be easy.SEXISM WATCH: Another stuff for the mother of three, Kerri Walsh Jennings, announcer Chris Marlowe said during Walsh Jennings and April Ross unexpectedly close beach volleyball match against Switzerland. Now that may seem like a benign identifier, but not every woman takes it that way. Think about it for a second, whens the last time youve heard a swimming announcer say, great flip turn by the father of one, Michael Phelps?RATINGS: NBC had its best night of the Rio Olympics on Tuesday, registering 33.4 million viewers for a broadcast that included live coverage of Phelps winning his 20th and 21st gold medals and the dominating performance of the U.S. womens gymnastics team. Add in people who watched tennis on Bravo, womens soccer on NBCSN and those who streamed to their devices, the total Olympic audience in prime time was 36.1 million people, the Nielsen company said. An estimated 38.7 million watched the corresponding night in London in 2012.STREAM TIME: In a reflection of how viewing habits are changing, NBC said that by the end of Tuesday, people had already streamed more minutes of live Olympics coverage through the networks website and app than for the entirety of the London Games. Through Tuesday, NBC said 883 million minutes of Olympic action had been streamed, compared with 818 million for all of London. An estimated 1.3 million people streamed the live womens gymnastics team final, which took place in the late afternoon but was not shown on television in the U.S. until prime time.QUOTE: Im going to work on my Pokemon Go game for the rest of this one. Its over. -- NBC volleyball announcer Paul Sunderland, toward the end of the U.S. womens match against Serbia. Serbia staged a late rally, so he had to look up from his smartphone.CYCLING: Good for Bob Costas to find time in NBCs broadcast to mark the achievement of American cyclist Kristin Armstrong, at 43 the oldest American woman to win a gold medal in any summer or winter Olympics since 1904.---This story has been corrected to show there were 818 million minutes of Olympic action streamed in London, not 881.Custom Ducks T-shirts . Now, correct me if Im wrong but I saw one official distinctly pointing at the net indicating a good goal but after an inconclusive review they overturned the goal. Shouldnt the ruling on the ice (good goal) stand after an inconclusive review? Why was this overturned? James Veaudry Pembroke, ON -- Hey Kerry, Youll get a lot of these, but why was the Montreal goal against Nashville Saturday night overturned? Eller puts the puck on net and the on ice ruling from the ref behind the net is a Montreal goal. Authentic Custom Ducks Jersey .com) - The Montreal Canadiens embark on their first road trip of the season as they head out west to battle the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. http://www.customducksjersey.com/ ., for the next three years with the signings on Monday of Daryl Townsend and Michael Carter. Custom Ducks Jerseys .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar took over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win. 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They reached the 100-point plateau for the fourth time in five games, bested the visiting Trail Blazers by 34 in the paint and scored 19 of the final 25 points in regulation.Last week at Kentucky, we were back with 1.5-mile track racing, and we were back with a familiar theme of the season, trust the pole-sitter.While Kevin Harvick may not have ended up getting the win, he led a race-high 128 laps (somebody has now led more than 100 laps in all six Kentucky races all-time), and finished with a race-best 81 points.Martin Truex Jr., one of my drivers to consider, like Harvick, couldnt stretch the fuel mileage, but finished up with a race-high 69 fastest laps led (to go along with his 46 laps led) for 77 points.My top pick for the week, Kyle Busch, didnt follow through with a third Kentucky win, but did put up 38.5 points on the day.The other theme for the day was drivers such as Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Blaney all getting into trouble on the slick track. If all six of your drivers avoided trouble, you probably had a good day just by avoiding calamity.That mayhem also gave us some unusual drivers getting good finishes if you dipped into the bargain basement bin, such as Cole Whitt (21st for 38 points), Josh Wise (24th for 36 points) and Michael Annett (26th for 31.5 points). But you cant count on that sort of performance every week.This week, we head to New Hampshire, a fairly flat track measuring just over a mile. It might be over a mile, but I liken it more closely to the short tracks Martinsville or Richmond, or a better comparison might be Phoenix.There are laps led to be had at this track. The race goes 301 laps, and the trends there to watch are drivers finishing up front also starting up front; and the driver dominating in laps led recently hasnt gone on to win. But they dont need to win! They cant take those laps led points away!Last fall, Kevin Harvick led 216 laps and finished 21st, but still had 104.5 points. In the first race, Brad Keselowski led 100 laps and finished second for 106 points. The race before that, it was Harvick again leading 104 laps, finishing third, but still giving 87.5 points.So, what does this mean for this race? Here are my picks to get you started for the week. But check back again after qualifying for my final picks and fades for the week.Im starting my team with:There are two drivers I love at this point in the lead. The top spot goes to Kevin Harvick. His run of excellence at the track doesnt ggo back quite as far as No.dddddddddddd 2 on this list (just wait, hes right under this entry), but the recent numbers have been the best.Even with his drop-off to 21st in the last race there, his in-race domination has given him averages of 94.9 DraftKings points, 63.3 fastest laps and 126.3 laps led per race, all the race in the field. Given that he seemed to have one of the best cars on the track last week, and Im going to start my team here.Keep an eye on these four:Brad Keselowski: Hes right behind Harvick on my list early in the week. Harvick took the majority of laps led in the last race, but Keselowski led 100, 78 and 138 laps in the three races before that. Plus hes put up more than 20 fastest laps in six straight New Hampshire races. Going back to the start of 2013, his 76.5 DraftKings points average is more than 16 more than any other driver.Kyle Larson: Larson had one of the fastest cars in practice last week at Kentucky, but pit strategy let him down at the end. This week, Im thinking he can perform closer to his 2014 numbers at the track (top-three finishes in both races and more than 50 DraftKings points) instead of 2015 (17th and 31st and eight points per race). Hes had a top-15 finish in all three races on short, flat tracks this season.Austin Dillon: Dillon is a whole new driver this season, but hes always put up decent numbers at New Hampshire. Im tying his performance to qualifying. In three of his four starts at the track, he started 22nd or worse and finished 14th or better. In those three, hes averaging more than 45 points per race. Take him if hes starting mid-pack or worse.Ryan Newman: Newman might not be mega-low value, but he usually finds himself at the front of the field here and will come at a modest price. Last year, he was 10th and 11th in the two New Hampshire races. Im hoping he pulls off the qualifying/race combo that he did in the last two summer races here. Last year, he started 26th and finished 11th. The year before, he started 24th and finished fifth.Thats all I have for you this week. Sounds like the perfect time to go get a New England lobster roll. Butter only, no mayo. Mayo has no place on lobster. ' ' '