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TORONTO -- There is a circle around Canadian defenseman Shea Weber?-- about 24 feet across, give or take, a little smaller than a faceoff circle. Its invisible to the naked eye, but it is plain enough in his mind and the minds of his opponents that it might as well be painted into the ice. Its especially obvious when he is clearing space in his own zone.The Weber Circumference defines one of hockeys most notorious circles of pain.Weber might be better known for having the leagues hardest shot or being the other half of this summers massive P.K. Subban trade between the?Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators,?with whom he had played his entire 11-year career. But his influence is most deeply felt in that pivotal piece of territory in front of his net.In the lead up to the World Cup of Hockey,?San Jose Sharks?center and fellow Canadian Joe Thornton only had to hear Webers name and he was already whistling an exhausted sigh through his beard.You get in his 12-foot radius and you want to get out of there pretty quickly, Thornton said. Hes possibly the strongest guy in the league.Mike Babcock, Webers admiring coach for Team Canada here at the World Cup, talked recently about the withering effects of Webers stick, in particular.Just physically, hes a man mountain, Babcock said of Weber, who is 6-foot-4 and 236 pounds. If you havent been cross-checked in the ribs by him, you find out what that is too.Thornton took that same cross-check to the back last season after tangling with Roman Josi, Webers defensive partner on the Predators, and it easily downed one of the games biggest and toughest players.Its a heavy stick, Thornton said. Its a heavy stick, thats all I can say.Weber is a quiet man, not given to expressions of deep feeling even with friends.I love Webs, said Team USAs Ryan Suter, Webers former teammate with the Predators. He keeps it all in. Hes such a professional. He keeps things to himself, and he deals with things internally.But Weber does his version of lighting up whenever hes asked about how he views the space around him.You want to take care of the front of your net, Weber said. Obviously, there are a lot of areas that are going to make differences in games, but I think the two biggest areas are right in front of your net and right in front of their net. You want to get as many bodies and traffic in front of their goalie as you can, and you want to make things easier for your goalie to see pucks, as well. I think at every level youre told to box out and clear the front of the net, but especially at this level. The talent that our goalies have, if they see the puck, theyre going to stop it.There isnt much finesse to clearing space, although experience has given Weber an edge in tying up sticks and limiting second chances. His defensive gifts are more a function of his determination -- He doesnt give you an inch, said?Anaheim Ducks?winger?Corey Perry, a frequent foe -- and his freakish strength. He routinely finished first in Nashvilles fitness tests and weightlifting challenges. Friends and enemies alike talk about him with the sort of reverence normally reserved for men who can bend metal bars with their bare hands.Hes a huge presence, said Josi, who is here playing for Team Europe and will face his former partner Weber for the first time. Hes one of the strongest guys Ive ever met. We used to joke around in the dressing room and you could tell how strong he is.There were other testimonials to?Webers strengths:Hes a mutant, Canadian and Ducks?forward Ryan Getzlaf said. Being around his net isnt exactly the funnest place to be.Hes big, hes strong, hes physical, said Team USAs Ryan Kesler, who has engaged in a running battle with Weber in professional and international play for years. Once you get him in front of the net, hes mean and nasty. He reminds me of playing [Zdeno] Chara?back in the day.Webers almost mythical reputation has made him one of those rare players who changes the game even when the puck and his opponents are out of his reach. Normally, the offense wields pressure as a weapon. The way Weber plays, the balance of fear shifts. Given the resignation his opponents carry with them into his zone -- You just know its going to hurt, Finlands Mikael Granlund said -- the forwards are the ones who feel the need to brace themselves. Weber is like a deep bruise that stings them before it even begins to surface.As a player, you always know a guy like him is out there, Granlunds fellow Finn Mikko Koivu said. There are no nights off. Thats the best way to say it.Weber leveled Perry during last years playoffs with an open-ice hit that players still talk about. By any usual definition, Weber was in retreat, skating backward over his own blue line. Perry, at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, was building a head of attacking steam, but he made the mistake of skating deep into Webers sphere of influence. Weber somehow exploded up and out while still moving backward, delivering a forearm to Perrys chin. With a single blow, Perry ended up flat on his back -- Bell rung, he said. Weber continued gliding back toward his net, looking down at one more fallen opponent with a discomforting amount of satisfaction.You have to know thats the way he plays, Perry said.Now Perry and Weber?will be teammates while Canada takes on the rest of the hockey world. Asked about having Weber watching his back instead of putting him on it, Perry smiled with relief and said, Its going to be a lot easier, Ill tell you that.If only for the next two weeks, Perry will skate within the Weber Circumference and find shelter, not doom.Darryl Williams Jersey Online .com) - Christian Ponder will get another chance to prove himself for the Minnesota Vikings, with head coach Leslie Frazier announcing Wednesday that the struggling quarterback will start this weekends game against the Green Bay Packers. Cheap Jerseys For Sale . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. https://www.cheapjerseysatwholesale.com/jerry-noonan-jersey-online/ . -- Five former Kansas City Chiefs players who were on the team between 1987 and 1993 filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming the team hid and even lied about the risks of head injuries during that time period when there was no collective bargaining agreement in place in the NFL. Cheap Jerseys Paypal .com) - The women will also have a new champion at the Australian Open. Alex Burl Jersey Online . Now, with Game 6 set for Fenway Park and an 8:07 p.m. ET first pitch, the Detroit Tigers face the unenviable task of having to beat the Boston Red Sox twice, on the road, to advance to the World Series.So here we go. The Chicago Cubs are going to ...Wait. Get a grip. What am I doing? What am I saying? What am I getting myself into?Yes, its time for that column youve been looking, waiting for all these months. Time for that moment when I (incorrectly) tell you exactly who will (translation: wont) win the World Series.And it would be soooooo easy, soooooo safe, soooooo obvious to pick You Know Who. The best team in baseball. The winningest team in baseball. The team with the legendary 798-year World Series drought. (OK, so its 108 -- whatever.) The team that would rock the planet like no one else if it actually, finally, magically wins the World Series.But sorry, my friends. Cant do it. I made up my mind eight years ago that I am never, ever going to pick the Cubs to win the World Series again. They can thank me later.The Boston Red Sox are going to win the 2016 World Series. Thats my actual (guaranteed to be inaccurate) prediction. But when it came time to write this piece, I felt there were just as many reasons to explain why I WASNT picking the Cubs as why I WAS picking the Red Sox.So why not the Cubs? Ill get to that momentarily. But first, its time to reveal the results of my annual Whos Going to Win the World Series survey of 25 astute baseball executives. And if youre expecting a Cubs landslide here, well, the results are revealing.I asked the group to pick the team that would advance to the World Series from each league and then predict who would win it. In the case of execs from clubs in contention, I asked them just to pick a team in their league they feared most, along with the club they thought would get to the Series from the other league.I conduct this survey every year because A) its fascinating and B) hey, nothing makes me feel better about my own prognostication ineptitude than knowing that the smartest front-office minds in the game are just as awful at this as I am.Over the past two years, do you want to guess how many execs who took part in this exercise guessed the eventual winner of the World Series? That would be exactly ONE. None predicted the Giants in 2014. One picked the Royals last year. So keep that in mind as we unveil the results of this years voting:American League Favorite (or Most-Feared Team) Red Sox 16 Rangers 7 Blue Jays 2*(*Survey conducted while the wild-card race was still raging.)National League Favorite (or Most-Feared Team) Cubs 13 Dodgers 10 Nationals 2World Series Winner Cubs 7 Red Sox 6 Dodgers 4 Rangers 4So did you expect it to be that close? Nope. Me, neither. But I got the distinct vibe that many of these folks felt much like I did -- that picking the best team never makes you look like a genius anyway, so why not go down some other road?Obviously, the pick is the Cubs in the National League, quipped one NL exec. So I like the Dodgers.Too much hype about the Cubs, said another.Out of principle, I wont pick them, said an AL exec.Well, Im not sure precisely what principle is at work here. But you get the idea. So why not the Cubs? Here are four reasons why not:1. Beware of the No. 1 seed: Only two times in the past 25 postseasons has the team with sole possession of the best record in baseball won the World Series (2009 Yankees, 1998 Yankees). And to find the last time a National League team had the best record and won it all, you need to go back (gulp) 30 years -- to the 86 Mets. So theres that.2. The pressure is about to mount: In the postseason, the pressure on both teams to win is usually about 50-50, one exec said. But in this case ... the pressure is on the Cubs every game, because of how well theyve played, because of their record and, most of all, because of the expectations, especially in that city. If they lose one of the first two games at Wrigley, the pressure will be incredible.3. Whats up with Jake? Two different execs went out of their way to discuss the recent issues of Jake Arrieta, a guy whose work over his past 16 starts (4.44 ERA) looks a lot different than the superhuman impression hed been doing over the previous year and a half. Never seen him look so ordinary, one NL exec said after Arrietas last start. I would be concerned if I was them.4. The voice of doom: Finally, the last thing a team saddled with a 108-year title drought needs is MY support. Ive been writing this column before every postseason for more than a decade. Ive picked the Cubs three times -- 2003, 2007 and 2008. If you dont recall their jubilant World Series parades in any of those years, you would be correct. Thats all my fault. My prediction record is so disastrous, Im practically the Cleveland Browns of prognosticators. So why would I want to go and doom the Cubs at a time like this? If the bitter residents of Chicago ever decide to blame someone besides a billy goat, I dont need that someone to be me. I think the Cubs will get to the World Series. But somebody else can piick them to win.dddddddddddd Im out.Phew. Glad I got that out of the way. I feel better now. But more importantly, that allows me to move along to the other big theme of this column:Five reasons the Red Sox will win1. What a lineup: The Red Sox have scored an incredible 83 more runs than the next-best offense in the American League (Cleveland). While the Blue Jays had a similar run-scoring gap last season, only one other AL team in the past 80 years has managed to put up a 100-run gap between itself and the pack -- and you need to go back all the way to the 1950 Red Sox to find that one. Their lineup is so deep and so good, said one AL exec. The way they work counts, foul balls off, wear down pitchers, theyre just so good. And they hit good pitching.2. Their strength is greater than any other teams strength: Lets get back to that last line: They hit good pitching. Or to put this in the words of a rival GM: Bostons offense is the singular best strength of all the teams. Now those are words that get my attention this time of year. When we try to break down which clubs profile best to survive the four-week October marathon, isnt that what we look for -- a team so dominant that even the best teams in the sport cant stop it from doing what it does best? And thats the Red Sox. Against pitchers who average a strikeout per inning or better, the Sox lead the major leagues in average, on-base percentage, slugging and OPS. Against pitchers defined as power pitchers, Bostons OPS (.798) is 65 points higher than the next-best team. But the Red Sox are also first in OPS against finesse pitchers (.848). And they went into the weekend as the only team in the past five years with an OPS of .800 or better against both left-handed and right-handed pitching. So good luck finding a matchup that looks like this teams kryptonite.3. Their rotation is better than you think: It would have been easy to theorize a month ago that this team didnt have enough starting pitching to navigate October. But you might want to rethink that. Clay Buchholz and Eduardo Rodriguez have made 11 starts between them since Sept. 1. Theyve allowed two runs or fewer in eight of those starts. Nobody questions whether Rick Porcello is the real deal anymore. (Hes dangerous, super-confident, incredibly intelligent and super-aggressive, said one rival exec. Hes put it all together.) And while you can feel free to question David Prices 5.12 career postseason ERA, Id rather have him pitching Game 1 or 2 than a lot of guys, a longtime NL exec said. Price is 8-0 and 2.37 in his past eight starts against teams other than the Yankees (who wont be participating), for what thats worth.4. Their bullpen is hot: Amazing how the return of Koji Uehara has put the pieces of this bullpen back in place. Since the beginning of September, the Red Sox pen ranks second in the AL in ERA (1.81), and first in opponent average (.198) and strikeout rate (10.4 K/9). The funny thing is, aside from concerns about their left-handed relief, the most questions I heard about anyone in this bullpen were about the closer, Craig Kimbrel, mostly because of his 15 walks in his past 20 innings. (There are days it looks like he just doesnt trust himself, and I dont know why, said one scout.) But if the biggest worry in this bullpen is a man with 83 strikeouts and just 28 hits in 53 innings, that doesnt sound like much of a crisis to me.5. Papi Power: Every once in a while in sports, the script writes itself. So theres just something about the way the stars keep lining up for David Ortizs retirement tour that feels as if there could be one more incredible chapter to come. One NL exec admits that when he picked the Red Sox, thats part of the equation. Theres definitely something magical about it. Well, if there is, you might want to file this away. According to Elias Sports Bureau research, only two position players in the past 60 years (Dal Maxvill and Gene Tenace, back in the 1960s, 70s and 80s) have won four World Series without sneaking onto the Yankees. And nobody has won four for a team that wasnt the Yankees since Jim Gilliam did it for the Dodgers in the 50s and 60s. Well, Big Papi already has three rings. And October looms.So there you have it. Five carefully thought-out reasons why this pick makes sense, backed with the reassuring support of a bunch of really bright people in the game. Now what could possibly go wrong?Outside of the fact that any team in this tournament (including the Cubs) could turn into the 2014 Giants as soon as this fun begins, I can think of only one thing that could get in the way of the Red Soxs fourth ride on the duck boats in the past 12 years:That they just got picked by me to win it all, of course. Which means theyre now officially doomed. ' ' '