MISSISSAUGA, Ontario -- Canadian star Patrick Chan won the Skate Canada short program Friday night, and Russias Evgenia Medvedeva took the womens lead at Hershey Centre.Chan fell on his triple Axel but his beautiful quad toe loop to open the program was enough to secure him first place. Skating to The Beatles Dear Prudence and Blackbird, he scored 90.56 points.Comfortable, Chan said. The jumps didnt turn out to be feeling the way they did in practice, but thats normal jitters and adrenaline from being in competition.Japans Takahito Mura was second at 81.24, followed by Canadas Kevin Reynolds at 80.57, and Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan at 79.65.Medvedeva, the world champion, had 76.24 points. Canadas Kaetlyn Osmond was second with 74.33, followed by Russias Elizaveta Tuktamysheva at 66.79, and Japans Rika Hongo at 65.75.Canadian stars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir topped the short dance in their return to competition, scoring 77.23 points. Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates were second at 76.21.Canadas Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won the pairs short program at 78.39. Chinas Yu Xiaoyu and Zhang Hao were a distant second with 69.43. Jamal Murray Nuggets Jersey . -- Bryant McKinnie came out of his stance and lowered his shoulder into a practice squad player, causing a crisp thud to reverberate in the Miami Dolphins practice bubble. Paul Millsap Nuggets Jersey . Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach. http://www.nuggetsproshop.com/Allen-Iverson-Nuggets-Jersey/ . 10 VCU 85-67 on Thursday night at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Seminoles (4-0) have scored at least 80 points in each of their games. Custom Denver Nuggets Jerseys . Note: The Calgary Flames announced Tuesday that Sean Monahan would not be made available to Canadas World Junior team. Dikembe Mutombo Nuggets Jersey . General manager Jarmo Kekalainen told Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch on Friday that he wants to see Gaboriks contributions go beyond the scoresheet before considering a long-term deal for the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent. In the oversized pantheon of unexplainable things -- you know, Bigfoot, Stonehenge, why one sock always gets lost in the dryer -- the following doesnt offer much expansion to the whole mystery genre.But here goes nothing anyway: Theres been an extreme number of professional golfers in recent years who have lost their game and gotten it back again.No, thats not entirely correct. We can break it down even more.Theres been an extreme number of European professional golfers of the highest order who in recent years have unexplainably lost their game and perhaps just as bafflingly restored themselves to prominence.The latest to join this list -- one that already famously included Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood and Paul Casey, among others -- is Padraig Harrington, who won the Portugal Masters on Sunday.You probably recall Harrington as the quirky Irishman who won three of six major championships less than a decade ago. He was easily one of the worlds best players then, a self-made superstar whod toiled on the games lower levels before climbing the ladder to success. In an era of Tiger Woods-imbued dominance, Harrington quickly became a standard for those who werent deemed prodigies and had to work a little harder to reach that next level.What you might not understand is all the work hed put into his game since the major triumphs -- and how not all of it had come to fruition so quickly. Before winning the Honda Classic on the PGA Tour last year, he was ranked 297th in the world. Before winning the Portugal Masters, he hadnt won a European Tour-sanctioned event since the last of those three majors, the 2008 PGA Championship.Three years ago, in the Waste Management Phoenix Open interview room after a third-round 63, Harrington was asked a relatively benign question: Did you change your golf swing?What followed was a 1,854-word explanation of everything hed tried and endured. For comparisons sake, Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address checked in at a mere 272 words.To make his long story short, Harrington provided insight not just into how hed gone about trying to regain his best stuff, but why. It was fascinating introspection, about still loving the game and still trying to uncover its deepest secrets.ddddddddddddHes hardly the only one to have voiced this type of contemplation.Westwood rose to No. 4 in the world before bottoming out in the 266th position, then reversing field and ascending all the way to No. 1. Stenson has suffered two roller-coaster rides in his career, navigating those ebbs and flows back to prominence each time.Casey is in the midst of enjoying a similar career resurgence. Ranked as low as 83rd in the world at one point early last year, hes now 13th, with his T-21 result at the CIMB Classic on Sunday breaking a string of four consecutive finishes in the top four on tournament leaderboards.I questioned not if I was going to play golf, but certainly to what level I would play golf, Casey explained recently. Sometimes I believed I could get back to a certain level, and other times I didnt see much hope. ... I was injured, and I was going through a divorce. It was very, very tough to focus on the golf. It was so much going on in my life, it was difficult to focus on the golf. That was probably the toughest point.Maybe its not so unexplainable after all. Maybe its just a coincidence that the rise and fall and rise again paths of these players have held so much in common, each being European and a former top-level competitor who endured golfs humbling nature only to rebound to significance again. Maybe it speaks more to the game itself, and how consistency is the rarest commodity.The biggest question surrounding the games highest level, in many circles, currently revolves around whether Woods, now 816th in the world, will ever enjoy a comeback that would make those of Westwood, Stenson, Casey and Harrington pale in comparison.If nothing else, these stories -- including the one which saw Harrington finally win again at age 45 this past weekend -- should provide insight into both the how and why such revivals happen, offering a glimmering shred of optimism for Woods and any other player who hopes the roller coaster will once again soar to the highest heights. ' ' '