Getty ImagesJohn Tortorella scratched a fourth liner for Game 4 against the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.

Granted, it’s a fourth-liner signed through 2021, whose contract was valued at $60 million when he signed with the New York Rangers as a free agent.

Granted, he was their No. 1 center to start the season.

Granted, he’s a former Conn Smythe winner who is now a healthy scratch in his team’s most important playoff game of the season.

Such is the disastrous season for Brad Richards of the New York Rangers.

From Rangers Rants on Thursday:

“I’m surprised, I guess,” said Richards, who turned 33 on May 2 and is still owed $36 million through 2020. “I’m disappointed.”

… Richards said Tortorella called him this morning at home with the news. “Nothing’s over,” Richards said. “Work harder and try my best to never let it happen again.”

It's the beginning of the end, according to Rick Carpiniello:

The next step is then obvious. The Rangers will use their one remaining compliance buyout within the new CBA to end Richards’ relationship with the team this summer. Richards, who rceived $12 million in 2011-12 and most of his $12 million for the lockout 2013 season, will get a $24 million going-away present this summer (spread out over twice the remaining seven years), removing his contract from the books and his salary from the decreasing salary cap.

Richards will then be an unrestricted free agent, able to strike a deal with any of the other 29 teams, but not with the Rangers. And he surely will resurface after a summer of conditioning, and sign somewhere at a much smaller salary.

Torts has handled the rapid decline in Richards’ game with kid gloves, never torching his former No. 1 center publicly.

The demotion couldn’t have been easy for the Rangers coach, who won a Cup with Richards as his playoff MVP in Tampa Bay. To scratch Richards shows what a non-factor he’s become in the semifinals, skating 8:10 in Game 3 and getting benched in the third period.

Richards came to the Rangers because the money was right and he felt they could challenge for the Cup. But he also signed because of Tortorella. He believed in Torts; and Torts believed in Richards as a veteran leader in that room who could act as his proxy.

Now, Richards is scratched in what could be Tortorella’s last game as Rangers coach.

James Pallotta traveled to the Vatican on Wednesday in his role as president of the Italian soccer club A.S. Roma, which will take on rival side Lazio in the Coppa Italia final this weekend. Delegations from the two clubs visited St. Peter's Square during Pope Francis' daily general audience as part of a peace initiative, presenting "Papa Francesco" with jerseys from each side, while Serie A President Maurizio Beretta gave the soccer-loving Argentine Pope a football and a small replica of the Italian Cup.

But the Boston-born businessman is also part of the ownership group that runs the Boston Celtics, so Pallotta brought along a home-white Celtics jersey — with "THE POPE" on the back above the No. 1 — to present, as well. How did the Pope respond?

It's up ... (AP/Gregorio Borgia)

... and it's good! (AP/Gregorio Borgia)

OK, cool. He smiled. He digs it!

FOX Sports was worried he might not, because it just had his generic title rather than his specific name. But it looks like you got all worried for nothing, FOX Sports. No "epic fail" at the Vatican here. Whew! (Nobody should've worried, anyway. As "The State" taught us many years ago, the Pope-a, he's a so nice-a.)

Getty Images

Jonathan Toews has no goals in the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs, through eight games. He had two last postseason, through seven games. He had one in seven games against Vancouver in 2011. In 2010, when the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, Toews had one goal in the final 11 games of their run to the championship. It was still good enough for the Conn Smythe.

We’re no math majors, but Toews has four goals in his last 33 playoff games.

During that span, defenseman Brent Seabrook has three goals. For context’s sake.

Reader ‘Hollis 22’ is wondering why Toews doesn’t take flack for this drought:

“If Alex Ovechkin was in that kind of drought, the hockey media would be in his face with torches and pitchforks. In contrast, Joe Thornton has 5 goals in his last 27 playoff tilts, yet he and Patrick Marleau are viewed as guys that crumble in the playoffs.

“Why this stat hasn't made its way to the forefront of the Chicago-Detroit series is mind-boggling to me.”

The line of Toews, Marian Hossa and Brandon Saad has two points in three games against the Detroit Red Wings, who lead their series 2-1. That came on a Marian Hossa power-play goal in Game 1, on which Toews earned an assist.

Otherwise, they’ve watched Henrik Zetterberg’s line do to them what they did to Zach Parise’s line in the Minnesota Wild series: Shut them down, while generating their own offense on the counterattack.

Which is why criticism of Toews’s postseason offense can be sort of tricky.

(SBNation.com)

SBNation's Patrick Vint had a great find, as he wrote about how Tim Tebow's name was actually used for a play call in NCAA Football 10, a game by EA Sports.

Now, that last sentence might not seem like a big deal to you. But it contradicts one of the key arguments being set forth by the NCAA and EA Sports in a very important lawsuit brought by former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon.

O'Bannon's suit claims that the NCAA used the likenesses of players to sell things like DVDs and video games made by EA Sports, and players didn't make anything off it. The NCAA and EA Sports tries to get around that by saying that no player names are used. Anyone who has played the games will tell you that when "QB #16" for Michigan has the exact same attributes as Denard Robinson (and is playing in an exact video game replica of Michigan Stadium, in an exact replica of the Michigan uniform), for example, it's pretty clear that player on the screen is supposed to be Denard Robinson. But EA Sports and the NCAA kept saying no names were used.

But apparently the highest profile name in college football the past few years was inserted into the game a few years ago, which makes that argument even more dubious than it already was.

(Instagram)San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree had surgery on Wednesday to fix the Achilles tendon he tore during one of the team's OTAs. But while 49ers fans may be depressed over the news, Crabtree sent out the above message using his Instagram account to put them in a more optimistic mood .

Like the Terminator, Crabtree says he will be back.

Combing all corners of the country and the blogosphere for your junior hockey headlines ...

WHL

Sunaya Sapurji looks at the possibility of a suspension to Saskatoon Blades defenceman Dalton Thrower after his high hit on Portland Winterhawks left wing Taylor Leier. (Yahoo! Sports)

Winterhawks centre Chase De Leo was the one who helped the stricken Leier off the ice. He later scored to put Portland ahead for good. (The Oregonian)

Beat all three league champions in a row? If the Saskatoon Blades pull that off, next they can try head to Toronto for an easier trifecta: figuring out how to turn around the Blue Jays, how the Raptors can get Andrew Wiggins next year and what to do about Rob Ford. (Saskatoon StarPhoenix)

The tournament is on pace to be the fourth-highest-attended of all time, but you wouldn't know it from the scads of empty seats at Credit Union Centre. (London Free Press, Saskatoon StarPhoenix)

Meantime, to the south of the Memorial Cup city, Rob Vanstone looks at the positive legacy left by former Regina Pats president Brent Parker. (Regina Leader-Post)

The Vancouver Giants have some big plans for their 2016 Memorial Cup bid, but who ever heard of a team hosting the event twice in 10 years ... oh right. (Straight.com)

OHL

London Knights goalies Jake Patterson and Anthony Stolarz have struggled to the point where one can wonder if about next season, too. (London Free Press)

London is projecting a when-the-bell-tolls attitude ahead of the first elimination game of the tournament. (London Free Press)

We've all seen the rookie ballplayer get the shaving cream pie in the face during his first postgame interview. And you may have seen the baby with his pants on the ground after a recent NBA playoffs game. But the University of Cincinnati has taken interview photobombing to a whole new interactive level. They weren't the most successful team this year, going 6-18 in the Big East and 24-32 overall, but they had a fine time nonetheless.

[Tip of the flat-brim hat to Cincinnati's YouTube and imgur.]

Jim Harbaugh may have to slow his roll on Sunday. (USAT Sports Images)

If you're watching the Indy 500 this Sunday, and you're a hardcore pro football fan, your worlds will intersect in ways you did not expect. San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh will be driving the pace car -- a 2014 Corvette Stingray -- this year at the legendary race.

"I'm awaiting my coaching and instructions, and then ready for practice,'' Harbaugh said at the team's OTAs on Wednesday.

Harbaugh has a lot of history with the area, and with racing in general. The 14-year NFL quarterback played for the Indianapolis Colts from 1994 through 1997 (when he was replaced by that Peyton Manning guy), and his name is in the team's Ring of Honor. He's also a part owner of Indy-based Panther Racing, which has two drivers in this year's race -- JR Hildebrand, who starts 10th, and Townsend Bell, who starts 22nd. Last September, Harbaugh had an Indy race car parked near the practice fields at the team's headquarters in Santa Clara.

Harbaugh is also well aware of the history behind Indy 500 pace car drivers, and he's eager to live up to the legends.

"As the No. 1 fan of the Rockford Files, to follow in the footsteps of James Garner, who did it three times, and also Morgan Freeman, and Colin Powell, and Chuck Yeager and so many others, it's just a real honor and a privilege,'' he said. "I'm going to do my best to do a great job at it.''

The coach is still concerned with football, especially the fact that he lost receiver Michael Crabtree to an Achilles' tendon injury for an unknown stretch of time, but that doesn't mean that he isn't jazzed about his new role.