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BALTIMORE -- On a day when the Ravens induct linebacker Ray Lewis into their Ring of Honor, another former member of the teams esteemed defence makes his return to Baltimore. The circumstances will be vastly different. Lewis retired in February after leading the Ravens (1-1) to their second Super Bowl victory. He will be hailed Sunday for a sensational 17-year career and for spending all of it in Baltimore. Ed Reed was also a key player on the 2012 world champions, and for 11 years he served as a standout free safety with the Ravens. On Sunday, he will be the enemy. Reed and the Ravens failed to agree to terms during the off-season, so the franchise career interception leader signed as a free agent with Houston. After missing two games with an ailing hip, the 35-year-old Reed is expected to make his debut with the Texans (2-0) on Sunday. "Im feeling a lot better and trying to push it a little bit more to see exactly how I feel if I go full throttle," Reed said Thursday, acknowledging his availability will be a game-time decision. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco can hardly imagine what its going to be like to see Reed in a Houston uniform. "I knew Ed Reed as a Baltimore Raven before I started playing on the Baltimore Ravens," said Flacco, now in his sixth season. "Weve faced old teammates before. But the fact that all the fans know him as a Baltimore Raven, and the fact that I was a fan of his at one point, yeah, it probably makes it a little bit different." Reed harbours no ill will toward the Ravens for letting him walk. "Theres no bad blood on either side," he said. "I know how this business works." Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata said, "He moved on, and we moved on." Reed cant wait to see his old friends in Baltimore. "I never thought Id be in these shoes," he said. "But its an awesome feeling to go back to see my brothers, see coaches and just talk about football. I know were going to talk about football and just family in the short period of time we can kind of catch up Here are five things to know about Ravens-Texans: CLOSE CALL: After two straight games decided on the final play, the Texans would love a lopsided win. Something like last years 43-13 rout of the Ravens would do quite nicely. In that game, Houston had four sacks and two interceptions. Baltimore coach John Harbaugh would prefer to forget that debacle, but he was forced to pull out the tape this week. "You have to watch it," Harbaugh said. "We watched it very carefully to see how they attacked us and what they did to play the type of game they did against us." STARS INJURED: Ravens running back Ray Rice was held out of practice after straining his left hip flexor in last weeks 14-6 win over Cleveland. His status for Sunday is questionable. If Rice cant go, Bernard Pierce will get the call. Houston wide receiver Andre Johnson sustained a concussion during a 30-24 overtime win over Tennessee, but is expected to start. He has 29 catches and two TDs in four regular-season games against Baltimore. HOME SWEET HOME: The Ravens are 34-7 at home under Harbaugh, including 22-3 over the last three-plus seasons. Houston is 0-3 against Baltimore on the road, including a 20-13 playoff defeat in January 2012. "Thats a tough place to play and its my understanding theyre retiring Ray (Lewis) jersey or something on game day," coach Gary Kubiak said. "Im sure that will add to the emotions, so we better stay focused." SACK HAPPY: Houstons top priority on offence will be to protect quarterback Matt Schaub from Baltimore sack specialists Terrell Suggs and Elvis Dumervil. Between them, they have 152 career sacks. "Its a very tough combination," said Schaub, who has been sacked only four times this season. "You cant slide your protection one way or the other. Youve got to be honest on both sides." BUDDING RIVALRY: This will be the fifth game between the teams since the start of the 2010 season, and its beginning to feel like a grudge match. "We have played in some good football games with them," Kubiak said. "I dont expect this to be any different." Houston linebacker Brian Cushing added, "Were two competitive teams. Whether were playing here or there, we know its going to be a very good football game." .C. -- Only two Syracuse teams have won their first 20 games, and C. . His brother — Red Lake chiropractor Richard Radford — is en route to Sochi to cheer on his younger brother. "Ive been getting texts from Eric and he just says the atmosphere is amazing, its special,” he said. http://www.authenticsaintssportsonline. ... ld-jersey/. After making his All-Star debut in Fridays Rising Stars Challenge, the Raptors sophomore centre wont be sticking around for the duration of the weekends festivities, thinking about the big picture instead. .com) - Nathan MacKinnon scored the winning goal in the shootout as the Colorado Avalanche rallied for a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday. . Yet now its time for the most important pick of them all; the Grey Cup. The thought of going 5-0 with the correct choice is quite intoxicating, I dont think I have ever gone perfect in my CFL futuristic playoff speculations and would take great pride in guessing - I mean analyzing - correctly.The Penguins get by the Blue Jackets, the Wild and Kings force Game Sevens. Notes on Malkin, Crosby, Johnson, Dubinsky, Parise, Kopitar, Williams, Stalock and more. PENGUINS GET PAST BLUE JACKETS Pittsburgh looked like they were free and clear after racing out to a 4-0 lead, led by Evgeni Malkins hat trick, but then the Blue Jackets scored three goals in a 4:52 span in the third period to make for a heart-stopping finish. In the end, the Penguins held on to win 4-3, taking the series in six games. Malkin, who took some criticism for his lack of production, finished the series with seven points in six games. Not bad at all. After being on the ice for 71.2% of 5-on-5 shot attempts in Game Six, Malkin finished the series with an impressive 59.2% Corsi percentage. Malkin was the driving force for Pittsburgh in the deciding game, as was D Kris Letang, who was on for 21 5-on-5 shot attempts for and seven against. Penguins D Matt Niskanen contributed a couple of assists, giving him eight points for the series. That tied D Paul Martin for the Penguins scoring lead. The ever-disappointing Sidney Crosby (I kid, I kid) had six assists in six games and was on the ice for 61.3% of 5-on-5 shot attempts. If thats a Crosby worthy of criticism, rue the day that he starts playing to his typical level of excellence. Columbus attack was paced by a couple of defencemen. Fedor Tyutin, with a goal and an assist, and Jack Johnson, with two assists, led the charge. Johnson finished the series with a team-leading seven points, despite struggling in puck possession terms. While Johnson struggled in terms of possession, James Wisniewski fared pretty well in that regard, at least in relative terms. Centres Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Johansen each had six points for the Blue Jackets, while rookie LW Boone Jenner had five. Dubinsky had 40 hits over the course of the series, a total that leads the NHL postseason. That the series proved to be competitive should come as no surprise, but it should also come as no surprise that the Penguins had the high-end skill to overcome a spirited challenge from Columbus. WILD FORCE SEVEN Fighting for their playoff lives, the Minnesota Wild jumped out to a 2-0 lead, gave it back, then scored the winner with 6:29 left in third period, before adding a couple of empty-netters to ice a 5-2 victory in Game Six, forcing Game Seven back in Denver. Wild LW Zach Parise had a huge game, netting the game-winner as part of a two goal, two assist performance. Parise now has 10 points in the postseason, tied with Colorados Nathan MacKinnon for the playoff scoring lead. Ryan Suter and Mikko Koivu each had twoo assists and Jason Pominville had a goal and an assist.dddddddddddd Wild LW Nino Niederreiter had quite a game in possession terms, on for 15 shot attempts for and three against (83.3%). With Niederreiter off the ice, the Wild had 38.2% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts. Though they came out on the losing end, Colorado did get C Matt Duchene back in the lineup and he contributed an assist in 18:52 of ice time. RW Ryan OReilly assisted on both Colorado goals. That this series is going seven games is rather fortunate for the Avalanche. The Wild have the best Fenwick Close in the playoffs which, naturally, means Colorado has the worse and that 60-40 disparity in even-strength shot attempts is difficult to overcome. The Avalanche have overcome shot deficits all season, leaning heavily on G Semyon Varlamov, so that is likely what they will need if they are going to get through Game Seven. The Avalanche can also take some comfort in the fact that the home team has won every game in this series. KINGS PUSH SHARKS TO SEVEN Faced with the prospect of losing their three-games-to-none lead in the series, the San Jose Sharks were forced to go into Game Six without top defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who was injured in Game Five, and then made the decision to start backup goaltender Alex Stalock in place of Antti Niemi. The result? A 4-1 Kings win, sending the series to Game Seven back in San Jose. Tied at one, with 8:04 remaining, Kings RW Justin Williams scored the winning goal, pushing Stalock back towards the Sharks net, jarring the puck loose and into the net. As controversial as that goal was, the Kings tacked on two more in short order, both by C Anze Kopitar, in the next 2:46 to put the game away. Kopitar added an assist, giving him eight points in the series, to the lead the Kings, while D Drew Doughty added a couple of assists, giving him six points in six games. Williams finished with two goals and an assist to lead the Kings. This series has been very even, with the Sharks holding a 132-128 edge in unblocked shot attempts with the score close (within a goal for the first two periods, tied in the third/overtime). Thats close enough for goaltending to make the difference and, given the uncertainty in that respect with the Sharks, Jonathan Quick is more appealing. Even so, the Sharks do get home-ice advantage in their attempt to avoid being the fourth team in NHL history to lose a series in which they led three games to none. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '