ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Last week, Chris Harris marveled at how much Denvers injury-riddled defence had changed and how not a single player who started against Baltimore in last years playoffs would start at the same position against San Diego on the anniversary of that crushing loss. "Weve lost so many guys," he said, shaking his head. "Weve gotten good at keeping that next-man-up mentality." On Monday, it was his turn to get the bad news: Hell miss the rest of the Broncos playoff run after an MRI showed he had a torn ACL in his left knee that will require surgery and at least six months of rehab. "Theres no doubt hes one of our better performers on defence throughout this season, but ... weve lost some pretty good performers throughout the season and this teams been resilient," coach John Fox said. Harris was injured in the third quarter of Denvers 24-17 win over San Diego on Sunday. Fox wouldnt say if Quentin Jammer will start in the AFC title game when the Broncos (14-3) host the Patriots (13-4) this weekend. "Its a long list, a long cast," Fox said. "If I knew right now, I wouldnt say anyways." Foxs options include moving Champ Bailey, a 12-time Pro Bowler whos been relegated to slot duty after returning from a nagging foot injury last month, back outside or inserting rookie Kayvon Webster into the starting lineup opposite Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Webster is playing with a cast on his right thumb, which he broke in two places a month ago. Another option is dusting off Tony Carter, who was one of the goats in Denvers 34-31 overtime loss at New England on Nov. 24 when a punt hit his leg, the Patriots recovered and Stephen Gostkowski kicked the game-winning 31-yard field goal. After Harris got hurt, Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers staged a comeback from a 17-point deficit largely by targeting Harris rusty replacement, Jammer. It fell short, however, when Peyton Manning was able to keep Rivers on the sideline over the final 3 minutes, 51 seconds by converting a trio of third downs. Jammer surrendered a 49-yard completion to Keenan Allen on fourth-and-5 from the Chargers 25 with seven minutes left that helped turn a comfortable cruise into a nail-biter. "When Chris went down, things started to unravel a little bit on the back end," safety Mike Adams said. "Jam, Im not worried about him. He gave up a big play, but he could bounce back. Hes been in the league a long time. Weve all had bad games before." Adams said the Broncos wouldnt have to adjust their defence to provide help to whomever replaces Harris, either, insisting: "Im confident if Tony Carter goes out there, if Kayvon Webster goes out there, if Jam goes out there." Harris had played more snaps than anybody on defence and had 65 tackles, three interceptions and 15 pass breakups, all career highs. "Its another disappointment for us," linebacker Paris Lenon said. "Somebody else that weve been battling with that has been a huge part of this team and this defence that is down. Its an opportunity for somebody else to step up and play big." The Broncos have withstood an injury epidemic to reach their first conference championship in eight seasons, but Harris injury could prove the hardest to overcome. Harris is the fifth defensive starter the Broncos have lost since November, joining Von Miller, Kevin Vickerson, Rahim Moore and Derek Wolfe. "Its terrible news," Terrance Knighton said. "You hate to see a guy having a great year, going into a contract year (get hurt). I wish him the best. I wish him a speedy recovery, but we just have to focus on the task at hand right now and thats New England. Whoever will fill his shoes, whoever we put in there, has to step up." Harris was hurt on the opposite side of the field when Rivers completed a 19-yard pass to Allen along the San Diego sideline with 8:17 remaining in the third quarter. Allen would catch two TD passes after that and it took Mannings superb 4-minute drill to staunch Rivers rally. "Philip got hot there in the second half. I did not want to give him the ball back there at the end," Manning said. Phil McConkey Youth Jersey . "I honestly dont know," he said. Try this: 20 points, nine assists and seven rebounds by Rajon Rondo, a 62-37 rebounding advantage by the Celtics and a horrible 4-for-30 shooting performance on 3-pointers by the Nets. Doug Kotar Womens Jersey . "This isnt really the week you want to lose Chris Greaves," fellow lineman Glenn January said Wednesday after practice. Greaves is expected to miss several weeks after suffering a knee injury in last weeks 36-28 win over the Ottawa Redblacks. http://www.nygiantsfanaticshop.com/Black...tml?cat=931.The ruling takes effect on Jan. 1 and stems from the debate surrounding Paralympic champion Markus Rehm, an amputee who won the national long jump title competing with a carbon-fiber prosthesis. Odell Beckham Jr Womens Jersey . Brad Malone had the other goal for the Monsters (1-1-0), while Elliott chipped in an assist for a three-point night and the games first star. Bryan Lerg also had two assists. Corban Knight and Max Reinhart scored for the Heat (1-1-0), who opened their season Friday with a 5-2 win over the Monsters in Cleveland. Mark Bavaro Youth Jersey . The Durban-based Sharks withstood a furious second-half fightback to beat the Queensland Reds 35-20 for a fourth straight win which gave them a five-point lead atop the championship table. The Hamilton-based Chiefs scored two late tries to beat the Cape Town-based Stormers 36-20 for their third win, after the Stormers rallied from 24-6 down to 24-20 with six minutes remaining.The Toronto Maple Leafs made quite a splash with the hiring of an Assistant General Manager Tuesday. That might sound ludicrous, considering hes an Assistant General Manager, but it really is a pretty big deal. By hiring Kyle Dubas, a 28-year-old who has been the GM of the Ontario Hockey Leagues Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for the past three seasons, the Leafs are bringing in a new voice. I dont know Dubas. I met him at this years Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, enjoyed talking hockey with him for a little while and we were both wowed by the advances in baseball tracking technology. I came away impressed and sure that he would be in the NHL before long. That he landed an NHL job this summer comes as no surprise. Landing with the Toronto Maple Leafs, however -- a franchise that has eschewed the use of analytics -- was a legitimate shock. When the Maple Leafs hired Brendan Shanahan to be the clubs new president this spring, there was a lot of talk of a culture change but, as the offseason progressed, it didnt appear that any grand change was taking place. They had fired three assistant coaches, but had the same GM, head coach and front office. If assistant coaches were dictating the culture of the franchise, that would be a first, so it didnt look like the culture change was forthcoming. Enter Dubas, and exit veteran hockey execs Claude Loiselle and Dave Poulin, who were let go. That is the start of a culture change and one of the best parts of it is that Dubas isnt one to get caught up in a buzz phrase like "culture change." He recognizes that winning does a lot to change a teams culture but, for fans and media, having a new voice in the board room -- one that has different ideas than those that have been in place for a while -- does mark a change in the Leafs culture. While teams like the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings have found value in using advanced statistics, the Maple Leafs have been resistant. If those teams, likely the two best teams in the league over the past five seasons, were using analytics, why would any team not at least ensure that they were up to speed on the latest concepts? Never mind any team, why would the most valuable franchise in the sport, not spend a relative pittance to make sure that they knew and could comprehend the data? Upon hiring Dubas, Shanahan said that he perceived some problems in the Toronto front office. "I believe we have people in our organization who have maybe been afraid of certain words and certain information," said Shanahan. "Once you speak with Kyle, I think he makes it seem much more logical and easy to apply." This, I agree with. Dubas helps crack through old-school hockey minds because he can speak their language. Hes a bright guy with a hockey history and that allows him to communicate on the level of people who arent necessarily inclined to look at some of the more modern statistical advances, whether that means Corsi, zone starts, zone entries, whatever. And, ultimately, its not about the statistics, its about using them to help make better organizational decisions. "Im not going to rush in tomorrow and try to tell everybody how it is," Dubas told the Globe and Mails James Mirtle. "Thats not really the way I am." From my brief conversation with Dubas at the Sloan Conference, he noted that the Greyhounds possession numbers skyrocketed under head coach Sheldon Keefe, going from 47% to 57%, using their own manually-calculated metrics (because, unlike the NHL, the OHL doesnt have a stats feed of every event that happens in every game). Getting the information, and applying it to how a team should play, is a textbook example of how to use statistics as part of a teams overall strategy. The Greyhounds valued puck possession, coached their players to value puck possession and became a much better team as a result. On other topics, we talked about employing four forwards on the ice at times. He said the Greyhounds were experimenting with it, adding a top-line forward when the other team put their fourth line on the ice, figuring that there was a potential mismatch available, with minimal downside because other teams fourth lines werent necessarily a big threat. Merely thinking that little bit outside the box qualifies as creative in hockey circles and its the open-minded approach to try it that makes Dubas such an intriguing hire. Hes not stuck on the same old, same old because thats the wway it has always been done.dddddddddddd While Dubas has been painted as a stats guy in some corners, there were soldiers at the ready to make sure the world knew he was not just some nerd (as if they could help a hockey team). Player agent Todd Reynolds, whose firm, Uptown Sports Management, hired Dubas as a player agent when he was 21, told TSNs Jonas Siegel, "I dont think its all about analytics like people have wanted to make it out to be today. Hes not a computer nerd. Hes not sitting there crunching numbers and bringing sheets of paper into the GMs office with recommendations. Hes much more complete than that." Some people are really concerned that you dont think too highly of Dubas use of analytics. These are deeply-held notions in the hockey world, that stats guys must sit in front of a computer and print out sheets of recommendations without watching the games and applying that analysis. Keep in mind, there may not be anyone doing more watching of the games than guys involved in analytics, who are constantly finding new ways to look at the sport. This isnt a bad thing, particularly in a sport that, relatively, has been in the statistical stone age. So, why is Dubas considered a stats guy? Because that is a point of differentiation. He has scouted players, been an agent and a junior hockey GM, so he has made his hockey bones, but hes 28-years-old, so he hasnt necessarily seen as much hockey as veteran NHL executives. But, if you are looking for a difference -- beyond merely age -- that helps Dubas stand out, it is that he understands modern analytic concepts and there wasnt a lot of evidence, through many radio interviews last season, that Loiselle, Poulin or Nonis had a firm grasp on those matters. Shanahan, describing the interview process with Dubas, said, "I was learning things I didnt know and just wanted to learn more." This is a three-time Stanley Cup winner, a Hall of Famer who scored 656 career goals (ranking 13th all-time), who was not only learning about hockey from a 28-year-old who never played in the league but, much more importantly for the Maple Leafs, he was actually open to the idea! That the Maple Leafs havent seriously applied analytics to their management is one thing. Its another matter entirely to have effectively taken this approach without a real understanding of how analytics apply to the modern NHL game. Even Dubas acknowledged that this was an area in which Nonis was learning. What does it mean for the future of the Maple Leafs? Dubas is a 28-year-old Assistant GM, coming into a team that, barring trades, largely has its roster set for the 2014-2015 season, so its not like immediate results can or should be pinned on his hiring, but this is about changing the long-term direction of the franchise and doing so in a progressive way. Dubas presents a voice that should be different and, for a team that has reached the playoffs once in the past nine seasons, new voices need to be heard. Dubas has Shanahans ear and that should have some influence in the decisions that the Maple Leafs make going forward. While that could make for some uncomfortable times for GM Dave Nonis, considering this franchises track record, no one in the Leafs organization ought to feel too comfortable. Getting better is the goal, right? "I havent run the team in Sault St. Marie based solely on statistics," said Dubas. "Its been a good size part of what weve integrated in, but the rest of it is just hockey. Its evaluating players, scouting reports, dealing with the personalities on the team, trying to hire the best scouts and people. And certainly the analytics, Ive found it to be a major help to me personally in the way that I view the game and just create a better level of certainty to decisions." Thats what any team should be striving to achieve in their use of statistics and analytics. Stats arent everything. No one is suggesting to use statistics on their own, without anything else. You can still watch the games. Use the stats as a tool for evaluation and make better decisions. There probably arent a lot of analytics about hiring a 28-year-old Assistant GM, small samples and all that, but this decision by the Maple Leafs was smart. If theyre not careful, that could become a thing. 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. ' ' '