Situation

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

The long-running Lance Parrish saga will reach some sort of conclusion, not through contract negotiations but through an arbitration hearing, tomorrow in Tampa. That was confirmed late yesterday by Phillies president Bill Giles and other sources close to the situation. "I've talked to my lawyers, and at this point, we will go to the arbitration hearing Thursday in Tampa," Giles said. "Nothing should develop now until the hearing on Thursday. Don Fehr (executive director of the Players Association)

Former Phillies general manager Pat Gillick said yesterday that he would consider returning to another team to oversee baseball operations, according to a report by Buster Olney, of ESPN The Magazine. Gillick, 72, who served as an adviser for the Phillies this year, left his GM post after the team won the World Series. Before his time in Philadelphia, Gillick served as general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays from 1977 to '94, and the team won championships in 1992 and 1993.

With all the playoff hype building to a crescendo, I thought some of our Philadelphia fan readers might enjoy the acrostic poem I wrote for the team. If you find it worthy, I would be flattered if you printed it. Thanks - and Go E-A-G-L-E-S! E-A-G-L-E-S ELEVEN warriors on the field of battle, ALL as brothers with a cause, GIVING all of their minds, bodies and souls, without the slightest pause. LIFTING the spirits of each other, if one should happen to fall, EVERY ounce of their being, focused on the football.

A particular meteorologist delivering the morning weather forecast on Israeli radio always ends with wishes for a good day. Now, almost as an afterthought, he's begun to add, "Just let it be a quiet one. " Every listener in Israel knows it isn't the wind he's referring to. From conferences to school outings, from family picnics to job-related travel, what Israelis universally refer to as "the situation" has become a variable always to be factored...

Marty Biron, who signed with the goaltender-heavy New York Islanders on Wednesday, sees his situation as an opportunity, not a hindrance. The Flyers did not re-sign the free agent, who was their starting goalie the past two-plus seasons. Biron is the third NHL goalie under contract to the Islanders. Rick DiPietro is signed through the 2020-21 season and Dwayne Roloson signed a 2-year deal earlier this month. DiPietro only played five games last season because of a knee injury. "We were thinking outside the box and tried to make it work with the Islanders," Biron told Newsday, a Long Island-based newspaper.

Bobby Seale, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party, says he's been financially lean since a bad barbecue rib deal in Ohio two years ago. The still-unresolved episode, which resulted in a grand jury indictment in Ohio on charges of passing bad checks, led to Seale being arrested and jailed Thursday after his car rear-ended a fire truck in Germantown. For the first time yesterday, Seale agreed to discuss his legal and financial problems. His lawyers have advised him to keep silent about his troubles, but Seale said he's in such straits that he's calling friends across the country to help him out financially.

During his brief, but very necessary respite from coaching the 76ers, Larry Brown found himself in a bustling bookstore in the suburbs, watching in fascination as a clerk ever so carefully wrapped his purchases for Christmas. "They were being so nice, so careful, taking so much time," Brown recalled, "I looked at my wife Shelly and said, 'Pat Croce put you up to this.' " Whether giving the 60-year-old coach two full days off before the 25th game of an 82-game schedule was the team president's, general manager Billy King's or Brown's, it appears to have served its purpose.

Mo Reilly has known where she wanted to go to college for some time. Yesterday, the first day of the early signing period, the 6-foot senior forward from Paul VI made it official, signing a letter of intent to play basketball at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. "I'm so excited. I've really anticipated this day," Reilly said. "When I went up there, I really liked the coaches and the players. The whole situation just fit me. " The Pioneers, who lost to eventual national champion Maryland in the first round of the NCAA tournament last March, won their first Northeast Conference championship last season and are picked to repeat this season.

Closing out a tennis match. Sinking the final putt. Hitting the clutch free-throw. Christian Laettner hitting the buzzer beater for Duke against Kentucky. Clutch performances. It's a dream of competitors, scoring the winning goal and being carried off the field to the adulation of the crowd. But why is it that certain people are always able to rise to the challenge, while others "choke" when the pressure is on? Choker. For some of us this perception of ourselves is a ball and chain around our necks.

THESE WERE the type of moments that made Allen Iverson a legend in Philadelphia - season on the line, odds all against you, desperate situation. I guess it was only fitting that Wednesday was the night that Sixers management persuaded Iverson to come home. If ever the Sixers needed the kind of inspiration that Iverson provided for a decade in South Philadelphia, it was Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, trailing the Boston Celtics, 3-2. I'm not really the metaphysical type.

WHAT DOESN'T kill a team can make it stronger, and if the Phillies survive the brutal 20-game stretch that they begin today, they will at least find themselves in position to make a run. But there is always cause for concern when a team's greatest hope is an aphorism, and after a 5-1 loss to Josh Beckett and the Red Sox on Sunday, you had to wonder whether this lineup's success in a recent six-game winning streak was proof of anything other than the...

After a breakthrough season last year, Webb Simpson finally appears to be comfortable playing on the PGA Tour. And that's not necessarily a good thing. The way the 26-year-old North Carolina native figures it, sharper golf comes from not being comfortable, from having to overcome nerves in a tough situation. "I think as an athlete, you're so used to feeling nerves and performing under pressure," Simpson said this week in advance of his trip Monday to Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square for an outing with Chase Sapphire card members.

Perennially topless and cuddly Jersey Shore teddy bear Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino has checked into rehab for substance abuse, reports TMZ. Or has he? Sitch's P.R. rep tells Entertainment Weekly the professional partier and sometime clothing-company spokesman is just taking time to rest up. Sitch, the rep says, "has spent the past several weeks at an undisclosed location for much-needed rest and recuperation after his extensive production and appearance schedule.

HOW DO we know it's spring in Philadelphia? Chase Utley's knees are hurting. The Phillies haven't disclosed the name of the specialist Utley, 33, has gone to see, after general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. acknowledged it is likely Utley will begin the season on the disabled list for the second year in a row. A couple of Philadelphia-area orthopedists with sports medicine backgrounds interviewed by the Daily News said they would be very interested in...

ATLANTIC CITY - They sat on opposite ends of the stage, the divide symbolic of the awkwardness of the situation. But Andrew Luck and Archie Manning - here to accept awards from the Maxwell Football Club - insisted Friday that neither was uncomfortable even though the Stanford quarterback is widely expected to replace Manning's son in Indianapolis. Now, if Peyton Manning were here instead of his father . . . "I don't know if it's awkward to begin with," said Luck, winner of the 75th Maxwell Award as the collegiate player of the year.

MALÉ, Maldives - The United States backtracked Friday from its swift recognition of the new Maldives government, which the nation's former leader contends came to power in a coup. The Maldives, off southern India, has faced a day of rioting and two days more of a political standoff since Mohamed Nasheed announced Tuesday that he was resigning as president after months of protests against his rule and fading support from the security forces. But the next day, Nasheed, who now faces an arrest warrant, announced he had actually been pushed from power at gunpoint.

I'm finished whining about Andy Reid's still being here as coach of the Eagles. Whether we like it or not, Reid is here for at least one more year - his 14th season as the Birds' head man, if you're counting. And we all are. So long as we don't have a choice, I'd like to get behind Reid and hope he can finally spin off an appearance in the Super Bowl. I'm not mad at him. And you'd have to be a cretin to root against the Eagles next season to assure that Reid gets fired. But after listening to Reid's first news conference since the Eagles season ended, I've got to wonder whether the man has any idea what he's doing.

OK, POP QUIZ everyone. If the Eagles' defense succeeds in 2012, it will be because: A) New secondary coach Todd Bowles is really calling the shots; B) The star-studded secondary, the one gashed for one big play after another in the first 12 games of last season, will have a full training camp and a much better secondary coach; C) Casey Matthews will evolve into a premier NFL linebacker and/or the Eagles will acquire a proven elite linebacker and/or the Eagles will have a brilliant draft in which they address holes at middle linebacker and safety; D)

Researchers identified 37 scenarios when commonly ordered medical tests do no good and may even cause harm. Cost was not considered. Value - the extent to which benefits outweigh harms - was the key. But patients are encouraged to go beyond this list and ask questions about any ordered test. The following are in no particular order: Repeating screening ultrasonography for abdominal aortic aneurysm following a negative study. Performing coronary angiography in patients with chronic stable angina with well-controlled symptoms on medical therapy or who lack specific high-risk criteria on exercise testing.