EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The Minnesota Vikings have signed defensive tackle Tom Johnson. The deal was done Thursday. The 29-year-old Johnson spent the last three seasons as a backup with the New Orleans Saints, playing in 40 games plus four more contests in the playoffs while totalling five sacks. Johnson started his pro career in 2006 as an undrafted free agent out of Southern Mississippi, but he was cut by the Indianapolis Colts. Then he spent time in NFL Europe, the Arena Football League and the Canadian Football League before finally appearing in an NFL game in 2011. The addition of Johnson, likely to backup last years top draft pick Sharrif Floyd, will probably mean the end of an 11-season run in Minnesota by Kevin Williams, who became a free agent. Meanwhile, free agent defensive end Corey Wootton has also agreed to terms with the Vikings. Wootton and his agent, Mike McCartney, tweeted the agreement on Thursday night. Wootton spent the first four seasons of his career with the division rival Chicago Bears. Wootton has played all 16 games each of the last two seasons when he combined for 10 sacks. He had three sacks last season. Wootton has a place in Vikings lore. He was the defender who drove Brett Favre into the frozen turf at TCF Bank Stadium in 2010. The hit gave Favre a concussion that prevented the quarterback from playing in the final two games of his career. Wootton says in his tweet that he is "excited to start a new chapter" in Minnesota. Johan Hedberg Jersey . -- The San Francisco 49ers have re-signed cornerback Perrish Cox to a one-year contract. Casey DeSmith Jersey . Compared to what hes gone through in recent weeks, that seemed like a breeze. Speaking to The Associated Press on Friday at an NBA Cares event, Silver said hes thrilled that the leagues attention can be on the championship series between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs -- and not, as it was for so much of the post-season, on the off-the-court matters involving the banishment of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and now the looming sale of that franchise. https://www.cheappenguinsjersey.com/151q-michel-briere-jersey-penguins.html . Scheffler told The Associated Press on Wednesday he made the choice because he had three concussions over the past four years. Rob Brown Jersey .A. remained bitter for Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers on the long flight back home to New York. Pierre Larouche Jersey . The outdoor event will be played on Dec. 31 between alumni of the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers at Citizens Bank Park, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Relentless is the word Columbus forward Brandon Dubinsky chose to describe the surging Blue Jackets style of play. Dubinsky and Matt Calvert each had a goal and assist to lead Columbus to a team-record eighth-straight win -- the longest active streak in the league -- with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night in the franchises 1,000th game. Jack Johnson, Derek MacKenzie and Nathan Horton also scored for Columbus. The Blue Jackets played their inaugural season in 2000 and has only made the playoffs once, but are finally showing real signs of promise. "Theres a confidence in the room now," coach Todd Richards said. "I think there is an understanding of how we need to play, what we need to do as a group to have success." The offence has come on of late, but the backbone has been Sergei Bobrovsky, last seasons winner of the Vezina Trophy, which goes to the leagues top goalie. Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves in his first game against his former club to earn his seventh win in a row since returning from a groin injury. "Its everybody from Bob all the way out that are contributing," Dubinsky said. The Blue Jackets closed out the Flyers with four straight goals to improve to a league-best 9-0-1 record in January. They are currently holding an Eastern Conference playoff spot. "If you look at the standings we are still right there," Dubinsky said. "By no means can we be satisfied. Obviously its a big accomplishment. We are happy, we are going to enjoy it tonight. We are going to come to work tomorrow and get ready for a tough game." Brayden Schenn and Vincent Lecavalier scored for the Flyers, playing the second of an unscheduled back-to-back set after a snowstorm in Philadelphia pushed their game, a 3-2 loss to Carolina, to Wednesday. Philadelphia is 2-4-2 since winning 10 of 13. Coach Craig Berube said the Flyers recent struggles are because of poor execution inside their blue line. "It starts in our own end breaking the puck out," he said. "We are not doing a very good job of it. We end up spending too much time in our own end." Backup Ray Emery got the nod in goal instead of Steve Mason and had 34 stops. Mason, acquired from the Blue Jackets in 2012, played against the Hurricanees and has yet to face his former team in two visits to Columbus.dddddddddddd The home crowd chided the former rookie of the year with chants of "We want Mason!" during the second and third periods. The Flyers fell behind 1-0 at 8:20. Johnsons shot from the right boards bounced off the legs of Luke Schenn and eluded Emery for his third of the season. Brayden Schenn tied it 1:56 in on a nice individual effort. He stripped the puck from Ryan Murray at the Columbus blue line, then cut in on Bobrovsky, eventually scoring on his third rapid-fire shot for his 14th. Lecavalier made it 2-1 just under six minutes later with his 11th, blasting a shot from the slot on the power play after a nice passing combination. The Blue Jackets responded with goals 4:49 apart to regain the lead, then added two more in the third period. "Were slowly getting the feeling in the room that no matter what teams throw at us we seem to dig deep and come up with a win," MacKenzie said. Corey Tropps forecheck squirted the puck free to Artem Anisimov, who centred a short-range pass to MacKenzie that he chipped in for his third at 11:24. Calvert was credited with the go-ahead score, his sixth, on a quirky power-play sequence. Philadelphias attempted sure clear, hit a glass partition and stayed in their zone. James Wisniewski got the puck and sent a hard pass from the left circle that hit Calverts turning skate in the crease and deflected into the goal. The play went to review and was upheld. Dubinsky beat Emery with a wrist shot from the slot for his 11th at 3:29 of the third. Horton scored a highlight-reel goal three minutes later, stepping around Andrej Meszaros at the boards and powering a high shot past Emery for his fourth. "This is something weve talked about as a group ... really trying to create an identity for our team and I think weve done that." NOTES: The Blue Jackets look to continue their record run Saturday against visiting Buffalo. ... Philadelphia is 6-4-0 in the second of back-to-back games. ... Columbus is 12-7-1 in the Metropolitan Division, while Philadelphia is 9-8-3. ... Arguably the Flyers best player this season, Mason recently signed a three-year contract extension. However, hes 1-2-1 with a 4.21 goals against average in his last five starts, getting pulled twice. ' ' '