jinpan1234
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nothing to do with the outcome
« on: Jan 12th, 2015, 2:34am » |
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Brad Richards looked to be on his way out of New York in 2013, when former Rangers coach John Tortorella not only demoted the veteran centre but scratched him in the playoffs. A year later, coach Alain Vigneault started down the same path by putting the 34-year-old on left wing of the Rangers fourth line in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final. Richards played just nine minutes 22 seconds at even strength and a total of 13:20 including power-play time. Vigneault said he met with his lines individually, including Richards, Brian Boyle and Derek Dorsett. He wanted to spell out his reasoning and assignments. "I talked to Brads line. I talked to Brad about the decision I made," Vigneault said Wednesday night after the Rangers 2-1 victory that staved off elimination. "I mean, at this time of the year its only about one thing: Its about the team. You guys know how Richards has been this year, the ultimate pro. Hes fine with whatever I do." Richards, a strong candidate to be bought out of the final six years and US$27 million left on his contract, has no points in the Cup final and just four goals and four assists in 23 games since a strong opener against the Philadelphia Flyers. Vigneault said his line shuffling had to do with giving forward Dominic Moore a bigger role. As a result, though, he put Richards in a tough spot to be effective on a checking fourth line. Richards skated just 13 shifts. The 34-year-old managed a couple of quality scoring chances on the power play and was on the ice for a strong five-on-five shift that ended with a Kings penalty. Still, though, longtime friend Martin St. Louis knows what a demotion can mean to any star players ego. Richards was once a Canadian Olympian and 90-point scorer in the NHL. "Richies a pro and a tremendous leader," St. Louis said. "Im sure its tough for him. Hes a pro and a great teammate." Richards isnt expected to be a teammate of St. Louis for much longer. The Rangers have one more compliance buyout to use and just one more off-season window in which to use it, and these playoffs have done little to dispel the notion that hell be playing elsewhere next season. wholesale nfl jerseys . The Raptors said it was a "minor surgical procedure" to address the ulnar nerve release in his hand. Fields underwent ulnar nerve transposition surgery in November of 2012 to alleviate nerve compression in his right elbow. jerseys from china . When you think teams you imagine a group of people who all shop at the same jersey store and move together in a large pack with a common goal, which is usually scoring goals. But at these Olympic Games the idea of becoming a team in figure skating makes perfect sense because of a new event called, shockingly, the Team Event. http://www.cheapnfljerseyschinaplay.com/. The solutions? Not so much. Given an extra week to stew over the worst start in 45 years, Tomlin is tweaking the lineup hoping to find a spark that will help his team begin the long road back to respectability. cheap nfl jerseys ., native Andrew Wiggins wasnt around a year ago for one of the worst nights in Kansas basketball history. cheap jerseys . Almost 18 months after Armstrongs seven Tour wins were wiped from the record, an independent panel created by the new International Cycling Union leadership has begun work to discover the extent of the sports past problems.Before we all bury ourselves into the Grey Cup storylines for Sundays Championship game between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the B.C. Lions, a few final thoughts on the Eastern and Western Finals: First, the East. It was interesting that social media went wild when early in the preparation week, the Bombers released receiver Terence Jeffers-Harris, who was then immediately picked up by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats even though, according to league rules, Jeffers-Harris could not play for the Ticats in 2011. The suggestion by many was that Harris would head right into head coach Marcel Bellefeuilles office and reveal all the mysteries of the world from Big Foot, to the Bomber playbook, all the way to the Caramilk secret. Most football players, past and present, will say that they could actually hand their playbook over to the opponent because, even though they may know the plays, they wont know when they are being called, or which one is being called. However, leading into the Eastern Final, there were some players tweeting that Jeffers-Harris could possibly give up some important information. For instance, he could have let the Ticats in on the fact that the Bombers had been preparing some trick plays for the Final, or a certain formation that they had not shown all year. For the record, Bellefeuille denied that he was going to even ask Jeffers-Harris to reveal any Bomber secrets, and it appears that he is a man of his word. Because either the head coach didnt ask, or it is true that you could give the opposition the playbook before a game and it wouldnt matter. No one except Jeffers-Harris will know for sure if he gave up any secrets to his new teammates or not, but if he did, it obviously didnt help. While we are talking about the Eastern Final, it is amazing how often a teams regular season issues - if not addressed and fixed - will come back to haunt them in the most important game of the year. Hamilton was a win one, lose one team all year, with an offence that looked dominant one week and disappeared the next, and a defense that, based on their personnel and front seven, should have been better against the run and werent. The weather in the Eastern Final was definitely a factor, but after puttinng 52 points on the defending champs in the Eastern Semifinal, the offence managed just three points in the Final.dddddddddddd Defensively the Cats ranked seventh vs. the run in the regular season, and in the last two games vs. two teams that didnt make the playoffs, gave up a total of 316 yards along the ground. It was clearly an issue that was masked behind a better performance in the Semifinal, but reared its ugly head again in the most important game of the year when Chris Garrett had 190 yards rushing by himself for the Bombers. Despite all of that, Hamilton was in the game vs. Winnipeg until late and should be proud of the game that they played in the Semifinal vs. Montreal. In the West, again congratulations to an Eskimos team that went from missing the playoffs to the West Final, but one issue for Kavis Reed and his young, aggressive team was their lack of discipline in certain games. Edmonton ranked seventh in the league in penalty yards, and had 538 yards more during the regular season than their opponents, the Lions, heading into the Final. Reed tried to address the issue on many occasions during the year but it didnt seem to sink in because, even though the final stats sheet in the game showed that the Esks had 80 yards in penalties and the Lions 74, there were three avoidable 15 yarders against Edmonton that they just couldnt afford. Moral of the story, if a team has an issue in a certain area on the field, they better recognize it early, and do everything possible to correct it. Or that very issue will come back to haunt them at the worst possible time. One other small point about the Eastern and Western Finals, under the category of having absolutely nothing to do with the outcome of the game on Grey Cup Sunday, but was interesting all the same. When presented with the East Division Championship trophy, the Bomber captains passed it from one to the other, and hoisted it above their heads. The Lions, on the other hand, refused to touch their trophy for winning the West and waved off head coach Wally Buono when he tried to pass it to them. Two different approaches, from two different teams, that will provide a whole lot of new and fresh storylines this week in Vancouver. cheap nfl jerseys ' ' '
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