Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion was so pleased to get Mike Hoffman under contract that he hugged another member of the clubs management team.The Senators and Hoffman, Ottawas leading scorer this past season, avoided going to arbitration by agreeing to a four-year contract worth nearly $21 million.This is a great day for the organization. I shouldnt tell you this, but I actually hugged (director of hockey operations) Randy Lee today, Dorion said on a conference call Wednesday shortly after the announcement of the deal, which carries a $5.19 million annual cap hit.Obviously we see Mike as a huge piece of our team going forward.Hoffman led the Senators in goals for the second straight season, hitting a career high with 29 goals. He also set career highs with 30 assists, 59 points and a team-leading nine power-play goals.The 26-year-old was particularly pleased to avoid arbitration for a second straight summer. Hoffman was awarded a one-year, $2 million deal through the process last summer, his third consecutive one-year contract. His new deal doesnt expire until the end of the 2019-20 season.His arbitration hearing was scheduled for Aug. 4.Ottawa was most intrigued to see what impact new head coach Guy Boucher could have on the Kitchener, Ontario, native. Hoffman starred for Boucher in junior with the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, scoring 98 goals over two seasons while capturing the league championship in 2009.The thing thats exciting about Mike Hoffman is hes going to play for a coach that, without divulging too many secrets, that simply adores him, Dorion said.Dorion was particularly excited by how Boucher, formerly the Tampa Bay Lightning head coach, planned to use Hoffman on the power play.Hoffman seemed to clash at times with Dave Cameron, the former Senators coach who was fired at the end of last season. Cameron benched Hoffman for the entire third period of an early March win over Toronto before dropping him to the fourth line.Hoffman had 46 even-strength points, second to captain Erik Karlsson among Senators. His 56 goals over the past two seasons rank 19th among all NHL players.Obviously I had to prove myself again, Hoffman said. I didnt want to just be a one-hit wonder kind of guy and last season I think I kind of showed what I can do in this league.Hoffman could have become an unrestricted free agent next summer, but the Senators opted to buy three years of unrestricted status. The new deal carries a limited no-trade clause (a list of 10 teams) that takes effect in the 2017-18 season.Dorion said a new deal wasnt close last month at the draft, but the sides made progress on term and dollars last week. Dorion was discouraged again on Monday though before meeting with Hoffmans agent Rob Hooper on Tuesday.The sides came to an agreement a day later.Twenty-two-year-old defenseman Cody Ceci is the only Senator still unsigned. Ceci is a restricted free agent, one whom Dorion said will be in the lineup when Ottawa opens the regular season.I can assure you that Cody will be playing for us on October 12, he said.Asked about the prospect of 40 goals for Hoffman, a former fifth-round pick, Dorion responded, I hope! But I definitely see more than 29, he said.I see an improvement. I definitely see someone whos going to step forward, take a bigger role on our team, not just score goals, but help us win games. I see someone whos been a good player in the NHL, but who can grow even further. Cheap Old Skool From China . Reassurance came from Paul Tesori, his caddie and close friend whose newborn son is in intensive care in a Florida hospital. "Paul sent me a text this morning, just told me he loved me and wanted to go out and fight as hard as I would any other day," Simpson said Sunday after doing just that. Cheap Old Skool Wholesale . After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. http://www.cheapoldskoolchina.com/ .H. -- Matt Kenseth made it 2 for 2 in the Chase, holding off teammate Kyle Busch to win Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Cheap Old Skool Free Shipping . The parade and rally were held to celebrate the Saskatchewan Roughriders 45-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Sunday in the CFLs championship game. Cheap Old Skool China . -- Kyrie Irvings last-minute 3-pointer helped seal another victory for Cleveland -- and the Cavaliers longest winning streak since LeBron James left. Nottinghamshire94 and 61 for 3 need 391 runs to beat Yorkshire282 and 263 for 4 (Ballance 101*) Scorecard Does tha think Ballance should have done it? Batted again? Aye Thus the opening exchanges of a conversation between two strangers in a Scarborough convenience store very early on the third day of this game. The decision by Gary Ballance not to enforce the follow-on was still creating interest. Scarborough is cricket town.And it is cricket town even when the sea swaps Wednesdays blue ruffle for this mornings turbid grey and the clifftop castle is cloaked in gothic mist. Even as the drizzle stopped in North Queen Street, the chat over kippers and coffee concerned follow-ons and refreshed bowlers, the substance of the discussion quite as informed as might be found in a members enclosure or press box. Maybe more so.And it is cricket town when folk are found queueing at nine oclock on a clammy morning with little chance of a prompt start. It seems almost an article of faith in Scarborough that you turn up for the cricket even when there is limited chance of any taking place. After all, you can always talk about the game even if you cant watch any.Perhaps faith is always repaid in this place. The 2,634 souls who arrived at North Marine Road eventually saw 35.2 overs of play and most of it will have pleased most of them. Yorkshire got things under way, albeit 40 minutes late, by scoring 63 runs off 12.2 overs. Some 35 of those runs were whacked by Tim Bresnan, whose batting style conjures images of an all-you-can-eat carvery with plates the size of centre circles.The Yorkshire all-rounders six over long-on off Samit Patel was probably the shot of the morning and Chris Reads bowlers would have been content to see the home side bat for longer since such indulgence would have delayed their own innings. But Ballance eventually declared soon after he had reached his second century in successive matches, leaving Nottinghamshire with five overs to bat before lunch.The visitors notional target was 452, a score Sir Donald Bradman once managed by himself; their real aim is to leave North Marine Road with five points for a draw, a task that has been made easier, first by Yorkshire opting to bat again and then by the home side extending their lead beyond the outer limits of sense.Were you surprised by Yorkshires tactics today Mick Newell was asked, soon after play had been abandoned in mid-afternoon. We were quite surprised they didnt enforce the follow-on, replied Newell, a man who rarely ties fancy bows on his words, so anything that happened this morning wasnt particularlyy surprising for us.ddddddddddddPerhaps Newells words were truer than he might acknowledge. Given Nottinghamshires batting frailties at the moment and the skill of Yorkshires seamers on this North Marine Road pitch, he was maybe not too shocked to see Steven Mullaney edge the ninth ball of the innings to third slip where Jack Leaning took a comfortable catch and joined the bowler, Jack Brooks, in restrained celebrations.But there was some satisfaction for Newell to take from the afternoon session and it came from the confident batting of Tom Moores, who was 41 not out when serious rain forced the players from the field. Lancashire and Durham supporters who watched the 19-year-old Moores bat and keep wicket when on loan at Southport last month knows that the lad has something more about him than mere talent. He is comfortable playing county cricket; it is a natural environment for him.Now the Yorkshire bowlers know it, too, and they will be after him on the final morning. Patterson discovered it when Moores drilled an off-drive past him and Tim Bresnan was made aware of it when the son of Nottinghamshires coaching consultant played his trademark cover drive.In other respects, the afternoon was miserable for Notts and more cheerful for Bresnan, who took two wickets in his first over. Jake Libby was the first of these when he edged a catch to Jake Lehmann at fourth slip and Michael Lumb collected what may have been an unfortunate pair when he was adjudged by Neil Mallender to have nicked his fifth ball to Hodd.All of this will have comforted Ballance, whose decision to bat again was backed by the Yorkshire dressing room. Nevertheless, as rain sliced 56 overs off Nottinghamshires second innings, an anxious White Rose squad may be hoping that what some see as an error will be justified by Fridays cricket. Our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not, says the First French Lord in Act IV Scene iii of Alls Well That Ends Well, and that title, too, may be quoted by Messrs Moxon and Gillespie if their side wins. .And there was at least a lighter aftermath to Yorkshires decision not to enforce the follow-on when an angry home supporter decided to make his opposition to the tactic known to the players. Sadly our outraged complainants sense of injustice was keener than his sense of direction. He stuck his head through the wrong dressing-room window and Nottinghamshires Mick Newell said he could not help him. Not even in cricket town. ' ' '