WASHINGTON (AP) — Everywhere Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman goes these days http://www.houstontexansteamonline.com/deshaun-watson-jersey , the same topic arises: What is going to happen with free agent outfielder Bryce Harper?“As if they think — I guess because I’ve been here forever — I know all the answers to everything,” Zimmerman said Saturday at Nationals Park during the club’s annual fan festival. “Yeah, you get that question quite a bit.”As much as Washington general manager Mike Rizzo already has done to try to improve a roster that flopped in 2018, that is the essential issue that is going to loom over the offseason until it’s resolved.Harper was drafted No. 1 overall by the Nationals in 2010, made his major league debut as a teen, won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2012, was a unanimous selection as NL MVP in 2015 — and now could be gone for good at age 26.“Whatever team he’s on is a better team. He’s one of the better players in the game. A lot of us would love to have him back here. I don’t think there’s anyone that wouldn’t like to have him back,” Zimmerman said. “But there’s a lot of different factors that go into that. It’s a complicated situation.”Washington, which went 82-80 and missed the playoffs, made a late-season offer to Harper that was not accepted, which was no surprise.“They haven’t showed their hand either way, as far as what their timeline is,” Rizzo said. “I think their timeline is: When they get the deal they feel comfortable with, I think they’re going to move. I don’t think there’s anything urgency on their part. I think when they get something they like Deshaun Watson Jersey Elite , it’ll probably happen.”Until then, Rizzo is making moves to shore up his team.That doesn’t include the outfield, though: The Nationals already have Juan Soto, who was the runner-up for NL Rookie of the Year, along with Adam Eaton, top prospect Victor Robles and Michael A. Taylor.As for Harper’s future, Robles said: “Everyone asks about that. A lot.”Rizzo has added a pair of catchers, trading with the Cleveland Indians for AL All-Star Yan Gomes on Friday without relinquishing a top prospect and signing free agent Kurt Suzuki to a $10 million, two-year deal last week.He brought in a couple of back-end-of-the-bullpen relievers, signing Trevor Rosenthal, a free agent coming off reconstructive elbow surgery, and acquiring Kyle Barraclough from the Miami Marlins.And he joined Nationals owner Mark Lerner in meeting recently with free agent starting pitcher Patrick Corbin, a left-hander who went 11-7 with a 3.15 ERA as an NL All-Star for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2018.“We go into the offseason with a checklist every year. We’ve checked a few things off so far, but we’re far from finished. And I think that the Bryce situation and filling some of the other things that we’re trying to do are independent of each other Youth Jalen Ramsey Jersey ,” Rizzo said. “We’ve always been an organization that ownership has given us the resources to do what we need to do to build a championship-caliber club, and I don’t see that changing.”NOTES: Asked about how his long-term deal could expire after next season, unless the Nationals pick up an $18 million club option for 2020, Zimmerman said he doesn’t anticipate “having any problems coming to an agreement moving forward.” Added the 34-year-old Zimmerman: “I still would like to get compensated fairly, but it’s not like I’m going to go somewhere else and play for an extra couple bucks. I don’t think it’s any secret I would like to finish here.” … 2B/OF Howie Kendrick will be “full-go at spring training,” Rizzo said. Kendrick tore his right Achilles tendon in May and missed the rest of last season. … Asked whether the Nationals will make a push to sign 3B Anthony Rendon to a new contract this offseason, Rizzo replied: “I think we should. And I think we have. And I think we will continue to do so. He’s a guy that we drafted, signed and developed and he’s one of our own. He’s a terrific player that nobody talks about.” ATLANTA (AP) — Freddie Freeman is delighted to have the Atlanta Braves in first place to begin the final month of the regular season.It sure beats the drudgery of losing at least 90 games in each of the last three years.“When you go to spring training every year, that’s all you can ask for, and here we are playing meaningful games with a three-game lead,” he said. “That’s what we want to be playing for. It’s a lot of fun.”Freeman hit a tiebreaking, RBI double in the four-run eighth inning, and the NL East-leading Braves rallied to snap a three-game skid and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 on Saturday night.The Braves had dropped five of six overall and seven of eight at home, but they got the rally going in the eighth when Dansby Swanson’s 14th homer cut the lead to 3-2.“You get a little energy http://www.jaguarscheapstore.com/jalen-ramsey-jersey-cheap , and it just keeps rolling,” Swanson said. “Hopefully that continues going into tomorrow and the next few days.”Pinch-hitter Lucas Duda doubled and was replaced by pinch-runner Lane Adams, who advanced to third on Ronald Acuna Jr.’s sacrifice fly. Adams scored when Ender Inciarte reached safely after striking out on a wild pitch.Inciarte scored on Freeman’s double, and Freeman advanced to third on a single and slid safely across the plate to beat a tag attempt on Johan Camargo’s sacrifice fly.All four runs were charged to Keone Kela (3-4), who had allowed just one run in his first 14 games, a stretch of 14 innings, with Pittsburgh.“This is a tough league up here from time to time, and everybody learns it,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “It’s hard. That’s why that team’s hunting over there. They have a good team.”The Pirates dropped to 55-2 when leading after seven innings. They are 13-21 since ending an 11-game winning streak on July 25.Jonny Venters (2-0) got the win after facing two batters in the eighth. Braves closer A.J. Minter faced the minimum in the ninth to earn his 12th save in 14 chances.Pirates starter Chris Archer did not allow a hit until the sixth inning and led 3-0 after Starling Marte’s two-run double in the fifth and Gregory Polanco’s 22nd homer in the sixth off Braves starter Kevin Gausman.Archer faced the minimum before walking Acuna to begin the fourth. He retired the next six batters before Swanson doubled to begin the sixth, and Acuna followed with an RBI single to cut the lead to 3-1.Archer gave up two hits, one run and one walk and struck out five in six innings. He decided a couple of days ago to pitch from the stretch the entire time for the first time in his career. Archer didn’t shake off catcher Francisco Cervelli once.“When I was 10 years old and first pitched in my life, my dad taught me to keep things simple, so I kind of went back to that,” Archer said. “And then the past couple of games Youth Leonard Fournette Jersey , I’ve just felt more comfortable out of stretch.”Gausman allowed five hits and three runs — one earned — with no walks and four strikeouts in six innings. Gausman’s streak of 19 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings ended when Marte made it 2-0.Archer had struggled since getting acquired in a July 31 with Tampa Bay, going 1-2 with a 6.45 ERA in five starts and allowing seven hits and six runs and two walks in losing his last start 7-4 at Milwaukee.RAKINGAcuna hit .336 with 11 homers and 21 RBIs in August and became the first NL rookie in the last 110 seasons with 39 hits and 11 homers in a calendar month. … Camargo leads the Braves with 50 RBIs since the start of June. … Marte went 2 for 4 and has hit .400 in his last eight games. … Of Polanco’s 76 RBIs, 74 have come as a right fielder, the most Pittsburgh has gotten at that position since Jose Guillen drove in 83 in 1998. … Swanson is hitting .314 with 23 RBIs in 156 at-bats this season in the seventh inning or later.EXPANDED ROSTERSPittsburgh recalled C Jacob Stallings, utility man Jose Osuna and RHP Dovydas Neverauskus from Triple-A Indianapolis. RHP Nick Burdi was returned from a rehab assignment and reinstated from the 60-day disabled list. Utility man Pablo Reyes had his contract selected from Indianapolis.Atlanta selected the contracts of RHP Kyle Wright and OF Adams and recalled RHP Touki Toussaint, RHP Bryse Wilson and OF Michael Reed from Triple-A Gwinnett. RHP Shane Carle was returned from a rehab assignment and reinstated from the 10-day DL. C Rene Rivera reported after he was acquired this week from the Los Angeles Angels.TRAINER’S ROOMSnitker said RHP Arodys Vizcaino, transferred to the 60-man DL, will make his first rehab appearance Sunday at Gwinnett. Sidelined 52 games this year with right shoulder inflammation, Vizcaino has converted 15 of 17 saves chances and 48 of 60 in his career.UP NEXTPirates: RHP Nick Kingham (3-3, 4.63 ERA) takes Ivan Nova’s turn in the rotation. Hurdle said Nova, who was not with the team Friday or Saturday, is absent because of a personal matter. Nova did not have a locker reserved in the clubhouse. Kingham will make his eighth start.Braves: RHP Julio Teheran (9-7, 4.18 ERA) will make his 27th start. He ranks third-best in the NL with a .203 opponents’ batting average but has given up the fourth-most homers and walks.
Coach’s challenges for goaltender interference and the ensuing arguments aren’t going away.There will just be a new place to direct the complaints.With the goal of refining the consistency of goalie interference challenges http://www.sandiegochargersteamonline.com/derwin-james-jersey , NHL general managers on Wednesday recommended shifting the decision from on-ice officials to the league’s situation room in Toronto. The change could go into effect as soon as the playoffs, which begin April 11, after the NHL Players’ Association signed off and now just needs approval from the board of governors.”The players want consistency in the application of the rule, and therefore support this proposed change in order to help accomplish that goal,” said NHLPA special assistant to the executive direct Mathieu Schneider said after consulting with competition committee members and other players.Commissioner Gary Bettman said only perhaps a half-dozen of about 170 challenges this season were controversial, yet GMs overwhelmingly were in favor of a centralized location for final decisions.”The objective is to be as close to perfect as possible,” Bettman said, noting goalie interference is a judgment call. ”The recommended change is intended to help resolve the rare cases in which the situation room and the referees might have different opinions of a particular play and is intended to produce more predictability for our players and coaches.”Currently, on-ice officials have the final say on whether a goal should count or be disallowed when challenged. Under the proposed change, the officials would continue to be involved, but a member of the NHL Officiating Management Team – made up of former referees – would be part of the decision-making process.Washington Capitals coach Barry Trotz said this won’t affect how he approaches challenging goalie interference but believes having someone outside the area making the call is a positive.”There’s some referees who are more established and, I’d say, sure of themselves, they won’t reverse the calls,” Trotz said. ”They almost say Authentic Aaron Donald Jersey , `That’s the way I saw it and that’s the way it is and live with it.’ And others get swayed by what they see or maybe the crowd or another coach or how the game’s going.”So it’s no different than the student marking their own papers. Let’s have a non-emotional person who has no skin in the game and is not in an emotional environment to make those calls and I think you’ll find it will be more consistent.”Coaches and goaltenders have complained about the inconsistency all season. Bettman said during All-Star weekend in late January that officials might be ”overthinking” reviews and that the intent was, ”Take a quick look, but don’t search it to death.”The league sent a memo to all teams outlining the standard, which is closer to what Dallas Stars coach Ken Hitchcock prefers. Hitchcock said he and his colleagues want to lean toward allowing more contact and counting more goals.”We’re tie goes to the runner,” Hitchcock said. ”I think that’s how a lot of the coaches feel is that when you see a situation that is a positive-area sacrifice (for players), give the runner the benefit.”It took years of debate for GMs to approve coach’s challenges for offside and goaltender interference, which are in their third season. The gray area in interpretation still causes issues.”I don’t know what is and what isn’t,” New York Islanders coach Doug Weight said recently. I think there’s a lot of confusion. That’s tough. It’s frustrating for us.”The hope is to lessen the frustration by letting a rotation of former officials take over. But nothing about the way goalie interference is called is being changed.Former player Ray Ferraro suggested adopting the international standard that says a goal is waved off if a skater interferes with a goalie’s positioning but allows it to count if the goalie initiates contact.”You’re never going to find a solution for this because what you see when you’re 200 feet away in a press box is different from what you see on TV, which is different from what is happening on the ice,” goaltending analyst Justin Goldman of The Goalie Guild said. ”I feel bad for the referees because it’s so hard to make that call in that moment, but to go to Toronto and expect Toronto to get it right every single time, you’re at the mercy of what they’re seeing on a TV screen, not what actually happened on the ice. For the goalies, that’s super frustrating.”— CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Blackhawks added another difficult question to their long list of problems when Corey Crawford suffered another concussion.Suddenly, their goaltending situation is completely up in the air.There was no update on Crawford’s status a day after he was placed on injured reserve. The two-time All-Star got hurt in the first period of Sunday’s 7-3 loss to San Jose when the back of his head struck the right post during a scary goalmouth pileup.“He just needs time to get better Aaron Donald Jersey Elite ,” Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said before Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Nashville. “Obviously you feel for him and want him, first of all as a person, just get back to 100 percent as quick as he can. Until then we’ll keep battling.”Crawford, who helped the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in 2013 and 2015, also missed most of last year and the start of this season because of a concussion. The pair of head injuries in a relatively short time period raises questions about whether he might play again.“It looks rough, how he hit his head on the post,” defenseman Connor Murphy said, “especially a guy like that who battled so hard to come back and was such a big part of our team. To me, he was our best player. … Hopefully he’s back soon.”Collin Delia was recalled from Rockford of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis when Crawford went on IR. Cam Ward made 30 saves in the victory over the Predators.“Our thoughts are obviously with Crow, and our hopes and prayers that he comes back healthy sooner than later,” Ward said. “I think for him, he’s got a family and you’re obviously very concerned.”The 24-year-old Delia began last season in the ECHL before being promoted to Rockford and then making his NHL debut in March. He went 1-1 in two starts with Chicago.“Just the adversity that I went through last season, starting in the ECHL and kind of working my way up, it’s a huge character-building moment for me,” Delia said. “I had to see where my game was at http://www.losangelesramsteamonline.com/aaron-donald-jersey , see if this was something that I could take to the next level. I think I kind of proved to myself and teammates, coaches, staff that I had the capabilities.”Crawford’s concussion is another tough blow for last-place Chicago, which missed the playoffs last season for the first time in a decade. Longtime coach Joel Quenneville was fired on Nov. 6, but the Blackhawks went 4-13-3 in their first 20 games under Colliton.Chicago also will be without one of its top defensemen for a while after it decided to loan Henri Jokiharju to Finland for the upcoming world junior championship. The 19-year-old Jokiharju has no goals and 11 assists in 32 games in his first NHL season. The international competition runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 in Vancouver, British Columbia.“It’s a great opportunity, we think, for him, but also for our team,” Colliton said. “We’re thinking about what kind of player he’s going to be months down the road and in years down the road. It’s a chance for him to go there and be one of, if not the top player, one of the top players and help lead them to success.”While Crawford and Jokiharju are away from the team, forward Artem Anisimov and defenseman Gustav Forsling returned against Nashville after being activated from injured reserve. Anisimov had been sidelined by a concussion, and Forsling was out with a shoulder injury.
WINNIPEG Dmitry Kulikov Jersey , Manitoba (AP) Winnipeg already was gripped by playoff fever. Now, with the Jets in the Western Conference final, the temperature is rising further.Jets merchandise is flying off shelves, downtown office workers are decked out in team jerseys and organizers must cap attendance at 20,000 for street parties on game nights.The passion surpasses that of the glory days of 40 years ago when the Jets were champions of the World Hockey Association. Stars of that team are in town this week to join the festivities.”I don’t recollect any sporting event … bringing the fans into the downtown area and into the excitement that there is today,” Joe Daley, the 1978 squad’s goalie, said before the Jets hosted Game 1 against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday. ”I think it’s unbelievable what’s going on.”Anders Hedberg, the right wing who notched 63 goals in 1978 and later returned to his native Sweden Youth Dustin Byfuglien Jersey , told The Canadian Press he’s not surprised by how fans in the NHL’s smallest market have filled the arena and the streets.”The relationship to the game is the closest here of all the teams in the National Hockey League,” he said.The street parties feature fans dressing up in white, watching on big screens next to the arena and listening to onstage entertainment.Organizers said Friday that for the rest of the playoffs, attendance will be capped and fans must get free tickets in advance if they want to get in. By Friday afternoon, some online ads were offering to resell those free tickets at $25 or more.Fans can even taste the excitement. A chocolate maker has started selling Jets-themed chocolates in the shape of pucks.The feeling has been a long time coming for Winnipeg. The Canadian Football League Blue Bombers haven’t won a championship since 1990 and the original Jets never made it this far before leaving for Phoenix in 1996.The new version of the Jets relocated from Atlanta in 2011 and was swept in the opening round in 2015, the team’s only playoff appearance before this year.”The entire city, you can really feel the energy,” said Josh Drury, who along with his wife splits time between home in Winnipeg and running a business in Las Vegas. His loyalty lies completely with the Jets.”This is really uncharted territory. … Winnipeg sports fans are kind of used to disappointment http://www.officialhockeyjetsshop.com/authentic-adidas-jacob-trouba-jersey ,” he said.Daley continued to live in Winnipeg after his playing days. He says this playoff run is great for the city.”We forget about all the shortcomings that everybody else in Canada thinks we have as a city,” he said. ”Right now, we’re No. 1 in Canada.” TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning return home Tuesday from a five-game road trip to host a playoff rematch against the New Jersey Devils.But Tampa Bay faces the Devils without Norris Trophy winning defenseman Victor Hedman and Selke-caliber forward Ondrej Palat. Both players were injured on the recent road trip and expected to miss at least the next two games.Hedman suffered an undisclosed upper-body injury in the second period against Vegas on Friday when he was hit by Ryan Reaves and fell awkwardly in to the boards, appearing to injury his shoulder/back area. Palat was also injured against the Golden Knights midway through the third period when he blocked a shot off his foot.Article continues below ...Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said on Monday that Hedman, who was schedule to be evaluated at the end of the week, could now miss more time than originally thought while the team is waiting on further testing to determine Palat’s absence while listing him as day-to-day.“Victor will be re-evaluated here, but we are not expecting him back right away,” Cooper said. “And Palat we are waiting for some more information.”Both players have been ruled out for through the end of the week while a pair of weekend road games at Montreal and Ottawa look “doubtful” at this point Austin Czarnik Jersey Womens , according to the Lightning coach.“Anytime you miss one game, I think that’s a lot of time,” Cooper said. “But the games will add up here, especially we’re playing every second night now and games are back-to-backs, when you miss a week or two that means you are missing six or seven games, which is tough. But both guys are healing and hopefully they’ll be back soon.”While the Lightning are dealing with injuries, the Devils are getting healthier.Goaltender Corey Schneider, who has been out since the start of the season, has returned from a three-game conditioning assignment in the American Hockey League and will join the team to start the seven-game road trip that will keep the Devils away from Prudential Center through Nov. 11. New Jersey head coach John Hynes said Schneider will make an appearance at some point on the trip. Eddie Lack Josh Morrissey Jersey , who had been serving as the backup to Keith Kinkaid, was sent to Binghamton on Monday for a conditioning assignment.“He’s going to play, but right now what I think is important is that we take it day-by-day with the goalies,” Hynes told the Bergen County Record. “Keith is going to go [against the Lightning] and then we’ve got Wednesday into Thursday to see where he is. But we do have a back-to-back coming up and we’ve got a lot of games coming up.”In addition to Schneider, injured defenseman Ben Lovejoy was back at practice for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury on Oct. 28 while forward Drew Stafford practiced with the team for the first time since Oct. 20 when he suffered an upper-body injury against Philadelphia on Oct. 20.While Stafford will remain behind to start the trip, he is expected to join the team at some point. Lovejoy, along with forward Jesper Bratt – who has been out with a broken jaw – will also travel as he awaits clearance to return to full contact.
OTTAWA http://www.officialstarsproonline.com/authentic-adidas-jason-spezza-jersey , Ontario (AP) — Elias Pettersson thought it was a pretty good day.Pettersson completed a hat trick in overtime to lift the Vancouver Canucks over the Ottawa Senators 4-3 on Wednesday night. Oh, and the breakout rookie was named an All-Star before the game.“I’m very happy with that,” Pettersson said. “The stars of the NHL are there, the players I watched growing up, and now I’m going to be at the All-Star Game.”Pettersson’s success comes as no surprise to his coaches and teammates.“He’s had so many chances to get a hat trick so far this year, so to finally see him get that third one is a special moment for him,” teammate Brock Boeser said. “It’s not surprising though because he’s going to have a lot more hat tricks.”Pettersson’s second goal put Vancouver ahead 3-1 early in the third period, but Christian Wolanin and Mark Stone scored for Ottawa John Klingberg Jersey , with Stone tying the game with 50 seconds left.Pettersson won it by burying a 2-on-1 feed from Boeser. The 20-year-old rookie has 22 goals, including seven game-winners, through 37 games this season.Canucks head coach Travis Green has been impressed by his young rookie and is pleased to see him enjoy the success.“What are you going to say? Big day for him,” Vancouver coach Travis Green said. “He gets a hat trick, all-star selection, he was dialed in.”Sven Baertschi also scored for the Canucks, who are playing the fourth of a six-game trip. Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots.Matt Duchene also scored for the Senators, who are mired in a six-game skid. Marcus Hogberg Mattias Janmark Jersey , making his third straight start, had 41 saves.“We’re trying not to roll over in here,” Stone said. “Guys are competing. We understand this is our job and our job is to win.”Pettersson scored on a power play five minutes into the third, but Ottawa made it a one-goal game midway through the period when Wolanin got his first of the season. The Senators pressed for the equalizer and got it in the final minute of regulation when Stone scored from in close.NOTES: Alexander Edler had three assists for Vancouver, and Boeser had two. Earlier in the day, the Senators and Canucks made a trade when Ottawa sent away goalie Mike McKenna, forward Tom Pyatt and Ottawa’s sixth-round pick in 2019 in exchange for goalie Anders Nilsson and forward Darren Archibald.UP NEXTCanucks: Play at Montreal on Thursday night.Senators: Host Minnesota on Saturday. An early November home game against an out-of-conference team that hasn’t made the playoffs the past six years has taken on added importance for the Pittsburgh Penguins.Pittsburgh (6-5-3) not only has lost five straight games going into a date with the Arizona Coyotes (7-6-1) on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena, but the Penguins also have the pressure of responding to strong comments made by their general manager.Jim Rutherford Radek Faksa Jersey , on his radio show, criticized the team’s play, wondered if things had gotten stale and indicated changes might be coming soon.Article continues below ...“He’s trying to do his job,” Pittsburgh center Evgeni Malkin said of Rutherford. “Our job is to be here in the locker room, support each other. Step on the ice and try to play a great game. Of course he’s not happy. Five games we lost. He sent a message. We understand he’s not happy. We all understand.”The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup twice in the past three years and are a close-knit group, so the idea of changes, such as trades, that would greatly alter the makeup of the team gets their attention.“I think we’re all motivated. I think we all understand that the expectations are high Authentic Stephen Johns Jersey ,” team captain Sidney Crosby said. “When things aren’t going right, there’s always going to be questions. As a general manager, he’s got to evaluate and identify things. He’s got to do his job, and we respect that and understand it as players.“But we’ve got to go out there and play and do the best we can and make it a lot easier on him. It’s a lot easier when you’re winning games. That’s up to us.”Pittsburgh is 4-0-1 in its past five games against Arizona.The Coyotes are coming off two losses in a row against the Philadelphia Flyers after a four-game winning streak. On Thursday in Philadelphia, the Coyotes blew a two-goal lead and fell 6-5 in overtime.Brad Richardson was pretty harsh in his assessment of that loss.“To me, it was pretty simple — we got brain dead in the third,” he said. “We turned pucks over. Just get pucks in deep and we would have won the game.”Coach Rick Tocchet called it “a learning lesson.”Tocchet, a former Penguins assistant coach Youth Tyler Pitlick Jersey , is in his second season with Arizona, which lost 11 in a row a year ago to start the season. That might put a two-game losing streak in perspective.The Coyotes have thrived on strong defensive play. As of Friday, they ranked second in the NHL with 2.43 goals against per game.“We implemented the defensive system I wanted — a more aggressive style than they were used to,” Tocchet told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.While penalty killing is rooted in defense, Arizona has also been opportunistic with a league-best nine short-handed goals.“That’s a lot of short-handed goals,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It was something we talked about with our power play (Friday) is making sure that we have a heightened awareness when they’re on the ice.”Pittsburgh has allowed three short-handed goals, as many as they gave up all last season.
MONTREAL (AP) — The Montreal Canadiens showed their mettle after their worst performance of the season.Jeff Petry scored twice as the Canadiens defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 6-4 on Thursday night.Matthew Peca www.kingsproshop.com , Brendan Gallagher, Artturi Lehkonen and Andrew Shaw also scored for the Canadiens, who have won four of their last five games. Phillip Danault and Kenny Agostino each had two assists.The Canadiens were coming off a season-worst 7-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.“We definitely knew we needed to bounce back after our effort in Minnesota and I thought we came out and played a pretty solid game,” said Carey Price, who made 27 saves for his fourth straight victory.“The game’s all about momentum and it seemed like it shifted throughout the course of that third period.”Andrei Svechnikov had two goals, and Jaccob Slavin and Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes. Petr Mrazek made 34 saves in place of injured Curtis McElhinney.The teams combined for seven goals in a back-and-forth third period.“It was a bit wild,” Petry said. “Not the ideal way you want to approach a third period. Good to get the points here. Big game tonight to kick off a three-game homestand.“We had a solid effort and played pretty well.”Down 2-1, Carolina tied it up 23 seconds into the third period. Svechnikov, with his second of the game, scored off his own rebound and notched the first multi-goal game of his NHL career.Gallagher restored the one-goal lead 22 seconds later when he cut hard to the net and slid the puck between Mrazek’s pads his 14th goal of the year. He is tied with Max Domi with 14 goals.Lehkonen made it 4-2 at 4:22 before Slavin got one back for the Hurricanes at 10:51.The Canadiens went up 5-3 when Shaw scored his ninth of the season on a breakaway at 12:24. That score was his ninth of the season and extended his points streak to six games.“We have to stay right on them,” Slavin said about conceding goals shortly after scoring. “We have to keep our foot on the gas. We can’t take a breath. Roddy (coach Rod Brind’Amour) talks about that all the time. You can’t take breaths right after you score.”Carolina cut the deficit again when Aho beat Price with 4:22 remaining.Petry sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 1:59 left. He has five goals in his last six games.Svechnikov broke a scoreless deadlock with a 4-on-4 goal at 2:53 of the second period. With a burst of speed from center ice, Svechnikov blew past Shea Weber before backhanding the puck high into the net.Peca, a healthy scratch for the last two games, tied the score with his second of the season and first goal since Nov. 8. Following a bad giveaway by Haydn Fleury in Carolina’s zone, Peca spun around and fired a no-look shot over Mrazek’s left shoulder at 13:51.The Canadiens took the lead three minutes later when Petry, after a soft clearing attempt by the Hurricanes, skated into the slot and fired a wrist shot past Mrazek.“This is where I have to be careful because I’m not happy,” said Brind’Amour. “We needed much more out of certain guys and didn’t get it tonight Womens Josh Anderson Jersey , so that’s frustrating. Especially after we fought to get back.”NOTES: The game was the second of three meetings between the Canadiens and ‘Canes this season. … The Hurricanes lead the league in shots per game, but managed just four in a first period dominated by Montreal.UP NEXTHurricanes: Home against Washington on Friday.Canadiens: Home against Ottawa on Saturday. The Predators have the Presidents’ Trophy, and the NHL-expansion Golden Knights carry the buzz entering the Western Conference playoffs, which have the potential of resembling nothing from the past.So step aside Chicago, which missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years, and say bye to the Blues, whose six-year playoff run is over.The changing of the West’s guard begins at the top, where Nashville clinched its first Central Division title by running away with the league’s best record. And then there’s Vegas, which broke every measureable NHL expansion record for success by going 51-24-7 to win the Pacific Division.Add in the talent-laden Winnipeg Jets, making their franchise’s third playoff appearance, and youth-filled Colorado Avalanche, who clinched their second berth in eight years, and it results in three of four first-time postseason matchups: Nashville versus Colorado, Vegas versus Los Angeles and Winnipeg facing Minnesota.The fourth matchup has Anaheim facing San Jose for only the second time after the Ducks eliminated the Sharks in six games during a 2009 first-round series.Of the eight teams, only three have won the Stanley Cup (Colorado, Anaheim and Los Angeles), while two have never won a playoff game (Vegas and Winnipeg, formerly Atlanta).The weight of expectations falls mostly on the Predators Adam Henrique Jersey , who won’t be underestimated a year after the eighth-seeded team’s surge to the Final ended in a six-game loss to Pittsburgh. It was a run Nashville began against Chicago in becoming the first team to sweep a No. 1 seed in the opening round since the current playoff format was set in 1994.”I think our guys are well aware of what went on last year,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. ”For me, this group is looking down the tunnel at something, and all that other stuff is noise.”That’s not to say Laviolette didn’t play the ”everyone’s picking Chicago” card as motivation a year ago.”I might have used it,” he said with a wink.The Avalanche know their history, with forward Gabriel Landeskog listing how several No. 8 seeds have made deep playoff runs, including the 2012 Cup champion Kings.”Anything can happen in the playoffs. That’s kind of the mindset we’ve had,” Landeskog said of the Avalanche , who enjoyed a 47-point turnaround after finishing last a year ago. ”This is a big accomplishment to make after such a tough season. We’re not done.”PREDATORS vs AVALANCHENashville finished seventh in the league with 261 goals without any player scoring 30. The Predators’ balanced attack is fueled by a group of speedy, playmaking defensemen who combined for a league-best 206 points (56 goals, 150 assists). Pekka Rinne went 42-13-4 to finish third in victories, and his 2.31 goals-against average was third among goalies playing 40 or more games.Though Nashville has won 10 straight against Colorado, beware of the Presidents’ Trophy curse. Of the 31 teams to finish first since 1986 when the trophy was established, only eight have won the Cup, the last being Chicago in 2013.Nathan MacKinnon entered the MVP discussion by leading Colorado with 97 points, including a league-leading 12 game-winning goals. Colorado tied with Arizona with the youngest roster at 25.8 years old.GOLDEN KNIGHTS vs KINGSA Golden Knights team put together with other teams’ discards spent the season using a ”why not us?” mantra in setting expansion-team records for most wins (51), home wins (29), road wins (22) and longest point streak (10-0-2). Vegas features six 20-goal-scorers Womens Andrew Cogliano Jersey , including trade-deadline addition Tomas Tatar.The Golden Knights closed the season 6-3-2, with the regulation losses coming against non-playoff teams: Arizona, Edmonton and Calgary. Marc Andre-Fleury went 29-13-4, but allowed six goals on 18 shots in a season-ending 7-1 loss at Calgary.The defensive-minded Kings allowed a league-low 202 goals and had the league’s best penalty-killing unit. Jonathan Quick’s 2.40 goals-against average was sixth among goalies appearing in 40 games.JETS vs WILDThe Jets closed their most successful season in both victories and points on a 20-5-1 run, including winning the final nine home games. Winnipeg is still searching for its first playoff victory after being swept in two previous appearances: by Anaheim in 2015, and by the Rangers in 2007, when Jets were based in Atlanta.Paul Stastny’s trade-deadline addition provided the NHL’s second-best offense with six 50-plus point producers. Third-year goalie Connor Hellebuyck went 44-11-9, and broke the single-season record for victories by U.S.-born goalies set by Tom Barrasso.The Wild limp into their sixth straight playoff appearance with defensemen Ryan Suter (broken right ankle) and Jared Spurgeon (torn right hamstring) sidelined, though Spurgeon is expected back from a 17-game absence in this series. Eric Staal’s 76 points (42 goals, 34 assists) were third-most in team history.DUCKS vs SHARKSThe Ducks earned home-ice advantage with a 3-0 season-ending win over Arizona, coupled with the Sharks’ season-ending 6-3 loss to Minnesota. Anaheim went 25-10-4 since the bye break, and is 14-1-2 at home since Jan. 23. Goalie John Gibson went 21-7-3 in his final 31 decisions, but missed the final week and is listed day to day with an upper body injury.The Sharks went 19-13-3 over their final 35 games since Joe Thornton was sidelined with a knee injury. Martin Jones allowed five goals on 19 shots against Minnesota, and is 1-4 in his past five while allowing 17 goals.CONFERENCE FINAL PREDICTIONNashville over Anaheim in five games. Nashville’s too deep and talented to avoid a letdown, while the Ducks have the experience to get through the injury-depleted Pacific and untested Vegas. Too bad the Predators and Jets face a potential second-round matchup more befitting of a West final.—AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno and sports writers Teresa M. Walker and Pat Graham contributed.—
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Brayden Point scored three straight power-play goals in 1:31 — the sixth-fastest three goals in NHL history — and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Thursday night.Bill Mosienko holds the record San Jose Sharks Hats Womens , scoring three times in 21 seconds for Chicago against New York in 1952. Point’s 91-second burst was the second-fastest three goals since 1967-68.Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby sat out after sustaining an upper-body injury Tuesday night at New Jersey. Coach Mike Sullivan confirmed the injury is not a concussion.Yanni Gourde also had a power-play goal, Nikita Kucherov added three assists, and backup goalie Louis Domingue made 28 saves to help the Lightning win for the fifth time in seven games. Starting goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy is out indefinitely.Patric Hornqvist scored twice for Pittsburgh, Phil Kessel also connected, Evgeni Malkin had two assists and Matt Murray stopped 22 shots. The Penguins have lost seven of eight following a four-game winning streak.SENATORS 2, RED WINGS 1OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Craig Anderson stopped two third-period penalty shots and Drake Batherson scored in his NHL debut to help Ottawa beat Detroit.Anderson stopped 34 shots in his NHL-leading 17th appearance of the season, allowing only Michael Rasmussen’s goal. Cody Ceci also scored for the Senators.Detroit had a chance to tie it midway through the third when Andreas Athanasiou was awarded a penalty shot after Ceci held him on a breakaway. Anderson read the play well and made a pad save.Seven minutes later, Anderson came up big on another penalty shot after Rasmussen was pulled down by Chris Wideman. Anderson denied Rasmussen’s attempt to go through the leg pads.ISLANDERS 7, RANGERS 5NEW YORK (AP) — Anthony Beauvillier had three goals and an assist, and the New York Islanders held off the Rangers 7-5 to keep up their recent mastery over their cross-town rival.Leo Komarov had a goal and an assist, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson and Cal Clutterbuck also scored and Thomas Greiss stopped 36 shots to help the Islanders beat the Rangers for the 12th time in 13 meetings.Chris Kreider had two goals and Fredrik Claesson and Filip Chytil also scored for the Rangers.CANADIENS 3, FLAMES 2CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Carey Price made 43 saves and Artturi Lehkonen broke a tie midway through the third period to help Montreal beat Calgary.Lehkonen scored his first goal in 18 games on a harmless-looking 40-foot wrist shot from off the wing that leaked through goalie Mike Smith’s pads.Tomas Tatar and Jonathan Drouin also scored for Montreal, and Max Domi had an assist to extend his points streak to eight games. Matthew Tkachuk scored twice for Calgary Custom San Jose Sharks Jerseys , and Smith finished with 19 saves.WILD 6, CANUCKS 2ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Mikko Koivu had a goal and two assists and Minnesota beat Vancouver.Eric Staal had a goal and an assist, and Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Matt Dumba and Jason Zucker also scored in the Wild’s highest-scoring game of the season. Devan Dubnyk made 25 saves.Bo Horvat and Markus Granlund scored for Vancouver.BLUE JACKETS 7, PANTHERS 3COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Joonas Korpisalo stopped 38 shots and Columbus routed Florida.Markus Hannikainen, Anthony Duclair, Josh Anderson, Pierre Luc-Dubois, Cam Atkinson, Brandon Dubinsky and Boone Jenner scored. Columbus is 4-0-2 in its last six.Nick Bjugstad, Aaron Ekblad and Keith Yandle scored for Florida.COYOTES 2, PREDATORS 1GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Darcy Kuemper had a career-high 44 saves and Arizona Coyotes held off Western Conference-leading Nashville.Kuemper www.mapleleafsshoponline.com , starting in place of injured Antti Raanta, kept a shutout going until Nick Bonino scored with 7:51 to play. Michael Grabner and Jason Demers scored to help Arizona improve to 9-8-1.DEVILS 3, FLYERS 0PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Keith Kinkaid made 29 saves for his third shutout of the season and seventh of his career, leading New Jersey past Philadelphia.Kyle Palmieri, Joey Anderson and Blake Coleman scored. The Devils have won consecutive games for the first time since opening the season with four straight victories.MAPLE LEAFS 5, SHARKS 3SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Kasperi Kapanen scored his second goal of the game with Toronto short-handed and the Maple Leafs won for the fifth time in six games, beating San Jose.John Tavares had a goal to extend his scoring streak to seven games, and Josh Leivo and Mitch Marner also had goals to give Toronto its eighth win in nine road games this season.Frederik Andersen made 42 saves and assisted on Marner’s insurance goal with a pass to the opposite blue line late in the third period to seal the victory.Joe Pavelski scored his fourth goal in the past three games, and Kevin Labanc and Marc-Edouard-Vlasic also scored for the Sharks, who had their four-game home winning streak snapped.Martin Jones made 29 saves. GOTHENBURG, Sweden (AP) — Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac and the New Jersey Devils left the Edmonton Oilers behind in their season-opener, showing the form that helped them return to the playoffs last season.Palmieri and Zajac scored two goals each to lead the Devils to a 5-2 victory Saturday night in the NHL Global Series game at Scandinavium.“We feel like we have a good group, we have a strong culture,” New Jersey coach John Hynes said. “We have an identity of how we want to play Toronto Maple Leafs T-Shirts Womens , the types of players we want, how we want to be off the ice. Those are really the things that matter. We want be a tough team to play against.”Stefan Noesen also scored, Miles Wood had two assists, and Keith Kinkaid made 17 saves.“We played a pretty good hockey game from the start,” Zajac said. “Not too many lapses, in our play throughout the game, our speed eventually kind of took over. We played the right way, especially with the lead. It’s early in the season and it’s a good sign.”Milan Lucic and Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers.In the new season, Palmieri didn’t waste time.He picked up the puck near the boards in the offensive zone, moved unchecked toward the net from the left and beat Cam Talbot inside the far post on the first shot on goal in the opening minute.The Oilers came back on a power play, with captain Connor McDavid setting it up. The star center used his speed to carry the puck up ice from his own zone and skated around the goal to feed Lucic in front for a one-timer to tie it at 4:01.New Jersey took control early in the middle period with goals from Palmieri and Zajac in a 1:09 span. Palmieri scored on a power play for his second, and Zajac doubled the advantage after Talbot lost the puck behind the goal. The Devils dominated, outshooting the Oilers 10-4 in the period.“Obviously, we weren’t good enough, they were good,” McDavid said. “We did some good stuff Toronto Maple Leafs Hoodies Womens , we did some bad stuff, too.”Zajac added his second in the third period after a defensive blunder by defenseman Matt Benning, and before Draisaitl reduced the deficit to 4-2. Noesen finished it off with an empty-netter.“Give them credit, they pressured us in areas that give us a lot of headaches and we weren’t able to do the same for them,” Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said. “We had a tough night, it was evident. Our puck movement, our puck support, our ability to play fast and clean was not very good.”It was the 23rd NHL regular-season game played in Europe, the 11th in Sweden and the first in Gothenburg.Prior to Saturday, the Devils completed a training camp in Switzerland where they played SC Bern in an exhibition game, while the Oilers came from practice in Germany, where they faced Cologne in an exhibition.The NHL will return to Europe next month. On Nov. 1-2, the Florida Panthers and the Winnipeg Jets will play two regular-season games in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.NOTES: It was only the second time in NHL history that the last two Hart Trophy winners faced each other in a season-opening game. It was also only the third time that the reigning Art Ross Trophy winner (McDavid) and reigning Hart Memorial Trophy winner (Taylor) played against each other in a season opener.UP NEXTOilers: At Boston on Thursday night.Devils: Host Stanley Cup champion Washington on Thursday night.
DALLAS — Last Tuesday Morgan Rielly Jersey , the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Dallas Stars met at Nationwide Arena with Columbus ending the Stars’ six-game Eastern Conference road trip with a 4-1 defeat.Dallas (9-6-2), which lost 5-4 in overtime to Nashville on Saturday at home, finished that road trip 3-2-1, taking seven of a possible 12 points.However, the Stars, who are 6-2-1 at home, would like to exact a bit of payback on the Blue Jackets on Monday night when they match up again, this time at American Airlines Center.Article continues below ...And with the certain return of forward Alexander Radulov, who has played just once in the past 10 games, Stars rookie coach Jim Montgomery expects his team to have ample energy, something Radulov brings Dallas in big quantities.“It’s missed a lot and also just his intensity and the pace that he plays with,” Montgomery said after practice Sunday. “He brings people into the fight with him and it’s clearly something we miss when he’s not there.”Radulov has been a great complement to captain Jamie Benn and perennial All-Star Tyler Seguin, who has goals in back-to-back games, when he plays on the Stars’ top line.The Stars should also get fellow forward Brett Ritchie, out the past four games with an illness Womens Nazem Kadri Jersey , back on Monday.Dallas will still be without veteran defenseman Marc Methot (lower body injury), but Montgomery takes solace in knowing that young defensemen Ben Gleason, impressive in his Saturday NHL debut, and Joel Hanley, who made his Stars debut against the Predators, are more than up to the challenge.“He (Gleason) did everything with his head up. He made really good decisions,” Montgomery said of Gleason. “They (Gleason and Hanley) both showed well.”Stars veteran center Jason Spezza could register his 900th career point against Columbus, which would make him the seventh active player to reach that milestone.Columbus (9-6-2) lost 5-4 to the New York Rangers in a shootout on Saturday at home.Despite leaving a point on the table, Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella couldn’t fault much about his team’s play against the Rangers.“Certainly, the odd-man rushes early on in the game hurt us and some turnovers, but other than that we played a really good game,” Tortorella said.The Blue Jackets got three assists from defenseman Seth Jones, who grew up in the Dallas area.Columbus has a six-game unbeaten streak (4-0-2) against Dallas and the Blue Jackets haven’t lost to the Stars in Dallas since a 5-1 defeat on December 15, 2015.The Blue Jackets are 5-2-1 on the road but Tortorella knows that if his team is to continue their run of good form against Dallas, they will need to limit the Stars’ offensive chances.“We have created a number of chances Nikita Zaitsev Jersey Kids , but we’ve given up too much,” Tortorella said after the loss to the Rangers. “The biggest thing we have to cut down on is the ones that we give for free. We’ve got to be a smarter hockey team.” TORONTO (AP) — Dylan Larkin scored on a breakaway at 2:48 of overtime and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Thursday night after blowing a three-goal lead in the third period.Larkin beat Garret Sparks between the pads to snap Toronto’s five-game winning streak.Gustav Nyquist set up the winner, and finished a goal and two assists. Mike Green had a goal and an assist, Jonathan Ericsson and Luke Glendening also scored, Larkin had an assist and former Maple Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier stopped 27 shots.Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen had a goal and an assist each for Toronto. John Tavares and Zach Hyman also scored, and Sparks made 27 saves.William Nylander suited up for his first game since coming to terms with Toronto on a new six-year, $45 million contract over the weekend. The 22-year-old winger got a mostly warm reception when he stepped on the ice for his first shift, and started on a line with Auston Matthews and Patrick Marleau before getting benched midway through the third period.PENGUINS 6, ISLANDERS 2PITTSBURGH (AP) — Phil Kessel had two goals and two assists, and Kris Letang also scored twice in Pittsburgh’s victory over New York.Sidney Crosby had his 15th goal and had two assists, and Riley Sheahan scored his fourth goal. The Penguins have won two straight and five of eight following a slump in which they won once in 10 games.Jake Guentzel had three assists and has a career-best six-game points streak for Pittsburgh.Casey DeSmith made 19 saves to win for the fifth time in six starts.Anders Lee and Brock Nelson scored for the Islanders.CAPITALS 4, COYOTES 2GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Andre Burakovsky scored late in the third period, Pheonix Copley stopped 27 shots and Washington beat Arizona.Jakub Vrana scored his third goal in two games and Matt Niskanen had one on his birthday to help the Capitals end Arizona’s four-game winning streak.Alex Ovechkin added an empty-net goal and became the fastest player in NHL history — ninth overall — with 5,000 career shots http://www.mapleleafsshoponline.com/authentic-patrick-marleau-jersey , reaching the mark in 1,031 career games. Marcel Dionne was the previous fastest at 1,215 games.Christian Fischer and Lawson Crouse scored for Arizona.LIGHTNING 3, BRUINS 2TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Mathieu Joseph and Anthony Cirelli scored early in the third period and Tampa Bay beat Boston for its fifth consecutive victory.After Joseph scored at 2:40, Cirelli put home a short-handed backhand 1:23 later to make it 3-1.Boston pulled to 3-2 on David Krejci’s goal with 1:45 remaining.Brayden Point also scored and Louis Domingue made 33 saves to help the NHL-leading Lightning improve to 22-7-1. David Pastrnak also had a goal for Boston, and Tuukka Rask stopped 27 shots.BLUE JACKETS 4, FLYERS 3, OTPHILADELPHIA (AP) — Seth Jones scored his second goal of the game 10 seconds into overtime to lift Columbus past Philadelphia.Cam Atkinson fed a wide-open Jones in the slot moments into overtime, and Jones beat goalie Anthony Stolarz over his left shoulder. Brandon Dubinsky and Boone Jenner also scored for the Blue Jackets, and Atkinson extended his career-best points streak to 12 consecutive games.Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves to improve to 12-3-1 against his former team. Travis Sanheim scored twice, and Claude Giroux had a goal and an assist for the Flyers.CANADIENS 5, SENATORS 2OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Paul Byron scored twice and Montreal beat Ottawa to sweep the home-and home series.Jeff Petry, Brendan Gallagher and Andrew Shaw also scored Noah Hanifin Jersey Womens , and Carey Price stopped 19 shots. The Canadiens also beat the Senators 5-2 on Tuesday night in Montreal.Mark Stone and Colin White scored for the Senators, and Craig Anderson stopped 38 shots.AVALANCHE 5, PANTHERS 2SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Carl Soderberg scored twice, J.T. Compher broke a third-period tie and Colorado beat Florida.Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog also scored, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 33 shots. Aaron Ekblad and Colton Sceviour scored fir Florida, and Roberto Luongo made 32 saves in his second game back from a knee injury.FLAMES 2, WILD 0CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Mike Smith made 31 saves, Elias Lindholm scored twice and Calgary beat Minnesota.Smith got his second shutout of the season and has won his past five games.Lindholm scored his 14th and 15th goals of the season and has 32 points in 29 games. His career high is 17 goals, reached with Carolina in 2014-15.GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4, BLACKHAWKS 3LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jonathan Marchessault and Alex Tuch scored 12 seconds apart in the third period to send surging Vegas past Chicago.The Golden Knights won for the seventh time in eight games and moved into a third-place tie with San Jose in the Pacific Division with 33 points. The Blackhawks, meanwhile, dropped their sixth straight and have been outscored 30-17 during the skid.After allowing the Blackhawks to score three consecutive goals for a 3-2 lead in the third, the defending Western Conference champions responded. Marchessault fired a shot past goalie Corey Crawford to tie the game William Nylander Jersey , and 12 seconds later it was Tuch punching one in to put Vegas back in front.Reilly Smith and Deryk Engelland also scored for the Golden Knights. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 32 shots.Jonathan Toews, Dylan Strome and Artem Anisimov scored for Chicago. Crawford made 32 saves.CANUCKS 5, PREDATORS 3VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Rookie sensation Elias Pettersson scored on his first NHL penalty shot and Vancouver beat Nashville to snap a four-game losing streak.Bo Horvat and Jake Virtanen each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who have just two wins in their last 14 games (2-10-2).Alex Edler, on the power play, and Loui Eriksson also scored for Vancouver. Antoine Roussel had two assists.Ryan Hartman, Colton Sissons and Matt Irwin scored for the Predators. Pekka Rinne had 21 saves before being replaced to start the third period by Juuse Saros.Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom stopped 26 shots.DEVILS 6, KINGS 3LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kyle Palmieri scored two goals and New Jersey stopped a six-game losing streak with a victory over Los Angeles in a matchup of conference cellar dwellers.The right wing, who leads the Devils with 14 goals, had not scored in his last 13 games against the Kings and had only two goals in 18 meetings.Taylor Hall had three assists while Travis Zajac and Will Butcher each had a goal and an assist. Nico Hischier and Blake Coleman also scored for the Devils, and Keith Kinkaid made 29 saves.Brendan Leipsic, Adrian Kempe and Kyle Clifford scored for the Kings, who have dropped four of five and are last in the NHL with 21 points. Jonathan Quick stopped 29 shots.
NEWARK Gabriel Landeskog Jersey Kids , N.J. (AP) — Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs isn’t the only goal-scorer lighting it up in the NHL. Take a look at Kyle Palmieri of the New Jersey Devils.Palmieri scored two goals for the third straight game and the Devils rallied from their first deficits of the season to beat the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on Sunday.Palmieri has six goals in three games, just four behind Matthews, who has 10 in six contests.“Whatever he’s doing, he’s got to keep doing it. Two goals a game every night,” Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid joked after make 37 saves to help New Jersey open the season with three straight wins for the second year in a row.Palmieri had 24 goals last season but he didn’t get his sixth until just before Christmas in large part because he missed 19 games with injuries.This year everything he shoots seemingly is finding twine.“Getting some bounces. A couple have been pretty lucky,” said Palmieri, who is the first Devil to score two goals in each of the first three games.The game-tying goal 37 seconds into the third period wasn’t luck. The Devils won a faceoff. Defenseman Andy Greene came down from the point for a shot and Palmieri whacked a rebound past Martin Jones.“I told him after the second period, don’t stop at one (goal),” Greene said. “They are different goals and he scores when they’re bouncing off of him, on the power play and he’s at net front. That’s his game and we need him to continue to do that. I don’t know if realistically we can count on him for two a game http://www.avalancheshoponline.com/authentic-j.t.-compher-jersey , but he’s done it for three so why not keep it going?”Jean-Sebastien Dea scored the winner at 3:25, stuffing home the rebound of a shot from the circle by former Shark Mirco Mueller. Kinkaid made the lead stand holding off two late Sharks’ power plays.Joe Pavelski and Timo Meier scored for the Sharks, who are heading home after a five-game road trip. Jones made 33 saves as San Jose lost to New Jersey for the third time in its last 11 games.“It’s disappointing because we go into the third with the lead,” said Pavelski, who picked up his 700th NHL point. “This team has the players to get the job done. We have to system. It’s a couple of times pucks are finding a way to go into the net right now. We will get that figured out.”After a scoreless opening period, the Sharks took a 1-0 lead when Pavelski slammed home the rebound of a Brent Burns shot at 3:51 of the second period.Palmieri tied the game at 7:06 with shot from the left circle with the Sharks playing two men short.Meier put San Jose ahead with 4:25 left in the second period with a shot from the left circle on a quick counter attack.“We have to play harder,” said Sharks forward Logan Couture, who had a shot hit the post shortly after Dea scored. “We have to play a lot better, harder individually. There are a lot of guys that haven’t played well yet this season, or their best. Thankfully Youth Matt Nieto Jersey , it’s only six games where this is happening.”NOTES: John Hynes coached his 249th game with the Devils, moving in third place in team history. Coincidently, he moved out of a tie with Pete DeBoer, the current Sharks coach. … Sharks were 2-2-1 on road trip. … Sharks F Evander Kane, who had four goals in the first five games, got his first assist of season on Pavelski’s goal. … Sharks D Erik Karlsson got a four-minute minor for a high-stick that cut Devils C Nico Hischier with 8:08 to play. … Referee Tom Chmielewski left the game in the third period after being hit in the ankle by a puck. Referee Garrett Rank and the linesmen finished the game.UP NEXTSharks: Return home to host the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.Devils: Host Dallas on Tuesday night. PITTSBURGH (AP) — The NHL’s most electric playmaker swooping in on him and his team’s one-goal lead very much in doubt, Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray did something that’s kind of tough when Edmonton’s Connor McDavid has the puck dangling on his stick and the game in the balance.Murray waited. He figures he didn’t really have a choice.“He’s got 100 different moves in his arsenal,” Murray said.This time, though, McDavid could have used 101. Murray made an acrobatic stop with his glove hand on McDavid’s penalty shot late in the second period to keep Pittsburgh in front and the Penguins beat the reeling Oilers 3-1 on Wednesday night.McDavid earned the chance after getting pulled down by Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel on a breakaway. McDavid walked in on Murray slowly from the left before making his way across the crease. The delayed wrist shot from the player Murray called “the best in the world” ended up not in the net but in Murray’s awaiting glove.“I think maybe he knew I was going to do it Mikko Rantanen Jersey ,” McDavid said. “So, got to find something new.”The stop was the flashiest of Murray’s 38 saves, and the one most critical to helping the Pittsburgh win consecutive games for just the second time in five weeks as it tries to stay in the middle of the crowded Eastern Conference playoff chase.“That’s a big turning point,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “If that goes in late in the period like that, it’s a big shift in momentum.”Instead, the Penguins remained unbeaten (6-0) against the Oilers when both Crosby and McDavid are on the ice. Bryan Rust, Teddy Blueger and Jared McCann all scored as Pittsburgh picked up two vital points despite playing without suspended center Evgeni Malkin, forced to sit while serving a one-game suspension for an illegal high stick. Crosby finished with one assist and spent large portions of the night going head to head with the 22-year-old McDavid.“It’s a great challenge,” the 31-year-old Crosby said. “He’s pretty tough to defend. A lot of times you can be in good spots and good positionally but with his speed if you’re even you’re probably in trouble.”McDavid picked up an assist on Leon Draisaitl’s first-period goal but was otherwise held in check. Mikko Koskinen stopped 31 shots for the Oilers but couldn’t stop Edmonton from falling for the eighth time in nine games.“We had a bunch of chances to tie it,” McDavid said. “I have to bear down on a couple. Credit to them. They had that four-minute stretch where they scored two and held on.”The second meeting of the season between two of the game’s generational talents the electricity of the first — when McDavid and Crosby both scored http://www.avalancheshoponline.com/authentic-nathan-mackinnon-jersey , with Crosby getting the winner in overtime back on Oct. 23 — but with considerably higher stakes, at least for Pittsburgh.The Penguins entered play with a tenuous one-point lead over Carolina for the second wild card in the East. Though Pittsburgh rode a career-high 50 saves from Murray in a one-sided road victory in Philadelphia on Monday, it also continued a pattern of one step forward, one step back.Defenseman Olli Maatta went down in the first period with an upper-body injury that will sideline him indefinitely and the NHL ordered Malkin to sit out as penance after Malkin flung his stick wildly at Philadelphia’s Michael Raffl late in the third period, forcing Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan to get creative in an effort keep his team’s fragile surge going. He moved Nick Bjugstad to center the second line and reshuffled the defensive pairings, including giving Chad Ruhwedel his first appearance since Nov. 19.It led to a bit of a sluggish start, and McDavid wasted little time taking advantage as the Penguins tried to find their footing. He got a pass in front of the Pittsburgh bench from Oscar Klefbom to spark a 2-on-1 and slid a pass over to Draisaitl that beat Murray 4:45 into the game for his 33rd of the season.Rust gave the Penguins a needed spark early in the second period when he put together a dazzling short-handed shift with Matt Cullen that ended with Rust creeping out from behind the Edmonton net and stuffing a puck past Koskinen at 2:35.Blueger put Pittsburgh in front at 6:10 when Kris Letang banked a pass off the side of the Edmonton net that landed on the rookie’s stick. Blueger ripped it by Koskinen for his third goal in seven career games.McDavid used his speed to split Letang and Guentzel, earning a penalty shot for his efforts with 2:35 left in the second.NOTES: Edmonton went 0 for 2 on the power play. The Penguins were 0 for 1. … Rust’s goal gave the Penguins nine this season with a man down.UP NEXTOilers: At Carolina on Friday night.Penguins: Host Calgary on Saturday.
SUNRISE Drew Doughty Jersey , Fla. (AP) Filip Forsberg’s apparent tying goal with 0.6 seconds left was disallowed due to goalie interference, giving the Florida Panthers a 2-1 win over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.Viktor Arvidsson was posted in front of Florida goalie Roberto Luongo on the play, and his stick made contact with Luongo as he tried to shove in a rebound. The puck slid under Luongo in the crease, and Forsberg swooped in for an easy score. It was called a goal on the ice, but replay officials ruled that Arvidsson had interfered with Luongo.Luongo tied a season high with 45 saves, and Colton Sceviour and Jonathan Huberdeau each scored for Florida.Roman Josi scored for NHL-leading Nashville, and Pekka Rinne made 31 saves. The Predators would have clinched the Western Conference with a win.The Panthers are four points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference and five behind the New Jersey Devils with a game in hand.LIGHTNING 4, BRUINS 0TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves, Braydon Coburn and Ryan Callahan both had two assists during a three-goal second period, and Tampa Bay beat Boston to move into a tie for the Atlantic Division lead with the Bruins.Brayden Point, Victor Hedman, Chris Kunitz and J.T. Miller scored for the Lightning, who had lost four of five.Tampa Bay played without star center Steven Stamkos, who left Sunday’s game against Nashville in the second period with a lower-body injury. It hasn’t been announced if Stamkos will play in either of the Lightning’s final two regular-season games.Tuukka Rask stopped 32 shots for the Bruins, who had gone 5-0-4 over their previous nine games. Boston has three regular-season games left.JETS 5, CANADIENS 4 http://www.officialkings.com/authentic-adidas-dustin-brown-jersey , OTMONTREAL (AP) – Kyle Connor scored three minutes into overtime, Patrik Laine added his 44th goal and Winnipeg earned its 50th win of the season.Alex Galchenyuk forced overtime with a power-play goal at 18:18 of the third period.Sami Niku, with his first NHL goal, Nikolaj Ehlers and Jack Roslovic also scored for the Jets, who ended a four-game road trip. Winnipeg, which had already established a club record for wins in a season, has taken nine of its past 10 decisions.Artturi Lehkonen, Paul Byron and Kerby Rychel also scored for Montreal, which lost its third straight game.BLUE JACKETS 5, RED WINGS 4, OTCOLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Pierre Luc-Dubois scored in overtime to lift Columbus and keep its playoff plans on track.Artemi Panarin tied it for Columbus when he put back his own rebound late in the third period. That set the stage for Dubois’ shot from the slot 2:55 into the extra period.The Blue Jackets are trying to get to the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time in franchise history, and for most of the game it looked as if Detroit would put a crimp in their plans. Columbus had to rally from a 4-1 second-period deficit to get the two points and stay in third place in the Metropolitan Division with two games left.Cam Atkinson scored twice and Sonny Milano also had a goal for the Blue Jackets, who have won 13 of 15. Sergei Bobrovsky had 23 saves.Jimmy Howard had 36 saves and Tyler Bertuzzi had two goals for the Red Wings, who ended a three-game winning streak. Gustav Nyquist had a goal and an assist, Darren Helm also scored and Henrik Zetterberg had three assists for Detroit.GOLDEN KNIGHTS 5, CANUCKS 4 Jake Muzzin Jersey , SOVANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – Shea Theodore scored in a shootout to lift Vegas in the final home game for Vancouver stars Daniel and Henrik Sedin.The Sedin twins announced Monday they planned to retire after Saturday’s season-ending game in Edmonton. During the third period, the brothers stood at the bench and waved to the crowd, who gave them a standing ovation. Vegas’ players banged their sticks on the ice.Theodore, the fourth Vegas shooter, scored on a backhand in a game the Knights almost let slip away.Bo Horvat, Brandon Sutter and Nikolay Goldobin, with his second of the night, scored goals 5:01 apart in the third period as the Canucks erased a three-goal deficit.Brandon Pirri led the Golden Knights with two goals in his first game of the season.ISLANDERS 5, FLYERS 4, OTNEW YORK (AP) – Mathew Barzal had two goals and an assist, including the go-ahead score after New York gave up a three-goal lead in the third period, and the Islanders beat the playoff-chasing Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 on Tuesday night.John Tavares also scored twice and Anthony Beauvillier added a goal and two assists to help the Islanders get their third win in eight games, but just the fourth in their past 20 (4-12-4). Thomas Greiss stopped 27 shots.Nolan Patrick had two goals and an assist, Claude Giroux added a goal and an assist, and Wayne Simonds also scored for Philadelphia, which squandered a chance to move closer to clinching a playoff spot. Petr Mrazek finished with 32 saves while falling to 6-6-3 in 15 games since being acquired from Detroit.The Islanders appeared to take control with a three-goal second period to take a 4-1 lead Jeff Carter Jersey , but the Flyers – who were 5-0-3 in their previous eight – tied it with three goals in a nine-minute stretch of the third.DEVILS 5, RANGERS 2NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – Taylor Hall and rookie Will Butcher scored two goals apiece, and New Jersey moved to the brink of its first playoff berth since 2012.New Jersey moved within two points of ending its playoff drought by winning its third straight game and sixth in seven.Travis Zajac ignited a three-goal first period with a tap-in tally 25 seconds after the opening faceoff, and Keith Kinkaid made 22 saves in a game decided by the power play. Butcher, who had never scored more than once in a game, got both with the Devils enjoying an extra skater, while Hall scored his first on a power play and got his 39th of the season on a second-period penalty shot that easily beat Henrik Lundqvist.Ryan Spooner and Kevin Hayes scored for the Rangers, who will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2009-10 season. Lundqvist made 39 saves.STARS 4, SHARKS 2SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – Jamie Benn stole the puck from Tomas Hertl and scored the go-ahead goal with 3:06 left before finishing a hat trick with an empty-netter.Mike McKenna, who replaced an injured Kari Lehtonen, got the victory after stopping all 17 shots he faced. McKenna last played in the NHL for the Arizona Coyotes on Feb. 16, 2015.Gemel Smith scored with 5:17 left in the third period to tie it. Devon Shore won a battle along the boards and rushed the net, tapping it to Smith at the last second.Logan Couture set a career-high with his 33rd goal of the season and Timo Meier scored No. 20 for the Sharks, who lost their fourth straight.COYOTES 4, FLAMES 1CALGARY http://www.officialkings.com/authentic-adidas-jonathan-quick-jersey , Alberta (AP) – Kevin Connauton had a goal and an assist in continue his superb second half.Connauton has 10 goals in 30 games since the All-Star break, tying him with Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman for most among defenseman since Jan. 28. The 28-year-old had just one goal in the first 42 games this year.Richard Panik, Christian Fischer and Dylan Strome also scored for Arizona, which has won three in a row. Nick Shore got his first goal as a Flame. Injury-riddled Calgary has lost eight of nine.— NEW YORK — No team in the NHL has run as hot and cold this season as the Arizona Coyotes. If the Coyotes are going to begin another surge Friday night, they’ll need to take care of the puck better than they did Thursday night.The Coyotes will look to snap a four-game losing streak Friday, when they visit the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.The game will be the second game of a back-to-back set by the Coyotes, who fell to the host Buffalo Sabres, 3-1, on Thursday. The Rangers last played Monday, when they capped a two-game road trip by losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-3.Article continues below ...The loss Thursday continued a rollercoaster season for the Coyotes (13-15-2), whose current skid – all four losses have come in regulation – was preceded by a four-game winning streak. And right before that, Arizona lost four straight (0-3-1).Such chaos is par for the course for the Coyotes, who opened the year by losing five of their first seven (2-5-0) before winning five straight. They then lost three straight (0-2-1) before alternating wins with losses prior to the first four-game losing streak.Against the Sabres, the Coyotes were done in by sloppiness. All three Buffalo goals were set up by Arizona turnovers.“We’ve just got to manage the game a little bit better, manage the puck a little bit better,” Coyotes head coach Dave Tocchet said afterward. The Rangers (14-13-3) also enter Friday’s game seeking a change in fortunes. New York has lost four of five (1-3-1) and six of eight (2-5-1) to fall outside the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference.Getting back into the race likely got tougher earlier this week for the Rangers when they learned defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk will be sidelined two to four weeks due to a separated left shoulder he suffered Monday.Shattenkirk is just the latest loss for the Rangers Nate Thompson Jersey , who are also without Mats Zuccarello (groin), Pavel Buchnevich (broken thumb) and Cody McLeod (broken hand).“We’ve missed all of them, for sure, but every team has injuries,” Rangers head coach David Quinn told Newsday following practice Wednesday. “You’ve got to overcome them and you’ve got to deal with them. That’s just the reality of the National Hockey League.”Franchise goalie Henrik Lundqvist is expected to start for the Rangers against the Coyotes, who will likely start Adin Hill after Darcy Kuemper started and took the loss after recording 30 saves Thursday night.Lundqvist took the loss Monday, when he made 30 saves against the Lightning. Hill last played on Saturday, when he took the loss after stopping 28 shots as the Coyotes fell to the San Jose Sharks, 5-3. The 22-year-old has started five of the last seven games for Arizona since number one net-minder Antti Raanta suffered a potentially season-ending lower body injury against the Minnesota Wild on Nov, 27. Lundqvist is 8-1-0 in nine career games against the Coyotes. Hill took the loss in his lone career appearance against the Rangers Oct. 26, 2017, when he made 25 saves as the Coyotes fell, 5-2.
CHICAGO (AP) — Luis Severino has been working on his slider with New York Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild.It’s beginning to pay off C.C. Sabathia Jersey , too.Severino pitched seven effective innings in his first win in a month, Giancarlo Stanton hit his first grand slam in four years and the Yankees swept the Chicago White Sox with a 7-3 victory on Wednesday night.Aaron Hicks also homered as wild card-leading New York closed out a 3-4 trip with its third consecutive win. While Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez remain sidelined by injuries, the Yankees posted their first road series sweep of at least three games since a weekend set against the Angels from April 27-29.“It’s not easy for us right now,” manager Aaron Boone said. “For us to come in here and grind out these wins I think is huge.”The Yankees bounced back nicely after they were swept by the big league-best Red Sox, an ugly four-game set that included Severino’s third straight loss. The ace right-hander was a little better this time around, striking out eight while moving into a tie for the major league lead with his career-best 15th win.Severino (15-5) retired 11 in a row after the White Sox used three straight hits to open a 2-0 lead in the first. After Tim Anderson led off the fifth with his 15th homer, Severino fanned the next two batters, and Austin Romine threw out Yoan Moncada trying to steal second.“A lot of good sliders. The changeup was a factor again tonight,” Boone said. “So hopefully another step forward for him.”Severino said he felt better about his slider after working with Rothschild on the shape of the pitch.“I was in control. I wasn’t missing like a couple outings ago,” he said. “I was on top of the ball.”White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito (7-9) was tagged for seven runs and six hits in five innings in his first loss in a month. He was 2-0 with a 3.42 ERA in his previous four starts.Giolito unraveled for a while in the second, beginning with Gleyber Torres‘ leadoff walk on four pitches. After Miguel Andujar struck out, the next five batters reached safely.“I lost all my rhythm, I lost all my tempo,” Giolito said. “Four-pitch walk on uncompetitive pitches to open the inning. Kind of just spiraled from there.”Romine and Shane Robinson had consecutive RBI singles, tying it at 2. Brett Gardner was hit by a pitch before Stanton went the other way for his 27th homer, connecting for a high-arcing drive that landed just inside the foul pole in right.It was Stanton’s first slam since April 18, 2014, for Miami against Seattle and No. 6 for his career. He also homered in New York’s 4-3 victory Tuesday night.“Good to get a sweep here,” he said. “Let Boston be in the past, and look ahead to what we need to do.”Hicks added a leadoff drive in the fifth for his 19th homer. His previous career high was 15 last year.Chicago (41-73) had won a season-high four straight before the sweep by New York (71-42). Jose Abreu and Daniel Palka each had two hits and drove in a run for the White Sox.“At the end of the day, the outcome wasn’t the one we wanted for us,” Abreu said through a translator. “But I think it was a very good collective effort for the team.”RESTINGYankees shortstop Didi Gregorius got the day off. Gregorius played every inning in New York’s previous eight games since it was last off on July 30, including Tuesday night’s 13-inning win.BUGGING OUTSecond base umpire Bruce Dreckman had a bug removed from his ear with the help of Yankees trainer Steve Donohue during the ninth inning. The bug was plucked out with a pair of tweezers and was still fluttering its wings after the ordeal.TRAINER’S ROOMYankees: LHP Aroldis Chapman experienced some general soreness after he threw 39 pitches while blowing a save opportunity Sunday night at Boston. But the All-Star closer was available for the series finale against Chicago. “I feel much better http://www.yankeesfanproshop.com/authentic-randy-johnson-jersey ,” Chapman said through a translator.UP NEXTYankees: LHP J.A. Happ (11-6, 4.05 ERA) is slated to start the opener of a season-long 11-game homestand Thursday night against Texas. Happ is coming off the disabled list after being sidelined by hand, foot and mouth disease. Right-hander Chance Adams was optioned to Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre to make room on the roster.White Sox: Following an off day, LHP Carlos Rodon (3-3, 2.94 ERA) starts the opener of a three-game series against Cleveland on Friday night. Rodon is 2-0 with a sparkling 1.56 ERA over his last five games. Rookie RHP Shane Bieber (6-2, 4.58 ERA) pitches for the visiting Indians. The heat of a pennant race can drive an MLB team to make big decisions.Among them is moving an established contributor who is slumping into a part-time role for the sake of the squad's short-term success. It's not always easy, but oftentimes the move has to be made for the good of the team.Ahead we'll take a closer look at five slumping players who need to be benched.In order to be considered for inclusion, a player needed to have a realistic chance of being benched, not just reduced production of late.For example, Carlos Correa is hitting .107/.219/.143 for the Houston Astros in eight games since returning from a back injury. Those numbers aren't pretty, but there's zero chance he'll be benched.Players also needed to have a viable in-house replacement for a benching to be considered.Yonder Alonso is the perfect example here. The Cleveland Indians first baseman is hitting .167/.211/.273 in August, but with Edwin Encarnacion on the disabled list and no potential minor league help, his spot in the lineup is safe.Make sense? Let's get started.Greg Bird, New York Yankees1 of 5Julie Jacobson/Associated PressSeason Stats:274 PA, .211/.303/.414, 11 HR, 35 RBISecond-Half Stats:110 PA, .206/.282/.351, 3 HR, 14 RBIAugust Stats:68 PA, .148/.235/.295, 2 HR, 8 RBIIt's not that Greg Bird is in a slump so much as this entire season has been a trying one for the young first baseman.After missing the 2016 season recovering from surgery on a torn labrum Andy Pettitte Jersey , Bird was shelved once again last year with an ankle injury that cost him nearly four months. However, he returned to post an .846 OPS with six home runs and 16 RBI in September and then homered three times and posted a .426 on-base percentage and .938 OPS in 13 postseason games.The 25-year-old looked primed to deliver a long-awaited breakout season in 2018. Instead, he's struggled mightily鈥攑articularly of late鈥攅n route to a 91 OPS+ and minus-0.2 WAR.Back-to-back games with a home run Saturday and Sunday have provided some hope that he might be gearing up for another late-season surge, but the Yankees would be wise to have a backup plan lined up.Potential Replacement:Mike FordFord, 26, is hitting a modest .252/.326/.437 with 14 home runs and 43 RBI at Triple-A this season.While that might not seem like an upgrade at surface level, he's been red-hot of late, hitting .318/.375/.515 in August with nine extra-base hits in 72 plate appearances.Giving him a call-up and a handful of starts to see if his hot hitting will carry over to the next level looks like a worthwhile move.Ian Desmond, Colorado Rockies2 of 5David Zalubowski/Associated PressSeason Stats:470 PA, .233/.302/.434, 19 HR, 67 RBISecond-Half Stats:100 PA, .228/.280/.359, 1 HR, 11 RBIAugust Stats:62 PA, .190/.226/.293, 0 HR, 8 RBIThe Colorado Rockies no doubt feel a sense of obligation to continue giving Ian Desmond playing time.After all, his $22 million salary makes him the highest-paid player on the roster, and he's scheduled to earn another $38 million over the next three years.The 32-year-old debuted with a thud last season after signing a five-year, $70 million deal in free agency, posting a 73 OPS+ in 373 plate appearances and a minus-1.1 WAR.While his numbers are up a bit this season and he's managed to stay healthy, he's still been a below-average performer offensively (84 OPS+) and a negative-value player (-0.3 WAR).As the Rockies look to chase down a playoff berth http://www.yankeesfanproshop.com/authentic-gary-sanchez-jersey , it's getting harder and harder to justify playing him regularly.Potential Replacement:Matt HollidayHolliday began his pro career in the Colorado organization as a seventh-round pick in the 1998 draft. He spent his first five MLB seasons with the Rockies and finished second in NL MVP voting in 2007 when he led the NL in batting average (.340), hits (216), doubles (50) and RBI (137).After spending last season with the New York Yankees on a one-year deal, Holliday lingered in free agency this offseason until rejoining the Rockies with a minor league pact July 29.The 38-year-old has quickly shaken off the rust, hitting .347/.458/.612 with four doubles, three home runs and 13 RBI in 14 games at Triple-A Albuquerque.He's a potential in-house upgrade over Desmond at first base, and he brings a veteran presence with plenty of big-game experience to a relatively young locker room.Odubel Herrera, Philadelphia Phillies3 of 5Adam Glanzman/Getty ImagesSeason Stats:494 PA, .268/.320/.441, 19 HR, 62 RBISecond-Half Stats:101 PA, .237/.297/.366, 3 HR, 10 RBIAugust Stats:50 PA, .184/.200/.224, 0 HR, 4 RBIThe wheels are already in motion on a diminished role for Odubel Herrera.The 2016 NL All-Star started the season strong with an excellent .313/.377/.485 line over the first two months, but his production has been steadily declining since.He was finally dropped from third in the batting order to sixth on Aug. 5, and he slid to seventh on Aug. 14 and eighth for the first time Sunday.A move down to eighth in the batting order helped spark Maikel Franco earlier this season, but he didn't have someone breathing down his neck for playing time.Herrera does. Potential Replacement:Roman QuinnMatt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, "It's time to sit Herrera and give Roman Quinn a chance in an expanded role."He has a point.Quinn is hitting .293/.310/.415 with four extra-base hits and four stolen bases in 42 plate appearances since being recalled from the minors July 27. With game-changing speed and excellent defense, he has a chance to be a real spark plug for the contending Phillies.The 25-year-old has had a tough time staying healthy in recent seasons, but now that he's at 100 percent David Robertson Jersey , it's time to see what he can do with a regular role.Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers4 of 5Dustin Bradford/Getty ImagesSeason Stats:424 PA, .284/.335/.477, 18 HR, 69 RBISecond-Half Stats:100 PA, .195/.280/.322, 3 HR, 9 RBIAugust Stats:54 PA, .188/.259/.271, 1 HR, 5 RBIThis is more about keeping Matt Kemp fresh than it is about relegating him to the bench.The 33-year-old was nothing short of a savior for the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first half of the season, shouldering the run production load when Corey Seager was lost for the season and Justin Turner was also watching from the sidelines.However, his production has fallen off dramatically since the All-Star break, and that's not a unique phenomenon.Last season, he hit .293/.340/.486 with 12 home runs and 40 RBI for the Atlanta Braves in the first half, but those numbers dipped to .243/.272/.417 after the break鈥攊ncluding a brutal .170/.182/.396 line over the final month of the season.While his production has taken a similar turn this season, he's still capable of making an impact, as evidenced by his 4-for-12 showing that included a home run this past weekend in a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners.It's just a matter of figuring out how to get the most out of him going forward, and regular rest could be the answer.Potential Replacement:Alex VerdugoVerdugo has nothing left to prove in the minors.The 22-year-old is a .310/.367/.445 hitter over parts of five minor league seasons, including a .335/.390/.481 line at Triple-A Oklahoma City in 2018.He's also held his own in big league action this year, posting a .280/.345/.440 line with five doubles and one home run in 56 plate appearances.Recalling him from the minors and using him as a fourth starting outfielder of sorts to keep everyone fresh for the stretch run would give the Dodgers an opportunity to get his bat into the lineup and provide Kemp with some needed rest.Two birds, one stone.Mitch Moreland, Boston Red Sox5 of 5Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty ImagesSeason Stats:370 PA http://www.yankeesfanproshop.com/authentic-sonny-gray-jersey , .256/.322/.467, 14 HR, 63 RBISecond-Half Stats:84 PA, .188/.214/.363, 3 HR, 17 RBIAugust Stats:55 PA, .212/.236/.423, 2 HR, 15 RBIMitch Moreland was an All-Star for the first time this season on the strength of a .278/.353/.500 line that included 11 home runs and 46 RBI.However, he's gone ice-cold at the plate since the break.The 32-year-old still provides value with his strong defense at first base, and the Red Sox boast the best offense in baseball, so they aren't hurting for production.Still, as they gear up for a potential World Series run, it might be worth exploring other options.Potential Replacements:Steve Pearce and Sam TravisThe Red Sox acquired Steve Pearce from the Toronto Blue Jays on June 28, and he's proved to be a huge addition, hitting .301/.422/.616 with six home runs and 15 RBI in 26 games.As usual, Pearce has crushed left-handed pitching to the tune of a .338/.420/.620 line on the year. However, he's also holding his own against righties, posting a .259/.358/.519 line that includes six home runs in 95 plate appearances.Giving him an expanded role could be one way to increase production at the first base position.The Red Sox could also turn to Sam Travis, a former top prospect who has seen his star fade in recent seasons but has been swinging it well of late.The 24-year-old is hitting .320/.341/.416 in 31 games at Triple-A since returning from a brief promotion to the majors July 16. He's already on the 40-man roster, so at least a September call-up seems likely. All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs and accurate through Aug. 19.
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26.02.2019 03:02
