#there were 2 rangers in front of the net and then there were none

[ratatatastic]

our top d pair making the best defensive decisions which is apparently *squints* going spread eagle and becoming a human bowling ball and like somehow that worked

florida panthers @ new york rangers game 2 | 5.24.24

[fiction-fun]

Loving in Color

Part 3 let's go!

Fandom: Power Rangers (Dino Thunder)

Pairings: Tommy/Jason, Ethan/Conner, Kira/Hunter, Trent/Oc

Words: 12068

Warnings: None!

Kira and Kaley nodded, following the boys away.

“Woah their huge!” Conner called as they all stopped in front of the Zords.

“Woah boy, it’s all good.” Ethan started.

“Be careful!” Kira called

“That’s right, I’m your friend. Tricera Zord!” Ethan called, and the Zords eyes flashed before its colors changed from an off green to a silver and Blue combination.

“It worked!” Ethan called.

“Yeah!” Conner and Kira called.

“Alright my turn.” Kira said lifting her Morpher.

“Ptera Zord! We can be friends, right?” Kira asked as her Zord also glowed and flashed before changing to Yellow and Silver.

“Awesome!” Kira and Ethan called; Kaley jumped a bit.

“Conner the Tyrano Zords out of control!” Ethan called.

“You have to do something!” Kira said.

“Alright, Come on! I need you to work with me here!” Conner called raising his hand up.

“Tyrano Zord!” He called and his Zord like the others, glowed before changing from green to Red and Silver.

“Yes!” Conner called and Ethan and Kira cheered as they joined him.

Kaley looked at her Morpher.

“It’s my turn.” She said stepping forward.

She lifted the Morpher high into the air.

“Come on, buddy. We’re friends. You need to relax and come back now. Troo Zord!” She whispered before raising her voice at the end.

Her Zord like the others glowed before changing to Green and Silver.

“That’s it.” She said softly.

Tommy ran over to them then.

“There’s only one thing left to do, bring them together. It’s alright you can do it.” He said quickly.

“Alright let’s do it!” Conner called.

“Alright!” Ethan shouted.

“Yeah!” Kira said.

“Right.” Kaley said.

With that they all jumped up into their Zords. They appeared in the Zords and balls appeared before them.

“Logging in.” They all called.

“I got it!” Kira said.

“Me too!” Ethan followed.

“Right, combining powers.” They all called.

Very quickly their Zords came together to form the MegaZord.

“It worked!” They all called when the MegaZord was fully together.

“Your robot is no match for me! Fire!” Their enemy called.

The enemy struck their Zord with a bunch of little energy balls causing them to stumble backwards.

“Ok, now I’m mad.” Conner called.

The enemy shot whips out and wrapped them around the MegaZord, sending electricity down them, knocking them back a bit.

“Time to head for the back of the net!” Conner called, before swinging them up into the air and over the ship.

“There’s the heart of the ship!” Ethan called.

“Dino drill engage!” They all shouted, aiming for that spot in the ship.

They went through the entire ship and landed on the street below before the ship exploded.

“Yeah!” They all shouted happily.

They ended up back at the lab where Tommy took their Morphers and made them change into bracelets.

“Keep these bracelets with you at all times. It’ll access your Morphers when you need them, and you can also use them to communicate with me and each other.” Tommy said as they each took one.

“Dr. O, I know you’re real smart and a science teacher and everything, but this is, well I mean, how did you?” Kira started to ask.

“I’ll fill you in, in time.” Tommy replied.

“Speaking of time, do you think Mesogog is going to be sticking around for a while?” Ethan asked.

“Unfortunately, they always do.” Tommy replied.

“They?” Conner asked.

“I know this is a lot to take in.” Tommy started.

“That’s for sure.” Ethan said.

“Your lives have just changed in ways you probably never could have imagined, but if you work together, you’re a team. No one can defeat you, no one.” Tommy said looking at them.

After a little longer of talking, the other three left and Tommy and Kaley walked back upstairs.

“Hey, good job out there.” Jason said looking up at them.

Tommy nodded and moved to sit down by him.

“Hey, just so you guys know, I was going to tell you eventually. Just, there was a lot going on. To be fair my brain was elsewhere, but it doesn’t matter now. I’m sorry for how I acted.” Kaley said quickly hugging them both.

They wrapped their arms around her.

“It’s ok, just go get something to eat, and get to sleep its bound to be a long few days.” Tommy said softly.

“Yeah, after I text Trent and let him know I wasn’t stranded in the school like he no doubt thinks.” Kaley said standing up and moving towards the steps.

“Kaley.” Jason called.

She turned and gave him a smile.

“I know I can’t tell him. But I can and will tell him I’m alright.” Kaley said quickly.

Jason nodded and Kaley ran up the steps. The next few weeks were stressful between school and dealing with monsters plus Trent was acting strange. Kaley took a deep breath and let it out through her nose, before her eyes snapped open.

“Would you both just shut the hell up!” she snapped slamming her book closed.

Ethan and Conner both turned to look at her eyes wide.

“Woah, is everything ok?” Kira asked from beside her.

She took a deep breath and reopened her book.

“No, it’s not. And today I really can’t handle their constant bickering like a damn married couple.” She muttered lowly.

Kira had turned to say something to the boys when the doors to Hailey’s opened, catching their attention.

“Well maybe Trent can make your day better.” Kira said instead.

Kaley closed her book again and stood up to walk over to him.

“Hey, Trent.” She called.

Trent turned and tried to smile, but even she could tell it was strained and partially faked.

“Hey, Kaley.” He said and he didn’t sound good.

Kaley ran a hand through her hair.

“How are you?” she asked him worried.

“I’m fine, why?” he asked voice tight.

Kaley scrunched her face up for a second.

“We were supposed to study together for dads test on Friday, and then you blew me off. I was just wondering.” She said concern lacing her voice.

Trent shrugged.

“I had some stuff I had to do.” He said elusively.

Kaley nodded, and laid a hand on his arm.

“I understand, do you want to study after your shift? I’m sure Hailey won’t mind.” She suggested lightly.

He shrugged her hand off, but looked more concerned then upset.

“Uh, no. Dad wants me home right after my shift. Maybe, uh tomorrow.” He said quickly before ducking into the back.

Kaley watched him go.

“Yeah….ok.” she said quietly before walking back to the others.

She started packing up her things slowly.

“Hey, is everything ok?” Conner asked, he was a goofball but he could be observant when he wanted to be.

She shook her head.

“No, it’s not, I’m going to go home. I’ll see you guys later.” She said before walking out of the café.

Three weeks later and Kaley closed the door of the Jeep.

“All I’m saying is, don’t let his actions get to you, Anton isn’t exactly an easy man to work with. I can’t imagine how he is the live with.” Tommy was saying as they rounded the front of the Jeep and headed towards the warehouse.

Kaley took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders, finding out Trent was evil and being controlled by Mesogog was rough, the fights notwithstanding.

“I know, and saving him is top priority. But Dad he’s getting worse. It almost seems like he doesn’t recognize any of us anymore. Not even me. I’m just worried.” She said quietly as they walked over to the scanner.

Tommy turned and put his hand on her shoulder.

“Princess, you know we can and will save him. And we’ll all be there after he is freed. It’ll be ok.” Tommy said gently using his old nickname for her.

She sighed and went to say something when they heard a noise.

“What was that?” she asked.

Tommy and her turned and looked around for the source of the crash, when Trent came rounding the end of a stack of boxes, before collapsing. Disregarding any measure of safety Kaley ran over to him.

“Trent!” she called falling to her knees beside him.

He shook his head and tried to shove her away.

“No, you have to get out of here. Both of you, please! I don’t want to hurt you again.” Trent said tone begging.

Kaley shook her head and looked up as Tommy knelt down on his other side, quickly scanning his morpher.

“Trent, I know this is terrifying. But you need to breath and focus on something else. It’ll help keep you from morphing.” Her dad explained quickly.

Trent was shaking his head.

“All I can think of and hear is his evil voice in my head.” Trent said sounding broken.

“I know it’s hard but you can do it.” Tommy encouraged.

Trent started to shake his head again when Kaley grabbed him carefully by the head and pressed a hard kiss against his lips, pulling back and seeing his eyes wide, she smiled.

“There think about that.” She said smirking softly.

Tommy sighed and shook his head.

“I did say he should breath too.” He said.

Kaley shrugged.

“I was more focused on clearing his mind.” She replied.

With that Kaley and Tommy grabbed the scanner and helped Trent to the Jeep. They got back to the base again, Kaley providing distractions as needed, and got him onto a med bed. Tommy scanned his morpher again and hummed. Over the next week they did what they could to fix the morpher.

“Ok any ideas?” Tommy asked one night over his third cup of coffee.

Jason shook his head as Kaley hummed.

“Wasn’t there another case of a morpher malfunction?” She asked.

Tommy hummed and nodded, Jason looked confused between them, Tommy shot him a smile.

“You hadn’t come back from Geneva yet. But yeah, Zhane. He was in Cryostasis for almost 2 years before he woke up and when he did his morpher had a 2.5-minute limit. He had to recharge it and it worked fine.” Tommy said not connecting what his daughter was trying to say.

“With lightening.” She said.

Tommy nodded still looking confused, even as Jason’s eyes widened in understanding.

“A controlled shock might just be enough to break the evil connections.” Jason said quickly.

Tommy slapped a hand over his forehead.

“That may work, although it may also hurt him.” He said.

“Let’s do it.” Trent’s voice cut in from the other side of the room.

Kaley stood up quickly and went to him, helping him to a chair.

“You should have stayed in bed.” She said gently brushing the hair from his face.

Trent shook his head.

“No, this is about me too. Let’s do the shock it seems like the best course.” He said.

Tommy looked at Jason, before nodding.

“Alright, but it’ll take a few hours to set up.” He said before him and Jason walked to the back room.

Kaley kneeled down in front of him, seeing how tired Trent was. She reached up and rested her hand on his cheek.

“You’re sure?” she asked softly.

“It’s our best bet. I already can’t stand knowing I’ve hurt you. So, I’ll take the shock over the risk of doing anything like that again.” Trent said softly.

Kaley nodded and leaned up kissing him gently.

“I don’t blame you, I could never. You were being controlled; it wasn’t you.” She said softly.

He rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes.

“I know, I don’t know how I got so lucky.” He said.

She smiled softly and wrapped her arms around him.

“It’ll be ok.” She whispered.

Trent shook his head.

“What if it doesn’t work?” he asked softly.

Kaley wrapped her hand in his hair tangling her fingers in gently.

“Then we’ll figure something else out. We can contact Aquatar, or KO-35, Triforia is an option too. We won’t let this hold on you any longer. I’ll kick Mesogogs ass myself unmorphed if I have to.” Kaley said firmly.

Trent nodded and moved to stand.

“I’m going to go lay down until it’s time.” He said softly.

Kaley nodded and stood to help him back to his bed before moving to the back room where her parents where.

“That was quite the speech.” Jason commented, trying to sound light.

Kaley turned and looked at him with a face full of determination.

“It wasn’t just a speech. I was beyond serious. Either this works or I start punching enemies with my bare hands. That bastard isn’t going to continue making him feel like shit about himself. He’s a fantastic person, who doesn’t deserve any of this.” Kaley said fiercely.

Jason raised his hands a bit in a calming position.

“Breath. Trust me, I know where you’re coming from.” He said softly.

Tommy looked up with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh?” he asked.

Jason rubbed the back of his neck.

“I may or may not have made a very similar statement when we figured out evil green was you.” Jason said looking to the side.

Tommy gave him a smile as he shook his head and kissed him lightly, Kaley groaning behind them. Tommy smirked.

“Pay back. And I suppose like Father like daughter.” Tommy said with a small laugh.

Both Kaley and Jason looked to opposite sides of the room, rubbing the back of their necks. Tommy laughed and moved into the main room to start setting up the controlled shock machine. Within the next hour they had it set up and ready.

“Kaley, go get Trent and let’s see if this works.” Jason said as Tommy was to far into the calculations.

Kaley nodded and walked into the back, offering a smile to Trent. In a few minutes she had helped him to the front area and into the chair where Jason wrapped the strap around his wrist.

“This is really for your safety.” He said in response to Trent’s look.

Trent nodded.

“Well, it makes sense, electricity and all.” Trent said softly.

Kaley ran her hand through his hair and hugged him quickly before walking over behind the protective shield. She took a breath and then the room lit with a bright light. After a few seconds the room darkened again.

“Trent? How do you feel?” Tommy asked walking to him.

Kaley just a step behind him, Jason was looking over the readings. Trent groaned a bit but looked around for a second.

“I feel…good. Like really good.” He said sounding relieved.

Kaley rushed forward and hugged him tight as Tommy undid the strap on his arm.

“Thank you.” Trent said softly.

Tommy shook his head and turned back to Jason.

“You two should head upstairs and do the work you missed.” Tommy said in response.

Kaley pulled back and nodded, helping Trent stand. They walked up the steps and settled on the couch.

“What…. what happened?” Trent asked a few hours later.

Kaley looked up, humming lightly.

“When?” she asked.

“When I was evil.” Trent said softly.

Kaley closed her eyes and pushed her book away.

“First, that wasn’t you, I don’t care what anyone says. Second, we went home with far more bruises then normal, but it also forced us to work together.” Kaley said trying to be gentle.

Trent took a breath and leaned back.

“Details?” he asked softly.

Kaley took his hand and sighed softly, going over the details and things that had happened. The next few months went by quickly, and before they knew it prom and graduation where upon them.

“So, what are you wearing?” Kira called from where she was in the dressing room.

Kaley smiled softly and looked up from her phone.

“I’ve got a length emerald dress, one shouldered and a white belt to go with it.” She called back.

Kira laughed a bit before stepping out and turning to look in the mirror.

“What do you think?” she asked.

Kaley nodded.

“I like it. And I think Hunter will like it too!” Kaley teased her lightly as she looked over the yellow dress with small dark red accents.

Kira turned bright red and smacked her lightly, before running back into the changing room to put her clothes back on. Walking out a few minutes later tugging her jacket on. Kira walked over to the shoe rack her dress in hand.

“So, what's going on with Trent?” she asked Kaley as she too stopped at the shoes.

Kaley shrugged lightly.

“You know as much as I do. Dad’s got him doing recon on the enemy side, trying to figure out who Mesogog is, or any weaknesses he has. Although he says he has some idea of who he is and what happened. But he hasn’t told me anything.” Kaley said softly, looking around at the different shoes.

Kira nodded and the two moved to the cashier to finish their shopping.

“So, do you think Conner and Ethan will ever stop being idiots?” Kira asked a while later as they were walking home with their shopping and milkshakes.

Kaley let her head fall back with a loud laugh.

“No, I think they’ll always just be yelling at each other.” Kaley said laughing.

That caused Kira to join in and they walked into the house laughing.

“Guys, the rest of the team is downstairs, go on.” Jason called interrupting them and he didn’t sound ok.

“Everything ok Poppa?” Kaley asked carefully as the girls sat their bags down.

“Not really, go on, they’re waiting.” Jason said, voice tight.

Kaley looked at Kira and they both walked to the hidden hatch, Kira tilting the tyrannosaurus models head and letting them in.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Kira called as they walked down the steps.

They walked into a tense scene. Trent standing to the side with Conner glaring at him and Ethan sitting by the monitors, Kaley could hear who she assumed was her dad and Hailey working in the back.

“What’s up is that someone has been keeping things from us.” Conner said sharply, eyes not moving from Trent.

Kaley moved over to Trent and looked him over.

“You ok?” she asked softly as Kira stood between the two groups trying to get the full story.

Trent ran a hand through his hair and nodded.

“Yeah, I’m ok. Just found out some bad news that Conner thinks I’ve known.” He said voice tight.

Kaley raised her hand and gently laid it on the side of his face.

“Conner is a hot-headed jerk at the best of times, don’t let him get to you.” She whispered softly.

Trent sighed and nodded, resting his forehead on hers again before pulling back, and turning to the stairs.

“What running from the truth?” Conner called.

“Conner shut up.” Ethan said walking over to them.

Kira shot Conner a glare, as Kaley turned slowly and took a step towards him.

“I just need some air. I’ll just be outside.” Trent said not even turning.

He walked up the stairs ignoring everything Conner said.

“Yeah run back to your evil daddy, you traitor!” Conner called.

Before anyone could blink Conner was on the floor and Kaley stood over him.

“Conner if you know what’s good for you, I’d stay quiet if I where you.” Tommy said from the back having come out when he heard the thud.

He walked over and moved between his daughter and Conner, placing his hands on her shoulders.

“You need to breath.” Tommy said and Kaley took a deep breath.

Conner slid up onto his butt before standing up wiping his face.

“What the hell! I was just saying the truth!” Conner called.

Tommy quickly wrapped his arms around Kaley again when she lunged at Conner.

“If we want him alive, someone get him out of here!” Tommy called.

Kira nodded grabbed Conner and dragged him up the stairs, almost running into Jason as she did. Ethan following behind them a little slower.

“What’s going on?” Jason asked confused, having heard the commotion.

Tommy sat Kaley on a chair and turned to Jason.

“Conner ran his mouth about Trent without the girls getting any information, Trent went outside, Conner kept running his mouth. Kaley snapped and punched him, well that’s what happened from what I saw.” Tommy explained running a hand through his hair.

Jason turned to Kaley arms crossed.

“Yes, I punched him. Yes, I would have again had dad not stopped me. Will I the next time I see him? Probably. He had no right talking about Trent like that.” Kaley said firmly.

Tommy sighed and turned to the steps.

“Speaking of, I should make sure Conner and Trent aren’t in a fist fight.” Tommy said walking upstairs.

Jason nodded and looked at his daughter.

“Kaley, I don’t like the amount of fights you’ve gotten into lately. First that kid at school, yes it was months ago but still. And now your own teammate? We don’t fight our teammates!” Jason said sternly.

Kaley looked up at him and offered him a short glare.

“Like you even know what this last year has been. You’ve been gone with the PRU so much, we rarely see you. Also, I don’t care if he is my teammate, he ran his mouth about my soulmate, my person. Anyone who does that gets punched. I don’t care.” Kaley said firmly.

Jason sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

“I know I’ve been gone a lot, but I’ve had to help organize some things. You need to learn to control your emotions…” Jason started before Kaley jumped out of her seat.

“No! Don’t stand there and tell me to let him get away with that. Because we both know you’d do the same damn thing if someone said something about Dad!” she said voice tight.

[zettersberg]

Crossing the Line ~ Sidney Crosby

Requested: By @pucksandpoutines Warnings: None Word Count: 1k+ A/N: So this is a fun idea Cass and I storyboarded a couple weeks ago and I thought it was a cute idea. This will be multi-part (not sure how many yet) and I am combining it with another request. Summary: Sidney Crosby takes a trip to the penalty box and gets an earful of chirping.

Part 2 - Playlist

“Number 87 from Pittsburgh. Two minutes for roughing,” the referee’s call to the arena was met with much dismay as the opposing player didn’t get called.

PPG Paints might’ve been upset, but not you. You had been waiting for this moment since that pic of Crosby giving his stick to that Rangers fan went viral. Now, you were gonna get yours.

You had waited weeks until you finally had the money and opportunity to get seats right next to the Penguins penalty box, but that didn’t guarantee that Crosby would be in it at all.

As you watched the captain finish arguing with the ref over the call and skate towards the box, and you, you knew you couldn’t squander this moment, not knowing if it’ll happen again. Thankful to have your best friend there as moral support, you were ready to go at almost halfway through the game.

You stood and watched as he huffed down onto the bench next you, with nothing but a piece of glass as separation. You turned and mock called onto the ice, “Hey, ref! I think you need to put me in the box too!” You could see him eyeing you as you took your seat next to the glass. This was gonna be fun.

Once play started back up, you took in Sid’s steely resolve. He wasn’t happy with the call.

1:58 remaining.

“So, 87,” you began, “I see you like to get rough.” Not knowing if you’d be able to crack him, you were delighted to see the tiniest smirk at the corner of his mouth.

1:46 remaining.

“Really though, this call was bogus,” you say nonchalantly, watching as play continued. “I’ve seen harder hits from a butterfly!” That got you several chuckles from surrounding fans. Sid just took a drink from his water bottle as he watched the teams change lines.

1:34 remaining.

“The only way you’re gonna matter in this game is if you buy a striped sweater and a whistle.”

1:27 remaining.

You watched as the opposing team got a great chance at the net, but cheered with the crowd as Murray made an amazing save.

1:19 remaining.

“Good thing it’s you in here. With a chance like that, they need all the penalty killers they can get out there.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head with a smirk, trying not to laugh. You just might be getting to him.

1:12 remaining.

“C’mon, Cros! Keep your chin up! There’s always beer leagues for guys like you!” The guy in front of you nearly choked on his actual beer, maybe you hit too close to home. This time though, Sidney actually turned to look at you, mostly glaring.

1:03 remaining.

“God damn, Crosby, you really must be the ugliest guy to ever lace up a pair of skates.” You practically drooled as you said it, with him looking at you, and the fact that you were obviously wearing his jersey, the irony of your statement was palpable. People seemed to think that was funny. Your best friend laughed harder than anyone. Sidney did actually chuckle that time, but he just shook his head and turned his attention back to the ice. Damn you’re good.

Play stops.

0:47 remaining.

Shit you don’t have much longer. Even less if the other team manages to score. But the boys had a good kill going. You’d hoped they’d keep it up for you.

Play starts.

After watching the ice for a moment, you turn to see that Sid’s chewing on his mouth guard. Why do hockey players do that?

0:22 remaining.

“Hey, 87! Why don’t you quit chewing on that mouth guard and get over here and chew something better?” That was it. You were in trouble now. He took his water bottle and squirted it at you through the glass.

0:14 remaining.

“Jesus, betchu’ve never got a girl this wet before, eh?”

Your best friend, smacked you in the arm, “Y/N!” Crosby turned red and focused his attention to the ice as best he could. The guy in front of you gave you a high five.

0:07 remaining.

Crosby stood, ready to get out there after a good kill. And to possibly get away from you.

0:04 remaining.

“Hey! Have fun out there! I’ll see ya soon!”

0:00 remaining.

And that was it. The kill was over and Sidney Crosby was bursting out of the box. The next moments seemed to work like magic. The puck came right to him and he was down the ice on a breakaway. Buried.

Sidney never came back to the box that game. But in the last period and a half, he scored again and tallied two assists for a four point night. You can’t help but feel partially responsible for that.

You had never had such good seats, so while you had the chance, you spent most of the game watching Sidney. In the last few minutes of the game, when they were up 5-2, you saw Sidney talking to a trainer on the bench. You thought you saw him point in your direction, but that can’t be right. Maybe you really were gonna get your stick, that you hadn’t crossed a line or anything with your chirping. Or maybe he was telling them to never let you near him again. You were hoping for the former.

Like clockwork, when the final buzzer sounded and the team went onto the ice to celebrate with Murray, a trainer came to your’s and your friend’s row.

“Excuse me, ladies, but I believe one of you kept the Captain company while he was in the penalty box tonight,” they inquired.

“That would be her,” your best friend immediately pointed you out, not taking any of the blame.

“Uh, yeah that was me,” you said while trying to somehow make yourself seem smaller. A light pink color crept onto your cheeks.

“Well then, if you don’t mind, you can follow me,” the trainer said.

And without a word, you and your best friend got up from your seats, and followed the trainer through the arena.

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 12 - DET

One day my children will ask me what it was like to watch Jake McCabe in his prime. They’ll ask me: Daddy, how did our hero block shots so much and still have the strength to score goals and wreck fools? I’ll tell them it was the enduring power of the crossed swords crest and they’ll be Sabres fans forever. I’ll also tell them the Buffalo Sabres really turned the page from the dark days when they started responding. Responding to what, daddy? Losses, child: when they decided to start following losses, ugly losses, with shutout wins every single time, that was when they really turned the page. Speaking of the pages of history: I’ve been diving into the Buffalo Sabres 50Years Special Section of the Buffalo News for a couple weeks looking at their most historic games. I was prepared to default to that list for my reoccurring segment “Greatest Game Against” after each divisional matchup. When I put it out on twitter however I got some real beauties including a submission from @RegalMoustachio (Dan Ball) that is… for lack of better phrasing: Very 1980s. Allow me to paint you a picture: it’s December 23rd, 1987. Christmas is only a couple days away. Ted Sator is Head Coach and Phil Housley is the top defenseman (mind you Lindy Ruff is the Captain of this team) for a Sabres club mired in mediocrity for closing in on a decade. Sabre Kevin Maguire takes a run at Red Wings goalie Zach Stefan after Sabres goalie Tom Barrasso had apparently taken a fist in the shnoz earlier in the game. Here’s the link () go watch it, I can’t do it justice. For the next five minutes after the hit on Stefan it just escalates and escalates. Eventually Bob Probert fights Maguire and it got ugly. I don’t mean to glorify fighting but dear lord, watch that highlight and tell me that doesn’t color the history between these two teams. Last night’s game was Jake McCabe’s revenge game. He was taking revenge on all us nerds who said he’s not an absolute G. Sure he’s no Rasmus Dahlin, but he puts the Buff in Buffalo Sabres. And he did it in a game we really needed it. For the third time this season they responded to a loss with a win. For the second time this season they responded to a loss with a shutout win. For the first time this season my man Linus Ullmark has a shutout!

I was at Frightworld in Tonawanda for the entirety of this game, but the early returns clearly tended toward a snooze-fest. It appeared the Red Wings were dominating that telling statistical categories like 5 on 5 scoring chances and expected goals. They dominated the most basic statistic that is shots for the first period as they got doubled up 12-6. Luckily there were no goals against. You see a period like that and you kinda expect the worst. I went on record before this game and said if they don’t demolish the Red Wings then the first rant of the season from yours truly was coming. That rant was being prepared as I walked through the Storm Area 51 house fearing the Sabres would lose to two bad teams two nights in a row more than the face-panted acting students jumping out at me. Unfortunately we got another Rasmus Dahlin stinker this first period. I feel like I said everything I needed to say about Dahlin’s sketchy play lately after the Rangers game, but I didn’t say what I wanted to change other than don’t give over turnovers, bud. What I probably would’ve asked for occurred: Henri Jokiharju was moved up to Dahlin’s pairing and they had quite a bit more chemistry than Dahlin and Colin Miller had. In spite of that roster move, Dahlin was trying to move the puck out of the defensive zone and somehow yielded it right to Andreas Athanasiou. Athanasiou took a shot, got in back and passed it to another guy who almost out maneuvered a stick-less Ullmark. Luckily that was the worst it got in the first… well other than that Valtteri Filppula breakaway in the first five minutes… ugh, we were really lucky to survive that period scoreless weren’t we? Yikes.

The Red Wings are a team you’re not allowed to lose to. They’re like the Ottawa Senators, they’re biggest goal right now is to get a high-first round draft pick. They have real NHLers in the minors. Detroit has a team caught between then and now. You got the ghost of Niklas Kronwall on one line and USA Hockey Magazine poster boy Dylan Larkin on another. Evidently they’re taking one more dip in the tank in this year’s spicy good draft and so you have to beat them because frankly they want you to! Both the lines of REO Speedwagon and the Roaring Twenties had their chances through the first half of this game but how are you being out-chanced by the Red Wings! How? I very well could go on a rant but kinda like the night before I just have too many early good feels about this team right now to rant at em after a win. To their credit they actually got more shots and high-danger chances in the second period. All the while Jake McCabe is blocking shots like and absolute hero. And so it was his time to be the star before any of the big names that have found their way onto this club: Eichel gets knocked to the ice after laying a hit on Tyler Bertuzzi and Jake McCabe gets the puck near the Wings blueline and thinks for a moment. He decides to take the shot and it zings right past Jimmy Howard into the net for the first goal of the game. 1-0 Sabres with 8:20 left in the second. Buffalo finally had some good play for the remainder of the period including almost another goal from McCabe. Almost. Either way Jake McCabe became my Hard-Working again this game. He’s one of those phenomenons in cities like Buffalo where the populace just canonizes players they deem tough and diligent. I understand he’s not actually that good as anything more than a role player. That’s fine. Let’s celebrate the role players too because we’re winning games we don’t look so hot in because of them right now.

The third period was rowdy. So we’ve established Dylan Larkin is hot stuff. Evidently on a tanking team he takes on the role of penalty drawer. He gets Kyle Okposo for interference; he gets Colin Miller for tripping; watch the replays that data wasn’t all that convincing to me. No amount of powerplay time could save his team now though. The Sabres got a powerplay after Trevor Daley high-sticked Kyle Okposo and the mercenary unit that is this team’s powerplay that we fell in love with in the first six games came back with a vengeance. With all the video replay powers of modern technology I still don’t think I have enough angles on the absolute gem of a goal Sam Reinhart tapped in. It went from Jeff Skinner to Jack Eichel to Victor Olofsson to Sam Reinhart parked in front of the net and in. It was a thing of splendor and maybe one of those goals we look back on months from now. I mean… Jimmy Howard definitely botched that one hard but nonetheless the 2-0 goal here for the Sabres was just beyond magnificent. Unfortunately that goal deserved better than this game. For the remaining 18+ minutes Larkin went on drawing penalties, getting shots and Detroit never looked out of it. You look at 2-0 box score and think that may have not required a herculean effort from a goalie, this one did. Linus got his pad or a stick or a blocker on so many shots this game. He earned his first shutout of the season blocking 41 shots! That’s only 6 shy of the shots blocked Hutton got in his shutout Tuesday that earned him an NHL star of the week honor. I love Ullmark but he shouldn’t have had to do that much work against Detroit. This is a game the Sabres should have dominated a bit more than they did. They could not manage the clean zone exits and entries they did in the very early going of this season and had Detroit not skated around wasting minutes on end on offense then this game could’ve turned out differently. Nonetheless this one ended 2-0 Sabres and our squad improved to 9-2-1 leaving only one game left in October against a very hot Coyotes squad. Isn’t it nice to think at the absolute worst they’ll end this month 9-3-1? Crazy times we live in, eh?

A couple notes before we turn wholeheartedly into Buffalo Bills mode tomorrow: Sabres Stats tweeted in his 164 games as Sabres coach Phil Housley got them 5 shutouts while in 12 games as Head Coach Ralph Krueger has already gotten them 3. That’s a stat that one might call almost worthless, the Robin Lehner years were fraught but there is a grain of something telling in there. I also share the sentiment of many Sabres fans that a Skinner-Eichel reunion feels necessary at this point. “Skinhel” as I’ll call that combo because I’m feeling spooky, is something that can be unleashed like the blue shell powerup in Mario Cart. You use it when you really need to save your ass. We’re not to that point yet but I too feel that temptation. Before we warp this up your reply guy tweet of the game goes to none other than NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman who when asked about the efficacy of the current playoff format responded: “We think the format works well… unless you’re a Leafs fan.” BURN! That burn was so hot it just ensured it’s going to be a mild winter in southern Ontario! I can say for myself that such a comment is immediately my favorite Gary Bettman quote of all-time. There’s no beating that. Like, share and comment this blog as you go about your Saturday fun. I have nothing to say about the Coyotes Monday night other than maybe don’t let em get every shot they want like Detroit did last night. They will probably make you pay more often than not. Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for Reading.

P.S. What are you looking to about the trip to Sweden for the Global Series? I am so not used to my sports teams getting fun opportunities like that. I don’t know how to get pumped for it.

[thenixkat]

Animorphs notes 3

Book 3

Narrated by Tobias. Getting all of the white kids out of the first I guess

Tobias forgets the color of his eyes after a few weeks as a bird. But he remembers that he had blond hair and was kinda big.

Tobi has also oly been looking at his bird face head on cause otherwise he’d notice how doofy his face looks

Dan’s not holding that hawk prisoner he’s just got shitty animal husbandry. If that 3 ft by 3 ft cage is the only cage he keeps her in. That could just be a travel cage dude uses for the filming for all the info I have and Tobi has already demonstrated that he over anthropomorphises animals

Also Tobi is gonna get that captive bird fucking killed with this Peta shit.

And he does something very unbirdlike infront of multiple people any of whom could be a controller.

And he nearly gets killed doing this.

Tobias is a dumbass that doesnt consider the consequences of shit.

Tobi she’s a fucking bird and there’s a fucking elephant destroying shit and humans causing a ruckus. She’s startled and startled birds fucking fly u numpty!

Rachel chews Tobias out for being a complete idiot and starting that stunt while on fucking air

Ya know what, Tobi’s descriptions of Rachel are starting to make me uncomfortable. And that plus his insistence of talking to Rachel on her solo mission every 5 secs probably means he has some creepy crush on her

Tobi don’t start on that shit you chose to be in morph far more than was safe, was warned multiple times of the time limit and got yerself stuck. Its not a curse if yer fucking responsible.

Applegate skips on the whole redtails also hunt smaller birds and that’s… weird

Tobi assumes that a human smiling when they see a bird means their jealous. Not that like, the person just fucking likes birds and nature and shit and is either going to or going home from a job where they spent hours in a bland cubicle looking at just a computer so hey a cool bird, they must be jelly that they cant fly.

I don’t like Tobias.

Why do the yeerk ships have clocking that hides them in ultraviolet as well when humans can’t see into that range? Wouldn’t it make sense just to cloak along the visible spectrum and save power and also cleaning bills from hitting so many birds and bugs?

Marco is valid.

Also betting that that released hawk is gonna be ded in the next few days.

Also why did Jake not get any info from Cassie on potentially what to feed Tobias? Why isn’t Tobias just fucking living at Cassie’s barn? She could claim that he’s some tame hawk that someone gave to her b/c they couldn’t afford to take care of him any more

Tobias why didn’t you bring up the thing in the sky to the whole group?

Is this brooding angst?

Also if Tobias has been eating random leftovers from Jake for weeks he should be sick as fuck.

Why didn’t anyone call Child Protective Services for Tobias’ case too?

Dead geese

Wolves were recently released in the nearby national parkl/woods

There are mountains nearby, and a coast near by, an abandoned church, a mall next to a construction site

Has Marco been in the mountains before?

Marco, yall only tried to rescue Tom once. That’s not everything you could do. Yall could just fucking kidnap him and fake his death and also tell Jake’s parents so they don’t do anything… rash

Tobias is kinda taking charge of this mission

Tobias doesnt like Marco

Its 20 miles from Cassie’s barn to the mountains

Cassie apparently dosent consider that female wolves might also fight for dominance

None of these kids practiced this morph beforehand even tho they know morphing something for the first time usually leads to some loss of control

Cassie can morph horse. There’s horses plural at her barn. They could have all become horses in the woods to travel the 20 miles then turned into more normal forest animals to blend in once they got there.

Every Time they morph my comparative anatomy classes start fucking screaming in anguish. The knees reversing is not nearly as bad as fingers shriveling and disappearing b/c somebody doesnt know fucking digitigrade limb anatomy

Morphing took Cassie 2 mins

Tobais is a hawkaboo

Alpha. Ick

Jake can’t control his morph and is triggering wolf shit in the others

They really should just fucking demorph and remorph.

Tobias gets frustrated and flies off to clear his head

Too fucking bad we dont get a first person view of turning into a wolf b/c Tobias got himself stuck as his fursona and had to narrate this book

Fake park rangers

No, I’m not going to believe that hork-bajir have T. rex feet b/c these kids know jack and shit about every kinda animal. Also zygodactyl feet make more sense for a tree climber, and would look lovely while kangaroo hopping

Tobias only notes blades on their heads, wrists, elbows and knees.

Tobi mistakes a random group of 5 wolves for his friends

These dumbasses dont demorph and remorph b/c they want to be wolves for the rest of their life

Taxxons are consistently described as fat centipedes

Tobias finds out his hawk body is horny for a lady bird

More misinformation on how wolf packs work

Idiots don’t display submissive behavior and back away to avoid a conflict. Or just flat out fucking run away.

SO the gang are able to demorph at least 7 mins past the two hours time limit. Cassie was in morph the longest yet is the first to finish and then helps the other morph with her coaching skills. Interesting.

SO how long can they really stay in morph? It takes Cassie 2mins to morph, they were at least 7 mins past the window. Cassie spent 69 mins in morph more or less, could she go longer?

Did lying to them about how much time they had left help? How much of morphing is psychological?

Owls can and would eat hawks. Tobias should be concerned about that.

Marco comes up with the idea to drive the alien tanker uncloaked over the city to alert the citizens

Jakes plan is to enter the ship through the pipes as fish. Why would there be a way to get into the rest of the ship from the water tank?

Rachel’s gymnastics group is doing a show in the mall

It bothers me that the kids and books don’t call Iness 226 by their name. B/c conflating the yeerk with their host is… not a good mentality to have

...birds can walk. Does Tobias think the only way birds can move is by flying? He can fucking run, it’d be a cute little flapping waddle but he can fucking run

Tobias loses control kills a rat, has a freak out and tries to commit suicide in front of Rachel. Is thwarted by Marco

Tobias goes feral to avoid his emotions

Tobias goes to see if the female hawk is still alive/maybe a booty call

Ya know I wanna know whats going on with the other animorphs while Tobias is having this crisis

It took Tobias a surprisingly long time to get past his shit and give a damn that a person was about to be brutally murdered in front of him

… how does Tobi’s eye attack work on the hork-controllers? AT what angle is he going to avoid the foot long horns and still hit the eyes?

You can totally hug a damn bird Applegate. People hug birds all the damn time.

Why don’t the two people with osprey morphs? Catch fish? Hell they could work together driving the fish into a net if they’d thought to bring a net.

These kids are so dumb. Marco? Cassie? Morph fucking ospery and see where the fish are!

Toboas gets distracted by the sexy lady hawk durring an important part of the mission

Andalite description: eyes on antler-like stalks, large main eyes, dainty hooves

Why is Visser 3 here now?

Plan gets 500% more dangerous and Jake and Rachel still push for it

Cassie sides with doing the plan over fucking waiting till security cools off and trying again when there’s less chance of death

The hork-controllers shoot a deer but not a bird going out over the lake multiple times

Hork-controller talking shit to a human-controller

Why is there a grate at the top of the water tank that leads in to the rest of the ship?

Tobias genuinely seems to think that there are voluntary hork-controllers given this and his comment in the first book’

Also I don’t like how Tobi keeps refering to non-human people as creatures. This shit probably happened in the other books but fuck it I’m noting it now

Heh. The kids can’t open the grate to escape and are plotting group suicide to avoid capture and infestation.

Its almost like trying to infiltrate a spaceship/tanker through the water take was a very very bad idea.

Tho is they had like mosquito morphs it might have worked

Taxxons can apparently climb like small bugs do.

Tobi steals a gun to kill the ship with

Tobi kills a ship with a gun

Random chance saves the animorphs again and Tobi is the only one to notice the humans falling out of the ship

…. Marco has an osprey morph not bald eagle.

Also! Bald eagles are fish eaters! Why didn’t Rachel morph to make fishing a little easier

Tobi sees the sexy lady hawk die

[mechagalaxy]

Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184: War of `67. Second day, initial moves.

(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184) War of `67. Second day, initial moves. As in most wars, the specialists have a crucial role to play. While the strenght of the main formation is undisputed on the open battlefields, in more restricted terrain the lesser Mechs tend to dominate. This time each clan was allowed to bring up to four specialists, for a total of 240, but only 172 was fielded. In addition to the 60 mandatory Ice specialists, the chosen formations were: Ice: 3 (yes, there were 3 additional Ice specialists) Projectile: 3 Single Rainbow: 8 Double Rainbow: 11 Triple Rainbow: 2 Max 10 ton: 12 Max 20 ton: 10 Max 25 ton: 4 Max 30 ton: 7 Max 40 ton: 10 Max 55 ton: 5 Max 65 ton: 2 Max 70 ton: 6 Max 80 ton: 3 Max 90 ton: 2 420 total: 4 630 total: 1 950 total: 1   1200 total: 16 2600: total: 2 None choose the 150 or 230 ton total formations, neither did we see any Laser, Fire or Missile specialists. After eight hours of  fighting, the scores stood: Div 1 Odin`s secret chambers 81 - 12 Brotherhood of Arcane Dragons The Dragons have claimed a dozen objectives, but O.s.c. have claimed nearly seven times as many. Winters Coming 20 - 85 Spirit of Bunny The Bunnies have managed to claim an even score of wins, nearly a quarter of what W.C. have secured. Div 2 Northwind Dragons 44 - 1 Slaughter House 5 The Dragons have overun the Slaughterers foreward positions, and taken neglible losses in the process. M&L Team Banzai 15 - 24 Death Dealers The Dealers hold the upper hand, but the Banzai`ers are not that far behind. Div 3 Death`s Collectors 21 - 4 Star League The Collectors have claimed more than five times as many objectives as the Leaguers. T.B. BlackWatch 9 - 0 Avengers of Bunny BlackWatch have managed to secure a couple handfulls of objectives while the Bunnies are still in wait-and-see mode. Div 4 Black Star Lycan Rangers 56 - 6 Omegas The Omegas have managed to claim some wins, but the Rangers hold better than 90% of all objectives claimed so far. "Raging Vengeance" 54 - 29 M&L Black Cats 13th A.D. R.V. have outscored the Cats nearly 2-1 at this time. Div 5 Heroes 4 - 26 Ronins The Ronin offensive have placed them firmly in front of the Heroes. Death`s Disturbed Asylum 0 - 20 Black Star Renegades The Asylants have failed to claim even a single objective, while the Renegades have a score already. Mad Scientist.7 2 - 32 Death`s Revenge The Scientists have only claimed a couple wins, -less than 6% of the total. Alpha Legion 0 - 28 Diamond Dragons The Legion are still trying to rebuild from the last round, but the Dragons seem to blow up their formations faster than they can be fixed. Div 6 ***Raging Vengeance*** 5 - 27 Smurf Platoon R.V. have only managed to claim a handfull objectives so far, less than a fifth of the Smurfs holdings. ARMORED CORE 0 - 13 Chess Dragons A.C. have not managed to claim even a single win, while the Dragons have a bakers dozen. Defenders of Bunny 127 - 1 Today and Tomorrow The Bunnies seem unstoppable. T&T have only managed to claim one single win while the Bunnies score are in the three-digit range already. MurderBots 28 - 8 M&L NecroMantics Murderbots have had the strongest opening and hold a score more objectives than the Necromancers. Div 7 M&L B.o.P.S. 1 - 17 Black Star Bandits The Bandits are busy hitting the Smurfs, whose hide-and-strike tactics seem much less effective than usual. T.B. 1st K.H. 17 - 27 T.I.o.M.T. The Toys have gained the upper hand here, but the Highlanders are less than a dozen wins behind so it is not over yet. Behemoth 3 - 4 **R.V.** The fighting have not been properly joined yet. So far R.V. have a slight advantage over the Behemoths. Murdermechs 10 - 7 M&L A.R.S.E. Less than a score clashes have been recorded here. Murdermechs are a few points in front, but that should not be an insormountable hurdle for the Smurfs. Div 8 JC`s Rowdy Bunch 24 - 0 Major Steel The Steelers frontlines have been overun, and the Bunch have two dozen unopposed wins. Deaths Hecklers 14 - 0 Karma II Karma have not stirred yet, while the Hecklers have secured more than a dozen objectives. Murdermech mini 6 - 12 Active Sleepers Less than a score skirmishes have been fought here. The Sleepers have however managed to outscore Murdermechs 2-1 in the opening. Ronins 2 16 - 1 *Raging Vengeance* R.V. have only a single win to their name, while the Ronins have nearly a score. Div 9 I.N.A. 2 - 0 Karma The Alliance have claimed a couple wins, while Karma have none so far. Jagdstaffel 2 0 - 0 Dawn Patrol No action whatsoever have been noticed. Mad Scientist 1 9 - 18 U.G.F. The Federation offensive have netted them twice as many wins as the Scientists managed to claim. Murderech Micro 23 - 1 C.D.H. After fighting two dozen clashes, C.D.H. have only won one time, the Murdermechs have won the rest. Div 10 Borg Collective 0 - 0 House of Gowron Neither side have stirred yet. RED AXE 3 - 0 Banditos The Axemen have claimed a few wins, while the Bandits have failed to claim any.

[thisdaynews]

Scottish Cup: Clyde 0-0 Celtic - League One side look to spring shock

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/scottish-cup-clyde-0-0-celtic-league-one-side-look-to-spring-shock/

Scottish Cup: Clyde 0-0 Celtic - League One side look to spring shock

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Live Reporting

By Thomas Duncan

All times stated are UK

Posted at 16:0616:06

Post update

SNSCopyright: SNS

Posted at 16:0016:00

Celtic good value for their win

FT: Clyde 0-3 Celtic

Jim Duffy

BBC Sportsound summariser

Quote Message: Celtic went about their business very professionally – I thought their attitude was terrific, none more so than captain Scott Brown, and they ultimately deserved to go through comfortably

Celtic went about their business very professionally – I thought their attitude was terrific, none more so than captain Scott Brown, and they ultimately deserved to go through comfortably

Posted at 15:5615:56

Quarter-final draw coming up

You can watch the draw for the last eight live at the top of this page in around 20 minutes’ time.

Here are the teams and the numbers:

Aberdeen or Kilmarnock

Celtic

Hearts

Hibernian

Inverness CT

Rangers

St Johnstone

St Mirren or Motherwell

Posted at 15:5515:55

‘Bayo sends message to Lennon with goal’

FT: Clyde 0-3 Celtic

Jim Duffy

BBC Sportsound summariser

Quote Message: Bayo had a couple of chances to score – his movement was terrific, it looks simple, but he gets to the byline, checks him, and gets his technique right. He’ll be delighted and is sending a message out to Neil Lennon that ‘you may have signed a £3m striker in Patryk Klimala but I’m still here’

Bayo had a couple of chances to score – his movement was terrific, it looks simple, but he gets to the byline, checks him, and gets his technique right. He’ll be delighted and is sending a message out to Neil Lennon that ‘you may have signed a £3m striker in Patryk Klimala but I’m still here’

Posted at 15:5015:50

FULL-TIME- Clyde 0-3 Celtic

A straightforward win for Celtic who progress to the quarter-finals. That’s 12 away wins in a row domestically.

Olivier Ntcham cracked in the opener with Scott Brown squeezing in the second from a yard out. The second half wasn’t a great spectacle, but substitute striker Vakoun Bayo capped things off in the final minute.

Clyde were spirited, but ultimately never really threatened.

89 mins

goal

GOAL- Clyde 0-3 Celtic

Vakoun Bayo

And the Ivorian gets his goal!

He finishes well inside the post from close range after good work from Moritz Bauer, who set him up.

BBCCopyright: BBC

87 mins

GREAT SAVE!

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Superb goalkeeping by Clyde’s David Mitchell as he claws away Boli Bolingoli’s cross. Vakoun Bayo had a tap in there if he didn’t get there.

Shortly after, Ryan Christie’s effort cracks the top of the bar!

84 mins

Post update

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Vakoun Bayo puts an even better chance into the side-netting.

If he and Patryk Klimala are going to get anywhere near playing they need to be burying the kind of chances they’ve both missed today.

82 mins

Post update

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Vakoun Bayo has acres of space on the left-hand side and he drives into the box, but instead of whipping a shot towards the far corner he hesitates, cuts back inside to where the Clyde defenders are and they block his eventual effort.

Posted at 15:4015:40

‘Last chance for Clyde’

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Pat Bonner

Former Celtic goalkeeper on BBC Sportsound

Quote Message: Clyde have almost gone with three up front now, searching for that chance in the last 10 minutes. It does open up that midfield a bit, but they’ll be desperate to try and get a goal against this Celtic team

Clyde have almost gone with three up front now, searching for that chance in the last 10 minutes. It does open up that midfield a bit, but they’ll be desperate to try and get a goal against this Celtic team

80 mins

Lennon to bring Lennon on against Lennon’s team?

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Let me remind you that Clyde manager Danny Lennon, aged 50, subbed himself on against Celtic Colts in the Challenge Cup earlier this season.

Who’d like to see him make an appearance now to liven things up?

78 mins

YELLOW CARD – Craig Howie (Clyde)

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

That’s a really heavy challenge by Craig Howie on Boli Bolingoli. He gets his name taken for it by the referee.

This game’s been very tame since the break!

Posted at 15:3515:35

‘Not many chances for Klimala to impress’

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Pat Bonner

Former Celtic goalkeeper on BBC Sportsound

Quote Message: It is a frustrating position for Klimala to make his start today, with the conditions. You would have expected him to get more chances to open his account – he had that big chance which he maybe should have done better with in the first-half

It is a frustrating position for Klimala to make his start today, with the conditions. You would have expected him to get more chances to open his account – he had that big chance which he maybe should have done better with in the first-half

75 mins

Bayo on for Klimala

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Vakoun Bayo replaces Patryk Klimala up front for Celtic, who has been decent enough but missed his one big chance to score.

FYI, he changed his shirt at half-time. The name on the back was spelled ‘Kilmala’ at the start. Someone might be getting a slap on the wrist…

SNSCopyright: SNS

73 mins

Post update

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Boli Bolingoli is in a bit of pain after a collision with Craig Howie, but he’s running it off.

Meanwhile Celtic are preparing to bring on Vakoun Bayo…

70 mins

Hayes on for Forrest

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Ryan Christie gets a free-kick over the wall this time, but it’s gone well over the bar. James Forrest is replaced by Jonny Hayes.

68 mins

Post update

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Mohamed Elyounoussi slides in Boli Bolingoli who was on his bike from left-back. He takes a shot from inside the area which is well blocked.

Posted at 15:2615:26

‘Clyde hanging in’

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Pat Bonner

Former Celtic goalkeeper on BBC Sportsound

Quote Message: Celtic need to keep the tempo up and not get complacent. Clyde are hanging in, defending well as a unit, although I can’t see them getting a goal unless they get more players up the pitch to support David Goodwillie.

Celtic need to keep the tempo up and not get complacent. Clyde are hanging in, defending well as a unit, although I can’t see them getting a goal unless they get more players up the pitch to support David Goodwillie.

65 mins

Post update

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

A rare foray up the pitch for Clyde comes to an end as David Goodwillie can’t get on the end of Ray Grant’s pass. They’re hanging in there at the moment!

Posted at 15:2315:23

‘Get out, stand up..’

Clyde 0-2 Celtic

Scottish hammer thrower and Celtic fan…

Read More

[mitchbeck]

CANTLON: WOLF PACK CAN WIN TITLE THURSDAY

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The Hartford Wolf Pack scored two goals in the third period, then held off a late rally by the Sound Tigers to win their home finale in this shortened season 4-3 Tuesday afternoon. The win sets up a winner take all meeting for the Atlantic Division title with Providence Thursday in Marlborough, MA, in the regular season finale against Providence. A regulation win will give the Wolf Pack the division title outright. While three points currently separate, the two teams of those three points were against the Utica Comets- the only non-conference game the Bruins played all season. “We’ve gone 9-2, and I think since we had our big meeting in March, guys committed to learning our systems. We slowed things down a bit, and the biggest change was the growth of our younger players, and it's nice to see the guys on the bench so pumped, and it's gonna be play one more big game on Thursday,” remarked head coach Kris Knoblauch. The Wolf Pack ended their brief home schedule fans with a home mark at .500 of 6-6-0-0 sans fans, and their overall record is 14-8-1-0 for 29 points heading into their season finale in Marlborough, MA on Thursday. Bridgeport concludes their season in third place in the Atlantic Division 7-14-2-0 for 16 points. What turned out to be the game-winning goal came from a simple pass play, and Tim Gettinger did the rest. Jonny Brodzinski, just inside the Wolf Pack blue line, sent a short pass to Gettinger, who saw he had daylight to go past Sound Tigers defenseman Carter Hutton and Mitch Vande Sompel. He sped by Hutton like a locomotive and flipped a dandy backhander over Ken Appleby for what seemed to be a safe two-goal cushion. “We had talked between the first and second period about using our speed, challenge their D, and going wide. When we utilize our speed, we're most effective. He has been one of our most reliable top three or four forwards on a nightly basis. Whether it’s five-on-five, powerplay or shorthanded,” said Knoblauch. Gettinger was all smiles after the game. “Jonny made a great play to me. I looked up and saw I had some space; I used my speed was able to get across and score.” Were you thinking backhander the whole time? “I had the angle and saw I could cut across the net on the D and the goalie and was able to go backhand.” The Wolf Pack had gained the lead first at 3-2 because of some simple but effective forechecking first; Ty Ronning on the right-wing boards lost the puck to the Sound Tigers. Parker Wotherspoon was forced back by Austin Rueschoff. Then behind the net, the Sound Tigers Carter Hutton thought he had an out up the right-wing, but Patrick Khordorenko was there to block that escape hatch, and Rueschhoff was bearing down on him from behind. Hutton lost control of the puck, and it went off the side of the net, skittered in front, and veteran Paul Thompson right there had an easy tap in and jammed home his fifth goal to make it 3-2 at 4:52 for the AHL’s most lethal powerplay scored with three seconds left in the advantage. It wasn’t a highlight tally, but very effective. “Everybody loves to see goals scored, and sometimes it's baffling players see their teammates scoring around the net and sometimes there reluctant around the net. Unless you have a shot like Ovechkin (not many do), you're not going to score many goals from the perimeter! Paul knows that, and you look at his stats. That’s where his goals have been,” remarked Knoblauch. The Sound Tigers didn’t roll over, pulling their goalie with over three minutes to play, scoring for the second time on the afternoon with two minutes left in the period. Once again, Bode Wild’s left point blast was stopped by Adam Huska despite a Tanner Fritz screen, but the loose puck was in front as Arnaud Durandeau pounced on it and ripped his fourth goal over the fallen Huska and Sound Tigers inched closer to the Wolf Pack, but that would be as far as they could get at 4-3. The best Wolf Pack chance of the second period came with just three seconds to go as after Huska made a glove save on a Mitch Vande Sompel shot. Huska dropped the puck to Vincent LoVerde and pointed to center ice. Coming out of the penalty box was defenseman Patrick Sieloff was at the Sound Tigers blue line. LoVerde caught him perfectly in the direction by Huska, but Sieloff’s backhand shot on a clean breakaway was stopped by the Sound Tigers Ken Appleby’s glove hand. The second period was a perfect road game for the Sound Tigers; combined with a myriad of whistles, offsides, and a lot of board play, there were few clear chances for the Wolf Pack. In the first period, the AHL’s best powerplay help the Wolf Pack take the first lead of the game. Anthony Greco, one hand swipe, kept the puck in the zone to Zach Giuttari, and then he passed it to Jonny Brodzinski, who got his shot on net and was stopped and then a tight in front a bang-bang play Sound Tigers goalie Ken Appleby stoned Patrick Newell on the doorstep. The rebound came back into the high slot Brodzinski corralled the puck and then went onto the left-wing circle dished it back to Greco (team-high six shots), who launched a hard wrister 30 feet out that beat Ken Appleby high stick side at 3:46 for just his third goal of the season. The Sound Tigers were able to get some puck luck as the left point shot by Samuel Bolduc missed the net short side but caromed right off the backboards to Simon Holmstrom, who put in his fifth of the season at 7:38 on the backhand. The Wolf Pack regained the lead as a strong forechecking sequence led to their second goal. Michael O’Leary physical play forced a turnover by Erik Brown, and Austin Rueschhoff, who powered through a hit by Mitch Vande Sompel on his right-wing entry, snagged the loose biscuit. He then circled behind the net and sent a pass back to Mason Geersten, who split the D in two and jammed home his third of the year right at the goalmouth at 14:38. Geersten now has a two-game goal-scoring streak. The pesky Sound Tigers tied the game at two on a powerplay of their own. Cole Coskey deep right got the puck back to Otto Koivula at the right point, and he sent a pass off to Bode Wilf on his offside. The shot from 50 feet out had a perfect screen by Erik Brown in front eluded Adam Huska. It was the second of the season for Wild at 18:00 and knotted the game at two. LINES: Richards-Gettinger-Ronning Newell-Brodzinski-Greco Thompson-Khordorenko-Cullye Rueschhoff-O’ Leary-Geersten Raddysh-Taylor LoVerde-Skinner Giutarri-Sieloff Huska Wall THREE STARS: - Jonny Brodzinski Hartford - Austin Ruesschoff Hartford - Mason Geersten Hartford HONORABLE MENTIONS: - Tim Gettinger Hartford - Adam Huska Hartford - Bode Wild Bridgeport SCRATCHES: -Alex Whalen, James Sanchez, Ryan Dmowski, and Francois Brassard. Gabriel Fontaine (upper-body injury done for the season). -Defenseman Zach Berzolla Colorado College (NCHC) was released from his PTO contract without playing a game for the Wolf Pack. -Bridgeport scratched its team, Seth Helgeson, with six other players. -The Wolf Pack regular season record against Bridgeport finishes up at 8-3-1. Hartford is on a three-game winning streak and are 9-2-0 over their last 11 games. Our mythical seven playoff series using these last seven games as our guide, the Wolf Pack won the series four games to two. -The only other AHL game Tuesday, Laval lost 4-3 in overtime to Toronto at the Bell Centre, and the Marlies goalie Joseph Woll put on a goalie clinic with 57 saves on 60 shots. -A tentative opening date for the 2021-22 AHL season is October 15th. -The AHL will have a Zoom league BOG meeting on Thursday to formally approve the most open secret in hockey the relocation of Vancouver’s AHL team to Abbotsford, BC, who were in the league from 2009-2014 and play at the Abbotsford Civic Centre. We had learned the building had installed NHL style boards and plexiglass ostensibly to host an NHL exhibition game this fall, making the building AHL compliant per non-COVID safety protocols. The other issue is New Jersey’s expected relocation of their Binghamton franchise to Utica and sees the revival of the Utica Devils name for the franchise. -Goalie Trevin Kozlowski, who played at Gunnery Prep (Washington, CT), finishes with Army (AHA) and signs with Iowa (AHL). That makes 68 Division I collegians to sign with a North American with pro teams and 73 total signees. Stanislav Demin became the 55th school transfer from the University of Denver (NCHC) to defending national champion UMASS Minutemen (HE). There have been 44 college grad transfers. -Rangers draft pick (3rd round 92nd overall in October) Oliver Tarnstrom, son of ex-Sound Tiger Dick Tarnstrom, has signed a deal with Rogle BK (Sweden-SHL) for next season and is WJC eligible. This season he played AIK J-20 (Sweden) before the league was shut down because of COVID, skated a few games with AIK (Sweden-Allsvenskan), and has been on loan to Tyresö/Hanviken  (Sweden HockeyEttan Division-1). He is also eligible to skate for the AIK J-20 team next season. -Rogle BK is playing the Vaxjo Lakers for the LeMat Swedish Hockey League championship. Vaxjo is up to two games to none. Jack Drury, son of ex-Whaler Ted Drury and nephew of Hartford GM Chris, plays on the first line. In Game 1, he had a goal and assist and won 80% of his faceoffs. In Game 2, he had the primary assist on the game’s first goal. Among his teammate is ex-CT Whale and Ranger rearguard Tim Erixon. -Ex-Pack and Sound Tiger Chris Bourque is supposed to negotiating with ERC Ingolstadt (Germany-DEL) for next season. -Justin Danforth (Sacred Heart University/Sound Tigers) is coming off a third straight solid season in Europe. He finished sixth in overall KHL, scoring with Vityaz Podolsk with 22 goals and 57 points. He spent his first two years in Finland with Lukko Rauma. He signed a one-year one-way deal at $750K deal with Columbus for 2021-22. -Former Quinnipiac University goalie Michael Garteig has left ERC Ingolstadt to play in Finland next year. Goalie Nick Malik, son of former Whalers, Rangers, and Beast of New Haven defenseman Marek Malik, leaves HC Frydek-Mistek (Czech Republic Division-2), where his father is the assistant coach and has signed with KooKoo (Finland-FEL). -Ex-Pack and Ranger, Jan Hlavac 44, will be playing yet another year going from BK Nova Paka to HC Letnany (Czech Republic Division-3). -Fabian-Dahlstrom Zuccarello (CT Oilers-EHL), the younger brother of former CT Whale and Rangers, Mats Zuccarello, now with Minnesota, is going down several levels from Lorenskog (Norway-NEL) to Hasle/Loren (Norway Division-2). HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOME Read the full article

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 57 - NYR - Burn the Tape

We came into this seven-game homestand with some needs: capitalize on your home-ice advantage and get into this playoff race in a more consistent manor. That mission didn’t start well for sure but whether it felt like it or not the Sabres win percentage went up. It was the ugly win-loss pattern that is torture to endure during a playoff race this tight but it was better than the losing stretches that prevailed before the bye-week. As this homestand went on it became clearer some switch had been flipped even if not always to successful ends. From the end of the Carolina game onward, maybe even the end of the Minnesota game in places, the Sabres defense has stepped up and fought tough matchups. If the Sabres were going to end this homestand on a high note it would take all cylinders firing properly. That Winnipeg game was closer than that final score would indicate and one bounce different against the Hurricanes and the standings look quite a bit different right now. The past is the past though and so is the Rangers Cup window. Yes, let’s do some Playoff Trash talk: Rangers, during your supposed Cup window you never looked close. In fact, having watched most of those years during the Sabres tank years I could see the truly dominant performances were rare. That’s how the Rangers win in the playoffs: barely. This season its very unlikely you make it and a matchup like this seems to take on a different flavor when its locked in together for 4-7 games. Sabres in 5. So, remember those positive things I said about Buffalo before the trash talk? The Sabres did not do those things. This was probably the most disheartening loss of the season, if not its damn close to the Home Opener shutout. This game made me not want to do these for the rest of the season. Nonetheless, I am your Sabre Soldier and won’t ever give up. This mess ended 6-2 Rangers. You know how we all thought the Rangers would be the easier New York team to beat? Yeah, fuck us, right?

This game was so bad its in a category of games that don’t even earn a full goal-by-goal recap. Spoiler Alert: Jeff Skinner scored all the Sabres goals this game. To be specific, he scored two goals. That was all we got this game. Yes, there were other opportunities. Jack Eichel rang one off the bar. Sam Reinhart was stopped by this young Bulgarian sensation in Rangers goaltender Alexsandar Georgiev. Tage Thompson missed two wide open nets right in front when the score was 3-2. Apart from a section of the second period and the last ten or so minutes of the third period this game looked like no one knew how to play hockey. Everyone was watching the puck, everyone seemed to bump into each other like they were all playing their own game. The Sabres had opportunities on a night New York was not playing a sound defensive game. Remember how we’ve been talking about the Sabres cleaning up play in their own zone the past three or four games? They took that and threw it out the window. I feel so bad for Linus Ullmark who you kind of feel was in the wrong place at the wrong time starting in this game. What goals are we blaming on him? Right, I said I wasn’t doing a goal-by-goal recap. Well fuck it with this game. For Ullmark’s sake let’s dissect this train crash.

4:09 into the first a grown man named Boo Nieves scored the first goal. This was a scrambled play no matter which way you cut it and Ullmark was screened maybe two different ways. The second goal came about ten minutes later when Vlad Namestnikov launched a shot from the blue line that got redirected in front of Ullmark by Jesper Fast. Ignoring the fact that he was screened the Sabres were playing basketball-style zone defense this period and it was not working. The Linus Ullmark fault counter is still at 0 now as the Sabres find themselves down 2-0 going into the second period. The Rangers are getting penalized frequently now, once for putting the puck over the glass in a delay of game. This Rangers team is bad. THEY’RE BAD! Luckily in the middle period the Sabres did respond a little. Jeff Skinner got the puck out alone in front and put it far side around Georgiev. The visitors responded because good things can never last with this Sabres team and Jimmy Vesey of all the hated little Eminem-looking motherfuckers tucks one in like a blot of lightning on a blown coverage. Ullmark had locked down the post. I am not blaming this one on him. Jeff Skinner got another goal, this time on the powerplay later in the period. This got me feeling maybe the Sabres could salvage something from this horror show. I mean if they can score a powerplay goal then why not? Why not, because we must be tortured with no frigging back-to-back wins for eternity! The Sabres poured it on late in the third and could’ve tied it on several shots. None beat the Prince of New York and Buffalo blew a d-zone coverage in their own zone to allow Pavel Buchnevich to tap it in. That goal is the only one you can sort of blame on Ullmark. The air left the building and I turned the radio off full of disappointment and hopelessness. Okay, so the first of the two remaining goals could also be blamed on Ullmark if you feel the need. The net was wide open for Namestnikov, but the 6-2 goal is literally an empty net. 6-2 Sabres but 2-2 if we’re only counting the goals Ullmark gave up. That thing stung.

There was other stuff that happened in this game on top of defensive breakdown, horrible play in their own end and generally unacceptable performance. Uhh… Kyle Okposo fought. He probably shouldn’t be fighting, and it looks like he got hurt doing it. No updates on his condition as of the posting of this but a cursory look over his history tells you exactly why its so scary that this fight happened. You know what, there really isn’t anything redeemable about this game. Burn the tape! Burn the tape and well you’re at it Fire Housley. There is no way this team not being able to beat lesser opponents consistently, except for Detroit, is not a problem of coaching. Housley said they played soft after the game: You think, Phil? Something has got to change. I said I’m on this crazy rollercoaster until the end but boy did I want to get off after this game. After New Jersey tomorrow night, you have the Leafs, Caps, both Florida teams, and the Penguins in the following six games. There was no help on the out-of-town scoreboard last night and the Sabres now sit five points out of the last playoff spot and five points back of the first team out in Carolina. This was hot trash last night and I don’t know if I have any confidence this team won’t continue to be hot trash and fall out of the playoff race in the coming weeks. I guess we’ll have to find out! Like, share and comment: I feel bad asking after this mess. Enjoy your weekend maybe not thinking about the Sabres.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Imagine if Jeff Skinner isn’t on this team. Yeah, its like last season all over again.

[mechagalaxy]

Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184: War of `66. First day, opening clashes.

(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184) War of `66. First day, opening clashes. The call went out to all the clans to gather. Indacations showed that bad Santa was planning something extraordinary this year, -perhaps even teaming up with Xeon. And the clans responded. A total of 518 Commanders, spread out over fifty-six clans showed up to keep the hollidays safe. While this was two dozen fewer formations than we had in the last years Squad Wars, the number of fighting Commanders were increased by nearly threescore (58 to be exact). As usual, the clans were divided up for some tests of arms to gauge their strenghts before Santas hordes could arrive. This to ensure the strongest clans would be deployed against the most serious threaths when the time came. After the first five hours of fighting, the scores stood: Div 1 W&D HQ 59 - 6 B.o.A.D. The Warlocks have so far outscored the Arcanists nearly tenfold. Winters Coming 69 - 32 Spirit of Bunny The Bunnies are fighting the good fight, but their winterized counterparts have secured more than twice as many objectives already. Div 2 Northwind Dragons 45 - 17 M&L Team Banzai The Dragons are busy establishing dominence, while the Banzai`ers try to stay within shouting distance. T.B. BlackWatch 18 - 26 Winter`s Coming BlackWatch is hammering away, but their opponents seem to do better due to the winter equipment they are using. Div 3 Death`s Collectors 28 - 4 Star League The Collectors opening offensive have netted them seven times as many objectives as the Leaguers. Avengers of Bunny 17 - 2 SH5 While less than a score clashes have been reported, the Bunnies have beaten the Slaughterers in all but two of them. Div 4 B.S.L.R. 53 - 0 M&L B.C. 13th A.D. The Rangers are seemingly hitting the Cats at will without any reprisals. "R.V." 57 - 30 D.t.S.B. R.V. is in fine form, and have so far outscored the Brigade nearly two to one. Div 5 Heroes 19 - 11 Mad Scientist.7 The heroes have had the best opening, but the Scientists are still in the same ballpark. D.D.A. 32 - 1 Alpha Legion The asylants are running amock, and there seem to be precious little the Legion can do to slow them down. Ronins 32 - 4 Death`s Revenge The Ronins are spitting in Death`s face, and claiming objectives at a vastly superior rate. Renegades  38 - 12 Diamond Dragons The Dragons are being handled pretty roughly here. So far the Renegades have won better than 75% of all clashes. Div 6 Defenders of Bunny 58 - 10 MurderBots The Bunnies are on their worst behavior, and are cutting the MurderBots to ribbons. ARMORD CORE 29 - 6 t&t A.C. hardhitting opening have let them outscore t&t nearly fivefold. Smurf Platoon 52 - 7 ***R.V.*** The Smurfs are so far the best clan, after all they have outstripped R.V. better than sevenfold. Chess Dragons 14 - 0 M&L B.o.P.S. The Dragons have claimed more than a dozen unopposed wins from the Smurfs in the opening. Div 7 T.B 1st K.H. 48 - 6 **R.V.** The Highlanders veterans are hammering R.V. with near impunity. By now the Highlanders have won eight out of each nine engagements. Black Star Bandits 14 - 0 M&L A.R.S.E. Only the Bandits have secured objectives so far. They have claimed a generous dozen. Behemoth 0 - 14 JC`s Rowdy Bunch The Behemoths are as usual slow to get in motion. Meanwhile the Bunch have claimed more than a dozen unopposed wins. T.I.o.M.T. 20 - 5 Deaths Hecklers The Misfits are holding the Hecklers at arms lenght while hitting them solid blows. So far they have won 80% of the clashes. Div 8 Major Steel 0 - 0 Karma II Neither side have commenced offensive operations yet. Murdermech mini 63 - 3 Mad Scientist 1 The Scientists were in for a rude awakening here. Murdermechs opening offensive have netted them more than a score times as many objectives as the Scientists have claimed. *R.V.* 36 - 7 I.N.A. R.V. is clearly ascendant here. Their opening have given them better than a fivefold advantage over the Alliance. Ronins 2 45 - 0 Jagdstaffel 2 The Ronins early raid have given them nearly four dozen unopposed wins. Meanwhile the Jagdstaffels strike force have been reduced to scrap. Div 9 Karma 20 - 0 Borg Collective Karma have a score objectives, while the Borgs so far have none. Cold Dead Hands 8 - 6 RED AXE The Deaders are meeting fiercer resistance than expected. They have managed to get a slight advantage, but the Axemen are busy chopping it up. Gamer`s United 36 - 7 Banditos The Gamers have decided to go on a Bandit hunt. So far their succes rate exceeds 80% Dawn Patrol 4 - 0 H.o.G. The Patrol have managed to get some wins. But although the HoG`s still havent stirred, they will only need a handfull objectives to get in front.

[gadgetsrevv]

Extratime.ie – EURO 2020 Qualifier: Northern Ireland -v

NORTHERN IRELAND

Michael O’Neill’s men have done everything asked of them so far in this campaign – winning all four of their EURO 2020 qualifiers – but they will be truly tested in Belfast on Monday night with Germany coming to town.

Monday’s game begins a stiff examination for the North who will conclude their qualifiers by taking on Germany and the Netherlands home and away. Germany come into the game on the back of a defeat last week against the Dutch and O’Neill admitted that is probably the result that he didn’t want to see.

“We probably would have preferred a Germany win but we just have to get as many points as we can,” said O’Neill at Sunday’s pre-match press conference. 

“We probably need six points out of the four games. Germany will react to their defeat against Holland. We just have to prepare ourselves.”

The game could well be a landmark for Steven Davis, who O’Neill described as “a role model for all footballers”, as if selected he is set to earn his 113th international appearance – the most for an Northern Ireland outfield player – and just six behind all-time record holder Pat Jennings.

The Rangers player admitted he wasn’t thinking about the record ahead of the game. “Every time I pull on the jersey it is a very proud moment for me. Some of my best memories in football have been here in Windsor in the Northern Ireland shirt. 

“I’m not thinking too much about it as hopefully I can play on for a little while longer. There is more to come. It is a huge achievement and whenever I stop playing football I will look back on it and be very proud.”

Last Thursday, Norn Iron earned a 1-0 friendly win over Luxembourg but Monday is a very different task. Germany have scored three or more goals in each of their last four visits to the National Stadium at Windsor Park. The most recent meeting, in October 2017, ended with a 3-1 win for Germany in the World Cup qualifier.

“We have got ourselves into a really good position in the group and now we need to embrace the games coming up.

“Germany have proved to be very stern opposition for us. We know about their quality. They are games that we relish and we don’t underestimate the difficulty. Hopefully we can make it one of the special nights here in Windsor.” 

GERMANY

Germany are a wounded animal coming to Belfast after their 4-2 loss to the Dutch in Hamburg last Friday night. 

“Obviously we are disappointed about the result, but if we’re being honest it was a fair result,” was the honest assessment of Joachim Loew after the game.

“The Netherlands were the better team, and we were below par for the entire game. We lost the ball a lot and our link-up play often didn’t come off so well. We were losing the ball up front and lots of passes were going all the way back to Manuel Neuer.”

Die Mannschaft sit in second place three points behind the North and three clear of the Netherlands who have a game in hand. Loew’s team is very much focused on the win in Belfast and the three points that would put them top of the group.

“It means we have to win the game in Northern Ireland. We need to approach the game with the attitude that we will leave the pitch as winners. 

“We’ll need to change our tactics against Northern Ireland. They play a completely different type of football to the Netherlands – they are incredibly physical, solid and play lots of long balls.

“They will sit deeper, which means we’ll have less room up front. We have to prepare ourselves for this. We need to find tactical solutions for this game.”

It was a tough defeat to take last week as the Germans had won their previous 14 consecutive qualification games across EURO and World Cup qualifiers. 

“Northern Ireland are not an easy opponent, but our task is to take home all three points tomorrow. The team know that.”

Loew confirmed on the eve of the game that Neuer will continue in goal so there won’t be a start for Barcelona ‘keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen. With Ilkay Guendogan suffering from a cold, he along with Borussia Dortmund’s Nico Schulz, will miss the game. 

Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy)

MATCH STATS

Germany have won the sides’ last seven meetings and this was preceded by three consecutive 1-1 draws. The North’s last win over the visitors came prior to German re-unification. They earned a 1-0 win over West Germany in November 1983 when Norman Whiteside got the only goal in the game played in Hamburg.

Germany have scored in their last eight matches, netting 22 goals and averaging nearly three per game.

Oliver Bierhoff scored the fastest hattrick for Germany netting three goals in the 1997 World Cup qualifier in Belfast across a seven minute period. He came on as a 70thsub and three minutes later he scored the first goal in his hat-trick.

BETTING

Northern Ireland 9/1; Draw 9/2; Germany 2/9.

PREDICTION

Northern Ireland 0 – 2 Germany 

Northern Ireland

Injured: Jordan Jones, Michael Smith, Paul Smyth. Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Germany

Injured: Ilkay Guendogan, Nico Schulz, Leon Goretzka Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Reporter Macdara Ferris and photographer John-Paul McGinley will be covering the game for extratime.ie from Belfast on Monday night. 

Sheffield United duo McGoldrick and Robinson to miss Bulgaria friendly with injury https://t.co/ceCkETtm8L pic.twitter.com/rfhJ7Lc6Hp

— Extratime.ie (@ExtratimeNews) September 6, 2019

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This Break Up Shouldn’t Be Hard to Do – Thoughts After Another Bad Flyers Road Trip

This quote hasn’t aged well:

“The bottom line is we thought we needed to make more progress. For me, it boiled down to one question: did I think we could do better as a team now, not two years form now, but now, and the answer to that question was yes.”

That was Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Dave Scott at the November 27th press conference when the Flyers fired General Manager Ron Hextall. The team was 10-11-2 at the time of Hextall’s firing.

Here we are, 36 days later. The team replaced Hextall with Chuck Fletcher, also fired head coach Dave Hakstol and replaced him on an interim basis with Lehigh Valley Phantoms coach Scott Gordon, and has made one roster move of note – calling up 20-year-old wunderkind goalie Carter Hart to jump start his NHL career.

In those 36 days, the Flyers have gone 5-8-3, including a 4-0 loss on New Year’s Day in Nashville, the fourth straight loss (0-3-1) for the Flyers on a mostly disappointing road trip.

They now sit in last place in the Metropolitan Division, 13 points behind the third place Pittsburgh Penguins and 12 points behind Montreal for a final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

They are only one point ahead of Ottawa and St. Louis for the worst record in hockey. Their minus-29 goal differential is tied with Los Angeles for the third-worst in hockey behind only Ottawa and Chicago.

Special teams is minus 20 in goals for the season. That’s dreadful. The penalty kill, although it has been solid since Black Friday, killing at an 85.6% clip in the last 18 games, still ranks 28th in the league at 75.2% for the season. The power play is embarrassingly bad, ranking dead last in the league at 12.4%.

I gave you all that data to say this:

This team is nowhere close to being a better team now than two years from now. None.

A change in management didn’t help. A change in coaches didn’t help. What is painfully obvious, and has been for months with this team, is this group, as currently constructed, is not a good fit and is a bad hockey team.

That’s not to say there isn’t talent here, because there is, but they really don’t supplement each other well. There are pieces that don’t fit. There are players not living up to expectations, and the realization has finally set in that this team is still further away from being a contender than it thought.

The process of being the new Flyers GM has been eye-opening for Fletcher in his five weeks on the job. He has had an opportunity to evaluate what he has, what he needs, and has begun formulating a plan on how to get there.

That said, it isn’t going to be easy. It’s going to be painful. And the Flyers locker room, which despite all this team’s flaws and foibles is a remarkably tight-knight group, will finally have some much-needed upheaval.

Players are about to be traded. In two months, when looking back to today, there is going to be a whole new look for this roster.

No longer can the players hide behind the excuses of an oppressive GM or a voiceless coach. They are finally going to be held accountable for who they are and the fact that they can’t win together. Fletcher sees this. He knows this isn’t a “win now” team. He has to know he’s got to go into sell mode, and do so quickly.

But how should he begin his roster deconstruction?

After the jump is one suggestion:

Goaltending

This is a real sore spot for this team. It’s almost as if this open wound has been festering for more than a generation. However, Hart is believed to be the white whale. Finally, the answer the team has been looking for since, well, Hextall pre-Eric Lindros trade.

Hart has assimilated himself well in his brief NHL career to this point, but after winning his first two NHL starts, he has dropped three straight and has looked a little undercooked with each passing start.

There’s no doubt the team plays differently in front of him. They play a tighter defensive style. They are committed to blocking shots for Hart like it’s Game 7 of a playoff series. And the Flyers have been careful to try to set him up to win. His first three starts all came at home, and all three were against low-scoring teams (or one in Nashville that was missing a ton of offensive talent due to injury).

On the road, the Flyers were noticeably choosy about where Hart started, eschewing games in New York, Tampa and Nashville on the road in favor of Michael Neuvirth and having Hart start in less daunting arenas like Florida (which is basically a home game for every visiting team) and Carolina. And even in Carolina, where Hart had a clunker of a start, Gordon had a quick hook and removed him after allowing three goals on just 10 shots in the first period, protecting his top prospect.

In short, the Flyers are exhibiting a pattern where they won’t say it publicly, but they still don’t think Hart is ready for long-term play at the NHL level.

Fletcher did talk, on this trip, about the need for Hart to play more – but every indication I could infer would be that ideally this will happen in the AHL.

As soon as Anthony Stolarz is cleared to return, He’ll probably share the time with Neuvirth – who has played pretty well these past two weeks, even if his body is akin to Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Unbreakable and Glass). This will allow Hart to return to Lehigh Valley and keep playing.

Brian Elliott is still about a month away from returning, so he’s not in the conversation as of now.

That said, I still believe Fletcher is considering adding a veteran goalie, and that goalie could be Jonathan Quick of Los Angeles despite the four years and $5.8 million annual cap hit.

It’s the kind of move for this team for the remainder of this year and then use next season as a transition season from Quick to Hart and then Quick can finish out the last two years as a reliable, veteran backup to Hart.

I still think this is something that is coming sooner rather than later, however…

Forwards

Something has to give with this core. It’s just not working. First Hakstol and now Gordon are constantly shuffling lines trying to get players going. The three players most shuffled are Wayne Simmonds, James van Riemsdyk, and Jake Voracek.

The reason they’re being shuffled is they either can’t produce like they once did, aren’t a good fit for this lineup, or are simply having a down year despite still having higher end value.

And yes, the order of players and reasons are symbiotically aligned.

Simmonds is a real conundrum. The guy still busts his ass every night. He still gives it maximum effort and he’s a well-liked and respected locker room guy.

That said, he’s still a shell of himself and hasn’t produced with anywhere near the efficiency he did prior to his injury-plagued 2017-18 season.

As of Saturday we’ll be halfway through this season. Right now Simmonds has 11 goals and six assists for 17 points. He’s on pace for a 35-point season, which would easily be his worst season as a Flyer based on points per game played (He had only 32 points in 2012-13, but that was a lockout-shortened season and he played just 45 games).

The problem with Simmonds is he has seen his skill as a defensive player diminish, especially in the last few seasons. He used to be quite reliable defensively. Now, he’s more a liability.

As such, he struggles at 5-on-5. He’s usually relegated to third line duty, and even though he’s had stints where he’s played in the top six, he’s still a below average play driver (According to NaturalStatTrick.com, his Corsi For percentage is 49.19 which ranks 83rd out of 121 forwards with at least 500 minutes of ice time.)

But where Simmonds has earned his dough in his career has been as a net-front presence on the power play. Excluding that aforementioned lockout-shortened season, Simmonds has averaged 21 points per season in his Flyers career on the power play. As we approach the halfway point of this season, he has four.

And when did those power play points occur?

Power play goal in the season opener in Vegas on 10/4

Power play goal and a power play assist in the home opener against San Jose on 10/9

Power play goal in New York against the Rangers on 12/23

That’s it.

So yeah, that’s one power play point in the last 36 games.

What you have here is a guy who is below average at 5-on-5 and who is not only performing below expectations on the power play based on his resume, but who is arguably the worst producing player on any top power play unit in the NHL.

It would take a really long time to research it, but I’m betting there aren’t any other players who regularly play on the top power play unit for their team who have one or zero points on the power play since 10/9.

So, other than the fact that he’s a gamer who gives you his all on every shift, what is Simmonds’ value to the team now, or in the future?

It’s sad to say, but there isn’t much – which is why he has to be the first move here.

He has to be the person Fletcher jettisons to rock the locker room.

Simmonds has value. He can certainly return to that level of power play production somewhere else. He can still give you good third line minutes on a team with better top-6 talent than the Flyers where he can truly be a secondary scorer and not someone the team is consistently leaning on for offense.

But because he’ll be a free agent at season’s end, his value is limited. The sooner he can be moved the more Fletcher can get in return. Toronto remains quite interested. I’m sure there are other teams who would see Simmonds as an upgrade for their power play (Nashville could use him, and Preds coach Peter Laviolette always liked Simmonds when he coached him. Columbus, Montreal, Buffalo and the New York Islanders are also teams who could use power play help and who might express interest as they make playoff pushes).

This is a slam dunk. It would shake up the locker room to trade from the core and one of the team leaders – and it would set the Flyers up with more assets down the road.

As for van Riemsdyk, this is where things get more interesting.

Quite simply, the guy isn’t a good fit here.

He’s a league-average play driver (CF% is 50.00) which is likely boosted a little bit from playing a solid chunk of his 23 games with Claude Giroux. But even though he missed 15 games with an injury, he’s nowhere close to the goal-scorer he was in Toronto.

He averaged 30.5 goals per 82 games played in six seasons with the Leafs. He won’t play 82 because of the injury this season, but assuming he doesn’t miss another game this season, he’ll play 67 games.

Based on his Toronto output, that should still be good enough for 25 goals for the Flyers. However, based on how he’s performed so far, he’s on pace for 15 goals for the Flyers.

Now, part of that could be he’s not being given a regular role on the top power play unit her like he was with the Leafs. He did amass 88 power play points in six seasons in Toronto. He has three for the Flyers in 23 games so far.

There is an argument that could be made (based solely on the statistics above) that he should be given a chance ahead of Simmonds, and maybe that would bring a little more production, but keep in mind that last season was the only time in his career he potted double digit power play goals (he had 11). So, it’s not like he’s a sure thing with the man advantage either.

JVR has never been a physical guy at 5-on-5, which is what soured the Flyers on him initially. When you are a big body you need to play a more big-bodied game, and he’s not the kind of guy who uses his size as much as he should when it comes to winning board battles and protecting the puck.

He’s limited in the speed department, which on a slower team like the Flyers puts a spotlight on his weakness. And he doesn’t fit anywhere. The Flyers really don’t want to play Giroux at center because he’s much better at this age on the wing. so JVR can’t play on the top line. He’s been a disappointment on the second line and really doesn’t play the style of game to fit on the third line.

He needs to play with a dynamic distributor at center who can set him up for his goals. The Flyers don’t have that player here – at least not right now.

JVR is a guy that a young, up-and-coming team might be interested in since he has term and dollars on his contract.

I look at a team like Colorado, who has some real top-end talent and a lot of cap room, as a team that could make sense. Additionally, Buffalo and the Islanders would also make sense here as well as they could afford JVR and his four more years with a $7 million cap hit each year, although I’m not sure he would fit the mold of what Barry Trotz espouses in his defense-first system in New York.

As for Voracek, he’s a playmaker with a lot of value and isn’t protected by a no-trade clause. But his contract – five more years at $8.25 million per, is a little harder to move. But, would a team that is all-in this season in pursuit of the Cup be willing to take a chance on that contract if they could send some salary back to the Flyers in return?

I look at Nashville again as a team who thrives on being the best defensive squad in the NHL. A playmaker is exactly what they need to supplement their strength. Voracek would also improve their below average power play as well.

Another team that could have interest is Vegas. Voracek would immediately become their highest-paid player. And while they have a handful of guys signed long-term, none is seeing an average annual salary higher than $5.95 million (Nate Schmidt).

As for other forwards who could go:

Michael Raffl – he’s playing his best hockey of the season right now and is the kind of depth forward good teams are looking for. He’s a free agent at season’s end though, so he doesn’t have much in the way of value in return, but he is another really well-liked guy in the locker room and trading him would have an impact.

Dale Weise – Believe it or not, the veteran grinder has similar value to Raffl – especially if the Flyers are willing to eat some of his remaining salary (He’s signed through 2020 at $2.35 million per season).

Defense

You might not see it yet, but working with Rick Wilson is already paying dividends for a few guys. Ivan Provorov is still struggling with handling pucks this season (another grenade on his stick led to a goal in Nashville), but on the whole, he’s been better since Wilson came on board.

He’s still getting the lion’s share of the minutes and is still the Flyers best defenseman. He’ll be fine.

Travis Sanheim has flourished since Wilson came on board. He’s playing with a lot more confidence. He still has the occasional mental lapse, but he’s been vastly improved.

As for the rest of the defense, I’m not sure the Flyers are beholden to any of them.

I don’t think Robert Hagg gets moved, but he’s just a guy. He’s probably best-suited for a third pair long term and has been asked to play above that for most of the season.

Andrew MacDonald was unjustly criticized last season, but not so this season. He’s not been good. He’s still an NHL defenseman, despite the criticism to the contrary from the Twitterverse, but he’s no better than a No. 6-7 guy at this point, and his contract is still unmovable.

Radko Gudas could be of interest to a team looking for a depth defenseman, but again, the Flyers would likely have to eat some of his $3.35 million cap hit, as he’s signed through next season as well.

Shayne Gostisbehere has played better in the last few games (despite the team not looking good) but I’m not sure it’s good enough to stop Fletcher from potentially dangling him as an interesting carrot this trade deadline.

Gostisbehere has definite defensive limitations, but teams looking to add to the blue line at the trade deadline often are looking for a guy who can produce offensively as well. That and a team-friendly contract situation could make Ghost an attractive trade piece for contending teams (Buffalo? Boston?) come the end of February.

Wither way, I think guys like Sam Morin, Phil Myers, and maybe even Mark Friedman are going to be given a chance in the NHL at some point this season to prove they belong.

Anyway you slice it, this team’s roster needs to be carved up, and soon. I expect Fletcher knows that and will make it happen in the very near future.

The post This Break Up Shouldn’t Be Hard to Do – Thoughts After Another Bad Flyers Road Trip appeared first on Crossing Broad.

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Armchair Analyst: SKC's depth charge, NY debuts & more from Week 19

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July 8, 20189:26PM EDT

Week 19’s in the books and we’re aimed directly at the playoff race. Teams that are above the playoff line at this point in the season tend to make the playoffs at about a 90 percent rate.

Good Times Bad Times

Are SKC fans panicking a little bit? They’ve now taken just one of the last nine points on offer and have won just twice in the past two months, and there’s a ripple of fear about the summer swoon having actually come during the spring this year. They were 7-2-2 on May 9 following a 2-0 win at Atlanta United. They’re 2-2-4 since then.

The proximate cause has been injuries, plain and simple. Felipe Gutierrez was a key to that hot start, then he got hurt and hasn’t come back (and his replacements have offered nothing in attack). Matt Besler has been hobbled, as has Seth Sinovic. Khiry Shelton won the starting center forward job – even though he couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net – by making everybody around him better, then lost it because he got hurt. And Jimmy Medranda got hurt, and Cristian Lobato got hurt, and suddenly this team was sapped of any sort of depth or flexibility. Add in red cards to Daniel Salloi and Roger Espinoza in Wednesday’s 4-2 loss at RSL and Saturday should’ve been an L.

It wasn’t, though. They got a 2-2 draw against visiting TFC and I will grant that Sporting were fortunate enough, in terms of match-ups, to be playing one of the few teams more injured than they themselves are. Nonetheless I suspect that Sporting will mostly avoid their annual summer tailspin because Peter Vermes has taken more of a plunge in terms of both building and playing depth in 2018.

A reading from the book of Jaylin Lindsey:

Jaylin Lindsey’s not even left-footed. Gonna see a lot of him at both RB and LB for the US U-20s real soon. #SKCvTOR pic.twitter.com/cSvisXdmrV

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) July 8, 2018

The 18-year-old Homegrown, who can and has played both left and right back, and both left and right wingback, has soaked up valuable minutes both in league and US Open Cup play of late. So has fellow Homegrown Wan Kuzain, who’s been steady and mistake-free in central midfield. Emiliano Amor is getting time at center back, and Kharlton Belmar – excellent in USL with Swope Park Rangers – has finally earned his way into MLS minutes.

Ideally these guys wouldn’t all be on the field together, all at the same time, all trying to keep the ship afloat. Ideally Kuzain could be out there giving Espinoza a breather while the rest of the team around him is made up of regulars, or Lindsey could be giving Graham Zusi his first day off since like 2004. The best way to get young or new players integrated and used to playing with the first team is to surround them with guys who are first teamers.

Vermes hasn’t really had the luxury of doing that. But in throwing so many of these guys into the deep end recently, he’s gotten the measure of more than a few of them (especially, it has to be said, in the US Open Cup win over FC Dallas and the scoreless draw at Portland). Long-term, that is a good thing.

Obviously, as their record shows over the last 10, it hasn’t been pretty. But it’s been effective enough too keep SKC in the hunt, and for the first time I can remember SKC’s depth pieces are credible enough to warrant playing time even when the starters are back, and that, in turn, should keep guys like Espinoza, Zusi, Besler et al fresh enough to avoid another autumn collapse.

Three things, though

Vermes has to buy into this and not run his veterans into the ground.

Ike Opara came off hurt on Saturday. I think he’s the one guy on that team who’s actually irreplaceable.

There’s a chance none of this matters too much unless they actually do find a goalscoring No. 9.

The window opens this week, by the way.

Battle of Evermore

My colleague Charlie Boehm on games at Yankee Stadium: “You can see how it dominates the players’ mentality. Even if they have time, they don’t think they do – so clearances instead of passes out, etc.

That has obviously, over the years, played into the hands of the Red Bulls, who’ve largely dominated the Hudson River Derby.

That dominance did not continue in the first meeting of the new era, as Domé Torrent and Chris Armas squared off for the first time. The reason why is pretty straight-forward:

Pragmatic Domé, in Sunday’s 1-0 win over RBNY: 24.2% of NYCFC’s attempted passes were long-balls

Dogmatic Patrick, in May’s 4-0 loss to RBNY: 14.6% of NYCFC’s attempted passers were long-balls

When you meet a team that presses as high and hard and relentlessly as the Red Bulls do, you’re pretty well got to take the opportunities they give you to try to play over the top, and you’ve definitely got to be smart about when and where you attempt to build through them. If you want to see this on a bigger stage it’s “Pep vs. Klopp in the Champions League,” but in our league this derby has been the best possible example, again and again and again.

So Domé changed the conversation. Good on him.

On the other side it was not a great debut from Armas, who seemed to fundamentally misunderstand the machine that Jesse Marsch created.

1. The Red Bulls are arrhythmic – rhythm is death to them. They don’t want games to be about passing the ball well, they want games to be a discrete series of duels and immediate transitions that leave you gasping for breath.

2. As soon as any game settled into a rhythm over the last few years (but especially this year), Marsch always made a sub to change – or outright break – the rhythm. Sometimes these subs were attacking, sometimes they were defensive, sometimes they were used to change the shape of the team. But what they were mostly about was breaking any sort of rhythm.

3. You could feel this game settling into a rhythm around the 70 minute mark. This doesn’t mean that NYCFC were suddenly playing prettier soccer or stringing passes together like Man City. It just means that they were clearly growing comfortable with the type of game it was and had been, and were happily settling into it.

4. Once that became clear, Armas needed to make any sub. But instead he waited, the rhythm of the game lulled RBNY into a sense of security, and BAM!!!, 1-0 to the Pigeons. And thus when Armas did finally make a sub, it was a reactive one. The Red Bulls, of course, are not great at playing reactive soccer.

Nobody in Harrison should freak out about Armas, of course. The dude was managing his first career game, on the road, against one of the best teams in the league, in a nationally televised derby. He wasn’t going to get every decision correct.

And so his first lesson was a hard one. What really matters, on the longer timeline, is if he’s able to learn from it and apply the lesson it in the future.

A few more things to ponder…

10. Montreal continued their cull of the weak, handling a bunkered-in Colorado team with more ease than the scoreline indicated in a 2-1 win for the Impact. It’s their fifth in their last six games, has edged them up above the playoff line for the first time since March, and there’s not much to say beyond “Job well done” given the schedule they’ve just played.

Which is to say: They’re where Orlando City were after that six-game winning streak. You can only beat the teams in front of you, and they’ve done that. Now the Impact, with their newly compact midfield and more resolute (though still vulnerable on set pieces) defense, play at NYCFC, at Portland and vs. Atlanta in three of their next four.

We’ll see how they look on the other side of that stretch.

Colorado, of course, look like a team that knows it can’t attack without exposing themselves to a fatal degree defensively. So they bunkered into a 5-4-1 and prayed, but if you get outshot 21-2 you’re not going to win many points.

9. All the highlights you need from New England’s 0-0 draw against the visiting Sounders:

Quick highlights from tonight’s match. ¯_(ツ)_/¯#NERevs pic.twitter.com/HoAxcRiNXp

— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) July 8, 2018

The Revs have two more games in which they need to take points (home to LA, at Minnesota) before a brutal three-and-a-half month closing schedule. The Sounders have 15 goals, and an outside chance of catching Josef Martinez in the Golden Boot race.

8. Following Saturday’s pretty comprehensive 3-0 destruction of Minnesota United, Houston are seventh in the West on points, sixth on points per game and third in goal differential. Since May 5 they’re 5-3-2 with their only losses being at RSL, at Montreal and at Sporting. Not bad.

They’re starting to get a little bit healthier as well, and on Saturday it was big center back Philippe Senderos – who’s now gone 90 in three straight games – who was the star, banging home two goals on set pieces (which the Loons still can not defend).

There was nothing flashy about the win, which is fine. What’s really important for the Dynamo is that, for the first time in a long while, there was nothing sloppy about the win, either.

7. There wasn’t much slop from RSL, either, in their really surprisingly comfortable 2-0 win over visiting FC Dallas on Saturday night, which came on the heels of that impressive-as-hell 4-2 win over Sporting on July 4. They controlled the midfield, and the kids up top – Jefferson Savarino, Albert Rusnak, Bofo Saucedo and Corey Baird – just constantly disrupted any attempts by los Toros Tejanos to build from the back.

It’s finally starting to look like the second half of last year a little bit, as RSL have gone 6-3-1 in their last 10, and have done it with energy and mobility.

At least, they’ve done it like that at home, where they’re 8-1-1. On the road they’re 1-7-1, and they probably need to start picking up a few points here and there if they’re going to hold off the likes of the Dynamo and the Galaxy.

Dallas, for their part, looked spent. And that makes sense given they’d played 90 minutes in Minnesota, then 90 hard, hot minutes at home against Atlanta, and then 90 more at altitude in Sandy all while adjusting to Life After Mauro.

So I’m giving them a mulligan for this one, but I’m also keeping an eye on their body language and what I thought were some selfish shot/pass decisions reminiscent of last year. Not to mention I’m really not sure how they plan to create consistent danger without Diaz.

6. Oh Philly, Philly Philly Philly. They played so damn well for so long against such a great Atlanta United team, and when they had the chance to rip open the door…

I’m giving Alejandro Bedoya the Pass of the Week for that – the Sombrero + PullBack Cross combo, thankyouverymuch. Unfortunately for the Union, I can not give them three points for that because they just refuse to finish chances when they get them.

Atlanta, of course, have no such compunctions in front of net. They played nothing close to their best game, but Josef got his 18th from the spot, then they concocted another for Tito Villalba, they won 2-0 and they’re on 40 points from 20 games.

You can’t let the Five Stripes hang around. If you do, you lose.

5. The ‘Caps had to hold on for dear life and should be thanking their lucky stars that Nemanja Nikolic, of all people, figured out a way to miss from eight yards out deep into stoppage time of what was, eventually, a 3-2 Vancouver win at BC Place.

This was a pure Vancouver performance: They got out and ran at every opportunity, and Chicago just could not keep up.

It was also a necessary win, as four of the ‘Caps’ next five are on the road. That used to be a good thing for them, but with this year’s leaky defense it’s been very not good so far.

I’m honestly surprised Chicago went with what’s basically their first XI given they have a much more important game against Philly coming up on Wednesday.

4. The Galaxy absolutely drubbed Columbus by 4-0 on Saturday night, and they’re now 4-1-3 in their last eight games. They played a lopsided 4-2-3-1 in this one with their usual personnel-induced issues, especially on the backline.

But yeah, the midfield looked really functional against what I still think is a very good Columbus side. Jonathan Dos Santos was reliable and occasionally difference-making on the night as a No. 8, and Gio Dos Santos was excellent and influential in the hole as a No. 10.

These guys, after thousands of minutes of tepid play in MLS, are still big “ifs.” But they just destroyed what had been the league’s best defensive team entering the night, and I feel like folks should notice that.

3. Orlando City also got absolutely drubbed, 4-1 at the beautiful machine that is LAFC. It was James O’Connor’s debut, and though the scoreline was ugly… I actually thought it was a good 75 minutes. So did Calen:

LAFC on the road is too tough a test to get a real read on what the Purple Lions are or could be under O’Connor. The Black-and-Gold are on course for nearly 80 goals, and over 60 points, which means they’re a Supporters’ Shield-caliber attacking juggernaut, and they’ve been putting teams into the blender. 

2. Two teams had 11-match unbeaten streaks last year: Chicago and Toronto FC. So Portland, who hit 11 after Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat of San Jose, are keeping pretty good company. 

The Timbers have gone 8-0-3 during this stretch, and now seven of those wins are by a single goal. They are, at this point, so so so reminiscent of the 2016 Rapids – who, incidentally, had a 15-game unbeaten run that had seven wins by a single goal.

Portland fans will surely get mad at me about this comparison in the comments section, but again: There is nothing wrong with being a team that sits deep, absorbs pressure and counters to kill.

If you’re in Oregon and you’re still torqued off about this, here ya go: CLICKY

That’s Michael Cox on how Atletico Madrid do the same thing. If it’s a winning strategy it’s a good strategy.

1. And finally, I’m going back to Wednesday night for our Face of the Week, courtesy of the legendary Ben Olsen:

Don’t get in Ben Olsen’s way #DCU pic.twitter.com/YmD3I7snaI

— Steven Streff (@streffsoccer) July 5, 2018

As Steven later pointed out, D.C.’s remaining schedule is favorable. If they can pick up 2 ppg from their 15 remaining home games, they will – at the very least – get themselves in the hunt and make a few people nervous along the way.

Series: 

Topics: 

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Armchair Analyst: SKC's depth charge, NY debuts & more from Week 19 was originally published on 365 Football

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https://elitesportsny.com/2017/12/15/new-york-rangers-4-los-angeles-kings-2-highlights/

Power Play carries the New York Rangers to 4-2 win over Kings (Highlights)

The New York Rangers rode a hot power play and a key Rick Nash play to a big win over the LA Kings Friday night.

New York Rangers 4 (17-12-2 37 Points)

Los Angeles Kings 2 (20-10-3 43 Points)

NYR Goals: Chris Kreider (11), Kevin Hayes (7), Rick Nash (9), JT Miller (5)

LA Goal: Marian Gaborik (5), Torrey Mitchell (2)

NHL, Final, Boxscore

Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

CHECK OUT the New York Rangers Team Center: News, Stats, Standings

After dropping consecutive games to the Dallas Stars and the Ottawa Senators, the New York Rangers were able to get things back on track Friday night against the Los Angeles Kings. The Rangers were able to play a much more disciplined game in which they had much better puck management. Turnovers appeared to be a thing of the past, at least for tonight, as they have plagued the team the past two games.

Chris Kreider got the party started with 9:37 remaining in the first period on the power play. Kreider planted his big frame in front of Jonathan Quick and just got a piece of a Kevin Shattenkirk shot. With that tally, Kreider joined the 100 career Rangers goal club, becoming the 57th member of the club. Congrats Kreids!

A career milestone for @ChrisKreider, as the Blueshirts take a 1-0 into the intermission!#NYR https://t.co/oF7JjTl4wq

— MSG Networks (@MSGNetworks) December 16, 2017

Congrats to @ChrisKreider on goal No. 💯!! #NYR pic.twitter.com/5XzzOpXWBs

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) December 16, 2017

Ex-Rangers always seem to be energized when playing against their former team, especially in the Garden. This was the case tonight as former Blueshirt Marian Gaborik tallied a goal early in the second frame. Gaborik looked vintage as he staked down the left wing side and snuck a shot through the five-hole of Henrik Lundqvist.

1,000 games? Pfft. That's not slowing @MGaborik12 down one bit. #LAKvsNYR pic.twitter.com/a9ww6axpj4

— NHL (@NHL) December 16, 2017

Another milestone was achieved tonight as Gaborik played in his 1000th NHL game, 255 of which came with the Rangers. Injuries have slowed him down in recent years but he still an electric forward. It’s good to see him hopefully regaining form.

"It's definitely a dream come true, and playing my 1,000th game in Garden it makes it even more special." – Marian Gaborik pic.twitter.com/0G8EbIqeCG

— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 15, 2017

Congrats on 1000 @NHL games @MGaborik12! #NYR pic.twitter.com/szrFopfGHd

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) December 16, 2017

The NY Rangers congratulated Marian Gaborik for playing his 1,000th NHL game 👏 pic.twitter.com/xgFMjwAYkz

— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 16, 2017

Kevin Hayes was able to regain the lead for the Blueshirts in which he actually shot(!) the puck on a two-on-one situation. Hayes’ goal was made possible by captain Ryan McDonagh, who after taking a hard hit on the wall made a great pass to Hayes.

Talk about taking one for the team.@KevinPHayes12 owes @RMcDonagh27 a solid. pic.twitter.com/XfQ8Yg1xHU

— NHL (@NHL) December 16, 2017

But just like that, the Kings were able to get things tied up on a goal from Torrey Mitchell. Mitchell collected a rebound from a very nice individual effort from none other than Gaborik, in which he was able to slide by Shattenkirk and get a quality scoring chance.

Marian Gaborik now has a goal and an assist in his 1,000th game.

Pretty, pretty, pretty good. pic.twitter.com/Dz0R5MCKAs

— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 16, 2017

  Now pay attention all you those Rick Nash haters. This is a highly underrated play, one that makes Nash a very valuable NHL forward. No, he’s not producing like we would all like him to. However, his 200-foot game and defensive prowess would certainly be missed if he’s dealt. A fantastic game-winning goal for No. 61.

👀 the Nashty game winner!! #NYR pic.twitter.com/Iy7xHkuIH2

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) December 16, 2017

The Rangers sealed things up on an empty net goal by JT Miller. The play that started the whole thing was a massive shot block from Jimmy Vesey on Drew Doughty. A great “little things” play by Vesey that should help increase some ice time and instill some confidence in Vesey.

#NYR beat the Kings 4-2!!! 🚨s from @ChrisKreider, @KevinPHayes12, Nash and J.T.!! pic.twitter.com/q62TxxSvgJ

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) December 16, 2017

A bittersweet night for Marian Gaborik as he scored a goal in his 1,000 NHL game, but he and the LA Kings couldn’t get past the NY Rangers. pic.twitter.com/5I79QZboB3

— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 16, 2017

The Rangers are back in action tomorrow night at 5 p.m. ET against the Boston Bruins in Boston.

 NEXT: Rangers Face Tough Test In January Away From MSG 

New York Rangers 

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New Look Sabres: GM 56 - NYI - Buy Me Tickets

Last game I acknowledged the high emotions of a playoff push on a fanbase like ours: so out of that picture for so many years now. Perhaps there is an added word along with that to say that when you talk shit to an opposing fanbase in a stretch like this it’s not personal, it’s just sport. There exists no better example of this than the New York Islanders. I don’t personally hate the droves of downstate kids who emerge from the area’s colleges and universities for a game like this. I do however resent the snootiness about your organization that fell ass-backwards onto a hot second half. Again, it’s not personal. This scenario is also true for Robin Lehner. Giving up the first round pick for him was why he always had a target on his back in Buffalo; from there on out he was never going to not hear it with every blown angle and wide open five hole. Yeah, the Sabres defense was bad then, not much better now, and evidently he had some personal addiction issues and let’s make this clear: God bless you, Robin Lehner. Hockey aside, getting your life together is great and everyone here in Buffalo is proud of you for that. It’s rad you probably see the playoffs on the island this spring. Also: thanks for not having a great night last night. With no further ado: Playoff Trash talk. Islanders, there would be a couple decent storylines in a playoff series between you and us. The first all New York matchup since 2007 when Maxim Afinogenov made the Rangers cry. We can agree on enjoying the Rangers’ misery but you better understand Robin Lehner is untested in the postseason with a propensity for giving up clutch goals. Anders Lee replacing Johnny T as Captain is like buying the discount cereal because milk gave you stomach problems. Your team plays at Barclays Center which is fitting for a team as forgettable as the Brooklyn Nets. The Sabres have less playoff experience but the Islanders have a way of never looking all that threatening in the postseason. The late season heroics will cool off and the Sabres win this series in 6. This game last night was probably supposed to be an L but I was there and got to enjoy the unlikely W. You expect a Winnipeg game but got a Minnesota game. If we’re going to make the playoffs you take wins like this and run. 2 points is 2 points but beating these guys should be a mental boost.

As the Sabres took the ice I got all riled up as the sound system played “Never too late.” Hell yeah, the Sabres aren’t done yet! The first ten minutes of this game however belonged to the Islanders. The Sabres hardly got four shots on goal before the midway point of the first period while the Islanders dominated the possession game. Linus Ullmark looked good from the start. It seemed like at some point the home team realized they were not done yet and woke up a bit. Jeff Skinner certainly did when he got the puck off the faceoff and looked around a forest of Islanders defenders and his own teammates before wiring a slapper past a screened Robin Lehner. 1-0 Sabres with 3:35 left in the first and I recall saying these words aloud: “Just please don’t give up the response goal now.” Tim Murray must still work for this club in the disappointment department because a couple minutes later that was exactly what happened. Rasmus Ristolainen was dispossessed or… just thought he had a quota of defensive zone giveaways to meet, and Casey Cizikas got the puck in the slot and shot it too fast for Ullmark. 1-1 and that was that for the first period. There was a small contingent of Islanders fans, right in that annoying golden age of 19-21, sitting a couple rows down from me. When Cizikas scored they chanted their “Yes, Yes, Yes” goal song and I got to admit I’m on the fence about that. On one hand it sounds awfully unique; on the other hand it does kind of sounds like you’re a three year old celebrating your mom making mac & cheese. I suppose I got no legs to stand on considering the Sabres just made some random 70s party rap their goal song. At the end of the first period I was not expecting anymore rap but was fully prepared for more yes’s. Let’s put it that way.

Those feelings are safer to have than the more bull-headed “the boys got this” in recent games. We were all pleasantly surprised in the second period. Well the Islanders were continuing doing a good job of boxing Buffalo out of the net-front the home team didn’t stop testing them there. Jeff Skinner and Jack Eichel teamed up in a wicked scoring opportunity that followed up the weirdest botched pass defensive zone turnover on the part of the visitors. That was at about 7 minutes into the middle frame and maybe by that point we started seeing chinks in the Islanders armor. It was not long after that opportunity when Jack Eichel and Jason Pominville came streaking in following an offensive zone turnover. Jack Eichel took the puck along the wall before getting it over to Pominville with perfect timing for him to just give it a little cheeky five-hole tap. Robin Lehner’s five-hole must be a parody account somewhere, right? Perhaps shockingly, the Sabres were now up 2-1. Every line was contributing to a better shots count this period for the Sabres but the CJ Smith – Vladimir Sabotka – Tage Thompson was surprisingly bad turning over the puck and generally just looking aimless in the offensive zone; bench Sabotka whenever you want, Phil. The only powerplay from either team came this period and it was in Buffalo’s favor. No luck there and you knew that. The Isles probably got more chances on the Sabres PP… woof. At some point in this stretch Rasmus Dahlin leveled Cal Clutterbuck in front of the Sabres net earning the Carubba Collision of the game. Nice. Some fans complained a lot at this game for how few calls there were. As long as it’s consistent I don’t mind and the whistles were overwhelmingly put away in this game. The defensive scheme looked better for Buffalo as this game went on and that’s a welcomed change if we’re going to make the playoffs.

The fact that Pominville scored the go-ahead goal was fun because I am about 60% certain I was sitting next to a couple Frenchmen really enjoying this game in their Sabres uniforms. However by the end of the game I am not exactly sure what language they were speaking as everyone there kind of exclaimed the same sounds of urgency. This 2-1 lead did not feel safe, especially as the Isles pushed hard in the third. The final frame felt prideful for all of us in the Linus Ullmark Fan Club. He looked like a starting goaltender in this third period, really the whole game. Eventually it would earn first star honors. He had one save against Clutterbuck that you look back on and understand hot it really saved this game for the Sabres. I don’t expect Housley to ever appoint him long-term starter explicitly but he’s getting the starts now and he’s staying hot against really good teams. That’s how you win a crease. You win games by scoring goals and although the skaters on this team have learned the dump-in and drop-pass a little more fervently than I would like they scored more goals than the visitors in the third. It was the hardest working fourth line in Hockey that yielded the insurance goal. Kyle Okposo got the puck in the slot from Zemgus Girgensons and shot it dead center on Lehner with about 2:25 left in regulation. The puck trickled through that five-hole and none other than Old man Larry Johan Larsson tapped it in: 3-1 Sabres. I’m down for Okposo’s permanent deployment on the fourth line pending his buyout in summer 2020 and I am so very down for Old Larry making his mark. The Larsson goal allowed us to breathe a sigh of relief and the boys in blue and gold played a little bit less desperately in the last two minutes. There was one Isles shot that rung off the crossbar but this one ended 3-1 in favor of the home team. I could do without chanting Lehner’s name but a win is a win and two points is two points. Nonetheless, if these are the kind of games the Sabres will play down the stretch then buy me tickets!

Speaking of tickets, the thing happened again: whether it’s pretty or not every Pegula-owned team wins when I am in attendance. What does that mean? It means buy me tickets. How many classes am I willing to miss for a Sabres playoff berth? There is no upper limit there. The Amerks won 7-1 the other night when I was there! Whether I’m there or not the Sabres got one more home game on this long home-stand Friday night against the Rangers: let’s sweep downstate, just for all the lovely downstate hockey fans that go to area colleges. It was uniquely satisfying watching those three obnoxious probably-UB-student Islanders fans leaving with a minute left in the game. Hey, it was 9:45ish at that point: they could have made it back to North Campus in time to get a late night snack at the Dining Hall. In the quest for the ever-elusive two-straight wins the other New York provides an excellent opportunity and one this Sabres team really ought to capitalize on if they’re going to be taken as serious playoff contenders down the stretch. Like, comment, and share because the Sabres ain’t done yet! If you can beat the Islanders right now you can win two in a row in the following game against the Rangers, right? Right? RIGHT!?

Thanks for reading.

P.S. My wife was having a rough day so she brought a book to read to this game. Apparently her mom brings books to baseball games. Am I mean for saying hockey is different? Or should you not bring a book to any sporting event?