ust play a major role in Floros future plans. These two players shou

The Buffalo Sabres, the worst team in the league last season, werent expected to be better this season, but is it possible theyre even worse? Scott Cullen looks at the Sabres struggles, Bostons slow start, Tampa Bays stars and encouraging signs from a Florida rookie in Tuesdays Statistically Speaking. DUCKS DESTROY SABRES In another lopsided contest, the Buffalo Sabres fell 5-1 to the Anaheim Ducks. Shots were 44-12 in favour of Anaheim, with the Ducks getting 73 overall shot attempts to the Sabres’ 33. This was a rout. Ducks rookie C William Karlsson scored his first two NHL goals and had a team-high eight shot attempts (6 SOG) in 14:01 of ice time. Karlsson, a second-round pick in 2011, has the edge on Rickard Rakell for Anaheim’s third-line centre job. Ducks RW Jakob Silfverberg assisted on both of Karlsson’s goals and Karlsson and Silfverberg had a ridiculous game in terms of puck possession, both on for 20 shot attempts for and one against (95.2%) at even strength. Sabres D Andrej Meszaros continues to get buried. He was on for 20% (5 for, 20 against). Through three games, he’s been on for 21 shot attempts for and 69 against (23.3%). How bad are the Sabres? Through three games, they are sitting at a league-worst 34.0% Corsi (31.7% in close game situations). Last season, when the Sabres were clearly the worst team in the league, they had possession numbers in the 41.0% range during 5-on-5 close situations. All this abysmal play comes in the name of securing the services of Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel, apparently. More: Ducks LW Patrick Maroon left the game with a lower body injury after a hit by Sabres D Josh Gorges. Matt Beleskey replaced Maroon on left wing with Getzlaf and Perry…Ducks C Ryan Kesler won 16 of 20 draws (80.0%)…Sabres D Josh Gorges had eight shot attempts, seven were blocked and one missed the net…Sabres continue to make 19-year-old D Nikita Zadorov a healthy scratch… The Ducks’ defence pairing of Cam Fowler and Ben Lovejoy were both on for better than 85% of the shot attempts at even strength. LAST-SECOND WIN Avalanche RW Daniel Briere scored the game-winning goal in the final second of the third period in Colorado’s 2-1 win Monday afternoon. Briere played 17:57 in the game, a total he surpassed twice in 69 regular-season games with Montreal last season. LW Alex Tanguay (19:38) and C Nathan MacKinnon (18:10) were the only Avs forwards to play more than Briere. Bruins RW Seth Griffith played 16:10 in his NHL debut for Boston, skating with David Krejci and Milan Lucic. It was also Krejci’s first game of the season, as injury kept him out of the first three. The Bruins have managed four goals in four games, and while it does need to be noted that Krejci missed the first three, the Bruins aren’t generating nearly as many attempts in the early going. Bruins Declining Shot Attempts YEAR CF/60 LG RANK 2011-12 59.8 1 2012-13 61.7 2 2013-14 58.3 6 2014-15 47.9 22 CF/60 - Shot attempts per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play. That inability to generate shots has apparently been some cause for concern as the Bruins have signed LW Simon Gagne, demoting both Jordan Caron and Bobby Robins to the AHL. While Gagne’s production had declined – 29 goals, 73 points in 135 regular-season games over his last three seasons (2010-2013) – he’s remained a positive possession player. More: Avalanche G Reto Berra stopped 27 of 28 shots for the win; Bruins G Niklas Svedberg stopped 28 of 30 shots…Avalanche D Tyson Barrie had a team-high seven shot attempts (4 SOG)… Bruins C Patrice Bergeron played 15:41 – the second time in four games that he’s played fewer than 16 minutes. LIGHTNING STRIKE CANADIENS, OVER AND OVER AGAIN Lightning D Victor Hedman and C Steven Stamkos highlighted an impressive 7-1 Lightning win over the visiting Montreal Canadiens. Hedman had a goal and three assists and is the league’s leading scorer with seven points in three games. That pace is obviously not going to continue, but Hedman turned up his offensive contribution last season and that has continued early this year. Stamkos had a hat trick with 12 shots on goal (14 shot attempts). Hurricanes LW Jeff Skinner is the only player in the past three seasons to record more than 12 shots on goal in a game (13 vs. Buffalo March 13, 2014) and it has happened a total of 13 times in the past 10 years. Canadiens G Carey Price was yanked after allowing four goals on 23 shots through two periods. Dustin Tokarski surrendered three goals on 18 Lightning shots in the third. That the Lightning, already holding a three-goal lead, put 18 shots on the Habs’ net was indicative of their total game dominance. Lightning D Radko Gudas had team-leading possession stats (18 shot attempts for, 8 against, 69.2%) despite starting 25.0% of his even-strength shifts in the offensive zone. He spent much of his night matched against the Canadiens’ top line and held his own (9 for, 8 against), but didn’t allow a shot attempt against in all of his other shifts. More: Ben Bishop stopped 16 of 17 shots… Lightning RW Ryan Callahan and C Vladislav Namestnikov had a goal and an assist…Lightning RW Nikita Kucherov picked up a couple of assists. FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN FLORIDA Craig Anderson stopped all 30 shots he faced in a 1-0 Senators win at Florida, in front of a (generously) announced crowd of 7,311. The Panthers’ line of LW Tomas Kopecky (14 shot attempts for, 4 against), C Derek MacKenzie (12 for, 5 against, 70.6%) and RW Jimmy Hayes (13 for, 5 against, 72.2%) had a strong possession game, with their biggest difference-making shifts coming against Ottawa’s second line of LW Bobby Ryan, C Mika Zibanejad and RW Alex Chiasson, who all finished under 27% possession for the game. Panthers rookie D Aaron Ekblad played 23:24, second only to Brian Campbell (26:23) among Florida’s skaters. Being paired with Campbell certainly helps, but the first three games of Ekblad’s career have yielded positive results, including strong possession stats (45 shot attempts for, 37 against, 54.9%). More: Roberto Luongo stopped 22 of 23 shots…Senators D Erik Karlsson recorded a game-high seven shot attempts (4 SOG), playing a game-high 27:23...Senators scratched D Jared Cowen and rookie forwards Curtis Lazar and Mike Hoffman. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca Custom St. Louis Cardinals Jerseys .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Harrison Bader Jersey . The 30-year-old Kottaras served as Kansas Citys backup catcher last season after being claimed off waivers from Oakland in January. https://www.cheapcardinalsonline.com/944t-matt-wieters-jersey-cardinals.html . Marian Gaborik had two goals and an assist and Martin Jones made just 17 saves to record his fourth shutout of the season as the Kings snapped a three-game losing skid with a 3-0 victory over the lowly Oilers on Thursday. Marcell Ozuna Cardinals Jersey . 5 Trade Deadline is drawing closer and teams will be deciding on whether to buy or sell. John Gant Cardinals Jersey .Steamboat Ski Resort contends Steamboat Springs, Colorado has long been known as Ski Town, U.S.A., and claims in a new lawsuit that Salt Lake tourism officials violated their trademark when they rolled out the Ski City marketing campaign last month.Three hundred-and-sixty-five days. That is how long it has been since Canadas mens national team were humiliated 8-1 in their final World Cup qualifying match in Honduras. Since that embarrassing defeat, the mens team has played 11 competitive games. The stats from those 11 games read as follows: zero wins, eight losses, three draws, one goal scored and sixteen goals conceded. It is impossible to put a positive spin on that. The grim reality is that our fortunes at the international level are not going to improve any time soon. Until we have a larger pool of players getting regular minutes at their respective professional clubs, we will never be able to compete at the international level. We just dont have the depth of talent needed to do so. A case in point: Toronto FC midfielder Kyle Bekker has played more games for Canadas mens national team in 2013 than he has for Toronto FC. In no successful soccer nation in the world does this happen. Yet because we have so few professional players from which to select our national team, we are left with no choice. If new head coach Benito Floro didnt know what he was getting himself into when he took the job, he surely does now. Experimental lineups against Mauritania (twice) and Australia yielded no goals, one draw and two losses. In those three games, he utilized virtually every eligible player at his disposal with a few exceptions (like Montreal Impact midfielder, Patrice Bernier, or Real Salt Lake skipper, Will Johnson.) There isnt a pipeline of young players being churned out by the three Canadian MLS clubs. Young players like Bekker cant even get a game at their club team, so how can Floro rely on them to deliver at the unforgiving international level? Its very simple - he cant. So what option does Floro have? Well, he isnt going to turn our mens team into free-flowing masters of tiki-taka football overnight. In fact, hes never going to have that effect on our team. We are what we are and, if Floro were wise, he will look to the past to see a way to bridge to the future. Canadas mens teams have always been extremely disciplined and well-organized. They have always had strong goalkeepers, resilient and reliable defenders, and hard-working midfielders. The current lack of goal-scoring punch is simply the status quo - we have never developed especially prollific goal scorers - and that isnt going to change.dddddddddddd But where Floro can really impact the current group is on the defensive side of the game. The goals that were conceded against Australia were very poor by international standards. Moving forward, it is essential for Floro to spend what little time he has with his players working on their defensive understanding. You simply cannot win games when you concede sloppy goals and Canada must get back to being hard to play against. From there, Canada needs to employ a strategy that utilizes quick transitions - both from defending to attacking and vice-versa. The influence of players like Johnson and Atiba Hutchinson cannot be underestimated in this area; both are vital components of the spine of Floros team. Johnson has blossomed into an all-star in Major League Soccer, leading the Portland Timbers to the top of the Western Conference standings. He is an agitator in midfield, but is also capable of getting his fair share of goals - he has eight this season, a career best. Hutchinson is Canadas best player. Currently playing for Besiktas in Turkey, Hutchinson has grown as a player since moving to Europe in 2003. Now, with 10 years of top flight football under his belt, Hutchinson must play a major role in Floros future plans. These two players should be the central midfield fulcrum around which Floros team is built. At 26 (Johnson) and 30 (Hutchinson,) they are in the prime years of their careers and will thrive in roles of responsibility. At the back, David Edgar should be first choice at central defense and finding him a consistent partner must be a priority. While he still has a ways to go, I have always believed that Adam Straith could one day develop into that player. Doneil Henry is still very raw and making the mistakes at the club level that every 20-year-old makes, so rushing him before he is ready would be a mistake. A solid spine is essential in any well-organized team, and these four positions are crucial to Floros chances of turning things in the right direction. It is by no means the finished article and there are a number of holes that Floro will need to address if the team is to find success during his tenure. But with no wins in eleven games and only one goal over that span, Floro needs to start somewhere. ' ' '