by ldh2013 » Tue Jun 21, 2016 8:14 am
The Vancouver Canucks (22-12-3) look for back-to-back wins for the first time since Christmas when they host the New York Islanders (26-12-1) tonight at Rogers Arena. . TSN1040 pregame coverage begins at 5pm. John Abbott and Dave Tomlinson have the call at 7pm. The Canucks are coming off a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday and have alternated wins and losses in their past five games. One day after his 27th birthday, Eddie Lack looks like he will make his first start since a 2-0 loss to Dallas on December 17th. His last victory was a 3-0 shutout in Pittsburgh on December 4. Lack has faced the Islanders once in his career -- March 10 when New York scored seven times in the third period (six on Lack and an empty netter) -- on route to a 7-4 victory. Radim Vrbata has scored in three straight games and now has 16 goals on the season. The Canucks are hoping his scoring touch rubs off on new linemates Nick Bonino and Chris Higgins tonight. Alex Burrows returns to his familiar spot replacing Vrbata on right wing with Daniel and Henrik Sedin. The Canucks power play has exploded for seven goals in the last 16 opportunities (43.8%) over the past six games. Saturday against the Wings was the team’s sixth multi power play goal game of the season. Last season, the Canucks managed five multi-PPG games all year. The Canucks have opened the scoring in six straight games and have trailed for just 74 seconds of the last 363 minutes of hockey they’ve played (they trailed the final 1:14 in a 3-2 loss to Los Angeles on New Year’s Day). The Islanders arrive in Vancouver coming off a 5-2 loss in Edmonton on Sunday night. Despite the setback in the Alberta capital, the Isles are 7-2-1 in their last 10 and still share the NHL lead for wins (26) with Anaheim, Chicago and Montreal. This is the middle game of seven straight away from home. Former Canuck Michael Grabner returns tonight after missing nine games with a lower body injury. He is expected to be slotted in on the team’s top line with John Tavares and Kyle Okposo. Josh Bailey will be a healthy scratch. Jaro Halak gets the start in goal. He is 18-3 in his last 21 decisions. The Isles are led in scoring by John Tavares who makes just his third visit to Vancouver. He missed last year’s game with a knee injury suffered at the Sochi Olympics. As a 19-year-old, Tavares had two goals and five points in his first ever game against the Canucks in Vancouver. Like the Canucks, the Isles power play is red-hot, going seven for its past 20 (35%) and scoring two power play goals in three of the past four games. The Isles are a remarkable 17-2-1 in one-goal games. They are 7-2 in regulation, 4-0 in overtime and 6-1 in shootouts. The Islanders have the league’s top two hitters – Matt Martin leads the NHL with 177 hits, while Cal Clutterbuck is second with 158. Derek Dorsett is tops on the Canucks with 84. . The third-ranked Lewis, a three-time winner this year on the LPGA Tour, had an 11-under 205 total in the Ladies European Tours season-ending event. She had three birdies and a bogey at Emirates Golf Course a day after making eight birdies in a 65. .com) - Devin Booker scored 19 points and top-ranked Kentucky put on a defensive clinic in an 83-44 obliteration of UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic. . With the players association in the midst of meetings in Las Vegas, a vote will be held on Friday to decide the CFLPAs presidency and other executive positions.INDIANAPOLIS - Jadeveon Clowney wants NFL scouts to rethink their draft strategy. Instead of settling for one of those glitzy, franchise quarterbacks, hes urging teams to build a fast, physical defence that can stop all those high-powered offences, and he has the perfect suggestion about where to start. Himself. "Thats one of my goals here, to go No. 1," this years top-rated defensive end said softly Saturday at the NFLs scouting combine. "I came out of high school as the No. 1 player so I want to come out of here as the No. 1 guy." Nobody doubts the former South Carolina star has the physical tools to go No. 1 in May. He measured in Saturday at 6-foot-5 1/4, 266 pounds, with an 83-inch wingspan and hopes to finish the 40-yard dash in the 4.4s, maybe the low 4.5s if hes a little off. With numbers like that, its no wonder Clowney is projected to go in the top five in May. But going ahead of quarterbacks such as Johnny Manziel, Blake Bortles and Teddy Bridgewater will take a lot more than athleticism. The biggest questions Clowney will answer this week focus on his work ethic and desire, and it sure didnt help when he missed Friday nights first round of team interviews because of travel problems. He said he drove from Columbia, S.C., to Charlotte, N.C., to avoid one two-hour delay only to run into another 2 1/2-hour delay. While coaches and team executives may excuse Clowneys tardy arrival, they still need to find out whether theyll be drafting the guy who delivered that helmet-dislodging, highlight-making hit on Michigans Vincent Smith in the 2013 Outback Bowl or the guy critics believe was more concerned with protecting his draft stock than winning games in 2013. Clowney insisted he was the same guy, though he did admit he would have left school after his sophomore season — if NFL rules would have allowed it. "I believe I did work hard. You pull out any practice tape from last year, youll see that," Clowney said. "Ill tell everybody that. I will always be working hard. No matter where I end up I am going to work hard and give a team everything Ive got." The numbers and words seem to tell a different tale. He finished 2012 with 54 tackles and 13 sacks. And despite the lofty expectations from college football fans after that eye-poppiing hit, Clowney finished 2013 with 40 tackles and only three sacks. . What happened is a matter of perception. Some believe Clowney did not go all-out following a public debate about whether it was even worth it for him to play in 2013. Try telling that to those who had to block Clowney. "I dont think he took a play off," Missouri tackle Justin Britt said. "If he did, I didnt see it." But inside the Gamecocks program, there were signs something was amiss. In October, coach Steve Spurrier expressed frustration that the injured Clowney waited too long to tell coaches he couldnt play. Then, this week, on the eve of the combine, Spurrier told NFL Network that Clowneys work ethic was "OK," rekindling talk about Clowneys desire to excel at football. Not surprisingly, it was still a hot topic when Clowney took the podium at Lucas Oil Stadium with a huge crowd of reporters seeking answers to the same questions as team executives. Clowney started the explanation by saying opponents relied on shorter, quicker passes to slow down South Carolinas pass rush and then defended his effort. "There were a lot of ups and downs, but we won eleven games, were 11-2, won our bowl game, finished No. 4 in the country for the first time in South Carolina history so I was pretty excited about the season," Clowney said. "I wasnt really worried about my stats, I just wanted to win." Instead, Clowney contends the bigger problem was the artificially high level of expectations going into the season. But now Clowney must convince coaches, scouts and team executives the guy they watched in 2012 was the same guy they saw on film in 2013 and will continue to be the same guy they can build a defence around. And to jump back up the draft board into position for the top spot, Clowney understands he has to convince teams he means what he says. "I just want to be the best, one of the greatest of all time," he said. "Coming out of high school, I said I wanted to be one of the best in college and I think I proved that. Going to the NFL, I want to be one of the best in the NFL, go down in history as one of the best, so I have another stepping stone in my way and hopefully I can take care of business and accomplish that in the NFL." ' ' '
