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The Vancouver Canucks, who struggled into the Olympic break, will try to restart their season on a positive note as they host The St. Alex Rodriguez Shirts . Louis Blues The Canucks may have needed the break more than any team as they went into the hiatus having lost seven in a row, including a winless five-game road trip to close out the pre-Olympic schedule. Vancouver has lost seven in a row in regulation for the first time since Dec. 26-Jan. 6 during the 1998-99 campaign and is on its longest skid of any kind since going 0-5-3 from Jan. 9-31, 2009. The Canucks have 63 points on the season, one back of Phoenix and Dallas for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. The break did allow Henrik Sedin some additional time to heal from a rib injury that has held him to just two games since Jan. 18 and caused him to sit out the Olympics. "Henrik is landing this morning," head coach John Tortorella told reporters on Wednesday morning. "We hope hell play tonight." However, forward Ryan Kesler wont play tonight due to a hand injury suffered while blocking a shot for Team USA on Feb. 15. He did not miss time during the Olympics, but had an MRI on Monday and is day-to-day. Vancouver recalled center Kellan Lain from the American Hockey League on Monday. Eddie Lack will get the start in goal. Regardless, the Canucks will look to get on track while playing their next three as the home team. That includes March 2 in the Heritage Classic versus Ottawa to be played at BC Place, which features a retractable roof. The Canucks have won two prior meetings with the Blues this season and are 5-0-2 in the last seven encounters overall. Vancouver also is 3-0-1 in its past four versus St. Louis at home. T.J. Oshie had one of the more memorable experiences during the Winter Olympics, even if the American was unable to get his country a medal. Oshie was part of a Team USA squad that failed to medal in Sochi, though the 27-year-old was briefly the talk of the Olympics after he scored four times during an eight-round shootout to help lift the U.S. to a win over Russia during group play. The forward became a media sensation and U.S. hero for his clutch performance, though he fizzled out like the rest of Team USA, which failed to beat Canada in the semifinals before falling in defeat to Finland in the bronze medal game. "It was pretty crazy after that shootout. Its all a little bitter now that we get back and have nothing to show for it, but it was a pretty cool couple of days after that seeing some of my family on some major TV shows and stuff like that," said Oshie. The Blues do return a number of players who collected medals in Sochi, including gold medal-winning defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester of Team Canada as well as forwards Alexander Steen and Patrik Berglund, who picked up silver with Sweden. Steen continued his solid campaign that has seen him score a career-high 28 goals through just 46 games on the season. St. Louis comes out of the break having gone 3-0-1 in its previous four while winning seven of its last 10. The Blues are even with the idle Chicago Blackhawks for the top spot in the Central standings with 84 points, three behind the Anaheim Ducks for the most in the NHL. The Blues play their next three on the road looking to maintain that success, something Oshie believes his club can do. "I think so. Weve got some guys coming off some pretty big highs, getting a gold and silver medal, and weve got some other guys like myself and (forward David) Backes that are fired up we didnt get anything," Oshie said. "I feel like after big losses like that, it inspires you to work harder. Its always easy coming back to this group of guys." Bernie Williams Shirts . Ekblad led all defencemen with 23 goals and finished tied for fifth in scoring among blue-liners with 53 points in 58.C.C. Sabathia Shirts . -- The basic role that Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito shared as offensive linemen for the Miami Dolphins was protecting quarterback Ryan Tannehill.CALGARY -- Ben Bishops breakout season continued Friday night. Bishop made 19 saves for his fourth shutout of the season as the Tampa Bay Lightning, on goals from rookies Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov, won 2-0 over the Calgary Flames. Bishop, who stands six-foot-seven, has picked up points in 10 straight games (8-0-2) and is 22-5-2 on the season. He is tied with Bostons Tuukka Rask for the lead in shutouts and is one back of Pittsburghs Marc-Andre Fleury for the most wins. "That might have been one of our best games of the year from start to finish," said Bishop. "Seemed like we had the puck most of the game. The big thing tonight is we never took our foot off the gas. We played a full 60 minutes." Bishop shrugged off any disappointment in not being named to the U.S. Olympic team on Wednesday. "I just want to go out there and play my game. I thought the guys did a great job in front of me, made it easy on me," said Bishop, who has seven shutouts in 76 career games. Lightning coach Jon Cooper complimented Bishop for how he handled the situation in which the three goalies selected by USA Hockey were Los Angeles Jonathan Quick, Buffalos Ryan Miller and Detroits Jimmy Howard. "I understand the decision USA hockey made, I completely do. They went with some experienced guys that had proven track records," Cooper said. "Im really happy with way hes responded. Im sure a lot of guys would hang their head and say poor me and all hes done is elevate his game. Its a testament to his character." On the season, Bishop had the NHLs top save percentage at .936 and he ranks third with a 1.83 goals-against average. "Bens been the answer for 41 games so far this year and hopefully he can continue to play the way hes been playing," Cooper said. In the midst of a on a 7-1-1 roll, the win moves Tampa Bay (25-12-4) within two points of the Atlantic Division-leading Boston Bruins. "Ive watched this team grow from an offensive-minded , which the organization has been for a while, into a team that says you better get more than two goals on us to beat us. Its a formula that you can win with," Cooper said. Calgary (14-21-6) wraps up a five-game homestand with four straight regulation losses. It started with much promise as the Flames posted a dramatic 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the St. Louis Blues in the last game before Christmas. Since the break, the offence has all but dried up with Calgary only scoring one goal, by rookie Sean p;Monahan, in the last 245 minutes five seconds. Mark Teixeira Shirts. "Were not good enough. Weve got to find a way to generate more," said Flames captain Mark Giordano. "Every mistake right now is magnified because were not scoring goals. Were wasting pretty good efforts from our goaltenders." The Flames got defenceman Dennis Wideman back after he missed 16 games with a broken hand but even with his presence on the power play, Calgary couldnt connect going 0 for 5 with the man advantage. "Its extremely frustrating," said Flames winger Lee Stempniak. "We definitely feel like were letting the goaltenders down. Theyve played great. Every game, theyve kept us in it and given us a chance. Its definitely a disappointing feeling for the 18 skaters out there letting them down." Both Lightning goals in the second period came less than 10 seconds after minor penalties to veteran Calgary forward Mike Cammalleri had expired. Teddy Purcell found Palat open in the slot and he sent a quick wrist shot into the top corner on Karri Ramo at 5:23. Five minutes later, Kucherov scored with a wrist shot off a setup from Palat. Palat extends his points streak to five games (two goals, four assists). "I feel like every game, my confidence is getting better," said the 22-year-old from the Czech Republic. "We have a young team but we play fast, we play good. Even without Stammer (Steven Stamkos), hes a big player to be missing, were just playing good." Making his first start in five games, Ramo was excellent for the Flames. Playing against the team that drafted him in 2006, Ramo was perfect on 13 shots in the first period, keeping Calgary in the game. He made 27 saves on the game in falling to 6-7-3. He was especially sharp in the third period too. As Calgary pressed to get back into the game, the Lightning were able to counter with some dangerous chances including three breakaways, each of them stopped. Notes: Tampa Bay is 13-7-4 since Stamkos (broken leg) has been out of the lineup. Stamkos is back skating with full equipment now and is nearing a return ... Calgary LW Lance Bouma (ill) did not dress ... The Lightning improved to 16-1-1 when they score first ... The Flames have just two regulation time wins in their last 30 games. Theyve won seven games in overtime or a shootout during that stretch ... Cammalleri was a minus-2 to fall to minus-21 on the season, which is second last in the NHL ahead of only Edmontons Nail Yakupov (minus-25). wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
