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Monday marks the beginning of the end of the gold medal quest for the Canadian mens and womens curling teams. Nike Air Max 90 Dames . The rinks of Brad Jacobs and Jennifer Jones ran the gauntlet known as the Canadian curling trials, and emerged have in Sochi with the gold-medal expectations that follow every Canadian squad. The men take on Germany at 12 a.m. ET on Monday while the women face China at 5 a.m. For Jacobss Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. rink, they are tasked with completing a golden three-peat in mens curling. Meanwhile, Jones and her Winnipeg foursome are looking for Canadas first gold medal in the womens event since the late Sandra Schmirler won in Nagano in 1998. We have several features to help get you up to speed on what awaits the maple leaf-clad curlers: *Mike Harris, CBC curling commentator and skip of the Canadian Olympic curling team in Nagano, outlines which skips stand in Canadas path here. *The CBCs Colleen Jones is on the ground in Sochi and describes the mindset of both skips here. *Get to know the two Canadian teams and some interesting facts about each member in our photogallery here. *A camera crew caught up with Jacobs in his hometown for an installment of "My Team, My Town," which you can watch here. *For those of you that wonder what in the world curlers are yelling to one another, we have a handy glossary of curling terms in our Sochi Cheat Sheet right here. *And you can find the standings and full schedule of action for the womens teams right here, and the mens teams here. Adidas Sneakers Dames . Kawhi Leonard scored 20 points, Tony Parker had 16 points and 10 assists, and San Antonio rolled to a 114-97 victory over the Trail Blazers on Thursday night for a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals. Adidas Superstar 2 Dames . Though the Jets have not confirmed any updates to Scheifeles status, TSN Hockey Analyst Aaron Ward says early reports indicate he suffered an MCL injury and will likely out 6-8 weeks.RALEIGH, N.C. - The Carolina Hurricanes hope they now have the leadership tandem in place to turn the franchise around. Bill Peters was introduced Friday as the Hurricanes new coach, the first big hire made by new Carolina general manager Ron Francis. Now its up to Peters to prove it was shrewd move. Carolina has made three coaching changes since 2006 and has only one playoff appearance to show for it. "When I did my due diligence and went to look at rosters ... were not far off," Peters said. "I think theres lots of pieces here and its up to us and our coaching staff ... to max our group out." He replaces Kirk Muller, who was fired last month — a week into Francis tenure as GM — and went 80-80-27 in three seasons with no playoff berths. Instead of an established NHL head coach or a popular ex-player, Francis went with Peters — a 48-year-old Detroit Red Wings assistant who has never been an NHL head coach but was in demand this off-season. Peters said he interviewed for two other jobs and Francis says he spoke to 10 candidates during "a pretty extensive search," narrowing that to a three-man short list before deciding on Peters and giving him a three-year contract. "You have to take the time to go through it and make sure you get the right guy," Francis said, "and thats what we did." What dazzled Francis was Peters attention to detail: He penned a booklet breaking down the team and brought it to his first interview with them, and his second one included a PowerPoint presentation, Francis said. "Hes extremely, extremely detailed," Francis said. "Hes going to communicate with our players. Our players are going to know where he stands, and theres no little detail that (will) be overlooked." From the outside, his challenge looks daunting: Making the Hurricanes a consistent playoff team. Muller couldnt do it in three years. Neither could Paul Maurice, at least during his second stint with the team. Even Peter Laviollette — the only Carolina coach to hoist the Stanley Cup — couldnt get the Hurricanes back in the post-season. Adidas Zx 700 Dames. Now Peters gets his chance to try to revive a club that has missed the playoffs in seven of the eight years since the Hurricanes won their only Stanley Cup in 2006. The lone post-season berth since that Cup run came in 2009, when the Hurricanes reached the Eastern Conference final in the first year of Maurices second term as coach. Peters plan is to address three glaring problems from last season: Starting games strong, producing more on the power play and winning more often at PNC Arena. Carolina was the leagues third-worst team with the man advantage and was just 18-17-6 at home. "Weve got to become a harder team to play against here in Raleigh," Peters said. His hiring caps about two months of turbulence in the Hurricanes organization. Francis, a Hall of Fame player who has been both an assistant coach and an assistant GM with Carolina, was moved up a rung on the organizations ladder and his mentor, Jim Rutherford, stepped aside after two decades — and eventually wound up bolting to Pittsburgh to take over as the Penguins GM. Francis first big move came a week later when he fired Muller and put the players on notice that the responsibility for turning the team around is on them, too. After a 46-day search in which some recognizable names were floated, Francis plucked Peters from Mike Babcocks staff with the Red Wings. He spent the past three years working primarily with the Red Wings defencemen and penalty killers. Before joining the Red Wings staff, he coached Rockford of the AHL from 2008-11 and guiding that team to consecutive 40-win seasons. Eight of his Rockford players helped Chicago win the Cup in either 2010 or 2013, and he also coached Spokane (Washington) of the Western Hockey League for three seasons. "This is a guy that knows coaching," Francis said. ___ Follow Joedy McCreary on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joedyap cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
