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Feb 25 '19
TORONTO -- The buzz surrounding Team North America continues. Wholesale Air Max 95 For Sale .The concept of having a roster of talented players 23-and-under has even caught the attention of the veteran players in the best-on-best tournament. Talking with a few of the highest-profile players in the world, including Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos and Patrice Bergeron, all wish they had the opportunity to play for a similar-style team when they broke into the NHL as teenagers and early 20-somethings.Oh, that would have been amazing, said Bergeron. It would have been such a great experience and I would have soaked everything in. Its just a great opportunity for them to be there and obviously play against the best players, and theyre part of that, so it means theyre amazing players themselves. Were seeing something special.Stamkos, 26, has already played eight seasons in the NHL for the Tampa Bay Lightning. He said the concept of having the best players of a generation on one roster is intriguing and wishes there had been something like that for him to be part of earlier in his career.That wouldve been pretty cool, Stamkos said. You look at the skill set thats on that team, and even the last couple of years the talent in this league has grown so much that makes that team possible. Four, five, six, seven or eight years ago, I dont know if you even have enough guys that age, just the way the NHL was with a very limited number of younger guys that were playing in the league. With the talent thats come up in the last five years, it allowed them to put that team together, and not just put it together, but be competitive as weve seen in the pretournament games. Its definitely an intriguing storyline.Everyones talking about the North American team and the speed and the skill that they bring. Its an intriguing storyline thats crept into this tournament, with no one really knowing what to expect from them. Theyre not in our group, so we wont see them until the semifinals hopefully, but thats the team that has caught the pretournament by storm. It should be interesting to see how this whole tournament plays out.The landscape has changed drastically since Bergeron, 31, made his rookie debut as an 18-year-old. His rookie season with the Boston Bruins was 2003-04.Its funny, I looked at the age [difference] of every guy in the lineup for the Bruins, and a lot of guys were over 30 back then -- a lot of guys, he said. Its pretty rare now, so its changed a lot. I dont think we would have had too many [23-and-under] players.There were only eight 18-year-olds in the NHL that season: Dan Fritsche, Brent Burns, Nathan Horton, Bergeron, Milan Michalek, Dustin Brown, Eric Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury.Compared to the other seven teams in the World Cup, Crosby, 29, doesnt know what to expect from Team North America. The under-23 team is the one that everyones been talking about, and its a different dynamic there, Crosby said. Ive rarely seen a team like that before. I would say their team [is most interesting], just because of the unknown, as far as not seeing an under-23 team in a competition before, and you look at their games early on and its exactly what everyone expected. Theyre fast. Theyre confident. That whole dynamic is the one Im most interested in.Crosby admitted that he cant imagine being an 18-year-old and playing in the World Cup of Hockey without playing in an NHL game.I look at Auston Matthews, and he hasnt played a game in the NHL yet and hes stepping into the World Cup. The fact that he played [in the Swiss] pro league last year Im sure helps a little bit, but thats a big jump, and those guys look pretty comfortable for being [young] and jumping into this, Crosby said. I havent really thought about it a whole lot, but I cant imagine making that step. Once youre in it, they have a great ability to adapt, and thats gotten them to this point so early. Thats their biggest strength and theyre showing that right now. Air Max 95 Sale . Rousey will put her perfect 8-0 record and hardware on the line against another undefeated fighter, 7-0 Sara McMann in the main event of UFC 170, which will be held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas Nevada on February 22nd. Cheap Air Max 95 Free Shipping . 10 VCU 85-67 on Thursday night at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Seminoles (4-0) have scored at least 80 points in each of their games. http://www.airmax95sale.com/ . Schenn scored the game-winning goal and added two assists to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday. ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues know one of the biggest things missing in their games so far this season has been the ugly goals, the rebounds and deflections that come from putting a lot of traffic in front of the net.They finally were able to score some of those goals in a 4-1 win over Buffalo on Tuesday, and they hope they can do it again on Thursday night when they host the San Jose Sharks.It will be the first contest between the two teams since the Sharks eliminated the Blues in six games in the Western Conference final in May.Thats always the goal, left winger Jaden Schwartz said of scoring ugly goals. I think we needed to be better with the puck everywhere, especially through the neutral zone and tighten up defensively a little bit and check for our chances a little more. I thought we did a good job, I thought we created a lot of turnovers on the forecheck that allowed us to get a lot of O-zone time.Neither right winger Alexander Steen nor right winger Vladimir Tarasenko participated in the Blues practice on Wednesday. Steen had to leave Tuesday nights game after a hard check into the boards, and Tarasenko also was banged up in the contest.Coach Ken Hitchcock called it a maintenance day for both players.Hopefully well have both of them in the lineup fresh and ready to go, Hitchcock said. (Tarasenko) needed a maintenance day. Both guys needed it. We decided to switch it up aand have a full practice today and it wouldnt have done them any good so, well get them ready for tomorrow. Air Max 95 Outlet. . Both guys.The Sharks suffered a 1-0 loss at Carolina on Tuesday night, with coach Peter DeBoer saying the team did not generate enough scoring chances.You have to put pucks in good places and then you have to win battles, and we didnt do enough of either, DeBoer said.DeBoer tried to shake up his forward lines in the third period and it is possible they could go with different combinations against the Blues.I dont think anyone up front was generating much, center Logan Couture told the San Jose Mercury-News. When thats the case, coach usually tries to get a spark somehow and he certainly has the right to do that.The Blues have made a lot of changes since they lost played the Sharks, with captain David Backes signing with Boston as a free agent, Troy Brouwer joining Calgary and Brian Elliott shuffled to the Flames, but the players who remain will be motivated for the game.Theyre still one of the teams we have to worry about in this conference, defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. They didnt lose many guys from last year and have a very solid forward group. Im sure theres going to be a little bit of a bad taste in our mouth from last year. ' ' '
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