Goalie Ray Emery Backstops Blackhawks Surge in Standings

Goalie Ray Emery Backstops Blackhawks Surge in Standings http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Last season the Chicago Blackhawks were defending Stanley Cup Champions in name only. The hard salary cap in the NHL forced the team to dispose of many of the players responsible for the championship, including goaltender Anti Niemi. The Hawks sank to eighth in the Western Conference last spring and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Vancouver Canucks.

This season has been a different story for the surging Hawks. With about one-third of the season passed, Chicago is second in the West behind the surprising Minnesota Wild. And one of the main reasons for the team’s success is goaltender Ray Emery.

Ray Emery, 29, joined the Blackhawks during training camp with no guarantees about making the team. In 2010 he was struck with avascular necrosis, the same hip condition that ended Bo Jackson’s football career and severely hampered him in baseball. Doctors were able to stop the spread of the condition and after a stint in the minors returned in March 2011 with the Anaheim Ducks, where he had a 7-2 record, 2.28 goals against average and a .926 save percentage.

The Blackhawks kept Emery, originally as a backup to Corey Crawford. Crawford came up through the Chicago system and had a good year in 2010-11 in his first shot as the Hawks’ regular netminder. Unfortunately for Crawford, he had trouble stopping pucks and after 23 games he had a goals-against-average of greater than three and had stopped fewer than 90 percent of shots that had come his way. This provided Emery with the opening he needed, and he didn’t let Chicago down.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville noted that, “every game Emery has started for us he has earned points, except for the one game which was our toughest as a team the whole year [a 9-2 loss in Edmonton].” Crawford, meanwhile, is taking a break from games and working with Chicago goaltending coach Stephane Waite.

Ray Emery remains humble despite the recent turn of events. After stopping 35 of 37 shots in a 3-2 overtime victory over the San Jose Sharks, Emery demurred when asked about his claim to the starting position. “I think it might be an opportunity to give [Crawford] a bit of a rest,” he said. “Maybe that’s what my contribution can be to a successful playoff team — is having a fresh goalie.”

Besides a fresh goalie, Emery is also a seasoned goalie at the NHL level. In 2007 he was the starting goaltender for the Ottawa Senators club that went to the Stanley Cup finals before losing to Anaheim in five games. He has also logged NHL time with the Philadelphia Flyers, where he tied Hall of Famer Bernie Parent’s team record with 12 wins in a month in March of 2006.

Ray Emery spent the 2008-09 season with Atlant Moscow in the Russian Kontinental League when he received a $ 2 million contract. He returned to the Flyers after one season when the devaluation of the ruble led to an unexpected cut in his salary.

As the NHL season moves on it will be interesting to see how the Crawford-Emery situation plays out in Chicago. It’s the home-bred goalie versus the well-traveled veteran. Normally in that situation the home grown player has the advantage, but Ray Emery is putting up impressive numbers and generating wins for the Blackhawks. In professional sports we have reached the point where winning trumps all. Regal is excited about Ray Emery’s prospects in the windy city.

Paul Hirsch is a writer for ; Regal Black Mens Magazine

The publication focuses on ; African American Community News Politics Sports Health

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Visit to read about ; Ray Emery

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Pete Carroll, Richard Sherman meet to discuss sideline rant

Pete Carroll, Richard Sherman meet to discuss sideline rant http://ift.tt/2i0brVP

Pete Carroll, Richard Sherman meet to discuss sideline rant

Pete Carroll revealed he and Richard Sherman met for an hour on Friday morning to clear the air over an ugly sideline incident during the Seattle Seahawks’ 24-3 win on Thursday night over the Los Angeles Rams.

Sherman was seen on the sideline shouting at Carroll and Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell after the offense opted to run a pass play from the 1-yard line.

Carroll says he and Sherman hashed things out during the meeting.

“I just spent an hour with him, and we’ve been through it,” Carroll said on 710 ESPN Seattle. “I love Richard. I just flat-out love the dude, and I’ve been with him through so much and watched him grow and do so many unbelievable things. We made it through it. He knows that wasn’t right. He’s just so fiery, and we’ve seen him before. He’ll speak for himself on that. But I feel very good about where he is right now. We’re going to be all right.

“It was too bad. It was a distraction to the game. And that’s not the way it’s supposed to go.”

Pete Carroll revealed he and Richard Sherman met for an hour on Friday morning to clear the air over some ugliness that played out on the sideline during the Seattle Seahawks’ 24-3 win on Thursday night over the Los Angeles Rams.

Sherman was seen on the sideline shouting at Carroll and Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell after the offense opted to run a pass play from the 1-yard line.

“I just spent an hour with him, and we’ve been through it,” Carroll said on 710 ESPN Seattle. “I love Richard. I just flat-out love the dude, and I’ve been with him through so much and watched him grow and do so many unbelievable things. We made it through it. He knows that wasn’t right. He’s just so fiery, and we’ve seen him before. He’ll speak for himself on that. But I feel very good about where he is right now. We’re going to be all right.

“It was too bad. It was a distraction to the game. And that’s not the way it’s supposed to go.”

What drew Sherman’s ire most about the play in question is it provided a stark reminder of when Russell Wilson was intercepted while running a pass play from the 1-yard line in Super Bowl XLIX. The pick of course clinched the championship for the New England Patriots.

“I’m upset about us throwing from the 1,” Sherman said after the game. “I’d rather do what most teams would do, making a conscientious decision to run the ball.

“I was letting [Carroll] know. We’ve already seen how that goes,” referencing the infamous Wilson pick.

Carroll appears inclined to let Sherman’s sideline antics slide this time to a certain extent. But Carroll wasn’t about to allow his “fiery” cornerback off without a stern talking-to, that much appears certain. What’s more, Carroll made it clear in his public remarks that such outbursts aren’t acceptable.

Simply put, when it comes to the sight of a player berating a coach or coaches, the optics of it all aren’t all that flattering for all parties involved.

Published at Fri, 16 Dec 2016 20:24:59 +0000

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Desbiens taking pursuit of national title, Olympic spot one game at a time

Desbiens taking pursuit of national title, Olympic spot one game at a time http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Desbiens taking pursuit of national title, Olympic spot one game at a time

The senior season for a collegiate hockey player can be emotional. After having lived in arenas the last four years and with how the schedule works out, a final season becomes a farewell tour in slow motion. That’s the case for University of Wisconsin goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens, who has spent her NCAA career frustrating opposing forwards and setting records for the Badgers.

“I don’t know where it went, but it’s definitely hard to know that it’s the last weekend that I’ll be at Ohio State, it’s my last weekend here or there,” Desbiens said as the team prepared to split for winter break. “I feel like every single weekend is the last one for one thing.”

In her junior season, Desbiens set the women’s single-season records for shutouts (21), save percentage (.960) and goals-against average (0.76). This year, with six shutouts in 12 games, she’s grabbed the all-time career shutout record for NCAA hockey—men’s or women’s. She passed former Minnesota Gopher Noora Räty at No. 44, and she’s already up to 46 with half the season still remaining.

Desbiens has exceeded expectations placed on her when she arrived in Madison from La Malbaie, Quebec as a freshman in 2013-14. Despite sharing the workload with U.S. national team goalie Alex Rigsby in her rookie campaign, Desbiens started 11 games and had a team-leading .957 save percentage to go with an 11-1 record. 

As much as any program, the Badgers have a history of outstanding goaltending. Under coach Mark Johnson, Wisconsin has provided a college hockey home to Olympian Jessie Vetter, as well as Rigsby, who led Team USA to gold at the 2015 and 2016 World Championship. Getting the starting gig in Madison comes with high expectations, but Desbiens slotted in seamlessly.

“I feel like I had pretty big shoes to fill when I came here,” Desbiens said. “We had Alex and before there was Jessie, so I wouldn’t say it put a lot of pressure, it’s more like a challenge. 

“[It] was one thing I was looking forward to personally. I was just playing and trying to be the best I could. Having big shoes to fill made it even better. Having to push myself even more because I knew what the coach and the team was expected from a goalie here. I just wanted to make sure I did my role.”

During her tenure, the Badgers have been frustratingly close to a national championship every season, maybe never closer than in 2015-16. They beat the rival Gophers for the WCHA title and then met again, one game removed in the NCAA tournament in the Frozen Four. Desbiens allowed just two goals on 36 shots, but the game required overtime. Despite two power plays in the extra period, the Badgers lost to the eventual champs.

It was tense but frustratingly familiar. In all of Desbiens’s first three seasons with the Badgers, they’ve fallen in the semifinals to the Gophers, with her in net for two of those three games.

“I feel like every year I’ve been here, we have had lessons to learn in the process. I think that just made us better,” she says. “I think [a national championship is] definitely something that we want. Every player in the league wants to win the national championship in her career. But I would say that right now we’re more focusing on one game at a time because you can’t really control the outcome at the end. We can focus on our process and strive to get better every game.”

This year, the Badgers are determined to capitalize on the convergence of a strong core of upperclassmen, a record-setting goaltender, and maybe the best rookie class in the nation, highlighted by first-year standouts Abby Roque and Presley Norby. They’re both adapting to the speed of the college game quickly. “Our freshmen class has been really good. It just shows how much depth we have on this team,” said Desbiens.

The Badgers have been ranked No. 1 in the nation since preseason polls and heading into the winter break they’re taking 18 of 19 first-place votes in the USA Today/USA Hockey Poll. But Desbiens know how little regular season success can mean. “We still need to be sharp every game because you never know what’s going to happen,” she says. “Especially when you get toward the playoffs. It only matters one game at a time. We can’t just sit back and be like, ‘Oh, we did well.’ We need to keep pushing ourselves. Every team has things to improve on and we do too.”

Desbiens takes that approach with everything on her plate. She’s chasing a national championship, but she’ll spend winter break skating with Team Canada at the newly minted December Series, a two-game set of friendlies against the U.S. It’s one of the last opportunities she’ll have to don the maple leaf before Hockey Canada determines the roster for the 2017 World Championship in Plymouth, Michigan. That roster is an honor in itself, but it’s also a massive step toward being on the 2018 Olympic roster, which convenes in the fall of 2017. 

That’s enough to cause a panic attack for most. But Desbiens is moving game by game. “Playing with the best players and against the best players in the world, that’s an amazing opportunity,” she says. “But I feel like I also need to focus here. We have a lot of things to accomplish as a team and that’s going to help me grow as a person, as an athlete, and as a goalie. 

“I feel like I have to [draw] a line. When I’m with Team Canada, I need to focus on them and when I come back here, I need to focus on the Badgers and do the best I can here too.”  

As much as any team in the nation, the Badgers are poised for tournament success. Desbiens and the upperclassmen have learned valuable lessons along the way and are ready to lead the team past previous stumbling blocks. “In the game of hockey, that’s the one thing you need to know about,” Desbiens says. “You need to show up every game and play.”

Published at Sat, 17 Dec 2016 06:26:14 +0000

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Aroldis Chapman Says Joe Maddon Overused Him in Cubs’ Title Run

Aroldis Chapman Says Joe Maddon Overused Him in Cubs’ Title Run http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Aroldis Chapman Says Joe Maddon Overused Him in Cubs’ Title Run

If Manager Joe Girardi’s ironclad, by-the-book protocol leaves some Yankees fans gnashing their teeth from time to time, it feels like a security blanket to Aroldis Chapman.

Chapman, who recently signed a five-year, $86 million contract to return to the Yankees — where he spent the first half of last season as their closer before being dealt to the Chicago Cubs for prospects — made it clear on Friday that despite winning a World Series in Chicago he never quite took to the unpredictable ways of Cubs Manager Joe Maddon in the postseason.

“Personally I don’t agree with the way he used me,” said Chapman, speaking through an interpreter in a conference call with reporters the day after his signing became official. “But he is the manager and he had the strategy, you know?”

Chapman said what bothered him most was being kept in Game 6 of the World Series to pitch the start of the ninth inning with the Cubs holding a 9-2 lead — after he had thrown 42 pitches two nights earlier for an eight-out save in Game 5. In Game 7 the following night, Chapman’s fastball velocity dipped precipitously, and he allowed a tying home run to the Indians’ Rajai Davis before the Cubs won in 10 innings.

“The important game was going to be Game 7,” Chapman said of the Game 6 decision. “We had that game almost won. And the next day I came in and I was tired.”

Maddon said before Game 7 that he should not have allowed Chapman, who had entered Game 6 in the seventh inning with the Cubs up, 7-2, to remain in the game in the ninth. Chapman finally departed after walking the leadoff batter.

But it might not have been just Game 6 that bothered Chapman. Maddon also frequently asked Chapman to pitch earlier in games and to enter in the middle of innings, something Chapman prefers not to do.

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Chapman — who gave up three leads in the regular season for the Yankees and Cubs — ended up blowing three saves in the postseason. In addition to the Game 7 failure in the World Series, he gave up a tying two-run triple to San Francisco’s Conor Gillaspie in Game 3 of a National League division series and allowed a tying two-run single to the Dodgers’ Adrian Gonzalez in the National League Championship Series opener.

In that game, Chapman entered in the top of the eighth with the bases loaded and no one out. He struck out Corey Seager and Yasiel Puig but could not get past Gonzalez.

Chapman told Maddon shortly after he arrived in Chicago, where he quickly blew an eighth-inning save, that he preferred to pitch only the ninth. But he also told Maddon he would pitch whenever the manager wanted. They largely stuck to that plan — until the postseason.

“I never told him my opinion about the way he was using me because the way I feel is that, as baseball players, we’re warriors,” Chapman said, referring to the postseason. “Our job is to do what we need to do on the field. But if they send me out there to pitch, I’m going to go out there and pitch. If I’m healthy, I’m going to go out there and pitch. If I’m tired, I’m going to put that aside and just get through it.”

In many ways, Chapman echoed comments made by his new teammate Adam Warren, who was traded to the Cubs last winter and then returned to the Yankees in the July trade for Chapman. Whereas Girardi typically has well-defined roles for his relievers, Maddon reacts more to the particular situation his team faces in a game.

“Not really knowing when you’re coming in — that was the hardest thing, the unpredictability,” Warren said in July after he was back in the Bronx.

Chapman said that Miami, where he makes his home, made a strong offer to sign him to a long-term deal this off-season but that he was concerned that Jeffrey Loria, the Marlins’ owner, had a history of conducting fire sales.

“Sometimes they change their team a lot, and I wanted to have a stable team of young players where I could feel at home,” said Chapman, 28, who added that the opt-out option in his new contract — he can walk away after three years — came at the suggestion of his agent.

Chapman also said he appreciated how the Yankees treated him when they acquired him last December while he was the subject of a domestic violence investigation. (Eventually, Major League Baseball suspended him for 30 games at the start of the 2016 season.) He said he was still undergoing counseling, as mandated by baseball’s domestic violence policy, and understood that some fans in New York were not necessarily happy that the team had re-signed him.

“Nobody’s perfect,” Chapman said. “We make mistakes, but the important thing is we learn from them and move forward.”

Published at Sat, 17 Dec 2016 01:31:58 +0000

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Mickey Gall Predicts a Quick, Victorious Fight Against Sage Northcutt (VIDEO)

Mickey Gall Predicts a Quick, Victorious Fight Against Sage Northcutt (VIDEO) http://ift.tt/2hZZqjp

Mickey Gall Predicts a Quick, Victorious Fight Against Sage Northcutt (VIDEO)

EXCLUSIVE

It’s a fight between two pretty boys … and Mickey Gall says he’s got the edge over his opponent, Sage Northcutt, in both looks AND talent.

Gall and Northcutt will face off at UFC on FOX 22 on Saturday … and when we got Mickey out in NYC he joked that he’s gonna get revenge for all fruit affected by Sage’s “Apple Challenge.”

Gall also gives a prediction for how it’s gonna go down in Sactown … and if it goes the way he says it’s going to, we’d suggest anyone watching to refrain from blinking.

Published at Sat, 17 Dec 2016 08:35:00 +0000

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Road to the Olympic Games: Changing the Olympic equestrian equation

Road to the Olympic Games: Changing the Olympic equestrian equation http://ift.tt/2hZZsb1

Road to the Olympic Games: Changing the Olympic equestrian equation

Hosted by veteran broadcasters Scott Russell and Andi Petrillo, Road to the Olympic Games chronicles athletes’ journeys on and off the field of play. Here’s what to look for on this weekend’s show on CBC Television and CBCSports.ca.

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The one thing that you can count on in sport is that the rules change constantly.

It’s how the games we play become modernized and more accessible to more people around the world.  

The experts tend to refer to this phenomenon as universality or inclusiveness. The theory being that the deeper the competitive pool, the more attractive the sport is globally – thus ensuring its long term survival.

• Watch: Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping — Saturday at 12 p.m. ET (CBC TV, CBCSports.ca)

Recently, equestrian sport – which includes dressage, jumping and eventing – has had to deal with rule alterations which are ostensibly aimed at keeping one of the oldest Olympic pursuits from becoming extinct at the Games.

Simply put, the rule changes have to do with the team events in each of the three disciplines. There will now be three, not four, horse-rider combinations and there will be no more drop scores.

The proponents of these changes argue that they will eliminate complicated mathematical formulas which go towards determining the winner and thus make the sport more understandable and attractive to a wider audience.

Universal field of play

They also suggest that the elimination of the margin for error for horse-rich nations will open the sport up to more countries and afford them a greater chance of being competitive. The competitive field of play will thus become more universal. In the past, European and North American countries have dominated horse sport at the Olympics.

In the end the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) adopted the proposed changes by a wide margin – only 11 of 107 national horse federations voted against them. But included in that group were France and Germany, who won Olympic jumping gold and bronze, respectively, in Rio de Janeiro.

It is also clear that a significant number of decorated athletes opposed the changes – including every member of the Canadian show jumping squad that finished fourth at the most recent Olympics. The problem is the managers at Equestrian Canada trumped the athletes in this case and voted to support the new vision.

‘Makes no sense for Canada’

“Given the success we’ve had under the current format, it makes no sense for Canada to vote in favour of changing to three-man teams,” said Eric Lamaze, who has won individual gold and bronze and team silver over the course of his Olympic career. “I am extremely disappointed and feel our national federation did not respect the wishes of its athletes.”

This situation is not new.

When it comes to sport the successful players attempt to protect their territory.  

They like to keep winning.  

Sometimes more competition can threaten their livelihoods or at least their reputations. As is often the case, inviting new kids to play a game means they might steal your thunder and replace you as top dog.

But it can also be argued that changing the rules in order to make it more attractive to a wider audience can threaten the integrity of the competition or change the nature of the game.

Watering down the product?

While it becomes more understandable to more people, it can become less recognizable to the purists. After all, at the last three Olympics the equestrian sports have undeniably produced full grandstands and exciting competition across the board.

Tinkering by watering down the competitive product may backfire, suggest the opponents of the changes.

“I think this would ruin our sport and the excitement of the sport,” said Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, a German Olympic medallist. “I think it would be a disaster for our competition.”

Still, the changes are going ahead and are likely to be approved by the International Olympic Committee, thus paving the way for equestrian sport to remain on the Games program for the foreseeable future.

“This was a really important vote for the future of our sport if we are to increase universality,” said FEI president Ingmar De Vos. “It opens the door to countries that could only see the Olympics as a distant dream.”

Equestrian sport first appeared at the Olympics in 1900 and was once only open to “gentlemen” who were commissioned officers in the military.

Breaking down gender barriers

In 1952 at the Helsinki Olympics, women earned the right to compete in dressage. And beginning in 1956 at Melbourne, men and women began to compete as equals on the same field of play in eventing and jumping as well. Equestrian sport has been a pioneer in breaking down gender barriers at the Olympics.

The bottom line is that resisting change which makes sport more universally appealing can be viewed as flawed thinking.

After all, does equestrian really want to go the way of Basque Pelota, croquet and compulsory figures in skating?

Or does it want to evolve with the times and stay in the Games?

Published at Fri, 16 Dec 2016 12:44:03 +0000

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Bookmakers: Be A Winner!

Bookmakers: Be A Winner! http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

If you have been to either a race track or the fabulous Las Vegas, chances are you know what a bookmaker is. Not to be mixed up with a bookmarker, bookmakers are fondly known as the bookie which can either mean a company or a person who takes your bet. Despite its cute name, bookmakers are generally attached with bad reputations as they used to originate from mobs and gangs.

In this modern world, the occupation of bookmakers are provided from multinational companies that own the betting company, which still seems dodgy to most people. This is also the contributing element to why looking for a bookmaker is a challenging process. Other than Nevada and the Atlantic City in the United States, bookmakers are elusive to locate.

Luckily, the situation is totally not the same outside of the United States. For example, the United Kingdom is practically packed with bookmakers found on every nook and cranny of any given street at any given time. Transactions are constant and well run because these bookmakers though many, all originate from multinational companies with good integrity.

Furthermore, these bookmakers are able to place your bets on a whole variety of games from football to horses as well as greyhounds. You can now also place bet on reality TV competitions such as “Britain’s Got Talent”, guess the sex gender of a royalty’s baby as well as predict the weather on Christmas Day. Simply put, whatever you can think of, some bookie in the United Kingdom probably already has a pool running.

Do remember that the job description of a bookmaker is not to help you place and ace a bet. The job of a bookmaker is to help get your money and make profit. Bookmakers have insider knowledge, and always pool the odds in their favor.

This means that to win against a bookmaker, you need to have tactics and information as well. We suggest that you read up on the Sports Betting Champ System by Dr. John Morrison. Dr. John Morrison is a Ph.D. holder with over 20 years in statistics as well as sports betting experience.

Using the Sports Betting Champ System, Dr. John Morrison has now devised a strategy where you can win with a success rate of 97%. Do note that his success rate is most applicable for Major League Baseball played in the United States. It is also good to note that bookmakers always bet based on volume, rather than betting per game.

The Sports Betting Champ System alsoworks in this way in that you bet in a whole volume of games, hence utilizing this system against the bookmaker is ideal. Besides the Major League Baseball, you can also utilize the Sports Betting Champ System on the NBA, NFL and NHL. Before we conclude this article, we would like to once again highlight that it is important to remember that bookmakers exist to make their own profits, so refrain from betting blindly and instead utilize a strong system such as the Sports Betting Champ System.

Have you seen a bookmaker before? Click here to read more about our investigation on Bookmakers.

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