Vermisste Nasen » capitalize when we do get opportunities and hopefully

It is a crazy year with a crazy finish, and if it happens, this could top it all. Melbourne could play finals, even though it does not deserve to.The Demons are not even ready, although they are growing, but it is the frailty of North Melbourne that has opened the door for them.It was way back at the end of Round 6, at the end of April, that the current top eight first settled as it sits now, and it has not changed since, a remarkable statistic in itself and virtually unprecedented in the AFL.A month ago, observers were saying that it would not change, either, but if results fall a certain way this weekend, Round 23 could end up being a grandstand finish, especially for Melbourne fans.Melbourne needs to win both games, against Carlton this weekend and then at Geelong in the final round, to bridge the two-win gap to eighth-placed North Melbourne. Paul Roos men, of course, needs North Melbourne to lose both matches as well, against Sydney in Hobart this week and Greater Western Sydney in the final round.Percentage would then decide eighth place. At the moment, the gap is 3.7 percent, which equates to about 10 goals, a quite manageable number.That North could win nine consecutive games to start the season yet potentially lose its place in the finals is an indictment on the Roos. Certainly they have had injuries to key players, notably Shaun Higgins and Jarrad Waite, but it suggests that the streak at the start of the year was something of a mirage.Right now, North is 3-8 since that first nine rounds, has lost the last two in a row and could quite possibly limp into the finals on a streak of four straight defeats. Again, this would be close to unprecedented.That Brent Boomer Harvey could escape his whack at Sam Mitchell at the MCG last week with a fine suggests the match review panel might have taken pity on Brad Scotts team. They have been witheringly poor since the first two months of the season, and Harvey should have been suspended, for sure.As for the Dees, they are headed into a bright, new future without Roos, who did a sensational job of rebuilding the team and who will walk off into his own future leaving Simon Goodwin all the glory of a burgeoning list. Roos focused on culture while his list management team did their own work, and he has shown what a great coach he is.He is a holistic coach who fosters strong leadership among the playing group then allows them to take ownership of discipline, leaving him to set the playing style.His mantra is defence-first and this was the building block for Melbourne, as he said all along. This season in adding an attacking edge the Demons have jumped to 10th in scoring (compared to 16th in 2015), and their ball movement is quick and exciting at times. A 10-10 win-loss record is the result, including a groundbreaking win over Hawthorn a couple of weeks ago as the stand-out.Still, Melbourne is only 2-5 against top eight teams, which shows that there is still a gap.As much as it will set the football world alight if the Demons can pull off two wins to reach the finals, it might not even be the best thing for the club. Potentially, a finals appearance and a quick exit could lure the players and coaching staff into thinking that more ground has been made than is actually the case.A near-miss, on the other hand, might just drive Melbourne forward again in 2017. Whichever way it falls, Melbourne is a stock worth buying. Mike Edwards Buccaneers Jersey . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. Jamel Dean Jersey . Olli Jokinen, Mark Scheifele, and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist as Winnipeg won 5-2, handing Calgary its record-setting seventh consecutive loss on home ice. http://www.authenticbuccaneerspro.com/Gerald-mccoy-buccaneers-jersey/ . Jane Virtanen scored two, and Alex Roach and Elliott Peterson rounded out the offence for the Hitmen (40-15-6). Brady Brassart chipped in with three assists. Colton McCarthy scored twice, Brayden Point had a goal and two assists, and Jack Rodewald also scored for the Warriors (15-35-9), who were 2 for 5 on the power play. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jerseys . -- When the Florida Panthers fell behind by two goals in the first period to the top team in the NHL, it appeared they were on their way to yet another loss. Lavonte David Buccaneers Jersey . On June 12, just as the sun sets on the magnificent historical city of Sao Paulo the inventors, innovators and purveyors of “joga bonitowill” open their campaign. The opponent, Croatia and all its football might and will. As opposites do attract we are set for a corker of an opener.BOSTON – No team in the West scored more goals in the regular season than the Chicago Blackhawks. But like the highest scoring team out East found out quite recently, the Boston Bruins can squeeze the life out of just about any offensive attack. A round of 28 mostly harmless shots made their way to Tuukka Rask on Monday evening, each and every one turned aside as the Bruins took control of the Stanley Cup Final with a 2-0 victory in Game 3 at TD Garden. Absent Marian Hossa, their leading scorer in the playoffs, the Blackhawks have now failed to elude Rask and the Bruins for a string of over 120 minutes, Boston snuffing out Chicagos high-powered attack since the opening frame of Game 2 at the Madhouse on Saturday night. “Were in the Stanley Cup Final against a team that deserves to be here, that is here because of the way they play defensively and check away from the puck,” said Patrick Sharp, who scored the last Blackhawks goal and leads the team with nine markers in the postseason. “Its tough to score out there. Weve got to find a way – we know whats on the line.” It was the third shutout of the postseason for Rask, who owns a eye-popping .946 save percentage, but on this night the 26-year-old was not exactly tested to the most trying degree. Chicago did little to make his life much of a nightmare. “Tonight I thought we made it rather easy on him,” Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville declared afterward, noting the lack of havoc in the immediate vicinity of the Bruins netminder. “Its hard to get A-plus chances. Youve got to manufacture the ugly kind of goals; tips, screens, deflections and the second chances.” Like for instance, the game-tying goal from Johnny Oduya in Game 1, a point blast that wiggled in off the skate of Andrew Ference with bodies in front. Or the overtime winner that same night from Andrew Shaw, a puck that was redirected twice just to beat Rask. Or the marker from Sharp in Game 2, a rebound with flurries of traffic and the Bruins netminder in turmoil. “We always talk about getting to the inside a little bit more, getting two guys screening him and guys going to the net,” said captain Jonathan Toews, who has just one goal in the postseason and has yet to register a point in this series. “We just didnt find those loose pucks. Weve got to find a way to do it.” Hurting matters further is the increasing instability of the power-play, which came up dry in three opportunities on Monday and has yet to score in 13 chances so far this series. Often the unit, which finished 19th overall in the regular season, has looked simply lost. In one such instance in the first frame, with Shawn Thornton whistled off for roughing, the Blackhawks had just a single shot, the two best opportunities actually coming for the Bruins, Rich Peverley and Brad Marchand both instigating partial breaks on Rask. “It was ugly at times,” saaid Sharp of the man advantage, “but there was also times where we had some scoring opportunities.dddddddddddd Well work to be better.” The hunt for offence was made worse without the services of Hossa, who leads Chicago with 15 points in the postseason. The 34-year-old was scratched following the pre-game warm-up with a mysterious upper-body injury, replaced on this night by Ben Smith, who scored three goals in seven playoff games for the Blackhawks in the 2011 postseason. Forced to juggle his line combinations with Hossa out, Quenneville flanked Michael Frolik and Marcus Kruger with Toews, stuck Brandon Saad and Patrick Kane alongside Michal Handzus, while shifting Smith onto a unit with Sharp and Dave Bolland. Scratched in the opening two games of the series, Viktor Stalberg made his debut on a trio that included Andrew Shaw and the suddenly quiet Bryan Bickell. Generally pleased with his teams efforts in a scoreless first, Quenneville saw it unravel in the second, the Bruins scoring twice on goals from Daniel Paille – his second in as many games – and Patrice Bergeron. Searching for a spark in that flailing middle frame, Quenneville would eventually plug Toews onto a unit with Sharp and Stalberg, Kane, who has just one point in this series, joining Saad and Shaw. The results remained the same. “Youre not going to get a ton,” said Quenneville of the minimal scoring chances. “Its a tight game. Scoring is going to be challenging. But weve got to be ready to play that kind of game….Its not like were thinking that we just want to go outrace them and look to exchange high-quality scoring chances off the rush because that feeds right into what they want to do. Weve got to be ready to play a patient game and make sure we capitalize when we do get opportunities and hopefully we get the power-play rolling.” Chicago endured a similar struggle to the present conundrum in a second round standoff with Detroit, managing just two goals combined in a string of three losses. They would rally with three straight wins themselves, finding their game with 10 goals in the process. “As soon as we get one that confidence is going to come,” Toews opined, noting a few too many shots directly at the glove of Rask, “[then] we can just make plays, we can let things flow a little bit more out there.” Boston, though, has a maddening recent history of squeezing the life from attacks like the Blackhawks. The Bruins held the Penguins, who scored more than any team in the league, to just two goals in the Eastern Conference Final, snuffing out the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to shocking avail. “Theres enough going on big picture that I dont think anyone is squeezing the stick or worrying about numbers or stats,” Sharp concluded, when questioned on the subject. “Its about winning the game right now.&rdquo ' ' '