Gäste-Forum » inevitable break-up should not have come

NASHVILLE -- The Nashville Predators are glad captain Shea Weber managed to play with an upper body injury that sent him out of their previous game. Weber scored two goals, including the game-winner at 1:29 of overtime, and the Predators rallied late in beating the New Jersey Devils 3-2 on Friday night. "Its going to take a lot to keep him out of a hockey game," Predators forward David Legwand said of the big defenceman. "He loves playing the game and shows that over the course of his career. He was big for us tonight. Obviously on the first one and in overtime, two huge goals." Weber didnt practice Thursday and was a game-time decision after leaving Tuesday nights win in Winnipeg early in the third period. Nashville coach Barry Trotz said Weber deciding to play made all the difference. "Hes one of the best at his position plain and simple," Trotz said. "Hes our building block, and hes a difference maker in this business. There arent too many guys at his level." Legwand scored with 10.8 seconds remaining in regulation with goalie Carter Hutton on the bench to force the extra period. The puck squirted out to Legwand, who scored on a slap shot from the right circle. Hutton, who struggled giving up the two goals to New Jersey, stopped Michael Ryder on a breakaway 80 seconds into overtime to keep the game tied. "It is good to get the win obviously," Weber said. "It took us 60 minutes to get it tied up, but we found a way. We battled hard and got it tied up. Obviously, Hutton made a huge save in overtime and gave us a chance to win." Then Colin Wilson took the puck back the other way and drove toward the net before dropping the puck off to Weber, who beat Cory Schneider with a wrister from the left circle. "We played four games in six nights," Devils coach Peter DeBoer said. "We got an unfortunate bounce at the end, and well take the point and move on." Patrik Elias scored a goal and had an assist, and Jaromir Jagr had a goal for the Devils. Travis Zajac had two assists. Out of the 16 games played between these teams, this was the 13th decided by a goal. This was a rare visit to Nashville with the Devils playing only their 10th game here Friday night and first since Oct. 15, 2011. The Devils, who beat Nashville 5-0 in New Jersey on Nov. 10, wrapped up a three-game road trip against the Western Conference with their second game in as many nights after beating the Stars in overtime in Dallas on Thursday night. "Its tough two nights in a row ... giving up a lead in the last minute, and we shouldve had an extra point tonight again," Schneider said. The Predators want to build some momentum before the Olympic break, and they have earned points in five of six games going 4-1-1. They had a couple days off since their last game and outshot the Devils 9-3 in the opening minutes and 33-26 for the game. Weber gave Nashville a 1-0 lead after the first period, beating Schneider with a slap shot 6:45 into the game off an assist from Patric Hornqvist. New Jersey tied it at 13:00 of the second when Elias came skating up the left side and fired off a shot that might have gone wide if not for Hutton trying to snag it with his glove. The puck glanced off Huttons glove and redirected into the net for a goal. Jagr got his 17th goal this season late in the second putting the Devils ahead 2-1. Jagr skated behind the net and fired a wrister that hit off Hutton and slipped between the goalie and the left post for a 2-1 lead at 18:59 of the second. But the Predators gave Hutton a chance to make up for those goals in overtime. Notes: Jagr has 698 career goals. ... Weber leads all defencemen with 15 goals, and eight have come in the first period. Nashville is 11-1-2 when Weber scores. ... Nashville is 19-2-5 when scoring first this season and just 2-22-2 when trailing after two periods. ... 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With only one selection in the first two rounds — Walters sent his second-round pick to Saskatchewan in the days ahead of the 2013 trade deadline — the No. Soccer Jerseys China . Mike Ribeiro had a goal and an assist as Phoenix held on to snap a two-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Friday.TORONTO - In his brief 10-month stint with the Raptors, Rudy Gay averaged just under 20 points per contest, accounting for the bulk of Torontos offence while hitting some big, game-winning shots before he was whisked away to Sacramento. His tenure wont be remembered for any of that, rightly or wrongly, and the Kings forward has mostly come to terms with that. He wont be remembered for the shots he made. No, "Rudy the Raptor" - as Kings coach Mike Malone refers to Gays previous incarnation - will be remembered for the shots he missed. All 530 of them. Even Gay himself, given the opportunity to sugarcoat his shooting woes ahead of Fridays return to Toronto, wouldnt put lipstick on the pig that was his horrid field goal percentage. It was bad, and he knows it. Surrounded by the sizeable Toronto media army he left behind for small-market Sacramento following Kings practice on Thursday, Gay was asked if he feels slighted when hes been called inefficient. "I was inefficient when I was here," he admitted, to the surprise of those who may have expected him to dance around the obvious. "Im not anymore. I was when I was here." Fridays game will mark Gays first visit to Air Canada Centre since he was sent to the Kings, along with Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray, on Dec. 9 in exchange for Patrick Patterson, Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons and Chuck Hayes. He was acquired from Memphis less than a year earlier, a trade engineered by former Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo in the hopes of landing a star player that could dig the team out of its playoff hole and, in doing so, save his own skin. The experiment was short-lived. "He was put in a tough situation where he was looked on to be the saviour," coach Dwane Casey said of Gays time in Toronto. "Thats not his role as far as [the] type of guys we had. Hes a dynamic player, a big-time talent. He was brought here for the right reasons. It ended up turning into something that wasnt meant to be." After he and the Raptors closed out last season on a high note, the team opened with a record of 6-12 as Gay struggled, putting up some of the worst numbers of his eight-year career. "For whatever reason in Toronto he was only shooting 38 per cent, taking over 18 shots a game and everyone wanted to say he was the most inefficient player in the NBA," Malone said. "All I can base his play on is as a King. Hes been shooting the ball over 50 per cent, 20 points a night and hes a proven playmaker and rebounder as well." Nearly three months removed from his time in Toronto, Gay is enjoying a career resurgence as a member of the Kings. Hes scoring more points, taking three less shots per game while getting to the free throw line at a higherr rate.dddddddddddd. He has shot 50 per cent or better in 23 of 37 games as a King, something he accomplished once in 18 contests with the Raptors this season. Whats responsible for his turnaround? It has a lot to do with the space occupied and the attention drawn by the Kings beast of a centre. "If you go back to his time in Memphis. when he had the luxury of playing with a very talented frontcourt in Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. he was much more efficient with that line-up," Malone pointed out. "So we felt that he and DeMarcus (Cousins), especially the inside-outside combination, would be very tough to guard." With Gay, Cousins and breakout point guard Isaiah Thomas, the Kings are the NBAs only team that features three 20-point scorers. Although the record hasnt necessarily reflected it - Sacramento is 16-26 since the trade - that trio has co-existed better than expected. As a team, the Kings rank 12th in offensive efficiency, despite dropping to the bottom of league in assists. For a collection of reasons, many of which are probably too tough to explain or quantify, Gay has found a home in Sacramento and he seems to fit. Of course, he is not the only one with a new lease on life in the aftermath of the trade. The Raptors are now 27-14 without Gay in the line-up, jockeying for playoff position in the Eastern Conference as the Kings toil in the basement of West. Gay is genuinely happy for his old teammates, many of whom he considers close friends, but the Kings forward doesnt necessarily buy into the correlation between his departure and his former teams success. "We dont know if that would have happened if I were there, too," said the 27-year-old. "It happened early in the season. Nobody knows. Its one of those things that it has happened now, the trade happened, now theyre a playoff team. Of course, Id like to be a part of that, but Im in Sacramento now and I have to build this team." However, Raptors fans remember the missed shots, they remember the isolation-centric offence that torpedoed their teams overall watchability for the first month of the season, but, most of all, they remember the losses. In Gay, the Raptors got what they paid for and their inevitable break-up should not have come as too much of a surprise. He probably doesnt deserve to be booed when he returns to the ACC wearing visiting purple Friday night, but he will be and when he is, he wont be caught off guard. "I dont care," he said. "Im just going out there and doing my job. Honestly, I joke with these guys all of the time. I say, If you put two rims up in the kitchen, Ill go out and play. It really doesnt matter what happens, whos booing, whos cheering. It doesnt matter." ' ' '