导出博客文章BUFFALO, N.
Cheap Los Angeles Angels Jerseys .Y. -- Once Lightning captain Steven Stamkos took himself off the free-agent market, the Buffalo Sabres turned to Plan B: Kyle Okposo.The Sabres signed the former New York Islanders forward to a seven-year, $42 million contract in one of the first deals completed after the NHLs signing period opened Friday.He was drafted high. He was a high-profile guy. And hes lived up to that, general manager Tim Murray said of Okposo, who was selected seventh overall in the 2006 draft.Its exciting to get a player of his caliber that had a choice of I wont say 30 teams, but certainly a lot of teams, and decided to come here.The three-time, 20-goal scorer fills a top-line need on a Sabres team that has spent the past two years rebuilding through youth. Murray already envisions Okposo playing right wing on a line centered by either Ryan OReilly or Jack Eichel.After playing alongside Islanders captain John Tavares, Okposo is already looking forward to the possibilities of what the Sabres lineup has to offer.What sold me first and foremost, and Ive been saying it all day, is the chance to win the Stanley Cup, and I think we have a lot of pieces in place that can help us achieve that goal, Okposo said.And when I looked at their forwards, and especially their top two centers in OReilly and Eichel, those guys are only going to continue to get better, especially Jack. Hes got superstar status.Okposo is an eight-year NHL veteran and regarded as one of the top players available on the market after Stamkos elected to re-sign with Tampa Bay on Wednesday. Murray noted that the Sabres had a face-to-face meeting with Stamkos and his representatives on Sunday.The Sabres are attempting to quicken their push to become contenders after showing signs of improvement last season. Buffalo finished 23rd in the standings this past season after two consecutive last-place finishes.After being part of a lengthy rebuilding plan on Long Island, Okposo likes the Sabres approach.I think theyre been going at an accelerated rate, Okposo said. I think we can get there quicker than I did with the Islanders.Okposo becomes the Sabres second-highest-paid player, behind OReilly, who signed a seven-year, $52 million deal shortly after being acquired in a trade from Colorado last summer. And Okposo is close with Sabres forward Matt Moulson. The two played together in New York, and are godfathers of each others children.Listed at 6 feet and 217 pounds, Okposo has scored 67 of his 139 goals over the past three seasons, including 10 game-winners and 11 coming on the power play.The Sabres have now addressed several key needs.Last weekend, they acquired veteran defenseman Dmitry Kulikov in a trade with Florida.Buffalo is also in the position to sign forward Jimmy Vesey, after acquiring the rights to college hockeys top player last season in a trade with Nashville two weeks ago.Murray said his next priority is meeting with Vesey and his representatives next week. The Sabres took a gamble in acquiring Vesey, who is eligible to become a free agent on Aug. 15.The Sabres on Friday also filled depth needs by signing free-agent defensemen Justin Falk and Taylor Fedun to one-year, two-way contracts.Falk split last season between the Columbus Blue Jackets and their American Hockey League affiliate. Fedun had a brief stint with Edmonton in 2013-14, while spending much of the past five seasons in the AHL.Without saying who, Murray said he had a verbal agreement to sign a backup goalie, but the deal fell through when the player reneged and signed with another team.Murray wasnt pleased with what happened by saying: Im going to leave it at that. I wouldnt say anything very nice, I guess.The Sabres need to restock their goalie depth behind starter Robin Lehner after backup Chad Johnson signed with Calgary.---AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this story.
Cheap Chicago White Sox Jerseys . Defencemen Drew Doughty, Shea Weber and forward Ryan Getzlaf also scored for the Canadians, who started their gold-medal defence 2-0. Goalie Roberto Luongo, getting the call in place of Game 1 starter Carey Price, was solid when needed in making 23 saves for the shutout.
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http://www.cheapworldseriesjerseys.com/cheap-minnesota-twins-jerseys/ . -- Hunter Smith scored the winner with just 12 seconds remaining in the third period as the Oshawa Generals edged the host Sarnia Sting 5-4 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Rejecting calls by anti-doping officials for a complete ban on Russia, Olympic leaders on Sunday gave individual sports federations the task of deciding which athletes should be cleared to compete in next months Rio de Janeiro Games.Citing the need to protect the rights of individual athletes, the International Olympic Committee decided against taking the unprecedented step of excluding Russias entire team over allegations of state-sponsored doping. Instead, the IOC left it to 27 international sports federations to make the call on a case-by-case basis.Every human being is entitled to individual justice, IOC President Thomas Bach said after the ruling of his 15-member executive board.Bach said the IOC had decided instead on a set of very tough criteria that could dent Russias overall contingent and medal hopes in Rio, where the Olympics will open on Aug. 5.Under the measures, no Russian athletes who have ever had a doping violation will be allowed into the games, whether or not they have served a sanction, a rule that has not applied to athletes in other countries.In addition, the international sports federations were ordered to check each Russian athletes drug-testing record, with only doping controls conducted outside Russia counting toward eligibility, before authorizing them to compete. Final entry is contingent on approval from an independent sports arbitrator.The IOC decision was sharply criticized by anti-doping bodies as a sellout that undermines clean athletes and destroys the idea of a level playing field.World Anti-Doping Agency President Craig Reedie said the organization is disappointed that the IOC did not heed WADAs executive committee recommendations after investigators exposed, beyond a reasonable doubt, a state-run doping program in Russia that seriously undermines the principles of clean sport.Joseph de Pencier, chief executive of the 59-member Institute of National Anti-Doping Organisations, said the IOC failed to confront forcefully the findings of evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia corrupting the Russian sport system, describing it as a sad day for clean sport.U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart said the IOC has refused to take decisive leadership in a most important moment for the integrity of the Olympic Games and clean athletes.The decision regarding Russian participation and the confusing mess left in its wake is a significant blow to the rights of clean athletes, Tygart said.Russias track and field athletes were already banned by the IAAF, the sports governing body, in a decision that was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The IOC accepted that ruling, but would not extend it to other sports.Russias current overall team consists of 387 athletes, a number likely to be significantly reduced by the measure barring Russians who have previously served doping bans.Calls for a complete ban on Russia intensified after Richard McLaren, a Canadian lawyer commissioned by WADA, issued a report accusing Russias sports ministry of overseeing a vast doping program of its Olympic athletes.McLarens investigation, based heavily on evidence from former Moscow doping lab director Grigory Rodchenkov, affirmed allegations of brazen manipulation of Russian urine samples at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, but also found that state-backed doping had involved 28 summer and winter sports from 2011 to 2015.An athlete should not suffer and should not be sanctioned for a system in which he was not implicated, Bach told reporters after Sundays meeting, acknowledging the decision might not please everybody.This is not about expectations, he said. This is about doing justice to clean athletes all over the world.Asked whether the IOC was being soft on Russia, Bach said: Read the decision. ... You can see how high we set the bar. This is not the end of the story but a preliminary decision that concerns Rio 2016.Tygart, however, questioned why the IOC would pass the baton to sports federations who may lack tthe adequate expertise or collective will to appropriately address the situation within the short window prior to the games.
Cheap Tampa Bay Rays Jerseys. The IOC also rejected the application by Russian whistleblower Yulia Stepanova, an 800-meter runner and former doper who helped expose the doping scandal, to compete under a neutral flag at the games. Stepanova, now living in the United States, competed as an individual athlete at last months European Championships in Amsterdam.But the IOC said Stepanova did not meet the criteria for running under the IOC flag and, because she had been previously banned for doping, did not satisfy the ethical requirements to compete in the games. The IOC said it planned to invite Stepanova and her husband, Vitaly Stepanov, a former Russian anti-doping official who also turned whistleblower, to attend the games.Tygart expressed dismay at the decision to bar Stepanova, describing it as incomprehensible and saying it will undoubtedly deter whistleblowers in the future from coming forward.That means only one Russian track and field athlete is eligible to compete in Rio: U.S.-based long jumper Darya Klishina was granted exceptional eligibility by the IAAF because she has been tested outside of Russia.Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said the majority of Russias team complies with the IOC criteria, and estimated 80 percent of the team regularly undergoes international testing of the kind specified by the IOC.International federations will have only days to process the Russian cases. Many are still waiting for information from McLarens report.The International Tennis Federation has already said Russias eight-member team meets the IOC requirements as the players have been through regular international testing.Sundays measures are still a blow to Russia, which finished third in total medals at the 2012 Olympics.The team could be without some of its star names in Rio because of the IOC measure barring any Russians who have previously served doping bans. However, the impact on the medal tally is likely to be less severe than the damage caused by the earlier ban on its track team, Russias most successful contingent in London four years ago.Among those set to be ruled out are world champion swimmer Yulia Efimova; 2012 Olympic silver medal-winning weightlifter Tatyana Kashirina; and two-time Olympic bronze medal-winning cyclist Olga Zabelinskaya. All three have previously served doping bans.Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov presented his case to the IOC board, promising full cooperation with investigations and guaranteeing a complete and comprehensive restructuring of the Russian anti-doping system.He issued a strong plea against a full ban.My question is this: If you treat the cancer by cutting off the patients head and killing him, do you consider this as a victory in the fight? he said in remarks released later. That does not seem like a victory to me.In its decision, the IOC also:- asked the federations to examine the information and names of athletes and sports implicated in the McLaren report, saying any of those implicated should not be allowed into the games.- said the federations would have to apply their own rules if they want to ban an entire Russian team from their events in Rio, as the IAAF has already done.- said Russian entries must be examined and upheld by an expert from the Court of Arbitration for Sport.- ruled that Russian athletes who are cleared for the games will be subjected to a rigorous additional out-of-competition testing program.The IOC also reiterated its serious concerns about the weaknesses in the fight against doping, and called on WADA to fully review their anti-doping systems. The IOC said it would propose measures for more transparency and independence.--Wilson reported from London. AP Sports Writers James Ellingworth and Rob Harris contributed to this report..
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