ANAHEIM, Calif.
Rodrigo Bentancur Jersey . -- Ryan Getzlaf wore the strain all over his exhausted face. In the past 51 hours or so, he had taken a slap shot to the jaw, attended the birth of his third child and propelled the Anaheim Ducks to two gritty playoff victories. Getzlaf figures he has all summer to rest. Hes too busy polishing his reputation as a dominant scorer and an equally formidable leader in another narrow win over the Dallas Stars. Getzlaf had a goal and an assist while wearing a facemask over his injured jaw, Corey Perry scored his first playoff goal in three years, and the Ducks beat Dallas 3-2 Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round series. "Its been absolutely incredible couple of days," Getzlaf said. "They were a little hectic, but these are the things you want to do in life. At least tonight I didnt get hit in the face." Rookie Frederik Andersen made 34 saves in his second post-season start, and Andrew Cogliano scored a short-handed goal in the third period before the Ducks survived Dallas late flurry to move halfway to their first series victory since 2009. Game 3 is Monday in Dallas. Anaheim has won just one post-season round since its only Stanley Cup title in 2007, back when Getzlaf and Perry were supporting players. The Ducks are their team now, and the dynamic duo led Anaheim to another victory despite committing a couple of late penalties. "Every once in a while, you need your best players to step it up when the rest of the guys lose their composure," Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Getzy, with what happened to him in the last three days, to come in and get two points and a plus-3 rating, is a sure reason why he (should be) hopefully nominated for the MVP." Getzlaf was clobbered by Tyler Seguins shot in the final minute of Game 1, leaving him with alarming bruises and a ragged cut. His wife then gave birth to a daughter named Willa early Friday morning before sending him home to rest for Game 2. None of it could stop Anaheims captain from getting back in the lineup with a clear facemask around his jaw and mouth in a prudent concession by a player who doesnt like even wearing a visor. After a raucous pregame ovation from an Orange County crowd that recognized his toughness, Getzlaf then scored a first-period goal and set up Coglianos electric short-handed goal. "Hes an unbelievable player, and hes a great captain," Cogliano said. "Hes pretty easy to follow." Kari Lehtonen stopped 16 shots, while Alex Chiasson and Ryan Garbutt scored for the wild-card Stars, who took two one-goal losses to open their first playoff series since 2008. Dallas coach Lindy Ruff realizes his teams playoff inexperience must go away quickly to get back into the series. "We handed them their opportunities and their goals," Ruff said. "We skated well. The effort was great, but we made a couple of mistakes that cost us." Half of Dallas skaters made playoff debuts in the series opener, but the Stars came out for Game 2 with more confidence and poise from the opening faceoff. Chiasson put Dallas ahead early on a power play, one-timing a pass from captain Jamie Benn for his first career playoff goal. Getzlaf evened it by himself, taking the puck away from Erik Cole and beating Lehtonen high for his second goal of the series. "What a great play by him, stealing the puck and being a beast going to the net," Perry said. Perry put the Ducks ahead late in the first period after intercepting a pass between Seguin and Benn before rocketing a slap shot past Lehtonen from close range. Perry hadnt scored a playoff goal in 10 games since April 2011, getting blanked during the Ducks seven-game loss to Detroit in the first round last spring. But the Canadian Olympic gold medallist knows how to fill a net: He was the NHLs second-leading goal-scorer this season, trailing only Alex Ovechkin. The Ducks went up 3-1 when Cogliano, their dominant forechecker and penalty-killer, got away with breaking Sergei Gonchars stick in the Dallas end. Getzlaf controlled the puck and fed Cogliano for the score. "We had a chance to win the game and the ref missed a penalty (committed) against me," Gonchar said. "It should have been a 5-on-3, but instead its a goal for them. ... Nobody is happy about it, but I think were playing better." Garbutt kept the Stars close with a goal in front, and Dallas tilted the ice decidedly in its favour in the final minutes. But Anaheim killed a penalty on Getzlaf with 3 minutes to play before Nick Bonino blocked the Stars final shot. NOTES: Dallas D Brenden Dillon missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury, and the Stars scratched veteran D Aaron Rome in favour of rookie Kevin Connauton, who made his playoff debut. ... The Ducks played without top-line forward Matt Beleskey, who aggravated a persistent lower-body injury late in Game 1. Devante Smith-Pelly replaced Beleskey in the Anaheim lineup, making his NHL playoff debut.
Wojciech Szczesny Juventus Jersey . Listen to the Raptors vs. Jazz live tonight on TSN Radio 1050 at 9pm et/6pm pt. The Raptors are 1-1 so far on the five-game junket after defeating Denver and losing to Portland.
Mario Mandzukic Jersey . Kalish got his first hit since Sept. 11, 2012, when he rapped an RBI triple in the first inning Sunday in the Chicago Cubs 8-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.Optimal player deployment is a hockey question thats never going to have a definitive answer. Each team has unique roster and character traits that necessitate different use of skaters and goaltenders and some teams are afforded luxuries other teams dont possess. But trying to extrapolate the best possible performance from a 23-man roster is a league-wide question - one thats ingrained in a hockey operations or coaching staffs ability to maximize performance for each player on the roster. Like never before, todays NHL has an insatiable appetite for competent even-strength hockey players. And there are a lot of factors at play here. For one, the phasing out of enforcers and specialists has created a window of opportunity for a wave of skill players to take on larger roles at both positions. Front offices in Vancouver and Toronto have pointed to successful models in Los Angeles and Chicago - two franchises which have enjoyed reliable production from those bringing up the rear. And teams are cognizant that first lines and first pairings win a lot of hockey games. But finding the appropriate balance between maximizing their ice-time and minimizing fatigue effects has led to further prioritization of back end guys who can pick up the slack as needed. Theres another factor at play – the creation of more even-strength ice time by the continued decrease in penalties. Take for an example, this seven-year graph of the average NHL teams total power play minutes: In just seven seasons, the NHL teams full season average power play time has dropped more than 100 minutes from 528 to 426 – a 19 per cent decline. Its substantial - and there are shot and goal differentials to be won in the additional minutes created for five-on-five play. Have organizations handled their deployment as a result of this? I think the answer is yes. Take, for one example, the comparison chart below showing ice time for forwards (meeting our minimum criteria of 245 minutes played) in 2007 and 2014: The rightward shift here should seem apparent – a higher concentration of guys playing larger minutes now as opposed to seven years ago and fewer guys picking up scrap minutes in smaller roles. Thee number of forwards playing ten or less minutes a night has dropped from 109 in 2007, to 65 in 2014.
Carlo Pinsoglio Jersey. And the number of forwards playing between 13 and 16 minutes a night has moved from 153 in 2007 to 231 in 2014. As a group, teams may still be leaning on their star players, but theres also been a more balanced spread of total ice time than there was seven years ago. So on a league-wide scale, forwards have experienced considerable change in deployment. But what about defencemen (meeting our minimum criteria of 245 minutes played)? Other than defensive defencemen, specialists on the blue line have been far less common than specialists (be it special teams specialists or enforcers) in the forward ranks. I think a large part of that is the fact that teams only carry six defencemen into a game and at least four of those guys play significant minutes every night. That said, I anticipated less overall change - at least relative to the forwards: My intuition, of course, was wrong. The rightward shift is rather clear here, too. There are far fewer players picking up scrap minutes on the blue line today then there were seven years ago. And again, there is a noticeably larger concentration of defenders picking up significant minutes per game. The 16- to 20-plus minute band is particularly interesting. In 2007, 38 per cent of regular defenders were playing 16 or more minutes a night. In 2014, that number has jumped to 64 per cent. Combine the importance placed on puck possession and territorial control with dissipating non-even strength minutes and you have a premium placed on guys who can skate regular shifts at five-on-five. This premium is more evident in some cities than others. But at the league level, talent and depth are no longer a luxury – they are a necessity. Popular hockey analytics writer Travis Yost joins TSN as a columnist appearing every Tuesday and Thursday during the season on TSN.ca and as a frequent guest on TSN Radio. Yost has appeared as a regular contributor to The Sporting News, NHLNumbers.com, Ottawa Citizen and HockeyBuzz.com, where he served as one of the sites lead analytics writers in addition to covering the Ottawa Senators beat. ' ' '