Dein erstes Forum » each case, the ball bowled became the mere c

Have you heard of Buccis Overtime Challenge? Well, this is Buccis Hat Trick Challenge. Whats the challenge part? Regularly coming up with three hits about the World Cup of Hockey. Wednesdays games are Team North America versus Team?Sweden?(3 p.m. ET, ESPN) and Team Europe versus Team Canada (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2).1. Why Team USA never had a chance against Canada: While sitting high above the Air Canada Centre ice here in Toronto on Tuesday night, I watched as Team USA was, ironically, melting on the ice below. It was like an ice cream cone on a humid day. You cant really tell that its getting soft at first. Then suddenly it pours over the side and onto your fingers. Do you lick it? Do you run and wash it off? Or do you just sit here, with a dazed, defeated?look of confusion, and let the wet ice cream dry on you?Hockey is hard. And playing hockey against Canada, in Canada, is the hardest. The Canadians had a 90 percent chance to win the World Cup when the rosters were announced. Sweden, Team North America and maybe Russia were the only others teams in the field with a real chance.The over/under on Hall of Famers on this years Canada roster is about nine. No other country can approach that. I went back and quickly looked at the 1996 World Cup rosters. Canadas number for that team was 11 Hall of Famers. I think the number of Hall of Famers on the 96 U.S. roster will end up being seven, so you can see how Team USA had at least a chance. Yet, it was still such an upset for the Americans to win two games in Montreal as slight underdogs. This years USA roster might have two future Hall of Famers. So thats Canada 9, United States 2. That is too big of a disparity to overcome. That explains the outcome in the most simple way.2. Kessel could have helped:?Pittsburgh Penguins?right winger?Phil Kessel (who was tied for 45th in NHL scoring last season) is probably not going to make the Hockey Hall of Fame. But given his speed and the fact that hes always a threat to score, Kessel should have been on Team USAs roster.In some ways, Kessel is the NHLs version of the Cleveland Cavaliers J.R. Smith. Hes kind of out there, unique, unintentionally funny, does his own kind of thing. But he has the kind of talent that can help you beat other talented teams. You deal with his limitations (bad shots, in Smiths case; no body checking by Kessel) and hope that he picks up his defensive intensity with that speed he has. Both players did that last spring for their respective teams -- and both the Pens and Cavs won titles they would not have won without Smith and Kessel.In the end, its like when you picked sides on the playground or gym class when you were a kid. In most cases, you knew which team was the best right away. Occasionally, a team with slightly less talent -- like, say, the U.S. team that won the 1996 World Cup -- could win with great individual efforts (like Mike Richters in 96) and a collective push. If the disparity got too big, however, the more talented and skillful would win 99 percent of the time, as long as they tried and didnt scream at each other.Coming off his Stanley Cup playoffs performance, Kessel was an obvious World Cup choice who, in retrospect, might have been able to Team USA that extra individual effort. His tweet Tuesday night was pure Kessel snark at its finest:What a year for Phil! He won a Stanley Cup, then body-slammed a USA Hockey organization that many feel needs to be dredged and refocused. And he produced a funny and poignant tweet that got more action and traction than did the commentary of many of the writers whom he despises. Give Phil a Pulitzer, too.3. But help is on the way for the USA: Team North America was a great idea, and I love it, but it hurt Team USA. Six or seven American players on Team North America -- which was limited to players 23 or younger -- would have made Team USA had they been eligible. The U.S. does not have the depth of Canada, so the U-23 team hurt them even more than not getting Connor McDavid?hurt Canada.So, not only will the USA have the youngsters for best-on-best events in the future, but more are coming.This current crop of young, U.S.-born players includes some great kids. But they need a person -- and group of people -- to guide them and mold them. Pat Lafontaine, Chris Drury, Jerry York, David Quinn, Nate Leaman, Don Granato, Jon Cooper, Peter Laviolette and many more talented/competitive hockey minds are out there and ready to either lead or contribute to a new day, to be part of a Continental Congress of USA Hockey that will create a road map and one-page outline. Not as a reaction or overreaction to what happened Tuesday night against Canada, but to take an honest assessment and capitalize on the positives, create optimism and instill a culture of selflessness and commitment to the cause.The young Americans are great players. They need a captain to set the tone so USA Hockey can start building a consistent tradition and not just rely on these lightning-storm moments of 1980 and 1996. The foundation is there. It can be done. The USA is winning lots of international hockey events with teenagers. It should continue as they become NHL players.Hockey is expensive, and the challenge of the sport is to keep it from becoming elitist -- either in who it attracts and/or how it molds people into that type of destructive, introverted, tired, selfish thinking. Some passionate people at USA Hockey are fighting for change and are doing good work. But, overall, the organization has a tired, elitist feel to it. Everyone goes to their own room and the kids are all staring at their phones.Team Canada feels like a local youth hockey weekend tournament, where some of the parents get a little carried away but everybody is at the same hotel bar and the kids are all playing knee hockey in the hallway. Everyone is all in. And its fun. Brett Favre Jersey . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Ray Nitschke Jersey . LeBron James and Chris Bosh didnt need any more. Williams scored 11 points in 10 minutes, Alan Anderson scored 17 points, and the Brooklyn Nets finished the exhibition season with a 108-87 win over the Miami Heat on Friday night. http://www.shoptheofficialpackers.com/Elite-Dave-Robinson-Packers-Jersey/ . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Green Bay Packers Jerseys . -- The boos poured down on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at the end of a horrible first half. Reggie White Jersey . - Chris Tierney snapped a tie with a power-play goal late in the third period as the London Knights rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Erie Otters 5-3 in Ontario Hockey League action on Wednesday. Somerset 339 for 7 (Abell 135, Trescothick 60, Bailey 4-53) v LancashireScorecard When the 2015 season ended Tom Abell and Tom Bailey shared more than a first name; both cricketers were entitled to feel that their careers were launched. Abells 726 Championship runs had included a maiden century against Hampshire on a September day which many Somerset supporters will recall as long as they can remember anything. Baileys 35 Division Two wickets had proclaimed the arrival of a fine seam bowler.Since then Mother Cricket, that strange, mystical figure often cited by the old coaches, has treated both players with something less than maternal kindness. Abell has been injured and out of form; Baileys torn side muscle has kept him out of Lancashires team since the first Roses match ended in early June.And yet, on the last day of August Abell and Bailey found that what this game sometimes denies, it also restores to its most faithful servants. Somersets stylish opener made 135 in a match his team may need to win if they are to keep the pressure on Middlesex and Yorkshire at the top of the table. And as their rivals wickets fell at Edgbaston and Southampton the band of travelling fans could be encouraged by a scoreboard which read 267 for 2.Once again Somerset supporters are daring to hope and on afternoons like this Abell threatens to fulfil their lovely dreams.The mood among Lancashire loyalists, whose side is not yet safe from completing a hat-trick of relegations, was somewhat different. Theres a members forum here on the second evening and one or two of the hierarchys more trenchant critics may have been wondering how much it cost to rent a set of stocks. After all, at 5.45 pm their team had claimed two wickets and did not really look like collecting any more. But the taking of the new ball under floodlights and the accuracy of Bailey when bowling with it wrenched the game out of what had seemed a clear pattern of Somerset dominance.Four wickets fell to Bailey in seven balls. Both James Hildreth and Jim Allenby fell to catches at second slip by Alviro Petersen; Abell, having faced 249 balls and hit 19 fours was cramped for room and edged to Croft. Lewis Gregory took a small stride forward and his first ball became his last. Indeed, had Toby Lester clung on to a catch at midwicket off Craig Overton, Bailey would have had a hat-trick.One of North Devons finest did not capitalise on his reprieve. Instead, he lost his off stump when playing down the wrong line to Jarvis in the next over and Somerset hadd lost five wickets for 20 runs.dddddddddddd They therefore were deeply grateful that Peter Trego played one of his typically uncluttered innings, making 49 not out off 40 balls as Lancashire bowlers became giddy with success and overpitched.But when both Lancashires revival and Somersets riposte have been given their due this day was made memorable by the batting of Abell, who decorated the last day of August with one of the finer innings likely to be seen in this years County Championship.Albeit that he needed good fortune in the opening overs of the day and was dropped in the gully by Rob Jones when 32, the later sections of his century against what seemed a tired Lancashire attack had echoes of his maiden hundred against Hampshire almost a year ago. If Somerset supporters had to swap the Quantocks gentle hills for Traffords dark-roomed towers, that did not lessen the pleasure they derived from watching this most cultured of cricketers drive Lester through midwicket in the 13th over or stroke seven boundaries off Simon Kerrigan in the overs immediately after lunch.Abell batted with all the easy grace one might expect from his countys heir to Lionel Palairet and Peter Wight. And if we broaden the West Country horizon, it is difficult to imagine that even Tom Graveney played better shots on what some pros still refer to as the posh side of the wicket. Abells cover drive off Kerrigan or his back foot four off Bailey were tiny essays in footwork and poise. In each case, the ball bowled became the mere context of the stroke.He had help, of course, and it came from two of this game most respected professionals. Marcus Trescothick helped him put on 134 for the first wicket, Somersets best opening stand of the season, before his pull cum hook sent the ball to deep backward square leg where Simon Kerrigan leapt to take a two-handed ctach above his head before collapsing in a delighted heap. Then Chris Rogers played with understated efficiency before departing to a leg-side strangle to give Jordan Clark his second slightly fortuitous wicket of the day.Yet perhaps it was right that these two elder statesmen left Old Trafford to their younger colleague. Some of Abells strokes would be gorgeous things if played in a Sunday afternoon friendly between Higher Faffing and Much Binding in the Marsh. Here at Old Trafford they transcended every context and made another day glorious. ' ' '