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| Mark Warburton insists he will not buckle under pressure as the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic approaches. The Rangers manager refuted suggestions he will not be able to cope when the Glasgow rivals meet at Hampden on Sunday, April 17, live on Sky Sports.Former City trader Warburton believes he has faced plenty of tough and tense situations both in and out of the game, to prepare him for the encounter at the national stadium. You cant turn round and say you are ready for it but Im also somewhat bemused by people who say you wont be able to deal with it, said the former Brentford manager.The fact is weve dealt with it all season. Its another game of football. We understand the significance of it. Its a highly important game for the fans and its a semi-final. I get all of that. Warburton will go head-to-head with Celtic boss Ronny Deila for the first time But if you cant deal with that, dont be in the business. My background is one thats involved many pressurised situations in and out of football. If I cant deal with it, I shouldnt be doing the job, simple as that.Warburton was responding to comments from former Celtic boss Neil Lennon, who said that nothing will prepare Warburton for his first taste of the Glasgow derby.Lennon also suggested Rangers lack the physicality to get the better of Ronny Deilas side, believing Celtic will be too strong on the day. But Warburton insists he does not fear being outmuscled. If I cant deal with it, I shouldnt be doing the job, simple as that. Mark Warburton, Rangers manager As with all pundits, they are entitled to their opinion, he added. So whatever Neil or anyone else may think, that is down to them. Im not going to criticise that.Football is a game of opinions and thats the beauty of the sport, it incites so much opinion. But the fact is that we are very confident in our side and how we have fared this season. Our physicality in our minds is not in question.However, the match is not at the forefront of the Englishmans concerns at the moment, with Rangers tantalisingly close to securing their place in the Scottish Premiership. Rangers could have more cause to celebrate if they seal the Scottish Championship title on Saturday A win at Raith on Saturday, coupled with a defeat for Hibernian at St Mirren would confirm Rangers as Scottish Championship winners, and seal the clubs place in the top flight.Raith are on a very good run of form right now so we need to go there and deliver a performance, otherwise well get hurt, he said. The focus is very much on what we do. What happens away from us we cant control but what we can control is our own performance.On Saturday and Tuesday (against Dumbarton), the lads have the opportunity to take the club back to the top tier of Scottish football, so they are well aware of the significance and the expectations of the fans, the desire to get Rangers back to where they need to be.They recognise the opportunity but theyve got to enjoy it. We dont want to limp over the line. We want to finish in a convincing manner. Also See: Rangers video Rangers fixtures Rangers stats Sky Bet Club Greg Lloyd Youth Jersey . Replay backed him up. Adeiny Hechavarria immediately followed the ruling with a go-ahead sacrifice fly for the Miami Marlins, who held on to beat the Seattle Mariners 3-2 on Sunday completing a three-game sweep. James Conner Womens Jersey . The Raptors second-year forward has been one of the primary beneficiaries of the early-season trade, breaking out and becoming a vital part of his teams success on both ends of the floor. Around the league, teams are starting to take notice and feature Ross more predominately in their pre-game scouting reports but its not just the opposition that hes impressing. http://www.steelersrookiestore.com/Steelers-Joe-Gilliam-Jersey/ . The 17-year-old had four goals and four assists in 38 games for Liberec in the Czech pro league this past season. Zacha had three goals and two assists in seven games at the world mens under-18 championship in April when the Czech Republic took the silver medal. Rocky Bleier Womens Jersey . Or, for that matter, the aged. Jack Butler Youth Jersey . Louis Blues have returned to the top spot in the TSN.Scott Cullen takes a look at the stories from November 1st through November 7th in the NHL, including a new deal for Marc-Andre Fleury, an emerging star in St. Louis, trouble in Washington and Colorado and more. FLEURY OF ACTIVITY The Pittsburgh Penguins handed out a four-year, $23-million contract extension to Marc-Andre Fleury this week, which wasn’t a run-of-the-mill contract extension. He’s off to a good start this season, with a .930 save percentage through 10 games, but that’s small sample stuff. There’s no need to give out contract extensions to goaltenders based on small samples of performance. Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2009, Fleury has posted a .914 save percentage in the regular season, but he’s been somewhere closer to disastrous in the postseason, with an .897 save percentage in 68 playoff games. That track record doesn’t inspire a great deal of belief for those outside Pittsburgh, particularly when Fleury is about to turn 30-years-old in three weeks. It’s not as though goaltenders can’t perform at a high level after they turn 30 – the sharpest decline still comes later – but the standard performance is already declining at that point and, as we’ve covered, Fleury’s current level of play is, at best, average. There’s nothing wrong with having an average starting goaltender, particularly on a team that has results driven by some of the most skilled players of this generation, but the question is whether it’s worth investing in average goaltending talent. He’s familiar and the Penguins know that they have won a Cup with him in the past, and being a Cup-winning goaltender has engendered team loyalty in many other places, not just Pittsburgh. The question is: what do the Penguins do if Fleury has another poor postseason performance before that four-year extension kicks in? TARASENK-SHOW Third-year Blues winger Vladimir Tarasenko has been on a slow build, scoring 62 points in 102 games through his first two seasons, but he has taken his game up a level, or two, this season. Not only has Tarasenko scored in spectacular fashion, but he’s also tallied eight goals and 11 points in the past six games, giving him 16 points in 13 games for the season. It’s early and percentage-fueled hot streaks tend to die out, but that’s part of the reason to be optimistic about Tarasenko: he’s generating shots. His 4.2 shots per game ranks sixth in the league and is nearly double his rate (2.13) last season, so while percentages have been favourable, they aren’t outrageous and Tarasenko’s underlying numbers indicate a player that can be a premier offensive performer. DEFENSIVE PRESENCE One of the surprise teams in the league, this early in the year, has been the Calgary Flames and while goaltending has played a part in that start, the driving force for the Flames has been their top defensive pair of Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie. Giordano and Brodie are 1-2 in scoring for the Flames, with 15 and 14 points, respectively and they are still better than any other Flames at driving play. Now, that comes as qualified praise, because Giordano has had a positive even-strength shot differential just once in the past 11 games, and while Giordano and Brodie hover between 46% and 47% possession, that is still the best among Calgary defencemen. There aren’t many defencemen in the league that are starting more shifts in the defensive zone, facing the opposition’s best forwards and still putting up positive relative possession numbers, and that backs up the scoring totals to indicate how much Giordano and Brodie mean to the Flames. ROOKIE LEADER Nashville Predators left winger Filip Forsberg has scored four goals and six points during a four-game point streak and has taken the lead in the rookie scoring race, with 13 points, ahead of L.A.’s Tanner Pearson and Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau, who both have nine. Forsberg has been skating Nashville’s top line, with centre Mike Ribeiro and right winger James Neal, and the 20-year-old has more than held his own. He leads the Predators in scoring, ranks second in shots on goal and has been a strong possession (55.3%) player. CAPITAL PAINS Forsberg’s former team, the Washington Capitals, started the season well, going 4-1-2, but they’ve since dropped five straight and frrustration is building.dddddddddddd Part of the trouble has been goaltending. Braden Holtby and Justin Peters have stopped 115 of 136 shots (.846 SV%) in that time, undermining otherwise reasonable play from the Capitals, but when a team is losing, they don’t much want to hear about strong underlying numbers, they want wins. CARTER CAUGHT Maybe Toronto Maple Leafs winger Carter Ashton made an innocent mistake, as he said, ingesting a banned substance through an inhaler after an asthma attack. It’s possible that the circumstances weren’t on the up-and-up, because there are obvious tangible benefits to a fringe NHLer taking something that might improve his performance, namely moving off the fringe and into a regular NHL job, but that’s mere speculation. As it is, Ashton’s absence is barely going to cause a ripple in the Maple Leafs’ lineup – he’s played a little over 18 minutes for the Maple Leafs this year and has three points in 50 career NHL games. COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN A shootout win at home against Toronto Thursday night shouldn’t do a whole lot to ease the collective minds of the Colorado Avalanche. It’s better than losing, naturally, but this is a team that has been regressing hard since last season, to the point that the market has over-corrected. The Avalanche were probably due for some luck when it comes to overtime and shootout results and they can probably score more efficiently than their current 8.4% shooting percentage, which ranks 21st in the league. But, when teams are losing, frustration sets in and Avalanche head coach didn’t hide his displeasure with veteran winger Jarome Iginla following a loss to Anaheim Sunday. Roy’s frustration stemmed from Iginla’s missed assignment in defensive zone coverage, but it might also be easier to cut Iginla some slack if he had more than two goals in 15 games. Trouble for the Avalanche is that they defied the odds last season and that raised expectations. Now that their possession stats are even worse, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to sustain any kind of success. CALCULATED DECISION AHL goaltender David Leggio, playing for Bridgeport, used some quick thinking when faced with the prospect of a 2-on-0 coming from centre ice – he turned and, unabashedly, knocked the net off the moorings, a must-see video. (Incidentally, it did kind of look like the 2-on-0 was going awry, as the first pass skipped over Lukas Sedlak’s stick). Sure, Leggio had to face a penalty shot, which he stopped, but the decision was a great risk-reward calculation in the moment. Generally, penalty shots are successful about one-third of the time. If Leggio felt that a 2-on-0 was more likely than a one-in-three chance to score, knocking the net off was the smart play. Of course, once someone takes obvious advantage of a loophole in the rules, there can be no surprise if the rules get changed. A LOT OF MONEY TO NOT PLAY The Carolina Hurricanes endured a tough start to the season, but are starting to snap out of their early-season doldrums. At least part of the reason for their improvement is that they got some players back from injury and with a relatively healthy roster, the Hurricanes decided that they could make right winger Alexander Semin a healthy scratch in back-to-back games. Semin has no goals and two assists in nine games, and while he’s hung with a minus-7 rating, does still have positive puck possession (52.4%) stats. The lack of production is certainly an issue, but reaching the point at which Semin is told to sit in the press box is a major problem since Semin has three more years, at a total of $21-million, left on his contract, after this season! The numbers will get better – this is hardly the first slump of Semin’s career – but that contract was risky enough when Semin was playing on Carolina’s top line, let alone when the coaching staff deems they are better off without him in the lineup. TAKE A SEAT The early-season lull in suspensions is in the rearview mirror now, as a steady stream of vacations gets handed out for hits that cross the line. Andrew Ference, Alex Burrows, Anton Volchenkov, Jordan Nolan and Jack Johnson have all been told to take a break by the Department of Player Safety. That’s just about enough, guys. ' ' ' |
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