Dein erstes Forum » streaks like weve had in the past.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Even without Tiger Woods around, Sergio Garcia couldnt avoid reminders of a week to forget at The Players Championship. The 17th hole is where Garcia last year lost the battle, along with the war of words. After two days of verbal sparring with Woods, the Spaniard put two balls in the water to make quadruple bogey, and he put another in the water on the 18th for good measure. Garcia already was 4 under on Thursday when he came to the par-3 17th with an island green. "It did cross my mind. Im not going to lie to you," Garcia said. "I was trying to be positive. Its a new year -- lets improve on it. I pulled it a little bit there, but it was an OK shot. I was able to do much better there, and much better on 18, so I was very happy to see that." Garcia was six shots better than the last time he played those holes. He wound up with a 5-under 67 and was four shots behind leader Martin Kaymer, a good start for a past champion who has shown he can manage his way around the Stadium Course. As for those other memories? Garcia has put those behind him. Much like his golf shots, hes looking forward. Woods won The Players last year in a tournament marked by a weekend of squabbling with Garcia -- such public feuds are rare in golf -- that ended badly a few weeks later in London when Garcia made a racially insensitive comment about Woods while trying to be funny. It started in the third round, when Garcia blamed Woods for pulling fairway metal from his bag on a par 5 to stir up the gallery just as Garcia was trying to play his shot. Video doesnt support that sequence of events, but it set off a weekend of bickering -- and Woods got the last word by winning. "I think its over. I think its passed," Garcia said. "I didnt think I was a villain, but I think that weve all moved ahead of that. I certainly have. Im just looking forward to now and hopefully whats coming soon." Garcia says he is in a happier place, and it shows. He conducted a clinic for kids on Wednesday, and he is at his best in the presence of children. He played beautifully on Thursday, losing momentum with one bogey on his 14th hole, but no less satisfied with a 67. Even so, he conceded his battle with Woods last year unsettled him. He was at an awards banquet in London when asked if he would invite Woods over to dinner during the U.S. Open. "We will serve fried chicken," Garcia replied. He apologized twice, though it didnt quell the criticism that followed him the rest of the summer. Garcia spoke of the ups and downs in his career, of trying to play good golf when he feels miserable. Garcia went into a deep funk when longtime girlfriend Morgan Leigh Norman left him. He said after a poor third round in the 2012 Masters that he did not have the game to win a major. "You go through ups and downs in your life, in your career," Garcia said. "And Ive had really, really good times; really, really happy times. And then Ive had times that were a little bit more down. I think it happens to all of us. Youve got to try to enjoy those good times as much as possible and learn from the tough ones and hopefully make them as short as possible. I think at the end of the day, thats all you can really do." He said the last four years have been "pretty good," but not always. "I dont know, probably (what) comes to mind maybe last year is when everything went on with the little problem with Tiger," he said. "I think that was tough." Lately, he is on an upward swing. Garcia won in Thailand late last year. He won in Qatar at the start of this year. He is No. 9 in the world. He is thinking positively. And it probably doesnt hurt that Woods is sidelined indefinitely while recovering from back surgery. And yes, at 34, he believes hes good enough to win a major. "I think that when Im on, I can definitely win anywhere," he said. "I think Ive proven that. Its just a matter of getting that week where you feel good, where you feel comfortable, where things go your way, where everything feels relaxed, everything feels at ease and you manage to do things the way you know how to do them. Im still waiting for that particular week." Ian Happ Jersey . Catch the game on TSN starting at 7pm et/4pm pt. You can also listen to all the action live on TSN 1050 at 7pm et. The Knicks are two games behind the Atlanta Hawks for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference race. Custom Chicago Cubs Jerseys . It was the quickest three-goal sequence in Olympic history, with the latter two coming just eight seconds apart. Kessel, Lamoureux and Kendall Coyne all scored twice for the Americans, and Molly Schaus made 10 saves in her Sochi debut. https://www.cheapcubs.com/2090t-david-ross-jersey-cubs.html . Chile applied pressure in midfield right from the beginning, challenging aggressively and continually surging forward. Eduardo Vargas beat the offside trap and fired home a stinging shot for Chiles opening goal in the fifth minute. Danny Hultzen Jersey . -- C.J. Wilson parked his car and laughed while signing autographs for faceless fans who handed bats, balls and cards to the pitcher from the other side of a brick wall. Kyle Hendricks Cubs Jersey . Johnson shared an update after his surgery Tuesday on Twitter. He also wrote, "now lets get on the grind." The running back told The Tennessean he was having surgery in Pensacola, Fla.TORONTO – It was just over eight hours before game-time that Peter Horachek was officially named the interim replacement for the since-deposed Randy Carlyle. Suffice to say that big changes werent on the immediate horizon for the sputtering Leafs. When you have one day to go in there theres only small tweaks you can do, Horachek said ahead of his debut behind the bench. As we go forward there may be things that we may talk about changing. Change came in small doses Wednesday night for the newly-led Leafs, but the ultimate result remained the same. And that was the eighth loss in the past 10 games for Toronto, who fell out of a playoff spot at the official midway point of the season. There were some good things, said a composed Horachek after a 6-2 loss to the Capitals. We out-chanced them. Our possession numbers were better. We outshot them. But we gave up some poor timely goals. Changing a broken record wasnt going to be easy nor would it happen in a matter of hours. The Leafs were consistently poor in holding the puck and keeping it out of the net under Carlyles leadership, showing slight improvements in both categories Wednesday under Horachek and a revamped coaching staff – with Steve Staios added to the bench from the player development sector of the organization. Second-worst in the league in shot suppression entering the night, Toronto held Washington to just 26 shots and did indeed hold a pretty fair lead in the possession battle at even-strength. Horachek knew he couldnt change much in a day, but attempted a few tweaks at practice a day earlier. Chief among them, said Stephane Robidas, was improved cohesion in the defensive zone. I think thats what hes trying to implement, Robidas said. And thats something that we worked on yesterday in practice and something I think well keep working [on] and well keep looking at video. Beyond the needed structural fixes, Horachek also took to shaking up a lineup that had become stale amid a recent batch of injuries. The most notable change saw the standard, but troublesome top line broken up. Phil Kessel instead teamed with possession demons, Nazem Kadri and Daniel Winnik, for much of the night and did so effectively. Kessel earned better than 60 per cent possession at even-strength, a vast change – albeit in one night – for a player whos been consistently the Leafs worst this season. Such possession prowess helped Toronto earn its first goal, a Winnik deflection that beat Braden Holtby. Still, familiar troubles remained. Those timely goals that Horachek spoke of saw the Leafs yield an ill-timed shorthanded goal less than two minutes after tying the score and then another marker – Washingtons fourth – 42 seconds after Trevor Smith cut a two-goal deficit in half. The Capitals seemed to score with the limited opportunities they did have. Torontos coaching staff counted a tidy 12 scoring chances, Washington scoring five before adding another into an empty net. Weve got to eliminate those issues where were making things happen to ourselves, Horachek said. But we did a lot of things that we wanted to do and sometimes its just going to be harder at first than we want it to be to get back into the win column. Horachek managed to affect positive change during a 66-game stint in Florida last season under similar circumstance. The Panthers possession numbers inched upward under his direction. What the newly-minted interim head coach really offers the Leafs though is an opportunity to grade what looks to be a flawed roster under different direction. Brendan Shanahan and his front office team can utilize the second half of the season to determine how much of what ailed the club in recent years was tied to coaching and how much was tied to the limitations of personnel thats been locked into place for the long-term. They have 41 games exactly to paint that picture. Five Points 1. Resolve One word Horachek used repeatedly in his first day on the job was resolve. He talked about a change in the attitude of the group. Everyone has to be accountable for this situation, Horachek said of the Carlyle dismissal, shortly after directing his first practice. Everyone touches this situation and when it happens we all should be upset with ourselves and upset with the situation that weve put ourselves in. We have to have resolve now and we have to have a determination and a purposeful practice and purpose in how we approach our day-to-day. Horachek said the teams preparation and attitude ahead of both practices and games had to improve. I think weve seen good hocckey with our group, he said, [but] I want resolve.dddddddddddd I want to see that attitude. Whats the best thing we can do for our teammates? [Its] give a good attitude and be a person of direction, a person of leadership. We need that coming from everybody and I think everybodys capable of bringing that. 2. Communicator Horachek becomes an NHL head coach for the second time. Replacing Kevin Dineen previously as the temporary bench boss in Florida, he landed in Toronto this summer with the reputation of a strong communicator. You have to make them feel like its okay to talk to them, said Horachek, coaching his first game opposite Barry Trotz, with whom he teamed for years behind the bench in Nashville. My door is open, they can come in and have their opinions [and] I can tell them whats going on. I can [give] them an opportunity to say what they want. Theyre not feeling like my thumb is on top of them, theyre feeling like were in this together. Im going to be very clear, he continued, about what they have to do and when they make mistakes they have to understand that thats part of it. Im going to be very clear that if they do something that the team doesnt want them to do that thats something they have to correct. 3. Five-Man Unit Horachek went right to work in his first practice Tuesday in attempting to cue change in the defensive zone. He spoke of the functionality of a five-man unit after Wednesdays game. What we used to call five, five and five. We want five guys in the defensive zone, in the neutral zone and in the offensive zone, said Horachek. Its all connected and we believe thats the way it has to be. Playing defence, its just a commitment. Its a five-man unit, added Robidas, who checked back into the lineup after four games as a scratch. You cant be spread out and you cant have D running out of position and forwards running out of position. Weve got to know our role. Weve got to know where we need to be on the ice. Its got to be automatic. 4. Two Weeks On, Two Weeks Off Under the microscope more than any player after the Carlyle firing came down at around 9:20 a.m. on Tuesday, Phil Kessel didnt seem much bothered by the critique of his first head coach in Toronto, Ron Wilson. Wilson told TSN Radio that Kessel is two weeks on and two weeks off, noting damningly that he couldnt rely on Phil. I didnt hear anything that Wilson said. No clue, said Kessel when told of the stinging comments Wednesday morning. I dont really care to be honest with you. Sometimes I go cold out there, he said of his reputation for inconsistency. I dont think Im any different than anyone else in the league. He understood, however, the criticism coming his way in light of another troubled season, one that saw Carlyle fired at the 40-game mark. Weve made the playoffs one year here, said Kessel. Thats what happens, theyre going to come after you. Its never fun, but its part of the business and we just handle it. 5. Skids Kessel offered his own insight into the teams failure during a tenure in Toronto that spans more than five seasons. Were always right there every year, he said of the playoffs, and then all of a sudden we just hit these rough patches and weve just got to find a way to not go through them and play good hockey all year long. You know youre going to lose a couple games here and there, but you cant go on long losing streaks like weve had in the past. I think that happens every year with us and weve just got to somehow kick that. The Leafs improbably won 10 of 12 earlier this year before losing seven of the next nine. Carlyle was fired shortly after that ninth loss, a 5-1 drubbing in Winnipeg. Stats-Pack 53-43 – Even-strength possession battle Wednesday favouring the Leafs. 12 – Number of times the Leafs have held an opponent under 30 shots this season. 14:30 – Ice-time for Roman Polak, who missed a good chunk of the first two periods after taking a Troy Brouwer shot to the face. 28 – Games between goals for Daniel Winnik, who scored his second this season against Washington. 21-17-3 – Leafs record at the midway point of the season. Special Teams Capsule PP: 0-2 Season: 19.9 per cent (13th) PK: 0-2 Season: 82.5 per cent (12th) Quote of the Night There were some good things. We out-chanced them. Our possession numbers were better. We outshot them. But we gave up some poor timely goals. -Peter Horachek, assessing his first game as the Leafs interim head coach. Up Next The Leafs host Columbus Friday before hitting the road for four straight. ' ' '