Sport-scan daily brief

So did the official, but the puck trickled out and Matt Read put it in the net. Since the whistle was blown, the goal was negated.

Only 12 seconds into the third period, the Canadiens doubled their lead. Brendan Gallagher fired a shot from the left point. It bounced off the back boards, drawing everyone to the right side of the net except for Lars Eller, who backhanded the rebound behind Emery.

“After they scored the goal to start the third period, the penalties started to happen and we lost our composure in the game,” Laviolette said. “It unraveled from there. We’re not gonna win a lot of hockey games when we’re in the box as much as we were tonight.”

A Montreal a two-man advantage led to their third goal at 5:00 of the third period when Alex Galchenyuk fed Gallagher in the slot.

The Flyers finally got on the board when Vinny Lecavalier, who was booed every time he touched the puck, scored at 9:13 of the final stanza.

It was a power-play goal when he put home the rebound of a Streit shot. That made the power play 1-for-5 on the night.

It was the only time the Flyers beat Price, who had 22 saves.

“We didn’t play a good game. We competed, that’s for sure,” Giroux said. “At the end of the day, we had to just make the play that’s there and obviously we’ll do a lot of video and I think we’re not very happy with our game and it’s got to change.”

They won’t have much time to think about it as the puck drops against the Carolina Hurricanes at 5 p.m. today.

With all the special teams play Saturday, the Flyers still don’t have a goal at even strength through two games. This season may not be lockout-shortened, but the pressure can still mount quickly.

So far, the Flyers aren’t pressing the panic button.

Courier-Post LOADED: 10.06.2013

719815 Philadelphia Flyers

Penalties hurt Flyers in loss to Montreal

Oct. 5, 2013 |

Written by

Dave Isaac

MONTREAL — Not five minutes into the third period, the speakers at Bell Centre played the “Imperial March” made famous by Star Wars.

Yet another Flyer was marching to the penalty box.

On the night, the Flyers took 12 trips to the sin bin and although they held the Montreal Canadiens’ power play at bay for a while, they had nothing to fight back with in a 4-1 loss.

Before the game the Flyers talked about their own power play, feeling that they’d eventually figure it out after going 1-for-7 in the season opener. Two games into the season and the special teams issue wasn’t their own power play. It was giving the Canadiens too many opportunities on the man advantage.

The march to the penalty box started early, only 3:43 into the game when defenseman Braydon Coburn went off for holding. Then came another one when Luke Schenn went off for boarding.

Back-to-back, the Flyers killed off the Montreal penalties. For their efforts, they fell behind 1-0 at even strength. Brian Gionta touched a pass from Rene Bourque, but Flyers defenseman Mark Streit tied up his stick. On a second effort, Gionta beat Ray Emery in his first start of the season at 8:10 of the first period.

When the march wasn’t on, the Flyers effectively slowed down a speedy Montreal team.

With time winding down in the first period, the Flyers nearly tied it. Referee Eric Furlatt blew the whistle when Montreal goalie Carey Price brought his glove to his chest, thinking he had trapped a shot into the logo on his jersey.

So did Furlatt.

The puck trickled out and Matt Read put it in the net, but Furlatt had blown the whistle, negating the goal.

The Flyers took three more marches to the box in the second period, including one by Emery for diving when Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher was also called for goalie interference.

Only 12 seconds into the third period, the Canadiens doubled their lead. Brendan Gallagher fired a shot from the left point. It bounced off the back boards, drawing everyone to the right side of the net except for Lars Eller, who backhanded the rebound behind Emery.

At 5:00 of the third period, the Montreal power play finally struck when they were ahead two men. Marches to the box by Kimmo Timonen and Max Talbot gave Montreal a two-man advantage when Alex Galchenyuk fed Gallagher for the Canadiens’ third goal.

The Flyers finally got on the board when Vinny Lecavalier, who was booed every time he touched the puck, scored at 9:13 of the final stanza. It was a power-play goal for the Flyers when he put home the rebound of a Streit shot. That made the power play 1-for-5 on the night.

It was the only time the Flyers beat Price, who stopped all but one of the 23 shots he faced.

With 7:55 left, the red light went on behind Emery again when a Travis Moen shot found its way through. Luckily for the Flyers, the goal was disallowed as the officials blew the whistle, just like they had on Read’s shot in the first period.

All in all, there were five minor penalties assessed to the Flyers in the third period, in addition to a pair of fights: holding, a faceoff violation, slashing, cross-checking and high-sticking.

Most of them were because a Flyer was trying to catch up to a man in a red uniform. By the end of the night, the Canadiens’ power play was 2-for-9. Rene Bourque added the second with 57 seconds left.

Courier-Post LOADED: 10.06.2013

719816 Phoenix Coyotes

Is Phoenix Coyotes wing Radim Vrbata streaky? Maybe not

By Sarah McLellan azcentral sports Sat Oct 5, 2013 11:21 PM

SAN JOSE - The streaky label seems to stick to some players more than others.

In Coyotes wing Radim Vrbata’s case, it’s super-glued to him.

But why?

“Consistency would be if everybody scored 82 goals in 82 games,” Vrbata said.

Last season, Vrbata’s longest stretch of games without a goal was seven. He scored in consecutive games twice.

In 2011-12, he went 12 games without a goal but only went one game between goals seven times. He scored in back-to-back games four times and in three consecutive games three times.

“I don’t think it’s just me,” he said. “It’s everybody. If there’s a guy who scores one goal in one game and another in the next one, he feels good about himself. In the season, you will go through stretches where it seems like everything is going in and then you will have games where you have chances where you should score and it doesn’t go in.”

This is an important season for Vrbata, who is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. His camp and the Coyotes discussed an extension during training camp but weren’t able to reach an agreement.

“From our side, I think we did everything we could to get it done before the season opener,” Vrbata said.

The expectation is negotiations will pick back up after the season.

“It doesn’t mean you can’t have conversations,” General Manager Don Maloney said.

And Vrbata said: “If they come to us, we will listen.”

Vrbata definitely seems in line for a raise from the $3 million he earned annually on his current contract.

Wing Jason Pominville recently grabbed a five-year, $28 million extension from the Minnesota Wild.

Pominville will be 31 in November (Vrbata is 32) and has reached the 20-goal plateau in each full-length season all but once in his career. He has more career points (465) than Vrbata (416) in fewer games, but both have posted similar goal totals the past three seasons.

“If that contract gives you an indication of where the market is,” Vrbata’s agent, Rich Evans, said, “we’ll see when we get there.”

First fight

Wing Chris Brown played only 5:27 in Thursday’s opener, but he still managed to make an impression.

Brown fought Rangers tough guy Derek Dorsett after Dorsett tripped up goalie Mike Smith late in the third period.

“I think it’s part of everyone’s role,” Brown said. “It’s kind of the identity of the team. Everyone’s going to stick up for everyone when the time’s needed.”

Ice chip

Defenseman Rusty Klesla (concussion) has been cleared for contact. He skated in the Valley on Saturday with wing Paul Bissonnette, who has one game remaining on his three-game suspension.

Arizona Republic LOADED: 10.06.2013

719817 Phoenix Coyotes

Phoenix Coyotes fall to San Jose Sharks for their first loss of season

By Sarah McLellan azcentral sports Sat Oct 5, 2013 10:12 PM

SAN JOSE – It’ll be another 10 days before the Coyotes get reacquainted with Jobing.com Arena as they’re in the midst of their longest stretch of road games of the season.

But they didn’t forget to pack their welcome mat for this five-game trip.

They laid that in front of their crease Saturday against the Sharks at SAP Center at San Jose, giving up 51 shots and falling 4-1 to the Sharks in front of a sellout crowd of 17,562.

“I just was trying to tell myself, ‘Make as many saves as you can and maybe we can figure it out,’” goalie Mike Smith said.

A flurry of bodies and pucks regularly crowded the blue paint in front of Smith, who limited the onslaught by making a handful of difficult saves.

At one point early in the third period, he had six players either sprawled in his crease or hovering over it while he was pushed back into the net after making a double-pad save on Sharks winger John McCarthy.

“The battle level wasn’t near where it needed to be, including in front of our net,” Smith said.

He finished with 47 saves while Sharks goalie Antti Niemi was barely challenged on the 22 saves he made.

The area on the ice that the Coyotes attempt to protect the most, the middle of their defensive zone, was the one spot left most vulnerable.

Only 46 seconds into the first period, Sharks rookie Tomas Hertl caught a stretch pass on a bad Coyotes line change and split the defense to go in alone and slip a shot five-hole on Smith.

“I’m thinking it’s going to be one of these games,” Smith said.

It was Hertl’s first NHL goal in only his second game, and it didn’t take long for an encore once center Kyle Chipchura was whistled for high-sticking.

“It was downhill from there,” coach Dave Tippett said.

On the power play, Hertl redirected a point shot from defenseman Matt Irwin at 7:23 to put the Sharks up 2-0.

Another power play goal 5:07 later made it 3-0. Smith made the initial save on center Joe Pavelski, but Marc-Edouard Vlasic picked up the rebound and found center Patrick Marleau for the one-timer at the top of Smith’s crease.

The Sharks outshot the Coyotes 18-8 in the first period, erasing any warm and fuzzy feelings that might have lingered from Thursday’s winning debut against the New York Rangers.

“We didn’t execute well and we got out-battled on loose pucks and when you don’t have the puck ever, you’re chasing the game,” Tippett said.

The Coyotes weren’t able to generate much of anything in the offensive zone. Their only goal, from Oliver Ekman-Larsson at 16:47 of the second period, was an individual effort from the defenseman. Ekman-Larsson skated the puck up from the Coyotes zone, pivoted to avoid a check in the neutral zone and then wired a shot off the rush that handcuffed Niemi.

Center Logan Couture iced it in the third by roofing a shot into an empty net with 25 seconds left.

This is a retooled offense. The addition of center Mike Ribeiro has changed up most of the lines from last season, and it’s likely to take time for chemistry to develop.

Their four-goal outburst against the Rangers was mostly a hat trick from an opportunistic Radim Vrbata and not a result of tic-tac-toe set-ups from cohesive lines.

But it isn’t as easy to forgive the defensive lapses. The top-two pairs returned from last season, and the Coyotes had a month of

training

camp as a refresher course of their style.

“It’s just one of those games nothing was clean,” Smith said. “Every pass seemed like it hit one of their sticks. Every time we tried to get a shot, it was blocked. We just couldn’t get anything going.”

What didn’t help was playing shorthanded. Defenseman Derek Morris left in the second period with an upper-body injury and didn’t return.

Tippett didn’t have an update on his status after the game.

The Coyotes hope this isn’t a sign of what’s to come on the road. Last season, they went 7-10-7 away from Jobing.com Arena and named that showing as one of the culprits for a non-playoff finish.

They’ll have time to make some adjustments before their road adventure continues. The Coyotes returned to the Valley after the game and won’t depart for the rest of their trip until Monday.

“We weren’t on the forecheck,” Smith said. “We were watching and waiting for something to happen instead of making something happen. Hopefully we’ll learn a huge lesson from this game.”

Sharks 4, Coyotes 1

Key player: Sharks rookie Tomas Hertl continues to impress. The center scored the first two goals of his NHL career against Coyotes goalie Mike Smith, who previously had dominated the Sharks.

Key moment: A brief 46 seconds into the first period, Hertl split the Coyotes defense and beat Smith five-hole. The Coyotes weren’t able to rebound after that.

Key number: 18 First-period shots for the Sharks. The Coyotes managed only eight.

Why the Coyotes lost: The Coyotes weren’t able to alleviate the pressure put on them by the Sharks offense, and they struggled to find their own quality chances. The Sharks had a feeding-frenzy in front of Smith’s net, regularly finding shots and setting screens. At the other end of the ice, the Coyotes had trouble planting bodies in front of goalie Antti Niemi to make his stops more difficult.

View from the press box: His off-season price tag was too steep for the Coyotes, but what they lacked against the Sharks was the presence of a Boyd Gordon. The center was a penalty-killing pest because of his active stick and ability to get into shooting lanes and absorb shots with his body. The Coyotes weren’t able to apply that type of forecheck to the Sharks and gave up two power-play goals. The penalty kill, it seems, is still a work in progress.

UP NEXT:

Who: Coyotes at Islanders.

When: Tuesday at 4 p.m.

Where: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

TV/radio: KTAR-AM 620.

Arizona Republic LOADED: 10.06.2013

719818 Phoenix Coyotes

Game Day: Coyotes at Sharks

Posted on October 5, 2013 3:48 pm by Sarah McLellan

Coyotes (1-0-0) at Sharks (1-0-0)

Puck drop: 7:30 p.m.

TV/Radio: FSAZ/KTAR-FM (92.3).

Possible Coyotes lines:

Boedker-Ribeiro-Doan

Korpikoski-Hanzal-Vrbata

Lessio-Vermette-Moss

Klinkhammer-Chipchura-Brown

Ekman-Larsson-Michalek

Yandle-Morris

Schlemko-Rundblad

Smith

Potential scratches: Bissonnette, Stone and Summers.

Possible Sharks lines:

Hertl-Thornton-Burns

Kennedy-Couture-Marleau

Nieto-Pavelski-Wingels

Sheppard-Desjardins-McCarthy

Vlasic-Braun

Irwin-Boyle

Demers-Hannan

Niemi

Injury update: Stuart (lower-body), Burish (lower-body), winger Martin Havlat is on injured reserve (pelvis) and winger Raffi Torres is out for three to five months with a torn ACL.

On the Sharks:

“We’re striving to become that really good team on a consistent basis,” coach Dave Tippett said. “I would say the Sharks mirror that, also. They’re a team that does a lot of little things right.”

Why the optional morning skate:

“You read your team everyday, where you think they are,” Tippett said. “After a good opening game, we had a pretty spirited practice yesterday. So we came in this morning, (and) we had some guys that wanted to stay off the ice. It’s whatever we have to do to maximize our energy for the game is what we’ll do. We’ll just manage that day-by-day.”

On the start of a five-game road trip:

“The way our schedule’s set up we knew how important that first game was at home,” Tippett said. “Now we go on the road for five games, and it’s going to be a challenge. It’ll be a hard go here, but I think it’ll be a great character builder for our team.”

-Goaltender Mike Smith has a 7-3-1 career record against the Sharks with a 2.01 goals-against-average and a .945 save percentage. He registered a 2-0-0 record with a

0.48 goals-against average, a .985 save percentage and a shutout in two starts vs. the Sharks a season ago.

-The Coyotes are 6-3-2 against the Sharks the past two seasons.

-Defenseman Keith Yandle is one of seven players to finish in the top-25 in NHL defensemen scoring in each of the last three seasons.

-Winger Lauri Korpikoski is one point shy of recording 100 with the Coyotes.

-The Sharks had two player make their NHL debuts Thursday: forwards Tomas Hertl and Matt Nieto. Both became the first two Sharks players born after the franchise’s first game (Oct. 4, 1991) to appear in a regular-season contest for the Sharks.

-Since 2010-11, goalie Antti Niemi ranks tied-for-third in the NHL in wins (94).

Arizona Republic LOADED: 10.06.2013

719819 Pittsburgh Penguins

Veteran Kobasew provides more offense in Pens' win over Sabres

By Rob Rossi

Updated 6 hours ago

Chuck Kobasew wasn't even supposed to be here.

He arrived in Pittsburgh a day before training camp opened and worked on a professional tryout contract until Wednesday, when he signed for the veteran minimum.

The Penguins have received maximum value from that deal at the start of the NHL season.

Kobasew scored again Saturday night, giving him two goals in as many games, and the Penguins defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1, at Consol Energy Center.

Kobasew has gone to the net to tie forward Craig Adams and captain Sidney Crosby for the Penguins' goal lead.

“That's where you have to go to score in this league,” Kobasew said. “Some goals are scored off the rush, but most are not.”

Most opportunities did not interest Kobasew, three times a former 20-goal scorer, before the Penguins invited him to camp in mid-September.

General manager Ray Shero liked Kobasew's blend of skill, speed and grit — and the scouting report provided by Crosby, who worked out with Kobasew during the lockout and this past summer.

“Ray asked me about him,” Crosby said. “He's a good player. And obviously he had a really good camp.”

Kobasew has had an even better start to the season with two goals and consistent work on a third line.

Crosby, left winger Chris Kunitz (penalty shot) and Adams also scored Saturday for the Penguins (2-0-0, 4 points), who next face Carolina at home on Tuesday night.

Crosby won 24 of 41 faceoffs, and the Penguins and Sabres combined for 75 draws — a number Crosby attributed to “all the whistles,” a reference, in part, to the hybrid-icing rule adopted for this season.

The Penguins have not adopted a new attention to defense, even though they are credited for 39 blocked shots through two games.

“Probably not as much last year,” Crosby said of talk among players about tightening up in their own end.

Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who waived a jolly roger flag to support the Pirates' playoff run when announced as the No. 2 star after the game, described as the play in front of him as “great.”

He stopped 20 shots, coming within a goal by Buffalo winger Thomas Vanek of his 25th shutout.

Fleury has never posted back-to-back shutouts in the NHL.

Kobasew said he never sets an objective for the number of goals he would need to score to have a successful season.

He has not hit double-digits in goals since 2008-09, his second of consecutive campaigns with 20-plus markers.

The Penguins are not counting on him to lead their offensive charge, though they could use some help because of injuries to right winger James Neal (upper body) and defenseman Kris Letang (lower body).

Neal is the set marksman for center Evgeni Malkin, who attempted eight shots — four found their way on net — after not taking one in the opening win over New Jersey.

Letang, the only point-per-game defenseman in the NHL last season, is the catalyst from the backend.

With Letang out, defenseman Matt Niskanen has assumed a top-four role on defense, paired with free-agent returnee Rob Scuderi. Niskanen has produced three assists and a plus-4 rating.

There was a time in August when the consensus among those outside the Penguins organization was that Niskanen would be traded for salary-cap relief.

There was a time in August when Kobasew was not sure whether he would land work in a league dealing with a salary-cap decrease for the first time.

He always had his eye on the Penguins.

“I watched this team a lot the last couple of seasons because of all their games on national TV,” Kobasew said. “I had a pretty good idea of what they do and what I could do for them.

“I picked them for a reason. I didn't know how it would work out, but so far it's been really good.”

Tribune Review LOADED: 10.06.2013

719820 Pittsburgh Penguins

Penguins notebook: Letang resumes skating

By Rob Rossi

Kris Letang skated on his own Saturday.

For a defenseman with Norris Trophy aspirations, that might not seem like much, but it is progress.

Letang had not skated since Sept. 27, when he practiced with Penguins teammates in West Point, N.Y.

He remains out indefinitely with an undisclosed lower-body injury, although coach Dan Bylsma seemed to be encouraged by where Letang is with his recovery.

“I don't have an exact timetable on when he will return to practice for sure, but he's progressing real well,” Bylsma said.

Letang is eligible to be removed from the injured reserve list Tuesday.

Letang's absence has opened a spot on the roster — and playing time — for Olli Maatta, the 22nd pick at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

Maatta again was paired with Robert Bortuzzo for the Penguins' game against Buffalo at Consol Energy Center on Saturday.

Because he still is eligible for junior hockey, Maatta, 19, must play with the Penguins or his junior club (London). He can play nine NHL games before this season would count as the first on his entry-level deal.

Although a permanent stay for Maatta remains unlikely because of contractual reasons, Bylsma has not ruled out that possibility.

“There are hypothetical (situations, such as injuries and/or trades) that could happen,” he said.

Injuries Part 2

Winger Matt D'Agostini also is out with a lower-body injury, although there is a clearer picture for his return. He could practice Oct. 16 or 18, Bylsma said. The Penguins play at Philadelphia in between.

Right winger James Neal (upper body) is out indefinitely. He has not practiced since Monday, although he played sparingly Thursday against New Jersey at home.

Goalie Tomas Vokoun (blood clot) is out until at least January.

Love in

The players were shown on the video board late in the first period. An “MVP” chant followed the ovation as McCutchen made a face at the camera. A jolly roger flag hangs from the ceiling inside the Penguins' home dressing room.

Duck soup

Anaheim, which is in the market for a defenseman, had a scout at Consol. Philadelphia, Phoenix and Minnesota also had scouts in attendance.

View from atop

Three assistant coaches are one too many for behind the bench.