someone starts slinging mud in the gutter, dont head to th

Even with entirely justifiable concern over his health, considering he has played just 99 of 212 regular season games over the last three seasons, Sidney Crosby is the player Ive projected to finish atop the NHL scoring race in 2013-2014. Last season, Crosby was in the lead when he suffered a broken jaw, costing him the last 12 games of the regular season and he finished four points behind Tampa Bays Martin St. Louis, who finished with 60 points in 48 games. If there is a positive to be taken from the injury that shortened Crosbys 2013 campaign, its that his injury was a broken jaw and not additional concussion troubles that have plagued him in previous seasons. If that means that Crosby might, possibly, be a little further removed from his latest concussion, then that could provide some reason to be optimistic about his health going into this season. Of course, when a player misses 113 of 212 games, any optimism over health needs to be tempered, but even with Crosby projected to play 64 games, his 102-point projection is good enough to rank at the top, ahead of St. Louis and St. Louis centre, Steven Stamkos. Though hes only led the league in scoring once, in 2006-2007, over the last three seasons, Crosby has scored 159 points in 99 games, his 1.61 points per game far-and-away the best in the league. His teammate, Evgeni Malkin, ranks second at 1.20 points per game, in that time frame. While Crosby is the pick at the top of the scoring race, when it comes to position-by-position Fantasy rankings, Steven Stamkos gets the nod at centre, for his off-the-charts goal-scoring and the fact that hes been much, much healthier than Crosby. In the last three years, Stamkos has 134 goals, 32 more than Alex Ovechkin and Corey Perry, who are tied for second. Injuries are unpredictable and, given the nature of the game, can hit a player at any time, but it sure feels safer to peg Stamkos at the top of the centre rankings when hes missed only three games in five NHL seasons (and they were all in his rookie year). Other position leaders in the Fantasy Projections (which incorporate goals, assists, plus-minus, power play points, hits and shots on goal) include Ovechkin at right wing, Daniel Sedin on left wing, Erik Karlsson on defence and Henrik Lundqvist in goal. This is just the beginning of TSNs Fantasy Hockey coverage for this season, as we prepare to launch the Fantasy Hockey League Manager and Ill have many more articles and updated rankings in preparation for October 1, when the puck drops on the 2013-2014 NHL regular season. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Cheap Asics Shoes Online .com) - Minnesota Vikings fans would surely concede Teddy Bridgewater is not Peyton Manning. Asics Shoes Discount Sale . 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. http://www.cheapasics.net/ . He was with the New York Jets in 2011 when the NFL locked out their players after they failed to agree on a new contract. Willy went undrafted but was given a look by four NFL teams before heading north. Asics Outlet Store Online ... as usual. Even with the salary cap being set lower than many general managers expected and hoped for at $69 million and whats considered a shallow pool of top-end players available, this unrestricted-free-agent period figures to follow the familiar script of teams bidding up prices to keep up with each other. Buy Asics Shoes Cheap . Which is to say, the top of this years draft class is not as dynamic or exciting as the 2013 class of Nate MacKinnon, Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Drouin and Seth Jones and its not as strikingly promising as the highly-anticipated 2015 slate of Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin.Dear CFL and CFLPA, Lets get this deal done gentlemen. Trying to keep the CBA negotiations private just hasnt happened, and it sounds like these discussions are going nowhere fast! This letter is in no way an attempt to take sides on the issues, but just a reminder to both sides to stay focused on the big picture. The season must start on time. It is better for the teams, better for the players, and most importantly, better for the fans. First to the CFL head office. You guys know better than anyone that the players for years have made sacrifices to keep the league alive and are grossly underpaid in comparison to the rest of the world of professional sports. So when you make a final offer, rather than tell the other side what they wont get, tell them what they do get...which is a real nice raise in the form of the cap being pushed up substantially. By doing so you show the players that while you may think it is too early to go back to revenue sharing, you do want to give the players an increase in the cap they cant refuse, a real increase. Secondly, to the players association. Lets not get obsessive about revenue sharing; if you can see that the offer, and increase in the cap, shows that the league is making the players the priority, get the deal signed. I understand you are playing the "so many players sacrificed in the past so now it is time to draw a line in the sand" card, however, as one of those players that back years ago took over a thirty per cent pay cut on a signed contract, I can tell you going on strike would in no way honour those players. Back then we never thought we would take pay cuts so that future players could shut the league down, and in doing so put it in jeopardy. In fact it was just the opposite. We put the game first back then, and wanted to avoid any chance of a work stoppage. So if you want to be a voice for the players of the past that sacrificed, then make sure the league kicks off on time. The facts are that years ago players knew, due to the shaky financial ground that the league was on, that our contracts were barely worth the paper they were written on because at any time a GM could say, "I know you have a signed deal but we are ripping it up and you have to play for less money!" However, what was also true at the time was owners like David Braley stepped up and put millions into the league to make sure that this great Canadian tradition would ccontinue on for years to come.dddddddddddd So yes, the players got paid less than their contracts read, but while that was happening owners were losing, at times, millions of their own hard earned dollars. Players deserve more money, and owners like David Braley and Bob Wetenhall deserve to go a few years where they actually make a profit and make some of the money they have lost back. A new television contract has changed the financial landscape of the game. It should all but guarantee that teams can be profitable no matter what their win/loss record looks like in any given year. Owners and in the case of community-owned teams, the taxpayers, will start to see the fruits of their labour and players will be compensated better for putting it all on the line when they cross the stripes. All of which is a given and may be over-simplifying. However, once again to the league, make the salary cap bump substantial and reflect how much you respect the importance of the players. And to the players, there may be a time down the road when you can hold tough on revenue sharing, but that time is not now. So get a good raise, take care of some other issues, kick off the season on time, and support your families. My father once told me that if someone starts slinging mud in the gutter, dont head to the gutter and start slinging mud back, because all that happens then is that everyone gets muddy. To both sides in these negotiations, this cant be about greed, about the sacrifices of past players, or about egos. The game is too important and the league is realizing momentum like never before in its history. Most importantly, remember none of this is possible without the fans. Right now people are looking at buying their season tickets and trying to make plans for their summer holidays, and those plans are on hold. Fans in our Nations Capital cant wait to have a home team again, and this time with owners that are in it for the long haul. Those fans are now putting their plans on hold while these negotiations continue. It is time to end the, "I go high, you go low," negotiation strategy and sit down and hammer out a deal. Negotiating privately was a massive fail, and it looks like both sides are now trying to sway public opinion, and that is when egos get involved. If it gets to that, shame on both sides, because at that point you are both just covered in mud. Sincerely, Glen Suitor ' ' '