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For longtime fans of the Toronto Argonauts, this weeks trade that brought Ricky Ray to Hogtown must have felt a tad familiar. A blockbuster deal for a star quarterback is the oldest call in the Argo off-season playbook, one repeated in the acquisitions of Matt Dunigan, Tracy Ham, Kent Austin, Doug Flutie and Kerry Joseph, among others, over the years. Sometimes its worked out and sometimes it hasnt. But when youre a franchise thats gone more than 40 years without developing its own star quarterback, (the last one being Joe Theisman) theres not much choice but to go shopping. Still, theres good reason that Argo fans were pinching themselves on Monday at news that a star quarterback who is still in his prime (although Jim Barkers suggestion that his best years are ahead of him is a bit of a stretch) was available without Toronto having to give up any of its own best players. At age 32, Ricky Ray is coming off his sixth season of throwing for more than 4,500 yards, throwing 24 touchdown passes against just 11 interceptions and once again proving to be among the most durable quarterbacks in the game. Hes the best pure passer to come to Toronto since Doug Flutie and even brings with him some star power, something the Argos have desperately lacked during the parade of Michael Bishop, Kerry Joseph, Cody Pickett, Cleo Lemon and Steven Jyles in recent years. The Argos have now traded away their first-round draft pick for the second year in a row. And Rays salary will make it difficult to compete for free agent talent come February. But for a team that has finished dead last, or second last, at throwing the football for three consecutive seasons, the addition of a seasoned passer is like a cool glass of water in the desert. The Eskimos side of this deal is a lot more subtle, with Eskimos general manager Eric Tillman dialing this one up straight out of his own off-season playbook. It was Tillman who dealt both Austin and Joseph to the Argos from B.C. and Saskatchewan, respectively, both fresh off Grey Cup wins. Neither player came close to repeating in Toronto what hed done before. Tillman generally shuns large contracts and savours cheap talent, especially if its Canadian. After putting together an 11-7 season in his first year in Edmonton, theres not a lot of pressure on Tillman right away (as opposed to Barker coming off a 6-12 season in Toronto), which gives him the opportunity to look a little further down the road from his end of the deal. Its quite possible the Eskimos will take a step backwards in 2012 by parting ways with Ray. But in shedding his salary and adding a young Canadian along with a high draft pick, Tillman has set his team up for this winters free agent market as well as the opportunity to re-sign much of his teams core players when its time to renew them after the 2012 and 2013 seasons. The gamble comes in being able to fill the void hes created at quarterback with one of Jyles, or youngsters Matt Nichols and Eric Ward. Theres little in Jyles performance over the past two seasons with Winnipeg and Toronto that suggests hes a star in the making. And at age 29, hes not really a kid anymore. (Ray had won two Grey Cups and spent a season with the New York Jets by the time he was 29.) But when Tillman traded Joseph after Saskatchewans Grey Cup win in 2007, he believed it was Jyles – not Darian Durant – who was mostly likely to take over the starting role in Saskatchewan. Then-Rider head coach Ken Miller preferred Durant and was proven correct, but Tillman never lost his eye for Jyles. If Jyles is a bit of an enigma to this point in his career, whats behind him is a complete mystery in Ward and Nichols. (38-year-old Kerry Joseph may be back but is a stop-gap at best.) The Eskimos are expected to sign former Oregon and Ole Miss quarterback Jeremiah Masoli this off-season, but its impossible to predict how that might turn out. But with Ray out of the way, the young quarterbacks will play and gain experience and the Eskimos appear willing to live with whatever hiccups that may bring along the way. And Tillman is betting the end result will make the Eskimos a power and keep them that way long after Ricky Rays best days are well behind him. Like the Argos making a trade for a star quarterback, its a play call thats worked for him before. The Conspiracy Theorists It wasnt long after word of Mondays trade leaked that suggestions were being made that the move of Ricky Ray to Toronto was somehow engineered by the CFL league office to prop up the Argonauts for a season in which they are playing host to the 100th Grey Cup. It was noted that at Novembers Grey Cup, commissioner Mark Cohon had said that the Toronto market was the leagues number-one concern and the league was contributing a $1 million marketing effort this season to raise the leagues profile in its biggest market. Then within a month of that pronouncement, one of the leagues biggest stars arrives Toronto in what some consider a lopsided trade. Thats interesting, but ridiculous. For starters, in a league of competitive general managers, none is moreso than Tillman. The notion that he would agree to make a deal that he didnt believe was in the best interests of the Eskimos is preposterous. Like the rest of the leagues GMs, Tillman would rather eat dirt that make a deal that benefited another team above his own. And the suggestion that Tillman would never have traded Ray without being forced to do so by the league is shattered by the fact he very nearly dealt him to Hamilton a year ago. Last winter, Tillman had a deal in place to ship Ray and his $515,000 per season contract to the Tiger-Cats, one that was held up because Hamilton first wanted Rays contract to be restructured. Ray agreed to take pay cut of more than $100,000 per season. But upon re-doing the deal, Rays agent, Ken Staninger, asked for assurance that Ray would not be immediately traded out of town. Tillman kept his word and the deal to Hamilton died. The Tiger-Cats were again at the table this time around before Tillman pulled the trigger on the deal to Toronto, but offered a less appealing package built around the rights to former Sherbrooke University receiver Sam Giguere, who has spent three seasons in the NFL but remains an unsigned free agent. So like almost all conspiracy theories in sports, the CFL-forced trading of Ricky Ray to Toronto is pure bunk. Austin Stays Put It was hardly surprising when former Saskatchewan head coach Kent Austin officially withdrew his name from consideration for head coaching vacancies in Hamilton and Saskatchewan this week. The only puzzling part was what took him so long to do so. For at least two weeks, speculation had mounted (mildly in Hamilton, feverishly in Saskatchewan) that Austin might be available if the price was right, a notion he did nothing to dispel by remaining silent. His removal from consideration means the Roughriders and Tiger-Cats are down to a similar cast of candidates, a list headlined by Calgary offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson, Hamilton defensive co-ordinator Corey Chamblin, Toronto special teams coach Mike OShea and Winnipeg defensive co-ordinator Tim Burke – all of whom have interviewed for both vacancies. (The Ticats also interviewed running backs coach Rick Worman and the Roughriders have spoken to some as-of-yet unidentified coaches in the NCAA with CFL backgrounds, as well as both Richie Hall and Craig Dickenson from their current staff.) What stands out among OShea, Dickenson and Chamblin, widely perceived to be the leading candidates, are their ages of 41, 38, and 34, respectively. It may be that the days of recycling head coaches or anointing longtime assistants is over, with teams seeking younger head coaches who can relate to todays players. OShea has two years of coaching experience, Dickenson three years and Chamblin six, but only five in the CFL. Are each of them ready? In one or more cases, were likely about to find out. Cheap Los Angeles Angels Jerseys . The Wizards hope they didnt lose something much more important than just one game. Love had 25 points and 11 rebounds, and J.J. Barea scored 17 points off the bench to help the Timberwolves beat Washington 120-98 on Friday night. Cheap Manchester City Jerseys . The Utah Jazz forward then found his stride. Millsap finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks to lead the Jazz to a 104-99 victory over the New Orleans Hornets. http://www.wholesalemlbcheapjerseys.com/ . Wandy Rodriguez pitched six innings, and three relievers completed a three-hitter to help the unbeaten Dominican Republic top Puerto Rico 2-0 Saturday. jerseys from china . Despite a history of back trouble, Youkilis was signed to fill in for Rodriguez after the All-Star third baseman had off-season hip surgery. Youkilis got off to a solid start, also filling in at first base, but was injured April 20 at Toronto and missed six straight games with back stiffness before going 0 for 3 with a walk Saturday. Cheap Manchester United Jerseys . -- Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons maintained all along that left-hander J.ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Last spring, the Chicago Blackhawks disposed of the Minnesota Wild in five games of the first-round playoff series on their way to the Stanley Cup championship. With the Blackhawks now a Central Division rival in the realigned NHL, the Wild have their hands full. But theyve clearly closed the gap. Marco Scandellas slap shot with 1:48 left, the defencemans first goal this season, lifted the Wild to a 4-3 win over the Blackhawks on Thursday. "Against a team like Chicago, coming back, it feels good," Scandella said. "Its a great feeling in the room right now. We battled all game. We stuck with it, which is the important thing." The Wild have won two of three meetings with the Blackhawks this season. "Anytime you beat a team like that, its important. Everybody knows how good they are," said star Zach Parise. "For us, its been a tough stretch for us where some games we havent played as well as we need to, but I thought we played a lot better tonight." Jonas Brodin scored on a power play with 5:39 remaining to tie the game for the Wild, who raised their home record to 12-3-2 and handed the Blackhawks their first loss in their past seven road games. With Charlie Coyle partially screening Corey Crawford at the edge of the crease, Brodin wound up and sent the puck ricocheting off Blackhawks defenceman Johnny Oduya and past the goalies outstretched glove. Crawford made 19 saves. "Hes got to be better," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. After nearly taking a 2-0 lead into the second intermission, the Wild suddenly trailed 3-2 after a forceful Blackhawks comeback. The first two of Chicagos four shots on goal in the third period got past Minnesota goalie Josh Harding, first by Brandon Saad and then by Marian Hossa. The Blackhawks had a season-low 19 shots. "Thats a hungry team, and they play smart defensively. Theyre tough to create offensive chances against," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. Harding stopped 16 shots and improved to 7-3 in his career against the Blackhawks, who entered the night with an NHL-high 44 points. Hes 12-1 at home this season. The Wild went six consecutive games without a first-period goal until Matt Cooke snapped a shoot past Crawford.dddddddddddd Parises score on a power play, the first by the Wild in seven games, in gave them a 2-0 lead they had until 16.6 seconds were left before the end of the second period. Joakim Nordstrom deflected the puck behind him through the slot, where Jeremy Morin arrived to reach forward and guide the puck in one motion past Harding, who was coming off a 2-0 shutout of Philadelphia on Monday night. Morin and Nordstrom were both recalled on Wednesday from Rockford of the AHL. Then just 43 seconds into the third period, Saad checked Ryan Suter off the puck, took control and snapped a shot into the top right corner of the net to tie the game. Less than 6 minutes later, Hossa got loose down low on a power play and sneaked a wrist shot over Hardings shoulder for the lead. "Youre not going to play perfect against that team. Theyve got a boatload of skill, and they find ways to make plays, but I thought that we did a really good job of limiting them, containing them, keeping them to the outside," coach Mike Yeo said. After their six-game winning streak on the road, the Blackhawks returned home on Tuesday and lost to Dallas 4-3 despite 50 shots on goal. This was quite the contrast in offensive opportunity. "Six minutes to go with a one-goal lead, generally thats our bread and butter. Tonight we didnt get it done," Quenneville said, adding: "We had the momentum, but it was one of those games where the momentum turned quickly in their favour. Were still tied. Lets get it to overtime and see what happens, but they got the break and we got nothing." The Blackhawks were lamenting those two penalties they failed to kill. "Like the last game, we thought we had control and let it slip. Its frustrating to give up points like we have the last couple games," Toews said. "Its pretty simple. We need to be better." NOTES: Morin and Nordstrom were brought up for depth at forward. Andrew Shaw missed his first game due to an upper-body injury suffered on Tuesday night, and Michael Handzus missed his second straight game because of an illness. ... Mikko Koivu, in his 566th career game, passed Pierre-Marc Bouchard for second place on the Wilds all-time list. Nick Schultz is first with 743. cheap nfl jerseys ' ' '
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| Beitrag vom 01.01.2015 - 11:28 |
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