Steckbrief » fringe of being a big leaguer or theyre tired of

TAMPA, Fla. -- The NHL schedule provides opportunities for quick revenge sometimes, and nine days after the Tampa Bay Lightning handed the New York Islanders a 6-1 loss on their home ice, the two teams square off again at Amalie Arena on Thursday.The Islanders (5-6-2) ended a three-game losing streak with a 4-2 win Monday against Vancouver -- the Canucks ninth straight loss -- while the Lightning hope to bounce back from a 3-1 loss at Florida on Tuesday that left them with a 7-5-1 record.Tampa Bay eliminated the Islanders in five games in last years conference semifinals, averaging 3.6 goals per game and winning four straight after losing Game 1. Their offense was on display in last weeks rematch, with left wing Nikita Kucherov scoring two goals with two assists as the Lightning tagged goalies Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss for three goals each.Special teams has been a big part of the Lightnings early success -- Tampa Bay ranks fifth in the NHL on power play, with a 25 percent (13/52) success rate, and theyre seventh in the league on penalty kill, holding opponents scoreless 88 percent of the time.Our penalty kill has been pretty good the last couple of years. When you keep that cohesive unit, its usually pretty beneficial, Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. The other thing is we have good goaltending, which is always your best penalty kill.Goalie Ben Bishop is just 5-4 to start the season, with a 2.90 goals-against average up considerably from last years 2.06, which made him a Vezina Trophy finalist.Weve really needed our special teams -- its bailed us out of several games, especially when weve fallen behind, Cooper said.The Islanders havent been as fortunate on their special teams -- they rank 26th in power play, with just four goals in 37 opportunities (10.8 percent) and rank 25th on the penalty kill, stopping just 77 percent of their opponents power plays.Mondays win against Vancouver saw the long-awaited first goals for two new arrivals in left wings Andrew Ladd and Jason Chimera, who had totaled just four assists in the Islanders first 12 games, but both found the back of the net against the Canucks.Tampa will be a good test for us. Its nice to get on the road, spend some time with your teammates & build team chemistry, said Chimera, now 37 and in his 15th NHL season.The Lightning hope to get promising forward Jonathan Drouin back soon from an upper-body injury that has now sidelined him the last three games. Their power play hasnt skipped a beat without him, but the offense as a whole could use a boost -- Kucherov is tied for fifth in the league with 15 points -- four goals and 11 assists, while center Steven Stamkos is just behind with 14 points, including seven goals. Center John Tavares leads the Islanders with 11 points on five goals and six assists. Cris Carter Jersey .2 billion agreement with Rogers Communications for the leagues broadcast and multimedia rights. Dalvin Cook Womens Jersey . Tuesdays surgery at Atlantas Piedmont Hospital was performed by Dr. Xavier Duralde and Hawks team physician Dr. Michael Bernot. http://www.thevikingsshoponline.com/Youth-Brett-Favre-Vikings-Jersey/ . 10 Texas A&Ms offence dominated as usual against SMU. Dalvin Cook Jersey . PAUL, Minn. Alan Page Womens Jersey . Haas said he "felt a lot of pain" in his right shoulder when he slammed his racket to the ground in frustration after losing his serve at 3-3 in the first set. David Price describes himself as a pretty open guy. As the latest subject in our Burning Questions series, the Boston Red Sox ace opens up about why MLB should allow players to express themselves through their cleats and the effectiveness of the drug-testing policy.Who was your favorite player growing up? Price:?David Justice. He was No. 23, hes left-handed, married to Halle Berry. I could relate with him.Who is your favorite player to watch today (not a teammate)? Price:?Im going to take it a step further and go with not a guy that Ive ever been a teammate with [in Tampa Bay, Detroit, Toronto or Boston]. Ive got to say Mike Trout. He does it all. And for me, as good at baseball as he is, I feel like hes a better dude than he is a baseball player. Thats pretty special. Ive talked to him quite a bit, been over to his house whenever we go to L.A., and what not. Hes just good people.Who is your most underrated teammate? Price:?Brock Holt. I mean, I dont think hes underrated or undervalued or whatever. But guys that are as versatile as him, a guy like Ben Zobrist?--?to be able to put a guy in at any position and not make your team worse -- thats special. It takes a really good athlete.Whats the most annoying question you are asked by the media?Price:?I dont think theres anything that really annoys me. Probably something postgame that [reporters] could know the answer to if they paid attention to the game. Like what pitch did you throw [for a home run]. It was 94, what did you think it was? A changeup? It was a fastball. Something like that.One rule you would change? Price: I think the shoes. Let guys express themselves. As much talk as the All-Star Game gets about the players and the Home Run Derby and all that, the guys cleats is what everybody talks about. It doesnt matter what brand youre with or whatever it is. To me, its the cleats. Thats why I want to go to All-Star Games so bad, because of the cleats Im going to get. To me, thats the one way everybody could express themselves on the baseball field. Its all kids care about -- cool gloves and cool shoes and cleats, stuff like that. Let the Dominican guys put a Dominican flag on their cleats. Let guys express themselves. Its not going to distract. If a pitcher has on whatever cleats, its not going to mess with the hitter or anything like that. Let us express ourselves. I dont see how you could do it wrong.Who is ultimately responsible for policing the game? Players, manager, umpires, the league? Price: Players. The players have to be able to police it. You dont want the umpires to do it off of their judgment or their discretion because they might not have been the umpiring crew that was there in April. It could be something that happens in September and they dont know everything that went around. Me growing up, you could tell that players policed this game, and thats why there was the amount of respect for one another like there was back then.How big of a problem are PEDs in todays game? Price:?I dont think its what it once was, obviously. Is it still here? Apparently so. I love Dee Gordon. I know him personally. Hes a great kid. Made a bad decision. But I think that kind of opens the eyes to not jusst looking at the guy thats hitting 40 homers.dddddddddddd Youre not just looking at the guy thats 6-2, 250 and just shredded out of his mind. Itll help anybody. When I heard that, I was like, Wow, this completely changes the way that I looked at PEDs. I guess I was stereotypical with it. I wouldve never thought Dee Gordon. Hes not the home run guy. Hes hitting the ball all over the field and running wild, stuff like that. I think that opened the eyes to a new realm of PEDs.You feel like theres certain things they could do. If youre on getaway day and you have an off day the next day, its a perfect time to take whatever you need to take thats going to be out of your system in 48 hours. You cant get tested on getaway day, and thats going to give you two full days to do whatever you need to do.[Editors note: MLB does, in fact, conduct tests on getaway days, according to a league source.]I know theyre doing everything they can. They dont want it in our game. Theyre putting a lot of money into the tests and all of that stuff. Weve seen a ton of it this year. I think we had seven straight days with, whether it was pee tests or blood tests. Weve seen a lot of it. And I know every other team has seen it as well. As random as they say that [testing] is, I dont think its that random. But I think theyre doing everything in their power to clean the game up. I think they have done that for the most part. But theres still going to be guys that are going to do it.See, I could never do it because I dont want to disappoint my family. Period. I wouldnt want that bad publicity. Not just for myself. If I get it, so what? Thats a part of it. Thats the nature of the game. But I dont want that to leak to my mom and to my dad and to my nephew. That would crush me. I could never do anything like that. But theres some guys that might not be very close with their family or theyre on the fringe of being a big leaguer or theyre tired of being an average or below-average guy and they say, I can do this. Ball out for a year. If I get popped, serve my 50 games, continue to work the way I have when Im on them. And Im going to make these strides, and Im not going to get weaker. Im going to be stronger than I was, serve 50 games, make some money, and theyre OK with that. I understand that. I get it. They have one chance. Thats what it is.If you get popped, you cant play baseball anymore. Period. I think that could be the only thing they would do that would scare guys away from it.What is something that people dont know about you or have wrong about you? Price: I feel like Im a pretty open guy. Im a big kid. I think people know that. I dont think theres any wrong perceptions of me. Maybe because I dont show emotion on the mound as much as I used to -- I matured from when I was 22 years old or 23 or 24. Ive matured tremendously out there on that field. Its not that I dont care. By no means. I have a tremendous amount of pride, and I care deeply about what I do. I think sometimes it can be taken as, Im over it and I dont care, and thats by no means the case. ' ' '