Broken Wings » – I continue to see teams setting up t

PITTSBURGH -- Olli Maattas slap shot beat Michal Neuvirth with less than 2 minutes remaining and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied by the Washington Capitals 4-3 Wednesday night. Maattas fourth goal of the season gave Pittsburgh its only lead as the Penguins won their 13th straight home game, a club record. Jussi Jokinen, Taylor Pyatt and Kris Letang also scored for the Penguins. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots to pick up his NHL-leading 27th victory. Alexander Ovechkins 34th goal of the season gave Washington a 3-2 lead midway through the third period but the Capitals collapsed over the final 10 minutes. Brooks Laich and Jason Chimera also scored for Washington, which lost for the seventh time in nine games. Neuvirth made 33 stops, but didnt see Maattas blast from the point with 1:54 left. Pittsburgh extended its lead over the rest of the field in the Metropolitan Division to a whopping 18 points over Washington and Philadelphia by continuing to find a way to win at Consol Energy Center. Over much of the first two periods it was difficult to tell which team was coming off a shootout loss in a different building the night before and which one was playing for the first time this week. Washington has one of the games top power plays, but Laich provided a short-handed tally when he took advantage of a turnover by Letang to ignite a two-on-two break that ended with Laich all alone in front of Fleury. A flick of Laichs wrist later the Penguins were trailing, a rarity during their run of home dominance. Letang atoned 9:53 into the second period, ending a Pittsburgh rush by taking a deft drop pass from Sidney Crosby and throwing a puck at the net that deflected off two Capitals before sneaking by Neuvirth to tie it. Crosbys assist extended his home points streak to 17 games, the second-longest of his career. Chimera put Washington back in front less than five minutes later, easily tapping in a centring pass from Marcus Johansson. Pittsburgh pulled even with 3:52 left in the second as Pyatt scored for the first time since April 23, 2013, when he was a fourth-line forward for the New York Rangers. Maatta did the hard work, faking a shot from the point then skating around a fallen defender before setting Pyatt up in the left circle. It set the stage for another frenetic finish for a rivalry that should be rekindled anew with the two teams back in the same division under the NHLs realignment. Ovechkin put Washington back in front 8:35 into the third with a remarkable goal. He had his stick smacked out of his hands during a Washington rush then scrambled to pick it up just in time to receive a pass from Johansson. Fleury was no match for Ovechkins wrist shot as the Capitals went in front for the third time. And the last time. Brandon Sutter threaded a beautiful backhand pass through the crease to Jokinen for the Finnish Olympians 13th goal of the year 11:35 into the third before Maatta, a 19-year-old rookie who also will play for Finland in Sochi, provided the most electric moment of his breakout season. NOTES: The Penguins have won seven of the last eight meetings between the teams. ... Pittsburgh F Craig Adams played in his 254th straight game, tied for the fourth-longest streak in club history. ... Ovechkin has 23 goals in 33 regular-season games against Pittsburgh. ... Adidas Gazelle γκρι . The same for both the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers. Adidas Superstar γυναικεια φθηνα . Here is a look at all the moves through the first week of NHL Free Agency. The most significant deals will get the full Numbers Game column treatment, like these:Briere-for-Parenteau trade. http://www.nmdgreece.com/adidas-nmd-human-race-greece.html . Venus Williams advanced to the ASB Classic final in Auckland on a walkover when fellow American Jamie Hampton withdrew from their semifinal Friday with a right hip injury. Adidas Gazelle προσφορες .com) - Eric Fehrs goal 42 seconds into overtime lifted the Washington Capitals to a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over Columbus, halting the Blue Jackets seven-game win streak. Adidas Gazelle Φθηνα . This week they discuss the Philadelphia 76ers, Gregg Popovich, Royal and Ancient Golf Club and Bill Belichick.I keep a folder on my computer entitled Crimes Against Defending. In this folder, I collect examples of poor defensive play, poor marking from set pieces and any other offence against the art of defending. Yes, good defending is an art form - and it is on the verge of becoming extinct. Every weekend – regardless of what league or international fixture I watch – I see more and more examples of awful defending that leave me shaking my head in disbelief. Some of the best players in the world, both male and female, are committing defensive errors that would give a U14 coach a heart attack. The first example came in the German women’s 3-0 win over England at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. After England made a bright start to the game, rattling a shot off the German crossbar in the opening minute, they were forced to defend a German corner kick. England’s defensive set up was baffling, to say the least. Time and time again – even at the highest levels of the game – I continue to see teams setting up to defend corner kicks without putting defensive players on either post. I cannot understand the logic of this approach, and in the case of England, it led to them conceding the first goal of the game. The German corner kick was delivered into the perfect area; head height, level with the six-yard box and the first post. This position is ideal because the goalkeeper cannot come out to challenge the cross and a header from this distance is very difficult for the goalkeeper to save. If the header is good, she can only reasonably be expected to make a reaction save within four feet either side of her set position. England’s decision not to put a player on either post meant that Karen Bardsley, England’s goalkeeper, had to defend the entire 24-foot width of her goal on her own – against a header from six yards out. The red shaded area in the picture below just highlights what a difficult task this is for Bardsley. (Click here for enlarged photo) In training, if uncontested crosses were whipped into this area for attackers to head home, goallkeepers the world over would be furious.dddddddddddd They would be conceding goal after goal without much hope of making a save. In this example, the ball actually came off of England defender Alex Scott’s head before nestling into the bottom right corner of England’s goal – exactly the position where a defender should have been. Had there been a defender there, it would have only required a side-foot clearance and the goal would have been saved. How this would have affected the eventual outcome of the game is impossible to say – Germany were clinical and full value for their 3-0 win – but to concede a goal that early in a game against one of the best teams in the world is a recipe for disaster. One positive to come out of the game for England was that it was watched by a crowd of over 45,000 - a fantastic turnout for a women’s friendly. Another example that went into my Crimes Against Defending folder this weekend came in Crystal Palace’s 3-1 win over Liverpool. When did defending corner kicks become about turning your back on the ball and wrapping your arms around the attacker, rather than about heading the ball away from danger? Look at the foul being committed by Crystal Palace’s Brede Hangeland on Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel, pictured below: (Click here for enlarged photo) If this sort of defending occurred anywhere else on the pitch, it would immediately be called for a foul. Yet referees everywhere allow this to go unpunished in the penalty area. The only way to remedy this type of defending is for referees to award a penalty kick for this type of foul. A strong argument can be made that Hangeland is denying Skrtel an obvious goal-scoring opportunity – it is a header from eight yards out, after all. On the evidence of what I’m seeing every weekend, defending isn’t being taught to young players anymore, let alone to professional players. Awarding a penalty kick for clutching and grabbing in the penalty area will force players to do what they are supposed to do – play the ball rather than the man. ' ' '