st to continue the music analogy, the free-agent market is a bit like one of those record | Forum

CALGARY, Alberta -- The Calgary Flames host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome in a battle of two well-rested teams. Cheap Minnesota Vikings Jerseys .Both the Flames (16-13-2) and Lightning (14-13-2) have enjoyed a break in their schedules since they last played on Saturday night.While the Flames beat the Winnipeg Jets 6-2 at home on Saturday for their sixth straight win, the Lightning dropped a 4-3 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Tampa earlier the same evening.Although the streaking Flames are back in contention, Calgary coach Glen Gulutzan cautioned that his players will have to continue to build on that momentum to stay in the mix in the highly-competitive Pacific Division.We have moved the bar for ourselves in the last month, Gulutzan said. Everybody knows about our start, we dug ourselves a hole and we are starting to get ourselves out of it. Weve got a lot of work to do, but we have a great group.Included in that group is goaltender Chad Johnson, who has gone 9-1-0 in his past 10 starts.Obviously, it starts with (Johnson) back there in the pipes, said center Sean Monahan, who has shrugged off a slow start to his season with the Flames by recording points in seven straight games, which is a career high.Hes giving us that confidence to go out there and work for him. When were getting the chances were putting the puck in the back of the net. I think that comes down to us sticking to our structure and keeping it simple. Thats why were getting our chances.While the Flames are on fire, the same cant be said for the Lightning, who have gone 1-6-1 in its past eight games and 4-7-1 since superstar center Steven Stamkos suffered a meniscus tear in his right knee.After enjoying a three-day break from action, Tampa Bay will play three road games in four nights starting with Wednesdays tough test against Calgary. The Lightning will then play the Canucks in Vancouver on Friday before taking on the Oilers in Edmonton the next night.Weve had a little time to practice, Lightning coach Jon Cooper told the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday. Weve had a little rest. Were going to need that going on the road here especially that were playing three in four nights. I think every team that we play is sitting home waiting for us for a couple of days, so we have to be on our game.Despite the slump his team is in, Cooper said his players have kept up a positive attitude.Nobody wants to be in the situation that were in, but we are in that situation and we have to work our way out just like everybody else, said Cooper.The Lightning recalled right winger Erik Condra and defenseman Slater Koekkoek from the AHLs Syracuse Crunch on Monday. Koekkoek was sent down to the AHL for two games to get some much-needed playing time before being called back up.Hes taking big steps, positive steps every single year, Cooper told the Times. When our D corps finally got healthy, we could afford to play him some games in Syracuse. Hes definitely part of our team. Hes coming with us out west. Our goal is to get him in and getting back helping us. Wholesale Vikings Jerseys . -- Sergey Tolchinksy scored his second goal of the game 3:56 into overtime as the Sault Ste. Cheap Vikings Jerseys China .C. -- Todd Fiddler scored a hat trick, including the overtime goal, as the Prince George Cougars survived an 8-7 win against the Kamloops Blazers in Western Hockey League play Sunday. http://www.cheapvikingsjerseyselite.com/ . In Europe, top teams seem to be largely happy with their squads after spending nearly $1 billion in the off-season. And although English league clubs are unlikely to splash cash in January, Arsenal and Chelsea could be tempted to strengthen their squads with new strikers. Dont you hate when a band you really like breaks up? And I dont mean when its 10 years after their last good album and you just heard their No. 1 hit in Muzak form at the grocery store and you feel old and fat. Sometimes theyre coming off a pretty good album, and you were hoping to hear a little more. Thats the Los Angeles Dodgers.All in all, 2016 was a solid season for the Dodgers, with some big moments, including that track with the surprise cameo from Clayton Kershaw at the end of a postseason game that came out of nowhere. Its just that the Cubs release was just that little bit better in the NLCS, and theres some unfinished business for the Dodgers to take care of in 2017.Without third baseman?Justin Turner, closer?Kenley Jansen and starter?Rich Hill, the Dodgers would have been missing some key pieces that would have been quite difficult to replace. Los Angeles has money, even after some loud hints from MLB about the teams debt load, but L.A. was going to boast a $200 million payroll in 2017 no matter what, so to start off the season with an 84-78 roster would have been unaccepttable. Cheap Vikings Jerseys Authentic. Its not as if the Dodgers could have replaced the losses in free agency. Hill had the best projected 2017 WAR per ZiPS of any starting pitcher in free agency. Jansen had the second-best reliever projection outside of Aroldis Chapman. And Turner had the second-best WAR projection of any position player?in free agency, just the slightest hair behind Yoenis Cespedes in a neutral park (by about 1/25th of a win).Short of Shohei Otani coming over from Japan -- something that wasnt going to happen and now appears to be unlikely to happen for several years thanks to MLBs awful new CBA section on foreign players -- money didnt matter. Just to continue the music analogy, the free-agent market is a bit like one of those record stores when they went out of business in 2004 or so, and all they had left on the nearly unguarded racks (for 90 percent off) was a stack of Gregorian Monks Sing Squeezes Greatest Hits. OK, I dont think that actually existed. ' ' '