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| Wys³any: 2019-07-30 03:10:01 Temat postu: uschs line, which caused him to wreck 124 l PHILADELPHIA - The Toronto Maple Leafs loaded up on youth and gambled on the future at the NHL draft Saturday. But they also looked after the present, acquiring Roman Polak from the St. Louis Blues for fellow defenceman Carl Gunnarsson and the 94th pick in Saturdays draft. At six foot and 236 pounds, Polak is a wide body. "He makes people pay a price," said Toronto president Brendan Shanahan. "Hes honest but hes tough. Hes a hard-worker, hes a low-maintenance guy." "Hes going to provide a little bit of edge. A tough guy to play against," added GM Dave Nonis. The 28-year-old Czech native has 79 points in 424 NHL games, including four goals and nine assists last season. Nonis said Polak would probably "play in the (No.) 4-5 hole" on defence. "We envision him having a pretty significant impact on our back end," he said. Despite his size, Polak can also skate. "People who dont think he has skating ability really arent watching," said Shanahan. Gunnarsson, a 2007 seventh-rounder, had spent five seasons with the Leafs and played with captain Dion Phaneuf on the teams top defensive pairing. Gunnarssons departure opens the door to Jake Gardner and sophomore Morgan Rielly to step up the depth chart. "Those guys are going to have to take steps forward," said Nonis. "It might be a lot to ask for Morgan in his second year but he made some pretty big strides last year. And we would expect that hell take some more next (year). I think Jake is a good possibility as well. "Again that will be up to Randy (coach Randy Carlyle) to see what he wants to do with that. But we feel there are other people that can play that role effectively with Dion." The Leafs piled pressure on their goalies last season, giving up shots in high numbers. Change was needed. "We liked our defence individually. We didnt necessarily like how they fit together last year. So we wanted to move some pieces and change the look, rebuild it a little bit. I wouldnt say its a major overhaul by doing something like this but it does give us a different element and its a player we didnt really have." A right-handed shot, Polak also fills a void on the Toronto blue-line. Nonis sees Petter Granberg, listed at six foot three and 200 pounds, as a similar-style player to Polak. But the Swede is just 21 and has played only one game for the Leafs. "To ask him to play that way and fit in as a top-six (defenceman) right away, I think might be difficult," he said. "If he does that, great, then we have even more options there." Nonis said the Leafs will "be active" during the free agency period. "If theres a fit there, I wouldnt rule out adding a defenceman and/or a forward," he said. "But I wouldnt promise it either." Toronto took Russian winger Rinat Valiev of the Kootenay Ice in the third round (68th overall), USHL winger John Piccinich in the fourth round (103rd overall), USHL centre Dakota Joseph in the fifth (128th overall), USHL winger Nolan Vesey in the sixth (158th overall) and Swedish winger Pierre Engvall in the seventh (188th). The Leafs used their first-round pick Friday night to take Swedish winger William Nylander eighth overall. Ezekiel Elliott Jersey . There were no real chances until Augsburg broke the deadlock through Raul Bobadilla in the 33rd minute. Frankfurt failed to clear a cross and Bobadilla slotted home from close range at the far post. Dak Prescott Womens Jersey . -- First baseman Carlos Pena and outfielder Brennan Boesch have signed minor league deals with the Los Angeles Angels. http://www.cowboysfootballgearshop.com/jay-novacek-jersey/ .Y. -- Syracuse guard Trevor Cooney was mired in a shooting slump, and his woes coincided with a late-season swoon by the Orange. Robert Newhouse Cowboys Jersey Randall Cobb Womens Jersey . -- Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale searched more than three quarters for five guys who would play well together. DOVER, Del. -- Jimmie Johnson handled the pothole at Dover the same way he disposed of a rough patch to start the season. He won. A week after shaking off a lengthy winless streak by his championship standards, Johnson raced his way to another routine romp at Dover International Speedway. He followed last weeks victory in the Coca-Cola 600 with another sensational run at Dover, extending his track victory record to nine. Johnson was the class of the field in a race red-flagged for 22 minutes to repair a pothole in the concrete track. "Whatever they put in the pothole, it worked awfully well," Johnson said. His No. 48 Chevrolet was even better. Johnson led 272 of 400 laps, and won consecutive races for the 13th time. The six-time Cup champion swept Dover in 2002 and 2009 and won races in 2005, 2010, 2012 and 2013. Brad Keselowski was second, followed by Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin. "For sure, when you come to Dover, its always the 48," Kenseth said. "Weve got to figure out how to get ahead of him." Good luck. Johnsons checkered flag celebrations at Dover have seemingly become a rite of the NASCAR season. He became Dovers career leader in laps led when he hit the 2,802 mark, and again stamped himself as contender for a series-tying seventh championship. "Its amazing that we can stay on top of things here with the different generation car, different rules, different tires," Johnson said. "This place just fits my style and (crew chief) Chad Knaus style." His lone regret, that owner Rick Hendrick was not at the track. Johnson is heating up right as the NASCAR heads into its summer schedule. Up next, Pocono, where Johnson won last season and has two other wins. "We can get on a roll," he said. "Weve got some good tracks ahead of us." Johnson had some wondering what was wrong after an 0 for 11 start to the season. Turned out, it was nothing racing at some of his favourite tracks couldnt fix. But Johnson also revealed he had surgery to repair three hernias at the end of last season, which cost the No. 48 team testing time. "We felt like it was time to shut things down and let the team kind of recoup," he said. Johnson never left any doubt his No. 48 Chevrolet was the car to beat, the only drama coming when the race was stopped 160 llaps into the race after Ryan Newmans car pulled up chunks of the track that kicked back and damaged Jamie McMurrays car.ddddddddddddThe race was soon stopped and crews werent allowed to work on the cars. McMurrays plea for an exception was denied. "It killed the front-end," he said. "Our guys did a really good job recovering here putting all the stuff on and we salvaged what we could." More pieces of the track flew up and cracked a window on the pedestrian crossover bridge. NASCAR officials and safety crews went to work on the potholes and applied a quick-drying concrete mix. Cup races were infamously delayed by potholes at Martinsville in 2004 and the 2010 Daytona 500. McMurray won at Daytona in 2010. "It started to come back up at the end, but I didnt think it was a major issue," Keselowski said. "It was definitely a major issue at first when it happened. I could feel it when I was driving over it, and you knew it was only going to get worse." Kevin Harvick might have wished for a longer delay. Harvicks lead at the red flag evaporated because of a flat tire not long after racing resumed and he fell two laps behind Johnson. Harvick worked his way back into a 17th-place finish. Kyle Busch led the first 81 laps before Johnson passed him. Buschs bid for a tripleheader sweep at Dover would soon end when the No. 18 Toyota slammed into the outside wall. Bowyer moved into Buschs line, which caused him to wreck 124 laps into the race. "It was one of those deals where I thought I was clear, obviously, and wasnt and ruined his day and certainly didnt help mine," Bowyer said. Busch, who became the 15th driver to pass 10,000 career laps led, won the Truck Series race Friday and the Nationwide race Saturday. He has the only three-race sweep since NASCAR expanded to three national series in 1995, accomplishing the feat in 2010 at Bristol. Busch, who did not talk to the media, is 1 for 9 in Cup races after winning the first two in the same weekend. Busch had some company in the garage. AJ Allmendinger turned into Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on Lap 135, which knocked out the Roush Fenway Racing teammates. Biffle, though, later returned to finish. "They were racing hard back there and he stuck it into a hole that maybe there wasnt room for," Biffle said. ' ' ' |