Liam Firus, a 21-year-old Vancouverite with an enviable slip across the ice, can see an opportunity: one of those three Olympic spots that Canada has earned for men. Rollie Fingers Jersey . He wants to seize that opportunity. The trouble is, Firus has had more bumps on the road to Sochi than most. Last year, Firus had the skate of a lifetime in the short program at the Canadian championships when he landed his first triple Axel in competition and finished third in a stacked field. He surprised himself, because he had been battling a groin injury in the weeks leading up to the event. The skate of a lifetime doesnt usually happen after such impediments. And it was a painful injury, too. He had endured six tortuous injections of a sugar solution into his injury, meant to inflame the site, bring blood to a bloodless area and help the healing. He and coach Lorna Bauer had considered withdrawing from the Canadian championships, but only the Sunday before the event, they decided to go. And because Firus really wasnt trained, the long program slipped out of his control and he dipped to fifth overall. It was still his best finish at the senior national level. His problems werent over, by any means, when he went home. He immediately set to work with choreographer Mark Pillay to design two new programs for the Olympic season and then he didnt set foot on an ice surface for months. He got six more injections, a week apart. He went to physiotherapy three to four times a week. His life revolved around rehabilitation. He didnt get back onto the ice again until June. "It was tough," he said. With the Olympics coming, he wanted to train like a fiend, but he knew that wasnt smart. "I knew that if my groin was bothering me while I was training for the Olympics, I dont think I would have a shot," he said. "It was just so painful and so mentally hard, too." So restrain himself, he did. He didnt start jumping again until late July, and that didnt mean full-out triple Axels. It meant doing doubles, half a year before the Sochi Olympics. By the middle of August, he slowly introduced triples back into the mix. By the beginning of September, he was finally doing full programs. With five months to the Olympics, his training finally began in earnest. He decided to step things up, by leaving Vancouver to train full time in Colorado Springs with Christy Krall, Damon Allen and Eric Shultz, coaches hed visited sporadically for four or five years. It meant leaving his first and only coach, Lorna Bauer, behind. Visit Skate Canada to read the rest of this story. Josh Hader Jersey . He made the comment at a media availability Saturday prior to Game 2 of the Boston-Montreal playoff series when a Quebec reporter said there is sentiment in Quebec that the NHL looks more favourably on Seattle than Quebec City when it comes to future expansion. Ryan Braun Brewers Jersey . Amaro broke the NCAA all-time record for receiving yards in a season for a tight end with 1,352 during his junior campaign, eclipsing the mark of 1,329 set by Rices James Casey in 2008. https://www.cheapbrewers.com/249y-jay-jackson-jersey-brewers.html .S.-Portugal game on June 22 in the Amazonian jungle city of Manaus. FIFPro, the international soccer players union, had pressed FIFA to avoid the earliest kickoffs in the hottest and most humid weather.TSN Hockey Insiders Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger have the latest on expanded video review, changes to overtime, face-off modifications and the NHL potentially allowing kicked-in goals. Are GMs any closer to a consensus on expanded video review that would include goaltender interference? Bob McKenzie: I wouldnt go as so far as to say that theyre reaching consensus, but they are having some scintillating conversations that we never heard before on goalie interference and that is this - in the breakout group that they had today, a couple of the general managers, Brian Burke and Bryan Murray amongst others, said that, if they want to go to review goaltender interference, they would like the referees to be able to it on the ice, in the penalty box with a monitor there, NFL-style. Thats never really been discussed before. The NHL has always been hesitant to do it. It will be interesting to see whether it gets any support from the larger group on Tuesday. Darren Dreger: Additonal video review is generally a hot-button topic at these meetings. Weve talked, seemingly, on an annual basis about the coachs challenge. Well again, that has legs. Theres some concern as to how you work out the details. The devil is in the details with the criteria. If the puck leaves the zone, does that nullify the coachs challenge? If theres a change in possession, does that nullify the challenge? I think you could see some real traction on additional video review for goaltender interference, but also the puck off the net that ends up in the goal and, perhaps, looking at offsides, like the Matt Duchene goal scored last year. That still haunts the NHL and video review could have stopped that. Could we see it expanded in time for the playoffs? Dreger: Very, very unlikely. I think its a long shot at best because theres a review process that the NHL has to go through that includes the competition committee and, ultimately, the Board of Governors would have to sign off on it during the Stanley Cup finals. Ken Hollands proposal for a three-on-three overtime, as they try to reduce the number of shootouts, seemed to be gaining momentum. Has it now hit a major roadblock? McKenzie: It certainly seeems as if that momentum has dissipated. Alex Claudio Brewers Jersey. Everybody who was talking about it at the November general managers meetings in Toronto arent talking about it now. Glen Sather, New York Rangers general manager, called three-on-three overtime a pipe dream. Nobody seems to be talking that up too much, but what they are talking about is, potentially, doing a dry scrape of the ice before overtime instead of after, when they normally do it before the shootout, and going to the long change format, that is with the goaltender in the same position as he is in the second period, furthest away from the teams bench. A much harder change that usually results in more goal-scoring in the second period. Face-offs and Face-off markings were also under scrutiny on Monday. What options for change are there? Dreger: Doug Armstrong of the St. Louis Blues pitched a novel idea, stealing from the Olympic tournament, in how the alignment was used in the Olympics, with the spacing between the hashmarks. In the NHL, theres just a three-foot separation. In the Olympics, it was five feet and, should the NHL consider that, it would create more space and there would be less contact, so the forwards could have some more room to move. Another face-off idea, and I think its a long shot at best, is trying to get rid of wasted time in throwing the centremen out of the face-off circle when hes completed an illegal draw. Move that centre back one foot is an idea that was pitched on day one. Some are intrigued by it to the point that they want further discussion, but I dont see this one flying. Is the NHL seriously considering counting all goals kicked in with the skate on the ice? McKenzie: Well, they are certainly talking about it and its a big step forward. They are looking at a liberalized kicking-in of goals, but were going to wait to see. You just never know. Dreger: Im sure the Players Association will have some input on that and, certainly, any overtime modifications being made. We know that Mathieu Schneider, Joe Reekie and Rob Zamuner will attend Tuesdays meetings and the sense is that they have some thoughts of their own on some tweaks or changes that might help grow the game. ' ' '