National titles are wide open at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Kingston. In the last 20 years at the Nationals, only once has there been just one returning champion. Patrick Chan is taking a year off, so too are Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir; who are working as part of our TSN crew, and Kaetlyn Osmond is out with injury. The one returning champion is the pairs team of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford who are going after their fourth title. So it is safe to say in all certainty that there will be new Canadian champions crowned in three disciplines and that fact is creating quite a buzz heading into Kingston. There are, of course, spots also on the line for the World and National team, but it is the national title that is the ultimate prize and in the running for the titles are a wonderful blend of popular veterans and fresh faced newcomers. The most fiercely contested title will be for the Mens champion. At least four guys will be in the mix. Three-time Canadian silver medalist Kevin Reynolds is back in action after being out all season due to an ankle injury and boot problems. Last year he struggled with boot problems too, but was still able to qualify for the Olympic team and was instrumental in Canadas silver medal win in the team event at the Games. So one cant count Kevin out but he will be pushed in Kingston and as Kevin alluded to in a pre-event interview, he will have to deliver his best. So, what about the boots and why is this plaguing him? He has said that he has been through a dozen pairs of skates this season in an attempt to find the right fit for his unique and unusually shaped foot. The good news is, he thinks he has found a pair that he can rally in and he has five5 weeks of solid training under his belt. These facts have him feeling confident in his quest for the title. While Kevin has been on the sidelines, 16-year-old Nam Nguyen has risen dramatically in the ranks and has had the top scores of the Canadian men this season; scores so good he has won a Grand Prix medal. He has been able to incorporate a quad into his program, back it up with consistent triples, and has grown into a more mature performer this year. Nam has the benefit of momentum on his side as he is coming in with a stellar Grand Prix season under his belt. Two immensely popular veterans will also be challenging for the title. Jeremy Ten and Elladj Balde are both charismatic performers who have had their careers derailed by untimely injuries, but have worked their way back now into top form. For Jeremy Ten, whose only luck has been bad luck in the injury department, this year is about unfinished business. It is a well-deserved opportunity to see what he can produce unencumbered by injury. I really like Jeremys material this year and also the new material of Elladj Balde. This is the first time in many years that I have watched Baldes material and felt it was worthy of his talent and capabilities, where as in other seasons I thought that his programs had let him down. Elladj has been getting his quad out in competition this season, a significant fact and the key to his challenge for gold. In Kaetlyn Osmonds absence there are two skaters who have distanced themselves from the pack in the points race this season. Gabby Daleman and Alaine Chartrand are both young - 17 and 18, respectively - and both relatively inexperienced as they have just completed their first year on the Senior Grand Prix circuit. Daleman is a two-time national silver medalist, finishing just behind Osmond the last two years and was the youngest member of Canadas Olympic team in Sochi. Chartrand was fifth in the country last year but is coming into this event with a bronze medal win at a Grand Prix in Russia where she had the highest total scores of Canadian Ladies this season. They are both so close in so many ways but the one factor that will differentiate them will likely be the intangible of dealing with the idea of becoming Canadas next champion. No doubt the title has been the motivating force for them in practice for some time now but in order to deliver the precision they need to win, they will have to detach themselves from the prize and focus instead on the here and now and getting the job done. It will be a battle of nerves, adrenaline and emotions with a lot on the line for two promising teenagers. Defending champs Duhamel and Radford have exceeded their own lofty expectations and goals this year. Typically, as the saying goes, they shoot for the moon and hope to land in the stars. Well, this season they nailed it. They hit the moon! Meagan said that for the first time they had the luxury of taking a Christmas break. A part of the reason for this was their impressive results but a large part was due to the fact that their longtime rivals Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch are no longer a pair. In fact, only two teams out of the seven Canadian teams from last year are still together. I have to admit that about nine months ago the Pairs situation in Canada appeared to be in dire straits but then it quickly turned itself around with a host of new pairings. Moscovitch is back in a charming new partnership with Lubov Ilyusheshkina, formerly of Russia. They had the highest scores at the qualifying event for Canadians. Moore - Towers is with Michael Marinaro, who we saw as a team for the first time at Skate Canada. They were paired with longevity in mind in the hopes of competing through the next two Olympic cycles. Added to the mix are a couple of young and up and coming teams including the newly crowned Junior Grand Prix Final champions, Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau, who have been building experience, turning heads and are undefeated on the Junior Circuit. Canada has qualified three teams for the World Championships in Shanghai, so the battle within the battle will be securing one of those spots. Like Duhamel-Radford in the Pairs, Katlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje in the Ice Dance hold the top scores in the world across the board. They are also coming into the Canadians off a win at the Grand Prix Final against the Worlds top six teams. Weaver and Poje will be looking to build mileage, gain presentation experience and receive valuable feedback from the judges and audience alike in their quest for a World title in March. They were silver medalists at the Worlds by a breath last year and are clearly in the drivers seat this year going undefeated so far. While this competition is a very important next step in the process of becoming the worlds best, their hearts and emotions will be centre ice in Kingston as they go after their first Canadian title. Another Canadian team who made it to the prestigious Grand Prix Final was Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. Their heartbreak of missing the Canadian podium and the Olympic team last year has fuelled their performance this year. Key to this seasons success has been their well-received programs and the quality of their preparedness from the first competition on which has allow them to break through into the mix of the top teams in the world. On the other hand, Olympic team members who finished in the top ten at the Worlds last year, Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam have fought to find the right vehicle for themselves this season. After receiving a lukewarm response to their material they have spent the last couple of months reinventing themselves for nationals. They will debut a free-dance choreographed by Jeffrey Buttle to music by Peter Gabriel. Buttle has shown that as a choreographer for single skaters he has an immense talent and I for one am looking forward to what he will bring to the world of Ice Dance. My partner in the booth, Rod Black, always eagerly anticipates Canadians because out of all the sports he covers, it is one of his favourite events. Its about the team jackets, hometowns and provinces. Its about the sports future, the kids meeting their heroes, the leaders in the sport. It is an event filled with innocence, intrigue, excellence and emotion. This Canadians promises to live up to its billing. . He had spent 16 days on the disabled list before being activated Thursday. He was batting just .203 when he came to bat in the 11th inning on Sunday. .J. Ellis have avoided arbitration, agreeing to a one-year contract.
http://www.cheappanthersjerseyssale.com ... ersey-sale. Louis still looking for a way out of Tampa Bay, the 38-year-old NHL veteran isnt showing his cards. .com) - The Toronto Raptors are paying Rudy Gay a visit on Wednesday night when they head into the Sleep Train Arena to take on the Sacramento Kings. . TSN 1290s coverage begins with Hustler & Lawless at 3pm. Rick Ralph hosts the Official Jets Pre-game Show at 5pm.Dominating pitching continues to be the story for the Detroit Tigers as they aim for a three-game sweep against the Boston Red Sox tonight at Fenway Park. Watch the game live on TSN2 and TSN GO at 8pm et/5pm pt. Winners of five in a row and six of the last seven, the Tigers have surrendered a total of just eight runs during the current win streak, thanks in part to a commanding 6-1 victory on Saturday. While he may not get as much press as Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello continued his strong start by picking up his seventh win in eight decisions. Porcello gave up just a single run on six hits and a walk, striking our four over the course of eight innings as he lowered his ERA to 2.91. Thanks to the positive effort, Detroit continues to sport the best winning percentage (.684) in the majors and is 6 1/2 games ahead of Minnesota for first place in the American League Central. "Its May," Porcello said after his performance. "Ive said before, this is a marathon, its not a sprint. ... The most important thing to me right now is that were in first place and were playing good ball. Thats huge. We want to keep that going." From an offensive standpoint, the Tigers picked up support from Miguel Cabrera who finished with three hits and two RBI, while Victor Martinez added a pair of hits and scored once. Over on the other side, Mike Napoli tallied three singles in four trips to the plate for a Boston squad which is fourth in the AL East, 2 1/2 games off the pace set by Baltimore and New York. Xander Bogaerts pitched in with another two hits at the bottom of the order. His solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning accounted for the lone run of the contest for the Sox. John Lackey sufferred his third loss of the season after giving up five earned runs on nine hits and a couple of walks over 5 1/3 innings.dddddddddddd "Theyre deep all the way through the lineup," Lackey said of the visitors. "Theyre pretty good." Detroit hitters are currently first in the AL in batting at .275, coming in second in slugging (.421), which combines well with the fact that the pitching staff is second in the league with a combined 3.19 ERA. Sundays slate of games culminates with Anibal Sanchez taking the hill for the Tigers and Jake Peavy facing off against the Detroit lineup. Peavy, a right-hander from Alabama, has appeared in eight games in 2014 but has just a 1-1 mark to show for his efforts. Earlier this week the hurler lasted just 4 1/3 innings against Minnesota on the road, giving up six runs on nine hits and a pair of walks as the Sox suffered an 8-6 setback. Sporting a career mark of 4-5 with a 4.83 ERA in 12 all-time appearances against Detroit, Peavy lasted only three innings in his most recent matchup versus the Tigers, allowing seven runs on five hits and three walks. Over on the other side, Sanchez is still searching for his first win of the campaign. The right-hander has been on the shelf for several weeks, last pitching against Minnesota on April 26 when he lasted a mere 2 2/3 innings in what turned into a 5-3 setback on the road. A member of the Miami staff for the bulk of his career, Sanchez has yet to register a decision versus Boston. Detroit, which edged the Red Sox in the season series last year by a 4-3 count, is now ahead this time around at 2-0. Overall, the Tigers are off to their best start since 1984, thanks in part to a 10-game road win streak which is their longest in three decades. ' ' '
