Finals back after break
After 2-day respite, Devils-kings ready to go on ice.
After five NEWARK, N.J. — days in New Jersey, the Los Angeles Kings had only one game of the Stanley Cup finals under their belts.
That finally changed Saturday night when they and the host Devils returned to the ice for Game 2 following a two-day break in the championship series after Los Angeles’ 2-1 overtime victory on Wednesday. Having time to kill is nothing new for the Kings during this postseason, but they aren’t usually on the road for their down time.
“We’ve had this a lot, actually, back in the early series, just because of the Staples Center scheduling with the Clippers and Lakers being in it,” Kings captain Dustin Brown said. “We had a lot of two days in between, so we’re used to it. It’s a little more difficult maybe sitting around when you’re not at home, but it’s part of it.”
New Jersey had four days off between its Game 6 win over the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals and the Cup finals opener on Wednesday.
“I don’t think it’s a perfect scenario, all the days off,” Devils coach Peter DeBoer said. “I don’t think anyone enjoys that. You want to play. You get to this point, as coaches you get tired at looking at tape, analyzing. You analyze it to death. From a player’s perspective, they have that nervous energy. The only release is dropping the puck and playing.” Boston Red Sox on television, but he did see the end of Johan Santana’s no-hitter for the New York Mets, the first in the club’s history.
“I caught the tail end, when he closed it out,” Clarkson said Saturday. “That was pretty special. It was pretty cool to see his teammates’ reactions. That’s what I loved about it, seeing the expressions on his face, and his teammates were so happy for him.”
Devils rookie Adam Henrique politely said it wasn’t time for baseball.
“There’s a lot more baseball to watch after the season,” Henrique said. plenty of punch into his powerful 6-foot, 204pound frame.
Other than being known as the Los Angeles Kings’ captain, Brown has developed quite a following for the punishing hits he delivers. Brown was second in the NHL with 293 hits in 82 regularseason games and delivered a club-best 70 more through Los Angeles’ first 15 playoff games this year.
There are several YouTube clips dedicated to the punishment doled out by Brown, and it is easy to replays of the shoulder shot that flattened Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin in Game 3 of the clubs’ first-round series.
Sedin crawled to the bench following the hit that went unpenalized and was deemed clean by Sedin.
“It’s one of those things that you kind of learn as you go,” Brown said Saturday of his physical style. “Some of my biggest impa
The 27-year-old Brown learned the art of hitting by watching playoff games way back when he was a kid.
“I remember going to Pee Wee and being excited about the prospect of being able to hit someone,” the native of Ithaca, N.Y., said. “It’s different for kids nowadays, considering the climate of the game with the physicality and the head shots. They’ll probably learn at a younger age what to do and what not to do.” PARIS —
If love means never having to say you’re sorry, what about 6-love?
Depends which side of the French Open scoreboard you’re on, apparently.
Maria Sharapova feels not a shred of remorse about the way she’s been finishing off opponents quickly — a total of five games lost through three matches at Roland Garros this year, including a 6-0, 6-0 win in the first round.
The 27th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, meanwhile, was on the wrong end of a shutout set Saturday and decided he needed to apologize right then and there to the ticket-buyers in the seats at Court Suzanne Lenglen.
Finally having won one game after losing the first eight against No. 6 David Ferrer of Spain, Youzhny used the toe of his right sneaker to carve a mea culpa in the red clay near the baseline.
He etched out “SORRi!” — stamping the dot atop the lowercase last letter for emphasis before heading to the sideline for a changeover.
“People in the stands may not have noticed, but I think I had to do this,” Youzhny said after his 60, 6-2, 6-2 loss.
“There was a lot of people. That’s why I write ‘sorry’ — because I can’t show them a nice game,” he explained.
“The way we played in the beginning, it was not really interesting for people.”
Ferrer, who said he didn’t see Youzhny’s lettering, was part of Spain’s 5-0 showing Saturday, led by Rafael Nadal, who continued his bid for a record seventh French Open title by overpowering Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.
The second-seeded Sharapova’s matches haven’t contained a shred of intrigue so far. Not surprisingly, that’s absolutely OK with her.
“The last thing that’s on my mind when I’m going out on court is thinking about who paid for a ticket and how long they’re going to watch my match for,” said Sharapova. “I mean, I’m not sure if that’s selfish or not, but my job is to go out on the court and to try to win. Whether it’s 6-0, 60, whether it’s a tough three-set match, you’re trying to do what you have to do.”