The Los Angeles Kings hope to put their road woes behind them when they begin the 2015 calendar year by visiting the Vancouver Canucks in Thursdays battle at Rogers Arena. Wholesale Penguins Jerseys . You can listen to the game live on TSN Radio 1040 Vancouver starting at 5pm pt/8pm et. Vancouver enters this New Years Day battle having posted three wins during a four-game point streak. The lone loss of the stretch came in a 2-1 overtime setback at Anaheim on Sunday, but the Canucks rebounded with Tuesdays 3-1 triumph in San Jose. Bo Horvat, Jannik Hansen and Radim Vrbata all scored for the Canucks, who are tied for second place in the Pacific Division with San Jose and Calgary, one point ahead of Los Angeles. We needed a strong effort tonight, said Hansen. These are extremely valuable points in our division. Ryan Miller made 31 saves to anchor Tuesdays win in San Jose. Miller is 19-7-1 with a 2.50 goals against average in 27 games this season. Miller is 5-2-1 with a 2.59 GAA in his career against the Kings and is expected to draw the start against Quick tonight. Quick owns a career 10-11-1 mark and a 1.81 GAA in 22 lifetime appearances versus the Canucks. The Canucks will be aiming for a bit of revenge tonight after getting slammed in the first of five meetings between these Pacific rivals on Nov. 8 in L.A. The Kings scored four times in the first two periods to chase Miller from the game, while Quick stopped 18-of-19 shots for L.A. in a 5-1 victory. The Kings have won five of the last six encounters in this series overall, but Vancouver is 3-0-1 over the past four meetings at Rogers Arena. The Canucks, who are 9-5-1 as the host in 2014-15, are kicking off a four-game homestand tonight. The Kings, winners of two of the last three Stanley Cup titles, havent looked like champions away from the City of Angels this season, going 4-8-6 as the visiting team. Darryl Sutters club has dropped five straight on the road since a 5-3 win at Ottawa on Dec. 11 and his Kings are 0-1-1 on a three-game trek which ends tonight. The Kings current two-game skid comes on the heels of a 3-0-1 stay at Staples Center, where the club boasts a 14-4-2 record this season. After closing the road trip on Thursday, the Kings will head home for their longest homestand of the season. The seven-game stay in L.A. begins Saturday against Nashville. One night after losing a 2-1 regulation decision in Calgary on Monday, the Kings were handed a 3-2 shootout loss by the Edmonton Oilers. Edmonton entered Tuesdays contest on a nine-game losing streak, but the Oilers were able to down the defending champs for just their second win in the last 22 games. The Kings rallied to earn the point at Rexall Place after falling behind 2-0 against lowly Edmonton. Drew Doughty cut the deficit to one shortly after the midway point of the third period and Jake Muzzins power-play tally with 2:25 left sent the game to overtime. However, Edmontons David Perron would score the lone goal of the shootout, beating Jonathan Quick with a backhand shot in the fourth round. Quick stopped 19 shots in defeat for the Kings, who outshot Edmonton 39-21 in the game and 15-1 in the third period alone. We didnt play a good game, said L.A. forward Tyler Toffoli. We started playing when we were down two goals. Canucks Projected Forward Lines Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Vrbata Higgins - Bonino - Hansen Matthias - Richardson - Vey Burrows - Horvat - Dorsett Pittsburgh Penguins Shirts . He was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 5th. The 34-year-old Laval, Que. native has played six seasons with the Penguins. Stitched Penguins Jerseys . After rookie right-hander Alex Colome excelled in a 5-2 victory in the opener, the Rays fell to Chris Tillman and the Orioles 4-1 on Friday night. https://www.cheappenguinsjersey.com/ . Off-Season Game Plan looks at what the Blue Jackets may do to build upon last seasons success to return to the playoffs again next year.In the sixth minute of the game, Marouane Fellaini picked up the ball near the centre circle, attempted to run deep into Evertons territory to start another Manchester United attack but immediately saw the ball stolen away from him from James McCarthy. McCarthy, a player who played some games in the second tier for Wigan at the start of this season, would go on to shine inside Evertons midfield, outplaying the man he was brought in to replace, on one of the grandest stages in English football. On Saturday, it was fitting that Manchester Uniteds most recent dagger into the chest was delivered by Frenchman Yohan Cabaye, a wonderfully gifted central midfielder who put on an outstanding effort for Newcastle at Old Trafford. Around the Premier League on Saturday, numerous examples of midfields taking over games were on show. For Tottenham at Sunderland, Paulinho and Moussa Dembele ran the game in the second half, Stoke got back into their match against Chelsea by exposing a double pivot of Ramires and John Obi Mikel, while Liverpool lost momentum in their home match against West Ham once Steven Gerrard departed through injury. This is football in todays era. Central midfield is the most important zone on the field, where turnovers are caused, counter-attacks are started, defensive cover is needed and vision with the ball is demanded. Most teams in the Premier League play in systems that can be labeled 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, where at least three men centrally are asked to work as a unit, both defensively and in attack. It is the engine that motors the team forward and back. At Manchester United this season this has usually been done by two central midfielders and Wayne Rooney.Rooney has looked very good and if you were to make up a list of Uniteds problems he would certainly be at the bottom labeled as ‘Rooney – only concern is how to play him with van Persie against superior teams. The English striker has proven in recent years (see vs Andrea Pirlo at Euro 2012 for reference) to be a liability when it comes to making up a midfield three in a defensive manner but against the majority of inferior Premier League teams this is not a problem. Last season for example, against the 13 teams who finished between eighth and 20th in the Premier League, Manchester United, playing 4-4-2, won an astonishing 22 of 26 matches, claiming a total of 69 points from a possible 78. However, upon closer inspection there were matches where they looked outrun in midfield and allowed a goal through a defensive lapse, but these were quickly forgotten about because United painted over the cracks by banging in goals at the other end. It happened against Fulham, when Dembele ran the game before getting a move to Spurs (Fulham led 1-0, lost 3-2), it happened against Liverpool and Southampton in second halves at Old Trafford (games won 2-1) and against Newcastle who led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 last season before losing 4-3. On Boxing Day the United system was handing their opponents regular gifts with numerous goal scoring chances but once again, their attacking heavyweights powered their way out of trouble. United would go on to win the game through Javier Hernandez in the 90th minute, who, like on Saturday, partnered van Persie up front for United that day. That however, is where the similarities ended for the pair. Last season the service towards them was remarkably different to the amount of passes they received in Saturdays 1-0 home loss. Sixty-seven passes to 36 is a remarkable difference over 90 minutes: Hernandezs winning goal last December would give his side three more points won from a losing position and iin total United would go on to claim 29 points from losing positions last season. Cheap Penguins Jerseys. On the surface that seems like a remarkably impressive number, it is after all the second highest of all-time in the Premier League behind Newcastles 01-02 season of 34 points, but you must have flaws in your team to be behind many times to get to that number. Uniteds flaws remain this season but because they cannot power themselves out of trouble with goals they have been magnified to the level where action is now required. Two seasons ago United were stunned by a Champions League group stage elimination after Benfica and Basel ran through their midfield and scored eight goals between them in four matches. United were sent into the Europa League and would go on to again be exposed in similar fashion, losing back-to-back home games to technically superior teams, Ajax and Athletic Bilbao. In those matches United looked far too English. A timid, reactionary team lacking true post-to-post midfielders who excel in both the attack and defensive side of the game. It is an accusation that remains even more glaring two years on. The worlds best teams today all have world class deep-lying playmakers who control matches with the combination of brilliant, forward thinking vision and equally outstanding footballing intelligence without the ball. In central midfield, Real Madrid has Luka Modric, Sami Khedira and Xabi Alonso, Barcelona has Sergio Busquets, Cesc Fabregas and Xavi, Bayern Munich has Bastian Schweinsteiger, Javi Martinez and Toni Kroos, Manchester City have Yaya Toure and Fernandinho. Manchester United has Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Tom Cleverley or Phil Jones. Carrick remains very important to United, a fine player in the Premier League whose calmness and passing ability has been sorely missed lately. Fellaini remains a mysterious buy, a player whose escalated price came from playing further forward but who wants to play in central midfield, despite not yet excelling at the attributes needed to play there. Cleverley has now started nine of their 15 league games this season and isnt anywhere near the quality of, at least, 20 other Premier League midfielders who have (and will continue to do so) the beating of the United youth product. Jones remains a promising player who will likely move to centre-back as he ages, but certainly does not have the offensive abilities to play regularly in central midfield for a team like Manchester United. None of these players are not close to being deep lying playmakers and none are anywhere close to being world class. United badly need at least one, and most likely two, of these caliber players as soon as possible. As last season showed the team is more than capable of going on a long successful run this season, beating inferior teams and that will help them climb towards a likely finish amongst the top four but what absolutely must not be forgotten again next summer is what was ignored in recent transfer windows. It is time to stop the likes of Dembele, McCarthy, and Cabaye running the show in games at Old Trafford. While United were spending a whopping 65 million pounds (the cost of Smalling, Young, Jones, Zaha and Powell) on mediocre, or unproven English talent the last four summers, many other teams have not only caught them up in central midfield, but now overtaken them. A club like United should be close to the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern, but through bad buys and neglecting a key area they are not even close and are left exposed by average teams in their own league. It is time to get to work on a very deep-lying problem. ' ' '