NEW YORK, N. Steve Nash Jersey .Y. - Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the third round of the shootout, and the St. Louis Blues stretched their winning streak to five with a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Monday night.Tarasenko, who had a goal and an assist in regulation, fired a shot past Cam Talbot to end the game and give the Blues their eighth win in their last nine visits to Madison Square Garden (8-0-1).The Rangers lost at home in a shootout for the second straight game, following a 1-0 defeat against Winnipeg on Saturday. They are 4-1-2 in their past seven games.Alexander Steen also scored in the shootout, and Patrik Berglund and Jay Bouwmeester added goals in regulation for the Blues, who lost a 2-1 lead in the third period before tying it at 3. Brian Elliott made 36 saves.Martin St. Louis scored the tying and go-ahead goals in the third for the Rangers, who also led 1-0 in the first period on Chris Kreiders third of the season. Talbot stopped 31 shots.The Rangers earned a point despite a depleted defence corps and a rare start by Talbot, who gave Henrik Lundqvist his second game off this season. On defence, the Rangers were missing captain Ryan McDonagh (separated shoulder), John Moore (suspension) and Kevin Klein (foot). New York was forced to use Michael Kostka and recent call-ups Conor Allen and Dylan McIlrath.The Blues took their first lead at 3:50 of the third when defenceman Barret Jackmans shot hit Rangers forward Chris Mueller and then bounded in off Berglund for his first of the season.Soon after, New York was somehow denied after Elliott got out of position. The Blues had four other players in the crease, including David Backes and Jaden Schwartz on the goal line blocking pucks.The Blues escaped that flurry, but just over a minute later, the Rangers tied it 2-2 on St. Louis second of the season. Carl Hagelin sent a behind-the-back pass from behind the net to St. Louis, who sneaked behind Elliott and scored inside the right post at 6:28.New York went ahead at 13:17 when Rick Nash feathered a perfect pass across the Blues zone that eluded defenceman Alex Pietrangelo and landed on St. Louis stick for his second goal of the night.However, the Rangers lead lasted only 1:16 before Bouwmeesters rising snap shot beat Talbot.Lee Stempniak scored New Yorks lone goal in the shootout.The Blues outshot the Rangers 17-8 in the second and got even at 1 on Tarasenkos seventh goal of the season and sixth in four games.With St. Louis on its first power play, Tarasenko — the NHLs No. 1 star of last week — gathered the puck near centre ice and streaked into the New York end, eluding defenders seemingly with each stride. He got in on Talbot, quickly moved left to right, shifting from forehand to backhand, and reaching wide to tuck the puck inside the post at 7:18.Elliott earned his first assist of the season on that goal.After a sluggish start, the Rangers turned up the pressure on the Blues and locked things down defensively in the first.On their first power play, the Rangers used 19-year-old rookie Anthony Duclair at the right point, and the move paid off. New York dug the puck free along the right-wing boards in the St. Louis end back to Duclair at the blue line. He moved the puck to his left to Matt Hunwick, whose shot was deflected into the net by Kreider from the slot at 5:29.St. Louis had the early 3-2 edge in shots, but the Rangers finished with a 15-4 shots lead. They did it even with McIlrath serving a fighting major in the final five minutes of the period.NOTES: Blues C Paul Stastny (shoulder) missed his seventh straight game but took park in contact drills Monday morning for the first time since he was injured against Arizona on Oct. 18. RW T.J. Oshie (concussion) sat out his third straight. ... Rangers LW Mats Zuccarello was out because of an undisclosed injury. He was replaced by Ryan Malone, who cleared waivers earlier Monday. PJ Tucker Suns Jersey . Goran Dragic scored 29 points, Eric Bledsoe had a career-high 28 and the Suns extended their season-high winning streak to four games by beating the Sacramento Kings 116-107 on Friday night. Kevin Johnson Suns Jersey . Although the two players had faced each other a few times in doubles, it was their first encounter in a singles match. Williams will be participating in her fourth semifinal of the year after Oakland, Dubai and the Rogers Cup in Montreal."You cant win with Jason Spezza as your captain."I have heard that phrase uttered countless times over the past few months, as the Ottawa Senators season has slipped away. In his first season as captain, Spezzas club has been a major disappointment. The Senators fell well short of expectations and predictably, Spezza is taking the lions share of the blame from his harshest critics. I have always said that the Spezza debate in this town is like Coke versus Pepsi. If you are a Coke drinker, its very hard to convince you that Pepsi is superior. The same goes for Spezza - those people who hate him cant be convinced otherwise. Its a black-and-white argument and its virtually impossible to sway someone from one side to the other.Anybody who has read or listened to me over the years knows that I fall into the camp of people who believe the Senators are a better team with Spezza down the middle. But in todays blog, I am not trying to convince anybody about Jasons ability as a player. You can judge that for yourself. What I do want to bring up is the idea that a captain is the person who sets the tone for how his team plays.The critics of Spezza will argue that because he has a penchant for turning over the puck and does not play as well defensively as some other players, he causes his entire team to play with a loosey-goosey mentality. If the guy wearing the "C" is taking risks with the puck, that is setting the tone for the 17 other skaters.Those people say that if Spezza was a real leader, he would play the game the right way in all three zones. He would be a rugged leader, who was more physical. He would be someone like Andrew Ladd of the Winnipeg Jets.If you were to write down all the characteristics you would want in a captain for a Canadian team, Ladd would meet all the criteria.• He is from Maple Ridge, B.C.• He plays the game the right way• He has Stanley Cup rings with two different teamsAnd yet, the Winnipeg Jets are a team that is a mess defensively. They have given up 234 goals – second-worst in the Western Conference.Their captain is there every night supposedly playing the game "the right way". His teammates see how he conducts himself on and off the ice. So why are they so bad defensively?Its because the captain can only do so much. And many timess, we overrate the role of a captain on a hockey team. Kevin Johnson Jersey. We assign certain characteristics to people and we have a hard time deviating from our original stance. In our minds, Ladd is a great captain – so the problem is with his Winnipeg teammates.But if Ladd escapes the criticism in Winnipeg for failing to get the Jets to play a more structured game, why does Spezza take the heat in Ottawa for the exact same thing?The tricky thing for Spezza is that he is also trying to fill the skates of the previous captain Daniel Alfredsson, who had a mythical status in this town.But before Alfredsson had his breakthrough moment as captain in 2007 in leading the Senators to the Stanley Cup Final, he had just as many detractors in Ottawa as Spezza does now. There was a prevailing sentiment that "you will never win with Daniel Alfredsson as your captain." Those echoes reached a crescendo when Jason Pominville walked around him for the series-ending goal against the Buffalo Sabres in the 2006 playoffs.However, after Alfredsson won over his critics in 2007, he was good for life in Ottawa and was never blamed for any of the problems.When it comes to the team that fell off a cliff in 2007-08 with one of the great collapses in NHL history?"Dont blame Alfredsson, that was all Ray Emerys fault."How about the team that missed the playoffs in two of the next three years?"Lets blame Hartsburg and Cory Clouston. Alfie is a great leader."When the Senators made the playoffs in 2011-12, they did so with the worst goals-against average of any of the 16 teams to qualify for the playoffs. They were kind of a mess defensively that year, but did anybody blame Alfredsson?Of course not.Because they had made up their minds that he was not the problem. Being the captain is all about perception. Alfredsson was always a good leader in Ottawa. He didnt radically change his approach in 2007 when they went to the Stanley Cup Final. Things just finally worked out in his favour and as a result, all of the questions surrounding his leadership vanished overnight.Spezza probably needs time to grow into the captaincy in this town, so he can experience his own defining moment as the leader of this hockey team.Whether he gets that opportunity or not is an entirely different question. Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys ' ' '
