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The Vancouver Canucks, who struggled into the Olympic break, will try to restart their season on a positive note as they host The St. Louis Blues The Canucks may have needed the break more than any team as they went into the hiatus having lost seven in a row, including a winless five-game road trip to close out the pre-Olympic schedule. Vancouver has lost seven in a row in regulation for the first time since Dec. 26-Jan. 6 during the 1998-99 campaign and is on its longest skid of any kind since going 0-5-3 from Jan. 9-31, 2009. The Canucks have 63 points on the season, one back of Phoenix and Dallas for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. The break did allow Henrik Sedin some additional time to heal from a rib injury that has held him to just two games since Jan. 18 and caused him to sit out the Olympics. "Henrik is landing this morning," head coach John Tortorella told reporters on Wednesday morning. "We hope hell play tonight." However, forward Ryan Kesler wont play tonight due to a hand injury suffered while blocking a shot for Team USA on Feb. 15. He did not miss time during the Olympics, but had an MRI on Monday and is day-to-day. Vancouver recalled center Kellan Lain from the American Hockey League on Monday. Eddie Lack will get the start in goal. Regardless, the Canucks will look to get on track while playing their next three as the home team. That includes March 2 in the Heritage Classic versus Ottawa to be played at BC Place, which features a retractable roof. The Canucks have won two prior meetings with the Blues this season and are 5-0-2 in the last seven encounters overall. Vancouver also is 3-0-1 in its past four versus St. Louis at home. T.J. Oshie had one of the more memorable experiences during the Winter Olympics, even if the American was unable to get his country a medal. Oshie was part of a Team USA squad that failed to medal in Sochi, though the 27-year-old was briefly the talk of the Olympics after he scored four times during an eight-round shootout to help lift the U.S. to a win over Russia during group play. The forward became a media sensation and U.S. hero for his clutch performance, though he fizzled out like the rest of Team USA, which failed to beat Canada in the semifinals before falling in defeat to Finland in the bronze medal game. "It was pretty crazy after that shootout. Its all a little bitter now that we get back and have nothing to show for it, but it was a pretty cool couple of days after that seeing some of my family on some major TV shows and stuff like that," said Oshie. The Blues do return a number of players who collected medals in Sochi, including gold medal-winning defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester of Team Canada as well as forwards Alexander Steen and Patrik Berglund, who picked up silver with Sweden. Steen continued his solid campaign that has seen him score a career-high 28 goals through just 46 games on the season. St. Louis comes out of the break having gone 3-0-1 in its previous four while winning seven of its last 10. The Blues are even with the idle Chicago Blackhawks for the top spot in the Central standings with 84 points, three behind the Anaheim Ducks for the most in the NHL. The Blues play their next three on the road looking to maintain that success, something Oshie believes his club can do. "I think so. Weve got some guys coming off some pretty big highs, getting a gold and silver medal, and weve got some other guys like myself and (forward David) Backes that are fired up we didnt get anything," Oshie said. "I feel like after big losses like that, it inspires you to work harder. Its always easy coming back to this group of guys." Air Max 270 Economiche . 3. Trevor Ariza left them talkin about 40. Ariza made eight 3-pointers and scored a career-high 40 points to help the Washington Wizards win their sixth straight game, 122-103 over Philadelphia on Saturday night. Air Max Plus Ingrosso . Henrik Samuelsson and Luke Bertolucci also scored for the Oil Kings, who are now 9-0 on home ice in the playoffs to cut Portlands series lead to 2-1. Chase De Leo and Mathew Dumba responded for the Winterhawks, who suffered just their fourth loss in their last 46 games, a string of success running all the way back to Jan. http://www.airmaxshoponlineitalia.it/scontate-max-plus-outlet.html . They were right in that they responded to coach Randy Carlyles goaltending switch to erase a two-goal deficit. Kd Basket Italia .Jeff Green, playing in his second preseason game after missing the first four because of a calf strain, had 18 points. The Celtics (3-3) shot 47.2 per cent from the floor and made 15 of 37 3-point attempts. Air Max Plus Near Me . CHAUNCEY BILLUPS (Pistons): Yes they got Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings in the off-season and Andre Drummond is a beast (teams are kicking themselves for passing on him - he rebounds and block shots every game - thats two more discernable and significant skills than most guys in his draft class), but dont for a second discount the impact of having a savvy veteran like Billups on your team.CHICAGO - The Chicago Blackhawks felt the repercussions of Brent Seabrooks hit on David Backes again on Sunday. How it affects the rest of their playoff series against the St. Louis Blues remains to be seen. Seabrook was suspended for three games by the NHL on his 29th birthday for his elbow to Backes head late in the third period of St. Louis 4-3 overtime win in Game 2. Now Chicago has to dig out of a 2-0 hole without one of its best defencemen in a rocky start to its Stanley Cup title defence. "You need his size, you need his presence and experience and his leadership," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said before Seabrooks suspension was announced. "Hes got the big shot on the point and hes on our power play as well. He kills penalties, so he plays all important minutes." Seabrook received a five-minute major and game misconduct penalty after he wiped out Backes at 15:09 of the third, and the Blues used the resulting power play to score the tying goal with 6.4 seconds left in regulation on Vladimir Tarasenkos long wrist shot. Backes had to be helped off the ice and did not return. The captains status for Monday nights Game 3 is up in the air. "All I know is hes upright, and thats about it right now," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said Sunday. "We dont have any further information and probably wont have until late tomorrow." Backes and Seabrook were not made available to the media on the day off, but much of the talk centred on the hit anyway. The TV broadcast picked up someone taunting Backes in the aftermath of the big blow, but it was unclear if it was coming from the ice or the crowd in the corner where the play occurred. "I saw them talking to him. It makes it a little more gutless," Blues forward Ryan Reaves said. "I dont think theres any need for that. He doesnt even know where he really is. I think if they want to start getting into that battle, we can play the same way. Well see where it takes us." Quenneville said he did not see or hear any players taunting Backes after he went down. In addition to the hit by Seabrook, Hitchcock also was upset by Bryan Bickells knee-on-knee collision with Blues centre Vladimir Sobotka in the third. He said the Blackhawks forward was involved in a similar play with defenceman Alex Pietrangelo in the first. "That part bothers me more than the hit on David, a hit that went array," Hitchcock said. "The hit on Sobotka was a continuation of what happened to Petro in the first period." Here are five things to watch in Game 3 of thiis increasingly testy series: HOME SWEET HOME: The Blackhawks went 11-2 at home in the playoffs last year, outscoring the Wild, Red Wings, Kings and Bruins by a combined score of 41-23.dddddddddddd They went 27-7-7 at the United Center this season, including a 2-0-1 mark against the Blues. "You just feed off of it," Quenneville said. "Itll be exciting to get back here, get some of the positive vibes off it and look to turn this thing around." VLADIMIR THE GREAT: Tarasenko missed the last 15 games of the regular season with a broken right thumb. But the 22-year-old Russian forward caused all sorts of headaches for the Blackhawks in the first two games of the series. The speedy Tarasenko had a first-period goal in the playoff opener, and then had the tying power-play score in Saturdays victory. With Seabrook out for the next three games and Backes status in question, Tarasenko could take on a more prominent role for the rest of the series. SO MANY PENALTIES: The Blues and Blackhawks combined for 17 penalties and 61 penalty minutes in Game 2. The defending Stanley Cup champions were responsible for 11 of those penalties and 41 penalty minutes, both season highs. It looked as if the Blackhawks wanted to match the physicality of the Blues, and it took them out of their puck possession game at times. "I think a little bit we might have played into their hands, but weve got to get back to our hockey, because when were playing that way we do a good job and thats how we win," Chicago forward Brandon Saad said. BEEN HERE BEFORE: St. Louis began last years playoffs with a pair of 2-1 victories over Los Angeles at home, including an overtime win in the opener. The Blues then lost the next four games against the Kings. "We played the best game all year Game 3 in Los Angeles and lost," Hitchcock said. "This is going to be a very long series and were going to have to be better than weve been if we expect to win a game in Chicago." ABOUT THOSE GOALTENDERS: Blues goalie Ryan Miller has been solid since Chicagos three-goal first period in Game 1. He had 25 saves in Saturdays win, and all three of the Blackhawks goals came with traffic in front of the net. Corey Crawford made 48 saves for Chicago in the triple-overtime opener, but he was disappointed with his 27-save performance in Game 2. "He said he needs to be better, and he needs to be better," Quenneville said. ___ AP Sports Writer R.B. Fallstrom in St. Louis contributed to this report. ___ Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap ' ' 'e series Monday in Washington. ' ' '
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