Off Topic » tough checking assignments for the Flyers

Hobart, Australia (SportsNetwork.com) - Top seeds Casey Dellacqua, Zarina Diyas and Camila Giorgi were among Mondays opening-round victors at the Hobart International tennis tournament, a final Australian Open tune-up. The top-seeded Aussie Dellacqua snuck past American Lauren Davis 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, while Kazakhstans Diyas doused Spanish lucky loser Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-3, 6-4 and the Italian Giorgi grounded Aussie wild card Storm Sanders 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6) on the hardcourts at the Hobart International Tennis Centre. In other action involving seeds, American qualifier Madison Brengle upset No. 7 German, 2012 champion and 2013 Hobart runner-up Mona Barthel 6-7 (6-8), 7-5, 7-6 (7-2), No. 8 American Alison Riske bested compatriot Christina McHale 6-4, retired, and No. 9 Italian Roberta Vinci edged out Aussie wild card Olivia Rogowska 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. Several other women reached the second round, including German Annika Beck, Brit Heather Watson, Serb Bojana Jovanovski, and Slovakian wild card Daniela Hantuchova. The 2015 Hobart titlist will earn $43,000. Jason McCourty Patriots Jersey . With Bernard hurt, the second-round pick has emerged.Hill ran for 152 yards during a 27-10 win at New Orleans on Sunday, his second big game. He also ran for 154 yards against Jacksonville earlier this season. Jason McCourty Jersey . - Mark Sanchez found out the New York Jets had acquired Tim Tebow on a conference call with team management. http://www.patriotsjerseysauthentic.com/Cordarrelle-Patterson-Super-Bowl-Jersey/ .com) - Driphus Jackson had three touchdown passes, including two in a 19-second span in the opening quarter, to guide Rice to a 30-6 rout of Fresno State at the Hawaii Bowl. Adrian Clayborn Jersey . -- Get a flow chart ready to follow the Packers quarterback situation. Jeremy Hill Jersey . However, it wasnt a problem on Monday night. Evgeni Nabokov made 23 saves for his 56th career shutout in the New York Islanders 3-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night.Johnny Hockey burns brightly for the Flames, Getzlaf gets it done, Jimmy Hayes keeps scoring, Fantasy tips and more in Scott Cullens Statistically Speaking. HEROES Johnny Gaudreau - The Flames rookie dynamo scored his first career hat trick, including two in the final three minutes of regulation play to force overtime, in Calgarys 4-3 OT win at Los Angeles. Gaudreau also registered a game-high seven shots on goal. With 27 points (10 G, 17 A) in 35 games, Gaudreau sits second, behind Nashvilles Filip Forsberg, in the rookie scoring race. Among rookie forwards (minimum 300 minutes), only Ottawas Mark Stone (+7.4%) and Mike Hoffman (+4.1%) have a better Corsi relative to their teammates (Gaudreau is at +3.2%). Ryan Getzlaf - The Ducks centre had a couple of assists in Anaheims 3-2 overtime win against San Jose. During a six-game point streak, Getzlaf has 10 points (4 G, 6 A), continuing to produce even without Corery Perry to ride shotgun on his wing. Jimmy Hayes - He has to battle just to get into the lineup, but the Panthers winger scored a pair of goals in a 4-3 shootout win over Pittsburgh. With nine goals in 24 games, Hayes has been an effective finisher, when he gets an opportunity to play. Among players with at least 200 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time this season: GOALS PER 60 MINUTES, 5-ON-5 PLAYER TEAM POS. GOALS/60 Rick Nash N.Y. Rangers LW 2.31 Tyler Seguin Dallas RW 2.02 Vladimir Tarasenko St. Louis RW 1.80 Jimmy Hayes Florida RW 1.68 Jason Zucker Minnesota LW 1.67 Corey Perry Anaheim RW 1.56 Mike Hoffman Ottawa LW 1.55 Matt Beleskey Anaheim LW 1.48 Tomas Tatar Detroit LW 1.46 Nikita Kucherov Tampa Bay RW 1.46 ZEROES Mike Smith - The Arizona goaltender continued to struggle, surrendering four goals on 11 shots in a 7-1 loss to Vancouver, dropping his save percentage to .884, worst among goalies with more than 600 minutes played this season. Tom Sestito - Score effects were certainly at play in Vancouvers blowout victory, but the Canucks enforcer had a rough night in terms of possession (2 shot attempts for, 22 against, 8.3%) against Arizona in Vancouvers 7-1 win. Nate Thompson - Anaheims fourth-line centre was stuck in the defensive zone against San Jose with one shot attempt for and 13 against (7.7%). LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Steve Downie, Brandon Sutter - Illness knocked those two Pittsburgh forwards out of the lineup; Rob Klinkhammer and Andrew Ebbett returned to action for the Penguins. Brad Boyes, Tomas Fleischmann - The veteran wingers were healthy scratches for Florida against Pittsburgh, replaced by Brandon Pirri and Jimmy Hayes. Taylor Chorney - The 27-year-old hadnt played in the NHL since 2011-2012, but injuries in Pittsburgh opened up a spot for him to get the call and he played 6:06 against Florida Monday.dddddddddddd Chorney had six points (2 G, 4 A) and a plus-15 rating in 25 AHL games. Jake Muzzin - The Kings defenceman played a career-high 28:55 against Calgary. SHORT SHIFTS Capitals D Mike Green had two assists in Washingtons 2-1 win over Ottawa, giving him five points (1 G, 4 A) in the past three games…With a pair of assists against Los Angeles, Flames RW Jiri Hudler has 18 points (7 G, 11 A) in the past 15 games…Predators RW Craig Smith scored two goals, with 10 shot attempts (7 SOG) in Nashvilles 5-1 win at Columbus; its his second straight multi-point game…Coyotes RW Martin Erat had a superb possession game (20 shot attempts for, 3 against, 86.7%) in the loss to Vancouver…Sharks C Joe Thornton had another excellent possession performance (23 for, 6 against, 79.3%) and his 59.1% Corsi ranks third, behind Matt Nieto (60.0%) and Tomas Tatar (59.3%) for Corsi percentage among players with at least 300 minutes played this season. Capitals G Braden Holtby had 38 saves on 39 shots in Washingtons 2-1 win over Ottawa. Hes having a nice December, with a .933 save percentage in 10 games this month…Predators G Pekka Rinne stopped 30 of 31 shots in a 5-1 win at Columbus…Canucks G Ryan Miller stopped 38 of 39 shots in a 7-1 rout over the Coyotes. It was the first game this season in which Miller had more than 32 saves while allowing one goal or fewer. FIRSTS Melker Karlsson - The Sharks rookie winger scored his first NHL goal, in his sixth game. Karlsson has five points (1 G, 4 A) in six games, but thats not likely to continue. The 24-year-old had 10 points (5 G, 5 A) in 20 AHL games before getting promoted and 25 points (9 G, 16 A) in 48 games with Skelleftea in Sweden last year. FANTASY FOCUS Sean Couturier - Offensive production seems to come and go with the fourth-year pivot, who handles tough checking assignments for the Flyers, but hes been getting some bounces in December, putting up nine points (4 G, 5 A) in 10 games. Mark Scheifele - The seventh pick in the 2011 Draft, one ahead of Couturier, Scheifele started slowly this year, but has come on strong lately, with eight points (3 G, 5 A) in the past five games. Ondrej Palat - Hasnt managed a shot on goal in his past two games, after coming off a 10-day absence, so hes due for better results, though its noteworthy that his shots on goal per game has dropped since last season (2.04 to 1.74). Craig Cunningham - The rookie winger is getting a chance on a scoring line in Boston, alongside David Krejci and Milan Lucic. It has been a season-long challenge for Boston to find the right complementary piece (a role filled by Jarome Iginla last season) and Cunningham has one goal and no assists in nine games with Boston this season. That might not be a great indicator for future success, but at least hes getting a chance. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca ' ' '