They moved the puck around us quite a bit in the hockey game and we just didnt have an answer for it.

DENVER - Patrick Roy returned to the Colorado Avalanche to restore the glory years he helped forge, and hes enjoying the ride with a young team playing at a high level. Samaje Perine Jersey . Nick Holden scored two goals, Ryan OReilly had a goal and an assist and the Avalanche rallied to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3 on Sunday night. Semyon Varlamov stopped 31 shots and Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie also scored for the Avalanche, who have won two straight. Roy helped lead Colorado to two Stanley Cup titles in 1996 and 2001 as the goaltender with a dynamic offence in front of him. Now as the coach, hes bringing back memories of that era. "You ask me what reminds me of the Avalanche of the past, thats the type of hockey we were playing," he said. "And thats the way were playing right now." Those championship teams also featured goal-scoring defencemen, something lacking from last years squad. Colorados blue-liners had just five goals in 48 games a year ago. The Avalanche got four goals from its defence Sunday, including Johnsons first in his return from a two-game suspension for a slash on New York Islanders centre Frans Nielsen three weeks ago. "Its tough sitting out, and to be able to come back and contribute and help the team win is fun," he said. Johnson scored the go-ahead goal at 16:05 of the third when he pinched in to steal the puck and then sent a low shot past 6-foot-7 goalie Ben Bishop from along the boards. "I know (Bishop) from St. Louis, and I shot at him a lot," Johnson said. "Hes obviously a big guy and he doesnt give you a lot of room. Sometimes, big guys like that, you throw it at their feet and they dont see it." Nate Thompson had two goals, Tom Pyatt also scored and Bishop finished with 29 saves for the Lightning, who had four penalties in the last 21:28 of the game. "The penalties killed us," centre Alex Killorn said. "Six minutes where we didnt play in their zone." Holden tied it with a power-play goal at 5:12 of the third. It was Colorados sixth power-play goal in the past three games. Holden notched his second two-goal game when he scored into an empty net with 53 seconds remaining. Paul Stastny added another with 6.3 seconds left. "This is a tough one," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Tied game with under five minutes to go. I thought we were getting points from this one. We let them slip out of our hands." Thompson has eight goals, and four of them have come in a pair of two-goal games. He got his first one Sunday when he beat Varlamov on the short side 6:40 into the second period to tie it at 2. Later in the period, he sent a wrister at Varlamov that settled in the crease, and then he skated through to knock it in at 17:37. The Lightning missed an opportunity to move into second place in the Atlantic Division and third in the Eastern Conference after Colorados late-game eruption. "I think were going through a little bit of a rough patch," Thompson said. "A couple breakdowns there at the end and they end up in the back of the net, unfortunately." Colorado stayed within three points of St. Louis in the Central Division with the win. The Blues beat Phoenix on Sunday. The game was scoreless for most of the first period despite plenty of chances. Lightning centre Vladislav Namestnikov had two of them and Colorado centre Matt Duchene was stopped on a breakaway. Tampa Bay finally cashed in when Pyatt scored at 16:49 of the first. Barrie tied it 30 seconds later with a shot between Bishops legs, and OReilly gave Colorado a 2-1 lead with his 23rd of the season 1:42 later. NOTES: Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon finished with two assists. ... Tampa Bay C Valtteri Filppula missed his fourth straight game with a non-displaced fracture in his right ankle. ... MacKinnon extended his points streak to 11 games. Its the longest streak by a rookie since Stastny had one of 20 games during the 2006-07 season. Ryan Kerrigan Jersey . -- Crystal Webster avoided elimination at the 2013 Capital One Road to the Roar Olympic pre-trial curling tournament with an 8-5 win over Amber Holland on Thursday. Josh Doctson Jersey . The roster changes have been constant and continuous since late last year, but even with their 46-man roster set for the start of the season, the banged-up Bombers will be kicking off Week 1 with a handful of fresh faces and back-ups in the starting lineup. http://www.theredskinsshoponline.com/Youth-John-Riggins-Redskins-Jersey/ . Sociedad remained in sixth place with Villarreal a point behind in seventh, both in Europa League spots and in striking distance of fourth place and the final Champions League berth. Sociedad forward Carlos Vela chipped goalkeeper Jaime Jimenez after receiving an equally exquisite lobbed pass from Ruben Pardo to set him up in the 23rd minute at Anoeta Stadium.CHICAGO – The Blackhawks have captured two Stanley Cups in five years and on Sunday night they showed the suddenly skidding Maple Leafs exactly why. Chicago outclassed their Original Six rivals for the better part of 60 minutes, sending them to a third straight loss and some soul-searching just days after a fiery 10-1-1 stretch came to an end. The Leafs are admittedly trying to chase the Blackhawks model. Head coach Randy Carlyle expressed admiration for Chicagos up-tempo brand, describing it as the type of game his team would like to implement consistently. Players echoed his thoughts. We can learn from playing teams like that when theyre at the top of their game, said Joffrey Lupul after a 4-0 loss, just the second time the Leafs have been shutout this season. Thats the type of team were striving to become. Not only are the Blackhawks a polished offensive powerhouse, but unlike their Toronto counterparts, they lock things down at the other end, standing on top of the league defensively. Lupul observed how well they manage to play collectively – building off years of experience – Daniel Winnik noting just how effective and nifty they are with the puck in all three zones. Theyre so good with the puck when they have it, said Winnik. The Leafs, a sometimes sloppy outfit with the puck themselves, continue to tumble down the league rankings defensively, yielding an unseemly 15 goals during the three-game skid. Only the likes of Dallas, Edmonton, Buffalo, Arizona, Colorado and injury-ravaged Columbus have been worse this season at keeping pucks of the net. Weve allowed the opposition to score too many goals, said Carlyle following the first of seven straight on the road. Weve got to get our defensive side of [the game] back in order and play a tighter game, specifically on the road. You cant come into a building like this and play the Stanley Cup champs in these situations and think that youre going to play loose hockey. Thats not the way its going to work. Superior goaltending and a powerful offence kept such an approach afloat during much of the month-long stretch of winning hockey, but no longer. James Reimer was forced to make a good number of quality saves to keep things tight for two periods – with a handful of odd-man opportunities to contend with – Antti Raanta tested more and more often as the night wore on, but ultimately perfect with 31 saves. The Blackhawks struck twice in a controlling first frame – the second with just seconds left on the clock – adding two more in the final 20 minutes. They flung the puck around with precision, were often first to loose pucks - Patrick Kane snatching control ahead of Tyler Bozak on Chicagos second of the game – and were seemingly just a step ahead. Theyre a pretty good hockey club obviously, said Carlyle. And they executed at a very high level. They moved the puck around us quite a bit in the hockey game and we just didnt have an answer for it. And then when we did have chances I think their goaltender made some big stops. Carlyle continued to shuffle his line combinations around, mixing and matching furiously in hopes of finding a better mix at even-strength. That process Sunday saw David Booth and Richard Panik both move higher in the lineup (replacing David Clarkson) and Phil Kessel bounce between Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak. But it was to no effect against the Blackhawks, who held off a third period Leafs rally. The two teams are obviously at different stages in the curve to success with vastly different amounts of talent. Chicago is an annual Cup contender and an organization that generates a healthy amount of envy around the league. Toronto just trying to get into the postseason dance, looking at a team like the Blackhawks admiringly. Theyre a better team than us right now, Lupul said. Were striving to get to their level and its a work in progress. -- Five Points 1. 2015 Its very likely that Leo Komarov doesnt play again for the Leafs until 2015. Komarov, whos missed the past 11 games with a concussion, has been skating recently and steadily improving. But the 27-year-old continues to experience symptoms related to the concussion, according to a source, even if those symptoms are not quite as severe as those in the initial aftermath of the injury. And while he has taken to the ice briefly with the teams strength coach in recent days, Komarov still has yet to practice with the team, has yet to go through any substantial drills, and will miss the final game before the Christmas break in Dallas. The Leafs will have five games in seven days when they return from the holidays with the possibility of one, maybe two practices in that span. Hell need more than that to return given the precarious nature of the injury and length of time missed. And thats assuming those symptoms disappear – they havent yet – which is obviously far from a guarantee. The likely timelline for Komarovs return, according to the source, is January – perhaps as late as the middle of the month. Sam Huff Jersey. Leafs general manager Dave Nonis did not respond to a request for comment on the matter. Komarov was among the better Leafs through the first two months this season. He had 16 points in 23 games. -- 2. Embracing Analytics Carlyle likes to jest from time to time about the wave of analytics in the game today, but its evident that hes embracing the movement, even looking to procure a new stat. Frustrated with sloppy play recently, Carlyle wants to create an analytic that tracks how much time the club ends up spending in the defensive zone after a puck is turned over at the offensive blue-line. Its something he intends to present his players with. Its an interesting stat, Carlyle said ahead of the Sunday tilt with Chicago. And were going to be hard and fast with our players to show them whats happening when we do that. As to analytics, Carlyle said, Its just a different way of looking at the game and its a tool. We think that its a valuable tool in some of those situations where we can apply it. -- 3. Improvements Winnik offered one subtle change the Leafs could make to control possession longer, thus giving up fewer opportunities and shots against. Puck support, he said. Sometimes we just get too spread out. Were looking for cross-ice passes as opposed to being close and making short chips or short passes, I think thats kind of an adjustment we might have to make. The Leafs had maybe their three best games of the year after the 9-2 blasting at home by Nashville last month. They played Tampa, Detroit and Pittsburgh, holding all three under 30 shots with a structured brand of hockey rare to this group. Those are games that we really shut, I think, really good offensive teams down, Winnik said. I think the challenge is playing structured every single night. Its not easy and it might not be fun some games because you might feel robotic to what you have to do, but it gets the job done. In the 12 games after that brief three-game window, the Leafs gave up 30 or more in 10 of 12 games. I thought we were a pretty good team defensively for a while there, Winnik continued. Now weve kind of gotten away from it. Maybe weve just got to look back at those games. -- 4. Best Year Yet? It may not look like it, but Phil Kessel is quietly pushing toward what could be the best statistical season of his career. Kessel is on pace for 41 goals, 46 assists and 87 points, all of which would be career-highs. Hes also produced more efficiently than in years past, on pace for less than 270 shots and currently shooting nearly 16 per cent – which would also be a career-high. Now 27, Kessel is producing at about the same rates in even-strength situations as past seasons – though he endured about a month-long cold spell – receiving a big bump from a potent Leafs power-play. Nearly 40 per cent of his offence comes with the man advantage. Kessel, nonetheless, remains a drain on the Leafs in other areas; he is amongst the teams worst possession players and a glaring negative in the subtler points of the game, including in the defensive zone. But the production continues to be there. -- 5. Gardiner With an eye towards Tuesdays game in Dallas, the Leafs took Stephane Robidas out of the lineup against Chicago. Robidas spent the majority of his career with the Stars, Carlyle opting to give him an extra night of rest ahead of what should be an emotional return. In doing so the Leafs flipped Jake Gardiner back into the lineup, a night after scratching him against the Flyers. Gardiner led the Leafs with nearly 23 minutes, on the ice for the Blackhawks final two goals in the third frame. I thought Jake played very well until the third period, Carlyle said, describing Gardiners game as being more determined. I thought the third period was again an area where we just didnt do enough and he got caught in a couple situations, but a young player showed hes got some dynamic abilities out there. -- Stats-Pack 5-2-1 – Leafs record in second half of back-to-back games this season. 22:50 – Ice-time for Jake Gardiner Sunday, leading the Leafs. 41-40 – Possession advantage for Chicago. 13:11 – Ice-time for David Booth Sunday, his second-highest mark of the season. 2.97 – Goals against average for the Leafs this season, 24th overall this season. -- Special Teams Capsule PP: 0-2 Season: 20.3% PK: 1-2 Season: 83.3% -- Quote of the Night Thats the great thing about hockey is we get another crack at it right away in Dallas. Its not like NFL week where youve got to wait a full week before you get back out there again. - Joffrey Lupul, on the nature of a losing streak in the NHL. -- Up Next The Leafs visit the Stars Tuesday before hitting pause for the Christmas break. 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