Newsome said he ”has not closed the door” on re-signing receivers Michael Campan

Tuukka Rask tossed a broken skate blade up the ice in frustration Cheap Mason Rudolph Jersey , but hardly lost his cool.

”I didn’t throw it at anybody,” the Boston goaltender said Saturday. ”If I threw it at somebody, I’d like to apologize, but I didn’t. I just wanted to make sure that everybody saw that my blade was off.”

Rask settled after allowing a second-period goal while trying to let officials know he had a problem with his left skate, finishing with 34 saves in the Bruins‘ 6-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Rick Nash had two goals and the Bruins’ high-scoring line of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand combined for 11 points, however Rask’s ability to retain his composure after Mikhail Sergachev’s goal trimmed Boston’s lead to 3-2 was every bit as important.

”He was really good,” Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. ”He gave us more than a chance to win early on when we were still trying to find our legs. We weren’t executing very well. They were better than us, and then our top guys started finishing their chances.”

Bergeron also scored twice and had an assist on one of Nash’s goals for the Bruins, who finished one point behind Tampa Bay for the Atlantic Division title, as well as the No. 1 seed in the East.

Marchand had a goal and three assists, while Pastrnak finished with four assists in a dominating performance.

A second goal by Marchand was waved off because of a cross-checking penalty on Pastrnak.

”You need your best players to be your best players, and clearly that happened tonight for us,’ Cassidy said.

Dan Girardi also scored for the Lightning, who trailed by one goal entering the third period.

Marchand and Bergeron hiked Boston’s advantage to 5-2 before Jake DeBrusk added an empty-netter with 6:19 remaining.

The Bruins had just 10 shots against Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy over the last two periods, but made the most of the limited opportunities.

Game 2 is Monday night at Amalie Arena.

The Lightning Cheap Vita Vea Jersey , in the conference semifinals for the third time in four years, remain confident.

”We have a lot of experience. Guys have been in this position before,” center Tyler Johnson said. ”It’s one game. It doesn’t matter if you lose a game 3-2 or 12-2. It’s the same thing.”

Rask won three of four starts against the Lightning during the regular season, with Tampa Bay’s lone victory coming in the final meeting.

Pastrnak assisted on each of Boston’s first three goals and added another on Bergeron’s third-period goal, giving him 12 helpers in eight playoff games.

”They’re good. … They’ve played together for a while and they know where to find each other,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Boston’s top line.

”They play both ends of the rink. They’ve played on Olympic teams, World Cup teams, and every time you look up and Canada is winning, usually Marchand or Bergeron had something to do with it,” Cooper added. ”They’ve done it for a long time.”

Nash, meanwhile, got his second and third goals of the postseason, scoring on the power play at 17:11 of the opening period and 12:33 of the second to put the Bruins up 3-1. Sergachev countered on the power play, trimming Tampa Bay’s deficit to 3-2.

”We lost 6-2, so it doesn’t matter how we feel about how we played,” Cooper said. ”We’re going to wake up in the morning Authentic Markus Wheaton Jersey , somebody is going to look at the score and say Tampa is down 1-0. Is there stuff we can build off this game? No question. But they got six, and in the end we have to raise the level of our game to get back in this series.”

NOTES: Vasilevskiy stopped 18 shots. … When Rask lost the blade on his skate, play was allowed to continue because losing a blade is not considered a safety issue. … The Bruins and Lightning are meeting in the playoffs for only the second time. The teams also met in the 2011 Eastern Conference Final, won by Boston in seven games. Six current Bruins – Bergeron, Marchand, Rask, Zdeno Chara, David Krejci and Adam McQuaid were part of that team, which went on win the Stanley Cup.

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The Baltimore Ravens‘ unyielding effort to land a big-play receiver finally paid off Friday when nine-year veteran Michael Crabtree signed a three-year contract.

Hours after disclosing that the Ravens voided the contract of Washington Redskins wide receiver Ryan Grant following a failed physical, general manager Ozzie Newsome landed Crabtree, who played the past three seasons with the Oakland Raiders.

Crabtree toured the Ravens’ complex Friday morning and signed in the late afternoon.

”I always imagined myself being a Raven when I was little,” Crabtree said. ”I came here, loved it and signed on the dotted line.”

In two games over the past two years with Oakland, the former 49ers star scorched Baltimore for 13 catches for 170 yards and four touchdowns.

Facing the Ravens in the 2012 Super Bowl, Crabtree had five receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown for San Francisco in a 34-31 loss.

”Michael has played very well against the Ravens, so we know firsthand the attributes he brings to the game John Smoltz Jersey ,” Newsome said. ”He is a smart, tough, physical receiver who battles for the ball. We like his temperament and believe he is a good fit for our football team, on and off the field.”

The 30-year-old Crabtree played six seasons with San Francisco before joining the Raiders. He has 579 career receptions for 6,870 yards and 51 touchdowns in 125 career games.

The 6-1, 215-pound Crabtree has totaled at least 85 catches in a season three times, including a career-high 89 in 2016. He has twice surpassed 1,000 yards receiving in a season.

Crabtree joins former Arizona receiver John Brown as new potential targets for quarterback Joe Flacco, who directed a lackluster passing attack that last year ranked 27th in the NFL.

Almost as soon as the Ravens cleared out their lockers following a 9-7 finish in 2017, Newsome set out to improve the weakest facet of a team that’s missed the playoffs in each of the past three seasons.

”If you dial it back to a year ago, we talked about how we wanted to get our defense stronger, and we did that. Then we said we wanted to run the football and we were able to do that,” Newsome said Friday morning, speaking with Brown at his side. ”The next piece is to get a better passing game. If we give Joe some weapons, and we improve in the passing game, maybe that will be enough to help us get over the hump.”

Newsome said he withdrew Grant’s four-year contract offer following the exam and after consulting with team doctors and outside physicians.

”That’s not a football decision Billy Williams Jersey ,” Newsome said. ”That’s a medical condition that I have no control over.”

Though Grant never missed a game in his four years with the Redskins, Newsome said the physical found an issue with his ankle.

”We knew he had had an ankle injury in the latter part of the season with the Redskins,” Newsome said. ”But he had passed their postseason physical, so we had no indication that it could have been there.”

Brown played four seasons with Arizona before signing a one-year contract this week with Baltimore.

”The thing about John is, he can take the top off of the defense,” Newsome said. ”A lot of times when you go with a vertical receiver, they have a very limited route tree. John does not. John can run every route in the route tree. The other aspect of this that attracted John to us is that we feel like his best football is still in front of him.”

Brown, two years removed from a 1,000-yard season, expects to ring up big numbers with Baltimore.

”I felt like this was the best fit for me,” he said. ”They like to use a lot of receivers with speed. I feel like I can come in and help this team.”

Newsome said he ”has not closed the door” on re-signing receivers Michael Campanaro and Mike Wallace, and has been ”having conversations” with several tight ends.

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