LOS ANGELES – It’s been less than a week since Randy Carlyle was fired, but it’s evident already that Peter Horachek is doing t

LOS ANGELES – It’s been less than a week since Randy Carlyle was fired, but it’s evident already that Peter Horachek is doing things quite a bit differently from his predecessor. Stitched China Jerseys . Communication. System. Deployment of personnel. Horachek has quickly engineered a few tweaks to the way the Maple Leafs are run, those changes a contrast to the manner in which things were done for nearly three seasons under Carlyle. “The guys are responding pretty well,” Horachek said after practice in El Segundo, California, about 20 minutes from where the Leafs will meet the Kings at the Staples Center on Monday night. “We’ve been positive and they’re in a good frame of mind right now.” The shift in communication between players and the head coach is stark. Carlyle ran the ship his way. Horachek, conversely, is looking to achieve much more of a two-way street. He’s not simply dictating to the group, but requesting their feedback and opinion. “I encourage them to voice their opinion and open up because most of the players were kind of quiet and they weren’t talking a lot [previously.] And I wanted to encourage them to speak and to be heard,” Horachek said. He’s also decided to have weekly meetings with Toronto’s leadership group, a collective that includes Dion Phaneuf, the three to four designated alternate captains and Jonathan Bernier. The plan is to address the events of the previous week, look ahead to the seven days that follow and even address the schedule and what time, for instance, to hold practice on the road. The idea behind the meetings is to institute ownership and make the players feel like they’re part of the decision-making process. Horachek remembers doing the same thing with Barry Trotz in Nashville and then again in Florida last season when he served as the teams interim head coach for 66 games. “I think he wants us to be involved and take charge,” Bernier said. Beyond the push for better communication are structural changes that actually affect events on the ice. Tyler Bozak observed that Horachek was pushing for more “puck possession” and the earliest results speak to that. Amongst the worst puck-possessing teams in the league under Carlyle, Toronto won possession fights with Washington and Columbus, holding both under the 30-shot plateau. The Blue Jackets, in fact, were limited to just 20 shots, rarely finding threatening positions to beat Bernier. The sample size of six periods isn’t much to go on, but given how frequently the Leafs leaned upon Bernier under Carlyle’s direction, how little they possessed the puck and how much they broke defensively, the two games are obviously an encouraging start. “I think we’re doing a lot more of the little things,” Phil Kessel said. “We’re playing [a] better two-way game, we’re not giving up as many shots and as many chances and when you do that, you’re going to win a lot of games.” Horachek wouldn’t deny his hurried attempts to change the product, pushing for less “cheating” toward offence and more structure in positioning in all three zones. Hes talked often already about a 5-5-5 approach, all five guys working cohesively together. Structure was evident in a thorough 5-2 win over the Blue Jackets, just the third victory in 11 games for the Leafs. “No, it’s different,” he said of systemic adjustments. “There’s some differences and there’s a difference in how we approach it and a difference in positioning. We want to keep focused on doing it together. It doesn’t matter what system you do, you can do any system you want, [but] if you don’t do it together it won’t work. If you do it together, it can work.” One adjustment has seen the Leafs alter their approach to defensive zone exits, an acknowledged aid in limiting opponents to fewer than 30 shots in four of the past five games. “We’re bumping pucks to the middle more than rimming it around the wall and it’s letting us get out of our zone cleaner,” Bozak said. Cleaner exits means less time spent hemmed in the defensive zone. Bernier, meanwhile, observed a push to have a tighter presence around the net. He noted how the wingers were playing lower in the defensive zone, not jumping out as far at opposing defenceman. “They want them to be really tight to the net, so I think it helps us to break the puck out easier,” he said. Systems aside, Carlyle never could achieve the necessary defensive commitment of the group. That was especially true of Kessel and some of the team’s top offensive weaponry, who sacrificed defence in the name of offence. Horachek dismissed the idea that those players were incapable of playing to a tighter brand. “Every guy in the world’s capable of doing that,” he said. “It’s all about how much you want to do that. We’re trying to pull everybody into the circle and everybody wants to be in the circle.” The chessboard has also been rearranged under his leadership. He’s replaced James van Riemsdyk with a safer element in Daniel Winnik on the team’s top line, keeping apart a threesome (Kessel and Tyler Bozak being the other two components) that was snowed under for most of the season. Richard Panik, who struck offensively in limited minutes, was pushed up from the fourth line and onto a unit with Nazem Kadri and James van Riemsdyk. And mostly sheltered under Carlyle’s direction, Morgan Rielly has seen his opportunity climb higher. The 20-year-old played a career-high of nearly 24 minutes in Horacheks debut, leading the team in even-strength ice-time versus Columbus. Change, simply put, has come quick with different leadership. And that was an expressed purpose of firing Carlyle. Brendan Shanahan said he wanted to get a look at the roster under a different coach and see if the results changed. Those results are still yet to be determined. The change? Well, that’s come quickly enough. “I think he’s been great for our group so far,” Kessel said of Horachek. “Obviously I think there’s a different feel. There’s obviously always a different feel when there’s a coaching change.” China Jerseys 2020 . Joining him in this years class were Switzerlands Patrick Huerlimann and Norways Eigil Ramsfjell. The announcement was made at the world mens curling championship at Capital Indoor Stadium in China. Cheap China Jerseys . -- Joe Thornton scored the tiebreaking goal with 5:39 left in regulation to help the San Jose Sharks overcome a two-goal deficit to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 on Thursday night. https://www.chinajerseysreview.com/ . The Oilers jumped into the free agent market early by signing defencemen Keith Aulie (six-foot-six, 228 pounds) and Mark Fayne (6-3, 210 pounds) and left-winger Benoit Pouliot (6-3, 197-pounds). Two days earlier MacTavish traded lightweight forward Sam Gagner to Tampa Bay for 6-3, 203-pound right winger Ted Purcell.ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Rays rode the momentum of a marathon victory to another big win. Desmond Jennings drove in four runs, Alex Cobb took a three-hit shutout into the ninth inning, and the Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-1 on Saturday in a matchup of exhausted teams to maintain their lead in the AL wild-card race. "Weve got to keep things going," Jennings said. "Theres no relaxing or anything like that. Keep finding ways to win games." The first pitch came 10 hours, 56 minutes after the Rays 5-4, 18-inning win over Baltimore that ended at 2:05 a.m., a game that stretched on for 6:54 -- a record time for both teams. Saturdays game, by comparison, seemed to breeze by in 2:51. "You cant put into words how appreciative you are when youre on the mound and these guys after an 18-inning game when youre in bed sleeping while theyre putting together a win, and they come out with the same intensity for you the next day," Cobb said. "Its amazing." Cobb, in a common practice, left the ballpark early Friday night and went to bed 2 1/2 hours before the game ended. Tampa Bay (85-69) and Cleveland (85-70) hold the two AL wild-card positions, with Texas (84-70) a half-game back. The New York Yankees (82-73) overtook Baltimore, which is tied with Kansas City at 81-73 and trails by 3 1/2 games. Cobb didnt allow a hit until Steve Clevenger lined a single to right with two outs in the fifth. The Orioles had only two hits over the final 11 innings on Friday. "I think it was more Cobb than anything," Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. "Hes got command of that changeup, to both left and right-handed hiitters. China Jerseys Online. . Hes impressive." Chris Davis tripled with one out in the ninth off Cobb, a fly ball David DeJesus struggled to locate in left. Adam Jones followed with an RBI single that chased Cobb, who struck out 12 and walked two. Closer Fernando Rodney completed the five-hitter. Miguel Gonzalez (10-8) gave up three runs, two hits and five walks in six innings. The right-hander had been 2-0 with an 0.92 ERA in his previous three starts at Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay went ahead in the fifth when Jose Molina and Yunel Escobar walked. One out later, Jennings hit his career-high 14th homer. Jennings added an RBI triple in the seventh and scored on Ben Zobrists single off Francisco Rodriguez. Eleven players who went the distance on Friday came back to start on Saturday: Baltimores Davis, Jones, Nick Markakis, Manny Machado, J.J. Hardy and Danny Valencia, and Tampa Bays Zobrist, Escobar, David DeJesus, Wil Myers and Evan Longoria. Baltimores Matt Wieters, who caught all 18 innings, was rested. "I was worried with the guys that went all the way, and they did fine," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. Showalter agreed. "Everybody was engaged and ready to play today," Showalter said. "No excuses." Someone jokingly wrote "Early hitting 7 a.m." on the message board in Tampa Bays clubhouse Saturday morning. NOTES: Baltimore recalled LHPs Mike Belfiore and Zach Britton from Triple-A Norfolk. ... Tampa Bay recalled LHP Jeff Beliveau from Triple-A Durham. ... Myers went 0 for 8 on Friday and became the first Tampa Bay player to go hitless in eight or more at-bats in a game. The rookie went 0 for 4 Saturday. ' ' '