Gast-Ecke » roducing offence - he scored 20 go

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Alexander Steen extended his goal streak, but Brian Elliott stole the show. Elliott stopped 31 shots for his first win of the season, and Steen scored for the sixth straight game as the St. Louis Blues beat the Florida Panthers 4-0 on Friday night. Alex Pietrangelo, Chris Stewart and Derek Roy added goals, and Steen posted his NHL-leading 12th. David Backes had two assists for St. Louis, which won its third straight. Elliott hadnt earned a win since April 27 against Chicago. His previous shutout was April 11 at Minnesota. "It was good to get in there," said Elliott, who notched his 22nd NHL shutout. "Guys got me a lead pretty early. You kind of just settle in and start seeing the puck. It was a good outing." Already ahead 1-0, the Blues broke the game open with three goals in just over five minutes in the second period. St. Louis doubled its lead on Stewarts goal. Barret Jackman passed from the point to Stewart below the left circle for an angled shot from the side that got past Jacob Markstrom at 5:21. The Blues stretched their lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal by Pietrangelo at 7:06. A drive by Backes was blocked by Markstrom, but Pietrangelo tipped in the rebound. "To get that power-play goal really gave us a boost. The next shift we were able to find another one and put it in the back of the net," Backes said. "(Elliott) was up to the task. He was our best player when we needed him to be." Steen finished the scoring when he wristed in a rebound at 10:42. "I was just in the right spot at the right time. Good break," Steen said. Steen didnt want to focus on his streak or his lead in goals. "I think weve talked enough about that," Steen said. "I think Elliott is the reason we ended up winning the hockey game. He made some timely saves, some really big saves, and pretty much stood on his head at times." Markstrom made 19 saves for Florida, which lost for the fifth time in six games. "Its disappointing for all of us. Everybody feels bad about it," Panthers coach Kevin Dineen said. "The effort wasnt good enough to compete against one of the top teams in the NHL." Dineen was clearly frustrated with his teams lack of success this season. "If we cant get everybody to compete harder than we did tonight, then well just stumble along and get our wins here and there," Dineen said. "We need more participation in the hard parts of the game for us to have success. "Were at the point now that its not about skill for this group, its about us trying to find the guys that are going to give us the best effort." Roy put the Blues ahead with a backhander from the slot that hit the right post, bounced out, hit Markstroms pads and drifted back across the goal line with 4:19 left in the first. NOTES: Blues C Maxim Lapierre returned after serving a five-game suspension for a hit on San Joses Dan Boyle on Oct. 15. ... The Blues played an NHL-low 10 games in October but will play 15 in November. ... The Panthers have lost four straight to the Blues, including a 7-0 rout on Oct. 5. ... Florida went 1-3-2 on a season-high, six game homestand. Phillip Lindsay Jersey . Canadas Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse will reunite at this weekends season-opening World Cup at Canada Olympic Park as they begin their buildup to the Winter Games in Sochi. Royce Freeman Jersey . Ibrahimovic put PSG ahead when he got in front of his marker to neatly flick in Lucass cross in the 59th minute. New signing Yohan Cabaye came on as a second-half substitute and headed Ezequiel Lavezzis cross against the post in the 87th. Moments later, Lucas set up another goal from the right when fellow countryman Alex turned in his corner with a strikers finish. http://www.officialdenverbroncospro.com/...broncos-jersey/. Portuguese sides Benfica and Porto also advanced to the last eight while Basel overcame an early red card to win 2-1 at Salzburg and progress from a last-16 second leg that was briefly suspended because of crowd trouble. Lyon, Valencia and AZ Alkmaar will also be in Fridays draw in Nyon, Switzerland, where the team to avoid will be Juventus -- even though the Italian champions made heavy work of their all-Italian last-16 match against Fiorentina. Terrell Davis Jersey . The 24-year-old Pruneau played his CIS football with the Montreal Carabins. The six-foot, 200-pound Montreal native had 41 tackles, 3. Courtland Sutton Jersey . The former world No. 1 Djokovic, who is the top seed here despite being ranked No. 2, snuck past 35-year-old Czech showman Radek Stepanek in four high- quality sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), on Centre Court. Djokovic appeared relieved when he converted on his first match point by swatting a cross-court forehand winner that just caught the line to end an affair that featured only two service breaks.TORONTO - It was a gamble and Maple Leafs general manager Dave Nonis knew it. "If we werent able to get Bozak signed or if Clarkson didnt sign then I wouldve had a lot of cap space with no players," Nonis told the Leaf Report. "So it was definitely a gamble and we weighed that against keeping him and playing him." Ultimately, Nonis and his management team opted to exercise their second compliance buyout on Mikhail Grabovski this past summer, ridding themselves of the enigmatic centreman after five years in Toronto. After much debate, they determined that the cap space freed up by his dismissal was just too enticing to pass up; that the players fit on the roster just wasnt there. The 29-year-old, who returns to the Air Canada Centre as a member of the Washington Capitals on Saturday evening, still had four years remaining on a contract that ate up $5.5 million in cap space annually. "It wasnt a decision we made just overnight," Nonis said. "We thought long and hard about it and decided to roll the dice with the cap space and see if we could relocate it effectively." These were nervous times for Nonis. Though he had just acquired 27-year-old Dave Bolland from the Chicago Blackhawks, he had no guarantees that Tyler Bozak would re-sign in Toronto nor whether David Clarkson, their top free agent target, would take their bait and become a Leaf. "We didnt know when we did it that wed be successful in getting some players signed," Nonis said. Also due to be signed were restricted free agents Jonathan Bernier, Carl Gunnarsson, Nazem Kadri, Mark Fraser and Cody Franson. Cap space, predictably, (with the upper-limit dropping to $64.3 million) was going to be at a premium. "We looked at a number of scenarios, including keeping him," Nonis said of Grabovski, who signed for one year in Washington at $3 million. "I said at the time, I think Grabo, wherever he ends up, was going to have a positive impact. Hes a good player and I believe that. But for us we felt we needed to regain that cap space to make some other moves moving forward." A major part of the equation was also the players fit within the roster. Never coming to grips with the role he was required to play in Toronto last season, Grabovski endured the worst season of his career in 2013. He finished with nine goals and 16 points in 48 games, completely off-kilter in the defensive role head coach Randy Carlyle had pegged him to fill. Afforded similar minutes under Adam Oates in Washington, albeit with a more offensive leaan, Grabovski has already produced seven goals and 19 points this season.dddddddddddd "Again, the notion that there wasnt ice-time available for him or opportunity last year, thats just false," Nonis said of Grabovski, who averaged nearly 16 minutes last season, his lowest as a Leaf. "I think it was more a situation where the fit just wasnt right. And it wasnt his fault. I dont think he ever shortchanged us on effort or being prepared or professionalism or any of those things. There just didnt seem to be a fit. And so to have that much cap space tied up with a player that wasnt fitting with us - it doesnt mean hes not going to fit with other teams, obviously he is - but thats what led to the decision to buy him out." Grabovski made no secret of his disdain for Carlyle and the role he was dealt in his final season as a Leaf. He believed his value came from producing offence - he scored 20 goals three times - and could not comprehend why that opportunity wasnt being afforded him as it had been previously under Ron Wilson. "I think too much is made about the coach being the issue with Grabo," Nonis said. "Look at Grabos ice-time and look at his opportunity and look at his performance and I think Grabo would tell you that he didnt have a great year. Whether it was just because he didnt feel like he was being used correctly or what it might be, but I think its easy to point the finger at the coach and say well its his fault. I dont think thats fair. Theres a lot of things that went into his season last year and I think just saying it was all the coach is unfair." The teams dynamic at centre ice almost dictated the terms for Carlyle. With Kadri making the team out of training camp when the lockout wrapped last January and Bozak already lined up as the teams top centre - the better fit for Phil Kessel in the teams opinion - there was nowhere else to put Grabovski but in the checking role he was assigned. Add Bolland into the mix from Chicago this summer - an ideal candidate to fill the role Grabovski griped under - and the stage was set for change in early July. Nonis, admittedly, could have waited until the summer of 2014 to exercise the buyout - the final year to do so under terms of the new CBA - but risked another poor season in doing so. "From a managers point we looked at it and said Is this the best thing to do for us to rehabilitate him, so to speak, and get him back to playing where we needed him to play or to buy him out and create the cap space. "That was the decision." 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