OTTAWA – It was late November and Jake Gardiner was trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Sean Smith Jersey For Sale . The 23-year-old wanted to pinpoint precisely what was keeping him from having success. "I obviously wasnt playing my best and wasnt really aware of what I was doing wrong," he told the Leaf Report ahead of a Saturday tilt with the Senators. So he decided to hit the tape. Gardiner pulled out his iPad and scrutinized video of his performance in the first round against Boston last spring. He watched clip upon clip of his shifts against the Bruins, keen on determining what gave him so much success. His performance then was electric. Gardiner scored a goal and strung together five points during an exhilarating six-game run. "I just wanted to figure out what I was doing differently in the playoffs, as opposed to now, because I wasnt happy with my game," he said of the video work. What Gardiner saw was an engaged defender who made quick decisions with and without the puck. The game seemed to slow down for the former Ducks first-round pick. He was assertive, unpredictable and dangerous on the rush and generally stable in the defensive zone. For the third-year Leaf, who has struggled with consistency this season, it was a helpful reminder of the player he had been not so long ago and the player he certainly had the potential to become once more. "It was nice to see what I was succeeding at then and try to replicate that now," Gardiner said. "Sometimes you get away from it and you dont know what the reason is." Gardiner was a healthy scratch for the first time this season on Nov. 27 in Pittsburgh. During the morning skate that day at Consol Energy Center, he engaged in a lengthy conversation with head coach Randy Carlyle, the former Norris Trophy winner advising on what hed seen and what needed to improve. Carlyle wanted Gardiner to make better decisions with the puck. He stressed that his young defender must move it faster, that he get his forwards involved more often and join the attack if and when the opportunity looked right. Too often, Gardiner gathered from the conversation, was he holding the puck before eventually making a poor decision with it and a turnover often the end result. "I wanted to know what I was doing that they didnt see that they wanted to see," Gardiner said of his conversations with the coaching staff. "I think Ive been more aware of it now; trying to move the puck quick and obviously still stay solid defensively." Gardiner was an offensive force in his rookie season with the Leafs. He scored seven goals and posted 30 points, tops among first-year players at the position. He has yet to score this season, though, and has just seven assists in 28 games. But by skewering the tape and picking the minds of the coaching staff, he finally seems to understand why the offence hasnt been there. "Its almost the fact of just doing less with the puck," he said. "Im able to skate the puck a lot, but that doesnt necessarily mean offence. I dont have many points this year, so I think moving the puck quicker to the forwards and letting them do their work, [then] maybe Ill create more offence that way. Itll create fewer turnovers for me and less time in our zone." Gardiner has not yet rediscovered the performance that made him such an elusive force against the Bruins, but hes inching gradually in that direction. In beating the Stars on Thursday, he led the team with nearly 26 minutes – matching a season-high – and also paced the group in Montreal last weekend. His return to form would help stabilize an increasingly wobbly Toronto back-end. Armed with new (and old) information, Gardiner is doing his best to get there. "I just want to be able to help the team as much as I can," he said, "and those are things that help me as a player and help our team too." Anthony Sherman Jersey For Sale . Olivieri, at city hall to help kick off ticket sales for the Aug. 5-24 event to be held in four Canadian cities, said Wednesday that Canada has a new generation of talent on the rise that can make its name just as Sinclair did at the same event in 2002 in Edmonton. Dustin Colquitt Jersey . Gretzky was asked if he believes Montreal Canadiens defenceman PK Subban should be on Canadas blueline in February at the Sochi Olympics. "Im not going to get in the middle of that controversy because Stevie Yzerman obviously knows what hes doing, he won a gold medal in 2010," said Gretzky.The NBAs life ban for Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling won swift support in Europe but also produced calls for soccer to show similar resolve against racism. FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platini, via his spokesman, both voiced approval on Wednesday. Blatter tweeted: "Sport says no to racism. I fully support (at)NBAs decision to ban (at)LAClippers owner for life after his racist words." Patrick Vieira, a 1998 World Cup winner with France, also tweeted: "Well done to (at)NBA, another organisation dealing with racism in exactly the right way. I say again - zero tolerance." NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants Sterling to sell as part of a series of sanctions brought against the leagues longest-tenured owner in response to racist comments in a recorded conversation. Silver banned Sterling for life, fined him $2.5 million, and said he will press the other team owners to support his desire to make Sterling sell. For some in Europe, the NBAs resolve was in stark contrast to soccer leaders failure to eradicate racism that has dogged stadiums and marred matches for decades. Just last weekend, a Villarreal season-ticket holder racially taunted Barcelona defender Dani Alves by throwing a banana at him. Retired British NBA player John Amaechi noted that players, executives and owners in the American league appeared united in their rejection of Sterling. "If they can do that to respond to a hateful private utterance, why the hell cant football do that to respond to repeated instances of hate-mongering?" Amaechi said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Its time that we started looking at some of the owners within other parts of sport," outside the NBA, he said. Vance Walker Jersey For Sale. "Theyre exactly the type of plantation mentality people who dont mind having black people working for them ... But God forbid that they want to come up to the big house." Amaechi said he doesnt expect the NBAs exemplary punishment of Sterling will jolt soccer into meaningful change. And Blatters tweet of support for the NBA was "not enough," he added. "If there was a poster-person for the words impotence and apathy, it would have his face on it," Amaechi said. "You know what theyre going to do? Theyre going to produce another pretty poster with platitudes plastered all over it. Theyre going to produce another campaign that has a black player stood next to a white player," he said. "Nothing substantive." FIFA and UEFA, the European authority, have toughened their sanctions for discrimination in the past year and prosecuted cases more quickly. A turning point in awareness of widespread problems with offensive abuse at matches came in January 2013 when Kevin-Prince Boateng, then playing for AC Milan, led teammates walking off the field to protest racist insults during an exhibition against a fourth-tier Italian side. FIFA and UEFA have ordered national and club teams to play matches in empty or partly closed stadiums as punishment for racial abuse incidents, but no World Cup or Champions League team has yet had points deducted or forfeited a match. Among the most severe judgments, FIFA has banned Croatia defender Josip Simunic for 10 matches -- including the 2014 World Cup -- for leading fans in chanting a Nazi-era nationalist slogan after a playoff victory against Iceland last November. Simunic has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. cheap nfl jerseys ' ' '
