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s for the final wild card playoff spot.
LOS ANGELES -- Marian Gaborik spent the last few months living at the beach and scoring clutch goals for the eventual Stanley Cup champions. Air Max2 Light Canada . The star left wing saw absolutely no reason to wake up from his dream life with the Los Angeles Kings. Gaborik agreed to a seven-year deal Wednesday to stay with the Kings, passing on the financial possibilities of unrestricted free agency to stay with the champs. According to TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun, the deal has an average annual value of $4.875 million. The deal will pay Gaborik $6.075 million in each of the first three years, and then amounts of $5.075 million, $4.575 million, $3.175 million, and $3.075 million over the final four seasons of the package. "I know I could get maybe more money if I would have gone to free agency, but it wasnt about money," Gaborik said. "I wanted to stay here and be part of a great team." Los Angeles acquired the Slovak scoring machine from Columbus on March 5, and he was an immediate hit. Gaborik scored 16 points in 19 regular-season games before leading the NHL with 14 post-season goals during the Kings run to their second title in three years. Kings general manager Dean Lombardi struck a long-term deal before Gaborik became a free agent next week. Gaboriks contract is worth roughly $34 million, likely less than a seven-time 30-goal scorer would have commanded on the open market. The 32-year-old Gaborik was coy about his future during the Kings draining playoff run, saying he would make those decisions after the season. Away from the public, Gaborik had clearly formed a plan. "All along I wanted to stay here," Gaborik said. "The organization knew it, the players knew it, everybody knew it, my agent knew it. I believed we could get it done." Playing on the Kings top line alongside centre Anze Kopitar and captain Dustin Brown, Gaborik scored 22 points in 26 post-season games with the Kings before raising the Stanley Cup for the first time in his 13-season NHL career. Gaboriks 14 goals were one shy of Wayne Gretzkys franchise post-season record. He repeatedly scored in important situations for the Kings, including the tying goals late in two Stanley Cup finals games and in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals against Chicago. Gaborik filled an enormous need for the Kings, who acquired him in a bid to boost one of the NHLs least productive offences. Gaboriks goal-scoring talent fit perfectly with Kopitar, one of hockeys top playmakers, as the Kings improbably became the highest-scoring team in the playoffs. "To play along Kopi, probably one of the top centres in the league, just the way we clicked pretty quickly was great," Gaborik said. Gaborik also showed a willingness to play responsible defensive hockey in coach Darryl Sutters system, which further endeared him to his fellow Kings. He was embraced after the club acquired him for Matt Frattin and two draft picks, even moving into fellow ex-Columbus forward Jeff Carters home near the beach. Gaborik clearly loves the Kings lifestyle along with their playing style. He recently posted a series of photos on Instagram showing him celebrating at the Pacific Ocean -- running down the beach, lifting the Cup over his head while shirtless in the surf, and helping his girlfriend drink champagne from the trophy while his mother laughed in the background. "I knew right away: Great group of guys, great team, great fans, and obviously being in a great environment in terms of lifestyle and everything," Gaborik said. "That made a lot of sense for me. The No. 1 thing is winning a Cup and having a chance year after year, going into these games and having a chance to win every game." The Kings are the fourth NHL team for Gaborik, who mostly met enormous expectations while playing for the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild. But the three-time NHL All-Star has struggled with injuries in the past two seasons while getting traded twice. Gaborik has scored 704 career points, and he ranks 13th among active players with 347 goals, including three 40-goal seasons. He is a two-time Olympian for Slovakia, but missed the Sochi Games with an injury. Just as it did in 2012, Los Angeles championship team will return nearly intact in the fall. The Kings re-signed defenceman Matt Greene to a four-year contract on Tuesday, and their only significant unrestricted free agent is veteran defenceman Willie Mitchell. The Kings have several long-term contracts on their books, yet Lombardi has scarcely made an inaccurate move in the last five years while building his two-time champions. "To be a part of this, Im pretty happy about it," Gaborik said. "Hopefully we can just keep this train rolling." Air Max 180 Canada . City, fielding a depleted team having already qualified, was twice pegged back by the plucky Czech champions but substitute Negredo tapped home in the 78th minute and Dzekos header made sure of victory in the 89th. The result kept City three points behind Bayern Munich ahead of their meeting in Germany in two weeks. Nike Air Max Canada . In the last race before the Sochi Olympics, Bjoergen followed up her win in the 10-kilometre classical race on Saturday by beating World Cup sprint leader Denise Herrmann of Germany by 0.43 seconds for her fifth victory of the season.When asked if Vancouver Canucks coach John Tortorella would return next season, his own general manager was as candid as he could be. "Im not sure Ill be back next season," said Mike Gillis. Speaking to the Team 1040 in Vancouver on Thursday, the Canucks general manager spoke of his clubs failure to live up to the success of past years, but refused to heap all the blame on his coach. "John is a proven winner and competitor," said Gillis. "The running of this team is my responsibility and I feel that the last few seasons we have been chasing goal posts that have been moving and got away from our core principles of how I want this team to play and how we want to perform and the tempo we want to play with. "People want someone to blame but the reality is that as an organization we have deviated from things that have been successful and I know will be successful. We will get back to those levels and that style of play that we started six years ago and we have the personnel to do it." Gillis added that believes that the system in place is solid enough for any coach to find success, but acknowledges that the Canucks failures this season are broad. "If given the resources and the players are committed to it, any coach can coach the team that he has," explained Gillis. "But having said that, our problems are far reaching and will be addressed. If people dont want to get onside with how I view this team and how its supposed to play then they wont be here.” Gillis also said that he believes that everybody in the organization, from top to bottom, is in line to go under the microscope at seasons end. "I think everybody is open for evaluation," he said. "Weve had players who have severely underperformed. Our team has underperformed. I think that were all open for evaluation and deserve evaluation and thats whats going to come. Well go through a thorough evalutaion of what occurred this year. Well go through a thorough plan of where we see we have to go and theyll make a decision about what route theyll choose." Now in his sixth year leading the Canucks front office, Gillis admits that this season has brought him frustration unlike any other. "Weve had a lot of success in the past and none of this sits well with me," he explained. "Its been an incredibly frustrating season on a variety of diffferent levels. Air Max Tavas Canada. For me, Im committed to getting back on the levels that we expect and we have a plan do it. "We had a plan six years to do it and we got as close as we could get. We learned a lot of lessons from that and Im tired of chasing a moving target. We are going to get back to the fundamentals and the principles that I believe in and thats how were going to play. Like I said, if people dont want to comply, and we did this six years ago, we made hard choices. Those hard choices are going to come again if we dont see people get on the same page." One player that Gillis refused to fault in his teams struggles is goaltender Eddie Lack, who became the teams starting goaltender following the trade of Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers at the deadline. "You get people in Toronto who just love to carve the Vancouver Canucks and its going to be unending, so were used to it now, but its unfortunate for a young guy like Eddie Lack," said Gillis. "Eddie is a very special player. Hes got great personality, hes got great size and his emergence allowed us to think a little bit differently about where we were going." For his money, Gillis thinks Lack should be in the conversation for the leagues top rookie. "If we had given Eddie any run support this season, he would certainly be, in my mind, a nominee for the Calder," posited Gillis. "He probably wouldnt win it, but he should be in consideration based on the way hes played. Hes lost more one-goal games than any goalie in the league. Hes second in the league in shutouts with half the games played." Gillis also expressed his faith in his goaltending tandem on the whole, including the recently acquired Jakob Markstrom, who came over from the Panthers in the Luongo deal. "I think Jakob Markstrom is another 24-year-old goalie who has all the attributes to be a top-flight goalie in the National Hockey League," he said. "I feel strongly that we have two young guys who are in their prime. I hope our fans get behind them and support them." The Canucks currently sit 10th in the Western Conference, six points behind the Dallas Stars for the final wild card playoff spot. The Stars also have two games in hand on the Canucks. The Canucks play the first of their final five games on Saturday when they host the Los Angeles Kings. ' ' '
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Activity: Nov 21 '19
Activity: Nov 21 '19