ERST LESEN! » .But we werent able to capitalise after Dale went

ST. LOUIS -- Coach Ken Hitchcock hopes the combination of a lopsided loss, a day off and a good practice on Monday will result in a better performance when the St. Louis Blues host the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.Theres building times and this is it, Hitchcock told NHL.com. Weve got a real opportunity right now.The Blues have lost three games in a row and five of their last seven, including a 3-1 defeat at Nashville and an embarrassing 8-4 loss at Columbus on Saturday night, a game in which they trailed 7-1 at one point.Three of those recent losses came in games in which the Blues allowed five or more goals.Theres spots in games where were doing everything we want to do, then all of the sudden, things turn the other way and its going negative, said defenseman Alex Pietrangelo. Its got to come from within this room. Nobodys going to help us. Everythings getting magnified. Were not being as assertive as we usually are. You identify a check, you know thats youre guy and youre going to play him hard. If someone makes a mistake, youre there to help your teammate out right away.Were getting spread out in our end, were not communicating the way we need to communicate, and thats resulting in glaring opportunities, whereas in the past, if those were there, it didnt seem like they were obvious opportunities. I think when we get more assertive and play teams harder, be tougher to play against, its going to work in a positive direction.Jake Allen, who was pulled in the second period against the Blue Jackets after allowing four goals, will get the start in net against Buffalo.As a team, the Sabres can relate to what the Blues are going through. They are winless in their last four games, including both a shootout and an overtime loss. They have scored a combined four goals in those games.Just like the Blues, the Sabres have had a problem staying out of the penalty box. They have been called for five or more penalties in four of their last five games. The Blues have been called for the most minor penalties in the league (76) while Buffalo ranks 11th with 58 minor penalties.Weve got to stay out of the box, Sabres right winger Kyle Okposo told NHL.com. Thats something that needs to be addressed and needs to be executed. There are some penalties that you have to take and other ones that are just undisciplined penalties. Weve got to stay away from the undisciplined ones.Center Ryan OReilly, who has missed two of the last three games, could play against the Blues, according to coach Dan Bylsma. Buffalo still is expected to recall at least one forward and a defenseman from the minor leagues before Tuesday nights game.The Sabres have fallen to last in the NHL with an average of 1.93 goals per game.Maybe the biggest surprise is we havent got to the power play as much as we need to to get opportunities to score, Bylsma told the Buffalo News. We should be playing the way where teams have to take penalties against us. Given the lineup we have, we need to manufacture goals in a hard and difficult way. Nike Air VaporMax 2019 White-Metallic Gold . JOHNS, N. Nike VAPORMAX Black+Cherry . The 15th-ranked Canadian men lost the opening two games of their European tour: 19-15 to No. 17 Georgia and 21-20 to No. http://www.clearancevapormax.com/cheap-off-white-vapormax-clearance.html . Nigeria beat surprise package Ethiopia 2-0 in the second leg of their playoff for a comfortable 4-1 aggregate victory. Victor Moses converted a 20th-minute penalty after an Ethiopian handball, and Victor Obinna made certain of Nigerias place in Brazil with his powerful free kick in the 82nd at UJ Esuene Stadium. Wholesale Vapormax 3 . -- Jonathan Drouin gave Halifax the boost it needed to edge host Sherbrooke Phoenix 3-2 in a shootout in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Cheap Vapormax Flyknit China .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Australias captain Steven Smith has refused to blame an unusual schedule for his sides poor display in the first Test of the summer, a defeat that made it four in a row and the first opening loss of a home season for 28 years.In order to cater for a second day-night fixture in the summer in Brisbane, the traditional Gabba opening was swapped for a first Test in Perth, where South Africa have never lost a Test match.Additionally, the early November start meant that Australias players had only one Sheffield Shield match, with a pink ball, to prepare for the WACA ground. By contrast, South Africas squad had two warm-up matches before the first Test and will have another under lights before the third Test is played under flood lights in Adelaide.Look I cant comment on scheduling that is put in place pretty early, Smith said. So for me its about making sure that the guys prepare as well as they can and I think we all had a Shield game, all the batters who played, most of the batters scored runs in that Shield game and had some valuable time in the middle.We were in a position to be able to drive the game having bowled South Africa out for 240 and then getting to 0 for 150. We had another big collapse of nine for 100, and we werent able to capitalise on what the openers did to put us in a great position.Smith focused on the way Australias first innings unravelled virtually from the moment Dale Steyn was injured, meaning the hosts were unable to place any pressure on the South Africas bowling attack, led superbly by the man of the match, Kagiso Rabada. Such collapses have become troublingly commonplace for the Australians.It has happened a little bit of late, which is disappointing and the batters really have to conntinue to work hard to try and rectify what they are doing out in the middle there, Smith said.dddddddddddd We have to form some more partnerships and get big first-innings totals. And if I think if we were able to build quite a big lead on that wicket, it would have been a different story.I guess for us it was just about trying to spend time out in the middle and I guess grind them down. When you have two fast bowlers, I guess the way they used them and the way we thought theyd use them, to use the quicks from one end and some spin at the other end. So, if you keep them out there for long periods of time they cant continue to do that for a long period of time.But we werent able to capitalise after Dale went down and we let them get back into the game and run away with it. So, credit to the way South Africa played, I think in their second innings the partnership between Duminy and Elgar really took the game away from us and we weent able to come back from there.Looking ahead to Hobart, Smith said the team needed to find a lot of improvement in a short space of time. When we get out in the middle we have to do things better. We havent been able to do that for a while and if we want to stay in this series we have to turn it around quickly in Hobart.When you are playing international cricket you are always under some sort of pressure, the guys have prepared well, they were excited for this series, we know South Africa are formidable opponents and they outplayed us in this Test match. We are going to have to play a hell of a lot better if we want to compete with them in the next game. ' ' '