Pirate Galaxy » noted that in the 21 overs Australia

CHICAGO -- Chicago Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane knows that he and his teammates need to ignite a sleepy offense.But Kane doesnt want to waste too much energy worrying about Chicagos recent struggles. The Blackhawks have scored zero or one goals in five of their last eight games.Sometimes, you think too much about creating offense, and that works to your disadvantage, said Kane, who leads the team with 26 points in 27 games. I think (we need to) play a little bit simpler of a game, myself included. ... Thats the best way to get scoring chances and get shots in this league is try to get it back to the point, get to the net, and hopefully get some screens.The Blackhawks (16-8-3) will try to return to the basics when they host the Arizona Coyotes (8-12-4) on Tuesday night. The game marks the first of three meetings this season between the teams.Chicago is hoping to avoid its first three-game losing streak of the season. Depleted by injuries to captain Jonathan Toews (upper body) and goaltender Corey Crawford (appendectomy), the Blackhawks have dropped back-to-back games against Philadelphia and Winnipeg.Crawford will remain sidelined for at least a couple weeks, and the timetable for Toews return is uncertain. Neither player will be on the ice to face the Coyotes, but teammates refuse to use their absence as an excuse for recent struggles.Its a team game, Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith said. I think we just werent good enough the last couple games.Arizona also has struggled, albeit without significant injuries. The Coyotes are winless in their past four games (0-2-2) and will play on short rest after a 4-1 loss at Columbus on Monday night.Like the Blackhawks, the Coyotes have endured prolonged slumps on offense this season. Arizona has scored three-plus goals in only 10 out of 24 games this season.Right winger Radim Vrbata leads the Coyotes with 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) in 24 games. Vrbatas five-game point streak ended Monday when he was held scoreless against the Blue Jackets.The matchup in net likely will feature Chicagos Scott Darling against Arizonas Mike Smith. Darling is 4-2-1 with a .912 save percentage and a 2.71 goals-against average in nine games. Meanwhile, Smith is 4-2-3 with a .930 save percentage and a 2.64 GAA in 10 games.Smith, 34, is coming off one of the best performances -- certainly the busiest -- of his career. The Ontario native set a franchise record with 58 saves on 60 shots Saturday in a home game against the Blue Jackets. Smiths 58 saves also marked the most by any goaltender in the NHL this season.He has been a key guy for us, Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said during an interview Monday with Fox Sports Arizona. We need him to play well. Were still trying to find our footing as a young team, and he has certainly been a backbone for us.Coyotes veteran Shane Doan is sitting on 399 career goals. The 40-year-old is on the cusp of becoming the eighth active player and the 93rd player in NHL history to score 400 goals. Giancarlo Stanton Jersey . They reached the 100-point plateau for the fourth time in five games, bested the visiting Trail Blazers by 34 in the paint and scored 19 of the final 25 points in regulation. J.A. Happ Jersey . Vettel was 0.168 seconds faster than Red Bull teammate Mark Webber around the Suzuka circuit. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was two tenths of a second off Vettel. "The car balance is decent, but I think we can still improve," Vettel said. http://www.customyankeesjersey.com/custom-adam-ottavino-jersey-large-1624i.html . Down by seven with 90 seconds left in regulation, thats where they looked comfortable. Joe DiMaggio Jersey Large . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. Yogi Berra Jersey . 24 Baylor in a Big 12 clash between teams trending in opposite directions. Andrew Wiggins made 10-of-12 from the foul line and scored 17 for Kansas (14-4, 5-0 Big 12), which capped a stretch of four straight games against ranked opponents unscathed. The promise of pace was so alluring that one Perth resident ended a 30-year hiatus from Test cricket to pursue it. Shortly before 10 am on the Red Cat Number 2 bus, said denialist told his fellow travellers he was making a special trip to the WACA to watch the quicks. The South African quicks.Their fast bowlers are really fast, he said.As it turns out, so are Australias.Mitchell Starc clocked speeds, in kph, of 147.3, 145.9, 141.5, 147.6, 146.4 and 145.9 in his first over. Peter Nevill caught the first three balls at shoulder height. The bounce and carry would have, in Dale Steyns own words, got him going, had the fourth ball not taken Stephen Cooks outside edge.What followed was the most intense hour of Test cricket South Africa have played in recent memory, comparable to the pressures of last summer but not. Same same but different. In India, the spin challenge was expected to exploit areas of the game South Africa are not supposed to be good at. Here, they were in familiar territory, facing fast bowlers on a fast pitch.They may not have grown up with a slew of Starcs but there are enough Marchant de Langes and Hardus Viljoens in South African domestic cricket to keep everyone on their toes. All the surfaces in South Africa are not as spicy as the WACA, but everyone makes enough trips to the Wanderers and SuperSport Park to have some idea of how it can play. Yet for the first 13 overs, it looked like South Africa had none. Truth be told, they even looked a little afraid.The usually sure Dean Elgar didnt know if it would swing - it did, but only a little - and was beaten, wasnt sure if he could leave and did tentatively, and wasnt always sure where the fielders were. He came close to giving Usman Khawaja a catch at short leg and was lucky the ball popped out. It hardly mattered because he nicked off in the next over.All that meant was that South Africa missed AB de Villiers a lot earlier than they would have liked to. By the 13th over, his absence loomed large. South Africa were 32 for 4, with their two most experienced batsmen, Hashim Amla and JP Duminy, already out. The inexperience of their middle order was laid bare and the prospect of being embarrassed, especially after all the big talk, was real.If they are to take anything positive out of this day, it will be what happened next. Temba Bavuma played his most accomplished innings to date, more impressive than his maiden hundred against England last summer which came when South Africa already had more than 400 on the board. This one showed his temperament is up to Test cricket, something which continues to be unfairly questioned because of the transformation targets.Bavuma is compact, not just physically, and has a solid defence. He is not easily intimidated, even when he becomes the subject of an interrogation. His first one came from Josh Hazlewood who, having seen the full ball dealt with, pulledd his length back a touch.dddddddddddd He hit Bavuma on the hip, then aimed for his ribs, and when Bavuma pulled off a flick, stuck a fielder in to invite him to try again. Bavuma did, but was struck on the thigh pad. Starc opted for the more traditional line off attack: full, full, full, full, bouncer, but Bavuma swayed out of the line. Bavuma warned the short ball would not scare him and stayed true to his word. His ability to block out the surround sound served him best when he was joined by Quinton de Kock, who complemented him perfectly. De Kocks natural game is to play his shots and find runs and neither reverse-swing nor an impending collapse would stop that. He coped by counterattacking.It would be too easy to suggest that de Kock demonstrated the approach his team-mates should have taken because none of them can play with the same freedom. Instead, the partnership itself showed what should have been done. A bit of fortitude, a bit of a fightback, a bit of fortune, even. Its not even that the rest of South Africas batsmen did anything particularly poorly; they were shot out by an attack even Australians had underestimated.If the man who hasnt watched a Test in three decades hung around until the last hour, he would have got what he wanted. Sort of. South Africas fast bowlers got their chance and should have taken it.Questions will be asked about why they did not go all-pace and the official line is that Morne Morkel is not yet at the level of match-fitness they want him to be at, and why their quickest bowler, Kagiso Rabada, did not open the bowling, and the explanation may lie in the fact that Vernon Philander is his most effective up front. The biggest question will be why South Africa got so carried away with the surface that they defaulted to a short-ball strategy that was not working. Mitchell Starc noted that in the 21 overs Australia faced, 88% of the deliveries were short. Too short, he said.The big talk about cutting the head off the snake and getting nasty did not turn into any big action. The only real words were those of disbelief when Warner nicked one over the slips.Did you mean that? Steyn asked him.No, came the reply as Warner shook his head and practiced the shot he wanted to play. The upper-cut which came later. Steyn did not need to wonder what Warners intentions were for the rest of the day. Or for the rest of the innings.Australia are on top and can drive home an advantage over the next few days but South Africa wont count themselves out just yet. Four years ago, they scored 17 fewer first-innings runs and still won the match. Then, they bowled Australia out midway through the second session on the second day. If they are to repeat that, their really fast, fast bowlers will have to be fierce too. ' ' '