Bayern Trupp » After her last early exit at Roland Garros

The Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets will try to get their 2013-14 playoff quests off to a good start on Tuesday, as the clubs battle in a season-opening clash at Rexall Place. Listen to all-day coverage on TSN Radio 1290 in Winnipeg and TSN Radio 1260 in Edmonton. Also, TSNs Ryan Rishaug will be filing news and videos from the morning skate on TSN.ca. The Oilers open this season at home after missing out on the playoffs for a seventh straight season in 2013. Meanwhile, Winnipegs postseason drought is only slightly shorter, as the franchise last qualified for the playoffs in the spring of 2007 when the club was still known as the Atlanta Thrashers. Winnipeg missed out on the postseason by eight points in 2011-12 and by a mere four points last season. As part of the NHLs realignment plan for this season, the Jets are moving from the East to the West, conference wise, to join the Central Division, which expects to be much tougher than the clubs previous home in the now- defunct Southeast. Not only will the Central be the home of the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, but the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild also expect to challenge for the division title, while the Jets, Colorado, Dallas and Nashville simply try to stay afloat. Claude Noel is back for a third season behind the bench for Winnipeg, but he could be in the hot seat if the Jets struggle to find their footing in their new surroundings. The good news for Noel is there is no shortage of talent in Winnipeg, where Evander Kane leads the offense and blueliners Dustin Byfuglien and Tobias Enstrom create havoc from the back end. Byfuglien did suffer a lower-body injury in Winnipegs final game of the preseason, but is expected to play in Tuesdays opener. The Jets also added forwards Devin Setoguchi and Michael Frolik via trades this summer, but time will only tell if those moves are enough to help Winnipeg keep pace in a new division and conference. Winnipeg netminder Ondrej Pavelec has proven himself to be a workhorse over the years, but there are some folks who question his ability to be a dependable No. 1 goaltender. The Czech will get plenty of chances to prove himself worthy this season, beginning with a start in Tuesdays opener. Pavelec played in 44 of Winnipegs 48 games in 2013 and was the clubs starting goaltender 43 times while recording a 21-20-3 record. However, his 2.80 goals against average and .905 save percentage were hardly impressive numbers. Still, with Al Montoya returning as the backup, Pavelec is the undisputed No. 1 netminder once again. The Oilers have stockpiled draft picks during its recent rebuilding phase, but there is reason to believe the club is ready to make the transition to playoff contender in 2013-14. Since losing to the Carolina Hurricanes as an upstart eighth seed in the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, the Oilers have yet to make it back to the postseason, giving this once-proud franchise the longest current playoff drought in the NHL. Even worse, the Oilers have rarely been competitive during the downturn, as the seven-season playoff drought includes four last-place finishes and only two seasons of 80 points or more. The Oilers finished 10 points out of a playoff spot during last years lockout-shortened campaign and it wasnt long before the heads began to roll. General manager Steve Tambellini was fired in mid-April and replaced by Craig MacTavish, who had previously coached the club from 2000-09. MacTavish then fired head coach Ralph Krueger after his first season at the job and replaced him with Dallas Eakins, Edmontons fifth different head coach in the last six seasons. Eakins, who was the head coach of the AHLs Toronto Marlies over the last four seasons, will make his debut as an NHL head coach in Tuesdays opener. The turnover didnt stop with management or coaches, however, as MacTavish also chose to part ways with players like former captain Shawn Horcoff, fellow forward Magnus Paajarvi and defenseman Ryan Whitney. Taking over as captain for Horcoff is defenseman Andrew Ference, who signed a four-year deal with the Oilers this offseason after spending the last seven seasons in Boston. The 34-year-old is an Edmonton native and is excited just to be playing with his hometown club, let alone serving as the Oilers captain. "To know that Im able to come back to my hometown and be so extremely proud to pull on the jersey, letter or not, I know how fortunate I am to have that kind of path in a career like this," said Ference. "It really is an ultimate privilege and honor to just have that jersey on in the first place." Under Eakins, the Oilers, who are loaded with talented and highly-touted players stockpiled through the draft, are expected to play with more grit and determination, or the roster upheaval could claim more victims. Although Edmonton is stacked with offensive potential, the club finished 21st in the league in even-strength goals in 2013. Eakins would like to see an improvement in that area this season, but it could be hard in the early going with forwards Sam Gagner (broken jaw) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (offseason shoulder surgery) both on the shelf to start the season. Last season, Devan Dubnyk supplanted veteran Nikolai Khabibulin as Edmontons starting goaltender and enters this season opener with the No. 1 job all to himself. Khabibulin departed to sign a free-agent deal with Chicago and the Oilers replaced him with Jason LaBarbera, who at 33 years of age seems to be a better fit as a backup option than his 40-year-old predecessor. Dubnyk performed well under difficult circumstances for the Oilers last season, facing a ton of rubber on a nightly basis thanks in part to a defense that had a rough time getting the puck out of its own end. Still, the 27-year- old managed to record a strong .920 save percentage to go with a 2.57 goals against average and 14-6-6 record in 2013. Because they were in different conferences last season, the Jets and Oilers never faced each other during the lockout-shortened campaign when teams only played clubs from within their respective conferences. Edmonton has taken the last two meetings against the Jets, who are 2-6-0 with a tie in the past nine encounters between these franchises. Nike Vapormax Uk Ebay . LOUIS -- Julius Randle had 19 points and 15 rebounds, Aaron Harrison finished with 18 points and No. Nike Daybreak Uk . Osasunas Alvaro Cejudo drove the ball onto the crossbar in the fifth minute and his team squandered several long-range strikes before he was denied one-on-one by goalkeeper Jaime Jimenez in the 50th. http://www.vapormaxwholesaleuk.com/whole...mens-white.html. Interestingly, the culprits were not rookies, but well paid, experienced pros. The first gaffe came in the 24th minute of arguably the biggest early season MLS game in history between Seattle and Toronto. Sounder newcomer Marco Pappa, (with over 100 MLS games, and 39 Guatemalan Caps to his name) attempted a back pass to one of his central defenders. Nike Joyride Run Uk . Chris Heisey followed with a two-run triple and Billy Hamilton added an RBI double, all but sealing Cincinnatis fourth straight victory and seventh in eight games. Brandon Phillips, celebrating his 33rd birthday, hit a go-ahead homer in the ninth for the Reds before pinch-hitter Buster Posey tied it with an RBI double off hard-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman in the bottom half. Cheap Nike Vapormax China .Then came December.Three straight losses, including a crushing 27-24 defeat to Washington (4-11) on Saturday, has the Eagles (9-6) on the brink of playoff elimination.PARIS - His ninth French Open title behind him, Rafael Nadal already is thinking ahead to whats next: Wimbledon. Thats why he planned to waste no time and go directly from France to Germany on Monday to get ready to play in a grass-court tuneup tournament. Nadals collection of 14 Grand Slam titles, only three shy of Roger Federers record for men, includes two championships at the All England Club. But the most recent came in 2010, and Nadals past two trips to Wimbledon were quite brief: He lost in the second round in 2012, and the first round in 2013. "I want to try to play well again in Wimbledon," the No. 1-ranked Nadal declared Sunday night after beating No. 2 Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 in the French Open final to improve to 66-1 at the clay-court tournament. "Im healthy. Thats the most important thing, I feel." The big question about Nadal always was longevity, and whether his 6-foot-1 (1.85-meter), 188-pound (85-kilogram) body would hold up to the constant pounding from his relentless style. Well, now he is the only man with at least one Grand Slam title in 10 consecutive years. And having turned 28 last week, the Spaniard is roughly two months older than Federer was when he got his 14th major. But Nadal was slowed by a bad back during a loss in Januarys Australian Open final. Of more concern: his knees. He decided not to defend his Wimbledon title in 2009, then was sidelined for the last half of 2012 because of a problem with his left knee. "I hope my knee will have the positive feeling on grass, because I feel my knee (is) better than last year in the rest of the surfaces," Nadal said. "Grass always was a little bit harder for me after the injury." This part of the tennis schedule is unforgiving, allowing two weeks to adjust from clay to grass between the French Open and Wimbledon. That changes next year, when a third week gets added. For now, there is time to contemplate story lines that will matter when Wimbledon starts June 23. Djokovic, for example, will try to set aside hiss latest disappointment in Paris, coming up short again in his bid to complete a career Grand Slam.dddddddddddd Djokovic has won six major titles — four at the Australian Open, plus one each at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open — but he has lost in the finals at three of the last four Slams. That includes a defeat at the All England Club a year ago, when Andy Murray became the first British man to win the title since Fred Perry in 1936. So Murray would be the centre of attention, anyway, and he gave everyone another reason to keep a close eye on him by hiring former womens No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach. The fourth member of the Big Four, Federer, has lost before the quarterfinals at three of the last four Slams, a stretch that began with a second-round exit at Wimbledon. It will also be worth watching how players who had breakthroughs at the French Open follow that up. Ernests Gulbis, for one. Simona Halep, Andrea Petkovic and Garbine Muguruza, too. And then there are a couple of previous Wimbledon winners who followed very different paths in Paris. Serena Williams was the defending champion at the French Open, and departed in the second round, beaten 6-2, 6-2 by Muguruza. Williams vowed to "go home and work five times as hard to make sure I never lose again." After her last early exit at Roland Garros — in 2012s first round — she went on to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Sharapova, meanwhile, earned a second French Open title and fifth major overall, overcoming a dozen double-faults in her three-set victory over Halep in the final. Now its on to Wimbledon, where Sharapova won her first Grand Slam championship at age 17 in 2004. "Even though you always remember those incredible moments of holding that trophy," Sharapova said, "you got to try to erase that from your mind because you got to create new ones." ___ Howard Fendrich covers tennis for The Associated Press. Write to him at hfendrich@ap.org or reach him via Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich ' ' '