Zigeunerzelt » the best goaltending

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Quinton Dial put a punishing hit on running back Alfonso Smith late in 11-on-11 work. Tony Jerod-Eddie pounded Jonathan Martin not once but twice, even sending him to his backside. In their first audition to become San Franciscos starting nose tackle, Dial and Jerod-Eddie each showed off impressive physical strength in the middle of the defensive line Sunday. They have a tough job to replace Glenn Dorsey, who went down with a torn left biceps on Friday and will need surgery. While he isnt being ruled out for the entire 2014 season, the recovery is expected to be extensive -- perhaps three to four months. "It was kind of a freaky thing," defensive co-ordinator Vic Fangio said Sunday. "Obviously, very disappointed for Glenn and him personally. He was in great shape. Played great for us last year." The practice Sunday was a physical one away from the defensive line, too. Two days after wideout Anquan Boldin was sent to the locker room, cornerback Chris Culliver got banished to the sideline by coach Jim Harbaugh, who hollered to his team about clean play and not needing to be overly physical against teammates. The coach walked toward the locker room chatting briefly with Culliver and patting him on the back. Also in the mix to fill in at nose tackle is Mike Purcell, who signed as an undrafted free agent last year and would have to make a big leap up the depth chart from the practice squad. "Tony did fine last year when he was in there," Fangio said. "We just got to get him re-honed up in there. We may look at Dial in there. So, weve got three guys right there, and well go from that." There will be some mixing and matching in the first preseason game Thursday at Baltimore. A front seven that has long been among the most imposing in the NFL could be missing several familiar faces now that Dorsey is also down. Linebacker NaVorro Bowman is recovering from left knee surgery after suffering a devastating injury in the NFC championship game loss at Seattle, while fellow linebacker Aldon Smith could face a suspension from the league for his off-field legal issues. Yet Ian Williams, who began the 2013 season as starting nose tackle, continues to make progress in his recovery from last years season-ending ankle injury with the hope he could be ready sometime early in the season. He was injured in a Week 2 loss at Seattle on a cut block by Seattle right guard J.R. Sweezy. Williams has undergone multiple surgeries and is currently on the physically unable to perform list following an off-season setback. He went through side-to-side movement drills Sunday. Dial insists playing nose tackle suits him well, given his physical, aggressive nature. "Im just a country boy," Dial said with a grin. At age 12 in Alabama, he started doing chores that helped develop his toughness and strength. "Just being outside moving trees, cutting up trees and being outside moving hay bales," Dial said. "Whatever needed to be done, I was out there doing it. I used to get out there and cut the grass." With the depth the 49ers have in their close-knit defensive line group, everybody is confident San Francisco can adjust and succeed without Dorsey. "Look at how Dorsey got his. Ian was ahead of him and he went down," Demarcus Dobbs said. "The good thing about our room, weve got a lot of talent in our room. Weve got guys that can step up now that Dorseys gone. He had an incredible year last year, he had big things going for him this year. Injuries happen. Make sure he gets better and Ians looking to come back in the mix soon. " Dial works on nose reads daily even while focusing on his defensive end spot. He played some nose tackle in college at Alabama. "Its going to come back to me, its just going to become second nature to me," he said. "Its going to be fun. Weve got a great room of guys who are going to come out here every day and push each other. Were going to be all right on the D-line." NOTES: Dobbs, made an athletic interception on a pass by Colin Kaepernick intended for TE Vernon Davis. "It was a great play call. I just read the quarterback, read the play and the ball went right there in my hands," Dobbs said. "My only job to do was to catch it, and I did that. They especially dont expect defensive linemen to make picks."... The 49ers waived WR Jon Baldwin and claimed WR LDamian Washington off waivers from the Cowboys. Cheap Jordans For Sale . With the Pirates in the thick of the race in the NL Central, the timing couldnt be better. Liriano struck out a season-high 11 in seven innings to win consecutive starts for the first time this season and Pittsburgh beat the San Francisco Giants 3-1 on Tuesday night. Cheap Jordans Shoes Free Shipping . - After sewage backups, toilet overflows and foul smells surfaced the past two years, nothing at the Oakland Coliseum surprises the home team anymore. http://www.cheapairjordanfreeshipping.com/ . Jose Bautista homered for the fifth straight game in the sixth inning, following a two-out solo homer by Melky Cabrera. Edwin Encarnacion led off the seventh with a homer to tie the game 3-3 and, with two out in the seventh, Munenori Kawasaki came through with the two-out single to score pinch-runner Steve Tolleson with what proved to be the winning run. Wholesale Authentic Jordans . Langer appeared to be in trouble when his second shot on the par-5 18th ended up in the rough short of the green. He hit a brilliant pitch to 5 feet and made the putt after Slumans birdie attempt rolled just wide. Wholesale Jordans China . -- A lawyer for the fiancee of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez asked a judge Friday to throw out perjury charges, saying Shayanna Jenkins did not wilfully lie as she was bombarded with 1,630 questions over two days before a grand jury.TORONTO - It was very early in the Maple Leafs tenure of Jonathan Bernier and he had noticed that his new goaltending coach, Rick St. Croix, was lingering quietly in the background, doing his best to thoughtfully calibrate an assessment without much interference. "At one point, I told him Rick, You need to tell me things that you see that Im doing wrong," Bernier recalled in conversation with the Leaf Report. "Some goalies dont like to get judged or anything like that, but I like to know where Im at in my game. I like when the goalie coach will push me to get better." No single aspect of the Leafs season at the midway point has been quite as reliable, and at times brilliant, as that of the goaltending. And the quiet, driving and highly influential presence behind the recently found success is the 58-year-old St. Croix, now in his second season with the team. Between Bernier and 25-year-old James Reimer, the Toronto tandem ranks fourth in the NHL with a .924 save percentage - after finishing seventh-best last season - and third-best with an even stingier .942 mark at even-strength - of critical importance considering the bloated number of shots the team has allowed this season. Years of futility, which plagued the Leafs crease following the departure of Ed Belfour (see table below), are finally being forgotten under St. Croix, who captured a Stanley Cup with Belfour in Dallas in 1999 and found later success with the Vancouver and Winnipeg organizations. "He really understands the position because he played it," Reimer told the Leaf Report of St. Croix, who played in the NHL with the Leafs and Flyers, "and thats really valuable." The goalie coach is equal parts teacher, motivator and therapist, a sounding board for the games most solitary position, a leaning post in times of turmoil and success. "A goalie coach is a resource to help the goaltender in his area of need and it might be off the ice, it might be on the ice, it might be just going post to post, it might be how he reads the game, maybe its stuff related to flexibility," said St. Croix, shortly after he replaced Francois Allaire as the teams goaltending coach in the fall of 2012. "Im a resource to help them become a better version of themselves." He has found quick success in that regard where his predecessor could not. Dubbed at one point by former Leafs President and GM Brian Burke as "the best goaltending coach on the planet," Allaire, who owns two Stanley Cup rings, never found much success during his three years in Toronto. His rigid style of goaltending - a blocking approach that was highly successful in the slower pre-lockout era - rarely translated into fewer goals against with the Leafs. It also allowed for little in the way of creativity or athleticism. [Allaire is currently working as the goaltending coach for the Avalanche, where has rediscovered considerable early success with Semyon Varlamov and former Leaf Jean-Sebastien Giguere.] St. Croix, in definite contrast, employs a considerably more accommodating approach to the position, a hybrid style that is dependent on accentuating the strengths of the individual. "I think with his style of coaching maybe theres more flexibility in there, a little less rigidity," said Reimer, an Allaire loyalist who is careful not to compare the two coaches. "You can play around with stuff a little bit more maybe [under St. Croix]. Maybe it allows you to be a little bit more athletic." "Its all your style of play and hell see your game and see those little things that will affect your game and itll be different than what he might tell Bernier in essence." Bernier, who worked with the highly lauded Bill Ranford previously in Los Angeles, agrees that St. Croix is "pretty open on techniques" and will advise, rather than demand, his goaltender on potential tweaks for game situations. "He wont change my style, wont change my position - thats who I am," said Bernier, whose .938 even-strength save percentage ranks behind only Ben Bishop among regular NHL starters this season.dddddddddddd Unlike Allaire, who could be unyielding in his approach to goaltending, St. Croix is intent on molding the shape of the individual to a better version of itself. Reimer, who finished eighth in the NHL in save percentage last season, his first with St. Croix, and sits 12th this season, concedes that his goalie coach has "just allowed whatever it is that makes me good to rise to the top per se". "Its like a skilled player being able to make a few mistakes," Reimer explained of the increased flexibility being afforded under St. Croix, who was not made available to be interviewed for this story. "If you tell him as soon as he gets across the red line that he has to dump the puck youre going to take away a bit of his [talent]. He might be a solid player and he might still be great, but when you allow [him] to cut back or toe-drag every now and again then something [special] comes out. With Ricky, I think maybe thats what its allowed me to do." Goaltender and goalie coach meet after every game to review that nights work, determined to assess the good and bad on video. St. Croix, in such situations, is looking not just at the individual goals allowed but at the bigger picture, intent on finding tendencies and trends that may need strengthening. "If you let in a goal here," Reimer said, "you look at it and say, Was it a freak thing? Did you do something wrong? And if it was, is it because we havent practiced it or is just because you made a mistake? Either way you work on it." Prior to games, he and the two goaltenders will assess the incoming opponent, trying to better understand how they generate offence and what situations may be on deck that night. In addition to the teaching and advisement is the equally important role of motivator and therapist. "Its funny that you say that because I think thats the biggest thing for a goalie coach," said Bernier. "Hes almost a therapist in a way just because hes there for you mentally and keeps you positive. You dont want to be too high or too low and hes there to help you find that right level of emotion." Bernier needed such a pick-me-up from St. Croix earlier in the year, the losses piling up in rapid succession for the Leafs despite continued performance in goal. And because he has a history of playing the position at the NHL level, St. Croix carries a certain credibility for his two young netminders, an understanding of the often solitary life in goal. "You can say stuff to him because hell understand," said Reimer, "whereas if you said it to somebody else [they] would be saying Oh my goodness, youre thinking that? but in the goalie world thats just normal." A big believer in the role of a goaltending coach, Bernier actually approached Leafs VP of Hockey Operations, Dave Poulin, early in the season and requested that St. Croix be with the NHL club more often. "I think its important as a goalie to have a goalie coach," Bernier said, "and talk to someone about [goaltending], bring your confidence up. He helps you to get that routine in your game and in practice which is really good. "Hes been really good mentally to keep me positive … And working on little things he sees in my game. I think more and more were going to get adjusted to each other, more comfortable. I think were making a big step." A look at the considerable leap in Toronto goaltending under St. Croix in the past two seasons. Season Save Percentage 2013-14 .924 2013 .917 2011-12 .901 2010-11 .907 2009-10 .896 2008-09 .887 2007-08 .897 Cheap Throwback Baseball Detroit Tigers Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Colorado Rockies Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Houston Astros Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Kansas City Royals Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Los Angeles Angels Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Los Angeles Dodgers Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Miami Marlins Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Milwaukee Brewers Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Minnesota Twins Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball New York Mets Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball New York Yankees Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Oakland Athletics Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Philadelphia Phillies Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Pittsburgh Pirates Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball San Diego Padres Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball San Francisco Giants Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Seattle Mariners Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball St. Louis Cardinals Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Tampa Bay Rays Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Texas Rangers Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Toronto Blue Jays Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Washington Nationals Jerseys ' ' '