NEWS » first-line experiment doesnt w

Montreal faces one of its toughest road tests of the season without one of its most effective offensive weapons.Didier Drogba did not make the trip with the Impact to Utah for Saturdays match against Real Salt Lake. It will mark the second straight game he has been sidelined with a thigh injury. Drogba has been a big threat up top in 2016 for Montreal with five goals and five assists.Even without their star striker, the Impact will still have plenty of players who can test Reals defense. Chief among them is midfielder Ignacio Piatti. The midfielder scored his 10th goal in MLS play this season on a game-winning penalty kick in the 54th minute of a 3-2 victory over the New England Revolution last week.Piatti has the second-most goals in MLS this season, trailing only New York City FCs David Villa in the MLS Golden Boot standings.Salt Lake has its own dangerous playmakers to counter Montreal. Juan Manuel Martinez has scored four goals in his last six games and combined with fellow forwards Yura Movsisyan and Joao Plata for 17 goals and nine assists this season.The scoreboard could get a workout. Real and Montreal are two of three MLS clubs this season with three players who have at least five goals.RSL is one of six MLS clubs still unbeaten at home. If Salt Lake can claim three points against the Impact, veteran goalkeeper Nick Rimando will move into a first-place tie with Kevin Hartman for career MLS victories (180).Neither team has won or forced a draw on the road in the series. The all-time series is level at two wins each, with Real prevailing at home in 2012 and 2014.Drew Brees Womens Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. Marshon Lattimore Womens Jersey . MORITZ, Switzerland -- Fog prevented downhill racers from getting their Olympic dress rehearsal. http://www.shoptheofficialsaints.com/Elite-Taysom-Hill-Saints-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. Marcus Williams Jersey . Ronaldo produced a spectacular individual performance on Tuesday, scoring all three goals and guiding Portugal into the next years World Cup in Brazil with a 3-2 victory in Sweden. The Real Madrid forward has scored 66 goals in 2013, but the last three may be the boost he needs to upstage Messi after FIFA unexpectedly extended the voting period for the Ballon dOr to Nov. Ryan Ramczyk Youth Jersey . PAUL, Minn.OTTAWA, Ontario -- Mike Babcock had it written down back in May.Not in stone, mind you, but certainly the idea of putting Sidney Crosby between Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron was born a long time ago -- the first thing that the Team Canada head coach wanted to tackle ahead of the World Cup of Hockey.By now you dont need to ask why. For whatever reason, it has proved a chore for Team Canadas coaches at the past two Olympics to quickly find wingers who jelled with the best player in the world.Crosby thinks the game at such a high level, does things on the ice that are so above the norm, that finding wingers who can mesh with him has been a difficult mission.Babcocks idea born months ago is looking brilliant so far, that Marchand-Crosby-Bergeron line looking like a thing of beauty through the first week of camp and their one game together Friday night.So content is Babcock with that line that he said after Saturdays 5-2 win over Team USA that part of the reason he sat Crosby for that game is that he already knows what he has in that line and wanted to focus on trying to find other combinations in the second pre-tournament game.Babcock is about forward pairings, such as the Crosby-Bergeron pairing; other pairings that so far have been untouched include?Jonathan Toews with Logan Couture and?Ryan Getzlaf with John Tavares. There have been moving parts around them.The coaching staff is under the gun to figure out all these lines with just one more pre-tournament game left, Wednesday in Pittsburgh against Russia (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).A lot of people overlook the way the coaches do it, veteran winger Rick Nash, outstanding for Canada in both the 2010 and 2014 Olympics, said in a phone conversation with ESPN.com on Sunday. Its a tough job for them to find the pieces that fit, and at least in the tournaments that Ive played in, they always seem to find it sooner or later.The New York Rangers star certainly wishes he were here playing again for his country. He found nice chemistry with Toews in Sochi. Nash also had a front-row seat to Babcocks trying line combo after line combo around Crosby.Hes the best player in the world, and its just a matter of finding the fit, a guy that complements his game and vice versa, Nash said. I dont know, its a different thing, hes so good at finding open ice, and the puck comes to him so easy. Its just finding guys that can sort of just stay out of his way and help his game instead of hurt it.So preoccupied with figuring out Crosbys line was Canada that it is absolutely why Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Chris Kunitz made the Olympic team for Sochi. Problem was, once Kunitz got to the Olympics, the pace and game were too high for him, and he found himself taken off Crosbys line as the tournament went on.As for Marchand, a player who some fans were surprised to see make this team, Team Canada GM Doug Armstrong was confident that if the experiment on the Crosby line didnt work out, the Boston Bruins winger would still have a place on the team where he could have an impact.ddddddddddddSo far through two pre-tournament games, Marchand has stood out the most for Team Canada, and perhaps thats because he wanted to make a statement early.The opportunity for Marchand in the World Cup is to use the best-on-best event to shed his tag as being just an agitator.I definitely have the agitator name, and it stuck with me for a while, he said Saturday night after the win over Team USA. Which is fine; its what I had to do to get in the league. But nowadays I want to be a player. Being in an event like this can show that theres more to my game than agitating. I try to be an overall player like Bergy, obviously not to his ability, but Im trying. Hes a great role model, a guy Ive looked at for a number of years now.Bergeron had a quick answer a few days ago when asked in his native French what he would tell people who view his Bruins teammate Marchand just as a pest, as an agitator and nothing more.The first thing Id mention is that he scored 37 goals last season, Bergeron said in French. But after that, his talent, the way he retrieves pucks on the forecheck, his backcheck, hes really on the puck. He gets under the skin of other players, thats part of his game, but hes also very talented.That 37-goal season, in Bergerons mind, was a whole other step for Marchand.He earned his way on this team with the way he played last season, Bergeron said. He took a big step forward. Hes improved year to year, but last season he became truly an elite player in my mind.But this whole first-line experiment doesnt work, of course, without the comfort that Team Canada has in reuniting Bergeron with Crosby, a partnership that has its roots back to the 2005 world junior tournament.Although Bergeron didnt start the 2014 Olympics alongside Crosby because I think the coaching staff was a bit worried about his foot speed on the bigger ice, eventually they found each other like two magnets.Hes such a versatile player, he can play with anyone, that guy, Nash said of Bergeron.What makes it so unique to play with Crosby?Hes always the kind of guy thats thinking one step ahead of the play, Bergeron said. His vision is incredible.With Sidney, its about how you position yourself because hes a guy that can make plays that can surprise; like maybe youre not expecting him to come out of the corner with the puck when theres two or three guys on him, but he does it. So part of it is realizing he can do things like that. ' ' '