Vancouver Takes On Toronto Tonight

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CANUCKS BANTER     By Andrew Chernoff    November 14, 2015

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Season series:

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks each won on home ice last season. Maple Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier made 44 saves in a 5-2 win at Air Canada Centre on Dec. 6. Canucks forward Derek Dorsett had the game-winning goal and two assists in a 4-1 win at Rogers Arena on March 14.

Canucks team scope:

  • Center Brandon Sutter, who missed Vancouver’s 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday with an undisclosed injury, wasn’t at practice Friday and remains day-to-day according to coach Willie Desjardins.
  • Injured forward Brandon Prust (ankle) and defenseman Luca Sbisa (lower body) are expected to join the Canucks before this seven-game road trip concludes.
  • Vancouver is 1-2-1 so far, and after Saturday has stops remaining at Montreal on Monday and Winnipeg on Wednesday.
  • Defenseman Alex Biega was assigned to Utica of the American Hockey League.
  • Forward Sven Baertschi and defenseman Alexander Edler each have two goals in their past three games.

Maple Leafs team scope:

  • If goalie James Reimer gets the nod, it will be his seventh straight start.
  • Toronto starts a back-to-back, traveling to face the New York Rangers on Sunday, so it’s possible Bernier could also see his first action since Oct. 31 this weekend.
  • Bernier is recovered from a lower-body injury sustained against the Pittsburgh Penguins and served as Reimer’s backup Thursday in a 2-1 shootout win at the Nashville Predators.
  • The Maple Leafs are 3-1-2 in November and will be seeking their first three-game win streak since a six-game run from Dec. 6-16, 2014. “We said a long time ago, if we keep doing things the right way, bounces are going to go our way,” forward Nazem Kadri told The Toronto Sun after the win in Nashville.

CANUCKS JOTTINGS

  • The Vancouver Canucks look for a victory after losing 5 of their last 8 games.
  • The Vancouver Canucks are averaging 2.9 goals per game and are scoring on 14.8 percent of their power plays.
  • Daniel Sedin leads Vancouver with five goals, Henrik Sedin has eight assists and Jared McCann has 25 shots on goal.
  • Vancouver Canucks are allowing 2.5 goals per game and are killing 79.6 percent of their power play chances.
  • Ryan Miller has allowed 36 goals on 412 shots faced and Jacob Markstrom has given up three goals on 45 shots.
  • Miller has given up 10 goals in his last three games.
  • The Canucks are 1-5 in their last 6 games playing on 1 days rest and 1-4 in their last 5 overall.
  • The Canucks are 5-2 in the last 7 meetings in Toronto and 12-2 in the last 14 meetings overall.
  • Vancouver is 1-for-19 with the man advantage over its last six games and has allowed seven power-play goals in the past five contests
  • All 10 of Vancouver’s losses have come by one goal – five in overtime and one in a shootout

The Canucks are in 3rd place, tied with Arizona with 19-points, in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, 3-points behind the Los Angeles Kings, who sit atop the division with 20 points. San Jose is in fourth place with 16-points. Anaheim, Calgary and Edmonton follow with 14, 13, 12-points respectively.

Los Angeles, Arizona, San Jose all have 2-games in-hand on the Flames. Canucks, Ducks, Oilers all have 1-game in-hand on the Flames.

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Vancouver is among the top seven team in the Western Conference tied with Arizona with the 6th-best record. Dallas Stars lead the conference with 26-points.

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Vancouver is among the top 14-teams in the NHL tied for the 7th-best with 19-points, with Arizona, Ottawa and New Jersey. Montreal leads the NHL with 28-points, just two points ahead of the Rangers and Stars; and 5-points ahead of the Blues and Capitals.

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Toronto occupies last place with 12-points in the Atlantic Division of the Easter Conference, 6-points behind Tampa Bay for the final playoff position in the conference. Montreal is in top sport with 28-points, 9-points ahead of Ottawa with 19. Tampa Bay is next with 18-points. Detroit is in 4rth, and Buffalo in 5th, with 17 and 16-points respectively. Boston and Florida are tied for sixth and seventh with 15-points each.

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Daniel Sedin leads the Canucks in scoring with 15-points including a team leading 10-assists. Henrik Sedin closely follows with 13-points; Jannik Hansen with 10-points including a team best +10 in plus/minus. Alex Burrows, Brandon Sutter and rookie Ben Hutton are all tied with 8-points apiece.

Top snipers on Vancouver are the Sedin brothers and rookie Jared McCann, all with 5-goals.

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Morgan Rielly leads the Maple Leafs in scoring with 11-points, followed by Dion Phaneuf with 9-points. Both Rielly and Phaneuf lead the team in assists with 8-assists. Joffrey Lupul, James Van Riemsdyk have 8-points; Leo Komarov and Tyler Bozak have 7-points each.

Top snipers for Toronto are Lupul, Van Riemsdyk and Komarov with 5-goals each.

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CANUCKS AT A GLANCE

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Statistics courtesy of the NHL, Vancouver Canucks and SportingCharts, with thanks.

Oil down again; glut forces biggest weekly loss in eight months

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Oil slumped again on Friday, extending the week’s loss to the largest in eight months, as swelling storage of crude on both land and sea pressured prices.

Brent, the global benchmark for oil, settled down 1 percent and less than $2 from a new 6-1/2-year low.

U.S. crude fell 2 percent, barely holding above $40 a barrel.

Both benchmarks lost 8 percent on the week, the most since mid-March.

Oil prices have fallen in seven of the last eight sessions, with losses accelerating after U.S. government data on Thursday affirmed a seventh weekly rise in U.S. crude inventories that took stockpiles near April’s record highs.

Adding more pressure to prices, data on Friday showed the first rise in the U.S. oil rig count in 11 weeks.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said there was a record 3 billion barrels of crude and oil products in tanks worldwide.

“The evolving bearish global balances that we alluded to all year are acquiring increased transparency,” said Jim Ritterbusch of Chicago-based oil consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates.

Brent settled down 45 cents at $43.61 a barrel, as the December contract which served as the front-month expired. It lost nearly $4 on the week.

U.S. crude finished down $1.01 at $40.74, losing $3.65 on the week.

The slump extended to oil products as well, with U.S. gasoline futures closing near 10-month lows.

While the downturn was triggered by weak fundamentals across the petroleum complex, oil was also caught in a broader commodities selloff. The Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity CRB Index, a global gauge for the asset class, was near its lowest since 2002.

An estimated oversupply of 0.7 million to 2.5 million barrels per day has pushed crude prices down by almost two-thirds since June 2014.

Tens of millions of barrels are sitting on tankers at sea, looking for buyers.

The IEA said a mild winter could further swell the global glut.

The premium for storing U.S. crude for one year over crude for delivery in December hit record highs on Friday as traders deferred shipments in the hope of getting higher prices later.

The entire strip of futures prices for the next six months has also weakened over the past four weeks. [KEMP/]

Options trading has, meanwhile, spiked with a soaring number of options taken to sell crude if prices fall to $40 or even $25.

(Additional reporting by Libby George in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by David Gregorio Editing by Nick Zieminski)

 

Source: Oil down again; glut forces biggest weekly loss in eight months | Reuters

IAAF provisionally suspends Russian Member Federation ARAF

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The Council of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has provisionally suspended the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) as an IAAF Member with immediate effect.

The decision was taken at today’s 201st IAAF Council Meeting which was held by teleconference and chaired from London by IAAF President Sebastian Coe.

A total of 24 Members of Council took part in the meeting: 22 voted in favour of the sanction against ARAF, who have been officially informed of the Council’s decision, 1 voted against. The Council Member from Russia was not eligible to participate in the vote.

Commenting on the decision, IAAF President Sebastian Coe said: “Today we have been dealing with the failure of ARAF and made the decision to provisionally suspend them, the toughest sanction we can apply at this time. But we discussed and agreed that the whole system has failed the athletes, not just in Russia, but around the world.

“This has been a shameful wake up call and we are clear that cheating at any level will not be tolerated. To this end, the IAAF, WADA, the member federations and athletes need to look closely at ourselves, our cultures and our processes to identify where failures exist and be tough in our determination to fix them and rebuild trust in our sport. There can be no more important focus for our sport”

Frankie Fredericks read a statement on behalf of the IAAF Athletes Commission: “The IAAF Athletes’ Commission is extremely disappointed and concerned regarding the recent developments and allegations directed at our sport.”

“We are angry at the damage being caused to the reputation and credibility of athletics and are united alongside our President to not shy away from the major challenges that face our sport. The athletes will work together to continue the process of cleaning up athletics to ensure those athletes training and competing cleanly are not tainted by the minority.

“We send a clear message to clean athletes in a dirty system to report any doping or cheating that they see or hear about.  We are 100% in support of President Coe and believe that he is the leader that our sport needs to instigate the necessary actions swiftly and strongly.”

Using its powers under the IAAF Constitution Article 6.11(b) and Article 14.7 the members of the IAAF Council provisionally suspended ARAF on charges of breach of the Objects of the IAAF.

The IAAF’s Objects include amongst others developing and maintaining programmes aimed at eradicating doping from the sport and safeguarding the authenticity and integrity of Athletics.

CONSEQUENCES OF PROVISIONAL SUSPENSION

– athletes, and athlete support personnel from Russia may not compete in International Competitions including World Athletics Series competitions and the Olympic Games

– Russia will not be entitled to host the 2016 World Race Walking Team Championships (Cheboksary) and 2016 World Junior Championships (Kazan)*

– that ARAF delegates the conduct of all outstanding doping cases to CAS

The provisional suspension does not:

– prevent athletes in Russia from participating in domestic competitions

– remove or waive the obligations on international level athletes in Russia to comply with the IAAF Anti-Doping Rules, including continuing to be subject to out of competition testing

* IAAF will announce the reallocation or cancellation of these two IAAF World Athletics Series events as soon as possible.

NEXT STEPS

– Unless ARAF voluntarily accepts a full suspension, the IAAF is entitled to proceed to a full hearing on whether the provisional suspension should be made a full suspension.

– To regain membership to the IAAF the new federation would have to fulfil a list of criteria. An inspection team led by Independent Chair Rune Andersen, an independent international anti-doping expert (Norwegian) and three members of the IAAF Council who will be appointed in the next few days.

Other business

IAAF GOVERNANCE

President Sebastian Coe also took the Council through his reform programme.

He has asked Paul Deighton, former CEO of LOCOG and UK Government Minister, to oversee the programme which will be carried out by Deloitte.

Forensic accountants from Deloitte and the leading legal firm Freshfields began work at the IAAF HQ yesterday. He also told the Council that he will create an integrity unit for athletics consisting of an independent integrity board and review panels.

The unit will cover all areas of integrity for international level athletes and athlete support personnel (anti-doping, illegal betting, anti-corruption, transfers of allegiance and age manipulation).

Source: IAAF provisionally suspends Russian Member Federation ARAF | iaaf.org

Preventable Colon Cancer Deaths Cost The Economy $6.4 Billion : NPR

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Almost 20 percent of the people in low-income communities who die of colon cancer could have been saved with early screening. And those premature deaths take a toll on communities that can least bear it.

Lower-income communities in the United States loses $6.4 billion in lost wages and productivity because of premature deaths due to colon cancer, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It’s tragic not only for the lives lost, but it’s tragic for the communities,” says Hannah Weir, a senior epidemiologist at CDC who led the study. “That’s money that’s not being diffused back into these already disadvantaged communities.”

The researchers looked at colon cancer deaths from 2008 though 2012 for people between 50 and 74 years of age. They figured out the preventable deaths by comparing the death rates in high-income counties compared to those with lower incomes. The higher-income areas were defined as those in which at least 85 percent of the population had graduated from high school.

Colon cancer used to be more common in white people with higher incomes, but over the past few decades screening has reduced their risk to the point that African-Americans now have higher rates.

“We know that colorectal cancer screening saves lives, and we know that people in these communities are less likely to be screened for cancer, so it’s detected at a later stage,” Weir says. “They’re more likely to die from cancer.”

Screening options include fecal occult blood tests, which are not invasive, as well as sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy.

The researchers came up with the $6.4 billion number by comparing the differences in potential years of life lost due to premature death: 194,927 years in lower-income communities compared to 128,812 in higher-income communities.

The data was presented Friday at the American Association For Cancer Research conference in Atlanta.

Source: Preventable Colon Cancer Deaths Cost The Economy $6.4 Billion : Shots – Health News : NPR