career. Alcohol abuse and this game can take a toll. You play baseball and basketball. You dont play boxing. Eckhart gave us an excellent glimpse of the real Rooney.Bleed For This does what many fight fi

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues know one of the biggest things missing in their games so far this season has been the ugly goals, the rebounds and deflections that come from putting a lot of traffic in front of the net.They finally were able to score some of those goals in a 4-1 win over Buffalo on Tuesday, and they hope they can do it again on Thursday night when they host the San Jose Sharks.It will be the first contest between the two teams since the Sharks eliminated the Blues in six games in the Western Conference final in May.Thats always the goal, left winger Jaden Schwartz said of scoring ugly goals. I think we needed to be better with the puck everywhere, especially through the neutral zone and tighten up defensively a little bit and check for our chances a little more. I thought we did a good job, I thought we created a lot of turnovers on the forecheck that allowed us to get a lot of O-zone time.Neither right winger Alexander Steen nor right winger Vladimir Tarasenko participated in the Blues practice on Wednesday. Steen had to leave Tuesday nights game after a hard check into the boards, and Tarasenko also was banged up in the contest.Coach Ken Hitchcock called it a maintenance day for both players.Hopefully well have both of them in the lineup fresh and ready to go, Hitchcock said. (Tarasenko) needed a maintenance day. Both guys needed it. We decided to switch it up and have a full practice today and it wouldnt have done them any good so, well get them ready for tomorrow. Both guys.The Sharks suffered a 1-0 loss at Carolina on Tuesday night, with coach Peter DeBoer saying the team did not generate enough scoring chances.You have to put pucks in good places and then you have to win battles, and we didnt do enough of either, DeBoer said.DeBoer tried to shake up his forward lines in the third period and it is possible they could go with different combinations against the Blues.I dont think anyone up front was generating much, center Logan Couture told the San Jose Mercury-News. When thats the case, coach usually tries to get a spark somehow and he certainly has the right to do that.The Blues have made a lot of changes since they lost played the Sharks, with captain David Backes signing with Boston as a free agent, Troy Brouwer joining Calgary and Brian Elliott shuffled to the Flames, but the players who remain will be motivated for the game.Theyre still one of the teams we have to worry about in this conference, defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. They didnt lose many guys from last year and have a very solid forward group. Im sure theres going to be a little bit of a bad taste in our mouth from last year.Alex Len Jersey . Despite dominating possession, Schalke needed an own goal from Nicolas Hoefler for the breakthrough a minute before the interval. The Freiburg midfielder misjudged Jefferson Farfans corner and bundled the ball into his own net. Evan Turner Jersey . -- If Henry Burris has his way, he will be the starting quarterback to lead the Hamilton Tiger-Cats back to the Grey Cup next year. https://www.thehawkslockerroom.com/Tracy-Mcgrady-City-Edition-Jersey/ . JOHNS, N. Pete Maravich Hawks Jersey . It might not have mattered. While the Dodgers are preparing for the playoffs, the Padres showed their future has promise behind two rookies. Kevin Huerter Jersey . -- Al Jefferson found a groove just in time for the Charlotte Bobcats.For more than a decade and a half, my typical work week is hard to explain. Especially the part of keeping an eye on chiseled men taking center stage and stripping down to bikini briefs. A Chippendales consultant, Im not. Boxing weigh-ins are unlike anything else in sports. Calling fights week after week on national TV fosters an appreciation for them, the texture and passion of the sport is why its one of Hollywoods all-time favorite storytelling crutches to lean on. At least parts of it are.The overused late-round drama crescendo is an easy go-to for directors. But the day before the fight weigh-in? Its mostly ignored. Or its dismissed as a convenient scripted smack-talk moment.Then comes the 2016 biopic Bleed For This, the story about former five-time champion Vinny Paz. In what is as authentic a scene I have ever enjoyed in a fight film, native New Yorker Ben Younger perfectly captures the weigh-in for Pazs fight against Roger Mayweather 26 years earlier. He gets it. His film gets it.Forget the hackneyed approach to rating a boxing flick. You know the sports fan review where bona fides are based on how valid the in-the-ring action looks. Although it is quite good, it doesnt need to apply here.What Younger and his team were able to do in the opening 10 minutes of Bleed For This impressed me. It drew me in. It revealed enough of the world champion Paz to demand I needed to know it all. And for lead actor Miles Teller, it probably revealed more than he ever thought hed have to as well.Teller, who has a lot of natural born fighter traits to him, was on the scale in nothing but a small swath of animal print. As the real-life Vinny told him during production, Stuff a banana in your undies. From that outrageously entertaining opening round this film goes on to stuff a lot into its power punch.Ive known the real-life characters fairly wwell for many years now.dddddddddddd They are mined from the cross-section of society boxing exposes us to and welcomes in.Vinny Paz grew up in Providence, Rhode Island -- a hard working prideful town that is a character unto itself in the film. The Pazienza family was woven into Vinnys life tighter than the canvas tautly pulled over the local ring mat he called home.His manager, Lou Duva, was captured well by veteran actor Ted Levine. And as for the role of trainer Kevin Rooney, it was a superb job climbing a challenging mountain of portrayal by Aaron Eckhart.I first met the real-life Rooney when I was 15 years old. I was a fan ringside at a local club show and he was in the corner of soon-to-be heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. Years later, I was now the boxing expert, still talking the sweet science with Rooney as he was in the later stages of an often interrupted career. Alcohol abuse and this game can take a toll. You play baseball and basketball. You dont play boxing. Eckhart gave us an excellent glimpse of the real Rooney.Bleed For This does what many fight films fail to do. It defines the champion from the inside out. It takes us into his psyche.It doesnt play on underdog themes overcoming impossible odds. It doesnt care if the champ is winning to right some wrong or avenge some injustice. It doesnt try to wow you with a dramatic get-up-off-the-canvas climbs.Yes, its a comeback story. However, its really a story of understanding what it means to be a fighter. To be wired differently from the rest.Heavyweight king of yesteryear Jack Dempsey was wont to say, A champion is someone who gets up even when they cant.That is what Bleed For This captures. And its exactly why it will capture your attention. ' ' '