The Washington Capitals overhauled their defence, by paying huge money to a pair of former Pittsburgh Penguins. [url=https://www.fakejerseys.us.com/]Fake Basketball Jerseys[/url] . Numbers Game breaks down the signings of Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik. The Capitals Get: D Matt Niskanen and D Brooks

The Washington Capitals overhauled their defence, by paying huge money to a pair of former Pittsburgh Penguins. Fake Basketball Jerseys . Numbers Game breaks down the signings of Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik. The Capitals Get: D Matt Niskanen and D Brooks Orpik. Niskanen, 27, picked a terrific time to have the best year of his career, scoring a career-best 10 goals and 46 points while playing a career-high 21:18 per game. He was also a career-best plus-33, which is all well and good, but he was one of six regular defencemen (minimum 62 games played) to have a combined on-ice save percentage and on-ice shooting percentage (PDO) at 5-on-5 of 103.0 or better. An on-ice shooting percentage over 10.0% is difficult for any defenceman to sustain, but Niskanens 10.32% was the third-best of his career; basically, its the kind of good fortune that shouldnt be expected, but its not out of the realm of possibility from season to season for Niskanen. Where the puck luck really stuck with Niskanen last year, was that he also had a .928 on-ice save percentage during 5-on-5 play, so getting favourable percentages at both ends of the ice during the same year contributed to that strong plus-minus. That shouldnt diminish the evaluation of Niskanen entirely, though, because he has consistently been on the right side of the puck possession ledger, and that makes him an asset to any team that acquires him. While Niskanen hasnt typically played hard minutes, and in some years has been excessively sheltered, hes likely to face more difficult matchups now that hes the highest-priced defenceman on the Capitals roster. Signed for seven years and $40.25-million, Niskanen landed the biggest free agent contract of the year. There was probably an element of paying for the good fortune that Niskanen experienced last year, and it is a gamble that Niskanen is going to be able to live up to the money involved in that contract, but if a team is going to swing for the fences on a free agent defenceman, doing so on a guy with consistently strong possession numbers is at least a reasonable foundation on which to make that investment. Which brings us to Brooks Orpik, a 33-year-old who has made his bones as a physical, hard-hitting defenceman, registering more than 200 hits in five of the past seven seasons. The unfortunate part, however, is that Orpik in position to hit so much -- particularly in recent years -- because his team doesnt have the puck as often when hes on the ice and the problem with a defensive defenceman who is already on the wrong end of the possession game is that hes certainly not likely to get better as he gets older. For example, in the 2013-2014 season, there were seven defencemen that were over 35 and scored fewer than 20 points (as Orpik has in every season of his career, except one). Its an okay list, some useful players, but six of the seven were 35 or 36. Orpik is signed through his age 38 season and the only -- the only -- NHL defenceman that played more than 60 games without scoring more than 20 points last season was Tampa Bays Sami Salo, who has never played the kind of physical, banging style that characterizes Orpiks game, in part because Salo was always hurt anyway. This doesnt offer much encouragement that the Capitals wont have massive regrets about the Orpik signing; the only question is how soon will those regrets occur? Can he give the Capitals a couple of solid years, maybe facing lower-calibre of competition than he did in Pittsburgh? Thats probably the best hope, but its a longshot that the last two, maybe even three years, wont have the Capitals paying big money for a spare part on their blueline. Orpik is signed for five years, at a cap hit of $5.5-million per season. Big money, long term. Pittsburgh anticipated that they would lose both Niskanen and Orpik and, in addition to having an opening or two for some prospects, they also signed Christian Ehrhoff to add stability to their defence. Its entirely understandable for the Capitals to make a move to upgrade their defence. They allowed 33.5 shots per game, ranking 27th in the league, last season, so the defence needed to get better. Ultimately, the Capitals are better today after adding Niskanen and Orpik, but that should never be up for debate when committing close to $11-million annually to two players. What has to matter is how much better they are, whether the money spent is worth it and what the fall-out will be. The Capitals dont have to make any moves --- they are under the $69-million salary cap -- but they have $28,762,500 committed to their defence, according to Cap Geek. The only teams spending in that neighbourhood for their defence are Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, who have Chris Pronger and Mattias Ohlund, respectively, on long-term injured reserve. St. Louis and Chicago are spending in the $24-million-to-$25-million on their respective bluelines right now, so its hard to imagine that the Capitals maintain the status quo, leaving a hole at second line centre while sticking with the most expensive defence corps in the league. We will see what other moves the Capitals have in mind this summer but, right now, it appears that they spent a lot of money to get better in the short-term; signing deals that appear to have more downside risk because of the long terms involved. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. China Jerseys .Sinclair, from Burnaby, B.C., led the Canadian team with three goals at the four-nation competition. She also earned tournament most valuable player honours.The Canadian captain scored on a penalty kick in the 63rd minute and added the winning goal a minute later. Fake NBA Jerseys .Y. -- It was as if Matt Moulson never left the New York Islanders. https://www.fakejerseys.us.com/ . Louis and Ryan Kesler have demanded to be traded. BALTIMORE -- On a night in which the Orioles wore 1954 throwback uniforms to mark the 60th anniversary of their arrival in Baltimore, the team administered an old-fashioned whipping on the St. Louis Cardinals. J.J. Hardy hit two of the Orioles season-high six home runs, and Baltimore cruised to a 12-2 victory Friday night to move a season-high 17 games over .500. It was a rare blowout for the Orioles, who scored three runs or fewer in 11 of their 20 previous games and have played 63 games decided by one or two runs. "Anytime you can get a big lead and come out of the game early its nice," said Hardy, who left in the seventh inning. "Its fun just to be able to relax and watch the game." Hardy hit a solo shot and a three-run drive for his 11th multihomer game. Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Chris Davis and Ryan Flaherty also connected as Baltimore (66-49) reached double figures in runs for the first time since April 24. "Baseballs full of circles," Machado said. "One day were going to win a game 2-1, 1-0 and the other day were going to blow a team out. Its just part of the game." Chris Tillman (9-5) gave up two runs and four hits in 6 2-3 innings. He was pulled after a two-run drive by A.J. Pierzynski made it 12-2. "It was one of those nights where everything kind of clicked for me and I was able to execute most of my pitches," Tillman said. The result was Baltimores first win over the Cardinals in 11 years. The Orioles -- who were the St. Louis Browns before relocating -- went 1-2 in St. Louis in 2003 and wwere swept in three games at Camden Yards in 2011. Fake Hockey Jerseys. The Cardinals and Browns once shared Sportsmans Park in St. Louis, but now the teams rarely run into each other. In this one, a three-run drive by Machado and Hardys first home run helped Baltimore go up 5-0 against Justin Masterson (1-1) in the third. That was enough to propel the AL East-leaders to their ninth win in 12 games. Making his second start for the Cardinals since being traded from Cleveland, Masterson allowed five runs and seven hits in two-plus innings. He also walked three, hit two batters and threw a wild pitch. "This is not the best thing you want to do when you come to a new team," Masterson said. "He couldnt find the plate tonight and when he did, his pitches were more elevated than they were last time out," manager Mike Matheny said. "When he elevated the ball, they elevated it as well." Hardy connected with two on in the fourth off Nick Greenwood for an 8-0 lead. At that point, every Orioles starter either had a hit or scored a run. Baltimore leads the majors with 144 home runs and has at least one in seven straight games. The Orioles are 55-25 when they homer. The blowout was sweeter for the Orioles because many of the teams former greats, such as Brooks Robinson and Cap Ripken Jr., were on hand to watch it before being honoured in a ceremony afterward. "Yeah, I think its awesome," Tillman said. "Its a good night to do what we did, with all these guys around here, and its fun. We were hanging out with them in the clubhouse." ' ' '