Rangers midfielder Joey Barton has been signed off with stress and has not been seen at the clubs training ground for nearly a week, Sky sources understand. The 34-year-old returned to Rangers last Thursday after a club-imposed suspension in the wake of a training ground bust-up in September. But despite Rangers saying appropriate training arrangements would be made for him as long as he remains a Rangers player, he lasted just one day before receiving a sick-note from his doctor. The former England international was initially suspended for three weeks, before that was extended by club bosses. Sky Sports News HQ understands he was instructed to train with the youth team, away from the other first-team squad members. Barton in action for Rangers against Celtic Barton has played only eight games for the Ibrox side since signing a two-year contract in May. Manager Mark Warburton has not selected him since the 5-1 defeat to Celtic two months ago. Also See: Barton arrives for training Rangers held by County Warburton slams Gers No hurry to spend Lester Hayes Jersey . Maria Silvia Bastos Marques, president of the EOM (Municipal Olympic Company), will be leaving her post but will remain as an advisor, a city hall statement said Tuesday. Charles Woodson Jersey . Just ask last seasons Supporters Shield winners, the New York Red Bulls, who were resoundingly defeated last weekend by a rampant Vancouver Whitecaps in a match which produced two contenders for MLS Goal of the Week from Sebastian Fernandez and Pedro Morales. http://www.authenticraiderspro.com/Georg...raiders-jersey/. And while taking highly-touted Simon Fraser offensive lineman Matthias Goossen second overall on Tuesday night will definitely help in an area of need for the club, it was a swap of draft picks that may prove to be his most shrewd move. "When Jesse Briggs started to fall a little bit, you could just see Kyle perk up in his chair. Dave Casper Jersey . "I have had no discussions with Chad Johnson or his representation," Popp said Friday in an email. However, he appeared to confirm a report on Twitter from TSN this week that Johnson was on Montreals negotiation list. Fred Biletnikoff Jersey . It was the first game back in Columbus for Rangers star Rick Nash, the Blue Jackets franchise leader in goals, assists and games. He was given a standing ovation during a video tribute in the first period, but was booed loud and long after a second-period, two-handed shove up high on Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a state of flux right now. On one hand, we know what this team is – a collection of average or subpar possession players who need to rely on either incredibly hot shooting, incredibly hot goaltending, or a collection of both to win hockey games. On the other hand, I would still consider this a team in the abyss between contender and pretender. They banked a ton of points early in the season, and the bottom of the Eastern Conference doesn’t exactly offer much of a threat. To Toronto’s credit, they have – this time around, anyway – recognized the team’s fatal flaw. They are consistently and emphatically out-shot on most nights. The organization’s efforts to target a couple of possession drivers this off-season (see Mike Santorelli and Daniel Winnik) have improved the team, marginally, at five-on-five. But, it’s not enough. Not yet, anyway. While it’s nice to have an improved bottom-six or a couple of decent third-pairing defensemen, most observers of the sport recognize that the team’s most frequently deployed players are going to be the ones creating the wins and losses long-term. Ice time is in direct correlation with game impact, and that’s why your first-liners and first-pairing defensemen are paid the most money. This is Toronto’s problem. The first-line is routinely caved in, and when the goals dry up, they certainly look the part of one of the worst top trios in the National Hockey League. To illustrate this, I graphed out the performance of each team’s first-line to start the year using RelativeCorsi% (team difference in Corsi% when a player is on the ice versus off) and RelativeGoal% (team difference in Goal% when a player is on the ice versus off). For Toronto, that’s the Bozak line (though I do note that the coaching staff has really started to give bigger minutes recently to the Kadri group). Let’s take a look at all thirty teams: It makes intuitive sense that first-line talent should out-perform second, third, and fourth-line talent on the same team. Look at the horizontal axis divide (“RelativeCorsi%”) and note how basically every team is better off with the first line on the ice than off. Only Florida, Buffalo, Arizona, and Toronto have first-lines generating unfavorable possession relative to their teammates. Of course, Buffalo and Florida’s first-lines are at least generating favorable goal differentials relative to the team average, and Arizona’s within the realm of break-even. Toronto’s top-line has been territoriallly bludgeoned all season long and, sometimes, it’s hard to explain why.dddddddddddd Phil Kessel is generally regarded as one of the league’s elite wingers, and it’s not as if James van Riemsdyk – who scored 30-goals one season ago – grades low on talent. This year, primarily due to an improvement in Toronto’s depth forwards, the front-line has been relatively more exposed – when the first-line comes off, Toronto’s possession significantly improves. And when the first line gets back on, possession significantly declines. The problem, as you might guess, comes on the defensive side of the game. It was the problem when Bozak and Kessel were united back in 2009-2010, and it’s progressively worsened even with the addition of van Riemsdyk on the wing. To show the line’s defensive woes, we can look at how teams have been able to generate shot-attempts against this trio over the years. For record, the average forward is on ice for about 55 shot-attempts against per 60 – we’ll use this as break-even in the graph below. I have long recognized that Kessel, Bozak, and van Riemsdyk likely possess slightly above-average shooting skill relative to the league norm, but I don’t think it’s nearly enough to offset how dreadful they are from a territorial aspect. Even if you subscribe to the theory that Randy Carlyle’s responsible for a collective possession drag, it’s not really a justification for how awful this group is defensively – for five years (and counting), their less-talented teammates have managed to perform significantly better in limiting shot-attempts against. I’m not sure what the coaching staff or front office does in the short-term – this is the roster that has been assembled, and aside from re-assembling the top-six to more prominently feature Nazem Kadri (which has been tried in the past), there’s not a whole lot you really can do other than hope and pray for another percentage-fueled run. But, I do think the data on this group is clear. There’s something of a hard cap on the shooting talent this group possesses, and because of that, it’ll never be enough long-term to offset just how appalling they are defensively. Further, based on the team’s logical and obvious commitment to star winger Phil Kessel, you can rest assured that the primary objective over the next year or two will be to hope for one of their young centre prospects to continue pushing into a top-six role, or send a collection of assets to another team to get that coveted first-line centre. 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