Cuts » first discussions they had when Korn joined Barry Trotzs staff in W

CLEVELAND -- Most fans around the country can sit back and savor Game 7.Not so easy for anyone who has spent a lifetime rooting for the Cubs or Indians.All those years of hope and heartbreak collide Wednesday night when Chicago and Cleveland meet one last time to decide the World Series.With the Cubs seeking their first championship since 1908 and the Indians trying to stop a drought that dates to 1948, the stakes could hardly be higher.No one says Game 3 or 5. This is what you want, said shortstop Francisco Lindor, who leads the Indians with a .364 Series average.Cleveland ace Corey Kluber pitches against Kyle Hendricks, the major league ERA leader. Kluber has a chance to become the first pitcher to win three World Series starts since Detroits Mickey Lolich in 1968.Throwback stuff.The game has changed, the 76-year-old Lolich said Tuesday. Its a totally different game than what we played back in our days. It just doesnt happen.Addison Russell hit a grand slam and tied a Series record with six RBI in Chicagos 9-3 win Tuesday night that forced this captivating matchup to the limit.Chicago is trying to become the first club to overcome a 3-1 Series deficit since the 1985 Kansas City Royals and the first to do it by winning Games 6 and 7 on the road since the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.Now its one night, winner take all.Its a kids dream, Russell said.Even after losing two straight, the Indians remain confident.Kluber is 4-1 with a 0.89 ERA in four postseason starts, starting with 16 consecutive scoreless innings against Boston in the Division Series and Toronto in the AL Championship Series.Thats our guy. Thats our stud, Cleveland second baseman Jason Kipnis said.A 30-year-old right-hander, Kluber started on three days rest for the first time in his big league career in Game 4 against the Blue Jays. He left after five innings with the Indians trailing 2-1 in a 5-1 defeat, then threw 88 pitches over six innings as Clevleand beat the Cubs 6-0 last Tuesday in the Series opener.He came back on three days rest in Game 4, needing 81 pitches for six innings of one-run, five-hit ball in a 7-2 win that gave Cleveland a 3-1 lead.Obviously, hes a special guy, Hendricks said. You can just see it, the way he takes to the mound. Hes always locked in.Nine pitchers have won three starts in a single Series, none since Lolich went 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA and 21 strikeouts while tossing three complete games against the St. Louis Cardinals.Good players, good pitchers, can do special things. Hes in that category, Indians manager Terry Francona said. It was kind of an easy decision after talking to him.The 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner, Kluber was 18-9 with a 3.14 ERA this season as Cleveland won the AL Central for the first time since 2007. His win in the All-Star Game at San Diego in July gave the American League home-field advantage in the Series.I never connected those dots at that point in time, he said.Already, he is the first pitcher to win Games 1 and 4 in the Series since Cincinnatis Jose Rijo in 1990. In addition to Lolich, the only others to win three Series starts were Charles Deacon Phillippe of Pittsburgh and Bill Dinneen of the Boston Americans (1903), the New York Giants Christy Mathewson (1905), the Philadelphia Athletics Jack Coombs (1910), Pittsburghs Babe Adams (1909), Clevelands Stan Coveleski (1920), Milwaukees Lew Burdette (1957) and Bob Gibson (1967).Hendricks, a 28-year-old right-hander, went 16-8 and didnt get a decision in his Game 3 Series start, when he allowed six hits in 4 1/3 scoreless innings of a 1-0 loss.This is the ultimate dream, he said. When youre out in your backyard as a kid, playing Little League at the field with your friends, this is the moment you dream about: Game 7, 3-2, two outs, something like that, bottom of the ninth. But its always Game 7 of the World Series.Behind the starters, Chicago closer Aroldis Chapman has thrown 62 pitches in the last three days. Clevelands Andrew Miller hasnt pitched since Saturday and closer Cody Allen has been rested since Sunday.Were all ready to go, Miller said. Hopefully were fresh.---AP investigative researcher Randy Herschaft contributed to this report. Kanken Backpack Ochre Uk . Olli Jokinen, Mark Scheifele, and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist as Winnipeg won 5-2, handing Calgary its record-setting seventh consecutive loss on home ice. Fjallraven Kanken Uk . -- Brandon Jennings made the most of his first game with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. http://www.kankenbackpackuk.com/kanken-backpack-classic-uk.html . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187. Kanken Backpack Uk . Brett Kulak and Jackson Houck of the Vancouver Giants were each charged with assault causing bodily harm on Aug. 18, according to the B.C. court services. Cheap Kanken Backpack Uk . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. The equipment managers at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa might have a look of confusion at training camp next week when they unload Braden Holtbys World Cup of Hockey goaltending gear and come across a bag with a fold-up acoustic guitar.Expected to challenge Carey Price for the No. 1 job for Team Canada, the Washington Capitals reigning Vezina Trophy winner has overcome disappointment and bouts of self-doubt to become one of the worlds top stoppers.More than anything, Holtby credits his mental preparation, which includes a game-day jam session on a portable guitar, for his meteoric rise to hockey stardom.I knew fairly early in junior that guys were going to be better than I was, Holtby said. I had to find a different area where I could push myself to the next level, and that was the mental game.Not everyone wants to put in that kind of work and not everyone wants to buy into it because its one of those things where youre kind of the weird guy when youre doing mental exercises. Youve got to get over that hump, and thats 90 percent of the reason Im here today.Holtby acknowledged that one of his greatest disappointments in hockey came as an 18-year-old when, despite being taken by the Capitals in the fourth round of the 2008 NHL draft, he was not one of the eight goalies invited to Team Canadas camp for the 2009 World Junior championships.Growing up, that was a huge goal of mine, to play on the World Junior team, Holtby said. It took me quite a while to get over that. Obviously, there was a little bitterness. It was one of those negatives I was able to turn into a positive. It was one of those points in your career where you can either use it as negative energy or put it toward proving people wrong.Holtby spent parts of four seasons with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League, trapped behind Capitals goalies Semyon Varlamov, Michal Neuvirth and Tomas Vokoun, before bursting onto the NHL scene during the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs when he helped the Capitals upset the defending Stanley Cup-champion Boston Bruins in the first round.Holtby has been Washingtons No. 1 ever since and last season he tied Martin Brodeurs NHL single-season record with 48 victories, making him an overwhelming choice for the Vezina Trophy and giving him a leg up on Price when the World Cup begins on Sept. 17, one day after Holtbys 27th birthday.Im sure the coaches have a plan in place, said Holtby, a native of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. For me, its a huge honor just to be named. You look at the roster and youre pretty amazed youll be able to play alongside those guys. It will be a lot of fun and it will be amazing to see the atmosphere in Toronto, being on home soil. It will be pretty cool.Whether hes strumming along to the folksy rock of Bob Dylan, the island sounds of Jack Johnson or the indie rock of The Black Keys -- He can play awesome, and hes actually got a really good voice too, said Capitals backup goaltender?Philipp Grubauer?-- Holtby reintroduced music to his busy game-day routine last season.When youre a young guy coming in, you dont really do those things, he said, noting he taught himself guitar as a teenager. You try to blend in as opposed to stand out.Holtby said his affection for music was passed down from his grandparents, who were musicians, and his mother, Tami, who was the lead singer of Canadian country band Tami Hunter and Walkin After Midnight in the late 1980s annd early 1990s.ddddddddddddIt kind of calms me down and calms everyone else around me, Holtby said. Game days can be pretty stressful and if you liven things up a bit and make it fresh, its better than sitting there by yourself waiting for the game.For a typical 7 p.m. game, Holtby will begin his preparations at 5:30 with a quiet 10-minute meditation, followed by hand-eye exercises in which he tosses a rubber ball against a wall. When the clock strikes 6, Holtby finds a place in the arena, often behind the players bench or in the stands behind the net, rests his chin on his goalie stick, and begins darting his eyes throughout the arena.Hes looking for things to focus on, said Capitals goaltending guru Mitch Korn, who coached six-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek when he played for the Buffalo Sabres. Pekka Rinne would do the same thing in Nashville, but hed sit in his locker stall and find the O in a nameplate, then find an A. Like another player warms up his body, Braden warms up his eyes.Holtbys unorthodox eye exercises take place just before the arena doors open to the public, but he said the arena crew at Madison Square Garden seems to have caught on.At MSG they play some weird music, Holtby said. I dont know if its from the Muppets or what, but I think they wait to test their stereo system until Im out there.Moments before the puck is dropped, Holtby will rock to the rhythm of the national anthem, spray water on his thick mane, kiss the names of his children on his mask, then buckle up for a 60-minute ride.When he allows a goal, Holtby will break into another routine. Leaning against his crossbar, hell squirt water into the air and follow each droplet as it descends in front of his face.It started as an eye trick, Holtby said of the post-goal routine he began in junior hockey under the direction of sports psychologist John Stevenson. Sometimes when youre feeling a little lost, your vision starts to shake a bit when youre trying to focus for too long on the puck.One of our tricks is to zone in on something really small and focus on that, and it kind of brings your eyesight back into focus. It reminds me to focus on the next shot.Korn, who has seen Holtby win more games in consecutive seasons (89) than any NHL goalie since Brodeur (92 wins in 2007 and 2008), said he was so concerned with Holtbys idiosyncrasies that it was one of the first discussions they had when Korn joined Barry Trotzs staff in Washington two summers ago.I asked him about the routine and whether it was too much and whether it wore him out, Korn said. His response was, I control my routine. My routine does not control me. It was the right answer and I never brought it up again.Holtby said that while he would like to lead Canada to a gold medal in the World Cup, his primary focus is preparing himself for the 2016-17 season, where the Capitals will try to build on last years 120-point season and finally reach the Eastern Conference finals.My main goal through all of his is to make sure Im prepared for the season, he said. Thats No. 1 and itll never change from No. 1. I get to spent a month practicing and playing with the best players in the world and if I can use that to my advantage to be a little sharper for the start of the season, that would be a good thing. ' ' '