OTTAWA - Maybe Jaroslav Halak just needed to feel wanted. Black Friday Shoes Store .First the goaltender was second fiddle to Carey Price in Montreal then got pushed out in St. Louis for Ryan Miller. Nothing more than a rental in Washington, Halak last June heard from a team that wanted to turn the reins over to him and invest in him for the long term.Now the New York Islanders are atop the Metropolitan Division, riding the wave of Halaks all-star-calibre play during his franchise record 11-game winning streak.This team showed interest in me and interest in signing me, Halak said. Interest was on both sides, and Im glad it worked out well.It has worked out for the first-place Islanders because general manager Garth Snow was willing to trade a fourth-round pick for Halaks rights two weeks after the regular season ended and even more willing to give him a long-term contract. Halak did his homework on the Islanders, talking to current and former players, and ultimately signed a US$18-million, four-year deal.The season is only 26 games old, but so far that looks like a bargain. At 14-4-0 with a 2.05 goals-against average and .926 save percentage, the former Canadien has stabilized the goaltending position that has gone through so much recent change and fits of inconsistency.Since Ive been here, weve gone through a lot of goalies, and theyve been quality goaltenders, coach Jack Capuano said. But to know that we have a couple guys now back there and hopefully we can stay healthy, its been a big plus for our hockey club.Capuano is referencing backup Chad Johnson, too, but the onus really has been on Halak to shoulder the load for New York. The way the schedule sets up — the Islanders only have one back-to-back for the next month — the fifth-year head coach cant help but want to keep putting Halak on the ice.On Thursday night, the 29-year-old Slovak beat the Ottawa Senators to break Billy Smiths franchise record of consecutive victories with his 11th.Its great to see him break the record and he deserves it, Capuano said. Hes working real hard and hes enjoying himself between the pipes right now.Halak has an intense demeanour on the ice, something captain John Tavares notices when Cal Clutterbuck shoots high on him early in practice. Halak doesnt take too kindly to that.I think you can just tell by his facial expressions, Tavares said.Maybe Halak doesnt smile too much, but hes loving life with the Islanders, who are a world away from where they were a year ago. Back then they were losers of 10 in a row during a season in which they didnt get great goaltending from Evgeni Nabokov, Anders Nilsson or Kevin Poulin.These Islanders underwent significant off-season changes. Snow signed former Maple Leafs forwards Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin, then a few days before opening night traded for defencemen Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy.Quite simply, this is a better team all over the ice.We just play a good poised game, and we have a lot of depth, so were able to come at teams with every line and all our D, Tavares said. We just want to put teams on their heels. We want to play with the puck, obviously. I think the more energy youve got to spend to try to get it back, I think it makes it tough for the other team to generate offence, generate opportunities.Tavares pointed out theres no panic in Halaks game and likewise no panic on the bench or in the locker-room in difficult situations, unlike last season. Theres little doubt the Islanders feed off their No. 1 goaltender.Everyone sort of plays like Jaro a bit, defenceman Thomas Hickey said. Hes quiet in the net and I think it rubs off on us. ... When any goalie’s playing on their game it makes it really easy on the team.Things havent exactly been easy lately, even as the Islanders have been on a roll. Just four of their past nine victories have come in regulation.That speaks to some strong play in close games but also to New Yorks slim margin for error. Halak plays a part in that because hes not prone to giving up soft goals.He makes every save he should, Hickey said. You dont see him making the 10-bell save because hes always in position, he doesnt need to.During this winning streak, which will be on the line Saturday against the St. Louis Blues, Halak has stopped 275 of the 289 shots he has faced (.952 save percentage) and put up a 1.24 GAA.Capuano said Halak was dialed in. Some athletes feel momentum building, but not this one.I dont think about it, Halak said. I go game-by-game. Im always trying to focus on the game thats ahead of me. Whatever happened in the past, happened in the past. Thats great. But back to work tomorrow.Halaks work never stops. Earlier in the season Capuano and goaltending coach Mike Dunham talked to Halak about managing his emotions, and he has done that.I just thought mentally he was a little frustrated, and right now hes in a good place, Capuano said. Hes got high expectations of himself, which is good. Thats what you want.Its no different than a quarterback or different than a starting pitcher. Youre the last line of defence back there. I like the fact that he puts that pressure on himself, but how he channelled in a different way.Halak isnt out of control. In fact, Tavares called him pretty calm.The Islanders have followed that lead.The consistency he brings in his game and the calmness he brings, of course we feed off that, Tavares said. He does such a good job of not giving up second, third chances and swallowing pucks and pushing them off to the side. Both the skaters and the goalie feed off one another, and hes been great for us.---Follow @SWhyno on Twitter Black Friday Shoes Deals . The whole deflation of New England Patriots footballs is like a murder mystery without the violence or significance. On one side, this is a ridiculous issue. Black Friday Shoes Sale .C. -- Ryan Sproul scored the winner late in double overtime to lift the Grand Rapids Griffins to a 2-1 win over the Abbotsford Heat on Friday in Game 1 of their American Hockey League playoff series. https://www.shoesblackfriday.com/ . Rajne Soderberg, the director of the Stockholm Diamond League event, said in an email Friday that the ban still holds. Euromeetings, the organization representing Europes top track events, "will continue to recommend that members do not invite athletes who we believe cause disrepute to our meetings and our sport.SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - By the time Tiger Woods made the turn in the opening round of a year that means so much for so many reasons, he had already stubbed one chip and bladed another. Things had gotten so bad that he twice took to using the putter from well off the green, lest he mess up his day even more.He hadnt given up, though, and neither had the fans, who swarmed loudly around the Phoenix Open in record numbers. As he walked the gauntlet between the nines, they pleaded with Woods to do something, anything, to make both his day and theirs a little better.You got this, Tiger! one yelled. Go get em on the back nine! another shouted out.Two brilliant shots that brought back memories of the Tiger of old helped Woods do just that Thursday. They also helped him avert the kind of disaster that might have been felt by the Woods camp long after the PGA Tour leaves the Arizona desert.The 2-over 73 wasnt exactly what Woods had in mind when he decided to begin his year with a trip to a tournament he hasnt played in 14 years. Not on an overcast day where there were low scores to be had on TPC Scottsdale.But it could have been worse, much worse. And for that Woods could be happy, despite a short game that looked more like it belonged to a tourist playing the course, not the greatest player of his era.If he needed something to convince himself he could still play after injuries and yet another swing change, he could hang his hat on playing the last six holes in 3-under par.Its not the first time I have gone through this, Woods said. It takes time. Its just a frustrating thing where I just need to get through competitive rounds. I need to get rounds under my belt and get a feel for it.Its also not the first time Woods has expressed similar thoughts. Anyone who has followed Woods in recent years has heard him say the same kind of things about trusting his swing, and working his way through the rust, but its now been a long seven years since he last won a major championship.And whether Woods will allow himself to believe it or not, his latest problems might be tougher to fix than a missing tooth.Driving the ball sideways is one thing, and Woods did hit it wayward a few times Thursdayy in only his second competitive tournament in six months. Fake Black Friday Shoes. But resorting to hit chips with a 4-iron because you dont trust yourself with a wedge in hand is almost unheard of in the top echelon of professional golf.Im just having a hard time finding the bottom, Woods said. Because of my old pattern, I was so steep on it, that I have a new grind on my wedge and sometimes its hard to trust. This is a similar grind I used to use back in the early 2000s, but its a different grind. Some of my shots were into the green with tight pins, and either Ill flop it or bump it, one of the two. I chose to bump it.Got that? There will be a quiz at the Masters, where tentative chippers dont last long around tightly mown collection areas and undulating greens.If this was an unusual place for Woods to begin his season, it wasnt altogether unfamiliar. He was here under much different circumstances in 2001, where he was coming off three major championship wins in a row and getting ready to go for the Tiger Slam in the Masters.He opened with a 65 that year, but that wasnt the big story. It came in the second round when a remarkable streak of shooting par or better over 52 straight rounds came to an end when Woods struggled to a 73.Few believed what they saw that day, and Woods would go on to win the Masters for his fourth straight major. Hes now won 14 of them, the last coming at Torrey Pines in 2008.Contrast that to this year when the 73 marked the fifth consecutive round on the PGA Tour that Woods hasnt broken par. It was also the first time he opened a year with a score over par since turning pro nearly two decades ago.An iron shot to tap-in eagle on the par-5 13th might give him some hope of better times ahead. So will the drive to 20 feet on the par-4 17th hole.But on this day the only thing resembling the Tiger Woods of old were the huge galleries following him at all times, on a day when an estimated record crowd of 118,461 came out to watch his season debut.If nothing else, Tiger Woods still knows how to draw a crowd.____Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg ' ' '