I think maybe as more of an experienced

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AUGUSTA, Ga. Brock Burke Jersey . -- If youre looking for someone not to pick at this years Masters, go with Ryan Moore. By winning the Par 3 tournament, he surely sealed his fate. After all, no one has ever taken the just-for-fun prelude Wednesday and gone on to collect a green jacket Sunday evening. Then again, if there was ever a year to break with tradition, this might be it. Tiger Woods is on the sidelines. A bunch of brash Augusta rookies are eager to fill his shoes. And the last two dozen majors have been divvied up among 21 winners. Good luck making sense of it all with the Masters beginning Thursday. "You never know," Moore said, savoring his two-stroke victory on the picturesque nine-hole course tucked away in a corner of Augusta National. "Someone has got to break that (Par 3) curse at some point in time, so hopefully its me. Who knows? I might go shoot 8 under or something, make a couple of hole-in-ones." As unlikely as that sounds, pretty much everything else is up for grabs at this Masters. Recovering from back surgery, Woods is sitting out the opening major of the year for the first time since turning pro. Even as his dominance waned in recent years, he was always the clear-cut favourite coming into Augusta, where he has won four times. Now, as Moore said, who knows? Jason Day, Sergio Garcia and former Masters champion Zach Johnson are the only players from the top 10 who have won anywhere in the world this year. Only one of the past seven winners on the PGA Tour was ranked in the top 75. "I think if youre outside the top 50 in the world this week, youve got a great chance," U.S. Open champion Justin Rose said with a laugh. Woods is out of golf until the summer, but the show goes on at a tournament that rarely fails to deliver plenty of drama. "We miss Tiger, as does the entire golf world," Masters chairman Billy Payne said. "Nevertheless, this is the Masters. This is what we hope is the best tournament in the world, one of the greatest sporting events. And I think we will have a very impressive audience and have another great champion to crown this year." That could be Phil Mickelson, who last year won the British Open at age 42 and now has a chance to join Woods and Arnold Palmer with a fourth green jacket. It could be Adam Scott, trying to take over as the worlds No. 1 player and join Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only back-to-back winners. While Woods last won a green jacket in 2005, he had finished out of the top six only once since then. Thats what made him such a compelling figure at Augusta. He always seemed to be there. "Its a huge loss," Scott said. "But, as every year here, this event produces something special no matter what. It just has a way of doing it. Its not going to involve Tiger this year, but it will involve someone else and it will be a memorable event anyway." Rose falls on the side of experience -- knowing where to miss, knowing where you cant afford to miss, where the hole locations tend to be on the contoured greens and using the slope to get the ball close. "Always you can have the unknowns," he said. "But I would say 15 guys are pretty strong favourites." Fuzzy Zoeller was the last Augusta rookie to claim the green jacket in 1979, and the only other ones to do it were the first two: Horton Smith and Gene Sarazen. Then again, there are 24 first-timers in the 98-player field, a record (except for the first tournament), and none of them will concede an insurmountable learning curve. Besides, no one is dominating golf at the moment. Jimmy Walker has the most PGA Tour wins (three) this season, but this is his first Masters. Scott had a chance to go to No. 1 three weeks ago at Bay Hill, but he lost a three-shot lead in the final round to Matt Every, who had never won in his career. "Doesnt matter if youve played here once or if youve played here 50 times," said Patrick Reed, who has won three times in the past eight months. "When it comes down to it, its just going to be that whoever is playing the best is going to walk away with the trophy." Who knows? Maybe it will be Moore. Hes certainly not fretting over a supposed curse. "Im not afraid of it," he said. Gaylord Perry Jersey .A. Happ is coming off his first start of the year, a win at Philadelphia Monday. The former Phillie allowed three hits in five scoreless frames of a 3-0 triumph. Luke Farrell Rangers Jersey . Notes on Bergeron, Marchand, Gorges, Vanek, Gaborik, Doughty, Hiller and more. BRUINS STORM BACK TO TAKE GAME TWO The Boston Bruins rallied from a 3-1 deficit, scoring four unanswered goals, to win Game Two, 5-3 over the Montreal Canadiens. https://www.cheaprangersbaseball.com/ . -- Washingtons Bradley Beal seemed to make every shot he took in setting a career high with 37 points.SUNRISE, Fla. -- When Roberto Luongo learned he wouldnt be starting the Heritage Classic, the disappointed goaltender asked agent Pat Brisson to call Vancouver Canucks general manager Mike Gillis just to get a read on his future. When Gillis gave Brisson permission to seek out a potential trade partner for the goalie and his massive contract, the attention turned quickly to the Panthers -- and not just because Luongo calls South Florida home. "It had to be a hockey move," Brisson said. "Roberto wants to play, wants to win. He wants to compete and win. ... When Roberto asked me, I said, I do believe that theres a light at the end of the tunnel for (the Panthers)," Brisson said. "I do believe theres a place where this team is going to go in the right direction." While the Canucks head in the direction of a rebuild, the Panthers look like a team on the upward climb thanks to new owner Vinny Viola and a cadre of young prospects GM Dale Tallon has assembled in the NHLs southernmost market. Through two games with his new team, Luongo has already caught a glimpse of what he and many hockey people believe is a bright future for the Panthers. Luongo sees potential stars in Jonathan Huberdeau, Nick Bjugstad and a handful more young players around the locker-room. At 34 years old, he wants to contribute to the revival of the franchise rather than riding coattails. "Its all about making a commitment to bringing some people in and trying to build a winner," Luongo said Sunday night after facing the Boston Bruins. "Thats what its all about for me. Im not here to fade into the sunset. I want to be part of something special coming here." Something special in the short term might just mean making the playoffs after missing in 11 of the past 12 seasons. Even as the Panthers head toward another early off-season, Bjugstad hopes its just "growing pains" as part of an important learning experience. Thats to be expected for a team whose top players include 18-year-old Aleksander Barkov, 20-year-old Huberdeau, and 22-year-old Erik Gudbranson. Players were on a bus in Boston when they found out Luongo was coming and represented something of a safety valve for mistakes of youth. "Any time you can have a solid goaltender behind you, it gives you confidence that you can make some plays," said 20-year-old forward Vincent Trocheck, who made his Panthers debut the same game Luongo returned. "If you do make a mistake, you know that hes back there to save your butt, basically." Yet in the larger scope, Luongo is not being asked to save a franchise by himself. It is, however, Tallons hope that trading for him "sets the tone" for the organization. The message of taking on the final eight-plus years and over US$28 million of Luongos contract was that the Panthers are willing to spend. Hours after making the move, Tallon said it was about making good on all the talk about wanting to win a Stanley Cup because "talk is cheap." Doing so could be expensive, but its not out of the realm of possibility that Florida has a better chance of winning a Cup in the next four or five years than Vancouver. "You never know," Luongo said. "Its tough to say. You hope so. Thats why Im here. I think the pieces are definitely here, just a matter of making sure that we bring the right piece to complement these young guys that are talented and theyre going to be stars in this league." Tallon has a plan. After already taking the goaltending gamble that was Jacob Marksttrom out of the equation and getting Luongo, he has his sights set on signing, drafting or trading for two power wingers to support Barkov, Huberdeau, Bjugstad and Trocheck. Will Clark Jersey. . The Panthers payroll is the lowest in the league at just over US$50 million, but with Viola in charge, Tallon expects to be "a cap team or close to a cap team" next season. Having almost $30 million of cap space could help the Panthers continue down the path to being a contender, but it also helps to have Luongo as a salesman and a symbol of the clubs all-out push to get better. "Its hard to recruit anybody if they dont think youre doing the right thing," Tallon said. "I think the commitment of making that deal and the commitment that Vinny Violas going to make ... will really influence a lot of decisions as far as players wanting to come here, seeing that were really committed to winning." Luongo didnt keep close tabs on the Panthers rebuild while he was playing for the Canucks because he didnt expect to get traded, let alone back to Florida. But Brisson, who just negotiated a two-year extension for winger Brad Boyes, had a good sense of what was happening. New ownership meant a new opportunity for Luongo. "If it was back to the former ownership where they werent sure what they wanted to spend, what they wanted to do, I wouldnt have recommended it at the time -- absolutely not," Brisson said. "If you look at good ownership and willingness to spend and the right chef, so to speak, the right cook in the kitchen, its an attractive place for Roberto and the players that are there." Tallon is that chef, and he has quite the recipe on his resume. Even though Stan Bowman was the general manager when the Blackhawks won the 2010 Stanley Cup, Tallon orchestrated much of the turnaround in Chicago. "It went well for them," Bjugstad said. "Thats kind of what were banking on." For every Blackhawks success story theres another example like the Edmonton Oilers, who are set to miss the playoffs for the eighth straight season despite three straight No. 1 picks and six in the top 10. They provide a cautionary tale for the Panthers, even as Tallon rattles off prospect after prospect who could make a difference. Each one of those young, unproven players represents essentially a raffle ticket for Florida, another chance to hit it big. But theres plenty of risk and uncertainty in that. "Obviously weve got to prove ourselves before we can get too excited," Bjugstad said. "Theres a ways to go." In Luongo, the young Panthers get a goalie who is already established. Even if his play is not Vezina Trophy-calibre, he could instill plenty of confidence on and off the ice. "I think maybe as more of an experienced guy in the locker-room to bring whatever I have learned over the years and maybe help them out along the way as far as just being a pro and all that kind of stuff to help their development," Luongo said. That team-wide development and progression toward a playoff team is still in the "early" stages, according to Tallon. Luongos addition speeds it up, but theres still no set goal on when he figures the Panthers will get over the hump. "I dont put numbers on that," he said. "I just let the players start to develop and see when theyre ready to make a real hit on the team as far as moving forward. And when they all come together as a group, as a team, not just in a group of individuals, thats when you pretty well know when youve got something special." ' ' '