BARCELONA - I love the Grand Prix Final because it is the top six qualifiers in each discipline from the six qualifying Grand Prix events. Terrell Edmunds Jersey . I love watching the practices where you can analyze and compare the skaters head to head against the seasons best. The competition is concentrated, streamlined and right to the point. The best six men to date, followed by the best six women, and so on. Its mid-point through the competitive season and we get a chance to look at where we stand. Canada will challenge for Gold in both Pairs and Ice Dance. Neither team goes in as the favourite on paper but both are capable of winning the title. Megan Duhamel and Eric Radford sit in the number 2 spot in the points race just behind Olympic Silver Medalists Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia. They sit ahead of another Russian pair and three very strong and rapidly emerging Chinese teams. I sat rinkside in Osaka, Japan for Megan and Erics second Grand Prix and to watch their short program was to see them take their skating to the next level. Their confidence and ease with their elements was clear. They were a commanding presence on the ice and for me, it was their best skate ever both technically and emotionally. Their strategy has always been to go for maximum difficulty which often meant giving up some points for polish and quality. What was noticeable was the ease with which they did their side-by-side triple lutzes. This is not a jump that any other pair team attempts. They used to land them without points for style. In Japan their triple lutzes were totally in sync with clean and powerful entries and exits and full marks for quality for the difficult jumps. It will take a short program like they had in Japan coupled with a Free Skate of equal quality to upset the Russians who have looked so impressive and spot on this season. In the Ice Dance there are three teams that have, with points and wins, separated themselves from the rest. Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates have a marginal points advantage over Canadians Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje and the rapidly improving French team Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizerone. Weaver and Poje have missed some levels technically this season and hitting those levels will likely make the difference in their quest for Gold here in Barcelona. After the recent NHK trophy Andrew said, We did make a couple of mistakes that we definitely want to fix before the Final. They are known to improve and refine as their season unfolds and they will have to show that development here to come away with the win. Canada is showing its depth in Ice Dance at the Final with Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier also competing here, as well as two young teams who are in the Junior Final. Mackenzie Bent and Garret MacKeen, who train with Piper and Paul in Scarborough, and Madeline Edwards and Zhao Kai Pang, who train in Burnaby, each have a gold and a silver on the Junior Circuit and are contenders here. Its worth noting that not only are many Canadian Dance teams achieving super results they are also coming from training centres in Canada. It was the case, for many years, that the only way to get high level training was to leave home and move to another country. These top teams are staying and thriving and this bodes well for the young local talent coming up as the coaching and training sites for Ice Dancers in Canada are rapidly developing and excelling on the world stage. The Canadian pairs team of Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau are in the Junior Final as the highest ranked team. Their strong technical elements and their consistency have allowed them to outpoint the rest of the field by quite a margin. They are both strong single skaters and are a well matched pair, a combination that not only is giving them significant success on the Junior Circuit but will also be of great benefit to them in the future as they develop as a Senior team. 15-year-old Roman Sadovsky is Canadas lone entry in singles in Barcelona and he is another young skater to keep your eye on. He has strong basics and performance qualities well beyond his years which allow him to stand out. His triple axel is developing nicely in practice but yet to become a regular fixture in competition. He did not need it to get here, as his other fine qualities got him to Barcelona but it will be an element that he will have to master to vault in the standings and contend for gold. Morgan Burnett Jersey .Mihajlovic was sent off minutes from the end of Thursdays 2-0 win over Brescia and has been punished for using a disrespectful expression toward the fourth official and throwing the contents of a bottle of water at him, thus assuming an intimidating attitude. James Washington Jersey . The Raptors general manager has his list of possible draft selections whittled down to a handful ahead of Thursday nights NBA draft in Brooklyn, New York. The Raptors, who have auditioned dozens of players over the past couple of weeks, have the 20th overall pick in the first round, as well as the 37th and 58th picks in the second. http://www.steelersfanaticproshop.com/james-washington-steelers-jersey/ . "First, I would like to offer my deepest and sincerest apologies for any harm I have inflicted on University of Missouri defensive lineman, Michael Sam," the statement read.Pittsburgh, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Rick Nash and Derek Stepan each scored twice as the New York Rangers downed the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2, on Sunday. Derick Brassard had a goal and an assist, while Chris Kreider and Martin St. Louis each had two helpers for the Rangers, who have won their past two games. Henrik Lundqvist allowed two goals on 34 shots. Im real pleased with how we played this afternoon, said New York head coach Alain Vigneault. I thought we played a real solid game on both ends of the ice tonight. David Perron had a goal and an assist and Sidney Crosby also scored for the Penguins, who have lost their past two games. When you play like that you dont give yourself a good chance of winning, said Crosby. We have to come out with better efforts against teams like this, because they were real motivated to play this game and we werent. Marc-Andre Fleury allowed four goals on 17 shots and was pulled in the second period for Thomas Greiss, who stopped 13-of-14 shots the rest of the way. It took all of 26 seconds for the Rangers to get on the board, as Kris Letang misplayed a puck at the right point in the New York end, and Nash went the other way on a 2-on-1. Skating down the left wing, Nash opted to shoot and beat Fleury to the short side for a 1-0 advantage. Just under six minutes later, New York took a 2-0 lead as a left circle faceoff win saw Brassard eventually get the puck at the right point wwhere he slapped it home for his 12th of the season. Jon Bostic Jersey. Skating on the power play, the Pens got one back as Crosby shot home a Perron feed at 15:08 of the first for his 15th goal of the season. New York, though, got the goal back at 2:39 of the second when a left circle faceoff win saw Nash throw the puck on net where it tipped off the stick of Rob Scuderi and in. It was a 4-1 game just three minutes later as St. Louis sent a pass from the right circle to the top of the left circle where Stepan beat Fleury with a heavy wrister for a power-play goal. Fleury was pulled from the net after the goal in favor of Greiss. The Pens made it a two-goal game at 4:16 of the third as Perron split the defense down the middle and saw the puck slide in between the pads of Lundqvist as he was being pulled down. Stepan, though, gave his team the three-goal edge back two minutes later when he finished off a turnover in the neutral zone with a wrister into the left corner for his eighth goal of the year. Game Notes New York hosts Ottawa on Tuesday ... Pittsburgh plays in Philadelphia on Tuesday ... The Rangers posted a 3-0-1 mark against the Penguins this seas