months off where he was able to really break

MINNEAPOLIS - Ricky Rubio is one game away from returning to the Minnesota Timberwolves.Rubio has been cleared to play Monday night against the Dallas Mavericks, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Saturday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement has not been made.Rubio has been out since severely injuring his left ankle Nov. 7. He will have missed 43 games because of the injury, and the Wolves sunk to the bottom of the league without him.They were 8-38 entering Saturday nights game against Cleveland. When he returns, the team plans to restrict his minutes until after the All-Star break while he sees how his ankle responds.Coach Flip Saunders said before the Cavaliers game that nothing is set in stone.Hes seen three specialists and all of them have cleared him if things are OK come Monday, Saunders said. They have OKd him to be able to play on a limited time basis. We will have to wait until Monday pretty much comes.Rubio signed a four-year, $54 million contract extension before the season and helped the Wolves get off to a promising start before going down with the first ankle injury of his career.The slick-passing point guards return is the latest in a series of important developments on the injury front for the Timberwolves, following Nikola Pekovics return from a 31-game absence due to foot and ankle issues on Jan. 21 and Kevin Martins return on Wednesday from 34 games away with a fractured right wrist.The trio was expected to lead the way for the Wolves early in the first season without Kevin Love, whose trade to Cleveland ushered in yet another rebuilding plan for a team that hasnt made the playoffs since 2004. President of basketball operations and coach Flip Saunders envisioned a blended team as he called it, one in which the veterans like Rubio, Martin, Pekovic and Thaddeus Young did the bulk of the work while rookies Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine and sophomores Anthony Bennett, Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng could ease into things.That all faded in the fifth game of the season when Rubio stepped on the foot of an Orlando defender on a drive to the hoop. He suffered a severe sprain and damage to muscles and ligaments from his ankle to his toes.The Timberwolves were 2-2 at the time with tight losses to Memphis and Chicago. But Rubios absence forced LaVine to play out of position at point guard and veteran Mo Williams to shoulder more of the playmaking responsibility after signing a one-year deal last summer.They lost the first five games without Rubio, Pekovics chronic foot problems returned later in that same road trip and Martin broke his wrist on Nov. 19. The Wolves won just three times in 32 games, effectively burying themselves before the new year even started.Rubios return is the key, with his pass-first mentality and ability to defend at the point expected to bolster the Wolves lacklustredefence and hasten the development of Wiggins and the rest of the younger players.Rubio has been pressing hard to return to action, but the Timberwolves are taking no chances with their franchise point guard. Saunders said last week that doctors cautioned a premature return could bring on a stress fracture, which would result in another long absence.Wolves doctors and athletic trainer Gregg Farnam have closely monitored his progress. He started practicing about two weeks ago and has been going through strenuous workouts prior to each game this week to work his way back.Saunders said the extended absence may be a blessing in disguise because it gave him time to remake his jumpshot, which has always been the weakest part of his game. Rubio has spent hours with shooting coach Mike Penberthy to get more arc on his jumper.We might look back in a year and say maybe the best thing that ever happened was having those three months off where he was able to really break down his shot and work on his shot and become a consistent shooter, Saunders said. Vapormax Online . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Nike Vapormax Wholesale . Next week, hell try to add to the list. A Stanley Cup champion as a rookie, Seguin followed that up by becoming the youngest player to lead the Boston Bruins in scoring. http://www.vapormaxoutlet.com/ . - Alex Dostie scored two goals and assisted on another to lead the Gatineau Olympiques to a 5-3 victory over the Drummondville Voltigeurs in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action on Sunday. Vapormax Cheap .ca look back at each of the Top 10 stories of 2013. Today, we look back at LeBron James and the Miami Heat winning their second straight NBA championship. Air Vapormax Free Shipping . He will be practicing with the Norfolk Admirals (AHL) on a conditioning assignment. - @AnaheimDucks Corey Perry has a knee sprain and will miss the next three to four weeks.ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Mike Babcock wasnt on the ice at Michigan Stadium himself, so seven minutes into the Winter Classic the Detroit Red Wings coach asked star Pavel Datsyuk how he thought things were going. "He said, Well, were being too careful with the puck, " Babcock recalled. "But he said, we got to be because youre scared to turn it over theres so much snow." Snow built up amid frigid temperatures throughout the game, which the Toronto Maple Leafs ultimately won 3-2 in a shootout to jump ahead of the Red Wings in the standings. The conditions didnt make for the prettiest fundamental game, but the spectacle of having a capacity crowd of 105,491 at this venue set such a picturesque scene that it overshadowed those shortcomings. "I dont know if you would call it a gem from a pace standpoint," Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said. "The weather definitely changed the way it was presented with the snow coming down, and it brought back a lot of memories from a childhood of playing outside." Even after watching Tyler Bozak score the shootout winner against his Red Wings, Babcock was beaming and talking about how glad he was to participate in an event that set the NHL attendance record and might have been enough to make the Guinness Book of World Records. It didnt even bother him that the snow slowed the puck and the players down. "I thought that was a big part of the atmosphere in todays game to make it even more special," Babcock said. "To me, today was a home run for hockey." It was -11 C when the puck dropped at 1:31 p.m., and snow fell steadily throughout the game, which featured goals from James van Riemsdyk and Bozak for Toronto and Daniel Alfredsson and Justin Abdelkader for Detroit. Coaches remarked that the snow had the biggest impact on power plays, based on how long they came after the crew was able to shovel the ice. "The NHL did a good job keeping the ice as clean as possible," said Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf, whose shot was deflected in by Bozak to give Toronto the lead in the third period. "Its an experience. Its an outdoor game, in the middle of winter youre going to have snow." That was commissioner Gary Bettmans message afterward, as well. This is the first of six outdoor games in the NHL this season, and inevitably the weather makes an impact. In this case, Bettman was satisfied with how "ice guru" Dan Craig and others handled the conditions to make this game playable. "Were playing outdoors and thats what you get when you play outdoors. When you get the elements, you get the elements," Bettman said. "You could tell as the logo started getting more covered when we needed to shovel. It actually looked like synchronized swimming, so to speak. They did a great job. Listen, whatever the conditions were, it was the same for both teams." The conditions led to some sloppy play, especially a slow start as players had to feel out the conditions. The Leafs beat the Red Wings in a shootout Dec. 21 at Air Canada Centre, but this was uglier because of the snow. "You lose the puck every once in a while because you get stuck in the snow, or you cant find it," Red Wings defenceman Brendan Smith said. "The game was a lot simpler because you had to make smart decisions." Some smart deccisions came from the Leafs top line of van Riemsdyk, Bozak and Phil Kessel, which produced both goals in regulation.dddddddddddd After the game, Kessel and van Riemsdyk were named to the U.S. Olympic team, along with Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard, who made 24 saves in a losing effort but bounced back from his five-goal outing Monday in Nashville. "I dont know if it was a low point for him, but Howies better than that," Babcock said. "So for him to respond today, he didnt have a lot of work, but he had some tough plays. And the way the puck was bouncing, it was hard anyways for a goaltender." It was hard on Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier, too, but he was up to the task in making 41 saves through regulation and overtime. Thats a record for an NHL outdoor game, surpassing the Calgary Flames Miikka Kiprusoffs 39 in the 2011 Heritage Classic. Bernier said the visibility was bad in the first period, and then the wind became the problem in the second when the teams changed ends. In the shootout, he figured he had an edge because players couldnt stick-handle as well. "I tried to play the odds with the ice advantage, probably, as a goalie," said Bernier, who stopped Alfredsson and Tomas Tatar in the shootout. "I tried to take away the angles and be more aggressive a little bit and hopefully they go for the deke and miss the puck." Datsyuk didnt miss, but neither did Joffrey Lupul or Bozak, and so the Leafs moved one point ahead of Detroit in the Eastern Conference wild-card and Atlantic Division standings. Babcock was so pleased with his teams effort, specifically how much they held on to the puck, that he addressed players after the loss, something he rarely, if ever, does. "The conditions made it so some of the skill in the game was eliminated, but I still thought the players competed hard," Babcock said. "It was a good game for our team. So all in all it was a good day." Given the enormity of the proceedings, it was a good day all around. But it was naturally better for the Leafs because they got the victory. "Its a tight conference for us," Bozak said. "We havent been playing our greatest lately, so it was huge two points for our team. So I think that was the main thing. We had to take it as a regular game. Obviously there were some distractions, but we needed these two points back, and were happy we got them." NOTES -- Alfredssons goal was his 34th in 82 career games against the Leafs. The previous 33, along with 38 of 39 assists versus Toronto, came when he was captain of the Ottawa Senators. According to Elias Sports, the 34 goals are the most any active player has scored against the Leafs. ... After making John-Michael Liles a healthy scratch, the Leafs traded him to the Hurricanes in exchange for fellow defenceman Tim Gleason. Carolina also got prospect Dennis Robertson in the deal. ... Defenceman Mark Fraser and forward Frazer McLaren were the other healthy scratches for Toronto. ... Alfredsson returned to the Red Wings lineup after missing Mondays game at Nashville because of back spasms. He replaced Darren Helm. ... Canadian broadcaster CBC had technical difficulties for part of the third period. The outage was filled by an American broadcaster until the problem was fixed before overtime. ' ' '