happy and know what I am doing.Casting forward a little under a ye

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Montreal captain Max Pacioretty liked what he saw from the new-look Canadiens in getting off to a successful start to the season.And Brendan Gallagher looks like hes ready to bounce back from an injury-shortened season.Gallagher scored twice while newcomers Shea Weber, Andrew Shaw and backup goalie Al Montoya made significant contributions in a 4-1 season-opening victory over the injury-depleted Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.You want them to feel comfortable and whether you admit it or not, when you get that first goal or point or win, it takes a little bit of stress off you, Pacioretty said. And Im glad it came early for those guys. They played great.Weber, acquired in a trade that sent P.K. Subban to Nashville, provided grit to Montreals defense and added an assist, when his hard rising shot from inside the blue line was tipped in by Gallagher to put the Canadiens ahead 3-1. Shaw, acquired in a trade with Chicago, scored and Montoya stopped 30 shots in filling in for Carey Price, who is sidelined with the flu.A bit of nerves coming in, Montoya said. I wasnt trying to steal the game. Ive got a good team in front of me. They were fun to watch.Montoya will get a second consecutive start at Ottawa on Saturday after the Canadiens announced Price will not travel.There was no fun for the Sabres, whose injurie woes grew when forward Evander Kane was taken to the hospital for further evaluation after he slammed heavily into the end boards late in the second period.Coach Dan Bylsma had no immediate update on Kanes status, except to say the player was being evaluated for a lot of things internally.Kanes injury is the latest setback for a team that was already reeling a day after second-year star center Jack Eichel sprained his left ankle during practice.Well, theres a little bit of shake your head and snake-bitten a little bit, Bylsma said. You expect to have (injuries) throughout your lineup, and unfortunately you have a rash of them. But thats no excuse for how we need to play. Weve got to keep fighting through it.Kane was doubled-over in pain as he was escorted off the ice. He was hurt while racing Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin for a loose puck up the left wing in the Montreal zone. Kane reached out for the puck when the two bumped. Kane lost his balance, fell and slid with his left elbow slamming into the boards.The Sabres were also playing minus top-line forward Kyle Okposo (knee) and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov (bruised backside).Matt Moulson scored a power-play goal for Buffalo to briefly cut Montreals lead to 2-1 in the opening minute of the third period.The Canadiens responded with two goals in just under five minutes.Gallagher tipped in Webers shot 6:43 into the third. Shaw then scored by capping a frantic scramble in front after goalie Robin Lehner had already made two stops. Torrey Mitchell also scored for Montreal.We did a lot of good things, Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said. Theres still things that we need to work on and its normal. But its really early in the season. But overall youve got to be satisfied with the win.Game notes Before the game, the Sabres announced they signed general manager Tim Murray to a multiyear contract extension. Murray was hired in January 2014, and was entering the final year of his contract. ... At 18 years and 110 days, Canadiens rookie first-round draft pick Mikhail Sergachev became the fourth-youngest player and youngest defenseman to play a regular-season game in team history. ... Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan listed Eichel on his injury report, and then joked he had no comment about Maple Leafs rookie Auston Matthews scoring four goals in his debut. Nah, Ryan added, it was pretty amazing wasnt it? ... Eichel had his left leg perched on a scooter in making a brief appearance in the Sabres tunnel during pre-game introductions.UP NEXT:Canadiens: At Ottawa on Saturday.Sabres: Play at Edmonton on Sunday in opening four-game road swing. Bill Barber Flyers Jersey . -- Linebacker Myles Jack ran for four touchdowns, defensive end Cassius Marsh caught a scoring pass, and No. Samuel Morin Jersey .com) - The Calgary Flames aim to bounce back from their first regulation home loss of the campaign on Friday night when they host a Detroit Red Wings club that they swept in three meetings a season ago. http://www.hockeyflyersauthentic.com/nolan-patrick-jersey/ . 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. Robert Hagg Jersey . There was no hesitation from the 40th-ranked Pospisil, from Vernon, B.C., who admitted that he cut back on his training sessions over the last few days to conserve energy as the long ATP season finishes next week at the Paris Masters. Dave Schultz Jersey . Manuel was offered a position the day he was fired. He accepted earlier this week and the team made the announcement Friday. With 130 international wickets under her belt, and an imposing T20 record, Englands recently appointed vice-captain Anya Shrubsole would have been one of the first internationals selected for the Womens Big Bash League in Australia last winter. If, that is, she had chosen to make the trip.She decided against joining the best of the best in the WBBL partly to preserve her body from the rigours of a chaotic schedule, but mostly because her final university dissertation was due (imagine that in the mens game).In her thesis, the psychology student explored the relationship between perfectionism and competitive anxiety; a topic appropriate for an opening bowler, specifically one who self-describes as a little bit of a perfectionist.Shrubsole spoke to ESPNcricinfo during the Kia Super League, where she is representing Western Storm, who feature in Sundays Finals Day at Chelmsford.Part of this drives you to train and it definitely got me where I am today because I want to do everything well as I possibly can, she explains of perfectionism as it relates to her own career. But theres a fine line: if you go too far over the line almost nothing ends up being good enough because no-one is perfect.There is a relaxed self-awareness in this from a bowler once known for her grumpiness. At 24, but with eight years since her England debut, she is at once a veteran and an improving product despite her seniority. But she believes a mellowing has occurred in the process of applying her psychology learnings into her professional output.A couple of bad balls used to get into my head and it would interfere with the next couple and spiral out of control and I think as you play more thats completely detrimental to what you are trying to do, she says.By putting in place processes to control such a spiral, Shrubsole knows she has limited a weakness in her game that batsmen exploited. The influence of new national coach Mark Robinson has been a key part in this development; he has schooled Shrubsole in the art of expectation management.You want to perform the best that you can, but at the same time if your expectations become unrealistic you almost never meet up to them and are always frustrated. Shrubsoles method: an unfaltering routine to separate emotion from application.I just use the stumps as a physical line, she says. I have from the time where I stop my follow through to when I reach the stumps to think about the last ball, but once I cross that stump line and back to my mark it is to the next ball. Its no more complicated than that: making sure Im always thinking about what is coming next not whats just gone.Perhaps the best illustration of Shrubsoles mental strength happened with bat rather than ball. In last years Ashes Test at Canterbury she batted for 68 minutes and 47 balls without scoring. It was excruciating to watch, but symbolic of doing anything to turn around a dire situation.Ill never stop fighting until the game is over, I pride myself on it, she says when recalling the hand. So that innings became enjoyable and almost quite funny. I quite enjoyed it in the end.For all this, its somewhat ironic that a moment when Shrubsole was least in control provoked a career-defining change to her principle craft. At the 2013 World Cup, she was bowling to West Indies in early-morning conditions that swing bowlers dream of: dew still on the grass and moisture in the air. It was swing, not pace, that had got her to this level, yet she just couldnt get the ball to move. She takes up the story:Standing at fine leg I knew I had to get something more out of the perfect conditions, and I didnt look like getting them out she recalls. So I turned the ball around to see what would happen - and it hooped. Then the next ball absolutely hooped. I thought this was going well.It did go well, Shrubsole ending the day with the Player of the Match award, claiming 4 for 21. So she did exactly the same next time up against Australia, this time picking up 3 for 21. Ive forever bowled inswing since that day.A year later, she led all-comers in the World T20, nabbing 13 wickets at 7.53 apiece, earning the player of the tournament gong in the process.Its a pattern thats continued; her bowling average across 47 T20 internationals an altogether ridiculous 12.79. Sure enough, her reasoning for success in the shortest form evokes that familiar theme again: control.ddddddddddddIm trying to bowl as many balls that I can to hit the stumps, so youre always in the game, Shrubsole says. This was exemplified by the final KSL group game, where she claimed a - wait for it - quadruple-wicket maiden to end the innings, bowling three opposition batsmen in her five-wicket haul.I know it sounds so simple, but it is that simple: hitting the stumps as much as I can, she says, adding a reminder that she only really bowls three balls: a stock inswinger, a slower ball and a yorker. Better to have three perfected than seven not is her theory.Shrubsole will be in Australia this winter for the WBBL for her debut in the competition, and couldnt be happier with Englands equivalent surpassing expectations in season one. But she doesnt subscribe to the idea of the T20 circuit replacing the primacy of international cricket, stating that competitions need to always fit around that.Its on that international stage where Englands women have flourished this summer, Shrubsoles first as deputy to new captain Heather Knight. The times suit her quiet authority - smart but reserved, gifted but not flashy, she fits in tidily to the Robinson regime.This summer was a brilliant illustration of how things have changed within the team since Robbo has been in charge, she says. It was the indication of a good starting point for how we want to play our cricket: full of professionalism, with a new work ethic to training.Shrubsole sees it as a product of Robinsons background as a coach from the mens game that he fundamentally expected more, challenging why they couldnt prepare as physically as the men. I think thats what we really needed, she says. Hes a brilliant coach and knows how to get the most out of people.Was the change in personnel liberating? Absolutely, Shrubsole says. It allowed everyone to have a clean slate and motivation to put best foot forward. The obvious example of this has been opener Tammy Beaumont, who broke the record the runs scored in a three-game ODI series in Englands 3-0 thrashing of Pakistan.She was on the outside; struggling to get into the squad… so for her, he came in with a fresh pair of eyes and everything before had gone; it was a new start. Shrubsole is also ready to step up if Knight is ever absent through injury. Sure enough, shes thought about it plenty, as youd expect from someone exhibiting all the traits of a quintessential cricket badger. When asked to name her favourite bowler she cites Michael Holding, who retired half a decade before she was born. She later speaks about clips shes watched of Brian Close being peppered by the Jamaican in his pomp.As with batting and bowling and fielding, you wouldnt go into a game not having practiced it and have a routine with it, so Im always keen to captain as much as I possibly can.Additional to her obsessive watching of the game, she has routinely captained teams through her career, including representative sides at youth level and her county for the last four seasons. So should that day come, Im happy and know what I am doing.Casting forward a little under a year, a home ODI World Cup rolls around. Shrubsole assesses England will be there and thereabouts in light of recent progress. She believes the collective confidence is steadily building after their faultless summer. We are going to make mistakes, but its a case of having that belief in what we are doing.Its a considerable journey from watching her dad charging in to open the bowling, trying to get the blokes to let her have a bat or a bowl or a kick of the football.Naturally enough, as a swing bowler Shrubsole wishes for more Test cricket; understandable after her performance in that Ashes Test where she decimated the Australian top order on the opening day, claiming the first four wickets.In T20 cricket you get a lot of wickets as a result of the match situation, but in Test match cricket you have to get people out, she says. I take joy in working batters out and setting them up.A quick with a thesis in competitive psychology who also revels in mind games? If opposition players werent daunted by Anya Shrubsoles capacity, they should be. ' ' '