1. cheap jerseys from china . The Seahawks are trying to be the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions in 10 years (’03-04 Patriots). This is currently the longest drought the NFL has had without a repeat champion in the Super Bowl era (since 1966). 2. If Seattle closes as the underdog, it will be just the second time in Pro Football Championship history a defending champion is listed as an underdog in its quest to go back-to-back (1978 Dallas was +3.5 vs Pittsburgh after winning championship in 1977). Currently, Seattle is a 1-point underdog. 3. Marshawn Lynch has made his name this week by saying one-liners over and over. On Tuesday, it was “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” 29 times. Wednesday it was “You know why I’m here” said 14 times. Speaking of fines, Lynch has been fined $131,050 this season for various reasons. 4. Patriots coach Bill Belichick is appearing in his ninth Super Bowl – six as a head coach and three as an assistant (two with Giants, one with Patriots) joining Dan Reeves in that exclusive club. Reeves appeared in two as a player, three as an assistant and four as a head coach. 5. According to Elias, the Patriots are the first team to reach the Super Bowl without having a player with 100 rush attempts that season. Shane Vereen led the Patriots during the regular season with 97 attempts. 6. Each of the Patriots’ five Super Bowls since 2001 have been decided by four points or fewer. Of the other 43 Super Bowls in the games history, only seven were decided by a margin of four points. More Vegas Lines - New England is currently a one-point favorite. According to the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook, the official “opening line” was Seattle being a 2.5-point favorite. - Seattle opened as the favorite in the 2013 Pro Football Championship against Denver and closed as the underdog. In this season’s Pro Football Championship, Seattle opened up as the favorite against New England and is currently the underdog. - If the line closes at one, it will be tied with 1981 Pro Football Championship between Cincinnati and San Francisco for the smallest spread in Pro Football Championship history (since 1966). New England Patriots - The Patriots have scored 80 points in their first two playoff games this season, tied for the fourth most in a teams first two playoff games in a single postseason in NFL history. - Its the first time in Patriots history that they scored 35 points in consecutive playoff games. - With the story that the Patriots got different footballs in second half. The Patriots passing game was much better in the second half, with 2 fewer drops and only 2 incompletions. - There is a chance Tom Brady wont test Richard Sherman much in Super Bowl XLIX; he attempted 13.2 percent of his overall pass attempts at least 10 yards downfield outside the numbers this season (including the playoffs), the second-lowest percentage in the league. - Its been 10 years since Tom Brady last won a Super Bowl. According to Elias, the longest gap between two Super Bowl wins by a starting quarterback was six years when Roger Staubach won in Super VI and then again in Super Bowl XII. - Since joining the Patriots and including postseason, LeGarrette Blount is averaging 6.05 yards per rush on attempts to the left side. Only two other running backs have a higher average on those plays over that span – Le’Veon Bell and Jonathan Stewart - Including playoffs, the Patriots have not allowed a touchdown in the fourth quarter since Week 11 at the Colts. They are the only team in that span to not allow a touchdown (the Seahawks have given up one in that same time) Seattle Seahawks - The Seahawks allowed 11 touchdown catches to tight ends this season, tied for the third most in the NFL. Seattle only allowed 10 touchdown catches to tight ends in the previous two seasons combined (2012 and 2013), tied for the fourth fewest in the league. - It’s been an interesting season for Marshawn Lynch, who led the NFL with 17 total touchdowns during the regular season. He’s been fined three times this season for a total of $131,050 for various reasons. Here’s some of the notable moments that went beyond yards and touchdowns: November 19 Fined $100K for personal conduct ($50K for failing to speak to the media and $50K from a previous incident where he didnt talk to the media in 2013) December 26 Fined $11,050 for an inappropriate celebration gesture in a game against the Cardinals January 22 Fined $20K for inappropriate celebration gesture in NFC Championship Game vs Packers January 27 Says “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” 29 times at Media Day January 29 Says “You know why I’m here” 14 times at his media availability - Over the last three seasons, Marshawn Lynch has been incredible against a loaded box -- Lynch has the most yards after contact, over 1,000 total rush yards, and 12 touchdowns on such plays -- all an NFL-best over that span. - Marshawn Lynch posted his fourth consecutive season with at least 1,200 rush yards and 10 rush TD. He is just one of six players to have a streak of seasons that long. - During the regular season, the Seahawks recorded 83 rushing plays that went for at least 10 yards, the most in the NFL. Over the last 10 seasons, that ranks as the fourth-most by a team in a single season. - Russell Wilson had 33 rushing plays that went for at least 10 yards, which led all NFL quarterbacks. In the last 10 seasons, the only QB that had more 10-yard rushing plays than Wilson in a single season was Michael Vick, who had 44 in 2006. - Russell Wilson will be the youngest to start a second Super Bowl in NFL history. He’ll be 26 years, 64 days old on the day of Super Bowl XLIX - The Super Bowl record for most rush yards by a quarterback is 64 yards by Steve McNair in Super Bowl XXXIV. Russell Wilson has rushed for at least 64 yards in a game six times this season including playoffs - No Super Bowl has ever gone into overtime, but if it does, the Seahawks could be the favorite. Since 2012, the Seahawks are 5-0 in overtime games including playoffs. No team has more wins without a loss in overtime over that span. Top Things to Know 1. The Seahawks are the 12th defending champion to reach the Super Bowl. Of the previous 11, eight went on to repeat as champs, last done by the 2004 Patriots. The last defending champion to lose the Super Bowl was the 1997 Packers, who lost Super Bowl XXXII to the Broncos. 2. Tom Brady will become the second player to appear in six Super Bowls, joining Mike Lodish, who played in 4 straight with the Bills and two straight with the Broncos. With a win, Brady will tie Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana for the most Super Bowl victories by a starting QB with four. 3. Bill Belichick is participating in his sixth Super Bowl as a head coach – all with the Patriots. If Belichick wins, he’ll tie Chuck Noll for the most Super Bowl wins with four. He’ll also be the sixth coach to win four NFL titles, including those won prior to 1966. 4. For the first time under the current playoff format (since 1990), the No. 1 seeds from each conference have reached the Super Bowl in consecutive seasons. Super Bowl XLIX is the fifth time overall since 1990 where the top seeds from each conference will meet. The NFC team won each of the previous four meetings. 5. Super Bowl XLIX will be held at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. It’s the second straight year in which the Seahawks’ last regular-season road game was at the site of that season’s Super Bowl (2013: MetLife Stadium). It’s also the site of where the Patriots lost their only game of the 2007 season – Super Bowl XLII to the Giants. cheap jerseys .” – Mark Bloom (@markbloom21), on Twitter That one sentence sums it up, while at the same time, leaving so much out. jerseys from china . -- Michael Bennett gambled last off-season that playing on a one-year deal in Seattle would pay off in the future with the long-term contract he always wanted. Changes behind the bench and on defence in Winnipeg, rookies raising their game in Columbus and Colorado, Clowe rebounding, quality opportunities for Shaw and King and more in Scott Cullens latest blog. 1. The Winnipeg Jets sent head coach Claude Noel packing, replacing him with Paul Maurice, which is not out of the realm of possibility for a coach with a record of 80-79-18, including five straight losses preceding the fall of the proverbial axe. No matter who is behind the bench, however, hes going to have to figure out how to win games despite what has been subpar goaltending. Its not as though goaltending is the only problem with the Jets, considering that their puck possession numbers are in the lower third of the league too, but consider what the Jets situation could be with even mediocre goaltending. When the Jets let Noel go, they had allowed 18 more goals than they had scored to this point in the season. Among 38 goaltenders to play at least 20 games this season, Jets G Ondrej Pavelec ranks 36th with an .899 save percentage (and that includes Mondays 5-1 home win against Phoenix).. If Pavelec provided even a .913 save percentage, which would put him on the edge of the Top 20, that extra .015 in save percentage applied to Pavelecs 1037-shot workload, would have saved the Jets between 15 and 16 goals against. If backup G Al Montoya would still play at his high level (.921 save percentage), that would bring the Jets to a goal differential of minus-2 or minus-3. That doesnt guarantee a playoff team, by any means, but it would put the Jets in that conversation. As it is now, they are 10 points back of Minnesota and thats a huge deficit to overcome without making drastic changes. 2. Among the changes that the Jets are trying is returning Dustin Byfuglien to forward. Byfuglien played primarily forward for the Blackhawks, after playing defence in junior, then returned to the blueline when he was moved to the Atlanta Thrashers. Byfuglien is something of a lightning rod on the blueline, drawing criticism for turnovers and poor positional play (its almost like hes a forward!), yet the Jets have been undeniably better with Byfuglien on the ice as, over the past three seasons, he ranks 14th (or 72) in Corsi percentage among defenceman that played at least 3000 minutes and Byfuglien has been the runaway leader among defencemen in shots on goal, both overall and per 60 minutes. Whether Byfuglien remains up front will depend on Maurices preference, since the move was made in Claude Noels final game with the Jets, but Maurice has said that Byfuglien will stay at forward until Maurice sees a need to change. With Byfuglien up front, the Jets have some talent. LW Andrew Ladd, C Bryan Little, RW Blake Wheeler and LW Evander Kane are quality top-six forwards and then rookie C Mark Scheifele and veterans including C Olli Jokinen, LW Michael Frolik and RW Devin Setoguchi can all contribute. Throw those nine forwards in a blender and the Jets have decent skill from which to choose. However, with Byfuglien at forward, the Jets need to fill more than 25 minutes of ice time per night on the blueline. (Well, not exactly, because Byfuglien can man the point on the power play, but still, there are big minutes available). Tobias Enstrom, Zach Bogosian and Jacob Trouba can handle lots of ice time, but what about Mark Stuart? Hes next in line, leaving Keaton Ellerby and Adam Pardy on the third pair. Hard to look at that group and be confident that they will ease the workload on Winnipeg goaltenders, but if the Jets forward lines are consistently more dangerous, maybe thats a trade-off that is worth making; at least its the kind of move that a desperate team makes in the hopes of changing what, to this point, have been subpar results. 3. Bruins RW Loui Eriksson has returned to action following his second concussion of the season. Eriksson didnt immediately resume his previous spot alongside Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. Rather, the Bruins left Reilly Smith in that spot and moved Eriksson to the third line with LW Carl Soderberg and C Ryan Spooner. Even aside from his concussions, its been a bit of a rough start to Erikssons Boston tenure. While he has strong puck possession stats, Eriksson has played 16:24 per game this season, after five years of 19-21 minutes per game in Dallas, and his 1.72 shots on goal per game is his lowest since his rookie year, 2006-2007. Leaving out the game against Pittsburgh, when he suffered a concussion on the first shift, Eriksson has registered zero or one shot on goal in nine of his past 11 games. Tough to be a scorer at that rate. 4. Blue Jackets rookie Boone Jenner is turning into a nice asset for Columbus, definitely more than just a hard-working rookie learning the ropes on the fourth line. Most recently, Jenner has been skating on a line with Artem Anisimov and Nathan Horton, who has played six games since coming off injured reserve, and Jenner has five goals and two assists in the past 11 games. Hes not playing enough to generate huge expectations (12:07 ATOI in January), but Jenner is a physical player who can earn regular work on a physical line. If that line produces some secondary offence, all the better. 5. Andrew Shaw has moved up to Blackhawks second line, between Brandon Saad and Patrick Kane, a terrific opportunity for Shaw to contribute offensively. While he has 12 goals and 22 points in 46 games this season, Shaw has two goals and no assists in his past 14 games. A slightly encouraging sign, recently, is that hes generated 17 shots on goal in the past four games, the highest four-game shot total of his young career. With Shaw climbing the depth chart, Michal Handzus and Marcus Kruger arre handling the third and fourth-line centre roles, respectively. cheap nfl jerseys. 5. Avalanche rookie C Nathan MacKinnon appears to be hitting his stride, scoring eight goals (and one assist) in the past 10 games. MacKinnon has been spending much of that time on right wing. Most recently, its been with C Matt Duchene and LW Jamie McGinn, but MacKinnon has also spent time with Gabriel Landeskog and Max Talbot, Duchene and Ryan OReilly, John Mitchell and Cody McLeod. MacKinnon now leads rookies, with 29 points in 45 games, but the encouraging part about immediate production is that hes using his tremendous speed to generate shots on goal, -- 2.87 per game for the season, 3.6 per game in five games this month. 6. While the Los Angeles Kings have talked about trying to acquire more scoring, they have been been giving power forward Dwight King a pretty sweet opportunity to skate with Anze Kopitar and Jeff Carter. With 10 points in his past 15 games, King has tallied a career-high 21 points in 47 games for the season. Nice, but not exactly first-line material, either. King is clearly made better by linemates of that calibre, but hes holding his own. Until a proven scorer comes along, its worth keeping an eye on King. 7. The popular notion, especially after he scored three goals in 40 games last season, was that Devils LW Ryane Clowe was done. Hes battled concussions the last couple years and, as a power forward on the north side of 30, its not unreasonable to think that Clowe could be slowing down. While this could be merely a small sample blip, there may be evidence to suggest that Clowe isnt done yet. Playing mostly with Adam Henrique and Michael Ryder, Clowe has five points (1 G, 4 A) in the past four games, registering 13 shots on goal in those four games, which stands out as notable improvement after Clowe had nine shots on goal in his first 11 games of the season. Considering that Clowe is under contract for four more seasons, the Devils need him to stay healthy and fill both a physical and scoring role. 8. While this may only count as keeping a spot warm for RW Alex Burrows, as he nears a return from injury, Canucks forwad Zac Dalpe has been getting a chance to play with Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin on Vancouvers top line. Dalpe has seven goals and 14 points in 71 career games, so lets not go overboard on expectations, but hes played tough minutes against the Blues and Kings the past two games. 9. Senators GM Bryan Murray has acknowledged that that Senators are open for business when it comes to trades, which immediately starts the wheels churning -- who might the Senators be willing to move? First off, recently improved play gives the Senators a much more favourable outlook for the playoffs, which makes it very difficult to move core pieces, yet there have been concerns about the Senators financial situation this year, so whether they will be able to take on money remains to be seen. But, looking through the roster, there are some players that might hold some appeal to other teams if the Senators are dealing for more immediate help. Defencemen Patrick Wiercioch has played twice since December 18 and is under contract for two more years, at a $2-million cap hit. LW Colin Greening, a big winger who has nine points in 46 games, has a contract extension kicking in next season at $2.65-million per, which is more than is warranted by his production. Pending restricted free agents, LW Cory Conacher and D Eric Gryba, as well as any number of prospects could also have some appeal. Do any of those assets bring a significant upgrade in return? FIRST NHL GAMES Justin Florek, RW, Boston - A fifth-round pick in 2010, out of Northern Michigan University, the 6-foor-4 winger has 53 points in 114 AHL games since he turned pro. He scored a goal in his third NHL game, at Los Angeles, and was a useful contributor on the fourth line while Shawn Thornton finished serving his suspension. Karl Stollery, D, Colorado - The 26-year-old rookie was an undrafted free agent out of Merrimack college, and has put up 53 points in 111 AHL games. Hes on the small side, but Stollery managed to get the call ahead of Stefan Elliott or Matt Hunwick for one game before returning to the AHL. Alexey Marchenko, D, Detroit - Taken in the seventh round, out of CSKA Moscow, in 2011, Marchenko is off to a solid start in North America this year, scoring 16 points and posting a plus-15 rating in 33 AHL games. With injuries hitting the Red Wings all over, Marchenko has filled in for one game and the 22-year-old with good size figures to remain on the prospect radar if needed. Brad Hunt, D, Edmonton - Desperate for change on the blueline, the Oilers gave 25-year-old Hunt his shot. An undersized, undrafted defenceman out of Bemidji State University, Hunt had 55 points in 109 AHL games to earn a look, but was dominated, in terms of puck possession, during his three-game audition. Conor Allen, D, N.Y. Rangers - An undrafted free agent signed out of UMass-Amherst, Allen has 14 points and a minus-11 rating in 33 AHL games since he was signed last spring. He got into three games with the Blueshirts, and was decent enough to figure that the 23-year-old could get recalled again in the event of injuries. Eriah Hayes, RW, San Jose - A 25-year-old, 6-foot-4 winger who was signed out of Minnesota State-Mankato last spring, Hayes had a modest 12 points and minus-5 rating in 36 AHL games before the injury-riddled Sharks gave him a call. Hayes hasnt play a lot in four games, but hes mostly held his own in that limited role. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. cheap nfl jerseyscheap jerseys ' ' '
