Youve heard of Buccis Overtime Challenge? Well, this is Buccis Hat Trick Challenge. Whats the challenge part? Regularly coming up with three hits about the World Cup of Hockey, which starts Saturday with USA-Europe (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) and Canada-Czech Republic (8 p.m. ET, ESPNEWS). Go, Booch!1. Pay the coaches: Canada has obviously created a buy-in culture with their players at international events. But when you watch a Canada practice, you see how the assistant coaches, normally strong head coaches, also have bought in to their roles. Head coach Mike Babcock runs a fast-paced practice and his assistant coaches have to stay on their toes and keep those pucks ready for the fast-paced drills. Claude Julien, who had his second hip replacement earlier in the year, had to keep scrambling to keep a 2-on-1 transition drill going Friday. He was still winded after practice. For some reason, none of these coaches is being paid for coaching the World Cup. I know its an honor to coach on these star-studded teams, but this is a for-profit tournament, and you would think a small thanks for coming stipend/coaching fee would be appropriate.2. The kid is as advertised: Auston Matthews is already a topic of conversation here at the World Cup. A Team North America management member told me Matthews is getting better every day and has that thick, Phil Esposito body type that makes it hard to get the puck from him. Matthews can handle the puck down low, get scoring chances and find the open man. I shook Matthews hand and chatted with him a bit. He has big, strong hands and an engaging personality. Hes a little guarded in formal interviews, but as he ages I think he will evolve into a very good and entertaining soundbite. Hes smart and unflappable and looks like a young Jack White. (Fall is here/Hear the yell/ Back to school/Ring the bell.) Matthews turns 19 on Saturday, the day the World Cup starts. Matthews and Team North America play their first game Sunday against Patrick Laine (Lion-AY) and Finland at 8 p.m. on ESPN2. Ill do the play-by-play, Kevin Weekes will be in the booth with me, and Darren Pang will be between the benches.3. Are you ready for this? Many are still in summer golf mode. The weather in Toronto has been perfect. I spent most of Team USAs media time talking golf with the New Jersey Devils forward Kyle Palmieri. Another player mentioned that Jason Day told him that part of his new, lucrative Nike clothing deal allows him to wear other logos on his Nike golf shirt. So there is breaking golf apparel news for you. Darren Pang told me that Corey Perry and Sidney Crosby took Pang aside and talked golf. Crosby is apparently down to about a 10 handicap. Brandon Dubinsky and I broke down the Columbus, Ohio, golf courses. Now, its time for hockey. After a long period of anticipation, the World Cup of Hockey is here. Cheap NBA Jerseys . 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There are surprises among the Vezina candidates, but most of the others are standard top-tier performers, even if the two Hart Trophy runners-ups have never been quite as good as they have been through the first half of the season.SAN ANTONIO - At their best in the NBA Finals, the Miami Heat have forced turnover after turnover, finding a gear the San Antonio Spurs just cant reach. Play in Game 5 as they have during their two easy victories in the series, and LeBron James defending champs will head home just one win away from another title. But Miamis best hasnt been carrying over from game to game, not just in this series but for a while now. So its anybodys guess what happens Sunday in a finals thats dead even, though the games havent been. "I think Game 5 should be the best game of the series," Dwyane Wade said. "Both teams should come out knowing each other, knowing what each other want to do, and it should be a very good game." Not the way this series has been going. Game 1 was a thriller, neither team able to build a double-digit lead over four back-and-fourth quarters before Tony Parkers clinching basket helped the Spurs pull out a 92-88 victory. The teams havent delivered a classic since. The Heat won by 19, lost by 36 and cruised by 16. The last few minutes of each have looked more like an October exhibition than a mid-June championship clash. "You lose a game like we did in Game 2 and we come back and beat them in Game 3 and look like they looked last night, thats what drives me crazy, because as coaches you try to prevent that," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Friday during a conference call. Neither team practiced. "You like to be on a little bit more of an even keel and perform the same way each night, and the only thing I can tell myself after all these years is, youre dealing with people, with emotions and not robots," Popovich said. "They come out and they all play hard, but theres that little intangible, that little spark of intensity or back against the wall, or a little bit of fear that just seems to kick in when youve lost the previous game. And when you find teams that can get over that, those are the championship teams." Its the most uneven stretch of the NBA Finals since 2005, according to STATS, when San Antonio and the Detroit Pistons swapped four straight games decided by 15 or more points to open the series. Back then, the Spurs could depend on Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to get them righted. But now Parker has a shaky hamstring, Ginobilis shot and confidence are even shakier, and San Antonio might need a throwback performance from Duncan in what could be his last home game in a storied finals career. "If they dont get more from Tim Duncan, Sunday is the Spurs last stand," Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said on NBA TVs postgame show. Duncan knows that what the Spurs rreally need is to take better care of the basketball.dddddddddddd Their 17 turnovers led to 19 Miami points in Game 2, and they gave the Heat 23 points with their 19 turnovers Thursday. "Thats a big problem," Duncan said. "When we lose, thats the big deal right there." A healthy Parker would help. He started strong in Game 4 while playing with a strained right hamstring but couldnt maintain it in the second half. Hes hoping the two-day break between games will strengthen his stamina. "Its going to be huge for me," Parker said after the game. "Obviously, definitely got fatigued in the second half. Those two days Im going to make sure I do a lot of treatment and to get 100 per cent. Tonight, I was not 100 per cent. By Sunday, thats my goal, to be good to go." The Spurs can only help their Big Three looks as good as Miamis was on Thursday. With 33 points and 11 rebounds from James, 32 points from Wade, and 20 points and 13 rebounds from Chris Bosh, the Heat rode the top-heavy balance thats supposed to deliver multiple titles to Miami. But the team that sustained its excellence for 27 straight victories during the regular season hasnt even been able to do it for consecutive games lately. Double-digit victories in Games 3 and 5 of the Eastern Conference finals were followed by losses, as was their first victory in this series. "Well, Game 5 is going to be a big game," Bosh said. "I think we just have to stay in the place that were in." As usual, that may depend on James. After taking unusually long to get going in Games 2 and 3, he was out quick Thursday, making it clear the game was not going to be played on the Spurs terms. "I gave it everything I had," James said. "I was just playing as hard as I could until the tank was empty and thats how its going to have to be for the rest of this series." Of the previous 27 times the finals were tied at 2-2, the Game 5 winner went on to take the series 20 times. The Heat lost in this situation two years ago in Dallas, and the Mavericks finished them off in Game 6 in Miami. Wade has never gone the distance in his three previous NBA Finals, but kept mentioning Thursday that there were three games left, as if expecting this series to reach a Game 7. The Heat could make that less likely with a victory Sunday. "Its going to be hard, the hardest thing were going to do as a group is to try to repeat," Wade said. "And this team over here is not going to quit, no matter what. So we have to prepare for their best effort." ___ Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney ' ' '
