COLLINGWOOD, Ont. a€“ All signs point to the Maple Leafs having their top offseason acquisition in the lineup on opening night. Stephane Robidas, who broke his right leg for the second time in a matter of months in April, told TSN.ca that he expects to be ready when Toronto hosts Montreal a week from now in the season opener. The 37-year-old will participate in his first exhibition game on Friday. Yeah, I think so, he said of playing against the team that drafted him on Oct. 8th. I feel great on the ice. The plan is to play the game Friday against Detroit and after that weve got a few more practices with the team. I expect to be ready for that first game. Robidas has spent nine of the past 10 months rehabbing his right leg, which he broke twice in two separate places for two different teams in two separate games last season. It was an unbelievably wretched set of luck for a player with 885 games of NHL experience. The first injury occurred at the end of November in a home game against Chicago. Defending Jonathan Toews as he hovered dangerously on a Blackhawks power-play, Robidass right leg gave out from under him as he slid helplessly into the end boards on what proved to be his final shift with the Stars, with whom he had spent 11 seasons. Robidas was wheeled off the American Airlines Center ice for what would be the first of two times that season. Dealt to Anaheim on Mar. 4th, Robidas made his Ducks debut exactly two weeks later. On the 10th shift of his 17th game with the club - a playoff game against his former team no less - Robidas went for a loose puck just outside the Anaheim crease and was undercut by former teammate, Ryan Garbutt. It was the same right knee a€“ albeit just above the last fracture a€“ hed broken more than three months earlier. When it happened I didnt really know what to say, Robidas said from the Leafs team-building experience in Colllingwood, which is located about two hours north of Toronto. Theres things you control and theres other things that you dont control and thats one of those that I had no control over that. I did the proper rehab, I did everything I had to do and it was just an accident. Inked to a three-year deal with Toronto on July 1st, Robidas spent the offseason months working through a familiar recovery process. However frustrating, painful and bothersome, the first rehab experience left him better prepared for the months of work that lied ahead this past summer. And unlike that first injury, Robidas wasnt on any hurried clock for return this time around. After the first break at the outset of winter, he was racing back for a hopeful Stars playoff berth - which eventually became a union with the wests top team in Anaheim. I think mentally knowing exactly what I was going to go through it was a lot easier, he said of the process, which took more than five months, considerably longer than the first go of it. Though confident in his ability to play this season, the Leafs werent sure, previously, that Robidas would be ready when the year opened against Montreal. Dave Nonis, the teams general manager, said he was hopeful when training camp opening in mid-September. It still remains to be seen how rusty hell be upon his return, but Robidas will at least have the benefit of a weeks worth of practice and that final exhibition game on Friday. Thats a big deal for a player who was markedly behind the furious pace of a playoff chase when he returned in mid-March last season. At least you get a game, he said. Whenever I came back [last time] that first game was really fast. We played Washington in Anaheim and it was like whoa. Everything was so fast. Everything was so fast. By the second game I was already more [comfortable]. It took me a good five or six games before I could say I started feeling really good. But just by the second game I felt like a big difference. Robidass availability for the opener is also a big deal for the Leafs, who lost Cody Franson to a bruised left knee over the weekend. Franson suffered no structural damage on a scary play that saw Torrey Mitchell shove him into the end-boards, but the team has no timeline yet for his return and he was walking with a notable limp on Wednesday. Robidas is likely to play alongside Dion Phaneuf on the teams top pair. Bradley Chubb Broncos Jersey . The team reported the signing on its website Thursday, but said Friday the deal was off in "a mutual parting of the ways that had to do with the language of the contract. Bradley Chubb Jersey . The Mariners ace allowed just one hit over eight innings while striking out nine, and Robinson Cano backed him with a two-run homer as Seattle earned a 3-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday. http://www.broncosrookiestore.com/Broncos-Royce-Freeman-Jersey/ . A wide-eyed 18-year-old visiting North America for only the second time in his young life, Caboclo immediately noticed the "big tower" his new home is best known for. Isaac Yiadom Jersey . - The Detroit Lions have placed tight end Brandon Pettigrew on injured reserve, ending his season. Josey Jewell Broncos Jersey . Maximilian Arnold put Wolfsburg ahead in the eighth minute, when the stationary Fallou Diagne allowed him to guide Patrick Ochs cross beyond the helpless Freiburg goalkeeper, and Ivica Olic doubled the lead three minutes later after Luiz Gustavo did well to set him up.It hit me this week. There it was staring at me in the form of a magazine advert for posters. Placed together as portraits were drawings of four high-profile football managers but one made me do a double take. It wasnt long ago that the face of David Moyes, placed next to Jose Mourinho, Manuel Pellegrini and Arsene Wenger, would not have made me think twice. I have always hoped he would succeed, back to the days when I covered him as a manager of Preston North End. Yet, heading into Wednesdays crucial game against Olympiakos, it was easy to look at him differently after what has taken place under his watch at Manchester United this season. I am not a United fan but when I visited Old Trafford for their clash with Chelsea in August I was pleased that he had been given a chance. "The Chosen One" sign hung proudly in the famous Stretford End and the United fans sung songs with his name in them and mocked the manager in the opposing dugout. "You wanted the job...you wanted the job...Jose Mourinho...you wanted the job!" Seven months on and the joke has turned on them. Oh how they must wish for Mourinho to be in charge of Manchester United today. The same amount of home league wins as Crystal Palace. Fewer home league goals than Stoke, Swansea and West Ham. More than twice as many league losses than Chelsea. "This has been a difficult season," admitted Moyes in his programme notes for Wednesdays home match against Olympiakos in the second leg of their last 16 encounter in the crown jewel of club football, the Champions League. The official matchday programme had a message for fans before they even opened it saying, on the front cover, the Reds are determined to give everything. Inside the desperation reached new heights with a message from Moyes telling the fans to "make time wasting noticeable to the officials." It all felt a little forced. Defensive, in fact. From a team full of stars who have underperformed this season, the one message they wanted to make sure they got across was that they would give it everything. Manchester United expect more than effort but on a day when it felt like their managers job was seriously on the line, this was the message they were given. It was a night when more than a managers job seemed in jeopardy. A club who this season have badly lost their identity, were in danger of losing their place amongst the sports elite. On Wednesday night they claimed back a little bit of both. Before Robin van Persie scored a terrific hat-trick, United were in danger of falling from the balcony hosting the greatest clubs in the world and hanging on by their finger nails. Their position, outside the room, is not exclusively David Moyes fault but an elimination on Wednesday would have certainly played a massive part in the eventual sacking of the manager, whether that would have been this week or in the summer. The truth is United dont think they should be on the balcony, instead they think they should be inside hosting the party, but a home win against Olympiakos wont get them back in. What it does give them is two more games to show if they can once again be back where they belong as well as a victory that this club badly needed, not just for Moyes, but for themselves. To understand Uniteds demise at the elite level it is important to look at their performances in the true big games. No United team should be judged on past victories over any team out of the top 7 of the Premier League. For the purpose of this study, I looked at all of Manchester Uniteds matches in the last six seasons against Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham and their games in EEurope, whether it be in the Champions League, Europa League or the European Super Cup.dddddddddddd Over the last three seasons (2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14) United have now played 66 of these big game matches. They have won 28, drew 15 and lost 23 for a very disappointing win percentage of 42 per cent. They have been knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage and the last 16 in the last two seasons. In the three seasons prior to this stretch (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11), United played 70 big game matches. They won 45, drew 18 and lost 17 for a very impressive win percentage of 64 per cent. During this time they went to the Champions League final TWICE and lost in the quarter-finals on away goals to a team called Bayern Munich. The alarm bells should have been sounded during Sir Alex Fergusons penultimate year in charge when United were well and truly outplayed at Old Trafford in Europe by Benfica, Basel, Ajax and Atletico Bilbao. Likely, this was when Ferguson knew his time to retire was coming soon. He no longer belonged in the room at the top table with the sports best clubs. A collapse in April in two more big game matches, 4-4 at home to Everton and 1-0 at Manchester City, gave away the title and Ferguson returned for one more year but the big game cracks continued to show. The four previous seasons United had lost 24 big game matches combined – an average of 6 losses per season. Despite cruising to the Premier League title last season, United lost nine big game matches in 2012/13. Yes, they were Premier League champions but against the best sides they looked desperately short of genuine world class players. Alarmingly, in the last 14 months, heading into Wednesdays match, they had played 27 of these matches and won just seven of them. This is where the intense pressure fell on Moyes. This season, before Wednesday, in 18 of these games, his United team have scored more than one goal in a game only three times. No wins in four games against Chelsea and Tottenham. One goal, from a set piece, in two matches against Arsenal. A loss at home to Everton and away at Manchester City and, above everything else, two losses to rivals Liverpool who absolutely demolished United at Old Trafford on Sunday. All of these results, and specifically the performances, stayed with Moyes like bruises on the face of a prize fighter and with every new failure in a big game his loyal supporters started to doubt him more. Moyes wasnt just on the ropes on Wednesday night. He was on the floor facing a count to 10. Thats what makes the victory over Olympiakos so enormous. It is arguably the biggest victory in the career of Moyes. A victory that proves to himself, his bosses and his players that he can take charge of a significant victory in a big game. A loss would have capped off a nightmare season for United and the only way the club could have hung on to that balcony will have been to fire Moyes and blame him for their season. Players care about three things. Money, trophies, and playing at the highest level. It is essential that Manchester United are always able to offer that. If they had been knocked out on Wednesday they will have only had money in their hands to offer players who will have been worried to play for Moyes. Yes, the 3-0 victory saved Moyes but it also saved United who have been treading water in big games for far too long. It is clear star players need to come in to improve their record in those games but, perhaps, a star manager does not. Wednesdays win is only one game but for Moyes it can help change perceptions that, perhaps, he belongs amongst the games best managers without anyone looking at him twice. 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