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TORONTO – While assessing Brett Lawries season up to this point, its important to consider that the 24-year-old is doing something for his team that few other players, if any, could. Ken Dryden Canadiens Jersey . One day, hes providing the Blue Jays with Gold Glove-calibre defence at third base. The next, hes more than holding his own at second base. All the while, Lawries posting respectable offensive numbers overall and is providing an elite bat in clutch situations. It would be ignorant to look at Lawries slash line of .224/.275/.412 entering Sundays action and conclude hes having a down year. Consider that Lawrie already has eight home runs, going deep in 4.8 per cent of his at-bats. Thats a marked uptick from last year (2.7 per cent) and 2012 (2.2 per cent). Lawrie also has 26 RBI, which ranks him third on the club behind Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista. His best work has been done with runners in scoring position (RISP). With runners on second, third or both, Lawrie is hitting .366/.400/.732 (1.132 OPS) with four home runs and 21 RBI. All of it, as a reminder, while playing a third base/second base hybrid. Not even Ben Zobrist of the Tampa Bay Rays does that anymore. When Zobrist hasnt been hurt this season, hes predominantly been a second baseman. “I dont see any player in the league doing it, unless youre a utility player, which hes not,” infield coach Luis Rivera told TSN.ca. “Its tough because hes very good at third base. Hes one of the best third baseman and then you have to move to second base. He was at second base before, hes learning the position again and there are a few things he needs to continue to work on and he can be better than what he is right now.” Lawrie goes about his business, taking ground balls during batting practice at the position hes scheduled to play that day. That, in and of itself, would be overwhelming for some players. Yet it isnt for a player, still young, who earned himself a reputation for being hot-headed and immature, two labels which should be dissipating by the day. “Its tough knowing one day youre here, the next day youre there,” said Rivera. “Mentally, you have to prepare. You have to be mentally strong.” The terms “Lawrie” and “mentally strong” didnt used to be used in the same sentence, thanks in large part to incidents like the infamous helmet-throwing incident in May, 2012 and his stare down of Rivera and Adam Lind when Lind didnt score on a Lawrie fly ball 52 Sundays ago. Considering what hes being asked to do and considering the success with which hes accomplishing the request, maybe its time to give Lawrie some credit. “Theres a lot going on, man,” said Lawrie. “Theres always a lot going on, especially now just from having to play all over the park and just Ive got a lot of stuff going on, but for the most part Im just trying not to think about it too much even though there is a lot going on.” Hes a third baseman, hell tell you that repeatedly and Lawries proud hes made himself an elite third bagger at the big league level, which is a testament to his athleticism. Hes all-in on the move because it makes the platoon splits work for manager John Gibbons. Lawrie is at third and Steve Tolleson at second when Toronto faces a left-handed pitcher; Lawries at second and Juan Francisco at third base when the Blue Jays take on a right-hander. “Its just something that I have to do for the team and its what makes the team a little bit better, so for myself, its just what I have to do in order to make this ball club better and to, obviously, win ballgames,” said Lawrie. “The most important thing is that he wanted to do it,” said Rivera. “So if hes willing to do it, hes going to be fine, but when you fight yourself not to go one place and then play another position, play third base, ‘I dont want to play second base, thats going to make it real hard on him, on the coaches and on the team. Right now, hes willing to do both, so thats the easy part.” After Sundays series-sweeping 3-1 win over Oakland, the Jays sixth in a row, 11th in 13 games and 16th out of 21, getting a buy-in from Lawrie is a much easier task. “Its just fun,” said Lawrie. “Its just good to be competing. Thats the biggest thing is just being able to go out everyday and compete and, obviously, have a chance to win a ballgame every single day. Thats the biggest thing, but just competing on an everyday basis as a group is obviously a lot of fun.” Mike Reilly Jersey .Y. -- A month ago, Syracuse was unbeaten, ranked No. Charlie Lindgren Jersey .Y. - Everyone expected Clayton Kershaw to pitch a shutout, and he did — a unanimous choice for the NL Cy Young Award. http://www.canadienssale.com/authentic-ken-dryden-canadiens-jersey/ . Johnny Manziel, college footballs most entertaining player with the reputation for pulling off magical plays, was selected with the No.CALGARY -- Goals by David Krejci and Reilly Smith in a 98-second span erased two bad periods of hockey by the Boston Bruins. Krejci and Smith scored in the third period on Tuesday as the Bruins rallied for a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames. "It was a really tough first two periods," said Smith, who is now tied with Krejci and Milan Lucic for the team lead with three game-winning goals each. "Theres no excuse for that. We didnt have enough emotion, didnt have enough jump. "We made it way too easy on them. We didnt have enough hits. We werent turning pucks over. There were too many things going wrong to have a good solid start to the game." After the Bruins (21-8-2) were outshot 22-9 through two periods, Smith said the players got a stern talking to from the Boston coaching staff during the intermission. "The coaches came in and I think they did a good job trying to turn the momentum," Smith said. "We kept things a little simpler, got pucks behind their D and started playing back to Bruins hockey. The first two periods everything was going the wrong way, so it was good to see it turn around in just a couple minutes and be able to change the night around." Shortly after Krejci scored a power-play goal at 13:49 of the third, Smith skated down the left wing, cut around Calgary defenceman T.J. Brodie and roofed a shot into the top corner over the outstretched glove of goalie Reto Berra. "I tried to go hard to the net and I saw a stick come, so I tried to slip it under and just get a quick shot and it was lucky enough to find a hole," Smith said. Boston coach Claude Julien definitely wasnt pleased with his teams play during the first two periods after which the Flames held a 1-0 lead. "Those first two periods were really tough to watch," Julien said. "We just couldnt get anything going. Our true colours came out in the third. Somehow weve got to get our team to play three periods that way and stop pushing our luck here." The Bruins have now won three straight games. After skating to a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at home on Saturday, the Bruins started their four-game road trip in Toronto on Sunday with a 5-2 victory over the Maple Leafs. Jiri Hudler scored the lone goal for the Flames (11-15-4), who had won three of four heading into the contest. "Thats a bad way to lose," said Calgary captain Mark Giordano. "We had thee game under control. Phillip Danault Jersey. We played a great game for two periods and it seemed like in the third, we were afraid to make plays and (were) giving them the puck pretty much all the time and it cant be like that. "Teams like that, theyre going to win. Theres a reason they are who they are. We opened the door a bit and they took advantage." Boston goalie Tuukka Rask finished with 26 saves to improve his record to 16-7-2. Berra meanwhile stopped 22 shots. Tuesdays game marked the return of former Flames captain Jarome Iginla to the Scotiabank Saddledome for the first time since he was traded last March 27 to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a first-round draft pick and a pair of college forwards. After playing in 13 regular season games and 15 post-season contests with the Penguins, Iginla signed on as a free agent with the Bruins in the off-season. The Flames carried the majority of the play in the opening frame when they outshot the Bruins 11-5. Iginla had two of Bostons shots and also whistled a one-timer wide of the net during an early man advantage for the Bruins. Hudler finally broke the scoreless deadlock at 5:17 of the second period when he snuck a snap shot from the top of the faceoff circle under Rasks glove and into the net. Mike Cammalleri nearly put the Flames up 2-0 a short time later but his shot from the slot rang off the right post behind Rask. After recording just four shots on net in the second period, the Bruins took the play to the Flames in the third as they outshot them 15-6. "It seems like we just go into a shell and get away from what got us the lead in the first place," said Calgary forward Lee Stempniak. "We just chip pucks out and were on our heels and we lack that aggressiveness that we had at the start." Krejci tied up the game at 1-1 at 13:49 of the third when he tipped a point shot fired by Torey Krug past Berra. Notes: Iginlas last game at Saddledome as a member of the Flames was on March 24 when he scored the game-winning goal in a 3-2 triumph over the St. Louis Blues. Iginla played one more game -- a 2-0 road loss to the Chicago Blackhawks two nights later -- before being traded to Pittsburgh. a Giordano, who succeeded Iginla as Flames captain this season, played his fourth straight game after missing 18 contests with a broken ankle. He recorded an assist on Hudlers goal to give him 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in 12 games. ' ' '