inning in Wednesdays 10-0 win over the Phillies. Thanks to the big lead

VANCOUVER - A better effort produced the same the result for the Vancouver Canucks. Martin St. Louis scored his first goal with the Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves Tuesday as New York defeated Vancouver 3-1. It was another frustrating night for the Canucks, who are all but assured of missing the playoffs for the first time in six seasons. Coming off a demoralizing 5-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday, the Vancouver players showed the fight they have been preaching in the locker-room, but were unable to translate that effort into a result on the scoreboard. "I thought we should have won this game but it doesnt matter right now," said Canucks forward Daniel Sedin. "We are where we are because weve been on the wrong side of these kind of games throughout the season." Where the Canucks are is 10th in the Western Conference, six points back of the final wild-card berth with just five games left on their schedule. While the team has not been mathematically eliminated, the website sportsclubstats.com currently pegs Vancouvers chances of making the playoffs at zero. "Its always difficult. You battle all year to play in the playoffs and work to get a chance to play in the playoffs. Thats what its all about," said Canucks forward Alexandre Burrows. "When youre on the outside looking in youve got to keep playing and be a pro and work for each other." Daniel Carcillo and Benoit Pouliot had the other goals for New York (43-30-4), which has won seven of its last eight games and sits comfortably in an Eastern Conference playoff spot. Ryan Kesler replied for Vancouver (34-32-11), while Eddie Lack finished with 28 saves. "I think good teams find a way to win and right now were not finding that way," said Kesler. "Im not saying that were not a good team, were just not getting the job done." The game marked the regular-season return of Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault to Rogers Arena. Vigneault coached in Vancouver for seven seasons, winning six division titles and leading the Canucks to within a victory of the 2011 Stanley Cup. The Canucks fired Vigneault last summer after the clubs first-round playoff exit and replaced him with John Tortorella after the latter was axed by the Rangers. The flip flop of coaches has worked out much better for New York, with Vancouver limping towards an uncertain off-season. The Rangers led 2-1 after two periods and St. Louis, who was acquired at the trade deadline from the Tampa Bay Lightning, put the game out of reach while killing a penalty at 10:15 of the third. Vancouver defenceman Yannick Weber dove trying to keep the puck in at New Yorks blue-line but failed to do so, allowing Rick Nash and St. Louis to race the other way on a 2-on-1. Nash fed a perfect pass to St. Louis, who ripped his 30th of the season and first in 15 games since joining the Rangers. "I love to score goals, everyone loves to score goals, and 15 games plus the two prior to coming here, thats as long a drought as I have had in a while," said St. Louis. "There is a lot of things playing against you a little bit with a new team and new environment, but you try to stay the course, play the right way and find that fine line of anticipating and not cheating. "I feel like I am getting more comfortable finding that line." Vigneault said the commitment to defence shown by star players like St. Louis and Nash allows him to put them on a penalty kill that has 10 short-handed goals this season, and three in the last two games. "Those guys are willing to do that it takes to kill penalties, which is get in lanes and block shots and have good sticks and its paid off," said Vigneault. The Canucks trailed 2-0 after the first period but showed fight in the second for the embattled Tortorella, with Kesler cutting the Rangers lead in half at 6:21. Sedin grabbed the puck off an offensive zone faceoff and found Kesler in the slot, who snapped his 24th of the season through a surprised Lundqvist. "I thought it was a good hockey game. I thought we played better through the game than the other night (against Anaheim)," said Tortorella. "I thought our team played hard. We dont score. They score three, we score one." The Rangers grabbed a 1-0 lead at 4:59 of the first when Carcillo banged home his fourth of the season on a play that had the Canucks fuming. Lack appeared to have the puck covered but Rangers forward Brian Boyle jarred it loose moments before the goal. "I felt like I had it under my glove and then I get a pitchfork and I lost it and they scored," said Lack. "(The ref) said that he was going to look at it after." New York stretched the lead to 2-0 at 14:43 on the power play. Lack made a great blocker save on Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello, but the puck bounced to Derick Brassard, who in turn fed a wide open Pouliot for his 13th. "No whining. We lost. Were losing," said Tortorella. "Weve just got to keep on trying to get better." NOTES: Burrows was assessed a five-minute penalty for elbowing on Rangers defenceman Ryan McDonagh late in the third period. McDonagh appeared to be in some discomfort as he left the ice, but Vigneault did not provide an update after the game. ... New York set a franchise record with its 25th road victory of the season. ... The Rangers and Canucks played during the pre-season at Rogers Arena in September. The Canucks honoured Vigneault on the videoboard during that game, but did not pay tribute to their former coach on Tuesday. Adidas NMD XR1 Dames .com) - Semyon Varlamov more than earned his third shutout of the season as he made a career-high 54 saves to lift the Colorado Avalanche to a 2-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday. Yeezy Boost 350 v2 Goedkoop . LOUIS -- When Braves second baseman Tyler Pastornicky backpedaled into shallow right field to catch the popup and Jason Heyward didnt arrive fast enough to take charge, Kolten Wong got the green light. http://www.nmdbelgie.com/kopen-adidas-continental-80-sale.html . At quarterback, all agree that Andy Dalton has been a wonderful surprise, but to truly progress he has to play his best in the playoffs. The two losses in the wildcard rounds keep the evaluation on Dalton open -- just like it did for Peyton Manning many years ago and Matt Ryan until last year. Adidas NMD Dames Outlet .com) - Al Horford collected 19 points and 16 rebounds and the Atlanta Hawks held off a furious rally to beat the Detroit Pistons 106-103 on Friday night in a game between two of the NBAs hottest teams. Adidas Continental 80 Dames . Or maybe he already did. Clark hit his first homer, Wily Peralta pitched into the seventh inning, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Miami Marlins 4-1 Wednesday night.TORONTO - First things first: Episode 3 of The Baseball Podcast is up for your listening pleasure. Toronto Star baseball columnist and TSN contributor Richard Griffin joins me for a half-hour of talk on manager John Gibbons strategy when it comes to his starting pitching and struggling bullpen, whether Brett Lawrie will see increased action at second base and Jose Bautistas great start to the season. Give it a listen here. GIBBONS LIKES HIS OFFENCE The Blue Jays entered Thursdays action with 166 runs scored in 34 games. Thats an average of almost 4.9 runs per game, good for fourth in the majors. Manager John Gibbons is in his seventh season, over two tenures skipping the Blue Jays. He believes this is the strongest offence hes had. "I would think this is probably the top," said Gibbons. "My last go around here we were really strong in the pitching department. We had some good offences but I dont think it equaled what we have here now. You need that in the American League. You need to be able to slug it out." Toronto boasts the league leader in on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) and walks. Hes Jose Bautista. Bautista and Colby Rasmus, with nine home runs each, are amongst the league leaders. Melky Cabreras 48 hits are the most in the sport this season. As a team, the Blue Jays rank second in home runs (44); second in slugging percentage (.432) and third in on-base plus slugging percentage (.761). ENCARNACION DISCUSSES FRANCISCO General manager Alex Anthopoulos has credited Edwin Encarnacion with helping to lure Juan Francisco to the Blue Jays. "Ive known Juan from a long time ago, he was playing with me in Cincinnati," said Encarnacion. "When he was young, I was older in here and hes one of my best friends. He had a couple of more (options) to go so I called him and asked him to come here because they can give him the opportunity to play here at this level.dddddddddddd" Francisco, 26, hit 18 home runs last season while playing with the Braves and Brewers but was cut by Milwaukee late in spring training. He signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays on April 2 and began the year at Triple-A Buffalo. His contract was selected on April 20 to replace Adam Lind, who went on the disabled list with a back injury. Aside from the opportunity the Blue Jays could afford him, Encarnacion was pressed Francisco to come to Toronto out of fear he would sign with another American League East team. The division, specifically the ballparks in the division, are friendly to power-hitting left-handed bats. "Thats why I dont want him to go to another team, like Tampa or another team," said Encarnacion. SANTOS STARTING FROM SCRATCH Sergio Santos pitched a scoreless eighth inning in Wednesdays 10-0 win over the Phillies. Thanks to the big lead it was a pressure-free inning. After two-straight outings featuring blown saves and three on the season, Santos is in the process of rebuilding his confidence. "It was nice to execute on the things that I wanted to do as far as locating my fastball, moving it in and out," said Santos. "It was nice. Its a nice first step, hopefully in the right direction." His stuff is good. Santos has struck out 18 hitters in 10 1/3 innings. The problem is hes walked nine and of the 12 hits hes allowed, three have been home runs. Santos expects more of himself. "Hopefully I can build off what happened (Wednesday) night and never look back again," he said. LAWRIE UPDATE Brett Lawrie took part in batting practice and fielded ground balls before Thursdays game. He left the fourth inning of Monday nights game in Philadelphia with lingering tightness in his right hamstring. Fridays game against the Angels may be more hopeful than reality. Lawries more likely to return on the weekend. ' ' '