Das Team » cotty Bowman won his 1,000th

MONTREAL - Former coach Marc Trestman always had a slogan for the season, but the one for new coach Tom Higgins for the 2014 campaign ought to be Better Late Than Never. Nine days after the Alouettes announced the veteran Higgins as their new head coach, he finally met with the media in the teams Olympic Stadium locker-room and introduced his coaching staff on Thursday. The Alouettes are a couple of months behind the rest of the Canadian Football League in getting their staff settled, but at last it is in place. Higgins named former CFL quarterback Rick Worman as offensive co-ordinator, former Edmonton and Calgary coach Kris Sweet as offensive line coach and ex-Toronto Argonauts coach Greg Quick as linebackers coach. He also brought in two former Alouettes, Andre Bolduc and Anwar Stewart, as quality control coaches for the offence and defence respectively. Jean-Vincent Posy-Audette, who worked with Bolduc at the University of Sherbrooke, was named a defensive and special teams assistant. The rest of the staff, including defensive co-ordinator and assistant head coach Noel Thorpe, had already been retained by general manager Jim Popp, who stepped in as head coach when Dan Hawkins was fired five games into the 2013 campaign. They will have less than three months to prepare for the start of training camp. Its a challenge for Worman, a former offensive co-ordinator with the Eskimos and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, to set up an offensive system and work out who will be the starting the quarterback. With Anthony Calvillo retired, the club will need a new starter for the first time since 2000, with 2006 Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith and the inexperienced Tanner Marsh as the leading candidates. "To be honest, I havent spent a lot of time evaluating them yet," said Worman, who has worked with CFL veterans pivots Ricky Ray and Khari Jones, among others. "I saw them a minor amount of time on (U.S. television). "The biggest thing they have to be is consistent — get rid of their mindset of following Anthony and just focus on what they do. Theres no magic formula. My job will be to match up what they do well for them to be successful." Popp has said Smith is the frontrunner, but Worman said the decision on the opening game starter will be made after camp and the teams two pre-season games. They also have former Winnipeg quarterback Alex Brink in the mix. "Everyones going to get lots of reps, so its not important at this time to say who is and who isnt (the starter)," said Worman. "If thats what Jim wanted to say, thats fine, but it doesnt matter to me. "Neither is an established, proven quarterback in the CFL." Higgins also named himself as special teams co-ordinator, a job he did for nine years with Calgary. He will be aided by Posy-Audette and Bolduc. "When youre special teams, you get to coach the whole team," said Higgins. "So theres some merit to that. "Its so much a part of the fabric of the CFL because of the three downs. You need a solid foundation for your kicking, and youre not giving lip service when the head coach is the guy thats responsible." Alouettes owner Bob Wetenhall and his management team took their time after last season, when they went 8-10 and were beaten in the East Division semifinal, to decide whether to keep Popp in the dual role of GM and coach or to find a new coach. Wetenhall finally decided to have Popp concentrate on what hes best at _ finding talent. Now the new staff has to get to know their players in a hurry. "To me its not about the time issue, its what they do from now to training camp," said centre Luc Brodeur-Jourdain. "The good thing is weve been able to re-sign all our veterans and (the coaches) can get feedback from them. "Its on them now to settle everything about training camps, playbooks and the first part of the season. And we have a challenge in Montreal that most teams dont have. We have to move every day to get to practice facilities. That takes half an hour off of our 4.5 hours (daily working time limit). So we have to be sharper and more accurate in everything we do than any other team in the league." The Alouettes veteran offensive line will also have to get to know Sweet, who reportedly was unpopular with his players on previous CFL stops, although his line helped Calgary win a Grey Cup in 2008 and led Joffrey Reynolds to a rushing title. "I heard he was pretty intense as an O-line coach, but the Montreal Alouettes O-line group has a lot of veterans," said Brodeur-Jourdain. "We always took a lot of pride in being intense and very accurate in everything we do. "I think hell come to realize were passionate about what we do, and even if stuff happens in a game, even if it gets intense, were all adults and we can deal with it." Returning from last season are quarterbacks coach Ryan Dinwiddie, receivers coach Erik Campbell, running backs coach Mark Speckman and defensive line coach Keith Willis. Darin Erstad Jersey .com) - Nate Buss 3-pointer with 5. Custom Los Angeles Angels Jerseys . Azarenka needed exactly one hour in a 6-1, 6-0 rout of Austrian Yvonne Meusburger to start the night session at Laver Arena. Sharapova had a much easier time earlier in the day with cooler conditions and took full advantage in 6-1, 7-6 (8-6) win over Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, while Radwanska had to rally for a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. http://www.baseballangelslockroom.com/j-...-angels-jersey/. The hard-serving 22-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., became the first Canadian to be ranked in the Top 10 on the ATP World Tour thanks to his runner-up performance at Rogers Cup in Montreal. Justin Upton Jersey . It was just business as usual for the Thunder at home. Durant scored 32 points and the Thunder beat the Bulls 107-95 on Thursday night for their eighth straight win. Nolan Ryan Jersey . Reimer told TSNs Mark Masters on Tuesday that he doesnt know if he will be moved leading up to the March 5 trade deadline but added he wasnt interested in discussing it. "Who knows whats going to happen on the horizon here and right now I dont know if I want to talk about it too much.TAMPA, Fla. -- The Detroit Red Wings latest milestone game had a disheartening outcome. Alex Killorn scored a tiebreaking goal late in the third period, Ondrej Palat had two goals and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat Detroit 4-2 Saturday night in the Red Wings 6,000th regular-season game. Daniel Alfredsson and Tomas Jurco scored for Detroit, which has a record of 2,761-2,320-815-104 since joining the NHL for the 1926-27 season. "We didnt have everybody being good enough here tonight in my opinion," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "I felt we could have found a way to be better." Killorn beat Jimmy Howard from just outside the crease to give the Lightning a 3-2 lead with 3:11 to play. Palat added an empty-net goal with 63 seconds left. "I just felt that they competed harder around the front of the net at the end of the game," Babcock said. "We didnt compete hard enough around the front of the net, and thats defensively, offensively. You cant have guys be more determined than you." Tampa Bay also got a goal from Tom Pyatt. The Lightning, who had lost four of five, are second in the Atlantic Division, one-point ahead of Montreal and Toronto. "For everybody, it was a little bit of a cloud was lifted," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "I know its one game, but the taste of winning lasts for two weeks, and thats a good taste to have." Detroit, which has battled injuries to key players this season, entered on a 6-2-2 stretch. The Red Wings, 0-2-2 against Tampa Bay this season, trails the Lightning by seven points. "We feel pretty good about ourselves," Red Wings defenceman Jonathan Ericsson said. "Would have been feeling way better if we came out with a win.&" The Red Wings went ahead 2-1 on Jurcos nifty backhander at 11:19 of the second.dddddddddddd. The rookie stopped a 14-game goal drought. Pyatt got his first goal in 18 games, dating to back to April 4, when he got a backhander past Howard that pulled the Lightning even at 2 with 2:46 left in the second. Alfredsson put the Red Wings up 1-0 from the low right circle off a pass from Pavel Datsyuk 17:18 into the first. The goal gave Alfredsson 1,143 NHL points, which moved him Nicklas Lidstrom to become the second-highest scoring player from Sweden. Mats Sundin tops the list with 1,349. Datsyuk got his 800th point on Alfredssons goal. Palat tied it at 1 with a rebound power-play goal 1:44 into the second. Tampa Bay had failed to score with the man advantage in its previous seven games. This was the final game for both teams before the Olympic break, which could help the Lightning, who are without injured centres Steven Stamkos (broken leg) and Valn Bisaves. "A win before the break puts everybody in a good mood," Bishop said. Howard stopped 24 shots. NOTES: It was 17 years ago Saturday that Chicago senior adviser SNHL regular-season game as a coach when the Red Wings beat Pittsburgh 6-5 in overtime. Bowman, a regular at Lightning home games, had right knee replacement surgery on Jan. 24 and is rehabbing the knee at his Florida home. ... Alfredsson has 27 goals and 72 points in 63 games against the Lightning. ... Tampa Bay reassigned D Jean-Philippe Cote to Syracuse of the AHL. ... Red Wings D Niklas Kronwell was minus-3. ' ' '