Der Fremde » end of Dan Ellis time in Florida

The Montreal Impact are heading into hostile territory for their upcoming CONCACAF Champions League matchup. The Impact will need to contend with the Central American heat along with a raucous crowd in El Salvador when the Major League Soccer squad takes on C.D. FAS on Wednesday. Due to strict CONCACAF stadium requirements, FAS is unable to compete on its usual turf in Santa Ana. Instead, the match will be held in the substantially larger Estadio Cuscatlan, a 53,400-seater in the nations capital. Knowing just how loud and disruptive the FAS faithful can be, Impact midfielder Maxim Tissot is preparing for an intense atmosphere. "I heard about them, and its intimidating," Tissot said in a recent interview. "Itll be tough there, with both the opposing team and the referees. We have to be ready." In the clubs prior Champions League appearances in 2008 and 2013, Montreal travelled to Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guatemala. The Impact are 2-1-1 all-time in the Champions League in Central America. This will be the clubs first visit to El Salvador — Central Americas smallest nation — where the fans are known for their passion and sometimes unruly behaviour. In addition, Impact manager Frank Klopas will have to watch the match from the press box. Two weeks ago, when 10-man Montreal beat FAS 1-0 at Saputo Stadium to take a three-point lead at the top of their group, Klopas was ejected for leaving his technical area late in the game. The ejection came shortly after defender Hassoun Camara was shown a straight red card for a studs-up slide tackle on FAS midfielder Raul Renderos. Camara will also miss Wednesdays match due to suspension. After the ejections, FAS pressed for the equalizer, but could not capitalize with the man advantage. Striker Marco Di Vaio had the games lone goal. "Were going with confidence to El Salvador because we know that its going to be an important game for us," Di Vaio said. "We have to go there to try to win. We arrive there with more confidence for sure because we came out of a bad time and we know that everything now is simpler." Montreals meagre victory at home against the groups weakest team could be its undoing. The Impacts offensive woes proved costly last year when goal differential was a factor in their group stage elimination. This fall, Montreal (1-0-0) will finish group play with a home-and-away series against the New York Red Bulls, the third and final team in Group 3. New York has yet to play a Champions League match this year. Only the winner of the group will advance to the eight-team knockout stage. FAS (0-1-0) is one of the most popular soccer teams in El Salvador. With 17 national titles, it is the countrys most decorated club. FAS is currently sixth in the Salvadoran Premier League with four points from three games. In 1979, the club won the CONCACAF Champions Cup in what later became the Champions League. Since the tournament changed name and format in 2008, FAS has never made it past the group stage in three occasions. On Wednesday, FAS will look for another standout performance from goakeeper Luis Contreras, who made six saves against the Impact two weeks ago. If not for Contreras, Montreal would likely have run away with the game early on. FAS will also benefit from a full team, which wasnt the case at Saputo Stadium. Due to visa issues, the team from Santa Ana travelled to Canada with just 14 players and without its head coach. The Impact, meanwhile, will have a slightly different look for the road game. Montreal finally added Argentine midfielder Ignacio Piatti to its roster after a lengthy courting process. Piatti made his first start for the club on Saturday before being substituted shortly after halftime. His arrival may not help the struggling team in MLS play, but the 29-year-old could help Montreal make a push in the Champions League. The Champions League is an annual club tournament that involves 24 teams from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Montreal is representing Canada in the competition after winning the Amway Canadian Championship in June. Notes: The Impact trained in Miami on Monday before leaving for El Salvador on Tuesday. … The distance between Montreal and San Salvador is 3,825 kilometres. … In 2008-09, when still in the North American Soccer League, the Impact reached the Champions League quarter-finals. … Montreal ended a seven-game losing streak in MLS with a 1-0 victory over Chicago on Saturday. Detroit Tigers Store . -- When Steve Blake checked in at the scorers table with 5:25 remaining in the third quarter, Stephen Curry shook his head and shouted across the court, asking Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson not to take him out. Detroit Tigers Pro Shop . 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Numbers Game looks at the Panthers big first day of free agency. The Panthers Get: LW Jussi Jokinen, C Dave Bolland, C, Derek MacKenzie, RW Shawn Thornton, D Willie Mitchell, G Al Montoya. The Florida Panthers headed into the offseason giving general manager Dale Tallon more financial freedom than theyve had in recent seasons, and he wasted no time spending that money, with mixed results. Jokinen, 31, had a strong season playing on Evgeni Malkins wing in Pittsburgh, scoring 57 points in 81 games, the second-best point total of his career. That situation is not a luxury that Jokinen can count on in Florida where, despite their young talent, they have no one in Malkins class, but Jokinen has shown that he can be a productive contributor with solid possession numbers when playing with skilled players. Slot him alongside young Finn Aleksander Barkov and that has the makings of a solid two-way line and maybe Jokinen isnt likely to be scoring 50-plus points in Florida, where no one scored even 40 points last season, but Jokinen can be a useful player for at least three of the four years for which he signed, at a total cost of $16-million. Then, things got silly. Coming into free agency, there was a natural connection to make between Dave Bolland and Panthers GM Dale Tallon, given their time together in Chicago, but Bolland is a third-line centre so its really hard to justify the kind of money and term that was given. Bolland signed a five-year, $27.5-million contract, and its just flat-out outrageous. Bolland played well with the Maple Leafs last season, at least he did when he was healthy, but hes missed 142 games over the past five seasons and is coming off a season in which he missed 59 games due to a sliced ankle tendon. At his best, Bolland has been productive, scoring more than 35 points three times, and handled a lot of tough assignments in terms of zone starts and quality of competition, but assuming that hes up to that level now, after his latest injury, seems a tad optimistic and paying money and term that is more typical of a top-six forward is just really difficult to digest. For a checking centre, he also hasnt been very good at limiting shots against while killing penalties. Sure, the Panthers are nowhere near the cap now, and maybe they never will be, but its hard to take a team from being also-rans to contenders simply by paying a checking centre a boatload of money. By contrast, Paul Stastny and Thomas Vanek were the only two free agent forwards to come at a higher cap hit and neither one ssigned for five years.dddddddddddd They didnt get as much term as Dave Bolland. MacKenzie, a 33-year-old checking centre, has been a reliable fourth-liner for the Blue Jackets. He had a career-high 237 hits last season and in four seasons with the Blue Jackets, hes won 54.9% of his draws. Signed for three years and $3.9-million, MacKenzie gives the Panthers good depth down the middle and it looks like Bolland and MacKenzie are going to bump prospects like Brandon Pirri and Vince Trocheck down the depth chart, presumably right out of the Top 12 unless they can fit on the wing. Shawn Thornton is a tough guy whose game has been declining in recent seasons. Hes fought 90 times over the past six seasons, but thats about what the 36-year-old (who turns 37 later this month) can do at this point. Whether thats worth more than a million dollars per season or multiple years probably has different answers for teams that arent trying to reach the salary floor. After missing the entire 2012-2013 season, Willie Mitchell had a nice comeback season, playing more than 20 minutes a night, a crucial part of the Kings second Stanley Cup win in the past three seasons. Hes 37, so not the fleetest afoot, but Mitchell has size, strength and adds a shot of reliability to the Panthers defence. In Mitchell and Brian Campbell (at least for now), the Panthers have a couple veterans that could show the way for first overall draft pick Aaron Ekblad and Mitchell, while a decent addition gets a nice payday -- two years, $8.5-million -- to eat some minutes on the Panthers blueline. Backup goaltender Al Montoya is a 29-year-old who posted a .920 save percentage in 28 games with the Jets last season. Trouble is, in the prevous two seasons, his save percentage was .894, so its not really reasonable to expect more than Montoyas career average which is .910. Adding Montoya would figure to mark the end of Dan Ellis time in Florida, though it may be difficult to find a taker for a 34-year-old coming off the worst season of his career. The Florida Panthers spent big money in the summer of 2011, overpaying a bunch of veterans in order to reach the salary floor, and this year has a similar feel to it. The issue for the Panthers is that they are a franchise that has reached the postseason once in the past 13 years; they dont need to overpay free agents as much as they need to build a stable base of talent. With all the money the Panthers spent on July 1, theres not much reason to believe any of those players are going to be long-term answers. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '