, very small part and be able to manage him is a pretty neat

The National Lacrosse League announced a new and expanded playoff format along with division realignment, both set to begin with the upcoming 2014 NLL season. The league will reduce the number of teams who qualify for the playoffs from eight to six teams, featuring the top three clubs in each divisions standings. The two regular season division champions will earn a first-round bye as top seeds. The second seed will host the third seed in their respective division for the single-game elimination Division Semifinal in the first round. New to the postseason format, the Division Finals and Championship both expand to a two-game series from the previous single-game elimination setup. The top seed from each division will play the winner of the Division Semifinal game between the second and third seeds, with the lower-seeded team hosting the first game and the higher seed hosting the second game of the series. Teams who win both games shall win the two-game series. In the event of a series split with both teams winning one game, a 10-minute tiebreaker game will be played immediately following the conclusion of the second contest to determine the winner of the playoff series. Coinciding with the new postseason format, the leagues divisions will realign this season as the Minnesota Swarm join the Buffalo Bandits, Philadelphia Wings, Rochester Knighthawks and Toronto Rock in the new five-team East Division. The four-team West Division will be comprised of the Calgary Roughnecks, Colorado Mammoth, Edmonton Rush and Vancouver Stealth. The new playoff format was made official when the league recently reached an accord with the Professional Lacrosse Players Association for a new seven-year Collective Bargaining Agreement through the 2020 NLL season. The 2014 NLL regular season begins on Saturday, Dec. 28. 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Cheap Adidas Bruins Jerseys .B. -- Canadian pairs skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford went from elated to frustrated in the span of a few minutes.TORONTO -- After reliever Darren Oliver came out of his final game in the majors, Mark DeRosa sought him out on the Blue Jays bench. "I said How do you feel?" said the 38-year-old DeRosa. "He said I feel great. And I said Thats how it should be. You should be able to walk away on your own terms. "So Im happy for him." Oliver retired on a high note Sunday, striking out two Tampa Bay Rays in the swansong to his 20-year major-league career. The 42-year-old left-hander came on to a standing ovation to open the seventh against the meat of the Rays order, with Toronto trailing 7-3. He struck out Wil Myers and Evan Longoria while inducing James Loney to fly out. He threw 11 pitches, eight for strikes, before giving way to Steve Delabar for the eighth inning in a game Toronto lost 7-6 after a comeback fell just short in the final game of the Jays season. "It was great, a great run," Oliver said of his career. "But eventually every good thing must come to an end, unfortunately. Mine just happened to end at 42, I guess. But thats all right. It was great." The six-foot-three 250-pounder leaves the game with a 118-98 record in 7666 games and 1,915.dddddddddddd2 innings pitched. He struck out 1,259 and walked 720 in a career that included three stints in Texas as well as stops in St. Louis, Boston, Colorado, the Angeles and Mets. "He had some kind of career," said Jays manager John Gibbons. "Twenty years -- very few guys get to do that. "To play a very, very small part and be able to manage him is a pretty neat thing. He was one of the better pitchers in the game for a long time. Longevity in this business is hard to come by but to do it for that long and be that effective until the very end, that speaks volumes." Added DeRosa: "I look more at not only what hes been able to accomplish but the way hes gone about it. With class and grace. Hes handled himself like a pro from start to finish." Oliver, the son of former major league infielder Bob Oliver, returned this season after the Jays exercised a US$3-million option for 2013 During spring training, he said good health, good teams and good coaches helped keep him in the game so long. He also worked at it, studying opposition batters. "Theres really no magic explanation why Ive stayed around so long," he said. ' ' '