SUNRISE, Fla. -- The last few days have been filled with awkward moments for Florida Panthers interim coach Tom Rowe.First, there was the unfortunate scene where Gerard Gallant loaded his luggage into a taxi after getting fired as Floridas coach last week. Another moment of weirdness came Wednesday, when Rowe settled into Gallants former office for the first time. And on Thursday night, Rowe made his home debut behind the bench -- drawing boos from some in the crowd.It is not a happy time in Pantherland right now.Floridas 5-1 loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday night was the teams fourth straight defeat, sixth in its last seven games and dropped the team to 12-12-4 through 28 games. That puts the Panthers on pace for 82 points, and its going to take a lot more than that to reach the Stanley Cup playoffs; 93 was the magic number in the East last season, 98 was what it took to get the No. 8 seed two seasons ago.Gallant got Florida to the playoffs last year. Rowe is going to need Florida to pick up the pace if a postseason return is in the cards.We took a chance with this, said Rowe, the Panthers general manager who never was an NHL head coach until the move to fire Gallant. But we just felt a change was needed, a little different direction, a little different voice, work on a few things when it comes to the details of the game. Ive been fired before, too. Its not a lot of fun.If theres a silver lining for Florida right now, its this: A year ago, the Panthers were basically in this same spot. After 28 games last season, they were 13-11-4; thats just two points more ahead of where this team is. And that club ended up winning 47 games, getting 103 points and a division title.But while that team was trending in the right direction, this one isnt. At least, not yet.Weve talked a little bit about that, Rowe said. I think it gives our guys a real good thing to shoot for. Weve got a long way to go here in the season. The biggest thing as a coaching staff, weve got to make sure the emotions are even-keeled, not getting too high when we do well, not getting too low when we hit a bump.The bumps have far outnumbered the good times for Florida this season.A team that thought of itself as a Stanley Cup contender coming into the season has been dealt one challenge after another. Forward Jonathan Huberdeau -- who excelled on a line with Jaromir Jagr last season -- is still weeks away from his season debut because of an Achilles issue. Jussi Jokinen missed time with an injury and has only two goals so far. Nick Bjugstad missed the first quarter of the season with a broken wrist and still hasnt scored.Jagr got his sixth goal of the season in Thursdays loss, but even he hasnt been the same as he was a year ago.Were kind of just waiting for those ugly goals, forward Reilly Smith said. You keep putting pucks on net, theyll come.Even the coaching change didnt exactly come at a good time, with Florida one game into a six-game road trip. The Panthers got five points out of the remainder of those games, falling twice in overtime -- then got behind 3-0 in the first eight minutes of Rowes home debut, on the way to the teams worst loss on home ice so far this season.Rowe still sees reason for hope.Its been a little odd, Rowe said. Same parking spot, just different office space. It was surreal, I guess. Put everything else aside -- Im a coach, Ive been a coach for the last 15 years and it really wasnt the plan to come in here and end up coaching. It turned out that way and Im going to embrace it.Tigers Jerseys 2020 . The All-Pro lineman got the leg bent under him while trying to make a tackle during the first half of a 22-20 overtime loss at Miami on Thursday night. The medical staff initially thought hed torn the ligament, and the test a day later in Cincinnati confirmed it. Detroit Tigers Store . Peter Gammons, an analyst for Major League Baseballs network and website, drew the ire of hockey fans on Sunday when he criticized the two NHL teams on Twitter for their physical game the night before. https://www.cheaptigers.com/ .7 million, one-year contract, a raise of $2.2 million. Wieters had asked for $8.75 million and the Orioles had offered $6. Cheap Tigers Jerseys . -- Sergey Tolchinksy scored his second goal of the game 3:56 into overtime as the Sault Ste. Detroit Tigers Gear . The 27-year-old Scrivens will be joining his third NHL club since signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent in 2010. The move also reunites with him with head coach Dallas Eakins from their time together with the American Hockey Leagues Toronto Marlies.Maryhelen Zabas walked into her local Applebees on a mission. Since she doesnt have cable, she needed a place to watch Game 2 of the American League Championship Series on Oct. 15 and figured there would be at least one TV in the bar area tuned to the game.But on a fall Saturday, it was college football as far as the eye could see, so Zabas politely asked a bartender if one of the stations could be turned to the baseball game. Upon noticing the Cleveland Indians T-shirt Zabas was wearing, the bartender readily complied. She herself was a Cubs fan and was hoping her team would face the Indians in the World Series.Zabas found a table with prime sight line of the game and, for the next several hours, she ate wings and watched as the Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 2-1, to take a 2-0 lead in the series. (They would eventually win the series in five.)After the final out, Zabas paid her tab and started for the parking lot. As she stepped outside, she felt the crispness of a fall day in Bend, Oregon, hit her face and breathed in the fresh Northwest air.She was more than 2,000 miles from Cleveland, yet, in this moment, her heart was filled with hometown pride.For most of her life, Zabas was known as Sister Mary Assumpta and had a presence in Cleveland as tall as the citys iconic Terminal Tower. She became a Catholic nun at the age of 17 and was a longtime member of the Sisters of the Holy Spirit -- an order that ministers to the elderly at the Jennings Center for Older Adults, which serves as a retirement community and nursing home in a Cleveland suburb.Sister Mary Assumpta had a claim to fame in Cleveland as one of the most diehard Indians fans in town.She and her fellow sisters were fixtures at ball games at the old Cleveland Stadium, where it was hard to miss a group of nuns dressed in full habit eating hot dogs, yelling at umps and cheering on the Tribe with fervor.At the end of the games, if we lost, people who had a little too much alcohol would say, Oh, Sister, you didnt pray hard enough, and wed turn around and say, Prayer isnt just our job, Zabas said.It seemed no amount of prayer could help the Indians during their 1985 season when the team lost 102 games, so the nuns figured chocolate chip cookies might at least lift the players spirits. After the All-Star break that year, they began taking a batch to the team at the beginning of every homestand.It was just to let them know that somebody cared, Zabas said with a laugh.Over time, it became tradition for the Sisters of the Holy Spirit to bake a special batch of chocolate chip cookies for the Indians home opener each year.Strikeouts were baked in the cookies for the pitchers and home runs into the cookies for the hitters, explained Zabas.But sometimes they got them mixed up and would eat the wrong ones, she joked.Sister Mary Assumptas celebrity grew when she had a cameo in the movie Major League wearing her habit and an Indians jacket. She got her own Upper Deck baseball card, a write-up in People magazine and served as a special World Series correspondent for a local Cleveland TV station and CBS This Morning in 1995.But as much as she was recognized for her devotion to the Indians, it was only a small partt of Sister Mary Assumptas life.dddddddddddd After beginning her career as a high school English teacher, she transitioned into healthcare administration and became an expert in end-of-life care, traveling the country giving programs and lectures on the subject. She also was the backbone of her small group of sisters and worked tirelessly to keep the order thriving. However, her unending service to others and penchant for self-described overextension eventually took its toll.My soul was burning out, she said.So after nearly 50 years as a Catholic nun, she decided to leave her religious order and took a job with the Sacred Art of Living ministry in Oregon, which works with caregivers and the dying.In the summer of 2013, Zabas set off for her new life in the first car she ever owned -- a Chevrolet Sonic. Prior to that, she always shared a vehicle with one with the other sisters. She was no longer wearing a habit and had taken the name Maryhelen, comprised of her given name Helen and decided to add Mary to it.Along the way from Ohio to Oregon, Zabas made stops at national monuments and other attractions, including the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota. It was there that she met a member of the Cherokee tribe, who bestowed upon her an American Indian name: She Who Laughs at the Unknown.It was fitting as Zabas life has been guided by a certain fearlessness. Whenever she gets a bold idea, one way or another, shell find a way to make it happen -- especially if it involves helping someone in need. For instance, there was the time she turned the sisters cookie baking into a business, Nun Better, to support the endowment of the Jennings Center for Older Adults.To this day, at the age of 71, she still lives life at a vigorous clip. In fact, prayer and baseball might be the only two things in Zabas life that force her to slow down.Theres nothing fast about a ball game. With no game clock or time limit, theres only the ebb and flow of balls and strikes. Its essentially a chess match, and the drama is in the details, which Zabas loves.I learned [the game] from my mother, she said. Ive learned the nuances and know that its a game of strategy that a lot of people dont understand.One of the difficult parts about being so far from Cleveland is no longer being able to watch the Indians regularly on TV or go to games at Progressive Field, Zabas admitted.I just long to see a baseball game, she said.She gets her baseball fix by attending an occasional Bend Elks game, the amateur baseball team in town, and always makes room in her schedule for the Indians when she visits Cleveland during the season.This past summer there, she did something all too familiar. She whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and delivered them to the Indians.Perhaps the hitters and pitchers finally got the right cookies this season with the team only one game away from its first World Series title since 1948.Whatever the outcome, Zabas will always keep her faith in the Indians even if she has to do it from afar.I will not switch my fandom no matter where I live, she said. ' ' '
