goal and an assist against Ottawa, giving him f

IRVING, Texas -- Tony Romo looked like the man in charge of the Dallas offence for the first off-season practice until the drills got a little more competitive. Five months removed from back surgery, Romo donned a baseball cap for 11-on-11 work. Theres no use in rushing, as coach Jason Garrett has been saying for weeks. Romo echoed that talk Tuesday in his first extensive interview since sustaining a herniated disk against Washington and missing the finale against Philadelphia with a playoff berth on the line. "I dont know that theres anything you cant do," the 34-year-old said in the locker room after practice. "You just want to make sure you dont put a high volume of numbers on it yet." For example, Romo says he has thrown at full velocity -- just not very often -- in his continuing recovery from surgery Dec. 27. That came two days before he watched from home while the Cowboys fell to the Eagles in a third straight season-ending loss that put them at 8-8 and kept them out of the post-season. "Its very difficult to watch," said Romo, who was under centre for season-finale losses at the New York Giants and Washington the previous two seasons, and for another one at Philadelphia in 2008. "That one obviously is out of your control. Thats what made it hard. Its amazing how big of a fan you become, rooting and excited about every little thing." Romo was further along Tuesday than he was a year ago, when he had surgery to remove a cyst on his back in April and missed all the off-season practices. He went to California ahead of his teammates for some intense conditioning work before training camp, and spent the first few weeks catching up. "Im actually excited just about comparative to last year where youre just going into camp without having had a rep in the off-season," Romo said. "Theres some things I want to work on, and Ive been doing that in small doses. Now well get that ramped up here." Romo has a new play caller for the third straight season in Scott Linehan, who was offensive co-ordinator in Detroit before coach Jim Schwartz was fired after last season. Linehan and Garrett worked together for a season in Miami almost a decade ago, and plenty of the language will be the same. The new passing game co-ordinator is in no hurry to see up close all the things his new primary weapon can do. "Were early," Linehan said. "And the mental game that hes getting done with us and the meetings and the last four or five weeks when we started our off-season program has been huge. I know hes getting himself ready to go." There are daily discussions over whats next for Romo. "Certainly we anticipate him being ready to go at training camp," Garrett said. "Well evaluate how he did today, say, What do you think? Should we stick with the same plan tomorrow? What do you think about Thursday? Youre always trying to push the limit as best you can, but you dont want to do something where you go across that line and they have setbacks." NOTES: The Cowboys waived injured rookie free agent tight end Evan Wilson and signed guard Tyronne Green, a fourth-round pick by San Diego in 2009. Green has 28 starts in 41 career games. He was with New England part of last season but didnt play. Air Max 97 Cheap Sale . The 26-year-old slider from Calgary posted a time of 50.464 seconds, 0.573 seconds back of leader Natalie Geisenberger. The German led the overall World Cup womens standings this season and continued her dominance by putting down a track record time of 49. Air Max 97 Discount . CBS Sports Jon Heyman is reporting that Santana will sign a one-year deal, likely in the next two days with one of a trio of suitors, with the Toronto Blue Jays believed to be heavily involved. http://www.cheapairmax97.net/ . Dragic was a game-time decision because of a sore right ankle that had kept him out of Wednesdays loss at Utah, but played all but the last 10 seconds of the second half in the first 40-point game for a Phoenix player since Amare Stoudemires 44 on March 19, 2010. Air Max 97 Cheap Online .com) - Robert Upshaw made a putback jumper to put 17th-ranked Washington ahead with 1:27 remaining in the game and the Huskies held on to beat Eastern Washington 81-77 on Sunday. Air Max 97 China Wholesale .ca Fantasy Editor Scott Cullen, NFL Editor Ben Fisher, and Isaac Owusu discuss three hot fantasy football topics.In honour of Dallas Eakins getting undone by percentages in Edmonton, here is a look at some players struggling with low on-ice shooting percentages. Players with low on-ice shooting percentages -- the cumulative shooting percentage of all players on the ice with that player when playing 5-on-5 -- particularly if different than previous seasons, should have a tendency to get better scoring rates going forward. LOW ON-ICE SH% PLAYERS Patrick Sharp – Limited to just 17 games by a knee injury, the Blackhawks’ sharpshooter has a modest 11 points (4 G, 7 A), while shooting a career-low 5.4% himself and posting a 4.1% on-ice shooting percentage this year, compared to 9.1% for his career. He’s also averaging a career-high 4.35 shots on goal per game. Buy. Low. Eric Staal – The Carolina centre has 16 points (7 G, 9 A) in 24 games, his 0.67 points per game standing as his lowest mark since his rookie year in 2003-04, but he’s stuck with 4.3% on-ice shooting percentage, compared to a career-mark of 8.4%. Aleksander Barkov – In his second season, the Panthers’ centre is playing against quality opposition with defensive zone starts, but he has four points (2 G, 2 A) in 19 games. With a 2.7% on-ice shooting percentage, which is low even for Florida, Barkov’s numbers are due to pick up. Patrik Elias – The 38-year-old Devils veteran has been a consistently productive force for a long time, but has just 12 points (3 G, 9 A) in 26 games this season. There is legitimate reason for concern with Elias, who is generating a career-low 1.23 shots on goal per game, but a 4.7% on-ice shooting percentage is a far cry from his typical 8.7%. Nail Yakupov – The third-year winger has flopped this year, with eight points (4 G, 4 A) in 31 games, and he’s had a terrible time generating shots lately (nine shots on goal in seven games this month). However, Yakupov’s 4.4% on-ice shooting percentage – compared to 7.9% for his career – makes him a natural candidate to get better results in Edmonton. HEROES Nikita Kucherov – The second-year Lightning winger had a goal and an assist in Tampa Bay’s 4-2 loss at Pittsburgh. Kucherov hasn’t gone more than a game without a point over the past 25 games, and he’s been one of the game’s premier 5-on-5 scorers this season. Among players with at least 300 minutes of 5-on-5 play: 5-on-5 POINTS PER 60 PLAYER TEAM POS EV PTS/60 Rick Nash N.Y. Rangers LW 3.97 Tyler Johnson Tampa Bay C 3.45 Nikita Kucherov Tampa Bay RW 3.42 Tyler Seguin Dallas RW 3.36 Ryan Strome N.Y. Islanders RW 3.26 Steve Downie – Scored a goal and added an assist in the 4-2 win over Tampa Bay, giving him five points (2 G, 3 A) in the past four games. Downie has 15 points (5 G, 10 A) in 30 games for the season. He may be a headache – there’s some reason that the Penguins are his fifth NHL stop in eight seasons (including twice with the Flyers) -- but Downie, who currently leads the league with 116 penalty minutes, provides a rare blend of skill and mayhem. Since the start of 2009-10, Downie trails only Scott Hartnell for points by players with at least 600 penalty minutes. Scott Gomez – Had a goal and an assist, with solid possession stats (22 shot attempts for, 14 against, 61.1%) in New Jersey’s 3-2 shootout loss at the Islanders. Gomez, who turns 35 next week, has six points (2 G, 4 A) in eight games since joining the Devils, playing primarily with Jaromir Jaagr and a rotating cast of characters (Martin Havlat, Travis Zajac, Mike Cammalleri), though his possession numbers (48.dddddddddddd6% Corsi, -1.9% CorsiRel) leave something to be desired. ZEROES Ruutu, Henrique, Ryder – This Devils trio was locked into the defensive zone against the Islanders, as all three were 15% of lower in possession terms, with Tuomo Ruutu (2 shot attempts for, 17 against, 10.5%) the worst of the bunch. John Tavares – The Islanders star was One shot attempt, blocked, and 42.9% possession against New Jersey, getting the worst when he ended up out against Jagr, Scott Gomez and Travis Zajac. Tavares has four points (2 G, 2 A) in the past seven games, and Monday’s 18:45 time on ice was his lowest in a game since late October. David Legwand – The Ottawa centre failed to register a shot attempt and had negative possession stats (45.5%) against Buffalo (yes, Buffalo). With 13 points in 30 games, Legwand is averaging 0.43 points per game, his lowest since his rookie year in 1999-2000. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Ben Bishop – Tampa Bay’s starting goaltender pulled himself from the game following the first period at Pittsburgh with a lower-body injury. Veteran Evgeni Nabokov will be available to start in Bishop’s absence, but top prospect Andrei Vasilevskiy could also be an option if Bishop is going to be out for a while. The 19th overall pick in 2012, Vasilevski has a .918 save percentage in 14 AHL games this season, his first in North America. Erik Karlsson – Ottawa’s star blueliner played 34:02 at Buffalo in a 5-4 shootout loss, the second-highest single-game total of the season. Jonathan Drouin – It hasn’t been an easy time for the Lightning rookie, who has battled to keep a spot in the lineup with the deep Tampa Bay forward class, but Drouin scored a goal at Pittsburgh and started skating with Steven Stamkos and Ryan Callahan for a few shifts after starting the game with Cedric Paquette and J.T. Brown. Ryan Strome – The Islanders’ skilled young forward played a season-high 20:09 vs. New Jersey and, while he started most (83.3%) of his shifts in the offensive zone, Strome also held 80% possession (20 shot attempts for, 5 against). Jacob Trouba – Winnipeg’s second-year blueliner has 12 points (4 G, 8 A) in 31 games, and has been a steady part of an injury-plagued Jets defence, but now hes out until February, leaving a large hole for the Jets to fill. SHORT SHIFTS Sabres LW Marcus Foligno registered a goal and an assist against Ottawa, giving him four points (3 G, 1 A) during a three-game point streak…Devils RW Jaromir Jagr had two assists and 11 shot attempts (6 SOG) and D Marek Zidlicky had a goal and an assist in New Jersey’s 3-2 shootout loss at the Islanders. FIRSTS Curtis Lazar – It’s been a long time coming for Ottawa’s rookie winger, who finally scored his first NHL goal in a 5-4 shootout loss at Buffalo Monday. Lazar has seven points (1 G, 6 A) through 26 games played, removing himself from the list of forwards with the most shots without a goal this season. Brian Dumoulin – The Penguins blueliner scored his first NHL goal, in his 10th career NHL game, in Pittsburgh’s 4-2 win over Tampa Bay. Bryan Rust –In his second NHL game, the Penguins rookie was bumped up the depth chart to play with Blake Comeau and Evgeni Malkin and it resulted in his first career goal during the Penguins’ 4-2 win against Tampa Bay. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca ' ' '