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The Edmonton Oilers took a bold approach to free agency, giving money and term to a couple of fancy stats darlings. Numbers Game breaks down the signings of Benoit Pouliot and Mark Fayne.. The Oilers Get: LW Benoit Pouliot, D Mark Fayne and D Keith Aulie. Pouliot, 27, has been a hockey nomad, bouncing from team to team in recent seasons, but hes been pretty good at each stop along the way. While playing for four different teams (Montreal, Boston, Tampa Bay, N.Y. Rangers) in the past four seasons, Pouliot has put up strong possession numbers in each stop and hes been a pretty effective goal-scorer in limited time. He had a career-high 36 points in 80 games for the Rangers last season. The issue that crept up with Pouliot, and was particularly notable during the Rangers Stanley Cup run, was his alarming tendency to take offensive zone penalties and that lack of discipline can be frustrating but, in the grand scheme, Pouliot has been drawing more penalties than he takes. He has good size and plays enough of a physical game to get under the skin of the opposition from time to time and Pouliots willingness to go to the net could give him a shot at a 20-goal season if he ends up playing a bigger role in Edmonton. Where Pouliot fits with the Oilers is a bit of a question. He looks like a third-line left winger -- thats the role that hes handled effectively -- and the Rangers do have enough talent on the right side that they could have some decent offensive production out of their third line. While Pouliot is lauded by those who appreciate advanced stats, most would do a double-take before signing any third-line winger to a five-year contract. Maybe five years and $20-million was the cost of doing business, but that does seem like a serious commitment, particularly if there isnt room for Pouliot among the Oilers top six forwards. The Rangers have some holes to fill up front, and knew that they would not be able to get him re-signed at market prices, especially when the Oilers were willing to spend at this level. Fayne is a 27-year-old defenceman who has good size (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) and plays a sound defensive game, something that is sorely needed in Edmonton. There were two defencemen in the league who played tough opposition, started more shifts in the defensive zone yet finished with a better shot differential per 60 minutes than Fayne. One was Zdeno Chara and the other was Faynes frequent partner, Andy Greene. The interesting part of that possession success is that, last season, Fayne was the weak link in that pairing -- Greene had much better possession stats (54.2 Corsi%) without Fayne than Fayne had (47.2% Corsi%) without Greene -- but that was a flip of the year before, when Fayne was at 57.2% without Greene and Greene was 54.4% without Fayne. Ultimately, Fayne has been a reliable defensive defenceman who should upgrade the Oilers and, signed for $14.5-million over four seasons, hes not unreasonably priced if he can handle top-four minutes in Edmonton. The Devils have some young defencemen on the way up, including Jon Merrill, Eric Gelinas and Adam Larsson, that can take over some of the minutes that Fayne had been playing. 25-year-old Keith Aulie is a 6-foot-6 defenceman who has played 136 career NHL games, but has been crushed in possession terms, over his four NHL seasons. Hard to imagine that hes anything more than a spare part, even for the Oilers. While Pouliot and Fayne arent marquee names, they have been quietly solid players for several seasons. While the Oilers went long on Pouliots term, they were aggressive to acquire a couple of players that ought to make them more competitive. 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. Cheap Wholesale Nike Sb Shoes . Thats exactly what happened. And they enjoyed every moment. Durant remained sizzling with 33 points, Serge Ibaka added 22 and the Thunder roared back from an abysmal start -- they trailed 22-4 early -- to embarrass the Miami Heat 112-95 on Wednesday night, erasing that big deficit out of the gate by outscoring the two-time defending champions by 43 points over a 33-minute span. Cheap Air Force Ones Online .com) - The Memphis Grizzlies signed guard Seth Curry on Tuesday. http://www.airforce1nearme.com/air-force-one-shoes-outlet-near-me.html . While the pair of Spain internationals return, midfielder Xavi Hernandez will not be included in the squad after failing to recover from a muscle strain to his left leg. Authentic Nike Air Force 1 Wholesale .com) - Tony Parker scored 17 points to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a comfortable 99-85 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Fake Air Force 1 For Sale . Pinch-hitter Tommy Medica singled in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning and the Padres beat the Seattle Mariners 2-1 in their first home game since Gwynn died of cancer Monday.SHANGHAI - Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium is among the longest hitters in golf. When hes hitting it straight, it can be a dangerous combination.Colsaerts overpowered the par 5s at rain-softened Lake Malaren for the second straight day on his way to an 8-under 64, giving him a one-shot lead over Alexander Levy of France going into the weekend of the BMW Masters.Colsaerts was at 14-under 130. He is 9-under on the par 5s alone.I kept on hitting good drives, which for me here is a big bonus because its pretty soft, Colsaerts said. If I keep it out in the short stuff, Im going to have a lot of shorter clubs in than lots of the other guys, so I can see this course a bit more takeable than the others.Levy quickly expanded on his first-round lead with three birdies in the opening four holes. He made two more birdies in the middle of the back nine to try to keep pace with Colsaerts and wound up with a 66.Levy already has won twice this year, including the Volvo China Open. His most recent victory was in Portugal earlier this month in a tournament cut short to 36 holes because of rain. He beat Colsaerts, who had opened with a European Tour record-tying 60.Colsaerts isnt interested in payback. Hes just happy he is starting to play well again after dropping to No. 142 in the world and returning to the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles not as a player but to do television work. He has gone 75 tournaments worldwide without winning, dating to the World Match Play Championship in 2012.I felt like Ive been in the zone a couple of times lately, and it doesnt really happen in such a short period of time like this, he said. So its pretty nice when you can get it going like this. Ive been playing quite well for the last couple of months.Romain Wattel of France had a 67 and was three shots behind. Branden Grace of South Africa (66) was among three players at 10-under 140.Overnight rain soaked Lake Malaren, and the players caught a break when heavy rain in the forecast neverr materialized.dddddddddddd Instead there was an overcast sky, soft fairways and slow greens. It was long enough that Colsaerts had to hit fairway metal into some of the par 5s, though he still had no trouble reaching them.I was actually surprised at how well Ive managed them, because for somebody that hits it as long as me, I dont really think my stats on the par 5s are as good as they should be, Colsaerts said. Theres probably guys that hit it a lot shorter and have a much better scoring average on par 5s. ... Im quite happy with the way the par 5s have been going because Ive been going pretty low on them.Thomas Bjorn hasnt played at all since the Ryder Cup. His neck had been bothered him even at Gleneagles, though he didnt let on and made it through the week. He was supposed to play the World Match Play and couldnt get out of bed for three days.He wasnt expecting much at the BMW Masters, though he wasnt expecting a start like this. Bjorn missed a short putt on the opening hole to make bogey, and then took a triple-bogey 8 on the third hole. Just like that, he was back to even par for the tournament. The rest of the round was a blur. Bjorn closed out the front nine with three straight birdies, and then birdied his last two holes for a 67.He was at 9-under 135, five shots behind.You have days like that where all of a sudden, it just all starts going your way, Bjorn said. And that was my day today. I would like to play the first three again.Graeme McDowell got careless with two shots on the back nine that led to bogeys, giving him a 69 and putting him six shots behind along with Shane Lowry (66) and Jamie Donaldson (68). Ernie Els (68), Justin Rose (65) and Ryan Palmer (67) were another shot behind.The BMW Masters is the first of four Final Series events that conclude the European Tour season. Rory McIlroy, with an insurmountable lead in the Race to Dubai, chose to skip the two events in China and the third event in Turkey. ' ' '