Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork. Kevin De Bruyne Jersey .com) - Its no secret the Western Conference has been dominating the NHL landscape in recent years. A month into the 2014-15 campaign, its plain to see not much has changed. While the West is littered with teams that appear to be legitimate Stanley Cup contenders, the Eastern Conference, and in particular the Metropolitan Division, is marked by mediocrity. Not only is the West boasting a 37-22-8 record when facing clubs from the East, the superior conference also owns a cumulative goal differential of plus-30 in all games this season. Teams from the East, meanwhile, have been outscored by 28 goals. A closer look at the Easts two divisions reveals the Metro to be the anchor weighing down the conference at the moment. Five of the eight teams in the Atlantic Division own positive goal differentials and the groups collective minus-10 differential is in large part due to one team -- the Buffalo Sabres, who are an NHL-worst minus-27. The Metro, on the other hand, is minus-18 as a whole with only Pittsburgh (plus-19) and Washington (plus-2) in the black. Only the Penguins have played consistently well and its no surprise Pittsburgh is leading the division with 15 points on a 7-2-1 record. The rest of the division has been wildly inconsistent as every team not named the Penguins has suffered through a losing streak of three games or more. In fact, other than Pittsburgh and the New York Rangers -- last years conference champions -- each Metro club has lost at least four in a row at some point in the early going. To be fair, some of the Metros struggles this season could be explained by injury woes. Columbus has been absolutely decimated by injuries in the first month, while the Rangers, Carolina Hurricanes and Philadelphia Flyers also have dealt with key losses to their rosters. The Devils and Islanders are currently sitting second and third behind the Pens for the divisions remaining two automatic bids, but they have both cooled off considerably since beginning the season on hot streaks. At this stage, only Pittsburgh, New Jersey and the Isles would be playoff teams if the season ended today, while the Atlantic would eat up the Easts remaining five postseason spots. Its a long season of course and things could get better for the residents of the NHLs oddest-named division once some of the Metros clubs get a little healthier. At the moment, however, the division is giving the lesser Eastern Conference an even worse reputation. TARASENKO TEARING IT UP One player who could sum up the Wests superiority at the moment is young St. Louis winger Vladimir Tarasenko, who just like his conference seems to be getting better every season. The 22-year-old Russian broke out with 21 goals and 43 points for St. Louis last season and is on pace to obliterate those career-bests in 2014-15. Tarasenko, the NHLs reigning First Star of the Week, has seven goals and six assists in 11 games this season, with six of those markers coming over his past four outings. That puts him on pace to tally 52 goals and 97 points in just his third NHL campaign. The burgeoning star delivered on a big stage Monday against the New York Rangers, notching the early front-runner for goal of the season at Madison Square Garden. On the power play, Tarasenko received the puck in the neutral zone before skating his way through the heart of the Rangers defense. After weaving his way through the New York zone, Tarasenko finished with an amazing move as he skated left and reached back to his right with one hand on the stick to push the puck past Rangers goaltender Cam Talbot. Tarasenko also scored the shootout winner later against the Rangers, leading St. Louis to its fifth straight victory. Hes as dynamic of a goal-scorer as anyone Ive ever played with, said Blues captain David Backes. His shot and his burst of speed and his ability to find the net obviously is out of this world. Tarasenkos early success is a good sign for the Blues, a team that has been strong in the regular season during the Ken Hitchcock era only to disappoint come playoff time. One thing to remember is St. Louis is still a young team and if players like Tarasenko and fellow forward Jaden Schwartz continue to develop the way they have been, the Blues could challenge the Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks of the world for NHL supremacy. St. Louis needs someone to be a difference maker if it plans on getting over the postseason hump. The way Tarasenko has steadily improved since his rookie season of 2012-13, its easy to believe the 2010 first-round pick may be the right man to help the Blues turn the corner. When he first came over, he was just happy to play here, Hitchcock said of Tarasenko. Now he wants to be a guy that contributes every night. He wants to be a significant player in the League. Its a big difference. Luke Bolton Manchester City Jersey . But defending champion Elena Vesnina of Russia held off a strong challenge to beat Shuai Peng of China 6-3, 6-4, and there was another hard-fought victory for 2012 runner-up Angelique Kerber of Germany, who defeated Alison Riske of the United States 7-6 (6), 6-4. Bernardo Silva Manchester City Jersey . Setting United on its way to a 2-0 victory, Rooney sent the ball high from inside the halfway line over goalkeeper Adrian after just seven minutes. "Its just instinct, Ive turned and had a quick look and seen the goalkeeper off his line," Rooney said. http://www.authenticmanchestercityshop.com/Authentic-Leroy-Sane-Manchester-City-Jersey/ . Ted Ligety, Mikaela Shiffrin, Bode Miller and Tim Jitloff underlined the squads enormous potential on the Rettenbach glacier in Austria.TORONTO -- Blue Jays manager John Gibbons didnt hold his usual post-game availability with reporters after Toronto dropped a 5-3 decision to the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday. His brief quote issued through a team spokesman said it all. "Skaggs was great -- he man-handled us," Gibbons said. It was the first time Los Angeles pitcher Tyler Skaggs had started against Toronto and he didnt allow the Blue Jays to find their rhythm. The 22-year-old left-hander gave up a run in the first inning and then retired 21 straight batters. Skaggs was pulled after giving up two singles in the ninth inning. The Blue Jays scored twice in the frame to make things interesting for the crowd of 31,412 at Rogers Centre. Toronto (18-19) brought the potential winning run to the plate but reliever Joe Smith got pinch-hitter Adam Lind to hit into a game-ending double play. Skaggs (3-1) gave up four hits and two earned runs over eight-plus innings of work. "He pitched one heck of a game for us, took us into the ninth inning," said Angels acting manager Dino Ebel. "Cant say enough about the kid today." Skaggs struck out four and didnt walk a batter. He threw 70 of his 103 pitches for strikes. "He was missing our barrel," said Jays catcher Erik Kratz. "He did a good job of mixing his speeds a little bit but attacking with his fastball. He had some good movement on his fastball that kept us (hitting) ground balls, popups, ground balls, popups. "Not a lot of hard hits today." Smith earned his fourth save of the season. C.J. Cron hit his first career home run and Chris Iannetta added a two-run shot for the Angels, who knocked Toronto starter J.A. Happ (1-1) out of the game in the third inning. "He just got hurt on a couple of balls in the middle of the plate or up," Kratz said. "He got behind in a few counts and they made him pay." Los Angeles (18-17) has won two straight over Toronto. The teams will continue the four-game series on Sunday afternoon. The Blue Jays opened the scoring in the first when slugger Jose Bautista reached base after Skaggs misplayed a comebacker. Edwin Encarnacion drove a double into the left-field corner that brought Bautista home. Howie Kendrick hit a ground-rule double off Happ in the second inning and came around on a single by Cron. Iaannetta made it a 3-1 game with his third homer of the season. John Stones Manchester City Jersey. The Angels batted around in the frame and nearly broke the game wide open. Slugger Albert Pujols flew out to deep left field with the bases loaded for the final out. Happ didnt fare much better in the third. He gave up a solo shot to Cron and was replaced by Todd Redmond after an Iannetta single. "Obviously theyre a great-hitting ballclub," Happ said. "Weve got a lot of those in our division though too and throughout baseball. So you kind of put that out of your mind and try to pitch and try to execute. "It certainly was frustrating today not being as sharp as Id like." Skaggs, meanwhile, was in complete control. Steve Tolleson finally got to him with a two-out double in the eighth inning but Chris Getz grounded out to strand him at second base. Redmond did a nice job in long relief, allowing just one unearned run and five hits over 4 2-3 innings. Happ, meanwhile, allowed seven hits, four earned runs and a walk while striking out four. Jose Reyes started the Toronto rally in the ninth with an infield single and Melky Cabrera followed with a single up the middle. Bautista hit another single to drive in Reyes. Encarnacion hit a grounder that moved Cabrera to third but forced out Bautista at second base. Smith gave up another single to Dioner Navarro that brought Cabrera home. Lind followed by hitting a comebacker to Smith and the Angels turned the double play for the win. The game took two hours 46 minutes to play. Notes: Drew Hutchison (1-2) is scheduled to start for the Blue Jays on Sunday. The Angels will counter with fellow right-hander Jered Weaver (3-2). Toronto will close out its nine-game homestand next week with a three-game set against Cleveland ... Bautista has reached base safely in all 37 games this season. Hes one away from Carlos Delgados club record set in 1998. ... Ebel filled in for regular manager Mike Scioscia, who missed the first two games of the series to attend his daughters college graduation. ... Former Blue Jays infielder John McDonald batted ninth for the Angels and played third base. ... It was the first home game this season that the Blue Jays didnt hit at least one home run. Toronto fell to 7-9 at home and has dropped six of its last nine games at Rogers Centre. ' ' '