ality of the application of traditional workplace overtime rules to

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The simple thing the Washington Capitals want to get out of their four-game Western Canadian road trip doesnt tell the whole story.Player after player said the Capitals are looking for a perfect eight points out of games at the Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets. More specifically the defending Presidents Trophy winners want to develop more consistency all over the ice.Washingtons 3-1-1 record through five games is nothing to shake a stick at, but theyve had second-period lulls, defensive breakdowns and poor special teams play.At times were playing really great hockey and the way we want, and then the other times I think mentally we just kind of take a step back or try to do a little too much or think the games going to come easier, right winger T.J. Oshie said Tuesday. As long as we keep our foot on the gas, play a little bit more consistent game, a faster game, I think were going to be doing pretty good.Coach Barry Trotz shook up his top lines after a 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday, putting Andre Burakovsky on right wing with captain Alex Ovechkin and all-star center Evgeny Kuznetsov and moving Oshie down to play with Marcus Johansson and Nicklas Backstrom. He kept the power-play units the same despite a 2 for 16 success rate that ranks the Capitals 22nd in the NHL going into Tuesday.Trotz believes the power play and the penalty kill, which at 71.4 percent is 26th in the league, will get it together. But hed like to see a more even game in all situations.It can be faceoffs, it can be wall plays, it can be just our structure though the neutral zone, Trotz said. We want to know what youre going to get every day so that we can really lock down an identity so everybody knows exactly what theyre up against every night and how we play and theres not a lot of deviation from it. With that, you get a lot of order and with that order youre going to get some production.When you dont have everybody on the same page, youre not going to be that good.Trotz wants the Capitals to be a 60-minute team, and those middle 20 minutes have been a source of some frustration. Washington has been outscored 6-2 in the second period, a puzzling problem to say the least.For some reason we havent played as well as we have in the first and third periods, Johansson said. If we knew (why), it would make it a lot easier. We just have to play a full 60 minutes hard.The four-game trip starts with a major test Wednesday against 19-year-old superstar Connor McDavid and the Oilers. This will be the first time the Capitals face McDavid, who missed much of last season with a broken collarbone but is on top of his game, tied for the league lead in scoring with nine points.Capitals players know how good McDavid can be but are wary of his high-skilled unpredictability that defenseman Matt Niskanen joked hasnt been coached out of him yet.Its always tough to know what hes going to do because hes so fast, said Burakovsky, who played with McDavid on the Ontario Hockey Leagues Erie Otters. He likes to just skate around you with the puck.The Oilers are so far one of the best teams in hockey because of McDavid and linemates Milan Lucic and Jordan Eberle. Washington had been one of the best defensive teams before the loss to the Rangers, so stopping McDavid and company will be a tall task.Theyve got a combination of skills on that line, Niskanen said. Itll be a good challenge for us. Its for sure going to be a different Oilers team than its been in the last couple years.---Follow Stephen Whyno on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SWhyno . Wholesalle Basketball Shoes China . Haas said he "felt a lot of pain" in his right shoulder when he slammed his racket to the ground in frustration after losing his serve at 3-3 in the first set. Clearance Basketball Shoes . -- Ty Montgomery had 290 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, and fifth-ranked Stanford held on to beat No. http://www.wholesalebasketballshoes.us/ . The Vancouver coach and an announced sellout crowd of 18,910 watched in dismay as the Canucks lost 7-4 to the New York Islanders on Monday night by squandering a 3-0 lead in the third period. Discount Basketball Shoes . Two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the April 15 race in an area packed with fans cheering the passing runners. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured, including at least 16 who lost limbs. Cheap Basketball Shoes Online . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. NEW YORK -- Two days after the New York Mets took him in the 19th round of the baseball draft this June, Gary Cornish boarded a 6:40 a.m. flight from Phoenix to John F. Kennedy Airport, took his physical and checked into his new home, the Red Lion Inn & Suites in downtown Brooklyn.Cornish agreed to a $10,000 signing bonus and was assigned to the Cyclones of the Class A New York-Penn League. Like most new minor leaguers, his initial salary is $1,100 a month. After a $100 deduction for hotel housing, $40 in clubhouse dues to pay the equipment kids and taxes, the 21-year-old pitchers biweekly take-home pay is about $380, less than the cost of some Mets premium tickets at Citi Field.Some minor leaguers are suing Major League Baseball in an effort to get more. Cornish texts his parents in Scottsdale, Arizona, when he needs money to pay the bills, and they transfer funds to his account.Its pretty much the same that they helped me out while I was at college, same type of allowance-type thing, he said.Known for long bus rides between often picturesque ballparks, the minor leagues are hamlets of hope populated by a few bonus babies and thousands of conventional kids trying to grind their way up the pecking order to the sports highest level.MCU Park, in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, is just a 22-mile drive from Citi Field. But minor leaguers at the bottom of baseballs player development pyramid, who dont have a union, live in a different financial universe than the 1 percenters on the National League champions, covered by the Major League Baseball Players Association.Garrett Broshuis, a minor league pitcher from 2004-09 who later became a lawyer, wants to lessen the gap. Representing several players, he filed a lawsuit against MLB, then-commissioner Bud Selig and the 30 teams in federal court in San Francisco two years ago, claiming violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and state minimum wage and overtime requirements for a workweek they estimated at 50-to-60 hours.We want to change MLBs pay practices to make sure minor leaguers are receiving at least the minimum wage, Broshuis said. Theyre stuffing six guys into a two-bedroom apartment, sleeping on air mattresses. These guys are the future of major league organizations and people are coming to watch them play and theres no reason to force them to live in that fashion.MLB and the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, which governs the minors, argue laws on minimum wages and overtime never were intended to cover sports, likening players to artists and musicians.A $9 billion industry, MLB rummages the globe for amateur talent. While signing bonuses for players in this years draft ranged as high as $6.2 million, 276 of 919 drafted players, or more than a quarter, agreed to $10,000 or less.Nick Sergakis, a 23-year-old outfielder from Columbus, Ohio, agreed to a $5,000 bonus after the Mets selected him from Ohio State on the 23rd round with the 700th pick. His season cut short in August by a broken shoulder blade, he returned home to Columbus, and will live with two other minor leaguers he knows from college. His focus will be workouts to get ready for 2017.Im doing what I enjoy doing -- first year doing it. Its not terrible, he said. Im going to have to look for a job.Cornish and Sergakis are not part of the suit, and they focus on working their way up. Minimum monthly salaries for the five-month season rise to $1,500 at Double-A and $2,150 at Trriple-A, and players receive a $25 per diem on the road and dinner at the ballpark following games.dddddddddddd Eating well often is an afterthought.Cyclones are housed two to a room in a seven-story hotel in an industrial, just-starting-to-gentrify area of Boerum Hill. Cornish, 6-foot-3 with dark hair, a pitchers build and a ballplayers confident gait, has heard gunshots while walking down the street.Accustomed to nutritious meals as an athlete at the University of San Diego, Cornish tries to avoid postgame pizza in the clubhouse and stops on the road at McDonalds and Burger King.Some of the guys complain about that. Some are like, well, Ill make the best out of it. And some just dont eat it because they will figure something else out somehow, he said.So the 225-pound player gets up around noon when the team is home and makes the block-and-a-half walk most days to Mingos Sandwich Factory, a bodega where $13.50 gets him a breakfast burrito and iced coffee plus a turkey sandwich he takes to the ballpark.Big baseball money could be years away. Or never.On the golden day a player is called up to the big leagues, his minimum salary shoots up to $507,500 annually and the daily meal and tip allowance on the road rises to $100.50.First baseman/outfielder Aaron Senne, a 10th-round pick of the Florida Marlins in 2009 who retired in 2013, sued on Feb. 7, 2014, along with two other retired players who had been lower-round selections: Kansas City infielder Michael Liberto and San Francisco pitcher Oliver Odle. The sides are disputing whether it should be a class-action suit, and a trial date is uncertain.Meanwhile, players who received large signing bonuses watch teammates scrape by.Its terrible. I feel bad, said Philadelphia outfielder Dylan Cozens, who played against Cornish in scout ball and got a $659,800 bonus after he was drafted in the second round in 2012. I see guys in their hotels, they buy a pot and a stove and they cook every meal in their hotel room instead of eating out because they cant afford to eat out.MLB appears reluctant to negotiate with plaintiffs because other players would not be bound by a settlement and could file additional suits.This is not a dollars-and-cents issue, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said. It is the irrationality of the application of traditional workplace overtime rules to minor league baseball players. It just makes no sense. I want to take extra BP -- am I working, or am I not working? Travel time -- is every moment that youre on a bus, is that your commute that you dont get paid for or is that working time? Wheres the clock? Whos going to punch a clock to keep track of those hours? When youre eating in a clubhouse with a spread that the employer provided, is that working time or is that your lunch break?Rep. Brett Guthrie, a Kentucky Republican, introduced the Save Americas Pastime Act in June that would amend the FLSA to state no employer could be subject to liability under that law for work performed by minor league baseball players.While the lawyers and lobbyists fight, players try to subsist and rise. Cornish could not do it without his father, who works in medical sales, and his mother, employed by Williams-Sonoma.I cant complain, Cornish said. But at the same time I have a girl back in Scottsdale whos a nurse and makes 10 times as much as me. ' ' '