Just because Wayne Gretzky laced up his skates in an alumni game over the weekend doesnt mean the NHL is back to the 1980s.It just feels like it.Goals are coming fast and furious through the first two weeks of the season, with scoring at a pace that hasnt been seen in over a decade. Players are scoring an average of 5.98 goals a game, a far cry from the offense-happy days of Gretzky but an increase so far from every other year since 2005-06 when new rules were designed to boost scoring.An influx of young players, the preseason World Cup of Hockey and more backup goaltenders playing because of injuries have kept red lights flashing around the league.Overall, the game is going younger, faster, more skill, so I think everything kind of combines and goes into it, Arizona Coyotes winger Radim Vrbata said. I think the penalties are called more now than late in the season last year. Thats normal, so you probably have more power-play goals. And you have all the guys who played at the World Cup, theyre in their midseason form already where normally it would take them a couple games to get going.The NHL, hoping to keep its fans entertained, has tried many things to get scoring up, from shrinking goaltending equipment to adopting 3-on-3 overtime. Yet goals have hovered around 5.3 per game over the past five years.The jump early this season has as much to do with young talent like Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid and Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Auston Matthews as anything else.McDavid and Matthews lead a wave of 16 teenagers in the NHL right now, players who dazzle with flashy moves and who sometimes arent afraid to take a risk and maybe turn the puck over. As hockey trends more toward speed and skill, the game becomes more unpredictable and coaches gain more gray hair.You have more skill players in the league, too, so theyre not as conscious with puck management, Washington Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. You talk to the coaches probably around the league that might be as much as anything, and (players are) finding the back of the net on those.Coyotes coach Dave Tippett joked that its a Team North America mentality, referencing the 23-and-under World Cup group that thrived playing end-to-end, fast-paced games and scored at a blistering pace. Beyond just Team North America, the World Cup got many of the leagues elite up to speed to start the year, and Philadelphia forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare believes he and the other 168 players who took part are already in December form.It definitely helps, Flyers teammate Sean Couturier said. I think guys have been in game situations at such a high pace, high level for a month and a half before the season actually started.Eight of the top nine scorers so far this season played in the World Cup, and surprise standout Richard Panik benefited from so many Chicago Blackhawks players being away by making the most of extra ice time in preseason. The Blackhawks are also doing their part to contribute to the goal fest by allowing a league-high 14 of the 138 power-play goals scored through Wednesday.Carolina Hurricanes coach Bill Peters thinks power-play units are ahead of penalty kills and that five-on-five play is looser than usual.Loose play plus a lot of backup goaltenders in the nets is a recipe for offense. Through 97 games, 61 different goalies have started at least once, compared with 85 in 1,230 games last season.Thats in part a product of injuries to starters like the Los Angeles Kings Jonathan Quick, Boston Bruins Tuukka Rask and Arizonas Mike Smith and also the compressed schedule forced because of the World Cup. Each team will have a five-day bye week in January or February.Im sure because we have a lot of back to backs and we have the bye week -- the games are probably compressed a little bit more together than its been in the last (few) years, Capitals backup goalie Philipp Grubauer said. If youre good and play good and get the right numbers and win the games, Im sure (backups) will get a few more starts.Backups will continue to play, but many around the NHL expect production to slide back to normal as the season wears on. So enjoy the throwback scoring while it lasts.I think things will tighten up as we go, Peters said. But its been enjoyable for the fans.---AP Freelancers Matt Carlson in Chicago, Denis Gorman in New York and Paul Gereffi in Sunrise, Florida, contributed.---Follow Stephen Whyno on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SWhyno Orange Air Max 2018 . LOUIS -- Heading into the final stretch of the season, the issues for the Chicago Bears banged-up defence only seem to be getting worse. Air Max 2018 . PAUL, Minn. http://www.cheapairmaxonlinesale.com/ . The showiest items on Calgarys lot were forwards Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer. Wholesale Air Max 2018 . After Martin Skrtel put the Reds in front from close range at Stamford Bridge after only four minutes, Hazard hit back in the 17th with a superb strike. Etoo gave Jose Mourinhos team a decisive lead from Oscars back pass in the 34th. Black Air Max 2018 . Already owning gold from competition in Vancouver in 2010, Loch posted a combined four-run time of 3:27.526. That included a track-record third run of 51. CLEVELAND -- Hey, far be it for us to send waves of alarm rippling through Cubs Nation after one game of a World Series -- even if its a game they happened to lose 6-to-zilch Tuesday night to the fearsome Corey Kluber/Andrew Miller/Cody Allen division of those rampaging Cleveland Indians. But sorry. Theres stuff you need to know about this.So what do you say we get all the terrifying Cubs notes out of the way early on? It will be easier that way.? Over the past three decades, almost every team that lost Game 1 of the World Series found it had just dug itself a canyon it couldnt climb out of. Its tough to comprehend, but Game 1 losers have lost the past six World Series. And 12 of the past 13. And 17 of the past 19. Not to mention 19 of the past 22 and 24 of the past 28. Going all the way back to 1997, the only two teams to lose Game 1 and survive were the 2009 Yankees and the 2002 Angels. Hard to believe in a best-of-seven series, but 100 percent true.? Then theres the Cubs own not-so-beautiful history when they lose Game 1 of any postseason series. Tuesdays Game 1 loss in Cleveland marked the 14th time the Cubs had lost the opener of any type of series. They went 1-12 in the previous 13, coming back to win only in the 2015 NLDS against St. Louis.? If we confine this study just to best-of-seven series, it gets even more ominous. The Cubs now have lost Game 1 of a best-of-seven series 10 times. Theyre 0-9 in the previous nine. Then again, theyre the Cubs! So losing series in just about every way possible has been one of their areas of expertise.? Finally, the Cubs have now been shut out three times in this postseason. Of the seven previous teams to get blanked three times or more in the same postseason, just one -- the 1981 Dodgers -- went on to win the World Series. So are we saying theres a chance? Sure. Why the heck not?But the words of wisdom emanating from the clubhouse of the National League champions sounded remarkably similar to the words welling up from that same group a week or so ago, after theyd been held to two hits and no runs by Clayton Kershaw in Game 2 of the NLCS, and then held to two hits and no runs again, by Rich Hill, in Game 3 of that series.This time, the Cubs were talking about another ace, Kluber. Who held them to four hits and no runs, while striking out nine, in six-plus innings.That, Cubs catcher David Ross?said, is what Cy Youngs do. Thats what aces do.Of course, what Kluber did to the Cubs in this game wasnt quite what Kershaw and Hill did to them in the last round, if only because hes right-handed and the two Dodgers aces are left-handed. But were starting to see signs that this team can be shut down by great pitching this time of year -- when guys like Kluber and Miller show up on the mound with a lot greater frequency than they do from April through September.During the season, this Cubs lineup finished second to Colorado in runs scored. But it has now been shut out more times in 11 games in this postseason (three) than it was shut out in the 102 games it played from June 1 on in the regular season (two).The question is: What does that tell us about where this World Series is headed from here?This is not going to put all the pressure on us, just because we didnt win one ballgame, said the Cubs DH du jour, Kyle Schwarber, who somehow found a way to jet in from the Arizona Fall League, become the first position player ever to get a hit in a World Series after getting zero hits in the season and then rise up to be a voice of reason afterward.Were a good baseball team, Schwarber promised. Well be fine.But will they? They struck out 15 times Tuesday -- something they hadnt done in any nine-inning game in more than four months (since a June 13 meeting with Max Scherzer). They also set a franchise record for most whiffs in a postseason game.So what was the common thread between this game and those two shutouts against the Dodgers? According to ESPN Stats & Information, it was the unusually high percentage of fastballs the Cubs took for strikes against the starters they faced in all three of those games.ddddddddddddWhen Kluber threw his fastball Tuesday, he had a 58 percent called-strike rate. It was 55 percent in that game against Hill and 54 percent in Kershaws Game 2 start. Those are the three highest rates against them by any starting pitchers they faced all year.And while the Cubs had some complaints about plate ump Larry Vanovers strike zone, those gripes mostly concerned the pitches on the corners that Jon Lester didnt get, not the pitches that Kluber did get. Their biggest issue was the number of Klubers exploding two-seam fastballs they appeared to give up on, only to see them veer back into the strike zone.Then, when Kluber went to his off-speed stuff, the Cubs didnt fare much better. They had more swings and misses against his slider and curve (eight) than balls in play (seven). So the nicest thing that happened, Ross said, gratefully, was getting Kluber out of there.But if that was the good news, the bad news was it meant they had to spend the next two innings dealing with Miller, a man who had faced 41 hitters in this postseason before this game -- and struck out 21 of them.Unlike the Red Sox and Blue Jays, the Cubs at least made Miller sweat, running four three-ball counts, drawing as many walks against him in two innings (two) as hed issued in the entire postseason before this and forcing him to throw 46 pitches -- the most hed thrown in relief in more than five years.But they also learned all about what makes Miller maybe the most feared reliever in baseball -- when they loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh and got zero runs out of it. The last two outs came on sliders he threw past Addison Russell and Ross. And the movement on both of those pitches was so severe, they were unhittable even for hitters who were pretty sure what was coming. At 3-and-1, Ross said, he threw me a strike slider that kind of backed up a little bit. So what I was seeing [on the next pitch] was, Was that slider going to start in the same place? Im trying to protect against the nasty one and the one that kind of backed up. So as Im trying to look for that, the pitch I struck out on looked like it started from the same spot, but it ended up wrapping around my back leg and pretty much disappeared.Then, an inning later, with two on and two outs, it was Schwarber who got swallowed up by another of Millers most ferocious sliders, swinging over it for the innings final out, then screaming at himself in frustration.Thats his pitch, man, Schwarber said later. Its a plus-plus pitch for a reason.Kluber and Miller were so good, it was easy for the team they beat to fire out the obligatory tip your cap quotes about them and mean every word. But the Cubs will be seeing both of them again. So if theyre going to roar back to win this World Series, theyre going to have to do to those two guys what they did to Kershaw in the NLCS -- make a radical adjustment in the game plan the next time around.The common thread I see, Ross said, is we have a young group that usually gets better the more they see guys and how theyre going to pitch them. Im holding out hope that thats whats going to help us moving forward. But I dont want to take anything away from Corey Klubers performance. It was as dominant as it gets.Well, if they enjoyed his dominance on this night, stay tuned, because there is every indication the Indians plan to run Kluber out there again in Games 4 and 7. And if they grab the lead again, it will be Miller and Allen to follow. Its a formula the Indians already have used to smother two great lineups. And now its the Cubs turn. Lucky them.Asked if he was ready for more of the same fun in Games 4 and 7, Ross laughed and said, Well see. But right now, were going to worry about whoever theyve got on the mound tomorrow. Id rather forget about Corey Kluber for a little while.And after a Game 1 loss that history tells us normally means big trouble -- even for teams this good -- who the heck could blame him? ' ' '