MONTREAL - "The Rock" summed it up best. Marquise Brown Ravens Jersey . "It feels like I havent left," said Tim Raines, the former long-time Expo, current Blue Jays roving instructor and should-be Hall-of-Famer, just moments after stepping onto the turf at Olympic Stadium. While Raines was referring to the memories that came flooding back, he may have meant it literally. Nothing much has changed about the Big O. Its the same ride to the Pie IX stop on the famous Montreal Metro. The walk from the station to the stadiums dimly lit concourse is no different. Then, you emerge through one of the section corridors into a time capsule. The yellow seats, so often empty in the Expos final years, serve as a reminder of days gone by when fans would rap them up and down to make a clanging sound. The scoreboard, which still sits above the centerfield batters eye, hasnt been updated. Its not high definition or LCD or anything else that resembles what fans enjoy in the stadia of today. The players are different. Well, for the most part, if you consider that Blue Jays utility infielder Maicer Izturis made his major league debut in a Montreal uniform on August 27, 2004. Everything else is the same. "I was joking if they wanted me to do any fan mail," said Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos, a Montreal native whose internship with the Expos, which included the responsibility of answering fan mail, launched his career in baseball. "I was getting ready to go." There was little chatter around the stadium of the 1994 players strike, which happened at a time when the Expos were 74-40, good enough for the National Leagues best record. The resurgent New York Yankees were the talk of the American League that year. What a contrast, those two organizations, in the two decades since. The Expos are gone, the proverbial stick of dynamite given to that 94 team by an uncommitted ownership, the 1995 club a shell of its former self. The Yankees have missed the playoffs only twice since. It took 10 years after the strike for the Expos, which experienced a kind of walking dead status once the likes of Larry Walker, Pedro Martinez, Moises Alou and others left town, to die off. The fans, descendants of the people who watched Jackie Robinson play in their city before he broke Major League Baseballs colour barrier in 1947, were subjected to annual speculation about their franchises relocation. Finally it happened in 2005 with the city of Washington, D.C. receiving a third crack at getting baseball right (the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers each descend from failed Washington Senators clubs.) "I think the issues were, and its no knock against the stadium, but the location of the stadium, the fact it wasnt a retractable roof," said Anthopoulos. "Growing up in this city, like you would in Toronto but its a lot colder here in the winter, the winters are long and any bit of summer you can get you want to be outdoors. Its a tough sell to go all the way to the east end and be indoors for a ballgame." This is a 48-hour period for the Blue Jays and Mets to work out the final kinks before the start of the regular season. Just as importantly, its a chance for Montrealers to experience what once was and to pay a posthumous tribute to their beloved Gary Carter, which they did on Friday night. On Saturday, its the 94 Expos turn to feel the love. Larry Walker, Moises Alou and future Hall-of-Famer Pedro Martinez will be among those on hand. One can only hope this weekend serves to exorcise the demon just a little bit. Luis Rivera, the Blue Jays third base coach who played his first three big league seasons with the Expos from 1986-88, doesnt forget. "The crowds, they were loud and there was a lot of whistling, which I do a lot," he said. "It was about sometimes 20-thousand, 30-thousand, 40-thousand. I remember when Pasqual Perez used to pitch it was a packed house." Tim Raines, The Rock, he remembers too. "Its a very good baseball town," said Raines. "My first 10 years here we averaged two million fans a year. They dont just leave. I think ownership back in the day, right at the tail end, played a big part of the lack of success that they had here." Warren Cromartie, the former Expos great, has said the exhibition weekend is the first step toward the return of Major League Baseball to Montreal. Maybe hes right and one day well be able to say, "Les Expos sont la!" Maybe hes wrong and this is nothing more than a pipe dream. For the moment, its just nice to be back at Olympic Stadium. Mark Andrews Youth Jersey . -- Miguel Angel Jimenez quickly shifted his focus back to the Ryder Cup after winning his first Champions Tour event. Justice Hill Youth Jersey . About seven hours before facing Washington in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference second round series, team officials said the oft-injured Bynum would miss the rest of the playoffs and would not even be with the team for the rest of the post-season. http://www.ravensrookiestore.com/Ravens-Lamar-Jackson-Jersey/ . On paper, it looks a little like Andre the Giant taking on a midget wrestler. It has all the makings of a rout with the Americans adding an eighth win in nine outings of this biennial event. The Yanks have eight players in the top 15 in the world while the Internationals have just one.MONTREAL -- It looks like coach Michel Therrien has earned a new contract with the Montreal Canadiens. General manager Marc Bergevin would not confirm the move, but when asked Saturday if he had made a decision on his coach he said "yes." That came a few minutes after heaping lavish praise on the 50-year-old Therrien, who Bergevin hired when he was named GM ahead of last season. It was not a popular move at the time. Therrien had guided a middling Canadiens team in the early 2000s as a rookie head coach. But he is coming off a 100-point season and has the team in the NHL Eastern Conference final for the first time since 2010. "When youre in my position, you make decisions sometimes that are not going to be popular," said Bergevin, who met with the media ahead of Game 1 of the conference final. "I cant make decisions to make people happy. "Michel Therriens a good coach today and he was six months ago and he was a good coach when we lost five in a row. Michel and I have a good (relationship). We talk a lot. We share ideas." "Am I shocked with where we are today with way he handles the team? No. But hes a really good coach and hes proving it now." Bergevin was surprised wwhen told that his former teammate and boyhood friend Mario Lemieux, owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, had said after GM Ray Shero was fired Friday that he hoped to use the Canadiens as a model for rebuilding his team. Jaylon Ferguson Youth Jersey. . "Not only is he my friend, hes one of the greatest players ever to play the game," said Bergevin, a Montreal native who grew up a little more than a kilometre from the Bell Centre. "I didnt know about that. "Being a GM is tough. Youre hired to be fired. One day it will be my turn. Ray did a really good job. It didnt work out and they made a decision. "I dont have a magic recipe. Im not a genius. We have things we believe in. At times well make mistakes. No-one bats .1000, but as a group we jell well and were getting results. But say thanks (to) Mario anyway." Bergevin would not be drawn into the debate over Boston forward Milan Lucics threats toward two Canadiens during the handshake after Montreals Game 7 win on Wednesday night. "Hockey is an emotional game,"he said. "Honestly, I have a lot of respect for the Boston Bruins. (President) Cam Neely and (GM) Peter Chiarelli are good hockey men. Its a good organization." ' ' '