TAMPA, Fla. -- To say it has been an interesting year for former junior scoring sensation and No. 3 overall pick Jonathan Drouin is to offend the word interesting.Just over a year ago, Drouin asked to be traded by the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team that tk him with its first selection in 2013. After his demand, the Lightning sent Drouin to the minors, and he subsequently left the organization entirely as he awaited a trade that never materialized.Five weeks later, Drouin returned to the Lightnings American Hockey League affiliate in Syracuse, where he played well. He rejoined the Lightning later that spring for a postseason run to the Eastern Conference finals, which they lost in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup-champion?Pittsburgh Penguins.?Drouin, 21, had five goals and 14 points in 17 playoff games for the Lightning.Like his entire team, Drouin -- who is in his most productive stretch of the season, with six points in his past four games -- has experienced some ups and downs. ESPN.com caught up with the Montreal native on the eve of an important three-game Western Canadian road trip for his team.ESPN.com: As a scorer, do you get a feeling of when youre about to go on a hot streak?Jonathan Drouin: No, you just go out there and play. Some nights youre going to have chances, and some nights youre going to play a real gd defensive team. Lately, the pucks going in when Im shting. Hopefully that keeps going.ESPN.com:?You went five games without a point before this stretch. When it doesnt happen, are there things you can do to change things up?Drouin:?You obviously lk at video of your games, whether youre contributing or youre not. Five games is a little long, but if its one or two games, maybe youre still playing the right way, playing well, and its just not going in. But you want to microscope your game a little bit, go to those hard areas to get those bounces -- and then hopefully it starts going in.ESPN.com:?For every young player, theres a learning process of how to break things down and how to change things up. Has that process been difficult for you? Are you more comfortable doing that now?Drouin: Yeah, Im way more comfortable now. In junior, youre kind of the old guy, so coming in here with all those veterans is different. Youre the young guy. Last year in the playoffs, I think I started to get to know the league, the other players, the systems, what they do -- and to get comfortable.ESPN.com:?Whats it like in the dressing rm when a team this gd is struggling?Drouin:?You want to be in a playoff spot right away, but this is December. Teams are so gd, standings are so tight, so were not hitting the panic button. Were calm, but we still know its time to step up and get some wins here.ESPN.com:?Is it weird to lk at standings and see that you arent in a playoff spot?Drouin: For us, for sure. In past years, we were always in a playoff spot. But there are so many gd teams, and were not playing our best hockey right now.ESPN.com: Its been an eventful year for you. When you lk back, do you think you are a different person now?Drouin: Just [in terms of] maturity. You get used to stuff around the league. You see stuff that maybe you didnt see last year. It was definitely a weird year, with all that stuff, but when I came back here during playoffs, guys were great. Its the same way here now, and its nice to have the same kind of team.ESPN.com:?When you came back and played so well, did it surprise you how people treated you, that the guys were really gd to you?Drouin: No. Not with these guys. I didnt [ask for the trade] because of the guys in this rm. When I came back -- and it was the same in Syracuse -- guys were great, the staff was great. It was like nothing happened. That was huge for me to see that guys didnt really care about what had happened before.ESPN.com:?Did they ever joke with you about it?Drouin: Yeah, definitely. There have been a couple of jokes.ESPN.com:?Can you tell us what they were?Drouin: Yeah. Are you going to go home? Stuff like that. Guys joke about it, but were past it now.ESPN.com:?Do you like where your game is now?Drouin: Theres still a lot of stuff I want to improve. But I think its going in the right direction lately. I think maybe not the past couple of weeks -- I havent been playing my best hockey -- but the past couple of games Ive felt gd.ESPN.com:?Have you had family come and stay with you?Drouin: They visit quite a bit. Were from Montreal, so I see them more [down here in Tampa] in the wintertime. I get a lot of family [visitors] during the wintertime. Sometimes youre alone in your condo, and the time gets pretty long, so its nice to have them here.ESPN.com:?Do you have a routine away from rink now??Drouin:?At first, it was a little different. Like I said, Im from Montreal. Im used to snow and weather changes, but Im definitely not complaining. [Tampa] is a fun city.?It definitely feels like home now.Wholesale MLB Jerseys 2018 . Supported by three-run homers from Jayson Werth and Wilson Ramos, the young right-hander went seven strong innings in the Washington Nationals 8-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night. Wholesale Jerseys Authentic .Y. -- Knicks coach Mike Wdson said Wednesday that J. http://www.cheapnfljerseysdeals.com/ . The Olympic champion curler and TSN curling analyst immediately went online to lk at the Halls long list of honoured members. Thats when the enormity of the honour sunk in. NFL Jerseys Deals . Kyle Denbrk, a soccer player from Saint Marys University, tk the CIS male athlete of the week honour. Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday. Cyber Monday Jerseys . The injury bothered Bledsoe in the Suns victory over the Clippers on Monday and he sat out the teams home loss to Memphis on Thursday night.NEW ORLEANS -- The man who fatally shot retired New Orleans Saints star Will Smith insisted Saturday that he did so only after a drunken, irate Smith retrieved a gun from his damaged SUV following an April 9 car crash.I knew for a fact that I was going to get shot, Cardell Hayes, 29, told the jury in his second-degree murder trial, adding that he heard a pop that he believed to be a gunshot before he fired. Hayes also insisted he didnt sht Smiths wife Racquel that night. Prosecutors say ballistics evidence shows otherwise.Hayes defense lawyers rested their case Saturday afternn, setting the stage for closing arguments and the beginning of jury deliberations Sunday.On the stand, Hayes vehemently denied intentionally running into Smiths Mercedes SUV moments after the Mercedes appeared to have bumped Hayes car. He said he armed himself only after he and his own passenger were accosted by Smith and Richard Hernandez, a passenger in the SUV. Hernandez, he said, wildly stripped off his shirt and tk something shiny from his pocket -- Hayes said he feared it was a knife.Smith didnt initially notice the gun, Hayes said. He said Smith, 34, threw a cup containing some type of alcohol at him and punched him repeatedly. At some point during the fast-unfolding melee, Hernandez alerted Smith to Hayes gun, Hayes said under questioning from defense lawyer John Fuller.Hayes testified that Smith addressed him with a racial epithet and then told him, ... you got your gun. Well Im going to get mine and Ill show you what to do with it.Hayes said Hernandez, a white Hispanic who fled the scene, also used racial epithets.However, race has not been raised as an alleged factor in the confrontation. Hayes and Kevin ONeal, his passenger, are black, and so was Smith.Hayes was calm and soft spoken under questioning from Fuller, his voice catching briefly as he noted that he hass been jailed since the shting, unable to be with his 6-year-old son.dddddddddddd. He was the only witness to place a gun in Smiths hand that night. Police say a loaded gun was found in Smiths SUV. Prosecutors say it was never fired that night and that Smith never grabbed it.Hayes fired a .45-caliber handgun numerous times. Racquel Smith was hit twice in the legs, and Will Smith once in the side and seven times in the back. Hayes and others have testified that she tried to calm her husband that night. Some prosecution witnesses say she appeared to have done so and that there was no apparent reason for Hayes to fire.On cross examination, Assistant Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Napoli repeatedly noted that no other witness said Smith had a gun and that Hayes never told investigators he saw a gun in Smiths hands that night.I never gave a full statement to anyone, Hayes said, growing testy as Napoli asked about inconsistencies in his testimony and past statements.Prosecutors also called a rebuttal witness -- a firearms expert who said there was no evidence Smith had fired a gun when he died.The first witnesses called Saturday were friends of Hayes who said he was in a gd md and was not drinking at a party before the crash. Among Saturday mornings spectators was Saints coach Sean Payton. Smith was a defensive leader on the Payton-coached Saints team that won the 2010 Super Bowl.Prosecutors rested their case Friday after nearly a week of hearing from witnesses, including Racquel Smith.She and Smiths former teammate Pierre Thomas were among prosecution witnesses who said Smiths anger seemed to have cled before the gunfire. But Hayes passenger in the Hummer insisted that Smith and others with him were the aggressors. ' ' '