FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Adidas Prophere Canada . -- Fumbles plagued Stevan Ridley even when the ball was dry. A steady rain presents another challenge to the New England Patriots running back. It wasnt a problem for him Thursday. The Patriots continued their organized team activities on a soggy day and Ridley gripped the ball as if his job depended on it. It might if he keeps fumbling. "I told one of the young guys today, thats the quickest way to get off the field," Ridley said. "You can ask me first." Hes speaks from experience. Ridley lost fumbles in three consecutive games last season. After the third, in the first quarter against the Denver Broncos on Nov. 24, he was benched for the rest of New Englands 34-31 comeback win in overtime. He lost a total of four fumbles last season leading to three touchdowns and a field goal. So hes been focusing on avoiding a repeat this year. "All you can do is really squeeze (the ball) high and tight," Ridley said. "I think that was a lesson I had to go through and, hopefully, I wont have to go through it again, but who knows? "A little bit of adversity never hurts anybody. ... You take your mistakes, you learn from them and you grow and you just keep on pushing." The third-round pick from LSU fumbled just once as a rookie in 2011, but the Patriots recovered it. He lost two of his four fumbles in 2012 before the problem escalated last year. And his rushing production dropped -- from 1,263 yards and 12 touchdowns on 290 carries in 2012 to 773 yards and seven touchdowns on 178 attempts. So hes concentrating on improving his overall focus on every play. "I think if I can do that I can become a better player," Ridley said. "When you lose focus on the small things -- whether its small assignments, whether its carrying the football, whether its running a route, whether its blitz pickup -- those are things that cost you your playing time." LeGarrette Blount emerged as the top back late in the season, rushing for 431 yards and eight touchdowns in three straight games before both runners were shut down in a 26-16 loss at Denver in the AFC championship game. Blount left for the Pittsburgh Steelers as a free agent, leaving Ridley, Shane Vereen and Brandon Bolden as coach Bill Belichicks veteran backs. "You can go out there and be a starter one game and the next game youre two or three guys behind," Ridley said. "Thats what Coach stresses to us every week. We have to go out there and be as competitive as we can be. Hes going to play the matchups game and we just have to be unselfish enough to capitalize on the plays that we get." Ridleys four fumbles last year came on dry days. It rained during the last regular-season game, a 34-20 win over the Buffalo Bills, and the first playoff games, a 43-22 win over the Indianapolis Colts. Both games were at Foxborough. On Thursday, three months before the regular season, rain fell throughout practice. "Theres no contact so you should be running your routes perfect. You should be catching every ball thats thrown to you. You shouldnt be dropping anything on the ground," Ridley said. "Rain, sleet, whatevers out there, whatever the conditions are, you have to find a way to fight through that." Some had trouble. One receiver fell while trying to cut. "When you have a wet surface, you have to stick to your fundamentals," wide receiver Julian Edelman said. Wet or dry, Ridley knows he must do that all the time. "Were practicing either way. Coach says he doesnt care about the conditions -- rain, sleet, snow -- were playing in them," he said. "You just never know, but whatever it is there are no excuses." Ridley is entering the final season of his contract and tries not to think much about it. "I have to go out there and play football and hit it hard and run the ball and get wide open," he said. "I just have to be the same player Ive been." Anything else? "Try to go out there and be mistake-free." Stan Smith Shoes Canada . The Reds will host the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight in the opener of a four-game series at Great American Ball Park, and the debut matchup will feature a pair of pitchers whose recent resumes have included a fair number of bases-clearing hits. Ultra Boost 4.0 Canada . His absence against the Celtics comes a day after he scored 43 points in the Heats 100-96 win at Cleveland. http://www.nmdshoescanada.com/stan-smith-cheap-canada.html .Y. -- In a span of three days, Shabazz Napier and Connecticut knocked out both Philadelphia schools in the NCAA tournament.EDMONTON -- The San Jose Sharks may not have been all that sharp to start after playing the night before, but that changed once the puck dropped for the second period. Trailing by a goal after 20 minutes of play, Joe Pavelski responded with three goals and an assist as the Sharks snapped a two-game losing skid with a 5-2 victory over the struggling Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. "I think after back-to-back nights and not having a morning skate and things like that, youre probably going to be a little sluggish," said Sharks captain Joe Thornton, who had two assists on the night. "We continued to get better and better and it was a good way to end the night. As long as were moving around, moving the puck around, were going to be successful." Patrick Marleau and Marty Havlat also scored for the Sharks (47-18-9), who moved four points up on idle Anaheim for the Pacific Division lead and remained two points back of St. Louis for first in the Western Conference. San Jose clinched a playoff spot in a 2-1 shootout loss to Calgary on Monday. The Sharks power play came into the game ranked just 23rd in the league and had gone just three-for-35 in its last 10 games. They were 3-for-3 against the Oilers, a major factor in the victory. "The numbers arent that important, its when they come and how they come," said Sharks head coach Todd McLellan. "Weve had nights like this and it just hasnt gone in. When you look at the power play standings and the numbers and that type of stuff, you panic over it outside the room, but not inside the room. We finally got a reward for playing basically the same way that we have." "I think weve been bad for a long time and in the last few games weve created a little bit of momentum on it," said Pavelski, who had two of the power play goals for his club. "It hasnt been one game and then take a couple of games off, weve been consistent on our opportunities and tonight it just finally went in for us." David Perron and Taylor Hall responded for the second-to-last place Oilers (25-39-9), who have lost three in a row, including a humbling 8-1 loss to the rival Calgary Flames on Sunday on the heels of a 3-1 defeat to the last-place Buffalo Sabres. "We wanted to come back and play solid after our last couple games and get back to the stuff that we had been having some success with," said Oilers captain Andrew Ference. "The power play chances they got, they jumped on and put us behind the eight ball. I think our five-on-five hockey was light years better than our last game. That wasnt too tough to beat, though." Edmonton head coach Dallas Eakins said his team left far too many missed opportunities on the table. "We have to find a way to bury the chances that we have, and there were some that were just laying there in front of their net," he said. "You just have to find a way to put those in." Oilers goalie Ben Scrivens said the team remains very much a work in progress. "We need to show to ourselves that we can play the right way," he said. "I dont know what it is that we refuse to buy in completely. Its not one guy, a line, a defence pairing. Its just kind of waves throughout the team. Its not wanting to do what we have to do. We had some tough bounces tonight that probably added to the scoring differential. You cant give a team like that the chances on the power play because they have skilled guys who will make you pay and they did tonight. y-3 Sale Canada. ." The Oilers started the scoring just over four minutes into the first period as Perron danced around Shark Tyler Kennedy before picking a perfect spot on a shot past San Jose goalie Antti Niemi. It was Perrons team-leading 26th goal of the season. The first period shots narrowly favoured the Sharks, who had 11 on Edmonton starter Scrivens to the Oilers 10 in the opening period. San Jose tied the game on the power play six-and-a-half-minutes into the second period. Scrivens made the initial stop on a shot from the slot by Marleau, but the rebound angled to Pavelski at the side of the net with a wide-open cage to put in his 35th of the year. Another power-play goal midway through the second period gave San Jose a 2-1 lead, as Pavelski chopped a puck to Marleau at the top of the opposite circle and the Sharks assistant captains lighting-quick release led to a goal before Scrivens could get across. It was Marleaus 31st goal of the year. The Sharks took a two-goal lead with 30 seconds left to play in the middle period as Edmonton defender Jeff Petry overskated a puck at his own blue-line, allowing Havlat to come in and send a wrist shot that beat Scrivens stick-side. San Jose scored their third man-advantage goal of the game just over a minute into the third period. Pavelski got the puck with space in the front of the net, waited for defender Andrew Ference to go down, and then beat Scrivens over the blocker to make it 4-1. Pavelski earned his third hat trick of the season with seven minutes left in the third as he took a shot that hit the stick of Edmontons Matt Hendricks and deflected into the Oilers net. Pavelskis four-point night gave him 71 points on the season. Edmonton made it look a little better with five minutes left to play as Hall picked up a rebound in front and hooked a diving backhand shot into the net for this 25th to make it 5-2. The Oilers have been outscored 16-4 in their last three home games. The Sharks return home to face the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. The Oilers play the fifth game of a six-game homestand on Friday against the Anaheim Ducks. Notes: It was the fourth of five games this season between the two teams this season. The Sharks won the first two games before the Oilers got one back in the most recent meeting on Jan. 29 when Ben Scrivens recorded a record-setting 59 saves in a 3-0 shutout win in Edmontona Both teams were coming off of losses to the Calgary Flames, although of vastly different degrees. The Oilers were embarrassed 8-1 by the provincial rival Flames at home on Sunday, while the Sharks lost a 2-1 game in Calgary on Monday in a shootouta Laurent Brossoit was called up from the AHL for the game to serve as the Oilers backup goalie after Viktor Fasth was injured in a collision in practice on Wednesdaya Oilers forward Nail Yakupov missed his fourth straight game with an ankle injurya Sharks forward Logan Couture was unable to play after he suffered a lower-body injury while blocking a shot in Wednesdays game in Calgary. Also out for the Sharks were forwards Tomas Hertl (knee) and Raffi Torres, both out with knee injuries. Defenceman Brad Stuart played his second game back since missing 13 games with an upper-body injurya Sharks winger Adam Burish left the game in the second period after taking a hard shot to his hand. ' ' '