The Tampa Bay Lightning can win the Stanley Cup for the second time in less than 10 months when they visit the Montreal Canadiens in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final at Bell Centre on Monday.
The Lightning won the Cup for the second time in their history Sept. 28, 2020, defeating the Dallas Stars 2-0 in Game 6 of the Final.
“It’s been a ride,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
Tampa Bay can become the first team to sweep its opponent in the Cup Final since the Detroit Red Wings did it against the Washington Capitals in 1998.
The Lightning are the first team to win the first three games in the Cup Final since the Los Angeles Kings against the New York Rangers in 2014. The Kings lost Game 4 but won Game 5 to win the Stanley Cup.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to go out there and take it, but it’s going to be hard,” Lightning defenseman David Savard said. “We know that team on the other side doesn’t want to go down without a fight.”
The Canadiens will try to become the fifth NHL team to come back after losing the first three games in a best-of-7 series and second to do it in the Cup Final (1942 Toronto Maple Leafs). They are the 200th team to trail 3-0, including the 28th in the Cup Final.
Tampa Bay has outscored Montreal 14-5 and hasn’t trailed in the series. The Lightning had one-goal leads after the first period in Games 1 and 3.
“There is a lot of energy,” Canadiens forward Paul Byron said. “Everyone on the team knows we can play better. It’s a big challenge for the team, but everyone has to play to their potential tonight. I like the energy. I like the atmosphere on the team. We’ll see tonight.”
Here are 3 keys for Game 4:
1. Price must be right
Canadiens goalie Carey Price has been badly outplayed in the series by his Lightning counterpart, Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Price has a 4.39 goals-against average and an .835 save percentage, allowing 13 goals on 79 shots. Vasilevskiy has a 1.67 GAA and a .948 save percentage, allowing five goals on 97 shots.
It’s unlikely that the Canadiens will extend the series if Vasilevskiy continues to outshine Price.
2. Lightning need to block out noise
The Lightning don’t believe they’re going to get caught up in the opportunity to win the Stanley Cup because of their experience from last season.
They lost Game 5 of the Cup Final against the Stars last season when they had a chance to win the series. They won it in Game 6.
“I remember vividly last year having an opportunity to knock out Dallas and I look back now my thoughts were all going in the wrong direction,” Cooper said. “You’re thinking about raising the Stanley Cup, what’s it going to be like after, lifelong dreams, who is going to get to drink out of it. That’s called channeling your energy in the wrong direction.
“When we lost that game, I learned a lesson and it has to come back to your beliefs and it’s the process over the outcome. You can’t think of the outcome. You just have to believe in your process and whatever happens that’ll all take care of itself. Going into these games now, knowing how much is at stake, I’ve put it aside and I want to channel my energy into having our team play the best possible game.”
3. Canadiens make changes
The Canadiens will have a new look with several line and lineup changes in an attempt to shake things up and find some new energy, particularly at the start of the game.
The biggest change up front is inserting forward Jake Evans at center on the third line and scratching Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who has played 19 straight games since he was a healthy scratch in Game 1 against the Maple Leafs in the first round.
Evans, scratched the past two games after playing on the fourth line in Game 1, will center the third line with Artturi Lehkonen and Byron. Canadiens coach Dominque Ducharme said the line brings speed and energy, as it did in the second round against the Edmonton Oilers.
“They can play against top lines,” Ducharme said. “They showed it against [Connor] McDavid in two games.”
Brett Kulak and Alexander Romanov will enter the lineup on the third defense pair, replacing Jon Merrill and Erik Gustafsson.
“We wanted to bring a little bit more skating on our back end with those two guys,” Ducharme said. “We feel it’s important against them tonight and we’ll see.”
Killorn will be a game-time decision, Cooper said. He has missed the past two games after sustaining an undisclosed injury in Game 1 when blocking a shot. … Toffoli will move up to the top line and replace Lehkonen, who will drop to the third line. Anderson will move up from the third line to the second line and Caufield will move from right wing to left wing. The Canadiens fourth line will remain the same from Game 3.
CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.
Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.
Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.
The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.
Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.
The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.
Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.
Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.
Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.
Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.
Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.
Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.
The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.
The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.
Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).
Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.
Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.
The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.
—
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024
PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.
The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.
“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.
“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”
The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.
Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.
“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.
“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”
Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.
Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.
“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.
Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.
The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.
Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”
Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.
Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.
“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”
The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.
Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.
The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.
Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.
“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”
A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.
Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.
“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
