As the Winnipeg Jets brought in Hoosli, a local chorus, to perform the Ukrainian National Anthem before hosting the Canadiens, more sports — including international basketball — announced sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
When biathletes from those countries were not sent as “neutral competitors” to international events, NBC Sports’ Nick Zaccardi reported that meant no one “from Russia or Belarus will compete on the top international level in any Winter Olympic sport the rest of this season.”
Some North Americans chose to terminate their contracts instead of competing in the KHL playoffs, including Kenny Agostino (Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo), Geoff Platt (Salavat Yulaev Ufa) and Nick Shore (Novosirisk Sibir). Contract values dipped as the ruble was pounded in currency markets.
Beyond the players, the KHL turned off replies to all tweets on its English-language account Tuesday.
For international hockey, the ban extends through the summer, including the rescheduled World Junior Championships and women’s World Championships. This year’s men’s Worlds are to be moved from Hartwall Arena, which is Russian-owned, in Helsinki. According to a couple of sources, several conversations were underway for future events in Russia, beyond the 2023 World Juniors and World Championships.
All of that is, obviously, on hold. And that’s not changing as the invasion continues.
Individual situations are trickier. Ukranian tennis player Elina Svitolina agreed to play her match against Anastasia Potopova at the Monterey Open after assurances all Russian “national emblems, flags and colours” would be removed. Governing bodies in F1 (FIA) and swimming (FINA) said they could not ban individual athletes if they competed under no country, flag, anthem or colours. (Swimming Canada announced it would not attend the upcoming World Short-Course Championships this December in Kazan.)
Other countries want sports federations to put pressure on Vladimir Putin, because they know how much he likes to use sports to show Russian strength.
The NHL’s statement on Monday recognized concern “about the well-being of the players from Russia, who play in the NHL on behalf of their NHL Clubs, and not on behalf of Russia. We understand they and their families are being placed in an extremely difficult position.”
However, these individual conversations are coming to hockey. NHL teams are asking if they will be able to sign their Russian prospects who don’t yet have contracts with them. There are questions about visas for next season in both Canada and the United States. Teammate Jeff Marek reported Monday night the Canadian Hockey League will hold an executive call on Wednesday, with “some speculation” Russian and Belarusian players may be excluded from the upcoming import draft, but “nothing has been decided yet.”
The 2021 CHL import draft was held on June 30, so no decisions need to be rushed.
One agent weighed in, making it known he disagrees with this idea. Dan Milstein was born in Kiev in 1975; 10 years old when Chernobyl melted down, evacuated for three months that summer of 1986. His family left Ukraine for Detroit in 1991, but he’s watched with horror as Russia invaded.
“These are 16- and 17-year-olds (who would be) discriminated against because they are born in Russia,” Milstein said Tuesday. “I understand both sides of it, that Ukrainians the same age are in danger. But all these kids want to do is play hockey, and forcing them to stay home is exactly what Russia wants.
“This is not punishing a federation, it’s punishing individuals.”
32 THOUGHTS
1. Newly hired Chicago GM Kyle Davidson made it clear the Blackhawks are in a full rebuild.
“There’s some things we need to fix that are going to take time,” he said while being introduced on Tuesday. But he did offer up one key hint: Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews “are extremely important pieces to the organizations. They’re definitely going to be brought into the loop. There won’t be any surprises on their end on what we plan on doing with the organization.”
Before Davidson’s official hire, the word out of Chicago was the only way either would be traded was if they wanted to go. (They are one year from unrestricted free agency.) Both will be given a picture of what Davidson is thinking; we will see how they feel. The Blackhawks have been asked about Kane, I can’t imagine anything happening before the summer – assuming anything happens at all.
2. Chicago’s upcoming first-rounder is only top-two protected from the Seth Jones deal. They do have four other picks in the first two rounds. The Blackhawks promised Marc-Andre Fleury nothing would happen without his approval, and I’m not sure he’ll want to go anywhere unless it is a serious contender. I’d be surprised if Alex DeBrincat was traded.
3. As for what will happen around Davidson in the front office, he specifically mentioned former Blackhawk Brian Campbell during the media availability, so you can assume Campbell is staying. Other staff, however, are expecting changes.
I’m not exactly sure how the message was conveyed, but there were rumblings Tuesday that Scott Mellanby – who interviewed for the GM job – was suggested as a possibility for another role. A couple of sources thought Norm Maciver, who left Chicago 14 months ago to join Seattle, might be brought back because of a good relationship with Davidson. Another name to watch is already there: Meghan Hunter, the team’s director of hockey administration and an amateur scout.
4. Best line from Davidson came when he described a day where his wife (Angelica) was annoyed at him: “You might be the GM of the Chicago Blackhawks, but I’m the GM of this house.” Show me a husband who can’t identify with that one.
5. If there was one item from last week’s notes that was disputed, it was that Rasmus Ristolainen is a definite to be traded by the Flyers. There’s work being done to try to sign him. Apparently, a recent offer got things rolling. Let’s see where we go from here.
6. As promised, San Jose is taking its run at keeping Tomas Hertl.
7. Under-the-radar name to keep an eye on: Noel Acciari. Acciari was hurt in the preseason, had surgery, went on a conditioning stint, got healthy but has only played twice in a deep Florida lineup. Final year of his contract, $1.667 million AAV, 45 games of playoff experience. People like centres.
8. One GM described the rental defence market as “soft,” and a couple of his compatriots concurred. A major reason is that there’s a lot of them, with multiple options from either side. We’ve mentioned before that the early ask was what Columbus got last season for David Savard (a first and a third), but buyers feel they can squeeze the sellers. And I think some will wait to see what happens with Hampus Lindholm.
9. I can see John Klingberg as a Kraken. Maybe not now, but in the summer. He fits what they need.
10. Because Jake Muzzin suffered his second concussion in two months, he’s not going to be rushed back. But Toronto has made it clear that if Muzzin can return before the playoffs, the Maple Leafs will not hold him out simply for the sake of added cap space. That means Toronto is dealing with about $2 million in cap space, and defence is the priority.
11. Peter DeBoer with his 500th career win on Tuesday night, a strong defensive performance by the Golden Knights in a 3-1 win over San Jose. More importantly for Vegas, Robin Lehner played well, making 16 saves. They need to know he’s healthy.
12. DeBoer was really interesting post-game. He mentioned it was fitting to get the milestone against San Jose, “not for the reasons people think – it’s our rival or the team I got fired from,” but because some of the Sharks on and off the ice were instrumental in accumulating 500 wins.
Asked about the challenges of the COVID era, he answered, “I’ve had conversations with Paul Maurice, who really lost his passion for doing this based on the circumstances the last couple of years. It’s been tough on everybody.” He credited Vegas as a team and Nevada a state for creating an atmosphere conducive to enjoying yourself a little more. “That’s made it easier. That’s what we do this for. If there’s one place that’s been easier to ride this out, it’s been here. For a lot of different reasons. I feel fortunate about that.”
13. Four points in four games for Edmonton, with one coming against Chicago on this trip. The Oilers deserved even better, they’ve been pretty good on this one. Paul Coffey watched a couple of games during the southeastern stretch. Nothing official, but he knows his hockey.
14. Vancouver’s players are sick of the rumours (not that I blame them). They’ve made it very clear.
15. Calgary’s played seven of its 10 rescheduled games from the COVID-19 disruption. The Flames are 7-0. They’ve got another on March 7, with the last ones on April 18-19.
The Erik Gudbranson-Nikita Zadorov defensive pair is an amazing story, proof that team-building is not just “what a player can do for us,” but also “what plans we have for you.” Is there another defensive pair like this? They’ve got a role and understand it. Last Saturday, they were zipping around the puck like the Globetrotters.
16. Last Saturday, the Arizona players and staff held a meeting with Coyotes president and CEO Xavier Gutierrez. NHLPA special assistant Mathieu Schneider attended, and I reached out to him after hearing about it. It was intense, with a lot of tough questions. Gutierrez didn’t duck anything, trying to answer as best he could, but, as Schneider said, “There aren’t any good answers for the players in the short term.”
There’s not much the NHLPA can really do to block the move to the small Arizona State arena, but players did ask: “How did it come to this?”
17. There were a lot of questions about next year, with the Coyotes hopeful there wouldn’t be a long road trip to start the season. One of the things players asked is if they’d have to change at the rink and bus to practices. The team said it hopes to know about the proposed arena in Tempe in the next 60 days, with sources estimating it could come up in council in April.
“The average career length is less than five years,” Schneider said. “Ninety per cent of the current Coyotes won’t be here to see (a new arena).”
Schneider added that, during his 1,289-game career, he played in some tough situations (Atlanta, the arena issues on Long Island), so he understands how it affects players. “They have to communicate with their players, early and often. It will be better for the organization in the long term. If they don’t take care of their players, it won’t matter if they get a new building or not.”
It’s still unclear what happens if the arena is not approved.
18. Still to be determined: Will there be protection against any possible revenue losses from going to a smaller venue? I’ve heard from several people who believe the Coyotes will be able to make at least equal, if not more, revenue at Arizona State, but have not seen the modelling.
19. We’ll never know, but I think Avs defenceman Devon Toews would have been on the Canadian Olympic team. What a player he’s turned into.
20. Tuesday was the first day entry-level contracts could be signed that wouldn’t take effect until 2022-23. That’s why you saw a bit of a flood: free agents Jordan Frasca (OHL Kingston to Pittsburgh), Taylor Gauthier (WHL Portland to Pittsburgh); Tye Kartye (OHL Sault Ste. Marie to Seattle), Bennett MacArthur (QMJHL Acadie-Bathurst to Tampa Bay); Henry Rybinski (WHL Seattle to Washington); along with previously selected Rory Kerins (OHL Sault Ste. Marie/Calgary) and Antonio Stranges (OHL London/Dallas).
One interesting note about Rybinski: He was drafted by Florida and not signed. But a scout who originally advocated for him with the Panthers – Evan Marble – is now with the Capitals.
21. We’re going to start a new segment on the podcast called, “Correcting idiotic misstatements.” Last month, it was saying Buffalo won the Trevor Zegras-Sonny Milano game, for reasons that remain inexplicable. This week, it was all Marek’s fault for saying that when players pose with multiple-goal pucks, they aren’t necessarily the real ones.
Boy did we get blowback on this one, and fast.
One NHL official reached out to say that pucks are switched out after every goal, marked and collected. Winnipeg is one team (there are others, but they were the first I was told about) that sells game-used goal pucks if not requested by themselves or the team they are playing.
22. I don’t want to spoil the interview before it runs, but we’re going to drop a conversation with Slovak scoring sensation Juraj Slafkovsky on Wednesday. He was really fun to talk to. Among the gems he dropped: Tyler Steenbergen, a teammate of his in Turku who played the last three seasons at AHL Tucson, would show him upcoming NHL draft rankings – poking fun at some of the places he was listed. A bit of a motivational tool. But no one is doubting Slafkovsky after a terrific Olympic performance.
23. Golden Knights’ Alex Pietrangelo was a tremendous guest recently. What others say about him: he’s got some of the best work-life balance in the NHL, and he’s excellent at giving post-career planning advice – although he credits both his father (Joe) and former teammate David Backes for the latter. “It’s nice when you’re making the living that we are, but it doesn’t last forever,” he said. “The further you get into your career … you try and find different interests, try and keep your mind occupied. If I can help just one guy or two guys be a little bit smarter with what they are doing in the future, that’s a win for me.”
What advice does he give them? “It might be something as simple as … Let’s just take a look at your car, for example. You want to buy this specific car? Maybe it’s not the right time to buy that car. Maybe you should wait until the next contract before you spend the money on that thing. It’s easy to start thinking one way, but sometimes you’ve got to step back and look at the bigger picture. You guys know as you get older, all of a sudden you’ve got a mortgage and you have to pay for kids and you’ve got to pay for kids’ school and all of a sudden you’re saying, ‘Maybe back in the day if I could have been a little bit smarter, it would be a little bit different. It’s not really anything too specific. I get questions all the time, sometimes I think I just pretend I’m smarter than I actually am. I always tell guys, ‘If I don’t know the answer, I’ll call somebody and try and find the answer.’ You only can live life through experience and I guess I’m the old guy here, so I try and use my experience.”
24. Pietrangelo doesn’t just talk the talk. Teammates told a great story about the day after St. Louis won the Stanley Cup. He drove to the rink with the trophy in the back of a minivan, a practical vehicle for parents with triplets. “Who else in the NHL,” one said, “would have a minivan?”
“(The night we won), I’ve never seen my dad cry,” Pietrangelo said. “He was tearing up. I’ve never seen my mom (Edy) stay up so late. Or my wife. Or me. We brought the minivan down to the rink. I look back. We’ve got (then-teammate) Michael del Zotto, we’ve got me, there’s two other guys and I’ve got my brother-in-law. And I look in the trunk and there’s the Stanley Cup. Just bouncing around in the back of the minivan.”
25. As for work-life balance, Pietrangelo takes great pride in it. “That is a compliment, I appreciate people saying that. It takes time, though. Anybody who is a new parent is going to say the same thing. The only thing that people tell you is that it’s not going to be easy. You’ve got to find that routine as a father and as a husband and a wife. I used to take work home all the time. I’m sure a lot of guys say the same thing. When I go home, my kids don’t know if I played well or I played bad. My wife does (laughs). They don’t know the difference, they just want to know Dad. That has really helped me leave work at work, and home is home. My wife (Jayne) is really patient with me, and I owe a lot to her to help me find that balance.”
We actually conducted this part of the interview on Valentine’s Day, and any smart husband was in the mood to continue. “I think it’s made me a better player, and I’ve said that to people before. Finding that balance of being a father has made me a better person and a better player because I can go to the rink every day and I feel refreshed. One, because I wasn’t thinking about hockey at home and two because I can get four kids to school somehow by myself … I couldn’t stand myself if I was (his wife), I’m all over the place.”
26. Finally, Pietrangelo said Jay Bouwmeester is doing very well, and added the 1,240-game veteran was the one who told him to stop taking every morning skate.
“When I started, it became a thing, that’s what you did every game. Bo said, ‘Why are you going on the ice?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, that’s just what I do.’ (Bouwmeester replied), ‘The game’s tonight, the game’s not this morning.’ Since then, if I don’t have to go on the ice in the morning, I don’t go. People ask me, why? A wise man once told me. Grateful I had the opportunity to play with him.”
27. Craig Anderson is three wins from 300. No doubt he’s grinding to get it and I hope he does.
28. Credit to Ron MacLean for this one. Mason McTavish has played for eight teams in the last year: Olten (Switzerland), Anaheim, AHL San Diego, OHL Peterborough and Hamilton, and Team Canada on three different occasions (Under-18, World Juniors, Olympics). Hope he collects frequent flyer and hotel points.
29. T.J. Tynan is averaging 1.62 points per game for AHL Ontario – 11 goals and 52 assists in 39 games. That would be the best since 2006-07, when three players beat that: Brandon Bochenski (1.88), Jason Krog (1.82) and Darren Haydar (1.67).
30. He’s a little older (23), but was happy to hear Alberta’s Noah Philp came roaring back on the Canadian university scene with 11 points in eight games before the Canada West playoffs. Philp missed almost two years due to COVID-19 shutdowns and some personal time. Right-shot centre. Brother Luke plays for AHL Stockton.
31. The Greater Toronto Hockey League Top Prospects game was Tuesday night. Lots of talk about forward Michael Misa of the Mississauga Senators, and if he will get exceptional status in Ontario.
32. Friday will be the 10th anniversary of the launch of the “You Can Play” project. Here’s the first video, from 2012:
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Can remember how powerful it was when we first saw it. Two years after Brendan Burke died, brother Patrick formed it with Brian Kitts and Glenn Witman. (Brian Burke is obviously a huge supporter, too.) The Twitter bio says it best: “Athletes should be judged on talent, heart, and work ethic, not sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.” Absolutely right.
Christine Sinclair scored one final goal at B.C. Place, helping the Portland Thorns to a 6-0 victory over the Whitecaps Girls Elite team. The soccer legend has announced she’ll retire from professional soccer at the end of the National Women’s Soccer League season. (Oct. 16, 2024)
At his first news conference as England’s newly appointed head coach, Thomas Tuchel – a German – was asked on Wednesday what message he had for fans who would have preferred an Englishman in charge of their beloved national team.
“I’m sorry, I just have a German passport,” he said, laughing, and went on to profess his love for English football and the country itself. “I will do everything to show respect to this role and to this country.”
The soccer rivalry between England and Germany runs deep and it’s likely Tuchel’s passport will be used against him if he doesn’t deliver results for a nation that hasn’t lifted a men’s trophy since 1966. But his appointment as England’s third foreign coach shows that, increasingly, even the top countries in the sport are abandoning the long-held belief that the national team must be led by one of their own.
Four of the top nine teams in the FIFA world rankings now have foreign coaches. Even in Germany, a four-time World Cup winner which has never had a foreign coach, candidates such as Dutchman Louis van Gaal and Austrian Oliver Glasner were considered serious contenders for the top job before the country’s soccer federation last year settled on Julian Nagelsmann, who is German.
“The coaching methods are universal and there for everyone to apply,” said German soccer researcher and authorChristoph Wagner, whose recent book “Crossing the Line?” historically addresses Anglo-German rivalry. “It’s more the personality that counts and not the nationality. You could be a great coach, and work with a group of players who aren’t perceptive enough to get your methods.”
Not everyone agrees.
English soccer author and journalist Jonathan Wilson said it was “an admission of failure” for a major soccer nation to have a coach from a different country.
“Personally, I think it should be the best of one country versus the best of another country, and that would probably extend to coaches as well as players,” said Wilson, whose books include “Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics.”
“To say we can’t find anyone in our country who is good enough to coach our players,” he said, “I think there is something slightly embarrassing, slightly distasteful about that.”
That sentiment was echoed by British tabloid The Daily Mail, which reported on Tuchel’s appointment with the provocative headline “A Dark Day for England.”
While foreign coaches are often found in smaller countries and those further down the world rankings, they are still a rarity among the traditional powers of the game. Italy, another four-time world champion, has only had Italians in charge. All of Spain’s coaches in its modern-day history have been Spanish nationals. Five-time World Cup winner Brazil has had only Brazilians in charge since 1965, and two-time world champion France only Frenchmen since 1975.
And it remains the case that every World Cup-winning team, since the first tournament in 1930, has been coached by a native of that country. The situation is similar for the women’s World Cup, which has never been won by a team with a foreign coach, though Jill Ellis, who led the U.S. to two trophies, is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in England.
Some coaches have made a career out of jumping from one national team to the next. Lars Lagerbäck, 76, coached his native Sweden between 2000-09 and went on to lead the national teams of Nigeria, Iceland and Norway.
“I couldn’t say I felt any big difference,” Lagerbäck told The Associated Press. “I felt they were my teams and the people’s teams.”
For Lagerbäck, the obvious disadvantages of coaching a foreign country were any language difficulties and having to adapt to a new culture, which he particularly felt during his brief time with Nigeria in 2010 when he led the African country at the World Cup.
Otherwise, he said, “it depends on the results” — and Lagerbäck is remembered with fondness in Iceland, especially, after leading the country to Euro 2016 for its first ever international tournament, where it knocked out England in the round of 16.
Lagerbäck pointed to the strong education and sheer number of coaches available in soccer powers like Spain and Italy to explain why they haven’t needed to turn to an overseas coach. At this year’s European Championship, five of the coaches were from Italy and the winning coach was Luis de la Fuente, who was promoted to Spain’s senior team after being in charge of the youth teams.
Portugal for the first time looked outside its own borders or Brazil, with which it has historical ties, when it appointed Spaniard Roberto Martinez as national team coach last year. Also last year, Brazil tried — and ultimately failed — to court Real Madrid’s Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti, with Brazilian soccer federation president Ednaldo Rodrigues saying: “It doesn’t matter if it’s a foreigner or a Brazilian, there’s no prejudice about the nationality.”
The United States has had a long list of foreign coaches before Mauricio Pochettino, the Argentine former Chelsea manager who took over as the men’s head coach this year.
The English Football Association certainly had no qualms making Tuchel the national team’s third foreign-born coach, after Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson (2001-06) and Italian Fabio Capello (2008-12), simply believing he was the best available coach on the market.
Unlike Eriksson and Capello, Tuchel at least had previous experience of working in English soccer — he won the Champions League in an 18-month spell with Chelsea — and he also speaks better English.
That won’t satisfy all the nay-sayers, though.
“Hopefully I can convince them and show them and prove to them that I’m proud to be the English manager,” Tuchel said.
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AP Sports Writer Jerome Pugmire in Paris contributed to this story.
TORONTO – Bobby McMann watched from the press box on opening night.
Just over a week later, the Maple Leafs winger took a twirl as the first star.
McMann went from healthy scratch to unlikely offensive focal point in just eight days, putting up two goals in Toronto’s 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday.
The odd man out at the Bell Centre against the Montreal Canadiens, he’s slowly earning the trust of first-year head coach Craig Berube.
“There’s a lot of good players on this team,” McMann said of his reaction to sitting out Game 1. “Maybe some guys fit better in certain scenarios than others … just knowing that my opportunity would come.”
The Wainwright, Alta., product skated on the second line with William Nylander and Max Domi against Los Angeles, finishing with those two goals, three hits and a plus-3 rating in just over 14 minutes of work.
“He’s been unbelievable,” said Nylander, who’s tied with McMann for the team lead with three goals. “It’s great when a player like that comes in.”
The 28-year-old burst onto the scene last February when he went from projected scratch to hat-trick hero in a single day after then-captain John Tavares fell ill.
McMann would finish 2023-24 with 15 goals and 24 points in 56 games before a knee injury ruled him out of Toronto’s first-round playoff loss to the Boston Bruins.
“Any time you have success, it helps the confidence,” he said. “But I always trust the abilities and trust that they’re there whether things are going in or (I’m not) getting points. Just trying to play my game and trust that doing the little things right will pay off.”
McMann was among the Leafs’ best players against the Kings — and not just because of what he did on the scoresheet. The forward got into a scuffle with Phillip Danault in the second period before crushing Mikey Anderson with a clean hit in the third.
“He’s a power forward,” Berube said. “That’s how he should think the game, night in and night out, as being a power forward with his skating and his size. He doesn’t have to complicate the game.”
Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz knew nothing about McMann before joining Toronto in free agency over the summer.
“Great two-way player,” said the netminder. “Extremely physical and moves really well, has a good shot. He’s a key player for us in our depth. I was really happy for him to get those two goals.
“Works his butt off.”
ON TARGET
Leafs captain Auston Matthews, who scored 69 times last season, ripped his first goal of 2024-25 after going without a point through the first three games.
“It’s not going to go in every night,” said Matthews, who added two assists against the Kings. “It’s good to see one fall … a little bit of the weight lifted off your shoulders.”
WAKE-UP CALL
Berube was animated on the bench during a third-period timeout after the Kings cut a 5-0 deficit to 5-2.
“Taking care of the puck, being harder in our zone,” Matthews said of the message. “There were times in the game, early in the second, in the third period, where the momentum shifted and we needed to grab it back.”
PATCHES SITS
Toronto winger Max Pacioretty was a healthy scratch after dressing the first three games.
“There’s no message,” Berube said of the 35-year-old’s omission. “We have extra players and not everybody can play every night. That’s the bottom line. He’s been fine when he’s played, but I’ve got to make decisions as a coach, and I’m going to make those decisions — what I think is best for the team.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
