Canada’s assistant coach Jeremy Colliton speaks to his players during training on Sunday.ANNEGRET HILSE/Reuters
The NHL set up its little kiosk in Las Vegas over the weekend, hoping to do some market outreach.
The league’s biggest brainwave? Floating a podium into the middle of the fountain in front of the Bellagio hotel. On that stretch of water – possibly the single tackiest place on Planet Earth – they held a mini-skills competition. Columbus Blue Jackets defenceman Zach Werenski won it.
“I’ve been to Vegas a few times,” Werenski told reporters afterward, channelling Sally Field at the Oscars. “I feel like every time you come here, you walk by [the fountain]. You watch the fountains go off.”
You watch the fountains go off – he makes it sound so magical.
Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets makes a shot on goal against Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators during the game between the Metropolitan division and the Central division during the 2022 Honda NHL All-Star Game on Feb. 05, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada.Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Standing in a floodlit swamp, in front of a bunch of confused rubes from South Carolina and Sunderland, flipping pucks at a target.
Imagine Tom Brady or LeBron James being convinced to do this. Try harder. Try as hard as you can. Now stop before you pop a blood vessel.
What was this crowd of yokels thinking? It wasn’t, “I am standing in the presence of athletic greatness.” It was, “When did Cirque du Soleil get so boring?” But I presume that like all visitors to Vegas, they were sunburned and day drunk and happy to doing anything that’s free.
What a great hockey moment that must have been.
Around the same time, Team Canada was hitting the practice ice here in Beijing. They blew off their first couple of days in the city because of a) jet lag and b) the opening ceremony.
Now here they were in the practice rink jammed in behind Beijing’s second-best arena. Maybe 20, 25 people watched them take the ice, mostly to make sure they were all there and not telling COVID-19 fibs.
They weren’t wearing nameplates. Aside from a few known commodities, you couldn’t tell who was who.
Once again, the men’s representatives of the best hockey country in the world at the sport’s premier international competition are largely anonymous, even to their own people.
“I think it’s pretty sad,” said one of the few name brand players, Josh Ho-Sang. He was talking about all the NHLers who should be here and aren’t. “I feel really bad for those guys. … They may never get this chance again.”
Really? Do you think the NHL will ever be back?
“I hope so,” said Eric Staal, the only bona fide Canadian superstar (if this was 2008). “It’s great for the future of hockey. It needs to be a sport that’s played worldwide.”
Which is a nice way of saying that assembling a bunch of guys from the AHL and assorted European leagues isn’t accomplishing that goal.
Nobody here has as much to gain as Ho-Sang and Staal. Both probably believe that a good tournament gets them back to the bigs.
And even these guys think this is a bummer. Even they can see how badly the NHL screwed up this golden ticket. What does that tell you?
Every Winter Olympics starts off star-challenged. This one may be more barren of big names than any this century. Who’s the hot property up front? Who’s going to get people who think biathlon is running forward and backward to tune in? Eileen Gu, Chloe Kim, Jamaican bobsledders. That’s about it.
Canada’s hockey players should be filling that celebrity vacuum. If Crosby, MacKinnon and McDavid (neither first names nor nameplates required), that practice rink on Saturday would have been packed.
Instead, what you get is a bunch of volunteers lining up to take pictures with Owen Power. Not because they have any clue who he is. But because he is the biggest guy on the Canadian team, he’s standing still and he’s too nice to say no.
Team Canada should be filling the global sports content vacuum at the beginning and then again at the end. Forget about priceless. This would have been two weeks of unbuyable publicity.
I’m no marketing genius, but it seems to me that making that sort of splash in a country of 1.4 billion people who are just coming around on cold-weather sport might be a good idea.
The failure to see that obvious truth is so large, so pan-systemic, so bafflingly self-defeating, that it hasn’t provoked much controversy. One bad roster decision sets the NHL commentariat alight. A total, top-to-bottom failure to understand what is in the league’s best interests is apparently too complicated to discuss.
That’s how the NHL gets away with it (and other things). They wait a while, and then they fly everyone to Vegas instead. Problem successfully ignored.
On Sunday, Canada practised again. After the players had drifted off, team GM Shane Doan dropped by in his street clothes.
This must have seemed like a sexier job a couple of months ago, but you wouldn’t know that from hearing Doan talk about it.
He waxed on about the possibilities and what it means to wear the Maple Leaf. He analogized it to three similar sporting experiences – playing rugby for New Zealand, soccer for Brazil and cricket for India. Being part of teams that are not allowed to lose.
“That’s the best part of our tradition,” Doan said. “The expectation.”
Is it?
You know what Doan’s trying to say, but it’s getting harder to believe the underlying premise. If that expectation existed, the NHL’s best would be here.
I’m not talking about bargaining their way to the Olympics. I’m talking about climbing into the wheel well of a China-bound jetliner if that’s what it took.
Instead, the heirs to that special hockey tradition got a look at what a hassle Beijing was going to be and said, “Pass.”
Would Brazil’s best soccer players or India’s best cricketers take a powder on a World Cup because going might cost them a few bucks? Because someone at their day job told them they had to stay back and work out all the hours they’d missed in December and January?
No, they would not. Every single one of them would go to the World Cup if it was being staged in Hell. No league could deny them. If one tried, it would spark insurrection.
But here’s the NHL and its players with their thinking caps on, trying to figure out how a couple of weeks in the global spotlight might affect the Leafs’ ability to make cap space for a back-up goalie. This is the important work of hockey. Let guys who have nothing better to do handle the little things, like the Olympics. Canadian hockey’s tradition still carries an expectation, but it’s changed. Now it’s an expectation that we can lord over the sport whenever we feel like it, but only if it’s convenient.
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LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.
“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”
Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.
The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.
Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.
“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”
Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”
The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.
“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”
Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.
“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
Inter Milan winger Tajon Buchanan, recovered from a broken leg suffered in training at this summer’s Copa America, is back in Jesse Marsch’s Canada squad for the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal against Suriname.
The 25-year-old from Brampton, Ont., underwent surgery July 3 to repair a fractured tibia in Texas.
Canada, ranked 35th in the world, plays No. 136 Suriname on Nov. 15 in Paramaribo. The second leg of the aggregate series is four days later at Toronto’s BMO Field.
There is also a return for veteran winger Junior Hoilett, who last played for Canada in June in a 4-0 loss to the Netherlands in Marsch’s debut at the Canadian helm. The 34-year-old from Brampton, now with Scotland’s Hibernian, has 15 goals in 63 senior appearances for Canada.
Midfielder Ismael Kone, recovered from an ankle injury sustained on club duty with France’s Marseille, also returns. He missed Canada’s last three matches since the fourth-place Copa America loss to Uruguay in July.
But Canada will be without centre back Derek Cornelius, who exited Marseille’s win Sunday over Nantes on a stretcher after suffering an apparent rib injury.
The Canadian men will prepare for Suriname next week at a camp in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“We are looking forward to getting the group together again with the mindset that there is a trophy on the line,” Marsch said in a statement. “We want to end 2024 the right way with two excellent performances against a competitive Suriname squad and continue building on our tremendous growth this past summer.”
The quarterfinal winners advance to the Nations League Finals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., with the two semifinals scheduled for March 20 and the final and third-place playoff March 23, and qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Thirteen of the 23 players on the Canadian roster are 25 or younger, with 19-year-old defender Jamie Knight-Lebel, currently playing for England’s Crewe Alexandra on loan from Bristol City, the youngest.
Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies captains the side with Stephen Eustaquio, Jonathan Osorio, Richie Laryea, Alistair Johnston and Kamal Miller adding veteran support.
Jonathan David, Cyle Larin and Theo Bair are joined in attack by Minnesota United’s Tani Oluwaseyi.
Niko Sigur, a 21-year-old midfielder with Croatia’s Hadjuk Split, continues in the squad after making his debut in the September friendly against Mexico.
Suriname made it to the Nations League quarterfinals by finishing second to Costa Rica in Group A of the Nations League, ahead of No. 104 Guatemala, No. 161 Guyana and unranked Martinique and Guadeloupe.
“A good team,” Osorio said of Suriname. “These games are always tricky and they’re not easy at all … Suriname is a (former) Dutch colony and they’ll have Dutch players playing at high levels.”
“They won’t be someone we overlook at all,” added the Toronto FC captain, who has 81 Canada caps to his credit.
Located on the northeast coast of South America between Guyana and French Guiana, Suriname was granted independence in 1975 by the Netherlands.
Canada has faced Suriname twice before, both in World Cup qualifying play, winning 4-0 in suburban Chicago in June 2021 and 2-1 in Mexico City in October 1977.
The Canadian men, along with Mexico, the United States and Panama, received a bye into the final eight of the CONCACAF Nations League.
Canada, No. 2 in the CONCACAF rankings, drew Suriname as the best-placed runner-up from League A play.
Canada lost to Jamaica in last year’s Nations League quarterfinal, ousted on the away-goals rule after the series ended in a 4-4 draw. The Canadians lost 2-0 to the U.S. in the final of the 2022-23 tournament and finished fifth in 2019-20.
Canada defeated Panama 2-1 last time out, in an Oct. 15 friendly in Toronto.
Goalkeepers Maxime Crepeau and Jonathan Sirois, defenders Joel Waterman, Laryea and Miller and Osorio took part in a pre-camp this week in Toronto for North America-based players.
Canada Roster
Goalkeepers: Maxime Crepeau, Portland Timbers (MLS); Jonathan Sirois, CF Montreal (MLS); Dayne St. Clair, Minnesota United FC (MLS).
Defenders: Moise Bombito, OGC Nice (France); Alphonso Davies, Bayern Munich (Germany); Richie Laryea, Toronto FC (MLS); Alistair Johnston, Celtic (Scotland); Jamie Knight-Lebel. Crewe Alexandra, on loan from Bristol City (England); Kamal Miller, Portland Timbers (MLS); Joel Waterman, CF Montreal (MLS).
Midfielders: Ali Ahmed. Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS); Tajon Buchanan, Inter Milan (Italy); Mathieu Choiniere, Grasshopper Zurich (Switzerland); Stephen Eustaquio, FC Porto (Portugal); Junior Hoilett, Hibernian FC (Scotland); Ismael Kone, Olympique Marseille (France); Jonathan Osorio, Toronto FC (MLS); Jacob Shaffelburg, Nashville SC (MLS); Niko Sigur, Hadjuk Split (Croatia).
Forwards: Theo Bair, AJ Auxerre (France); Jonathan David, LOSC Lille (France); Cyle Larin, RCD Mallorca (Spain); Tani Oluwaseyi, Minnesota United (MLS).
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
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