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With new contract, Toronto Maple Leafs hope Jake Muzzin's voice gets louder – TSN

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5 years ago

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes on the Maple Leafs. The Leafs (optional) and Lightning skated at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.

The Leafs hope the voice of Jake Muzzin will become even louder in the dressing room now that the defenceman has inked a four-year extension.

“This signing is significant in terms of just giving him the ability to know that he’s really in this with us,” said coach Sheldon Keefe. “Not that he wasn’t before, but just to now have him secured as part of our core [will] allow him to dig in even a little bit deeper with our core and help us get to the level we have to get to.”

Keefe often refers to Muzzin, a native of Woodstock, Ont., as the conscience of the group. 

“I wanted to be here,” said Muzzin, who was due to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. “That’s pretty much it. I like the team, I like the city, the organization. Me and my wife really enjoyed it, so we wanted to be here.”

Muzzin on four-year extension with Toronto: ‘I wanted to be here’

After officially signing a four-year, $22.5 million contract extension with the Maple Leafs, Jake Muzzin says he is happy remain in Toronto and he’s gotten used to the craziness in the city. Head coach Sheldon Keefe speaks about the impact Muzzin has had on the team and calls it a ‘significant signing’.

That’s a good thing, because Toronto has never needed Muzzin more. The Leafs have struggled to put forward consistent efforts of late, going just 8-9-3 since Jan. 5. Toronto has just five regulation wins in the past 20 games.

“The core of the team needs to take a jump,” Muzzin said. “We can’t have it one night and not the next and that’s everyone and that’s bringing along the younger core as well. We have to give them no option but to come with us.”

Keefe points out that Muzzin’s background with the Kings, including a championship run in 2014, gives him credibility in the room. The coach has urged the 31-year-old to use his platform to create an honest dialogue when things are going poorly. 

“He has an interesting perspective,” Keefe observed. “He comes from a different place, a place that had success, a place that had to find its way, so that gives him a little more power in terms of his ability to speak with our group. He also has the type of that personality that is comfortable saying what’s on his mind and also just has really good perspective on what’s happening.”

There are not a lot of veteran players on the Leafs. Jason Spezza, 36, is the only player older than Muzzin. 

“Dig down,” Muzzin said when asked how the Leafs can escape their current funk. “Everyone’s got to get comfortable getting pushed a little harder and being uncomfortable, so it’s a crucial time for us. We’re going to need everyone’s best efforts the rest of the way.”

Muzzin and Kyle Clifford are the only players on the roster to win the Stanley Cup.

Leafs searching for effort and consistency as they enter crucial stretch

With the deadline passed and the team set for the playoff race, the Leafs enter a crucial stretch. The team recognizes they haven’t played to the level they’re capable of and are searching for more effort and consistency. As Jake Muzzin says, ‘everyone has to get comfortable being pushed a little harder and being uncomfortable.’

—-

Tyson Barrie is relieved to still be with the Leafs. 

“It was touch and go for a couple of days but I’m glad I made it through it,” the pending unrestricted free agent said with a smile. 

The defenceman, who had risen to No. 5 on TSN’s trade bait list, spoke with Kyle Dubas on deadline day. 

“It was nice of him to reach out,” Barrie said. 

What was the message from the general manager? 

“He’s got belief in this team,” Barrie said, “and we’re still in a spot and we’re trying to make the playoffs and he believes in myself and the team and he wants me here.”

Dubas didn’t trade away Barrie, but he also didn’t boost the roster. And then, during a news conference yesterday, ​Dubas admitted he wasn’t sure why his highly skilled core wasn’t leading the team to more consistent efforts.

Overall, it seemed to be a lukewarm endorsement at best, but for the players there was only one takeaway.  

“He believes in this group is what we need to take from it,” said Muzzin. “He’s brought in pieces earlier [backup goalie Jack Campbell and gritty forward Clifford] and he believes in the group in here and now we have to go out and perform.”

The Leafs can make a big statement tonight in Tampa. The Lightning are the hottest team in hockey, going 23-4-1 since Dec. 23.

“We need a bounce back after that last game,” Barrie said. “With the deadline going by and we’re keeping the team together and management showing belief in this team, it’s a huge game to show we’re going to respond and have a big push here at the end of the year.”

Toronto is looking to turn the page after Saturday’s embarrassing loss when they fell meekly to a tired Hurricanes team even though Carolina was forced to play with an emergency backup goalie – 42-year-old David Ayres, who serves as Toronto’s fill-in goalie at practice – for almost half the game. 

The Leafs are trying not to get caught up in any of the bad press since that debacle. 

“It’s kind of the old saying, you’re not as good as everyone tells you are and not as bad when everyone says the same thing,” captain John Tavares noted. “I know our team was built to, obviously, want to go all the way and we still have an opportunity to earn that chance to try and do that.”

Keefe, meanwhile, recalled a conversation he had shortly over taking on the Leafs head coach job back in November. 

“A very accomplished coach I was speaking with said to me, ‘The difference between your job and mine is we have a bad month and nobody notices and you have a bad week and the world is ending.’ So, it’s on me to manage that, but also acknowledge that for a while now we haven’t been able to play at the level that we’re capable of and it’s on me to help find those solutions.”

—-

Down the hall in the Lightning room it was a much different feel as three new players got situated in their new home. GM Julien BriseBois​ added forwards Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow and defenceman Zach Bogosian before the deadline. 

“It shows that our ownership and management is determined to win and that’s the same thing we feel in this room,” said captain Steven Stamkos. “To go out and add some guys like that at the deadline, as a player, that’s a dream come true, so you want to go out there and have their back.”

All three newcomers are expected to make their home debut for the Lightning tonight. 

“I bring some grit, some physicality,” said Goodrow. “I take a lot of pride in my defensive game, try to eliminate whoever I’m playing against that night. I play a hard game.”

After dropping the final two games of a road trip, the Lightning are looking to avoid their first three-game skid since late November.

—-

Projected Leafs lines for tonight’s game: 

Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Nylander-Tavares-Malgin
Engvall-Kerfoot-Kapanen
Clifford-Gauthier-Spezza

Muzzin-Holl
Dermott-Barrie
Sandin-Liljegren 

Andersen starts 
Campbell

Lines at Lightning skate:

Stamkos-Point-Kucherov
Coleman-Cirelli-Killorn
Palat-Johnson-Goodrow
Maroon-Paquette-Gourde

Hedman-Cernak
Sergachev-Shattenkirk
Coburn-Bogosian
Schenn

Vasilevskiy starts
McElhinney 

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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12 hours ago

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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22 hours ago

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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22 hours ago

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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