EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers’ effort faded Wednesday night in Las Vegas, going from supernova in the opening 15 minutes of the game, to simply not enough to beat a smoking-hot Golden Knights team by the third period.
You could see it from as far away as The Strip. One team had legs in the third period. The other did not.
And I know what many of you are thinking: “How can these guys be tired? They’re young. In their prime. In fantastic shape. They charter everywhere they go. Eat the best food. Make millions of dollars…”
All true. I say the same things on many a night.
But there is another truth when it comes to the National Hockey League on Feb. 27 of any given season: Everyone is tired.
The coaches are running out of fresh ways to deliver the same game plan. The video guys have clipped the opposing power plays so many times, they know them as well as that team’s coaches do. The writers are worn down, chasing teams that charter everywhere on commercial travel, with the inherent security, delays and cancelations that make air travel what it has become today. The pungent odor of the glove dryer makes the equipment guy want to go back to university.
But you don’t care about those people. Nobody ever bought a ticket to watch Dave Tippett coach, or Mark Spector write. They want to see Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the boys who, compared to the old days, are fully pampered in the Year 2020.
But another thing about the players? Well, they’re not machines either.
The team I cover, the Edmonton Oilers, have spent 15 of 26 nights this month in a hotel, about two-thirds of the time on the Pacific time zone, another third on Eastern time, and the rest in the Mountain time zone. They’re chugging through 29 games in 56 days, as most teams are right now.
While Olympic athletes “taper” their training so they can be at their physiological peak when a big meet arrives, training at altitude then arriving at the competition site days ahead for maximum performance, hockey players are a traveling circus, the owners squeezing out every possible date at the expense of the player and the product.
The Oilers and Los Angeles Kings showed up at the Staples Centre Sunday while the Lakers floor still covered the ice surface, then played the fastest pro game in North America three hours later on a sheet of ice that is inferior to every city rink in a town like Edmonton or Regina.
Of course, both teams share that ice. And both are worn down. There is no advantage here, no excuses.
Us Westerners laugh out loud when we hear about a team like the Philadelphia Flyers “sitting down with the NHL schedule makers” to try and solve what they consider to be an unfair schedule, with too many back-to-backs for the Flyers’ liking. Then you see that most of their road travel consists of flight of less than one hour — at how many nights the Flyers sleep in their own beds in a season compared to San Jose or Dallas — while at that very moment the Vancouver Canucks are on a road trip that begins in San Jose, stretches to Boston, and includes an “on the way home” game in Minnesota.
Body clocks don’t adjust better according to your salary, right? That’s why when your favourite player has a bad night, you might check the schedule before you carve him up on Twitter.
The Oilers came home with three of six points from their most recent trip, which somehow felt like a disappointment, losing in regulation to a red hot (and almost completely healthy) Golden Knights team that has now won seven straight.
But here’s the kicker: Edmonton plays one home game on Saturday night and jumps on a plane for the Central time zone and Nashville on Sunday — another three-games-in-four-nights roadie. Teams hire sleep doctors to help them map out the best schedules when it comes to staying overnight in some towns, or flying out after games, but their expertise is mitigated by the sheer volume of games and the need to move on to the next town.
Then you add in the injuries, which seem to be an epidemic in the NHL at the moment. Take Saturday’s opponent, the Winnipeg Jets:
They’re not missing many guys that they were counting on this season. Just Dustin Byfuglien, Bryan Little, Adam Lowry, Mathieu Perreault, Mark Letestu, Sami Niku, Carl Dahlstrom and Luca Sbisa.
Oh, and Josh Morrissey, their best defenceman to have survived the carnage thus far.
Or the Toronto Maple Leafs, who unwisely went into the season with a weak blue-line, and are now missing Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin and Cody Ceci to injury. Justin Holl has played 75 NHL games, and is accustomed to playing about 18 minutes per night. Well, in his last five games, his ice times have read, 25:49, 23:29, 21:04, 20:39 and 25:20.
It’s those extra six or seven minutes where an inexperienced defenceman makes the kind of mistakes that get remembered the next day, when the fans say, “That Holl guy wasn’t very good last night.”
Edmonton will ice a lineup Saturday with a lineup missing their best D-man, Oscar Klefbom, 19-goal scorer James Neal, point-per-game winger Kailer Yamamoto, depth speedster Joakim Nygard, blood-and-guts defender Kris Russell, and quite possibly newcomer and top-line winger Andreas Athanasiou.
Nurse recently came under fire when he stepped into the breech to replace Klefbom’s minutes, and his spot atop the Oilers power play. Nurse’s minutes went from 22:51 before Klefbom got hurt, to 27:05 in the games since.
And I scroll through my Twitter feed to learn how Nurse isn’t playing very well.
No kidding?
If he were a power-play quarterback, he’d be quarterbacking a power play at this point in his career, right? If he were capable of playing a mistake-free 27 minutes, he wouldn’t be a 21-minute, second pairing D-man, some 342 games into his NHL career.
Nurse, like players all over the league, are stepping out of their comfort zone right now — because someone has to.
It’s like Tippet said of his team a few games ago, after a loss in Arizona.
“They were trying to try…”
That’s how it is across the league, as February turns into March.
TORONTO – Reigning PWHL MVP and scoring champ Natalie Spooner will miss the start of the regular season for the Toronto Sceptres, general manager Gina Kingsbury announced Tuesday on the first day of training camp.
The 33-year-old Spooner had knee surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after she was checked into the boards by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series on May 13.
She had a goal and an assist in three playoff games but did not finish the series. Toronto was up 2-1 in the semifinal at that time and eventually fell 3-2 in the series.
Spooner led the PWHL with 27 points in 24 games. Her 20 goals, including five game-winners, were nine more than the closest skater.
Kingsbury said there is no timeline, as the team wants the Toronto native at 100 per cent, but added that “she is doing really well” in her recovery.
The Sceptres open the PWHL season on Nov. 30 when they host the Boston Fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
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.
