The Stanley Cup banners hanging in Pittsburgh and Washington aren’t collecting dust yet. The Penguins won their third, fourth and fifth championships in 2009, 2016 and 2017, while the Capitals hoisted the Cup for the first time in franchise history in 2018.
Still, the core players from those title-winning teams aren’t getting any younger: Sidney Crosby celebrated his 36th birthday Monday and Alex Ovechkin turns 38 next month. The Penguins’ 16-year playoff streak and the Capitals’ eight-year playoff streak ended last season.
The moves made this summer show both teams are willing to sacrifice some future success to keep winning now. Pittsburgh over the weekend traded several players and two high draft picks to land Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson, a deal that came on the heels of Washington signing power forward Tom Wilson to a seven-year contract extension.
New Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas and longtime Capitals GM Brian MacLellan are trying to jam open their teams’ contending window as long as possible — a difficult task in the NHL in the salary cap era.
“It is challenging,” MacLellan said. “We got some young guys that are still coming, but our goal is to remain competitive. I think it’s a tricky balance, but we’ll see if we can pull it off. I think it’s important for Ovi, for all our veteran guys that we remain competitive, give them a chance to compete.”
In replacing Ron Hextall and Brian Burke — they were fired after Pittsburgh missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006 — Dubas took a big swing at upgrading immediately by getting Karlsson from San Jose. Perhaps more significant than what he gave up is the $10 million annually the Penguins have committed to the 33-year-old Swede over the next four seasons.
Dubas isn’t worried about sending a message to veteran leaders like Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang or coach Mike Sullivan. But it speaks volumes about the direction the team is going in, with no sign of a rebuild in sight.
“I think it’s just the affirmation that we believe that they have a chance to contend and compete for a championship, and there’s a lot of work that has to be done,” Dubas said. “Obviously, the team missed the playoffs last year and there’s no dancing around it and we’ve tried to supplement as best we can.”
MacLellan, unlike Hextall, sold at the trade deadline when it was clear Washington was likely to miss the playoffs. He, too, has tried to supplement the core that remains from the Cup run, signing winger Max Pacioretty and trading for defenseman Joel Edmundson.
Pacioretty turns 35 in November and Edmundson is 30 — the same age Wilson will be when his new $45.5 million contract kicks in for the 2024-25 season. Nicklas Backstrom is nearing 36, T.J. Oshie turns 37 in December and John Carlson 34 in December.
The Capitals think that experience can be a benefit in trying to get back into the playoffs.
“There’s a lot of winners in that room, and when you don’t make the playoffs, it’s a failure,” Wilson said. “We’re hungry, we’re excited to get back at it and get this thing moving back in the right direction.”
The timeline is clear. Ovechkin is signed for three more years and is in hot pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s career goals record, currently 75 behind a mark that long seemed impossible to approach.
Wilson’s deal carries him four years beyond Ovechkin with the expectation he’ll become the face of the franchise and succeed his longtime Russian teammate as captain. But it also locks him in at a $6.5 million cap hit through 2026 to contribute to the Gretzky chase and perhaps another playoff run or two.
“We’re going to keep pushing,” Wilson said. “A good team and a team that’s winning games means he’s scoring goals, and we’re checking both those boxes at the same time.”
The Penguins, with Malkin 37 and Letang 36 like Crosby, are determined to win enough games to remain a perennial playoff team. That’s no easy task in the Metropolitan Division trying to keep up with Carolina, New Jersey and the New York Rangers and in the Eastern Conference with young Buffalo and Detroit among the teams on the rise.
Getting Karlsson should be a boost, at least in the short term, as Dubas tries to silence the doubters who don’t think Pittsburgh can remain in the Stanley Cup mix.
“We have to go out and prove it,” he said. “I think the doubts are fair. I think the criticisms are fair. Now we have our belief, and then it’s about us to go and execute it.”
LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
—
Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform, formerly known as Twitter
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
It has been a difficult start to the NFL season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina has dropped its opening two games after Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And Young, the first player taken in the ’23 NFL draft, was 18-of-26 passing for 84 yards with an interception while being sacked twice.
As a result, veteran Andy Dalton will start Sunday when Carolina faces the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1).
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the Chargers’ win was the most accurately predicted moneyline selection by Proline bettors. A whopping 92 per cent of wagers were on Los Angeles beating Carolina with 92 per cent also picking the Chargers to cover -4.5.
In other action that went in favour of Proline bettors: Kansas City edged Cincinnati 26-25 (86 per cent correctly selected the Chiefs to win); Houston got past Chicago 19-13 (81 per cent); the New York Jets defeated Tennessee 24-17 (78 per cent); Pittsburgh beat Denver 13-6 (76 per cent), Washington beat the New York Giants 21-18 (73 per cent); and Seattle toppled New England 23-20 (62 per cent).
However, only five per cent of bettors had the Raiders upsetting Baltimore 26-23.
And there was one winner of Proline’s second week main NFL pool of $407,613.
In NFL futures bets after the second week of the season, the odds for offensive player of the year got shorter for running backs Breece Hall (Jets) and Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) and Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But they got longer for running backs Kyren Williams (Rams), Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco) and Jonathan Taylor (Colts).
Quarterbacks Bo Nix (Denver), Jayden Daniels (Washington) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) all had their odds for offensive rookie of the year go up while they went down for running back Ray Davis (Buffalo), tight end Brock Bowers (Raiders) and receiver Malik Nabers (Giants).
Quarterbacks Patrick Mahones (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Jets) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles) all had their odds for regular season MVP go up. But quarterbacks Jordan Love (Packers), Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati) all saw theirs go down.
Kansas City, Philadelphia and Houston had their Super Bowl odds increase while Green Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati all decreased.
Not surprising, the week’s top events were all NFL games. In order, they were; Buffalo-Miami, Chicago-Houston, Cincinnati-KC, Raiders-Ravens; and Saints-Cowboys.
A Proline retail player cashed in a $26,183 winner from a $10 bet on a 12-leg major-league baseball parlay. Another won $24,602 from a $10 wager on a 12-leg NFL parlay.
A third received $1,737 from a $3 bet on a six-leg NFL parlay.
A digital bettor earned $2,927 from a $25 bet on a five-leg NFL parlay while a second had a $704.35 return from a $1 wager on a seven-leg NFL parlay.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
