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After dispiriting loss to Flames, Oilers look like they no longer believe – Sportsnet.ca

Published

5 years ago

December 28, 2019

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers are back to looking like they don’t believe, a familiar look in the land that playoff hockey forgot.

They’ve lost whatever spirit they had, not to mention 11 of their past 15 games, and we all know where it goes from here. This isn’t a one-game thing, it’s a 10-year thing. And it always finds its way to a game like the one the Oilers played Friday, a 5-1 embarrassment at home to Calgary.

“We were off three days for Christmas, and we didn’t come with the mindset to prepare to play a hard game. We were loose,” said head coach Dave Tippett. “When you haven’t skated for three days, show up with the purpose to prepare. Prepare the right way. We were loose the whole (morning skate). We didn’t prepare well enough to win and it showed right from the drop of the puck.”

He talked to his team about it before the game. They didn’t respond even a little.

The first Battle of Alberta of the season. A full house on a Friday night. Fresh off a few nice days off, and nobody is ready to play?

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Calgary scored 11 seconds into the game. They scored 68 seconds into the second period. They scored 57 seconds into the third.

Can a team possibly be less prepared to play hockey than that?

“There’s no real excuse for that,” said captain Connor McDavid. “We’ve always talked about how this team struggles coming off of breaks, and tonight was no different.”

If you’re not ready to play in this game — against this opponent — is it fair to ask, when might the Edmonton Oilers deign to put their work boots on from the opening whistle of a hockey game?

Clearly, having a two-man team with the best power play in the NHL isn’t a recipe for winning consistently. The chickens are coming home to roost in Edmonton, folks, and you get the sense Tippett has seen this coming for some time now.

“We won some games early in the year that we didn’t play very well, let’s just be honest,” he said. “Whether our goaltender played well or Connor played well or whatever it may be. But the last 20 games or so, our defending hasn’t been near as strong.”

Nor has the goaltending, with Mikko Koskinen simply not allowing any kind of a comeback to happen Friday. He was awful, and he had a ton of company on an Oilers team that now sports just two players – Zack Kassian and Kris Russell — with a plus-minus in black numbers.

We’ve seen this so many times before, I could write a book. The team wins a few, then the inevitable cold streak comes, and they fold.

They don’t turn it around, because they look down their bench, see what they have, and simply lose their belief.

“It’s a confidence issue,” said McDavid, whose team has not won back-to-back games in over a month. “When things are going good and something bad happens, you bounce back right away. Now, it just seems when something bad happens we’re just waiting for another bad thing to happen again. We’ve got to snap out of that.”

It’s been 13 years and counting, with one playoff appearance. And the quotes haven’t changed.

“We’ve got to find a way out of this,” said Nugent-Hopkins, “and it’s got to start in this room.”

We are here, Oilers fan, at that point that usually comes sometime in mid-November or late October. The point where we ask, why can’t this team turn around an elongated period of poor-to-average performances?

Why were the Calgary Flames so vastly superior in every aspect of the game Friday? Do they not celebrate Christmas? Do they not celebrate the holidays?

It’s time to carve this turkey, folks. Because if they play like this for two more weeks, the results won’t matter anymore.

• Nugent-Hopkins getting bumped off a puck eight seconds into the game, that goes straight into the slot for a goal at the 11-second mark. A veteran player should be ready to play. Nugent-Hopkins was not.

• Adam Larsson and Oscar Klefbom, two leaders on this team, stumbled through the first period like they were charging the till at a Boxing Day sale. These two are supposed to calming influences. Leaders who show the way. They were not close to that on Friday.

• We couldn’t spend enough words telling you how good Leon Draisaitl was for the first month of the season. Unfortunately, he appears to have read them all. This is too good a player to waltz around the ice leaving drop passes and opposition scoring chances in his wake. He’s too good to be on a 16-game run of minus nights (with one even performance thrown in). Draisaitl is minus-25 in his past 16 games, and was abysmal again on Friday.

• Even the captain gets blame at this point. It’s McDavid’s team that waltzed through the morning skate, listened to Tippett tell them they didn’t look like they were prepared to compete, then sashayed out at game time like they knew better.

It’s McDavid’s team whose defensive effort comes and goes like a winter breeze, as does he and Draisaitl’s defensive work ethic. And it’s McDavid’s stats line that reads minus-13 in his past 16 games.

It can’t just be about the Art Ross around here. There’s a far more important trophy, and McDavid’s team isn’t getting any closer on that front.

On Friday night, they simply looked like they no longer believe. Like they’ve given up.

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Sports

Champions Trophy host Pakistan says it’s not been told India wants to play cricket games elsewhere

Published

2 days ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

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.”

Pakistan hosted last year’s Asia Cup but all India games were played in Sri Lanka under a hybrid model for the tournament. Only months later Pakistan did travel to India for the 50-over World Cup.

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.

___

AP cricket:

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Sports

Dabrowski, Routlife into WTA doubles final with win over Melichar-Martinez, Perez

Published

2 days ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

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.

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Sports

Winger Tajon Buchanan back with Canada after recovering from broken leg

Published

2 days ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

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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