Though we’ve had weeks to talk about how the Stanley Cup Playoffs were about to become a two-city, August-to-September experience, it’s still hard to wrap your brain around the fact that, come next weekend, we’ll be watching live post-season NHL hockey from lunchtime until midnight.
As a range of sports continue to make long-awaited returns, we figured it might be useful to have cheat sheet for a summer hockey session that figures to be unlike anything we’ve seen. In case you’ve forgotten — because you’ve got nothing else on your mind these days, right? — here are some need-to-knows about this puck extravaganza happening in Toronto and Edmonton.
From the Stanley Cup Qualifiers to the Stanley Cup Final, livestream every game of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, blackout-free, on Sportsnet NOW.
Who is in and how are we doing this?
The NHL ranked teams by points percentage and put the top 12 from each conference into the post-season. The best four teams in the East and West will play one game against each of the other three clubs to receive a bye in its conference to determine seeds No. 1 to No. 4 for the main draw of the playoffs. Those games will be decided by the usual regular season three-on-three overtime and shootout rules if necessary, and any ties in the round-robin standings will be broken by teams’ regular-season points percentage.
Teams five through 12 on each side are playing a preliminary round featuring best-of-five series, with the No. 5 seed facing No. 12, No. 6 squaring off against No. 11 and so on. These games will not use three-on-three overtime or shootouts; extra time is 20-minute periods until we have a winner.
Collectively, these games are being put under the umbrella of 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers. All player statistics from these contests will count toward playoff totals. So if you score three goals during the Qualifiers and 10 more in the playoffs, for the purpose of the history books, your total for the 2020 post-season is 13.
Once eight teams emerge from the qualifying round, the main playoff draw will appear as it always does with four rounds of best-of-seven series. There is no March Madness-style bracket this year for the first time since the 2013 playoffs. Instead, the highest-seeded team at the start of each round will play the lowest-seeded team, as was the case for many years before the league moved to a four-division format in 2013-14.
Each team is getting started with one exhibition game that will occur beginning on Tuesday.
What’s up with the Draft Lottery?
As you likely recall, when it came time to reveal who would select first overall in the 2020 NHL Draft, deputy commissioner Bill Daly flipped over a card with an NHL logo on it. As should have been expected based on the math, a “placeholder” team — meaning one of the 16 squads playing in the preliminary round — had its number called for the top pick. Each of the eight teams that lose a best-of-five series — regardless of where they finished in the regular season — will have a 12.5 per cent chance to pick first overall in October.
The second and final phase of the lottery will happen before the first round of the main Stanley Cup tournament.
Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman talk to a lot of people around the hockey world, and then they tell listeners all about what they’ve heard and what they think about it.
Who does he play for now?
The trade deadline fell on Feb. 24 this year, so we only had about two-and-a-half weeks to get used to seeing guys who moved on or around that day in their new surroundings before the league went on hiatus.
Here’s a quick refresher on some of the moves made five months ago. The Carolina Hurricanes created a huge splash, picking up defencemen Brady Skjei (from the Rangers) and Sami Vatanen (from the Devils). Carolina also may have found a No. 2 centre for the next decade by fleecing the Florida Panthers for Vincent Trocheck.
The Vegas Golden Knights made a big play to get goalie Robin Lehner from Chicago in a zany three-way deal that involved the Maple Leafs so Toronto could retain 50 per cent of Lehner’s salary. The Calgary Flames padded their blue-line depth by adding Derek Forbort and Erik Gustafsson, moves that look even more important now that defenceman Travis Hamonic opted out of this summer event. (Remember, players had the option to skip this tournament penalty-free if they had concerns of any kind. A handful have decided to go down that route, with Edmonton’s Mike Green being the most prominent after Hamonic.)
The Penguins re-patriated Conor Sheary from Buffalo and picked up Patrick Marleau from San Jose; the Jets added middle-man Cody Eakin from Vegas and the Islanders landed crafty centre and former Ottawa Senator Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
While Green won’t be suiting up for the Oilers, they do have newcomers Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Ennis in the mix.
Unfit to play
NHL teams have never been forthcoming with injuries — especially come playoff time — and it will be no different now that they’re bubbled up. Against the backdrop of this global pandemic, the league will offer no specifics in terms of why a certain player is not at practice or in the lineup; he will simply be declared “unfit to play.”
Consider the injury obfuscation some form of warm familiarity in these oddest of times.
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.
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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.
