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Sam Reinhart lived out a childhood dream in June.

The Florida Panthers sharpshooter is hoping for another memorable moment this winter.

Reinhart sits among a group of players looking to grab roster spots for the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off — the league’s first foray into international hockey since the 2016 World Cup.

Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland make up the field for the tournament set to run Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.

The countries have each already announced six names on preliminary rosters, including Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid for Canada and Toronto Maple Leafs counterpart Auston Matthews for the U.S. But the remaining places have yet to be filled for an event that should serve as an appetizer for the league’s return to the Olympics in 2026.

Reinhart said that while his aim is to make Canada’s contingent, playing well coming off last season’s 57-goal output and Cup victory is the starting point.

“You don’t park it, it’s something that drives me,” said the winger. “As an athlete, you’re always looking, ‘Where can you get to next?’ (The 4 Nations) is something on my mind.”

Oilers forward Zach Hyman said his approach won’t change following a 54-goal campaign with the event’s roster deadline set for Dec. 2.

“There are great hockey minds figuring that stuff out,” said Hyman, who plays alongside McDavid in the Alberta capital. “It’d be a huge honour.”

Buffalo Sabres defenceman Rasmus Dahlin suited up in two games for Sweden as a youngster at the 2018 Olympics — an event the NHL skipped for business reasons before COVID-19 scuttled plans in 2022 after going to five straight Games between 1998 and 2014 — but is eager for the big stage.

“Means everything for me,” he said. “I will do everything I can to be on the team.”

“Gonna let my play do the talking,” added Utah Hockey Club captain Clayton Keller, a U.S. hopeful. “If I play well and play how I can, that’ll be an easy decision.”

There have been plenty of projected lineups floating around since the 4 Nations’ first 24 players were announced in June. The likes of Reinhart, Hyman, Dahlin and Keller have appeared on most, but there’s another group of talent further down each country’s pecking order competing for the remaining spots.

“Nice to be considered,” said St. Louis Blues forward Robert Thomas, who’s in the mix for Canada. “It’s a bucket list thing.”

Los Angeles Kings centre Quinton Byfield said it’s his job to create difficult decisions.

“There’s so many good Canadian players,” he said. “Going to be super hard to make.”

Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki has thought a lot about what it would be like representing his country on home soil at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

“You want to be on that team,” he said. “I just want to carve out a role.”

But Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Jaccob Slavin said solid or even impressive showings over the first eight weeks of the NHL schedule might not be enough for some hopefuls.

“Coaches know who they want,” said the American-born blueliner. “Sometimes it’s the right fit, and sometimes it’s not … they know who they hate playing against.”

Dallas Stars centre Wyatt Johnston said it would be “nerve-racking” to walk into Canada’s locker room at 21 years old.

“Guys I’ve been watching play for a long time,” he said of McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon et al. “It would be pretty awesome not having to play against them, and get a chance to play with them.”

Reinhart said continuing to grind as the young season progresses is all any player can truly control.

“Hopefully have that honour to represent the country,” he said. “Ultimately, not my choice. You can’t focus on the end result.

“But you can certainly focus on what drives you to put yourself in the best position to be there.”

THE REST GET A REST

Players from the countries not included in the 4 Nations will get a significant mid-season break to recharge ahead of the push down the back half of the NHL schedule.

Russia isn’t part of the setup because of the war in Ukraine, while Czechia and Germany are also on the outside due to the showcase’s compressed time frame.

“Going to take the 11-day break,” said Oilers centre Leon Draisaitl of Germany. “I will take it, but I’d like to be playing.”

FIRST-PLACE FLAMES

The Calgary Flames weren’t expected to do much this season — at least from outside.

The departure of several key veterans, including goaltender Jacob Markstrom, over the last 12 months saw the organization pivot to a rebuild.

With tough times expected, the Flames have instead opened 2024-25 with four straight victories, including Sunday’s 4-1 road win over McDavid’s struggling Oilers and Tuesday’s 3-1 home triumph over Connor Bedard’s Chicago Blackhawks that has Calgary alone atop the Pacific Division.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

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NEW YORK (AP) — It’s a pop hit like many others: An ascending chorus, an addictive hook, a warm rhythm. But “OMG,” performed by New York Mets infielder Jose Iglesias, has become the perfect anthem for the team’s unlikely playoff run.

Since its release on streaming platforms in late June, “OMG” has become a hit for a Mets team with a fun-loving vibe, embraced on and off the field. The largely Spanish-language “OMG” is ubiquitous at Citi Field, while also raking in well over 2 million on-demand audio and video streams in the U.S. through Oct. 10, according to the music data and analytics company Luminate. On YouTube, the official music video has nearly 4.5 million views.

As the Mets head back to home turf Wednesday in the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, “OMG” may continue to soar: On Friday, superstar Pitbull shared a remix of the song alongside Colombian singer Silvestre Dangond.

Here’s how a baseball player whose career seemed to be nearing its end hit a home run with the song.

The sound of ‘OMG’

The song is contemporary Latin pop, incorporating elements of reggaetón and tropical music — pop sounds heard all over Latin America and the U.S., says music journalist and critic Gary Suarez, author of the Cabbages newsletter.

“As a song, it is just pure, positive pop music,” he says. “It is a celebration of good things over adversity, which feels very right for a baseball song.”

A sample lyric: “No tengo nada pero soy feliz,” or “I have nothing but I’m happy.”

Its bilingual chorus, too, allows “OMG” to appeal to a broad audience. “Oh my god! Dame salúd y prosperidad,” the 34-year-old Cuban-born Iglesias sings. It translates to “Oh my god! Give me health and prosperity.”

For some communities, a song like this is a long time coming. “There are so many Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban people playing baseball right now. And the Mets, of course, are no exception. And so, I think there was a certain amount of a need for a song like this to come from and reflect this world,” Suarez says.

As for the Pitbull remix, Suarez points out that the song was written near Miami, Pitbull’s stomping grounds.

“He is a ubiquitous pop star that lends greater appeal to this, especially in a time when the Mets are in the National League Championship Series,” he says. “It doesn’t hurt to have some star power behind it. And maybe that helps to have a longer lifespan beyond, you know, the end of the Mets season.”

While Pitbull is known to be a Marlins fan (even once recording the theme song “Marlins Time to Represent”), he told The Associated Press in a statement that, as a Cuban American, he related to Iglesias “because of our shared culture.”

The song “is about being an underdog and positivity making it the perfect fit,” Pitbull said.

How Jose Iglesias

became Candelita

Iglesias broke into the big leagues with the Boston Red Sox as a 21-year-old in May 2011, won AL Rookie of the Year in 2013 and was an All-Star with Detroit in 2015. The Mets are his seventh team in 12 major league seasons, and he’s earned nearly $40 million in salary.

But by 2023, his future in MLB was cloudy at best, and he spent the entire season in the minor leagues. That’s when he started to release Latin pop songs under the moniker Candelita (a Spanish term in the Caribbean for someone who is energetic or passionate), starting with “Tambor” and “Cantinero.” Earlier this year, he released a collaboration with Cuban singer Lenier, “No Voy a Volver,” as well as a few other solo tracks: “Te Lo Advertí” and “Perdóname Padre.”

Nothing, though, has hit like “OMG.” Iglesias wrote and recorded it last offseason at home on a ranch outside Miami, while also preparing to join the Mets on a minor league contract.

He began the season in Triple-A, but injuries opened a spot for him in Queens. When he played his first game with New York on May 31, “OMG” was his walk-up song. He quickly emerged as a sparkplug for the Mets, earning more playing time, and his song became a rallying cry for the team.

Iglesias performed “OMG” live for the first time after the Mets beat the Houston Astros at Citi Field in late June, and it has since become an anthem for not only the team, but Mets fans, too.

“OMG” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Digital Song Sales in July, selling over 1,000 downloads in its first week. The official music video features dancing employees — an Amazon worker, a mechanic, a cook — and ends in an outdoor party.

“It’s hard to say how I feel,” Iglesias said after that ballpark performance. “That was a big deal. Singing in front of great fans and seeing my teammates running up there is just a dream come true.”

Now, the song plays after every Mets homer at Citi Field and after every win. After home runs, smiling players pose in the dugout for group photos holding an “OMG” sign in blue and orange — team colors, of course.

The song also plays in the Mets clubhouse, where they’ve enjoyed three champagne celebrations in the past three weeks, first for clinching a playoff spot and then twice for advancing.

Are there other baseball players who are musicia

ns?

Music is inextricable from the ballpark experience, between players’ walk-up songs to eighth-inning singalongs to the likes of “Piano Man” or “Mr. Brightside” at Citi Field. So, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that some ballplayers get in the studio.

It’s also not totally uncommon for them to see some chart success: baseball and football star Deion Sanders’ 1994 R&B-rap record “Prime Time” hit No. 14 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart and No. 70 on its Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Former Yankee Bernie Williams’ debut album, 2003’s “The Journey Within,” hit No. 3 on the Jazz Albums chart.

Who could remix ‘OMG’ next?

There’s no shortage of musician Mets fans: Nas has name-checked the team a few times. The Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock and MCA were notable fans. Nicki Minaj is said to be a fan, per MLB.com, having grown up in Queens. Billy Joel was the last to play the Mets’ historic Shea Stadium before its demolition.

No word on whether Grimace is entertaining a musical career, but the possibilities are endless.

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AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.

The president of the suspended Russian Olympic Committee said Tuesday he plans to step down after six years in charge.

Stanislav Pozdnyakov’s statement comes just over two months after a delegation of 15 Russians competed at the Paris Olympics as “Individual Neutral Athletes” without the national flag or anthem as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The athletes did not represent the ROC, whose IOC recognition was suspended last year, and Pozdnyakov had been sharply critical of the neutral rules.

Pozdnyakov said in a statement on the ROC website that a board meeting next month was expected to set a date to elect his replacement, who would likely take office shortly before the IOC too elects a new leader.

“The geopolitical challenges that our country faces dictate the need for optimization and centralization of the management of key areas of activity, including elite-level sports,” Pozdnyakov said. He added that “the role of the state nowadays is important as never before” in supporting athletes and sports events.

Pozdnyakov is a former Olympic fencing gold medalist who holds the rank of colonel in the Russian military.

Russian athletes have not competed under the country’s national flag at any of the three Olympic Games during Pozdnyakov’s six-year tenure as president of the ROC.

For the pandemic-delayed Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 and the Winter Olympics in Beijing the following year, Russians competed under the Russian Olympic Committee’s name and flag as part of the fallout from long-running disputes over doping cases.

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