TORONTO – Which side of the thin line your sympathies lie depends on a list of factors as long as Zdeno Chara’s stick.
The score on the board.
The importance of the game.
The amount of time left on the clock.
Whether you view the NHL rulebook as gospel or guideline.
The star power and grudge history of the specific players involved.
The number and types of penalties previously called against each side up until that point.
And, more often than not, the laundry you cheer for.
Take another look at the stiff cross-checks NHL superstar Auston Matthews absorbed from Montreal Canadiens defenders Shea Weber and Ben Chiarot in the final moments of regulation during Wednesday’s season opener while trying to gain a scoring stance at the net-front during a tied-up tilt:
Are you let ’em play? Or letter of the law?
Matthews winced his way off the ice as the third-period buzzer sounded, favouring his lower back. He spun away from the cameras and sought attention from Leafs athletic therapist Paul Ayotte on the bench.
No penalty was called.
Matthews stayed in the game, played through what coach Sheldon Keefe called “a stinger,” and even registered a secondary assist in Morgan Rielly’s eventual OT winner.
The abuse, fair or foul, was rendered moot by the result, but it sparked a debate as old as stripes and whistles.
“Great to see NHL hockey back last night. Such amazing athletes & so much speed & skill in the game now,” tweeted Jeff Jackson, an Orr Hockey Group agent who help negotiate monster contracts for Canadian franchise faces Connor McDavid and Matthews.
“But watching the abuse that star players take is hard to watch. Felt like the 80’s with the cross checks in the back & the hacking & slashing. NFL protects QB’s? Why don’t we?”
“Pet peeve, it is common place and accepted that Weber and Chiarot can absolutely hammer Auston Matthews in the back in front of the Montreal net but if an offensive player were to commit the exact same infraction they would frequently get a penalty,” tweeted player-turned-analyst Mike Johnson, a former Leaf and Canadien.
“This is not a Toronto/Matthews tweet. I watch [Montreal’s Brendan] Gallagher get pounded night after night with no calls. It’s [an] offence/defence thing.”
For context, it should be noted that Matthews and Chiarot had been engaging in a physical battle all night:
And with every single NHL game in this unique campaign pitting divisional rivals against one another, intimidation and physical punishment should take on added importance.
Every bruise is an investment.
On the flip side, every drawn penalty is an opportunity to gain ground in the standings.
“There’s definitely a line, for sure,” Matthews said, following Thursday’s practice.
“You always want to protect players. I mean, I guess the guys have a right to defend the net and create that body position and stuff, but I think you just have to find that happy medium. And as far as the penalties and the refereeing goes, it has to be consistent.”
Matthews downplayed the body blows he absorbed and their effect, saying the sticks just caught him in a “weird spot” and that the officials’ consistency cannot be judged on 64 minutes of action.
Captain John Tavares had his teammate’s, um, back.
“I think there’s certainly got to be a line in the sand somewhere,” said Tavares, no stranger to life on the edges of the blue paint.
“It’s a highly contested area, and the defending team has got the right to defend it. But I think there certainly gets to a point where it crosses the line, and it should be called.”
As an organization, the Maple Leafs have made a concerted effort to embrace the difficult, to push through the pain.
Because, let’s be real, if Matthews isn’t drawing that whistle in Game 1, he’s certainly not getting it in a Game 7.
From a personnel standpoint, that’s why Kyle Dubas signed a Wayne Simmonds and doesn’t want to hear your trade offers for Zach Hyman. At the other end of the ice, it’s why he signed Zach Bogosian.
The club needs to thrive in those oft-romanticized “dirty areas,” not shy away from them.
Keefe has made it a mission in 2021 to prepare his Leafs for the hard and the ugly. Certainly, one game in is too early to start filing complaints or begging for power-plays.
The coach chalks up Wednesday’s abuse of his best player to hockey being hockey.
“That’s very much in the fabric of the sport in terms of the competitiveness and how hard it is, especially around the net,” Keefe said. As if the path to reaching their wildest fantasy rests in realism.
“I think the NHL has made great strides to protect the players over the years, and they’ll continue to look at things along the way that can help make it safer not just for stars like Auston but for all players of all ages.”
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
