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Board of Governors notebook: NHL participation in Beijing remains uncertain – Sportsnet.ca

Published

3 years ago

December 10, 2021

MANALAPAN, Fla.— If you were holding your breath and hoping for clarity to emerge from the Board of Governors meeting on whether or not NHL players will be participating in the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, China, try to inhale a little deeper.

While NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said, after Friday’s session with the governors, that players will ultimately decide on participation, he made it clear the players don’t have enough information currently at their disposal to finalize their decision. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly also clarified that they could withdraw at any point prior to the Games—even if they face a financial penalty for doing so after Jan. 10.

While Bettman said the league has expressed multiple concerns to the players about participating, he also said the majority of players still intend to go.

However, that could change in a hurry if the players receive confirmation that testing positive for COVID-19 would force them to serve a three-week quarantine in China.

That neither the league nor its players have certainty on protocols less than 60 days out from the Games beginning is certainly a cause for concern.

“The Beijing organizing committee is supposed to issue a new book, which actually was supposed to be issued seven-to-10 days ago,” said Daly. “It is not finalized yet, so we don’t have any certainty on that.”

What both he and Bettman appear convinced of is not wanting to send the players if positive tests lead to them being locked away in China for 21 days.

“I actually find it difficult to believe that a player would want to go understanding he was risking being in China for an extra three weeks,” said Bettman.

But the commissioner repeated several times that the NHL won’t stand in the way if the players ultimately decide they want to go regardless.

“As part of the extension of the collective bargaining agreement 20 or so months ago, we made a promise to give the players, if they so desired and the appropriate arrangements could be made, to have the players participate in the Olympics,” Bettman said. “I think you all know that we have real concerns about that, even pre-COVID, in terms of the impact on the season. Our concerns have only been magnified but, ultimately, we made a commitment…

“We have concerns, and we’ve expressed those to the Players Association, and we’ve seen a number of players who are expressing concerns. We’ll have to see how this ultimately plays out. There are a number of open issues, and I know the Players Association has concerns about them. But ultimately, we will honour, as we promised the players we would subject to the scheduling caveat, to move forward and let them play if that’s really what they want to do.”

Took long time to make decision with my psychiatrist and family. My well being have too come first and being locked down and not knowing what happens if you test positive is to much of a risk for me. Sweden will have a great team and Markström is a beast.Hope people understand

— Robin Lehner (@RobinLehner) December 6, 2021

What would cause the NHL to intervene and keep its players from going?

Bettman explained that multiple COVID outbreaks leading to the cancelation of “lots and lots of games” would make pausing for the Olympics unviable.

Daly added, “We have an agreement that any material disruption of our season would certainly give us cause to withdraw.”

While there have been some postponements to Ottawa Senators and New York Islanders games following outbreaks, the league has been able to operate without the type of disruption that would force it to pull the plug on Olympic participation.

Still, the prospect of seeing Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon play in their first Games with Team Canada or Alex Ovechkin help the Russians redeem themselves after an underwhelming tournament in Sochi is anything but guaranteed.

“Let’s not make a problem where there isn’t one.”

Those were the words Bettman uttered on Friday with regards to the Arizona Coyotes, who were days away from being locked out of Gila River Arena by the city of Glendale for not paying a tax bill north of $1.3 million owed to them and the state of Arizona.

The team paid its bill on Thursday and stated the default was due to “human error,” and Bettman appeared perfectly satisfied with that response.

He also accused the city of Glendale of having an axe to grind with the Coyotes because they intend to move to Greater Phoenix next season.

“It’s clear that the City of Glendale has either an agenda or an edge in the way they’re dealing with the Coyotes,” Bettman said. “I think there was miscommunication. All of the outstanding obligations have been brought current.”

What’s clear is the city of Glendale was just trying to collect on a bill that was due in June of 2020.

What also seems clear, according to extensive reporting done by the the Athletic’s Katie Strang in February of 2020, is that the team has been consistently deficient in paying its bills on time since Alex Meruelo assumed ownership in June of 2019, including to some of its players, who didn’t receive signing bonuses on time in 2020—another default the team tried to pass off as a “process failure.”

Strang also reported that the Coyotes had attempted to bully vendors who were owed money, debating invoiced items and grinding them down in the hopes they’d accept lesser payments just to get paid while faced with the significant, negative financial impact of the pandemic.

When we asked Bettman if was concerned about these patterns in the Coyotes dealings, he responded, “They’re fine, and they will be fine.”

“Sometimes when you take over a franchise that needs work, you uncover things you didn’t know about,” Bettman added. “And as you’re uncovering them you start questioning what things are legitimate and what things need to be addressed, and Alex Meruelo is working with the league through all of those. Let’s not make a problem where there isn’t one.”

It seems as though the Coyotes are nothing but a problem.

The last-placed team in the NHL has made the playoffs once since 2012. It has the lowest attendance in the league, and the lowest valuation of any of the 32 franchises, according to a recent report in Forbes.

The Coyotes have also been evicted from Gila River Arena following this season and, despite plans to build a new arena in Tempe, haven’t firmed up a new location to play in next season.

“There are a lot of options,” said Bettman. “My advice has been, let’s focus on the plan for the building that’s going to come, and there are plenty of options to deal on an interim basis. I don’t want to get into them now… I’m not concerned. We’ll deal with it. There are options that will work.”

The commissioner recently denied the team as for sale and, on Friday, affirmed there are no plans in place to relocate it to another market.

“Alex is committed, Alex has the resources and the Coyotes aren’t going anywhere,” said Bettman. “They’re going somewhere else other than Glendale, but it’s in the Greater Phoenix area.”

NHL rebounding financially

After suffering major losses since the onset of the pandemic, Bettman reported the NHL is bouncing back well.

“We will emerge from this stronger than we’ve ever been,” he said, adding the league is expected to bring in excess of $5 billion this season.

Bettman also reported that while the salary cap will remain relatively flat until escrow payments from players to the owners are completed over the two seasons following this one, the league is projecting a considerable increase in the future.

Naturally, we’ll be keeping a close eye on contract negotiations between now and then in expectation that there could be a flood of lucrative deals signed ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Meetings scheduled with Quebec

But the rebirth of the Nordiques doesn’t appear to be imminent.

While Bettman is scheduled to meet with provincial authorities in January and says he’ll keep an open mind as to what they intend to propose, there’s no concrete plan for a team in Quebec City.

“The issue is going to be: will we have a team that wants to relocate? At the present time, that’s not the case,” Bettman said. “Will we want to expand? As I sit here today, we have no plans to expand.

“But I’m happy to have the meeting and hear what the government of Quebec has to say.”

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

Published

2 days ago

October 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

Published

2 days ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

Published

2 days ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

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