Sports
Canada's golden world junior squad voted CP team of the year – CBC.ca
Akil Thomas felt like he was living in a movie. The script seemed predetermined and, as it would turn out, he had an unlikely starring role.
That set the stage for Thomas — a forward used sparingly throughout the tournament in the Czech Republic, but handed one final shift by head coach Dale Hunter — to play hero on a breakaway that materialized out of almost nothing with 3:57 left in regulation.
The Russians, however, weren’t done. They got a man advantage of their own, and with the goalie pulled, Aidan Dudas accidentally cleared the puck over the glass from the defensive zone, only to see it strike a remote television camera to avoid another penalty — some miraculous luck that spared Canada having to weather a 6-on-3 attack in the dying moments.
Russia imploded from there with two late penalties before Canada killed the clock and spilled onto the ice to celebrate its 18th gold medal at the under-20 tournament in front of a throng of travelling, rabid fans.
“It felt like everything that was happening was orchestrated beforehand,” Thomas recalled nearly 12 months later. “How could you create a better story? It seemed like someone wrote a movie, and we just did it. It was nuts. I feel so in that moment to this day.”
WATCH | Thomas goal cements world junior gold for Canada:
That group of peach-fuzzed teenagers, who overcame an early blowout loss, injuries, suspensions, controversy and illness, were rewarded a second time for their perseverance throughout a roller-coaster, edge-of-your-seat world juniors Wednesday by winning the team of the year award from The Canadian Press for 2020.
It’s the sixth time Canada’s world junior outfit has earned team of the year honours, and the first since receiving back-to-back nods in 2008 and 2009.
“I think about it all the time,” defenceman Bowen Byram said of the gold-medal game. “I wish I could go back to that moment. It’s something you can’t really explain to people that weren’t part of the team.
“I get goosebumps thinking about it.”
WATCH | Canada completes comeback to claim gold against Russia:
But thoughts of gold, or any other accolade, seemed unlikely to most outsiders after Canada’s second game in gritty Ostrava.
After beating the United States in their opener, the Canadians were embarrassed 6-0 by Russia — the national program’s worst-ever defeat at the event — on a disastrous night that also saw star winger Alexis Lafreniere suffer what looked like a serious knee injury.
To make matters worse, workhorse centre Joe Veleno was handed a one-game suspension for a dubious head-butting incident, while Hayton added to the drama by forgetting to remove his helmet for Russia’s anthem.
Some teams might have crumbled. But not this one. Not this group.
“There were some big, ugly things that happened,” said Mark Hunter, Dale’s younger brother and Canada’s general manager. “It didn’t rattle them. They just kept playing.”
A necessary wake-up call
Lafreniere missed two games with that injured knee — Canada’s most talked about joint for a couple days — but returned to finish with four goals and 10 points in five outings to win MVP honours, while also dragging his team into the fight with inspired physicality not often seen among elite talent.
With the benefit of hindsight, players on the Canadian roster feel that horrendous early performance against Russia provided a necessary wake-up call.
“It fuelled us,” Byram said. “You want to avoid those things as much as possible.
“But when you do go through something like that, you’ve just got to make sure you learn from it.”
WATCH | Canada’s Byfield explodes for 6 points in win over Switzerland:
McMichael said while fans back home were panicking, confidence among the tight-knit group from places like Bay Roberts, N.L., Truro, N.S., Saint-Eustache, Que., Port Perry, Ont., Brandon, Man., Canmore, Alta., Kelowna, B.C., and Whitehorse never wavered.
“You know you’re going to face adversity,” McMichael said. “But you don’t know how it’s going to be until you do.
“And we faced a lot of adversity.”
Restoring the country’s pride
After finishing a disappointing sixth in Vancouver in 2019, the Hunter brothers — who have dominated the Ontario Hockey League for the last two decades with the London Knights, but had taken part in just one under-18 event with Hockey Canada — were tasked with restoring the country’s pride at the showcase tournament.
“Somebody called me and said, ‘You two guys are just getting buried on social media. [The Hunters] are overrated, they don’t know what they’re doing,”‘ Mark Hunter recounted. “I go to Dale, ‘Hey did you see this? They sure turn on you pretty quickly.’
“But that’s part of the business. It’s about having experience and not overreacting.”
Canada took a deep breath and recalibrated, beating Germany and thumping the Czechs to finish atop its group. Lafreniere returned to lead the charge in a 6-1 whitewash of Slovakia in the quarterfinals — Nolan Foote got the early boot for an illegal check to the head to provide another bump in the road — and a 5-0 defeat of Finland in the semis minus a flu-ridden Byram, setting up the Russian rematch that once again didn’t start according to plan.
“Even after we went down 3-1 in the final, I had a feeling we weren’t going to lose,” Byram said. “That’s the feeling we had the whole tournament.”
And following the goals by McMichael and Hayton, who couldn’t lift his arm over his head because of that bum shoulder, Thomas found himself almost improbably on centre stage, poking a loose puck past a defender, moving in alone and burying a backhand to send the travelling Canadian support inside Ostravar Arena into a chaotic, spine-tingling frenzy.
But the 2018 second-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings said if it wasn’t for the positive mentality he forced on himself — players of his calibre aren’t used to sitting — things could have played out much differently.
“If Dale saw me on the bench slouched over and I had negative body language, it’s not an appealing sight and he probably wouldn’t have picked me. The fact that I was ready to go, positive, didn’t care about the past, just wanted to look forward, it taught me a lesson I can use in any situation.”
And that moment the puck crossed the line?
“I can’t really explain how I felt because it was an accumulation of so many different things,” he said. “When I watch that goal, I feel how I felt during that game … just so surreal.
“It honestly feels like I did that just a minute ago.”
A dramatic plot twist — one of many — Thomas, his teammates and Canadian hockey fans won’t soon forget.
Sports
Marchand says Maple Leafs are Bruins’ ‘biggest rival’ ahead of 1st-round series – NHL.com
BOSTON – Forget Boston Bruins-Montreal Canadiens.
For Brad Marchand, right now, it’s all about Bruins-Toronto Maple Leafs.
“You see the excitement they have all throughout Canada when they’re in playoffs,” Marchand said Thursday. “Makes it a lot of fun to play them. And I think, just with the history we’ve had with them recently, they’re probably our biggest rival right now over the last decade.
“They’ve probably surpassed Montreal and any other team with kind of where our rivalry’s gone, just because we’ve both been so competitive with each other, and we’ve had a few playoff series. It definitely brings the emotion, the intensity, up in the games and the excitement for the fans.
“It’s a lot of fun to play them.”
The Bruins and Maple Leafs will renew their rivalry in their first round series, which starts Saturday at TD Garden (8 p.m. ET; TBS, truTV, MAX, SN, CBC, TVAS). They’ll be familiar opponents.
Over the past 11 seasons, the Bruins have faced the Maple Leafs four times in the postseason, starting with the epic 2013 matchup in the first round. That resulted in an all-time instant classic, the Game 7 in which the Bruins were down 4-1 in the third period and came roaring back for an overtime win that helped propel them to the Stanely Cup Final.
That would prove to be the model and, in the intervening years, the Bruins have beaten them in each of the three subsequent series, including going to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference First Round in 2018 and 2019.
Which could easily be where this series is going.
“Offensively they’re a gifted hockey club,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said Thursday. “They present a lot of challenges down around the netfront area. We’re going to have to be really sharp there. We’re a pretty good team defensively when we stick to what our principles are. So I expect it to be a tight series overall.”
But if anyone knows the Maple Leafs — and what to expect — it’s Marchand. In his career, he’s played 146 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 11th most of any active player. Twenty-one of those games have come against the Maple Leafs, games in which Marchand has 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists).
“They’re always extremely competitive,” Marchand said. “You never know which way the series is going to go. But that’s what you want. That’s what you love about hockey is the competition aspect. They’re real competitors over there, especially the way they’re built right now. So it’s going to be a lot of fun, and that’s what playoffs is about. It’s about the best teams going head-to-head.”
But even though the history favors the Bruins — including having won each of the past six playoff matchups, dating back to the NHL’s expansion era in 1967-68 and each of the four regular-season games in 2023-24 — Marchand is throwing that out the window.
“That means nothing,” he said.
The Maple Leafs bring the No. 2 offense in the NHL into their series, having scored 3.63 goals per game. They were led by Auston Matthews and his 69 goals this season, a new record for him and for the franchise.
“You have to be hard on a guy like that and limit his time and space with the puck,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “He’s really good at getting in position to receive the puck and he’s got linemates who can put it right on his tape for him. You’ve just got to know where he is, especially in our D zone. He likes to loop away after cycling it and kind of find that sweet spot coming down Broadway there in the middle. It’s not just a one-person job.”
Nor is Matthews their only threat.
“They have a lot of great players, skill players, who play hard and can be very dangerous around the net and create scoring opportunities,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “You’ve just got to be aware of who’s out there and who you’re against, who you’re matched up against, and play hard. Also, too, we’ve got to focus on our game and what we do well and when we do that, we trust each other and have that belief in each other, we’re a pretty good hockey team.”
Especially against the Maple Leafs.
Marchand, who grew up in Halifax loving the Maple Leafs, still gets a thrill to see their alumni walking around Scotiabank Arena in the playoffs. And it’s even more special to be on the ice with them, to be competing against them — even more so when the Bruins keep winning.
But that certainly doesn’t mean this series will be easy.
“They’ll be a [heck] of a challenge,” Marchand said.
Sports
NHL sets Round 1 schedule for 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Daily Faceoff
The chase for Lord Stanley’s silver chalice will begin on Saturday.
After what could be described as the most exciting season in NHL history that saw heartbreaks and last-ditch efforts to clinch playoff spots, players and staff now get ready as 16 teams go to battle.
We saw the Vancouver Canucks have a massive year and finish first in the Pacific Division with captain Quinn Hughes leading all defensemen in points. The Winnipeg Jets set a franchise record for most points. The Nashville Predators went on a franchise-record winning streak in order to lock themselves into a Wild Card spot, and the Washington Capitals clinched the last Wild Card spot in the East after a wild finish that saw the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers see their playoff hopes crumble in front of them.
While Auston Matthews missed out on scoring 70 goals, Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid and Tampa Bay Lightning standout Nikita Kucherov became the first players since 1990-91 to record 100 assists in a single season. They joined Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr as the only players to do so.
With the bracket set, it’s time to expect the unexpected.
Here is the schedule for Round 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs:
Eastern Conference
#A1 Florida Panthers vs. #WC1 Tampa Bay Lightning
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Tampa at Florida | 12:30 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Tampa at Florida | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Thursday, April 25 | 3. Florida at Tampa | 7 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 4. Florida at Tampa | 5 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 29 | 5. Tampa at Florida | TBD |
Wednesday, May 1 | 6. Florida at Tampa | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. Tampa at Florida | TBD |
#A2 Boston Bruins vs. #A3 Toronto Maple Leafs
Date | Game | Time |
Saturday, April 20 | 1. Toronto at Boston | 8 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 22 | 2. Toronto at Boston | 7 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, April 24 | 3. Boston at Toronto | 7 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 4. Boston at Toronto | 8 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. Toronto at Boston | TBD |
Thursday, May 2 | 6. Boston at Toronto | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. Toronto at Boston | TBD |
#M1 New York Rangers vs. #WC2 Washington Capitals
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Washington at New York | 3 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Washington at New York | 7 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 2. New York at Washington | 7 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 2. New York at Washington | 8 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, May 1 | 2. Washington at New York | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 2. New York at Washington | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 2. Washington at New York | TBD |
#M2 Carolina Hurricanes vs. #M3 New York Islanders
Date | Game | Time |
Saturday, April 20 | 1. New York at Carolina | 5 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 22 | 2. New York at Carolina | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Thursday, April 25 | 3. Carolina at New York | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 4. Carolina at New York | 2 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. New York at Carolina | TBD |
Thursday, May 2 | 6. Carolina at New York | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. New York at Carolina | TBD |
Western Conference
#C1 Dallas Stars vs. #WC2 Vegas Golden Knights
Date | Game | Time |
Monday, April 22 | 1. Vegas at Dallas | 9:30 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, April 24 | 2. Vegas at Dallas | 9:30 p.m. ET |
Saturday, April 27 | 3. Dallas at Vegas | 10:30 p.m. ET |
Monday, April 29 | 4. Dallas at Vegas | TBD |
Wednesday, May 1 | 5. Vegas at Dallas | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 6. Dallas at Vegas | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 7. Vegas at Dallas | TBD |
#C2 Winnipeg Jets vs. #C3 Colorado Avalanche
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Colorado at Winnipeg | 7 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Colorado at Winnipeg | 9:30 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 3. Winnipeg at Colorado | 10 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 4. Winnipeg at Colorado | 2:30 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. Colorado at Winnipeg | TBD |
Thursday, May 2 | 6. Winnipeg at Colorado | TBD |
Saturday, May 4 | 7. Colorado at Winnipeg | TBD |
#P1 Vancouver Canucks vs. #WC1 Nashville Predators
Date | Game | Time |
Sunday, April 21 | 1. Nashville at Vancouver | 10 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 23 | 2. Nashville at Vancouver | 10 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 3. Vancouver at Nashville | 7:30 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 4. Vancouver at Nashville | 5 p.m. ET |
Tuesday, April 30 | 5. Nashville at Vancouver | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 6. Vancouver at Nashville | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 7. Nashville at Vancouver | TBD |
#P2 Edmonton Oilers vs. #P3 Los Angeles Kings
Date | Game | Time |
Monday, April 22 | 1. Los Angeles at Edmonton | 10 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, April 24 | 2. Los Angeles at Edmonton | 10 p.m. ET |
Friday, April 26 | 3. Edmonton at Los Angeles | 10:30 p.m. ET |
Sunday, April 28 | 4. Edmonton at Los Angeles | 10:30 p.m. ET |
Wednesday, May 1 | 5. Los Angeles at Edmonton | TBD |
Friday, May 3 | 6. Edmonton at Los Angeles | TBD |
Sunday, May 5 | 7. Los Angeles at Edmonton | TBD |
Sports
With matchup vs. Kings decided, Oilers should be confident facing familiar foe – Sportsnet.ca
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