TORONTO — This isn’t all new to Kirk Muller, a former NHL coach who spent three years leading a not-so-stellar Carolina Hurricanes team to an 80-80-27 record from 2011-2014.
And Muller — as well as assistants Dominique Ducharme and Luke Richardson — aren’t about to flip the Montreal Canadiens’ game plan on its ear, down 1-0 in their series with the Philadelphia Flyers, and with head coach Claude Julien resting at home after the 60-year-old suffered a cardiac event that required him to be hospitalized and have a stent inserted into one of his coronary arteries.
But this is foreign territory for Captain-turned-Coach Kirk.
Muller, a native of Kingston, Ont., played 127 Stanley Cup Playoff games — he even won the Cup as a member of the Canadiens. But he’s never commandeered the bench for a game of this magnitude.
Granted, he doesn’t need to tweak the systems or alter the philosophy for Game 2 on Friday.
Muller does have to press all the right buttons at the right times, though, and there’s no underselling how challenging of a task that will be. Especially against a triumvirate of highly experienced head coaches on the Flyers bench.
Even if Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said on Thursday that he doesn’t anticipate it to be much of a factor for any of the remaining games of this series, for which Julien won’t be available.
“Most NHL teams have a head coach, but also one of the associate or assistant coaches who has also been a head coach,” he said. “In my case, I have two (Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo).
“Claude has Kirk Muller who has already been a head coach. I can’t speak for the players, but I can speak for the coaches. They prepared to face the Flyers before the series, and to me, they’ll continue with what they already prepared.”
Right.
But what you decide doesn’t always match what you prepare after the puck drops and the game develops.
“I think the key, really, is that we’re not going to change much on our X’s and O’s,” said Muller on Friday. “We’re built a certain way and there’s things that, when we do well, when we play fast, when we play north and we’re aggressive on the puck and all that, that stuff doesn’t change.
“What does is, which guys are willing to do it… they gotta play. And so that’s the part where I gotta read that. There’s always little tweaks but we’ve got to recognize which guys are going and which guys aren’t. So, there’s no hard feelings; it’s the playoffs. The way our team is built is we need everybody.
“We don’t rely on a few guys and that’s okay and that’s the strength of our hockey team. Strength in numbers. We’ve got a really good group of guys, we’ve got a lot of leadership.
“They’ve done an amazing job of keeping this group focused in the bubble here, and it’s our job to get the guys prepared for the start of the game… and playing hard to break through the 60 minutes or 60 minutes-plus.”
It’s with minds at ease that the Canadiens are approaching the task.
Muller said he spoke with Julien Thursday evening and that the coach appeared to be in good spirits and feeling well, all things considered.
Muller also said that although Julien won’t be coaching the team, he still might be of assistance.
“I won’t be surprised to get a text from him or a phone call in between periods,” Muller said. “From the tone of his voice last night, he seemed good. And I think he’s probably going to have enough energy today to focus in. Most of our conversation last night was about hockey. He’s fired up.
“A lot of fun things going on right now. So, if he’s physically able to, you know he’s going to be tuning into today’s game.”
That’s a comfort to Canadiens players, too, who intend to use Julien’s absence to help rally them.
“They want to play hard for him,” said Muller. “Our staff wants to do well for him and get him back here. So, that’s our biggest focus right now and that’s what we’re going to focus on…We want to keep this thing rolling so we get Claude back.”
And Muller feels prepared to help the Canadiens do that.
“[Knowing Julien’s doing better] made it easy for me to move forward in this situation,” he said. “Guys know we believe in what we’re going to do.”
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
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.
