After a dreadful 6-2 loss on Monday when the Canucks never gave themselves a chance to win by repeatedly giving the puck to the Canadiens in dangerous positions and then failing to defend, Vancouver cleaned up its game 24 hours later and at least made Montreal earn it.
But even with their reforms and another excellent game from goalie Thatcher Demko, whom we should now call Vancouver’s “starter,” the Canucks still surrendered another handful of goals to the Canadiens and lost 5-3.
Montreal’s first three goals came on a deflected pass and two deflected shots, and the last was an empty-netter, so the many categories in which the Canadiens are superior to the Canucks include luck.
And just because, former Canuck Tyler Toffoli scored two more goals against his old team to make it eight goals in five games against Vancouver this season. The Canadiens have taken nine of 10 points against the Canucks, who were ventilated for 28 goals in the five games.
The Canucks have been so erratic during a torturous start – the National Hockey League force-fed them 13 games in 21 nights with four sets of back-to-backs – that it’s difficult to make confident conclusions about the group.
But we know this much: the organization should have found the money to keep Toffoli, who was turned away by Vancouver in free agency and signed a relatively modest four-year, $17-million contract with Montreal. Optics were made even worse Tuesday by Canuck coach Travis Green’s removal from the lineup of recently-signed winger Jake Virtanen, whose $2.55-million annual cap hit would have covered much of the annual cost for Toffoli.
“What do you say? He should have scored them last year,” Elias Pettersson, Toffoli’s linemate at the end of last season, said of his ex-teammate. “He’s a great player, awesome guy. But of course it sucks that he has to score those goals against us. It is what it is. We’ve got to play him tighter.”
The Canucks didn’t miss Virtanen, but they sure have missed Toffoli. Vancouver’s top line has been so spotty without him – and was abysmal on Monday – that Green re-deployed his best forwards on Tuesday, splitting J.T. Miller from Pettersson and using Bo Horvat on the top line.
The moves freshened the lines and the Canucks’ top-six forwards combined for 21 shots and generated goals for Pettersson and Tanner Pearson, albeit with Vancouver playing with an extra man on both.
“I just felt like we needed a different look,” Green said. “There’s been a lot of talk about certain players maybe not playing as well, and sometimes a breath of fresh air kind of alleviates some of that pressure. We had a good team talk with our group, a couple individual talks. I thought every player really was buying in tonight to how we needed to play. That’s what we need from our team.
“Now, we didn’t get a win. I’m not happy about that. Sometimes when you play as bad as we did the night before, as a coach, you’re really looking for your team to respond in the right way and we did.”
Green called it a “step in the right direction,” but the Canucks are still walking in an awfully dark place.
Having struggled just to compete with the 7-1-2 Canadiens, the Canucks open a three-game series in Toronto against the 7-2-1 Maple Leafs on Thursday. Getting swept in Montreal also sunk the Canucks back below .500 at 6-7-0.
Their shortened season will already by one-quarter over after Thursday’s game.
“I don’t want to sit back and dwell on what’s happened in the past,” Miller said. “It’s 10, 11, 12 games into the season. We’re trying to build our game. It’s a kind of funky start to the year, but we played a good team game today. We have three more games on the road trip, so we’re just worried about having a good game next game.”
Honestly, it’s impossible to know what to expect of the Canucks against the Leafs.
They followed their best game of the season, Saturday’s 4-1 win in Winnipeg, with one of their worst. The titanic shifts in performance are embodied by Miller.
On Tuesday, the Canucks’ leading scorer from last season had four shots on net, six hits, one point in 23:31 of ice time, had an 11-7 shot-differential when he was on the ice at even strength and an expected-goals percentage of 57.
The night before, Miller had no shots, no hits, was outshot 17-4 and his expected-goals was 13 per cent.
“I thought it was a good effort,” Miller said, staying on point after Tuesday’s game. “A little jump in our step tonight pretty much the whole game. We had a lot of good looks, a lot of good zone time and had a little more urgency in our game tonight from the start, I think. We didn’t get two points today, but I think we feel good about the game we played.”
At least it’s something.
Pettersson, on the power play, and Pearson, with the goalie pulled, scored third-period goals as Vancouver pushed back from a 4-1 deficit before Jeff Petry scored into an empty net with six seconds left.
Antoine Roussel had the other goal for the Canucks, who outshot the Canadiens for the first time in the teams’ five games, 39-33.
“I think we had a good full game,” Pettersson said. “I think we battled hard. We talked about it because we weren’t happy with our game yesterday and I think we raised our compete level. It sucks to lose, but it was definitely better today than yesterday.”
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.
