Jay Beagle’s violent response to Trevor Zegras’s latest incredible goal reflects poorly — and accurately — on a franchise simply lagging behind the others.
Video Transcript
JUSTIN CUTHBERT: There are a lot of great standout rookie performances. But the one that stands out the most, because of the highlights, is Trevor Zegras, who scored another sensational lacrosse goal earlier this week, and then added to that by one of the– by providing one of the most candid, interesting, I’m not going to say eloquent, but raw post-game interviews that we’ve seen in a long time. Basically all over Beagle, calling him out for what he did. So I guess I should run it down, what exactly happened. Trevor Zegras scored that goal, lacrosse style. Again, I think it’s even better than the first one, because he did it around his teammate, fittingly, Sonny Milano. Unbelievable. He scores another lacrosse goal. It’s a blowout game for Anaheim. And Jay Beagle, of the Arizona Coyotes, playing out the string in his career, an angry old man, at least it seems, takes exception, cross-checks Zegras to the chance that he gets. Troy Terry steps in for Trevor Zegras, eats about five or six punches to the face, looks like an absolute mess in the post game. He’s cut up. He’s bruised up. Awful. Jay Beagle just teeing off on a guy that shouldn’t be fighting anyway. And Trevor Zegras comes out in the post game, says he should be embarrassed for himself. He should be humiliated that he put himself in that position, Jay Beagle, that he did that, that he took exception to that. The Arizona Coyotes broadcast team is under fire for saying, if you want to skill it up, this is what– the price you’re going to have to pay, which is the most archaic thinking imaginable. And I’m glad everybody jumped on them, Tyson Nash in particular. So a lot that went into it. Basically, if you boil it down, it’s the most skilled player in the entire NHL, in terms of what he can do with the puck, scoring maybe his best goal of the season in a long line of extraordinary goals. And then an old guy, who got shipped out of Vancouver, because he was a problem, and probably doesn’t get a contract next year, probably has 10 games or 11 games left in his NHL career, if we are so fortunate, beating up another player who tried to stick up for the player who’s trying to take the game to another level. So what did you make of this whole situation? Zegras, Beagle, Tyson Nash, Troy Terry’s role, everything that went into this fracas. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Woo, you said a mouthful. First off, I think Trevor Zegras deserves so much credit for, not just hiding behind hockey cliches, and just not trying to talk about it, instead just putting himself out there, and calling out Jay Beagle for his stupid antics. I thought that, for me, was– like we were talking earlier about the league needing to be more and more personality driven. It’s stuff like that that needs to come out in order to help it get to that point. Because yes, the league is trying to have more skill embedded in its game. Like, I didn’t even watch the Trevor Zegras goal until like not too long ago. And I’m like well, of course, this should just be part of the game. This should just be natural. Like, we have to stop thinking of skill plays as a way for teams to just hot dog it, or whatever, and appreciate them for what they are, a skill play that helps make a goal happen and helps the team get to winning. The fact that Trevor Zegras is in a position where he could do that, that should be just an accepted part of this game. And if you are going to try to stop it, why are you going to put yourself in a position where you’re going to try to clock them after some random play that doesn’t matter, when you could, I don’t know, defend the play, defend the front of the net? The fact that the only– his only obstacle is Sonny Milano, and otherwise there’s an open cage there, the Arizona Coyotes should be ashamed of themselves and humiliated, why don’t you say that, for not defending that play properly. If anyone wants to feel embarrassed for that, the whole team should be, for letting that play happen, because they couldn’t defend well, not because they should be– not because of the fact someone has more skill than them. And maybe Jay Beagle just feels that way. He’d just be like, oh, well Trevor Zegras thinks he’s some hotshot. Yeah, there’s a reason why people are looking at Trevor Zegras as one of the most fun and exciting players in this league, and why Jay Beagle’s contract was shipped off to Arizona from Vancouver and he is where he is. No disrespect, but all due respect, there’s a reason why where you’re at, and why Trevor Zegras is where he is. And fighting him, and getting off on hurt feelings, and trying to one up him for that, is absolutely ridiculous. So the fact that Trevor Zegras actually went to the media and called them out for it, maybe it’s the media person to me talking, I loved it. And I hope that more people take that stand going forward, because we don’t need Neanderthals like that trying to stuff the game. If Jay Beagle and people like him really want to get on– if they really want to stop a play like that from happening, play some damn defense. JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah, I mean, if Trevor Zegras quote, unquote, “embarrassed them,” it pales into in comparison to how they embarrassed themselves, both Jay Beagle and Tyson Nash for acting the way that they did. And I get it. You know, it’s Nash’s thing, it’s the entertainment thing. It is insanely biased, obviously, but there’s some entertainment. You’re trying to entertain the viewers. I guess that’s the excuse. But if that is the way you look at the game, and if that is the way that the Arizona Coyotes look at the game, well then it’s perfectly emblematic of who they are and what they are as a franchise. They are behind, in every sense of the word. They are behind in the way that they look at the game. They are behind in the way that they create a fan experience. 3,200 fans, potentially, for the next couple of years. They are behind in all facets of the game. And this was a perfect example of it, with a aging player, who has no other answer for a play and a situation like that, than to drop his gloves and try to beat the tar out of someone who shouldn’t be in that situation. So it’s perfectly Arizona Coyotes for me. It’s perfectly Arizona Coyotes. They are behind, and this showed it, in so many ways. And if you want to skill it up, maybe the Arizona Coyotes should think about skilling it up– JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah. You know? JUSTIN CUTHBERT: –in some degree. Because the only way they’re going to be not in this situation is by getting more skill into their roster, and just trying to win hockey games. Maybe they’ll get a rink if that happens. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, at this point, they have to worry about filling up their arena at ASU, while everyone else gets to enjoy Trevor Zegras, and Jack Hughes, and Cole Caufield, and a wave of young talent trying to just use their skill to their advantage and help the game actually be better, as opposed to just being some– I don’t know, just being an idiot, just trying to get a guy on a play that happened well after the lacrosse play. Like, I just think it’s just absolutely ridiculous to get to that point. Again, if you want that stuff to stop happening, you don’t want to feel embarrassed, actually defend the damn play, and don’t put your team in a position where you’re going to allow stuff like that. Just getting to a fight well after the fact doesn’t solve anything for anybody. It’s absolutely abhorrent. And for Tyson Nash to go up and try to uplift that viewpoint that he was saying, I mean, come on. I think everyone else has dunked on it enough. We all know people should not be thinking this way. I think for– you got to give your head a shake when it comes to the Arizona Coyotes, as far as I’m concerned. They do not look good in this. If we had the opposite of tire pumps, you give them like the L of the week or something. You got to give them that, as far as I’m concerned. Because the way that, pretty much on down, from the organization, to the broadcast team, they took a big L for how they handled the Trevor Zegras experience. It’s one thing to have that goal scored upon you. It’s going to happen. You’re going to get embarrassed. But to just kind of act as outwardly as they did, like come on, dude. Like, get over yourselves. This has me really heated, if you can’t tell. This is absolutely, absolutely ridiculous. And again, I give Trevor Zegras a lot of– a lot of points for stepping up and saying something about it, and calling out the BS that it is. JUSTIN CUTHBERT: The opposite of the tire pump has to be the whoopee cushion. It’s air coming out of something and making a noise that– you know– you know what happens with a whoopee cushion. JULIAN MCKENZIE: You should workshop that idea. That’s a good idea. JUSTIN CUTHBERT: There you go. Trevor Zegras, it was interesting. What do you think he was looking around? Like my buddy said the other day that, you know– is he looking for– was Jay Beagle going to pop up? I thought it was like [INAUDIBLE]. Like, I think he went rogue there a little bit, because it was like in the hallway. It was like, is the PR guy coming? Like what’s going on here? I think I actually respect him more that he’s cognizant that he probably shouldn’t be doing this. And he probably wouldn’t have done it around the PR guy, but he was– he slipped out the back door and was talking to just one or two reporters and provided that sound clip. There is one– JULIAN MCKENZIE: Shout out to the reporter. There was like one reporter, like after that edit. He’s like, that’s good for me. JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah, yeah. That was good. JULIAN MCKENZIE: He was saying what everyone else is saying in that moment. We all would have said the same thing. Like, I don’t need him to say anything else. He said, what we needed. JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah. It was like– and he had the clip too. Like he could have probably cut that, like, little end off, but he doesn’t have to. It’s funny that way. A little comic relief on what was, obviously, a bit of an intense situation. I will say, though, this is an example– a lot of people want fighting out of the game, want fighters out of the game. Does this happen if the Ducks don’t trade Nick Deslauriers to the Minnesota Wild? Nick Deslauriers one of the tougher guys in the league. Nick Deslauriers, one of the league leaders in fights. Is Jay Beagle going out there and throwing punches at Troy Terry if Nick Deslauriers is still on the team? I am not sure, but it’s more evidence to suggest that maybe having those players could prevent a guy like Troy Terry from getting beat the way he did. So again, I like functional toughness, personally. I think like Nick Deslauriers is actually functionally tough. I think he can play a little bit. But you know, that was the situation that would call it Deslauriers, for sure, and he wasn’t there because they traded him. And they should have. You get something for Deslauriers, you should do that. But another example of like, that’s just something to consider. JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah, like functional– I like the way you put it, functional toughness. Like fine, you’re in the lineup to be tough, but you’re able to contribute to the actual aspect of the game that matters, which is scoring. And I also think, with fighting, while I’m not the biggest fan of like, OK, two guys just like doing some kind of premeditated fight, when scrums, like, break out, and chaos breaks loose, like, there’s a part of me that looks at it and is like, OK, there’s chaos. And like, I think that’s ultimately going to be a part of the game regardless of whatever happens with fighting. Like scrums are not going to stop, and people aren’t going to try to get out of the scrum and do a one-on-one thing. Like, that’s just going to happen. I’ve just kind of accepted that as a thing. But yeah, I’m not, like, the biggest fan of fighting, so to speak. But yeah, I think if, at the very least, if Nick Deslauriers was there, maybe if Jay Beagle was going to pick on– was going to pick on him, maybe if he’s on the ice, he tries to break that up and tries to make that happen. But like, I don’t know. He can’t be on the ice all the time. And you certainly can’t– you can’t have a guy, your enforcer, come off the bench and try to fight. That’s not something that can happen. That’s just– it’s unfortunately things that are going to happen. What has to happen, though, is that the league has to spot stuff like that and have the wherewithal to say, OK, we can’t have stuff like this happen. Jay Beagle currently was clearly making an ass of himself, and he should be disciplined as such. That’s what I think should have to happen. That’s a way to try to curb some of that. But is the NHL going to do that? That remains to be seen. It’s been a couple of days we haven’t heard anything from the DOPS. So I’m led to believe nothing’s going to to Jay Beagle. JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah, I don’t think anything’s happening. Yeah I mean, I think Jay Beagle, I guess I don’t think he– I think he thought he was the toughest guy on the ice, and I don’t think he would have thought that if Nick Deslauriers was on the other bench. But, you know– JULIAN MCKENZIE: I agree. JUSTIN CUTHBERT: You’re right, it’s more on the Department of Player Safety to try and curb this sort of behavior. But you know, sometimes it has to happen within, because Jay Beagle can find himself on the ice with two star players and think he’s basically untouchable. And I think in that moment, he did believe that. And that’s– as we mentioned, that’s about all he can say for the rest of his career here, because there’s not much of a spot for him, I don’t think, in the NHL anymore, with how this game is going. As we mentioned off the top, with all this skill, and everything that’s happening, I mean, that’s not what’s being prioritized, what Jay Beagle provides, and that’s clearly evident with what we saw this week.
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.
