EDMONTON — Some like the cakewalk, those fluffy two weeks of beating the spread against teams that don’t have a single player who could make Team Canada, had they been born here.
Some look at the cakewalk as a Canadian’s chance to be loud and proud. To paint our faces and travel in groups to foreign lands like hockey vikings. Then, when we predictably beat up on a Germany, a Switzerland, a Latvia — or even a Russia — us Canadians go full Uncle Sam in our chest thumping.
Full disclosure: The world junior team has always been our Dream Team. We may say, “I’m sorry,” more than any other nation, but from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 we become the Ugly Canadians as often as not.
Somehow we’ve created ‘A Holiday Tradition’ out of watching our kids demolish kids from other countries in lopsided affairs that one would think Canadians, of all people, would be more likely to apologize for than celebrate. Instead, we justify it with a chorus of, “It’s not our boys’ fault that they put us on the weak side of the draw.”
As it turns out though, it can be our boys’ problem.
After two weeks of never giving up an even-strength goal, of outscoring their opponents 41-4, of recording shutouts in every second game — OF NEVER TRAILING EVEN FOR A SINGLE SECOND — Canada was defeated 2-0 in the gold-medal game by the United States Tuesday night in Edmonton.
Trevor Zegras had a goal and an assist for Team USA, but his most accurate shots came before the game, when he put into words what every Canadian fan was quietly fearing.
“I don’t think they’ve been tested by a real team yet,” Zegras said. “I don’t think this goalie has been tested five-on-five yet.”
Hey, it’s not bragging if you can do it.
“There are a lot of good teams in this tournament, and they’re one of them,” said the magnificent Canadian defenceman Bowen Byram after the game. “We made the best push we could in the third. We had a lot of chances. It didn’t go in.”
Canada opened the game with a 7-2 run on the shot clock, and then Team USA took over. American defenceman Drew Helleson drifted a harmless wrist shot towards the net, and Alex Turcotte (Alfie’s boy) cruised through the slot and redirected the puck past Devon Levi, and suddenly the record books were wiped clean.
Canada’s even-strength goal streak? Gone in their seventh game.
Levi’s 148 minute, 20 second shutout streak? History.
You haven’t trailed the entire tournament? Well, boys, you’re trailing now.
Zegras scored early in Period 2 and the score was 2-0 after 40 minutes, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the game was still absolutely up for grabs.
“Going into the third we have to believe we’re going to tie the game,” said Dylan Cozens, Canada’s best player here. “We had our looks. (Goalie Spencer) Knight played great, but we didn’t get the bounces.”
Had the Hockey Gods dispensed all of Canada’s fortune on goals against the Germans (16 of them), the Swiss (10) and Russia (a 5-0 win)? Had Canada used all its luck up at the 25-cent slots, and now gone hungry at the $20 table?
Look, there are a lot of ways to diagnose a power outage by a team that had scored 41 times in seven games prior to this silver-medal game. We would start with crediting the opponent, and the fabulous play of Knight in the Team USA net.
But something sticks with me:
Throughout the tournament, Canadian coach Andre Tourigny repeatedly sought to find adversity in every game, no matter what the score, that Canada had overcome to find victory. Whether it was a penalty kill in a 4-1 game, the 53 days spent in hotels since training camp opened, the 14-day quarantine in Red Deer or a bad few shifts against Slovakia, Tourigny’s mantra after every game was that his team was learning to deal with adversity and that was a welcome and necessary lesson.
Looking back, was he inventing that adversity? Had it really existed, to the extent that they knew what to do in the face of the genuine article that the Americans threw at them Tuesday?
“The COVID test we had in camp, we had to quarantine for 14 days by ourselves. That’s adversity that we battled through,” declared Cozens. “We played great through all the games, and we ran into a good team like this. But it’s not the first adversity we faced.”
OK, then perhaps the better question is this: Can the adversity of playing a team that is your equal be manufactured elsewhere, using quarantines and a bunch teams that don’t deserve to be on the same ice as Canada?
Is it impossible to manufacture adversity, the way Tourigny tried to?
“It’s the first team that really pushed back, we were not used to it, and we didn’t have enough time to get back at it,” the coach said. “After we adjusted we were really good. But, no one will remember that.
NEW YORK – Toronto Blue Jays reliever Chad Green and Canadian slugger Tyler O’Neill of the Boston Red Sox were named finalists for the Major League Baseball Players’ Association’s American League comeback player award on Monday.
Chicago White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet was the other nominee.
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. were named player of the year finalists.
The award winners, selected via player voting, will be named Saturday before Game 2 of the World Series.
Green, who missed most of the 2022 and ’23 seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery, was a high-leverage option for the Blue Jays this past season and filled in at closer over the second half of the campaign.
The right-hander converted his first 16 save opportunities and finished the year with a 4-6 record, 17 saves and a 3.21 earned-run average over 53 appearances.
O’Neill, a native of Burnaby, B.C., also endured back-to-back injury-plagued seasons in ’22 and ’23.
After being traded to the Red Sox in the off-season, O’Neill set an MLB record by hitting a homer in his fifth straight Opening Day. He finished with 31 homers on the year and had an OPS of .847.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
NEW YORK – Florida Panthers centre Sam Reinhart was named NHL first star of the week on Monday after leading all players with nine points over four games last week.
Reinhart had four goals, five assists and a plus-seven rating to help the Stanley Cup champions post a 3-0-1 record on the week and move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
New York Rangers left-winger Artemi Panarin took the second star and Minnesota Wild goaltenderFilip Gustavsson was the third star.
Panarin had eight points (4-4) over three games.
Gustavsson became the 15th goalie in NHL history to score a goal and had a 1.00 goals-against average and .962 save percentage over a pair of victories.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Deshaun Watson won’t finish the season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback for the second straight year.
He’s injured again, and the Browns have new problems.
Watson ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the first half of Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati, collapsing as he began to run and leading some Browns fans to cheer while the divisive QB laid on the ground writhing in pain.
The team feared Watson’s year was over and tests done Monday confirmed the rupture. The Browns said Watson will have surgery and miss the rest of the season but “a full recovery is expected.”
It’s the second significant injury in two seasons for Watson, who broke the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder last year after just six starts.
The 29-year-old went down Sunday without being touched on a draw play late in the first half. His right leg buckled and Watson crumpled to the turf. TV replays showed his calf rippling, consistent with an Achilles injury.
He immediately put his hands on his helmet, clearly aware of the severity of an injury similar to the one Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sustained last year.
As he was being assisted by the team’s medical staff and backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson grabbed a ball to begin warming up, there was some derisive cheers and boos from the stands in Huntington Bank Field.
Cleveland fans have been split over Watson, who has been accused of being sexually inappropriate with women.
The reaction didn’t sit well with several Watson’s teammates, including star end Myles Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who was appalled by the fans’ behavior.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as fans to boo anyone and their downfall. To be season-altering, career-altering injury,” Garrett said. “Man’s not perfect. He doesn’t need to be. None of us are expected to be perfect. Can’t judge him for what he does off the field or on the field because I can’t throw stones for my glass house.
“Ultimately everyone’s human and they’re disappointed just like we are, but we have to be better than that as people. There’s levels to this. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and you don’t boo anybody being injured and you don’t celebrate anyone’s downfall.”
Backup quarterback Jameis Winston also admonished the uncomfortable celebration.
“I am very upset with the reaction to a man that has had the world against him for the past four years, and he put his body and life on the line for this city every single day,” he said. “The way I was raised, I will never pull on a man when he’s down, but I will be the person to lift him up.
“I know you love this game. When I first got here, I knew these were some amazing fans, but Deshaun was treated badly and now he has to overcome another obstacle. So I’m going to support him, I’m going to lift him up and I’m going to be there for him.”
The injury is yet another twist in Watson’s tumultuous time with the Browns.
Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks and five overall to Houston in 2022 to get him, with owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam approving the team giving Watson a fully guaranteed, five-year $230 million contract.
With a solid roster, the Browns were desperate to find a QB who could help them compete against the top AFC teams.
The Browns had moved on from Baker Mayfield despite drafting him No. 1 overall in 2018 and making the playoffs two seasons later.
But Watson has not played up to expectations — fans have been pushing for him to be benched this season — and Cleveland’s move to get him has been labeled an abject failure with the team still on the hook to pay him $46 million in each of the next two seasons.
Watson’s arrival in Cleveland also came amid accusations by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. Two grand juries declined to indict him and he has settled civil lawsuits in all but one of the cases.
Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games and fined $5 million for violating the league’s personal conduct policy before he took his first snap with the Browns. The long layoff — he sat out the 2021 season in a contract dispute — led to struggles once he got on the field, and Watson made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.
Cleveland signed veteran Joe Flacco, who went 4-1 as a starter and led the Browns to the playoffs.
Before Watson got hurt this year, he didn’t play much better. He was one of the league’s lowest-rated passers for a Cleveland team that hasn’t scored 20 points in a game and is back in search of a franchise QB.
