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Flames’ Tkachuk: ‘All the pressure should be on me’ amid current slide – Sportsnet.ca

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Matthew Tkachuk spent Saturday morning putting the spotlight where he likes it the most: on himself.

Frustrated with his team’s ongoing slide, the controversial Flames winger did well to set up Saturday night’s Battle of Alberta rematch with pointed criticism of himself.

“I’m putting all the pressure on myself to turn this thing around for us,” said Tkachuk, whose uninspiring play of late mirrors that of his team.

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“It starts tonight and I’m prepared to do whatever I can. For me personally, I’ve got to get going. All the pressure should be on me to perform. It shouldn’t be on anyone else. I haven’t been at my best and it’s time to get going and help this team get some wins. I haven’t performed the way I’d like personally, so all the pressure should be on me to try to provide emotion from the drop of the puck tonight.”

Speaking on a Zoom call Saturday morning, Tkachuk gave the sort of speech generally reserved for captains or NBA stars. The goal was to try lighting a fire under himself and his team, while also trying to take some of the heat off his teammates.

Either way, it puts a heck of an onus on him to back up his words with actions as the nation watches.

And he won’t have Oilers adversary Zack Kassian in the lineup to help him with his cause.

“We’re going to make sure this is an emotional game for our team and it will be,” said Tkachuk, whose club dropped its second straight game Friday with a bland, 2-1 loss to the Oilers that included the Flames’ traditional 2-0 deficit.

“This is a huge, huge moment in our season, this game tonight. We have to be ready right now. I think we will be. A few people are telling me the game (Friday) kind of put them to sleep watching it. That’s not what should be happening in the Battle of Alberta on a Friday night, especially in Calgary. We’re going to be ready from the puck drop tonight.”

We’ve heard that before from a team that has allowed the first goal against in 11 of 17 outings.

The Flames coach and several players have acknowledged the need to start games on time, as well as to show a more consistent work ethic to spur this club along.

Tkachuk has long thrived on being the heartbeat of the Flames, capable of turning a game with a big hit, timely goal or, at the very least, some extracurriculars that make him the game’s premier pest.

None of that has been evident for weeks, though, as Tkachuk has been mired in a slump that has seen him scoreless in his last eight and pointless his last five.

Not the kind of run the team’s leading scorer from a year ago can go on.

“The main thing I can provide is a spark when things are, or aren’t, going right,” said Tkachuk, who has five goals and ten points in 17 games.

“For myself personally there’s been games where it’s definitely from the first puck drop I’m not creating or getting anything going offensively. I’ve been around it more recently. I’ve got to get to the net. When I have the puck and am making plays, that’s when I’m at my best.”

Despite playing alongside Elias Lindholm and Dillon Dube, he has indeed been a ghost of his former self of late.

No offence, but more curiously, no hijinks that tend to raise the temperature at times the Flames could use it.

“I’m still an overly confident player, almost to the point of being cocky, but confidence is a big part of me and I obviously still have that,” said Tkachuk, whose .500 club is clearly lacking any semblance of swagger.

“It’s time for us to get going. Enough is enough. We say this stuff every year. I feel like we were doing this last year. It’s time for us to take a step as a team, an organization and the way we’re playing now. There’s a lot pf pressure for us to succeed. Players should really thrive in this situation where our backs are against the wall. Realistically, it’s a make-or-break road trip for our team the way things are going and not a whole lot of games left. You get behind the eight ball it’s hard to make up ground with less than 40 games left.”

Coach Geoff Ward applauded Tkachuk’s bold statements, saying he needs all 20 of his players to take the same approach.

“I think he’s bang on with the comments that he made earlier – he needs to be more emotionally attached to it,” Ward said.

“I think it helps him motivate himself a bit and I think he’s trying to take pressure off people at the same time. He’s a leader on our team and he wants to be that guy and I think he’s owning up to that. At the end of the day, ultimately when you get into places where we are, just play hard yourself. Look after that part first and the other stuff follows it. We’re looking for guys to have a little bit more of a ‘F-U mentality’ in their game in terms of getting a little bit angry and playing a little harder.”

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Vasilevskiy stops 23 as surging Lightning beat Bruins – Sportsnet.ca

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Shane Pinto has a goal, three assists as the Senators roll over the Sabres – Sportsnet.ca

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Here’s what we know about the allegations against Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara

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LOS ANGELES –

Only a week has passed since the Los Angeles Dodgers abruptly fired Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter and constant companion of their new $700 million slugger, Shohei Ohtani.

But the biggest story of baseball’s spring is still murky — and shocking — as the regular season begins in earnest Thursday.

The scandal encompasses gambling, alleged theft, extensive deceit and the breakup of an enduring partnership between the majors’ biggest star and his right-hand man. Investigations are underway by the IRS and Major League Baseball, and Ohtani publicly laid out a version of events Monday that placed the responsibility entirely on Mizuhara.

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Here are the basics as Ohtani and the Dodgers prepare for their home opener against St. Louis on Thursday:

Why was Ippei Mizuhara fired by the Dodgers?

Ohtani claims his close friend repeatedly took money from his accounts to fund his illegal sports gambling habit. Ohtani also says he was completely unaware of the “massive theft,” as his lawyers termed it, until Mizuhara confessed to him and the Dodgers last week in South Korea, where the team opened its regular season against the San Diego Padres.

Mizuhara has given more than one version of his path to this trouble, which was catalyzed by the IRS’ investigation of Mathew Bowyer, an alleged illegal bookmaker. Mizuhara has consistently said he has a gambling addiction, and he abused his close friendship with the Dodgers superstar to feed it.

Did Shohei Ohtani ever bet on sports?

That’s the biggest question to be answered in Major League Baseball’s investigation, and the two-time AL MVP emphatically says he has never gambled on sports or asked anybody to bet on sports for him.

Further, Ohtani said Monday he has never knowingly paid a bookie to cover somebody else’s bets. Mizuhara also said Ohtani does not bet, and Bowyer’s attorney said the same.

Mizuhara told ESPN on March 19 that Ohtani paid his gambling debts at the interpreter’s request, saying the bets were on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL and college football. If that were true, Ohtani could face trouble even if he didn’t make the bets himself — but ESPN said Mizuhara dramatically changed his story the following day, claiming Ohtani had no knowledge of the gambling debts and had not transferred any money to bookmakers.

MLB rules prohibit players and team employees from wagering — even legally — on baseball. They also ban betting on other sports with illegal or offshore bookmakers.

What’s next for Ohtani?

Ohtani has played in every Dodgers game since the story broke, and he is expected to be their designated hitter in most regular-season games this season while baseball’s investigation continues.

Ohtani says his legal team has alerted authorities to the theft by Mizuhara, although his team has repeatedly declined to say which authorities have been told, according to ESPN.

Ohtani’s new interpreter is Will Ireton, a longtime Dodgers employee and fluent Japanese speaker who has filled several jobs with the team in everything from game preparation and analytics to recruiting free-agent pitches. But Ireton won’t be Ohtani’s constant companion, and manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday he’s optimistic that Ohtani will become closer to his teammates without the “buffer” provided for years by Mizuhara.

What don’t we know?

MLB’s investigation of Ohtani’s role in the events could last weeks or months, and it’s unlikely to be publicized until it’s complete. No one outside of Ohtani’s inner circle knows what it will find or how serious any repercussions could be, and nobody outside the circle is making informed speculation about the process.

One major question looms: How did Mizuhara have enough access to Ohtani’s bank accounts to get the alleged millions without Ohtani knowing? Is the slugger overly trusting, or is he wildly negligent in managing his vast fortune, which includes years of lavish endorsement deals in addition to his baseball salaries? Why didn’t the team around him, including his agent, do more to prevent the possibility of the theft he claims?

Finally, where is Mizuhara? Anybody who knows isn’t saying. He was fired in South Korea and apparently didn’t travel home with the Dodgers. Japanese media have visited his home in Southern California to look for him. Although he was born in Japan, Mizuhara’s life is in the U.S. — but his life will never be the same.

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