EDMONTON — In one coach’s eyes, it was “just gutty.”
The challenge for his counterpart? Try to ensure it’s not gutting.
The New York Islanders took a schedule loss to open the Eastern Conference Final but they fell behind the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0 in this series on Wednesday with a 2-1 defeat that felt more like a self-inflicted wound.
It cuts deeper than the fact Nikita Kucherov’s buzzer-beater won it with only 8.8 seconds left in regulation. The Islanders played the Islanders Way. They were heavy, hungry and in your face.
They’d seen the Lightning reduced to nine forwards during Game 2 and choked off the most dangerous parts of the ice before suffering a 12-second brain camp with overtime in sight. Tampa generated three of its top scoring chances as the clock ticked towards zero, with Yanni Gourde getting stopped on the rush before Ondrej Palat fired wide from the slot and Kucherov buried a Ryan McDonagh pass that could find a place in the Art Gallery of Alberta.
Barry Trotz said it felt like a punch to the gut for his Islanders after the way they responded to Monday’s 8-2 series-opening loss.
“You saw it,” the veteran coach said of the decisive sequence. “They hit the middle, they dumped it in, they changed sides, they threw it to the front of the net, we missed a little coverage in the middle of the net there, we duplicated, a good play.
“Kucherov went around the net. Great pass from the corner, between two of our guys in coverage. He doesn’t need much of a window, so that’s what you saw.”
We also saw a game that should be much more indicative of the way things go the rest of the way in the series. This was a battle. You can glean how much is on the line by the fact the Lightning could potentially be down three key forwards for Friday’s game: Leading scorer Brayden Point, who was injured; Alex Killorn, who was tossed for a late hit on Brock Nelson and may face further discipline from the league; and Barclay Goodrow, who cross-checked Nelson in the back of the head and might be hearing from NHL disciplinarian George Parros as well.
Playing most of Game 2 without Point and Killorn was challenging enough.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said it basically kept him from line matching because he was forced to prioritize keeping the legs of his remaining players as fresh as possible. He’s a big fan of icing a lineup featuring 11 forwards and seven defencemen and has seen his team rip off six straight victories with that formation inside the bubble.
It allows him to lean more heavily on his top players, finding extra 5-on-5 shifts for Point and Kucherov alongside Cedric Paquette and Pat Maroon, but it also comes with challenges when bodies start going down.
“Rarely do you lose guys in a game, let alone two guys early,” said Cooper. “You’re saved a little bit by the TV timeouts, but one thing players always want is more ice time and so games like that, they were getting what they wanted.
“It’s a gutty, gutty effort because it almost takes the last change out of it, so you’re trying to navigate through whistles, through timeouts, through icings, but in the end it was just gutty.
“That’s what that effort was — it was just gutty.”
It moved the Lightning to within six victories of the Stanley Cup this franchise has been thirsting for. Seeing Cooper celebrate Kucherov’s goal on the bench was a reminder of how much is at stake here.
The Islanders will need to put this in the rear-view mirror quickly.
They certainly showed that they can smother Tampa in the same manner they used to get past Florida, Washington and Philadelphia in prior rounds. But this was a missed opportunity because of the way things broke down with the game on the line and the fact they couldn’t cash on a 38-second 5-on-3 power play during the third period.
“We had our energy, we had our game today, and we just didn’t get the result,” said Trotz. “I liked a lot about our game, other than probably the last 30 seconds of that game. So we’ll just have to improve upon it even more, and go after the next game.”
New York is very much in this series, but the margin for error is slim.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
