Two feisty, corner-dwellers with finish — a duo that could potentially lead the league in sparking post-whistle scrums.
After nursing a lower body “tweak” by skating on his own the first four days of camp, Mangiapane finally joined his teammates Monday when he was promptly positioned alongside the team’s prized free agent signing of the summer.
Funny, as what could be the start of something fantastically frustrating for the rest of the league could theoretically have started months earlier, when the two happened to be participating in the same summertime, 3-on-3 skating sessions in the Toronto-area.
“No, he was the captain of his gym there and he didn’t pick me,” deadpanned Mangiapane when asked if they’d ever teamed up before or after Kadri signed his seven-year, $49 million deal in Calgary.
“I’m still a little ticked off.”
Once he gets to know how dogged and determined Mangiapane is on the puck, you can bet Kadri will be glad his new left-hand man is by his side.
Fact is, had Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk returned, not only would there have been no cap room for a signing of Kadri’s magnitude, there’s also a good chance Mangiapane’s three-year, $17.4 million contract extension couldn’t have been squeezed in.
“That definitely is a possibility there — if those guys stayed, maybe I wouldn’t be here,” said the 26-year-old winger.
“Maybe they would have to create space and all that. Obviously, they had to deal with Johnny and Chucky there and had to go through all that. I was secondary to that, but my plan was always to stay in Calgary.
“I’m happy to be here and to be part of this team and hopefully we can do good things this year.”
That certainly seems like a possibility for the man who scored 35 goals last season the hard way, without a single minute on the top line or top power play.
Surely, after the departure of Tkachuk and Gaudreau, Mangiapane will be saddled with a heavier workload and a far more offensive-minded centre than Mikael Backlund.
Expectations will rise, as will the temperature of most games, with him and Kadri pestering the opposition.
“He obviously plays with that grit, and will get in there and muck it up and cause havoc,” said the 5-foot-10 Mangiapane, who plays like he’s a foot taller.
“He’s also a skilled player who scores goals, and he’s smart away from the puck. He’s kind of the whole package.”
The perfect man to help Mangiapane with a career progression that landed him 25th in league goal scoring, following an MVP performance at the 2021 IIHF World Hockey Championship.
“Ya, I think he could work well with a lot of guys on our team,” said Mangiapane, a left-shooting winger, who will almost certainly play behind fellow lefty Jonathan Huberdeau on the depth chart.
“I think he’s that type of player, when you play with him he makes others around him better.”
But, as Mangiapne and other Flames players are careful to point out in Darryl Sutter’s world, “you don’t want to read too much into (the lines).”
Huberdeau scored in the team’s first pre-season game Sunday while playing alongside Day 1 campmates, Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli.
While there is always the chance Mangiapane could move to the right side of the top unit, the most obvious fit would seem to be on his natural wing on the second line with Kadri — and whoever grabs the most sought-after opening in camp this year on the right side.
It would appear that gig is Sonny Milano’s to lose, although plenty will ride on the PTOs’ showing over the next handful of pre-season competitions.
Goals are expected to be at much more of a premium in Calgary this winter, as Gaudreau and Tkachuk accounted for 82 of the team’s goals last season.
Huberdeau (30 goals) and Kadri (28) should do well to help make up for that, but it goes without saying there’s pressure on Mangiapane to post another career season.
Sutter has said as much with his insistence the key to success will be on players aged 23-28 in his lineup to take that next step.
Mangiapane’s $5.8 million cap hit also ups expectations for the sixth-round draft pick who is the team’s third-highest paid skater this season.
“I think I’m planning to play the same way I have been, that’s my mentality going into camp, keep growing as a player and as an individual and helping the team wherever I can,” said the fan favourite.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with the lines, but it’s exciting times. We’ll see what happens.
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.
