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IWTG: Canucks soar over the Jets with their best performance of the season – Vancouver Is Awesome

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The Canucks went into Saturday night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets on a three-game win streak, looking like they had completely turned the corner from their awful start to the season. 

Still, it was hard to shake the thought throughout their three-game sweep of the Ottawa Senators that, “It’s only the Senators.”

The Senators were expected to be the worst team in the all-Canadian North Division — they entered the season with the lowest payroll in the league and only made a few changes from the team that finished 30th in the NHL last season. Beating the Senators is certainly preferable to losing to them, but it’s hard to take those wins as indicative of how the Canucks might perform against the other, better teams in the North. 

In particular, the number of shots the Canucks gave up to the Senators was alarming: 116 in three games, an average of 38.7 shots per game. Give up that many shots against a team with more offensive talent — say, the Winnipeg Jets — and the Canucks would be in serious trouble.

So they didn’t.

The Canucks put together their best defensive effort on the season, limiting the Jets to just 24 shots, their lowest total of the season. Most impressively, it didn’t come at the expense of their offence, as they still racked up 39 shots of their own. 

Head coach Travis Green agreed that it was their best 60-minute performance of the season.

“I think it looked more like our team from last year, getting closer to the game that we want to see,” said Green. “Our team has to work extremely hard to win. That’s the way we feel. We want to take away time and space and if we don’t work hard and we don’t skate, it doesn’t happen.”

It made for a much easier night for goaltender Thatcher Demko. It was his third straight start allowing just one goal against, but he only had to make about half as many saves to do it as he did in his last start. 

“You saw it in the last two periods, there were not a lot of pucks coming towards me,” said Demko. “Even zone time, maybe they get a couple cycles, but guys are shutting it down, playing with each other, making sure we’re getting the puck back out of the zone and spending more time in their end.”

The Canucks will have some tougher tests ahead of them, including back-to-back games against the Montreal Canadiens to kick off February, but this game against the Jets provides more optimism than the Senators sweep heading into those matchups.

I’m hoping to see the same defensive effort in the future that I saw when I watched this game.

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  • The Canucks opened the scoring on the first shift of the game. Alex Edler jumped up in the rush and raced onto a puck on the left win. He shoulder-checked to see who was with him; Blake Wheeler didn’t. As a result, Wheeler’s check was wide open, and worse for the Jets’ captain, his man was Brock Boeser. No shoulder check meant a flunked driver’s test for Wheeler and the 1-0 goal for Boeser.
     
  • Connor Hellebuyck pushed out hard to the top of his crease when Boeser got the pass, because you had to respect Boeser’s wicked wrist shot. That gave Boeser all kinds of room to cut to the backhand instead and tuck it into the open net. Hellebuyck is arguably the best goaltender in the NHL and Boeser made scoring on him look super easy, barely an inconvenience.  
     
  • Was Edler’s pass to Boeser just a fortunate deflection off a defender’s stick? “Oh no,” said Boeser. “Eagle shocked the whole rink, I think. He made a tremendous pass there. I think everyone thought that he was gonna bump it to Millsy behind the net and he did the old Eagle there and looked off Millsy and passed it right to me in the front, so it was a phenomenal pass by him.”
     
  • Wheeler disagrees. “Edler was trying to throw that back-door,” said Wheeler. “[Mark Scheifel] was ahead of me, and being the centreman, he took that guy to the back-post. Unfortunately, the puck hit off [Josh Morrissey’s] heel of his stick and went right to Boeser in the slot.”
     
  • The Canucks did a better job of taking care of the puck in their own zone, but still had a couple of turnovers, one of which indirectly resulted in the tying goal. Jordie Benn tried to flip the puck up the middle and it was picked off by Nikolaj Ehlers, who forced Demko to make a save. The puck went out of play off Demko’s blocker, but the Jets scored immediately after the subsequent offensive zone faceoff. 
     
  • Nils Höglander made it 2-1 later in the first, but his shift leading up to the goal was more impressive than the goal itself. He made a slick spin-o-rama on the zone entry to get by Morrissey, then made a power move to the front of the net, protecting the puck with his left leg to get a scoring chance. A moment later, he picked off a pass on the Jets’ breakout, then won a puck battle in the corner. The 5’9” Höglander looks more like a power forward than all the guys who are supposed to be power forwards.

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  • Off of Höglander’s puck battle in the corner, Tanner Pearson got the puck to Bo Horvat behind the net. His attempted return pass deflected up and went over the net like Ryan Kesler, ramping up over Hellebuyck’s head. Höglander, like a proper power forward, had gone right to the front of the net and was ready to bat the puck out of the air and in.
     
  • Höglander cemented his power forward bonafides later in the second period, responding to repeated crosschecks to the back from Scheifele with a swing of his elbow, which is something we’ve seen from him in the SHL. Surprisingly, the referees didn’t call the elbow, but actually called a crosschecking penalty on Scheifele, evened up with a penalty on Tanner Pearson, who was delivering a few crosschecks of his own.

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  • After Demko shut the door on a late first-period push by the Jets, Zack MacEwen gave the Canucks a 3-1 lead in the second. He jumped on the ice for Boeser on a line change, carried the puck in, dropped the puck to J.T. Miller, then got to the front of the net. Miller made a move on Ehlers, then set up a Benn one-timer that MacEwen tipped just under the bar where the bartender keeps his shotgun.  
     
  • The Canucks’ power play went 0-for-3, but got some good looks, including from the second power play unit. Pettersson got a one-timer opportunity from his favourite spot at the top of the right faceoff circle, but, like so many times this season, his stick shattered: the blade of his stick and the puck both took off to the end boards, with his blade winning the race.

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  • Nate Schmidt nearly had an own goal in the second. Fortunately, Demko snagged the puck with his glove when it deflected off Schmidt’s stick in front. Good thing, because it would have undone a solid game for Schmidt, who had a team-high seven shots on goal, blocked three shots, and played a solid shutdown game matched up against the Jets’ top line: the Jets didn’t have a single shot on goal when Schmidt was on the ice against Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, and Blake Wheeler at 5-on-5. 
     
  • Late in the third period, Schmidt gave a master class on how to slide on the ice to break up a 2-on-1 — Tyler Myers, take notes! He perfectly read Ehlers’ intentions and timed his slide to the ice perfectly to get his outstretched stick on the attempted pass.

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  • Schmidt even picked up a point, albeit on an empty net goal. He won the puck behind the net off Scheifele, then rung it around the boards, where it hit a broken stick, leaving it perfectly for Boeser to skate onto. He hit the empty net from distance for his league-leading 8th goal of the season.
     
  • Through 11 games, Boeser has already scored half as many goals as he scored all of last season. Sure, the last goal was into an empty net, but that’s also a great sign, that Green wants him on the ice defending a lead. A rejuvenated, sniping Boeser is tremendously exciting for Canucks fans.
     
  • “Even last year, I think I was still learning stuff about my body from past injuries and different exercises I need to do to prep,” said Boeser. “I’m feeling really good right now. I feel like I know what I need to do before each and every practice and game to stay on top of my body and I feel like it’s showing on the ice.”

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Champions Trophy host Pakistan says it’s not been told India wants to play cricket games elsewhere

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November 8, 2024

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LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.

“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”

Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.

The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.

Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.

“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”

Pakistan hosted last year’s Asia Cup but all India games were played in Sri Lanka under a hybrid model for the tournament. Only months later Pakistan did travel to India for the 50-over World Cup.

Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.

“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”

The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.

“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”

Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.

“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.

___

AP cricket:

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Dabrowski, Routlife into WTA doubles final with win over Melichar-Martinez, Perez

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November 8, 2024

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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.

Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.

The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.

The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.

Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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Winger Tajon Buchanan back with Canada after recovering from broken leg

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November 8, 2024

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Inter Milan winger Tajon Buchanan, recovered from a broken leg suffered in training at this summer’s Copa America, is back in Jesse Marsch’s Canada squad for the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal against Suriname.

The 25-year-old from Brampton, Ont., underwent surgery July 3 to repair a fractured tibia in Texas.

Canada, ranked 35th in the world, plays No. 136 Suriname on Nov. 15 in Paramaribo. The second leg of the aggregate series is four days later at Toronto’s BMO Field.

There is also a return for veteran winger Junior Hoilett, who last played for Canada in June in a 4-0 loss to the Netherlands in Marsch’s debut at the Canadian helm. The 34-year-old from Brampton, now with Scotland’s Hibernian, has 15 goals in 63 senior appearances for Canada.

Midfielder Ismael Kone, recovered from an ankle injury sustained on club duty with France’s Marseille, also returns. He missed Canada’s last three matches since the fourth-place Copa America loss to Uruguay in July.

But Canada will be without centre back Derek Cornelius, who exited Marseille’s win Sunday over Nantes on a stretcher after suffering an apparent rib injury.

The Canadian men will prepare for Suriname next week at a camp in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“We are looking forward to getting the group together again with the mindset that there is a trophy on the line,” Marsch said in a statement. “We want to end 2024 the right way with two excellent performances against a competitive Suriname squad and continue building on our tremendous growth this past summer.”

The quarterfinal winners advance to the Nations League Finals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., with the two semifinals scheduled for March 20 and the final and third-place playoff March 23, and qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Thirteen of the 23 players on the Canadian roster are 25 or younger, with 19-year-old defender Jamie Knight-Lebel, currently playing for England’s Crewe Alexandra on loan from Bristol City, the youngest.

Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies captains the side with Stephen Eustaquio, Jonathan Osorio, Richie Laryea, Alistair Johnston and Kamal Miller adding veteran support.

Jonathan David, Cyle Larin and Theo Bair are joined in attack by Minnesota United’s Tani Oluwaseyi.

Niko Sigur, a 21-year-old midfielder with Croatia’s Hadjuk Split, continues in the squad after making his debut in the September friendly against Mexico.

Suriname made it to the Nations League quarterfinals by finishing second to Costa Rica in Group A of the Nations League, ahead of No. 104 Guatemala, No. 161 Guyana and unranked Martinique and Guadeloupe.

“A good team,” Osorio said of Suriname. “These games are always tricky and they’re not easy at all … Suriname is a (former) Dutch colony and they’ll have Dutch players playing at high levels.”

“They won’t be someone we overlook at all,” added the Toronto FC captain, who has 81 Canada caps to his credit.

Located on the northeast coast of South America between Guyana and French Guiana, Suriname was granted independence in 1975 by the Netherlands.

Canada has faced Suriname twice before, both in World Cup qualifying play, winning 4-0 in suburban Chicago in June 2021 and 2-1 in Mexico City in October 1977.

The Canadian men, along with Mexico, the United States and Panama, received a bye into the final eight of the CONCACAF Nations League.

Canada, No. 2 in the CONCACAF rankings, drew Suriname as the best-placed runner-up from League A play.

Canada lost to Jamaica in last year’s Nations League quarterfinal, ousted on the away-goals rule after the series ended in a 4-4 draw. The Canadians lost 2-0 to the U.S. in the final of the 2022-23 tournament and finished fifth in 2019-20.

Canada defeated Panama 2-1 last time out, in an Oct. 15 friendly in Toronto.

Goalkeepers Maxime Crepeau and Jonathan Sirois, defenders Joel Waterman, Laryea and Miller and Osorio took part in a pre-camp this week in Toronto for North America-based players.

Canada Roster

Goalkeepers: Maxime Crepeau, Portland Timbers (MLS); Jonathan Sirois, CF Montreal (MLS); Dayne St. Clair, Minnesota United FC (MLS).

Defenders: Moise Bombito, OGC Nice (France); Alphonso Davies, Bayern Munich (Germany); Richie Laryea, Toronto FC (MLS); Alistair Johnston, Celtic (Scotland); Jamie Knight-Lebel. Crewe Alexandra, on loan from Bristol City (England); Kamal Miller, Portland Timbers (MLS); Joel Waterman, CF Montreal (MLS).

Midfielders: Ali Ahmed. Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS); Tajon Buchanan, Inter Milan (Italy); Mathieu Choiniere, Grasshopper Zurich (Switzerland); Stephen Eustaquio, FC Porto (Portugal); Junior Hoilett, Hibernian FC (Scotland); Ismael Kone, Olympique Marseille (France); Jonathan Osorio, Toronto FC (MLS); Jacob Shaffelburg, Nashville SC (MLS); Niko Sigur, Hadjuk Split (Croatia).

Forwards: Theo Bair, AJ Auxerre (France); Jonathan David, LOSC Lille (France); Cyle Larin, RCD Mallorca (Spain); Tani Oluwaseyi, Minnesota United (MLS).

—

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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