The Winnipeg Jets are getting their skating legs back in shape with the NHL’s abbreviated season set to resume in 2½ weeks.
Players took to the ice Monday at the Bell MTS Iceplex for the first official practice since the season was paused March 12 due to COVID-19. At the time, there were still 189 games remaining on the NHL’s schedule.
Training camps across the league were opening as part of Phase 3 of the NHL’s return-to-play plan, which dives right into the playoffs.
“It’s a good idea because I’m a hockey fan and I’m going nuts,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice on Monday.
“It’s the middle of July, I didn’t get to see playoffs, I want to see it.”
The NHL announced earlier in spring that, if possible, it would complete the season by bringing back 24 of its 31 teams — 12 from each of the Eastern and Western conferences — based on the standings when the shutdown occurred.
Pucks will drop on Aug. 1, with a number of games taking place throughout the day in two host cities: Toronto and Edmonton.
Winnipeg Jets players listen in to coach Paul Maurice during training camp on Monday. (Winnipeg Jets)
The Jets will head to Edmonton and take on the Calgary Flames. They play Aug. 1, 3 and 4, and — if needed — are scheduled for the 6 and 8 as well.
Maurice said the Jets’ organization has gone “above and beyond” the minimum standards in terms of assuring the safety of players returning to the city, of staff and of the community.
“We have a responsibility, first to our health, I get that, but also we’re entertainers, right? People want to watch hockey, they want to see it, so that’s our job, and we have a responsibility to do our job.”
Playoff format
The league’s playoff format in this shortened season gives a bye to the top four teams from each conference. They will go straight to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The next eight teams from each conference will play a best-of-5 series, with the winners advancing to the playoffs. The losing teams will return to their summer break.
The Jets-Flames matchup is the only all-Canadian series of the qualifying round.
The four top teams in each conference will play each other once to determine the order of the seeding for the first round of the playoffs. All playoff series after the qualifiers will be best-of-7.
‘Take it out of the garage a little bit slowly’
Following Monday’s workout, Maurice said there was some rust on the players but not much.
“We wanted to take it out of the garage a little bit slowly. But the key thing I took away from today is … they wanted to be on the ice. They ran the routes. They did the drill exactly the way it was designed. They had a little bit of fun, they worked hard.
“They look like they want to be here, they look like they want to play.”
Fans will not be allowed to attend any of the games but the league has been talking about using recorded crowd noise and even cardboard cutouts of people to fill the empty seats.
Jets super fan Jeff Baquiran says it’s a peculiar experience to watch the Jets in August, but he’s looking forward to it. (Jaison Empson/CBC)
Superfan Jeff Baquiran may see a video of himself beamed into the empty rink, lounging outside while carrying a mug in the shape of the Stanley Cup.
He said watching hockey in August may look like it does in that video.
“If it means bringing the TV outside to watch it, so be it, or if I have to sit outside and have the TV in the front window there then whatever it takes,” he said.
Winnipeg bars are looking forward to welcoming throngs of Jets fans again.
Ahnissa Martens, assistant general manager at Underdogs, is looking forward to the return of Jets games, which are big business for the St. James sports bar. (Jaison Empson/CBC)
Ahnissa Martens, assistant general manager at Underdogs, said she knows all the regulars by name and the Jets keep coming up in conversation.
“We have a lot of regular clientele and it is something we talk about all the time, how they miss the Jets,” she said.
Martens said she feels their pain, as she’s had nothing to watch during the last few months of COVID-19.
“I think it will definitely … be a distraction of everything else that’s going on.”
Whiteout parties could make a comeback
Though public health officials likely won’t want to see thousands of fans storm the streets to cheer on the Jets, Manitoba’s Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Brent Roussin said Monday that “there’s probably a possibility of having a decent-sized gathering.”
Manitoba has gone 13 days in a row without reporting a new case of COVID-19, and the province’s active case count is down to one as of Monday morning.
Right now, public health rules only allow up to 100 people to gather together outside. Although, Roussin noted, “you could cohort to get to that maximum of that 30 per cent capacity for the area.”
He later said that public health officials are looking at further relaxing the limit on outdoor gathering sizes.
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.
BRUSSELS – Canadian shot putter Sarah Mitton rebounded from a disappointing performance at the Paris Olympics by capturing Diamond League gold on Friday.
Mitton, of Brooklyn, N.S., won the competition, the final Diamond League event of the season, with a heave of 20.25 metres on her third throw.
Chase Jackson of the U.S. placed second with a throw of 19.90, while German’s Yemisi Ogunleye, the Olympic gold medallist, claimed bronze with a toss of 19.72.
Mitton, the runner-up of last year’s world championship, failed to qualify for the top eight in Paris.
Edmonton runner Marco Arop, who won silver for Canada in the men’s 800 metres at the Paris Games, was scheduled to race in the 800 on Saturday.
Olympic bronze-medallist Alysha Newman, of London, Ont., also competes Saturday in the women’s pole vault.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
