Last spring, when the Pittsburgh Penguins decided to counterprogram the Maple Leafs’ ‘Why we hired Brad Treliving’ press conference with their own ‘Why we hired Kyle Dubas’ presser, they started a fight.
Nobody called it a fight. Leafs president Brendan Shanahan specifically denied it was a fight.
But if a half-hour before your party starts, your ex-friend sends out a note saying they are hosting their own party the same day, that’s a fight.
The two clubs were in different stages of life – the Penguins are old and accomplished, and compelled to keep trying because they employ the greatest player of his generation; the Leafs talk like they’re young, but that’s mostly because they haven’t made it out of their parents’ basement, rather than anything chronological.
They both have this much in common – they need to win, now.
Both knew that if that didn’t happen, the next basis for judgment was how they did vis-a-vis each other.
Did the Leafs win the deal by getting rid of Dubas? Or did the Penguins win by catching him on the hop?
The Leafs are still wrestling with their end, but the Penguins are on the verge of losing theirs.
When Dubas showed up in Pennsylvania, it was in the usual word-cloud of upbeat bafflegab that is his trademark. Say this much for Treliving: he talks like a human, not like someone reading off the back of a brochure for time shares.
This is why it’s hard to quote Dubas in print. His sentences run on so long they are column-inch killers.
But here’s what he said about Sidney Crosby and Pittsburgh when he was hired: “In the short run, [my job] is to continue to make decisions that are going to allow the team to be competitive with the core group of players that have led the team here to championships in the past, to continue to perform at the levels that they have for as long as they can, and make the decisions that will support them in the line-up every night that will allow the team to continue to contend each season while those players are with us.”
And breeeeeeathe.
The shorter way of saying that is, ‘Sidney Crosby is viable for a couple more years. My job is not to waste them.’
There was other stuff in there about building a competitor for years to come, but that’s not a plan. It’s a hope.
The only thing that matters in Pittsburgh is whether or not the person in charge can organize one more Cup drive for Crosby. The Penguins making the playoffs this season was a basic requirement for the new boss.
In Toronto, Dubas was a minimalist. He preferred small moves with small upsides, but also small risk.
In Pittsburgh, he has a new executive personality as an agent of chaos.
The first big thing he did was sign Erik Karlsson – a win-right-now move.
If he’d gotten Karlsson and a time machine, that’s a great trade. But he only got the declining 33-year-old. Karlsson was slotted into what was already the oldest team in the NHL.
When that didn’t work out the way he’d hoped, Dubas swung the other way. At the deadline, he traded Pittsburgh’s best young-ish star, Jake Guentzel – a win-later move.
When Crosby was asked what message the trade sent the team, he said, “I don’t know. You’d have to ask [management].”
His body language could only have been worse if he’d burst into tears.
Guentzel told reporters he’d wanted to stay in Pittsburgh, but “they thought there was a better direction.”
For all the talk of how tough it is to work in Toronto, Dubas didn’t have to deal with dissension in the ranks. Nothing that stuck, at least. This was his first taste of public back and forth. It didn’t go well.
Dubas blamed the team for not being good enough – “my hope going into the year was that everything would go to the most optimistic viewpoint.”
Lots of presidents and GMs talk this way – like only the good things that happen are their fault. But when the president in Pittsburgh makes Sidney Crosby sad, he should probably have a better explanation teed up than, ‘Hey, what do you expect me to do?’
When the Guentzel trade was done, there was a bottleneck of teams between the Penguins and the postseason. It’s cleared. As they arrive in Toronto for a game on Monday night, Pittsburgh is hanging on to the bumper of the final wild-card spot.
The glass-half-full take – nice recovery.
The glass-half-empty – too bad the guy running things wrote the club off in March.
In Toronto, Dubas was always able to slip responsibility for the annual disappointment. Leafs fans were willing to accept that Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner et al weren’t winners because they’d never won anything.
Who’s Dubas going to blame in Pittsburgh? All the proven winners?
There is still a world in which Crosby & Co. drag Dubas out of the fire he lit. First, they have to make the playoffs. Then they have to win a round. Beating the Leafs in the second round would probably do it.
But the other world – the one in which they fall short in the final 10 days of the season, or get hammered by the Bruins in the first round – is more likely. Once that happens, the buzzards stop circling and start landing.
If Dubas fails in Pittsburgh, Toronto won’t claim it as a victory. That wouldn’t be good manners.
But when you’re as used to losing as the Leafs are, even the fights you win by default must feel good.
CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.
Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.
Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.
The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.
Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.
The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.
Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.
Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.
Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.
Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.
Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.
Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.
The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.
The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.
Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).
Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.
Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.
The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024
PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.
The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.
“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.
“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”
The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.
Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.
“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.
“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”
Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.
Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.
“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.
Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.
The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.
Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”
Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.
Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.
“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”
The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.
Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.
The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.
Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.
“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”
A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.
Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.
“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
