TORONTO – In an ordinary year, a healthy, established NHL player contributing to good team would face minimal risk of losing his job to a less-experienced player immediately before a playoff tournament.
Breaking: This is no ordinary year.
When coach Sheldon Keefe gathered his Toronto Maple Leafs Monday at the outset of Training Camp: Part Deux, he issued a firm message. Tryouts start now.
“We’ve got competition here for spots,” Keefe said. “To say that we were happy or satisfied with the way we were playing and where we were at as a team before the pause is just not the case. So, we’re challenging our players to push each other.”
Now, we’re pretty sure you should feel safe using permanent ink to scratch numbers like 34, 91 and 16 into your lineup card. But the taxi-squad invitees — headlined by Nick Robertson (locally known as the Greatest Talent to Never Play an NHL Shift) and featuring determined Marlies standouts Kenny Agostino, Adam Brooks and Nic Petan — aren’t just waiting curbside hoping for a fare.
Those hopefuls were among the first arrivals for Phase 2’s voluntary workouts, with Americans like Robertson and Agostino arriving weeks in advance to serve their mandatory 14-quarantine on this side of the border.
“My big thing is, you control what you can control in this game, and you just got to be ready for whenever that opportunity comes about,” an eager Agostino told me in late May before driving up from New Jersey. “You never know what the next year and a half could bring.”
Perhaps this theme of internal competition is being promoted to light a fire under some inconsistent third-line forwards and to accelerate the urgency necessary to leap into a best-of-five showdown versus super-motivator John Tortorella’s Columbus Blue Jackets on Aug. 2.
But Robertson & Co. are chasing that dangled carrot in earnest.
The sports-mad locals are starving for hockey and hope, so it makes sense the 18-year-old sniper’s practice highlights have already gone viral. He stripped our best defenceman of the puck! He lasered a couple by our best goalie!
“He’s a guy that’s going to continue to push. That’s just his nature,” Morgan Rielly says of Robertson. “So, it’s always good to have people like that on board.”
John Tavares marvels how the puck seems to follow Robertson around. Frederik Andersen is impressed by Robertson’s shiftiness and the release off his blade. GM Kyle Dubas zeroes in on the teenager’s mindset and approach.
“He wasn’t going to do what a lot of young players do, which is kinda tiptoe around on the ice and try to figure out what his place is. He’s going to come with the mindset that he’s going to leave it all out here and try to make the team,” Dubas explained on Tim and Sid Tuesday evening. “As some of the older, more veteran players sort of get back into their top form, how he responds to that is what we’re really looking for.”
What’s it going to take? Let’s just say the tie goes to the veteran.
“He needs to really show it, make it obvious that he’s ready,” Keefe said. “And he’s got some time to be able to do that.”
Not a ton.
The Leafs’ lone exhibition game (versus Montreal on July 28) is speeding at us faster than a forecheck. Starting Sunday, the players and bubble staff will enter a modified quarantine in which their lives must take place at home and at work (Ford Performance Centre) only.
Toronto has taken great pains to steepen its ramp-up to the tournament.
The franchise drew the most bodies of any franchise to its practice facility for Phase 2 and jumped directly into intensified, short-bench scrimmages (two lines aside) on Day 1 of camp. By Day 2, Keefe had COVID-clear officials participating on the ice to mimic the real deal.
By way of comparison, the Jackets aren’t scheduling their first scrimmage until later this week. Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau has yet to practice with his linemates. Boston superstar David Pastrnak didn’t join the main group until Wednesday. The virus has already thrown a wrench into the Pittsburgh and Tampa camps.
Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman talk to a lot of people around the hockey world, and then they tell listeners all about what they’ve heard and what they think about it.
Absolutely, the Maple Leafs might get out-checked or out-defended. They could fumble the special-teams battle or not get enough saves. But the strict mandate is they won’t get out-prepared or out-conditioned.
Heck, on Wednesday they drop the puck on Game 1 of their own internal best-of-five series: Team Andersen vs. Team Matthews. Furthermore, the media will vote on a “Phase 3 Scrimmage Most Valuable Player” award. Seriously.
“Every rep that we have has got to be as close to game-like as we can, and the conditioning part of it creates some additional challenges because it’s really hard to do when you’re tired,” Keefe said. “Our hope is — whether it’s the two-line or the three-line effect at scrimmages — that by the time we get rolling with four lines, it feels a lot easier. Our hope is by the time we play the real games, it feels easier than anything we’ve gone through [at] this camp.”
And that is where the internal drive of Robertson, Agostino, Brooks and the other long shots becomes vital.
“These guys have been committed to come in and put in the work, so they’re here to challenge and compete,” Keefe said. “They’re either pushing to earn spots that are available if others don’t pull their weight, or they’re pushing just to make everyone better through their work in practices — and that’s the biggest thing for us.”
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.
Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.
“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”
Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.
“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”
Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.
Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.
Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.
Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.
Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.
Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.
Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.
Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.
That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.
“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”
Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.
Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.
The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.
The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.
Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.
However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
