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Mitchell injury shifts spotlight to Canadian QB O’Connor – TSN

Published

3 years ago

August 18, 2021

Any optimism Calgary Stampeders fans may have had about the status of starting quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell was quelled Tuesday when head coach Dave Dickenson announced the star pivot is headed to the six-game injured list.

That move comes after Mitchell broke his fibula on a hit from former teammate Charleston Hughes in Calgary’s season opener versus the Toronto Argonauts. Mitchell tried to play through the pain the following week but ended up throwing four interceptions versus the BC Lions as the Stampeders fell to 0-2, the team’s worst start in more than a decade.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t good,” Dickenson said Tuesday on the Texan’s status for the immediate future. “He actually has a break in his leg, in his fibula – a bone break. He played the whole game [versus the BC Lions] with it. At the time we knew he was sore…so we’ll be putting him on six-game and hopefully he’s a fast healer.”

Mitchell joked that Hughes could have injured him even more.

“When I watched the play, I was like, ‘Man, you really actually pulled up,’” he said. “‘You could have killed me on that play.’”

Now, 25-year-old Canadian quarterback Michael O’Connor is tasked with righting the Stampeders ship and at least keeping the team in playoff contention until Mitchell returns. O’Connor won the 2015 Vanier Cup with the UBC Thunderbirds. In his rookie season with the Toronto Argonauts in 2019, he threw for 173 yards and a touchdown.

The Stampeders offence has looked out of sync so far this season, plagued by penalties and mental errors. After that Week 1 loss to Toronto, Dickenson said he felt Mitchell had lost faith in his receivers as the game went on.

Calgary is scoring fewer than 14 points per game and has just one passing touchdown this season. While Kamar Jorden has come back strong and leads the team with eight catches and 153 yards, Hergy Mayala and Josh Huff – who were both expected to take big steps with the departures of star receivers Eric Rogers and Reggie Begelton after 2019 – have just 14 catches 152 receiving yards combined.

O’Connor is now tasked with building that chemistry –and in a hurry.

“Just talking with them through the plays and different looks we’re expecting and how they’re going to run their routes,” O’Connor said of his work taking first-team reps this week. “That just helps to build trust, knowing where they’ll be and how they’ll run their routes is big. Just meeting with them and going through that gives you more confidence as a quarterback.”

Jorden, who has 160 catches since joining the Stampeders in 2014, downplayed the adjustments in catching the ball from one quarterback versus another.

“It should all flow regardless of who’s at quarterback, and really it should all flow regardless of who’s at receiver,” he said. “Obviously, it’s little things, right? Every quarterback’s got their things and that’s our jobs as receivers and quarterbacks to communicate and if anybody else is in, to tell us what they like, what they don’t like, where they want us, where they expect us. Those are things you’ve got to learn.”

If there’s any room for optimism it could be in Mitchell’s assessment of his protégé, which included a reference to a quarterback who won four Grey Cups during his distinguished CFL career.

“Mike reminds me of a young Ricky Ray,” Mitchell said. “He’s tall in the pocket, he’s calm. He’s not gonna be a hoo-rah guy when he throws a big pass and he’s not gonna keep his head down when he throws a bad pass. I think he’s calm and has that demeanour about himself. He throws a beautiful ball and has a strong arm. He’s a little more mobile than you’d expect from a bigger guy.

“To me, he understands the playbook really well…Mike’s gonna stand tall in that pocket and take hits when he needs to and do what a big quarterback should do. He’s got the vision over the line and ability to see a lot of things, move the ball around, spread it out to receivers, and help the offence.”

As for the team’s overall offensive philosophy, Dickenson doesn’t want O’Connor to be tentative – despite the big stage Friday night against the visiting Montreal Alouettes.

“I’m not in the business of playing safe,” he said. “Be aggressive. Go for the throws you think are there. The main thing is to take care of discipline and the little, small things and then whatever you see, trust your eyes and let it rip.”

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DeMar DeRozan scores 27 points to lead the Kings past the Raptors 122-107

Published

13 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.

Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.

Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.

The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.

DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.

RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.

Takeaways

Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.

Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.

Key moment

The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.

Key stat

Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.

Up next

Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.

Kings: Host the Clippers on Friday night.

___

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Whitecaps take confidence, humility into decisive playoff matchup vs. LAFC

Published

13 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.

To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.

Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.

“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.

“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”

The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.

The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.

First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.

Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.

No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.

“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.

Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.

“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.

This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.

The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.

“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”

Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.

Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.

“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”

The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.

Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.

“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”

LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.

“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

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PWHL unveils game jerseys with new team names, logos

Published

13 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – The Professional Women’s Hockey League has revealed the jersey designs for its six newly named teams.

Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.

The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.

Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.

“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.

“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”

Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.

Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.

Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.

Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

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