NHL postpones 8 games due to attendance restrictions in Canada
Senators add forwards Ennis, Norris to NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list
Devils coach Lindy Ruff tests positive, misses Oilers game
Clippers coach enters protocol ahead of Raptors match-up
Vikings lose Cousins to COVID list before game vs. Packers
Trio of G League referees get NBA games amid virus issues
Soccer games postponed in England, France
The NHL postponed eight games involving Canadian teams due to current attendance restrictions in certain provinces, the league announced on Friday.
The games are:
Minnesota Wild @ Ottawa Senators (Jan. 3)
New York Islanders @ Vancouver Canucks (Jan. 5)
New York Islanders @ Edmonton Oilers (Jan. 8)
New York Islanders @ Calgary Flames (Jan. 11)
Minnesota Wild @ Edmonton Oilers (Jan. 12)
Vegas Golden Knights @ Edmonton Oilers (Jan. 14)
Vegas Golden Knights @ Calgary Flames (Jan. 15)
Edmonton Oilers @ Winnipeg Jets (Jan. 16)
The league said the games will be rescheduled when the restrictions are either eased or lifted.
A game between the New York Islanders and the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 4 has also been postponed due to the Islanders having three other road games pushed back.
SCHEDULE UPDATE: The <a href=”https://twitter.com/NHL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@NHL</a> announced today that eight additional games will be rescheduled for dates later in the season. <br><br>Details: <a href=”https://t.co/8EuE4xfrpV”>https://t.co/8EuE4xfrpV</a> <a href=”https://t.co/B2Y1Ra5Gyw”>pic.twitter.com/B2Y1Ra5Gyw</a>
The NHL did not announce any further postponed dates for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are scheduled to host Ottawa on Saturday and Edmonton on Wednesday.
Friday’s announcement comes three days after the NHL postponed nine games in Canada due to capacity limitations. The NHL now has had a total of 89 games postponed this season.
The Ontario government limited capacity at large indoor venues to 1,000 people on Thursday. Major League Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Maple Leafs and the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, has said its games will be held without fans while that restriction is in place.
The Montreal Canadiens are not currently scheduled to play at home again until Jan. 15. A four-game Canadiens homestand between Tuesday and Jan. 10 had already been postponed
Senators add forwards Ennis, Norris to protocol
The Ottawa Senators have added forwards Tyler Ennis and Josh Norris to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list, the team announced on Friday.
The Franchise also called up forwards Clark Bishop and Logan Shaw from the Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League to the team’s taxi squad.
The Senators returned to practise on Friday morning after cancelling Thursday’s session for precautionary reasons.
Devils coach tests positive hours before Oilers game
New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff tested positive for COVID-19 hours before the Devils’ game against the Edmonton Oilers and was isolated from the team.
The Devils made the announcement Friday, roughly 45 minutes after Ruff did not show up for a pregame news conference. When the conference started, assistant coach Alain Nasreddine walked in and said he would be running the team.
Nasreddine, who usually handles the defencemen in the game, said Ruff was going to stay in the Prudential Center for the contest. He said the two would be in communication during the game.
The 61-year-old Ruff was hired as Devils coach for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and the team missed the playoffs. New Jersey is currently in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division.
Nasreddine coached the Devils on an interim basis for 43 games during the 2019-20 season after John Hynes was fired in early December. He posted a 19-16-8 record. Ruff kept him on his staff.
Also Friday, Chicago goaltender Kevin Lankinen was held out of practice because of COVID-19 protocol. With Marc-Andre Fleury already in the protocol, Collin Delia could make his first NHL start of the season when Chicago visits Nashville on Saturday.
Clippers coach enters protocol ahead of Raptors match-up
Los Angeles Clippers coach Tyronn Lue has entered protocols Friday just hours before his team faces the Toronto Raptors at the Scotiabank Arena
The NBA began Friday with about 120 players in various stages of the protocols, with seven other head coaches sidelined, dozens of other staffers, including assistant coaches, athletic trainers, media relations staff and more.
The league has a 97% vaccination rate among players, 100% among coaches, and at least two-thirds of the league has received a booster shot. The NBA has postponed 11 games in recent weeks, while often changing its protocols — the latest moves designed to potentially get players who test positive back on the floor more quickly than has been the case.
About 100 players from the G League have been signed to NBA deals in recent weeks as teams have needed to fill rosters because of all the virus-related problems
Trio of G League referees get NBA games amid virus issues
The virus outbreak hasn’t just sent NBA teams looking for help from the G League. The NBA refereeing corps has had to do the same.
A trio of G League officials — Tyler Mirkovich, Clare Aubry and Pat O’Connell — were assigned games on Friday, the NBA debuts for all three. It was the first time that the NBA had to call up G League officials to work games this season.
Mirkovich was assigned Phoenix at Boston, Aubry got Atlanta at Cleveland and O’Connell was picked for New York at Oklahoma City.
None of the three G League refs called up Friday has even worked an NBA preseason game. But with about one-third of the league’s referees unable to work right now, mostly because of coronavirus-related reasons and a few because of injury, the NBA had no choice but to seek help.
Vikings lose Cousins to COVID list before game vs. Packers
Kirk Cousins has never missed a game in the NFL to injury.
His first unplanned absence, due to COVID-19, could not have come at a worse time for the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings placed their starting quarterback on the COVID-19 reserve list on Friday, two days before their most important game of the season at Green Bay.
Cousins, who is unvaccinated, couldn’t be cleared in time to play even if he were feeling fine. The NFL recently reduced the required quarantine period to five days for asymptomatic players.
The Vikings (7-8) are one game out of the last wild-card spot in the NFC with two weeks to go. The Packers (12-3) are in control of the top seed and a first-round bye.
The Vikings activated backup quarterback Sean Mannion from the COVID-19 reserve list, putting the seventh-year veteran in line to start at frigid Lambeau Field on Sunday night. Rookie Kellen Mond, who was drafted in the third round, has not developed quickly enough this season to be considered.
Soccer games postponed in England, France
A continuing continuing coronavirus outbreak at Newcastle has led to Sunday’s game at Southampton being postponed, the Premier League said Friday.
Newcastle’s previous game against Everton scheduled for Thursday had also been called off.
The Premier League said a combination of COVID-19 cases and injuries meant 19th-place Newcastle does not have the required 13 outfield players and one goalkeeper available to face Southampton at St. Mary’s Stadium.
The league said in a statement that it “was able to make its decision in advance of the fixture to give clarity to the affected clubs and their fans.”
It brings the total to 18 Premier League games postponed in the past three weeks, including last-place Norwich’s trip to Leicester on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Liverpool coach Juergen Klopp said Friday that three of his players have tested positive ahead of Sunday’s game at title rival Chelsea.
He did not name the trio and remains hopeful the game in London will go ahead.
The French league postponed the game between Angers and Saint-Etienne on Jan. 9 because of a high number of coronavirus cases in the Angers squad.
Angers asked for the postponement on Thursday, saying there were 19 confirmed cases among its squad of 30 players and that more than 10 are not authorized to play again until Jan. 10. Angers added that a further five staff members have the virus.
Angers had five players out with COVID-19 when it lost 4-1 at Montpellier on Dec. 22 before the winter break.
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.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
