|
|
Johnny Gaudreau produced his first hat trick in three years and Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves as the Calgary Flames added another impressive victory to their collection, defeating the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Thursday.
Mikael Backlund added a goal and Rasmus Andersson had two assists as the Flames improved to 15-2-1 since Jan. 29.
Calgary rebounded from a rare defeat Tuesday against the Washington Capitals and added a victory over the two-time defending champion Lightning to one over the league-leading Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.
Alex Killorn scored for the Lightning and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves as Tampa Bay lost its second consecutive game. It is the first time the Lightning have dropped back-to-back games since a three-game losing streak Dec. 30-Jan. 2.
Sharks 4, Kings 3 (OT)
Tomas Hertl’s wraparound goal in overtime gave San Jose a comeback victory over host Los Angeles.
Hertl ended his five-game point drought with a goal and an assist. Alexander Barabanov and Brent Burns also had a goal and an assist apiece. Nick Bonino scored the Sharks’ other goal. Defenseman Erik Karlsson tallied two assists in his return to the ice, having missed the previous 15 games due to left forearm surgery. Rookie goalie Zach Sawchenko saved 33 of 36 shots for his first NHL win.
Trevor Moore had a goal and two assists for the Kings. Phillip Danault and Andreas Athanasiou each had a goal and an assist. Jonathan Quick finished with 26 saves.
Panthers 6, Flyers 3
Sam Reinhart scored three goals and Carter Verhaeghe tallied twice as Florida defeated Philadelphia in Sunrise, Fla.
The Panthers got four assists each from Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad as Florida won its fifth straight game. Huberdeau leads the NHL with 64 assists, a Panthers record. Anthony Duclair also scored for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky made 34 saves.
Philadelphia, which had its two-game win streak broken, got goals from James van Riemsdyk, Cam Atkinson and Travis Konecny. Carter Hart made 31 saves.
Islanders 6, Blue Jackets 0
Anders Lee posted his first career hat trick and Ilya Sorokin stopped all 25 shots he faced as host New York rolled to its most resounding victory at its new building at the expense of Columbus.
The shutout was the sixth of the season for Sorokin and the ninth of his career. Brock Nelson, Josh Bailey and Jean-Gabriel Pageau also scored for the Islanders, who had not scored more than four goals in any of their first 27 games at UBS Arena.
Goalie Joonas Korpisalo made 27 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have lost four straight (0-2-2). Columbus is 13 points behind the Washington Capitals in the race for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Senators 4, Kraken 3 (OT)
Josh Norris scored twice, including a power-play goal at 2:34 of overtime, as Ottawa defeated visiting Seattle.
Brady Tkachuk had a goal and an assist and Parker Kelly also scored for the Senators, who won their second in a row following a five-game skid. Goaltender Anton Forsberg made 30 saves.
Jared McCann, Ryan Donato and Mason Appleton scored for the Kraken, who rallied from a three-goal deficit in the final 11 minutes of regulation. Chris Driedger stopped 23 of 27 shots for Seattle, which suffered its fourth consecutive defeat and dropped to 1-9-2 in its past 12 games.
Bruins 4, Blackhawks 3
David Pastrnak’s second goal and third point of the game with 17.2 seconds left in regulation lifted Boston over visiting Chicago.
Taylor Hall slid the puck from the corner through traffic to set up Pastrnak in the slot for the game-winner. It was his team-leading 33rd goal of the season. The Bruins also got goals from Charlie Coyle and Jack Ahcan as they improved to 8-1-1 in their past 10 games. Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves to win his seventh consecutive start.
Brandon Hagel scored twice for Chicago, and Alex DeBrincat extended his goal-scoring streak to five games. In just his third start since returning from injury, Kevin Lankinen made 32 saves.
Blues 6, Rangers 2
Robert Thomas scored twice and Ville Husso made 27 saves as host St. Louis ended a four-game winless streak by routing New York.
Ivan Barbashev, Ryan O’Reilly, David Perron and Jake Walman also scored for the Blues and Jordan Kyrou had two assists.
Ryan Strome and K’Andre Miller scored for the Rangers and Adam Fox had two assists. Goaltender Igor Shesterkin allowed four goals on 17 shots before Alexandar Georgiev replaced him 15 seconds in the second period.
Sabers 3, Golden Knights 1
Craig Anderson made 30 saves to become the sixth American goaltender to win 300 NHL games and also helped to spoil Jack Eichel’s much-anticipated return to Buffalo in the win over Vegas.
Anderson also became the 39th goalie in NHL history to hit the 300-win mark. Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch, both obtained from Vegas in the trade for Eichel on Nov. 4, each scored a goal, and Victor Olofsson scored what proved to be the game-winner on a power play with 3:44 remaining.
Ben Hutton scored a goal, and Laurent Brossoit stopped 21 of 23 shots for the sputtering Golden Knights, who suffered their second straight loss. Vegas has just 24 goals over its past 12 games, including just four in its past three games.
Wild 6, Red Wings 5 (SO)
Matt Boldy scored two goals, and visiting Minnesota pulled out the shootout victory over Detroit.
Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Fiala scored during the shootout for the Wild, who earned their second consecutive win. Zuccarello also had a regulation goal.
Jakub Vrana scored two goals in his second game back from shoulder surgery for the Red Wings, who have lost four straight.
Coyotes 5, Maple Leafs 4 (OT)
Jakob Chychrun scored his second goal of the game at 2:17 of overtime as Arizona won in Toronto.
The Maple Leads scored three straight goals in the first 8:17 of the third period to tie the game at 4 and force overtime. In OT, Chychrun scored his seventh goal of the season, from the left circle on a pass from Matias Maccelli.
Alex Galchenyuk recorded a goal and an assist for the Coyotes, who have won four straight. Travis Boyd and Christian Fischer also scored for Arizona. Maccelli added two assists. Alexander Kerfoot tallied a goal and two assists for Toronto. Pierre Engvall, Auston Matthews and William Nylander also scored for the Leafs, Matthews netting his league-leading 44th goal.
Jets 2, Devils 1
Kyle Connor scored the go-ahead goal on a breakaway late in the second period to lift the Winnipeg over the New Jersey in Newark, N.J. Defenseman Brenden Dillon also scored a goal as the Jets won their second consecutive game and fourth in their past six.
Eric Comrie gave workhorse goaltender Connor Hellebuyck a breather and made 33 saves to win his fourth straight start. Comrie was victorious in his lone appearance while playing with the Devils last season.
New Jersey’s Jack Hughes scored a power-play goal late in the first period to extend his home point streak to 13 games (nine goals, 12 assists). Hughes trails only two-time Stanley Cup winner Patrik Elias (17 games, 1999-2000) for the longest such run in franchise history. Nico Daws turned aside 28 shots for the Devils.
Predators 4, Ducks 1
Matt Duchene had two goals and an assist to lead Nashville past visiting Anaheim.
Filip Forsberg had a goal and two assists, Colton Sissons also scored, and Juuse Saros made 27 saves for the Predators, who have won five of seven following a four-game losing streak. Saros has allowed two goals in the three-game winning streak for Nashville.
Adam Henrique scored, and John Gibson made 26 saves for Anaheim in the second game of their five-game road trip. Gibson had been removed three times in eight starts since representing the Pacific Division in the All-Star Game on Feb. 5.
Hurricanes 2, Avalanche 0
Ethan Bear scored his third goal of the season with 5:40 remaining as Carolina finally broke through to defeat Colorado in Raleigh, N.C.
Antti Raanta made 36 saves for his second shutout of the season and his 10th victory. Sebastian Aho added an empty-net goal with 1:32 to play.
The Avalanche lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time since October, when it dropped its second through fourth games of the season in regulation.
–Field Level Media
The Olympic rings are set up at Trocadero plaza that overlooks the Eiffel Tower in Paris.Michel Euler/The Associated Press
In the middle of a record haul at the Tokyo Olympics, Canada’s women’s swim team had one letdown – the 4×200-metre freestyle relay.
Canada had taken bronze in the event at Rio 2016 and again at the 2019 world aquatics championships. The team looked good for another medal.
On the day of the final, a Chinese team that was not considered a contender surprised everyone, winning in world-record time. Canada came fourth.
A battling result, but still disappointing. It looks a little worse than that now.
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that nearly half the Chinese swim team failed a drug test seven months before the Tokyo Games. Twenty-three swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, or TMZ.
TMZ is a synthetic substance. You’re not going to pick it up because you’ve chosen the wrong hot-dog vendor.
China was allowed to do its own investigation into the mass positive. That probe determined the athletes had been exposed to TMZ in tainted food at a team hotel. How exactly so many of them ingested it, while others did not, wasn’t explained.
Unusually, no announcement was made about the positive tests, and no one was suspended while the investigation was under way. The World Anti-Doping Agency knew what was going on, but decided the best way to determine if China had done anything wrong was to ask China to look into it. When China gave China the all clear, WADA signed off.
One of those who tested positive was Zhang Yufei. Zhang won three medals in Tokyo, one of them as part of the 4x200m relay team.
The swimming world is now playing doping leapfrog throughout those Games. The Canadian relay team is on a long list of unlucky losers. Had China’s violations stuck, the medal table would look very different.
It would also have pushed a Games that was on the edge closer to the drop. Few in Japan were super stoked about the world dropping by en masse during what would become that country’s first mass COVID wave.
The main reason the Tokyo Games happened was that so much money had been spent, much more was still owed, and insurers were not willing to write down 10 or 15 billion.
Picking a fight with China in that precarious moment could not have seemed like a great idea. Even more precarious – the next Games, to be held six months later in Beijing.
As an event, at absolute best, Beijing 2022 was going to be a very expensive bummer (which it absolutely was). That’s the sort of party that’s easy to call off.
You don’t need to be a Reddit obsessive to see what happened here. The Chinese swim team got caught mid-purge, and the people in charge had to prioritize their response.
Priority No. 1 – the Olympic business.
Priority No. 2 – the Olympic ideals.
They picked money over fairness.
It’s easy to lash them now, so plenty of people are. The head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called it “a devastating stab in the back of clean athletes.”
(Is it possible to be undevastatingly stabbed in the back?)
The stickiest criticism involves Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. She also tested positive for trace amounts of TMZ before an Olympics. She also had one of those ‘maybe the dog gave me steroids’-type excuses.
But since everybody hates Russia, Valieva did not get the benefit of an in-house probe. She was dragged upside-down and backward through the global press and stripped of her medals. There’s your fairness.
It’s fitting that WADA take a reputational beating here. That is its most useful function – to absorb stakeholder rage after another own goal has been scored by the Doping Police.
But out in the real world, no one cares. Of course the Olympics is dirty. The Olympics has spent the last half century repeatedly reminding us of that.
Between Games, the Olympics makes news only two ways – ‘Upcoming host city X is having serious second thoughts’ and ‘So-and-so cheated their way to gold.’
These stories have become so numerous that the only people registering them are the ones who make their living in an Olympics-adjacent business, like sports administration or media.
Those people are happy to complain – complaining is good for trade – but they don’t want things to change. Change is dangerous. Who knows where change will land you?
In this specific instance, real change in the form of zero tolerance could have hobbled one Olympics and gotten the next one cancelled. Then what?
You start cancelling Olympics and people learn to live without them. Sponsors find new things to sponsor. Broadcasters move on.
Better to compromise. Chinese swimmers did a little TMZ. So what? Figure skaters, tennis players, breaststrokers – everybody’s doing it nowadays. It’s like weed for the Marx and Engels crowd.
With all that in mind, here’s something you won’t often read in this space – WADA made the right call.
It’s not like it was going to go swanning into Guangdong province in early 2021, right in the teeth of the pandemic, to figure out what was what. The only way to get any sort of answers was to rely on Chinese investigators. How do you know if they’re on the up and up? You don’t. WADA had two choices – take China’s word for it, or go scorched earth right before the two most tenuously assembled Games in history.
The proof that WADA made the correct choice is that those Games happened. Maybe it would make a different call now, and that might be right, too.
As far as fairness goes, it doesn’t belong in this conversation.
If a Belgian or a Tanzanian gets caught cheating, don’t even bother asking for consideration.
An American? Probably not.
An American everyone knows? Maybe.
A lot of Americans everybody knows? Let’s talk.
This can’t be discussed because once that discussion gets going, it points toward the sort of change no current stakeholder want to think about. If someone who tests positive can negotiate their way out of it and fairness is the goal, isn’t it fairer to stop testing altogether?
Was it an alley-oop? A Hail Mary? A Jerry Rice post route? Catch and ReLeaf?
Article content
Whatever it was, it was the goal Toronto Maple Leafs fans were waiting for.
Article content
If the Leafs go on to beat the Boston Bruins and make it out of the first round for the second year in a row, fans will look back at Max Domi’s flip pass and Auston Matthews’ catch and finish as the moment it all became possible.
Matthews’ 70th goal of the season (69+1 if we’re splitting hairs) was maybe his finest.
The play: Incredible. The catch: Immaculate. The finish: Nasty. The timing: Perfect.
Social media had plenty to say about Monday’s game-winning goal, but first let’s listen to calls of the play from every corner of the playoff series:
Chris Cuthbert on Hockey Night in Canada:
Article content
Retiring voice of the Boston Bruins Jack Edwards:
Article content
Of course, nothing can compare to Joe Bowen’s call on Toronto radio. Any Leafs moment isn’t complete until fans hear what the High Priest of Holy Mackinaw said, and he didn’t disappoint:
Article content
It didn’t take long for Matthews’ game-winner to go viral across social media, with fans, media and ex-players weighing in on the incredible goal. The Leafs and Bruins resume their first round series on Wednesday in Toronto at 7 p.m.
Share this article in your social network
It was a game of big numbers at Rogers Place that featured 82 shots, 72 faceoffs, 112 hits and 11 goals. Connor McDavid scored 5 points, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard 4 each. Adam Henrique scored his first playoff point in 12 years. And the Edmonton Oilers won the opening game of a playoff series on their home ice for the first time in 12,409 days.
Article content
But win it they did, cruising to a 7-4 win over Los Angeles Kings to establish a 1-0 series lead in the 2024 edition of the seemingly annual opening round series between the two.
Advertisement 2
Article content
It wasn’t always pretty, but several of the goals sure were. The Oilers held the advantage in play, outshooting the Kings 45-37 with an 18-10 advantage in Grade A Shots as recorded by the Cult of Hockey (running count). 8 of those Grade A shots came on a red-hot powerplay that produced 3 goals in a combined time of 4:50.
#2 Evan Bouchard, 7. Moved the puck well for the most part and had 4 secondary assists to show for it, not to mention a tertiary that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet. But was among the defensive culprits on both LA goals that cut a 4-0 lead in half before the end of the second period. Way more good than bad on the night. Contributions to Grade A Shots (GAS): Even Strength +3/-2, Special Teams +1/-0.
#5 Cody Ceci, 6. Played a rock solid defensive game, landing 5 hits and winning the lion’s share of battles. Victimized on a couple of unlucky goals against in garbage time, and in the spotlight himself on 1 of them when his stick exploded making a routine D-to-D pass after a won neutral zone faceoff. His 19:00 at even strength led the team. GAS: ES +2/-3; ST +1/-0.
Headline News
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
#13 Mattias Janmark, 5. Classic Janmark game in which not a whole lot happened during his 10 minutes of action, pro or con. Tagged with an undeserved -1 on the Ceci-stick-explodes goal. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#14 Mattias Ekholm, 6. Solid with a couple of shaky moments. Made a couple of lunging stops on the same dangerous sequence. His neutral zone turnover led to a Viktor Arvidsson breakaway early in the second, then he was unable to contain Adrian Kempe on the 4-2. Delivered a great stretch pass to Hyman for a breakaway chance. Led the D with 2:00 on the penalty kill. GAS: ES +4/-2; ST 0.
#18 Zach Hyman, 9. All over it from the get-go, driving hard to the net time and again. Scored a goal in each period by materializing in a dangerous spot and converting a McDavid pass from close range. Added a primary assist on Henrique’s goal. Took a goalie interference for another net drive gone wrong. Later drew a call the other way. Hit a post in a scramble. Robbed by Talbot’s best save of the game on a breakaway. Took a knock on the continuation of that play and was in pain, but returned for another shift and appeared to be OK. May have set a record for most hats on the ice for a hat trick. 9 shots on net to lead both teams. Also added 5 hits and was a central figure in the battle all night long. GAS: ES +7/-1; ST+3/-0.
Advertisement 4
Article content
#19 Adam Henrique, 7. His first playoff game in 6 years and his first playoff win in 12. Won a battle leading to the first Oilers goal, scored the second himself with a strong wrist shot from range, then earned an assist on the third. Made a great aerial deflection of Ceci’s outside shot. Took a penalty. Among those beaten on the first Kings goal. GAS: ES +4/-1; ST +1/-1.
#25 Darnell Nurse, 6. Played a solid 2-way game with 7 shot attempts, 2 blocks, and 6 hits. Won a lot of battles along the way. Pasted Kempe in the early going with a booming open-ice hit. Safe and sound behind his own blueline until the very late going, when a cross-ice pass caught his skate and found the net to make it 6-3. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.
#27 Brett Kulak, 5. Low event game including no goals at either end of the sheet during his 16 minutes. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.
#29 Leon Draisaitl, 8. Nearly wrecked himself on his opening shift when he took a run at a King and missed, but thankfully survived. Did his best work on the powerplay, setting up an RNH tally with a brilliant pass and scoring the winning goal himself with a brilliant shot. Also made a superb pass to RNH on an even-strength 2-on-1 that wasn’t converted. Strong defensively. Drew a penalty. Rock solid on the faceoff dot at 15/24=63%. 3 shots at one end, 2 blocks (!) at the other. GAS: ES =0/-0; ST +5/-0.
Advertisement 5
Article content
#37 Warren Foegele, 6. Mashed Drew Doughty with an excellent hit in the very early going. Played a simple, solid game. Scored the empty netter that finalized the score line, after first stealing the puck in the neutral zone.
#39 Sam Carrick, 5. Played his first career playoff game at age 32 and got the job done. His line with Holloway and Janmark lost the possession battle but held their own on the scoresheet until the late fluke. He did get tagged with a -1 on the 4-2, but his “mistake” there was to do the job hjje was sent out to do and win a d-zone faceoff. 1 shot, 2 blocks, 4 hits, and 10/18=56% on the dot. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#55 Dylan Holloway, 5. Held his own in his second career playoff game. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#71 Ryan McLeod, 6. Played a fine defensive game between the vets Kane and Perry. 2 takeaways, 2 blocked shots. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.
#73 Vincent Desharnais, 6. Rock of Gibraltar on the blue, with 6 hits and 5 shot blocks. On the receiving end of a nasty low-bridge hit by Trevor Moore that left him in obvious pain as the second period wound down, but returned in the third to finish the job. Best of all, the Oil scored the game winner on the resultant powerplay. GAS: +0/-1; ST 0.
Advertisement 6
Article content
#74 Stu Skinner, 6. Very good in the first half of the game. Contributed the TSN Turning Point when he got a tiny piece of his pad on Viktor Arvidsson’s breakaway shot, with the Oilers subsequently scoring on the continuation. The game that could have been 2-1, was instead 3-0. The back half of the game went less well with 4 official GA and a fifth which was gloved in and correctly called back after a couple of nervous minutes. Struggled a bit with rebound control. 37 shots, 33 saves, .892 save percentage.
#90 Corey Perry, 5. Put the puck in good places, including on Kane’s stick for a couple of great chances in tight. 3 hits, 2 takeaways. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.
#91 Evander Kane, 6. Was visible throughout, mostly in good ways. Fired 6 shots on net including a couple of powerful wristers. nearly squeezing one through Talbot. Did have a couple of issues suppressing outside shots from the point. Led EDM forwards with 15:45 TOI at even strength. GAS: ES +3/-1.
#93 Ryan Nugent Hopkins, 6. Set up perfectly by Draisaitl for what apepared to be a wide open net, but the puck rolled off his stick. Made up for it a few minutes later with a strong goal mouth finish of another sweet Draisaitl feed. 4 shots, 2 blocks, 2 hits, 1 takeaway, and a team-high 2:04 on the 2-for-2 penalty kill. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST +1/-0.
Advertisement 7
Article content
#97 Connor McDavid, 9. Became just the 15th player in NHL history with 5 (or more) assists in a playoff game, joining dynasty Oilers Wayne Gretzky (2x), Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson and 10 others from other teams. 4 of them were primary assists, including all 3 of Hyman’s tallies. Twice McDavid beat defenders with brilliant spin moves before dishing. Threaded a bullet pass through Matt Roy’s skates for Hyman’s hat trick goal. 3 shots, 3 hits, and uncounted passes. GAS: ES +3/-0; ST +6/-0.
STAPLES: Big questions about Nurse-Ceci pairing
STAPLES: Hitting is way up in playoffs. Are Oilers up to it?
McCURDY: Kane, Janmark, Holloway all look good to go for Game One
McCURDY: Oilers vs. Kings anything but a foregone conclusion
STAPLES: Kane, Janmark missing from practice. What are the implications?
STAPLES: Pretty much every NHL commentator is picking Oilers over Kings
Article content
It's possible to rely on plant proteins without sacrificing training gains, new studies say – The Globe and Mail
Gildan replacing five directors ahead of AGM, will back two Browning West nominees – Yahoo Canada Finance
Meta Expands VR Operating System to Third-Party Hardware Makers – MacRumors
Fareed’s take: There’s been an unprecedented wave of migration to the West – CNN
Brian's Randoms from Sea Otter 2024 – Pinkbike.com
NASA's Voyager 1 resumes sending engineering updates to Earth – Phys.org
Made Right Here: Woodworking art – CTV News Kitchener
CTV National News: Honda's big move in Canada – CTV News
Comments