Sports

Oilers experiencing mental, physical fatigue like rest of NHL – Sportsnet.ca

Published

5 years ago

February 27, 2020

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers’ effort faded Wednesday night in Las Vegas, going from supernova in the opening 15 minutes of the game, to simply not enough to beat a smoking-hot Golden Knights team by the third period.

You could see it from as far away as The Strip. One team had legs in the third period. The other did not.

And I know what many of you are thinking: “How can these guys be tired? They’re young. In their prime. In fantastic shape. They charter everywhere they go. Eat the best food. Make millions of dollars…”

All true. I say the same things on many a night.

But there is another truth when it comes to the National Hockey League on Feb. 27 of any given season: Everyone is tired.

The coaches are running out of fresh ways to deliver the same game plan. The video guys have clipped the opposing power plays so many times, they know them as well as that team’s coaches do. The writers are worn down, chasing teams that charter everywhere on commercial travel, with the inherent security, delays and cancelations that make air travel what it has become today. The pungent odor of the glove dryer makes the equipment guy want to go back to university.

But you don’t care about those people. Nobody ever bought a ticket to watch Dave Tippett coach, or Mark Spector write. They want to see Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the boys who, compared to the old days, are fully pampered in the Year 2020.

But another thing about the players? Well, they’re not machines either.

The team I cover, the Edmonton Oilers, have spent 15 of 26 nights this month in a hotel, about two-thirds of the time on the Pacific time zone, another third on Eastern time, and the rest in the Mountain time zone. They’re chugging through 29 games in 56 days, as most teams are right now.

While Olympic athletes “taper” their training so they can be at their physiological peak when a big meet arrives, training at altitude then arriving at the competition site days ahead for maximum performance, hockey players are a traveling circus, the owners squeezing out every possible date at the expense of the player and the product.

The Oilers and Los Angeles Kings showed up at the Staples Centre Sunday while the Lakers floor still covered the ice surface, then played the fastest pro game in North America three hours later on a sheet of ice that is inferior to every city rink in a town like Edmonton or Regina.

Of course, both teams share that ice. And both are worn down. There is no advantage here, no excuses.

Us Westerners laugh out loud when we hear about a team like the Philadelphia Flyers “sitting down with the NHL schedule makers” to try and solve what they consider to be an unfair schedule, with too many back-to-backs for the Flyers’ liking. Then you see that most of their road travel consists of flight of less than one hour — at how many nights the Flyers sleep in their own beds in a season compared to San Jose or Dallas — while at that very moment the Vancouver Canucks are on a road trip that begins in San Jose, stretches to Boston, and includes an “on the way home” game in Minnesota.

Body clocks don’t adjust better according to your salary, right? That’s why when your favourite player has a bad night, you might check the schedule before you carve him up on Twitter.

The Oilers came home with three of six points from their most recent trip, which somehow felt like a disappointment, losing in regulation to a red hot (and almost completely healthy) Golden Knights team that has now won seven straight.

But here’s the kicker: Edmonton plays one home game on Saturday night and jumps on a plane for the Central time zone and Nashville on Sunday — another three-games-in-four-nights roadie. Teams hire sleep doctors to help them map out the best schedules when it comes to staying overnight in some towns, or flying out after games, but their expertise is mitigated by the sheer volume of games and the need to move on to the next town.

Then you add in the injuries, which seem to be an epidemic in the NHL at the moment. Take Saturday’s opponent, the Winnipeg Jets:

They’re not missing many guys that they were counting on this season. Just Dustin Byfuglien, Bryan Little, Adam Lowry, Mathieu Perreault, Mark Letestu, Sami Niku, Carl Dahlstrom and Luca Sbisa.

Oh, and Josh Morrissey, their best defenceman to have survived the carnage thus far.

Or the Toronto Maple Leafs, who unwisely went into the season with a weak blue-line, and are now missing Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin and Cody Ceci to injury. Justin Holl has played 75 NHL games, and is accustomed to playing about 18 minutes per night. Well, in his last five games, his ice times have read, 25:49, 23:29, 21:04, 20:39 and 25:20.

It’s those extra six or seven minutes where an inexperienced defenceman makes the kind of mistakes that get remembered the next day, when the fans say, “That Holl guy wasn’t very good last night.”

Edmonton will ice a lineup Saturday with a lineup missing their best D-man, Oscar Klefbom, 19-goal scorer James Neal, point-per-game winger Kailer Yamamoto, depth speedster Joakim Nygard, blood-and-guts defender Kris Russell, and quite possibly newcomer and top-line winger Andreas Athanasiou.

Nurse recently came under fire when he stepped into the breech to replace Klefbom’s minutes, and his spot atop the Oilers power play. Nurse’s minutes went from 22:51 before Klefbom got hurt, to 27:05 in the games since.

And I scroll through my Twitter feed to learn how Nurse isn’t playing very well.

No kidding?

If he were a power-play quarterback, he’d be quarterbacking a power play at this point in his career, right? If he were capable of playing a mistake-free 27 minutes, he wouldn’t be a 21-minute, second pairing D-man, some 342 games into his NHL career.

Nurse, like players all over the league, are stepping out of their comfort zone right now — because someone has to.

It’s like Tippet said of his team a few games ago, after a loss in Arizona.

“They were trying to try…”

That’s how it is across the league, as February turns into March.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link

Sports

NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

4 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

Source link

Sports

Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

1 day ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

Source link

Sports

Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

Source link