“It’s a waste of time, but I do one a year.” — an NHL scout, asked if he files a detailed report on Connor McDavid when scouting Edmonton.
EDMONTON — Connor McDavid would have done this long ago — last season, likely — had he not missed nearly half his rookie season with a broken collarbone.
Truly, there is only one surprising detail about McDavid scoring his 500th NHL point, very likely on Wednesday night versus the Winnipeg Jets. That is, he would accomplish the feat in 369 games — exactly the same number of games it took Sidney Crosby to score 500 points.
“That’s pretty cool. A guy I grew up watching,” said McDavid, who sits at 499 career points through his first 368 games played. “He’s done a couple of other things that I am trying to do, with all of his Cups and stuff. That stuff is more important, but if (500) happens, great.”
And those scouts? They watch him play, just as they watch Crosby. But they know their GM has no shot at acquiring them.
“I just tick off the box, ‘Franchise player,’” said another scout. “Same with Draisaitl. My report is, ‘Get ’em if you can.’”
Crosby and McDavid have been linked since the day McDavid was granted exceptional player status by the Ontario Hockey League at age 15. Now, being part of a Stanley Cup contender/winner, the availability of a Canadian Olympic team to star on, and 776 NHL points are what separates the two.
“He’s done everything I want to do — he’s a great guy to follow,” McDavid said of Crosby. “He’s done everything he has set his mind to: He wanted to get better on faceoffs, and he’s done that; he wanted to score more goals, and he did that.
“There’s lots of lessons from his game, because his game has changed over the years. He does whatever he can to be successful. He’s solid defensively.”
So as we mark an early milestone, let’s look at who McDavid has become in our game, beyond an author of at least one jaw-dropping, highlight play per month.
He is, for starters, the best player in the game with no caveats. Without adding “the player you’d want in Game 7 of the Cup Final,” or “the guy you want on the ice in the final minutes with a 3-2 lead,” through a 60-minute game and an 82-game season McDavid is simply the best hockey player in the sport today.
The best way to frame it is, if you could pick any player to start your team around, who would it be?
Is there even a second answer out there?
Not if you ask Wayne Gretzky.
“I’m one of the fans who says, every time he touches the puck, ‘OK, something special’s going to happen. Pay attention,’” Gretzky said.
And McDavid will get to those other categories eventually, ticking off those few remaining boxes in which Crosby still leads or contends. For now though, he is the fastest player on earth — with or without the puck — the most dynamic offensive player in the game, and undoubtedly the one player who is worth the price of admission more often than any other.
Since joining the league for the 2015-16 season, McDavid’s 499 points in 368 games is tops. Patrick Kane is next, with 487 points in 414 games, followed by Nikita Kucherov and Draisaitl.
All those players produce highlights. McDavid, meanwhile, makes a play on Toronto’s Morgan Rielly that will live on as long as the two play — and beyond.
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Many players come back from injury and make a splashy return. At age 19, McDavid returned from three months on injured reserve to do this to the Columbus Blue Jackets — in only his 14th NHL game. He had three points that night.
One night against Tampa, Chris Kunitz kicked McDavid’s fourth goal of the night into his own net. Kunitz, who spent considerable time on Crosby’s flank in Pittsburgh, just shook his tuque.
“I guess you score one of his goals, it’ll be a good story to tell one day,” he reasoned.
We asked him that night about similarities, and to his discredit Kunitz did not predict the symmetry of their 500th point.
“It’s they’re competitiveness. They want to go through guys,” Kunitz said. “They want to be the best every single time they step on the ice. They’re driven by more than just wins and points. They’re driven by how they can change the game, or maybe it’s the individual status of trying to be the best that’s ever played the game.
“They don’t have a fear button. They don’t go wide on guys — they take it right through the middle. They enjoy the contact, almost,” he marveled. “You just want to get them the puck as quick as you can. You just give it to him with time to skate with it.”
The personal goals are changing now, as McDavid passes his 24th birthday just over a month ago with two Art Ross Trophies, two Ted Lindsay Awards, and a Hart Trophy all piled in his trophy case. He’s talking about a “200-foot game” more often now, and his faceoff work belies a summer spent working on an area of his craft that does not produce top-10 highlights.
He is that player who has outgrown simply working on the areas of the game he is already good at. Now he realizes that there isn’t as much room for improvement in those places where he already excels, as can be found in the few areas of the game where is lacking.
“He’s going to get a whole lot more points than 500,” said teammate Adam Larsson. “For him to reach that at this point, it is beyond impressive.
“The way he carries himself, the way he handles everything … He’s quite an impressive human being. Being 24 and having 500 points already? It’s remarkable.”
Meanwhile, though you may have a hard time spotting it, McDavid is making progress under the glare of the spotlight that has shone on him since age 14. With the media, he puts more thought into his answers now, and slowly the voice that carries so much weight in the hockey world is beginning to define itself — slowly.
McDavid is the “Face of the Game,” whether he wants to be or not. Now he’s starting to give the media something to work with, even if it seldom shows on those pesky “walk-off” interviews between periods.
And perhaps eventually, he’ll get better at talking himself up. Because a podium, a microphone, and a question about his own prowess remains the one place in a hockey rink where Connor McDavid is still truly uncomfortable.
“That’s the leadership he shows,” observes his head coach, Dave Tippett. “He is an incredible player, and the players that play with him are always amazed at what he does in the games. To be that humble, as a teammate you respect a guy for his leadership, his ability, but ultimately you respect him as a human being.
“Because he’s a really good person. It just so happens he’s (also) a really good hockey player.”
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.
