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Oilers’ shifting mentality evident after blowing late lead vs. Leafs – Sportsnet.ca

Published

4 years ago

March 27, 2021

The good news is, they’re not the Vancouver Canucks. The Edmonton Oilers are no longer a team that plays hard for 40 minutes, blows a lead, and issues quote after post-game quote about how they competed hard, played well, and will take the lesson home and be better for it.

Finally, the Oilers expect to win. And blowing a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes does not have a bunch of guys telling us how well they played, or how close they were.

“You can say you played a good second (period), whatever you want,” said defenceman Tyson Barrie, who was dynamic Saturday with a goal and an assist. “At the end of the day that’s not the team you want to be, where you have a two-goal lead and you give it up with seven minutes to play. That’s a game we have to learn how to close out.”

Toronto turned a 3-1 deficit after 40 minutes into a puncher’s chance in overtime, and Auston Matthews banked a shot off of Leon Draisaitl, then Darnell Nurse, and then behind goalie Mike Smith, who was stellar in the OT loss. It was pinball perfection, after which Matthews submitted, “I’ll take it…”

It was the perfect example of a team that failed to close it down, let the opponent have a chance to have a really lucky break win them the game, then saw it all unfold.

This happens, even to good teams. But true contenders don’t let it happen in a first-place showdown like this one.

Right?

Sure, Toronto scored two goals on ridiculous bounces, and a third on a fortunate carom right onto William Nylander’s tape. That’s not an excuse for losing.

“You’ve got to create your bounces a little bit, too,” Draisaitl said. “Two bad bounces, but it shouldn’t lead to that, in overtime.”

Four straight losses to Toronto leaves the Oilers stirred, but not shaken.

“Of course we can beat that team. There’s no question about it,” Draisaitl said defiantly. “It’s a good team — we’re a really good team. It’s always tight games, but there no questioning in our heads if we can beat them.”

After losing three times to the Leafs in Edmonton, then holding a 3-1 lead with seven minutes to play, you hit another level of maturation. Not the Canucks’ level, where they’re trying to figure out how to contend in a game like this. But a contender level, where you want to be the team that others look at and say, “Man, we’re down 3-1 with seven minutes to play? This is over…”

“We didn’t play well enough to win the game. We gave up too many chances, didn’t execute well enough,” head coach Dave Tippett said, his standards not having been encroached upon by this performance. “We expect to play well every night. We have an expectation within our group that we can play with anybody. To come in and not play as well as we’d like, nobody is happy about that.

“It was a winnable game, even though we didn’t play very well, and we didn’t win it. We’ll re-rack and get back at it again Monday.”

In a rare twist, the improbable news broke Saturday morning that this would be Connor McDavid’s first-ever Saturday night game against the Leafs in Toronto. “The league usually runs us through here on a Monday or Tuesday,” he said.

After compiling but a single assist between them in that three-game debacle at Edmonton, Draisaitl and McDavid were the two most dangerous players on the ice Saturday. They combined for five points and were magical, while Barrie and Nurse gave Edmonton two goals from the blue line, a stat that is accompanied by the proverbial ‘W’ likely 90 per cent of the time.

Alas, the other three forward lines dropped the ball.

Dominik Kahun provided his nightly costly turnover on one goal, while second-line centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins went minus-2 without a shot on goal.

The level at which Edmonton’s two superstars play is sometimes unfathomable, and it won’t take much support to make this Oilers team into a Stanley Cup contender. But there isn’t enough below them at the moment, and we would expect Tippett to deploy them on separate lines in the rematch Monday night, after the Leafs’ second line scored twice to forge their comeback.

Edmonton has a good team, one that has played five games against Toronto this season that were basically coin flips.

But they’ve lost too many of them to say ‘they’re ready.’

Close, but not there yet.

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Sports

Sports betting roundup: NFL and college football were all about the favourites

Published

21 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

The past weekend of football was all about the favourites.

The favoured teams went 13-1 straight up and 10-4 against the spread in the NFL. In college football, the three most teams bet at the BetMGM Sportsbook in terms of number of bets and money all won and covered. All three were favourites.

Trends of the Week

The three most bet college teams that won and covered on Saturday were Ohio State (-3.5) vs. Penn State, Indiana (-7.5) at Michigan State and Oregon (-14.5) at Michigan. Penn State has now lost seven straight home games as underdogs. The Nittany Lions were up 10-0 in the first quarter and were 3.5-point favourites at the time. The Buckeyes won 17-10.

In the NFL, the three most bet teams in terms of number of bets and money were the Washington Commanders (-4) at the New York Giants, the Detroit Lions (-2.5) at the Green Bay Packers and the Buffalo Bills (-6) vs. the Miami Dolphins. All three teams won, but only two of the three covered the spread as Buffalo beat Miami 30-27.

When it came to the players with the most bets to score a touchdown on Sunday, only two of the five reached the end zone — Chase Brown (-125) and Taysom Hill (+185). David Montgomery (-140), Brian Robinson Jr. (+110) and AJ Barner (+500) did not score.

Upsets of the Week

The biggest upset in the NFL was the Carolina Panthers coming from behind to beat the New Orleans Saints 23-22. New Orleans closed as a 7-point favourite and took in 76% of the bets and 79% of the money in against-the-spread betting. The Saints fired head coach Dennis Allen following the loss. They have now lost seven straight games after starting the year 2-0.

Arguably the biggest upset in college football was South Carolina beating No. 10 Texas A&M 44-20 at home. Texas A&M closed as a 2.5-point favourite and took in 59% of the bets and 58% of the money.

Coming up

Right after the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees to win the World Series, odds for the 2025 World Series were released.

The Dodgers have the best odds at +400, while the Atlanta Braves and Yankees are next at +800.

The Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies round out the top five, both at +1100.

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This column was provided to The Associated Press by BetMGM online sportsbook.

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AP sports:

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Longtime rivals Ovechkin, Crosby join Necas as NHL’s three stars of the week

Published

21 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

NEW YORK – Washington Capitals left-wing Alex Ovechkin, Carolina Hurricanes centre Martin Necas and Pittsburgh Penguins centre Sidney Crosby have been named the NHL’s three stars of the week.

Ovechkin had a league-leading five goals and nine points in four games.

The 39-year-old Capitals captain has 14 points in 11 games this season, and his 860 career goals are just 34 shy of Wayne Gretzky’s record.

Necas shared the league lead with nine points (three goals, six assists) in three games.

Crosby factored on seven of the Penguins’ eight total goals scoring four goals and adding three assists in three appearances. The 37-year-old Penguins captain leads his team with 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 13 games this season.

Crosby and Ovechkin, longtime rivals since entering the league together in 2005-06, will meet for the 70th time in the regular season and 95th time overall when Pittsburgh visits Washington on Friday.

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

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Oliveira, Mitchell named as finalists for CFL outstanding player award

Published

5 days ago

October 31, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Running back Brady Oliveira of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell are the finalists for the CFL’s outstanding player award.

Oliveira led the CFL in rushing this season with 1,353 yards while Mitchell was the league leader in passing yards (5,451) and touchdowns (32).

Oliveira is also the West Division finalist for the CFL’s top Canadian award, the second straight year he’s been nominated for both.

Oliveira was the CFL’s outstanding Canadian in 2023 and the runner-up to Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly for outstanding player.

Defensive lineman Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund of the Montreal Alouettes is the East Division’s top Canadian nominee.

Voting for the awards is conducted by the Football Reporters of Canada and the nine CFL head coaches.

The other award finalists include: defensive back Rolan Milligan Jr. of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal linebacker Tyrice Beverette (outstanding defensive player); Saskatchewan’s Logan Ferland and Toronto’s Ryan Hunter (outstanding lineman); B.C. Lions kicker Sean Whyte and Toronto returner Janarion Grant (special teams); and Edmonton Elks linebacker Nick Anderson and Hamilton receiver Shemar Bridges (outstanding rookie).

The coach of the year finalists are Saskatchewan’s Corey Mace and Montreal’s Jason Maas.

The CFL will honour its top individual performers Nov. 14 in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31.

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