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Scott Stinson on COVID-19: The Olympics have finally been postponed. Will they ever be the same? – National Post

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The International Olympic Committee did the inevitable on Tuesday, postponing the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics that were supposed to begin in late July until sometime beyond this year “but not later than summer 2021.”

Team Canada can take a measure of credit for providing the first boot in the pants of the IOC that brought about the delay, with their announcement on Sunday that they were out of a 2020 Olympics. The change that they wrought has given a measure of certainty to athletes, sent an important message about putting public health ahead of personal and financial interests, and has likely saved some lives.

“It wasn’t safe,” to continue, said COC president Tricia Smith, simply, on Tuesday. All of that deserves praise. This was the right move, even if it took the IOC an appallingly long time to come to it.

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The swells at the Swiss offices seemed like literally the last people on the planet to accept that barging ahead with preparations for a global sports gathering was a bad idea amid a global pandemic. Read the room, fellas.

But while it was the right call, there’s no telling what it will mean for these Olympics and beyond. It has been known for years that the Olympics became far too big for their own good. Will the coronavirus, and this delay, begin to knock them back to a more reasonable size?

At this point it is hoped that the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics will be a close facsimile of whatever they were going to be before COVID-10 knocked the world for a loop. The IOC’s statement on Tuesday said it hoped the “Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present.”

The flame, already in Japan for a torch relay that began awkwardly this month, will remain in that country. The Games themselves will still be called Tokyo 2020, even if they take place next year. That has the benefit of nice symbolism, a reminder of what the world (hopefully) overcomes to get to the point of a functioning Games, and It also allows organizers to not waste a whole bunch of t-shirts, plush toys and signage.


People take pictures with the Olympic Flame during a ceremony in Fukushima City, Japan, Tuesday, March 24, 2020.

Jae C. Hong/AP

The facilities are, obviously, all in place and will be a year from now. This will not be without its challenges. Ten of the 43 venues were intended to be temporary; they will have to be maintained, while mostly unused, for an extra 12 months. The athletes’ village, a cluster of new residential apartments that were to be converted into condominiums and sold after the Olympics, will now also be in limbo.

Other facilities like the press centre and certain venues that had non-sports functions — some events were to be held in a converted convention centre — will have to push back the bookings they were already taking for the months after the Games.

While these things are all manageable, especially in light of the sacrifices made in all sectors because of the pandemic, the larger question for Japan is the vast sums of money already spent on the Tokyo Olympics.

It was originally pitched as a US$7-billion event, and officially that number has already passed US$12-billion. Audits, though, have suggested the true cost is beyond US$26-billion, and that the official tally is artificially low because it excludes big-ticket infrastructure costs. This helps explain why the decision to postpone took so long: Japan is desperate to recoup some of that investment through the economic boom of the Games themselves.


Olympic rings monument at Rainbow Bridge, Odaiba, Tokyo. On Monday the IOC announced that the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics Games would be postponed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Yukihito Taguchi/USA TODAY

The question is whether future Olympic hosts will ever want to expose themselves to this kind of risk. The next two summer cities, Paris and Los Angeles, are theoretically working with budgets closer to Tokyo’s original plan, and the IOC itself has pivoted to promoting the concept of “sustainable” Olympics that re-use existing facilities where possible.

But whether that actually comes to pass is uncertain. Organizers reliably blow past their cost estimates for every Olympics, something that is bound to happen as the IOC adds events to an ever-expanding footprint. Keeping one infrastructure project on budget is tricky, doing it with 43 of them is a nightmare.

For Tokyo, the more pressing concern will be whether the anticipated economic spinoffs even come to pass. The number of visitors in 2021 — athletes, staff, tourists — will almost have to be smaller than it would have been in 2020, as everyone adjusts to new economic realities. Broadcasters and sponsors, the IOC’s lifeblood, will be looking at their Olympic investments and wondering what to do about an exposure that has been put off into next year.


A countdown clock signals the days until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games inside the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, March 24, 2020.

NNoriko Hayashi/Bloomberg

Consider Team Canada, which was out in front of all this, but has its own future to consider. Will its blue-chip sponsors, which include a national airline and a shopping-mall conglomerate, be willing to re-up the same level of support? Will the government?

COC chief executive David Shoemaker said on Tuesday that they received an “outpouring of support” from their marketing partners after their Sunday-night announcement, but these decisions will be played out country by country, each dealing with their own coronavirus fallout.

How many of them will send smaller Olympic delegations as priorities are reconsidered? How many will have to approach their Tokyo plans with an eye to Beijing 2022, now potentially happening just six months later?

A global celebration in Tokyo in 2021 is a worthwhile goal. And a big, flashy Olympics, same as it ever was, is a nice part of that idea. Whether it is realistic is another matter.

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Allen on trade to Devils from Habs: 'Sometimes you've got to be a little bit selfish' – Yahoo Canada Sports

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Jake Allen loved being a member of the Montreal Canadiens.

The hockey-mad market, the crackling Bell Centre on a Saturday night, the Original Six franchise’s iconic logo.

The 33-year-old goaltender is also realistic.

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With the Canadiens still in full rebuild mode — and two young netminders in Sam Montembeault and Cayden Primeau ready for more playing time — Allen could see the writing on the wall.

Desperate for help in their own crease, the New Jersey Devils asked Montreal about the veteran’s availability. But the team, general manager Tom Fitzgerald told reporters earlier this month, was initially on Allen’s no-trade list.

There wasn’t anything the Fredericton product disliked about the organization or city. The Devils simply appeared to have their crease set for years to come.

But when the club that finished with 112 points and made the second round of the playoffs in 2022-23 was badly hampered by poor play from Vitek Vanecek, Nico Daws and Akira Schmid — each netminder owned save percentages below .900 — the Devils circled back.

And Allen had changed his tune.

“Loved my time as a Hab,” he said of pulling on Montreal’s red, white and blue threads. “I always will cherish that. Put on probably the most special jersey in hockey, in my books. But you realize in your career, it doesn’t last forever.

“You’ve got to make decisions sometimes.”

Allen, who is signed through next season, eventually agreed to a deal that sent him to New Jersey ahead of the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline for a conditional third-round pick at the 2025 draft.

Apart from playing meaningful hockey on a team trying to claw its way back into the Eastern Conference playoff race, the swap gave him more runway to get his family settled in a new city instead of waiting to see what this summer’s crowded goalie market might bring.

“Sometimes you’ve got to be a little bit selfish,” said Allen, a Stanley Cup champion with the St. Louis Blues in 2019. “Look yourself in the mirror and wonder what’s best for you and your family.”

He’s been really good for his new team.

Allen was lights out in Tuesday’s first period against the Toronto Maple Leafs, making an eye-popping 25 saves in what would turn into New Jersey’s 6-3 victory.

So far he’s 4-2-0 with a .925 save percentage and a 2.51 goals against average in six starts for the Devils, who sit five points back of the East’s second wild-card spot.

“A real pro,” said interim head coach Travis Green.

Allen is a combined 10-14-3 in 2023-24 with a .900 save percentage and a 3.39 GAA. Across his 11 seasons with St. Louis, Montreal and now New Jersey, he’s 193-164-41 with a .908 save percentage and 2.75 GAA.

“Makes the saves we need to get some momentum back,” Devils captain Nico Hischier said. “If you have a solid goalie in the net, that makes your work easier.”

Allen is also 11-12 with a .924 and a 2.06 GAA all-time in the playoffs — a good sign for his new club should New Jersey manage to make the cut.

For now, though, he’s just enjoying being back in a post-season race.

“I thought this was a good opportunity to come in the rest of this year, play some games,” Allen said.

“It’s been a good start.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2024.

___

Follow @JClipperton_CP on X.

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press

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Matthews game-time decision for Maple Leafs against Capitals with illness – NHL.com

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TORONTOAuston Matthews will be a game-time decision for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Washington Capitals at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, MNMT) because of an illness.

“It’s going to be on how he feels throughout the day,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said.

The forward did not participate in Toronto’s morning skate. Max Domi took his place as the center on a line between Tyler Bertuzzi and Mitch Marner, a right wing recovering from a high-ankle sprain sustained March 7 and will be out the next two games.

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Matthews leads the NHL with 59 goals, one from becoming the ninth player in NHL history with at least two 60-goal seasons. He scored 60 in 73 games in 2021-22, when he won the Rocket Richard Trophy, Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award. He had one goal and nine shots in 23:44 of a 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, which extended his point streak to five games (four goals, seven assists).

He missed one game this season with illness, a 7-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 16.

“Of course, it’s an adjustment when your best player is out of the lineup,” Domi said, “when anybody is out of the lineup, but I think we’ve done a great job all year of guys stepping up when they have to, and we just have to continue to do that.”

Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly will miss his second straight game with an upper-body injury.

“He just remains day to day,” Keefe said. “We’re hopeful he’s going to bounce back here. The one thing that is good is once he gets through this day or two here, it’s not going to be a lingering situation. It’s not going to be an injury that’s ongoing. Once he’s past it, he’s past it so we just need to give him some time.”

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Canucks place goalie Thatcher Demko on long-term injured list

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The Vancouver Canucks have placed all-star goalie Thatcher Demko on the long-term injured reserve list retroactively.

“It’s just cap related,” coach Rick Tocchet said after practice Wednesday. “We get some cap relief, that’s all it is.”

The 28-year-old netminder has been considered week to week since being sidelined with a lower-body injury midway through Vancouver’s 5-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on March 9.

That injury designation hasn’t changed, Tocchet said.

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Demko boasts a 34-18-2 record this season, with a .917 save percentage, a 2.47 goals-against average and five shutouts.

Casey DeSmith has taken over the starting job for Vancouver, going 3-2-1 since Demko’s injury. He has a .899 save percentage on the season with a 2.73 goals-against average and one shutout.

The earliest Demko could be back in the Canucks’ lineup is April 6 against the Kings in Los Angeles.

He’s expected to be a key piece as Vancouver (45-19-8) prepares for its first playoff appearance since the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign.

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin also announced Wednesday that the club has called up forward Arshdeep Bains from the Abbotsford Canucks of the American Hockey League.

“I’d like to see where [Bains is] at,” Tocchet said, noting he isn’t sure whether the 23-year-old winger will slot into the lineup when the Canucks host the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

WATCH | Bains makes NHL debut

 

Surrey, B.C.’s Arshdeep Bains makes Canucks debut

1 month ago

Duration 2:20

Arshdeep Bains from Surrey, B.C., has made his NHL debut with the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche. As CBC’s Joel Ballard reports, it’s been a hard-fought journey for the hometown kid to the big leagues.

Bains played five games for the NHL team in February before being sent back to Abbotsford.

“He went down, he’s done a couple of things that we like, and he’s got some speed,” Tocchet said.

Vancouver may get another forward back in the lineup Thursday.

Dakota Joshua practised in a full-contact jersey on Wednesday for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury in Vancouver’s 4-2 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago on Feb. 13.

The physical winger, who’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, has a career-high 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) this season.

Sitting out injured “hasn’t been fun,” Joshua said.

“It feels like forever,” he said. “But at this point, that’s behind me and I’m moving forward.”

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