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Stu Cowan: Nine men out as Canadiens brace for NHL restart in Tampa – Montreal Gazette

Published

3 years ago

December 28, 2021

Habs are already out of the playoff race, but post-season berths could be decided by COVID-19 as much — if not more — than anything else.

Author of the article:

Stu Cowan • Montreal Gazette

Publishing date:

Dec 27, 2021 • 6 hours ago • 4 minute read • 9 Comments

Canadiens, from left, Jonathan Drouin, Joel Armia, Jesse Ylonen, Laurent Dauphin, Artturi Lehkonen, Jake Evans and Ryan Poehling watch the action from the bench during game against the Philadelphia Flyers in Montreal on Dec. 16, 2021. Photo by John Mahoney /MONTREAL GAZETTE

Ready to play NHL Survivor?

That’s what the rest of this season could look like as the NHL tries to keep playing games despite the exploding number of COVID-19 cases as a result of the Omicron variant.

On Monday afternoon, the Canadiens flew to Tampa, where they are scheduled to play the Lightning on Tuesday (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). The Canadiens made the trip without nine players who are on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list. Goalie Jake Allen, Ben Chiarot, Joel Edmundson, Jeff Petry and Chris Wideman were added to the list before practice Monday morning in Brossard, joining Laurent Dauphin, Mike Hoffman, Artturi Lehkonen and Tyler Toffoli. Goalie coach Eric Raymond is also on the list.

The Lightning have six players on the protocol list: goalies Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brian Elliott, along with Anthony Cirelli, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Mikhail Sergachev and Andrej Sustr. Head coach Jon Cooper and assistant Rob Zettler are also on the list.

But NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has decided the games will go on after putting the season on pause for six days with the schedule set to resume with three games Tuesday. The NHL has already postponed 70 games this season because of COVID-19, including Tuesday’s scheduled game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Chicago Blackhawks.

The question is how much longer can this continue as teams run out of players who must spend 10 days in quarantine after testing positive? The Canadiens are already out of the playoff race, but other playoff positions could be decided by COVID-19 as much — if not more — than anything else.

The Lightning, for example, are missing both of their goalies and could have an AHL call-up in net for their next five games.

Long before COVID, the flu spread through an NHL locker room like wildfire. The players are constantly together in close quarters, whether it be in the locker room, on the bench, in a plane or for team meals. We’re quickly learning just how contagious the Omicron variant is — even among the vaccinated — so we can expect the number of NHL cases to keep rising.

While shutting down the NHL until the New Year might seem like a good idea, will the situation be much different in another week?

“It’s just a different world,” said the Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher, who spent 10 days in quarantine after being placed on the COVID-19 protocol list on Dec. 2. “Before, when you’d have the flu, you were playing. You’d come to the rink and you’d try to stay away (from other players). You’d get your separate water bottle and do what you can to stop it from spreading. But you were there to play the game. Now, to be honest, a lot of the guys feel asymptomatic or, if you’re like me, you have symptoms. But you still feel like maybe you could be out there, but you’re kind of forced to stay away for 10 days and that’s for that reason. We’re trying to keep each other safe and trying to stop the spread the best we can.

“Our guys here have done a really good job,” Gallagher added. “Most of the time when we have had positive cases it hasn’t really spread. This time, obviously, it is. Try to limit it, try to do the best we can. Trust the protocols you have. At the same time, you’ve got to focus and understand that we have a job to do.”

The current spike in NHL COVID-19 cases might have something to do with players going back home to visit family during the Christmas break.

“To be honest, I’m not sure exactly where everyone was,” Gallagher said. “A lot of guys stayed here, spent time with their family. Personally, I went back to Vancouver, saw my family there. Some guys left, some guys were here. Guys that went back, we were pretty cautious around our families and made sure that you’re keeping them safe as well. We understood what our situation was as well.”

It certainly looks like COVID-19 isn’t going away any time soon, so the NHL will try to keep the season going as best as it can.

The Canadiens have gone back to video conferences for all media interviews and after practice Monday I asked head coach Dominique Ducharme — who tested positive for COVID-19 during the playoffs last season — what the concern level is inside the locker room now when it comes to catching the virus.

“Everyone’s aware, so everyone’s more careful inside here, making sure that everything they ask us to do everyone’s doing it and doing it all the time,” he said. “We know it’s part of the situation right now, but not only for our team. If we look in the province and in the country and around the world, it’s pretty much the same thing. We’re cautious but, at the same time, we know it’s a difficult moment right now. Hopefully, it’s going to be going away and going back to normal as soon as possible.”

As this pandemic drags on, it’s becoming more difficult to remember what normal was.

scowan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/StuCowan1

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DeMar DeRozan scores 27 points to lead the Kings past the Raptors 122-107

Published

23 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.

Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.

Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.

The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.

DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.

RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.

Takeaways

Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.

Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.

Key moment

The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.

Key stat

Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.

Up next

Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.

Kings: Host the Clippers on Friday night.

___

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Whitecaps take confidence, humility into decisive playoff matchup vs. LAFC

Published

23 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.

To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.

Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.

“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.

“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”

The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.

The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.

First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.

Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.

No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.

“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.

Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.

“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.

This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.

The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.

“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”

Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.

Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.

“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”

The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.

Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.

“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”

LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.

“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

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PWHL unveils game jerseys with new team names, logos

Published

23 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – The Professional Women’s Hockey League has revealed the jersey designs for its six newly named teams.

Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.

The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.

Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.

“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.

“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”

Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.

Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.

Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.

Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

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