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Urgency for Canadiens to bust slump ratchets up after loss to Senators – Sportsnet.ca

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This feels like a breaking point for the Montreal Canadiens, who are hanging their heads over a 3-2 overtime loss to an Ottawa Senators team bringing up the rear in the all-Canadian North Division.

That’s four in the last five, it’s five of the last seven, and the Canadiens need to pick themselves up and reverse this immediately before it gets any further out of hand.

So here’s looking at Claude Julien and his coaching staff; at 35-year-old captain Shea Weber; at alternates Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher; at struggling forwards Phillip Danault and Tomas Tatar; at Carey Price; at Stanley Cup winners Jake Allen, Joel Edmundson, Tyler Toffoli and Corey Perry.

Because it’s not up to 20-year-old Jesperi Kotkaniemi or 21-year-old Nick Suzuki to steady this group and get it back on the rails.

Though it is Suzuki who identified why the Canadiens have only managed more than two goals in just one of their last seven games.

“I think we’re pretty much all up in our own heads right now,” he said after scoring 1:17 into Sunday’s game and making a mistake that started the play that led to a goal at the other end eight minutes and 30 second later. “I think just overthinking it, playing not to lose, and that’s never a good thing to do. I think at the start of the season we were real energized and everyone was having fun. It’s just that’s gotten away from us.”

Julien is in his 18th season behind an NHL bench. He’s seen enough of these bad stretches to know where the solution lies.

“It’s just a matter of simplifying your game and playing with some confidence and making things happen,” he said. “At the end of the day, we should’ve simplified our game. Some of the breakaways we give is we’re playing high-risk hockey at times. We’re making some decisions that are high-risk and it ends up costing us. So we just need to settle down here and play a more stable type of game.”

Julien must get the Canadiens to do that immediately—after they played right into Toronto’s hands on Saturday and gave the Senators four power plays, five breakaways and the game-winning goal Brady Tkachuk scored on Sunday—or that 7-1-2 start to the season won’t be the only thing flushed away. He needs to get his message across, get back to the drawing board on a power play that started well and has since scored just once over its last 19 opportunities, and he needs to help re-instill some confidence in his group.

But Julien can’t do it alone. He can’t do it at all without the veterans we mentioned above passing on his message.

That Perry echoed it post-game is a sign Julien still has his team’s attention.

“We just have to limit our mistakes, limit the turnovers,” the 35-year-old, who scored late in the third period to tie the game 2-2, said. “It’s all about us. We sometimes give them more than they deserve and that’s about taking care of the pucks in the right situations and knowing what’s on the clock or whatever it is. We’ll fix it, and we’ll move forward.”

The Canadiens can’t afford another step back. They’ve got another game against this plucky Senators team Tuesday before two to close out the week against a Winnipeg Jets team that pulled ahead in the standings. Everything has tightened around them, with Edmonton surging and the struggling Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks not far behind.

And you can tell the Canadiens feel the walls closing in.

Suzuki confirmed it, saying he can sense the tension on the ice, on the bench and in the room.

“Overthinking is a big thing in hockey,” he said. “I’ve gone through it the last few games (he went four without a point prior to Sunday’s game). I’m just trying to play simple. I know we’re not scoring as much as we did at the start of the season. We know we have to bear down on those chances and a couple of those opportunities to shoot where we’re looking to pass. We’ve just got to keep it simple as a team and get back to basics of what we were doing before.”

No one expected the Canadiens were going to continue scoring four-and-a-half goals per game like they did over their first 10, but they can’t be forcing things so much and sacrificing their defensive structure to get over three.

They made a mess of things against Ottawa. If it wasn’t for Allen, who made 36 saves—six of them in the dying minutes on plays that could’ve ended the game well before Tkachuk one-timed a puck that banked off exhausted Canadiens defenceman Alexander Romanov—this game never would’ve made it to overtime.

“He gave us a great performance, and gave us a chance to at least get a point,” said Julien.

And Allen spent the rest of his night watching the Canadiens work hard but not smart.

“No question goals are tough to come by right now, but that’s going to happen,” he said. “They were pouring in at the start of the year. They’re drying up a little bit right now. They’ll come back. We have too good players and too many guys that work too hard in this locker room for the puck to not go in the net. It’s gonna come.”

It has to. Not now, but right now.

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

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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

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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

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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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