Vancouver Whitecaps down Toronto FC on penalties to clinch Canadian Championship

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – Daniel Sprong made an impact in his first game in a Vancouver Canucks uniform.

Sprong tied the game with just 14.3 seconds left in the third period, then Jake DeBrusk scored his second goal of the night 58 seconds into overtime as the Canucks battled back from a late deficit to defeat the Calgary Flames 4-3 in an NHL exhibition game Wednesday night.

Sprong, a free-agent signing who has scored 85 goals in 344 NHL games, used his speed and power to undress Flames goaltender Devin Cooley to force the overtime.

“Time was running down,” said the 27-year-old who was born in Amsterdam. “I used my speed and then made the move. That’s part of my game, really aggressive off the rush. I got an opportunity to show that at the end.”

DeBrusk scored the winner on a tick-tack-toe play with Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes at Abbotsford Centre.

The Flames had taken a lead with third-period goals from Dryden Hunt and Samuel Honzek.

“We were focused and resilient, competed our way through,” Honzek said. “We got a lead in the third period and, unlucky, we got scored on.”

Defenceman Jake Bean also scored for Calgary (3-1-0).

Max Sasson scored with 22.5 seconds left in the first period and DeBrusk struck with 34 seconds remaining in the second for the Canucks (2-0-0).

The Flames were clinging to the 3-2 lead in the final minute of the third when Martin Pospisil was called for putting the puck over the glass, giving Vancouver a six-on-four power play for 35.5 seconds.

That set the stage for Sprong.

“That’s always nice to start off that way,” he said. “But it’s only pre-season. You want those in the regular season or in the playoffs. But it’s a good start for all of us.”

Canuck coach Rick Tocchet likes the tools Sprong brings.

“He’s got the knack to do that sort of stuff,” said Tocchet. “He can skate. There’s a lot of things we can work with him to really make him compete.

“But that’s a hell of a goal.”

Goaltender Jiri Patera stopped 16 shots in his Canucks debut. The former Vegas Golden Knights netminder recently signed a two-year, two-way deal in Vancouver.

Calgary goalie Dustin Wolf played two periods, stopping 17 of 19 shots. Cooley saved 11 of 13 shots after entering the game in the third period.

Tocchet liked what he saw from his team which was playing the second game in as many nights.

“It’s nice for them to get some success early,” he said. “But, on the other side, we’ve got to clean up some stuff. I thought we played a little slow in some aspects of our game.

“We’ve got to make sure we play a little faster.”

Hunt gave the Flames the lead at 15:04 of the third on a breakaway. Forward Andrew Basha hit him in full stride and slipped the puck past Patera.

Honzek had tied the game 2-2 at 10:08. A Pospisil pass put Honzek behind the Canucks defence and he beat Patera backdoor.

“This was the highest-pace game we’ve played in,” Flames head coach Ryan Huska said. “I felt like it was a challenge sometimes for our players and at the same time I thought there were some players that elevated their game, like again we had another good night from Honzek where he showed he can play in a game that’s a little more pace than we’ve seen so far.”

DeBrusk, the former Boston Bruin who signed as a free agent with Vancouver this summer, gave Vancouver a 2-1 lead heading into the final period.

Former Edmonton Oiler defenceman Vincent Desharnais, another free agent signing, sailed a puck high toward the net that DeBrusk batted out of the air past Wolf. Hughes also earned an assist.

Bean, a former Columbus Blue Jacket who signed as a free agent with Calgary in July, tied the game 1-1 at 3:43 of the second. With the teams playing four-on-four, the Calgary native rifled a shot that beat Patera on the glove side. Justin Kirkland and Tyson Barrie earned assists.

Sasson, who has played 63 games with Vancouver’s AHL Canucks, opened the scoring. He took a long pass from Kiefer Sherwood, then sent a centring pass in front of the net which appeared to bounce off Wolf and slide into the net.

NOTES

Both teams have a tie to the Abbotsford Center. The Canucks AHL team has played there since the 2021-22 season. The Abbotsford Heat, Calgary’s AHL team, called the building home from 2009 to 2014. … The Canucks had six players in the lineup Wednesday that played in their 3-1 win over Seattle Tuesday.

UP NEXT

Vancouver: The Canucks play in Seattle Friday.

Calgary: The Flames host the Canucks in a rematch on Saturday.

— By Jim Morris in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.

Juraj Slafkovsky was an NHL draft pick, just like Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Connor Bedard. The spotlight, however, has not been quite as bright or the hype train as strong for him in Montreal.

“I like it that way,” Slafkovsky said.

Regardless of the attention or lack thereof, Slafkovsky is on the vanguard of hockey’s next generation of stars, along with the likes of San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, Buffalo’s JJ Peterka and New Jersey’s Luke Hughes.

“It’s really cool to be a part of it, and I hope I will be a part of it,” Slafkovsky said two years after the Canadiens took him at No. 1 in 2022. “Hopefully we can do some things as the younger generation.”

Slafkovsky, Peterka, Hughes and Quinton Byfield of the Los Angeles Kings have been around a bit, and now is the time to show they can be among the league’s best. Newcomers like Celebrini, Smith, Philadelphia’s Matvei Michkov and even teammate Lane Hutson are front-runners in the race for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

Macklin Celebrini

The most recent No. 1 pick does not have the so-called “generational talent” label like Crosby, McDavid or Bedard, but he still won the Hobey Baker Award last season at Boston University as the top college player in the country with 64 points in 38 games.

Sharks forward William Eklund was not too familiar with Celebrini’s game until the draft, so he made it a point to check out his highlights.

“I looked him up a little bit, and obviously he’s a great skill guy,” Eklund said. “He’s a high-caliber player, and it’s going to be fun to see.”

BetMGM Calder Trophy odds: 4-1

Will Smith

Rivals at Boston-area schools, Smith and Celebrini are now front and center as the faces of San Jose’s rebuild.

“It’s going to be a fun relationship,” said Smith, the fourth pick in 2023 who decided to turn pro after starring last season at Boston College. “Really cool. We were talking about it earlier just how crazy it is that we’re on the same team now.”

Smith, a year older than Celebrini, is coming off a 71-point season, helped the U.S. win world junior gold and played at the world championships.

“He’s a kid that has a really bright future and a ton of talent,” said Washington goaltender Charlie Lindgren, who was a teammate at worlds. “A really good kid, too, and I think he’ll go in and play for San Jose this year and I think you’ll see him do pretty well.”

BetMGM Calder Trophy odds: 5-1

Juraj Slafkovsky

The MVP of the 2022 Beijing Olympics without NHL players struggled in his rookie year. Last season, he quintupled his production with 20 goals, 30 assists and 50 points and said, “I’m ready to start where I finished.”

Slafkovsky in the spring signed an eight-year contract extension worth over $60 million. Now it’s up to the big Slovak forward to earn it.

“I just want to show them that they made the right decision,” Slafkovsky said. “I feel like the only way I can do it is showing up every day and playing hard and being there.”

JJ Peterka

A 2020 second-round pick of the Sabres, Peterka is older at 22 but could get a look on the first line this season after establishing himself as a full-time NHL player and scoring 28 goals. The Germany-born forward is in a contract year looking to get the kind of guaranteed deal Slafkovsky and others have.

Peterka thinks the key is not putting too much pressure on himself, especially while trying to help Buffalo end the league’s longest playoff drought.

“I want to be put more in situations where I’m maybe not too uncomfortable,” Peterka said. “I want to be more responsible, more consistent. For me it’s just take the next step to just grow as a player, as more of a complete player.”

Quinton Byfield

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound power forward is expected to play center after getting a five-year, $31.25 million contract. He spent the summer working on his shot to be more of a threat from further away from the net and prefers center offensively and defensively.

“I like playing good defense and shutting down their top lines, so when I can be in my own end kind of playing those guys down low, that’s where I want to be,” Byfield said. “Also I don’t want to just be on the wall standing there going up the ice. I want to be able to use my speed and kind of demand the middle of the ice.”

Luke Hughes

A left shoulder injury from summer training could cause the Devils defenseman to miss the start of the season. That absence should not keep Hughes from building on a 47-point rookie year that left him third in Calder Trophy voting.

“He’ll take another step,” older brother and New Jersey teammate Jack Hughes said. “Luke will be even more mature this year. He’ll know the league a little bit more and know the players and he’ll know things he can get away with and where he can capitalize on certain things. I think he’ll have a better year offensively, obviously, and just keep getting better.”

Matvei Michkov

The 19-year-old Russian winger is the new face of the Flyers with the weight of the franchise’s nearly five-decade Stanley Cup drought on his shoulders. Michkov was the seventh pick in 2023, with some teams concerned he might not be able to leave the KHL or was under-scouted given the war in Ukraine.

Early returns are positive.

“Everyone’s really excited to have him, and when you see him on the ice it’s pretty special and gives our team a positive boost,” forward Owen Tippett said. “Super skilled. We’re all really excited to have him on our side, and we’re excited to see what he can do.”

BetMGM Calder Trophy odds: 7-2

Lane Hutson

A saucer pass from Hutson during an early training camp scrimmage that landed right on the stick blade of teammate Emil Heineman went viral in hockey circles. It’s just a taste of what the 20-year-old defenseman might be able to do when he gets used to life in the NHL, but he already has big expectations in Montreal.

“I haven’t proved anything yet,” Hutson said. “There’s a lot to prove before I’m even close to a face of the team.”

BetMGM Calder Trophy odds: 7-1

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AP Sports Writer Mark Anderson and freelance writer W.G. Ramirez in Las Vegas contributed.

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Derrick Rose’s last act as an NBA player came in the form of a letter to the game of basketball, addressing the highs and lows that he experienced over a 16-year pro career.

And with that, his career ended on his terms.

Rose, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft by his hometown Chicago Bulls and the league’s MVP in 2011, announced his retirement on Thursday. He was, and still is, the youngest MVP winner in NBA history, claiming that award when he was just 22.

“You believed in me through the highs and lows, my constant when everything else seemed uncertain,” Rose wrote as part of his letter to the game, serving as his retirement announcement. He posted the letter online, as well as taking out full-page newspaper advertisements in each of the cities where he played in his NBA years.

“You told me it’s okay to say goodbye, reassuring me that you’ll always be a part of me, no matter where life takes me,” he wrote.

Rose was the league’s rookie of the year in 2008-09 for the Bulls, was the league’s MVP two seasons later and was an All-Star selection in three of his first four seasons. A major knee injury during the 2012 playoffs forced him to miss almost two full seasons and he contemplated stepping away from the game several times following other injury issues, but always found ways to get back onto the floor.

Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf said Rose “represents the grit, resilience, and heart” of Chicago.

“He’s one of the toughest and most determined athletes I’ve ever been around, constantly fighting through adversity that would have broken most,” Reinsdorf said. “Watching him grow from a Chicago Public League star to becoming the youngest MVP in NBA history as a Bull has been nothing short of an honor.”

Besides the Bulls, Rose would also play for New York, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland and Memphis. He spent last season with the Grizzlies, returning to the city that he called home for his one season of college basketball.

He played in 24 games with the Grizzlies last season and when it ended Rose spoke at length about what a return to Memphis meant to him.

“It’s all full circle,” Rose said in April. “Coming back here, having my family here, my wife’s family is from here, being back in this arena, having some of the people that came to my college games actually come to my professional games here, it’s all love.”

Added the Grizzlies in a statement Thursday where they offered Rose congratulations on his career: “We are grateful for your meaningful contributions to this team and this city, and wish you all the best in this next chapter of life.”

Rose dealt with multiple knee surgeries over the years, took time away during the 2017-18 season to contemplate his future while dealing with ankle issues and sat out nearly two full seasons — after the knee injury in 2012 — when he should have been in his prime.

Rose averaged 17.4 points and 5.2 assists in 723 regular-season games. He averaged 21 points per game before the ACL tear 12 years ago, and 15.1 per game in the seasons that followed.

“With D-Rose, it was never a question of his talent,” Basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, a former Rose teammate, said in 2018. “It was always about his health. And when he was healthy, everyone saw all the talent.”

Rose still flashed that MVP-level talent plenty of times over the years that followed the knee troubles. He had a career-high 50 points for Minnesota in a 128-125 win over Utah on Oct. 31, 2018 — a game that moved him to tears. He had a 12-assist game for Detroit in a 115-107 win over Houston on Dec. 14, 2019, his first such game in nearly eight years.

“I know the person that he is, the character that he has,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, who coached Rose in Chicago, Minnesota and New York, said in 2018 when he was leading the Timberwolves. “And it shines through.”

Rose was a serious candidate for the league’s sixth man of the year award in three straight seasons — 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 — and even got a first-place MVP vote again in that 2020-21 season, a decade after winning that award.

He announced his presence as a star quickly, winning the league’s skills challenge — as a rookie — at All-Star weekend in 2009, then winning rookie of the year and scoring 36 points in his playoff debut. It was a meteoric rise for someone who grew up amid poverty in a Chicago suburb, then saw basketball as an escape route and way to take care of his mother and family. In 2006, he hit a shot to win an Illinois state high school championship. Only five years later, he was MVP of the NBA.

“The kid from Englewood turned into a Chicago legend,” the Bulls posted on social media Thursday, along with a video of Rose’s highlights with the team.

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