The veteran goaltender was recalled on an emergency basis for Thursday’s game against the Ottawa Senators due to backup Ilya Samsonov‘s illness, then found himself thrust into action late in a tight game when the Leafs’ breakout No. 1, Joseph Woll, needed two teammates to help him off the ice.
“Yeah, it’s brutal. You don’t wish that upon anyone,” teammate Mitch Marner said, following Toronto’s bittersweet 4-3 road victory. “Hopefully news comes back somewhat positive.”
The early outlook is not.
Crunching his lanky frame to make one of the more innocuous of his 29 saves during a hectic 31-shot night, Woll lurched forward in palpable pain. An audible gasp rose from the well-represented Leafs fans inside the Canadian Tire Centre.
Following a lengthy conversation with athletic therapist Paul Ayotte, Woll lumbered his arms around the shoulders of Ryan Reaves and T.J. Brodie, who helped him off the ice.
The goaltender couldn’t place weight on his left leg and was later spotted leaving the rink on crutches.
“It’s unfortunate, right?” head coach Sheldon Keefe said.
“He’s been playing so well, and he’s building such great momentum here on his season and his career. It’s a setback here. Now he’s going to miss time for sure. We’ll determine the extent of it once we get home. But, obviously, he’s the big reason why we get two points here tonight.”
Absolutely.
Making his fifth consecutive start, Woll was one of the only Leafs dialled in from puck drop, as the Senators pressed and swarmed, and the visitors had as much difficulty exiting their zone as downtown commuters do reaching the CTC parking lot in rush hour.
He stoned Mathieu Joseph on a breakaway, denied Josh Norris in the blue paint, and supplied Vladimir Tarasenko with nightmare fuel with a pair of 10-bell, cross-crease glove flashes on two-on-ones.
“Those two on the backside could’ve easily been goals — and he owned him,” said William Nylander, the winning goal scorer.
Added Morgan Rielly: “We hope he’s OK. He’s been playing outstanding for us.”
Maple Leafs’ Woll stretches out before flashing the leather to rob Tarasenko of sure goal
Woll’s steady performance, perfect shootout record, and excellent .916 save percentage have played a huge role in papering over Toronto’s defensive injuries and inconsistent efforts.
Consider: This team’s past eight games have been decided by a single goal. Dressing a netminder who can come up with a clutch stop or two, which Ottawa did not have Thursday, can be all the difference in the muddled middle of the Atlantic Division race.
Even prior to Woll’s injury, goaltending depth was a topic on Keefe’s mind.
“It’s six games in the next 10 days with nine in 17 leading up to Christmas here,” the coach noted at morning skate.
“So, we’re gonna need two goaltenders for certain. Maybe three.”
Gulp.
Well, let’s talk about that third-stringer.
Still loitering on the UFA market in August, the 33-year-old Jones accepted a paltry $875,000, one-year deal from Leafs GM Brad Treliving for this very occasion.
Armed with 445 games of regular-season experience, plus multiple deep playoff runs during his San Jose Sharks prime, an admittedly “little stiff” Jones was composed in his 10-minute relief appearance, stopping nine of 10 pucks fired his way and withstanding the Sens’ pulled-goalie push.
Clearing waivers before opening night and splitting time with Toronto’s goalie prospects on the farm, Jones has played the role of solid teammate while getting humbled by a pay cut and his first stint in the AHL in a decade.
Healthy and patient, the North Vancouver native has been granted just five scattered appearances with the Marlies while busying himself with more practice time than a concert pianist.
“Just an awesome human being. Great dude to have around. Brings some good energy,” Marner said of Jones. “He knows how to win hockey games, and he’s done it for a long time as well. So, it’s great to have him — especially in these moments.”
‘He’s going to miss time for sure’: Maple Leafs’ Keefe on Woll injury
Had Samsonov not been smacked with an illness this week, Jones wouldn’t have even been on the bench. Now, suddenly, it appears he’ll be leaned upon during Toronto’s busy December — albeit at the cost of Woll’s remarkable run.
“It’s tough to watch,” Jones said. “You don’t want to see that. But just tried to get my head in the game and get ready to go.
“Sometimes it helps. You’re not thinking too much… You just stop thinking, and then you’re just reacting to the play.”
How the Maple Leafs’ new tandem of Samsonov and Jones reacts to Woll’s undetermined absence could have a great impact on the team’s placement in the standings.
Keefe maintains that his faith in Jones is high and that he’s handled his newfound status as the club’s third goalie with “tremendous” professionalism.
“That’s why you signed veteran depth. We were fortunate when he got through waivers and he remained a part of our organization — and it’s for situations like this,” Keefe said.
“[Jones] comes in and does the job and makes sure we get our win. So, gives me confidence. Whether it’s the injuries we’ve faced on defence or what we went through here tonight, guys have found ways to rise above those things.”
Fox’s Fast Five
• Very cool to show up at a Senators weekday morning skate and see Daniel Alfredsson, Chris Neil, and Jacques Martin milling about. Recently, the organization has done a fantastic job of keeping some of its most esteemed alumni involved.
• Ottawa’s No. 1 defenceman, Thomas Chabot, played the full 82 last season but has appeared in just nine of his club’s 21 games this fall. After the game, the Senators placed him on LTIR and said he is expected to miss a month with a leg injury.
“I just feel for him,” said Jacob Chychrun. “He’s got a couple unlucky breaks, and I feel for him. I’ve been through it; I know it’s never easy being out. I know he wants to play more than anybody. And we just got to hold the fort down for him till he’s back.”
Jacob Bernard-Docker, 23, couldn’t make this team out of camp. Now, he’s operating on the Sens’ top pair. Bernard-Docker notched his first career goal Thursday.
“He went through waivers, and here he is. Didn’t pout about it. Got right back to work,” D.J. Smith says. “He’s giving us a chance to win every night.”
• Former Senator Bobby Ryan told JD Bunkis on Thursday that during his Battle of Ontario days, Chris Neil was undisputedly the teammate who got most jacked up to beat the Leafs: “He was putting on the foil every time.”
• Bit of a Nick-picky thing considering how little the second unit gets deployed, but it’s a little curious that Nick Robertson — whose greatest weapon is his shot — can’t get time on PP2.
I suppose Keefe wants to reward the more trustworthy veteran, Calle Järnkrok (not a bad shot himself), with some offensive ice time.
• John Tavares is up to 997 career points. The Maple Leafs are in Long Island on Monday.
MONTREAL – On a night when New York’s top line was missing in action, the bit players grabbed the spotlight and led the Rangers to a commanding 7-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
“That’s the kind of team we have,” said Filip Chytil, who led the Rangers with a pair of power-play goals Tuesday. “The guys on the top line had chances but when they don’t score we have three other lines to pick up the slack.”
The Rangers’ dominance was reflected in the amount of time they spent in the Canadiens zone and their 45-23 edge in shots.
“If you’ve watched us practice, you know that’s something we work on all the time,” said Chytil. “When we get the puck, we want to hold on to it.”
The Rangers grabbed a 2-0 lead on goals by Mika Zibanejad at the 56-second mark and Jonny Brodzinski at 2:05, but it was Montreal which pressed the play in the first minute.
“I thought we had a good start but they turned it around on us,” said Montreal coach Martin St. Louis.
Lane Hutson controlled the puck off the opening faceoff and had two early shots, both of which were blocked by New York’s Jacob Trouba.
“That was huge for us,” said Rangers coach Peter Laviolette. “We know (Trouba) can generate offence but he can come up with those big defensive plays.”
Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault exited at 11:05 of the first period after giving up four goals on 10 shots. Zibanejad, Brodzinski, Chytil and Reilly Smith all scored on the Habs’ starter.
His replacement, Cayden Primeau, stopped 33 of 35 shots, giving up goals to Braden Schneider, Kaapo Kakko and Chytil.
Nick Suzuki scored both of the Montreal goals, his first strikes of the season
“It didn’t really feel like a 7-2 game until the end there when you look up at the scoreboard,” Suzuki said. “But we obviously keep digging ourselves these holes, and against a good team like that, our details early on have to be really sharp. And we were definitely a little sleepy coming out and they jumped on us.”
Hutson led the Canadiens in ice time with 24:10 but this wasn’t one of his better games. Smith scored on a breakaway after taking the puck off Hutson’s stick and the rookie was minus-4 for the night.
After Tuesday’s morning practice, the Canadiens announced forward Juraj Slafkovsky will miss at least a week with an upper-body injury. Defenceman Kaiden Guhle missed a second consecutive game with an upper-body injury but the team said it isn’t a long-term ailment.
The injury situation didn’t get any better after Trouba flattened Justin Barron at 7:11 of the third period. Barron didn’t return to the ice but there was no immediate word on his condition.
The Rangers welcomed back defenceman Ryan Lindgren, who made his season debut after missing five games with a jaw injury.
Before the game, 14 players from the Canadiens’ team that won four consecutive Stanley Cups between 1976 and 1979 were introduced at the Bell Centre. Among them were Hockey Hall of Fame members Yvan Cournoyer, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Bob Gainey and Ken Dryden.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2024.
Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball has sold at auction for nearly $4.4 million, a record high price not just for a baseball, but for any ball in any sport, the auctioneer said Wednesday.
“We received bids from around the world, a testament to the significance of this iconic collectible and Ohtani’s impact on sports, and I’m thrilled for the winning bidder,” Ken Goldin, the founder and CEO of auctioneer Goldin Auctions said in a statement.
The auction opened on Sept. 27 with a starting bid of $500,000 and closed just after midnight on Wednesday. The auctioneer said it could not disclose any information about the winning bidder.
The auction has been overshadowed by the litigation over ownership of the ball. Christian Zacek walked out of Miami’s LoanDepot Park with the ball after gaining possession in the left-field stands. Max Matus and Joseph Davidov each claim in separate lawsuits that they grabbed the ball first.
All the parties involved in the litigation agreed that the auction should continue.
Matus’ lawsuit claims that the Florida resident — who was celebrating his 18th birthday — gained possession of the Ohtani ball before Zacek took it away. Davidov claims in his suit that he was able to “firmly and completely grab the ball in his left hand while it was on the ground, successfully obtaining possession of the 50/50 ball.”
Ohtani and the Dodgers are preparing for Game 1 of the World Series scheduled for Friday night.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James gave his 20-year-old son a pep talk before they rose from the Lakers bench. Amid rising cheers, they walked together to the scorer’s table — and then they stepped straight into basketball history.
LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son to play in the NBA together Tuesday night during the Los Angeles Lakers ‘ season opener, fulfilling a dream set out a few years ago by LeBron, the top scorer in league history.
“That moment, us being at the scorer’s table together and checking in together, it’s a moment I’m never going to forget,” LeBron said. “No matter how old I get, no matter how my memory may fade as I get older or whatever, I will never forget that moment.”
Father and son checked into the game against Minnesota simultaneously with four minutes left in the second quarter, prompting a big ovation from a home crowd aware of the enormity of the milestone. The 39-year-old LeBron had already started the game and played 13 minutes before he teamed up with his 20-year-old son for about 2 1/2 minutes of action.
LeBron James is one of the greatest players in NBA history, a four-time champion and 20-time All-Star, while LeBron James Jr. was a second-round pick by the Lakers last summer. They are the first father and son to play in the world’s top basketball league at the same time, let alone on the same team.
“Y’all ready? You see the intensity, right? Just play carefree, though,” father told son on the bench before they checked in, an exchange captured by the TNT cameras and microphones. “Don’t worry about mistakes. Just go out and play hard.”
Their time on court together was fast and furious, just as LeBron promised.
LeBron, who finished the night with 16 points, missed two perimeter shots before making a dunk. Bronny had an early offensive rebound and missed a tip-in, and his first NBA jump shot moments later was a 3-pointer that came up just short. He checked out one possession later with 1:19 left in the second quarter, getting another ovation.
“(I) tried not to focus on everything that’s going on around me, and tried to focus on going in as a rookie and not trying to mess up,” Bronny said. “But yeah, I totally did feel the energy, and I appreciate Laker Nation for showing the support for me and my dad.”
After the final whistle on the Lakers’ first opening-night victory in LeBron’s seven seasons with the team, father and son also headed to the locker room together — but not before stopping in the tunnel to hug Savannah James, LeBron’s wife and Bronny’s mother. The entire family was in attendance to watch history — on little sister Zhuri’s 10th birthday, no less.
Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. also were courtside at the Lakers’ downtown arena to witness the same history they made in Major League Baseball. The two sluggers played 51 games together for the Seattle Mariners in 1990 and 1991 as baseball’s first father-son duo.
LeBron first spoke about his dream to play alongside Bronny a few years ago, while his oldest son was still in high school. The dream became real after Bronny entered the draft as a teenager following one collegiate season, and the Lakers grabbed him with the 55th overall pick.
“I talked about it years and years ago, and for this moment to come, it’s pretty cool,” LeBron said. “I don’t know if it’s going to actually hit the both of us for a little minute, but when we really get to sit back and take it in, it’s pretty crazy. … But in the moment, we still had a job to do when we checked in. We wasn’t trying to make it a circus. We wasn’t trying to make it about us. We wanted to make it about the team.”
LeBron and Bronny joined a small club of father-son professional athletes who played together. The Griffeys made history 34 years ago, and they even homered in the same game on Sept. 14, 1990.
Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines and his namesake son also accomplished the feat with the Baltimore Orioles in 2001.
In hockey, Gordie Howe played alongside his two sons, Mark and Marty, with the WHA’s Houston Aeros and Team Canada before one NHL season together on the Hartford Whalers in 1979-80, when Gordie was 51.
While the other family pairings on this list happened late in the fathers’ careers, LeBron shows no signs of slowing down or regressing as he begins his NBA record-tying 22nd season.
LeBron averaged more than 25 points per game last year for his 20th consecutive season, and he remains the most important player on the Lakers alongside Anthony Davis as they attempt to recapture the form that won a championship in 2020 and got them to the Western Conference finals in 2023.
Bronny survived cardiac arrest and open heart surgery in the summer of 2023, and he went on to play a truncated freshman season at the University of Southern California. He declared for the draft anyway, and the Lakers eagerly used the fourth-to-last pick in the draft on the 6-foot-2 guard.
LeBron spent the summer in Europe with the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the Paris Olympics, while Bronny played for the Lakers in summer league. They started practicing together with the Lakers before training camp.
The duo first played together in the preseason, logging four minutes during a game against Phoenix just outside Palm Springs earlier this month.
“It’s been a treat,” LeBron said at Tuesday’s morning shootaround. “In preseason, the practices, just every day … bringing him up to speed of what this professional life is all about, and how to prepare every day as a professional.”
The Lakers were fully aware of the history they would make with this pairing, and coach JJ Redick spoke with the Jameses recently about a plan to make it happen early in the regular season.
The presence of the Griffeys likely made it an inevitability for opening night, even though Redick said the Lakers still wanted it “to happen naturally, in the flow of the game.”
The Lakers have declined to speculate on how long Bronny will stay on their NBA roster. Los Angeles already has three other small guards on its roster, and Bronny likely needs regular playing time to raise his game to a consistent NBA standard.
Those factors add up to indicate Bronny is likely to join the affiliate South Bay Lakers of the G League at some point soon. LeBron and Redick have both spoken positively about the South Bay team, saying that player development is a key part of the Lakers organization.
Miami forward Kevin Love, who knew all the James children — Bronny, Bryce and Zhuri — from his time as LeBron’s teammate in Cleveland, said it was “an unbelievable moment” to see father and son playing together.
“I grew up a Mariners fan, so I got to see Griffey and then Griffey Sr. But this is different, because LeBron is still a top-five player in the league,” Love said. “This game, man. It’s why we have that ($76 billion) TV deal. The storylines and the things that happen like this, it’s an unbelievable story. This is really cool to see.”
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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed.
