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Lowry still Raptors’ engine, but his destination after 2020-21 is unclear – Sportsnet.ca

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Entering his 15th season and his ninth in Toronto, there are no surprises with Raptors franchise icon Kyle Lowry.

You knew – for example – that in his public comments (via conference call) since being eliminated in the playoffs back in September there would be some kidding, but not kidding pokes at the media who Lowry enjoys avoiding and jousting with equally, if only to disguise the fact that he’s actually fairly co-operative as long as it on his terms.

So, Kyle, how are you liking Tampa, was the softball opener:

“The adjustment is fine. I’m an American, so I’m in my homeland. I’ve got a nice place. We’re all there and set up and ready to go in the sense of being here,” he said. “They’ve done an unbelievable job with our practice facility, our locker room. They have done a great job with making everything as ‘home’ as possible.”

Now, wait for it …

“And it’s even better because you guys aren’t here.”

There should have been a pool going.

And – also predictably – Lowry is optimistic that his club will be competitive this season, which is more of a “sun rises in the East” kind of thing. Why a team a season removed from an NBA championship and that followed up by posting the league’s second-best record gets overlooked is another story, but Lowry – the league’s most underrated superstar – is used to that.

“I think that (with) the units of how we’re going to play, we’ll surprise people,” he said, referring to the small lineups the Raptors seem to be trending toward and were effective in small doses last season. “And — you guys know — we play our hearts out, we hang our hats on that. Playing hard gets you wins. Playing extremely hard will get you some wins.”

Lowry’s going to do his part – no surprise there. He’s the team’s engine. When he revs it up, it’s hard for everyone else not to follow. He’ll make the smart plays, take the charges, dive for the loose balls and bulldoze his way to the rim when a bucket is needed. Raptors fans know how the movie goes.

But how will the movie end? Lowry is in the last year of his contract and not eligible for an extension.

Projecting Lowry as a Raptor beyond this season is nice to speculate about, but when his age-35 season rolls around, Lowry will likely be in demand and in search of a ring, in Toronto or elsewhere.

Discussions with Raptors president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster about his future with the team aren’t on his day planner for the moment.

“No, we haven’t (talked)” Lowry said. “My goal is to stay focussed on trying to win a championship with the Toronto Raptors. That has always been my goal. I will let the other stuff play itself out.

“Of course, at some point, the conversation will happen, but right now let’s just get started. Let’s get into the regular season. Let’s get going and set the goal that we have and that is to win a championship. Other than that, I haven’t talked to those guys about my personal career after this year. We haven’t talked. Right now, it’s all about just getting ourselves going and get ourselves to start the season and get going here in Tampa and be in a good spot.”

If and when Lowry does sit down with the organization, his first question might be: “Why the hell didn’t we re-sign Serge Ibaka?” because it’s hard to argue that Ujiri and Webster pulled out all the stops to make sure Lowry’s last guaranteed season as a Raptors is as successful as possible.

An organization that lost not one, but two of its veteran centres (Ibaka signed with the Los Angeles Clippers while Marc Gasol signed with Lakers) in the off-season, in large part because they wanted to preserve cap space in the summer of 2021, could have some explaining to do.

Lowry wasn’t about to lower the boom in training camp – stirring the pot is not his style, but he didn’t pretend that he wouldn’t miss Ibaka and Gasol, the big-man tandem that helped the veteran point guard get his ring just 18 months ago.

In particular, Ibaka signing for two-years and $18.5 million with the Clippers – the Raptors weren’t offering more than one season and $14 million — was a blow, professionally and personally.

“I talked to Serge before it happened and he told me (he was leaving),” said Lowry. “… I’m always happy for any of my teammates when they get paid and getting an opportunity to provide for their families and to go where they want to go and be happy. Serge looked at an opportunity for him to be happy, be successful, get paid, possibly win a championship and go on from there (but) … It definitely hurt because I like Serge. He’s wonderful off the court. He’s my guy.”

And so the team that has taken shape in Lowry’s image heads into what could be his last season in Toronto with some uncertainty.

“Well, we’re definitely different. We’re completely different,” said Lowry. “Aron (Baynes, the free-agent big signed to help fill the gap at centre) is really good. He is a solid big. Chris Boucher is going to have to step up. There will be a lot more small ball, I believe … but we are a different team,” said Lowry. “I think we have an opportunity to surprise some people, but at the end of the day you still got to go out there and lace ‘em up and put the ball in the hole and play defence.”

It’s an interesting way for a franchise to celebrate an icon, the player who will be the first to have his jersey retired and very likely have a statue outside Scotiabank Arena someday.

Ujiri can’t gush enough about Lowry when he gets the opportunity. Back in September when asked about Lowry’s leadership in the bubble, for example, Ujiri sounded like he was already heating up the bronze and figuring out where to put the thing:

“That guy is a stud. OK? I’m telling the whole world that guy is incredible,” Ujiri said. “What he has done for this whole organization… I don’t want to start pushing him as a Hall of Famer and all this stuff, because I want 10 more incredible years from this guy. It seems to me, the older he becomes, the better he becomes. It’s crazy. I’ve never seen anything like that. As a human being, as a person, as a teammate, Kyle was phenomenal.”

Over his years in Toronto, we’ve all come to know these things to be true – predictable even.

But before his number is retired or the statue made, the Raptors owed Lowry his very best chance to win one more time and it’s hard to argue that’s what happened between last season and now.

And that? That’s a surprise.

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

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