Gary Bettman says 2020-21 NHL season could begin as late as December – CBC.ca

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.

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.

___

AP NBA:

CALGARY – Gabby Wood says her curling team is ready for anything this season after facing the No. 1 women’s team in the world.

The Canadian women’s college champions took on Rachel Homan in the opening draw of the single-knockout PointsBet Invitational on Wednesday.

Wood’s Edmonton foursome took their lumps in an 11-2 loss, and will also take the experience of playing on arena ice and on television against the reigning Canadian and world champions.

“It’s a crazy first game of the season, so honestly, none of our opponents after this are going to seem that scary,” said the 20-year-old Wood.

The PointsBet Invitational that unofficially kicks off the Canadian curling season offers a purse of over $350,000, including $50,000 each to the men’s and women’s victors, to an eclectic 32-team field.

There’s a soccer FA Cup element as underdog junior, college, university, under-25 and club champions attempt to upset, and send home early, the likes of Homan and reigning Canadian men’s champion Brad Gushue.

And 13th seed Jordan McDonald provided those fireworks Wednesday by eliminating fourth-seeded Matt Dunstone 8-5 in an all-Winnipeg matchup.

“It means the world,” McDonald said. “It was an unbelievable experience out there today.”

Kaitlyn Lawes, who ranked fourth in Canada at the end of last season, beat recently crowned national women’s under-25 champion Taylor Reese-Hansen 5-2.

“Every time we get to play on arena ice, we’re really excited, and playing against a top team, that’s what we want to do. That’s where we want to be,” said Reese-Hansen. “These are the teams that we want to play against and see how we stack up, so it’s super valuable.”

National No. 8 Corryn Brown doubled university women’s champion Serena Gray-Withers 8-4 in the opening draw.

“It just makes us hungrier for more, to be honest, because we’re just super blessed with great ice, great rocks and great conditions here, so we just want to be back for more,” said Gray-Withers.

Selena Sturmay edged Ashley Thevenot 8-7 in the other women’s game to kick off the five-day cashspiel at Calgary’s WinSport Arena.

In the men’s draw Wednesday evening, Gushue defeated Canadian men’s club champion Dan Sherrard 12-4.

Kevin Koe, who played a three-man team after firing second Jacques Gauthier the previous day, downed university men’s champion Josh Bryden 8-4. Rylan Kleiter defeated Sam Mooibroek 5-2.

McDonald, who won last month’s national under-25 championship, kept the pressure on Dunstone with pressure draws and timely runbacks.

Dunstone attempted a tough angle raise to score one and force the PointsBet’s tiebreaking draw to the button, but missed to give up a steal of two.

“Playing a team like at all for us is a really big experience,” said McDonald, who said his team drew confidence from playing Reid Carruthers and Mike McEwen in the last year.

“We feel like we can hang with these teams a little more.”

Among Thursday’s games, defending men’s champion Reid Carruthers faces Felix Asselin, national women’s under-21 champion Allyson MacNutt squares off against four-time Canadian champ Kerri Einarson, and men’s under-21 champion Kenan Wipf faces 2024 Brier runner-up McEwen.

“We are just so grateful that they include the college champions, the university champions,” Wood said. “We don’t get a ton of opportunities to play on arena ice, and so that makes a huge difference developmentally.

“Having a chance, other than our nationals, to play on arena ice, on this big stage, to get to experience just a little bit of what the pros experience is just really exciting and really inspiring.”

Seven months after claiming the Scotties Tournament of Hearts title on the same WinSport ice, Ottawa’s Homan opened defence of her PointsBet crown by scoring four in the second end en route to victory.

“It’s great to get them on this kind of stage, on a national platform and getting some arena ice experience is really key for next gen to get as much experience as possible,” Homan said.

“There’s lots they can take out of it for sure. Lots of great throws and I thought they communicated well.”

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