SPORT-SCAN DAILY BRIEF NHL 5/11/2020 Anaheim Ducks Websites 1184320 Ducks sign defenseman Brendan Guhle, center Sam 1184346 The Athletic / Bourne: How players become entitled is Carrick to contract extensions obvious. What they do from there isn’t 1184347 Sportsnet.ca / What we learned about Connor McDavid's Arizona Coyotes rehab in 'Whatever It Takes' 1184321 What-ifs riddle Coyotes’ 2012 playoff run, with Raffi Torres 1184348 Sportsnet.ca / Remember When? Bobby Orr flies through topping the list air after winning Stanley Cup 1184349 Sportsnet.ca / Inside one quest to keep mental health front Boston Bruins of mind in sports – Sportsnet 1184322 Inside the 'NASA of hockey.’ A look behind the scenes at Bauer’s R&D facility Winnipeg Jets 1184323 A first-timer’s first impressions of custom-fit hockey skates 1184344 Plenty of options for Cheveldayoff if NHL moves forward 1184324 John Bucyk a ‘Chief’ component in Bruins’ 1970 Cup with June draft campaign 1184345 Postcards, teachings and scorching Winnipeg Jets hot 1184325 Former Bruins defenseman Hal Gill shares crazy story to takes from Murat’s mom honor mom on Mother's Day 1184326 This Date in Bruins History: Bobby Orr scores to win World Leagues News Bruins a Stanley Cup 1184350 Coronavirus: UFC 249 MMA event ushers in fan-free, 1184327 A look back at the Bruins' 2017 NHL Draft: Not too shabby mask-filled era of sports 1184351 Will the coronavirus stop athletes from spitting during Columbus Blue Jackets games? 1184328 Wayne Gretzky loves to chat about hockey, including 1184352 English Premier League clubs split on restarting season Jackets' epic upset as Brighton player tests positive for coronavirus 1184353 Sports Digest: Chief of British soccer team concerned Detroit Red Wings after player tests positive 1184329 Detroit Red Wings in desperate need of forward with 1184354 Kansas colleges make plans to reopen amid coronavirus goal-scoring oomph. Here are some options 1184355 MLB coronavirus antibody study results: Less than 1 percent of participants test positive Edmonton Oilers 1184356 MLB coronavirus: ‘There’s going to be a war’ if owners 1184330 Lowetide: What are Evan Bouchard’s chances of making seek further pay from players (report) the Oilers in 2020-21? 1184357 Dynamo Dresden's game canceled after positive coronavirus tests as Bundesliga resumption approaches Minnesota Wild 1184358 SMU coach Sonny Dykes breaks down how program has 1184331 If games resume, athletes will 'need to know when to handled coronavirus crisis, thoughts on football season peak' 1184359 Syracuse company develops coronavirus-killing drone for arenas and stadiums New York Rangers 1184360 Steelers' Mike Tomlin believes NFL facilities should open 1184332 ‘He didn’t want to skate’: Rangers moms share childhood at same time stories of their sons SPORT-SCAN, INC. 941-284-4129 Philadelphia Flyers 1184333 2020 NHL draft profile: Mavrik Bourque, 'a gamer' at center, makes sense for Flyers Pittsburgh Penguins 1184334 Penguins A to Z: Filip Hallander has promise as a top-six winger San Jose Sharks 1184335 Sharks' Brent Burns turned to hunting after 2016 Stanley Cup Final loss St Louis Blues 1184336 MacEachern has a few balls in the air during NHL's shutdown Toronto Maple Leafs 1184337 Toronto FC follows Raptors lead, to begin individual player workouts Monday 1184338 Like their players, NHL coaches trying to stay sharp during pandemic pause 1184339 Two years after Dubas' promotion to GM, truest evaluation of Leafs will come in playoffs 1184340 Mom's the word for NHLers Vegas Golden Knights 1184341 Golden Knights roster review: Nicolas Roy Washington Capitals 1184342 Capitals defenseman Brenden Dillon: 'I think we are going to come back and play' 1184343 Capitals GM Brian MacLellan has some concerns with the NHL's June draft plans 1184320 Anaheim Ducks

Ducks sign defenseman Brendan Guhle, center Sam Carrick to contract extensions

By ELLIOTT TEAFORD

PUBLISHED: May 10, 2020 at 1:28 p.m.

UPDATED: May 10, 2020 at 1:28 p.m.

The Ducks signed defenseman Brendan Guhle and center Sam Carrick to contract extensions Sunday, locking up two depth players who were expected to help lead the San Diego Gulls of the AHL to the playoffs before play was halted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The AHL is expected to announce as soon as Monday that it will cancel the remainder of the 2019-20 season because of the outbreak, leaving the NHL as the lone holdout among professional leagues in North American still hoping to complete its season.

The NHL and AHL each suspended play March 12.

Guhle, 22, signed a two-season, $1.6-million contract and Carrick, 28, signed a one-season, $700,000 deal. Guhle had four goals and four assists in 30 games with the Ducks, and Carrick had one goal and one assist in nine games. Both players were on the Gulls’ roster when the season was paused.

Guhle also had four goals and 10 assists in 27 games with the Gulls this season. Carrick led San Diego with 23 goals and 43 points in 46 games. He also had a team-leading plus-27 plus/minus defensive rating, the second-best mark in the AHL.

San Diego was fourth in the AHL’s Pacific Division when play was suspended, holding the division’s final playoff spot. The Gulls advanced to the Western Conference final of the Calder Cup playoffs last season before losing to the Chicago Wolves, the Vegas Golden Knights’ AHL team.

Orange County Register: LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184321 Arizona Coyotes a scary man. Missing him for the rest of the playoffs certainly was a problem for us.”

The Coyotes were still doing their thing in Game 1 at Jobing.com Arena. What-ifs riddle Coyotes’ 2012 playoff run, with Raffi Torres topping the Despite being outshot 17-4 in the first period, the Coyotes tied the game list when defenseman Derek Morris beat Jonathan Quick with a shot from center ice. I remember turning to former arizonacoyotes.com writer Dave Vest in the press box after the goal and wondering aloud if the Coyotes By Craig Morgan were a team of destiny.

May 10, 2020 The shot totals after two periods were 34-18, but when Mikkel Boedker tied the game at 18:05 of the second period off a feed from Shane Doan

that was set up by Antoine Vermette’s check behind the net, the Coyotes Every Monday and Thursday through the end of May, The Athletic had momentum going to the third period. Arizona is reliving the Coyotes’ 2012 playoff run to the Western “With the way we had done things in the first two rounds, I definitely Conference final. You can also watch the games on Fox Sports Arizona thought we had a good chance,” Boedker said. during their “Classic Coyotes Night” programming series. More information available here. Coyotes enemy No. 1, Brown, took it away when he scored just 2:11 into the third period, and Dwight King added an empty-net goal to mark the Read the full collection of stories in our retrospective here. first time in that postseason that the Coyotes had trailed in a playoff Playoff runs that fall short of the ultimate goal are always littered with series. what-ifs. For the 2011-12 Coyotes, that list includes: By the time the Coyotes arrived in L.A. for Game 3, the series lead was What if the L.A. Kings hadn’t made the postseason as the Western 2-0 after a lopsided, 4-0 L.A. win in Game 2. Worse yet, the Coyotes Conference’s eighth and final playoff team? would be without Hanzal for Game 3 after this hit on Brown earned him a one-game suspension, removing another one of the Coyotes’ more What if the Coyotes hadn’t had a momentum-cooling six days off physically imposing players. between their conference semifinal win over the Nashville Predators and the start of the Western Conference final against the Kings? “I was really sick of that guy,” Hanzal said. “It was a fair call.”

What if defenseman Adrian Aucoin had played more than 12 minutes and Hanzal does not feel the same about the Torres call. 17 seconds in that conference final? “I still believe Raffi Torres’ hit was a clean hit,” he said. “I remember we What if Martin Hanzal hadn’t been suspended for Game 3? were talking about it with Doaner. Whenever we see suspensions we think about that hit. We’ve seen way worse hits that don’t get that kind of What if the officiating hadn’t levied 106 minutes in penalties against the suspension — or any suspension. Coyotes, and only 58 against the Kings? “Raffi Torres was one of the most important players on our team because What if Dustin Brown had been penalized for what looked like a he is so powerful and aggressive. If you ask anybody in the league what dangerous kneeing infraction on Michal Rozsival (more on that later in it’s like to play against Raffi Torres they’ll say, ‘I hate playing against the this series) in Game 5? guy.’ He’s so strong and he goes all the way through you. We were missing Raffi Torres for sure with the way they played, and I still think And what if Raffi Torres hadn’t been suspended for the rest of the things might have been different if he had played.” postseason? Instead, Torres was reduced to playing the role of spectator in the “To me, that’s where the biggest impact came,” former coach Dave dressing room or in a suite. Tippett said of Torres. “I think we needed the rest going into that series and when you talk about teams getting hot, well, we got hot in February “It’s nice to hear that so many of my teammates think I could have made and that’s what allowed us to make it. a difference and I like to think it’s true,” he said. “It’s tough to think about what could have been because I was playing some of my best hockey. I “But L.A. was a big, strong, heavy team and they played a similar style to wish I could have been there to help.” us by clogging it up and making it hard to get chances against them. You needed players like Raffi. They can make a difference in a series like that. We didn’t push them hard enough. We really missed him in that series.” The Athletic LOADED: 05.11.2020

Torres lost any opportunity to make an impact when he leveled Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa with what the league deemed a high and late, open-ice hit in Game 3 of the teams’ first-round series. All he could do was watch and wonder as the series unfolded.

“Every time I got in the playoffs I felt like you had to invest and I knew what that meant for me,” he said. “There’s a reason these series are seven games so you try to make it hard on the D and wear them down. You’re not going to see any results in Game 1 or 2, but I’m telling you, in Games 6 or 7 … . They know I’m going to finish my checks. Sometimes, it gives you an edge.”

As Tippett noted, the Coyotes needed an edge somewhere against the heavy Kings. Most of the players interviewed for this series noted how pronounced that physical edge was for L.A. in that series.

“Still to this day, I am amazed how much stronger they seemed than us,” Aucoin said. “I only played one game and re-tore my groin in that series, but you could really see it watching, too. It was just like we were just being outmuscled.”

Forward Ray Whitney had seen the impact that Torres could make in the regular-season series against the Kings, whom the Coyotes beat in the teams’ final two meetings.

“They did not like playing against him,” Whitney said. “Their D did not like going back and getting the puck when he was on the ice and I get it. He’s 1184322 Boston Bruins skates, which pioneered some of the custom-fitting methods adopted by their larger competitors.

Top-of-the-line pro skates are essentially the same ones found on the Inside the 'NASA of hockey.’ A look behind the scenes at Bauer’s R&D shelves of your local hockey shop, and they cost about $1,000. All three facility companies fit those buyers by scanning a 3D image of the foot, then building a boot that envelops every contour. Pros enjoy exact specifications, with companies able to fit even the most drastically By Matt Porter misshapen feet. It is a manual process, not automated; between 20 and 30 people touch every skate. Updated May 10, 2020, 9:54 p.m. Megan Keller's feet are scanned for a custom fitting for skates.

Megan Keller's feet are scanned for a custom fitting for skates.Dario The science of a slap shot is there on a screen, one frame from a high- Ayala speed video captured by a row of cameras at a place known as “the NASA of hockey.” Before they are green-lighted for mass-production, new Bauer stick designs get 99,000 slap shots and 64,000 one-timers (using weighted Megan Keller is frozen in the middle of her downswing. A slender, orange pucks to simulate the force of a pass) in Blainville, plus 4,500 powerful defender clad in black workout clothes, a helmet, gloves, and hours of manual on-ice testing through eight partner organizations, skates, she’s a silent portrait of potential energy. including McGill University, and an adult league at Bauer’s on-site rink. As frames are advanced one by one, Keller’s stick connects with the ice In the impact testing areas, a machine pounds away at a crash-test a few inches behind the puck. The blade twists open. The shaft bends in dummy wearing a helmet. Another fires pucks at cages and shields. the middle from her low hand pushing as her top hand pulls. Another rhythmically thumps like a washing machine as it flexes a skate Yannick Paquette, a senior product developer at the Bauer Innovation thousands of times, eventually revealing any weaknesses in the design. Centre in Blainville, Quebec, is telling her why the stick she has chosen A helmet and face mask are tested at the Bauer Innovation Centre. — a Nexus model, 70 flex, P28 curve — is the proper tool. A helmet and face mask are tested at the Bauer Innovation Centre.Dario “See — already, you’re not touching the puck, and you’re getting a ton of Ayala it. That’s good,” says Paquette, tracing the bend of her stick on one of his two large computer monitors. “You probably wouldn’t see that much The floor of the skate factory, spread out under a mural of Montreal [bend] with a [stiffer] 77 [flex].That’s the extra kick you’re getting on your Canadiens fans at the Forum, is about half the size of a rink. This is shots. See how the blade’s bouncing back? That’s normal. It’s not where the experts work at building boots that wrap around the most opening up too much. It stays open a little, but since you’re using a P28, unique feet in the game. Plaster and metal molds of feet sit in bins you would get that little extra bit of a hook — right there — to hold the organized by name. Some of the molds, like those of shot-blocking puck in.” defensemen, can be gnarly. Some look like feet with golf balls growing out of them. Some have baseballs sticking out of their ankles. They are sitting at Paquette’s desk, which faces the windows encasing the rink where cameras recorded her taking slap shots. At 1,500 frames It takes a few hours to make a typical pair of skates. Workers cut the per second, he can show her exactly how and why the blade and shaft main boot piece (the quarter panel) out of Curv, a polypropylene material will snap back into place and fire the puck with maximum efficiency, also used to make luggage, flak jackets, and auto bodies. The returning the energy she puts in, and how her preferred curve pattern components — heat-moldable linings of various thicknesses, and eyelets cups the puck until she follows through. — are stitched on, bonded together, then pressed around a metal cast of a foot. Next to be stitched are the tongue, toe cap, and tendon guard. Megan Keller and Yannick Paquette review high-speed video of Keller's The blade holder and its steel are attached with rivets. Laces go on last. technique. The skates are cleaned and carefully inspected before they are boxed. Megan Keller and Yannick Paquette review high-speed video of Keller's A Bauer employee works on a pair of skates on the production room. technique.Dario Ayala A Bauer employee works on a pair of skates on the production This is a few moments from an afternoon at the Bauer research, room.Dario Ayala development, and design center. Keller, 24, the former Boston College captain and 2018 Olympic gold medalist was there last August as part of Pros show up as their offseason schedules allow. Bruins left wing David Bauer’s women’s hockey sponsorship program. She was fitted for skates, Pastrnak said he has no interest in going. Jake DeBrusk loves to see the saw them being made, and got a glance at the next wave of hockey gear. new gear and raved about Bauer’s latest invention, the Nexus ADV with a hole in the blade. Her stick blade’s tape, showing where she most consistently made contact with the puck, confirms Paquette’s analysis. Even though hockey Extending careers players are finicky about their gear, she wound up using the same stick all year. Advanced skate fitting has helped some pros stay in the league. Avalanche great Peter Forsberg, born with extra-wide ankles, needed Like many women her age and older, Keller grew up using her brother’s constant attention toward the end of a Hall of Fame career shortened by hand-me-downs. This kind of touch was appreciated. multiple foot surgeries. In his retirement speech in 2011, he thanked longtime Bauer pro product manager Jerry Trempe, whose passport “I’m just used to going to a shop and seeing a standard flex and curve,” bears Swedish stamps from numerous visits with his ailing client. A she said. “To be able to go in and test them and see what my shot looks Forsberg jersey with the Swedish national team’s Tre Kronor on it hangs like and what stick I need, it’s really cool.” in the lobby in Blainville. Behind the scenes Forsberg said Trempe, a 36-year Bauer employee, “made at least 200 About 130 employees, many with masters degrees, work in a sprawling pairs of skates for me over the last few years.” The average NHLer might industrial building about 45 minutes north of Montreal. It is where all of go through 4 to 10 pairs of skates a season. Bauer’s professional custom skates are made, largely by machines Jerry Trempe (right) has worked at Bauer for more than 30 years. guided by hand. Sticks and protective equipment are manufactured in China, but Bauer creates and tests prototypes here. Jerry Trempe (right) has worked at Bauer for more than 30 years.Dario Ayala Bauer is the largest of three skatemakers serving the NHL, owning about 70 percent of that market, according to GearGeek.com. Bauer says it Not all pros want the hands-on treatment. Pastrnak, whose sticks are the makes about 12,000 pairs of skates a season for some 502 NHLers, as same ones you find in a retail store with a little more curve on the toe, well as minor-league and European pros, Division 1 college, and elite gets his Bauer Vapor 2X Pro skates in a stock pattern. women’s players. CCM, which manufactures its pro stock in Saint-Jean- sur-Richelieu, south of Montreal, has about 18 percent of the NHL skate “I don’t like custom skates,” he said. “I just have them straight from the market. About 11 percent of NHLers use Winnipeg-based True custom store. It just feels better. I feel like your feet are different every day. From the plane you can get swollen feet. If you have customs, they don’t feel the same. It’s nice to feel a little bit of space. I play with the store skates since I was a kid.”

His teammates have different views.

Bruins center Charlie Coyle, who grew up pushing milk crates on the ponds of East Weymouth, remembers a few early pairs that “just killed,” he said “You’ve got to battle through it. Growing up, we didn’t know any better.”

His coach, Bruce Cassidy, had leather and nylon Bauers with steel runners.

“You had to grin and bear it,” said Cassidy, recalling his skates of the ‘70s. “Breaking them in was tough. Now they’re so soft and fuzzy it’s almost cheating. They’re like slippers.”

Top secret

The area hidden to most visitors is the second floor, where designers work on closely guarded secrets. It looks like a typical office space, with an open floor and conference rooms.

Their sketches lead to products that may not be released for two or three years, some never at all. They draw inspiration from everywhere: superheroes and cars, video games, motorbikes, warriors, swirls and colors, old-time hockey. You see Marvel characters and Calgary Flames memorabilia.

The buzzword at Bauer and other major retailers is customization. In a recent NHLPA poll, some 41 percent of 530 NHL players wanted to express their personalities on skates, as their NFL, NBA, and MLB peers have been allowed to do with their footwear. The league is getting younger and flashier.

Yes, this means one day, you could see a bowl of Pasta on skates. And then the kids will eat them up.

“Once it comes into the league it trickles down,” Bruins president Cam Neely said. “If you grow up with what the NHL’s been using the last 10 years, you’re not going to know any different.”

Because the high-end consumer wants the next big thing, prices of the best hockey equipment are not trending down. Entry-level equipment has become lighter, stronger and more durable, but the extensive shopping list — skates, stick, helmet, pants, padding for shins, shoulders and elbows, and other necessities — will cost a newcomer at least $500.

“It’s an expensive sport,” Cassidy said. “I think it’s pricing people out. In Canada, everybody used to be able to play. P.K. Subban’s dad did an article [seven] years ago in Toronto about how people are getting phased out. I believe it. I think it’s becoming more of a ‘haves’ sport. I think in Canada that’s what made it so unique is that pretty much everyone — ice time was cheaper, there was a rink on every corner, you just had to get the equipment. You’d usually get some hand-me-downs.”

Street hockey is another way kids can emulate their TV heroes. Meanwhile, Bauer (Canada) and CCM (US) partner with NHL teams to offer packages of learn-to-play lessons and equipment. In Boston, the waiting list is long.

Anything’s possible

In the office of Marc-Olivier Lessard, Bauer’s custom products supervisor, there is a desk covered in papers and pictures. Above the desk is a shelf with white plaster and clear plastic molds of feet. It is an arresting sight. One pair of feet had one mangled in a lawn mower accident. Others were misshapen because of birth defects.

Another was used to make skates for Nathan Chouinard, a grade- schooler in Sherbrooke, Quebec. He was born with a severe case of ectrodactyly, a rare genetic deformation of the hands and feet. Wanting to play goal like his idol, Canadiens goalie Carey Price, he had to use longer and larger boots that did not properly brace his claw-like feet. His fledgling hockey career seemed at its end.

Bauer was happy to help. Trempe, after showing the mold, picked up a hockey card from the shelf. Chouinard, with tousled blond hair, poses in his goalie gear, smiling at the camera. He looks like a goalie.

“He’s like all the kids,” Lessard said. “He’s playing his sport.”

Boston Globe LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184323 Boston Bruins

A first-timer’s first impressions of custom-fit hockey skates

By Matt Porter

Updated May 10, 2020, 4:26 p.m.

No longer growing, playing hockey enough to justify the purchase, and because I was celebrating the end of a dozen years of student-loan hell, I decided last summer to buy my first pair of custom-fit skates.

Back when rinks were open, I played in early-morning and late-night leagues and snuck in afternoon pickup sessions. I miss it terribly.

I do not long for my old Bauer Supreme One60s. They lasted nine years before they finally cracked beyond repair. I thought they fit me as well as hockey skates could.

They weren’t even the proper size.

I had no idea, until I got a 3D scan, that my left foot is nearly a full size longer and wider than my right, that one arch is collapsed while the other is not, and my heels are both wide and deep. I just figured a pair of skates should hurt a little.

In the last decade, custom skates were only available to pros. Bauer, CCM, and True began offering them at retail shops. A 3D scan suggests a model and brand that best fits the particular shape of your foot. The skates are built around a stock footbed.

They can run north of $1,000, but for the avid player used to stock skates, they are well worth the upgrade. There is little to no space between the foot and the boot, so they respond to every muscle twitch. That means less fatigue, stronger strides and tighter turns.

It took a few hours on the ice with my Bauer Vapor 2X Pros before I was used to having that level of control. It was like driving a coupe after years in a minivan. I'm still no good, but I have never played better.

I just can’t wait to use them again.

Boston Globe LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184324 Boston Bruins foot high and we thought the key was to keep the puck down low on the goaltender.”

Bucyk was indirectly responsible for Orr’s overtime goal against the John Bucyk a ‘Chief’ component in Bruins’ 1970 Cup campaign Blues that won the Cup, a play magnificently captured on film by Record- American photographer Ray Lussier.

By RICH THOMPSON The Blues were leading 3-2 in the third. Bucyk scored the equalizer at 13:28 which sent the game to overtime and into Boston folklore. May 10, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. “I just remember it was a very important goal because it tied the game and gave us the chance to win the Cup in Boston,” said Bucyk. “If we had lost then we would have had to go back to St. Louis and who knows what General manager Milt Schmidt had a “Chief” in place when he began would have happened. assembling the Big Bad Bruins that won the Stanley Cup on Mother’s Day 50 years ago. “If we had lost it could have given them extra energy and changed the (series). I’m glad I was able to score and put it into overtime and the best Hall of Fame left wing John Bucyk, nicknamed Chief after a Boston thing was Bobby flying through the air. That was one of the greatest cartoonist mistook him for a Native American, labored on some of the hockey pictures ever.” worst teams in Bruins history.

Bucyk broke into the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings in 1955 and, after two seasons, was traded to Boston for goalie Terry Sawchuk. Boston Herald LOADED: 05.11.2020 The Bruins were in a perpetual state of malaise in the early 1960s, finishing last in five consecutive seasons while Bucyk floundered on a series of unproductive lines. The optimism of the New Frontier had no effect on Bruins fans in the days of Camelot.

“That was really crazy because there were eight years we never even made the playoffs,” said Bucyk. “Then you come back and see the team changing and see the wheels turning.”

The Bruins’ upswing began with the arrival of rookie sensation Bobby Orr in 1966. Orr emerged as a dominant scorer and playmaker while revolutionizing the role of a defenseman in the NHL.

Bucyk’s fortunes improved the following season when Schmidt fleeced the Chicago Blackhawks in a blockbuster deal that became the nucleus of two Stanley Cup championship teams.

The Bruins acquired centers Phil Esposito and Fred Stanfield and right- wing Ken Hodge for defenseman Gilles Marotte, center Pit Martin and goalie Jack Norris.

Gerry Cheevers supplanted Eddie Johnston as No. 1 goalie and coach Harry Sinden was able to construct three solid lines with the additions of Wayne Cashman and Derek Sanderson.

Bucyk was paired with Stanfield and right-wing Johnny “Pie” McKenzie, another holdover from the dark ages. They combined to become the best second line in the NHL.

The numbers back up that claim. Bucyk (31 goals, 38 assists, 69 points), Stanfield (23-35-58) and McKenzie (29-41-70) combined for 83 goals, 114 assists and 197 points. In 14 playoff games against the Rangers, Blackhawks and Blues, the troika combined for 20 goals and 32 assists.

“You know what it was like then, the three of us lived together in Arlington and we use to talk and sleep and eat hockey,” said Bucyk. “After a game we would sit together at the house and discuss what we didn’t do right or what we could do better and different things.

“When I got to play with Pie and Freddy Stanfield it was the same thing. We used to always talk about our mistakes and what we could do to improve.

“Of course, a lot of pressure was off us because Phil Esposito at that time was with Hodge and Cashman, they were the top line. They were the No. 1 line and the other teams had too many of us to watch and they couldn’t.”

The Bruins had a dynamic power play that season and Sinden gave Bucyk a big role on the team’s first unit. Sinden deployed Orr and Stanfield at the points with Bucyk below the left circle, Esposito in the slot and Hodge doing the grunt work along the boards. The Bruins potted 81 power plays goals in the regular season and 14 in the playoffs.

“I think it was that we moved the puck along pretty quick and had our positions to play and we thought of different ideas,” said Bucyk. “When you have somebody like Bobby Orr on the point and Freddy Stanfield had a very good shot, that made it so much easier.

“What I used to do was make a long pass from the left corner to Bobby a lot. He had a shot that he kept down low. I don’t think it was more than a 1184325 Boston Bruins

Former Bruins defenseman Hal Gill shares crazy story to honor mom on Mother's Day

By Jacob Camenker

May 10, 2020 7:49 PM

Many professional athletes were sharing stories to honor their mothers in some way on Mother's Day. But no story is crazier than the one that former Boston Bruins defenseman Hal Gill shared.

Gill took to Twitter to explain how his mother, Barb, once helped him to stay in a game as a 12-year-old. The big detail? Gill had broken his arm earlier in the game, but she let him continue to play.

Here's the story from Gill's Twitter account.

I was 12 years old when I broke my arm in a hockey game. My mother taped a sawed off stick to my arm as a splint. I made it back for the 3rd because “the team needed me”. Just one of a million reasons why I have the best mom! Thanks Barb!!!

— Hal Gill (@Skillsy75) May 10, 2020

That's pretty crazy. But hockey moms are a dedicated bunch who understand the game on a different level. So, there's no surprise that Gill's mother was able to keep her son out on the ice to finish what was evidently an important game. And given that Gill, now 45, remembers the story to this day, he clearly values it as a top hockey memory.

Get the latest news and analysis on all of your teams from NBC Sports Boston by downloading the My Teams App

Gill found a way to contribute for several teams during his NHL career as a big, physical defenseman during his 16-year career. And his story of playing with a broken arm just about encapsulates his overall toughness.

The Bolton, Mass. native was an eight-round pick by the Boston Bruins during the 1993 NHL Draft. He played at Providence College for four years before joining the Bruins and spending eight years with the team. During that time, Gill logged 20 goals, 77 assists, 588 penalty minutes, and a +41 rating for the Bruins.

After his time with the Bruins, Gill spent eight total seasons playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Montreal Canadiens, Nashville Predators, and Philadelphia Flyers. He won a Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 2009.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184326 Boston Bruins

This Date in Bruins History: Bobby Orr scores to win Bruins a Stanley Cup

By Jacob Camenker

May 10, 2020 4:01 PM

Back in the 1970 Stanley Cup Final, the Boston Bruins were leading the St. Louis Blues in the series 3-0 and had a chance to close out the title at the Boston Garden. A win and sweep would give the Bruins their first Stanley Cup title since 1941.

The two teams both played hard in the contest and with the game tied up at 3-3, they headed into overtime. That's when one of the most memorable goals in the history of the NHL occurred.

Just 30 seconds into the extra period, legendary Bruins defenseman Bobby Orr took a pass from forward Derek Sanderson in front of the crease. He deposited the puck into the back of the net to give the Bruins the victory in the game and the series to kickstart an excellent decade of hockey in Boston.

Get the latest news and analysis on all of your teams from NBC Sports Boston by downloading the My Teams App

And the title itself is immortalized in the form of a photo that sees Orr stretched out parallel to the ice just after the puck went into the back of the net, letting out an exultant roar.

Boston Bruins defenseman Bobby Orr scores the series-winning goal in overtime against the St. Louis Blues in the 1970 Stanley Cup Final.

And Orr obviously remembers that moment fondly.

"When I look back, I did see it go in. So, I jumped and Noel [Picard] helped me a little bit," Orr said of the iconic goal and photo. "You know, he had his stick under my skate and he lifted my leg but I was helping a little bit because I did see it go in."

The most recognizable moment in Bruins history may never have happened if not for the decision-making of Bruins head coach Harry Sinden. At the beginning of the overtime period, he opted to start with the Sanderson line ahead of Phil Esposito's line despite Esposito being the team's top scorer. And there was a reason for that.

"I was nervous that we'd be a little overanxious to score that goal," Sinden said. "Great lines like Esposito's line, [Fred] Stanfield's line, if there's a fault to them, it's that once in a while, they get overexcited and take chances and take risks."

Haggerty: Top 10 Bruins playoffs heartbreaks

Obviously, the decision paid off as it was Sanderson who delivered the key assist to Orr. And half a century later, Sanderson fondly remembers the moment.

"Bobby Orr had a Cinderella year, not that it was a fluke," Sanderson said. "For him to get that goal, that's what I was happiest about."

But while Orr's goal will live on forever in the minds of Bruins fans and NHL lore, the most important thing for Orr wasn't scoring. It was getting the championship.

"Growing up in Canada, my dream was to play in the NHL and be on a Stanley Cup team. It was great that we got a photo like that, but the event itself and everything surrounding the life of a professional athlete and being the champion was obviously a great thrill."

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184327 Boston Bruins The 6-foot-2, 183-pound Swayman is another potential gem in this draft after being drafted following his USHL career with the Sioux Falls Stampede.

A look back at the Bruins' 2017 NHL Draft: Not too shabby Swayman improved each and every season with the University of Maine before capturing the Mike Richter Award as college hockey’s top goaltender this past season. He finished with a .939 save percentage for By Joe Haggerty the Black Bears this past season and showed great size, athleticism and competitiveness while standing out for an otherwise average Maine May 09, 2020 10:54 PM team.

Swayman will enter next season as the best candidate to be a future No. The 2017 NHL Draft could turn out to be a pretty strong one for the 1 goaltender for the Bruins after signing a pro contract with the Bruins Bruins. last month. This is a fourth-round pick that shows a lot of upside for a B’s group that’s going to need a young goalie with Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Urho Vaakanainen may not turn out to be a home run as a decent top-4 Halak both in their mid-30’s right now. prospect with limited ceiling both offensively and defensively, but the Bruins have a couple of potentially great picks in Jack Studnicka (second Here’s Swayman in action during a 4-2 win over BU this past season. round) and Jeremy Swayman (fourth round). Studnicka is the top forward Grade: A-. prospect in the organization as a potential top-6 center and Swayman has the best shot to be the future No. 1 goaltender for the Bruins Cedric Pare (6th round, 173rd overall) organization as Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak both hit their mid-30s. The good news is that the 6-foot-4, 212-pound Pare had an excellent They also missed with a couple of later picks on Cedric Pare and Daniel final junior season with 37 goals and 88 points in 64 games for Rimouski Bukac, but if you’re going to miss on players, doing it in the sixth and Oceanic in the QMJHL. He showed off a pretty good one-timer while seventh rounds is the way to go. scoring those goals.

Urho Vaakanainen (1st round, 18th overall) The bad news is that he was still playing junior hockey as a 21-year-old when the Bruins have already brought younger, more promising Some will remember that the name Paul Coffey was tossed around at prospects into the AHL fold over the last few seasons. That doesn’t bode NHL Draft weekend after the Bruins had selected the smooth-skating well for Pare’s future with the Bruins organization after he didn’t really Finnish defenseman in the middle of the first round. Well, I’m here to tell dominate until he was one of the oldest players in the league. you that Urho Vaakanainen is not going to be Paul Coffey. At development camp with the B’s, he didn’t show enough in the skating Certainly, he’s shown flashes over the last few seasons as he’s already or offensive departments, and never really played up to his imposing size had a couple of stints in Boston at 21 years old, and he’s had his either. Pare is essentially a free agent at this point that can sign a pro moments at the AHL level with nine goals and 28 points in 84 games for contract with any team and it doesn’t seem like that’s going to be the the P-Bruins over the last two seasons. He’s a good skater and he can Black and Gold as they have moved on to other center prospects. This play big minutes, and his offense has been developing at a decent level looks like a wasted pick at this point. given his production after showing less offensive ability as a younger player. He was touted as an advanced defensive D-man when he was Grade: F. drafted and interestingly enough that’s actually been an area of his game where he hasn’t been particularly impressive. Haggerty: Most heartbreaking Bruins playoff exits

Vaakanainen has a pretty active stick and can skate his way out of Victor Berglund (7th round, 195th overall) trouble, but he’s not very physical at 6-foot-1, 185-pounds and doesn’t The 6-foot, 180-pound Berglund is progressing nicely in Sweden at this really project to be a shutdown defenseman when he’s finally a regular at point after posting 10 goals and 22 points in 52 games for Modo in the the NHL level. He’s also had some concussion issues including this Swedish Leagues this past season. flagrant elbow from Mark Borowiecki that ended his first stint with the Bruins. Vaakanainen is still a work in progress, but it doesn’t feel like he’s The right-shooting Berglund signed last season with the Bruins and ever going to be the kind of NHL defenseman that the Bruins got in the played a few games for the P-Bruins at the tail end of the 2018-19 middle of the first when they picked Charlie McAvoy, does it? season with a goal and two points in four games, but didn’t come back to North America at all last season. One would expect that Berglund would Grade: B-. be back this coming season after turning 21 years old in August and he Get the latest news and analysis on all of your teams from NBC Sports has shown some advanced offensive ability from the back end to this Boston by downloading the My Teams App point.

Jack Studnicka (2nd round, 53rd overall) His size is pretty good, his skating and offensive game are strong and he’s still a young player coming into the North American game. There’s a The 6-foot-2, 175-pound Studnicka turned into a legit offensive stud in his lot of upside there for a seventh-round pick as he showed in this game in final couple of OHL seasons and was impressive in his first AHL Sweden last season and that makes Berglund a good choice already. campaign with 23 goals and 49 points in 60 games with the P-Bruins. He’s developed into the top forward prospect in the Bruins organization Grade: B+. and has size, skating ability, competitiveness and an ability to put the Daniel Bukac (7th round, 204th overall) puck in the net that makes him the closest thing to a top-6 heir apparent to Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci at the center position. The 6-foot-6, 210-pound Bukac was considered a raw D-man prospect when the Bruins selected him in the seventh round of the draft, and the It would have been interesting to see if he would have been pushed into big-bodied defenseman never really developed as a prospect. any kind of duty with the Bruins down the stretch this season, but he will be NHL-ready within the next couple of seasons as Krejci enters the final Bukac was actually pretty solid in his final junior season with Niagara year of his contract next season. Studnicka looks like a can’t miss guy for while posting four goals and 15 points in 54 games along with a plus-37 the Black and Gold and an excellent second-round pick as potentially rating, but he never seemed to develop the edge that the B’s would have their best player taken in this draft. been looking for given his skill set as a defenseman. So Bukac went home to the Czech League and signed a three-year contract with Liberec Studnicka scored a goal during this season’s preseason after taking a before playing in only one game for them this past season. puck off his face. Now that’s a hockey player. Bukac looks like another player drafted this season that is never going to Grade: A. see the light of day in the Bruins organization and therefore another Jeremy Swayman (4th round, 111th overall) wasted pick. Tough to blame the Bruins scouts for taking a shot on a D- man prospect with good tools like he showed on this goal with the Brandon Wheat Kings, but this one didn’t work out. Grade: D.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184328 Columbus Blue Jackets home with four of their five children. The eldest, Pauline, is in Florida with her fiancé Dustin Johnson, the fifth-ranked pro golfer in the world.

“I talked to Dustin (Thursday) and they're going to play a golf tournament Wayne Gretzky loves to chat about hockey, including Jackets' epic upset next week,” Gretzky said, referring to a made-for-TV skins game that will benefit coronavirus relief efforts.

Michael Arace “Let's hope we get sports back up. I don't know how we're going to do it. The biggest concern is the safety of people. That's primary. We've got to May 10, 2020 at 6:01 AM worry about the elderly, we've got to worry about the people less fortunate, we've got to somehow combine this excitement we have with

the primary thing — which is we don't want anyone to get hurt by the The quest for Wayne Gretzky's phone number did not go well, not at first. excitement.”

I first tried last month. I was working on a story about how the Edmonton Gretzky recently did a coronavirus-relief fundraiser of his own: He played Oilers' sweep of the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the Stanley the NHL 20 video game against Alexander Ovechkin. Gretzky had help Cup playoffs in 1981 resembled the Blue Jackets' sweep of the mighty from two of his sons, Ovechkin from a pro gamer. They suspended play Tampa Bay Lightning last year. in a tie. Why stop?

Hard rule: If one is discussing the Oilers pre-dynasty, mid-dynasty, “Well, because they told me it was going to be an hour long and we were McDavidynasty or whatever, it behooves one to talk to the Great One. an hour and a half in and we were tied one game to one,” Gretzky said with a laugh. “I was like, 'OK, at the end of the day, it's about making General rule: It's a good idea to talk to Gretzky — about anything. The money for the charity.' Basically, we'd had enough, right? man is eminently approachable. But the number I had was a bad one. So I got another number, and dropped Gretz a text the other day. I explained “My kids were so mad at me, they wouldn't talk to me for 24 hours. I'm who I was and what I was doing and asked him if it'd be OK to give him a old-school. I'm not big on that (video game) stuff.” call. I got an answer in 30 seconds. (Gretzky helped in the design of NHLPA Hockey '93, which old folks say “No. I don't do interviews.” is superior to the legendary NHL '94. Discuss.)

And then: “Gotta have a little sense of humor now. So tough for all. Call Gretzky also made news recently when he was asked, during a video you in an hour.” conference with NHL prospects, who among today's players he'd pick for linemates. He said Connor McDavid and Ovechkin. A little Wayneburn. It went viral. Gretzky called back four hours later. He apologized for the delay. He didn't sound extraordinarily contrite, but, then, at least Frank Sinatra “Yeah, I know,” he said. “But I could have picked a bunch of guys. I didn't have a cold. would love to play with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner because they played the game the way I played the game. I could play with Sidney Gretzky, two decades removed from retirement, remains the all-time NHL Crosby and Ovechkin, and Ovechkin's going to score a lot of goals. I leader in goals, assists and points, among 61 league records he holds could play with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and you can't lose. outright or shares. He still carries his superstardom with effortless cool Right? and easy humor. There remains, too, a Canadian-borne humility even as he shelters in place in a 16.5-acre mansion east of Malibu, in the hills of “There's so many good players today. So many. And that's a positive for Thousand Oaks, California. our sport.”

“I think our county has only had like 400 positive (coronavirus) cases, so It was 20 years ago last month that Gretzky played his 1,487th and final we've been lucky where we are,” Gretzky said. “My gosh, we haven't left. game (not counting playoffs, or his year in the World Hockey For me, I'm not a great flier, or traveler. … I don't want to throw salt on Association). any wounds here, but it has been nice for me. I've been home and we've He said he did not spend a second reminiscing. He was doing other had 7½ weeks of bliss. I've really enjoyed being just home. So, I'm OK. things — like watching the “The Last Dance,” the ESPN documentary We're OK.” about Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. It reminded him of the all-access It's good to be the Great One. As retired athletes go, he remains a top-10 documentary of the 1985-86 Oilers, “The Boys on the Bus.” (Gretzky earner; his current net worth is estimated to be $250 million. His business added, “Had they released it 20 years later, maybe it would have been interests run the gamut, from wineries to distilleries to restaurants to bigger.”) myriad endorsements. Yet, hockey still centers him as he once centered Gretzky likes where the NHL game is now, the speed of it. He likes Seth hockey. He maintains a job as an Alternate Governor and all-around Jones. “To me, Paul Coffey was the second-best defenseman ever to resource — for business as well as hockey interests — in the Oilers' front play the game, behind Bobby Orr. And Seth Jones reminds me so much office. of Paul,” he said. “Wayne loves to talk hockey,” said Paul Coffey, the Hall of Fame Gretzky is happy to say that Mario Lemieux, who for years carped about defenseman and Gretzky's longtime Oilers teammate. “He'll talk hockey obstruction until the league changed its rules, and cracked down on stick with anyone.” fouls coming out of the lockout in 2015, has been vindicated. It is so. “Mario was so good, he was so big, he was so smart, he was so fast,” The 1981 Oilers shocked the Canadiens, who were a year removed from Gretzky said. “Mario would dominate today. He'd get 80 goals a year. He four Cups in a row, in a best-of-five, first-round series. The 2019 Blue was the real deal and, more importantly, he's a wonderful guy. Good for Jackets shocked the Tampa Bay Lightning, owners of one of the greatest him.” regular-season performances in NHL history, in a best-of-seven, first- That's all for now. More after lunch. round series. Did history rhyme?

“Yeah, yeah,” Gretzky said. “Probably pretty similar. That's a good analogy. Nobody anticipated Columbus winning or us winning. … Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 05.11.2020 “I watched it all. (Tampa Bay coach) Jon Cooper and I are pretty good friends. We're neighbors in Idaho in the summertime. So, I got an opportunity to talk him a lot about what happened, and what he thought happened. From my point of view — and we won't know because of the pause — but you learn from mistakes. I think his team learned a great lesson from not winning that series. Unfortunately, we had a pause … ”

The NHL season has been paused since March 12. Gretzky his wife of nearly 32 years, Janet, have been ensconced in their Thousand Oaks 1184329 Detroit Red Wings Jersey Devils. Kaapo Kakko, drafted behind Hughes, had 23 points in 66 games for the New York Rangers.

If Yzerman chooses to use free agency to add a forward with some Detroit Red Wings in desperate need of forward with goal-scoring scoring power, here are options that could fit under a shorter-term, circa oomph. Here are some options $4 million or less annual range.

Vladislav Namestnikov

Helene St. James Namestnikov, 27, is coming off a two-year, $8 million contract ($4 million Published 6:00 a.m. ET May 10, 2020 cap hit). He had 17 goals and 14 assists in 65 games this season, which he began with the New York Rangers, continued with the Ottawa Senators, and finished with the Colorado Avalanche. He started his NHL career with the Tampa Bay Lightning, so Yzerman knows him well from Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman touched on numerous topics his days as GM of that club. during a rare news conference. Filmed Feb. 24, 2020 in Detroit. Detroit Free Press Evgenii Dadonov

The giddiness of their nine-goal opening weekend dissipated within two Dadonov, 31, is coming off a three-year, $12 million contract ($4 million weeks. As the losses mounted, the Detroit Red Wings were thoroughly cap hit). He had 25 goals and 22 assists in 69 games with the Florida exposed as a team that struggled to score, reliant almost exclusively on Panthers this season, and hit 28 goals in each of the previous two one line. seasons. He had 17 points during man advantages this season and last, so he should be able to help the Wings be more of a threat in that area. When the NHL paused the season March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic, they averaged a league-worst 2.00 goals per game, more Jesper Fast than half a goal worse than 30th-place Los Angeles’ 2.53 average. Of the 142 goals the Wings scored in 71 games, almost 50% were accounted Fast, 28, is coming off a three-year, $5.55 million contract ($1.85 million for by four forwards: Tyler Bertuzzi (21 goals), Dylan Larkin (19), Anthony cap hit). He had 12 goals and 17 assists in 69 games this season with Mantha (16) and Robby Fabbri (14). the Rangers. He shoots right, and could be a good fit on the second or third line, as well as help on the power play. General manager Steve Yzerman has a monumental task in the months ahead for the Wings to enter next season with a chance to be at least Carl Soderberg marginally better. Soderberg, 34, is coming off a five-year, $23.75 million contract ($4.75 They need a defenseman other than Filip Hronek with the skill to get the million cap hit). He had 17 goals and 19 assists in 70 games this season puck to the forwards. Moritz Seider, a first-round pick from 2019, may fit with the Arizona Coyotes. He reached 23 goals last season with that bill, but that’s a lot to ask of a 19-year-old. Dennis Cholowski, a first- Colorado. He’s a little older, but he could make sense on a one-year round pick from 2016, is another candidate, but he flunked when he had deal. the chance to step up this season.

They need a goaltender to replace Jimmy Howard. Jonathan Bernier Detroit Free Press LOADED: 05.11.2020 consistently gave his teammates a chance to win from mid-December on, but even with solid goaltending, the Wings struggled to win, thwarted by their inability to score.

They were stymied by the lack of depth and by injuries to forwards including Mantha, Filip Zadina and Andreas Athanasiou (who was traded at the deadline). Larkin and Bertuzzi were the only skaters not to miss a game.

Yzerman has numerous restricted free-agent forwards to sign, headlined by Mantha, Bertuzzi and Fabbri. Adam Erne had just five points in 56 games, but he has the skills to produce more — possibly in the 10-goal, 20-point range — and he plays with energy and finishes his checks.

Likewise newcomer Dmytro Timashov, acquired at the trade deadline, looked like he had some skill with the puck. Sam Gagner, a trade- deadline acquisition who is unrestricted, could be a fit on a one-year deal — he’s a good locker room guy, and could be waived if a better option materializes.

Next season's salary cap has yet to be determined, but given the uncertainty about finishing the season, it is likely either to remain the same as this season’s $81.5 million upper limit, or contract. The Wings have roughly $43 million allotted toward contracts for next season, which including those of Larkin, Frans Nielsen, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Valtteri Filppula and Luke Glendening.

Abdelkader (22 points in 120 games the past two seasons) could find himself on waivers if he doesn’t show something during next season’s camp.

Evgeny Svechnikov, a first-round pick from 2015, is no longer waiver exempt and should compete with Abdelkader for a job. The 23-year-old missed 2018-19 recovering from knee surgery, and endured something of a frustrating 2019-20 season, posting 11 goals and 14 assists in 51 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins, and no points in four games with the Wings.

The order for the 2020 draft has yet to be determined, too, but under current lottery rules the Wings will pick no worse than fourth overall. Alexis Lafrenière, Tim Stützle and Quinton Byfield are projected as the top forwards, but even as hyped a talent as Jack Hughes, the No. 1 pick in 2019, contributed just 21 points in 61 games as a rookie for the New 1184330 Edmonton Oilers Bouchard on-ice in those games: 21-31, -10

Bouchard off-ice in those games: 32-41, -9

Lowetide: What are Evan Bouchard’s chances of making the Oilers in Bouchard’s pairing struggled more than the rest of the group in the first 2020-21? half, as it was responsible for half of the even-strength gap in goal differential. Bouchard was a rookie, adjusting to a major leap from OHL to AHL, and it showed. In the final 27 games at even strength, things By Allan Mitchell would turn around:

May 10, 2020 Bakersfield’s goal differential in the final 27 games: 53-64, -11

Bouchard on-ice in those games: 20-20, 0

In the summer of 2018, the year he was drafted, many Edmonton Oilers Bouchard off-ice in those games: 33-44, -11 fans believed Evan Bouchard would begin the 2018-19 season in the These numbers represent real improvement by the rookie. Although he NHL. The observant fan would have seen a steady parade of Oilers first- didn’t dominate during five-on-five play, that’s an impressive turnaround round selections graduate immediately to the world’s best league, in the middle of a season. Bouchard’s defensive play has been under a beginning with Taylor Hall in 2010 and interrupted only once (Darnell microscope, but the math of his AHL season tells a promising story. Nurse in 2013) through Bouchard’s selection eight long summers later. Benefits of starting 2020-21 in Bakersfield The young defenceman hung around for seven games at the beginning of 2018-19, landing back in junior hockey in time to post another strong The main reason Holland, Tippett and the Oilers might want Bouchard in season for the London Knights of the OHL. the minors to start the season is depth. A team that has more than seven NHL-ready defencemen has a major advantage on the competition, and During that year, Edmonton fired general manager Peter Chiarelli, injuries, slumps and suspension always have an impact on the replacing him in the spring of 2019 with Ken Holland. In the summer of availability of the starting six on the blue line. 2019, Holland preached patience, pointing to his track record with the Detroit Red Wings and the rare teenager (Dylan Larkin, notably) who Holland might shop Larsson or Benning over the summer and find the made the big club in Motown. return unsatisfactory. Starting the season with a right-side depth chart of Larsson, Bear and Benning is a solid position to begin the year, and 2019 preseason Bouchard would represent a quality recall option in Bakersfield.

New coach Dave Tippett gave Oilers fans something to talk about early Edmonton could send Bouchard to the AHL if there’s a desire to see him in the process, suggesting Kris Russell would play on the left side (his dominate at that level. He’s shown he can deliver offence while playing natural spot) and opening up one spot on the right side for unproven the opposition to a goal-scoring saw-off at even strength, but a positive options. Bouchard was part of a group that entered training camp goal differential and a scoring spike would allow Bouchard to master that pushing for jobs on right defence behind incumbents Adam Larsson and level before he arrives as an every-night NHL player. Matt Benning. It’s my opinion that this step is unnecessary, but Holland has a tradition Among the unproven group, Bouchard got plenty of work during the of overcooking talent in the minors, and it might contribute to suppressing exhibition season and delivered impressive results. a large second contract, depending on usage in the years that follow.

Larsson and Benning would play the regular season opening-night roles Benefits of starting 2020-21 in Edmonton indicated in preseason, Larsson as the top right defenceman and Benning on the third pairing. Ethan Bear won the other job; he was Bouchard would give the Oilers’ power play a different look and could outstanding from the first day of training camp. The Oilers chose Joel contribute right away. It sounds crazy based on the team’s enormous Persson as the No. 4 right defenceman; he was on the injured list for power-play success in 2019-20, but Bouchard represents a capable and opening night but soon joined the roster. unique addition to the league’s top unit.

Bouchard received playing time in three preseason games but wasn’t Edmonton could also shave about $1 million off the cap by running used in the role expected of him based on skill set. Notice, via Natural Bouchard over Benning on the third pairing. The actual number saved Stat Trick, that Bouchard saw just 25 seconds per game on the power won’t be known until Benning is signed, but his current contract (he’s an play — that’s a tell from the coaching staff. RFA this summer) is $1.9 million and he is arbitration-eligible. Bouchard’s entry deal is for $894,167 plus a $500,000 bonus, with the estimated There was no showcase opportunity for Bouchard; he was heading to the AAV running $1,627,500, according to PuckPedia. farm. A possible benefit, and it won’t factor into the decision, is Bouchard’s One quick note on Caleb Jones, who was used on the right side in status as a rookie. For an organization that remains without a Calder preseason. My opinion is Oilers staff and management wanted to see Trophy winner as rookie of the year despite stunning freshman William Lagesson in the exhibition games and then curtailed Jones’ performances from multiple players over all eras, having Bouchard win opportunities. In the case of Jones, that hurdle was overcome later in the the award would be a nice result should things fall into place. year when he flourished after his recall. What does it all mean? Bouchard in the AHL There are so many factors involved in the decision, and we’ll know The Bakersfield Condors struggled in 2019-20, unable to repeat the entering preseason what the depth chart looks like. Holland bought out outstanding performances of the previous season that laid the Andrej Sekera a year ago to make room for youth, and it paid off with groundwork for Bear, Jones and Kailer Yamamoto to ascend to the NHL. stellar work from rookies Bear and Jones. Bouchard was a regular in the first and second half of the year, but his on-ice results improved markedly as the season wore on. We could see a buyout, but it’s less likely than it was last spring and there are other ways to make room for NHL-ready youth. Based on his Those are impressive second-half numbers for Bouchard during a time current résumé, Bouchard should be capable of sliding into the third- when the Condors were losing useful players due to injury and recall with pairing slot on the right side of Edmonton’s defence. regularity. The offensive side of his game is less of a worry; just look at Yamamoto’s spike in Edmonton compared to pedestrian numbers with a And that means it comes down to a decision on Benning. His price point banged-up Bakersfield team in 2019-20. The on-ice goal differential in is dear for a third-pair blue, but his five-on-five on-ice goal differential in the second half addresses his improvement defensively and is an his four NHL seasons with Edmonton is 158-129, +29. indicator of NHL readiness. Holland is a careful manager; it’s extremely unlikely he would move an Before we leave the 2019-20 AHL season, let’s compare Bouchard’s on- asset like Benning for less than 100 cents on the dollar, especially if ice performance in each half to the overall team (all numbers are even there’s an internal solution (Bouchard in Bakersfield) that works. strength): What are Bouchard’s chances of making the 2020-21 Oilers’ opening Bakersfield’s goal differential in the first 27 games: 53-72, -19 night? Considering cap space, team needs, injury worries and his ability, I’ll suggest a 66 percent chance the organization makes room for him. It’ll depend on the market during the offseason, but since right-handed defencemen are always in demand, I expect Holland will be able to find someone he can do business with in his efforts to make a hockey trade.

Bouchard on the third pairing, getting power-play minutes that increase as the season rolls along, could deliver the kind of results we associate with a Calder Trophy contender. It’ll be a closely watched situation this offseason.

The Athletic LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184331 Minnesota Wild is enough. I think we'll have to be smart as the season opens to keep guys fresh."

Dr. Mike Reinold, senior medical adviser for the Chicago White Sox, said If games resume, athletes will 'need to know when to peak' the challenge for pitchers has been how to at least maintain what they gained from their previous spring training progression.

By CLIFF BRUNT "It will take around three weeks to get a starting pitcher likely ramped up to five innings, but that assumes that they have done the work to MAY 11, 2020 — 1:55AM maintain themselves and are ready to even start that progression," he said.

Reinold said preparing is complicated because there is no return date Making it safe for America's professional sports teams to start playing set: "They need to know when to peak." games is one thing. "That's a big, important concept when we're trying to get our athletes Making sure athletes are in game shape is another. ready for a competitive season that they're building for," he said. "This is The coronavirus pandemic brought sports to a halt, but stay-at-home the first time in my career that we've ever not had that." orders are starting to be eased and a handful of NBA teams are opening Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton said assessing each player's practice facilities. condition after the layoff will be a key part of getting things rolling again. For players, the difference between merely working out and playing He said those conversations are happening even now. games will be a significant jump and experts say things shouldn't be "We don't need a soft-tissue (injury) because guys were a little bit rushed. With athletes unable to simulate game or even practice activity at behind," he said. "That's why the openness of the player and the home, they will need time before resuming competition. conversations we're having now are so important so we have a baseline "Whatever the amount of time is, just know that players will have the coming in." input and say so because we're the ones that's playing, and that comes Milwaukee Brewers general manager David Stearns said a second first," said Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul, president of the preseason probably wouldn't need to be too long once it's deemed safe. National Basketball Players Association. "We don't ever want to put guys in a situation where their injury risk is high. It varies from player to player. "Once it's safe, we can turn this thing on pretty quickly," he said. But it's at least got to be three to four weeks." Elias agreed: "We will be ready, and baseball will be ready for America Charlotte Hornets coach James Borrego said players could be at when America is ready for us." different points based on their access to equipment.

"There's veterans out there that may have a court in their home, in their facility and they're probably a little bit more ready to go than others," he Star Tribune LOADED: 05.11.2020 said. "I think we're talking weeks. This isn't something where after one week these guys are ready to go."

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has said on multiple occasions he believes a two- to three-week training camp would be needed before the season resumes. Many hockey teams have had trainers send at-home workout routines to players, but few if any have been on the ice in months.

"As much as I could mentally be in game mode, your body's not ready for it if you don't get a full offseason of training and if you don't get to play a long training camp with like seven exhibition games," Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. "If you only get a week training camp with a couple exhibition games, you're going to ruin your body."

Edmonton Oilers forward Alex Chiasson said it is on the athlete to be ready.

"That's going to be on us," he said. "We're professional athletes. We've got to make sure we prepare. It's not easy, but it is what it is, and we've got to deal with the situation as best as we can."

While basketball and hockey were nearing their playoffs, baseball was in spring training when things were shut down. It created a particular wrinkle for pitchers, who tend to train methodically toward full games.

Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzore said he expects another period that resembles spring training before games are played.

"The most important part of any spring training is preparation for your pitchers, especially your starting pitchers," Rizzore said. "Whenever you have to expedite a spring training, that's probably the most impactful decision that you have to make: How to ramp them up."

Baltimore Orioles GM Mike Elias agreed.

"When baseball does come back, you have to worry about guys going a very small number of innings," he said. "I don't know that we've come up with a solution to that. ... The public health guidelines makes it tough to do it without a training staff and coaches. Some of the pitchers are throwing into nets in their backyards and hitters are hitting off the tee."

Tampa Bay catcher Mike Zunino said the pitchers were his biggest concern.

"The biggest worry is injuries," he said. "It's one of those things, I think guys are staying in shape, they're throwing now. Hopefully a few weeks 1184332 New York Rangers but they managed to really do a pretty good job, working it out and working together.

“(Brendan) was a great kid, very sporty,” she said. “He played a lot of ‘He didn’t want to skate’: Rangers moms share childhood stories of their different sports. Baseball, he would switch hit. We lived in Arizona, so sons growing up was really easy. The kids were outside all the time. And he was a great kid. Very, very active.”

By Rick Carpiniello Despite Claude Lemieux’s reputation as a villain in The Garden, Deborah is thrilled that her son wears blue now. May 10, 2020 “Are you kidding?” his mother said. “The Rangers? It’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to us.”

Just three weeks before the NHL’s regular season was put on pause, the If anybody knows about being a hockey mom, it’s Linda Staal, whose Rangers were joined by 19 of their players’ mothers on the team’s annual three boys (Eric, Marc and Jordan) have played lengthy careers in the moms trip. We interviewed a number of the moms during the two-game NHL, with a fourth (Jared) who played briefly. jaunt through Chicago and Carolina for what was originally going to be a bigger feature for later in March. “Marc was always the guy to be ready for a hockey game when he was little,” she said. “It was always, when you said, ‘You have a hockey game’ While that story never ended up coming together due to obvious you’d never have to say it twice. He was pretty organized, I guess.” circumstances, we figured we’d share some of the best anecdotes the moms shared about their sons here on this Mother’s Day. And when you have four hockey-playing sons, well, peace and quiet are rare. Gina DeAngelo (Tony’s mom): “I could hear them yelling and screaming and their sticks go up against The Rangers defenseman is nothing if not a personality, and that’s an the boards and whacking shins,” Linda Staal said. “Typical boys.” understatement. But as a kid? The house, she said, was “crazy, busy, loud. But any time they could “Exactly the same as he is now,” his mother said. “Nothing but play stick hockey, or skate out on the rink, that was their favorite thing to shenanigans, always in trouble, always doing something funny. All his do.” teammates always loved him. I know he gets a bad rap, and people don’t think that of him, but he’s always been a fun guy, always. And yes, Marc – among his teammates – is known as the quiet comedian. “He keeps us laughing all day.” “A jokester,” his mom said. “Quiet, shy, until people get to know him and Gina DeAngelo told how when her older son Louie played hockey, a then he got to know the people around him. Then his personality comes young Tony would tag along for “learn-to-skate” events, usually against out a lot better.” his will. Just like the Staal clan, the Trouba family was also a hockey household. “He didn’t want to skate or do anything,” his mother said. “We would take him out there and he would do the ‘learn to skate’ and he would just lay “As a kid, (Jacob) was super competitive,” his mother said. “He has two on the ice and make snow angels. Every time they asked him to get up other brothers, so he grew up in a house full of boys. Lots of broken he would get his gloves and throw them at them. And they would get him lamps. back up and he would go back down and it would be the same thing over “He certainly was (a competitor). He is extremely hard on himself, which and over again.” sometimes can be a problem.”

Trish Strome (Ryan’s mom): She told him on the moms trip that she’d be a lot happier if he weren’t so Certainly you know by now that Strome is another big personality. Trish hard on himself during the two-game swing. isn’t much different. David Quinn gave her the task of reading the starting Though they’d battle, Trouba, according to his mom, is “real close with lineup in Chicago and she screamed at Artemi Panarin to pass the puck his brothers. Family is extremely important to him.” to Ryan. Jennifer Lindgren (Ryan’s mom): Strome’s brother Dylan – another “character” according to his mom – played for the Blackhawks that night, which made the first game of the At this point in the season, the Rangers’ hard-boiled rookie defenseman trip even more special for the Stromes. had a face full of stitches, bruises and welts.

“You know what? (Ryan) was always so dedicated,” Trish Strome said. “My God,” she said when asked if she were surprised. “Not at all. Not at “He was the perfect big brother to his two younger brothers, and he just all. Me or my husband are not surprised by that. That’s just so him.” knew what he wanted and he was always focused (on what he wanted). He dedicated his whole life to playing hockey. That’s all he ever wanted.” Lindgren’s older brother Charlie is a goalie for the Canadiens. Middle brother Andrew played goalie at St. John’s University in Minnesota, but The Strome house in Mississauga, Ont. was a bit rambunctious – wants to be a firefighter. youngest brother Matthew was a Flyers draft pick who played in the minors this season. “Ryan was just always very competitive and focused on hockey,” his mother said. “He loved to go to hockey, loved to go to the rink. He’s got “It (was) noisy in our house, as you can imagine, growing up,” she said. two older brothers, so he just learned to be tough out on the driveway. “But we always had a good time. All of them. My youngest is the quietest, but when he speaks everybody listens. It’s noisy, so when you can, get “I just think being the youngest of three and playing with all of Charlie’s your words in. … They had their little battles, but they were boys. As friends and all of Andrew’s friends, he was always just a survivor.” soon as they had their little tussle they were best friends again.” Michelle Skjei (Brady’s mom):

Deborah Lemieux (Brendan’s mom): Yes, Brady Skjei was traded to Carolina just a few days after the The son of Claude, the great agitator and thorn in the side of the Rangers mothers’ trip through that arena. Growing up in Minnesota, Skjei was from his time in Montreal in ’86 through his Devils tenure in the ‘90s, close with the Lindgren boys, especially Charlie, and a teammate of obviously has many of his dad’s traits. Trouba’s.

“I think he was pretty competitive at an early age,” Deborah Lemieux said “As a kid, a pretty happy-go-lucky kid,” Michelle Skjei said. “Competiive. about Brendan. “And I made the mistake of introducing him to hockey at Had a brother a year apart, so they were competitive with each other. a very young age. Therefore I was in the rinks all the time. It’s been a Brady was a really great kid. Very competitive, so two different Bradys, long road getting him here. yeah.”

“He had his own mind for sure. Claude and he had a lot of battles, mainly Though he also played baseball and golf in high school, Skjei forever about hockey. Claude wanted the best for him and he had his own way, wore his skates and gloves. “He just never stopped,” Michelle Skjei said. “He had roller blades on I think 24/7 . He would be out in the garage and he would come in the house, have a snack, roller blade around the center island (in the kitchen) then roller blade around the living room, then go back into the garage, then he’d shoot pucks.

“Just that, an outside boy. You don’t see that that much any more. He was one of those kids that played outside all of the time.”

The Athletic LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184333 Philadelphia Flyers — Josh Tessler (@JoshTessler_) February 2, 2020

Bourque isn't the strongest or fastest but everything else is really good, particularly the way he exploits gaps and understands angles. 2020 NHL draft profile: Mavrik Bourque, 'a gamer' at center, makes sense for Flyers He’s a guy that’s everything to that team, he plays probably too much for a player his age," Flahr said. "Every game I’ve seen him, he’s on the ice pretty much half of the game. Third game in three days, he doesn’t have By Jordan Hall a lot left in the tank, but a real character kid. He’s undersized a little bit but he can skate, he can play both ends of the rink, he likes to score, he May 10, 2020 9:00 AM likes all facets of the game and you can tell he’s a gamer. Intriguing guy and a guy that won’t have to wait too long on draft day.

7pt game for Mavrik Bourque last night in Halifax, and this goal was not Will Flyers go defense in the 1st round for second consecutive draft? too shabby. #2020nhldraft pic.twitter.com/JWmVqStHRf Will Flyers get a shot at 'talented' winger coming off 98-point year in — Jérôme Bérubé (@Jerome_Berube) February 2, 2020 WHL? Another good game for @Cataractes_Shaw F Mavrik Bourque with 5 pts Curious case for this center might intrigue Flyers in draft too (1 empty net goal + 4 assists). He has know 14 g + 15 a for 29 pts in A center with 'the quickness, the skill and vision' to entice Flyers in draft 19 games. Pretty impressive #2021NHLDraft #LHJMQ #QMJHL pic.twitter.com/IcpTp6gFGq The entire picture for the 2020 NHL draft remains cloudy with the ongoing suspension of the 2019-20 regular season because of the — Benoit Belanger (@BenoitGBelanger) November 13, 2019 coronavirus outbreak. Fit with Flyers Where will the Flyers be picking? When and how will the draft be held? It's uncertain if Bourque will be available for the Flyers if they end up Those questions are currently unanswered. picking at No. 26. NHL Central Scouting put him as the 22nd-ranked The Flyers hold seven total selections and, as of right now, are slotted North American skater, but EliteProspects.com has Bourque pegged as with the 26th overall pick. the 17th-best player in the draft and TSN's Craig Button slotted him at No. 20. “I think it’s a decent draft — I don’t know if it’s top end," Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr said April 25 in a phone interview with NBC The Flyers could be aiming for the best center available to replenish a bit Sports Philadelphia. "The top 10, 12 guys look like pretty high end. at an important position. They've taken three centers over the past two There’s a bit of a drop-off, but there’s some depth to the draft for a couple drafts — one in the sixth round and another in the seventh. of rounds. We don’t know totally where we’re picking, but we have an Bourque will undoubtedly have the Flyers' attention if he's in the ballpark idea. We have some guys targeted we feel we would be very happy with of their first-round selection. in the top couple of rounds and then we still have some work to do to clean up the mid-to-later-round picks.

"Obviously you’d want the big, scoring, playmaking center, anybody Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.11.2020 does. We’re in a position where we’ll likely be taking the best player available.

"Realistically the players you draft now are two or three years down the road, best-case scenario. Some cases you get surprised. But by then, your team needs are different. We’ll do the best we can, we have an idea of where our holes are going forward and places where we certainly want to add depth to, whether it’s center or scoring winger or defense, we’ll see what happens. We’ll prepare, we weigh guys against each other, the pros and cons and we’ll do the best we can there.”

This month and into June, we'll continue to break down options for the Flyers at No. 26.

Mavrik Bourque

Position: Center

Height: 5-foot-10

Weight: 178

Shoots: Right

Team: Shawinigan Cataractes

Scouting report

A deft and cerebral facilitator, Bourque is a big-time passer with step- ahead vision.

The 18-year-old scored 1.45 points per game, ninth most in the QMJHL, with 29 goals and 42 assists through 49 contests.

Alexis Lafreniere, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft, led the league with 35 power play assists. Bourque finished tied for fifth with 21.

How well does he see the ice? Check out this feed during a February game in which Bourque erupted for seven points (two goals, five assists).

Two Goals and 5 Assists for Mavrik Bourque. Crisp pass along the half wall on the power play. If Bourque continues to have nights like this, he will be a top 10 selection on draft night. Elite playmaker. Always seems to deliver the perfect pass.#2020NHLDraft | @FCHockey pic.twitter.com/NmVGSqJ0gT 1184334 Pittsburgh Penguins

Penguins A to Z: Filip Hallander has promise as a top-six winger

Seth Rorabaugh

Sunday, May 10, 2020 3:30 p.m.

While the NHL is on hold due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 55 individuals under NHL contract with the organization, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to high-profile trade acquisition Jason Zucker.

Player: Filip Hallander

Position: Center

Shoots: Left

Age: 19

Height: 6-foot-1

Weight: 190 pounds

2019-20 Swedish Hockey League (SHL) statistics: 27 games, 14 points (five goals, 14 assists)

Contract: First year of a three-year salary cap hit of $778,333. Pending unrestricted free agent in 2022

(Note: Because the Swedish-born Hallander spent this season in the SHL as a 19-year-old, he is a candidate to have his contract “slide” for the second consecutive season. In other words, his contract would be delayed another year and not begin until the 2020-21 season.)

Acquired: Second-round draft pick (No. 58 overall), 2018

This season: As a second-round pick by the Penguins — a designation that is somewhat cursed — Hallander’s 2019-20 season got off on the wrong foot, literally.

He missed the first three months of the season because of a broken foot he suffered in September. Hallander, listed as a center but regularly utilized as a winger, returned to the lineup in late December and averaged slightly more than a half-point per game as a teenager against men in a league where very few players score at a point-per-game pace.

By the time the SHL’s season was halted in mid-March, Hallander was averaging 15 minutes, 50 seconds of ice time and manning the left wing on the first line as well as the top power-play unit of a Lulea squad that was declared the league’s regular season champion with 106 points.

If the AHL season had continued as scheduled, Hallander was a candidate to play for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins once his SHL season was completed.

The future: Last month, Hallander signed a one-year contract extension with Lulea. The terms will allow him to join the Penguins should he make the NHL roster out of training camp, which, to be kind, is a long shot.

Barring that unlikely event, Hallander will presumably open the 2020-21 season with Lulea once again.

Whenever he finally makes the transition to North America, a considerable obstacle for him will be adjusting to the smaller North American rink as he has played exclusively on the larger international rink throughout his career.

In the long-term, Hallander has the skill to be a top-six winger in the NHL. While not blessed with great size, he is not afraid to go to to the net and collect goals or create second offensive chances near the crease. Additionally, he is a solid forechecker and has experience as a penalty killer.

If for no other reason than the Penguins’ have traded away so many high-end future assets over the past decade-plus, Hallander can be considered one of the organziation’s top prospects.

Tribune Review LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184335 San Jose Sharks

Sharks' Brent Burns turned to hunting after 2016 Stanley Cup Final loss

By NBC Sports Bay Area staff

May 10, 2020 4:28 PM

Battling all the way through the postseason just to come up short in a championship series is a crushing blow for any professional athlete. Some find healthy ways to channel that dejection, others don’t.

For Sharks star Brent Burns, picking up a new hobby helped take his mind off San Jose’s loss in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“When we lost in the Stanley Cup finals, that was my first hunt. I went and hunted a buffalo or bison,” Burns told The Athletic. “I’m very beginner still. It’s not very pretty when I do it. I’m still learning. It takes a long time to learn how to do it.”

Burns’ father was a butcher, and helped build a fascination in his son for quality wild meats.

“Yeah, he worked at a meat market before I was born and was a butcher at the grocery store.”

The six-time All-Star lives with his family on a 420-acre ranch in Texas, allowing him to utilize some of that space to fulfill his outdoor hobbies.

With the NHL’s season remaining on an indefinite hiatus, Burns now has plenty of time to pursue any and all of his off-the-ice passions.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184336 St Louis Blues Nine of MacEachern’s 10 NHL goals have come from 17 feet or closer. The average distance of those nine goals? Just 10 feet from the net.

During the season, MacEachern lives in an apartment in the Central MacEachern has a few balls in the air during NHL's shutdown West End, not far from teammates Vince Dunn and Sammy Blais. Once the league suspended play, on March 12, MacEachern frequently met Dunn and Blais in Forest Park for rollerblading. Jim Thomas “I like the city,” MacEachern said. “It’s cool. It’s a little different. It’s got some history.”

Blue Jackets Blues Hockey Once it became clear that the NHL’s coronarvirus “pause” would be lengthy, MacEachern hopped in his Jeep Grand Cherokee and headed Nothing has been handed to Blues forward Mackenzie MacEachern, back to his normal offseason residence — a townhouse in Troy, Mich., who’s had to scratch and claw for a roster spot and playing time on a near his parents’ home. talent-laden roster. “I’ve seen ‘em once or twice from the window of the car,” MacEachern After getting drafted in the third round in 2012 out of Brother Rice High said. School near Detroit, MacEachern spent a year playing junior hockey in the United States Hockey League. Then he had three years at Michigan The social distancing continued last week when the family did a drive-by State and then 2½ years in the American Hockey League. birthday greeting for older brother Michael, beeping horns, yelling, and then heading back to their homes. Not exactly the speed lane to the big leagues. At 25, MacEachern finally made his NHL debut. It came against Montreal, on Jan. 10, 201 — just “This isn’t a good time right now,” MacEachern said. “Obviously we wish three days after goalie Jordan Binnington’s first NHL start in a shutout of things were going different.” Philadelphia. Staying sharp MacEachern played 29 games that season, even had a game-winning goal against Nashville, but was a healthy scratch for the Blues’ last 10 His knee is healthy and he feels mentally refreshed. He has taken up regular-season games and all 26 Stanley Cup playoff contests. juggling — three tennis balls at a time — to sharpen his hand-eye coordination. He watched a YouTube tutorial on juggling to get him It looked like more of the same this season with MacEachern sitting out started. seven of the first eight contests. “Our strength coach (Eric Renaghan) has been doing a good job keeping “It’s definitely hard work to get there,” MacEachern told the Post- in touch with us,” MacEachern said. “Probably every two weeks he sends Dispatch. “It’s a Stanley Cup championship team, so it’s a tough roster to out a new program, a new list of movements or exercise he wants us to crack. This year, I started off not playing so much. But we have an do.” unbelievable group of guys; it’s easy to come to the rink even with those circumstances.” The instructions are tailored in part on what kind of equipment each player has at home. MacEachern purchased “a handful of dumbbells and But starting with an Oct. 21 victory over Colorado, he played in 41 a barbell with some weights,” and got a 10-yard strip of artificial turf from consecutive games. a friend. The turf gives him a surface to work out in his garage. That’s his gym. “I just kind of ran with it, tried to do the best I could every day to make it hard for them to take me out,” MacEachern said. An economics major, MacEachern has been waking up early and watching the business news and monitoring the stock market. A knee injury took him out, suffered on Jan. 18 against the Avalanche in the last game before the bye period and All-Star break. “That’s kind of been my thing as of late,” he said. “Keep the mind busy.”

Not full healthy after the break, MacEachern played in only six of the For recreation, he’s part of a Fortnite group that at various times includes team’s next 19 games. And just when he’d worked himself back in the Dunn, Blais, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou. lineup, playing three consecutive games, the season was halted because of the coronavirus pandemic. The youngsters do like the video games.

Tough luck for sure, but he received a nice consolation prize last month: a two-year $1.8 million contract extension. It’s a one-way deal, meaning St Louis Post Dispatch LOADED: 05.11.2020 MacEachern gets $900,000 a year whether he’s in the NHL or AHL. Of course, he plans on never seeing the AHL again.

“When things get back going and we get over the pandemic, I’ll obviously go into the season — whenever it is — with a lot of confidence that they instilled in me by giving me two more years,” MacEachern said. “It’s nice to get a couple years, get a little security. I don’t have to think about it for a bit. I can just go out there and play free and play loose and have some fun with that.”

Physical presence

MacEachern has good size (6 feet 3, 205 pounds), skates well and isn’t afraid to throw his body around or drop the gloves. He led or shared the team lead in hits in six games. Blues players have been involved in only seven fights this season, and MacEachern had one of them — on Nov. 25, against Nashville’s Matt Irwin.

In his 51 games this season, he has seven goals (two game-winners) and three assists. Pretty good production for someone who averaged only nine minutes per game.

Playing for Craig Berube in the minors with the Chicago Wolves gave MacEachern an early idea of what the man who now is the Blues’ coach expected.

“He’s also stressed, even since my first year in Chicago, that a large percentage of the goals in the NHL, they’re scored in front of the net,” MacEachern said. “So I tried to take that to heart as I slowly progressed in my pro career.” 1184337 Toronto Maple Leafs

Globe And Mail LOADED: 05.11.2020

Toronto FC follows Raptors lead, to begin individual player workouts Monday

NEIL DAVIDSON

PUBLISHED MAY 10, 2020

UPDATED MAY 10, 2020

Toronto FC says it will begin voluntary individual player workouts outdoors at its north Toronto training facility starting Monday.

That mirrors the Toronto Raptors, who are opening up the OVO Athletic Centre for similar workouts as of Monday.

The news comes in the wake of Friday’s announcement by the Ontario government easing restrictions on pro sports teams. Players are allowed limited access to their training facilities providing they follow their league’s “established health and safety protocols” in response to COVID- 19.

MLS and NBA have established strict guidelines for these workouts.

While the NBA now allows four players at a time in practice facilities, the Raptors will only have one player at a time in the building. Players will have to wear masks at all times except when on court. Staff members will wear gloves and masks at all times when in the building.

As for MLS, the field can be divided into a maximum of four quadrants for each field. Only one player a quadrant is allowed, with no equipment sharing or playing (passing, shooting) between players.

TFC players and staff will have to arrive and leave at staggered times, with designated parking spaces to maintain maximum distance between vehicles.

Players will have to wear personal protective equipment from the parking lot to the training field and back. Staff will also have to wear “appropriate personal protective equipment” during training while maintaining a minimum distance of 3.1 metres from players at all times.

Head coach Greg Vanney says he and his coaching staff won’t be directly involved in the workouts, whose details will likely be texted to players the night before. Trainers will oversee the sessions and ensure the rules are followed.

The individual player workout protocol does not allow access to all club facilities, with locker rooms and certain other areas still off-limits. Team gyms and training rooms may still only be accessed by players receiving postoperative and rehabilitation treatment, as directed by the club’s chief medical officer.

The MLS guidelines call for restricting access to essential staff only, as well as sanitization and disinfection plans (including balls, cones and goals).

“By utilizing the training ground for individual workouts, TFC will be able to provide a controlled environment that ensures adherence to safety protocols and social distancing measures for players and staff,” the club said in a statement Sunday.

The NBA suspended its season on March 11 after Utah Jazz all-star centre Rudy Gobert tested positive for the novel coronavirus. It ordered teams to close their facilities eight days later.

MLS suspended play on March 12 and put a halt to team training sessions.

Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, said Friday she is working with Major League Baseball’s Blue Jays, the NHL’s Maple Leafs and Senators and the CFL’s Argonauts, Tiger-Cats and Redblacks, as well as others “on what a safe return would look like for them.”

The NHL has yet to allow training to resume.

The NHL has said that it is working toward having players returning to small group activities at club training facilities. In the meantime, a ban on NHL players using training facilities other than rehab remains in place. 1184338 Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Up

“The circumstances are difficult for everybody in the world, but our season is not complete,” he said. “We have to take advantage of every Like their players, NHL coaches trying to stay sharp during pandemic day that we have to work towards being better versions of ourselves.” pause And while some players have taken up juggling or another new hobby, coaches have also found other ways to remain active during this era of By Joshua Clipperton self-isolation and physical distancing.

Sun., May 10, 2020 “My buddy’s a handyman,” Kompon said. “He asked me if I could help him out. I go, ‘Hey, I’ve got lots of time.’ I’m learning a different trade. I’ve been helping renovate a cottage.

Bruce Cassidy loves the NHL’s daily grind. “It’s nice to get out of the house. You’re learning about life after hockey because coaches are only as good as their last game.” The preparation, the teaching, the competition, the pressure. Montreal Canadiens assistant Kirk Muller, meanwhile, has been home in Rinse. Repeat. Kingston, Ont., during the spring for the first time in 15 years. “When you’re under duress and you’ve got a structured schedule — bang HOCKEY — you’re hammering things out during the year,” said the head coach of the Boston Bruins. “Everything’s got a timeline and you have to be “I’ve been mister outdoorsman,” he said. “I’ve been working on the efficient.” property, cutting trees, weeding.

But like many people mostly confined to their homes or apartments “I have two of my daughters with me and I have my grandson here ... it’s during the COVID-19 pandemic, even Cassidy, whose team sat first in been busy, I haven’t been bored.” the NHL standings when the NHL paused its season March 12, has found it difficult to find motivation with the days bleeding into one another. Cassidy, who assigned different tasks for his staff without hard deadlines, said the unknown makes the situation difficult from a coaching “The saying goes, ‘Nothing to do and all day to do it,’” he added with a perspective. If the NHL eventually get the go-ahead, how many players laugh during a recent interview. “All of a sudden the day’s gone. You’ve will be allowed on the ice for those initial practices? Will there be regular- got two things to do. You finally get through one and you’re like, ‘Well, I season games? Will the league go right into the playoffs? Will the usual don’t have time to do the other thing.’ 16-team post-season bracket be expanded?

“It’s like, ‘I’ll just put that aside, I’ll start reading the paper a bit.’ This or “It’s not like I’m telling (my assistants) something has to be done by 3 that grabs your attention. You lose a bit of that part of it, your p.m. today,” he said. “It’s just stuff on their own that they need to know. concentration.” They need to be up to speed. Once we get back to work you’d rather focus on the present, which would be, ‘Let’s get our players ready. How A lot has been made about how hockey players have been trying to keep are we going to do that?’ in shape with home workouts since the novel coronavirus outbreak forced the league to suspend its schedule nearly two months ago. “Instead of trying to catch up on the New York Islanders’ neutral zone play later, we have plenty of time to do that now.” Coaches are also doing their best to stay sharp. He also knows there’s a chance a lot of work done during the hiatus may Some teams assigned their staffs projects and due dates, while others never see the light of day. took more of a laissez-faire, work-at-your-own pace approach after it became clear the stoppage would last for some time. “I guess if nothing happens, then nothing happens,” Cassidy said. “It’ll all just go in a folder and be ready to go next season.” If the games do resume this summer — the league is looking at a number of options for a return to play if governments give the green light — there’s work to do on potential playoff opponents, talent evaluation and areas to improve. Toronto Star LOADED: 05.11.2020

Columbus Blue Jackets assistant Brad Shaw, one of a number of bench bosses to present a video seminar as part of the new online mentorship program run by the NHL Coaches’ Association during the pandemic, said he’s already completed a lot of the tasks usually reserved for the off- season.

The former defenceman broke down his team’s penalty kill, as well as the schemes used by the top short-handed and power-play units around the league.

“I’m seeing if there’s things we can borrow and things to be ready for,” Shaw said. “But it’s a little tough not having a real timeline or deadline. That’s kind of curtailed the motivation some days.”

Winnipeg Jets counterpart Jamie Kompon has had some of the same feelings, but has forced himself to push through the work.

“Where can we get better to simplify our game to make it more effective?” he said. “I spent the first three or four weeks watching video. You start seeing things repetitively. How can we make drills so we can improve on this? If we do come back, then it’s going to be a sprint to the end.

“We want to make sure that we give ourselves the best chance.”

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe, who was 47 games into his career behind an NHL bench when the pandemic hit, said there’s a professional responsibility to be ready.

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Never miss the latest news from the Star, including up-to-date coronavirus coverage, with our email newsletters 1184339 Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t last the season after McElhinney, a stalwart the previous year, was claimed off waivers by the Carolina Hurricanes. Michael Hutchinson didn’t excel in the role either.

Two years after Dubas' promotion to GM, truest evaluation of Leafs will Neither Tyson Barrie, who is likely to depart via free agency once 2019- come in playoffs 20 is done, nor Alex Kerfoot were glowing in their initial months as Leafs after they came east in the trade that sent Nazem Kadri to Colorado.

Terry Koshan A team that had just a three-point lead on a playoff spot when the season was halted, as the Leafs did on the Florida Panthers, remains a work in May 10, 2020 8:09 PM EDT progress.

Any proper judgment of Dubas can’t be made until the Leafs have had chances to prove themselves, and to prove his construction of the team When Kyle Dubas was promoted to general manager of the Maple Leafs was the correct one, in the playoffs. two years ago, he made an observation during the club’s news conference at what was then the Air Canada Centre. We do know that holding news conferences in late April or early May and trying to project what might come in the following season won’t be “We enter into another part of our journey, which is to reach our ultimate acceptable. goal of contending perennially to be fighting at this time for the Stanley Cup,” Dubas said. “Instead of sitting here.”

That was on May 11, 2018. Toronto Sun LOADED: 05.11.2020 In the short time since, the Leafs haven’t had much of an opportunity to put some substance behind those words, losing in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs to the Boston Bruins last spring before getting themselves to third place (again) in the Atlantic Division when the COVID-19 global pandemic caused the NHL to pause its regular season on March 12.

For Dubas and the Leafs, it’s about what comes next, even if no one knows when there will be an opportunity to play games again and what the outcomes of those games will be.

Fact is, Dubas has had the kind of initial run as an NHL general manager one might expect from someone who has not yet had his 35th birthday. There have been hiccups along the way, but Dubas hasn’t come untracked from his vision of putting together a fast, puck-hungry team that has possession at the top of its to-do list at each opening faceoff.

Within 16 months of taking over, Dubas charted the course of the Leafs with the signings (in order) of John Tavares, William Nylander, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to long-term contracts. The Nylander talks didn’t follow a smooth process, something Dubas lamented later; after signing with minutes to spare on Dec. 1, 2018, Nylander was a non-factor for the remainder of the 2018-19 season. That was forgotten by the prolific way in which Nylander played before the pause, scoring 31 goals in 68 games.

Matthews, who has the ability to take aim at 50 goals a season for the next decade, and Marner, whose playmaking talents have put him at better than a point-a-game pace for the past two season, are the envy of most teams across the NHL.

As captain, Tavares is the leader that binds the club. Point is, it’s a solid quartet of players to have as the majority of the nucleus.

The catch, of course, is to what extent the commitment of more than $40- million US to four players will impact the roster going forward. That was part of the conversation well before the coronavirus pandemic threw future schedules into question and the adverse effect the stoppage of games is expected to have on the salary cap.

Three integral players — goaltender Frederik Andersen, defenceman Morgan Rielly and forward Zach Hyman — will command significant raises once their current contracts expire. Andersen and Hyman are slated to become unrestricted free agents after the 2020-21 season while Rielly follows a year later.

The promotion of Sheldon Keefe to head coach last November after the firing of Mike Babcock crucially put Dubas in lockstep with his coach. There’s a shared vision now and count on Keefe, under whom there were steps forward, to have a greater influence once he can guide the team with a benefit of training camp rather than taking over seven weeks into a season.

Dubas probably wouldn’t mind another crack at certain decisions he has made in the past couple of years, but there aren’t many NHL GMs who would look back and claim to be completely satisfied.

The Leafs appear to have shored up their backup goaltending with the acquisition of Jack Campbell in February. The mess at the position had its roots in Dubas choosing to go with the unproven (in the NHL) Garret Sparks instead of Curtis McElhinney coming out of camp in 2018. Sparks 1184340 Toronto Maple Leafs In the early days of cable sports TV shows in the 1980s in Toronto, a female caller complained that a young local named Brendan Shanahan wasn’t getting any media coverage. Listening in, the future Leafs Mom's the word for NHLers president immediately recognized his mother, Rosaleen.

“I banned her from calling,” Shanahan laughed at his Hockey Hall of Fame induction. “Then she started using a fake name. She kept telling Lance Hornby me it wasn’t her. But she has the thickest Irish brogue and wasn’t fooling anyone.” May 10, 2020 10:01 AM EDT Shanahan was ever grateful for Rosaleen filling a void after his fireman

father, Donal, died of Alzheimer’s. She got her driver’s license and Kay McGill is already a Hall of Fame hockey mom. commuted from Toronto to London on weekends to watch her son play with the Knights. But son, Bob, won’t let Mother’s Day go by without another deserved shout out for her influence on his career. And to the millions of others LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER who give up their sleep, income and more for winter driving and Hayley Wickenheiser also had a great example set before becoming a lukewarm coffee, all to keep sons and daughters in their favourite sport. hockey mom herself. “My mom was the first female president of the Leduc (Alta.,) Minor Marilyn was a Phys Ed teacher in Shaunavon, Sask., who joined Hockey Association,” the retired NHL defenceman said with pride. “That husband, Tom, in launching her career, though neither parent pushed it. was in (the ‘70s) when women rarely got those positions. But they Hayley, who has gone from Canadian Olympic star to an historic player- needed someone who could help organize the rink schedule, run the development role with the Maple Leafs, recalled her mother wanted a concession stand and fund raise for hockey and summer sports. worthy pastime, then worried about her chosen sport. “She had to manage all the game time slots from Squirts to Jr. B. But she “Many times, mom said, ‘are you sure you want to keep playing? This is had tremendous leadership skills and took the bull by the horns. That’s kind of hard’,” Wickenheiser said. “They both were just kind of quietly why they put her in the Leduc Sports Hall Of Fame (a 2018 ceremony in there for me. They went into debt every four years to go to the Olympics which the Leafs Nation Network analyst was also inducted).” and really put their life into hockey, because women weren’t obviously Though he had to share his mom with a couple of hundreds other kids making the big money. I owe them a debt of gratitude.” (and her limited spare time from a day job as an X-ray technician) there Her own son, Noah, now in his 20s and in college, enjoyed the game were still some intimate family moments with brothers Pat, Dean and growing up, and as Wickenheiser proudly noted, was able to sneak sister Kelly, who didn’t play hockey, but often came to watch. through often heavy security every time Canada won a medal to join his “We had a ‘64 Pontiac Parisienne we called ‘the white beast’, a four-door mom in the on-ice celebration. with lots of room for our three hockey bags in the trunk,” Bob laughed. Fellow Hall member Angela Ruggiero of the U.S. national team is now “We might have tournaments in three different cities around central married with two boys and was also a trailblazer. Alberta; Camrose, Red Deer, Fort Saskatchewan on one weekend, but somehow mom and dad (Al) never missed being in the stands.” “In Grade 2 for career day, I came to school in hockey equipment,” she said. “I knew I wanted to play. So I’m thankful to my mom and dad for AMAZING GRACE helping a 7-year-old do it, in California of all places.” Should a statue for the nation’s hockey moms be erected, we nominate BIG-LEAGUE BOY Grace Sutter. The late Wade Belak once brought his mom to Toronto from North Helping run a cattle farm in Viking, Alta., and raise seven sons, six whom Battleford, Sask., to see him play in the Big Smoke. made it to the NHL, is at least worthy of a pedestal. First, you had to admire her bravery before any of the sextet even skated on a big-league One of Lorraine’s first stops was the Air Canada Centre’s Leafs store rink. If their legendary hayloft ball hockey games were getting too where she expected to see her plugger son’s No. 2 sweater prominently boisterous or disturbed the herd in the barn beneath, she’d go up into the alongside stars Mats Sundin, Tie Domi and Curtis Joseph. She was midst of their rough housing and snatch the tennis ball. deflated to not see even one, but quick-thinking Wade explained he was so popular the store must have been sold out. “The cows had to get used to the noise,” Grace said in the book Six Shooters. “I’d be milking when the boys would come in and head up for a Wade said he and Lorraine kept an agreement from his minor-hockey quick game. Somehow, despite the yelling, the cows kept still and I kept days right through to the NHL, $5 from her for every goal he scored. milking. When it was time to eat, I had to climb right up there and get them.” WINDY CITY TALES

She and husband, Louie, saw Brian, Brent, Darryl, Duane, Rich and Ron Sometimes NHL careers require real maternal motion. through junior hockey and about 5,000 combined NHL games. Almost 45 Young Mike Brown was a rollerblader in the Chicago suburbs before his years after Brian was the first NHLer in the family, with the St. Louis mother saw a learn-to-skate brochure and signed him up for what Blues, son Brandon keeps Grace’s flame burning with the Canucks. became 12 pro seasons. A few years earlier in the same region, 6-year- Grace raised a few Cup winners in her brood, but no Lady Byng trophy old Ed Olczyk wanted to quit skating after his first lesson because of sore winners yet. feet. But mom Diana had paid for several weeks and insisted he go back.

TEACHING TEEDER “Tough love,” Olczyk said years later, though Diana did have to pay twice for new skates. She figured the whites ones she first bought were fine for Teeder Kennedy, “the quintessential Leaf” as described by Conn boys and girls, until Ed’s coach politely took her aside to explain. Smythe, had the quintessential role model. Goalie Garret Sparks’ mom, Lisa, also drove him around the Chicago “I once asked him, ‘who was your hero?’,” Mark Kennedy said at his late area to countless arenas. father’s Legends Row statue unveiling. “I expected him to say Charlie Conacher, but he said, ‘My mother. She was a little Irish woman who had “Parents are your support system when all else fails,” he said. “She made two husbands die under terrible circumstances (Kennedy’s father in a a lot of good friends through hockey, but a hockey mom is a full-time job. hunting accident 11 days before his birth). She raised five children by You can’t have a paying job if you’re hopping on the road. turning her home into a restaurant, washing floors in the Bell telephone “We were in the car every Thursday night it seemed and the rest of the building and working the concession stand at the local rink. She was a week were practices. We wouldn’t be home until 11:30 p.m. and then she woman with the kind of perseverance and unwavering courage that you had to get us out of bed for school in the morning. It’s a full shift.” learned from.” THE RIGHT NOTE SON ALWAYS SHINES Not only did Alma Clark do a good share of the driving to get her three dancing on the station’s talent show, the Geritol Follies, and Jean young sons to hockey practice, she logged plenty of air miles with recognized Hendrick at Quinn’s first Leafs camp in 1998 as Leafs TV husband Les, following Wendel, Don and Kerry to various NHL, minor host. pro and junior rinks around North America. “You be nice to that Mr. Hendrick,” Jean warned Pat. “You never forget Mother’s Day,” Clark advised younger teammates one day in the Leafs room. “Here I am, coach of the Leafs and my mom is still barking out orders,” laughed Pat. One of Wendel’s earliest lessons about commitment from Alma had nothing to do with hockey. The future Leafs captain asked for saxophone PRAIRIE COMPANION lessons as a teen because he thought it looked cool. He quickly lost Before Mr. Hockey, there was a Mother Hockey. interest, but Alma would not let him give it up until he learned some rudimentary pieces. Katherine Howe did the best for her family as a Depression-era housewife in Saskatchewan, but had no money for skates for young DON’T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE Gordie.

The Leafs had a few overly demonstrative minor hockey moms before One day, a man came to their door with a grab-bag gunny sack, hoping the crackdown on excessive parental behaviour at games. Doug Gilmour to trade it for milk money. She scraped together a couple of dollars in humorously recalled his mom, Dolly, once reached over the boards with sympathy and when Howe and sister Edna dumped the bag’s contents, a her purse to try to hit the referee. pair of men’s skates fell out. Each took a skate and refused to part with it, “But she’s also the one who deals with the report cards and school. until Gordie finally spent a dime to buy Edna’s. Dad’s the one who gets home after work and takes you to practice. Both He wore extra pairs of socks to make them fit, took to the frozen sloughs had good days and bad days with me.” around their home and you know the rest.

When Zach Hyman got in his first NHL fight with Detroit’s Darren Helm, it Katherine was flown to his hospital bedside in Detroit in 1950 after the wasn’t father Stu that Hockey Night in Canada cameras tracked in the 21-year-old’s terrible head injury in a game against Toronto. An operation stands, but wife Vicky, yelling her support. to reduce brain swelling put his life in danger. Fraught with worry and ill “I think my dad gave her a little shove to quiet down a bit,” laughed Zach. from her first plane ride, Katherine looked so pale and sick when Gordie “But that’s my mom. Five boys and she’s pretty protective of us.” regained consciousness he jokingly offered to switch places with her.

Other mothers are a lot more shy. When action got frantic around James MOM’S THE WORD Reimer’s crease when the Leafs were taking the Bruins to seven games The Winnipeg Falcons — and hockey’s first Olympic gold medallists, at in the 2013 playoffs, TV shots caught Marlene covering her face or hiding the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium — included sons of Icelandic behind April, James’ wife. immigrants. Their mothers help knit the heavy sweaters for the team from “I’m sure I took a few years off their lives,” Reimer laughed. “(Marlene) wool sheared right off the backs of local sheep … Former Hurricanes drove me around a lot, gave me plenty of support. She taught me how to owner Peter Karmanos Jr. said his mom let him stay up and watch the act as a person and that translates on to the ice.” third period of Wings games on an old Zenith set in the ‘50s, leading to his path to the Hall. “The only other thing on TV at the time was (kids’ NANA, HEY HEY show) Howdy Doody,” Karmanos said. “I’d never seen anything like hockey and a lifelong passion was born” … When Leafs coach Mike Let’s not forget the grandmothers. Babcock advised rookie Mitch Marner to put on some muscle, mom The first netminder Wayne Gretzky ever faced was Mary, his Polish Bonnie took over his nutrition plan. “When I get home late, she always grandma. She’d sit patiently in a living room chair while the 2-year-old has a meal prepared for me,” said Marner, who became a two-time team future Great One would try to score between her feet with a mini-stick scoring leader … When each Toronto Marlie had his day with the 2018 and rubber ball. Calder Cup, Mason Marchment made sure Kim had the satisfaction of raising the heavy hardware over her head. While NHLer Bryan In the 1960s, whenever he was named one of the three stars at the Marchment was his inspiration, Mason said his mom was a big part of his Gardens, goalie Johnny Bower began giving a wave of his blocker during long shot career as a pro. “Dad was always away travelling and she did his post-game bow, a secret signal to his wife’s mother watching at all the driving” … Babcock’s mother, Gail, died of cancer in 1991. “She home. It evolved into recognition for all matriarchs among Leafs fans. always used to put a note on the fridge: ‘Let your ups be longer than your downs’. There’s nothing more true in the NHL than that.” But one night Bower was given a star he thought was undeserved and didn’t wave. He was surprised to get many letters from angry grannies.

NOT NOW, I’M WORKING Toronto Sun LOADED: 05.11.2020 When Paul Kariya was informed he was going in the Hall’s 2017 class, his first call was to his workaholic mother Sharon, a teacher in B.C. Paul said it was typical that he she was busy scrubbing her floors when the phone rang and didn’t want to stop and chat.

“I think of all the times she woke up Sunday at 5 a.m. to take me to hockey,” said Paul, whose dad had passed away 15 years earlier. “She sacrificed her Sundays to drive me and my friends. We called our car ‘The Popemobile’. It was a Volkswagen Vanagon and we loaded it with my buddies and equipment.”

ICE IS NICE

In Highland, Mich., Mike Modano’s parents registered him for hockey, in part for an attention deficit disorder that needed outlets for excess energy. In their backyard, Karen Modano “made the best ice in the state” Mike declared and when needed, she played goal using a garbage can lid.

BEHAVE YOURSELF

Coach Pat Quinn often clashed with the media, except when Jean intervened.

Jean and Jack Quinn lived in the same modest house in Hamilton where they raised a post-war family. Paul Hendrick of CHCH recalled the couple 1184341 Vegas Golden Knights Roy received a two-year contract extension in April with an average annual value of $750,000. He hopes it’s just the first sign that his AHL days are behind him.

Golden Knights roster review: Nicolas Roy “That was my goal, to prove that I belonged in the NHL,” Roy said after signing the deal. “This contract shows that I was able to do that.”

By Ben Gotz

May 10, 2020 - 3:07 PM LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL LOADED: 05.11.2020

The Review-Journal presents its “Roster Review” series, which will examine each Golden Knights player’s current production and future outlook in alphabetical order. Monday: Forward Nicolas Roy.

Background

The Golden Knights’ organization ran into a rather large obstacle chasing a championship last season.

The Chicago Wolves put together an impressive American Hockey League playoff run in which they reached the Calder Cup Final. All they needed to do to lift the trophy was beat the Charlotte Checkers and their 6-foot-4-inch behemoth of a center.

It didn’t happen.

Nicolas Roy outscored Knights top prospect Cody Glass in the series while defending him often at five-on-five. The Checkers, unsurprisingly, won the Cup.

That’s something the Knights didn’t forget last summer when they discussed an Erik Haula trade with the Carolina Hurricanes, Charlotte’s NHL affiliate. The Knights wanted the center on their side.

So that player, Hurricanes prospect Roy, was sent to Las Vegas as part of the deal. His four-point, plus-5 showing in the five-game Calder Cup Final was tantalizing enough that his new team wanted to see more.

“He was one of Charlotte’s better players, without a doubt,” Wolves coach Rocky Thompson said in September. “I think there’s a ton of potential with Nicolas.”

Production

Roy, 23, has shown that promise in glimpses as a rookie.

His first goal, against the Anaheim Ducks, displayed his speed and strength. A tally against the St. Louis Blues in January — part of the greatest comeback win in Knights’ history — showed off his grit and tenacity.

He just hasn’t exhibited those talents consistently, largely because he hasn’t been consistently around.

Roy has been a victim of a season-long salary cap crunch for the Knights. He has frequently bounced between the NHL and AHL — to the tune of 31 transactions since the season began — so the team could gain financial flexibility.

Roy hasn’t whined, though. He’s just worked. Thompson said he often caught Roy and fellow Knights rookie Zach Whitecloud in hotel gyms after plane rides when they were in the AHL.

Those efforts started to show up on the ice as Roy spent more time in the NHL. He’s tightened his defense. He’s learned to use his big frame effectively. He has all the makings of a valuable bottom-six forward.

There’s even the potential to be more than that.

With Mark Stone injured, Roy played second-line right wing in the team’s last four games before the season was paused because of the coronavirus pandemic and fared well.

“He’s just scratching the surface of his abilities,” coach Pete DeBoer said in March. “He’s just growing into his body. He’s just getting some of that strength that you need to be able to create some room for yourself at this level. He’s got a high IQ. He’s highly skilled. He makes a lot of plays. He’s good defensively. He’s got a big upside.”

Future

The Knights have already invested in that ability. 1184342 Washington Capitals

Capitals defenseman Brenden Dillon: 'I think we are going to come back and play'

By Brian McNally

May 10, 2020 3:17 PM

Capitals defenseman Brenden Dillon is still waiting out the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in San Jose, where he played six years with the Sharks before a February trade to Washington.

Everyone has a theory on if, when and where the NHL season will resume. Dillon is no different. Hockey players have a lot of time on their hands right now to go through the scenarios.

“I think we are going to come back and play. I just think there’s so much invested,” Dillon told SportsNet’s ‘31 Thoughts’ podcast. “Not just talking about money. But I’m talking about the games we’ve played. We’re talking 70 games or whatever we finished with, guys getting injured, guys getting traded like myself. These opportunities that might never come again for some players.”

So Dillon remains cautiously optimistic. He told 31 Thoughts’ Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman that while his condo in California is too small for a home gym, a neighbor owns a gym downtown and has given him his keys to the place. That gets Dillon up and out of the house every morning at least for a workout. Otherwise, he’s waiting on his back-ordered Peloton and, like almost every NHLer at this point, has ordered a pair of rollerblades to at least keep his skating stride going during the downtime.

Dillon only got 10 games with the Caps after his emotional departure from the Sharks, where he established his career and helped San Jose reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2017. After telling a story about star center Joe Thornton coming into the Sharks’ closed practice facility on Christmas Day with his kids to ride the exercise bike and tape his stick, the 31 Thoughts co-hosts asked Dillon to compare Thornton to Alex Ovechkin.

“Ovi is just a guy that he just wants to win and he’s helped create that culture there in Washington ‘Let’s have some fun, let’s joke around but when the puck drops, I’m going to run through you, I’m going to do everything I can to score goals,’” Dillon said. “I mean, I don’t even know if Ovi is a hockey player. I think he’s a goal scorer, man. It’s unbelievable. It’s incredible really.”

Dillon hopes he and Ovechkin reunite at some point this summer for a Stanley Cup run. His contract is up at the end of the year, which will make for a weird summer even if the games don’t come back. He and fiancé Emma Wittchow were supposed to get married this summer, too, but even those plans are up in the air thanks to the coronavirus.

“For a lot of us, we'll play on planet Jupiter right now, we're just so excited and revved up to play," Dillon said.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184343 Washington Capitals

Capitals GM Brian MacLellan has some concerns with the NHL's June draft plans

By J.J. Regan

May 10, 2020 12:10 PM

With the NHL looking to stay relevant with the regular season paused due to the coronavirus, one idea that was floated by the league in a memo to teams is holding the entry draft in June before the current season is finished. Most general managers have pushed back against the idea and Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan is among those with concerns over this proposal.

“I think most of the managers would like it to happen in a natural order,” MacLellan said on the Two-Man Advantage podcast. “There’s a natural order of business, there’s a rhythm to it. Some teams use that time to reset their rosters. It’s a way to manage your roster and cap situation for next season, it’s a way to make trades and a lot of decisions are based on how you concluded your previous season. So if you go into the playoffs and maybe a weakness is identified or you weren’t as successful as you were [hoping] and you need to make changes and the draft seems to be an area where you can accomplish those things before next season.”

MacLellan acquired Lars Eller at the 2016 draft for two second-round picks from the Montreal Canadiens. The team also traded away Brooks Orpik and Philipp Grubauer to the Colorado Avalanche for a second- round pick at the 2018 draft to free up cap space. Those are the kinds of deals that can't get done if the NHL follows through on its June draft proposal.

While he may not like it, MacLellan also sees the league's angle on this as well.

"I also understand this is a business too," he said. "This is a league business. The commissioner and the league have some business decisions to make, there's national right holders, there's a national audience that's looking for some content and there's an opportunity there for the league to sell our draft, to introduce the draft to people who don't usually watch it possibly. So I think there's probably a little tug of war.

With no sports to speak of, even the NHL draft, which is typically not a major day on the American sports' calendar, could take advantage and generate more buzz.

But that's not enough to convince MacLellan or really most of the other GMs.

"I think us as an organization, from a purely management viewpoint, you'd rather have it in a natural order, but I get that there's a business going on here and the league has to balance both those decisions out," MacLellan said. "I think the commissioner will make his decision and we'll work with that, we'll work with the guidelines he sets up."

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184344 Winnipeg Jets Heinola and Dylan Samberg blossom into effective NHL rearguards? What about Logan Stanley?

In terms of stud defensive prospects, there are two right now in Heinola Plenty of options for Cheveldayoff if NHL moves forward with June draft and Samberg. Looking to add another with the benefit of a potential top- 10 pick would be ideal.

Scott Billeck Enter Jake Sanderson.

May 10, 2020 8:25 PM CDT “Sanderson is an outstanding talent capable of taking charge and controlling the play with his elite skating, sharp presence of mind and high-end puck skills,” Director of NHL Central Scouting Dan Marr said in the NHL’s draft profile back in February. Not much room for Oilers general manager Ken Holland to sign players Sanderson, the son of former NHLer Geoff Sanderson who played 1,100- We find ourselves in an interesting season of life. plus games, is all over mock drafts — from the middle of the top-10 to Normally, we’d all be enthralled in the later rounds of the Stanley Cup somewhere in the mid-teens. Playoffs, sitting on seats’ edge and waiting for hockey’s holy grail to be The left-hand shot has size and speed, and perhaps a boon for presented to its deserving recipients. Winnipeg’s brass: He’s committed to the University of North Dakota and This isn’t your normal year. he’s from Montana. He’s going to one of the best hockey schools in the NCAA and he’s not terribly far from home either. COVID-19 has thrown quite the wrench into normalities, in pro sports and every other facet of our daily lives. Certainties don’t exist. Questions Moving up to eighth is, of course, the dream for Cheveldayoff. The dominate. Answers are impossible. Uncertainty rules the day, including likelihood of doing so isn’t high (3%). Sanderson could still be there at 12, the currently paused NHL season. but what if he isn’t?

Will it resume? If it does, how so? Play out the regular season? Go Possibly they look west a couple of hours down the Trans-Canada directly to the playoffs? Will it be cancelled altogether? Highway.

The unanswered is a mere fact of life in 2020 thus far. That’s where Braden Schneider has been for the past three seasons with the Brandon Wheat Kings. But despite the ambiguity surrounding the 2019-20 season, it’s quite possible the 2020 NHL Draft will go ahead regardless of the current At 6-foot-2 and 202 pounds, he’s got the size and he’s a right-shooting hiatus and despite there being no finality in the standings. defenceman to boot, something neither Heinola or Samberg possess.

And this could all happen within the next month or so. Taking him at 12 or even 13 may be a stretch, according to mock drafts. Ultimately, it depends on where Winnipeg’s draft board has a guy like Indeed, it appears the NHL doesn’t need a proper conclusion to Schneider. And Cheveldayoff hasn’t been afraid in the past to reach proceedings. With no guarantee that ever happens, the NHL seemingly outside what some consider the consensus. See: Mark Scheifele. wants to wedge in the draft in early-to-mid June. Seedings would be made up based on points percentage and the current iteration of the What we do know is Schneider took some big strides this year in NHL’s proposal to its 31 teams. Brandon, nearly doubling his point total from the previous season.

Several mock drafts have been conducted using a version of this ruleset. “A two-way right-shot defenseman who is capable of playing the power play and penalty kill with great competitiveness and smarts,” said Given what we know the NHL wants, it would likely reward the Winnipeg NHL.com’s Mike Morreale back in March, where he was ranked 15th. Jets with the 12th overall pick, and if the Jets could get lucky, as they did in 2016, they could move up as far as eighth overall if the dice roll in their Of course, lacking organizational depth isn’t exclusive to the blue-liners. favour. They could also drop down to 13th if luck evades them. Many will argue it’s on forward where Chevledayoff needs to play his Either way, it gives us a rare ballpark figure to work with, and a list of cards right with this year’s first-rounder. prospects that general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff could consider, If true, there’s a bevy of options in a forward-laden top-20. conceivably, if the NHL gets its wish and the draft happens in the near future. Internally, all six of Winnipeg’s forward prospects (not including those who play with the Manitoba Moose) play or can play centre. With nothing set in stone, we’re nonetheless going to ignore such trivial things and throw on our prognostication hats. Certainly, centres can be recalibrated to wingers, but outside of Auston Wong, who’s a long-shot to ever make the roster, the Jets don’t have Who could the Jets select in the 12-hole? And if they’re so lucky, who many true wingers in their prospect pool. And their overall depth up front could they take at eight? is pretty shallow if we’re being honest. We can at least make some education guesses, so let’s begin with their Throw in uncertainty over the future of Bryan Little, and the unknowns of needs. the upcoming expansion draft in a year’s time, the Jets could be thinned As with things of this nature, everything is debatable. But because out even further. newspapers have space limits within their margins, we’re going to stick to So let’s take a look at a centre and a winger that Cheveldayoff could look two spots believed to be lacking in organizational depth. at. In no particular order, we’ll begin on defence. On the wing, Dawson Mercer from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey The Jets watched half of their 2018-19 defensive core fall away from League comes to mind. them over the offseason and, with several variables at play, didn’t and He’s consistently just outside the top-10 in a lot of pre-draft rankings but couldn’t do much to save themselves from the fallout. is the second-ranked forward out of the ‘Q’ behind consensus No. 1 It is clear defence was a sore spot for this team for much of the season. Alexis Lafreniere. The only real known going forward is that Josh Morrissey is a great talent “Intelligent, play-creating winger,” wrote Dobber Prospects’ Cam — even if he’s had a subpar season compared to his own standards — Robinson back in April. “Makes the hard plays, but can also dazzle with and the Jets own his rights for years to come thanks to a seven-year his puck skills. Two-step quickness already showing improvements. extension that kicks in whenever the 2020-21 season begins. Wears opponents down.” From there, things delve to different depths of murky waters. Mercer’s ability to play in every situation is a welcome bonus to any Does Dylan DeMelo sign long-term with the club? Does Neal Pionk do team. And given it will be a couple of years before any of these guys are the same and continue to build on a promising campaign? Do Ville ready for the big time, Mercer could eventually become the replacement for Blake Wheeler in the team’s top-six if his game continues to grow. At centre, Connor Zary enters the fray.

Zary seemingly has it all, including a knack for puck possession, play- making and a premium shot.

He was fifth in WHL scoring before their season was cancelled, including 38 goals and 48 assists and was third in power-play goals with 15.

“I love the way he plays; he’s full of skill and creativity, but also competes hard,” The Athletic’s Cory Pronman wrote earlier this season. “His skating could use an extra step or two, but I think, given his skill and two- way play, he will find a way to become a good pro without blazing speed.”

If the Jets hold true to their developing ways, he’s a couple years away as well, perhaps just in time to find out if he could potentially be Scheifele’s replacement should the latter choose the free agency route in 2024.

At the end of the day, the Jets hold just four picks in this draft (a first, a second, a fifth, and a sixth), and trades of any type wouldn’t be allowed based on the current proposal being mulled over.

If the scenario comes to fruition, it increases the pressure on Cheveldayoff to make the most with what he has. And as much of a crapshoot the draft can be at times, it could be even more so this year given everything that didn’t happen in the months, weeks and days leading up to it.

The one known here is the NHL’s proposal favours the Jets and Cheveldayoff will be gifted a better spot than one he may have gotten if the season was allowed to play out first.

That means a potential top-10 pick for a team currently holding down a playoff spot (based on points).

Not too shabby, especially if the draft goes ahead and the season ends up resuming in some fashion at some point.

As with anything at the moment, however, there are more questions than answers.

Winnipeg Sun LOADED 05.11.2020 1184345 Winnipeg Jets feeling the shame of her inconsistent grammar and heaps of spelling mistakes as she wrote in her hybrid language?

“How am I supposed to do this?” she sighed — to herself, I think — while Postcards, teachings and scorching Winnipeg Jets hot takes from I ate my dinner. Murat’s mom My heart was wounded by her tone and then again when she told me she felt ashamed of her hybrid language that I had grown up adoring.

By Murat Ates I wanted to help. I made my mom a deal. If she wrote, in her language, May 10, 2020 the message that she truly wanted to give my sister on her wedding day, I would rewrite it for her. I would leave the structure and the word choice intact — my job was to show her the correct English spelling and to clean up the grammar only where necessary. When I think about writing, I often think about Mom. “Be kind,” she told me. My parents were Turkish immigrants. My mom grew up in a small city where she studied French in school but had no experience with English. “I promise.” She taught herself as many of its intricacies as she could via the standard method of TV, radio, and, like a true patriot, “Hockey Night in The following night, I set to my task while my mom drank her tea. I Canada.” touched up the first paragraph, fixed a few spelling mistakes and then started working on the second one. And then, for the first time since I When I started playing, she transformed from a studious observer into a was a boy, I started crying in front of my mother — in broken English, she very passionate hockey mom. As a youth player, I could hear her from had written one of the most loving and beautiful letters that I have ever any corner of any Manitoban rink. Thankfully it was always encouraging, read. I went over that letter again and again long after I was finished positive stuff — my mom is a loud, fierce human being. Her love for “correcting” it, and each time I did, I was moved again by the amount of hockey knows many decibels. love and support my mom had been able to convey just by writing the truth about how she felt. My mom loves to read. I have seen her sitting comfortably with a book and a tall glass of Turkish çay more times than I have seen her engaged It was in this way that I learned a foundational lesson of writing: Your in any other recreational activity. Through all of this reading and the language skills don’t matter all that much. Your capacity to tell the truth speaking and the listening that came before it, I think it’s safe to say that — to say something that means something to you — this is the only thing at this point in her life my mom has attained a high level of fluency with that matters at all. the English language. This is one of my mom’s favourite photos of herself. Here you go, world. It’s just that — despite all of her very impressive learning — my mom has never been able to fully escape the beautiful consistency of the Turkish My mom speaks with more conviction in her words than I do. alphabet. Whereas I prefer to throw qualifiers into conversation to convey that I To demonstrate this beauty, let me draw your attention to this image, think something but don’t necessarily know it, my mom speaks in which quizzes you on the 10 different pronunciations of the English absolutes. letters “ough.” Most of my childhood hockey-watching memories (and many of my adult How did you do? I mean, that’s a bit insane, no? ones) put me, dead silent, on the floor by the TV, while Mom sits on the couch yelling at the TV loudly enough for both of us. We are opposites in In Turkish, there are no such problems. Each and every letter has one our approach but the same in our love for the sport. sound and one sound only. If you see a “ç” as in “çay” above, it always always ALWAYS sounds like the “ch” in “chips.” None of this “it depends Maybe you’ve seen her hot takes on Twitter: on how you use it” crap. Turkish is absolutely wonderful for this — as -ANALYTICS ARE ABSOLUTELY, 100%, *NOT* HER BABIES. soon as you learn the alphabet, you can pronounce every single word in the entire language. -DION PHANEUF IS "A BULLY"

Sometimes, this causes my mom problems. -PAUL MAURICE SPEAKS CONFIDENTLY AND ARTICULATELY AND IS THEREFORE AN EXCELLENT COACH When my mom writes, “fish” becomes “fiş.” “Cat” becomes “kat” or “ket,” depending on her mood. And tiger becomes “taygır,” which probably AND, MOST PASSIONATELY OF ALL: THE NHL REGIONAL looks the most confusing to you right now, dear Anglophone. BLACKOUT RULES ARE (TURKISH SWEAR WORDS.)

So while your own mother, if she were around and left you notes from — MURAT ATES (@WPGMURAT) OCTOBER 10, 2018 time to time, reminded you to “take out the trash” or “make sure you bring your lunch,” mine asked me to “teyk” out the “treş” and “meyk şure (I) Here she gets protective of Mason Appleton: bring (my) lunç.” "I DON'T AGREE WITH THAT."

And you know what? I love my mom at least as much for writing to me in MURAT'S MOM ON THE LACK OF A SLASHING CALL ON JOHN her own hybrid language as I do for making me or for raising me or for TAVARES DURING MASON APPLETON'S BREAKAWAY GOAL. taking care of me all of those times when I was sick. For me, my mom’s language — our language — is one of my most treasured parts of our "I *REALLY* DON'T AGREE WITH THAT." family identity. MURAT'S MOM ON THE IDEA THAT, EVEN HAD A PENALTY BEEN So imagine my shock when my mom told me she was ashamed of it. CALLED, THE GOAL WOULD HAVE NEGATED IT.

Back in 2014, just a few days before our flight to Montreal for my sister’s MOM LIKES APPLETON. wedding, my mom struggled to find the right words. She and my sister — MURAT ATES (@WPGMURAT) JANUARY 9, 2020 have a special relationship. Whereas my mom and I might have talked once or twice each week when we both lived in Winnipeg, she was on And here, she has the confidence to go decidedly against the grain as the phone with my sister every single day — supporting her by giving her Winnipeg shut out the Ducks 3-0 on March 20: a loving ear as she built a new life in a new city. MOM IS BACK FROM VACATION. SHE WATCHED WPG'S 3-0 WIN: As you can imagine, my mom wanted, more than anything in the world, to write something heartfelt for her daughter’s wedding day. "WINNIPEG IS NOT SO HOT AS THEY ONCE WERE. THEY TAKE SO LONG TO ORGANIZE THEIR END AND IT TAKES FOREVER – WHAT This is when the problems arose and the shame first became evident. ARE THEY DOING? EVEN WHEELER AND SCHEIFELE THE STAR Would my mom write her letter in fluent Turkish and risk that my sister PLAYERS GIVE AWAY PUCKS. IT CAN'T BE THIS WAY IN might not understand all of it? Or would she switch to English and risk PLAYOFFS." — MURAT ATES (@WPGMURAT) MARCH 21, 2019 I have to be honest, I feel like he’s always been very charitable.

I’ve posted a handful of these Mom-takes over the years and, every time Maybe we’re paying attention to different things. Sometimes I feel like he I do, someone makes the joke that “she should write a column.” doesn’t want to say “F off” or “How dumb can you get?” He’s not saying that but, in a way, he’s answering the question without really answering it I don’t want her to steal my job, however, so I hope you’ll settle for this and still saying “F off.” But in a very, very nice way. In a way that no one Mother’s Day Q&A. would get offended or take notice. Just me, in my own room, I think I see First of all, why do you wish Blake Wheeler was Canadian? it but the reporters are too focused on what they’re going to ask and what they’re going to write. Make sense? Because I like him, but I would like him more. I understand. I’m still not sure I agree with you but I understand the point In the team, he is good. He is a good leader. He is a good, hardworking you’re making. player. On the ice, in the changing room, and with the press: The way he would talk about the team, it’s his team. He’s responsible when things go You don’t have to agree! I’m not trying to get your agreement. wrong. For that, I like him as the Jets captain. But also, I would have Last year, you were sure Winnipeg wasn’t playing very well down the liked him more if he was Canadian. stretch. You said they weren’t playing like a good playoff team, even Does he still count as one of your “babies”? though their record was good. How good do you think the Jets were this season? Of course! Like Roger (Federer) and Connor (McDavid) and (Mark) Scheifele. They weren’t good at all, Murat. No. I was still hoping they would catch fire, find a spark, something. But no. At the All-Star break, they were Do you have a favourite Jet? totally demolished. Loss after loss after loss.

It’s been so long, I almost forget people’s faces but yes: Mathieu What did you think of them at the end? They were 6-3-1 heading into the Perreault. I liked him, but he was injured for a while. When he was on the pause and were technically in a playoff spot. ice, he was always creating some chaos at the other end. Lately, he cleaned up a bit. Initially, I would remember the bushman look but he’s Connor Hellebuyck was amazing most of the time. cleaned up. Also Scheifele but he wasn’t shining this year as much as he So you don’t think they’re a playoff team? used to. If they barely make it. … If they don’t improve, then still: They’re going to Who shone the most, in your eyes? be out in the first round again. Let’s say the season will continue Kyle Connor. I would say he is the guy this year. He is very intelligent. somehow. If they make it to the playoffs, in the first round, they will be When he gets the puck, he does something good with it. Scheifele works out. There are so many better teams. I’m sorry to say that, really, but hard, I understand, and he has those big blue eyes, puppy eyes and all that’s just how things are. If they magically change things during this of that — I just want to love him in a motherly way. But this year, I think break and improve, then maybe, but that goes for everybody this break Connor is a better player than Scheifele is. so I don’t know.

How does Laine compare to Connor for you? I promise I won’t do this, but how would you feel if I told your adopted son Blake Wheeler that you don’t think Winnipeg is a playoff team? Laine improved a little bit on the defensive side but he still needs to hold on to the puck more than he was. He has more to go, definitely. It’s not Well, that’s just how it is. We’re not dealing with a 7-year-old. We’re like you’re drafted in the first round, you’re a hotshot, and that’s it. He did dealing with professionals who have been around for a long time. I would improve on the defensive side, he’s good at getting the puck defensively be a reality check. Or, no: I’m sure every one of them is checking but as soon as he gets the puck, he just loses it — it’s a waste. He has to themselves, comparing themselves to other teams and other players. manage the puck better, but he’s young. If he does what I am saying, he I think the Jets are trying to rally around the idea of how well they stuck will be a good, productive player, but he has to make more use of the together when (Dustin) Byfuglien was gone and all of the injuries piled puck. up. That they feel ready to shine now that they’re healthy.

Let’s start at the top. How confident are you in Kevin Cheveldayoff as I’m for that but that goes for every team. Every team has their injuries. Winnipeg’s GM? Sure, one more or two more for the Jets, but every team has its He doesn’t give much away. He’s in the background, and then once in a problems. There were always enough players to play and they should while, you come across him. He doesn’t stick his nose into the small stuff have played better than they were playing. but, with the bigger stuff, he doesn’t make me mad by selling players. I You’re being awfully tough, Mom. think he carries himself well as a manager. Calm and collected. And respectable — if you talk too much about little things, you lose respect. If We’re not talking about peewees, you know. he sticks his nose into the coaches, into the ice, bothers the players, he’ll lose respect. But if, once in a while, he puts his weight into something, Even though you sometimes call them your babies. he’ll keep his strength. In the softest, most suddenly motherly tone: Yeah! Yeah.

And how do you feel about Paul Maurice? OK. I know one of the strongest opinions you hold is that Byfuglien cost I always liked him. In tough times, he doesn’t badmouth or put players the team quite a bit. down. Even when it goes bad. He takes full responsibility, he carries it as Yes. It was unprofessional. He messed up the atmosphere of the if it’s his team, he’s responsible, and he calls Winnipeg his home. dressing room. Don’t be afraid to (write that). Overall, he’s a leader. He has the qualities of a leader. If his heart’s not in it, his heart’s not in it, no? What are “qualities of a leader,” Mom? But he was a mature player. He’s 35 years old. He’s not a rookie. It You know when to speak. You know when to put your foot down and give leaves a bad atmosphere to the changing room for the Jets, and it went them heck, but in the right place and in the right moments. on and on and on. It should have been solved before the season started, Not in front of me, you mean. one way or another. Just say, “I want out” in the summer instead of hanging people out to dry. (laughter) Does this change how you think of him as a player? What do you think of his sense of humour? Does that matter to you? He was such a strong personality on the ice. But he risked all of that Sometimes, he has a devious sarcasm. You have to be really sharp to character and all of that personality with his last actions. It’s a shame. I catch it. He’s poking a needle. I sense that, when a reporter asks used to like him. I loved when he would sing along in the penalty box. something, he doesn’t say, “Fuck off.” He will give an answer that is not That gives an aura to his team, you know? And to the other team: Hey, really an answer but there’s a needle poking at whoever asked I’m going to get you again, too. But the last thing he did was ugly. You something stupid. don’t burn bridges that way. OK, but were those bridges necessarily burned? In Kevin Cheveldayoff’s conference call, he conveyed that the communication was friendly all around. I even wonder if he hoped his relationship with Byfuglien would lead to Byfuglien returning in the end.

I don’t believe that. It was pure politics — not to get people upset. Not to get Byfuglien upset. I think Cheveldayoff knew he wasn’t coming back, but he wanted to keep him happy so it didn’t make a scene or make gossip. He carried himself well, Cheveldayoff, and it worked for both of them. He didn’t make a bad name for anyone. And it didn’t give you gossip or TSN or all of those channels. But I don’t believe they were buddy-buddy, no. It was a good political strategy.

If he said “Go to hell, Buff,” it would go in front of lawyers and arbiters and become negative energy for everyone. And people are dying to find something to talk about on TV and write about and chew on it. Cheveldayoff didn’t let that negative energy happen.

All right, let’s leave Byfuglien alone. I, for one, still hold him in high esteem. I think it’s too soon to judge. What do you think of the defense right now?

Be patient. I don’t think they’re starving for defense as much as people say.

This is where I disagree with you the most strongly. I think they have a lot of bodies but so many of them are depth defensemen. I’d be concerned about next year.

But look at what they’ve been through, Murat. You’re being judgmental. You’ve got to give them more time to click as a team. I hope they’re doing something to improve that right now, during this break.

The Athletic LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184346 Websites There are NHL players who — facts only here — never have to grow up. They don’t. They played, they were awesome, they earned enough to live in a bubble, they earn more money off their name when they’re done and The Athletic / Bourne: How players become entitled is obvious. What they can just kind of keep on keeping on. Disliked or beloved, little they do from there isn’t changes. While you’d like to have that success and not come to behave as some entitled Big Wheel — which does happen! — not everyone can pull it off.

By Justin Bourne Outcome No. 2, the most common: Retire immature and get a crash course in maturity. May 10, 2020 As a member of the Marlies’ coaching staff in 2015-17, when the Leafs

acquired some bad-money deals and buried them in the minors for You can see how young players in the professional ranks — players assets, we saw both sides of the coin. Entitlement was exposed when who’ve been stars since a young age, seemingly destined for the top — certain players weren’t getting their way, and others showed maturity might come to feel an aura of invincibility. It’s crazy how much of an while having been dealt the same cards. illusion it is, but you can see how it arrives. Teams will tolerate an awful In general, though, if you’ve played a decade in the NHL and earned all lot if you’re awesome. Quite a bit if you’re good. Drop down to the “only that money, you’ve been a capital “N” hockey Name for a long time. OK” level, though, and continue to behave as you did when teams You’re used to certain things being done for you, to being treated a thought you might be more valuable than that, and boy, you can watch certain way. When they turn off that spotlight and you have to figure out that illusion fall apart quickly. what to do with your life — and suddenly that means operating in all Yes, it’s the Brendan Leipsic incident that inspired me to have this facets without a safety net — it can be really hard. The NHLPA is working conversation, but I’m not talking about him here specifically. I’m talking toward making those transition years easier for players because it can be about the unique life of many of the players like him who are 10, maybe really hard even for players who are mature enough to expect something 15 years into having their names associated with the NHL and all the different and more challenging. trappings of it, even while just in their mid-20s. Up until a certain point, For those players oblivious to the coming challenges, it can take years everyone around them must seem like low-grade versions of Ray before they figure out how to live for themselves. They can become Donovan, always there to help put out any small fires before they can resentful and jealous of others, easily frustrated and discontent, and reach inferno status. learn that they have to change their mindset or life is going to continue to I’m not implying any evil or malice here from the sweeping bulk of these feel that way. quasi-enablers, either, just that the situation (and the sense of invincibility Outcome No. 3, an uncommon but never surprising option that comes that comes with it) is borne mostly of matter of circumstance. Because with entitlement: Get in trouble and come to a fork in the road, have to naturally there are going to be numerous people who have a vested learn mid-career. interest in the success of any young NHLer based on their career ambitions. Jobs are built around finding players who can excel at the top. This is where Leipsic and his situation would fit in, where everything the And so with every athlete who’s had big success, you’ll find a dozen players experience in Outcome No. 2 comes to reality, only while still people who deserve credit … and a dozen more who claim some. Having playing the game. The fixers mostly disappear and a new life course has a part in getting a player to the top comes with personal gain for many to be chosen. (scouts, managers, family and more). Do they want to double down on the lifestyle and attitude, believing None of those people want anything to take away from what that player they’ve been wronged or that they just fell into some horrible luck? Or will could be if it’s avoidable. For the player’s sake, too, but most definitely for there be self-reflection and a tangible change in behaviour? their own gain. Which is to say if a kid gets involved in some legal scrape while young and immature, there are few people involved whose interest I think back to what Brendan Shanahan did with Nazem Kadri in 2015. is in nailing the moral outcome; most operate with the subconscious view Here’s a 2018 Jonas Siegel headline that serves as a good reminder: of that player as a stock and that all involved are best served if it moves Three years ago the Leafs suspended Nazem Kadri. Today he’s a in one direction and one direction only. different man.

And so, pseudo-invincibility. The better a player you are, the bigger the Rather than protect him from public scrutiny and further enable him for fire all those Ray Donovans are willing to put out. The only obvious rule is even just small misgivings, they forced the player to face the music in that once the fire gets too big that there’s a risk of the fixers getting hopes of enacting change. Here are a few paragraphs that sum up that personally burned, too, that’s when they quietly slink back into the story: hedges. Talent-level depending, of course. Brendan Shanahan unexpectedly stepped in front of cameras and In a more extreme recent example, the NFL’s very talented Antonio microphones that Monday morning in the spring of 2015 and publicly Brown was basically — to keep with our “Simpsons” imagery here — the shamed the club’s 2009 first-round pick. The Leafs weren’t suspending Springfield Tire Fire, and half the league was gathered around trying to him just for being late for practice, Shanahan glumly explained ahead of figure out how to put out the blaze just long enough to use him for a few a meaningless March 9 game against the New York Islanders, but for a more Sundays. pattern of behaviour that would no longer be tolerated.

When it was determined he couldn’t be touched without some char “I think those mistakes are the reason I am the man I am today,” recalled showing up on the next hand that grabbed for him, he was finally left to Kadri after potting a pair of goals in the Leafs’ 5-2 win over the two-time smoulder. (And maybe just until things cool enough to grab him down the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday evening. “I think road.) it’s made me a better person.”

When you’re a kid and safety nets continue to show up along your high- A better person and a hugely important player for the Leafs, one who wire walk to stardom, coming to feel essentially “chosen” is something of might not have lasted in Toronto were it not for that late-season blowup an inevitable outcome for some. That’s going to lead to a certain type of — which saw Kadri, then only 24, suspended for three games. behaviour, and it’s not the type that’ll make many mothers very proud. Since then you’ve never heard a bad word about Kadri’s behaviour as a In my experience, I’ve played alongside dozens and dozens of players professional in the NHL, and I think he’d tell you himself that can be like this. I’ve also seen my dad and father-in-law and their vast networks chalked up to maturity. of friends live their respective post-career lives. Being far enough The money and notoriety and protection that come with playing removed from my playing days, I think I can safely generalize a few professional sports are bound to create some entitled players. A few outcomes for talented kids who get so propped up that they behave as if don’t ever have to change, as much as many would like them to. But the the world was built to be their personal playground. bulk of them do, at some point, and it’s at that point that those individuals Outcome No. 1, which isn’t super common: Live up to the hype, have a have to decide which prong of the fork they want to continue down. lot of success and the support endures in perpetuity. It’s never too late to change for the better, assuming you’ve got the sense to make the right choice.

The Athletic LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184347 Websites With his surgery already scheduled, McDavid sought one more opinion before going under the knife. That doctor suggested forgoing the scalpel in favour of a pioneering, multi-pronged rehab program. Feeling there Sportsnet.ca / What we learned about Connor McDavid's rehab in was no harm in trying, McDavid opted for that route. 'Whatever It Takes' The film details the painstaking steps McDavid undertook as — for 10 hours a day, seven days a week — he worked to heal his body. In the beginning, he was spending two hours a day locked in a hyperbaric Ryan Dixon chamber doing the one tiny exercise he’d be cleared for.

May 10, 2020, 7:50 PM “I’d be in [the chamber] and I would flex my quad muscle for 10 seconds on, rest for 10 seconds, and I would do that over and over again trying to

save the muscle,” McDavid says. When Connor McDavid scored his first goal of the season, there was When he was finally allowed to put some weight on the knee, McDavid plenty of reason to be excited. spent so much time in the pool his skin is probably still wrinkled. For a The play was vintage 97, as he darted between Vancouver Canucks while, he didn’t know if the work would be in vain and surgery would still defencemen Quinn Hughes and Chris Tanev before lifting a shot over be required. But the hours of meticulous and varied rehabilitation started Jacob Markstrom’s blocker and under the bar. The tally broke a 2-2 tie to pay off as the PCL fibres began to re-attach. and came with just over five minutes remaining in the third period of a Somebody knows how to keep a secret contest that doubled as Edmonton’s first game of the new campaign and its home opener. Any time the game’s premier star is suddenly worrying about the potential for career derailment, you’d think word would leak out and travel It also came on the heels of a summer-long rehab process McDavid at lightspeed around the hockey world. Somehow, the team around required to heal a left knee injury sustained in the final game of the 2018- McDavid managed to keep the deep details of this injury under wraps — 19 season, when he crashed into the post in a contest against the even from high-profile new hires. Calgary Flames When Ken Holland was talking to Oilers chairman Bob Nicholson about Given all that, it seemed completely natural to witness McDavid drop the possibility of filling the vacant general manager’s office last summer, down to one knee and unleash a few furious fist pumps. His dad Brian, the former was justifiably curious about how the franchise’s foundational though, sensed a little extra mustard on this particular celebration. player was recovering from his injury. “There was a different level on that one,” Brian McDavid says. “I gave him information; I didn’t give him all the information,” Nicholson That’s because Connor McDavid — unbeknownst to most of those explained. “We [the Oilers] really talked about, hey, we’ve got to keep watching in the building and around the country — came terrifyingly close this as tight as possible. There were a lot of people poking around, trying to missing this season of NHL hockey, a fact revealed in an hour-long to get more information and we just clamped it down.” documentary titled ‘Whatever It Takes’ that aired on Sportsnet Sunday Holland acknowledged he really didn’t understand the full extent of things night. In it, McDavid and his inner circle — including his parents, girlfriend until after he’d put pen to paper. Now, we’re all in the know. And that and medical professionals — speak candidly about the extent of an injury makes what McDavid is doing this season even more remarkable. that, in the early stages, created real concern about his long-term future in the game.

Thankfully, McDavid is right where he should be, among the NHL’s Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 05.11.2020 scoring leaders before the season was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a happy ending to a chapter in his career he’ll never forget. Here are some of the can’t-miss aspects of this story.

It takes a lot, but it’s possible to rattle Connor McDavid

Despite the fact he plays a faster game than anybody in the history of hockey, McDavid always seems in control. On the ice, he’s the one dictating the action. In the dressing room, he’s measured and economical in front of microphones.

Even in the immediate aftermath of his injury, we saw McDavid calmly say the words, “It’s broken” to the group of teammates, trainers and opponents huddled around him. Once he was out of view, though, hobbling down the hallway, McDavid came undone.

“I held it together until we got through the tunnel and [then] I was a mess,” he says in the doc.

You’d expect nothing less from an athlete in that position. Still, it was jarring to hear those closest to him explain how distraught McDavid was as he processed what had happened and what might have to happen next

One of the doctors consulted told McDavid surgery was the way to go, the recovery period would be upwards of a full year and, even then, there was no guarantee his knee would be exactly as it was before he fully tore the posterior cruciate ligament, tore the medial and lateral menisci, fully tore the popliteus muscle, tore the posterior capsule and sustained a tibial plateau fracture.

Oh, and by the way, the sooner you have this surgery, the better.

“I’ve got to make this decision at 22 [years old] and I’ve got to make it in 24 hours,” McDavid says.

Maybe for the first time in his life, the next move wasn’t obvious.

Squeeze; Release; Repeat 1184348 Websites hard to play against thanks to a mix of skill and grit, the Bruins tied for the league lead in the standings with a 40-17-19 record and lost only two games over three series in the playoffs.

Sportsnet.ca / Remember When? Bobby Orr flies through air after Orr, who turned 22 during the season, led the NHL in scoring with 120 winning Stanley Cup points — including a record 87 assists — becoming the first defenceman to ever crack 100 points. He won the Hart, Art Ross, Norris and Conn Smythe trophies that season, something no one else has done in NHL Josh Beneteau history. It was his third of eight consecutive Norris Trophy wins and first of three consecutive Hart wins. May 10, 2020, 10:02 AM Still, Orr says personal awards never interested him. He just wanted to

win the Stanley Cup, and on this day 50 years ago he was able to realize With nearly every sports organization on the planet on pause at the that dream. moment as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, we feel it’s an “No words will ever do justice to the feeling of winning the Stanley Cup,” opportune time to reminisce about some special moments in sports Orr wrote in his book. “To actually do what you have dreamed of a history. thousand times since you were a kid is a feeling like nothing else.” On this day in 1970, Bobby Orr flew through the air after scoring one of the most famous goals in NHL history. Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 05.11.2020 The overtime winner gave the Boston Bruins their first Stanley Cup win in 29 years, but the goal lives on in hockey history thanks to a sharp-eyed Boston photographer and some good luck.

The Bruins were up 3–0 in their series with the St. Louis Blues, but the score in Game 4 was tied 3–3 after regulation. Orr, who had yet to score in the series, needed only 40 seconds of overtime to remedy that. After dishing the puck to forward Derek Sanderson behind the net, Orr cut to the middle, collected a return pass from Sanderson and beat Blues goalie Glenn Hall with a quick shot.

CBS Sports broadcaster Dan Kelly is the voice behind the famous call: “Orr … behind the net to Sanderson … to Orr…. Bobby Orr… scores… and the Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup!”

Orr recounted the blow by blow of the crucial goal in his 2013 autobiography.

“Once I chipped the puck in Derek’s direction, I went hard to the net,” Orr wrote. “Derek fed it back to me immediately, Glenn Hall’s legs opened up in the crease, and bingo, the puck was in the back of the net.”

“For (Orr) to get that goal, that’s what I was happiest about. He did everything for everybody and it came to him. It was just great,” Sanderson said in a recent interview organized by the Bruins. “I’m glad he didn’t miss the pass, because there’s nobody behind him except St. Louis Blues players.”

But it’s what happened next that is forever imprinted on the memories of hockey fans. Blues defender Noel Picard’s stick got stuck in Orr’s skates as he shot the puck, sending the hockey legend flying through the air.

That moment was captured brilliantly by Ray Lussier, a photographer for the Boston Record American (now the Boston Herald). As the story goes, Lussier made the wise decision to move from one end of the ice to the other before overtime, setting up just in time to get the shot.

But the photo almost didn’t get published. According to Bruins beat writer Joe McDonald, Lussier originally submitted a different photo for the front page because it showed the puck in the net. Luckily, sports editor Sammy Cohen asked Lussier to re-submit, which is when he came back with the one that would be plastered on posters across Boston and the rest of the world.

“You could work your whole life and not get a shot like that,” retired Herald photo chief Kevin Cole told McDonald. “But in the old days, they always wanted a puck showing. If a puck wasn’t showing, they’d sometimes paint one onto the picture.

“But Sammy wasn’t worried about the puck. He saw Ray’s shot for what it was and knew what to do with it.”

The moment was immortalized forever as a statue outside TD Garden in 2010. Orr still gets asked to sign copies of Lussier’s photo to this day — as does Hall, the victim on the goal.

“I had pictures of myself taken when I stopped the puck, but they tore those things up, eh?” Hall said, with a laugh, in a 2017 interview with NHL.com. “That’s not news, the goalkeeper stopping the puck. He’s supposed to be letting it in.”

The 1969–70 Boston Bruins, known as the Big Bad Bruins, established a style of play that the franchise is still known for today. Known for being 1184349 Websites One in five Canadians experience a mental health challenge each year, according to a 2019 study published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. It would be perfectly average, then, for four athletes on a roster Sportsnet.ca / Inside one quest to keep mental health front of mind in of 20 to find themselves struggling to perform in their sport or with daily sports – Sportsnet tasks. Still, the full scope of what Van Slingerland and Durand-Bush are up against can’t be wholly measured by research and statistics. That’s because athletes have traditionally suffered in silence, leading to a skewed number of reported cases, because despite advances in wider By David Singh in Ottawa societal conversation around mental health, the stigma is still steadfast throughout sport. For every Michael Phelps, Kevin Love or Robin Lehner who publicly shares their story of mental illness, there are countless Pressured to never show weakness, athletes struggling with mental others who choose to stay quiet. health issues have long suffered in silence or risked stigmatization for speaking out. Meet the Canadian academics working to change all that. “Athletes are revered as gods,” says Durand-Bush. “They are these machines, these resilient, mentally tough machines that can do anything. Krista Van Slingerland has been thinking about suicide for months. She But oh, guess what? Anecdotally and behind the scenes, we knew that even Googled the least painful way to go about it. It’s the summer of wasn’t the case. If you look at the athletes who have come out to share 2013 and Van Slingerland, a student at Carleton University, is suffering. their stories, most of them are retired, because they didn’t feel safe She was recently cut from the school’s basketball team, after three [opening up during their careers].” mostly successful years, and is battling anxiety and depression, along with a deep sense of emptiness. There’s a crushing weight on her chest It’s late February and a snowstorm has walloped Ottawa. The House of and Van Slingerland just can’t envision a way to remove it. She Sport within the RA Centre — a sprawling multi-sport and recreation desperately misses basketball and feels she has failed. facility near the heart of the city — is barren, save for a few employees who made the trek to work in the near-whiteout conditions. Van Drunk after a night out, she’s returned home to find the place empty, Slingerland and Durand-Bush are two such people and they’re hunkered none of her housemates are there. She begins to self-harm, an act that down with laptops in their open-concept workspace. The CCMHS is has become increasingly normal for Van Slingerland these past few based out of the House of Sport, along with several other organizations months. Then she reaches for a crayon and scribbles “I’m sorry” on a that share the 36,000-square foot space, including Hockey Canada, piece of paper, a message intended for her family. She texts a friend who Jumpstart and Commonwealth Sport Canada. “I’ve never seen this place is aware of what she’s going through and breaks down sobbing on the so deserted,” says Durand-Bush. kitchen floor. It’s 2 a.m. and she is alone in the dark. CCMHS is essentially a side job for the 48-year-old, who is also a sport The thought of picking herself up and taking all the pills in the medicine psychology professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of cabinet is swirling in her mind when she hears a knock on the door. It’s Ottawa and in private practice as a mental performance consultant. The the police, responding to a 911 call from the friend Van Slingerland 28-year-old Van Slingerland is a PHD candidate at UOttawa, whose texted. She agrees to let the officers take her to the hospital. doctoral work involves designing, implementing and evaluating the CCMHS. Looking back on that night now, Van Slingerland is troubled by the note she wrote. “I would 100 per cent want to say something to my brothers,” The women became acquainted while Van Slingerland completed her she says. “I was not all there. master’s; Durand-Bush was her supervisor. Once that was done, and with Van Slingerland mulling pro basketball in Europe, Durand-Bush “As much as I may have gone through with it,” she adds, “I really just made a proposal: “I said, ‘It’s always been my dream to open a mental wanted somebody to help me.” health centre that is specialized for sport,’” she recalls. “‘I think you’d be Natalie Durand-Bush is sitting in on a session that her daughter is having the perfect candidate to study this.’” with a psychiatrist, because 13-year-old Keana is too young to be doing Durand-Bush’s idea for CCMHS sprung from conversations with Goran this by herself. Durand-Bush has her mom hat on, but is also wearing a Kentta, a professor who started a similar centre in Sweden. The two have professional one. As a mental performance consultant herself, she just collaborated for years and Durand-Bush watched keenly as Kentta can’t help it. Overall, the psychiatrist Keana is working with has been developed a service that provided direct mental healthcare to athletes great, but Durand-Bush has identified one major gap: The physician just and coaches. She invited him to be one of 20 CCMHS stakeholders — doesn’t understand sports. people from the sport and mental health communities recruited to offer Soccer is a major part of life for Keana, an elite player. The sport didn’t their thoughts and support. “A centre like that has to be evidence-based. cause her recent near suicide attempt. The reason behind that was It has to be driven by experts, by facts,” Durand-Bush says. “You don’t anxiety and depression, which plague both sides of the family. But just create that from scratch.” Durand-Bush knows, better than most given her work, that when sport is “Athletes are revered as these resilient, mentally tough machines that a huge part of who you are as a person and your psychiatrist just doesn’t can do anything. But oh, guess what? Anecdotally and behind the understand the game, it can be harmful. scenes, we knew that wasn’t the case.” As Keana’s mental condition grew worse, soccer was her one respite. It She and Van Slingerland began to design the centre in November 2017, was relief and release. When she was hospitalized following the incident, building it around integrated care, research and community engagement. Keana’s teammates and coaches were among the first to visit her. And Those pillars, along with collaborative, sport-focused mental health care as her health began to improve, it was a steady reservoir of positivity that services for athletes and coaches, have made the not-for-profit the first of was instrumental in her recovery. “I saw how sport could be part of the its kind in Canada, according to Durand-Bush. solution and was a source of support for people struggling with mental health,” Durand-Bush says. “That was the case for my daughter.” The CCMHS opened its doors to clients in 2018. The centre currently has a care team roster of 17 that includes psychologists, psychotherapists, PART OF THE SOLUTION counsellors, physicians and researchers. They are spread across the Van Sligerland, left, and Durand-Bush founded the Canadian Centre for country and each has some background in sport. Clients must be at least Mental Health and Sport in 2017 16 years old and participating in sports at the provincial, national, international or professional levels. Retired athletes who are transitioning Those experiences were the sparks that set in motion everything Van out of competitive sports are also accepted. Slingerland and Durand-Bush are trying to accomplish today. They are co-founders of the Canadian Centre for Mental Health and Sport When a potential patient reaches out to CCMHS, they first go through an (CCMHS), a not-for-profit organization supporting competitive and high- intake appointment with the centre’s care coordinator, Poppy DesClouds. performance athletes and coaches. Formed in November 2017, the If the client’s needs are a fit for the centre, DesClouds pairs them with a centre deploys a specialized team of practitioners to work with people in team of two to three CCMHS practitioners. The corresponding sessions sport who are struggling mentally. “Something has to drive you and it’s can then take place physically at CCMHS, in the Canadian city where an really personal for me and for Natalie,” says Van Slingerland. “That’s sort athlete resides, or even remotely, through an online platform. of the fuel behind all this.” “One of the strengths of the centre is that it is sports-specific,” says Mike Kostka, a former NHL player who sought help from CCMHS. “In sport, there is a lot of bravado and being afraid of showing weakness as far as there is pain associated with bringing up difficult aspects of your life. getting help goes. But, also, being skeptical. ‘Who’s really going to That’s why switching to a different mental health professional in a understand what I’m going through?’ different city can seem unreasonable and unappealing. “You have to uncover a lot of things you don’t want to uncover. A person like me — I “I felt at ease off the get-go,” adds Kostka, who is based in Ottawa and dug a hole for 20 years. It takes a lot of dirt to fill that hole back in and was virtually paired with a CCMHS team member in Calgary. “As when you just keep taking a spoon to try and do it and start over all the opposed to [going] to a general psychologist or mental performance time, it’s discouraging.” consultant and you don’t know if they’re going to understand. You don’t want to waste your time. This stuff is important. It matters … the fact that “People don’t like to admit weakness, especially when it’s in their mind. they provide that sports-specific help puts you at ease to start.” It’s much easier for some people when they can point to a broken leg or something physically wrong.” When Kostka decided to hang up his skates in 2018, he was at a crossroads. Following a career that saw him play 85 NHL games split Meisner, who currently patrols the crease for EHC Freiburg in the between five organizations, the Toronto native needed to decide what German league’s second division, is coming off the best season of his was next. He had earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from professional career and was recently named the league’s goalie of the the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2008, before signing in the year. His current club employs a psychologist who is accessible to NHL, so sports psychology seemed like a good direction to take. players at any time and while he would not hesitate to seek help within his own organization, Meisner believes that’s not the case for everyone. He settled on UOttawa, where he is now enrolled in the Master of Human Kinetics program, studying to be a mental performance consultant. The “There are other people who would much rather tackle it on their own,” first few weeks of his transition from professional hockey to being a he says. “Because as much as [teams] always say, ‘things stay between student again brought serious self-reflection. Kostka realized there were us,’ all it takes is for you to be chatting to the [psychologist] in front of the some things in his mind that he needed to unpack. “One of the most coffee machine in the locker-room and the coach to walk by and all of a difficult pieces is establishing a new purpose,” says the 34-year-old. sudden that little seed is there: Ben’s been playing bad. He’s been kind of quiet. Now, here he is chatting with the psychologist. I’ve never seen Kostka’s entire life — motivation, routines, social network — was tied to him doing that before.” hockey. “And now that’s gone,” he says. “And you’re kind of floating untethered, looking where to plug in. ‘Okay, I know how to work hard, but Kostka agrees: “Guys don’t want to be seen talking to them in a lot of I don’t know how to direct it.’ Or, ‘It was physical before and now I have cases. That might be a bit of a generalization, but there is a fear of being to use my brain in different ways.’” seen. Okay, if there is a sports psychologist or mental performance consultant or a psychologist, everything might be confidential, but if the The move from Toronto to Ottawa didn’t help either. In the NHL or AHL, coach sees you walk into an office and talking to them, [players] might be when he arrived in a new city at the outset of a season, he’d have 22 concerned of how that could influence a coach’s decision.” instant friends in the locker room, people to bond and build camaraderie with. Contributing to that group was built into his identity. “My entire life, I In situations like that, both Kostka and Meisner note the confidential, worked toward one goal,” says Kostka. “I knew what it was — I wanted to third-party aspect of CCMHS could prove beneficial and allay concerns of get to the NHL or play at the highest level possible — and everything you wary athletes. After Meisner’s article was published, he received about do is surrounded by that as your identity. As you transition out, some of 60 emails from hockey players ranging from ages 12 to 30. A common those pieces start getting chipped away and you have to question a little theme he recognized was silence. It’s difficult for an athlete to admit they bit deeper and ask yourself, ‘Without this as part of my identity, who am are having trouble focusing or staying motivated or getting out of bed in I?’” the morning when the teammate in the next stall is playing through a partially torn muscle, an ankle sprain or a bum shoulder. And that’s not BREAKTHROUGHS OF THE GAME just a problem limited to hockey. “People don’t like to admit weakness,” Small details in the physical space itself speak to the way sport is says Angus Mugford, vice president of high performance for the Toronto integrated into the DNA of the CCMHS Blue Jays. “Especially when it’s in their mind. It’s much easier for some people when they can point to a broken leg or something physically Kostka uses an analogy to describe how CCMHS helped him. “We were wrong — it’s easily accepted. When people label mental toughness to given a hammer,” he says of his time in hockey. “We had that one tool gritting your teeth and sucking it up, that’s not healthy.” and we used it for everything we did. We just hammered away and just pounded. And so, when it came to, say, performance anxiety, what do "THE FUEL BEHIND ALL OF THIS" you do? You plow through. That’s what we knew. That’s the one tool we Keana, centre, with Durand-Bush and Van Slingerland at the centre's had in our tool kit. The great thing about this centre and what these opening event in 2018 practitioners can really help with is building up that tool box for athletes to go, ‘Oh, I have a wrench, I can use that to loosen the tension.’” Kevin Rempel was on top of the world when he returned home from Sochi, Russia, following the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. He’d He says the care he received from CCMHS over the course of a few brought home a bronze medal as a member of the Canadian sledge months played an important role in helping him find his footing. That type hockey team; he was in the best shape of his life; he had made several of aid would have benefited Ben Meisner during his time in the ECHL. real estate investments and bought a brand-new truck and Harley. “But I The goalie, who detailed his near suicide attempt in a 2018 article in The found myself empty and over the next couple of months, started to feel Players’ Tribune, sought professional help when he was suffering from very, very depressed,” Rempel says. anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, but was impeded by the logistics of life in the minors. He was suffering from post-Olympic depression (also known as post- Olympic blues), which is common among athletes returning from the After feeling that he’d made progress in his first session, Meisner was Games. After devoting themselves with tunnel vision for four-plus years, called up to the AHL and could not see the therapist again until he was many athletes arrive home and feel lonely or purposeless. The mere act sent back down. He did that, but before he could go a third time, he was of getting out of bed can be difficult and feelings of excitement and reassigned to a completely different city. The Halifax native is familiar anticipation are missing as the they try to reintegrate into “normal life.” with the CCMHS now and says its ability to offer online, specialized help to athletes would have been beneficial to him back then. “It would have By the summer, Rempel had blown through his savings and hit rock been unbelievable because no matter where I was in North America, I bottom, prompting his mother and grandmother to take him to the would have known that I could have had regular services and could have emergency psychiatric ward at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ont. It had a support system that would have had my back wherever I went,” was around 1 a.m. when Rempel was led into a room to see a doctor. says Meisner, 29. “That’s huge for a lot of athletes because you look at There was one other patient waiting to be seen — a teenager with guys who play on ECHL contracts every year, it’s not abnormal to play on around a dozen fresh cuts on each forearm. “We’re in the room for 60 three, four, five different teams. A lot of the time, the whole seeing seconds when I hear this kid, on the other side of the wall, screaming someone in person, it’s such a, ‘Why do I bother?’ Because you never and yelling, ‘F— you. You told me you weren’t going to make me talk know if you’re going to be there for two days, two weeks, two months.” about this.’”

Getting to a point where you receive a diagnosis and begin learning The teenager kicked the door open and punched a hand sanitizer methods to help combat your issues takes time and several dispenser off the wall, before security arrived to calm him down. The appointments, notes Meisner. It also requires effort on your part, because doctor stood in the hallway for a moment and then walked into the room where Rempel and his family were waiting. “He says, ‘Okay Kevin, let’s support for what the centre is doing. When Van Slingerland or Durand- chat,’” recalls Rempel. “From that moment, I feel like mentally, I was Bush have a general conversation with a care team member about the fixed. What happened in that moment was that I knew that I’m not as bad breakthrough of a client, there is validation. as [the teenager] was, in the sense that I knew what I did, or the things that I’ve done to create my problem and allow this depression to happen. There is also buy-in from some coaches, which is an essential step I knew how and where I was responsible to turn things around. I needed toward altering the stigma of mental health in sport. “Coaches need to to get better so I could help people like him.” know where they can get the support to support the athletes,” says Andy Sparks, head coach of the UOttawa women’s basketball team and a Rempel has since become an author, motivational speaker and sledge CCMHS board member. “If there’s avoidance behavior [from a coach], it hockey and mental health advocate. He is also one of the original doesn’t get to the level that it needs to [in order] to get that person back stakeholders at CCMHS, providing continued input and feedback from to good mental health as quickly as possible.” the perspective of a national team athlete who battled mental health issues. Despite the support, though, CCMHS still faces issues. Funding remains a major concern. Everyone at the centre is essentially working a side The link between Team Canada and CCMHS is strong — members hustle. There is no full-time staff. Given there are already gaps in the comprise 34 per cent of active or completed clients at the centre. The Canadian healthcare system’s funding of mental health initiatives for the stressors that can plague athletes as they prepare for international general population, it’s unreasonable to expect the government to competition are varied, ranging from isolation — due to long stretches provide more for the specialized population of athletes and coaches. But training far from home — to body image issues and weight restrictions. in late April, CCMHS did receive charitable status, which could entice more potential sponsors and donors. The fear that Meisner and Kostka refer to about seeking help within one’s own organization is also felt among national team members, some of To Durand-Bush the CCMHS has been worth the copious amounts of whom have paid out of their own pockets to receive treatment at time and effort she has poured into her dream. “We are seeing success CCMHS, according to DesClouds. The centre works closely with because we’re at the table,” she declares. “We’re at the table within organizations linked to the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and many projects, many conversations about mental health and sport in other sports institutions across the country, but stays at arm’s length to Canada. People are asking us to take part and we have to say, ‘No,’ maintain trust and confidentiality. “Nobody in their sport will know unless because we have too many requests. We’re being asked to develop they want us to bring [their organization] in,” Durand-Bush says. “That’s webinars and workshops for parents, coaches, athletes. We are asked to what’s helping establish us as a different mechanism for them to get present at conferences. help. Within all our national teams, you have what they call ‘integrated support teams’ that are there for their athletes. Within those teams, you “Our clients coming through the centre are satisfied,” she adds. “That, to will find practitioners like myself — mental performance consultants. me, is saying this is working.” More and more, we’re seeing psychologists [and psychiatrists]. That is About a year before Van Slingerland scrawled her suicide note in crayon, awesome, but there are still athletes who are choosing not to work with she visited the health centre at Carleton. She was wearing sweatpants these people, for fear of this information getting back to the coach, who that day — she pretty much lived in them during her second year in has all the power.” university. She was set to meet with a campus counsellor and as she Thomas Hall is a national manager at Game Plan, a wellness program walked in, she felt hope that somebody would finally listen to the for national team athletes that’s a collaboration between the COC, problems she was facing on her basketball squad. This was the first time Canadian Paralympic Committee, Sport Canada and Canadian Olympic she reached out for help. and Paralympic Sport Institute Network. He agrees that there are The response she got floored her. “Why don’t you quit basketball? It instances where national team athletes don’t want their coaches to find seems like a huge stress in your life,” the counsellor told her. That out they are seeking help. In those cases, Hall says the Game Plan team conclusion was simply unfathomable. Basketball had been everything to will ensure them help and that no information will be revealed. Yet still, her for nearly two decades — more important than school. No way was sometimes an athlete just doesn’t want to take the chance. she going to leave. She worked so hard and invested so much time to “There are still athletes choosing not to work with team psychologists and get to where she was. And besides, she was not a quitter. Van psychiatrists for fear of this information getting back to the coach, who Slingerland walked out that day and never returned to the health centre. has all the power.” She was confused and felt that she didn’t deserve help. Her life slowly spiraled into a dark place. Hall, himself a former Olympian who won bronze in canoeing at the 2008 Beijing Games, understands the situation all too well. “From the athlete’s The experience deeply informed Van Slingerland’s work and what she is perspective, it’s, ‘Who’s having dinner together?’” Hall says. “If I’m on carrying out with the CCMHS. In her work at the centre, she has heard tour, I’m in Europe and I’m hungry, and I see the psychologist is having several athletes recount variations of the same story. There was the time dinner with the coach and that coach and I are really not getting along a young, high-level athlete sought help at CCMHS. This athlete had been and I’m suffering stress about that and they are drinking wine together through the mental health system extensively. She had seen a and laughing, then I’m going to maybe not trust that [psychologist]. And psychiatrist, a psychologist; she had engaged in self-harm and had been that has nothing to do with whether or not they would tell the truth. It’s in and out of hospitals. just perception. At one point during her session with a CCMHS team member, though, “For us, it’s essential that there are third-party options out there.” she turned to her mother and said, “This is the best session I’ve ever had with a practitioner. She gets it.” Hall speaks with Van Slingerland weekly and says the centre plays an important role in filling gaps. Game Plan services a roster of roughly Van Slingerland deems it the centre’s biggest success story. “That 3,000 current and former national team athletes. However, they typically feeling of being understood, finally,” says Van Slingerland. “Somebody only work with athletes who have retired within the past two years. with all these clinical issues who really just needed to talk to somebody CCMHS is also solely focused on mental health, whereas Game Plan about sport — somebody who got it.” covers much broader ground, from mental health to career development That young girl has progressed considerably. She is still a client with the to lessons in how to do your taxes. If a national team athlete chooses to CCMHS and she is doing well in her sport. stay in-house and receive help from Game Plan, there is no cost to them.

“The CCMHS is part of the sport ecosystem that supports athlete mental health,” says Hall. “We work with them and other organizations to make Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 05.11.2020 sure we don’t duplicate services and that athletes know they’re an option.”

WHENEVER, WHEREVER

Though the centre is based at the House of Sport in Ottawa, it has staff spread across the country. Patients can also be seen remotely.

When CCMHS held a one-year anniversary fundraiser at the House of Sport in late 2019, it was easy to pack the place — there is widespread 1184350 World Leagues News The positive results surely increased the focus on the event. Every other sport is watching closely to see how it plays out.

“The whole word is weird right now. Everything’s weird. This event’s Coronavirus: UFC 249 MMA event ushers in fan-free, mask-filled era of weird," White said. "It’s different. We live in a different world than we did sports two months ago. The bottom line is the system worked. What you don’t want to do is two days after the fight say, ‘Awe, Jacaré tested positive.’ So it worked. The system worked that we put in place. By The Associated Press "Without sounding like a jackass, we’re really good at what we do. We’re very, very good at what we do. We’ll just get better. The longer this goes, the better the testing technology’s going to get and the faster it’s going to Jacksonville, Fla. — Kicks, punches and grunts echoed through the get. We’re going to prove by next Saturday that professional sports can empty arena. Coaches, commentators and camera clicks resonated like come back safely.” never before. Blood, sweat, swollen eyelids and face masks signaled the return of UFC, the first major sporting event to resume since the White didn’t want to postpone any fights. He tried to host the event on coronavirus shuttered much of the country for nearly two months. tribal land in California and still hopes to create a “Fight Island” for future cards. UFC 249 ushered in a new look for sports, too. One without fans and amid several safety precautions. He settled for Jacksonville for at least a week — without fans and with social-distancing rules in place. It was definitely different — two fighters adjusted their approaches because of what they heard announcers say — and a welcome reprieve Judges and broadcasters worked from separate tables. Fighters, trainers, for a sports-craved country that went nearly eight weeks with few live referees, judges, UFC staff and even outside media had to undergo events. COVID-19 testing to get inside Veterans Memorial Arena.

“We did this for you, to bring sports back,” fighter Tony Ferguson told Many of those in attendance Saturday wore masks and gloves, although fans following his loss in the main event. several were seemingly exempt from the mandate. Referees, ring announcer Bruce Buffer, other officials inside the octagon and the ring Five hours after President Trump congratulated UFC for restarting the girl were unmasked. Play-by-play commentator Joe Rogan, who initially sports world, Justin Gaethje stunned heavily favored Ferguson (26-4) in was supposed to interview winners remotely, ended up doing them inside the finale. Gaethje earned a TKO in the fifth and final round of the the octagon. headliner that was deemed an interim lightweight title bout. It essentially gives Gaethje (22-2) the right to fight titleholder Khabib Nurmagomedov The cage floor was disinfected between bouts, and the padded parts of next. Nurmagomedov was unable to fight this weekend because of travel the octagon were wiped down between rounds. restrictions. Without fans, though, sounds that usually would be muted or completely Gaethje flipped over the top of the cage and back in following the biggest drowned out filled the desolate arena. Fighters said it affected their victory of his career. He then screamed repeatedly. bouts. Hardy and Carla Esparza said they altered their approach after hearing commentators during early rounds. “I want the real one," he said as he threw down the interim belt. “There's no other fight I want right now.” “It’s hard to assess without the crowd,” Anthony Pettis said after beating Cerrone in a wild welterweight fight. “When I land stuff, I hear the crowd The stacked card saw 33-year-old Henry Cejudo, with blood gushing and know it was a good one. This time, there was no crowd. I saw his from his forehead and running down his chest, defend his bantamweight head pop, but there was nothing behind it, so it’s hard to tell.” title against Dominick Cruz and then announce his retirement in the middle of the octagon. Also on the card:

“I really do want to walk away, but money talks,” said Cejudo, an Olympic — Cejudo (16-2) caught Cruz (22-3) with a right knee to the face that gold medalist in 2008. “It gets stagnant. I want to leave on top.” sent him reeling to the canvas. Cejudo then delivered nearly a dozen unanswered blows before the referee stopped it. Cruz argued it never The event also included heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou should have been called because he was working to get back on his feet. pummeling another opponent, former NFL defensive end Greg Hardy Cejudo surprisingly ended his career a few minutes later, saying he winning for the sixth time in eight fights and former welterweight wants to spend more time with his family. champion and fan favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone losing his fourth straight. — Ngannou knocked out fellow heavyweight Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 20 seconds. Ngannou rushed Rozenstruik and delivered a flurry of blows Trump grabbed the spotlight early. His taped message was played during that left Rozenstruik so woozy he had trouble getting into his slides long ESPN’s broadcast of the undercard. after the fight ended. It was Ngannou’s fourth consecutive victory totaling “I want to congratulate (UFC President) Dana White and the UFC,” less than 3 minutes in the octagon. Trump said. “They’re going to have a big match. We love it. We think it’s — Calvin Kattar (21-4) stopped Jeremy Stephens (28-18) in the second important. Get the sports leagues back. Let’s play. Do the social round after consecutive elbow blows, one standing and another on the distancing and whatever else you have to do. We need sports. We want ground. our sports back." — Hardy (6-2) celebrated a unanimous decision over Yorgan De Castro UFC 249 was originally scheduled for April 18 in New York, but was (6-1) in a heavyweight bout. postponed in hopes of helping slow the spread of COVID-19. — “Showtime” Pettis (23-10) beat Cerrone (36-15) in an unanimous The mixed martial arts behemoth will hold three shows in eight days in decision. Pettis and Cerrone last fought in 2013. Pettis won that one as Jacksonville, where state officials deemed professional sports with a well. Cerrone has dropped four in a row, including losses to Conor national audience exempt from a stay-at-home order as long as the McGregor, Gaethje and Ferguson. location is closed to the public. — Aleksei “The Boa Constrictor” Oleinik (59-13-1) beat Fabricio Werdum The UFC came up with a 25-page document to address health and (23-9-1) in a heavyweight bout featuring a pair of 42-year-olds. It was a safety protocols, procedures that led to Jacaré Souza testing positive for split decision that included more toe-to-toe blows than ground grappling. COVID-19 on Friday. His middleweight bout against Uriah Hall was canceled that night. Souza’s two cornermen also tested as positive, the — Carla Esparza (16-6) edged Michelle “Karate Hottie” Waterson (17-8) UFC said. in a split decision. It was Esparza’s third straight victory in the straw- weight division. All three men left the host hotel to self-isolate elsewhere, where UFC’s medical team will monitor their conditions remotely and provide — Vicente Luque (18-7-1) won for the seventh time in eight fights when assistance with necessary treatments. he beat Niko Price (14-4) in a bloodbath. The fight was ruled a TKO in the third round after Price developed a nasty cut above his right eye. Luque was ahead on all three cards when it was called. — Featherweight Bryce Mitchell (13-1) defeated fellow grappler Charles Rosa (12-4) in a unanimous decision.

— Spann (18-5) extended his winning streak to eight by beating veteran Sam Alvey (33-14) in a split decision.

LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184351 World Leagues News More genteel pursuits like tennis and golf have proved that it is, although both Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia handed over hefty fines for leaving something besides sweat out on the course.

Will the coronavirus stop athletes from spitting during games? Basketball and hockey are stuck indoors, but only one of them said no to spitting. Puckheads defend hockey's choice by arguing players who get a tooth knocked out during a game shouldn't have to swallow a chiclet. Fair By JIM LITKE enough. But if you've ever watched a game and seen how much blood, sweat and tears they voluntarily share on the bench, it shouldn't come as ASSOCIATED PRESS | a surprise that the National Hockey League has been hit twice in recent MAY 10, 2020 | 1:12 PM years by outbreaks of mumps.

But that's about to change. The coronavirus has pulled the rug out from underneath just about everything in sports, and better sanitation shouldn't We come not to praise the loogie, but to bury it. require a seismic cultural shift. Just rise at some ungodly hour and catch a Korean Baseball Organization game on ESPN. Already banned on sidewalks, outlawed indoors and pooh-poohed by polite society, that gob of saliva and Lord-knows-what-else is done The KBO is at the vanguard in the return of live sports. It checks players' mucking up sports. In the wake of the new coronavirus, teams are temperatures twice daily, requires umpires and trainers to wear masks revoking the germ-landing privileges that turned dugouts, benches, and gloves, and banned spitting, handshakes, fist-bumps, high-fives and boxing rings and even grass fields into potential biohazard sites. perhaps most noticeably, a live audience.

No sharing towels, hats, bats, gloves or water bottles. Which could mean That's been replaced by banners picturing fans — also wearing masks — the golden era of spitting, slobbering, gleaking, glanding, hawking, stretched across every row. In a spectacularly complicated nod to social hocking, venoming and expectorating is about to dry up. Or not. distancing, the opening pitch was rolled to home plate by a youngster wearing a uniform inside a clear balloon made up to look like a baseball. "About time they did something," said Bobby Valentine, who played and managed in the major leagues for more than 40 years, including two Dan Straily, an American-born pitcher with the Lotte Giants of the KBO, stints in the Japanese Pacific League. said the game lacked so much energy, it reminded him of "weekday games in Oakland." Still, he had only one real complaint. "I was over there for seven years and I could probably count on one hand how many times I saw a ballplayer spit. Heck," he added, "they don't "I want someone to find me a game in history where baseball players did even chew gum." not spit on the field," Straily told NPR.

[More from sports] Ohio State will pay $41 million to settle lawsuits of 162 Get used to it. alleging sexual abuse by team doctor Richard Strauss » LOADED: 05.11.2020 But a moment later, Valentine remembers a photo tucked in a drawer somewhere in his Stamford, Connecticut, home. It reminds him why the loogie will not disappear without a fight.

"It's a picture of me after a game from 30 years ago, back when I was managing the Rangers and behind me there's this elongated view of the dugout. There must have been 200 of those green Gatorade cups and all this other … let's just say gunk, laying around.

"And I used to wonder even then," Valentine mused, "why guys couldn't clean up after themselves."

The answer may be as old — and as American — as the sport itself. Baseball began as a working-man's game on sandlots and dusty diamonds, and more than a few players struggling with "cotton mouth" turned to chewing tobacco (and later gum and sunflower seeds) to work up some moisture. It became an institution in no time flat.

Pitchers figured out that loading a glob onto one side of the ball made it dip like crazy. Fielders pounded spit into the pocket of stiff leather gloves to soften them up and hitters rubbed it on their hands or lacquered up bat handles to improve their grips, at least temporarily. But it had psychological value, too.

The Rangers' Isiah Kiner-Falefa spits during a 2019 game against the Red Sox.

Spitting helped some soothe jangling nerves, show contempt or machismo, or just mark their territory like dogs do. It was only a problem when an opponent got in the way of its gravity.

It isn't just baseball, of course. Rough-and-tumble sports like soccer and football embraced the practice at the beginnings of their games, too, and once grabbing a swig of water on the sidelines during a break became available, it practically elevated it into an art form. But don't expect any new masterpieces to flow soon.

With Germany’s Bundesliga considering a return to play within weeks, Michel D’Hooghe, the chairman of FIFA’s medical committee, is strongly advising against any soccer league restarting until the fall. But if they do, he wants even the most casual dribble on the pitch punished with a yellow card.

"It is unhygienic … I think we should have to avoid that at maximum," D'Hooghe said. "The question is whether that will be possible." 1184352 World Leagues News we want to make sure the competition stays as fair as it can be despite these exceptional circumstances that we are facing.”

Steve Parish, the chairman of midtable Crystal Palace, has been a rare English Premier League clubs split on restarting season as Brighton public voice from within the Premier League supporting plans that player tests positive for coronavirus envisage a June restart.

“There are no easy answers, we have to work through it as a collective by Rob Harris, Associated Press, and I think we will and come out with a consensus in the end,” Parish told the BBC. ”(The meeting) is another part of the journey in trying to get football back. We would be derelict in our duty if we did not find a way for the game to come back. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says sports can resume — if only members of your own household are playing. How the Premier League “It may prove beyond us, we have huge challenges in order to get it back can restart should become clearer in the coming days. to complete the season but we are planning on doing so.”

Any restart during the coronavirus pandemic is not just reliant on the The planned resumption of football in Germany next weekend has government, which is planning Tuesday to outline the path to group already hit problems. training by sports teams being allowed again. Dynamo Dresden will not be able to play Hannover after two players CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday, forcing the entire squad, coaching and supervisory staff to enter 14 days of quarantine at home. The 20 Premier League clubs head into their latest conference call on Monday split over a plan to use neutral stadiums to complete the season In Spain, La Liga said it was not changing plans to resume the that was halted in March. competition — potentially from June — despite announcing Sunday that five players from clubs in the first and second divisions tested positive for As clubs try to create safe conditions for training and games, the risks of COVID-19. players gathering again have been underscored by a Brighton player testing positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. Brighton chief executive Paul LOADED: 05.11.2020 Barber said the case was “a concern,” with players still only training individually at the south-coast club.

If games can resume as the league hopes by mid-June, there will not be any fans allowed inside stadiums, with forms of social distancing maintained even as some of the national lockdown restrictions are eased.

While making no mention of the return of professional sports in his Downing Street speech on Sunday, Johnson told Britons they can “play sports but only with members of your own household.” That includes golf courses and tennis courts in England being allowed to reopen from Wednesday.

The government, however, said last week it wants to see the return of the Premier League to “lift the spirits of the nation” when it is safe.

But at least six clubs, according to Watford, are insistent on being allowed to play at home despite police saying that is not feasible.

» FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered.

Brighton was the first Premier League team to oppose “Project Restart." The club's announcement on Sunday that an unnamed player had contracted COVID-19 even before the reintroduction of group training reinforces how the disease is spreading despite the national lockdown that has been in place in March.

There is no need for other members of the squad or coaches to self- isolate because players have only worked in isolation when at the training base, the club said. Brighton said three players have now had the coronavirus, having announced the first diagnosis in March.

“One of the things we’ve asked the Premier League for is a complete plan of all of the stages of returning to play,” Barber told broadcaster Sky Sports on Sunday. “First we need to get players back training in small groups, then they need to get involved in some contact training and then training for a match before the match itself.

“So there are lots of stages, it’s very complex and there are people at the Premier League working very hard to produce detailed paperwork to move through those stages as safely as possible.”

Brighton is only two points clear of the relegation zone with nine games remaining so does not want to give away home advantage for five of those fixtures, which include leader Liverpool and defending champion Manchester City due to visit the Amex Stadium.

“People will accuse us of self-interest, I totally understand that, but at this stage of the season there is self-interest at every level of the table,” Barber said.

“Everyone has different objectives for the season and we are all looking to play out the season, if it is safe to do so. We really do want to play and 1184353 World Leagues News

Sports Digest: Chief of British soccer team concerned after player tests positive

News service report

The chief executive for Brighton questions whether it's safe for the Premier League to pursue plans to complete its season.

SOCCER

The risks involved in resuming the English Premier League were underscored Sunday after a Brighton player contracted the coronavirus as clubs prepare for fresh talks on how they can create safe conditions to play again during the pandemic.

Brighton chief executive Paul Barber said the club’s COVID-19 case was “a concern,” with players still only training individually at the club. It reinforces how players could potentially spread the coronavirus if the government approves the reintroduction of group training and lifts the shutdown of sports that has been in place since March.

The 20 Premier League clubs are due to hold a conference call on Monday. Even though fans will not be allowed in stadiums, the league’s “Project Restart” faces resistance from clubs who will not approve plans to use neutral venues.

SPAIN: The Spanish league is not changing its plan to resume competing after five players from clubs in the first and second divisions tested positive for COVID-19, with President Javier Tebas saying he hopes the league can restart on June 12.

The league confirmed the positive tests but did not identify the players nor say which teams they play for. The players are all without symptoms but will remain sidelined until they fully recover.

Players from most clubs began individual training sessions on Friday after nearly two months of confinement because of the pandemic.

TENNIS

FRENCH OPEN: The clay-court tournament at Roland Garros could be held without fans later this year, the president of the French Tennis Federation said.

It was initially slated to be held May 24-June 7, but was postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic and rescheduled for Sept. 20-Oct. 4.

Bernard Giudicelli told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that organizers are considering the prospect it might need to go ahead without fans present. It could even start one week later.

HOCKEY

NHL: The Anaheim Ducks have signed defenseman Brendan Guhle to a two-year, $1.6 million contract extension and signed forward Sam Carrick to a one-year extension worth $700,000.

Guhle, 22, has four goals and four assists in 30 games this season for the Ducks. Carrick, 28, has played nine NHL games this season, getting one goal and one assist.

LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184354 World Leagues News

Kansas colleges make plans to reopen amid coronavirus

STATE AND REGION

MAY 10, 2020 - 3:14PM

WICHITA — Universities across Kansas are making plans to reopen their campuses, although classes will look a little different.

Universities in Kansas and across the county closed their campuses in March and moved classes online due to the coronavirus pandemic. State officials have now tasked the schools with setting their own reopening standards, The Wichita Eagle reported.

Wichita State University says it will offer in-person classes in the fall and will reopen student housing facilities to pre-COVID-19 occupancy levels.

The University of Kansas announced last week that its campus would be opening in the fall, and Kansas State University has proposed a phased approach that depends on specific criteria before reopening.

Wichita State is working to have a plan in place to keep the school operational if a second wave of the virus hits in the fall, as has been predicted by some medical experts. The university is training instructors and professors to quickly move their classes back online.

“We’re hoping that we’ll have very robust offerings like we normally do in the face-to-face environment,” Wichita State Provost Rick Muma said in an online town hall meeting.

“But we also need a plan for the possibility of that being a little different, especially if there’s a reemergence of the virus. We need to be prepared to be able to pivot in any way that we feel is appropriate,” he said.

Muma also said students should be prepared to take ownership of their own health. For students, that means adding masks, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes to their back-to-school shopping list.

“I’ll be carrying a little bottle of hand sanitizer myself to make sure I’m constantly sanitizing my hands but also my work surface,” Muma said.

Wichita State, like other schools across the nation, faces a budget deficit to the tune of $6.8 million, President Jay Golden said. Part of that will be a decline in students who choose to reenroll after already taking classes at the school, he said.

“Our incoming freshmen is actually up,” he said. “We’re in a pretty good, healthy spot in that regard, especially compared to other universities.”

To make up for the shortfall, Golden said, the university has already begun making cuts to discretionary spending, such as out-of-state travel. As for a tuition increase, “That’s really up in the air right now,” he said, adding that any rate hike would be kept “very minimal.”

According to the latest count from Johns Hopkins University, Kansas has 174 COVID-19-related deaths and 6,800 cases. The actual number of cases, though is expected to be far higher because of limited testing and because many people who are infected don’t have symptoms.

Lawrence Journal-World LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184355 World Leagues News

MLB coronavirus antibody study results: Less than 1 percent of participants test positive

Dayn Perry

@daynperry

May 10, 2020 at 4:54 pm ET • 1 min read

Earlier this spring, Major League Baseball agreed to partake in a vast and unique study on the viability of COVID-19 antibody testing, and on Sunday the league reportedly received preliminary test results.

According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, 60 of the 5,754 subjects tested showed the presence of COVID-19 antibodies. After adjusting to reflect testing accuracy, that comes to a positive test rate of 0.7 percent. As Passan notes that's a lower figure than other notable antibody test studies have yielded. Furthermore, 70 percent of those who tested positive were asymptomatic -- i.e., they presented no symptoms of having COVID-19. The tests were conducted in the middle of April.

The goal of the study is to determine the extent of the coronavirus pandemic in large metropolitan areas. It's a joint effort on the part of Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory. "I think this kind of testing, the MLB study that we're doing, is the start and not the end point. I would like this kind of testing to be done everywhere," Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford told CBS Sports at the time the testing program was announced. "Every community needs to know what the right next steps need to take from a local approach, and to open the economy, this is the right step."

Unlike the current COVID-19 test that must be performed by healthcare professionals, the antibody test used in the MLB study can be administered at home and yield results within minutes. Presently, it can take up to a week to receive results from the COVID-19 test.

The results of the antibody study likely won't have any bearing on when or if MLB begins the 2020 regular season. At last report, MLB was hoping to start in early July and play roughly 80 games in the regular season followed by an expanded playoffs.

CBS Sports LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184356 World Leagues News

MLB coronavirus: ‘There’s going to be a war’ if owners seek further pay from players (report)

By Chris Mason | [email protected]

As Mel Gibson famously shouts in “Braveheart,” “Are you ready for a war?”

Apparently the MLB players are.

According to Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports, “there is going to be a war” if owners seek to further reduce salaries, and the players are “hopping mad" —⁠ with good reason.

The two sides put a pretty straightforward deal in place back in March: Owners would give the MLBPA $170 million to divide amongst players however they see fit. If there’s no season, they players would pocket that money and be on their way. If there is baseball, that $170 million would essentially be an advance and players would receive their regular salaries prorated for whatever the season consists of.

The Players Association sees that as set in stone.

“That negotiation is over,” Tony Clark said in an April statement.

But the owners are reportedly seeking further pay cuts, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.

“Because games, at least initially, will be played without fans, the players would be asked to accept a further reduction in pay, most likely by agreeing to a set percentage of revenues for this season only,” Rosenthal writes. “Without the players making such a concession, league officials say they will spend more on player salaries than they would earn in revenue for every incremental regular-season game played without fans. The union believes the opposite to be true and that postseason TV and other revenue will further enhance the league’s financial position.”

Might be time to grab that sword and shield; this battle feels inevitable. masslive.com/ LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184357 World Leagues News

Dynamo Dresden's game canceled after positive coronavirus tests as Bundesliga resumption approaches

By Ravi Ubha, CNN

German soccer's return to action next weekend suffered a blow after two players from Dynamo Dresden tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 are scheduled to resume following the go-ahead from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but Dresden's game at Hannover on May 17 in the second tier now won't be contested because of the positive tests for the two unidentified players.

The duo don't have any symptoms, but the entire team -- including coaching and support staff -- faces a quarantine period of 14 days at home, Dresden said on its official website. The club resumed practice sessions last Thursday.

AlertMe

Dresden sits in last place in the division, while Hannover has an outside chance of promotion to the Bundesliga.

The Bundesliga is set to become the first major soccer league in the world's most popular sport to resume during the global coronavirus pandemic after a two-month stoppage.

Along with extensive testing of players, handshakes and team photos won't take place, and the ball will be disinfected before kickoff, among other safety measures.

Germany, according to statistics posted by the World Health Organization on Saturday, has recorded 7,369 coronavirus deaths, below the more than 25,000 deaths in the European nations of the UK, Spain, Italy and France. Germany's coronavirus testing has been praised during the pandemic.

No fans but cutouts instead

Still, there won't be any fans at matches. But fans of Borussia Moenchengladbach can pay $20 for a life-size cutout of themselves that will be placed in the stadium's seats. Proceeds in part go to coronavirus relief efforts.

No fans, then, but the money from lucrative TV rights is much needed by soccer clubs, Germany included.

"There is no point to beat around the bush that it is extremely important for the Bundesliga and for the individual clubs to get back on the field and play," Lutz Pfannenstiel, Fortuna Dusseldorf's sporting director, told CNN Sport. "We are a league that is very much depending on the television money. So to get that, playing is obviously what you have to do.

"You would have a lot of people who are not playing, who are not coaching and not sitting in the big positions -- they would also be getting into a bad economic situation."

Dates haven't been announced for the official return of the three highest profile soccer leagues -- the UK's Premier League, Spain's La Liga and Italy's Serie A.

CNN LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184358 World Leagues News But as SMU continues to recruit the Dallas-area heavily, Dykes believes there might also be a growing number of athletes that value staying home because it provides a comfort during an uncertain time.

SMU coach Sonny Dykes breaks down how program has handled “There are kids that are Dallas, D-FW kids that have gone to schools that coronavirus crisis, thoughts on football season I think are considering coming home, being closer to [home],” Dykes said. “I think the travel and the things that are making people a little bit uncomfortable right now, I think that’s going to draw some kids to want to By Sam Blum be around their family, want to be closer to home, where they don’t have to travel a long way to get there or their family doesn’t have to get on a 4:00 PM on May 10, 2020 bunch of airplanes to go watch them play.”

“And so I think there will continue to be kids that reach out to us, and SMU had just finished up its third practice of the spring when the entire want to come join our program.” sports world started to shut down. The end of the March 12 morning practice coincided almost exactly with the cancelation of the AAC basketball tournament. The Dallas Morning News LOADED: 05.11.2020 But the loss of the final 12 spring practices, for SMU, might not be detrimental. The continuity of the coaching staff — all but one assistant coach returned — possibly gives SMU a leg up after an active coaching carousel changed the staff dynamics of many teams.

“We have a lot of important pieces coming back,” Dykes told The Dallas Morning News. “We have a lot of experience in key positions. … And we didn’t change a whole lot quite frankly.”

“And so there’s a lot of continuity there. There’s total continuity on the defensive side, and so I think as a result of that — you know how much movement there is in college football. I think that puts us ahead of a lot of teams.”

Every college program is working from relatively the same position nowadays. There was limited spring football. Everyone is operating remotely. In-person recruiting is barred. And the prospects of a college football season are completely up in the air.

The range of possibilities of what a college football season might look like in 2020 (or 2021) is anyone’s guess.

“Anybody that tells you they’re not concerned is not being truthful,” Dykes said when asked if he was concerned about the upcoming season. “I think at the end of the day, I have a lot of belief that college football will do the right thing to make sure that we take care of the student-athletes. We’re not going to return to play if it’s not safe for people.”

Dykes said right now, the sport is gathering information and data, and he doesn't believe a snap judgement will be made.

In the mean time, Dykes is busy trying to run a program, and everything that comes with it, pretty much completely over Zoom and FaceTime.

Every Wednesday at 9 p.m., the entire team gets together for a Zoom call. Players meet with their position coaches over zoom at different times over throughout the week. Then there are individual calls with players and coaches.

Additionally, members of the staff, both assistant coaches and other personnel, have been conducting Zoom calls for SMU fans to follow every weekday, typically delving into topics like strength and conditioning or offensive and defensive “chalk talk”.

“And then recruiting on top of that,” Dykes said. “I probably am on six to eight to 10 Zooms a day or FaceTimes a day with recruits. It’s mostly Zoom with the players and staff and it’s mostly FaceTime with recruits.

“There’s a lot of communication going on. Our message from the very beginning of this, whether it’s to our players, our coaches or recruits is when something like this happens, it creates a lot of anxiety and uncertainty. And the only way to deal with those types of things is to have communication.”

To the best of Dykes’ knowledge, no one on the team or staff has contracted Covid-19, nor has anyone in any of their families.

That is the No. 1 concern, obviously, amid a time when new adjustments is just a daily way of life. There was no spring football. There were no summer camps to recruit. To this point, there’ve been no in-person workouts.

There might be some roster changes that come about. SMU is still hoping to bring in additional transfers, and the uncertain times might impact that. It’s possible some players decide they’re not comfortable coming back, Dykes said. 1184359 World Leagues News

Syracuse company develops coronavirus-killing drone for arenas and stadiums

Updated May 10, 2020; Posted May 10, 2020

By Rick Moriarty | [email protected]

Syracuse, N.Y. — Syracuse startup EagleHawk has developed a drone that can spray disinfectant to quickly kill the coronavirus in sports arenas and stadiums.

EagleHawk specializes in drones that use thermal cameras to detect roof leaks for government, college and university, medical and retail buildings. But when the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the U.S. in mid-March, much of that business dried up.

The company quickly shifted gears. It removed the thermal cameras from its drones and replaced them with a device that sprays disinfectant.

“As a team, we just kind of took a step back and said, ‘How can we help be part of the solution going forward with COVID-19,’” said CEO Patrick Walsh, referencing the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The disinfectant is stored in a tank on the ground and pumped to the drone through an attached hose. A second drone flies near the disinfecting drone to hold the hose up to prevent it from getting caught on a seat or other objects.

Walsh said the system can be used in any large outdoor or indoor facility. The company is marketing it to college, and major and minor league sports teams as a way to make their facilities safe for fans.

Those places are shut down because of the pandemic, but Walsh said the company’s new service will come in handy when they reopen.

“We’re getting strong interest now, but I think everybody’s in a waiting game, unfortunately,” he said.

EagleHawk won $500,000 in the Genius NY business competition at The Tech Garden, a business accelerator in downtown Syracuse, in 2019. The company’s headquarters are in Buffalo, but it maintains an office at the Tech Garden. It employs 10 people.

The company tested its disinfecting system at KeyBank Center in Buffalo (home of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres), Sahlen Field in Buffalo (home of the Buffalo Bisons minor league baseball team) and the Oncenter War Memorial Arena in Syracuse (home of the Syracuse Crunch minor league hockey team).

Walsh said the drones can quickly disinfect every seat as it flies around the facilities, piloted by an operator. Having employees walk around and spray thousands of seats after each game would be expensive and so time consuming it would be impractical, he said.

“Say you have a hockey game at the War Memorial," he said. "We would come out that evening or the next morning, do the cleaning and have it ready to go for the next day,” he said.

Spraying with a drone also is safer than having employees manually clean the facilities, he said.

“Now people won’t be directly exposed,” said Walsh. “The drone will do the job.” syracuse.com/ LOADED: 05.11.2020 1184360 World Leagues News

Steelers' Mike Tomlin believes NFL facilities should open at same time

WRITTEN BY

SACHA PISANI

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin believes it is only fair to reopen NFL facilities at the same time amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The NFL has laid out a plan for all 32 teams to have their facilities prepared to be reopened by May 15.

Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to all teams Wednesday informing them of the protocols put in place to have their complexes ready to open. He will advise them as to when they can formally allow personnel to enter.

The first phase permits 50 percent of non-player personnel to be in the facility, as well as players who are continuing rehab and therapy that they began before facilities were ordered to close in late March. The second phase involves increasing the number of staff members and players.

I prescribe to the approach of competitive fairness within our game, and that is everybody gets an opportunity," Tomlin told reporters on a conference call Saturday. "Our game is extremely competitive. It's one of the things that make football at this level so attractive to our fans.

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"I'm committed to preserving and protecting that, and so all teams getting an opportunity to start on the same footing is a core element of that."

Tomlin added: "There's a couple of things that we're committed to adhering to, and that's the global approach of the National Football League in regards to football ops and how important competitive fairness is in our game.

"We all got to get started on the same footing in that regard. Then, also, respecting our local government and the guidelines they prescribe individually in terms of workplace safety.

"Those are the two key components for us. We're in a wait-and-see mindset, and we'll be ready to go when both boxes are checked." sportingnews.com/ LOADED: 05.11.2020