Sport-Scan Daily Brief
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SPORT-SCAN DAILY BRIEF NHL 12/26/2020 Arizona Coyotes 1197284 The 5: Surprise gifts Arizona sports teams unwrapped in 2020 1197285 How we’d run the Coyotes: Get rid of expensive veterans and rebuild Boston Bruins 1197286 Bruins retrospective: 10 key dates of 2020 1197287 BHN Puck Links: Happy Christmas And Happy World Juniors!Published 14 hours ago on December 25, 2020By Jimmy Mu Carolina Hurricanes 1197288 From athletes to activists, the 10 most influential people in Triangle sports in 2020 Colorado Avalanche 1197289 Comcast standoff with Altitude bitter as ever, but here’s a possible solution for youPublished 3 hours ago on Columbus Blue Jackets 1197290 Blue Jackets add defenseman Michael Del Zotto to training camp roster on tryout offer 1197291 Best of Cleveland/Columbus 2020: Browns, Indians, Cavs, Blue Jackets, Buckeyes Dallas Stars 1197292 Ready or not, Jake Oettinger gets introduced to the NHL this season. How will the Stars’ rookie goalie handle Detroit Red Wings 1197293 Ho, Ho, Hockeytown: A holiday guide to Detroit Red Wings' past, present and future 1197294 World junior hockey roundup: Red Wings pick Eemil Viro plus-1 in Finland's opener 1197295 Red Wings who played in Europe might have advantage at training camp 1197296 One-game wonder: How ex-Spartan Brad Fast made NHL history Los Angeles Kings 1197297 LA KINGS ALUMNI – SO MANY MEMORIES, SO THANKFUL New York Islanders 1197298 New York's Brightest Sports Stars for 2021 1197299 When Islanders training camp opens, there will be spots to fill 1197300 An empty Madison Square Garden before the start An empty Madison Square Garden before the start New York Rangers 1197301 Developing team chemistry as camp begins shouldn't be an issue for Rangers Philadelphia Flyers 1197302 Everything fans need to know for watching 3 Flyers prospects in world juniors Pittsburgh Penguins 1197303 Sabres upgraded in offseason, could hang around in NHL East Division 1197304 Mark Madden: Pre-Mario Penguins provided plenty of memorable moments 1197305 Penguins A to Z: Cam Lee takes his first steps 1197306 Is Tristan Jarry ready to be the true No. 1 goalie? 1197307 A brother’s grief, a father’s joy and learning to live with both at Christmas 1197308 Holiday Reading: Behind the Scenes From Years Past San Jose Sharks 1197309 Boughner can't wait for Sharks to play in San Jose again St Louis Blues 1197310 Blues expecting some help from NHL on start times out West 1197311 Hockey's debut at The Arena. Hell (and the floor) had to freeze over first Vegas Golden Knights 1197312 Raiders, Golden Knights music director set to deliver finale 1197313 Vegas? Henderson? Winnipeg? Examining the Golden Knights’ options with prospect Peyton Krebs Washington Capitals 1197314 Amazing recoveries, milestones, drama: The Athletic D.C.’s 2020 Sports Awards Websites 1197315 The Athletic / How we’d run the Coyotes: Get rid of expensive veterans and rebuild 1197316 Sportsnet.ca / NHL believes it can play games in all seven Canadian markets 1197317 TSN.CA / Tourigny wants Team Canada to respond to adversity with urgency SPORT-SCAN, INC. 941-284-4129 1197284 Arizona Coyotes Why not pay for CP3? The bubble performance might be like the bubble wrap in importance when it comes to what the Suns pulled off this year. The 5: Surprise gifts Arizona sports teams unwrapped in 2020 The Disney World performance was fun in the moment but ultimately necessary to help Phoenix deliver the actual gift: The blockbuster trade BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN for point guard Chris Paul. DECEMBER 25, 2020 AT 7:28 AM It was a big surprise, too. UPDATED: DECEMBER 25, 2020 AT 8:16 AM Who thought the Suns, with their spending history over the last decade and recent sale of their G League team, would take on one of the biggest contracts in the NBA? This guy did not. Around the holidays, we should always try to focus on the things we take Phoenix is currently close-ish to the luxury tax threshold, showing a for granted: More time with loving family (or at least our pets), what commitment to winning with a core of Paul, Devin Booker, Deandre things we do have and what we can take from 2020 to have a better Ayton and Mikal Bridges. 2021. The Suns are only one game into the new season. Already, the impact The sporting world pushed through the pandemic and here in Arizona Paul is bringing in theory should accelerate the team’s growth. Also, he’s gave us at least some distraction if not a lot of hope. coming off an All-Star campaign at 35 years old. Arizona’s teams were, if anything, entertaining. A few of them provided From afar, how the Suns played and finished their 2019-20 season in the grand surprises. bubble mattered to players like Paul. He certainly had a say in where the Oklahoma City Thunder traded him. What were the most shocking gifts that the Arizona sports scene unwrapped in 2020? With Paul on the roster, it made selling veteran free agents like Jae Crowder, Langston Galloway and E’Twaun Moore an easy pitch. Really, DeAndre Hopkins? Zac Gallen’s breakout Imagine searching for a PlayStation 5 the day it was released and finding out that Best Buy not only has one available, but it’s marked down from Maybe it was a year to forget for the Arizona Diamondbacks, who $500 to $100. For some inexplicable reason, you are the only person to entered a wonky season with high expectations and new ace Madison happen upon this deal. Bumgarner. Best Buy does not recognize this is an error in price when you put the While there were many disappointing trends, from Ketel Marte’s drop-off console in your cart. You purchase it, and Best Buy sends you the very after a breakout campaign to Bumgarner’s massive struggles, there was real, brand new PS5 for $100. this: Zac Gallen affirmed baseball experts’ predictions that he was about to break out as a top-caliber pitcher. This is how the Arizona Cardinals acquired the NFL’s current leading receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, in mid-March to kick off the new league year. The 25-year-old went 3-2 over 12 starts with a 2.75 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. All it took was unloading of David Johnson’s contract to get it done. Arizona traded this year’s second-round pick to the Houston Texans, and He was a top-20 pitcher in ERA, WHIP and strikeouts per nine frames. the teams swapped fourth-rounders as well. Gallen didn’t get much run support, but he finished sixth among starting pitchers in wins above replacement (WAR). Johnson has five total touchdowns with 479 rushing yards (4.0 yards per carry) and 267 receiving yards for the Texans. He’s not been the true The D-backs have a lot to sort out heading into 2021. Gallen appears to bell-cow and hasn’t crossed the 100-yard rushing mark so far. He’s fine be their best thing going, and it’ll be a big storyline of whether he is their — fine for a lot of money. ace or if Bumgarner can make his second year in the desert more about success on the diamond than success in the rodeo world. Hopkins, meanwhile, has not missed a game. He’s amassed 1,324 receiving yards to lead the NFL with two weeks left. He’s got a game- Haason Reddick’s breakthrough winning Hail Murray and scored a game-winning touchdown in his last This might be the best local sports surprise of the year when it comes outing, in which he recorded 169 receiving yards, a career-high with down to the dude involved. Arizona. Haason Reddick got jostled between positions, schemes and coaches The Cardinals claim he and quarterback Kyler Murray will only get better over his first three seasons in the NFL. He didn’t get his fifth-year option as time goes on. We believe them. picked up by the Cardinals heading into 2020 and didn’t complain. Anyway, it is possible Bill O’Brien is now working at Best Buy. The target for fans quick to apply the bust label, Reddick quieted the Suns bubble run critics. The NBA bubble was unbearable for some players. Isolation can get to As the Cardinals lost elite pass-rusher Chandler Jones for the year, you. Reddick has blown up with more opportunity. He’s tied for fifth in the NFL with 11.0 sacks and tied for fourth with 14.0 tackles for loss. The Phoenix Suns saw the Disney World stay as a gift. They leaned into it, came out firing and grew with one another holed up in a Florida resort. Reddick was approached multiple times each year prior to this one about adjusting to an off-ball linebacker role. He never complained about his Maybe the Suns didn’t get to the playoffs after an 8-0 run, but internally it role to reporters and always remained optimistic about the eventual mattered. It mattered that Cam Johnson essentially had a mini- outcome. sophomore season having time to reflect and build on his year before the global pandemic postponed the NBA season in March. It mattered that And when he finally moved back to a pass-rushing role last year, he took Cam Payne reunited with coach Monty Williams with his NBA career in that same mindset into learning a position that came more naturally to jeopardy and took full advantage with Phoenix, which was still searching him.