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SPORT-SCAN DAILY BRIEF NHL 4/6/2020 Vegas Golden Knights 1173308 AZ Media: The Bordow Jinx is real — and it’s not so 1173333 Golden Knights to provide meals to local health care spectacular workers 1173334 McNabb hopeful Golden Knights will get chance to Bruins ‘compete for a ’ 1173309 Chris Nilan at peace still pulls no punches 1173335 ‘What it means to be a Knight’: Vegas provides meals, support for hospital staff Blackhawks 1173310 How COVID-19 crisis could impact Blackhawks, NHL's salary cap 1173336 Suspended season adds to uncertainty about Capitals' offseason plans, championship window Dallas Stars 1173337 Tom Wilson thanks healthcare workers, reflects on Caps' 1173311 Stars captain Jamie Benn jumps to No. 2 overall pick in season in Instagram post NHL.com’s 2007 redraft Websites Red Wings 1173338 .ca / Quick Shifts: Maple Leafs will face tricky 1173312 roster: Who's back, who's not, and Nick Robertson decision who's in between next season 1173339 Sportsnet.ca / NHL HOFer Paul Coffey on current game: 'I 1173313 These sports memories are frozen in time wish there was more hitting' 1173314 Watch memorable Red Wings games: 1950, 2008 Stanley 1173340 Sportsnet.ca / Agent Emilie Castonguay on what Cup clinchers among 10 extraordinary contests separates Alexis Lafrenière from the rest 1173341 Sportsnet.ca / Looking back at seven Oilers players whose Oilers departures hurt the most 1173315 Lowetide: Bakersfield Condors forward prospects might 1173342 Sportsnet.ca / Could North Dakota be an NHL location if need a history lesson 2019-20 season resumes? 1173343 Sportsnet.ca / Looking back at five Flames players whose Wild departures hurt the most 1173316 Who's on top of Minnesota sports? World Leagues News Devils 1173344 Coronavirus in sport echoes Spanish flu pandemic that 1173317 NJ Devils' position-by-position: Mackenzie Blackwood ended NHL Stanley Cup highlighted the 2019-20 season 1173345 Trump says NFL season should start on time amid coronavirus crisis Islanders 1173346 Three sports habits that could change after coronavirus 1173318 Islanders’ Jean-Gabriel Pageau in limbo, personally and 1173347 Russian ping-pong? Belarussian soccer? In the age of professionally coronavirus, sports gamblers find a way 1173319 Barry Trotz says he may have overcoached Islanders at 1173348 President Trump’s call for sports to resume in August is times this season magical thinking 1173320 Islanders coach Barry Trotz working on how to prepare his 1173349 Cuomo skeptical that sports could resume by August amid team to play again coronavirus crisis 1173350 What Does a Sports Desk Do When Sports Are on Hold? SPORT-SCAN, INC. 941-284-4129 1173321 Artemi Panarin’s debut Rangers season is the stuff of legends 1173322 Despite Trump's optimism, a timetable for a return to NHL rinks remains a guessing game Flyers 1173323 Time for NHL, NBA to get serious about their seasons Penguins 1173324 John Steigerwald: When they return, sports should be made-for-TV events 1173325 In covid-19 era, will 2020 see sports join 1994 MLB, 2005 NHL as champion-less seasons? 1173326 Penguins on pause: Teddy Blueger carves out niche on a critical line 1173327 Our Bay Area Media Hall of Fame: Limiting this to 25 inductees wasn’t easy Maple Leafs 1173328 The NHL might come back stronger if the pandemic puts a few teams out of business 1173329 KHL star to choose between Leafs, Coyotes 1173330 Ups and downs of Leafs Nation now a film 1173331 KOSHAN: Five of the Leafs' worst losses of the season, in review 1173332 Tales from the Juno Cup and identifying ’s best hockey-playing musician 1173308 Arizona Coyotes “In my first 11 seasons covering the club, they lost 90 or more nine times,” Connolly said. “Nine times. The best record in those 11 seasons was 78-84, a .481 winning percentage. That total is now up to 11 of my AZ Media: The Bordow Jinx is real — and it’s not so spectacular 19 seasons in which the Orioles have lost 90 or more. And only four times in that span have they been over .500. The last two seasons they’ve posted their worst record in club history: with 115 losses in 2018 and 108 in 2019. By Scott Bordow 2h ago “I’ve actually had players apologize to me over the years, saying, to

paraphrase, ‘I’m sorry you have to keep watching this mess.’ My stock In the fall of 2001, I was the sports columnist for the East Valley Tribune. line is, ‘I still get paid whether the Orioles win or lose.’ But, yes, it’s way I had covered every Diamondbacks postseason game, home and road, easier to be around a winning team.” and as the World Series commenced, I decided to write a predictions One other note from those four years covering the Cardinals: In 1989 I column. asked interim coach Hank Kuhlmann if Tom Tupa would start at It appeared in the newspaper the morning of Game 1. My pick? Yankees quarterback the next game. Instead of giving me an answer, he leaned in five. over and kissed me on the cheek.

Needless to say, I was an idiot. Clearly, Kuhlmann didn’t appreciate the transmission powers of the jinx. He went 0-5 as the interim coach. Anyway, three years later I was sitting with my wife and another couple in a Scottsdale restaurant. We had a table next to the window and as we From 1992 to 2017 local teams got a break: I transitioned into the role of were having dessert a homeless man walked by pushing his cart. He columnist for 21 of those years. The jinx took a well-deserved vacation. stopped and stared at me through the glass. But in the summer of ’17, my boss at the Republic told me I was being given the Suns beat. I didn’t think about the Jinx much. Twenty-five years After a few seconds, he opened the door, looked at me and said, “Are had passed. you Scott Bordow?” Here’s what happened the first week of the regular season: “Yes,” I replied, wondering where this was going. The Suns tied a franchise record with a 48- loss to the Portland Trail “You picked Yankees in five,” he said. Blazers on opening night.

He then closed the door, grabbed his cart and walked away. Three days later the Los Angeles Clippers beat them by 42 points.

As the COVID-19 crisis puts the sports world on hold, I hope this brings Eric Bledsoe tweeted, “I don’t wanna be here.” some levity. The streak has lasted 36 years and shows no signs of abating. Head coach Earl Watson was fired.

Its name? The Bordow Jinx. The Suns finished 21-61, I joined The Athletic to cover the Cardinals and Arizona has gone 8-23-1 the past two seasons. Basically, here’s how it works: If I pick your team to win or cover your team as the primary beat writer, you’re doomed. I’m thinking there may be a second career in this: have teams pay me not to cover them. Since 1983 I have followed 12 Valley teams as the main writer. Not a single one of those 12 teams finished with a winning record. Yup, I’m 0- Maybe, whenever the 2020 NFL season begins, 13 will be my lucky 12. . The Cardinals will finish with a winning record and the jinx will die. The Jinx began in 1983-84, my first year on the ASU beat. That was the final season of Bob Weinhauer’s tenure as coach, and the It has to happen sometime. Right? Sun Devils finished 13-15. The late Steve Patterson was head coach the Right? next three seasons, and ASU’s best record over that span was 14-14. Our staff I don’t remember a whole lot about those years except for a Patterson quote about media criticism directed his way. He said our insight was, For comparison to my 0-12 mark, I asked other members of The Athletic “an inch deep and a mile wide.” Arizona staff to give me their record as beat writers and an anecdote from their time on the beat. He was probably right. I was 25 years old. What did I know? Coyotes writer Craig Morgan In 1987-88 I moved to the Suns beat. Two things happened that season. Phoenix finished 28-54 and the drug scandal broke. I’m not sure, but I Record: 7-4 (if OT/SO losses count only as ties) or 3-8 (actual games think I spent as much time poring over grand jury transcripts as I did won/lost) covering games. I don’t consider my 11 years of full-time (and four more years of part- At that point, I was 0-5. time) coverage of the Coyotes a jinx. I have worked alongside Scott Bordow for 13 (hmm) years of my professional journalism career. I know Then the Cardinals came to town. Oh, what a glorious time it was. They what a jinx looks like. started the 1988 season 7-4, were tied for first in the NFC East and the beckoned. Finally, I thought, the jinx was history. The Coyotes have posted seven seasons that could be considered “winning seasons” in my 11-year tenure, and they did break that first- Boy, was I wrong. round hex in 2012. That said, they have lost more games (including OT Quarterback Neil Lomax suffered a knee injury in Week 11, the Cardinals and shootouts) than they have won in eight of my 11 seasons, with just lost their last five games to finish 7-9 and, over the next three seasons two playoff series. They have missed the playoffs for seven straight with me as a beat writer, they went 5-11, 5-11 and 4-12 seasons, they have had no lottery luck and they have been dogged by relocation rumors, ownership strife and arena uncertainty — not exactly Let me tell you something about covering a losing team. It can be mind- the days of wine and roses. numbing. One October, I was walking to the locker room with then- Arizona Republic writers Lloyd Herberg and Steve Schoenfeld when we But it’s not Bordow-bad. looked at each other and said, almost in unison, “What do we ask these Diamondbacks writer Zach Buchanan guys?” Record: 2-5 (Diamondbacks, Reds) Only one thing kept me sane. There are 16 games in an NFL season. Imagine covering a bad baseball team for 162 games. Imagine, say, I used to be like Scott. It took me six years as a beat writer to cover a being Dan Connolly, who covers the for The Athletic. winning baseball team. The 2013 Diamondbacks flirted with a winning record and even a playoff berth, but lost ground to the Dodgers — remember the Chase Field pool controversy? I covered that game as Los Angeles began its era of domination over the West. The Diamondbacks finished 81-81 for the second year in a row. The next three seasons of baseball I covered, two on the Diamondbacks for the Arizona Republic and two on the Reds for the Cincinnati Enquirer, were losing slogs. In that span, the teams I covered went a combined 279-369.

Things have been brighter since returning to Arizona to cover the Diamondbacks for The Athletic. In 2018, the team crashed in September but managed to finish 82-80. My first winning season! Last year, they were 85-77. Notably, I wasn’t on the September road trip during which the Diamondbacks almost played their way into a wild-card spot. I also wasn’t on the trip that saw them evaporate into an also-ran. It was the same trip, so read into my absence what you want. Now I just need to cover a playoff team. The 2020 season offered hope after Arizona improved its roster significantly over the winter, but, well, you know what happened.

ASU writer Doug Haller

Record: 14-7 (ASU football, basketball)

I’ve seen both ends. I saw Arizona State basketball trail 44-10 and 41-9 at Utah — in BACK-TO-BACK SEASONS! And I’ve seen an Arizona State football team give up 24 pass plays of 40-plus yards — which was six more than any other team in the country.

No doubt, covering losing teams can be challenging. Most fans have checked out. Others just want someone fired. As a reporter, I know it can be difficult to find something interesting to write. But it also can be rewarding. In 2017, I took over the Phoenix Suns beat right around the All-Star break. As usual, the Suns already were out of the playoff picture, so I just spent the final months of the season following my curiosity. In the end, it was one of my favorite seasons to cover.

Suns writer Gina Mizell

Record: 4-5 (3-0 Oklahoma State, 0-3 Oregon State, 1-0 Nuggets, 0-2 Suns)

The wildest bad-team moment on one of my beats actually occurred a couple of weeks after I left the Oregon State beat to cover the Denver Nuggets in September of 2017. Following an encouraging close to the 2016 season (including a win over Oregon), the Beavers started 1-5 — and would have lost to Portland State if the Vikings had anything resembling a placekicker — and coach Gary Andersen abruptly resigned. Even though I had moved on in my career, I vividly remember my phone buzzing like crazy when the news broke while I was in the middle of interviewing then-Nuggets guard Jameer Nelson after a practice. A few weeks prior (while I was still on the beat), Andersen had candidly criticized his assistant coaches following a blowout loss to Minnesota. But he had also constantly talked about “living in the hard” and fighting through the adversity of a rebuild. So his departure was a surprise in that moment, to say the least.

I felt bad that my former colleagues were shorthanded while suddenly covering a national college football story, but I was also swimming in learning a new beat and settling into a new city. It was a crazy time.

Richard Saenz. Courtesy Channel 10 sports.

Channel 10 moves

Richard Saenz, who has been at Channel 10 for 17 years, has been promoted to the lead anchor position in the wake of Jude LaCava’s retirement. LaCava’s final broadcast was last Wednesday. In addition, the station has hired Siera Santos, an Arizona State and Cronkite School alum who has been working for Fox-32 in Chicago.

Saenz, who also will co-host the “Sunday SportsNight” show, said he’ll bring his own “flair and perspective,” to the sportscasts. Asked to describe his style, he said: “A little bit more on the funny side, a little bit more on the fan side. I try to get the fan’s perspective and connect with them. I’ve always said I don’t want to get the sports fanatic to tune in. He’s going to tune in already. I want to get his or her significant other to tune in. It’s a little bit different from just Xs and Os. Those are important, but you have to have a human perspective, too.”

The Athletic LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173309 because of . The only Canadiens fans down in Boston are, like, my family.

“A lot of Bruins fans will call in the show during the season, and they Chris Nilan at peace still pulls no punches certainly rub it in now that the Bruins are good,” adds Nilan, who spent two years with the B’s late in his career. “But I bring up Boston a lot, and you’d be surprised the number of people in our age group that, back in the day, were able to listen to Red Sox games on AM radio, and the By STEVE BULPETT | PUBLISHED: April 5, 2020 at 5:21 a.m. | Celtics with Johnny Most. So there’s a connection here. And I think UPDATED: April 5, 2020 at 10:21 a.m. there’s an affinity from the other end, too. As much as Boston people hate the Canadiens, they certainly love coming up here for the games and staying the weekend and going to Chez Paree.” Chris Nilan insists he’s no longer into conflict or negativity, which would seem antithetical to his gig as a talk show host in . Nilan laughs at the mention of the famed gentlemen’s club, but adds, “Seriously, though, I know the guys I played with from Montreal, they love But the kid from West Roxbury — ninth all-time on the NHL’s Boston. They just love the city. There’s an affinity that works both ways.” minutes list — is still willing to drop the gloves when someone needs protecting. Most assuredly, Nilan’s feelings for Boston have not waned, even as he’s become a permanent resident of Canada, a designation that gives him In this case, humanity. full citizen rights, with the exception of voting. His accent remains strong enough that loyal listeners might sometimes wish radio could come with Nilan is working his daily on TSN 690 from home, pretty much only subtitles. getting out with girlfriend Jaime Holtz for dog-walking around their Terrasse-Vaudreuil neighborhood. But he’s seen the news videos of Knuckles was home for Christmas and FaceTimes regularly with his younger types congregating for spring break and otherwise ignoring parents, particularly his dad, who’s caring for his mom as she battles pleas to stay in and help curb the COVID-19 crisis, and, well, sometimes dementia. “He’s really showing me what love is and what commitment is,” you’ve just got to throw down the mittens. he says.

“Back in the day, we asked our grandparents to go off to war for us, and And Nilan is translating those qualities to the coronavirus fight as he they did,” Nilan says as he prepares for his Thursday show. “And we stays in his town just across the water from the island of Montreal. He is asked these (expletives) to stay at home on the couch, and they can’t doing his part. even do that. It’s ridiculous.” “It’s the same deal here as down where you are — the social distancing, To paraphrase Paul Simon: He would not be convicted by a jury of his everything shut down as far as restaurants and barrooms and peers/Still Knuckles after all these years. everything,” Nilan says. “The island of Montreal actually has the most cases in Canada, so that’s kind of scary itself. As far as I’m concerned, Mostly, however, Chris Nilan is, at 62, a man at peace, though he’s not I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying home. My girlfriend and I are taking shy about discussing the old scraps in his years as a Canadien that all the precautions. We’re listening to the medical experts.” helped make a Bruins fan a hero in Montreal — his Twitter handle is @KnucklesNilan30. He’s very good at his job, hosting “Habs Lunch” with And because he does, he has a problem, as noted above, with those two others from noon to 1 and “Off the Cuff” with Sean Campbell from 1 who don’t. Actually, as Nilan follows the news from south of the Canadian to 3. border, he’s bothered by the adults in the room, as well.

“I’m enjoying it,” Nilan says, “but the difficult part now is content. You “I’m confused,” he says. “I see how they’re leaving it up to every state to know, there’s no sports. You can talk about games from the past. I’ve have that stay at home order. I think that’s ridiculous. I just think that been trying to get former players I played against and with to come on should come from the top. We know what works. What works is people every day. I’m just going through the Rolodex.” stay home and don’t have contact. I just wish that came from the top instead of leaving it up to every state, because it’s going to spread and That meant Nick Fotiu on the line from the Cape on Thursday and a it’s going to get worse. I think they waited a little too long in some states previous visit with former Bruin Jay Miller. to give that order, and I think it’s ridiculous. They’re putting people at risk. “It’s really difficult,” Nilan says. “When sports are active and they’re And, you know what, some people think they’ll never get it, but eventually going, we talk CFL. We do a little bit on soccer, with the Impact up here. it’ll hit home for everyone. It’s mostly hockey-centric during the season, but, like, every Friday in the “My daughter is a nurse. My ex-wife is a nurse. It’s dangerous. And those fall we have a guy come on and we preview the weekend games, the big people who don’t heed the message of stay home and they go out, games. Then on Monday we go over the games and how they went. So they’re selfish (expletives), to be honest with you. They don’t care about we don’t just do hockey per se, but it is more hockey-centric.” anybody else but themselves. I’m sorry, but that starts at the top.” And someone from these parts would find it interesting, too. Having made his points, Chris Nilan is ready to pick up his stick and “Oh, I talk a lot about Boston,” he says. “I’ll talk about the Celtics and the gloves and skate off as he’d done after so many other battles in his Patriots, and I’ll have some people on from home. I always say it on my career. There is a radio show to do in 10 minutes, and, after exchanging show: I’m spoiled. Montreal’s the type of city that would be so awesome if closing pleasantries and connecting with the studio, he is again the it had the other major sports. I mean, they had baseball and they lost it. affable ex-Canadien as he hits the airwaves. But there’s a lot of basketball fans up here, too. It was incredible when “I have my opinions,” he says. “I have my point of view on things… But the Raptors won, because they’re the only team in Canada. The whole honestly, on my show, I try to be as positive and upbeat as possible.” country got behind it. Even when circumstances make that difficult. “But Montreal would be awesome if it had the four major sports, and I always talk about how lucky I was growing up, even though we had the Boston Globe LOADED: 04.06.2020 pain of the Red Sox and the pain of the Patriots when I was a kid. We did have the Celtics, who were certainly one of the greatest teams in basketball ever, one of the greatest organizations. And then the Bruins with won the Stanley Cup in my younger years. But we had those four major sports and were able to connect with the greatness that came through Boston.”

Perhaps surprisingly, this doesn’t turn his local listeners rouge in the face with anger.

“No, not really,” Nilan says. “It’s funny. There are a ton of Bruins fans in Montreal — a lot. A lot of (First Nations) natives from Kahnawake because of Stan Jonathan, and a lot of Italians from Montreal East 1173310 Chicago Blackhawks

How COVID-19 crisis could impact Blackhawks, NHL's salary cap

By Charlie Roumeliotis April 05, 2020 10:30 AM

On March 4, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told general managers that the projected salary cap for the 2020-21 season is expected to be in the range of $84 million and $88.2 million. That's roughly a $2.5 million to $6.7 million increase after it went up only $2 million last season.

But eight days later, the NHL put its season on pause due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, and it's unclear if or when hockey will even resume at this point. Because of the uncertainty and the risk of the league potentially losing $1 billion in hockey-related revenue, there's legitimate concern about what the ceiling could look like after we get through this, and not just for next season.

Could the NHL's salary cap stay the same? Might it even go down to help ease the escrow pain for players? Anything is possible, but it would require both the NHL and NHLPA to come to an agreement on what that artificial number could look like.

If the salary cap remains flat, the Blackhawks would be one of the many teams that would find themselves in an extremely tough position. And they better start preparing for that scenario.

As of right now, the Blackhawks' projected cap hit for next season is $74.1 million, according to Cap Friendly. That number factors in the three players on long-term injured reserve (Calvin de Haan, Brent Seabrook and Andrew Shaw) but also includes the current players on the roster, which comes out to 26 total, so cuts obviously must be made to get down to the maximum of 23.

But what that number doesn't include is the potential performance bonus overages and the fact the Blackhawks don't have a signed beyond this season other than Collin Delia, which doesn't leave much room for free agent signings elsewhere. Heck, taking care of their own guys is going to be a major challenge.

The Blackhawks have nine pending restricted free agents, which most notably includes Drake Caggiula, Dominik Kubalik and Dylan Strome. Corey Crawford is their highest-profile unrestricted free agent. Those are four key pieces the Blackhawks must try to squeeze in under the cap if the priority is to bring all of them back, and — loosely projecting — gives them around $9-10 million to do so.

You have to wonder if it makes more sense for everyone involved to agree on one-year deals and revisit things the following year after more clarity is provided on the NHL's financial situation, especially with Seattle preparing for league entry and the U.S. television deal set to expire after the 2021-22 season.

For now, the Blackhawks and the rest of the NHL are waiting to see what the next steps are. But the financial ramifications will be significant, and it's something every team must now navigate through.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173311 Dallas Stars

Stars captain Jamie Benn jumps to No. 2 overall pick in NHL.com’s 2007 redraft

By SportsDay Staff

3:25 PM on Apr 5, 2020

The Dallas Stars made four selections before taking Jamie Benn in the fifth round of the 2007 NHL entry draft.

Three of those picks never played a game in the NHL, and Colton Sceviour was the most notable name of the bunch.

The Stars, like the rest of the NHL, severely missed on the future Dallas captain, and that misfire was recently rectified by the NHL.com staff who is using the current league hiatus to look back on some drafts of the past.

Instead of going No. 129 overall to the Stars in 2007, the former Art Ross Trophy winner skyrocketed to the ’ No. 2 overall pick in the do-over. (Patrick Kane, unsurprisingly, remained the No. 1 overall pick to Chicago.)

“Since our esteemed fantasy expert went way, way, way out on a limb with the first pick, I was left with a decision between four players. I could have skipped Jakub Voracek’s three seasons with the and express-mailed him right to Philadelphia. It also was tempting to grab uber-production at defenseman from P.K. Subban, especially because Twitter was about to explode in popularity. It was tough to pass on the rock-solid Logan Couture too. But Benn was the pick,” NHL.com staff writer Dan O’leary said.

“He scored an NHL career-high 41 goals in 2015-16 and never has scored fewer than 22 in a full NHL season (he has 19 through 69 games at the pause). Benn’s 300 goals in 814 NHL games are second to Kane among players selected in the 2007 draft. And have you ever heard a team complain it has too many -scorers?”

Benn’s 127-pick jump was the highest of any player selected in the redraft’s top ten.

Unfortunately, the Stars traded away their first-round pick in 2007, so their was no Dallas selection to reconsider.

Dallas Morning News LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173312 Detroit Red Wings D Danny DeKeyser The evidence: He lasted eight games before succumbing to a back injury

that eventually required surgery. He’s one of the team’s workhorses and Detroit Red Wings roster: Who's back, who's not, and who's in between top penalty killers. next season The verdict: He has a spot in the top four awaiting his good health.

F Christoffer Ehn Helene St. James, Detroit Free PressPublished 6:03 a.m. ET April 5, The evidence: A serviceable and inexpensive ($759,167) grinder who 2020 can play center or wing and kill penalties. He's an RFA coming off his entry-level contract.

The Detroit Red Wings were three weeks from the end of their miserable The verdict: Will be back with an extension. 2019-20 season when the NHL hit the pause button. D Jonathan Ericsson Saturday would have been the season finale, against the Tampa Bay The evidence: The 12-year veteran has struggled with health and Lightning. The Wings were eliminated from the playoffs Feb. 21, and performance. would have had plenty of time to schedule a day this week to clean out their lockers and gather for the traditional on-ice group photo that marks The verdict: Gone. the end of the season. F Adam Erne The picture would be the first with as their general manager. The evidence: He was expected to generate a little more offense (two goals — from the same game — among five points) but Yzerman traded Amid the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, here’s a for him, and he does bring physicality. He's an RFA coming off a $1.05 look at who’ll be back next season and who’ll be gone from the roster as million cap hit. it stood March 12, when the league put the season hold. The verdict: Will be back with an extension. F Justin Abdelkader F Robby Fabbri The evidence: He’s signed at a $4.25 million cap hit through 2022-23, making a buyout prohibitive (six years at annual cap hits ranging from The evidence: Yzerman’s best trade joined the team in early November $1.55 million to $2.35 million). Given his decline (22 points in 122 games and scored two goals in his debut; ranks fourth on the team with 31 the past two seasons, no points since Oct. 23), the most likely scenario is points in 52 games. Earned a spot in the top six and power-play time. Abdelkader is waived and demoted. The verdict: Will be back with a mid- to long-term extension.

The 33-year-old would still draw his NHL salary, but the Wings would F Valtteri Filppula gain a little north of $1 million in cap relief — plus a roster spot, maybe one Evgeny Svechnikov could claim. The evidence: Wasn’t as effective as hoped for (21 points, minus-42 in 70 games) but he’s another one of Yzerman’s acquisitions. The verdict: Gone (from the roster, not the payroll). The verdict: Signed through next season for $3 million, could be traded at G Jonathan Bernier deadline.

The evidence:Put up a .915 save percentage and 2.72 goals-against F average since Dec. 15, giving his teammates a chance to win every game. He’s their MVP. The evidence: The 13-year veteran was acquired at the trade deadline. Didn’t have much time (six games) with Wings, but he’s a leader who fits The verdict: Enters next season as the bona fide starter. in well in the locker room and won’t complain if he’s a healthy scratch.

Tyler Bertuzzi The verdict: Could be back on one-year deal.

The evidence: The restricted free agent matched his career high in goals F Luke Glendening (21) and set a career high with 48 points. The 25-year-old restricted free agent is skilled and gritty and a big part of the rebuild. The evidence: As with most of his teammates, his numbers disappointed (nine points, minus-29 in 60 games) but he’s a hard worker, locker-room The verdict: He’ll be back with a long-term deal. leader and can play center or wing.

Alex Biega The verdict: Entering the last year of his contract, could be traded at Red Wings defenseman Alex Biega reacts after taking a stick to the face deadline. during the third period of the Wings' 3-1 win over the Bruins on Sunday, D Cody Goloubef Feb. 9, 2020, at Arena. The evidence: Claimed off waivers Feb. 21; he played two games, then The evidence: Acquired in a trade in October, the five-year veteran was a healthy scratch. Unrestricted free agent coming off $800,000 earned a spot in the rotation on the strength of hard work and contract. dependability. The 31-year-old is perfect for the rebuild: inexpensive ($875,000), and reliable in the lineup as a third-pair guy or as a reserve. The verdict: Gone.

The verdict:Already earned an extension through next season. F Darren Helm

D Madison Bowey The evidence: Put up 16 points and deserves credit for being a minus-6 on a team with a minus-122 goal differential. The evidence: He put up 17 points on a team that sorely lacked offense from the back end, but he didn’t show the growth in his own zone the The verdict: Signed through next season at a $3.85 million cap hit, he’s Wings wanted to see. Bowey, 24, cleared waivers in December, but was another guy who could be traded at the deadline. called up to offset injuries. He’s an RFA coming off a $1 million deal, so qualifying him would be cheap. G

The verdict: Probably back, but might not last long. The evidence: The 11-year veteran and two-time All-Star finished with his career-worst season, going 2-23-2 with a 4.20 goals-against average D Trevor Daley (worst in the NHL among goalies who have played at least 15 games) and a .882 save percentage. The evidence: Veteran struggled with health and performance.

The verdict: Gone. The 36-year-old hasn’t won a game since Oct. 29, and was pulled his last talent on the roster. Still, the Wings have missed the playoffs four straight two starts. He’s got a good sense of humor, and maybe can find a post- years under Blashill, and Yzerman is likely to make a change. career gig in broadcasting. His former linemate, Gerard Gallant, has been available since January The verdict: Gone. after the Vegas Golden Knights dismissed him. Yzerman’s former roommate, Lane Lambert, is an assistant with the . D Filip Hronek Those are believed to be the two leading candidates Yzerman is The evidence: Emerged as team’s top d-man in the absence of considering to be the next Wings coach. DeKeyser, and handled himself well (31 points in 65 games, was minus- The verdict: Most likely gone as coach, but might be offered a different 38 but he played against every opponent’s top line) especially job in organization. considering it was only the 22-year-old’s second NHL season. Detroit Free Press LOADED: 04.06.2020 The verdict: Entering last year of his entry-level contract, he’s on the path to a long-term extension.

F

The evidence: Led team with 53 points and was the only player besides Bertuzzi to play all 71 games. Had ups and downs like everyone else, but this is his team now.

The verdict: Has earned the honor to start next season as captain.

D Gustav Lindstrom

The evidence: Called up in early February, the 21-year-old showed smart instincts in 16 games.

The verdict: He has shown he can play in the NHL but he also can be sent to the minors without waivers, and more development time wouldn’t hurt.

F

The evidence: His argument for a lucrative long-term deal was interrupted by a knee injury and a punctured lung that cost him 28 games, but his 38 points in 43 games yields a team-leading .883 points- per-game average. He’s a big, scoring winger crucial to the rebuild.

The verdict: The 25-year-old RFA, will be back either on a one-year or long-term deal.

D Patrik Nemeth

The evidence: He did what Yzerman signed him to do, which was be a defender and penalty killer.

The verdict: Could be a good fit with partner Moritz Seider next season.

F Frans Nielsen

The evidence: The 35-year-old disappointed with just nine points in 60 games. He’s signed through 2021-22 at a $5.25 million cap hit, so he's too costly to buy out.

The verdict: He’s still a good skater, so there’s hope he can rebound.

F Brendan Perlini

The evidence: Acquired via trade in October, the Wings hoped the former first-round pick (12th overall, 2014) would take advantage of top-six minutes and power-play time, but Perlini managed just four points in 40 games. He’s restricted coming off a deal making $874,125, so tending him a qualifying offer would be cheap, but he has been a disappointment.

The verdict: Most likely gone.

F Dmytro Timashov

The evidence: Claimed off waivers in February as a reclamation project. Appeared in five games but showed signs there’s and skill to be nurtured.

The verdict: The RFA will be back with a short-term extension.

F Filip Zadina

The evidence: A rare bright spot, he ranked fourth on the team with 15 points since being called up Nov. 24. Physically stronger and having benefited from time in Grand Rapids, the 20-year-old looks like a solid rebuilding block.

The verdict: Has earned a shot at starting next season in the top six.

Coach

The evidence: Yzerman has been emphatic he does not hold Blashill responsible for the team’s 17-49-5 record, pointing to injuries and limited 1173313 Detroit Red Wings somehow reached the ball across the goal line with 27 seconds left. The 16-13 victory sent Mark Dantonio’s squad to the playoff, the centerpiece of an incredible three-year run.

These sports memories are frozen in time 17. Jan. 8, 1994: How did Sterling Sharpe get wide open?

It was ridiculously raucous in the Silverdome as the Lions held a late 24- 21 lead in the NFC wildcard playoff game. And then, sudden, complete Bob Wojnowski, The Detroit NewsPublished 11:00 p.m. ET April 5, 2020 silence. With 55 seconds left, Packers receiver Sterling Sharpe slipped | Updated 11:27 p.m. ET April 5, 2020 past cornerback Kevin Scott and easily caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from Brett Favre.

The week before, the Lions had won their only division title in the past 30 The sports moments have stopped, for the moment. In the absence of years by beating Green Bay 30-20 in the Silverdome. That earned them fresh ones, the memorable ones stir. homefield advantage, and they seemed poised to advance behind Maybe you’ve rewatched them, or reread them, with the help of YouTube Wayne Fontes and quarterback Erik Kramer. The gasp from Lions fans or your friendly neighborhood newspaper person. I’ve covered Detroit as the ball traveled through the air still echoes where the ol’ Dome once sports — plus and Michigan State — at The News since 1989. stood. Don’t do the math. I was a child prodigy. ►16. May 16, 1996: The Captain calls his shot I’ve chronicled every major event, from multiple Stanley Cup Finals to It might have been the tensest atmosphere in the history of Joe Louis infamous Hail Marys. My goal here is to reminisce, not tick you off, and Arena. The mighty Red Wings were locked in a 0-0 tussle with the Blues perhaps provide a nostalgic breather while more important people try to in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. Then in the second fix the world. Based on my own criteria, I’ve come up with the 20 Most overtime, Steve Yzerman picked up a turnover, skated Memorable Moments in Detroit-area sports in the past 31 years. I’m in, took one stride across the blueline and fired a shot that pinged just calling it “memorable” moments, not “greatest” moments, which means under the crossbar and past Jon Casey’s right shoulder. you’ll have to endure a healthy dose of memorably “crushing” moments. As Yzerman leapt in celebration, the Joe Louis crowd was as loud as I’d I tried to focus on you-remember-where-you-were moments, especially if ever heard. Of course as the years went on, it got louder. The Wings part of a championship run. And I limited the list to stuff that happened at advanced to the conference finals against Colorado, lost in six, and actual sporting events. That keeps me — and saves you — from launched the defining rivalry of a generation. rehashing tragic incidents such as the Red Wings’ limo crash. It also eliminates ’ sudden retirement, ’s fateful hiring ►15. April 3, 1989 — Rumeal clinches improbable championship and any unforgettable (or unforgiveable) trade, draft pick or firing. Michigan had taken a bizarre path to Seattle’s Kingdome, rolling to the The volume of candidates since 1989 was staggering, so have mercy on NCAA championship game against Seton Hall behind historic shooting me. We’ll count down 20 through 11 here, then come back the next day by Glen Rice. Steve Fisher had replaced just days before the for 10 to 1. Then we can debate in a civil manner that does not involve Tournament, at Bo Schembechler’s demand, and Fisher was the calming name-calling or hair-pulling. force for an erratic team.

►20. April 5, 1993: The timeout to top all timeouts With three seconds left in overtime, Rumeal Robinson was fouled on a controversial call. A 65-percent free-throw shooter, he hit both to put One of the iconic, and ironic, Images in history — Michigan on top 80-79. Seton Hall missed a deep shot at the buzzer and Chris Webber pressed one hand into the palm of the other, and the the Wolverines had their title, Fisher had the job and Robinson had his ensuing technical-foul free throws ended Michigan’s chances in the place in history. NCAA championship game. ►14. Dec. 21, 1997 — Run Barry run In the title game for a second straight year, the Wolverines trailed 73-71 when Webber grabbed a rebound, dribbled upcourt, got Safe to say, no Lions game ever featured such diverse drama as the trapped in the corner and frantically signaled for a timeout with 11 1997 finale against the Jets. The Lions needed a victory to make the seconds left. Steve Fisher and his team were out of timeouts, and playoffs and got it, 13-10. But before the stirring finish, tragedy ultimately out of time. As the Tar Heels celebrated a 77-71 victory, intervened, as linebacker Reggie Brown made a tackle and fell to the Webber stalked down a hallway, towel over his head, sobbing Silverdome turf, gasping for his life. He was revived but his career was uncontrollably. He turned pro shortly thereafter, and the Fab Five era over with a spinal contusion. ended without a title. From utter horror to sheer joy, the crowd erupted with 2:15 left when ►19. Oct. 13, 2013: Big Fly from Big Papi Barry Sanders plowed for a 2-yard gain that put him over 2,000. Just for fun, he clinched it on the next play with a 53-yard dash. He rushed for It should’ve been the year, truth be told. The Tigers were dominating the 184 yards against the Jets, 2,053 for the season and was carried off the Red Sox in the 2013 ALCS with what might’ve been their best team yet. field by teammates. Then stepped to the plate in the eighth inning of Game 2, trailing 5-1, and slugged a grand slam for the ages, completely turning ►13. May 24, 2004 — Pistons’ Prince throws a block party the game and the series. It was the play that defined the Goin’ To Work Pistons, a defensive gem Anibal Sanchez and four relievers had nearly no-hit the Red Sox in in a physical clash. The Pistons had dropped Game 1 of the Eastern Game 1, and Max Scherzer took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of Game Conference Finals at Indiana, prompting Rasheed Wallace to utter his 2. The Fenway Park crowd was booing as the Boston hitters kept Guaransheed — “We will win Game 2.” Bold, brash, and then . whiffing. Then the Red Sox loaded the bases and Jim Leyland sent in closer Joaquin Benoit. Ortiz blasted the first pitch over the rightfield The Pistons led 69-67 late in the fourth quarter when Reggie Miller took a fence, past the legs of a diving, upside-down Torii Hunter, past the pass and raced downcourt virtually alone. Cutting diagonally across the outstretched arms of a celebrating Boston police officer. I’ve never floor, Tayshaun Prince swept in and swatted the ball just as Miller was witnessed a crowd’s mood shift so dramatically, from mausoleum to about to lay it in with 18 seconds left. The Pistons won the game 72-67, bedlam. won the series in six and went on to stomp the Lakers for an NBA championship that no one saw coming — just as no one saw Prince ►18. Dec. 5, 2015 — A lunge for a championship coming.

Michigan State’s 2015 football team was a punishing force, 11-1 entering ►12. Nov. 22, 1997 — Woodson’s run for the Roses the Big Ten championship game against Iowa. In a slugfest, the Spartans trailed 13-9 early in the fourth quarter. Then they launched the drive that Michigan’s undefeated season hung in the balance, leading Ohio State 7- displayed all their winning traits, covering 82 yards in 22 plays that 0 late in the first half in the Big House. And then Charles Woodson consumed 9:04. backpedaled to catch a punt, headed upfield, and 78 yards later, scored a touchdown that energized the and symbolized the team. The moment? On third-and-goal from the 1, LJ Scott took a handoff, ran Michigan led 13-0 at the half, held on to beat Ohio State 20-14 and won a to his right, appeared trapped, then appeared stopped, then lunged and share of the national championship by edging Washington State 21-16 in the Rose Bowl.

The image of the season for Michigan fans was Woodson clutching a rose in his teeth. He won the Heisman, the Wolverines went 12-0 and Lloyd Carr snapped the program’s title drought.

►11. June 14, 1990 — At 00:7, it was Johnson,

The Pistons were a machine, merciless in their intensity. They headed to Portland tied 1-1 in the NBA Finals and the Trail Blazers were gaining confidence. The Bad Boys crushed it, winning three straight on the road, the final one in the final second. With the score tied, Vinnie Johnson, the Microwave, muscled up his classic jumper to win it 92-90 with :00.7 left.

It was a second consecutive championship for , , and the Bad Boys, an exclamation point and a period at the same time. It was their last trip to the Finals.

Detroit News LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173314 Detroit Red Wings ►June 4, 2008 – Red Wings 3, Penguins 2: The Red Wings never fell behind in any playoff series on their way to the 2018 Stanley Cup, and they never trailed in the clinching Game 6 at Pittsburgh, either. But it took winner Henrik Zetterberg’s third-period goal and a late Watch memorable Red Wings games: 1950, 2008 Stanley Cup clinchers save by Chris Osgood in the final seconds to finish off this Cup run. among 10 extraordinary contests Detroit News LOADED: 04.06.2020

John Niyo, The Detroit NewsPublished 3:18 p.m. ET April 5, 2020

In the absence of live sports, TV networks are filling airtime by replaying classic games from the past, some involving our local teams. But if you need a stronger dose of Detroit-area sports to tide you over until the games begin again, we’ve come up with a list you can find online.

The NFL just made things easier for fans by making a decade’s worth of games available for free on Gamepass via NFL.com. Recent games are relatively easy to find on YouTube. The same goes for other sports, and we’ve compiled a list of 10 memorable games from each of our four major pro franchise, as well as Michigan and Michigan State football and basketball.

First up, the Red Wings, whose dismal 2019-20 regular season was scheduled to end this past weekend. That’s reason enough to hit the rewind button and remember better days when the Wings were kings and the fights meant a little more:

►April 23, 1950 – Red Wings 4, Rangers 3 (2OT): The first of four Stanley Cup titles for and the Production Line wasn’t clinched until Pete Babando scored his second goal of the game – and the first Game 7 overtime winner in Cup history.

►April 16, 1954 – Red Wings 2, Canadiens 1 (OT): Tony Leswick joined Pete Babando in the history books, netting the overtime winner in Game 7 – off the glove of Montreal’s Doug Harvey – to give the Red Wings their fourth Stanley Cup title in six years. To date, those are the only two overtime Game 7s in Cup history.

►Feb. 5, 1980 – NHL All-Star Game: Mr. Hockey and the Great One were on the ice together for one All-Star contest, as Wayne Gretzky made his rookie debut in this game at and Gordie Howe – at age 51 – made his 23rd and final appearance.

►May 16, 1996 – Red Wings 1, Blues 0 (2OT): As celebrations go, they don’t get more genuine – or jubilant – than this. Steve Yzerman ended a scoreless Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals with a bullet of a slapshot to beat Jon Casey and send Wayne Gretzky and the Blues home.

►Dec. 26, 1996 – Red Wings 5, Capitals 4 (OT): Along the way to ending their Stanley Cup drought, the Red Wings played some memorable regular-season games, too. Few better than this one, where Sergei Fedorov all five goals to beat the Washington Capitals, the last in overtime on an assist from teammate Vladimir Konstantinov.

►March 26, 1997 – Red Wings 6, Avalanche 5: The full game may not be readily available online, but the highlights are everywhere from the “Brawl in .” And this 15-minute recap captures all of them from one of the wildest – and most important – nights in Red Wings history, from the epic fights to Darren McCarty’s karmic overtime winner.

►June 7, 1997 – Red Wings 2, Flyers 1: The brooms were out, and the drought would soon be over. But before the Red Wings could hoist the Stanley Cup for the first time in 42 years, they still had to finish off the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 4 at Joe Louis Arena.

►May 31, 2002 – Red Wings 7, Avalanche 0: The Red Wings won this one in a rout. Only 48 hours after forcing a deciding Game 7 with Dominik Hasek’s win in Denver, Detroit turned this one into a laugher, scoring on its first two shots on goal and eventually chasing Patrick Roy from the net after allowing six goals on 16 shots.

►June 8, 2002 – Red Wings 3, Hurricanes 2: It took the oldest player to end the longest night for the Red Wings, as 41-year-old Igor Larionov patience paid off with a triple-OT winner in Carolina. That goal proved pivotal in the series for Detroit’s Hall of Fame crew, and made Larionov the oldest player in NHL history to score a playoff game-winner at the time. 1173315 Marody at 22: 44 shots in 30 games (1.47 per game) It’s easy to hammer the organization for performance falloff in Bakersfield

year over year, but closer examination reveals a few good reasons. Lowetide: Bakersfield Condors forward prospects might need a history Marody was injured during the 2019 playoffs and didn’t get back to lesson previous levels for the entire 2019-20 season. It had an impact.

McLeod at 20: 69 shots in 56 games (1.23 per game)

By Allan Mitchell Apr 5, 2020 Kirill Maksimov at 20: 59 shots in 53 games (1.12 per game)

Maksimov averaged 3.68 shots per game with the Niagara IceDogs of the OHL in his final season of junior; the reduced production is due to a The perfect minor-league development template is reflected in the AHL step up in difficulty and usage. He wasn’t a featured player with the career of former Edmonton Oilers winger Jason Chimera. He was drafted Condors in 2019-20. That should change in Year 2. Same for McLeod, in the fifth round in 1997, played his final two junior seasons (with slight although his OHL shot total (2.37 per game) wasn’t in the same area offensive improvement) and then arrived in the AHL with the Hamilton code. Bulldogs. His point totals increased over three minor-league campaigns (28, 54, 77) and two AHL coaches (Walt Kyle for one year and Claude Evan Bouchard (2.57 shots per game) led in shots per game among Julien for the final two seasons). Condors in entry contracts, but he’s a defenceman and we’re examining forwards today. Oilers fans witnessed something similar in 2019-20 with fifth-round selection Ethan Bear (who actually won NHL employment after two Lavoie totaled 310 shots in 55 games (5.64 shots per game) in his final seasons) and fourth-rounder Caleb Jones. junior season and is likely to count this as an AHL strength one year from now. Can Chimera’s career progression tell us anything about Edmonton’s current prospect forwards? I think it can. Opportunity

Speed The AHL doesn’t publish time-on-ice totals, so we’re forced to stare at other things. Interesting fact: Despite scoring 15 goals as an AHL rookie Chimera could flat out fly; it was noticeable from his first training camp in 1999-2000, Chimera trailed three other Hamilton forwards (Daniel through the final NHL game of his career. Edmonton has recently placed Cleary, Michel Riesen, Peter Sarno) aged 20 in total points. Chimera increased importance on foot at the NHL level (Joakim Nygard is a would play more NHL games than any of them. bullet train), but the truly fast forwards who played in Bakersfield in 2019- 20 include Kailer Yamamoto and Ryan McLeod. In the case of the current group of entry forwards, Eric Rodgers estimated their total time on ice this season as follows (by discipline): A player like Tyler Benson, who doesn’t count speed as a strength, will need to overcome it with strengths in other areas. It’s important to view the numbers through these estimates because otherwise we’re flying blind. Players such as Maksimov and McLeod are One quick note on prospects and speed: Raphael Lavoie will turn pro in likely to get far more playing time next season, and the numbers will the fall and has good speed. Corey Pronman ranked Lavoie No. 21 in the increase across the board. Yamamoto isn’t coming back, so Maksimov 2019 draft for The Athletic, quoting Halifax Mooseheads coach Eric should have a clearer lane to a more prominent role as a scoring winger. Veilleux on Lavoie as follows: “His speed is deceiving. He’s a good He will have to outperform newcomer Lavoie, and that will be a skater.” challenge.

It’s probably safe to say brilliant speed is going to buy more time and We should expect Benson’s numbers to increase as well, should he opportunity for a prospect in this era, even more than it would have remain in Bakersfield. Benson will get more power-play time than is benefited Chimera 20 years ago. estimated here, and a full recovery from Marody might see a return to 2018-19 levels for that line. Shots What does it all mean? If there’s an Achilles’ heel for the current crop of prospect forwards in Bakersfield, it’s shots on goal. Chimera, even in his first season with McLeod is in a great spot. He’s a burner and will receive an increase in Hamilton, had a solid shot volume, and it improved each season: playing time and likely some quality linemates. Maksimov is also in a good spot. Lavoie will eat everyone’s lunch as an AHL rookie if he can Chimera at 20: 152 shots in 78 games (1.94 per game) keep the shot volume at a high level. Chimera at 21: 227 shots in 78 games (2.91 per game) If Benson is in the minors this fall, he should start shooting during the Chimera at 22: 247 shots in 77 games (3.21 per game) national anthem. The entire crop of prospects could use a reminder to shoot the puck more often. Chimera’s progression is an evergreen That’s impressive progress. Even allowing for increased playing time in reminder. his second and third AHL seasons, Chimera was hammering pucks for three years straight in southern . Let’s compare those numbers to The Athletic LOADED: 04.06.2020 some current Condors:

Benson at 20: 173 shots in 68 games (2.54 per game)

Benson at 21: 106 shots in 47 games (2.26 per game)

Benson’s rookie season saw him shoot more than Chimera at the same age, with both men scoring 15 goals. Chimera blossomed in Year 2, scoring 29 goals to Benson’s nine in his sophomore season. Benson also shot less per game; it’s my belief the injury and subsequent loss of effectiveness by Benson’s centre (Cooper Marody) led to the lower total. Either way, Benson is in the conversation.

Yamamoto at 20: 45 shots in 27 games (1.67 per game)

Yamamoto at 21: 43 shots in 23 games (1.87 per game)

Yamamoto was injured (hand) as a rookie, although 10 goals on 45 shots is a handsome total. His NHL shots per game in 2019-20 (1.63) is about equal to what he managed in the AHL over 50 games. It has a lot to do with opportunity — more on that in a minute.

Marody at 21: 138 shots in 58 games (2.38 per game) 1173316 Mike Zimmer HEAD COACH

Zimmer is entering his seventh season as head coach. The 63-year-old Who's on top of Minnesota sports? has charge of the team’s 22 assistant coaches and plays a key role in player personnel.

Star Tribune staff • April 5, 2020

The Minneapolis Lakers were an NBA dynasty, with five titles, before leaving for Los Angeles in 1960. The NBA returned to Minnesota in 1989 There is a direct line from the top of each sports organization to the with the Timberwolves. bought the team from co-owners manager or coach. Or ... maybe there isn’t. We’ve tried to simplify the Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner in 1994. They made the playoffs in power structure of the six major professional sports teams, and the 2018 for the first time in 14 seasons, but restructured last year when University of Minnesota, on the competition side ... although business coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibidoeau was fired. and marketing spill over in many cases. Here are the faces and titles for They have advanced as far as the Western Conference finals just once the power structures on the sports decisions for the teams in the Twin (2004) in 30 seasons — and that was the only time in nine playoff Cities. appearances they have ever won a series.

Vikings Timberwolves Wild Twins United Lynx Gophers Glen Taylor

Minnesota Vikings OWNER

Zygi Wilf led a group that bought the Vikings in 2005; they were brought The 78-year-old founder and chairman of Taylor Corporation was listed in by the NFL because a proposed sale from Red McCombs to Reggie at No. 296 on Forbes’ list of the wealthiest Americans by Forbes last Fowler was blowing up. There have been no complaints about the Wilfs, year. who made their fortune in real estate development, providing both stability and financial resources for the team to grow. U.S. Bank Stadium Gersson Rosas opened in 2016, and the Vikings also have a state of the art training PRESIDENT OF BASKETBALL OPERATIONS facility in Eagan. The team reached the NFC title game after the 2017 season, but has not captured a title in its 59 seasons in Rosas, 48, is a former Rockets executive who was hired May 1, 2019. He Minnesota. makes all final decisions on personnel moves (trades, signings, draft picks) and hired staff. Zygi Wilf Sachin Gupta CHAIRMAN EXECUTIVE V.P. OF BASKETBALL OPERATIONS Wilf, 69, and five partners purchased Vikings in 2005 for a reported $600 million. The MIT grad and former Pistons assistant GM oversees the “strategy, performance and analytics” end of the Wolves operations, which includes Mark Wilf analyzing trades. PRESIDENT Brother of Zygi, the 58-year-old runs business departments. GENERAL MANAGER Leonard Wilf A holdover from the previous regime, Layden serves as a scout and VICE CHAIRMAN adviser to the Wolves front office.

Zygi and Mark’s cousin is president of real estate company. Gianluca Pascucci

Jonathan Wilf ASSISTANT G.M. AND

V.P. OF STRATEGIC PLANNING G.M.

Zygi’s son; involved in the team’s business initiatives. Runs the Iowa team. Heads the Wolves’ scouting operations.

Rick Spielman Joe Branch

GENERAL MANAGER ASSISTANT G.M.

Since being named GM in 2012, Spielman, 57, orchestrated and helped Coordinates draft efforts and handles relations with players. Advising on scout Vikings drafts and is in charge of all football operations. Began as personnel matters. the Vikings’ V.P. of Player Personnel in 2006. Emmanuel Rohan George Paton ASSISTANT G.M. ASSISTANT G.M. Involved with helping the Wolves navigate the salary cap and CBS. Frequent candidate for GM positions around the NFL coordinates pro Robby Sikka scouting and assists in college scouting ahead of the annual NFL Draft. Has worked with Spielman in Chicago, Miami and Minnesota. V.P. OF BASKETBALL PERFORMANCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Rob Brzezinski Oversees performance, including health, wellness, nutrition and strength using analytics. EXECUTIVE V.P. OF FOOTBALL OPERATIONS Ryan Saunders The contract guy. Brzezinski helps lead many of the Vikings’ player negotiations and is responsible for the fine print and salary cap HEAD COACH management. In charge of Wolves player development, coaching staff and in-game Lester Bagley strategies.

EXECUTIVE V.P. OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS Minnesota Wild

Oversees Vikings’ public and community relations after playing a key role Following the boondoogle of the North Stars leaving Minnesota in 1993, in getting U.S. Bank Stadium built and getting a Super Bowl to the state lured back an NHL franchise for the 2000-01 season into the Minneapolis. brand new . The Wild has been a success at the box The former Minnesota Wild executive has been with the Twins since office and frustrated on the ice, with no Stanley Cup Finals appearances 2006, and in 2016 was put in charge of all revenue-generating and only one Western Conference final berth. Craig Leipold bought the operations, including ticket sales, broadcasting and corporate team from a group headed by Robert Naegele in 2008. sponsorships.

Craig Leipold Kip Elliot

OWNER AND GOVERNOR EXECUTIVE V.P.; CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCIAL OFFICER Leipold, 68, oversees the day-to-day business operations of the Wild and serves as the team’s governor at the NHL Board of Governors’ meetings. All accounting and budgeting functions and strategies fall under the purview of the Iowa native, who has worked for the Twins since 1992. Bill Guerin Joe Pohlad GENERAL MANAGER EXECUTIVE V.P. FOR BRAND STRATEGY AND GROWTH Hired last summer, the 49-year-old former NHLer supervises the Wild’s hockey operations department including player personnel, coaches and The son of Bob Pohlad has worked for the team for nearly a decade, and scouts. now is in charge of the team’s marketing efforts and its gameday experience. Tom Kurvers Matt Hoy ASSISTANT G.M. SENIOR V.P. FOR OPERATIONS Kurvers, 57, is former assistant GM for Tampa Bay. He supports the day- to-day operations and serves as GM of the Iowa Wild. A 35-year employee of the Twins, the St. Paul native develops plans for putting on home games and then puts them in motion; his purview Chris O'Hearn includes all ballpark operations, including security, maintenance, DIRECTOR OF HOCKEY OPERATIONS concessions and the grounds crew.

O’Hearn handles player contract research and negotiations, scheduling, Thad Levine salary arbitration, salary cap management and compliance with the CBA. SENIOR V.P. AND G.M.

Brad Bombardir Falvey’s second-in-command in the baseball department, Levine has DIRECTOR OF PLAYER DEVELOPMENT also worked for the Dodgers and Rockies, and came to Minnesota after 11 years as assistant general manager of the Rangers. The ex-Wild defenseman evaluates prospects in the organization and implements programs to help continue their development. Rob Antony

Dean Evason V.P. AND ASSISTANT G.M.

INTERIM HEAD COACH The team’s interim general manager after Terry Ryan’s firing in 2016, the 32-year Twins employee handles many contract negotiations, prepares Evason, 55, was Bruce Boudreau’s lead assistant before Boudreau was arbitration cases and oversees many major league departments, fired on Feb. 14. He supervises the coaching staff and support including the clubhouse and medical staffs. personnel. Mike Radcliff Minnesota Twins V.P. FOR PLAYER PERSONNEL The Twins and Vikings started in the same year, 1961, and have their histories etched in the brains of Minnesotans. Carl Pohlad bought the A member of the Professional Scouts Hall of Fame, the Kansas native Twins before the first of their two World Series titles, in 1987, and his has coordinated all player evaluation, both amateur and professional, for sons are now at the top of the operation. Derek Falvey was pilfered from the past 12 years. the Cleveland organization to head baseball operations before the 2017 Daniel Adler season, and last year built a group that set a major league record and won the Central Division. ASSISSTANT G.M.

Jim Pohlad Hired in 2017 to design, expand and staff the team’s research and analytic efforts, the Harvard grad and former Jacksonville Jaguars CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD employee was promoted in November to oversee those departments The oldest of Carl Pohlad’s three sons — Jim, Bob and Bill — who have while also consulting on day-to-day operations. been the principal owners of the team since their father’s death in 2009, Jeremy Zoll Jim Pohlad, 67, also served a two-year term on MLB’s executive council. ASSISTANT G.M. Dave St. Peter The former Dodgers executive, hired with Adler two offseasons ago, is in PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE charge of all player-development strategies, including the team’s minor The 53-year-old North Dakotan was hired in 1991 to run a team-owned league operations. merchandise store in 1991; only 11 years later, he took over the Rocco Baldelli franchise's day-to-day operations as president in 2002 and has guided the team as its top executive ever since. MANAGER

Derek Falvey Had no managerial experience when he took over in 2019, but the 38- year-old won American League Manager of the Year honors for the work PRESIDENT OF BASEBALL OPERATIONS of his first season.

The 37-year-old Massachusetts native, who spent nearly a decade in the Minnesota United FC Cleveland Indians’ front office, was hired in 2016 to modernize the Twins’ baseball department and make the team more consistently competitive The Loons joined MLS in 2017, jumping from the NASL. The 20,000- on the field. capacity opened in 2019. Bill McGuire heads a 16-person ownership group that includes Glen Taylor and the Pohlads. Laura Day Bill McGuire EXECUTIVE V.P.; CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER OWNER A former health care executive, the 72-year-old bought the franchise in Jeremiah Carter 2012 and oversaw its transition to an MLS team and the opening of $250 million Allianz Field. COMPLIANCE DIRECTOR

Chris Wright His office works to keep each sports program in check under the labyrinth of NCAA rules. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Head coaches Longtime Timberwolves executive oversees team’s business and sporting sides. Each coach is CEO of his or her program, tasked with bringing won-loss success and ensuring the well-being of the student athletes. Fleck’s staff Manny Lagos includes 10 full-time assistants, and an assortment of football operations types who oversee player personnel, recruiting, video, strength and CHIEF SOCCER OFFICER conditioning, etc. Other sports might have a head coach, one assistant Former Olympian was United’s first Sporting Director. coach and an administrative assistant.

Adrian Heath Star Tribune LOADED: 04.06.2020

HEAD COACH

The 59-year-old has a contract extension and additional power after the Loons reached the playoffs last season.

Minnesota Lynx

Formed in 1999, the Lynx are the most successful pro sports franchise in Minnesota, with four WNBA titles (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017).

Glen Taylor

OWNER

Taylor Corp. boss owns Timberwolves, Lynx and Star Tribune.

Cheryl Reeve

GENERAL MANAGER AND HEAD COACH

Reeve, 53, was promoted to GM after fourth title and runs the team’s basketball operations.

Claire Duwelius

ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER

Oversees salary cap, player contracts and player movement. Oversees the operations. In charge of team travel.

Michelle Blexrud

BASKETBALL OPERATIONS COORDINATOR

In charge of day-to-day player movement and practice prep.

University of Minnesota

The University’s power structure is multilayered and different from those of Minnesota’s pro teams, starting at the top with relatively new U president Joan Gabel.

Board of Regents

This 12-member body, appointed by the legislature, hires the University’s president and must sign off on the hiring of an athletic director, as well as any coaching contract that exceeds the university president’s base salary (currently $640,000).

Joan Gabel

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT

The former provost at South Carolina became the U’s first female president last year. The president typically hires and fires the athletic director, who handles the coaching personnel decisions.

Mark Coyle

ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

Coyle, who took over as Gophers AD in 2016, is in charge of the department’s annual budget and oversees the 23 sports programs. Besides the hiring and firing of coaches, fundraising is a central part of the job.

Sport Administrator

Each Gophers program has its own sports administrator, who helps with specific budget and scheduling issues. Senior Associate AD Tom McGinnis, for example, is the sports administrator for men’s and women’s hockey. 1173317 Since Brodeur’s final season (2013-14), the Devils have used 10 different goalies, including Schneider. The 33-year-old was the heir apparent to Brodeur’s throne but the timing was never right and the Devils now have a big decision to make regarding Schneider: Buy him out or keep him for NJ Devils' position-by-position: Mackenzie Blackwood highlighted the the duration of his contract, which runs through the 2021-22 season. 2019-20 season Schneider was healthy this season but it went much the same the last did. A bad start, an stint and a solid comeback. The veteran had a .952 save percentage in his last four games before Abbey Mastracco, Published 5:00 a.m. ET April 6, 2020 the stoppage in play.

When Schneider is at his best, he makes the game look easy. He’s fluid The NHL season is still on hold as the world deals with the COVID-19 and technical and makes the smart play rather than the dynamic, athletic coronavirus pandemic, but if and when it resumes, the New Jersey Devils plays like Blackwood. In those last four starts, he looked like he used to. won’t be major players in the run up to the . One of the most well-respected and well-liked players on the Devils’ We’re taking a look at each of the Devils’ position groups, how they roster, Schneider’s teammates never veered from their belief in their performed this season and what to expect moving forward, operating goaltender. He’s become particularly close to Blackwood. He’s the kind under the hypothetical scenario of the season being canceled. of player every team needs in their locker room, but the $6 million cap hit is a heavy one for a goalie with a question mark hanging over his head. We'll start with the . There was talk of former general manager Ray Shero wanting to buy out Mackenzie Blackwood Schneider’s remaining years, but a new general manager, be it interim GM Tom Fitzgerald or anyone else, will want to make his own decision. Stats: 47 games played (22-14-8), 124 goals allowed on 1452 shots (.915 save percentage), three In the pipeline: (AHL), Evan Cormier (AHL), Akira Schmid (USHL), Cole Brady (USHL) Last season, Mackenzie Blackwood emerged as the Devils’ goalie of the future. He was a bright spot in a dismal season. But then he struggled at Senn had a stellar season with Binghamton, which was his first in North the onset of his 2019-20 campaign. But really, so did everyone. The America, helping aid in the B-Devils’ remarkable season turnaround. He defensive coverage in front of him was fine on its best nights and showed flashes of what he may be capable of at a higher level in his two abysmal at its worst. But Blackwood still wasn’t great and the Devils’ NHL games but he needs more time in the AHL. He has good size (6- owned the second-worst save percentage in the league at the All-Star foot-5) and he lived up to his billing as a mature player and dedicated Break (.889). worker. Senn and Cormier will give the Devils some depth in the AHL next season. That number was bolstered with some great goaltending by Blackwood himself in December and early January, but he hit a wall somewhere in Akira Schmid had a breakout USHL season in 2018-19 but only played in the middle. The Devils were forced to overplay him with 13 games between Omaha and Sioux City. However, Cole Brady was the injured and in the American Hockey League. Right best rookie goaltender in the league with Fargo and will now head off to before Christmas, the team was considering using him in back-to-back Arizona State, where former Devils’ goalie Eddie Lack is a volunteer games despite the fact that his numbers have not been historically good assistant coach. in back-to-back games (.887 save percentage this season in five games with zero days of rest). The Devils could have as many as three first-round picks in the 2020 NHL Draft and Russian phenom Yaroslav Askarov is an enticing But maybe this is where we saw the biggest growth from Blackwood. He prospect. spoke up and told the coaching staff he was fatigued and the team instead started Gilles Senn in Columbus. The workload this year was Bergen Record LOADED: 04.06.2020 greater than it had been at any other point in Blackwood's career and he was open about it being a challenging adjustment.

The Devils made it a point to manage his workload from that point on and he absolutely shut opponents down from there. The 23-year-old from , Ontario, was the best goalie in the league in the month of February, going 6-0-1 with a .967 save percentage. He played his way into the Calder conversation before the league went on hiatus on March 12.

Mar 3, 2020; Las Vegas, , USA; New Jersey Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood (29) protects the net from Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt (88) during the second period at T-Mobile Arena.

Blackwood further solidified his status as New Jersey’s goalie of the future but he also further solidified the need for a capable backup. Gone are the days of and a goalie starting 70 games in a season. The game is too fast and the skill level is too high. To be successful in today’s NHL, a team needs two good goalies to split the work with one starting about 70 percent of regular season games and another starting 30 percent. Some teams are even having their goalies split games 60-40.

The Devils are building around Blackwood and centers Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, but the bigger question is who plays behind him.

Cory Schneider

Stats: 13 games played in NHL (3-6-2), 40 goals allowed on 355 shots (.887 save percentage)

Jan 14, 2020; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; New Jersey Devils goaltender Louis Domingue (70) is replaced by New Jersey Devils goaltender Cory Schneider (35) during the second period against the at . 1173318 New York Islanders

Islanders’ Jean-Gabriel Pageau in limbo, personally and professionally

By Mollie WalkerApril 5, 2020 | 11:08PM

Jean-Gabriel Pageau was in the middle of changing his life over.

A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Pageau spent his entire eight-year NHL career with the Senators before he was traded to the Islanders at the trade deadline in February. Less than a month later, the NHL season was suspended indefinitely amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The 27-year-old center competed in just seven games for his new team and was in the process of finding a new house, changing over his bank accounts, phone numbers and all other things that need to be done when you move to a new country.

“A lot of guys go through it, but for me it was my first time,” Pageau told The Post in a recent phone call.

Pageau was set to become a free agent at the end of the 2019-20 season and with the Senators long out of the playoff picture, he was shipped to the Islanders in exchange for a conditional first-round pick in 2020, a second-round pick in 2020 and a conditional third-rounder in 2022.

But he wasn’t a rental. The Islanders immediately locked him up in a six- year, $30 million deal. For Pageau, not getting to prove himself worthy of that contract is the hardest part of all this.

“You want to learn as quick as you can all the systems, get to know all the guys, get to know their tendencies on the ice, your linemates [and] what they do, where do they usually go and it usually takes a little time to adapt,” he said. “For [the season to get suspended] after I was starting to feel comfortable, we’re in a playoff push, I think it’s just unusual. I don’t think it’ll ever happen again.

“It’s a little bit frustrating because the welcome I got in New York from the organization, from the team, from the players, from the fans, was so good and so great that I want to give back as much as I can. And show why they made a good decision to have that confidence in me right away and to go get me.”

The Islanders were in Calgary for a game that was ultimately canceled when they found out the season was suspended on March 12. Since he and his wife were still searching for a home, Pageau was residing at a hotel when he returned to New York from the road trip.

Pageau said he would take walks around the city in order to pass the time, but said coming back to his hotel amid the pandemic was risky because of the flight attendants constantly coming in and out. Pageau eventually decided after about a week to return to his home in Ottawa, where his wife and their two teacup Chihuahuas were.

At least the stay-at-home order has given Pageau and his wife ample time to search for their new home, which he said they’ve been able to do from afar. They have a place in mind, but are waiting to actually see it before pulling the trigger.

“It’s a lot of work but the team and all the players helped me so much to make it easier,” he said. “We were getting there and now all of that happened. It’s kind of weird timing.”

New York Post LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173319 New York Islanders “I think, when we were playing poorly, we avoided the battle a little bit and I think we were really accepting the challenge of the battle when we left.”

Barry Trotz says he may have overcoached Islanders at times this Newsday LOADED: LOADED: 04.06.2020 season

By Andrew Gross

Updated April 5, 2020 7:47 PM

Barry Trotz remained confident the Islanders would ultimately make the playoffs, even through an 0-3-4 skid that preceded the NHL putting the season on pause on March 12 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the coach, with plenty of time now to reassess, knows there are ways he could have helped his team more.

“Twenty-twenty hindsight is always a great thing, but I would do a few things different,” Trotz told Newsday. “Maybe practiced, at different times, more, just because the group needed it.

“Sometimes, I felt like we overcoached,” Trotz added. “That’s because we’re so passionate about getting better. When I say you overcoach, you get away from what you do really well.”

The Islanders are 35-23-10 and sit one point behind both the Hurricanes and Blue Jackets, who hold the Eastern Conference’s two wild-card spots. However, the Islanders have played two fewer games than the Blue Jackets.

“I wasn’t worried we weren’t going to make the playoffs because we were trending, mentally, in the right way,” Trotz said. “Our mental mindset was going in the right direction.”

The Islanders had built a cushion in the standings with a franchise-record 15-0-2 run from Oct-12-Nov. 23 but had played mostly inconsistent hockey since Thanksgiving.

And much of why Trotz questions how he coached comes from trying to compensate for the absence of the identity-setting fourth line of Casey Cizikas between Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin, which was not available as a for long stretches during the season.

The Islanders went into the season’s pause 2-7-4 after Cizikas suffered a left leg laceration via a skate blade on Feb. 11. Clutterbuck missed 30 games after suffering a deep cut to his left arm via a skate blade on Dec. 19. Martin missed nine games with a leg injury from Oct. 27-Nov. 19.

In all, Trotz only had all three in the lineup for 19 of the 68 games. Trotz said he erred trying to get the Islanders to compensate by playing a more offensive style rather than trying to play tighter defensively.

“There’s times when I said, ‘OK, we’re going to have to play this way a little differently because we didn’t have that line,’ ” Trotz said. “Maybe we should have just tightened it up and even did more of what we did well, versus trying to change it. As you’re trying to change it a little bit, you’re not as tight in some areas.

“We tried to push the offense a little more when we should have just locked down defensively a little more and not worried about it,” Trotz added. “We score two goals and they get none, we win.”

The Islanders lost three straight one-goal games before the NHL paused the season, including a 5-4 shootout loss at Vancouver on March 10 that was supposed to be the start of a four-game road trip.

The Islanders rallied from one-goal deficits three times to force overtime that night, They also erased two one-goal deficits in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Hurricanes at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum on March 7.

It was a resolve Trotz said he didn’t always see out of the Islanders this season.

“I thought we were trending in the right direction, for sure,” Trotz said. “I know we weren’t getting the results. But I could tell in our room, our resiliency, our resolve, our focus was all going in the right direction. Sometimes, when things aren’t coming easy, you’ve got to fight through that. We were willing to fight though that. The fight wasn’t scaring us. 1173320 New York Islanders

Islanders coach Barry Trotz working on how to prepare his team to play again

By Andrew Gross

Updated April 5, 2020 7:47 PM

Barry Trotz liked the way the Islanders were playing when NHL games were paused on March 12 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the coach is optimistic about how his healthy team would fare if the season is resumed.

He has no idea whether it will get that chance.

“I think society is going to dictate that,” Trotz told Newsday. “We’re going to come back. I don’t have any doubt about that. When? I have no idea. That’s the million-dollar question.”

The NHL extended its self-quarantine period for players through April 15. President Donald Trump on Saturday expressed the hope that sports can resume “sooner rather than later,” but did not offer a timetable.

Trotz said it’s important to maintain a positive attitude through such trying times. He has worked, along with his coaching staff, on multiple different scenarios for preparing the Islanders to play again.

For instance, Trotz has a plan for small-skating groups if that is allowed before larger gatherings are permitted.

“You don’t know how it’s going to play out,” Trotz said. “We’re just going to react to it. But we’ve got to be prepared, too. I think about all these scenarios and I’m trying to work through all these scenarios.

“I want to be in position to give them the best chance of success, as a group and individually.”

Trotz must also factor in the possibility that not all players may be able to return to Long Island to train at the same time. Some players have returned to Canada. For instance, defenseman Ryan Pulock is back in the area.

Trotz said goaltender Semyon Varlamov went to his property in . Forwards Leo Komarov and Otto Koivula returned to Finland, though Trotz said he believes those are the only two in Europe.

“You have to prepare,” Trotz said. “Maybe we come back and you only have 11 guys and the other eight guys are in quarantine. I think [Canada] will react off what the U.S. does but there’s no guarantee it’s in the same timeframe. There’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of things we don’t control.”

The forced hiatus has allowed the Islanders to heal. Casey Cizikas and defenseman Johnny Boychuk, both cut by skate blades, will be available if play resumes. Trotz said there’s even a possibility top-pair defenseman Adam Pelech, who suffered what was thought to be a season-ending Achilles’ tendon injury on Jan. 2, might be available if play goes deep into the summer.

“We’re healthy just like everybody else but not everybody is a four-line team [like us] and that may pay dividends early for some teams,” Trotz said. “I’m excited. I’ll take our group against anybody when healthy.”

Newsday LOADED: LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173321 New York Rangers high 32 goals, probably earned Strome millions more on his next contract while parceling out the puck.

The Breadman Delivery Service at its finest. Artemi Panarin’s debut Rangers season is the stuff of legends Panarin was on for 127 of the Rangers’ 233 goals, 54.5 percent. He was on for 88 of the 173 not scored on the power play, or 50.1 percent. In 2005-06, Jagr was on 152 of the Blueshirts’ 257 goals, 59.1 percent, and By Larry BrooksApril 5, 2020 | 10:27PM for 86 of the 163 non-power-play-goals, 52.7 percent. Meanwhile, can I just say this: Gretzky was on for 265 of the 1981-82 Oilers’ 417 goals,

63.5 percent, while going plus-100. Part 13 of a series analyzing the New York Rangers. It was Oct. 7, 2015, the Rangers were in Chicago to open the season. An evaluation of Artemi Panarin’s first season on Broadway becomes a Panarin, undrafted, and now clearly the best undrafted player to break measurement against history. into the league in the salary-cap era, was making his debut after signing with the Blackhawks as a free agent following a process that was tilted in A measure against the greatest players in the 2019-20 NHL. A measure Chicago’s favor. against the best offensive seasons in Rangers history. A measure against the best free-agent signee debuts in New York pro sports history. He wore No. 72 and he was dazzling. He beat Henrik Lundqvist by burying a two-on-one feed from Patrick Kane at 14:24 of the first period. Panarin brought game, he brought class, he brought a twinkle in his eyes He was here, he was there, he was everywhere. Unforgettable. After the with him from Columbus (or Moscow) to New York and was simply a match that the Blueshirts won 3-2 after having been kept in their room for delight to behold on the ice and with whom to interact in the room. more than an hour during the most obnoxious Cup banner raising ceremony in history, I asked a Rangers executive how hard they’d been There are not many athletes who have come to New York for that kind of in on Panarin. cash and have had the ability to laugh off the inherent pressure and life in the spotlight that comes with it the way Panarin did this season. There “We weren’t,” he said, grimacing during a chat that was off the record. are not many athletes with the ability to elevate the performances of “Our scout [he named the name] over there didn’t like him all that much.” everyone around him the way the Breadman delivered. New York Post LOADED: 04.06.2020 The best first seasons of free agent signees in New York/New Jersey: 1. , Yankees, 1977; 2. Amar’e Stoudemire, Knicks, 2010- 11; 3. Curtis Martin, Jets, 1998; 4. C.C. Sabathia, Yankees, 2009; 5. Panarin; 6. Wayne Gretzky, Rangers, 1996-97; 7. Scott Stevens, Devils, 1993-94; 8. Plaxico Burress, Giants, 2005; 9. Catfish Hunter, Yankees, 1975; 10. Pedro Martinez, Mets, 2005 (TBD: Kevin Durant, Nets).

Of the top 10, seven have something in common. That is, they led their respective teams to the playoffs. Hunter did not while pitching for the Yankees in their second and final season at Shea. And it appears as if Panarin ultimately will not have the chance to do so.

He will all but certainly have to wait until next year and that means he will have to wait for next year to win the Hart Trophy, too. Everyone around the league knows what he did, but Leon Draisaitl pulled off some pretty neat tricks himself in somehow overshadowing and outscoring Connor McDavid and did so for an Oilers team ensconced in a playoff spot when the music stopped. Sorry, but that matters in this balloting.

Honestly, though, every time Panarin stepped on the ice, there was the prospect — or maybe even the promise — of magic. Every time No. 10 hopped over the boards, you inched a little closer toward the edge of your seat. There have not been many Rangers over the last quarter century to elicit that response. In fact, there has been one.

And that was Jaromir Jagr in 2005-06, when he established franchise records of 54 goals and 123 points and was the leader of the band that ended the team’s seven-year playoff drought. Prague, USA, was the address of the Rangers’ room, the team revolving around the contingent that featured No. 68 with Martin Straka, Martin Rucinsky, Petr Prucha, Petr Sykora, Michal Rozsival, Marek Malik and Marcel Hossa.

Pavel Bure was electrifying the final weeks of 2002-03 after his deadline acquisition from the Panthers, but he played 12 games for the Rangers that year. The fact that the Russian Rocket scored 31 goals in 51 games on essentially one knee as a Blueshirt is one of the more remarkable feats I’ve witnessed covering this team.

By the way, on hockey-reference.com, if you type in Pavel B in the player search, three players come up on the autofill: Pavel Bure, Pavel Buchnevich and Pavel Brendl. But back to our story.

See, everyone knew Panarin’s talent level when he went onto the market last summer. But the irrepressible joy with which he played had to be seen every day to be appreciated and so did his conscientious work on the boards, in the one-on-one’s, and in getting back to take care of his responsibilities without the puck. His body- and stick-positioning were almost always perfect. His vision, remarkable, and his ability to get the puck through, rare. And he can skate.

The Russian Rockette opened on Zibanejad’s left for the first seven games before David Quinn moved him to Ryan Strome’s unit that included Jesper Fast on the other side. Panarin, who recorded a career- 1173322 Ottawa Senators The belief in some circles is the players will likely take their final paycheque, put the money in the bank, and then worry down the road about making up any revenue shortfall. It’s difficult call to make because, yes, the league has asked for dates into July, August and September to Despite Trump's optimism, a timetable for a return to NHL rinks remains try to complete the 2019-20 campaign but nobody can say with any a guessing game certainty that plan is even realistic.

As Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted in his daily address to the country Sunday morning from Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, he’s told the Bruce Garrioch members of his ministry to pace themselves because “we do know this Published:April 5, 2020 situation is going to last a number of weeks, a number of months.”

Updated:April 5, 2020 11:09 PM EDT And, if the NHL does return, what will the audiences in the rink even be like? Are 19,000 people going to rush to an arena to sit shoulder-to- shoulder with other people? Right now, we aren’t even allowed within two metres of each other and you don’t get the sense physical distancing is U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on the weekend he wants to going to end any time soon despite Trump’s hope that all will be right in see players back on the ice and fields with fans in the stands “sooner the world “soon”. rather than later.” Ottawa Sun LOADED: 04.06.2020 After meeting by phone Saturday afternoon with NHL commissioner , Rob Manfred of Major League Baseball, the NFL’s Roger Goodell, the NBA’s Adam Silver, the WNBA’s Cathy Engelbert, Don Garber of MLS, the LPGA’s Michael Whan and Jay Monahan of the PGA, Trump sounded optimistic that down the road the COVID-19 crisis will be behind us and like will return to normal.

“Absolutely, I want fans back in the arenas. Whenever we’re ready,” Trump said at his daily briefing Saturday. in Washington. “As soon as we can, obviously. And the fans want to be back too. They want to see basketball and baseball and football and hockey. They want to see their sports. And they want to go out on to their golf courses and breathe nice, clean, beautiful, fresh air.

“I can’t tell you a date, but I think it’s going to be sooner rather than later … Eventually, people are going to be able to occupy their seats in arenas, next to each other, like we have for all of my life, and all of your life.”

Unfortunately, not everybody shares Trump’s optimism and it’s anybody’s guess as to when hockey fans in Canada and the will be able to return to the rink to see their favourite NHL team.

The NHL’s board of governors could get an update from Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly as early as Monday because they’re expected to get their bi-weekly update from head office to discuss the call with Trump and what lays ahead for the 31 teams after the league went on pause because of the spread of the novel coronavirus on March 12.

If all had gone as planned, the league would have wrapped up its schedule Saturday night with 15 games while the playoffs were scheduled to get under way Wednesday night with the NHL’s draft lottery set for Thursday night at the NHL’s Network studios in Secaucus, N.J. All this is on hold, and as know, so is the rest of the sports world in the midst of this unpredictable disease.

No, there might not be a lot new for Bettman to discuss with the owners, but the league has been looking at models for what a finish to the regular season and the playoffs could look like and those could be discussed. The NHL is also waiting to hear what the members of the NHL Players’ Association have decided to do with their final paycheque which is scheduled to be deposited into their bank accounts on April 15.

As part of the 50/50 split with the owners in Hockey Related Revenues negotiated in the last collective bargaining agreement in 2013, the players are required to make up any shortfall in those numbers by paying into escrow. The owners withhold part of the player’s paycheques and when the two sides agree on the numbers the players get back any excess money they may have paid into the escrow account.

TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported last week, the players paid 12.9% escrow for the 2018-19 campaign and after talks with the owners will be receiving approximately 10% from the league while 3% is returned to the players in mid-April. Naturally, if the NHL isn’t able to complete the final 10% of the schedule remaining and the playoffs then the estimate is it could be a $1 billion hit to the revenues.

Trying to make sure they’re not digging deeper into their pockets down the road, some members of the NHLPA have suggested the players let the owners keep the final paycheque to help soften the blow of escrow down the road. The union has held a series of conference calls — including another one Saturday — and a decision is expected to be made Monday afternoon. 1173323 Philadelphia Flyers All the Bruins, Caps and Flyers, along with hot West teams Colorado, Vegas and defending champion St. Louis, can do is sit around and wait with the rest of the world, wondering when they can all get back to work.

Time for NHL, NBA to get serious about their seasons Instead, how about a league decision for a re-start? Starting with a playoff tournament to be conducted whenever it is deemed safe to return? The way things look now, that would be sometime around mid- late May at the earliest. By Rob Parent Mar 29, 2020 The NBA should lay down similar groundwork, though the league is

essentially open to any wild scenario going forward. While the hockey The way NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pictures the upcoming NFL guys are looking at a truncated season, with both Sidney Crosby and Draft, almost everything could possibly go as planned before the Alex Ovechkin saying in interviews Thursday that hopping right into a pandemic ... so long as no one in the league criticizes his vision of it. playoff scenario could at least be workable, if not ideal, the NBA is planning for anything and everything. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking a re-start is in order here. To that end, I'm painting the upstairs for the first time since buying the house Play the season and the playoffs out, then delay the start of 2020-21? nearly 18 years ago. Completing the season with games during the summer months? It's painfully obvious that our daily agendas don't exactly seem fulfilling in Jumping right into the playoffs, as the NHL might ponder? the Age of a Quarantine. Yet everyone knows they're lucky just to be able to carry on. Shortening the length of the playoff tournament altogether?

Perhaps in that vein, most major professional sports leagues, and many All possibilities. amateur athletic bodies on other levels, seem to be unable to give up the ghost. Shut down for the better part of March, some are still trumpeting Not so much for Baseball. Blessed that the shutdowns came before the (pun intended) a return before their time. If not by the beautiful Easter first regular season pitch was thrown, MLB and its players union went the holiday, then maybe not long after. negotiating route on what would have been opening day on Thursday and agreed to have as close to a full season as possible, weather be There are exceptions, of course. damned.

Around the globe, World Cup events in sports from climbing to cricket That could easily mean a World Series in a neutral dome site the week were either canceled or postponed to an indefinite time. before Christmas, but hey, so be it. Their re-start could be an altogether wrong start. Pushed back a year are the Olympics. Took them long enough, but the IOC and Japan finally mutually agreed to a smart solution for the Alas, neither the owners nor the players were interested in anything that Summer Games. Did so with fingers crossed that COVID-19 doesn't might not guarantee them as close to their usual financial windfalls as come back in subsequent waves, of course. possible. Play all the games whenever possible, for as many days in a row and sometimes doing two-a-days ... as long as they're played. The present is bad enough without looking ahead, though. Baseball fever, catch it. No matter how sick people might be of strange NASTYCAR events from the past two weekends were canceled in Miami schedules by World Series time. After all, the NHL and NBA might still be and Atlanta. Iconic spring traditions like the Masters and Kentucky Derby playing their 2019-20 seasons by then. are postponed. Springtime traditions in Philadelphia, like the Penn Relays and the Stotesbury Cup Regatta, are also banged. Delaware County Times LOADED: 04.06.2020 The Champions League leads a parade of soccer events world-wide that won't be played, or at least not anytime soon. And, of course, the NBA, the NHL, and finally Major League Baseball all were shut down indefinitely.

Only the NFL is allowed to all-but ignore the ongoing pandemic effects in sports right now, with the only concession thus far being the NFL Draft won't be a fabulous Las Vegas spectacle, and instead will be something else of undetermined boredom.

No prospects have been brought in for reivew, but carry on it will, over the same three-day term (April 23-25), all televised in sleep-inducing detail by ESPN.

Reportedly, there are no concrete plans on how the draft will be conducted, since various state lockdown orders and social distancing recommendations will come into play for the teams and their respective war rooms. What's more, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apparently ordered league employees to refrain from criticizing or even questioning the plans (or lack thereof), issuing a league memo that warned, "public discussion of issues relating to the draft serves no useful purpose and is grounds for disciplinary action."

Thanks Commish.

The NFL can still feel fine about its coming season, though, figuring all this virus stuff may pass by the summer. That might be an empty hope but time will tell.

As for the other leagues, they get no such luxury. The NHL shut its doors with but a few weeks left in the regular season. The Flyers had burst to within a point of the Washington Capitals for the Metropolitan Division lead with 13 games left to go. They even seemed to have title hopes, though the Boston Bruins, who ended a nine-game Flyers win streak just prior to closing day, were (are?) far and away the best team in the league. 1173324 games would see nothing wrong with their favorite sport being a 100% made-for-TV event.

That day may be here sooner than you think. John Steigerwald: When they return, sports should be made-for-TV Tribune Review LOADED: 04.06.2020 events

JOHN STEIGERWALD | Sunday, April 5, 2020 6:10 p.m.

Let the games begin. Or not.

President Donald Trump held a conference call with the commissioners of all the major sports leagues Saturday and told them he is hoping people can start filling stadiums and arenas by August or September.

That’s good news for the NFL and college football, but, if it takes that long, you can forget seeing any NHL, NBA or MLB games in a 2020 season.

Maybe the NHL and NBA could figure out a playoff system that would carry over into the planned start of the 2020-21 season, but what kind of a season could Major League Baseball expect to have if no games could be played until August or September?

California Gov. Gavin Newsome threw water all over any plans NFL teams in his state might have of playing there in August or September.

“I’m not anticipating that happening in this state. A well known athlete just asked me — a football player — if he expects to come back, I said, ‘I would move very cautiously in that expectation.’ … (Our decision), at least here in the state of , will be determined by the health experts, will be determined by our capacity to meet the moment, bend the curve and have the appropriate community surveillance and testing to confidently determine whether that’s appropriate, and right now I’m just focused on the immediate, but that’s not something I anticipate happening in the next few months.”

Should that make the 49ers, Rams and Chargers feel good about the chances of playing home games in front of fans in August or September?

I talked to a former NHL marketing director, whom I’ve known all my life, and he had some interesting thoughts on playing games without fans.

My brother, Paul, who was the Penguins’ marketing director before becoming part of their radio and TV broadcasts, said, “If there are going to be games played inside of empty arenas for the sake of television, then why not make them look and sound as realistic as possible for the viewing audience?

“They could look a lot like video games only they would be real games, with virtual crowds. You could use special effects using crowd shots from previous games. Sound could be created the same way.”

He also said this could be an opportunity for producers to put cameras in different places and “have access to camera angles they could never dream of having with fans in the stands.”

The technology already exists that allows fans to choose their camera angles from their living room in real time.

“Teams may soon have to realize that it’s a new paradigm, and, for the time being, their games are purely made for television events,” he said.

All the major professional sports leagues have been concerned about younger fans preferring to watch games on their 60-inch TV screen to paying for tickets and putting up with the hassle of getting into and out of arenas.

It is possible we may reach a point where it’s considered safe for the people directly involved in the games, including TV personnel, to gather in a building but not safe enough for tens of thousands of people to gather to watch.

Picture a hockey game with players equipped with cameras giving fans their view of the game. An extra interactive, pay-per-view layer could be added to the telecast.

Fans could still bet on the games.

No fans at the game may be a bummer, but it also could be a way for teams in all sports to plan for a day when a generation raised on video 1173325 Pittsburgh Penguins The strike extended deep into the following spring training, which was being held with replacement players that MLB owners intended to play the 1995 season with. But future Supere Court justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a preliminary injunction against owners days before Opening Day. In covid-19 era, will 2020 see sports join 1994 MLB, 2005 NHL as champion-less seasons? That bound MLB and its players to terms of the since-expired collective bargaining agreement, so the players ended their strike. A shortened 144-game season was played in 1995, complete with the first World Series in two years. CHRIS ADAMSKI | Sunday, April 5, 2020 5:11 p.m. But the damage of the lost 1994 World Series was done, not unlike how

the NHL lost its championship round in 2005. A year without awarding the Stanley Cup? No 2020 NBA champion? Tribune Review LOADED: 04.06.2020 Even, perhaps, no World Series or Super Bowl winner?

All are seemingly in play as the nation — and world — deals with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The major sports leagues in have been shut down in its wake. And while no one knows for sure when a return to normalcy can allow for the resumption in play needed to stage NHL, NBA, MLB or even NFL postseasons, it is possible North America’s four longstanding major sports leagues will go without a champion for their suspended or upcoming seasons.

It was 101 years ago last week that the sixth and deciding game of the 1919 Stanley Cup Final was canceled after several players on the and Seattle Metropolitans became seriously ill during the Spanish flu pandemic.

Since, though, the NHL, MLB, NFL (its postseason format began in 1933) and NBA (founded in 1946) have combined to endure through World War II, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and other calamitous world events to award a champion in 359 out of 361 possible seasons.

Though each of the major leagues has endured multiple seasons affected and shortened by labor disputes, it was work stoppages that caused the lone two instances of a “no champion” designation in the history books: MLB in 1994 and the NHL 11 years later.

In 1994, there was no World Series because of a players’ strike that began Aug. 12 of that year and was left unresolved until well into 1995.

Similarly, there were no Stanley Cup playoffs in 2005. They were called off by commissioner Gary Bettman on Feb. 16. The 2004-05 NHL season never got started because of a lockout that began Sept. 16, 2004.

Citing aggregate losses of $273 million two seasons prior, NHL owners dug in on a demand for a leaguewide salary cap. Through NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow, players vowed to never accept one.

That left for an impasse, and not even an imposed deadline could break the stalemate. The league and union ramped up negotiations in January 2005, but the “philosophical differences” proved too much to overcome.

Even though the Players Association ultimately relented on the issue of the salary cap, the haggling over the precise figure to set it at dragged on too late for what Bettman believed could be a representative season. So, on a winter Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan he announced the first cancelation of a full major North American sports league’s season in history.

“This is a sad, regrettable day that all of us wish could have been avoided,” Bettman said.

The league and its players came to an agreement in July 2005 — the hard salary cap a central tenet of it — and the Stanley Cup has been safe since.

The summer of 1994 similarly featured simmering tensions between MLB players and owners that culminated when players began a strike on a day they had long warned was their deadline for doing so.

Like hockey owners a decade later, baseball team owners had offered several proposals to the MLBPA that featured salary caps. The players wanted no part of a cap — unlike their hockey brethren, though, they never buckled.

While suggestions such as a September Stanley Cup and a Christmas World Series are given credence, Sept. 14 was a curious drop-dead date for the 1994 MLB season.

“There’s an incredible amount of sadness,” Selig said that day in canceling the World Series. “It is very hard as I told the group on the phone to articulate the poignancy of this moment. There is a failure of so much.” 1173326 Pittsburgh Penguins Post Gazette LOADED: 04.06.2020

Penguins on pause: Teddy Blueger carves out niche on a critical line

STAFF

The NHL has “paused” its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear if it will resume. So, with one eye still on the future, the Post- Gazette’s Matt Vensel and Mike DeFabo are looking back at what each Penguins player did in 2019-20. We started with the captain, No. 87, and will count down by jersey number.

When the Penguins extended Teddy Blueger’s contract before this season, the club called him the “perfect role model” for younger players. This year, in Blueger’s first full season in the league, he proved to be a near-perfect role player, as well.

After toiling in the American Hockey League for three years, Blueger earned a promotion to the NHL for the first time in the middle of the 2018- 19 season. This year, with Matt Cullen in retirement, Blueger established himself as an everyday NHL player and carved out a clear niche as the Penguins’ fourth-line center.

Blueger, 25, centered a shut-down defensive line, playing between Zach Aston-Reese and Brandon Tanev. The line initially came together out of necessity, when early injury issues limited the options. But when it found near instant chemistry and a clear-cut identity, coach Mike Sullivan kept this group together more than any other trio.

All three players had similar attributes. They were all conscientious defenders, aggressive forecheckers and generally pesky players who made the Penguins a tougher team to play against.

Defense, largely, was Blueger’s calling card this year. No Penguin had a higher defensive zone start percentage than Blueger (70%). Sullivan also trusted this line’s defense enough that he often matched them up against opponents’ top line. And Blueger was a fixture on a penalty-killing unit that stymied 82.1% of opponents’ opportunities, eight-best in the league.

At times, Blueger flashed offensive upside. He recorded 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) in 69 games. That production tailed off over the last couple weeks. At the time the NHL paused the season, Blueger had gone 11 games without recording a point, posting a minus-5 rating over that span.

However, scoring goals isn’t necessarily near the top of the list when it comes to Blueger’s job description. The other elements he brings to the table will help him find a role in this league for years to come.

DEFINING MOMENT: The shift that sums up Blueger’s season came during the Penguins’ blowout win over Toronto on Feb. 18. One of the team’s best penalty killers, Blueger helped snuff out the Leafs’ five-on- three power play. Just as the Penguins cleared in the final second of the power play, Bryan Rust bolted out of the box to beat Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen to the puck. After some fancy passing, Blueger buried his ninth goal of the season. Blueger was rewarded on the stat sheet for the work he did in the defensive zone and the Penguins climbed to the top of the Metro standings.

STAT THAT STANDS OUT: During a season in which so many key players missed so much time because of injury, Blueger was one of two players to suit up in all 69 games. The other was defenseman Marcus Pettersson.

IF THE SEASON RESUMES: The Penguins were still trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together when the season was suspended. They had added several players in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline and were working to reintegrate injured players like Brian Dumoulin and John Marino. Chances are, the Blueger line will largely remain intact. If Jake Guentzel returns and Nick Bjugstad gets healthy recent acquisition Evan Rodrigues might pose the biggest threat to break up this line.

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK: Blueger is signed through the 2020-21 season on a cap-friendly contract that pays him $750,000 per year. He’ll be a restricted free agent entering the 2021-22 season. He’s in an interesting spot. Maybe he continues to develop offensively and can climb the Penguins’ depth chart. Or, with his reasonable salary, could the Penguins lose him to Seattle in next offseason’s expansion draft? 1173327 San Jose Sharks It’s never easy to step into the shoes of an icon like King, but Korach did so gracefully and will be one of the top reasons A’s fans who aren’t technologically inclined learn how to stream games when the baseball season eventually begins. Korach has a smooth style and a voice that Our Bay Area Media Hall of Fame: Limiting this to 25 inductees wasn’t melts through the speakers but can amp up the volume and intensity easy when required. (Here’s my Q&A with Korach.)

Mike Krukow and

Steve Berman Apr 5, 2020 Restricting this list to 25 inductees was very challenging, so let’s cheat a little and enshrine Krukow and Kuiper together, counting them as one

entry. I stole this idea from Brown, who suggested back in August that There are already several Halls of Fame at least partly dedicated to the pair should be celebrated together with Ford C. Frick Award honors sports figures in the Bay Area. The 49ers have their own Hall of Fame, by the Baseball Hall of Fame. which includes the 16 figures (14 players plus Bill Walsh and Eddie Krukow was quite popular with Giants fans as a starting pitcher. But as a DeBartolo Jr.) who’ve been enshrined in Canton, along with 12 others. broadcaster the love grew deeper. Krukow seems like family, a baseball There’s also the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame and Bay Area Radio Hall philosopher who exudes energy and positivity while giving daily glimpses of Fame. The latter includes some of the names we will celebrate here, into the mind of a ballplayer and detailed notes on the balls-and-strikes while the former is focused on players, coaches and team executives. tendencies of every umpire. The Bay Area is blessed with the highest concentration of great Kuiper is on a short list of best retired athletes ever to do play-by-play. broadcasters of any region in the United States, and that’s been true for He has two key strengths (other than being so smooth that someone . Fans who reside elsewhere might disagree with this notion, but listening without a sense of baseball history would have no idea that he a look at this list (with an eye also on who barely missed the cut) makes played). First, his dry wit makes even the Giants’ worst performances the argument a fairly easy one for us. tolerable. Second, he possesses a handful of beloved catchphrases that, But media professionals come in all shapes and sizes. And professions. unlike some that others (over-)use, never sound gimmicky. For that reason, and because honoring one media person over another is an even more subjective exercise than ranking the top icons who played, coached and worked for the teams, we’re going to shy away from using Snapping up Miller when he became available after the 1996 season tiers in this particular Hall of Fame. Let’s just consider all of these because Baltimore owner Peter Angelos grew tired of Miller’s truthful individuals to be “first ballot,” and for those who weren’t mentioned, rest descriptions of the Orioles was a coup for the Giants, the broadcasting assured that these decisions were incredibly difficult — gut-wrenching, version of signing four years earlier. Miller is a storyteller, even — to make. At the heart of this is determining which media figures impressionist and wordsmith, with a thirst for knowledge (not many had the greatest impact, but that can be judged in a variety of ways: broadcasters with Miller’s experience have been so open to new forms of quality of work, length on the job, peer influence, originality. And while analytics) and humor to spare. ESPN’s “” hasn’t some of those qualities are tangible, others are wholly subjective and a been the same since moving on from him in 2010, either. (Here’s my little humbling to ponder. There’s no such thing as WAR in this Q&A with Miller.) profession. Not that I’m trying to cover my bases to ensure that my next ventures inside press boxes or media dining rooms are less awkward! Boy, do I Moore somehow lasted nearly two decades with Charlie Finley, miss those places. I’d eat a Coliseum press box hot dog at this point if it beginning his tenure with the Kansas City A’s in 1962 and staying on as meant once again getting the opportunity to see a game and rub the team’s lead radio voice until 1977 and then as the A’s television shoulders with so many talented members of the media who tote announcer for a few seasons after that. He returned to the TV booth on a recording devices, notebooks and cameras in this beautiful place we call part-time basis in 1985, then went back to full-time in 1988 and stayed in home. that role until his retirement in 1992. Moore worked with a variety of partners, including a season with (“It was my worst year in While we’re eschewing any sort of ranking system here, we’ve separated broadcasting”) and Miller, whom Moore pitched to Finley after hearing this Hall of Fame into separate wings, based on profession. And in Miller’s demo tape. keeping with the format established in previous our previous Hall of Fame stories — like Daniel Brown’s list of Bay Area sports figures and Richard Deitsch’s top play-by-play broadcasters — we’ll limit this list to He’s done pretty much everything one can ask of a broadcaster, calling 25. Oh, and one other rule: No employees from The Athletic are eligible. games for every major professional team in the region other than the Broadcasters Sharks and hosting a variety of studio shows and radio talk shows. But Papa’s truest calling is NFL play-by-play. It’s uncertain whether Papa would’ve followed the Raiders to Las Vegas, but the fact that Mark Davis didn’t give him the opportunity to decide is still painful to fans of the Silver He was best known for his call of Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round and Black. Their loss was the 49ers’ gain. the World” in 1951, but Hodges remained a fixture after the Giants moved to as the lead broadcaster from 1958 through the 1970 season. He also had a direct impact on two other announcers on this list: Lon Simmons was the Giants’ No. 2 announcer until Hodges His deep, baritone voice was soothing, but Simmons was liable to grab retired and Jon Miller grew up pretending to call games like Hodges while your attention every so often with a humorous quip. Often self- playing Strat-O-Matic baseball in his bedroom in Hayward. deprecating, always on point until the end, Simmons was a Bay Area fixture. He called Giants games from 1958 through 1973, then A’s games Bill King from 1980 through 1995, then back to the Giants on a part-time basis from 1996 to 2002. He also did play-by-play for the 49ers from 1958 until The only argument about King is where his excellence shined brightest. It after the 1980 season, when he was replaced by Don Klein. Then would appear that, if forced to choose, most would cite his work calling Simmons returned for the 1987 season but stopped calling 49ers games games for the Raiders. Back in my early days of writing a media column during the 1989 preseason due to what his partner Wayne Walker for The Athletic, I ranked the top-10 calls in Bay Area history and King’s described as “a personality conflict” with Mickey Luckoff, KGO’s general “Holy Roller” call was an easy choice for the top spot. But King’s manager. Simmons’ second 49ers stint did allow him to describe Steve energetic, detail-rich style worked perfectly for basketball, too. Many Young’s wild touchdown run against the Vikings, a moment that ranked Lakers fans — and rightly so — sing the praises of the great Chick third in that list of top calls mentioned earlier. Hearn. But Warriors fans know that King was right there with Hearn, and some believe he was even better. If you’re under the age of 35, the way Anchors you probably remember King was as the voice of the A’s, and in 2016 the Baseball Hall of Fame honored him with the Ford C. Frick Award (2017 Vern Glenn class). Glenn, a.k.a. “Mr. Involvement,” is one of those guys who’s been around Ken Korach seemingly forever (he started at KRON in 1990 and has spent the last eight years at KPIX), but you wind up forgetting the length of his Nick Peters anchoring and reporting tenure because he does everything with so much youthful energy. Media scrums are generally serious affairs, Peters covered more Giants games than anyone (nearly 5,000) and now packed with tension created by time and space constraints as media the interview room at , near the Giants clubhouse, bears his members jostle for position and try to make their voices heard. Glenn’s name. “The Greek” was a true local — just check out this line from the presence frequently changes the entire dynamic, as he stands atop his obituary John Shea wrote when Peters passed away in 2015: “Mr. Peters trusty stool and consistently draws smiles out of athletes more often than was born in San Francisco in 1939, graduated from Lincoln High School anyone. in 1957, attended San Francisco City College and earned a journalism degree at San Jose State. His first baseball game was at Jan Hutchins in 1946.” Peters wrote primarily for the Berkeley Gazette, Oakland Tribune and Sacramento Bee, and authored five books about the Giants. Hutchins was a pioneer who got out of the business relatively early, at Both he and his mentor, Bob Stevens, were honored with the J.G. Taylor least compared to most in the industry. He was an anchor at KPIX, Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing. KRON and KICU from 1974 until 1990, called Cal games with (including the famous “The band is out on the field!” game), and Ray Ratto served as the Giants’ director of community development in the mid- 1990s when the team’s new ownership group worked to get a new He’ll probably hate getting celebrated here, but the choice isn’t his to ballpark planned and approved. He would later serve as mayor of Los make. As a columnist for outlets including the San Francisco Examiner Gatos and teach yoga, which might not be surprising to viewers who and Chronicle, The National, NBC Sports Bay Area and his current remember his slogan: “The body is the temple of the spirit.” employer, 95.7 The Game, Ratto’s style is wholly original yet malleable. Sometimes he’ll delve into the arcane and the next day he’ll eviscerate Raj Mathai his chosen target (often ownership or league commissioners, as Ratto prefers throw his punches with a decidedly upward slant) with bone- Mathai graduated from Los Altos High and became this country’s first crushing efficiency. Perhaps the region’s mostly unlikely local TV star, Indian sports anchor at a network affiliate (KYMA-DT in Yuma, Ariz.) in seeing as he refuses these days to wear a necktie, over the last decade 1995. It’s been 10 years since Mathai graduated to lead news anchor, Ratto has carved out a nice radio career. I still miss cracking up in my car but it would be unfair to ding him for his successful run doing sports, while making the 11-mile drive from my old San Francisco apartment to which is what led to the promotion. He joined NBC Bay Area in 1998 and Oracle Arena, a trek that often lasted longer than 90 minutes but seemed he served as the station’s lead sports anchor there for 12 years, still shorter thanks to Ratto’s chemistry with back when they handles sports duties on a regular basis during prime-time newscasts were paired on KNBR. and has reported on-site from five Olympics. Joan Ryan Gary Radnich While equal representation in sports media remains a faraway dream, as No one stretched the boundaries of how a sports anchor could act and women still face barriers and social media harassment that men simply sound quite like Radnich, who could also earn a spot in our media Hall of do not, the conditions are far more agreeable now than they were when Fame from his time as a talk show host at KNBR. But KRON is where he Ryan became the first woman in the Orlando Sentinel’s sports was a larger than life figure, especially on Sunday nights when his department in 1982. She would become a full-time columnist at the interview show was appointment television. He arrived in the mid-1980s, Examiner in 1985, wrote for the Chronicle from 1996-2007 and these back when the sports portion of a local newscast was a decidedly rigid days is a media consultant for the Giants. One doesn’t navigate locker presentation. Radnich, who retired from KRON in 2018 and from KNBR rooms full of crass, sexist USFL players in the ’80s as a woman without the following year, didn’t just resist those constraints, he openly mocked being tough, and Ryan’s toughness wasn’t confined to sports. In 2003, to them in a manner that resembled Don Rickles — that is, if Rickles research prescription painkiller addiction in light of Rush Limbaugh possessed the size and swagger of a former college basketball player. announcing that he was hooked on Oxycontin, Ryan walked into the Wayne Walker heart of the Tenderloin and procured seven “Vike” pills on the street for $21. One of the most beloved sports media figures this region has ever seen, Walker was KPIX’s sports director from 1974 until 1994 after 15 seasons Art Spander playing for the . Walker’s NFL career was outstanding — Spander no longer works for a local daily, but he still writes frequently on 200 games, three Pro Bowls as a linebacker, 333 points as a kicker — his own website. The fact that he’s still doing it, and still attending big but his media career was arguably more impressive. He was also a color events across the globe, is amazing in itself. Born and raised in Los analyst for the 49ers for 20 years, the A’s for six and called games Angeles, Spander joined the Chronicle in 1965 and became the lead nationally for CBS. But I’ll remember him most for his work on “49ers columnist at the Examiner in 1979. Spander has a spot in the Pro Preview,” the KPIX show that was recorded each week in my house on a Football Hall of Fame, is on a first-name basis with Tiger Woods and has VHS tape with the show’s name written on the label. Watching Walker’s attended 67 consecutive Rose Bowls, but you’ll still see him in the front preview show on the morning before a 49ers game was a worthwhile row at local news conferences, a frequent reminder that media access is tradition. The players trusted Walker, as did Bill Walsh, and Walker’s something the rest of us in those rooms should not take for granted. interviews gave incredible insight on Walsh’s thought process. His Spander was also an unwitting thief in one of the most ridiculously cute weekly check-ins with Joe Montana and were wonderful, Super Bowl stories of all time. too. Bob Stevens Writers A fixture at the Chronicle from 1935 until 1981, Stevens wrote game Ron Bergman stories from 1936-39 based on radio reports of San Francisco Seals and “The best baseball writer of his time,” according to Glenn Schwarz, who Oakland Oaks games, covered the Giants beat from the team’s arrival in referred to himself as a “so-called peer” of Bergman’s (Schwarz covered San Francisco through 1978 and was on the scene during the A’s run of the A’s for the San Francisco Examiner while Bergman worked the A’s three consecutive titles in the 1970s. The press box at Oracle Park is beat for the Oakland Tribune). Bergman attended San Francisco’s named after Stevens, who wrote a gorgeous, rich account of the Giants’ Washington High and Cal, where he was the sports editor of the Daily triumph in the 1951 National League tiebreaker series that was clinched Californian. He also wrote “Mustache Gang,” a book about the 1972 A’s. with Thomson’s home run. For anyone eternally captivated by Hodges’ call, Stevens’ story is a must read: “These Giants, who leave you groping Ann Killion unsuccessfully for words to describe, then rode over the confident Bums in Ebbets Field, 3-1, only to suffer terrible embarrassment yesterday A versatile columnist at the Mercury News and now with the Chronicle, when the insolent, sneering, battling Flatbushers shredded them, 10-0, in Killion can hit you with a touching feature or a scathing editorial. the .” Columnists should be entertaining and fearless, and there’s never any ambiguity after one finishes a piece from Killion. You always know where Ralph Wiley she stands. Though it had nothing to do with sports, her recent column about reuniting with her daughter, who flew back to San Francisco from This inductee is a bit of a departure from the rest of the list, because Ecuador, is great, personal stuff. Wiley didn’t spend decades plying his trade in the Bay Area. But what an impact he made over his six-and-a-half years, as he rose from an entry level to sports columnist at the Oakland Tribune, where his work Amy Gutierrez, broadcaster generated “rabid supporters and bitter critics.” The Tribune was where Wiley came up with “Billy Ball,” a phrase describing the way the team , broadcaster played under then-manager Billy Martin that’s still heard today. “I hope Mark Ibanez, anchor the A’s go 162-0,” Wiley told Schwarz in 1981. “I’m going to try and make every freelance buck I can, explaining how Billy Ball changed my life.” Bruce Jenkins, writer Wiley was hired by Sports Illustrated a year later and over the course of Tim Keown, writer his career he was best known for his coverage and social commentary. He wrote several books on both subjects, including “Why Don Klein, broadcaster Black People Tend to Shout.” Wiley made frequent appearances on ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters” and was one of their original Page 2 Leonard Koppett, writer columnists, from 2000 until 2004, when he died at 52. Matt Maiocco, writer Radio hosts Brad Mangin, photographer Ralph Barbieri Janie McCauley, writer The whole thing never made sense on paper. How did someone with Ira Miller, writer minimal sports experience, a voice that sounded like Joe Pesci’s with a hint of nasality, and questions that more often than not were longer (and Bob Murphy, broadcaster sometimes answered by himself during the asking process) than the answers he received, become the region’s first and arguably most Brian Murphy, radio host/writer important figure in sports talk radio? Start with passion, toss in the ability Dave Newhouse, writer to insert himself into just about every story (one of his favorite boasts: that he was instrumental in getting Pac Bell Park built), and fireworks Dennis O’Donnell, anchor whenever an interview subject didn’t answer questions to his liking. He was the quintessential media personality whom you either loved, or loved Scott Ostler, writer to hate, and local radio hasn’t been the same since KNBR showed him Bob Padecky, writer the exit in 2012. Gary Park, anchor and broadcaster Tom Tolbert Monte Poole, writer Then you have Tolbert, who rose to stardom after gleefully serving in a role player capacity for seven NBA seasons. Tolbert was the perfect foil Mark Purdy, writer for Barbieri, even though they were consistently friendly with one another on the air. Barbieri seemed to inhabit a world of sophistication that he Rick Quan, anchor conjured specifically for himself; Tolbert was the effortlessly relatable Hal Ramey, broadcaster one, the guy you wish was your neighbor who invited you over every Friday to watch a ballgame and sample the latest brew from his , broadcaster kegerator. As Radnich told me in January, there will never be another sports talk star like Tolbert. Once he’s done, that’s it. Ted Robinson, broadcaster

Miscellaneous Tim Roye, broadcaster

Renel Brooks-Moon , broadcaster

She replaced Sherry Davis (a trailblazer in her own right) as the PA Tony Salvatore, VP/GM announcer when the Giants moved from Candlestick to Pac Bell Park, Glenn Schwarz, writer/editor and it was a perfect fit. An interesting thing about Brown’s fantastic feature on Renel — it feels weird to call her anything but her first name Kate Scott, broadcaster — is how many glowing reviews of her work came from players, including John Shea, writer those from other teams. Brown’s piece touched on everything that makes her great, from the way she amps it up for big moments (she’d get the Susan Slusser, writer crowd rocking when Barry Bonds came to the plate during key moments late in games) to how she handles more somber moments before games. Joe Starkey, broadcaster Most of all, Renel is arguably the most fun PA announcer in Major Roy Steele, PA announcer League Baseball. Roy Storey, broadcaster John Storey Prescott Sullivan, writer Honorable mentions Barry Tompkins, broadcaster (Alphabetical) Wells Twombly, writer Bob Agnew, program director Floyd “Bucky” Walter, writer , broadcaster Martin Wyatt, anchor Lowell Cohn, writer Michael Zagaris, photographer Glenn Dickey, writer The Athletic LOADED: 04.06.2020 Scott Ferrall, radio host

Bob Fitzgerald, broadcaster

Dave Flemming, broadcaster

Joe Fonzi, anchor

Ray Fosse, broadcaster

Bob Fouts, broadcaster

Pete Franklin, broadcaster

Hank Greenwald, broadcaster 1173328 Toronto Maple Leafs So which teams could be in trouble? The first one that comes to mind is Ottawa. A small-market team with

diminishing attendance, last in the NHL with well under 13,000 per game. The NHL might come back stronger if the pandemic puts a few teams out There have already been rumours that the Senators might one day have of business to move, all quickly dismissed by owner Eugene Melnyk. He’s been focused on trying to get a deal for a new arena.

The good news is that the Senators have already slashed player costs by By Damien Cox getting rid of expensive veterans such as Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone and Matt Duchene in recent seasons. The bad news is that Melynk is disliked Sun., April 5, 2020 and distrusted in the nation’s capital, where the local government is unlikely to come to his financial rescue if he is unable to fund the team.

There remains a great deal of hope that the 2019-20 NHL season can be The Sens have also inadvertently demonstrated how difficult it will be to salvaged in some shape or form. get the NHL up and running again. Eight members of the organization, including two players, have tested positive for COVID-19. The infections For hockey fans, it’s about sentiment and perhaps seeing live sports may have occurred during the team’s final road trip to California before entertainment some time in the foreseeable future. For the league itself, the season was suspended. it’s about business. The players have been paid their final cheques for games not played, although the owners know any overpayment on their Arizona and Florida, 28th and 29th in NHL attendance, would also face part will be evened out through escrow. challenges with an extended shutdown.

But that’s just the start of it. With a vaccine for the coronavirus unlikely The fragile Coyotes’ story is well known, and even the acquisitions of star before the first quarter of 2021, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to forwards and Phil Kessel improved attendance only slightly envision a scenario in which hockey or any other contact sport can safely this season. resume before then. The Panthers have a deep-pocketed owner in Vinnie Viola and have Sure, you could try to play NHL games without fans in the stands. But if vowed to keep paying workers. But that’s a money-losing operation, and one player tests positive he would immediately require quarantining, as the losses will become even more significant. Billionaires run out of would all the other players on his team, the coaches, the trainers and the patience, too, and the stock market is doing no one any favours these referees. Probably the ice scrapers and Zamboni driver as well. days.

It just wouldn’t work. It also seems unlikely that the NHL Players’ The Islanders have struggled without a permanent home. Carolina has Association, despite its traditional focus on money rather than workplace been wobbly for years. New Jersey, Buffalo and Nashville could also face safety, would be willing to play along. big financial challenges.

So this discussion, realistically, becomes more about the 2020-21 Knowing Bettman’s legendary determination to keep teams afloat and in season, despite whatever phoney encouragement Gary Bettman may the same city, he’ll fight to the death to keep all the existing teams alive. have received from U.S. President Donald Trump during a But he also knows Atlanta going out of business turned into a positive commissioners-only call on Saturday. story for the league when the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg.

Golf? Maybe. Tennis? Remotely possible. But for the NHL, Major League Fewer teams could make the NHL stronger coming out of this crisis. Baseball, the NBA, NFL and CFL, competition in a vaccine-absent world Ideally, a best-case scenario emerges in which the league gets to finish seems almost impossible to imagine. the 2019-20 season and begins next year only slightly behind schedule, For the NHL, there are lots of logistical questions, from the status of the and all the teams survive. 2020 and 2021 drafts to free agency to what this might mean for existing But this is hardly an ideal situation. For some NHL teams, it could player contracts. become a question of staying alive. Beyond that, however, is a much larger issue: Will all 31 teams survive? Toronto Star LOADED: 04.06.2020 For the first time since the Cleveland Barons called it quits in 1978 and folded into the Minnesota North Stars, there seems a distinct possibility that this pandemic pause might force one or more teams to cease operations.

The NHL’s existing teams are on a surer footing than some other leagues because there is a salary-cap system and revenue sharing in place. That said, if all revenue dries up until the fall of 2021, it would put extreme pressure on several NHL teams. Selling or moving becomes massively problematic if the league isn’t operating.

We’ve already seen signs of distress as teams lay off personnel and require large salary cuts by senior team executives after only a few weeks of inactivity. Boston’s billionaire owner Jeremy Jacobs has taken a lot of criticism for the tough measures he’s already taken, but that also may be evidence of an experienced owner taking a cold, calculated estimate of the economic apocalypse that lies ahead.

NFL teams are in a profitable position before they even play a game because of television. But that’s not the case for the NHL, which leans heavily on ticket sales, private box revenue, food and catering income, sponsorships and merchandise sales. Many teams have significant arena lease costs. Some of the biggest stars have front-loaded contracts, which means they may have already been paid the bulk of their salaries. Big bonuses may be due this summer, whether there is a conclusion to the ’19-20 season or not.

The majority of NHL teams these days are owned by extremely rich individuals or large corporations. Financial pressures from other businesses may nonetheless put more focus on their NHL holdings if there is no hockey revenue. 1173329 Toronto Maple Leafs The Leafs’ American Hockey League farm team inked four newcomers the past few days, including Toronto native Noel Hoefenmayer to a two- year contract. The 21-year-old defenceman played 58 games with the Ottawa 67s as an over-ager with a career-high 56 assists and 82 points KHL star to choose between Leafs, Coyotes to lead all OHL defencemen. In his 298 games with Ottawa, the 6-foot-1, 196-pounder had 222 points. He was a fourth-round pick of Arizona in

2017. Lance Hornby Prince Edward Islander Jeremy McKenna also agreed to a two-year AHL Published:April 5, 2020 contract, the 20-year-old also getting 82 points (40 goals, 42 assists) in 57 games last year with the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec league. Updated:April 5, 2020 7:54 PM EDT Earlier in the week, forwards Gordie Green (Miami-Ohio) and Bobby McMann (Colgate) left the NCAA for two-year deals with the Marlies. The 5-foot-8 Green, from Ann Arbor, Mich., was team captain and had 36 The chances of the Maple Leafs landing Russian sniper Alexander points in 34 games and 115 career points at his school. Barabanov are back to 50-50 with only one other NHL team in the hunt. McMann, a centre, led Colgate with 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) in 34 After the field was opened to more clubs last week via an interview games while also serving as captain. The 6-foot-1 Wainwright, Alta., process with agent Daniel Milstein, the choices for the KHL free-agent native was nominated for the Hobey Baker Award in 2019-20. right winger are back to the original front-runners, Toronto and the Arizona Coyotes. The term would be the same one-year, entry-level deal LOADED: 04.06.2020 as Milstein client Ilya Mikheyev agreed to with the Leafs last summer.

“Alexander has had video meetings with those two teams, the head coaches, ownership, things like that,” Milstein said Sunday. “There are two options for he and his wife.”

Milstein said discussions and one-on-one interviews with his client and the Leafs and Coyotes actually go back more than two years.

“They both visited him in Russia,” Milstein said, adding that former Toronto coach Mike Babcock had made one of the first trips overseas, followed by general manager . “(Current coach) has had conversations with him, too.”

Dubas sized up Barabanov on a conference call with Toronto media last week.

“Alex is strong, not tall (5-foot-10, 191 pounds), but he has tremendous playmaking ability, great skill level in tight. One of the other things we like most about him is his ability to make plays under pressure and his ability to win pucks, protect pucks when people come after him,” said Dubas.

The undrafted 25-year-old has played in his native Saint Petersburg since he was 16, moving up to its KHL club in 2014-15. A career-best 20 goals and 51 points in 73 games two years ago (regular season and playoffs) caught everyone’s attention on this side of the pond and he had 21 points in 47 games before COVID-19 halted the 2019 KHL playoffs.

At the spring 2019 world championship, he was on a line with Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, adding to his comfort zone wherever he lands in the NHL.

“I expect his decision in a short time,” Milstein said. “Of course he and his wife are interested in what the two cities have (to offer as a home). But he’s here for the whole package; the hockey, how the coach sees him fitting in, the fan base, the traditions.”

Score one for the Leafs on that last point, but Arizona GM John Chayka is building a strong program. And if the Barabanovs are sick of snow, they certainly won’t need winter boots in Glendale.

“Alex is just a very nice guy, very humble, from a hockey family with two brothers,” Milstein said. “He’s very accomplished with a Gagarin Cup (in 2016-17 with Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk as teammates) and Olympic gold (2018).”

MIK IN THE MIX

Milstein remains hopeful the Leafs and the NHL will come out of the COVID crisis and any salary cap changes with enough money to retain Mikheyev beyond his current deal.

The agent described those talks with Dubas as cordial, very encouraged the Leafs called him Jan. 1 at the first opportunity to offer a new deal, less than a week after Mikheyev’s frightening injury, a skate blade slicing his wrist that required major surgery.

“The Leafs lived up to their promise and we’ve talked a bit since,” Milstein said. “If not for the work stoppage, he could’ve played after March 19. He’s very interested in re-signing there.”

The idled Marlies have not stopped signing players. 1173330 Toronto Maple Leafs and Bob Stellick, Joe Bowen, and a key resource, the Hall Of Fame’s Kevin Shea.

“I wanted a European perspective on the Leafs, so I spoke to Nik Ups and downs of Leafs Nation now a film Antropov,” Patskou added. “And (New York hockey maven) gave us a great story about tuning in Foster one night on his little radio in the ’40s. We also have the connections of (musician/author) Dave Bidini, Steve Ludzik and Dan Donahue, who has Barilko’s overtime goal puck.” Lance Hornby Morrisey hopes today’s young fans can gain an appreciation of what Published:April 4, 2020 preceded Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander. Updated:April 4, 2020 9:14 PM EDT “So much great Leafs history didn’t happen in the TV era (seven Cups between 1932-51). It’s going to show them there’s a lot more about this team to love.” Dale Morrisey and Paul Patskou get it. Why the constant fan fuss for a team that hasn’t won a Stanley Cup in 53 years, never mind make a PATIENCE FOR PICTURE documentary about them? Like everything else, COVID-19 has slowed or stopped a lot of media “We’ve certainly seen the dark days since 1967,” said Morrisey, co- projects, including Being Leafs Nation. executive producer of Being Leafs Nation, scheduled for an autumn But Morrisey and Patskou are confident their 85-minute documentary will release. be out sometime in the 2020-21 season. “Why do fans still care about the Maple Leafs? Because they cared for “The world has turned upside down, but we do have a North American Foster Hewitt, Conn Smythe, Syl Apps, Bill Barilko, Dave Keon, Darryl distribution deal; TV, digital, DVD and video on demand all lined up,” said Sittler, and when I was a kid, . Morrisey. “The Leafs are the Chicago Cubs of hockey, who went from glory days to However, the delay means Morrisey has to dig into more of his personal so much heartbreak and so many near-misses. It was as if the Leafs funds to complete the doc and struggle with sponsorship. Maple Leaf became Charlie Brown and the equivalent of Lucy was always there to Sports and Entertainment, which would obviously benefit from such a yank the football back. film, produces its own content through and rarely “Like when they were a player away in the ’70s, but Harold Ballard blew it gets involved with projects outside its walls or the NHL umbrella. up. Then going strong in ’93, and Kerry Fraser didn’t make that call. They Toronto Sun LOADED: 04.06.2020 were still strong in the ’90s, then the lockout came. They had Boston on the ropes in Game 7 (2013), and blew the lead. Why do we care? It’s all history, the good and the bad. We’re going to pull on those strings in the film.”

Two things kept coming up in the course of hours of interviews.

“The theme of fathers and sons,” said the 47-year-old Morrisey, who was raised in and looked forward to his one trip to each year with his dad, Ron. “The love of the team passed down. And the immigrant experience. Becoming a Leafs fan has often been a way to feel like they’re part of Canadian culture.”

Morrisey has churned out several docs including Hockey’s Lost Boy, about George Patterson’s first Leafs goal in 1927; Only The Dead Know The Americans, on the defunct NHL team; and a profile of Capt. James T. Sutherland, whose service to the sport included running the Ontario Hockey Association and help creating the .

Morrisey and fellow Leafs devotee Patskou, who is Canada’s top hockey film archivist, originally planned this doc to be on ‘Ultimate Leafs Fan’ Mike Wilson’s massive memorabilia and many other personal collections across Canada.

But once Patskou got all the way back to Hewitt, whose Great Depression and Second World War radio broadcasts linked the vast country, the scope of the project widened considerably. When the Leafs toured Western Canada in the 1930s, Hewitt was as popular as the players, an influence that spurred the building of the Gardens in 1931.

“We interviewed author Bill Fitzell, who served on a Canadian Navy ship in the English Channel and remembered Hewitt’s games,” said Patskou. “They were recorded on acetate cylinders here and sent overseas. Sometimes they were a week old, but the servicemen didn’t care when they listened.”

Patskou also brought his camera to Sunnybrook Hospital Veterans Centre in Toronto where nonagenarians gave similar accounts of how much hockey meant to them so far from home. The 1942 Leafs came back and won the Cup from a 3-0 deficit to Detroit.

“It’s important to hear these stories before they leave us,” Patskou said. “A couple of them even recalled what it was like to watch the Leafs at (their first home) Mutual St. Arena.”

Patskou and Morrisey are still in the final edit process with a diverse group of players, executives, media, celebrities and fans. They spoke to Keon, Vaive, Doug Gilmour, Bob Baun, Dick Duff, Mark Osborne, Jim McKenny, actor Art Hindle (who portrayed bad boy Billy Duke in 1971’s Face-Off), Suzanne Primeau (granddaughter of “Gentleman Joe”), Gord 1173331 Toronto Maple Leafs “We have to take a look at this and get it fixed,” Babcock said. “No one outside is going to fix it. All of us have to be better, the coach and the players.”

KOSHAN: Five of the Leafs' worst losses of the season, in review Hockey Hall of Fame festivities were under way back in Toronto, and there was some thinking that if it had been just another weekend, Babcock would have been fired before the club continued its trip west to Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver. Terry Koshan As it was, Babcock was fired on Nov. 20, the day after the Leafs lost to Published:April 4, 2020 the Golden Knights. Updated:April 4, 2020 7:54 PM EDT 3. OCT. 5: Canadiens 6 Maple Leafs 5 SO

Yes, it was just the third game of the season and the Leafs got a point, From blowing a big lead on opening weekend to being beaten by an giving them five of a possible six to start, but the way in which the game emergency backup goaltender, the Maple Leafs treated themselves to ended, in hindsight, wound up being an indication of the inconsistencies some embarrassing performances before the 2019-20 National Hockey that would plague them for the next several months. League regular season was put on pause on March 12. A seed of doubt in backup goalie Michael Hutchinson, one that would Here’s a look at five of the Leafs’ worst losses prior to the coronavirus grow into something much bigger, took root that night at Scotiabank pandemic putting a stall on the sports world three weeks ago. Arena.

1. FEB. 22: Hurricanes 6, Maple Leafs 3 The Leafs were looking good to start the season with a mark of 3-0 when William Nylander scored on a Toronto power-play five minutes into the Shall we get the worst of the bunch out of the way first? Probably a good third period. That goal, Nylander’s first of 31, gave Toronto a 4-1 lead idea. against the Canadiens.

David Ayres — you’ve heard of him, right? Less than two months ago, Jonathan Drouin scored for Montreal 11 seconds later, but no problem, you would have likely shaken your head and said no. the Leafs still held a two-goal lead. The collars tightened when scored at 6:29, and the Montreal comeback was complete Few outside the Leafs organization and Ayres’ family could have picked when Jeff Petry beat Hutchinson on a penalty shot at 13:02. The free him out of a crowd. Then Carolina goalies James Reimer and Petr breakaway came about when Kasperi Kapanen threw his broken stick at Mrazek got hurt against the Leafs, injuries that gave the visitors at the puck — while Petry had possession. Scotiabank Arena no choice but to use Ayres, the appointed EBUG and occasional Leafs practice goalie. After Petry’s tying goal, Phillip Danault gave the Canadiens their first lead just more than two minutes later. In 28 minutes and 41 seconds, Ayres, who entered the game with Carolina holding a 3-1 lead, stopped eight of Leafs 10 shots, allowing Auston Matthews tied the game with 75 seconds remaining and with goals only to and Pierre Engvall. Hutchinson on the bench in favour of an extra skater.

Weeks later, it remains mystifying that the Leafs couldn’t find it within Hutchinson also redeemed himself a bit in overtime when he made nine themselves to put more shots or pressure on the 42-year-old Ayres. saves, but it was little consolation after he allowed four goals on 12 shots in the third period. Mitch Marner, who had five shot attempts, after the game said it was a “dogs—t effort” by himself. He could have been speaking for the whole In the shootout, Marner, Matthews and Tavares failed to score on Carey team. Price. A Paul Byron goal gave the Canadiens a victory.

“It’s another embarrassing night,” coach Sheldon Keefe said after the “Mentally, we just weren’t there,” Matthews said afterward, sounding a Leafs’ final game before the NHL trade deadline. bell that would be heard more than a few times in the Leafs’ dressing room as the season unfolded. The loss put a cap on one of the more roller-coaster weeks of the Leafs’ season, as it came after demoralizing losses in Buffalo and Pittsburgh; As for Hutchinson, he lost each of his next five starts in regulation, failing 48 hours before Ayres beat the Leafs, however, Toronto had turned in to win a game until Dec. 21. one of its best efforts of the year in a 4-0 win over the Penguins. Another tidbit from that day: Babcock was wearing a Raptors zip-up 2. NOV. 16: Penguins 6, Maple Leafs 1 sweater during his morning availability.

Mike Babcock’s penultimate game as Leafs coach ranked among the “We’re hoping to learn how to play right, like they did,” Babcock said club’s worst efforts during his tenure behind the Toronto bench. then. “In the end, they played unbelievable stifling defence and were able to win a championship.” The Leafs proved to be a team that couldn’t win the second game of back-to-back sets no matter who was coaching, but they were especially The next month, Babcock was gone. terrible a night after losing to Boston in Toronto. 4. JAN. 18: Blackhawks 6, Maple Leafs 2 In what would be Kasimir Kaskisuo’s lone appearance of the season in the Leafs net — never mind, his NHL debut — his teammates-for-a-day The Leafs had been stumbling in the games leading up to the all-star ensured that he quickly learned what opponents in the best hockey break, losing four of five (including an 8-4 setback in Florida when they league in the world could offer. were down 5-0 three minutes into the second period), but figured they would have a shot to enter the break with positive vibes in playing a Pittsburgh had 19 shots on goal in the first period, scoring on two of Chicago team that was not in a playoff spot in the Western Conference. them, and had a 5-0 lead before Jason Spezza scored the Toronto goal at 14:49 of the second. When the evening was done, Kaskisuo had Instead, the Leafs were dismal against the Hawks, going down 3-0 in the allowed six goals on 38 shots. first 11 minutes and later trailing 5-1. There was no life in the third period, as Toronto didn’t score in the final 20 minutes. It was the 17th time in 22 games the Leafs were down 1-0, and a playoff spot remained elusive. Putting an exclamation mark on the loss was a Leafs tumble out of third place in the Atlantic, falling to 10th overall in the Eastern Conference and The Penguins didn’t have Sidney Crosby or Kris Letang, who were out of a playoff spot. injured. Missing for the Leafs because of injuries were Marner and Alex Kerfoot. The game also marked the 10th time in 12 starts that Frederik Andersen allowed at least three goals. Babcock had some post-game resolve, but he was wasting his breath after Toronto’s season-high losing streak hit five games. Keefe spoke of the Leafs’ “immaturity” and “reality checks” during his post-game availability, and Tavares said this: “We have to ask ourselves where we want to get to and how bad that we want to get there.” The lone positive was the first NHL game for defenceman Timothy Liljegren, who became the 1,000th player in franchise history.

The Leafs rebounded after the break, winning three in a row.

5. FEB. 18: Penguins 5, Maple Leafs 2

The Leafs were bad in a 5-2 loss in Buffalo, and then were chased out of the rink by Crosby and his pals 48 hours later.

Pittsburgh built a 5-0 lead 13 minutes into the second period — Crosby had one goal and three assists — before Toronto got goals from Matthews and Kyle Clifford, who scored his only goal in 16 games with the Leafs after being acquired from Los Angeles.

What rankled after this one was the effort was no better than it had been against the Sabres.

In Buffalo, Keefe said: “This is the worst we have been in a really long time.”

One would have thought the Leafs could have used the mirror as motivation once they moved on to Pittsburgh. Didn’t happen.

“As the schedule has gotten harder, more issues are coming up with our group in terms of some of our habits and details that are lacking,” an exasperated Keefe said at PPG Paints Arena after the loss.

Toronto Sun LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173332 Toronto Maple Leafs would be playing roller hockey in front of a bunch of bemused English pirates. They were trying to figure out what the fuck we were doing,” says Sinclair.

Tales from the Juno Cup and identifying Canada’s best hockey-playing Mike Belitsky, drummer, The Sadies musician Belitsky was born in Boston and began playing hockey at a young age. He was a physical player and maintained a deep-rooted love of the Boston Bruins. When the Sadies opened for , Belitsky By Joshua Kloke Apr 5, 2020 would sit with on the tour bus and pretend to work for a Bruins call-in radio show, acting as fans from Boston neighbourhoods

calling for updates on the Providence Bruins. As members of indie rock band Born Ruffians, Luke Lalonde and Mitch “I never thought I’d meet a bigger fan. But I certainly met my match in DeRosier are part of an exclusive group of people fortunate enough to Gord,” says Belitsky. make their living in Canada as musicians. His first Juno Cup was in Calgary in 2008. He was deployed on the blue And yet the two of them, both massive fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, line, and had trouble staying composed when Flames legend Lanny still yearned to be part of another exclusive club: the group of musicians McDonald skated down his wing. But his old instincts quickly kicked in. who play in the Juno Cup, an annual fundraiser hockey game for MusiCounts, contested between Canadian musicians and former NHL “Take the body, man,” says Belitsky. “Go for the crest.” players during the week of the Juno Awards celebrating the best in Canadian music. , folk singer-songwriter

The Juno Cup began in 2004. The game is an opportunity for musicians Harmer’s love of the game developed while watching Leafs games with to meet their NHL heroes as the Born Ruffians did in 2019 when they her dad and sister. She now “sheepishly” admits to watching most Leafs took part in the event for the first time. They were even part of the games. winning team. “It’s kind of like a soap opera,” she says. “I got passed the trophy and I kissed it in front of Doug Gilmour and Gary She only started to play shinny in her 30s, joining a group of bartenders Roberts. I was just like, ‘How is this happening to me right now?’” says and musicians in Kingston. She was then invited to the Juno Cup. DeRosier. “I got to see the beautiful camaraderie of the sport from the ice, which “I don’t want to get overdramatic, but it was a bridge of my childhood self was really, really nice,” says Harmer. to my adult self. Playing hockey, getting back out on skates, it was just wonderful,” says Lalonde. And she got to meet some of her favourite Leafs.

Across Canada, there are many hockey leagues and pick-up games “(Doug Gilmour) gave me a talking to because I didn’t have my old tube dedicated to musicians. One of them is southern Ontario’s The Good skates, like the rubber wasn’t on the end. So we taped it up,” she says of Times Hockey League of the Arts. It has iced musicians such as Devin the event. “It was daunting. Like, super scary.” Cuddy and Dave Bidini. There’s also a long-standing musician-led Monday morning game at Toronto’s Bill Bolton Arena. It began back in Harmer’s favourite Juno Cup memory is scoring her lone goal, when the ’90s and has since featured the likes of Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy Tyler Stewart of the Barenaked Ladies knocked out the goalie to allow (Devin’s dad) and late Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip. Harmer to scoop the puck in the net.

So in honour of the Juno Cup, which was cancelled last month along with She’s still as dedicated a Leafs fans as ever, so much so that she now the Juno Aawards due to COVID-19, and to celebrate the musicians who gives many of the Leafs her own nicknames, including captain John love the game, The Athletic spoke to musicians across Canada to hear Tavares. their hockey stories, and to get some on-ice scouting reports for their “Mazel Tav,” she says, laughing. peers. Amanda Rheaume, singer-songwriter The part-timers Rheaume grew up in Barrhaven, ON and started playing house league Gord Sinclair, bassist, the Tragically Hip hockey when she was 12.

Growing up in Kingston, ON, Sinclair says he was “expected” to play “It was such a fun, and I think positive, thing to have been put in as a hockey. He was admittedly never the most aggressive member of The girl,” says Rheaume. “I can always backcheck. I play forward, but one of Tragically Hip on the ice. the things I think I’m good at is being able to judge. Keeping my head up “(Tragically Hip guitarist Paul Langlois) was a natural athlete. A really is something I need to work on.” great skater. Further below them I would put myself and (guitarist Rob When she was invited to her first Juno Cup in 2014, she felt confident. Baker),” says Sinclair. “I never possessed the passion to work all that hard playing hockey. Gord was by far the most accomplished and the “You think you can rise to the occasion where you’ve left off,” she says. most passionate hockey player amongst us.” But she was surprised by the quality of her fellow musicians on the ice. When The Tragically Hip were attending Queen’s University together, they’d head out to Kingston’s Victoria Park in the middle of the night to be “I got my ass kicked.” the first on a fresh sheet of ice. She did, however, score on a penalty shot after former NHL veteran Mark “We were night owls,” recalls Sinclair. “It was a riot.” Napier tripped her.

After buying an old house near Kingston and converting it into their own “And it wasn’t, like, a joke,” she says. recording studio, the band would play hockey on the natural pond behind The veterans the studio. Jim Cuddy, singer/guitarist, Blue Rodeo “It was in and of itself nostalgic, and kind of beautiful,” says Sinclair. “It was a great break from the recording process, but it was also the “He’s going to hate me for saying this, but he’s a bit of a shit disturber on quintessential Canadian activity. A set of boots would become our ice. He kind of takes it really seriously,” says Holy Fuck drummer goalposts.” Graham Walsh.

And when they would go on the road, they’d stuff their hockey bags in the “He’s the ringleader,” says Sloan drummer Andrew Scott. bottom of the bus and play in arenas whenever possible. It was a low- cost activity for a band on a budget at the time. “Skilled and smart. Most of the guys in the Monday morning game are half his age, so he’s had to become crafty. He knows what to do with the “… When we were supporting Page and Plant across the United States puck,” says Devin Cuddy. (in 1995), we would take rollerblades and sticks and hockey balls. We As a child, the now 64-year-old Cuddy had a rink in the backyard of his “When I first started going, I was blown away at the door that’s been Brantford home. He was obsessed with Dave Keon and the Leafs. opened up,” he says, reciting a particular on-ice encounter with Tiger Williams. “I was Maple Leaf mad,” says Cuddy. “I was so wrapped up in hockey fandom.” “He asked me which way I was going,” recalls Gallant.

While attending North Toronto Collegiate Institute he says he was a third- Gallant says he pointed behind Williams. line forward. “And (Willams) says, ‘If you are … and he sticks out his forearm. “I have above average skills,” says Cuddy, laughing. “But just.” “It made me shiver.” Once he began attending Queen’s University, and then moved to New York City to pursue his music career, he stopped playing the game. But Menno Versteeg, singer/guitarist, in 1984, at the age of 29, his mother surprised him with a pair of skates “He’s really fast and able-bodied. He could really skate,” says Rheaume. for Christmas. He then joined a Monday morning musicians league. And he took those games very seriously. “Menno’s a fireball, as always,” adds Sam Roberts.

“He once called a team meeting, which I don’t think has ever been done Versteeg grew up in Manotick, ON, a small town just outside of Ottawa. in the history of pickup hockey, because he thought we were drifting in He started playing hockey when he was five. our focus,” says Michael Hollett, the co-founder of North by Northeast “That’s how you grow up,” says Versteeg. and a participant in many Juno Cups. A massive Senators fan, Versteeg was in awe of Senators legend Daniel It was Cuddy who spearheaded the creation of the Juno Cup, in part to Alfredsson when they met ahead of the 2017 Juno Cup in Ottawa. increase musician attendance at the Junos. “He fell to pieces in front of this guy,” says Devin Cuddy. “He was “The Junos were not cool,” Cuddy explains. bumbling. It was very cool to see someone who is often surrounded by He has now played in every Juno Cup and now serves as player/coach. fans very quickly melt.”

“When hockey’s played, there does seem to be an imposition,” says Versteeg says meeting Alfredsson is the highlight of his career, in music. Cuddy of how musicians play hockey. “There’s much stricter rules of Versteeg scored the opening goal in the 2017 Juno Cup and he and did conduct that we have in our lives. And I think that that’s something we so by skating around Alfredsson. So what’s the secret to beating an NHL always like.” great? Dave Bidini, singer/guitarist, The “By meeting him before and telling him you’re a massive fan. So he lets “He’s a fiery, competitive guy,” says Nick Rose of Toronto band Dwayne you,” says Versteeg. Gretzky. After the game, Versteeg and Alfredsson swapped jerseys. “He’s a good leader. A lot of heart and passion,” says Walsh. “I have his hanging in the closet still here,” says Versteeg. “And after that Bidini, 56, wrote “The Ballad of Wendel Clark” as a member of The game, everyone on my team was like, ‘Hey, I’m pretty sure I saw your Rheostatics. He has also hosted a CBC concert for musicians to sing jersey in the garbage.” about hockey and has authored multiple books about the game. He Andrew Scott, drummer, Sloan continues to play in men’s leagues multiple times a week. “This guy has easily the best shot,” says Bidini, adding that he’s seen “You don’t necessarily wear your musician-ness. You’re just a guy in Scott split The Weakerthans’ John Sutton’s mask in two with a wrist shot. skates and a helmet with a stick. And I think that’s one of the great “His forearms. His wrists. His core. He’s really, really strong. That fuckin’ things,” he says. shot.” Bidini’s competitive nature once manifested itself into an altercation with Scott played until he was 14. Then he quit the game. Cuddy in a rec league. Bidini wrote about it in his 2001 book, Tropic of Hockey. He cast Cuddy as a “thug.” “You had shitty coaches and nobody taught you how to take a hit or give a hit, and it’s just basically a gladiator fucking ring,” Scott explains. “Seeing this sweet pop singer transform into a monster tickled part of me,” Bidini writes. “The thought entered my head: ‘You are being When Sloan lead singer Chris Murphy invited Scott to join him in a pick- attacked by Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo. Cool.’” up game 18 years ago, he was reluctant to take him up on it. But when he did, he quickly came to appreciate the lack of hitting. “When I kind of look back at that rivalry that we’ve had between our two teams, I’m 20 years removed from that,” says Bidini now. “It seems “’Oh my God,’” Scott recalls saying to himself. ‘Where has this game absurd how, literally, you’d wake up in the morning, and you’d be so been?’ I was instantly re-addicted to it.’” obsessed about playing those guys. And we’d all get on the phone with each other during the day and talk about the games and we’d talk about Whenever Sloan is on tour, Scott packs his hockey gear. On Sloan’s how we make lines and defence combinations. most recent tour, he played drop-in hockey prior to shows in Minneapolis, Boston and Detroit. The stars “There’s a common, unspoken language that makes for a welcome Jon Gallant, bassist, environment,” says Scott of those games.

“He’s got a good feisty side, which is great,” says singer/songwriter The Hunter Brothers Barney Bentall. How deep are the Shaunavon, Saskatchewan-raised brothers’ ties to Gallant grew up playing hockey in Mississauga and was enamoured with hockey? Three of them played professionally before turning to music. the Leafs teams of the early ’90s. As kids, the five brothers weren’t allowed to play hockey in their backyard “It felt like they were going to win it all, until Kerry Fraser,” says Gallant of rink until each of them had finished their piano lessons. the 1992-93 Leafs. “We’ve had the opportunity to live a couple of different lives growing up Gallant wanted to be a professional hockey player until he started playing on the Prairies,” says J.J Hunter. bass. Billy Talent’s rise in the mid-2000s saw the band spend much of its time on the road. But Gallant never stopped watching the Leafs. He Luke Hunter spent five seasons with the WHL’s remembers running an internet wire from a venue in Europe into their and one season with the CHL’s . Dustin Hunter played tour bus to watch the Leafs play the Boston Bruins in the first round of one season with the ’s Oklahoma City Blazers the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs. and the San Angelo Saints. J.J. spent seven seasons bouncing between the ECHL and the AHL. Gallant has since played in six Juno Cups. “We had pursued hockey with such vigour and passion for so many Growing up, Roberts was always shorter than his peers. He emulated his years,” says J.J. “We always wondered what would happen if we had to game after smallish forward such as Mats Naslund of the Canadiens. put the same effort into the music.” “That’s survival,” Roberts says of his shifty style. “It’s hard to go toe-to- They released their first record in 2017 and were nominated for their first toe with these goons out there when you’re 150 pounds, soaking wet. I in 2020. They were set to play in their first Juno Cup this had to learn to be evasive from the beginning.” year, before its cancellation. He’s played in a handful of Juno Cups, and remembers his first ever “There’s still days that you wonder, ‘What would’ve happened if we’d face-off against the NHL’s all-time leader in penalty minutes, Tiger continued on for a few years,’” says J.J. of his hockey career. “But now, Williams. with where things are at, you wouldn’t trade it for anything.” “He head-butted me,” recalls Roberts. “I went down to my knees. I wore Devin Cuddy, singer/songwriter that as a badge of honour for a while, that I was treated like so many of his rivals.” “An insanely good hockey player,” says Scott. “He’s the only (musician), along with (Chad Brownlee), that just looks like a hockey player.” Roberts, an “over the top” Canadiens fan, regularly takes his three children out to play in local rinks. “He’s so fast and he’s long. He plays like (Evgeni Malkin). He can keep the puck away from you,” says Gallant. “I basically want to be like a Brendan Gallagher-style player. I am pretty chippy for a small guy, like I don’t mind going in and getting in the mix “He just feels like he’s flying out there,” says DeRosier. too,” he says.

Devin began playing in Toronto’s Leaside neighbourhood when he was Roberts is then informed he’s been deemed by his peers to be Canada’s 10. While some musicians stopped playing the game at various points in best hockey-playing musician. their lives, Cuddy never did. He played on his high school teams and has since taken over the Monday morning game at Bill Bolton Arena, inviting “I’m glad that the hundred bucks that I spread around in $5 increments other musicians out to play. amongst my musician friends is finally paying dividends,” says Roberts, laughing. “And just sort of growing the legend.” “I wouldn’t say that I’m very fast, but maybe faster than some in the music community. But I have a long reach,” says Cuddy. The Athletic LOADED: 04.06.2020

He’s played in eight Juno Cups and enjoys meeting musicians he never would have connected with otherwise.

“I would never play a show with (Halifax rapper) Classified, but we played on the same line, which was great,” he says.

Gord Downie, lead singer, The Tragically Hip

“A classic stand-up goalie like (former Boston Bruin) Gilles Gilbert. “But he would paste his stomach to the ice if he had to get across to make a save,” says Bidini of the late Hip frontman.

“He’s so laid back, but as it happens to so many people, you take on a completely different persona,” says Roberts, who added that Downie gave him the title of his second record, Chemical City, while the two were tying up their skates together before a game.

“He just took it so goddamn seriously. He was inconsolable if he lost. He wouldn’t talk in the car or the dressing room,” says Bidini.

No conversation about music and hockey in Canada is complete without mentioning Downie. The greatest Canadian musician of the past 30 years wrote frequently about hockey, including “50 Mission Cap,” “Fireworks” and “The Lonely End of the Rink.”

Downie regularly played in Toronto even at the height of the band’s popularity in the late ’90s.

After Downie died on Oct. 17, 2017, he’s still remembered for helping bring music and sports together through his songwriting.

“He sings about hockey and writes poetry often from the perspective of that small town hockey guy. And he realizes that you can tend to group that type of jock guy into this homogenous group of hockey bros. But Gord had a way of like singing from that point of view and realizing that (hockey) is part of a deep well of a Canadian identity and it’s a thing worth exploring,” says Lalonde of Born Ruffians.

Sam Roberts, singer/songwriter

No other musician drew as much praise from his peers for his hockey skills as Roberts.

“He’s my type of player. He’s a heads-up, good skater who knows how to see the ice like a real team player,” says Versteeg.

“He’s one of those Quebec guys that probably spent their whole youth on outdoor rinks. So quick and speedy,” says Bentall.

“One of the best,” adds Devin Cuddy. “Tenacious. When you’re small, you’ve got to be tenacious, right?”

The Montreal-born Roberts began playing hockey at the age of three. His parents were from South Africa, making Roberts “literally the first hockey player in the history of my family.” 1173333 Vegas Golden Knights

Golden Knights to provide meals to local health care workers

By David Schoen

April 5, 2020 - 3:01 PM

Updated April 5, 2020 - 3:04 PM

The Golden Knights will donate meals to doctors, nurses and employees at local hospitals who are working during the coronavirus pandemic, the team announced Sunday.

More than 7,500 meals will be provided through the initiative made possible by donations from the Vegas Golden Knights Foundation and select players and staff.

“Medical professionals throughout Las Vegas are battling this virus on the frontlines in an effort to keep our families and community safe. They are true examples of what it means to be a Knight,” Vegas Golden Knights Foundation president Kim Frank said in a statement. “We’re proud to show our support for those working in health care across the Las Vegas Valley by providing thousands of meals over the coming weeks.”

Starting Monday, the Knights will provide 300 meals a day, five days a week, to preselected partner local hospitals for the next five weeks. All meals will be made by local chefs from MacKenzie River Pizza, located inside City National Arena.

Among those who made donations were forward William Karlsson, defenseman Jon Merrill and defenseman Deryk Engelland.

LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173334 Vegas Golden Knights

McNabb hopeful Golden Knights will get chance to ‘compete for a Stanley Cup’

By Justin Emerson

Sunday, April 5, 2020 | 2 a.m.

The Golden Knights were at their hotel on March 12 in Minnesota when they found out they wouldn’t be playing their game that night. The NHL was putting the season on pause, a decision that came down last month but feels like a lifetime ago.

Players were told to go home and await further instructions. First, a league-mandated self-quarantine lasted until March 27, then it was extended until April 6, and now it sits at April 15.

That’s the soonest team facilities could open, but it would surprise no one if the date is pushed back again.

So players have some time on their hands. Some Golden Knights like Nate Schmidt and Alex Tuch have been active on their Instagram accounts, while Marc-Andre Fleury showed his face through a league- hosted Zoom chat with the media.

All have come up with different ways to occupy their time while they wait for word of hockey’s return, including defenseman Brayden McNabb, whom Las Vegas Sun spoke with as he holed up in his local home.

First off Brayden, how are you doing? Keeping busy?

I’m doing alright. A little bored. Miss my teammates. I don’t know, it’s definitely a weird, weird thing but trying to keep busy with working out and going for a lot of walks and hikes with the dogs. It’s been OK, I guess.

What’s the home gym setup like? I’m sure the facilities aren’t like City National Arena.

I’ve got a bench, dumbbells, and medicine balls and I’ve got a bike so I’ve got a lot of the things that I need, so it’s not terrible. It’s enough to keep me in shape, that’s for sure.

The league has extended the players’ self-quarantine date through April 15. Are you in the same spot the rest of us are, just waiting for news?

Exactly. We don’t know much until it’s brought out and the league says something about it. We have no inside intel or anything. I wish we did, but we don’t, so we’re kind of just waiting.

Are you still hopeful that there’s going to be hockey played in some way, shape or form this season?

Yeah, 100 percent. We put ourselves in a good position. We went through a lot of adversity this year. We worked hard to put ourselves in a good situation and I like our team. We like our team and know what we have. We want to get back playing and compete for a Stanley Cup this year.

You guys in particular were on top of the Pacific Division, playing some of your best hockey before the season paused. I imagine that adds to the frustration, right?

We were getting to our peak for sure. We were playing the right way, we had guys stepping up in certain situations. It’s tough to stop in the middle of that, but everyone’s doing it. When we get back playing, we’ll all be in the same boat.

LAS VEGAS SUN LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173335 Vegas Golden Knights are. My family and I hope that these contributions not only help those in need, but also inspire others who are in fortunate positions to step up and find ways to help too. We can’t wait to see the employees and our fans again soon.” ‘What it means to be a Knight’: Vegas provides meals, support for hospital staff The Golden Knights were initially one of the last NHL teams to announce they would compensate arena employees, but in the last week the team has stepped up in a major way to help Las Vegas through this tough time. From arena employees to residents struggling to find groceries and By Jesse Granger Apr 5, 2020 medical workers needing protective equipment, the organization has found a way to help them all.

The Golden Knights will provide more than 7,500 meals to doctors, “Knights are the epitome of the warrior class,” Foley said in the release. nurses and employees at local hospitals in Las Vegas, the team “Our foundational principles are centered on helping people in need and announced Sunday. defending those who cannot defend themselves. Make no mistake, these are uncertain and challenging times, especially here in the great city of The initiative was made possible by donations from the Vegas Golden Las Vegas. But we are all in this together and we will all persevere Knights Foundation, and players including William Karlsson, Deryk together. We hope these contributions can have a positive impact on Engelland and Jon Merrill. many of the staff and their families who are affected. We want to do our part.” “Medical professionals throughout Las Vegas are battling this virus on the front lines in an effort to keep our families and community safe. They The Athletic LOADED: 04.06.2020 are true examples of what it means to be a Knight,” foundation president Kim Frank said in a news release. “We’re proud to show our support for those working in health care across the Las Vegas Valley by providing thousands of meals over the coming weeks.”

The team will be providing 300 meals a day, five days a week, to preselected partner local hospitals for the next five weeks, starting Monday. The meals will be prepared by local chefs from MacKenzie River, which is the restaurant inside the Golden Knights practice facility, City National Arena.

The announcement comes only two days after owner Bill Foley’s pledge to donate $1 million to the Nevada COVID-19 Response, Relief and Recovery Task Force.

Foley and the Golden Knights Foundation made the donation to help purchase personal protective equipment such as surgical masks, N95- equivalent CDC-approved respirator masks, gloves and gowns for medical personnel as well as supporting other initiatives in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Nevada.

“We are all in this fight together,” the team said in a news release. “We are beyond grateful for the tireless efforts, courage and compassion that the entire medical community has demonstrated during these challenging times. These contributions will especially support those medical workers on the front lines battling the pandemic here in Nevada. They are true everyday heroes. And just like they support us, we want to support them.”

The Golden Knights aren’t the only ones pitching in to help the city. The NFL’s Raiders, and owner Mark Davis, also donated $1 million to the task force. The UFC, which is headquartered in Las Vegas, made a contribution as well.

Outside of pro sports, major donations were also made by casino executives like the Fertitta Family Foundation, Elaine P. Wynn and Family Foundation, and the Murren Family Foundation, among others.

As of Friday, the Nevada COVID-19 Task Force announced significant progress in its initial efforts, having raised more than $10 million.

The Golden Knights have also helped Las Vegas residents purchase household items that have been challenging to find through their partnership with Lifeguard Supplies. Nevada residents were able to order items such as toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, tissues, disinfectant spray, miscellaneous cleaning products and to-go food packaging at www.lifeguard4nv.com, then pick the supplies up at City National Arena.

Other players have donated money to help pay T-Mobile Arena employees during the NHL stoppage. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury led the way with a $100,000 donation himself, and the team as a whole has pledged a minimum of $500,000 to assist part-time game day employees and arena hourly on-call staff who were previously scheduled to work the remaining Golden Knights home games through the end of the NHL’s regular season.

“A big part of what makes the Vegas Golden Knights game day experience so memorable is the staff working behind the scenes,” Fleury said in a news release. “As players we truly appreciate all the employees who work so hard in making The Fortress the best place to play in the NHL. They are just as much a part of the Las Vegas community as we 1173336 Washington Capitals for how much, Ovechkin would sign an extension. But not the way things are tracking right now.

The suspended season could affect Ovechkin’s individual milestone Suspended season adds to uncertainty about Capitals' offseason plans, pursuits — the potential loss of 13 regular-season games with which to championship window chase Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record — but consider the Capitals’ team goals as well. If the NHL can’t come back and complete the 2019-20 season and award a Stanley Cup, the Capitals’ current championship window would become one year narrower, through no fault By Adam Zielonka - The Washington Times - Sunday, April 5, 2020 of their own.

The core of Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson, T.J. Oshie and For general manager Brian MacLellan and the Washington Capitals, it’s a other top players won’t last forever; Backstrom and Carlson recently foggy future ahead. signed long-term deals, but all four of those stars are 30 years or older and will eventually slow down. On a conference call with reporters last week, MacLellan was asked how difficult it was to plan for the offseason with the lingering possibility that Backstrom recently told reporters that he had liked Washington’s the NHL season does not resume due to the coronavirus pandemic. chances this year, before sports were shut down. The Capitals (41-20-8, 90 points) held a one-point lead in the Metropolitan Division when play He ran down the list of questions with unknowable answers: “What stopped. happens to the cap? Does the cap go down because revenues are going to decrease? Do they artificially keep it where it’s at? So, the answer to “No one knows what’s gonna happen,” Backstrom said. “You obviously those questions puts us on pause on your UFA (unrestricted free agent) know the salary cap’s situation gonna be different for every year. I feel negotiations. How do we proceed given both those scenarios?” like we got a great core group here, it’s been here a long time and hopefully we can keep it the same because we’ve been through it. We He turned to the draft, which was postponed indefinitely. won before and you want to do it again. That’s how our mindset is all the time. Hopefully we can keep the same.” “As far as the draft, we talk on how we’re going to have meetings, the possibility of meetings to put the list together,” MacLellan said. “How do Washington Times LOADED: 04.06.2020 we keep our guys engaged? With the combine being canceled, can we do some phone interviews? What can we do on the video side of it?”

Hockey isn’t the most important concern as the world comes to grips with a deadly pandemic. But for MacLellan, these are business concerns, his version of working from home.

Playing out some scenarios illuminates just how different things could be the next time we see the Capitals on the ice. For one, if the remainder of the season is called off and the NHL doesn’t hold a postseason in any form, it all but ensures we’ve seen the last of Braden Holtby in a Capitals uniform.

It would mark an unceremonious goodbye perhaps unbefitting of the Stanley Cup-winning goaltender. But the fact is, Holtby’s contract is up at the end of the season and 22-year-old Ilya Samsonov, in a limited sample size of 22 starts, looked much stronger than Holtby did throughout the season.

As a veteran with a good track record, Holtby will command a big price on the open market to become some other team’s No. 1, and Washington is too hard up against the salary cap to give him that sort of contract. In terms of planning for the future, Samsonov is the Capitals’ obvious No. 1.

But wait. What is going to happen with NHL players’ contracts, exactly, if the season does eventually resume?

Contracts typically expire July 1, opening the free agency period. But if the NHL does resume its season during the summer and hockey is actually being played on July 1, the league can’t have players like Holtby swapping teams yet. MacLellan said that in a call with the league, NHL representatives indicated they’d want contracts to be extended until August — or whenever the Stanley Cup Final actually concludes — but the NHLPA would need to sign off on that before it’s codified.

So if the season resumed, in whatever format the league settles on, it’s safe to assume the Capitals would have their 2019-20 roster back. Planning for the future is the bigger question.

The NHL postponed its scouting combine and draft, which were set for June. It’s undecided when they would be held relative to the end of the season. Some trades that included draft picks had conditions pertaining to playoff finish: When the Capitals acquired defenseman Brenden Dillon, for instance, it was on the condition that if Washington won the Stanley Cup, the 2021 third-round pick it was sending San Jose would instead turn into a 2020 third-rounder.

How will that be handled by the league? As with many things, it’s too early to tell.

July 1 also would have marked the first day that Alex Ovechkin could sign a contract extension with Washington. Though no one in their right mind believes Ovechkin won’t spend his entire career a Capital, there would have been some daily intrigue over the summer about when, and 1173337 Washington Capitals

Tom Wilson thanks healthcare workers, reflects on Caps' season in Instagram post

By Ethan Cadeaux April 05, 2020 5:08 PM

Saturday, April 5, was supposed to be the Capitals 2019-20 regular season finale.

But due to the coronavirus pandemic, the NHL has been suspended since mid-March. There's nothing but uncertainty ahead.

For Capitals forward Tom Wilson, being at home on Saturday night instead of taking the ice for the team's season finale resonated with him. Wilson took to Instagram to post a reflective photo, calling it a privilege to wear the Capitals uniform and thanking everyone that is doing a part to help combat the spread of the virus.

"Feels weird to think our last regular season game would have been played last night," Wilson wrote. "With the future uncertain, it is sometimes nice to reflect. It is a privilege to wear this jersey every night we play. I hope everyone is staying safe and thank you to everyone who is working so hard to keep us safe."

Wilson has been using his unexpected off time to give back to the community. Earlier this week, Wilson delivered an inspirational message and sent gifts to Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic to help children going through unforeseen changes due to the pandemic.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173338 Websites “We do some skill sessions and I see his skill and try to do it, but it doesn’t really work out,” Tkachuk said.

Dylan Larkin is usually the Red Wing tasked with facing off against Sportsnet.ca / Quick Shifts: Maple Leafs will face tricky Nick Robertson Tavares. decision “It seems like you can never break him. His intensity and his drive out there, he never gives up, and it’s one thing I admire about him,” Larkin said. “He’s definitely the rock of a team that has a lot of skill, but he plays Luke Fox April 4, 2020, 8:12 AM the right way and leads in that department.”

3. Have 24 minutes to kill? (Yes, you do.)

A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious I thoroughly enjoyed the dual interview GQ set up with Wayne Gretzky and less so, and rolling four lines deep. Zoom is making all the hockey- and Connor McDavid (watch below). Three highlights: related revenue these days. On Edmonton… 1. Nick Robertson could find himself in a tricky spot when 2020-21 is ready to roll. McDavid: “What’s it like to win there?”

The prized Toronto Maple Leafs prospect will be 19 by October. He’ll be Gretzky: “Oh, wow. Well, we created a job for the guy who carries around too young to join the AHL Marlies. At five-foot-nine and 164 pounds, he’ll the Stanley Cup.” perhaps be too slight to make the leap all the way to the NHL — and On the Olympics… swiping a roster spot from one the club’s established top-nine wingers is no easy task. Gretzky: “It would be something you would never, ever forget.”

Yet how much would a fourth OHL season improve his development? McDavid: “I’m dying to play, for sure.” Robertson dominated the junior circuit with a 55-goal, 86-point showing in 46 games for the Peterborough Petes. Gretzky: “Hear that, everyone.”

In retrospect, GM Kyle Dubas might’ve underestimated the second- On getting checked… rounder’s readiness and buried him too far down the pecking order at the McDavid: “Now they’re starting to do the shadowing, which I’m sure you Leafs’ 2019 camp. got a lot of. Which is the dumbest thing ever. It’s not a lot of fun to deal “Looking back and reflecting on it, I think we probably should’ve given with.” him more of a look in training camp and probably rewarded him with an Gretzky: “It should be an automatic penalty soon as the guy’s standing exhibition game or two to see how he did there,” Dubas said Tuesday. beside you.” “But he went back to Peterborough, he had a great attitude, and he was an excellent player for them right away. McDavid: “The coach should get kicked out.”

“It’s disappointing, of course, that he won’t be able to see how far he Gretzky: “It’s the dumbest thing in hockey. I used to hate it, but you’re too could have run it up in regard to chasing 60 goals, but he’s one of the fast for any of those guys. I don’t know who’s gonna shadow you.” more focused and hardworking prospects that I’ve seen in my time in hockey. I think he knows the areas that he needs to continue to work on. 4. Selfishly, an upside of this paused season is that interviews with He’s got a great read on that.” hockey players have become more varied, more human. Questions around last night’s power play or tomorrow’s big tilt have disappeared, Robertson is back home in California, dedicating this extra-long summer opening space for more personality-based interviews. to weight gain, strength training and boosting his acceleration with the hopes of hanging with the pros. Capitals star Nicklas Backstrom held court over video conference this week and happily reported that he and fiancée Liza Berg had just While he has arrived with less fanfare and expectations, Robertson could returned from the hospital with their third bundle of joy, baby Alizee. He find himself in a similar situation as Mitch Marner did in 2016: undeniable left struck by all the good work nurses and doctors are doing. talent packaged in a frame so small that there is real risk of getting injured trying to offence while weaving around towering “Without them, this is going to take a lot longer,” Backstrom said. defencemen. “I mean, they’re sacrificing themselves for others, which is probably the “The part of his game that I think that we really came to admire during the nicest thing a human being can do. God bless them.” season was his play on the defensive side and, especially on the penalty Backstrom has been texting back and forth with Nationals star Ryan kill, his ability to win the puck back and then tear down the ice and Zimmerman over this break and staying active with runs, bike rides, produce chances and scoring for the Petes,” Dubas said. baseball and hopping in the pool with his children.

Marner made the jump out of juniors at 19, put up 61 points as a small “Me, personally I can’t sit around too long. My kids can’t either,” teenager and never glanced back at the O. That’s the challenge being Backstrom said. “I know Zoom, as a business, is probably doing good.” thrown at the feet of Robertson. A lofty blueprint to match. Backstrom gets a chuckle at the Instagram stickhandlers out there — “I think come training camp we’ll give him every opportunity to potentially “That’s not the same,” he said — and believes a mini training camp with make the team and put the ball in his court and see what he can do in in a couple exhibition games would be necessary before a return to action. the fall,” Dubas said. Despite the uncertainty of staying in shape without an end goal, the star 2. Inside the pressure cooker that is Toronto, new captain John Tavares playmaker definitely wants playoffs — even if that means waiting until has faced some criticism for failing to live up to the high standard he set August. in his first year as a Leaf. “You want to have a champion this year if possible,” Backstrom said. In 2018-19, Tavares was healthy for all 82 games and centred one of the “The best-case scenario would be to finish the season.” league’s most dominant trios with Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman. The result was a career-best 47 goals, 88 points and plus-19 rating. A lofty 5. Backstrom negotiated his own contract extension in-season and will bar. get a well-deserved bump from a $6.7 million AAV to $9.2 million in the fall. This season, he’s had to battle through a broken finger and a juggling of wingers. Still, he was tracking for a 31-goal, 71-point season with seven But Capitals GM Brian MacLellan said on a conference call Monday that missed games. he now finds himself in a holding pattern that makes it difficult to work plot a course for all his UFAs still unsigned: Ilya Kovalchuk, Radko It was refreshing, then, to hear how his young competitors view him. Gudas, Brenden Dillon and Braden Holtby. Brady Tkachuk has skated with Tavares in the summer and is blown away with his “no-days off” work ethic. The likelihood of a flattened salary cap will be particularly challenging to “There was one game we faced off against each other, like, 20 times, MacLellan considering Washington has already committed more than and he asked me to fight 20 times,” Wheeler said. “Third period of a tied $71 million in salary for 2020-21 and was banking on a raised ceiling. game, whatever: ‘We goin’?’”

“We talk over all the possible scenarios and you try to prepare mentally 9. Sadly, Nazem Kadri did not nail this chip on the first attempt. for anything. What happens to the cap? Does the cap go down because revenues are going to decrease? Do they artificially keep it where it’s at? “I was in the basement for hours trying that shot, and I finally nailed it So, the answer to those questions puts us on pause on your UFA and was pretty proud of myself,” Kadri confessed on Good Show on negotiations,” MacLellan said. Friday.

“If we did (play) through August, could we have a couple of months off We appreciate the honesty, but sometimes you don’t want to hear how and then start back up in November? What do they do with that cap the sausage gets made. number? I think there are so many questions that we haven’t even 10. Sad thought: What if Zdeno Chara has played his last NHL game and considered that’ll pop up given whatever the result is at the end of this.” no one knows it?

Backstrom confessed he actually forgot the Capitals were leading the Not that Big Z has suggested retirement, but he does not have a contract Metropolitan Division at the pause. He made a pitch Wednesday to for next season, and the Bruins’ UFA priority has to be the younger Torey maintain the core intact because he likes their chances of hoisting a Krug. second Cup. He’d love to see Holtby re-sign. The oldest man in the league put up an assist and helped shut out the 6. John Chayka, who’s been generous in these difficult times, spoke to Philadelphia Flyers on March 10, logging a mellow 23:49 of ice time NHL.com this week about his very preliminary contract extension talks against one of the hottest clubs in hockey. with Taylor Hall. One week later, Chara “celebrated” his 43rd birthday by packing up his Outside of the rink, the Coyotes GM is hoping Hall has fallen for family and driving 24 hours south from Boston to their place in a gated Phoenix’s great weather and the city’s affordability. Florida community. Why? Warmer weather for the kids to run around “That was our bet when we acquired Taylor,” Chayka told Jon Lane. “I outside. A private pool and a gym to keep in tip-top shape. think he’s enjoyed living here and enjoyed playing with our team. He’s “So, not really big celebrations,” Chara says. “You reach a certain age, always wanted to be in a playoff hunt and have a chance to compete for you try to hide it.” a Stanley Cup. We feel like we’ve got that here, and not just this year but every year moving forward. 11. I love the creativity that has sprung out of this stagnant state (and I’m not just talking about the Toosie Slide). “We can be a real top destination for any player in the league.” NHL players and teams have drummed up some fun. The Maple Leafs Chayka’s negotiations with Hall’s agent, Darren Ferris, won’t plunge into created Zoom backdrops for fans to use. the nitty-gritty of exchanging numbers and salary structures until the economic landscape of the NHL becomes clear. The reached back and retweeted their original in- game tweets during a broadcast of their classic 2011 Game 7 overtime “It’s tough to do any business of that magnitude,” Chayka said. “Taylor match versus the Blackhawks. knows what we think of him as a person, as a player, and at the right time we’ll maybe look to move forward on those discussions. But And the Edmonton Oilers brilliantly found a Simpsons image to match anything right now is probably on the back burner, realistically.” every NHL club. Great stuff:

7. “Tootka” Rask, a strong Vezina candidate, is tempering expectations 12. So, Dylan Larkin, now that you’re cooped up with your girlfriend and that he might retire after his current contract ends in July of 2021. your dog and have some time on your hands, can we expect a sequel to your legendary “D-Boss Shooting Pucks in the Basement” video? Rask can begin negotiating an extension with general manager Don Sweeney as early as this off-season. “Might come,” Larkin teased. “I got a little shooting area in the garage — the Dungeon 2.0. So, I might have to get out there and make a video. “I’m sure we’re going to have good conversations with (Sweeney) after Fans might like it, so we’ll see.” this season and go from there,” Rask said on WEEI 93.7 FM’s The Greg Hill Show Tuesday. “But I’m only 34 (when my deal expires), so it’s not Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 04.06.2020 too old. So, I might play another year or two and then go from there.

“But I don’t want to promise anything either way because you never know what’s going to happen.”

It’s worth noting that the Bruins’ two greatest cap hits — Rask ($7 million) and David Krejci ($7.25 million) — are set to come off the books at the same time.

Marc-Andre Fleury inked a three-year, $21-million extension with Vegas around the same age Rask will be, so that might provide a ballpark for negotiations.

8. Blake Wheeler and wife Sam don’t have time to get bored. Their days are packed with homeschooling three young children and breaking up squabbles between Louis, 7, Leni, 4, and Mace, 2.

“It’s a full day job, and I’m more tired now than I was a few weeks ago,” the Jets captain sighed on a Zoom call with Central Division leaders. “We get ’em all down by typically 8 on a good night, and then there’s a half- hour of just numbness. Our wine collection’s getting low, so… yeah.”

Fellow dad Zach Parise said he and his wife started cracking a bottle at 5 p.m. the other day.

“Five o’clock cocktail hour? That’s actually pretty impressive,” Wheeler countered. “Our’s is starting to creep into the threes.”

The candid Wheeler also let us into his love-hate relationship with rival Jamie Benn. The two finally met off-ice last summer and shared “a couple laughs and a couple of cold ones,” but the possibility of an on-ice throwdown remains. Largely because Benn keeps asking to drop the gloves. 1173339 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / NHL HOFer Paul Coffey on current game: 'I wish there was more hitting'

Jordan Horrobin | April 5, 2020, 7:25 PM

Hall of Fame defenceman Paul Coffey has been asked the same question many times before: How many goals would he score in today’s NHL?

“My answer is, I think I could probably get 15 to 20 goals,” said Coffey, who set the single-season record as a defenceman with 48 goals in 1985-86. “And people always look a little bit surprised.

“And I say, ‘Well, I’m 58 years old.'”

Jokes aside, Coffey opted not to reveal how he’d fare if his career had aligned with the current era — though he did acknowledge he’s a “huge fan” of today’s game.

Still, during his recent appearance on Writers Bloc, the legendary blue- liner weighed in on one thing he’d like to change about the modern-day NHL.

“I wish there was more hitting,” Coffey said.

“I wasn’t a hitter, but I’ll tell you what, if I had my proverbial head up my rear-end one game and I wasn’t into it and somebody hit me, it certainly woke me up real fast. I think that part of the game is gone.”

Writers Bloc

April 2: Paul Coffey Joins The Show

April 02 2020

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Coffey, who amassed over 1,500 points in a 21-year career, likened the speed of today’s game to a highway without traffic. He believes inserting more roadblocks — in the form of physicality — could make the action more interesting.

“The real players come out to play, the real players know how to think in traffic,” said Coffey, who referenced Mario Lemieux’s ability to score while being hooked or held by multiple defenders.

The current NHL season is in an uncertain spot due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced a stoppage more than three weeks ago. Under normal circumstances, this would be the time of year when the regular season ends and the stakes skyrocket.

And when that happens, Coffey knows the players turn up their physicality.

“Usually the first week of April (and) that first round of the playoffs is absolutely fantastic,” Coffee said. “Those guys play for keeps.”

Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173340 Websites Castonguay said Lafrenière has worked hard to build himself into “an all- around player,” and you can see that progression by looking back at his junior career with the Oceanic.

Sportsnet.ca / Agent Emilie Castonguay on what separates Alexis Lafrenière’s first year playing major junior hockey (2017-18) brought CHL Lafrenière from the rest rookie-of-the-year honours thanks to a 42-goal, 80-point campaign that saw him finish ninth in league scoring and second among rookies behind Filip Zadina. He surpassed the 100-point plateau one year later, tallying 37 goals, 68 assists, and 105 points while being named the CHL’s Player Emily Sadler | April 5, 2020, 10:32 AM of the Year. He’s worthy of that title again this year, finishing the shortened season with 35 goals and a league-leading 77 assists and 112 points through 52 games played. Watching Alexis Lafrenière hit the ice, there’s a lot that stands out about his game. The prospect we see today is a much more physical player than the one drafted first overall to Rimouski in 2017, unafraid to drive hard to the net For Emilie Castonguay, two qualities top the list and separate him from and battle for the puck in the dirty areas. the rest of the 2020 prospect class: “He’s becoming a very complete player which, to me, is another sign of “His compete level. And his I.Q.,” she told Sportsnet earlier this year. As just his passion for the game and dedication to it and his desire to always Lafrenière’s agent, Castonguay knows the top prospect better than most, want to get better,” said Castonguay. helping guide the highly touted franchise talent through a crucial draft year. He’d have finished with even more points, but the league was forced to shut down for the season upon the completion of 572 of its 613 games, “I think he makes players around him so much better. He would due to the pandemic. anticipate plays that would always lead to scoring chances no matter what,” she said, thinking back to the early days of watching him play. “I Lafrenière’s elite playmaking was on full display on the international think that was a big thing, for us, that we saw very early on … his I.Q. stage this past winter as the Team Canada star led his nation to gold in and his compete level were what stood out the most with him.” Ostrava, Cze., with four goals and six assists — including two helpers in the gold medal game — for 10 points through five games. Hockey fans hooked on the highlights coming out of Quebec over the course of his three-year QMJHL career with the Rimouski Oceanic have “He likes to be in big games, he likes to be counted on in big moments seen how quickly he can change the pace of a game, finding his and he’s been able to perform in big moments and I think that’s because teammates in almost any situation and creating scoring chances he’s got such composure and a confidence in himself – like a quiet seemingly out of thin air. confidence, in a way,” said Castonguay. “He’s not cocky, he just has a very quiet confidence and he lets his talent speak on the ice.” “When you have a player like that, it makes everybody around him better. Just the way that he’s able to see the game,” said Castonguay, who also That attitude makes him popular among his teammates. serves as Momentum Hockey’s director of legal affairs & hockey “Guys love him. He’s a great teammate. He gets into the zone once he’s operations. “For me, when I look at a player – especially of his talent – on the ice but he’s kind of a relaxed guy off the ice, likes to have fun, the first thing you notice is every time he’s on the ice or every time he likes to be with his teammates, doesn’t take himself too seriously,” said touches the puck, the game just slows down. There’s not a lot of players Castonguay. “And the fact that he’s able to do that tells me that he’s able that are able to do that. Since he was very young, every time he’s been to handle pressure.” on the ice at every level, that’s what he’s been able to do. And just the fact that he’s able to do it at every level that he goes up, to me, kind of As for his compete level, Castonguay says the 18-year-old comes by that makes him part of that conversation as a franchise player or a honestly. generational talent, if you want. “He gets it from his parents. He’s got such a compete level – like, the kid “I think time will tell that tale. I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll be able hates to lose. You meet his family and they’re all the same, so to do that in the pros and be a franchise player for whoever is lucky competitive,” she said, adding that the competition even ramps up during enough to draft him.” a game of cards or a family softball game. “He’s been brought up that way and I think it’s going to help him at every level.” As things stand now, the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators have the best odds to be the team to call his name. The race to the bottom is Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 04.06.2020 at a standstill, with the league suspended amid the COVID-19 pandemic and putting the fate of the 2019-20 in flux. The last-place Red Wings currently have an 18.5 per cent chance of landing the top selection and are certainly crossing their fingers for a reunion between Lafrenière and his Team Canada teammate (and 2018 first-rounder) Joe Veleno in Detroit.

“For sure, it would be really fun to play with him,” Lafrenière told reporters during a conference call last week when asked about the possibility of playing alongside Veleno in the NHL. “I know it’s a great organization.”

The Ottawa Senators, meanwhile, should be pretty excited about their odds considering they’ve got two shots at the No. 1 selection: their own, from their current 30th-place position (13.5 per cent chance), as well as the pick belonging to the 29th-place San Jose Sharks from the Erik Karlsson trade in 2018 (11.5 per cent). Combined, that’s a 25 per cent shot at landing the franchise winger, and it would mean Lafrenière would be staying close to home, embarking on his NHL career just a two-hour drive away from his hometown of St. Eustache.

“It would be fun. It would be special for sure,” Lafrenière said. “It’s a great place to play, and they have a lot of good players, so it would be an honour for sure.”

Though Lafrenière has done everything he can to ensure he’s atop the draft board, he’ll need to wait a little longer to hear his name called. The league announced in late March that the draft, originally scheduled to run June 26-27 in Montreal, is postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 1173341 Websites in Edmonton, and close out an illustrious career with 363 goals and 735 points in 1,050 games.

Paul Coffey, traded Nov. 24 1987 Sportsnet.ca / Looking back at seven Oilers players whose departures , left as UFA, 1991 hurt the most Curtis Joseph, left as UFA, 1998

As a former small-market team that was next in line after the Quebec Mark Spector | April 5, 2020, 9:47 AM Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets headed south to Denver and Phoenix respectively, there is an entire category of players who left Edmonton and starred elsewhere simply because the Oilers couldn’t — or wouldn’t EDMONTON — “I promised Mess I wouldn’t do this.” — pay them any longer. In the Pocklington years, guys like Coffey and Andy Moog were the first to surmise that the team was making lots of Seven words that take any Oilers fan over the age of 40 immediately money but paying its players minimally. back to where they were that fateful summer day. Later on, when teams like the Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, That day — Aug. 9, 1988 — is to an adult Edmontonian what Nov. 22, Philadelphia Flyers and Rangers were spending $60 million in salaries to 1963 is to any ageing American. You know where you were and how you Edmonton’s $20-25 million, it was simply a case of watching players like found out that Wayne Gretzky had been traded, the same way (if not on Joseph, Weight and Bill Guerin go, and making the best trade you could the same magnitude) as Americans recall when and where they were when possible. when U.S. President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas. Coffey played only seven seasons (532 games) in Edmonton and won When Elvis died. When Henderson scored. When that ball rattled around three Cups before his salary demands got him traded to the Pittsburgh the rim from Kawhi. Penguins in a deal that brought back, among others. There have been copious hockey trades across our country. Big deals, Coffey would play 14 more seasons, win one more Cup with Pittsburgh, like the 10-man swap that landed Doug Gilmour in Toronto back in ’92. and win his third and final Norris Trophy as a Red Wing in 1994-95. But is there one trade that has inspired a quote still used today when a After winning an unexpected Cup as a member of (with star player gets moved? Gelinas and ) in 1990, Graves left for the Rangers as a UFA They don’t say, “Well, if Cam Neely can get traded…” in the summer of 1991. He won a Cup in ’94 with New York, scoring 50 goals that season. Fittingly, he potted No. 50 at Northlands Coliseum. They still say, even today, “Well, if Wayne Gretzky can get traded…” Curtis Joseph only spent two-and-a-half years as an Oiler, but was voted That’s where we start here in The Big E, when the topic is “the players the team’s MVP in both of his full seasons (1996-98). He made the save who got away.” on Joe Nieuwendyk that allowed for Todd Marchant’s winner in Game 7 at the Dallas Stars in ’97, and defeated Patrick Roy and the heavily Wayne Gretzky, sold Aug. 9, 1988 favoured in Round 1 the following year. Then he left To this day, Glen Sather will correct you. Gretzky wasn’t traded. “He was for a huge pay hike, and became a fan favourite in Toronto. sold,” said the then-Oilers general manager, who knew the day that , traded July 12, 2011 owner Peter Pocklington arranged a deal that saw owner Bruce McNall include a $15-million payment in the transaction, Cogliano was like so many Oilers first-rounders through the years: He that Sather’s days of winning Cups in Edmonton were coming to a close. joined an Oilers team that was so poor that he had no trouble making the roster — robbing him of precious developmental time in the minors. On that August day, Gretzky was traded along with Mike Krushelnyski When Cogliano arrived as a 24-goal man out of the University of and Marty McSorley in exchange for $15 million, Martin Gelinas, Jimmy Michigan and as the No. 25 pick in the ’05 draft, it was assumed he Carson and first-round picks in 1989, ’91 and ’93. (The ‘89 pick was would be a top-six centreman and an NHL points producer. traded to the New Jersey Devils for Corey Foster; the ’91 pick reaped Martin Rucinsky; the ’93 pick was Nick Stajduhar.) A few years into his career, it began to become clear what his true calling would be: I was in the Edmonton Journal sports department that day, just over a year into my tenure as a sports writer there. My assignment was to call “I remember having a meeting with (Edmonton coaches Tom Renney Walter Gretzky back at the Brantford homestead, and although he acted and Ralph Krueger) in training camp,” recalled Cogliano of his final camp as if he was being informed of the deal when we spoke, I’ve always as an Oiler, in 2010. “They said, ‘You can be a guy who checks really suspected that he already knew and was simply playing surprised. well … but you need to be more of a two-way player.’ That was the first year where I started figuring things out.” As for Gretzky, he would play another 11 NHL seasons (791 games) for L.A., the St. Louis Blues and the New York Rangers. Although he would He was dealt to the Anaheim Ducks after that season for a second-round reach the 1993 Stanley Cup Final, losing to the Montreal Canadiens, the pick (Marco Roy, who never played an NHL game), where he became a greatest player ever to lace ‘em up would not hoist a Stanley Cup in any third-line checking winger and premier penalty killer. Cogliano is currently other uniform but Edmonton’s. in his 13th NHL season, has played 1,012 games and had an Ironman streak of 830 games. While that Rangers team that won in ’94 included seven of the dynasty- era Oilers, Gretzky did not become a Blueshirt until 1996. The Rangers He’s been a very good depth player for a long, long time. made the playoffs in just one of his three seasons there. He retired in 1999. Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, lost in WHA expansion draft in 1979

Miroslav Satan, traded March 18, 1997 This one is old school.

If we were ranking the non-money related deals where the Oilers simply Gustafsson was a real coup for the World Hockey Association Oilers, gave up on a player who went on to have a great career, Miro Satan joining the team for three playoff games in the WHA’s final season. Head would easily top the list. coach Sather hoped to protect the skilled Swede through the coming expansion draft into the NHL, but the NHL declared him ineligible for The young Slovak showed up with a helluva surname back in 1995-96, protection because Oilers GM Larry Gordon had somehow missed a and would score 18 and 17 goals in his two seasons in Edmonton. We deadline to name his protected players. The Washington Capitals had know now that he should have been installed on ’s left side drafted Gustafsson in 1978, and thus got the player. in perpetuity, but back then head coach Ron Low saw a soft, not- competitive-enough, European skill guy who didn’t help enough when he Gustafsson would play 629 games for the Caps (196-359-555) with six didn’t have the puck. 20-goal seasons. When he returned to in 1989, the Oilers had won four Cups with their European-style of play, while Gustafsson had Sather traded Satan to the for a package made up of enjoyed just 18 career playoff games for the Capitals. Moore (eight NHL points in 39 games) and Craig Millar (22 points in 114 games.) Satan would go on to play 13 NHL seasons after his two How would he have looked on those skilled dynasty teams in Edmonton? Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173342 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Could North Dakota be an NHL location if 2019-20 season resumes?

Elliotte Friedman | April 5, 2020, 9:05 PM

Let’s preface this with the fact that, at this time, we’re all just guessing at return-to-play timelines — but the NHL and NHLPA are beginning to spitball scenarios as to where remaining 2019-20 regular-season/playoff games could be held.

One location that’s been mentioned: North Dakota.

Several sites would be necessary, but Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D., makes sense. Host of the 2005 World Junior Championships, the 2016 World Under-18s and the NCAA’s Fighting Hawks, it is an impressive facility that is definitely more suitable than many other available non-NHL options in the United States.

Obviously, nothing is imminent. Hotel availability in Grand Forks would be a challenge. We also don’t know about travel scenarios, necessary logistics, or if the state itself would be willing to host such an event. But the area makes sense because of the arena, the likelihood of games being played without fans and North Dakota’s relatively low population density (only Montana, Wyoming and Alaska have fewer people per square mile).

It is expected that the NHL and NHLPA will discuss other locales this week. It’s never wrong to explore your options, regardless of what eventually happens.

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix reported Friday that the NBA was considering putting all of its playoff games in Las Vegas. The Mirror reported Sunday there is a “tentative agreement” for the Premier League to return in June, with games played behind closed doors.

The league and players must agree on any return-to-play scenarios. The players are very concerned about the potential of 35 per cent escrow on future paycheques, and whether or not the NHL will consider allowing that to be paid over multiple years. (CBA discussions are believed to be taking place.)

Now, however, there is nothing but time to work on these issues.

Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173343 Websites The next year he shattered Leafs records with 127 points to lift Toronto to its first winning season in 14 years, taking them to the conference final were he had 35 points before taking a high stick from Wayne Gretzky in a Game 6, series-ending loss to the Los Angeles Kings. Sportsnet.ca / Looking back at five Flames players whose departures hurt the most He won the Selke Trophy that year, finished second to Mario Lemieux in Hart Trophy voting and was later named Leafs captain to kick-start a handful of years in which the Leafs were Cup contenders.

Eric Francis | April 5, 2020, 8:54 AM He later went on to become the captain in Chicago as part of a winding journey through the NHL that included 450 goals, almost 1,500 games, a

jersey retirement in Toronto and election into the Hockey Hall of Fame. CALGARY — Flames fans living in Calgary the last decade will never All the while, fans of the struggling Flames watched from afar — until forget the sting and sadness that came from seeing Jarome Iginla say Gilmour’s career ended in his first game back with the Leafs following a goodbye to the city. trade from Montreal in 2002. Ending a 17-year era in which he was undoubtedly the greatest Flames A collision with Dave Lowry at the Saddledome on Gilmour’s second shift player of all time, his departure in 2013 was one of those pit-in-your- tore his ACL. stomach-type endings. 3. Marc Savard Plenty of rumours had preceded the move and the logic was clear – it was time for him to move on, for everyone’s sake. Coates acquired Marc Savard from the Rangers in 1999 with an eye on having the former CHL scoring champ centre a line with Jarome Iginla Iginla’s departure was the latest in a long line of high-profile separations and Hnat Domenichelli. the Flames went through, starting in the early 90’s when the core of the Cup champs was gutted. Without the aid of a salary cap, the small- However, three years into a stint in Calgary — where he was on the market Flames couldn’t afford to keep the likes of Al MacInnis, Joe verge of becoming a point-per game player — coach Greg Gilbert and Nieuwendyk, Mike Vernon and Joe Mullen. Savard didn’t see eye-to-eye, causing a 2002 rift the two wound up playing out very publicly. Each one of those departures stung. Button chose to side with the coach and promised Savard he’d get him a But when looking at the five players who left Calgary that hurt the most, fresh start elsewhere, trading him to Atlanta for little-know Russian none of the aforementioned make the list. prospect Ruslan Zainullin. Instead, the list is populated by players who left Calgary and went on to Zainullin never played a game in North America and the situation got realize their ultimate potential elsewhere as Flames fans watched in even worse when Button wound up firing Gilbert just over two weeks horror: later. 5. J.S. Giguere Savard went on to be one of the NHL’s best playmakers over the next A first-round draft pick of the in 1995, the QMJHL star eight years, twice eclipsing 95 points, before concussions ended his was traded to Calgary with Andrew Cassels for Gary Roberts and Trevor career prematurely in Boston. Kidd. As great as Iginla’s career was in Calgary, many often wondered how The plan was for him to be the Flames’ future starter, but after four years much better he and the Flames could have been had he had a No. 1 in the organization — spent largely in the AHL — he was the first player centre to play with. to be shipped out by Craig Button after Al Coates was let go as GM. Savard could have — no, should have — been that player. With only 22 games of NHL experience in Calgary, it was determined the He most certainly could have come in handy in 2004 when the Flames man who was once a building block simply couldn’t elevate his game at fell one game short of the Stanley Cup. the highest level. St. Louis Blues legend Brett Hull (16) seen here with the team in 1997 His goalie coach, Francois Allaire, urged Anaheim to send Calgary a second rounder for J.S. Giguere. It was with the Mighty Ducks that 2. Brett Hull Giguere blossomed, becoming just the fifth (and most recent) player to earn the Conn Smythe Trophy despite losing in the Stanley Cup final in Coates said he’ll never forget the discussion the Flames management 2003. team had surrounding the possibility of trading ’s son, Brett.

Four years later he backstopped the Ducks to their first Stanley Cup “I was on a payphone in Flint, Mich., for three hours while (head coach) crown with the aid of a specialized water bottle that reduced air intake Bob Johnson, (GM) Cliff Fletcher and Al McNeil went around and around and cured his dehydration issues. on whether to make the move to trade Brett to acquire Wamsley and Ramage,” said Coates. All the while Flames fans watched with envy, as he went on to play almost 600 NHL games. “We voted and agreed to make the move. But one thing I won’t forget about that conversation: to a man, we agreed we were probably trading a 4. Doug Gilmour 40-goal guy. But Cliff made the move for the needs of the team and it paid off. Goals were easier to come by back then.” There’s absolutely no question of the importance Doug Gilmour played in the Flames’ Stanley Cup run in 1989. He brought plenty of character, grit A Flames sixth-round draft pick despite scoring 105 goals (in 57 games) and fire to a team that needed those intangibles to get over the hump. in Penticton, Hull scored 50 goals in 67 games as an AHL rookie alongside Gary Roberts and Brian Bradley. Not only that, they needed his skill. While Lanny McDonald often gets the credit for scoring the Cup clincher, it was, in fact, Gilmour’s first of two on The next year he had 26 goals and almost a point a game in 52 outings the night that secured the Cup at the Montreal Forum that night. with the Flames before the trigger was pulled on a deal both sides benefited from. “Killer” was named one of the team captains the following season before a contract dispute led him to walk out on the team on New Year’s Eve “On the right side we had (Lanny) McDonald, Loob, (Joe) Mullen and 1991. (Tim) Hunter — so, we had no room for him,” said Coates.

The next day he was traded to Toronto as part of a ten-player deal with “He would come up and play some games up and then go down. Fact is, Jamie Macoun, Kent Manderville, Rick Wamsley and Ric Nattress for the next year we won the Cup, and if we didn’t have defencemen the Gary Leeman, Craig Berube, Michel Petit, Alex Godynyuk and Jeff calibre of Ramage and the support of Wamsley we maybe don’t win.” Reese. As Coates points out, Gary Suter was injured late in the opening round, The deal changed the course of both franchises, as Gilmour took his prompting Ramage to switch sides and fill in on the second pairing with stellar two-way game to new heights in Toronto. Brad McCrimmon. Still, it got increasingly harder for Flames fans to swallow the deal down the road when Hull starting posting seasons of 70, 72 and 86 goals en route to a Hall of Fame career that included a Hart Trophy, 103 playoff goals and 741 in the regular season.

1. Martin St. Louis

It’s one thing to give up on a player, let him walk away for nothing and then watch him win a Hart Trophy and a Stanley Cup before being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

But it’s quite another thing to have him win the Cup at your expense — to steal it from your grasp in your own building.

That’s what St. Louis did a mere four years after he was bought out by the Flames shortly after he went unclaimed in the expansion draft.

Undrafted due to his size, St. Louis was a University of Vermont stud who still drew no NHL interest after leaving school as one of the most prolific collegians of his time. Coates signed the five-foot-eight winger in February 1998 after seeing him shine in the IHL, sending him to Saint John where he scored 26 points in 25 games before adding 20 more in a 20-game playoff run that ended two games short of a .

After two more years of dominating in the AHL but struggling in the bigs, Coates picked up the option year of St. Louis’ contract, only to be fired and have Button buy him out.

Signed by Tampa Bay, he proceeded to win two league scoring titles, three Lady Byngs, a Hart, a Lester B Pearson Award, World Cup of Hockey gold as well as Olympic gold as part of a career that saw him score more than 1,000 points and eclipse 1,000 games.

The real killer came in Game 6 of the 2004 Stanley Cup final when the six-time all-star scored in double overtime at the Saddledome to halt an epic Red Mile celebration, sending the series back to Tampa where the Lightning won 2-1.

Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173344 World Leagues News Ruth guided the Red Sox to the 1918 World Series over the Chicago Cubs, despite warnings against the series going ahead that September because of the risk of further infections. Baseball played shortened Coronavirus in sport echoes Spanish flu pandemic that ended NHL seasons in 2018 and 2019 but because of the war. Stanley Cup Boxing’s headline heavyweight clash between Jack Dempsey and Battling Levinsky was postponed from October to November, once restrictions on crowds in Philadelphia had eased, but the sport had Jonathan White carried on regardless during the pandemic.

Published: 12:15pm, 6 Apr, 2020 “Quarantine order hits all sports except duck hunting,” was a headline in The Los Angeles Daily Times on October 12, 1918, that matched the

peak, but across the world several sports essentially pressed on. Boxing postponed, hockey cancelled and football behind closed doors. Marc Weissman That might sound familiar in these largely sport-free days but it is how the sporting world was affected by the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago. @mgweissman

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic might seem unprecedented but the ICYDK, there is precedence for something like this re: NHL cancelling sporting world has been here before, albeit in very different times. games. 1919 Stanley Cup Final was shutdown after 5 games re: Spanish flu epidemic. Cup engraving reflects this. MTL's Joe Hall died from it. The H1N1 outbreak, the same strain as the swine flu of 2009, was first Imagine season stopped mid-Final vs reg szn. A tad different. recorded in 1918 and lasted until late 1920, with a more virulent second wave peaking in October 1918, the pandemic’s deadliest month. View image on Twitter

It did not come from Spain, although the country’s king, Alfonso XIII, was 9 one of the most high profile infected and as a neutral country during the First World War there were also no limits on reporting there. Experts still 1:31 PM - Mar 12, 2020 debate its source, with its spread exacerbated by the movement of troops Twitter Ads info and privacy overseas and increased global travel. See Marc Weissman's other Tweets Blake Brown In Australia, the Victoria Football League (the precursor to the AFL) not @RBlakeBrown only carried on but was more successful than in previous years. Today @SoccerNS wisely cancelled games and practices because of “The-then Victorian Football League (VFL) actually expanded during the Covid-19. 102 years ago, Canadian sports organizations had to make influenza emergency,” AFL.com says. “After being reduced to an all-time similar tough decisions in the face of the Spanish flu pandemic, including low of just four teams and 12 rounds at the war’s horrific peak in 1916, the Vancouver and District Soccer League. #cdnhist #covid19Canada the VFL returned to a full complement of nine teams and 18 rounds in View image on TwitterView image on Twitter 1919.

16 “There weren’t any crowd restrictions in place either, so most games attracted fans in their thousands – albeit in slightly reduced numbers due 6:39 PM - Mar 13, 2020 to the flu scourge, although the finals still drew an average crowd of 47,000 – a six-year high.” The AFL website also says no players died but Twitter Ads info and privacy several former stars were among the victims. See Blake Brown's other Tweets Mike Armstrong What is not open to debate is that the “Spanish Lady” or the “Blue Death”, a name given on account of turning victims’ lungs blue, left a trail ✔ of devastation in its wake. Some 500 million people, a third of the global @ArmstrongGN population, were infected and, at the top end, estimated deaths numbered 100 million. The sporting world did not escape this pneumonic The day the NHL called off the NHL Stanley Cup championship in 1919 influenza. due to the Spanish Flu.

The 1919 Stanley Cup between the Seattle Metropolitans and Montreal Five Canadiens players were sick. Montreal tried to forfeit, but Seattle Canadiens was eventually abandoned before game six on April 1. The refused to accept. League cancelled the championship. players had battled through five games but the fifth had seen Canadiens defenceman Joe Hall collapse on the ice. Habs D-man Joe Hall died 4 days later, buried in Vancouver

With less than six hours before the puck was set to drop on the decisive View image on TwitterView image on Twitter game six in Seattle, the series was called off with Hall, four of his 169 teammates and the team’s manager hospitalised. The hosts had two players and their manager in hospital, too. 5:41 PM - Mar 12, 2020

Three-time Stanley Cup winner and married father-of-three Hall died in Twitter Ads info and privacy the Columbus Sanitorium on April 5, aged 37. 142 people are talking about this Elsewhere in the US, college football saw many teams forced into truncated 1918 seasons because of a combination of rises in the Spanish In Ireland, the All-Ireland Gaelic football final was postponed from 1918 flu that autumn and losing players to military call-ups. to the following February with Wexford beating Tipperary at Croke Park, despite missing top scorer Davy Toibin through sickness. In August Major League Baseball was one sport to press on, but it lost a number of 1918, crowds defied the British to watch Gaelic Sunday. high-profile players among the dead. Boston Red Sox legend was said to have caught the Spanish flu twice, beating it but only just. “Over 50,000 people across Ireland played Gaelic games in a peaceful, organised protest that Sunday, an act that ultimately saw an end to the “Rumours shot through Boston that ‘the Colossus … worth more than his requirement of a licence to play a GAA match,” wrote Irish broadcaster weight in gold’ was on his deathbed,” wrote Randy Roberts and Johnny RTE of the historic day that came during a lull in infections. Smith in War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War. In Spain, Barcelona founder Joan Gamper led the fight to allow football to carry on. The Spanish Football Federation had called the sport off, but Virtual Grand National shows sport and gambling will find a way the Catalan championship started anyway in October, 1918. Spanish football newspaper Marca reported that Gamper led a commission that 5 Apr 2020 convinced the Spanish Health Ministry to allow football to proceed, just as athletics and tennis had. LaLigaSnapshot

@LaLigaSnapshot

Joan Gamper, founder of FC Barcelona. #FCB

View image on Twitter

10:42 PM - Jan 30, 2014

Twitter Ads info and privacy

See LaLigaSnapshot's other Tweets

The British parliament never actually cancelled football for the pandemic, nor did it limit crowds. Chelsea played to more than 20,000 at Stamford Bridge. This was despite the Football League and FA Cup being cancelled for the war – instead, teams played in regional competitions with Chelsea in the London Combination League.

As Chelsea recorded on their official website, several of its players were infected but recovered. However, former player Angus Douglas, who had since become a Newcastle United player, died that December, aged 29.

Women’s football was at its peak, with many teams stepping into the gap left by the absence of the league and cup. The Dick, Kerr Ladies team, named after the Preston factory where the players worked, played throughout the years of the pandemic and often to large crowds.

Sofa, so good – has e-sports gone mainstream amid coronavirus?

23 Mar 2020

At no point were either men’s or women’s games played behind closed doors and the Football League resumed as normal in September 2019. This mentality was not limited to sport. There was a British General Election in December 1918 and London’s theatres carried on regardless, posting record takings.

As Laura Spinney wrote in her 2017 book Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World, the flu had lasting implications.

“The flu resculpted human populations more radically than anything since the Black Death,” she writes. “It influenced the course of the First World War and, arguably, contributed to the second. It pushed India closer to independence, South Africa closer to apartheid, and to the brink of civil war.”

Not all of them were negative, she concluded.

“It ushered in universal health care and alternative medicine, our love of fresh air and our passion for sport.”

Times are very different, the world is more globalised and sport is bigger than ever, but the last of those seems the most likely lasting impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

South China Post LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173345 World Leagues News

Trump says NFL season should start on time amid coronavirus crisis

By Ryan DunleavyApril 4, 2020 | 3:47pm | Updated

President Trump is ready for some football.

During a Saturday conference call with the commissioners of major professional sports leagues, Trump expressed optimism fans would fill venues again as soon as August and the NFL season would begin on time in September, according to ESPN.

But, later in the day at a press briefing, Trump did not cite any research from medical experts studying the coronavirus pandemic, leaving the impression his message is more based in hope.

“I can’t tell you a date, but I think it’s going to be sooner rather than later,” Trump said. “We are not going to have to have separation for the rest of our time on this planet. We need it for this period of time, but eventually people will be able to occupy their seats in arenas next to each other.”

The call included the heads of the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA, MLS, PGA, LPGA, WWE, UFC, IndyCar and Breeders Cup. The NCAA was omitted.

“They want to get back. They’ve got to get back. They can’t do this,” Trump said. “Their sports weren’t designed for it.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom painted a different picture in his Saturday briefing, saying he does not anticipate the NFL opening on time with fans in the stands in his state. Three NFL franchises are based in California.

The league’s schedule is due for release in May, after it holds a remote draft April 23-25, with facilities likely to remain closed.

“One has to be careful not to overpromise,” Newsom said. “Our decision on that basis, at least here in the state of California, will be determined by the facts, will be determined by the health experts, will be determined by our capacity to meet this moment, bend the curve and have the appropriate community surveillance and testing.”

Trump owns more than a dozen golf courses across the nation and has a complicated history with the NFL, dating to his failed bid for team ownership in the 1980s.

“People want to see … their sports and go out onto their golf courses and breathe nice, clean, beautiful fresh air,” Trump said.

Trump suggested leagues cooperate to lobby for reinstatement of tax incentives for entertainment expenses, allowing the deduction of concessions and tickets, according to ESPN. The idea is to encourage leisure spending in a difficult economy.

The NBA, which was the first league to suspend play, would like to take the lead in restarting the economy after public health officials approve, commissioner Adam Silver reportedly said on the call.

“The President recognized the good work being done by many teams and players to care for their communities, workforces, and fan bases across the nation,” a White House statement read.

NY POST LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173346 World Leagues News

Three sports habits that could change after coronavirus

Agence France-Presse

Paris, France / Mon, April 6, 2020 / 10:01 am

As the coronavirus brings the international sports calendar to a grinding halt, AFP Sport looks at three long-standing habits which could change forever once competition resumes.

Saliva to take shine off swing bowling

It's been a tried and trusted friend to fast bowlers throughout the history of cricket.

But the days of applying saliva to one side of the ball to encourage swing could be over in the aftermath of COVID-19.

"As a bowler I think it would be pretty tough going if we couldn't shine the ball in a Test match," said Australia quick Pat Cummins.

"If it's at that stage and we're that worried about the spread, I'm not sure we'd be playing sport."

Towels in tennis - no touching

Tennis players throwing towels, dripping with sweat and blood and probably a tear or two, at ball boys and girls, has often left fans sympathizing for the youngsters.

Moves by officials to tackle the issue took on greater urgency in March when the coronavirus was taking a global grip.

Behind closed doors in Miki, ball boys and girls on duty at the Davis Cup tie between Japan and Ecuador wore gloves.

Baskets, meanwhile, were made available for players to deposit their towels.

Back in 2018, the ATP introduced towel racks at some events on a trial basis, but not everyone was overjoyed.

"I think having the towel whenever you need it, it's very helpful. It's one thing less that you have to think about," said Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas when he was playing at the NextGen Finals in Milan.

"I think it's the job of the ball kids to provide towels and balls for the players."

Let's not shake on it

Pre-match handshakes were abandoned in top football leagues just before the sports shutdown.

Premier League leaders Liverpool also banned the used of mascots while Southampton warned against players signing autographs and stopped them posing for selfies.

Away from football, the NBA urged players to opt for the fist bump rather than the long-standing high-five.

"I ain't high-fiving nobody for the rest of my life after this," NBA superstar LeBron James told the "Road Trippin' Podcast".

"No more high-fiving. After this corona shit? Wait 'til you see me and my teammates’ handshakes after this shit."

Basketball stars were also told not to take items such as balls or teams shirts to autograph.

US women's football star Megan Rapinoe says edicts to ban handshakes or even high-fives may be counter-productive anyway.

"We're going to be sweating all over each other all game, so it sort of defeats the purpose of not doing a handshake," she told the New York Times in March.

LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173347 World Leagues News announced, the Boston-based company expected to be heading into April riding a wave of March Madness revenue, with the NBA playoffs and MLB regular season further boosting its books. Now, the gambling Russian ping-pong? Belarussian soccer? In the age of coronavirus, world is like the world at large, staring down a summer of uncertainty. sports gamblers find a way At the same time, the mobile gambling industry is still in the early stages of its growth phase in the United States. Like their chief competitors at FanDuel, Avello and his team at DraftKings have plenty to keep them by busy. While online sports wagering is currently legal in only six states, 11 others have legalized on-site betting. By 2021, DraftKings expects that

20% of the country’s population will be able to participate in legal online The current pandemic is causing all of us to wrestle with some of life’s sports wagering. most difficult questions: What day is it? What drawer do I keep my pants For now, the big question is if sports will return at all in 2020. The NFL in? Were there really four bottles in that box of wine? has given no indication that it believes its season is in jeopardy; And that’s just before noon. President Trump reportedly told league commissioners in a recent conference call that he wants them to play as scheduled. In that sense, the last three weeks haven’t been any different for guys like Johnny Avello than they have been for the rest of the northern “I certainly don’t have a crystal ball, but I feel confident that football will hemisphere. Except, they also happen to be three of the most important go as normal,” Avello said. weeks on his professional calendar. See, Avello is in charge of the Until then, we should all remember to take a few moments to give thanks sportsbook operation at DraftKings, which these days is a lot like being in for what we have. Whether it’s ping-pong in Russia or third-division charge of the ice cream machine at a Cross Fit convention. He has a lot soccer in Belarus, these past three weeks have reinforced one of world’s of hungry customers, but not much for them to eat. most fundamental truths. It all goes great with wine. “This is a strange time," said Avello, who oversees DraftKings’ Philadelphia Inquirer LOADED: 04.06.2020 burgeoning mobile betting operation. “We’ve never been in a position like this where the entire world was shut down.”

I called Avello last week after a degenerate buddy of mine forwarded me a link to a livestream broadcast of a Ukrainian table tennis tournament with a website that looked like the sort of thing that would land my IP address in the next Mueller report.

It’s great, my buddy explained. You can bet on each point. Interesting, I replied. Didn’t your wife just have a baby?

I was curious how many other people had buddies who were neglecting critical stages of their children’s development in an attempt to restore some sense of normalcy to their March. The answer, according to Avello, is more than you might guess.

“It’s created quite a bit of handle,” Avello said. “We’ve experimented with it quite a bit."

He paused for a moment before continuing.

“Hopefully,” he said, “we won’t have to keep experimenting.”

» ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters.

Avello has seen a lot in his four decades in the business. A native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. who grew up watching the ponies run at Saratoga, he learned how to deal cards after a stint in college and then headed west to Vegas. He arrived in town driving a 1969 Buick Skylark packed with all of his earthly possessions and landed a job as a dealer at the Nevada Hotel. After a stint selling insurance, he returned to the casino business, this time writing tickets in the sportsbook. By 1990, he was running the sportsbook at Bally’s. Fifteen years later, he moved to the Wynn, where he remained until DraftKings recruited him to head up its mobile betting operation.

Avello has guided books through plenty of economic shocks through the years. Strikes, lockouts, corrections, recessions. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 may have been the most trying time, with the NFL taking a week off and the travel industry grinding to a standstill.

“But we came back from that,” Avello said. “A couple of weeks and we were back in action.”

Now, the action is limited almost entirely to the Eastern Bloc. They are still playing soccer and hockey in Belarus. And, apparently, the Russians love their table tennis.

“It’s one of those sports where, as an oddsmaker, you will make your talent better as you continue to do it,” Avello said. “It’s the same for the bettors. As you bet it, you get better at it because you get to know the players and rules better.”

The ongoing sports hiatus comes at an inopportune time for DraftKings, which expects to become a publicly traded company this week when it completes a complex merger with sports gambling technology firm SB Tech and Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp. When the deal was first 1173348 World Leagues News “All of our discussions, all our focus has been on a normal, traditional season, starting on time, playing in front of fans, in our regular stadiums,” Pash said.

President Trump’s call for sports to resume in August is magical thinking From this vantage point, that’s simply magical thinking. Just because Commissioner Tone-Deaf, Roger Goodell, wants his league to march on — and has threatened to penalize anyone who complains — doesn’t Ann Killion April 4, 2020 Updated: April 4, 2020 6:36 p.m. mean it can happen. Leaders across the world have learned the hard way you can’t wish this away.

There is no normal right now. Not for you. Not for me. Not for — Look, we all want some normalcy. shockingly — even the NFL. But we can’t live in a fantasy world. Leaders who are reacting appropriately to this unprecedented crisis can On Saturday morning, President Trump held a conference call with most see that starting the NFL on time is highly unlikely. but not all of the nation’s sports leaders and reportedly said on the call “I’m not anticipating that happening in this state,” California Gov. Gavin that he hopes to have fans back in stadiums and games played by Newsom said in Saturday’s daily news briefing, warning of a potential August and September. boomerang. “They want to get back; they have to get back,” Trump said in his daily Look, we all want sports to come back. But as something fun. Not as a White House briefing hours later. “As soon as we can, obviously. I can’t contagion. tell you a date, but I think it’s going to be sooner rather than later.” Ann Killion But “getting back” on schedule seems like more magical thinking given the dangers posed by the coronavirus crisis. LOADED: 04.06.2020 Sports is a powerful symbolic marker in our society. Just as the NBA shutting down was a watershed moment in getting America to take the outbreak seriously, sports resuming would be a sign of recovery. Of optimism.

But only when it’s safe. Only when it makes sense.

According to a White House pool report, Saturday’s conference call included representatives from 12 major sports organizations: the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, NHL, Major League Soccer, WNBA, PGA, LPGA, IndyCar, Breeders’ Cup, WWE wrestling and UFC. Not included were the NCAA, NASCAR or NWSL. Trump told them he wants sports back by August, the NFL to open on schedule in September.

August? September? How exactly could that work?

Who will feel comfortable going into a stadium with 60,000 or more people in just 14 or 16 weeks? Because there are no national restrictions on staying home or on travel, experts are predicting that the virus is likely to continue to ping-pong around the nation, meaning it will continue to spread into the summer.

As we have learned in the most tragic way possible, one infected person can spread the disease to dozens, often without showing symptoms. Without testing for everyone — for both the ill and those who feel fine — how could you be sure there isn’t a contagious person sitting in your row? Standing in line for a beer? A Champions League soccer match in Milan in February is considered to have been one of the most important events — a so-called “biological bomb” — that accelerated the deadly explosion of the coronavirus in Italy.

It’s not just about the fans. Would the players be comfortable? NFL teams carry a game-day roster of 53 players and hundreds of other employees. College teams have far more players. To do this safely, every single player and game-day employee would likely have to be tested and quarantined until the results came back negative. With a single positive test, the whole process would have to start again.

And with regular citizens still unable to get tests, what a terrible look that would be. Having athletes prioritized for testing just so they can play games?

On Thursday, the NFL’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, cast doubt on the possibility of starting the league on time in an interview with NFL.com.

“As long as we’re still in a place where when a single individual tests positive for the virus that you have to quarantine every single person who was in contact with them in any shape, form or fashion, then I don’t think you can begin to think about reopening a team sport,” Sills said in that interview. “Because we’re going to have positive cases for a very long time.”

Sills’ comments came days after Jeff Pash, the league’s executive vice president/general counsel, stressed normalcy in a media briefing. 1173349 World Leagues News

Cuomo skeptical that sports could resume by August amid coronavirus crisis

By Aaron FeisApril 5, 2020 | 1:35PM

President Trump’s prediction that the sports world’s coronavirus time-out could be over by August may be a false start, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.

“I would love to see sports back, [to] help with cabin fever,” said Cuomo in his now-daily Albany press briefing. “But this is not about hopes and dreams and aspirations and what you would like to see.”

In a Saturday conference call with leaders from leagues nationwide — including MLB, the NBA and the NHL — Trump voiced optimism that play could resume in August, with the NFL on track to kick off as scheduled in September.

Cuomo didn’t dismiss the idea outright, but urged caution and attention to those who know best.

“Follow the data,” he said. “Follow the science. Let the … health-care professionals tell you when it’s safe to re-open, and that’s when you re- open.”

California Gov. Gavin Newson, whose state is home to three NFL teams, already expressed skepticism at the timeline in a Saturday press briefing.

NY POSR LOADED: 04.06.2020 1173350 World Leagues News Along with working on articles about athletes testing positive for the coronavirus, he has written about the financial hit the N.B.A. will take from its suspension, and the impact on arena employees and other What Does a Sports Desk Do When Sports Are on Hold? workers.

“I have always seen sports as essential to society and culture; it intersects so much with everything,” Mr. Archibold, the Sports editor, By Emma Grillo said. “I think that it’s important to chronicle and document, as we do, the many ways that this virus is impacting life.” April 5, 2020 NY TIMES LOADED: 04.06.2020

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind- the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. Victor Mather, a Sports reporter and editor at The New York Times, has a new column with an unusual name.

Where once he might have reported on an emergency goalie in the N.H.L. or analyzed what went wrong in a Daytona 500 crash, the new column, “The Day in (No) Sports,” brings readers stories about announcers taking their commentary home and athletes incorporating their children into their workouts.

Stories that “wouldn’t have been newsworthy before suddenly became interesting,” said Mr. Mather, who begins work at 7 each morning on the column, which he writes along with Danielle Allentuck, the Sports desk’s reporting fellow.

His shift in outlook is one that the entire desk has had to make since the coronavirus pandemic forced organized sports around the world to postpone or suspend competition. The cancellations threw much of the coverage planned for the next few months — articles about baseball spring training, the run-up to the Olympics, the N.B.A. playoffs — up in the air.

“There’s no playbook for how you cover sports when sports are not being played,” said Randal Archibold, the Sports editor for The Times.

The play, though, turned out to be simple: Report the news and write about things that can be welcome diversions from the news — which, in a way, is what Sports has always done. Some articles detail lost seasons, but others reveal ways in which people found new ways to play — or contribute.

Talya Minsberg, an assistant Sports editor, wrote about people across the United States turning to jogging as a way to safely exercise while practicing social distancing. And David Waldstein, a reporter, wrote about M.L.B. uniform material being used to produce protective masks and gowns.

The desk has also been publishing features on sports that typically are not as frequently covered by The Times, like a report from Mr. Waldstein on cheating in chess. Mr. Archibold said many readers were looking for “counterprogramming,” stories that offer a break from coronavirus coverage.

“You don’t want to be flip in any way,” he said, “but you also do want to acknowledge that readers, to some degree, want other things to read.”

Sports reporters and editors have also helped with coronavirus coverage on the National, Metro and International desks. They’ve written about coronavirus disbelievers, edited articles about overloaded hospitals in Italy and contributed to The Times’s 24/7 live updates on the pandemic.

Benjamin Hoffman, a senior Sports editor, said that covering the coronavirus hadn’t been as difficult as one might expect because sports coverage prepares reporters and editors to respond immediately to drastic change.

“If you’ve written up an N.B.A. finals game, with new posts every 15 minutes for the entirety of the game, it’s not too big of a stretch to then move on to other live coverage,” he said.

In fact, Mr. Hoffman helped manage a live blog that for weeks recorded how the coronavirus was affecting day-to-day life in the United States well beyond the sports world.

For reporters who cover sports that have been postponed or canceled, like Sopan Deb, a basketball reporter, the altered landscape requires finding different ways to write about their beats.

“We’re no longer talking about what’s going on on the floor, we’re talking about what’s going on off the floor,” Mr. Deb said.