How Maple Leafs’ Timothy Liljegren feels about making the team - Sportsnet.ca

TORONTO — Erik Brannstrom called making the Ottawa Senators a dream come true.

Dmytro Timashov got emotional when he learned he’d be introduced as part of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ opening night.

For a prospect, seeing your name on the 23-man NHL roster 48 hours before the season opens is supposed to be an occasion for joy, a rush of accomplishment, and an encouragement for all the possibilities that lie ahead.

“It’s really cool. That’s what all the hockey players are playing for — they want to take a spot in the NHL,” said Toronto’ Rasmus Sandin, 19. “It feels really good right now.”

Unless you’re Timothy Liljegren.

Inside the Maple Leafs practice facility dressing room, Liljegren’s stall is located farthest from the core players, right by the door that leads to a padded mat that leads to the Marlies dressing room he came from. If Auston Matthews and John Tavares and Morgan Rielly — seated centre along the two banks of lockers — represent the sun in this orbit of talent, Liljegren is Pluto.

Not even he’s certain if he’s a planet, if he belongs. Yet.

The complexities of the NHL salary cap have brought us some bizarre situations (remember Arizona Coyotes legend Pavel Datsyuk?), but we can’t recall talking to a player less enthused about surviving the final cut than Liljegren was Monday.

Because, unlike his friend and fellow first-round pick Sandin, Liljegren understands he’s not here on merit and could be sent along the mat and back to the farm club as early as Tuesday.

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Kyle Dubas is temporarily using Liljegren’s contract to help maximize the club’s long-term injury relief, and the GM didn’t hide that from the 20-year-old defenceman.

“He said I’ll be on the team today and we’ll take it day by day,” said Liljegren, who sat down for a face-to-face meeting with Dubas before his first practice with the big club. “I’m here now and just trying to learn as much as possible.”

Sandin (a 2018 pick) is a year younger than Liljegren (2017) and drafted 12 spots later. Yes, he has leapfrogged his fellow Swede on the Leafs’ depth chart. But it would be lazy and much too premature to label Liljegren a bust.

He’s 20. He plays a position where your mistakes get magnified. He’s coming off a season hampered by a high ankle sprain. And his greatest challenge may be confidence.

Rolling into camp buoyed by his notable step last winter in his second AHL campaign, Liljegren was upset with how he performed in the big arenas before the large crowds during his four pre-season outings, registering a single assist and finishing a minus-1.

“I didn’t think I found my way of playing hockey. I played a little bit stressed, so I wasn’t too happy about that,” Liljegren explained, downbeat but polite.

“There’s a lot of people watching you in the games, and when you make a mistake sometimes you stress yourself up too much. I think I put a little too much pressure on myself in the games instead of trying to relax.

“When you’re watching TV, it seems pretty easy, but once you’re out there, it’s pretty hard.”

The pace of NHL exhibition games, two notches up from the American League post-season, forced Liljegren into some poor decision-making with the puck, and the surprising aggression of the big-league forecheck hindered his ability to turn smooth breakouts when he raced to retrieve dump-ins.

“On the forecheck, you have to turn your head all the time. You gotta talk. And that’s not easy all the time when it goes fast. It’s a lot faster,” Liljegren says. “Making the easy play is not the easiest thing sometimes… You have to know where people are all the time.

“You’ve got to adapt, and I didn’t do a good job of that.”

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Liljegren says the gaffes he committed during his tryout games would stay in his mind until the buzzer. He’d try to let it go as much as possible once he walked out of the rink, but not dragging your office issues home at night can be a challenge for the best of us.

“I think that’s something you get better at once you get older,” Liljegren reasons.

He sounds hopeful.

The best path in the development of Timothy Liljegren is not to take line rushes with Justin Holl and watch NHL games from the press box, of course, so we’d expect Dubas to return the kid to the Marlies as soon as possible.

Let him gain confidence so that when he makes his next NHL roster, it feels like a dream well-earned, not a book-keeping technicality.

“There’s a number of steps ’til the start of the season, and this is one of them,” said coach Mike Babcock.

“The truth in hockey today isn’t necessarily the truth tomorrow.”

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October 01, 2019 at 02:48AM

Bianca Andreescu enjoys winning return to court at China Open - CP24 Toronto's Breaking News

The Canadian Press
Published Monday, September 30, 2019 11:26AM EDT
Last Updated Monday, September 30, 2019 4:11PM EDT

BEIJING - Bianca Andreescu had two reasons to smile on Monday.

The Canadian tennis star won her first match since triumphing at the U.S. Open on Sept. 7 and also found out she has secured a spot in the WTA Tour Finals later this month.

Andreescu, 19, overcame a rocky second set to beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in the first round of the China Open. Her 14th win in a row came hours after the WTA said she had locked down one of eight berths in the season-ending Finals, Oct. 27 to Nov. 3 in Shenzhen, China.

“I'm on a roll right now. Hopefully I can just keep it up because I think it gives me a lot of confidence,” Andreescu said.

The 60th-ranked Sasnovich had her chances against the world No. 6, but notched just four of 16 break points.

Andreescu, from Mississauga, Ont., won 70 per cent of her points on first serve, as compared to 56 per cent for Sasnovich.

It was Andreescu's 13th win in a row in a three-set match.

Next for Andreescu is a rematch of a U.S. Open quarterfinal against Elise Mertens of Belgium.

Elsewhere, former top-ranked players Venus Williams and Simona Halep both lost in the second round.

Williams lost 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to ninth-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, who saved two match points in the final set to outlast the seven-time Grand Slam champion despite making 40 unforced errors in the match. She will next face the winner of seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova and Kristina Mladenovic in the round of 16.

Halep, the reigning Wimbledon champion, lost 6-2, 6-3 to unseeded Russian Ekaterina Alexandrovam, who earned just her second career win against a top-10 opponent. Halep was playing on back-to-back days after defeating Sweden's Rebecca Peterson on Sunday. The Romanian has been nursing a back injury that forced her to retire at Wuhan last week.

“It was a tough one today. I didn't recover well after my first match, so it was very tough for me to play and she played really well,” Halep said. “The injury from Wuhan, it's getting worse, so I have to go home and take an MRI ... take a break and do some treatment.”

Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki hit seven aces as she cruised past American qualifier Lauren Davis 6-1, 6-3 in her opening match of the tournament. The former No. 1 will face another American, Christina McHale, in the second round.

In her first match since winning the U.S. Open, Canada's Bianca Andreescu ousted Aliaksandra Sasnovitch of Belarus 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.

Meanwhile, Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner Yifan Xu of China secured a spot in the doubles portion of the WTA Finals on Monday.

Dabrowski and Xu also advanced to the quarterfinals at the China Open with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Danija Jurak of Croatia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain.

In the men's tournament, second-seeded Alexander Zverev beat Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-2, while fourth-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia defeated Pablo Cuevas 6-2, 7-6 (7).

Montreal's Felix Auger-Alessiame opens against Spain's Albert Ramos-Vinolas on Tuesday.

- with files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2019.

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September 30, 2019 at 10:26PM

Raptors relying on internal growth to fill void in starting lineup - TSN

QUEBEC CITY – In Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, the Raptors didn’t just lose two starters and a couple of integral pieces of their championship-winning team, they lost nearly 37 points and over 26 shots per game.

Without the resources to chase another marquee free agent over the summer, even after the two former Spurs left for Los Angeles – Toronto is still over the salary cap for this season – replacing that production will have to be a collective effort.

First of all, they’ll need more from their returning veterans. Taking on a complementary role behind Leonard and the emerging Pascal Siakam last year, Kyle Lowry averaged a six-year low in points (14.2) and shot attempts (11.4). Similarly, Marc Gasol averaged career-lows in both areas (9.1 points, 7.2 field goal attempts) after joining the Raptors at the trade deadline, acting as more of a facilitator while easing himself in. They’ve both carried a larger offensive load before, and will likely have to again.

They’ll hope to find a diamond in the rough or two amongst their off-season value signings – Stanley Johnson, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Terence Davis and Matt Thomas, who each play one or both of the positions vacated by Leonard and Green.

However, more than anything else, they’re banking on the internal growth and continued development of their young holdovers, most notably Siakam, Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby.

Siakam is getting most of the attention, and rightly so. As a budding star and the NBA’s reigning Most Improved Player, the expectation is that he’ll step into the featured role in Toronto’s offence. No, he’s not Kawhi, but on the nights Leonard sat out for rest last season, Siakam showed an ability and willingness to take his game to another level.

It’s unfair to expect him to carry a Leonard-like workload, that’s just not his game (Kawhi had a usage rate of 30 per cent last year, 10th among players that averaged at least 30 minutes per game, while Siakam’s was 20.5 per cent, 60th in the league). Still, he’s sure to see an increased role in Leonard’s absence. That means more touches, more responsibility and more pressure. True to character, though, Siakam isn’t putting any added pressure on himself.

“It’s who I am,” the 25-year-old forward said following the second day of training camp at Laval University in Quebec City. “I’ve always been a guy who is ready to work hard and take advantage of all opportunity that’s given. There’s an opportunity in front of me, and I’m ready for the challenge.”

“I think it will be a process of some ups and downs,” said head coach Nick Nurse. “I want to take the longer term view of where he is headed in his climb upward. If he comes out and scores 35 one night we’re going to be “Whoa!” and then if he has eight the next night it’s just part of the process. The guys who score 30 a night have those kinds of nights.”

There will be a learning curve, as there is for any player inheriting an expanded role, and going from the second or third option to a featured player is the biggest and arguably toughest jump to make. He’s not going to catch anybody off guard after his breakout season, and with Leonard gone there’s nowhere to hide. He’ll be at the top of every team’s scouting report and will be on the receiving end of some defensive coverage he’s never seen before.

Nurse hasn’t spoken to him about that extra attention he’s certain to get, at least not specifically, instead they’ve been working in a continued effort to expand his game so that he’s better prepared for it.

“After winning Most Improved Player and people look at our team, I’m sure they’re going to prepare for me,” Siakam said. “But it’s part of growing, too, for me, and understanding you’re going to get more attention and prepare for it so I can beat every defence that you can get.”

He got a taste for it during the playoffs last spring, facing some of the league’s top defenders at his position: Orlando’s Jonathan Isaac, who had shut him down in the regular season, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Golden State’s Draymond Green – a murderers’ row of long, athletic perimeter stoppers.

The results were mixed, he had some rough nights, but the encouraging thing was how he would bounce back the following game.

“If you want to be one of the top scorers, you’ve got to be able to score in different ways,” he said of what he learned from that experience. “It’s trying to find ways to score off the dribble, attacking. Whatever the defence is giving me, it’s taking advantage of that and being able to make a play no matter who is in front of you.”

“I think that he had an unbelievable year last year,” VanVleet said of Siakam. “The only reason why it wasn’t looked at as astonishing is because Kawhi was on a whole different planet. The biggest thing that I see is him getting more double-teams, triple-teams, like you saw even in the playoffs people were starting to show him more attention. So his game will have to adjust in terms of being double-teamed and triple-teamed and the whole defence built around him on the scouting report side.”

Siakam ready to be targeted by opposing defences this season

Pascal Siakam enjoyed playing a bit under the radar last season with Kawhi Leonard soaking up the attention of the opposing team's defensive schemes on a nightly basis. But both he and the Raptors expect that to change this season, as he becomes the focal point of Toronto's offence.

“Other than that, he works on his game every day and he keeps growing and working on his shot, he’s going to add more moves and he’s going to have to keep doing it day in, day out. And it’s a journey, he’s a young guy, we’re in our fourth year together, so it’s not all going to happen at once and we have to be there to support him along the way.”

While Siakam steps into the spotlight, VanVleet and Anunoby will have a chance to earn their way into the starting lineup, filling the two spots left open after Leonard and Green departed.

As Nurse has already confirmed, it’s unlikely that they’ll stick with a set group of starters through the season. The Raptors’ second-year head coach prefers to keep things fluid and experiment with different lineup combinations. Still, VanVleet and Anunoby should be considered the early favourites to get the most starts at the shooting guard and small forward positions, respectively.

Mature beyond his years, both on and off the floor, it’s easy to forget VanVleet is just 25 and still growing as a player. Like Siakam, he’s going into this season with a level-headed approach, even though it’s a big one for him. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career next summer and, despite having his coming-out party in the Finals last year, he still has something to prove: he’s more than just a bench player.

“I’ve been vocal in saying that [starting is] something I would like to do in my career,” VanVleet said. “If I end up being a bench player my whole career then so be it, but that’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m reaching for the stars. I don’t put limits on myself. I think the world of myself, and I put the work in to think the world of myself. So, it’ll happen, and whenever it happens I’ll be ready for it. Like I said before, I’m not going to hurt our team with my own ambition in trying to out-do people and belittle my teammates. If they want me to start, I’ll start, and if they don’t then I’ll be the best bench player I can be.”

VanVleet 'reaching for the stars' personally but will always put team first

Fred VanVleet has established himself as one of the most reliable players for Nick Nurse, especially in closing time. If you ask him, he would tell you he believes he is a capable starter but whatever his role evolves into this season, he says he will always be a team guy, even if he thinks he deserves to be a starter.

VanVleet started 28 regular season games last season, half of them alongside Lowry in the backcourt, and the Raptors went 13-1 in those contests. He also started the second half in the last four games of the NBA Finals in place of Green, which he revealed was actually because of an injury he was fighting through.

“That was born out of an injury, for my hip pointer,” he said. “If I would have sat down I would have probably been done. I think it was Game 3, and we did it again, and my hip started to feel better. I didn’t really tell [Nurse], I just told him ‘You take me out, man, I’m not going to be able to go back in” and I finessed my way into starting the second half and it worked. So I might need to tell my guy I got a hip pointer starting up so I can play the whole game.”

Nurse and Masai Ujiri are among several team officials that have been raving about Anunoby early in camp. After a sophomore season lost to personal tragedy, a series of fluke injuries and an emergency appendectomy, the 22-year-old forward had a strong summer and opens camp in great shape.

They believe this is the season he makes the jump that he was supposed to make a year ago.

Replacing the things that Leonard and Green brought to last season’s championship team – tangible and intangible on both ends of the floor – won’t be easy. How seamlessly the Raptors’ younger players are able to transition into their new, expanded roles should determine how successful they are at doing so.​

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October 01, 2019 at 05:36AM

JONES: Tippett voices confidence in 'evolving' Oilers roster heading into season opener - Edmonton Sun

It would have been more appropriate if the playing surface had been covered with green felt instead of ice Monday as Dave Tippett rolled out his hockey club for their first practice of the regular season.

Everywhere you looked, the ninth head coach of the Edmonton Oilers in the last 11 seasons has been left rolling the dice.

Tippett is rolling the dice in goal.

He’s tossing the bones on defence.

And he’s casting the ivories on half the spots on the forward lines with new players, all of whom should be wearing question marks on the back of their jerseys, not numbers.

You get the idea. It won’t take much if things go wrong in any of those areas for the 2019-2020 Edmonton Oilers to crap out.

Tippett is going to need to show up behind the bench with a collection of lucky ties and lucky socks Edmonton representatives used to win all those the NHL draft lotteries that resulted in guys like Connor McDavid becoming an Oiler.

The Oilers are doubling down in goal with two maybes instead of one.

Choosing to wait and develop blue-chip defensive hopes for the future in the system may be an about-time philosophy that new GM Ken Holland is bringing here, but it doesn’t suggest dramatic improvement for now, next week or next month.

And gambling on inexpensive European veterans such as Joakim Nygard, Tomas Jurco and Gaetan Haas, with no NHL experience, along with reclamation project James Neal up front where they gambled and lost with the likes of Ty Rattie, Jesse Puljuvarvi, Kailer Yamamoto, Ryan Spooner and Tobias Rieder last year.

It was hard to convince yourself that the Oilers had succeeded in making chicken salad out of chicken feathers as Tippett rolled out his regular-season team to prepare for the lid-lifter for the Oilers 41st NHL season against the Vancouver Canucks.

When the session was over I asked the Tippett to contrast what he thought he had to work with when he chose to take the job to the team and again when he took the team to training camp and now as he send them out for the first of 82 games.

“Ever evolving,” he said.

“And it’s going to continue to evolve.

“You put names on a whiteboard with who you figure will play with who. Then you get to training camp and start putting those things in place and some aren’t as good as you figured they might be and others are better than you expected. As you come through training camp evaluating every guy, and get a sense of what they can do and what they can’t do, where they might fit.

“The next part of it is to try to determine where you think some of them can go. There’s some guys here who I think have more than what we’ve seen,” he said of the newcomers, mostly veteran pros from Europe with zero NHL experience.

“What we’re dealing with here is an evolution of our group that’s not done yet.”

Everybody in Edmonton knows what has to happen here this year to result in the Oilers not establishing a new NHL record for futility by missing the playoffs for the 13th time in 14 years.

It’s not one thing. It’s an entire shopping list of things.

Last year Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins all had career years yet the Oilers finished 35-38-9 for 79 points and finished 25th overall, and missed the playoffs by a dozen points.

The Oilers were a major mess on the penalty kill, 30th overall at 74.8 percent. They were 20th in goals per game at 2.79, and only five other teams were worse in goals against at 3.30. In the faceoff circle the Oilers finished 25th in the league.

On the other hand, the Oilers finished ninth on the power play at 21.2 percent and the addition of Joel Persson and/or Ethan Bear as playmaking right shot defencemen are exciting possibilities there.

But can McDavid, Draisaitl and The Nuge all stay healthy and return and enjoy career years again?

Draisaitl had a 50-goal season. McDavid ended up at 41 and Nugent-Hopkins finished with 28.

McDavid ended up with 116 points Draisaitl with 105 and Nugent-Hopkins had 69. Individually, you’d figure the odds are against all three having a career year again, especially the Tippett having made Job 1 to dramatically cut down on the goals against.

Together, the Big Three produced 119 goals and 290 points. As a trio can they return and make it 300?

Last year the Oilers gave up 274 goals. They allowed 42 more than they scored despite all that production by McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins.

As usual the teams that made the playoffs all had plus totals in the for-against stats and the teams that missed had minus stats.

Colorado caught the eighth and final playoff position with a plus 14.  Arizona finished ninth and out of the Stanley Cup tournament at minus -10.

It’s not rocket science.

The Oilers were 20th in goals per game at 2.79 and only five other teams were worse in goals against at 3.30.

And then there’s the goaltending.

Anybody see any evidence that Mikko Koskinen has solved his high glove side weakness? And Mike Smith is still 37 years old and missed most of camp with an illness.

Koskinen ended up with an .864 save percentage in the pre-season and Smith an .868. You don’t make the playoffs with two goalies under .900, no matter how you divide up their workload.

So what about all that, coach?

“I think we’ve made some steps through camp to help our goals against and to help our penalty kill.

“The personnel we’ve brought in to help our penalty kill, I don’t mind saying, are penalty killers. They’re not just guys doing it because there’s nobody else here to do it. They’re penalty killers,” he said of Josh Archibald, Markus Granlund, Patrick Russell and Colby Cave.

“Both goalies worked hard and we’ll see where that goes with the save percentage. I like what both have done. They’re both going to play. And they’re both going to get a chance to improve their goals against.

“The combination of playing a better defending game and better penalty killing should result in better goaltending.”

“On the dot through the pre-season games we’ve been pretty good. We’ll get a challenge in our first game against Vancouver. They’ve got four good NHL centres, two lefts and two rights, and that will be a challenge for us.

“And it’s not just the centremen. It’s what happens off the draw. We’ve talked about that. We’ve talked about that a lot.”

And there’s the veteran Europeans new to the small ice surface and the no-time-to-think NHL games featuring the best players in the world.

“I had a talk with Haas. He’s a 27-year-old guy who has played a lot of big international games. We were laughing. He said, ‘My first game people were flying around,’ and he was mesmerized by it. You saw him in his last game and he was getting it. It’s hard for a centreman. Not only are you coming into a different culture and a different style of play, you’re coming into a smaller ice surface, different coaching and the best league in the world.

“Haas is going through it. Nygard is getting better every game. He has good tenacity on the puck and his hands are great. There’s a lot of upside there,” said Tippett.

“It’s a challenge. Joel Persson got hurt so he moved down a little bit. But these guys are good players. They’re smart players. They’re not kids anymore. They’ve come here and it’s still a challenge for them to get on this team.”

Predicting how this Oilers season will end up is a fool’s exercise because the “ever evolving” team Holland is giving Tippett to take into the season might not look like anything like the one he’ll coach in Game 82, especially if the developing young talent knocks the door down with the way they play in Bakersfield. But most people probably wouldn’t pick the team Tippett had on the ice Monday to make the playoffs.

Whatever, ready or not, here they come.

“I like our team. I think we’re a very motivated group,” said Tippett.

“I don’t think many people are picking us to do much. I think our group feels that.

“I like some of the new energy we have. I think that’s picked up from last year’s group. Our bottom-six forwards I think are better suited to have the jobs we want them to do in the penalty-killing role. I like where we’re at as we get it going here. We have lots of growth left and I don’t mind where we are.”

As for your correspondent, I’m darn sure not going to offer to write that I’ll eat my column with sauerkraut, sour cream and bitter lemon.

At best, I’ll say I’m from Missouri.

Then again, come to think of it, the St. Louis Blues, the NHL team from Missouri, the worst team in the NHL on the morning of Jan. 3 last year, won the Stanley Cup.

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October 01, 2019 at 07:12AM

Burfict gets season-long suspension for dirty hit - theScore

The NFL has suspended Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict without pay for the rest of the season for the helmet-to-helmet hit that led to his ejection from Sunday's win over the Indianapolis Colts, the league announced on Monday.

"There were no mitigating circumstances on this play," Jon Runyan, the NFL's vice president of football operations, said in a letter to Burfict, via NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. "Your contact was unnecessary, flagrant, and should have been avoided ..."

"Following each of your previous rule violations, you were warned by me and each of the jointly-appointed appeal officers that future violations would result in escalated accountability measures. However, you have continued to flagrantly abuse rules designated to protect yourself and your opponents from unnecessary risk."

The veteran will appeal the ban, added Chris Mortensen of ESPN.

Burfict previously received four-game suspensions in 2016 and 2017 for late hits.

If Vontaze Burfict is suspended for rest of season, as @mortreport reports, it would be the longest suspension for an on-field act in NFL history.

Albert Haynesworth was suspended five games for kicking, then stomping on Cowboys’ C Andre Gurode’s face. Gurode needed 30 stitches.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 30, 2019

In the second quarter against Indianapolis, Burfict lowered his helmet to initiate contact with tight end Jack Doyle, who was down on his knees after making a catch.

#Raiders LB Vontaze Burfict has been ejected from the #Colts gamepic.twitter.com/shskk2BUw3

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 29, 2019

Burfict, a Raiders captain, had recorded 17 tackles through three weeks. He added another before being kicked out of the Week 4 contest.

While a member of the Cincinnati Bengals, the 29-year-old was also suspended for the first four games in 2018 for violating the performance-enhancing drugs policy.

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September 30, 2019 at 08:09PM

Bianca Andreescu wins first match since U.S. Open truimph - The Globe and Mail

Bianca Andreescu celebrates after defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich of in the first round of the 2019 China Open on Sept. 30, 2019 in Beijing.

Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Bianca Andreescu had two reasons to smile on Monday.

The Canadian tennis star won her first match since triumphing at the U.S. Open on Sept. 7 and also found out she has secured a spot in the WTA Tour Finals later this month.

Andreescu, 19, overcame a rocky second set to beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in the first round of the China Open. Her 14th win in a row came hours after the WTA said she had locked down one of eight berths in the season-ending Finals, Oct. 27 to Nov. 3 in Shenzhen, China.

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“I’m on a roll right now. Hopefully I can just keep it up because I think it gives me a lot of confidence,” Andreescu said.

The 60th-ranked Sasnovich had her chances against the world No. 6, but notched just four of 16 break points.

Andreescu, from Mississauga, won 70 per cent of her points on first serve, as compared to 56 per cent for Sasnovich.

It was Andreescu’s 13th win in a row in a three-set match.

Next for Andreescu is a rematch of a U.S. Open quarter-final against Elise Mertens of Belgium.

Elsewhere, former top-ranked players Venus Williams and Simona Halep both lost in the second round.

Williams lost 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to ninth-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, who saved two match points in the final set to outlast the seven-time Grand Slam champion despite making 40 unforced errors in the match. She will next face the winner of seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova and Kristina Mladenovic in the round of 16.

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Halep, the reigning Wimbledon champion, lost 6-2, 6-3 to unseeded Russian Ekaterina Alexandrovam, who earned just her second career win against a top-10 opponent. Halep was playing on back-to-back days after defeating Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson on Sunday. The Romanian has been nursing a back injury that forced her to retire at Wuhan last week.

“It was a tough one today. I didn’t recover well after my first match, so it was very tough for me to play and she played really well,” Halep said. “The injury from Wuhan, it’s getting worse, so I have to go home and take an MRI ... take a break and do some treatment.”

Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki hit seven aces as she cruised past American qualifier Lauren Davis 6-1, 6-3 in her opening match of the tournament. The former No. 1 will face another American, Christina McHale, in the second round.

In her first match since winning the U.S. Open, Canada’s Bianca Andreescu ousted Aliaksandra Sasnovitch of Belarus 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.

Meanwhile, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner Yifan Xu of China secured a spot in the doubles portion of the WTA Finals on Monday.

Dabrowski and Xu also advanced to the quarter-finals at the China Open with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Danija Jurak of Croatia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain.

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In the men’s tournament, second-seeded Alexander Zverev beat Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-2, while fourth-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia defeated Pablo Cuevas 6-2, 7-6 (7).

Montreal’s Félix Auger-Alessiame opens against Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas on Tuesday.

With a report from The Associated Press

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September 30, 2019 at 08:30PM

Boeser gets green light to return for Canucks’ opener after concussion - Sportsnet.ca

Brock Boeser is all-systems go for the Vancouver Canucks‘ season opener.

Boeser and Fantenberg have been cleared to play and are available for the #Canucks season opener Wednesday, said GM Jim Benning.

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) September 30, 2019

The team announced Monday that the 22-year-old sniper, as well as defenceman Oscar Fantenberg, have been cleared to play and are available for Wednesday’s game. They both suffered concussions in a pre-season tilt against the Ottawa Senators last week.

The Canucks visit the Edmonton Oilers for their first game of 2019-20.

Boeser suffered the concussion after he hit his head on the boards following a check from behind by Senators centre Chris Tierney.

He missed part of training camp earlier this month as he negotiated a three-year contract extension with the Canucks.

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October 01, 2019 at 02:58AM

The Toronto Maple Leafs' 23-man roster is set for opening night - Maple Leafs Hot Stove

The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced their 23-man roster for opening night.

The bubble players who made the cut: Dmytro Timashov, Frederik Gauthier, Rasmus Sandin, Justin Holl, Nick Shore, and Timothy Liljegren (for now).

The bubble players who are on waivers as of Noon ET: Kenny Agostino, Nic Petan, Kevin Gravel, and Garrett Wilson (injured).

Toronto Maple Leafs 2019-20 Roster

As Bill Comeau outlined earlier today, the really tricky decisions start when Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott return from LTIR in about a month, but for now, the Leafs are able to carry 23 players, with Justin Holl, Nick Shore, and Timothy Liljegren sticking around as the extras.

Liljegren will likely return to the Marlies at a later date as he can freely travel up and down on his entry-level contract. With the Leafs deep into LTIR (Nathan Horton, David Clarkson, Zach Hyman, and Travis Dermott), they needed to build a roster as close to their de-factor cap ceiling (the cap upper limit + the cap hits of the four players listed above) as mathematically possible to maximize their LTI relief as of the October 1 deadline. Liljegren’s $863k salary helps accomplish this over Nic Petan (775k) and Kenny Agostino’s (737k) cap numbers, placing them roughly $11k short of the maximum available LTI relief.

Additionally, it’s a better time to sneak NHL depth such as Nic Petan and Kenny Agostino through waivers now than it would be in a few weeks time. For now, the Leafs can carry 23 and give Liljegren some more practice time with the big club, even if he doesn’t see game action. Cap manager Brandon Pridham would’ve looked at using Egor Korshkov’s contract for these purposes as well, but at $925,000, it wouldn’t have kept them below their limit.

Nick Shore hanging around as competent right-handed C depth makes a lot of sense, while Frederik Gauthier won the 4C spot for Oct. 2 with a really good preseason. Justin Holl, meanwhile, will pick up right where he left off last year as cheap right-handed depth on the blue line to keep at the ready in the press box.

The biggest story here, of course, is the 19-year-old Sandin making the opening night roster, and yet somehow it doesn’t feel at all surprising. He made the decision for the team from the first preseason game onwards. Players with his level of hockey intelligence simply advance much quicker than others because they adapt so much more quickly to the steps up in pace; the game slows down for Sandin much more quickly than it would the average teenaged defenseman. While there will be a steep learning curve ahead and Sandin is by no means immune to the difficulty of making the NHL grade as a young defenseman, it’d be a disservice to both the Leafs and player if he wasn’t the Leafs’ #5 to start the year.

Dmytro Timashov is arguably the name that would surprise the most fans and pundits if they were told he was going to make the team just a few weeks ago — he was given a few kicks in the rear from Sheldon Keefe with healthy scratches on the Marlies last season — but he’s waiver eligible, makes less than 700k (a potentially big factor come November), and showed well enough in camp that he’s going to get his first extended look at the NHL level. There is no denying there is upside worth exploring here and it looks like his game — he can close quickly on the forecheck, protects the puck well, and sees the ice well — could potentially translate in an NHL bottom six, in addition to playing a role on the penalty kill. We’ll see if he can bring it consistently and stick at this level once he faces the grind of NHL regular season competition, though.

It’s not the complete roster picture with the return of Travis Dermott and Zach Hyman and some subsequent cap finagling still to come, but the 2019-20 Toronto Maple Leafs are now set for opening night. Game on.

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September 30, 2019 at 11:33PM

Not a repeat: Raiders LB Vontaze Burfict ejected for another dirty hit - Yahoo Sports

If you had Week 4 in the “Vontaze Burfict does something dirty to get ejected/fined/suspended” pool, you can claim your winnings.

Burfict, the former Cincinnati Bengals linebacker now with the Oakland Raiders, has a reputation as the dirtiest player in football. So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that in Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts, he was ejected for hitting Colts tight end Jack Doyle in the helmet.

Vontaze Burfict was ejected from Sunday's game against the Colts after applying an illegal hit to tight end Jack Doyle. (Getty Images)

Doyle was getting up from the ground after a short catch when Burfict came in with a helmet-to-helmet hit. He was given a 15-yard penalty and kicked out of the game. Raiders coach Jon Gruden wasn’t happy with the officials for ejecting his player, but it was the type of hit the NFL wants to get out of the game. And it’s not like Burfict is a stranger to those types of hits.

It was blatant, and the type of headhunting move he has done before. According to Spotrac, Burfict has more than $4.2 million in career fines and has been suspended 10 games. The NFL won’t be pleased to see him with another violation of that type.

The Raiders went on for the rest of the game without Burfict in a 31-24 victory. He’ll likely get fined, and given his history, a suspension could happen too. He should know where to send the check by now.

– – – – – – –

Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab

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September 30, 2019 at 01:08AM

Canadian Andre De Grasse wins semi to qualify for 200-metre world final - TSN

DOHA, Qatar — Canada's Andre De Grasse won the last of three semifinals to qualify for the men's 200-metre final on Monday at the world track and field championships.

De Grasse, who won a bronze medal on Saturday in the 100 metres, finished in 20.08 seconds in the 200 for the fifth-fastest semifinal time.

Toronto's Aaron Brown also advanced to the final. He finished third in the first semi and seventh overall in 20.20 seconds.

The top two in each semi and the next two fastest runners advanced to Tuesday's final.

Toronto's Brandon Rodney failed to qualify, coming 13th overall in 20.34 seconds.

The event lost one of its elite competitors when American Chris Coleman withdrew from Sunday's preliminaries.

Coleman told The Associated Press that he needed a break after sprinting to victory in Saturday's 100-metre final.

De Grasse, from Markham, Ont., won his third career world championship medal in the 100. He has rejoined the world's sprinting elite after a frustrating stretch of two lost seasons to hamstring injuries.

De Grasse's troubles began at the 2017 world championships in London, where his hurt hamstring forced him to withdraw from the 100- and 200-metre events. De Grasse, 24, was considered a medal contender in both events — perhaps even a threat to beat Jamaican legend Usain Bolt — after a highly successful three-medal performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2019.

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October 01, 2019 at 01:47AM

Kaillie Humphries, Bobsleigh Canada saga ends with her release to race for United States - The Globe and Mail

Two-time Olympic bobsled champion Kaillie Humphries has been released by Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton to compete for the United States.

Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

Kaillie Humphries and Canada’s governing body of bobsled didn’t quite call a truce, but they severed a relationship that was unsalvageable.

Humphries expressed mixed emotions in a statement Sunday after Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton’s announcement the previous evening she would be granted her request for a release.

The clock was ticking on Humphries, as the two-time Olympic champion required that release by Monday in order to compete for the United States this season.

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“Today I don’t know how to feel,” Humphries wrote. “While I am very happy this purgatory has ended after over a year of trying to get my concerns and the concerns of other athletes taken seriously, I am also very sad to not compete under my flag any longer.”

So the 34-year-old Calgarian, who has dominated international women’s bobsled for much of her 15 years on the national team, got her wish — except she didn’t.

BCS was also in a no-win situation.

The organization faced criticism whether it left Humphries in limbo or released an athlete it has invested time and money in to compete for a rival powerhouse team.

“This was not an easy decision, nor was it one we took lightly,” BCS said in a statement Saturday. “Alongside our stakeholders, we carefully weighed all the relevant factors in this important and complex decision of releasing a medal-potential athlete to one of our top competitors.

“Ultimately, we firmly believe that supporting our current athletes and the positive culture they have developed as a team will foster the environment we need to successfully grow our sport and slide onto the international podium both now, and in the future.

“These athletes and coaches deserve the opportunity to focus on their pursuit of excellence.”

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Humphries is free to join USA Bobsled, which was ready to welcome her when she obtained her release.

She lives in California and married former U.S. bobsledder Travis Armbruster earlier this month.

Humphries competed at national push trials in Lake Placid, N.Y., as a guest earlier this month. The World Cup season opens Nov. 29 in Park City, Utah, where Humphries could be wearing the stars and stripes.

“It has been my pleasure and the greatest honour of my life to represent you on the world’s stage wearing the Maple Leaf,” Humphries said in her statement.

“No words can adequately describe what is going through my head and my heart.”

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The pilot and brakewoman Heather Moyse won back-to-back gold in 2010 and 2014 making them the first women to repeat as Olympic champions.

The duo carried Canada’s flag at the 2014 closing ceremonies.

How did it get to the point where one of Canada’s most decorated Olympians wanted out and was willing to go to court to leave?

Mere months after winning an Olympic bronze medal with Phylicia George at the 2018 Winter Games, Humphries filed a harassment complaint Aug. 22 alleging the head coach verbally and mentally abused her and accusing BCS management of mishandling her concerns in violation of the organization’s own policies.

BCS handed the complaint to a third-party company that specializes in investigating such matters.

Hill Advisory Services concluded in its report made public earlier this month that “in the investigator’s opinion there has been no breach to relevant policy.”

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Humphries did not compete for Canada in 2018-19. She submitted a list of conditions in May under which she would return to the national team.

The list included a new coach and her own high-performance director, coverage of a suite of travel, training and competition costs, no direct contact with BCS management and backpay of Sport Canada Athletes Assistance money for the 2018-19 season, which amounted to $21,180.

BCS countered that its policy is not to negotiate with individual athletes on conditions for them to compete for Canada.

Humphries asked for her release on Aug. 3.

BCS said it would defer a decision until after the independent review of her harassment complaint was complete.

With a deadline looming, Humphries took BCS to court to force the issue with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit – which she said Sunday she will drop – and a request for an injunction forcing her release.

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A Calgary judge turned down Humphries’ request for an injunction Sept. 17, stating there were sports tribunals better equipped to handle the dispute.

BCS high-performance director Chris Le Bihan stated at the courthouse the organization still wanted Humphries on the national team, but it seemed the relationship had devolved past the point of no return.

Humphries took her case to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) that offers mediation and arbitration services for sport organizations that receive federal funding.

But before an arbitrator made a ruling, BCS decided to cut ties with Humphries.

As to whether the culture around the national team was “unsafe” as Humphries said, or this was a case of a personality clash, people with knowledge of the situation were reluctant to comment publicly because their livelihoods are still tied to the sport and its athletes.

The Canadian Press heard divergent opinions from people who gave them on the condition they not be identified. Humphries’ claims were both confirmed and refuted.

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Canadians athletes have competed for other countries before, but the emotional breach between Humphries and the organization that has overseen her career for a decade and a half is confounding.

“To all of those that are upset with me, I’m asking only that you try to understand how difficult this has been and I would have loved to continue to compete for Canada,” Humphries said.

The Canadian Press

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September 30, 2019 at 07:32AM

Jays win to finish out the season - Bluebird Banter

Rays 3 Blue Jays 8

That’s a wrap on the season.

Breyvic Valera had a very good game. We were making fun of the fact that we didn’t know his game, but he had a good enough game, so I had to make sure I got the spelling right. He made (at least) two excellent plays in the field, playing third base, he put down a very pretty bunt single and he hit a home run, the first of his career (on his 120th MLB at bat) and an RBI double in the seventh. He needed another at bat and a triple for the cycle. I don’t expect that he’ll be a Jay next year, but, if not, he had a very good game to finish his Jays career.

Clay Buchholz had a very good game too. 5 inning (it hurts my old man status to say 5 innings is a good start), 4 hits (2 that really were Teoscar Hernandez errors, but he played them so badly he didn’t get a glove on them. There is the lesson kids, screw up really badly it won’t be called an error), 1 earned (on a Ji-Man Choi home run), 1 walk and 6 strikeouts. The two balls misplayed by Teoscar, both for doubles, didn’t cost us on the scoreboard. It cost Clay a few pitches, but I don’t think he was going more than 5 today. Nice to see him end the season on a good note. I’m not expecting he’ll be back next year, but he did seem like a good teammate. Maybe he’ll find a job next year.

And Justin Smoak had two doubles and he made a nice pick at first base. I’m going to miss you Justin. I’ve enjoyed watching you develop into a very good major league player.

---

Considering the starting lineup didn’t look imposing at all, we scored a good number of runs:

• 2 in the first: Teoscar and Cavan Biggio starting the game off with back-to-back singles (Cavan continuing his on base streak to 29 games). Teoscar would steal third and Cavan, later, would get to second on a wild pitch, with both scoring on Justin Smoak’s first double of the day.
• 3 in the fourth: Valera had his bunt single and Jonathan Davis singled, setting up Teoscar’s 3-run homer. It wasn’t a cheapy, he crushed it.
• 1 in the sixth: Valera’s home run.
• 2 in the seventh: With two out we had back-to-back-to-back doubles from Tellez, Smoak and Valera. Smoak got a very nice hand from the crowd at Rogers Center and came out of the game, getting a standing ovation and a lot of hugs from his teammates.

We had 11 hits, 3 walks and Jonathan Davis got hit by pitch yet again.

Valera had 3 hits. Teoscar and Smoak had 2 hits each.

---

After Buchholz:

• Wilmer Font pitched 2 scoreless innings, giving up 1 hit, with 3 strikeouts.
• Jordan Romano got beat up in the eighth, giving up 3 hits, 2 earned, while getting just one out.
• Jason Adam gave up a single, scoring one of the runs against Romano. Then he got a double play ball, but the Jays only got one out, a poor throw by Biggio, and Billy McKinney couldn’t pick it. But Biggio made up for it with a nice catch on a line drive in short right, playing in the shift.
• Tepera pitched the ninth. He had a nice quick inning.

---

Blue Jays finish the season 67-95, so there is work to do in the future.

---

Jays of the Day: Buchholz (.140 WPA), Teoscar (.266, but should take some off that for the two mistakes in the field) and Smoak (.162).

No Suckage Jays. Grichuk had the low mark at -.073 for his 0 for 3.

---

I want to thank everyone for making the GameThreads so much fun this year. We’ll have open threads for the playoff games and we’ll be looking back at the season, over the next few months and looking at the future too. And there will be a bunch of looking out the window and waiting for spring. If you could look at my window, it is ugly out there now.

We had 403 comments in the thread. I led us to our last victory of the season.

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September 30, 2019 at 05:29AM

Maple Leafs Egor Korshkov looks like a hockey player - Pension Plan Puppets

On Saturday night, in the last game of preseason, the Maple Leafs blew away the Red Wings 5-0. The game-wining goal was scored 29 seconds into the action, and that was it. Game over.

Of course the point of a preseason game, beyond ticket sales, is not to win, but to decide who is going to be playing on your team. The Red Wings, who chose a punishing schedule of six games in seven days to end training camp, had already sent most of the juniors and young players with any spark of life off to other teams. They were left with Dylan Larkin and his uncles to play a beer league game where they were shocked when Ilya Mikheyev checked one of the remaining youngsters in a clean, not very hard, open-ice hit that was not dangerous, dirty, suspect or even much of a play. I’m reminded that it was the Red Wings two years ago that told William Nylander not to try so hard in preseason. They have a different culture there, not yet turning the corner on a tough and long-lasting decline and rebuild.

Egor Korshkov looked like he could be a top six player on the Red Wings.

Leaving aside that some of the guys they just cut to the Grand Rapids Griffins could be top six players if the Wings weren’t trying to tank, that’s still saying something about Korshkov’s ability to play at the lower end of the Leafs lineup.

Egor Korshkov is two years younger than Ilya Mikheyev, who seems to have locked down a job on the third line. Mikheyev, who was never drafted and didn’t really look all that hot by his boxcars back when he was younger, has been playing in the KHL since 2015. Korshkov, taken in the second round, has been playing in the KHL since 2014, albeit splitting that first year half-and-half with time in junior. Neither of them need to learn how to play pro hockey, and both of them have figured out the shooting angles and neutral zone pressure of NHL ice by now.

Korshkov had his KHL career interrupted twice by serious injuries which left him playing part seasons without proper training and not impressing anyone with his scoring stats. But he has a set of skills that can translate to the Leafs very easily. He’s tall, yes, but he’s kept the bulking up to a minimum, so he’s still agile around the net, which is where he likes to play. He’s a net-front screen in human form crossed with enough of a scoring threat to make him worth using on the power play in that spot. He’s tough along the wall, dogged on the puck, and he carries the puck beautifully. He’s got a move where he cycles around the net until a passing lane opens up that looks like William Nylander’s moves. I don’t think he’s much of a shot, but he’s good on the rush, and in the KHL, he played both special teams a lot.

You know what the Leafs have been scratching their heads over a little? Who should be the net-front guy on the second power play unit. It looks like Kasperi Kapanen will end up there, but while he’s got the will, he’s not got the immovable object thing down like Korshkov has.

In Saturday’s game, Korshkov, getting his second look with the mostly NHL team, started out on the fourth line with Nick Shore and Frederik Gauthier. He played five minutes at five-on-five with those two players. He also played over four minutes with Alexander Kerfoot and Ilya Mikheyev, primarily in the third period, when the game was so in the bag, the Red Wings bus was idling outside the door ready to flee the scene the second the horn blew. But that sure looked like more than just a chance to let the two Russians relax and play with each other for a while. Korshkov also played some on the first power-play unit, while starting the game on the second.

He has a huge hill to climb with most fans to get noticed. There is a large group of Leafs fans who are endlessly willing to tell you how they really don’t like that Korshkov was drafted. They wanted that zippy little winger, and the Leafs are particularly at fault for not drafting him, as opposed to all the other teams. None of which has anything to do with evaluation of Korshkov, but it explains the perception and the somewhat dogged insistence that the guy’s no good. I don’t think it helps that the usual suspects are unpleasantly slavering over the poor man for being larger than average. It’s natural to recoil from that in distaste.

When Korshkov came back from his injury last season, he played a few weeks in the KHL and then the playoffs were on him, where the totally expected result was that his team, a good yet never great team, got swept in the first round. He joined the Marlies, and look, I’m just going to say this bluntly. He was playing, as instructed, a very simple, stripped-down game, and there were many sniffs of disdain as evaluations were made that wilfully ignored that fact. It’s true that he didn’t look very impressive aside from the fact he couldn’t be bullied out from in front of the net, and he hit guys some of the time, and sniff we don’t like that, do we.

Well. I mean. I do.

A nice power forward never hurt any team. Let me digress for a second. There’s this truism that is attributed to a coach about how if you’re hitting a guy, you don’t have the puck, so if you’re hitting all the time, you’re bad, and it all sounds so right. Not just right, but righteous. No Hitting!!! It’s bad. Never hit, always have the puck, and just play zippy winger style all game long and forget that every team fails to have the puck somewhere north of 45% of the time. The constant possession, nothing but skill version of hockey is a pretty fantasy that’s not all that hard to understand, if you enjoy the speed and finesse of a player like Nylander or Marner or Bracco or Kapanen or Moore or Mikheyev or Timashov or Johnsson or... you know, I don’t think a little more oomph and a little less oooooh ahhh is going to poison the well of the Leafs. I think it’s okay if Korshkov plays hockey while big.

And on the very superficial evidence of a couple of preseason games played with real linemates, and some obvious improvement in his English skills, I think he could be on the Leafs fourth line and play that net-front annoyance role on the power play.

It’s a simple matter to slot him in with Jason Spezza, Gauthier, Nic Petan, or really any other options, and run a 22-man roster which is plenty of players to open the season with. Rasmus Sandin fits, Korshkov fits, and the team is just waiting for Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott to be better.

There’s no reason to worry about nine games with Korshkov, his ELC can’t slide, so it expires in 2021, no matter what anyone does. Forty games played giving him a year towards UFA status isn’t an issue because he’s already 23. The only issue to consider with his games played is that he loses his waiver exemption after 60.

The real problem is that Korshkov’s $925,000 ELC means that a long-term plan that includes him and Sandin has to be a permanent 20-man roster. And that’s pretty hard to justify just to get one guy getting on the ice if all he is is another Trevor Moore.

But there’s a special plus to Korshkov on the team. He is waiver exempt and on the bottom end of the depth chart, and if you want to switch out a guy to allow a goalie or a defender to come in for a few games because someone has a minor injury, you can pop Korshkov off the roster and call up anyone you need. The flexibility of having a forward (other than Mikheyev) who doesn’t need waivers is a big argument in favour of keeping him up. And keeping Korshkov’s games on the NHL roster below 60 is exactly what the Leafs should do to maintain maximum flexibility, so a little time riding the elevator to the Marlies and back is to be expected.

Of course, he’d need to look like a hockey player, not a guy who needed some AHL time. But my take on this team after watching that very large group of depth signings compete for a job is that I’d take Matt Read over most of them, Nic Petan over all of them, and Korshkov over Petan, at least to start. Korshkov’s game is a better fit for the role the team has open. His skillset is more like Moore’s, and he played on the third line against the moribund Red Wings and didn’t look out of place.

I don’t want to get into this, because I believe in recognizing what’s done is done and getting over it. But .93 million per year in extra cap space sure would come in handy right now. Sandin comes first when making these decisions, that’s without question. And if what’s right for him and the team is that he stays in the NHL, he should. If Korshkov ends up back in the AHL when he could be in the NHL because of how tight the cap space is, so be it. But it pisses me off.

He’s a pro. He’s a pro who knows he needs to keep working on English, the pedal to the metal Leafs style of play, and every other thing that living in Toronto will bring. He’s not going to blow off a year in the AHL. So it’s not going to really hurt him, but it feels like the door to him really earning his way onto the Leafs is barred, and that’s never what you want for any prospect.

I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.

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September 30, 2019 at 12:05AM

Paralyzed former Humboldt Broncos player makes Adidas ad, hall of fame nominee list - Global News

An ad shows a serious Ryan Straschnitzki taping up his hockey stick and pulling on an Adidas jersey before he slides away on an ice sled.“As a kid I always dreamed of playing for Team Canada… and I still do,” Straschnitzki narrates in the commercial.“You know, when one door closes, another one opens.”The 20-year-old from Airdrie, Alta., was paralyzed from the chest down after a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team crashed into a semi truck that ran a stop sign in April 2018.Sixteen people were killed and 13, including Straschnitzki, were injured in the collision in rural Saskatchewan.Watch below: Some Global News videos about the Humboldt Broncos bus crash and the aftermath.Former Humboldt Broncos player Tyler Smith opens up about emotional injuries suffered in bus crash

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September 29, 2019 at 11:13PM

NASA news: Astronaut posts incredible rocket launch photo from International Space Station - Express.co.uk

Christina Koch has shared an incredible image of a Soyuz MS 15 rocket en route to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS). The NASA flight engineer posted the photo on Twitter on Wednesday with the accompanying caption: “What it looks like from @Space_Station when your best friend achieves her lifelong dream to go to space.” The out-of-this-world image shows the Soyuz MS-15 rocket leaving Earth’s atmosphere towards the ISS.

The Expedition 61 rocket sent three people to the iconic space laboratory orbiting 250 miles (400km) over Earth.

Accompanying Jessica Meir, NASA astronaut and Ms Koch’s best friend, were Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, Hazzaa Ali Almansoori from the United Arab Emirates.

The NASA astronauts, who met during preparatory training, are now reunited in space where they will work together until February 2020.

Ms Koch added in another post: “Caught the second stage in progress! We can’t wait to welcome you on board, crew of Soyuz 61!”

READ MORE: Russian Soyuz rocket struck by LIGHTNING in shock footage

The Soyuz successfully docked to the ISS at 8.42pm BST (3.42pm ET) on the same day of the launch.

NASA has revealed how Expedition 61 will involve the ISS crew installing new lithium-ion batteries for two of the station’s solar array power channels in series of spacewalks.

Spacewalks are also scheduled for upgrading and repairing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS).

This is an important scientific instrument housed outside the space station to study dark matter and the origins of the Universe.

READ MORE: Elon Musk tweets first look at Starship Rocket

When Christina Koch finally heads home, she will have completed 355 days in space, the longest single spaceflight by a woman.

The NASA astronaut frequently shares stunning images of her enviable view from space.

Earlier this year, the NASA astronaut shared a detailed image of the Earth transition from day into night.

She captioned the photo: “A couple times a year, the @Space_Station orbit happens to align over the day/night shadow line on Earth.

READ MORE: Royal Observatory reveals best space photos

“We are continuously in sunlight, never passing into Earth’s shadow from the Sun, and the Earth below us is always in dawn or dusk.

The NASA astronaut added: “Beautiful time to cloud watch. #nofilter.”

The International Space Station orbits roughly 220 miles above the Earth and completes one trip around our planet every 92 minutes.

ISS travels at an astonishing 17,200mph (27,600kmh), allowing astronauts to be able to see as many as 15 or 16 sunrises and sunsets every day.

READ MORE: Telescope captures multicolour photo of first-ever interstellar comet

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2019-09-30 09:20:00Z
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Kaillie Humphries writes to Canada: 'Thank you' - CBC News

Kaillie Humphries and Canada's governing body of bobsled didn't quite call a truce, but they severed a relationship that was unsalvageable.

Humphries expressed mixed emotions in a statement Sunday after Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton's announcement the previous evening she would be granted her request for a release. 

🇨🇦 <a href="https://t.co/WPMXC8AGsK">pic.twitter.com/WPMXC8AGsK</a>

&mdash;@BobsledKaillie

The clock was ticking on Humphries, as the two-time Olympic champion required that release by Monday in order to compete for the United States this season.

"Today I don't know how to feel," Humphries wrote. "While I am very happy this purgatory has ended after over a year of trying to get my concerns and the concerns of other athletes taken seriously, I am also very sad to not compete under my flag any longer."

So the 34-year-old Calgarian, who has dominated international women's bobsled for much of her 15 years on the national team, got her wish — except she didn't.

BCS was also in a no-win situation. 

The organization faced criticism whether it left Humphries in limbo or released an athlete it has invested time and money in to compete for a rival powerhouse team.

"This was not an easy decision, nor was it one we took lightly," BCS said in a statement Saturday. "Alongside our stakeholders, we carefully weighed all the relevant factors in this important and complex decision of releasing a medal-potential athlete to one of our top competitors.

"Ultimately, we firmly believe that supporting our current athletes and the positive culture they have developed as a team will foster the environment we need to successfully grow our sport and slide onto the international podium both now, and in the future.

"These athletes and coaches deserve the opportunity to focus on their pursuit of excellence."

Humphries is free to join USA Bobsled, which was ready to welcome her when she obtained her release.

She lives in California and married former U.S. bobsledder Travis Armbruster earlier this month.

Humphries competed at national push trials in Lake Placid, N.Y., as a guest earlier this month. The World Cup season opens Nov. 29 in Park City, Utah.

Humphries could be wearing the stars and stripes at Canada's World Cup stop Dec. 13-14 in Whistler, B.C.

"It has been my pleasure and the greatest honour of my life to represent you on the world's stage wearing the Maple Leaf," Humphries said in her statement.

"No words can adequately describe what is going through my head and my heart."

The pilot and brakewoman Heather Moyse won back-to-back gold in 2010 and 2014 making them the first women to repeat as Olympic champions.

The duo carried Canada's flag at the 2014 closing ceremonies.

Strained relationship

How did it get to the point where one of Canada's most decorated Olympians wanted out and was willing to go to court to leave?

Mere months after winning an Olympic bronze medal with Phylicia George at the 2018 Winter Games, Humphries filed a harassment complaint Aug. 22 alleging the head coach verbally and mentally abused her and accusing BCS management of mishandling her concerns in violation of the organization's own policies.

BCS handed the complaint to a third-party company that specializes in investigating such matters.

Hill Advisory Services concluded in its report made public earlier this month that "in the investigator's opinion there has been no breach to relevant policy."

Humphries did not compete for Canada in 2018-19. She submitted a list of conditions in May under which she would return to the national team.

The list included a new coach and her own high-performance director, coverage of a suite of travel, training and competition costs, no direct contact with BCS management and backpay of Sport Canada Athletes Assistance money for the 2018-19 season, which amounted to $21,180.

BCS countered its policy is not to negotiate with individual athletes on conditions for them to compete for Canada.

Humphries asked for her release Aug. 3.

BCS said it would defer a decision until after the independent review of her harassment complaint was complete.

With a deadline looming, Humphries took BCS to court to force the issue with a multi-million-dollar lawsuit — which she said Sunday she will drop — and a request for an injunction forcing her release.

A Calgary judge turned down Humphries' request for an injunction Sept. 17, stating there were sports tribunals better equipped to handle the dispute.

BCS high-performance director Chris Le Bihan stated at the courthouse the organization still wanted Humphries on the national team, but it seemed the relationship had devolved past the point of no return.

Humphries took her case to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) that offers mediation and arbitration services for sport organizations that receive federal funding.

But before an arbitrator made a ruling, BCS decided to cut ties with Humphries.

As to whether the culture around the national team was "unsafe" as Humphries said, or this was a case of a personality clash, people with knowledge of the situation were reluctant to comment publicly because their livelihoods are still tied to the sport and its athletes.

The Canadian Press heard divergent opinions from people who gave them on the condition they not be identified. Humphries' claims were both confirmed and refuted.

Canadians athletes have competed for other countries before, but the emotional breach between Humphries and the organization that has overseen her career for a decade and a half is confounding.

"To all of those that are upset with me, I'm asking only that you try to understand how difficult this has been and I would have loved to continue to compete for Canada," Humphries said.

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September 30, 2019 at 03:06AM

Patriots stay undefeated after hanging on to beat Bills - Sportsnet.ca

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — On a day Tom Brady was far less than terrific, J.C. Jackson and New England’s defence bailed him out in securing the Patriots’ first 4-0 start in four years.

The Buffalo Bills, meanwhile, dropped to 3-1 following a 16-10 loss on Sunday and were left fuming after starting quarterback Josh Allen was unable to finish the game following a helmet-to-helmet hit by Jonathan Jones.

"There is no room in football for that," coach Sean McDermott said and questioned why Jones wasn’t ejected.

It was a defensive slugfest between two AFC East rivals in a game the Patriots seemed ready to blow open by building a 13-0 lead after the first quarter.

Jackson had two of the Patriots’ four interceptions and also blocked a punt that led to Matthew Slater returning it 11 yards for a touchdown. Linebacker Jamie Collins sealed the victory by coming down with backup Matt Barkley’s interception with 1:27 remaining.

Linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who pressured Barkley in forcing the interception, said the Patriots defence took exception to comments Bills tackle Dion Dawkins made earlier in the week. Dawkins told several reporters the Bills didn’t care what the Patriots had done in their first three games because they had yet to face Buffalo.

"Just wanted to make sure Dawkins knew who we were," Van Noy said. "We’ve got really good football players. Maybe people will start noticing."

New England entered having not allowed a touchdown rushing or passing, or a point in the first half. Both streaks ended with Stephen Hauschka hitting a 46-yard field goal with 1:55 left in the second quarter, and Allen diving over the pile for a 1-yard touchdown on fourth-and-1 to cap Buffalo’s opening drive of the second half.

Brady finished 18 of 39 for 150 yards and an interception.

The Patriots’ 16 points were scored as a result of Bills miscues. Brandon Bolden scored on a 4-yard run after Devin McCourty intercepted Allen on Buffalo’s opening drive. Stephen Gostkowski, who missed an extra point wide left, hit a 23-yard field goal set up by Jackson’s second interception.

Allen was knocked woozy and placed in the concussion protocol, leaving his status uncertain for Buffalo’s game at Tennessee next weekend.

The Bills were facing third-down-8 at the New England 45, when Allen scrambled out of the pocket and through a hole up the middle. With defensive back Duron Harmon coming in from the quarterback’s right, Allen was struck in the crown of the helmet by Jones, who lowered his head to make the hit.

Allen lay on the field for several minutes before hopping up on his own. He was briefly evaluated on the sideline before being escorted up the tunnel. Allen was spotted walking around in the locker room following the game.

Bills safety Micah Hyde immediately questioned why Jones drew only a personal foul for unnecessary roughness and wasn’t also ejected from the game.

"If one of us did that to 12, we wouldn’t have been in the game anymore," Hyde said, referring to Brady’s number. "That’s our quarterback. We ride or die with him. To see that happen, Josh didn’t slide, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you’re a running back, you can’t head to the head."

Jones defended the hit saying it was never his intent to hurt Allen.

"No malice or intent. Just a part of football," Jones said. "We’re just running around playing football. I hope he’s OK. I’m going to check on him."

NFL officiating chief Al Riveron told a pool reporter the decision to not eject Jones came because the hit did not rise to the level of the league standard for disqualification.

"There was a foul called and obviously the penalty stood, but we did not feel this contact rose to that level," Riveron said, who also noted Jones was turning his head just before hitting Allen.

Though Brady didn’t play much of a factor, he upped his career record to 31-3 against Buffalo — extending the NFL career mark for most victories by a quarterback against one opponent. New England won its sixth straight against the Bills and improved to 34-5 against Buffalo since the start of the 2000 season.

Scoring didn’t come easy in a game in which the teams combined for 14 punts and one which was blocked.

Another key Patriots stop came on the drive Allen was hurt. With Buffalo facing fourth-and-goal from the 2, Barkley threw a high pass that glanced off receiver Zay Jones’ fingertips five minutes into the fourth quarter.

Allen finished 13 of 28 for 153 yards and three interceptions. Barkley went 9 of 16 for 127 yards and an interception.

BAD BRADY

Brady’s 45.9 passer rating was the sixth lowest of his career and lowest since finishing with a 34 rating in a 27-20 loss to Indianapolis on Nov. 5, 2006. The Patriots had lost the previous six times Brady finished with a passer rating of 48 or lower.

GORE REACHES 15,000

Running back Frank Gore led Buffalo with 109 yards rushing, and in the process became the fourth player in NFL history to top 15,000 yards rushing. The 36-year-old entered the game needing 88 yards. He topped 100 yards rushing for the 45th time of his career.

UP NEXT

Patriots: At Washington on Oct. 6.

Bills: At Tennessee on Oct. 6.

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September 30, 2019 at 04:38AM