Selasa, 01 Oktober 2019

Tuesday Chat: Thoughts about another Toronto Maple Leafs season - Pension Plan Puppets

Over the past season, we fans of our beloved Toronto Maple Leafs have been through a lot. We dealt with three major RFA negotiations. William Nylander went to the absolute final deadline and he struggled due to missed time, and we had to hear constant crap about him making $10 million (he didn’t), his contract was bad (it’s not), and he had to be traded (he won’t).

Auston Matthews was thankfully signed before the off-season and it seemed like a lot for the term he got, leading people to again say that it was an overpay (it wasn’t), Dubas fucked up again (he didn’t), and he did it so he can leave for Arizona as soon as possible (not very likely).

Then was Mitch Marner, and the hell that was the “leaks” and negotiations through the media. I won’t even say it was just Marner’s camp that played that game, as it seems like right before he signed the Leafs “leaked” some stuff to put pressure on him. And, once again, we got the same old arguments about him being overpaid (he did), and Dubas fucked up for a third time (only the first time), and he let Marner reset the RFA market (lol nope).

In the middle of all of that, we had to deal with losing to the god damned Bruins again. This time they didn’t look overmatched, in fact it looked like they were the better team for a lot of the series. But another first-round loss is another first-round loss, and frustrations grew all through the year before the playoffs even started — because we could see the Bruins matchup coming for weeks if not months.

It led to calls for Babcock to be fired and then some ludicrous narratives around him being anti-youth, anti-skill, anti-analytics, and so on. And then this year, the Leafs have stupidly high odds of facing either the Lighting or the Bruins in the first round and no team has even played a regular season game.

And then Matthews had to be a massive pillock just as he was maybe going to be named captain oh but actually the Leafs ALWAYS meant it to be John Tavares or Morgan Rielly pay no attention to Ace Ventura behind the curtain.

But you know what? That’s all done. Part of the agony was going through the cycle of grief, and a search for something to fill the void of real hockey so we had something to talk about. But now hockey is back, and we had a taste of it in this pre-season that I think has a lot of us very excited for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2019/20 season.

We saw Babcock rave and choose to keep (so far) 19 year old Rasmus Sandin, small and skilled Dmytro Timashov, and guys like Ilya Mikheyev and Trevor Moore over [insert other depth guy who is bigger and older and less skilled (in theory)].

We saw Marner and Nylander and Matthews on the ice and remembered that oh yeah, the reason why we have so many players on expensive contracts is because we have so many great players.

We saw their depth, a big problem for them last year, play an entire lineup of “AHL” players beat another team playing most of their NHL roster. Twice! We saw their NHL lineup absolute toy with and destroy other teams.

We’re seeing a roster that has been picked as basically the 2nd or 3rd best team in the entire NHL for the year. It sucks that all of the top three teams are in our division, but still... the Leafs have built a damn good team. They have the best group of defense that I can remember in a long time, and is especially built for the style of play the Leafs have.

I’m not going to predict how this season will go (except in the upcoming predictions post where we were all surveyed), but I will say that this year will be a lot of fun. No more contract negotiations, no more drama (knocks on wood), just a damn good hockey team. It’s time to have fun watching hockey again. It’s time to watch our embarrassment of riches in the form of elite, skilled and fast talent wreck other teams’ shit.

It’s time to get.... Back to Excited!

ONTO THE LINKS

Maple Leafs announce roster cuts | by Katya

Matt Read signed to an AHL deal | by Katya

Marlies and Growlers training camp rosters are out | by Katya

Rasmus Sandin leaves no doubt he’s ready to play for the Maple Leafs | by Jonas Siegel at The Athletic

Mike Babcock on Rasmus Sandin: “The more situations we put him in, the more he just played well” | transcript by MLHS

We don’t need to write off Liljegren to write in Sandin | by Ryan Fancey at TLN, who picked just an absolutely fantastic photo to go with the article.

Last, let’s take a look at our fresh new NHL roster going into our first game on Wednesday.

AROUND THE NHL

Speaking of the Leafs being an elite team and having an absurd amount of depth, if you looked at all of the depth forwards the Leafs were looking at, how many do you think would be good enough to make the Oilers’ NHL roster?

Nick Suzuki made the Montreal Canadiens.

Ville Heinola made the Winnipeg Jets.

On Sidney Crosby’s special trip to Rimouski, where tears fell and time stood still | by Josh Yoke at The Athletic

The NHL announces how they will reach out to tap into a new and more diverse fanbase. White dudes who in their 30’s or 40’s.

Have a great Monday everyone!



from Sports - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2oUL38t
via IFTTT
October 01, 2019 at 05:00PM
By di Tidak ada komentar:
Label: ,

Steelers stomp Bengals at home to break out of funk - Sportsnet.ca

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers insisted they might have been winless through three weeks, but they were far from hopeless. They stressed the process of finding an identity with franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger out for the season with an elbow injury would take time and a collective effort from all involved.

An effort that looked an awful lot like what they put together during a 27-3 pounding of Cincinnati on Monday night.

Mason Rudolph threw for 229 yards and two scores. Running back, part-time wide receiver and occasional wildcat quarterback Jaylen Samuels accounted for 134 yards of total offence and a 2-yard touchdown run. James Conner emerged from an early funk to run for 42 yards and catch eight passes for 83 yards and a score. The defence sacked Andy Dalton eight times and held the Bengals scoreless over the final 51 minutes.

It wasn’t perfect. But it was a start. One that helped the Steelers (1-3) avoid their second 0-4 start in 51 years and reaffirmed their belief that they can find a way forward without Roethlisberger.

"It’s huge," Samuels said. "Coming in 0-3 and coming back, getting a divisional game, that’s huge. We’ve just got to build off this game."

With Pittsburgh’s running game going nowhere through three weeks, running backs coach Eddie Faulkner suggested to offensive co-ordinator Randy Fichtner that it might be time to dust off the wildcat. Samuels ran it frequently during his college career at N.C. State, and the Bengals (0-4) certainly looked caught off guard when Samuels lined up in the shotgun and started distributing the ball like a point guard. Sometimes he’d hand it off to Conner. Others he’d "throw" a "pop" pass to a teammate running in motion in front of him. Still others he opted to keep it himself, including on his third-quarter touchdown in which he strolled into the end zone after the Bengals bit on a fake handoff.

"We knew if we could get a lot of guys going sideways, it was going to mess them up a little bit so that’s what we did," Samuels said. "It was working. … We were picking up five, six yards every play. They couldn’t stop it."

Samuels ran for 26 yards on 10 carries, caught eight passes for 57 more and was credited with three completions for 31 yards. Conner had 14 touches for 125 yards in all, including a 21-yard sprint through the Cincinnati defence in the second quarter that gave the Steelers a lead they never came close to squandering while beating the Bengals for the ninth straight time.

WOE AND 4

Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor became the second first-year coach to drop his first four games with the Bengals. Sam Wyche started 0-5 in 1984 but helped his team rebound to an 8-8 finish. Taylor’s task of getting Cincinnati back to respectability will be far harder if he can’t figure out a way to protect Dalton.

"To be quite honest, it starts with me," Taylor said. "I’ve got to make sure the standard is higher than what it is right now, because I haven’t done a good enough job."

The eight sacks Dalton endured were a career-high for the nine-year veteran, who also threw an end zone interception in the fourth quarter and was strip-sacked by Pittsburgh’s outside linebacker Bud Dupree in the second quarter. T.J. Watt fell on the ball and the Steelers were off and running. Dalton finished 21 of 37 for 171 yards, stressing he felt "fine" physically and that he’s not panicking.

"Everybody is going to stick together," Dalton said. "We have from the beginning, regardless of the circumstances of these games, we’ve stuck together. And so I don’t expect that to change."

Tyler Boyd, elevated to the No. 1 receiver while A.J. Green recovers from ankle surgery, was held to three receptions for 33 yards on the same field where he starred in college at Pitt.

"Personally I hate being embarrassed," Boyd said. "At the end of the day, I can take the losing. But when you go out there and get embarrassed, Monday night, prime time . I got too much pride to go out there and showcase what we showcased. It was just awful overall."

RUDOLPH ROLLS

Rudolph was uneven at best in his first career start last week in San Francisco after being thrust into the gig for the rest of the season while Roethlisberger rehabs from elbow surgery. Rudolph was considerably sharper against Cincinnati, though he wasn’t asked to do much other than find the closest open man –usually Conner or Samuels — and keep the sticks moving. He completed 24 of 28 passes, the only deep shot a 43-yard strike to Diontae Johnson in the third quarter that broke it open.

"Our message all week was stack one (win) and then start stacking more," said Rudolph, who was awarded the game ball by head coach Mike Tomlin.

INJURIES

Bengals: WR John Ross III left in the third quarter with a right-shoulder injury. … LT Cordy Glenn missed his fourth straight game while recovering from a concussion and Cincinnati’s protection problems continued. The Bengals have now surrendered 19 sacks through four games.

Steelers: TE Vance McDonald sat out with a right shoulder injury. Nick Vannett, acquired in a trade with Seattle last week, started and caught two passes for 28 yards.

UP NEXT

Bengals: Host Arizona next Sunday. The Cardinals won the last meeting, 34-31, in 2015.

Steelers: Welcome AFC North rival Baltimore to Pittsburgh on Sunday. The teams split the season series last year, both winning at home.



from Sports - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2nit2k8
via IFTTT
October 01, 2019 at 10:31AM
By di Tidak ada komentar:
Label: ,

Canada just wants to play better with All Blacks next - TSN

FUKUOKA, Japan — Playing much better than it did against Italy is Canada's foremost goal heading toward the Rugby World Cup game against defending champion New Zealand on Wednesday in Oita.

Canada was hugely disappointing and disappointed in losing to Italy 48-7 last Thursday in Fukuoka, but found some positives in its opening match. Canada bombed one try in the first half, had another disallowed in the second half for a forward deflection, and finally scored while Italy led 36-0.

"We had a review meeting yesterday that highlighted the amount of opportunities we had," scrumhalf Gordon McRorie said on Sunday. "The fact we didn't finish them is hugely disappointing.

"But having seen those opportunities we created, it was a big positive for us, so the guys are excited now to keep to the script. Going forward, just tidying up on our finishing skills and making sure that we're able to create those opportunities again ... hopefully this time we'll nail them down and get some points on the board.

---

Follow Team Canada's journey at the Rugby World Cup with TSN Direct, the exclusive streaming service from TSN. Stream every match, live and on demand, all tournament long! Subscribe Now >

---

The Italy result underlines Canada's prospects of a thrashing from top-ranked New Zealand. But McRorie said they were looking forward to meeting the All Blacks for the first time in eight years, since the 2011 World Cup.

"Playing against the best team in the world is a great opportunity for us to really challenge ourselves and a big result for us would be if we can improve on our performance from Italy," McRorie added.

"You have just got to acknowledge who you're playing against, and then after that concentrate on yourself, on your own performance, on the team performance. We could revere and preview New Zealand all we like, but at the end of the day it's us that have to go on the field and represent Canada so it's what we can do in that jersey that counts."

Canada has also welcomed centre Guiseppe du Toit and fullback Theo Sauder as replacements in the squad for Ben LeSage and Nick Blevins.

Le Sage and Blevins suffered tournament-ending injuries against Italy; LeSage needs surgery on a hand and Blevins received a broken jaw.

"You never want to see your friends get hurt," Sauder said, "but we're here and ready to help when we can."

___

More AP Rugby World Cup: https://ift.tt/2LShBIb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports



from Sports - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2o9PwnC
via IFTTT
September 30, 2019 at 09:46PM
By di Tidak ada komentar:
Label: ,

Babies in the womb have lizard-like hand muscles - BBC News

Babies in the womb have extra lizard-like muscles in their hands that most will lose before they are born, medical scans reveal.

They are probably one of the oldest, albeit fleeting, remnants of evolution seen in humans yet, biologists say, in the journal Development.

They date them as 250 million years old - a relic from when reptiles transitioned to mammals.

It is unclear why the human body makes and then deletes them before birth.

The biologists say the developmental step may be what makes thumbs dextrous. Thumbs, unlike other digits, retain an extra muscle.

Rarely, some children and adults have been found to have a few of the extra finger and hand muscles but never all of the dorsometacarpales the biologists saw when they looked at 3D scans of embryos and foetuses at seven to 13 weeks' gestation.

When they do persist, they are sometimes linked with limb deformities. And the biologists say their findings, in 15 developing babies, might help shed light on these types of birth defects.

Lead author Dr Rui Diogo, from the Howard University, in the US, said: "We have a lot of muscles going to the thumb, very precise thumb movements, but we lost a lot of muscles that are going to the other digits.

"In our evolution, we do not need them so much.

"Why are they there? Probably, we cannot just say in evolution, 'Look, I will delete from scratch, from day zero, the muscle going to digits two, three, four, five and I will just keep the one going to the thumb.'

"Probably it is not so easy. Probably you have to form this layer of this muscle and then it disappears on the other digits but persists on the thumbs."

Useless body parts?

He said the structures were more striking than other evolutionary remnants humans retained, such as the apparently redundant appendix, wisdom teeth and coccyx.

"These muscles were lost 250 million years ago," Dr Diogo said.

"No adult mammal, no rat, no dog has those muscles. It's impressive. It was really a long time ago.

"It used to be that we had more understanding of the early development of fishes, frogs, chicken and mice than in our own species but these new techniques allow us to see human development in much greater detail."

Dr Sergio Almécija, an anthropologist who studies ape and human evolution, at the American Museum of Natural History, said the findings provided a deeper appreciation of human development but raised many questions.

"The novelty of this study is that it allows us to visualise - with precision - when exactly during our development some structures appear and/or disappear," he said.

"The important question for me now is, 'What else are we missing? What will we find when all the human body is inspected at this detail during its development?

"'What is causing certain structure to disappear and then to appear again? We can now see how it happens but what about the why?"

The biologists are planning more work looking at other parts of the human body in detail.

They have already studied the feet and know extra muscles develop and disappear there too while babies grow in the womb.

Monkeys and apes still have these muscles and use them to climb and manipulate objects with their feet.

Dr Diogo said: "Some of the things we are losing, it's not that we are getting better humans and more progress. No. We are really losing things that will make super-humans.

"Super-humans would be keeping those muscles because you would be able to move all your digits, including your feet, as thumbs.

"We lost them because we do not need them."

Let's block ads! (Why?)


https://www.bbc.com/news/health-49876827

2019-10-01 09:28:16Z
CBMiKGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy9oZWFsdGgtNDk4NzY4MjfSASxodHRwczovL3d3dy5iYmMuY29tL25ld3MvYW1wL2hlYWx0aC00OTg3NjgyNw
By di Tidak ada komentar:

The hidden planet in our solar system could be a primordial black hole - CNET

planetix.jpg

Artist's concept of Planet Nine... but is it actually a planet?

 Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)

Astronomers have long speculated about the existence of "Planet 9", a super-Earth-sized planet in the outer regions of our solar system. It's been hypothesized as an explanation for the unusual clustering of asteroids and comet orbits out beyond Neptune. 

The planet, if it did exist, would most likely be five times the size of Earth and orbit the sun at 250 times the distance. Being so far away, we haven't been able to catch a glimpse of it yet. 

The mysterious, hidden planet is, of course, just a hypothesis at this point and there have been other explanations for the strange paths taken by objects like asteroids. Now there's a new theory: a black hole. A primordial black hole to be more precise. 

Primordial black holes are hypothetical black holes that originated soon after the Big Bang. Compared to other black holes, a PBH is old and small. Their existence has been difficult to prove -- as authors James Unwin and Jakub Scholtz speculated to Gizmodo, this primordial black hole could be the size of a bowling ball. Weirdly enough, the black hole is small enough for Unwin and Scholtz to include a 1:1 diagram of it in their paper, released on pre-print website arXiv.

At that size though, it may be impossible to spot. Can you imagine trying to spot completely black bowling ball on the other side of the solar system? Me neither. 

Regardless, the new paper suggests the strange orbits in the outer regions of our solar system could be the result of one of these primordial black holes.

A bowling ball sized black hole of the outer reaches of the solar system is an outlandish theory, but at this point it's no less plausible than the existence of super Earth sized planet. Both scenarios would be equally exciting for astronomers.

Let's block ads! (Why?)


https://www.cnet.com/news/the-hidden-planet-in-our-solar-system-could-be-a-primordial-black-hole/

2019-10-01 05:44:00Z
52780395509410
By di Tidak ada komentar:

Senin, 30 September 2019

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.

FANTASY POOL ALERT!

Play the Sportsnet Fantasy Hockey Pool presented by RAM for your chance to drive away with a 2020 RAM 1500 Sport or win cash prizes! It's FREE and easy to play!

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.”

Home of the Maple Leafs

Stream 56 Maple Leafs games this season with Sportsnet NOW. Get over 500 NHL games, blackout-free, including Hockey Night in Canada, all outdoor games, the All-Star Game, 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs and more.

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.”



from Sports - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2o04pIO
via IFTTT
October 01, 2019 at 02:48AM
By di Tidak ada komentar:
Label: ,

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.



from Sports - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2oRxbMx
via IFTTT
September 30, 2019 at 10:26PM
By di Tidak ada komentar:
Label: ,
Langganan: Postingan (Atom)