The relaunch of the Winnipeg Jets offers a feel-good story to start this season’s National Hockey League campaign and helps push back dark clouds that hovered over the hockey world after a grim offseason.
While the Jets are back after a 15-year absence, the unknown return date for Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby remains a disturbing concern as hockey’s biggest name continues a slow, tedious recovery from a concussion.
Hot-button issues such as hits to the head, player safety and the financial health of several franchises will grab a good share of the early-season headlines, while negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement and whether to commit to the 2014 Sochi Winter Games will creep into the hockey discussion.
However, the NHL will put these nagging distractions aside to celebrate the new season in grand style with games on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as the Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers open their campaigns on European ice with games in Berlin, Helsinki and Stockholm.
This season’s campaign begins today with an “Original Six” matchup when the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Montreal Canadiens, while the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins raise their championship banner to the rafters before taking on a revamped Philadelphia Flyers squad.
The Penguins and Vancouver Canucks complete the opening night lineup, but the curtain-raiser will not include Crosby, who will start the season on injured reserve.
Out of action since early January, Crosby will accompany the Penguins to the West Coast, but confirmed he has not yet fully recovered from concussion symptoms and will not play, giving no date for his long-awaited return.
Crosby’s absence has put the spotlight on hits to the head and Brendan Shanahan, the newly appointed NHL vice-president of player safety, appears to have seen the light.
No stranger to league disciplinarians during his 21-year NHL career, Shanahan has shown a zero-tolerance approach by handing out an unprecedented number of bans in the preseason, a clear signal that targeting heads will no longer be tolerated.
However, hangovers are acceptable and there are likely to be plenty around the Canadian Prairies next week.
There is no doubt the biggest hockey party will be in the NHL’s smallest market as Winnipeg welcomes back the Jets after a 15-year absence.
The relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg sparked a burst of national pride as hockey-mad Canada reclaimed one of its lost franchises that some believed was gone forever.
Giddy Winnipeggers have been celebrating ever since the NHL made the announcement in May and the party kicks into high gear with the team’s season and home opener against Montreal set for Sunday.
However, opening night festivities in Winnipeg are likely to begin on a sombre note as Jets fans remember forward Rick Rypien, whose death contributed to the NHL’s dark offseason.
Over the span of four months the deaths of Rypien, New York Rangers winger Derek Boogaard and former Maple Leafs tough guy Wade Belak left the hockey community reeling.
All three men earned their living as NHL enforcers and the eerie similarities prompted the league to investigate the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung on Sunday topped the men’s horizontal bar event at the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, scoring 15.233 to take his third title this season. Tang delivered an outstanding performance in the final, earning a difficulty score of 6.500 and an execution score of 8.633 with a 0.1 stick bonus. His closest competitor was Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, who finished second with 14.933 points. It was Tang’s third gold medal in the FIG World Cup series this year, following his horizontal bar wins in Azerbaijan on March 8, and in Turkey on March
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Ninad Malwade was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
OBJECTIVE REACHED: ’Now for us, it’s about getting healthy, making sure everybody is ready to go, and we can ramp up,’ the Atlanta Hawks’ C.J. McCollum said after the game The Atlanta Hawks on Friday secured an NBA playoff berth with a 124-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers as the Boston Celtics locked up the Eastern Conference second seed with a lopsided win of their own. C.J. McCollum scored a game-high 29 points for the Hawks, who came into the contest at sixth in the East and still in danger of falling into the play-in tournament that would see the seventh-through 10th-placed teams battle for the last two playoff berths in each conference. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson scored 18 points apiece, and Dyson Daniels added a triple-double of 13
RSS