Month: October 2021

CALGARY — As expected, Mark Giordano stole the show in his return to Calgary Wednesday night.

It took less than 30 seconds into the opening national anthem for Saddledome faithful to start cheering for the longtime Flames captain.

Those cheers turned into a spontaneous roar when he got the puck off the opening draw.

Soon thereafter he exchanged shoves with Elias Lindholm after a hit in front of the Flames’ bench, reminding us all, life goes on.

Giving a crowd of roughly 9,000 what they wanted (well, sort of), Giordano opened the scoring three minutes in with a backhand that found its way through Dan Vladar to open the scoring.

Cue the “Gio, Gio” chants.

“It was nice to see the fans giving him the Gio chants during and between anthems,” smiled Milan Lucic, following the Flames 4-3 shootout loss to Giordano’s Seattle Kraken. “I think it will go up a notch Dec. 23 when he has his real comeback to Calgary. For him I’m sure it was nice to get a goal in Calgary — his first with Seattle.”

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The Flames hastily cobbled together a short tribute video that was played for Giordano midway through the first period, which he followed by jumping over the boards to take a few twirls saluting and thanking the crowd.

Call it a bonus visit as no one expected the 37-year-old to play.

Giordano explained that he wanted to get the first visit under his belt as the newly-formed Kraken need to quickly build familiarity ahead of their inaugural season opener.

The chemistry sure seemed to be there between Giordano and Adam Larsson, as a formidable top pairing.

Giordano, who will most likely be named captain of the Kraken, was wearing an A on his jersey, as were Jordan Eberle and Jaden Schwartz.

The Flames, who’ve said they’ll take their time before naming a captain to replace Giordano, had Matthew Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund and Chris Tanev as alternate captains Wednesday.

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EMPTYING THE NOTEBOOK

• One of the great storylines that could be playing out in Seattle revolves around a defensive pairing of two brothers: Cale and Haydn Fleury. Cale, who is a 22-year-old righty, lined up alongside his 25-year-old brother Wednesday night. On an expansion team with some pretty solid defensive options, the natives of Carlyle, Sask., could quickly become household names in Seattle if they can remain blue-line partners.

• Those on hand Wednesday got a reminder of how exciting the roar of the crowd can be when Backlund tied the game in the dying minutes. Alas, Eberle’s shootout snipe silenced the building, leaving the Flames 0-2-1 in the pre-season. Their next game is Friday, hosting Vancouver.

• Sutter’s frank assessment of Vladar, who let in three goals in 21 shots: “He had a rough night.”

• Two notables who are pushing to be amongst the first call-ups of the season — Glenn Gawdin and Oliver Kylington — had good showings. Gawdin looks to be a solid penalty killer and Kylington was paired with Tanev to play more minutes than anyone in the game, at 24:27. He got plenty of ice time in overtime where Sutter wanted to see him use his speed and offensive instincts.

“We need mobility back there — that’s obvious,” said the coach.

• It didn’t seem all that long ago that overtime was an exciting brand of firewagon hockey, with teams trading Grade A chances at both ends in an exciting show of speed, skill and creativity.

Not Wednesday.

Both teams circled back out of the offensive zone endlessly in a five-minute skating show that featured a lone shot, from the Flames. Neither team wanted to make a mistake.

“Both teams, one shot — not sure you count that as a scoring chance,” said Sutter. “You need the puck. Misconception of overtime is it’s all stretch plays. It’s close together with speed.”

To emphasize his strategy works, Sutter pointed out his overtime success in Los Angeles.

“I’m used to winning overtimes,” he said. “Came from an organization that still holds the record for the most. It’s not something we’ve practiced or talked about.”

Yet.

• Sean Monahan has been centering the second line between Johnny Gaudreau and Andrew Mangiapane during camp, but due to his hip surgery last fall the team has held him out of all three pre-season games to protect him as much as possible for a fresh start opening night. Backlund took his spot Wednesday.

• The latest Flames lines:

Tkachuk-Lindholm-Coleman
Gaudreau-Backlund-Mangiapane
Lucic-Gawdin-Lewis
Kirkland-Froese-Duehr

Valimaki-Stone
Kylington-Tanev
Zadorov-Andersson

WINNIPEG — Paul Maurice didn’t come right out and say it, but he didn’t have to.

If you read between the lines of the comments from the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets after his team earned a 5-1 decision on Wednesday night over an Edmonton Oilers team that was mostly made up of players ticketed to play for the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League, the message was abundantly clear.

If you’re a player on the bubble and in the running for a roster spot, the competition officially starts now.

That’s not to say you wouldn’t be able to bank some goodwill in the opening two games of the exhibition season, but those were nothing more than a dress rehearsal against inferior lineups.

The true tests are coming this weekend when the roles will be reversed and the Jets will be icing a mostly youthful lineup against the Oilers in a rematch on Saturday and then in a date against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.

“It’s just so early,” said Maurice, whose squad improved to 1-0-1 in exhibition play. “The games will be a little different here, the next four than the first two for sure. You want them to play against a bigger defence and faster opponents. And then you can tell. We’re not getting too excited with what we got done here. We’re looking at the good pieces of our five-on-five game that we liked. But bigger tests come up.”

Given that the Jets are expected to be one of the contenders in the Central Division and Western Conference, it’s not surprising there aren’t a lot of jobs available on the roster.

With 2017 first-rounder Kristian Vesalainen getting the reps on the third line with Adam Lowry and Paul Stastny, it’s basically down to a battle for fourth-line roles — where the only player basically guaranteed a spot is veteran forward Riley Nash.

Although Nash could shift to the wing if necessary, the open competition is going to revolve around who plays on his left and his right.

“It’s (not) going to be easy calls… but usually, almost always, it gets sorted out by the final exhibition game,” said Maurice. “You find that they usually separate themselves.”

Two of the primary candidates in that battle made a strong impression on Wednesday, with Jansen Harkins (two goals, one assist) and Evgeny Svechnikov (one goal, two assists) pacing the offensive attack on a highly entertaining line with Cole Perfetti (one assist).

Both Harkins and Svechnikov showed good finish in the contest, with Harkins burying a pair of shots and Svechnikov delivering a deft redirection on his backhand side after a smart set up and a great scoring chance in tight that was stopped but led directly to the opening goal of the contest.

Harkins has the inside track on a job, but he’s taking nothing for granted after riding a roller coaster of emotions during the past two seasons.

During the 2019-20 campaign, Harkins made tremendous strides, working his way up the depth chart and earning a couple of cameo appearances on the second line with Jets captain Blake Wheeler.

But just when it looked he was on his way to becoming an NHL regular, Harkins suffered a lower-body injury during training camp and never really got into the groove as he had trouble getting into the lineup with regularity and managed only one goal and two points in 26 games last season while earning mostly fourth-line duty.

That wasn’t how Harkins envisioned things going and now he’s back to prove that he’s ready to take the next step in his development.

So far, so good.

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“Pretty tight, obviously. We’ve got a lot of young guys fighting for spots, a lot of good players,” said Harkins. “We’ve generally been a pretty veteran team the last few years so there’s a couple spots right now everyone’s really chasing for it. Competition is pretty good.”

Coupled with an assist in the 3-2 shootout loss to the Ottawa Senators on Sunday, Harkins is feeling confident with the puck on his stick.

He’s shown an ability to make plays, but he’s also been responsible defensively — something Maurice was quick to point out when asked about Harkins.

“Right now, Jansen is going to get on the ice thinking about the next good thing that could happen, not ‘I hope I don’t make another mistake.’ And that’s a completely different perspective and mind shift,” said Maurice. “You see a different player when they’re confident and hopefully he can keep building on this as he has been from the start of camp. It’s not just about being able to score some goals, but he’s a little faster here, he’s got a little more jump on some plays because of that.

“He made a really, really good read in the defensive zone on the switch off down. We got the puck and out it went. So it goes into other parts of the game too. That, really for those guys, might be the most important thing. We’re not asking Jansen to score 30 this year to make the team. That can’t be the qualifier for him making the team. There are lots of other parts of the game that he has to do consistently.”

As for Svechnikov, he remains one of the most intriguing players in training camp and he’s basically forcing the coaching staff to take notice of him.

His powerful shot has stood out in practices and on Wednesday, he always seemed to be around the puck and was often making things happen for himself and his linemates.

There’s plenty of creativity to go along with his heavy shot and he also brings some size to the equation.

Although his offensive game hasn’t translated to the NHL level yet, Svechnikov is a player that Jets had on their radar going into the 2015 NHL Draft and it’s easy to see why he was chosen 19th overall by the Detroit Red Wings — four spots after Kyle Connor (who rounded out the scoring on Wednesday) ended up with Winnipeg.

Svechnikov falls into the low-risk, high-reward category of players — even if his most likely path to an NHL contract includes fourth-line duty, at least coming out of the gate.

This fresh start is treating Svechnikov well and it won’t take long to see if he can sustain that momentum against stiffer competition.

“Every day has been better. Go to the rink every day, see the guys and talk, get more comfortable,” said Svechnikov. “I’ve loved every single day here.”

On defence, the vacancies are also limited.

The top-six is mostly set and provided they can make the cap hit work with some LTIR relief, Nathan Beaulieu figures to be the seventh D-man.

With Dylan Samberg sidelined for six-to-eight weeks with a high-ankle sprain he sustained on the first day of training camp, Ville Heinola remains in the battle on the back end, but he’ll have to basically steal a job from one of the incumbents.

While it was a tough start for Heinola on Sunday — as he got beat on the Sens’ opening goal from Ridly Greig and then got caught chasing Greig and took a penalty during the first period — the Finnish blue-liner got more comfortable as the game went on.

He followed that up with a better showing in his second game, chipping in an assist with a smart outlet pass to Mikey Eyssimont on the goal from Austin Poganski.

Heinola also made a smart play at the offensive blue line on Harkins’ first goal, getting the puck into the quiet zone in the right-wing corner for Perfetti, who found Svechnikov alone in the slot for a glorious scoring chance.

But when it comes to Heinola making the jump, the offensive part of the game is not a concern. He’s already got the mobility, vision, passing ability and hockey sense.

How he defends and moves the puck this weekend while under duress is where he should be able to make his mark.

“That’s why we didn’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about his first game,” said Maurice. “There are lots of layers to this young man and he’s going to keep getting better and better. I thought he was a little better tonight.

“There is a value to him playing against faster guys, against more skill, I think his game gets easier to play at that level. He’s going to keep playing. We’re going to play the heck out of him and see where he’s at.”

With the Jets planning to get down to much smaller numbers following the games on consecutive days, the pressure is about to ramp up for those players trying to stay in this competition.

TORONTO — Called up Tuesday and thrust into the most important series of the Toronto Blue Jays‘ season, the most important series Rogers Centre has seen in five years, a playoff series for all intents and purposes, Cavan Biggio doesn’t feel much has changed. He’s been playing playoff-style baseball with the triple-A Buffalo Bisons for weeks.

“Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun,” Biggio said Tuesday, standing in front of his sort-of new, sort-of old home dugout before the Blue Jays fell, 7-2, to the New York Yankees. “Down there everyone cares and pulls for each other just like they do up here. It’s definitely a similar feel.”

ROSTER MOVES:

INF Cavan Biggio reinstated from 10-day IL and will be active tonight

LHP Ryan Borucki optioned to Triple-A pic.twitter.com/PNBM8RJZzg

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 28, 2021

Similar in a couple ways. The Bisons began their season playing in Trenton, NJ while Buffalo’s Sahlen Field underwent a substantial renovation prior to hosting a portion of the Blue Jays’ home schedule in June and July. When the Blue Jays returned to Rogers Centre, the Bisons shifted home themselves and eventually won the franchise’s first division title since 2005, finishing the regular season with a 71-46 record and +144 run differential.

In non-pandemic times, that would have qualified Buffalo for a traditional postseason tournament culminating in a championship series. But this season’s playoffs are structured as a 10-game “Triple-A Final Stretch” in which each club plays a five-game home series and five-game road series. The team with the highest winning percentage over those 10 games is named champion.

So far, the Bisons are tied for second place with a 4-1 record through their first five-game series — three of the wins being walk-offs. And Biggio’s been right in the middle of it. Last Thursday, he walked to load the bases in the bottom of the 10th before Gregory Polanco won the game with a single. The next night he walked in the bottom of the ninth, this time ahead of Polanco’s walk-off homer. Sunday, he scored one of two runs on Christian Colon’s game-winning, ground-rule double.

“I can’t say enough about (Bisons manager) Casey Candaele and the rest of those players on that triple-A team,” Biggio said. “That clubhouse that they have down there, they keep it loose. … They have a lot of fun when they play the game. And the No. 1 thing down there is to win. And when you play like that, it just makes everything that much better.”

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Playing part in a pair of postseason pushes is a bright-side reward for Biggio at the end of a trying season, the toughest he’s had since turning professional in 2016. Over 290 plate appearances with the Blue Jays, Biggio’s hit .215/.316/.350, good for an 82 OPS+ that stands in stark contrast to the 122 he posted in 2020 and the 113 he put up a season prior as a rookie.

And his peripherals don’t play a nicer tune. His strikeout rate is up, his walk rate’s down. His .293 wOBA is higher than what would be expected (.278) based on the quality of contact he’s made. After featuring a patient, selective approach over his first two MLB seasons — Biggio swung at the lowest rate of pitches outside the zone of any qualified hitter in 2020 — his chase rate increased five percentage points in 2021. Pitches he once took on his way to walks became ones he whiffed at on his way to strikeouts.

Of course, context matters. Biggio’s 2021 began with multiple balls in play deflecting off his right hand during spring training, bending his pinkie finger “the way it shouldn’t bend” and causing a blood blister that had to be drained. He carried those hand injuries into the season, playing through pain until it became too much and sidelined him for several days in mid-April.

A month later, he took his first of two trips to the injured list due to neck and back issues — a cervical spine ligament sprain, officially — that plagued him throughout the summer. And while on a triple-A rehab assignment during the second IL stint, Biggio collided with Josh Palacios as the pair chased a sinking liner, suffering a Grade 1 UCL sprain in his left elbow.

It’s not so easy to rediscover an approach and find consistency at the plate when you’re spending that much time off the field and everything hurts when you’re on it. Biggio has tinkered with a few approach adjustments and mechanical tweaks throughout the season, as most players do. But he hasn’t had much of an opportunity to find something that works or let an adjustment take because his playing time’s been so sporadic.

“It’s definitely challenging. But that’s a big part of this game. And it’s a big part of this game that I’ve never really had to deal with before,” Biggio says. “If you want to look at the silver lining, I’m glad I went through it the way I did. I was able to learn a lot about myself and about my body. And I’m going to use that later on in my career as I go.

“I think the biggest thing was just finding a good routine — not only for my body, but also in the cage, as well. Making adjustments; the ability to make adjustments game-to-game. I feel like my routine that I developed down there has been pretty good. And I’m going to continue that here.”

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The good news is Biggio’s healthy enough to play and squeeze a few more afternoons of batting cage work out of his season. Although he hit .197/.308/.318 with 10 walks and 23 strikeouts over the 19-game rehab assignment he just completed with the Bisons, the Blue Jays have been encouraged by the quality of his plate appearances, particularly over his last four games when he walked four times and came up with a couple hits.

“He’s back physically healthy — I think that’s first and foremost. And he’s had really good at-bats. He’s continued to have better at-bats with the team in triple-A,” Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said. “His versatility, the handedness, the plate discipline — they’re good complements to us.”

For now, Biggio says he’s been told to expect to play the outfield if he gets into any of Toronto’s remaining games. That’s where he spent five of his final eight games with the Bisons before being called up. But this is late-September baseball, so it’s probably best not to expect anything. And Biggio’s ability to play any position on the diamond save for shortstop and catcher could make his a useful, late-game puzzle piece as manager Charlie Montoyo plays matchups and optimizes his defence.

“The expectation is to contribute in any way possible. And I could play pretty much every position out there,” Biggio said. “Anything can happen in this game and over the course of a game. In a big situation, whatever it calls for, I’ll be ready for it.”

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More than anything, Biggio’s merely happy to go from one playoff push to another. Toronto’s postseason chances may have taken a significant hit with Tuesday’s defeat to the Yankees. But they’re still alive. Still capable of landing one final, improbable punch at the end of a season of improbabilities. And if asked, Biggio will be ready to play his part in it.

“The past couple of months, it’s been tough. Whether I was here rehabbing, watching the games from the dugout. Or if I was watching from my bed in my hotel room in Buffalo. You can see the energy and the amount of fun that everyone’s having — and there’s a little bit of FOMO there,” Biggio said. “But this means a lot, just to be here, be a part of the team again. I’m just looking forward to contributing any way possible. We’ve got a special team here. And hopefully we can keep it going.”

Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the popular ‘Harry Potter’ film series, was rushed to hospital after collapsing during the 18th hole of the Celebrity Ryder Cup golf tournament at Whistling Straights in Wisconsin.

Felton, who turned 34 this week, suffered a “medical incident” on the course which required him to be transported to a “local hospital for treatment“, according to the PGA after he fell ill during the 11-hole event which took place a day before the start of the Ryder Cup proper.

Pictures shot at the scene show a clearly dazed Felton being tended to by several people following the collapse, as well as him being taken away from the course on a stretcher. 

Details as to what prompted Felton’s collapse haven’t yet been made known.

Scary scene at Whistling Straits, where Tom Felton collapsed on the 18th green and was carted off after playing in the celebrity portion of the Ryder Cup pic.twitter.com/ssPSCBTw9S

— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) September 23, 2021

“In today’s Ryder Cup Celebrity Match, actor and musician Tom Felton experienced a medical incident on the course while participating for Europe,” the PGA of America said in a statement released on Thursday.

“He was transported to a local hospital for treatment. No further details are available.”

Felton, who is a keen golfer, was representing Europe in the event alongside fellow stars like former Juventus star Alessandro Del Piero, NBA stars Toni Kukoc and Sasha Vujacic as well as Finnish NHL great Teemu Selanne, among others. 

Tom Felton here! At the Ryder Cup! pic.twitter.com/epf9RCw9Tp

— Dori Naef (@DoriNaef) September 23, 2021

The US team, by comparison, featured the likes of ex-hockey player Mike Eruzione, Super Bowl winner A.J. Hawk, comedian and actor Rob Riggle and WWE superstar Mandy Rose.

Felton is a veteran of more than 50 movies but is best known for his eight-film stint in the ‘Harry Potter’ film series where he played the villainous Draco Malfoy, the young antagonist to Daniel Radcliffe’s titular character.

He also starred in the movie ‘From The Rough’, which details the story of the first woman to coach a male Division I golf team.

Also on rt.com

Climber Johanna Farber appears to have removed herself from Instagram after a sexism scandal erupted at the recent World Championships in Moscow when a broadcaster showed close-up shots of the Austrian’s backside.

The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) was forced to apologize when questionable camerawork lingered on some chalk handprints on Farber’s rear during the women’s boulder event. 

“The IFSC condemns the objectification of the human body and will take further action in order for it to stop, and to protect the athletes,” said the organization.

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The incident was the second involving the 23-year-old Farber this year, following similar outrage at the World Cup event in Innsbruck back in June.

On that occasion, Farber is said to have lashed out on social media, writing: “Honestly wtf?”

“Having this slow-motion clip shown on NATIONAL TV and YouTube live stream is so disrespectful and upsetting.

“I’m an athlete and here to show my best performance. To be honest I do really feel so embarrassed to know that thousands of people saw this. We need to stop sexualizing women in sports and start to appreciate their performance.”

Farber, who finished 19th in the overall standings in Moscow, now appears to have had enough with Instagram as well, with her account disappearing from the platform in the wake of the latest row.

Images from the climber’s account had already been widely shared around the world before it disappeared, with fans now awaiting an explanation as to the situation.  

The fact that Farber found herself in the same situation twice caused double the outrage from figures in the climbing world, including IFSC president Marco Scholaris, who issued a personal message.

“How many times will things have to be done wrong before we learn how to do them right?” Scholaris said.

Those sentiments were echoed by the likes of outraged editor-in-chief of Climbing.com, Natalie Berry.

“While the intentions of the camera operators and editors may not be to sexualize an athlete and instead to focus on a visually interesting chalky handprint, in the context of the sexualization of women in sport throughout history, it’s quite simply inappropriate,” said the former Great Britain climber to Sky News. 

On both occasions involving Farber, the livestream of the event was removed from the IFSC’s YouTube channel and edited, before being uploaded again with the controversial sequence removed (from 30:53 in the video below).

Commentator Matt Groom issued an immediate apology on the broadcast during the Moscow event, while co-commentator and fellow climber Hannah Meul criticized the scenes.

“I’m sorry for Johanna. There are so many strong women out there, it’s about our performance in the sport,” said Meul   

“I think everyone noticed what happened, and I really want everyone to know that it’s not about something like that.”  

Climbing is increasing its profile after making its Olympic debut in Tokyo this year, although the latest row will cause concern for bosses as they seek to grow the sport.