Photos: 67th Annual Cloverdale...
More than 80,000 are expected to attend over the four...
- more »
Red Wings 3 Blackhawks 1: Underdog Detroit takes 2-1 series lead over Chicago
News and events
Willes: Hot seat must be uncomfortable
This will make the long weekend seem even longer: the musings and meditations on the world of sports.
When the Vancouver Canucks’ season ended two weeks ago the team’s coaching staff returned to their respective summer retreats believing they were about to be fired.
And they understood why. If you inject them with truth serum, they’ll tell you the Canucks could have used a second-line centre — or any NHL-calibre centre come to think of it — this season. The team also could have used the $5.4 million in cap space tied up in its backup goalie. And they most certainly could have used more help than Derek Roy at the trade deadline.
But Alain Vigneault, Rick Bowness and Newell Brown are veteran hockey men who understand that coaches are generally the first casualty after a disappointing season. What they don’t understand is why they’re still waiting to learn about their fate while general manager Mike Gillis conducts a review of...
Henrik Sedin leads Sweden to gold at Worlds with 5-1 win over Switzerland
Duke of York visits Victoria
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, is visiting Victoria...
- more »
Logan Couture scores PP goal in OT to give Sharks 2-1 victory over Kings in Game 3
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Logan Couture scored a power-play goal 1:29 into overtime to help the San Jose Sharks bounce back from two losses in Los Angeles to beat the Kings 2-1 in Game 3 of their second-round series on Saturday night.
Dan Boyle scored a power-play goal early in the first period and Antti Niemi made 26 saves for the Sharks, who got the penalty calls to go in their favour down the stretch in this game.
Rookie Tyler Toffoli scored the lone goal for the defending Stanley Cup champion Kings, who had won six straight games since dropping the first two in the opening round in St. Louis. Jonathan Quick made 38 saves.
Game 4 is Tuesday night in San Jose.
Two nights after losing 4-3 on a pair of late power-play goals by Los Angeles in Game 2, the Sharks took advantage of their late-game chances on the power play. Tommy Wingels drew a hooking penalty on Robyn Regehr...
Sedins lighting up Sweden, shining a spotlight on the Canucks’ coaching failures
It seemed an appropriate postscript to the Canucks’ disappointing season to see the Sedin twins lighting up the IIHF World Championship.
Not long after they got off the plane, the Sedins began writing an epilogue to the tire fire they left behind in Vancouver, and it’s one Canucks management would be wise not to just brush off because there’s more ice.
On their own, the Sedins instantly turned Team Sweden into Team Power Play, torching both the Canadian and Finnish squads with four goals on their first nine man-advantage opportunities. For reference, the Swedes were 2-for-30 before the twins hit home soil.
Next they play Switzerland for gold, and it’d be a fitting end if the Sedins win that, in the same week the Canucks make their inevitable coaching change.
In two games at the World Championship, the Sedins showed more creativity on the power play in Sweden than they did for an entire year in Vancouver.
OK, that’s some slight hyperbole there.
But...
Sweden to face Switzerland with shot at winning world hockey championship on home ice
STOCKHOLM — Sweden has the opportunity to win an IIHF World Championship as the host country for the first time since the Soviet Union did it in 1986.
Sweden blanked Finland 3-0 in Saturday's semifinal at Stockholm's Globe Arena to advance to Sunday's championship game.
The Soviet Union won a men's world hockey title 27 years ago in Moscow.
"It's about time. It's about time," Swedish forward Henrik Sedin said. "No pressure, just fun.
"It's an unbelievable feeling. It's something a lot players never get a chance to be part of so it's something you dream about when you grow up."
The Swedes will face Switzerland, which advanced after shutting out the United States 3-0 in the other semi. Julian Walker, New York Islanders prospect Nino Niederreiter and Reto Suri, with an empty-net goal, scored for the Swiss.
Loui Eriksson of the Dallas Stars meanwhile scored a pair of power-play goals for Sweden with twin brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks...
Eric Staal to miss three months of off-season with sprained MCL
No quick-fix solution to Canucks’ problems
VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Canucks have no salary-cap space available, a shortage of National Hockey League-ready prospects and lack portability among their key player contracts. Other than that, general manager Mike Gillis’ summer “reset” of the team shouldn’t be a problem.
The week after their second straight first-round playoff elimination, Gillis was still working through his coaching review and a planned summit meeting with ownership, while his top assistant, Laurence Gilman, continued to tour North America for potential minor-league locations.
The really heavy lifting — think Superman shifting the moon’s orbit — still lies ahead. And it doesn’t take a superhero to understand how difficult it will be for Gillis to make even a few impactful roster moves to catch up to the NHL curve towards big, brawny teams.
It took the Canucks years, literally, to configure their team the way it is: skilled, fast and too small up front. The evolution spanned managerial regimes; most of the core players were...
Toews and Bergeron key performers in NHL playoffs
CHICAGO — Pavel Datsyuk is one of the NHL’s most feared scorers, a wizard with the puck who is equally adept at setting up his teammates for easy plays. Jonathan Toews has at least 23 goals in each of his six seasons in the league, and Patrice Bergeron is one of the top offensive threats for one of the league’s best teams.
If you want to stop a Datsyuk, Toews or Bergeron, it sure helps to have a Datsyuk, Toews or Bergeron.
The three finalists for the Frank J. Selke Trophy for the NHL’s best defensive forward are still alive in the playoffs, and it’s no coincidence. The league’s top teams count on their forwards to come back and pressure the opponent’s top scorers, not only for defensive purposes but also to create chances on the other end.
“You need those kind of players to win, to be successful. Because you’re going to have times, usually half the time in your...
How the Leafs broke Chris Hadfield’s heart
The Toronto Maple Leafs have tortured their fans many times over the years — but never quite this way.
In what had to be a Maple Leafs first, the star-crossed squad dashed the hopes of an astronaut just as he returned to Earth.
Chris Hadfield told The Canadian Press in an interview that when he landed back on the planet Monday he asked his wife two questions.
The first was how she was. The second was what happened in the Leafs game.
What happened was a spectacular, perhaps-once-in-a-lifetime, collapse in Game 7 of their series against the Boston Bruins, where they dropped a three-goal lead in the final period to lose in overtime.
Hadfield said he was wearing a Leafs T-shirt under his space suit when he returned to Earth, after five months on the International Space Station.
"I decided that was the best I could do to show my support for the team," he said Friday from Houston, where he is undergoing tests...
Edler suspended for remainder of World Championship
Kings 4 Sharks 3: Two goals in last 2 minutes put L.A. up 2-0 in series
LOS ANGELES — Dustin Brown slumped in front of his locker and contemplated the final minutes of Game 2 with the same bewildered wonder felt by all those joyous Kings fans streaming out of Staples Center.
With three minutes left, the San Jose Sharks appeared to be cruising toward a well-deserved win over Los Angeles. After two penalties and two dynamic power-play goals, the Kings were halfway to the Western Conference finals.
And even the Kings weren’t quite sure how they got there.
Brown tied it with 1:43 left and Trevor Lewis scored the tiebreaking power-play goal 22 seconds later, propelling the defending Stanley Cup champions to a 4-3 victory Thursday night and a 2-0 series lead.
"It’s huge, I guess," Brown said. "Two minutes left, down one, it’s about capitalizing. The power play is about scoring big goals, and we found a way to do that. We’re happy with the result, but we have to play better. We can’t let...
Bruins 3 Rangers 2 OT: Marchand tips in winner as Boston draws first blood
BOSTON — Good things happen for the Bruins in overtime. Even for Brad Marchand.
Boston’s leading goal-scorer during the regular season scored his first of the post-season with 4:20 left in the first overtime and the Bruins beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night in the first playoff game in 40 years between the Original Six teams.
"It’s always frustrating" not to score, Marchand said, "but there’s so many other areas of the game. It’s always nice to get the first one and you hope you just keep going."
The win was Boston’s third straight in overtime, and New York’s third straight loss in extra time.
Both teams advanced with Game 7 victories Monday night. The Bruins overcame a three-goal deficit with 11 minutes left in regulation and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Patrice Bergeron’s goal in overtime. The Rangers beat the Washington Capitals 5-0 behind Henrik Lundqvist’s second consecutive shutout.
Marchand scored on a pass from Bergeron....
Rivermen won’t play in Peoria, so Canucks’ new AHL farm team likely to land in Utica, N.Y.
It’s not a front-burner issue for the Vancouver Canucks — not with the uncertain fate of the coaching staff after the NHL club was swept in first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs — but that back-burner issue of relocating the franchise’s new AHL club is heating up.
A source has indicated Utica, N.Y., is the front-runner to be named home to the Peoria Rivermen, who were purchased by the Canucks from the St. Louis Blues on April 18.
Canucks general manager Mike Gillis had explored keeping the club in Peoria, Ill., but the city was seeking an agreement that would allow the money-losing club ($400,000 US last season) to operate at a break-even budget.
Another option was striking a territorial arrangement with the Abbotsford Heat to operate a league rival at Rogers Arena — a tough sell to the Fraser Valley Sports and Entertainment Group and AHL — but Utica was always somewhere on the radar.
The...