Monthly Archives: February 2022
Preds’ Borowiecki ejected for elbowing Jets’ Svechnikov in face
Nashville Predators defenseman Mark Borowiecki was handed a five-minute major and game misconduct for elbowing Winnipeg Jets forward Evgeny Svechnikov on Saturday.
Borowiecki clipped Svechnikov in the face, which left the Jets winger bloody.
Borowiecki has been suspended three times over his 11-year career. He received two bans in 2018: three games for an illegal check to the head and one game for elbowing. He was suspended two games for boarding in 2016.
The 32-year-old leads the Predators with 103 penalty minutes in 39 games this season.
Svechnikov did not return after the hit. The older brother of Carolina Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov has recorded 10 points in 37 games for the Jets this season.
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Senators’ Watson to have hearing for late hit on Bruins’ Ahcan
Ottawa Senators winger Austin Watson will have a hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety for his late hit on Boston Bruins defenseman Jack Ahcan on Saturday.
Watson has one prior suspension for on-ice actions in his eight-year career. He received a two-game ban for boarding in 2017 while with the Nashville Predators.
The 30-year-old has recorded three points in 31 games this season.
Ahcan, 24, was playing in his sixth career NHL game Saturday.
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Jets to be allowed full capacity at Canada Life Centre on Wednesday
The Winnipeg Jets will once again operate at 100% capacity when they host the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night.
Manitoba's public health orders have restricted capacity at Canada Life Centre for much of the season. The Jets weren't allowed to have more than 250 fans in attendance until after Feb. 1.
The club reportedly explored alternative sites for home games in January - including asking season-ticket holders if they would approve a temporary move to SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon - before deciding to maintain the status quo.
Other Canadian NHL teams will also soon be permitted to welcome more fans into their facilities - though not as quickly - due to provincial governments easing restrictions.
The Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs will both be able to operate at 50% capacity as of Feb. 21 and fully by March 14.
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MacKinnon to return Sunday vs. Stars after 4-game absence
The Colorado Avalanche are getting Nathan MacKinnon back for Sunday's game against the Dallas Stars, head coach Jared Bednar said Saturday, according to The Athletic's Peter Baugh.
The superstar forward has missed Colorado's last four contests with a concussion and a facial fracture.
MacKinnon was hurt during a win over the Boston Bruins on Jan. 26. Bednar later said the center would miss the team's next three games.
The 26-year-old also had to forgo the All-Star Game, for which he was voted Central Division captain.
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Wild trade Andrew Hammond to Canadiens for Brandon Baddock
The Minnesota Wild have traded goaltender Andrew Hammond to the Montreal Canadiens for forward Brandon Baddock, the clubs announced Saturday.
Hammond has spent the season with the Iowa Wild, Minnesota's AHL affiliate. The 34-year-old has gone 6-2-3 with a .908 save percentage over 11 games in 2021-22. He hasn't played in the NHL since suiting up for one tilt with the Colorado Avalanche in 2017-18.
Baddock has played all but one game in the AHL during this campaign, collecting three goals and four assists across 33 contests with the Laval Rocket. He was a sixth-round pick of the New Jersey Devils in 2014. The Canadiens signed him in October 2020.
The 26-year-old's lone NHL appearance on Dec. 30 marked his league debut, but Montreal placed him in COVID-19 protocol one day later and returned him to the AHL after he came off the list in January.
The Canadiens were in need of goaltending depth, so Hammond could soon see NHL action. Sam Montembeault has been shouldering the load in the absence of Carey Price and Jake Allen, but he's playing through a wrist injury that may require surgery, according to Sportsnet's Eric Engels.
Rocket netminder Michael McNiven is also banged up, and the Canadiens had no other goalie in the organization on an NHL contract before making Saturday's deal.
Montreal's weekend schedule also complicated matters. The team has a Saturday matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets and a meeting with the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.
Hammond is on a two-way pact through the end of this campaign. The veteran burst onto the scene with the Ottawa Senators in 2014-15, going 20-1-2 with a .941 save percentage and earning the nickname "the Hamburglar."
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NHL Rumor Mill – February 12, 2022
The Olympians to watch over the final week of action in Beijing
The Winter Olympics are halfway done in Beijing. Keep an eye on these eight athletes over the last week of competition.
Owen Power, hockey 🇨🇦
When Power debuted at the world championships last spring, he appeared destined to ride pine. Coach Gerard Gallant played him for less than eight minutes in a dismal shutout loss to host Latvia. But by the medal games, Power was on the top defensive pair, checking top American and Finnish pros as Canada surged to gold.
Canada's Olympic staff didn't wait to trust Power in Beijing. The Buffalo Sabres star prospect and University of Michigan sophomore played 19:33, a team-high, as Canada routed Germany 5-1 to open the tournament on Thursday. Claude Julien - his broken rib and punctured lung sufficiently healed - ran the Canadian bench on Friday and sent out Power for 22:13 in the 4-2 loss to the United States.
Power's composure at 19 years old is preternatural. His fluid skating at 6-foot-6 has inspired comparisons to Victor Hedman. Defensemen Alex Grant and Maxim Noreau scored on point blasts in the win over Germany, but Power looked like the blue line's top creator, joining the rush and wheeling in the offensive zone to generate chances.
Canada plays China at 8:10 a.m. ET on Sunday to end the preliminary round. The real tests resume afterward. Depending on who makes the knockout round, Power might have to match up with David Krejci, shadow Russian star playmaker Vadim Shipachyov, or try to shut down Finland or Sweden's top line. No assignment has fazed him yet, which should delight the Sabres.
Hilary Knight, hockey 🇺🇸
The U.S. and Canada are close to meeting for gold at a fourth straight Olympics. Canada peppered Sweden with 56 shots to Sweden's 11 and sauntered to an 11-0 win in the quarters on Friday. The U.S. outshot the Czech Republic 59-6 and won 4-1.
The Americans have had problems finishing in Beijing. They outshot Canada 53-27 to end the preliminary round but lost 4-2. On 292 shots, they've potted 24 goals in five games - an 8.2% shooting percentage that pales to Canada's 17.6%. The event's top seven scorers are Canadian, led by Natalie Spooner's 13 points and eight goals apiece from Sarah Fillier and Brianne Jenner.
Knight has paced the U.S. with four goals and three assists, stepping up after Brianna Decker was injured against Finland. The United States' lone four-time Olympian, Knight's been a recurrent hero in international play. She scored the golden goal in overtime at the 2011 and 2017 world championships, but Canada held her pointless in 20:58 of ice time when they met this week.
Between goalies Ann-Marie Desbiens and Emerance Maschmeyer, Canada's save percentage for the tournament is .957. Eight Canadian forwards and three defenders have put up at least a point per game. The U.S. is capable of troubling them if the likes of Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield capitalize on chances in the final. (And assuming both teams cruise through the semis.)
Jennifer Jones, curling 🇨🇦
When Jones plays against the world's best, she sometimes tears through tournaments undefeated. She didn't lose in 11 matches at the 2014 Olympics - the only time that's happened in the women's event - and reeled off 14 straight wins at the 2018 world championships, Canada's most recent gold-medal showing there. No wonder an expert panel TSN assembled in 2019 deemed her the country's greatest-ever female skip.
Jones won't run the table in Beijing. She started the round robin 1-2 against Sweden, South Korea, and Japan - the teams that medalled at PyeongChang 2018 - and next faces several more podium threats.
Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni has won back-to-back world titles. Alina Kovaleva's Russian rink took silver at worlds in 2021. Of Beijing's 10 Olympic teams, Eve Muirhead's British quartet ranks third-highest in the world right now, trailing Jones and Sweden's Anna Hasselborg. Tabitha Peterson, the U.S. skip out of Minnesota, beat Hasselborg for the bronze medal at worlds last year.
The field is prolific and no game is a gimme, though the last opponents on Canada's schedule, China and Denmark, aren't as decorated. Round-robin play wraps up next Thursday ahead of Friday's semifinals. Make it that far and Jones will outdo Rachel Homan's team's performance in PyeongChang.
Kaillie Humphries, bobsleigh 🇺🇸
Humphries was sworn in as an American citizen in December, ensuring she'd be able to race for the U.S. in Beijing. Interviewed by the Washington Post right after the ceremony ended, Humphries said she felt as if she'd won Olympic gold.
She knows the sensation. Born and raised in Calgary, Humphries piloted Canadian sleds to victory at Vancouver's and Sochi's Winter Games and won a bronze medal for Canada in PyeongChang. But she sued to be released from Bobsleigh Canada in 2019, alleging verbal and mental harassment from her coach, and has competed for the U.S. on the World Cup circuit ever since. (Humphries' husband is American and they live in California.)
Humphries is a podium favorite in monobob, the solo event that debuts at the Olympics on Saturday night ET. She's No. 2 in the world in that event and ranks fifth internationally in two-woman, which she'll contest in Beijing next weekend alongside brakewoman Sylvia Hoffman. U.S. pilot Elana Meyers Taylor ranks first in monobob and two-woman and exited COVID-19 protocol in time to compete in both.
In Humphries' stead, Canada turns to Cynthia Appiah and Christine de Bruin, the world's No. 3 and No. 4 monobob racers, respectively. Appiah used to push for De Bruin and Humphries and started piloting her own sled during the Beijing Olympic cycle.
Mark McMorris, snowboarding 🇨🇦
McMorris has nothing left to prove on the world stage. The 28-year-old from Saskatchewan is the Winter X Games' winningest athlete - his 21 medals eclipse Shaun White's 18 - and his consistency at the Olympics is laudable. McMorris has won bronze in slopestyle at three straight Games, including last weekend in China.
No Canadian snowboarder has ascended as many Olympic podiums, but teammates have overshadowed McMorris at different points of his career.
At PyeongChang, Sebastien Toutant overcame a back injury to win the big air event; Canada's first gold medal at these Games went to Max Parrot, who scored 90.96 in the slopestyle final. Su Yiming of China scored 88.70 to edge McMorris by 0.17 points. However, McMorris disputed that Parrot deserved the gold, telling CBC "I kind of had the run of the day" and noting his teammate missed a grab the judges overlooked.
Big air goes down in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday and presents McMorris with another chance to command the spotlight. He placed fourth in the event at January's X Games in Aspen but won the world title there in 2021, stomping a switch backside trick that elevated him above Parrot and Norwegian star Marcus Kleveland.
Like Parrot, who survived cancer in 2019, McMorris has authored his own compelling comeback story. Airlifted to hospital five years ago after he crashed in the British Columbia backcountry, McMorris recovered from fractures and internal injuries to dominate his sport again. Nabbing gold would be a storybook moment.
Eileen Gu, freestyle skiing 🇨🇳
Big air is supposed to be Gu's weakest event, but that's relative. Seeded fifth in the discipline ahead of the action in Beijing, Gu outshone the French favorite Tess Ledeux to win gold this week.
No freestyle skier has won three career gold medals before, much less three at one Games. Gu achieving this ought to be expected entering Sunday's slopestyle final and the halfpipe competition next Thursday. The prodigious 18-year-old won both of those events at the 2021 worlds - and settled for third in big air.
Gu's skiing for the home team after deciding a few years ago to represent China - not the U.S. - internationally. She's from San Francisco but her mother is Chinese, and Gu has declined to answer repeated questions about whether she's still an American citizen. When she nailed her first career 1620 to win big air, the outpouring of domestic fan adulation crashed Weibo, the Chinese social media platform.
Could any skier spoil Gu's dream Games? She's unbeaten in halfpipe on the 2021-22 World Cup circuit, but Estonia's Kelly Sildaru beat her in slopestyle and finished second to Gu in halfpipe at a recent stop in California. Canadian halfpipe specialist Rachael Karker has appeared next to Gu on three podiums this season.
Ester Ledecka, Alpine skiing 🇨🇿
The unexpected can happen on Olympic slopes, as Mikaela Shiffrin showed this week. The American superstar missed early gates and failed to finish the giant slalom and the slalom, her signature races. Shiffrin did complete the super-G, placing ninth, and remains a medal threat in downhill and combined.
She'll be out to salvage her Games next week. Meanwhile, Ledecka has an outside chance to make history.
The Czech athlete is the only woman who's won gold in two sports at the same Games. In 2018, Ledecka took snowboarding's parallel giant slalom crown and also won the alpine super-G by 0.01 seconds, an inconceivable result considering her best World Cup result to date was 19th. She looked dumbfounded at the finish line.
Ledecka defended her snowboarding title in China but settled for fifth in the super-G, skiing 0.36 seconds faster than Shiffrin and 0.13 seconds off the podium. She has two more shots to double up on gold, via downhill or combined. Ledecka won downhill bronze at a recent World Cup stop and is 13th-best in the event this season, suggesting she’s capable of surprising the favorites again.
Madeline Schizas, figure skating 🇨🇦
As Canada rebuilds following a slew of high-profile retirements, 18-year-old Schizas laid down the signature skates of her young career in the team event. Personal bests in the short program (69.60) and free skate (132.04) last weekend placed her third in both categories and helped power Canada to fourth overall.
Kamila Valieva landed historic quad jumps to dominate the women's skates. But it remains unclear if Valieva will be disqualified from the Games for testing positive for a banned heart medication at the Russian championships in December. If the Russian team's gold-medal performance is negated, the U.S. would be awarded gold, Japan silver, and Canada bronze.
Regardless of what happens, Schizas' Games continue this week in women's singles. The short program takes place Tuesday and free skates follow on Thursday.
Schizas only had to face one Russian in the team event, but the Associated Press predicted ahead of Beijing that Valieva, Anna Shcherbakova, and Alexandra Trusova would sweep the women's medals. Including them, 15 Olympians have posted better scores this season than Schizas did last weekend. The U.S.'s Alysa Liu, Japan's Kaori Sakamoto, and Belgium's Loena Hendrickx headline the next tier of medal hopefuls.
Canada's done well in the women's event at recent Olympics. Kaetlyn Osmond won bronze in 2018 right before she retired and Joannie Rochette managed the same result in 2010. Rochette and Osmond were second-time Olympians who finished fifth and 13th, respectively, in their Games debuts. If Schizas' trajectory mirrors theirs, pencil her in as a name to watch this week and in 2026.
Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.
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NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – February 12, 2022
Super Bowl LVI cross-sport props: Will NHL goals outpace Burrow’s completions?
If you haven't already filled your Super Bowl LVI props sheet with enough to keep you entertained, we've got you covered with a host of cross-sport props that'll hold your attention even after the big game is over.
Here's our lean on every cross-sport prop offered at theScore Bet ahead of the Rams-Bengals clash on Sunday:
(All events on Feb. 13 unless noted otherwise.)
Total NHL goals vs. Joe Burrow completions
BET | ODDS |
---|---|
Total NHL goals +1.5 | Even |
Joe Burrow completions -1.5 | -130 |
The wrong side is favored here. Burrow’s total number of completions is the less volatile side of this wager, as he has a smaller range of outcomes. His line is currently set at 24.5, with the juice shaded toward the under. The likeliest number is 24 here, give or take a few completions. With the Burrow side favored by 1.5, that means there would have to be 22 or fewer goals - give or take - scored in Sunday’s four NHL games.
On average this season there have been 6.1 goals scored per game, up from last season’s mark of 5.88. While the range of outcomes for each game is obviously wide, with there being four games we are still likelier to finish closer to the mean than if there was just one. That means, generally speaking, we should see 24.4 goals scored, or close to it.
With the likeliest outcome for both sides being 24, the easy bet here is to take +1.5 at even money.
Pick: Total NHL goals +1.5 (even)
Iowa men's basketball points vs. Ja'Marr Chase receiving yards
BET | ODDS |
---|---|
Iowa men's basketball points -6.5 | -115 |
Ja'Marr Chase receiving yards +6.5 | -115 |
This is one of the harder bets on the board to back with any real confidence because both sides of the wager are so incredibly volatile. Chase averages 86.7 receiving yards per game, but he's recorded anywhere from three yards to 266 yards in his last seven games alone. Meanwhile, Iowa is a tick lower at 83.4 points per game, with totals ranging from 46 to 110.
That latter score came on Thursday, when the Hawkeyes blitzed Maryland behind Jordan Bohannon's school-record 10 triples. He's been the engine for Iowa's fourth-ranked offense by adjusted efficiency, which KenPom projects to score 89 points on Sunday against a beleaguered Nebraska defense.
Chase, meanwhile, is priced at just 80.5 yards at theScore Bet for Sunday's contest. He may struggle to even get there against a fierce Rams secondary, which can employ superstar corner Jalen Ramsey at a moment's notice if Chase becomes too big of a threat for the Bengals' passing game.
Pick: Iowa men's basketball points -6.5 (-115)
Penguins-Devils total goals vs. total touchdowns scored
BET | ODDS |
---|---|
Penguins-Devils total goals +0.5 | -115 |
Total touchdowns scored -0.5 | -115 |
With Tristan Jarry expected to start for the Penguins after getting the night off Thursday, and Jon Gillies likely to start for the Devils, we can project a total of six for Sunday’s meeting. The current line for total touchdowns scored in the Super Bowl is 5.5, with the under more heavily juiced. So why is the total touchdowns side favored here?
Regardless of how you think either the Penguins-Devils game or the Super Bowl plays out, there’s way too much value on the NHL total to pass up a bet here.
Pick: Penguins-Devils total goals +0.5 (-115)
Colorado State-Boise State men's basketball point differential vs. Rams-Bengals point differential
BET | ODDS |
---|---|
Colorado State-Boise State point differential +1.5 | Even |
Rams-Bengals point differential -1.5 | -130 |
This is one of the most peculiar bets on the board, tasking bettors with handicapping whether either of these entirely unrelated events will result in a blowout.
The line for Colorado State vs. Boise State will likely settle around Broncos -4, which gives an early edge to that side of the wager when compared to the spread for the Super Bowl (Rams -4). All four of these teams are familiar with close games, too: the Rams and Bengals have won by three points in each of the last two rounds, while both hoops squads have had their fair share of close encounters as of late.
However, the nature of the NFL suggests the Super Bowl is far more likely to end in a 7-point margin (or even a 10- or 14-point margin) than a college basketball contest. Boise State's 16-point win on Saturday was its first result decided by more than seven points in its last seven games. Bank on a blowout in the big game.
Pick: Rams-Bengals point differential -1.5 (-130)
Liverpool total goals vs. Joe Burrow and Matthew Stafford combined interceptions
BET | ODDS |
---|---|
Liverpool total goals -0.5 | Even |
Burrow + Stafford interceptions +0.5 | -130 |
This is probably the toughest market to cap, with the margins being so small. Burrow and Stafford are both favored to throw an interception, but the odds of both throwing one are around 35%. The odds of either throwing two aren’t high, but it does push the projected interception total for the game up.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are -400 favorites against Burnley with a total of three goals. The Reds are expected to score two goals and will do so most often if this game is played 100 times. The likeliest total for interceptions in this game is one, but one is only a little bit more likely than two. The lean here would be Liverpool’s total goals -0.5 (+100), but there’s really not an edge to be had for either side.
Pick: Pass
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