Tiger Woods gave a nod to the Las Vegas faithful with his shoe selection for his match against Phil Mickelson on Friday, saying his gold-accented kicks are a tribute to the NHL's Golden Knights.
The Ottawa Senators' plans for a new downtown arena will need to come via a different path.
Capital Sports Management, which is led by Senators owner Eugene Melnyk, is suing Trinity Group, its partner in the redevelopment of downtown Ottawa neighborhood LeBreton Flats, the team announced Friday. The suit claims a conflict of interest caused the venture to fail.
The lawsuit is for $700 million, according to Shaamini Yogaretnam of the Ottawa Citizen. John Ruddy, Graham Bird Associates, and Graham Bird are also named in the suit.
The Senators and Trinity Group told the National Capital Commission that they've "not been able to resolve their internal partnership issues," NCC board members heard during a public meeting Thursday.
During the meeting, the NCC said it would give the Senators and Trinity Group until their next meeting in January to resolve these problems before the board begins looking for other groups to take over the project.
Commencing legal proceedings is perhaps not what the NCC had in mind.
"The two companies were not able to finalize a master development agreement that would have resulted in the construction of a new sports and entertainment arena, as well as a mix of residential, retail, commercial, and hotel properties in Ottawa's downtown core," the Senators release states. "... A number of breaches, all arising out of a conflict of interest ... directly resulted in the failure of the partnership."
According to the lawsuit, Trinity Group executive chairman Ruddy started developing a housing property on a nearby street, which put that development in "direct competition" with LeBreton, Yogaretnam adds.
"Ruddy and Trinity misused confidential inside information about the LeBreton Project and abused the trust (Capital Sports Management) had placed in them," the lawsuit states, according to Yogaretnam.
The NCC said it knew in the planning stage of the project that having one side work alone on the redevelopment would not be possible.
Following Thursday's meeting, Ottawa mayor Jim Watson voiced his frustration over the "challenging" relationship between Melnyk and Ruddy, saying the two must "get their acts together."
"We have given the partners one last time to come together," said Watson, a non-voting member of the NCC.
Driving from downtown Ottawa to the Senators' current arena - Canadian Tire Centre in suburban Kanata, Ontario - can take up to 45 minutes during rush hour.
Former NHL referee Michael "Mick" McGeough will be taken off life support, his family stated on a GoFundMe page.
McGeough was taken to a hospital in Regina on Sunday with the early signs of a stroke, and his condition worsened while waiting for tests. He met with a neurosurgeon in Saskatoon to see if clots in the back of his brain could be removed. Unfortunately, the damage caused by the stroke was irreversible.
The 62-year-old has now returned to Regina to be with his family.
McGeough officiated 1,083 games during his career and another 63 playoff games, including the 2006 Stanley Cup Final between the Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes.
"I don't like it, I don't think it's professional, I don't think it belongs in our league," Burke said on "Prime Time Sports" on Thursday, adding that he likes the clap but not the surge.
"I'm not saying the league should abolish it, I'm not saying no one should enjoy it, I'm saying I don't like it, and I don't care if you agree or understand with that viewpoint," he added.
Burke said Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell told him the celebration is something the players want to do and the fans enjoy it, so he won't interfere.
"I turn the TV off when they win, I switch to another game," Burke continued. "I think it's absurdly amateur-ish, pewee garbage stuff."
Nylander and the Maple Leafs remain locked in a contract stalemate. The restricted free agent has until Dec. 1 to sign a new deal or he'll be forced to sit out the remainder of the 2018-19 campaign. But Babcock thinks the 22-year-old's love of the game will lead him back to the Maple Leafs.
"I'm confident, hopeful," Babcock said, according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston. "I mean Willy loves hockey. I know Willy good - he's a great teammate and a good person - and he loves hockey. He wants to play hockey. So I'm betting on that. How's that?"
Many took notice at Thursday's practice when Babcock quipped: "We have significant pieces not here and they will be here." Those "pieces" were believed to be Auston Matthews, who remains sidelined with a shoulder injury, and Nylander.
Despite missing Nylander for all 22 games and Matthews for the past 11, the Maple Leafs sit just one point back of the Tampa Bay Lightning for top spot in the Eastern Conference.
In a corresponding move, forward Pat Maroon has been activated off injured reserve.
Schwartz has been out of the lineup since Nov. 16. He's off to a slow start this season by his standards, picking up just two goals and seven assists in 15 games.
Maroon, a St. Louis native, inked a one-year deal with the Blues this offseason. He's goalless on the campaign but has tallied seven assists in 14 contests.
Paul Fenton woke up on Friday with virtually the same Minnesota Wild roster he inherited six months ago.
For a rookie general manager tasked with elevating a very-good-but-not-great club to new heights, it might seem like he's sleeping on the job. But the relative inactivity is no fluke.
Instead of reconstructing the depth chart, Fenton is exercising restraint through American Thanksgiving - and the Wild are doing just fine despite the lack of moves, holding down second place in the Central Division with a 13-7-2 record and a plus-10 goal differential.
“We were very satisfied, to be honest," Fenton told theScore earlier this week, recalling his headspace following a quiet first offseason at the helm. "You look at this team, it had success to make the playoffs the last six years.
“For me to come in and automatically look at something and say, ‘I’ve got to change this’ or ‘I’ve got to change that’ - that wasn’t my strategy. I guess, by nature, you think you’ve got to do something, but the patience part was probably the best play that we had.”
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
Typically, six months is a short window for a new GM to make a major impact on a franchise. As the person in charge, you want to save your desperate measures for desperate times. Then again, Minnesota's situation is atypical.
The Wild haven't advanced past the second round of the playoffs since 2003, most recently dropping the opening series in back-to-back years to start Bruce Boudreau's tenure behind the bench. Over Boudreau's two-plus years in Minnesota, only three teams have won more often in the regular season - the Washington Capitals, Nashville Predators, and Tampa Bay Lightning.
The knock on Minnesota for a number of years (really, since Marian Gaborik left a decade ago) has been the lack of legitimate high-end talent, the type of players capable of breaking a game or a series open. Washington, Nashville, and Tampa all have those players - as do several other contenders for the Stanley Cup.
But Fenton, who spent 19 years working under Predators GM David Poile before replacing Chuck Fletcher in Saint Paul this past spring, isn't buying it. He disagrees with the notion that a team needs a superstar to win a Cup.
“Yes, I do, to be honest,” he said. “You look at the balance. Balance is the key. We have what arguably is as good a two lines (as anywhere). Two lines that are going to be productive going forward here. We’ve got a third line that is able to put points on the board. And our fourth line just seems to generate chances. Maybe they haven’t had the success, or the points, but they’ve spent the majority of the time playing in the offensive zone. When you have that, you’re eventually going to find success.”
The Vegas Golden Knights were three wins away from a championship last June, so it's hard to argue with Fenton - especially with seven Wild players on pace for 50-plus points heading into Friday night's game against the Winnipeg Jets:
SKATER
GAMES
POINTS
PACE
Mikael Granlund
22
22
82
Zach Parise
21
19
73
Mikko Koivu
21
19
73
Ryan Suter
21
17
63
Eric Staal
21
16
62
Jason Zucker
22
15
56
Matt Dumba
22
15
56
However, the Wild also have the oldest roster in the NHL, according to Hockey-Reference.com. The hopeful arrival of Russian stud Kirill Kaprizov - "when he’s done with his (KHL) contract, we’re hoping to have him over," Fenton said - and development of goalie Kaapo Kahkonen might curb that problem. Until then, the clock is ticking on Minnesota's core.
Key forwards Mikko Koivu, Eric Staal, and Zach Parise, No. 1 defenseman Ryan Suter, and starting goalie Devan Dubnyk are all between the ages of 32 and 35, and they'll earn $28.4 million in combined salary in 2018-19. That means five of Boudreau's top 10 weapons are on the wrong side of their career arcs.
Fenton could have altered the trajectory of his roster this offseason by pivoting to youth in some other fashion to put his stamp on the organization. Instead, he opted to take care of smaller business, inking Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba to long-term extensions and bringing in depth pieces like third-pairing defenseman Greg Pateryn and fourth-line center Eric Fehr.
Now 22 games into the season, Fenton has made only two minor trades during his tenure - one on Oct. 3 and the other on Wednesday, both involving non-NHLers. That older core, and particularly Dubnyk, Suter, and the oft-injured Parise, have been the least of his worries.
“Zach is back to playing like he was playing when he broke into the league," Fenton said of Parise. "He’s got great energy, great passion around the net - that’s the biggest thing. I was talking to him (recently) about eight feet in - that’s his game.
"When he’s on his game, he’s quick to loose pucks, he’s tipping pucks, he’s able to create chances, he scores off the rush when he has an opportunity to do so. Whenever he can generate quick retrievals of pucks, it seems like our team as a whole plays better.”
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
Boudreau’s previous Wild teams excelled at suppressing scoring chances, hung around the top 10 in goals for and against, and boasted quality special teams. The 2018-19 squad is checking off all the same boxes, and some fresh talent, namely 21-year-old rookie Jordan Greenway, is contributing.
"He’s so big, he’s evasive, he’s strong," Fenton said of the power forward who scored his third NHL goal in a 6-4 win over Ottawa on Wednesday. "He can battle pucks to the net, he can make plays. He’s starting to shoot the puck more and it’s only a matter of time until he gets the results we think he’s capable of.”
Disrupting Boudreau's group might have been the power move, but Fenton's no-panic approach has paid dividends. Winning puts everybody's mind at ease, and so far the same old Wild look mighty dangerous.
But don’t mistake the new guy's patience for complacency.
“You’re always looking," Fenton said. "You’re always looking to improve your team and if it’s making a big splash, then you weigh the pluses and the minuses and you try to say, ‘If this is going to help our team, I’m going to do something.’ It isn’t like you don’t explore something (new) every day."
"That’s how I look at it."
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
