Month: January 2022

Kyrie Irving on getting vaccinated: ‘However it looks later in the season, then we’ll address it then’ — ProBasketballTalk | NBC Sports

Kyrie Irving indicated in October he felt rushed into a decision on vaccination.

Kyrie Irving on getting vaccinated: ‘However it looks later in the season, then we’ll address it then’ — ProBasketballTalk | NBC Sports

Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon touts NHL-leading points streak despite scoring slump — The Denver Post

Nathan MacKinnon isn’t scoring goals at his normally torrid pace. No cause for alarm. The Avalanche’s star center is finding other ways to get involved with the NHL’s longest active points streak (11 games) entering a Thursday night home tilt against the Winnipeg Jets. MacKinnon is the setup king over that span with 16 assists…

Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon touts NHL-leading points streak despite scoring slump — The Denver Post

How Jaylen Nowell earned Chris Finch’s trust, and a spot in the Timberwolves’ rotation — Twin Cities

Jaylen Nowell was a key cog for the Timberwolves as the team did its best to keep the ship afloat during what coach Chris Finch called their “COVID crisis” over the past few weeks. The 22-year-old acquitted himself well on all fronts while carrying much of the team’s scoring and creating burden. But with the…

How Jaylen Nowell earned Chris Finch’s trust, and a spot in the Timberwolves’ rotation — Twin Cities

Report: Lakers looking to salary-dump DeAndre Jordan in trade — ProBasketballTalk | NBC Sports

With Anthony Davis injured, the Lakers have been playing LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony (and Dwight Howard) at center.

Report: Lakers looking to salary-dump DeAndre Jordan in trade — ProBasketballTalk | NBC Sports

DeMar DeRozan emerges as likely All-Star starter as NBA releases initial fan voting — ProBasketballTalk | NBC Sports

Half the starting spots in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game seemed clinched before voting even began.

DeMar DeRozan emerges as likely All-Star starter as NBA releases initial fan voting — ProBasketballTalk | NBC Sports

Steph Curry is NBA All-Star Game’s top vote-getter so far — Red Bluff Daily News

As the top vote-getter, Stephen Curry appears to have already locked up his eighth NBA All-Star Game starting spot, according to the first returns of the fan vote released Thursday. For Warriors followers, Curry’s whopping vote total is one of the biggest takeaways from the league’s announcement. It’s also interesting to see Andrew Wiggins ahead…

Steph Curry is NBA All-Star Game’s top vote-getter so far — Red Bluff Daily News

Maple Leafs 4, Oilers 2 postgame notes, quotes

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (22-8-2 – 46 Points) vs.
EDMONTON OILERS (18-14-2 – 38 Points)
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2022
1 2 3 FINAL
EDMONTON 2 0 0 2
TORONTO 2 0 2 4

ON THE SCORESHEET

  • Ilya Mikheyev scored the game-winning goal on a Toronto power play opportunity at 11:25 of the third period. Mikheyev scored his third goal of the season. Mikheyev has scored in back-to-back games (3G).
  • John Tavares opened the scoring for Toronto at 4:25 of the first period. Tavares scored his 14th goal of the season. Tavares is currently on a seven-game point streak where he has recorded nine points (3G, 6A).
  • TJ Brodie scored for the Maple Leafs at 19:32 of the first period. Brodie recorded his third goal of the season. Brodie has scored in his last three games and has posted six points through his last four games (3G, 3A).
  • Alexander Kerfoot scored on Edmonton’s empty net at 19:45 of the third period. Kerfoot marked his fifth goal of the season. Kerfoot also posted the secondary assist on Tavares’ goal. Kerfoot recorded his 16th assist of the season.
  • William Nylander posted the primary assist on Tavares’ goal as well as the primary assist on Brodie’s goal. Nylander has registered 20 assists this season. Nylander is currently on a seven-game point streak where he has posted 12 points (5G, 7A).
  • Auston Matthews registered the secondary assist on Brodie’s goal. Matthews posted his 14th assist of the season.
    SHOTS ON GOAL (5-on-5 in brackets)
    1st 2nd 3rd TOTAL
    EDMONTON 9 (9) 8 (5) 13 (10) 30 (24)
    TORONTO 15 (15) 7 (7) 11 (7) 33 (29)
    SHOT ATTEMPTS (5-on-5 in brackets)
    1st 2nd 3rd TOTAL
    EDMONTON 15 (15) 13 (10) 23 (19) 51 (44)
    TORONTO 23 (23) 17 (13) 22 (18) 62 (54)
    ON HOME ICE
  • The Maple Leafs are 14-4-1 at home this season.
  • Toronto’s all-time record is 60-44-8-3 in 115 games against the Edmonton Oilers and 32-19-2-1 in 54
    games played in Toronto.
  • Toronto is 11-3-1 against the Western Conference this season and 7-2-0 against the Pacific Division
    this season.
    MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS
    Shots 6 (Mikheyev)
    Shot Attempts 9 (Matthews)
    Faceoff Wins 15 (Tavares)
    Faceoff Win Percentage 100% (Kerfoot – 1 won, 0 lost)
    Hits 4 (Muzzin, Sandin)
    Blocked Shots 3 (Brodie)
    Takeaways 2 (Tavares)
    TOI 23:40 (Rielly)
    Power Play TOI 2:22 (Marner, Matthews, Rielly, Tavares)
    Shorthanded TOI 1:20 (Kerfoot)
    Shifts 29 (Rielly)
    5-on-5 Shot Attempt Percentage 66.67% (Kämpf, Mikheyev – 14 for, 7 against and Engvall – 12 for, 6 against)
    RECORD WHEN…
  • The Maple Leafs were 1-for-2 on the power play and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill tonight.
  • Toronto is 16-2-0 when scoring the first goal of the game.
  • The Maple Leafs are 7-4-0 when tied after one period and 3-0-2 when tied after two periods.
  • Toronto is 14-4-2 when outshot by their opponent.
  • The Maple Leafs are 6-0-0 in Wednesday games.
    OF NOTE…
  • Per NHL Stats, TJ Brodie scored his third goal of the season, all of which have come in consecutive
    games (3-2—5). Only four different defensemen in Maple Leafs history have recorded a longer goal streak: Harry Cameron (3x: 5 GP in 1921-22 & 1920-21; 4 GP in 1920-21), Al Iafrate (2x: 4 GP in
    1987-88), Ian Turnbull (4 GP in 1977-78) and Flash Hollett (4 GP in 1934-35).
  • Jake Muzzin was on the ice for a team-high 23 Toronto shot attempts-for at 5-on-5.
  • David Kämpf (14 for, 7 against), Ilya Mikheyev (14 for, 7 against) and Pierre Engvall (12 for, 6 against) finished the game with a team-high 5-on-5 shot attempt percentage of 66.67 percent.
    UPCOMING GAMES:
    Jan. 8 Leafs at Colorado Ball Arena 7:00 pm ET
    Jan. 11 Leafs at Vegas T-Mobile Arena 10:00 pm ET
    Jan. 12 Leafs at Arizona Gila River Arena 10:00 pm ET
    Jan. 15 Leafs at St. Louis Enterprise Center 7:00 pm ET
    Jan. 19 Leafs at New York Rangers Madison Square Garden 7:30 pm ET
    Jan. 22 Leafs at New York Islanders UBS Arena 7:00 pm ET
    Stats reflect official NHL stats at the time of distribution.
    POSTGAME QUOTES:
    HEAD COACH SHELDON KEEFE
    On Mikheyev’s play since his return from injury:
    “Well, he makes us a better team, there’s no question about that. That’s not just because he’s scored here, we’ve know that as long as Mickey’s been with us. He makes us a deeper team, he makes us a
    better team. I thought he had a great camp, a great preseason. He was taking advantage of any of the additional opportunities that we were giving him. It’s nice to see that continue here. Because he had such
    a good camp, we wanted to try to get him off to a good start here, try to pick up where he left off, so that’s why we’ve had him right away take the spot on the power play and get some minutes that way. I don’t
    think it could have worked out any better in terms of him getting the production here early to get him a boost after such a long layoff.”
    On the team’s effort after falling behind 2-1:
    “I was happy we found our way back there. Obviously, a huge goal for us there at the end of the first period. I didn’t like, obviously, that segment of the period there in the first. We got the lead then we had quite an edge in shots and territory and things like that, and I thought we got a little sloppy with our
    structure defensively and it just opened things up for them and all of a sudden it’s 2-1. We gave them life – that’s something we didn’t want to do at all tonight – we did that but I thought we handled it well from
    there so that was a good sign.”
    JOHN TAVARES
    On tonight win:
    ‘Yeah it was hard fought and you know they’re a desperate hockey team obviously looking to get back on track and competed hard, every 50-50 loose puck was a battle. They play a quick game. We got off to a decent start actually in the first and then I think they tied it up and seemed to get their game going and obviously we got a big goal to tie it up and kind of regroup and knew we needed to be a lot better. Overall, it still wasn’t our best but we’re kind of getting back in the swing of things coming off of the long break we
    had but did some better things tonight and thought it was a good hard fought game and we were able to find a way to get it done in the third period. It was great to see Mickey keep it rolling and seeing guys finish the job defensively. Soup was tremendous again and we just competed till the end and found a
    way.”
    WILLIAM NYLANDER
    On the play of Ilya Mikheyev since the return to play:
    “He’s been flying and the pucks are going in for him right now which is great. He’s had so many chances and for example last season but he’s got an unbelievable shot so he’s been capitalizing and flying out there.”
    On what it means for Mikheyev to get some powerplay time:
    “It’s huge, it gets your confidence up and feel for the puck. You obviously touch the puck a little bit more on the powerplay with a little bit more time and it helps a lot.”
    JACK CAMPBELL
    On facing the Oilers:
    “We knew they were going to come out and make a push early and they did, they scored a couple nice goals but our team has great resilience and we came back to tie it up after the first period. I thought it was a great battle, kind of playoff feel a little bit and we were able to sneak away with two big points.”
    On the team’s defensive play:
    “The guys did a great job. They have some super talented players over there and were making some plays but I thought our guys did a great job of adjusting and committing to the structure. We got a couple big goals at the other end and it was just a great win.

MARLIES 6, UTICA 4

UTICA COMETS (18-2-3-0 – 39 Points) vs.
TORONTO MARLIES (13-10-1-1 – 28 Points)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2022

 123OTFINAL
UTICA121–4
TORONTO132–6

GAME SUMMARY    |    GAME SHEET |    PHOTOS    |      SCRUMS

SCORING SUMMARY

Utica: F. Zetterlund (9) (R. Walsh, A. Talvitie), C. De Leo (6) PP (A. Greer, R. Walsh), C. White (3) (R. Schmelzer), B. Flynn (5) (N. Okhotiuk, C. De Leo)
Goaltender: M. Mitens(25/30) L

Toronto: A. Steeves (8) (C. Douglas, M. Hollowell), M. Hellickson (1) (M. Abramov, C. Krys), B. Seney (12) (F. Král), J. Anderson (9) (B. Seney, M. Hellickson), M. Abramov (3) (B. Seney, J. Anderson), J. Anderson (10), EN, SH (J. Blandisi, M. Hellickson)
Goaltender: E. Källgren (32/36) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

  • Alex Steeves opened the scoring at 15:13 of the first period. He has 15 points (8 goals, 7 assists) in 16 games this season.
  • Matt Hellickson scored at 1:49 of the second period and later added the secondary assists on Anderson’s second and third period goals. This was Hellickson’s first professional goal.
  • Brett Seney scored at 5:25 of the second period and later added the primary assists on Anderson’s second period goal and Abramov’s third period goal.He has 22 points (12 goals, 10 assists) in 23 games this season with the Marlies.
  • Joey Anderson scored at 15:04 of the second period and added an empty net goal at 18:37 of the third period. He also had a secondary assist on Abramov’s third period goal. This was Anderson’s second shorthanded goal of the season and his third career three-point game.
  • Mikhail Abramov scored the game-winning goal at 9:01 of the third period and earlier added the primary assist on Hellickson’s second period goal. He has points (2-2-4) in his three consecutive games.
  • Curtis Douglas had the primary assist on Steeves’ first period goal. Douglas has four points (1 goal, 3 assists) in his last four games.
  • Mac Hollowell recorded secondary assist on Steeves’ first period goal. He has points (1-5-6) in his five consecutive games.
  • Chad Krys picked up the secondary assist on Hellickson’s second period goal.
  • Filip Kràl had the lone assist on Seney’s second period goal. He has six assists in his last six games.
  • Joseph Blandisi registered the primary assist on Anderson’s third period goal. He has three points (1 goal, 2 assists) in his last two games.
  • Erik Källgren stopped 32 of 36 shots he faced.

OF NOTE

  • Toronto went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-0 on the power play. Toronto is 5-4-0-1 when not scoring on the power play and 5-5-1-1 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
  • Utica had a 36-31 edge in shots in all situations. Ryan Chyzowski, Carl Dahlström and Brett Seney led the Marlies with three shots on goal. Toronto is 10-7-1-1 when outshot by their opponent.
  • The Marlies are 8-7-1-1 against North Division opponents and 1-1-0-0 against the Utica Comets.
RECORD WHEN

Scoring first                            9-1-0-1
Tied after 1                              3-2-0-0
Leading after 2                        10-1-1-1           
January                                   2-1-0-0
Wednesday                              1-2-0-1
2 Goal Game                            3-1-0-0
MARLIES LEADERS

Goals               12 (B. Seney)
Assists            18 (J. Duszak)
Points              22 (B. Seney)
PPG                 4 (J. Ho-Sang)
Shots               62 (B. Seney)
+/-                    +10 (B. Seney)
PIMS                50 (R. Clune)

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH GREG MOORE

On today’s start:

It was a good start. We’ve mentioned it almost every time that last few games how important it is to get off to a strong start and not feel like you’re playing from behind. We’ve been changing up our routine on how we’ve been preparing whether it’s our staff, our players, mixing it up to get a new feel. It seems to be working so far and hopefully something we can build on.

On the line of Mikhail Abramov, Brett Seney and Joey Anderson:
(Anderson and Seney) have played really well together before. Today obviously to see them all have success on the scoresheet is really good to see. As the year builds and you start putting lines back together that been better before, they’ll usually start building more chemistry the more time they have with one another. They’re the type of guys that when they’re on the bench they’re talking to each other a lot about a lot of details, ironing things out in different zones.

On the team’s performance:
We feel that we have gotten better with every game since the break. We’re building in the right direction. Today was probably one of our most complete games in terms of effort, energy for 60 minutes, execution of the game plan that we set out against the opponent that we’re playing. It’s good. This is the time of year that we need to start seeing that consistency and today we saw that.

MATT HELLICKSON (1 GOAL, 2 ASSISTS)

On his first professional goal:
It was awesome. It felt great to finally get the monkey off the back. I jumped on the ice and the puck was in the O-zone. I think it was Abramov who had it out of the corner and passed it up to Chad (Krys) and I’m a leftie so I was calling for it and thankfully Chad heard me and got the puck, took a look up at the net and saw some space and just tried to put it there and thankfully, it went in.

MAC HOLLOWELL (1 ASSIST)

On today’s game:
We definitely got the start that we wanted to get again which is huge for our team moving forward. As the game went on, we had a lead there and we got just trying to defend it more than play which is what got us to the lead. We had to keep our foot on the gas pedal and keep moving forward.

On Utica’s play:

They come hard and they don’t stop. They’ve got a lot of skill on each line, all four lines forecheck, crash and bang in on our D. That was the biggest thing just getting back and getting first touch and getting pucks in our forwards’ hands.

UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time

January 10 vs. Springfield – 7:00 p.m.
January 12 vs. Belleville – 7:00 p.m.
January 15 at Hershey – 7:00 p.m.
January 16 at Lehigh Valley – 3:05 p.m.
January 19 at Hartford – 7:00 p.m.

Ticket prices rise for Thompson’s expected Warriors return. Could they spike higher? — East Bay Times

Anticipation is rising around the Bay Area for Klay Thompson’s return to game action more than two years in the making. The ticket market has responded as fans rush to see the Warriors star, but there’s reason to believe another spike could be coming. The Warriors are reportedly hopeful that Thompson will play Sunday against…

Ticket prices rise for Thompson’s expected Warriors return. Could they spike higher? — East Bay Times

Steph Curry, Draymond Green among Warriors ruled out against New Orleans — Monterey Herald

While the Warriors attempt to avoid their first losing streak of the season, they’ll have to do so against the New Orleans Pelicans without their top two players: Steph Curry and Draymond Green both got the night off. On the second night of back-to-back games, the Warriors traded in Curry, Green and Juan Toscano-Anderson for…

Steph Curry, Draymond Green among Warriors ruled out against New Orleans — Monterey Herald