Associated Press
Josh Dubow
San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer won’t take part in pregame warm-ups Saturday night, saying the team’s decision to wear Pride-themed sweaters in support of the LGBTQ community runs counter to his religious beliefs.
Reimer said in a statement Saturday that he made the decision based on his Christian beliefs, adding that he “always strived to treat everyone with respect” and that members of the LGBTQ community should be welcome in hockey. Just not on his team. “In this specific instance, I am choosing not to endorse something that is counter to my personal convictions, which are based on the Bible, the highest authority in life,” Reimer said.
Reimer is the second NHL player this season to refuse to take part in warm-ups with Pride-themed sweaters, with Philadelphia’s Ivan Provorov declining to in January. Reimer was not slated to play in Saturday night’s home game against the New York Islanders, which is Pride night. Additionally, the New York Rangers opted not to wear Pride shirts or use Pride stick tape as part of their night in January despite previously advertising that plan. The Sharks said in a statement that they are proud to host Pride Night, saying the event reinforces the team’s commitment to inclusiveness.
“As we promote these standards, we also acknowledge and accept the rights of individuals to express themselves, including how or whether they choose to express their beliefs, regardless of the cause or topic,” the team said in a statement. “As an organisation, we will not waver in our support of the LGBTQIA+ community and continue to encourage others to engage in active allyship.” The You Can Play Project, which works to promote inclusiveness in sports, said the organisation was disappointed in Reimer’s actions. “Religion and respect are not in conflict with each other, and we are certainly disappointed when religion is used as a reason to not support our community,” the organisation said. “Wearing pride sweaters, like any celebration shirt worn, is not about the personal feelings of an athlete; rather the communication from the team that a community is welcome in the arena and the sport.”
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NEW YORK — Donald Trump said he expects to be arrested Tuesday and called on supporters to protest as a New York grand jury investigates hush money payments to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president. There is no evidence, however, that prosecutors have made any formal outreach to him.
In a Saturday morning post on his social media platform, Trump said he expected to be taken into custody as the Manhattan district attorney eyes charges in the investigation. Trump would be the first former president ever to be charged with a crime. Trump’s post said “illegal leaks” from the office of prosecutor Alvin Bragg indicate that “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK.” A message shared Saturday, March 18, 2023, on the Truth Social account of former U.S. President Donald Trump reads that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday, March 21 as prosecutors consider charges over hush money payments to a porn star, and calls on his supporters to protest (available in original article). Should Trump be indicted, he would be arrested only if he refused to surrender. Trump’s lawyers have previously said he would follow normal procedure, meaning he would likely agree to surrender at a New York Police Department precinct or directly to Bragg’s office. There is no evidence that prosecutors have made any formal contact to warn Trump that he would be taken into custody. A Trump spokesperson said Saturday that “there has been no notification” of a pending arrest. Danielle Filson of the district attorney’s office said prosecutors “will decline to confirm or comment” on questions related to Trump’s post, as well as potential charges. Trump’s lawyers, Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina, did not immediately return messages seeking comment about Trump’s post or the timing of a possible arrest. Trump’s call for his supporters to protest that was especially jarring, evoking language that the then-president used shortly before the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. *Trump Must Be 'Held Accountable For His Dirty Deeds' -Cohen (video in original article). * After a rally near the White House that morning, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, breaking through doors and windows and leaving officers beaten and bloodied as they tried to stop the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s White House election. A statement from the Trump spokesperson said Trump’s Truth Social post was not based on any notification from prosecutors “other than illegal leaks” to the news media. “President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponisation of our injustice system,” the statement said. The indictment of Trump, 76, would be an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanise critics who say Trump, already a 2024 presidential candidate, lied and cheated his way to the top and to embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor. In his social media post, Trump repeated his lies that the 2020 presidential election he lost to Biden was stolen and he urged his followers to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” *Pence: History Will Hold Trump Accountable For Jan. 6 (video in original article)* Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence offered his most forceful rebuke to date of his one-time boss Donald Trump on Saturday, saying that history will hold him accountable for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Law enforcement officials in New York have been making security preparations for the possibility that Trump could be indicted. There has been no public announcement of any time frame for the grand jury’s secret work in the case, including any potential vote on whether to indict the ex-president. Trump’s posting echoes one made last summer when he broke the news on Truth Social that the FBI was searching his Florida home as part of an investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents. News of that search sparked a flood of contributions to Trump’s political operation, and on Saturday, Trump sent out a a fundraising email to his supporters that said the “MANHATTAN D.A. COULD BE CLOSE TO CHARGING TRUMP.” The grand jury has been hearing from witnesses, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing wrong and has cast the investigation as a “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 campaign. Bragg’s office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trump’s company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet. Porn actor Stormy Daniels and at least two former Trump aides — onetime political adviser Kellyanne "Cunt" Conway and former spokesperson Hope Hicks — are among witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks. Cohen has said that at Trump’s direction, he arranged payments totalling $280,000 to Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the pay outs were to buy their silence about Trump, who was then in the thick of his first presidential campaign. Cohen and federal prosecutors said Trump’s company paid him $420,000 as reimbursement for the $130,000 payment to Daniels and to cover bonuses and other supposed expenses. The company classified those payments internally as legal expenses. The $150,000 payment to McDougal was made by the then-publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, which kept her story from coming to light. Federal prosecutors agreed not to prosecute the Enquirer’s corporate parent in exchange for its cooperation in a campaign finance investigation that led to charges against Cohen in 2018. Prosecutors said the payments to Daniels and McDougal amounted to impermissible, unrecorded gifts to Trump’s election effort. Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never charged Trump with any crime. In addition to the hush money probe in New York, Trump faces separate criminal investigations in Atlanta and Washington over his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election. A Justice Department special counsel has also been presenting evidence before a grand jury investigating Trump’s possession of hundreds of classified documents at his Florida estate. It is not clear when those investigations will end or whether they might result in criminal charges, but they will continue regardless of what happens in New York, underscoring the ongoing gravity — and broad geographic scope — of the legal challenges confronting the former president. New analysis of samples from market in Wuhan, China, suggests the animals there were infected Bloomberg News New data linking COVID-19 to raccoon dogs in a Wuhan wet market provides “important incremental evidence” supporting the hypothesis that the virus originated in wildlife, according to a scientist who has studied the genesis of the pandemic in China. A new analysis of samples collected in January, 2020, at the Huanan market in downtown Wuhan, where many of the early COVID cases emerged, found genetic evidence of the virus with large amounts of raccoon dog DNA, The Atlantic and New York Times reported this week. That’s a strong indication that the mammals, reportedly sold live in the food market and known to be susceptible to coronaviruses, were infected, said Dominic Dwyer, a medical virologist and infectious diseases physician. “It’s not the ‘eureka’ moment, but it’s a pretty big advance,” said Dwyer, who was part of the joint mission to study COVID’s origins led by the World Health Organisation in early 2021. The material was collected in an area of the market where cases were known to have occurred, he said in an interview Friday. “It still doesn’t tell you how did it get into a raccoon dog, or how did it get into a human, but it’s important circumstantial evidence,” said Dwyer, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Sydney. The common raccoon dog is closely related to the fox but has raccoon-like markings, and is often hunted or raised for its fur. The new findings advance efforts to decipher the deadly contagion’s creation story, which have been frustrated by a geopolitical blame game. Some groups, including the U.S. Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2, the strain that causes COVID-19, originated in a Chinese lab. The latest data shifts the weight of evidence firmly in favour of an animal origin, Dwyer said. Genomic data from samples taken from the market were submitted to GISAID, a global scientific consortium that maintains a database of coronavirus sequences, by Chinese scientists last week. The researchers concluded last year in a draft of a study that there was no evidence of infected animals, but other non-Chinese scientists analysing the same data discovered that several market samples testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 also had animal genetic material, much of which was a match for the common raccoon dog, The Atlantic reported. The records initially submitted by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention are currently being updated with newer, additional data as part of review of the manuscript that’s been submitted for publication, GISAID said in a statement. Studies that Dwyer and his colleagues recommended be undertaken in China to understand how, where and when COVID-19 emerged have stalled and may now be too late to yield definitive answers, he said. Asked for comment on the latest findings, China said only that it would continue to cooperate in global origins tracing studies. “In the global science community, there are many clues pointing to multiple origins of the virus,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Friday. “We hope information could be shared with China on the outcomes of origins studies across the world.” BEIJING — Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA comingled with the virus, suggesting the pandemic may have originated from animals, not a lab, international experts say.
Other experts have not yet verified their analysis, which has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal. How the coronavirus began sickening people remains uncertain. The sequences will have to be matched to the genetic record of how the virus evolved to see which came first. “These data do not provide a definitive answer to how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important to moving us closer to that answer,” World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday. He criticised China for not sharing the genetic information earlier, telling a press briefing that “this data could have and should have been shared three years ago.” The samples were collected from surfaces at the Huanan seafood market in early 2020 in Wuhan, where the first human cases of COVID-19 were found in late 2019. Tedros said the genetic sequences were recently uploaded to the world’s biggest public virus database by scientists at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. They were then removed, but not before a French biologist spotted the information by chance and shared it with a group of scientists based outside China that’s looking into the origins of the coronavirus. The data show that some of the COVID-positive samples collected from a stall known to be involved in the wildlife trade also contained raccoon dog genes, indicating the animals may have been infected by the virus, according to the scientists. Their analysis was first reported in The Atlantic. “There’s a good chance that the animals that deposited that DNA also deposited the virus,” said Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah who was involved in analysing the data. “If you were to go and do environmental sampling in the aftermath of a zoonotic spill over event ⦠this is basically exactly what you would expect to find.” The canines, named for their raccoon-like faces, are often bred for their fur and sold for meat in animal markets across China. Ray Yip, an epidemiologist and founding member of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control office in China, said the findings are significant, even though they aren’t definitive. “The market environmental sampling data published by China CDC is by far the strongest evidence to support animal origins,” Yip told the AP in an email. He was not connected to the new analysis. WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, cautioned that the analysis did not find the virus within any animal, nor did it find any hard evidence that any animals infected humans. “What this does provide is clues to help us understand what may have happened,” she said. The international group also told WHO they found DNA from other animals as well as raccoon dogs in the samples from the seafood market, she added. “There’s molecular evidence that animals were sold at Huanan market and that is new information,” Van Kerkhove said. Efforts to determine the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic have been complicated by factors including the massive surge of human infections in the pandemic’s first two years and an increasingly bitter political dispute propagated by insane fucking cocksucking assholes. It took virus experts more than a dozen years to pinpoint the animal origin of SARS, a related virus. Goldstein and his colleagues say their analysis is the first solid indication that there may have been wildlife infected with the coronavirus at the market. But it is also possible that humans brought the virus to the market and infected the raccoon dogs, or that infected humans simply happened to leave traces of the virus near the animals. After scientists in the group contacted the China CDC, they say, the sequences were removed from the global virus database. Researchers are puzzled as to why data on the samples collected over three years ago wasn’t made public sooner. Tedros has pleaded with China to share more of its COVID-19 research data. Gao Fu, the former head of the Chinese CDC and lead author of the Chinese paper, didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press email requesting comment. But he told Science magazine the sequences are “nothing new. It had been known there was illegal animal dealing and this is why the market was immediately shut down.” Goldstein said his group presented its findings this week to an advisory panel the WHO has tasked with investigating COVID-19’s origins. Mark Woolhouse, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Edinburgh, said it will be crucial to see how the raccoon dogs’ genetic sequences match up to what’s known about the historic evolution of the COVID-19 virus. If the dogs are shown to have COVID and those viruses prove to have earlier origins than the ones that infected people, “that’s probably as good evidence as we can expect to get that this was a spill over event in the market.” After a weeks-long visit to China to study the pandemic’s origins, WHO released a report in 2021 concluding that COVID-19 most probably jumped into humans from animals, dismissing the possibility of a lab origin as “extremely unlikely.” But the UN health agency backtracked the following year, saying “key pieces of data” were still missing. And Tedros has said all hypotheses remain on the table. The China CDC scientists who previously analysed the Huanan market samples published a paper as a preprint in February suggesting that humans brought the virus to the market, not animals, implying that the virus originated elsewhere. Their paper didn’t mention that animal genes were found in the samples that tested positive. Wuhan, the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected, is home to several labs involved in collecting and studying coronaviruses, fuelling theories that the virus may have leaked from one. In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Energy had assessed “with low confidence” that the virus had leaked from a lab. But others in the U.S. intelligence community disagree, believing it more likely it first came from animals. Experts say the true origin of the pandemic may not be known for many years — if ever. Nathan MacKinnon said he doesn't think anyone wants to face the Colorado Avalanche in Round 1. After a rough start to the season, the past two months changed everything.
Once the dust settled on a crazy trade season — highlighted by the arms race in the Eastern Conference — no clear-cut favourite emerged from the Western Conference. The West is wide open in many ways. The Vegas Golden Knights may be first in the conference, but are they that much better than the Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild or Edmonton Oilers? Probably not. But maybe we’re underselling the true favourite out of the West — the Colorado Avalanche. Over the last two months, the Avs have been the NHL’s best team, sporting a 17-5-3 record. But that’s all been somewhat overshadowed by the questions surrounding the teams’ depth, given how injuries have piled up this year for the Avalanche. Gabriel Landeskog hasn’t played all year, and there’s no timetable for his return. Erik Johnson is side-lined indefinitely with a broken ankle. Artturi Lehkonen will be out for at least four to six weeks after breaking his finger on Monday. And with Colorado shying away from making a big splash at the deadline — only adding Lars Eller to their middle-six — perhaps many have written the Avalanche off too easily. They shouldn’t. “I’m not sure I’d want to see the defending champs in the first round after a great season,” said Nathan MacKinnon. Especially with the talent they have. MacKinnon, whose 1.52 points per game this season trails only Connor McDavid for the league lead, has been playing at an MVP candidate calibre over the last two months. He's leading the league in 5-on-5 points (24), shots (81) and shot attempts (144) through that span, according to naturalstattrick.com. “I don’t think anyone is unaware of his speed and power — everyone is pretty aware of him and (Connor McDavid) setting the standard from that standpoint in the league,” said one of MacKinnon's opponents on Wednesday, Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares. Then there’s Cale Makar, one of the best defencemen in the world. You may not hear his name in the Norris conversation much this year, but his 1.07 points per game rank second among NHL defencemen this season. “His ability to shift laterally, especially on the blue line — you always have to be aware of that because there’s probably nobody better in the league as a defenceman (at it) besides Erik Karlsson,” Tavares said. And, of course, Mikko Rantanen, who’s recorded 45 goals (a career-high) and 82 points while being a stable force all year long, especially when MacKinnon and Makar were injured. “He’s so big and strong — he’s just a horse,” MacKinnon said. “He’s a massive guy, strong, and obviously he’s got a lot of finesse as well. Some big guys don’t have that touch, but he definitely has it.” Those three players are game-breakers. They’re the type that can fill some of the void left by the injuries. “We’re kind of just used to it now,” Rantanen said. “The whole year, we’ve been missing guys, and now again, we’re missing a full line basically (with) five guys out. It’s not easy, but I think we’ve got that mentality — next man up — guys are playing well when they’re promoted.” Perhaps the Avs forward core deserves more credit. Valeri Nichushkin has built off of his career year last season when he broke out for a career-high 52 points. The 6-foot-4 right winger has 36 points in 38 games this year. “He’s a force for us on the forecheck,” Makar said. “He’s starting to produce now which is awesome, but I mean, looking back at last year's playoffs, what made him good was that he was a threat in all areas of the ice. I feel like he can intimidate D-men as well. He was such a force on the forecheck that usually created chances for us to work in the offensive zone.” And then there’s J.T. Compher and Evan Rodrigues, two players who have put up strong underlying defensive numbers in middle-six roles over the last few years that have fared well in top-six roles for Colorado. Recording a career-high 43 points in 67 games, Compher has been an essential piece to the Avs in all situations — even strength, penalty kill, and power play — all year long. Rodrigues, on the other hand, has 32 points in 56 games and has fared well on MacKinnon’s wing throughout the year. Those two may not be sexy names, but they’ve gotten the job done recently. And let's not forget about their blue line. Along with Makar, Colorado has Bo Byram, Samuel Girard and Devon Toews — the latter three play on the team’s second power-play unit.
“We’ve got quite a few mobile guys on the back end, and we’re encouraged to be up in the rush to help out,” Byram said. Over the last month, Colorado has allowed the fifth-fewest shots against per game (26.9) in the NHL. The overall commitment to team defence has been apparent as of late, with Wednesday’s game against Toronto being a shining example — Colorado suppressed the high-octane offensive Maple Leafs to 18 shots on goal. It was a playoff-style game, with the Avs matching up well against a team that is widely regarded as being better on paper. Of course, this team could still use a player like Nazem Kadri down the middle. And again, the losses of Landeskog and Lehtonen sting — but they’re not necessarily catastrophic. With the Avalanche playing the way they’re playing, and with a favourable schedule in the home stretch of the regular season, Colorado can still secure home-ice advantage for the playoffs. And if that comes to be, MacKinnon is right — nobody will want to face the defending champs in Round 1. The Florida Panthers lead the pack challenging the Penguins and Islanders for a wild card. But Adam Proteau thinks it'll be tough for them to make it.
At this time last season, the Florida Panthers were in the early stages of a remarkable stretch of hockey, in which they went 22-2-1 and finished the year off with an NHL-best 58-18-6 record and the league’s President’s Trophy.
The Panthers looked unstoppable for the most part at the end of the regular season, and they beat the Washington Capitals in six games in the first round of the playoffs. But then they got mauled by the Tampa Bay Lightning in a second-round sweep, and Florida just hasn’t been the same ever since. Indeed, the 2022-23 regular season has been a regular and ongoing disappointment for the Panthers. Although they’re currently playing at a better clip – they’re 11-5-1 in their past 17 games and beat Montreal 9-5 on Thursday – the crater Florida dug for itself at the start of the season means a lot has to go right beyond the Panthers’ control in order for them to earn a wild-card playoff berth. And there are many reasons why it very likely may be a case of too little, too late for Florida. For starters, let’s look at the games that remain on the schedule for the Panthers. In the 14 games Florida has left, only three come against relatively soft touches (one game each against Montreal, Columbus and Philadelphia). The rest all come against teams ready, willing and able to play spoiler for the Panthers’ post-season aspirations. It’s going to take a much more consistent winning effort than Florida has been able to post for much of this year. The best the Panthers have been able to achieve this season is a pair of modest, three-game win streaks. They’ll need at least another three-game win streak, and probably, many more consecutive wins than that, if they’re going to be a wild-card team. But even if Florida manages to string together a bunch of wins, they also have to hope the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders – who currently occupy the first and second wild cards, respectively – stumble and crumble under the pressure of the playoff race. The Pens and the Isles made major moves before the league’s March 3 trade deadline, and they’ve got the same 6-3-1 record in their past 10 games as the Panthers. Florida is three points behind the Penguins and Islanders, and while the Panthers have two games in hand on the Isles, those two teams aren’t the only ones who can put nails in Florida’s coffin. We speak of the Buffalo Sabres, a team desperate to make the playoffs. The Sabres are three points behind Florida, and they have a game in hand on the Panthers. And we speak of the Ottawa Senators, who are five points behind Florida. Even the Washington Capitals – who are two points behind the Panthers, with Florida holding a game in hand on them – could derail the Panthers’ post-season hopes. In their final 14 games, Florida has two games against the Senators, two games against Toronto and one game each against Washington, the New York Rangers, the Carolina Hurricanes, the Sabres and the New Jersey Devils. Florida needs many of those teams to have multiple-losing streaks for the rest of this season, and that’s not at all likely to happen. This time last season, the Panthers were a confident group that eventually had its season ended by a Lightning squad firing on all pistons. At this moment, the Panthers are a weaker team. If they can beat the odds and make the playoffs, they’re destined for a first-round date with the outstanding Boston Bruins or the similarly well-run Hurricanes or Devils. In any of those potential first-round matchups, Florida would be considered a heavy underdog, and rightfully so. Maybe that’s where they need to be to tap into their talent adequately, but maybe the Panthers take a step back and either get their lunch handed to them in the first round or, even worse, they don’t make the playoffs at all. And if that happens, then what? Are the Panthers going to change coaches again? Can’t see that taking place. It’s more likely GM Bill Zito will be held accountable, and he goes out and performs major roster surgery in the off-season, trying to hold on to his job. There are intriguing days ahead for the Panthers, one way or another. Adam Proteau argues that as much as NHL officials should be held accountable, there are limited ways to improve each referee in a fast-paced game. Last week, NBA star guard Fred VanVleet made headlines when he lashed out against NBA officiating. After a loss by his Toronto Raptors team, VanVleet did not mince words as he criticised the game’s referees.
“I think the jurisdiction and the power trip that we’ve been on this year with some of our officials in this league is getting out of hand, and I’ll take my fine for speaking on it,” said VanVleet, who was subsequently fined $30,000 for his comments. “Most of the refs are trying hard, I like a lot of the refs, they’re trying hard, they’re pretty fair, and communicate well. And then you got the other ones who just want to be (idiots) and just kind of (screw) up the game. And no one’s coming to see that. They come to see the players.” VanVleet has every right to his opinion. And certainly, officials in all sports make numerous mistakes, which we hear about frequently in the NHL. But from our perspective, harping on NHL refereeing is a waste of time. There’s nothing wrong with noting errors officials make, and we do need to keep them accountable, but let’s get to the logical endpoint of all these complaints: what is going to be done about it? Indeed, where are the improvement lanes for referees to take from here on? How are we going to ensure all the right calls are made all of the time? The answer, of course, is that there is no way to guarantee officials are perfect, and there’s not going to be a way, either now or down the road, to make them perfect. There will always be a degree of subjectivity in the interpretation of the rules, and that is not going to change. This isn’t to say we can’t do better on the officiating front. This writer has advocated numerous times for the addition of a third referee in the NHL, one who would occupy an “eye-in-the-sky” position off the ice and could buzz in with a stoppage of play when they see some infraction the on-ice officials have missed. Using a third referee would be a notable change, but people said there would be terrible difficulties when the NHL went from a single referee for games to two referees for games, beginning in the 1998-99 season. For the six decades prior to that, only one referee was the norm and was what everyone was accustomed to. But fans, players, coaches and officials all adjusted, and we’d argue the game is better officiated now because of that change. The same could and would happen with three referees. But even then, mistakes would be made, calls would be missed, and people in all cities would begrudge officials for “bias” against them. To the contrary – fans have to recognise the increased speed of the game makes it impossible for hockey referees to get everything right. And if there was a legitimate case to be made for referees having a bias against a player or team, the league would move very quickly to address the problem. But most officials are admirably professional in all their tasks. Is there some ego involved in player and coach engagement with referees? Sure, there is. But, after talking to many officials over the years, I think any perceived ego from referees is more of a defence mechanism than an exercise in superiority. Most of them have talked (off the record) about not wanting to have the opinions of players or coaches override their opinions and decisions, even when those opinions and decisions can be challenged fairly. You understand where they're coming from – it's human nature to want to be correct or at least feel that they're correct. And when you put the egos of officials into a head-on collision with the egos of players and coaches, the results can be messy and ugly. It's also fair to talk about refs who are consistent problems. But it's always going to take a good deal of time to (a) identify them and (b) weed them out. And again, what are the alternatives to the current refereeing situation? Is there a hidden island somewhere where the human beings on it are far and away better referees than the ones we have now? To ask that question is to answer it. Like them or not, the current officials are the very best ones we have. We can train them all we want, but they’re not robots. (That said, MLB is experimenting with robot umpires, but hockey officiating is an entirely different animal. Artificial intelligence is on the rise, but it doesn’t work for hockey – at least, until there’s a massive leap forward from AI.) As far as the idea of allowing referees to review more incidents goes, we’re of a split opinion. On the one hand, it's worthwhile to give refs the leeway to review more plays, but if it leads to the expectation they're always going to get things right, people are fooling themselves. The subjectivity of the position will always be there, no matter how much help is provided by emerging technologies of the game or increased boundaries of officials’ decisions. Barking at the refs isn’t going to go away. But you’re best advised not to work yourself into a lather over the people in stripes. They’re going to make mistakes, and sometimes it’s going to affect one team more than another team. That’s not on purpose. Good teams, and great players, find a way to thrive in spite of missed or mistaken calls. Our referees are the best we have, and the game would be better if we get past this blind hatred of them. Pierre-Luc Dubois's future with the Winnipeg Jets remains uncertain. If he doesn't stay long-term, the Montreal Canadiens are speculated to discuss getting him.
Media conjecture linking Winnipeg Jets centre Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Montreal Canadiens surfaced last summer when his agent suggested his client might one day like to join the Habs. The 24-year-old centre downplayed those remarks after agreeing to a one-year, $6-million contract with the Jets. However, the rumours persist, tying him to the Canadiens.
Dubois will be an RFA on July 1, but he's a year away from UFA eligibility. On March 8, The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun speculated this could be headed toward a trade unless Dubois signs a long-term deal with the Jets. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman also felt this could continue during the off-season. During a March 9 appearance on The Jeff Marek Show, he said he believed the Jets and Canadiens occasionally discussed Dubois during this season. Adding Dubois could accelerate the Canadiens' rebuilding process. The Ste-Agathe-des-Monts native would provide the Habs with much-needed size and experienced two-way skills at centre. Whether Canadiens GM Kent Hughes believes Dubois would be a worthwhile piece of the Canadiens' rebuild remains to be seen. He could dangle the 2023 first-round pick he acquired from the Florida Panthers or draw from his deep pool of promising young players to make an enticing pitch to the Jets. CapFriendly shows the Canadiens with $72.9 million invested in 17 roster players next season with rising star Cole Caufield to re-sign. However, they could get another $10.5 million if required should Carey Price remain on LTIR as expected. That would give Hughes sufficient room to acquire Dubois and re-sign him to a long-term deal worth around $8.5 million annually. It would also leave enough room to ink Caufield to a hefty raise. Adam Proteau analyses Jordan Binnington's suspension, the QMJHL further curbing fighting and the Vancouver Canucks going 7-2-1 in their past 10 games. Welcome, once again, to Screen Shots, an ongoing THN.com column in which we delve into a few different hockey topics, and offer some thoughts on them in shorter paragraphs. We also don’t go deep in our introductory paragraph, so let’s get right to it with Jordan Binnington, the QMJHL and the Vancouver Canucks.
So, St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington is suspended two games for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct after his overzealous antics in a game. On Wednesday, in St. Louis, Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman scored to give the Wild a 5-4 lead, and Binnington wigged out and went after him. It’s true Hartman clipped Binnington on the way past him after the goal, but a more balanced goalie would’ve left that action to the NHL’s department of player safety, and Hartman could’ve been disciplined the right way. What Binnington did was not the right way, and he’s becoming infamous on the regular for his over-the-top actions. In early December, Binnington lost his composure and went behind his net to attempt to strike Carolina forward Jordan Staal. Two nights later, in Pittsburgh, Binnington went after Penguins forward Jason Zucker, shoving Zucker’s head into the boards with his glove. In the same game, Binnington was pulled from action after allowing four goals on 17 shots, and as he left the game, Binnington took off his helmet and yapped at the Penguins’ bench. Consequently, Binnington was assessed a 10-minute misconduct penalty for “inciting.” And now, this. Frankly, it’s getting embarrassing for Binnington. And it all comes down to not doing well as a goaltender at the moment – virtually every incident he seems to be central in comes after he’s failed to stop the puck. Indeed, Binnington’s individual numbers this season – including a 3.39 goals-against average and .892 save percentage – are certainly not what you’d expect out of a goalie with a $6-million cap hit like Binnington’s. While the NHL could use more players with some on-their-sleeves passion, Binnington is just looking like a one-man circus (more like a fucking goof). Goalies should be off-limits when it comes to contact in their zones. It’s not smart for any crucial asset to endanger themselves in a fight. But if we are treating goalies as off-limits, goalies need to be more disciplined in their responses to collision plays. The moment they remove their helmets to fight ought to result in an automatic match penalty, and repeat removals of helmets should result in notable suspensions. There’s no room in the modern NHL for this silliness to flourish, and Binnington needs to change his act and show the restraint almost every other netminder shows every night of the season. After the game against Pittsburgh in December, Blues coach Craig Berube did not attempt to justify Binnington’s actions. To the contrary: “It’s got to stop,” Berube told reporters at the time in regard to Binnington’s actions. “It doesn’t help anything. Just play goal, stop the puck.” Exactly, Mr. Berube. Pay attention to your coach, Mr. Binnington. Speaking of fighting, we got news in the past week from Le Journal de Quebec and THN.com about the QMJHL’s decision to crack down further on fisticuffs. First of all, you’ll note we’re not using the term “ban” because, to many people, that word connotes a total absence of fighting from this point on. You can no more ban all traffic accidents than you can ban all hockey fights. However, you can do your best to prevent traffic collisions and hockey fights, and the QMJHL should be applauded for continuing to push the hockey culture toward the inexorable conclusion that fighting in the game is a relic that ought to have more dirt tossed upon it as it gets buried. The QMJHL had taken steps in recent years to limit fighting. In 2020, the QMJHL added a 10-minute misconduct to the five-minute major for any fight. Now, there are no decisions made yet on punishment, but the Quebec sport minister is calling to eject fighting players and assess them with a subsequent one-game suspension. That will not stop some players from deciding a fight is worth the suspension, but it will curtail many other players from choosing to drop their gloves. That is progress. The debate over fighting’s place in hockey often is pushed toward the “fewer fights” camp. Whether it’s because the research on traumatic brain injuries casts fighting in a less acceptable light or because owners are paying big-time money to players who could be side-lined for a long time – or forever – because of a hockey fight, there’s never going to be a strong enough movement that pushes the debate back in favour of the “more hockey fights” camp. Twenty-five or 30 years from now, hockey fans will look back on this issue and wonder why fighting in the sport was ever encouraged. They will almost inherently understand and accept there is no benefit to fights. With every passing day, they have less and less of a place in the modern game. Remember the wisdom of Berube. “Just play,” he said. And we agree. Just play. Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that the Vancouver Canucks, typically, are getting hot at a point in the season when it doesn’t make a difference in the standings and hurts their chances of landing a top player in the NHL draft. The Canucks are 7-2-1 in their past 10 games and 6-1-0 in their past seven. Ten of their remaining 16 games are also against non-playoff teams, suggesting they could stay hot. Still, they’re 16 points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, they’re the sixth-worst team in the West and the ninth-worst team in the NHL. In sum, they’re going to finish this season in the mushy middle of the league, and there’s no good reason for it besides giving hope for next season. They don’t have the depth of talent to be a good team, and they have a distinct habit of not winning games when it really counts. This is what happened to them last season, and they’re probably destined to occupy the same mushy-middle standings position for the foreseeable future. This falls on the front office, and it’s exasperating to watch, and we say this as someone with no emotional connection to the Canucks. We can't imagine the frustration of Canucks fans at the moment. It’s all too painfully familiar. Marner's Magic Mitts And Zegras Goes Videogame Mode DEATH PENALTY IS EVIL - 'I'M SO GLAD': Japan court orders retrial for 87-year death row ex-boxer14/3/2023 Iwao Hakamada has been temporarily released since 2014, but still not cleared of charges Associated Press TOKYO — Tokyo’s high court on Monday ordered a retrial for an 87-year-old former boxer who has been on death row for more than five decades after his murder conviction that his lawyers said was based on forced confession and fabricated evidence. The Tokyo High Court said Iwao Hakamada deserves a retrial because of a possibility that a key evidence that led to his conviction could have been fabricated by investigators, according to a statement from the Japan Bar Association. Amnesty International says Hakamada is the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner. He has been temporarily released since 2014, but still not cleared of charges, when the Shizuoka District Court in central Japan suspended his execution and ordered a retrial. That ruling was overturned by the Tokyo High Court until the Supreme Court in 2020 ordered the lower court to reconsider. His defence lawyers rushed out of the courtroom and flashed banners saying “Retrial.” “We won his retrial. I’m so glad, and that’s all I can say,” said his 90-year-old sister Hideko, who has devoted her life to prove her brother’s innocence. Hakamada was convicted of murder in the 1966 killing of a company manager and three of his family members, and setting fire to their central Japan home, where he was a live-in employee. He was sentenced to death two years later. He initially denied the accusations then confessed, which he later said he was forced to because of violent interrogation by police.
Hakamada was not executed because of lengthy appeals and the retrial process. It took 27 years for the Supreme Court to deny his first appeal for a retrial. He filed a second appeal in 2008, and the court finally ruled in his favour on Thursday. The point of contention was five pieces of blood-stained clothing that investigators said Hakamada allegedly wore during the crime and hid in a tank of fermented soybean paste, or miso, found more than a year after his arrest. The Tokyo High Court decision on Monday acknowledged scientific experiments that clothing soaked in miso for more than a year turns too dark for blood stains to be spotted, saying there is a possibility of fabrication, most likely by investigators. Defence lawyers and earlier retrial decisions said the blood samples did not match Hakamada’s DNA, and trousers that prosecutors submitted as evidence were too small for Hakamada and did not fit when he tried them on. Hakamada has been serving his sentence at home since his release in 2014 because his frail health and age made him a low risk for escape. Japan and the United States are the only two countries in the Group of Seven advanced nations that retain capital punishment. A survey by the Japanese government showed an overwhelming majority of the public support executions (because those slanty-eyed psycho fucks are fucking scum). Executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan and *prisoners are not informed of their fate until the morning they are hanged*. Since 2007, Japan has begun disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited. Supporters say *Hakamada’s mental health has suffered because of his nearly half-century detention, mostly in solitary confinement, in fear of execution*. He spent a total of 48 years in prison, more than 45 of them on death row. |
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