The Buffalo Sabres have inked forward Tage Thompson to a seven-year contract extension with an AAV of $7.1 million.
The Buffalo Sabres have inked forward Tage Thompson to a seven-year contract extension with an AAV of $7.1 million.
The deal comes after a career year for Thompson, who scored 38 goals and 68 points in 78 games. His previous career-high was eight goals and 14 points in 2020-21, struggling to find his true form until his fifth NHL season. The offensive rise wasn't completely a surprise, though, with Thompson putting up an impressive 64 points in 70 NCAA games with the University of Connecticut. The Sabres have struggled in recent years, but with Thompson's big rise, the arrivals of Owen Power, Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn, with the now experienced Rasmus Dahlin leading the way on the blue line, the Sabres are headed for a bright future. Getting Thompson, a key part of that core, signed long-term only helps that vision.
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TSN.ca Staff After finishing at the bottom of the NHL standings last season, Nick Suzuki believes the Montreal Canadiens are ready to surprise their doubters this year.
“I think I’m most excited about kind of proving people wrong,” Suzuki told the Montreal Gazette on Monday. “I think people have really put us down. I was actually talking to (Sean) Monahan about our line up. We’ve got a pretty deep team and I think people are really underestimating us. That’s not a bad thing, either. I think we’re going to surprise people.” Monahan, acquired earlier this month from the Calgary Flames, is part of a major overhaul for Montreal this off-season, which also saw the club acquire Michael Matheson as part of their return for veteran defenceman Jeff Petry and forward Ryan Poehling. Additionally, the Canadiens traded defenceman Alexander Romanov at the NHL Draft, acquiring centre Kirby Dach from the Chicago Blackhawks in the process, and moved former captain Shea Weber's contract to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for forward Evgeni Dadonov. The off-season has also included the Canadiens selecting Juraj Slafkovsky No. 1 over all and general manager Kent Hughes announcing Carey Price is not expected to play this season. “He has seemed to make a lot of strategic moves,” Suzuki said of Hughes. “We’ve lost a few great guys in the room, guys that I got pretty close with. But I think the team and the direction that we’re heading right now is really promising and I think the fans and the players see that. They definitely have a big plan ahead for us and we’re just kind of riding the wave there.” After reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2021, the Canadiens started last season 8-30-7 before replacing head coach Dominique Ducharme with Martin St. Louis. The team posted a 14-19-4 record under St. Louis to finish the season, but still wound up dead last in the NHL standings, two points worse than the Arizona Coyotes. While the team struggled, Suzuki had a career season in 2021-22, posting 21 goals and 61 points in 82 games. He's signed through the 2029-30 season at a cap hit of $7.875 million. Scam artist who couldn't make it in the hockey world. HockeyFeed Former Vancouver Canucks draft pick Prab Rai has had his assets frozen by a judge after allegations that he defrauded a Vancouver-based realtor out of nearly $3 million.
From The Province newspaper: "A B.C. judge has frozen the assets of a former Vancouver Canucks draft pick who is being sued over allegations he defrauded a realtor of more than $2.8 million. Harpreet Singh Khela, the realtor, claims that Prab Rai, a fifth-round pick in the 2008 NHL draft, held himself out to be a successful and wealthy business person, purporting to have important connections with prominent local and international business people and retired hockey players. He says that Rai provided to him phoney emails, financial statements, agreements and documents from those prominent business people and retired professional hockey players in order to fraudulently induce him to transfer more than $2.8 million for real estate developments and other investments." Khela alleges that when he pushed Rai for details on investments that Rai came up with a "fantastical" story stating that he was robbed of all his online banking information and had been left penniless. More from The Province: "It was at this point that Khela began looking more closely at Rai's business ventures, prompting a lawsuit. “Prab Rai’s stories to Khela about the profits earned by their business ventures were a lie,” says the lawsuit. “Prab Rai told these false stories for the purpose of preventing Khela from commencing legal proceedings to trace and recover the funds that he advanced to Prab Rai.” BC Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick has frozen Rai's assets ahead of the lawsuit, but noted that the only substantive assets in Rai's name are two Lamborghinis with a combined value of $1.2 million. In other words, the guy is a lying broke ass with two lambos... allegedly. Rai, a Vancouver native, was somewhat of a hometown hero after being selected by the Canucks back in 2008 but he failed to ever play an NHL or even AHL game. He retired from pro hockey in 2015 after four seasons of being a regular healthy scratch in the ECHL. Lance Hornby Toronto Fish Wrap The trifecta for any hockey lifer is to work up the ladder by winning the Memorial Cup, Calder Cup and Stanley Cup. Orval Tessier did all that, the first two titles as a junior coach in his native Cornwall, Ont. and the American Hockey League’s New Brunswick Hawks, before his name was etched in silver with the 2001 Colorado Avalanche as a scout. It reflected a wonderful timespan in the sport as both player and mentor, which sadly ended at age 89 on Thursday in Cornwall. Tessier, a 5-foot-8 centre, was good enough to get in four games with the Montreal Canadiens in 1954-55, an era when the Habs appeared in 10 straight Cup finals. After 55 more games with the Boston Bruins over five seasons, he settled into a productive minor league career, winning two Eastern League scoring derbys with the Kingston Frontenacs and league MVP honours in 1961-62 with 54 goals. Retiring in 1965, he embraced coaching and by 1972 had brought the hometown Royals a Memorial Cup as representatives of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the first year of the national tourney’s three-team format. Cornwall beat the Ontario champion Peterborough Petes 2-1 in the final. Nine future NHLers — including goalie Richard Brodeur, defencemen Bob Murray, Al Sims and forwards Blair MacDonald and John Wensink — were Royals graduates. Nine years later, Tessier was back in the junior title hunt, leading the OHL Kitchener Rangers. With first-round picks Brian Bellows and Al MacInnis, the Rangers made the final only to lose, ironically, to Cornwall. Jumping the next year to the pro ranks with the Moncton-based farm team shared by Chicago and Toronto, Tessier turned that team around, won 48 of 80 games and the Calder Cup, led by emerging Blackhawks such as Steve Larmer and Steve Ludzik.
That led to his rapid promotion to the Madhouse on Madison where the ’82-83 Hawks improved by 17 wins to first in the Norris Division. That earned Tessier the Jack Adams Award, the first and only coach of the year winner from Chicago. Tessier could be a taskmaster and the Windy City media nicknamed him Mt. Orval for his frequent eruptions. But it was also noted that he pushed under-achieving or free-spirited players to greater heights at all levels of the game, regardless of position. “Tessier cracked the whip, yes,” said Chicago Tribune hockey beat writer Neil Milbert after he departed. “But he convinced the players they were winners.” The Blackhawks met the powerful Edmonton Oilers in the ’83 Western Conference final and gave up 16 goals in the first two losses. That prompted Tessier’s terse observation that his team needed “heart transplants”, a scathing quote that did little to prevent a series from becoming a rout. His next two regular seasons were not as successful and Tessier was sacked midway through the ’84-85 campaign. After the ’01 Cup with the Avs, Tessier worked a few more years then retired to leisure activities. Michael Traikos Toronto Bird Cage Liner and Fish Wrap There may no longer be a herniated disc protruding from Jack Eichel’s surgically repaired neck. But after another year of missing the playoffs — this time with a new team — there’s now a chip on his shoulder that needs addressing.
Perhaps that is why Eichel was at BioSteel Camp in Toronto this week. With Connor McDavid, Cale Makar and others in attendance, the pre-training camp is a chance for the Golden Knights centre to get a head start on getting back to being the player he once was. But more importantly, it’s a chance for him to become the star that Vegas needs him to be if it is going to get back to being a contender. “I think our main goal is to win a Stanley Cup,” said Eichel. “I think we know we have the group to do it. We just have to go put the product on the ice. I always think there’s going to be expectations around teams and players. It’s a good thing. Last year just created more of a chip on our shoulder as a group and made us want more and be that much more hungry for success.” No matter how you look at it, last season was a complicated year for Eichel. After herniating a disc in his neck at the end of the 2020-21 season, he spent six months in a standoff with the Sabres’ medical staff over how to fix the problem. Buffalo wanted him to undergo spinal fusion. Eichel wanted artificial disc replacement surgery. Eventually, the Sabres traded him to Vegas, where he was allowed to undergo the somewhat experimental procedure. From a personal standpoint, Eichel viewed his return from a potential career-ending neck injury as “successful.” But from a hockey standpoint, missing the playoffs for the seventh straight year was yet another in a string of on-ice disappointments for the former No. 2 over all pick. “It’s good and bad, obviously,” Eichel said of last season. “We would have liked to have been in the playoffs. I would have like to have helped our team more, but I think just coming back and having played is an accomplishment in itself.” That’s not how many hockey fans in Vegas viewed it. Missing the playoffs was a new experience for the Golden Knights, who had gone to the final in 2018 and went to the conference final in 2020 and 2021. That they failed to even get into the playoffs after adding Eichel to a star-studded roster eventually cost head coach Peter DeBoer his job. And, yet, it could have been worse. Eichel could have missed the whole year. Instead, he was back on the ice in three months, where he scored 14 goals and 25 points in 34 games. “First of all, I am proud and I am happy that I was able to undergo a procedure that had never been done before on an NHL player,” said Eichel. “But, you know, anytime you have surgery, I don’t care what it is, it’s always a battle to rehab that and come back. That was about as fast as I could have come back. I don’t think it could have been any quicker. So I was very happy about that. “I’m still coming off surgery, so I’m finding my health and I’m finding my game and I didn’t really feel like myself necessarily. It takes time. I think people underestimate what happens when you have surgery. There’s a lot of physical elements and there’s a lot of mental elements to overcome it. But with that being said, I have a lot more to give.” With all that has happened to Vegas in the past several months, Eichel will need to give it all. This isn’t your dad’s expansion team. The Golden Knights are no longer considered the Stanley Cup contenders that they were a year ago. Not after the team was forced to trade Max Pacioretty to Carolina in a salary dump. And certainly not with No. 1 goalie Robin Lehner expected to miss the entire season after undergoing hip surgery. A lot of the team’s success will depend on what impact new head coach Bruce Cassidy can make and how much veterans, such as Mark Stone and Alex Pietrangelo, have to give. But with a $10-million cap hit, the team’s playoff hopes will rest with Eichel. He knows it. And based on the work he has been doing this summer, he embraces it. “I’m feeling more and more like myself this summer than I have in a long time,” he said. “When you’re hurt for as long as you are, you’re going to make compensations and there’s thing that you need to unwind after having surgery. So the summer was a good opportunity for me to do that. This is a great camp. It’s a great opportunity for me to just keep preparing for the season. It’s nice to have a full off-season and training with some stability and knowing where I’m going to be. I’m excited. It’s a great opportunity for us.” THREE WAYS TO IMPROVE THE NHL From changes to how the salary cap is managed to the future of officiating, Adam Proteau looks at three ideas that could improve the NHL's product. At this time of year, when NHL and hockey news can get somewhat scarce, it’s as good a time as any to take a step back, look at the game’s big picture, and bring up some issues that might get lost in the shuffle once the sport is back in full bloom.
With that in mind, here are Three Ways We’d Change The NHL: 3. Install An “Eye-In-The-Sky” Referee: The ongoing electronic revolution has forced sports leagues to re-evaluate the way their games are officiated: to wit, Major League Baseball is now hotly debating the implementation of robotic home plate umpires to call balls and strikes. There are some people who are against such a move, and they make fair points; at some level, in any system, human judgment will come into play, and human judgment is fraught with the potential for error. Still, the idea that hockey has become too fast to be properly officiated cannot be easily dismissed. Players are quicker than ever before, and no referee has their head on a swivel to see everything that takes place on the ice sheet. This is where the concept of a third referee comes in. By appointing another ref in the stands, watching the game from an overarching perspective, you would be helping ensure calls aren’t missed, and there would not be an extra body on the ice to clog up shooting and passing lanes more than defence-minded players and coaches already clog them. Giving an “eye-in-the-sky” referee option doesn’t mean giving such a person ultimate control of any given game. Rather, it’s a safeguard, someone who can buzz into the main on-ice official and have them whistle down a play that has someone who deserves a penalty, offside call, or any other broken rule they see from their unique vantage point. No longer would the personality traits of one referee lead to a different style of NHL game product than one the rulebook demands. This can be seen as a compromise to fans and media who believe referees put their whistles in their pockets and “let players play”, and demand bigger changes. Under an “eye in the sky” system, the rules have a better chance of being enforced properly. That should be the goal of on-ice officials and everyone else associated with the game. 2. Create A Luxury Tax For The Salary Cap: The NHL loves to tout its current collective bargaining agreement as providing parity for all teams, but those who look closer can see that’s not as true as they’d like it to be. Granted, the salary cap floor and ceiling provide a more even playing field for all franchises, but the notion that everyone is on the same level is simply wrong. Indeed, when you consider the tax situation that varies from state-to-state,. Province-to-province and country-to-country, the NHL still has pronounced imbalances that should be addressed. Take the two Florida teams, for example: the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers operate in a location with no state income tax (and neither do the Dallas Stars or Nashville Predators); right away, that gives them a clear advantage not possessed by the majority of the league. Similarly, some NHL organisations are fortunate to be situated in a warm-weather locale. It’s no secret why a place like Carolina, Vegas, Los Angeles, San Jose and Anaheim are gravitated to by players. It’s shorts-and-sandals weather all year round in those cities, and if the salary they get is the same as it is anywhere else, you can understand why NHLers wind up choosing to play there rather than somewhere like Edmonton, Montreal or Buffalo. So, how can you make it fairer if you can’t guarantee true parity across all facets of the professional game? Easy – amend the current labour deal to include a luxury tax that competitive team owners can pay in order to push the competitive envelope. It doesn’t have to be a massive amount of money – say, 10 percent, or approximately $8 million under today’s cap constraints – but a luxury tax would allow passionate fan bases to see their team take another step toward winning a Stanley Cup. You could even make the luxury tax restrictions tighter, and use a system like the National Basketball Association does. In the NBA, their “Bird Exception” permits teams to go over the cap ceiling to retain talents they’ve developed on their own. This would mean a team like the Maple Leafs could keep a player like Zach Hyman around, instead of forcing them to part ways with the athlete. Regardless, this notion of “perfect parity” is a red herring that’s never going to happen. Some teams have a built-in advantage, and a luxury tax would go a long ways toward evening things out. 1. Make The Net Bigger: Yes, we’re well-aware NHL teams averaged 3.14 goals-for per game last season – the highest number since the 1995-96 campaign, when it hit the same average – but only two years ago, it dipped to 2.94 GF/GP, and for the bulk of the past dozen seasons, it has hovered in the 2.7-2.8 range. This is the natural order of things in the sport: once teams find a way to break out and score more, coaches and players inevitably find ways in which to stymie their offensive successes. This is why the notion of bigger nets is almost always a regular point of contention. Nobody is suggesting hockey nets expand to the size of football nets, however, an increase of a couple inches at the sides and on top of the net could free up skilled players to light the lamp considerably more often than they do at present. The reality is, we’ve been seeing significant growth in the bodies of goaltenders over the years, but no linked change to the nets themselves. As we’ve argued before, other sports made material changes to the heart of their entertainment product, and the game not only survived, but thrived. Think of the NBA and the three-point line, or MLB and the adjusted pitcher’s mound. Neither of those elements of the sports were there at their inception, but times changed, people changed, and the product changed. We’re still of the opinion that many fans wouldn’t be able to perceive an increase in the nets if they weren’t told about it beforehand. However, you’d better believe players would know the difference, and they’d exploit it to their advantage. And if you’re one of those people who’d say “Hey! Let’s not blame this all on goalies!”, we’d say we’re not. Again, look at baseball: when we were young kids growing up, MLB’s average pitching Earned Run Averages were in the mid-to-high threes; now, they’re in the mid-to-high fours. That doesn’t mean pitchers are no longer essential components of the game. They’ve just adjusted to a product that underscores the value of offence. That’s the same target the NHL should have in mind when looking at something like bigger nets. The Save Percentages of goalies would take a hit, but the best goalies would still be the best goalies. Most importantly, hockey fans paying hundreds of dollars per single-game experience would get more excrement than they do at present. The NHL’s circle-of-life goes like this: players find ways to get better and faster before coaches find ways to bung up the system and push the game back to a more defence-minded affair. It’s the responsibility of the league and players to acknowledge that, and adjust certain elements of the sport to give shooters more room to show their skill. Bigger nets – even slightly bigger nets – would serve that cause very well. By Olivier Guiberteau BBC Sport Easter Monday, 1957. A heavy gloom settled over Doncaster as crowds gathered for the half marathon ending in Sheffield. The starting area was swarming with race stewards, many carrying a photo of the man they had been instructed to stop at all costs. To the officials he was a gate crasher, a scoundrel who must be prevented from racing. To almost everybody else, he was a downtrodden champion battling injustice. Runners now pressed forward as the start time neared. The local mayor raised his arm to the clouds and with the crack of his starting pistol, the race was under way. Seconds later, another sound ripped through the air. A spectator huddled beneath a long coat and a large hat had thrown his disguise clear, revealing his racing attire as he jumped, numberless, into the race. The spectators thundered their approval, and the stewards flailed as he skipped around them to join the runners disappearing down the road. John Tarrant's sporting career fused triumph and tragedy. One of Britain's finest long-distance athletes of the late 1950s and 1960s, he ran multiple world records but was denied his full share of glory by the stubborn authorities who banned him from racing. Tarrant wouldn't let them stop him. He was a dogged and brilliant competitor. A numberless outlaw. They called him the Ghost Runner. Born in London in 1932 to parents John and Edna, Tarrant lived his early years in poverty but they were loving nonetheless. His brother Vic arrived in 1935 and, for a time, life progressed as childhood should. However, in 1940, with their mother's health failing and their father called up to man London's anti-aircraft batteries, the brothers were sent to Lamorbey Children's Home in Kent. There they would remain for the next seven years. A stark setting at the best of times, life at Lamorbey was intensified by the terror of the Blitz. It got worse for the Tarrant boys. Two years later, their mother Edna died from tuberculosis. It wasn't until August 1947 that their father collected them. Recently remarried and with a new-born baby, he moved the family to the Derbyshire town of Buxton, on the edge of the Peak District. In this beautiful and savagely hilly landscape, the young Tarrant took to running with a stubborn zealousness that quickly consumed him. It became his catharsis. Soon he was known for a capacity to push himself further than most would even consider attempting. "He used running as his psychological help," says Nicola Tyler, who is chair of the Ghost Runners running club in Hereford and was trained by Tarrant's brother Vic for many years. "After that kind of childhood, of course, you're going to be angry and rebellious." In 1949, aged 17, Tarrant took up boxing and participated in Buxton's inaugural fight night. He competed a further seven times over two years, earning himself a total of £17 - worth about £400 today. Full of heart but lacking much prowess, he quit the sport in 1951, blissfully unaware how damaging his inglorious stint as a professional boxer would turn out to be. Various manual labour jobs came and went, usually discarded in search of more time to run. Even on honeymoon after his marriage to Edith Light in 1953, Tarrant took along his training gear. With his weekly mileage quickly climbing, he'd set his sights on the Olympics - but first he needed to join a club. British athletics in the 1950s was governed according to a moral standard supposedly inspired by the Ancient Greeks but which stank of inequality and exclusion.
Held up as a symbol of integrity, amateur sports were not to be sullied by those who had ever received payment for competing. It was a rule which, as Britain clawed itself out of the wreckage of World War Two, disproportionately affected the poor. Most got round the issue by simply not disclosing any earnings, but Tarrant felt it only right to formally declare his boxing exploits when applying to join the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA). Two weeks later a letter arrived returning his six shillings subscription fee. He was informed that he was now banned from amateur athletics for life - including events such as the de facto British championships and trial races for Olympic selection. He bombarded officials with replies, pleading his case, but to no avail. Driven by a burning sense of injustice, Tarrant and his brother Vic concocted a plan. Why not simply run unregistered in the AAA races? Not only would it allow him to compete, it might even spark a debate within the media. Things began badly, however. Various misfortunes meant they arrived late to race starts in Macclesfield and Leeds. Nothing was left to chance when Tarrant arrived in Liverpool for the city's marathon on 11 August 1956. After discreetly changing, he wound his way through crowds to the start line, the only man without a number. As the race began, he attached himself to the leading pack before bursting clear after 11 miles. Rarely one for finesse or race strategy, Tarrant would come with one gear - full throttle - and a relentless, almost reckless approach to competition. In this case, his rookie exuberance held up until mile 19 when he was caught by the chasing pack. His body racked with exhaustion and cramp, he slumped to the ground two miles from the finish. Despite this disappointment, Tarrant's endeavours in Liverpool had caught the eye. After he gave an impromptu press conference before boarding the train back to Buxton, a new nickname spread, courtesy of the Daily Express: the Ghost Runner. Over the coming years he would repeat the trick again and again, gate crashing races across the country. As media attention and public interest grew, he would frequently need to slalom through a pack of stewards desperately trying to catch him at the start of races. When he won, which he began to do frequently, his success would be met either with eerie silence or a public scolding over the loudspeakers. And yet, despite the official line, Tarrant had become a hugely popular character who would be cheered on by hundreds, sometimes thousands, of spectators. "Tarrant was an unattractive human sledgehammer of a runner but with an indomitable spirit," says Bill Jones, author of The Ghost Runner - The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn't Catch. "He ticked all the right boxes in the 1950s of the young, angry, working-class hero." In 1958 a letter finally arrived from the AAA informing Tarrant that his ban had been overturned. Although exact reasoning was not given, the decision came just one month after Harold Abraham - 100m gold medallist at the 1924 Paris Olympics and influential member of various athletic committees - wrote an article highlighting crude deficiencies in the case against Tarrant. But elation quickly gave way to renewed resentment. It emerged that while Tarrant had been cleared to run in British races, he would remain banned from representing his country internationally. His dream of running at the Olympics crushed, Tarrant nonetheless went on to dominate the domestic scene, establishing himself as one of the best long-distance runners in Britain. The 1960s saw him win a blizzard of events, including the London to Brighton 54-mile race twice, the Liverpool to Blackpool 48-mile race three times, and the Exeter to Plymouth 44-mile race five times. He set world records at 40 and 100 miles - to go with his Territorial Army 110-mile march record set in 1959. But just as in Liverpool, there were also numerous races where he failed to finish, often because of the stomach complaints that plagued his career. On any given day he could reign supreme or be seen staggering away, arms clutched around his abdomen. By the mid-1960s, a sense of dissatisfaction was setting in. The desire for a new challenge, and to compete around the world, now consumed Tarrant. South Africa's Comrades Marathon, linking Durban and Pietermaritzburg, describes itself as the oldest ultra-marathon in the world, stretching for about 55 miles through KwaZulu-Natal province. In 1968 it was still an exclusively white male race. Black competitors, and women, were formally excluded. But a few still raced nonetheless. Tarrant was among the interlopers that year, after South African officials rejected his application to run following pressure from the AAA. For the first time in his life, the Ghost Runner joined other phantoms on the fringes. A fourth-place finish was more than respectable, but below par in the eyes of Tarrant. He returned the following year, this time while entertaining the idea of emigrating. His second Comrades looked like being a complete disaster but was salvaged by a gutsy display that saw him finish 28th after suffering debilitating stomach issues along the way - far beyond what had seemed possible at halfway. Tarrant took on the Comrades twice more, in 1970 and 1971, failing to finish both times. His dream of conquering the gruelling contest remained unfulfilled, but it did lead to arguably his defining moment. During the 1969 Comrades, whispers began circulating about a new, multi-ethnic race that would be open to all. As the date neared, it remained unclear whether it would go ahead and how many - if any - white runners would compete. On the morning of 6 September 1970, as runners gathered in Stanger for the Gold Top Marathon, a 50-mile race to Durban, there was a solitary white competitor: John Tarrant. He won it in five hours 43 minutes. The following year the number of white runners doubled, with a 15-year-old Dave Upfold, who had begun training with Tarrant occasionally, also competing. "We were expecting the police, maybe even the army," says Upfold. "In 1971 we simply weren't allowed to compete together, but there was nothing. "It was the start of the acceptance that people of colour could run, and run well. "By 1975, the Comrades was fully integrated with women and all ethnicities taking part, and Tarrant was certainly part of that." Tarrant also won that 1971 Gold Top, improving his time by three minutes, but serious problems were emerging. Six weeks later he suffered a massive haemorrhage and woke up vomiting blood. Doctors failed to diagnose a cause so he was discharged from hospital and soon back running over 100 miles a week. All was clearly not well, but quite remarkably, one final epic remained. On 23 October 1971, 12 runners, including a 39-year-old Tarrant, began the Radox 100 Mile track race held at the Uxbridge Sports Centre in west London. By mile 60 he was struggling badly, alternating between walking and slowly jogging, with race leader Ron Bentley 17 minutes ahead. The once imperious ghost was fading dramatically and few held much hope of him finishing, let alone winning. But as he had done time and time again, Tarrant dug deep into what propelled him and battled on. Slowly the gap began to shrink until he was just two laps behind Bentley. Suddenly the unthinkable seemed possible. In the end, thanks to a late burst, Bentley finished 14 minutes ahead of second-placed Tarrant, who ended his last major race in an appalling condition - his lips blue, froth seeping from his mouth as he collapsed at the finish line. Eventually his brother Vic, his steadfast rock throughout the years, shepherded him into a waiting car and the Ghost Runner disappeared. Forever. "It was Tarrant's greatest race," said race organiser Eddie Gutteridge in Jones' book, The Ghost Runner. "He was in bits, mortally ill as we now know. God knows how he did it. It moved you to be there." Two years later Tarrant was finally diagnosed with stomach cancer. He died on 18 January 1975, aged just 42. Today, in his adopted home of Hereford, close to the city's running club, stands a sculpture in his honour - created, somewhat symbolically, by vulnerable teenagers living in a residential home nearby. "He believed in fairness. Fairness for himself, fairness for everybody, equality for all," says Upfold. "Nearly 50 years after his death, people still remember the name John Tarrant." Tyler adds: "He wasn't allowed to officially win, but he was still determined to show people what he could do. "It wasn't just about running. It was about overcoming adversity and believing in yourself. That's why people still love this story." By Ethan Sears New York Post Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov, the likely second pairing for the Islanders once the season gets underway, have yet to meet in person. Since Romanov was traded to the Islanders on the night of the draft, their communication has been limited to a few texts back and forth, plus being on the same Zoom call with media Monday when their respective contract extensions were announced. The players, both 22 and born just one day apart, could be playing together for a long time if things go according to plan. “The little I know watching him play, he’s obviously a talented player,” Dobson said of Romanov. “He skates really well and he’s got a physical presence out there and a high compete level.” Romanov, speaking publicly for the first time since being acquired by the Islanders, cast an excited demeanour. Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin, his countryman and former team mate with CSKA Moscow, is one of his best friends — and the two have already spent time together this summer. Getting traded shocked Romanov, but he’s enthusiastic to be with the Islanders.
“I’m ready to play right now, honestly,” Romanov said. “So just waiting for the season.” For much of last year, Dobson was partnered with Zdeno Chara. Though that blossomed into a valuable mentorship for Dobson, the gap in offensive skill between him and his 45-year-old counterpart was often evident. Romanov is seen as a defence-first player, too, but should provide an improvement in that department. “All off season, I work only with the puck, with skills,” Romanov said. “Cause I want to improve my game with the puck, honestly. But I also can play physical. I also can hit guys and start attacks, like breakouts, but I want to play more in the offensive zone.” Dobson should be a good vehicle to help Romanov do that. He’s coming off a 51-point, breakout season and looks to be a star in the making. Playing alongside Romanov, the Islanders hope, will help him reach the next level in a development arc that — at least to this point — has been fairly linear. “I think just looking at the strengths, Alex is good enough,” Dobson said. “He’s a good skater, he can be a good puck-mover and I think some of those attributes are some of my strengths as well. So I think having those tools can work well, especially, breaking pucks out and the transition in the offensive zone as well.” Dobson, who was listed at 6-foot-4, 195 pounds last season, said he’s spent the summer working on building more size and strength. After a three-year bridge deal was announced Monday with Dobson receiving $4 million annually, general manager Lou Lamoriello said he wanted to “see a little bit more” from Dobson before committing long term. There will still be a chance to negotiate a long-term deal before Dobson hits unrestricted free agency, though, as this contract will expire when he’s 25, still two years short of eligibility for the open market. “I don’t think there’s any hype to where he can go,” Lamoriello said. “I think it’s gonna be determined on his patience and not going too fast and also doing all the things he does well and working on the things that he needs to work on. Because to get better when you’re a young player, you have to commit yourself to doing and working on things that you don’t like to do. There are extremely offensive players who don’t play defence. They don’t like to work at that. I think the difference between Noah is he is going to work at the defensive game. “So I am looking forward to seeing where he is this year, like a lot of people are.”
Peterborough mayor's 2018 swearing in ceremony just beginning of the swearing
Article by some cocksucker for a Toronto paper.
I have a couple of faved bookmarks just for this site. Some are non-hockey shit that is for filling in when times are slow. This is one of those times.
But, some of these are sort of time sensitive, so it is 'use it or lose it' time with this one. Enjoy. Just call her Mayor F-Bomb. But don’t call Peterborough Mayor Diane Therrien shy about saying how she feels about people bringing their demonstrations into her city. She got especially profane about a group of people weirdly going to the Peterborough police station to arrest police! When they swore her in as mayor of Peterborough in 2018, voters didn’t realise there would be more swearing come. Needless to say things got dangerous Saturday in a wild scene. A melee broke out in which two people were physically taken down (? WTF does that mean, you cocksucking, Yank loving paedophile? This is fucking Canada, you fucking cunt) when police grew concerned they were too close to their car. Police Chief Tim Farquharson, who said more arrests could come, added another is alleged to have tried to kick in a door to the station.
This all stemmed from a visit in her RV from mysterious British Columbia activist Romana Didulo, dubbed the “Queen of Canada,” who the CBC has described as a QAnon style conspiracy theorist, and fucking insane cunt, who has been protesting government COVID-19 vaccine policies.
“Somebody is funding these protests because it takes money to move from town to town,” said a local politician who asked to be not named. “It’s well organised.”
This time, followers went to the police station, openly saying they were going to arrest police. It did not go well. Therrien, who is not running for re-election in October, didn’t hold back. “People have been asking me to comment on the events of the past weekend in #ptbo,” she tweeted Tuesday. “I hate giving airtime/spotlight to these imbeciles. Here is my comment: Fuck off, you fuckwads.”
So does she get a A for telling it like it is or an F? There are different views on it. “Straight to the point without ambiguity. Good job, Mayor Therrien! About time somebody told them,” William Babin wrote on Facebook. “But Diane, tell us how you really feel?” added Michael Rudder. Others were not impressed. “Mayor of Peterborough, keeping it classy!” wrote Kevin Krestinski on Twitter. “God, October cannot come soon enough,” added Andrew Glynn. The debate is on. There is no debate that this is not the first time Her Worship has showed her salty side. As I wrote in the Toronto Sun in 2021 about an upcoming “freedom” protest planned for Peterborough by then MPP Randy Hillier and People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, the mayor was unequivocal. “Hey @randyhillier @MaximeBernier I know you boys are bored but” the mayor tweeted, adding a photograph of herself with a written quote in a bubble saying “Stay TF home” while also tweeting the “travelling clown convention isn’t welcome here.”
Later the city’s integrity commissioner ruled those tweets were free speech and not contravening any rules. The feisty mayor has yet to return a request for comment from the Toronto Sun but told John Moore on Newstalk 1010 Wednesday morning, “we need to be unafraid to say it like it is” and “these imbeciles have been wreaking havoc across the country.” Peterborough has seen other uncomfortable protests this year, including the aggressive heckling of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. “Ugly” is what the mayor called it. But on the protesters going to arrest police, the mayor said “what did they think was going to happen?” She’s got that right. It certainly was an foolish and unsavoury idea and unfair to the cops who have played no role in government vaccine policy decisions. That said, the SIU has said it is investigating the serious injury to one of the two people they arrested. In the aftermath, the Peterborough mayor told Moore “enough is enough” and “people are fed up” and need to speak out. Even with curse words.
Lance Hornby Toronto Sun
The Russian bear of 2022 was the definite “elephant in the room” as Summit 72 was being furnished.
As the production team behind the four-part 50th anniversary series on Canada versus the Soviet Union poured through eight gripping hockey games, re-interviewed key players on both sides and even unearthed some campy TV beer ads with stubby bottles, there was no avoiding what was happening beyond the walls. “We would’ve been negligent I suppose, or irresponsible, to not have confronted what Russia is in the world today,” said Dave Bidini, one of four writer-directors on the CBC-commissioned project which airs an hour each Wednesday night from Sept. 14 – Oct. 5. “We couldn’t have made this film otherwise. “We parcel that topic towards the end of episode three when Team Canada gets to Russia, the part that I directed, about adjusting to those first three games over there and the (exhibition) against Sweden.” Indeed, before the triumph of Game 8 and Paul Henderson’s heroics, the show takes a dark turn to footage of body bags and mass graves in Ukraine, with abandoned dogs sniffing through rubble. Slava Malamud, an expatriate journalist living in Washington D.C. featured through all four episodes, talks about how hockey is now being used as a political tool for Russia, one of the few team sports in which the country remains a world power. “We included images of the war and Vladimir Putin,” Bidini said. “Sadly, it has raised its spectre and rather than skirting it, we had to meet it head-on.” The irony of course is the two hockey nations considered themselves being on the ultimate frozen pond battlefield back then, framed by the original Cold War. While maintaining a tight grip on several Eastern European regions post-Second World War, the army-trained Russians were perennial world champions for a decade, beating Canadian amateurs among other nations. The Summit Series, with the National Hockey League stars finally allowed to wear the maple leaf, changed that, but not via the easy road the pros expected. All that is not news, which gave Bidini and colleagues Nicholas de Pencier, Robert MacAskill and Ravi Baichwal the challenge of luring new fans either too young to remember ’72 or who thought Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in Vancouver was the defining moment in Canadian international hockey. “We didn’t want this to be like one of the Canadian Heritage Minutes (those long-running TV commercial bumpers),” Bidini said. “We wanted to discover some new things. “As filmmakers, we really wanted this to really feel modern. That’s the trick with something from the past, to make it seem like a 2022 production. I think we achieved that. The score is pretty modern, a lot of the cutting is new. We wanted it to be less staid than your mothers, fathers or grandparents’ films. “But a lot of stuff (the TV ads, the fashions seen in the crowd, period hairstyles, the stoic Russians) is pure gold.” Toronto-raised Bidini experienced the series as a 9-year-old, before getting a rounded view of Canadian culture as a new wave musician, author, playwright and travelling the world with his hockey stick. Before the Summit 72’s game highlights can get stale, he and the other directors shift the narrative to a varied group of personalities; 2022 first-round pick Shane Wright, former Canadian women’s Olympians Vicky Sunohara and Sami Jo Small and NHL hockey dad Karl Subban provide a modern perspective on Canada’s quest to stay No. 1. But the focus remains on the prime cast members from those 27 days in September, the unfiltered Phil Esposito, the still modest Henderson, an unrepentant Bobby Clarke, coach Harry Sinden, goalie Ken Dryden and Russians such as Vladislav Tretiak. Even series head honcho Alan Eagleson is back. “The players’ memories remain quite exact,” Bidini said. “Which wasn’t surprising. I find hockey players can recount well, like when I heard (former Leaf player and coach) Red Kelly in his 80s a few years before he passed, talk about a shift Darryl Sittler had in Game 4 of a 1975 series against Philadelphia. “That was definitely the case here, with just a few contradictions. Their storytelling, especially Phil, Peter Mahovlich and Brad Park is so very, very vivid and thank God for that. “And let’s be frank, one of the reasons we wanted to do this film now is not just because it’s the 50th year, but some of these guys are not going to be around forever. It’s sad not to have Pat Stapleton (who took the secret locale of Henderson’s Game 8 goal puck with him in 2020) and I’d forgotten a bit that Bill Goldsworthy (who died in 1996) played almost the whole series. So, it was important to get players while still in sound mind and body as most are, but also to ask them questions they might not have heard before, get deeper into the emotional nature of the series and that sort of thing.” The survivors have reunited on both sides of the ocean a few times since ’72, but COVID-19, the Ukraine invasion and travel restrictions caused by both issues have prevented what was to be the likely last full-scale gathering this autumn. Most participants reconciled their series’ hatred through the years, gaining respect for each other as athletes and human beings who were caught up in the times of something much larger. “I’d have killed those bastards in a heartbeat,” Esposito growls at one point about the intensity the series generated at the time. “That scares the hell out of me (to say today).” |
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