 Let's start the new year with some hockey news | | | Our first newsletter of 2024 finds Canada's most popular national sport front and centre. Here's the latest:
Canada got eliminated in the quarterfinals of the world juniors.
The Canadian team's bid for a rare threepeat ended in stunningly abrupt fashion today in Sweden when the Czech Republic scored with 11 seconds left in regulation for a 3-2 victory. Jakub Stancl's fluky game-winner, his second goal of the game, redirected off two Canadians to beat goalie Mathis Rousseau.
The last time Canada failed to advance past the quarterfinals was in 2019. It then made four consecutive trips to the gold-medal game and won three of them. That included a dramatic 3-2 overtime victory over the Czechs last year in Halifax after the Canadians blew a 2-0 lead.
Both teams' rosters are much different now, but today's game followed a similar script. The Czechs took a 2-0 advantage into the first intermission before Canada came back in the second period with goals by Matthew Wood and defenceman Jake Furlong (his first point of the tournament), only to lose on a bad bounce.
"It feels like the world's ending a bit," Canada captain Fraser Minten said. "You never really know if you're going to get another look representing your country or playing on such a global stage."
Seventeen-year-old star Macklin Celebrini was held off the scoresheet but still topped all Canadian players in the tournament with four goals and eight points in five games. Celebrini will remain eligible for the next world juniors, in Ottawa, but the Boston University freshman could be onto bigger and better things by then as he's expected to go first overall in this year's NHL draft.
The Czechs' opponent in Thursday's semifinals will be host Sweden, which dealt Canada its only loss of the group stage before getting past Switzerland 3-2 in overtime today. The unbeaten United States trounced Latvia 7-2 to set up a matchup vs. Finland, which beat Slovakia 4-3 in OT.
The Professional Women's Hockey League is off and running.
A new era of women's pro hockey began yesterday as New York defeated host Toronto 4-0 in the PWHL's inaugural game. New York defender Ella Shelton, an Olympic gold medallist and two-time world champion with the Canadian national team, scored the new league's first goal midway through the opening period.
Apart from the lopsided score, it was pretty much an ideal debut for the PWHL, which hopes to become the first North American women's pro hockey league with real staying power. A sellout crowd of about 2,500 watched a hard-fought contest that remained 1-0 until the third period, when New York scored three unanswered goals.
Women's tennis pioneer and PWHL investor Billie Jean King was on hand to greet the players and perform the ceremonial opening faceoff for the game, which was broadcast in Canada on the CBC, TSN and Sportsnet, as well as on multiple U.S. cable channels. CBC Sports will carry another 17 games on Saturdays this season. Get more details here. Read more about the historic opener and watch highlights here.
The PWHL's other four teams are set to play their first games over the next couple of days. Montreal and Ottawa square off tonight in the nation's capital before Minnesota visits Boston tomorrow night.
The NHL is set for its first full slate of 2024.
The lone New Year's Day game saw host Seattle blank Stanley Cup champion Vegas 3-0 in front of more than 47,000 fans at the annual Winter Classic outdoor game.
Tonight, 26 of the NHL's 32 teams are in action. The league-leading New York Rangers host Metropolitan Division rival Carolina, while Canada's best team faces its worst as Western Conference-leading Vancouver welcomes 29th-overall Ottawa. Struggling Montreal and Calgary are at Dallas and Minnesota, respectively; surprising Winnipeg (sixth overall) hosts Tampa Bay; rejuvenated Edmonton goes for its sixth straight win vs. Philadelphia; and Toronto visits Los Angeles.
Toronto and Ottawa both made significant moves just before the end of 2023. The Leafs waived disappointing goalie Ilya Samsonov, while the Senators named Steve Staois their permanent general manager. Staios, the team's president of hockey operations, had been serving as interim GM since Pierre Dorion was let go on Nov. 1. | | |  | Canada suffered a devastating defeat to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the world junior championship in Sweden. (Adam Ihse/TT News Agency/AFP) | | | Quickly… | | | Some other things to know:
1. The new-look Raptors got off to a good start.
2023 ended on a sour note for the Raps, whose 129-127 defeat to Detroit on Saturday snapped the Pistons' 28-game losing streak — an NBA single-season record. Toronto was playing shorthanded after making a big trade earlier in the day that sent standout forward OG Anunoby to New York for Canadian wing RJ Barrett, guard Immanuel Quickley and a second-round draft pick. The Raptors also packaged reserves Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn to the Knicks.
Barrett and Quickley made their Raptors debuts last night. They scored 19 and 14 points, respectively, and Pascal Siakam had 36 to lead Toronto to a 124-121 win over visiting Cleveland. “This was special,” said the Toronto-born Barrett, who was greeted especially warmly by the sellout crowd.
Anunoby also made an impact in his first game with his new team yesterday, scoring 17 points in New York's 112-106 win over Western Conference-leading Minnesota. The Knicks (18-15) are eighth in the East, putting them in position for a berth in the play-in tournament.
Toronto (13-20) remains out of a play-in spot heading into a six-game Western road trip that starts Wednesday against Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies.
2. Two of the biggest stars in tennis are back.
With the Australian Open coming up in two weeks, a pair of former world No. 1s returned from long layoffs to win their opening matches at the Brisbane International, a key warmup for the year's first major.
In the women's draw, Naomi Osaka earned a 6-3, 7-6 (9) victory over Germany's Tamara Korpatsch in her first competitive match since September 2022. Osaka, 26, was a late scratch from the Australian Open last year before revealing she was pregnant, and she gave birth to her first child in July. The four-time Grand Slam champion will face 16th-seeded Karolina Pliskova in the second round in Brisbane tonight.
On the men's side, 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal beat Dominic Thiem 7-5, 6-1 today in his first competitive singles match in nearly a year. Nadal, 37, hadn't played since a hip injury led to his second-round exit at last year's Aussie Open. He later suggested that 2024 would be his final year in pro tennis. Nadal's next opponent is Australia's Jason Kubler.
3. The NFL playoff picture remains delightfully unsettled.
Five of the 14 spots are up for grabs heading into the final weekend of the regular season, and none of the first-round matchups have been decided.
In the NFC, San Francisco has clinched the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye while Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Rams will join them in the playoffs. That leaves Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Seattle, New Orleans, Minnesota and Atlanta to battle for the two remaining spots, with some of those teams still in contention for a division title.
In the AFC, Baltimore has locked up the top seed while Miami, Kansas City and Cleveland are also going to the playoffs. The three remaining spots will be filled by some combination of Buffalo, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Houston and Pittsburgh, who are all fighting for their playoff lives and/or a division title. The regular season culminates with the Sunday night finale between Buffalo and Miami for the AFC East crown.
Meanwhile, the U.S. college national championship matchup is set after No. 1 Michigan and No. 2 Washington earned thrilling wins in yesterday's semifinals against, respectively, No. 4 Alabama and No. 3 Texas. The title game is on Monday night. | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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