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LAS VEGAS — How the Vegas Golden Knights walked away with a 6-4 win Wednesday night against the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs could be a microcosm of what lies ahead.

Everything the Golden Knights sought to accomplish in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals at T-Mobile Arena fit within their overall scheme. But it also came with a sense of latitude, that there could be exceptions.

On Wednesday night, Oilers superstar center Leon Draisaitl was the exception. The 2020 Hart Memorial Trophy winner scored all four of his team’s goals, taking his postseason totals to a league-high 11 goals and 15 points.

But asked whether he took any consolation from his four-goal performance, Draisaitl said simply, “No.”

Draisaitl’s four-goal game came less than 24 hours after veteran Dallas Stars forward Joe Pavelski, who missed five games in the first round while in the concussion protocol, also scored four times in his team’s 5-4 overtime loss Tuesday to the Seattle Kraken. It was only the second time in league history that a player had a four-goal performance on consecutive days in the postseason, according to the NHL.

Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy was far more vocal about Draisaitl’s performance than Draisaitl. Cassidy was breaking down what happened on all four goals before making a statement about Draisaitl that drew laughter.

“Leon Draisaitl with his 11th goal of the playoffs,” Cassidy said. “Does that sound funny to you? Eleven goals. We’re in the first game of the second round. I mean, it’s unbelievable.”

But on the whole, Cassidy and his players sounded mostly pleased with their overall defensive approach.

“I thought we did have defensive success to be quite honest with you,” Cassidy said with a grin. “I didn’t think it was a barrage. They had a real good push in the third where we got on our heels a little bit. We cannot do that against this team. We almost had to go back to playing like we were behind once it got to 5-4. We still made plays, so, that’s what it looked like for me tonight.”

Going back to his time with the Boston Bruins, Cassidy’s defensive tactics are designed to be suppressive. It’s a structure that, when at its peak, has all five skaters actively engaged in the forecheck while constantly skating. From there, it’s about taking that movement and adding other components, whether they be subtle or a bit more pronounced.

Vegas limited Edmonton to three shots on goal early and finished the opening frame with only eight total shots.

“If we have a chance to dictate, we’re going to take it,” said Golden Knights center William Karlsson, who finished with an assist. “I think we did that. We had a great start, and it just continued on. I think overall, we played a pretty good game. I think we were dictating most of the game, and if you can keep it that way, that would be great. I would rather have that than let them dictate the game.”

Draisaitl scored the bookend goals of a five-goal opening period. His first came on the power play, then the Golden Knights scored three straight thanks to Ivan Barbashev, Michael Amadio and captain Mark Stone.

Vegas was 11 seconds away from taking a two-goal lead into intermission before Draisaitl, who was just to the right of goaltender Laurent Brossoit, found enough space to bank the puck off Brossoit’s back to cut the lead to 3-2.

Draisaitl tied the game less than two minutes into the third period with a power-play goal for a unit that finished 2-for-3 on the extra skater advantage.

If Draisaitl scoring seemingly at will has become a familiar sight, so has the number of rapid goals scored within two minutes. Every first-round series had at least two instances in which two goals were scored in quick succession.

That happened again Wednesday night when the Golden Knights took a 5-3 lead when Barbashev scored his second and Chandler Stephenson also scored. The goals were scored 50 second apart.

“I don’t think we adhered to what our game plan was tonight,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “I thought we were too loose, and as I said, I thought we made some individual errors that we haven’t seen in a long time.”

Draisaitl scored his fourth to cut the lead to 5-4 before a late empty-net goal from Jack Eichel made it 6-4.

As for the Golden Knights’ defensive approach, the Oilers entered the semifinal round second in the NHL with 34.1 shots per game and had 27 on Wednesday night.

Edmonton also leads the league in high-danger chances per 60 minutes and is fourth in high-danger goals per 60, according to Natural Stat Trick. Vegas held Edmonton to just eight high-danger chances, with seven of them coming in the third period.

“It’s no surprise to anyone that on any given night that either of those guys [Draisaitl or Connor McDavid] — and they got more than just those two guys, and that’s no disrespect to them,” Golden Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud said. “They’ve got guys up and down the lineup that can contribute in those facets. But as a five-man group and as a team, you have to focus your energy on the things they do well and the personnel they have on the ice at the time. … Four goals, but you got to do your best to try and limit that.”

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Volpe toss hits Judge as sloppy Yanks fall again

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Volpe toss hits Judge as sloppy Yanks fall again

NEW YORK — A blunder that typifies the current state of the New York Yankees, who find themselves in the midst of their second six-game losing streak in three weeks, happened in front of 41,401 fans at Citi Field on Saturday, and almost nobody noticed.

The Yankees were jogging off the field after securing the third out of the fourth inning of their 12-6 loss to the Mets when shortstop Anthony Volpe, as is standard for teams across baseball at the end of innings, threw the ball to right fielder Aaron Judge as he crossed into the infield from right field.

Only Judge wasn’t looking, and the ball nailed him in the head, knocking his sunglasses off and leaving a small cut near his right eye. The wound required a bandage to stop the bleeding, but Judge stayed in the game.

“Confusion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I didn’t know what happened initially. [It just] felt like something happened. Of course I was a little concerned.”

Avoiding an injury to the best player in baseball was on the Yankees’ very short list of positives in another sloppy, draining defeat to their crosstown rivals. With the loss, the Yankees, who held a three-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East standings entering June 30, find themselves tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place three games behind the Blue Jays heading into Sunday’s Subway Series finale.

The nosedive has been fueled by messy defense and a depleted pitching staff that has encountered a wall.

“It’s been a terrible week,” said Boone, who before the game announced starter Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.

For the second straight day, the Mets capitalized on mistakes and cracked timely home runs. After slugging three homers in Friday’s series opener, the Mets hit three more Saturday — a grand slam in the first inning from Brandon Nimmo to take a 4-0 lead and two home runs from Pete Alonso to widen the gap.

Nimmo’s blast — his second grand slam in four days — came after Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez misplayed a ball hit by the Mets’ leadoff hitter in the first inning. On Friday, he misread Nimmo’s line drive and watched it sail over his head for a double. On Saturday, he was slow to react to Starling Marte’s flyball in the left-center field gap and braked without catching or stopping it, allowing Marte to advance to second for a double. Yankees starter Carlos Rodon then walked two batters to load the bases for Nimmo, who yanked a mistake, a 1-2 slider over the wall.

“That slider probably needs to be down,” said Rodon, who allowed seven runs (six earned) over five innings. “A lot of misses today and they punished them.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throwing woes at third base — a position the Yankees have asked him to play to accommodate DJ LeMahieu at second base — continued in the second inning when he fielded Tyrone Taylor’s groundball and sailed a toss over first baseman Cody Bellinger’s head. Taylor was given second base and scored moments later on Marte’s RBI single.

The Yankees were charged with their second error in the Mets’ four-run seventh inning when center fielder Trent Grisham charged Francisco Lindor’s single up the middle and had it bounce off the heel of his glove.

The mistake allowed a run to score from second base without a throw, extending the Mets lead back to three runs after the Yankees had chipped their deficit, and allowed a heads-up Lindor to advance to second base. Lindor later scored on Alonso’s second home run, a three-run blast off left-hander Jayvien Sandridge in the pitcher’s major league debut.

“Just got to play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s fundamentals. Making a routine play, routine. It’s just the little things. That’s what it kind of comes down to. But every good team goes through a couple bumps in the road.”

This six-game losing skid has looked very different from the Yankees’ first. That rough patch, consisting of losses to the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels, was propelled by offensive troubles. The Yankees scored six runs in the six games and gave up just 16. This time, run prevention is the issue; the Yankees have scored 34 runs and surrendered 54 in four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto and two in Queens.

“The offense is starting to swing the bat, put some runs on the board,” Boone said. “The pitching, which has kind of carried us a lot this season, has really, really struggled this week. We haven’t caught the ball as well as I think we should.

“So, look, when you live it and you’re going through it, it sucks, it hurts. But you got to be able to handle it. You got to be able to deal with it. You got to be able to weather it and come out of this and grow.”

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Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies

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Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies

Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was on the roster when the franchise won the 2005 World Series, died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, the team announced.

Jenks, 44, who had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, this year, spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and also played for the Boston Red Sox in 2011. The reliever finished his major league career with a 16-20 record, 3.53 ERA and 173 saves.

“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago. He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend and teammate. He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”

After Jenks moved to Portugal last year, he was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. That eventually spread into blood clots in his lungs, prompting further testing. He was later diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and began undergoing radiation.

In February, as Jenks was being treated for the illness, the White Sox posted “We stand with you, Bobby” on Instagram, adding in the post that the club was “thinking of Bobby as he is being treated.”

In 2005, as the White Sox ended an 88-year drought en route to the World Series title, Jenks appeared in six postseason games. Chicago went 11-1 in the playoffs, and he earned saves in series-clinching wins in Game 3 of the ALDS at Boston, and Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros.

In 2006, Jenks saved 41 games, and the following year, he posted 40 saves. He also retired 41 consecutive batters in 2007, matching a record for a reliever.

“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” Jenks said in his last interview with SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I [was] playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”

A native of Mission Hills, California, Jenks appeared in 19 games for the Red Sox and was originally drafted by the then-Anaheim Angels in the fifth round of the 2000 draft.

Jenks is survived by his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, their two children, Zeno and Kate, and his four children from a prior marriage, Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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In search of infield options, Yanks add Candelario

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In search of infield options, Yanks add Candelario

NEW YORK — The New York Yankees, digging for options to bolster their infield, have signed third baseman Jeimer Candelario to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the affiliate announced Saturday.

Candelario, 31, was released by the Cincinnati Reds on June 23, halfway through a three-year, $45 million contract he signed before the start of last season. The decision was made after Candelario posted a .707 OPS in 2024 and batted .113 with a .410 OPS in 22 games for the Reds before going on the injured list in April with a back injury.

The performance was poor enough for Cincinnati to cut him in a move that Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall described as a sunk cost.

For the Yankees, signing Candelario is a low-cost flier on a player who recorded an .807 OPS just two seasons ago as they seek to find a third baseman to move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base, his natural position.

Candelario is the second veteran infielder the Yankees have signed to a minor league contract in the past three days; they agreed to terms with Nicky Lopez on Thursday.

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