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Keanu Reeves is taking a break from his day job — and it’s for a good cause.

The Canadian actor signed a one-day contract with the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires on Thursday to support the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Windsor-Essex branch. The CMHA will auction off items autographed by Reeves, with all proceeds going back into the organization.

Reeves grew up in Toronto and was in the Windsor area to play bass with his alternative rock band Dogstar at a local casino. In his younger days, Reeves (a goaltender at heart) had hoped to play for the Spitfires, but that dream was cut short due to injury. He did eventually get to portray a hockey player on screen when he portrayed — of course — a goalie looking to reach the NHL in the 1986 film “Youngblood.”

As they say though, every dog has their day, and Reeves finally got to pull on a Windsor sweater, fulfilling his own dream and hopefully helping others in the process through the CMHA’s auction.

“It’s a big day for our organization,” Spitfires GM Bill Bowler said. “We are so proud to finally have Keanu on our squad. If he’s half the goalie he was in ‘Youngblood,’ we should do well this season. We are big supporters of the CMHA and hope the auction for this extremely rare jersey will help such an important cause in our community.”

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Jets sign captain Lowry to 5-year, $25M extension

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Jets sign captain Lowry to 5-year, M extension

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The Winnipeg Jets signed captain Adam Lowry to a five-year, $25 million contract extension Wednesday. The deal starts next season.

The 32-year-old Lowry has played his entire 12-year NHL career with Winnipeg, serving as captain since 2023-24.

St. Louis native Lowry has a goal and two assists in seven games this season. The 6-foot-5 center has 122 goals and 154 assists in career 782 games.

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Bruins’ McAvoy, hit in mouth by puck, has surgery

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Bruins' McAvoy, hit in mouth by puck, has surgery

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy had surgery Wednesday to repair facial injuries and will be sidelined indefinitely.

McAvoy was hit in the mouth by Noah Dobson‘s slap shot Saturday in the second period of Boston’s 3-2 victory in Montreal.

“He’s doing good,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said before Boston’s game against Anaheim. “He’s recovering right now at home. We still don’t know how long he’s going to be out for.”

McAvoy has 14 assists in 19 games this season.

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Panthers say Luostarinen out after BBQ ‘mishap’

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Panthers say Luostarinen out after BBQ 'mishap'

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are now dealing with even more injuries, including one sustained in a grilling accident.

And coach Paul Maurice, when looking at the big picture, is seeing all of this as a way for the champs to get even better.

Forward Eetu Luostarinen will be listed as week-to-week, Maurice said Wednesday, after what the coach described as “a barbecuing mishap.” But the already-shorthanded Panthers don’t seem to have a concrete timeline in mind for Luostarinen’s return.

“We don’t have a lot of experience with this,” Maurice said. “When he comes back and feels comfortable with the equipment on him, away we go.”

And forward Cole Schwindt, claimed off waivers last month to help with the Panthers’ injury problems, is now on the injury list himself. Schwindt will need surgery in the coming days to repair a broken arm, and the Panthers expect that he’ll miss two to three months.

Luostarinen and Schwindt become the latest entries on an injury log for the Panthers that already included long-term issues for captain Aleksander Barkov (preseason ACL tear), Dmitry Kulikov (upper body), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Tomas Nosek (knee) and Matthew Tkachuk (groin). Barkov, Kulikov, Gadjovich and Nosek all still have months to go in their recoveries; Tkachuk might start skating by the end of this month and could make his season debut sometime in December.

It is not at all what the Panthers expected to start the season. But that’s where Maurice sees opportunity; the roster depletions have forced Florida to change its playing style somewhat, and he thinks that could wind up providing valuable lessons.

“There’s an awful lot of good if you can capture, if you can learn some new things, things that you have to learn to survive,” Maurice said. “And that’s really in some ways what we’re doing, is trying to survive. When you get to seven guys out of your lineup, you’ve got a problem. We can survive that and then learn through the adversity of it eventually.

“We’re going to have, slightly after the trade deadline, the biggest movement in the league,” he added. “We’re going to get some players back. We can be a better team than we were going into the playoffs last year, if we can learn how to do this. It’s just going to be hard. It’s going to be uncomfortable right now. And we’ve got to be good with that.”

The Panthers expect that rookie forward Jack Devine, part of two NCAA title teams at Denver and twice a Hobey Baker Award finalist before turning pro last year, will make his NHL debut Thursday in a home game against New Jersey.

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