PITTSBURGH — Paul Skenes didn’t love the plan the Pittsburgh Pirates laid out for him in the spring, the one designed to bring the most talented pitching prospect in a generation along slowly and protect the right arm on which so much relies.
Looking back after a dazzling season in which the 22-year-old rookie somehow surpassed even the most outsized expectations — starting the All-Star Game, flirting with the occasional no-hitter, holding his own against the best in the game and making the Pirates matter in a way they haven’t in nearly a decade — Skenes admits the decision to have him begin his first full professional season in Triple-A so he could build his endurance up gradually was the right call.
“I don’t know if there can be a perfect plan, but it was just about perfectly put together,” Skenes said Wednesday.
And the best part? It’s almost over.
While Skenes is looking forward to his final start of the season when the Pirates visit Yankee Stadium this weekend, he’s already thinking about what awaits in 2025, when the training wheels might come off, or at least be loosened considerably.
“Next year, it’s hopefully just going to be ‘Take the ball and pitch,” said Skenes, who is 11-2 with a 1.99 ERA in 22 starts in the majors. “So I’m looking forward to that.”
With good reason. The top overall pick in the 2023 draft arrived in the big leagues in May armed with a fastball that hit triple digits with regularity and a mustachioed swagger that turned his starts into what quickly became known locally as “Skenes Day.”
Though the mustache remains, other parts of Skenes’ approach have evolved. He worked diligently on developing his secondary pitches throughout the year, well aware the fastball/slider combination that served him so well at LSU wouldn’t be good enough to get out the best hitters on the planet.
It’s telling of Skenes’ development that on Sunday in Cincinnati, he mixed in a changeup occasionally, six of which served as strike three on a day he fanned nine batters to boost his season total to 167 in just 131 innings.
“It’s not like we’re just punching X and O and triangle or whatever it is (in a video game),” Skenes said. “It’s like, ‘Well, I have it so I might as well throw it.'”
Something that Pirates manager Derek Shelton called “rare” for a player in such an early stage of his career.
“You don’t see guys that are able to add to their arsenal their first year in the big leagues,” Shelton said. “They’re trying to throw strikes. They’re trying to execute pitches. They’re trying to get hitters out. Not that he wasn’t trying to do all those things, but to do it and add to it at the same time, I think it just shows you how special a player he is.”
Even if Skenes is doing his best to block out the noise or think much about a season that has made him a leading contender for NL Rookie of the Year.
While he wasn’t enthralled with the idea of beginning the season in the minors, Skenes refused to get ahead of himself. Instead, he went out and dominated at Triple-A while patiently waiting for a call he knew would eventually come if he simply went out and did his job.
Shelton could sense Skenes’ disappointment when he didn’t make the opening day roster. It’s one of the reasons Shelton is so optimistic about Skenes’ future.
“I’m in love with the fact that he wasn’t in love with it,” Shelton said. “He wanted to pitch. He wanted more. I think now he realized what our end goal was, and if we would’ve done something sooner, it would’ve been more challenging.”
The plan didn’t end when Skenes was called up. The Pirates have been intentional about giving him an extra day or two between starts, particularly down the stretch with the postseason out of reach following an August swoon.
It’s been a delicate needle to thread, though Skenes has said and done all the right things even though the inner competitor in him would like to get the chance to do his job more often. That opportunity is likely coming next spring.
“That’s why I’m here: I’m here to pitch,” he said “So I want to pitch as much as I can. If you shorten the rest period, you can pitch more as the season goes on. I’m looking forward to that. That’s not something that’s going to be a complete 180 next year from how it is this year, but there are going to be a bit fewer restrictions on me.”
And he hopes, fewer losses for the Pirates. Pittsburgh was in wild-card position at the trade deadline before faltering in the late summer thanks in large part to a shaky bullpen and one of the worst offenses in the majors. Skenes is optimistic better days are ahead, and the buzz he helped create at PNC isn’t just reserved for the days when he goes to work.
“We’re going to be better next year,” he said. “We’re going to win a lot more games next year. So just keep coming.”
Boston’s Tanner Jeannot and Montreal’s Josh Anderson dropped the gloves at the opening faceoff of Tuesday night’s game. Another first-period fight helped set the tone for the Bruins, who had beaten Montreal in eight of the previous 10 meetings.
But after falling behind 2-1, the Canadiens scored five straight goals — four of them in a five-minute span in the third period — to win 6-2 and put some distance between the two Original Six teams who are jockeying for position in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Bruins lost the past four games on their homestand after winning five of their previous six. They have three days off before heading to a five-game road trip.
“We all recognized it was the last game before break — against the Habs, at the Garden,”Bruins forward Alex Steeves said. “We were down early, but we bounced back. Energy was good. And then it just got away from us.”
Five weeks after starting a fight from the opening faceoff in Montreal, the teams did it again. Jeannot, who has 53 goals and 435 penalty minutes in his career, and Anderson, who has 154 goals and 582 penalty minutes, fought for about a minute while teammates on both benches banged their sticks against the boards in approval.
The Bruins forward landed several blows before his Canadiens counterpart went to the ice, drawing a big roar and a chant of “U-S-A!” from the TD Garden crowd. Midway through the first period, it happened again, with Boston’s Nikita Zadorov and Montreal’s Arber Xhekaj dropping their gloves off a faceoff in the Bruins’ end.
“It had everything to me: Guys winning fights; guys laying their body on the [line],” Bruins forward David Pastrnak said. “It’s easy to get into the game when you have guys like this.”
In all, there were nine penalties for 30 minutes in the first, with Boston taking a 2-1 lead on Steeves’ power-play goal with 18 seconds left in the period.
“It gives the whole building energy — not just us players,” Steeves said. “Some guys on the bench just said it was the loudest we’ve heard the building. So it’s awesome. Those guys lay their bodies on the line every night. It’s up to us as a team to galvanize around that and really use that.”
But the penalties in the third were costly, with the Canadiens twice capitalizing on 5-on-3 advantages to pull away. Montreal ended the night with 45 points, four more than Boston and good for third in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins are currently out of playoff position.
“I still can’t believe that the game actually ended 2-6,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. “Even after the first period, guys came ready to play today. They were very excited.”
The Bruins had won eight of the past 10 matchups between the teams, including a 3-2 win in Montreal on Nov. 15. That game also featured several scuffles, including a fight at the opening faceoff. But the bigger problem for the Bruins had nothing to do with the fisticuffs: Star defenseman Charlie McAvoy was hit in the face by a slap shot, which could make him miss almost a month.
Members of the Professional Hockey Players’ Association are on the verge of staging a strike in the ECHL if the union and the league cannot come to an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement.
The PHPA announced Monday that its ECHL membership has served a strike notice that would be effective Friday, when play is scheduled to resume following the holiday break. Players voted Friday to authorize their bargaining committee to call for a strike, executive director Brian Ramsay said Monday.
“Our members have made it very clear that they’ve had enough,” Ramsay said on a video call with reporters. “Unfortunately, this is a league that would rather bully us than bargain.”
The sides appeared no closer to a resolution Tuesday based on an update from Ramsay, even after he said the PHPA offered the option of reaching a settlement through mediation or arbitration.
“The ECHL responded within minutes, rejecting any interest in this solution and demanding ‘significant movement’ and concessions from the players,” Ramsay said in a released statement. “This approach continues to align with the increased threats our membership has faced over the past 18 hours.”
CBA talks began in January, with Ramsay accusing the league of unfair bargaining practices, including most recently contacting players directly with proposals, which have been reported to the National Labor Relations Board.
“This is a league that has taken almost a year to concede that we should be entitled to choose helmets that properly fit us and are safe,” Ramsay said. “This is the league that still supplies our members with used equipment. This is a league that shows no concern for players’ travels and in fact has said the nine-hour bus trip home should be considered your day off. We have had members this year spend 28 hours-plus on a bus to play back-to-back games on a Friday and Saturday night, only to be paid less than the referees who work those very same games.”
The ECHL posted details of its latest proposal on its website Monday, saying it calls to raise the salary cap 16.4% this season, with retroactive pay upon ratification, and increases in total player salaries in future years to pay players nearly 27% more than the current cap. The league said it has also offered larger per diems, mandatory day-off requirements and a 325-mile limit for travel between back-to-back games.
“Our approach will continue to balance the need to best support our players and maintain a sustainable business model that helps ensure the long-term success of our league so it remains affordable and accessible to fans,” the ECHL said, adding that the average ticket price is $21. “Negotiations have been progressing but not as quickly as we would like.
“We have reached a number of tentative agreements and remain focused on reaching a comprehensive new agreement that supports our players and the long-term health of every team in our league.”
Taking issue with the ECHL’s offer numbers, Ramsay said inflation would have players making less than the equivalent amount in 2018, prior to the pandemic. The league said a work stoppage would result in some games being postponed and players not being paid and losing housing and medical benefits that it pays for.
Ramsay called threats of players losing their housing if there’s a strike an unfair labor practice in itself.
“Consistently in the last six or eight weeks, teams trying to intimidate and bully our members, threaten our members with their jobs, with their housing, with their work visas if they’re from out of country — different tactics like that,” Ramsay said.
Jimmy Mazza, who played several seasons in the ECHL and is now on the negotiating committee, argued that owners do not know what it’s like to travel 29 hours in a bus or to be given a used helmet.
“The top level, you know that those players aren’t being treated that way, so why are they treating us that way?” Mazza said. “To us, it’s a little bit of a slap in the face with the way these negotiations have gone for a year, when only five days ago, we get a little bit of movement on a helmet issue when it should have been done a year ago.”
The ECHL, formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League and now going just by the acronym, is a North American developmental league that is two levels below the NHL, with the American Hockey League in between. There are 30 teams, 29 of which are in the U.S. and one in Canada in Trois-Rivières, Quebec.
The AHL and PHPA have been working under the terms of their most recent CBA, which expired Aug. 31. An AHL spokesperson said the sides are very close to a new agreement.
The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association earlier this year ratified a deal that ensures labor peace through 2030.
TORONTO — Max Domi scored the winner with 8:25 remaining to snap a 23-game goalless streak and added an assist to end the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ three-game slide with a 6-3 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
Domi danced around Pittsburgh newcomer Brett Kulak for the deciding goal, a few hours after Toronto general manager Brad Treliving gave coach Craig Berube a vote of confidence for the second time this season.
“I support Craig fully. When you go through rough stretches, that’s part of the business,” he said. “There isn’t a disconnect. We all need to be better, we all recognize that, but I think we got a really good coach.”
Treliving spoke a day after the club fired assistant coach Marc Savard following two losses in two days over the weekend.
“The players have responsibility and this doesn’t absolve anybody. This is not we throw somebody out and blame that person,” he said. “It’s a change that we could make to change the dynamic, change maybe a little bit of the play.”
Nylander scored the icebreaker for his first in 11 games, midway through the first period. But Rust drew the Penguins even 44 seconds later, getting behind Nicolas Roy and Chris Tanev for a successful breakaway.
Tanev returned after a 23-game absence. He was stretchered off the ice after a collision on Nov. 1 in Philadelphia.
Toronto fired 31 shots on goal while the Penguins registered 32, with Joseph Woll picking up his sixth win in 11 starts. Pittsburgh goalie Stuart Skinner has yet to win in three starts, with 12 goals against since being traded by the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 15.
Savard steered the Maple Leafs to the NHL’s worst power play (12 for 90 with four short-handed goals against), and on Tuesday, Toronto went 0 for 2 against Pittsburgh. Assistant coach Derek Lalonde has been tasked with fixing the team’s power-play struggles.
