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There’s something to be said for having options. Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off GM Don Sweeney — alongside associate GM Jim Nill — is going to have an abundance of them when it comes to setting his country’s roster for the upcoming tournament.

We’re just under a month away from the Dec. 2 deadline for management of each country — that’s Canada, the USA, Finland and Sweden — to submit their roster of 20 skaters and three goaltenders for the event taking place on Feb. 12-20.

The NHL has eschewed its usual All-Star Game in favor of this tournament, but have no fear: Canada alone will practically carry enough talent to mirror that of any league-wide showcase.

Choosing from the country’s best is a tantalizing thought. Given the fortune of faces to choose from, who will actually make Sweeney’s squad? And which players will be the toughest to leave off the list?

Oh, and — who exactly is going to tend goal for this team?

Each nation announced six players that would be on the team back on June 28. For Canada, that’s defenseman Cale Makar, along with forwards Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand, Connor McDavid and Brayden Point.

The countdown is officially on for decision day. The roster itself is bound to contain a surprise (or two) so instead of a full-blown projection, we’re breaking down each position with the skaters most likely to be a lock, and the ones on whom a decision will be hardest.

Centers

The shoo-ins: Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon

Stating the obvious: Canada will be deep down the middle. That’s true whether MacKinnon is lining up there or sliding to the wing (something he has already told reporters he’s open to doing) and Brayden Point ends up in this category. Either way, when you can roll out these three in any capacity on the same lineup card, you’re doing alright.

The tough calls: The fourth center spot for Canada is likely Nick Suzuki‘s to lose. He has a finely tuned 200-foot game and takes on Montreal’s hardest matchups every night, all while elevating his teammates in the process. That’s a well-rounded addition to the roster. However, it won’t be easy for Sweeney to dole out roles here, while also considering who could potentially fill winger slots instead.

Ryan O’Reilly would be an excellent checking-line center option, and has Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe pedigree on his resume. Steven Stamkos also comes with ample winning experience, and his power-play acumen (an accurate bomb of a one-timer) make him a versatile extra piece. His leadership is a valuable commodity, too.

In terms of pure production, Mark Scheifele just scored 42 goals two years ago and he already is averaging over a point per game this season for the red-hot Winnipeg Jets. Anthony Cirelli is another candidate for the fourth-line center role, given his strong start to the season (12 points in 11 games) and, of course, his connection to Canada’s head coach (and Tampa Bay Lightning bench boss) Jon Cooper.

The real conundrum for Canada here is whether they’ll prioritize flash and scoring without a balance of some grit-and-grind energy. Although that could always be found in the country’s stable of superior winger options that we’ll be looking into next. But does Canada need to incorporate a certain physicality to be at its best? Or just allow the fast-paced, free-flowing offense it can easily create be their guide? It’s only a two-week affair we’re talking about. No need for Canada to overthink things … right?


Wingers

The shoo-ins: Brayden Point, Mitch Marner, Sam Reinhart

It was mentioned earlier but should go without saying: Point is a terrific center and could play there too. Reinhart was second in NHL goal scoring last season (with 57 markers) while Marner consistently ranks among the league’s most dynamic playmakers.

This trio is a great point of entry into a long list of difficult decisions.

The tough calls: Zach Hyman could be among the sure things here … if not for a bout of early-season struggles. The Oilers’ winger tallied 54 goals last season — third-most in the league — but has just two points in 11 games in 2024-25. If that trend continues, someone else might leapfrog over Hyman on the depth chart.

The same goes for Quinton Byfield. He’s right on the cusp of this roster. Frankly, he might be the hardest call of all. How Byfield plays the next month could ultimately decide his fate. After putting up 20 goals last season, the 22-year-old is off to a slow start with just five assists in his first 11 games. If Byfield can pad those stats over the next couple weeks with improved play, Sweeney will have to take notice of the young King who can also play center.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is weathering a mediocre opening to this campaign (four points in 11 games) that may see him bumped in favor of someone like Brandon Hagel. The latter would surely get Cooper’s vote given how Hagel has been so important for Tampa Bay, and is having a great season (13 points in 11 games). Alexis Lafreniere‘s scorching start in New York (10 points in 10 games) also puts him firmly on the radar for a spot.

Brad Marchand comes with that get-under-your-skin element Canada may not have elsewhere, and remains productive (with nine points in 12 games so far) even at 36 years old. Not bad. Sam Bennett provides the same sort of sandpaper and Cup-winning history. Would having both Marchand and Bennett be too much of a good thing in that respect?

Mark Stone is another veteran player with a Cup on his resume — and is one of the best defensive forwards in the game — but his on-ice contributions are frequently overshadowed by trips to the injured list.

Mathew Barzal is a point-per-game player who seems to single-handedly keep the offensively challenged Islanders afloat, and he can play at center or on the wing (the 27-year-old transitioned from one position to the other when New York acquired Bo Horvat in 2023). That determination alone might be enough to sway Sweeney in his direction. Barzal hit the long-term injured reserve, and will miss four to six weeks, which obviously impacts the decision-making process here too.

Travis Konecny will get a long look. He’s strung together consecutive 30-goal seasons for Philadelphia, and has seemed to get better year over year.

On the topic of promise, no we haven’t left out/forgotten the youngest of Canada’s burgeoning forward group. Connor Bedard and Wyatt Johnston both deserve serious consideration to make this team. But where do they fit into how Sweeney wants to construct this group? Bedard and Johnston are sensational in their own rights, and can certainly handle themselves against the other club’s best players. This tournament is also an audition of sorts for Canada’s 2026 Olympic team (for which Sweeney and Nill will also be assistant general managers) and putting Bedard and/or Johnston on this stage to see how they do could plant seeds of confidence for what’s to come in 2026.


Defensemen

The shoo-ins: Cale Makar, Devon Toews

Hoo boy. This could be Sweeney’s Mt. Everest in creating Team Canada. It’s simple enough to tap Makar — a four-time Norris Trophy finalist and one-time winner — and his teammate Toews as the nation’s top pairing.

From there, things get tricky.

The tough calls: Noah Dobson seems like an easy pick despite how overlooked his defensive play is following a stellar 2023-24 season. Shea Theodore is in the prime of his career with the Golden Knights, skilled with the puck and a special teams asset. All that should land him a slot. But he’ll have competition.

Theodore’s teammate Alex Pietrangelo makes sense from a pure defense perspective, and he’s an added veteran presence to what could be a relatively young defense corps. Josh Morrissey seems constantly overlooked for how good a player he’s become, and the way he can weave in some offense without sacrificing on the defensive side. Morgan Rielly will be on the long list as well, having made many a past appearance for Team Canada and continuing to perform at a high (and reliable) level.

Evan Bouchard is the real wild card for Canada’s back end. He anchors Edmonton’s power play using the same high-end passing and playmaking that make him a threat at even strength. However, Canada will have Makar for their power-play needs, and other options that can potentially bring more to the mix than Bouchard.

MacKenzie Weegar may lack name recognition, but he’s physical and fiery and that would balance out some of the finesse on which Canada’s blue line will be heavy.

Similar to Bedard and Johnston, Canada has an up-and-coming defensive star in Owen Power who they’ll definitely be testing for the Olympics. Is now the time to see what he’s got on a smaller stage?

It’s also important to note that Drew Doughty — currently sidelined by a broken ankle — is expected to be healthy by the time this tournament gets going. Will he move the needle for Sweeney and steal an extra spot perhaps? We can’t rule out the possibility.

There are almost too many right choices here to make a wrong one for Canada’s defense. The same might not be said for its goaltending.


Goaltenders

The shoo-ins: Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill

If Canada is going to have an Achilles Heel, it’s likely to be goaltending. In contrast to the embarrassment of riches Canada boasts everywhere else, there just aren’t the same number of elite-caliber choices in net.

Binnington is best suited as his country’s No. 1 goalie. The 31-year-old had a superb, and sorely underappreciated, 2023-24 season (.913 save percentage, 2.84 goals-against average) and that was while backstopping a Blues team that was lacking defensively. Binnington also rises to the occasion; it’s the biggest games and most charged-up moments where he seems to thrive (see: St. Louis’ run to a 2019 Stanley Cup victory). That’s good news for Canada.

Hill is an ideal backup. He replaced Logan Thompson as Vegas’ starter during their successful playoff trek to a Cup win in 2023, and had a strong follow-up campaign in 2023-24, with a .909 SV% and 2.71 GAA. He and Binnington would be a fine tandem.

Speaking of Thompson, he might have the inside track as the country’s third-stringer. Despite so-so stats (.876 SV%, 3.21 GAA), Thompson is 4-0-0 in his first season with the Capitals. Will that stave off the remaining competition?

The tough calls: Stuart Skinner would have been an obvious selection for Canada after the way he helped drag Edmonton to Game 7 of the Cup Final last season. But Stuart has been woefully unreliable at times — including out of the gate this season — and with limited spots, every positive or negative counts.

Montreal’s Sam Montembeault seemed like a good pick in theory, but Montembeault has been struggling for the Canadiens as of late and it’s hard to say if he’d perform better surrounded by Canada’s superior defense.

Cam Talbot is an intriguing name in the mix as well; he’s posted decent numbers early on for the Red Wings (.913 SV%, 3.16 GAA) and would bring veteran experience to the room.

Then there’s the poetic element to including Marc-Andre Fleury in this final season of his NHL career. However, Fleury’s numbers haven’t been great (.899 SV% and 2.93 GAA). Ditto for Darcy Kuemper, a solid veteran who’s consistent but unspectacular. That about sums up the majority of Canada’s goaltending options.

In the end, it could come down to two factors: who’s healthy, and who has the hottest hand. Considering all that can change in a month — and again from there — expect Sweeney to have contingency plans in place. He won’t be short on names (in most cases) to sift through, at least.

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What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB’s hottest trend

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What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB's hottest trend

The opening weekend of the 2025 MLB season was taken over by a surprise star — torpedo bats.

The bowling pin-shaped bats became the talk of the sport after the Yankees’ home run onslaught on the first Saturday of the season put it in the spotlight and the buzz hasn’t slowed since.

What exactly is a torpedo bat? How does it help hitters? And how is it legal? Let’s dig in.

Read: An MIT-educated professor, the Yankees and the bat that could be changing baseball


What is a torpedo bat and why is it different from a traditional MLB bat?

The idea of the torpedo bat is to take a size format — say, 34 inches and 32 ounces — and distribute the wood in a different geometric shape than the traditional form to ensure the fattest part of the bat is located where the player makes the most contact. Standard bats taper toward an end cap that is as thick diametrically as the sweet spot of the barrel. The torpedo bat moves some of the mass on the end of the bat about 6 to 7 inches lower, giving it a bowling-pin shape, with a much thinner end.


How does it help hitters?

The benefits for those who like swinging with it — and not everyone who has swung it likes it — are two-fold. Both are rooted in logic and physics. The first is that distributing more mass to the area of most frequent contact aligns with players’ swing patterns and provides greater impact when bat strikes ball. Players are perpetually seeking ways to barrel more balls, and while swings that connect on the end of the bat and toward the handle probably will have worse performance than with a traditional bat, that’s a tradeoff they’re willing to make for the additional slug. And as hitters know, slug is what pays.

The second benefit, in theory, is increased bat speed. Imagine a sledgehammer and a broomstick that both weigh 32 ounces. The sledgehammer’s weight is almost all at the end, whereas the broomstick’s is distributed evenly. Which is easier to swing fast? The broomstick, of course, because shape of the sledgehammer takes more strength and effort to move. By shedding some of the weight off the end of the torpedo bat and moving it toward the middle, hitters have found it swings very similarly to a traditional model but with slightly faster bat velocity.


Why did it become such a big story so early in the 2025 MLB season?

Because the New York Yankees hit nine home runs in a game Saturday and Michael Kay, their play-by-play announcer, pointed out that some of them came from hitters using a new bat shape. The fascination was immediate. While baseball, as an industry, has implemented forward-thinking rules in recent seasons, the modification to something so fundamental and known as the shape of a bat registered as bizarre. The initial response from many who saw it: How is this legal?


OK. How is this legal?

Major League Baseball’s bat regulations are relatively permissive. Currently, the rules allow for a maximum barrel diameter of 2.61 inches, a maximum length of 42 inches and a smooth and round shape. The lack of restrictions allows MLB’s authorized bat manufacturers to toy with bat geometry and for the results to still fall within the regulations.


Who came up with the idea of using them?

The notion of a bowling-pin-style bat has kicked around baseball for years. Some bat manufacturers made smaller versions as training tools. But the version that’s now infiltrating baseball goes back two years when a then-Yankees coach named Aaron Leanhardt started asking hitters how they should counteract the giant leaps in recent years made by pitchers.

When Yankees players responded that bigger barrels would help, Leanhardt — an MIT-educated former Michigan physics professor who left academia to work in the sports industry — recognized that as long as bats stayed within MLB parameters, he could change their geometry to make them a reality. Leanhardt, who left the Yankees to serve as major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins over the winter, worked with bat manufacturers throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons to make that a reality.


When did it first appear in MLB games?

It’s unclear specifically when. But Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton used a torpedo bat last year and went on a home run-hitting rampage in October that helped send the Yankees to the World Series. New York Mets star Francisco Lindor also used a torpedo-style bat last year and went on to finish second in National League MVP voting.


Who are some of the other notable early users of torpedo bats?

In addition to Stanton and Lindor, Yankees hitters Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have used torpedoes to great success. Others who have used them in games include Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers and Toronto’s Davis Schneider. And that’s just the beginning. Hundreds more players are expected to test out torpedoes — and perhaps use them in games — in the coming weeks.


How is this different from a corked bat?

Corking bats involves drilling a hole at the end of the bat, filling it in and capping it. The use of altered bats allows players to swing faster because the material with which they replace the wood — whether it’s cork, superballs or another material — is lighter. Any sort of bat adulteration is illegal and, if found, results in suspension.


Could a rule be changed to ban them?

Could it happen? Sure. Leagues and governing bodies have put restrictions on equipment they believe fundamentally altered fairness. Stick curvature is limited in hockey. Full-body swimsuits made of polyurethane and neoprene are banned by World Aquatics. But officials at MLB have acknowledged that the game’s pendulum has swung significantly toward pitching in recent years, and if an offensive revolution comes about because of torpedo bats — and that is far from a guarantee — it could bring about more balance to the game. If that pendulum swings too far, MLB could alter its bat regulations, something it has done multiple times already this century.


So the torpedo bat is here to stay?

Absolutely. Bat manufacturers are cranking them out and shipping them to interested players with great urgency. Just how widely the torpedo bat is adopted is the question that will play out over the rest of the season. But it has piqued the curiosity of nearly every hitter in the big leagues, and just as pitchers toy with new pitches to see if they can marginally improve themselves, hitters will do the same with bats.

Comfort is paramount with a bat, so hitters will test them during batting practice and in cage sessions before unleashing them during the game. As time goes on, players will find specific shapes that are most comfortable to them and best suit their swing during bat-fitting sessions — similar to how golfers seek custom clubs. But make no mistake: This is an almost-overnight alteration of the game, and “traditional or torpedo” is a question every big leaguer going forward will ask himself.

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St. Pete to spend $22.5M to fix Tropicana Field

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St. Pete to spend .5M to fix Tropicana Field

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The once and possibly future home of the Tampa Bay Rays will get a new roof to replace the one shredded by Hurricane Milton with the goal of having the ballpark ready for the 2026 season, city officials decided in a vote Thursday.

The St. Petersburg City Council voted 7-1 to approve $22.5 million to begin the repairs at Tropicana Field, which will start with a membrane roof that must be in place before other work can continue. Although the Rays pulled out of a planned $1.3 billion new stadium deal, the city is still contractually obligated to fix the Trop.

“We are legally bound by an agreement. The agreement requires us to fix the stadium,” said council member Lissett Hanewicz, who is an attorney. “We need to go forward with the roof repair so we can do the other repairs.”

The hurricane damage forced the Rays to play home games this season at Steinbrenner Field across the bay in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The Rays went 4-2 on their first homestand ever at an open-air ballpark, which seats around 11,000 fans.

Under the current agreement with the city, the Rays owe three more seasons at the Trop once it’s ready again for baseball, through 2028. It’s unclear if the Rays will maintain a long-term commitment to the city or look to Tampa or someplace else for a new stadium. Major League Baseball has said keeping the team in the Tampa Bay region is a priority. The Rays have played at the Trop since their inception in 1998.

The team said it would have a statement on the vote later Thursday.

The overall cost of Tropicana Field repairs is estimated at $56 million, said city architect Raul Quintana. After the roof, the work includes fixing the playing surface, ensuring audio and visual electronics are working, installing flooring and drywall, getting concession stands running and other issues.

“This is a very complex project. We feel like we’re in a good place,” Quintana said at the council meeting Thursday.

Under the proposed timeline, the roof installation will take about 10 months. The unique membrane system is fabricated in Germany and assembled in China, Quintana said, adding that officials are examining how President Donald Trump’s new tariffs might affect the cost.

The new roof, he added, will be able to withstand hurricane winds as high as 165 mph. Hurricane Milton, one of the strongest hurricanes ever in the Atlantic basin at one point, blasted ashore Oct. 9 south of Tampa Bay with Category 3 winds of about 125 mph.

Citing mounting costs, the Rays last month pulled out of a deal with the city and Pinellas County for a new $1.3 billion ballpark to be built near the Trop site. That was part of a broader $6.5 billion project known as the Historic Gas Plant district to bring housing, retail and restaurants, arts and a Black history museum to a once-thriving Black neighborhood razed for the original stadium.

The city council plans to vote on additional Trop repair costs over the next few months.

“This is our contractual obligation. I don’t like it more than anybody else. I’d much rather be spending that money on hurricane recovery and helping residents in the most affected neighborhoods,” council member Brandi Gabbard said. “These are the cards that we’re dealt.”

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Tulane suspends Finley after transfer QB’s arrest

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Tulane suspends Finley after transfer QB's arrest

Tulane quarterback TJ Finley has been suspended following his arrest Wednesday in New Orleans on a charge of illegal possession of stolen things worth more than $25,000.

Finley, 23, whose name is Tyler Jamal, was booked and released. Tulane said in a statement that the length of the suspension will depend on the outcome of his case. The school cited privacy laws in declining to comment further.

University police responded Wednesday to an address where a truck was blocking a driveway. After looking up the license plate, police saw it registered to a vehicle stolen in Atlanta. Finley arrived to move the car and informed the officer that he had bought the truck recently. He’s scheduled to appear in court June 1.

Finley transferred to Tulane in December after spending the 2024 season with Western Kentucky. He had been competing for the team’s starting quarterback job in spring practice alongside fellow transfers Kadin Semonza and Donovan Leary.

Finley, a native of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, started his college career at LSU before transferring to Auburn for two seasons and then Texas State in 2023. He started five games for both LSU and Auburn but had his most success with Texas State, passing for 3,439 yards and 24 touchdowns.

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