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Team Canada general manager Don Sweeney indicated that Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard is still in consideration for the 2026 Winter Olympics despite being snubbed from Canada’s NHL 4 Nations Face-Off roster this week.

Bedard, 19, was the NHL rookie of the year last season. He had dominating performances for Canada at the 2023 world juniors (23 points in seven games) and the 2024 IIHF world championships (5 goals in 10 games). That sparked speculation that Bedard would make the roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off, a four-team exhibition tournament that’s replacing the NHL All-Star Game this season, to better prepare him for the 2026 Olympic tournament in Italy.

But Bedard has struggled in his second NHL season, with five goals in 26 games after scoring 22 goals in 68 games as a rookie. He has 19 points for the Blackhawks.

Sweeney, who is the general manager of the Boston Bruins, said that Bedard is part of “the next wave of great players” for Canada but one who needs to gain experience before making the leap to the national team.

“It’s his second time around the league. There’s some challenges associated with that. He’s working through that, in a situation where he gets all the attention possible from the best players that he’s playing against each and every night,” said Sweeney. “So I think he’s living and breathing it right now and it’s only going to help him to continue to build his résumé, and we’re excited about that.”

Sweeney, who will be the assistant to GM Doug Armstrong for the Canadian men’s hockey Olympic team, and Team Canada coach Jon Cooper both expected Bedard would push for a roster spot in 2026.

They also said the 4 Nations Face-Off roster, which features just one player born after 1998, was built for this tournament rather than as a test run for the 2026 roster.

“We built this team to win the 4 Nations. The Olympics is still a year away. Are there players that are going to develop and take strides in that time? There’s no question,” said Cooper, who is the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning. “Especially some of these younger players where your development continues. That’s just going to make decisions tougher.”

Sweeney said that’s why Team Canada had a “wider lens” in looking at players such as Bedard who might not be ready for the 4 Nations tournament but could make the cut in 2026.

“We wanted to identify players that are going to project out down the road. Players that might not necessarily be ready to push somebody out of a job that we felt had earned it at this point,” he said. “We’re going to have to continue to have those [players] stack up on top of each other in the next year and a half and make a really hard decision on several emerging players. We’re incredibly excited about them, but we couldn’t lose sight of the fact that we were building a team for February.”

It’s not unprecedented for Canada to leave a young phenom off its national team roster. Sidney Crosby was left off the Canadian Olympic team in 2006, when he was 18 years old, despite playing at a point-per-game pace as a rookie. Steven Stamkos didn’t make the 2010 Olympic team despite scoring 51 goals as a 19-year-old in his second NHL season.

Meanwhile, the player who finished second to Bedard in the rookie race last season — 22-year-old Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber — made the cut for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

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Ohtani blasts two HRs to halt 10-game drought

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Ohtani blasts two HRs to halt 10-game drought

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.

The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.

Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.

Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.

Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.

Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.

Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Dobbins’ second win over Yanks caps ‘fun’ week

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Dobbins' second win over Yanks caps 'fun' week

BOSTON — Hunter Dobbins had quite the week.

First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.

Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.

A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.

On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”

But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.

“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”

In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.

On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.

“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.

“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”

Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.

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Rockies have worst 70-game mark since 1899

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Rockies have worst 70-game mark since 1899

ATLANTA — Kyle Farmer just shrugged when asked about being part of a Colorado Rockies team that has the fewest wins through 70 games since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.

“We don’t care,” Farmer said after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves left Colorado with a 13-57 record.

The Rockies have the fourth-fewest wins by any team through their first 70 decisions in a season in MLB history, and the fewest since the 1899 Spiders won 12 of their first 70 decisions. Colorado (.186 win percentage) is currently on pace to go 30-132 this season.

“I mean, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Farmer said. “It is what it is. We’ve just got to show up tomorrow and play. There’s nothing you can really say about it except that if it happens, it happens.”

The Rockies made more inglorious history by setting a franchise nine-inning record with 19 strikeouts. That’s a lot of futility for one team to absorb in one day.

The 19 strikeouts by Braves pitchers also set an Atlanta record for a nine-inning game. Spencer Strider recorded 13 strikeouts in six innings, followed by relievers Rafael Montero and Dylan Lee, who combined for six more whiffs.

The only bright spot for the Rockies was the encouraging start by rookie right-hander Chase Dollander, a native of Evans, Georgia, who allowed four runs, three earned, in six innings.

The Rockies have 10 fewer wins than the Chicago White Sox, who have the second-worst record in the majors at 23-48.

Dollander said “just having a neutral mindset” is the key to remaining positive through a season already filled with low points for the team.

“Don’t ride the roller coaster,” Dollander said. “You know, there’s going to be lots of ups and downs in this game. This game is really hard. So it’s just, you know, staying neutral and we just keep going.”

Dollander was the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 summer draft. Among other top young players on the team are catcher Hunter Goodman, who might return to Atlanta for the All-Star Game on July 15, and outfielders Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle.

“You know we’re going to have our time,” Dollander said. “I mean, it’s just one of those things that you kind of learn as you go. I’ve been very fortunate to be here for a little bit now, and I can help us going forward.”

The 34-year-old Farmer said one of his jobs is to help the younger players endure the losses.

“For sure, keeping guys accountable and teaching them the right way to do stuff,” said Farmer, the first baseman whose double off Strider was one of only four hits for the Rockies.

“Keeping their heads up and they’ve got to show up each day and play, no matter our record. It’s your job and you worked your whole life to get here. Enjoy it. This is a great opportunity for a young guy to show what they can do.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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