It was one of two controversial hits in the game by the Oilers, with forward Warren Foegele earning a major penalty and a game misconduct for his knee-on-knee hit on Eetu Luostarinen in the first period.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice offered no update on Barkov, only to say that his star center was unavailable for the last 9:28 of Game 2, which the Panthers won 4-1 to take a 2-0 series lead.
With the Panthers leading 2-1, Barkov played the puck in his defensive zone. Draisaitl came in on the forecheck, left his skates and his elbow contacted Barkov’s jaw. The Florida captain fell to the ice, was tended to by medical staff and then left for the trainers room.
“I think he went in there to hit. His hands got up a little bit high. He was trying to knock him off the puck and that led to the penalty,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch.
Draisaitl was given a 2-minute penalty for roughing. When asked about his feelings on the hit, Maurice said: “This isn’t ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’ My feelings don’t matter.”
Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues scored his second goal of the game on the ensuing power play to make it 3-1. The goal ended a streak of 34 straight successful penalty kills for the Oilers, tied with the 2001 Blues for the third-longest streak in Stanley Cup Playoffs history.
The Panthers were concerned for their captain but kept their composure.
“I think we rallied. We did what we had to do to win the game,” Rodrigues said. “You never want to see your captain go down, but I thought everyone did a great job focusing and got the job done.”
“Obviously you don’t want to see anybody get hurt, but I thought we did a good job sticking with it and we found a way. It was a huge goal by Roddy there to break the dam on the power play there and I just thought we did a great job in the third period after that.”
At 9:21 of the first period, Foegele was given a five-minute major penalty for kneeing Luostarinen, who remained flat on the ice and got medical attention while the referees discussed the call. A short video review confirmed it. According to NHL rule No. 50.5: “When a player has been assessed a major penalty for kneeing, he shall also be assessed a game misconduct,” so Foegele was ejected.
Luostarinen skated off with athletic trainers and went down the tunnel, but returned to the ice in the first period and ended up playing 14:19 for the game.
Knoblauch declined to discuss whether he was concerned that Foegele, Draisail or both could end up receiving supplemental discipline from the Dept. of Player Safety, which reviews every controversial hit.
But the Edmonton coach did feel that Foegele’s hit on Luostarinen was similar to a hit by Sam Bennett on Edmonton defenseman Evan Bouchard earlier in the game, one that earned only a minor penalty for tripping.
“It’s tough. I don’t see any difference on the Sam Bennett penalty. You’re going to hit a guy and then the guy moves out of the way. It’s pretty tough to change where your feet are. My opinion, and their opinion would be a lot different, but I don’t see very much difference in those two plays,” Knoblauch said. “I see Bouchard got up right away. Their guy didn’t get up right away, which I think … yeah, so that’s what I think.”
Game 3 is Thursday in Edmonton. Since the Stanley Cup Final went to a seven-game format in 1939, only five teams have come back to win the Cup after losing the first two games.
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — NASCAR Xfinity Series points leader Connor Zilisch broke his collarbone after a hard fall in Victory Lane at Watkins Glen International.
After his series-leading sixth victory, Zilisch was climbing onto the roof of his No. 88 Chevrolet to celebrate. He slipped after apparently getting his left foot caught in the driver’s side window netting and tumbled awkwardly onto the asphalt.
Zilisch, 19, was taken on a backboard to the trackside medical center and then transported to a hospital for further evaluation. He posted on X about two hours later that he had a broken collarbone and that CT scans showed no head injury.
“Thank you everybody for reaching out today,” Zilisch posted. “I’m out of the hospital and getting better already. Thankful for all the medics for quick attention and grateful it wasn’t any worse.”
Thank you everybody for reaching out today. I’m out of the hospital and getting better already. Thankfully, CT scans for my head are clear, I just have a broken collarbone. Thankful for all the medics for quick attention and grateful it wasn’t any worse.❤️
Zilisch will not be available for the Cup race Sunday at Watkins Glen. After racing in the Truck and Xfinity Series the past two days at the road course, he was scheduled to complete a tripleheader by making his fourth Cup start this season for Trackhouse Racing.
The scary incident capped an eventful day for Zilisch, who drives for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports team.
After starting from the pole position, Zilisch wrecked teammate Shane van Gisbergen’s car while battling for the lead on Lap 65. After being bumped from the lead to fifth on a restart, Zilisch retook first and led the final four laps.
“He did such a great job of getting back through the field and getting the lead,” crew chief Mardy Lindley told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio after the race. “Praying for Connor right now that he’s OK. I think he’s going to be fine.”
Zilisch missed a race earlier this season at Texas Motor Speedway after suffering a back injury during a crash at Talladega Superspeedway. He has 11 consecutive top-five finishes and five wins since his return.
NEW YORK — Roger Clemens came back to Yankee Stadium on Saturday, and so did the questions about his bat-throwing incident with Mike Piazza in the World Series 25 years earlier.
Piazza was batting against Clemens in the first inning of Game 2 of the 2000 World Series when his bat shattered along the first-base line. Clemens picked up part of it and fired it toward the Hall of Fame catcher.
Clemens made his debut in the Yankees’ Old-Timers’ Day game Saturday and faced four batters in the first exhibition game of the event since 2019. His manager on the 2000 championship team defended the pitcher’s actions in that at-bat against Piazza.
“There’s still a question with the broken bat, with Piazza and the whole thing in Game 2,” Joe Torre said at the podium right as Clemens walked in. “I think if Mike knew that the ball was foul, he wouldn’t have been starting to run to first base. That ball went over the first-base dugout, was foul right away. He didn’t know where it was, so he started running.”
Clemens made his first appearance as the Yankees honored the 2000 team, the last team to win three straight titles. Clemens heard a nice hand from the crowd as a montage of his highlights played on the center-field video board — omitting his notorious toss at Piazza.
“I didn’t know he was running, and Mike said that same thing, too,” Clemens said. “He didn’t know where the baseball was. So my first instinct when I shattered that bat in about four pieces, I thought it was a baseball coming at me.”
The Yankees went a combined 22-3 in the 1998 and 1999 postseasons but struggled at times in 2000, losing 15 of their final 18 regular-season games, before outlasting the A’s by winning a Game 5 on the road in their division series. After beating Seattle in a six-game ALCS, the Yankees beat the Mets in a five-game Fall Classic where every game was decided by two or fewer runs.
Clemens joined the Yankees in a trade with Toronto during spring training in 1999. He was 14-10 with a 4.60 ERA in 1999 and then 13-8 with a 3.70 ERA in 2000. During the postseason, Clemens won three games, including Game 2 against the Mets.
“When he was on the other team, you didn’t like him very much,” Torre said.
After two seasons of an on-field Q&A session with radio broadcaster Suzyn Waldman, the game has returned, and Johnny Damon hit an RBI single off Clemens.
Clemens was among several 2000 Yankees at the event, which did not feature former captain Derek Jeter. Jeter delivered a taped video message after Mariano Rivera was the final player introduced.
“He was in spring training,” fellow pitcher Andy Pettitte said of Clemens. “So it was good to see him in spring training and then of course here. A huge part of our 2000 team, and it was good.”
The only former player not introduced was current manager Aaron Boone, whose team entered Saturday with six losses in seven games.
A seven-time Cy Young Award winner, Clemens went 354-184 with a 3.12 ERA and 4,672 strikeouts, third behind Nolan Ryan (5,714) and Randy Johnson (4,875). In two stints with the Yankees, Clemens was 83-42 with a 4.01 ERA and retired after the 2007 season.
He was named in the Mitchell report in December 2007 but has denied PED usage. In his final year on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot in 2022, Clemens received 257 votes (65.2%).
Besides members of the 2000 team, Willie Randolph, Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Ron Guidry, Bucky Dent and Mickey Rivers were introduced as members of the 1977 and 1978 World Series teams.
The widows of five-time manager Billy Martin, captain Thurman Munson and player-then-broadcaster Bobby Murcer were also introduced as part of an event that began in 1947, when Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth first appeared.
CHICAGO –The White Sox threw a party that would have made Bill Veeck proud.
The club celebrated its quirky former owner with Bill Veeck Night on Saturday by bringing back some of the stunts, tricks and exhibitions that added to the lore of the legendary showman and Hall of Famer.
There was a pregame petting zoo and a roving circus with — what else? — a clown to entertain fans entering Rate Field. There was ice sculpting on the concourse in the outfield and a chance to get a photo taken with a 50-foot hot dog, along with an offer of free haircuts. The first 15,000 fans received a Veeck bobblehead, and postgame fireworks were planned.
Another highlight was what the team described as a “married in a minute” event, with two White Sox fans tying the knot in a 60-second ceremony officiated by 1983 American League Rookie of the Year Ron Kittle.
Veeck’s son, Mike, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the White Sox took on the Cleveland Guardians.
The fun wasn’t limited to fans in the stands. White Sox players turned back the clock by wearing pinstriped shorts during pregame warmups and batting practice. The team wore those unusual shorts — along with collared uniform tops — for some games during the 1976 season.
Veeck was a two-time owner of the White Sox, first from 1959-61 and again from 1975-81. His tenure was marked by memorable and forgettable stunts to enhance the fans’ game-day experience through entertainment.
His stunts included an exploding scoreboard in 1960 and a disastrous disco demolition night in 1979, when a crate of disco records was blown up between games of a doubleheader. The playing surface at Comiskey Field was so damaged by the blast and fans who rushed the field after the stunt that Chicago was forced to forfeit the second game to Detroit.
Another of his famous acts was signing 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to be a pinch hitter in 1951, when Veeck owned the St. Louis Browns. Gaedel, who had a miniscule strike zone, walked on four pitches.
Veeck died in 1986 at 71 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.