Burges HS standout distance runner to compete for UTEP.
The Medicine Hat Tigers continued their winning ways on Monday as they defeated the Moncton Wildcats 3-1, improving to 2-0 at the 2025 Memorial Cup. Ryder Ritchie scored twice and added an assist, while Gavin McKenna iced the game late in the third with an empty-net goal. As for Harrison Meneghin, he had a strong performance, stopping 21 of the 22 shots he faced.
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New York Times
7 days ago
- New York Times
Celebrini for Bedard? Sigh. Must be summer silly season: Lazerus NHL mailbag
The entire hockey world is kicking back with a cold drink at a quaint cottage by a lake right about now. I'm in the pickup line for my daughter's marching band practice. So much for Gary Bettman's beloved parity. Anyway, on to Part 2 of my summer mailbag. Space (and my editors' patience) is limited, so I did my best to keep the answers concise so I could get to as many of your complaints — er, questions — as possible. It seems the consensus among fans, media, and the rest of the league is that the Blackhawks are bound for yet another lottery pick. I know the players believe they can be more successful than that, but I'm wondering what you've heard as far as the front office's internal expectations, if anything. Does Kyle Davidson's brain trust believe they can surprise people and be at least competitive, if not a playoff team? — Tom R Call me a cynic, but I think the Blackhawks brass would be very happy either way. Despite fan frustration and bored pundits like me screaming for them to do something, the Blackhawks have positioned themselves in a way that makes this a no-lose season. Either the young players take a massive step toward something special (and it'll have to be massive to get them out of 31st or 32nd place), or they're as bad as the public expects and have a great shot at drafting Gavin McKenna. Either fits the plan just fine. Advertisement After the Blackhawks finished the 2023-2024 season with 52 points, I thought they should have had 70 points in the 2024-2025 season. They didn't and ended up with only 61 points. How many points this season should the Blackhawks have to be considered a successful season? — Joshua B Uh, I don't know, 75? Doesn't matter. The Blackhawks brass doesn't care about their points total this year, so you shouldn't, either. If Connor Bedard scores 35 goals and Frank Nazar posts 50-plus points and Sam Rinzel looks like he looked at the end of the season and Artyom Levshunov reins himself in without stifling his creativity and Kevin Korchinski settles into a permanent role and Oliver Moore does, too, then that's all that matters. If they don't, well … Can you put the Crosby contract method in Connor Bedard's head by asking him repeatedly (like a child on a road trip) about it? Nine-point-eight for the next 20 years is almost 200 million. Sounds fair to me. — Gregory E. Good luck with that. In 20 years, $200 million might buy you a gallon of gas. Or, at the rate we're going, guzzolene. The 1901 project gets scrapped. The White Sox have been sold and relocated. The Bulls have a new standalone arena while the Bears win back-to-back Super Bowls in Arlington Heights. Danny Wirtz purchases then gets approval to demo the United Center to build a new hockey wonderland in its place. He leans on you to build a new hockey oasis. You have the creative mind. You have the travel experience for what does and does not work. You are also a parent trying to entertain your kid. From food, to the outside entertainment, to transportation, to the pregame video and anthem singer, to the goal song, to the press-box design and so on. Give us your dystopian Blackhawks Arena proposal for fans, staff, players, and reporters to create the most magical and over the top experience possible. — Grant M Honestly? Just win. The food tastes better, the music sounds sweeter, the seats feel more comfortable, the insane prices seem more palatable and the kids become fans faster when the team is good. Nobody cares anymore that the Florida Panthers' soulless arena is in an endless parking lot across from a mall, do they? Did the Blackhawks make a strategic mistake by signing Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews to identical long-term contracts? Did it tie up too much money in two players and prohibit them from building the type of team that Kane/Toews had around them before their large contracts? — Barry K No, they didn't make a mistake. Yes, it certainly made things difficult, and it's true all three Stanley Cup wins came before those contracts kicked in. But the cap was supposed to keep rising forever, and they had no alternative. With their contracts coming due at the same time, the team couldn't elevate one over the other, nor did one deserve to be elevated over the other. And they were 25-26 years old, in their absolute primes (Toews, at that point, was viewed by many as the second-best player on the planet) and in the midst of the greatest run in franchise history. They earned every cent of those contracts. Had the Blackhawks known the cap was going to flatten toward the end of those deals, they certainly would have rethought the price tag. But hindsight is always 20/20. Advertisement I was always curious about the awful Phillip Danault trade. Was that all Stan Bowman and was there an internal backlash over it? — Vince L It was a horrible trade. We knew it right away. The worst one he made, really, even worse than the Artemi Panarin one. But what would you give to be in a situation in which the Blackhawks are making potentially reckless win-now trades like that at the deadline again? For the first time in my life as a Mets fan, I can tell you, it kind of rules. What shifts are you seeing in engagement since you guys both do X/Twitter and Bluesky? What do you see from the creator sides? What should we be doing to help you with articles and tweets? — Anonymous Click on links. Read stories to the end. Share them if you're so inclined. It's really that simple. That said, since my dad, I've only used Twitter (ugh, X) for story links and movie reviews. And I miss it a lot less than I thought I would. We'll see if I have the self-control to stay away when hockey season begins. (Narrator: He won't.) It's a truly awful place these days, and while I have very thick skin, there are only so many times you can have someone tweet you a zoomed-in photo of your nose before you start losing interest. Bluesky is nice and pleasant and there's surprisingly good engagement over there from a population starving for sports coverage, but it'll never replace Twitter because it'll never have the real-time news that Twitter's sheer scale creates. I've come to look at Twitter as a necessary evil. My Tweetdeck is constantly spinning like a slot machine. My Blue Deck is not. And unfortunately, I doubt it ever will. Why is the San Jose Sharks' rebuild viewed so much more favorably than the Hawks' rebuild? The Sharks forwards might look better, but the Hawks have the advantage in better defenders that are closer to being full-time NHLers. — Kyle H It's vibes. That's all. The Sharks are a year behind the Blackhawks in their teardown, so their fans aren't as miserable yet. Also, don't discount the general animus many other fan bases have toward the Blackhawks (some of it earned, let's be honest), the inevitable resentment of Bedard because of the hype that was entirely out of his control, and the fact that Chicago fans were spoiled in the 2010s, leading to unmeetable expectations. Both teams are in the same boat, rowing down the same river. Both rebuilds likely will be judged against each other in the long run, but how fun would it be if they became the next two Western powers for another decade or so? Connor Bedard for Macklin Celebrini: Who says no? — Jacob B The Blackhawks. And the Sharks. Y'all are exhausting. Advertisement Lukas Reichel for Yegor Chinakhov: Who says no? — Rowen B I would. But I'm starting to think I'm basically Tom Hanks in 'Cast Away' out here on Reichel Island. With all the losing and all the high picks, the Hawks have a lot of young guys. So far I haven't seen anything from them that gives me a 'that guy's gonna be a superstar' vibe. I thought that might be Bedard but he's having more trouble adjusting than I hoped he would. Who, if anyone, in the pipeline gives you that kind of vibe? I need someone to hang my hopes on. — Bryan H Bedard will be a superstar. I'm long past having doubts about that. Dude just turned 20 a couple of weeks ago and has 128 points in 150 games playing mostly with bottom-sixers. Come on. Believe Nathan MacKinnon when he talks. But if you're looking for that je ne sais quoi that gave Kane a megastar aura even before his performance fully backed it up, it's Nazar. He has a confidence, a swagger, an infectious personality that doesn't come around very often in this milquetoast sport. And based on how he closed the season, then went off at Worlds, I think he might be the one you're looking for. The kid's got it. Would you consider adjusting your definition of a dynasty if a league were to function in such a way that dynasties became dramatically less impressive, even just temporarily? Similarly, would you consider adjusting your definition if it seemed like dynasties could become a thing of the past entirely? Basically, I suppose I'm reopening the dynasty debate by asking you what it would take to make you change your definition. — Ally A Sigh. Why can't we just come up with new terms? Dynasties do not yield power for a year or two here or there while they're on top. A dynasty is three straight championships or more. The end. Sorry, Edmonton. Sorry, New England. Sorry, Chicago. Have you ever had any sort of confrontation or animosity from a player (or coach/exec) over something you've written? — Dan B Certainly. It's rarely been anything but respectful disagreement, though. We're all grown-ups in there, for the most part. I once saw a player shove a reporter (not me!) up against a wall in the locker room, but that was more than 20 years ago — another beat, another lifetime. Besides, these days, it's more likely to happen over an off-the-cuff tweet than a well-thought-out story. That actually happened a couple times this past season (again, not me!). I'm sure you all want details, but what gets F-bombed in the locker room stays in the locker room. What other sports media do you regularly read/watch/listen to (besides Scott Powers' pieces)? — Todd E Scott who? None, really, other than actual game broadcasts. Most people use sports as their escape, but when sports are your job, you seek other outlets. At least, I do. For me, it's TV and movies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, my four most-listened-to podcasts (hundreds and hundreds of hours' worth) are all pop-culture-related — 'House of R,' 'The Ringer-Verse,' 'The Big Picture' and 'The Watch.' I'm a huge nerd, is what I'm saying. I love what I love, and I love listening to people enjoy (and trenchantly critique) the things I love. Advertisement I read Hawks articles every day, even the stupid clickbait trade proposals. I listen to four different podcasts regularly. I've got a running spreadsheet of prospects on which I happily changed Nick Lardis' height to 6-foot. Last week, I scoured payrolls for high-salary injured guys that could get us to the cap floor in '26-'27. All this for a team that is clearly a minimum of four years away from being competitive. What the truck is wrong with me and do you have suggestions for other ways to occupy my time for the rest of the decade? — Stretch A I do not. Please keep subscribing. Maniacal fans like you are the lifeblood of this place, and Scott and I very much enjoy being employed. My son just graduated with a master's in creative writing. He can clearly write. But that does not get him a job. Assuming he won't write the next Harry Potter phenomenon, what is the job landscape for writing? The newspaper industry seems to be on life support. Where do you see the next generation of writers writing? — Warren C Most students have been told by every teacher and journalist they see to run screaming from this industry, as fast and as far as they possibly can. I wholeheartedly disagree. Everything is writing these days. Journalism is writing. Filmmaking is writing. Video-game creation is writing. Advertising is writing. Public relations is writing. Even science is writing, especially as the competition ratchets up for what little grant money remains. Being able to tell a compelling story as a creative writer or being able to communicate clearly as a technical writer will help you in nearly every walk of life (short of having an actually useful skill like a trade). As for journalism? There's never been more good journalism than there is now. Unfortunately, there's also never been more imitation journalism and poor journalism, and an increasingly media-illiterate populace is rapidly losing the ability to discern the difference. But there's never been a greater need for good journalism than there is now. Work at a legacy paper. Work for an alt-weekly. Work for a website. Start a Substack. Create a deeply reported and well-written podcast. Good reporting, good journalism and, yes, good writing will find an audience. I have to believe that. And in this age of state-run media and worthless brain-rot AI, we need it more than ever. (Photo of Connor Bedard: Michael Reaves / Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Hamilton Spectator
01-08-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
Dupont, Ruck twins named to Canadian team for Hlinka Gretzky Cup
CALGARY - Defenceman Landon DuPont headlines Canada's roster for the upcoming Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Czechia and Slovakia. The 16-year-old Dupont from Calgary was the first defenceman granted exceptional status by the Western Hockey League, which allowed him to enter the league at age 15. He was among 25 players named to the team by Hockey Canada for the annual summer tournament that showcases many of the world's top male players aged 18 and under. Canada seeks a fourth straight gold medal in the eight-country tournament that runs Aug. 11-16 in Brno, Czechia and Trencin, Slovakia. Canada beat Czechia 2-1 to win last year's tournament in Edmonton. Three goaltenders, eight defenceman and 14 forwards were named to Canada's 2025 edition, including a half dozen who won a gold medal at the world under-18 championship in May in Frisco, Texas: Carson Carels, Alessandro Di Iorio, Beckham Edwards, Ryan Lin, Daxon Rudolph and Keaton Verhoeff. Medicine Hat Tigers twin brothers Markus and Liam Ruck of Osoyoos, B.C., were also named to the squad. Canada opens the tournament Aug. 11 against Finland. The Canadians will play pre-tournament exhibition games against Hungary's under-20 team in Budapest on Aug. 7 and another Aug. 9 against Slovakia. The roster was selected by general manager Alan Millar, Yanick Lemay, director of hockey operations Benoit Roy, head scout Byron Bonora and senior vice-president of hockey operations Scott Salmond. 'Our selection camp was highly competitive and provided an opportunity for our players to showcase themselves against the top talent in the country, and we believe we have assembled a roster that will compete for gold and wear the Maple Leaf with pride in Czechia and Slovakia,' Millar said Friday in a statement. Mathieu Turcotte, who has coached the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League's Blainville-Boisbriand Armada for the past two seasons and was an assistant coach of the victorious under-18 team in Frisco, will be Canada's head coach in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2025.
New York Times
24-07-2025
- New York Times
Inside 2026 NHL Draft sensation Gavin McKenna's path to Penn State, and his big season ahead
On a warm Wednesday summer evening in late July, Gavin McKenna is in Calgary. After announcing his groundbreaking commitment to play at Penn State University on ESPN's SportsCenter earlier this month, he had just spent a week at home in Whitehorse, Yukon, where the 2026 NHL Draft's No. 1 prospect pitched in at a hockey camp for First Nations youth. Advertisement His older sister, Madison, helps organize the camp through her work at Council of Yukon First Nations, and McKenna says he gave 'a little speech' and helped out on the ice. 'This is my first time this year getting home and it'll be my last probably,' McKenna said in a one-on-one interview with The Athletic. He misses home — his parents, Willy and Krystal, Madison and his 14-year-old sister, Kasey — and wishes the stay hadn't been so short. 'I love being up north and kind of away from everything. And when I'm there, I love dirt biking, I love fishing, I love golfing. It helps me get away from the game and resets me in the summertime,' he said. But in what's already been a busy summer schedule for McKenna, he's chosen to squeeze in some skates and workouts in Calgary. He's there for his first summer of training with DASH (Dynamic Athletic Strength & Hockey), skating and working out with the likes of Cale Makar. He's staying with his girlfriend (who is from Calgary) and her family for the time being. Then, on Saturday, he'll join Hockey Canada in Minnesota for the World Junior Summer Showcase. After a week in Minneapolis, he'll return to Calgary for a couple more weeks of training before heading to Penn State on Aug. 15 to begin prep for his freshman year in college — a freshman year that may be the most hotly anticipated in NCAA hockey history. All eyes were always going to be on him. He knows that. But in choosing Penn State, a program that has only played at the Division I level since 2011, and that only made its first appearance in the Frozen Four a few months ago, all eyes will be on the Nittany Lions, really for the first time in the program's history, as well. He says that he just felt a pull toward Hockey Valley, and that he's ready for all of the bright lights. Advertisement 'From the start of this whole entire process, I got the feeling that it was going to be Penn State that I was going to go to,' McKenna said. 'And then once I toured the area and I got to see the facilities and meet some of the people there and some of the guys, it was just a place that I knew right away I could call home and then on top of that they have a great team and they have a chance of winning it, and obviously that's the goal next year.' He admits that he was nervous for the SportsCenter announcement — a first for a college hockey player. 'It was a little bit more pressure and higher stakes' than even he was used to, he said. When he arrives on campus, he'll jump right into university classes as well. Though it'll be a for-one-year-only situation, 'the school part comes with it and I've got to take some course,' McKenna said. 'It's all part of the college experience, so I'm looking forward to it,' he added. He knows new teammates Jackson Smith, Shea Van Olm and Aiden Fink a little, which he hopes will help with the transition. Once he pulls on a Nittany Lions jersey and the puck drops on the season, the hockey part will come much easier. It always has. McKenna registered 174 in 123 games (1.41 points per game) in his age 15-16 seasons in the CHL, better than Connor McDavid's 165 points in 119 games (1.39 points per game) in his same seasons (their birthdays are less than a month apart). He registered 20 points in seven games as a double underager at U18 worlds, the most points ever by a U17 player in the tournament's history, surpassing Alex Ovechkin's 18 points in eight games (at the same age, McDavid had 14 points in seven games). In the gold medal game, he scored a hat trick in a come-from-behind win for Canada. Last year, he registered 129 points in 56 games, 30 more than the 99 that McDavid registered in the exact same number of games at that age. Advertisement He's the reigning CHL Player of the Year and was the reigning CHL Rookie of the Year before that. Last season, though he only turned 17 on Dec. 20, he led the WHL in assists (88) and plus-minus (plus-60). And he's only just beginning. In stepping into the next chapter of his career in college hockey, McKenna closed his last chapter with Medicine Hat in the WHL. The WHL, or Dub as he calls it, 'was a great league for me,' he says. 'I loved my time there and it was a lot of fun in Med Hat,' McKenna said. It was a great spot for me, and obviously having a coach like Willie (Desjardins) that has been through it all to guide me and mentor me through my Dub career, it for sure prepared me for this next step. And he has already coached in the NHL, so he knows the next step after that, too.' Desjardins talks about McKenna as a 'great kid (who) wants to be a great player.' On the ice, his greatness starts with his vision, according to Desjardins. 'He's got incredible vision, and he can see plays before they develop and when they develop,' Desjardins said. 'He sees plays really, really early.' He remembers spotting that the very first time he saw him play on a trip to Nashville. He'd already drafted him by then, but he went down to watch him at a spring hockey showcase and he 'couldn't believe what he could see.' Once he got to coach him, he noticed his developing leadership qualities and that he has 'an incredible stick both defensively and offensively.' 'He turns a lot of pucks over and generates a lot of takeaways with his stick. And then all of a sudden he has a chance for offense because of it,' Desjardins said. 'I think he's grown in being a leader. I think he wants to win. He'll do things for the team.' Desjardins' favorite McKenna story is from the 2023-24 season. It was Christmastime, and though he was first in his age group in scoring, he wasn't first among all rookies, and he showed up unannounced in Desjardins' office. Advertisement 'This isn't good enough,' McKenna told his head coach. 'I've got to be better than this.' From that point on, Desjardins said he watched video and started skating himself after practice 'every day.' 'He skated himself hard. And that translated from 1.3 points, which is what he was averaging, to I think 2.6 in January. That was a player that wasn't satisfied with being good, he wanted to be elite. You forget how young he is. You always forget. But he's way faster than people think,' Desjardins said. 'At times I'm surprised by how fast he is. He's pretty athletic, and he pushes himself, but things also just come to him.' Predators first-rounder Tanner Molendyk played against McKenna with the Saskatoon Blades and then with him at the 2025 World Juniors and in Medicine Hat following the trade deadline. He saw him register 38 points in 16 WHL playoff games en route to a WHL title and a 54-game point streak. He's also been on the other end of it. 'Seeing it first person, I've probably been a victim of him walking me sometimes. It's pretty special,' Molendyk said. One longtime scout said, 'his hockey IQ is off the charts.' 'He sees plays that others don't see and he can make passes that other players can't make so he's got a combo pack of being able to read, see situations, and at an elite level know who's open and when they're open and then he's got the puck skills to move the puck to those people before sometimes they're even ready for it. His vision and his creativity are high, high-end,' the scout said. 'And he's a lot more competitive than people would expect without the puck. He's a guy that angles and picks people's pockets when they're not expecting it because he's got such a quick stick. He defends not like most people think of defending, where you knock other players off the puck or you run people through the boards, but he's always got his stick in lanes deflecting pucks and picking people's pockets by lifting blades and being in good spots to intercept pucks. So he's an elite offensive mind and then a good defensive player as well.' Advertisement Alan Millar, the new general manager of Canada's 2026 World Junior team, saw it in his previous role as general manager of the Regina Pats, too. He uses the same word Molendyk did: special. 'You just look at his talent level, you look at his offensive abilities, you look at what he did in the WHL as a 17-year-old, really impressive young man, really special player. He's going to be a real important player for us, and I think Gavin's the kind of kid who, along with a Porter Martone, those guys are going to be real motivated through this process based on the results a year ago (a quarterfinal defeat at the 2025 World Juniors in Ottawa). We'll look for Gavin to be a focal point for us. He's exciting, he's dynamic, it's obviously a big year for him with the change that he has made, but we look forward to him being a big part of our team,' Millar said. McKenna looks forward to that challenge, and to all the others that will come in his draft year under the microscope — and his career beyond that. 'There's a lot of things to be excited about next season,' he said. 'Heading to college, playing my first game. That'll be pretty amazing. And then with the World Juniors, last year wasn't the best way to go out, and I know a lot of us will have a big chip on our shoulders this year, and that's going to be exciting. And then for us, I know there's a lot of talk around Penn State and how good the team's going to be, and hopefully we can win a national championship. That's on the bucket list, and I know with my draft year there's going to be a lot of attention, but it'll be fun.'
