Nazem Kadri, Flames topple playoff-bound Kings
Mikael Backlund added a goal and an assist for Calgary (41-27-14, 96 points), which wrapped up its season on a four-game winning streak and improved to 7-1-3 in its last 11.
Sam Morton and Zayne Parekh, making their NHL debuts, also scored in the win. It was the first time in Flames history two players netted their initial goals in their debuts in the same game.
Dryden Hunt added two assists for the Flames, who were eliminated from Stanley Cup playoff contention on Tuesday.
Dan Vladar made 30 saves as Calgary completed the sweep of the three-game season series against Los Angeles.
Taylor Ward tallied in his first NHL game and David Rittich stopped 24 shots as Los Angeles saw its four-game winning streak end.
The Kings (48-25-9, 105 points), the second seed in the Pacific Division heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs, will have home-ice advantage against the division-rival Edmonton Oilers in the first round.
Calgary scored three times in a 2:19 span of the third period to open a 4-0 cushion.
Morton put the Flames up 2-0 at 6:05 of the third, burying a feed from Ryan Lomberg.
Kadri added his second of the night at 7:28, one-timing a Hunt delivery past Rittich for his team-leading and career-best 35th of the season.
Parekh tipped in a Backlund pass at 8:24.
Calgary took a 5-0 lead at 11:35, as Backlund snapped a shot glove-side past Rittich for his 15th of the season.
Ward got the Kings on the board on a power play at 13:49, putting home his own rebound.
Kadri opened the scoring 2:15 into the second period, snapping a shot glove-side past Rittich.
Aydar Suniev and Hunter Brzustewicz also played in their first NHL games for Calgary on Thursday.
It was the first NHL game since 2002 (and just the fifth in the expansion era) to feature three players scoring in their league debuts.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
14 hours ago
- Reuters
F Milan Lucic signs tryout agreement with Blues
August 19 - Veteran forward Milan Lucic signed a professional tryout agreement with the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday following nearly a two-year leave of absence that started in November 2023 after he entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. At the time of his leave, Lucic had two assists over four games in his return with the Boston Bruins. Over 17 NHL seasons, the 37-year-old has collected 233 goals and 353 assists over 1,177 games for the Bruins (2007-15, 2023), Los Angeles Kings (2015-16), Edmonton Oilers (2016-19) and Calgary Flames (2019-23). A Stanley Cup champion with the Bruins in 2011, Lucic also has 29 goals with 48 assists in 136 playoff games. --Field Level Media
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
‘Eat, sleep or look at the roof': how top tennis players cope with match delays
The greatest challenge for Carlos Alcaraz in his third-round match at the Cincinnati Open was simply remaining sane. Before Alcaraz and Hamad Medjedovic, his opponent, took to the court, they had no choice but to wait as Francisco Comesaña and the big-serving Reilly Opelka worked through a tumultuous three-hour, three-set contest full of manic momentum shifts, medical time-outs and a last-minute rain delay for good measure. Alcaraz and Medjedovic had no idea when their match would begin, yet a large part of their job is making sure they are always ready. A few hours later, after closing out a straightforward victory, Alcaraz chuckled bitterly from a quiet hallway inside Center Court as he reflected on his hours of preparation, which turned out to be more stressful than the match itself. 'Well, it sucks,' he said, smiling. 'Having to warm up three, four times, it's horrible. A horrible thing. I thought having Opelka in front of me was going to be a little bit faster. I didn't expect a three‑hour match.' His experience was a reflection of one of the unique challenges of tennis. Aside from at the beginning of a day or session, matches usually have no fixed start time. In order to be successful, players must remain focused through this uncertainty. Karen Khachanov, the men's world No 12, says: 'We can go in all sports: NHL, American football or soccer. They know the whole season when they start – which game, against who and where. In tennis, this is the toughest part. You need to adapt to the circumstances.' The unique nature of the scoring system makes things even more challenging. A match can completely flip at any time and a player can come within a point of winning a match yet still be on court hours later. Almost every player can instantly think of an occasion when the match directly before theirs significantly frustrated them. For Iga Swiatek, her 2023 French Open semi-final against Beatriz Haddad Maia is seared in her mind by the psychodrama between Karolina Muchova and Aryna Sabalenka immediately before them. 'Aryna had 5-2 and then lost in the third set, so I was warming up like seven times, literally,' Swiatek says. 'It was a rollercoaster of emotions, from being stressed, to really not giving a damn what's going to happen in the match before, and then warming up again, being hyped up, and then being sleepy.' Being stuck behind a dramatic and seemingly endless five-set match at a grand slam tournament is even more aggravating. Madison Keys remembers a difficult situation one year at the US Open. 'I was third on, but I followed two men's matches, they both went five sets and I went on after the night session [had begun]. And it was in that moment that I decided that we should ban five sets,' she says, laughing. Jessica Pegula, the women's world No 4, concurs: 'If you're in a grand slam and you follow a three-out-of-five-set match, and they go five, you're screwed.' Every player aims to start their match with their energy high and adrenaline pumping, but that is not always possible after so many false starts. 'It's tough to wake yourself up again,' Khachanov says. 'Let's say you warmed up, you are full of adrenaline, you are ready to go on court, and then all of a sudden, there's another set. So you are thinking: 'OK, should I eat now? Should I just sleep? Should I watch the phone or I just, I don't know, look at the roof? What do I do? Play cards with my team?' Sometimes you just don't really know what to do.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion The first truly significant match of Emma Raducanu's career, during her breakout debut run at Wimbledon in 2021, showed exactly what this situation can do to a player. As an 18-year-old Raducanu and Ajla Tomljanovic waited for Alexander Zverev's five-set match against Félix Auger‑Aliassime to finish on No 1 Court, the Briton became increasingly anxious. Overwhelmed by her nerves, she took an off-court medical time‑out in the second set of her fourth‑round match because of breathing difficulties and had an apparent panic attack. She never came back. 'I had a little episode on the court,' she says. 'It was new to me as well. I had no idea what was going on. I think I had way too much coffee before that match as well. That was just an experience. I was so wired from the start of my day.' Raducanu finds it far easier to be scheduled as the first match of the day, so she does not have to worry about the start time. Not everyone agrees, Daniil Medvedev for one. The Russian says: 'I was talking to my team today. I was like: 'When I'm 35, I might just boycott the 11am matches.' I'll be like: 'I'm not coming. Walkover.' Like: 'Yeah, I didn't wake up. Sorry, guys.' In my opinion, 11 is so early. You have to wake up at 6.30 in the morning, where, if you play at night, you wake up at 9am. So it changes the perspective of the match. It's crazy mentally.' In player lounges, locker rooms and warmup areas around the world, each player copes with delayed starts in different ways. Depending on how he is feeling, Alcaraz can be found playing football, cards or napping. Andrey Rublev is always sleeping, so he relies on his coach to provide him updates on the match before. And then there is Coco Gauff, who says with a laugh: 'I'm usually just on TikTok.' Others, such as Naomi Osaka and Keys, quickly find themselves immersed in the match before them. The latter says: 'I think we're kind of all just watching the score and just being like: 'Oh, come on!' Because a lot of times, especially if you're not on a main court, you can't actually see the match, so you're just waiting and staring at the score to flip. And you're living and dying [by the live scores]. All of a sudden you're cheering for one person that you've never met … and then cheering for the other person.' There are even times when players find themselves watching a match with their next opponent. One memorable example came at the Australian Open in 2016 when Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov sat side by side in the warmup gym and watched Lauren Davis prolong their day by dragging Maria Sharapova into a final set. Amusingly, Federer spent much of the second set tie-break screaming at the top of his lungs due both to his anguish at his match being delayed and his enjoyment of the contest. According to Dimitrov, who laughs fondly at the memory, taking in the preceding match with his opponent used to be common on the tour. 'I think it happened often,' he says. 'Not so much any more, to be honest. Early on, the guys around my age were doing that. We're OK with it. Now it's a little bit different.' The uncertainty of the schedule can cause more serious problems, such as the ludicrous, unhealthy late finishes that have become commonplace in the sport. Andy Murray's 4.05am five-set win against Thanasi Kokkinakis at the 2023 Australian Open, for example, was simultaneously an incredible sporting achievement and a complete farce. The men's Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women's Tennis Association have since initiated a new policy regarding late matches that, among many things, rules no match should begin after 11pm unless it receives special approval. For the most part, however, this is just a unique, but annoying challenge for players to overcome, another reason why this is such a complex and interesting sport. Alcaraz says, shrugging: 'It is what it is. We have to get used to it. If I have to warm up two, three times, I'll do it just to start the match in the best possible shape.' After so many years on the tour, Keys has come to a similar conclusion: 'It's really just about trying to stay focused. It's really hard, but you just have to try to manage your energy, eat as much as you can, warm up 37 times and just [remember] it's happening to the other person, too. That's all that you can do.'
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
New York Rangers star lives in 'perfect' basement apartment below hockey super fans
New York Rangers forward Brett Berard has caught attention after spending his offseason living in the basement of a family home in Darien, Connecticut. The 22-year-old, currently in the final year of his three-year entry-level contract, lives with the Fiorita family, a household of six who are longtime Rangers fans. Berard connected with the family through his best friend, Petey Alofsin, whose fraternity brother is the Fioritas' eldest son. When Berard mentioned he planned to train in Fairfield County over the summer, Alofsin encouraged him to reach out. 'Petey's like, 'No way, my best friend from school lives in Darien, you should talk to him,' Berard told The Wall Street Journal. The arrangement has turned out to be a comfortable and convenient one. Berard participates in family routines, joining the Fioritas for walks around the neighborhood with their minidoodle and playing basketball in the driveway. Despite his initial uncertainty, Berard says the living situation is 'literally perfect.' Missy Fiorita, the mother of the household, admitted she wasn't sure the arrangement would actually happen. 'In the back of my mind, I was like, 'This isn't gonna happen. A Ranger's not going to move into our house,' she said. But once the opportunity came up, she didn't hesitate. 'My heart was 100% in,' she told WSJ. The Fiorita family has attended many Rangers games over the years and has been in the stands for several of Berard's appearances with the team. While Berard rents an apartment in Hartford during the regular season, he chose to stay with the Fioritas over the summer for both personal and financial reasons. 'I could rent somewhere, but this opportunity came up,' he said. 'I save money on rent.' What began as a temporary arrangement has since developed into something more meaningful as, according to Missy, Berard is now seen as part of the family. 'We were all on pins and needles, but as soon as he walked in the door, it was like, 'I'm not welcoming this kid into my home for X amount of time. I'm welcoming him to being part of our family,' she said. Berard, a fifth-round pick by the Rangers in the 2020 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut last season. He spent most of the year with the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack, where he played a key role and showed promise as a developing forward. As he heads into the 2025–26 season, Berard will be looking to earn a full-time role with the Rangers and secure his next contract.
