Author: nickelodeonsports

Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Opening Day is now less than a week away, this coming Thursday, March 28. The Toronto Blue Jays will be hosting the Detroit Tigers in their home opener at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. First pitch will be at 3:37 p.m. ET. Marcus Stroman will be the starting pitcher for the Jays, while the Tigers have not yet announced their starting pitcher.

Although the Jays may not make the playoffs this season, it could still be an exciting one for their passionate fans, with a lot of new and young faces joining the team, with the biggest name being young Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who just turned 20 on March 16, one of the top prospects across the MLB. Guerrero Jr., the son of MLB Hall-of-Famer Vladimir Guerrero, is currently injured with an oblique strain, however.

This is definitely a rebuilding year as the team parted ways with two veterans this past offseason, trading catcher Russell Martin to the Los Angeles Dodgers and releasing shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who ended up signing with the division rival New York Yankees. But, they did add veteran pitcher Clay Buchholz, who they faced a lot when he was a part of the Boston Red Sox organization.

The season will see the Blue Jays play 162 games in a span of 186 days, as the season will end on Sunday, Sept. 29. Toronto will have two long homestands of 10 games each, one at the end of June, and the other in August. The All-Star break is July 8-11, with the All-Star festivities being held in Cleveland, Ohio this year.

The Blue Jays will play each of their division opponents (Red Sox, Yankees, Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays) a total of 19 times each. They’ll have just one series at home and one on the road for the rest of the American League. For the National League, they’ll have games against the West division (Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies), as well as last year’s NL East division winner, the Atlanta Braves.

While fans may be disappointed to not see the Blue Jays in the postseason for a third consecutive year this fall, hopefully they will still be pleased with an interesting and exciting year for this new young team.

Sources:

-Video courtesy of CBSSports.com

-Other stats and info courtesy of MLB.com

The Montreal Canadiens have a big stretch coming up as they try to get into the playoffs for the first time since 2017. The NHL playoffs start in less than four weeks, on April 10, which means that the playoff races are heating up.

The Canadiens are currently tied for the final playoff spot and have 11 games remaining. After their 2-1 loss vs the New York Islanders on Thursday, they have a record of 37-27-7 after 71 games. Six of their last 11 games are at home. Seven of those games are against teams either in a playoff spot or fighting for one. Their last game is vs the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 6.

Here are the Habs’ remaining games:

• March 16 vs. Chicago (31-30-9)
• March 19 @ Philadelphia (34-28-8)
• March 21 vs. New York Islanders (41-22-7)
• March 23 vs. Buffalo (30-31-9)
• March 24 @ Carolina (38-24-7)
• March 26 vs. Florida (31-27-12)
• March 28 @ Columbus (39-28-3)
• March 30 @ Winnipeg (41-25-4)
• April 2 vs. Tampa Bay (54-13-4)
• April 4 @ Washington (42-22-7)
• April 6 vs. Toronto (42-23-5)

*Records are as of games completed on Thursday March 14.*

The Habs’ most likely opponent in the first round of the playoffs should they make it, would be the Tampa Bay Lightning, or the winner of the Metropolitan division, which could be any of three or four teams.

There are also other playoff races across the league as well. Only one team has clinched a spot in the playoffs, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and only two teams have been mathematically eliminated so lots of teams still have a shot at making it.

Three other Canadian teams are also looking to get into the playoffs: the Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs.

This will be the Habs’ most important stretch of the season as it will decide the fate of this surprising season for the Canadiens.

Sources:

-All stats and info courtesy of NHL.com

Andrei Vasilevskiy continues to show that he is one of the best goalies in the NHL as he earned his second straight shutout Saturday night when his Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay, Fla.

The Lightning goaltender stopped all 20 shots he faced for his sixth shutout of the season, improving his record to 25-7-4. Habs’ netminder Carey Price stopped 34 of 37 shots in the loss.

There were no goals in the opening period. Montreal had thought they scored in the second period, but Tampa Bay challenged the play for being offside and it was, as the goal was taken back. The Lightning’s offence woke up in the third period, as they scored two goals in the opening 3:41. Nikita Kucherov scored his 27^th goal of the season on a one-timer on the power-play, and Yanni Gourde scored just over a minute later, as Kucherov also got an assist on that goal.

Tampa Bay also had a goal taken back from them. When Victor Hedman appeared to score, the Habs challenged the play for goaltender interference, and were successful as the score remained 2-0. But, Tyler Johnson later sealed the deal for Tampa Bay, scoring his 21st goal of the season late in the third period to make it 3-0.

The Lightning’s league-best power-play scored again, when Kucherov opened the scoring. Tampa went 1-for-4 and Montreal went 0-for-2.

Kucherov extended his point streak to four games, with one goal and one assist. The Russian native has five goals and eight assists during the streak and leads the league with 94 points.

Tampa Bay (44-11-4) won their fifth straight game and are now 7-0-2 in their past nine games, outscoring their opponents 25-9 during that span.

Up Next:

MTL: The Canadiens (31-20-7) travel to Sunrise, Fla. to face the Florida Panthers (24-24-8) on Sunday night as part of a back-to-back.

TB: The Lightning will face the Blue Jackets (32-21-3) in Columbus, Ohio on Monday night.

Sources:

-All stats and info courtesy of NHL.com

John Tavares scored the overtime winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday night.

This game had a quick start in a potential playoff preview, and there was a playoff atmosphere in the building. Montreal opened the scoring just 51 seconds in when Andrew Shaw tipped in Jeff Petry’s shot for his 12^th goal of the season. Shaw returned to the Habs lineup after missing 15 games because of a neck injury. The Leafs tied it less than two minutes later when Andreas Johnsson scored on a pass from Zach Hyman. Nikita Zaitsev made it 2-1 Toronto after a shot from the point got past a screened Carey Price, who was playing in the 600^th NHL game of his career.

Tomas Tatar tied it for the Habs just over a minute into the third period. Price got credited with his first assist of the season on the goal. The Anahim Lake, B.C. native has 13 career NHL assists.

Brendan Gallagher gave Montreal a 3-2 lead when he scored on the power-play 7:24 into the third, but Leafs forward William Nylander tied it just 1:11 later.

Tavares’ overtime goal came at 2:17 after the Canadiens opened the extra frame on a 4-on-3 power-play. Mitch Marner passed to Tavares, who put the puck over Price’s left shoulder to give Toronto the win.

The Habs’ power-play continues to struggle although they did score one on the man-advantage, they were just 1-for-5 on the night, as their 3-game winning streak came to an end while Toronto won its fourth game in a row.

Up Next:

TOR: The Leafs travel to New York where they’ll face the Rangers (23-23-8) in the second game of a back-to-back on Sunday night.

MTL: The Habs start a 3-game road trip on Thursday when they’ll take on the Predators (33-20-4) in Nashville.

Sources:

-All stats and info courtesy of NHL.com

Nine Super Bowl appearances, six wins. The Brady-Belichick dynasty continues as Tom Brady and the New England Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl title beating the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 on Sunday night in Atlanta, Ga.

In the lowest scoring Super Bowl in Super Bowl history, there was no touchdown scored until the fourth quarter. The score was 3-0 in favor of New England at halftime. Both teams’ kickers earned their money as they went back and forth with punts all night long. The Rams punted on each of their first eight possessions, before scoring a field goal in the third quarter. The Patriots scored the game’s only touchdown when Sony Michel ran it in from two yards out to make it 10-3. The Pats sealed the deal later when Stephon Gilmore intercepted a pass from Jared Goff late in the fourth quarter.

On the 17^th anniversary of Brady’s first Super Bowl (also versus the Rams), it was a game of old versus new. 41-year-old Brady versus 24-year-old Goff. Brady’s experience proved to be worthy as the Rams offence struggled against the Patriots strong defence.

The Patriots have now won six Super Bowls, tying the Pittsburgh Steelers for most all-time in the NFL. Brady’s Super Bowl record improves to 6-3 as Brady has won more Super Bowl titles than any other player in NFL history. Patriots WR Julian Edelman was named MVP with 10 receptions and 141 yards.

The dynasty continues. The Patriots are doubted a lot, but they are never out of it when Brady and coach Bill Belichick are there, and Brady says he will return for his 19^th season next season.

Catch all the game’s highlights here.

*Video courtesy of NFL’s Youtube channel.*

This past Wednesday was #BellLetsTalk Day. An important day for mental health, but it is important on all 365 days of the year, not just one. On this day, Bell Canada donates five cents to mental health research initiatives for every text message or call by Bell customers, every tweet or retweet with the #BellLetsTalk in it, every use of the Facebook profile picture frame or Snapchat filter, and every view of Bell Let’s Talk official video on social media.

This year was the ninth straight year that Bell has done this, starting in 2011. The total number of interactions has increased every year starting with 66 million in the inaugural year, and this year reaching over 145 million, and they also passed one billion total interactions over nine years this year. This year’s version of the campaign raised over 7.2 million dollars, and over 50 million dollars has been raised since 2011.

This is a sports blog. So, here’s where the sports connection comes in. Professional athletes are human too. Some of them face the same struggles as we do, like mental health. Many athletes have suffered in the worst way possible due to mental health.

A lot of sports teams, players, and personalities took part in Bell Let’s Talk day this year simply by tweeting #BellLetsTalk. But others were more involved, like Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock, who did an interview (video courtesy of TSN’s Youtube channel.) with TSN to prove that it can happen to anyone. Babcock was unaware of what mental health was until he lost two of his friends to it. Since then, he has been a big supporter of Bell Let’s Talk Day. He thinks mental health is very important and so do the players that he coaches.

Former Canadian Olympian Clara Hughes was one of the first spokespersons for Bell Let’s Talk. She battled depression after the 1996 Olympics. She organizes annual bike rides across Canada to help raise awareness for mental health, and even wrote a book about her struggles, which came out in 2015.

If you struggle with mental health or depression, talk to someone. It’s OK to not be OK. Talk to anyone, a family member, a friend, a teacher, colleague, or a doctor or therapist. The only way to deal with mental health is to talk to someone about it. I personally have never struggled with mental health or depression, but I am still a supporter of this initiative, and try to do as much as I can by raising awareness on #BellLetsTalk Day. This is a great thing that Bell does every year, but mental health is a problem people face all year around, and it should be talked about every day.

For more information, please visit the Bell Let’s Talk website.

Calvin Pickard played well, but Carey Price was better as the Montreal Canadiens earned a 2-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night at the Bell Centre in their last game before the All-Star break.

The Canadiens opened the scoring with a power-play goal from Jonathan Drouin at 9:29 of the first period. Tomas Tatar had an assist on the goal, extending his point streak to four games, scoring two goals and three assists in that span. The Coyotes tied it late in the second period when Conor Garland tallied his ninth goal of the season on the power-play. Mike Reilly scored the go-ahead goal with a shot from the blue line, his third of the season, 4:48 into the third period.

Alex Galchenyuk, who was making his return to Montreal after he was traded for Max Domi last June, thought he had scored the tying goal late in the third, but the Canadiens challenged that the play was offside. After the video review the play was indeed offside as the goal was called off and the score remained 2-1 Montreal. Galchenyuk spent the first six seasons of his career with the Habs, scoring 255 points in 418 games with the club and was honoured during a TV timeout.

The Canadiens have allowed two goals or less in seven of their last nine games as Price stopped 30 of 31 shots for his 20^th win of the season. Coyotes’ goalie Pickard, who was making his first start for Arizona, stopped 22 of 24 shots, and made some big saves throughout the second period to keep it a one-goal game.

Each team had a power-play goal, as Montreal went 1-for-2 and Arizona went 1-for-3.

The Canadiens (28-18-5) sit third in the Atlantic division as they are 5-1-0 in their last six games heading into the All-Star break, followed by the ‘bye week,’ five consecutive days off that every team gets either before or after the All-Star Game, which is in San Jose this weekend. Arizona (23-23-4) is 6-2-1 in their last nine as they also head into the long break but sit a few points out of a playoff spot.

Up Next:

Because of the long break, both teams’ next game isn’t until Saturday Feb. 2. Montreal will host the New Jersey Devils (18-23-7), while Arizona will face the Sharks (29-16-7) in San Jose.

Sources:

-All stats, info and videos courtesy of NHL.com

The New England Patriots beat the Kansas City Chiefs 37-31 in an OT thriller at Arrowhead Stadium to advance to their third straight Super Bowl.

The Patriots led 14-0 at halftime, but the Chiefs came back in the second half, forcing overtime, but Rex Burkhead scored a TD on the first drive of OT as the Patriots got the victory.

Super Bowl 53 will feature the Patriots taking on the Los Angeles Rams, who edged the New Orleans Saints 26-23, also in OT, earlier on Sunday, marking the first time that both NFL conference championship games went to OT.

This will be Patriots QB Tom Brady’s ninth Super Bowl appearance of his career, looking for win number six. Brady’s first Super Bowl win was against these Rams, 17 years ago in Super Bowl 36.

The Brady-Belichick era continues in New England as the duo will play in their ninth Super Bowl in 18 seasons. Their record in the eight Super Bowls is 5-3.

New England tied the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most playoff wins at 36, and is the third team to ever make three Super Bowls in a row.

Super Bowl 53 goes Sunday, Feb. 3 in Atlanta on CBS in the U.S. and on CTV in Canada.

Sources:

-All stats and info courtesy of ESPN.

The New England Patriots continued their dominance as they advanced to their eighth consecutive AFC championship game after a 41-28 win over the Los Angeles Chargers at Gillette Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

This game featured the highest combined age of opposing QBs in a playoff game at 78 years and 199 days. For the Patriots, Tom Brady, the 41-year old with five Super Bowl rings, against 37-year old Chargers QB Philip Rivers, who has yet to even play in a Super Bowl.

The Patriots had a dominant start, scoring a touchdown on each of their first four possessions. It was the first time the Pats scored a touchdown on their opening drive in their last seven playoff games. The Chargers scored on their first drive, but couldn’t keep pace with Brady and the Patriots, who led 35-7 at halftime. New England added two field goals in the second half, and the Chargers scored three touchdowns in the second half, but it ultimately wasn’t enough.

Brady is now 8-0 in his career vs. Rivers, who finished 25 of 51, threw for 331 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Brady dominated finishing 34 of 44 throwing for 343 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. Brady improves to 20-3 at home in his postseason career.

Sony Michel, the Patriots’ rookie RB, was playing in his first career playoff game. He had 24 carries, running for 129 yards, and rushed for three of New England’s five touchdowns. Rex Burkhead also rushed for a touchdown, and Phillip Dorsett caught a touchdown pass from Brady.

New England wins their 35^th postseason game all-time, passing the Packers for third most all-time, and are now 13-2 in the divisional round in the Brady-Belichick era. This was the Patriots’ 16^th consecutive win at home.

Rivers continues to come up short in the playoffs as he is still looking for his first Super Bowl appearance and hasn’t played in the AFC championship game since the 2007 season.

The Patriots, however, are headed to their eight consecutive AFC title game, where they will face the AFC’s top seed, the Kansas City Chiefs, which will be quite an entertaining game to watch. (6:40 p.m. EST, on CBS in U.S., or CTV in Canada)

Sources:

Stats and info courtesy of NFL.com

Carey Price stopped 37 of the 39 shots he faced as the Montreal Canadiens won their third consecutive game 3-2 over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night at the United Center in Chicago.

Chicago allowed the first goal for a 10^th straight game as the Canadiens got an early 2-0 lead with goals from Max Domi and Shea Weber in a 1:31 span. Patrick Kane’s power-play goal cut the Habs’ lead in half heading to the second period. Kane, in his 40^th career multi-goal game, tied the game 2-2 with his second goal of the game at 12:55 of the second period. Kane now has three goals and six assists in his past eight games.

Tomas Tatar scored the game-winning goal late in the third period, which gave the Habs the 3-2 lead. Jeff Petry, who turned 31 on Sunday, had the primary assist on the goal.

The Hawks had eight power play chances but only scored on one. The Canadiens went 1-for-4.

Price earned his 11^th win of the season and is now 4-1-0 in his last five starts. Price’s counterpart, Corey Crawford, stopped 25 of 28 shots in the loss.

Jonathan Drouin extended his point streak to five games and has seven points (one goal, six assists) during that stretch. Tatar has five points (two goals, three assists) in his last five games. Domi now has five points (three goals, two assists) in his last five games.

The Canadiens improved to 15-10-5, having won three in a row after a five-game losing streak and currently hold the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Blackhawks fell to 9-17-5 after their seventh straight loss and have just three wins in their last 21 games, as they sit at the bottom of the league standings.

All the highlights from the game can be seen here.

Up Next:

The Habs will finish their three-game road trip in Minnesota on Tuesday when they face the Wild (15-12-2).

The Hawks will also play on Tuesday when they take on the Jets (18-9-2) in Winnipeg.

Sources:

Stats and info courtesy of NHL.com