: Sportshttps://globalnews.ca/news/11486930/rookies-helping-to-make-canadiens-tougher/<![CDATA[Rookies helping to make Canadiens tougher]]>Tue, 21 Oct 2025 04:10:09 +0000
MONTREAL – A year after having the rookie of the year in the lineup, the Montreal Canadiens might even have a better group this season.
Led by Oliver Kapanen, who scored the opening goal — his rookie-leading fourth of the season — in Monday’s 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres, and Ivan Demidov who is tied for the league lead for rookie points, the Canadiens have more points from rookies (nine) than any other team in the NHL this season.
A third rookie, goaltender Jakub Dobes, made 29 saves to move to 3-0. Dobes, who is in his first full season in the NHL, now has a .939 save percentage and 1.63 goals against average.
Kapanen, Demidov, and Dobes all received some playoff experience last season and have taken their opportunity to step up for the Canadiens through the team’s first seven games. While Demidov was expected to produce offensively, Kapanen has been a pleasant surprise.
“His intelligence always puts him in the right place on both sides of the ice,” said Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis. “He understands that he plays with Demidov who will do this thing but he’s always in the right place. His offensive touch will continue to improve as he gets used to the speed of the game.”
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One of the Achilles heels of the Canadiens last season was that they often relied on the line of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky to score. Having the line of Demidov, Kapanen, and Alex Newhook contributing could change the way people may have to play against them.
“It helps us a lot,” said Canadiens defender Lane Hutson, no stranger to strong rookie seasons as last year’s Calder Trophy winner. “The depth throughout the lineup, we have a lot of guys who step up and it’s different every night. So to have that luxury of guys who can score and create opportunities it’s pretty special.”
Dobes was named the game’s third star, and said it was the first time he earned the honour at the Bell Centre, and now has 10 wins in 18 career regular-season starts. He also had the crowd of 20,962 chant his name a couple of times in the third period.
“It feels good, I love the fans. I’m glad they showed me some love,” Dobes said. “You try to stay as humble as possible, hopefully it will happen more and I will get used to it.”
“He was great,” said Canadiens forward Jake Evans. “He looks huge out there and made some huge saves. We left him out to dry in the second period and he kept us in it and I’m happy we got the win for him.”
JAYS FEVER HITS MONTREAL
After winning their own game, the Canadiens players quickly turned their attention to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners.
Evans rushed his post-game interview before going to the back to watch the game, finishing his availability with “Go Jays.”
Josh Anderson delayed his interview until after George Springer’s game-winning home run. The homer was met with an eruption of cheers that disrupted the interviews in progress.
“I think we got a lot of guys on the bandwagon right now,” said Anderson, a Toronto-area native.
Hutson, one of the Americans on the team, is among the converts.
“I’m not really into baseball but (Brendan Gallagher) made me a Blue Jays fan,” said Hutson. “He said I have no choice. It’s cool what they’re doing right now and maybe I’ll tune in a bit.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2025.
]]>: Sportshttps://globalnews.ca/news/11486874/jays-beat-mariners-4-3-advance-to-world-series/<![CDATA[Jays beat Mariners 4-3, advance to World Series]]>Tue, 21 Oct 2025 03:14:45 +0000
TORONTO – George Springer hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the seventh inning to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday.
The victory gave the Blue Jays their first berth in the World Series since 1993. Toronto will host the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 on Friday.
With Addison Barger and Isiah Kiner-Falefa aboard, Springer turned on an Eduard Bazardo pitch for his fourth homer of the post-season.
Toronto Blue Jays headed to the World Series as fans go wild outside Rogers Centre
Jeff Hoffman struck out the side in the ninth inning for the save. Toronto players streamed out of the dugout to celebrate as the sellout crowd of 44,770 roared.
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Blue Jays starter Shane Bieber and Mariners right-hander George Kirby gave up a run apiece in the opening inning. Canadian Josh Naylor drove in Julio Rodriguez to open the scoring and Daulton Varsho singled home Springer in the bottom half.
Rodriguez restored Seattle’s lead with a solo shot in the third and Cal Raleigh went deep off reliever Louis Varland in the fifth.
Seranthony Dominguez, Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt worked in relief ahead of Toronto’s closer. Gausman (2-1) earned the win by throwing a scoreless seventh inning.
The road team was victorious in the first four games of the series. The Mariners won at T-Mobile Park last Friday but the Blue Jays pulled even with a Game 6 win at home on Sunday.
Blue Jays: Springer played the last two games despite taking a fastball off the knee in Game 5. It was his 23rd career post-season homer.
Mariners: After getting shelled for eight runs in a 13-4 loss in Game 3, Kirby turned in a much better outing. The right-hander allowed one earned run, a walk and four hits while striking out three.
KEY MOMENT
Springer’s 381-foot blast will be a home run that Blue Jays fans talk about for years to come.
KEY STAT
Springer’s homer was Toronto’s first extra-base hit of the night.
COMING UP
The Blue Jays have a few days to prepare for the World Series opener against the Dodgers. The Mariners’ season is over.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2025.
TORONTO – George Springer says he paid no mind to Seattle Mariners cheering when he was hit by a pitch.
Springer spoke to media Monday evening ahead of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series between his Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle.
The 36-year-old veteran was hit on the right kneecap by a 95.6 m.p.h. pitch from Bryan Woo in the seventh inning of Toronto’s 6-2 loss on Friday in Game 5. Mariners fans had booed him during every plate appearance in the game and then celebrated when he was removed from the game after getting plunked by Woo.
“Ultimately, at the end of the day, I’m just concerned about my health, and that’s out of my control,” said Springer. “So it’s just kind of one of those things where I was concerned about my knee in the moment and I’ll go from there.”
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Springer was batting leadoff for Toronto in Monday’s must-win Game 7. He was also brushed back from the plate in the Blue Jays’ 6-2 victory in Game 6.
“It just kind of is what it is, honestly,” said Springer on having to grind out at bats. “I’m going to do my best to go out there and play to the best of my ability. I don’t really think it’s a secret. I got hit in the kneecap (in Game 5).
“It’s not ideal. So it’s not necessarily the best thing, but at this point I’m going to play.”
Springer had a resurgent regular season, hitting .309 with 32 home runs, 84 runs-batted in, 18 stolen bases and a .399 on-base percentage. He is hitting .233 so far this post-season with three home runs and six runs batted in.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider praised Springer’s leadership in setting a gritty example for his teammates.
“I think that he’s doing a very deliberate job of not complaining,” said Schneider. “Again, that’s another way to set a standard. Everyone’s feeling it right now.
“We always joke, everyone’s feeling it, but no one cares. No one cares. You got to go out and you got to get it done.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2025.
]]>: Sportshttps://globalnews.ca/news/11486168/no-lineup-changes-for-blue-jays-in-game-7/<![CDATA[No lineup changes for Blue Jays in Game 7]]>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 20:24:08 +0000
TORONTO – Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider ran back his Game 6 batting order for the winner-take-all Game 7 on Monday night at Rogers Centre.
The Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners 6-2 on Sunday to force a decisive game in the American League Championship Series.
“A chance to win a game at home in front of these fans to go to the World Series, I think is everything that we play for and everything that our fans deserve,” Schneider said in his pre-game media availability.
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The series winner will play the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series starting Friday.
Designated hitter George Springer will bat first again for Toronto despite appearing somewhat limited at the plate after taking a fastball off the right knee in Game 5.
“I got hit in the kneecap, it’s not ideal,” Springer said. “So it’s not necessarily the best thing, but at this point I’m going to play.”
Shane Bieber was scheduled to start for Toronto against George Kirby.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson made a few changes to his lineup for Game 7.
Victor Robles replaced Dominic Canzone in right field and Josh Naylor of Mississauga, Ont., moved up a spot to third in the order with Jorge Polanco moving into the cleanup spot.
The Blue Jays last reached the Fall Classic in 1993 when they won a second straight title. Seattle has never reached the World Series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2025.
The Toronto Blue Jays say “ticket management issues” affecting its system are being resolved just hours ahead of the team’s crucial Game 7 against the Seattle Mariners — a game which will see the winner advance to the World Series.
After warning of issues Monday afternoon, the team posted to X around 4:30 p.m. Eastern that “the system is returning to normal.”
“Please try to access your tickets and add them to your Apple or Google wallet, MLB Ballpark app, or Ticketmaster app,” the team said in its latest post. “If you were transferred tickets and did not receive an email confirmation, please log in to Ticketmaster to accept the tickets.
“If you continue to experience challenges, additional Blue Jays staff will be at the gates to support ticket management.”
The critical game was set to start just after 8 p.m. Eastern at Rogers Centre in Toronto.
It wasn’t clear Monday whether the impact from the outage was affecting all users on Ticketmaster, or just those with tickets or attempting to purchase tickets to Monday evening’s game.
On top of the tens of thousands of fans that have been inside the Rogers Centre throughout the postseason, millions of Canadians across the country have thrown their support behind the Blue Jays — the only Major League Baseball franchise based in Canada.
The last time the Blue Jays won the American League and the World Series Championship was in 1993.
Amazon Web Services, which provides remote computing services to thousands of companies, universities and governments, experienced a network outage for approximately three hours before 6:00 a.m. Eastern time.
Several hours later, the company said “most AWS service operations are succeeding normally now.”
Still, there was a ripple effect reported by many organizations, which may have led to delays and technical errors as a result of the outage.
]]>: Sportshttps://globalnews.ca/news/11485967/jays-fans-say-game-7-win-would-be-heritage-moment/<![CDATA[Jays fans say Game 7 win would be heritage moment]]>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 19:58:53 +0000: Sportshttps://globalnews.ca/?p=11485857<![CDATA[Blue Jays say ‘ticket management issues’ being resolved after Amazon outage]]>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 19:14:40 +0000: Sportshttps://globalnews.ca/news/11485319/blue-jays-top-mariners-6-2-to-force-game-7-in-alcs/<![CDATA[Blue Jays top Mariners 6-2 to force Game 7 in ALCS]]>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 05:07:15 +0000: Sportshttps://globalnews.ca/news/11485312/bieber-to-start-game-7-of-alcs-for-blue-jays/<![CDATA[Bieber to start Game 7 of ALCS for Blue Jays]]>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 04:59:33 +0000: Sportshttps://globalnews.ca/news/11485252/blue-jays-force-game-7-in-alcs-with-6-2-win/<![CDATA[Blue Jays force Game 7 in ALCS with 6-2 win]]>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 03:01:09 +0000: Sports
