Thursday Sports Page: Opening Day

MLB

The Toronto Blue Jays open their 2024 Major League Baseball season this afternoon with a road game against the Tampa Bay Rays (4:10 pm ET).

Toronto’s Jose Berrios starts on the mound against Tampa Bay’s Zach Eflin in St. Petersburg, Fla., as the Blue Jays look to fulfil their potential this season.

The Blue Jays went 89-73 last year before being swept by the Minnesota Twins in the wild-card round, scoring just one run in two games.

Despite the offensively loaded roster’s shortcomings, Toronto is running it back with much of the same core and hoping the bats return to form.

The Blue Jays play four games in St. Petersburg, three games at Houston and three games at the New York Yankees to start the season.

Toronto’s home opener is April 8th against Seattle.

NHL

• A big first-period effort helped lift the Ottawa to an easy 6-2 win over the Sabres. Playing in front of Buffalo’s faithful, the Senators potted five times in the first 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the Bruins fell 3-1 to the Lightning, in Tampa. It was Boston’s third loss in four contests.
• The NHL playoffs start in less than a month and a few teams can clinch berths tonight. The Vancouver Canucks are one of them. A win over the visiting Dallas Stars would do it. Twenty-eight teams are in action tonight, including every team in the Western Conference. Ottawa is at home to Chicago, Calgary is on the road in St. Louis, Edmonton hosts the L-A Kings and the Vegas Golden Knights are in Winnipeg.

SJHL PLAYOFFS

Melfort 5 Estevan 2 (Mustangs lead series 3-1)
Weyburn 4 Humboldt 3 OT (Series tied 2-2)
Battlefords 3 Melville 2 OT (North Stars win series 4-0)
Flin Flon 2 Kindersley 1 (Bombers win series 4-0)

WHL PLAYOFFS (1 Game)

Prince Albert at Saskatoon, Thursday 7 pm, Game 1

NLL

Philadelphia, PA – Thursday evening the Saskatchewan Rush and Philadelphia Wings will battle it out for one of the final playoff spots inside Wells Fargo Center.

Saskatchewan is coming off of a 9-7 loss against the Georgia Swarm at GAS South Arena. Robert Church led the squad with four goals and two assists for a second straight game. Faceoff from Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia is at 5:00PM Sask Time.

(SaskRush.com)

NBA

• From bad to worse for the Toronto Raptors, who suffered the most lopsided loss at home in team history. The New York Knicks hammered the Raptors 145-101 for Toronto’s 12th straight loss. The Raptors’ lineup is depleted with seven players either sidelined with injuries or out for personal reasons.
• Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse says there’s a good chance NBA MVP Joel Embiid will be back for the playoffs. Embiid has missed the last 27 games after suffering a knee injury that required surgery on February 6th. The Sixers went 10 and 17 in the star player’s absence. 

MARCH MADNESS

• Number one seed University of Connecticut looks unbeatable in its bid to be the first school since 2007 to win back-to-back NCAA men’s basketball titles. Its next hurdle in the Sweet 16 in today’s rematch with fifth-seeded San Diego State, which the Huskies beat in last year’s title game.
• The American Gaming Association estimates 2.7-billion-dollars will be bet this year on the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments through legal sportsbooks. NCAA president Charlie Baker wants states with legal wagering on sporting events to ban betting on individual player performances. Ohio, Vermont and Maryland are among the states that have removed prop betting on college athletes. 

NFL

CANTON, Ohio (AP) — The Pro Football Hall of Fame has honored longtime NFL assistant coach Monte Kiffin and more than a dozen others as part of its Awards for Excellence program.

The Hall on Wednesday announced the 15 recipients of the award that goes to assistant coaches, athletic trainers, equipment managers, film and video directors and public relations directors. The award began in 2022.

Kiffin was one of the architects of Tampa Bay’s stellar defense that won the Super Bowl in the 2002, teaming with Tony Dungy to build the vaunted “Tampa 2″ scheme that led the Buccaneers to great success and was copied by several other teams around the league.

Kiffin spent 13 of his 16 seasons as an NFL defensive coordinator with the Bucs, also having one-year stints as coordinator for Minnesota, New Orleans and Dallas.

The other two assistants honored were Bill McPherson, who was hired by Bill Walsh in San Francisco in 1979 and helped the 49ers win five Super Bowl titles, and former Pittsburgh receivers coach Lionel Taylor, who helped develop Hall of Famers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth.

The three athletics trainers honored were Steve Antonopulus of Denver, Dean Kleinschmidt of New Orleans and Bill Tessendorf, who worked for the Browns and Ravens,

The equipment managers honored were Bill Hampton Sr. of the Jets, Don Hewitt of the Rams and Dick Romanski of the Raiders.

The film and video directors honored were Tom Atcheson of the Falcons, Bob McCartney of the Steelers and Dave Levy of the Bucs.

The PR directors honored were Dan Edwards of the Jaguars and Steelers, Harvey Greene of the Dolphins and Frank Ramos of the Jets.

(Canadian Press)