August 14, 2020 3:49 am
TORONTO (AP) – Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin says coach Claude Julien was taken by ambulance to a Toronto hospital after experiencing chest pains Wednesday night. The 60-year-old Julien remained in the hospital Thursday afternoon while more tests were being conducted to determine the cause of his condition. Bergevin said the situation is not COVID-19 related.
The 60-year-old coach is not expected to be back behind the bench for the rest of the team’s first-round series against Philadelphia. Associate coach Kirk Muller will take over Julien’s role in an interim basis.
August 13, 2020 3:45 am
UNDATED (AP) – The Big 12 Conference is moving ahead with plans to play college football and other fall sports. They will join the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences in taking the field amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Big 12 board of directors approved a plan to begin fall sports after Sept. 1 after the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced they would not play this fall. The Big 12 football schedule allows each team to play one non-conference game before league play begins Sept. 26.
August 13, 2020 3:42 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The struggling Pittsburgh Pirates will receive a much-needed boost when closer Keone Kela returns after testing positive for COVID-19. Kela is expected to be promoted to the active roster before the start of a four-game series with Cincinnati. Kela says he was always confident he would play in 2020 despite the positive tests. He kept in shape by traveling around different parts of the city with a bag of balls and a net. He says the trips helped him get to know Pittsburgh. Kela joins a team that currently has the worst record in the majors at 3-13.
August 13, 2020 3:40 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Penguins’ qualifying round loss to the Montreal Canadiens cost assistant coaches Sergei Gonchar, Jacques Martin and Mark Recchi their jobs. The club opted not to renew the contracts for all three coaches after the fifth-seeded Penguins fell to the 12th-seeded Canadiens in four games. Head coach Mike Sullivan’s job is safe, but he will have to move forward with a new staff after Pittsburgh lost in its opening-round postseason series for the second time in as many years.
August 13, 2020 3:47 am
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) – The Masters will be on mute this year. The club has decided there will be no spectators at Augusta National when the rescheduled tournament is played in November.
That means all three majors in this year of COVID-19 will not have fans. Golf is coming off its first major without fans last week at the PGA Championship. The U.S. Open, moved from June to Sept. 17-20 because of the pandemic, previously announced it won’t have spectators at Winged Foot. The British Open announced in April it would be canceled this year.
August 12, 2020 2:10 pm
(AP) – The Big 12 Conference is moving ahead with plans to play college football and other fall sports. They will join the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences in taking the field amid the coronavirus pandemic. The move came one day after the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced they would not play this fall. In the Big 12, fall sports will begin after Sept. 1 with the football schedule beginning league play Sept. 26. Schools also can play one non-conference opponent.
August 12, 2020 3:53 am
UNDATED (AP) – A crumbling college football season took a massive hit Tuesday when the Big Ten and Pac-12, two historic and powerful conferences, succumbed to the pandemic and canceled their fall football seasons. Five months almost to the day after the first spikes in coronavirus cases in the U.S. led to the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournaments, the still raging pandemic is tearing down another American sports institution: fall Saturdays filled with college football. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott called the decision “extremely difficult and painful.” Despite pleas from players, coaches and President Donald Trump in recent days to play on, 40% of major college football teams have now decided to punt on a fall season, a decision that will cost schools tens of millions of dollars and upends traditions dating back a century. Both conferences cited the risk of trying to keep players from contracting and spreading the coronavirus when the programs are not operating in a bubble like the NBA and NHL are doing. They also cited the broader state of the pandemic in the United States, which has had more than 5 million cases of COVID-19.
All fall sports in the Big Ten have been called off and a spring season will be explored.
August 12, 2020 3:55 am
TORONTO (AP) – Brayden Point scored 10:27 into the fifth overtime, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 on Tuesday in the fourth-longest game in Stanley Cup playoff history. Point scored from just above the left circle, beating Joonas Korpisalo after the goaltender made an NHL-record 85 saves. Point also scored way back in the first period of Game 1 of the best-of-seven series. The teams are meeting in the first round for the second straight year, with the Lightning looking to rebound from being swept 16 months ago by the underdog Blue Jackets, who became the first No. 8 seed to oust the winner of the Presidents’ Trophy in four games. Game 2 is Thursday.
August 12, 2020 3:51 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford says he still believes the championship window is open for his club but changes need to be made following a quick playoff exit. The Penguins were stunned in four games by the underdog Montreal Canadiens in the qualifying round of the NHL playoffs. It marked the second straight early exit by Pittsburgh, which was swept by the New York Islanders in the first round in 2019. Rutherford said the team will need to get younger in the offseason. Goaltender Matt Murray and defenseman Justin Schultz will both likely leave in free agency.
August 12, 2020 3:50 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – An unexpected break didn’t stop the steady stream of pitchers to the injured list for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The team has placed opening day starter Joe Musgrove on the 10-day IL with what manager Derek Shelton called a right triceps issue. The Pirates scratched Musgrove before a start against Detroit with what Shelton called an ankle injury. Musgrove is 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA. He is the sixth Pittsburgh pitcher to be placed on the injured list this season. The list includes starter Mitch Keller and relievers Nick Burdi, Clay Holmes, Michael Feliz and Kyle Crick.
