GM Maciocia content, but not satisfied, with Alouettes' record
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'I'm not unhappy,' Maciocia told The Gazette on Monday. 'Could we be a little bit better? We could all be a little bit better at this point, but I'm not unhappy with where we're at. I like the team. I like the guys that are here. You try not to get overly excited at this time of year, especially in the first half of the season. But overall I'm not disappointed.
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'Are there areas of improvement? Yes, we all can get better. Do we have what it takes to get it done and to be that team? I think so.'
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If nothing else, the last two years have taught Maciocia the real season in the CFL doesn't begin until after Labour Day in September. The Als were 5-0 at this juncture in 2024 but stumbled down the stretch. While Montreal had the league's best record (12-5-1) and finished first, it had little momentum entering the East Division final and lost at home to Toronto.
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In 2023, conversely, the Als had a 6-7 record following four straight defeats, only to go on an eight-game winning streak, culminating in their Grey Cup victory against Winnipeg.
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Montreal started 3-0 this season and appeared in control of the division. But Hamilton is now on a three-game winning streak that began June 27, with a victory against the visiting Als. Although the Tiger-Cats and Montreal have similar (3-2) records, Hamilton sits first by virtue of this win last month.
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With the Argonauts at 1-4 and Ottawa in last place (1-5), the division looks like it will become a two-team race unless something drastically changes. And unless one of those two clubs starts to improve, only two teams from the division might make the playoffs. Coming off a bye in the schedule, Montreal entertains Toronto Thursday night at Molson Stadium.
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The Ticats and Als have one more game, Sept. 6, in Montreal.
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'We don't know how this one is going to finish,' Maciocia said. 'Our daily message is just be the best version of yourself. Nothing has changed as far as the culture is concerned. We're winning way more than we've lost, but we have high expectations here. We're driven towards those results.'
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Had starting quarterback Davis Alexander not suffered a hamstring injury at Edmonton on June 19, the Als might still be undefeated. Montreal's offence has struggled the last two games under veteran pivot McLeod Bethel-Thompson and has lost its swagger.
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Toronto Star
4 hours ago
- Toronto Star
New Leafs defenceman Henry Thrun grew up a Bruins fan. He's anxious to see the other side
Henry Thrun began his first media conference as a Maple Leaf with a confession. 'As much as I hate to say it, I was a Bruins fan growing up,' he said. Childhood loyalties aside, the 24-year-old defenceman, acquired in the trade that sent Ryan Reaves to the San Jose Sharks last week, said he was happy to be the newest member of the Leafs. Thrun grew up in the Boston suburb of Southborough, not to be confused with Scarborough, which means he'll arrive in Toronto relatively well-versed in at least a few recent chapters of Toronto's difficult post-season story arc. 'I knew the Toronto-Boston rivalry and kind of the history that they've seen in the playoffs, and just knowing how electric of a hockey market (Toronto) is,' Thrun said. 'When (Sharks general manager Mike Grier) told me I was traded, it was definitely a nice way for that phone call to wrap up, just knowing I was going to a city like Toronto, just knowing the history and the success that the team has had the past couple of years, with obviously the end goal still in sight. There's more to push for.' That there's 'more to push for,' of course, is a kind way of saying a team that has won two playoff series in its most recent nine playoff runs has massively underachieved. But achievement is relative. And Thrun, after spending the past two-plus seasons with the league's worst team in San Jose, would be taking a big step up in class if he can carve out a role with the Leafs. Exactly what that role will be is anybody's guess. Not that the trade didn't make sense. The Leafs had essentially given up on Reaves, who played in just 35 games last season and did not see the ice in the playoffs. Moving out the remaining year on Reaves' contract, with a $1.35-million (U.S.) cap hit, in exchange for the remaining year on Thrun's $1-million deal offered salary-cap savings. Still, Thrun, a fourth-round 2019 draft pick of the Ducks who signed in San Jose as a free agent after his junior year at Harvard, is far from a proven commodity as an NHL regular. He has played 119 NHL games as a second- and third-pairing guy on a bottom-feeding team. Grier told reporters in San Jose last week that the Sharks' depth chart was such that Thrun was going to be in tough to earn regular playing time this coming season. 'It's going to be heavy competition here (for spots in the lineup on defence),' Grier said. 'And at the end day, I think this (trade) might help Henry out as well.' If Thrun was going to have a hard time finding ice time on the back end of the reigning basement dwellers, it's difficult to know where he slots on a Leafs blue line where the top six spots appear spoken for. Then again, depth never hurts. And perhaps Toronto's perceived defensive surplus means it's the logical place from which to eventually pluck a trade piece to service GM Brad Treliving's self-announced need for another top-six forward. It's possible, of course, that the Leafs see untapped potential in Thrun, a left-shot blueliner who made the case on Monday that his puck-moving skills weren't exactly showcased in San Jose, where it's safe to say the Sharks spent plenty of time in their own end. Perhaps the game will look different for Thrun in Toronto, even if Reaves offered a cautionary view of life as a Leaf in his introductory media availability in San Jose last week. 'I started the season two years ago really well, and then things were just going really wrong for me. All of a sudden the whole city wanted me out of there. I don't think you see that in other organizations,' Reaves said. Reaves was right about his great beginning: In his first two games as a Maple Leaf in engaged in a pair of fights. But less than a month into his first of two seasons in Toronto the fundamental worth of carrying a so-called enforcer on an NHL roster was called into question when Boston's Brad Marchand delivered a dirty hit that injured then-Leaf Timothy Liljegren. That nobody on the Leafs, including Reaves, offered any sort of response did not sit well. Liljegren, of course, now plays in San Jose, where he and Thrun were neighbours and friends. 'I got to hear (from Liljegren) a little about Toronto, and just, you know how passionate the fans are and how first class in the organization it is,' Thrun said. 'So it's something that I've only heard good things, and I'm excited to see it all firsthand and experience it.'
CBC
7 hours ago
- CBC
Jim Clancy, longtime Blue Jays starting pitcher and 1982 all-star, dead at 69
Jim Clancy, who made his Major League debut during the Toronto Blue Jays' 1977 expansion season and spent 12 seasons with the club as a key member of its starting rotation, has died at 69. The Blue Jays confirmed Clancy's death in a social media post Monday. A cause of death was not given. Clancy was selected by the Blue Jays sixth overall in the 1976 MLB expansion draft and made his big-league debut on July 26, 1977, against the Texas Rangers at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium. He surrendered five earned runs over two innings in a 14-0 loss. After going 4-9 in Toronto's expansion year, Clancy played his first full season in 1978, posting a respectable 10-12 record on a team that finished last in the American League East at 59-102. Clancy, along with star pitcher Dave Stieb, provided the bedrock for the Blue Jays' starting rotation as the team became increasingly competitive. He was Toronto's opening-day starter in 1981 and 1984. The six-foot-four, 220-pound Clancy had a 16-14 record with a 3.71 earned-run average and 139 strikeouts in his 1982 all-star season as the Blue Jays finished out of last place in the AL East for the first time with a 78-84 record. He went 9-6 with a 3.78 ERA in 1985 as the Jays won the division for the first time before falling in seven games to the Kansas City Royals in the AL Championship Series. Clancy, who ranks second in Blue Jays history in starts (381), innings pitched (2,517), and complete games (74), signed with the Houston Astros after a disappointing 1988 season in Toronto, where he had an 11-13 record and 4.49 ERA as the Blue Jays failed to return to the playoffs for a third straight season. He played his final campaign coming out of the bullpen with the 1991 Atlanta Braves. He earned his first-ever post-season victory in the third game of the World Series as Atlanta defeated the Minnesota Twins 5-4 in twelve innings. Clancy finished the series with a 1-0 record with a 4.15 ERA, but the Twins won the series in seven games.
National Post
7 hours ago
- National Post
New Leafs defenceman Henry Thrun hopes for better times in Toronto
Henry Thrun remembers the night in early 2024 he was thrown in against the Maple Leafs and scored his first NHL goal. Article content 'Pretty exciting,' recalled the new Toronto defenceman Monday on an introductory Zoom call. 'It was a bizarre moment, the game out of hand (his Sharks headed to a 7-1 road loss on the strength of three William Nylander assists right after signing his new contract). Our power play coach came bombing down the bench asking if I could go on.' Article content Article content Article content Mikael Granlund found Thrun open for a goal against goalie Martin Jones, one of six the 24-year-old managed before San Jose decided to accelerate its rebuild with more veteran blueliners and acquired idle enforcer/winger Ryan Reaves from Toronto last week in the process. Article content Thrun, yet to play a full National Hockey League season, now must find a role among full-time Leaf defencemen Chris Tanev, Jake McCabe, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Brandon Carlo, Morgan Rielly and Simon Benoit. Philippe Myers also made a push last year from the farm. Article content 'I've had no major conversations yet with (general manager Brad Treliving or coach Craig Berube,' the left-shooting Thrun said. 'I'm just getting my feet wet in Toronto, the first time I've been traded. I'll get more information as the week goes on.' Article content The Sharks' lack of on-ice success the past few years did little for Thrun's competitive nature, though he was called on in a variety of duties he hopes to duplicate with the Leafs. A more offensive player in college with Harvard, he has 25 points in 119 NHL games and comes at a very reasonable $1 million US ticket for this season. Article content 'I want to use my versatility up and down the lineup,' Thrun said. 'I've learned how to defend at the NHL level, but there are still steps I want to take.' Article content Article content He was shocked by the trade, which came while he was engrossed in a Top Gun video game in his native Massachusetts. He couldn't help feel the irony of joining the other side of one of hockey's great rivalries, growing up a big fan of Hall of Fame Bruin defender Zdeno Chara and once part of a summer training skate with the big man him in the Boston area. Article content 'I've been up to Toronto for a lot of summer tournaments. I'm eager to explore the city and get rolling with the team.' Article content Thrun will bring his San Jose No. 3 sweater choice with him and has some friendships in the Leafs organization already with frequent Marlies call-up Marshall Rifai. Thrun is the third player the Leafs have acquired from another team from the top of the fourth round of the 2019 draft with Matias Maccelli and Marlies defenceman Cade Webber, whom Thrun played prep school hockey against.
