It never gets old for Corey Perry, now in his sixth Stanley Cup final
'We've got some guys who don't know that feeling (Jeff Skinner after 1,078 league games). We said after Game 7 (loss in Florida last June) we would be back. And we are back,' said Perry.
It never gets old for Perry, being on one of the last two teams standing.
Now Perry is old, at least what is says on his birth certificate. But not at work.
'What is he, 56?' kidded his friend and former Anaheim Ducks teammate Kevin Bieksa on SportsNet Thursday night after Perry, who turned 40 two weeks ago scored the Edmonton Oilers ' first goal, flipping one off Stars' goalie Jake Oettinger's arm and into the Dallas net on the power play.
Perry's seven goals are remarkably the same as Leon Draisaitl has through the Oilers 16-game run to another Cup finals matchup with Florida Panthers. Only the ousted Mikko Rantanen (Dallas) and Sam Bennett (Florida), who have nine, and Carolina's Andrei Svechnikov (eight) have more than Perry. Chew on that.
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CTV News
11 hours ago
- CTV News
‘Really exciting': Regina baton twirlers set to represent Canada at competition in Italy
WATCH: Thirteen baton twirlers from Regina will represent Canada at the World Baton Twirling Championships in Italy. Jacob Carr has the story. Thirteen baton twirlers from the ages of 12 through 18 and over are gearing up to face off against the best in Torino, Italy. The athletes are a combination of twirlers from the Sundown Optimist Baton Group and Phoenix Baton Club. They will compete in both the Nations Cup and World Baton Twirling Championship in Italy, which will get underway on Aug. 2. Former twirler and Team Canada coach Nancy Lightheart says the athletes representing Saskatchewan make up around 25 per cent of the Canadian representatives. 'That's really exciting for Saskatchewan, and for a province our size to have such a large contingent. We're obviously very proud of our athletes. They work tremendously long hours and it's hard to get to this level of training,' she said. For some on the team like Gabriella Buchko, this won't be their first time representing Team Canada at Baton Twirling. Buchko recently took part in a Pan Pacific competition. At just twelve years of age, she is now somewhat of a veteran, but that doesn't make the mental aspect of a twirling routine any easier. 'When you're tossing the baton, you just have to keep doing repetition over and over to have muscle memory where your brain can finally be like, 'Okay I need to think of the corrections now, but I know how to do this trick,'' she explained. For Malia Briere, also twelve years of age, Italy will be her first time donning the Maple Leaf. It's an experience she says will be an incredible learning opportunity. 'I feel like it will kind of be like, 'Oh wow, they can do this trick, and I might want to try this trick next year or in a couple years,'' she said. Briere also said she is looking forward to visiting some historical buildings in Italy and touring Rome with her family. Both Briere and Buchko agree that a bonus to competing in Torino will be experiencing the Italian cuisine. For Buchko, it's also an opportunity to form new friendships. 'It'll be so exciting to meet many new people since everyone is so kind and so tight together. I know that I'm really good friends with a lot of people from across Canada, so it will be good to make new friendships internationally too,' she said. When asked who the fiercest competition should be in the field, Lightheart mentioned Team Japan as the gold standard in the sport. 'The Japanese are always the highlight. Anytime we go to international events they are sort of the pinnacle,' she said. They're the team that people aspire to twirl like. So, yeah, it's always exciting to go watch them for sure.'
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Joey Logano set to become youngest driver in NASCAR with 600 starts. How much does he have left?
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Joey Logano's first NASCAR Cup Series start — before he would drive for heavyweight owners such as Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske — came in New Hampshire for a short-lived team called Hall of Fame racing. Set to make his 600th career start, the youngest driver in NASCAR history to reach that milestone, the 35-year-old Logano has constructed a Hall of Fame career. Take a look at the resume: three career NASCAR championships, a Daytona 500 victory, the youngest driver to win a Cup race, 37 career victories, and seemingly tethered to the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske for as long as he can race. 'At first glance, I said, 'Well, it's just starts,'' Logano said. 'But then when you start thinking about it, to be able to be around in a sport as an athlete competing at a top level for 16-plus years, and hitting 600 starts, it's pretty incredible to have a career that long.' Logano will be 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway. He'll top seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by six months. Consider, only three previous drivers among the 33 others in NASCAR history were in their 30s when they hit 600 starts. Logano has also topped the massive expectations set for him when he entered the sport as a teenager hyped as NASCAR's next great driver. He entered NASCAR with the nickname 'Sliced Bread,' as in, the best thing since, and navigated a slow start to his career to blossom into one of the best over the last 13 years at Team Penske. He's now married with three kids — his Instagram bio notes he's a '3X NASCAR Champion' and '3X father' — and is considered a team leader at Penske and Ford. 'I grew up in front of everybody. All of us change over the years as you grow up,' Logano said. 'Life comes at you and you evolve and keep going with it. Everybody, when you were 18 years old to 35 years old are some of the biggest changes in your life happen in that period of time. Getting married, having kids — that's the biggest change you can ever have in your life, I think — but I did all of this in front of everybody.' Logano qualified for his first career Cup start on Sept. 14, 2008, at New Hampshire on car owner points, because rain washed out qualifying. He started 40th and was penalized only 39 laps into the race for taking the jack with him as he exited pit road. He finished three laps down in 32nd place in the No. 96 Toyota for Hall of Fame Racing, essentially on loan from Joe Gibbs Racing to get some experience. The two teams even agreed to move JGR's Home Depot sponsorship to Hall of Fame's car for the 18-year-old Logano's first race. 'I didn't think it was a big deal making my first start,' Logano said that first day. 'I was ready to go as soon as we started.' He wasn't necessarily ready for the big time. Logano was pegged with enormous expectations to replace Hall of Famer and three-time champion Tony Stewart in 2009 for Gibbs. Just a teenager, the enormity of the ride combined with Gibbs' impatience made for a brief run at JGR. Logano did win his first race — also at New Hampshire, in 2009 — but won only one more time before Gibbs cut him loose after the 2012 season. The timing worked out for Logano. Penske needed a driver and 2012 NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski urged his boss to sign the 23-year-old Logano, convinced a change of scenery could do wonders for his career. Logano made the most of his Penske lifeline and is now the only active three-time champion in NASCAR and one of only 10 drivers in history to win three or more titles. He spent the week headed into Dover — where he flipped eight times on the concrete track during a scary 2009 incident in a second-tier race — hobnobbing with the sports world's brightest stars at the ESPYs and he got to yuk it up with guest host Jelly Roll on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' Petty is the only driver to win his 600th career start and he would make 1,184 overall in Cup, one of many NASCAR records he holds. Logano might not catch The King in total starts — but the driver who has never missed a race over his full-time career is in no rush to slow down. 'I would be an idiot to think you can be competing at the top level into your 50s,' Logano said. 'What athlete has ever done that? Something changes at some point, but, right now, I still feel as fresh as ever. I feel as sharp as ever. I'm driven as much as ever. I still care. I still get emotional about things, so that shows me I care a lot. With those factors still there when the end is, I don't know yet. I don't know.' The Tys have it as final four is set for the In-season Challenge NASCAR is down to its version of the final four. The midseason tournament that pays $1 million to the winner pits Ty Dillon vs. John Hunter Nemechek and Tyler Reddick vs. Ty Gibbs in the head-to-head challenge at Dover. The winners face off next week at Indianapolis. Reddick is the betting favorite to win it all, per BetMGM Sportsbook. 'Did John Hunter change his name yet,' Reddick quipped. Nemechek has a career-best six top-10s and is 20th in the standings in his second full season at Legacy Motor Club. Nemechek — who drives for Jimmie Johnson, who won a record 11 times at Dover — enjoyed trash-talking Dillon this week from, of all places, the carpool lane. Their young children go to the same school, and the families have become friendly. 'The running joke between us is that they are boyfriend-girlfriend and they're going to get married one day, the way that they walk around the racetrack,' Nemechek said. Hey, maybe a $1 million could help pay for the big day. NASCAR seeded 32 drivers for the first In-season Challenge, a five-race, bracket-style tournament that mirrors the NCAA basketball tournaments. 'I think it's really cool from a millennial perspective, from a younger generation, it's neat to be able to bring something in the sport that hasn't been done before,' the 28-year-old Nemechek said. 'It kind of gives you something to race for even if you're not racing for the win.' Legacy has yet to win a race, or even contend in many, since Johnson signed on at the end of 2022 and eventually became majority owner. Nemechek said Johnson has balanced many roles, that includes the occasional race, and was committed to making Legacy a championship team. Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. 'We joke around about his legacy 2.0 being a team owner and hopefully we can go in and win 83 races and seven championships for him,' Nemechek said. Odds and ends Denny Hamlin is the betting favorite to win at Dover, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Hamlin has two career wins at Dover, including last season. He's trying to win the first July race at Dover since the track's first one in 1969. ___ AP auto racing:
Edmonton Journal
2 days ago
- Edmonton Journal
Oilers conundrum: One does not simply replace 31% of team goal scoring
Article content The Edmonton Oilers ' conundrum? One does not simply replace 31 per cent of the team's goal scoring prowess. Article content That is what the Oilers have lost from their 2025 playoff team, 31 per cent of the goal scoring having now left town with the departures of Corey Perry, 10 playoff goals, Evander Kane, six, Connor Brown, five, Viktor Arvidsson, two, John Klingberg, one, and Jeff Skinner, one. Article content Article content Article content Article content You think if the Oilers had abundant cap space they'd have let go of Perry, Kane, Brown and Klingberg? I don't. Article content Article content Cap space is Edmonton's enemy like never before. That's the issue. Article content Edmonton is a threat to win the Cup next year because it's thankfully got star players in Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard. Next year, however, for the first time, all three star players will be earning massive salaries compared to the cap, $12.5 million for McDavid, $14.0 million for Draisaitl, $10.5 million for Bouchard. Article content No complaints from me on the big three getting paid big time. But the fact of the matter is that every dollar a top star gets, that is one dollar less in cap space. And it doesn't help with inconsistent d-man Darnell Nurse making $9.2 million. Article content The Oilers will be OK in a few years when the cap rises to more than $113 million. But these next two years are going to be tight when it comes to cap space, making it difficult for the Oilers to keep, retain and/or bring in talent. Article content Article content This is the fact. It's the reality GM Stan Bowman faces. It's no easy thing to handle, which is why Edmonton, essentially, had to say good-bye to such useful veterans as Kane, Brown, Klingberg and Perry. They could not afford them under the cap. Article content The upside of the downside? Article content Does this cloud of grey having any silver lining? Yes, it does. Article content First off, Bowman has proven somewhat adept at managing the cap. This coming year he'll be counting on four low cost players — Ike Howard, Matt Savoie, Noah Philp and David Tomasek — to step up. Bowman doesn't need all four to be world beaters. But to compete for the Cup he needs at least one out of three of Savoie, Howard and Tomasek to step up as a Top 6 forward. He needs another one of those three to step up as a third line winger. And he needs Philp, or some other low-cost option, to step up and be a strong two-way player in a checking role.
