Nantes win first pre-season friendly against Stade Laval
Summertime is fantasy time and one of the Fischler Family's pastimes is guessing an offensive line up that Rangers coach Mike Sullivan will present on opening night.
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Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hockey's beloved emergency backup goalies face an uncertain future with new NHL rule
FILE - Chicago Blackhawks goalie Scott Foster defends against the Winnipeg Jets during the third period of an NHL hockey game, March 29, 2018, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski, file) FILE - Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares (not shown) scores his team's second goal of an NHL hockey game against Carolina Hurricanes emergency goalie David Ayres (90) during second-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Feb. 22, 2020. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP, file) FILE - Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) and Anaheim Ducks goalie Tom Hodges (86) greet each other at the end of the third period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, April 29, 2022. (AP Photo/LM Otero, file) FILE - Carolina Hurricanes emergency backup goalie Jorge Alves makes his NHL debut during the third period of the team's NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 31, 2016, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, file) FILE - Carolina Hurricanes emergency backup goalie Jorge Alves makes his NHL debut during the third period of the team's NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 31, 2016, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, file) FILE - Chicago Blackhawks goalie Scott Foster defends against the Winnipeg Jets during the third period of an NHL hockey game, March 29, 2018, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski, file) FILE - Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares (not shown) scores his team's second goal of an NHL hockey game against Carolina Hurricanes emergency goalie David Ayres (90) during second-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Feb. 22, 2020. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP, file) FILE - Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) and Anaheim Ducks goalie Tom Hodges (86) greet each other at the end of the third period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, April 29, 2022. (AP Photo/LM Otero, file) FILE - Carolina Hurricanes emergency backup goalie Jorge Alves makes his NHL debut during the third period of the team's NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 31, 2016, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, file) Former Zamboni driver-turned-arena manager David Ayres became an immediate sensation when he pulled on the goaltending gear and took the ice in an NHL game on a Saturday night in Toronto and beat his hometown Maple Leafs. Before that, accountant by day/beer league goalie by night Scott Foster won a game for Chicago. It's the stuff of legend, possible only in hockey thanks to the existence of emergency backup goaltenders, the beloved 'EBUGs" who are ready to step in when the two goalies on a team's roster are suddenly not available for a game. The new collective bargaining agreement that goes into effect for the 2026-27 season will change the EBUG program, with each team now required to employ a full-time, traveling replacement to play in the event of multiple injuries or illnesses. Advertisement There is already a sense of nostalgia across the tight little community of EBUGs, which date to the early days of the league a century ago. 'I like that the EBUG position got so much attention over the last five, six years,' Ayres said. 'There's no other position in sports like it. It kind of sucks that it's going away in a sense. I know there are a lot of guys on the EBUG lists that were hoping to get their shot at playing in a game, but I think it's smart." Foster expressed gratitude and pride for getting the chance and figures the next generation will be just as lucky. 'Like most things, change is inevitable,' Foster said. 'The EBUG role maybe outgrew the current model, as it seems like you see more and more times popping up." Advertisement Initial reactions Part of the joy around actually seeing an EBUG in a game is because it is so incredibly rare: An EBUG has entered a game just six times in the 13,068 regular-season games over the past 10 seasons (none have been on the ice in the playoffs in the modern era). As the first word spread that EBUG changes were coming, the group chat involving many of the goalies lit up with buzz and speculation. 'They weren't very happy, I know that,' said Tyler Stewart, who dressed for St. Louis in pregame warmups in December 2017 as a then-25-year-old vending machine worker. 'Some of the comments were like, 'It was a good run, fellas.'' Advertisement Justin Goldman, who was a Colorado Avalanche EBUG for several years in addition to founding the Goalie Guild developmental program, said the sport has gotten faster and more taxing physically. That requires more rest. 'The demands on goalies that play full time and the demands for goalies in practice, it was becoming really apparent that teams needed support from a third goalie," Goldman said. Still, the idea that someone not in the league can get called down from the stands to play in a game on a moment's notice is one of hockey's most unique traditions. 'The EBUG position is the most universally loved and cool story in all of sports,' said Ben Hause, an EBUG in Colorado for eight seasons who was once on the verge of playing for New Jersey. "I don't love the fact that what was kind of the last real wholesome story in the sports world is potentially going away.' Advertisement End of an era? It might not go away completely, considering the details in the memorandum of understanding for the new labor deal. Any emergency goalie cannot have more than 80 games of professional experience, been in pro hockey over the previous three seasons or played an NHL game on a standard (non-tryout) contract. Three-time Stanley Cup champion Marc-Andre Fleury joked after retiring that he would love to be Minnesota's EBUG. That can't happen even under the new rules but the guidelines do allow the potential for more fairytale moments, even if it's less of a mystery who is coming in. "It would be a blast,' said Minnesota EBUG Connor Beaupre, whose father, Don, tended goal for nearly 800 NHL games from 1980-96. 'I know a handful of guys that have done warmups or something like that, which is a pretty cool experience and I've backed up a few games. It's so few and far in between, so it's hard to expect it.' Advertisement Word of the change brought some confusion and, to Stewart, a bit of delusion from some counterparts who thought they were now shoo-ins for the part. Equipment managers reached out to Tampa-based goalie Kyle Konin, who has dressed for the Lightning, Blues and Flyers, to say it could be awesome for him. 'I'm like, does this mean I'm out of a job, or does this mean I'm going to get paid a salary to do basically the same thing?' said Konin, who paints goalie masks for a living. 'Every team's completely different with the current system that we have, so even moving forward, no one even really knows." The future Organizations have more than a year to figure out how to approach the new rule, which replaces the one that had been in place since 2017. Since then, only a handful of EBUGs — Ayres, Foster, Tom Hodges, Jett Alexander and Matt Berlin — actually got into a game. Advertisement Combined, their 65-plus minutes of action accounted for less than 0.0001% of time played by goaltenders over the past eight regular seasons. 'It's such a microscopic amount of time that it happens,' Hause said. 'I'm surprised that there was enough owner momentum to be able to add relatively a lot of costs to their annual budget for relatively no real gain as more of an insurance policy.' It may be as much about practice time as anything else. Still, questions remain, including how much it will cost to pay someone to be on the roster and fly him — or her, as there is nothing preventing women from filling the role — to road games around North America. The CBA does allow for the EBUG to work for a team in another capacity, so someone like Carolina equipment manager Jorge Alves could reprise his role after playing 8 seconds for the Hurricanes at the end of a game on Dec. 31, 2016. Same perhaps for Washington assistant and video coach Brett Leonhardt. Advertisement Maybe it will be a dual-use role on the coaching staff or in hockey operations. 'I look at this role as a potential for organizations to groom not just a practice goalie but you can groom a video coach, you can groom a future goalie coach,' Goldman said. 'It's an opportunity for someone to come in, learn the system, understand the strategies and the style of play of that organization and learn about what happens in the coaches' room.' Goldman said he thinks third goalies are just the beginning and envisions a future with practice squads closer to what the NFL employs as the NHL becomes faster and more science is put into rest and recovery. That might be part of the next round of labor talks a few years from now after this one included closing a chapter on EBUGs that has some bittersweetness to it. 'I was one of the few guys who got to kind of live out their dream for a little bit,' Konin said. 'It's sad, but it's also kind of a cool way to just say that you were part of one of the rarest things in all of pro sports.' ___ AP NHL:
Motor Trend
8 minutes ago
- Motor Trend
The Future Of Porsche's Racing Tech Transfer to Street Cars? Software.
On April 12, 2025, Porsche made history, becoming the first automaker to win three classes of professional motorsports with three different powertrains on the same day. In California, a 963 hybrid won the LMDh class and took the overall win at the IMSA Long Beach Grand Prix while a 911 GT3 R won the GTD Pro class in the same race with pure combustion engine. Across the country, the 99X Electric won the Miami e-prix in Formula E on pure battery power. Different as they may be, each shares a common link with the Porsche road cars you can buy today and in the future. Porsche uses motorsport to drive tech innovation, focusing on software as the key to improving road cars. Software impacts drivability and efficiency, with lessons from racing series shared across projects. This approach is cost-effective and enhances both performance and development. This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article Read Next Racing Technology for the Street 'We have a philosophy that, yes, motorsport is part of our DNA,' Porsche vice president of motorsport, Thomas Laudenbach, told MotorTrend , 'and I cannot imagine Porsche without motorsport, but we are not doing motorsport for the sake of its own. We do motorsport to give a contribution to the company, and this is exactly what we are talking about.' In the past, tech transfer from racing to the road consisted mostly of more power and better aerodynamics, but as everything on a car has become linked and controlled by computers, the next frontier is in the software that controls them. Hard parts like engines, suspension, and aerodynamics are fairly mature technologies, but automotive software is still in its relative infancy. 'It is still a very steep curve,' Laudenbach said. 'It's growing so fast, it's changing so fast…I mean, if you look at the combustion engine, obviously development [today] is slower like this because you know, it is more and more difficult to make the [next] step. If you look at the software, not only software itself, how we approach it, the tools…I would say [it is] still very steep, the curve, how fast it changes.' It's All in the Software In all three racing series, physical parts on the cars are heavily regulated, particularly when it comes to batteries and electric motors. Software, though, isn't and has become the most important factor in improving lap times and efficiency. 'Everything you can do on the software has a much bigger impact and a much bigger effect in the drivability,' Porsche Formula E driver and reigning champion, Pascal Wehrlein, told MotorTrend , 'because yeah, there's also software things in in a combustion engine, but the effect is just smaller than an electric car. We pay a lot of attention to the software and I would say that is our biggest toolbox for setting up the car and getting quicker and so on. And there's just so many more things you can do on the software compared to a combustion engine. 'How much we are going into the details,' he continued, 'into the smallest details, I would say on the software side is even more than what I did when I was in Formula One, just because there are so many different options on, you know, the four-wheel drive, how to set up the four-wheel drive. How much work do you want to have at the front? At which point in time in the corner you want to have more front torque or less? What you can do on the braking side, on the [energy] recuperation, setting it up for different corners? In certain corners, where it's high speed, you need something different than in the low-speed corner, but then also when the track is bumpy, or not bumpy. We are going so much into the details.' Lauderbach agrees. 'It's absolutely right. We always love about talking about hardware. And I did develop combustion engines for 18 years, so I'm a real mechanical guy, and it's absolutely right, probably the bigger part is software. And but this is the good thing about it because some things [physical] we are not allowed to touch [under the regulations]. But we have a big freedom of software, and I think that's good because racing should give freedom where it is beneficial also for your brand. And that's certainly in software and I think this is probably also the biggest change between the projects.' Because the applications are so different, it's not as simple as just sharing code between teams in different series or with the engineers working on the road cars. Instead, it's the exchange of knowledge and ideas which brings this tech to cars like the 911 GTS T-hybrid. 'It's for sure not a carryover part,' Laudenbach said, 'but it's from learning about the difficulties, about the weak points, about the solutions, for sure they benefit from each other. 'When you have more than one project,' he said, 'you just work it on in a wider range and then you always find synergy. These two programs (Formula E and LMDh) benefit from each other in various areas. And at the same time, this is linked so close to our road car development. We work a lot on road cars as well in the motorsport department and do benefit from each other. If you tell your engineers, oh, please sit together with these guys from this program, then you know what they do? They sit together for an hour, they chat, and they go to it. If you sit side by side, if you meet each other with a coffee, this is the best way to benefit from each other. These two programs benefit, but also this is very beneficial to what we do on road cars, even inside the motorsport department.' It's not just about making the cars faster, either. Power makes heat, and heat needs to be dealt with before it breaks things, on a race car or a road car. Efficiency matters in racing because using less fuel or electricity allows you to go farther between pit stops, and it matters for the same reason on the street. 'Look at Formula E,' Laudenbach said. 'It's not our battery, but we control the thermal system [and] energy management. That's a lot of control systems. That's a lot of software. I mean, if we work with AI in the meantime and there you can learn a lot of the one side and transfer it to the other. Sometimes then you figure out that, okay, I can only take this because this [other technology] is not allowed. It's never carry over one to one. 'But you still learn a lot about how to handle it. It's software functions, it's control systems, it's sometimes also just the tools that we use, the approach that you take is not always [about] the final product. In the end, you have the product, there, no matter if it's software, hardware, but it's also, how do you approach it, because you're always looking for being most efficient. Especially Formula E, [where] we have a cost cap. It's a factor to say, okay, can I reach a certain goal with the smallest amount of money? These kind of things we always exchange because it's in the background.' Cheaper and Easier Not only are software learnings easier to transfer between programs, software is also easier to iterate on and less expensive to develop. 'Compared to hardware,' he said, 'it's not that cost intensive. Yes, you have you have the labor. But you know, you' not always having to change your bits and pieces. And don't forget, if you talk about bits and pieces, you always have to stop and throw parts away. So it's a lot more, let's say, cost efficient.' Whether in the office or trackside, the way data is managed and analyzed has changed a lot in the past decade. 'If we would do it like 10 years ago,' Lauderbach said, 'where the engineer himself goes through all the raw data, that doesn't work anymore. You got to feed your data through automatic analysis. It's just more [a question of], how do you analyze? How do you get something out in order to make the car quicker? This is a lot more or this is high sophisticated, a lot more automation and algorithms, than 10 years ago. 'It's a software basically to calculate what the car's doing because you got sensors. Obviously, you want to calculate some figures, you see what the car's doing in order to feature simulations. The simulation then gives you back again in which direction you have to go.'
New York Times
11 minutes ago
- New York Times
Victor Wembanyama cleared to return to Spurs after blood clot: Reports
San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama said he is 'officially cleared to return' from the deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder that cut his 2024-25 season short, he told French newspaper L'Équipe. Wembanyama, 21, said San Antonio's medical staff told him Friday he had the green light to return to basketball, which would mark just over five months since the team discovered the blood clot upon his return from All-Star weekend. The finding stunted his sophomore season at 46 games and curtailed a historically rare season; he was the first player to record averages of 24.3 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 3.8 blocks and 3.1 3-pointers made per game before the injury. Advertisement Team sources were unwilling to confirm, but news of his return was also reported by ESPN. San Antonio went 21-25 in the games Wembanyama played and 13-23 in its games without him last season. The team landed the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft lottery and selected guard Dylan Harper, who is expected to join reigning rookies of the year Stephon Castle and Wembanyama to give the Spurs a young trio that could compete in the playoffs. Wembanyama has had a full offseason despite the injury, including a trip to the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, China, to train with monks for two weeks. The Spurs have also had a transformative offseason, as longtime legendary coach Gregg Popovich stepped down in May to move to a front-office role after he suffered a stroke in November that forced him away from the sidelines. Wembanyama and multiple other NBA stars have dealt with blood clots in recent seasons. Then-Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard was temporarily shut down in March after doctors found a DVT in his calf, the Detroit Pistons' Ausar Thompson missed time from March to November 2024 with a blood clot, and Miami Heat star Chris Bosh was forced to retire in 2016 due to the recurrence of a clot, which constituted a career-ending illness. The Spurs center told L'Equipe he is 'right on schedule' with the recovery plan and that the DVT is 'officially behind me.' He said he has not played five-on-five action for five months and has to ramp up his training to be game-ready. The 21-year-old will not suit up for the French national team when EuroBasket 2025 starts on Aug. 27, joining Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier as roster exclusions due to health and recovery reasons. Team France will be highlighted by the top two picks from last year's draft, Atlanta Hawks wing Zaccharie Risacher and Washington Wizards big Alex Sarr, as well as Wizards wing Bilal Coulibaly and New York Knicks big Guerschon Yabusele. Wembanayama will likely still be in the ramp-up phase of his recovery program when the tournament begins, so his priority will be preparing for the grind of a full NBA season as an emerging superstar. Advertisement His minutes per game increased from 29.7 as a rookie to 33.2 as a sophomore last season, with another increase possibly on the way. He will likely take on even more offensive responsibility as his skill set improves, meaning his offseason training program will be crucial to setting the stage for a sustainably healthy and productive season. The Spurs' offense will further evolve this year now that former All-Star point guard De'Aaron Fox will take the reins at the point from Chris Paul, who often had the Spurs playing a slower pace in the half-court. Wembanayama plans to be ready for a full return by the start of training camp in late September, his first alongside Fox. The pair only played five games together after the Spurs acquired Fox at the trade deadline. San Antonio finished 34-48 after Wembanyama was ruled out, but showed early signs of promise with a 17-16 run heading into the new year. With Castle entering his second season, Harper coming to town and former Boston Celtics center Luke Kornet providing center depth to help manage Wembanyama's load throughout the season, San Antonio has a chance to take another big step forward this season.
