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Globe and Mail
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Globe and Mail
At Wimbledon, the strawberries and cream deliver
One does one's best always to avoid cliches, but some are unavoidable. I've been to Wimbledon a half-dozen times. I haven't bought the famous towel. I haven't had someone take my picture in front of the Fred Perry statue. I don't wear a Panama hat. And I've never had strawberries and cream. 'Never?' says the lovely woman who runs PR for the food and beverage end of the tournament. Never. 'You're joking?' I am not. 'Well, we can get you some.' We're standing in front of the Strawberries and Cream kiosk, where at noon, the line is expanding exponentially. It's like it's growing people. We're waiting on Joe Furber, Wimbledon's food and drink operations manager. As he rolls up, she turns to him. Players wonder if Wimbledon's tennis balls are a factor in upsets 'He's never had the strawberries.' 'Really?' says Furber. Really. 'I can go back there and get you some right now,' he says. He does so in a tone that suggests I am not appreciating the level of strawberry emergency we're all in right now. No, I'll line up with the rest of the plebs (most of whom look like they could buy and sell me). In the course of a life on the edges of sport, you will eat many things, most of them terrible. At the Sochi Olympics, they served a 'hot dog' that was the only inedible example of sausage I've ever had, wrapped in a mysterious glutinous material so thin that it wasn't a crepe. I'm not sure what it was, but it was the only thing you could get at whatever event I was stuck at that day. It was horrendous. I had the borscht once, and it was so greasy you could've undercoated your car engine with it. After that, I gave in and started going to the one McDonald's they had on the grounds. It was the only place you could get a salad. It was rammed day and night. Still, some regional specialties demand trying. I've had bratwurst at the World Cup in Germany (overrated), biltong at the one in South Africa (dangerously addictive) and an egg sandwich at Lawson's during the Tokyo Olympics (transportive). On a list of iconic foodstuffs, I'd put pimento cheese at the Masters and Nathan's Famous hot dogs at a Yankees game on top. At the media spread in Augusta, they keep a fridge topped up all day with the tournament's signature sandwich. Hundreds of them. Dainty little things. They're free. Only shame prevents you from standing there eating two or three at a time. Still, I would never make one at home. It's a Masters thing. In the old Yankee Stadium, they had a hot dog stand inside the press box. The hot dogs were free, but should you choose not to tip the servers, light would begin to bend around your body in such a way that you became invisible. Those were the best hot dogs I've ever had. So much snap on the exterior, so much salty umami in the interior. A perfect hot dog, every time. How often do you have anything that's perfect? Aside from a mint julep at the Kentucky Derby, I believe strawberries and cream are the only sports food icon that eludes me. They raised the prices on them this year, which is what got me thinking of them. The Mirror described the increase as 'staggering.' They've gone up to £2.70 from £2.50. That's a difference of 37 cents. Tax included. These are some serious strawberries. They are all grown on a single farm 50 km from the All England Club. They begin harvesting them on the first day tournament. They will be in season for a few weeks, but they are at their best during the two weeks of the tennis. The strawberries you're served were picked that morning, beginning at sunrise, and start showing up on the grounds at 9 a.m. They open the kiosk at the same time as the gates, an hour later. Whatever isn't used that day is turned into a house jam. I waited 18 minutes to be served -- something I would not normally do. One of my rules for life is that the only things I (grudgingly) line up for are airport security and the checkout at Costco. The strawberries come in one of those cardboard boxes I associate with New Yorkers eating takeout Chinese in the movies. Your cream options are the real thing or a 'plant-based alternative,' which sounds ghastly. The spoons are somehow of made of seaweed, but not edible (I tried). You get exactly 10 strawberries of average size. The cream is unsweetened, thankfully. They pour it in front of you with flourish, like a dairy sommelier. How are they? I like strawberries the way we would all like a life partner -- tender, with a nice balance between sweet and tart. No point in playing it cool -- Wimbledon strawberries are bananas. They are the bee's knees. I went out later and bought a pint of a less refined variety at Tesco to prove to myself the difference, and it was vast. It's human nature to remember great food better than anything but than the most remarkable events. This must be some caveman remnant. You remember the way to the place where the berries were least poisonous. A food memory is inextricable from place and company. When your time is up and you run through a rack of flashbacks of your life, I would bet more than a few of them will be meals you had with the people you love. No one I loved was there just inside Gate 4, if you don't count the Australian film crew badgering people about how much they liked the strawberries. But having been set up so well by history, I won't forget them. One of the nice little things about Wimbledon is that they let you bring in your own food, but they really want you to try the strawberries. For a very reasonable price, they are offering you the chance to manufacture a memory. 'You're very welcome to bring your own,' said Furber, the food manager. 'But I guarantee you that ours are better.'
New York Times
14-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
LeBrun: Canada vs. USA rivalry enters new era with same intensity
MONTREAL — It is almost 15 years to the day. Feb. 21, 2010. Vancouver Olympics. Team USA 5, Team Canada 3. Why is that score relevant? It was Team Canada's last loss in best-on-best hockey, a span of 17 games through the final four games of the Vancouver Olympics, the 2014 Sochi Olympics (6-0-0), the 2016 World Cup (6-0-0) and Wednesday's opening win over Sweden in 4 Nations Face-Off. Advertisement 'They've not lost since then?' Zach Parise asked Friday. 'I did not know that. That's crazy.' I don't think the former Team USA star is alone in not knowing that. Thanks to an eight-and-a-half-year drought without a best-on-best hockey tournament, it's pretty easy to forget these things. So yes, Team USA is trying to snap quite the best-on-break streak for Team Canada when they meet Saturday night in a 4 Nations round-robin game at what should be a charged-up Bell Centre. 'I hadn't even thought about that to be honest. That's pretty impressive,'' Drew Doughty, who has been part of it entirely, said Friday about the 17-game win streak for Team Canada in best-on-best. 'But we don't want it to stop there. Let's keep it going. We want to win out the tournament. That's the goal always. The U.S. represents a tough challenge.' Scott Niedermayer was Team Canada's captain when that 17-win streak began back in Vancouver. 'That's impressive,'' the Hockey Hall of Famer defenseman said Friday. 'Especially with the idea that the U.S. is strong and they do have good players and some of the other countries as well. So that makes that really impressive, actually.'' And as Niedermayer was quick to point out, it more or less parallels Sidney Crosby's amazing streak. He's 22-0 as Team Canada captain dating back to the start of the Sochi Olympics (which includes World Championships as well). 'The record of Team Canada with him leading the charge, it doesn't get any better, obviously,' marvelled Niedermayer. But here comes Team USA, which on Thursday night snapped a five-game losing streak in best-on-best dating back to Sochi and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. This is a new generation of Team USA stars looking to open up an era full of their own championships and gold medals. And knock down Team Canada a peg in doing so. Advertisement Two powerhouses colliding Saturday night — and maybe again next Thursday in Boston in the championship game. 'It's a hockey game you love to be part of,' Crosby said Friday of the USA-Canada rivalry. Two-time Olympic champion Chris Pronger points all the way back to the 1991 Canada Cup for when the USA-Canada hockey rivalry truly began to take shape. That year, the U.S. reached that tournament's final for the first time before losing to Canada. All of which set up the next best-on-best event, where the U.S. won the re-branded World Cup of Hockey in 1996. Pronger played in both the 2002 Salt Lake City and 2010 Vancouver gold medal games. Which one stands out the most for him? 'Probably 2010 because they beat us in the round-robin and there was a lot of maybe swelled heads on their side, thinking that they were going to run roughshod over us as we found our solid footing and figured out how we needed to play and come together as a unit,' Pronger said. 'I thought for the most part we dominated that gold medal game and had the better of the chances.' Ryan Miller was unbelievable throughout that Olympic tournament in 2010 for that underdog Team USA squad that came oh-so-close to the upset, losing in overtime on Crosby's golden goal. That Olympic performance was one of those career-defining moments for Miller. That's how stellar he was. 'It was a great tournament,' Miller said of the experience. 'Everyone remembers Sid, and rightly so, capping off the tournament. What's funny is that, over the years, we ended up training in California. There was a little bit of a bond behind the scenes where he's really classy about everything, right? There's a lot of respect between the two of us. That was a cool part of that.'' But USA-Canada on that stage? Nothing like it. 'You want to compete against the best in sport,' said Miller, the former Buffalo Sabres star goalie. 'I had a chance to do that in a number of situations, but obviously that one was probably the best chance to play against the best that Canada had to offer. Advertisement 'I'm still proud of it, but still angry, too.' It was Parise who tied it late for Team USA, stunning the home Vancouver crowd and sending it to overtime. What a moment right then and there for Parise in his career. 'From an individual standpoint, that was probably the coolest moment in my career,' he said. 'Just with the importance of the game. It's the Olympics, you know what I mean? Just to give ourselves a chance (in overtime) and go in that locker room. You never know, next goal wins. 'We were right there. Unfortunately for us, we were right there. But what an awesome game to be a part of.' He remembers all of it so vividly. 'Obviously, the gold medal game didn't go our way. But that gold medal game was incredible,' said Parise. 'I remember the pace of the game. It's just so different than the (Stanley Cup playoffs), it's one and done. You could just feel the importance of every play that was made. The fans are on the edge of their seats the whole game. It was unbelievable. It was one of the few days in my career where you go in there and you're genuinely nervous the whole game. At least for me. All game long.' While Niedermayer takes great pride in captaining Canada to that gold medal — in his native province of British Columbia, no less — he is quick to point out his first best-on-best experience against Team USA was the 1996 World Cup. 'Just a few months ago I watched a few highlights of what that looked like, and man, it was a competition at the very least, wow,' Niedermayer said with a chuckle while recalling what a physical, brawling best-of-three final that was. 'But the U.S.-Canada rivalry, maybe growing up it was Russia-Canada, but for my playing career and currently, it's definitely the rivalry,' added Niedermayer. 'Probably the two best hockey nations. Lots of talent on both rosters. I'm looking forward to it (Saturday night) as a fan for sure.' Advertisement The '96 World Cup win for USA Hockey had a lasting impact, to be sure. It was the first time the U.S. felt realistically on the same level as Team Canada at best-on-best. Miller's 2010 silver medallists brought back some of those same feelings, too, as far as the next generation of American stars announcing themselves. That helped pave the way for this current squad. 'I'm glad this generation now has grown up having so much success in World Juniors and Under-18s and we've been waiting a long time to see some of these guys play best-on-best,' said Miller. 'So, I'm excited to see it. I'm happy for them. And I'm glad the NHL and NHLPA have come to some agreements about continuing to see the best play each other. Finally.' As Pronger pointed out, with back-to-back World Juniors gold medals, USA Hockey is on a roll. 'The American game, if you will, has taken on a whole new level,' said the Hockey Hall of Famer. 'It's great for fans and it's great for Canada having another challenge outside of what was always Canada-Russia.' Pronger, based in St. Louis, has seen the growth of USA Hockey firsthand. 'Oh absolutely. It's crazy to see the evolution,' he said. 'And obviously now, with the Tkachuks and the players on the U.S. side and the lineage of the parents, and where players are coming from, Auston Matthews from Phoenix and seeing that southern expansion era of player coming to the forefront now for the U.S. and what it means for the game. And it certainly means a lot for the players.' It's next-level time for Team USA. 'I mean, the talent level has just taken off,' said Parise. 'I remember when people would always make a big deal of the Canadian teams, like Rick Nash being on a checking line. They had a 50-goal scorer on a checking line. You look at it now, the U.S. has really good players that are playing fourth-line roles. So we've closed that gap. We've caught up. And I think it says a lot for American hockey. It's awesome.'' Advertisement Doughty says bring it on. 'The rivalry is real,' the two-time Olympic champion said Friday. 'The rivalry with the United States was developed from when I was 8 years old because you start going to play tournaments in Michigan and places around the U.S. and immediately you're kind of taught, 'Don't lose to the Americans.' So that rivalry goes back far. It doesn't stop. 'Even at 35, I want to beat them more than anyone.' (Photo from 2010 Olympics: Cris Bouroncle / Getty Images)
New York Times
08-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
‘Encouraging' Sidney Crosby injury development precedes inspired Penguins performance
Sidney Crosby missed his first hockey game in over two years Friday but also appeared to take a step toward playing in the 4 Nations Face-Off next week. Crosby's upper-body injury kept him out of the lineup for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 3-2 victory against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. However, Crosby participated during a morning skate — an 'encouraging' development, coach Mike Sullivan said. Advertisement 'We're taking each day as it comes,' Sullivan said. Crosby had played in a career-best 229 consecutive games. Sid's consecutive games played streak is the ninth-longest in team history. Those longer:Kessel (328)Adams (319)Schock (313)Staal (302)Harbaruk (276)Malkin (254)Dupuis (238)Stackhouse (235) — Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) February 7, 2025 His official status remains day to day. The Penguins play the Flyers in Philadelphia on Saturday night — their final game before the NHL's break for the 4 Nations tournament. Crosby, as expected, was named captain for Team Canada, though there is no public word on his status for Wednesday's tournament opener against Sweden at Bell Centre in Montreal. The tournament, and the opener specifically, is meaningful for Crosby. He is one of Canada's most celebrated international hockey players, having scored the golden goal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and captained the men's national team to wins at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and 2016 World Cup of Hockey — the latter for which he was named Most Outstanding Player. Crosby, 37, is perhaps entering the final stages of an iconic run with Team Canada. He is considered a lock to also serve as captain at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, likely the final time he will wear his country's famous maple leaf crest. Crosby, whose father, Troy, was drafted by Montreal, was a Canadiens fan while growing up. Playing in the opener in Montreal would be a full-circle moment for his family. Sullivan, who will coach Team USA at the 4 Nations, said he is not involved in any decisions about Crosby's ability for 4 Nations. He said Kyle Dubas, the Penguins president of hockey and general manager, could better discuss matters involving Crosby and Team Canada. Dubas is an assistant GM for Team Canada. 'I've never been through this situation — this 4 Nations tournament is new to all of us,' Sullivan said. 'What I can tell you is Sid's health is always our priority. It's our priority for every player. Advertisement 'That tournament means an awful lot to Sid for obvious reasons. As his (Penguins) coach and somebody who cares about him, I want what's best for him. But also I'm hopeful that he has the opportunity to participate because it means so much to him.' Nathan MacKinnon, Crosby's close friend who plays for the Colorado Avalanche and is part of Team Canada, said Friday he spoke with Crosby, but 'didn't want to put words in his mouth.' 'I think he's doing fine,' MacKinnon said. 'Definitely scary.' Nathan MacKinnon said he reached out to Sidney Crosby to see how his injury is."I think he's doing fine. Definitely scary."Asked if he thought Crosby could still play 4 Nations: "I'd imagine. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but he's a very very tough individual.… — Eric Francis (@EricFrancis) February 6, 2025 Crosby was injured Tuesday night in the Penguins' shootout loss to the New Jersey Devils at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. His left arm was pinned between the Devils' Luke Hughes and Erik Haula early in the third period of that game, though he returned to finish the game. Crosby did not practice Wednesday but returned to the ice Thursday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry Township, Pa. He was a brief participant in practice before a lengthy individual session on a separate sheet of ice — though he rarely shot the puck. Crosby had dealt with a left wrist injury for over a decade. The injury required surgery in September 2021. Early that season marked the last time the Penguins played without Crosby and Evgeni Malkin before Friday night. They had not missed a game together dating to November 2021. Malkin is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and will not play until after the upcoming NHL break for 4 Nations. Without their two probable first-ballot Hockey Hall of Fame centers, the Penguins delivered an inspired effort that seemed to stun the Rangers, especially during a decisive second period. Advertisement Winger Rickard Rakell moved to center on the top line against the Rangers and did not look out of place. He had played center in junior hockey for current Penguins assistant coach Mike Vellucci. Rakell, an injury replacement for Sweden at the 4 Nations tournament, continued a turnaround season Friday night. His team-leading 25th goal was sandwiched by tallies from Blake Lizotte and Philip Tomasino as the Penguins turned two deficits into a lead by the end of the second period. Tomasino's goal snapped a five-game drought on the power play for the Penguins, who were sixth in the NHL with a 25 percent efficiency before games Friday. The Penguins killed two late power plays, the last with the Rangers' goalie pulled, to secure the victory. Improbably, the Penguins won despite not recording a shot in the final period. 25 goals this season for Raks. As @JG_PxP would say, "THIS DUDE IS ON FIRE!" 🔥 — Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 8, 2025 Rakell, who has three seasons remaining on his contract, has emerged as another asset Dubas may move before the NHL trade deadline. He placed second on The Athletic's latest Big Board. He is on pace to top his 34-goal season with the Anaheim Ducks in 2017-18, and Dubas has been acquiring prospects and draft picks since trading Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes before the trade deadline last season. The Penguins, despite a 3-0-1 mini run recently, are trending toward missing the Stanley Cup playoffs for a third consecutive season. Dubas has not said publicly he is rebuilding, but his moves over the past year have suggested a rebuild. 'We have to continue to move down the path of the mission we set out about a year ago,' Dubas said Monday, speaking publicly on a multi-asset trade that sent veterans Marcus Pettersson and Drew O'Connor to the Vancouver Canucks. 'Which is to continue to stockpile younger players, prospects and draft picks.'
