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The effects of the Vancouver Canucks' rough season might finally be taking their toll on one of the Sedin brothers. After questioning the work ethic of his teammates in their most recent contest, Daniel Sedin expects a more spirited performance Tuesday night as the visiting Canucks try to avoid a fifth consecutive defeat and season sweep by the lowly Winnipeg Jets. Vancouver's skid began with a 5-2 home loss to Winnipeg (29-37-6) last Monday. Continue to Article

March 21, 2016 12:18:pm EST

Cam Talbot is living up to expectations in his first season in Edmonton. Talbot made 40 saves for his third shutout of the season, leading the Oilers to a 2-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night. ''Every time there was a chance, he was there to answer,'' Oilers forward Jordan Eberle said. Continue to Article

March 19, 2016 1:03:am EST

The Vancouver Giants fired head coach Lorne Molleken on Friday afternoon – a move, which is part of a larger plan for the Western Hockey League franchise. Mike Johnston has been long-rumoured as the lead candidate to replace departing general manager Scott Bonner, who is joining Edmonton-based The Sports Corporation as a player agent. Johnston became available after being fired by the Pittsburgh Penguins after a 15-10-3 start. With Molleken out of the picture, it appears Johnston is now expected to take over both the coach and general manager roles with Vancouver. "It was time to start fresh. The new guy will be coach and GM ,” Giants majority owner Ron Toigo told Vancouver radio station CKWX News 1130 . “ We will get back to being a proud franchise, the last three years have been tough but this is fixable." Johnston previously held both titles with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks from 2008-2014 where he guided the club to a 231-114-10-10 record. The 59-year-old also has ties to Vancouver having served as an assistant coach with the Canucks on Marc Crawford’s staff. Molleken compiled a 23-38-5-4 record behind the Giants bench. This season marks the third in four years that Vancouver has missed the playoffs. Assistant coach Tyler Kuntz will coach the WHL club for the final two games of the regular season beginning Friday night when the Giants play host to the Kelowna Rockets. It could be the club's final home game at the storied Pacific Coliseum. Once home to the Vancouver Canucks, the Giants have played at the rink, which originally opened in 1968, since the team’s inception in 2001. Ewen has reported the Giants have been in talks with the Langley Events Centre – 38 kilometres east of their current residence. According to CKWX, the club has also spoken to the City of Abbotsford about a possible relocation. The Abbotsford Centre opened in May 2009 and played host to the now defunct Abbotsford Heat of the American Hockey League.  The City of Abbotsford is now talking with the #WHLGiants about moving to the Fraser Valley. Giants need to make up minds in June. The City of Abbotsford is now talking with the #WHLGiants about moving to the Fraser Valley. Giants need to make up minds in June. — NEWS 1130 Sports (@NEWS1130Sports) March 18, 2016  The Giants must decide by June on relocation plans. Continue to Article

March 18, 2016 3:34:pm EST

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning displayed belief in the course he’s charted in Vancouver – even if in the second year he hasn’t seen the same results as his first year. His team has dropped in the standings to where they won't make the playoffs. He couldn’t deal veteran players at the trade deadline. Meanwhile, the young players he’s pushed have shown talent, but are still quite raw.  “I think at some point you have to establish your next group of core players that next group of players that are going to lead the team going forward and I think that’s what we tried to establish this year,” Benning said during this week's NHL GM meetings. [ Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Hockey contest today ] This has created a strange mix of older, yet still productive veterans like Henrik and Daniel Sedin and Ryan Miller, mixed in with recent first-round picks like Bo Horvat, Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann. There’s no real middle ground with the Canucks as far as age. Some players are in their early 20s and others are in their mid-30s. The Canucks have 66 points, 10 out of the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference with 13 games remaining. Last year they were a surprise playoff team with 101 points and had the fourth-best offense in the Western Conference. This year they have the worst offense in the West.  “We’re establishing our next group of core players, but having said that we want our veteran players to show these guys the way and hold them accountable and responsible for the way we do things on a day-to-day basis. It’s like creating a culture of what we want and that’s hard work and competitiveness,” Benning said. Benning understands that losing has been hard on coach Willie Desjardins. Desjardins has made the playoffs every year of his professional career in North America as a head coach , which makes this season sting that much more. His name has been mentioned on the hot seat, but Benning praised Desjardins for how he’s handled the difficult year. “He’s been excellent. He’s got a good attitude every day,” Benning said. “He expects a lot out of himself and all of his players.” It’s tough to completely blame Benning for Vancouver’s woes. He pointed out the team has been without center Brandon Sutter and top defenseman Alex Edler for large chunks of the season due to injury. “When you have young players you rely and count an older players to show them the way and play the minutes,” Benning said. “When they get hurt you have young players stepping up into the role and stepping into the lineup.” Also, he wasn’t the general manager who gave defenseman Dan Hamhuis a no-trade clause, which Hamhuis used to limit potential destinations at the NHL’s trade deadline. He was brought in to clean up a lot of issues created by former GM Mike Gillis, and to some degree he's done that. There's a different feel around the Canucks under Benning than near the end of Gillis' tenure.   But Benning couldn’t find a way to get an asset for Hamhuis, or Radim Vrbata – a player in a down year Benning signed but also couldn’t deal. His inability to trade both pending unrestricted free agents, amongst other vets, turned the trade deadline into a debacle for the Canucks. “It’s been hard not being in the playoffs there year so far it looks like we’re not going to make it,” Benning said. “It’s been hard on everybody. It’s been hard on our fanbase, we’re hoping to get back there next year.” MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY   - - - - - - - Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper           Continue to Article

March 17, 2016 2:00:pm EST

Even in a period of puzzling, and not-so-puzzling, sports television ratings drops   the case of Toronto FC stands out. It's not that the Major League Soccer team has fallen from great heights -- ratings have never been very good. But on the heels of the team's first playoff appearance last season there are renewed hopes for more success this year both on the pitch and on the screen. So far, the numbers are simply awful. Not only has the team's television audience failed to grow, it appears to be regressing -- and badly. A victory over the New York Red Bulls in the season opener attracted an average audience of only 97,000 to TSN. Proving that it wasn't TSN's fault, TFC's second game against New York City FC drew a mere 62,000 viewers to Sportsnet  One. Few sports outside of weekday afternoon lumberjack competitions do worse than that. Those ratings are substantially less than even the most marginal sports. The world short-track speed skating championships averaged 97,000 on CBC Sunday. The Canadian cross-country ski tour lured an average of 89,000 to their couches that day. While MLS ratings have never been strong, Toronto FC appears to be the dead weight that's dragging things down for the league. The season opener between Montreal and Vancouver, for example, averaged 205,000 viewers -- a respectable if not spectacular number. TFC, meanwhile, hasn't cracked TV's version of the Mendoza Line this season. While TFC is not alone in suffering viewer loss -- outside of the Toronto Blue Jays, everybody seems to be struggling -- it was never in a position to withstand much audience leakage. And even thought the MLS version of soccer has never really caught on in Canada, it's hard to understand why TFC is doing so poorly on television. The team does well at the gate, which shows that there is some interest. It's owned in part by the two sports networks so gets plenty of promotion. Maybe, because it appeals to a younger audience, it suffers from migration to the Internet. Or maybe the team's audience consists of those who pay to get in. Either way, the team needs to figure out why it's Canada's most unloved team. While TFC failed to attract much interest, the Brier had a pretty good final weekend. After seeing audiences drop on its first weekend, the Brier bounced back and basically matched the ratings from the 2015 finale. In this age, that's a victory. Here are the most-watched sports events on English-language television over the past weekend, according to Numeris overnight ratings: 1. NHL, Wild-Habs/Leafs-Sens, Saturday, CBC-Sportsnet-City: 1,360,000 2. Curling, Brier final, Sunday, TSN: 1,162,000 3. Curling, Brier semifinal, Saturday, TSN: 842,000 4. Curling, Brier Page playoff 1-2, Friday, TSN: 811,000 5. Curling, Brier bronze medal final, Sunday, TSN: 754,000 6. NHL, Coyotes-Oilers/Preds-Canucks, Saturday, CBC-Sportsnet: 746,000 7. Curling, Brier Page playoff 3-4. Saturday, TSN: 648,000 8. NHL, Leafs at Red Wings, Sunday, Sportsnet: 524,000 9. Curling, Brier Draw 17, Friday, TSN: 381,000 10. PGA, Valspar Championship final round, Sunday, Global: 361,000 11. MLB, Rays vs. Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 319,000 12. Auto racing, NASCAR Good Sam 500, Sunday, TSN: 230,000 (Fox audience not measured) 13. MLB, Red Sox vs. Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 226,000 14. NBA, Heat at Raptors, Saturday, Sportsnet One: 185,000 15. Curling, Brier tiebreaker, Friday, TSN: 181,000 16. NHL, Blackhawks at Stars, Friday, Sportsnet East, Ontario, Pacific: 165,000 17. NHL, Rangers at Red Wings, Saturday, Sportsnet: 167,000 18. PGA, Valspar Championship third round, Saturday, Global: 159,000 19. NHL, Islanders at Bruins, Saturday, Sportsnet One: 156,000 20. NHL, Coyotes at Flames, Friday, Sportsnet West: 128,000 20. NHL, Penguins at Rangers, Sunday, Sportsnet One: 128,000 22. Rugby, World Rugby 7s, Saturday, TSN: 127,000 23. Skiing, Canadian men's 30k skiathlon, Saturday, CBC: 121,000 24. Soccer, Manchester City at Norwich, Saturday, TSN: 113,000 25. Soccer, Southampton at Stoke City, Saturday, TSN: 111,000 THREE TO WATCH Let the madness begin: It's mid-March, which can mean only one thing -- besides the annual collapse of the Toronto Maple Leafs, that is. The NCAA men's basketball tournament, aka March Madness, tips off on Thursday (noon ET, TSN and CBS) with all the usual hype and overkill. But despite all the excess, it does provide good entertainment and the opportunity for millions across North America to learn what a bracket is and bet their hard-earned money on schools they'd never heard of before. March Madness northern style: While they get lost in the shuffle, the CIS championships also provide great entertainment without the betting interest. Four championships will be decided this weekend in hockey and basketball involving the two major genders. It all starts with men's hockey on Saturday (11 a.m. ET, Sportsnet 360) and ends with the finals on Sunday (Sportsnet 360). The big sweep: Fresh off winning the Canadian championship, Alberta's Chelsea Carey and her teammates will attempt to rule the world at the global women's curling tournament. Their quest starts Saturday in Swift Current, Sask. (4 p.m. ET, TSN.) Continue to Article

March 16, 2016 11:17:am EST