WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D3
ASSOCIATED PRESSOndrej Palat and Ryan McDon-
agh scored 10 seconds apart in the
second period and the Tampa Bay
Lightning picked up its first regu-
lation victory of the season with a
5-1 win over the host Pittsburgh
Penguins on Tuesday night.
Brayden Point’s backhand 31
seconds into the second gave the
Lightning its first lead in regula-
tion this season, and Tampa Bay
bounced back from a lopsided
loss at the Buffalo Sabres on
Monday.
Mikhail Sergachev and Alex
Killorn added third-period goals
and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped
28 shots for the Lightning, which
won in Pittsburgh for just the
fourth time in its last 17 visits.
It also was the Penguins’ first
regulation loss of the season.
Pittsburgh spoiled the Light-
ning’s celebratory vibe two weeks
ago, racing to a 6-2 win in the
season opener after Tampa Bay
raised its 2021 Stanley Cup ban-
ner to the rafters.
l FLAMES 5, DEVILS 3: In
Newark, Andrew Mangiapane
had two of Calgary’s four goals in
the first period and the Flames
extended their winning streak to
four games with a v ictory over
host New Jersey.
Milan Lucic, Elias Lindholm
and Matthew Tkachuk also
scored for the Flames.
l GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3, AV-
ALANCHE 1: In Denver, Chan-
dler Stephenson scored two min-
utes into the contest and assisted
on the game-icing goal in the
third period, leading Vegas to a
victory against Colorado.
Cale Makur’s second-period
goal spoiled the shutout bid of
Robin Lehner, who had 26 saves.
l PREDATORS 3, SHARKS 1:
Juuse Saros made 28 saves to lead
host N ashville past San Jose.
Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg
and Mikael Granlund scored for
the Predators.
NHL ROUNDUP
Champions
get their first
regulation
win of season
LIGHTNING 5,
PENGUINS 1FROM NEWS SERVICES
AND STAFF REPORTSThe Los Angeles Chargers
signed Dustin Hopkins to be the
team’s kicker Tuesday after waiv-
ing T ristan Vizcaino.
Hopkins was released by the
Washington Football Team on
Oct. 20 after seven seasons. He
was 12 of 14 on field goals and 10 of
12 on extra points through six
games. Hopkins has made 84 per-
cent of his field goal attempts dur-
ing his career.
Hopkins joined Justin Tucker
and Greg Zuerlein as the only kick-
ers to make more than 145 field
goals from inside of 50 yards over
the past seven seasons.
Vizcaino won a kicking compe-
tition with Michael Badgley dur-
ing the preseason but struggled in
his six games. He missed five extra
points, becoming the first kicker
since Minnesota’s Fred Cox in 19 74
to miss that many in a team’s first
six games.
l PACKERS: Green Bay’s deci-
mated receiving group took one
more hit as the Packers prepare to
face the Arizona Cardinals.
Allen Lazard joined 2020 all-
pro wideout Davante Adams on
the covid-19 reserve list. Adams
was placed on the list Monday.
That means neither wide re-
ceiver is probable to play Thurs-
day at Arizona (7-0).
l STEELERS: Note to big-time
college football programs looking
for new coaches: Mike Tomlin isn’t
interested.
The Pittsburgh coach said he
considers it a “joke” that his name
has popped up as a potential can-
didate for places such as Southern
California.
“I got one of the best jobs i n all
the professional sports, why
would I have any interest in coach-
ing college football?” Tomlin said.
l GIANTS: New York placed
safety Jabrill Peppers on injured
reserve with a rupture to the ACL
and a high ankle sprain, both on
his right leg.
Peppers was hurt o n a punt
return in the third quarter of the
Giants’ 25-3 victory over the Caro-
lina Panthers.l COWBOYS: Dallas placed
defensive lineman Brent Urban
and cornerback Maurice Canady
on injured reserve, sidelining both
for at leas t th ree games.
Urban has a t riceps injury, and
Canady suffered a concussion in
the Cowboys’ 35-29 overtime win
against New England on Oct. 17.
l MISC.: The NFL is encour-
aged by the progress made in pre-
venting any major spreads of the
coronavirus among the 32 teams
but concerned about an increase
in so ft tissue injuries.
Allen Sills, the league’s chief
medical officer, said Tuesday at
the first in-person owners meet-
ings since December 2019 that a
low positive coronavirus rate of
between 0.04 a nd 0.06 percent is
greatly because of v accinations
and protocols working.
So far, 94.1 percent of pl ayers
are vaccinated, as well as 100 per-
cent of team and league staff.
— Associated P ressGoodell talks about Watson
The NFL does not have suffi-
cient information about the sex-
ual misconduct allegations made
against Houston Texans quarter-
back Deshaun Watson to decide
whether to place him on paid ad-
ministrative leave, Commissioner
Roger Goodell said Tuesday in
New York.
The league does not want to
interfere with the legal process,
Goodell said, as Watson faces ac-
cusations made by women in 22
civil lawsuits and a grand jury
considers criminal charges.
“We don’t have all the access to
that information at this point in
time,” Goodell said during a news
conference at the end of the open-
ing day of a two-day meeting of
team owners. “We pride ourselves
on not interfering in that.... We
don’t feel that we have that neces-
sary information at this point.”
The league’s stance could clear
the way for Watson, barring crimi-
nal charges, to be eligible to play
immediately if he’s traded to a
team — probably the Miami Dol-
phins or the Panthers — with
plans to put him on the field.
— Mark MaskeNFL NOTESEx-WFT kicker Hopkins
not out of work for long
BY SAMANTHA PELLNick Jensen waited patiently on
the right side of the ice in the first
period Monday night at Canadian
Tire Centre, then fired a shot
to ward the Ottawa Senators’ net.
The puck ripped past goaltender
Anton Forsberg, a nd the red light
turned on. For the Washington
Capitals, it was just one of seven
goals they scored in a 7-5 win, but
for Jensen it was the start of an-
other strong showing.
It was his second goal of the
season, matching his total from his
first 141 games with the Capitals.
Jensen, 31, has been one of team’s
best players on a defense that be-
gan the season with its fair share of
question marks.
Jensen blossomed last season
while paired with Zdeno Chara.
They complemented each other
well; Chara’s leadership and men-
torship aided Jensen, who was still
trying to find his game. It was
unclear who Jensen’s new defen-
sive partner would be after Chara
left to join the New York Islanders
— and it wasn’t certain Jensen
could continue to play well after a
strong second half last season.
But to start this season, Jensen
has flashed his strengths. He had a
rating of plus-2 in Monday’s back-
and-forth affair, and he is averag-
ing 20:04 of ice time, up from 17:36
over the previous two seasons.
“In my mind, it doesn’t really
feel like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m doing the
same as I was at the end of the
season.’ It was more just a mentali-
ty of making sure I’m coming into
the season and having the highest
amount of effort I possibly could
each game,” Jensen said last week.
“That’s my main focus right now:
Go as hard as I can each shift.”
Jensen’s new running mate on
defense is Dmitry Orlov. They have
combined for seven points in six
games; Jensen has those two goals
and an assist, and Orlov scored at
the New Jersey Devils on Thursday
and has three assists.
Jensen pointed out that Chara’s
and Orlov’s playing styles are vast-
ly different, but the latter’s ability
to get the puck in the corner and
use his strong skating to get it out
of the defensive zone is one of his
best assets. Both are physical,
which often means the Capitals
spend less time in the defensive
zone and have more opportunities
on the other end.Jensen said he is focused on his
timing and not giving up odd-man
rushes and breakaways. He’s also
trying to join the rush as often as
possible.
“Anytime you’re playing offense
it means you’re not playing de-
fense, and that’s great in every-
one’s book,” Jensen said. “I think all
our [defensemen] are really great
at picking our spots and adding
offense to our team, which helps
our forwards a lot, opens things up
and helps them make plays.”
Jensen’s first goal came on a
three-on-one rush with Orlov and
Alex Ovechkin in an Oct. 19 win
over the Colorado Avalanche. Or-
lov passed the puck to Jensen on
the right side, and Jensen looked
off the Capitals’ captain and scored
himself. He joked afterward that
he needs to take advantage of ev-
ery scoring chance he gets. He also
had a slick goal in the season open-
er, but the play was deemed offside
upon review. Jensen said that goal,
while probably his best with the
Capitals, was not the best of his
career. That honor goes to a break-
away tally against the Pittsburgh
Penguins from 2017, when he was
with the Detroit Red Wings.
“Yeah, I don’t get a l ot of goals,”
he quipped. “We won. That is more
important. I’m not chasing any
records.”No punishment for Ovechkin
Ovechkin will not receive sup-
plemental discipline from the
NHL for his hit on the Senators’
Nick Paul in the second period
Monday. No penalty was called on
the play.
Ovechkin scored two goals in
Ottawa, his sixth and seventh of
the season. With 737 career goals,
he is four shy of Brett Hull for
fourth on the NHL’s all-time list.
[email protected]CAPITALS’ NEXT THREEvs. Detroit Red WingsToday7NBCSW Plusvs. Arizona CoyotesFriday7NBCSWat Tampa Bay LightningMonday7NBCSWRadio: WJFK (106.7 FM),
WFED (1500 AM)J ensen’s start continues
last year’s strong finish
BY CHELSEA JANEShouston — The World Series,
at its peak, is an annual exercise
in showcasing the best Major
League Baseball has to offer. This
year, the World Series is an
accidental exercise in showcas-
ing the best controversy the
game has to offer.
That reality was illustrated
Tuesday at Minute Maid Park
when Commissioner Rob Man-
fred was surrounded by report-
ers in front of the Houston
Astros’ dugout.
As he answered — or didn’t —
questions about the Astros being
back in the World Series after
being caught stealing signs in
2017, Houston fans heckled him
with comments such as “You
scapegoated us” — t he implica-
tion being that the Astros were
not the only ones breaking the
rules.
Meanwhile, social media was
abuzz with frustration about
how to feel that a team caught
cheating is back in the World
Series so soon — and that the
players who benefited from
stealing signs suffered only boos
as punishment.
“My general thoughts are that
we had a great division series,
LCS. We’ve got two teams that
have played really, really well,
and I’m looking forward t o a
grea t World Series. It’s all for-
ward-looking from my perspec-
tive,” Manfred said before the
Atlanta Braves took on the As-
tros in Game 1.
Asked again, Manfred didn’t
budge.
“I’m going to say it one more
time: I’m looking forward to a
great World Series,” he said.
“That’s what you’re going to get.”
He also got questions about
the Braves, whose presence in
the World Series resurfaced con-
cerns about their name. Starting
next season, Cleveland will play
as the Guardians after changing
its name under pressure, but
Atlanta has yet to face the same
scrutiny. The organization has
maintained it will neither
change its name nor dissuade its
fans from performing the “toma-
hawk chop,” the in-game rallying
cry in which they mimic what is
meant to be a Native American
chant.
The organization said it has
consulted with local Cherokee
leaders who see the name as a
source of pride. Manfred said
that local buy-in is what sepa-
rates Atlanta’s name from Cleve-
land’s.
“It’s important to understand
that we have 30 markets around
the country. They aren’t all the
same. The Br aves have done a
phenomenal job with the Native
American community,” Manfred
said. “The Native American com-
munity in that region is wholly
supportive of the Braves’ pro-
gram, including the chop. For
me, that’s kind of the end of the
story. In that market, we ’re tak-
ing into account the Native
American community.”
Pushed further about whether
local tribes should be the onlyones whose opinions matter in a
sport that is played nationwide,
Manfred said, “We don’t market
ourselves on a nationwide basis”
— a surprising thing to say about
a spo rt that is struggling to reach
younger generations and new
fans to widen its appeal.
“Ours is an everyday game.
You’ve got to sell tickets every
single day to the fans in that
market. And there are all sorts of
differences between the regions
in terms of how the teams are
marketed,” Manfred said. “I don ’t
know how every Native Ameri-
can group around the country
feels. I am 100 percent certain
that the Braves understand what
the Native American community
in their area believes and they
have acted in keeping with that.”
Those controversies could gar-
ner more attention than an ex-
piring collective bargaining
agreement, a testament to the
extent to which Atlanta and
Houston are polarizing forces in
the game. But Manfred and his
MLB Players Association coun-
terpart, Tony Clark, addressed
CBA negotiations, too.They both said they are aiming
to have a d eal in place by Dec. 1,
when the current agreement ex-
pires, and Clark said the union
isn’t looking beyond that. Man-
fred characterized himself as op-
timistic but admitted he prob-
ably wouldn’t say so if he weren’t.
“Have you ever heard me say
I’m anything but optimistic
about getting an agreement? I
am a believer in the process,” he
said. “We meet on a regular basis.
I’m hopeful we’ll find a way to
get an agreement by December
1.”
Manfred called getting a deal
done before the agreement ex-
pires “our number one priority”
and said winning in the context
of these negotiations is not about
any one particular detail.
“The most important thing is
not one paragraph, two para-
graphs in the agreement,” said
Manfred, who added that the
sides have been speaking regu-
larly in recent weeks. “The most
important thing, the win in col-
lective bargaining, is you make
an agreement.”
[email protected]Manfred backs B raves’ name, ‘chop’
Commissioner d eclines
to discuss Astros’ return
after 2017 scandalBOB LEVEY/GETTY IMAGES
Rob Manfred: “The Braves understand what the Native American community in their area believes.”FLOORINGSALEFREE INSTALLATION ON ALL
CARPET HARDWOOD LAMINATE VINYL
FREE INSTALLATION ON ALL
Mention Promo Code “WAPO”
To Save An Additional
$
100CALL TODAY!
855-997-0612
Sale AppliesTo AlI Carpet, Hardwood, Laminate, and Vinyl.
Offer Good Through October 31, 2021.W
EC
OMETO
Y
O
U
!FREE
IN-HOME
ESTIMATESCARPET HARDWOOD LAMINATE VINYL
FLOORING
SALE
NOW
EXTENDED