TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO B11
Chris Phillips has several great
memories from his 17-year ca-
reer with the Ottawa Senators.
He’ll soon get to enjoy another
special moment at Canadian Tire
Centre.
His No. 4 will be raised to the
arena rafters on Tuesday night
before the Senators’ home game
against the Buffalo Sabres.
“This will encompass every-
thing I was able to accomplish,”
Phillips said. “The big moments
as a team, as an individual and
now to be recognized brings it all
together. It’s like the final chap-
ter.”
Phillips, who spent his entire
NHL career with the Senators,
holds the franchise record with
1,179 games played. His 114 career
playoff games ranks second in
team history behind Daniel Alf-
redsson.
Selected first over all in the
1996 NHL draft, Phillips had 71
goals and 217 assists for 288
points over his career. An ailing
back forced him into retirement
in 2016.
A reliable stay-at-home defen-
ceman, the Senators experiment-
ed with Phillips at forward for a
time before he settled into his
role on the blueline.
One of his bigger goals was a
Game 6 overtime winner in the
Eastern Conference final against
New Jersey in 2003. The 2-1 victo-
ry forced a decisive seventh
game in the series, which the
Devils won 3-2.
Phillips, a 41-year-old Calgary
native, said it was an emotional
postseason.
“No doubt, it was a huge mo-
ment for me,” said Phillips. “It
was in those playoffs that [assist-
ant coach] Roger [Neilson] was
battling [cancer] and had given
us a speech before Game 5. We
wanted to win for him so bad
and that win just meant we still
had a chance.”
Phillips’s rugged style led to a
number of back ailments late in
his career. He was restricted to
just 36 games in the 2014-15 sea-
son.
His final game, on Feb. 5, 2015,
broke Alfredsson’s franchise re-
cord for games played and would
be the last time Phillips suited
up for the Senators. He hoped to
return after undergoing back
surgery, but suffered a cracked
vertebrae during his rehabilita-
tion and missed the 2015-16 sea-
son.THE CANADIAN PRESSPhillipsto
havehisNo.4
jerseyretired
bySenators
LISA WALLACEOTTAWAA
ndre De Grasse had just wrapped
up a morning of shooting a Team
Visa commercial at the Pickering
Soccer Centre.
A talent wrangler was pressing De
Grasse about a wardrobe change. And he
needed to get to a second venue, she
stressed, for another shoot.
But the 25-year-old sprint star from
Markham, Ont., had other ideas. And so De
Grasse made a beeline across the field – the
wrangler trailing behind – for the 120-
metre strip of rubberized track where his
former coach Tony Sharpe was putting his
group of young Speed Academy sprinters
through a workout.
“I just want to say hi to them before I
go,” De Grasse said to the wrangler. He also
had two pairs of new spikes for a couple of
Sharpe’s athletes in need.
De Grasse, who was discovered by
Sharpe at a high-school meet, skyrocketed
to stardom before hamstring injuries in
back-to-back years derailed the better part
of two seasons.
Now back at full health, De Grasse,
who’s captured silver and bronze at the
Olympics and world championships,
should be one of Canada’s biggest stars at
this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.
The sprinter speaks sincerely about his
golden Olympic goal.
“I’m missing that gold medal,” De
Grasse said on Saturday. “And it’s pretty
good, my partner Nia [Ali, an American
hurdler], she got a gold medal at the world
championships, so I just use that as moti-
vation. I see her gold medal, and I’m like,
‘Oh, I’m missing one from the family.’
“Definitely looking forward to trying to
just accomplish that, whether it’s either in
the 100 or 200. And even you know, we
have a great shot as well in the relay.”
De Grasse doesn’t know yet when he’ll
open the season. The coronavirus, which
forced the postponement of the world in-
door championships (which wasn’t on De
Grasse’s competitive schedule), now
threatens two Diamond League meets
scheduled for China in May. He’ll likely
race in some U.S. meets in April and then
head to Europe.
De Grasse announced he was back by
racing to silver in the 200 and bronze in the
100 at the world championships in Doha
this past fall.
Many had written off the Canadian
sprinter. A few proclaimed surprise at his
most recent pair of world medals. Sharpe
scoffed at the doubters.
“When you have the talent of an Andre
De Grasse, if you stay healthy, you’re going
to run fast,” Sharpe said. “In junior college
[in Coffeyville, Kan.], training probably al-
most part-time, coaching not at the high-
est level, but good enough to
run 9.9 [seconds wind-aid-
ed]. When that happens in
your first or second year in
the sport, that’s pure natural
ability.”
Sharpe believes, if not for
the two hamstring setbacks,
he’d be “a 9.7 sprinter.”
“Because you sort of have
to start from ground zero
and build and rebuild and re-
build, so if you get three or
four years consecutively
where you can progress, the
sky’s the limit.”
De Grasse’s solid world
championship showing
came after a year of upheav-
al. He switched coaches,
moving with Ali to Jackson-
ville, Fla., to train with Rana
Reider. He was adjusting to
being a new dad. Their
daughter Yuri – her middle
name is Zen, so phonetically
her names sound like “your
reason” – will turn two this
summer. Ali has a son from a
previous relationship, giving
birth to Titus a year before winning silver
at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But De Grasse erased any lingering in-
jury doubts by running sub-10 seconds in
the 100 metres in July, while not in top
form. He ran another sub-10 a couple of
weeks before the world championships.
And so, he arrived in Doha fully expecting
a good outcome. “And then I knew once I
got into the final, I had a great shot of just
executing and being able to come away
with a medal,” he said.
De Grasse thrives when the lights are
brightest. The bigger the stage, the better.
“Performance on demand,” Sharpe said.
“So, I never bet against him. I’m saying iton record that I expect Andre can take
home gold [in Tokyo], probably more so in
the 200 than the 100. I know we hear about
Noah Lyles [world No. 1-ranked last sea-
son] and all these guys. But every race is a
different race, so I’m not putting limita-
tions on it. He’s proven he’s got the tools
and I don’t know why he wouldn’t be able
to win.
“Two years off the track not competing,
it plays a role in where you are right now,
so if you can build on last
year, there’s no reason this
guy can’t go 9.7.”
Sharpe spent a week in
Florida with De Grasse and
Ali in the fall.
“It was fun, watching him
with the diapers and every-
thing,” Sharpe said. “He’s ad-
justing well.”
The couple train six days a
week. A typical day sees them
drop Yuri at daycare and Ti-
tus at school, and then spend
most of the day training be-
fore picking up the kids.
De Grasse posted a funny
parenting mishap on Insta-
gram recently. Racing late
with Yuri to her swimming
lessons, he put her bathing
suit on backward.
“It’s a challenge, every day
you learn something new,
but it’s been a fun ride, so def-
initely just looking forward
to seeing her keep growing,”
De Grasse said.
De Grasse shot Saturday’s
commercial alongside fellow
Visa-sponsored athletes Christine Sinclair,
who recently became the all-time leading
scorer in international soccer, climber
Sean McColl and Paralympic swimmer Au-
rélie Rivard.
It was De Grasse’s first time meeting Sin-
clair, who posed for pictures afterward
with a team of young girls who were play-
ing on an adjacent field.
“She’s a great player, definitely she’s
pretty to watch, like exciting,” De Grasse
said. “That was pretty cool that I got to
hook up with her today and be in a cam-
paign with her.”THECANADIANPRESSDeGrassegung-hoinquestforelusiveOlympicgold
LORI EWINGPICKERING,ONT.
I’mmissingthat
goldmedal...my
partnerNia[Ali],
shegotagoldmedal
attheworld
championships,
soIjustusethat
asmotivation.ANDRE DE GRASSE
CANADIANSPRINTERTokyo Marathon organizers drastically re-
duced the number of participants for this
year’s race on Monday out of fear of the
spread of the virus coming from China.
The general public is being barred from
the race on March 1. It will now be limited
to a few hundred elite participants, orga-
nizers said in a brief statement.
“We cannot continue to launch the
event within the scale we originally antici-
pated and we regret to inform you the
following: The Tokyo Marathon 2020 will
be held only for the marathon elites and
the wheelchair elites,” organizers said.
The Tokyo Marathon is the city’s an-
nual race and not to be confused with the
Olympic marathon that will take place
during the Tokyo Games. Those races are
to be held in the northern city of Sapporo.
The marathon is the latest large sports
event to be affected by the virus. Almost
all sports events in China over the next
few months have been called off, includ-
ing next month’s world indoor track and
field championships and a Formula One
race in April.
The cancellations in China have had a
domino effect on Olympic qualifying,
both in China and elsewhere.
The Tokyo Marathon was expected to
attract about 38,000 participants.
Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics and
the International Olympic Committee
have said repeatedly they will not cancel
or postpone the games, and are followingthe advice of the World Health Organiza-
tion.
The Olympics open on July 24 with
about 11,000 athletes participating. About
7.8 million tickets are available for Olym-
pic events, which draw hundreds of thou-
sands of tourists.
There are another 2.3 million tickets for
the Paralympics.
Much of the focus is now on China. It
will further intensify with the next Olym-
pics – the 2022 Winter Games – taking
place in Beijing.
The spreading virus has already forced
organizers to cancel World Cup ski races
this month in Yanquig, China, which were
also to serve as test events.THE ASSOCIATED PRESSTokyoMarathonlimitsparticipantsoverCOVID-19concerns
STEPHEN WADE
REPORTONBUSINESS |Andrew Mangiapane scored his first ca-
reer hat trick and added an assist as the
Calgary Flames used five third-period
goals for a 6-4 comeback win over the
Anaheim Ducks on Monday.
With the home side trailing 3-1, Man-
giapane’s 12th goal and second of the af-
ternoon at 4:46 got the comeback started.
After Sam Bennett tied it 19 seconds later,
Mangiapane set up Matthew Tkachuk at
12:59. Tkachuk’s initial shot was stopped,
but he fired in the rebound from a scram-
ble.
Mangiapane capped off his evening
with an empty-net goal, taking a pass
from Johnny Gaudreau. Mangiapane’s
four-point afternoon was also a career-
high.
Sean Monahan scored what held up as
the winner for Calgary (31-24-6), which
snapped a four-game losing skid on home
ice.
Adam Henrique, Jakob Silfverberg, Ni-
colas Deslauriers and Devin Shore, with
four seconds remaining, scored for Ana-
heim (24-28-7). The Ducks had gone six
straight on the road without a regulation
loss. Cam Talbot made 26 saves for the
win. He improves to 9-9-1.
Ryan Miller, who was peppered with 43
shots, took the loss. He falls to 7-6-3.
Leading 2-1 after 20 minutes, Anaheim
made it a two-goal cushion at 3:05 when
Deslauriers’s shot from the sideboards ca-
romed sharply off the skate of Flames de-
fenceman Michael Stone and went over
Talbot’s shoulder. But the Flames dug in
and responded big time with five straight
goals.
The Ducks opened the scoring 5:53 into
the second, taking advantage of a turn-
over inside the Anaheim blueline by Ben-
nett. Nick Ritchie corralled the loose puck
and sprung Henrique on a breakaway and
on a move from in-close, he just managed
to squeeze a shot through the pads of
Talbot.
Mangiapane tied it up less than a min-
ute later, burying Noah Hanifin’s re-
bound, but another costly mistake led to
the Ducks retaking the lead at 10:37.
Hanifin mishandled the puck in hisown end, allowing Silfverberg to stroll in
alone on Talbot and he scored a nifty
deke.
Monahan’s 190th career goal moves
him into eighth on the Flames’ all-time
list, tied with Joe Mullen. ... Prior to the
game, the Flames placed Derek Ryan (flu)
on the injury list and called up Glenn
Gawdin from Stockton in case ailing Mi-
kael Backlund also wasn’t well enough to
play. But Backlund suited up, so Gawdin’s
NHL debut must wait.
Anaheim Duck Korbinian Holzer
played in his 200th career game.THE CANADIAN PRESSFlamesfindtheirspark,
roastDuckswithcomeback
Mangiapanestepsupfor
Calgaryduringtimeofneed
andearnsfirstcareerhattrick
Anaheim Duck Ryan Miller guards against Dillon Dubé of the Flames on Monday. Calgary
scored five times in the third period for a 6-4 win.SERGEIBELSKI/USATODAYSPORTSCALGARY
VANCOUVERThe Vancouver
Canucks have added a scoring
winger to their lineup.
Vancouver has acquired
forward Tyler Toffoli from the
Los Angeles Kings in exchange
for forward Tim Schaller, pros-
pect Tyler Madden, a 2020
second-round pick and a condi-
tional fourth-round selection in
2022.
“Tyler brings goal-scoring
abilities and is good in battles,”
Canucks general manager Jim
Benning said.
The deal was announced
Monday night.
The 27-year-old Toffoli, six-
feet tall and 197 pounds, has
spent his entire career with the
Kings, and has produced 139
goals and 290 points in 515
games.
He also has nine goals and 21
points in 47 playoff games,
winning the 2014 Stanley Cup
with L.A.
This season he has 18 goals
and 34 points in 58 games,
including a hat trick on Sat-
urday in a 3-1 win over the
Colorado Avalanche in the
Stadium Series outdoor game.
The Toronto native who was
drafted by L.A., 47th over all in
2010, made his NHL debut in
2012-13 after splitting time in
the American Hockey League.
He scored a career-high 31
goals and 58 points in 82 games
in 2015-16.
Toffoli is in the final year of
a three-year, US$13.8-million
contract, and set to become an
unrestricted free agent in the
summer.
Madden is a 20-year-old
forward currently playing at
Northeastern University. He has
19 goals and 37 points in 27
contests. He has 29 goals and
57 points in 274 career games.
THE CANADIAN PRESSCANUCKSACQUIRE
TOFFOLIFROMKINGS