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Hungry Maple Leafs finally get over hump, win playoff series

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Toronto Maple Leafs are eager to leave nearly two decades of playoff futility behind them.Seizing an opportunity to prove they’re no longer a team that falls short at the most important time of the year, the Leafs ended an 11-game losing streak in elimination games and beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in overtime Saturday night.The victory gave Toronto its first postseason series win since 2004 and sends the Maple Leafs into the Eastern Conference semifinals against Boston or Florida.The Bruins and Panthers are tied 3-3 in their first-round series. Game 7 is Sunday in Boston.“It’s felt different all season,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It’s nice to sit up here and say it is different.”The Maple Leafs were 0 for 7 in playoff appearances from 2013 to 2022, including first-round exits each of the past six seasons.To get past Tampa Bay, Toronto won three times in overtime on the road and ended the Lightning’s run of three straight appearance...

Florida visits Boston in game 7 of the first round

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

Florida Panthers (42-32-8, fourth in the Atlantic Division) vs. Boston Bruins (65-12-5, first in the Atlantic Division)Boston; Sunday, 6:30 p.m. EDTFANDUEL SPORTSBOOK NHL LINE: Bruins -239, Panthers +196; over/under is 6NHL PLAYOFFS FIRST ROUND: Series tied 3-3BOTTOM LINE: The Florida Panthers visit the Boston Bruins in game seven of the first round of the NHL Playoffs. The teams meet Friday for the 13th time this season. The Panthers won 7-5 in the previous meeting. Matthew Tkachuk led the Panthers with two goals.Boston has a 21-7-4 record in Atlantic Division games and a 65-12-5 record overall. The Bruins have given up 174 goals while scoring 301 for a +127 scoring differential.Florida has a 20-9-3 record in Atlantic Division games and a 42-32-8 record overall. The Panthers have a +16 scoring differential, with 288 total goals scored and 272 given up.TOP PERFORMERS: David Pastrnak has 61 goals and 51 assists for the Bruins. Jake DeBrusk has scored six goals and added two assists o...

Caleb Kilian looks for positives after getting roughed up in Chicago Cubs loss: ‘He’s not ready’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

Chicago Cubs right-hander Caleb Kilian tried to focus on the positives from his wayward spot start.His big-league season debut quickly unraveled Saturday in a 40-pitch first inning in which the Miami Marlins sent 11 batters to the plate. Five runs, four hits, two walks and two hit batters later, Kilian’s outing was already off track.The Cubs tried to chip away at the five-run deficit but ultimately fell short in a 7-6 loss. Kilian surrendered seven runs and 10 hits in 3⅓ innings.Asked what he took away from Kilian’s start, manager David Ross replied, “That he’s not ready — still got learning to do, still needs some seasoning.”Kilian, 25, became out of whack with his delivery, particularly his arm path. He felt too quick on the mound, causing his arm to lag and spray his pitches around the zone.The lack of control arm side in the first resulted in uncompetitive pitches against right-handed hitters. He fell behind in the count to seven of the ...

How Darnell Wright — not Jalen Carter — became the headliner of the Chicago Bears’ 2023 draft class

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

The most intense final exam of Darnell Wright’s life came on a Saturday morning earlier this month.April 8, 11 a.m., the Anderson Training Center in Knoxville, Tenn.Wright’s pre-draft journey to the NFL was almost complete. But now the Chicago Bears, who had hosted Wright at Halas Hall a few days earlier, were on campus at the University of Tennessee, intent on confirming their beliefs.General manager Ryan Poles — with offensive line coach Chris Morgan in tow — had designs on obtaining peace of mind for the NFL draft, even if it came, temporarily, at Wright’s expense.Poles wanted to feel certain the player he was leaning toward selecting with a top-10 pick had his preferred strands of football DNA. If the Bears were going to invest in an offensive tackle to support the growth of third-year quarterback Justin Fields, Poles wanted to identify a big, athletic standout who was fueled by a nasty competitive spirit.The 6-foot-5, 333-pound Wright made 42 start...

GOP election officials walking fine line on fraud, integrity

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Republican secretaries of state in Ohio, West Virginia and Missouri have promoted their states’ elections as fair and secure. Yet each also is navigating a fine line on how to address election fraud conspiracies as they gear up campaigns for U.S. Senate or governor in 2024. The split-screen messaging of Ohio’s Frank LaRose, West Virginia’s Mac Warner and Missouri’s Jay Ashcroft shows just how deeply election lies have burrowed into the Republican Party, where more than half of voters believe Democrat Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president. Even election officials who tout running clean elections at home are routinely pushing for more voting restrictions and additional scrutiny on the process as they prepare to face GOP primary voters next year.All three withdrew their states last month from the Electronic Registration Information Center, a bipartisan, multistate effort to ensure accurate voter lists. LaRose did so less than a month after calling t...

Deadly heat waves threaten older people as summer nears

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Paramedics summoned to an Arizona retirement community last summer found an 80-year-old woman slumped inside her mobile home, enveloped in the suffocating 99-degree (37 C) heat she suffered for days after her air conditioner broke down. Efforts to revive her failed, and her death was ruled environmental heat exposure aggravated by heart disease and diabetes. In America’s hottest big metro, older people like the Sun Lakes mobile home resident accounted for most of the 77 people who died last summer in broiling heat inside their homes, almost all without air conditioning. Now, the heat dangers long known in greater Phoenix are becoming familiar nationwide as global warming creates new challenges to protect the aged. From the Pacific Northwest to Chicago to North Carolina, health clinics, utilities and local governments are being tested to keep older people safe when temperatures soar. They’re adopting rules for disconnecting electricity, mandating when to switch on comm...

Texas mass shooting suspect could be anywhere, sheriff says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) — The search for a Texas man who allegedly shot his neighbors after they asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yard stretched into a second day Sunday, with authorities saying the man could be anywhere by now. Francisco Oropeza, 38, remained at large more than 18 hours after the shooting that left five people dead, including an 8-year-old boy. San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Saturday evening that authorities had widened the search to as far as 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the scene of the shooting. Investigators found clothes and a phone while combing a rural area that includes dense layers of forest, but tracking dogs lost the scent, Capers said. Oropeza likely is still carrying the AR-15 he allegedly used in the shootings, the sheriff said. “He could be anywhere now,” Capers said. The attack happened near the town of Cleveland, north of Houston, on a street where some residents say neighbors often unwind by firing off guns.Capers said the vi...

Takeaways about heat deaths and vulnerable older people

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

SUN LAKES, Arizona (AP) — Heat waves fueled by climate change are arriving earlier, growing more intense and lasting longer, creating higher risks of illness and death for older people who are especially vulnerable to hot weather. In America’s hottest big metro, older people accounted for most of the people who died last summer in broiling heat inside their homes, almost all without air conditioning. The heat dangers well known in greater Phoenix are becoming known familiar nationwide. Some takeaways: WHY ARE OLDER PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO DIE FROM THE HEAT?People ages 60 and over tend to have more chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease and kidney problems than younger people. Those conditions can be made worse by high temperatures because as the heat index rises, it becomes harder to cool off the body. Medicines that many older people use to treat chronic ailments, such as diuretics for high blood pressure, can also make them more vulnerable to the heat. Older people can hav...

Willie Nelson inhales the love at 90th birthday concert

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Are there any more real cowboys?” Neil Young sang Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl on a rare evening when he was neither the headliner nor, at age 77, even close to the oldest artist on the bill. Providing an instant answer, Willie Nelson, wearing a cowboy hat and red-white-and-blue guitar strap, slowly strolled on to the stage on his 90th birthday, bringing the crowd of more than 17,000 to its feet. Nelson sat in a chair — one of the few onstage concessions he’s made to age — and joined Young for the rest of their 1985 duet, “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?” “I want to thank all the artists who came out tonight to help celebrate whatever it is we’re celebrating,” said Nelson, feigning senility and getting a laugh. The moment came three hours into the first of a two-night celebration of the country legend at the open-air Los Angeles amphitheater, where generations of stars sang his songs in tribute. “As a kid growing up in Texas, it seemed like t...

Residents of Quebec town still struggle with aftermath of 2019 dike break, flooding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

SAINTE-MARTHE-SUR-LE-LAC, Que. — Sylvie Béchard had only owned her little brick house for six months when her neighbour came banging on her door on the night of April 27, 2019. The dike holding back the Lake of Two Mountains had been breached, and floodwaters were rushing toward her home.“She said ‘Sylvie, we have to evacuate, the dike has given out. We’re being flooded,'” Béchard recalled recently.Four years after flooding forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 residents of Ste-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, Que., and damaged hundreds of homes, there is plenty of anger from residents who say they’re still suffering from the financial and emotional consequences. Earlier this month, a class-action lawsuit against the municipality and the province on behalf of flooding victims was authorized to move forward.Béchard remembers the days that followed the breach, when Armed Forces or police would take her by boat down the flooded streets of the town northwest of Montre...