Tuesday Tidbits You Might Have Missed
NFL
The Baltimore Raven will reportedly sign veteran wide receiver DeSean Jackson to the practice squad after he paid a free-agent visit to the facility on Tuesday. Jackson split his time last season between the Los Angeles Rams and the Las Vegas Raiders, playing 16 games and pulling in 20 passes for 454 yards with 2 touchdowns.
Chris Olave, New Orleans Saints leading receiver, is expected to play this Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. The 22-year-old that was drafted 11th overall last year, suffered a concussion in the Saints week 5 win over the Seattle Seahawks and missed week 6.
The NFL held their Fall League Meeting in New York on Tuesday. NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent stated that there was a "healthy" and "spirited" conversation surrounding roughing the passer penalties during the football operations session of the meeting. Vincent made it clear that the league will continue to prioritize the protection of quarterbacks. This particular penalty has been the source of quite a bit of controversy already this season. Vincent and commissioner Goodell both making remarks about their stance surrounding the issue :
Vincent : "Everyone knows if your quarterback is not healthy, you don't have a chance to win. We're not changing the philosophy around that call. ... We're not going to back off of protecting the quarterback."
Goodell : "We're not backing off of protecting players that are in a defenseless position or in an exposed position that could lead to injury, and we'll take those techniques out of the game."
NHL
The NHL salary cap could see a significant increase earlier than originally expected. Commissioner Gary Bettman saying on Tuesday that the escrow balance will most likely be paid off by the players at the end of this season. If that is in fact the case the salary cap will increase by around $4 million this summer. The last report to come out before the season had the cap increasing next season by about $1 million making the cap $83.5 million. This will still happen if the escrow does not get paid off this season.
The Calgary Flames remain undefeated after beating the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 on Tuesday night. Mikael Backlund broke the tie with 4:29 left in the game. Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli scored the other 2 goals and Jacob Markstrom made 19 saves for the Flames.
Goalie Eric Comrie made an impressive 46 saves helping lift the Buffalo Sabres over the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 on Tuesday night. Comrie saying after the game when asked about playing goal in his hometown :
“It was great, but it’s just two points and it doesn’t matter who we’re playing against and what’s going on whether my family is in town. I’m just going out there with this group of guys and giving it all I have for this group, no matter where it is or when it is. Our D core did an awesome job of making sure everything was to the outside, everything was taken care of and props to them, they were awesome out there all night tonight.”
MLB
Bryce Harper hit his 4th homerun of this postseason and Kyle Schwarber smashed a huge 488-foot drive that lifted the Philadelphia Phillies over the San Diego Padres 2-0 on the opening night of the NL Championship Series.
The New York Yankees pulled out game 5 with a 5-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday night. Giancarlo Stanton got it started early on, sending a 3-run shot over the wall off of Guardians starter Aaron Civale in the first inning. Civale was pulled after just 1/3 of an inning. Aaron Judge added some cushion with a solo shot in the 2nd inning and Anthony Rizzo hit in the 5th run. Yankees starter Nestor Cortes went 5 innings allowing just 3 hits.
Wednesdays playoff games : Philadelphia Phillies at San Diego Padres: Game 2 (PHI 1 - SD 0) - 4:35pm - Fox, New York Yankees at Houston Astros: Game 1 - 7:37pm - TBS