SPORTS IN BRIEF
Morrissey fined, not suspended
NEW YORK (AP) — Winnipeg Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey has been fined $8,468 but not suspended for unsportsmanlike conduct against Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie.
The NHL’s department of player safety announced the punishment Thursday after a disciplinary hearing with Morrissey. The fine is the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement. Morrissey threw Oshie to the ice late in the Jets’ victory over the Capitals on Wednesday night. The Capitals did not provide an immediate update on Oshie’s condition.
The play was similar to when Florida’s Mike Matheson threw Vancouver’s Elias Petterson to the ice in October, but wasn’t punished to the same degree. Matheson was suspended two games for interference and unsportsmanlike conduct. NLL cancels first two weeks PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The National Lacrosse League has cancelled the first two weekends of the 2018-19 season as a labour dispute continues between the league and the Professional Lacrosse Players’ Association.
The NLL said in a statement that it is rejecting a counter-proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement submitted Wednesday by the PLPA. The announcement means games scheduled for Dec. 1 and Dec. 8 will no longer be played. “We believe those terms would have both short and long term negative consequences on our member clubs and the league which we are not willing to accept,” the NLL said in a statement without elaborating on which terms the league found unacceptable.
Labour uncertainty began in January when the PLPA exercised a five-year opt-out clause in the seven-year collective bargaining agreement between the union and the league signed in 2013.
The NLL had suspended a Wednesday deadline for players to accept its latest CBA offer when the union provided a counter-proposal. The two sides have been unable to hammer out a new agreement over the months that followed. “We are sorry the league chose not to accept either of our two proposals,” the PLPA said in a statement. “Our one-year deal has never come off the table, instead they chose to inconvenience themselves by cancelling games.”