Predators’ Rinne retires
Pekka Rinne made sure to stick around Nashville longer than usual after the season ended with the Predators’ first-round playoff exit.
The 2018 Vezina Trophy winner, who led the Milwaukee Adrmirals to the 2006 Calder Cup finals, needed time to make a very tough decision to retire after 15 seasons.
“There was two options,” Rinne said Tuesday at a news conference. “Either retire or either continue playing with the Predators. And I appreciate (GM) David (Poile) and everybody else for giving me enough time to make this decision on my own and make a decision that I feel is the right one. And deep down I do feel that.”
Rinne, 38, announced his decision Tuesday morning through a release by the Predators and a post on The Players’ Tribune.
He made his last start on May 10 in Nashville’s regular-season finale, a 5-0 win over Carolina in which he tied Tom Barrasso for No. 19 in NHL history with his 369th victory.
His career goals-against average of 2.43 is tied for fourth best among goalies with at least 350 wins.
NFL
Alex Gibbs, the innovative offensive line coach whose zone-blocking scheme helped lead the Denver Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl triumphs in the 1990s, has died at age 80, the team said.
The team said Gibbs died Monday from complications of a stroke with family by his side in his Phoenix home.
Gibbs served as the Broncos’ O-line coach from 1984-87 and 1995-2003. He also was an offensive line consultant for Denver in 2013.
His zone-blocking scheme relied on agile linemen moving together as one at the snap to create cut-back lanes for the running backs as opposed to the power scheme that relies on linemen to block the defender in front of them.
CYCLING
Austrian rider Patrick Konrad won the Tour de France’s hilly 16th stage on an otherwise uneventful day Tuesday as race leader Tadej Pogacar remained on course for his second overall victory.
Konrad made his decisive break with just over 36 kilometers (22.5 miles) to go, four kilometers (2.5 miles) before the summit of Col de Portet-d’Aspet, and he maintained the lead to the finish in SaintGaudens for his first Tour stage win.
Konrad is only the third Austrian to win a stage at cycling’s biggest race and first since 2005.
Pogacar, the defending champion, maintained his general classification lead of more than five minutes over Rigoberto Uran and Jonas Vingegaard.
TENNIS
Roger Federer will not participate in the Tokyo Olympics, writing on social media Tuesday that he “experienced a setback” with his knee during the grass-court season.
Federer had said before Wimbledon that he would make a decision about going to the Summer Games after the Grand Slam tournament ended.
Federer had two operations on his right knee in 2020 and went more than a full year between matches. He returned to Grand Slam action at the French Open and then pulled out of that tournament after three victories, saying he wanted to be rested and ready for the grass circuit – especially Wimbledon.
GYMNASTICS
Olympic champion gymnast Oleg Verniaiev is set to miss the Tokyo Games because he has been banned for four years following a failed drug test.
The Ukrainian gymnast tested positive for the banned substance meldonium in August 2020 and was banned after a ruling by the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation, which hears disciplinary cases in the sport.
The ban is backdated to run from November 2020 and could also rule him out of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
NHL
Dominique Ducharme was hired as the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday after leading the club on a playoff run all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Habs announced that Ducharme has agreed to a three-year contract extension through the 2023-24 season, removing the “interim” qualifier that’s been attached to his title since he took over from the fired Claude Julien on Feb. 24.
Wild buys out contracts: After signing with Minnesota together, Zach Parise and former Wisconsin Badgers standout Ryan Suter are being bought out together.
The Wild announced Tuesday that the team is buying out the final four years of each player’s contract, a stunning move early in the NHL offseason. Parise and Suter signed identical $98 million, 13year contracts on July 4, 2012, and now they’ll go back into free agency together on July 28.
Suter and Parise are each 36.