Pens GM Hextall understands fans’ anger
>> Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ron Hextall grew accustomed to being booed long ago during his lengthy playing career. He’s not going to let growing frustration from Pittsburgh’s fan base sway him from how he goes about doing his job.
Chants of “Fire Hextall” erupted several times inside PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night as the Penguins were in the midst of getting blown out 7-2 by the Edmonton Oilers. Pittsburgh’s fourth straight loss dropped the Penguins to 10th in the Eastern Conference with less than two months to go in the regular season.
“We have high expectations and we haven’t met them,” Hextall said Friday. “People pay good money to come to the rink and they have the right to chant and say whatever they choose. It’s not going to affect anything I do ... Criticism is part of the business.”
Hextall, the former Philadelphia Flyers goalie and general manager, reiterated that he plans to approach next week’s trade deadline looking for deals that could improve the Penguins this season and in the future. Translation: He’s looking for players whose contracts extend beyond this season and he’s reluctant to part with draft picks to do it.
“We are going to do everything we can to improve the team,” Hextall said. “We’re not looking to spend big assets on rentals. If we’re going to spend, it’s going to help us this year and in years to come.”
The Penguins have made the playoffs 16 straight years, the longest active streak in major North American professional sports. They have been erratic for most of this season and are just 9-12-5 since Dec. 18.
“The hardest thing with our team right now is probably the volatility,” Hextall said. “It’s a tough one quite frankly to put a finger on . ... We’ve showed we’re capable of being a very good team.”
Just not consistently. The Penguins were booed repeatedly Thursday. Even longtime captain Sidney Crosby wasn’t immune as a sellout crowd roared in dismay after he opted not to shoot from in close during a power play in the second period.
Crosby shrugged off the angst afterward, saying simply “It was a tough night for everybody.”
Soccer
MLS UNION CRITICIZES FIFA, LEAGUE >> The union for Major League Soccer players criticized FIFA, its rulesmaking body and the league for failing to allow trials of temporary substitutes to replace players suspected of sustaining concussions.
The International Football Association Board said Jan. 18 that no consensus was reached on the proposal for trials by MLS and England’s Premier League. The IFAB includes four representatives from FIFA and one each from the governing bodies of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“FIFA and IFAB’s shortsighted, misguided decision demonstrates once again their failure to prioritize player health and safety in our sport,” the Major League Soccer Players Association said in a statement Friday. “Their refusal to act provides yet another example of global soccer’s broken governance structure.”
The union maintained current rules “do not provide sufficient time for the proper assessment of players for potential concussions.”
“Players too often remain in games with head injuries,” the MLSPA said. “Medical professionals also agree that the solution to this problem is to provide for temporary concussion substitutes to allow players to be properly evaluated.”
MLS starts its season Saturday, and the union said the league should have adopted a trial without the IFAB’s approval.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Wednesday the league was powerless to act without IFAB approval. He maintained the league was willing to innovate and cited adoption of video review in 2017 as an example.
NFL BEATHARD SIGNS EXTENSION
WITH JAGUARS >> Backup quarterback C.J. Beathard signed a two-year contract extension with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Friday, keeping him from hitting free agency next month.
Beathard spent the last two seasons as Trevor Lawrence’s backup.
Olympics RUSSIAN AGENCY ALSO APPEALS
IN VALIEVA DOPING CASE >> The Russian antidoping agency has filed an appeal in the case of Kamila
Valieva, the Court of Arbitration for sport said Friday, but it has asked for the teenage figure skater to be punished with as little as a reprimand and keep her Olympic gold medal.
CAS confirmed registering three separate appeals — from the Russian agency known as RUSADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union. The appeals could now be combined into a single process to decide a case that overshadowed last year’s Beijing Olympics.
WADA previously said it was asking CAS to impose a four-year ban. The ISU has requested a punishment at its discretion.
“At this time, it is not possible to indicate a time frame for the issuance of the decision,” the court said.
RUSADA, WADA and the ISU are challenging a Russian anti-doping tribunal’s decision last year that Valieva bore “no fault or negligence” for the positive test in December 2021 for the heart medication trimetazidine, which is banned in sports. The tribunal disqualified Valieva from the Russian national championships, where she gave the sample, but no other event.
Valieva’s positive test was reported only several weeks later during the Beijing Olympics, where she had already helped the Russians take gold in the team event.
RUSADA acknowledged that Valieva has broken its anti-doping rules and suggested she now face “the appropriate consequences (which may include or be limited to a reprimand),” CAS said in a statement.