Alberta
McDavid’s historic fifth straight multi-goal game leads Oilers past Maple Leafs 5-2
Toronto Maple Leafs’ Sam Lafferty (28) and Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid (97) battle in front as goalie Stuart Skinner (74) makes the save during first period NHL action in Edmonton on Wednesday March 1, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
By Shane Jones in Edmonton
Connor McDavid’s goal-scoring streak has reached legendary status.
McDavid had two goals and an assist for his fifth consecutive multi-goal game as the Edmonton Oilers earned a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
McDavid became the fifth player in NHL history to have such a run. Joe Malone (1921), Punch Broadbent (1922), Alexander Mogilny (1993) and Mario Lemieux (1989) are the others.
“Sometimes it just goes in,” McDavid said of his recent run. “I felt like I was playing good hockey before and it just wasn’t going in for me. You kind of get a bounce and it seems to go in for you. It is a funny game that way.”
“He’s coming at teams at a certain level of pace that backs them off,” added Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. “He’s willing to shoot through traffic. He goes to hard areas to score. He played a great game tonight.”
Zach Hyman, Kailer Yamamoto and Klim Kostin also scored for the Oilers (33-21-8), who snapped a two-game skid.
Stuart Skinner made 26 saves.
Woodcroft, who set the franchise record for most wins in his first 100 games as head coach with 59 on Wednesday, said he has seen good things against tough teams the last couple of games — including a narrow 3-2 loss to the league-leading Boston Bruins on Monday.
“We’ve been trending in the right direction post-Christmas,” he said. “Against two of the best teams in the league this week at home we played the game the right way. Part of that is offensively, part of that is defensively, and we got contributions from everybody tonight.”
The Oilers have gone 12-4-6 in their last 22 outings.
David Kampf and Mitch Marner replied for the Maple Leafs (37-16-8), who had their two-game winning streak halted.
Ilya Samsonov stopped 27-of-32 shots.
“We didn’t have a very good start, obviously, letting their best people get going and getting opportunities off the rush and grabbing the lead,” said Toronto forward John Tavares. “They defended hard, played us hard and we weren’t at the level that we needed to be.”
Marner stated that they had trouble with the Oilers’ offensive skill.
“We wanted to try and keep these guys out of the middle and didn’t do a great job of that tonight,” he said. “We let them have the freedom, speed and space through that neutral zone and they can make you pay for it and they did.”
McDavid opened the scoring on the power play 3:49 into the first period. Samsonov gave up a rebound off a Leon Draisaitl shot that went right to McDavid, who netted it home.
Toronto pulled even on a bizarre goal 12:15 into the opening frame. Edmonton defenceman Cody Ceci effectively stopped playing thinking a sequence was offside, allowing Marner to send it in front to Kampf, who beat an abandoned Skinner for his seventh.
But the Oilers got the goal back 1:38 later as McDavid danced around a defender and found the bottom corner for his league-leading 52nd goal. It was his 10th goal in the last five games.
Hyman made it 3-1 with 1:55 to play in the first. He picked up a big rebound off a Mattias Ekholm shot and scored on a long shot with Samsonov going the other way. It was Hyman’s career-best 29th goal of the season, coming against his former team.
Ceci made up for his earlier gaffe 8:46 into the second period as his point shot was deflected by Yamamoto for his sixth.
The Oilers distanced themselves even further with 2:48 left in the second. Ryan McLeod made a perfect feed across to Kostin on a 2-on-1, and he notched his 10th of the season.
Marner cut into the deficit 1:08 into the final frame when he beat Skinner with a wrist shot on the power play.
It seemed as though Edmonton had rapidly responded with another power-play marker by Warren Foegele, but a quick whistle negated the goal.
NOTES
Ekholm, who was acquired in a blockbuster deal between Edmonton and the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, made his Oilers debut. … Defenceman Jake McCabe and forward Sam Lafferty both played their first games as Maple Leafs after coming over in a deal with the Chicago Blackhawks, one of a number of trades Toronto has made recently. Defenceman Luke Schenn joined the Leafs in Edmonton after being acquired in a deal with Vancouver, but did not dress. Fellow blueliner Erik Gustafsson, acquired in a trade with the Washington Capitals, will join the squad in Calgary on Thursday. … Toronto’s William Nylander suited up for his 500th career game. … The Maple Leafs had won their four previous games in Edmonton, outscoring the Oilers 18-2.
UP NEXT
The Maple Leafs head to Calgary to face the Flames on Thursday for the third of a five-game road trip.
The Oilers close out a three-game homestand against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2023.
Canada’s agricultural land is under increasing pressure to produce more food as demand grows domestically and internationally, while the industry grapples with limited resources and environmental constraints, a new report found.
“We need to grow more food on less land and in a volatile climate,” said Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute.
The report by the institute released Thursday looks at the pressures on Canada’s agricultural land to produce more food while also mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change, said McCann.
Despite Canada being a big country, it doesn’t have as much agricultural land as people might think, said McCann, with the report noting that agricultural land makes up only around seven per cent of the country.
Because of that, we can’t take what we do have for granted, he said. “We need to be really thoughtful about how we are using our agricultural land.”
In 2020, Canada was the eighth largest country in terms of cropland area, the report said, with that cropland decreasing by seven per cent over the previous two decades.
Canada is a major producer and net exporter of agriculture and agri-food products, the report said, exporting $91 billion in products in 2022, and one of the top 10 exporters of wheat, canola, pulses, pork and beef.
In the coming years, Canada will face increased demand from countries whose populations are growing, the report said.
“With population growth on one side and climate change on the other, Canada will be amongst an increasingly smaller number of countries that is a net exporter,” said McCann, noting that Canada’s own population is growing, and farmland also needs to be protected against urban sprawl.
The wildfires clouding Canadian skies this week are a “vivid reminder” of the pressure that extreme weather and the changing climate are putting on the agricultural sector, said McCann.
“We need to clearly mitigate … agriculture’s impact on climate change. But we also need to make sure agriculture is adapting to climate change’s impacts,” he said.
One of the ways the world has responded to demand for increased agricultural production over time is to create more agricultural land, in some cases by cutting down forests, said McCann. But that’s not a viable option for Canada, which doesn’t have a lot of land that can be sustainably converted into farmland — and even if it could, doing so could have a variety of adverse environmental effects, he said.
Some of the practices used to reduce emissions and sequester carbon in agriculture can also improve production output on existing farmland, the report found, such as precision agriculture and no-till practices.
However, intensifying the production of current agricultural land also comes with potential environmental downsides, the report said.
For example, McCann said fertilizer is an important part of sustainable agriculture, but there’s a balance to be struck because excessive use of fertilizer can quickly turn food production unsustainable.
“We need to be a lot more thoughtful about the inputs that we’re using,” he said, adding the same can be said about the use of technology in agriculture and the policies and programs put in place to encourage sustainable intensification of Canadian agriculture.
The report recommends that Canada adopt policies that provide financial incentives and technical assistance to farmers and develop regulatory frameworks promoting sustainable land use, as well as promoting education and awareness campaigns, so that the country can “ensure the long-term sustainability of its agricultural sector while protecting the environment.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2023.
Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press
A family member of five slain students holds a heart sign with their names on it following a court decision in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, May 25, 2016. Alberta’s highest court is being asked to overturn a review board decision on the stabbing deaths of five young people at a Calgary house party that confined a man to a supervised Edmonton group home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
By Ritika Dubey in Edmonton
Alberta’s highest court is being asked to overturn a review board decision that confined a man to a supervised Edmonton group home after the stabbing deaths of five young people at a Calgary house party.
The lawyer representing Matthew de Grood argued Wednesday the review board’s decision was biased, citing what she described as political interference from Alberta’s former justice minister.
“The appellant says, ‘I think the conclusion about me is wrong. The board’s conclusion is incorrect and not supported by evidence,”’ Jacqueline Petrie said before the Alberta Court of Appeal. “He says there’s no significant evidence that he’s a risk.”
De Grood, 31, was found not criminally responsible in 2016 for the killings two years earlier of Zackariah Rathwell, Jordan Segura, Kaitlin Perras, Josh Hunter and Lawrence Hong because he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time. Petrie said de Grood has been stable on medication, is at low risk to reoffend and should be allowed to live with his parents while being monitored under a full warrant.
She argued the review board misunderstood medical evidence during the September 2022 review, which deemed de Grood a significant risk despite the assessment showing improvements. She said the board is supposed to recommend the least onerous disposition compatible with public safety and did not do that for de Grood.
The defence lawyer has said the review had been influenced by former justice minister Doug Schweitzer, who weighed in on de Grood’s case in October 2019 after the panel allowed de Grood to transition from institutional care to a supervised group home.
He has been under supervision at a group home. His case is reviewed by the Alberta Review Board yearly to see whether he can transition back into the community while maintaining public safety.
Petrie pointed at de Grood’s “exemplary record,” and that he has been “compliant to the (medical) treatment team.”
“Nobody knew he had schizophrenia (at the time of the stabbings) and needed medication.”
Crown prosecutor Matthew Griener said the board considered a conditional discharge but dismissed it, citing a relapse in schizophrenia symptoms in 2021.
Griener said de Grood’s relapses were brief and happened at the hospital, providing an early window for medical professionals to intervene.
Justice Kevin Feehan said de Grood may be low-risk, but the consequences of even one relapse could be significant.
Reading from an expert’s report, Feehan said: “A low risk to offend doesn’t mean the reoffence would not be severe.”
Some family members of the victims drove from Calgary for the hearing.
Segura’s mother, Patty, said the last nine years have been about de Grood and his rights.
“He should be thankful that he ended up NCR (not criminally responsible) rather than end(ing) with five life sentences for murdering five people,” she said. “He should not be appealing.”
Hunter’s father, Barclay, opposed a potential full release.
“The idea that he wouldn’t be monitored for the rest of his life seems to defy logic, it doesn’t make any sense,” said the father.
Hunter’s mother, Kelly, said the family has had “no healing.”
“We do this every year, at least once. Now, this is the second appeal,” she said. Barclay
Hunter said although there are attempts to reintegrate de Grood into society, he hopes the man is not left on his own with an absolute discharge.
“Regardless of what they say, he killed five people. If that doesn’t stand on its own as a risk factor, then I don’t know what does.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2023.
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