National Sports

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus coach John Tortorella didn't want to talk much hockey after the Blue Jackets' wild New Year's Eve win over the Ottawa Senators.

VICTORIA — The United States' team was without centre Jack Hughes for Monday's game against Finland at the world junior hockey championship. It was the third consecutive game an undisclosed injury kept the highly-touted forward from the U.S.

NEWARK, N.J. — Mackenzie Blackwood has provided an expected lift for the New Jersey Devils. Blackwood posted his second straight shutout, stopping 25 shots in the Devils' 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.

TORONTO — In the wake of acquiring pitchers Clayton Richard and Matt Shoemaker, Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins says he is still open to more moves. The priority remains more pitching depth.

VANCOUVER — Maxime Comtois' teammates were stunned on Boxing Day when he started screaming in the tunnel before Team Canada took the ice in their first game of the world junior hockey championship. "I didn't know what was going on.

TORONTO — Fred VanVleet doesn't believe in New Years resolutions. If he did, playing with a greater sense of urgency in 2019 would be one.

DAVOS, Switzerland — Jaakko Rissanen scored in the eighth round of a shootout to give Finnish club KalPa Kuopio a 2-1 win over three-time defending champion Canada in the final of the Spengler Cup on Monday.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Figure skating champion Kaetlyn Osmond will be receiving the highest honour in her home province — the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador. Osmond, 23, left Marystown, N.L.

Ted Urness, a six-time CFL all-star offensive lineman who helped the Saskatchewan Roughriders win the 1966 Grey Cup, has died at 81. The Roughriders announced Urness's death in a Twitter post on Sunday. A cause of death was not given.

While the NHL turns its attentions to the outdoor Winter Classic, video gamers have been playing outdoors for some time. In fact the "NHL 19" slogan is "From the pond to the pros.