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Weâ€re on our way. We are Tomâ€s 26. This time, more than any other time, this time. Weâ€re going to find a way. Find a way to get it right. This time. Well, maybe. Next time is also good. And the time after that. You donâ€t like this time? We have other times. Hey, Spain are pretty good right now arenâ€t they.

There is an entire multilayered history of Englishness in the basic tone and mood of English World Cup excitement. It is easy to forget that when the 1982 squad, AKA Ronâ€s 22, released the song This Time, a tortured paean to finally erasing their own ancestral agony, England had actually won the World Cup only 16 years earlier.

This was like Spain winning it in 2010 and then doing a song next year saying, oh, finally, finally weâ€re going to assuage our endless generational failure. To be fair, Ronâ€s 22 did a brilliantly authentic job of it, faces set with funereal dignity, belting out their V‑necked Viking death hymn. But then, the English are born to feel this. Itâ€s the safe space: wounded lions, comfort in longing, failure as epic drama, thwarted greatness as a form of national identity.

Through corned beef fumes on the quays of Mexico City, to rage at Gareth Southgate for providing actual, tangible hope, because hope is the one thing theyâ€ll never forgive you for, this has been the tone. It has also been the most beautiful part of England football, more deeply cherished than actually doing well in 1990, or just accepting that maybe weâ€re not very good and need to work out a way to coach and play.

It is important to state all this again now England have qualified with great efficiency for the tournament next year in the US, Mexico and Canada. If only because it makes Thomas Tuchelâ€s job description – win the World Cup or fail – seem less like a doomed mission and more a simple truth. Letâ€s face it, this has been the case for every England manager, even when success has been a much more distant prospect. And right now, pragmatically, logically, England have their best chance of winning a World Cup since 1970.

Thomas Tuchel is trying to bring a sense of clarity to Englandâ€s preparations. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/Reuters

This is not just a patriotic take. For the first time England are led by someone who has both won the Champions League and managed in the domestic top tier. The players are good. They seem unencumbered by the task. It doesnâ€t really matter if Tuchelâ€s England havenâ€t faced any top teams yet. These players come up against elite opponents every week in a global league. We know what Kevin De Bruyne looks like. Itâ€s still hard. But itâ€s not scary any more.

Forget the heat chat too, which belongs to a previous era of donâ€t drink the waterand the food is all muck. To suggest the pressing Tuchel employs is possible only in cold weather is to misunderstand what pressing is, to see it as running constantly as opposed to triggers, controlled traps and keeping the ball in between.

Spain, Germany and Deschamps‑era France have taken up four of the past eight World Cup final spots, all European teams that play a pressing game. Tuchelâ€s tactics speak to the dominant culture, to the way Chelsea pressed Paris Saint-Germain into the turf in New Jersey in July.

This is also not an overreaction to results in qualifying. All of the other teams in Group K were terrible. But England still looked hungry, serious and happy to be there. Outside of one end-of-term defeat by Senegal the record over the past year reads played nine and won nine, with nine clean sheets. No one will fancy facing this England team right now.

Tuchel would do well to emulate Didier Deschamps†France team. Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

It is important to remember that Tuchel is the key to this. International football is a throwback in many ways. We are accustomed to the idea of managers having some kind of “philosophyâ€. Success is a process: banana bread, bald men with iPads, adherence to the famed Benelux school of the blitz-rage counter-swarm.

In international football the manager is just as important, but leadership is the opposite thing. Itâ€s about clarity, about taking things away more than adding them. Southgate got this, but was still in love with the quest, still talked about fighter pilots a lot, still saw his role as crawling, Shawshank-style, through an eight‑year tunnel of shit.

Tuchel seemed puzzled by this at first. Here is a man whose life has been the overthinking of football, asked now to contemplate clarity, simple stuff, underthinking. He has, though, worked it out in real time, aided by the hugely underrated virtue of not actually seeming to want the job that much.

Their tactics are simple: defend as a unit, attack at speed. Even better, not since Fabio Capello have England had a manager so clear the job will not define him. Where Capello also had the key demerits of being tactically outmoded and not speaking English, which was in effect like being managed by a very angry tailorâ€s mannequin, Tuchel has a bracing fearlessness, the sense that this is simply an interesting project, unafraid to dish it out to fans, players, hacks, his predecessor.

It is at this point the omission of star players raises its head, a point of strength, but also something that needs to be managed and understood. As long ago as 1982 the video for This Time was dominated by closeups of Kevin Keeganâ€s hammy, sombre face, the unfit star who would ultimately prove just a distraction, and separately of Noel Edmonds, perfectly primped and hair-sprayed, with that familiar celebrity helicopter gunship salesman energy.

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Englandâ€s 1982 World Cup song This Time is still relevant as England retain a sense of being wounded lions. Photograph: BBC Pictures Archives

This has always been an English vice. Losing the run of yourself when confronted with actual talent, jamming every famous face into the team, convinced your star players are magic buttons, that to be English and good is to make the world kneel before you, to carry the Ark of the Covenant into battle.

This is where Tuchelâ€s approach is both interesting and also an act of pragmatism. It may feel exhilarating to omit the semi‑fit fancy boys, Jude, Phil, Jack, Trent, to embrace this as an act of performative hair shirt-ism. We are the humblest. We are exceptionally unexceptional.

But this is not grandstanding. It is just good sense. Tuchel is doing this because England have an overload of No 10s and they only need one, and a choice of inside forwards. But the door is not closed. There is still plenty of time for Jude Bellingham, for example, to return with a clear role in a functioning unit. A disciplined Bellingham would be a huge bonus for Tuchel. But only, as has been the mantra to this point, when the team demands it.

Another advantage: Tuchel knows where his players rank in the elite tier. To win a World Cup England will need to beat a combination of Spain, France, Argentina, Portugal, Belgium and others. The real point, and the nub of every tournament, is that they will need to beat teams who keep the ball and who have players just as skilful as their own stars. The only way to do this is to have a system that is balanced, that has no snags or celebrity bodge-jobs.

Tuchel is concerned about Englandâ€s lack of a quality stand-in for Harry Kane. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/The FA/Getty Images

Again this is where realism comes into it, and why Tuchel is not playing mind games when he says England are outsiders. They lack a really high‑grade midfielder, central defender, left-back and a stand-in for Harry Kane, although the use of Elliot Anderson in one of those spots looks like an excellent fix.

A good starting team would look something like: Pickford; James, Guéhi, Stones, Livramento; Rice, Anderson; Saka, Eze, Gordon; Kane. Adam Wharton has a chance still, although Tuchel seems to have doubts about his physical capacities. Cole Palmer is the only star player worth making a real exception for, because he is just so good in that 10 role and so suited to the tempo of the game.

Otherwise England also need to think about non-Kane goals. Morgan Rogers, Eberechi Eze, Anthony Gordon and Jarrod Bowen have 59 caps and six goals combined. Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Bellingham have 14 in 128 games. Why donâ€t you play all your stars? Because they havenâ€t been great.

There have been only manageable tasks to this point. The real outcome will be defined next summer by the finest margins in some steel-and-glass megadrome, when the stitches pull, the tiny details merge into a single narrative, and victory either happens or it doesnâ€t.

Stripping away how that is going to work, putting aside last time, thinking only of this time, is Tuchelâ€s key note of progress. As the manager wields his razor, the most England can hope for is a World Cup that comes down simply to how good you are, which would be a kind of triumph in itself.

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LITTLEROCK, Wash. — Nico flings back a 3-foot dreadlock. He’s up now.

Ahead of him on the tee, Rodron went left, and G went right, so he certainly would be forgiven if his ball also roamed, though straight is the idea. Instead, his ball innocently squirts a couple of inches backward when his driver slides under it. All tee. Nico points at a bystander capturing the scene with his phone and mutters to him to cut that part.

He reloads. And re-misses.

Nico misses for a third time and laughs. Those around him howl. “If he does it a fourth time, I’m quitting,” Rodron cracks.

Some swings here. Some potshots there. That’s golf, in its most unpretentious form. It’s a chance to play, an opportunity to commune and a way to let go, no matter who you are or how you arrived.

Even if where you are is in prison.

Nico and Rodron are both inmates at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, a minimum-security prison outside Olympia, Wash., that houses approximately 450 prisoners who have less than six years left on their sentences. Some of the offenses are severe. Some of the time locked up spans a generation.

And some of the inmates are part of a radical social experiment: that golf can serve as rehabilitation for those whom society would rather forget.

But they would prefer for you to call it Cedar Creek Golf Club.

The prison superintendent is Tim Thrasher, a tattooed, goateed, Harley Davidson-driving former Army brat. But he is also a golfer, a golf romantic, really, the type who believes in the game’s rules and etiquette and that sort of thing, which led him to think that there would be no better activity for Cedar Creek. After all, the goal is for tenants to leave its walls equipped to be your next-door neighbors again.

Then again, Thrasher is placing woods and irons in the hands of inmates. Weapons. Isn’t that naive? Foolhardy?

And isn’t prison designed to punish?

That’s what this country wants, one expert says. A “tough on crime” stance means no games, and certainly not golf, stereotyped to be the pastime of the elite.

But that’s not effective, says Professor Kimora, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York who has studied and worked at prisons throughout the world.

“Those guys are a small minority of people that are actually probably going to do extremely well when they get out,” she said. “Not just survive, they’re going to thrive because of what they’re doing. That’s how valuable what’s going on here is.

“And it’s so rare.”

Thrasher started CCGC about three years ago. And about a year and a half ago, Nico got curious. His old neighborhood has a golf course, though he said he had questions. Do you just pull up and play? What does it cost? Where do you start? So he would only drive past.

“Speaking from my own personal experiences, this is new,” Nico said. “I’m 30 years old and this is completely new. And it’s always something you see as prestige for me. So it’s like, OK, I’m in this situation and it does give me a form of therapy to come up here and be like, OK, I’m about to go golf.

“I never thought I’d be golfing, let alone in prison.”

Now if only Nico could hit that driver. He tried a fourth time.

After he shoved away his hair again, his inked forearms muscled the club toward the ball — and it took flight. His fellow golfers, all dressed in the prison’s garb of white T-shirts and tan pants, cheered. So did Thrasher. He was leaning up against a 15-foot fence rimmed with barbed wire a few feet away.

Tejuan of the Cedar Creek Golf Club.

Darren Riehl

TEJUAN’S BALL WENT OVER THE FENCE. Everyone calls him Zeus, and of course a dude called Zeus can clear that fence. His swing is whippy but governed. Besides playing golf, he lifts, and he prays. Inmates remind him of his shorter height, but he plays along — he also asks Thrasher when the kiddie clubs are coming.

But what you see first is the ink. It’s all over Tejuan. On his shaved head. His face. His arms. He has operated tattoo parlors all over the country.

He says the silent part out loud: “I definitely don’t look like your average golfer.”

Then again, who does here?

The routine is dull at Cedar Creek. Inmates rise around 5:30 a.m., from either a one- or two-bedroom unit without bars. They go to work on construction, maintenance and outdoors jobs, among others. Classes are available. Therapy, too. Drugs are a constant worry. Downtime is spent in various ways, though pickleball is king.

And golf is played.

By Tejuan.

He still seems awed by the idea.

“Never in a million years,” he said. “Never. Never.”

Why?

He had heard prison stories. He knew the prison stereotypes. He expected four-letter words, just not “g-o-l-f.” He thought he might play football, like in “The Longest Yard.” Never golf.

“It’s never something that could actually advance you in life, like golf could actually advance you in life,” Tejuan said. “Just the principles that you apply when you play golf. Then when you apply that to your life, you know, and also just the socialization that you actually get when you go to golf courses.

“There’s a different element at golf courses. There’s a different lifestyle that comes with playing golf. It’s an expensive sport, so you have to actually have a job. You have to pay for everything. So it keeps you working. It’s not like anything else, and it also, I’ll say, gives you a leg up.”

To be clear, there is golf inside Cedar Creek, but there is no golf course. The participants gather on a softball field during the summer and in a gym the rest of the year. Play is from 6:30 to 8:30 every Wednesday night; a confirmation is sent over email, and a few minutes before things start, an announcement crackles the yard speakers: “Last call for golfers.” They hit pitch shots first, with foam balls, to a carpeted green guarded by a small bunker on its back-right side. Then 75-yard shots, atop a wooden pallet fitted with a green mat. Finally, they hit drives toward the left-field fence and towering Washington pines. (Balls that carry the obstacle are eventually picked up by prison guards — and dropped outside of Thrasher’s office.) Everything is a competition, and experience varies. The winners earn toiletries, a prized possession in prison. Smack is given to all. Even to Thrasher, who also plays.

To Tejuan, golf is new. His grandfather once tried to teach him, but that was short-lived after Tejuan mostly kicked the golf balls. Recently, he reconnected with his son after a seven-year separation, and they talked golf. His son watched a local news report on Cedar Creek’s program, and there was his dad, playing golf, on TV. He felt proud. Dad, too. No matter that he was playing golf inside a prison.

No matter his appearance.

Golf, he said, has given him the chance “to be around people that I probably wouldn’t.” The reverse could be true there, too — those people probably wouldn’t have been around him, either. That’s changed him. He had once built up hostility. But with golf and its interactions, that feels lessened now. That’s freeing.

“The only way I can say it is I guess it helps with my self-image, my personal thoughts on how I’m actually perceived by the world around me,” Tejuan said.

“Like I say, I forget I look like this. I’ve been in certain situations where people don’t want to talk to me. … First impression is everything. So, like, if you never get a chance to talk to me or interact with me and you look at me, I look like something in a zoo. You know, I get that.”

Members of the Cedar Creek Golf Club.

Darren Riehl

SHOULD INMATES BE ALLOWED TO PLAY GOLF?Thrasher has heard that one regularly. But maybe that question can be answered with another question:

Should former inmates be allowed to play golf with their prison superintendent?

Brandon has. He played in CCGC while incarcerated, and on a recent Sunday afternoon, he played nine holes on a real course with Thrasher. He was nervous; it was his first actual round in years, and, as he put it, “when you’re part of the criminal underworld, you don’t exactly have time for golf.” Brandon dressed like a Tour pro — red Titleist hat, a white polo shirt, blue pants — though Thrasher wondered if the patriotic-looking ensemble was a nod to the late Hulk Hogan.

Thrasher, who’s a single-digit handicap, also told Brandon on the sixth tee that if he could beat him on just one hole on the way in, he would give him one of the T-shirts he recently had made for CCGC. Thrasher’s first shot found water; Brandon laid up. Game on. But Brandon’s second shot also found water after he topped it. Then he chunked one. Thrasher grabbed his phone and hit the play button. David Bowie and Freddie Mercury began to sing.

Pressure
Pushing down on me
Pressing down on you
No man ask for
Under pressure

Yeah, yeah, Brandon said.

Every inmate, present or past, wants to beat Thrasher, and he loves it more than he loves making birdies. He has been around the game his whole life. Mom worked at a course. Dad taught him how to play. His dad also once worked with the father of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.But if you’re talking ’90’s Seattle music, Thrasher is an Alice in Chains guy. And a Vegas guy; last month, he went to see a fight. But golf is his thing, and when he was hired as Cedar Creek’s superintendent in 2022, he wondered about bringing the game with him. He watched the inmates. He talked with the staff. Thrasher hung flyers, about 75 inmates responded, and 15 were chosen. Opening day came in October 2022.

“A hot mess,” Thrasher said.

They made tweaks — the wisest among them: using foam balls for indoor play — but most of the equipment remains his, and the time he invests in the program is also his own. CCGC also has pick ’em pools for all of the majors, and, over popcorn and Gatorade, they watch Netflix’s “Full Swing,” then review it. Naturally, they are enthralled by the story of pro Ryan Peake, who spent five years in prison before winning an Asian Tour event earlier this year and qualifying for the Open Championship.

For the inmates, one of the most surreal parts of CCGC is that they’re doing all of this with the super, of all people.

The man holding the key.

The enemy.

There’s an appeal here, though. Not only can you beat him, but you also don’t have to worry about him beating you down.

Rodron called Thrasher genuine.

Nico said he was present.

Brandon said their round felt almost as if he were playing with a friend.

“My old cellie was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to go to Cedar Creek; they have golf and all this other stuff,’” Brandon said. “But I don’t want to say prison was fun — it’s something I don’t want to do again — but it made it livable because you can’t be locked up 24 hours a day. They’re going to come out and just not be normal people in society, so I think they made it, as much as possible, as normal as they could.

“I’m not saying I had a great time there, but compared to what people are doing on the streets now with the fentanyl and everything else, I take it as a blessing that I had a reset in life, that I’m not just a statistic.”

Should inmates be allowed to play golf?

To Thrasher, golf is just the medium.

If the inmates can play golf with him — the prison superintendent, their antagonist — think of how they will interact with everyone else.

“It’s going to be second nature to them that they’re going to be nice to people, that they’re going to not break rules anymore,” Professor Kimora said. “The fact that they were invited to do this stuff means that those folks trusted them. There’s no relationship if there’s no trust.

“What kinds of relationships do people have in prison? They’re suspicious of everybody, right?”

Rodron of Cedar Creek Golf Club.

Darren Riehl

BUT SHOULD INMATES GET TO LEAVE THE PRISON WALLS TO PLAY GOLF ON AN ACTUAL COURSE? When Rodron heard that was a possibility, he was in. And when he reached the course on a Tuesday afternoon in July, you could hear Rodron. On the tee box. In the fairway. On the green. He’s a talker. Here’s how he described four CCGC members — along with Thrasher and one of the prison’s officers:

“Mike, he’s too quiet. He’s trash.”

“Tejuan, tattooed. When I first met him, I was scared of him. But that’s my guy.”

“Devin, we butt heads all the time. He’s a piece of crap, too.”

“G’s the guy. He’s the leader.”

And Thrasher? Rodron has golf thoughts.

“I can’t wait to get out and kick his butt. Can’t wait. Him and Doug. Doug’s my boss at maintenance. The biggest shit-talker in the world. Can I say that? The biggest trash-talker.”

Thrasher calls Rodron, a Mississippi native, “the Mouth of the South.” But he can back up the smack. Rodron is CCGC’s best player. He says he has played on courses you’ve heard of, and with a few golfers you know. He says his father was an Alabama judge, and his uncle, a probation officer, taught him golf. Rodron then showed his daughter and son how to play. They’re everything to him. And they should have seen their dad at The Home Course, about 20 minutes from Olympia. At CCGC’s first real outing, on a course that has hosted USGA events, Rodron hit the first shot and found the first fairway.

Thrasher had coordinated the day through the course, the Pacific Northwest Golf Association and the prison, after thinking of ways to further develop the program. Five inmates attended, each paired with an officer, and they played a four-hole scramble; they also listened to a job presentation by the course’s maintenance staff.

On the van ride over, Thrasher handed out the T-shirts he had made — red with a logo over the heart displaying “CCGC,” a skull and two crossbones in the shape of golf clubs. As a state patrol car drove past, someone shouted to watch the speed limit, to which Rodron responded: “What are they going to do, arrest us?” At another point, Thrasher deadpanned: “What if this were fake news and we were taking you all to max security?”

Then they played golf. Shots were hit. Shots were mishit. Potshots were fired. On the par-5 third hole, Thrasher dropped an iron to 3 feet. All seven players missed the putt. That was a lowlight, for golf purposes, but a highlight for the trash talk. On the last hole, a par-3, everyone teed off together.

In six years or less, everyone now at Cedar Creek will be able to play The Home Course or anywhere else seven days a week, should they choose. Rodron says he’ll be back. On Day 1 on the outside, he’ll play with his kids. But prisons such as Cedar Creek stare at a grim statistic: According to the U.S. Department of Justice, about two-thirds of released inmates will eventually be reincarcerated, or about 425,000 individuals a year. CCGC’s number? So far, it’s zero, but the program is in its nascent stages.

Still, it’s encouraging, and CCGC’s best golfer has an idea of why the program may be working.

“When you get sentenced by the judge, that’s it,” Rodron said. “You go, you do time. But if you want me to come back into society a better person, then give me all the tools to do that. So what Thrasher is doing is a great thing. A lot of people in the community might not see it that way. But it’s bettering these men. You can see it. The camaraderie, the diversity.

“Most of us wouldn’t even talk to each other in prison, because of prison politics, they call it. But in golf, we do.”

Something deeper may also be at work. Social psychologists who have worked in prisons will tell you that what inmates need most is a sense of humanity. Rodron says that at one point at The Home Course, he shut his eyes and thought the excursion was a real round.

What is the byproduct of that?

Hopefully, inmates feel rehabilitated.

And what’s the derivative of that?

They don’t return.

“It’s about humans interacting with other humans,” Professor Kimora said. “If people could get away from this attitude that those people who are incarcerated are meaningless … that could change the whole correctional system in this country.”

Late on that Tuesday afternoon, Cedar Creek’s van pulled away from The Home Course. Back to prison.

On Wednesdays, they will play at CCGC again. Tejuan will smack one, and Rodron will talk his smack. Maybe Nico will connect with the driver. Whether the program will actually work, though, is anyone’s guess, no matter its intent.

But a tee time has already been made.

On the ride to The Home Course, Thrasher had asked the five golfers when they were being released. Soon, some said. A couple of years, another chimed in. Good enough, Thrasher said.

There would have to be a reunion.

“We’re all playing together in 2027 then.”

Five ex-prisoners and a prison superintendent. Six golfers.

Maybe one or two drivers under the tee.

The author can be reached atnick.piastowski@golf.com.

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Matt McCarty shot the best score of his young PGA Tour career and was never more disappointed.

McCarty reached his final hole Sunday at the Baycurrent Classic with a chance at 58 to tie the 18-hole record on the PGA Tour. One swing ended those hopes. He hit it into the trees, couldn’t find it and had to make a 15-foot putt for bogey and a 60.

“One swing away from a 58,†McCarty said. “It’s a tough way to finish a really good day.â€

Jim Furyk set the PGA Tour record with a 58 in the final round of the Travelers Championship in 2016. There have been 14 other rounds at 59, most recently by Jake Knapp in the Cognizant Classic earlier this year.

McCarty started on No. 10 at Yokohama Country Club, 13 shots out of the lead. He made four birdies on the back nine, and then made birdie on every hole on the front nine until reaching the 409-yard ninth hole, which bends sharply left.

“I was a little tight and tried to guide it too much,†McCarty said. “I thought I had a chance around the corner.â€

He figures it hit a tree and kicked left into a forest. McCarty took the penalty, hit his third shot from tee and and did well to make bogey.

“It’s weird to play that well and come off the course feeling this this,†he said.

Former England bowler Chris Woakes says Ben Stokes’ side “have a hell of a chance” of winning the Ashes in Australia for the first time since 2010-11 this winter.

Woakes retired from international cricket last month after a shoulder injury sustained in his 62nd and final Test against India this summer ruled him out of the tour.

The 36-year-old was part of two Ashes tours in which England failed to win a Test but is confident of a better showing this winter.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Going to Australia is a different beast. I’m hoping the guys can go and do a good job and we’ve got a great chance this time.

“We have great depth and a great squad. The lads in the first XI, if they can stay fit and on the field we have a hell of a chance.

“Ashes cricket is played with more venom behind it but these players have played a lot of international cricket and enough to know what it’s about.

“We have been building nicely over the last few years but not quite got over the line in the big series, but it doesn’t get any bigger than this.

“We are due a competitive performance down under and these guys have got that in the locker.”

Woakes called time on his career when it became clear he would not be fit to make the Ashes tour.

But he thinks he would have been selected without the injury – which famously saw him come out to bat against India with his arm in a sling – and says he is ‘on track’ to make a playing return in franchise cricket by the end of the year.

He said: “From the moment I was injured it would have been a real push to get fit for the Ashes and they needed to select the squad. It was clear I wasn’t going to make it.

“In my mind I would have made the squad if I didn’t get injured, I have a lot to give and it’s always good to have guys who have done it in Australia and know what is expected.

“Physically I feel great apart from a freak accident with the shoulder and it’s repairing nicely and getting stronger.

“I have made big progress in the last few weeks and am hoping to play some franchise cricket in December.”

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Trust from Oilers general manager Stan Bowman, as Skinner becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season.

Trust from the hockey world — and Oilers fans — two entities that are (to put it nicely) not sold on Skinnerâ€s ability to provide championship goaltending.

But, most importantly, trust from his teammates. Belief inside an Oilers dressing room that houses a roster — and a captain — that is more than ready to win, that Skinnerâ€s game can help them get there.

Because if he is not that goalie, then itâ€s time for Bowman to find that goalie. No more waiting for Stu.

Skinnerâ€s “trust†season started in arrears on opening night in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames, as he coughed up a deflating, game-tying goal just 40 seconds into the third period. Skinner moved far too slowly in handling a dump-in from centre ice, allowing Blake Coleman to poke a puck through his legs and into the net.

“I just had to make a quicker decision,†said Skinner, who has always been patient in describing a miscue and courageous in facing the media in good times and bad. “The game happens fast down there, and it’s just kind of a miscommunication, and I was slow to react to.

“If that doesn’t go in, we win the game. Two points. But you know what? The way that we responded as a team was fantastic.â€

Itâ€s awesome that Skinner takes blame for the shaky goal that ruins an otherwise pretty good night, and itâ€s great that his teammates are so good at bouncing back from them.

Whatâ€s not so awesome is the fact that he so often finds himself standing there, answering to one of those back-breaking goals.

And his teamâ€s ability to weather a softie? Perhaps that comes from practice.

“It was one bad decision and it makes you look really bad and thatâ€s kind of how it goes,†said Skinner. “At the start of the third period, making a decision like that killed our momentum and made it 3-3.â€

Bowman may lose some sleep over it. McDavid may as well.

But Skinner wonâ€t, a coping mechanism that comes with the position.

“I wonâ€t be thinking about it, no,†he said. “It happens. Itâ€s probably the easiest fix Iâ€ll make this year. A quick decision, throw it in the corner, thatâ€s that.â€

As a team, Edmonton didnâ€t have the finish it required at five-on-five, and could have won the game in a shootout.

But you know what else it didnâ€t have? A goalie who made sure it never reached extra time, against a Flames team that doesnâ€t have much push.

That bleeder of a goal, in the first game of a season that begins with a major question mark hovering above the Oilers’ crease, was a gut punch.

“Anytime you get scored on, yes, it’s a gut punch,†said head coach Kris Knoblauch, who found himself in a familiar spot Wednesday — sitting behind a podium, protecting his starter after another bad goal. “Whether it’s us playing an almost perfect first half of the game, and then we get sloppy, and they score on (a fluke deflection) goal — that was a gut punch (too).

“We had a 3-2 lead. We should be fine, but it happens.â€

It happens too often around here, and hereâ€s why that is going to become a problem for Skinner:

Weâ€ve been making a living around hockey players for more than three decades, and one thing weâ€ve come to know is that the players always know.

They know when a teammate can help, and when he canâ€t. Usually before the coach or GM knows.

They know the difference between a good player getting some bad luck, and a player whose luck is always bad because that is what his game earns him.

This train has made it to two Cup Finals, losing twice for a number of reasons — but including the fact that the Florida Panthers had better goaltending than Edmonton.

Either Skinner changes that this season, or Bowman changes it.

And if the team canâ€t trust its ‘tendy, I know where my money is.

The Oilers announced Wednesday night they had signed the free agent Jack Roslovic to a one-year deal worth $1.5 million.

GM Stan Bowman stood on the sidelines while Roslovic tested the free agent waters all summer, telling his agent, “We love the player. We don’t have a lot of money to spend right now,†Bowman said after the deal was announced. “So if he wants to come here and bet on himself and get a chance to play, we’d love to have him.â€

What resulted was a one-year deal for a right-shot winger/centre who had 22 goals and 39 points for Carolina last year. His 21 even-strength goals were tied for the Hurricanes†team lead.

“The one thing we’re trying to add to our group is even strength scoring,†said Bowman. “Obviously, our power play has been pretty strong the last few years. We haven’t had as much success scoring when we weren’t on the power play.â€

The Oilers are the fifth team for the 28-year-old Columbus, Ohio native, drafted 25th overall by Winnipeg a decade ago.

“The type of player we would be looking for around the trade deadline would be this type of a player, exactly,†Bowman said. “He’s available now, and he’s a free agent. You can get him signed, at a low amount… There’s a lot of things that really worked in our favour.â€

Roslovic will join the team this week, but Bowman will have to make a roster move before activating him.

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October 7, 2025 | Paul Stimpson

Young athletes and their parents will have the chance to find out more about the new GB Youth Academy at an open day next month.

The event, from 11am to 2pm at Grantham College, will showcase both the Academy and the Grantham College Table Tennis Academy.

It will include details on the application process and entry requirements, as well as an opportunity to take part in a practice session with the new GBYA coach and Table Tennis England performance coaches.

There will also be the chance to meet education partners and explore study options, a guided tour of the accommodation and a Q&A with college and Table Tennis England staff.

The Academy, in partnership with Grantham College and Charles Read Academy, will launch in February 2026.

Around 10 players per year, aged 12-18, will be able to combine education with the high-class practice and support they need in their quest to win medals on the international stage and create a supply of quality players into the senior England and GB squads.

The head of the GB Youth Academy will lead the group and will deliver a training and international competition programme, with players having access to 20+ hours a week of training, with minimum engagement expectations to be part of the programme.

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When Chase Stillman learned heâ€d been traded to the Vancouver Canucks organization this summer, it was unexpected but exciting. Rather than dwelling on the uncertainty of being moved, not once, but twice in the same season, the 22-year-old forward is choosing to focus on what it represents: opportunity.

“It was awesome,†Stillman said. “Obviously, getting traded twice in the same season is a lot on a player, but at the end of the day, youâ€ve got to look at it as someone wanting you. I got traded for a pretty important piece on the team last year, so itâ€s clear they see me as high value.â€

That mindset —resilient, grounded, and optimistic — has defined Stillmanâ€s approach to his career so far. The American-born winger, originally drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the 2021 NHL Draft, joins the Canucks organization that prizes speed, grit, and relentless competition. After a strong showing at training camp, Stillman began the year in Abbotsford, where heâ€s eager to establish himself as a key piece of the teamâ€s forward group.

“I just want to get my foot in the door and play in the NHL,†Stillman said. “Regardless of what that takes or what kind of player I have to be to get there. Thatâ€s the goal this year. Itâ€s a brand new season, zeros across the board, so Iâ€m just trying to enjoy the process.â€

Over the summer, Stillman focused on building both his physical strength and mental resilience. He trained with his agencyâ€s development group alongside other pros, sharpening his skating and conditioning, but he admits the mental reset was just as important.

“It was a tough start to last year, for sure,†he reflected. “But mentally, Iâ€ve been working on building back my confidence and remembering that every season is a clean slate. Iâ€ve been really excited about coming here. The fans are great, and obviously, Canada loves their hockey.â€

Stillmanâ€s enthusiasm for Vancouver is palpable, and heâ€s already experienced a taste of whatâ€s to come. “I played in the exhibition game here in Abbotsford, and it was pretty rowdy,†he laughed. “Iâ€m excited to see what itâ€s like during the regular season for sure.â€

Hockey runs deep in the Stillman family. His father, Cory, played over 1,000 NHL games and won two Stanley Cups, while his brother, Riley, is a defenceman in the Buffalo Sabres organization. When asked if his brother had any advice about playing in Vancouver, Chase smiled.

“Yeah, he said the fans really like their hockey here. Regardless of what you do or what your job is, if you do your job really well, youâ€re going to be liked. Thereâ€s no better feeling than when youâ€ve got fans that love the way you play.â€

For Stillman, thatâ€s what this new chapter is about: proving himself to a new city, a new organization, and to the fans who fill the stands. “I just want to show them that Iâ€m a fun player to watch,†he said. “That I can do a lot of things on the ice. Iâ€m excited to get going.â€

Make sure you bookmark THN’s Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, don’t forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum. This article originally appeared on The Hockey News.

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With perpetuated struggles on defense, the Philadelphia Flyers must keep an open mind towards their options, internally and externally, at the position.

On Friday, the Boston Bruins placed former No. 11 overall pick Victor Soderstrom, a right-hand shot, on waivers, making him available to the Flyers if the team deems him worthy.

At this point, the Flyers may as well be open to anything and everything.

Head coach Rick Tocchet subtly but bluntly called out the struggling Egor Zamula after Thursday night’s 4-3 preseason loss to the New York Islanders, whereas Adam Ginning did nothing to cede his spot as the de facto No. 5 defenseman.

Other options, like veterans Noah Juulsen and Dennis Gilbert, have been less than stellar in their preseason action. Gilbert has a team-worst 20.69% Corsi percentage (out-shot 23-6 at 5-on-5) in two games this preseason, according to Natural Stat Trick.

As for Zamula, he’s just barely ahead of Gilbert, getting out-shot 42-18 (30%) at 5-on-5 and out-chanced 14-8.

Soderstrom, 24, is a 6-foot puck-mover returning to North America after spending a year with Brynäs IF of the SHL, with whom he scored nine goals, 28 assists, and 37 points in 49 games last season.

Flyers Working to Turn Nikita Grebenkin Into ‘A Force’
While it’s still early, the Philadelphia Flyers may have found themselves a hidden gem in winger prospect Nikita Grebenkin, who continues to impress in the NHL preseason and training camp.

The Swede has 170 games of AHL experience and 53 games of NHL experience, and he’s still fairly young relative to his playing experience.

In three games of preseason action with the Bruins, Soderstrom has been narrowly out-shot 51-48 at 5-on-5 and out-chanced 31-18, though he hasn’t necessarily been equipped to succeed with the lumbering Nikita Zadorov and a likely career AHLer in Michael Callahan as his defense partners.

With the Flyers, Soderstrom could benefit from a more mobile and equally experienced Nick Seeler, who is accustomed to playing as Jamie Drysdale’s safety valve, or a confident and surging Adam Ginning, who has seemingly found a new lease on life at the NHL level with a strong training camp thus far.

The 2019 No. 11 overall pick would also give the Flyers some semblance of offense from that third defense pair, which would have otherwise been comprised entirely of bruisers and stay-at-home defenders.

Soderstrom is at his best with the puck on his stick and when he’s moving his feet, which, in theory, should also work well in Tocchet’s passive-aggressive Box +1 defensive system. He should be hounding down pucks and them making plays with them after.

And, if it doesn’t work out, no harm, no foul. Rasmus Ristolainen should return for the Flyers by some point in November, but until then, Philadelphia needs to exhaust all options necessary to keep themselves afloat.

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  David PurdumSep 29, 2025, 11:42 AM ET

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  • Joined ESPN in 2014
  • Journalist covering gambling industry since 2008

In early September, the Cleveland Guardians were such long shots to overtake the front-running Detroit Tigers in the American League Central that sportsbooks took the odds to win the division off the board.

One month later, the Guardians are AL Central champs, after an odds-defying run that earned them home-field advantage in their wild-card series against the Tigers.

On Sept. 1, Detroit owned a 10.5-game lead over the Guardians and was listed at -20,000 to win their division at ESPN BET, meaning a bettor would have to risk $20,000 on Detroit to win just $100. A spokesperson for ESPN BET said the sportsbook did take “a few bets” on the Tigers at that price but declined to provide specifics. The Guardians were 80-1 to win the division entering September.

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Detroit promptly went on a downward spiral, going 7-17, the worst final month of a season by a playoff team since the World Series began in 1903, according to ESPN Research. Cleveland capitalized, overtaking the Tigers in the final week of the regular season and clinching the division title Sunday when Detroit lost to the Boston Red Sox and the Guardians beat the Texas Rangers.

It was an improbable turnaround. On July 28, the Guardians were as long as 281-1 to win the division at Circa Sports. The sportsbook took its division odds off the board on Sept. 4 and didn’t put them back up until nearly two weeks later.

“I typically stop offering odds to win a division if the odds for the favorite are north of -10000, which the Tigers were for a while,” Circa Sports sportsbook director Chris Bennett told ESPN. “People don’t like to bet into those implied probabilities.”

Kevin Higgins, a 33-year-old sports bettor from Brook Park, Ohio, didn’t wait until September to back the Guardians. He took his position on Cleveland in July, when few thought the Guardians were headed anywhere but home after September.

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Before placing a series of bets on Cleveland, Higgins studied the Guardians’ schedule and noted that, as of July 8, they had played against more teams that were above .500 than any other team in the AL. He also noticed their schedule after the All-Star Break began with series against a string of bottom-dwellers such as the Athletics Athletics, Baltimore Orioles and Colorado Rockies. At that point, he placed around $85 in bets, some through promotional credits, on the Guardians to win the AL Central for a chance at $5,210.

“On Monday, I cashed it out for $1,277 to guarantee myself a good win no matter what happened in the series versus Detroit,” Higgins said. “I felt like I was setting myself up for a win-win — especially with my wife and I expecting our first baby to be born October 6th. It was a good idea to make sure of some profit.”

The Guardians host the Tigers on Tuesday in Game 1 of their wild-card series. Detroit is a slight favorite over Cleveland to win the series.

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