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Every single NBA player knelt for the National Anthem at their season opener tonight.Every one. They are millionaires who hate their country.Some held up the black power fist. The Chi-Coms would be pleased. The @PelicansNBA & @utahjazz kneel for the National Anthem ahead of the NBA restart. pic.twitter.com/TCFolP06HM— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) July 30, 2020 While every NBA player, official and umpire knelt for the National Anthem EVERY hockey player for Boston and Columbus STOOD UP for the National Anthem. Every single one STOOD UP IN RESPECT! Top story: @Ponie333: ‘Players and coaches STANDING in solidarity for the national...

BOSTON (CBS) — Brad Marchand’s Wednesday morning in Toronto began with a bang, as the Bruins’ star winger fired off an emotional tweet directed at a Boston Globe reporter. “Are you [expletive] serious Porter?” Marchand tweeted at Boston Globe reporter Matt Porter. “This here is why you are part of the problem.” The tweet came in response to Porter sharing a screen shot of Tuukka Rask being interviewed on NBC Sports while wearing a Boston Police hat. That tweet was attached to another tweet, which shared the statement from Bruins players expressing their plan to lock arms during the national...

Welcome to the Stanley Cup Qualifiers Thread. The 24 teams who will be competing for the Stanley Cup are in their respective hub cities (Toronto for the 12 Eastern Conference teams, Edmonton for the 12 Western Conference teams). Exhibition games started Tuesday and the Stanley Cup Qualifiers begin Saturday.

**SNIP** NHL players from the 24 playoff teams woke up to their new reality Monday in the hub cities of Toronto and Edmonton, Alberta. Quarantined bubble life began with the league reporting zero positive coronavirus test results last week, and this existence away from the public is scheduled to last until the Stanley Cup is awarded in the fall. “We asked our group right from the start just to keep open minds because everything’s going to change, everything’s fluctuating constantly, daily, minutely,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “It’s different. You’ve got a walkway with fences. People can’t see in. You...

Jeremy Roenick is suing NBC Sports for wrongful termination, saying that he was fired for saying something deemed vulgar, while a gay colleague who made similar comments was not reprimanded.

Hockey commentator Jeremy Roenick is firing back at NBC Sports, accusing his former employer of discriminating against him for being straight. Roenick was fired by NBC Sports back in February after he made sexually suggestive remarks about colleagues Kathryn Tappen and Patrick Sharp on a podcast. Now Roenick has filed a lawsuit against the network in New York Supreme Court, claiming wrongful termination and discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation, according to our sister site Variety. Roenick’s lawsuit states that figure skating commentator Johnny Weir made “colorful commentary” about skaters’ body parts for NBC Sports during the 2018 Winter...

Round-robin, best-of-5 series begin Aug. 1 in Toronto, EdmontonHere is the day-by-day and series-by-series schedule for the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers. All Eastern Conference games will be played at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto; Western Conference games will be held at Rogers Place in Edmonton. The top four teams in each conference, based on points percentage, will play a three-game round-robin, and the No. 5-12 seeds will play in eight best-of-5 series. The winners of those series will advance to the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the four teams from the round-robin.

Guidelines set for COVID-19 testing with training camps to begin July 13 Phase 3 is scheduled to begin at team facilities July 13. Teams will then travel to two centralized hub cities on July 26 for Phase 4, which is resumption of play, with the Stanley Cup Qualifiers starting Aug. 1. Play will resume with the qualifiers, which will include 16 teams playing eight best-of-5 series and a round-robin among the top four teams in points percentage in each conference to determine seeding for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Here are key questions and answers about the protocols for Phases 3...

The NHL and NHL Players’ Association agreed Sunday on protocols to resume the season, a major step toward the return of hockey this summer. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press there was an agreement on protocols for training camps and games and the sides are still negotiating an extension of the collective bargaining agreement, which is crucial to the process. A person with knowledge of the situation said the return-to-play protocols would only go into effect if each side votes to approve the full package of the CBA extension and return-to-play agreement. The person spoke on condition of...

The No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft will be determined by the Second Phase of the NHL Draft Lottery after the results of the First Phase on Friday. The team will be one of the eight that are eliminated from the Stanley Cup Qualifiers and will be determined by a second drawing to be held before the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Each of the eliminated teams will have a 12.5 percent chance of winning the No. 1 pick. The Los Angeles Kings moved up to the No. 2 pick, and the Ottawa Senators will have the...

More insanity coming from Seattle.

The new arena under construction at Seattle Center has a name: Climate Pledge Arena, as announced by Oak View Group, NHL Seattle and Amazon Thursday in what promises to be nothing short of a transformational partnership for the city and Pacific Northwest, sports and entertainment industries and the planet. The partnership was formed to make the Climate Pledge Arena the first zero-carbon arena in the world, powered exclusively by renewable energy including both on-site and offsite solar rather than the widespread standard use of natural gas in arenas and stadiums. The arena will run solely on electric for daily operations,...

Training camps for the 24 NHL teams resuming play will open July 10, the League and NHL Players' Association announced Thursday. "Now everybody can plan what they have to do," Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill told the Dallas Morning News. "Now the wheels are in motion." Phase 3 of the NHL Return to Play Plan will occur provided that medical and safety conditions allow, and the parties have reached an agreement on resuming play. The length of training camp and the start date for resumption of play (Phase 4) will be determined. "Obviously that's good news for us, having...

“Any quick history lesson about how owners in sports have acted over time, how they’ve interacted with communities and governments and public coffers and everything else will tell you that greed dictates basically whatever they try to do,” Bryant Gumbel bluntly says of the motivation behind leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB and the NHL to get their players back in action from the coronavirus lockdown of the past two months. “I think they view athletes as commodities to get them to an end,” the host of HBO’s Real Sports added. Never one to play it safe over the 25-seasons...

The NHL announced its Return to Play Plan on Tuesday with the Stanley Cup Playoffs that will include 24 teams. The tournament will begin with a 16-team, eight-series Qualifying Round and a Seeding Round Robin among the top four teams in each conference to determine seeds for the First Round. The NHL paused the regular season March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus and it will not be completed. The 12 qualifying teams from the Eastern and Western conferences were determined by points percentage as of that date. Seven teams did not qualify. "I want to make clear that...

Top medical officials from major U.S. sports leagues and entities spoke on a Tuesday conference call with White House Coronavirus Task Force members, according to USA Today Sports and ESPN. The purpose of the discussion reportedly was a look at how sports might fit into President Donald Trump’s plan to restart the economy when the COVID-19 pandemic eases. Per ESPN, the call included representatives of Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, the WNBA, the NHL, the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, the NCAA, the College Football Playoff (CFP), the National Women’s Soccer League, NASCAR, the PGA of America, the...

New estimates forecast that U.S. TV advertising spending will decline sharply -- between 22.3% and 29.3% -- for the first half of 2020, according to eMarketer, mostly due to the lack of sports TV programming. For the first six months of the year, the research company estimates a roughly 25% drop in average total TV advertising -- broadcast, cable, syndication, and local -- to between $23.95 billion and $26.30 billion, from January through June. These declines are due to the disruption caused by COVID-19. Previous estimates from eMarketer, released on March 6, forecast a 2% increase for the full 2020...

NHL center Colby Cave, who played for the Edmonton Oilers and the Boston Bruins, has died. He was 25. The Edmonton Oilers and Cave's family announced the news on Saturday morning. He passed away days after doctors at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto operated to remove a colloid cyst putting pressure on his brain, according to NHL.com. He had been in a medically induced coma since suffering a brain bleed overnight Monday, his team said.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Tuesday that the League is exploring every reasonable option for resuming the 2019-20 season and ensuring that it is ready to fully spring into action as soon as the "green light" is given by authorities and medical professionals. "From an NHL standpoint, and I'm sure this is what the other leagues are doing, we're viewing all of our options," Commissioner Bettman said on "Lunch Talk Live" on NBCSN. "We want to be ready to go as soon as we get a green light, and the green light may not be crystal clear because there may...

President Donald Trump officially declared a national emergency over the Wuhan virus Friday, invoking the Stafford Act to release additional resources to combat the nationwide outbreak for state and local governments.“Through very collective action and shared sacrifice, national determination, we will overcome the virus… This will pass,” Trump announced from the Rose Garden. Trump also ordered the opening of “emergency operation centers” and requested that every hospital “activate its emergency preparedness plan” in the wake of the outbreak.According to the latest numbers as of Friday afternoon, nearly 1,300 Americans have tested positive for the virus and 31 people have died,...