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What you missed that night in NBA, NFL, and NHL
Dusseldorf While most Europeans are asleep, the North American professional leagues are busy. What happened during the night in American football, basketball and ice hockey. Today among other things: The NHL debut of JJ Peterka and new NHL Corona rules.
Ice hockey: Draisaitl loses – NHL debut for Peterka
The Edmonton Oilers have lost their first game after an eleven-day corona break despite a goal from Leon Draisaitl. The Canadians lost 2: 4 to the St. Louis Blues, the German national ice hockey player had scored the goal to 1: 2. Together with his teammate Connor McDavid, the 26-year-old leads the NHL points ranking – Draisaitl has scored 24 goals and made 26 assists.
He is the first player in the Oilers with 24 goals in the first 30 games since the legendary Wayne Gretzky (25 in 1987/88). But Draisaitl could not prevent the defeat either. “We made a few mistakes and fell behind so early,” said Edmonton’s coach Dave Tippett: “We wore ourselves out a bit, after eleven days without a game that wasn’t ideal.”
John-Jason Peterka made his NHL debut for the Buffalo Sabers. The 19-year-old national striker benefited from the Corona failures and slipped from the farm team into the squad. In the 3: 4 against the New Jersey Devils, Peterka was on the ice for 16 minutes. National goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer conceded the decisive goal for the defeat after two minutes in overtime with Seattle Kraken in a 3-2 draw against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Ice hockey: NHL changes corona rules
Like the NFL football league and the NBA basketball league, the North American professional ice hockey league NHL has reduced the quarantine period for players who have tested positive for Corona and who are symptom-free. Affected professionals only have to go into quarantine for five days instead of the previous ten. The NHL announced. It follows the new guidelines of the US health authority CDC. After leaving the quarantine, however, the players will still have to take into account a mask requirement of five days.
However, the situation in the NHL is more complicated than in the NFL and NBA: There are seven teams active in the ice hockey league in Canada, where stricter quarantine times still apply.
The NHL was also recently affected by many corona cases. The league had therefore canceled many games and put the game on hold over the Christmas holidays. The first teams returned to the ice on Tuesday (local time).
American Football: Nzeocha back in the 49ers training team
The San Francisco 49ers bring the German football professional Mark Nzeocha back to their training team. The NFL club from California announced on Wednesday (local time). In addition to linebacker Nzeocha, quarterback Tyler Bray and Colby Wadman received new contracts with the 49ers.
Nzeocha made 47 appearances for San Francisco in four seasons (2017-2020) of the National Football League. Last year, the 31-year-old Bavarian only played five games with the 49ers. He has been on the market as a free agent since March of this year. In 2015 Nzeocha was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys.
Only the day before, before the last two match days of the regular season, the NFL halved the quarantine time to five days for players who tested positive for Corona and who are symptom-free. The change is likely to have serious effects on the fight for the playoff places. Last Monday there were 106 NFL professionals in the so-called Corona protocol.
Basketball: Morant steals the show from James – Lakers lose
LeBron James played big, but his Los Angeles Lakers continue to stumble through the NBA: 37 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists of the basketball superstar were not enough for the Memphis Grizzlies. The Lakers were defeated 99: 104 and thus conceded their 19th loss of the season, with only 17 wins.
In addition, James was not even the most successful thrower on the court. Ja Morant (22), who was 15 years younger, stole the show from him with 41 points and 10 rebounds and led his team to victory after a long deficit.
The Dallas Mavericks and the Boston Celtics lost their games without their German national players Maximilian Kleber and Dennis Schröder, who are among the league’s numerous corona failures. The Mavs, who had signed the former all-star Isaiah Thomas (32) for ten days shortly before the game, were defeated by the Sacramento Kings 94:95.
Record champion Boston lost against the Los Angeles Clippers, in which the German shooting star Isaiah Hartenstein is absent due to an ankle injury, 82:91. The Phoenix Suns achieved their 27th win of the season at 115: 97 against Oklahoma City Thunder, so they stay at the top of the Western Conference together with the Golden State Warriors.
Basketball: Torn cruciate ligament in Spain’s world champion Rubio
The Spanish basketball world champion Ricky Rubio from the Cleveland Cavaliers is out for months with a cruciate ligament rupture. The 31-year-old suffered the injury to his left knee on Tuesday at 104: 108 against the New Orleans Pelicans. Already in his rookie season 2011/12 Rubio had torn a cruciate ligament in his left knee with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
With Rubio, the Cavs were on the play-off course for the first time since 2018. With 20 wins and 14 losses, the Ohio team has exceeded expectations so far. Rubio, Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 2019 World Cup in China, had moved from Minnesota to Cleveland before the season. His contract expires after the season.
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