NHL free agency: Ducks add forward Alex Killorn, defenseman Radko Gudas

• July 1, 2023

The Ducks went shopping on the opening day of free agency and added two 33-year-old veterans to help their young team develop.

One was a solid right-shot defenseman in Radko Gudas, and the other a proven scorer, left wing Alex Killorn, who ended up being pretty costly, signing a four-year contract worth $25 million on Saturday.

Killorn was a member of the two-time Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, in 2020 and 2021, and is coming off a 27-goal, 64-point season, which were career highs.

The last-place Ducks had many missing elements in their lineup this past season – a long list, indeed – and one of the noticeable holes was a distinct physical presence.

They took an important step in alleviating that issue by signing a three-year deal worth $12 million with the 6-foot, 208-pound Gudas. Though the pact was agreed upon, the announcement was initially delayed because the contract still needed to be signed and filed with the league.

Gudas spent the past three seasons playing for the Florida Panthers after previous stops in Washington, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay. Of note, he was drafted by Tampa Bay in 2010 and would have overlapped with Ducks GM Pat Verbeek when Verbeek was in management with the Lightning. Verbeek also would have obviously been familiar with Killorn’s skill set and character in their time together in the organization.

Gudas is appealing to the Ducks in that he has a tough, physical style of play and a reasonable amount of skill. He’ll create space for everyone around him. A young defenseman playing in the NHL for the first time – or trying to find his way – needs a partner that will help provide some room. Gudas is that player.

The young Ducks defense corps will most certainly need that. Gudas was able to help the development of youngster Josh Mahura in Florida on the third pair this past season. The Panthers claimed Mahura on waivers from the Ducks before the start of the regular season, a good move for Florida, which went on to reach the Stanley Cup Final, and a blunder for Anaheim.

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​ Orange County Register 

Angel City FC riding confidence into road game against Gotham FC

• July 1, 2023

It’s the time of season for NWSL teams when roster depth will be tested.

Wednesday’s Challenge Cup game was the first for Angel City FC without Julie Ertz and Alyssa Thompson, who have joined the U.S. women’s national team for World Cup preparations. On Sunday, Ali Riley joins the absence list as she joins New Zealand’s national team.

Including Sunday’s road game against NJ/NY Gotham FC (2:30 p.m., BSSC, Paramount+), Angel City has two games remaining before a three-week World Cup break. After the break, Angel City will play three games during the World Cup dates.

The World Cup absences will provide players like Madison Hammond a chance to settle into a larger role.

“Madison is so professional and she’s played different roles on the team this season and last season,” Riley said. “She is someone who is such a good teammate and has been working so hard. Those are the players that you want to have on a team. Those are the players you know are ready when their name is called. If they’re on the sideline, they’re giving you all their energy so that you can do your job.”

Hammond scored the opening goal in Wednesday’s 2-1 Challenge Cup win over San Diego Wave FC. The win improves Angel City’s unbeaten streak to three since Becki Tweed took over as interim coach.

“The confidence comes from our belief in each other and we have been consistent in performing in training for the past couple of weeks,” Hammond said.” You have to develop that level of consistency, competitiveness, and challenge each other to be better. Then you have moments like today (Wednesday) where players get opportunities and they’re ready to meet the moment.”

Gotham FC is also dealing with multiple World Cup absences, with Lynne Williams, Kristie Mewis and Kelly O’Hara selected to the U.S. national team.

“The question is how can we look at spaces that we want to target and hurt them,” Tweed said. “We prepare for moments like this. We prepare with a squad of players that can step in and do the roles. So it doesn’t change a crazy amount for us.”

Gotham defeated Angel City 2-1 in the season opener March 26. Gotham enters this week in fifth place in the league (21 points). Angel City is ninth (13 points).

Emslie, Endo available

Tweed said Thursday that Claire Emslie (hip) and Jun Endo (knee) will be on the trip and available for selection. Both players have missed multiple games due to injury. Endo, from Japan, is another Angel City player who will be departing for the upcoming World Cup.

Riley signs extension

Before departing for the World Cup with her native country New Zealand, Riley signed an extension with the club through the 2025 season.

The defender and team captain, who attended Harvard-Westlake High and Stanford University, joined Angel City ahead of the 2022 inaugural season.

Angel City FC at NJ/NY Gotham FC

When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ

How to watch: Bally SoCal; Paramount+

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​ Orange County Register 

Venus Williams, 43, returns for her 24th Wimbledon

• July 1, 2023

WIMBLEDON, England — Asked two days before her 24th Wimbledon begins whether she’s still excited to play tennis at this level, Venus Williams quickly answered: “It’s so much fun.”

The next question Saturday was about being on tour without her younger sister, Serena, who wrapped up her career at last year’s U.S. Open. The reply: “Not as much fun.”

There is still a big-swinging, Grand Slam-winning member of the Williams family in women’s tennis, and it’s 43-year-old Venus, who recently returned to action after about five months away with a hamstring injury she called “a nightmare.”

That followed a 2022 in which she participated in just four contests — all in August or September, meaning she missed the season’s initial three Grand Slam tournaments, including Wimbledon — and a 2021 in which she accumulated only a dozen.

“I haven’t played a lot of matches in the last few years, and not by choice. I wanted to be here and I couldn’t,” said the elder Williams, who will meet two-time major semifinalist Elina Svitolina of Ukraine at Centre Court on Monday, Day 1 at the All England Club. “So I just put my head down and put even more work in and got myself in a much better position — and that’s life. And you’ve got to deal with life. And I’ve dealt with my life and, most of the time, I come out on top.”

In tennis terms, that means reaching the No. 1 ranking, winning seven major singles titles, the most among active women — and five came at Wimbledon, the first in 2000, most recent in 2008 — and another 14 in women’s doubles — all with her sibling. Away from the court, she learned to live with Sjögren’s syndrome, an energy-sapping auto-immune disease that can cause joint pain; she announced her diagnosis in 2011.

“The most inspiring thing about her is the love that she has for tennis. I don’t think that love has swayed over the course of her career. I think you can see players who are older now (and) you can have a feeling they probably don’t love it as much as they did when they started it. I don’t have that feeling with Venus. I hope I’m the same way,” said Coco Gauff, who burst onto the scene at age 15 by beating Williams in the first round at Wimbledon as a qualifier in 2019.

“Obviously, just her grit for every match, every ball. I watched a couple of her matches last week,” Gauff said. “Just the will to want every point is something that’s inspiring.”

Monday’s match will be Williams’ first in Wimbledon’s main stadium since 2017, when she reached the final before losing to Garbiñe Muguruza.

Williams made her debut at the All England Club in 1997, shortly before Svitolina turned 3.

“Venus loves to play here,” said Svitolina, who returned to the tour in April after having a baby last year. “It’s just really impressive. She’s a great champion. She achieved so much in her career. I don’t know if I will be playing at (that) age and would be in this great shape, playing with such a passion. So lots of respect to her in so many ways.”

The lack of wins in recent times dropped Williams out of the top 500 in the rankings; Svitolina has been as high as No. 3 and is now 75th.

Both women received wild-card invitations for Wimbledon.

The inevitable questions arose Saturday about whether Williams has planned when she might walk away from the sport (“If I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” came the reply) and whether she could see herself on tour at age 50 (“It’s never been done before, so if there was one to try it, it would be me,” she said).

One more try: Might there be the sort of announced farewell a la Serena’s, allowing for a collective goodbye?

“Like I said: If I knew I wouldn’t tell you,” she answered with a hearty laugh.

​ Orange County Register 

Neil Young delivers a gorgeous, intimate solo show in Los Angeles

• July 1, 2023

Midway through Neil Young‘s lovely and sometimes shambling solo show on Friday June 30, he paused to chat with the audience again during the first of four sold out shows at The Ford in Los Angeles over the next week.

“Alright, I hope you’re not in a hurry,” the 77-year-old singer-songwriter told the 1,200 fans in sold-out amphitheater. “I feel bad for you. You have no idea.”

But that’s exactly the point of the Coastal Tour, which kicked off Friday night and also includes two nights at the Greek Theatre on Monday, July 10 and Thursday, July 13. No one had any idea what Young would play – he’d previously announced this tour would feature mostly songs he’d rarely, if ever, played live – and at times it felt like Young himself wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to play next.

“Hmm. I have a list, you know,” he reassured fans as he contemplated his next number at one point. “I’m very organized. I don’t know if you can tell that.”

No one cared, for in a terrific set that offered 17 songs in 90 minutes, Young’s running commentary only added to the warm, casual nature of a night that saw the two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame play the unexpected – a handful of songs had live debuts on Friday – and the familiar – “Mother Earth (Natural Anthem),” “Ohio” and “Heart of Gold.”

The night opened with “I’m The Ocean,” a track off Young’s 1995 album “Mirror Ball,” for which members of Pearl Jam served as his band. “People my age, they don’t do the things I do,” he sang of the restless pull of music, accompanying himself on 12-string acoustic guitar and harmonica. “They go somewhere while I run away with you.”

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“Homefires,” a song originally recorded in 1974, but not released until 2020 came next. It was followed by “Burned,” a Buffalo Springfield song from 1966 that Young noted was one of his first compositions after moving to Los Angeles. And the pattern of the night started taking shape.

“Nice place, huh?” he said of The Ford, one of the more unique venues in Los Angeles, tucked into a hillside in the Cahuenga Pass across the 101 Freeway from the Hollywood Bowl, from which screams from fans of former One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson could be heard during quiet moments in Young’s set. “We could have been at the Podunk coliseum tonight.”

Other highlights early in the set included “If You Got Love,” a song pulled at the last minute from Young’s 1982 album “Trans,” which brought him to the pump organ for the first time of the night, and “My Heart,” a gentle, fragile beauty he sang while playing his grand piano.

About that piano: Young introduced it as his “burnt piano,” a Steinway he was very pleased to get for just $1,500 some 50 years ago only to discover that it had been in a fire and the soundboard was so scorched that if you touched it your fingers would come away black.

This, though, was only part of his introduction of the instruments he’d brought on tour with him. An upright piano on the opposite side of the stage, on which someone had placed Post-It notes with messages such as “I adore you” before the show? He rented that one when he came to Hollywood in the ’60s and had played it off and on ever since.

As for the pump organ? “I got it in a junk shop in Redwood City,” Young said. “It was like 800 bucks. I’m a good shopper.”

Sometimes Young even shared stories about instruments that were not even there, such as when he introduced “A Dream That Can Last” with a story about the sessions for “Sleeps With Angels,” the 1994 album made with his longtime band Crazy Horse.

“I went out for a walk and bought a flute at a drugstore,” he said. (Note: His comments are best read in Neil’s laconic nasal drawl.) “It was a very funky little flute, two dollars and 49 cents or something.

“And, uh, I don’t use it on this song at all,” Young finished as the crowd cracked up with laughter.

The magic of the night, of course, was that this all fit together so well. The story was a little surreal; the song, played live for the first time ever on Friday, was sweet, vulnerable, the piano accompaniment beautiful beneath Young’s high, plaintive tenor.

The back half of the show finally delivered a handful of familiar songs. Standing at the organ, Young asked the crowd to pick whether he should play “Mother Earth” or “Mr. Soul,” deciding after a minute of shouted requests that he’d play the former. The song is a hymn-like anthem to protect the planet, a topic about which Young has long deeply cared.

“Ohio,” the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song he wrote in anger at the killing of four Kent State University students by National Guard soldiers during a war protest, rocked as hard as anything on Friday, Young playing electric guitar for one of a handful of songs in the show. He brought back out the acoustic guitar and harmonica for “Days That Used to Be,” a wistful elegy for the faded idealism of the ’60s, from 1990’s “Ragged Glory” album with Crazy Horse.

“Heart of Gold,” Young’s only No. 1 single ever, closed the main set with everyone in the crowd on their feet and singing along. It remains a perfect song.

“Here I am at the end of the show, just played my biggest hit of all time,” he said by way of introducing “Love Earth” as a song he didn’t expect anyone to know, his penultimate song before “Four Strong Winds” closed out the night.

He did expect them to be able to sing the chorus of “love earth,” though, and expressed his disappointment hilariously when not that many even tried.

“You suck,” Young scolded them after a test of the audience’s ability to sing just two words. “I gave you the simplest part and you can’t do that.” The crowd broke out in laughter again, tried again, and at the end of the song received high praise.

“Where were you when I recorded that?” Young asked. “We coulda had a hit.”

Neil Young

When: Friday, June 30

Where: Ford Amphitheater, Los Angeles

​ Orange County Register 

Lakers keeping D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves on new deals

• July 1, 2023

The Lakers’ starting backcourt from last season’s run to the Western Conference Finals will be staying in Los Angeles.

Free-agent guard Austin Reaves agreed to return on a four-year, $56 million Early Bird maximum contract while D’Angelo Russell agreed to terms on a two-year, $37 million contract with the Lakers on Saturday, sources confirmed to the Southern California News Group.

Russell’s deal will have a player option for the 2024-25 season, a source added. Reaves’ new contract will have a player option for the fourth year – the 2026-27 season.

Free agents can’t sign their new contracts until 9:01 p.m. PT Wednesday after the free-agency moratorium period ends.

The Lakers made Reaves a restricted free agent when they officially extended qualifying offers to him and forward Rui Hachimura, who came to an agreement on a three-year contract worth $51 million when free agency started Friday.

Reaves’ qualifying offer was for a one-year salary of $2.19 million, but he was always going to receive a far more lucrative deal during free agency.

Reaves, who went undrafted out of Oklahoma in 2021, originally signed a two-way contract with the Lakers in August 2021 before signing a two-year, $2.49 million standard NBA deal the following month ahead of the 2021-22 season.

The 25-year-old guard is coming off a breakout season in which he averaged 13 points (68.7% true shooting – a formula that incorporates free throws and higher-value 3-point shots), 3.4 assists and 3 rebounds in 28.8 minutes (64 games with 22 starts).

Reaves stepped up in the postseason as the team’s third-leading playoff scorer, averaging 16.9 points (61.6% true shooting), 4.6 assists and 4.4 rebounds in 36.2 minutes (16 games, all starts) during the Lakers’ run to the Western Conference finals.

The Lakers acquired Russell from the Minnesota Timberwolves ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline. He averaged 17.4 points (48.4% shooting – 55.5% on 2s, 41.4% on 3s) and 6.1 assists in 17 regular-season games (all starts) for the Lakers.

He was the team’s starting point guard for 15 of the 16 playoff games, averaging 13.3 points (42.6% shooting – 51.9% on 2s, 31% on 3s) and 4.6 assists.

Russell, who also played for the Lakers from 2015-17 after they drafted him at No. 2 in the 2015 draft, has career averages of 17.7 points (36.2% 3-point shooting on 6.9 attempts), 5.7 assists and 3.5 rebounds. He’s also played for the Brooklyn Nets (2017-19), Golden State Warriors (2019-20) and Timberwolves (2020-23).

More to come on this story.

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​ Orange County Register 

U.S. Supreme Court defends Constitution and liberty with rejection of student loan plan, affirmative action

• July 1, 2023

This past week, the United States Supreme Court issued its final rulings for the session before entering summer recess.

Fortunately, the court fulfilled its obligation as a check on the other branches of governments and as a defender of individual right.

In the case of Biden v. Nebraska, the court struck down President Joe Biden’s cynical  and illegal attempt to bend and distort the law to waive away hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debts.

The Biden administration tried to argue the HEROES Act of 2003, passed to provide some relief to Americans impacted by the wars of the time,  gave the secretary of education the authority to terminate the student loans.

“It does not,” ruled the Supreme Court in a majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts. “We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up.”

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As prominent Democratic figures like Rep. Nancy Pelosi said long before the president’s sloppy power grab, terminating student debt requires an explicit act of Congress, not deliberate misreading of existing law.

Here, the court rightly denied executive overreach. We hope they continue to do so.

In another high-profile case, that of Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, the court rejected the racist and discriminatory policy of affirmative action at institutions of higher learning.

“Many universities have for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin,” the court ruled. “This Nation’s constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”

Here, the court wisely rejects the practice of reducing people to their skin color in order to advantage or disadvantage others. This bizarre practice, advocated by so-called “progressives,” seeks to correct injustices by perpetuating injustice. The practice should never be tolerated in a society built upon the premise that all of us are created equal and entitled to equal protection under the law.

​ Orange County Register 

County’s one-stop center for employment help expanding to Laguna Niguel

• July 1, 2023

An Orange County One-Stop is opening next week in Laguna Niguel to give more residents access to county and workforce development resources.

Staff who specialize in serving dislocated workers, youth, veterans, older adults and other vulnerable populations will provide career planning, resume writing, job coaching and more. Other training includes apprenticeship in construction and available resources will include access to computers, fax machines, copiers and telephones.

“As we are trying to get more people employed, we want to make sure they have the best interviewing techniques, that they have skills assessments so that they can qualify for a variety of different jobs that are out there,” Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley said.

Folks interested in receiving services will answer intake questionnaires that will help staff determine what needs to address.

There are OC One-Stop centers in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim, but when this one opens on July 5 it will be the first in south Orange County.

“Laguna Niguel is centrally located so it can serve deep south county as well as Irvine (and) Laguna Beach,” Foley said.

The centers are developed in partnership with OC Workforce Solutions, OC Community Services, Ready Set OC, America’s Job Center of California, and the Veterans Employment Program.

Residents can visit the One-Stop at 28202 Cabot Road #140, Laguna Niguel.

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​ Orange County Register 

Kings get their goalie as Cam Talbot agrees to 1-year deal

• July 1, 2023

The Kings will sign goalie Cam Talbot to a one-year contract, as first reported, fittingly, by NHL goalie turned multi-platform media personality Kevin Weekes.

Talbot, who will turn 36 on Wednesday, will fill out a goalie tandem that already included Pheonix Copley, who went from toiling in the minors to righting the Kings’ ship last season before playing sparingly in the playoffs.

Exact terms of Talbot’s deal were not yet disclosed, but the annual average value for both goalies will come almost certainly in under $3 million, meaning the Kings went from having one of the priciest (and least effective) netminding duos in the league last season to what will be among the very lowest expenditures for goaltending this season (with its efficacy remaining to be seen).

As mentioned in SCNG’s trade-deadline preview last season, when Talbot was potentially available as a member of the Ottawa Senators, Talbot played under Todd McLellan with the Edmonton Oilers. Most notably, he started a whopping 73 games in 2016-17, when Edmonton was eliminated by the Ducks in the second round, and 67 the following season.

Talbot saw his performance dip after those rigorous campaigns, playing for four teams in three seasons. He rebounded during stints with Calgary and Minnesota, where he re-established himself as a starter before the acquisition of three-time Stanley Cup winner Marc Andre-Fleury made him expendable (Talbot was traded for Filip Gustavsson, who became a dark-horse Vezina Trophy contender this season).

Last year, Talbot plied his trade in Ottawa, where he posted a 17-14-2 record with an .898 save percentage and 2.93 goals-against. Those figures were below the league average across 36 appearances for Talbot for the Senators, an up-and-coming team in a fiercely competitive division.

After machinations to dump unfavorable contracts, most notably that of goalie Cal Petersen, the re-signing of Vladislav Gavrikov and a massive, multi-faceted investment in acquiring center Pierre-Luc Dubois, the Kings had to get creative just to sign a goalie. It’s unclear how many roster players they will carry, but it won’t be 23, per GM Rob Blake, for much of the season and it could be as low as 21 initially, giving them just one extra available skater.

More to come on this story.

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​ Orange County Register