The Seattle Seahawks won the game, but lost one of their best players.
Russell Wilson threw two touchdown passes to Jimmy Graham and the Seahawks defense held running back Adrian Peterson to just 29 yards rushing in a 22-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale last night, but Seattle's sixth win of the year came with a high price when all-star cornerback Richard Sherman ruptured his Achilles tendon, an injury that ends his season. Besides Sherman's prowess as one of the best defensive players in the game, he had, remarkably, never missed a game before due to injury, and the Seahawks will have to go forward without his shut-down presence.
Sherman wasn't the only player to leave the game. In all, seven players on both sides had to call it quits with various injuries as the NFL continues to struggle with how to keep their players safe in a game that's become increasingly violent and dangerous. The Seahawks due to improve to 6-3 with the win, while Arizona falls to 4-5, but even with the road win against a division opponent, the mood for Seattle after the game was subdued with the news of Sherman's season-ending injury.
In the NHL, it was Jason Zucker 3, Montreal Canadiens 0 at the Bell Centre last night. Zucker is a forward with the Minnesota Wild, and his team was locked in a scoreless draw with Montreal heading into the third period when Zucker exploded for three goals, a natural hat trick that produced the 3-0 victory for Minnesota and snapped the Wild's three-game losing skid. Devan Dubnyk made 41 saves to earn the shut-out, the 25th of his career. Zucker has been on a goal-scoring binge, and at least in the last two games for Minnesota, the only player to find the back of the net. He scored both Wild goals in the team's 4-2 loss to Toronto the previous night.
And the clock finally struck midnight for Montreal rookie goalie Charlie Lindgren, who had been undefeated in his six starts since being called up from the Canadiens' AHL affiliate, suffering his first loss last night. Technology was not on Montreal's side last night as the Habs had two goals nullified after video review found them wanting, and a case could be made that both overturned calls were wrong, one ruled no good for a stick whacking the puck out of the air while being deemed above the crossbar of the goal. I've seen that replay and it sure didn't look definitive enough to overrule the on-ice call of a good goal, and the second was nullified over goaltender interference, and on that one it appeared as though Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk was jostled by his own player, not one of Montreal's, but they don't pay me to judge these replays, and as a Bruins fan, I can't be trusted to do the right thing for Montreal in any event. The Habs were also missing the services of their best defenseman Shea Weber, and dynamic center Jonathan Drouin, both out with injury. The Habs lost for just the second time in their past seven games but may be facing a rockier road ahead if Weber and Drouin are out for any great length of time.
Sad news of the passing of a young man considered one of the best prospects in baseball, and in the Boston Red Sox system. The team announced that Daniel Flores, a 17-year-old catcher who signed with the Boston Red Sox in July as an international amateur, died Wednesday from complications stemming from cancer treatment. Flores was signed out of Venezuela and was receiving treatments in Boston when he died Wednesday.
Ending on a more positive note, kudos to Vermont for once again being a small, but trail-blazing state with the news that Vermont is now the first state in the U.S. to recognize Ultimate Frisbee as a high school varsity sport.
The Vermont Principals Association unanimously approved ultimate last week as a varsity sport starting in the spring of 2019, and as a former ultimate player myself I'm thrilled to see this game given some official recognition. It's a bit like a hybrid of football and frisbee, played on a field about the size of a gridiron, with defenders allowed to swat away a pass to one player or catch it, which then gives that team control of the disc. You throw it to an open teammate and they can take a step or two before passing it on, and the goal is to find one of your own players in the end zone for a score. There's no body contact allowed and makes for a great co-ed sport. It'll be interesting to see if it catches on now that it will be played as a high school varsity sport beginning in 2019.
