FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Yankees have a new secret weapon against Garrett Crochet.

In the Grapefruit League, at least.

George Lombard Jr. took the Red Sox ace deep to lead off Wednesday’s exhibition, then drilled a single off him in his second at-bat for two of the three hits Crochet allowed.

“It’s always good getting to face the elite guys in the league,” Lombard said. “I was excited for it. Looking for something to hit, not trying to do too much with it and put a good swing on it.”


Lombard has already turned in a standout spring defensively, making highlight-reel plays at shortstop, third base and second base.

But he has also flashed his offensive potential with plenty of hard-hit balls like Wednesday, with his OPS now up to 1.196 through six games.

Crochet, the big lefty who most recently shut down the Yankees in a dominant start in Game 1 of the AL wild-card series last October, threw a 97 mph fastball at the top of the zone on a 1-2 count to Lombard to lead off the game.

The top prospect had no trouble catching up to it, clobbering it over everything (including the Green Monster replica) in left field for a 392-foot homer that came off the bat at 104.2 mph.

Then in the third inning, Lombard roped a 108.5 mph bullet that got past shortstop Trevor Story for a single.

Tight end Jonnu Smith will be looking for a new team.

The Steelers are moving to release Smith in order to save $7 million against the cap, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Wednesday night. 

The move would allow the Steelers to have around $50 million in cap space heading into free agency this offseason, according to Spotrac. 

Smith, 30, arrived in Pittsburgh via a trade from Miami last June and played in all 17 games for the Steelers this season.

He had 38 catches for 222 yards and two touchdowns, along with a rushing TD. 

The move will allow Smith to become an unrestricted free agent and means he will be playing for his sixth team in his career, after spending time with the Steelers, Dolphins, Patriots and Titans. 

Smith has played nine seasons in the NFL since the Titans drafted him in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft. 

In that time, he has racked up 114 receptions for 1,302 yards and 16 touchdown catches. 

With Smith now on the way out, it would appear that tight end Pat Freiermuth will see his role expanded under new head coach Mike McCarthy. 

Freiermuth saw a reduced role after Smith was acquired and had just 486 receiving yards and four touchdowns during the 2025 season, playing in just 51 percent of the offensive snaps, the lowest of his career. 

In 2024, Freiermuth had 653 yards and seven touchdowns. 

Along with Freiermuth, the Steelers still have tight end Darnell Washington under contract.

The Montreal Canadiens are California dreaming this week — three stops in Los Angeles, Anaheim and starting Tuesday night in San Jose.

The first game of the trip was a nightmare defensively as the Sharks were able to create plenty of space on offence to outscore Montreal 7-5.

Wilde Horses

Two rookies provided excitement on offence for the Canadiens. Oliver Kapanen counted his 19th goal of the season. It’s a remarkable total for a rookie for whom not much offence was expected. Kapanen is behind only the great Matthew Schaefer, who has has 20 tallies, for rookie goals.

That Ivan Demidov is not the leading rookie goal scorer on Montreal is a surprise to everyone. Demidov has been struggling, with only two goals in his last 21 games. This is with the bonus of power-play time as well. Demidov finally got the goal he needed with a slap shot with the extra man.

Demidov has been working hard on his one-timer. He took a Lane Hutson pass for his 13th of the season to cut San Jose’s lead to 5-3. It appeared to be just a cosmetic goal at the time, but only 18 seconds later, the Canadiens continued the comeback attempt.

Alex Newhook has at least a point in all three games since he returned from the fractured ankle — two assists in the first two games, and then two goals in the third game. The first on Tuesday night came on a strong shot to the top corner from 15 feet, the second on a shot from the corner that Newhook banked in.

It’s remarkable that Newhook has come back from a serious injury and suffered no rust at all. He’s flying the same way he did before. Newhook has eight goals in 20 games this season. That’s a 32-goal season, if he were able to keep that pace and his health.

More importantly, for the Canadiens, it completed a three-goal third-period comeback to tie the wild game at five. Credit to the players who could have easily mailed it in down three in the third.

The mountain to climb was a bit too high in the end, but fighting to the end is important. It shows belief. Montreal had pressure in the Sharks’ zone for the final three minutes with the goalie pulled, but they couldn’t find the magic equalizer.

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Call of the Wilde: Habs head into Olympic break on a high note

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Phillip Danault centring Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher is supposed to be the defensive line on the Canadiens. They are supposed to be able to neutralize the other team’s top players. Danault was brought specifically to shore up that defensive difficulty down the middle.

And while Danault has been outstanding on faceoffs, hovering at around 58 per cent since coming from the Los Angeles Kings, his ability to key a defensive revival is not going according to plan. In fact, the big positive surprise has actually been Danault’s offence.

In 24 games, with his goal in the second period, Danault has four goals and 10 points with Montreal. He didn’t score a single time in 30 games with the Kings. He’s actually been fairly effective offensively, considering he has mostly defensive zone starts.

The bigger issue is that the line gets hemmed in their own zone too much. On Michael Misa’s game-tying goal in the second period, it was Danault who tried to clear the puck forward into the high slot, instead of into the corner.

Since the return from the Olympic break, the Danault line’s Corsi was 46 per cent against the Islanders, 13 per cent against the Capitals.

Only one line has been worse and that’s the Kapanen line. Demidov is looking human many shifts, and Juraj Slafkovsky is trying to do too much since his impressive effort in Milan.h

There are some nagging concerns percolating presently on the Canadiens. There’s no reason to sound any alarms, but head coach Martin St. Louis is probably a bit nervous about his club’s defence. Anaheim on Friday night will be interesting. St. Louis will want to see a tighter club, more focused on details.

He will also want to see better goaltending. It was a rough one for Jakub Dobes, who let in a very soft one from Macklin Celebrini through the legs. Dobes finished the night with a .778 save percentage and a goals saved above expected of minus-3.55. Those are absolutely horrific numbers.

Wilde Cards

It was the final game for the Canadiens before the trading deadline. The players at the top of the roster, secure in their standing, would enjoy getting a bit more help for a playoff run. The players on the cusp of the minors don’t want to see more bodies arrive to steal their jobs. For each player, the trading deadline is a different deal.

Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield would love to see an ultra-talented winger added to the club. Jayden Struble is not interested in another defender coming to town.

The most important thing to a player is ice time. After he’s locked that in, the next is linemates or defensive partners. Contrary to popular belief, a player doesn’t actively worry about health. He knows he has no control over the whims of the moment during contact. He goes all out. He hopes for the best.

The question players hate the most as deadline day approaches is about a rumour that a player could be arriving. It’s a minefield with no right answer. They should just answer “next question.”

The biggest Canadiens rumour this trading deadline feels more farce than truth. Not that Robert Thomas isn’t on the trading block, but that it would take four assets to get him.

General managers float rumours to see how they land. Reporters are their messengers. A GM loves to see his best-case scenario make the rounds. He’s trying to establish a high price for his player.

Every year, reporters carry that water for general managers. That’s the system. The miracle is so much ink and respect is given to rumours proven incorrect 99 per cent of the time.

Word is that the St. Louis Blues want Michael Hage, a top prospect, and two first-round draft choices for Thomas. This is far too much and the GM knows it. Montreal’s GM knows it too. Hage is a star in the making with seven years of mostly low-priced cost control. That matters in the salary cap world.

Thomas has six goals in 52 playoff games. That’s the type of production that screams Elias Pettersson. If Hage got six goals in 52 playoff games, you would want him shipped to Siberia, not demand four prime assets for him.

If Canadiens GM Kent Hughes bit on a trade offer such as this, the massive amount of respect that he has accrued through his four short years guiding this rebuild into the stratosphere would come crashing to earth.

It says here that Hughes acquires a right-shot defender with a big-body profile before Friday — like a Brandon Carlo or Luke Schenn — and that Thomas goes for much less than four prime assets.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.

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TORONTO – Every time the Toronto Raptors suffer another loss to a top-10 team, they talk about lessons and process and patience.

But Brandon Ingram also can’t deny that it’s annoying.

“When you fall short, you always get frustrated, especially in the moment,” said Ingram after putting up 31 points in Toronto’s 111-95 loss to the New York Knicks on Tuesday. “But frustration isn’t always bad, you know? There’s something to learn in every single game.

“Tonight was having some lapses on defence and trying to figure out our fourth-quarter execution. But every game that we go to, we get better, and we’re learning, trying to learn how to win.”

They have been hard — and frequent — lessons.

The Raptors (35-26), fifth in the Eastern Conference, dropped to 4-16 against the 10 teams that are ahead of them in the NBA’s standings. Toronto is 1-12 at Scotiabank Arena against opponents with better records and has lost 14 of its last 15 games against top-10 teams.

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“We’ve got to figure out our fourth-quarter execution, exactly what we want to go to,” said Ingram. “I think every time we play a good team, they know exactly what they want to go to in the fourth quarter, and they do it over again and over again.

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“The good thing is we’re in the games, but we’ve got to figure out how to finish the game.”

Raptors guard Immanuel Quickley scored an eight-foot running pull-up shot with 5:50 left to play and cut New York’s lead to 95-93. The Knicks responded with a 16-2 run to close out the game for a decisive victory.

“We had our chances. We had our opportunities,” said Toronto head coach Darko Rajakovic. “This is a really good team, a really good offensive rebounding team. We kept them to seven rebounds. A lot of positive stuff.

“We’re just going to get back to work and continue getting better.”

Jalen Brunson finished with 26 points and 10 assists as New York (40-22) won its third consecutive game. Karl-Anthony Towns added 21 points with 13 rebounds.

Quickley had a double-double with 13 points and 12 assists for the Raptors and RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., scored 20, with nine points in the fourth quarter.

“We couldn’t really get our offence going the way we wanted to in the last couple minutes,” said starting centre Jakob Poeltl. “It’s another learning experience for us to be better in those situations.

“They’re a team that has playoff experience and stuff like that. They’re used to these kind of situations, and I feel like we’re getting there, but we’re obviously not on that level yet.”

Rookie centre Collin Murray-Boyles, who has earned 22 starts with the Raptors this season, sat out with a left thumb sprain. Rajakovic said his presence was missed throughout the game.

“His ability to rebound the ball, his ability to run in transition and provide us an outlet on the baseline,” said Rajakovic. “He’s setting really good screens, good roller.

“Defensively, he’s a guy who can pick up on any matchup and does a really good job of that. He was missed tonight, big time.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2026.

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EDMONTON – Some more late game heroics have given the Edmonton Oilers a spark in the midst of what has been a tough stretch.

Leon Draisaitl had two goals and three assists and Evan Bouchard scored the overtime winner as the Oilers overcame a two-goal deficit through 40 minutes to emerge with a badly-needed 5-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.

With Brady Tkachuk in the penalty box for tackling Connor McDavid in overtime, Edmonton got it back to Bouchard and he blasted in his 18th goal of the season for the come-from-behind win.

“We did a good job in the third of putting them on their heels and keeping it fairly simple,” Draisaitl said. “We just needed two plays and it ended up working out for us. But we have to be careful not to be in those situations too many times. You can’t keep chasing games going into the third, it’s not a recipe for success.

“At this time (of year) you take any point you can get, and there are a lot of positives, for sure, but there are also still some things that we need to clean up.”

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The Oilers tied the game with just 1:25 remaining in the third period and their goalie pulled as Zach Hyman tipped a Draisaitl pass under Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark for his 25th of the season to send the game to extra time.

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“We need to keep the puck out of our net, obviously, but when we are down, we have the firepower to come back,” Hyman said. “We don’t want to be putting ourselves in that position like we have been of late too often.

“But sometimes you need a game like that where you can come back and it’s a complete team effort to dominate a third period and win a game. I thought it was a good one for us and hopefully a springboard for better games.”

Edmonton outshot Ottawa 12-3 in the third period and overtime.

“We know we can come back against any team,” said Bouchard, who not only leads all NHL defencemen with 71 points, but moved into a tie for 10th place in overall scoring. “It’s not what we want to do, we want to be playing with the lead. But it’s good to know to stay confident, that we have the guys that can get us back in it.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored and McDavid had two assists for the Oilers (30-24-8) who had lost five of their previous six outings.

“We’re not coming off this game patting ourselves on the back,” said Hyman of his team knowing that they could have played better. “We’ve been to the finals two years in a row, we know what it takes. We know what type of hockey you have to play.

“Having said that, the positive is that we know that we can come back in high-scoring games and there’s going to be some of those, but if you want to be successful you’ve got to keep the puck out of your net. I think we’re capable of that, we just have to do it more often and consistently.”

It was Edmonton’s first home game in an entire month.

Draisaitl recorded his seventh career five-point game amid some other milestones.

The German Olympic team captain passed Jari Kurri (1,043) for third on the franchise’s all-time points list. He also recorded his 301st multi-point game, passing Mark Messier for third most in Oilers history, behind Wayne Gretzky (472) and teammate McDavid (362).

Oilers rookie Matt Savoie picked up an assist to extend his points streak to a career high four games, with seven points in that span.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2024.

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