Tag: Mark Kiszla
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Mark Kiszla: If Nikola Jokic thinks slumping Nuggets should start worrying, so should we
Beefing and moaning won’t win the Nuggets a championship. This team talks tougher than it plays. On a Sunday when the Nuggets got their butts handed to them in a 117-108 home loss to Minnesota, David Adelman was still fussing and fuming about a foul so flagrant by Oklahoma City guard Lu Dort that it…
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Mark Kiszla | Forget Kadri: Why Ryan O’Reilly is the practical trade deadline target for the Avs
At the NHL trade deadline, the Avalanche should welcome back an old friend who knows what it takes to hoist the Stanley Cup. You’re thinking of Nazem Kadri? Sorry. I’m not. He certainly has friends in the Colorado locker room. And Kadri was undeniably born with a clutch gene that can make a difference in…
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Kickin’ It with Kiz: Nuggets have only one chance to beat Thunder in the NBA playoffs
For the Nuggets to beat Oklahoma City in the NBA playoffs, someone has to step up and be an enforcer besides Nikola Jokic. – Roberto, Denver Kiz: Let’s get down to the real nitty-gritty. Without Aaron Gordon, I’m not so sure the Nuggets survive one round of the playoffs, much less have a chance to…
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Mark Kiszla: It was in Brock Nelson’s DNA to bring Olympic hockey gold back home to the USA
MILAN – This was no hockey miracle. It was the destiny of the biggest little hockey town in the USA. Forty-six years to the exact date of the Miracle on Ice, the United States scored a 2-1 overtime victory against Canada to mint a new generation of American hockey heroes in 24-karat Olympic gold. …
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Mark Kiszla: Breakfast Brawl between USA and Canada for gold medal is dumbest great idea in NHL history
MILAN – Decades from now, grizzled old puckheads in the United States and Canada will still be telling tall tales about a hockey showdown destined to go down in history as the Breakfast Brawl. Set your alarm clock, pour a beer and buckle up. The Yanks versus the Canucks, with Connor McDavid facing off against…
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Kickin’ It with Kiz: My debt of gratitude to the late Doug Moe, King of the Dips
Doug Moe was great. If I tuned in late to a Nuggets game back in the 1980s, I could always tell immediately how it was going for Denver by the amount of disarray to Moe’s jacket, tie and collar. He was a great coach and an even greater personality. – Michael, a real no-hoper Kiz:…
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Mark Kiszla: With gold medal on line, Nathan MacKinnon is a bad guy for one day
MILAN – All the pain that puddled in the corners of Artturi Lehkonen’s eyes revealed something beautiful and true. Hockey at the Olympics brings out a passion in a man that the NHL cannot fully understand. Blowing a two-goal lead Friday in a 3-2 loss to Canada that wrecked the gold medal dream of Lehkonen…
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Mark Kiszla: In final act of hockey heroism, Captain America saves day for USA in win worth weight in gold
MILAN — Two minutes from being pushed from the ice into retirement, Captain America refused to go quietly and made the loudest play of her hockey life. Down a goal to Canada with the third period of the Olympic gold-medal match slip-sliding away, U.S. captain Hilary Knight scored when teammates needed her most. OK, so…
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Mark Kiszla: First person Mikaela Shiffrin told all about this gold medal was her deceased father
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy • The GOAT cried. After ending her Olympic slump with a slalom victory so loud it shook the Dolomites, Mikaela Shiffrin took a private moment at the finish line to have a quiet conversation with her deceased father. “Today, it was like maybe I just talk to him,” Shiffrin said. “Maybe he…
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Mark Kiszla: Could Olympic excess kill what makes Cortina special?
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – As the lights of the old ski jump hill from the 1956 Olympics shine through his kitchen window, Italian mountain climber Mario Dibona pours a beer and gently places his prized possession on the table. “Gruppo Scoiattoli,” Dibona tells me on a starry winter night, speaking in the reverent tone of…