Counting on fans for countdown to 60th Festival du Voyageur

Stevenson set for first Jets start against Penguins

DETROIT — Clay Stevenson, the stage is yours.

As the Winnipeg Jets wrap up a two-game road trip on Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the newest member of the team will be between the pipes after Stuart Skinner got the call in the first two outings of the campaign.

There will be an element of familiarity for Stevenson, as PPG Paints Arena is where he made his first NHL appearance with the Washington Capitals on April 17, 2025.

“There is some comfortability in that building,” said Stevenson, who made 33 saves in a 5-2 loss to the Penguins in that NHL debut. “It’s always a great challenge to play against (Sidney) Crosby and (Evgeni) Malkin and those guys. It’s an honour to get into the crease anytime.”

Bombers on outside looking in after beatdown from Als

The visitors’ locker room at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium was eerily quiet late Saturday night.

Many of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers sat in their stalls with dejected looks on their faces, trying to wrap their heads around what had just transpired: a 37-10 beatdown at the hands of the Montreal Alouettes.

“(That game) felt like s—-, honestly,” receiver Tim White told the Free Press postgame.

And the Bombers have plenty of reason to feel that way, especially when looking at the West Division standings.

The election of our discontent: City at a crumbling crossroads, grumbling residents say in poll

There’s an undercurrent of unhappiness running through the Winnipeg electorate as the municipal election day approaches.

One-half of Winnipeggers believe the city is heading in the wrong direction, according to a new Abacus Data poll, with nearly one-third unsure if Winnipeg is regressing or progressing.

Only 21 per cent of residents believe the city is on the right track, the Free Press-commissioned poll found.

That discontentment extends to how the city spends its tax dollars, with four in 10 Winnipeggers believing they receive poor value for what they pay in property taxes.

‘Amazing honour’: Winnipeg distribution centre continues award-winning ways for McKesson Canada

After a three-year absence, the trophy is back in Winnipeg.

Last week, McKesson Canada named its 120,000-square-foot pharmaceutical distribution centre in the northwest part of the Manitoba capital its Distribution Centre of the Year. The award recognizes the facility’s role in helping essential medications reach communities across the province and some of Canada’s remote regions.

This is the fourth time the Winnipeg facility has earned the company-wide award since it opened five years ago. McKesson previously honoured the centre in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The recognition comes with a trophy, as well as a banner that was hung from the rafters on Thursday.

More than 100 employees work across the centre’s day-and-night operations, processing between 80,000 and 100,000 medication units daily. Last year, the centre distributed more than 21 million medication units while maintaining more than 99 per cent accuracy.

Mayoral hopefuls trade accusations

Two mayoral hopefuls traded accusations about meddling in each other’s campaigns as the incumbent rallied supporters for his re-election bid on the eve of advanced polls opening across Winnipeg.

A social media post made by Mike Vogiatzakis, one of 12 nominees in the Oct. 28 race for the top job at city hall, caught the attention of rivals Sunday.

The funeral director took to Facebook midday to criticize Kevin Klein — a competitor he said he thought of “as a friend” until the former Tory cabinet minister made a U-turn after pledging to back the Vogiatzakis campaign.

“Good speaker? Yes. Good looking guy? Sure. Someone I trust now? Absolutely not,” he wrote in a lengthy post.

Hydro Québec faces issue we should avoid

You might be tempted to call it a canary in an electric power generation coal mine.