If the Ducks wished to cut out all their mistakes with the puck in their half of the rink, if they wanted to play without any giveaways of any kind, they could simply skate to the red line and shoot it into the other team’s end of the ice and adopt a defensive posture.,“We’ll never score a goal,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said Tuesday, one day after turnovers proved costly in their 3-2 loss to the Sharks in San Jose.,Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf skated on that fine line in the second period Monday.,But on this night, against this opponent, the puck ended up in the back of the Ducks’ net, and the risk outweighed the reward.,COVID-19 RESCHEDULING

The Ducks’ game March 16 against the Arizona Coyotes at Honda Center has been rescheduled for March 20; their game March 27 against the Blues in St. Louis has been moved to March 28; and their March 31 game against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver has been shifted to March 16. read more

The OC Health Care Agency reported 658 new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, Feb. 16, increasing the cumulative total in the county to 243,163  cases since tracking began.,The data on deaths in the county is compiled from death certificates or gathered through the course of case investigations and can take weeks to process.,An estimated 8,455 cases of the virus have been recorded in Orange County in the last 14 days.,The county’s breakdown of deaths by age is as follows:

85 and older: 32.96% (1,193, up 14) read more

Except there’s a good deal more to Maharaj’s story than his introduction to hockey and his long and compelling journey toward becoming the Ducks’ goaltending coach.,“You were reminded you were different in the schoolyard, on the subway, on the rink,” said Maharaj, in his fifth season as the Ducks’ goaltending coach after joining the organization in 2013-14 to tutor their minor-league goalies, after eight seasons with the New York Islanders.,The Ducks’ John Gibson, right, chats with team goalie coach Sudarshan Maharaj prior to the game against the Kings on March 10, 2019, at Honda Center in Anaheim.,Gibson emerged as the Ducks’ No. 1 goalie and Andersen was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs after the 2015-16 season.,Gibson on Monday became the fourth goalie in Ducks history to play his 300th game with the club, following J-S Giguere (447), Guy Hebert (441) and Jonas Hiller (326).

The World Health Organization has granted an emergency authorization to the coronavirus vaccine made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, a move that should allow the company’s partners to ship millions of doses to countries worldwide as part of a U.N.-backed program to tame the pandemic.,In a statement Monday, the U.N. health agency said it was authorizing the AstraZeneca vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India and South Korea’s AstraZeneca-SKBio.,WHO’s green light for the AstraZeneca vaccine should trigger the delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to countries that have signed up for the U.N.-backed COVAX effort, which aims to deliver vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable.,“Countries with no access to vaccines to date will finally be able to start vaccinating their health workers and populations at risk,” said Dr Mariângela Simão, WHO’s Assistant-Director General for Access to Medicines and Health Products.,Last week, its group of vaccine experts recommended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over age 18, including in countries that have detected variants of COVID-19.

No matter how it’s expressed, the goal is to spread the ice time among a team’s four lines, with one generating as much or more pressure, confidence and momentum as the one before it.,“We would love to be a fourth line that creates energy, is physical and gives energy to our team and produces offensively,” Ducks center David Backes said.,In fact, in order to keep Backes in the lineup, Ducks coach Dallas Eakins moved Grant first to the top line and then to the second.,Eakins then shifted Grant back to the fourth line Monday and scratched Backes.,“Depending on our matchup or what our task is each night or how Dallas sees we’re going to win that game, it could be to go out there for 15 minutes and nothing happens is a win for us, because if we’re playing against another team’s top line and we shut them down for 15 minutes, well, that means our high skill guys are out there against a matchup that’s favorable to them,” Backes said.

Coming soon to a selected retailer near you: a vegan version of the iconic KitKat candy bar.,The company said it already has launched plant-based alternatives to dairy made from rice, oat, soy, coconut, pea and almonds that are found in its non-dairy ice cream, coffee creamers and other products.,The KitKat V, which it said will be launched later this year in “several countries across the globe,” is certified vegan and uses 100% sustainable cocoa, the company said.,As the product is tested it will only be available in the company’s boutique KitKat Chocolatory shops or online, and through select retailers.,It will be available in Britain, where the KitKat was originally developed in York — and where the research on the vegan version was done — but not in the U.S. where the KitKat is produced under a licensing agreement with Hershey’s, the company said.

By William Turton | Bloomberg

Conservative social media website Parler has returned to the internet after its service provider suspended the site in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.,Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud unit pulled Parler’s internet service after users planned and supported the riot on the website.,It’s unclear which service provider Parler is using to host the site.,Parler’s users included high-profile figures in Republican politics and conservative media such as Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.,Participants in the Jan. 6 riot posted videos of themselves inside the Capitol to Parler. read more

By Jeffrey Heller | Reuters

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday acknowledged differences with U.S. President Joe Biden over Iranian and Palestinian issues, but said they enjoy a “very strong” working relationship.,The White House on Friday denied that Biden was snubbing Netanyahu by failing to include him so far in an early round of phone calls to foreign leaders since taking office on Jan. 20.,Netanyahu dismissed any notion that Biden was intentionally excluding him, telling Israel’s Channel 12 television channel: “He’ll call … We have had very strong friendly relations for nearly 40 years, dating from the time I came to Washington as an Israeli diplomatic representative and he was a young senator from Delaware.”,Netanyahu may find the alliance tested if Washington restores U.S. participation in the Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew, and opposes Israeli settlement building on occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood.,On Friday, the White House said Biden and Netanyahu would speak soon, but gave no date. read more

By Jef Feeley | Bloomberg

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Sanofi were ordered to pay the state of Hawaii more than $834 million for illegally marketing their blockbuster blood-thinning drug Plavix in a manner that put some users’ lives at risk.,The companies produce the medicine as part of a joint venture.The $834 million was awarded as a civil penalty for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi’s violation of Hawaii’s consumer-protection laws through their improper Plavix marketing campaigns.,In a 43-page ruling, Ochiai said Bristol-Myers’ and Sanofi’s deceptive marketing practices “knowingly placed Plavix patients at grave risk of serious injury or death in order to substantially increase their profits.”,During a four-week online trial last year, Hawaii’s lawyers argued that for poor drug metabolizers, Plavix may not have lowered the risk of a recurrent heart attack or stroke, as touted by Bristol-Myers and Sanofi.,He noted the violations of Hawaii’s laws barring unfair or deceptive trade practices didn’t end until March 2010, when the companies added information about some users having problems metabolizing the drug to Plavix’s safety label. read more

After receiving an MRI on his right calf in Denver on Monday that showed no signs of rupture, the Lakers will sit him out Tuesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves and team doctors will re-evaluate Davis upon his return to L.A. ESPN reported that the 6-foot-10 All-NBA big man could miss as many as nine games leading into the All-Star break on March 5.,But for the Lakers, defending the title is paramount over short-term concerns, and even Davis recognized that on Sunday night when he spoke to the media after the injury, which the team is calling a “right calf strain.”,The Lakers first acknowledged that Davis was dealing with pain in his calf on Feb. 8, when the team announced he would miss that night’s game against Oklahoma City with tendonosis in his right Achilles.,Going into Sunday’s game against the Nuggets, Davis said he had been feeling “completely fine,” up until the point that he bumped legs with Nikola Jokic on a drive late in the second quarter.,Vogel expressed confidence Sunday that the Lakers wouldn’t expect a drop-off even if Davis missed significant time: “We’re gonna win games, that’s the first thing we’re gonna do.”