The Montreal Canadiens currently have a 20-12-5 record and are third place in the Atlantic Division standings. Due to this, there is an expectation that they will continue to try to improve their roster after acquiring Phillip Danault from the Los Angeles Kings.
One of the Canadiens' needs right now is another impactful and skilled winger. Due to this, they are now being viewed as a potential fit for one of the NHL's best trade candidates.
In The Athletic's latest NHL trade matchmaker column, insider Chris Johnston named the Canadiens as a potential trade fit for Nashville Predators winger Jonathan Marchessault.
"This is a move that would certainly sit well with Marchessault, which is important given the fact he’s got that NMC in his contract. The former Conn Smythe Trophy winner would bring some experience to the NHL’s youngest roster and should be able to add offensive pop to the Habs’ top-six forward group," Johnston wrote.
Johnston also mentioned that the Canadiens could move Patrik Laine, who has an $8.7 million cap hit, to the Predators in a hypothetical Marchessault deal to make things work out financially.
It is worth noting that Marchessault is having a down season by his standards with the Predators, as he has recorded seven goals and 10 points in 28 games. Yet, when looking at his resume, there is a clear reason to believe that he should bounce back. Just last season with Nashville, he posted 21 goals and 56 points in 78 games. This was after he had 42 goals and 69 points in 82 games with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023-24.
Marchessault would be more than a rental for the Canadiens if acquired, too. This is because he has a $5.5 million cap hit until the end of the 2028-29 season. Thus, he would have the potential to be a nice part of the Canadiens' forward group for multiple seasons if brought in.
Minnesota sent forward prospect Michael Milne to the Lightning for a veteran power forward Boris Katchouk.
Milne, 23, was drafted by Minnesota in the third round, 89th overall, in the 2022 NHL Draft. He has been very injury prone in every season he has been in the Wild's organization.
The 5-foot-10 forward has appeared in 15 games with the AHL’s Iowa Wild this season, recording two goals and five points. He has played 172 career AHL games, all with Iowa, and has recorded 32 goals and 65 points.
Katchouk, 27, was a second round pick by the Lightning in 2026. He has played in 261 career AHL games and has recorded 64 goals, 90 assists and 154 points. He has played in three NHL games this year and has zero points and five hits.
In 179 career NHL games, Katchouk has 15 goals, 21 assists, 36 points, 310 hits and is a minus-23. The 6-foot-3 forward has played four seasons in the NHL with three different teams and is expected to go to the Iowa Wild.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Matthew Tkachuk played hockey on Sunday, which was a jolt of long-awaited good news for the Florida Panthers.
How long it’ll take him to go from the practice rink to the game rink remains unclear.
Wearing a yellow non-contact jersey, Tkachuk practiced Sunday for the first time this season and more than four months after he had surgery to repair a sports hernia and torn adductor muscle.
Tkachuk has not played since Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, when the Panthers clinched their second consecutive title by again topping the Edmonton Oilers. He went through the summer trying to rehab — but eventually decided that he needed the surgery knowing it would cost him the first few months of the season.
The wait isn’t over. But it’s close.
“He looks awesome,” Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “Good to see him back out there. He brought us some energy today, that’s for sure.”
Now the waiting game shifts to when Tkachuk will play a game. Florida plays host to Washington on Monday and Montreal on Tuesday, then will be the home team for the NHL Winter Classic at the Miami Marlins’ ballpark against the New York Rangers on Friday.
The Panthers are scheduled to practice at the ballpark on Thursday. Other than morning skates, that will be their next practice. And there’s no guarantee that Tkachuk will play Friday. Florida is not going to rush it just for him to be part of an event.
“There’s a whole bunch of things he’s got to get through. The question is, is there enough time,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He might be healthy enough or close to enough that he could play, but we’re not guessing on this. ... As much as we like the spectacle of it and we’d love for him to be a part of it — it would be great for the game to see him out there — the Florida Panthers need him healthy for the rest of the year.”
After the Panthers won their second straight Stanley Cup in June, Tkachuk revealed that he had sustained the injuries while playing for Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. He missed the final 25 games of the regular season but returned for Game 1 of the Panthers’ first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tkachuk had 23 points — eight goals and 15 assists — in 23 playoff games, including seven points in the Stanley Cup Final. He’s expected to address reporters later this week and indicated after the practice Sunday that all went well with the workout.
The Panthers have been without a slew of key players all season, including captain Aleksander Barkov. They entered Sunday tied for the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, only five points out of the lead in the Atlantic Division.
Florida has gone through this season with the expectation that Tkachuk would be back on a “December-ish” timeline. He has said he wants to play in the Winter Classic, the Panthers’ first outdoor game, and for Team USA at the Milan Cortina Olympics in February.
“We will enjoy the talent upgrade,” Maurice said. “He’s a great player. But it’s the personality more. He’s chirping on the ice, right? He’s giving it to guys. They’re laughing. He’s bringing a little joy to everyone. He’s funny on the bench. He has an incredible emotional IQ in terms of the game of hockey. When nothing needs to happen, he doesn’t do anything. When something needs to happen, he figures out the right way.”
Tessa Johnson and Madina Okot each scored 18 points to lead third-ranked South Carolina over Providence 96-55 on Sunday, but the Gamecocks also lost guard Ta’Niya Latson to injury.
The Chicago Blackhawks just earned their gutsiest win of the season on Saturday night. They woke up after a three-day holiday break, got on a plane, flew to Dallas without Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, and beat one of the best teams in the NHL to snap a six-game losing streak.
Now, on the second half of a back-to-back, the Blackhawks will face the Pittsburgh Penguins at the United Center. Quickly, the mentality is to turn the losing streak into a winning streak.
Scouting Pittsburgh
The Pittsburgh Penguins have had a lot of success over the last 20 years. However, they are in a strange phase right now as their aging superstars are still great, but the rest of the team is not good enough to be a playoff team.
At 15-12-9, the Penguins are only three points below the playoff line, but they are the third-to-last team in the conference. Anything can happen, but making the postseason would be a tremendous challenge for them at this point.
Rakell-Crosby-Rust
Mantha-Novak-Brazeau
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Silovs
For the last 20 years, everything to do with the Pittsburgh Penguins started and ended with Sidney Crosby. It still does in 2025-26. He leads the team with 20 goals and 38 points in 36 games played.
He will lead their top line alongside Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust. This is the line that the Blackhawks will need their best against at all times. Crosby knows how to defend well, be hard to forecheck against, and turn it all into offense.
This forward group has some notable players alongside some young guys looking to establish their games at the NHL level.
They will, however, be missing Evgeni Malkin, who has missed the last 10 games with an injury. He won't return against Chicago, but he did skate before practice on Saturday. Malkin, like Crosby, will be a first ballot Hall of Famer and one of the greatest ever.
On defense, Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang are the two leaders. Fittingly, they are aging superstars who will be in the Hall of Fame like Crosby and Malkin, but they still know how to get it done at a high level. In goal for Pittsburgh will be Arturs Silovs.
Projected Lines, Defense Pairs, & Goalie For Chicago
The Chicago Blackhawks, playing the second half of a back-to-back with travel, have the cards stacked against them in this matchup as well. However, they've proven that they can compete in situations like this. Without Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, it's an even harder challenge, but coach Blashill will have them prepared to give it a good effort.
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Knight
Captain Nick Foligno has been unable to return over their last couple of games, but every match is a chance for him to come back. If it is in this matchup, you can expect one of Sam Lafferty or Dominic Toninato to take a seat from this group.
Landon Slaggert was called up from Rockford to replace Ilya Mikheyev, who is out due to the birth of his child, but he played so well against the Stars that it would be hard to bench him one night later.
Arvid Soderblom started in goal for the Blackhawks on Saturday night. That means that Spencer Knight will likely get the nod against the Penguins on Sunday.
How To Watch
The game can be heard locally on AM 720 WGN in the Chicagoland area. To view this game, it can be found locally on CHSN. Nationally, it can be streamed on ESPN+. The puck will drop shortly after 6 PM CT.
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Archie Gray scored his first senior goal as Spurs toughed out a much-needed London derby win
It’s a cold day in London, and Selhurst awaits the teams, who are both in the tunnel and will enter the pitch from the corner.
Richard Hirst gets in touch: “Watching the video of John Robertson in the piece you linked to I was reminded not only of his ability but also of the state of the pitches. It really was a different game then: maybe football did begin in 1992!”
The Warriors were warned late in the third quarter, smacked late in the fourth quarter, stomped into defeat in overtime and their long season of futility continues to slog forth.
They were demolished Sunday by the Toronto Raptors, who erased multiple double-digit deficits to pin them with a 141-127 overtime loss that flattened Golden State’s three-game win streak, halted any momentum that might have been built over the past week and, once again, put optimism on pause.
“It sucks,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters at Scotiabank Arena. “We’re on a little bit of a run. We’ve got a chance for some momentum, we control the whole game, and we let it slip.”
“We did enough to win, gave ourselves up a good cushion,” Stephen Curry said. “Just couldn’t get a rebound in too many you know turnovers it turned up the pressure and we just didn’t have enough answers down the stretch.”
If this feels familiar, it should. The Warriors this season are 16-16, have lost 11 of 17 “clutch” games – within five points over the final five minutes – and this marks the seventh time their opponent fought through a double-digit deficit to claim victory.
The Warriors’ preseason vision of not only making the playoffs but establishing an extended postseason run keeps slamming into reality.
The repetitive win/lose pattern of this season has left the team’s coaches and players citing the same problems that are addressed and temporarily solved – turnovers, points in the paint, second- and third-chance shots – only to consistently relapse.
So, naturally, after the Warriors gave Toronto 35 points off 21 turnovers – and often looked as if they had no idea how to break a full-court press – Kerr responded in a way he has all too often this season. He held up his finger and pointed it directly at himself.
“It was just turnovers, end of the third and end of the fourth, we just got scattered,” he said. “I’ve got to get us better organized during those stretches. That’s on me. They turned up the pressure, we didn’t handle it well and they scored 35 points off our turnovers. That was the game.”
The final 54 seconds of the third quarter provided a warning, as the Warriors watched their lead shrink from 12 to four by giving the Raptors eight points off turnovers.
The final 92 seconds of regulation raised the specter of doom, as the Warriors committed three turnovers, wiping out their seven-point (120-113) lead, leaving the game tied and setting up OT.
Toronto owned OT, outscoring the Warriors 19-5 – make it 28-7 over the final six minutes, 32 seconds.
When the Raptors turned up their pressure defense, the Warriors collapsed like a toothpick tent. The seven turnovers that cost them the game were committed by veterans and youngsters alike: Jimmy Butler III, two; and one each by Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Gary Payton II, Brandin Podziemski and rookie Will Richard.
“It was just our spacing,” Podziemski said. “We honestly haven’t worked on teams running and trapping like that, especially in the backcourt. I think we just got to fix our spacing when it comes to our alignment when there’s two people on the ball.”
This is the second time this season the Warriors took the floor chasing their fourth consecutive victory – and the second time a younger, bigger, quicker NBA team impolitely informed them that it will be difficult for their current roster to win with anything remotely resembling consistency.
Golden State’s athletically challenged roster – emphatically so with Jonathan Kuminga racking up DNP-CDs – once again revealed itself as likely to struggle against lengthy active, athletic teams.
Unfortunately, for the Warriors, that description applies to most NBA teams.
“It’s kind of the nature of the way the league is going,” Curry said. “You have a couple of guys who are on-ball defenders, using their length and athleticism. And then you have guys on the back end who are able to kind of shoot the passing lanes or again use that length to cut off angles.”
Golden State’s current roster has, and will continue to have, difficulty overcoming such defenses – particularly when opponents intensify down the stretch. It’s visible in the seven double-digit leads blown and clutch-game losses.
None of the Warriors are enjoying this. But their quest to escape mediocrity keeps hitting an iron ceiling that, with each ugly loss, becomes more difficult to imagine them cutting through.
Eighteen months can be a very long time in football – especially if you are still a teenager. After a mixed start to life in north London, Archie Gray could not have picked a better occasion to score his first Tottenham goal since joining from Leeds in the summer of 2024 than his 60th appearance. With Thomas Frank already showing signs of not being the first Spurs manager to have been overwhelmed by expectations after a run of just one win in their previous eight Premier League matches, Gray’s scrappy header in the first half ensured that a topsy-turvy year ended with a victory that lifts his side to within one point of Crystal Palace in the table.
Of the 20 goals that Oliver Glasner’s side have conceded this season in the league, 12 have come from set-pieces and Palace have now failed to win any of their last five matches as a packed schedule has finally caught up with them. But this was all about Gray as the 19-year-old midfielder who left the pitch to a standing ovation and big hug from Frank after becoming the youngest Englishman to score for Tottenham in the Premier League since a certain Dele Alli in January 2016.
Nick Kyrgios won 6-3, 6-3 against Aryna Sabalenka in an intriguing Dubai contest with celebrity interruptions
Nick Kyrgios won tennis’s latest Battle of the Sexes against Aryna Sabalenka in a dispiriting contest in Dubai that veered uneasily between exhibition, gimmick and outright circus.
The Australian, who has won only one competitive singles match since the end of 2022 and has slipped to 671 in the world rankings, was sweating heavily and breathing hard as early as the fifth game of the match. Yet to no one’s great surprise, the extreme power of his serve, combined with the spin and velocity of his groundstrokes, proved too much for the women’s No 1 player.
The Ottawa Senators’ 7–5 loss in Toronto on Saturday night won’t go down as the greatest game ever played in the Battle of Ontario, but it was certainly entertaining. Matthew Knies had two goals and an assist for Toronto, which snapped a five-game losing slide against the Sens.
Neither team seemed to be at their best, which isn’t uncommon following a three-day holiday break when players are completely off skates and – how shall I put this? – their standard nutritional intake is ignored.
In a lot of ways, the game resembled a holiday skate on the ODR, with loads of goal scoring and only a passing interest in defence.
The Senators’ penalty kill proved to be the perfect tonic for Toronto’s 32nd-ranked power play, which went to work early to give the Leafs a 2–0 lead by way of William Nylander, who would later leave the game with a lower-body injury and did not return. Knies got into the act with a snapshot from the bumper position on a nice pass by Max Domi, who finished the night with three assists.
But the Senators fought back to tie the game.
Nick Cousins tucked home his sixth of the year with under three minutes left in the period to make it 2–1. Then, 18 seconds into the middle frame, Ridly Greig charged to the net with the puck with Leafs defenceman Philippe Myers all over him. Greig managed to get the puck to the net, but Myers ended up plowing Greig, the puck, and Leafs goalie Joseph Woll into the Toronto net.
After review, it was determined that Myers was the one responsible for putting the puck into the Leafs’ net, and the goal stood.
With the score now tied and the ship apparently righted, the Sens began taking on water again after Linus Ullmark let in a pair of goals that head coach Travis Green admitted after the game he didn't like.
The first restored Toronto's lead when a slow-moving puck trickled through Ullmark's legs and sat exposed near the goal line. Bobby McMann whacked it into the vacant net. On the next one, Ullmark gave up a big rebound, which fell right to Auston Matthews, who was standing near the crease right beside Thomas Chabot. Let completely untouched, Matthews crammed in the rebound for one of the easiest goals of his career, which would be the end of Ullmark’s night.
He certainly wasn’t good on Saturday, allowing four goals on 14 shots, but he didn’t get much help either. Backup Leevi Merilainen was scored on with the first shot he faced from Nicholas Robertson.
Down 5-2, the Senators came out and made a game of it in the third.
Drake Batherson scored 14 seconds in, taking a pass from Dylan Cozens in the slot and roofing a beauty over the top of Woll. Tim Stützle then made it 5–4 just over five minutes into the third, cutting into the slot and ripping a wrist shot that Woll got a big piece of, but not enough to stop it from going in.
That momentum didn’t last even a minute, as Knies scored his second of the game to put Toronto back up 6–4.
Jordan Spence made it 6–5 when his wrist shot hit Claude Giroux on the skate, which stung the veteran, but the puck bounced right back to Spence, who had all kinds of room to reload and shoot to make it 6–5.
Giroux, despite the bruise, ended up with two assists in his 1,300th NHL game.
Ottawa continued to push in the late going, but John Tavares put it away with an empty-net goal with 1:16 to play.
Now that the Sens have shaken off the eggnog, they’ll be back home to host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night to kick off a four-game homestand that take them into 2026 and finish off the first half of their regular season.
By Steve Warne The Hockey News Ottawa
Read more Ottawa Senators news and features at The Hockey News:
Steve Warne is the Ottawa Senators site editor at The Hockey News. Steve has covered the Senators since day one, first as Sports Director for Rogers Radio in Ottawa on AM 1310 and FM 105, then as the long-time host of the morning show at TSN 1200 radio, the Sens' flagship station. Steve is also the owner and host of TheSens Nation Podcast.
Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier (61), center Mason McTavish (23), right wing Beckett Sennecke (45), defenseman Olen Zellweger (51), and right wing Frank Vatrano (77) celebrate after scoring against the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 7 at Honda Center. (Ethan Swope / Associated Press)
R.J. Prewitt has been a Ducks fan since the first puck dropped in Anaheim, so he’s known good times and bad.
He was there when the team won the Stanley Cup in 2007, for example, and when it took another final to a seventh game four seasons earlier. But he was also there through each of the last seven seasons, when the Ducks never placed higher than sixth in the Pacific Division and finished a combined 74 games under .500.
“It's my team,” said Prewitt, wearing a white-and-orange Ducks’ sweater as he waited to enter the Crypto.com Arena for Saturday night’s game with the Kings. “I'm going to have faith no matter what.”
That faith is getting another stern test this month. Because after entering December atop the division standings for the first time in more than a decade, the Ducks have lost six of their last eight, with the most ignominious loss coming Saturday in a 6-1 thrashing by their neighborhood rivals and winger Alex Laferriere, who got his first career hat trick.
Ducks left wing Alex Killorn skates with the puck during a loss to Kings Saturday at Crypto.com Arena. (Katie Chin / Associated Press)
For the Kings, the season-high six goals comes at the end of a slide that had seen them lose six of their last seven, averaging less than two goals a game over that stretch.
Laferriere scored more than that by himself Saturday.
The Kings’ first two goals, from Drew Doughty and Trevor Moore, came in the first four minutes. Laferriere got his first midway through the first period and when Quinton Byfield scored on a power play just before the intermission, the Kings took a 4-0 lead into the locker room at the break.
For the Ducks, who have been plagued by slow starts — 11 of their 21 wins came in games in which they trailed; only the Philadelphia Flyers have more — that deficit was too much to overcome.
“That’s unacceptable,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “You’re not going to make the playoffs being at that level. So we’ve got to make sure that we recapture that feeling of what it takes to be consistent.”
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville yells instructions to his players during a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 19. (Paul Beaty / Associated Press)
Yet despite Saturday’s loss, the Ducks and their fans still have a lot of positives to celebrate — especially given the team’s recent history.
The Ducks’ 21 wins are still most in the division; they didn’t get their 21st win until Jan. 28th last season. And their 130 goals through 38 games — an average of nearly 3 ½ a night — rank fourth in the NHL. They were in the bottom three in scoring in each of the last three seasons.
But what had been the most remarkable turnaround in the league through the first three months has suddenly hit a rough patch, challenging the narrative that new coach Quenneville had finally taken the team from pretenders to contenders.
“Well, we’ve got to prove it,” Quenneville said after Saturday’s humiliation, the Ducks’ most lopsided loss of the season. “We can talk about [how] we want to be a harder-working team this season. But the game tonight didn’t indicate that at all.
“The tenaciousness and the relentless has to go be part of our identity. But we can’t talk about it. We’ve got to prove that.”
Quenneville has been here before. In 2008, he took over a young Chicago Blackhawks team that hadn’t been to the playoffs in five seasons and guided it to the conference finals. A year later, it won the Stanley Cup.
Then in 2019, he took over a young Florida Panthers’ team and led it to the franchise’s first playoff appearance in three seasons.
Both teams had to learn to win, had to believe they could win, before they actually did so. Now Quenneville’s young Ducklings are having their beliefs tested by their worst eight-game stretch of the season.
“I’ve never been on a winning-record team in the NHL. And I’m not the only guy,” said 22-year-old center Mason McTavish, one of six Ducks younger than 23. “It’s a learning curve for sure.
“But at the same time we know how good we are. And this last six, eight games, it’s not been up to our standard. We’ve taken a huge step this year. But that’s not our end goal. We want to make the playoffs. We want to win the Stanley Cup.”
The Ducks will have to become a lot more consistent to have a chance to make that happen. Because while they’re one of the league’s top scoring teams, only the St. Louis Blues have allowed more goals than the Ducks, who have a minus-2 goal differential. And they’ve been outscored 34-19 in their last eight games.
The slump, then, is looming as a test of character and resolve. At a similar point in Quenneville’s first season in Chicago, the Blackhawks lost five times in an eight-game stretch. But they rebounded by winning nine of their next 12 and never looked back.
McTavish, who had his team’s only goal Saturday, said the Ducks have to do the same thing if they hope to show the playoffs are now a realistic goal for a franchise that hasn’t had a winning record in seven seasons.
Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal is congratulated by Nikita Nesterenko and Mason McTavish after blocking a shot by Panthers center Evan Rodrigues to win during a shootout on Oct. 28 in Sunrise, Fla. (Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)
“We have to come out the next game and really prove to ourselves that we can play with the top teams in the league,” he said. “And beat them.”
The Ducks long-suffering supporters are also ready for the pain of the last seven seasons to ease.
“Yes, yes, yes. I believe,” said Daniel Núñez of Bakersfield who, like Prewitt, has been a fan from the first season. “We have a good shot, I think, to win the Pacific Division. We have a really good team.”
“Whatever they're doing,” Prewitt agreed “I'm there with them.”
The Sixers could not put together two competitive halves Sunday afternoon against the defending champions.
The Thunder pulled away at Paycom Center to earn a 129-104 win and improve to 27-5 on the season. The Sixers fell to 16-14.
Tyrese Maxey had 28 points and five assists.
OKC’s leading scorers were Chet Holmgren with 29 points and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 27.
The Sixers were without Joel Embiid (right ankle sprain and right knee injury management), Kelly Oubre Jr. (left knee LCL sprain) and Trendon Watford (left adductor strain).
The third stop on the Sixers’ five-game road trip is Memphis, where they’ll play the Grizzlies on Tuesday night. Here are observations on their loss to the Thunder:
Thunder scorching from the start
Oklahoma City made its first nine field goals.
The Sixers’ defense was not at its finest and the Thunder’s offensive execution was razor-sharp after two straight losses to the Spurs. Jalen Williams beat Paul George on a backdoor cut and laid the ball in. Holmgren scored twice over Dominick Barlow in the post and jammed in an unguarded fast-break dunk.
In his first career game against the Thunder, VJ Edgecombe defended the reigning MVP. He had a solid start against Gilgeous-Alexander, ceding no cheap fouls, but OKC’s superstar guard is essentially impossible to shut down. Gilgeous-Alexander has now scored over 20 points in 103 consecutive games. The longest streak in NBA history is Wilt Chamberlain’s 126 straight games.
OKC did commit seven turnovers in the first quarter and the Sixers avoided any immediate blowout concerns. A Quentin Grimes three-pointer late in the first gave the Sixers their first lead at 25-24.
Maxey back on his A-game in first half
Maxey scored nine points in the first few minutes, including a soft scoop shot and a deep jumper.
He never cooled off in the first half and continued to drive effectively into the heart of the Thunder’s defense. Maxey began 6 for for 6 from the floor and posted 15 of the Sixers’ 29 points in the opening period. He only missed two field goals in the first half on his way to 23 points.
While there was nothing lucky about Maxey’s shotmaking in Oklahoma City, he was also due for some kind bounces. He’d had subpar shooting nights in the Sixers’ losses to the Nets and Bulls, going 31.6 percent from the field and 31.3 percent from three-point range over those two games.
The Sixers’ offense relied on Maxey, although the team’s bench did provide much better production than in Friday’s defeat to Chicago.
Adem Bona had eight points, two blocks and two rebounds in an extended first stint. Justin Edwards knocked down a three as soon as he touched the ball. Jared McCain leaked out ahead of the pack for a layup and Edwards then sunk his third triple of the second quarter to put the Sixers up 58-57. They trailed by two points at intermission.
Best vs. worst in third quarter
OKC’s defense focused more on bothering Maxey after halftime and he didn’t score in the second half until a technical free throw with 7:05 left in the fourth quarter.
Unsurprisingly, Maxey’s lack of scoring coincided with the Thunder’s lead growing. Gilgeous-Alexander’s driving layup capped an 11-0 run and built OKC’s advantage to 86-73.
Neither Edgecombe (10 points on 3-for-16 shooting) nor George (12 points on 4-for-11 shooting) had the sort of efficient performances necessary to pick up Maxey’s slack after halftime.
The Sixers moved to a zone defense late in the third quarter. They weren’t able to stick with it for long, since the Thunder dissected the zone very well. OKC passed 100 points before the end of the third and the NBA’s worst third-quarter team thus far (minus-21.4 net rating entering Sunday) lost the frame by 14 points.
It just so happens that Oklahoma City is the league’s best third-quarter team. For the Sixers, Sunday’s fourth quarter was soon a hopeless cause.
The Florida Panthers received a late Christmas gift when they held their first post-holiday break practice on Sunday.
As the team trickled out of the locker room at the Baptist Health IcePlex in their usual blue, white and red jerseys, there was one eye-catching outlier.
Skating in a Panthers practice for the first time since last year’s playoffs was forward Matthew Tkachuk.
After helping Florida win their second straight Stanley Cup back in June, Tkachuk underwent offseason surgery on a torn adductor and sports hernia that he’d been playing through for several months.
Now, after spending much of the time since recovering and building up the strength needed to resume his ascending NHL career as one of the league’s premier power forwards, Tkachuk is as close to a return as ever.
Wearing a gold, non-contact jersey, Tkachuk was on the ice with his teammates.
The process from this point will be fun to track as the Panthers enter a very busy and exciting week.
Florida has back-to-back home games coming up on Monday and Tuesday against the Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens, respectively.
Then, they’ll have an off day on Wednesday before holding a practice on the ice at loanDepot park Thursday in order to get an idea of what to expect for Friday’s Winter Classic against the New York Rangers.
Will Tkachuk be able to suit up for the big game in the Little Havana ballpark in five days?
Photo caption: Nov 14, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk (19) looks on against the New Jersey Devils during the second period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)
