New Year's Day is all about the College Football Playoff. There's three matchups in the bowl to break down and analyze.
Alabama vs. Indiana prediction: Who wins Rose Bowl matchup in CFP?
The Rose Bowl features the matchup of Indiana and Alabama in the College Football Playoff. Who will win? Our experts offer their score predictions.
What happened to Ryan Williams? Alabama WR looks for Rose Bowl rebound in CFP
After a stellar freshman season and video game cover appearance, Alabama receiver Ryan Williams has struggled this year. Can he rebound in Rose Bowl?
Oregon vs. Texas Tech prediction: Who will win Orange Bowl?
Texas Tech and Oregon meet in the Orange Bowl with the winner moving to the College Football Playoff semifinals. Our experts make their predictions.
How Ohio State’s slow start spelled doom vs. Miami in repeat CFP title bid
Ohio State did what it could in the second half against Miami in the Cotton Bowl, but couldn't dig itself out of the hole it dug in the first half:
Miami make CFP title case after Cotton Bowl upset of Ohio State: ‘This is our moment’
Miami is just two wins from a national title after beating defending champion Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl with a display of impressive physicality.
Cold finish for Michigan football matched by warm hopes for 2026
"It was tough in there," Michigan football LB Cole Sullivan said after the loss. "We know that there's going to be a lot of changes made."
Ole Miss vs. Georgia prediction: Beat writers pick Sugar Bowl winner
The Sugar Bowl is an all-SEC matchup as Ole Miss and Georgia meet in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal tonight. Who wins?
Alabama vs. Indiana prediction: Beat writers pick Rose Bowl winner
Indiana entered the season as the losingest team in college football history. Now, No. 1 in nation, Hoosiers face Alabama in a prove-it moment.
Oregon vs. Texas Tech prediction: Beat writers pick Orange Bowl winner
Today's Orange Bowl CFP quarterfinal is a matchup between one of the nation's most explosive offenses (Oregon) and most dynamic defenses (Texas Tech).
What I have learned from watching all 20 Premier League teams this season | John Brewin
Set pieces on the rise, fans transformed to customers and conspiracies seen in every decision – is football losing its fun?
English football has always mirrored the passions, conflicts, identities and inequalities of the age. After the golden 1960s, the decay of the 1970s and ensuing disasters of the 1980s came the cap-sleeved, rebounding self-confidence of the 1990s. The 21st century so far has taken in globalisation and wanton commercialism. After that rabid, often reckless push for continued growth, society and the game alight on the uncertainties that encapsulated 2025.
To catch the 20 Premier League clubs in live action this season, and this writer completed the full set on Tuesday witnessing Arsenal’s second-half demolition of Aston Villa, has been a study in that uncertainty. From the grumbling of fans, to the ever-fragile egos of managers, to players slugging through the gristle of 90 minutes of hard-pressing slog, a leading question comes to mind: is anyone actually still enjoying this?
Continue reading...Oilers Bail On Third Line Experiment In 6-2 Loss To Bruins
Regardless of the final result of Wednesday's New Year's Eve clash between the Boston Bruins and Edmonton Oilers, the Oilers were sitting atop the Pacific Division standings as 2025 was set to cross over into 2026. The Vegas Golden Knights lost to Nashville, and Anaheim's overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning meant the Oilers will ring in the new year in first place.
That was the good news. The bad news? After a 6-2 loss, the Oilers didn't exactly look like a first-place team.
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"Just not hard enough, not hard enough to play against, just not detailed enough, certainly can be a lot better," said a frustrated Leon Draisaitl after the loss. In the very short post-game scrum, he wasn't asked much and didn't have a lot to offer. He talked about a 0-6 power play and noted, "I didn't think we had any looks really, not good enough."
Draisaitl was a bit more unhappy with the game than head coach Kris Knoblauch, who commented, "I thought our game was better than the score indicated." He didn't mind the team's first period, but a strong performance by Jeremy Swayman and some missed opportunities led to the game slipping away. When asked whether the game did more than slip away -- a different description might have been spun out of control -- Knoblauch noted that it wasn't clear whether it was a result of poor play or if the chances just ended up in the back of their net.
It could have been a little of both. Connor Ingram struggled. It was not the same performance that he'd been putting in his last three starts, where the feeling was, if he could see the puck, he'd stop it. That didn't happen Wednesday, as a couple of bad goals got past him.
The good?
Connor McDavid had eight shots and was driving hard to the net most of the night. Jack Roslovic also looked solid, scoring a goal and getting promoted off the third line and up to the top six. "Looks like we need him playing in the top six," Knoblauch said.
That third-line situation is teetering on the verge of becoming a genuine concern. Knoblauch felt like he needed to make a switch mid-game and wanted Draisaitl to have a bit more support, which he wasn't getting from the attempt to spark Andrew Mangiapane. As much as the Oilers want to get a third line going, it's now clear the team can't afford to sacrifice the strength of the top two lines.
Knoblauch all but confirmed the Draisaitl, Roslovic, and Vasily Podkolzin trio is the way the Oilers will go moving forward.
As for Mangiapane, he had a good opportunity but didn't do much with it. Knoblauch didn't hate his game, but he played only 7:31. "We made that switch putting Roslovic there. Obviously, we feel that Roslovic is a better player, but I thought Andrew did some things that helped us."
What happens with Mangiapane as the calendar flips over to 2026 will be a storyline worth watching.
Injury Updates:
Knoblauch offered a bit of information on some key injuries. Tristan Jarry is likely mid-January. "I don't think it will be any sooner than that." Jake Walman is out for at least another week, if not two. Kasperi Kapanen could play on the weekend, but he hasn't had the practice time, which the Oilers might want to give him more reps before throwing him into game action.
The Game Results:
The Bruins took the first penalty of the game when Elias Lindholm slashed Bouchard's stick. That leantly was canceled out when Hyman got called for holding. Then in a weird play, Ingram played the puck about an inch outside the trapezoid and got called for it. By then, the Bruins were on a two-man advantage, with David Pastrnak making it 1-0 and scoring. The good news for Edmonton was that the goal came on the second of the two power plays, meaning it was back to 5-on-5.
With six minutes left in the first, McDavid got a break after an icing left him on the ice far longer than his shift should have been. Jeremy Swayman made the stop.
Oilers draw another call. McCavoy took the penalty for holding. The Bruins killed it off.
Casey Mittelstadt came in on the wing and put one past Ingram to make it 2-0 with 1:42 left in the first. It was a good shot, but one Ingram might have wanted back.
The Oilers got on the board with 40 seconds left as McDavid dangled through three Bruins' players and set up Hyman with an easy tap in that Swayman had no chance on. Edmonton had been getting looks but couldn't captialize. They finally did. Draisaitl got another good look to end the period.
The Oilers got a quick power play to start the second period.
A shot Ingram never saw got passed him at the 7:05 mark of the second period. He had two bodies in front of him and could find the puck that went up high.
The Oilers power play troubles have been the story of the game so far. Typically on fire, to this points in the game, it has gone 0-for-4.
The Bruins made it 4-1 when Jonathan Aspirot banged home a rebound on a bit of a broken down 2-on-1. McDavid has been trying to spark the offense, driving to the net and skating hard. He's been the only player to drive hard north, versus pulling up and trying the extra pass.
The Oilers looked to push to start the third, but they continued to look out of sync. Ingram let a stinker in on one he tried to stop with his glove, popped up in the air, and went in. At 5-1, it wasn't looking like the Oilers night.
Jack Roslovic did score as another Oilers power play came and went with no goal. It was a 5-on-5 marker to make it 5-2.
Pastrnak made it 6-2 on big on-timer that snuck through Ingram's five-hole.
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Mike Brown critical of Knicks' defense in loss to Spurs: 'Our physicality is not good'
The Knicks scored a season-high 45 points in the first quarter and led by as many as 19 points on Wednesday night, but let it all slip away, eventually falling to the San Antonio Spurs, 134-132.
New York allowed 41 fourth-quarter points in the loss, including 12 to Julian Champagnie on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting from three-point land. The former St. John's star made a Spurs-record 11 threes in total, finishing with a game high 36 points.
After the game, head coach Mike Brown didn't beat around the bush with what went wrong for the Knicks.
"Great win by San Antonio, they just outworked us in a lot of different ways," Brown said. "Mitch (Johnson) kicked my a--, the rest of the team kicked our a--, we all got our a-- kicked today so you got to give San Antonio a ton of credit.
"Julian Champagnie, he was fantastic, he shot the mess out of the ball and he made the shots. I was a little disappointed in our guys because it was almost like we didn't respect him. We didn't pick him up in transition... We know he's a hot player and that's what he does, but he just kept getting look after look after look after look after look that were wide open. You give him a lot of credit because he knocked the shots down, but I was really, really disappointed in the way we defended him."
In addition to Champagnie's scoring being a difference-maker, the Spurs went 32-of-40 from the foul line compared to 18-of-20 shooting from the charity stripe for the Knicks. Brown acknowledged that some of San Antonio's foul shots came toward the end of the game, but still pointed to the large "free throw disparity" in the game.
"40 free throw attempts, I know we fouled late in the game... They almost doubled us in free throw attempts the whole game," Brown said. "I don't know, maybe we weren't aggressive enough, I'm not sure. It'd be interesting to go back to look at the film to see why we couldn't get to the free throw line but why they were getting to the free throw line.
"That's a huge disadvantage if you're talking about 20 to 40 from the free throw line. And again you have to take into consideration that some of those fouls at the end of the game we were fouling to get an opportunity to stop the clock and try to go score. It's going to be tough if the free throw disparity is that big."
In addition to the fouling problems, Brown went on to discuss the team's defense as a whole. He said they need to do a better job about not reaching, instead "leading with the chest, not with our hands."
"We as a team got to figure out how we can be physical but defend without fouling," Brown said.
He emphasized New York's physicality needs to improve, believing the group hasn't shown that ability through a full game this season. Brown added that there needs to be a "sense of urgency" defensively in order to win games like Wednesday night's.
"A team scores 134 points (against you), first of all it's our physicality," Brown said. "We haven't figured out how to be physical for 48 minutes in the last I don't know how many games. But doing it without fouling. We pick up some silly fouls that we have to do a better job of. I feel everybody understands that, but now we just have to go do it. Our physicality is not good.
"I don't know if we're tired or what, but we have not been able to sustain anything defensively for 48 minutes. We've won a lot of games, and you want to win games, and you feel good about it. But at the end of the day, if we don't figure out how to sustain what we're supposed to do on the defensive end of the floor for 48 minutes it's going to be a long year for us and it's going to eventually catch up to us. Our physicality, our inability to sustain what we're supposed to do on that end of the floor, and for a while it was our transition defense... those areas are really big for us."
Like Brown mentioned, New York will need show an improved, physical style of defense if they want to achieve their long-term goals. Their first try at turning it around in 2026 comes right away as they'll face the Atlanta Hawks back home at The Garden on Thursday night.
MacKinnon Joins the 400 Club as Avalanche Rout Blues on New Year’s Eve
DENVER — Nathan MacKinnon scored twice to become the 114th player in NHL history to reach 400 career goals, and the Colorado Avalanche closed out 2025 with a dominant 6–1 victory over the St. Louis Blues at Ball Arena.
MacKinnon also became the first player in Avalanche/Nordiques history to record 70 points in fewer than 40 games into a season.
But that wasn’t all.
Valeri Nichushkin recorded his second career regular season hat trick, Brock Nelson added a goal, and the night quickly turned into what could only be described as an Olympic-style beatdown. Colorado scored four times in the opening 4:39, seizing control early against St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington, who was selected to represent Team Canada at the Milan Olympics despite entering the night with a sub-.900 save percentage.
Nathan MacKinnon scores his 400th career goal and adds a classic celly! #GoAvsGo
— Adrian Hernandez (@AdoHernandez27) January 1, 2026
pic.twitter.com/P6fiNIz7EH
At the other end, Mackenzie Blackwood—left off the Olympic roster in favor of Binnington—turned aside 12 shots.
Dalibor Dvorsky scored the lone goal for the Blues and Binnington, a former Stanley Cup champion, allowed six goals on 43 shots, including four on the first nine he faced.
With the win, the Avalanche (30-2-7) extended their winning streak to nine games and their home winning streak to 15 games.
First Period
Nichushkin opened the scoring just 60 seconds into the game, taking a pass from Artturi Lehkonen in the slot before firing a shot that caromed off Binnington and was tucked home on the rebound to give Colorado a 1–0 lead. The goal came on the first shot Binnington faced, hours after he had been named to Team Canada’s Olympic roster.
Jordan Binnington, selected to Team Canada's Olympic roster with a save percentage of .870, allows a goal 60 seconds into the game.@TheHockeyNews
— Ryan O'Hara (@OHaraSports) January 1, 2026
Cale Makar appeared to double the advantage moments later, snapping a shot past the St. Louis netminder, but the goal was overturned following a review that determined MacKinnon had made incidental contact with the goaltender just prior to the shot, which was deflected off a Blues defenseman.
The reversal proved inconsequential. On Colorado’s next shot, Nichushkin struck again, beating Binnington to restore a two-goal cushion. The Avalanche maintained the pressure, and on the ensuing attempt, MacKinnon converted a rebound for his 400th career NHL goal, becoming the 114th player in league history to reach the milestone.
MacKinnon wasn’t finished. On the very next shot, he scored again, notching his 401st career goal and extending the lead to 4–0. By that point, Binnington—whose Olympic selection had been widely criticized earlier in the day—had surrendered four goals on nine shots, as Colorado overwhelmed St. Louis in a relentless opening surge.
4-0 Avalanche.
— Ryan O'Hara (@OHaraSports) January 1, 2026
Nathan MacKinnon scores again and it's career goal #401.
Jordan Binnington, selected to Team Canada's Olympic roster with a save percentage of .870, has allowed four goals on nine shots.
Impressive stuff. #goavsgo@TheHockeyNews
With under nine minutes remaining in the period, Blackwood robbed Jimmy Snuggerud on a highlight-reel cross-crease save, deflecting the puck off his blocker just moments after the forward slipped around Devon Toews.
At the end of the first, the Avalanche led 4–0, and the shots told the same story, with Colorado holding a commanding 20–4 advantage.
Second Period
The second period began at a noticeably slower pace, but the Avalanche continued to control play. Colorado generated five shots on goal in the first eight minutes, while St. Louis managed just one.
The Blues were then penalized when Jake Neighbours was called for tripping Gabe Landeskog. This time, the Avalanche power play delivered, as Brock Nelson one-timed a feed from MacKinnon from the right circle to extend the lead to 5–0.
Just over a minute later, Colorado was forced to the penalty kill after Josh Manson tripped Snuggerud off a faceoff in the defensive zone. The Avalanche handled the situation cleanly and returned to even strength with just under seven minutes remaining in the period.
Parker Kelly was later assessed a high-sticking penalty with under five minutes to play after catching Neighbours in the helmet, but St. Louis’ power play lasted less than a minute. Justin Faulk was then whistled for interference, leading to a brief stretch of 4-on-4 hockey.
Third Period
Colorado failed to capitalize on the carryover power play, but the script remained unchanged as the Avalanche continued to dictate the pace. Six minutes into the final frame, Colorado held a commanding 38–7 edge in shots on goal, with St. Louis still searching for its first shot of the period.
The Blues finally got on the board with 5:28 remaining when Dvorsky executed a perfect redirect on a shot from Matthew Kessel that slipped through traffic.
The Avalanche, however, had the final word. Nichushkin capped the night with his second career hat trick after breaking free from Oskar Sundqvist, taking a feed from Sam Malinski at the point, and deking around Binnington to seal a 6–1 victory on New Year’s Eve.
Nathan MacKinnon has previously stated that he never expected to make it to this level.
— Ryan O'Hara (@OHaraSports) January 1, 2026
Tonight, he scored his 400th and 401st career. I asked Nate to tell me who’s been the most inspirational person in his life that has helped him reach this milestone.
Mac mentioned a number… pic.twitter.com/Gw1GbQQ2Vq
Injuries
Gavin Brindley tweaked something in his upper-body with roughly 7 minutes to go in the game and is being evaluated. Head Coach Jared Bednar told The Hockey News that hopefully it’s nothing too serious.
Next Game
The Avalanche will kick off 2026 from home when they face the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. Coverage begins at 5 p.m. local time.
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Steven Stamkos scores goal No. 600, Predators win New Year’s Eve matinee in Vegas 4-2
Dec 31, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Nashville Predators center Steven Stamkos (91) celebrates with team mates after scoring a goal against the Vegas Golden Knights during the first period at T-Mobile Arena. The goal was the 600th of his NHL career. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored his 600th career goal and the Nashville Predators beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 on Wednesday.
The Predators, in the middle of a season-long seven-game road trip, won for the 12th time in 17 games, including the third of their first four on the trip.
The win put the Predators (18-17-4) above .500 for the first time since Oct. 16, just five games into the season, when they were 2-1-2.
Vegas, meanwhile, lost for the sixth time in seven games. The Knights closed their four-game homestand with a 1-2-1 mark.
Now in his 18th season, Stamkos scored his 18th of the season and ninth against the Golden Knights since they entered the league in 2017. The game-tying goal was part of an unanswered three-goal spurt over five minutes that turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead for the Predators.
Nick Perbix, Reid Schaefer and Michael Bunting also scored for the Predators. Justus Annunen made 29 saves.
Former Knight Erik Haula, who is two games shy of skating in his 800th game, registered the 200th assist of his career on Bunting’s goal.
Mark Stone, who earlier in the day was named to Canada’s Olympic roster, scored his 10th goal of the season, while Ben Hutton added his sixth for the Knights. Akira Schmid stopped 15 shots before being pulled late in the third period for an extra skater.
Vegas forward Mitch Marner and defenseman Shea Theodore were also named to Canada’s team. All three of the Knights represented their homeland in the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.
Up next
Nashville: Visits Seattle on Thursday.
Vegas: Visits St. Louis on Friday.