The Buffalo Sabres got down to 23 players on Monday by placing four players expected to be regulars on injured reserve, but unexpectedly plucked a goaltender off of the waiver wire. The Sabres placed goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, defensemen Michael Kesselring and Owen Power, and winger Jordan Greenway, along with minor leaguer Carson Meyer, and claimed goalie Colten Ellis from the St. Louis Blues.
The 25-year-old Ellis was a 2019 third round pick of the Blues and has spent all of his professional career in the ECHL and AHL. Last season, Ellis had an excellent campaign with St. Louis’s affiliate in Springfield, where he posted a 22-14-3 record, 2.63 GAA and .922 save percentage. The claim now gives the Sabres a third netminder, joining Alex Lyon and Alexandar Georgiev, which might be a indicator of the uncertainty of Luukkonen’s injury status.
The Sabres will carry 14 forwards, six defensemen and three goalies to start the season, which gets underway for them against the NY Rangers on Thursday. With Power and Kesselring unavailable for at least seven days, the club’s short-handed blueline will consist of Rasmus Dahlin, Bowen Bryam, Jacob Bryson, Ryan Johnson, Mattias Samuelsson, and Conor Timmins.
Up front, the only real surprise is the inclusion of enforcer Mason Geersten, who will likely be spotted in when the Sabres play a rough opponent. Greenway is making progress from his mid-body injury, so when he is cleared to play, GM Kevyn Adams will have to have to corresponding move to open up a spot on the roster.
MILWAUKEE — Andrew Vaughn and Jackson Chourio each hit a three-run homer, William Contreras added a solo shot and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs 7-3 on Monday night to move one win from a trip to the National League Championship Series.
The Brewers have a 2-0 advantage in the best-of-five Division Series, which shifts to Wrigley Field in Chicago for Game 3 on Wednesday. Teams taking a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five postseason series have won 80 of 90 times, including 54 sweeps.
Milwaukee is attempting to win a postseason series for the first time since 2018, when it reached Game 7 of the NLCS.
Vaughn and Chourio hit the first two three-run homers in Brewers postseason history. Contreras' solo shot in the third inning broke a 3-all tie.
Chicago slugger Seiya Suzuki hit a three-run homer of his own - a 440-foot shot to left-center in the first inning against Aaron Ashby. After coming out of the bullpen in 42 of his 43 regular-season appearances, Ashby served as an opener in this one.
But the Cubs didn't score again. Nick Mears, Jacob Misiorowski, Chad Patrick, Jared Koenig, Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe combined for 7 1/3 innings of shutout relief in which they allowed just one hit.
Misiorowski came on in the third and threw three scoreless innings to earn the win while hitting at least 100 mph on 31 of his 57 pitches. Each of the rookie's first eight pitches went at least 102.6 mph, and he topped out at 104.3.
While Misiorowski was sizzling, Chicago’s Shota Imanaga was fizzling.
Twice in the first three innings, Imanaga retired the first two batters before running into trouble that resulted in a homer. Imanaga has allowed multiple homers in six of his last eight appearances.
Vaughn tied the game in the bottom of the first with a drive over the left-field wall after Contreras and Christian Yelich delivered two-out singles. According to MLB, this was the first playoff game in which each team hit a three-run homer in the first inning.
Contreras then hit a 411-foot shot to left with two outs in the third.
Vaughn’s first-inning drive marked the first time the Brewers had ever hit a three-run homer or a grand slam in the postseason. They got their second just three innings later, when Chourio connected on his 419-foot shot off Daniel Palencia.
Chourio was back in the leadoff spot after tightness in his right hamstring caused him to leave in the second inning of Milwaukee’s 9-3 Game 1 victory on Saturday. Chourio went 3 for 3 with three RBIs in Game 1 before his exit, making him the first player to have three hits in the first two innings of a postseason game.
Kiké Hernández, right, celebrates with Freddie Freeman after scoring on a two-run single by Will Smith in the seventh inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo had set down 17 batters in a row going into the seventh inning of Monday’s National League Division Series game. The Dodgers hadn’t had a hit or a baserunner since the first.
And it didn’t look like they’d get another.
“Luzardo,” said Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman, “was amazing.”
Yet it was Freeman who brought Luzardo’s masterful night to an end and pushed the Phillies’ season to the brink, keying a 4-3 Dodger win that sends the best-of-five series to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday with Philadelphia a loss away from spring training.
“It's huge. It's absolutely huge,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the two-game sweep on the road. “Guys are really stepping up.”
Especially in the seventh, when the Dodgers batted around, producing the kind of inning they rarely managed in the regular season, one that featured aggressive at-bats, smart baserunning and three two-out RBIs.
“All that coming together; just really good at-bats up and down the lineup,” Roberts said.
Teoscar Hernández got it started with a single to center. Freeman followed with a hit off the end of his bat into the right-field corner, a single he turned into a double when he refused to stop at first, surprising outfielder Nick Castellanos.
“I was trying to keep things going, put pressure on them,” Freeman said. “I just wanted to push the envelope in that situation since we hadn't had anything going on since the first inning.”
Luzardo had given up one hit through six innings; now he’d given up two in the span of five pitches.
“He retired 17 in a row. He had 72 pitches. He's pitching great,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
But after Freeman’s hit he was done, with Thomson summoning reliever Orion Kerkering. The Dodgers, however, were just getting started, and an out later Hernández put them ahead to stay, breaking smartly from third on Kiké Hernández’s slow roller by the mound, then sliding to the back of the plate to beat shortstop Trea Turner’s wide throw home.
Pinch-hitter Max Muncy followed with a four-pitch walk to load the bases for Will Smith, whose two-out single on the first pitch he saw drove in two more runs.
“In that situation, it's very easy to try to want to do too much,” Muncy said. “You have a chance to drive in a couple runs. It's very easy to chase a pitch. But you’ve just got to be diligent with what you're trying to do up there and just pass the baton to the next guy.”
Dodgers' Will Smith hits a two-run single during the seventh inning of Game 2 of the NLDS on Monday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers' rally had been built around a double that should have been a single, a run-scoring fielder’s choice that barely passed the mound, a walk and Smith’s one-hop single to left, the hardest-hit ball of the inning. When Shohei Ohtani grounded a single by diving second baseman Edmundo Sosa, the Dodgers led 4-0.
“Obviously some huge two-out hits by Will and then Shohei. Great play by Teo getting his foot in,” Freeman said. “A lot of good things happened in that seventh inning.”
The inning also silenced the sellout crowd of 45,653, which minutes earlier had been louder than a rock concert during a NASCAR race. When Matt Strahm, the third pitcher of the inning, finally got Mookie Betts for the third out, the fans booed the Phillies off the field.
The crowd came alive again in the ninth, when Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen once again melted down on the mound, gave up three hits and two runs without getting an out to let the Phillies back in the game. But Roki Sasaki then took them out again, retiring Turner on a groundball with the tying run on third, earning his second save in as many games.
When it was over the Phillies, who had the best home record in the majors this season, had lost consecutive games at home for the first time since June 1. And the Dodgers, unbeaten this postseason, were a win away from the NL Championship Series.
“Lots to unpack in that one,” Roberts said.
Freeman managed to put it all in perspective.
“We were just sitting at our lockers and Kiké said, ‘we just took two here’,” he said. “This is a hard place to play. Incredible fan base. It's loud here.
“We obviously put ourselves in great position going into Wednesday.”
Former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Greg McKegg has a new home for the 2025-26 hockey season.
McKegg signed a deal with the KHL's Shanghai Dragons on Monday. The Dragons announced the news via their official Twitter/X account.
Shanghai Dragons Sign Veteran Winger Greg McKegg for Remainder of Season
McKegg brings extensive professional experience to the KHL, having played 251 NHL games, tallying 41 points (23 goals, 18 assists), and 497 AHL games with 264 points (106 goals, 158 assists)
McKegg played for the Penguins during the 2017-18 season, compiling two goals and four points in 26 games. He made his NHL debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2013-14 season, after being drafted by them in the third round of the 2010 NHL Draft. He remained with the organization through the end of the 2014-15 season.
The Pittsburgh Penguins will open their 2025-26 campaign against the New York Rangers on Tuesday night, and the game will hold extra significance for the head coaches on both sides.
Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan will try to get a win against his former team after coaching the Penguins for the previous ten seasons. It appeared he would coach the Penguins for an 11th season once the 2024-25 season ended, until he and the team decided it was best to part ways.
Penguins general manager and president Kyle Dubas explained during an April presser that there were times during last season when he felt that it may be time for a change.
“I talked to him every day throughout the year, worked with him every day throughout the year,” Dubas explained. "And there were times throughout the year where I started to think that it may just be time for a number of reasons. It's a lot to ask of somebody when they've done such a long and successful job here to be managing that and continue to transition the team through."
Once Sullivan was fired, the Rangers made him their top priority, as they had fired Peter Laviolette at the end of the season. They didn't live up to expectations and missed the playoffs a year after winning the Presidents' Trophy. Sullivan was hired less than a week after he and the Penguins parted ways and will try to return the Rangers to the playoffs this year.
Sullivan missed the playoffs in his previous three seasons as Penguins head coach but helped them win two Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017. He's the winningest head coach in the franchise's history.
Dan Muse was an assistant coach with the Rangers for the previous two seasons under Laviolette before the Penguins hired him to replace Sullivan. He just finished up a grueling and competitive training camp and is ready for his first game as an NHL head coach. However, he's being a little bit coy about how much it means to go against his former team.
"I'll see how it feels tomorrow. Honestly, I can't tell you. I don't know exactly how to feel until I'm there," Muse told reporters after Monday's practice. "You got some strong relationships there with the guys that I coached, and that will always be there. I think you always want to have those things in any stop that you have."
"I think the focus has obviously been for the last 4 months, this group and this team, so we'll see. I'm sure there will be some emotions that you have about being back at MSG, that first game as a head coach, but this is about the team. It's not about me, and it's like, the focus has been getting this group ready. The focus will continue to be on that. I think there's a lot of excitement there, just with the work that has been put in throughout training camp. I think that's going to be by far the number one thing on my mind all day tomorrow."
In addition to coaching some veterans, Muse will get to see some young players get their first taste of the NHL on Tuesday. Forward Benjamin Kindel and defenseman Harrison Brunicke both made the team out of training camp and will make their NHL debuts against the Rangers.
Kindel got better as the preseason went on, and the Penguins are rewarding him after he earned a spot. Brunicke got close to making the team out of camp last year, but was able to do a little bit more to make it this year. Based on the lines during Monday's practice, Brunicke will be paired with Caleb Jones on the third pairing, while Kindel will be centering Tommy Novak and Philip Tomasino on the third line.
Muse has been great at developing young players throughout his coaching career, and the Penguins are hoping that this trend continues during his tenure as head coach in Pittsburgh.
Puck drop for Tuesday's game inside Madison Square Garden will be at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. It'll be the second game of the day after the Florida Panthers raise their Stanley Cup banner at home before they play the Chicago Blackhawks at 5 p.m. ET. The Colorado Avalanche and the Los Angeles Kings will finish Tuesday's triple-header off at 10:30 p.m. ET.
After a grueling few weeks of training camp, the Pittsburgh Penguins' roster has finally been solidified for the start of the 2025-26 season.
On Monday, the Penguins - along with all 31 other NHL teams - were required to submit final NHL rosters prior to the 5:00 p.m. ET deadline. Pittsburgh did reduce its roster to 23 on Sunday after a group of players cleared waivers and were re-assigned to the AHL, but it was not official until Monday.
The roster features 13 forwards, eight defensemen, and two goaltenders, and it will include two top prospects in Harrison Brunicke and Ben Kindel, who are confirmed to be in the lineup Tuesday against the New York Rangers. They will be the first pair of teenagers to debut together for the Penguins since Jordan Staal and Kris Letang in 2006.
Here is the full 23-man roster for the Penguins to begin the season:
Forwards (13) 11 - Filip Hallander 16 - Justin Brazeau 18 - Tommy Novak 19 - Connor Dewar 39 - Anthony Mantha 41 - Ville Koivunen 46 - Blake Lizotte 53 - Philip Tomasino 55 - Noel Acciari 67 - Rickard Rakell 71 - Evgeni Malkin 81 - Ben Kindel 87 - Sidney Crosby
The Penguins will face former head coach Mike Sullivan and the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday before they come back home to face the New York Islanders in their home opener on Thursday. Prior to Thursday's game, there will be a celebration marking 20 seasons of the "Big Three" - Crosby, Malkin, and Letang - playing in Pittsburgh.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) Blake Snell allowed one hit in six shutout innings, striking out nine, and the Los Angeles Dodgers barely turned back Philadelphia's late rally Monday night for a 4-3 victory over the Phillies in Game 2 of their NL Division Series.
Freddie Freeman made a game-saving defensive play at first base and Shohei Ohtani delivered an RBI single that helped the Dodgers take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five playoff. The defending World Series champs can reach their 17th National League Championship Series with a Game 3 win Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Will Smith had a two-run single in a four-run seventh, and the Dodgers took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth.
That's when the Phillies finally mounted a major threat.
Nick Castellanos slid headfirst into second base, narrowly eluding a tag, for a two-run double off Blake Treinen that at last sent the Philadelphia crowd into a frenzy and made it a 4-3 game.
Alex Vesia came in to face Bryson Stott, who tried to advance Castellanos with a bunt. But third baseman Max Muncy wheeled and threw to shortstop Mookie Betts sprinting over to cover the bag in time to get Castellanos.
Pinch-hitter Harrison Bader singled and Max Kepler grounded into a fielder's choice that left runners at the corners with two outs.
Roki Sasaki entered and retired NL batting champion Trea Turner on a groundout to second for the rookie's second career save - both in this series. Freeman went to his knees to pick Tommy Edman's poor throw on his backhand, keeping his right toe on the bag before rolling over onto his back with the ball.
Kepler tripled in the eighth and scored on Turner's single to trim it to 4-1.
A two-time Cy Young Award winner, Snell was sensational in holding the Phillies to another mostly punchless effort in the playoffs. Turner, NL home run champion Kyle Schwarber and two-time NL MVP Bryce Harper went a combined 1 for 10 with five strikeouts.
On the 15-year anniversary of Phillies ace Roy Halladay’s playoff no-hitter against the Reds, Snell had one going until Edmundo Sosa’s two-out single in the fifth.
Snell, who walked four and threw 99 pitches, was tangled in a duel with Jesús Luzardo until the seventh.
Luzardo threw 24 pitches in the first before the left-hander settled down and retired 17 straight Dodgers until Game 1 star Teoscar Hernández singled leading off the inning. Freeman doubled and that was all for Luzardo.
After reliever Orion Kerkering got a strikeout, Kiké Hernández hit a slow roller to shortstop and Turner rushed an off-target throw home that allowed Teoscar Hernández to score. Smith lined a two-run single for a 3-0 lead and Ohtani - who struck out four times in the opener and again leading off Game 2 - ripped a run-scoring single off left-handed reliever Matt Strahm for his first hit of the series.
The Dodgers, who used the injured list this season 37 times for 2,585 days, according to Major League Baseball, are finally mostly healthy and need to win just once in two home games to clinch the series. Teams taking a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five postseason series have won 80 of 90 times, including 54 sweeps.
The NL East champion Phillies were used to flailing at Snell.
Snell, who missed four months of his first season in Los Angeles with shoulder inflammation, struck out a season-high 12 over seven innings in a September start against the Phillies. Philadelphia players in the Game 2 starting lineup who had faced Snell hit only a combined .152 lifetime against him coming in.
Snell worked out of his only jam in the sixth, when he issued consecutive one-out walks to finally get a rise out of more than 45,000 fans who had been nervously subdued most of the game. Snell got Harper, the NLDS career home run leader with 11, to swing hard on strike three, and Alec Bohm ended the threat with a chopper to third that snuffed the energy out of the ballpark.
The slumping Phillies were 1 for 18 with nine strikeouts through six.
The Dodgers send RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound in Game 3. Yamamoto struck out a postseason-high nine while pitching into the seventh inning in the Wild Card Series clincher against Cincinnati. Aaron Nola will start for the Phillies.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani celebrates after driving in a run during the seventh inning of a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS on Monday night. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
It was quintessential October baseball.
Two starting pitchers dominating two helpless lineups.
A low-scoring contest in which every stranded baserunner felt like a monumental missed opportunity.
A nail-biting affair decided by one team cashing in a rare scoring chance, and the other failing to do the same.
In the next half-inning, the Dodgers faced the same situation, but came away with four runs.
That was the difference in the Dodgers’ 4-3 victory at Citizens Bank Park, giving them a commanding 2-0 lead in a best-of-five series that will shift to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Wednesday.
Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell delivers during the second inning Monday against the Phillies. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
For most of Monday night, a crowd of 45,653 in South Philadelphia sat anxiously in anticipation, waiting for the dam to break in an old-fashioned pitchers' duel.
On one side, Blake Snell was dotting his fastball up in the zone and to both parts of the plate, giving the Phillies little to hit while setting them up to flail at his dominant arsenal of secondary weapons. Through four innings, he retired 12 of 14 batters with only two walks allowed. He had gotten whiffs on each of the first 11 non-fastballs he threw. And not until there were two outs in the fifth did he give up his first hit.
Opposite him, Jesús Luzardo was equally effective. After stranding runners on the corners in a shaky first, the left-hander locked in and made the Dodgers look silly with a barrage of sweepers and changeups that dipped below the zone. Where he needed 24 pitches in the first, he completed the next five on just 48 throws. In that time, he retired 17 in a row and let only two balls even leave the infield.
Finally, in the bottom of the sixth, the narrative began to change.
The Phillies generated the game’s first big opportunity, after Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber walked in back-to-back at-bats against Snell with one out. It was the first time all night their lineup had gotten a runner past first. And it happened as two-time MVP Bryce Harper came strolling to the plate.
Snell’s plan of attack against Harper was simple. His first pitch was a slider in the dirt. His next was another one up in the zone Harper fouled off. Two more sliders followed, with Harper fanning on the first and fouling off the next. Then, after one change-of-pace curveball was buried in front of the plate, Snell went back to the slider one more time. It darted below Harper’s swing for a strikeout. Citizens Bank Park groaned.
The inning ended a batter later, when Alec Bohm chased a 2-and-0 changeup and hit a ground ball to third base. Miguel Rojas fielded it behind the bag, clocked the speedy Bohm racing toward first, and decided to go the short — albeit risky — way instead, sprinting to third base and beating Turner to the bag with a head-first slide.
That ended the inning. This time, frustrated boos rained down from the stands.
Minutes later, the Dodgers would be in front. Unlike the Phillies, they didn’t squander their one opportunity for runs.
Teoscar Hernández led off the top of the seventh with a single. Freddie Freeman followed with a line drive to weak-fielding Nick Castellanos (who was drawn into the Phillies’ lineup following an injury to Harrison Bader in Game 1) in right, getting on his horse to leg out a hustle double.
That knocked Luzardo out of the game. And in a move that would soon be second-guessed, Phillies manager Rob Thompson opted for right-handed reliever Orion Kerkering instead of dominant closer Jhoan Duran.
Kerkering got one quick out, striking out Tommy Edman.
But then Kiké Hernández hit a cue-ball grounder to Turner at shortstop. After a slight hesitation, Teoscar Hernández broke for home hard. As Turner fielded the ball and fired to the plate, Hernández chugged in with a feet-first slide. Catcher J.T. Realmuto’s tag was a split-second too late.
Teoscar Hernández celebrates after advancing to third on a double by Freddie Freeman in the seventh inning against the Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS on Monday. Hernandez later scored the Dodgers' first run. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers had opened the scoring — and would only keep adding on.
With two outs in the inning, Will Smith (who, like in Game 1, entered as a mid-game replacement as he continues to work back from his fractured hand) hit a two-run single to left. Shohei Ohtani, who had been hitless in the series and 0 for 3 earlier in the night, tacked on another with a ground ball that got through the infield.
By the time the dust settled, the Dodgers had surged to a 4-0 lead.
They would need every bit of it.
Emmet Sheehan followed Snell’s six-inning, one-hit, nine-strikeout gem with two innings of relief, retiring the side in the seventh before limiting damage in the eighth, when he gave up one run after a Max Kepler triple and Turner RBI single but retired the side on a strikeout of Schwarber and a fly ball from Harper.
The real trouble came in the ninth, when the Dodgers turned to Blake Treinen — and not recently ascendant bullpen ace Roki Sasaki — to close the game.
Treinen couldn’t, giving up a leadoff single and back-to-back doubles to J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos to bring home two runs and put the tying runner at second.
Alex Vesia entered next and got two outs (one of them, a crucial play from third baseman Max Muncy to field a bunt and throw out Castellanos at third as the lead runner). Then, Sasaki was finally summoned to face Turner with runners on the corners.
He induced a ground ball to second baseman Tommy Edman. Edman spiked his throw to first, but Freeman picked it with a sprawling effort. And once again, the Phillies had failed to completely cash in on a scoring chance — leaving the Dodgers one win away from advancing to the NL Championship Series.
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman third baseman Max Muncy after the Dodgers held on to win Game 2 of the NLDS. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
This is over.
Or, from the perspective of the Dodgers, this is just starting.
Because the Dodgers are returning to the World Series.
Technically, they still have to close out their National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. They still have to win the NL Championship Series.
They will because they won’t blow the two-games-to-none lead they have after their 4-3 victory over the Phillies on Monday in Game 2 of their best-of-five series.
They will because the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs don’t have the firepower necessary to take down these Dodgers in the next round.
The Phillies were to the Dodgers this year what the San Diego Padres were last year. They were their greatest obstacle. The road back to the World Series is almost cleared.
The Dodgers can officially eliminate the Phillies on Wednesday, and they should.
Call in a priest — or a padre. The time has come to read the Phillies their last rites.
The Dodgers didn’t come close to winning 120 games, and they were underwhelming in the regular season, which explains why they were unable to secure either of the first-round byes that were claimed by the Phillies and Brewers. They entered the postseason with an alarmingly untrustworthy bullpen, and that bullpen nearly blew a four-run lead in Game 2.
But in stealing two wins at Citizens Bank Park, the Dodgers demonstrated they still have that championship something that no other team in baseball has.
That something emerged on Monday night in the six scoreless innings pitched by Blake Snell, the run-scoring slide by Teoscar Hernández on a slow roller by Kike Hernández, the two-run single by Will Smith that broke open the game, the insurance run driven in by Shohei Ohtani. That something was reflected in the two innings contributed by converted starter Emmet Sheehan, and game-saving defensive plays made by Miguel Rojas, Max Muncy and Mookie Betts.
The Phillies don’t have that something, and the championship window that was opened by the likes of Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber might now be closed. They certainly recognized this, which is why Phillies manager Rob Thomson made no effort to downplay the importance of Game 2.
If anything, Thomson emphasized how critical the game was by saying before the game that Ranger Suarez and Aaron Nola could pitch in relief.
Suarez and Nola were two candidates to start Game 3.
“This is a big game tonight,” Thomson said. “We talked all year long about winning series and how the first game is important. Well, the second game is pretty important when you get to a five-game series or seven-game series because it’s a swing game.”
Thomson was prepared to deploy Suarez in a high-leverage situation. He was ready to call on Nola if the game went into extra innings.
“And we’ll figure out Game 3,” Thomson said.
The home fans comprehended the stakes. Citizens Bank Park was a madhouse in Game 1, but the crowd for Game 2 was comparatively toned down.
The nervous tension in the stadium quickly morphed into unbridled frustration, as the Phillies lineup was unable to do anything against Snell.
There were boos when batting champion Trea Turner struck out in the third inning. There were boos when Brandon Marsh was caught stealing on a pickoff by Snell to end the inning. There were more boos when Alec Bohm struck out for the final out of the fourth.
The first hit Snell gave up was with two outs in the fifth inning, a flare single to center field by Edmundo Sosa. The very next batter, Marsh, grounded out. More boos.
How nervous were Phillies fans? When a warning on the public-address system about streaking was followed by a bare-chested Philly Phanatic running across the outfield before the sixth inning, they offered no reaction. Baseball’s most iconic mascot was completely ignored.
Up to this point, the Dodgers were equally unproductive against the Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo. Betts singled and Teoscar Hernández walked in successive at-bats in the first inning, only for Luzardo to retire the next 17 batters in a row.
The Phillies threatened Snell for the first time in the sixth inning when Turner and Kyle Schwarber drew successive one-out walks. Up next: Harper, a two-time NL most valuable player.
In almost any other postseason, this is where manager Dave Roberts would have instructed one of his coaches to phone the bullpen. But Roberts wasn’t about to replace Snell, not at this stage of the game, not with the combustibility of his relievers.
Snell struck out Harper and made Bohm ground into a force out. The game remained scoreless.
Teoscar Hernández singled and Freddie Freeman doubled to start the seventh inning, forcing Thomson into the position Roberts was in the previous inning. Thomson made a mistake but not because he removed Luzardo. His error was in the pitcher he chose to replace him. With closer Jhoan Duran available, Thomson went with Orion Kerkering.
With runners on second and third, Tommy Edman was struck out by Kerkering for the first out. But Kike Hernández hit a slow roller to short and Teoscar Henández beat Turner’s throw home for the first run of the game. Rojas walked to load the bases, setting up a two-run single by Smith. Ohtani, who was hitless in his previous seven at-bats of this series, singled to right field to drive in a valuable insurance run.
Tarleton State reinstated men’s basketball coach Billy Gillispie on Monday, three days after the school announced that he had been placed on temporary administrative leave following an anonymous complaint. Steve Uryasz, the school's athletic director, in a statement thanked the Texas A&M system “for working expeditiously in addressing this anonymous complaint.” “The welfare of our student-athletes is of the utmost importance to Tarleton State University and the Texas A&M System," Uryasz said Monday.
For the Buffalo Sabres, it’s the calm before the storm. The NHL’s 2025-26 regular-season is about to commence, and with the new season comes a new set of expectations for the Sabres. And with this season’s Sabres, the expectation is urgent – this Buffalo team is either going to end the Sabres’ 14-year playoff drought, or there are going to be changes throughout the organization, including the firings of GM Kevyn Adams and coach Lindy Ruff.
It’s really that simple in Buffalo this year. Come Hades or high water, the Sabres need to make the playoffs. And it’s not going to matter what their excuses may be this season. There may be injuries; there may be bad puck luck; and there may be players who underachieve. None of it will make a lick of difference for Buffalo’s players, coaches and management if they fail to make the playoffs. No player will be safe. No coach will be, either. And the changes will start at the top.
That means Adams clearly will be the first to go if things don’t go according to plan in Sabres Land. Adams has had five years on the job, and if he can’t do something of positive consequence in his sixth season, it will be Adams’ last year running things in Buffalo. Adams has had more kicks at the can than many hockey executives, and without the type of results that will reward their fan base for continuing to support this Sabres team, Buffalo management is spinning its wheels and going nowhere.
The same thing goes for Ruff. He’s entering Year 2 of his second go-around as Sabres coach, and nothing short of Buffalo earning a playoff spot will assure Ruff of being Sabres coach at this time next year. These days, the first person to be thrown overboard in an under-performing hockey team is more often than not the coach. It’s the easiest way to try to re-set things, and in some rare cases, it works as a motivator of players. So Ruff could be the first to go if things go wrong early this season.
Finally, the same thing goes for Sabres players. It doesn’t matter who we’re talking about – nobody should feel safe in Buffalo’s dressing room if the Sabres miss the playoffs again. Either management will want to shop them around, they’ll ask to be traded, or both. Thus, Buffalo’s lineup will look significantly different in the 2026-27 campaign if the Sabres prove they’re not worthy of the investment in the ‘25-26 campaign.
The biggest problem for the Sabres may be that they’ve exhausted their fan base with year after year of sub-par play. Indeed, since 2012-13, Buffalo hasn’t finished higher than fourth place in its division. And they’ve finished as high as fifth place only three times in that span. The rest is year-after-year of 6th, 7th and 8th-place finishes. That basically takes a blow torch to your fan base. Nobody wants to be associated with a perennial non-factor of a team. You start to shrink your customer total rather than increase it.
Meanwhile, there are so many good things that winning does for a team. You walk around with a legitimately rightful sense of pride in what you’ve been able to achieve. You generate genuine hope in an otherwise-cynical populace. You give people reasons to believe.
This is as clear-cut a make-or-break situation as exists in the NHL right now, and Buffalo has clear paths to two roads – one that leads to more excuses, more anguish, and more dismay; the other leads to a promised land of sorts. A place where other teams fear to tread. Right now, that’s not Buffalo.
If they can’t deliver their fans to the promised land of a playoff position – the bare-minimum when it comes to achievements as a team – the Sabres will be at a crossroads. Team ownership will have to know a 15th-year without playoffs cannot be met with the status quo. Bringing the same group of coaches, management members and players back next season without a playoff appearance this coming year would make the Sabres a laughingstock.
This is a zero-sum industry the Sabres are in. If you want to have stability and happiness, the only way you do that is by being on a winning team. And think, there’s now an entire generation of Buffalo hockey fans who’ve grown up not knowing what a Sabres playoff game looks like. That’s unacceptable, and that’s why the consequences have to be extreme if Adams, Ruff & Co. can’t get the job done.
The Sabres know full well they have to make the playoffs this year, or all bets will be off. They’re going to be under a giant microscope all season long, and they have a clear target all season long. If they don’t hit that target, Buffalo will see sweeping change across all areas of the organization. And everyone involved with the team will have only themselves to blame.
"There's no contemplation of moving the All-Star Game," Silver said Monday, while at the NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to discuss the network's return to broadcasting NBA games (including the All-Star Game). "Planning for the All-Star Game and the surrounding activities are operating completely independently of the ongoing investigation."
This shouldn't be a surprise. The NBA's All-Star Game is a massive production and undertaking that goes well beyond just the on-court games and showcases. Players and league sponsors plan events and parties, hotels and venues are booked, and fans plan trips to the host city around the All-Star events. To rip that up and move a game less than five months out would be an impossible task. The NBA did move the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte in reaction to the "bathroom law" in North Carolina; however, it made that move in the previous summer (the league returned to Charlotte with the game two years later, in 2019).
The league is investigating an alleged “no-show” endorsement contract Leonard had with a Clippers sponsor, a company called Aspiration, that team owner Steve Ballmer had invested in multiple times. Aspiration also became a team sponsor and the Clippers bought environmental credits from the company — that was Aspiration's "business" — for the Intuit Dome. The relationship between the Clippers and the sponsor fell apart in 2023 (although not before minority owner Dennis Wong made a $2 million investment in Aspiration, just before Leonard received one of his $1.75 million endorsement payments). Aspiration has since filed for bankruptcy, and its CEO pled guilty to defrauding investors.
At the heart of the allegations — first uncovered by the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast — is that Leonard did no work or marketing for Aspiration yet got a $48 million endorsement deal ($20 million in now-worthless stock). People with Aspiration told the podcast that this deal was about circumventing the salary cap. Both Leonard and the Clippers have maintained their innocence, saying they were duped and defrauded like other investors, and that they welcome the league's investigation.
There is no timeline for when that investigation will be complete, but it will not stop the All-Star Game from coming to the Intuit Dome.
The Ducks’ opening night roster is set. With a full 23-man slate, 19-year-old Beckett Sennecke, the third overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, makes the team along with goaltenders Petr Mrázek and Ville Husso.
Sennecke’s inclusion on the opening night roster comes after he played in six of Anaheim’s seven preseason games, collecting two points (both goals). While it’s still unclear if he’ll stick with the big club full-time, he’ll at least be given an extended chance to make his mark.
If he can’t stick with the Ducks, Sennecke’s only other option is to return to the OHL. Due to age and being under contract, he cannot play in the AHL or transfer to the NCAA. But, if he is a healthy scratch for five consecutive NHL games, he can be sent on a two-week conditioning loan in the AHL.
“I see him being like a wild card where you can use him in all situations, and he can play with anybody,” head coach Joel Quenneville said. “You’re sitting there if you’re playing in that role, in that line. You think that he’s not going to get enough ice time. But I still think he’s useful in other ways where he can play with top players and be a threat and be productive as well. He’s a good asset for us and I think the way he trained in training camp, he gave us a lot of options as a coach.”
“I feel like I keep getting better every game,” Sennecke said. “You get more comfortable the more games you play and I think that’s just kind of the trajectory I’m on.”
Sennecke found himself in many different roles throughout training camp, mirroring the “wildcard” moniker that Quenneville alluded to. He was out there for power plays, penalty kills (briefly) and played on all four lines at one point or another during preseason.
More recently, he’s been on the fourth line with summer trade acquisition Ryan Poehling and bruising winger Ross Johnston. While Sennecke’s game is centered around offense, he said that he has the same hard forechecking element that Poehling and Johnston have.
“I can kind of play that role as well,” Sennecke said. “Those guys are fun to play with because you get the puck back pretty fast because they forecheck hard, so it's fun.”
Another move that stands out from Anaheim’s opening night roster is the presence of three goaltenders. Lukáš Dostál is entrenched as the new No. 1 after signing a five-year deal this past summer, but neither Mrázek nor Husso has put a foot wrong throughout preseason while competing for the backup role.
With teams always looking for goaltending help before the start of the season, perhaps the worry from the Ducks’ end comes from one of Mrázek or Husso being scooped off of waivers. The former has one year remaining on his contract ($4.25 mil AAV) while the latter has two years ($2.2 mil AAV).
Teams may be less willing to take on a goaltender with term (Husso), but potentially losing an asset that was recently acquired (Mrázek) to waivers would be a much worse look.
The San Diego Gulls’ goaltending squad is quite full already, with Tomáš Suchánek, Calle Clang and Vyacheslav Buteyets all present, though Buteyets and Suchánek could be loaned to the ECHL if one of Mrázek or Husso makes it down to the AHL.
The Ducks’ opening night roster does not include a seventh defenseman, a role which was briefly filled by Ian Moore before he was reassigned to the Gulls on Monday.
The Ducks may have felt that they do not yet need an extra defenseman with the team, with their first four games coming on the West Coast. A five-game, seven-day road trip follows that set of games, which will likely require a defensive call-up.
Nikita Nesterenko and Sam Colangelo figure to be the two remaining healthy scratches with one of Mrázek or Husso, although Nesterenko may have the upper hand if Sennecke comes out of the lineup.
Nesterenko had been filling the role of faux center during recent practices in light of Jansen Harkins’ long-term injury and has shown to be a useful penalty killer throughout preseason. His versatility could give him the edge versus the more offensive-minded Colangelo.
With their first game of the regular season on Thursday in Seattle, the Ducks will practice twice more before jetting off to the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday.
A broken bat roller in the seventh inning just to the right of the pitching mound was almost fittingly the biggest batted ball of the evening for the Phillies Monday night. Game 2 of the NLDS was a steamy pitching duel between Jesús Luzardo and Blake Snell.
More hits were to be had by the Dodgers and Phillies, but that broken-bat play broke the seal for the Los Angeles as they went on to a 4-3 win to go up 2-0 in this NLDS. Game 3 is scheduled for Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers batted around in the seventh inning, after Teoscar Hernandez chased Jesús Luzardo for a single and Freddie Freeman’s double. It was only the second and third hits given up on the night by Luzardo, who certainly deserved a better fate—just like Cristopher Sánchez did in Game 1.
Orion Kerkering replaced Luzardo and, after striking out Tommy Edman, sawed off Kike Hernandez with a 97 MPH sinker. Trea Turner charged and threw home, but the throw was to the first base side and J.T. Realmuto’s tag was late. The Dodgers grabbed a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
At the time, it was just a run. And even when Kerkering walked the bases loaded with two outs, he was about to face the nine-hole hitter and able to see his way out of a big inning. But pinch-hitter Will Smith lined a first-pitch single to left-center for two more runs and Shohei Ohtani singled in another.
The excitement in Citizens Bank Park deflated like a day-old helium balloon.
The Phillies got the thrill in the air again in the ninth inning by scoring a couple of runs on a two-RBI double by Nick Castellanos, but a failed sacrifice bunt, a fielder’s choice and a groundout by Turner ended the game. Another game closer to ending the series. The Phillies are now 3-7 in their last 10 home playoff games.
And that’s been the problem in these first two games of this series, the Phillies just don’t seem to have enough air to breathe some life back into themselves when they get down. The top of the order, or any part of the order for that matter, can’t come up with big hits.
The relievers haven’t come close to being shut down ones and there has been little hope and whole lot of disappointment, like in the sixth inning Monday, when Bryce Harper stepped to the plate with runners on first and second and one out against Blake. It seemed so ripe for it to be a Harper moment, for him to generate some much-needed electricity through his team. Instead, he struck out swinging on a nasty slider from Blake.
“We’d like those guys (at the top of the order) to be swinging the bats, but I do like what we’re doing at the bottom part of the order,” said Rob Thomson. “Snell was good again today. I thought our bats were better against him tonight than they were in L.A. I don’t think we got out of the zone as much as we did in L.A. You have to have confidence that those guys will get it going.
“I think those guys are trying to do a little bit too much right now. Instead of just being themselves and looking for base hits and the power will come.”
The two biggest surprises from the Phillies thus far are these: That without Zack Wheeler their starting pitching is still the biggest strength of this team and that this veteran-laden lineup struggles so mightily of late come playoff time.
“I’ll have a little meeting with them on Wednesday,” said Thomson. “I love the fight in the eighth and ninth inning. We fought like hell and hopefully that carries over into Wednesday. But this is a resilient group, our backs are against the wall. Just got to come out fighting.”
Fighting is a given. They are not going to give up on at-bats, nor fail to hustle after batted balls. They just don’t seem to land the punches enough when there seems to be openings to do so, which granted, have been few and far between. And it certainly doesn’t help that Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Harper are a combined 2-for-21 in this series.
Sure, the Phillies have faced two terrific starters in this series in Ohtani and Snell. But the Dodgers have also faced Sánchez and Luzardo and have figured out answers with timely hitting being chief among them. They also figured out a way to solve their biggest problem, which was their bullpen, by using back-end starters like Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki in Game One and Emmet Sheehan in Game Two. While Thomson flirted with using Ranger Suarez in these games and maybe even Aaron Nola, the proper situation, to him, never came about and now he finds his team in the deepest of holes.
Nola now becomes the Game Three starter, Thomson announced after the game, with Suarez ready to piggy-back if needed. Thomson again professed his trust in Nola, and now he’ll make his biggest start of the season.
“I’m going to compete as best as I can,” Nola said. “Going into L.A, we got to, obviously, got to get a win and take it inning by inning and pitch for pitch. You have to take it one game at a time. You can’t get three wins in game three, right. So, you got to take it one game at a time.
“I’ve been feeling pretty good lately and my body’s all healthy. I think it’s (the ball) coming out pretty well. So, keep that going and hopefully have a good start.”
It’s not time to write the obituary on this season just yet, or maybe even this era. But you also have to wonder how much of this core group is going to be returning as Suarez, Realmuto and Schwarber will all be free agents after the season.
Perhaps it won’t be just an end to a season with their next loss to the Dodgers, it just might be the end of an era. One that certainly doesn’t appear to be going out with a bang, if that is the case.
Not due to any fault of Luzardo, who allowed just three hits during his six innings. Consider that during his time in the game, the Phillies didn’t get their first hit off Snell until he threw his 72nd pitch with two outs in the fifth inning and Edmundo Sosa blooped it to center for a single.
And when a big hit was needed, again, in the ninth, the Phillies just couldn’t find it after Castellanos’ double. That put him on second with nobody out and his team trailing 4-3. He was then thrown out at third when Stott’s bunt was controlled perfectly by the Dodgers on a wheel play. Harrison Bader then singled to put runners at first and second with one out, but neither Max Kepler nor Turner could drive in anything and the Phillies now go to Los Angeles on the thinnest of ice.
All 32 NHL teams submitted their rosters for opening night, but not every player on a tryout earned a contract.
While Chicago's Matt Grzelcyk, Carolina's Givani Smith and the New York Rangers' Conor Sheary did earn contracts, most veterans on tryouts didn't.
With that in mind, here are three notable players that had been on PTOs this fall but were released and now have to try to earn a contract elsewhere or call it quits.
Jack Johnson, D, Minnesota Wild
Career stats: 1,228 GP, 77 G, 265 A, 342 PTS 2025-26 pre-season stats: 3 GP, 1 A, plus-2, 2 S
It feels like the tryout was the last chance for 38-year-old Johnson, a 19-year veteran who won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2021.
The Wild – a deep team on defense – ultimately didn’t have a place for Johnson, and it’s highly unlikely a team takes a chance on him now that his PTO didn’t get him the job he was looking for.
At best, Johnson can be seen as a third-pair, low-event, low-reward blueliner. Can he hang with veteran greybeards Brent Burns and Drew Doughty as an accomplished veteran who still has something to offer at the NHL level? Minnesota didn’t think so, but there may be a team willing to bring Johnson aboard if they run into health concerns on the back end. Otherwise, Johnson’s playing career may well be at an end.
James Reimer, G, Toronto Maple Leafs
Career stats: 525 GP, 225-187-65, 2.89 GAA, .910 SP, 31 SO 2025-26 pre-season stats: 1 GP, 7.36 GAA, .857 SP
Reimer is 37, and while it’s an accomplishment for him to have made 525 appearances in hockey’s top league, the fact the Maple Leafs chose to pick up Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cayden Primeau off the waiver wire tells you all you need to know about Reimer coming up short in training camp.
Reimer did not play well in the pre-season, allowing four goals on 28 shots in about 33 minutes of action. His choice to return to Toronto may be the chapter to bookend his NHL career.
The netminder was alright at the end of last season with the Buffalo Sabres, posting a 10-8-2 record, 2.90 goals-against average and .901 save percentage. But unless an NHL team suffers an injury to one of their netminders, there simply may not be another NHL opportunity for him.
Career stats: 442 GP, 106 G, 110 A, 216 PTS 2025-26 pre-season stats: 4 GP, 1 G, 2 A, 3 PTS, 6 S
Only two years ago, Fabbri tied a career-best 18 goals and 32 points in 68 games with the Detroit Red Wings, but his totals fell to eight goals and 16 points in 44 games this past season.
For Fabbri’s $4-million cap hit, those numbers were a significant overpayment, and when free agency came calling this summer, there were few takers for the 29-year-old. While three points in four games are pretty decent, the Penguins want to play younger players, so Fabbri just wasn't a fit.
If Fabbri can't get a contract here, his best move may be to play professionally in a European league this season. He doesn’t have much, if any leverage contractually, and even the Penguins didn’t see a job opening for him right now. Beggars can’t be choosers, so Fabbri may ultimately choose a more significant payday in Europe than the best (or only) one he can get in the NHL.
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