VegasGolden Knights - 15-6-9 - 39 Points - 5-2-3 in the last 10 - 1st in the Pacific
Columbus Blue Jackets - 13-11-6 - 32 Points - 3-3-4 in the last 10 - 8th in the Metro
Blue Jackets Stats
Power Play - 20.0% - 14th in the NHL
Penalty Kill - 71.8% - 29th in the NHL
Goals For - 90 - 20th in the NHL
Goals Against - 108 - 30th in the NHL
Golden Knights Stats
Power Play - 24.5% - 7th in the NHL
Penalty Kill - 81.6% - 13th in the NHL
Goals For - 92 - 17th in the NHL
Goals Against - 85 - 12th in the NHL
Series History vs. TheGolden Knights
Columbus is 7-6-0-1 all-time, and 4-2-0-1 at home vs. Vegas.
The Jackets are 3-3-1 against Ottawa in the last 7 home games.
The CBJ went 1-1 vs. the Knights last season.
Who To Watch For TheGolden Knights
Tomáš Hertl leads Vegas with 13 goals.
Jack Eichel leads the VGK with 28 assists and 40 points.
Akira Schmid is 11-2-4 with a SV% of .903. His last start was on December 11th.
Goalie Carter Hart is 2-0-1 with a SV% of .889. His last start was on December 9th.
CBJ Player Notes vs.Golden Knights
Zach Werenski has 8 points in 12 games against Vegas.
Kirill Marchenko has 4 points in 5 games.
Sean Monahan has 7 points in 16 games vs. the Golden Knights.
Injuries
Erik Gudbranson - Upper Body - Missed 23 Games - IR - No timeline for a return
Mathieu Olivier - Upper Body - Missed 8 Games - IR- No timeline for a return
TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 61
How to Watch & Listen: Tonight's game will be on FANDUEL SPORTS NETWORK. Bob Wischusen will be on the play-by-play. The radio broadcast will be on 97.1 THE FAN, with Bob McElligott behind the mic doing the play-by-play.
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If the San Jose Sharks end up being sellers, defenseman Timothy Liljegren will be a player to keep an eye on. This is because the 26-year-old is a pending unrestricted free agent (UFA) and could generate interest from clubs looking for more defensive depth ahead of the playoffs.
Due to this, let's take a look at three teams that could consider targeting Liljegren if he is made available by the Sharks this season.
Detroit Red Wings
The right side of the Red Wings' bottom pairing could use a boost, so Liljegren would have the potential to be a nice fit if acquired. He would serve as an upgrade over veteran defenseman Travis Hamonic in the role.
New York Islanders
The Islanders are having a strong 2025-26 season, and it could very well lead to them being buyers at the deadline. When looking at their roster, they could use more depth on their right side, so they could make sense as a landing spot for Liljegren.
Ottawa Senators
The Senators are another club that could use more depth on their blueline, so they could be a good fit for Liljegren. He could work well on their bottom pairing and would also offer them another potential option to consider for their penalty kill.
The Chicago Blackhawks had a quiet 2025 NHL off-season, but they did make a few moves. Among them was acquiring forward Andre Burakovsky from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for Joe Veleno.
Yet, in the end, the Kraken's main purpose for this trade was to rid of Burakovsky's $5.5 million cap hit until the end of the 2026-27 season. This is because the Kraken immediately bought out Veleno, and the former Blackhawk ended up signing with the Montreal Canadiens.
Now, as we are approaching holiday break, it is abundantly clear that the Blackhawks are benefiting very nicely from bringing in Burakovsky from the Kraken.
Burakovsky is having a strong season for the Blackhawks so far, as he has recorded eight goals, 13 assists, 21 points, and a plus-3 rating in 26 games. This is certainly solid offensive production from the veteran forward, but especially when noting that the Blackhawks did not need to give up much to land him in the first place.
Burakovsky is continuing to make an impact as the season rolls on for the Blackhaws, too. In his last two games, the 6-foot-3 forward has recorded three points. This included him posting a goal and an assist in the Blackhawks' most recent game against the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 12.
Dodgers players celebrate after winning Game 7 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Nov. 1. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Step into the Dodgers’ team store, turn to the right, and you’ll be staring at Shohei Ohtani.
Not in person, of course. But amid all the jerseys and caps and T-shirts, there is a commercial playing on a loop, with Ohtani waving his fingers through his hair and winking as he displays the product he is endorsing: the top-selling skin serum in Japan.
“Take care of your skin,” the narrator says. “Live life to the fullest.”
Life is good at Dodger Stadium. In the store at the top of the park, you can buy a bottle of skin serum that retails for $118, or World Series championship gear including T-shirts and caps for $54 and up, hoodies for $110 and up, and cool jackets for as much as $382.
If you’re a fan of any team besides the Dodgers, you might despise all the money they spend on players. On Friday after the Dodgers introduced their latest All-Star, closer Edwin Díaz, I asked general manager Brandon Gomes if they really could buy whatever player they wanted.
“Our ownership group has been incredibly supportive, so if we feel like it’s something that meaningfully impacts our World Series chances, we’ve had that support all the time,” he said. “We’re fortunate to be in that position.”
The Dodgers’ owners spend money to make money, and they wisely hired Andrew Friedman a decade ago to tell them where to spend their money. Sounds simple, but some owners do not spend money wisely, and some do not spend money, period.
And sometimes you do both, and it just does not work out.
In the last decade the Dodgers have made the playoffs every year. Take a guess: What other Los Angeles pro team has made the playoffs the most during the last decade?
It’s the Clippers — eight playoff appearances, no championships and now a disaster.
The Dodgers have won three championships over the last decade. You might not remember that the Dodgers’ owners were ridiculed within the industry for spending $2 billion to buy the team in 2012.
At the time I asked co-owner Todd Boehly how he would define successful ownership of the Dodgers.
“You’re not really asking me that, are you?” he said then. “The more World Series we win, the more valuable a franchise it is, right?”
The Dodgers were valued at $8 billion last year by Sportico.
They signed Díaz for three years and $69 million. I asked Gomes what winter signing he recalled as the biggest during the five years he pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, left, and Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes welcome star closer Edwin Díaz during his introductory news conference Friday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
In 2014, he said, the Rays signed closer Grant Balfour: two years and $12 million — after the Baltimore Orioles withdrew a two-year, $15-million deal following a physical examination.
It’s not just the Rays, or even the small markets. The New York Mets’ spending rivaled the Dodgers last season, but the Mets missed the playoffs and lost free agents Díaz, Pete Alonso and Tyler Rogers this week alone. The New York Yankees sound oddly supportive of a salary cap. The Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs talk like big-market teams but do not spend like them.
At the Angels’ team store Friday morning, five customers looked around the team store, where all jerseys sold for 50% off. The attraction at the store Saturday: photos with Santa.
The Angels have not made a postseason appearance since 2014, and their acquisitions so far this offseason: a formerly touted infield prospect once traded for Chris Sale, a talented young pitcher who missed this past season because of injury and another pitcher who finished third in Cy Young voting in 2022 but has not pitched in the majors in more than 18 months. They’ll likely pay those three players less than $4 million combined.
In March, Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken invited Angels owner Arte Moreno to join her in “an open and honest conversation about the future of baseball in Anaheim.”
This week when the future of the Angel Stadium site came up during an Anaheim City Council meeting, Aitken mused about asking city residents “how much of a priority is it to have the land tied up with a baseball franchise,” Voice of OC reported. (The Angels’ stadium lease extends through 2032, and the Angels have the right to extend it through 2038.)
So consider this a timely holiday reminder for Dodgers fans to give thanks for this ownership group, for what the Dodgers are doing now is exceptional and extremely rare.
It would be nice if the Dodgers made more of a commitment to family affordability — and also if the Dodgers did not charge $102.25 for “an iconic photo op with the 2024 and 2025 World Series trophies" — but their attendance nonetheless hit 4 million for the first time.
This is a Dodger town, and the team is the toast of the town. The Dodgers are the biggest winner in American pro sports right now.
The owners are winners too. On Thursday, Boehly’s company staged its holiday party, and the musicians included Eddie Vedder, Bruno Mars, Anthony Kiedis, Brandi Carlile and Slash. Live life to the fullest, indeed.
Eddie Howe says revitalised derby rivals will be a tougher mental test for his side than the Champions League
Midnight was fast approaching when Eddie Howe faced a curve-ball question: if he could be offered a draw at the Stadium of Light on Sunday would he accept it?
If the typically straight-bat answer – “no chance, we prepare to win every game” – was expected, Howe’s subsequent reaction spoke volumes about Sunderland’s recent metamorphosis.
To say that goaltender management has been a headache for the Montreal Canadiens this season would be an understatement. Samuel Montembeault has been shaky from the start, and instead of riding the hot hand, which was Jakub Dobes, Martin St-Louis tried to help his number one get back on track at the expense of the Czech masked man. The rookie goaltender couldn’t build on his momentum and ended up struggling himself, leaving the Canadiens with two struggling options.
After yet another defeat on Thursday night, the organization called up Jacob Fowler and insisted that the plan had always been to call him up sometime this season to “see where he was at, that it had nothing to do with Dobes and Montembeault’s play. Even going as far as saying that they weren’t sure if he would be playing on the road trip, while the rookie netminder told RDS that he knew he would get the start in Pittsburgh, and therefore asked his family to make the trip for his first start.
Now that the youngster has passed the first test with flying colours, St-Louis finds himself with a rare chance at a do-over. The Habs have a back-to-back coming up, facing the New York Rangers on Saturday night on the road and then taking on the Edmonton Oilers and newly acquired goaltender Tristan Jarry at the Bell Centre on Sunday night.
Given how well Fowler has done in his debut, posting a .947 save percentage, the coach has to ride the hot hand regardless of how his other two goalies are doing. This is a professional league, and there’s no need to hold Montembeault’s hand. Saturday’s match is against an Eastern Conference team involved in the playoff race, and you have to put the goaltender who gives you the better chance of winning in the net.
The Canadiens are currently out of a wildcard spot on a tiebreaker, and the Rangers are only trailing the Habs by one point. Montreal does have two games in hand, but Saturday’s game remains a must-win.
Sunday night’s game, being the tail-end of a back-to-back, will be the perfect opportunity to put another goalie in the net. It should be Montembeault, who has not started a game since December 2 against the Ottawa Senators. Dobes began the four games before Fowler came into the fold. While the Bell Centre crowd can at times be hostile when things reach boiling point, it hasn’t turned on the Quebecer, at least not yet, so a home game for him would make sense.
As for the rest of the week, the decision should be based on the weekend’s performance. Everyone should have a clean slate; there’s no number one, backup, or recent call-up; three goaltenders are vying for ice time. Internal competition is beneficial and can push goaltenders to outdo themselves.
The Chicago Blackhawks were defeated on Friday by the St. Louis Blues. It was a tough game on the road, but it's a quick turnaround for this young team.
Next up for the Blackhawks is a game against the Detroit Red Wings at home. That means another return to the United Center for Chicago sports legend Patrick Kane.
Kane and the Red Wings are 17-12-3, which is good enough to occupy a playoff spot for the time being. Finally breaking through and making it would end a long drought for Detroit, which was previously known for making it every single year, no matter what.
Patrick Kane has become an important piece to what they are doing in Detroit. He isn't a young buck that they are building around, but he is a legendary veteran who has plenty of hockey wisdom to pass down to young players. All of that experience came as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, where he became one of the greatest to ever live.
Before becoming a member of the Red Wings, the Blackhawks traded Kane to the New York Rangers. This was a three-team transaction on February 28th, 2023, that sent Kane to the Rangers ahead of their run to the playoffs. New York's efforts failed, as they were eliminated in the first round by the New Jersey Devils, and Kane left for the Red Wings in free agency that summer.
In the deal, the Blackhawks also sent Cooper Zech to the Rangers. The third team in the deal, the Arizona Coyotes, sent Vili Saarijarvi to the Blackhawks. Arizona got a 2025 3rd-round pick from New York for being the facilitator of the deal.
From the Rangers, the Blackhawks received a 2nd round pick in 2023, a 4th round pick in 2025, and Andy Welinski. It was an okay haul at the time for Kane, being a highly-paid unrestricted free agent on a losing team.
Kane didn't help the Rangers get over the hump. Zech never played for them and won't. The same goes for Welinski and Saarijarvi for the Blackhawks. So it comes down to the draft picks when evaluating the winner of the deal.
With the picks that New York gave Chicago, they drafted Martin Misiak and Parker Holmes. Those are good prospects, but they are likely not going to be guys that move the needle.
As for that third-round pick that went to the Coyotes, who later became the Utah Mammoth, it was traded to the Detroit Red Wings so that the Mammoth could land Olli Maatta.
You can argue that the Utah Mammoth were actually the winners of the Patrick Kane trade. Maatta always left more to be desired in his time as an NHL player, but he is a serviceable NHL defenseman when he's healthy.
At this point, that is more than the Blackhawks or Rangers received in this deal over the long term. If Kane had stuck around with New York, this conversation would be very different.
The Misiak and Holmes picks made by Chicago could change the narrative in the coming years, but for now, it's fair to say the Hawks didn't get what they were hoping for when they traded the greatest player who ever played for them.
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