LeBron James has been reassigned to the Los Angeles Lakers and is expected to go through a full practice with the varsity club on Monday, and is close to making his season debut.
LeBron went through a couple of practices with the South Bay Lakers, the franchise's G-League affiliate, while the rest of the Lakers were on a 3-2 road trip. This week, the Lakers have a home-and-home with Utah that could see LeBron's return to the court — and with that, he sets a record as the first player ever to reach 23 seasons in the league. Add that to his GOAT case.
LeBron has been out since before the start of training camp due to sciatica on his right side. From the beginning, both LeBron's training team and the Lakers wanted to be cautious with his return, ensuring he was fully healed and considering the long term. The plan has been for him to take the court i in mid-November, and this week would fits that timeline.
Even without LeBron, the Lakers are 10-4 to start the season, led by a top-10 offense sparked by Luka Doncic playing at an MVP level. Luka Doncic has stepped up as an elite secondary shot creator, Deandre Ayton has been solid in the paint, and there has been good role play from Rui Hachimura, Jake LaRavia, and others. However, if the Lakers are going to be a serious threat in the West, they need what LeBron brings to the table.
The Detroit Red Wings managed to make history last month, pulling off a historic comeback victory over the St. Louis Blues and marking just the fifth time in their history that they won a game in which they initially trailed by four goals.
While they didn’t make history on Saturday evening when a nearly identical situation happened to them in reverse, it still stirred familiar feelings about what has gone wrong for the franchise throughout its lengthy postseason drought.
The Red Wings had a 4-1 lead over the Buffalo Sabres at the midway point of the second period on Saturday evening, only to eventually blow the lead and lose in overtime by a 5-4 final score.
Not only did the Red Wings fail to convert on two key power-play opportunities in the game's final frame, but they also surrendered a shorthanded breakaway goal that knotted the score.
Head coach Todd McLellan, who was hired nearly 11 months ago to help bring a new level of accountability to the franchise, stated the facts as plainly as he could afterward on what needs to happen in order for Detroit to get over the hump.
“I’ll take you all the way back to Traverse City -- on the first day (of Training Camp) we talked about game management and learning how to play certain situations,” McLellan said. “Clearly, we haven’t learned that yet. I don’t know if you could write a script like that. We’re short-handed, trying to score and creating turnovers."
"Until this group figures out what’s important at certain times of the game, we’re going to have those nights," he continued. "Simple as that."
During the setback, the Red Wings once again surrendered multiple odd-man rushes against the Sabres, who have now won both matchups against Detroit so far this season.
Perhaps even more frustrating for Detroit is that dropping points against a team like the Sabres—who sit in last place in the Eastern Conference, could ultimately be the difference between making or missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs in such a tightly packed race.
Detroit can't afford to allow points to slip away like that, especially in games where they had a multi-goal lead. But if they can't figure out the kind of game management skills that McLellan routinely refers to, it could be deja vu again.
"Until we value it and figure it out, I'll be talking about this again," McLellan said.
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Freshman point guard Kingston Flemings scored 22 points, Chris Cenac Jr. had 18 points and nine rebounds and top-ranked Houston held on for a 73-72 victory over No. 22 Auburn on Sunday. Auburn (3-1) rallied behind a raucous neutral-site home crowd and had two chances to take the lead on the final possession. Two driving attempts by Tahaad Pettiford were nixed by Houston’s defense, including a block by Flemings.
ST. PAUL, Minn - The Minnesota Wild (8-7-4) is back on home ice tonight to host the Vegas Golden Knights (8-4-5). The Wild will be without forward Vladimir Tarasenko for the second straight game.
Wild head coach John Hynes said after the game that Tarasenko's status will be day-to-day.
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Due to their ongoing injury troubles, the Montreal Canadiens have called up one of their prospects.
The Canadiens have recalled forward Joshua Roy from their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Laval Rocket. This comes after the Canadiens announced that Kirby Dach would be out for the next four to six weeks with a fractured foot.
Roy has spent most of this season in Laval, where he has posted four goals, three assists, seven points, and a plus-4 rating in 10 games. He has also played one game for the Canadiens this season, where he recorded zero shots in 7:58 of ice time against the Calgary Flames on Oct. 22.
With this latest call-up to the Canadiens' roster, Roy will be looking to make an impact. The 2021 fifth-round pick is looking to prove that he can take that next step and be an NHL-caliber player, so this is a golden chance to show the Habs what he can do.
Les Canadiens ont rappelé l'attaquant Joshua Roy du Rocket de Laval. Il rejoindra l'équipe à Columbus.
The Canadiens have recalled forward Joshua Roy from the Laval Rocket. He will join the team in Columbus. pic.twitter.com/q8eXdoCiW0
Roy has played in 36 games with the Canadiens over the last three seasons, where he has recorded six goals, five assists, and 11 points. During this past season with Laval, he posted 20 goals, 15 assists, and 35 points in 47 games.
Turmoil in the SEC as Alabama gets upset, Texas takes a third loss and Texas A&M and Ole Miss almost stumble. Will USC and Michigan make the CFP? What impact did Week 12 have on the CFP rankings?
Steph Curry needed to score 95 points, make 29 shots, including 14 3-pointers, and swish 23 free throws in a two-game stretch for the Warriors to leave San Antonio with two consecutive wins against the Spurs.
He didn’t even reach double-digit scoring Sunday in New Orleans, yet the Warriors didn’t need him to in a 124-106 win against the Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center. That’s two wins in one for a team that far too often has needed Curry to have all his superpowers and already had two frustrating letdown losses with him earlier this season.
Sunday night in the Big Easy wasn’t about Curry, Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green. The shining star was Moses Moody, who scored a career-high 32 points on 10-of-16 shooting and went 8 of 12 on 3-pointers. His sizzling start was beyond being on fire. Moody made seven threes in the first quarter, joining Curry and Klay Thompson as the only Warriors ever to make at least seven threes in one quarter.
The proud product of Little Rock, Ark., was fueled by Southern comfort on his career night.
“I’m from the South, so whenever I’m down here, my joints feel better,” Moody joked on “Warriors Postgame Live.”
Moody made his first two threes, missed one and then made his next five to finish. The first quarter alone was a new career high in threes by Moody for an entire game. But what happened before his first two was a bigger-picture moment for the Warriors to learn from.
A wild sequence ahead of Moody’s first three went as follows: Green missed layup, Green offensive rebound; Green missed tip shot, Green offensive rebound; Green missed tip shot, Green offensive rebound; Green missed tip shot, Green offensive rebound; Green missed tip shot, Butler offensive rebound.
Butler grabbed Green’s fifth miss in five tries and finally got the ball out of the paint, passing it to Curry at the top of the arc. Curry took one dribble to his left and dumped the ball off to a wide-open Moody for a catch-and-shoot three.
His second three also came off an offensive rebound. Rookie Will Richard came flying high from the corner to tip out a missed three from Curry, which Butler tracked down, finding Moody for another open catch-and-shoot three from the left corner.
The effort prior those two threes were reminiscent of Gary Payton II keeping a key possession alive with two offensive rebounds against the Spurs on Wednesday night, where the result was a huge three from Curry. The Warriors as a team in New Orleans came down with 16 offensive rebounds, highlighted by five from Richard and four from Green.
“Those two games [in San Antonio], they were intense. They felt like playoff games,” Green said to Warriors Radio’s Tim Roye. “We knew the energy wouldn’t quite be there for this one. But we were able to find our own energy, create our own energy. We built a comfortable lead, they fought back. We closed the half strong and then were able to kind of handle the second half.
“A lot tougher, for different circumstances, than San Antonio.”
While Curry was held to three points – all free throws – in the first quarter, the rest of the Warriors scored 41 on 15-of-26 shooting (57.7 percent) and went 10 of 15 beyond the arc (66.7 percent). The Warriors then only scored 17 points in the second quarter, but did close the second quarter on an 8-0 run. They opened the third on a 12-4 run and outscored the Pelicans by six in the second half.
Of course, Moody’s 32 points and eight threes are the stats that stood out in front of others. The most important stats, however, were minutes played.
Curry didn’t have to play 30 minutes, and neither did Green. The Warriors needed 34 and 36 minutes from Curry in his monstrous nights in San Antonio to get two wins. Butler (31) and Moody (33) were the only two Warriors to play at least 30 minutes in an 18-point win against the Pelicans.
And on top of Moody’s game, the Warriors also received scoring off the bench from Brandin Podziemski (19 points) and Buddy Hield (11 points). Each made three 3-pointers.
There are parts of the game that will need cleaning, like Curry (four), Green (five) and Butler (six) combining for 15 turnovers. When role players like Moody, Podziemski and Hield are picking up the pieces, the Warriors can survive those kinds of miscues from their top three players.
Performances like the shows Curry put on in San Antonio certainly could happen again. Anything is possible when No. 30 is on the court. Just nine points and one three were required of him for the Warriors to get past the Pelicans.
Getting through an undermanned and undertalented team where the Warriors’ top talent doesn’t need to be worn down are the kind of wins that can produce heroics from Curry and his star teammates later in the most important times of the season.
ST. PAUL, Minn - The Minnesota Wild (8-7-4) is back on home ice tonight to host the Vegas Golden Knights (8-4-5). Here is tonight's goaltending matchup.
He is 4-7-2 on the year with a 3.09 goals-against average and a .896 save percentage in 13 games. Last season, Gustavsson went 0-1-0 against Vegas and let up four goals on 37 shots.
Gustavsson, 27, is 1-4-1 in his career against the Golden Knights with a 2.76 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage in seven career games.
Rookie goaltender Carl Lindbom is expected to start for Vegas. He is 0-3-1 on the year with a 3.29 goals-against average and a .869 save percentage.
He has not faced the Wild in his career and has only four NHL starts, all coming this season. The 22-year-old netminder is 19-15-4 in the AHL in his career with a 2.56 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage.
Vegas lost four straight games before its 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
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Will Horcoff is an 18 year-old sophomore forward for the Michigan Wolverines. He was born in Birmingham, Michigan. At 6'5", Horcoff excels at a physical, two-way center role for the Wolverines, which made him a top prospect for the 2025 NHL Draft. His path to Ann Arbor was paved through playing for Honeybaked and Little Caesars from 2020-2023, before moving onto the U.S. National Development Team until 2024, when he elected to play at Michigan.
2025-26 Stats - 14 games played, 13 goals, 5 assists, 18 points, 28 penalty minutes, +4 +/- (currently tied for 8th in total points in the NCAA)
Horcoff was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of 2025 NHL Draft. (24th overall) He participated in the Penguins Development Camp this past July.
Will is the son of former NHL'er, Shawn Horcoff, who played 15 total seasons between the Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars, and Anaheim Ducks.
Horcoff has also represented the USA in the U17 World Hockey Championships and the U18 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.
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1. Before Thursday dawned this past week, the New Jersey Devils looked like a potential Stanley Cup candidate. Now the Rangers look like a better one.
2. Superstar Jack Hughes' freak – and I do mean weird – hand injury figures to torpedo the Garden Staters right out of first place and into the crowded Met Division pack.
3. Suddenly, the Rangers are faced with a rare opportunity to leapfrog over the Pitchfork Puckchasers and challenge for the Met lead.
4. Not Good News Department. Maven Roundtable super seer Jess Rubenstein reports that the Hartford Wolfpack have lost seven straight – home and away.
5. More Rubenstein: "Dylan Garand has gone from promising goalie to just flat out lost. If the Rangers were to lose either Igor or Quick for any length of time, the Rangers would be in bigtrouble."
6. Nathan Aspinall, 159th overall pick in 2024, is tenth in OHL scoring after back to back two-goal games for the Flint Firebirds. "He's a Rangers Prospects best 12-15-27," adds Jess.
7. The Rangers certainly do not need Matt Rempe for police work; not with Sam Carrick slugging away. Slingin' Sam went toe to toe with the NHL's best fighter, Mathieu Olivier, before M.O. K.O'd Sammy Boy at the end.
8. Before getting too ga-ga over the Blueshirts win streak, bear in mind that they'll finally meet a real team on Tuesday when they visit Vegas to start a three-game road trip.
9. A first for the Maven: Never in my career did I ever hear a putdown like this from a seasoned hockey man who watched the BJ-Blueshirts game: "The linesmen were brutal."
10. Mike Sullivan has restored the no-whining spirit of two seasons ago. It's accepted that Chris Kreider and Jake (The Rake) Trouba will do well in Anaheim – and so what!!
Ahead of Sunday's tilt against the Nashville Predators - the second of two NHL Global Series games in Stockholm, Sweden - head coach Dan Muse announced that 23-year-old forward Ville Koivunen is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
Koivunen left Saturday's practice early and did not return, and he did not play in Sunday's game.
After registering seven points in his first eight NHL games last season alongside Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby to close out the 2024-25 season, Koivunen has gotten off to a slow start production-wise this year. He has just two assists in 11 games and is still seeking his first NHL goal.
His injury adds to an already-heaping list of unavailable forwards for the Penguins, as Rickard Rakell, Justin Brazeau, Noel Acciari, and Filip Hallander are all on injured reserve. The Penguins are running a bit thin on their scoring depth, and Koivunen's injury - despite his slow start - will only worsen those concerns if he misses any length of time.
The Penguins will fly back to Pittsburgh from Stockholm on Sunday and resume practice on Tuesday. Their next game comes against the Minnesota Wild on Friday, which kicks off a back-to-back with the Seattle Kraken on the tail end of it.
As of Sunday, the Penguins sit third in the Metropolitan Division at 10-5-4 with 24 points.
