The stories everyone is talking about, and what each one changes for the next match.
With Minnesota 5-2 up and four and a half minutes left, St. Louis goalie Joel Hofer came out from behind his net, ignored the puck and put Kirill Kaprizov, the NHL's leading goalscorer, into the boards. "I think it's a dirty play," Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt said after the 5-4 win, The Hockey News reports, and Kaprizov left for the dressing room soon after.
Our take This is a Player Safety case, not a footnote
Francisco Conceição walked off at Balaídos, struck the bench with his fists and disappeared down the tunnel, and his coach did not protect him afterwards. "It would do him well to be angry with himself," Luciano Spalletti said after Juventus came from behind to win 2-1 at Celta Vigo, Corriere dello Sport and Sky Sport Italia report.
Our take Juve's problem is the attack, not the temper
Karolina Muchova came to Wuhan as the first player this century to win the first ten tiebreaks of a season, and on Thursday Diana Shnaider never let her get to one: 7-5, 6-3 in the third round. The defeat leaves the last seat at the WTA Finals open until Sunday's final, with Iga Swiatek still in the draw.
Our take The last seat is now Swiatek's to take
The last time River Plate went a goal down and still won was 6 November 2024, 3-2 at Instituto in Córdoba with Marcelo Gallardo on the bench. Since then they have trailed in 31 matches, lost 22 and drawn 9, Cadena 3 counted after Wednesday's 1-1 at Sarmiento, and interim coach Leonardo Ponzio now talks of "four finals".
Our take River's problem starts at 0-1, not on the bench
Baskonia are top of the Liga Endesa with three wins from three, and on Wednesday they sacked the coach who won them their first Copa del Rey in 17 years. The reason the club did not give is on the EuroLeague table: 1-4, 20th of 20, and 478 points conceded in five games, so Velimir Perasovic returns for a fourth spell and coaches at Virtus Bologna on Friday.
Our take Baskonia changed coach for its defence, not its results
İsmail Kartal was the right-back sent off before half-time when Fenerbahçe lost 7-1 at Sigma Olomouc in 1992, and on Wednesday he was the coach on the bench at Villa Park for the club's first six-goal defeat in Europe since that night. Aston Villa won 6-0, the travelling fans called for his resignation in the 78th minute, and Kartal told Habertürk: "We apologise to our club and our supporters for this score."
Our take Saturday against Alanyaspor is now a referendum
Rick Tocchet counted the moments himself: four or five times in Tuesday's shootout loss, he says, a Flyers defenceman jumped into the play too early and turned a Grade A chance into a blocked shot. That is his explanation for the worst start in franchise history, 0-5-3 and ten goals in eight games, and he takes it to Detroit tonight.
Our take Patience, not panic, is the Flyers' missing skill
Tyler Dorsey scored 25 points in Olympiacos' EuroLeague opener in Vitoria; on Tuesday in Valencia he played five minutes and four seconds. On Wednesday he asked on Instagram why the club did not "just go ahead and let me go now", and within about an hour Olympiacos left him out of Friday's game in Barcelona and sent him back to Athens, SPORT24 reported.
Our take The minutes told the story before Instagram did
Gaël Monfils' name has been on the official list of retired players kept by the International Tennis Integrity Agency since 5 October. Under the rule printed on the same page, a listed player cannot simply return to a sanctioned event, yet Monfils is due in Lyon next week on a wild card, RMC Sport noticed on Tuesday evening.
Our take Either the entry goes, or the farewell does
Valencia Basket were 62-34 up on Olympiacos with eight and a half minutes left in the third quarter, and still lost 102-97 in overtime. Afterwards their coach Xavi Albert said something coaches rarely admit: "Ha habido un momento que no sé si ha sido miedo" (there was a moment when I don't know if it was fear).
Our take Valencia's problem, not Olympiacos' miracle
Partizan had prepared a gift at centre court for Željko Obradović's first game back in Belgrade, and he turned it down. By the final buzzer his Panathinaikos side had held Partizan to 55 points, their lowest total of the EuroLeague season, and won 72-55 to stay the only unbeaten team in the competition.
Our take He said everything to Partizan with his defence
Roope Hintz had never dropped the gloves in the NHL until Tuesday night, and when he did, Nathan MacKinnon went to the Colorado locker room for facial repairs. Colorado won 3-2 in Dallas, Hintz is being evaluated after the game, and the two teams play again tonight in Denver.
Our take Dallas need goals tonight, not revenge
Villarreal needed four shots on target to score three times against Napoli on Tuesday night. Asked live on Sky Italia by Fabio Capello whether Italian teams have forgotten how to defend, Massimiliano Allegri went further than the question: "È diventata quasi una vergogna saper difendere" (knowing how to defend has become almost a disgrace).
Our take Napoli's problem is three minutes, not fashion
Vasco da Gama played the last 26 minutes at La Bombonera with ten men, and Boca Juniors still could not find a goal. The Brazilians won the Copa Sudamericana semi-final first leg 1-0, and by Wednesday morning the louder fight was in a Brazilian court, over whether next Tuesday's second leg can be played at the Maracanã at all.
Our take Six home stumbles is a pattern, not bad luck
Milan have not lost in six Serie A games, and their owner still drove away from Sassuolo unhappy. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Gerry Cardinale watched the 1-1 at the Mapei Stadium and left disappointed, and Ruben Amorim is now in his sights.
Our take Amorim survives until winter at least
In the summer of 2024 Rayan Cherki was so excited about joining PSG that he sent Nasser al-Khelaïfi a long voice message to thank him. According to L'Équipe, the clubs had a deal and Luis Enrique had already pitched him a role, and on Wednesday he will face Paris in a Manchester City shirt.
Our take Cherki was bad luck. Bouaddi was a choice
Franco Mastantuono lost the ball 18 times in Fiorentina's 2-1 defeat at Genoa, Infobae counts, and in Argentina the criticism has been loud since. His coach Paolo Vanoli answered the other way: he called the 19-year-old an important player and said players like him only learn Italian football by playing it.
Our take This is protection, not a warning
Two minutes from time in Floresta, an All Boys player came back onto the pitch with a phone in his hand to show the referee a replay. Nicolás Lamolina then cancelled the penalty he had given to Godoy Cruz, and later told TyC Sports: "Yo nunca pude ver el celular" (I never got to see the phone).
Our take Right call, wrong way to get there
On Saturday in Augsburg, Luis Díaz finally scored with an overhead kick, ran off to celebrate, and then watched VAR take it away. It summed up his autumn: six games without a goal or an assist since the opening day, Bild counts, a season after 26 goals and 23 assists.
Our take No panic: Bayern have no other left winger
Gerard Piqué was in the stand of Andorra's national stadium recently, taking notes at a women's international, and it was homework. AS reports that Andorra's owner is studying for the UEFA B-A coaching licence with the Andorran federation, alongside Sergio Busquets, Carles Puyol, Thiago Alcántara, Santi Cazorla and Javi Martínez.
Our take Watch Busquets, not Piqué
Bernardo Silva joined Real Madrid in June as one of José Mourinho's own requests. In the last three league games he has played just over 10 minutes, and against Villarreal on Saturday he did not get off the bench at all.
Our take The wrong role, not the wrong player
Betis have 19 points from their first eight LaLiga games, the same six wins, one draw and one defeat they had in 1934-35, the only season they won the league. Minutes after Sunday's 5-2 win over Osasuna sealed it, Antony sat down on the pitch, and Manuel Pellegrini said he had felt a muscle.
Our take A real start, a week that decides it
“Initially, the injury is more serious than we thought,” Real Madrid coach Pedro Martínez said of Gabriel Deck's left shoulder, and he could not give a date for his return. It is the same shoulder that forced Deck out of an Argentina game in August.
Our take Plan for weeks, not days
In the 87th minute at Troyes, with Marseille finally winning, Igor Paixão walked off and refused Bruno Genesio's hand. Before the game he had said on Canal+ that he will more likely leave Marseille next summer, and that it was the club's situation that made him stay.
Our take The price of a summer he lost