The NHL will play outdoor games in Florida for the first time next season, hosting matchups in Miami and Tampa.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told ESPN that next season's Winter Classic will feature the Florida Panthers against the New York Rangers on Jan. 2 at LoanDepot Park, home of Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins. Bettman also said next season's Stadium Series game will be played between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins on Feb. 1 at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"We've done 42 games all over North America. We haven't had one in Florida, and our teams have been there for three decades," Bettman said. "This is a golden age of hockey in Florida when you look at fan engagement, when you look at big events like All-Star [Games], when look at Stanley Cups between the Lightning and the Panthers and when you look at the growth of hockey at all levels of the game."

This will be the first time the Panthers participate in an outdoor game and the Lightning's second appearance (2022 Stadium Series vs. Predators in Nashville). With the Columbus Blue Jackets playing in this year's Stadium Series game, it leaves the Utah Hockey Club as the only NHL team that has neither played nor is scheduled to play in an outdoor game.

Going to Florida will be the league's latest chapter in hosting an outdoor game in a nontraditional hockey market.

The NHL held an outdoor game at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1991, but unconventional venues became more frequent with the introduction of the Stadium Series in 2014, with Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles; Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California; the Cotton Bowl in Dallas; and Carter-Finley Stadium at NC State hosting games.

NHL president of content and events Steve Mayer said LoanDepot Park is like T-Mobile Park, home of MLB's Seattle Mariners, where the NHL held its 2024 Winter Classic. Mayer said both stadiums have a roof that can cover the playing surface that helps with building ice under controlled conditions. The idea will be to open the roof before the game for a dramatic entrance.

Mayer said Tampa and Raymond James Stadium, an outdoor venue with no roof in an area with high humidity, provides a different challenge. The NHL is working with a Dallas-based company to create what is essentially a mini-warehouse where they will build the ice under controlled conditions.

"Then at the appropriate time, which could be hours before the game, we'll dismantle that structure and underneath we'll reveal, 'Voila, here is our rink. Let's play some hockey,'" Mayer said. "That's how we're going to have to do it at Raymond James. The actual weather itself, unlike Dallas and Los Angeles, will not allow us to build ice because of the humidity and the temperatures during the day."

Regarding alternate venues in both South Florida and Tampa, Bettman said Hard Rock Stadium wasn't an option because of the Orange Bowl, which will be played around the same time as the Winter Classic. He said Tropicana Field, which was the Lightning's first home back when it was the ThunderDome, wasn't considered before it was damaged by Hurricane Milton because it was an indoor structure.

Keith Wachtel, the president of NHL Business, said the league examines several items when it comes to what teams can host an outdoor game. He said the league takes details such as potential venues, how a team is performing in the standings and how much support they could receive from fans in a market.

Wachtel said hosting the games six weeks apart means that Florida is "going to be the center of the hockey universe."

Markets such as South Florida and Tampa Bay were part of the NHL's expansion into the Sun Belt in the early 1990s. The Panthers reached the Stanley Cup Final in 1996 while the Lightning won their first Cup in 2004. The past decade, however, has seen both franchises take a more commanding role in the sport, with the Lightning winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021 and the Panthers claiming their first title last season.

Both cities have also hosted the NHL All-Star Game during this Florida hockey surge. Tampa hosted the game for the second time in 2018, and South Florida welcomed its second All-Star Game in 2023.

Mayer said as All-Star Weekend in Tampa was ending, the league saw a billboard from the Tampa Bay Sports Commission that read, "Next time, let's go outside the box," with a rendering of an outdoor game at Raymond James Stadium.

"That was their plea to us as we left town to come back," Mayer said. "We've been focused on this for many, many years. The engineering of this took time. Then the building of this to where we could do two games in Florida? It just all came together so perfectly."

LOS ANGELES -- The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings' home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires still burning across the greater Los Angeles area.

The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play Wednesday night at the Kings' downtown arena.

"Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community," the Kings said in a statement. "We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league's support in keeping our fans, staff, and players safe."

The NBA's Los Angeles Lakers are scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena on Thursday night.

"We are in communication with the Lakers and Hornets and continue to closely monitor the situation to determine if any scheduling adjustments are necessary..." NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said in a statement Wednesday.

Three major fires were burning in areas of the vast Los Angeles metroplex on Wednesday following two days of extraordinary winds. At least 70,000 people are under evacuation orders, and more than 1,000 structures have been destroyed.

At least five people have been killed in the fires.

The Kings said tickets for their postponed game will be good for the rescheduled date, which hasn't been set yet.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

For the first time in history, the United States has successfully defended gold at the IIHF world junior championship.

Outstanding performances were the story of the tournament this year. For the first time in recent memory, there were no complaints of "too many blowouts" or "not enough parity." Every team in the tournament was capable of a competitive game, making for a very unpredictable round robin and medal round.

From surprise upsets to last-minute goals to overtime thrillers and a shootout that lasted far too long, Ottawa put on a fantastic tournament from top to bottom.

In addition to the team competition, this was also a showcase for top prospects (both drafted and those who will be selected in 2025 and 2026), with execs and scouts from all 32 NHL teams in attendance. Here's a look at players who stood out the most for each team, along with my take on each country's overall performance:

Jump to a team:
Canada | Czechia
Finland | Germany
Latvia | Slovakia
Sweden | Switzerland
United States

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has questioned the referee's decision to not hand Tottenham Hotspur's Lucas Bergvall a second yellow card before the 18-year-old scored the winning goal in the Carabao Cup semifinal between the sides.

Stuart Attwell, the official in charge of the game, had earlier booked Bergvall for a foul on Luis Díaz and played advantage after another late tackle from the Swede on Kostas Tsimikas.

As Liverpool's attack petered out, Attwell did not stop play to show a yellow card to Bergvall and moments later the teenager slotted past Alisson after fine work from Dominic Solanke while Tsimikas was off the pitch receiving treatment.

"It was quite obvious there was gonna be a second yellow," Van Dijk told Sky Sports after the game.

"It was pretty clear, and then a minute later he scores the winner. Listen, it is what it is. [The referee] made a mistake in my opinion and I told him that. He thinks he didn't. It was quite obvious and everyone on the sideline knew it.

"There's a linesman there, there's a fourth official, there's VAR ... and he doesn't get a second yellow. I'm not saying this is the reason we lost, but it was a big moment in the game."

The Netherlands stalwart did add that Attwell's call wasn't the only reason Liverpool will head to Anfield to play the second leg facing a deficit.

"We played against an intense team with good attacking players who keep running and make it difficult," he said. "We created opportunities -- not really clear-cut chances in my opinion, but enough that we could have scored.

"At times we could have done better. That's part of football. At times we played through them nicely, but they were able to defend much better than when we were here a couple of weeks ago."

Arne Slot echoed Van Dijk's comments, saying: "The decision he [the referee] made had a lot of impact on the result tonight."

The second leg at Anfield is scheduled for Feb. 6. Liverpool play League Two team Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup third round on Saturday, while Spurs travel to National League side Tamworth.

Manchester United have agreed terms on a new contract for Amad Diallo, sources have told ESPN.

The 22-year-old winger has signed a long-term extension to secure his future at Old Trafford.

A club announcement is imminent and could come as early as Thursday. Amad has shot to prominence at Old Trafford this season becoming a key player for new head coach Ruben Amorim.

Amad has scored six goals in 28 appearances, including the equaliser in Sunday's 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield.

His contract was due to expire at the end of the season, although United held an option to extend his deal by 12 months.

The club decided against triggering the option and instead chose to negotiate a new long-term contract.

Amad endured a slow start to his career at United.

He arrived in a 37 million ($46m) deal from Atalanta in 2020 and was subsequently sent out on loan to Rangers and Sunderland. He excelled at the English club, scoring 14 goals in 42 games during the 2022-23 campaign.

He won both Sunderland's young player of the year award and the PFA Championship fans' player of the year award.

Amad has scored three goals in his last six appearances for United, a run which included a last-minute winner against Manchester City in December.

United States coach Mauricio Pochettino said players must see soccer as more than just a game when competing in order to be successful during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

He used the mental approach taken by a team he is very familiar with as an example: Argentina, for whom Pochettino played during his career.

"When we are seeing different national teams, today we talked about Argentina because it's the [world] champion and they have very good players," Pochettino told ESPN. "But for me the most important difference it's the mentality, how they compete as a group and the belief that they have and when they go to the pitch, they go to war and to defend your badge, your flag and that is what we need to create.

"We need to translate to our players that its not only going to be a soccer game, we need to go one step forward to compete better."

Since taking the role as manager of the U.S. on Sept. 10, Pochettino has won three games and lost one, to rivals Mexico in a friendly. Though he's seen early success with the team, Pochettino continues to strive for more on the road to the World Cup.

"[Right now] the mentality is really good, I think we have a very good mentality, a very good culture," he said. "Sometimes there's a moment when you go up and down, the most important is to be consistent, to keep your capacity and your mentality."

The United States face a unique road to the 2026 tournament as co-hosts, automatically earning a ticket and avoiding any Concacaf qualifiers. The limited amount of competition is a double-edged sword, but one positive is it allows Pochettino to test out different players for the Gold Cup, Nations League and upcoming friendlies.

"For me, the most important factor [in calling up a player] is how they are performing in their club. It's true that we have different situations in which maybe they don't play too much in their club" said Pochettino. "But we consider it before calling them up because they are important for the group. They perform here, even if they don't play too much.

"We always analyze things differently, with different ways for different players. We don't use the same standard of rules to assess players in the same way."

The USMNT is set to kick off 2025 with a game against Venezuela at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Jan. 18, and then Costa Rica four days later at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando with some new faces on the roster like Brian Gutierrez and Patrick Agyemang.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was carried off on a stretcher in the 14th minute of his team's Carabao Cup semifinal against Liverpool on Wednesday after falling to the ground at a corner.

Medical staff immediately ran onto the field as the Uruguay international lay face down on the turf, with players from both teams looking concerned.

Spurs posted on X at half-time to say that Bentancur "is conscious, talking and will go to hospital for further checks."

Asked about the incident after the game, Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou said: "I don't want to speculate because I don't really know [what happened to Bentancur] either.

"All I know is he was conscious when he came off. Obviously it was some sort of head injury, but he was conscious when he was coming off the field.

"And he's been taken to the hospital for observation. But I'm not really clear on how it happened. Unless I get a doctor out here, I'm not going to speculate because it's just not fair on people around him.

"But it was a head injury. And there was concern from players out there so obviously there was something going on."

Bentancur, 27, had tried to head a ball that had been curled in from the right in the sixth minute.

Fans applauded as he was carried off the field, and Bentancur gave a thumbs up to the Spurs bench on his way off.

The injury happened with the score tied at 0-0 at the time in the first-leg match. Spurs went on to win 1-0 after a late goal from 18-year-old Lucas Bergvall.

LONDON -- Ange Postecoglou needed this. Wednesday's 1-0 win over Liverpool may not be enough to reach the Carabao Cup Final given the semifinal's second leg at Anfield awaits, but it buys him precious time to steer Tottenham Hotspur's season back on track.

The irony is that this vital result comes in a competition the 59-year-old manager has not particularly targeted, and through a performance which represents something of a departure from the high-risk style which has tested the locals' faith in this part of north London.

It was nothing like a complete abandonment of Postecoglou's principles, but more of a compromise than we're used to seeing.

Tottenham's average possession start was 31.6 meters from goal, their fifth lowest this season in all competitions. Their season average is 35.8 meters. And the hosts made just 44 passes in their attacking third, compared with 83 against the same opposition last month and 77 in the previous round against Manchester United.

Perhaps Rodrigo Bentancur's early head injury knocked them off stride, stretchered off and taken to hospital in what Postecoglou described as "a quite distressing sight" afterwards. Spurs later confirmed he was conscious and talking.

A line-up depleted through injury and the calibre of their opponents were undoubtedly also contributing factors. The first half was, atypically for Spurs, fairly dull. Postecoglou's demeanour was also notable departure from the norm too; unusually expressive on the sideline, sinking to his knees when Pedro Porro failed to capitalise on an early second-half mistake from Alisson Becker.

Dominic Solanke's 77th-minute goal, ruled out on VAR review for offside and a chance to debut in-stadium refereeing announcements confirming that, yes, the man who might have been offside when he ran through and scored was, in fact, offside when he ran through and scored, prompting furious headshaking.

Lucas Bergvall's match-winning goal nine minutes later sparked jubilant celebrations which were resumed after the final whistle as Postecoglou blew kisses to loved ones and revelled in the party atmosphere which greeted a result that takes Spurs a step closer to their first trophy since 2008.

Postecoglou is usually a stoic figure but a recent run of four wins from 15 games has placed him under significant pressure.

"It has been an emotional time, mate," he explained. "I keep saying: I am a human being. Like all of us, we're in these roles of managers and I understand we have got positions of responsibility, but we are still human beings at our core and we react to things.

"I don't like the fact that people who are working really hard for this club, on and off the field, have not had that feeling of victory. I don't feel great about our supporters not having that feeling of victory.

"It weighs heavily on me. It is my responsibility. So yeah, I am a little bit more emotional than I usually am but that also probably means I do care, and I think that's still important."

This was only Liverpool's second defeat under Arne Slot and Spurs achieved that with another patchwork team featuring a debutant, Antonin Kinsky, in goal, a teenage right-back at centre-back in Archie Gray and out-of-favour Djed Spence, respectively. The latter coped much better with Mohamed Salah than in the 6-3 Premier League defeat here 17 days earlier.

It felt as though an element of pragmatism had crept into Tottenham's approach, but Postecoglou suggested that was more through circumstance than design.

"People said my midfield setup was a little bit more conservative today but that's because I only had three midfielders to choose," he said. "The others weren't available. We certainly went about it the same way. Liverpool don't allow you go about it the same way as other teams do, and our players every three days are playing a game without rest.

"You saw Liverpool at the end, they put on some significant talent, some really good footballers. I couldn't do the same. And yet, the guys out there are consistently doing it. Maybe we are not as dominant as we want to be but there's good reason, not through the lack of trying or different intent."

Liverpool rotated before kick-off but Slot introduced Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Díaz and Darwin Núñez among his five substitutes in an effort to secure a first-leg advantage. Alexander-Arnold had a shot cleared off the line and Núñez twice went close, but it was Spurs who struck late on, benefitting from a dubious call by Stuart Attwell to allow Bergvall to go unpunished with what looked like a clear second yellow card for a late tackle on Kostas Tsimikas.

To compound the situation, Tsimikas was waiting to come back on the field when Solanke turned expertly and fed Bergvall, who slotted a fine low finish past Alisson.

"I don't think there is any debate about that," Slot said on whether Bergvall should have been dismissed.

Given Liverpool's buoyancy under the Dutchman, they will hold high hopes of overturning the deficit on Feb. 6.

Both teams have seven games between now and then. Liverpool have their Premier League title push to focus on while Tottenham's run includes the north London derby at Arsenal and tricky trips to Everton and Brentford, all while what feels like a pivotal transfer window remains open.

But for Postecoglou, there is now a fixed point of optimism on the horizon: a second leg in which they hold a pre-existing, if narrow, advantage, to shine as a beacon through a challenging month. It will require another mammoth effort to complete the job and reach Wembley but Postecoglou, for one, will feel reinvigorated for the fight.