The Pittsburgh Penguins have ruled out promising rookie winger Rutger McGroarty and four other players due to injuries with three games remaining in their season.

Pittsburgh (32-35-12, 76 points), which has been eliminated from postseason contention, announced Thursday that McGroarty (lower-body injury) and forwards Tommy Novak (lower body), Blake Lizotte (undisclosed), Noel Acciari (undisclosed) and Matt Nieto (undisclosed) will be sidelined.

The Penguins have games on Friday at New Jersey and at home on Sunday against Boston and April 17 against Washington.

McGroarty missed practice Thursday after taking a shot off his left skate during Pittsburgh's 5-0 victory over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday.

McGroarty, who turned 21 on March 30, has one goal and two assists while averaging 14:37 of ice time in eight games. He was playing on the first forward line with superstar center Sidney Crosby.

The Winnipeg Jets selected McGroarty 14th overall in the 2022 NHL draft and traded him to Pittsburgh in August 2024 for forward Brayden Yager.

"It's disappointing because he was playing real well and we thought it was a great experience for him to get NHL games," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.

McGroarty could heal in time to be sent back to the franchise's AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, for a playoff run. He had 14 goals and 25 assists in 60 games with the AHL squad.

"We're hopeful that Rutger's injury will come around," Sullivan said. "We're hopeful that Wilkes-Barre will play long enough that he has an opportunity to help them continue to have success down there. That's an important experience for him as well."

Acciari, 33, has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 79 games this season. Lizotte, 27, has 20 points (11 goals, nine assists) in 59 games. Nieto, 32, has one goal and two assists with 20 blocks and 39 hits in 32 games.

Novak, 27, appeared in two games since the Penguins acquired him from Nashville on March 5. He collected 22 points (13 goals, nine assists) in 52 games with the Predators.

Pittsburgh recalled forwards Vasily Ponomarev, Emil Bemstrom and Valtteri Puustinen from the AHL on an emergency basis.

LAS VEGAS -- Center Tomas Hertl was expected back in the lineup for the Vegas Golden Knights for Thursday night's game against the Seattle Kraken.

Hertl was injured March 23 when he was slammed into the boards by Tampa Bay defenseman Emil Lilleberg in the Golden Knights' 4-2 victory over the Lightning.

"It's nice to be with the guys again and be part of the team," Hertl said after Thursday's morning skate. "It wasn't a long time, thank God. It was taken care of in two weeks, so I feel lucky."

Hertl led Vegas with 31 goals at the time of his injury. Pavel Dorofeyev has since taken the team lead with 33 goals.

The Golden Knights particularly missed Hertl on the power play. He set the club's single-season record with 14 goals with the man advantage before sustaining an upper-body injury, with Dorofeyev just one behind.

Vegas' power play had been the NHL's best, converting on more than 30% of its chances. The Golden Knights have failed to score on their last 10 power plays, covering five games.

"We miss his interior presence there," coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Offensively, I thought even 5-on-5 he was doing a really good job with [Dorofeyev]. They really had chemistry and [Brandon Saad]. That line can hopefully recapture where they were, and I thought they were playing really well defensively."

Cassidy said Jack Eichel (upper-body injury) and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo will not play for the second straight game. Nicolas Hague will return from a one-game absence because of an illness that Cassidy said has been prevalent on the team.

NEW YORK -- After Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL record-breaking 895th goal -- in vintage Ovechkin fashion, from his "office," on an old-school wrist shot -- he skated to center ice and belly flopped.

The celebration, the Washington Capitals captain said, was unplanned.

"Ice was bad today," he explained. "I fell."

Carolina Hurricanes at Washington Capitals, 7:30 ET on ESPN+/Hulu

After the iconic moment, Ovechkin's teammates swarmed him. The late-season game between the Capitals and New York Islanders paused for 25 minutes for an on-ice ceremony. Wayne Gretzky, the legend whom Ovechkin passed, made his way down; the Hall of Famer graciously followed the 39-year-old from one arena to the next as he closed in on his record, fulfilling a promise to be the first person to shake Ovechkin's hand afterward -- just as Gordie Howe, the previous record holder, had done for Gretzky in 1994.

As the league set up carpet on the ice, Ovechkin was focused on hugging each of his teammates. Ovechkin then fixated on finding his family, including his mother, wife and their two young sons. "Without them, it's basically, I don't know if I can reach this milestone," he said.

All the while, a video tribute played on the videoboard at UBS Arena on Long Island.

Those congratulating Ovechkin included a who's who of sports GOATs: Roger Federer, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Sidney Crosby, Derek Jeter, Simone Biles, Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky.

"To be honest with you, I didn't see it," Ovechkin said. "But the boys told me that lots of great people, great athletes support me and congratulate me. It's huge."

As teammate Tom Wilson said earlier in the week, the attention on Ovechkin was unparalleled for their sport. "To try to think about what he's going through, the pressure, the entire game of hockey is on his shoulders right now. It's bigger than hockey," Wilson said. "And for him to handle that, to perform, to lead the top team in the league and still be such a fun teammate, it's really remarkable."

It's what makes Ovechkin, the NHL's new all-time leader in goals, a true original -- and perhaps the last man who will ever hold the title.

"They say records were meant to be broken," Gretzky told the crowd. "But I'm not sure who's going to get more goals than that."

WHEN GRETZKY ECLIPSED Howe's mark 31 years ago, many around the sport believed that was it. Nobody would surpass The Great One, whose stat line was so outlandish over a 1,487-game career, that you could take away his final goal total (894) and he'd still be the league's all-time leader in points.

Gretzky, over the years, was known to say he was sure "somebody, somewhere will come along and break it." But few people believed it, especially as the game evolved. The average goals per NHL game during Gretzky's career was 6.93. Since Ovechkin's rookie season, the average is 5.72. But something was always different about Ovechkin, who was a surefire talent when the Capitals selected him No. 1 in 2004. Ovechkin scored two goals in his first NHL game and finished with 52 in his rookie season.

The "Alex Ovechkin Effect" in Washington, D.C., is undeniable. Since Ovechkin's rookie season (2005-06), hockey players in the Potomac Valley region have increased by 71%, according to USA Hockey statistics. To help meet the growing demand for access, the Caps have helped build or refurbish 14 outdoor inline rinks. Ovechkin used his platform for charity; in March he pledged a dollar amount equal to his career goal total to pediatric cancer for every goal he scored for the rest of his career.

His reach expands well past Caps fandom. Utah Hockey Club center Logan Cooley, who was born in Pittsburgh a year before Crosby's and Ovechkin's debut seasons, cites Ovechkin as his favorite player growing up. Canadiens winger Patrik Laine grew up in Finland idolizing the Russian winger. Even Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber admits he owned Ovechkin jerseys growing up.

"Ever since I was a young kid playing hockey," Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews said, "he was always one of my favorite players to watch."

Perhaps the most remarkable part of Ovechkin closing in on the record was how players around the league universally cheered for him. After nearly every game this season, players have asked Ovechkin for a stick swap. Ovechkin obliges, in large part because he is a collector himself; it's believed he hopes to open a sports museum in Russia post-retirement. Ovechkin recently exchanged sticks with Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini, who signed his stick for Ovechkin with the message: "Thanks for being a role model."

Crosby has long been pitted as Ovechkin's biggest rival; neither has won a Stanley Cup without eliminating the other. But the Penguins' captain gets emotional when talking about Ovechkin.

"That was a record probably everybody thought wouldn't be touched," Crosby said. "It's awesome for the game of hockey, and I'm loving the fact that I'm playing at this time and get to see it firsthand."

OVECHKIN WAS OFF to a torrid start this season, in which the Capitals surprisingly emerged as the top team in the league after successfully undergoing a retool on the fly. He scored 15 goals through his first 18 games before things came to a screeching halt just before Thanksgiving. The Capitals' captain had already scored twice against Utah in a Nov. 18 road game when Utah's Jack McBain cut through Washington's zone and got tangled with Ovechkin, who immediately fell to the ice.

The result: a broken left fibula. It was the first time in Ovechkin's 20-year career that he broke a bone.

"When that happened," goaltender Charlie Lindgren said, "everyone was kind of thinking to themselves whether or not it was going to be possible."

But Ovechkin is built differently. As he famously declared after avoiding injury from an errant puck in 2006: "I'm OK, Russian machine never breaks."

Portland Thorns and Venezuela women's national team forward Deyna Castellanos said she does not know when it will be safe for her to travel outside of the United States due to uncertainty around potential travel bans to the United States for dozens of countries, including Venezuela.

"The uncertainty of like, yeah, I can go home but not knowing if I can come back is something that is very scary, not just for me but players across the league," Castellanos told reporters on Wednesday.

ESPN first reported last week that Castellanos did not travel to Venezuela for a recent pair of national team games against Panama due to a lack of clarity around the United States' new potential travel bans.

"It was very sad I couldn't go with the national team, but I think it was the right decision for me to stay and just keep training and growing here -- but mainly to be able to stay and keep playing here in the U.S.," she said on Wednesday.

Venezuela was reportedly listed on the highest level of potential travel bans proposed from the Trump administrator, but the plan, along with a potential list of countries, is not yet finalized.

Several of the NWSL's international players stayed with their clubs during the recently concluded FIFA window due to the proposed travel bans.

Four of Zambia's top players compete in the NWSL, but they stayed in the U.S. instead of joining their national team in China this month. Those players were: Orlando Pride trio Barbra Banda, Prisca Chilufya and Grace Chanda, along with Bay FC forward Racheal Kundananji

Zambian FA general secretary Reuben Kamanga said last week that "recently introduced measures" prevented the players from traveling, but that they "will definitely be available" for future international duty.

The next women's FIFA international window begins in late May.

There are continental championships being staged this summer in Africa, Europe, Oceania and South America.

"I've worked in professional sports for decades, and I think there's many times in our history where the professional sports leagues, depending on what policy discussions are going on, use that as an opportunity to convene and educate about how decisions that are being made impact our business," NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman told ESPN.

"That's what we'll continue to do in order to be prepared and ensure that we're set up to support our athletes and our business."

Potential U.S. travel bans could cause problems for soccer leagues and events beyond the NWSL.

The U.S. will host two significant international men's tournaments this summer: the Concacaf Gold Cup and FIFA's expanded Club World Cup.

The first 48-team men's World Cup will be predominantly hosted by the U.S. next summer.

"We've had a long-standing relationship with the state department," U.S. Soccer CEO and secretary general JT Batson told ESPN.

"We have, for decades, been working with them on visa-related dynamics, so that's something we've been doing for quite some time and my guess is that if we're talking to someone 20 years from now, we're still going to be navigating around visa dynamics as players come from all over the world. That's pretty standard stuff for us."

Kylian Mbappé's legal team is going on "the attack" to try and resolve the dispute between the World Cup winner and his former club Paris Saint-Germain.

The France striker argues PSG owes him 55 million ($61m) in unpaid wages, and his lawyers claim they have asked the Paris court to start proceedings.

Legal expert Thomas Clay said Mbappé has been authorized to make a precautionary seizure of the money, which has been frozen from PSG's bank accounts on Thursday. A legal hearing is scheduled for May 26, he added.

"This story has been going on for just over a year now. One year was the deadline we set for ourselves for trying to resolve this dispute as peacefully as possible," Mbappé's main lawyer, Delphine Verheyden, said.

"As the months went by, Kylian Mbappé still hasn't been paid the missing 55 million euros. A decision has been taken, this time to go on the attack."

Verheyden said they were also asking the French sports minister to intervene and to legally challenge a decision by the appeals commission of the French Football Federation, which ruled that Mbappé's appeal against PSG was not receivable.

She said she will also ask UEFA to look into the matter, arguing that PSG is in breach of its salary obligations. Verheyden suggested that PSG, if found responsible, could lose the licence allowing the club to play in the Champions League.

PSG said in a statement it still wants to reach an "amicable" solution to the dispute, "despite the repeated signs of bad faith and the player's total refusal of any mediation."

The club added: "After hearing yet another fantastic story from a parallel universe today, PSG continues to fail to understand why Kylian Mbappé is not taking his case to the labour chamber, which is the only court competent to settle the dispute between him and his former club.

"All the procedures announced by Kylian Mbappé's lawyers only serve to delay the resolution of the dispute by the labour chamber, before which PSG is ready to present all the facts, evidence and testimony proving the existence of an agreement, or better still by means of the transaction that PSG has been calling for over a year."

Last October, the French league appeals commission upheld the decision ordering PSG to pay Mbappé the unpaid wages he wants. Mbappé claims the club owes him three months' salary and the last third of a loyalty bonus.

He joined Real Madrid last summer on a free transfer after scoring a club-record 256 goals in seven years at PSG.

PSG argued that when Mbappé was sidelined before the 2023-24 season -- following his decision not to extend his contract -- there was a verbal agreement with him opting to relinquish bonuses in order to return to the team.

Mbappé's relationship with PSG ended amid deep tensions and some fans booed him in his last home game at Parc des Princes. PSG felt let down by Mbappé after offering him the most lucrative contract in club history when he signed a new contract in 2022.

But Mbappé was frustrated because he felt promises to sign key players were not kept. When he signed that deal, he was paraded in front of fans holding up a jersey with 2025 on it. Mbappé was reportedly annoyed because the contract was until 2024 -- with a player's option for an extra season.

Mbappé stunned PSG in June 2023 by informing the club he would not take the option for an extra year. With his contract effectively into its final year, it put PSG in the position of needing to sell Mbappé to avoid losing him for nothing when the contract expired.

His PSG career could have ended that summer amid a tense transfer standoff.

After telling the club he would not extend, Mbappé was left off a preseason tour to Japan and South Korea and forced to train with fringe players. PSG said it would rather sell him than let the player leave for free in 2024, but he rejected a 300m ($335m) move to Saudi Pro League team Al-Hilal.

PSG left Mbappé out of the opening league game of that season but he soon returned to the lineup following talks. Mbappé's legal team said on Thursday it will start an action against PSG for harassment because of the way he was treated.

They will also start another legal procedure before an industrial tribunal, while Mbappé and his mother have filed lawsuits for the abuse they received online.

LYON, France -- Ruben Amorim says he remains "really confident" in André Onana despite the goalkeeper's two blunders costing Manchester United a crucial Europa League victory against Lyon on Wednesday.

Onana made two mistakes, including one deep into stoppage time, as United were held to a 2-2 draw at Groupama Stadium. It means the tie is in the balance ahead of the quarterfinal second leg at Old Trafford next week.

"It can happen," said Amorim. "If you play football, you play a lot of games, you can make mistakes. If you look at the season, I make more mistakes than them during these last games and these last months.

"The other thing is we have one more game to change everything and that should be our focus. But I'm really confident in André."

Onana's miserable performance came after he became embroiled in a war of words with former United midfielder Nemanja Matic before the game.

Matic branded Onana as "one of the worst goalkeepers in United's history" on Wednesday after Onana had said United were "way better" than Lyon.

"There's nothing I can say to André in this moment," said Amorim.

"The most important thing is to be natural and then, when the time comes, I will choose the best XI to play.

"The best thing is to look at the goals, all the actions that André had in the a game, this is the best way to help any player. It's to focus on the game, what happened, what we need to improve and then put the player in."

Lyon coach Paulo Fonseca denied there was ay underhand motive behind Matic's pre-match words.

"It was not a strategy by Nemanja Matic at all," he said. "I think that's something normal.

"Of course we need to respect everyone's opinion and I think Nemanja and André Onana forgot about this tonight, so everything is good now."

Information from Reuters was used in this report.

MLS has announced that the league will explore a switch to its schedule that would align with the international soccer calendar as early as 2027, as well as possible changes to the format of the regular season and playoffs

"Major League Soccer's Board of Governors today authorized a second phase of exploration into a potential move to the international soccer calendar, along with a continued evaluation of the league's regular season and playoff formats," read a statement from the league on Thursday.

"Any potential changes would not take effect until the 2027 season at the earliest. This next phase will include additional consultation with key stakeholders and the development of a comprehensive transition plan."

As opposed to most other leagues across the globe, MLS currently has a winter-to-fall schedule. In 2025, the regular season began in February and will end in October, ahead of the MLS Cup playoffs.

In December, MLS commissioner Don Garber said the league was mulling an alignment of the league calendar to match that of Europe.

Speaking to reporters at his annual State of the League address, Garber indicated that the league had previously considered changing the league calendar to a fall/spring format in 2004-05 as well as in 2014-15.

He said at the time that there is more momentum around a possible change -- potentially as soon as the 2026 season -- but that plenty of work remained among the league's stakeholders.

"I do think that we are considering more than ever before this opportunity to change, but it's not something that we're ready to talk about right now," Garber said. "The schedule does get more crowded. The summers, in particular June now, that has been taken up by most of the international tournaments. [It] has us digging in even deeper than we ever had in the past, but we've got a lot of work to do and that work is ongoing."

Alignment with the international soccer calendar could also help elevate MLS' role in the global transfer market, which is dominated by major moves in the summer, around the midpoint of the MLS season.

One prominent argument against the change is weather concerns for cold-climate cities in North America.

LYON, France -- It finished 2-2 between Lyon and Manchester United in their UEFA Europa League quarterfinal first leg Thursday, but in the personal battle between André Onana and Nemanja Matić, it was a comprehensive victory for the Serbian midfielder.

Onana made two catastrophic mistakes -- including one deep into stoppage time -- to gift Lyon both goals and leave the tie in the balance ahead of the second leg in Manchester next week. For the Cameroon international, the timing couldn't have been much worse, coming just a day after he was labeled "one of the worst goalkeepers in United's history."

It was a jibe aimed by Matić in response to Onana claiming that United are "way better" than Lyon amid their war of words Wednesday. Onana was wrong in his assessment of Lyon, and the French side will head to Old Trafford believing it can reach the semifinals.

If Onana performs in a similar manner in seven days, they will almost certainly dump United out. Ruben Amorim was philosophical afterward, but perhaps only because he's smart enough to know that there's not much he can do about his goalkeeper until the summer at the earliest. Then the gloves might, quite literally, be off.

"It can happen," Amorim said.

"If you play football, you play a lot of games, you can make mistakes. If you look at the season, I make more mistakes than them during these last games and these last months. The other thing is we have one more game to change everything and that should be our focus.

"I felt the dressing room really quiet. We draw away in Europe -- that is always hard, but the team is suffering, we need to change that."

This has been a miserable trip for Onana. His comments about Lyon were leaped upon by Matić, who went in two-footed as if he were contesting a midfield duel. The ill feeling extended into the stadium, and from the moment Onana stepped onto the pitch at Groupama Stadium more than an hour before kickoff, he was whistled by the home fans. It was the same when he came out for his warmup and when he took his first touch a couple of minutes into the game.

After 25 minutes, the boos had turned to cheers and that was down to Onana, too.

Thiago Almada clipped in a free kick from the left, which evaded everyone. Onana went down to gather it, only for the ball to bounce just before him and then up into the roof of the net.

He lay motionless, face down in the turf, for a moment before picking himself back up to be met by more taunts from the Lyon fans. Matić -- who spent the evening on the bench -- did his best to stop a wry smile creeping across his face.

United hit back with a goal from Leny Yoro just before halftime. And when substitute Joshua Zirkzee headed in a second two minutes from time, Onana might have hoped his error would be forgotten.

But with United on course for a crucial European victory away from home, Georges Mikautadze fired a shot straight at the goalkeeper, and when the ball rebounded back into the penalty area it was tucked away by Rayan Cherki for a 94th-minute equalizer. Deuce over the 90 minutes then, but game, set and match to Matić.

"The best thing is to look at the goals, all the actions that Andre had in the game -- this is the best way to help any player," Amorim said.

"It's to focus on the game, what happened, what we need to improve and then put the player in.

"There's nothing I can say to Andre in this moment. The most important thing is to be natural and then, when the time comes, I will choose the best XI to play. But I'm really confident in Andre."

Having spent his news conference Wednesday defending Onana, Amorim was at it again after full time. He did his best to fend off each question, but it would have been frustrating for the Portuguese coach that an otherwise positive team display was overshadowed in such a way.

United looked in control for much of the game and had chances to score more through Rasmus Højlund, Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho. Højlund's form, in particular, is becoming more of an issue with each passing game, and he was fortunate to make it past the hour mark when he was finally replaced with Zirkzee.

It was Onana, though, who stole the headlines and for all the wrong reasons. In a rare answer that wasn't about his goalkeeper at his prematch news conference Wednesday, Amorim explained how important winning the Europa League will be for the club's future.

It was another night that suggested Onana might not be part of it.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Colts on Thursday moved on from kicker Matt Gay, releasing the highly paid veteran two years into a four-year contract.

Gay arrived in Indianapolis in 2023 as a free agent to much fanfare after winning a Super Bowl and making a Pro Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams. The Colts lured him to Indianapolis with a four-year deal worth $22.5 million, at the time the most lucrative contract given to a free agent kicker. But the move never truly paid off for the Colts, with Gay converting just 82.1% of his field goal attempts (64 of 78) during the past two seasons -- including a shocking 50% success rate on attempts of 50 yards or longer (11 of 22).

Before his time with the Colts, Gay converted 17 of 23 attempts from 50 yards and beyond (74%), including 12 of 15 in three years with the Rams.

Gay, 31, battled injuries at times during the past two seasons, including a hernia that required surgery during the 2024 preseason. Gay returned in Week 2 and said his health was not a factor in his struggles.

"Kicking is very, very mental," Gay said. "I've been very good from 50-plus in my career, and I have full confidence going forward that I can make these kicks. I've shown that I can do that."

At the same time, the Colts seemed to echo that confidence in Gay. Coach Shane Steichen, asked repeatedly about his kicker, stuck with him.

"Matt's our kicker," he said in October. "He's been doing it for a long time ... He knows he's got to make those going forward, but he is our kicker."

The Colts signed kicker Spencer Shrader last month. He was 5-for-5 on field goal attempts during his rookie season in 2024, spending time with three teams, including the Colts.

The Colts have found it challenging to find kicking consistency since enjoying 14 seasons with three-time All-Pro kicker Adam Vinatieri. He last kicked for the team in 2019, and Indianapolis has cycled through numerous kickers in the intervening seasons.

A fifth-round pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019, Gay has a career success rate of 85.5% on field goal attempts (165 of 193) and 96.3% on PAT attempts (206 of 214).

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Jose Luis Ballester made quite an impression on the fans in his first Masters appearance on Thursday.

The 21-year-old Spaniard, who plays at Arizona State, was in need of a bathroom break and decided, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

Ballester said he forgot there were bathrooms just to the left of the tee box on the 13th hole, so he ran down to the tributary to Rae's Creek and relieved himself while playing partner Justin Thomas was still on the 12th green.

"I'm like, I really need to pee," Ballester said after his round. "Didn't really know where to go, and since JT had an issue on the green, I'm like, I'm just going to sneak here in the river and probably people would not see me that much."

Except they did see that much, leading to a roar from the patrons.

"They clapped for me," Ballester said. "Probably one of the claps that I really got today real loud. So that was kind of funny."

Ballester, who was paired with Scottie Scheffler and Thomas, made waves by wearing an Arizona State cap featuring the words "Sun Devils" upside down, with fans on social media saying it was uncouth at an event like the Masters.

Ballester struggled to a 76, going 4 over on the first nine with a birdie, two bogeys and a triple bogey. He said he was able to chat with Scheffler a bit, calling it a "VIP pass" to play with the two stars.

"I tried to get loose warming up, tried to be myself, listen to music, tried to stay focused," Ballester said. "I was not intimidated at all by the pairing that I had."

He said he regretted how he started, made a couple of mistakes and got unlucky on the fifth hole, where he carded a double-bogey 7. But he didn't have any issue with what got him the most attention on the day, and said he was unconcerned with any blowback from his bathroom break.

"It was not embarrassing at all for me," Ballester said. "If I had to do it again, I would do it again."