ST. LOUIS -- Blues forward Dylan Holloway left Tuesday night's contest against the Tampa Bay Lightning and departed the rink on a stretcher after being struck by a puck late in the first period.

Holloway was hit in the neck area by a puck with 2:37 remaining in the period and proceeded to finish his shift, continuing to participate in the play before skating to the bench under his own power.

As play was stopped with 1:11 remaining for a high-sticking penalty that was later called off, teammates started calling and gesturing for assistance.

Blues trainer Ray Barile and medical staff from both teams tended to Holloway for several minutes before emergency medical technicians carted him off the bench on a stretcher.

Holloway was seen raising his arm as he was carted off. The Blues later announced that Holloway was alert and stable and was being taken to a St. Louis area hospital for further observation.

Referees Wes McCauley and Cody Beach sent the teams to their locker rooms and started the first intermission after Holloway was transported off the bench because of the nature of the injury.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov was struck in the mouth by an errant puck and left in the second period of Tuesday night's game against the Los Angeles Kings.

Kaprizov, who is tied for the league lead with 21 points, was skating in the offensive zone after a faceoff when the puck was lifted and hit him in the face. He dropped to his knees and was bleeding. He skated off on his own and went directly to the team's dressing room.

He didn't return in the period. The Kings led 2-1 after two periods.

Kaprizov leads all players with more than one game in points per game. He leads Minnesota with seven goals and 14 assists in 11 games.

SAN ANTONIO -- Atlanta Braves star outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. and pitcher Spencer Strider are not expected to recover from injuries in time for the team's season opener at San Diego on March 27.

Acuna, the 2023 National League MVP, tore his left ACL on May 26, and the 26-year-old slugger had surgery June 6.

Strider, a right-hander who turned 26 last week, had surgery April 12 to repair his pitching elbow. Strider had Tommy John surgery in 2019 and said the latest procedure used an internal brace.

"With both guys, I don't think it's significant time, but I think we're confident that Opening Day is not realistic for them," Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos told reporters Tuesday at the general managers meetings. "I think, look, once we get to spring, you get to the beginning of February, you'll have a much better idea on timelines. We're planning that they will not be part of the Opening Day roster, and how soon after that, we'll know more as we get deeper into the offseason."

SAN ANTONIO -- Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has started talks with agent Scott Boras about keeping Juan Soto with New York, and they also discussed power-hitting first baseman Pete Alonso.

Cashman said he spoke Monday with Boras at the general managers meetings and revealed he had a conversation with Soto after the season, which ended with the Yankees losing the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.

"I had a chance to thank him for everything and told him we'd be in touch," Cashman said Tuesday. "And then since that time I've talked to obviously Scott, as well, and so he'll get a feel for the dance steps that Juan Soto wants and he'll keep us in the loop."

A free agent at age 26, Soto is expected to command a contract of $500 million or more. New York acquired him from San Diego in December, and Soto hit .288 with 41 homers, 109 RBIs and 129 walks, combining with Aaron Judge to form a powerful 1-2 punch at Nos. 2 and 3 in the batting order. Soto's three-run, 10th-inning homer in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series at Cleveland earned the Yankees their first pennant since 2009.

After the World Series defeat, Soto said: "I'm going to be available for all 30 teams" and "I don't want to say anybody has any advantage."

Cashman said New York was willing to meet with Soto as often as the player wanted.

"We certainly have an interest in retaining him and we'll put our best foot forward there," Cashman said. "That will either lead to us retaining him and signing him back or we'll be forced to go to a different direction if we can't. And if we can't, there's a lot of different players in this marketplace that can positively impact this roster in different ways.

"Clearly that pressure point's not on us today, but it does exist in the marketplace every winter, so those are the tough decisions you have to make."

Top free agents include Alonso and third baseman Alex Bregman, also represented by Boras.

In addition to the Yankees, the Mets under billionaire owner Steve Cohen and the Dodgers are among the teams that could afford Soto. Cashman wouldn't express how much a rival the Mets are for Soto's signature.

"They want to win. They're in a large market with us. They had a taste of success this year and they want to move the needle even more forward," Cashman said. "That's just the nature of the beast, and big-market owners with deep pockets aren't the only ones signing players to big deals. I mean, you've seen the San Diego Padres sitting out in the West Coast. They've imported a lot of big-time players with big-time contracts."

Rúben Amorim attempted to play down expectations at Manchester United, insisting he is not yet on the level of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, despite leading current club Sporting CP to a 4-1 victory over City in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Amorim, who will take over as Man United's new manager on Nov. 11, endeared himself to fans of his new club by leading his soon-to-be former side to a stunning win in Lisbon.

Ahead of his final home game in charge of Sporting after more than four years, Amorim had quipped that United fans "will think that the new Sir Alex Ferguson has arrived" if he was able to lead Sporting to victory over City -- one of the favorites for the European title.

While that might be too strong -- after all, Ferguson is regarded as one of soccer's greatest managers after his trophy-laden spell at Old Trafford from 1986-2013 -- United supporters might be thinking they finally have a coach who can bring the good times back to a club that have lost their way since Ferguson's departure more than a decade ago.

Someone who can take on -- and beat -- City's esteemed manager Pep Guardiola, too.

"He's so much better than me at the moment," Amorim said, "but I believe a lot in my new club. We will start from a low level, and we will improve the team, the club."

Especially if Amorim eventually brings Viktor Gyökeres with him to Manchester.

The Sweden striker led Sporting's fightback from a goal down at Estadio Jose Alvalade by netting a hat trick -- including two penalties -- in a stunning result in the fourth round of league games in the revamped competition. That's 23 goals in 17 games for Gyökeres this season.

Amorim has already said he wouldn't look to sign Gyökeres in January but expects the striker to be heading to a bigger team at the end of the season.

"Viktor has to stay until the end of the season," Amorim said, "and then his life maybe is going somewhere else."

Sporting fans unfurled a huge banner ahead of kickoff bearing the message "Obrigado (thank you) Ruben Amorim," five days after the 39-year-old coach signed to become the new United manager. His move to Old Trafford was delayed, allowing him to complete his commitments with Sporting, which included the match against City and concludes with a trip to Braga on Sunday.

His first game in charge will be against Ipswich Town after the international break and he will be up against Guardiola and City again in December. He knows the challenge will be a bigger one to that in Lisbon where he says he has enjoyed the "best phase of his life."

"When I'm at the next club, the approach will have to be different. Not much is taken from here because we will have to play differently in the future," he said.

"Both are historic clubs. It will certainly be a different game."

He has already vowed not to read the newspapers once he arrives in England.

"I'm certainly not going to read anything for six months. I did the same at Sporting. I'm not going to read anything or have access to anything. It's the only way to do my job." he said.

Amorim was thrown in the air by Sporting's players after the game and walked around the field with the team in a farewell to fans.

"Of course we will miss him a lot, we have done amazing things together," Gyökeres said of Amorim, who has led Sporting to two Portuguese league titles in his four full seasons at the club.

"We have to look forward to the next challenge ahead of us, but first of all we have another game in Sunday."

And on the future for Sporting, he said his replacement will inherit a strong foundation.

"The coach who comes will have a good legacy. Above all, there will be a structured club, which has won in recent years, and an intelligent audience that will realise that it will be necessary to give the next coach time to fine-tune some things."

In ending City's record 26-game unbeaten run in the Champions League, Sporting also consigned the Premier League champions to a third straight loss in all competitions -- and that hasn't happened since April 2018.

Erling Haaland missed a penalty in the 69th minute for City when the score was 3-1. City had taken the lead through Phil Foden in the fourth minute.

"It was written, because the first half was very tough on us," Amorim said. "We were very lucky, but then the second half we scored twice in the first minutes and the environment, everything, helped us. lt was an amazing night."

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

LIVERPOOL, England -- Xabi Alonso said he "didn't have time for tourism" ahead of his return to Liverpool as Bayer Leverkusen coach, but if he was planning for a happy homecoming, a 4-0 defeat and a humbling at the hands of the man who claimed the job that many wanted him to take was probably the last thing he expected.

"Painful," was how Alonso described his evening. That was something of an understatement. The Liverpool fans sang Alonso's name at the end of the game, but not before they serenaded Arne Slot, the coach who has made a stunning start to life as manager at the club as Jurgen Klopp's successor.

Having secured his status as a Liverpool legend by helping Rafael Benitez's team to UEFA Champions League success in 2005, Alonso was the overwhelming fans' choice to replace Klopp when it was announced that the German would be leaving at the end of last season.

Alonso's decision to commit his future to Leverkusen, who were on course for their first-ever Bundesliga title, was initially met with disappointment by the Liverpool fans. However, the club already had their sights set on Slot, then the Feyenoord coach, and it was the 46-year-old who was chosen to fill the void left by Klopp.

Six months on, Liverpool are top of the Premier League and Champions League, and Slot is the new darling of the Anfield crowd. Nobody is talking about Alonso anymore and after this emphatic win, the debate is officially over.

Slot has made his mark and his Liverpool are threatening to rule in England and Europe this season. Alonso, on the other hand, has struggled to sustain Leverkusen's incredible form from last season, when they won the Bundesliga without suffering a defeat. It is now two wins from eight games and the magic touch he displayed not so long ago has now disappeared. He's still a rising star in the coaching world, but Alonso was taken to school by Slot at Anfield and it was a brutal lesson for the 42-year-old.

A second-half Luis Díaz hat trick and a Cody Gakpo header sealed Liverpool's victory after a cagey first half had ended goalless. But just as they did against Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League at the weekend, Slot's team went up several gears after the interval to blow their opponents away.

Díaz was central to that, scoring his first hat trick for Liverpool while playing in an unfamiliar centre-forward role. The Colombia international's first -- a cool chip over goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky following a sublime Curtis Jones pass -- was the pick of his hat trick.

When you analyse the changes that Slot has made since replacing Klopp, they have been subtle rather than significant. The players are the same and not much happens without Mohamed Salah influencing it up front or Virgil van Dijk influencing it in defence. But is it the same as it ever was? Not quite.

Slot's Liverpool are more solid at the back than Klopp's team, with fewer attacking runs by their full-backs, and against Leverkusen, midfielder Ryan Gravenberch sometimes played so deep that he occupied the role of a third centre-half. He was also given the task of shadowing Leverkusen playmaker Florian Wirtz to nullify the creative hub of Alonso's team.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Slot said he had been surprised by Alonso's formation and decision to play striker Victor Boniface in a wide position.

"Leverkusen played without a No. 9 and I have never seen Boniface play from the left," he said when he admitted that it took until the second half for his players to click.

"In the second half, we adjusted the game plan and took more risks."

And that seems to be the key with Slot's Liverpool. They play one way in the first-half before upping the ante in the second half. Klopp's Liverpool were in top gear for 90 minutes and it was brought success and excitement to Anfield, but Slot is finding another way and it was good enough to dismantle the champions of Germany.

"The result is painful, the performance is more painful," Alonso said. "It can happen that you come to Anfield and lose. To lose 4-0 is not nice.

"They are a top, top team and they punished us. It was a pity we couldn't hold 1-0 for 15 to 20 minutes. They did it against Brighton, they did it against us.

"To be a top, top team, we need to go through those difficult moments -- to suffer in moments that are not that nice, especially in the Champions League. That can happen in this competition."

Leverkusen and Alonso are no Champions League novices, but they looked like it in the second half. And that is perhaps the biggest tribute to Slot and Liverpool. They made a formidable team look ordinary.

When Real Madrid visit Anfield on matchday five later this month, they would do well take heed of the warning.

It's a new era for the College Football Playoff, with the field growing from four to 12 this season. That means three times as many programs will gain entry, but, beginning with Tuesday's initial playoff rankings, there's three times as much room for outrage, too.

Under the old rules, there was a simple line of demarcation that separated the elated from the angry: Who's in?

Now, there are so many more reasons for nitpicking the committee's decisions, from first-round byes to hosting a home game to whether your supposedly meaningful conference has been eclipsed by teams from the Group of 5.

And if the first rankings are any indication, it's going to be a fun year for fury. There's little logic to be taken from the initial top 25 beyond the committee's clear love for the Big Ten. Penn State and Indiana make the top eight despite having just one win over an ESPN FPI top-40 team combined (Penn State over Iowa). That Ohio State checks in at No. 2 ahead of Georgia is the most inexplicable decision involving Georgia since Charlie Daniels suggested the devil lost that fiddle contest. Oregon is a reasonable No. 1, but the Ducks still came within a breath of losing to Boise State. Indeed, the Big Ten's nonconference record against the Power 4 this season is 6-8, just a tick better than the ACC and well behind the SEC's mark of 10-6.

But this is the fun of early November rankings. The committee is still finding its footing, figuring out what to prioritize and what to ignore, what's signal and what's noise. And that's where the outrage really helps. It's certainly not signal, but it can be a really loud noise.

This week's Anger Index:

1. BYU Cougars (8-0, No. 9)

There are only two possible explanations for BYU's treatment in this initial ranking. The first is that the committee members are too sleepy to watch games beyond the Central time zone. The second, and frankly, less rational one, is they simply didn't do much homework.

It's certainly possible the committee members are so enthralled with metrics such as the FPI (where BYU ranks 28th) or SP+ (22nd) that they've determined the Cougars' actual record isn't as important. This is incredibly foolish. The FPI and SP+ certainly have their value, but they're probabilistic metrics, designed to gauge the likelihood of teams' future success. They're in no way a ranking of actual results. (That's why USC is still No. 17 in the FPI, despite Lincoln Riley spending his days wistfully scrolling through old pictures of Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray and wondering if Oklahoma might want to get back together.)

To look at actual results paints a clear picture.

BYU (No. 4) has a better strength of record than Ohio State (No. 5), has played roughly the same quality schedule as Texas and has two wins against other teams ranked in the committee's top 25 -- as many as Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, Tennessee and Indiana (all ranked ahead of the Cougars) combined.

Indiana's rags-to-riches story is wonderful, of course, but how can the committee compare what BYU has done (wins over SMU and Kansas State) against Indiana's 103rd-ranked strength of schedule?

And this particular snub has significant effects. The difference between No. 8 and No. 9 is a home game in the first round, of course, though as a potential conference champion, that's a moot point. But what if BYU loses a game -- perhaps the Big 12 title game? That could not only doom the Cougars from getting a first-round bye, but it could quite likely set up a scenario in which the Big 12 is shuffled outside the top four conferences entirely, passed by upstart Boise State.

What's clear from this first round of rankings is the committee absolutely loves the Big Ten -- with four teams ranked ahead of a subjectively more accomplished BYU team -- and the Big 12 is going to face some serious headwinds.

2. SMU Mustangs (8-1, No. 13)

There's a great, though little watched, TV show from the 2010s called "Rectify," about a man who escapes death row after new evidence is found, only to be constantly harassed by the same system that fraudulently locked him away for 20 years. This is basically the story of SMU.

Let's do a quick blind résumé here.

Team A: 8-1 record, No. 13 strength of record, two wins vs. ranked opponents, loss to SP+ No. 22, .578 opponent win percentage

Team B: 7-1 record, No. 15 strength of record, two wins vs. ranked opponents, loss to SP+ No. 91, .567 opponent win percentage

OK, you probably guessed Team A is SMU. The Mustangs have wins against Louisville and Pitt -- both relatively emphatic -- and their lone loss came to No. 9 BYU, which came before a QB change and included five red zone drives that amounted to just six total points.

Team B? That's Notre Dame. The Irish have the worst loss by far (to Northern Illinois) of any team in the top 25, beat a common opponent by the same score (though, while SMU outgained Louisville by 20 yards, the Cardinals actually outgained Notre Dame by 115) and have played one fewer contest.

The difference? SMU has the stigma -- of the death penalty, of the upstart program new to the Power 4, of being unworthy. Notre Dame is the big brand, and that results in being ranked three spots higher and, if the playoff were held today, getting in, while the Mustangs are left out.

3. Ole Miss Rebels (7-2, No. 16)

There are three two-loss SEC teams ranked ahead of Ole Miss, which seems to be a perfectly reasonable consensus if you look at the AP poll, too. But are we sure that's so reasonable?

Two stats we like to look at to measure a team's quality are success rate (how often does a team make a play that improves its odds of winning) and explosiveness. Measure the differentials in each between offense and defense, then plot those out, and you'll get a pretty clear look of who's truly dominant in college football this season.

Explosive Play differential vs. Successful Play differential

Auburn & Ark make no sense
Iowa & Iowa St are twinsies!
Is Ole Miss undervalued? pic.twitter.com/h87SKCdOtr

(@ADavidHaleJoint) November 3, 2024

That outer band that features Penn State, Texas, Miami, Ohio State and Indiana (and notably, not Oregon, Alabama, LSU or Texas A&M)? That's where Ole Miss lives.

The Rebels have two losses this season, each by three points, both in games they outgained the winning team. They lost to LSU on the road and, yes, somehow lost to a dismal Kentucky team. But hey, LSU lost to USC, too. It has been a weird season.

SP+ loves Ole Miss. The Rebels check in at No. 4 there, behind only Ohio State, Texas and Georgia.

The FPI agrees, ranking the Rebels fifth.

In ESPN's game control metric, no team is better. Ole Miss has the third-best average in-game win percentage. That suggests a lot of strange twists and bad luck was involved with its losses. These are things the committee should be evaluating when comparing like teams.

But how about this comparison?

Team A: 7-2, 23 points per game scoring margin vs. FBS, 1 loss to unranked, three wins vs. SP+ top 40

Team B: 7-2, 19 points per game scoring margin vs. FBS, 1 loss to unranked, three wins vs. SP+ top 40

Pretty similar, eh?

Of course, one of them is Ole Miss. That's Team A this time around.

Team B is Alabama, ranked five spots higher.

Sure, this situation can be resolved quite easily this weekend with a win over Georgia, but Ole Miss starting at the back of the pack of SEC contenders seems like a miss by the committee, even if the math will change substantially before the next rankings arrive.

4. Army Black Knights (8-0, No. 25)

Oh, thanks so much for the No. 25 nod, committee. All Army has done is win every game without trailing the entire season. Last season, when Liberty waltzed through its weakest-in-the-nation schedule, the committee had no objections to giving the Flames enough love to make a New Year's Six bowl. But Army? At No. 25? Thirteen spots behind Boise State, the Knights' competition for the Group of 5's bid? Something tells us some spies from Air Force have infiltrated the committee's room in some sort of Manchurian Candidate scenario.

5. Florida State Seminoles (1-8, unranked)

Sure, the Seminoles are terrible now, and yes, the committee this season has plenty of new faces, but that doesn't mean folks in Tallahassee have forgiven or forgotten what happened a year ago. Before the committee's playoff snub, FSU had won 19 straight games and averaged 39 points per game. Since the snub, the Noles are 1-9 and haven't scored 21 points in any game. Who's to blame for this? Mike Norvell? The coaching staff? DJ Uiagalelei and the other struggling QBs? Well, sure. But it's much easier to just blame the committee. Those folks killed Florida State's playoff hopes and ended their run of success. The least they could do this year is rank them No. 25 just for fun.

Also angry: South Carolina (5-3, unranked), Vanderbilt (6-3, unranked), Georgia (7-1, No. 3), Louisville (6-3, No. 22), everyone who is not in the Big Ten.

SAN ANTONIO -- Yankees general manager Brian Cashman sounded as if he intends to bring back manager Aaron Boone for an eighth season and defended his team from criticism by Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly over New York's sloppy World Series defensive play.

"I'm a big Aaron Boone fan. I think he's a great manager and I think we're lucky to have him," Cashman said Tuesday at the general managers meetings.

Boone has led the Yankees to a 603-429 record, three American League East titles and one pennant in seven seasons. After the five-game loss to the Dodgers in the World Series last week, Boone said he hadn't thought about his future.

Boone agreed in October 2021 to a three-year contract that includes a team option for 2025. Cashman said the deadline for the option is 10 days after the World Series and he envisioned discussing both the option and a new deal.

"I can't put the cart ahead of the horse. We haven't gotten there," he said.

Cashman didn't fault Boone for moves he made during the postseason.

"The manager's job is so impossible, so you can play the game of second-guessing because you're either going to make a move and it'll be right, you make a move and it'll be wrong and then have at it, right?" he said. "So I think he's a really, really good manager. I think that we're lucky to have him. He's done a great job."

Cashman acknowledged the World Series performance was a disappointment. The Yankees blew a 10th-inning lead in the opener when Freddie Freeman hit a game-ending grand slam off Nestor Cortes. After losing the first three games and winning Game 4, the Yankees wasted a 5-0 lead in Game 5 in a five-run fifth inning when center fielder Aaron Judge and shortstop Anthony Volpe made errors and pitcher Gerrit Cole failed to cover first on an infield grounder. The Dodgers won 7-6 to capture the title.

"First and foremost, I acknowledge that we played poorly in the World Series," Cashman said. "We all saw that, and unfortunately our A-game didn't show up when it counted the most."

Kelly was limited to 35 games this season because of right shoulder inflammation and didn't pitch during the postseason. He criticized the Yankees on his "Baseball Isn't Boring" podcast.

"They got bad ball. Yeah, sloppy. Everyone knows that," Kelly said. "We were saying every single game: Just let them throw the ball into the infield. They can't make a play. I mean, you saw Shohei (Ohtani) get an extra base going to third off a sloppy Gleyber (Torres) play. It's well known. We all knew. I mean, we're the Dodgers. We know every little detail."

"It was just a mismatch from the get-go," Kelly added. "If we had a playoff reranking, they might be ranked eighth-or ninth-best playoff team. You know what I mean? You're putting the Padres ahead of them, you're putting the Phillies ahead of them, you're putting the Mets ahead of them, you're putting the Braves ahead of them -- and the Braves just got unlucky because they had to play that doubleheader. You're putting -- I mean, the Guardians played like crap, but the Guardians played better, the better D (defense), better baseball all around."

"I heard that," Cashman said. "I also know people with the Dodgers, so I've got some internal conversations that I've got certainly feedback on. I think it's more representative of some specific players rather than the overall group. And in Joe's case, it feels like it's for some reason, it's a little personal, the way he's out talking like he has."

Cashman rejected criticism of the Yankees' roster makeup, saying it's natural that players are better at offense and not so strong at defense or base running.

"We've come across many a player that just aren't good at bunting. As many times as you ask them to bunt and you practice bunting or whatever, they just aren't good at it. And so at some point you manage the people you have," Cashman said. "I remember having a conversation with one of my prior managers: 'At some point you got to stop asking somebody to do something they're not good at.'"