Less than an hour after the United States lost to Canada in overtime of the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game, Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin was asked about the growth of American hockey and what lies ahead.

"You know what I think it does? I think we've had a tough time with USA Hockey getting guys to play in the World Championships," said Larkin, a five-time World Championships participant. "I think guys are at home watching this, and I hope they are wanting a piece of this.

"They gotta go to the World Championships and prove themselves and play for their country. We gotta start winning that tournament. I think that's where Canada, those guys go and they play."

Larkin's words have since sparked a discussion about one of the largest challenges facing the nation's governing body for the sport as it tries to become the world's strongest men's hockey power. Getting there means having an investment that goes beyond marquee events such as the 4 Nations Face-Off or the Olympics, and it all starts with how players regard participation in the IIHF World Championships.

The leadership team at USA Hockey have heard or read about what Larkin said, as have his peers in the NHL. But a gap persists in getting all of those peers to buy in.

ESPN spoke to 10 sources, including players and management, about why it has been a struggle for USA Hockey to get more top-level NHL players to participate at the World Championships. And while this year's edition presents a potential path toward a player making a case for the Olympics roster next February, there are those who feel that shouldn't be the only motivation to play for Team USA.

"We have to rebuild our culture that the tournament is important and it should be more important than it is for our players," said Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who was Team USA's GM for the 4 Nations Face-Off and will also manage the 2026 Olympic team. "The excuses that I hear for guys not going over, they're not good enough. We need guys to go over. We want to try to start winning more often than we do, and we need our best players to consider going over.

"I know there's real-life situations. I know there's injuries. I know there's contracts. But some of the excuses I've heard? Quite honestly, they're not good enough."

THE AMERICAN HOCKEY landscape has changed dramatically since the days when Guerin and John Vanbiesbrouck, USA Hockey's assistant executive director for hockey operations, were in the NHL.

Neither of them were born when the U.S. won its second World Championship along with its first Olympic gold medal in 1960. Guerin was 10 and Vanbiesbrouck 16 when the "Miracle On Ice" team, made up of amateur players, beat the Soviet Union before winning America's second hockey gold at the 1980 Olympics.

Initially, the annual World Championships tournament was limited to amateur players as well, but the IIHF allowed professionals to participate starting in 1977. The IIHF's decision came in the wake of the Canada Cup, a six-team tournament featuring pro players that was held five times between 1976 and 1991.

Eventually, the Canada Cup was replaced by the World Cup of Hockey in 1996. The NHL then allowed its players to participate in the Olympics starting in 1998.

This created opportunities for players such as Guerin and Vanbiesbrouck to represent the U.S. throughout their professional careers. It also presented a contrast in terms of how rosters were constructed.

For example, Vanbiesbrouck represented the U.S. at the World Championships four times and was on two Canada Cup teams. He made the roster for both tournaments in 1991. The U.S. roster for the World Championships that year had 10 players younger than 23, while the Canada Cup team had only four.

While Guerin never played at the Worlds, he represented the U.S. at three Olympics and twice at the World Cup of Hockey. Guerin was part of the gold-medal-winning team at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, and the silver-medal winning team at the 2002 Olympics. Team USA's median age when Guerin played was 30.

"Our expectations have changed," Vanbiesbrouck said. "Whenever somebody wears the jersey, there's a certain expectation. There's an element of national pride to wear a jersey, to honor the flag and honor those people who came before you. It's a great element in our game."

One item that helped with elevating those expectations was the creation of the United States National Team Development Program in 1996. The NTDP became an incubator for the nation's premier U18 and U17 male players.

Prior to the NTDP, the U.S. had medaled only twice -- with a pair of bronze-place finishes -- at the IIHF U20 World Junior Championships. The NTDP has since played an instrumental role in the U.S. establishing itself as a WJC powerhouse. Team USA has captured seven gold medals since 2010 and won its second consecutive gold earlier this year.

Between the NTDP producing 98 first-round picks and the success at the World Juniors, it created the hypothesis that USA Hockey should be able to easily recruit players to represent the nation. That much was evident after the 4 Nations Face-Off, and it's part of why the U.S. is considered to be one of the front-runners for gold at the 2026 Olympics.

"A lot of guys went through the NTDP and even coming here for two weeks, it was the closest group I've been around," Columbus Blue Jackets and Team USA defenseman Zach Werenski said after the 4 Nations Face-Off. "It was awesome being here for two weeks and it was so much fun being around these guys. Everyone bought in. I think that's a testament to what USA Hockey is doing from younger ages on right now.

"We expect to win. We expect to be in gold medal games and to be in these positions against Canada and the best teams."

Players like Larkin and Werenski have a different experience compared to those who came before them. Fewer international opportunities existed, because the NHL didn't allow players to participate in the Olympics in 2018 or 2022, while there have been only two World Cups (2004, 2016) since the first one in 1996.

It left the World Championships as the primary consistent option that could come close to replicating those best-on-best tournaments. But even as the demand for international hockey grows, there remains a disconnect when it comes to U.S. players and the World Championships.

The timing of the World Championships could be a factor. This year's tournament runs from May 9 through May 25, which is simultaneous to the second round and conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

This limits the player pool to those whose teams didn't qualify for the playoffs, or who were eliminated in the first round.

"It's the time of year when everyone's really looking for a break, and to go for a month, give it your all and sacrifice? It's a lot for players," Vanbiesbrouck said. "Most of the guys in the NHL are family guys, which we can all appreciate. Another is with the hip injuries that are happening today, they need a whole summer to recuperate and there's so many significant injuries now that take such a long time that we understand. But I think that's a big factor."

THE WINNIPEG JETS duo of Connor Hellebuyck and Nikolaj Ehlers represent just how much differently the World Championships are viewed in the United States compared to the rest of the world.

Hellebuyck grew up in Commerce Township, Mich., which is a 45-minute drive from the NTDP's headquarters. He grew up watching the Detroit Red Wings and went to games. He watched American-born players such as fellow goalie Jimmy Howard, who he idolized.

But he first learned about the tournament as a 21-year-old who had just finished his first AHL season in 2015, when he received a call from USA Hockey asking him to join the team for the World Championships.

"When USA Hockey called, it was cool. It was a cool experience," Hellebuyck said. "The more I did it, the more I started to realize it is for the experience and it's for the young guy trying to get better. It's not for the veteran unless he wants to travel, unless he wants to see the world or he wants to play a little more hockey."

American-born players like Hellebuyck often grow up associating hockey in May with the Stanley Cup playoffs. Major League Baseball, the NBA Finals and the PGA Championship, among many other sporting events, are also going on at that time. Having that many options plays into the lack of visibility.

Compare that to Ehlers. He grew up in Aalborg, Denmark where there was a pro hockey team, but nothing like the NHL. As a nation, Denmark has around 5,000 registered hockey players. But it hosted the World Championships for the first time in 2018, and had the eighth-highest total attendance in tournament history. Denmark will co-host this year's tournament in May with Sweden.

In Europe, the World Championships have become a tentpole event within the European sporting landscape in nations such as Czechia, Finland, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, home of the IIHF's headquarters. Last year's tournament in Czechia set a new tournament total attendance record of 797,727 fans. Five of the 10 most attended tournaments have come since 2010, none of which were in North America.

The U.S has hosted the tournament three times -- with the most recent coming in 1962, when it was hosted in Colorado Springs and Denver. Canada, which has won the tournament a record 28 times, has hosted the World Championships just once, back in 2008.

Vanbiesbrouck said there haven't been any discussions throughout his time with USA Hockey about trying to host the event, adding that he would like to challenge the status quo and "be able to say that we could do this."

Ehlers, who played in his first Worlds in 2016, said the tournament has such a reverence in Europe that fans will travel to support their respective homelands. But for nations such as Denmark, Ehlers said the Worlds provide them a chance to show they do belong.

"To be able to have had the amount of NHL players that we've had over years and the way that we've gone at The Olympics, they reached the quarterfinals at the last Olympics," said Ehlers, who is one of 17 Danes to play in the NHL. "We've beaten Canada and Sweden and teams like that. We go out there to try to prove we are not a small hockey country even though we are in the big picture."

Or as Guerin said: "Because it matters to them. It's important and it needs to be important for us."

SO WHAT CAN USA Hockey do to get more NHL players to play at the Worlds?

Guerin said that the organization has developed a program allowing players to bring their family members and/or friends to Europe for the tournament. Vanbiesbrouck added that it's something they've evolved after observing what Canada had with its program.

Utah Hockey Club coach Andre Tourigny -- Canada's coach for the past two cycles -- said Hockey Canada created a family environment. He said bringing families over for the tournament means there's a chance for them to share what it means to be in a different part of the world. But when it's time to play, those individual families then create their own community despite being thousands of miles away from home.

"Admittedly, USA Hockey has had to do a better job of getting the people and bringing them over with a certain standard and they've done that," Guerin said. "The last little while they've stepped up to the plate and made it a better experience for the players, their wives and their families. It can just be a great opportunity to play for your country. Hopefully, we start to see more guys feel the importance of that tournament."

Wild forward Matt Boldy said that Guerin and others within USA Hockey have done a strong job of emphasizing why the World Championships matter, and how they used it in their process for creating Team USA's 4 Nations Face-Off roster.

Boldy said he viewed going to the World Championships as a chance to show how he could be counted upon playing in a different system in international play. Especially when he saw other nations bring more of their best players to the tournament.

A two-time World Championship team member, Boldy got a chance to learn from Johnny Gaudreau and Brock Nelson, two players he grew up watching. While Boldy learned from them on the ice, he also got a chance to know them as people, which he said helped when it came to establishing a dynamic with teammates.

"I think the more that we can get our USA guys there playing together, comfortable with each other ... it just makes things easier so in tournaments like the 4 Nations, it makes that transition smoother," Boldy said. "It's a big tournament. Every country wants to win it including the U.S. If we can get our biggest guys there and everyone kind of spends that extra time together, it could mean a lot."

Guerin and Vanbiesbrouck said that they have heard from the agents of American players who missed out on the 4 Nations Face-Off about wanting to be involved in the Olympics. Vanbiesbrouck said that the 4 Nations event also made older players realize that the 2026 Olympics might be their final opportunity to play for Team USA.

"It's one of those things where if you want to be in one of those tournaments and participate, then, be a part of it," Guerin said. "Don't be a part of it when you want to be a part of it. A lot of the guys we've had have gone to the World Championships and done that. If you want to have a better shot of something like the 4 Nations and the Olympics, help us in other areas. We need it. It's not just trying to win the 4 Nations or The Olympics.

"The World Championships go on every year and we want to try to win it. That's the bottom line."

Southampton have sacked manager Ivan Jurić after the club's relegation from the Premier League, the club confirmed on Monday.

A 3-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday confirmed their relegation with a record seven matches to spare and the club have since announced they will part ways with boss Jurić.

Southampton are also on course to finish the campaign with the lowest recorded points tally in Premier League history. The 2007-08 Derby County team infamously finished with 11 points -- one point more than Southampton have managed so far.

Speaking with Sky Sports after the loss at Spurs Jurić said: "We have to avoid that record. Do our best. It cannot happen."

Jurić, who took over from Russell Martin in December, has lost 12 out of 14 games with Southampton club and manahed just one win.

The Croatian joined Southampton after he was dismissed by Roma following a poor six-week spell in charge at the Italian club last November.

Simon Rusk has agreed to take charge of the team as interim manager for the remaining seven fixtures of this season. Rusk will be assisted by midfielder Adam Lallana.

"We would like to thank Ivan and his staff for their honesty and hard work as they fought against the odds to try and keep us up," a Southampton statement said.

"With relegation to the Championship now confirmed, we believe it is important to give fans, players and staff some clarity on the future as we head into a very important summer."

Pep Guardiola wants Matheus Nunes to develop into a right-back for Manchester City after saying he is "not clever enough" to play the midfield role he has performed throughout his career.

The 26-year-old, who signed for City from Wolves in August 2023 in a 53 million ($70m) deal as a replacement for Ilkay Gündogan, has made 62 appearances for the reigning Premier League champions since arriving at the Etihad, with the majority of his outings in midfield.

But with Guardiola still searching for a reliable replacement at right-back for Kyle Walker, who left City in a loan move to AC Milan in January, Portugal midfielder Nunes has been deployed at full-back.

After Nunes played at right-back in Sunday's 0-0 draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Guardiola made the startling claim that the player's shortcomings in midfield mean he now faces a future as a defender.

"He [Nunes] can become a good right-back for his physicality," Guardiola told reporters at Old Trafford. "I think he's not a player to play in midfield because he's not clever enough, in the composure, but he has incredible skills and he's learning a lot.

"The big mistake of full-backs is when you have the cross to the far post where you are, they are always sleeping.

"But he defended really well two or three crosses, like when Bruno [Fernandes] put it to the far post for [Patrick] Dorgu.

"He has the attention and the physicality to do it, so he can play in that position and help us a lot."

City signed defenders Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis during the January transfer, but Nunes has started ahead of both in recent weeks.

Despite being impressed by his defensive skills, however, Guardiola admits he is surprised that the player has made the transition from midfielder to full-back.

"When you start the season, if you said 'Matheus will play right-back' you would ask what I'm talking about," Guardiola said.

"But it is what it is. The back four was excellent [against United]. Rúben [Dias] was incredible. So we build from that."

Manchester United will rival Chelsea in the race to sign Liam Delap this summer after identifying the Ipswich Town forward ahead of Viktor Gyökeres, Benjamin Sesko and Victor Osimhen as the solution to their goalscoring problems, sources have told ESPN.

Despite financial constraints that have led to the club's hierarchy, led by minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, imposing a series of job cuts and efficiency measures this season to stabilise United's finances and avoid breaching the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), sources have said that coach Ruben Amorim will be backed in the transfer market this summer with a new centre-forward pinpointed as the priority.

Sources have told ESPN that Delap, who has scored 12 goals in 30 Premier League games for Ipswich since completing a 20 million ($25.7m) transfer from Manchester City last summer, has emerged as United's favoured target with the 22-year-old available for a relatively inexpensive 40m fee if Ipswich are relegated.

Sources have told ESPN that City have a 40m clause to re-sign Delap inserted in the contract he penned after joining Ipswich for 20m last summer. But despite his form this season, Pep Guardiola's team are unlikely to trigger that option, primarily because of Erling Haaland's decision to sign a nine-and-a-half year contract at the Etihad in January.

However, City stand to benefit financially if Delap leaves Portman Road at the end of the season due to the club also negotiating a 20% exit clause. City will receive 20% of any profit made by Ipswich if they offload the England under-21 forward.

With Sporting CP striker Gyökeres available if a club triggers his 100m (85.4m) release clause, and United also anticipating interest from Arsenal in the Sweden international, Delap has moved ahead of the 26-year-old, a player who thrived under Amorim with the Portuguese champions following his 17m move to Lisbon from Coventry in 2023, due to cost, age profile and his proven record in the Premier League.

Delap may also be pursued by Champions League clubs, with Liverpool likely to be in the market for a forward if Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah leave this summer and Chelsea potentially able to offer a place in next season's competition.

The Stamford Bridge club are coached by Enzo Maresca, who worked with Delap at City's Academy, so United will face significant competition from Chelsea if they choose to make a move for Delap.

Manchester United used to set the benchmark for great strikers. Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Eric Cantona, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Robin van Persie -- it's a long list of formidable goal scorers, but one that is now a fading memory obscured by a succession of expensive misfits who have tried and failed to join that elite list in recent years.

At 22, it would be a big challenge for Liam Delap to prove himself a worthy successor to some of Old Trafford's most iconic centre-forwards, but the Ipswich Town striker is the club's favoured summer target because he has the potential to do so.

Sources have told ESPN that United have placed Delap, who could be available for a transfer fee of 40 million if Ipswich are relegated this summer, ahead of Sporting CP's Viktor Gyökeres, RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko and Victor Osimhen, who is on loan at Galatasaray from Napoli, in their list of potential attacking reinforcements.

In his first full campaign in the Premier League this season, Delap has scored 12 goals in 30 appearances for an Ipswich team playing in the top-flight for the first time since 2002. He has shown pace, physical presence and the ability lead the attacking line and Kieran McKenna's team have also benefited from Delap being able to hold the ball up and provide a platform for Ipswich's midfielders and wingers, as well as displaying the alternative skillset of turning his marker and creating his own efforts on goal.

Delap's attributes bear similarities to those of a young Alan Shearer, who remains the Premier League's all-time leading goal scorer with 260 goals for Blackburn and Newcastle. And, with United and Chelsea now emerging as rivals for Delap's signature this summer, Shearer said last week that the former Manchester City youngster has what it takes to make it to the top.

"Big clubs will be looking at him [Delap], because I think he's got something about him," Shearer told Betfair. "He's got an arrogance about him, which I really like and he's got an aura. He's already been linked with a number of clubs in the Premier League and looking at who he's been linked with, I think he can go in and command a starting role. He's better than anything Man Utd have got up front. He's also better than anything Chelsea have got up front, so the answer is simple - yes, he would start for those clubs."

United's track record of signing strikers since Sir Alex Ferguson persuaded Arsenal to offload Van Persie in a 24m transfer in August 2012 has been abject, with the club lurching from short-term signings -- Radamel Falcao, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani -- to inexperienced youngsters including Anthony Martial [who is now at AEK Athens], Rasmus Højlund and Joshua Zirkzee. Panic January loan moves have also resulted in deals for Odion Ighalo and Wout Weghorst.

Aside from the 75m signing of Romelu Lukaku from Everton in July 2017, United have not acquired a forward at his peak since Van Persie. Lukaku's return of 42 goals in 96 appearances now looks exceptional as the years have passed, but the Belgium forward was moved on by the club after two seasons and they have made mistake after mistake ever since.

This is why the summer's striker pursuit is so crucial. If United are to once again challenge for the major trophies, they must sign a reliable goal scorer.

Having scored just 37 goals in 31 league games so far this season -- Sunday's 0-0 draw against City at Old Trafford was the 12th time United failed to score in a Premier League game during this campaign -- United will set a new record for their lowest goals tally in the Premier League era by eclipsing the existing low of 54 goals in the 2016-17 if they fail to score at least 17 goals in their remaining seven fixtures.

Højlund, a 64m signing from Atalanta in August 2023, has scored three league goals this season and registered only one goal in his last 24 games all competitions, while Zirkzee has also netted three league goals since arriving from Bologna in a 36.5m transfer last summer.

United's lack of attacking threat was identified by the club's scouting team, headed by technical director Jason Wilcox, who brought Delap through the City Academy, and director of recruitment Christopher Vivell, prior to Amorim's arrival in place of the sacked Erik ten Hag last November.

With a lack of available options during the January transfer window and a need to reduce the wage bill, the club focused on offloading out-of-favour forwards Marcus Rashford and Antony on loan deals to Aston Villa and Real Betis respectively -- a decision which has left Amorim's squad since desperately short of attacking options.

But sources have told ESPN that the signing of a new striker, preferably Delap, coupled with the return to fitness of winger Amad Diallo and development of 17-year-old striker Chido Obi (who signed on a free transfer from Arsenal), will give the team the cutting edge it has lacked.

With a 100m release clause in Gyökeres' contract at Sporting, the cost of pursuing the 26-year-old is regarded as prohibitive by United. He was a crucial figure in Sporting's title success in Portugal under Amorim last season, scoring 50 goals in all competitions and backing it up with 43 goals so far this season, but the potential fee and a poor track record of strikers moving from the Portuguese league to the Premier League -- United abandoned interest in Darwin Núñez for the same reason when he left Benfica for a 75m move to Liverpool in 2022 -- has diminished interest in the Sweden international.

Amorim rates him highly, but with the fee, concerns over his ability to succeed in England and likely interest from Champions League clubs, Gyökeres is not a priority target. Similar doubts over cost and Premier League compatibility also hang over Sesko and Osimhen.

But Gyökeres' attributes, which are almost identical to Delap's, underscore the profile of what Amorim wants from his centre-forward in his favoured 3-4-3 formation and neither Højlund or Zirkzee meet the coach's requirements.

Amorim wants a physical presence, but also a striker with the ability to escape his marker and hold the ball up, depending on circumstances. Delap fits the bill and would cost half of what Sporting would expect for Gyökeres.

United want long-term value and an instant impact. It is a difficult balance to strike, as they have repeatedly discovered to their cost. But right now, Delap is showing that he could offer both.

Close friendships were formed as Ward-Hibbert travelled the world playing tennis, and in 2012 he reached the pinnacle as he teamed up with Liam Broady to win the Australian Open junior doubles title.

Ward-Hibbert turned professional and won one singles title and 13 doubles titles on the ITF Futures circuit, including five with Broady and four with Lloyd Glasspool, another who is now a regular on the main ATP doubles circuit.

But he struggled to progress beyond that, and at 22 he decided to step away from tour life to go to Loughborough University to further his education.

"There were a few things that happened in my personal life, and I had a little injury that kept recurring and was not going away how I wanted it to," he said.

"Everything just combined to put me to a tipping point.

"Tennis is a super-tough sport, physically and mentally. You are always travelling, you are constantly living out of a suitcase.

"No matter where it is, you have got to live it. It's difficult, it's very much a lifestyle, 45, 50 weeks of the year."

But Ward-Hibbert would not be without his tennis career.

"It is an amazing sport. There were so many highs, it taught me so much as a person, and the kind of person I am today is from the journey I had.

"I'm definitely glad I had that journey. It would be remiss not to say I wish I had got to world number one, but that wasn't in my path.

"I got to win a Grand Slam with one of my closest friends still to this day. That is a memory I am never going to forget."