Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask is honored to have been chosen as an NHL All-Star this season. But family, and self-care, come first.

"I have to be kind of selfish here, thinking about how much hockey we played last year, and a short summer and thinking about playing until June again," said Rask, who announced Monday he was skipping All-Star Weekend on Jan. 24-26 in St. Louis.

Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was named as his replacement for the Atlantic Division.

Rask, 32, is one of the NHL's leading goaltenders this season, with a 17-4-6 record in 27 appearances. But after leading the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Final last season in combined 70 regular-season and playoff games, Rask said he needed the break.

Plus, the schedule worked against him making an All-Star Game appearance. The Bruins' bye week falls around the All-Star break, as Boston doesn't have a game scheduled from Jan. 22 through Jan. 30.

"Just because it falls in the middle of the bye week, you want that break. You want to spend some time with the family," Rask said. "It was a selfish decision to go away and take care of the mind and body and rejuvenate. Be ready for the last couple of busy months of the season."

Per NHL rules, Rask is suspended for one game immediately before or after the NHL All-Star break for having been selected to the game and not appearing. The Bruins visit the Winnipeg Jets in their first game post-All Star break Jan. 31. Rask said he spoke with Bruins teams officials, who were "fine" with him making this choice.

The Boston goalie joins a growing list of players skipping the game. Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals opted out for a second consecutive season. Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury announced he would pass on it, too. Both will serve suspensions.

Anaheim Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg will not, as the NHL excused him from the All-Star Game for the "imminent birth of his child." He will be replaced by Vegas forward Max Pacioretty.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Day expressed displeasure with Ovechkin's decision specifically, and with the overall trend of players opting out of the All-Star Game after being selected.

"In terms of player participation, is that a concern? Yes, I think it is a concern," Daly told the ESPN On Ice podcast last week. "I was the first to defend Alex Ovechkin's decision last year to take a year off, because he's been fabulous in terms of helping the league in promoting the sport, including the All-Star event every year.

"Last year, I was much more willing to look the other way on something like this. But two years in a row is probably something we do need to address with the players' association, so it doesn't become a trend."

Rask said players aren't out to tarnish the event.

"Nobody really wants to make the league look bad, or anything like that," he said. "Sometimes you have to be selfish when you make these decisions."

PHILADELPHIA -- The Boston Bruins have lost shootouts every which way this season.

Brad Marchand found a new one Monday night.

The Bruins star overskated the puck at center ice on a shootout attempt in a bizarre ending to the Philadelphia Flyers' 6-5 victory over Boston.

Travis Konecny scored in the fifth round of the shootout for Philadelphia, and Marchand lined up for his turn needing to score to keep the game going. The two-time All-Star charged toward the resting puck but barely nipped it as he skated past; he zoomed into the offensive zone, but the puck trickled forward just a few inches.

Officials met briefly before signaling that the game was over. Because Marchand made contact with the puck, it was considered a shot attempt.

"I was just trying to get going and just missed it," Marchand said. "That's the way it is. I'm not going to overthink it."

Boston entered the game tied with Washington Capitals and St. Louis Blues for most points in the NHL, but the Bruins fell to 0-7 in shootouts.

"We've seen that movie before," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rory McIIroy, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas will return to this year’s Player Advisory Council, the PGA Tour announced.

There were few changes to this year’s 16-member PAC that was announced Monday, as only Billy Horschel and Ryan Palmer were added. But one player who was hoping for a spot didn’t make the cut once again.

Last fall Bryson DeChambeau said he had lobbied for a spot on the PAC in the hopes of addressing pace of play issues on Tour but he was not selected to this year’s council. 

“I really want to make a change here. I've asked to be on the PAC committee for three years, and it takes time to get on there,” DeChambeau said at Liberty National.

Eight of the 16 PAC members are elected by the membership and the four player directors on the policy board select the remaining eight council members.

Thomas, Charley Hoffman and Peter Malnati were selected by the player directors to run for PAC chairman. Once elected, the chairman ascends to the policy board next season to replace current player director Johnson Wagner and serve a three-year term.

LA QUINTA, Calif. – The PGA Tour unveiled its new pace-of-play policy Monday, one that will include a shift away from timing groups in favor of keeping individual players on pace.

The new policy was approved by the policy board last year with a focus on what the Tour considers the “individual habits of the slowest players.”

There will be an observation list, and there will penalties for “excessive shot times” for players who take more than 120 seconds to hit a shot.

Players will be given a one-shot penalty if they get a second bad time in a tournament. Under the previous policy, players were only given a stroke penalty for a second bad time in a round.

“If the Tour has taken a stance and told the rules officials that the policy has changed, I think they will do a better job of implementing it,” Billy Horschel said Monday at the American Express. “The Tour understands the noise coming from the players and fans and media. Now they are doing something about it and will be a little bit more proactive. How proactive? That’s what we have to wait and see.”

Players will be placed on the observation list, which will not be made public, when they average more than 45 seconds per shot based on ShotLink data. Players on the observation list, which will be updated each week, will be monitored during rounds, and they must play every shot in 60 seconds.

Any player given two excessive shot times in a single tournament will also be placed on the observation list.

The new policy will begin in April at the RBC Heritage.

For the first time in the Latin America Amateur Championship's six-year history, its winner will receive an exemption into the game's oldest major.

The event, which has offered a Masters invitation to its winner every year since its inception in 2015, will now also offer a spot in The Open Championship.

“We are delighted to offer a place in The Open for the winner of the 2020 Latin America Amateur Championship,” Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A, said in a statement.

“The championship has made huge strides in the five years since it was first played and you only have to look at the success that [2018 winner] Joaquin Niemann has enjoyed on Tour to recognize the growing strength of the top players in this region.

“There is a strong tradition of amateurs competing in The Open and we look forward to seeing more players from Latin America and the Caribbean competing in the years to come.”

The R&A began extending an Open exemption to the winner of the LAAC's sister event, the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, in 2018. Speaking to the media ahead of last year's event at Casa de Campo, Slumbers was asked if the R&A was considering the same for the LAAC and hinted that such an announcement was possible in the future.

This week's Latin America Amateur is being played at Mayakoba in Mexico from Jan. 16-19. Last year's event was won by Mexico's Alvaro Ortiz, who has since turned pro. Past champions in the field include Matias Dominguez (2015), Paul Chaplet (2016), and Toto Gana (2017). 

The 149th Open Championship will be played at Royal St. George's from July 16-19.

Ajax midfielder and United States men's national player Sergino Dest said he was surprised by the reaction caused by his decision to leave the Dutch club's winter training camp in Qatar last week amid regional political tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

Dest was in Doha with Ajax but requested to return early to the Netherlands on Jan. 9, five days after the U.S. squad had cancelled their own training camp in the Qatari capital.

A U.S. military airstrike in Baghdad on Jan. 3 killed Iran's top military commander Qasem Soleimani, which prompted Iran to retaliate on Jan. 7 by launching missiles at an Iraqi military base that housed American troops. There were no reported deaths in that attack.

The U.S team were to travel to Doha and begin their two-week training camp the day after the airstrike on Soleimani. Although there were no reported threats toward the team or players, the U.S. Soccer Federation made the decision out of abundance of caution to relocate the camp.

Speaking to FOX Sports Netherlands on Monday, Dest said he didn't expect his decision would "be such a big headline."

"I just didn't feel comfortable there and I have spoken about that with the staff and they understood and let me go home," Dest said. "As I said, it shocked me that went on to [become] such a big thing."

Ajax manager Erik ten Hag said that Dest had felt uncomfortable in Doha and the club flew him back home early. Ajax executive Edwin van der Sar added that the situation was made a much bigger deal than what it was, and the player agreed.

Dest added that he felt that the club supported him and his family on the situation, saying: "They really helped me. And now I am focusing on football again."

Dest declared for the USMNT in October after turning down approaches from the Netherlands. He has three caps for the U.S. national team, along with 14 appearances for Ajax this season.

The U.S. Soccer Federation remains hopeful that a different trip to Qatar, host country of the 2022 World Cup, can be organized later.

Ernesto Valverde's tenure as Barcelona coach is over after he was sacked by the club Monday and replaced by former Real Betis manager Quique Setien in the Camp Nou dugout, the team announced.

Setien was handed a contract that runs through the 2022 season. Barca were keen to offer him the role until the end of the season with the option to extend for an additional 12 months in the summer, but his agent, Edoardo Crnjar, pushed for a longer deal.

Setien, 61, will take over a Barcelona side who sit top of La Liga and are safely through to the Champions League knockout rounds, where they face Italian side Napoli in the last 16.

Valverde's position became untenable over the weekend following Barca's Spanish Supercopa defeat to Atletico Madrid.

The club's open pursuit of former captain Xavi Hernandez, who turned down the chance to return as coach on Sunday, left Valverde's future hanging by a thread.

Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu met with Valverde at the club's training ground Monday, where he had previously taken part in practice with the players ahead of Sunday's game against Granada.

Bartomeu then traveled to Camp Nou, where he met with other members of the club's hierarchy to ratify Valverde's dismissal and finalise the terms of Setien's appointment.

Al-Sadd boss Xavi, who left Barca for Qatar in 2015, had been the first choice to take over, but, following two days of talks with sporting director Eric Abidal and CEO Oscar Grau in Doha over the weekend, Xavi told them the timing wasn't right. He remains open to returning in the future.

The list of potential replacements who were then linked with the role was extensive. Ronald Koeman, Mauricio Pochettino and Garcia Pimienta were among those mentioned, but it was Setien whom the club decided to turn to in the end.

The Spanish coach has had a low-key career to date, involving spells with Betis, Las Palmas, Lugo and Logrones, but has earned many fans in recent years for his style of football, which Barca feel fits their philosophy.

It will be the first time since 2002-03 that the Blaugrana have taken the drastic decision to change their coach midseason. On that occasion, Louis van Gaal was replaced by Radomir Antic with the side 12th in La Liga.

Valverde, 55, took over from Luis Enrique in the summer of 2017. His first season yielded a league and cup double, but the campaign was tainted by a shock Champions League elimination to Roma, with the Italians overturning a 4-1 first-leg defeat to progress to the semifinal.

The former Athletic Bilbao coach also won the league title in his second season, but the year ended with many people calling for him to be sacked after another Champions League debacle, this time against Liverpool, was followed by a Copa del Rey final defeat to Valencia.

Bartomeu, amid a lack of alternative options, decided to back his coach, though.

However, while Barcelona sit top of La Liga and remain in the Champions League, the side's performances this season have seen more criticism piled on Valverde.

Defeats away at Athletic, Granada and Levante in the league further weakened his position, with the players, who always stood behind their manager in public, beginning to lose confidence in him.

This month's 2-2 draw at bottom club Espanyol set off more alarm bells. And the nature of Thursday's Supercopa defeat against Atletico Madrid in Saudi Arabia -- when Barca actually produced a much-improved performance before falling apart in the last 10 minutes -- proved the final straw as fan discontent grew. Fans loudly jeered Valverde in Jeddah.

Sources told ESPN in the aftermath of that loss that Valverde's job remained safe and players, including Lionel Messi backed him after, but the overwhelming feeling among the club's hierarchy was that it was time for a change eventually forced Bartomeu to act.

When he left Barcelona's training ground for the last time as the club's manager before his dismissal on Monday, Ernesto Valverde noticeably wore a big, happy smile, and he raised a hand to wave somewhat ironically at the gathered media scrum. Why the smile? Well, perhaps because Valverde is a tough, pragmatic man.

Firstly, there couldn't have been an iota of surprise, at least at Barca president Josep Bartomeu's actions.

The humiliating manner of the club chasing one new coach after another in the past few days -- via which Barca signalled that they'd given up on their manager while his team is top of the League, facing a weak Napoli in the Champions League and awaiting a first opponent in the Copa del Rey -- was so pathetic, so ridiculous, that perhaps it may have surprised Valverde. But the 55-year-old Basque must have been counting the days until Bartomeu fully pulled the carpet from underneath him.

Now, just for a second, those who claim that following Barcelona's dreadful display at Anfield in last year's Champions League semifinals and the subsequent disappointment of losing the Copa del Rey final to Valencia, there might have been a natural and well-timed break between the club and their manager probably have a good case. But Barcelona didn't do that. Either they thought they knew better, or they were playing a "we'll do what suits us for the moment" game, which has now backfired and left them with egg on their face.

So, back to the point. Barcelona kept this man on, and they invested in the squad to the tune of more than 200 million euros, but I swear to you that Valverde will have been perfectly clear that his continuity was hanging by a thread. Why? For two reasons.

Firstly, the away performances -- in both La Liga and the Champions League -- this season have not only continued a theme that has dogged Barcelona in Europe for several years now, they've worsened. Irrespective of their statistical positions right now, the trajectory was downward.

Secondly, Valverde is far from a stupid man, and only a stupid man would have failed to recall how Bartomeu does his business: in a knee-jerk and brutal manner when he sees fit.

For example, this is the man who was vice-president and consigliere to the regime when Eric Abidal, having been publicly promised he'd get a new contract the moment he was back ready to play after a liver transplant to beat cancer, was then unceremoniously shown the door as soon as he won his battle and got fit. This is also the man who sacked his director of football, Andoni Zubizarreta, halfway through a season in which his Zubizarreta-assembled squad would go on to win a glorious Treble culminating in the 3-1 Champions League final victory over Juventus.

Zubizarreta's crime? In 2014, when the Camp Nou crowd booed the giant screen upon which members of the Barca board were congratulating Lionel Messi on scoring his 253rd La Liga goal, which made him the all-time top scorer in that competition, Bartomeu needed a sacrificial lamb so he could convince himself and the media that it was not he who was being booed. So, out with the Zubi-goose who had laid the golden eggs -- in fact, half a dozen of them.

Valverde knew precisely what would happen when the chips were down.

When he took over, he was told he'd have Neymar alongside Messi and Luis Suarez. Before Valverde's feet were properly under the table, he discovered that Bartomeu and his board had been vastly complacent, that Neymar was not only keen to leave, but that his buyout clause was well within Paris Saint-Germain's reach.

When Valverde pointed out, a year ago, that he was going to need extra goals in the January market, he suggested signing Carlos Vela -- who would go on to score for fun in MLS, looking his fittest and most athletic for years. Instead, he was given Kevin-Prince Boateng -- heavy, disenchanted with football and slower than every La Liga defender.

Enough context. This guy has had to exist in a deeply flawed Camp Nou environment.

Valverde has a superb trophy record and an exemplary win ratio in his three seasons, and he leaves in the same manner as Pep Guardiola, Tata Martino and Luis Enrique: significantly burned out, pretty disenchanted and acutely aware of the poisoned chalice nature of managing Barcelona.

He's the first manager Barca have sacked midseason since Louis van Gaal in January 2003. I was at that goodbye news conference, and the tough, arrogant Dutchman cried. His lip quivered as he stated, over and again, "I'm still the right man to coach Barcelona, I'm still the right guy," then he started to cry -- just a little. It was far from the resigned, almost relieved, smile that split Valverde's face as he drove away from the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper on Monday.

He and his agent stood firm on details when Barcelona began to rescind his contract. The pair wanted not just every penny that was due to them, but they, legitimately, wanted Barcelona to feel some of the discomfort he'd felt since news broke that the club had not only offered his job to Xavi, but then to Ronald Koeman and, before Quique Setien, they'd explored the idea of appointing Mauricio "I'd rather go back and work on my farm than coach Barcelona" Pochettino to replace him.

The club handled the whole business with all the aplomb of a fisherman juggling a wet salmon with one hand tied behind his back. Truly, they did. These themes are about the class, the timing, the foresight, the logic and the dignity of what has happened since a team -- one that is top of La Liga, likely to reach the Champions League quarterfinal at least, and has scored 34 goals in nine home games -- lost a ding-dong battle in the Spanish Supercopa semifinal to Atletico Madrid after, frankly, one of the best performances of their season.

Valverde, like any employee, can be sacked. Fine. But the manner has been inept.

There were sufficient clues in the performances at Athletic Bilbao, at Levante, at Granada, in Prague and in Dortmund that the chronic problems Barcelona showed in heavy European defeats at PSG, at Juve, at Roma and in Liverpool were getting worse. Not all those European humiliations were under Valverde, please note. Whatever Valverde was doing right or wrong -- whether hard-line Barcelona fans, committed to their core to the idea of playing football in the image of Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola, were sick of "El Txingurri" or not -- the problems run far, far deeper than who is coach.

On which subject, there can be few better benedictions for a new coach entering a Camp Nou crisis than the @JohanCruyff Twitter account:

? Most Cruyffist manager of 2018, now joins a Cruyff team. Good luck at @FCBarcelona, Quique Setién! #CruyffLegacy ?? pic.twitter.com/qbtR70FPjP

— Johan Cruyff (@JohanCruyff) January 13, 2020

And beyond being the last La Liga coach to win away at Camp Nou, when Real Betis imposed themselves 4-3 in November 2018, Setien is a self-declared, proven evangelistic disciple of Cruyff's footballing principles. But that didn't stop Bartomeu from ignoring him until at least three others had already refused to take over midseason. Nor is it enough.

Anyone who has read my thoughts on football or listened to my broadcasting will know that I adored Cruyff, met him, talked football with him and still think that his concepts are the most intelligent, the most beautiful in the sport we all love. However, the answer to Barcelona's ailments run far deeper than bringing in a devotee of the greatest thinker the club has ever had the privilege of employing.

What the incoming coach has to do, for Cruyff's ideas to become relevant, is to re-convince the players. Not of Cruyff's footballing concepts, but the cost of applying them.

Positional football takes discipline and patience, two traits noticeably lacking from Barca for months. Losing the ball is a crime that fundamentally requires lightning-fast minds, reactions and superb recuperative athleticism. Does that sound like this ageing Barcelona to you? Pressing takes a greater level of fitness, stamina and belief than this squad is -- now and for the longest time -- capable of.

Possession football, as imagined by Setien and Cruyff, requires constant movement to create three or four passing options, every single moment that the ball is at the feet of a Barcelona player. Right now, anyone blaming Valverde exclusively for a decline in Cruyffian football at Barcelona either doesn't know what it means or they haven't been paying attention.

Setien has a huge task on his hands. Whether he can answer these three questions in the affirmative will be vital to his success: 1) Can he convince this hard-nosed, success-saturated squad to work harder, to train more intensely every single day? If not, then asking them to play pure Cruyff football is foolhardy. 2) Can he convince them that their current mood, "We'll play our way out of trouble" isn't sufficient? 3) Can he get through to Messi and explain to him that even a genius needs a higher work rate and degree of alertness on the pitch than he's been showing since November?

Setien's arrival should, in principle, benefit players such as Arthur, Frenkie de Jong, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Gerard Pique and Ivan Rakitic. And so long as his form is good, Sergio Busquets won't be dropped for every away game as had begun to be the case.

Statistically, Barcelona are in a good position in terms of La Liga and the Champions League. Perhaps of more importance, they still possess proud, ultra-skilled, tough-minded players.

If, and this is a big "if," Setien and his staff manage to electrify the stultified atmosphere around the team, there is time for this decision to pay off in the way of a trophy or trophies. But that doesn't justify the pig-awful way this business has been handled. Nor will it be rewarded simply because Setien has a profile and a philosophy that dovetails nicely with the Cruyffist past of this club.

He has an utterly enormous job to get through to his players, to completely revamp their habits and to convince and inspire. As the Cruyff Twitter account (almost) said: "All the best, mate."

The man who racially abused Jofra Archer during England's tour of New Zealand in November has been banned from attending international and domestic matches in the country for two years.

Following a police investigation, a 28-year-old man from Auckland admitted the abuse during the first Test at Mount Maunganui, and has been issued with a verbal warning for using insulting language.

Archer heard the comments as he left the field following his dismissal towards the end of England's innings-and-65-run defeat. He reported the comments to stewards at the time, and tweeted about the incident shortly after the match had finished.

A complaint was subsequently lodged with Tauranga police, incorporating CCTV footage, audio recordings, bystanders' interviews and material gathered from social media. As ESPNcricinfo reported at the time, the alleged culprit contacted Archer on Instagram in the hours after the incident.

New Zealand Cricket confirmed in a statement that they had contacted the man and written to him, advising of his ban until 2022. If he breaches the ban he could be "subject to police action" again.

"We'd again like to extend our apologies to Jofra and the England team management for such an unsavoury incident and reiterate once more that this type of behaviour is completely unacceptable," said NZC spokesman Anthony Crummy, who added that the board would not be identifying the individual.

"We want to thank the New Zealand police for their efforts in identifying the person responsible, and for making it clear that this type of behaviour will not be minimised," he added.

Archer described the incident as "disturbing", while captain Kane Williamson said the abuse was "horrific" and that he hoped "nothing like that ever happens again".

England's director of cricket, Ashley Giles, said at the time that the team would rally round Archer, who struggled with the ball in his first overseas Test series, and lamented the fact that racial abuse is still a factor in the modern game.

"It's a problem in sport still, clearly, and it's terrible that in this day and age this sort of thing is still happening," he said. "It's a good series and played in the right fashion and one person should not ruin that, but it's a shame that sort of thing is still in society."

January 14: India v Australia in Mumbai

Our XI: Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), David Warner, Virat Kohli (capt), Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Kedar Jadhav, Alex Carey (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Adam Zampa, Pat Cummins, Jasprit Bumrah

NOTE: We might not always be able to tip you off about a late injury (or other relevant updates).

Captain: Virat Kohli In his last nine innings across formats at home, Kohli has a century and three fifties. Five of those innings are T20Is in which he's looked his free-flowing best. His last ODI innings was 85 at better than a run-a-ball in a series-decider against West Indies. His form makes him a good choice.

Vice-captain: Rohit Sharma In Mumbai and against Australia in an ODI, Rohit is a straightforward contender as vice-captain, or captain even. He has scores of 159 and 63 in the two ODIs leading into this one, and has had a rest during the T20I series against Sri Lanka too.

Hot picks

David Warner
Warner has become masterful at scoring runs across India over the last few IPL seasons. He has been in exquisite form over Australia's last two Test series - read: 154, 335*, 43, 19, 41, 38, 45, 111* - and will come into the series with a lot of confidence. A good alternative for captain/vice-captain too.

Jasprit Bumrah
Bumrah has plenty of experience playing in Mumbai and is raring to go after four months on the sidelines. Australia are likely to have an experimental lower-middle order on this tour, and Bumrah's nous in the slog overs is a good bet against them.

Adam Zampa
It won't be Zampa's first trip to India, but at 27 years old and as the main spinner in this squad, he would be itching to turn around what has been a mixed bag for him previously. Comes in on the back of some good BBL form too.

Value picks
Alex Carey
Carey has silently been one of Australia's most consistent ODI performers over the last year. He cemented his place for the World Cup on Australia's last tour here, and comes back as a definite pick and an important part of that middle order. And he could give you points with the gloves as well.

Kedar Jadhav
Jadhav has not been front and centre for quite a while in ODIs, but India's persistence with him is not for nothing. He played an important hand when India's innings was in danger of fizzling out during the first ODI against West Indies, and even though he wasn't brought on to bowl too much in that series, he might be needed to chip in against a much stronger batting line-up.

Points to note

• If you're looking to beef up the batting in your squad, consider whichever of Shikhar Dhawan or KL Rahul gets picked for the opening slot.

• Kane Richardson and Mohammed Shami are good alternatives for the bowling line-up.