MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Will Burns was in the right place at the right time during Sunday’s Myrtle Beach 400 late model stock car finale at Myrtle Beach Speedway.

Burns had just taken the lead during a restart, which was followed shortly after by a crash involving former race leader Jeff Fultz and Sammy Smith. The incident dropped a considerable amount of fluid on the track, leading to a lengthy cleanup.

However, unbeknownst to most of the competitors, the event had an 11 p.m. curfew. When the clock struck 11 p.m. while the field was under caution, the checkered flag waved and Burns was declared the race winner after 228 of the scheduled 250 laps.

The victory was worth $10,000 to Burns and the Hawk McCall Motorsports team.

Corey Heim was scored second at the checkered flag. Complete race results are unavailable at this time.

Austin Somero won the 100-lap PRA Tours Southeast Limited Late Late Model Series Pro division race. Justin Kachelmeir won the Southeast Super Truck feature while Carter Langley won the PRA Tours Southeast Limited Late Late Model Series Challenger division race.

The changing of the leaves and cooling of the temperatures signifies the swing of the seasons through autumn and the pending close of the traditional motorsports calendar.

However, that calendar never completely runs its course until it hits the Thanksgiving holiday, which brings with it one of the most-prestigious and longest-running auto races in North America.

The Turkey Night Grand Prix, which celebrates its 79th running this month, is one of the oldest and most historic races around. First run in 1934, the event is headlined by an extra-distance midget feature that sees the best of the best in dirt open-wheel racing battle at Southern California’s Ventura Raceway.

Rooted in humble beginnings at Gilmore Stadium, Turkey Night was the brainchild of California car owner and promoter J.C. Agajanian, who sought to create a West Coast crown-jewel event for the discipline in which his racing passion was rooted.

He did exactly that, to great success, considering the history of Turkey Night has only been interrupted twice — once by World War II from 1942-’44 and a second time from 1951-’54 when Gilmore Stadium was demolished to make way for the CBS’ Television City.

Since its return in 1955, the the Turkey Night Grand Prix has run annually.

The inaugural event in 1934, won by Bob Swanson, was the beginning of a nearly century-long tradition that remains within the Agajanian family. Though it has been through several venues over its history, including the old Gardenia Stadium and Speedway 605 to more modern venues like Irwindale Speedway and Perris Auto Speedway, the Agajanian name has been the one constant of Turkey Night.

J.C. Agajanian Jr., who promotes the event, told SPEED SPORT that the family element — especially considering the holiday that accompanies the race — is one of the most important facets of the Turkey Night Grand Prix.

“This race is special for so many reasons, but one of the chief reasons is that it comes back to family,” said Agajanian. “The best race drivers in the country have been here over the years, dating back to the ’30s, but we’ve been a part of it since day one. Our family has been involved, and enjoyed being involved, since that humble beginning. I think that’s truly part of what defines it and makes this race what it is.”

Agajanian isn’t the only generational member of his family who has stayed involved in his father’s race, either. Both of his brothers — Chris and Cary — have also stayed close to the Turkey Night Grand Prix.

“My brother, Cary, he’s an attorney now, but he ran the office for us and took care of business aspects for a long time here. We all kind of rotated through different positions, though, and ended up doing so many things just to keep it all going,” said J.C. Agajanian Jr.. “It was interesting because my dad wanted his kids to work every night, and he would ask that we worked every single race. My brother Chris and I would sell programs; Cary would run the box office … and now we’re running the entire event. In honor of my dad, we’ve picked up the gauntlet and Cary and I are co-promoters now. The family line goes on.

“Regarding families, I like to say that Turkey Night is one great racing family get-together and it’s really true,” he noted. “Some of the best race drivers in the country, and some of the best racing families in the country, have all made their names at this race. The Foyts, Joneses, Bettenhausens, Andrettis and Unsers … all of those guys, all the way up to the present; you’ve seen them all here and most all of them have had success in one form or another here. It’s just a race that’s rooted in family that has seen generation after generation keep coming back, including my own family.”

Though both A.J. Foyt and the Parnelli Jones are two-time winners of the Turkey Night Grand Prix, the name most closely associated with the great race is Ron Shuman, who won the Thanksgiving classic eight times, including four straight starting in 1979.

In more modern times, three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and USAC legends Dave Darland, Jason Leffler and Bryan Clauson, among others, have all tasted victory on Thanksgiving night.

It’s a race that has attracted out the best of the best over the years because it’s a race that every driver wants to have on his or her résumé.

Stewart pointed out just how important winning Turkey Night was to him after his victory in the 2000 event at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway.

“Tony Stewart won that one at Irwindale, climbed out of his car, grabbed the microphone in victory lane and he said, ‘Listen, this was important for me to win this Turkey Night Grand Prix because, as far as I’m concerned, my portfolio would not be complete without a Turkey Night win,’” Agajanian recalled. “When Tony Stewart, who we all know ran in the dirt sprints and midgets, ran in Indy cars, ran for years in NASCAR … when he’s out here in California saying that winning this race is as important to him as any NASCAR race he’s won, you know this is a pretty special race.”

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Brendon Todd did just enough to win for the second time in as many starts during a Monday conclusion to the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

Todd shared the lead with Vaughn Taylor when play was suspended because of darkness on Sunday, a day during which the leaders played 32 holes after heavy rains pushed the tournament start to Friday. Todd promptly broke that tie with a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 15 when play resumed, then held on for a one-shot victory at 20 under par over Taylor, Carlos Ortiz and Adam Long.

A winner on the PGA Tour in 2014, Todd endured a long road back to the big stage after battling full-swing yips and losing his status. But he broke through for his second career win two weeks ago at the Bermuda Championship and now becomes the first player to win consecutive PGA Tour events since Bryson DeChambeau captured the first two postseason events in 2018.

"I think I've been playing well for a while," Todd said. "The confidence that gave me, winning in Bermuda and putting up four rounds in the 60s, it's natural to take that confidence to the next event. I was able to do that, and I'm really happy about it."

Todd missed a short par putt on No. 16 and was still nursing a one-shot lead when he missed the 18th green with his final approach. But a deft pitch from the rough, combined with Taylor's 15-foot birdie try coming up one roll short, sealed the victory.

The win adds another year to his Tour exemption, which will now run through 2023, and ensures he'll return to the Masters next spring for the first time since 2015.

"It was hard. I had to really dig deep and just trust the feelings I had in my game all week," Todd said. "It's incredible. I'm just overcome with emotion right now. The whole final round was much more nerve-wracking than Bermuda. ... This one's really special."

Hoping to become the first Mexican to win on Tour since 1978, Ortiz had only one hole to go when play resumed Monday, and he parred the difficult 18th after missing the fairway. Long had three holes to play, and notched his best result since his maiden victory in Palm Springs last January.

Brendon Todd earned $540,000 for his drought-ending win a couple of weeks ago at the Bermuda Championship. One start later, he netted more than double that. Here's a purse breakdown for the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

Brendon Todd won his second PGA Tour event in as many starts at the Mayakoba Golf Classic. Here's a look inside his bag:

DRIVER: Ping G410 LST (10.5 degrees), with Mitsubishi Tensei CK 60 Blue shaft

FAIRWAY WOOD: TaylorMade M5 (15 degrees), with UST Mamiya ProForce VTS 8X shaft

HYBRID: Callaway Rogue (19 degrees), with Mitsubishi Tensei CK Blue 90 shaft

IRONS: Titleist 718 T-MB (4-5), 718 CB (6-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold AMT S400 shafts

WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design SM7 Raw (50, 54 degrees), with True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 shaft. Fourteen prototype (60 degrees) with KBS Tour shaft

PUTTER: SIK Pro C

BALL: Titleist Pro V1x

Manchester United have a clear plan of how to bring top trophies back to Old Trafford, according to executive vice chairman Ed Woodward, but he has warned supporters not to expect success "overnight".

Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has overseen a turbulent start to the season after four wins from 12 Premier League games and despite describing the campaign so far as "mixed", Woodward is confident the club is on the right track as they aim to return to the Champions League and end a six-year title drought.

"We have a clear vision in terms of football philosophy and recruitment," Woodward said as United announced first quarter revenue of £135.4 million -- up £0.4m on last year on year despite missing out on Champions League broadcast payments.

"The significant investments that we have made in recent years in areas such as transfers, recruitment infrastructure, analytics and our academy are already beginning to bear fruit.

"Our ultimate goal is to win trophies, playing fast, fluid, attacking football with a team that fuses graduates from our academy along with world-class acquisitions. We know this will not be achieved overnight, however we have made investments across the club that we believe have set us on the right path.

"Though season-to-date we have had a mixed start to our Premier League campaign, in Europe, we have qualified for the Europa League knockout stages with two games to spare. We have also progressed to the quarterfinals of the League Cup."

Solskjaer's first summer in charge saw the arrival of Harry Maguire, Daniel James and Aaron Wan-Bissaka for a combined fee of nearly £150m.

Woodward has hinted United will spend again ahead of next season while sources have told ESPN FC that the club are open to bringing in new players in January if long-term targets become available.

"Over the last few years, we have significantly invested in our recruitment infrastructure to augment our already strong and experienced team who are all working to a clear philosophy," Woodward said.

"This is demonstrated by the signing of Maguire, James and Wan-Bissaka, who have all settled in well.

"We will continue with our strategy to promote the best of the players graduating from our academy together with material investment in the coming summers to strengthen our young squad further and challenge for trophies. "

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As well as bedding in three new faces, Solskjaer has also blooded youngsters Mason Greenwood, Angel Gomes, Tahith Chong, James Garner and Brandon Williams.

United are closing in on 4,000 consecutive games with an academy graduate in the matchday squad and fielding the youngest XI in the Premier League this season in the 3-1 win over Birghton.

"We have made significant investments in our academy, across recruitment, facilities and analytics and these investments are now beginning to bear fruit," Woodward added.

"We know our academy is a strong competitive advantage, and is an area that we will continue to invest in, as it is the heart of the club.

"I want to reiterate that our ability to make the investments we need to be successful on the pitch is underpinned by our continued strong financial performance."

The NFC playoff picture is a beautifully muddled mess. Sunday saw the 49ers and Vikings hold serve in their divisional races by pulling out comeback victories, leaving three of the NFC's four divisions within one game at the top. The Saints reaffirmed their stranglehold on the South by all but eliminating the Buccaneers from playoff contention, then got help from the archrival Falcons when the suddenly dominant Atlanta defense stomped Kyle Allen and the Panthers.

By the time the Rams sent Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky to the bench with a right hip injury on Sunday night, the NFC race was realistically down to eight teams. Each of our eight contenders has at least a 20% chance of making it to the postseason, per ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI). The eight other teams in the conference have combined playoff chances of just 2.5%, most of which comes from the 5-5 Panthers, who are at 1.4%.

Let's run through those eight teams and discuss what stands out in the NFC after Week 11. I'll start on the bottom of the list and begin with a team that might have essentially played a playoff eliminator Sunday night:

Jump to a team:
DAL | GB | LAR | MIN
NO | PHI | SF | SEA

Los Angeles Rams (6-4)

Chance to make the playoffs: 18.5%
If the season ended today: Out of playoffs

Tuesday is the one-year anniversary of what might go down as the stylistic peak of the Sean McVay era, the legendary 54-51 shootout between the Rams and Chiefs on Monday Night Football. That game was passing football on amphetamines in an environment in which it felt like either team was capable of scoring on every single snap.

Now, 363 days later, the Rams played out a game in which it seemed like both teams were more concerned about making a mistake than they were about scoring. Sunday's stultifying 17-7 win over the Bears is a credit to Wade Phillips' defense, which has turned things around after the Rams dealt most of their available draft credit line for cornerback Jalen Ramsey.

It's also a reminder of just how notably things have changed for Los Angeles. This time last season, the Rams were still living off outside zone and the play-action opportunities their core run concept created. Against those Chiefs, it was mostly the latter, as Jared Goff dropped back to pass 54 times against 21 rushing plays. Goff fumbled twice, but he finished with 413 passing yards and four touchdowns without throwing a pick.

On Sunday, the entire offense was flipped. The Rams used the "duo" run scheme so frequently that commentator Cris Collinsworth called it out in the middle of the game. McVay took the game out of Goff's hands after a dismal start against the Bears in 2018 and an ugly performance against the Steelers last weekend, running the ball on 34 of Los Angeles' 52 snaps on offense. Goff finished 11-of-18 for 173 yards with an interception, although a long touchdown to Josh Reynolds was wiped away by an illegal formation penalty.

That missing touchdown came off a play fake, and while that used to be the most devastating element of the Rams' offense, it's come and gone. In 2018, Goff led the league with 2,026 passing yards off play-action, more than 200 ahead of any other quarterback, adding 15 touchdown passes against just two interceptions. He was seventh in the league in passer rating on play-action at 114.5. This season, Goff has a 66.3 passer rating on play-action passes, worst in the NFL by nearly eight full points. He has thrown five interceptions without a touchdown in 2019.

Even in the abbreviated sample against one of the league's best pass rushes, Goff underwhelmed. He did hit a pair of deep throws downfield, notably the near-touchdown pass to Cooper Kupp, but he looked lost for confidence in the pocket at times and continued to miss open receivers. He inexplicably whiffed high on what should have been an easy completion to Reynolds on a dagger concept. NFL Next Gen Stats suggested he had a 75% chance of completing this pass, which is remarkably high for a throw downfield. By those numbers, Goff has the largest negative gap between his actual completion percentage (60.3%) and his expected completion percentage (66.7%) of any quarterback in football with 200 attempts or more.

Goff isn't playing well, but to some extent, McVay might have been forced to make changes by his personnel. In that Chiefs game a year ago, the only Rams starter who was missing from the lineup was Kupp, who had torn his ACL. On Sunday, after Robert Woods was a late scratch for personal reasons, the Rams were down five of their offensive starters. Several of the players who are left look totally compromised, including Todd Gurley and Andrew Whitworth, whose slide might be one of the least-reported but most-important stories of the 2019 season. Whitworth on Sunday committed his seventh holding penalty of the season, a stunning number from a superstar who committed just seven holds across his first two full seasons in Los Angeles.

It remains to be seen whether McVay wanted to use this philosophy for one week to try to beat a Bears team that tormented Goff in Chicago last season or if the Rams will go run-heavy and try to win with a few shot plays in the passing game. (The Bears destroyed Goff last December when they went with the 6-1 front on defense, which came full circle on Sunday when the Rams used the same front against Mitchell Trubisky.) With the Ravens coming to town next week, the Rams will likely want to keep the ball out of Lamar Jackson's hands and keep a devastating Baltimore offense on the sidelines, which would seemingly point toward the run.

The biggest game for the Rams might come against the Cowboys in Week 15. Los Angeles still has games it will want to win against the Seahawks (Week 14) and 49ers (Week 16), but its chances of winning the division are down below 2% at this point. The Rams' best chance of getting in is as a wild-card team, and a tiebreaker victory over the Cowboys could loom large if Dallas doesn't win the NFC East.

Philadelphia Eagles (5-5)

Chance to make the playoffs: 41%
If the season ended today: Out of playoffs

The Eagles nearly did it! There's no shame in losing to the Patriots, but Philadelphia has to be frustrated with how close it came and how little it was able to offer over the course of Sunday's 17-10 loss. The Eagles went up 10-0 after a 16-play drive, and despite handing the ball twice to the Patriots in plus territory during the second quarter, they were able to limit the Pats to three field goals on three trips inside the 25-yard line. After a trick play put the Pats up 17-10 in the third quarter, the Philly defense held and forced punts on each of New England's final six possessions.

What went wrong for the Eagles? They lost star right tackle Lane Johnson, whose absence has usually resulted in a drastic drop-off from Carson Wentz. Before Sunday, Wentz had posted a passer rating of 98.1 with his tackle on the field, but that mark fell to 79.8 with Johnson injured, suspended or taking a breather.

Johnson went down with a head injury in the second quarter and did not return. His last play was the extra point after the Dallas Goedert touchdown catch, which put the Eagles up 10-0. When Johnson was in the lineup, Wentz went 8-of-12 for 56 yards with zero sacks, the touchdown and a passer rating of 104.9. Afterward, Wentz was 12-of-28 for 158 yards with five sacks and a passer rating of 61.3. Replacement Halapoulivaati Vaitai struggled, giving up a second-half sack to Kyle Van Noy. Left tackle Jason Peters even missed a couple of snaps, which left Wentz down both of his tackles for a moment.

Even given the absences of Johnson, Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson and Jordan Howard against the league's best defense, you could have asked for more from Wentz. The former North Dakota State star fought the wind in Philadelphia and made a few wildly impressive throws, most notably the 29-yard strike out of his own end zone to J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. The desperate throw he launched toward the end zone on fourth-and-10 late in the game managed to find Nelson Agholor's hands, although the oft-criticized wideout failed to bring in what would have been a circus catch.

But after the touchdown, each of Philadelphia's eight subsequent possessions lasted no more than five plays. Wentz lost a fumble on a strip sack and missed a number of throws to open receivers, including an attempt to an open Zach Ertz on third down before the Agholor near-miracle. With the Eagles' running game in neutral, coach Doug Pederson asked Wentz to drop back 47 times, but Wentz completed only 50% of his passes and averaged 5.4 yards per attempt.

Do we hold Wentz to an unrealistic standard? The MVP candidate we saw in 2017 might be the best version of Wentz we ever see, in part because of where he succeeded. He was unsustainably great on third down that season, posting a Total QBR of 91.7 and posting a passer rating of 123.7, both of which led the league by significant margins and were virtually impossible to keep up. This season, Wentz has a QBR of 76.9 and a 96.3 passer rating on third down; good, but not otherworldly. The 2017 version of Wentz posted a 97.2 QBR and threw for 23 touchdown passes without a pick in the red zone; 2019 Wentz has an 81.7 QBR inside the 20 and ranks just behind Josh Allen in ninth.

As constructed, though, I'm not sure the Eagles can go far unless they get something closer to the superhero version of their quarterback. Their defense has been too inconsistent, ranking 31st in Football Outsiders' variance stat before Sunday's solid performance against the Pats. Philly was able to ride home-field advantage to the Super Bowl in 2017, but there's virtually no chance of the Eagles finishing with one of the top two seeds in the NFC. Their most obvious path in is by beating the Cowboys, who face the Patriots next week.

FPI gives Philly almost exactly a one-third chance of winning the East, owing to Dallas's one-game lead and tiebreaker edge over their divisional rivals. The Eagles badly need the Patriots to come through in Foxborough next Sunday.

Dallas Cowboys (6-4)

Chance to make the playoffs: 71%
If the season ended today: 4-seed, vs. Seahawks

There's a four-quarterback MVP race right now by Total QBR. Four passers have posted a QBR between 77 and 79, and the signal-caller with the most volume of those four is Dak Prescott. It's time to stop pretending that the Cowboys run their offense through Ezekiel Elliott or that Prescott needs his star running back to create throwing opportunities. This is Dak's offense, and the Cowboys are a better team for it.

Whether he was slowed by his holdout or just having a middling season, Elliott has been ordinary in 2019. While a fumble on Sunday was only his second fumble of the season after six a year ago, we haven't seen much burst from the highest-paid running back in football. He has just one run for more than 20 yards this season, a 27-yarder against Washington back in Week 2. To contrast, Elliott had eight runs of 20 yards or more through 11 weeks last season.

You can survive without big plays if you're consistently churning out first downs, but again, Elliott has dropped off there. He has turned 23.7% of his runs into conversions, down from 26.2% this time last year. Elliott can still contribute as a receiver and pass-blocker, but the way the fateful drive against the Vikings stalled once the Cowboys handed the ball to Elliott twice was an exaggerated example of how this offense has worked in 2019.

Sunday was another game in which the Cowboys' running game did little. Facing a Lions team that ranked 20th in rush defense DVOA heading into the game, Elliott carried the ball 16 times for just 45 yards. If he might not be 100%, ailing No. 1 wideout Amari Cooper might not even be at 50%. Cooper caught just three of eight targets for 38 yards while playing 40 of Dallas's 71 offensive snaps.

None of that bothered Prescott, who went 29-of-46 for 444 yards and three touchdowns in the 35-27 win. Randall Cobb and Michael Gallup both posted 100-yard games, with Cobb seemingly getting open time and time again against Lions slot corner Justin Coleman. When the Cowboys needed to close out the game, they ran the ball with Elliott for no gain on first down and then wisely turned to Prescott on second down, who hit Blake Jarwin for a 23-yard completion on the final meaningful snap of the contest.

While everyone stumbles around to make excuses for why the Cowboys lead the league in offensive DVOA for other reasons, the reality is that Prescott is simply playing brilliantly. When you look at NFL Next Gen Stats, Prescott has been the anti-Goff. NGS estimates that Prescott should have completed 61.4% of his passes this season; Prescott is instead at 67.7%, with the 6.3% difference the third-largest in football behind Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson. Prescott would even be higher if the Cowboys weren't dropping 4.4% of his passes, the fourth-highest rate in the league. (Cousins is at 3.1% and Wilson at 2.4%.)

Going back to Week 12 of 2018 for his most recent 16-game sample, Prescott leads the league in passing yards (4,968), is second in yards per attempt (8.5), third in passing touchdowns (32), and third in Total QBR (73.1) behind Patrick Mahomes and Wilson. He has been a superstar for the past year, and unless the Cowboys get in his way by insisting on running their offense through Elliott, Prescott is going to win them a division title.

If the Cowboys beat the Patriots next week, Prescott should gain his rightful place in the wide-open MVP race. Even if Dallas loses, though, the Cowboys are still in good shape to retain their title. They have three winnable home games left against the Bills (Week 13), Rams (Week 15) and Washington (Week 17). Winning those three would get them to nine victories and leave them in great tiebreaker shape within the East. Even if they were to lose to the Eagles in Philly in Week 16, beating the Bears in their one other road game would likely make the Cowboys division champs.

Seattle Seahawks (8-2)

Chance to make the playoffs: 84.2%
If the season ended today: 5-seed, at Cowboys

While I wrote last week about how the Seahawks are likely to decline over the rest of the season, it's almost impossible to imagine them missing the playoffs. No 8-2 team has ever missed the playoffs in the 17 years the NFL has spent under its current 32-team structure. FPI projects the Seahawks to finish 11-5, and just one 11-5 team (the Tom Brady-less 2008 Patriots) has failed to reach the postseason since 2002. It would take a catastrophic collapse for the Seahawks to miss out.

The Seahawks don't have a great point differential at plus-21, which doesn't bode well for the next six games, but they still have every chance of competing once they get to January. They have the third-worst point differential among the 28 teams since 2002 that have started 8-2. Some of the teams in their neighborhood have gone far in the playoffs, including a pair of Super Bowl winners in the 2015 Broncos (plus-39) and 2003 Patriots (plus-41). The latter Pats team faced a Panthers squad that was at plus-18 through 10 games that same season. If Russell Wilson stays hot, Seattle isn't going to be a team anybody wants to face in an elimination game.

Wilson is the favorite to win league MVP, but as much as the Seahawks need him to continue playing at his current level, they might be nearly as dependent upon Jadeveon Clowney. The former Texans star played one of the best games we've seen from any defender all season during last Monday's victory over the 49ers, arguably justifying the modest cost of acquiring him in one night.

Clowney has been on the field for 72% of Seattle's defensive snaps and 79% of opposing dropbacks this season. When you take a closer look at the the unit's performance, Pete Carroll's defense has been a different animal with their star pass-rusher on the field:

The Seahawks have just two sacks in 88 dropbacks without Clowney on the field. With first-round pick L.J. Collier barely playing and Ziggy Ansah recording just one sack in seven games, Seattle is dependent upon Clowney to keep its pass rush afloat. Defensive coordinator Ken Norton benched Ansah at one point during Monday's game to insert linebacker Shaquem Griffin, who had played just eight defensive snaps since Week 1 of 2018. The Seahawks badly need Ansah (or someone else) to give Clowney some support.

Beating the 49ers last week gave the Seahawks a much clearer path toward possibly winning the NFC West. Winning the division might mean more to the Seahawks than any other team in football. Every time I've studied home-field advantage, they have come out at or near the top of the rankings, which isn't a surprise.

The difference in their playoff record has been even more dramatic. Since the Seahawks moved into CenturyLink Field in 2002, they've gone 10-1 at home during the postseason but just 2-8 on the road. Wilson's two playoff wins on the road have required two catastrophic disasters for the opposing team: Robert Griffin's knee injury in the 2012 playoffs, and Blair Walsh's miss from 27 yards out with 26 seconds left in the 2015 postseason.

Even after the win over the 49ers, FPI still projects the Seahawks as more likely to finish as a wild-card team (53.3%) than to host even one postseason game (28.8%). The Seahawks still have a 10.9% chance of finishing with the No. 1 seed and running the postseason through Seattle. Every team's best chance of making it to the Super Bowl involves staying at home during the playoffs. It's even more important for the Seahawks, who play three of their final six regular-season games at home.

They realistically need four more wins to have a meaningful chance of finishing with that 1-seed. While Wilson & Co. are set to face the league's third-toughest schedule over the remainder of the season, the good news is that it includes a number of possible NFC foes who would be competing with them for the top seed, including the Vikings and 49ers. There's a chance that the 49ers-Seahawks rematch, which takes place in Week 17, could decide the division, hand out a bye and split the difference between the first seed in the NFC and the fifth. Thankfully for the Seahawks, Round 2 takes place in Seattle.

Minnesota Vikings (8-3)

Chance to make the playoffs: 92.9%
If the season ended today: 6-seed, at Saints

Does a rematch of the Minneapolis Miracle sound fun? The Vikings would make a trip to New Orleans to play the Saints under the current playoff picture, and they might again be a bad matchup for the likely NFC South champs. The Vikings have a weakness Drew Brees might not be able to exploit, although Denver's Brandon Allen and Courtland Sutton were unexpectedly able to attack Mike Zimmer's defense on Sunday.

With their corners struggling, there's just nothing the Vikings seem capable of doing to stop deep throws this season. They rank 30th in QBR allowed on deep passes at a staggering 97.0, with only the Raiders and Bengals worse. On Sunday, the Broncos hit their first five deep attempts for 189 yards, including a 38-yard lob from Sutton to Tim Patrick. The Vikings came up with three stops on the final drive, but the Broncos got out to their 20-0 lead because Minnesota kept giving up huge plays downfield.

This isn't a hallmark of the Zimmer defense. In 2018, the Vikings were eighth in QBR allowed against deep passes. Xavier Rhodes & Co. were 13th in 2017 and first in 2016. Minnesota has cornerbacks with a track record of at least some success. Those corners have been a disaster this season, and if Harrison Smith's hamstring injury costs him time, things are only going to get worse.

The Vikings became the first team in 97 tries to win a regular-season game after going down by 20 points or more at halftime, and while they deserve a lot of credit for not simply writing the game off as a bad day and disappearing in the second half, the Broncos helped the Vikings back into the game. After the Broncos went up 20-0 in the second quarter and Ameer Abdullah fumbled the ensuing kickoff to Denver, the Broncos took over with the untested Allen at quarterback and one minute to go from the 17-yard line. If there was ever a time to be conservative and try to run the ball while getting points on the board, this was it. Allen threw an interception on a contested pass on the first play of the drive.

On the other hand, when the Broncos needed to get aggressive, they stayed conservative. After the Vikings had made it 23-20 early in the fourth quarter with two long touchdown drives, the Broncos moved into field goal range and faced a third-and-7 from the Minnesota 29-yard line. The Vikings played two deep safeties and dared the Broncos to run and Denver took the bait, with Devontae Booker going for 4 yards. Instead of going for it on fourth-and-3, the Broncos tried a field goal that would have only incentivized the Vikings to try to score a touchdown, although Brandon McManus missed the kick anyway.

Both coaches made mistakes late. Vic Fangio challenged a pass interference call just before the two-minute warning, which is roughly the football equivalent of buying something useless in the airport with the foreign currency you have left at the end of a trip before you board your flight home. It went as well as you would have expected. Zimmer responded by taking a timeout with the Broncos frantically trying to get set after an Allen zone-read keeper with 10 seconds to go, a move that seemed to puzzle his own players and likely ended up giving the Broncos an extra play with two seconds left to go.

It's good to see the Vikings win a game in which Dalvin Cook was bottled up, given that the star halfback finished with only 26 rushing yards on 11 carries. It basically locks them into a playoff berth, either via the wild card or by winning the North.

After the bye, though, they travel to Seattle to face a quarterback who has been torching defenses downfield in Wilson. They might get to face Lions quarterback Jeff Driskel in lieu of Matthew Stafford in Week 14, but the following week, the Vikings will see Philip Rivers, who throws downfield as often as any quarterback in football, before a critical rematch with the Packers. Zimmer has to hope that the week of rest does something to heal his struggling corners for the run-in and the playoffs that follow.

Green Bay Packers (8-2)

Chance to make the playoffs: 95.5%
If the season ended today: 2-seed, first-round bye

The Packers are a strange team to figure out. We know they're good, if not quite at the top tier of teams. They were eighth in DVOA heading into this week's bye and ranked ninth in FPI. They're 4-1 in one-score games and would be 5-1 if I included eight-point wins and losses in that category, which was their margin of victory against Carolina last Sunday. They've played a tough schedule that gets easier over the remainder of the season, although four of their final six are on the road, including trips to face the 49ers and Vikings. The latter game should be crucial in an NFC North race the Packers lead.

Figuring out which element of this team is going to carry the Packers to victory from week to week, though, can be frustrating. It looked like the defense was going to carry them as Aaron Rodgers grew comfortable in Matt LaFleur's new offense, but Mike Pettine's defense has faded after a hot start.

The Packers ranked second in points per drive allowed and fourth in expected points generated per drive on defense during the first three weeks of the season. Since then, they are 27th in points per drive and 29th in EPA per drive. The pass defense has allowed opposing passing attacks to convert 43.6% of their attempts into first downs, comfortably the highest rate in the league over that time frame. Preston Smith and Za'Darius Smith have continued to trade off big games, but it has been pass pressure or bust for the Packers.

If you're looking to be optimistic about the Packers' defense, I'd start with their schedule, as they played what DVOA deemed as the league's toughest slate of opposing offenses over the first 10 weeks of the season. After returning from the bye, they're projected to face Jimmy Garoppolo, Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins, Mitchell Trubisky, Kirk Cousins and Matthew Stafford. While Cousins and Stafford are having career years, that's not a particularly scary group of passers.

The Green Bay run defense has been the team's biggest weakness, with the Packers ranking 25th in DVOA through 10 weeks and their defensive line finishing dead last in adjusted line yards. Again, though, the schedule is generally friendly; the Packers face only one top-15 rushing offense by DVOA over the remainder of the season in the Vikings. (While the 49ers have accrued plenty of rushing volume, they were 16th in rush offense DVOA through Week 10, with the Football Outsiders stat not yet updated for Week 11's performances.)

If anything, the offense has been even more confusing. It ranks 25th in variance, pointing out just how inconsistent it has been from week to week. The Packers' three best games of the season came from Weeks 5-8, when No. 1 wideout Davante Adams was sidelined by turf toe. It seemed like Rodgers had settled in with back-to-back excellent performances against the Raiders and Chiefs, but the entire offense laid an egg against the Chargers, while the running game carried the day in the snow against the Panthers before the bye.

That running game has generally been good, although the team has seemingly committed to splitting reps between Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams when both backs are available. The situation reminds me of the last Super Bowl run from the Packers. One of the popular narratives from that year was that they finally balanced their offense by turning over the starting role to rookie James Starks. After carrying the ball just 29 times during the regular season, he took the ball 81 times during the four-game playoff run. I'm skeptical of Starks' actual impact, given that he averaged only 3.9 yards per carry and ran for 16 first downs, but the likes of Brandon Jackson and Dimitri Nance weren't doing much, either.

I bring up that example because the Packers might be able to accelerate their offense by turning things over to one back. Unsurprisingly, my choice there is Jones, who has been dynamic as a runner and receiver this season. The drop-off in the offense when Jones isn't on the field is dramatic.

In 180 snaps with him on the field and Williams on the sideline, the Packers have averaged 0.22 EPA per play, which would make them the best offense in football on a play-by-play basis. In 127 snaps with Williams on the field and Jones sitting out, though, the Packers have actually been a net negative on offense at -0.05 EPA per play, which is the equivalent of the 2019 Giants, who rank 25th in expected points added. If one back makes you the best offense in football and the other back makes you the Giants, I would go with the first guy.

It's fair to suggest that the Packers are so impressive with Jones on the field in part because they rest him so frequently. In the games in which Williams has been healthy, Jones has played just under 55% of the offensive snaps. If the Packers were to play Jones for 80% or more of their offensive snaps, it's likely that he would be less efficient with the increased usage rate.

At the same time, even some drop-off from Jones would still likely produce a more effective offense than that same offense with Williams. As much as the organization has insisted that Jones needs to split time -- a stance that existed before LaFleur was hired -- the Packers are simply a different offense with Jones as the primary back. The Packers' best chance of winning a Super Bowl is by turning the vast majority of the snaps over to Jones when things matter most. The obvious point to make that move might not be the beginning of the postseason; given that it could decide the division, I'd lean toward the Week 16 game at Minnesota.

San Francisco 49ers (9-1)

Chance to make the playoffs: 95.8%
If the season ended today: 1-seed, first-round bye

A questionable call helped spur the 49ers to a come-from-behind win against the Cardinals on Sunday. With the 49ers facing a third-and-3 in field goal range down 26-23, Jimmy Garoppolo threw a quick out to Ross Dwelley, who was having the game of his life against the Cardinals and their tragically bad tight end defense. Dwelley caught the pass at the sticks and was given a first down on the field. The referees reviewed the call, and despite replays suggesting Dwelley was short of a first down, the call was upheld.

On the next play, Garoppolo found Jeff Wilson matched up in coverage against pass-rusher Chandler Jones and hit the running back for a 25-yard touchdown. Instead of facing a Chase McLaughlin field-goal try and a would-be game-winning drive from Kyler Murray, the 49ers took the lead, forced a fumble and then added a ridiculous defensive touchdown on the final play of the game strictly to lead "Bad Beats."

Garoppolo finished the day with a career-high 424 passing yards and four touchdown passes, marking the second time in three weeks the 28-year-old has thrown for four scores against the Cardinals. In leading his team to a fourth-quarter comeback win despite missing left tackle Joe Staley, halfback Matt Breida, star tight end George Kittle and getting only limited snaps from top wideout Emmanuel Sanders, you could argue that this was a foundational game for Garoppolo in his 19th career start.

That wouldn't be entirely accurate, though. He threw two interceptions, one that was an inexplicably bad decision in the red zone, and the other that was a pass thrown behind an open Dwelley and caught on a deflection. Both were on third down in situations when the 49ers would have likely scored points if Garoppolo had made a better decision. Owing to those two critical mistakes and Arizona's status as one of the league's worst pass defenses, Garoppolo finished the day with a QBR of 55.3, below Jeff Driskel and Sam Darnold.

On a macro level, it's becoming clear that teams are willing to sell out to stop San Francisco's running game and dare Garoppolo to beat them, a sign that they don't see him as the biggest threat the 49ers can offer. Despite getting out to an early 10-0 lead, the Cardinals ran eight men or more into the box on eight of San Francisco's 19 running plays Sunday; that 42.1% rate was the fourth-highest in the league. Since the 49ers ran the ball for 232 yards and five touchdowns in that blowout win over the Panthers, they've collectively run the ball 77 times for just 222 yards and no touchdowns. Kyle Shanahan's offense has generated first downs on just 10.4% of their runs over that time frame, the lowest mark in the league, while facing run defenses that rank 18th (Seahawks) and 21st (Cardinals) in DVOA.

Garoppolo took 21 dropbacks with seven or men in the box Sunday, owing to how frequently the 49ers used Kyle Juszczyk in the passing game and how concerned the Cardinals were with stopping the run. Garoppolo was tied with former teammate Tom Brady for the league lead in that category this week. If defenses are going to load up the box, Shanahan will encourage his quarterback to throw. It will obviously be easier once the team gets Kittle, a star as both a blocker and receiver, back into the fold.

At the same time, we forget just how inexperienced Garoppolo still is, given that it's his sixth season in the league. Sunday marked his 20th career start, 18 of which have come under Shanahan with the 49ers. He left injured in two of those starts, so this is just his 18th complete game as an NFL quarterback. He's started as many games in the NFL as Darnold. It's still too early to draw any grand conclusions about Jimmy G when he hasn't even thrown 700 passes at the professional level.

If teams continue to slow down the running game, more of the load is going to fall on Garoppolo. As good as the defense has been, history says they won't be able to keep up their pass rush as the season goes on. The defense has relied heavily on takeaways, and while they were able to force the two late fumbles, one of them was essentially a gift on a laterals play. Arizona gashed the 49ers for 5.4 yards per rush, and while Murray threw for only 150 yards on 33 attempts, those numbers don't include 72 yards of pass interference penalties committed by Richard Sherman, the most penalty yards for any player in a game all season.

Even given the interceptions Sunday, Garoppolo did enough to win. Things are about to get tougher. He faces three above-average pass defenses over the next three weeks in the Packers, Ravens and Saints, before a home game against the suddenly-spicy Falcons defense. The Niners finish up with two crucial games in the West, home against the Rams and then north for the season finale against the Seahawks.

New Orleans Saints (8-2)

Chance to make the playoffs: 99.1%
If the season ended today: 3-seed, vs. Vikings

While the Saints are in third in the NFC behind the 49ers and Packers (who hold the tiebreaker over the Saints by virtue of a superior record in the conference), FPI actually projects New Orleans as the most likely NFC team to make the playoffs and have the highest expected seeding in the postseason. The 49ers have a better chance of finishing as the top seed, given that they're at 31.4% in FPI's simulations in comparison to the Saints at 28.4%, but Shanahan's team also loses its division lead and falls into a wild-card spot 30.8% of the time.

The Saints, on the other hand, have greater than a 98% chance of winning the South with six games to go, meaning that there's virtually no chance they'll have to settle for a wild-card berth. They're huge favorites to finish as the third seed, which is where they land in 36.1% of FPI's simulations. The 3-seed would give the Saints a home game in the wild-card round and a possible conference title game at home if the 1-seed loses in the divisional round.

After blowing out an overmatched Bucs team Sunday, the Saints can win the division outright by Week 13 by beating the Panthers and Falcons over the next two weeks. That would push Sean Payton's team to 10-2 in advance of what could be a battle for the top seed at home against the 49ers and Shanahan, whose offense scored 38 points the last time he ran through the Superdome in 2016. The Saints finish their home slate against the Colts before road games against the Titans and Panthers to end the season.

Given the injuries on this roster and the dominant position from which the Saints are operating, Payton can pay more attention toward getting his players healthy than most other coaches down the stretch. There's no reason, for example, to rush star corner Marshon Lattimore back from a hamstring injury. While that was already true, it had to put Payton's mind at ease to see oft-burned slot corner P.J. Williams excel in Lattimore's role on Sunday against Bucs star Mike Evans, with Williams holding Evans to four catches and 69 receiving yards on eight targets, 49 of those yards coming on the final two meaningless drives. Williams even finished the game with a pick on an attempted fade in the end zone, one of four Saints interceptions on the day.

This was a relatively quiet game for Drew Brees against an eminently torchable Bucs secondary, which was surprising. Brees went 28-of-35 and threw three touchdown passes, but he averaged only 6.5 yards per throw against a defense that had been allowing 7.7 yards per attempt before Sunday. It was certainly a good performance -- he finished with the third-best passer rating (122.4) and fifth-best Total QBR (85.8) of the day -- but this is the sort of defense he typically gashes for huge numbers.

Last week, I mentioned that Brees had struggled in limited reps under pressure this season. Likewise, he hasn't yet looked great throwing deep. On passes traveling 16 or more yards downfield, Brees has gone just 7-for-17 with two interceptions, resulting in both a passer rating (44.9) and Total QBR (15.6) well below league average.

I'm not too concerned for a few reasons. The sample is extremely small. The Saints have no reason to tax Brees' arm when he may realistically have only a certain number of deep bullets left at age 40. And when you consider that he is completing more than 75% of his passes, he doesn't need to throw deep. This is more just in the things to monitor category than something to seriously get concerned about.

The only other thing that comes to mind is the lack of a second pass-rusher for this team behind Defensive Player of the Year candidate Cameron Jordan. The Saints shipped off two first-round picks to move up for Marcus Davenport in the 2018 draft, but after racking up three sacks across the first seven games of the season, his role has diminished. Davenport played nearly 74% of the defensive snaps through the Bears game, but over the past three games, he has been on the field for only about 47% of snaps, including a season-low 34% against the Bucs on Sunday. The second-year end hasn't been on the injury report, so it's curious to see the team reduce his role in a moment where you would be hoping to see Davenport accelerating and emerging as a star.

These are minor issues for arguably the league's deepest team. The Saints are going to be a formidable opponent, regardless of whom they play in the playoffs or where the game takes place. The rest of their season is really just about trying to pry the top seed away from the 49ers and getting guys healthy for January.

Ryan Costello, a Minnesota Twins prospect, was found dead in his Auckland, New Zealand, hotel room.

Costello, a native of Wethersfield, Connecticut, was in New Zealand to play for the Auckland Tuatara of the Australian Baseball League.

"It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Auckland Tuatara third baseman Ryan Costello overnight in Auckland," the team said in a statement.

The team said that "preliminary indications suggest" that the 23-year-old died of natural causes. The Tuatara said they will hold a news conference Monday.

The Twins also released a statement.

"We are saddened to learn of the untimely passing of Ryan Costello," the team said. "The entire Twins organization sends our most sincere condolences to Ryan's family, friends, coaches, and teammates."

Costello was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 31st round of the 2017 draft out of Central Connecticut State. He was traded to the Twins in 2018 along with right-hander Chase De Jong for lefty Zach Duke.

An infielder, Costello split the 2019 season in Class A Fort Myers and Double-A Pensacola, and combined to hit 15 home runs and drive in 46 runs while slashing .223/.343/.412 in 108 games.

Premiership champions Saracens have confirmed they will not be contesting their points deduction and fine for breaching the league's salary cap.

They have been docked 35 points and fined £5.36m after an inquiry into business partnerships between owner Nigel Wray and some of their players.

Wray said the club "made mistakes" and accepted the penalties "with humility".

Mark McCall's side have subsequently dropped from third to bottom of the Premiership with -22 points.

"As a club, we will now pull together and meet the challenges that lie ahead," added Wray, who had previously vowed to "appeal against all the findings".

"We confirm our commitment to the salary cap, and the underlying principle of a level playing field, and will continue to work transparently with Premiership Rugby in this regard."

Premiership Rugby's chief executive Darren Childs welcomed Saracens' decision.

"This is the right outcome for English club rugby," he said. "Bringing this process to a conclusion means that we can focus on working in partnership with all clubs to continue to build a competitive and successful league."

What was Saracens' initial reaction?

In a statement issued on the same day the sanctions were announced earlier this month, Sarries strongly refuted the charges brought by an independent disciplinary panel, with owner Wray saying it felt as though "the rug is being completely pulled out from under our feet".

The club apologised for "administrative errors relating to the non-disclosure of some transactions" to Premiership Rugby Limited, but added it will "continue to vigorously defend this position especially as Premiership Rugby Limited precedent already exists whereby co-investments have not been deemed part of salary in the regulations".

Although, strictly speaking, they were unable to 'appeal' against the punishment, they did have until midnight on Monday to request a review into the findings.

They could only request such a review on one of three grounds; error of law, whether the decision was irrational or if they could prove procedural unfairness.

Saracens, who lost 30-10 at Racing 92 as they began their European Champions Cup defence on Sunday, brought in a major communications company to help manage the public fallout of the scandal last week.

What's the background?

The charges related to a failure to disclose player payments in each of the 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.

Saracens previously claimed they "readily comply" with salary cap rules and were able to spend above the £7m cap because of the high proportion - almost 60% - of home-grown players in their squad.

The Allianz Park outfit have several of the game's biggest stars on their books, including seven of the 31-man squad that represented England at the World Cup in Japan, such as captain Owen Farrell and forwards Maro Itoje and Billy and Mako Vunipola.

One of the dominant forces in northern hemisphere club rugby, Sarries have won five Premiership titles and three European Champions Cups since 2010-11 - with two of those domestic titles coming in the timeframe that Premiership Rugby have been investigating.

Their three European successes have all come within the past four seasons.

Premiership survival at the cost of Europe?

The points deduction means Saracens are currently 26 points adrift at the bottom of the Premiership and 32 away from a European Champions Cup qualifying place.

Saracens director of rugby McCall has kept comments over the matter to a minimum - the only time has addressed the press as a whole over the penalties was after his side's win at Gloucester earlier this month.

There he said he was planning as if the points deduction was going to be enforced, despite the sanction being suspended at the time pending any appeal.

"We've got to plan for the worst case scenario and that will affect our strategy around the Champions Cup," said McCall, who picked a side that was without any England World Cup players apart from newly-signed hooker Jack Singleton for the defeat at Racing.

'Saracens attempt to draw a line under affair' - analysis

BBC Sport rugby union reporter James Burridge

Despite insisting they would appeal last week, that was never an option available to Saracens. They could only request a review or clarification of the findings and only if there had been some basic unfairness or procedural error.

This has been a nine-month investigation conducted by independent legal experts, who have already considered and dismissed Saracens' defence.

The club maintain the decision is unjust. By accepting the fine and the points deduction Saracens will attempt to draw a line under the whole affair. The details of the investigation aren't likely to emerge either. But the questions won't go away.

What are they doing to abide by the regulations? Are they in breach this season too? And what about the impact on the squad?

It's been seven months since Joel Quenneville was hired as coach of the Florida Panthers, and he thinks he has a pretty good sense of his new market.

"If we win, the place will be full," Quenneville said. "But we've got to win."

It isn't exactly an easy task -- especially considering how hard it is to break through in the top-heavy Atlantic Division -- but after a quarter of the 2019-20 season, Quenneville's Panthers are in decent shape. Twenty games in, Florida is 10-5-5 and holding on to the third Atlantic Division playoff spot (thanks, in part, to the slow-starting Tampa Bay Lightning and slumping Toronto Maple Leafs).

The Panthers' offense is clicking; they're fifth in the league at 3.55 goals per game. But despite Quenneville's making improvements with his signature defensive system -- which predicates on simplicity -- the blue line could clean things up a bit. That said, the Panthers have made it this far by getting subpar goaltending from their $70 million man, Sergei Bobrovsky (Charting Hockey puts Bobrovsky's goals saved above average at -12.66, the worst mark in the league).

"I think he expects more, and he's in a situation with a magnifying glass all over him," Quenneville said. "But he's got a pretty good idea of the situation, and we know he's not happy and expects more, too."

If Florida can maintain its 102.5-point pace the rest of the season and Bobrovsky reverts back to form, Quenneville is right: Fans will take notice.

"There's a lot of hockey fans down here," the coach said. "It's been quiet for a while, but it's a big building, too, so it might not look full. The seating capacity is huge. Either way, we know we will have big crowds, and it's going to be a fun place to play if we win."

In Quenneville's 11-year tenure as Blackhawks coach, he never had to worry about things such as filling seats or generating awareness. Chicago, which won three Stanley Cups under Quenneville, ranked No. 1 in NHL attendance from the 2008-09 season until the coach was fired in November 2018. The Blackhawks routinely hit 100% capacity and averaged more than 21,000 fans. It helped that they had household names such as Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and championships were consistently within reach.

The BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, meanwhile, finished last season averaging 13,261 fans per game, the second-worst mark in the league, at a 78.2% capacity, the third-worst mark in the league. The Panthers missed the playoffs for the third straight season, and despite a young core heralded around the league as one of the most undervalued (highlighted by perennially underrated No. 1 center Aleksander Barkov, one of the best two-way forwards in the game), the team couldn't make it over the hump.

Florida GM Dale Tallon spent the offseason adding winning pedigree. Besides hiring Quenneville, the second-winningest coach in NHL history, the Panthers supplemented their roster with experience. In free agency, Florida added Bobrovsky (a two-time Vezina Trophy winner), defenseman Anton Stralman (103 games of playoff experience), middle-six winger Brett Connolly (a Stanley Cup champion with the Capitals) and defensively minded forward Noel Accari (coming off a run to the Stanley Cup Final with the Bruins last spring).

"The younger guys are the guys the team is built around, and we need these guys to take a big part of the responsibility," Quenneville said. "But we added guys that bring either playoff pedigree or experience playing in big games and on big stages. We're looking forward to that experience as we get to the playoff challenge down the stretch. There is nothing more important to our organization than making the playoffs. The real core group of young guys are what this team is all about, and as a team and as an organization, we need to find a way to get these guys in the playoffs. After the last couple years, being close isn't good enough."

Three weeks into the season, the Panthers made another addition: 34-year-old Brian Boyle, who has 114 games of playoff experience. Boyle was a beloved teammate on his previous six teams and was a league-wide inspiration when he returned to the Devils in 2017, less than two months after receiving a cancer diagnosis. A year later, Boyle announced that his chronic myeloid leukemia, a type of bone marrow cancer, was in remission.

Quenneville likes Boyle's defensive game, as well as his ability to play center or wing, his net-front presence on the power play and his capabilities in killing penalties.

"He's been a tremendous addition," Quenneville said. "His story -- as far as what he's had to battle and fight through to be where he is today -- is inspirational, and he brings a lot of intangibles, with some great playoff runs. I couldn't believe how quick he's meshed with our team. He's a real nice personality to add to the locker room."

On offense, so much is predicated on the 24-year-old Barkov, who averages more than 20 minutes per game. The captain had a slow start to the season as he battled an undisclosed upper-body injury. "Not every guy is going to be 100 percent, but he had a little something he had to take care of," Quenneville said. "He wasn't able to take faceoffs on either side for a while, then he was taking them on one side, and now all of a sudden, he's back to being Barky, and it's been really fun watching him dominate."

Barkov has 25 points in his first 20 games, and his linemates have thrived, too. Evgenii Dadonov already has 10 goals (his career high is 28), and Jonathan Huberdeau leads the team with 27 points.

The big question right now is Bobrovsky. The team has been steadfast in defending the former Blue Jackets netminder and has fended off any goaltending controversy, even as 23-year-old Samuel Montembault has emerged as a viable second option. Montembault was a catalyst for the Panthers' best win this season -- and biggest comeback in franchise history -- when he came in relief for Bobrovsky in the third period last week against the Bruins. Montembault made 15 saves in the third and overtime as Florida stormed from a 4-0 deficit to win in a shootout.

Regarding Bobrovsky, Quenneville said: "The support as an organization is tremendous, and his teammates as well. They're thinking, let's be neater and cleaner around him, and let's get that predictability in the net."

Quenneville has been impressed by how Bobrovsky has conducted himself through the tough stretch.

"He's a quiet guy," Quenneville said. "How he goes about his business is unique, but he's got a good attitude. I think he has a great rapport with [goaltending coach] Robby Talas, and with Lu [former Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo] in the organization as well, we have plenty of goalie knowhow. As coaches, we always give the goalie coach the freedom to work with the goalies and have that relationship as well. Not knowing him any different than the way he is, it's a tough read. I think everyone has high expectations, and I think he's doing everything he can to be his best that next game or the next day."

As for Quenneville? He called me on his way home from morning skate on Saturday -- a sunny day in Florida -- and relished it a bit when I reported on how cold it was in Chicago. He's glad to be back from his hiatus of nearly a year off from coaching but didn't take the time away to reinvent himself.

"The one thing is you still gotta be you," Quenneville said. "It's a different situation here. New conference, new division, palm trees, new staff, new players. But how we technically approach the game is something we focus on a lot. I haven't made too many changes. ... And it's the same goal for me. I want to win."

Jump ahead:
Emptying the notebook | What we liked this week
Three stars of the week | Biggest games coming up

Emptying the notebook

The Blackhawks have been rolling lately, going 5-0-1 in their past six to jump over .500 and into the playoff bubble. This week included huge wins against the Vegas Golden Knights (Chicago was the last team in the league to record a win against Vegas) and the Nashville Predators, both of which came on the road. It's hard not to pinpoint goaltending as a huge improvement driving this team's success. The Blackhawks went from 25th in save percentage last season to fourth thus far this season.

What's different this season? The Blackhawks signed Robin Lehner, who has the third-best save percentage in the league (.936) after stopping 39 of 41 shots against the Preds on Saturday.

So far, it has been a 50-50 split in goal with Corey Crawford, with both goalies making 10 starts, though Lehner has often outplayed the incumbent starter. Last week, I asked GM Stan Bowman for an update on the goaltending situation.

Bowman said when they talked to Lehner in free agency, they never discussed the number of games he would start. "We were upfront with Robin," Bowman said. "I said, 'I can't guarantee you how many games, but I can tell you that the last two years, Corey was not here for large parts of the season, so we need to have two goalies we have confidence in. That's the one thing we learned over the last two seasons.' Robin said, 'This is the way it was for me last year. [The Islanders] didn't rotate game by game, but it wasn't like one guy played the majority.' He said, 'I'm fine with that, I want to win, and I know if I play well and I'm helping you win, I'm going to play.' I said, 'That's true.'"

Bowman said the Blackhawks have not laid out a plan for how they will divide starts moving forward. "The coaches have an idea of how they want to use them," Bowman said. "They're both going to play is the answer. Part of it is how our team plays, part of it is how they play, and part of it will be just managing the schedule."

I asked Bowman if he thinks Lehner has earned more starts. "He's played great, for sure," Bowman said. "He certainly has earned his case."

When are we going to find out the name of the NHL's newest franchise in Seattle? There was a report that the name could come before the NHL's All-Star game. Before you ask (and I did), no, they aren't going to make the announcement at All-Star Weekend festivities in St. Louis the last week in January. The latest I was told this week: The announcement will be in the first quarter of 2020, and it might be after All-Star Weekend.

NHL general managers are meeting in Toronto this week. Among the topics they will discuss: new offsides proposals, an update on player and puck tracking, a report on new rules and officiating, and the Seattle expansion draft.

What we liked this week

• Pavel Datsyuk, is that you? Jakub Vrana with some filth in the shootout:

.@JVranaa delivers absolute filth pic.twitter.com/TTn3hh5YJn

— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) November 17, 2019

• There's a good chance this guy just doesn't want to take a selfie while sitting at a hockey game. I wouldn't blame him. But there's also a good chance that his lack of enthusiasm stems from his Maple Leafs' being in a free fall, with just two regulation wins in their past 14 games.

Tough scene out here ? pic.twitter.com/N5E3Nj8sLK

— ESPN (@espn) November 17, 2019

• Ron MacLean directly addressed the viewers on "Hockey Night in Canada" on Saturday after Don Cherry was fired earlier in the week. I found MacLean's comments to be raw, humble and most of all honest. The quote that resonated: "I'm disappointed in me."

Ron MacLean addresses the Don Cherry situation and the end of Coach's Corner pic.twitter.com/4D9MVjD6zb

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) November 17, 2019

• I sometimes worry I have bad taste in sports uniforms -- I always like stuff, then see people rip it on Twitter -- but I thought this throwback gear Jordan Binnington rocked looked sick:

Binnington warming up those CuJo pads for the throwback night on 11/21. These look sick...in a good way. #stlblues @101espn pic.twitter.com/iSKVf86Ana

— Alex Ferrario (@Ferrario101ESPN) November 14, 2019

• Dog on skates? Dog on skates!

? DOG WEARING SKATES ?

(via @GoldenKnights)pic.twitter.com/PajopRtrpB

— ESPN (@espn) November 18, 2019

Three stars

Connor McDavid, C, Edmonton Oilers

Somehow, McSavior is still finding ways to impress us. The Oilers captain had his first career six-point night against the Avalanche and did all of the damage in the first two periods.

Keith Yandle, D, Florida Panthers

Eight points in three games for the Florida defenseman. Not too bad. Yandle tallied a goal and two assists in the Panthers' four-goal, third-period comeback against the Bruins on Tuesday.

Nathan MacKinnon, C, Colorado Avalanche

The Avs keep winning despite injuries to key players, and that's because MacKinnon is back in MVP mode. He recorded four goals and seven points in three games this week.

What we didn't like this week

The way the Ilya Kovalchuk situation is playing out in Los Angeles feels icky. There's decent -- and well-founded -- speculation that Kovalchuk's time with the Kings is finished; he has been scratched the past three games. Los Angeles signed Kovalchuk (now 36) to a three-year, $18.75 million contract last summer -- after a five-year NHL hiatus -- and it hasn't been a great fit. Kovalchuk has tallied 19 goals and 43 points (with a glaring minus-36) in 81 games with the Kings. Los Angeles is floundering and ready to turn it over to the kids. Remember, the Kings do have a vaunted prospect system.

Nonetheless, it sucks that it didn't work out, and it's unfortunate if the end is this unceremonious. The Kings were wrong to sign Kovalchuk, and it's time to move on. What comes next is a little trickier. Kovalchuk has a no-move clause, so he has some control over his future. He's also due his next bonus -- worth $2.65 million -- on Dec. 15, and it's likely he'll be on the Kings' roster until then because no other team will want to pay that. After the bonus is paid, perhaps somebody will take a flier on the former Rocket Richard winner. But again, Kovalchuk would have to approve the move.

A scary situation played out during the Canucks-Avalanche game on Saturday. Avalanche winger Matt Calvert blocked a shot from Vancouver's Elias Pettersson with the back of his head. Calvert fell to the ice and was clearly in discomfort. Pettersson, who was closest to Calvert, kept looking down at him and appeared to try to wave to the officials for help. But the officials did not stop play, even as Calvert was clearly in significant pain and blood dripped onto the ice. Calvert tried to stand up but couldn't and folded back to the ice, holding his head. Vancouver maintained possession and scored.

This is honestly terrible pic.twitter.com/WUXN79tawo

— DNVR Avalanche (@DNVR_Avalanche) November 17, 2019

After the game, Avalanche players were furious -- and rightfully so.

"It's a f---ing joke," Erik Johnson said, according to Ryan Clark of The Athletic. "You want to protect a guy? Guy's got a family at home, he's laying there bleeding out of his head, and you don't blow the whistle? It's a complete joke. An absolute joke. They should be ashamed of themselves."

Said Nathan MacKinnon (quote also via Ryan Clark): "I just can't imagine another sport letting that happen. A guy's bleeding out the side of his head, laying there, not moving, to not blow [the whistle] ... I know it's a big-time [moment] in the game. It's not the ref's fault. It's the league's fault. If you see blood, if you see any contact to someone's face or head, I think it's dangerous, and obviously, it's just made it worse that they scored."

The NHL rulebook states that "when a player is injured so that he cannot continue to play or go to his bench, the play shall not be stopped until the injured player's team has secured control of the puck."

My take: Safety needs to take precedence. Calvert needed urgent attention. As soon as Pettersson waved the refs down, they should have whistled the play dead. Full stop.

Sid on the mend. The NHL is better when Sidney Crosby is playing in it. Respect to Crosby for trying to avoid surgery -- especially considering how many injuries the Penguins have had to endure this season -- but it clearly became too much. Crosby will be out until after Christmas after what the team calls "a successful core muscle injury repair."

Games of the week

Tuesday, Nov. 19 New York Islanders at Pittsburgh Penguins (ESPN+)

The Islanders are making a case that they're the best team in hockey; the Caps have five more points but have played four more games. The Penguins, meanwhile, are adjusting to life without Crosby for a while.

Thursday, Nov. 21 San Jose Sharks at Vegas Golden Knights (ESPN+)

Any time these two teams play, it's must-watch television. The NHL's hottest and most emotional rivalry takes the stage yet again, as the Sharks are bouncing back from a terrible start by winning six straight, and the Golden Knights have been slumping.

Saturday, Nov. 23 Chicago Blackhawks at Dallas Stars

If the Blackhawks are going to make a run, they'll need to make up ground in the Central Division. The Stars are quietly stringing together wins, going 8-1-1 in their past 10.

Quote of the week

"I need to be fire. I will be fire."

-- Evgeni Malkin talking about stepping up in Sidney Crosby's absence