It's easy to have a short memory in the NFL. When the 2019 season started, the most promising young quarterback in the AFC North was Baker Mayfield. The dominant team in the NFC West was supposed to be the Los Angeles Rams. The New York Jets were a hot sleeper pick to sneak into the playoffs in the AFC. Mitchell Trubisky's odds of winning league MVP (22-1) were virtually identical to those of Russell Wilson (20-1).
A lot has changed, but all we've seen are nine to 10 games from each team. That's a couple of weeks of action in baseball or about three weeks of a typical NBA season. There was a 16-game stretch early in the MLB season in which the Washington Nationals went 4-12. In a 162-game season, that didn't mean much; they were otherwise 89-57, made it to the playoffs and won the World Series. In the NFL, teams only get those 16 chances to show what they can do.
As a result, we often draw hasty conclusions from what we see over a small sample. Players and teams do something that's unsustainable over a significant length of time, but in a league in which they play only once per week, those performances feel more meaningful than they actually are. If you apply some historical context to what the NFL has looked like over the first half of the season, you can see elements of the game that probably aren't going to recur over the remainder of the 2019 campaign.
I've gone through the data and found a handful of relevant pieces of information surrounding some of the league's most notable players and teams. Let's see what history says about the rest of their seasons to come:
Let's start with the best running back in football. McCaffrey came within a few inches on Sunday of his fifth multi-touchdown game of the season, as the Packers stopped McCaffrey at the goal line to secure a 24-16 victory. McCaffrey did rack up 100 rushing yards for the sixth time in nine tries, more than any other running back.
One of the ways he has consistently topped 100 yards? Long touchdown runs. He already has scoring runs of 40, 58, 76, and 84 yards. There are a lot of great runners in the NFL right now, but nobody else has more than one touchdown rush of 40-plus yards this season, so McCaffrey is way ahead of the pack.
When you look at history, it's clear he is in rare company. McCaffrey already has become the 21st back in league history to produce four or more touchdowns of 40-plus yards in a season, a group Saquon Barkley joined in his rookie season. Just three backs have run for five such scores in a single season: Barry Sanders (1997), Chris Johnson (2009) and Jim Brown (1963). The legendary Browns back also is the only runner in NFL history to score six such touchdowns in a single season, hitting that mark in 1958.
Remember: Those backs took an entire season to get to four, five and six. McCaffrey ran for his fourth such score by his eighth game of the season when he scampered 58 yards to the house against the Titans. If he were to keep this up and hit seven or more such scores by the end of season, it would be the first time any back would have racked up that many lengthy touchdown runs in NFL history.
I wouldn't count on McCaffrey adding many more 40-plus-yard touchdown runs to his total. (Barkley, it should be noted, doesn't have any this season.) It's true that McCaffrey does offer more than just about any other back as a receiver, which makes it possible he could add a long receiving score or two to the ledger. But it would be an upset if he kept taking long scores to the end zone over the remainder of the campaign.
2. The Seahawks aren't home free (yet)
Monday night's win over the 49ers was huge for the Seahawks. You don't need me to tell you that. What might be surprising to Seahawks fans, though, is that a loss against the 49ers would have left their favorite team as underdogs to make it back to the postseason, even given that a loss would have dropped Seattle to a still-impressive 7-3. Now at 8-2, ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI) still thinks the Seahawks miss the postseason about one out of every five times.
With the league favorite for MVP at quarterback and one of the best home-field advantages in all of football, why is FPI relatively pessimistic about the Seahawks? It starts with strength of schedule. Even after traveling to play the 49ers in San Francisco, the Seahawks still have what FPI figures as the third-toughest slate in all of football over the remainder of the season. After the bye, five of Seattle's final six games come against teams with a winning record. On the schedule are road trips to face the Eagles, Rams and Panthers, along with home games against the Vikings, Cardinals and 49ers -- in a season-ending rematch.
The other blemish on the Seahawks' résumé is that they've played virtually an entire season of close games and won almost every one of them. They are 7-1 in games decided by a touchdown or less, and many of those games have come down to last-minute success. They already have won four games in which they trailed at one point during the fourth quarter, including hard-fought victories over underwhelming teams such as the Bengals, Browns and Buccaneers. They needed both Rams star kicker Greg Zuerlein and rookie 49ers kicker Chase McLaughlin to miss game-winning field goal attempts, which they both did.
The Seahawks have outscored their opponents by just 21 points over 10 games, which we typically associate with a team that should win about 55% of their games. The Seahawks are instead 8-2, and while those wins are already in the bank and count just as much as blowout victories, the evidence suggests that this team is closer to good than great. They've likely already done enough to make it to the postseason, but it wouldn't be shocking if the Seahawks struggled over the remainder of the season.
The Saints also could struggle to keep up their level of success, after having gone 5-0 in one-score games, but they've been more dominant than that number indicates. In the Saints' win over Seattle, for example, the Seahawks only made it a one-score game by scoring with literally :00 left on the clock. The Buccaneers made it 31-24 by scoring with 19 seconds left. Even the 11-point win over the Bears seemed closer than it actually was by virtue of two Chicago touchdowns in the final three minutes.
3. Don't count out the Browns (yet)
When I wrote this column last year, I went searching for a team to go on an unexpected playoff run. I found the Colts. Indy was 3-5, but statistical indicators suggested that it was better than that, and the Colts had an easy schedule going forward. They promptly finished 7-1 and won a wild-card berth in the final game of the regular season.
There's no candidate quite as obvious this time around. The 4-6 Chargers are 2-6 in one-score games and about to get back Derwin James, but after facing the league's sixth-easiest schedule through Week 10, Philip Rivers & Co. face the toughest schedule in football over the remainder of the season. Things are similarly frustrating for the Bears, who will go from the league's eighth-easiest schedule to its second-toughest over the remainder of the season.
As frustrating as the Browns have been over the course of 2019, there's at least some reason to think they could still feature in the postseason. Their case isn't anywhere near as obvious as last year's Colts, but by beating the Bills on Sunday, the 3-6 Browns gained a key tiebreaker over a team who should also figure in the wild-card race. They also hold a win over the division-leading Ravens, although they're still four games behind Baltimore in the win column.
What makes this work for the Browns is their schedule. To this point, Cleveland has faced the league's fourth-toughest schedule. Over the next seven games, though, the Browns face what is projected to be the league's easiest slate. Five of Cleveland's final seven games are against teams that have already made a quarterback change (or two) this season, with a game against the Dolphins and home-and-homes against the Bengals and Steelers. Matchups with the Cardinals and Ravens finish out a beatable schedule for Cleveland.
The Browns certainly aren't favorites to make the playoffs. They're not even likely. FPI pegs Cleveland's chances of making an unexpected run to the playoffs at 11.9%. I would probably put them in the 15% to 20% range. It's more likely that they end up salvaging their season into something that augurs hope for 2020 with a respectable finish than it is that Cleveland actually makes it into January football. In a tier with teams such as the Rams (17% chance of making it to the playoffs), Jaguars (15.7%), Titans (13.6%) and Panthers (10.9%), the Browns are the most compelling option.
4. The Eagles and Steelers are on the rise
Among teams at the next tier of playoff contenders who have a good shot of exceeding expectations, I look toward Pennsylvania. The Eagles' pass defense has been a mess, and they face the Patriots this week, but even including that matchup, Doug Pederson's team faces the third-easiest schedule in football over the remainder of the season. After matchups against the Patriots and Seahawks, the Eagles finish with two games against the Giants, road trips to face Miami and Washington and a rematch with the Cowboys. FPI has the Eagles as slight underdogs to win the NFC East versus the Cowboys, but I think Philly is in better shape.
From Week 3 on, the Steelers rank third in QBR allowed (21.5), seventh in yards per carry allowed (3.8), fourth in sack rate (9.7%) and first in takeaway rate. They have forced takeaways on 27.7% of opposing drives, which is more than double the league average of 12.3%. The only other team to top 20% over that time frame is New England, which is at 22.0%.
You can't count on the Steelers forcing as many takeaways from here on out. They lead the league in both fumbles forced (21) and recovered (12) on defense, and both figures raise an eyebrow. Consider that the 2018 leader in fumbles recovered on defense after 10 weeks was the Browns, who had recovered an identical 12 fumbles on 21 tries. Over the remainder of the season, they recovered only two fumbles.
Minkah Fitzpatrick has figured into many of those takeaways. He has had an immediate and undeniable impact on the defense, although his effects may be slightly overstated. Last week, he had a fumble bounce into his hands and an interception tipped to him by a great play from Joe Haden in a play where he was the deep safety on that side in what appeared to be Cover 6. It's tempting to chalk that up to Fitzpatrick being in the right place at the right time, but given how rarely even the best safeties recover fumbles or catch tipped interceptions, it's more likely piling a bit of randomness onto the pile amid a great season.
I was skeptical of the Fitzpatrick trade when it happened. While I liked Fitzpatrick, dealing a first-round pick for the Dolphins defensive back seemed naive from a Pittsburgh team that was going to spend the rest of the year with Mason Rudolph at quarterback. The most likely outcome for the Steelers was going to be a disappointing season, and by trading away their first-round pick, they were dealing away their best shot at drafting a quarterback who could step in and replace Roethlisberger.
Well, the Steelers' season is back on track. Pittsburgh has won four straight games to get to 5-4, and it faces the league's sixth-easiest schedule over the remainder of the season. After Week 10, FPI makes the Steelers slight favorites to make it to the postseason at 51.3%. It would take a significant collapse (or an injury to Lamar Jackson) for the Ravens to fall out of first place in the AFC North, but the Steelers are at the top of a crowded AFC wild-card race with seven weeks to go.
That Pittsburgh pick in the 2020 draft likely won't be high enough for the Steelers to miss out on drafting a top quarterback, so that part of my argument against the trade no longer applies. At the same time, though, one of the reasons the Steelers reportedly made this deal was because they felt like they wouldn't drop off much from Roethlisberger with Rudolph.
It's still too early to draw any long-term conclusions about Rudolph's future, and he certainly has shown an ability to hit receivers downfield, but it would be naive to pretend that the Steelers are as effective on offense with Rudolph as they were with the future Hall of Famer. Rudolph has a 41.8 Total QBR, which ranks 26th in the league. Roethlisberger had a 69.6 Total QBR in 2018, the fourth-best mark in football. It's fair to say the training wheels are still on the rookie, who has thrown an even 34% of his passes at or behind the line of scrimmage, the highest rate in football. As a result, even though Rudolph's completion percentage is right around league average, he's averaging just 6.5 yards per attempt, 31st among starting quarterbacks.
There's nothing wrong with slowly integrating a new quarterback into a scheme, but it's at odds with what the Steelers suggested was the short-term benefit of making the Fitzpatrick trade. Rudolph hasn't been good enough for the Steelers to make a serious playoff run, even if they get there. If the defensive turnovers subside, Pittsburgh will need that easy schedule and some improvement from its second-year quarterback to make it to the postseason.
5. Some awful offenses should get better
With apologies to the Browns and Rams, the most disappointing offense of 2019 has to belong to Matt Nagy in Chicago. As recently as August, the Bears coach insisted that Mitchell Trubisky was way ahead in terms of reading defenses from where he was in 2018. I don't need to tell you things have gone poorly. Trubisky showed signs of life in throwing three touchdown passes during Sunday's win over the Lions, but even the most hard-core of Bears fans would have to admit that this has been a wildly disappointing season from the Chicago offense.
Inflated expectations are partly to blame. Even last season, the Bears were just 20th in offensive DVOA, behind teams such as the Giants, Broncos and Bengals. One other problem, though, has been what Trubisky's receivers have done with the ball in their hands. Chicago is averaging just 3.93 yards after catch this season, which comfortably ranks last in the league. Over the past decade, just seven teams have averaged fewer than 4.0 yards after their receptions; the Bears have enough weapons to make me think that number won't become eight.
If you're someone who owns Joe Mixon or Tyler Boyd in fantasy football, you've also probably been wondering where the touchdowns have gone. The Bengals have been a mess across the board this season, but their red zone performance is on a different level. Cincinnati has failed to score on eight of its 27 red zone possessions, which is incredible for a team that has spent so much of its year in garbage time. The Bengals have nearly as many zeros in the red zone (eight) as they do touchdowns (nine), which is about as bad as an offense can get.
ESPN has red zone data going back through 2001, and over that time frame, only four teams -- the 2006 Raiders, 2009 Rams, 2010 Panthers and 2012 Chiefs -- have turned the ball over without scoring in the red zone more frequently than they've punched the ball in for touchdowns. Cincinnati is averaging just 3.43 points per red zone trip, which is nearly a half-point worse than the 31st-ranked Washington offense. Even with a porous offensive line and rookie quarterback Ryan Finley taking over for Andy Dalton, this red zone offense should be better by sheer chance over the remainder of the season.
Washington is also likely to be better inside the 20 on offense, as should the Air Raid attack of Kliff Kingsbury in Arizona. Those are the only three offenses in the league averaging fewer than four points per red zone trip on offense so far this season, and red zone performance is inconsistent over any length of time.
On the flip side, another reason to worry about the Seahawks is their performance inside the 20. Russell Wilson & Co. have averaged a league-best 5.44 points per red zone trip this season, turning more than two-thirds of their red zone trips into touchdowns. (Only the Packers, Bills and Titans have scored touchdowns more frequently.) It would make sense that a Wilson-led offense would excel inside the 20, but the Seahawks averaged a far more reasonable 4.88 points per red zone trip from 2016-18.
Even if the line is better now than it was during those past few years, it's tough to imagine that the Seahawks will hover far above five points over the remainder of the season.
6. The Cowboys could go in any direction
No team is dealing with more mixed signals than the Cowboys. You can make a case that they're better than their current record. You can make a case that they're not as good as their record. I'm not sure which is more persuasive.
After going 8-2 in games decided by seven points or fewer last season, the Cowboys are 0-3 in those same games in 2019. Those losses include a 24-22 loss to the Jets in which the Cowboys failed to convert a 2-pointer to tie the score in the final minute and last week's 28-24 loss to the Vikings, when Dak Prescott marched the Cowboys downfield and Dallas inexplicably decided to run the ball twice once it got there. The Cowboys weren't going to go 8-2 in those games again in 2019, but they should win about half of their close games going forward.
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Orlovsky bashes Cowboys after loss to Vikings
Dan Orlovsky reacts to the Cowboys losing to the Vikings and doesn't think they should be considered playoff contenders.
Prescott also could get some help from his receivers. Dallas receivers are dropping 4.4% of his passes this season, the fifth-highest rate in the league. When you consider that Prescott is completing 68.3% of his passes -- 7.1% more than his expected completion rate by NFL Next Gen Stats, the largest positive gap for any full-time starter this season -- the difference between a typical season of drops and what Prescott has dealt with might be keeping him from serious MVP consideration.
There are some elements of Dallas' offense that are unlikely to be quite as fruitful from here on out, though. It has converted an even 50% of its third- and fourth-down tries, which is second behind the Ravens. The Dallas defense, meanwhile, has stopped opposing teams from moving the chains on two-thirds of its third downs, the third-best mark in football. Both of those figures are tough to keep up over an entire season.
While the Cowboys' schedule isn't tough, the competition is going to get tougher. They had the league's third-easiest schedule through the first 10 weeks, but they're right around league average from Weeks 11-17, with the 15th-toughest slate. Five of their games have come against teams that would pick in the top five of the draft if the season ended today, with the Cowboys going 4-1 in those contests. Just one of their remaining games -- the Week 17 contest against Washington -- comes against a team with one of the 10 worst records in football.
7. The league's best defenses probably won't be this good
There's a two-team race for the best defense in football. The Patriots and 49ers are first and second in DVOA, and there's a chasm between them and the pack. The third-placed Steelers are closer to the 25th-placed Lions than they are to the 49ers. Realistically, these two defenses are so far ahead that it's difficult to see any team catching up.
Asking the Patriots and 49ers to keep their current level of play up, though, might be too much. Even after the Pats put up their worst performance of the season against the Ravens in Week 9, they still have to expect some regression on third down. They are allowing opposing offenses to convert on just 18.9% of their third-down attempts this season. No other team is under 30%, and the modern record for any defense is the 25.2% mark posted by the Vikings in 2017. It's almost impossible to imagine New England finishing the season with a sub-20% conversion rate.
Richard Sherman & Co., meanwhile, can't expect to be this good in the red zone. The 49ers have allowed opposing offenses to average only 3.35 points per trip inside the 20. The Patriots (3.70 points per red zone trip) and Broncos (3.8) are the only other teams allowing fewer than 4.0 points per red zone opportunity on defense. The 49ers are excellent at keeping teams out of the red zone to begin with, but it's almost impossible to be this good at holding them to field goals and missed opportunities once they get there for an entire season.
One other reason to expect the 49ers to fade, at least a tiny bit: their pass rush. Research I've conducted has pointed out that there's virtually no relationship or predictive value between a team's pass rush over the first half of the season and the second half of that same campaign. So while the 49ers have racked up a league-high sack rate of 11.4% through Week 10, history suggests that their second-half sack rate is totally up in the air.
The same concerns would expect the Panthers (9.5%), Patriots (9.5%), and Steelers (9%) to be less effective rushing the passer over the rest of the season. On the flip side, the Bengals, Falcons, Dolphins, Ravens and Seahawks all have sack rates under 5%. Several of them should improve over the remainder of the season.
8. Joe Mixon leads the list of running backs likely to score more TDs
The Bengals have been a mess in the red zone. Mixon bizarrely has three touchdowns on 21 catches this season, but not one of his 131 carries has resulted in a touchdown. The average back scores on about 40% of his carries inside the 5-yard line. Mixon has eight carries inside the 5 without scoring, which is hard to do on purpose.
If you watched the Browns game last week, you also could have guessed Nick Chubb was below expectations; his 11 carries inside the 5 have yielded minus-6 yards and just two touchdowns. Saquon Barkley isn't 100%, but he has failed to score once on five carries inside the 5-yard line.
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Berry: Saquon requires new expectations
Matthew Berry isn't sure fantasy mangers have many options with Saquon Barkley other than managing their expectations.
In the big picture, backs typically turn about one out of every 33 runs into touchdowns. By that measure, we would expect more out of Leonard Fournette, who has scored just once on 174 rushing attempts over the first nine games of the season. He has three runs of 65 yards or more that didn't result in touchdowns. Each of the six other runs that have gone for 65 yards or more this season have resulted in touchdowns. As a back capable of breaking big plays who also gets goal-line work, Fournette should score more over the second half of the Jags' season.
On the flip side, the obvious candidate for touchdown regression is Aaron Jones. The Packers standout has 14 touchdowns on 181 touches, or just under one score for every 13 touches. That's better than LaDainian Tomlinson's touchdown rate when he set the single-season record with 31 in 2006. The only back in NFL history to touch the ball 200 times and average fewer than 13 touches per touchdown is Marshall Faulk in his 2000 campaign.
It's hard to believe Jones will keep up this scoring rate. McCaffrey's touchdown rate also is out of line with running back norms. In looking at run-heavy profiles, Mark Ingram has eight scores on 123 touches, including seven scores on 12 tries inside the 5-yard line. As good as the Baltimore running game has been, even Lamar Jackson hasn't produced that sort of scoring rate in short-yardage situations.
9. Michael Thomas and the receivers who will likely score more TDs
Thomas is a viable Offensive Player of the Year candidate, but to beat out the likes of McCaffrey and Dalvin Cook, he's going to need to score more. Thomas has 86 catches, and the average wideout will typically turn about one out of every 13 catches into a touchdown. (That mark obviously gets influenced by where and when they catch passes, which is why you should look toward Mike Clay's OTD statistic for a more contextualized analysis. That 1-in-13 rate is a good starting point.)
Somehow, Thomas has just four touchdowns. The 1-in-13 rate would expect him to produce about 6.6 scores on 86 catches. Before 2019, he had 23 touchdowns on 321 receptions, which is about one for every 14.5 receptions. If his target share keeps up, his touchdown rate should increase.
Three receivers have a gap of three or more touchdowns between their expected total and actual total. Rams wideout Robert Woods leads the pack, as the former Bills starter has yet to catch a touchdown pass across 45 receptions this season. (Bizarrely, he does have a rushing score.) Tyler Boyd has one touchdown on 57 receptions as Cincinnati's primary target, while Carolina's DJ Moore has scored once in 54 catches. All three should score more frequently over the final seven weeks of the season.
The touchdown machine at wideout, meanwhile, has been the Lions' Kenny Golladay. The third-year star has turned 38 receptions into eight touchdowns, when the 1-in-13 rate would project him at 2.9 scores. His 6-foot-4 frame makes him a natural target in the red zone, but four of his touchdowns have come from at least 30 yards out. As gifted as Golladay is, it's tough to project that sort of touchdown volume moving forward.
This isn't necessarily a size thing. There are three other wideouts who have caught three more touchdowns than their reception totals would suggest, and they're three very different players: 6-foot-4 downfield threat Tyrell Williams, 6-foot-2 slot weapon Adam Thielen, and 5-foot-10 speed demon Mecole Hardman. They've combined to catch 74 passes and score 16 touchdowns. That's not sustainable.
10. Kickers are a disaster ... against the Chargers?
If you can't beat them, join them? The Chargers have struggled with disastrously bad kickers for most of the past few years, and while Michael Badgley seemed to solidify the position last season, the Money Badger missed the first eight games of the season with a groin injury. In his absence, the duo of Ty Long and Chase McLaughlin went 13-of-18 on field goals. Long went back to his duties as the team's full-time punter, while McLaughlin just spent one fateful week as the 49ers' place-kicker.
What is truly strange, though, is the line for opposing kickers against the Chargers. In 10 games against L.A., opposing kickers have gone just 12-of-22 (54.5%) on field goals and 16-for-21 (76.2%) on extra points. Missed kicks by Adam Vinatieri and Eddy Pineiro led to two of the Chargers' four victories this season. Why are kickers struggling in the friendly weather of Los Angeles when the Chargers play half of their games in a soccer stadium? That's a mystery to me, too.
British wheelchair racers win gold and silver in the T34 800m at World Para Athletics Championships as Maria Lyle also strikes sprint gold
Hannah Cockroft stormed to her second gold of the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai as she set a championship record of 1:57.27 in the women’s T34 800m.
Behind, Kare Adenegan made it a British one-two as she clocked a 2:01.32 PB to hold off Alexa Halko of the United States by three hundredths of a second in the battle for silver.
The race unfolded during the early hours of Thursday morning for Cockroft’s fans in the UK and on the penultimate day of the championships as she added to a GB medal tally and also the 100m gold that Cockroft won herself earlier in the championships.
Adenegan led the early stages but Cockroft powered down the back straight on the final lap and built on her lead as she surged away.
“The 800m is such a game. It is so tactical, and it is all about playing off the other girls’ strengths,” said Cockroft. “I thought, I don’t want to leave this until 100m to go, I knew Kare or Alexa could do anything then. I just needed to get out of a sticky place. My favourite event in the 400m so I knew I could hold the speed a little longer.”
Adenegan, 18, said: “It was scary on the line. I was thinking ‘no, no, no, I’m not letting you pass.’ I really had to work hard in that final 100m and had to keep digging deep.”
There was more success for Britain as Maria Lyle won the T35 women’s 200m in 30.33 by an almost two-second margin to add to the 100m title she won earlier in the week.
The T61 men’s 200m final saw a battle of the generations with 17-year-old Ntando Mahlangu of South Africa running 23.23 to beat Britain’s 43-year-old veteran Richard Whitehead to the title.
James Turner of Australia won the T36 400m for athletes with cerebral palsy in a world record of 51.71 as Britain’s Paul Blake, the world 800m champion, was fifth in 55.91.
Karolina Kucharczyk of Poland won the women’s T20 long jump with a world record of 6.21m as Britain’s Martina Barber, featured in AW magazine earlier this month, was eighth with 5.20m.
World records were also set by Cicero Lins Nobre of Brazil with 49.26m in the men’s F57 javelin, Elizabeth Rodriguez Gomes of Brazil with 16.89m in the women’s F52 discus and Denis Gnezdilov of Russia with 10.88 in the men’s F40 shot.
The campaign has seen Springboks captain Siya Kolisi posing in his pants on his Instagram page. Other team-mates doing the same include Makazole Mapimpi, Cheslin Kolbe, Damian de Allende, Malcolm Marx and Jesse Kriel.
How to check your testicles
A good time to check your testicles is after a warm bath or shower, when the skin is relaxed.
Cup your hand under them and check for swelling and lumps.
Roll each testicle between your finger and thumb and feel the weight.
The UK's National Health Service (NHS) says most men's testicles are around the same size, although it's common for one to be slightly bigger than the other or hang lower.
There might be something wrong if you find a hard lump on the front or side of a testicle, if a testicle is swollen, or if there's pain or discomfort in a testicle or in the scrotum (the sack that holds the testicles).
England flanker Marlie Packer will win her 70th cap when the Red Roses face France in Exeter on Saturday.
England kicked off their autumn internationals with an impressive 20-10 win over France last weekend, their first on French soil for seven years.
Head coach Simon Middleton makes just one change to the starting XV from that victory, with wing Lydia Thompson replacing Jess Breach.
"We were delighted to secure our first win in France since 2012," he said.
"The players put a real shift in and stuck to the plan. We have had a good week's recovery and preparation, which we will now complete in Devon.
"Certainly from our point of view, we will be looking to improve on a couple of areas, the primary one being our handling."
England team to face France: McKenna; Thompson, Scarratt, Harrison, Dow; Daley-Mclean, Riley; Botterman, Davies, Bern, Aldcroft, Scott, Beckett, Packer, Hunter.
GAFFNEY, S.C. – The first race of the inaugural Xtreme DIRTcar Series winter tour kicks off Nov. 24 with the running of the 29th annual Blue Gray 100 at Cherokee Speedway.
This storied event hosts some of the best super late model talent from across the Southeast, coming together in a 100-lap battle for $10,000 to win.
The Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series has sanctioned the year-end racing extravaganza since 2015 but will co-sanction this year’s running with DIRTcar, serving as the first race for the Xtreme Series and the final race for the Clash.
Cherokee Promoter Scott Childress was recently presented with the 2019 Promoter of the Year Award at the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series awards banquet last Sunday in Concord, N.C., for his honorable efforts at the helm of both this year at Cherokee and Lavonia Speedway.
Since 2017, Childress has worn the promoter hat at Cherokee and has continued to satisfy Super Late Model fans by hosting several different regional and national series races at the historic venue. Next Sunday, he’ll make yet another advancement into the future by hosting the first Xtreme Series race of 2019, helping to usher in a new venture of super late model racing into both the DIRTcar Racing family and to the Southeastern United States.
Childress credits the great relationship he’s formed in recent years with DIRTcar Racing and the World of Outlaws for the three races he’ll promote on the Xtreme tour in 2019-20 (Cherokee – Nov. 24; Lavonia – Dec. 15; Cherokee – Jan. 18), especially with Morton Buildings Late Model Series Director Casey Shuman and his team.
“Casey and I were talking about it, and that’s a great group of guys that I enjoy working with,” Childress said. “I’m always game to get involved. We were talking about it and it just made sense. To me, it’s a perfect race to introduce it to.”
his is the only 100-lap super late model race the track runs all year, but that’s exactly what makes the event unique.
“It’s 100 laps, so it’s not a sprint to the checkered flag,” Childress said. “Teams have to consider tires and other factors to run more laps, and it’s always a really interesting race… there’s always a little bit of drama.
“The Blue Gray always has a lot of people there. This is something different that we give [the fans]. It’s a different base of drivers, and just a different viewpoint.”
Statistically speaking, Team Zero racer and home-state favorite Chris Madden is among the favorites to taste victory in this year’s running, having won three Blue Gray titles in 2004, 2013 and 2015. Despite multiple starts at Cherokee this year, he was unable to reach victory lane but came very close in the most recent World of Outlaws visit, the inaugural Mike Duvall Memorial on Oct. 4, with a runner-up effort.
Last year’s winner, Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., will be back to defend his crown after a great year behind the wheel of the Rum Runner Racing No. 2. He’s been victory lane several times this year, including once at Cherokee in the Mike Duvall Memorial, and will certainly be a contender in the Blue Gray again this year.
The National Women's Hockey League closed a new round of equity funding on Thursday.
The NWHL now has a group of more than 20 investors, including Neil Leibman, a co-owner of MLB's Texas Rangers, Joel Leonoff, the vice chairman of the Paysafe Group, Michael Gilfillan, a former co-owner of the New Jersey Devils, Lee Heffernan, the founding partner of the W Agency and Matthew Arpano, managing director at Silvercrest Asset Management Group. According to the league, everyone who invested at the start, in 2015, is still with the league.
"The funding gives us the flexibility of either selling an expansion market or our league owning it at the outset," commissioner Dani Rylan said.
The NWHL is in its fifth season. The league expanded its schedule to 24 regular-season games for each of the five teams, plus increased its salary cap to $150,000 per team -- up 50 percent from $100,000 last season. Additionally, for the first time, players are receiving a 50 percent split of revenue from all league-level sponsorship and media deals. That includes the league's new three-year streaming partnership with Twitch. According to the NWHL, there were 949,065 total viewers for October games on Twitch, with an average of 67,790 viewers per game. The league does not yet have attendance figures for this season.
In September, the Boston Pride were purchased by a team of investors, led by Miles Arnone. The NWHL owns and operates the four other franchises, though that could change.
Rylan said the league will continue to work with The Sports Advisory Group "to find great owners for our teams." Rylan said the sale of the Pride has been "phenomenal for the Pride and our league."
If you're even casually following what's going on in the sports world these days, you're already quite familiar with the concept of load management. Everywhere you look, it's changing the way sports are played, the way players are used and how we digest it all as viewers.
In the NBA, it's a concept that has been not only adopted universally but also taken to the extreme in many cases. Last season, the Toronto Raptors played Kawhi Leonard in just 60 regular-season games, masterfully massaging his minutes to keep him as fresh as possible en route to winning the championship. In the NFL, teams have widely drifted away from the bell-cow running back, limiting touches in an attempt to elongate a frighteningly short shelf life at the position. In baseball, teams are treating the 100-pitch mark as a blinking hazard light, going to their bullpens more quickly than ever (and in some cases completely scrapping the starting pitcher and beginning games with relievers).
Regardless of the sport, the thinking is the same. Teams are treating their players as assets and the long-term contracts they're signed to as investments. With the developments in sports science that have shown the links among fatigue, performance and injury, clubs are doing what they can to keep players productive and healthy for as long as possible.
While the NHL will never be mistaken for being at the cutting edge of progress, that isn't to say that we haven't seen this trend start to take root in hockey as well. The biggest advancements thus far have undoubtedly been made with the handling of goaltenders.
Proven results, increasing levels of adoption
The proof is in the pudding, and the results are hard to quibble with. Of the teams that won a playoff round last season, the Sharks (62) and Blue Jackets (61) were the only ones to start their No. 1 goalie more than 45 times over the course of the regular season. The Bruins made a concerted effort to play Tuukka Rask less than ever and were rewarded with a brilliant postseason performance from a goalie who was peaking at the right time.
If the NHL really is a copycat league and people are paying attention, the success of the early adopters of the 1A-1B, 50-50 workload split in net is going to lead to this trend not only continuing but also potentially going further until certain boundaries are established. While playing the same goalie in both legs of a back-to-back is essentially a no-fly zone already, teams are now trying to squeeze in even more mandated nights off for their starters.
At the moment, there are only seven goalies trending toward starting more than 60 games, based on their early-season usage, with the healthy majority of netminders (22 to be exact) sandwiched somewhere between 41 and 55 appearances:
Goalies in that ballpark are now the norm, with the ones in the middle-to-high 60s serving as the exceptions. Matt Murray and Carey Price are currently the only two who find themselves in the high 60s, but even that is likely at least partly a byproduct of uneven scheduling quirks in the early going. Both the Canadiens and Penguins have six remaining back-to-backs before the end of the 2019 calendar year, which means we'll see those projected start totals dip in the coming weeks.
There's no perfect formula for teams to follow when it comes to divvying up starts in net. Although the theory of alternating goalies is sound in nature, executing it in practice isn't quite as simple. I'm sure that every coach would love to have their cake and eat it too by preserving the starter for the playoffs without ever having to sweat getting there, but there are many other factors to consider.
Depending on the given team's situation, those factors can range from the age and durability of the starter to the confidence in and experience of the backup to the urgency to bank as many points as possible.
All of that makes the decision of whom to play a whole lot easier when you have a strong defensive system that'll make any goalie playing behind it look great or two equally effective options who could be playing more on most other teams.
Let's break down what each team is currently getting from its first and second options between the pipes. There's still some early-season noise in the numbers, especially for the sparsely used backups who have seen only a couple of games of action thus far. But that doesn't mean there aren't useful takeaways to gather from both usage and performance.
The New York Islanders, Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars have this thing down to a science. Last season, no one more appropriately represented the modern timeshare in net and the potential benefits of it than these teams, and they appear to be doing it once again.
Not to discredit the work of Thomas Greiss and Semyon Varlamov, but at this point, I'm beginning to suspect that you or I could be transformed into a functional NHL goaltender after a summer of training under the watchful eyes of Barry Trotz and Mitch Korn.
Anyone who expected the Islanders to regress after last season's dream campaign have been proven wrong in the early going. The Isles have come back and posted a league-best save percentage and goals-against clip as a team. They clearly have a brilliant game plan when it comes to what they're willing to concede defensively, and they stick to it without fail. But even acknowledging that, it's remarkable how effective they've been with the personnel they have. They're coming off a recent 10-game winning streak in which they gave up 17 goals total, and until something fundamentally changes, I won't be the one to bet against Trotz and Korn's wizardry.
As mentioned previously, Tuukka Rask started just 45 games over the course of the previous regular season, which was the lowest figure for him since Tim Thomas left town and Rask became the starter. It's no coincidence that he wound up benefiting from the lighter workload, posting a .934 save percentage and saving +13.04 goals above average in his 24 playoff games.
Based on early usage, it looks like the Bruins are trending toward a similar split, which is smart considering their playoff aspirations. It helps having Jaroslav Halak to eat up the rest of the games because he's an overqualified backup who could surely handle more work elsewhere. But it's a win-win situation for both parties because he gets to play behind a great team without overextending himself as he enters his mid-30s.
The Stars similarly make life easy for their goalies. Although I've quibbled with Jim Montgomery's approach when it comes to how methodically the Stars play -- and whether they'd be better suited by opening things up to get more out of their best offensive weapons -- it's hard to argue with the defensive results. They're first in chances against, first in expected goals against, sixth in save percentage and third in goals against. While Ben Bishop's individual numbers continue to be absurdly good, Dallas is smart not to fall into the trap of riding him into the ground. He has started 37, 51 and 45 games the past three seasons while battling a laundry list of injuries, and with three years left on his deal, the Stars are incentivized to keep him healthy.
Even by unpredictable goaltending standards, Darcy Kuemper's rise from someone seemingly destined to be a career backup to a total world-beater in net has been a surprising development. Check out Kuemper's splits:
2013-18: 131 games, .912 save percentage, -5.3 goals saved
Since start of 2018-19 season: 68 games, .926 save percentage, +33.7 goals saved
There's no doubt that playing behind this Coyotes system has been a big factor in Kuemper's meteoric rise. Although Arizona is only middle of the pack on a shot-quantity-conceded basis, the Coyotes do an excellent job of pushing teams further out and keeping everything on the perimeter. They're currently surrendering the fifth-fewest high-danger chances against and the eighth-fewest expected goals against, which makes for a lethal combination with Kuemper's size and athleticism.
Kuemper's emergence puts the Coyotes in a great spot moving forward. At this point, Antti Raanta will likely never put it all together and soak up a large number of starts over the course of a full season, but he doesn't have to. This team can afford to manage his usage carefully in an attempt to keep him healthy because it has two similarly priced, effective options in net who can alternate without any real drop-off.
The Rangers are an exceedingly young team that is still waiting for some pieces to fall into place on the blue line, and as such, they're quite porous defensively. In the most notable defensive metrics, they're currently:
31st in shot attempts against
30th in shots on goal against
30th in high-danger chances against
31st in expected goals against
That has led to some games that seem eerily familiar to past seasons, in which Henrik Lundqvist has had to stand on his head under a barrage of shots, including three 40-plus-save games in his first nine appearances. While he clearly isn't what he used to be, it's no surprise that he's fighting Father Time as gracefully as can be humanly expected, given the circumstances. He was in vintage form in a recent back-to-back slate in which he stopped 80 of 83 shots faced in a 24-hour span.
Although it's easy to get lost in Lundqvist's feats and forget about everything else, it's worth noting that Alexandr Georgiev's numbers thus far are nearly a carbon copy of the veteran's. It's an encouraging sign that the Rangers will be able to continue to effectively split the starts down the middle between the two of them, hopefully getting the most out of Lundqvist at this point of his career while continuing to progress in their succession plan in net.
It's almost impossible to envision a bigger change in surroundings than what Robin Lehner has undergone this season, transitioning from Barry Trotz's defensive structure to Chicago's matador scheme. He has already faced 50-plus shots twice in his first 10 games with the Blackhawks, something he didn't do all of the previous season. In fact, his regular-season high with the Islanders was 41 shots against, and he had 40-plus shots thrown his way five times all season.
The difference hasn't just been in quantity, however, because the quality of the looks Chicago is surrendering is also significantly higher. Here's the comparison between the two shot profiles he has faced on a per-hour basis:
What's most impressive about Lehner's performance thus far is that you wouldn't know how bad the Blackhawks have been in front of him by looking at his sparkling numbers. His .934 save percentage exceeds the .930 mark he posted last season with the Islanders, and his +9.08 goals saved above average rate is behind only that of Connor Hellebuyck and former teammate Thomas Greiss for tops in the league.
It's still early, but Lehner is doing wonders to alleviate concerns about how much of his excellence last season was a one-hit wonder or the doing of his coaches. He's once again thriving, and he should earn himself the big payday he's looking for this summer if he can keep up anything resembling this.
There are a lot of concerns about the Maple Leafs' play of late, but their one nagging bugaboo is their inability to find a reliable backup goalie who affords them the ability to spell Frederik Andersen without immediately conceding defeat.
Michael Hutchinson is the latest name to falter in the role, though it's not entirely his fault, considering the list of opponents he was thrown against on the second leg of back-to-back situations. That said, he surrendered at least four goals against and stopped less than 90% of the shots he faced in each of his five starts, so it isn't surprising that the team is looking elsewhere for help.
Perhaps it's also a testament to how consistently excellent Andersen is at stopping pucks because everyone else the Leafs have tried struggled mightily behind the same group of players. But Toronto can't continue to rely on Andersen to the degree that it has in the past if it hopes to finally change its future outlook. Andersen has started at least 60 games in each of his four campaigns with the Leafs, and no goalie has appeared in more games than his 206 since the start of 2016.
There's a lot we don't know about the goaltending position, but one thing that has become abundantly clear is that the Vegas Golden Knights will go as far as Marc-Andre Fleury takes them.
On the one hand, they're in good hands because he has proven to be remarkably good at stopping the puck, once again warranting having his name in the early Vezina Trophy discussion. His .921 save percentage and +5.5 goals saved above average this season are both firmly in the top 10, as he continues to be rock-solid in net for the Knights. Similar to Frederik Andersen, his performance becomes even more impressive when you factor in how much the other goalies the team has used since joining the league have struggled:
Fleury: 121 starts, .919 save percentage, +28.8 goals saved
Fleury's backups: 62 starts, .897 save percentage, -28.8 goals saved
If there's a concern, it's that Fleury is about to turn 35 years old, will hit the 1,000 career NHL games played mark at some point this season and has dealt with a variety of injuries in the past. Given that age and mileage, the Knights need to be careful with how they use him moving forward, but this is easier said than done considering the gap in performance between Fleury and the alternatives.
The list of positives from the first month of the season in Winnipeg begins and ends with Connor Hellebuyck. His .928 save percentage is behind just that of Darcy Kuemper and Ben Bishop among goalies who have started the predominant majority of their team's games, and his +9.6 goals saved above average are a league best. Those are awfully impressive numbers for a goalie who is playing behind a patchwork defense.
The blue-line depth chart looked so bleak heading into the season that many pundits fairly predicted that the Jets would be among the worst goal-suppression teams in the league. It's actually remarkable that they're in the middle of the pack in goals against, considering the players who have been logging heavy minutes on defense and that they've given up the ninth-most shots and fifth-most high-danger chances.
Hellebuyck's return to form after struggles last season couldn't have come at a better time for the Jets because he has helped cover up the fact that the team in front of him is dramatically worse than it was in the past -- especially with backup Laurent Brossoit crashing back down to earth, putting an end to any goalie controversy rumblings that might have lingered in Winnipeg after last season.
It seems strange to say of a goalie who is coming off a season in which he backstopped his team to a Stanley Cup victory and finished as the runner-up for the Calder Trophy, but Jordan Binnington entered the season with something to prove. It's one thing to put together a hot stretch of games like he did upon joining the team and resurrecting them in the second half of last season. It's another thing to follow it up over the course of a full campaign with a more substantial workload than he has ever had to shoulder and do so with the league having had a full summer to dissect his strengths and weaknesses.
Binnington has more than passed the test early, starting the lion's share of the Blues' games, stopping 92.1% of the shots he has faced and saving a stellar +5.9 goals above average already. The Blues will need him to keep it up because the team's margin for error shrunk following the loss of Vladimir Tarasenko and his goal scoring, and Jake Allen has definitively proven that he can't be relied upon.
It has similarly been an encouraging start to the season for David Rittich in a prove-it season, albeit under different circumstances. Although he had strong moments in 2018-19, he finished the season by posting a save percentage south of .900 after the All-Star break before losing his job to Mike Smith in the postseason. The Flames showed him a vote of confidence this summer by not actively pursuing anything resembling a real threat to his starting gig, and he has rewarded them thus far.
Despite their recent winning streak, the Sharks find themselves 29th in team save percentage and 28th in goals against this season. It can't be entirely surprising that they're once again struggling in both areas, considering that they didn't tangibly change anything about the group that couldn't keep the puck out of its net last season.
Although it's difficult to argue that either Martin Jones or Aaron Dell is good enough at this point to warrant the regular playing time both are receiving out of necessity, their flaws are only exacerbated by playing behind a system that does them no favors. Because of the combination of personnel and aggressive approach, San Jose leaves itself highly vulnerable to a flurry of dangerous odd-man rushes coming back the other way.
Last season, the Sharks were good enough offensively and in possessing the puck that they could afford to pinch their noses on the occasions when their goalies were tested. They knew they'd be able to bail them out more often than not. That's the main difference this season; now the quantity of looks the goalies are conceding is just as alarmingly high as the quality of the opportunities.
The complicating factor is that a quick fix is easier said than done. Whether it's because of how financially committed they are to Jones or the lack of cap space or draft capital with which to improve their roster, the Sharks don't have many palatable options. But they need to do something because we have a large enough sample with this team as currently constructed to know that things won't get any better unless they change the goalies or change the way they're playing in front of them.
It's tough to say whether this is a good or bad thing, considering the long-term ramifications of the decision to sign Sergei Bobrovsky, but unlike the Sharks, the Panthers at least went above and beyond to fix their goaltending issues this summer. The troublesome part is that despite the $70 million they invested in Bobrovsky, the results haven't been all that much better.
Last season, they were 30th in overall save percentage and 27th in goals against as a team. This season, they're 27th and 26th in those respective metrics, which technically represents improvement -- but not nearly enough for the money paid. Bobrovsky's struggles have been immense in the early going. His .881 save percentage is ahead of just that of Cory Schneider, Jonathan Quick and Michael Hutchinson this season, and his -10.9 goals saved above average is 62nd out of 63 qualified goalies.
If there's a saving grace, it's that Bobrovsky struggled similarly out of the gate last season before turning his season around. Although it's unlikely that he suddenly forgot how to stop the puck over the summer, concerns about the contract are popping up much sooner than even the biggest skeptics believed they would.
The Capitals are approaching a crossroads with their goalies. There's no doubt that their starter, despite the early results, is Braden Holtby, but Ilya Samsonov's early performance makes things more interesting. Aside from the one stinker against the Canucks (which the Capitals actually came back to win), Samsonov has been the superior goalie, giving Washington a strong chance to win each time he has been given an opportunity.
Holtby has had some great games of his own, but he has also been more prone to duds, which have seemingly been a more frequent occurrence the past couple of seasons. Although he has been a great goalie with some epic playoff performances over the years, there's a ticking clock on his time with the team, considering his impending free agency and age (he'll be 31 by the start of next season).
For now, Washington would do well to keep giving Samsonov as many games as he can handle. Not only does it benefit the Caps to groom him for his role as the team's starter in the near future, but it also keeps Holtby fresh for the stretch run. It's worth remembering that Holtby started only 54 regular-season games during the Caps' Stanley Cup season, ceding the crease to backup Philipp Grubauer for extended stretches of time.
With the team's spot in the playoff picture looking quite secure following a dominant point streak, Washington has afforded itself plenty of wiggle room to experiment. It isn't a real goalie controversy yet, but as long as Samsonov keeps playing as well as he has, this should be much more of a timeshare throughout the regular season than we expected coming in.
We're at the part of the NHL season where trends are starting to emerge. Slow starts are no longer excusable; guys have had ample opportunity to find their groove.
For this week's ESPN NHL Power Rankings, we identified a player (or area) on each team that needs to improve.
How we rank: The ESPN hockey editorial staff submits polls ranking teams 1-31, and those results are tabulated to the list featured here. Teams are rated through Tuesday night's games, taking into account overall record, recent success and other factors such as injuries. The previous ranking for each team is its spot in last week's edition.
The Caps are cruising lately -- playing a great brand of physical hockey, and scoring a ton of goals. One area they can improve: Taking fewer penalties. Even though the penalty kill is in better shape than last season, Washington has 78 minor penalties, second most in the league. And improving there is on just about everyone.
The defending champs are thriving despite adversity. New forward Jacob De La Rose doesn't necessarily need to step up, but he gets a prime opportunity to do so with Alexander Steen sidelined. De La Rose needs to prove he can thrive as a grinder in Craig Berube's system.
Things were looking terrific for the Bruins, until this current four-game slide, including a massive blown lead against the Panthers this week. Finding secondary scoring remains a focus. And now, do we have to worry about Boston closing out games, typically a Bruce Cassidy hallmark?
Oliver Wahlstrom responded quite well to his AHL assignment, with a goal, an assist and eight shots in three games back in Bridgeport. We expect the rookie to step up and start contributing offensively when he gets his NHL call.
We know this team needs players not named Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl to step up offensively. (James Neal has been admirable as an addition to that tandem). How about Ryan Nugent-Hopkins? He did have a two-goal night against Anaheim, but he has only six points at even strength this season.
Nathan MacKinnon is back in MVP mode, doing it all while his team is banged up. The new guys are contributing and even the relatively unknown 22-year-old goaltender, Adam Werner, stood out in emergency relief. We could pick someone who needs to step up, but it would really just be nitpicking.
Phil Kessel has brought leadership to the locker room, and the team just posted an impressive back-to-back road sweep of the two most recent Cup champs. But Kessel has just three goals in 19 games and hasn't given the power play the boost they thought they might receive.
We've been impressed by the Canadiens' improvements this season, especially on offense, as they're scoring 3.44 goals per game, and the power play, which was a sore spot last season. The Habs have taken a step back defensively, though, and their penalty killing could use a shape up.
So it all seems to be coming together for Joel Quenneville in Florida, as the Panthers are looking as if they should be a playoff team. But Sergei Bobrovsky still isn't playing up to his hefty contract (.881 save percentage, 3.52 goals-against average), and he was chased by the Bruins on Tuesday.
There's not much to complain about regarding the Canucks, as they're still performing better than expected. Captain Bo Horvat, on the surface, is doing great (good possession numbers, fourth on the team in scoring), but of his 14 points, just six are at even strength.
The Flames have shuffled the lineup quite a bit after some early-season malaise. A player who doesn't look like his dominant self: Johnny Gaudreau. After finishing last season eighth in the NHL with 99 points, Gaudreau has been inconsistent, including a recent 12-game drought without a goal.
Philadelphia is finding its groove lately, winning four straight games recently to slide into a playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division. They could use more from $50 million free-agent acquisition Kevin Hayes, who has just seven points in 17 games and his lowest faceoff percentage since 2015-16.
The Penguins nearly went a month without a power-play goal. They've had unrelenting bad injury luck. They rarely lead early. And yet, they keep finding ways to get points. So we decided to give the Pens a pass this week.
Most everything is going well offensively for the Predators these days -- like, really well. But we're starting to worry again about Kyle Turris. After scoring seven points in his first nine games (a positive development) he has just one point (a goal) in nine games since.
Sure, the Leafs left Michael Hutchinson out to dry -- they played terribly in front of the backup goalie, often on the back end of back-to-backs -- leading the team to waive the 29-year-old. The Leafs are in desperate need of a dependable backup. Kasimir Kaskisuo gets the next opportunity.
Since Oct. 12, Nino Niederreiter has just four points in 13 games. The Canes are expecting more from their middle-six winger, who scored a combined 53 points with the Canes and Wild last season.
Vegas is in a slump. The Knights have gone 3-4-3 over their last 10. They've relied heavily on Marc-Andre Fleury since the team's first season, but even he hasn't looked quite like himself lately, while backups Malcolm Subban and Oscar Dansk haven't provided much confidence.
The Lightning seem to be waking up after an early-season slumber, but they still expect more out of their top stars. It's surprising Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov have just five goals each -- or, one more than Kevin Shattenkirk, who was bought out by the Rangers this summer.
The Jets' blue line was projected to be a problem this season. But their offense shouldn't be struggling like this, too. Captain Blake Wheeler has 10 points in 19 games, on pace for about half of his 91-point total from each of the past two seasons.
The Sabres are in danger of another collapse after scoring 12 goals in their past seven games, six of them losses. Half of those goals were scored by Jack Eichel or Sam Reinhart. So pretty much everyone else needs to step up offensively (looking at you, Jeff Skinner, with two points in his last seven).
The Ducks have fallen back to Earth after a surprisingly good start. This team is missing its best defensive pair in Josh Manson and Hampus Lindholm, but the entire defense needs to step up. They've left goalies John Gibson and Ryan Miller high and dry; luckily both have been excellent, or this would look much uglier.
The kids are showing up for the Rangers these days, but it has been a disappointing start for one of them: 21-year-old Lias Andersson. He hasn't earned trust with coach David Quinn -- his ice time reflects that, with less than 10 minutes in each of the past three games -- and he has scored just one point in 15 games.
We're nearing the one-year anniversary of CEO Jim Lites' infamous tirade about the team's two biggest stars. Well, the organization is still frustrated. Coach Jim Montgomery called out the production of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin last week. (Montgomery since apologized to the team, but the emotions were real).
The Sharks are getting their act together, winning four straight. The return of Radim Simek has helped on defense. But if this team is going anywhere, they need more from goaltending. Martin Jones has a .887 save percentage through 15 games; only three of his 13 starts falling into the quality start category.
Can we ask an entire group to step up? The Blackhawks have a surplus of defensemen they're rotating in and out, but they're still leaky, giving up a league-high 37.1 shots per game. Good thing free-agent signing Robin Lehner has been so steady; he has already had to face 50-plus shots in two of his 10 starts.
The great regression after going all-in last season has come, and it's not pretty. Plenty of players aren't putting forward their best performance. One of them is Josh Anderson, who has two points in 12 games, and hasn't been playing as physically as we're used to seeing.
Call it the Robby Fabbri effect. The Red Wings have turned things around with three-straight wins. This is a prime opportunity for another new addition -- Brendan Perlini -- to get his career back on track. He's scoreless in seven games.
The Devils hoped P.K. Subban would slot in as their true No. 1 defenseman, a player who would steer the point on the power play. He's not the only Devil underperforming, but it's noticeable that Subban has zero points on the man advantage this season.
It's hard to pick on the Senators, given what they're working with. There's probably not enough NHL-caliber talent on this roster. There is, however, enough decent personnel for a functioning power play, including young foundational pieces Thomas Chabot and Brady Tkachuk. And that's an area that has been absolutely dreadful, clicking at a 6.5 percent rate.
There are plenty of Wild players who need to step up. One under the spotlight is Jason Zucker, who was benched recently and has been called out by coach Bruce Boudreau to do more. Zucker has had some bad defensive lapses. At even strength, he has been on the ice for 10 goals for and 19 goals against.
The Kings are officially the NHL's bottom feeders. There are multiple fundamental issues on this roster, but they haven't received what they've wanted from Ilya Kovalchuk, and he's being held out of the lineup as a result.
Catriona Matthew will captain the European Solheim Cup team again in 2021.
The Ladies European Tour made it official in an announcement Thursday at Gleneagles in Matthew’s native Scotland, where she led the Euros to victory against the Americans in September in one of the most exciting finishes in the history of the biennial international team event.
Matthew, 50, will captain the Euros in a road game this time, with the United States hosting the Solheim Cup at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.
“Winning the Solheim Cup in Scotland was a dream come true but backing that up with a win in American would be even better,” Matthew said.
The Europeans are 1-7 in Solheim Cups played in the United States.
“It’s always harder to win on U.S. soil, but I’m honored to be tasked with the mission,” Matthew said. “I was lucky enough to be part of the first European team to win on U.S. soil at Colorado Golf Club in 2013 and so know what’s possible.”
Matthew added to her already impressive Solheim Cup history as the architect of the European victory in her homeland in September. She took a risk naming Suzann Pettersen one of her captain’s picks, with Pettersen out of tournament play around the birth of her first child for most of the last two years, and yet Pettersen delivered the final victorious stroke for Matthew’s team, holing a birdie putt on the final hole in the final match at Gleneagles.
Matthew becomes the fifth European to captain multiple Solheim Cup teams, the first to do so in back-to-back Solheim Cups since Alison Nicholas in 2009 and ’11. As a player, Matthew was a force, compiling 22 Solheim Cup points, third most in the event’s history behind Laura Davies (25) and Annika Sorenstam (24).
Matthew penned a first-person column on her experience as captain on LPGA.com, sharing how team and family overlap as concepts.
“I talked to many past captains of both the Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup,” she wrote. “Each offered something valuable. I learned about not only compromise, but communication ... communication with players, caddies and back-room team. That was a key to our victory. I listened and stayed attuned to as many needs as possible. It’s not all that different from being a mother, actually. You have to guide your children in a certain way to get the best out of them, but also give them room and freedom to grow and perform at their best. The same is true when you’re captaining a Solheim Cup team.”
On this day in 1988, Curtis Strange won the Tour Championship at Pebble Beach to become the first player in PGA Tour history to earn $1 million in a season.
By contrast, 112 players earned over $1 million last season and 13 players have already crossed that threshold nine events into this new campaign.
Here are some notable numbers relating to the Tour's annual money list:
Tiger Woods, in 1997, becomes first player to cross $2 million in a season
Woods breaks $3-, $4-, $5- and $6-million barriers by earning $6,616,585 in 1999
One year later, Woods breaks $7-, $8- and $9-million barriers by earning $9,188,321
In 2004, Vijay Singh becomes first player to break $10 million
In 2015, Jordan Spieth sets a new Tour standard with $12,030,465 (still the record)
Woods holds the record for most money titles with 10
Here's a look at the money leaders each year, beginning with Strange in 1988:
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