Tyrrell Hatton's sunset-defying victory in Turkey earned him a healthy jump in the latest Official World Golf Ranking.

Hatton was the last man standing in a six-man playoff at the Turkish Airlines Open, having parred the fourth and final playoff hole in the dark under floodlights. Hatton started the year ranked 23rd but had fallen to 48th; now with another Rolex Series trophy to his name he's back up to 30th in the world.

That position ensures that he'll earn a return to the Masters next spring, with the top 50 in the year-end rankings all qualifying for the first major of 2020. It's an important cutoff for two players Hatton beat in the playoff, as Erik Van Rooyen and Victor Perez moved to 51st and 52nd, respectively, with their T-2 finishes. Neither player has ever made a Masters appearance.

Kurt Kitayama moved up 19 spots to No. 69 after his playoff defeat in Turkey, while the same result moved Matthias Schwab and Benjamin Hebert to Nos. 80 and 89, respectively.

With a one-week break in the PGA Tour schedule, the top 10 in the world remained the same with Brooks Koepka No. 1 followed by Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm. Patrick Cantlay remains No. 6 with Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau rounding out the top 10.

One week after dropping out of the top 50 for the first time since 1993, Phil Mickelson fell two more spots to No. 53 in the latest rankings.

Barcelona are worried about the number of muscle injuries they are suffering this season after losing full-back Nelson Semedo to a calf problem for five weeks, sources have told ESPN FC.

Since the season began in August, manager Ernesto Valverde's side have endured 17 injuries, with 15 of them muscle related. Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele have all been affected.

Semedo was taken off after just 20 minutes during Saturday's 4-1 win over Celta Vigo with a pulled calf muscle. The defender joins Jordi Alba on the treatment table, who is sidelined having suffered a recurrence of a hamstring problem against Slavia Prague last week.

The absence of Semedo and Alba leaves Barca short in defence for their trip to Leganes after the international break. Sergi Roberto is also suspended for that game.

Messi was the first to pick up an injury this season, and he was forced to miss the club's tour of the United States as well as the first four games of the season. With the exception of Antoine Griezmann, all the other forwards in the squad have had fitness problems, including Carles Perez and Ansu Fati.

Sources have told ESPN FC that a preseason which included long-haul flights to Japan and the U.S., in addition to accumulated tiredness, is a possible reason for the surge in muscle injuries at the club.

Barcelona add that they believe the injuries have played a part in the team's sub-par performances this season -- they have already lost three times in the league, the same amount as they lost across 38 games last season.

One source inside the club, though, said they don't understand why there have been so many injuries, given the players' diet and rest time has been carefully managed.

Valverde has tried to play down the significance of his side's mounting injury problems in public. He has assured that he and his team are doing nothing different from what they have done in previous years, although he confirmed they have made some preparation tweaks.

"We've not changed the way of training [this season], but we are correcting some aspects of what we do," the Barca coach said in a news conference on Friday.

Barca have two weeks until they play Leganes, with 12 of the first-team squad -- as well as five from the B team -- now away on international duty with their respective countries.

Eintracht Frankfurt captain David Abraham was sent off for knocking over Freiburg coach Christian Streich as their Bundesliga game ended in chaos and red cards on Sunday.

Freiburg were leading 1-0 when the ball went out of play in stoppage time. Streich let the ball go by as Abraham tried to recover it, and the Frankfurt captain bundled the coach over with his shoulder as he ran past. Upset Freiberg players and staff then chased the defender onto the field.

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"He felt provoked, but that shouldn't happen ... he knows that," Frankfurt sporting director Fredi Bobic said of Abraham. "There will be consequences for everyone involved."

Freiburg assistant coach Florian Bruns was shown a yellow card and Vincenzo Grifo, who had already been substituted, was shown red after VAR picked him up targeting Abraham in the melee.

Streich said Abraham apologised to him afterwards and the coach considered the issue to be over.

"Football is a contact sport. That was on the wrong side of it though. It was a heated game, we need to calm down, it's done, and not have silly talk about it now," said Streich, who said he tried to brace himself pre-contact. "At 54 you can be run over by a young buffalo, you can't hold yourself against it anymore."

Freiburg won the game 1-0 thanks to Nils Petersen's 77th-minute goal.

Frankfurt, who defeated Bayern Munich 5-1 the weekend before, were dealt a blow before the break when Gelson Fernandes was sent off with his second yellow card.

The result lifted Freiburg to fourth on 21 points after 11 games, behind Bayern on goal difference.

Liverpool's 3-1 victory over Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday moved Jurgen Klopp's team nine points clear of the reigning champions and ensured an eight-point advantage over closest challengers Leicester City and Chelsea heading into the international break. So is the Premier League title race already a foregone conclusion?

Unbeaten at Anfield in the league since April 2017 and having lost just one Premier League game since the start of last season, Liverpool are beginning to look unstoppable in their quest to win the club's first title since 1990. But bigger leads than Liverpool's current eight-point cushion have been overturned during the Premier League era and there is still more than two-thirds of the season to play.

So with the top four -- Liverpool, Leicester, Chelsea and City -- pulling clear of the rest, could the recent title-winning experience at the King Power Stadium, Stamford Bridge and the Etihad still keep this year's race alive?

Leicester City

The big picture

Leicester's 2015-16 title success was a once-in-a-lifetime fairytale, right? Claudio Ranieri's team were the most unexpected league champions in Premier League history and the club has not even come close to the top four, never mind the title, since then.

But since replacing Claude Puel as Leicester manager in February, Brendan Rodgers has restored the sense of the impossible at the King Power by blending the club's highly rated youngsters -- Harvey Barnes, James Maddison, Ben Chilwell -- with the experienced stars such as Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel. Leicester know what it takes to upset the odds, their fans know how to drive a team on to glory and they have a manager who won back-to-back titles at Celtic.

Liverpool travel to Leicester for a huge game on Dec. 26 and, if the Foxes win that one, Rodgers might be the man with the best chance of thwarting Klopp -- the guy who took his job as Liverpool manager in October 2015.

Strengths

Jamie Vardy's goals fired Leicester to the title in 2016 and the former England striker is in sensational form again. With 11 league goals already this season, the 32-year-old is one clear of Chelsea's Tammy Abraham in the race for the Golden Boot and Rodgers has successfully re-ignited a player who had struggled to impress former coach Puel. Behind Vardy, Leicester also score goals from midfield, with Maddison and Youri Tielemans netting seven between them already this campaign.

But while Vardy's goals are key, Leicester also possess the best defensive record in the Premier League having conceded just eight goals in 12 games, thanks to Schmeichel's form in goal and central defensive partnership of Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu.

Weaknesses

Squad depth, or the lack of, could yet be Leicester's Achilles heel. Ranieri's team were fortunate to avoid injuries to key players back in 2015-16 and the starting XI remained largely unchanged throughout the second half of the season, but can Leicester be quite so lucky again?

Leicester have six ever-presents in the league so far, with two others missing just one game each. That consistency helps explain their form, but injuries and suspensions will inevitably bite at some stage, so how will they cope? If they lose Vardy, Evans or Schmeichel for any length of time, Leicester could be in trouble.

Prediction

Leicester will last the course and finish in the top four, but forget about another title.

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- How VAR has affected each Premier League club

Chelsea

The big picture

Having been hit with a two-window transfer ban by FIFA, the loss of Eden Hazard and manager Maurizio Sarri, this season was supposed to be a year of transition under new boss Frank Lampard. That forecast seemed even more accurate after a 4-0 defeat at Manchester United on the opening weekend.

But Chelsea have bounced back impressively since losing at Old Trafford, with Lampard being rewarded for his decision to back the club's home-grown youngsters such as Mason Mount, Abraham, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Fikayo Tomori.

Christian Pulisic has also started to come to life after a slow start at Stamford Bridge, with the United States forward scoring five goals in his last three league games, so what looked like being a difficult year could now end with a title challenge.

Strengths

Chelsea know what it takes to win titles. No club deals with change and upheaval better than the Blues, so if they are in the hunt for the title in March and April, it will feel like the norm at Stamford Bridge and that could be a crucial psychological advantage in their favour.

On the pitch, Lampard has turned the club's transfer ban into a positive by giving the youngsters the chance to shine. So far, they have repaid that faith with some outstanding performances and there is a real sense of momentum and positivity at Chelsea.

Pulisic is now living up to the hype following his summer arrival from Borussia Dortmund, but while the youngsters are shining, it is the experience of N'Golo Kante, Willian, Cesar Azpilicueta and Jorginho that is helping guide the young players along.

Weaknesses

Inconsistency is the biggest issue with young players and Lampard has to find a way to guard against his crop of emerging talents being sensational one week and below-par the next. Chelsea have been fortunate so far in that the trajectory has been mainly upwards, but the test will be how they handle the tough winter months when games come thick and fast. And with the club unable to plan for signings in January, the lack of experience within the squad may prove to be Chelsea's downfall.

Ideally, Lampard would look to add a new centre-half and centre-forward in January, but unless Chelsea overturn their ban on appeal later this month, they will go into the second half of the season hoping their luck holds on the injury front.

Prediction

Fourth. And if they finish fourth, it will be a great season for Lampard and his team.

Manchester City

The big picture

Last season's domestic Treble winners and a team that won the Premier League with 100 points the year before, there is no doubting the quality of Pep Guardiola's squad at the Etihad. But they have suffered because of injuries and poor summer recruitment this season, to the extent that they have already lost three Premier League games and currently sit fourth in the table.

Only Manchester United (twice) have been able to win three successive titles during the Premier League era and City are now discovering just how tough a challenge that is. Perhaps last season's domestic dominance has led to a shift in focus to the Champions League -- the trophy that still eludes the club -- and their league performances have suffered as a result.

Strengths

City possess the best and deepest squad in the Premier League, with multiple title winners in every department. They were 10 points behind Liverpool on Dec. 31 last year, but still finished up as champions after winning 17 of their remaining 18 games, so a nine-point deficit at this stage will not be regarded as insurmountable by Guardiola and his players.

No team possesses the same level of championship-winning pedigree as City and they have the financial muscle to make decisive signings in January. And if they are in the hunt again during the title run-in, Liverpool will know they are being chased by a team that has come from behind to win the title before.

Weaknesses

While City's squad is deep, the one area where they have been exposed is at centre-half, where the failure to replace Vincent Kompany in the summer has proven costly. With Aymeric Laporte likely to miss at least half a season with a knee ligament injury, City have had to deploy midfielders in defence to plug the gap and they have suffered as a result.

There is also a possibility that last season's surge to the title, and success in both domestic cup competitions, took more out of Guardiola and his players than it appeared at the time. Perhaps a hangover was inevitable and, psychologically, City need to reboot if they are to catch Liverpool again.

Prediction

City always find another gear in the second half of the season, but it won't take them higher than second.

AB de Villiers will be released from the Lahore Qalandars roster ahead of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) Draft, with ESPNcricinfo learning that "managing workload" is the reason for the South African superstar reconsidering his plans.

De Villiers hasn't played representative cricket since turning out for Middlesex in England's Vitality Blast T20 tournament in September, and is expected to play in the Big Bash League for Brisbane Heat and then in the IPL, where he is on Royal Challengers Bangalore's rolls. For the Heat, de Villiers will be available for the second half of the tournament, after Christmas.

When asked about opting out of the PSL - the PCB is pushing for the entire season to be played in Pakistan this time - de Villiers said, "Just managing workload. On-off as much as possible."

The PSL Draft will be held on December 5, with the six franchises given until December 1 to finalise their retentions (up to eight players) and trade picks.

De Villiers was picked up by the Qalandars last season for seven games in the UAE and two in Pakistan, but he didn't turn up for the Pakistan leg because of a back injury.

His presence at the PSL last season, at a time when the PCB has been trying its best to attract big players and top teams to their neck of the woods, was hugely celebrated, and he responded well, scoring 218 runs at an average of 54.50 and strike rate of 128.99 from seven games. Qalandars, however, finished bottom of the table; they have been among the bottom two on each of the four seasons so far.

Curiously, Qalandars have a history of picking big names, sometimes the biggest on offer, but it hasn't quiet reflected in their results. They have been unfortunate too. If Chris Gayle had a poor run with them in the first season, in 2016, Yasir Shah was banned for testing positive for a banned substance the same year.

At various points, players of the calibre of Mustafizur Rahman, Chris Lynn, Shaun Tait, Dwayne Bravo and Anton Devcich have opted out because of injuries, and last season, their captain Mohammad Hafeez injured his hand in the second game, leaving them in a crisis they couldn't get out of, despite de Villiers' efforts.

MLB awards week is here, and that means it's time to hand out some hardware as baseball's best of 2019 vie for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year honors.

Will Mike Trout hold off Alex Bregman for his third American League MVP award? Did Cody Bellinger separate himself from Christian Yelich and Anthony Rendon as the National League's most valuable player? And which Astros ace will take home Cy Young honors in the AL? Here's when each award will be announced, the finalists to win and a quick take to get you in the know -- and make sure to check back during the week as we update this page with winners and more key information.

MLB awards schedule

Monday: AL and NL Rookie of the Year

Tuesday: AL and NL Manager of the Year

Wednesday: AL and NL Cy Young

Thursday: AL and NL MVP

(All awards announced at 6 p.m. ET on MLB Network.)

Rookie of the Year (Monday)

AL finalists: Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros; Brandon Lowe, Tampa Bay Rays; John Means, Baltimore Orioles

Quick take: Alvarez is the clear favorite here after posting a .313/.412/.655 slash line with 27 home runs in 87 games.

NL finalists: Pete Alonso, New York Mets; Mike Soroka, Atlanta Braves; Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres

Quick take: All three finalists showed that superstardom is in their future this season, but Alonso's rookie-record 53 home runs make him the likely winner here.

Manager of the Year (Tuesday)

AL finalists: Rocco Baldelli, Minnesota Twins; Aaron Boone, New York Yankees; Kevin Cash, Tampa Bay Rays

Quick take: Baldelli excelled in his first season as a manager and Cash steered the small-market Rays to the postseason, but it will be hard to top Boone leading the Yankees to 103 wins and an AL East crown in an injury-filled season for New York.

NL finalists: Craig Counsell, Milwaukee Brewers; Mike Shildt, St. Louis Cardinals; Brian Snitker, Atlanta Braves

Quick take: This one is wide open. Snitker could take home the honor for a second consecutive year, and Shildt has a strong case after leading the Cardinals to the top of the NL Central, but Counsell getting the Brewers back to the playoffs with a strong finish after Christian Yelich's season-ending injury might be too much for voters to ignore.

Cy Young (Wednesday)

AL finalists: Gerrit Cole, Houston Astros; Charlie Morton, Tampa Bay Rays; Justin Verlander, Houston Astros

Quick take: With all due respect to Morton, this is a race between the two Astros aces -- and Cole is likely to come out on top.

NL finalists: Jacob deGrom, New York Mets; Hyun-Jin Ryu, Los Angeles Dodgers; Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals

Quick take: Ryu faded down the stretch after dominating this conversation for most of the year and Scherzer lost part of his season to injuries, leaving deGrom in line for back-to-back Cy Young victories.

MVP (Thursday)

After the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup last season, Robby Fabbri was a restricted free agent. Fabbri signed a one-year, prove-it deal with the Blues, but his agent told general manager Doug Armstrong: if Fabbri wasn't going to be a regular in the lineup, the 23-year-old wanted a fresh start with a new team. Armstrong agreed, but asked Fabbri and his agent to be patient.

Fabbri, St. Louis' 2014 first-round pick, was a scratch for eight of the team's first 17 games. The Blues lost Vladimir Tarasenko for at least five months, and Fabbri still couldn't crack the regular lineup. When he got in, he was averaging less than 10 minutes per game. So one month into the season, Fabbri and Armstrong met. This time, a trade felt imminent.

"It was tough, because I didn't know when it was going to happen, or where I was going to go," Fabbri said in a phone interview this week. "But I knew it was probably going it happen."

On Wednesday night in Edmonton, Fabbri was sitting in the press box yet again, his fifth-straight game as a healthy scratch. That's when Armstrong delivered the news. Fabbri was heading from the defending Stanley Cup champs to the Detroit Red Wings ... the worst team in the league (the Red Wings had lost 12 of 13 games, and had been outscored 57-12 in that span).

"I was just really excited for the opportunity to prove myself," Fabbri said.

The next day he was on a commercial flight to Detroit (via a connection in Toronto), and by Saturday, Fabbri was suiting up with his new team. What an impression he made.

Fabbri scored two goals -- both on the power play -- as the Red Wings defeated one of the NHL's best teams, the Boston Bruins, 4-2. Fabbri, named the game's No. 1 star, matched his goal total from 32 games in 2018-19 in just one night. He seemed to already have chemistry on the first power-play unit alongside Tyler Bertuzzi (with whom he played in junior with the OHL Guelph Storm) and Dylan Larkin (whom he got to know during their 2014 draft season).

Fabbri added that something else made the game extra special for him: His parents and girlfriend were in the crowd.

As Fabbri made the trip from Edmonton and got settled in with his new team, his girlfriend began packing up the apartment in St. Louis, and she drove his two french bulldogs up to Detroit. Like many just-traded players, Fabbri has to sort out some logistics. He's staying in a hotel right now, but the hotel doesn't allow dogs. "So I obviously have to figure that out," he said.

Fabbri knows goals (and wins) will be harder to come by in Detroit this season (though they got another W on Sunday against the Golden Knights). The Red Wings are in the middle of a rebuild, and new GM Steve Yzerman has been careful to assign a timeline on when he expects the team to start contending again. Entering the Boston game, the Red Wings had lost four straight games by at least four goals.

Yzerman clearly knew his team needed more talent. The Fabbri acquisition was Yzerman's second low-risk, high-ceiling trade in as many weeks. The other -- getting Brendan Perlini from Chicago -- followed a nearly identical mold: Perlini was also a first-round pick from the 2014 draft who had yet to fully realize his NHL potential. When Perlini couldn't crack the Blackhawks' regular lineup, he, too, asked for a trade. Yzerman's other trade in his tenure as Red Wings GM is snagging Adam Erne (a 2013 second-round pick) from the Tampa Bay Lightning. Erne, Perlini and Fabbri are all 23 or 24 -- the same age as Detroit's young core -- and all become restricted free agents this coming summer, meaning there's minimal commitment if things don't work out.

Fabbri's career with the Blues was initially promising. He scored 18 goals as a rookie in 2015-16 (with 15 more points in 20 playoff games) and 11 goals in 51 games in 2016-17. Since then, he has been sidetracked by two ACL surgeries to his left knee that cost him nearly three crucial years of development. Any injured player will say one of the worst parts of rehab is being isolated from teammates, and for Fabbri, the second one was especially unique because he chose to rehab at home in Toronto. "It definitely had benefits like being close to my family, but it was hard to be away from the guys," he said.

Fabbri made it back for last season, in which he had a limited role and played in 10 games during the Blues' Stanley Cup run. He got a ring and got to cherish the experience with teammates, but he was also ready for the next chapter, in which he could start to find some individual success as well. Asked what he's most proud of in his career to this date, Fabbri said: "Honestly, just coming back to playing in the NHL after what I went through."

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

Emptying the notebook

The buzziest word in the NBA right now? Load management. On Sunday, I asked Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman if we'd ever see something similar in the NHL. "There's a lot of logic to it," Bowman said. "But culturally, I don't know if it's ever going to happen. I've talked to players before -- usually more toward the end of the year, not so much the last couple years, but when we were clinching playoff spots early -- and players just don't want to do it. It's just a part of the culture; they don't ever want to miss a game. So even though it would be better for them, and better for the team ... I don't know if we'd get there. Things do change, and I think we're seeing some of the traditions, like morning skates are being limited around the league. If you would have told me that five years ago, I would have said that's never going to change. Goalies are not playing 65 to 70 games anymore. But when it comes to [load management], I think it probably would be better for the sport, but then you get the other side where there's a lot of criticism, like how could you have this many players miss this many games? So I don't think it's going to hit hockey for at least a little bit."

The Blackhawks obviously haven't had the start they wanted, five points out of a playoff spot entering Monday's games. "I thought we would have had a better start than we've had," Bowman said. "We need to get ourselves going." The Blackhawks are turning to the kids (Kirby Dach and Adam Boqvist) to help, and I'll have more on that in a column later this week. One of the areas Bowman wants to see improved: the power play, which is ranked No. 24 in the league at 14.5 percent. "That set us back in the month of October," Bowman said. "We were so good for a couple months last year, it was almost automatic. And then this year, there's no reason it shouldn't be automatic again, but it doesn't always work the way it did. So we gave it a long time to work itself out, and finally we changed it up. We have two units now, and I like the way it's looking. But if there's one thing that's been the disappointment, it's probably been that, because all of those close games where we got one point or we got zero points, if we had a good power play, we'd probably have a much different record right now."

A touchy word in Vancouver? Sophomore slump. Brock Boeser became upset earlier this season when he started to hear chatter about Elias Pettersson potentially taking a step back this season. Pettersson scored only three goals in his first 10 games (after scoring 10 goals in the same span as a rookie). The 20-year-old recorded 11 points in that span -- with all of his eight assists being primary assists. "People are absurd if they say Petey is having a slump," Boeser said. "I think in Vancouver they started to think that, I started to hear a little of it, which is insane to me. He's doing so well. Yeah, he scored 10 goals in his first 10 games of his NHL career, but people out there just base stuff off of that. You can't have those expectations. He's going to score. And now that we have [J.T.] Miller on that line, he doesn't need to score as much. He's just setting us up. He's having a tremendous year."

Despite losing four straight games, the Canucks are sitting pretty in a playoff spot, and the play of Boeser and Pettersson are big reasons why (as is special teams, as they rank top 10 in the league in power plays and penalty kills). Defenseman Chris Tanev was particularly effusive about Pettersson: "Every night he's out there he does something that surprises you and impress you at the same time. Every game he'll do something -- beat a D-man, toe-drag someone, make the goalie go into the corner and then score -- he's an incredible player, he's super smart. He's very creative, he's always trying new things. Maybe that's why he's hasn't hit [the sophomore slump], because you don't really know what he's going to do out there."

Last thing on the Canucks: When I talked to Boeser in Chicago, Vancouver had won nine of its first 15 games. The biggest change he saw from last season? "Our work ethic," Boeser said. "We show up every night to the rink, and we're ready to play each and every game. Last year we'd have games where we'd play that way, then we'd have some games where we'd show up and we wouldn't play that way. So we weren't as consistent. So far we have that consistency right now." The Canucks have since lost four straight, including a 2-1 loss to New Jersey on Sunday. So it will be interesting to remember these comments and see how Vancouver responds.

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't found a consistent stride yet this season, but they also haven't had a full lineup. Just when they got one $11 million man back this week (John Tavares), they lose another. Mitch Marner is expected to miss approximately four weeks with an ankle injury. Coach Mike Babcock tried to play a spin zone on Sunday, telling reporters in Chicago that absences can improve their team because "guys are playing a lot more, in a lot more situations than they would. ... So guys get opportunity and when you make good on it, you earn confidence and you get to be a better player. So a good opportunity for us that way." But the loss of Marner isn't insignificant. The 22-year-old is second on the team in points (18) and first in assists (14). He plays on both the power play and penalty kill. "I thought our best line last year was Tavares, [Zach] Hyman and Marner. They haven't played together this year," Babcock said. "They'll play together at some point."

Three Stars of the Week

Jean-Gabriel Pageau, C, Ottawa Senators

Hey, the Senators won three of four this week! Pageau had a whopping five goals in those games, including the overtime winner against the Kings on Thursday.

Bryan Rust, RW, Pittsburgh Penguins

After starting the season on injured reserve, Rust is back -- and producing like crazy. The 27-year-old had four goals in three games, including a monster performance against the Islanders in which he scored a third-period tally and the game-winner in overtime.

Cale Makar, D, Colorado Avalanche

The rookie defenseman had six points in three games this week, including his first career two-goal game, against the Blue Jackets. They grow up so fast

What we liked this week

• Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby does a lot for the community behind the scenes that we rarely see. This story did come to light, and I'm glad it did. Crosby learned about Madeline Malizio, an Army specialist and 28-year-old single mother. Malizio doesn't own a car and rode the bus to school, work and to bring her 3-year-old son to daycare. So this week, Crosby gifted her the Honda Passport Elite he won for earning MVP at last year's NHL All Star game:

A TRUE ROLE MODEL: Pittsburgh #Penguins captain Sidney Crosby gave the car he won as part of his NHL All-Star Game MVP honors to a veteran as a salute to service this Veteran's Day weekend. https://t.co/LuQdOXTplY #LetsGoPens #Veterans #VeteransDay pic.twitter.com/AGGiiTc95w

— KDKA (@KDKA) November 8, 2019

• Ryan Straschnitzki was one of 13 Humboldt Broncos players injured in the 2018 bus crash. The 20-year-old was paralyzed from the chest down. He received experimental spinal surgery in Thailand and, according to the CBC, it was a success as Straschnitzki "began moving his legs" while "nearly kicking his therapist and asking if he could hit the gym." Best of luck with his recovery.

• Not only is Andrei Svechnikov scoring the sickest goals in all of the hockey land, but he's spreading the wealth. The 19-year-old was spotted at Hurricanes practice teaching his teammates some moves:

Course: How to Michigan 101

Professor: A. Svechnikov

Enrolled: M. Necas , W. Foegele pic.twitter.com/SyCzAsg5bE

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) November 6, 2019

• Remember last year how the Hurricanes took Don Cherry's "Bunch of Jerks" comment and turned it into a rallying cry? And they also printed it on merchandise and sold a boatload of T-shirts? It seems like the Coyotes are onto something similar. Sportsnet columnist Mark Spector published a column in which he ripped the Coyotes for their "boring style of play." "If boring worked, would Arizona be the NHL's welfare state, drawing on the league's revenue-sharing program since the day after they left Winnipeg?" Spector wrote. That drew the ire of Coyotes team president Ahron Cohen, who told the Arizona Republic: "We're not going to get in the business of responding to every negative story or tweet, but with this you have a misinformed story from a Canadian journalist that doesn't bother to look at all the positivity we've built in this Arizona community." And the Yotes aren't letting up. Check out their new Twitter bio, too: "This is where you come for boring hockey updates."

• Montreal Canadiens fans haven't always been the biggest fans of Zdeno Chara (the 2011 hit on Max Pacioretty, which left the then-Canadiens forward with a severe concussion and fractured vertebrae is a big reason why). But that hit is not who Chara is. And so it was neat to see the Bell Centre crowd give Chara a standing ovation for playing in his 1,500th career game:

Zdeno Chara gets a standing ovation in ... Montreal?

A nice moment at the Bell Centre. pic.twitter.com/YBVNkMaxOf

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) November 6, 2019

What we didn't like this week

Monday is Remembrance Day in Canada, which honors those in the armed forces who have passed away. And how did Hockey Night in Canada's Don Cherry choose to celebrate it? With a totally unprovoked rant that insulted immigrants because Cherry perceives ingratitude on their part.

"I live in Mississauga," Cherry said during his regular Saturday segment. "Very few people wear the poppy. Downtown Toronto, forget it. Nobody wears the poppy. Now you go to the small cities. You people ... that come here, whatever it is -- you love our way of life. You love our milk and honey. At least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that. These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada. These guys paid the biggest price for that."

Sportsnet put out a statement denouncing Cherry's comments and apologizing. Cherry's co-host, Ron McLean, offered this when he was back on air Sunday evening: "Don Cherry made remarks which were hurtful, discriminatory, which were flat out wrong. ... I owe you an apology, too. I sat there, did not catch it, did not respond."

The NHL condemned Cherry in a written statement, which I must say surprised me. Hockey Canada put out something similar. Politicians across Canada chimed in, including Toronto Mayor John Tory, who called the comments "unfair and just plain wrong," then suggested Cherry visit Old City Hall on Remembrance Day to "see thousands of Canadians of all ages, nationalities, faiths and backgrounds."

Do you know who we haven't heard from in all of this? The 85-year-old Cherry. I'm not here to pile on, but I do find it disappointing that these comments can be made with no consequence. Cherry has a platform, which is a privilege. He has used it to spew hatred and promote divisiveness. That's not what this sport -- and certainly not this world -- needs right now.

Games of the week

Tuesday, Nov. 12: Edmonton Oilers at San Jose Sharks (ESPN+)

What's more shocking: that the Oilers have the best record in the Pacific Division or that the San Jose Sharks have the second-worst? A battle of early-season surprises.

Wednesday, Nov. 13: Toronto Maple Leafs at New York Islanders

Who doesn't love a good revenge game? Let's see how the fans at the Coliseum treat John Tavares this time around.

Saturday, Nov. 16: Washington Capitals at Boston Bruins (ESPN+)

Both of these teams have been playing like Stanley Cup contenders. This one should provide some fireworks.

Quote of the week

"People talk a lot about last year, but I played for arguably the worst defensive team in the league for three years in Buffalo, so it's nothing new."

-- The always blunt Blackhawks goalie Robin Lehner, who has gone from playing behind the Islanders (one of the NHL's stoutest defenses) to facing 50-plus shots in two of his 10 outings so far this season with Chicago.

Twin half-centuries in the first two T20Is in Australia helped Babar Azam consolidate his position at the top of the men's T20I rankings for batsmen. There was major movement just below him with Dawid Malan moving up all the way to No. 3 and Aaron Finch jumping from No. 4 to No. 2 in the latest update.

Among bowlers, Deepak Chahar was the toast of town after recording the best figures in men's T20Is - 6 for 7 - in the third T20I against Bangladesh, and while that helped him move up 88 spots to No. 42, it remains a list dominated by spinners: Rashid Khan is still at the top and only two quicks, Andile Phehlukwayo at six and Chris Jordan at ten, are in the top ten.

Malan has made a brilliant start to his T20I career, scoring 458 runs at a strike rate of 156.31 in his nine games to date, with the 51-ball 103* in the fourth T20I against New Zealand his best so far. But Malan, and Finch - 37*, 17 and 52* against Pakistan - remain well behind Azam, who has 876 points to the Australian's 807 and the Englishman's 782. Below them in the top ten are Colin Munro, Glenn Maxwell, Hazratullah Zazai, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Martin Guptill and Eoin Morgan.

Chahar's upward movement, or the performance of the other bowlers in that series, haven't impacted the top of that list, with Mitchell Santner, Imad Wasim, Adam Zampa and Shadab Khan below Rashid and ahead of Phehlukwayo, and Adil Rashid, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Ashton Agar also in the top ten. Santner, who picked up 11 wickets in New Zealand's series of five matches against England, has reached the second place for the first time since climbing to the top in January 2018.

The update includes the recent men's T20 World Cup qualifiers, and his 12 wickets in the competition has lifted Scotland left-arm spinner Mark Watt 13 spots to No. 15. Among batsmen, Papua New Guinea's Tony Ura has moved up to No. 37, one spot above Jonny Bairstow and Mohammad Naim, the Bangladesh batsman who made a name for himself after hitting a quick 81 in the last game against India. Also within the top 50 were Scotland's Calum MacLeod (No. 44), UAE's Muhammad Usman (No. 45) and Oman's Jatinder Singh (No. 46).

With Glenn Maxwell having taken an indefinite break from the game, Mohammad Nabi has moved to the top of the allrounders' rankings, while in a big development, Oman's Zeeshan Maqsood has jumped to No. 6.

In the team rankings, Pakistan's 2-0 series loss in Australia hasn't cost them the No. 1 spot, but the difference between the two sides has been trimmed to just one point.

England batsman Jonny Bairstow has been reprimanded and given one demerit point by the ICC after being found guilty of "use of an audible obscenity during an international match".

The Level 1 offence was levelled at Bairstow by the match officials after England's fifth T20I against New Zealand in Auckland. Bairstow was picked up by the television broadcast swearing loudly after his dismissal by Jimmy Neesham. His 18-ball 47 had kept his side in contention to win the deciding match, and Bairstow subsequently went out to bat in the Super Over as England clinched the series.

Bairstow currently has two demerit points on his record, having previously received a reprimand for swinging his bat at the stumps on being dismissed during an ODI against Pakistan in May. Accruing four during any two-year period leads to an automatic suspension.