Star Brock Boeser will be ready to roll when the Vancouver Canucks play their NHL season opener Wednesday at Edmonton.

Boeser was cleared from the concussion protocol and returned to practice with his teammates on Monday, a week after his head slammed into the boards on a hit from behind by the Ottawa Senators' Chris Tierney.

Boeser, 22, said it was his first concussion and that initially he didn't realize he was hurt.

"After a couple shifts I just went out there and the lights were just feeling a little weird, and I didn't feel like myself, a little nausea," he said Monday. "So that's when I told our training staff I wasn't feeling great and then I didn't play any more after that."

Boeser is entering his third season, having put up 29 goals and 29 assists as a rookie, then following that up with 26 goals and 30 assists last season.

MANCHESTER, England -- Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted his frustration after VAR handed Arsenal an equaliser at Old Trafford and condemned Manchester United to their worst start to a season for 30 years.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was initially flagged offside by linesman Scott Ledger only for the decision to be overturned by the video official to bring Arsenal level after Scott McTominay opened the scoring for Man United.

Solskjaer had no complaints about the outcome, but argued afterwards that defender Ashley Young had stopped once he had seen Ledger's flag go up.

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"Ashley certainly holds his hand up, he looks straight at the linesman, maybe hesitates and could have got a block in," said Solskjaer after the 1-1 draw.

"It probably would have helped David [De Gea] but it's no consolation -- it's a perfectly good goal for them but he probably should have kept the flag down.

"It made an impact on the situation by raising the flag, when it's that way you can wait and take it later."

The result leaves United 10th in the table with nine points -- the first time they have failed to reach double figures after seven games of a top-flight season since 1988-90 when they eventually finished 13th.

Solskjaer's team have managed just two league wins all season but he insists his players have not got the rewards they have deserved.

"There are many things we look at and that give me loads of confidence," said Solskjaer. "Results matter but I can talk about six out of seven good performances."

Goals remain a problem for United and they have only managed to score twice in a game once in nine attempts this season.

They have gone a goal up against Wolves, Southampton and Arsenal only to be pegged back and drop points.

"It's another game that we're 1-0 up," Solskjaer said. "We need to learn to win these games."

MANCHESTER, England -- Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was right. You really don't need to be a rocket scientist to realise that Manchester United's problems this season stem from their inability to score goals, but equally, if you get rid of two proven goal-scorers, you have only yourself to blame if the goals dry up after failing to sign a replacement.

In January 2018, Arsenal allowed Alexis Sanchez -- remember him? -- to leave the Emirates to sign for United and, in his place, the Gunners spent a then-club-record £57 million to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund. For all of Arsenal's faults, and this 1-1 draw at Old Trafford exposed quite a few, they did not make the mistake of leaving themselves without firepower when Sanchez left and Aubameyang, whose equaliser in this game secured a point, has rescued his team on several occasions since arriving from Germany.

United, of course, sold Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan this summer before allowing Sanchez to follow him to the San Siro on a season-long loan, leaving Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and 17-year-old rookie Mason Greenwood as the club's only three forwards. Rashford has now scored just once from open play in his past 16 games, the inconsistent Martial is injured (again) and Greenwood has done well, with two goals in six appearances, but he is a kid who cannot be relied upon to shoulder the goal-scoring burden for a club of United's size and expectations.

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The reason United have now made their worst start to a league season since 1989 is because they simply cannot score goals, and it was the same against Arsenal, with United failing to score more than once yet again.

"I thought, 'How many times have we been 1-0 up and not got the second goal?'" Solskjaer said. "This is a steep learning curve for us, and we'll keep working hard and with more experience, we'll make the right decisions."

United have scored nine league goals all season, and four of those came in the 4-0 opening-game win against Chelsea. The drought is as much down to the lack of creativity in midfield as it is to the absence of an experience goal-scorer, but United's problems are self-inflicted because they could have replaced Lukaku and Sanchez but failed to do so.

Aubameyang, who has seven league goals this season, is an example of what they are missing, and the Gabon striker's stats are an indictment of United's bluntness up front. In the past 17 games in all competitions, United have scored just 15 goals collectively -- Aubameyang has scored 17 goals on his own.

If Aubameyang were United's player rather than Arsenal's, Solskjaer's team might now be sitting pretty in the top four, with a world-class forward regularly converting chances and putting the ball in the back of the net. But he is Arsenal's best hope of finishing in the top four, and it is to the club's credit that they were smart enough to sign him to replace Sanchez.

If there is a gaping hole in your team, you have to fill it. Arsenal did that, but United haven't, and they have now left themselves at the mercy of the January transfer market, when their desperation for a goal-scorer could lead to yet another expensive mistake.

Yet while Arsenal have the guy who can turn defeat into a draw or a draw into victory, they will also have left Old Trafford knowing they missed a golden chance to beat United on their own patch for the first time since 2006. United, who took a first-half lead through Scott McTominay's 20-yard strike, were there for the taking, but Arsenal lacked the belief to take the game to Solskjaer's team.

Maybe they went into the fixture believing that it was still the cagey affair of the Sir Alex Ferguson-Arsene Wenger era, when the titanic tussles between two great teams were often settled by the odd goal. But this game is nothing like it used to be. Both United and Arsenal have big problems to solve, but Arsenal at least have goals in the team, and that's why they have the edge right now.

Had they backed themselves more, Unai Emery's players would have taken all three points from this game and further deepened the gloom at United. In the end, they had to settle for a point, thanks to Aubameyang, the man with goals in his boots.

Arsenal are a better team than United right now, and they should have proved that by winning this game, as Emery admitted.

"I want more -- more in the result and in the performance -- but we are progressing," the Arsenal manager said. "We were competitive, but we can do better. We can control moments with the ball better and take more chances in the box.

"We are very happy with [Aubameyang], and he is with his goal. But we need more players with the ability to score."

Guyana Amazon Warriors 185 for 6 (Hemraj 66, Hetmyer 48, Shepherd 32, Scantlebury-Searles 3-39) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 166 for 5 (Pollard 71, Bravo 58*, Green 2-18, Tahir 2-32) by 19 runs

It had to take something extraordinary to end Guyana Amazon Warriors' unbeaten run this CPL and it nearly arrived in the form of a belligerent Kieron Pollard half-century. But his 38-ball 71, and Trinbago Knight Riders' 75 off the last six overs in the chase of 186, weren't enough as they fell short by 19 in the end. It extended Amazon Warriors' stellar run to eight straight wins and confirm a top-of-the-table finish for them with two matches in hand.

With Pollard hitting big mercilessly in front of a packed home crowd, the decisive over was the 19th when Knight Riders needed 38 from 12 balls and it looked very much on the cards with the wet ball difficult to grip for the bowlers. However, Keemo Paul kept his nerves and even though he did not get all his yorkers right, and Shoaib Malik dropped Pollard at long-on, his stifling lines allowed only nine from the over to leave Knight Riders with 29 to get from six balls. Malik had kept the experienced Imran Tahir for the last over and the legspinner did his bit by conceding two singles on his first three balls to effectively seal the chase, topping it with Pollard's wicket on the fourth ball.

The Pollard-Bravo assault

Offspinner Chris Green opened the bowling with four straight overs to finish with 2 for 18 with 11 dot balls. His mix of offbreaks and seam-ups accounted for Lendl Simmons and Colin Munro cheaply, before Denesh Ramdin holed out to bring Pollard and Darren Bravo together in the ninth over when the hosts were crawling at under a run-a-ball and the asking rate had shot to over 12 per over. Bravo and Pollard spent only two boundary-less overs before launching into the Amazon Warriors attack that had to keep using the towel on the ball to get their accuracy right.

Both Pollard and Bravo targeted the 'V' - with Pollard's net much wider - as the captain pulled, lofted short-of-length balls over the covers, dispatched the fuller ones down the ground, and targeted Ben Laughlin, who had conceded only three runs in his first two overs. He started the 15th with Knight Riders needing a stiff 95 from 36 and Pollard and Bravo smashed two sixes and a four on the leg side to collect 18. After clubbing another 14 runs off Romario Shepherd, Pollard brought up his 27-ball half-century in the 17th over by hammering the ball over bowler Paul's head, and 12 from that over left Knight Riders with 51 to get from three overs.

With Shepherd's quota over, Malik had one over each left from Laughlin and Paul, which meant he had to give one to a spinner. He decided to bowl Laughlin first, who conceded another 13, but Paul's effort in the 19th meant Tahir had a cushion of defending 28 in the last over, and he did it comfortably.

Hemraj sets the stage for Shepherd

Knight Riders' decision to bowl looked the right one when they dismissed Brandon King early and kept Amazon Warriors' Powerplay score to just 35 for 1 with Chandrapaul Hemraj and Shimron Hetmyer hardly taking any risks. Apart from the odd leg-side six from Hemraj, Ali Khan's pace and Khary Pierre's tight lines delayed the batsmen's charge, but with some luck. Hemraj was dropped twice: the first one a tough return chance for the bowler Pollard, who nearly injured his right hand in the attempt, and the second was for substitute Tion Webster, who ran in from long-off only to spill a simple chance. Hemraj had already clubbed a six and a four after the Pollard drop, and this time he collected two fours off Chris Jordan right after the second miss to shoot their run rate from under seven to nearly eight per over, with a 34-ball half-century. Hetmyer, meanwhile, wasn't looking in his element and played second fiddle to Hemraj for a 38-ball 48 in a second-wicket partnership of 98.

Scantlebury-Searles v Shepherd

Amazon Warriors were on course for a massive total, at 111 for 1 in the 14th over, before Javon Scantlebury-Searles interrupted their charge. Bowling for the first time this CPL in five matches, he first accounted for Hemraj for 66 before dismissing Nicholas Pooran and Hetmyer with wide yorkers in his next over, but by leaking 15 runs between the two dismissals. When Malik fell for a duck - caught by Scantlebury-Searles - and Sherfane Rutherford for 1 in consecutive overs, it looked like they would end on a below-par total, being 143 for 6 with 17 balls to go. But Shepherd, batting at No. 7, heaved sixes over the midwicket fence in the last over off death-overs specialist Jordan, the second off a waist-high no-ball which gave the batsman the chance to smash the free-hit to the wide long-on boundary for a four. With 25 runs off the last over, Shepherd finished with 31 off 13 balls and might have given Amazon Warriors the extra margin they eventually won by.

AB de Villiers will be playing in the BBL after all with Brisbane Heat securing one of the biggest signings in the recent history of the competition.

De Villiers, who retired from international cricket in 2018, had attracted huge interest from BBL clubs earlier this year but pulled back from committing to playing in Australia in May.

However, in a surprise announcement on Tuesday morning the Heat revealed they had signed de Villiers for the second half of the tournament, including the finals should the Heat get that far.

De Villiers will spend Christmas at home in Pretoria and appears likely to link up with the Heat around January 6 or 8. The Heat play Sydney Thunder in Sydney on January 6 but de Villiers appears more likely to play his first game against Hobart Hurricanes on January 9 at the Gabba.

De Villiers said he had spoken to former Heat captain Brendon McCullum about joining and was keen to play alongside current captain Chris Lynn after getting top know him through the IPL.

"I've spoken to Chris a few times after games in the IPL," de Villiers said. "I always enjoy the way he plays the game, he really goes after the bowling, he attacks the game, and he seems like a really good team-mate. He gives his best shot for the boys. I'm looking forward to joining forces with him. The Heat have always stood out to me."

The new Heat coach Darren Lehmann, who took over from Daniel Vettori, was ecstatic to get a player of de Villiers' quality.

"World-class players don't just come along every day and to have a player of AB's stature and skill in the BBL is a fantastic outcome for everyone, not just the Heat,'' Lehmann said. "He's a 360-degree player, great skills, outstanding temperament, and an insightful leader. We're excited to bring him into the group this summer and allow him to showcase his skills for the fans."

De Villiers signing is a huge coup for the tournament as a whole. The BBL had significant trouble last season attracting big names. A combination of the elongated tournament and the small salary cap, by comparison to global standards, made it very difficult for clubs to attract high-quality overseas talent. When de Villiers initially withdrew his interest from playing in the BBL back in May there were genuine concerns about how the competition could attract quality overseas players moving forward.

De Villiers is the start of a set of overseas signings to come around the BBL. Australia's international players will also be available for the last week of the tournament as well as the finals in early February after a week-long ODI tour of India.

The IPL auction for the 2020 season will be held on December 19 this year and, for a change, the BCCI has decided to conduct it at a new venue: Kolkata. The auctions have traditionally been held in Bengaluru.

This year's auction is the last small one before franchises disband next year and prepare to assemble fresh squads from 2021 at a mega auction. The last big IPL auction took place in January 2018, when franchises were allowed to retain five players before building new squads.

ESPNcricnfo understands that all eight franchises were informed on Monday that the trading window would close on November 14. The franchises were originally allotted INR 85 crore (US $12 million approx) to build their teams for 2020. Every franchise will also have an additional purse of INR 3 crore (US $425,000 approx) in addition to the balance in their kitties from the last auction.

Delhi Capitals have the biggest balance - INR 8.2 crore, followed by Rajasthan Royals - INR 7.15 crore, Kolkata Knight Riders (INR 6.05 crore), Sunrisers Hyderabad (INR 5.3 crore), Kings XI Punjab (INR 3.7 crore), Chennai Super Kings (INR 3.2 crore), defending champions Mumbai Indians (INR 3.05 crore) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (INR 1.8 crore).

Brisbane Heat are hopeful of enticing AB de Villiers to play multiple seasons in the Big Bash League after signing him for the upcoming season, according to coach Darren Lehmann.

The Heat pulled off a major coup on Tuesday signing de Villiers just months after it appeared as though de Villiers may not play in Australia's T20 competition at all having withdrawn his interest in May following a flurry of media speculation.

Lehmann said Heat management had stayed in contact with de Villiers, including flying to South Africa to meet with him, and felt fortunate to convince him to sign for this season but they are hopeful it won't be a one-off.

"We were just lucky enough that we had a good conversation with him and his management and Baz McCullum was fantastic as well, pushing the Brisbane Heat," Lehmann said. "After it sort of fell over a bit we kept in contact with him and at the end of the day, we were really humbled that actually wanted to come back and play.

"I just want him to come and enjoy it really, to be perfectly honest. And I think if he does that he'll play well. I saw him playing in England this year in the Vitality Blast and he played really well.

"We really want him to impart some of his knowledge on some of our younger kids more so than anything else and hopefully he stays on for years to come."

The Heat are still negotiating his exact arrival date to Australia after agreeing to allow him to stay in South Africa to celebrate Christmas and New Year with his family for one of the rare times in his career.

De Villiers will definitely miss the Heat's first five matches of the tournament. Their sixth match is on January 6 against Sydney Thunder and their seventh is against Hobart Hurricanes on January 9. Lehmann could not guarantee when he would arrive but did confirm he would play the rest of the home and away games and finals.

"It'll be roughly early January," Lehmann said. "We're just working through those finer details. But we've got him from then right through until the end, and then hopefully finals as well if we play well enough, and then hopefully from then on, he keeps coming back."

De Villiers' presence gives Lehmann and captain Chris Lynn enormous flexibility with their top order as he joins the likes of Max Bryant, Sam Heazlett, Joe Burns, Matt Renshaw, and Ben Cutting.

But Lehmann was just as excited about what he could add from a leadership perspective.

"It's a great experience for Chris Lynn," Lehmann said. "I know they obviously played against each other in the IPL. I know Chris Lynn is over the moon and excited by it. But just for AB to impart his knowledge with the younger guys and leadership skills he's had with South Africa. For us, it's a win-win."

The Heat's other overseas players are currently Afghanistan spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Zahir Khan.

West Indies' Kraigg Brathwaite, an occasional offspinner whose bowling action has been questioned more than once, has been cleared to bowl in international cricket again following an ICC-approved assessment.

Brathwaite had been reported after the second Test between West Indies and India in Kingston earlier this year, with the ICC saying in a statement at the time that the match officials' report had "cited concerns about the legality of the 26-year-old's bowling action during the course of the match".

He subsequently underwent a bowling assessment in the ICC-accredited facility in Loughborough on September 14, where, the ICC said in a statement on Tuesday, "it was revealed that the amount of elbow extension for all his deliveries was within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted under the ICC Illegal Bowling Regulations".

Brathwaite had earlier been reported for a suspect bowling action in August 2017 following the first Test of West Indies' tour of England, played at Edgbaston. Then, too, he was tested in Loughborough, and he was subsequently cleared to continue bowling at the highest level.

In the West Indies Test side mainly as an opening batsman, Brathwaite has 18 wickets from 58 games at an average of 56.94.

The Washington Nationals offered third baseman Anthony Rendon a seven-year deal worth $210 million to $215 million, according to The Washington Post.

The early September offer is not expected to keep Rendon from hitting the free agent market this winter, according to The Post. Rendon signed a one-year deal worth $18.8 million before this season.

Washington's offer is worth less than the 10-year, $300 million deal presented to Bryce Harper last season. Rendon and Harper both have Scott Boras as an agent.

During the 2019 regular season, Rendon, 29, hit .319 with 34 home runs and 126 RBIs -- all career bests for the seven-year veteran. He led the NL in RBIs, and his 1.010 OPS was third in the NL behind those of the Dodgers' Cody Bellinger (1.035) and the Brewers' Christian Yelich (1.100).

The Nationals begin their postseason run on Tuesday by hosting the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL wild-card game.