EARLY IN THE 2023 season, Aaron Leanhardt started asking New York Yankees hitters what they needed to perform better. He was a minor league hitting coordinator for the team, and with league-wide batting average the previous year at its lowest point in more than a half-century, Leanhardt approached that spring with a specific question: How, in an era ruled by pitching, could offense keep up?

"Players were frustrated by the fact that pitching had gotten so good," Leanhardt said.

An MIT-educated physics professor at the University of Michigan for seven years, Leanhardt left academia for athletics specifically to solve these sorts of problems. And as he spoke with more players, the framework of a solution began to reveal itself. With strikeouts at an all-time high, hitters wanted to counter that by making more contact. And the easiest way to do so, Leanhardt surmised, was to increase the size of the barrel on their bat.

Elongating the barrel -- the fat part of the bat that generates the hardest and most contact -- sounded great in theory. Doing so in practice, though, would increase the weight of the bat and slow down swing speed, negating the gains a larger sweet spot would provide.

Leanhardt started to consider the problem in a different way. Imagine, he told players, every bat has a wood budget -- a specific amount of weight (usually 31 or 32 ounces) to be distributed over a specific length. How could they invest a disproportionate amount of that budget on the barrel without throwing off the remainder of the implement?

The answer led to what could be the most consequential development in bat technology since a generation ago when players forsook ash bats for maple. The creation of the bowling pin bat (also known as the torpedo bat) optimizes the most important tool in baseball by redistributing weight from the end of the bat toward the area 6 to 7 inches below its tip, where major league players typically strike the ball. Doing so takes an apparatus that for generations has looked the same and gives it a fun-house-mirror makeover, with the fat part of the bat more toward the handle and the end tapering toward a smaller diameter, like a bowling pin.

The bat had its big debut over the weekend, as the Yankees tied a major league record with 15 home runs over their first three games. Nine of those came from five Yankees who adopted the bowling pin style: Jazz Chisholm Jr. (three), Anthony Volpe (two), Austin Wells (two), Cody Bellinger (one) and Paul Goldschmidt (one). The hullaballoo over the bats started almost immediately after Yankees announcer Michael Kay noted their shape on the broadcast, and by the end of the weekend players around the league were inquiring to bat manufacturers about getting their hands on one.

The Yankees' barrage of long balls permeated beyond players' fascination and into the zeitgeist. Some fans and even opposing players wailed fruitlessly about the legality of the bats -- Brewers reliever Trevor Megill called the bats "like something used in slow-pitch softball" after watching his teammates surrender home run after home run over the weekend. But the bats abide by Major League Baseball's collectively bargained bat specifications for shape (round and smooth), barrel size (no larger than 2.61 inches in diameter) and length (a maximum of 42 inches). Most also didn't realize that the bowling pin bat was used for some of the most consequential hits of 2024 thanks to one of its earliest adaptors.

Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton is owed as much credit as any player for the bowling pin revolution. Leanhardt's logic behind the bat's geometry made sense to Stanton, whose average bat velocity of 81.2 mph last year was nearly 3 mph ahead of the second-fastest swinger and more than 9 mph quicker than the average MLB swing. Even with outlier metrics, Stanton gladly embraced a bat that could make his dangerous swing even better -- and used it while pummeling seven home runs in 14 postseason games.

TO UNDERSTAND HOW the bowling pin bat works is a lesson in physics. Take a sledgehammer and a broom handle. The sledgehammer will be more difficult to swing because much of its weight is distributed to the tip. The broom handle, meanwhile, can be swung with immense speed but doesn't contain significant mass. If the length and weight of bats are constants, the distribution of mass is the variable -- and Leanhardt conceived of a bat that optimizes both so it can do the most damage.

"This bat is just trying to say: What if we put the mass where the ball is going to hit so that we have an optimized equation of mass and velocity?" said Scott Drake, the president of PFS-TECO, a Wisconsin-based wood products laboratory that inspects all MLB bats to ensure they're within the regulations. "You're trying to take a sweet spot and put more mass with that.

"Wood is highly variable," he added, "and everything is a trade-off."

In the case of the bowling pin bat, it's a trade-off hitters using it are willing to make. Because so much of the mass is in the barrel, swings that don't connect on it produce results often more feeble than those of traditionally tapered models. As Leanhardt said, though, if a ball off the end of a bowling pin shape leaves the bat with an exit velocity of 70 mph compared to 71 mph for the traditional one, both are likely to result in outs. The difference between a 101 mph batted ball and 102 can be a flyout versus a home run.

"That's the question of the whole wood budget," said Leanhardt, who left the Yankees after serving as a major league analyst during the 2024 season and currently is the major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins. "Every penny counts. The fact of the matter is you want your barrels to count the most. You want the most bang for your buck there."

Turning those principles into reality took buy-in from the entire bat supply chain. Once players bought into Leanhardt's seedling of an idea, they requested samples from bat manufacturers. Leanhardt worked with a number of MLB's 41 approved bat makers to make the idea real, and the spec bats were given model numbers that start with BP for bowling pin, though he admits that "torpedo sounds kind of cooler."

Figuring out the right balance took time. Bowling pin bats take precision to produce. Every fraction of an ounce in bat manufacturing matters. Bats are measured not only on a standard scale but via pendulum-swing tests. The more balanced a bat, the more it oscillates. Traditional bats, their weight distributed disproportionately toward the end, didn't go back and forth nearly as much.

With relatively lenient regulations from the league allowing manufacturers leeway to create products as long as they stay within the regulations, the new -- and perhaps better -- mousetrap was born. Stanton's success was the ultimate proof of concept, and manufacturers came to spring training this year with bowling pin models for players to try in games.

"There's new pitches getting invented every year," said Minnesota Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers, who used a bowling pin model in the first three games this year and went 1-for-8. "We're just swinging the same broomstick we've swung for the last 100 years."

Well, similar at least. Playing in an era when the average fastball velocity was an estimated 10 mph slower than the current average of around 95 mph, Babe Ruth swung a 36-inch, 44-ounce bat. As pitch velocity increased in the decades since, players shaved ounces off bats -- tools to ensure they had the requisite speed to catch up with pitches.

"The bat is such a unique tool," Jeffers said. "You look at the history of the game, and they used to swing telephone poles. Now you try to optimize it, and it feels like some branches are starting to fall for us on the hitting side of things."

Jeffers, who has spent countless time searching for ways to counterbalance the technological revolution that helped create a generation of pitchers with the best stuff ever seen, swung a bowling pin model from manufacturer B45 in batting practice one day this spring and proceeded to order a batch that arrived during the final two weeks of spring training. Around the same time, Chisholm received his new bowling pin bats and was struck by how he couldn't tell the difference from his traditional model.

"I mean, it still felt like my bat," Chisholm told reporters Sunday, echoing Jeffers' sentiment that bowling pin varieties swing similarly to their standard counterparts. "I hit the ball at the barrel, feel comfortable in the box. I don't know what else to tell you. I don't know the science of it, I'm just playing baseball."

The science is multifold. Beyond the potential increases in exit velocity from the increased mass in the barrel, the weight distribution toward the knob should promote faster swings. Among the five Yankees who have used the bat, all have seen bat-velocity increases year over year, with Volpe up more than 3 mph, Bellinger up 2.5, Wells 2, Chisholm 1.1 and Goldschmidt -- an inveterate tinkerer who has also used bats with hockey-puck-shaped knobs -- 0.3 mph.

"Credit to any of the players who were willing to listen to me, because it's crazy," Leanhardt said. "Listening to me describe it is sometimes even crazier. It's a long-running project, and I'm happy for the guys that bought into it."

Because the data -- on bat velocity as well as effectiveness -- is of such a limited sample, nobody is yet proclaiming that the bowling pin bat will unquestionably revolutionize the game. But more bowling pins will be showing up in major league games soon. Leanhardt said his new team, the Marlins, will feature players using the bat in games. Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero laced an RBI single Sunday with a bowling pin model. In addition to the Yankees and Marlins, the Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles are seen throughout the industry as the teams that have invested the most time and money researching bat geometry and optimization.

One player who does not plan on using the bowling pin model said multiple teammates plan to at least try one in batting practice after the Yankees' nine-homer outburst Saturday. How many eventually adopt it as their full-time piece depends on feel as much as success. Comfort with a bat is vital for it to go from BP to a big league game, and in a sport where advantages don't stay secret very long, New York's might wind up lasting all of one weekend.

"There's going to be a lot more teams wanting to swing them," Jeffers said, "because of what the Yankees did this weekend."

Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal will face off in Hong Kong in July for what will be the first north London derby to take place outside of the UK, it was announced on Monday.

The preseason fixture will be played on July 3 at the newly-built Kai Tak Stadium, as part of the Hong Kong Football Festival 2025.

"Everyone at Arsenal is excited to be visiting Hong Kong in July. It's great to be back with our men's first team squad after 13 years, and gives us the opportunity to meet so many of our fantastic supporters in the region again," Arsenal managing director, Richard Garlick said in a statement.

"As well as training hard and playing the match, we cannot wait to connect with our Hong Kong supporters in this wonderful part of the world.

"Playing against Tottenham Hotspur in the magnificent new Kai Tak Stadium will be a great experience for both teams and supporters, and will be a very important part of our pre-season preparations ahead of the new season," Spurs' chief revenue officer Ryan Norys said in a statement.

Tottenham will have an open training session ahead of the match Arsenal.

"There are few bigger occasions in English football than a north London derby and to play this fixture in Hong Kong will be a huge occasion for our passionate fanbase across Asia, as well as providing ideal preparation for the team ahead of the new season.

Liverpool will face AC Milan at the same stadium on July 26.

In a game that included seven ejections after a skirmish, the Minnesota Timberwolves found time to troll the Detroit Pistons.

With the win in hand, Timberwolves guards Anthony Edwards and Nickeil Alexander-Walker took turns performing a shimmy similar to Pistons guard Malik Beasley's 3-point celebration.

Alexander-Walker did it first before Edwards mocked Beasley at the final buzzer during a 123-104 victory Sunday night.

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Beasley's 3-point shimmy dates back to his lone season with the Utah Jazz in 2022-23.

He has had a lot of reason to dance this campaign, hitting a career-high 292 3-pointers -- the most in a season in Pistons franchise history -- after Sunday's loss.

Minnesota poked fun at the celebration, capping a matchup that included a fight in the second quarter that resulted in five players and two coaches being ejected.

Edwards had 25 points -- 20 of which came in the third quarter -- while Alexander-Walker scored 11. Beasley finished with a game-high 27 points and six 3-pointers. The two sides won't play again in the regular season.

Jannik Sinner isn't even allowed to play competitive tennis, yet he's still strengthened his grip as the world's leading men's player.

Sinner, of course, is almost halfway through a three-month ban for a doping offence, which ruled him out of the 'Sunshine Double' in Indian Wells and Miami.

But he watched on as nearest rivals - Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz - both fumbled the chance to significantly narrow the gap at the top of the ATP rankings.

It looks increasingly likely Sinner will lead the way when he returns in Rome at the start of May.

Sinner still holds a lead of 2,685 ranking points over Zverev, while Alcaraz is 3,610 adrift.

With 1,000 points available to the Monte Carlo and Madrid champions, plus 500 for winning Barcelona or Munich, a slim opportunity for Zverev remains.

Seizing the chance to overtake Sinner had been on Zverev's mind. Then he started, by his own admission, "playing terrible".

Atkinson signed a new contract with the club in February and has played every minute at inside centre in 11 out of 13 Premiership matches so far.

Skivington said Atkinson was one of the "top three" names who would be picked out by his team-mates as key to the club's strong performances this season.

Victory against the Bears moved Gloucester back into the top four, level on points with third-placed Leicester.

"He's got brilliant power and it's deceptive I think, he's got a great skillset. He's a brilliant individual," Skivington said.

"He's in the leadership group at his age already which says a lot, he takes this very seriously. He's not here to mess around and get paid and go home, he's here to win.

"Internally he'd be one of the top three names mentioned as to why things are going well at the club, if you asked the boys."

Atkinson added it would "be nice" to be on the England radar but that club honours are his main focus.

"I'm just focussing on what we're doing at Gloucester and pushing on to the end of the season and if that comes, it comes," Atkinson said.

"I'm trying to find a balance of my game. I know that my passing game's really strong but trying to find some carrying, breaking tackles, fighting the extra few metres to get us on the front foot is something I've been working on really hard this year and I was glad I could show that."

Saracens will rest their England players for their Champions Cup last-16 trip to Toulon on Saturday.

Director of rugby Mark McCall says he is prioritising making the Premiership play-offs ahead of a chance at a fourth European crown.

McCall started Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Tom Willis and Elliot Daly in his side's 29-22 win at Leicester on Sunday, while Ben Earl was a replacement.

Itoje and Willis will complete their mandatory post-Six Nations rest period this coming week while McCall says his other England players will also be stood down for the tip to Toulon, who are third in the French Top 14.

Victory in Toulon would set up the possibility of a trip to French league leaguers Toulouse in the quarter-finals, should they beat Sale at home.

"We made the decision to do this halfway through the Six Nations," McCall said after the win at Leicester.

"After we lost to Castres we got on the difficult side of the draw so we were always going to do this and those players are all off now for the next seven to 10 days.

"They will all miss Toulon. We don't have to do that but we will. We think it's unwise not to rest them. It's very important that they get rest.

"They have to do it in one of the three games after the Six Nations so we took the decision to prioritise the Premiership. Your hand is forced to some extent. We're just realistic about what's possible.

"A lot of the English teams have done this, it's not just us. We had our big game at Tottenham last weekend and it was essential that we had our best players playing.

"We will send our best available team to Toulon. We're not going to send a pack of 18-year-olds out against Toulon, we'll also give it a crack with absolutely nothing to lose."

The Stars were the third team to clinch a playoff berth this season, and the most likely outcome for Dallas is earning the No. 2 seed in the Central Division and squaring off with the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.

But there remains a chance that the Stars claim the division title, bringing on a first-round matchup with one of the wild-card teams.

Heading into Monday night, the Stars are six points behind the Winnipeg Jets at 106-100, and one point behind in regulation wins (40-39). If Dallas is going to catch Winnipeg, it should definitely win Monday's game against the Seattle Kraken (10 p.m., ESPN+). The Kraken were eliminated from playoff contention Saturday night.

Looking beyond Monday, the Stars play games against current playoff teams just twice, and one of those is a "four-point game" against the Jets on April 10. For comparison, the Jets face current playoff teams five times in their remaining schedule.

The chances aren't super high that the Stars get this done; the Stathletes projection model gives the Jets an 82.8% chance of winning the Central title, compared with 17.2% for the Stars. But by winning games that they should win against non-playoff teams -- and getting some help from Winnipeg's opponents -- they can definitely pull this off.

There are less than three weeks left until April 17, and we'll help you track it all with the NHL playoff watch. As we traverse the final stretch, we'll provide details on all the playoff races, along with the teams jockeying for position in the 2025 NHL draft lottery.

Note: Playoff chances are via Stathletes.

Jump ahead:
Current playoff matchups
Today's schedule
Yesterday's scores
Expanded standings
Race for No. 1 pick

Current playoff matchups

Eastern Conference

A1 Toronto Maple Leafs vs. WC1 Ottawa Senators
A2 Tampa Bay Lightning vs. A3 Florida Panthers
M1 Washington Capitals vs. WC2 New York Rangers
M2 Carolina Hurricanes vs. M3 New Jersey Devils

Western Conference

C1 Winnipeg Jets vs. WC2 St. Louis Blues
C2 Dallas Stars vs. C3 Colorado Avalanche
P1 Vegas Golden Knights vs. WC1 Minnesota Wild
P2 Los Angeles Kings vs. P3 Edmonton Oilers

Monday's games

Note: All times ET. All games not on TNT or NHL Network are available to stream on ESPN+ (local blackout restrictions apply).

Minnesota Wild at New Jersey Devils, 7 p.m. (NHLN)
Nashville Predators at Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m.
Calgary Flames at Colorado Avalanche, 8:30 p.m.
Dallas Stars at Seattle Kraken, 10 p.m.

Sunday's scoreboard

Montreal Canadiens 4, Florida Panthers 2
Buffalo Sabres 8, Washington Capitals 5
Winnipeg Jets 3, Vancouver Canucks 1
Utah Hockey Club 5, Chicago Blackhawks 2
Pittsburgh Penguins 1, Ottawa Senators 0 (OT)
Carolina Hurricanes 6, New York Islanders 4
Toronto Maple Leafs 3, Anaheim Ducks 2
Los Angeles Kings 8, San Jose Sharks 1

Expanded standings

Atlantic Division

Toronto Maple Leafs

Points: 94
Regulation wins: 37
Playoff position: A1
Games left: 8
Points pace: 104.2
Next game: vs. FLA (Wednesday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Tampa Bay Lightning

Points: 91
Regulation wins: 37
Playoff position: A2
Games left: 9
Points pace: 102.2
Next game: @ NYI (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Florida Panthers

Points: 91
Regulation wins: 35
Playoff position: A3
Games left: 9
Points pace: 102.2
Next game: @ MTL (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Ottawa Senators

Points: 84
Regulation wins: 30
Playoff position: WC1
Games left: 9
Points pace: 94.4
Next game: vs. BUF (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Montreal Canadiens

Points: 77
Regulation wins: 25
Playoff position: WC2
Games left: 9
Points pace: 86.5
Next game: vs. FLA (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 30%
Tragic number: N/A

Detroit Red Wings

Points: 74
Regulation wins: 26
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 9
Points pace: 83.1
Next game: @ STL (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 3.3%
Tragic number: 16

Boston Bruins

Points: 69
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 8
Points pace: 76.5
Next game: vs. WSH (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 9

Buffalo Sabres

Points: 68
Regulation wins: 25
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 9
Points pace: 76.4
Next game: @ OTT (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 10

Metro Division

x - Washington Capitals

Points: 103
Regulation wins: 40
Playoff position: M1
Games left: 9
Points pace: 115.7
Next game: @ BOS (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 100%
Tragic number: N/A

Carolina Hurricanes

Points: 94
Regulation wins: 40
Playoff position: M2
Games left: 9
Points pace: 105.6
Next game: vs. WSH (Wednesday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

New Jersey Devils

Points: 85
Regulation wins: 35
Playoff position: M3
Games left: 7
Points pace: 92.9
Next game: vs. MIN (Monday)
Playoff chances: 99.7%
Tragic number: N/A

New York Rangers

Points: 77
Regulation wins: 32
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 8
Points pace: 85.3
Next game: vs. MIN (Wednesday)
Playoff chances: 33.1%
Tragic number: 17

Columbus Blue Jackets

Points: 75
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 10
Points pace: 85.4
Next game: vs. NSH (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 19.6%
Tragic number: 19

New York Islanders

Points: 74
Regulation wins: 25
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 9
Points pace: 83.1
Next game: vs. TB (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 14.4%
Tragic number: 16

Pittsburgh Penguins

Points: 71
Regulation wins: 20
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 7
Points pace: 77.6
Next game: @ STL (Thursday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 9

Philadelphia Flyers

Points: 69
Regulation wins: 19
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 7
Points pace: 75.4
Next game: vs. NSH (Monday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 7

Central Division

x - Winnipeg Jets

Points: 106
Regulation wins: 40
Playoff position: C1
Games left: 8
Points pace: 117.5
Next game: @ LA (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 100%
Tragic number: N/A

x - Dallas Stars

Points: 100
Regulation wins: 39
Playoff position: C2
Games left: 9
Points pace: 112.3
Next game: @ SEA (Monday)
Playoff chances: 100%
Tragic number: N/A

Colorado Avalanche

Points: 93
Regulation wins: 38
Playoff position: C3
Games left: 8
Points pace: 103.1
Next game: vs. CGY (Monday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Minnesota Wild

Points: 87
Regulation wins: 33
Playoff position: WC1
Games left: 8
Points pace: 96.4
Next game: @ NJ (Monday)
Playoff chances: 92.3%
Tragic number: N/A

St. Louis Blues

Points: 87
Regulation wins: 30
Playoff position: WC2
Games left: 7
Points pace: 95.1
Next game: vs. DET (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 94.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Utah Hockey Club

Points: 78
Regulation wins: 25
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 8
Points pace: 86.4
Next game: vs. CGY (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 0.4%
Tragic number: 8

e - Nashville Predators

Points: 62
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 9
Points pace: 69.6
Next game: @ PHI (Monday)
Playoff chances: 0%
Tragic number: E

e - Chicago Blackhawks

Points: 51
Regulation wins: 18
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 8
Points pace: 56.5
Next game: vs. COL (Wednesday)
Playoff chances: 0%
Tragic number: E

Pacific Division

Vegas Golden Knights

Points: 98
Regulation wins: 42
Playoff position: P1
Games left: 9
Points pace: 110.1
Next game: vs. EDM (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Los Angeles Kings

Points: 91
Regulation wins: 36
Playoff position: P3
Games left: 9
Points pace: 102.2
Next game: vs. WPG (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 99.8%
Tragic number: N/A

Edmonton Oilers

Points: 89
Regulation wins: 30
Playoff position: P2
Games left: 9
Points pace: 100.0
Next game: @ VGK (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 99.4%
Tragic number: N/A

Vancouver Canucks

Points: 81
Regulation wins: 26
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 8
Points pace: 89.8
Next game: vs. SEA (Wednesday)
Playoff chances: 5.8%
Tragic number: 11

Calgary Flames

Points: 80
Regulation wins: 26
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 10
Points pace: 91.1
Next game: @ COL (Monday)
Playoff chances: 7.3%
Tragic number: 14

Anaheim Ducks

Points: 72
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 9
Points pace: 80.9
Next game: vs. SJ (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 4

e - Seattle Kraken

Points: 68
Regulation wins: 25
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 8
Points pace: 75.4
Next game: vs. DAL (Monday)
Playoff chances: 0%
Tragic number: E

e - San Jose Sharks

Points: 49
Regulation wins: 14
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 9
Points pace: 55.0
Next game: @ ANA (Tuesday
Playoff chances: 0%
Tragic number: E

Note: An "x" means that the team has clinched a playoff berth. An "e" means that the team has been eliminated from playoff contention.

Race for the No. 1 pick

The NHL uses a draft lottery to determine the order of the first round, so the team that finishes in last place is not guaranteed the No. 1 selection. As of 2021, a team can move up a maximum of 10 spots if it wins the lottery, so only 11 teams are eligible for the No. 1 pick. Full details on the process are here. Matthew Schaefer, a defenseman for the OHL's Erie Otters, is No. 1 on the draft board.

1. San Jose Sharks

Points: 49
Regulation wins: 14

2. Chicago Blackhawks

Points: 51
Regulation wins: 18

3. Nashville Predators

Points: 62
Regulation wins: 23

4. Seattle Kraken

Points: 68
Regulation wins: 25

5. Buffalo Sabres

Points: 68
Regulation wins: 25

6. Philadelphia Flyers

Points: 69
Regulation wins: 19

7. Boston Bruins

Points: 69
Regulation wins: 23

8. Pittsburgh Penguins

Points: 71
Regulation wins: 20

9. Anaheim Ducks

Points: 72
Regulation wins: 23

10. New York Islanders

Points: 74
Regulation wins: 25

11. Detroit Red Wings

Points: 74
Regulation wins: 26

12. Columbus Blue Jackets

Points: 75
Regulation wins: 23

13. New York Rangers

Points: 77
Regulation wins: 32

14. Utah Hockey Club

Points: 78
Regulation wins: 25

15. Calgary Flames

Points: 80
Regulation wins: 26

16. Vancouver Canucks

Points: 81
Regulation wins: 26

Real Betis midfielder Isco has joked that crowdfunding will be needed to keep Manchester United's loanee Antony at the club for at least next season.

Antony has been a big hit in Spain since joining on loan from United after a difficult first half of the campaign at Old Trafford.

However, the loan deal which took the Brazilian winger to Betis did not include an option for the Spanish club to automatically make his stay permanent this summer.

"We need to crowdfund so he can stay at least another year," Isco said smiling when asked about Antony after Betis' 2-1 win against Sevilla in Sunday's derby.

Antony, 25, has a contract with United until June 2027.

He has scored four goals and set up four more in 12 appearances for the Spanish outfit.

Betis have already made it clear that they are keen for Antony to continue at the club next season and Isco believes he has made a huge impact at Betis.

"I'm happy to be able to enjoy Antony," the former Spain international said. "He has surprised us all with his humility and with his willingness to help and add. We have noticed a change since he arrived. We are happy for him and for the team."

Antony, who despite not scoring stood out against Sevilla on Sunday, delighted the home crowd when he waved the club's flag around after the derby win as part of his team's celebrations.

"I'm very happy for Antony," Betis coach Manuel Pellegrini said in his post-match press conference.

"He is a great player, who had gone through a complicated spell."

Antony scored only 12 goals in 96 appearances for the Red Devils since his 85 million transfer from Ajax in 2022.

"He is young, he has a lot to give to football," Pellegrini said of Antony. "It has helped his game to play alongside players like Isco, [Giovanni] Lo Celso, William Carvalho..."

Antony, meanwhile, said he is only focused on the present.

"What I am most happy about is having found myself and I found myself here," Antony said after Sunday's game.

"I'm grateful for the affection I've received since I arrived. I'm very happy here. My head is at Betis. I'm enjoying every day the city, the club... Let's continue like this."

Sunday's win was Betis' sixth straight league triumph and allowed the side to cement their sixth place in LaLiga. Betis play at league leaders Barcelona on Saturday.

Barcelona inaugurated their first store abroad at the weekend in Georgia's capital Tbilisi as part of their business expansion.

The 'Barça Store Georgia,' located in the historic centre, opened its doors on Saturday and will be operated under license.

"We are delighted to open 'Barça Store Georgia' in Tbilisi and offer Georgian fans a unique opportunity to feel even closer to the club they passionately support," Georgian businessman David Zakariadze, the driving force of the project, said.

"Our goal is to create a special environment where every fan can truly experience the 'Blaugrana spirit.'"

Zakariadze, a big fan of Barça since childhood, worked on this project for three years.

"The most difficult thing was to convince FC Barcelona of how attractive the Georgian market is," Zakariadze told EFE as reported in Infobae.

"Fortunately, they believed me. We conducted a market study, and now we can be proud of the implementation of the idea."

The Catalan club will open two further stores this week in Spain, one in Malaga and one at Palma de Mallorca airport, thus, owning 15 shops outright with six others operated under license.