Newcastle Falcons have signed Argentina international prop Eduardo Bello on a two-year deal from Saracens.

He joins Mateo Carreras, Matias Moroni, Matias Orlando and Pedro Rubiolo among the Falcons' Argentine contingent.

"He's an international-class tight-head who is good in the set-piece, so it's great news to bring him in," said forwards coach Micky Ward.

"He's got a good build, he's been in a strong environment at Saracens and he's had four seasons as a regular starter with Zebre in Italy, so he's familiar with European conditions and how the game's played over here."

Bello is the Falcons' 10th summer signing under new head coach Alex Codling as preparations begin for the 2023-24 Premiership season.

French powerhouse Bordeaux will remain in the second division next season after the league on Monday handed the six-time champions a loss for a game that was abandoned after a pitch invader attacked a player from Rodez.

The league's disciplinary committee ruled that the season finale, which Bordeaux had to win to keep their promotion hopes alive, will not be replayed. It also deducted a point from Bordeaux for next season and ordered the closure of the south stand at Bordeaux stadium for two games.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

The June 2 match between Bordeaux and Rodez was stopped shortly after Lucas Buades gave Rodez a 1-0 lead on the final day of the season. While Rodez players celebrated, a Bordeaux fan stepped onto the pitch and pushed Buades to the ground.

The match referee stopped proceedings and sent both teams back to the locker room and Buades was diagnosed with a concussion and the game did not resume.

Bordeaux were involved in a two-way battle with Metz for the second promotion spot behind second-division champion Le Havre. Metz beat Bastia 3-2 on the final day and will be promoted unless Bordeaux manage to overturn the committee's decision.

Bordeaux said in a statement that the ruling was "as incomprehensible as it is disproportionate" and that it would refer the case to France's national Olympic committee.

With six French leagues titles, four French Cups, three League Cups and success on the European stage, the southwestern club are one of the most decorated in the country. Bordeaux last won a league title in 2009, before the emergence of Paris Saint-Germain.

Lionel Messi doesn't forget. By the sound of it, he hasn't entirely forgiven, either.

On the evening of Aug. 4, 2021, he and his family flew from Ibiza to Barcelona, touching down at El Prat around 8 p.m. local time. Holiday over, the way he recalls it, his kids were excited about another year at school in Castelldefels and he was looking forward to another season at Camp Nou. It would have been his 18th.

Everything was sorted: an agreement had been reached to renew his contract at the club where he had played since he was 13. His salary would be halved, but he was happy. All he had to do was go in the following day and sign it.

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Overnight, literally overnight, everything changed. Messi was told to leave: go and find another club. A statement was released by Barcelona that evening; the captain could not continue. He hadn't even been back in the city 24 hours.

Three days later, Messi spoke, although it wasn't easy to speak at all. "This is hard, I'm not ready for this," he said. It was the worst moment of his career, he admitted, and it wasn't about to get better. The league's financial fair play rules didn't allow him to renew, which is one way of putting it, the way many prefer as it suits them. Barcelona's finances didn't allow it is another. That came as news to him.

"I thought it was all sorted," Messi said. "I was convinced I would continue, there would be no problem. I never had any doubts. We were decided, we would stay." Instead, he went to Paris. And Paris was terrible.

It is because Messi remembers having to leave Barcelona, how it happened and everything that followed it, the impact it made on him and on his family, what a miserable time he had away from his home, that he is not going back to Barcelona again two years on and joining Inter Miami in MLS instead. Which might sound a little contradictory, even slightly mad, but it is the truth. A big part of it, at least.

"Last time was extremely hard, very, very hard, and one of the reasons for this," Messi said about passing on a Barcelona move.

There are many things that have been made clear in the wake of Messi's announcement that he will be joining Miami and the interview that he gave to explain why, but above all there is one thing, a recurring theme that hits hard: how bad it was then and how little he trusted Barcelona not to let him down once more. How little faith he had in them actually making his return happen. He certainly wasn't going to risk it, not this time. Last time, he had paid for it, and heavily.

"I didn't want my future in someone else's hands," he said. Not theirs, that's for sure.

Last Wednesday afternoon, Messi sat down in the Paris home he will soon depart with two Catalan newspapers, Sport and Mundo Deportivo. In the interview he announced where he was going next, but didn't really talk about it. There was little about what he hopes to achieve there, not much in the way of enthusiasm.

Instead, he talked about Barcelona. And above all, he talked about the past. It was a long conversation, and often hugely revealing. Mostly, it revealed how hurt he had been that he had to leave Barca in the first place, and how nothing at PSG had changed his mind, which only made it worse.

"We never, never wanted to leave Barcelona," he said. "I had to go to Paris." That's had to, not chose to. He said he was "hurt," "angry," that it had been "ugly." He had felt like he had been made out to be the "bad guy, and I didn't like that." He "missed Barcelona," he said. He had "two bad years" at PSG. "I didn't enjoy it," he said.

"I had a spectacular month at the World Cup," he said, and you couldn't help but think: thank God for that. Because he added: "But the rest was difficult."

All of that left him and his family wanting to come back. Yet, it also made them nervous about risking trying to come back, being caught out again. Once bitten, twice shy and all that. There were conversations with Barcelona, especially with manager and former teammate Xavi. Messi heard the rumours, the leaks. He even said he liked them, when they seemed to be pointing to the possibility of heading home.

"The family got excited by the things they heard," he said. He contacted Xavi. Do you really want me? Can this really happen? There were conversations with those managing the finances, and reassurances were sought. There were discussions about contracts, although no concrete proposal.

"We were hopeful," he said. And yet, what happened two years ago was still there, that fear, that reluctance to really believe it. To really believe them. As talks continued, so Barcelona were more open about it, excitement building. "There were a lot of leaks," Messi said; there were a lot of public declarations, too. Barcelona said they were in contact with him. They said they were making progress. They said that they were just waiting on the league to validate their financial viability plan.

"We hope he wants to join us," Xavi said. It was "99% in Messi's hands," he said. Barcelona president Joan Laporta didn't so much make Messi his priority as his everything. In a way, he always had: Laporta had been cautious about it, but Messi being at Barcelona had been key to his electoral campaign in the first place.

You may remember that footage of him hugging a mannequin in a Messi shirt. He had said he would find a way of keeping him, but had ended up being the president who lost him, and while many were at fault -- starting with the previous president, Josep Maria Bartomeu -- there was a lingering sense from Messi, and others, that he had been let down. That came clearly back into focus. There was a kind of emotional need for Laporta to make up for his departure, a kind of desperation to make amends. To try, at least. And to be seen to try.

A lot of it was played out in public, which was always going to be a double-edged sword. The story being built by Barcelona allowed for two people to blame if it didn't come off: Messi himself and, above all, LaLiga president Javier Tebas. There's nothing like an external enemy, someone out to get you to bind people together. But it is a risky approach, even in communications terms: it gets the hopes of supporters up, setting them up for disappointment and exposes you: fair or not, you can end up looking either incompetent or a liar.

"The last thing I want to do is con the Barcelona fans," Xavi said, but some supporters will have felt that way.

It didn't come off. Messi's father had said he wanted to go back to Barcelona. The league approved Barcelona's viability plan. Xavi described Messi as a priority. But almost as soon as all that had happened, Jorge Messi informed Barcelona that his son was not coming home. Or, more to the point, that he was not going to commit himself to returning if they could make it happen, that he was not going to put himself back at their disposal, trust them to fix it all.

The club put out a short, cold and, when you unpack it, quite an unpleasant statement about a player who does not belong to them. In it, they said they respected his decision to go to a lesser league with less pressure. In essence, they were stripping away all the other elements, to make him the only agent of this outcome; they were reducing it to one thing and one man, blaming him. Never mind the doubts that remained, never mind the financial crisis, never mind the fact that they couldn't really do this. They were basically were saying: this guy can't do it any more, he's running away. He didn't dare. He bottled it. The same player who had said he wanted to return to play for them. They same player they wanted was no longer elite.

Even if Barca thought that to be true, even if they suspected he was always going to walk away and had only wanted to save face by looking like he tried, even if they felt played by him, it was startling. Above all, there was something in that statement -- it's tone, gratuitousness and gracelessness -- that retrospectively underlined that perhaps he had been right not to trust them. Messi had felt like the "bad guy" before; now he could be forgiven for feeling the same way again.

Besides, let's get back to basics: how were Barcelona even going to make this happen? How were they going to escape their financial reality? "I had felt over the last couple of weeks [of talking to Messi] that it didn't seem so certain," Xavi later admitted. It hadn't looked so certain to Messi either.

Xavi had said that it depended on Messi. "But that's not entirely true because there were still lots of things missing," Messi told Sport and Mundo Deportivo once it was over. There were lots of explanations and all of them essentially said the same thing: he had wanted this, but he didn't trust them to make it happen, that he had been hurt before, that he was a bit tired of this. That it was their fault.

Look at the lines he offered: there would still need to be sales and salary cuts, "and I didn't want that; I had been accused of many things that weren't true before," Messi said. And there was no actual formal contract offer, nothing was certain, still. Every line left Laporta looking bad: at one point, Messi even noted that he had not spoken to the president more than a couple of times in two years, and only briefly, even then. At another, asked if Barcelona had done all they could, he replied: "I don't know."

Every line essentially said the same thing: this might not happen, I couldn't trust that it would, look what they did to me. Like last time, he might be stuck. And last time, it was not only that he had to leave Barcelona but, as it turned out, that he had to go Paris. His bad time there was on them. That memory weighed; the damage was done, not forgotten. Not forgiven either.

"When I had to go [the first time] they also said the league had agreed everything and in the end it couldn't be done," Messi said. "I feared the same thing happening as last time." At no point is there excitement over Miami, a sense of a future to embrace. Every word of his interview returned to the last two years: to how bad it had been, to how the home he held onto had been taken from him. To the moment that forced it all on him.

And there is an inescapable fact here: of all the people involved in his departure, for all the blame to be spread around -- Bartomeu, Laporta, Tebas, Jorge Messi, Leo -- the only one who actually had to go, the only one who had to "pay" for it, the only one wasting two years of his life, the end of his career, was him. And with him, his family.

Which is why he wanted to come back, but also why he said he couldn't. The finances hadn't been fixed yet, Barcelona only able to spend 40% of what they can raise. He could have waited -- it is only early June, after all, the window not even formally open yet -- but what was the guarantee that things would change, that they would succeed in raising the money? How could he be sure that they could register him when they can't yet register some of the players they already have?

"I feared having to run like I did last time," he said. "It looked like being a long summer and I didn't want to go through what I went through two years ago. I preferred to take the decision to end this and think about my future knowing what is possible."

And yet, it was the past that mattered most. It was early still, but this had gone on long enough. There was no going back and no one had won. Except Miami.

Autopsy reveals heartbreaking details of how US sprinter passed away last month at her home in Florida

Olympic and world champion sprinter Tori Bowie died in her home during childbirth, according to the autopsy.

The 32-year-old was found dead at her home in Florida, in May after the local sheriff’s department attended “a well-being check of a woman … who had not been seen or heard from in several days.”

The autopsy report was obtained by USA Today, who reported: “Possible complications Bowie had included respiratory distress and eclampsia, when a person develops seizures following a sudden spike in high blood pressure during pregnancy.”

The news of her death in early May sent shockwaves through the sport, but the cause of death was not known until now.

According to the report from Orange County Medical Examiner Office, she was eight months pregnant and in the process of giving birth when she died.

Bowie won 4x100m gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics, plus 100m silver and 200m bronze at those Games before going on to claim the world 100m and 4x100m titles in London the following year.

DENVER -- Stan Kroenke's sports empire has produced an NFL, NHL and now NBA champion in three consecutive seasons.

His latest title came Monday night when the Denver Nuggets won their first championship 47 years after joining the NBA. His Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in the Super Bowl following the 2021 season, and his Colorado Avalanche hoisted the Stanley Cup last summer after dispatching the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.

Through the champagne spray and cigar smoke choking the Nuggets' locker room following their rugged 94-89 win over Miami in Game 5, Kroenke reflected on his football, hockey and basketball titles and couldn't pick one over the other.

"It's like having children: You love them all," Kroenke said. "It's unbelievably exciting. I'm just so happy for everybody involved, particularly the city, which for 47 years they never had this."

The Nuggets were a founding franchise in the old ABA and played for that league's championship in 1976, falling in six games to Julius Erving's New York Nets. Later that year, the NBA absorbed those teams along with the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers, both of whom made the Finals long before Denver did.

The Nuggets didn't play for another league title until this year, and their clincher came 55 years, 7 months and 28 days after the team won its first game in franchise history over the Anaheim Amigos.

Even with the great duo of NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, the top-seeded Nuggets didn't have an easy time dispatching the No. 8 seed Heat.

"It was a dogfight," Kroenke said in a rare interview, which seem mostly to come in locker room celebrations of late. "I mean, that's how they play. They are tough. That's a great organization. Great coach. Pat Riley's amazing, his influence on basketball and number of championships. just how clever they are with everything.

"But that was a dogfight, and for our guys to go out there and persevere and win that thing, that was awesome."

His Rams didn't get past the Bengals easily in the Super Bowl and his Avalanche got all they could handle from the Lightning last year.

"No, and I always say if you want to win a championship, you've got to go get it," Kroenke said. "Nobody's going to make it available to you. And the guys over there are really good."

Kroenke's hope is that this is just the start of a long Nuggets run and that, unlike the Rams and Avalanche, they can defend their title in 2024.

"We've got a great group," Kroenke said.

DENVER -- Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra didn't hide from the truth after watching the Denver Nuggets end his team's championship dream following a 94-89 loss in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night.

"There's no regrets on our end," Spoelstra said after the Nuggets hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy. "There's just sometimes where you get beat, and Denver was the better basketball team in this series. That's about as hard -- I don't know how long it would take me to go through the autopsy of this final game, but I would say that it will probably rank as our hardest, competitive, most active defensive game of the season, and it still fell short."

In the end, NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic, guard Jamal Murray and the rest of a hard-nosed Nuggets group proved too much for Spoelstra's overachieving team. The coach and his players didn't take solace in knowing they were just the second No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals. But Spoelstra did respect the fact they got beat by a Denver team coached by Michael Malone, who has developed the same kind of culture that has defined the Heat for almost three decades under the leadership of team president Pat Riley.

"You have to tip your hat to them," Spoelstra said of the Nuggets. "I said it, but they are one hell of a basketball team. They play the right way, they compete, they are well-coached and they have a strong culture. So for this season, they deserve this."

The Heat don't make excuses as an organization, but the reality is they looked like a team that ran out of gas against a superior opponent. Heat star Jimmy Butler, who imposed his will on games throughout the postseason while carrying the Heat at various points, finished just 5-for-18 from the field on Monday and struggled to find any rhythm offensively, aside from a few clutch shots down the stretch.

Arguably the most important sequence of the game came with less than 30 seconds to play and the Nuggets clinging to a 90-89 lead. Butler drove to the rim but got bottled up in the post by Murray and Jokic then tried to find teammate Max Strus in the corner, but the ball was stolen by Nuggets swingman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope -- and the Heat were forced to foul. Caldwell-Pope drained two free throws, Butler missed a 3-pointer that would have tied the game on the following possession, and the game was effectively over.

When asked what stood out about the final two minutes, Butler offered up the same kind of truth that Spoelstra uttered minutes earlier at the podium about the series as a whole.

"That I turned the ball over," Butler said. "That's what stood out."

Butler refused to blame any of his struggles on any lingering injuries, focusing instead on how "grateful" he was to be able to play with this Heat group.

"I'm just grateful," Butler said. "I learned so much. They taught me so much. I wish I could have got it done for these guys, because they definitely deserve it."

While the disappointment was palpable from Heat players and coaches in the locker room, there was also a sense of pride because of what the Heat accomplished to even get to that point after almost losing to the Chicago Bulls in April during the second game of the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.

"You take the experience of this season, and if you can just bottle that up and everybody just have their own portion or rewritten story of it, the No. 1 thing, I think, would be will," Heat center Bam Adebayo said. "So looking forward, I think this is one of my favorite teams I've ever been a part of because we willed our way through ups and downs.

"We willed our way through the things that people said we couldn't do."

Spoelstra said he told all of his players he loved them and that they would always be bonded by what they did together this season. That resonated, especially for 43-year-old veteran forward Udonis Haslem, who will retire after 20 seasons with the club.

"I'm proud of the guys. I'm proud of the team," Haslem said. "I just thank those guys for giving me this amazing memory. This amazing memory to take with me. I tell the guys I have no complaints, I have no regrets. They gave me a final season that I'll never, ever forget, and that's all I can ask for."

Spoelstra said he was proud of the way the group handled the adversity that came its way and was hopeful those lessons could be passed down over time because of the way the group always seemed to bounce back from the tough times.

As the Heat look ahead, they do so facing some difficult questions in the near future. Key contributors Gabe Vincent and Strus will be free agents. Guard Tyler Herro will have to be reintegrated into the group after missing almost the entirety of this postseason with a broken right hand. The Heat must decide how many assets they'd be willing to put in a trade to try to acquire another star to pair with Butler, who will turn 34 in September.

As Riley and Spoelstra try to figure out the answers to those questions, they do so with Butler still steadfast in the belief that this group will be able to win a title.

"It's been great," Butler said of his four seasons with the Heat. "I've had some helluva teammates come through and compete with me and give us the opportunity to win a championship, which I still believe, with everything in me, that we will do as a team here, as an organization, as a city in Miami."

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Diamondbacks rallied from an early four-run deficit before nearly blew a four-run lead late. Their manager and a reserve infielder were ejected after the same player got hit by a pitch twice in three innings.

The Philadelphia Phillies saw catcher J.T. Realmuto -- 0-for-13 in his previous four games -- complete the cycle in the ninth inning, then thought they had a go-ahead homer on a ball that curled into their bullpen.

A wild night in the desert ended with the Diamondbacks' sixth straight win.

Evan Longoria hit a three-run homer and the Diamondbacks withstood Realmuto hitting for the cycle to beat the Phillies 9-8 on Monday night.

"This team is unfazed, we're just going to keep playing," said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, who was ejected in the third inning. "Like they're a bunch of black labs running around chasing frisbees on the beach."

This was no day at the beach. More like an exhausting night in the desert with 25 combined hits -- 10 for extra bases -- and numerous twists and turns.

Realmuto got it started with a solo homer in the first inning and a two-run triple in the third to put the Phillies up 5-1. He hit a double in the ninth inning to complete Philadelphia's ninth cycle in franchise history and first since David Bell in 2004 and scored on Bryson Stott's single to cut Arizona's lead to 9-8.

Philadelphia's Kody Clemens pinch-hit and thought he had hit a two-run homer off Miguel Castro, cheering as he circled the bases after the ball curled into the Phillies' bullpen. The umpires ruled it a foul ball, confirmed it upon review and Castro struck out Clemens on the next pitch to end the game for his seventh save.

Realmuto is the first catcher since George Kottaras in 2011 to hit for the cycle and 17th in major league history.

Realmuto put the Phillies up 5-1 with his triple in the third inning, but the action picked up after the teams nearly came to blows in the bottom half.

Philadelphia starter Matt Strahm hit Arizona's Corbin Carroll with a pitch in the first inning, then plunked him again in the third inning, firing up Lovullo and the Diamondbacks.

"Zero intent to hit him on both," Strahm said. "I didn't think I missed that far inside for that type of reaction."

Knowing he wasn't supposed to leave the dugout, Lovullo did anyway to stick up for his player, believing Strahm had pitched too far inside for comfort.

While he was talking to plate umpire Vic Carapazza. Realmuto started talking to the Arizona manager, triggering an argument that sent players rushing out of both dugouts and bullpens.

Carapazza ejected Lovullo, then kicked out Diamondbacks reserve third baseman Josh Rojas after Strahm got into a yelling match with someone in Arizona's dugout.

"I have nothing but respect for J.T. Realmuto," Lovullo said. "This was me protecting our player and him protecting his pitcher, and there was just a disagreement. I don't want to talk about what was said between J.T. I knew going out there that I had no right to go out there."

The Diamondbacks rallied around their manager.

Pavin Smith had a run-scoring single in the third inning and Emmanuel Rivera added one in the fourth. Allowed to swing his third at-bat, Carroll lined a run-scoring triple into the right field corner to tie the game at 5-all. He reached base four times and scored twice after being named NL player of the week.

Rivera's sacrifice fly off Dylan Covey (1-2) in the sixth inning gave Arizona the lead and Longoria followed with a towering three-run shot over the wall in left-center.

"It fired us up, but our foot is always on the gas pedal as a team," said Arizona outfielder Jake McCarthy, who went 3 for 4. "We obviously back our guys and wanted to go out and finish strong."

Bryce Harper lined a run-scoring single off Drey Jameson (3-1) and Alec Bohm followed with another to pull Philadelphia within 9-7 in the seventh inning. After some tense moments, the Diamondbacks finally closed it out.

"I'm exhausted right now," Lovullo said.

ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A group of prominent medical organizations says it's growing concerned about what they consider to be a threat to medical care for top-level athletes: increasing liability risks for doctors as salaries for those athletes rise.

The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM), along with 27 co-signers, distributed an open letter recently saying that "recent and ongoing litigation may have an enormous negative impact on the medical care of competitive and elite athletes."

The letter comes on the heels of several significant legal cases, including one where former NFL player Chris Maragos was awarded $43.5 million by a Philadelphia jury after accusing his surgeon and the group that oversaw his rehabilitation of malpractice for their decisions related to a meniscal tear. He contended in court that the case cost him at least $8.7 million in future NFL earnings, but was awarded five times that in damages.

Dr. Mark Miller, the AOSSM president, told ESPN the reason and timing for the statement is simple.

"If not now, when?" he said. "We want to raise public awareness that this issue affects the care of all people we take care of. Our ability to serve all of our patients from the playground to the professional level is at risk."

As salaries have risen for professional athletes, and as college and even some high school athletes have secured big-money Name Image Likeness deals, the liability for future earnings has increased significantly, the group wrote. That could keep some of the nation's top doctors and surgeons away from treating high-level athletes of all ages.

Dr. Scott Rodeo, the head team physician for the New York Giants, told ESPN potential liability concerns may impact the availability of qualified sports medicine experts for athletes.

"Recent cases may be the tip of the iceberg," Rodeo said, "and some physicians may decide the visibility associated with caring for athletes may not be worth the liability risk anymore."

Dr. Robin West, the lead team physician for the Washington Nationals, said she was concerned that younger doctors considering specializing in sports medicine may be deterred by the elevated risk of treating high-price athletes.

"It may lead to young physicians opting to choose a different path entirely because the liability and the risks in sports medicine aren't worth it," she said.

And it may not only be physicians deciding to step away from caring for elite athletes that potentially shrinks the provider pool. As risk rises, obtaining malpractice coverage through insurance companies is also more difficult.

"A prominent orthopedic surgeon who takes care of professional athletes has already indicated that his insurance will no longer allow him to take care of this population because of this very issue," Miller said.

"Subspecialists must work together to fight the unnecessarily high legal risk of practicing sports medicine and the damage that it will do to the profession and the medical care of athletes," the AOSSM wrote in its statement.

The group is also calling for a higher standard for expert testimony in malpractice legal cases involving injured athletes.

"It's a level of expertise that requires additional training, additional skills and it takes a tremendous commitment," said Miller. "In cases that do go to trial, there should be expert testimony that's on an equal level. That didn't happen in some of these cases."

"A concerted effort is needed to preserve the future of the sports medicine field," the organization wrote, "and in cases where expert testimony is required, this testimony should come from a qualified medical physician expert."

LAS VEGAS -- Although Tuesday will mark the first time the Vegas Golden Knights can clinch a Stanley Cup, they have a few players on their roster who've been in the position before.

The message from those players is simple: Stay focused on the end goal while enjoying the pressure that comes with it all.

Vegas has a chance to win the first Stanley Cup title in its six-year existence Tuesday when it hosts the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena. Although this is the Golden Knights' second Cup Final, this is the first time they have been in position to win a championship; they lost in five games to the Washington Capitals in 2018.

"Having a few guys who have been here before, it certainly helps," said Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez, who won two Stanley Cups with the Los Angeles Kings. "It's a focus mentality, somewhat of a calmness. Not trying to overreact or underreact, just trying to stay even-keel and focused on the end goal. ... It's human nature to try to get a little too emotionally high or low throughout an emotional series or playoff run like this. Experience certainly helps.

"But that said, the guys that haven't been in this position, I think they've done a really good job of handling it. The only way to learn is to go through it."

Martinez is one of several Golden Knights players who've won at least one Stanley Cup in their careers. Backup goaltender Jonathan Quick was teammates with Martinez when the Kings won the title in 2012 and 2014. Winger Phil Kessel, who has been used more in a reserve role this postseason, won consecutive Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Center Chandler Stephenson was part of the Capitals team that beat the Golden Knights in 2018 to win what was that organization's first title. Ivan Barbashev and Alex Pietrangelo were part of the St. Louis Blues squad that won a Stanley Cup in 2019, then did it against the Boston Bruins, who were then coached by current Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy.

Pietrangelo said being a win away with a chance to clinch Tuesday has not led to any grand discussions within the team about what it means to be this close. He said the conversations actually have been about how everyone has invested so much time and energy into this season that they want to go all-in for one more game.

"You address it, but you don't dwell on it," Pietrangelo said. "I think we've played well in clinching games. Even against Dallas [in the Western Conference finals], you have to win that game to get to this situation. I thought we just pushed everything aside and played probably our best game of the playoffs. I think our group enjoys that pressure and enjoys those situations."

Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar, who among the players who have not won a Stanley Cup, expanded on what Pietrangelo said about what was gained against the Stars in the West finals.

The Golden Knights took a 3-0 series lead before the Stars rallied to force a Game 6 at American Airlines Arena in Dallas. The Golden Knights responded with an emphatic 6-0 win that punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final in which their lone defeat has been a Game 3 overtime loss.

It's what made Kolesar say that every series the Golden Knights have played has been valuable when it comes to learning what it means to close out a team.

"Right from Winnipeg [in the first round], we lost Game 1 of that, and we got a wake-up call, and we finished that off in four after that," Kolesar said. "Edmonton -- we had a grind of win a game, lose a game, win a game, lose a game. You have that back-and-forth battle. Then, in the Dallas series, we found ways to pull through when we were up 3-1 and they made it 3-2 and then we bounced back and had our best game and finished it off in six. So, I think in every series we've found a valuable lesson from every one of them on how to close out a series or how to bounce back in a series."

Or, as Quick simply stated: Closing out a team can be difficult no matter whether it's the first round or the Final.

"You just kind of go in with that same mentality that we've used prior," Quick said. "You just rely on your team game, your commitment to defense and commitment to your structure, and you go from there."

LAS VEGAS -- The status of injured Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk won't be revealed until Tuesday before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.

"Update will be tomorrow," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Monday. "You'll get all that big information tomorrow night."

Tkachuk accompanied the Panthers to Las Vegas, where they face elimination as the Golden Knights have a 3-1 series lead. He didn't skate in an optional practice at T-Mobile Arena.

He was limited to 16 minutes, 40 seconds of ice time in the Panthers' Game 4 loss. Tkachuk was clearly laboring in the game with what appeared to be an upper-body injury. He skated only four shifts during the third period but had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer with a shot near the Knights' crease.

When asked what it would take for him to miss the Panthers' next game, Tkachuk said after Game 4: "That's a tough question. I don't really want to talk about that right now."

Tkachuk leads the Panthers in postseason goals (11) and points (24). He has been their most valuable forward in the playoffs with four game-winning goals -- three in overtime.

On Sunday, Maurice left the door open for Tkachuk to play a limited role for the Panthers in Game 5.

"There are players that will play just power-play. There are guys that will stay on for offensive zone draws. There's different styles of center and winger that you can play with to kind of put them in a position to be good at what they can be good at," he said.

Panthers players said if Tkachuk can't go, or if he's limited, they'll be ready to answer the call in Game 5.

"We've been shorthanded a lot this year with big guys being in and out of the lineup and it's just an opportunity for other guys to step up and take a bigger role, be more of an impact," said center Sam Bennett, Tkachuk's linemate. "So that shouldn't be an issue."

Eric Staal, the veteran center, said the team would remain confident even with someone as important as Tkachuk out.

"We grind it all year. We won some key games at key times with important pieces out of our lineup. So however we look tomorrow, I know we'll have confidence in who we are and the guys that are out there," Staal said.

Florida is trying to become just the second team in NHL history to rally from a 3-1 series deficit to win the Stanley Cup. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs came back from a 3-0 hole to defeat the Detroit Red Wings for the Cup. The Panthers are using their opening-round victory against the Boston Bruins as a rallying cry, as they came back from 3-1 down for a shocking Game 7 win.

"It's the same spot," Bennett said. "We've done it before. We know we're capable of doing it again."

Well, not exactly the same spot if Tkachuk can't go: He's the one who scored the overtime goal in Game 5 of the Boston series to spark that rally.