DALLAS -- Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn said it was a "heat of the moment" play that led to the match penalty in Game 3, earning him both a first-period ejection and a hearing Wednesday with the NHL Department of Player Safety.

Benn said Wednesday that he needed to be more responsible with his body and stick.

Just 1 minute, 53 seconds into Tuesday night's 4-0 loss to the Golden Knights in Dallas, Benn was given a game misconduct for cross-checking Vegas captain Mark Stone around the jaw while Stone was flat on the ice.

Vegas moved within one victory of a Western Conference finals sweep of the Stars.

"That was my first shift of a game on home ice, when you're pretty jacked up and you're down 1-0. So you want to try and get your game going. Emotions are high and it's just an unfortunate play," Benn said. "I put my team in a tough situation, so it's pretty unfortunate."

"It didn't feel good," Stone told reporters Wednesday. "I think I was more a little bit surprised. It was early in the game, it was my first shift of the game. I didn't expect to get stomped on like that. But I could hear the ref making sure I was all right and I felt okay to get up. The refs made sure the right call was made."

When asked if he would change anything on the play, Benn said he believed that he fell on Stone.

"Obviously, didn't want to take a five-minute penalty, but when the game happens fast, emotions are high. Obviously I would've liked to not fall on him and I guess use my stick as the landing point," he said.

Would he use the falling defense in his department of player safety hearing?

"We'll probably go through the whole play starting from our end and I'll try and tell them how I was feeling and what was going on in that situation," he said.

George Parros, director of the department of player safety, was in attendance at Game 3.

With his team already trailing 1-0 in the first two minutes of the game, Benn knocked Stone to the ice with a check. With Stone on his back, Benn drove his stick down into Stone's jaw area while falling to the ice himself.

The on-ice officials gave Benn a match penalty for cross-checking. They reviewed the play on a tablet near the penalty boxes and determined it was a correct call.

Per NHL Rule 59, a cross-checking match penalty can be assessed if the referee believes a player "attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent by cross-checking."

Vegas would score on the ensuing power play and again at 7:10 of the first period, chasing Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger after he faced just five shots.

"I'm not sure you could script it much worse," said Dallas coach Peter DeBoer. DeBoer and Benn's Dallas teammates offered support for their captain after the game. Forward Tyler Seguin, the second-longest-tenured player in Dallas behind Benn, said there was "zero" frustration with the captain in the Stars' locker room.

"Jamie's one of the, if not the, best captain in this league and top leader. Collectively, we lost as a group," he said.

DeBoer said that Benn "made a mistake" on the play.

"I don't think anyone in the building feels worse than he does about it. I'm not going to pile on him. He's been a leader here for his entire career and leads by example every day on and off the ice. He made a mistake. Fortunately, Mark Stone's OK," he said.

Benn also said he was relieved that Stone wasn't injured on the play. He also agreed with DeBoer about being emotionally devastated by his own actions.

"Your team's down in 0-2 in a series and 1-0 in the game and you put them on a five-minute penalty kill. So you probably imagine how that feels," he said.

Game 4 is Thursday night in Dallas.

Hockey purists might be grumbling about the upcoming Stanley Cup Final because it will have nothing but Sun Belt teams involved. It suits Gary Bettman just fine.

Bettman was honored by the Sports Business Journal on Wednesday with a lifetime achievement award for the NHL's growth during his 30 years as commissioner, from a business that generated $437 million in revenue before he took over to nearly $6 billion now.

Fittingly, it comes with conference finalists in Las Vegas, Dallas, South Florida and North Carolina, given how crucial Sun Belt expansion and growing the league south of the Canadian border is to Bettman's legacy.

"It's more about the footprint: You do better in terms of interest at all levels of the game where you have franchises," Bettman said. "Creating a more national footprint, both in Canada and in the U.S., is important for growing the game."

The NHL had a presence in just 13 U.S. markets (three in the New York area) in the final full season before Bettman took over and it wasn't televised nationally. Over the past three decades, that has ballooned to 25 American teams in 22 markets from coast to coast.

One of the challenges, Bettman said, was demonstrating to TV networks that the NHL had "a compelling national story." This postseason features a final four in cities that did not have teams before Bettman got the job.

The Florida Panthers joined the league in 1993, months after Bettman came over from his post at the NBA, at about the same time the Stars moved from Minnesota to Dallas. Raleigh, North Carolina, got a team later in the late 1990s when the Hartford Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes. And the Vegas Golden Knights are only in their sixth season of existence after becoming the 31st franchise through expansion.

In between, teams were added in Nashville and Columbus, relocated to Colorado and Arizona, and rebirthed in Minnesota and Winnipeg. Along the way, Bettman has ruffled plenty of feathers and upset fans in places that lost teams, leaning on a lesson he learned from the late NBA commissioner David Stern to make decisions, big and small, for the right reasons.

"You do your homework, you make as an informed a decision as you can and you don't do it for political reasons because political and popular reasons can change in the moment," he said. "You got to do what you think is right because if you're wrong, at least you did it because you thought it was right. And that's how you sleep at night."

Bettman prefers the term "newer markets" over "nontraditional" to describe many of those places, including Tampa Bay, which has become a model franchise and won the Stanley Cup three times since joining the league in 1992. He points out that having teams in new markets leads to more rinks being built and the game growing beyond some of the traditional North American hockey hotbeds.

That's partly why Bettman is basking in the quality of play, even if the ratings for this year's final might not be as high as a year where powerhouse markets like Boston, New York, Chicago, Toronto or Los Angeles are involved.

"What's more important to me is the game: Is it exciting? Is it entertaining? Is it compelling?" Bettman said. "Some markets will always be bigger than others, but to me it's more about the game and how entertaining it is."

The phrase, "The game on the ice has never been better" is a staple of Bettman's state of the league addresses over the years, and it will likely come up again when he speaks before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final next week.

He'll turn 71 on June 2, Bettman isn't ready to retire but says he's "not going to do this into my 80s." He said he sees a time in the not-too-distant future when he'll want to take a long trip with his wife, Shelli, to a place they haven't been and spend more time with his seven grandchildren.

"At some point, when you have a public-facing job, you need to say, 'It's time to move to somebody younger,'" Bettman said. "There's some other things I may want to spend my time doing."

Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn has been suspended two games -- coming in the playoffs or regular season -- for cross-checking against Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced Wednesday.

Earlier Wednesday, Benn, when speaking to reporters, described it as a "heat of the moment" play that led to the match penalty in Game 3, earning him both a first-period ejection and a player safety hearing.

Benn said Wednesday that he needed to be more responsible with his body and stick.

Just 1 minute, 53 seconds into Tuesday night's 4-0 loss to the Golden Knights in Dallas, Benn was given a game misconduct for cross-checking Stone, the Vegas captain, around the jaw while Stone was flat on the ice.

Vegas moved within one victory of a Western Conference finals sweep of the Stars.

"That was my first shift of a game on home ice, when you're pretty jacked up and you're down 1-0. So you want to try and get your game going. Emotions are high and it's just an unfortunate play," Benn said. "I put my team in a tough situation, so it's pretty unfortunate."

"It didn't feel good," Stone told reporters Wednesday. "I think I was more a little bit surprised. It was early in the game, it was my first shift of the game. I didn't expect to get stomped on like that. But I could hear the ref making sure I was all right and I felt okay to get up. The refs made sure the right call was made."

When asked if he would change anything on the play, Benn said he believed that he fell on Stone.

"Obviously, didn't want to take a five-minute penalty, but when the game happens fast, emotions are high. Obviously I would've liked to not fall on him and I guess use my stick as the landing point," he said.

Jordan Spieth didn’t think he would be able to tee it up at the PGA Championship last week.

He was fresh off a withdrawal prior to the AT&T Byron Nelson due to a wrist injury, and we now know that the injury didn’t happen on the golf course.

“I was just playing with my son,” Spieth said ahead of the Charles Schwab Challenge. “I wasn't even holding him or anything. I was just pushing myself off the ground while he was laughing and going side to side. Something just popped and jammed, and then all of a sudden, I couldn't move it.”

A wrist injury could obviously prove detrimental to any professional athlete, but particularly in the game of golf, where the hands and wrists are asked to do so much.

Spieth got an MRI the following morning and went through multiple specialists to try to figure out a plan. Ultimately he wanted to know if the pain was manageable, would he be doing any further damage to the wrist by playing.

“I don't feel like I'm rushing things,” Spieth said. “I think I'm on par with following the docs I've talked to, and it's kind of a week-to-week thing because it's something that can get worse, and if it does, I need to cut it [golf] off immediately. Ideally, I make it through this stretch, then have a little break in the summer prior to the Scottish, and that rest will probably help a lot. But I'm doing a lot of recovery stuff day to day that I'm not used to doing, but it's been helping.”

Spieth said the exact diagnosis is a moderate grade tendon sheath tear, which could potentially get worse. That potential is what is keeping the three-time major champion from receiving an injection that would help with the pain.

“This is one I didn't want to [get an injection] because it can get worse and I need to listen to it,” Spieth said. “So I've done nothing but Advil as far as anything to take for it.”

The former Longhorn is prepared to let it fly this week at Colonial, but as far as chiseling a schedule in stone, he said himself that he’s “week-to-week”.

Champions Manchester City's 12-match winning streak in the Premier League came to an end as they were held to a 1-1 draw at sixth-placed Brighton and Hove Albion on Wednesday.

Treble-chasing City, who wrapped up a fifth title in six seasons at the weekend, lacked their usual intensity, but took the lead when Phil Foden slotted home in the 25th minute.

The win means Brighton have qualified for the Europa League next season, the club's first venture into Europe, and showed why with some vibrant football before Julio Enciso equalised for the hosts with a stunning long-range effort in the 38th minute.

Danny Welbeck had a goal ruled out before halftime for Brighton and Erling Haaland thought he had put City ahead late on but was penalised for shirt-pulling after a VAR check.

It was the first time since February that City had dropped points and with one league game left at Brentford on Sunday they have 89 points, eight more than Arsenal. Brighton have 62.

Striker Lautaro Martinez scored twice as Inter Milan fought back to beat Fiorentina 2-1 and win their secured consecutive Coppa Italia title at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday.

Fiorentina took the lead after three minutes when Jonathan Ikone sent in a cross that found Nicolas Gonzalez unmarked at the back post and he drilled the ball into the net.

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Argentine Martinez equalised with a shot from a tight angle in the 29th minute and followed up with a close-range volley high into the net eight minutes later.

Fiorentina rarely threatened to level and Inter comfortably hung on to secure their ninth Coppa Italia title ahead of next month's Champions League final against Manchester City.

U.S. Soccer Federation sporting director Matt Crocker said that his aim remains to have a new manager for the U.S. men's national team in place by the end of summer, with interim coach Anthony Hudson set to remain in charge for this summer's Concacaf Nations League finals and Gold Cup.

In a Q&A conducted by the USSF, Crocker said his two primary objectives have been to support the U.S. women's national team ahead of this summer's World Cup, and to begin the process of finding the next USMNT manager.

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In terms of the latter goal, Crocker indicated that the USSF is some ways away from making a hire.

"We think this decision is critical not only for the next three years but also for the legacy that this coach will leave on the future of the program," he said about the hiring process.

"We intend to be thoughtful and thorough in our evaluation and our selection."

Crocker said his plan is to conduct a series of interviews in June and narrow the list of candidates. From there, he and the USSF will conduct another round of interviews in the middle of July.

"Our aim is to have our new coach in place by the end of summer, although it's possible that club circumstances could impact the timeline," he said.

The timeline spelled out by Crocker indicates that the hire won't be made before the Nations League or the Gold Cup. The final rounds of the Nations League will be held in mid-June, with the Gold Cup beginning shortly thereafter and ending with the final on July 16. That means Hudson will continue in his role as interim manager through the conclusion of the Gold Cup.

"I think Anthony Hudson, [assistant coach] B.J. Callaghan and the rest of the staff have done a fantastic job keeping the program moving forward," Crocker said.

"There has been no drop in standard, and as you've seen several players who had a choice to represent more than one country have chosen the United States during their tenure and Anthony and his staff deserve tremendous credit for that. That speaks to the work they have done, and we are confident in their ability to lead this group in the tournaments this summer."

The U.S. men have been without a manager since Gregg Berhalter's contract was allowed to expire at the end of 2022 in the midst of an investigation into a domestic violence incident from 1992 that involved him and his now-wife Rosalind.

The incident was divulged to U.S. Soccer by Danielle Reyna, mother of USMNT forward Gio Reyna, in response to Berhalter's comments at a leadership conference in which he referenced how an unnamed player -- later identified as Gio Reyna -- was nearly sent home from the tournament for reacting poorly to his lack of playing time in Qatar.

A subsequent investigation by U.S. Soccer found that Gregg and Rosalind Berhalter accurately portrayed the incident, and that Gregg Berhalter was free to be hired by the USSF. Federation president Cindy Parlow Cone said in January that Berhalter remains a candidate for the coaching position.

A U.S. Soccer spokesperson confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday that "nothing has changed" as it relates to Berhalter's candidacy.

Crocker was appointed to his current position last month, though his official start date isn't until Aug. 2. That said he has already begun engaging with staff, including recently appointed VP of sporting Oguchi Onyewu. He recently visited Chicago, where the USSF is headquartered, for the first time in a bid to get acclimated to the city and sort out living arrangements for him and his family.

On the women's side, Crocker said he had spoken to USWNT general manager Kate Markgraf and manager Vlatko Andonovski, as well as players Lindsey Horan and Becky Sauerbrunn.

"I'm here to support their work in any way I can as they finalize their preparations for the camp in July before heading to Auckland to start the World Cup. Vlatko has some tough decisions on the final roster, and I know he and Kate are following all of the players in NWSL closely. We'll continue to keep in touch as much as possible in the coming two months."

In terms of the process for hiring the next men's manager, Crocker said that with the approval of USSF president Cone and CEO JT Batson, there is a strategy in place that includes "having a diverse set of voices." Crocker has also identified traits he thinks are necessary for the next manager -- which were not disclosed in the Q&A -- and has begun having initial conversations with candidates.

"What we have is a list of candidates who based on our initial research we think will fit the profile," he said. "We already have had a number of conversations with some of the candidates. In some instances a candidate may hold a current position, in which case we must be very respectful to their clubs and always make sure any communication begins with them. Our next steps will be to conduct more thorough interviews and continue what we have outlined as a robust evaluation process."

LaLiga president Javier Tebas on Wednesday apologised for a tweet about Vinícius Júnior he said was misinterpreted, and said that the Spanish federation (RFEF) ought to be doing more to combat racism because the league does not currently have that authority.

"I always tell this to my entire work team. When people or an important part of them understand a message in a certain way, then they are right so I have to be sorry because I think my message was not understood, especially in Brazil," Tebas told ESPN Brasil. "So, I have to be sorry because I think my message and the intent with which I wrote it, an important part of it was not understood, especially in Brazil.

"Because my intent was not to attack Vinícius, but rather to clarify that Vinícius just one month ago made a video supporting the actions of LaLiga [against racism]."

Repeated racist abuse against Vinícius has unleashed a heated debate in Spain about tolerance for racism.

The LaLiga match at Mestalla between Real Madrid and Valencia was stopped during the second half after the Brazil international identified a fan in the crowd behind the Valencia goal as having racially abused him.

In social media posts after Sunday's game, Vinícius said that "racism is normal in LaLiga" and claimed that "in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists."

Tebas responded to Vinícius' criticism in a Twitter exchange.

"Neither Spain nor LaLiga are racist," Tebas said. "It is very unfair to say that. At LaLiga we denounce and tackle racism with all the toughness within our powers."

Tebas on Wednesday blasted the Spanish federation for not doing more and said that if LaLiga had the authority to take action inside the stadiums, the problem of racist and anti-gay chanting "would be resolved within months."

Spanish federation president Luis Rubiales admitted Monday that Spain has a racism problem and called for sanctions and punishment for the fans involved. The RFEF said Wednesday that Valencia's south stand will be partially closed for five matches and also fined the club while rescinding Vinícius' red card.

The winger was sent off in stoppage time by referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea for striking an opponent following a scuffle with Valencia players in which Vinícius appeared to be grabbed around the neck.

Tebas said his hands are tied regarding legal punishment for fans who make offensive or racist chants.

"This season, racist insults have been reported nine times. Eight of them have been for insults against Viní. We always identify these maniacs and file a complaint with the relevant bodies. It doesn't matter how few they are, we are always relentless," Tebas said.

"The federation and LaLiga are two different entities. We don't have the authority to expel people from the stadiums; they do. We would take action if we had more authority to sanction and punish offenders. We would close the stadiums, ban the fans, but we only have responsibility from outside the stadium.

"We have filed grievances about racism that ended in just fines. I hope that we can be given the authority to take action," Tebas said. "Because I think if we had the authority to take measures, we would end racism in the stadiums within months."

Where do we start? We're approaching another summer and another crucial set of choices for Paris Saint-Germain to make. We've been here before of course -- it happens after pretty much every bad season and the 2022-23 campaign is no exception, a tough ride both on and off the pitch.

The Champions League escaped the club again, ill discipline burdened the squad again and despite being on the verge of a French record 11th straight Ligue 1 title, PSG have to change. Not only do they need to evolve, but they need to be aiming in the right decision ... for once.

So how can the owners fix the mess? Let's start with the most important thing.

What the fans want more than anything else is to see a proper PSG team next season. Not just 11 individuals on the pitch trying to find each other or improvise: instead, a proper team with patterns of play, a style of football, new ideas and unpredictable movement, with passing triangles, intelligence and structure. None of that has pretty much existed in the last few years, or certainly not consistently enough.

Under Christophe Galtier or Mauricio Pochettino, PSG's two most recent managers, players would complain about them not putting in enough work on team tactics. Having great stars like Lionel Messi, Neymar or Kylian Mbappe is only one element of a successful team; it doesn't mean that your team should then just give them the ball and let them figure it out by themselves.

When PSG play with a three-man defense, it's often a struggle for them to find the wing backs in space and as a result, they rarely switch play to throw opposing defenses off. The nine (!) defeats suffered in 26 games in all competitions in 2023 -- one loss every three matches -- were down to the team lacking tactics (Lyon, Monaco, Lyon), being unable to press properly (Bayern Munich, Rennes) or beat the opposition press (Marseille, Lens, Rennes, Bayern Munich again). That has to change: PSG should be able to press and also have the answer against an aggressive team, while possessing a clear idea on how to move the ball properly.

To become a proper team, this squad will need the right manager, and the two are strongly linked. After years of the wrong coaching appointments, PSG have to pick well this time.

Galtier (since July 2022) was never good enough, and the former Lille and Saint-Etienne manager will be sacked this summer with a year left on his contract. Mauricio Pochettino (January 2021 to July 2022) had to compromise himself too much to succeed properly. The rot goes back further: Thomas Tuchel (August 2018 to December 2020) paid for his toxic relationship with former sporting director Leonardo and was removed under the pretense of another restructuring. Unai Emery (August 2016 to May 2018) was always the wrong pick. Laurent Blanc (Aug 2013 to May 2016) was never tough enough.

This time, whoever comes in to occupy the bench has to be the right fit -- someone with a real identity and philosophy, but also the right degree of adaptability to an evolving team. They also need a strong personality to cope with the spotlight in Paris: the pressure to perform, the expectations of the fans and the club's Qatari owners, not to mention the politics within the club.

This manager might not exist on the market this summer, but the chosen candidate will have to be as close as possible from the profile above. So whether Nasser al Khelaifi and the big deciders like Thiago Motta, Luis Enrique, José Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Luciano Spalletti, Zinedine Zidane or Julian Nagelsmann doesn't matter so much. Among these guys, the best one has to be chosen.

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Finally, the players have to fit what the new manager will want. Luis Campos, PSG's sporting director, and the club's owner must first appoint the man in charge and then deliver the players he'll need. But overall, we know what the club wants to do this summer.

It's already clear that PSG will stop going down the road of just signing superstars. This summer, Lionel Messi will leave after two seasons that fell short of expectations; his time in Paris worked to a certain extent, of course, with a lot of domestic trophies won on the pitch and developing the PSG brand around the world off it, but this is not how you win the Champions League.

Sources told ESPN that most of the transfer targets this summer will be younger players, mostly French and, ideally if possible, from Paris. The likes of midfielders Manu Koné (Borussia Monchengladbach) and Kephren Thuram (Nice), forwards Randall Kolo Muani (Eintracht Frankfurt), Moussa Diaby (Bayer Leverkusen), playmaker Rayan Cherki (Lyon) or defender Evan N'Dicka (Frankfurt) are all on the list. There are exceptions, of course, like Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), who is keen to join, and Victor Osimhen (Napoli) or Harry Kane (Tottenham), who will be more of a challenge considering the amount of interest in both.

- Zaire-Emery, Bitshiabu are at the core of PSG's next generation

In terms of exits, Messi is going to leave and the club wants Neymar to follow him, which makes this a huge summer for Campos. So far, probably because he is really close to Mbappe, the sporting director has been quite exempt from criticism. He will have to buy well and sell well (and a lot) once the window opens; otherwise, the second part of the rebuild, in January, will be done without him.