Monday, 24 November 2025
Sunday, 23 November 2025
Premier League Roundup: Rogers double helps Aston Villa beat Leeds
Morgan Rogers scored twice — including a stunning winner from a free kick — as Aston Villa came from behind to beat Leeds 2-1 in the Premier League on Sunday.
The playmaker has just come back from international duty with England, where he is currently keeping Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham out of the starting team.
Rogers showed exactly why against Leeds, clipping in a finish from Donyell Malen’s cross for the equalizer in the 48th before demonstrating wonderful technique to whip a free kick over the defensive wall and into the net in the 75th.
Leeds took the lead at a highly charged Elland Road when Lukas Nmecha bundled in from close range after Villa defender Ezri Konsa cleared the ball off the goalline following Anton Stach’s header. There was a video review to check if Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez was impeded in the build-up but the goal was allowed.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin thought he’d equalized for Leeds two minutes after Rogers’ second goal but it was ruled out for handball.
It was Villa’s sixth win in the last seven league games, after starting the campaign without a victory in the team’s first five games. Villa moved up to fourth place.
Promoted Leeds has now lost five of its last six games and has dropped into the relegation zone.
Later, Arsenal hosts Tottenham in the north London derby and will look to stretch its lead to six points over second-placed Chelsea. Manchester City is a point further back in third.
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Saturday, 22 November 2025
Canadiens’ Jake Evans set to play against Maple Leafs
A hit from Tom Wilson won’t cost Jake Evans any games.
The Montreal Canadiens forward will be back in the lineup Saturday when his team hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT).
Evans exited Thursday’s game against the Washington Capitals after Wilson caught him up high in his own end. The Capitals kept the puck in the zone and immediately scored on a Jakob Chychrun slapshot.
Evans did not return to the ice and missed practice Friday, but returned to morning skate on Saturday.
He has three goals and three assists in 20 contests on the season.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens are giving Jakub Dobes the start in goal.
Dobes will look for a better outing after he allowed four goals on 25 shots after replacing Sam Montembeault early in the second period against the Capitals.
The 24-year-old Dobes has struggled in November, going 0-2-2 with a 4.76 goals-against average and an .820 save percentage. Dobes earned more playing time when Montembeault struggled to start the season, going a perfect 5-0 in October.
Also, Florian Xhekaj will make his NHL debut against the Maple Leafs, Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said.
Xhekaj, the brother of defenceman Arber Xhekaj, was recalled from the AHL’s Laval Rocket on Friday.
The 21-year-old forward has two goals and two assists in 16 games for the Rocket this season to go with 44 penalty minutes.
He was selected by the Canadiens 101st overall at the 2023 NHL Draft and has spent parts of the past three seasons with Laval.
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Friday, 21 November 2025
Thursday, 20 November 2025
Eight players to watch as PWHL enters third season
Along with two new teams, there’s a wealth of key players — many now in new markets — to keep tabs on in the PWHL’s third season.
Will a new coast and a brand-new market of Vancouver fans lift Sarah Nurse to greater heights? After two consecutive first-overall draft picks, do the New York Sirens have a path to the playoffs? Will Marie-Philip Poulin ramp up her production in an Olympic year?
There are plenty of valuable questions looming ahead of puck drop on Nov. 21, and a closer look at some of the standout players who will fill these rosters can help fill in some potential answers.
Here’s one intriguing player from each team to keep an eye on as the third season of the world’s top professional league gets underway.
Renata Fast, Defender, Toronto Sceptres
After losing scoring threats like Nurse and Hannah Miller in the expansion draft, and with Natalie Spooner’s capacity still unknown, the Sceptres must look past the forward position for help. Good thing they’ll have the league’s assist leader, Renata Fast, locking it down on defence. Fast tallied 16 helpers and six goals over 30 games last season. And, as her name suggests, she torments opponents with her speed and is a key threat on the Sceptres’ power play.
Marie-Philip Poulin, Forward, Montreal Victoire
The third time has to be the charm for the best in the world.
After two seasons and two first-round playoff exits, the greatest player in the game has yet to contend in the Walter Cup Final. Poulin led the league in goals last season, with 19, while adding six assists but lacked the circumstances of 2026. For not only is Captain Clutch readying to bring a championship home to Montreal, she’s also preparing for an Olympic year. With the added pressure of a trip to Italy wearing the Maple Leaf, Poulin is sure to be in her finest form.
Kristyna Kaltounkova, Forward, New York Sirens
Kristyna Kaltounkova is the second of two consecutive first-overall picks for New York and will be another critical piece of the Sirens’ roster of rising young talent. The Sirens have yet to find what works in this league, but Kaltounkova offers lots of potential. With Alex Carpenter gone to Seattle, Kaltounkova will step up to a key position alongside Sarah Fillier, bringing along her speed and physical style of play. And as pre-season action and initial roster decisions have shown, both physicality and skating have been highly sought after so far. As the league grows in size, the best skaters and strongest players will rise to the top.
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Watch Victoire vs. Fleet on Sportsnet
The PWHL season returns to Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ on Sunday, Nov. 23 as the Montreal Victoire take on the Boston Fleet. Watch live beginning at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT.
Aerin Frankel, Goalie, Boston Fleet
The Fleet need an anchor for the 2025-26 season, especially considering how much they lost as the off-season developed. Good thing they have the ever-dependable Aerin Frankel locking it down between the pipes. Frankel boasted 12 wins and a .921 save percentage last year, second only to Montreal’s Ann-Renee Desbiens in both categories. She was also a Goaltender of the Year finalist and will be the likely backstop for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics.
Emily Clark, Forward, Ottawa Charge
It’s time for Emily Clark to return the favour in Ottawa. This summer she was listed as one of three protected players in the expansion draft, and now with complications around the Charge’s future in Ottawa, she’ll be instrumental in helping prove the team’s worth on the ice.
Walk around the Ottawa concourse and it’s her jersey you’ll see displayed on the mannequin. When the players are called onto the ice, there’s no chance you miss her name. Clark is a beloved piece of what the Charge are building in Ottawa, and if she can improve on last year’s masterful season (nine goals, 10 assists, and the second-most points on the Charge), she’ll add another reason for the team to make a long-term future work there.
Lee Stecklein, Defender, Minnesota Frost
Lee Stecklein isn’t the flashiest name on the Frost roster, but just like her team, she knows how to make it count in big moments. The 31-year-old had an average regular season last year, with three goals and six assists over 30 games as the Frost snuck into the playoffs as the last seed. In the post-season, however, Stecklein rose to the occasion and produced four goals and four assists over eight games on her way to lifting the Walter Cup for the second time in as many years.
Sarah Nurse, Forward, Vancouver Goldeneyes
Nothing fuels Nurse like an impassioned fan base — Toronto knows that well. As one of the key players in the Sceptres’ past two seasons, Nurse has become well known for her ability to shift the outcome of the game, especially on a big stage. Now, she brings that power to Canada’s West Coast.
Go back to last year’s Battle on Bay Street. There, the slumping Sceptres needed a win, bad, and Scotiabank Area filled up to see if they could make it happen. Nurse, riding the energy of more than 19,000 fans, battled the fierce Abby Roque in the corners and was unrelenting with six shots before she netted the game-winner.
Even during an injury-riddled down season last year, Nurse continued to prove her impact in this league. Now imagine the disruption she’ll cause as she ignites a new fanbase alongside brand-new teammates all while skating across the Goldeneyes’ logo at centre ice.
Alex Carpenter, Forward, Seattle Torrent
The Seattle Torrent have constructed their team around veteran excellence, with Alex Carpenter as one of the best. Despite the limitations she faced while with the Sirens, Carpenter’s dominance in the PWHL is obvious, with 11 goals and nine assists over 26 games last season. Switching coasts might be exactly what this star needs to finally make a trip to the playoffs.
from Sportsnet.ca
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Flames plan on loaning Zayne Parekh to Canada’s world junior team
CALGARY — The Calgary Flames will loan Zayne Parekh to Team Canada for the World Junior Championship next month, Sportsnet has learned.
If he’s healthy enough.
Dealing with an upper-body injury sustained almost two weeks ago when he was hit awkwardly into the boards by Chicago’s Nick Foligno, Parekh will not join the Flames on their 11-day road trip starting Sunday in Vancouver.
The team returns Dec. 3, which leaves just four Flames home games between then and the opening of Team Canada’s 10-day camp in Niagara Falls, Ont., starting Dec. 12.
The hope is that the 19-year-old defenceman will be ready to play at least a few of those NHL games before leaving the Flames to chase gold at the 10-team tourney in Minnesota, starting Dec. 26.
The Flames listed Parekh as week-to-week following the injury, and will be taking their time to ensure he is 100 per cent healthy before he’s given his next game assignment.
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32 Thoughts: The Podcast
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
“It’s going to be a while, for sure,” Flames GM Craig Conroy said Tuesday of his first-rounder’s mending time.
“We’ve got to make sure he’s going to be OK. We’ve got to make sure we’re a little more cautious with him, versus someone a little older.”
A Team Canada official confirmed in rare exceptions it could wait as late as Dec. 20 for a player to join the team, with an eye on giving the player enough time to play in at least two exhibition games.
After consecutive quarterfinal exits, the Canadian camp will be much different than years past, as a group smaller than the 32 players invited last year will assemble for more of a training camp than a selection camp.
That has to be comforting to Parekh, who was a late addition to Team Canada’s early December training camp last year, only to be cut from the squad.
When asked before the start of the Flames training camp what a successful season would look like for him, Parekh said, “Playing in the NHL the whole year, that’s the goal.”
When asked then if he would go to the world juniors if sent by the Flames, he smiled.
“I mean, yeah, I’d have to go — I can’t not go,” he said.
“If they send me there, I’ll be going.
“Obviously, I want to play here the whole year, but at the end of the day, even though I have a part in that decision, I think it’s up to them.”
It’s a no-brainer, given how this season has unfolded for the junior star.
Prohibited by the expiring CBA from playing in the AHL as a 19-year-old, Parekh has been stuck in developmental purgatory this season, as he’s too good to return to junior and not ready to play with the world’s best pros.
Struggling defensively, and unable to contribute offensively, Parekh has just one assist in 11 games this season, averaging less than 15 minutes a night with various partners on the NHL’s last-place team.
He’s been in and out of the Flames lineup, as a legion of Flames fans debate the path forward.
A stint at the world juniors has always been a strong possibility, and given the need to put Parekh in a more comfortable environment, the idea is for him to play meaningful minutes in a high-intensity tourney where he’ll have a chance to regain some of the swagger that made him a two-time 30-goal defenceman in the OHL.
Being left off last year’s Canadian team, despite being the nation’s highest-scoring defenceman, gave him increased motivation down the stretch last season to prove doubters wrong.
“It’s every kid’s dream to play on the national team, so when you kind of get cut from that and not really given a look, it’s never a good feeling,” he said in the fall.
“I guess I was just trying to prove it to myself towards the end of (last) year that I’m a good player.”
Looks like he’ll get another chance again soon.
from Sportsnet.ca
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Questions, not concerns, remain for Canadian men ahead of 2026
A win, a couple of goals scored and there we have it — the end of the 2025 calendar year for Canada’s men’s national team.
Although Tuesday’s win over Venezuela in front of basically no one at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was hardly a feast for the eyes, it did signify an element of importance: the first goals scored in four matches and another clean sheet — that is three straight and an impressive three goals against in the last 11 matches.
Overall, 2025 was a year of general progress under Jesse Marsch, despite some disappointment. Don’t forget this was the year Canada was supposed to lift some silverware for the first time in a quarter century. A third-place finish at the Nations League did come courtesy of a win over the United States, which certainly brought with it some bragging rights. However, a frustrating Gold Cup quarterfinal ouster at the hands of Guatemala on penalties brought with it an air of suspicion from the fan base.
Thankfully, after an undermanned Canada fought to a brilliant two-win performance in Europe against Romania and Wales in the summer, the mood shifted once again heading into the fall windows, where the goals were tough to come by but a resolute defence began to build an identity. This while Alphonso Davies, Moise Bombito and Alistair Johnston all endured long layoffs with serious injury. To say the least, Canada was impressive at the back.
So where are we now? Have the questions that we asked ourselves in January been answered after 14 matches? Is the picture any clearer ahead of next year and the 2026 World Cup?
Not really.
• Up front, the question was: Who will partner with Jonathan David? It was still Cyle Larin’s job to lose to begin the year, but lose it the Feyenoord man seems to have done. Marsch stated publicly that he now likes Villarreal’s Tani Oluwasheyi at No. 9. Although despite showing great usefulness off the ball in recent matches, his lack of a finishing touch suggests the job is still wide open.
The form of David also continues to raise concern. In January, he was still filling the net for Lille in France. A summer move to Juventus in Italy has gone poorly, though, and it has seeped into this play for Canada. One goal in his last 18 matches for club and country is the ugly statistic. David will surely rediscover his form, but the attack is murkier now than it was as 2025 turned.
• On the left side, it was a rollercoaster of a year. Davies tore his ACL at the Nations League and he is yet to return, although he did take training at Bayern Munich this week. Replacing him at full back was Toronto FC’s Richie Laryea, and to say he has been a revelation is perhaps unfair on Laryea, but arguably he has been the team’s best player since taking the left-back shirt.
Ahead of him and also vying for that tag is Vancouver’s Ali Ahmed, who before his red card last week against Ecuador, seemed to own the left-wing shirt. Aside from his tenacity with and without the ball, Ahmed has become Canada’s most trusted player at set-pieces, and has taken the shirt from Jacob Shaffelburg ever since his red card in the Gold Cup quarterfinal.
So what does this mean? Is Laryea too good to drop, even for superstar Davies? Should Davies now play in midfield, and, if so, what about Ahmed? Or Liam Millar, who is also just back from an ACL injury? Again, clear as mud.
• Centre back? Bombito’s broken leg will sideline him until March, a crushing blow for Canada’s top centre back, but in his absence this year youngster Luc de Fougerolles has risen to prominence as a genuine choice to partner Derek Cornelius. Meanwhile, Joel Waterman has been excellent, Kamal Miller has shown consistency, and the new guy, Middlesbrough’s Alfie Jones — who made his debut against Venezuela — looks to have all the tools and experience to fight for a starting job. Sure, centre back is suddenly an area of real confusion, but it is also an area of immense depth and strength. This is a good problem to have, assuming Bombito is back in action for Nice this spring.
• What about in goal? A year on, and we are still being fed the line that both Dayne St. Clair and Max Crepeau are fighting for the gloves. Although, there is a sense that St. Clair has the edge, having played in the tougher matches this year and being named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year with Minnesota, while Crepeau has been back-up in Portland and finds himself looking for a new club.
Both ‘keepers played well for Canada; the team is in good shape between the posts but it is fair to say the picture is not a whole lot clearer now than it was 11 months ago. In fact, with Huddersfield Town’s 21-year-old Owen Goodman a surprise call-up who has become eligible in recent weeks, there is the potential, albeit unlikely, of the picture becoming even more muddled by June.
• In January, central midfield was a good place to debate. Who would partner Stephan Eustaquio? At the time, Ismael Kone’s nightmare spell at Marseille was coming to an end, and if it wasn’t going to be him, then who? Over the past year, both Mathieu Choiniere and Nathan Saliba excelled, both enjoyed moves to new clubs and were knocking on the door … which they still are.
Despite a bit of a drama when Kone seemed to lash out at his head coach versus Romania after being subbed off, he has become one of the stories of the year — for positive reasons. He has been fantastic at Sassuolo in Italy, and his swagger has returned with his country, starting both of the November friendlies beside Eustaquio.
And who was it playing peacemaker following Ahmed’s red versus Ecuador? That’s right: Kone, who seems to have listened to the calls for him to mature. Eustaquio may be fighting for minutes at Porto at the moment, but central midfield, like right wing with Tajon Buchanan, seems to be relatively clear after all these matches in 2025.
Everywhere else? Not so much. This is not a reason for concern, talent is deeper than we have ever seen with this squad, and it makes for a highly competitive playing field that every coach would dream to have.
Canada has four more matches before the games become super important next summer, and more questions than answers than this time last year.
Be happy, this is the way it should be.
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