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Tuesday, 3 February 2026
Bruins’ Korpisalo replaces Sabres’ Luukkonen on Finnish Olympic roster
There’s a change in net for Team Finland.
Boston Bruins goalie Joonas Korpisalo will replace Buffalo Sabres netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on the country’s Olympic roster, it announced on Tuesday.
Luukkonen was injured in a late-January game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and has yet to return to the ice.
He would have contended with the Nashville Predators’ Juuse Saros and Vancouver Canucks’ Kevin Lankinen for the starting job in Milan if healthy.
Instead, Korpisalo will get the shot. The 30-year-old has played in 21 games this season for the Bruins, compiling a 10–8-1 record with a 3.12 goals against average and an .895 save percentage.
Luukkonen’s numbers sat at 2.73 and .903 prior to injury.
The men’s Olympic hockey competitions runs Feb. 11-22, with Finland set to take on Slovakia in the tournament opener.
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Monday, 2 February 2026
Oilers’ Evan Bouchard named NHL’s third star of the month
Edmonton Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard has been named the NHL’s third star of the month.
Bouchard topped all defencemen and ranked fourth among all skaters with 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in 15 games to guide the Oilers to an 8-5-2 January.
Only two blueliners in the past 33 years have compiled more points in a single calendar month: Nashville’s Roman Josi with 28 points in March 2022 and Colorado’s Cale Makar with 25 points in November 2023.
Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov and Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak were named the first and second stars.
Kucherov paced the league with 22 assists and 31 points in 13 games to lift the Lightning into first place in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference on the strength of an 11-1-1 January. January marked Kucherov’s third career 30-point month, making him the eighth player in NHL history to achieve the feat at least three times. He found the scoresheet in 12 of his 13 appearances, highlighted by a league-best 10 multi-point performances.
Pastrnak tied for second in the NHL with 20 assists and 25 points in 14 contests as Boston had an 11-2-1 January to climb into the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. His 25 points were the most by a Bruins player in a single calendar month since March 2018, when Brad Marchand totalled 26 points.
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Movsar Evloev vs. Lerone Murphy headlines UFC London in March
A matchup between undefeated featherweight contenders Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy will headline a UFC Fight Night event in London, England, in March with a lot on the line.
The UFC confirmed the 145-pound bout is set to take place March 21 at The O2 Arena and announced the full fight card on Monday.
The winner of the main event matchup will be positioned to fight for the featherweight championship later this year. Reigning titleholder Alexander Volkanovski defended his belt against Diego Lopes in a rematch this past weekend at UFC 325.
Volkanovski had previously said he was expecting to face either Evloev or Murphy in his next title defence prior to his rematch with Lopes getting booked.
Evloev is a perfect 19-0 in mixed martial arts and 9-0 in the UFC since debuting in 2019. He holds notable wins over Diego Lopes, Aljamain Sterling, Arnold Allen and Dan Ige, among others, yet he has never finished an opponent in the UFC and has dealt with multiple injuries in recent years. The 31-year-old Russian has been the top-ranked contender in the weight class for many months; however, injuries prevented him from competing in 2025.
Meanwhile, Murphy made a case for getting the next title shot when he knocked out former longtime Bellator MMA star Aaron Pico at UFC 319 in the summer with a spectacular spinning elbow. The 34-year-old from Manchester, England, is 17-0-1 as a pro with nine consecutive wins at the UFC level.
The UFC London card is set to feature plenty of talent from Britain, including an all-England matchup between streaking welterweights Michael “Venom” Page and Sam Patterson.
English middleweight Christian Leroy Duncan will have the home crowd behind him when he faces Roman Dolidze.
Leroy Duncan is coming off a perfect 2025 campaign after going 3-0 to improve to 13-2 as a pro. The 30-year-old from Gloucester won a decision over Andrey Pulyaev last March in London before earning Performance of the Night bonuses for his highlight knockouts of Eryk Anders in August and Marco Tulio in November.
Dolidze, 37 from Georgia, had a three-fight winning streak snapped by Anthony Hernandez in August in his most recent outing.
UFC Fight Night: Evloev vs. Murphy will mark the 17th UFC event in London in the organization’s history. It will mark the fourth consecutive March during which the UFC has held an event in the city. Since 2020, there have been six total UFC events held at The O2 in London, with an English fighter featured in the main event each time — former welterweight champion Leon Edwards has headlined three of them and current heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall headlined the other three.
The UFC held one event in England in 2025, a March Fight Night card headlined by American Sean Brady submitting Edwards.
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Sunday, 1 February 2026
Report: Cavaliers acquire Schroder, Ellis from Kings for Hunter in three-team deal
The NBA just couldn’t wait a couple more days for the wheeling and dealing to get underway.
With under a week until the Feb. 5 trade deadline, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sacramento Kings and Chicago Bulls have agreed to a three-team deal, per ESPN’s Shams Charania on Saturday.
The Cavaliers received guards Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis, the Kings acquired forward De’Andre Hunter and the Bulls secured forward Dario Saric and two future second-round picks.
Schroder and Ellis bring backcourt depth to a Cavaliers team that sits fifth in the Eastern Conference.
Schroder, 32, is averaging 12.8 points and 5.3 assists per game this season, his 13th in the NBA. Cleveland will be his 11th NBA team.
Ellis, 26, is averaging 5.6 points per game. A defensive stalwart on the perimeter, he’s averaging 1.1 steals and 0.5 blocks in just 17.6 minutes per contest.
Hunter, meanwhile, was Cleveland’s prize of last year’s trade deadline, having acquired him from Atlanta for Caris Levert, Georges Niang, three second-round picks and two pick swaps.
The 28-year-old forward is averaging 14 points per game this season, but shooting a career worst 30.8 per cent from three-point range. He joins a Sacramento squad that is 12-38, worst in the NBA.
The Cavaliers save $6.9 million of actual salary by moving Hunter, and around $40 million worth of tax money, per Sportrac’s Keith Smith. Hunter has two-years left on his contract, worth about $48 million in total.
Chicago takes on the contract of Saric, who has appeared in only five games this season. The 31-year-old big man has played just 19 games in the last two seasons.
The Bulls are waiving veteran guard Jevon Carter to make room for Saric, Charania added.
— with files from Associated Press
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Saturday, 31 January 2026
NASCAR delays preseason race at Bowman Gray Stadium to Monday
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — NASCAR has postponed the preseason exhibition race at Bowman Gray Stadium until Monday night because of ice and snow blanketing the Winston-Salem area.
The Clash was supposed to be a two-day event beginning Saturday, with the main event held Sunday evening. NASCAR late last week cut it to a Sunday-only event in anticipation of poor weather, and as snow blanketed the Carolinas on Saturday, NASCAR made the call to run the race Monday.
“Nothing matters more than the safety of our fans, even when the weather doesn’t cooperate,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue & racing innovations officer. “We were ready to fight the weather, and appreciate the collaboration with Winston-Salem and N.C. officials to make the best decision. Our operations team is hard at work for a Monday race.”
The roads around Winston-Salem had not yet been cleared from last weekend’s ice storm, and then more snow arrived Saturday morning. Forecasts call for as much as 12 inches.
NASCAR said parking lots for fans will open at 9 a.m. Monday, with practice and qualifying scheduled for 11 a.m.
The race is scheduled for 6 p.m. and could possibly be run in the coldest temperatures in NASCAR history.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever competed when it’s that cold, but thankfully for us, we’re inside of a stock car, which is basically like an oven, so that’ll help,” two-time champion Kyle Larson said Saturday. “It’ll feel fine for us inside the car. I wouldn’t be surprised if you still break, you know, somewhat of a sweat in there.
“I feel for the crews and mechanics and fans and NASCAR officials, everybody who’s there outside in the cold. But you know, we love the sport, and we’ll compete in many conditions. I just look forward to the challenge.”
Larson said he never expected The Clash to run Sunday and planned to spend Saturday sledding with his three children.
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Friday, 30 January 2026
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