Sports
The two sides of Mitch Marner’s return home to Toronto
Mitch Marner spent nine seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs. There were some very good times. He established himself as the greatest Maple Leafs player born in the Greater Toronto area. “Mitchy Magic” was often in full force at Scotiabank Arena.
But the relationship turned sour. After years of playoff heartbreaks and early exits, the fan base put Marner in its crosshairs. According to the fans, he was one of the reasons the team wasn’t able to finally capture another Stanley Cup and break the “1967” curse. Safety concerns began to mount. Marner’s car was stolen, and his address was leaked online. He needed private security for his family.
The fan scrutiny in one of the largest and most intense hockey markets in the world didn’t stop. Social media comments and trolls were relentless. A fresh start for the star player seemed inevitable and needed. So, Marner left his hometown team and joined the Vegas Golden Knights via trade, inking an eight-year deal at $12 million in average annual value.
Marner got two very different reactions in his return to Toronto on Friday.
For the first time in his NHL career, the Toronto native was the visitor, donning the Golden Knights’ sweater. The first time he touched the puck, the Leafs faithful let him have it, showering him with boos.
“That was fine,” Marner told reporters after the game. “I knew it was going to come.” Marner noted that the Leafs have a passionate fan base and that he still has “a lot of love for these fans.”
Leafs fans brought the heat Friday: “Benedict Marn-old” one sign read. “Thanks for 9 great regular seasons” another read. And yes, Marner was booed throughout the game whenever he touched the puck, save for some cheers on his two helpers as the Golden Knights beat the Leafs 6-3.
But it was all classy when Marner’s tribute video aired during the first TV timeout. The video included highlights of his incredible plays wearing the blue and white, and the fans applauded. When the video ended with a message of “Welcome Back Mitch,” the fans gave Marner a standing ovation while he skated around center ice acknowledging the crowd. After the game, Marner spotted a fan wearing his jersey in the crowd and gave them his stick.
This is a formula I would love to see become tradition. The fans have every right to boo a player who left them. This is sports. You paid for a ticket. Boo to your heart’s content. These athletes are getting paid millions of dollars to play at the highest levels and win championships — trolling and booing come with the territory.
But when that tribute video hits, the hate gets put aside and you give a moment of respect for the contributions of that player. That’s your moment to say thanks. Toronto got it right in that regard Friday night. Now you can boo him however long you want during games.
It should be assumed and not needed to be said, but doxing, bodily harm and theft are absolutely not OK. Athletes are also human beings.
Who knows how long it will last for Marner? New York Islanders fans still boo John Tavares — but hey, at least they don’t throw rubber snakes on the ice anymore.
Jump ahead:
Games of the week
What I loved this weekend
Hart Trophy candidates
Social post of the week
Stick taps
Biggest games of the week
6:30 p.m. ET | ESPN
Obviously, the biggest game this week will be the Stadium Series on Sunday from Raymond James Stadium. I can’t wait for the atmosphere, the game itself in that environment, but also all the fun surrounding it. Disney World is a short drive away, and the Gasparilla Pirate Festival will be happening around the same time. It should be an absolute party.
Also, don’t forget about the second half of the Stadium Series doubleheader on Sunday night after the Bolts-Bruins game. Marner and his Golden Knights teammates will be heading to Southern California to take on the Anaheim Ducks (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Other key games to watch
MONDAY
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
8:30 p.m. ET | ESPN+
TUESDAY
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
WEDNESDAY
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
THURSDAY
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
7:30 p.m. ET | ESPN+/Hulu
9 p.m. ET | ESPN+
10 p.m. ET | ESPN+
SATURDAY
1 p.m. ET | ABC
3:30 p.m. ET | ABC
5 p.m. ET | ESPN+
7 p.m. ET | NHL Network
10 p.m. ET | ESPN+
What I loved this weekend
The Shoresy Classic made a stop in Calgary recently, and the Flames are the favorite team of Jared Keeso, creator of the “Shoresy” comedy show and the actor who plays the title character.
Keeso’s passion shone through when he addressed the crowd (and Flames alumni) before the game:
Holy, he set the tone 🔥 So glad to have you at the ‘Dome, Jared! pic.twitter.com/MXB3zEyeuh
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) January 23, 2026
A fun thing I learned this weekend while covering the X Games: multiple-time ski big air gold medalist Mac Forehand is the cousin of Trevor Zegras, lives in Utah and attends Mammoth games. Forehand won another gold Friday night on an unreal 2160 jump — six full rotations! — for an impressive 96 score from the judges. He will also be competing for Team USA at the Olympics. Best of luck, Mac!
Hart Trophy candidates if the season ended today
Another week down and Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini remain in the top three spots for NHL MVP.
MacKinnon’s 88 points is two behind McDavid for the scoring lead, but MacKinnon’s Avs remain 10 points clear of the next-best team atop the standings. Celebrini had a relatively quiet week by his standards, but the 19-year-old has 74 points through 50 games.
Here I thought I’d be simply ordering Mac, Mc and Mack in the Hart Trophy race for the rest of the season — but a new contender is in hot pursuit.
That is Nikita Kucherov, who has 78 points through 46 games for the Eastern juggernaut Lightning. I’m sticking with my same three this week, but Kucherov is officially on watch because he could elbow Celebrini out of the running by going on a streak.
Social media post of the weekend
Is going to go off the board here and call out this excellent photo of two Mount Rushmore-caliber defensemen and a possible future one in Ray Bourque, Rob Blake and Cale Makar. Both because it’s an iconic photo that should probably be somewhere in the Hall of Fame but also because Bourque is just like us, standing on his tippy-toes trying not to look too short in the picture (albeit with Makar in skates). All short kings do it, no shame in that!
One photo. Eight Norris Trophies.
Rob Blake and Ray Bourque met up with Cale Makar before tonight’s game!
(📸: @Avalanche) pic.twitter.com/zwqe0SL7LL
— NHL (@NHL) January 24, 2026
And an honorable mention this week: How did NJ Devil make this catch?
This will be a poster on your kids walls for years to come pic.twitter.com/g5BKyx6ctb
— NJ Devil (@NJDevil00) January 23, 2026
Stick taps
On Thursday, the NHL, NHLPA and ESPN’s Take Back Sports initiative held an innovation competition at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando. Hundreds of undergrad and graduate college students in the state of Florida submitted ideas to help grow the game of hockey at the grassroots level and tackle this question: “How can we strengthen the future of hockey by expanding participation, improving safe access, and making the game more fun and engaging for families and communities?”
It came down to six teams that presented in front of judges and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
Two awards were given out: the Innovator Award (the most out-of-the-box and transformative idea) and the Change Maker Award (most feasible and ready-to-implement award).
Hockey Unidos (Claire Maloney, Emma Mussante, Kylie Hafner and Anthony Costanzo) from the University of South Florida won the Change Maker Award. Their idea involved a culturally tailored hockey pop-up designed to engage Latino communities through festivals, food, language and family-driven activations.
AI Hockey Hubs (Demetrius Walker and Adolfo Acevedo) from Florida A&M University won the Innovation Award. Their idea was a portable, tech-enabled micro-rink that can turn small spaces into hockey skill zones using AI-supported training experiences.
Each winning student also won $2,000 and a VIP ticket experience to the 2026 NHL Stadium Series (or a Florida-based home game) along with VIP access to a special NHL, ESPN or Disney behind-the-scenes experience.
Congratulations to the winners!
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Tiger Woods was involved in a car crash in Florida on Friday, according to multiple reports.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office told ESPN that the crash happened on Jupiter Island on Friday afternoon. Woods’ condition was not immediately known.
Woods competed in the TGL championship earlier this week with his girlfriend, Vanessa Trump, and her daughter, Kai, in the stands. It was his return to competitive golf after rupturing his Achilles last year, just ahead of the Masters.
Tiger Woods of Jupiter Links Golf Club looks on before the match against the Los Angeles Golf Club at SoFi Center on March 23, 2026, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. (Adam Glanzman/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty Images)
The 15-time major winner, five of which have come at Augusta, was noncommittal about playing at this year’s Masters. President Donald Trump said on “The Five” on Thursday that he would be at Augusta but not play.
Woods has had trouble behind the wheel in the past. In 2021, he got into a wreck that resulted in serious leg injuries that kept him off the golf course for months.
This is a breaking story. Check back for more updates.
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HOUSTON — David Mirkovic had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and third-seeded Illinois flexed its defensive muscles to eliminate last year’s national runner-up from the NCAA tournament, beating Houston 65-55 in the South Region semifinals on Thursday night.
Next up is a meeting Saturday with ninth-seeded Iowa to see which Big Ten team will advance to the Final Four. It will be the 11th Elite Eight appearance for Illinois (27-8) and its second in three seasons under Brad Underwood.
In the Sweet 16 for a seventh consecutive time, the second-seeded Cougars (30-7) were thrilled to be playing just over two miles from their campus. But their poor shooting gave Houston fans little to cheer about and delighted the orange-clad Illini faithful who made the long trip to Texas.
“At the beginning of the game Houston fans were a little louder, but as game was going, [our fans] started being louder in their city,” Mirkovic said. “So it’s just really important for us, I would say just like a wind to our back. They pushed us, and thanks for them.”
Star freshman point guard Kingston Flemings, who is expected to be an NBA lottery pick, had 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Milos Uzan made just 2 of 11 shots.
But they were far from the only Cougars who struggled offensively. The team shot just 34% in its lowest-scoring game of the season.
Underwood was asked about his team’s defensive performance.
“I think it’s a mental focus,” he said. “We’ve been very good at times defensively. It’s just sustaining it. We’ve got very capable defenders, we’ve got size and length, and we just got to make shots difficult.”
Illinois finished well under the 84.7 points a game it averaged entering Thursday. But its offense was still plenty powerful enough to send Houston back to its nearby campus. Keaton Wagler had 13 points and a team-high 12 rebounds for the Illini; he and Mirkovic became the first pair of freshman teammates to each have a double-double in the same NCAA tournament game since freshmen became fully eligible in 1972-73, according to ESPN Research.
“Coaches were telling us before the game: ‘It’s going to be a guard game to get rebounds. We need 10-plus out of the guards,'” he said. “So I took that challenge on. I went in there, tried to play as tough as I could, not let them get any second-chance rebounds. I went in there and tried to get every rebound I could.”
Andrej Stojakovic — with his dad, three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic, in the stands — also scored 13.
By the time the final seconds ticked off the clock, many Houston fans had cleared out and the Illinois supporters stood and cheered as their team celebrated.
“I was proud of our kids’ effort,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “We just didn’t play good enough.”
The Illini were up by one early in the second half when they broke it open with a 17-0 run for a 44-26 lead with about 12 minutes left. Jake Davis scored five points during the burst, including a 3-pointer, and Mirkovic and Ben Humrichous capped it with consecutive 3s.
The Cougars missed seven consecutive shots as Illinois built its lead. When Uzan finally ended Houston’s drought with a 3-pointer with 11:20 left, it had been almost seven minutes since the team had scored.
“We were getting stops and we were limiting them to one shot, and to tough shots as well,” Wagler said. “Making them shoot tough middies or contested at the rim, 3-pointers, all of that, and then we were going in and grabbing the rebound and offensively we were getting the shots that we wanted, we were knocking them down.”
Consecutive 3-pointers by Chase McCarty got Houston within nine with about six minutes left. But Wagler and Tomislav Ivisic made 3-pointers to fuel an 8-0 run that extended the lead to 58-41.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sports
Trey Kaufman-Renn’s controversial tip-in gives Boilermakers spot in Elite Eight, ends Texas’ Cinderella story
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The No. 11 Texas Longhorns’ Cinderella story in the NCAA Tournament came to a heartbreaking end on Thursday night, as Trey Kaufman-Renn’s tip with 0.7 seconds left on the clock gave No. 2 Purdue a 79-77 lead to advance to the Elite Eight.
It was a thriller to the end in this Sweet 16 matchup between a team that needed to play in the First Four to kick off the tournament, and one of the higher seeds in March Madness.
The Longhorns’ Dailyn Swain made a clutch and-one layup with 11 seconds left that allowed him the opportunity to tie the game at 77 apiece if he made his free throw. He nailed it with the pressure on, but the Boilermakers had 11 seconds to get up court and potentially win the game.
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Trey Kaufman-Renn of the Purdue Boilermakers dribbles the ball against the Texas Longhorns during the first half in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 26, 2026, in San Jose, California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
It was Braden Smith finding his way to the lane and putting up his own layup. However, the ball didn’t have the correct English off the glass, as it started to roll off the rim.
But Kaufman-Renn, who positioned himself underneath the basket, tipped home the game-winning bucket, giving himself 20 total points to help Purdue move on and keep their tournament dreams alive.
8TH-GRADER STANDS ALONE WITH LAST PERFECT WOMEN’S NCAA BASKETBALL BRACKET
There was some discourse on social media, though, as an overhead shot of Kaufman-Renn’s tip showed a potential foul, as he was hooking the arm of the Longhorns player jostling for the rebound.
Either way, no whistle blew, and the Boilermakers were celebrating, while the Longhorns couldn’t believe their season came to a close in that fashion.
Trey Kaufman-Renn of the Purdue Boilermakers shoots the game-winning shot against the Texas Longhorns during the second half during the second half in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 26, 2026, in San Jose, California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
This was a back-and-forth game throughout the 40 minutes on the court, as both teams traded the lead, especially in the second half. The largest lead any team had was Purdue at only seven points, while Texas’ lead never got higher than four.
But it’s because both teams were shooting well, with Texas making 52% of its shots (29-of-56), while Purdue poured in 48% (30-of-62).
Looking more into the box score, every Boilermakers starter had at least 10 points, while Fletcher Loyer (18), and Braden Smith (16) doing crucial work in the backcourt to help the winning cause.
Meanwhile, Texas’ Tramon Mark left it all out on the court, shooting 11-of-15 for 29 points, including 5-of-7 made from beyond the arc. Swain also just missed a double-double with nine rebounds, while tallying five assists.
Trey Kaufman-Renn of the Purdue Boilermakers celebrates with teammates after making the game-winning shot against the Texas Longhorns during the second half in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 26, 2026, in San Jose, California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
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Purdue now awaits the winner of Arkansas and Arizona to see who they must play to earn a spot in this year’s Final Four, which will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
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