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Jaromir Jagr returned to action Thursday for the first time since turning 52 and immediately scored as he surpassed legend Gordie Howe to become the oldest player taking regular shifts in professional ice hockey.

Our experts make predictions on who might topple No. 1-ranked Oklahoma, Haleigh Bryant's prowess and more.

The Rebel Edition uniform initiative started ahead of the 2021 season, when Nike partnered with the WNBA to bring stories from franchise "cities and communities to life."

Zirkle was drafted in 1969 by the New York Jets with the 442nd pick, but he never showed up for training camp.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas (AP) — Nelly Korda, who is looking to tie an LPGA Tour record with her fifth straight win, shot a 4-under 68 on Thursday in the opening round of the Chevron Championship, leaving her two shots behind leader Lauren Coughlin in the year’s first major.

Coughlin shot a bogey-free 66 in windy conditions at Carlton Woods, which is hosting the event for the second time.

The top-ranked Korda is seeking her second major after winning the Women’s PGA Championship in 2021. She could join Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05) as the only players to win five consecutive LPGA events.

Korda said she was battling fatigue from recent tournaments at the beginning of her round. She bogeyed her first hole, the par-4 10th.

“I (could) definitely still feel maybe a little bit of tiredness, so it took me a while to get going,” she said. “I felt the nerves definitely at the start of the round. Once I made the turn, I was just playing free golf.”

She made her first birdie on the par-4 14th hole, something she half-jokingly credited to a snack.

“I actually had an apple on 13, and that gave me actually a nice boost,” she said. “I felt a lot better after that. Maybe I should have apples more often.”

The 25-year-old finished with six birdies, including four in the final six holes.

“Two of them were par 5s, so I got to take advantage of that with my length,” she said. “Hit a really good tee shot, and then I was just on the front of the green on 17, and the other one I was just on the fringe, too. I two-putted pretty much for birdie on those. Then I had wedge shots in on the other two, too. Taking advantage of my length and hitting good tee shots.”

Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont. is five shots back at 1 under, while Savannah Grewal of Mississauga, Ont. is at 4 over.

Marina Alex and Japan’s Minami Katsu also shot 68. Lydia Ko was one of five players at 69.

The 31-year-old Coughlin, who played in college at Virginia and has never won on the LPGA Tour, made three birdies in a four-hole span from Nos. 2-5. She believes her game has benefited from her recent decision to make husband John Pond her full-time caddie.

“He’s really good at talking through everything when I want to get really fast and make a decision really quickly,” Coughlin said. “He is really good at putting all the work in, all the extra work, all the extra walking … making sure the strategy is really good and double checking everything. But … he’s always been really good with how he talks to me and communicates what he thinks I need to do and how I need to do it.”

Defending champion and world No. 2 Lilia Vu withdrew because of a back injury. She issued a statement on Instagram saying she had “severe discomfort” in her back during warmups.

“I have been dealing with a back injury for a while now,” Vu said in the statement. “Some days are better than others, and today was unfortunately not a good day. During my normal warmup routine, I had severe discomfort in my back and I felt that I could not compete up to my standards and made the decision to withdraw from the tournament ahead of my tee time.”

She added that she was returning home to see her doctors and determine the next steps.

Later in the day, last year’s runner-up Angel Yin withdrew because of an injury after shooting 78.

A win by Ko would put her in the LPGA Hall of Fame. She won the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in January for her 20th LPGA title.

The 26-year-old New Zealander admitted that she still gets nervous before tournaments despite all her experience and success.

“It doesn’t matter what event we’re playing or what circumstances, when you’re younger you want to get away from the nerves,” Ko said. “To some extent as long as you can control it the nerves are good for you and you’re able to excel and get the adrenaline to hit some shots that you may not be able to execute when you’re just practicing.”

More from Sportsnet

Canada’s Brooke Henderson will have Korda, history to beat at season’s first major

Korda wins fourth straight LPGA Tour start, beating Maguire in T-Mobile Match Play

I'm a huge fan of the MLB games (mostly the career mode honestly), but I've never really been able to get into watching the games. A large part of this is just the extremely long schedule compared to the NFL, I feel like I can't really justify taking all that time into a sport that I may not want to watch full time, especially since with the NFL, I typically watch almost every game in a week, which seems nearly impossible for baseball. Alongside this, I have no idea on how the average fan watches the games. How can I get myself more into baseball in general, and how do fans typically go through the season? Thanks for any help and advice, I appreciate it.

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Alex Meruelo may have lost this version of the Arizona Coyotes, but he’s convinced the team isn’t gone for good.

Appearing on The Burns and Gambo Show on Arizona Sports on the same day the NHL’s board of governors approved the team’s move to Salt Lake City, the Coyotes owner stressed he plans to use the entirety of his five-year window granted to him by the league to ensure there is a Coyotes 2.0 in the state.

Meruelo also repeated several times he remains the owner of the Coyotes, apart from hockey operations, albeit as an inactive team.

“I didn’t just sell off the team, I’m here, I’m fully committed to moving forward with the process of reactivating the team, which begins June 27 when I purchase the land (he hopes to win at a land auction for an arena in Phoenix),” Meruelo said.

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So why did he agree to sell the team in a $1.2-billion deal brokered by the league?

Meruelo, whose team has played in a 4,600-seat college rink the past two years, said it stemmed from a March 6 meeting with commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly.

“(They said) can you look your players in the eyes and tell them when they can expect to have a new arena built,” Meruelo said. “And I looked at them and stared and said ‘No, it’s not fair to the players, their families and hockey operations not knowing how long it would take to build a new arena.’”

Meruelo said Bettman believes in him and in hockey in Arizona.

“He is extremely committed. As far as me, he knows I am the only one who can get this project done,” Meruelo said. “He’s told me before and on a couple of occasions, if it doesn’t work with me, it won’t work with anybody.”

Meruelo will retain the Coyotes’ name, logo and trademark. He also retains ownership of the Tucson Roadrunners, the franchise’s AHL affiliate, and hopes to move them to Mullett Arena, the Coyotes’ temporary home shared with Arizona State University the past two seasons.

Hosts Dave Burns and John Gambadoro pressed Meruelo several times on if he feels bad for the fans. They noted that even if the Coyotes return, the current players will not be part of the team.

“It’s horrible. I apologize,” Meruelo said. “It’s something I tried at every cost to avoid. What I take solace in is understanding that more importantly, it’s the career of these players. To keep them here in a campus facility for another three or four years is not right.”

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The hosts also asked Meruelo why he was not in attendance for the team’s final game on Wednesday.

“I didn’t choose (not to show up. Until Thursday) morning, I was still working on the deal, getting all the logistics and all the paperwork done,” he said. “It was a process that went all the way through this morning. I watched the game on TV. It was gut-wrenching. (There) was just so much enthusiasm and confirmed what I already know, that hockey belongs in the desert. That’s what we plan on doing in the near future.”

Meruelo said a win in the June 27 land auction would be a game-changer for the future of hockey in Arizona.

“From here on out, what you have to understand is that I have not sold the actual team,” he said. “June 27 will be the start of a new beginning for the Coyotes and what we want to do.”

“I also understand believing (an owner requires) actions,” Meruelo added. “It’s not words, it’s actions.”

More from Sportsnet

Ryan Smith says Salt Lake City team sold 6,000 season tickets in first two hours

NHL board approves relocation of Arizona Coyotes to Utah

The ink is barely dry on the Coyotes’ relocation to Utah and plans to increase capacity at their arena are already underway.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told NHL Network’s Adnan Virk on Thursday that the team is working on increasing the number of unobstructed seats at Delta Center to 17,000 from 12,000 within two seasons.

“There are plans, which I’ve seen. It’ll take two summers to do it, after this summer,” Bettman said. “The unobstructed capacity will be 17,000 when they’re done. And while it’s 12,000 unobstructed now, there’s still another 4,000 obstructed seats for the temporary part of this.”

The jump to 12,000 in the first year is still a big step up for the team, as the former rink at Mullet Arena on Arizona State University’s campus only seated 4,600 for NHL games.

“What really was underlying all this was what we thought would be a temporary facility, meaning Mullet … We were looking under a best-case of three to five years,” Bettman told Virk. “It wasn’t appropriate for the league, it’s not a major league building, and it wasn’t fair to the players.”

The Utah hockey team will share the Delta Center with the Utah Jazz until a new rink is built. That project is in the early stages of development ahead of Salt Lake City likely hosting the 2034 Winter Olympics.

The team is already putting that higher capacity to good use, as owner Ryan Smith took to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday to announce that 11,000 and counting season ticket deposits had already made.

The NHL announced the move Thursday, following an emotional final game at Mullett Arena on Wednesday night. The move, which has been an open secret for a week, was officially approved by the NHL Board of Governors after a vote on Thursday afternoon.

The team will be purchased by Ryan and Ashley Smith in a $1.2-billion deal brokered by the league. The Smiths are owners of Smith Entertainment Group, whose portfolio includes the NBA’s Jazz and MLS’s Real Salt Lake.

— With files from the Associated Press

The San Jose Sharks head to the Calgary Flames in Pacific Division play on Thursday. Catch the game on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ starting at 7:00 p.m. MT / 9:00 p.m. ET.

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3. Rangers' Jack Leiter strikes out first batter he faces but gets roughed up by Tigers in historic MLB debut  Yahoo Sports
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There will be plenty of new faces on the ice for the Edmonton Oilers when they take on the Colorado Avalanche Thursday.

The Oilers will rest their seven top scorers for their final game of the season, per head coach Kris Knoblauch.

Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Mattias Ekholm and Evander Kane will all get the night off as the Oilers play it safe ahead of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Edmonton is already locked in as the Pacific Division’s No. 2 seed, but its opponent is still to be decided. The Oilers will face either the Vegas Golden Knights or the Los Angeles Kings depending on which team finishes third in the Pacific.

Both teams will take the ice Thursday, with the Golden Knights hosting the Anaheim Ducks and the Kings facing the Chicago Blackhawks.

Per the NHL, the clinching scenarios for the No. 3 seed in the Pacific are as follows:

• Vegas will clinch if they defeat the Ducks in any fashion.

• Vegas will clinch if they earn one point against the Ducks and the Kings lose to the Blackhawks in regulation.

• Vegas will clinch if the Kings lose to the Blackhawks in regulation.

• Los Angeles will clinch if they defeat the Blackhawks in any fashion and the Golden Knights lose to the Ducks in any fashion.

• Los Angeles will clinch if they get one point against the Blackhawks and the Golden Knights lose to the Ducks in regulation.

The standings currently see the Kings sitting one point back of the Golden Knights, though Los Angeles holds the first tiebreaker due to having more regulation wins this season.

You can watch the Oilers’ regular season finale live on Sportsnet and Sportsnet + starting at 9:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. MT.

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3. Pirates' Paul Skenes extends scoreless streak at Triple-A  MLB.com
4. Pirates sticking to their plan to protect young pitchers like Jared Jones, Paul Skenes  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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With Matthews in the top spot, where do Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Artemi Panarin rank? What about the top goalies? Here's what our voters think.

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DETROIT — Leody Taveras scored the winning run on a fielder’s choice in the eighth inning and added an RBI single in the ninth to lead the Texas Rangers to a 9-7 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.

Taveras doubled with one out advanced to third on Marcus Semien’s fielder’s choice grounder and scored on Corey Seager’s grounder that broke a 7-all tie. Taveras added an insurance run with a two-out hit in the ninth.

Jose Leclerc (1-2) got the win in relief for Texas, which won three out of four games in Detroit. Kirby Yates, who picked up the win on Wednesday, earned his second save with a perfect ninth inning.

Shelby Miller (3-2), the fifth of six Detroit pitchers, took the loss for the second day in a row.

The game marked the major league debut of Texas starter Jack Leiter, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft. He was brought up from triple-A Round Rock, where he was 1-1 with 25 strikeouts and three walks in 14 innings over three appearances.

He is the son of Al Leiter, who won 162 games in 19 major league seasons.

Jack Leiter got off to a strong start, catching leadoff hitter Riley Greene looking for his first strikeout.

RAYS 2, ANGELS 1

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Ryan Pepiot allowed one run and three hits in six strong innings, Amed Rosario hit an RBI triple in Tampa Bay’s two-run first as Tampa Bay beat the LA Angels on Thursday to split their four-game series.

Pepiot (2-2) struck out seven and walked three. He was acquired in a trade in which Rays ace Tyler Glasnow was dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Colin Poche, the third Rays reliever, worked out of a jam with two on and two outs in the ninth for his second save in three chances. Struggling closer Pete Fairbanks, who has a 9.00 ERA, pitched in the previous two games.

Rosario extended his hitting streak to 10 games with his RBI triple that made it 1-0 in the Rays’ opening inning against Griffin Canning (0-3). He has nine RBIs over the stretch.

Harold Ramírez’s sacrifice fly to right drove in Rosario to make it 2-0.

The Angels got within 2-1 in the sixth when Mike Trout walked, stole second and third and scored on Miguel Sanó’s sacrifice fly. Trout has five steals this year after having just a combined six over the previous four seasons.

GUARDIANS 5, RED SOX 4

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BOSTON – Carlos Carrasco gave up two runs in 5 2/3 solid innings and Andrés Giménez had two RBIs to lead Cleveland over Boston on Thursday.

Ramón Laureano, Josh Naylor and José Ramírez also drove in runs for Cleveland, which took three of four from Boston and improved to a Central Division-best 13-6.

Carrasco (1-1) threw 56 of his 89 pitches for strikes and allowed two hits while striking out five and walking three. He left after allowing a two-out single to Reese McGuire in the sixth with Cleveland leading 5-1.

Emmanuel Clase pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save.

After starting the season with seven wins in 10 road games, the Red Sox went 3-7 on their first homestand of the season.

Trailing 5-1, Boston cut into Cleveland’s lead behind Jarren Duran’s two-run triple in the Red Sox’s three-run sixth inning.

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