The NHL’s Central Division has cooled off and now the Atlantic Division is heating up.

The Colorado Avalanche have four regulation losses in their 10 games after having only two through Dec. 4. They still have a big lead in the Presidents’ Trophy race, but with 79 points in 50 games, they’re on pace for 129 points, short of the record held by the 2022-23 Boston Bruins (135).

The Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild also have slowed with just four wins each in their last 10 games, though the Utah Mammoth are charging.

In the Atlantic, the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and the Buffalo Sabres continue their turnaround with an 18-3-1 surge that puts them in better position to end a 14-season playoff drought. The Bruins are on a 8-2 run to move into a wild-card spot.

Here are the latest USA TODAY NHL power rankings:

NHL power rankings

Statistics are through Jan. 25. Number in parentheses indicates a change from two weeks ago.

1. Colorado Avalanche (0)

Forward Brock Nelson had a hat trick as the Avalanche defeated the Maple Leafs 4-1 to end a 1-2-2 slide. The U.S. Olympian ranks second on Colorado with 27 goals.

2. Tampa Bay Lightning (+1)

The Lightning’s 15-game point streak ended as they fell 8-5 to the Blue Jackets despite a four-point game by Nikita Kucherov. He had 32 points during the team’s point streak.

3. Carolina Hurricanes (+2)

Struggling Jesperi Kotkaniemi has been mentioned in trade rumors. He has averaged a little more than 11 minutes a game and has two goals in 31 games while carrying a $4.82 million cap hit.

4. Detroit Red Wings (+2)

Patrick Kane is one point away from tying Hall of Famer Mike Modano for most points by a U.S.-born scorer. He could have tied in his last game, but one of his assists was taken away.

5. Minnesota Wild (-3)

Swedish defenseman Jonas Brodin had surgery for a lower-body injury and will miss the Olympics. But fellow Olympians Matt Boldy (USA) and Joel Eriksson Ek (Sweden) appear good to go after returning from injuries.

6. Dallas Stars (-2)

Two Stars non-Olympians are putting up big numbers. Jason Robertson leads U.S. scorers with 30 goals. Wyatt Johnston (Canada) leads all NHL players with 17 power-play goals.

7. Buffalo Sabres (+3)

The Sabres have surged from outside the playoff picture to third in the Atlantic Division since changing general managers. Jarmo Kekalainen made his first major move by giving Josh Doan a seven-year extension.

8. Vegas Golden Knights (0)

Goaltender Adin Hill is 2-2 since returning from a long injury absence, but he has a .848 save percentage. He lost 7-1 to the Senators on Jan. 25.

9. Pittsburgh Penguins (+4)

The Penguins went 4-0 in their western Canada trip, their first sweep there since 2018. British Columbia native Ben Kindel scored twice in a Jan. 25 win in Vancouver

10. Montreal Canadiens (-3)

The Canadiens have lost two in a row and dropped to a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

11. Boston Bruins (+5)

Forward David Pastrnak has six goals and 17 assists in his last 12 games. He has been held off the scoreboard once in that stretch, in which the Bruins have gone 10-2.

12. New York Islanders (-3)

Bo Horvat, the Islanders’ lone Olympian (Canada), returned on Jan. 24 from an injury that kept him out for nine games.

13. Florida Panthers (+5)

Matthew Tkachuk played his first game of the season on Jan. 19, but his appearance was overshadowed by the first NHL goalie fight in six years. Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky charged down the ice to take on San Jose’s Alex Nedeljkovic, who had entered a scrum behind his net. The Panthers are 3-1 since Tkachuk returned.

14. Utah Mammoth (+7)

Goalie Karel Vejmelka, named to the Czech Olympic team, is 9-1 with 2.19 goals-against average and .916 save percentage in January.

15. Edmonton Oilers (-1)

Connor McDavid has been averaging two points a game since the start of December to move into the league’s scoring lead. He had five points, including an overtime win, against the Capitals on Jan. 24. Defenseman Evan Bouchard had three goals and three assists in that game.

16. Philadelphia Flyers (-5)

Forward Rodrigo Abols will miss the Olympics because of an ankle injury. He had been named to Team Latvia as one of the first six. Two of the Flyers’ other Olympians, Czechia’s Dan Vladar and Finland’s Rasmus Ristolainen, are on the injured list. They were at practice on Jan. 26.

17. Anaheim Ducks (+10)

The Ducks have won seven in a row after a nine-game winless streak. Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe is heading to the Olympics, replacing injured Panthers defenseman Seth Jones. Sweden’s Leo Carlsson had a procedure for a laceration and could miss the Games.

18. San Jose Sharks (+2)

Forward Kiefer Sherwood, acquired from the Canucks, is second in the league with 210 hits. The top Sharks player this season is Ryan Reaves with 133.

19. Los Angeles Kings (0)

The Kings caught a break when goalie Darcy Kuemper didn’t miss any games in an injury scare. He left a game after his arm went numb following a collision, but he started the Kings’ next game.

20. Seattle Kraken (-3)

The Kraken, who dropped out of a playoff spot in a 2-5-2 slide, pulled even in points with the Sharks and Kings for the second wild card spot. They remain out of a position because they have played one more game.

21. Toronto Maple Leafs (-9)

Injured Mitch Marner apologized on social media for making an obscene gesture while on camera. ‘sorry about my moment of frustration today!’ he posted on Jan. 25. ‘didn’t mean to upset anyone. looking forward to being back on ice and not in the stands.’

22. Columbus Blue Jackets (+6)

The Blue Jackets have gone 5-1 since firing coach Dean Evason and hiring Rick Bowness as a replacement.

23. New Jersey Devils (0)

Dougie Hamilton has a goal and eight assists in seven games since he sat out as a healthy scratch. The veteran’s production has risen with Luke Hughes out with an injury.

24. Washington Capitals (-9)

The Capitals have one win in their last six games, a stretch that included a regulation loss to the last-place Canucks. But by picking up a point in an overtime loss to the Oilers, they sit two points out of third place in the Metropolitan Division.

25. Ottawa Senators (-1)

Goaltender Linus Ullmark returned from his leave of absence on Jan. 25 as a backup. He told TSN he took the leave for mental health reasons and blasted the rumors that started. ‘People wonder why hockey players, professional athletes are not talking, why we’re not showing any sort of emotions, what mental health in men and women are a stigma,’ he said. ‘It took them less than 24 hours from my absence of leave to try to find reasons to why I’m gone, saying that I’m a homewrecker, a person that no one likes on the team.’

26. Nashville Predators (-4)

Steven Stamkos’ bounce-back season continues. He picked up his second hat trick of the season and has 25 goals in 51 games, two shy of his 2024-25 total in 82 games.

27. Chicago Blackhawks (-1)

Connor Bedard has been limited to one goal, four points and a minus 6 rating in eight games since he returned from a shoulder injury.

28. Winnipeg Jets (+3)

The Jets have been up and down this season as they try to avoid missing the playoffs one season after winning the Presidents’ Trophy. They put together a four-game winning streak after ending an 11-game winless streak. But now they lost four of their last five games.

29. New York Rangers (-4)

General manager Chris Drury sent fans a letter indicating the team will retool. They won’t offer pending UFA Artemi Panarin a contract, per reports, meaning they have to work with him to waive his no-movement clause so they don’t lose him for nothing. Vincent Trocheck has been mentioned as a trade possibility.

30. Calgary Flames (-1)

The Flames dealt pending UFA defenseman Rasmus Andersson to the Golden Knights. Along with draft picks, they received defenseman Zach Whitecloud, who’s signed through 2028.

31. St. Louis Blues (-1)

32. Vancouver Canucks (0)

Forward Kiefer Sherwood, the subject of much trade speculation, was shipped to the Sharks for two second-round picks and American Hockey League defenseman Cole Clayton.

The San Francisco Giants have bolstered their outfield by landing free agent Harrison Bader on a two-year deal, according to multiple media reports.

The contract is worth $20.5 million, plus incentives.

Bader signed a one-year deal with the Minnesota Twins last offseason and produced a .277/.347/.449 slash line with 17 home runs, 61 runs scored and 54 RBI in 146 games − all career highs.

He was especially productive down the stretch after being acquired by the Philadelphia Phillies at the trade deadline. In 50 games with the Phils, Bader hit .305/.361/.463, in addition to playing stellar outfield defense.

Bader, 31, was a third-round draft choice by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2015. He made his MLB debut with the Cards in 2017 and played parts of six seasons, winning a Gold Glove with them in 2021 before being traded to the New York Yankees the following season.

He’s also spent time with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets during his nine seasons in the majors.

A .247/.313/.401 career hitter, Bader has been even more valuable on defense. Since he debuted in 2017, no other outfielder can top Bader’s 77 Outs Above Average, according to Statcast.

He likely will take over as the Giants’ everyday center fielder, with Jung Hoo Lee moving from center to right field and Heliot Ramos as the likely starter in left.

The NCAA lied. You’re shocked, I know. Amateurism was not the glue to college sports’ popularity.
Business booming for college football, as salaries soar and TV ratings remain strong.
Women’s sports are enjoying a moment amid NIL and pay-to-play, too.

The NCAA lied. You’re shocked, I know.

In a 2014 court filing, a lawyer for the NCAA arguing against NIL payments and pay-for-play asserted the association’s amateurism model was paramount to its popularity.

The lawyer claimed the NCAA’s “commitment to amateurism” helped “enhance the viewership of college athletics.”

That, we now know, is a farce. A myth. A whopper of a tall tale.

Whatever problems college sports might face in this modern world, unpopularity is not among them.

Television ratings for the Indiana-Miami national championship game paint a portrait of a booming enterprise. The game averaged 30.1 million viewers on ESPN, according to figures released by the network. Viewership peaked at 33.2 million sets of eyeballs.

That’s good for the second-most watched College Football Playoff national championship ever. It’s the most-watched non-NFL sporting event since a 2016 World Series Game 7.

America loves an underdog. Indiana captivated us.

It’s not just college football. Popularity and viewership for women’s college sports is soaring, too. Last year’s Women’s College World Series and NCAA volleyball tournament set viewership records. With Caitlin Clark leading the way (and collecting checks from a bundle of endorsement deals), women’s basketball smashed viewership records in 2024.

So, I guess the NCAA’s “commitment to amateurism” wasn’t the key to viewership, after all. Shocker.

College sports are wildly popular amid pay-for-play

People like watching sports. They like rooting for their team and against their rival. If you’re among those fortunate enough to revel in your alma mater’s success, all the better.

In a scripted and curated world, people like watching something where they don’t know what comes next.

Maybe, a likable quarterback starring for a longtime lovable loser will juke past one defender, lower the boom on another, spin, dive and score on a fourth-down run that will take its place in history.

You watched that play, didn’t you? Maybe, Fernando Mendoza’s touchdown made you leap out of our seat.

Who gives a rip if Mendoza collected a big pay day off this season? He earned it, wouldn’t you say?

Everyone knows a guy who says he doesn’t like college sports as much anymore, now that athletes can profit off their fame and for their contributions to a lucrative enterprise.

Those folks will tell ya college sports ain’t what they used to be.

Well, neither are cellphones, but we’re still using them. We’re using them to watch college sports — and bet on them.

The conference commissioners, coaches and university brass who keep crying to Congress they’re mired in a world of hurt won’t admit it, but these are glory days for the College Sports Inc.

Athletic departments are reporting record revenues. The needle keeps moving up, up, up on coach and administrator salaries. You now can make seven figures being a college football team’s weightlifting coach. Remarkable.

Yes, athletes are collecting some of that green, too.

If the donors and TV networks funding this enterprise cannot continue to fund pay raises for all involved, well, then I suppose the market will regulate itself. That’s business.

Make no mistake, college sports is big business.

These words ring true: ‘The NCAA is not above the law.’

The Supreme Court wasn’t buying the lies the NCAA tried selling. In 2021, the high court ruled unanimously in a 9-0 opinion against the NCAA, and NIL went into effect that year.

Conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the most scathing rebuke of the NCAA’s amateurism model.

“The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America,” Kavanaugh wrote. “All of the restaurants in a region cannot come together to cut cooks’ wages on the theory that ‘customers prefer’ to eat food from low-paid cooks. … Hospitals cannot agree to cap nurses’ income in order to create a ‘purer’ form of helping the sick.”

“The bottom line is,” Kavanaugh continued, “that the NCAA and its member colleges are suppressing the pay of student-athletes who collectively generate billions of dollars in revenues for colleges every year.”

Kavanaugh hit the NCAA with a haymaker in his conclusion.

“Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate,” he wrote. “And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law.”

The NCAA keeps relearning that hard truth, that it’s not above the law, every time it gets dragged into court these past few years.

College sports face some legitimate issues. Last weekend, a basketball player fresh from the NBA’s G League played for Alabama against Tennessee. A judge who’s apparently a Crimson Tide donor granted Charles Bediako a temporary restraining order allowing him to suit up, nearly three years after he last played in college.

That smells fishy.

There’s a legit argument for some narrowly tailored legislation that allows the NCAA to enforce its eligibility rules.

As NCAA leaders seek solutions, though, they should do so without tethering their arguments to myths, like that old lie about amateurism being the engine toward existence.

The NCAA’s 2014 court filing called NIL an “anathema to amateurism.” Such fancy language is how an Ivy League lawyer depicts a boogeyman.

Truth is, college athletes are getting paid, business is booming, and fans cannot look away.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

Shedeur Sanders’ rookie season with the Cleveland Browns is ending with the quarterback being granted a spot in the 2026 Pro Bowl Games – albeit as a replacement player.

Sanders was selected as a fill-in on Monday, according to multiple reports. Jordan Schultz was first to report the news.

The AFC’s original selections at the position were the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen, Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert and New England Patriots’ Drake Maye. With the Patriots set to play in Super Bowl 60, Maye required a replacement. Herbert also could be a candidate to sit out after undergoing surgery in December to stabilize a fracture in his left hand.

Sanders started the final seven games of the season for the Browns, throwing for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns with 10 interceptions. His 56.6% completion rate and -.34 expected points added per dropback would have ranked last among all qualified passers had Sanders cleared the bar for minimum number of passing attempts.

After the season, general manager Andrew Berry praised the fifth-round pick for his progress but stopped short of saying that he would remain the team’s starter in 2026.

“I think we saw a lot of progress with Shedeur this year,” Berry said. “I think that’s both mentally, physically, playing the position. He’s still very much a work in progress, like many rookie quarterbacks are.

“But I think we saw some really good things in terms of his playmaking, his accuracy, his ability to extend with his feet. And I think I’d also give him credit, as well as our offensive staff, for bringing him along in terms of his pocket management, his situational awareness and things of that nature.”

The 2026 Pro Bowl games will be held on Feb. 3 in San Francisco.

SEATTLE – Sam Darnold was just minutes removed from securing his first Super Bowl trip – as a starter, more on that important distinction later – and he’d already wrangled an apology out of me.

In the aftermath of a drama-filled, 31-27 defeat of the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship game, which gave Darnold’s Seattle Seahawks the rubber match in their epic thrill-ogy of games against their NFC West rivals this season, I asked him about his personal journey from the New York Jets quarterback who infamously admitted “seeing ghosts” amid a four-interception debacle against the New England Patriots on “Monday Night Football” more than six years ago into the two-time Pro Bowler he’s blossomed into over the last year-plus – and ahead of a much bigger game against the Pats.

“Yeah, I almost forgot about that. So thanks,” Darnold cracked back good-naturedly.

Sam, I am sorry. (And you most certainly weren’t sorry in what was probably the best football performance of your life.)

“No, you’re good,” he smiled, while indulging my question with a moment of reflection.

“There was a lot that I didn’t know back then, so I’m just going to continue to learn and grow in this great game. There’s a lot of stuff that I can do better from today – I feel like I’m missing throws out there that I shouldn’t miss, there were some things offensively that I feel like we can do better. We’re always looking to get better, I’m always looking to get better. So, that’s the great part about this game – you win an NFC championship, and you win games throughout the season, but there’s always ways you can look to get better.”

It’s a very Darnold answer for a guy who’s overcome so much adversity in eight NFL seasons – upbeat, hopeful, forward-leaning. All it was missing was a dollop of credit to his teammates, but he doled out plenty of that Sunday night as well.

I never could logically grasp why the Jets gave up on an obviously talented, always centered young guy − one who’s basically been beloved in every locker room he’s graced. Why draft Zach Wilson in 2021 − I know, reset the QB contractual clock − when you could have actually built something around Darnold, maybe by taking Penei Sewell or Ja’Marr Chase or Micah Parsons instead. But nope, Darnold was dealt to the Carolina Panthers for a package that included a second-round pick and a whole lot of nothing else that never made the perpetually rebuilding Jets any better.

After struggling in Charlotte − along with Baker Mayfield, which tells you about those Panthers − Darnold had cups of coffee with the San Francisco 49ers and Minnesota Vikings, who miraculously didn’t re-sign him following his 2024 breakout season. Oops.

The Seahawks were only too happy to reel in the perennial castoff who whipped an excellent Rams defense Sunday, 346 yards and three TD passes spilling off his right arm – with nary a turnover in the signature performance of his career. And it was achieved with a lingering oblique injury suffered before Seattle’s divisional playoff round victory over the Niners.

“I’m not a quarterback expert, but that’s some high-powered quarterbacking going on in that game by number 14. For sure,” said Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, who said Darnold barely threw the ball in practice in the days leading up to ‘Hawks-Rams, part three.

“It should go down as one of the best performances in playoff history.”

And it might.

There was Darnold’s 51-yard completion to Rashid Shaheed on Seattle’s opening drive that set up Kenneth Walker’s 2-yard touchdown run. There was the 42-yard shot to Darnold’s favorite target, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, that preceded a 14-yard TD strike to JSN three players later – staking Seattle to a 17-13 halftime lead it would never relinquish.

When the Seahawks seemed to stall after opening the second half with the ball, Darnold made the Rams pay for their latest special teams error – a muffed punt – by hitting rarely used Jake Bobo for a 17-yard TD on the very next play. And though LA wouldn’t go away, neither would Darnold, who hooked up with ex-Rams Super Bowl hero Cooper Kupp for one more TD later in the period.

“He showed us exactly who we always thought he was,” said Seahawks defensive lineman Leonard Williams, a USC product like Darnold and a teammate of his with those lowly Jets. “I mean, since Day 1, I think this whole organization, this whole team, everybody in this locker room trusted him – regardless of the doubts or ups and downs or anything like that we’ve had throughout the season. That’s one thing that’s always stayed true is our trust in our quarterback. He’s a great leader and, I mean, he really saved us today.

“I’m so happy for him,” Williams continued. “To show up in a game like this, when there’s so many doubters, it’s big time for him.”

And now Darnold is truly headed for the big time as Seattle prepares to face New England in Super Bowl 60. It’s an opportunity for the third overall pick – by the Jets – of the vaunted 2018 QB draft class to become the first passer of that crop to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Not Josh Allen. Not Lamar Jackson. Not Mayfield. Sam Darnold.

Asked how it felt to be the first QB from that group to reach Super Sunday, Darnold remained in rare form with another postgame zinger.

“I actually made it in ’23 as well, when I was in San Francisco. So …,” he grinned, referencing his one-year stop in Kyle Shanahan’s halfway house for QBs, where Darnold backed up Brock Purdy.

“No, it’s unbelievable. Obviously those are great players. But it’s more so the team, just the hard work that we’ve put in throughout the season. … We take it day by day, and then that’s the beauty about this team and these guys in that locker room, this coaching staff.”

And speaking of that staff, you can bet there’s no one they’d rather have than Darnold, who’s galvanized this group from the moment he signed with Seattle last March, when he replaced Geno Smith.

Macdonald left nothing to the imagination when I asked him about the narrative of the Seahawks being a dominant team – so long as Darnold doesn’t undermine them with costly mistakes, like another four-INT game he had in a loss to the Rams in Week 11.

Macdonald responded to my query by exclaiming: “Everyone wants to make a narrative about this guy. But it’s like, he’s been the same guy since he walked in the door.

“You don’t want me writing the stories, because I would not write the narratives that are out there. I’d be really boring. This guy’s the man. And his teammates love him. And he’s competitive as crap. And he’s tough. And he’s really talented. And he’s a winner – that would be the story, so don’t let me write the story.”

I’ve got this one, Coach. Hopefully it’s not boring. And it stands to reason Darnold won’t be, either, two weeks from now – when he gets his biggest opportunity yet to certify those ghosts are exorcised and that he is indeed “the man.”

DENVER — Nik Bonitto left no doubt about his level of frustration as a crowd of media gathered at his locker following the loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game.

Bonitto, the star linebacker for the Denver Broncos, was understandably bummed that the 10-7 setback denied them a trip to Super Bowl 60.

‘It’s sickening…to think that all we fought through this year,’ Bonitto said, ‘all the games we had to win, knowing we’re definitely the better team, but it just didn’t work out that way today.’

The better team? Maybe on another day. Maybe if the Broncos had their starting quarterback, Bo Nix, who inspired so many comeback victories before suffering his season-ending broken ankle a week earlier. Maybe if a few plays had gone the other way for a team that came up clutch so often this season while living on the edge in so many games.

But facts are facts. The gritty Patriots were clearly the better team on Sunday at Empower Field, earning the trip to Santa Clara, California to face the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks. At this point, there’s no debate to settle.

And of course, after improving to 9-0 on the road this season, the Patriots might take exception to not being acknowledged as the better team in their latest outing.

‘If you were the better team, you would be going to the Super Bowl,’ Patriots receiver Kayshon Boutte told USA TODAY Sports when told of Bonitto’s remarks. ‘Honestly. It’s a team game. And one man didn’t win the game.’

Which sounds like the perfect rebuttal for a team with one more game to play.

Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell

Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Geoffrey Mason, who was the coordinating producer for the 1972 Munich Olympics and went on to a five-decade career with multiple networks, has died at the age of 85.

‘Geoff Mason was a friend and a colleague who had a storied career, touching just about every corner of the sports television industry,’ said Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC and ESPN. ‘He had a passion for the business, which was evidenced in his prodigious work ethic and the constant love and enthusiasm he exhibited on everything he worked on.’

Mason was a central figure in the ABC Sports control room in 1972 when a Palestinian terrorist group stormed the Olympic Village in Munich and took several members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage.

A standoff with police lasted for 22 hours as ABC provided riveting around-the-clock coverage that ended with a failed rescue attempt. Six Israeli coaches and five athletes died as anchor Jim McKay memorably broke the news to viewers: ‘They’re all gone.’

Mason served as a consultant on the feature film, ‘September 5’ about the Olympic massacre. It was one of a total of eight Olympics he worked for ABC. He was also employed by NBC, Fox and NFL Network over his lengthy career, one in which he earned 24 Emmy Awards.

A U.S. Navy veteran and graduate of Duke University, Mason was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2010.