Month: February 2025

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Carolina Hurricanes will have Pyotr Kochetkov (19-10-3 | 2.48 GAA | .903 SV%) between the pipes on Saturday as they welcome Utah Hockey Club to North Carolina.

Making his team-leading 34th appearance of the season, the Canes have earned at least a point in six of Kochetkov’s last seven appearances (4-1-2). Allowing three goals or less in his last 11 outings, a victory today would give him 20 for the second consecutive season.

In front of him, Carolina may roll out an 11-7 lineup for the second time this week. Rod Brind’Amour said pregame that there are a couple of “question marks” in the lineup and confirmed that all seven defensemen on the roster will dress for warmups, opening the door for Scott Morrow to potentially make his regular-season home debut.

Regardless of ins and outs within the lineup, the Canes will look for their first even-strength goal in almost a week. Held scoreless on Tuesday in Winnipeg and earning only a late 6-on-5 goal on Thursday in Minnesota, Rod Brind’Amour’s group will try to get back to the offense that currently averages the second-best goals per game on home ice this season (3.74).

Sebastian Aho, who will play an important role for Finland in the impending 4 Nations Face-Off, and Jack Roslovic, both enter today’s contest with 18 goals this season.

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Tonight’s Betting Odds…

Odds at Time of Publishing, provided by Fanatics Sportsbook: Canes -230

To view more Fanatics Sportsbook betting lines, click here.

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Tonight’s Projected Lineup…

*Final Scratch TBD

Forwards

Jarvis – Aho – Rantanen

Hall – Kotkaniemi – Blake

Svechnikov – Staal – Martinook

Robinson – Roslovic – Jaaska

Defense

Slavin – Burns

Orlov – Chatfield

Gostisbehere – Walker

Morrow

Goaltenders

Kochetkov

[Backup: Andersen]

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Injuries

William Carrier (Lower-Body Injury | Out “A Couple of Months” As Of Jan. 24)

Tyson Jost (Lower-Body Injury | Out “Long-Term” As Of Jan. 2)

Jesper Fast (Neck | Out For 2024-25 Season)

Scratches

TBD

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PP1: Aho, Blake, Jarvis and Rantanen with Burns

PP2: Hall, Kotkaniemi, Roslovic and Svechnikov with Gostisbehere

In his first game since not being dealt away at the NBA trade deadline on Thursday, center Walker Kessler posted a rarely seen set of statistics in the Utah Jazz’s 135-127 overtime loss to the Phoenix Suns on Friday night.

In addition to reaching a career high with 22 rebounds, the former Auburn standout had 19 points, four assists and three blocked shots.

In the past five NBA seasons, that set of numbers has been reached by a player in only one other game – the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis in a 120-109 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 10, 2024.

Kessler’s performance on Friday night was the 18th time in this century that an NBA player had reached those numbers in those four statistical categories.

Kessler became the second Utah player to hit those marks. The first was Karl Malone in a 124-116 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Dec. 15, 1990.

Kessler is the eighth player with at least 22 rebounds in a game this season, with the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, Sacramento Kings’ Domantas Sabonis and New York Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns recording two such games apiece.

In the run-up to the NBA trade deadline, speculation had linked Kessler to the Lakers, who made a blockbuster trade that swapped Davis to the Dallas Mavericks for Luka Doncic. Los Angeles did acquire a center in the wake of that deal, but it was Mark Williams from the Charlotte Hornets.

TL;DR: Live stream Utah Jazz vs. LA Clippers in the NBA with FuboTV, Sling TV, or YouTube TV.

The Utah Jazz head to Intuit Dome to face the LA Clippers in a Western Conference matchup. The Jazz are 12-37, which puts the team in 14th place. The Clippers are 28-22, which puts the team in sixth place.

The Jazz have lost three of their last five games, but are coming off a win over the Golden State Warriors. The Clippers have also lost three of their last five games, and are coming off back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors.

When is Utah Jazz vs. LA Clippers?

Utah Jazz vs. LA Clippers in the NBA starts at 10:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 8. This game takes place at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.

How to watch Utah Jazz vs. LA Clippers

You need to choose a streaming service to watch the NBA without cable or satellite TV. We’ve found some of the best streaming services to consider for the Jazz vs. Clippers basketball game.

Best for single game: FuboTV

Credit: Fubo TV

FuboTV offers you more than 250 channels of live TV and the option to watch on 10 screens at once. You can try FuboTV with a seven-day free trial period. 

FuboTV’s sports channel offerings include ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, FOX, FS1, FS2, Golf Network, Marquee Sports Network, Monumental Sports, NBC, NFL Network, and SEC Network. 

Most live sports: YouTube TV

Credit: YouTube TV

YouTube TV’s base plan is $49.99 per month for two months for new subscribers ($72.99 per month regularly). The base plan includes over 100 live TV channels, including ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN, Fox Sports 1, and NBA TV.

Most affordable: Sling TV

Credit: Sling TV

Sling TV suggests the streamer’s Orange Plan for the game, which costs $20 for the first month and $40 monthly after that.

Sling TV’s sports channels feature ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNews, ESPNU, FOX, FS1, FS2, NBA TV, NBC, NFL Network, and SEC Network.

How to watch Jazz vs. Clippers from anywhere in the world

If you’re traveling outside of the U.S. during this game, you might need to use a VPN to unblock this live stream. VPNs can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server, meaning you can unblock live streams of the NBA from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Utah Jazz vs. LA Clippers for free by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in the U.S.

4. Sign in to your favorite streaming app

Credit: ExpressVPN

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can gain access to live streams of the NBA without actually spending anything. This obviously isn’t a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to live stream Utah Jazz vs. LA Clippers before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for the NBA?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Live stream Utah Jazz vs. LA Clippers in the NBA with ExpressVPN.

Before this season started, the Utah gymnastics team had pretty lofty ambitions for the 2025 season.

Sure, compete for and win a national championship was part of that — it always is — but the Red Rocks really wanted to start the season on fire.

They wanted to show from the get-go that they are one of the country’s best teams rather than wait until the postseason to prove their mettle like they had done in previous years.

That didn’t happen, though.

Too much pressure — much of it self-imposed — rattled Utah to start the year. There were glimpses of the potential that the Red Rocks had — the reason they had high hopes in the first place — but inconsistency and performances below their peak capabilities were the norm through the first month of the season.

Against Florida and West Virginia last week, Utah started to make good on its potential, though. The Red Rocks lost to Florida but were right with the Gators to the very end.

Friday night in the Huntsman Center against Arizona — the second-best team in the Big 12 this season — Utah took things a step further.

The Red Rocks had arguably their best overall meet of the year in their 197.675 to 196.125 victory over the Wildcats. Utah got better and better on each event, culminating in a season-high score on floor (49.575).

Some particular highlights:

• Grace McCallum and Makenna Smith were elite in the all-around (each scored a 39.625 or better).
• Ella Zirbes was in the All-American form she had displayed as a freshman last season — on uneven bars especially.
• Seven different Red Rocks received at least one score of 9.90 or better.
• Oh, and star freshman Avery Neff made her return from injury, competing successfully on bars not even a month removed from suffering “severe” sprains of both her ankles.

It was one of those nights — on the same night the program recognized its alumni and 50 years of the Red Rocks.

“Extremely proud of the team tonight,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said. “It was really fun to have the arena full of fans and our alumni. It was a really special night.

“I felt like our team really did elevate, across the board. Whether the scores reflected it or not, I thought we made some really important changes. People stepped up in areas that we needed to step up. Again (we hit) 24 of 24 (routines). It just keeps showing the consistency of this team and their confidence. We really went out there tonight and decided we were going to make it happen. We were going to put something on the floor that we hadn’t done yet and I really think they did that.”

Added McCallum: “I feel like as a team we are making really good progress — slow and steady progress, and that is going to get us to the finish line where we need to be. I think this is a really good place for us to be at and I think everybody on the team should be very proud of themselves for the little things they’ve been improving on.”

Defining moment

After the first rotation Friday, Arizona and Utah were actually fairly close, separated by a little over a tenth of a point (0.125).

Utah’s vault rotation had had its good moments — Smith and McCallum, especially — but overall Utah had underwhelmed to start the meet.

That continued, at first, to bars. The first three routines of the rotation topped out at 9.825, with a pair of scores landing in the 9.7-range.

That is when everything changed.

Starting with Amelie Morgan and then continuing with Zirbes and McCallum, Utah reeled off three consecutive routines that scored a 9.90 or better.

Morgan and McCallum’s performances were understandable. The pair of Tokyo Olympians have been stalwarts on bars throughout their Utah careers.

It was Zirbes, though, who was the best of the trio.

A second-team All-American on bars as a freshman last season, Zirbes has been battling performance anxiety this year, and her bars, while good plenty of times already this season, had never quite reached levels she had hit previously.

Until Friday.

Zirbes was as good as she had ever been on the event at Utah, recording a new career-high score of 9.950.

From start to finish, Zirbes was in her element.

“To see Ella hit that bar routine, that is what she does in practice every single day,” Dockendorf said.

After Zirbes’ bar routine, Utah recorded eight scores of 9.90 or better. Before it, there were only three, and once the bars rotation was over, the meet was no longer in doubt.

It was just a question of how much Utah was going to win by.

“It really took the entire team to do what we did tonight,” Dockendorf said. “Whether they were competing or their weren’t competing, everybody really brought their best.”

Zirbes, the MVP of the meet, especially

Needs work

Utah is one of the best teams in the country on balance beam again, and on Friday the lowest score — the one dropped — was a 9.800 from lead off Ana Padurariu.

The Red Rocks had struggled with floor to start the season, but against Arizona the team posted its best score of the year, buoyed by 9.90-plus performances from Smith, McCallum, Ashley Glynn and Jaylene Gilstrap.

The lowest counted score on that event? A 9.875.

Bars, as previously mentioned, had its low points — landings were a big issue — but plenty of high points, too, and ended up being pretty normal for Utah when things were finished.

Vault, though, was the big area of worry.

Utah posted a 49.275, and that was with a 9.975 from Smith and a 9.90 from McCallum. Multiple vaults fell in the 9.7 and 9.8 range, far below the hopes for a Utah team that has six 10.0-valued vaults in the lineup.

On Friday night it was landings that proved the biggest challenge, as only Smith stuck her effort. McCallum took a slight step and the rest of the gymnasts in the lineup took major steps or multiple steps.

Glynn has probably the best distance and amplitude on her vault of any current Red Rock but landings have been a struggle for her for a couple of weeks now.

Morgan, thrust into the lineup with Neff’s injury, has dealt with under or over rotation time and again. It was over rotation that plagued her against Arizona.

Zirbes and Winger had good overall efforts until it came to the landing, as both took major steps when they hit the mat.

Dockendorf has said that she doesn’t expect consistent sticks at this point in the season, and that she believes the quality of Utah’s vaults will show come the postseason, when it really matters.

But for now, Utah isn’t consistently performing on vault to the level that it needs to, and it didn’t against Arizona.

That’s encouraging

There were numerous individual performances of note for Utah for one reason or another, but Neff’s return to action was chief among them.

Only a couple weeks ago Neff doubted whether or not she’d compete again this season, but there she was Friday night competing on bars.

She was, understandably, thrilled after.

“It was awesome,” Neff said. “Definitely beforehand I thought that my season was over, but I progressed fast and it was the best feeling to get out there and do what I love.”

Neff’s journey with rehab is an interesting one. She made quick progress immediately after the injury, but then she “kind of got stuck for a couple of days.”

As she put it, at that point she lost hope.

“Nothing felt better,” Neff said. “… and Carly could see me in the gym and my mannerisms were kind of taking down the team, too, so that was a switch where I thought, “If I really want to get back, I have to change my mindset.’ The mind is such a powerful tool.”

Dockendorf noted that in talking with Neff, the freshman set a goal of wanting to come back in time for the Arizona meet.

“I could see she was struggling mentally a little bit,” Dockendorf said. “…and for someone who hasn’t really had to sit out due to injury, it is a really new space to be in.

“We just had a really great conversation and I asked ‘What is your goal?’ and she said ‘I want to compete on alumni night’ and I said, ‘Alright let’s do it.‘ It really was her desire and her motivation to be back out here.”

Whether or not Neff makes it back on any other events this season is still a question, but she is back.

It wasn’t just Neff who stood out Friday though.

Smith continues to star on vault for Utah, and everywhere really. Her emergence this season has been especially vital for the Red Rocks’ success.

“She comes in every day and gives 100% in practice,” Dockendorf said. “She loves coming out here and is just her authentic self and I think that is one of the greatest things about her.”

Elizabeth Gantner is one of the gymnasts who stepped up in Neff’s absence, her role coming on beam, and she has only gotten better and better since she’s been in the lineup, culminating in a career-best 9.90 Friday night.

“I think confidence is a part of it,” Dockendorf said. “I think she is believing in herself a lot more. She is putting in extra work on beam, on her dismount.

“That is kind of the one area that she still needs to improve her consistency on, her landing, but I think she is honestly enjoying being out there, too.”

After Friday night’s performance, it is probably safe to say that all the Red Rocks are feeling that way right now, and it has Utah looking more and more like the team that was anticipated before the season began.

Officials at the University of Utah School of Medicine are apologizing for an erroneous email sent earlier this week to a large number of applicants that apparently indicated they were being offered admittance to the highly competitive medical program.

An automated email was sent out mistakenly to a “large group” of medical school applicants, according to University of Utah Health spokesperson Kathy Wilets.

“It was intended to go to a small number of students who had been accepted,” noted Wilets. “We’re trying to figure out exactly what triggered the email and do all that we can to prevent it from ever happening again.”

Wilets acknowledged that the school recognizes that the medical school application and acceptance process is stressful for students and their loved ones.

“We are so sorry to have created additional stress or confusion.”

An email correction was sent Thursday to all who had received the original email.

“If students have any questions, they should call the medical school,” added Wilets.

Medical school admission: A brutal ‘waiting game’

A University of Utah medical school applicant who requested not to be identified told the Deseret News that it was “devastating” to learn that the email announcing his acceptance was sent by mistake.

The applicant interviewed for a spot last October, but had not heard anything from the admissions office until receiving the erroneous message.

“The medical school admission ‘waiting game’ is brutal,” the applicant wrote in an email. “It’s even more brutal when you are sent an email suggesting your acceptance — only to be informed that it was an error.”

The applicant called the University of Utah School of Medicine his “dream school” — and feels that dream was “yanked away.”

“Mistakes happen — but this situation struck me as unprofessional,” he wrote. “I sincerely hope whatever went wrong will be improved.”

A single-digit admission rate to Utah’s med school

Securing admission to the University of Utah’s medical school is tough.

U.S. News & World Report notes that the University of Utah’s medical school has only a 6.2% acceptance rate.

The report adds that Utah’s medical school is in the “Tier 2″ category in Best Medical Schools: Research — earning a ranking alongside renowned medical schools such as University of Southern California, North Carolina and Dartmouth.

Utah is classified as “Tier 3″ in Best Medical Schools: Primary Care.

The University of Utah Schools of Medicine is the only institution in the state that currently grants MDs.

In a recent presentation to lawmakers, University of Utah President Taylor Randall highlighted the medical school’s upcoming partnership with Utah Tech University in St. George designed to increase the number of primary care physicians serving rural communities.

Provo’s Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine and Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Washington County are private medical schools.

Last July, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced plans to build a medical school at the flagship school it sponsors, Brigham Young University.

The medical school will be located on BYU’s Provo campus and will offer Doctor of Medicine degrees (MDs).

A key focus of the new medical school will be international health and aid.

Kim Shelley will step down from her role as executive director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, the department confirmed Thursday to The Salt Lake Tribune. She will leave the position, which she has held for over four years, before the legislative session ends.

“Under Kim’s leadership, DEQ has achieved many significant milestones that will have a lasting, positive impact on Utah’s air, land, and water,” a spokesperson for the department said in a statement. “We are grateful for her leadership and dedication to our mission throughout her tenure, and look forward to her continued focus and success on environmental priorities in her future endeavors.”

The Department of Environmental Quality lists its mission as “safeguarding and improving Utah’s air, land and water through balanced regulation.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox appointed Shelley to the position in December 2020, just before his first term.

At the time, Cox said in a statement that Shelley had “depth of experience” and “respect” from her colleagues, adding she was “uniquely qualified.”

Shelley will leave Cox’s cabinet at the end of February, two months into his second term. The governor did not comment on Shelley’s time as the department’s leader. A spokesperson for the governor’s office on Thursday said it was “aligned” with the Department of Environmental Quality’s statement.

In an email to department staff sent Thursday afternoon, Shelley praised the work of her staff, saying that serving “alongside the most talented, driven, and mission-focused team in state government has been the opportunity of a lifetime.”

“I am profoundly grateful to each of you and incredibly proud of all we have accomplished together. The mission of our department is not easy work, but I am honored to have championed it beside you,” Shelley wrote. “My hope is that you will continue to trust in your voice, the value of your efforts, and the impact you make. Even in the moments it may not feel like it, your work truly matters.”

Shelley and the Division of Air Quality, which is housed under the Department of Environmental Quality, received pushback from lawmakers last year after floating restrictions to bring Utah back into compliance with federal ozone requirements. Ozone can irritate your respiratory system, causing breathing issues and exacerbating lung diseases like asthma.

Utah has fought federal air quality standards, like the Environmental Protection Agency’s “good neighbor” rule, for years. State leaders and legislators have argued that federal regulations for air quality amount to “federal overreach.”

Before directing it, Shelley worked at the Department of Environmental Quality for more than 20 years. She was previously the agency’s deputy director and worked in the state’s Division of Water Quality and Division of Environmental Response and Remediation.