Sports
Lazerus: Bill Zito’s Panthers, Kyle Davidson’s Blackhawks and the road not taken
It’s entirely possible that four or five summers from now, Connor Bedard’s name will be etched on the Stanley Cup.
He’ll have won the Conn Smythe Trophy that spring, of course, after a truly absurd playoff run flanked by Michael Misa and Frank Nazar, with Artyom Levshunov logging a heroic 30 minutes a night on the back end. Kevin Korchinski will have racked up the points as his partner on the top pair, with Sam Rinzel lighting it up, as well. Alex Vlasic’s work as the shutdown defender will be the stuff of legends. That second line of Nick Lardis, Sacha Boisvert and Oliver Moore will have made those Blackhawks matchup-proof, forcing opposing coaches to pick their poison.
And man, who’ll be able to forget the way Samuel Savoie, Landon Slaggert and Marek Vanacker wreaked havoc on the newly christened Hair on Fire line, bringing energy to the team and fans out of their seats?
It absolutely could happen.
Kyle Davidson is counting on it, staking his reputation on it, testing Chicago’s patience on it. Davidson sold Danny Wirtz on his plan to gut the franchise and rebuild it through the NHL Draft, and that’s exactly what Davidson has done.
Eight first-round picks in the last three seasons. Two more this year. Two more the year after that. It’ll always be an amusing footnote in Blackhawks history that Davidson’s tank failed but the ping-pong balls fell his way anyway, landing him the centerpiece in Bedard. The rest has been done with ruthlessness and a lack of sentimentality. Davidson has had as clear a vision as any general manager in the game, and he has stuck with it every step of the way.
This is how professional sports teams operate these days, especially in a salary-cap league. When things are going poorly, you blow it up and start over. That’s just how it works.
The thing is, it hasn’t worked. Not in the NHL. Not in the cap era. Not yet. The Buffalo Sabres blew it up, tried to tank for Connor McDavid, and are going to miss the playoffs for the 14th consecutive season. The Detroit Red Wings blew it up, built through the draft, made some savvy picks that have worked out well, and are scratching and clawing to be the eighth seed in the East after eight long seasons without a playoff appearance. The Edmonton Oilers picked No. 1 four times in five seasons and landed the most talented player the game has ever seen, and they didn’t reach true contention until last spring — a decade after drafting McDavid and 14 years after taking Taylor Hall.
And the Blackhawks, eight years removed from their last true playoff appearance, are still years away from the next one.
Saturday, Davidson traded one of his three best players, defenseman Seth Jones, to the Florida Panthers, because Jones couldn’t take the losing anymore. Davidson did relatively well in the deal — getting goaltender Spencer Knight and retaining only $2.5 million a year of Jones’ massive contract — but it was still yet another trade that made the Blackhawks demonstrably worse. Always one step forward, two steps back.
Now let’s look at the team that acquired Jones. When Bill Zito took over as GM in Florida, the Panthers were still something of a league laughingstock. They hadn’t won a playoff series in a quarter-century. The roster was loaded with mediocre players in their mid-to-late 20s. They were stuck.
Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito hoists the 2024 Stanley Cup. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
But Zito didn’t tear it down. He didn’t rebuild the Panthers. He remade them. He used every tool at his disposal — trades, free agency, the waiver wire — to reconstruct the plane while it was still in the air. Within four years, the Panthers were Stanley Cup champions, a model franchise, the envy of the league.
Look at how that championship team was built. Zito made one of the gutsiest trades in modern NHL history to land Matthew Tkachuk. He saw players who hadn’t yet reached their potential and got them, trading for Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Brandon Montour and Eetu Luostarinen. He made smart signings in free agency, inking Carter Verhaeghe, Evan Rodrigues and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. And he found gold on the waiver wire, picking up Gustav Forsling — cast off by the Vancouver Canucks, the Blackhawks and the Carolina Hurricanes — and watching him become one of the best defensemen in the league. He dealt away his first-round pick in 2022. And in 2023. And in 2024. And in 2025. And in 2026. The only key players who came through the draft were already there when he arrived: Aleksander Barkov (No. 2 in 2013), Aaron Ekblad (No. 1 in 2014) and Anton Lundell (No. 12 in 2020).
It certainly wasn’t easy, and there certainly was some luck involved. Surely, Zito didn’t see Forsling becoming the player he is. Nobody saw a 57-goal season from Reinhart coming after six unspectacular seasons in Buffalo. And he did all this with Sergei Bobrovsky’s $10 million cap hit weighing him down, an albatross that eventually took flight. What Zito did is incredibly difficult.
But what Davidson is doing might be even harder.
Davidson had his chance to do this more quickly, to spare the fans all this misery. The 2021-22 Blackhawks had a 23-year-old Alex DeBrincat and a 23-year-old Brandon Hagel. They had a 26-year-old Jones and a 24-year-old Dylan Strome. And they had Patrick Kane posting 92 points.
Now? DeBrincat is with the Detroit Red Wings, on the verge of his fourth 30-goal season. Hagel is with the Tampa Bay Lightning, a burgeoning superstar enjoying his second 30-goal season and first point-per-game campaign. Strome is with the Washington Capitals, riding shotgun to history as Alex Ovechkin’s center, with 59 points in 60 games. Kane, despite playing just 100 games, has more points over the last two seasons than every Blackhawks player other than Bedard.
That’s more than Florida had when Zito took over. But DeBrincat and Hagel were too old (despite being a year younger than Barkov and Ekblad when Zito took over). Bedard was too important. The draft was the only path forward. The teardown was the only way.
It’s facile, and perhaps folly, to point all this out in hindsight, of course. There’s a reason so few GMs are willing to be as bold as Zito has been. It usually ends in a firing. Had Davidson tried to retool around his young rising stars and Kane on the fly back then, it’s just as likely that the Blackhawks would be stuck in the mushy middle the past few years as in the Stanley Cup Final.
But either of those scenarios sounds pretty darn good compared to what the Blackhawks have been the last four years, what they’ll probably be the next few years, and what drove Jones out of the city he was so excited to come to in the first place.
What’s done is done, but it doesn’t have to stay this way. It’s long past time for Davidson to get aggressive, to start trying to win for real. Yes, he made a run at Jake Guentzel last summer, but he came up short. He somehow has to convince Mikko Rantanen or Mitch Marner this summer to sign up for seven years of playing with Bedard. Or go after Wyatt Johnston or Noah Dobson or Evan Bouchard with an offer sheet. Or package some of the myriad picks and prospects and young players he has amassed to land a ready-made rising star.
Or all of the above. It’s what Zito would do. It’s what Zito has done. It’s what works.
It’s time to get bold. It’s time to get creative. It’s time to start winning again. Because the current path is not just excruciating; it’s extremely unlikely to work. History has shown us that. And it’s better to aspire to be the Florida Panthers than risk becoming the Buffalo Sabres.
(Top photo of Seth Jones: Bill Smith / NHLI via Getty Images)
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LeBron James got the last laugh on Sunday night as he sank two free throws in the final 3.9 seconds to lift the Los Angeles Lakers over the Phoenix Suns, 116-114.
James may be in the twilight of his career, but he showed he still had some fight. He was battling with Suns forward Dillon Brooks throughout the night. The two got into multiple skirmishes as the intensity was turned up a notch.
Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks fouls Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Phoenix. Brooks was ejected from the game after the foul. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
As the game came down to the wire, Brooks hit a clutch 3-pointer to put the Suns up one point with 12.2 seconds left. James ran through him and knocked him down. Brooks got back up and stuck his chest out to ever-so-gently tap James.
A referee came over to stop the conflict from escalating any further. Brooks was ejected from the game.
“I just like to compete,” James said of going up against Brooks, via ESPN. “He’s going to compete. I’m going to compete. We’re going to get up in each other’s face. Try not to go borderline with it. I don’t really take it there. But we’re just competing and did that almost all the way to the end of the game.”
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Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks (3) and Los Angeles Lakers forward Lebron James (23) react after a turnover during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Suns star Devin Booker supported Brooks’ intensity.
“Yeah, I mean there’s history there,” he said. “I love to see it. People always say everything’s too friendly in the NBA and then Dillon comes around and now it’s too much. So like I said, I’d rather it the other way — that it’d be too much.”
James scored 26 points on 8-of-17 from the field. Luka Doncic led Los Angeles with 29 points and six assists. The Lakers improved to 18-7 with the win.
Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) looks to shoot over Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, front left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
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Brooks had 18 points in 25 minutes. Booker led the team with 27 points and was 13-of-16 from the free-throw line. Phoenix is 14-12 on the year.
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Who’s going to beat them?
Who’s going to stop the unstoppable offense? Who’s going to score on the persistent defense? Who’s going to outwit the coaching genius?
Who can possibly halt the Rams on their thunderous march toward a Super Bowl championship?
After yet another jaw-dropping Sunday afternoon at a raucous SoFi Stadium, the answer was clear.
Nobody.
Nobody can spar with the Rams. Nobody can run with the Rams. Nobody can compete with the Rams.
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Gary Klein breaks down what went right for the Rams in their 41-34 victory over the Detroit Lions at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
Nobody is talented enough or deep enough or smart enough to keep the Rams from winning their second Super Bowl championship in five years.
Nobody. It’s over. It’s done. The Rams are going to win it all, and before you cry jinx, understand that this is just putting into words what many already are thinking.
The Rams’ second-half domination of the Detroit Lions in a 41-34 win should again make the rest of the league realize that nobody else has a chance.
The Seahawks? Please. The 49ers? No way. The Eagles? They’ve been grounded. The Bears? Is that some kind of a joke?
The Patriots? Not yet. The Broncos? Not yet. The Bills? Not ever.
The Rams trailed by 10 points at one juncture Sunday and then blew the Lions’ doors off in the second half to clinch a playoff berth for the seventh time in nine seasons under Sean McVay, setting them up for the easiest ride in sports.
With a win in Seattle on Thursday night — and, yes, they should beat a team that just barely survived Old Man Rivers — the Rams essentially will clinch the NFC’s top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
That means they have to win only two games at SoFi to advance to a Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. That means they can win a championship without leaving California, three games played in the sort of perfect climate that gets the best out of their precision attack.
And as Sunday proved once again, they’re good enough to win three essentially home playoff games against anybody.
“I love this team,” McVay said.
There’s a lot to love.
They have an MVP quarterback, the league’s most versatile two-headed running attack, an interior defense that gets stronger under pressure, and the one weapon that no team can match.
They have Puka Nacua, and nobody else does.
Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua is tackled by Detroit cornerback Amik Robertson during the second half Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Is he unbelievable or what? He is Cooper Kupp in his prime, only faster and stronger. He caught a career-high 181 yards’ worth of passes on yet another day when he could not be covered and barely could be tackled.
“He’s unbelievable,” McVay said. “He’s so tough, a couple of times he just drags guys with him … he epitomizes everything we want to be about … he’s like Pac-Man, he just eats up yards and catches.”
Pac-Man? The Rams even score on their old-school references.
In all, it was another Sunday of totally fun football.
They outscored the league’s highest-scoring team 20-0 at one point, they outrushed the league’s toughest backfield 159-70, they racked up 519 total yards against a team once thought destined for a championship.
And they did it with barely a smile. With the exception of Nacua repeatedly banging his fist to his chest — can you blame him? — the Rams are steady and steadfast and just so scary.
”All we want to do is go to work and find a way to be better,” said Matthew Stafford, who likely answered the crowd’s chants by clinching the MVP award with 368 yards and two touchdown passes. “It’s a fun group right now but we understand there’s more out there for us.”
Lots, lots, lots more.
This year a similar column appeared in this space regarding the Dodgers. By the first round of the playoffs, one just knew that they were going to run the table.
The same feeling exists here. The Rams look unrelenting, unfazed, unbeatable.
“Guys just kept competing, staying in the moment,” McVay said.
This moment belongs to them. One knew it Sunday by the end of the first half, which featured a Stafford interception and a struggling secondary and Jared Goff’s vengeful greatness and a 10-point Lions lead.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford passes in the first half of a 41-34 win over the Detroit Lions at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Then the Rams drove the ball nearly half of the field in 30 seconds in a push featuring Stafford and Nacua at their best. Stafford connected with Nacua on a brilliant 37-yard pass in the final moments that led to a Harrison Mevis 37-yard field goal to close the gap to seven.
“Right before that I told the guys, ‘Let’s go steal three,’” Stafford said.
Turns out, they stole a game.
“One of the key and critical sequences,” McVay said of that late first-half hammer, which led to a dazzling third quarter that finished the flustered Lions.
“We never panic,” Blake Corum said. “Because we know … what we have to bring to the table.”
What they’ve increasingly been bringing is a running attack that perfectly complements the awesome passing attack, as evidenced Sunday by Corum and Kyren Williams combining for 149 yards and three touchdowns.
The Lions’ more vaunted backfield of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery? Seventy yards and one score.
“We push each other to the limit,” Corum said of Williams.
Rams running back Kyren Williams stiff-arms Detroit Lions safety Erick Hallett II during the first half Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Potentially disturbing was how one noted Ram may have pushed past his limits, as receiver Davante Adams limped off the field early in the fourth quarter after apparently reinjuring his troublesome hamstring.
To lose him for the playoffs would be devastating, as he frees up space for Nacua and is almost an automatic touchdown from the five-yard line and closer.
Then again he’ll have a month to heal. And the Rams still have a bruising array of tight ends led Sunday by the touchdown-hot Colby Parkinson, who caught 75 yards’ worth of passes and two scores, including one inexplicable touchdown in which he clearly was down at the one-yard line.
The Rams got lucky there. But even if the right call was made, they would have scored on the next couple of plays. The way the Rams attacked, they could have been scoring all night.
“You knew that it was going to be that kind of game where there was some good back-and-forth,” McVay said. “You needed to be able to know that points were going to be really important for us, and our guys delivered in a big way.”
Just wait. By the time this season is done, McVay’s guys will have delivered a trophy representing something much bigger.
It rhymes with Strombardi.
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Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes will be out for the rest of the season as he suffered a torn ACL on Sunday in a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, according to multiple reports.
Mahomes’ knee buckled while he was scrambling and as he was getting hit by Chargers defensive end Da’Shawn Hand. He was helped off the field and he limped to the locker room. An MRI reportedly confirmed the extent of the damage.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes grabs his knee after being injured during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)
The quarterback wrote a message to fans as word of his injury trickled out.
“Don’t know why this had to happen,” Mahomes wrote on X. “And not going to lie (it) hurts. But all we can do now is Trust in God and attack every single day over and over again. Thank you Chiefs kingdom for always supporting me and for everyone who has reached out and sent prayers. I Will be back stronger than ever.”
Chiefs coach Andy Reid offered a gloomy outlook for Mahomes as he spoke to reporters following the loss.
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Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Odafe Oweh (98) sacks Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) during the second half at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Dec. 14, 2025. (Jay Biggerstaff/Imagn Images)
“… It didn’t look good,” Reid said when asked whether he knew if Mahomes’ injury was serious. “I mean you guys saw it. We’ll just see where it goes.”
The loss to the Chargers also meant the Chiefs will not be making the postseason. Kansas City made it to the AFC Championship each season since 2018. They made it to the Super Bowl in each of the last three seasons, winning two titles in that span.
Mahomes will finish the season with 3,398 passing yards and 22 touchdown passes.
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Kansas City is 6-8 on the year.
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