Adrian

DALLAS — Adrian Kempe scored 37 seconds into overtime and the Kings beat Dallas 3-2 on Thursday night, handing the slumping Stars their fourth consecutive loss. It was the second game in a row in which Kempe scored the winning overtime goal.

Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves, and former Stars Corey Perry and Cody Ceci also scored as the Kings won in regulation for the first time this season.

Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson scored power-play goals for the Stars, and Johnston also had an assist. Jake Oettinger stopped 22 shots.

Kempe scored from the slot on a pass from Quinton Byfield on the Kings’ only rush of overtime. It was Byfield’s second assist of the game.

The Stars have dropped four straight before New Year’s for the first time since Oct. 25-Nov. 2, 2021.

The 40-year-old Perry, who played for Dallas in 2019-20, knocked home a rebound at the crease for the game’s first goal late in the first period 22 seconds into a 35-second five-on-three power play.

Only 1:29 after Robertson tied the score 1-1 early in the second period, Ceci put the Kings back ahead with a slap shot redirected off the stick of Dallas’ Mavrik Bourque. Ceci was acquired by Dallas last February from San Jose and left for L.A. in free agency last summer.

Johnston’s team-high fifth goal of the season tied the score 2-2 early in the third period.

The Kings had a deflection goal by Alex Laferriere midway through the second disallowed after a video review determined his stick was too high.

Dallas’ Roope Hintz had two assists.

LAS VEGAS — Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore scored during the shootout and the Kings spoiled Pavel Dorofeyev’s hat trick and Mitch Marner’s debut in a Vegas uniform with a 6-5 win over the Golden Knights on Wednesday night.

After squandering a pair of two-goal leads in the second period, and falling behind by two goals in the third, the Kings bounced back from Tuesday’s season-opening loss to Colorado.

Moore and Brandt Clarke scored late in the third to tie the game and force overtime after Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev scored to give Vegas a 5-3 lead.

Andrei Kuzmenko, Quinton Byfield and Joel Armia also scored in regulation, while Anton Forsberg stopped 30 shots for the Kings.

Dorofeyev notched the third hat trick of his career for Vegas and Adin Hill, who hasn’t beaten the Kings as a member of the Knights, made 21 saves.

The Kings didn’t show any signs of fatigue playing a back-to-back, as they opened a 2-0 lead in the first period with goals from Kuzmenko and Byfield.

Dorofeyev cut the lead in half just 2:10 into the second period when he fired a wrist shot past Forsberg and off the post. Armia put the Kings back in front by two goals later in the second when his blast from the right circle got past Hill’s far side.

Dorofeyev scored all of his goals in the second period.

Eichel, who signed an eight-year $108 million extension earlier in the day, finished with one goal and three assists. Mark Stone and Marner each had two assists.

No team has more wins against the Golden Knights than the Kings’ with 19.

Up next

Kings: At the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.

Golden Knights: At the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.

Mention the rugby league Ashes, and it’s hard not to think of Adrian Morley, a brutal hit and a red card after just 12 seconds.

Whatever happens when Australia visit this October and November, the series is unlikely to start quite as explosively as that first Test in Wigan 22 years ago.

One of the most feared forwards in the game, Morley poleaxed Australia prop Robbie Kearns straight from the kick-off with a high tackle.

The Great Britain forward, who played his club rugby in the NRL for Sydney Roosters at the time, was dismissed by referee Steve Ganson with the words: “Adrian. Adrian. It’s a real bad one. It’s across the chin. You’re off mate.”

Morley’s former Great Britain team-mate Jon Wilkin said: “He said that when he got sent off, he was back in the dressing room before the mascot had taken his head off.

“The mascot took his head off and said ‘What are you doing back in here?'”

Wilkin, Jamie Peacock and Brian Noble have recalled the extraordinary incident for a new weekly BBC podcast which has its first episode released on Thursday – Rugby League Top 10.

In the first episode, presenter Mark Chapman sets them the task of ranking the sport’s hard men.

Former Great Britain captain Peacock, who played alongside Morley in that 2003 series, said: “His brother got to the game late. He got to his seat about 20 minutes in, and said ‘I think I’m going to put some money on. Has our Adrian scored?’ And someone replied ‘Well, you can ask him, he’s sat there’.”

Each week Peacock, Noble and Wilkin will discuss, debate and argue over lists of the best players, games, finals and iconic moments in rugby league.

But as Chapman pointed out, the lists don’t cover the entire history of rugby league, “because we’d be here for hours”, and nor are they restricted to the Super League era. Instead, “the cut-off point for these lists is roughly 40 years ago”.

Morley, the first British player to win a Grand Final in both Super League and the NRL, is one of 10 hard men that the panel must rank – with the others, in alphabetical order, being: Stuart Fielden, Thomas Leuluai, Barrie McDermott, Terry Newton, Malcolm Reilly, Kelvin Skerrett, Gorden Tallis, Ruben Wiki and Paul Wood.

ADRIAN LEWIS loves how the fearless Luke Littler behaves on the oche – and has no issue if his records are wiped out.

Littler, 18, heads Down Under this week to take part in World Series of Darts events in Australia and New Zealand.

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His last appearance on the oche saw him lift the Betfred World Matchplay – beating James Wade 18-13 in the final in Blackpool to complete the sport’s Triple Crown.

In the semi-finals, The Nuke hit a stunning nine-darter against Josh Rock and instead of going wild at the feat, he simply shrugged his shoulders.

Almost like Lewis, 40, used to do after perfect legs, as if to say: ‘Well, what else do you expect from someone as talented as me?’

When the tournament was over, Littler had hit 64 180s across five games, eight more maximums than the previous record of 56 set by Jackpot in 2013.

Far from feeling angry or jealous, Lewis approves of the audacity of Littler’s antics, saying: “I love it. Anything like that, I think it’s great for the game, you need characters.

“I have said it for years, I do believe that, and Luke is certainly one of them.

“First of all, him reaching the world final on his first appearance at Ally Pally was unbelievable.

“To do what he has done since, becoming world champion and still maintaining his form, he’s a credit to himself, his family and the sport.

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“The sport is in good hands. The two Lukes, and Josh Rock, they are all very professional, they do their jobs.

“That is what darts needs. It is becoming more and more professional as time goes on.

“The Matchplay was definitely up there. The standard of it throughout was brilliant.

“Luke Littler hitting a nine-darter always helped. The semis-finals and final made it a great, great tournament.”

Later this month, Lewis will mark his return to televised darts – after a near two-and-half year absence.

The two-time world champion last threw competitive darts in front of the cameras at the PDC’s UK Open in 2023 at Butlin’s Minehead.

After that tournament, he decided to walk away from the sport for family reasons and having fallen out of love with the game.

His wife Sarah has “an incurable kidney disease” and his son “has autism and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)”, which has meant his full-time concentration and care.

His comeback will be the MODUS Super Series in Portsmouth at 10pm on Thursday August 28 – and should it all go well, he may attend PDC Q School in January.

If he regains his professional Tour Card, he will be reunited with old sparring partner Wade, who turned back the clock to reach the Matchplay final last month against expectation

Stoke-born Lewis said: “I don’t think James dropped below a 100 average all the way through the tournament, which takes some doing itself.

“To still do that after he has been playing for 20-odd years, he’s a credit to the sport as well. I think he is very underlooked a lot of the time.

“Certainly, to me he has been the best finisher in the world over the last 20 years.

“He deserves more respect, definitely. That might put him in the Premier League next year, which he thoroughly deserves as well.

“He will just go from strength to strength and get more and more confidence.

“Obviously he reached another final and I think he can do big things again.”

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Speaking with musician and producer Adrian Quesada elicits a calming effect, as if a salve has been applied to the people conversing with him. His voice moves and bounces with intrigue and interest, but never catapults itself upward in decibels.

The soothing and entrancing qualities of his disposition mirror that of his latest album, “Boleros Psicodélicos II,” a 12-track sonic field trip through Quesada’s Latin American influences — and a testament to teamwork — that dropped on Friday.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the mellow Austin-based musician prefers to kick it in the background, fancying himself more of an Izzy Stradlin than a Slash — despite having his name splashed across his imminent record.

“I always consider myself more of a producer than an artist. Being a solo artist is a very recent thing for me,” Quesada told The Times on a recent sunny day by Echo Park Lake. “It’s really raw and kind of a weird thing for me because it’s not my style to be in the forefront. I just like to make the music. I try to move in silence.”

He managed to maneuver the music industry by flying under the radar up until a few years ago by playing in large ensembles. His former band, Grupo Fantasma, had 10 members; his mid-2000s Latin-funk group Brownout was also a dectet; and his Grammy-winning group, Black Pumas, had seven (sometimes eight) members. While he obscured himself physically, his musicianship and production skill always stood out.

Grupo Fantasma’s “El Existential” won a Grammy for Latin rock or alternative album in 2011. Black Pumas were nominated in the new artist category in 2020, then received three more Grammy nods in 2021 — which included record of the year for the track “Colors” and album of the year for the group’s eponymous album. Black Pumas also nabbed two Grammy nominations in 2022 and another one in 2024.

Quesada embarked on his journey as a solo artist with “Boleros Psicodélicos” — the spiritual precursor to his latest album. It featured covers of boleros from across Latin America, as well as original material, with Quesada enlisting artists such as iLe from Calle 13, Mireya Ramos and Gaby Moreno to lend their voices to the project.

The Times called that 2022 album a “tropical mystery-thriller of a record,” imbued with a “crispy, 1960s psych-rock feel [that] … sets the scene for Latin indie’s best and brightest vocalists to truly sparkle.”

“Boleros II” finds Quesada as aurally slick as ever as he tackles the oft-covered romantic Spanish standard “Cuatro Vidas,” plus Los Pasteles Verdes’ “Hoy Que Llueve” and brand-new tracks — all while integrating his signature three-over-two rhythms.

(James Carbone / For De Los)

Born and raised in the border town of Laredo, Texas, Quesada always felt he was “at the crossroads of a crossroad.”

“It’s not quite Mexico, but it’s not quite Texas and it’s not quite the Rio Grande Valley,” Quesada said. “Laredo is completely bilingual, everybody just speaks Spanglish. I didn’t have a distinction between English and Spanish and it was a couple of different cultures together. Now with music, people seem really caught up on genres — this is in Spanish and this is in English. And none of that really fazes me.”

Like most American kids of the ’80s and ’90s, Quesada’s biggest source of musical consumption came from binge-watching MTV, with a sprinkling of recommendations from friends.

“I was home a lot by myself and I would just watch MTV, so I used to watch all the shows: ‘Yo! MTV Raps,’ ‘Headbangers Ball,’ ‘Alternative Nation’ and ‘120 Minutes,’” he said. “That was where I was discovering stuff. And then friends had an older cousin who used to make me cool tapes, and other friends would pass around hip-hop tapes.”

Quesada says he finally became curious about what a music producer does after listening to N.W.A in his teen years. He recalls sitting in front of his Casio keyboard with its pre-programmed drum machine and trying to dissect the intricacies of what producer Dr. Dre was able to craft.

Revealing the arbitrary nature of self-imposed borders — of both countries and genres — is one of Quesada’s artistic goals, opting to build bridges and not walls.

“There’s a thing called the narcissism of small differences, which means we can’t get over our differences that we have with other people that are so minuscule, we have to differentiate ourselves,” Quesada said. “And I’m starting to finally feel a responsibility for showing people nothing is that different. Latin rhythms are not that different from soul rhythms, or funk rhythms, or rock ’n’ roll. That’s probably the biggest [impact] my upbringing has on me.”

Despite his deeply Texas roots and sensibilities, Quesada’s “Boleros II” and his recent life experiences have been immensely L.A.-coded.

Quesada was nominated for original song at this year’s 97th annual Academy Awards, for writing the track “Like A Bird” with Abraham Alexander, as featured in the Colman Domingo-led film “Sing Sing.”

“I had fun with that. I was catching key things in the movie, seeing what they did visually, and what I could do musically on the song,” he said of working on the piece.

That process led to him spending more time in L.A. than anticipated. “The Oscars kind of flipped my world upside down,” he said. “I had to be here a lot between the nomination being announced and Oscars night. That was the first three months of the year.”

Carrying the L.A. momentum from the Academy Awards to “Boleros II” is the notable presence of Angelenos on the album, including Hawthorne’s perpetual sadboi Cuco, El Monte native Angélica Garcia and Carson soul singer Trish Toledo. (L.A. producer Alex Goose may not be Latino, but his intrepid hip-hop production chops blend seamlessly with Quesada’s eclectic sensibilities.)

“L.A.’s such a predominant Latino town,” said Quesada. “All the references I was showing Angelica, Trish and Cuco, they were very familiar with all that stuff. It came really natural to them. So I do think there’s something with L.A. where they get it culturally here. I leaned on a lot of L.A. artists.”

Quesada is currently touring as part of Trio Asesino, in support of Hermanos Gutiérrez on their U.S. tour. Quesada will perform songs from “Boleros II” at L.A.’s Grand Park on Aug. 2, as part of a free summer concert series by Grand Performances. (Editor’s note: De Los will be a co-presenter of Quesada’s performance.)

“‘Sing Sing’ was about rehabilitation through the arts and how it can change people’s lives, not just reaching people as a fan, but also reaching more kids who can take up art,” Quesada said of the mission of the Grand Performances series. “I believe in the power of art. Everything from a song inspiring a whole movement to a song just making you smile for the day, that’s the power of music.”

“I felt the club’s confidence in me from the first discussions, and I’m excited to get started.”

Truffert made his first-team debut for Rennes in 2020 and made 212 appearances for the club where he became club captain.

He progressed through France’s youth levels before making his senior debut in 2022.

“Adrien is a player that we’ve admired for some time and he brings significant experience to the squad despite still being just 23,” said Bournemouth president of football operations Tiago Pinto.

“We’re excited to work with Adrien and are thrilled to have a player of such quality join us.”

Two and a half months into his time with the team, Newey said: “There’s a lot of individually very, very good people. We just need to try to get them working together, perhaps in a slightly better organised way.

“That’s simply a result of the roots of the team at Jordan, that became Force India, that became Racing Point, and was as such always a small but slightly over-performing team, to now in a very short space of time a very big team that the truth is has been underperforming this year.”

Newey, who joins the team after an illustrious career with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, said one of the factors he was looking forward to in Monaco was working for the first time at a live event with 2005 and 2006 world champion Fernando Alonso.

“Fernando, he’s such a cool character,” Newey said. “He’s been an enemy for many years, along with Lewis (Hamilton), and I think I’ve said before that you can only work with so many drivers, but two drivers I always wanted that I felt I would enjoy working with, were Lewis and Fernando, and I couldn’t work with both, so at least I got one of them.

“It’s only when you get to the racetrack that you really start to develop that relationship, so I’m looking forward to that developing a little bit this season, but particularly next season.”

He added that he felt that Lance Stroll, the son of team owner Lawrence, “has an unfairly bad rap, on average”, adding: “Any driver who gets to Formula 1 is clearly very good, but I think Lance is much better than people who’ve been very poor.”