Maple Leafs jump out to quick lead, hold off Panthers for 4-1 win

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Troy Stecher and Scott Laughton both got their first goals of the season, Dakota Joshua added a goal and an assist, and the Toronto Maple Leafs topped the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Tuesday night.

Bobby McMann had two assists for the Leafs, who have won three of their last four, and John Tavares added an empty-netter with 18.6 seconds left.

Sam Reinhart got his 14th of the season, a short-handed score in the second period for Florida. But Laughton scored with 7:42 left to restore the two-goal edge for the Leafs.

Florida has lost four of its last five, and four straight at home.

It was the first Florida-Toronto game since the second round of last season's playoffs, a series where the Maple Leafs took the first two games and held leads of 2-0 and 3-1 in Game 3 — before losing that game on a goal by Brad Marchand in overtime. Florida would roll to wins in Games 5 and 7 in Toronto, both by 6-1 scores, and went on to capture its second consecutive Stanley Cup.

But this Florida roster looked a whole lot different than the one last spring did.

The Panthers were again without their long-term injured players — Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Dmitry Kulikov, Eetu Luostarinen and Tomas Nosek among them — plus were without forward Carter Verhaeghe, who missed the game because he and his wife were expecting a baby.

It meant Florida added Jack Studnicka to its fourth line. Studnicka was making his Panthers debut and playing an NHL game for the first time since April 2024.

Maple Leafs: Visit Carolina on Thursday, the end of a six-game road trip.

Panthers: Host Nashville on Thursday, the fourth game of a six-game homestand.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Florida Panthers center Sam Reinhart (13) reacts after scoring a goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe (22) and Florida Panthers left wing Brad Marchand (63) chase the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll (60) defends the goal against Florida Panthers center Anton Lundell (15) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll (60) defends the goal against Florida Panthers center Luke Kunin, right, during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) falls to the ice as he defends the goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and will bring characters such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Luke Skywalker to the AI company's Sora video generation tool, in a licensing deal that the two companies announced on Thursday.

At the same time, Disney went after Google, demanding the tech company stop exploiting its copyrighted characters to train its AI systems.

The OpenAI agreement makes the Walt Disney Co. the first major content licensing partner for Sora, which uses generative artificial intelligence to create short videos.

Under the three-year licensing deal, fans will be able to use Sora to generate and share videos based on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters.

AI video generators like Sora have wowed with their ability to quickly create realistic clips based merely on text prompts. But a flood of such videos on social media, including clips depicting celebrities and deceased public figures, has raised worries about “AI slop” crowding out human-created work alongside concerns about misinformation, deepfakes and copyright.

Disney and OpenAI said they are committed to responsible use of AI that protects the safety of users and the rights of creators.

“This agreement shows how AI companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly to promote innovation that benefits society, respect the importance of creativity, and help works reach vast new audiences,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said.

Disney CEO Robert Iger said the deal will “extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI, while respecting and protecting creators and their works.”

As part of the deal, some user-generated Sora videos will be made available on the Disney+ streaming service.

Disney will also become a “major customer” of OpenAI and use its technology to build new products, tools, and services. It will also roll out ChatGPT for employees.

Also Thursday, Disney sent Google a cease and desist letter, demanding that the tech company stop using Disney content without permission to feed and train its AI models, including its Veo video generator and Imagen and Nano Banana image generators.

It has previously issued similar cease and desist letters to Meta and Character.AI and has filed litigation with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery against AI image generator Midjourney and AI company Minimax.

Disney accused Google of “infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale,” according to a copy of the letter dated Dec. 10 seen by The Associated Press. The letter included examples that it says Google's AI systems easily generated, such as characters from Star Wars, The Simpsons, Deadpool and The Lion King.

Google has also been “intentionally amplifying” the problem by making the infringing content available across its many channels including YouTube, Disney said.

Disney said Google hasn't taken any measures to mitigate the problem even though it has been raising the concerns for months. “Google’s mass infringement of Disney’s copyrighted works must stop,” the letter said.

Google did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

FILE - The Disney logo is seen on their store along the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris on Sept. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

FILE - Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, testifies before a Senate committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

FILE - The OpenAI logo is seen displayed on a cell phone in front of an image on a computer screen generated by ChatGPT's Dall-E text-to-image model, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, file)