NEW YORK (AP) — Chris Kreider had never been in the visiting locker room at Madison Square Garden before, and he needed someone to show him how to get on the ice for the Anaheim Ducks' morning skate.
It was an unfamiliar feeling for the NHL forward who spent 13 seasons with the New York Rangers, though he's not experiencing this alone. Kreider gets to do this alongside former Rangers captain Jacob Trouba, as they played their first game back at their old home arena Monday night since getting sent across the country in separate trades.
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Anaheim Ducks left wing Chris Kreider acknowledges fans during a tribute to him at an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Anaheim Ducks left wing Chris Kreider (20) skates during warmups before an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Anaheim Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba (65) skates during warmups before an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Anaheim Ducks left wing Chris Kreider (20) skates during warmups before an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Anaheim Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba skates during warmups before an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
New York Rangers fans react to Anaheim Ducks' Chris Kreider skating during warmups before an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Kreider waved to the crowd and received a rousing standing ovation following a lengthy video tribute to one of the organization's longest-tenured players. Trouba did the same a few minutes later as fans cheered at the end of a slightly shorter video.
Trouba went to Anaheim just over a year ago, following pressure from the front office to waive his no-trade clause, and spent the summer processing the change. Kreider was dealt in June after similar pressure, so his runway has been much shorter with the whirlwind move and getting ready to play hockey for a new team.
“I don’t think it completely settled in over the offseason," Kreider said. "It didn’t feel real until I got on the plane to go to California and then I was kind of all about getting my bearings there, kind of endear myself to a new group and get to know everyone, get to know the whole setup. I haven’t really had time.”
Kreider spent a lot of time in New York since making his debut in the 2012 playoffs. His 883 regular-season games played over those 13 years rank sixth in franchise history, he is tied for the most power-play goals with 116 and is among the leaders in other statistical categories.
Trouba spent five-plus seasons with the Original Six club, two and change with the “C” on his chest as its leader. His wife pursuing a medical career led him to request a trade there from Winnipeg in 2019, the couple had a son while living in New York and returning to his old neighborhood Sunday night made the 31-year-old emotional.
“There’s so much I learned through my time here about myself, about hockey, about starting a family,” Trouba said. "Just the growth of, I guess, the group and the team while I was here, and growth of myself is something that I look back on most.”
Their exits, which followed respected forward Barclay Goodrow getting put on waivers in the summer of 2024 and landing in San Jose, were unceremonious. General manager Chris Drury sent a memo to the rest of the league's teams spelling out that Trouba and Kreider were available, and each player ended up with the Ducks as the Rangers sought to change a mix that had come up short of winning the Stanley Cup.
Trouba conceded the process of being unwanted and then shipped away from a place he wanted to remain was difficult.
“There’s people that make decisions above you, and at the end of the day you’re a hockey player and this is the job I signed up for,” the big-hitting defenseman said. “I think it’s unfortunate, I guess I’ll say. I didn’t enjoy it in the moment, but it’s just a small piece of what was a very, very memorable and impactful 5 1/2 years for me.”
Kreider was cheered the moment he stepped on the ice for warmups. And while his No. 20 might have hung from the rafters at the Garden one day had he played his whole career there, prefers not to look back in anger.
“You try not to live in the past,” Kreider said. “It’s arrogant to think that you know what something is in that given moment. You don’t necessarily know if it’s going to be a good thing or a bad thing, so just take everything in stride.”
Kreider and Trouba are not the only ex-Rangers players now with Anaheim. They have former teammates Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano to lean on, as well, and coach Joel Quenneville put all four in the starting lineup.
“It’s made the transition super easy — I mean easier — having Jacob there, having Frank, Stromer," Kreider said. "Having that familiarity certainly helps. The entire group’s been great.”
Quenneville, who had his own emotional return to Chicago in October, when he went back for the first time since being banned from the NHL for his role in a 2010 sexual assault scandal involving his Blackhawks, does not want to pretend to know how Kreider and Trouba should feel about theirs.
He does, however, know the experienced players have had a big impact on the Ducks quickly growing into a contender. They are in a playoff spot nearing the midway point of the season and are on track to end a seven-year drought.
“(Kreider) instantly got our power play rolling and our team rolling right off the bat,” Quenneville said. “And Troubs has gotten off to a great start to the season playing bigger minutes than we envisioned, and all of a sudden offensively he’s been productive in a lot of ways that we didn’t see that coming, either.”
AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
Anaheim Ducks left wing Chris Kreider acknowledges fans during a tribute to him at an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Anaheim Ducks left wing Chris Kreider (20) skates during warmups before an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Anaheim Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba (65) skates during warmups before an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Anaheim Ducks left wing Chris Kreider (20) skates during warmups before an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Anaheim Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba skates during warmups before an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
New York Rangers fans react to Anaheim Ducks' Chris Kreider skating during warmups before an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Monday, Dec 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
President Donald Trump’s top Cabinet officials overseeing national security are expected back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as questions mount over the swift escalation of U.S. military force and deadly boat strikes in international waters near Venezuela.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others are set to brief members of the House and the Senate amid congressional investigations into a military strike in September that killed two survivors of an initial attack on a boat allegedly carrying cocaine. Legal experts say it could have been a war crime, or murder. On the eve of the hearings, the U.S. military announced three more boat attacks targeting “designated terrorist organizations,” killing eight more people.
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Susie Wiles sharply criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Epstein case and the public’s expectations in the interview with Vanity Fair magazine that was released Tuesday.
Wiles specifically mentioned earlier in the year when Bondi distributed binders to a group of political commentators that included no new information about Epstein. Wiles also raised the issue of Bondi suggesting that a list of Epstein’s clients was on her desk and awaiting her review.
“I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles said of Bondi. “First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.”
After Vanity Fair published the interview, Wiles criticized it as a “disingenuously framed hit piece” on her, Trump, the White House staff and Cabinet. She did not deny any of the comments that were attributed to her.
Trump doesn’t drink. But Susie Wiles, according to Vanity Fair magazine, says the president has “an alcoholic’s personality.”
It’s among the many unvarnished thoughts attributed to Wiles in a series of interviews Vanity Fair featured Tuesday in a lengthy two-part profile of the White House chief of staff.
Wiles has called the profile a “hit piece” but has not denied any specifics.
In one interview, Wiles says she recognizes characteristics in Trump that she saw in her father, sports broadcaster Pat Summerall, who was an alcoholic.
“High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities,” Wiles said, adding that Trump has “a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is defending chief of staff Susie Wiles after an explosive Vanity Fair piece that featured months of Wiles’ interviews with the magazine about Trump and his second presidency.
Neither Wiles nor Leavitt are denying any specific claims or quotations in the piece. But their pushback shows an effort to blunt potential criticism of Wiles, who to this point has maintained a low profile despite her considerable influence.
“President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie,” Leavitt posted Tuesday on social media. “The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership.”
Wiles managed Trump’s 2024 campaign and then he tapped her as the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff.
Prosecutors are trying to convince jurors that Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan knew what was at stake when she directed an immigrant to a private door in the courthouse to evade agents.
Jurors on Monday heard audio from the incident in which Judge Dugan told her court reporter, “I’ll get the heat,” as they discussed who would assist Eduardo Flores-Ruiz.
The prosecution continued its case Tuesday with cross examination of an FBI agent who was part of the arrest team.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is blasting a Vanity Fair piece that featured months of interviews about Donald Trump and his second presidency.
Wiles, in a social media post, called the two-part profile “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.” Wiles did not deny any specific quotations attributed to her, including criticism of Attorney General Pam Bondi, calling Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy “quirky Bobby,” and saying Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality.” (The president does not drink.)
“Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out,” Wiles asserted without details.
The first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, Wiles previously has kept a low profile despite her considerable influence.
The United States gained a decent 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October as federal workers departed after cutbacks by the Trump administration, the government said Tuesday in delayed reports. And the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, highest since 2021.
Hiring has clearly lost momentum, hobbled by uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of high interest rates the Federal Reserve engineered in 2022 and 2023 to rein in inflation.
American companies are mostly holding onto the employees they have. But they’re reluctant to hire new ones as they struggle to assess how to use artificial intelligence and how to adjust to Trump’s unpredictable policies, especially his double-digit taxes on imports from around the world.
▶ Read more about how the uncertainty leaves jobseekers struggling to even land interviews
The Ukrainian president says proposals being negotiated with U.S. officials for a deal to end the fighting in Russia’s nearly 4-year-old invasion of his country could be finalized within days, after which American envoys will present them to the Kremlin before possible further meetings in the U.S. next weekend.
A draft peace plan discussed with the U.S. during talks in Berlin on Monday is “not perfect” but is “very workable,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters, while cautioning that some key issues — notably what happens to Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces — remain unresolved.
But as the spotlight shifts to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin may balk at some of the proposals thrashed out by officials from Washington, Kyiv and Western Europe, including postwar security guarantees for Ukraine.
The security proposal discussed in Berlin will be based on Western help in keeping the Ukrainian army strong, an official from a NATO nation said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
“Europeans will lead a multinational and multi-domain force to strengthen those troops and to secure Ukraine from the land, sea and air, and the U.S. will lead a ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism, with international participation,” the official said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated Tuesday that Russia wants a comprehensive peace deal, and that if Ukraine seeks “momentary, unsustainable solutions, we are unlikely to be ready to participate.”
“We want peace — we don’t want a truce that would give Ukraine a respite and prepare for the continuation of the war,” he told reporters. “We want to stop this war, achieve our goals, secure our interests, and guarantee peace in Europe for the future.”
“It seems like another example of the pay-to-play administration,” said Kedric Payne, who leads the ethics program at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington. “There is clearly a perception that in order to get favorable policies and acts from the administration, a company needs to provide a financial benefit to the president.”
Trump Media did not respond to specific questions about the arrangement. “Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Crypto.com was under siege for more a year, told enforcement action was likely as part of an aggressive Biden administration push to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. Then Donald Trump won the 2024 election, and the company’s legal peril dissipated.
By August, Crypto.com announced it was plunging roughly $1 billion worth of assets into a venture with a new partner — Trump’s social media company, which had lost hundreds of millions of dollars since its 2021 launch.
Legal and ethics experts say Crypto.com’s journey from investigative target to Trump business partner provides a case study of conflicts of interest as Trump family businesses enter lucrative arrangements with federally regulated companies, some of which have benefited from action taken by his administration.
▶ Read more from the AP investigation into Trump’s relationship with Crypto.com
Hegseth, Rubio and others are set to brief members of the House and the Senate behind closed doors as the U.S. is building up its presence with warships, flying fighter jets near Venezuelan airspace and seizing an oil tanker as part of its campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.
Trump’s Republican administration has not sought any authorization from Congress for action against Venezuela. But lawmakers objecting to the military incursions are pushing war powers resolutions toward potential voting this week.
▶ Read more about the briefing
The Trump administration said in a court filing Monday that the president’s White House ballroom construction project must continue for unexplained national security reasons and because a preservationists’ organization that wants it stopped has no standing to sue.
The filing was in response to a lawsuit filed last Friday by the National Trust for Historic Preservation asking a federal judge to halt President Donald Trump’s project until it goes through multiple independent reviews and a public comment period and wins approval from Congress.
The administration’s 36-page filing included a declaration from Matthew C. Quinn, deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, the agency responsible for the security of the president and other high-ranking officials, that said more work on the site of the former White House East Wing is still needed to meet the agency’s “safety and security requirements.” The filing did not explain the specific national security concerns; the administration has offered to share classified details with the judge in a private, in-person setting without the plaintiffs present.
▶ Read more about the court filing
Here’s a look at key moments in Trump fights with the media in his second term:
The 33-page lawsuit filed in Florida accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “ a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence ” the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
It accuses the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021” in order to ”intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.” It seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The broadcaster apologized last month to Trump over the edit of the speech he gave before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.
BBC chairman Samir Shah had called the edit an “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.
▶ Read more about the lawsuit
President Donald Trump speaks during a Mexican Border Defense Medal presentation in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Washington, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, looks on. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
