There isn’t a whole heck of a lot to report on this week. Sports is in a cycle where you watch the events and then comment. But there is not a lot that is controversial or noteworthy.
The NHL Playoffs continue in the second round. Montreal did prevail over a solid Tampa Bay Lightning team coached by John Cooper. They now play Buffalo, and are down 1-0 in their series.
Cooper hasn’t had much success lately in the playoffs—his TBL teams have been eliminated in the first round in four consecutive years after winning the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021 before losing to Colorado in the 2022 finals. This comes on the heels of Cooper being the head coach for Team Canada in the 2026 Olympics. Of course, that’s when Team USA won the gold on the golden goal by New Jersey’s Jack Hughes.
The other Eastern Conference series looks to be a walkover. While Philadelphia looked good against Pittsburgh, a team with many deficiencies, they have been up against a buzz saw in Carolina. After the Flyers’ Thursday’s home loss, the Hurricanes are ahead 3-0 in the best-of-seven series.
Carolina plays with a fierceness and intensity which mirrors the behind-the-bench demeanor of their coach, Rod Brind’Amour. So far, in seven games played in these playoffs, the Canes are 7-0. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go 8-0 this weekend.
In seven seasons with Carolina under Brind’Amour, the franchise has made the playoffs every year. In that span, the Canes have lost in the conference finals three times. This group appears to be the strongest one yet, although Ottawa and now Philadelphia are not top tier opponents.
Can the Hurricanes beat either Buffalo or Montreal? Yes, they can. Either might prove to be a more formidable test.
Even if Carolina makes it to the Stanley Cup Finals, there are some pretty fair opponents awaiting. It won’t be a cakewalk.
Anaheim surprised a number of people with its win over Edmonton to reach the next round. People in the East are unfamiliar with the Ducks level of play this season. To show how competitive Anaheim is, they went to Las Vegas and split the two games there. This is with Vegas on a sort of a winning roll having made the unorthodox move of changing coaches at the tail end of the season.
Both teams won their opening round series in six games. Going at least six games against each other would not be surprising.
Whichever team emerges from that series will likely have to face the Colorado Avalanche, the overall points leader in the regular season. The Avs are up 2-0 in their series versus Minnesota.
Colorado can score goals. In this series against the Wild, the Avs have scored 14 goals in two games. No matter that they have surrendered eight goals. To me, outshooting and outscoring your opponent is a winning formula. I expect to see Colorado in the Finals.
The NHL Draft Lottery took place earlier in the week. Toronto, which has not won a Stanley Cup since 1967, to the chagrin of its faithful yet irritable fans, won the top pick. With new management and some time to build a more representative team, could the Leafs actually turn the corner and become a contender? The pressure has been turned up a notch by the successes of rivals Montreal and Ottawa both making this year’s playoffs.
In New Jersey, a local kid who is a savant and a former professional poker player, returns to his home state to guide the team he rooted for as a kid after a stint with Florida, a two-time Stanley Cup winner in 2024 and 2025. Sunny Mehta is thrilled to be back home and brings a background in risk assessment, options, trades and hockey analytics.
With a few tweaks, this team can contend. The nucleus, beginning with Hughes, is strong.
Mehta has cleaned house in upper management, preferring to bring in his own people. Will he do the same with the head coach, or does Sheldon Keefe, a former Toronto head man, deserve another year after a late season run fell short? Could he be waiting for the end of he playoffs to make a move? Whatever happens, it is going to be interesting in Newark going forward.
Enough hockey. The NBA is also grinding through its playoffs.
Locally, for those of us who reside in the NY-NJ-PA area, we have a rematch between the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76’ers. Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns lived in the area growing up—Brunson was born in New Brunswick and Towns in Edison.
Brunson followed his dad, Rick, now a coach with NYK, but along with his mother, were athletes at Temple University in Philadelphia. He spent the bulk of his youth in Cherry Hill before ending up in Illinois for a storied high school career.
Then it was on to Villanova to play for Jay Wright and win a national championship. Three other teammates from Villanova have played with him in New York—Donte Di Vincenzo; Malik Bridges; and Josh Hart. The latter duo are currently key members of the Knicks.
Towns lived much more locally. He lived in Piscataway, the son of the all-time rebound record holder at Monmouth University and a coach at Piscataway Technical High School. KAT grew up with basketball and traces his success back to practicing with the Piscataway Tech teams before matriculating at St. Joseph’s in Metuchen for high school and then onto Kentucky to play for John Calipari.
New York was not the original stop for either star. Brunson, a second round selection, began his career in Dallas with Luka Doncic. Coming off the bench and then starting, the two-time NCAA champion and an Illinois Mr. Basketball showed how talented he was.
Towns was a star with Minnesota, winning Rookie of the Year, garnering All-Star nominations and even winning the 2015-16 All-Star Skills Challenge and then the Three-Point contest during the 2021-22 season. He accumulated offensive statistics which put him in rarified air, becoming the only NBA player to score at least 2,000 points along with grabbing over 1,000 rebounds and making over 100 three-point shots in a season.
When injuries slowed Towns down, he was traded to New York in a three-team deal. Brunson came to the Knicks with his dad as a free agent—although New York did get penalized for tampering.
As much progress as the team has made, it appears that New York has thrived under new head man Mike Brown. With Brunson’s dad and the legendary Maurice Cheeks on his staff, the Knicks are a hustling, committed group which follows the lead of its stars, both capable of offense inside the lane as much as behind the arc.
New York has a 2-0 advantage on Philadelphia as the series moved to South Philly. The Knicks high-powered offense did just enough to defeat a Joel Embiid-less Sixers team on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Coming off of big-time blowouts in the last two games agains Atlanta and then the opener versus the Sixers, New York gutted it out against a Philadelphia team which is well-coached by a former champion in Nick Nurse. The pressure defense PHI employed along with foul trouble for Towns made the contest a much closer affair. If Philadelphia hadn’t turned the ball over as much a it did and shot poorly at the end of the game, the outcome might have been different.
Do not count the Sixers out right now. Tyrese Maxey is an absolute dynamo. Paul George brings experience and defense. Kelly Oubre can be troublesome on offense and defense. Plus rookie VJ Edgecombe has been difficult to stop.
Combine them with the return of Embiid at some time, maybe beginning with Friday night, the Sixers will be even more difficult to play for NYK. Even more so, with starter and strong contributor O.G. Anunoby having suffered a hamstring strain late in Wednesday game. Just ask Boston how tough a match up Philly can be—the Sixers took it to the Celtics in Game 7 of their series.
Cleveland and Detroit are the other Eastern Conference battle. Detroit came back to overcome Orlando’s lead in their series. (Orlando management was so upset in the manner in which the team fell apart in its last two games against the Pistons—albeit without star Franz Wagner—that the coach was fired) Pistons’ star Cade Cunningham has regained his scoring magic.
Cleveland is a nice team. Can they retake momentum from the Pistons once back in Ohio? Sure they can. Detroit is hardly invincible.
Out West, the Los Angeles Lakers, sans Luka Doncic, are no match for defending champion Oklahoma City. Expect OKC to take down LeBron James and his mates in four or five games. There is just too much firepower on OKC to contend with and Austin Reaves alone cannot rescue LAL—despite his scoring 31 on Thursday night after a poor opening game.
In the other series, Minnesota and San Antonio are tied at 1. The Timberwolves stole Game 1 on the road with a two point win. This was despite a record 12 blocked shots from Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, handing Minnesota its largest playoff loss ever. T-Wolves head man Chris Finch, the F&M grad, questioned how many blocks by the tall SAS center were actually goaltending calls missed by the officials.
Minnesota has advanced to the conference finals in the past two seasons. I heard a statistic, if true, which may make this a longer series. That nugget is that the Spurs have lost seven straight in Minneapolis. With Anthony Edwards back in the lineup, even if it is with a minutes restriction, the T-Wolves will not be a pushover for a San Antonio team most everyone outside of the state of Minnesota and surrounding area thinks is destined to meet OKC.
Briefly, I will discuss the New York Yankees and Anthony Volpe saga. Volpe, the local kid from New York City and Warren, New Jersey by way of The Delbarton School, burst upon the scene in 2023 to claim the starting shortstop spot for the team. In his first year, Volpe showed signs of hitting in the clutch and won a Gold Glove for his defense. His 20 homers and 20 stolen bases made him the 15th MLB rookie ever to do that.
However, his on-base percentage and chase rate for balls outside the strike zone has always been bad. Perhaps because he jumped almost directly from Double A ball to the majors and didn’t have enough time to develop.
Rather than improve off of his rookie season, Volpe did not meet the standards expected of him. His hitting and fielding statistics weren’t good enough. Plus he played most of last season hurt, warranting left shoulder surgery in the off season.
Volpe was sent on rehab assignments and his hitting still hadn’t improved that much—in a limited sample. Meanwhile, his replacement, Jose Caballero, was hitting well, running the bases even better with his great speed and playing more than adequate defense. And the Yankees were winning, currently atop the American League with the best record, although Tampa Bay is breathing down their necks in the AL East.
The statistics couldn’t be denied. General Manager Brian Cashman and Manager Aaron Boone made the difficult decision to keep Volpe in the minors for the foreseeable future. How and when Volpe returns to the big club will be dependent upon how he performs down there and any injuries necessitating his call up.
This isn’t quite like what had happened to former Yankees mainstays Oswaldo Cabrera and Jasson Dominguez. Both began the season in Triple A, with no place on the MLB roster.
Slugger Giancarlo Stanton went down with anther leg injury and Dominguez got his chance. He was contributing as the DH. Manager Boone saw an opportunity to rest slugger Aaron Judge by letting him DH on Thursday and slotting Dominguez in left field.
The fates caught up with Dominguez in the first inning. Running hard for a ball hit deep to left field, Dominguez crashed into the wall. He held the ball in an amazing catch, suffering a concussion and shoulder injuries which will land him on the IL for awhile. 6’6” slugging super prospect Spencer Jones will get the call to finally show us what is expected of him at the major league level.
As for Volpe, he has to wait his turn. I really like the kid and wish him the best. I would want to see him playing the shortstop the Yankees need him to excel at. With a log jam created by Caballero’s excellent play thus far and that Volpe offers no versatility like others already in New York, including the speedy Caballero, it may be a long period before he will be back in the Yankees pinstripes.
Moreover, George Lombard, Jr. is another highly-touted prospect who plays shortstop. Given his downward trend and the bad timing of an injury, Anthony Volpe must sit and bide his time. I root for him, but baseball is a business and performance matters.
I end with this. Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo will forego running in the Preakness Stakes. So will a total of 17 of the 18 horses which ran in the Derby.
The contention is that the Triple Crown races are too close in proximity that will cause a greater likelihood of injury to the animal. This issue has been raised in prior years and the Derby winner has not competed for the Triple Crown in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
What may not have been a concern in the industry is one now. The luster of winning the three races seems to have been shunted aside. Which is bad for the sport.
The Derby drew 24 million viewers to a sport which remains somewhat dormant until May. With each race, the viewership grows if there is legitimate chance at a Triple Crown. Without changes, the networks will not want to pay top dollar.
It’s a shame because nobody knew about Golden Tempo until the horse charged from dead last to win the biggest race. There would have been a ton of attention on this Preakness had he been entered.
Hockey. Basketball. Volpe and the Yankees. The Triple Crown. Evidently I had nothing to write about this week.
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