The sports world continues to rotate…

 

Despite my previous post I know that the sun rose today and it will set tonight, meanwhile the NHL playoffs, NBA playoffs, MLB season and NFL offseason continue to move forward despite all of the ugliness that has occurred in the last 36 hours.

In addition to those sports, there is a little tournament going on in Paris, France where Rafael Nadal just won his 300th career Grand Slam match. I have watched this guy for over a decade and he reminds me of the dominance that Ivan Lendl had back in the day. I compare the two because they are both left handed and are/were so much fun to watch.

My following observations are on the sports I am following (Least favorite to favorite)

In the NBA, game five of the Eastern Conference Finals are tonight pitting the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat. The series is tied 2-2 and if patterns ring true, it will probably go 7 games. They have traded wins back to back and if the pattern ring true, the heat should win tonight sending game 6 back to Boston, where the Celtics blew out the Heat Monday night. This is the more competitive series when comparing the East and West Finals, and the more intriguing matchup. The Western Conference finals are less competitive, despite the fact Dallas won game four last night in convincing fashion, it appears to only be a matter of time before Golden State finishes them off.

In MLB, the Yankees still have the best record in baseball (puke) and lead the AL East by 4.5 games over the Rays. The Cleveland Guardians (still hard to call them that) are wallowing in mediocrity in the AL Central, 6.5 games behind the division leading Twins. Meanwhile in the NL, the Dodgers are the hottest team in baseball, winning nine of their last 10 games and lead the west by 1.5 games over the Padres (the Padres??) while the METS!! are dominating the NL East with a 7.5 game lead in that division. It’s still early in the season so I am not getting too excited yet, but I have seen a lot of great plays and highlights (wont watch full games this early) and its been fun to watch.

NHL Playoffs… GO BOLTS!!! The Tampa Bay Lightning sweep the President’s Trophy winner The Florida Panthers in four games, getting a much needed rest before taking on the winner of the Rangers-Hurricanes series. That series is all tied up at 2-2 after the Rangers won game four last night 4-1 as the series now goes back to Carolina for game 5. As a Lightning fan for over a decade, I really don’t care which team the Bolts face in the finals, just that they are getting some rest before the next series. in the West, we have the battle of Alberta with the Calgary Flames now down 3-1 to the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers have impressed me with their play, specifically Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and especially Evander Kane, who had a hat trick in game 3. The Oilers are running on all cylinders and I really don’t think the Flames (Or as @jongolson calls them - “FRAUDS) have what it takes to come back from a 3-1 deficit. The other west matchup is Colorado and St Louis, with the Avalanche leading 3-1. the Avs and Oilers seemed destined to meet in the Eastern Conference Finals when it is all said and done.

Now we move on to the NFL…

• The Las Vegas Raiders will be hosting Colin Kaepernick for a workout
• A Federal Judge has denied the NFL’s motion to dismiss Jon Gruden’s lawsuit against the NFL
• Kyler Murray, Deebo Samuel skip “voluntary” OTA’s with respective clubs.
• Deshaun Watson saga takes a new turn with NFL meetings and victim accusations
• Steelers Omar Khan promoted to GM
• Is the Punt the most dangerous play in the NFL?

These are but a few headlines dominating the NFL Offseason, which in my opinion, doesn’t really have an offseason. I love the NFL!!!

I love sports…

Join me and my cohosts @jongolson, @scubatexan, and Eliot "Big E" Lomba each and every Sunday night at 7:30 PM Eastern time for The Sports Nerds! 90 minutes of sports talk, trash talk, and laughs as we discuss the week in sports.

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