The NHL playoffs begin Tuesday night. Today’s NHL analysis will preview the four first-round matchups in the Eastern Conference, starting with one point that summarizes each series in a nutshell and then moving into fuller analysis.
It’s time to decide who should win the Hart Memorial Trophy, awarded to the league’s MVP. A goaltender hasn’t won the trophy since 2002. I think it’s time for that streak to end this year and believe the case for Ottawa’s Craig Anderson is virtually airtight.
Oklahoma City’s chances of advancing without Westbrook is the main topic as we overview all eight first-round playoff series, and other pertinent topics will focus on…
New York is locked in, while Indiana looks shaky—no small issue, given the two teams are the chalk to meet in the second round.
Chicago’s team defense is trumping Brooklyn’s star power
After being first failed by a lack of rebounding effort, Denver was done in by a bad coaching move in Game 3.
Last year the Phils were one of the game’s big disappointments. Expectations weren’t as high this year, but this was still supposed to be a contender. What the problem is and whether it’s going to turnaround is our topic on in today’s National League MLB coverage.
The American League Central is still like a packed horse race, as the teams jostle for position, but no one has done better jostling thus far than the new-look Kansas City Royals. Coming into Saturday, the Royals are 11-8 and lead the heavily favored Detroit Tigers by a game. After years of being a trendy preseason pick and then immediately flaming out when games started for real, there’s hope for the Royals. Just how much is our topic for today’s American League MLB coverage…
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series continues to be overshadowed by penalties—loss of points, suspensions and fines—as we head to Richmond International Raceway for Saturday night’s Toyota Owner’s 400 (7:30 PM ET, Fox). This time its Matt Kenseth caught in the crosshairs, facing a 50-point penalty. Kenseth is mad and I agree with him.
Six favorites in the NBA playoffs stood up and defended their home floor. Somewhat improbably, the two that failed to do so—Denver and Brooklyn who each lost Game 2s—did it in spite of facing wounded adversaries. The sequence of Game 3s starts tonight and goes through Saturday, so today’s NBA commentary will check in on where each series stands. We’ll first summarize each series in a sentence, then go into further detail…
The Detroit Red Wings have been a playoff fixture. They’ve been in the postseason every year since 1990, a period that includes four Stanley Cup championships. But with six days left in the compressed regular season of 2013, the Red Wings are on the outside looking in, a point out of the 8-seed in the Western Conference. Today we’ll look at why
The Washington Capitals turned their season around back in mid-March, and aided by the poor quality of play in the Southeast Division, the Caps now stand poised to win the division in this final week of the regular season. TheSportsNotebook’s NHL analysis will look at how Washington got themselves to this point, and the road that lies ahead.
Through a weekend where the favorites held to form, yet another injury appears to have deprived an underdog a bona fide chance of advancing. Golden State lost power forward David Lee for the duration with a hip flexor injury, fundamentally re-shaping their first-round series with Denver.
The Colorado Rockies are the first to throw their hat in the ring for the honor of big surprise team for 2013. The Rockies are 13-4 coming into Sunday’s games and lead the National League West by 2 ½ games. TheSportsNotebook’s National League MLB coverage will ask the question of how much of this is real and what’s a reasonable timetable to make Colorado wait before granting them acceptance as a contender.
After three weeks of play, both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays are, at the very least, having to play with some urgency. While the Red Sox, Yankees and Orioles are all off to good starts, the Jays & Rays are struggling. In today’s American League MLB coverage, TheSportsNotebook will examine why.
