🏀 New York Sports Peak?

It’s Thirsty Thursday! Maybe you won’t grab a 5pm beer today, but we know New York City is drinking tonight. They will be celebrating four nights of action in a row at MSG that resulted in a playoff win between the Rangers and Knicks. Enjoy it while it lasts, New York. Over in the NHL the Florida Panthers got their revenge in the way of goals and hits, while the Vancouver Canucks made a vicious comeback in the third period to take Game 1 of the series. Want a more impressive comeback? Just head over to the Champions League semifinals where an improbable stoppage time goal capped off an epic comeback victory. A few subway stops north of MSG, the Bronx Bombers put on a HR Derby for Yankees fans.

WTF Stat: Patriots are tied with the Chiefs for most playoff wins since 2010 with 16, which is crazy because the Pats haven’t won a playoff game in five years.

🏀 Nuggets C Nikola Jokic has won his third MVP award in four seasons finishing ahead of Thunder G Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Mavericks F Luka Doncic - he is the ninth player in NBA history with at least three MVP awards

🏀 Gregg Doyel will not be allowed to cover the Indiana Fever this WNBA season after this inappropriate interaction with Caitlin Clark in her introductory presser conference

⚾ Ippei Mizuhara has plead guilty to federal charges of felony bank fraud after stealing $17M from Los Angeles Dodgers Shohei Ohtani in order to pay off illegal gambling debts - the total max sentence Ippei could face is 33 years imprisonment and $1.25M in fines but expected a reduced sentence

NBA Playoffs

Eastern Conference - Semifinals

• New York Knicks 130, Indiana Pacers 121 (NYK leads series 2-0): Tyrese Haliburton (34 PTS, 9 AST, 6 REB) finally showed up, but not even a 10-point halftime lead was enough to hold off the Knicks as they got hot from long range in the second half with Donte DiVincenzo (28 PTS, 6 REB) hitting six total threes and Brunson adding another 29 points - Hart had 19 points as the Nova Trio combined for 76

Tonight’s Games

• East Semis - Game 2 | Cleveland Cavaliers @ Boston Celtics (BOS leads series 1-0) 7:00pm ET, ESPN

• West Semis - Game 2 | Dallas Mavericks @ Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC leads series 1-0) 9:30pm ET, ESPN

See the full playoff bracket here.

NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs

Eastern Conference - Semifinals

• Florida Panthers 6, Boston Bruins 1 (Series tied 1-1): The B’s struck first on the road but Steven Lorentz opened up the scoring for a three-goal second period and then they poured on three more in the third tying up the series in commanding fashion. Panthers had 76 hits in this game, most in a game for the franchise since they began tracking the stat in 2005 - fists began flying late in the third (136 total penalty minutes) and even David Pastrnak dropped the mits to set the tone before they ship it up to Boston for Game 3 on Friday night

Western Conference - Semifinals

• Vancouver Canucks 5, Edmonton Oilers 4 (VAN leads series 1-0): Wow, the Oilers held a commanding 4-1 lead late in the second period and their offense looked unstoppable, but Vancouver rattled off four unanswered goals, including the final two scored within 39 seconds of each other to take the lead and send the home crowd into a ruckus - playoff hockey, you are so beautiful

Tonight’s Games

• East Semis - Game 3 | New York Rangers @ Carolina Hurricanes (NYR lead series 2-0) 7:00pm ET, TNT

• West Semis - Game 2 | Colorado Avalanche @ Dallas Stars (DAL lead series 1-0) 9:30pm ET, TNT

See the full playoff bracket here.

MLB - Top Games

• New York Yankees 9, Houston Astros 4: The big three of Aaron Judge, Gaincarlo Stanton and Jaun Soto all went deep in yesterday’s win over a struggling Astros team

• Atlanta Braves 5, Boston Red Sox 0: In his first start versus his former team, Chris Sale made the Sox look silly striking out 10 batters allowing zero runs in six innings of work

• Toronto Blue Jays 5, Philadelphia Phillies 3: Bryce Harper finally didn’t hit a HR but instead threw his bat at the dugout after a frustrating 8th inning ground out

Champions League - Semifinals

• Leg 2 | Real Madrid 2, Bayern Munich 1 (Madrid advances on 4-3 aggregate): This game was an instant classic and SHOCKER for Munich fans as they had a 3-2 aggregate lead in the 88th minute then disaster struck. Joselu scored to tie the game and total aggregate score and then completed the impossible scoring the go-ahead goal three minutes later in stoppage time to lift Real Madrid over Bayern Munich and advance to the Champions League Finals vs. Borussia Dortmund on June 1st - this is Bayern’s first trophy-less season since 2012

On May 9, 2010, Dallas Braden of the Oakland A's tossed a perfect game vs. Tampa Bay in a 4-0 win becoming just the 19th MLB pitcher to throw a perfect game. Only five more pitchers have accomplished this since 2010.

NBA Playoffs

• East Semis - Game 2 | Cleveland Cavaliers @ Boston Celtics 7:00pm ET, ESPN

• West Semis - Game 2 | Dallas Mavericks @ Oklahoma City Thunder 9:30pm ET, ESPN

NHL Playoffs

• East Semis - Game 3 | New York Rangers @ Carolina Hurricanes 7:00pm ET, TNT

• West Semis - Game 2 | Colorado Avalanche @ Dallas Stars 9:30pm ET, TNT

MLB

• Kansas City Royals @ Los Angeles Angels 9:38pm ET, FS1

• Full Schedule

Trivia Time Answer

C. Patrick Roy. The Canadian tender had 151 playoff wins in 247 games played, which sits 38 wins ahead of Martin Brodeur. The first 11 goalies on the all-time playoff wins list are Canadians.

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Stay tuned for a big announcement from me at Noon ET today.