⛳ Are You Surprised?

Happy Monday! It’s Patriots’ Day and happy Marathon Monday to all our Bostonian Blitzers. Watching The Masters on the couch the last four days was one of the most enjoyable weekends in a long time and we a full recap of Scheffler’s dominant victory. NHL playoff races are getting TIGHT. The NBA regular season has come a to a conclusion with the Play-In games tipping off tomorrow night. UFC 300 had the best knockout in an event, maybe ever. A familiar college hockey program grabs another national championship. Let’s go have a week!

WTF Stat: In 1997, Tiger Woods won The Masters by 12 strokes. Nobody else has won the Masters by more than five shots since 1977. Tiger was 21-years-old when he accomplished this.

Ian’s still a little hungover from celebrating our 5th birthday this weekend, so I’m back!!

The Masters

• Winner: Scottie Scheffler (-11)

  • Referencing today’s subject line, nobody should be surprised that Scottie Scheffler won his second Green Jacket in three years as he has been on a dominant run as of late winning this major by a comfortable four strokes at just 27 years young - he won three of his last four PGA Tour starts and he finished second place in the only loss… wild

  • What is shocking, is the fact that this is only the second major victory for Scottie as he has yet to get over the hump at the other three majors, but if this performance is any indication those other majors will be in his trophy case very soon

  • He is only the fifth golfer to win The Masters as the current No. 1 ranked golfer in the world and was the first odds favorite (+400) to win the tournament since Tiger in 2005

  • Scheffler had seven birdies in Sunday’s final round, the most by a Masters champ since Nick Faldo in 1989 with 8

  • He has still not had a competitive round of golf this season shooting over par - walking up 18 knowing you just won $3M has to be a good feeling

  • Luckily, his wife Merideth did not go into labor during the tournament as she is due in the coming days allowing Scottie to finish out play and have a separate special day when his baby does come - Scottie said multiple times that if she had gone into labor, he would’ve left Augusta to be there for his first-born child

• Rest of the Leaderboard:

  • 2. Ludvig Aberg (-7) - best finish for an Augusta rookie since 1979

  • T3. Collin Morikawa (-4)

  • T3. Max Homa (-4)

  • T3. Tommy Fleetwood (-4)

  • T6. Cam Smith (-2) - lowest score for a LIV player, tied with Bryson

  • T6. Bryson DeChambeau (-2)

• Other Notable Players

  • T9. Will Zalatoris (E) - proud of you brother! Big Blitzer

  • T22. Rory McIlroy (+4)

  • T43. Phil Mickelson (+8)

  • T45. Brooks Koepka (+9)

  • T45. John Rahm (+9)

  • T50. Tiger Woods (+16) - he made a record 24th consecutive Masters cut, but this is his worst 72-hole score for a professional event ever. He still said it was a “good week” completing his 100th career round at Augusta yesterday

  • Low Amateur: Neal Shipley (+12) - the OSU grad student was paired with Tiger for Sunday’s round at Augusta, special stuff

  • Players to miss the Cut: Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Viktor Hovland, Jordan Speith, Wyndham Clark

See the full leaderboard here.

College Hockey - National Championship

• #3 Denver 2, #1 Boston College 0: BC had a historically great offense this season, but that magic came to a screeching halt in Saturday’s National Championship as the into the brick wall of Denver goalie Matt Davis, who made 35 saves including this impossible cross-crease diver - this is the Pioneers 10th National title and is the first Division 1 program to reach double-digits

UFC 300 - Top Matches

• Light Heavyweight Title: Alex Pereira def. Jamahal Hill via KO/TKO R1: The Brazilian took out Hill 3:14 into round 1 in the main event of a historic night for the UFC. Alex got kicked in the groin, waved off the ref to not stop the fight then proceeded to viciously KO Hill seconds later

• BMF Title: Max Holloway def. Justin Gaethje via KO/TKO R5: Two MMA legends battled for the Baddest Mother F****** belt (literally the name of the title) and the fight lived up to the hype. Gaethje certainly had the lead heading into the final round 3-1 and with 10 seconds left in the final round, Holloway asked Gaethje to stand in the center of the octagon as they swung aimlessly at each other with Max landing a KO punch with 1 second left - this fight won “Fight of the Night” and Holloway got an additional $300K bonus… I have watched that clip 100 times

• Strawweight Title: Zhang Weili def Yan Xiaonan via U Dec: Weili defends her title belt with a dominant performance landing 256 total strikes to Xionan’s 73

See the full card results here.

NHL - Top Games

• Washington Capitals 4, Tampa Bay Lightning 2: Tied going into the third period, the Caps grab a much-needed win versus a playoff team and hold the tiebreaker for the final Wild Card spot with the Flyers and Red Wings also sitting at 87 points - Caps have two games left, one vs. Flyers

• Philadelphia Flyers 1, New Jersey Devils 0: A shutout performance from tendy Samuel Ersson keeps Philly hopes alive - only one game left and it’s vs. Washington on Tuesday, a must-win for them

• Boston Bruins 6, Pittsburgh Penguins 4: After a goal-less first period, the offense exploded in the second with the B’s still owning the Atlantic Division by a point over Florida, as a loss puts the Penguins on the outside looking in with 86 points behind Washington, Detroit and Philly - Pittsburgh has two games left on the schedule

• Detroit Red Wings 5, Toronto Maple Leafs 4 (OT): An extra period was needed to decide a winner and the Detroit captain Dylan Larkin scored a power play goal with 41 seconds left to keep their season alive - Detroit has two games left, both vs. the Canadians

See the full NHL scoreboard here and the current standings here. Two playoff spots in the East are still up for grabs with the regular season ending Thursday night.

NBA - Top Games

• Oklahoma City Thunder 135, Dallas Mavericks 86: The team with the youngest average starting five in the NBA clinched the No. 1 seed in the West with the win as superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (15 PTS, 6 AST) led the way

• Los Angeles Lakers 124, New Orleans Pelicans 108: LeBron James (28, 17 AST, 11 REB) posted a ridiculous triple-double to finish his 21st regular season and helped the Lake Show steal the No. 8 seed in the West giving them home-court and an important game advantage for the Play-In - No. 9 and 10 seeds have to win two play-in games to advance, while No. 7 and 8 just need one win to move on

• New York Knicks 120, Chicago Bulls 119: An overtime one-point victory gave the Knicks the No. 2 seed in the East behind Jalen Brunson’s (40 PTS, 8 REB, 7 AST) 11th 40-point game of the season - highest playoff seeding since 2013 for the Knicks, Bulls in the play-in round

See the full NBA scoreboard here.

Eastern Conference - Final Standings

1. Boston Celtics

2. New York Knicks

3. Milwaukee Bucks

4. Cleveland Cavaliers

5. Orlando Magic

6. Indiana Pacers

7. Philadelphia 76ers

8. Miami Heat

9. Chicago Bulls

10. Atlanta Hawks

Western Conference - Final Standings

1. Oklahoma City Thunder

2. Denver Nuggets

3. Minnesota Timberwolves

4. Los Angeles Clippers

5. Dallas Mavericks

6. Phoenix Suns

7. New Orleans Pelicans

8. Los Angeles Lakers

9. Sacramento Kings

10. Golden State Warriors

Seeds 7-10 will participate in the Play-In games fighting for an official spot in the NBA Playoffs. See the Play-In schedule here.

On April 15, 2019, Cale Makar became the first ever defenseman to score a goal in an NHL debut during the playoffs and it came in a big 6-2 Avalanche win in a Game 3 over the Flames. This postseason performance came just three days after winning the Hobey Baker Award for being the top college hockey player as a sophomore for UMass. Makar has gone onto to be one of the top players in the NHL, not just defensemen, but players already winning a Norris and Conn Smythe trophy.

NHL

• Boston Bruins @ Washington Capitals 7:00pm ET, NHL NET

• Minnesota Wild @ Los Angeles Kings 9:30pm ET, ESPN

• Full schedule

MLB

• Kansas City Royals @ Chicago White Sox 7:40pm ET, ESPN+

• Full schedule

Trivia Time Answer

A. Luka Doncic. The Mavs star averaged 33.9 points per game this season, which is a whopping 3.5 more than second place Giannis. That is also the 19th highest PPG total in NBA history. James Harden is the only active player higher on that list scoring 36.1 in the 2018-19 season.

Prime Lock of the Day

Subscribe to Blitz Prime to unlock this betting slip. For those already signed up, enjoy the winner!

March Madness over. The Masters has concluded. Now we turn our attentions to the NBA and NHL postseasons, time to dial in. See you tomorrow.