🏒 Who's in? Who's Out?

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Merry Christmas! Wait sorry, it’s just Day 1 of the Masters, my bad! Every single computer screen in your office today should be covered in Augusta footage. All you Blitzers that work from home, congratulations on a productive day from the couch. If you missed our full Masters preview yesterday, click here to get caught up. You can count on one hand how many NHL regular season games are left as we check in on the very tight playoff races. Teams are fighting for postseason seeding in the NBA, including a battle for first place in the West. April baseball rolls on with loads of MLB action. Let’s have ourselves a day!

WTF Stat: Tiger Woods played in 46 events from May ‘99 to June ‘01 winning 50% of them (23) and finishing top 5 80% of the time (37) in a run that included five major victories.

🏀 Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo will miss the rest of the regular season after an MRI confirmed a calf strain and his status for the playoffs is yet to be determined but HC Doc Rivers is hopeful - his Achilles is fully intact as Milwaukee fans can take a deep breath

🏀 Celtics and G Jrue Holiday have agreed to a 4-year, $135M extension after he declined his $37M player option for next season - he’s averaging 12.5 PPG, 5.4 REB, and 4.9 AST this year

🏀 John Calipari will be taking a pay $1.5M reduction at Arkansas after signing a 5-year deal starting at $7M per season - he gave an interesting opening presser yesterday stating “there is no team” at Arkansas at the moment

🏀 Purdue center Zach Edey won his second straight Wooden Award becoming the first repeat winner since Ralph Sampson in 1983

⚾ Shohei Ohtani’s ex-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, is facing federal charges and is in negotiations to plead guilty

🏒 NHL is preparing a contingency plan for the Coyotes to move to Salt Lake City, Utah if plans for their new Arizona stadium fall through

🏈 Jaguars and Pro Bowl DE Josh Allen have agreed to a 5-year, $150M deal to stay in Jacksonville - he’s sixth in QB pressures (228) and is t-10th in sacks (32) in the NFL over the past three seasons

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🏒 NHL Playoff Races

The NHL playoffs start on April 20th and most teams either have three or four games remaining on their regular season schedule making for some tight postseason races. The East is a bit crazy, while there is a battle out West for a single spot. Here’s where we sit as of today:

Eastern Conference

Atlantic Division

1. Boston Bruins: 107 points (clinched)

2. Florida Panthers: 104 points (clinched)

3. Toronto Maple Leafs: 101 points (clinched)

Metropolitan Division

1. New York Rangers: 110 points (clinched) - President’s Trophy leader

2. Carolina Hurricanes: 107 points (clinched)

3. New York Islanders: 87 points

Wild Card

1. Tampa Bay Lightning: 95 points (clinched)

2. Washington Capitals: 85 points

In the hunt: Pittsburgh Penguins (84 points), Detroit Red Wings (84 points), Philadelphia Flyers (83 points), New Jersey Devils (79 points), Buffalo Sabres (79 points)

Top Storylines:

• There are seven teams fighting for just two spots

• Islanders have to go through the Rangers, Devils and Penguins who are all in the playoff picture, and then play an eliminated Canadiens team tonight - they have a nice cushion to at least make the wild card spot

• Capitals have a tough schedule needing to go through four teams currently in the playoff picture in the Sabres, Lightning, Bruins and Flyers to stay in the final wild card spot

• Penguins in the same boat, have to face four playoff hopeful teams in the Red Wings, Bruins (clinched), Predators (clinched) and Islanders

• Red Wings have the easiest schedule left with two of their four games against the Canadiens

• Devils have lost their All-Star center Jack Hughes to a season-ending shoulder surgery, which he got yesterday, lessening their playoff odds

• It’s not a playoff storyline but Auston Matthews can become the first player to tuck 70 goals since 1993 if he can find a way to net four goals in his final three contests

Western Conference

Central Division

1. Dallas Stars: 109 points (clinched)

2. Colorado Avalanche: 104 points (clinched)

3. Winnipeg Jets: 102 points (clinched)

Pacific Division

1. Vancouver Canucks: 104 points (clinched)

2. Edmonton Oilers: 101 points (clinched)

3. Los Angeles Kings: 93 points (clinched)

Wild Card

1. Nashville Predators: 95 points (clinched)

2. Vegas Golden Knights: 92 points

In the hunt: St Louis Blues (89 points)

Top Storylines:

• It’s a much clearer playoff picture in the West with only one spot up for grabs with just two teams fighting between Vegas and St. Louis

• Blues have three games left facing the Hurricanes (Cup contender), Stars (Cup contender) and Kraken (eliminated)

• Golden Knights have an advantage with four games left on the schedule as well as facing a weaker schedule with games against the Wild (eliminated), Avalanche, Blackhawks (eliminated) and Ducks (eliminated)

NBA - Top Games

• Milwaukee Bucks 117, Orlando Magic 99: In the absence of Giannis, Bobby Portis (30 PTS, 9 REB, 5 STL) did what Bobby Portis does electrifying the home crowd on an incredible shooting night going 14 for 18 from the field - Bucks hold the No. 2 seed in the East by 1.5 games over the Knicks

• Denver Nuggets 116, Minnesota Timberwolves 107: Both teams came into the night with a record of 55-24 tied for first in the Western Conference, but it was the defending champs that take over the No. 1 seed on the back of Nikola Jokic (41 PTS, 11 REB, 7 AST) despite a strong effort from Anthony Edwards (25 PTS, 4 AST) - Jokic is -3000 to win his third MVP award

• Dallas Mavericks 111, Miami Heat 92: Mavs continue their heater going 16-2 in their last 18 games thanks to another near triple-double from Luka Doncic (29 PTS, 9 REB, 9 AST) with backcourt partner Kyrie adding another 25 - Luka is second in MVP odds (+1500) but the race is essentially over

• Oklahoma City Thunder 127, San Antonio Spurs 89: The rim was left unprotected with Wemby out and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (26 PTS, 6 REB, 5 AST) took full advantage - Thunder hold the No. 3 seed in the West

See the full NBA scoreboard here and the current standings here. All 10 postseason spots from each conference have been clinched, as now it’s just a matter of seeding, which we will review in tomorrow’s newsletter!

MLB - Top Games

• Seattle Mariners 6, Toronto Blue Jays 1: It was a boring 1-1 ballgame after nine innings and then the Mariners exploded in the top of the 10th for five runs that included a two-run shot from Cal Raleigh as the home team Jays did not rebuttal in the bottom of the inning

• Cleveland Guardians 7, Chicago White Sox 6: Another game that needed extra innings as Indians teammates and brothers, Bo and Josh Naylor, celebrated National Siblings Day in huge fashion first each homering in the 4th inning, then followed up by each knocking in a run in the 10th inning to take lead with Bo hitting the walk-off single - Guardians were down 5-0 after three innings

• Baltimore Orioles 7, Boston Red Sox 5: The O’s came back from a 5-0 deficit after five innings at Fenway and a three-run dinger from Jordan Westburg in the 7th inning gave them the lead - Jackson Holliday, the son of former World Series champ slugger Matt Holliday, made his Major League debut last night hitting one RBI. The Orioles put out a very cool video showing the moment the No. 1 ranked MLB prospect got called up

See the full MLB scoreboard here and the current standings here.

NHL - Top Games

• Edmonton Oilers 5, Vegas Golden Knights 1: Even with superstar Connor McDavid out, the Oilers controlled this game from the jump in front of their home crowd with five different scorers passing with the team passing the 100-point mark for the third straight season

• St. Louis Blues 5, Chicago Blackhawks 2: The Blues keep their playoff hopes alive moving to 89 points, now just three behind Vegas following their loss, and it was a four-goal first period including two goals from Jordan Kyrou within 42 seconds of each other that gave them the edge

See the full NHL scoreboard here and the current standings here.

The Masters - Par 3

• Rickie Fowler (-5) was the victor of Wednesday’s great Par 3 tradition at The Masters. This is a family-friendly event where the players compete on the 9-hole Par 3 course at Augusta with wives and family members as their caddies and let children drill some putts. Not every player turns in a card as many believe there is a curse with winning. No Par 3 event winner as ever won The Masters in the same year

• There were five total hole-in-ones on the day. Here are a couple:

  • Gary Woodland

  • Viktor Hovland

  • Lucas Glover

  • Bryson DeChambeau - counted as par because he hit his first shot in the water, but he dunked this one

On April 11, 2004, Phil Mickelson birdied the 18th hole at Augusta to claim his first ever coveted Green Jacket. “Lefty” outpaced “The Big Easy” beating Ernie Els by just a stroke. He went on to win the tournament two more times in 2006 and 2010. Phil has always performed well at Augusta and finished T-2 at last year’s event shooting 8-under - he’s +25000 to win this year, you sprinkling?

MLB

• Milwaukee Brewers @ Baltimore Orioles 7:05pm ET, Apple TV+

• Full Schedule

NBA

• New York Knicks @ Boston Celtics 7:30pm ET, TNT

• New Orleans Pelicans @ Sacramento Kings 10:00pm ET, TNT

• Full Schedule

NHL

• New Jersey Devils @ Toronto Maple Leafs 7:00pm ET, NHLPP / ESPN+

• Winnipeg Jets @ Dallas Stars 8:00pm ET, NHLPP / ESPN+

• Full Schedule

Masters - Round 1

• 8:45am ET - 3:00pm ET, ESPN+

• 3:00pm ET - 7:30pm ET, ESPN

• Steam it all on Masters.com

• See the full Thursday and Friday pairings and tee times here

Trivia Time Answer

A. Fred Couples. Last year Fred broke his own record making the weekend cut at the age of 63. He is back in the field this week at Augusta trying to make the new record 64 years of age!

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