The southpaw was hurt by his defense early, as the slow-footed Paul Goldschmidt reached on a Mark Vientos error leading off the bottom of the first, and then Cody Bellinger drove in the first two runs of the game after an Aaron Judge double.
Peterson did well to settle in after that -- working around a leadoff single in the second and then a two out walk in the bottom of the third before putting together his first 1-2-3 frame of the night.
The Yanks threatened again in the fifth, as three walks (one intentional to Judge) loaded the bases for Anthony Volpe, but the southpaw was able to bare down and got him to groundout to short to end the inning.
Peterson then closed his night with a perfect bottom of the sixth -- giving him another quality start with a final line of two runs (one earned) on three hits while walking four and striking out four.
“For him to go six there, going toe to toe with Max, that was important,” Carlos Mendoza said. “He kept us in the game, he kept getting groundballs -- we weren’t able to make the play in the first, but he mixed his pitches well against a good lineup and was good overall.”
The Mets let this one slip away with a six-run, eighth-inning meltdown.
Still, seeing Peterson put together another strong effort against this high-powered offense is an encouraging sign for the Mets. The former first-round pick has now allowed less than two earned runs in four consecutive outings, helping him bring his ERA down to 2.86 on the season.
“It was a good battle,” Peterson said. “It’s always fun going into these pitcher battles. Our offense grinded as much as they could and they put up a really good fight -- but overall, I felt good. I was on the same page as (Francisco Alvarez), and we have a really good game plan.”
Marco Reus scores in the 87th minute as the Galaxy rally to a 2-2 draw with LAFC that ends their five-match losing streak but keeps them winless on the season.
The Mets were knotted in another close one with the Yankees.
After David Peterson worked his way through six efficient innings, Huascar Brazoban entered and somehow danced his way out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh to keep things evened at two a piece.
Ryne Stanek was handed the bottom of the eighth -- and things didn’t go as planned.
The right-hander found himself in immediate danger as he issued a leadoff walk to Jasson Dominguez and then Austin Wells lined a one out double down the right-field line to put two in scoring position.
Jorbit Vivas worked an 11-pitch at-bat before rolling one down to Pete Alonso. The big first baseman fielded the ball cleanly, but with the speedy Dominguez running on contact he uncorked a throw extremely wide of home, allowing the go-ahead run to score easily.
“I messed it up,” Alonso said. “I had the identical play (Saturday) where it was hit straight to me and it was a tag play at home, and I just made an awful throw. That whole inning, this game, it’s on me -- after that throw the momentum got out of hand.
“It stinks because it’s the same play and I feel like that’s a play that I usually make and I can make pretty routinely, but I just had my feet set and didn’t get my fingers around the baseball and it sailed on me -- bad throw on me, this one is 100 percent on me.”
Alonso’s throw certainly was the biggest miscue of the game -- but he wasn’t alone in what was another poor defensive showing from the Mets.
Mark Vientos bobbled what should've been a routine groundball leading off the bottom of the first, allowing Goldschmidt to reach base safely -- and he scored just a few batters later on a Bellinger two-run single off of Alonso’s glove.
And this is just the latest sloppy effort in what's quickly developing into an early season problem for New York -- Carlos Mendoza says it has to change.
“We’ve been through some stretches where it’s been sharp,” the skipper said. “But also there’s been games where we’re not finishing plays or completing them, even some of the routine plays -- as we saw in the first inning tonight which led to a run.
“This is something that we have to get better at and we will because we have good defenders.”
The Florida Panthers sure seem to enjoy playing hockey in May.
Florida played a spectacular Game 7 on Sunday night in Toronto, knocking out the Maple Leafs and advancing to the Eastern Conference Final.
It’s the third straight year that the Panthers have made it to the third round.
Take a moment and let that sink in.
For those of you who have been riding with the Panthers since the days of Scott Mellanby and Rob Neidermayer, these past few years have been mind blowing.
It wasn’t that long ago, just a few years actually, that the Panthers hadn’t been out of the first round since 1996.
That was a span of 26 years. That’s bonkers.
They went 12 seasons between playoff appearances at one point.
While those days may now seem like a long, long time ago, it’s times like this, with the Panthers back in the conference final, that’s it’s nice to take a step back and remember just how far we’ve come.
General Manager Bill Zito rightly gets much of the credit for the amazing turnaround this franchise has made, his predecessor Dale Tallon is who got the party started by drafting core players Sasha Barkov, Aaron Ekblad and Jonathan Huberdeau, the latter of whom was so good that he made Zito’s trade for Matthew Tkachuk possible, and signing goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
Bottom line: It’s a great time to be a Florida Panthers fan, and they are showing no signs of slowing down.
Drink it in, Panthers fans.
As you’ve learned over the past few years, it always goes down smooth.
Photo caption: May 18, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov (16) and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) celebrate winning game seven of the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Welcome to The Hockey News Playoff Frenzy Live, streaming nightly during the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs.
After the big game of the night, our experts go live to react to the match that was, break down the key moments and storylines and read your opinions.
On tonight's show, Katie Gaus, Ryan Kennedy and Michael Traikos react to the Florida Panthers blowing out the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1 in Game 7 of their second-round series.
What went right for the Panthers and horribly wrong for the Maple Leafs? What comes next for Toronto's pending UFAs? All that and more.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers will meet in the Eastern Conference yet again, setting up a rematch of the 2023 ECF.
The Panthers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games to advance and meet the Hurricanes, who had defeated the Washington Capitals in five games.
The last and only time these two teams met in the postseason was the 2023 Eastern Conference Final where the Cats defeated the Canes in a 4-0 sweep.
Despite the sweep, every game was a one-goal contest with the first game going to quadruple overtime, the second one going to overtime as well and the next two being one goal regulation losses.
The margins in that series were razor thin, and the Canes were without Andrei Svechnikov and Max Pacioretty in that series, but I'd still expect nothing less between these two teams this time around.
Here's the ECF schedule:
Game 1: Tuesday, May 20 (8 p.m.) @ Lenovo Center Game 2: Thursday, May 22 (8 p.m.) @ Lenovo Center Game 3: Saturday, May 24 (8 p.m.) @ Amerant Bank Arena Game 4: Monday, May 26 (8 p.m.) @ Amerant Bank Arena Game 5: Wednesday, May 28 (8 p.m.) @ Lenovo Center Game 6: Friday, May 30 (8 p.m.) @ Amerant Bank Arena Game 7: Sunday, June 1 (8 p.m.) @ Lenovo Center
In the regular season, the Hurricanes went 1-2-0 against the Panthers.
The Canes didn't have any player with more than a single goal (six skaters) or two points (four skaters) so it doesn't look like there's any secret weapon on Carolina's roster.
Spencer Martin started two of those games (both losses), posting a 0.825 save percentage. Pyotr Kochetkov played the other, posting a 0.962 save percentage win.
Frederik Andersen did not play the Panthers this season.
On the other hand, Anton Lundell led Florida with two goals and four points (Sam Reinhart also had two goals) in the regular season series.
Sergei Bobrovsky went 1-1-0 against Carolina this year, posting a 0.929 save percentage.
Stay updated with the most interesting Carolina Hurricanes stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News to never miss a story.
Pete Alonso’s wild throw home allowed the Yankees to score the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of a ‘til-then taut game and the Yanks went on to win, 8-2, to take the first installment of this season’s Subway Series.
With one out and runners on second and third and the score knotted at two, Jorbit Vivas smacked a hard grounder to Alonso at first and Jasson Dominguez broke from third base on contact. Alonso fielded the ball cleanly, but his throw was nowhere near the plate as Dominguez slid home.
It was the second error of the game for the Mets, who didn’t hit much, either. They had just three hits.
Alonso’s gaffe helped fuel a huge inning for the Yankees, who went on to score six times in the frame. Cody Bellingersmashed his ninth career grand slam and Paul Goldschmidt added an RBI single.
The Yankees won two of three at Yankee Stadium over the weekend. Sunday’s game drew 48,028 fans, the biggest crowd at the Stadium so far this season.
The teams next meet in a three-game series at Citi Field beginning on the Fourth of July.
Here are some takeaways...
- The loss dropped the Mets (29-18) to below .500 on the road this season -- they are 12-13. The Yankees (27-19) are 15-9 at home.
- Max Fried did not factor into the decision, but he gave the Yankees six very fine innings, allowing three hits and two runs. He struck out eight, walked two and threw 102 pitches. One highlight pitch -- he threw a tantalizing, 77-mile-per-hour curveball that flummoxed Juan Soto on a called strike three for the second out of the third inning. An indication of how good a season Fried is having -- his stingy outing actually raised his ERA from 1.11 to a still-sparkling 1.29.
- David Peterson didn’t factor into the decision, either and he was just as effective as Fried, allowing two runs (one earned) and three hits over six frames. He walked four (one intentionally) and struck out fourth. He lowered his ERA from 3.05 to 2.86.
- Defense, a facet of the game that David Stearns said was something the Mets could improve, bit them at the very beginning of the night. The Yankees took advantage of a Mark Vientos error, in part, to take a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Goldschmidt, the leadoff hitter, hit a grounder to third and Vientos bobbled it, putting a runner on first. One out later, Aaron Judge doubled to right and Bellinger followed with a double up the first-base line that plated two runs. Peterson got two ground balls to escape further damage, holding the Yanks two only a pair of runs, one of them unearned. It was the sixth error of the season for Vientos.
- The Mets tied the score at two in the fifth inning, thanks to McNeil’s eye and legs. He worked an eight-pitch walk leading off, was sacrificed to second by Luisangel Acuña and went to third on a groundout by Francisco Lindor. When Fried bounced a pitch to Soto and it skipped away from Austin Wells, Jeff McNeil, who drove in the Mets' first run with an RBI single in the second, broke for the plate and scored on the wild pitch.
- Soto, who was a flashpoint player all weekend, made a fine running catch to end the fourth inning, racing back to snag a deep drive toward right-center by Wells. Wells’ smash was clocked at 99.8 miles per hour off the bat and had an expected batting average of .380.
- Mets manager Carlos Mendoza’s strategy impacted the Yankee fifth when he chose to intentionally walk Judge with a runner on second and two out and let Peterson pitch to Bellinger, a lefty-lefty matchup. Peterson walked Bellinger, but then got Anthony Volpe to ground out to short and the Yanks left the bases loaded. That was the first time Volpe made the final out of an inning with the bases loaded -- he struck out with the sacks full to end the seventh, too.
- In the fateful eighth inning, relievers Ryne Stanek and Genesis Cabrera combined to allow six runs (three earned) and three hits. They threw a combined 50 pitches, 31 by Stanek.
Game MVP
Tough to choose anyone but Bellinger, who had six RBI total on the night and extended his hitting streak to 13 games by going 3-for-3 with two walks. He’s 20-for-53 (.377) during the streak with four homers and 12 RBI. His 13-game streak matched his career high.
The Florida Panthers are moving on to conference final.
Florida showed up and showed out in Game 7 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, breaking the hearts of everyone inside and outside Scotiabank Arena with a 6-1 victory on Sunday night.
The Panthers got off to a much stronger start than they did in Game 6, registering eight shots on goal before the first TV timeout and controlling play for much of the early stages of the opening period.
Shot attempts were 21-0 in favor of Florida through the game’s first seven minutes.
Toronto’s first two shots of the game were of the high danger variety, but Sergei Bobrovsky came up with big stops on William Nylander and Bobby McMann.
A few minutes later it was Steven Lorentz following in Nylander and McMann’s footsteps and getting behind Florida’s back line, but once again it was Bobrovsky making a strong save.
It wasn’t until about three minutes into the second period that Florida finally broke the ice.
A great play along the boards in the neutral zone by Evan Rodrigues sent Seth Jones and Sam Reinhart on an odd-man rush.
Toronto’s defense collapsed on Reinhart, allowing Jones plenty of time and space in the right circle, and he went bar down past Joseph Woll’s blocker to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
Florida doubled their lead a few minutes later and it was Brad Marchand who sparked the play.
Keeping the puck alive in Toronto’s zone, Marchand fired a quick shot on Woll from the half boards and Anton Lundell was there to pounce on the rebound, putting the Panthers up 2-0 and further silencing the Scotiabank Arena crowd.
The Florida onslaught continued just over two minutes later when Jonah Gadjovich converted a cross-crease pass from A.J. Greer, making it 3-0 Panthers at the 9:39 mark.
Early in the third period, Toronto caught Florida in a line change and Max Domi fired a shot that beat Sergei Bobrovsky between the legs to get Toronto on the board.
Less than a minute later, Eetu Luostarinen deflected a shot by Brad Marchand between Woll’s blocker and the goal post, restoring Florida’s three-goal lead and immediately taking the wind out of the sails of Toronto and their fans.
A Sasha Barkov faceoff win led directly to a goal by Sam Reinhart with just over 10 minutes go to, after which a fan continued the trend of throwing a Maple Leafs jersey on the ice out of disgust.
Marchand added an empty-net goal, his third point of the game, with just over three minutes left to put the final nail in Toronto’s coffin.
On to Carolina and the conference final.
QUICK THOUGHTS
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice improved to a perfect 6-0 in Game 7s.
Jones’ goal was his third of the postseason and first since Game 1 against Toronto. He added an assist on the Gadjovich goal.
Rodrigues picked up the primary assist on Jones’ goal, his third helper in three games.
Sasha Barkov also assisted on the goal by Jones, his first point since Game 4.
Marchand finished the series against Toronto with three goals and eight points in seven games.
Both Marchand and Luostarinen finished with a goal and an assist. Eetu is now up to three goals and 11 points during the playoffs.
Reinhart’s goal was his fourth of the playoffs. He’s got 11 points through 12 games.
Photo caption: May 18, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Florida Panthers defenseman Seth Jones (3) reacts after a goal by forward Jonah Gadjovich (12) against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the second period of game seven of the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
NHL referee Chris Rooney left Game 7 between the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs after being struck in the face with a stick.
In the opening moments of the second period, Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola attempted to clear the puck off the glass, but the follow-through from his stick hit Rooney in the face around his eye. He fell to the ice and covered his face, while the trainers for both clubs were called on to treat him.
The stretcher was brought on the ice, but after staying down for a few minutes, Rooney stood up and was helped off the ice, holding a towel to his face. The arena crew had to clean blood off the ice.
Rooney is a veteran referee, officiating over 1,500 regular-season and playoff games in his 24-year career. He’s officiated seven Stanley Cup finals, including in 2023 between the Panthers and the Vegas Golden Knights, according to the NHL Officials Association.
At the second intermission, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported that Rooney seems to be OK and was receiving stitches.
Garrett Rank stepped in as the standby official for the game. He made his NHL referee debut in January 2015 and his playoff debut in May 2021.
Rank has officiated over 600 regular-season games in his career and 24 playoff games as of Oct. 1, 2024.
“Hey,” Starling Marte said to Juan Soto, grabbing him by both shoulders and forcing him to turn around. “This is what we do.”
It was the afternoon of May 1, and Soto had just hit his second home run of the game. He returned to the dugout, high-fived a few teammates, and appeared ready to move on with his day.
Marte, a smiling presence in a hoodie lurking behind Soto, saw the chance for a teaching moment. He nudged his younger teammate, then took hold of his upper body and spun him forward. Soto looked at the camera, flashing a pair of peace signs and a forced smile. Not good enough, not at Citi Field in the post-OMG era. Marte slapped Soto’s helmet; that induced a broad smile and ended the moment on high note.
“Whenever any of us hits a home run, we pose in front of the camera,” Marte said through an interpreter Sunday at Yankee Stadium. “When he hit that home run, he was about to just kind of go put his stuff back, and I pushed him. I said, ‘Hey, this is what we do.’ So now, if you ever see when he hits a home run, he's there posing.”
It was a small lesson, but indicative of the way that Marte has proven invaluable during Soto’s transition from the businesslike Yankees to the vibey Mets. Without fanfare, the veteran has devoted considerable time and energy into serving as an elder statesman to Soto and other young Mets.
“He’s a quiet leader,” says manager Carlos Mendoza. “He’s not going to go out of his way in front of people, but he will go out of his way when nobody sees it. That’s what makes him a special person. He’s very calm, and when he speaks -- man, people listen.”
Soto and Marte are both natives of the Dominican Republic and have known one another since Soto’s minor league days. When the Mets signed Soto, it meant pushing Marte, a two-time All-Star, into a job as a part-time designated hitter.
“I had to talk to him about his role,” Mendoza says. “We’re signing a player for the right field position, so you have to have that conversation right away. Right away, he understood. The first thing he said was, ‘I want to be a Met. I want to win with the Mets.’ That went a long way for me. After that it was, what can I do to help Juan?”
Says Marte: “Since we've known each other for a long time, I felt like it was my responsibility once he signed to try to make him feel more comfortable. Obviously, he's been on big-market teams and teams with a lot of guys before, but now he's new here, and a lot of us have been here together for quite a while.
“Maybe when he got here, he didn't feel as comfortable because he didn't have that same type of familiarity with all of us. So I took that responsibility to bring him into the group and try to make it feel more comfortable.”
Soto was not available for comment prior to Sunday’s game, but another of Marte’s acolytes, Mark Vientos, praised his leadership and ability to spot small advantages and tendencies within a game.
“He has helped me out a lot,” Vientos said. “He’s a team leader. It’s year fourteen for him, and he’s still at it with the same mentality. The game is super slow for him.”
Like Vientos, Soto is a young man who appreciates tough and honest mentorship. Unlike Vientos or anyone else in the game, he carries not only the largest contract in the history of American sports to his new job in Queens, but the weight of unfathomable expectations from a fan base whose very identity shifted after his arrival.
Folks in the organization believe that Soto has made significant progress settling in -- smiling more of late, and getting closer to the theatrical flow that has long made him the most exciting hitter in baseball.
“I see him talking to teammates all the time, sitting down with his teammates,” Marte said. “It's nice to see because that's what you want with a guy who's gonna be here for so long. I expect to see a lot more of that going on this year and for the next 15 years.”
On Friday night at Yankee Stadium, Soto even brought back a modified version of his famous shuffle, which has been missing for most of the season.
“I mean, it wasn't with too much swag,” Marte said with a smile. “I think once he starts to feel himself a little more, you're gonna start seeing it really coming out.”
Whenever it does, the team will know that Marte helped to bring it out -- and that Soto’s inevitable success as a Met will form part of Marte’s own legacy here, long after he is gone.
Dodgers pitcher Tony Gonsolin speaks to a team trainer while dealing a bloodied pitching hand during a 6-4 loss to the Angels at Dodger Stadium on Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Andrew Friedman gave a longer answer Sunday morning when asked about the Dodgers’ recent — and, by the feel of it, familiar — pitching woes so far this year, the club’s president of baseball operations bemoaning another wave of injuries that has left the pitching staff shorthanded.
But the gist of his answer was in the two words he uttered at the start of his response.
“Not fun,” he said.
In the Dodgers’ 6-4 loss to the Angels later in the day, it became even less so.
As things currently stand, Tony Gonsolin is effectively the No. 2 pitcher in the Dodgers’ rotation, thrust into such a prominent role with Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki injured. But in a four-run, four-inning start, Gonsolin was derailed by his own physical issue, battling a bloody thumb in a three-run first inning that put the Dodgers behind the eight ball.
The Dodgers rallied, erasing what grew to a 4-0 deficit on Shohei Ohtani’s RBI single in the fifth and Will Smith’s tying three-run home run in the seventh. But then a banged-up bullpen gave the Angels the lead right back, with Travis d’Arnaud going deep in the eighth against Anthony Banda — himself forced into a high-leverage role lately, despite a disappointing start to the year, because of injuries to Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips and Kirby Yates (who became the latest pitcher to hit the injured list on Sunday with a hamstring strain he suffered the night before).
Angels center fielder Kyren Paris, right, narrowly avoids colliding with left fielder Taylor Ward after making a catch on a fly ball in the seventh inning Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Friedman argued the Dodgers’ injury problems this year don’t compare to the dire straits they navigated en route to last year’s World Series title. Unlike then, the team hasn’t suffered any season-ending losses. In the big picture, they remain confident they’ll have enough depth to mount a title defense.
And yet, the team hasn’t discovered the secret to better health. Their rotation problems are giving the bullpen an unsustainably grueling workload. And figuring out how to better protect the club’s expensive stable of arms is “by far the No. 1 thing that keeps me up at night,” Friedman said.
“I mean, everything from my brain is about what we can do, like, how we can solve this,” Friedman added, the self-described “deep dive” the organization took into pitching injuries this offseason having yet to yield better results. “It's like a game of Whack-a-Mole, and things keep popping up. … The definition of enough depth, I think is a fool’s errand. I don't know what enough depth means. I think more is always better with pitching depth.”
But, with the team ranking 21st in the majors with a 4.18 team earned-run average, what they have currently certainly isn’t enough.
Dodgers pitcher Tony Gonsolin can't field a ball hit by the Angels' Luis Rengifo in the second inning Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“It is what it is, I guess,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You just sort of have to deal with things as they come up.”
Gonsolin’s bloody thumb was the latest unexpected dilemma, arising when the pitcher picked at some dead skin on his thumb after his pregame warm-up and “took some good skin with it,” he said. “Just wouldn't stop bleeding."
After Gonsolin gave up a leadoff home run to Zach Neto on a sunny afternoon at Dodger Stadium, trainers came to the mound to check on his right throwing hand. As they examined him, applying a skin adhesive to address the problem, the television broadcast zoomed in on streaks of blood covering the backside of his pants.
While Gonsolin said he didn’t want to use his bloody thumb as an excuse, his struggle to command the baseball quickly became obvious. With one out, he walked Yoán Moncada, looking visibly uncomfortable as he sprayed the ball wide of the zone. In a 2-and-0 count to his next batter, Taylor Ward, Gonsolin threw a fastball over the heart of the plate. Ward crushed it for a two-run homer.
“I just couldn't execute pitches,” said Gonsolin, whose 4.05 ERA still ranks second among the Dodgers’ current five-man rotation. “I'm not going to blame my thumb or whatever. Just didn't pitch good today."
Gonsolin did settle down from there, giving up just one more run the rest of the way. But his pitch count never got back under control, requiring 97 throws to get through four innings.
It was already the 14th time in 47 games that a Dodgers starter failed to work into the fifth, and left them with just 13 combined innings from their starters in this weekend’s series sweep by the Angels.
“We were fortunate to get him through four, but still, you know, with what we went through this series with the starters, there's a lot of innings our ‘pen had covered, and that's unfortunate,” Roberts said.
Indeed, all those short starts have had a cascading effect on the team’s relievers. And pitchers like Banda have had to compensate as a result.
Sunday’s outing marked Banda’s 21st appearance this season, becoming the fifth Dodgers reliever to reach that mark. Entering the day, no other team had more than three.
Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas shouts in frustration after striking out against the Angels in the seventh inning Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
After pitching a clean seventh, Banda returned for the eighth and was bitten again by a common problem. In a 3-and-1 count against d’Arnaud, he threw a center-cut sinker that d’Arnaud crushed to left. It was Banda’s fifth home run given up, tying the total he allowed in 48 appearances over last season. It raised his ERA to 4.37, more than a run above his mark last season.
“I think that there's a lot of sinkers that are not sinking, they're not commanded. He's getting into some bad counts. There's times where he's not landing his slider,” Roberts said of Banda’s struggles. “So I think it's just a compilation of things.”
And this time, the Dodgers couldn’t answer, suffering their first three-game Freeway Series sweep to the Angels since 2010, and first three-game sweep at home to anybody since 2023.
“I think, to be honest, we just didn't pitch well this series,” Roberts said.
Until the pitching staff gets healthy, it’s a shortcoming that will continue to threaten the Dodgers.
Jalen Williams hit 24 points for the Thunder, who have never won the NBA title [Reuters]
Oklahoma City Thunder crushed the Denver Nuggets 125-93 in the decisive game of their play-off semi-finals to book a showdown with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals.
A Nuggets win on Thursday night took the series to a seventh game, but Denver were swept away in their seventh meeting.
MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shone for the Thunder, scoring 35 points as the West's top seeds reached the Conference finals for the first time since 2016.
Denver have played more game sevens over the last seven years than any team, but are now 4-3 in decisive matches after the loss in Oklahoma.
Their three-time MVP Nikola Jokic scored 20 points, but was kept largely quiet as the hosts took a 60-46 lead at the break.
And they extended that lead as the night wore on, with a 24-point contribution from Jalen Williams, to the delight of the home crowd.
With the Indiana Pacers playing the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals, there could be a new name on the NBA trophy for the first time in at least 52 years.
The Knicks were last champions in 1973, while Oklahoma, Indiana and Minnesota have never won.
The Conference finals begin on Wednesday, 21 May, with the Thunder hosting the Timberwolves (02:30 BST).
The Boston Bruins are extremely close to getting another first-round draft pick.
When the B’s dealt captain Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers at the NHL trade deadline in March, they got a conditional 2027 second-round pick in return. That selection would upgrade to a first-rounder if the defending champs reached the Eastern Conference Final and Marchand played in at least 50 percent of Florida’s playoff games.
One of those conditions was met Sunday night when the Panthers eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs with a 6-1 win in Game 7 of their second-round series. The Panthers clinched a conference final berth for the third straight season as a result.
The last condition for the pick to upgrade to a first-rounder is Marchand playing in at least half of the Panthers’ postseason matchups. According to 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson, this condition applies to the entire Panthers playoff run, and not just the first two rounds.
Marchand has played in all 12 of the Panthers’ playoff games so far. Barring an unforeseen injury, he’s very likely to play every game, especially when you consider how well he’s playing (12 points in 12 games). The Panthers can only play in 14 more games (if they go to Game 7 in each of the last two rounds), which means their maximum number of potential games played is 26.
So if Marchand plays in Game 1 of the Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, he’ll get to 13 games played and meet the 50 percent condition.
The Boston Herald’s Steve Conroy has reported that the 2027 first-rounder owed to the Bruins (assuming all conditions are met) is top-10 protected, so if the pick does fall in the top 10, it would convey as an unprotected 2028 first-round pick.
If the Bruins do get this first-round pick from the Panthers, it would give them five picks in Round 1 over the next three drafts.
It remains to be seen whether the Bruins will keep all of these first-round picks. The B’s do have one of the league’s worst prospect pools, but if they want to compete right now, it might make sense to package some picks to try to acquire a star player.
May 18, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) passes around Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun (0) in the second quarter during game seven of the second round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
Oklahoma City has the likely MVP on its roster, but all season long its calling card was its defense — getting stops and turning those into transition offense fueled a 68-win regular season.
It also led to a Game 7 win against Denver — particularly in an 18-5 run to end the first half, which changed the game.
That run had the Nuggets up by 14 at the half, a lead that stretched to 23 just a minute-and-a-half into the second half. It was all Thunder the rest of the way and by 9:12 in the fourth quarter it was a 30-point game and Nuggets interim coach David Adelman emptied his bench.
In the end it was a 125-93 win that puts the Thunder through to the Western Conference Finals, taking the series 4-3. Minnesota will be in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night to open the West finals.
SGA POWERS OKC TO WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS!!!!
⛈️ 35 points ⛈️ 4 assists ⛈️ 3 steals ⛈️ 12-19 from the floor
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looked like an MVP with 35 points on 12-of-19 shooting Sunday, but what won the game was the Thunder's role players stepping up:
• Jalen Williams scored 24 points with seven assists.
• Alex Caruso did a brilliant job as the primary defender on Nikola Jokic, harassing the two-time MVP into a human night (20 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists) while scoring 11 points himself.
• Chet Holmgren had 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Those points didn’t come because the Thunder were bombing away from 3 — they shot 30.8% on the night — but in the paint, where the Thunder scored 64 points before both coaches emptied their benches. It took seven games, but the Thunder finally figured out how to score against the Nuggets' zone defense, by getting the ball to a player at the free throw line and having a strong finisher cutting out of the dunker’s spot.
Denver looked the more comfortable team in the bright lights early, racing out to a 21-10 lead. Oklahoma City was pressing, missing 3s (they started 0-of-6) and aiming shots. The Nuggets have been here and done this, they got to the rim and with that got eight early free throws.
Aaron Gordon played through a strained hamstring and gave it everything he had, finishing with eight points and 11 rebounds, but he moved slowly all night and was a shell of himself. Christian Braun made plays and stepped up with 19 points, but after that, things fell off. Jamal Murray was 6-of-16 shooting in the face of defensive pressure from Lu Dort and Cason Wallace.
Denver led by five after one quarter, but to start the second David Adelman sat both Jokic and Murray, and the result was a 6-0 Thunder run 1:02 that put Oklahoma City back in the lead.
It was close most of the second quarter until the 18-5 run at the end. Things just snowballed from there.
Denver now heads into an offseason without a formal head coach — although after this run and his performance, David Adelman should have the interim tag removed — and they need to find a new general manager. That person will walk a fine line, trying to find a way to get more around Nikola Jokic while he’s in his prime — more shooting, more athleticism, more depth — and doing so while not spending deep into the luxury tax.
After the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers play Game 7 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series Sunday night, there will be only four teams left in this year's post-season. And no matter which team joins the Carolina Hurricanes, Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers in the conference finals, it's going to be crystal-clear to everyone -- the Buffalo Sabres included -- what it takes to have success to get into the playoffs, and when the games matter most once they get there.
For one thing, you need some degree of generational talent -- whether that's superstars like Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Toronto's Auston Matthews, Dallas' Miro Heiskanen, Florida's Aleksander Barkov and Carolina's Sebastien Aho -- and you need a defense corps that has feisty competitors, including Florida's Aaron Ekblad, Edmonton's Darnell Nurse, Toronto's Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe, Dallas' Esa Lindell, and Carolina's Brent Burns.
Meanwhile, playoff teams also need to have some degree of clutch goaltending. Toronto got that from both Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll this season, as did Edmonton with Calvin Pickard and Stuart Skinner, Florida with Sergei Bobvrovsky, Carolina with Frederik Andersen, and Dallas with Jake Oettinger.
And you also need a good deal of quality depth to help you guard against injuries and your opponents' depth. All five teams that were still active as of Sunday afternoon have depth to spare, as the Hurricanes, Stars, Leafs, Panthers and Oilers all have benefitted from quality performers throughout the lineup.
The Sabres, on the other hand, haven't yet been able to boast of any of those things. Yes, Buffalo has Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, but you probably can't put those three youngsters in the top-10 of their positions -- at least, not yet. And while Buffalo may eventually have a high-end goalie in Devon Levi, you can't say he's anywhere close to the top-10 among netminders right now, either. Finally, while the Sabres have a slew of prospects they hope will be on the rise, it's not accurate to compare them to the best in the NHL in the depth department.
That's the challenge ahead for Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams -- put the Sabres in a top-three or top-five position in at least one of those areas to get things started. Asking them to be in a top-three or top-five area in those three different areas is a tall order indeed, but if Buffalo ever is going to win a couple playoff rounds and give Sabres fans true reason to be optimistic regarding their championship aspirations, they have to start somewhere.
That initial area of strength is probably their defense corps, but if Buffalo has that and they don't have elite netminding and overall high-quality depth, they're going to continue to struggle, and their 14-year playoff drought is going to continue.
Teams that eventually rise through the ranks are built with painstaking attention to detail, and if even the slightest element isn't up to snuff, they'll be eliminated from the post-season in short order. So that's what Adams has to do in the months and years ahead -- figure out how to get the Sabres to be difference-makers and needle-movers in far more than one key department.
If there's any doubt about the areas we've covered above, Buffalo will be making more excuses to a fan base that has to be sick to their stomach from excuses. You either have what it takes to be better than 28 other NHL teams in crucial areas or you don't -- and right now, the Sabres don't.
