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Mets' big three on offense all starting to heat up simultaneously: 'That's what we envisioned'

It took 59 games, but for the first time this season since joining forces, Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso all went yard as the Metsbeat the Colorado Rockies, 5-3, on Sunday afternoon to complete the series sweep and cap off a 7-2 homestand.

New York is now 15 games above .500 at 37-22 which is the most games they've been above .500 this season. What's most impressive about that is it did it, for the most part, without its big three all clicking at the same time.

But over the weekend against the Rockies who are on pace to be historically bad this season, the trio turned it on.

"That’s probably the first time if I’m not mistaken," manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game about Lindor, Soto and Alonso all homering in the same game. "There’s three really good hitters at the top and it’s fun to see them going deep in the same game. That’s what we envisioned. When you got those three at the top, it’s pretty special. We saw it today and hopefully they’ll get going here."

Alonso started the home run train with his three-run blast in the fourth inning that gave the Mets a 3-1 lead. The first baseman had a hit in all three games of the series and after a career-long power outage ended at the start of the homestand, he's now hit three home runs in his last seven games to give him 12 on the season.

After Colorado tied the game against Clay Holmes in the next half-inning thanks to a wind-aided two-run homer, Lindor wasted no time to retake the lead with a long ball of his own. Like Alonso's, the shortstop's homer was a no-doubter and capped a memorable series and homestand for the 31-year-old.

Suddenly raging hot, Lindor went 6-for-11 against the Rockies, including two walks and three home runs. He now leads the team with 13 dingers and has his OPS back to .845 on the season.

"You try to go out there and play your best and when Francisco is going, obviously, at the top it makes everyone else’s job easier, whether he’s getting on base or driving the ball the way he’s doing it," Mendoza said. "And you see it, every time he goes deep it’s usually with runners on base (or) to take the lead. He’s pretty clutch. Great player here and you gotta embrace it and enjoy it."

Then there was Soto who did not have a hit until the eighth inning, although he was hit by a pitch and walked in his two prior at-bats. Still holding on to a one-run lead from Lindor's home run back in the fifth after Colorado's bullpen pitched well, Soto cracked a solo shot on a 3-2 pitch that had just enough legs to get out and give the Mets an insurance run for Edwin Diaz in the ninth.

The home run was Soto's second in as many days after the right-fielder went back-to-back with Brandon Nimmo on Saturday which ended a homer-less streak of his own.

Not having played his best in his first season in Queens so far and owning a career-low .224 batting average before the weekend series, the 26-year-old finally perked up at the end of the homestand and is now 4-for-his-last-9 with two home runs and a double.

"Coming through for the team is always great so I’m really happy with that," Soto said. "I’ve felt good since Day 1, the results just haven’t been there. So for me, finally I’m getting some balls landing, finding some holes and some gaps. We just gotta keep working on it."

New York will now leave home where it is an MLB-best 24-7 this year to embark on a seven-game West Coast road trip, starting with four games against the Los Angeles Dodgers whom the Mets took two out of three at the beginning of their homestand.

The Mets have not had the same success on the road and are 13-15 away from Citi Field. They'll look to turn those road misfortunes around starting on Monday night. Hopefully their big three are all still clicking when they arrive to Los Angeles.

"Obviously their talent jumps off the page and for us, we just need to stay in our area, stay locked in and really play our game," Alonso said about the Dodgers. "That’s really it."

"We gotta keep going, we got a long ways to go," Mendoza added. "The mentality is one series at a time, one day at a time."

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Minnesota Wild Leave Prospect Kalem Parker Unsigned At June 1 Deadline

Each year, a few prospects have their NHL rights expire on June 1. This would happen if they are not signed to an Entry-Level Contract (ELC) by June 1. The Minnesota Wild have one prospect eligible. 

Kalem Parker was a sixth round pick by the Wild in 2023. The 6-foot defenseman posted his second consecutive 40-point season in the Western Hockey League (WHL) this year.

Parker, 20, recorded ten goals, 30 assists, and 40 points in 66 WHL games this season with the Calgary Hitman and the Moose Jaw Warriors.

He has 24 goals, 22 assists, and 146 points in 286 career WHL games across five seasons. 

Former Minnesota Wild Players In The 2025 Stanley Cup Finals.

REPORT: Possible Landing Spots For Minnesota Wild's Marco Rossi.

Minnesota Wild Free Agent Target: Brock Nelson.

There are a few players who weren't signed by the team that drafted them by the deadline that have panned out before. Emil Lilleberg, a defenseman, was a fourth round pick by the Arizona Coyotes in 2021. He did not sign and has played the last two NHL seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He had 19 points in 76 games this season.

The Wild left Servac Petrovsky unsigned last year and he decided to sign a contract in the Czechia league with HC Bílí Tygři Liberec.

We will see what happens with Parker. The Wild did not sign him before the deadline which makes him a free agent. 

Photo Credit: Apr 26, 2025; Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; General view of the ice surface prior to the game between the Minnesota Wild and the Vegas Golden Knights in game four of the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Fedyck-Imagn Images.

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Kings Sign Kirill Kirsanov

Credit @thedraftanalyst

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Los Angeles Kings signed defenseman Kirill Kirsanov to a two-year entry-level contract through the 2026-27 season. Kirsanov was drafted by the Kings in the third round (84th overall) in the 2021 Draft.

In an offseason where the Kings are dealing with another Russian defenseman's pending contract or lack of contract, Vladislav Gavrikov, Ken Holland's first move was signing prospect Kirsanov. Not to portray the move was a swap out for Gavrikov should he not sign, as the two are entirely different defensemen.

However, they have some of the same qualities, aka safe-event-free hockey. In 34 games for Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), Russia's top professional hockey league, he recorded three goals and seven points (3-4=7) with eight penalty minutes (PIM) and a plus-5 rating (19 total points in 120 KHL games with three teams).

He's been touted for having a mature game and has spent five seasons in what is considered the second-best hockey league in the world. Once again, this shouldn't be seen as a move to act as a safety net if Gavrikov goes unsigned and hits free agency. It is, however, a good sign that the defensive pipeline is getting shored up, with prospects getting dealt left and right during Rob Blake's tenure.

Kirsanov represents a wildcard for the franchise in a pivotal season for Holland and the company.

The Russian defenseman will likely get a straight ticket to Ontario, where he should manage top minutes as the number one/two. He truly will live the 'wildcard' tag if he can play up the LA Kings 2way standard on the backend, maybe a mid-season call-up, even if the Kings desperately need a puck mover.

I'm unsure what his future looks like in LA, especially with the usage and approach towards Jordan Spence in the playoffs. Spence could be on the way out by his or team's design. Jacob Moverare hasn't been the answer as a potential top four guy in LA since his drafting almost a decade ago.

The Kings will hit free agency licking their chops, and with Holland at the helm, they should be aggressive. Kirsanov, while not a backup plan, is a good sign for a very questionable backend, which looks to be their Achilles heel heading into 2025-26.

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Slugger Adolis García sits again as Rangers look for him to make 'mechanical changes' at the plate

ARLINGTON, Texas — Slumping Rangers slugger Adolis García was held out of Texas’ lineup for the third consecutive day Sunday, with president of baseball operations Chris Young saying the club wants the 2023 ALCS MVP to make some mechanical changes.

“We need him to kind of commit to some of these changes that we think will get him back to the ’23 version of himself and help him be the player that we know he can be,” Young said before Texas’ series finale against St. Louis.

García is hitting .155 in the last 20 games with 25 strikeouts. He is hitting .207 overall, with seven homers and a team-high 27 RBIs on a team that has struggled offensively. He ranked 14th in the majors with 122 home runs over the past four seasons.

García, who has started 55 of Texas’ 60 games in right field this season, missed only one other game before this weekend, with manager Bruce Bochy saying Friday that García was being given a mental break.

“It’s about the mental reset and coming back with more energy,” García told reporters Saturday. “I’m working on some stuff without the pressure of having to do something up there.”

García, 32, is in the final year of a two-year contract.

The anticipated return of Evan Carter to the active roster on Tuesday, joining Wyatt Langford, Alejandro Osuna and Sam Haggerty, further crowds the field of Rangers outfield regulars as García tries to return to the lineup.

“It’s going to be performance-driven at this point,” Young said.

Texas also made three roster moves before Sunday’s game. Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (triceps fatigue) was placed on the 15-day injured list retroactive to last Thursday, catcher Tucker Barnhart was designated for assignment and right-hander Codi Heuer was selected from Triple-A Round Rock.

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Shane Bieber's second rehab start on Thursday brings hope for Guardians' rotation

CLEVELAND — Shane Bieber will make his second rehab start on Thursday with the possibility of the 2020 American League Cy Young winner rejoining the Cleveland Guardians rotation by late June or early July.

The right-hander — who had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow last April — is scheduled to start for the Double-A Akron RubberDucks after throwing 2 1/3 scoreless innings in an Arizona Complex League game on Saturday. Bieber, who turned 30 on Saturday, faced nine batters, allowed one hit and struck out five.

Chris Antonetti, Cleveland’s president of baseball operations, was pleased that Bieber was averaging 93 mph on his fastball.

“It was really fun to watch Shane just get back out in a competitive setting,” Antonetti said before the Guardians faced the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday. “He’s worked on adding some complementary pitches or changing the way some of his pitch profiles look. So his changeup in particular had maybe more depth than it’s had in the past.”

After spending most of his time at the team’s spring training complex in Goodyear, Arizona, Bieber is likely to remain in Northeast Ohio for the remainder of his rebab. The Guardians top affiliates are in Columbus, Akron and Eastlake, Ohio, which are all less than a two-hour drive from Progressive Field.

The plan is for Bieber to throw up to 50 pitches again on Thursday before ramping things up.

With the two-time All-Star likely to pitch every five days, it is possible his return to the rotation could occur between June 25 through 29, when the Guardians have a homestand against the Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals.

“We have a pretty good plan in place, but the one thing we want to make sure, especially with Tommy John, is that we’re really deliberate in helping him get back to a point where once he returns, he’s able to pitch for the balance of the season without issues,” Antonetti said.

Bieber’s return — whenever it is — should provide a lift for a rotation that has struggled the first two-plus months of the season. Guardians’ starters went into Sunday’s game with the fourth-highest ERA in the American League (4.25).

Tanner Bibee is 4-5 with a 3.86 ERA while Ben Lively will have Tommy John surgery later this week.

Bieber agreed to a one-year, $14 million contract last fall with a $16 million player option for 2026.

Cleveland (31-26) enters Sunday six games behind Detroit in the AL Central, but has one of the three wild-card spots.

“I think we’re right in the mix. I think what we’re seeking to do is be a little bit more consistent in all areas of the game, whether that’s starting pitching, our bullpen, defense, offense, all of those areas,” Antonetti said.

“I think we’ve seen periods of what we’re capable of doing, but we feel like we still have our best baseball yet in front of us and that’s part of something that goes along with being a young team.”

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Russell believes Verstappen should have been disqualified for Spanish F1 GP crash

  • World champion given 10sec penalty for collision

  • Russell: ‘It felt very deliberate … it felt strange’

George Russell has insisted that Max Verstappen should have faced disqualification after he crashed into the British driver at the Spanish Grand Prix, claiming he felt the world champion had done so deliberately and that he was setting a bad example for young drivers.

Verstappen, who was bullish after a race where he received a 10‑second penalty that dropped him from fifth at the flag to 10th, dismissed Russell’s comments, maintaining he had no regrets and mocking the British driver’s reactions with the comment: “Well, I’ll bring some tissues next time.”

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Oilers Vs. Panthers: Who Has The Edge In Stats Ahead Of Cup Final?

The Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers enter the Stanley Cup Finals playing some of their best hockey of the season. The two teams also entered the playoffs as the third seed in their divisions and did not have home-ice advantage in any of the series they played. 

The Oilers enter the finals with a 12-4 record, and the Panthers enter with a 12-5 record. The Oilers lead the NHL in goals per game in the playoffs (4.06), and the Panthers lead the NHL with the least goals allowed per game (2.29). Coincidentally, the Panthers rank third in goals scored per game and the Oilers rank fourth in goals allowed per game. 

The teams begin to separate themselves when goaltending and special teams are brought into the equation. The Oilers are clicking at 30 percent on the man advantage, and the Panthers are firing at 23.2 percent. On the penalty kill, the Panthers boast a league-best 87.9 percent success rate, and the Oilers have the third-worst penalty kill, defending just 66.0 percent.

Although Edmonton’s goaltending has improved as the playoffs have gone along, Sergei Bobrovsky is posting a .912 save percentage, and Stuart Skinner is posting a .904 SP.

The Oilers have the two best players in the series, those being reigning Conn Smythe winner Connor McDavid and the NHL’s Maurice “Rocket” Richard winner Leon Draisaitl, and the dynamic duo lead the post-season in points. The Oilers' depth is producing like they never have before, but no team is deeper than the Panthers. They are led by two-time Selke Trophy winner Aleksander Barkov but are receiving scoring and defensive contributions from their top three lines. Their top nine forwards are all scoring at a 0.70-point per-game pace or better. 

Despite the plethora of factors that affect the game, a series is won or lost at 5-on-5. Through three rounds, the Oilers hold an expected goals rate of 54.42 percent at 5-on-5, outscoring their opponents 42-26 and hold the advantage in high-danger chances 187-142, according to Natural Stat Trick. Similarly, the Panthers have been just as dominant. They hold the advantage in expected goals with a rate of 54.96 percent at 5-on-5, outscoring their opponents 47-28 and are winning the high-danger chances battle 155-137. 

Aleksander Barkov defends against Connor McDavid during the first period in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup final. (Jim Rassol-Imagn Images)

Last year’s matchup saw the Panthers storm out to a 3-0 series lead before the Oilers clawed back to force a Game 7. The Panthers ultimately prevailed, but the series was incredibly even at 5-on-5. The Panthers held a slight advantage in expected goals (51.26 percent), high-danger chances (48-46) and Corsi For (53.12 percent). The goal scoring was dead even, with each team scoring 14 goals at 5-on-5. But in all situations, the Oilers outscored the Panthers 23-18, although most of the scoring discrepancy could be attributed to Edmonton’s 8-1 victory in Game 4. 

The two teams are balanced, and made for post-season hockey. With stars on each team, a long seven-game series would surprise no one. 

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Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto all homer as Mets complete sweep of Rockies

The Mets completed a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies at Citi Field, winning Sunday afternoon's affair by a score of 5-3.

Here are the key takeaways...

-Have a series, Francisco Lindor. The Mets shortstop homered for the third time of the three-game series in the bottom of the fifth inning, a solo shot to left that put the Mets up 4-3 after the Rockies had just fought back to tie the game.

Lindor ended up with six hits and three RBI in the series, and the Mets have now won each of the last 26 games in which Lindor has homered.

-Don't look now, but Juan Soto is starting to find his power stroke. After homering on Saturday, Soto went yard again, this time lifting a solo shot to give the Mets a late insurance run. Soto now has 10 home runs on the season, with his OPS now at .792.

-Clay Holmes has been terrific for the Mets over the first two months of the season, and he was mostly excellent again on Sunday afternoon. Holmes was plagued by a pair of long balls, as Orlando Arcia hit a solo shot in the third inning (just out of the reach of a leaping Tyrone Taylor) and Tyler Freeman hit a two-run homer in the top of the fifth, but he was otherwise excellent.

Holmes pitched 7.0 innings for the first time in his career, allowing just three earned runs on three hits with three strikeouts and no walks. Holmes has now allowed three runs or fewer in 10 of his 12 starts.

-On the other side, Colorado starter Carson Palmquist was dealing early, striking out six Mets over his first 3.0 scoreless innings of work. But the Mets got to him in the fourth, putting two runners on before Pete Alonso provided the power, launching his 12th home run of the season to right field to give the Mets a 3-1 lead.

Palmquist went 4.2 innings, allowing four earned runs on four hits, striking out eight while walking two and allowing a pair of homers.

-Edwin Diaz snapped a streak of hitters going 0-for-their-last-30 against him, but the closer struck out three hitters in a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the save.

-A day after exiting the game with a calf cramp,Brandon Nimmo was not in Sunday’s starting lineup, with manager Carlos Mendoza saying the club wants to be overly cautious due to the trickiness of the calf.

-Starling Marte made his third appearance of the season in left field, scoring a run on Alonso's homer, and Nimmo would eventually come into the game as a defensive replacement, a sign that all is good with the outfielder.

Who was the game MVP?

While the stars (Alonso, Lindor, and Soto) provided the pop, Holmes gets the nod for his first-career 7.0-inning performance.

Highlights

Upcoming schedule

The Mets have a four-game 2024 NLCS rematch with the Los Angeles Dodgers up next, beginning on Monday night at 10:10 p.m. on SNY.

Paul Blackburn, who has been rehabbing from a knee injury, will make his first start of the season, while the Dodgers haven’t announced a starter.

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Canadiens: Did Pascal Vincent Miss The Carousel?

When the NHL season came to a close, many teams decided they needed to go in a new direction with their coaching staff and fired their bench boss. At one stage, the Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Seattle Kraken and Vancouver Canucks needed a new coach. It was initially thought that the Montreal Canadiens’ farm team head coach, Pascal Vincent, could be targeted by one of those teams.

However, only two teams remain without a pilot at the moment: the Bruins and the Penguins. According to Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts podcast, appointments are likely to come this weekend or early next week, and Vincent’s name hasn’t been mentioned as a possible option for those two teams.

Canadiens Farm Team Without Two Big Players For Game Three
Canadiens: Could There Be A Big Trade In The Works With Minnesota?
Canadiens: What Demidov Learned So Far

In his post-mortem of the season, Montreal Canadiens' GM Kent Hughes said he wouldn’t stop a team from talking to Vincent if they were interested in hiring him as a head coach, even though the Laval Rocket was still playing in the playoffs.

However, Vincent himself stated that he was entirely focused on the AHL playoffs and essentially said that if a team wanted him, they wouldn’t mind waiting until the end of the playoffs to speak with him. While that made sense, considering the number of vacancies and the difficulty in finding the right coach, perhaps teams couldn’t afford to wait, fearing that other candidates would be gone by the time the Rocket was eliminated.

Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas mentioned several names as possibilities for Boston and Pittsburgh, such as Joe Sacco, Mike Love, Jay Leach, Marco Sturm, Jay Woodcroft, DJ Smith, and David Quinn.

The Canadiens organization won’t be sad if, in the end, Vincent remains in post with the Laval Rocket. In his first year at the helm, the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate had a 48-19-5 record and won the regular-season championship. They are now in the Eastern Conference Final of the Calder Cup playoffs, and even though they are down 2-0 in the series, Vincent and his coaching staff have done a masterful job all year long. Given how many significant young prospects are in the Canadiens’ pipeline, there’s no doubt that keeping Vincent would be a blessing.

Photo credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

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Giro d’Italia winner Simon Yates hails ‘huge moment in my career’

  • Lancastrian claims second Grand Tour victory

  • ‘I’m in disbelief I have managed to pull it off’

Simon Yates reflected on a “sweet success” he had been targeting for much of his life after a spectacular and decisive coup in Saturday’s final mountain stage ensured he would ride to victory in the Giro d’Italia on Sunday.

At 32, the Lancastrian had not been tipped to add to his sole Grand Tour victory, the 2018 Tour of Spain, but in the mammoth stage over the Colle Delle Finestre, he confounded those expectations to win the sport’s second most prestigious race, after the Tour de France.

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Can New York take one more step with Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns as their best players?

The most telling comment of the Eastern Conference Finals came from Pacers coach Rick Carlisle after Game 3, just after his team blew a 20-point lead and let the Knicks back in the series. Much of the Knicks' second-half surge that night came while All-NBA point guard Jalen Brunson was on the bench due to foul trouble.

Carlisle said the comeback was due to the Knicks having their "better defensive players" on the court.

In what was a season to be celebrated, defense was always the issue in New York. Knicks players are on their way to Cancun today because their core players couldn't guard well enough when it came time to slow the space-and-pace Pacers. That all started with Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. For the entire Eastern Conference Finals, Brunson was -26 on a Knicks team that was -11 total.

It begs the question: Can the Knicks take that next step with those two as their best players?

One can argue that after this last series, OG Anunoby is the Knicks' second-best player. However you choose to rank the roster, the Knicks likely bring back their top seven players from this season have the taxpayer mid-level exception and other moves to add some talent.

Can Leon Rose and the front office add a couple more quality rotation players who can defend, then get Thibodeau to trust them and play the bench next season?

Successful Knicks season and missed opportunity

This was the best Knicks season in decades — it was their first Eastern Conference Finals since 2000 and Madison Square Garden was electric. Timothée Chalamet spent so much time with Ben Stiller that he might appear in the next season of "Succession." New York had the fifth most wins in the league and was one of the final four teams standing.

This season was also a missed opportunity. The Knicks were healthy and slayed the Goliath of the East in Boston — a series where New York was the better team even before Jayson Tatum's injury. There was a path to the Finals and maybe a ring.

That path should still be there next season. In a more wide-open East (with Boston's Tatum and Milwaukee's Damian Lillard expected to miss most, if not all, of the season due to significant injuries), the smart play may be to run it back, but will it be good enough?

Knicks need depth, defense

Brunson and Towns both made All-NBA and led New York to the fifth-best offense in the NBA this season. They needed that from the duo to cover up a mediocre defense where those two were part of the problem. The Knicks' defense improved in the second half of the season, particularly with Mitchell Robinson on the court, but it still had its limitations. After the All-Star break, New York had the 11th-ranked defense in the league, and it was 1.8 points per 100 possessions better than it had been before the break.

Still, there were places for the Pacers and other teams to attack in the half court, and Indiana largely won this series on transition buckets where Knicks players simply did not get back.

Thibodeau faces a paradox because Brunson and Towns drive the offense but are defensive targets.

In Game 6, the Knicks' frustrations with Towns' defensive lapses were evident. Towns played in more drop coverage off pick-and-rolls, which may not have been the plan based on reactions from teammates. Frustration with Towns' defensive execution is not new to this series, it was an issue all season and reportedly led to a lot of team meetings.

This is the first time the Knicks have been in the conference finals in more than two decades — that should be celebrated. Beyond that, Knicks fans can rightfully say that if their team doesn't blow Game 1 (giving up a 20-point lead and losing in overtime), they might win this series (or, at least they would be headed home for Game 7).

However, the Pacers dictated the run of play, and the style of play through much of the Eastern Conference Finals. They were the better team. At the heart of that is Tyrese Haliburton's ability to get everyone around him involved and lift up his teammates in a way that the ball-dominant Brunson does not. Haliburton was the perfect conductor of a more ensemble cast, one that fits together beautifully.

Knicks offensive diversity

New York's offense with Brunson leading it is very station-to-station. It's predictable and involves a lot of pounding the ball before one of the stars tries to beat their guy. That works against most teams due to the talent Brunson and Towns (and Anunoby, and Mikal Bridges) possess, but against elite defenses and teams, it often falls short.

The book on how to defend the Knicks has been in place for a couple of seasons: Use a wing to guard Towns and assign your center to Josh Hart — a non-threat as a 3-point shooter — and let him protect the paint on drives. That has stayed the strategy because it works. Against a team like the Pacers, with a good wing defender in Pascal Siakam and a solid rim protector in Myles Turner, that strategy is particularly effective.

With the ball-dominant Brunson running the show, the Knicks' offense lacks diversity in its attack. Thibodeau had to lean into Landry Shamet against the Pacers because he could bring a little more offensive diversity — a guy who could be run off screens and score — that they had been lacking.

Take a look at what some other NBA executives and front office personnel told ESPN.

"I love Brunson. But I'm not sure you can win with a ball-dominant player like him," the West executive said.

"There's a ceiling for how far he can take you because you have to play the way he plays," the scout said. "Those guys need a specific player next to them."

Brunson is an elite point guard, but the Knicks need more shot creation around him, more players to take the burden off his shoulders. Bridges was supposed to be that, but Anunoby filled that role more in the playoffs. The Knicks front office needs to spend part of the summer finding players who can take over some of that shot creation and get others involved.

Those players also need to be high-level defenders. Finding those guys is not easy.

New York is close, but they have steps to take if they are going to beat the Pacers and Cavaliers next season (and maybe Boston), plus any other teams that make a bold offseason move (Toronto?).

The Knicks cannot have a better +/- in a playoff series with their star off the court next season. We know what Brunson is and what he can do, but he and Towns need a little more help while this window is open.

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Alcaraz turns himself in over broken rule during French Open win over Shelton

  • Spaniard gives up point after admitting to infraction

  • American men make quarter-finals for first time since 2003

Carlos Alcaraz called himself out for breaking the rules at the French Open and conceded a point during his fourth-round victory over Ben Shelton on Sunday.

Early in the second set, Shelton whipped a passing shot well out of Alcaraz’s reach. The Spaniard flung his racket and, as it flipped through the air, the strings somehow not only made contact with the ball but sent it back over the net.

Initially, the defending champion was awarded the point. But he told the chair umpire that he had broken the rules because he wasn’t holding his racket when it touched the ball. The point went to Shelton, and the Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd gave Alcaraz a round of applause.

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Kashawn Aitcheson Is the Perfect Prospect For The Rangers To Select In 2025 NHL Draft

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If the New York Rangers keep the 12th overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and this specific prospect is available, the team should select Kashawn Aitcheson. 

The Rangers could use more defensemen in their pipeline and Aitcheson has the body type and skill set to be a quality NHL defenseman in the future. 

Standing at about 6-foot-1, 198 pounds, Aitcheson uses his size and frame to his advantage as he plays a physically demanding game, a perfect quality in a blueliner. 

In addition to his steady defensive presence, the 18-year-old prospect boasts an impressive offensive arsenal for a defenseman, making him the ultimate package.

“Aitcheson is one of my favorite prospects in the draft,” Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff wrote. “He has the potential to be an intimidating force in the NHL – someone who just gives opponents nothing to work with. His physicality is the best attribute of his game because he’s willing to get involved with just about anyone. Aitcheson already has 20 goals, which is no small feat for an OHL defenseman.”

In 64 games with the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League this past season, Aitcheson recorded 26 goals, 33 assists, and 59 points. 

The majority of mock drafts have Aitcheson going in the vicinity of the Rangers’ pick and he’s expected to be one of the first defensemen off the board.

Keep your eyes out for Aitcheson because he’s one of the more intriguing prospects that could fall to the Blueshirts.