Make no mistake about it: the Philadelphia Flyers have officially fleeced the Toronto Maple Leafs, robbing them blind in NHL trade deadline Scott Laughton trade.
By adding budding Russian winger Nikita Grebenkin and a 2027 first-round pick, the Flyers continue to look the part of a talent-hoarding, up-and-coming franchise.
The Maple Leafs? Well, a brutal 6-1 Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers on Sunday night has more than likely ended the reign of the 'Core 4' in Toronto, especially given that superstar forward Mitch Marner is set to test free agency this summer for the first time in his career.
Marner had just one point across the Maple Leafs' final four games with Toronto's big guns once again left to do all of the heavy lifting offensively.
Laughton, an Ontario native, did not provide much of tangible value to the Maple Leafs after the Flyers swapped him and some inconsequential picks for Grebenkin and a 2027 first.
The beloved former Flyers forward scored just two goals, two assists, and four points in 20 regular season games, and managed to add just two assists across 13 playoff games. No goals, just two assists.
And while Laughton individually was not exactly a disaster, the Maple Leafs still cannot pay the Flyers what they did in the trade and come away from it with zero playoff goals.
After all, Laughton had five goals, four assists, and nine points in 15 playoff games back in 2019-20, the last time the Flyers made the playoffs.
With Marner and, potentially, John Tavares out the door this summer, the Maple Leafs are going to need scoring (and depth at every position) in short order. Laughton is not giving them that, while the Flyers are laughing to the bank with a stud prospect with NHL experience and a first-round pick that could have otherwise been used in a trade to reel in a bigger fish.
Comparatively speaking, former Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand cost the Panthers a first-round pick to acquire now that they have made it past the second round. Marchand had a goal and two assists to ice the Leafs in Game 7.
In short, there's a big difference in what the Maple Leafs sought to do and what the Flyers and Panthers ultimately did.
The Maple Leafs had their lunch money taken in the Laughton deal, and now that they're staring down a mass exodus of star talent, the Flyers' new 2027 first-round pick is looking mighty good right now.
Shea Langeliers (23) celebrates with Tyler Soderstrom (21) and Brent Rooker (25) after hitting a two-run home run for the Athletics against the New York Yankees on May 10. (Sara Nevis / Associated Press)
No team has won a series from the Dodgers this month until the Angels swept them over the weekend. For the Angels, a great weekend.
On one hand, maybe this is the start of something big. The Minnesota Twins just put up a 13-game winning streak. Why can’t the Angels?
On the other hand, the Angels just swept the world’s best team and they still are in last place.
No team had a gloomier outlook than the Athletics this time last year, coming off back-to-back 100-loss seasons and playing out a somber final season at the Oakland Coliseum. But the A’s finished ahead of the Angels last season, and the A’s are ahead of the Angels again this season.
The A’s rebuild all the time: build, win, lose the best players and lose lots of games, rebuild. For all of this century, A’s ownership has maintained it could not spend big without big revenue from a new stadium. When the A’s get to Las Vegasin three or four years, we’ll see.
The A’s never have spent $70 million on a contract, or $100 million on an annual team payroll. In this century, however, they have more postseason appearances and more winning seasons than the Angels.
After the 2021 season — a fourth consecutive winning season that included three playoff berths — the A’s decided it would cost them too much to keep winning. The owners locked out players that winter, and the wrecking ball hit as soon as the lockout ended.
“Within the first hour,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said last week at Dodger Stadium, “we had traded Matt Olson.”
The Atlanta Braves acquired Olson, an All-Star first baseman, to replace Freddie Freeman. By week’s end, the A’s had traded two other All-Stars, third baseman Matt Chapman and pitcher Chris Bassitt. By year’s end, they also had traded pitcher Sean Manaea and catcher Sean Murphy.
“That made it very difficult to bounce back quickly without being able to use the free-agent market,” general manager David Forst said.
The Olson trade brought back catcher and cleanup batter Shea Langeliers. The Chapman and Bassitt trades each netted a back-end starting pitcher, Gunnar Hoglund and J.T. Ginn.
Brent Rooker hits a two-run home run against the Yankees on May 10. (Sara Nevis / Associated Press)
“Those are the types of trades we have to hit on to have success,” Kotsay said.
And, without being able to use the free-agent market, the A’s also had to find success with draft picks and waiver claims.
“I’m an example of that,” All-Star outfielder Brent Rooker said. “I was a waiver claim, came in, took advantage, and played well enough to continue to earn at-bats.
“The people here have played a huge part in my development and my success the last few years, to turn what was viewed as a 4-A, roster depth guy into a productive big leaguer.”
The Dodgers do that all the time: Max Muncy, Evan Phillips, Chris Taylor.
David Eckstein, the shortstop on the Angels’ 2002 World Series championship team, was a waiver claim. The Angels hoped that outfielder Mickey Moniak, a first-round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies, might blossom with opportunity and a change of scenery; he turned out to be what Rooker had been told he was.
Of the A’s top picks in the past five drafts, three play prominent roles now: outfielder Tyler Soderstrom and infielders Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson. A fourth, infielder Max Muncy (no relation to the Dodgers’ Max Muncy), has split time this season between triple A and the majors.
They’re all 22 or 23 years old. Forst quickly credited the A’s longtime scouting director, Eric Kubota.
“When you look at our team now, it is clear what an outstanding job Eric and his team have done in the draft the last five years,” Forst said.
Angels shortstop Zach Neto makes a throws to first base against the Seattle Mariners on April 29. (John Froschauer / Associated Press)
The Angels can take a few bows in these areas. Shortstop Zach Neto, a first-round draft pick, is emerging as one of the best players in the American League. Neto, catcher Logan O’Hoppe (trade) and first baseman Nolan Schanuel (first-round draft pick) are the only three Angels to play in at least half the team’s games and perform above the league average.
However, on the night I visited with the A’s last week, Rooker batted third and Langeliers batted fourth, and no one in the starting lineup nor the starting pitcher was older than 30.
That same night for the Angels, veteran stopgaps Yoán Moncada and Jorge Soler batted third and fourth, respectively. Of their 10 starters that night, including the pitcher, five were older than 30.
And, of the 10 starters for the Angels’ triple-A team that night, one was drafted by the team. He was a 13th-round pick, batting eighth.
The Angels’ starting pitchers have been healthy, but on that front the team is a couple injuries from potential disaster.
In the 2021 draft, the Angels attempted to shore up an organizational weakness by drafting all pitchers, all but one of the 21 from college rather than high school and thus closer to the majors. The combined WAR of the two that made it to Anaheim: 0.6.
The A’s organizational winning percentage (the combined record of their minor league teams) ranked fourth among the 30 teams entering play Sunday, with a better run differential than any organization except the Milwaukee Brewers, according to J.J. Cooper of Baseball America.
The Angels’ organizational winning percentage ranked 27th, with a worse run differential than any organization except the Washington Nationals. (The best organizational winning percentage? The Dodgers, of course, tied with the Brewers.)
What the Angels need most are high-end prospects, such as Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages, whom the Angels had agreed to acquire in a 2020 trade vetoed by owner Arte Moreno, and like the ones they could have acquired for Shohei Ohtani in 2022 or 2023. No veteran on the Angels’ active roster would command high-end prospects in return.
Moreno chose to try to win with Ohtani, even after Ohtani had declined to discuss an extension in the year before free agency. Moreno always chooses to try to win, in the name of fans whom he believes would not want to sit through a 100-loss season.
Trouble is, the Angels lost 99 games last season, with too many veteran placeholders and not enough prospects, and attendance fell anyway.
The Angels this season are paying the injured Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon just about as much as the A’s are paying their entire roster. Fangraphs on Sunday put the A’s chance of making the playoffs at 10.7% and the Angels’ chance at 0.8%.
The A’s, with their collection of rising position players, could have been an attractive destination for the affordable and talented Roki Sasaki, who chose the Dodgers.
“There were places he specifically wanted to play,” Forst said, “and Sacramento was not on his list.”
Rebuilds take time, and the A’s are not at the finish line yet. The Angels are treading water until Rendon’s contract expires in 2026 — the same year Neto and O’Hoppe become eligible for salary arbitration. Being active is one thing. Being proactive is quite another.
“The Celtics are committed to $228 million in contracts next season, already $20 million over the second apron, and that’s before decisions on free-agents-to-be in Al Horford and Luke Kornet,” Forsberg wrote Saturday.
That could take the form of trading a key member of the rotation — Sam Hauser, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and even Jaylen Brown are all potential candidates to be moved — and/or letting Horford or Kornet walk in free agency. In short, big moves are coming, especially in the wake of Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury that could cost him most or all of the 2025-26 season.
So, when exactly will all of these moves go down? Here are some key NBA offseason dates to monitor from a Celtics perspective:
June 14-22 (first day after NBA Finals): Teams can negotiate with their own free agents
The good news for Celtics fans? It’s unlikely any drastic changes happen before the NBA Finals end.
While Boston technically can make trades now since its season has ended, the four teams left in the playoffs — the New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves — can’t make any deals. So the Celtics almost certainly will wait until after the Finals to explore all of their options on the trade market (especially since the Thunder specifically own multiple future picks and could be roped into a multi-team deal).
The day after the NBA Finals is also when the C’s can begin negotiating with their three pending unrestricted free agents — Horford, Kornet and Torrey Craig — and restricted free agent Drew Peterson.
June 25-26: 2025 NBA Draft
This is a sneaky-important draft for the Celtics, especially if they unload multiple rotation players.
Boston currently owns two picks — No. 28 overall (first round) and No. 32 overall (second round, via Washington Wizards) — and will be looking for future rotation players on low-cost deals. The Celtics also could explore trading up in the first round to land an impact talent.
The window between the end of the Finals and the start of the draft could be very busy for Boston as Brad Stevens explores potential trades.
Peterson is a restricted free agent and would cost roughly $2 million to keep in the fold. He’s also a strong candidate to stick around if the C’s want low-cost salaries on their roster.
June 30 (6 p.m. ET): Teams can begin negotiating with free agents from other clubs
This date is the “unofficial” start to free agency, so if Horford, Kornet and/or Craig haven’t agreed to stay in Boston by this point, we could hear rumblings about them joining other teams around this time.
The Celtics probably won’t be signing big-ticket free agents given their cap constraints, but if they trade away multiple players, they may need to fill out their roster with lower-cost free agents.
July 6 (12:01 p.m. ET): NBA free agency officially begins
The Celtics can make their signings official after 12 p.m. ET on July 6.
July 6: Jordan Walsh extension deadline
Walsh currently has a team option for 2026-27 before becoming an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2027. If the Celtics like what the future holds for the 2023 second-round pick, they could try to sign him to an extension this offseason, although they may have limited resources to work with.
July 10: NBA Summer League begins
If the Celtics draft a rookie or two, this will be our first opportunity to see them in action.
July 12: Kristaps Porzingis extension deadline
It’s unclear whether Porzingis will even be on the roster at this point, and an extension for the big man seems like a long shot given Boston’s financial situation.
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Eberechi Eze is too good for Palace, Morgan Gibbs-White is pushing for a call-up and is 2025 the year of the underdog?
Why would your fan-favourite player, scorer of That Historic Wembley Goal, in peak form under an excellent manager want to leave? Why would anyone be OK with it? How is this logical? Crystal Palace are now good enough to have Eberechi Eze in the team. Eberechi Eze is also too good to stay at Crystal Palace. Both of these things seem to be true. Oliver Glasner-era Palace are a seriously potent, organised and attractive team. But Eze’s progress is something else. At times during his early Palace career there was a sense of a slightly loose late-developer. His skill level was always exceptional. His use of it now is next-level, his finishing cold and his physique buffed up. Eze does not really have a ceiling. He could play for any team in Europe. But he is also 26 years old with two years left on his contract, and Palace have a model based on development with the likes of Romain Esse ready for a shot. There does not always have to be downside. Selling the man who made the thing happen can still be best for everyone. Barney Ronay
After the Flames qualified for the 2004 post-season for the first
time in seven years, Calgary fans saw a unique first:
Flames forward Martin Gelinas earned the nickname "the
Eliminator" by becoming the first player in NHL history to end three
playoff series with game-winning goals.
All three opponents were division champions.
In the opening round, Calgary took Vancouver to a Game Seven
that went beyond regulation. Gelinas scored 1:25 into overtime.
In the Western Conference Semifinals against Presidents’ Trophy winners Detroit, the Flames bested the Red Wings in six games. Game Six also went
into overtime and Gelinas once again scored the winner with 47 seconds left in
the first OT period.
In the Western Conference Finals, Calgary took care of San
Jose in six games. In the sixth and final game of the series on May 19, 2004, the
Shawinigan-born forward scored 13:02 into the second period. It would turn out
to be the game winner, thus earning Gelinas his nickname.
While the Flames didn’t win the Stanley Cup that year, the
passion brought out by the fanbase during that playoff run captivated the league
like nothing before.
Last but not least, it also made Gelinas a popular figure in Southern Alberta and a notable figure in Flames' lore.
In some ways, this weekend’s Subway Series could’ve been about the Mets taking over this baseball town. They came to the Yankees’ house toting their free-agent prize, Juan Soto, pried from the Bronx last winter, along with a terrific pitching staff, a star shortstop and a better record. Maybe even better buzz citywide.
But the series ended and the Mets certainly didn’t look like the better team, especially after Sunday’s thud of a performance, an 8-2 loss that went kablooey in the eighth inning after Pete Alonso made a horrendous throw at first that allowed the go-ahead run to score, tilting a tight game.
Same old Mets?
Hopefully not. A few months from now, the Mets might be the better team and they’re so talented, on the field and in the front office, that an October stage should be their ultimate proving ground, regardless of what turn the rivalry might take next. The 29-18 Mets lost two of three, but still have a better record than the Yankees (27-19).
But their defense, something David Stearns has said the team could improve, hurt them badly Sunday night. Another recent bugaboo -- hitting with runners in scoring position -- stood out as a fail point once again. The Mets, who are ranked 25th in MLB in average with RISP, were 4-for-25 (.160) in such situations in the three games against the Yanks, including 1-for-7 Sunday.
Overall Sunday, the Mets had just three hits, none after the fourth inning. Soto, who was booed loudly all weekend in a stadium that adored him just a year ago, was 1-for-10 in the series, including 0-for-4 Sunday, with two runs scored. He walked four times, struck out thrice and stole two bases. Yes, there were some hard-hit outs. But there sure were a lot of outs.
To make the rivalry optics worse, the Yankees’ winter Plan B looked A-OK in this head-to-head. Key members of the group of players the Yanks turned to after Soto picked the Mets in a seismic free-agent faceoff were big pinstriped stars on Sunday.
Max Fried threw six sharp innings, Cody Bellinger drove home six runs and blew open the game with an eighth-inning grand slam. Paul Goldschmidt added an insurance RBI single and scored twice. Devin Williams, the demoted closer, contributed a scoreless setup inning both Friday and Sunday and was the winning pitcher in the finale.
Soto moving to Queens for a 15-year, $765-million deal gave a forever jolt to borough rivalry. Never had a player anywhere close to his stature left the Yankees for the Mets. He instantly gave a good team an even bigger, better vibe.
But he’s got to do more. He’s batting .246 with eight home runs and 20 RBI. His .822 OPS over a slow -- for him -- shows how high his floor is. His first foray into the Subway Series as a Met was, to say the least, a disappointment.
It’s a decent descriptor of the Mets for the whole series. They won the middle game, an entertaining affair that had pitching, power and some nifty defense. They lost the two bookends, managing a total of eight hits in the two losses.
Sunday, a first-inning error by Mark Vientos on a grounder hit by the first Yankee hitter, Goldschmidt, opened a path to two quick runs. In the eighth, with the infield in, Alonso fielded Jorbit Vivas’ grounder as Jasson Dominguez broke on contact for the plate.
On Saturday, Alonso threw Dominguez out at the plate on a similar plate. This time, Alonso’s toss sailed wide. Dominguez scored to break a 2-2 tie and the Yankees gorged afterward.
Alonso, to his credit, quickly came out to talk to reporters and gave himself every bit of blame for the loss.
“I just made an awful throw,” Alonso said. “I mean, that whole inning, this game, it’s on me. After that throw, the momentum got out of hand and they had really good at-bats. This one’s on me and it stinks because I had the same play (Saturday). I feel like, for me, that’s a play that I usually make and I can make pretty routinely.
“I had my feet set and I just didn’t get my fingers on top of the baseball and it sailed on me. … It’s really frustrating.”
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he feels like his team has played good defense for stretches this season. But, he acknowledged, there have been plays that should have been made that haven’t been.
“This is something that we got to get better at,” Mendoza said. “And we will.”
They’ll have a chance to show it starting Monday in Boston. Then comes a series with the Dodgers at Citi Field, an NLCS rematch sure to attract eyeballs, to say nothing of hype.
The next crack at the Yankees? That begins July 4 at Citi Field. It’ll be another charged atmosphere, another measuring stick. A chance for Soto to edit the story of his current place in the rivalry.
AUNZ Invitational XV play British & Irish Lions in Brisbane in July
Former Wallaby Toutai Kefu to coach First Nations and Pasifika XV
Incoming Wallabies coach Les Kiss will get an early taste of international rugby when he oversees the AUNZ Invitational XV against the British & Irish Lions in Adelaide.
Queensland Reds mentor Kiss will team up with former All Blacks coach Ian Foster, who was already announced as an assistant for the July fixture, the first time since 1989 that Australia and New Zealand have combined on the field.
From a Maple Leafs perspective, Sunday night's blowout loss had fans fuming at Scotiabank Arena. Several Maple Leafs sweaters were thrown onto the ice, as well as other debris, regardless of whether the play was on or not. And fans started to stream out of the stands with around 10 minutes left to play in the third period.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice and left winger Brad Marchand came to their opposition's defense after the game, specifically when discussing how much pressure the fan base and media put on the Leafs.
“If you look at the heat this team catches, it’s actually really unfortunate,” Marchand told reporters after the game. “They’ve been working and building something really big here for a while, and they were a different brand of hockey this year, and they’re getting crucified, and I don’t think it’s justified.”
Marchand, who's 5-0 against Toronto in Game 7s, also said a second-round rubber match is not as high-pressured as a Stanley Cup final matchup, but the fans beat that pressure into the Maple Leafs anyway.
"It's got to be tough on those guys to walk through the rink every day and not feel that because you see the way the fans treat them at the end – how do you not feel that every single day?"
Maurice, who coached the Maple Leafs for two seasons from 2006 to 2008, said there is a reason why players on Toronto are paid significantly higher than the rest of the NHL. Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares, and pending UFA Mitch Marner are among the top 15 players in the NHL with the highest average annual values.
“What’s great for the league is hard for the Toronto Maple Leafs and their players,” Maurice said. “The passion, the scrutiny these men are under is why everybody else gets paid so much. It’s a driver. There’s a cost to it.”
“It’s a much better team than we played 23 years ago in the conference final,” Maurice recalled from his days with the Hurricanes in the 2002 playoffs.
Maurice, therefore, has the Leafs in the group of Stanley Cup contenders.
“This team is in that group of teams – like ours – where there’s 11 this year. Then there’s eight. They have a chance. So you’re going to assign a whole bunch of character flaws that just aren’t true.”
The Maple Leafs’ 13 games this post-season were the most they played in the playoffs since the 13 in 2004. And in Craig Berube’s first season as the Leafs’ coach, the team won the Atlantic Division, the third time it clinched its division since 1967-68, when divisions were first formed.
“It's so much closer than you think, but you're going to kill these guys, and they don't deserve it,” Maurice said. “Puck went our way tonight, that's it.”
The Yankees broke an eighth-inning tie with a six-run frame that made the difference in Sunday's rubber game against the Mets, taking the first of the 2025 season's two three-game Subway Series matchups and feeding off the energy.
"It's fun playing at Yankee Stadium when it feels like it matters a lot," said Aaron Boone.
"I thought all three games were really good," Boone said. "Obviously, we came up winning two of 'em and rode a big inning tonight late. It felt like, either way, the whole time, I think clearly two really good teams having a little fun in May."
With the NL East-leading Mets (29-18) as the latest opponent, the Yankees (27-19) have won four consecutive series and hold a five-game lead in the AL East.
"I think anytime you win a series it's important," said Max Fried, who held the Mets to two runs on three hits while striking out eight and walking two in six innings. "Obviously, rivals and same city -- that sort of thing -- there's a little extra to it. But the series that feel like a playoff series are always good, especially earlier in the year -- it gets the juices going and preps you for the baseball you want to play towards the end."
The Yankees and Mets meet again July 4-6 at Citi Field with all three games scheduled to be on SNY.
"It's always fun playing the Subway Series," said Aaron Judge. "It doesn't matter what year it is. It's always going to be exciting. The fans always get into it. It's always back and forth, different chants -- the cheering, the booing, everything -- but two good ballclubs going after it."
The Subway Series didn’t quite go as planned for the Mets.
They dropped two out of the three games in the Bronx with the latest one coming in ugly fashion -- as a Pete Alonso error in the bottom of the eighth led to the Yankees scoring six times to close out the series victory.
The Mets were sloppy defensively. They scored just seven runs over the three games. Simply put, they were outplayed in almost every facet of the game.
But they can’t sit back and sulk over it because the road ahead doesn’t get any easier.
The Mets head out to Boston for three games with the Red Sox starting on Monday before returning home to host Shohei Ohtani and the high-powered Dodgers for a three-game weekend set.
“We’ll take it one day at a time,” Carlos Mendoza said. “We knew that this is a good team -- we didn’t get the job done and we lost the series. Now we have to get ready for another good team before we start thinking about what’s next.
“That’s our mentality here, we have to turn the page -- I think we do a pretty good job of doing that. I’m pretty sure the guys will be ready to go tomorrow for a new series against a very good team in Boston.”
How can they turn things around? Alonso simply says by playing “clean quality baseball.”
“That’s really what it boils down to,” he said. “I think we did a good job of battling and putting together quality at-bats tonight and throughout the weekend, it’s just a matter of making plays and driving in a couple of runs when guys are on base.”
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
