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MLB Uses Tech to Shorten Food Lines While Game Time Shrinks

Major League Baseball updated its rulebook in 2023 to increase the pace of action on the field. But the changes put concessionaires on the clock, too.

Rishav Dash, senior director of analytics for Delaware North’s sports business, remembers the lead-up to that year’s Opening Day—months spent modeling the potential ramifications and discussing them with the company’s 10 MLB clients.

“Our world was about to change,” he said. 

MLB games were 24 minutes shorter on average in 2023 than they were in 2022, and games were another four minutes faster last season, a roughly 15% deduction in all. But the condensed time ultimately “had only a marginal effect on consumer behavior,” a white paper published by Aramark Sports + Entertainment found.

Ballparks were prepared for the new status quo, it turned out, because they’d already undergone a revolution. Teams optimized operations for the same reason MLB added a pitch clock: Fans could no longer stand to wait. This year, baseball’s Ballpark app is testing new concession-buying functions—including using digital wallets—in search of even speedier delivery.

The hot dog cannon is no longer just a jumbo-sized novelty gag. It represents the apotheosis of MLB teams’ quest to serve food, fast.

Some clubs responded to shrinking game times by extending beer sales through the eighth inning. But most found game-goers buying about as often as they did before, most commonly just before the first pitch and often sometime again about a third of the way through a game. 

If anything, the larger impact was likely the 10% jump in attendance baseball saw in 2023, in part thanks to the rule changes. An endless tally of concession analytics has also altered the game.

Aramark VP of Data Science Scott McDade said the company tracks the ratio of sales locations to fans, especially in the upper decks, to ensure quick food access. One hundred fans-per-register represents a rough baseline target. At Delaware North, purchase tracking data allows Dash’s team to narrow in on specific sections that aren’t selling to expectations. Changes range from menu updates to additional automation.

These days, there’s more than one way to get your peanuts and Cracker Jack. The Texas Rangers cited the pitch clock when rolling out mobile ordering to all visitors in 2023. Fenway Park brought in self-order kiosks to celebrate its 111th birthday. The Pittsburgh Pirates called up computer vision technology from Mashgin to facilitate speedier self-checkouts using cameras that capture what each fan is buying. Across 16 venues, Mashgin estimated it saved baseball fans 14 million minutes of line time in 2023—the equivalent of more than 86,000 extra baseball games viewed. Then, of course, there are still the roving vendors hawking options. Now they wield Square point-of-sale devices, naturally. 

Some new concepts digitize the checkout altogether. MLB SVP for ballpark experience and ticketing product Karri Zaremba said the league is testing “a number of new purchase experiences” this season, starting in Cleveland and Philadelphia. There, fans can now order food and pay through the MLB Ballpark app.

The tests build on advancements in the stadium entry process. A hands-free, facial recognition-based experience lets fans better appreciate their moments walking up to historic venues, Zaremba said. It also proved to be 2.5 times as fast as digital ticketing methods. The league is still working with teams to figure out how they might use extra space once reserved for winding lines.

With fans walking in at a faster clip, it is on stadiums to be ready to serve them. More than 40% of in-stadium purchasers made their buys before first pitch, according to Aramark’s study. McDade said some teams have updated their giveaway promotions to encourage earlier arrivals and smooth out that pregame rush. 

In Atlanta, the Braves opened a food court just around the corner from their most frequented entrance gate, increasing serving speed as fans enter. 

The eight-stall hall also represents an evolution in ballpark design philosophy. Truist Park opened in 2017. But rather than wait 20 years for massive overhauls, the Braves have created a master planning committee that oversees updates on an ongoing basis. Back in 2019, the team tracked food acquisition time throughout the stadium. The venue opened with 100% traditional food counters but has added mobile ordering, self-checkout and Amazon’s Just Walk Out stores to its footprint since. Occupancy tracking sensors improved the flow through the team’s retail store as well.

Atlanta was rated No. 1 in overall guest experience and concessions in an MLB-wide survey last year. 

Still, there are human cashiers ready to serve those who prefer the ol’ way—and many do.

“Our fans really equate a baseball game with the food and beverage experience,” Braves SVP for operations Hannah Basinger said. “And doing so in such an automated fashion—I don’t think it’s for everyone.”

The goal then, is not too dissimilar from what the architects of baseball’s modern rules had in mind: The same beloved ball game, just a little bit snappier.

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The Spin | Intriguing and deep list of overseas stars head for County Championship

Familiar faces such as Kemar Roach will feature, as will the two Camerons in Bristol – Bancroft and Green

Those of us lucky enough to watch county cricket in the 1980s, with a packet of Salt’n’Shake in one hand and an autograph book in the other, could tick off Viv Richards at Somerset, Malcolm Marshall at Hampshire, Michael Holding at Derbyshire (imagine!) and Courtney Walsh at Gloucestershire in only a couple of games. And that was just for starters.

The growth of franchise cricket means that players at the peak of their powers will rarely now sign on the dotted line to spend their entire summer in northern climes perfecting their red-ball skills. But the appeal remains, like a sudden blast of Madonna’s Into the Groove from a passing car as you wait for the lights to change. The 2025 County Championship overseas roster is an intriguing one. Choose your games carefully and you have a chance to watch some of the world’s best do battle against each other and the indignities of the British weather.

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The NBA’s tank-off isn’t just embarrassing. It’s unnecessary

The Utah Jazz were punished after sitting Lauri Markkanen. <br>Photograph: Rob Gray/AP

The Toronto Raptors aren’t new to losing. But they are new to whatever this is.

After taking over as the Raptors’ president of basketball operations in 2013, Masai Ujiri refused to embrace the blatant, in-your-face tanking that Sam Hinkie and the “process” Philadelphia 76ers were busy popularizing during that same era, instead opting to build from the middle. “I’m not sure the karma is great when you do stuff like that,” Ujiri said about tanking. “We’re not doing that here,” he later added.

The Raptors made history in 2019 by becoming the first team to win an NBA Championship without a single lottery pick. But after Toronto missed the playoffs in three of the last four seasons and were rewarded with just one top 10 draft pick, Ujiri finally decided to follow in a long line of teams who are taking advantage of the NBA’s incentive structure that means bad teams have better odds of landing a top pick in the draft.

Now, the Raptors find themselves in the middle of an embarrassing and unwatchable multi-team tank-off that has come to define the 2024-25 NBA season.

“As a purist of the league, a purist of basketball, we play every game to win,” 15-year veteran and vice-president of the National Basketball Players Association, Garrett Temple, tells the Guardian. “[But] the way the rules are set up, it’s advantageous to be the worst team in the league record-wise. I don’t think it’s a great look for the NBA.”

And the Raptors have given bad looks this season. After leading playoff-bound Orlando Magic by double digits in the fourth quarter on 4 March, Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic pulled the plug by sitting starters Immanuel Quickley, Scottie Barnes, Jakob Poeltl and RJ Barrett, leaving about $100m in salaries on the bench and less than $10m in rookies and two-way players on the floor. “All I could do was laugh,” Barrett said.

Related: ‘The food is bad, everything is bad’: what it feels like to be on a hopeless NBA team

While Rajakovic explained that “for us, it’s very, very important now to take a look at different players and young guys and to develop those guys, to give them important minutes,” the reality was that the Raptors were as close to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings as they were to a playoff spot. Even though about a third of the regular season was still to be played at that point, the team had already decided to prioritize managing its lottery odds over making a push for the playoffs.

And they are not the only ones.

“Right now there are nine teams tanking,” one league executive told ESPN. “And next year’s draft is going to have maybe more franchise players than this year’s draft. A year from now, you may still have nine teams tanking.”

That’s almost one-third of the league that exists somewhere on a spectrum from being comfortable with mediocrity to coming up with increasingly creative ways to lose games. Teams are sitting their best players due to “rest” and quiet-quitting by pulling starters late in games, causing upwards of 20 star players to be in street clothes on any given night in March and April, making the quality of late-season basketball worse than ever.

“Teams can put whatever they want on their injury report, and the league has not policed injury reports,” NBA writer Brian Windhorst said on the Hoop Collective podcast. “So you have situations where guys are truly injured, but listed as out. And other situations where stars are not really injured, but they’re listed as out. And so the credibility is all over the place, and the league has let that go down the block and around the corner … it’s just a mess.”

While it makes sense for teams to take advantage of the NBA’s incentive structure so long as they can get away with it, the popularization of tanking has created a lose-lose situation for the league, the fans who pay large sums to attend games or watch on TV, the players who are missing out on crucial developmental reps and, most importantly, the NBA’s TV partners, who recently signed an 11-year agreement worth $76bn.

People have been trying to come up with creative solutions to solve the NBA’s tanking problem for more than a decade, ranging from flattening the draft lottery odds so that every non-playoff team has an equal chance of getting the No 1 overall pick, to creating a “play-out” tournament where the worst teams compete for better draft odds at the end of the season, to replacing the draft with rookie free agency.

But each so-called solution comes with unintended consequences, such as teams on the playoff bubble tanking to get in the lottery if the odds are flat or if there is a play-out tournament, and the best rookies hurting parity by signing in big markets in free agency.

We know that the NBA doesn’t approve of tanking because it has a long history of railing against it. The league pressured the 76ers to get rid of Hinkie in 2016, and fined Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $600,000 for admitting to tanking in 2018.

The question, then, is how does the NBA keep a similar incentive structure but discourage the blatant, unethical tanking that has become popular in recent years? The obvious answer is to start by seriously penalizing anything that goes against the integrity of the game.

After all, we usually have a pretty good idea about who the worst teams are by the 50-game mark, with the league sorting itself into tiers of contenders, playoff teams and bottom-dwellers. But at a certain point, some teams rest veterans or quiet-quit to increase their lottery odds. The rest of the bottom-dwellers have no choice but to follow suit, and bam! Unmitigated, unethical tanking ensues.

“When I first came in the league, I don’t remember this happening as much,” Temple, who has been around the NBA since 2009, says. “People are trying to take advantage of situations and have their team be the best team they can be. At the end of the day, no team is doing this in order to have a bad team. They’re trying to make their team better.”

But what if there was a way to pressure teams to play out the entire season the way they play the first 50 games? That way, the lottery order would sort itself out naturally, and the worst teams would get the best odds without the need to ever lose on purpose.

It may sound extreme, but that’s exactly what happens in the NHL, where a culture of competitiveness and power at the hands of head coaches keeps teams from resting players in order to lose on purpose. Instead, the NHL employs a different, more ethical form of tanking where the worst teams choose to offload veteran players at the trade deadline and naturally lose out as a result.

The NBA can’t expect the culture to change naturally given that teams have learned how to exploit the system, but the league can make it a significantly harder system to game. This would require the NBA to get serious about discouraging tanking, penalizing teams who are found guilty of resting healthy players with significant fines or the removal of future draft picks in order to get the best players to play all season.

In March, the NBA fined the Utah Jazz $100,000 for violating the league’s player participation policy for sitting star Lauri Markkanen for nine straight games when he appeared to be free of significant injury. But the standard $100,000 fine that the league levied against the Jazz this year, the 76ers last year, and Mavericks the year before is a drop in the bucket for team owners like Ryan Smith, who has an estimated net worth of $2.6bn. And when Markkanen did return the following game, he played just 19 minutes and sat the entire second half, showing how seriously the organization took the penalty.

“These next few weeks,” one NBA executive told ESPN. “Could be the worst tanking stretch we’ve ever seen.”

What the NBA needs is a new set of rules specifically designed to discourage tanking – a “Shame Doctrine” that clearly lays out a set of increasingly significant penalties that will be levied against teams for tanking, with each infraction setting them back millions of dollars and future draft picks.

Of course, it can be complicated to police injuries when almost every player is banged up by the end of the season. But the league already has its own doctors to determine whether a player is healthy enough to play, and enforcing it would be similar to what the NFL does in order to satisfy football’s integrity (and the NFL’s betting partners).

Plus, common sense should apply here. If a team pulls its starters in the fourth quarter as the Raptors did, they should be penalized. If the Jazz refuse to spread out Markkanen’s minutes so that he only plays in the first half, so should they.

The solution isn’t to come up with a different incentive structure besides the lottery because they all have flaws. Instead, it’s time for the NBA to be proactive and get serious about penalizing tanking violations. Otherwise, teams will continue to find creative ways to game the system, and the product will continue to suffer.

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Francesca Jones taken off court in wheelchair after mid-match collapse

  • Briton says ‘heart worked a little too hard’ in Bogotá
  • Watson defeated in opening round of Charleston Open

Britain’s Francesca Jones has been forced to withdraw from the Colsanitas Cup in Bogotá after collapsing on court. The 24-year-old appeared to stagger after failing to return a serve from Argentina’s Julia Riera in the third set of their round-of-32 match and was unable to return to play. She fell to the ground and was removed from the court in a wheelchair but later said her heart had “worked a little too hard”.

“Due to a physical issue, Francesca Jones has withdrawn from her match against Julia Riera at 6-2, 5-7, 5-3 in favour of the Argentinian,” the tournament posted on X. “We wish the British tennis player a speedy recovery.”

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The Steph Curry Show perfectly featured his 35-year-old co-stars

The Steph Curry Show perfectly featured his 35-year-old co-stars originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Steph Curry leaned to his left, slowly walking out of frame from the bottom left corner as he watched the ball perfectly splash through the net. 

The 3-pointer gave him a dozen on the night, also awarding him with 50 points to put the Warriors ahead by one point as only three minutes remained on the clock in an eventual 134-125 win against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night at FedExForum, pushing Golden State to the No. 5 playoff seed in the Western Conference. 

Curry scored 52 points on 16-of-31 shooting and made 12 of his 20 3-point attempts, adding 10 rebounds, eight assists and five steals as an exclamation to his latest heroics. The 37-year-old was the star of the show, the leading man for all of us to still marvel at in his 16th season. His 12th and final triple of the night also highlighted why the Warriors believe they have the right 35-year-old co-stars around him.

Draymond Green caught Brandin Podziemski’s pass from the left wing and didn’t have to think twice. Playing his 13th season as Curry’s running mate, Green knew exactly where he’d be and when. As Green hauled in Podziemski’s pass, he already was in his own passing motion for Curry, who was sprinting through the paint to reach the left corner for three points. 

It was who was next to him, and his subtle nuance of basketball smarts, that deserves recognition and appreciation. Jimmy Butler, running along the baseline, looked to be right in step with Curry. Maybe even in his way. But Butler gets it. He sees things. He knows what the right play is, nearly every time. 

And in this instance, the right play was making room for Curry – clearing space by screening Ja Morant and getting in the way of Santi Aldama. Curry only needs a crack to let it fly. He had a whole lane, thanks to Butler. 

Those are the kinds of plays that don’t show up in the box score, yet ultimately lead to winning. 

“Jimmy saved our season,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said to reporters in Memphis after the win. “The trade saved our season. Everybody knows that, but you watch what he did tonight – 12 for 12 from the line. Steph goes off the floor, we’re running everything through him. Just a big-time defender, big-time two-way player. … As Steph talked about, he wanted to play meaningful basketball again, and he’s getting to do that. 

“We’re all getting to do that, and it’s a lot of fun.” 

The spotlight and all the headlines belonged to Curry. Rightfully so. Butler also was fantastic, scoring 27 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and had six rebounds, four assists and three steals. He made all 12 of his free throws and now has made 10 or more free throws six times in the 23 games he has played for the Warriors. His basketball IQ down the stretch was off the charts. 

First, he found a way to get NBA All-Star and 2022-23 Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. off the floor with two minutes to go in the game and the Warriors only up by one point. Knowing Jackson had five fouls, Butler baited him into a sixth mid-shot and then made both free throws to give the Warriors a three-point lead. 

Then, not even a minute later, Butler’s swipe-down steal on Ja Morant led to Moses Moody’s game-sealing 3-pointer. Let the party in Grind City commence. 

“Playoff Jimmy, ya know,” Kerr said. “It’s a real thing. He’s a big-time, big-game performer at both ends. So much of that comes down to IQ, your basketball IQ. Obviously he’s got a lot of gifts. Incredibly strong and really fluid athlete, but to me, it’s his brain that puts him over the top. 

“The pump fake on Jaren was kind of the play of the game, to me.”

The dagger drained by Moody was off Green’s 12th assist of the game. Though he always does a little bit of everything, Green recorded his first triple-double of the season, totaling 13 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. He assisted five of Curry’s 12 threes, and his 12 assists accounted for 31 points. 

The Warriors now are 31-2 all-time when Green has a triple-double.

Winning time is when dogs like Butler and Green are let off their leash. In the fourth quarter, Butler scored 10 points, made all six of his free throws and was a plus-10 in 10 minutes. Green was a plus-12 in just under 10 minutes, grabbing six rebounds and dishing four assists. 

Any kind of curtain call was made for Curry. His co-stars, Butler and Green, could take a bow right alongside him.

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Ten wild stats from Steph's 52-point explosion in Warriors' win

Ten wild stats from Steph's 52-point explosion in Warriors' win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The storylines are endless around Steph Curry’s 52-point explosion in the Warriors’ gritty 134-125 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night at FedEx Forum.

Curry finished the game with 52 points on 16-of-31 (51.6 percent) shooting from the field and a whopping 12 of 20 (60 percent) from 3-point range. He added 10 rebounds to pick up his ninth double-double of the 2024-25 season, with eight assists, five steals and one block. He was a plus-17 in plus/minus rating through 36 minutes.

Not only did he help will his team to a needed victory that jumped them into the Western Conference’s No. 5 playoff seed, but he made impressive NBA history all while in Year 16 at age 37.

Here are 10 mind-boggling stats from Curry’s unforgettable performance:

Father Time who?

Curry celebrated his 37th birthday on March 14.

Since that date, Curry is averaging 25.5 points on 42.3-percent shooting from the field and 40.8 percent from beyond the arc, with 5.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals in 32.2 minutes through six games. The Warriors are 5-1 in such contests.

Let’s continue:

A lot of NBA talk has been about who will be the next face of the league. It might be best to sit back and appreciate what we are witnessing now, because Tuesday’s performance served as just another reminder that the Chef is still cooking.

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UCF faces Cincinnati, looks for 5th straight home win

Cincinnati scores 70.9 points and has outscored opponents by 5.3 points per game. UCF averages 8.7 made 3-pointers per game, 2.3 more made shots than the 6.4 per game Cincinnati gives up. Cincinnati has shot at a 44.9% rate from the field this season, 0.2 percentage points less than the 45.1% shooting opponents of UCF have averaged.

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Brooks leads Butler against Boise State after 22-point game

Boise State makes 46.1% of its shots from the field this season, which is 2.3 percentage points higher than Butler has allowed to its opponents (43.8%). Butler scores 8.3 more points per game (74.2) than Boise State allows to opponents (65.9). TOP PERFORMERS: Tyson Degenhart is averaging 18 points and six rebounds for the Broncos.

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USC faces Villanova following Agee’s 27-point game

USC averages 77.2 points and has outscored opponents by 2.2 points per game. Villanova ranks eighth in the Big East with 22.7 defensive rebounds per game led by Wooga Poplar averaging 6.0. USC averages 77.2 points, 9.8 more per game than the 67.4 Villanova allows.

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Jokic sets NBA record in 61-point haul

Nikola Jokic
Nikola Jokic scored at least 50 points for the third time in his NBA career [Getty Images]

The Denver Nuggets' Nikola Jokic hit a career-high 61 points as he recorded the highest-scoring triple-double in NBA history.

The Serb, a three-time MVP, claimed 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a 140-139 overtime defeat by the Minnesota Timberwolves at Ball Arena.

The previous record was held by Nuggets team-mate Russell Westbrook, who scored 57 points and made 13 rebounds and 11 assists for Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017.

Westbrook, who joined the Nuggets in 2024, missed a lay-up with 10 seconds remaining in overtime with the Nuggets leading 139-138.

He then fouled Nickeil Alexander-Walker in trying to block a three-point attempt with 0.1 seconds on the clock.

Alexander-Walker made two of the three free throws to seal a dramatic Timberwolves victory.

They were without Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo, who were serving one-match bans for their part in a brawl with the Detroit Pistons this week.

The Timberwolves are seventh in the Western Conference and the Nuggets third.

Curry shines for Warriors

Two-time MVP Stephen Curry hit 12 three-pointers in a 52-point haul as the Golden State Warriors beat the Memphis Grizzlies 134-125 at FedEx Forum.

"The guy's 37 years old - it's incredible," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

"I can't believe he's still doing this at this age. But he's put the work in and he's still got it.

"Fifty-two points with people draped all over him all game long. The conditioning, the skill, the audacity, the belief. It's incredible to watch Steph at work."

Victory lifted the Warriors above the Grizzlies and into fifth in the Western Conference.

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Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: Nickeil Alexander-Walker saves the day

Tuesday's matchup between the Timberwolves and Nuggets was critical regarding the Western Conference standings. While Denver is looking to make a run at the two-seed, Minnesota hopes to avoid the play-in tournament. The two teams combined to stage an instant classic, with the visiting Timberwolves winning 140-139 on two SG/SFNickeil Alexander-Walker (seven percent rostered, Yahoo! leagues) free throws with one-tenth of a second remaining in double overtime.

The free throws capped a big night for Alexander-Walker, who finished with 26 points, seven rebounds, eight assists, two blocks and five three-pointers in 45 minutes. While he remained in a bench role, the absences of Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo (both were suspended) raised Alexander-Walker's fantasy ceiling. He made the most of his opportunity, and Minnesota is now tied with Memphis for sixth in the West.

Reid and DiVincenzo were only suspended for one game, so they'll be available for Thursday's game against the Nets. That doesn't help Alexander-Walker managers, but there may be additional minutes due to the competition. Minnesota ends its week with games against two teams (Brooklyn and Philadelphia) focused more on improving their draft lottery odds than racking up wins.

Let's look at a few of Tuesday's other low-rostered standouts:

PG Ryan Rollins (13%), Milwaukee Bucks

Rollins had the best night of his NBA career, finishing Tuesday's win over the Suns with 23 points, five rebounds, five assists, two steals and five three-pointers in 31 minutes. Shooting 8-of-10 from the field, he established career highs in points and three-pointers. With Damian Lillard (calf) out indefinitely and the Bucks playing three games in the final four days of Week 22, there's no reason not to roll the dice on Rollins now that he's serving as the starting point guard.

SF/PF Julian Champagnie (12%), San Antonio Spurs

Champagnie was solid in Tuesday's loss to the Magic, finishing with 19 points, four rebounds, two assists and five three-pointers in 32 minutes. While he was not Jeremy Sochan's replacement in the starting lineup, Sochan's absence due to back spasms raised Champagnie's fantasy ceiling. With Sochan not expected to play in Wednesday's game against the Nuggets, it would be a good idea to add Julian ahead of that contest. Bismack Biyombo (three percent) returned to the starting lineup and finished with an 11/5/1/1/2 in 26 minutes, but Champagnie is the superior streamer.

PG/SG/SF Grayson Allen (11%), Phoenix Suns

The Suns were without Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant on Tuesday, with the latter sidelined for at least one week. Allen moved into the starting lineup and provided valuable offensive production, finishing the loss to Milwaukee with 23 points, four rebounds, three assists, one steal and six three-pointers in 34 minutes. Allen shot 6-of-13 from beyond the arc, and the shots will continue to be there as long as Durant and Beal are sidelined. The lone negative is the upcoming schedule, as the Suns don't play again until Friday against the Celtics.

C Mitchell Robinson (10%), New York Knicks

With Karl-Anthony Towns (knee) ruled out, Robinson received the starting nod on his 27th birthday. The Knicks center only needed 21 minutes to record 14 points, 14 rebounds, one steal and two blocked shots. Robinson shot 5-of-9 from the field and 4-of-4 from the foul line in his best performance of the season. Robinson has yet to play both games of a back-to-back this season, so he may not be available for Wednesday's game against the Cavaliers. However, his only playing 21 minutes may keep the door cracked open ever so slightly.

SG Ja'Kobe Walter (6%), Toronto Raptors

Walter started Tuesday's game because the Raptors held out RJ Barrett (rest), and the rookie had a good night in the loss to Chicago. In 27 minutes, he accounted for 17 points, four rebounds, four assists, one steal and five three-pointers. Walter was 5-of-5 from deep, and it isn't difficult to envision his playing time increasing. Tuesday's defeat eliminated Toronto from postseason contention, so there's even less reason to play guys like Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and Jakob Poeltl (Scottie Barnes is held to a different availability standard by the league due to his being an All-Star) down the stretch.

PG/SF Talen Horton-Tucker (0%), Chicago Bulls

Horton-Tucker wasn't on anyone's fantasy radar before Tuesday, and with good reason. However, the Bulls were down multiple rotation guards, and he played 32 minutes against the Raptors. THT finished with 27 points, six rebounds, three assists and three three-pointers, shooting 8-of-16 from the field. There's no need to add him in the aftermath of this performance. Also, there's hope that Lonzo Ball will be able to return from his wrist injury as soon as Friday. That said, while Horton-Tucker should not be added, he deserved a mention after his performance against the Raptors.

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Snuggerud Proves He Belongs In NHL, With Blues

St. Louis Blues right wing Jimmy Snuggerud (21) battles Detroit Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson (77) during the second period at Enterprise Center on Tuesday in Snuggerud's NHL debut. (Jeff Le-Imagn Images)

ST. LOUIS – For the second time in 10 days, the St. Louis Blues were implementing a part of their future right smack, dab in the middle of a playoff race.

And a winning streak.

First, it was Dalibor Dvorsky, the No. 10 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft making his debut in a 4-1 win against the Nashville Predators on March 23. On Tuesday in a 2-1 overtime win against the Detroit Red Wings, it was Jimmy Snuggerud, the No. 23 pick in the 2022 draft who signed his three-year, entry-level contract on Friday, had one practice on Monday and was thrown right into the fire, and enjoyed every bit of it.

“It was fun. So exciting,” Snuggerud said. “The rink was so energetic. Everything about the game, the comeback at the end, it was an awesome game.

“I felt like we snuck one out there at there at the end, and it was fun to be a part of.”

Snuggerud, who played 10:43 and was a minus-1, didn’t factor in the scoring by Jordan Kyrou in the final 30 seconds of regulation and by Cam Fowler in overtime, looks like he belongs.

The 20-year-old wasn’t overwhelmed by jumping into the middle of a nine-game winning streak that turned to 10 with the dramatic win.

Snuggerud had two shots on goal, including one in the first period from the right circle trying to beat Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot on the short side, but it was created by his awareness in the neutral zone to knock a puck down, push it into the zone before getting it back for the opportunity.

It was a subtle, little play that turned into multiple plays of the kind in which the forward did what he was supposed to do in a team concept of working off the puck to create opportunities.

“You're simulating what you think it's going to be and then you actually get out there and it's a whole different level of hockey,” Snuggerud said. “It's honestly fun to get that first game in and see the pace. It was nice to win with the guys.”

Snuggerud played on a line with Oskar Sundqvist and Zack Bolduc, who eventually flipped spots with Jake Neighbours.

“I thought he was really good," Montgomery said. “I thought he made smart plays. I didn't think he over-complicated the game and he made plays on first-touch. That's a real good sign of a hockey player with really good hockey sense. I thought he acquitted himself well in his first game in the NHL and I was very confident putting him over the boards.”

Snuggerud played 15 shifts, which included 1:49 of power play time. There was one giveaway in the game, but that’s OK, all things considered.

“I think he did a really nice job,” Fowler said. “Coming in at this point in the season, fresh out of college, that's not an easy thing for anybody to do. But he stepped in, you could see his poise with the puck and how strong he was in the corners. So I thought he did a nice job and he'll only get better with time and he'll only get more comfortable, and I think you'll see a lot more out of him.”

Montgomery was confident enough to use Snuggerud late in the game down a goal, and had there been another shift in OT, guess who was going over the boards?

“I think if we were going to make another change, it was going to be Neighbours and Snuggerud going over,” Montgomery said. “[Snuggerud] was making things happen. He drove that puck wide and he went back post and we just missed the tap-in. That's not the only clever play he made, and I thought he was responsible defensively.”

If the University of Minnesota product is going to fit into the fabric of how the Blues want to play, small details will matter. But they will want him to be at his best, and that’s being a threat offensively.

“I thought he was good,” Kyrou said. “You could see his skill and speed and smarts. The first game is always tough coming in, right, especially a playoff atmosphere like that. But I thought he did a great job.

“His first game, obviously jitters and nerves come in. I just try to let him enjoy that and let him experience that.”

Snuggerud walked into the rink on Tuesday at Enterprise Center for the first time, likely sooner than he had hoped since the Frozen Four will be played here April 10-12 and wanting to be part of it with the University of Minnesota. But he got a taste of what hockey is like at the pro level and at a level where Blues fans will come to appreciate him if he keeps with the mindset of how he attacked his first pro game.

“The first game was really fun, but it's also the most nerves,” Snuggerud said. “It was a nervous game, but it was fun to play with so many good players.

“I mean honestly just seeing Patrick Kane from the bench tonight was a pretty weird moment. Then I kind of got buried by [Vladimir] Tarasenko in the first on the boards. I was like, ‘All right, got to get into it.’”

Get into it, he did.

“Just coming to the rink, ‘Boldy’ picked me up with ‘Tucks’. It was actually my first time seeing the rink, so it was really cool coming into this locker room and getting here for the pre-game stuff. The game starts and it's just such a whole different feel. It's so much more pro and it's really fun to be a part of.

“It's energetic. (3M Arena at) Mariucci is a really fun rink (on the campus of Minnesota), it's really loud in there,” Snuggerud said. “Then come to this rink and there's more people and it's more loud. I thought the energy in this rink was unbelievable. When we scored that game-tying goal, it was so loud in here and then the overtime winner was twice as loud. It's really fun to be here and see that.”