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There is a cliché that the best two words in the sport are Game 7. Well, in the NHL and NBA this weekend we witnessed seven of them – not to mention additional games in which the winner takes everything in football and tennis.
Some of the clashes were good, old-fashioned classics, while others were nonsense. Some favorites have progressed, and some outsiders as well. The only constant: a broken heart on one side – and rejoicing on the other.
Here are seven things to take home from a wild sports weekend:
Maybe the maple leaves are just cursed. Unlike last season against Montreal, Toronto did not fall apart against Tampa Bay. Instead, it was just a loss in which one team got an extra rebound. Of course, this bounce doesn’t go the way of Maple Leafs, because bounces never go the way of Maple Leafs. Their series against the two-time defenders of the championship was brilliantly close – Leafs overtook and overtook Lightning with one over seven games. But for the sixth year in a row, Toronto returns after the first round. That makes nine consecutive potential clinchers in the series that Maple Leafs lost. Maybe this team needs big changes to shake the mood. Or maybe they’re just cursed.
Sometimes in the playoffs you need superstars to rise. Hockey can be the best team sport and of course, anything can happen in the playoffs. But thanks to a couple of real changes in the game, hockey fans will receive the first playoff series of the 1991 Battle of Alberta. 7 over Los Angeles. According to statistics guru Megan Chaika, McDavid was on the ice for 20 of Oilers’ 26 goals in the series, scoring a total of 14 points. Meanwhile, Johnny Hockey came into the scoring for Calgary, choosing a corner in the OT to send the Flames past Dallas and goalkeeper Jake Oettinger, whose 64 saves in 7 games were somehow not enough.
WATCH Memorable moments from the Battle of Alberta:
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The second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs will include one of the oldest and hottest hockey rivalries.
But the playoffs are also where the stars are born. McDavid and Godreau were great, as expected. Carter Verhe of Florida? Not so much. Verhaeghe was selected from the third round of his hometown of Maple Leafs in 2013, which bounced around the minors before finally getting a chance with Lightning a few years ago, when he scored nine goals in 52 games. That was enough for the Panthers, who pulled him out of their state rivals in a vacant position. The move paid off in their six-game win over Washington, where Verhe, according to ESPN’s Greg Wisczyn, was on the ice for 13 of Florida’s 20-goal goals against McDavid and won 12 of them, including his match. 6 OT winner.
What about the trio of confident members of the Hall of Fame now? In many ways, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Patrice Bergeron set the era for the NHL pay ceiling. But once everyone meets the exit from the first round, their future is less secure than usual. The Penguins led 2-0 in Game 5 of a 3-1 series when Crosby was injured, forcing him to miss the rest of that race, as well as Game 6. Pittsburgh eventually lost in the OT of Game 7. , despite Crosby’s return. “Sid the Kid” remains excellent, scoring 10 points in the series, but at 34 he is certainly no longer a child and is surrounded by such an aging nucleus with his colleague Evgeni Malkin, aimed at the free agency. In Washington, Ovechkin created a retro season with 50 goals, but the Capitals seemed to disperse throughout the season before falling to the Panthers. And Bergeron, also a waiting free agent, hugged every teammate after losing to the Bruins in a 7-game match at Hurricanes. Could this mean the end of an era? The 36-year-old said today that he will not play anywhere but Boston – that is, if he continues to play.
Both last year’s NBA finalists came out of the playoffs. The reigning Bucks champion, absent from all-star Chris Middleton, simply ran out against an impressive Celtics team with a 28-point loss in Game 7, despite Janice Adetokunmpo’s best efforts. But while Milwaukee shot a paltry 12 percent in three-pointers against Boston’s solid defense, it wasn’t as embarrassing as the Mavericks’ stunning defeat to the Suns, with a 33-point lead flattering the first Phoenix. At halftime, the Suns, who held the best record in the NBA regular season, managed to score only 34 points – as many as Dallas superstar Luka Doncic has scored so far. The Mavs are already facing the rejuvenated Golden State Warriors in the West Finals, while the East Finals include the Celtics and Miami Heat. Read more about both games here.
Canadian women are not done collecting football hardware. In a match that the winner takes all the way across the lake, Canadian Olympic champion Jesse Fleming came into play in the 80th minute and proved decisive for Chelsea’s victory in the FA Cup. Fleming competed with Australian star striker Sam Kerr in the overtime match, acting as a lure for Kerr to shoot the winner of the game at home. The show ends a year of breakthrough for the 24-year-old, who even received the Canadian captain’s armband at an international tournament recently. In France, meanwhile, other gold medalist Ashley Lawrence scored twice, and Jordin Whitema also saw the action when Paris Saint-Germain won the lesser-known Coupe de France with an 8-0 defeat to outsider Yzeure.
Novak Djokovic returned and Iga Sviatek arrived. Djokovic defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in the opening set of the final of their Italian Open on his way to his sixth Italian Open. This is a return to form for the controversial Serb, who is heading to the French Open for his first major tournament of the season next week. Meanwhile, Swiatek won the women’s title, marking her stunning 28th consecutive victory and fifth consecutive championship title. Ranked No. 1, Swiatek should be a clear favorite at Roland Garros. In the women’s doubles, Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and partner Juliana Olmos missed their second straight victory in the final in Rome. Read more about all the actions of glue on the court here.
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