NIAGARA FALLS, NY – Happy Monday! It is been a weekend filled with work and mixed results from my sports teams. Not completely depressing but nothing to write home about. Anyway, let’s look at today’s menu: Mets Struggling, Pacers Knock-off Knicks, Rangers Draw Panthers.
Mets Struggling
The Mets are struggling in a frustrating manner. The bullpen has let them down the past week, highlighted by Edwin Diaz looking like the Edwin Diaz from his first year with the Mets. He has blown 2 saves this week, including Saturday which wasn’t a save opportunity as the Mets were up by 4 runs and yet he gave up 4 runs to tie the game. The bats have been inconsistent also with Francisco Lindor being 1-26 to highlight things. As a result, manager Carlos Mendoza, has tried to shake up the line-up to try and get more hits. The Mets won on Sunday and did hit well on Saturday so maybe they are starting to turn the corner. We can only hope. They are only 4 games under .500 though so a couple of sweeps or an 8-2 run and they are back in the hunt.
Pacers Knock-off Knicks
The Knicks ran out of luck against the Pacers. The injuries to Josh Hart and OG Anonuby were just too much to overcome. The Knicks went into this serious down Mitchell Robinson, Julius Randle and Bogan Bogdonavich. The replacement ofr Robinson was giving Jericho Sims some minutes, using Precious Achiwa who not as offensive dynamic as Randle, he brought defense and hustle to the position. Alec Burks was added to pick up the slack of losing Bogdonavich. The loss of Anonuby was huge as the Knicks are 18-3 when he plays. So Hart could shift down to SF and Achiwa could be made a starting 5 PF. The problem is with Hart down, the Knicks had no bench left. This meant the healthy players have to play more minutes. This caught up with the Knicks when Hart went down in Game 6 and in Game 7 they didn’t have much left in the tank. The in Game 7, Jalen Brunson hurt his hand. The Pacers have been fortunate with injuries while their opponents in the first and second round. They may be out of luck in Round 3 against Boston.
Rangers Draw Panthers
The Rangers draw the #2 seed in the East, the Florida Panthers. The Panthers won the Atlantic Division while the Rangers won the Metropolitan Division and the best record in the NHL. This will be a tough serious but the Panthers record was equal to the Canes record so the Rangers have faced an equally good team. I said when the Rangers faced the Canes that the winner of that series would make the final and I am not backing down from that prediction. I think the Canes series was great test for the Rangers and they have the confidence and trust to take this series in 6.
Thanks for reading and come tomorrow to hear from the Former President of the Kristi Neom Dog Damage Control Society.
