Connor Bedard, the first-overall selection in the 2023 draft, started his NHL career on a five-game road trip with before finally getting to make his Blackhawks home debut on Saturday night against the defending Stanley Cup-champion Vegas Golden Knights.
After a successful home opener, the Carolina Hurricanes went on the road. Their first stop…California. Within a span of 4 days, they would play all 3 teams from the Golden State. They were hoping for a strong start, since this would be part of a 6-game road trip.
The Carolina Hurricanes kicked off their 2023-24 NHL season at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. There were 18,893 “Caniacs” greeting their team & hoping there would be victory at the end of Wednesday night. The visiting Ottawa Senators had other plans, specifically trying to spoil this home opener.
Barry Melrose is stepping away from ESPN after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, colleague John Buccigross shared on X Tuesday.
Buccigross praised Melrose for his “razor-sharp wit,” always being on time and looking like a million bucks.
The NHL preseason is done. The regular season begins on Tuesday, which means we have some weeknight sports options to get you through those long, cold fall & winter nights
.This opening week has some major TV highlights.
Just under 40,000 fans jam packed Tropicana Field to see the Tampa Bay Rays lose a MLB Wildcard Series vs the Texas Rangers. This will easily be the fewest number of fans in attendance at a MLB Postseason series on record: sans the 2020 season. For contrast, the Philadelphia Phillies had a little over 45,000 for their opening game.
All eyes will be on Oregon today as Coach Prime leads his undefeated Buffaloes (minus dual threat Travis Hunter) to Eugene to face the tough task of the Oregon Ducks. But they are not the only big game this weekend:
In a span of 24 hours, there were championship celebrations at Ball Arena in Denver, CO & T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. Last Monday night, the Denver Nuggets completed their NBA Finals debut by winning their 1st NBA Championship in franchise history. Then, on Tuesday, the Vegas Golden Knights ended their 2nd Stanley Cup Final appearance by winning their franchise’s first Stanley Cup.
With all that has gone down both on the court and on the ice, I figured this would be a good time to size up the status of both The NBA Finals as well as The Stanley Cup Final. Just a quick one to give everyone a refresher to prepare for what could be a wild weekend for The Summer of Sports.