NHL season has been defined by mediocrity across the board
NY Post
We are halfway through an NHL season marked by pervasive mediocrity in which just 13 of 32 teams have won at least half their games — six in the dreadful East and seven in a more representative West.
That’s what you get in a league where collecting losers’ points (much like the Presidents’ Trophy, there is always confusion about where the apostrophe belongs) appears to have more impact than the number of regulation wins.
Nine complete 82-game seasons have been played since the current wild-card playoff format went into effect in 2013-14. Never has there been an Eastern qualifier with fewer than the Capitals’ 91 points last season. Three times, teams missed with 96 points.
But this season, with Columbus and Montreal tied for the East’s final spot with a .524 points percentage, the projection for playoff qualification is 86 points. Eighty-six points out of a possible 164. Participation trophy league.
SALT LAKE CITY — It’s easy to forget about the quiet, which in Knicks World means Leon Rose. We’re approaching five years — amazingly — since the team president answered questions from the independent media, and I’ve always maintained that’s poor practice because it avoids responsibility. If there’s no public explanation behind a move or a goal, there’s no accountability if it doesn’t work out.
PORT ST. LUCIE — The Mets’ 2025 failing (one of them anyway) might be their big strength now.
The discourse has gone on for two seasons now. But it doesn’t exactly match reality.
Where were the grownups for Team USA?
The Rangers reconvened after the Olympic stoppage wanting to find some successful combinations that had been largely absent through much of a disappointing last-place season.
SALT LAKE CITY — There was no sugarcoating an ugly first-half performance from the Knicks in the locker room, and the harsh words during the break helped spur a comeback in Wednesday’s 134-117 victory over the Jazz.
Team USA’s fate is out of its hands.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Jasson Domínguez’s first-inning at-bat against Tanner Banks on Tuesday featured a different result and a different swing than “The Martian” had been accustomed to against lefty pitching.
Maxx Crosby isn’t looking in the rearview after a wild 24 hours.
Bam Adebayo occupies a new spot in the NBA history books.
Jets fans have been waiting for months to put the 2025 season in the past and start building a new roster.
SALT LAKE CITY — Leon Rose tried to address the bench in the summer. It didn’t work. He got a redo at the trade deadline with Jose Alvarado and Jeremy Sochan.
If Isaiah Likely was the most … er … likely former Raven to follow head coach John Harbaugh to the Giants, Patrick Ricard wasn’t far behind.