The Canadiens have been the upstarts this year in the NHL Playoffs, upsetting the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and the (Las) Vegas Golden Knights. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the defending Stanley Cup champions, were pretty much expected to reach this round and they are coming off a grueling seven-game series win against the New York Islanders and are big favorites to retain the Stanley Cup trophy.
The team from Montreal is a tradition rich franchise and has 24 Stanley Cup titles, the last one coming way back in 1993 when they defeated the Los Angeles Kings in five games. In fact, they are the last team from Canada to win the Stanley Cup. This series could be over in a hurry with Tampa Bay once again winning or it could possibly go six or the full seven games with perhaps the Canadiens adding that elusive 25th Stanley Cup trophy to their collection.
The call here is Tampa Bay winning in five or six games, but anything is possible in the finals.
Meanwhile, the NBA playoffs are winding down and so far, it is the Phoenix Suns up 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Suns haven't been in the NBA Finals since 1993, when they were beaten in six games by the mighty Chicago Bulls, who dominated the 1990's with six NBA titles.
The Suns should get back there this time around, barring a major collapse. In the Eastern Conference, the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks are tied at one game apiece in their best-of-seven round to advance to the finals. The Bucks are favored to reach their first NBA Finals since 1974 while the Hawks haven't won since the 1958 season, when they were still located in St. Louis.
The pick here is Phoenix and Milwaukee in the finals with the Suns getting their first ever NBA championship.
On to Major League Baseball where so far it has been a unique season with all the ho-hitters being tossed by pitchers. Seven (or eight if you count Madison Bumgarner's seven inning effort in late April) so far with the latest a combined four pitcher effort by the Chicago Cubs against the Los Angeles Dodgers just this past week.
It should be interesting to see how the scrutiny on pitchers for doctoring the baseball plays out as the season winds on and on this summer. Back a few years ago, MLB wanted to speed things up by putting a pitch clock in the game and also prohibiting batters from stepping out of the batter's box after every single pitch to adjust batting gloves, etc. That didn't last too long and is almost never enforced by the umpires any longer.
The league standings in baseball have some surprises this season as the Fourth of July and All-Star break approach in the next couple of weeks.
The biggest surprise has to be the San Francisco Giants in first place with a comfortable lead in the National League West division over both the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. The Dodgers and Padres are deemed the two heavyweights in that division. But there is still a lot of baseball to be played this season.
Over in the American League, the Boston Red Sox continue to confound the "experts" as they remain at or near the top of the American League East division. The Tampa Bay Rays have a one-half game lead over the Bosox right now with the favored New York Yankees floundering around in third place to this point. Anything is possible it seems it the game these days, so stay tuned.
Both Chicago teams are contenders so far this year. The White Sox have been in first place in the AL Central for quite some time with only Cleveland mounting a challenge. The Minnesota Twins were thought to be the favorites to grab a third consecutive AL Central title this year, but they are tied for last place with the Detroit Tigers at this point of the season.
Meanwhile, the Cubs are in second place in the NL Central, two games behind the Milwaukee Brewers while the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals are attempting to get closer in the race. The New York Mets lead the NL East by five games with a log jam of the other four teams in that division trying to get closer.
The AL West has the Houston Astros three games ahead of the Oakland A's right now and they both are way ahead of Seattle, Los Angeles (Angels) and Texas in that division race. But again, there is still a lot of baseball to be played this summer.
And don't forget, football will be getting going in a about a month from now with NFL training camps and the college football teams preparing for the 2021 season. Here is hoping the players and coaching staffs and teams make a wise decision regarding COVID-19 vaccinations and we don't see anything go wrong like what just happened with the North Carolina State baseball team being kicked out of the College World Series due to an outbreak of covid infections on the team.
That stemmed from two players who were not vaccinated. It's their choice, but people need to choose wisely in this age of the pandemic, which appears to be coming closer and closer to an end.
Hopefully, that continues and we can all enjoy the good old summertime the way it is meant to be.
