SEEING RED

BY MIKE RIFKIN

Rangers General Manager Chris Drury has a task in front of him this summer, he has to make the team competitive, also while restocking the farm system. The good news for Drury is he can do a bit of both as he has almost 27 million dollars in cap space along with 11 picks. He’ll have multiple picks in the first (2), third (4) and sixth (2) rounds of the draft. 

Early in the season the Rangers had a problem scoring goals, and it got harder after they traded Artemi Panarin to the Kings. For the season the Rangers averaged 2.87 goals per game. Chris Drury needs to take a swing this summer, and it has to hit. So far the big Drury swing was a miss, and no I’m not talking about the JT Miller trade, it’s when Drury didn’t make a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins for Jake Guentzel. Reports surfaced that the Penguins wanted Kappo Kakko and Brennan Othmann from the Rangers in exchange for Guentzel. Drury didn’t make the deal and allowed Guentzel to go to Carolina, who has since moved him to Tampa. Guentzel is still a guy the Rangers could use, and with Kakko and Othmann out of the organization it looks even worse. 

Usually the Rangers would be aggressive in free agency, but this year’s group which was going to be filled with an abundance of talent has gone by the wayside. So instead of putting a lot of emphasis on a player like Alex Tuch, the Rangers can use some of their draft capital to swing a trade. The team they should be monitoring is the Detroit Red Wings, who just saw their captain Dylan Larkin request a trade. Now, Larkin, who did win an Olympic Gold Medal with Team USA, coached by Rangers coach Mike Sullivan would be a nice add, that’s not who the Rangers should inquire about. The Rangers should inquire about Alex DeBrincat, who scored 41 goals and had 85 points in 82 games. In fact DeBrincat has missed scoring 20 goals only one time in his career, and that was the Covid shortened 2019-2020 season. DeBrincat has one year left at 7.875 Million dollars. So the Rangers can eat the money, and potentially sign DeBrincat to an extension. DeBrincat will be 29 in December so he fits the timeline for the Rangers, and depending on what Steve Yzerman wants to do, this is a swing Chris Drury really should look into.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

BY MIKE RIFKIN

The Carolina Hurricanes evened the Stanley Cup Final at two games apiece with their 5-3 win over the Golden Knights on Tuesday. This has been an excellent Stanley Cup Final where no lead has been safe and both teams have shown their depth. Brandon Bussi was fantastic in game four, after relieving Freddie Andersen in game three, and he’s gotten a lot of attention for tying the series, there’s someone else who deserves a ton of credit. 

Hurricane captain Jordan Staal has been sensational in the series. Staal had two goals in Game four, including the go ahead goal in the third, he now has five goals in the four games. Staal’s offense has been big for the Canes, as they’ve gotten zero goals from Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Seth Jarvis have one goal each. 

It’s not just the offense Staal has provided, he’s won 70 % of the faceoffs he’s taken. And his line has done it’s job against Jack Eichel, who hasn’t been a difference maker in this series. Staal has been a factor on special teams too, scoring a power play goal in two of the last three games, and has been a part of a penalty kill that has surrendered one power play goal over the first four goals. 

Staal, who was a part of the 09 Penguins is looking for his second cup. At 37 years old he’s been arguably Carolina’s best forward in the series, and has put himself in the Conn Smythe conversation if the Canes win it all.

ALTERING THE YZERPLAN

BY MIKE RIFKIN

When Steve Yzerman took over as the GM of the Red Wings in 2019, most people thought there were more glory days ahead. Instead the Red Wings still haven’t made the playoffs under Yzerman, in fact the Wings haven’t made the postseason since 2016. This after successfully making the playoffs for 25 consecutive seasons. And missing the playoffs this season had to be the most difficult, as the Wings were tied for first in the conference on January 24th. But a 9-14-4 record after that really hurt the team. The biggest issue was scoring, after the 24th of January, the Wings averaged just 2.59 goals per game.

Thursday the Yzerplan took a major hit, as Red Wings Captain Dylan Larkin requested a trade. Larkin signed an eight year 69.6 million dollar contract on March 1st 2023 and is signed through 2031. Larkin scored 34 goals and had 67 points in 74 games played this season. For Larkin it was his fifth consecutive thirty goal season. Larkin was also a key contributor for team USA on their way to the Gold Medal.

Yzerman is in a tough spot, on one hand he could trade Larkin and reap a lot of benefits, or he can hold onto him . Either way the Wings have to make the playoffs next season, but in my opinion they’re better off trading Larkin and altering the Yzerplan a tad. The Wings have a nice young nucleus led by Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider,etc… And there are more young players coming. With the Atlantic Division being what it is becoming, the Wings may want to alter their plans and not just trade Larkin, but look into a couple of other guys. Alex Debrincat and Andrew Copp are also both entering the final years of their respective contracts, maybe you shop them at the draft, and try to recoup the first round pick you lost when you traded for Justin Faulk. The other guy they can look to move is John Gibson, with top prospect Trey Augustine signing his ELC, it could be time to turn to the kid in net. Gibson has one year left on his deal and there are a lot of teams in need of a goalie.

 While the Yzerplan has yet to be successful, now could be a perfect time for it to be altered. Yes, the Wings would be getting rid of good players, but these players haven’t won anything there, Steve Yzerman should be listening on everything.

THE RIGHT CALL

BY MIKE RIFKIN

With the Stanley Cup Final being played, it also means that it’s award season across the NHL. The latest award that was handed out was the Jack Adams (Coach Of The Year) and it was given to Lightning coach Jon Cooper. Cooper edged out Lindy Ruff of the Sabres and Dan Muse of the Penguins to win his first Jack Adams. 

I know most people wanted this award to go to Lindy Ruff for the Sabres ending their 14 year drought. But, I think the voters got this right, while Cooper is considered by many including myself to be the best coach in the league, this year he proved it. Victor Hedman played in 33 games, Ryan Mcdonagh played in 48, Erik Cernak played in 61, we are talking about half of the defense missing significant time. And in that time players like JJ Moser and Darren Raddysh (who is about to get paid this summer) stepped up in bigger roles than they’d ever had before. Jon Cooper gets what I call the “Steve Kerr treatment” meaning we don’t appreciate the job he does, because of the roster he has. 

Lindy Ruff did a tremendous job this season in turning the Sabres around, and they’ll be around for a while, but don’t get this mixed up the thing that changed the Sabres season was the firing of Kevyn Adams. Now, this is no disrespect to Ruff, who has a place in Toronto waiting for him (hockey hall of fame, not the Leafs job) he has the fourth most wins for a coach in NHL history. Also the Atlantic Division had five coaches voted in the top eight which is just insane.

DO SOMETHING

By Mike Rifkin

If you want to go on a diet, I’d suggest don’t watch the New York Mets. They’ll cause you to stress eat. As each game is played I feel like Randy Quaid in Major League 2, there’s just not an enough positives and way too many negatives. And if you’re a struggling starting pitcher, you’d volunteer to face this Mets lineup because they’re so inept.

The Memorial day lineup was an insult to the fans intelligence, to bat Marcus Semien cleanup  is insane. I understand there are injuries but Semien was 3-20 on the last road trip and has done squat offensively (except with RISP). Speaking of the Memorial Day lineup, do you know who has the highest average in the lineup, outside of AJ Ewing, who just came up? If you answered Carson Benge, you’d be right. Two rookies had the highest average for the Mets in their Memorial Day lineup, if you want to be glass half full guy (like me usually) you’d say that’s good for the future. In reality it shows how bad this offense is and has been and yes Juan Soto missed the game due to illness, probably from having to carry the offense. 

As  I mentioned above there are injuries, but with no timetable of those guys returning, it’s on what the Mets have now to try and turn this around, will they? This team has shown little fight to make us believe that they will, this kind of reminds me of 2023, after getting punched in the face by the Padres and the Mets never truly recovered. I’m not looking to call for Stearns or Mendoza to be fired based on the team’s play, but show some emotion instead of the same robotic answers. But the biggest indictment on this team is that if they keep playing this way Citi Field will be empty this summer, with one big omission and that’s when the Mets celebrate their 1986 World Series team.

TEMPTING OFFERS

BY MIKE RIFKIN

We’re down to the final four in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which means July 1st is right around the corner. One team that should be active during July first is the New York Rangers. The Rangers, who missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season, were one of the biggest disappointments in the league. The Rangers will have almost 27 million dollars in cap space and have 11 picks in the 2026 draft (2 in the first, four in the third and two in the sixth) they also have trade chips in Center Vincent Trocheck and Defenseman Braden Schneider. In his “letter” to the fans Chris Drury talked about a “retool” and fans witnessed some of that during the final six weeks of the season with some young players getting an opportunity. Young forwards like Gabe Perrault (12 g 27 pts in 49 gp), Noah Laba (9g, 24 pts in 74 gp), Jaroslav Chemlar ( 4g 6 pts in 28 gp), Adam Sykora (3g 4pts in 11 gp) got an opportunity to show what they’re capable of. 

The usual way the Rangers would handle a situation like this would be to throw a ton of money at big time free agents, well the unrestricted free agent market is not as deep as usual. And throwing a bunch of money at Alex Tuch doesn’t solve much in my opinion. 

One area the Rangers could take advantage is Restricted free agents, and they could utilize some of the draft capital they have at the draft to make a trade work. A big key when being aggressive towards RFA’s is to look at team’s cap situations. There are three teams for the Rangers to look at when assessing certain RFAS.

The first team the Rangers should look at are the Dallas Stars. The Stars lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Minnesota Wild. The Stars will have 10.9 million dollars in space, and have two intriguing RFAS Jason Robertson and Mavrik Bourque. Robertson posted 45 goals and 96 points in 82 games. Robertson has been very consistent the past few seasons, becoming one of the best goal scorers in the league. Robertson has also been a big player in the playoffs with 23 goals and 52 points in 63 games played. Robertson, reportedly is looking for a similar number to teammate Mikko Rantanen got which is 12 million dollars per year, if the Stars don’t want to pay Robertson that Chris Drury should jump on the phone. If the Stars do pay Robertson, Mavrik Bourque could be in play. Bourque had 20 goals and 41 points in 82 games this season, and for the Rangers maybe he could be their future top line Center, still only 24 years of age. 

Another Western Conference heavyweight to watch are the Vegas Golden Knights, in particular Pavel Dorofeyev, who currently leads the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 10 goals. Dorofeyev had 37 goals in the regular season, after scoring 35 in 2024-25. Vegas will have 4.6 million dollars in cap space (could be more if Alex Pietrangelo retires), and you’d think a chunk of that would go to Carter Hart after the postseason he’s had. Vegas also has four picks total in the draft, and none in the first two rounds. 

The other team the Rangers should monitoring this summer is a team they’ve done a lot of business the past few years and that’s the Anaheim Ducks. The first target is not an RFA, it’s Mason McTavish, who saw his production drop this season, his contract dispute could’ve had something to do with that. Anaheim has to re-sign forwards Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson. They also have to figure out the blue line with Jacob Trouba, Radko Gudas and John Carlson all expected to be free agents. The other Duck to look into will be an RFA and that’s Pavel Mintyukov. The 22 year old has previously requested a trade from Anaheim and depending on their free agent status might give him what he’s asked for. Anaheim will have the cap space to do whatever they want, but Drury should be eyeing them. 

Then there are the cases of Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid. If either one wants out of their current situation and wants to play at MSG, the Rangers should obviously try to acquire them. But that can’t be the basis for the Summer.’

 With the Knicks doing what they’re doing, you remember the vibes of playoff hockey. While James Dolan might not want to put the pressure on Drury, the fans are because the play of this team over the last two seasons has been inexcusable. If one person needs this “retool” to be a success it’s Drury, because if it’s not he will get the boot.

MLB THE SHOW A TRUE LOOK INTO

FANTASY BASEBALL

BY MARK HALPERN

Baseball has always been and will be America’s pastime. However, out of every 100,000 hopeful players a year, they all have less than a 1% chance at making “The Show.” For the super hard-core guys who fall up short and for kids say 8 and up (yet my six-year-old has hit some homeruns) there is another more realistic way they can live out their dreams and that’s through the video game MLB The Show. The game gives you control of literally everything to make the game as realistic as if you were stepping on the field yourself. For others you can set the difficulty to whatever if you’re not up for the huge challenge to just enjoy and play as your Heroes of today.

      MLB the Show gives fans so man different opportunities to play in so many scenarios from playing as your team in a Franchise Season, Diamond Dynasty (create a team of your own players you want), Road to the Show (gives you a chance to work from high school to being drafted to becoming a legend) and the new more popular “Storylines” mode in which you can play as certain Negro League Stars and play as them in the journey through the Negro Leagues. This is great cause it really gives a Highlighted and in depth look into certain players who have never really had a chance to own that spotlight. It also helps fans learn the history of the Negro leagues, something that MLB should lean more into.

    MLB the Show has become the premier Baseball game that can be crossed played on numerous platforms such as Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. There are several of other Baseball games out their but none of them can come close to the most realistic Baseball game available.

     The Dynasty mode is the most popular because it brings together not only the fun of having a possible line up of the best players in the game but makes you start with basic players and as you go through games, different practice modes and some in season challenges you can earn packs which can contain players of old and new. Packs is a way to connect the fun experience of opening a pack of player cards and not spending $100 to do it.  You are the manager and it is your job of putting the best team on the field to beat your upcoming opponent. Now anyone can try to put the most unbeatable team on the field. The way you do this this is by winning games against the computer or take your chances against a random player from around the world (as MLB the Show is played almost on every game platform.) It is not always about the skills of your player but, the skills of the player controlling the game. Everything from the game is lifelike from the movement of the pitches across the plate to where watch batted ball goes if your lucky enough to connect. The fun part is that it is kind of like LEGOS in the way that you can build any team (or thing in Legos) you want to build it to your own liking. You get to play in over 100 realistic stadiums from old to brand new and even the minor leagues. You can create your team’s name, colors and even design their jersey or pick from hundreds from MLB (old and New) and MILB (AAA and AA teams.)

       There are many sport games out there that people prefer as their favorite sports game. When it comes to baseball, I would find it hard to find a gamer who plays baseball that doesn’t use this game as their go to. And even as a whole MLB the Show might be the best franchised sports video game.

SAME OLD SAME

BY MIKE RIFKIN

The Pittsburgh Steelers are an organization built on pride and class. For as great as the Steelers were, they’re reluctance over the years of letting go of the past has bitten them on the rear end. Hey, it’s cool to make the playoffs, but to not have a single playoff win in a decade is bad. On Saturday it was announced that the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers have agreed to a deal for Rodgers to return to the Steel city. 

Rodgers will also be reunited with Mike McCarthy, his old coach in Green Bay. Yes, the two won a Super Bowl, ironically enough against the Steelers, but does this put the Steelers at the top of the AFC? Now, the Steelers schedule did them no favors in weeks 1-9 (Bye) the Steelers will play one team that made the playoffs last season (Patriots), but in weeks 10-18 they’ll play five including the Broncos, who were the number one seed in the AFC last season and cross state rival Eagles. 

Let’s be honest one of the reasons the Steelers won the AFC North last season was because both Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow got hurt and missed significant time. But the Steelers still allowed the Ravens to come back into the division race, and with a Tyler Loop Field  Goal or the defense gets a stop, the Ravens win.

The Steelers don’t like change, they had three coaches in 40 years. But even with bringing back Rodgers that doesn’t put the Steelers in the same class as the top of the AFC, yeah they’ll win games but they’re not going to win the Super Bowl. It took them forever to let Tomlin go and now keeping around 42 year old Aaron Rodgers, the Steelers are still living in the past.  Maybe Rodgers can be a teacher to Drew Allar and Will Howard, but go and celebrate Pittsburgh because you got your man.

NEW ERA BEGINS

BY MIKE RIFKIN

The Dolphins will be ushering in a new era of Dolphins football in 2026. The Dolphins raided Green Bay this offseason to find their new GM (John -Eric Sullivan), Coach (Jeff Hafley) and Quarterback (Malik Willis). And with the schedule released we can give a fair assessment on where I think the team is entering the season. 

The Dolphins schedule is not easy and they are one of five teams without a primetime game, which shows what the NFL thinks of them. The Dolphins will play three of their first four games on the road, against the Raiders, 49ers and Vikings. They’ll open up their home schedule by welcoming the Kansas City Chiefs and possibly Patrick Mahomes. From week 13-18 the Dolphins will play teams that made the playoffs last season, including the Bills and Patriots in divisional play, and a trip to Lambeau Field and a matchup with the Packers. In week 16 the Dolphins will welcome a familiar face back to Miami, as they’ll play former coach Mike McDaniel, who is now the Offensive coordinator of the LA Chargers. 

So, what would constitute a successful season for the new regime in Miami? Malik Willis, who will only be 27 when the season starts has to prove that he is the guy. The 2027 draft will be filled with big time Quarterback prospects, and if Willis struggles in his first season of a three year deal, fans will call for the team to draft a new Quarterback. And the Dolphins are still searching for a franchise Quarterback, that they haven’t had since Dan Marino. In December and January the Dolphins will play in Denver, Green Bay and New England all cold weather places. If the new regime wants to change a narrative, this is one, because this team just hasn’t played well in the cold in the past and it has bitten them. 

Official Prediction : The league gave them no favors with the schedule and they’ll have to play some of the best teams in the league, along with some of the best Quarterbacks in the league. I don’t think they’re a playoff team, but hopefully they can be competitive. But I don’t see this team gaining more than six wins at best in 2026, which could be a good start for the new regime.

BACKFIRING

BY MIKE RIFKIN

If I told you on May 11th that the worst record in baseball would belong to the New York Mets, would you believe me? If, you answered yes, then good for you, but if you said no, you’re response would be what has gone wrong in Queens. The answer to that is simple the offense, it is simply offensive to watch and Steve Cohen should be paying the fans to watch this. 

But, Sunday was a big straw for me, playing in a rubber game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, on a road trip where a win gives you a 6-3 road trip vs 5-4 and the lineup that was put out was inexcusable. Austin Slater and Andy Ibanez, two guys just CLAIMED OFF WAIVERS were hitting third and sixth, I repeat Austin Slater and Andy Ibanez hit third and sixth. The Mets offense had a run on four hits, they also made three errors. They almost had as many errors as hits, and at 15-25 where is rock bottom? 

The Mets offense has a slash line of .224/.288/.345, the only team they have a better average than is the Cincinnati Reds. I know there’s a lot of fans who have gotten on Mendoza, myself included, but the guy who should be front and center on this is David Stearns. He wanted a more contact oriented lineup, well guess what, the results aren’t there. Yes, there are injuries, Francisco Lindor and Luis Robert are currently out of the lineup, but we don’t have a clue when they’re coming back. And yes Juan Soto missed some time earlier in the season, but what the Mets are putting out there, with their payroll is disgusting. The scored five runs in the three games against the D-Backs, two of them scored in the tenth inning Friday night (one was the ghost runner). And how many times have we heard the other team’s pitching has retired 7 plus Mets in a row? Too often, and this is on Stearns.

Now, I am not here to say fire Stearns, mainly because I am unsure who you replace him with. But I was with him on a lot of the moves last offseason, except letting Pete Alonso walk. You can say a lot of things about Alonso, but the Mets miss his presence in the lineup, especially Juan Soto. Jon Heyman had the report of tension between Alonso and Stearns during the first Alonso negotiations and one would wonder if that had an impact on the second one. 

Yes, there’s a lot of baseball to be played, but with not having an idea of when reinforcements are coming and the way it looks, I might get some at-bats at Citi Field this summer. A lot of what Stearns has done has blown up in his face, and Cohen shouldn’t fire him, let him try to erase the wrongs with some rights. But as a fanbase, to see Austin Slater hit third in a rubber game in May is just disrespectful. David Stearns needs to check his ego, because let’s be honest since the trade deadline everything has gone wrong.