Good Morning, Stumpers!

4 Nations! Overtime! Golden Goal! You couldn’t have written a better script. Who else would it have been other than Connor McDavid 🇨🇦! Tough loss for Team USA, but it was an absolutely electric finish to an overall great tournament. We’ll go over that, some NBA news, and a Boone Extension in NY! Happy Friday Stumpers!

Today’s Rundown

Everything you’ll get from today’s edition, and more:

• 🏒 4 Nations Finale! Ended with who else but…

• ⚾️ Boone gets extended in NY! Yay or nay!?

• 🏀 Wemby out for the year after a great first half!

• ⚾️ Did someone say Spring Training???

On This Day

On This Day…

🥇 Liechtenstein is a Winner!

Ever wanted to live in a country with a population of 39,850? No? Well, what if I told you that that small European country produced a gold medalist winner on this day in 1980?

That’s right, on this day in 1980, Liechtenstein became the smallest country to produce an Olympic champion when Hanni Wenzel won the women’s giant slalom at the Lake Place Winter Games in New York state. In 1980, Liechtenstein’s population was even less, just about 25,000 people. Crazy!

🧠 Test your sports knowledge…

Yesterday’s Trivia Answer: (A) USA and (B) Canada

Before We Dive In…

👀 Here’s Yesterday’s MUST-See’s

• 🇨🇦 The GAME-WINNER! The TOURNAMENT-WINNER! WHO ELSE??

• 🔈️ PK speaking facts about the state of the All-Star game?

• ⛳️ 50 days until what you say??

• 🏀 CP3 moves to 2nd in all-time STEALS!

The Hot Stove

4 Nations Face-Off

🏆️ One Word: McJesus

What to know: If it was going to be Canada, it was going to be Connor McDavid. It was always going to be Connor McDavid. His OT winner set the hockey world on fire last night as Canada took home the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off in a 3-2 OT win over the United States.

We can talk about the game, but I want to talk about the whole dang tournament. The principle of it. You can watch the highlights anywhere. I want to talk about why this tournament was as amazing as it was.

I, like many others across the world and especially in the United States, grew so much respect for the game of hockey this week. In a world of professional sports surrounded with so much stuff other than the game itself (which I’m not saying is innately a bad thing), it’s so amazing to see these guys have such an elite passion for the game.

They have a whole second half of an NHL season to go back to, and some will hopefully have long runs in the playoffs. That didn’t matter to them. They wanted to represent their country at the highest level possible, and win. You could see through a TV how much these guys cared and wanted this win. On both sides.

Even after Sweden won their only game, their captain got on an interview and said how much that one win meant for his guys and the country. Just one win! On the national stage! It matters.

I know the other professional sports leagues watched this game this week with their jaws on the floor, I know I did. Bodies on the line during the ALL-STAR BREAK? Are you kidding me?? Guys were chomping at the bit to join these teams, canceling vacations and flying across the country in the blink of an eye just for the chance to play for these teams. Nobody is doing that in any other sports All-Star Game.

This was a MASSIVE needle-mover for the game of hockey. What a massive risk that the NHL took, putting their best players on the ice to fight it out, for a seemingly meaningless tournament, not worrying about what it may mean for the rest of the NHL regular season. The risk paid off, I can’t wait for next year.

Baseball

⚾️ Boone Extended in NY: Woo or Boo?

What to know: If you’ve been able to follow the New York Yankees even in the SLIGHTEST during Aaron Boone’s seven year stint as manager, you’ll know that the general consensus of Boone has fluctuated significantly. Granted, Yankees fans may be the most demanding of all sports fans, and are pretty upset at anything but a championship rings, something that Boone’s predecessors have all managed to grasp.

Boone struck a two year extension with the Yanks, locking him in through the end of the 2027 season. There has been rumblings of this deal getting done as Spring Training started to roll around, and now the pen to paper is finally there to prove it.

Since Boone took over in 2018, the Yankees have won at least 90 games in all but one of his seasons. In almost every metric the Yankees have been highly successful under Boone, they win a bunch and they make relatively deep playoff runs. they’ve done everything but win the big one, enough for Yankee fans to get ready to run him out of town.

Things hit an all-time low in 2023 when the Yankees finished the season in fourth place in the AL East and had the worst full season since 1992. Boone needed a massive season in 2024 to be on the right side of Yankees nation, and he did just that.

The Yankees finished last season with 94 wins and made it all the way to the World Series, where they met an absolute juggernaut named the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Yankees have made the playoffs in all but one season under Boone, and look poised to make a run again this year in the post-Juan Soto era.

No matter how you feel about Boone, he’ll likely be the manager for the Yankees for the next three years. Can he finally get the monkey off of his back and bring home another ring for New York?

NBA

🏀🙏 Wemby Out For Season

What to know: The Spurs may not have been breaking the stats in the win column, but they definitely have been making strides this season behind their young superstar! Unfortunately, out of nowhere it was announced yesterday that Victor Wembanyama would be sidelined for the remainder of the season.

All the reports came out of San Antonio yesterday, and it was announced that he has shoulder thrombosis (a blood clot). Just a few days ago, we saw Wemby at the Chase Center for the All-Star break, so it came as a shock to the league.

The clot was discovered directly when Wembanyama got back to San Antonio from the All-Star Break. He notified the team that he was feeling low energy, and after some tests, they found the clot. This is a scary injury for anybody, and you just can’t play any sort of contact sport, which is why they have shut down their superstar for the remainder of the season.

The reigning Rookie of the Year was basically the LOCK for Defensive Player of the Year this season, with his league-leading 3.8 blocks per game. Now, that has dramatically shifted in favor of one Jaren Jackson Jr. in Memphis.

The Spurs still have a great collection of players with the newly acquired De’Aaron Fox and young stud Stephon Castle. They are currently the 12-seed and are 3.5 games back of the 10-seeded Warriors for a play-in spot. Call me crazy, but I feel like I’ve heard this story before. A veteran Chris Paul with a group of youngsters who everybody casts aside- is it crazy to still say this team could sneak into the play-in? We’ll see!

Quick Hitters

• 🏈 Cowboys All-Pro Zack Martin set to hang up the cleats

• 😅 MLB and ESPN to split after 25 years

• 🏀 Philly bball coaching legend Fran Dunphy, 76, set to retire at seasons end

• 🔒️ Bucks’ Bobby Portis suspended for 25 games for positive drug test

What We’re Watching

🏀 Welcome back to a FULL NBA slate!

• ESPN Double Header: Knicks @ Cavs (7:00 PM), Timberwolves @ Rockets (9:30 PM)

• More to Watch: Grizzlies @ Magic (7:00 PM), Thunder @ Jazz (9:30 PM), Warriors @ Kings (10:00 PM)

🏒 NHL Back Underway Tomorrow! No rest for the wicked!

⚾️ SPRING BASEBALL! THAT’S RIGHT! I SAID IT!

• Rays @ Yanks (1:05 PM), Dodgers @ Cubs (3:05 PM), Rangers @ Royals (3:05 PM), Rockies @ DBacks (3:10 PM)

🏀 College Basketball ranked action:

• Men’s: (16) Marquette @ Villanova (7:00 PM on FS1), (14) Michigan State @ (12) Michigan (8:00 PM)

• Women’s: No ranked teams in action!

⚽️ International Futbol!

• English Premier League: Leicester City vs Brentford (3:00 PM on USA)

• LALIGA: Celta Vigo vs Osasuna (3:00 PM on ESPN+)

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

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Trees may get chopped. Stumps hold strong 🌴