Sports
Yahoo Sports AM: Oilers vs. Panthers
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🚨 Headlines
🏈 McManus released: The Commanders cut kicker Brandon McManus, who was accused of sexually assaulting two flight attendants last season with the Jaguars.
⚾️ End of the road: Birmingham-Southern’s inspiring run to the D-III College World Series came to an end on Sunday, two days after the school closed forever.
🏈 Bills sign Steveson: Gable Steveson, an Olympic gold medalist and two-time NCAA champion wrestler, has signed with the Bills and will attempt to make the team as a defensive tackle.
🏀 Still perfect: The Connecticut Sun became the seventh team in WNBA history to start 8-0. The other seven all made the WNBA Finals.
⚽️ Hayes wins debut: The USWNT blanked South Korea, 4-0, on Saturday in head coach Emma Hayes’ debut.
🏒 Stanley Cup Final: Oilers vs. Panthers
The Oilers and Panthers will meet in the Stanley Cup Final after Edmonton eliminated top-seeded Dallas and Florida knocked off top-seeded New York.*
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The favorite: The Panthers (-125 at BetMGM) are in their second straight Final (after three straight appearances by the NHL’s other Florida team) and are seeking their first-ever championship.
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The underdog: The Oilers (+105) are making their first Final appearance since 2006. They’re one of only seven franchises with 5+ Stanley Cups, but their last title was 34 years ago.
3 storylines:
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Fuel up those airplanes: Edmonton to Miami is the furthest distance between two cities in Stanley Cup Final history at 2,541 miles, per ESPN, edging out Vancouver to Boston (2,500 miles). The flight is about eight hours, so jet lag could be a real factor if this series goes the distance.
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Can the Oilers break the curse? Most NHL players weren’t even born the last time a team from Canada won the Cup (Canadiens in 1993). Six have reached the Final since then (Canucks in 1994, Flames in 2004, Oilers in 2006, Senators in 2007, Canucks in 2011, Canadiens in 2021), but all six came up short.
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McDavid’s moment: Connor McDavid is already one of the best hockey players to ever live, but he’s yet to play on the NHL’s biggest stage. This is his chance to prove that he’s a winner and bring Lord Stanley back to his home country, all while becoming more of a household name in America, where casual sports fans aren’t as familiar with him as they should be.
Looking ahead: Game 1 is Saturday night in Florida (8pm ET, ABC).
*New York’s drought continues: The Rangers, Islanders, Knicks, Nets, Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets have now played a combined 100 seasons without winning a title, extending the longest drought in New York major sports history.
🇺🇸 Photos across America
Fort Worth, Texas — Simone Biles won her ninth national all-around title on Sunday night at the U.S. gymnastics championships. She was nearly perfect all weekend, winning gold on all four apparatuses as she gears up for a third Olympics this summer.
Lancaster, Pennsylvania — Japan’s Yuka Saso (-4) won the U.S. Women’s Open by three shots on Sunday to become the tournament’s youngest two-time winner. The 22-year-old took home $2.4 million of the $12 million purse, a record for women’s golf.
Washington, D.C. — A year after gifting President Biden a jersey, the Chiefs gifted him a helmet during a White House celebration for the back-to-back Super Bowl champs.
Dallas — The U.S. beat Canada in the opening match of the T20 Cricket World Cup, which came 180 years after their first, historic meeting.*
*Canada beat the U.S. in a two-day match in September 1844, which was the first international cricket match and possibly the first international match in any sport.
🌎 Photos around the world
Hamilton, Ontario — Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre won his first PGA Tour title at the Canadian Open. By his side the whole time? His dad, Dougie, a last-minute addition as his caddie. What a moment for father and son.
Paris — World No. 1 Iga Świątek had one of the most dominant performances ever on Sunday, beating Anastasia Potapova, 6-0, 6-0, in a brisk 40 minutes and losing just 10 points all match.
Pachuca, Mexico — Liga MX club Pachuca blanked the Columbus Crew, 3-0, on Saturday to win their sixth CONCACAF Champions Cup, one shy of Club América’s record.
Taipei City — Former NBA All-Star DeMarcus Cousins was named Finals MVP of Taiwan’s top league on Saturday, leading the Taiwan Beer Leopards to a title with a 24-point, 24-rebound performance in the clinching game.
⚽️ The rich get richer
It was quite the weekend for Real Madrid, which won its 15th Champions League title on Saturday and officially signed Kylian Mbappé on Sunday.
The rich get richer: The Spanish juggernaut has now won more Champions League titles in the last 11 years (six) than all but three other clubs have won in European Cup history. And now, they’ll add arguably the best player in the world.
A match made in heaven: Mbappé to Real Madrid is “the rare compatible marriage between superstar and superclub,” writes Yahoo Sports’ Henry Bushnell.
This was the saga’s only sensible outcome, even after Mbappé rebuffed Real Madrid in 2022. This time around, he never seriously considered or negotiated with any other club. Because there was only one that could match and amplify his ambition.
Madrid, of course, was also the club that adorned the walls of his childhood bedroom. That’s the romantic story, and one that will surely be spun to distract from the more cynical view — the charge that this is something of a competitive cop-out.
Mbappé failed to win the Champions League in seven seasons at PSG. That he’s joining the squad who seemingly always win it, à la Kevin Durant to the Warriors, is not lost on anybody. But the real story here is a more pragmatic and rational one. The fit is seamless.
Real Madrid, tactically and culturally and commercially, was really the only club capable of accommodating Mbappé’s talent and celebrity. Whereas Lionel Messi and Neymar were bigger than PSG, nobody is bigger than Real Madrid.
Mbappé will step into a club with infrastructure and well-drilled systems accustomed to supporting and managing players like him. He will lift the club’s soccer ceiling; but the club might actually raise his profile more than he’ll raise theirs.
Speaking of Real Madrid superstars… Luka Dončić, who joined the club’s youth academy at age 15 and led the senior team to the 2018 EuroLeague title, makes his NBA Finals debut this week.
📆 June 3, 1989: Scully plays two
35 years ago today, legendary sportscaster Vin Scully called 23 innings across two cities in the same day.*
So much baseball: Scully began the day in St. Louis, where the Cardinals beat the Cubs in 10 innings on NBC’s “Game of the Week.” He then flew to Houston, where he was scheduled to call Dodgers-Astros the next day. But when he landed and found out the game was headed to extras, he went straight to the Astrodome and called the final 13 innings of a 22-inning marathon.
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⚾️ 2006: Sammy Sosa was ejected and later suspended seven games after umpires found cork in his shattered bat. He said it was an honest mistake, and it may very well have been, but the incident tarnished his reputation forever.
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⛳️ 2012: Tiger Woods tied Jack Nicklaus with his 73rd PGA Tour win, doing so at the Memorial, which Nicklaus founded. Woods is currently tied with Sam Snead for the most wins ever (82).
*The marathon continues: Scully was back at the Astrodome bright and early the next day for the afternoon finale between the Dodgers and Astros. Naturally, that game went 13 innings, bringing his tally to 36 innings in 29 hours.
📺 Watchlist: Softball’s Final Four
The Women’s College World Series is nearing its conclusion, with two (or as many as four) games today to determine who will meet in the best-of-three championship.
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No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 4 Florida (12pm ET, ESPN): Oklahoma, which hasn’t lost yet, moves on with a win. If Florida wins, they’ll play a winner-take-all game at 2:30pm.
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No 1 Texas vs. No. 8 Stanford (7pm, ESPN2): Same situation here as above, with Texas needing one win and Stanford needing two. The second game, if necessary, is at 9:30pm.
More to watch:
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🎾 Tennis: French Open* (5am, Tennis)
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⚾️ MLB: Giants at Diamondbacks (9:40pm, FS1)
*Matchup of the day: No. 12 Taylor Fritz, the last American man standing, faces No. 7 Casper Ruud (9:30am) for a spot in the quarterfinals.
⚾️ MLB trivia
Juan Soto and Aaron Judge have emerged as AL MVP frontrunners. If they keep this up, they could become the first teammates to finish 1-2 in MVP voting since which duo in 2000?
Hint: NL West.
Answer at the bottom.
🍿 Baker’s Dozen: Top plays of the weekend
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⚾️ Heckuva play
Trivia answer: Giants teammates Jeff Kent (NL MVP) and Barry Bonds (runner-up)
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