Backup goalie snuffs San Jose for latest win

February 2, 2020 general

Sunday, 4 a.m. There for a while, it appeared that Curtis McElhinney might as well take the day off. He could have gone to the beach. He could have worn flip-flops onto the ice. He could have brought a magazine. After all, for one period, the San Jose Sharks managed just two shots — two […]

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Kucherov’s splashy goal lifts Lightning again

February 1, 2020 general

Saturday, 4 a.m. This is how you will remember him, with the puck on his stick, with the ice open in front of him. Nikita Kucherov, the best player in the NHL a year ago, has been downgraded to “pretty good” for most of the season. But in the third period of the Lightning’s 4-3 […]

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Super Bowl could turn into the Mahomes show

January 31, 2020 general

Friday, 4 a.m. He is on the front porch of history. From here, all he has to do is enter the room. He is Patrick Mahomes, and he is 24, and he could be voted mayor of Kansas City any time he wants to run. He has won 23 of 30 regular season games, and […]

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Stamkos leads Lightning rally over Kings

January 30, 2020 general

Thursday, 4 a.m. Early in the second period, there was an uh-oh moment for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Seventy-eight seconds into play, and Alex Iafallo scored to give the Los Angeles Kings a 2-0 lead over the Lightning. Because Tampa Bay had lost to Dallas in overtime Monday night, a slow start to the second […]

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Do the Lightning scare enough opponents?

January 29, 2020 general

Tuesday, 4 a.m. Here at the oasis, you ask: How’s the trip going so far? Halfway through their journey (actually, a tad more), and how are the Tampa Bay Lightning doing? Well, pretty good. Call it a B. A par. Better than most teams, not as good as you might think. Frustrating at times. Vexing […]

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Defensive breakdowns doom the Lightning

January 28, 2020 general

Tuesday, 4 a.m. Following a long break for the All-Star game, the Tampa Bay Lightning returned to play Monday night in Dallas. Sort of. Officially, the Lighting played another game. But after a mix of turnovers and odd-man rushes, it didn’t quite seem so in a 3-2 overtime loss to Dallas. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, trying […]

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Remembering Kobe and one man’s dreams

January 27, 2020 general

Monday, 4 a.m. He was intelligent. He was fluid. He was charismatic. But as much as anything else, Kobe Bryant was a dreamer. It was in the 2012 Olympics when Bryant, the former Lakers’ star who died in a helicopter crash Sunday, sat on small stage in a corner of London reserved for the Olympics. […]

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Testing a fan’s patience: The Tampa Bay quiz

January 26, 2020 general

SUNDAY, 4 a.m. So you say you’ve seen it all. You say you’ve got it all figured out. You have seen the past, and you can imagine the future. Nope. Nothing is going to surprise you. All of your question marks are exclamation points. You know what the Bucs are going to do with Jameis […]

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Spare me the fake moments of all-star games

January 25, 2020 general

SATURDAY, 4 a.m. Star forward Alex Ovechkin says he’s skipping NHL all-star weekend because he’s “listening to his body.” His body, presumably, is shouting at the top of its lungs “get me away from anything resembling an all-star game.” I don’t know about you, but here’s the way I feel about all-star games: The taste […]

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Could this be one of the classic Super Bowls?

January 24, 2020 general

Friday, 4 a.m. Think of it like a yearly movie. Most of them are duds. Most of them have bad actors, and bad scripts, and major plot holes. Most of them are death at the box office. You look at them, and you think that it’s no wonder that the event fizzled. But every now […]

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