RotoRob

The Tampa Bay Rays won just 80 games last season, snapping a streak of six straight winning campaigns and five straight playoff appearances. But they’ve bounced back this year, and despite dropping their last two, have won six of 10 to move to four games over .500, good enough to bag the final wild card slot in the AL if the season were to end today.

The San Diego Padres have alternated making the playoffs and missing them over the last five years, and with this being an odd year, they are projected to be on the outside looking in again if the trend holds true.

Down 3-1 early in the second period, things didn’t look great for Edmonton. But this team has shown tremendous resilience in coming from behind throughout the playoffs, and that trend continued as they battled back, forced overtime, and then won it with just 31 seconds left in the first extra frame.

After suffering an LBI in the 4 Nations Cup, he wound up missing a ton of time down the stretch, only returning in time for the first game of the playoffs. Tkachuk promptly put any doubts about his health to rest when he fired a pair of goals and an assist in the opener vs. TB. Over the next four games, he wasn’t quite as dynamic, but still managed a goal and an assist while his PT started to rise closer to his usual level.

We’re in a break between rounds in the NHL playoffs, so this gives us an opportunity to take a look at where the Detroit Red Wings are in their seemingly ill-fated Yzerplan. Last season Detroit continued to progress, raising its point total for the fourth straight season while finishing with a winning record for the first time since 2015-16.

Randle bounced back from a brutal showing in Game Two (six points on 2-of-11 shooting – really his first off game of the postseason) to pour in 24 points (9-of-15) while adding a pair of treys. He really regressed in rebounding this season, and it’s been even worse in the playoffs, but with nearly 23 PPG he’s come up way bigger this spring after averaging under 19 during the regular season (his worst scoring effort since he was a Laker, just before his breakout in 2018-19).

He’s coming off perhaps his best season yet, staying healthy after an injury-plagued 2023 and setting personal highs in completions, passes, completion percentage, yards and touchdowns. So how the hell did the Bengals struggle to reach even nine wins?

In Game Seven on Sunday against defending champion Florida, Toronto turned in another major stinker, getting thrashed 6-1 in front of their own fans.

His PT dipped down the stretch, but is way up during the postseason, yet the production has not followed as he’s actually getting fewer touches. It sort of mirrors Bridges' regular season when he set a career high in MPG, yet saw his scoring regress for a second straight campaign.

So what happened to the Jets last year? For starters, their rush attack was putrid (31st overall) and they struggled to force turnovers, finishing 30th in takeaways per game. On the plus side, the pass D was very strong.