New York Sports Boring? Fugeddaboutit!

If you live in the New York Tri-State area, you can never say the sports landscape is ever boring. Anyone who begs to differ is either not from this area, or is just a total snob.

That is because on Monday, April 15, just about every professional sports team in town made headlines of their own, some even more historic than the other. Here's a quick rundown:

Only the New York Giants, New York Red Bulls, and NYCFC didn't join the parade of headline makers on Monday.

For some of us in the Tri-State Area, it's just the order of doing business. It's the City that never sleeps after all, right?

The Rangers made easy work of the Ottawa Senators on Monday night, winning 4-0.  Artemi Panarin, Jack Roslovic, Adam Fox, and Alexis Lafreneire all scored for the Blue Shirts, while Igor Shesterkin recorded 26 saves. Let's be honest, Head Coach Peter Laviollette has done an outstanding job with this veteran squad. The Rangers disappointed big time last season losing to the Devils in the first round. He has molded this team into his brand of hockey and has the Rangers poised for big things.

Now, can the Blue Shirts finish the deal? They are the number one seed in the East.  New York still doesn't know who it will face in Round One. It could be Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh or Washington. Let us not forget that the Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes are all capable of representing the East in the Stanley Cup.

Imagine deep runs by the Rangers and Knicks in the playoffs? It could happen.

Ask anyone in February if the Islanders would make the playoffs, people would laugh.  The Isles fired head coach Lane Lambert, and replaced him with Patrick Roy. It wasn't easy. The Isles took their lumps, but Roy found a way to get the most out of the Islanders down the stretch, winning nine of its last 12 games to get in.

Speaking of showing a spark when it was least expected, the Mets are back to .500 (8-8) after storming back to beat Pittsburgh on Monday. Harrison Bader again played the hero lining a 2-run double to score the deciding runs in a 6-3 victory. Edwin Diaz put out the fire in the top of the ninth. There is something cooking in Flushing. The Mets have a never-say-die attitude that was missing last year. After an 0-5 start, the Mets are 8-3 since.

John Sterling was the voice of the Yankees for 36 years. His retirement, while not surprising, still caught most off-guard on Monday. He is one of a kind, and impossible to replace.

If you believe the reports from ESPN, the Brooklyn Nets are prepared to hire Sacramento Kings assistant coach Jordi Fernandez as its new Head Coach. The Kings are in the midst of the postseason play-in games. The 41-year old Fernandez is said to be a highly sought after coach in the league. Brooklyn went 32-50 this season. This story broke with just 19 minutes to go before midnight on Monday.

Oh, and the WNBA had its draft, and Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark was in town to get drafted by the Indiana Fever. Let's just say her drafting was a pretty big deal.

The New York Liberty selected Marquesha Davis, out of Ole Miss, with their late first round selection.

Yeah, it was a wild day in New York sports. Who knows what today will bring?

New York Rangers 

The 2024 Masters Tournament gave us everything we could hope for, and more.

The images of the final round spoke to a fun Sunday on the course at Augusta National Golf Club.

For the first time in the four days of the tournament, the weather was actually good for the golfers. Wind was light most of the day, which was far from the case the previous three days.

That lack of wind made scoring conditions a little better, and gave the leaderboard a much needed shakeup. It wasn't shakeup enough to slow down Scottie Scheffler though.

Scheffler held strong on his lead going into the day, and shot a solid 4-under, 68 in the final round. That gave him a four-stroke win over Masters rookie Ludvig Aberg from Sweden.

Max Homa, Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood finished tied for third at 4-under. First-round leader Bryson DeChambeau stumbled to a final-round 73, and finished tied with Cam Smith at 2-under, in sixth place.

Of the 60 golfers who made the cut, Tiger Woods ended up in 60th. He couldn't get much going on the weekend, where he shot a combined 15-over. He finished at 16-over, but did manage to break the record for consecutive cuts made at the Masters with his 24th.