My second-ever piano recital happened last weekend, and no panic attack this time! 60 seconds of Donald Trump being wrong about everything. And some thoughts on Willie Mays, the greatest ballplayer ever, dead at 93

Proof that I may in fact be getting better at playing the piano in public arrived Saturday, based on things that did NOT happen:
I did not have a panic attack, like I did last time.
I did not tell myself I would just lock myself in the bathroom before my name was called, ensuring that I wouldn’t have to perform.
I did not spend five minutes rationalizing in my head why it was crazy to go out there and play an instrument I’ve only been learning for two years, in front of a few hundred people.

So, yeah, Saturday’s piano recital was definitely better for me. I felt much more confident in the songs I was playing (for the historical record, I played a duet with my teacher called “March of the English Guard,” and then solo I played “Mr. Brahms’ Famous Lullaby”), and while I did make one note mistake in the duet, it wasn’t obvious to anyone besides me, who has been practicing the damn song for three months.

I am thoroughly enjoying the challenge of learning this instrument, and especially the challenge of learning new songs. I’ve definitely improved my note-reading over the past few months; now I’m confident that if my hands start a song in the right place, I’ll be able to figure out the rest of the notes.

It was an odd feeling, Saturday, playing in front of about 100 people (I was one of only two “grown-up” performers); about midway through my second song I had this calm feeling come over me. It was something like, “I know what I’m doing here, I’m playing the right notes, I’m in control of this!”

It was strange, because I haven’t had that feeling too often while learning. But I definitely feel like I’m getting better.

I am, of course, nowhere near as good as my 9.5 year old son, as Nate is playing much more complicated songs than I am. But I love that he and I are doing this together, even if he gets annoyed when I’m practicing sometimes and yell to him “Nate, Daddy has a question, can you come here for a sec?”

I think it’s so, so important to keep challenging your brain as you get older. Learning piano in my late 40s is much more difficult than if I’d learned in my 20s. But that’s OK. I’ll never get to Carnegie Hall, but I’m just happy to keep getting better.

Now my other son booing and hissing from the audience, that I could do without (nooooo).

If you’re thinking of doing something you’ve never done before, be it learn an instrument, a language, a life skill… go for it. It’s never, ever too late.

They nailed it with this video. I think Jimmy Kimmel said his team produced it. On point and funny.

Thanks for hearing me out and taking the time to read my thread. PLEASE vote 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/0sjtZhHoi0

— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) June 16, 2024

**Next, I’m not sure who put this together, it may have been Jimmy Kimmel and his staff, but if I were Joe Biden and his campaign team I’d run this every night in all 50 states.

In just 60 seconds, watch how absolutely wrong Donald Trump has been, with everything he predicted would happen in 2020, if he didn’t get re-elected.

I mean… this is absolute gold. As I said in 2016 and 2020, it is insane that this is going to be a close election.

 **And finally today, word came down late Tuesday night that Willie Mays, the greatest ballplayer ever, has died at age 93.

I am too young to have seen Mays play, but everything I’ve seen and read, and heard bears out what an unbelievable player he was. Of course he’s most famous for the basket catch he made in the 1954 World Series, but he’s so much more than that. He was such a smooth player, at the plate and at the field, and had every tool you could ever ask for in a player.

His incredible career for the Giants was probably the best ever for any major league player, and his passing is an enormous one.

It also leads to a fascinating question: For many years now Mays has been considered the greatest living ballplayer. Now that he has died, who holds that title? I threw this out to some friends of mine Tuesday night, and put it on Twitter, and got lots of good answers back. Ken Griffey, Jr. Rickey Henderson. Mike Schmidt. Johnny Bench. Ichiro. Shohei Ohtani (too soon). And of course, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who will forever be tainted by steroids.

My first inclination, after thinking about it for a few minutes, was Bench. Just a tremendous catcher, hitter and leader. But it might just be Henderson, who changed the game with his speed, and had an incredible career.
It’s a fun parlor game, with no “right” answer.

But Willie Mays was one hell of a ballplayer. Nobody better, ever. Rest in peace to the Say Hey Kid.

The new “Brat Pack” documentary waxes in nostalgia, is pretty self-indulgent, and of course I really liked it. A truly insane in-game MLB player interview on Father’s Day. And a beautiful Father’s Day speech by NBA star Jayson Tatum.

“We were members of a club, that none of us asked to join,” Andrew McCarthy says toward the end of “Brats”, his new documentary about the group of young actors who in 1985 were dubbed the “Brat Pack” of Hollywood.

McCarthy gets a knowing nod from fellow Brat Packer Demi Moore after saying it, and it made me smile because it was one of the rare times in this engrossing, weird but ultimately satisfying movie where McCarthy is reading the room correctly.

Because for most of this film which, as I said here a few weeks ago, I was nearly 100 percent predisposed to like, McCarthy seems to be searching for validation for his point of view and never, ever getting it.

For those of you not in Generation X, it’s hard to overstate how important these actors were to our lives. When I was a kid, the stars of these fantastic early 1980s-late 1980s movies were Hollywood gods to us. Emilio Estevez. Rob Lowe. Demi Moore. Molly Ringwald. Ally Sheedy. And yes, Andrew McCarthy, were in so many movies we loved.

They made films like “The Breakfast Club,” “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Pretty in Pink” and many more. We devoured these movies about teen angst and rebellion and growing up with no one understanding us, and then we watched them over and over again on VHS or on cable.

In “Brats,” McCarthy tracks down four of the other six “members,” to talk about how being labeled the Brat Pack changed their lives. And McCarthy tries really, really hard to get his fellow actors to say that this label damaged or ruined their careers.

We hear from other journalists, movie critics, and “Brat Pack adjacent” actors like Timothy Hutton and Lea Thompson, and pretty much all of them agree that while yeah, it’s not great to be called a Brat, having that label made people talk about them, and pay attention to them, as a collective more than they would have individually.

Rob Lowe, in particular, seems totally fine with it. In one of the movie’s best conversations he mentions that hey, 40 years later, people still know who you’re talking about when you say Brat Pack, and isn’t that a good thing?

McCarthy’s big issue, and all of their problems with it at the time, were that the label minimized their seriousness as actors, and how devoted to the craft they were. Not sure anyone so dedicated to their craft would’ve made Estevez’s “Repo Man,” but hey, reasonable minds can disagree. But the point is, all of the Brat Pack members still had successful careers, except maybe for Judd Nelson, so the label couldn’t have hurt that much.

Toward the end of the movie, McCarthy “confronts” the N.Y. magazine journalist David Blum about his article that coined the phrase, and McCarthy seems to really push Blum to try to get him to admit he made a mistake, that it was mean to call them that, etc. And Blum is like, no, I was proud of coining that term, my article was fair, and I would do it all over again.

“Brats” is of course wildly self-indulgent, but that’s part of the point: These people were white-hot famous 40 years ago, then their lives and careers diverged, and McCarthy is getting them to talk about it for, in some cases, the first time in a long time.

I really enjoyed hearing them talk about this glorious period in their lives, even though the absence of Ringwald was a big loss for the film. I loved seeing John Hughes, who I miss dearly, and learning things I had forgotten or never knew, like the fact that in the original ending of “Pretty in Pink,” Ducky and Andy end up together (apparently test audiences hated that so they changed it).

“Brats” is Gen X nostalgia, but also interesting to hear these actors now pushing 60 talk about a stressful, glorious time in their lives that only each other truly understood.

“Brats” is streaming on Hulu, and I definitely recommend it.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go listen to my “St. Elmo’s Fire” 45 in my basement and sing along. 

One of the more insane in-game interviews you will ever see pic.twitter.com/2jKckapwyc

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 17, 2024

**Next up, 99.9 percent of in-game interviews that television networks do with professional athletes are boring, useless, and add nothing to the enjoyment or interest of the fans watching the game.

Then there was this bit of insanity during the Red Sox-Yankees game Sunday night on ESPN. It was, of course, Father’s Day (shoutout to my fellow Dads out there!), and a Boston player named Triston Casas started telling what you would think was going to be a heartwarming story of his Dad, and playing baseball as a kid.
And then the story turns very, very off what we thought, and becomes a little horrifying, and the announcers laughing about it makes it even worse.

Just watch. Live TV, man, you just never know what you’re going to get.

What an honest, thoughtful Father's Day reflection.

This is a perfect glimpse into what makes Jayson Tatum such a great dad and a special person. pic.twitter.com/dmw4qdcR2q

— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) June 16, 2024

**And finally, completely on the other side of the spectrum from what you just watched, let me show you two minutes from NBA superstar (and former Dukie) Jayson Tatum, who in the next few days is very likely to be an NBA champion with the Boston Celtics.
Tatum was asked about what fatherhood means to him, and in this beautiful answer, Tatum talks about becoming a Dad at 19, how terrifying that was, and how it changed him for the better.

Tatum has always been a guy who gets it, and never more so than here. He’s definitely an athlete worth rooting for.

 

 

Good News Friday: A kid who had a kidney transplant gets to visit an NFL camp. An incredibly close guess on “The Price is Right.” And Steve Hartman on a team that just keeps on losing, happily.

Exactly the content needed right now….Kenyon, who just recently received a kidney transplant went to Chiefs practice and got all hugs 🥹🙏 pic.twitter.com/KfqTItRUDA

— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) June 13, 2024

 Happy Friday! It’s Friday, it’s June 14, which to you people may mean its Flag Day, but to me it’s the 30th anniversary of the New York Rangers winning the Stanley Cup, a feat I expected to see happen again this year, but apparently the Florida Panthers are just THAT good and will never lose again.
Sigh. I hope things are good in your world; I’m fully recovered from my third-ever bout with Covid late last week (third times the charm, right, well not really, unless you consider nausea and a head cold charming) and ready to take on the weekend.

We start today’s good news with a cool sports story. A little boy in Missouri named Kenyon recently underwent a kidney transplant, and as a reward got to hang out with the Kansas City Chiefs at their practice Thursday.

Check out all the love the little man gets.

And suddenly Pat Sajak's retirement is not the biggest game show thing to happen today. Holy shit. $1 #PriceIsRight pic.twitter.com/2krSFFJxOV

— Judson (@JudsonK17) June 7, 2024

**Next up, while Pat Sajak’s retirement was all the rage in game show world last week, this happened, too.

Patrice Masse from Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, bid $39,500 on a prize package that included a trip to Miami and a new car on the show’s June 7 episode.

Check out how incredibly close Patrice came to getting it exactly right. Just wow.

**And finally, I loved this story from Steve Hartman, about an Ultimate Frisbee team called the Detroit Mechanics, and their pro sports record-long losing streak.

The Mechanics have lost 78 matches in a row, but they keep on showing up, and have such a wonderful attitude.

Go Mechanics!

My favorite stupid criminal story in a long time, as a guy gets caught literally while talking to a judge. John Oliver’s hilarious quest to find the guy in the most stock photos. And Eli Saslow with another brilliant tale from a broken America

There are some criminals who are just so stupid, so gobsmackingly dumb, you wonder how they get through the day.

Let me introduce you to my new favorite criminal, a man I will enjoy and laugh at for years to come. So there was a hearing in Ann Arbor, Mich. in front of Judge Cedric Simpson. A defendant named Corey Harris had already had some driving difficulties and had his license suspended.

On this day, Harris decides to dial into a hearing meeting with Judge Simpson. WHILE DRIVING HIS CAR!

The prosecutor gets up and asks for an adjournment in Harris’ case, and then the fun begins.

NEW: Man with a suspended license joins court Zoom call while driving in his car.

This is the funniest video I've seen in a long time.

Judge Cedric Simpson can be seen dumbfounded after defendant Corey Harris dialed into the meeting from his car.

Simpson: "Mr. Harris, are… pic.twitter.com/ydOKIMD7Ie

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 29, 2024

Just watch the looks on the judge’s face, and then on Harris’ face at the 1:00 mark, and then around 1:25 when he fully realizes what the Judge is about to say.

So damn funny. Ah, Corey Harris, you dumb, dumb man.

You know Judge Simpson will be telling this story to his friends and family until the end of time.

**Next up, I was sick and bed-ridden over the weekend so I finally had a chance to clear some of my backlog of episodes of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

And honestly, this show is so damn good. Every week Oliver illuminates a problem in America, and offers solutions to solve it. But it’s the little vignettes at the start and end of the show that truly show the genius, and the derangement, of Oliver and his staff.

This was beautifully illustrated in a vignette on an April episode, where Oliver got intrigued in seeing the same guy over and over again in stock photo images. So with an unlimited HBO budget and all the time  he wanted, Oliver went about trying to find him.

I love this so much.

**And finally, I want to share yet another masterpiece of an article by the great Eli Saslow, the best newspaper storyteller working today.

Saslow dove into the case of a Nevada election clerk, an elected Republican named Cindy Elgan, and the absolutely-ludicrous efforts to recall her from her job.

Facts, reason and logic have absolutely no chance against these people, as Elgan learned.

An excerpt from this fabulous story (I’ve unlocked the story for free so you don’t have to be an NYT subscriber to read it:

So am I,” Elgan said. She took the recall petition back into her office, and over the next several days she continued to flip through the pages in disbelief. She counted at least 130 signatures, which at first glance appeared to be enough to force a recall election if the signatures and corresponding addresses proved legitimate. Nevada allowed a period of 20 days for voters to reconsider and remove their names from the petition. After that, Elgan’s office would work with the secretary of state to confirm signatures and determine if the petition was successful and whether Elgan still had a job.

“This is actually insane,” said Angela Jewell, the deputy clerk. “This is how democracies end. There must be some way to reason with a few of these people.”

“It’s like talking to that wall right there,” Elgan said. “I’ve given them every fact and document known to mankind, and none of it matters. They’re too busy chanting their mantras to stop and listen.”

 

She wasn’t necessarily surprised by the extent of denial about the presidential election. According to polls, a third of U.S. congressional representatives and more than 60 percent of all registered Republican voters continue to believe President Biden was falsely elected, and even Elgan had wondered about the potential for fraud in other swing states like Georgia or Ohio.

She understood how conspiracy theories could grow in places of ignorance — how people could come to doubt or even distrust faraway systems and strangers — but many of the names on the petition were ones she recognized as her friends. “A lot of these people really know me,” Elgan told Jewell, as she scanned again through the list.

…

“Some days, I drive home after work and I wonder why I’m still doing this,” she said. Her job was one of the lowest-paid elected positions in Nevada. Her husband was already retired, and they had grandchildren in California. “I believe in my bones that we have to protect the integrity of our process, but if I’m recalled because of all this, I’ll survive,” she said.

“Of course you will,” Burgans said. “But if the whole system gives way to disinformation and lies, what’s left to protect?”

It’s a fantastic, terrifying story, with a tiny bit of hope at the end.

 

 

 

dddd

 

Alcaraz wins a Roland Garros 5-set thriller, as he continues to show he’s tennis’ “Next Great One.” Pat Sajak signs off of “Wheel of Fortune” after an incredible run. And the National Spelling Bee crowned an incredible champion, as always.

There was a worry, oh, about a year ago, that men’s tennis might fall off a cliff when The Big 3 are gone.
That Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic had been so dominant, for so long, that there would be a period of, well, I don’t want to call it mediocrity, but more like, parity.

And maybe there wouldn’t be an all-time great ready to take their place.

Yeah, I don’t think we tennis fans need to worry about that. There’s a very worthy heir to the Big 3’s throne.

And he is so damn exciting to watch.

Carlos Alcaraz is still only 21 years old, and Sunday he won his third major title. On his third different surface. Alcaraz won his second straight five-setter, Sunday beating Alexander Zverev (a twice-accused, not convicted, domestic abuser) of Germany for his first Roland Garros championship.

Alcaraz did it with a dazzling array of forehands, backhands, drop shots, big serves, and wow, does he have EVERY shot in his toolkit.

Watching Alcaraz play is electrifying, because he combines the speed of Djokovic, the grace of Federer, and the warrior spirit of Nadal. There were a few times Sunday when I just laughed out loud at the outrageousness of what Alcaraz was doing; announcer for NBC Mary Carillo was cackling, too.

He’s an all-court player, a good kid and someone who can still get a lot better (just look at this wholesome content of Alcaraz celebrating with the French Open ballkids). Wow is he fun, and while I’m not closing the book on Djokovic yet (he got injured last week and who knows when he’ll play again, hopefully at the Olympics at end of July), it looks like Alcaraz and new No.1 Jannik Sinner will be carrying the torch for men’s tennis for awhile.

And that’s just fine by me.

On the women’s side, the dominance of Iga Swiatek on clay continued. She won her fourth Roland Garros crown, having just one scare (in the second round when Naomi Osaka had her down 5-2 in the third set) and asserting that she is certainly the top women’s player right now.

A few more weeks until Wimbledon!

**Next up today, Friday saw the end of an incredible run of television. Pat Sajak, who has hosted “Wheel of Fortune” for more than 40 years, did his last show as host. It was an incredible run for a man who basically asked people to pick letters, encouraged them when their spin came up bankrupt, and made jokes with them for a few minutes before the game.

Combined with the beautiful Vanna White, Pat made “Wheel”  must-watch TV for millions. He even had a short-lived late-night talk show, that I think me and 5 other people used to watch.

Here was Pat’s goodbye to the audience, and yeah, it’s OK if you get a little choked up.

**And finally, I know I am unconscionably late on this, considering it’s one of my favorite televised events of the year, but I finally got around to watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee last week, and I have a few thoughts.
First, it’s gotten harder and harder to find the Bee in recent years; it was an ESPN stalwart for many years, then when spelling got “hot” for a while it was on ABC, and now it’s on something called ION network, which I have to look to find every year.
And second, wow was this telecast padded more than the outfield wall at a ballpark. They started with only eight finalists, many fewer than usual, and I don’t know if the producers of the live show didn’t think these kids were any good, or what, but they did SO many things to stretch out the telecast. A ton of interviews with past winners, sooo many commercials, quite a few skits and backstage things, that I was practically yelling at the TV “Just let us watch the kids spell, please!!!” It was ridiculous how much non-spelling content they made us sit through.

OK, got that off my chest. This year’s Bee was super-exciting toward the end because we had a Spell-off between two boys; basically a spell-off is a lightning round to see who can spell the most words, the fastest.

And wow, did Bruhat Soma, of Florida, kick some butt. Using his fingers to mime-type the words, Soma was amazing.

Man I love the Bee. These kids are sensational, every year. 

Good News Friday: Some very encouraging news for people with Crohn’s and IBS like me! A women’s basketball star’s reaction upon being selected for the Olympics is heartwarming. And NYC is finally building more public toilets, whoo-hoo.

Happy Friday, world! We are officially summer-adjacent; my big kid leaves for sleepaway camp in, holy crap, two weeks, the little guy is finishing up hockey season, and I cannot wait for summer to get here, though first today I’m going to enjoy a fantastic tennis match between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s semis today at Roland Garros.
We have good news everywhere this week, but let’s start with something that could directly affect my life, and the lives of millions of others, in a positive way.
I think I’ve mentioned in this space that I have Crohn’s Disease; my case is quite mild compared to some other people I know, but it’s still an annoyance, something that causes me pain, and something which I take medication for every day.

Crohn’s and IBS (or IBD) affects millions, but researchers this week announced a particularly exciting breakthrough, that they kind of discovered by accident.

From BBC News: “A major cause of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been discovered by UK scientists. They found a weak spot in our DNA that is present in 95% of people with the disease. It makes it much easier for some immune cells to go haywire and drive excessive inflammation in the bowels.

The team have found drugs that already exist seem to reverse the disease in laboratory experiments and are now aiming for human trials.

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are the most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease. They are estimated to affect half a million people in the UK.

It often starts as a teenager or young adult.”

This is incredibly exciting for those of us who suffer; let’s hope this leads to better treatments and maybe even a cure.

 

There’s something special about going to your first Olympics 🏀 @cameronbrink22’s reaction to making the @usab3x3 roster has us all crying at our desks 🥹 pic.twitter.com/G8rBRZtcwb

— TOGETHXR (@togethxr) June 5, 2024

**Next up, Cameron Brink is a WNBA rookie this year for the Los Angeles Sparks, and part of an amazing first-year class in the WNBA, also featuring Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. Brink, a former star at Stanford, was informed this week that she’d been chosen for the U.S. women’s basketball 3 vs. 3 Olympic team at the Paris Games this July.
And her reaction was so genuine and beautiful. Everything I’ve read about Brink points to her goodness as a human. And this is just lovely to watch.

**Finally, if you’ve ever lived in, or visited New York City, you may have noticed how freaking difficult it is to find a working public toilet. For reasons big and small, we all need a place to go, whether it’s a spot to change a baby’s diaper (I’ve changed many on the curb because I couldn’t find a bathroom), or just to relieve oneself, access to public bathrooms is enormously important, and one that New York has ignored for far too long. It’s especially a problem for homeless people, of course.

Well, in one of the rare moves of Mayor Eric Adams that has my approval, the city announced this week that it is building 46 new public bathrooms, and renovating 36 others.

From the AP: “Busting to go in the Big Apple? Some relief is on the way.

New York City is not only getting more public toilets, but making them easier to locate using your smartphone.

Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday a plan to build 46 new restrooms and renovate 36 existing ones located in city parks, adding to the city’s roughly 1,000 such facilities over the next five years.

The Democrat said the city has also developed a new Google Maps layer so people can easily find the locations of every public restroom operated by government agencies and civic institutions, including libraries and at transit hubs.

“Part of making New York City a more livable city is tackling the little things — the things we don’t think about until we need them,” Adams said in a statement launching the effort, which his administration has dubbed “Ur in Luck.”

Good on ya, Eric Adams. As my friend Mike S. said, this should be priority No.1 and No. 2 (ba dum bump).

Have a great weekend.

Some thoughts on the Trump conviction, how history-making it was, and whether it really will affect the 2024 election. Simone Biles, back and kicking ass. And I rant for a few sentences about the Rangers, who will be Cup-less yet again

So you may have heard something about this on Friday, you know, typical news-dump on a late Thursday afternoon.

A former U.S. President was convicted of 34 felony counts in a New York City courtroom.

Thirty-four counts. That’s kind of a lot. A couple thoughts on this unprecedented moment in American history:
— First, this Manhattan case was said by most legal experts to be the weakest of the four indictments Trump is facing, the least dangerous for him. So the fact that he was convicted on all counts on this case makes me think he’s in legit trouble of being convicted in the other three as well.

— It’s laughable in a way to, in 2024, say the phrase “Well, the Republican nominee for President is a convicted felon, that won’t affect his chances for election.” But that’s what everyone seems to be saying since the verdict, that all his voters will stay with him no matter what, as long as he has a pulse.

I know I’ve proven wrong before on Trump, but I have to believe it will have at least SOME effect. There have to be voters in swing states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, etc. who don’t love Biden, but can’t bring themselves to pull the lever for someone convicted of 34 felonies. There don’t have to be a ton of these people, just enough to swing the Electoral College vote in their state.

— The idea of Trump in prison delights me: the man who exhorted millions to “lock her up” now should be seeing an orange jumpsuit in his future (hey, it matches his complexion!)

He probably won’t see it in this case, but maybe in the other three.

— If I’m President Biden and the Democrats, I’m reminding voters every single time I speak in public that his opponent was convicted of 34 felonies. Every single time. Drill it into everyone’s skull.

— Finally, it is so, so important, even more so now, that Biden win this election. Because if Trump wins, those other 3 cases will disappear into thin air, and this unbelievably arrogant con man will never be truly held accountable for his crimes.

Thirty four for thirty four. That’s one hell of a batting average for the Orange Grifter.

Come for Simone Biles' vault, stay for her mom's reaction. ❤️#XfinityChamps | 📺 NBC & @peacock pic.twitter.com/7Wy3rr9Wmf

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) June 3, 2024

**Next up, I love how Simone Biles seems to be completely recovered from her disastrous 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. She completed her amazing return to the top over the weekend at the U.S. Championships, winning gold in every event, including with this vault. The Olympics are six weeks away, and it would be so great to see this incredible athlete come out on top yet again.

**Finally today, I must vent for a little bit about my beloved New York Rangers, whose incredible season came to an end Saturday night, in a feeble hail of missed shots and blown scoring opportunities. The Florida Panthers 100 percent, absolutely were the better team in this series, so there’ll be no bellyaching from me about bad bounces or missed ref calls or anything like that that usually happens when a series is as close as this one appeared to be.

Instead, I want to rant about the complete disappearing act by the Rangers stars in this series. Mika Zibanejad, Artemiy Panarin, and Chris Kreider, did bupbkis. Zilch, zero. Kreider had one goal, Panarin had one very late in Game 6 goal, and Mika was shut out. That CANNOT happen in the conference finals! I don’t care that the Panthers were good, suffocating on defense, tenacious on the forecheck, all of that is true.
But for the Rangers stars to no-show at the biggest points of the season, yet again, just makes me mad. Igor Shesterkin played out of his freaking mind in goal, like, he was incredible, the only reason the series was as close as it was.

And just as my boys did throughout much of Henrik Lundqvist’s prime, it went to waste. Six freaking wins away from the Stanley Cup, and still can’t get it done.

OK. Thank you. In the big picture, it was an incredible season, and getting to two conference finals in three years is pretty damn good. But this was going to be THE YEAR. The year the 30-year Cup drought ended.

Why do I even bother getting my hopes up?