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The Stanley Cup playoffs constitute the greatest postseason tournament in sports. Not just for the action, the drama, the brutality, the endurance, the pain, the glory and the legends that are made. But because in every single postseason, there are lessons to be learned.

Here are 10 things we’ve taken away from the 2023 NHL postseason, from stars being born to road teams being unstoppable to the wit and wisdom of Jack Hughes. Enjoy!


Earlier this season on The Drop, when discussing Boston Bruins star David Pastrnak getting a massive new contract, I suggested that not only was Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk a better winger, but that he should be in the conversation for best all-around player in the NHL. For this suggestion, I was dragged by a bunch of fans who found it ridiculous.

A few months later?

I’m just trying not to turn an ankle on my victory lap.

Tkachuk is a star, a force, an MVP contender. He scores big goals and sets them up. He had an assist on Carter Verhaeghe‘s Game 7 series clincher and set the critical screen in front of the Boston BruinsJeremy Swayman.

Off the ice, Tkachuk has been the voice of the underdog, proclaiming that it would be miraculous if the Panthers were to take a game from the mighty Bruins. Then after Game 5 — which he won with an overtime goal — he mockingly recalled how everyone else thought Florida would get swept.

He and Sam Bennett have been the most potent duo in the Eastern Conference. Tkachuk is the current leader for the Conn Smythe Trophy, and for good reason.

Full marks to Panthers general manager Bill Zito, who boldly traded star winger Jonathan Huberdeau (and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar) to the Calgary Flames because he believed Tkachuk played the kind of game that would better lead to playoff success. Zito was right.

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Ichiro shows funny side, joins CC, Wagner in HOF

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Ichiro shows funny side, joins CC, Wagner in HOF

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, one of five new members of baseball’s hallowed institution.

After enduring the baseball tradition known as a rain delay, the five speeches went off without a hitch as the deluge subsided and the weather became hot and humid. Joining Suzuki were pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, and sluggers Dick Allen and Dave Parker, both of whom were enshrined posthumously.

“For the third time, I am a rookie,” Suzuki said, delivering his comments in English despite his long preference for conducting his public appearances in Japanese with the aid of an interpreter.

For the American audience, this provided a rare glimpse into Suzuki’s playful side. Teammates long spoke of his sense of humor behind the closed doors of the clubhouse — something the public rarely saw — but it was on full display Sunday.

When Hall voting was announced, Suzuki fell one vote shy of becoming the second unanimous selection for the Hall. He thanked the writers for their support — with an exception.

“Three-thousand [career] hits or 262 hits in one season are achievements recognized by the writers,” Suzuki said. “Except, oh, one of you.”

After the laughter subsided, Suzuki mentioned the gracious comments he made when balloting results were announced, when he offered to invite the writer who didn’t vote for him home for dinner to learn his reasoning. Turns out, it’s too late.

“The offer to the one writer to have dinner at my home has now … expired!” Suzuki said.

Suzuki’s attention to detail and unmatched work ethic have continued into the present day, more than five years since he played his last big league game. That was central to his message Sunday, at least when he wasn’t landing a joke.

“If you consistently do the little things, there’s no limit to what you can achieve,” Suzuki said. “Look at me. I’m 5-11 and 170 pounds. When I came to America, many people said I was too skinny to compete with bigger major leaguers.”

After becoming one of the biggest stars in Japanese baseball, hitting .353 over nine seasons for the Orix BlueWave, Suzuki exploded on the scene as a 27-year-old rookie for the Seattle Mariners, batting .350 and winning the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP honors.

Chants of “Ichiro!” that once were omnipresent at Mariners games erupted from the crowd sprawled across the grounds of the complex while the all-time single-season hits leader (262 in 2004) posed with his plaque alongside commissioner Rob Manfred and Hall of Fame chairman Jane Forbes Clark.

Despite his late start in MLB, Suzuki finished with 3,089 hits in the majors and 4,367 including his time in Japan. Suzuki listed some of his feats, such as the hit total, and his 10 Gold Gloves.

“Not bad,” he said.

Sabathia’s weekend got off to a mildly rough start when his wife’s car broke down shortly after the family caravan departed for Cooperstown. They arrived in plenty of time though, and Sabathia was greeted warmly by numerous Yankees fans who made the trip.

After breaking in with Cleveland at age 20, Sabathia rocketed to stardom with a 17-5 rookie season. Alas, that came in 2001, the same year that Suzuki landed in the American League.

“Thank you most of all to the great players sitting behind me,” Sabathia said. “I am so proud and humbled to join you as a Hall of Famer, even Ichiro, who stole my Rookie of the Year Award in 2001.”

Sabathia focused the bulk of his comments on the support he has received over the years from his friends and family, especially his wife, Amber.

“The first time we met was at a house party when I was a junior in high school,” Sabathia said. “We spent the whole night talking, and that conversation has been going on for 29 years.”

Parker, 74, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on June 28, less than a month before the induction ceremony. Representing him at the dais was his son, Dave Parker II, and though the moment was bittersweet, it was hardly somber.

Parker II finished the speech with a moving poem written by his father that, for a few minutes, made it feel as if the player nicknamed “The Cobra” were present.

“Thanks for staying by my side,” Parker’s poem concluded. “I told y’all Cooperstown would be my last rap, so the star of Dave will be in the sky tonight. Watch it glow. But I didn’t lie in my documentary — I told you I wouldn’t show.”

Parker finished with 2,712 hits and 339 homers, won two Gold Gloves on the strength of his legendary right-field arm and was named NL MVP in 1978. He spent his first 11 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and entered the Hall representing the Bucs.

Wagner, whose 422 career saves ranks eighth on the all-time list, delivered an emotional but humorous speech about a small-town guy with a small-for-a-pitcher 5-foot-10 stature who made it big.

“I feel like my baseball life has come full circle,” Wagner said. “I was a fan before I could play. Back when baseball wasn’t so available on TV, every Saturday morning I watched Johnny Bench and so many of the other greats on a show ‘The Baseball Bunch.'”

In one of the moments of baseball serendipity that only Cooperstown can provide, the telecast flashed to Bench, sitting a few feet away from where Wagner was speaking.

Allen’s widow, Willa, delivered a touching tribute to her late husband, who died in 2020 after years of feeling overlooked for his outstanding career. The 1964 NL Rookie of the Year for the Phillies, Allen won the 1972 AL MVP for the Chicago White Sox.

“Baseball was his first love,” Willa said. “He used to say, ‘I’d have played for nothing,’ and I believe he meant it. But of course, if you compare today’s salary, he played almost for nothing.”

Willa focused on the softer side of a player who in his time was perhaps unfairly characterized for a contentious relationship with the media.

“He was devoted to people, not just fans, but especially his teammates,” Willa said. “If he heard someone was sick or going through a tough time, he’ll turn to me and say, ‘Willa, they have to hear from us.'”

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Braves get starting pitcher Fedde from Cardinals

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Braves get starting pitcher Fedde from Cardinals

The Atlanta Braves acquired veteran starting pitcher Erick Fedde from the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later or cash, both teams announced Sunday.

As part of the deal, the Cardinals will cover the majority of what remains of Fedde’s $7.5 million salary for 2025, a source told ESPN.

Fedde, 32, is a free agent at season’s end, making him a surprising pickup for a Braves team that was swept by the Texas Rangers over the weekend and is 16 games below .500, trailing the first-place New York Mets by 16½ games.

But the Braves have sustained a slew of injuries to their starting rotation of late, with AJ Smith-Shawver (torn ulnar collateral ligament), Spencer Schwellenbach (fractured elbow), Chris Sale (fractured ribcage) and, more recently, Grant Holmes (elbow inflammation) landing on the injured list since the start of June.

Fedde reestablished himself in South Korea in 2023, parlaying a dominant season into a two-year, $15 million contract to return stateside with the Chicago White Sox. Fedde continued that success in 2024, posting a 3.30 ERA in 177⅓ innings with the White Sox and Cardinals.

This year, though, it has been a struggle for a crafty right-hander who doesn’t generate a lot of strikeouts. Twenty starts in, Fedde is 3-10 with a 5.22 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP.

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Dodgers go to 6-man rotation amid Ohtani return

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Dodgers go to 6-man rotation amid Ohtani return

BOSTON — Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani is expected to start on the mound Wednesday as he continues his buildup from elbow surgery that kept him from pitching all last season.

Manager Dave Roberts said Sunday before the Dodgers faced the Boston Red Sox in the finale of their three-game series that the plan is for Ohtani to work four innings at Cincinnati, with an off day to recover before hitting in a game.

With the Japanese superstar working his way back along with left-hander Blake Snell, who pitched 4⅔ innings on Saturday in his fourth rehab start for Triple-A Oklahoma City, the Dodgers will be using a six-man rotation.

They currently have Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Emmet Sheehan in the rotation.

“Shohei is going to go on Wednesday and then he’ll probably pitch the following Wednesday, so that probably lends itself to the six-man,” Roberts said.

In Ohtani’s last start, he allowed one run and four hits in three innings against Minnesota on July 22. He struck out three and walked one, throwing 46 pitches, 30 for strikes.

Roberts said this season is sort of a rehab year in the big leagues and doesn’t foresee the team extending Ohtani’s workload deep into games for a while.

“I think this whole year on the pitching side is sort of rehab, maintenance,” he said. “We’re not going to have the reins off where we’re going to say: ‘Hey you can go 110 pitches.’ I don’t see that happening for quite some time. I think that staying at four [innings] for a bit, then build up to five and we’ll see where we can go from there.”

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