Lightning Swept by Blue Jackets

By: Keyano Roshan-Rouz

On Tuesday, April, 16 in Columbus, Ohio, the Tampa Bay Lightning got swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets because their top scorers in the regular season failed to effectively score in the playoffs.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, were the number one seed in the east, President trophy winners, tied the NHL record for most wins in a season, had three of their players and their head coach put on the all star team, three of their players had more than 90 total points this season, and more. For the Columbus Blue Jackets, who were the second wild card in the eastern conference, this was only the fourth time making it to the playoffs, none of which had they made it past the first round. This time however would be different.

The first game Columbus won 4-3. The second one they won by an even larger amount, 5-1. But that wasn’t all. In game 2 of the series Nikita Kucherov- the star scorer for the lightning -got a five minute major, and a game misconduct for boarding Markus Nutivaara. The NHL decided that “Kucherov takes advantage of this situation to deliver a dangerous hit to a player in a exposed and defenseless position.” and suspended him for one game. That same game that Kucherov was out star defenseman Victor Hedman was out with an upper-body injury. Apparently he had been “Banged up for a bit.” according to head coach Jon Cooper. Without two of their star players the Lightning lost game 3 3-1. And with that said the Blue Jackets completed the sweep with a 7-3 win against the Lightning.

Many people ask how the lightning lost the game, especially to head coach Jon Cooper and team captain Steven Stamkos. Cooper said that they just “...couldn’t find our game.” and that “Having the amount of points as we have is a blessing and a curse. All Stamkos had to say was “You’re not gonna hear excuses from our

Nikita Kucherov

Regular Season

128 points

1.8 points per game

Playoffs

2 points

0.5 points per game

Steven Stamkos

Regular Season

98 points

1.2 points per game

Playoffs

2 points

0.5 points per game

Brayden Point

Regular Season

92 points

1.125 points per game

Playoffs

1 point

0.25 points per game

side, we just didn’t execute.”. They are both saying that they lost due to the fact that they were unproductive. This is in fact true, and the statistics prove such. The three top scorers on the Lightning failed to even average one point in the playoffs.

Tiger Woods Wins The Masters

By: Keyano Roshan-Rouz

On April, 15, 2019 Tiger Woods won The Masters at the Augusta National golf club in Augusta, Georgia because he never gave up, and never lost hope, overcoming all of his hardships.

Tiger Woods won his first masters in 1997, at the age of 21, jump-starting his already incredible career. He would then go on to win two more masters until in 2013 tragedy struck. He collapsed in pain on his second shot on the 13th hole during the final round of The Barclays. After that in March 2014 he had the first sign of his back problems. After that things went completely downhill. He went through a public divorce, four back surgeries, a DUI arrest, and more.

Fun Fact: Tiger Woods got his first hole-in-one At the age of 6!

People thought that at that point Tiger Woods’ career was over. But like many times before, he proved those people wrong. He came back in March, 2019 for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Although he withdrew due to a neck strain, it was good to see him back in the game of golf.

Finally in April, 2019 we saw the Tiger we all know. He was playing in the Masters. He played through to the finals where he was down by two shots, but after Francesco Molinari’s shot hit the bank and rolled into the river, and then later one of Molinari’s shot skimmed a tree and landed in the river again, which allowed tiger to sink the final shot, sealing his victory.

It was his fifth Masters win, and his first in 14 years, and not only did he win, “It was the greatest comeback I’ve ever seen” as Michael Jordan said. Steve Williams, who is Woods’ ex-caddie said that Tiger’s win “Re-energizes the game.”.

FUN FACT: Tiger Woods first appeared on television when he was 2 years old!

Many ponder how Tiger Woods was able to come back from such a horrible injury, and win the masters. But NBA superstar, 6 time NBA finals winner, and 14 time all-star, Michael Jordan puts it beautifully, “It’s absolutely tough mentally. And then you think about the physical. I’m elated.”.

Rockets win the series against Jazz!

By: Raghav Bondalapati

Beeeez!! The buzzer has buzzed, the last hoop was made but who’s the winner? All eyes move toward the board. There on the board, 100-93 one team won. It’s...It’s...It’s… the ROCKETS!! The stadium goes wild and the Jazz are sulking.

Toyota Stadium is filled with people rooting for Jazz or the Rockets. But since it’s home stadium for Jazz, there were more Jazz fans. Jazz and Rockets are two basketball teams each play 5 matches against each other and who wins more out of the five moves on.

Rockets

125

122

118

104

107

100

Jazz

98

90

98

101

91

93

Both Rockets and Jazz are really good basketball teams and are about the same in terms of wins and losses. The Jazz have 50 wins and 32 losses. The Rockets have 53 wins and 29 losses making them a bit better than the Jazz.

Even though Jazz somewhat had a chance of beating the Rockets they lost four games to one.

"If you have a dream, chase it no matter what it takes." a quote said by James Harden, a player on the Rockets. This quote shows well in this series as Rockets demolished Jazz which leaves room for improvements.

"The most important thing in sports is to keep trying. Although they lost, The Utah Jazz would be back to keep trying and eventually one day they might win against the Rockets. There is always next time.

Stats for Donovan Mitchell

Born: September 7, 1996 (age 22 years)

Height: 6′ 3″

School: University of Louisville

NBA draft: 2017, Denver Nuggets (Round: 1 / Pick: 13)

Current team: Utah Jazz (#45 / Point guard, Shooting guard)

Stats for James Harden

Born: August 26, 1989 (age 29 years), Bellflower, CA

Height: 6′ 5″

Playing career:2009–present

Current team: Houston Rockets (#13 / Point guard, Shooting guard)

Education: Artesia High School, Audubon Middle School, Arizona State University

Football Needs To be safer

By: Nico Tashjian

The Game

Football players are suffering many injuries throughout the seasons. Since the beginning of football, the game has changed to help players stay safe but they’re not done yet. They have helped the padding to be more protective and they have changed the rules so people don't get as hurt as often anymore. In america the game of football is being played. There are kids that are from the age 8 to NFL players that play this sport. Some families that have kids that play football are leaving the program because more and more kids are getting injured. Football hall of fame, Brett Favre says,”Well I think first of all, how do you make the game safer? You don't play.“ He doesn't want his kids to play because it’s a dangerous sport to play.

Rules

One way to fix this problem is to change the rules. The NFL has already changed the rules by moving the the line of scrimmage up ten yards on the kickoff and they are even thinking about taking the kickoff out of the game because players are mostly getting hurt from the kickoff. Some of the players would start from one end zone and run full speed down to the player with the ball and truck them to the ground. That could lead to a variety of injuries like concussion, broken collarbone and many more.

Shoulder Pads

One thing that changed was the chest pads. The NFL used to wear heavy coats in the 1890’s to protect them a little. After a little while they moved on to actual pads, in 1920. They were leather and only covered there shoulders. That only helped the players not to snap there collarbone. By the 1940’s the NFL moved to hard plastic and that was extra protection for the players. After that in the 60s-2010s the pads changed a little bit but they mostly just made the plastic lighter and not as bulky. They made it body fitting too.

Helmets

Helmets have changed so much. When the game started there weren’t even helmets but then, when they made them the players could choose if the wanted them or not. Finally the NFL made a rule that you needed helmets, but they were just leather pads that mostly protected the ears. That was in the 1900s. In the 1940s the helmets were a good protection for the whole head and the LA Rams were the first team to put a logo on their helmets. In the 1950s-1970s the helmets were plastic with padding on the inside. They also had a metal cage in the front. By the 90s and 2010s the helmets were secure and had lots of padding in them. The helmets even had ear pieces so they could hear there coach tell them the play to run.

That’s how the NFL has changed the equipment and rules over the years. The NFL still needs to make the game safer so players don’t get hurt as much and they always have fun.

Canes defeat Capitals

By: Nico Tashjian

On Wednesday April 24, 2019 the Capitals lost to the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in double overtime in round one of the 2019 NHL playoffs.

The Washington Capitals were in first place for the metropolitan division. The Hurricanes were in 4th place. Last year the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup in with the best team by far in the NHL. One of the coaches for the capitals is Todd Reirden. Todd Reirden says that the hurricanes had the motivation to win. The goalie Braden Holtby also says,” they executed better than us would lead to more goals for them.”

Nicklas Backstrom career stats:

Games played: 895

Goals: 231

Asists: 642

Nicklas Backstrom is a great hockey player and makes great plays. He’s on the Washington Capitals.

Alex Ovechkin career stats:

Games played: 1084

goals: 658

assists: 553

Alex Ovechkin is one of the best hockey players that played the sport he’s a great player a good person and tries his best when he’s on the ice. Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom execute well together and always pass the puck. When the Washington Capitals get going they are unstoppable but that didn’t happen when they played the hurricanes. The Carolina hurricanes played really well, executed well and never gave up. “The Canes took it to us,” Braden Holtby says.

Ouch!! 30 fouls average in soccer

By: Raghav Bondalapati

“Tweet!” “Tweet!!” It’s a yellow card held by the referee, number 10.

Soccer is a popular sport and is played often in different parts of the world. Although it stands in third place next to basketball and football, Soccer is a very fun sport and gets you moving.

But for sports, there is usually one major downfall. Safety. And this isn’t about safety gear, it’s about fouls. Fouls are plays where you usually do something against the rules of that sport like offsides or something. But what about the aggressive fouls?

In soccer and football specifically. There are on average around 30 fouls per game. And this is just for soccer. Football is honestly rougher imagine how many fouls there are in a game of football. But there are sports that are rougher. Here are 5,

1 Decathlon. The decathlon is “a classic example” of a tough sport, says Moyna. ...

2 Marathon. The classic Olympic sport is one of the toughest. ...

3 Boxing. This sport is all about physicality and endurance. ...

4 Water polo. ...

5 Rowing.

Soccer of course has safety including shin pads but that’s not enough to protect you from an incoming soccer ball. It’s going to come zooming at you with some pretty fast speeds.

And why do they play so rough, what’s the point of that. Playing rough is a serious issue and needs to stop.

30 fouls can be really less if you ask a soccer player but I mean why cause the fouls in the first place. Where is the fun in that?

People need to play safer for safety sake.

In soccer there are two types of cards for fouls. There are red cards and yellow cards.

Unlike a traffic light, there is no green cards. If you get a red or yellow card, it usually means you did a foul or you were offsides. But red cards are handed out when you do something really bad.

A typical foul might include a tiny trip or a shove which will get you a yellow card but if you get a specific amount of red cards then chances are you won’t be able to play next match.

In football, there are no red or yellow cards but people just play really rough, I mean a typical football player can range from 200lbs to 300lbs. These men were made for football. In football, I guess you have to play rough but in soccer, that’s an excuse to not give yourself a yellow or red card.

Of course as Pelé said, “The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” So why is this important?

Well for victory anybody would want to win for either their team or themselves or a different reasons and to win they might foul just so they can win in any sport including soccer.