SPORTS FOLDEROL

  So, the current playoffs aren’t in play when considering the NHL’s best-of-the-season … which helps to explain why Winnipeg’s   CONNOR HELIBUYCK   is among the Top 3 finalists for goaltender-of-the-year while Washington’s   LOGAN THOMPSON   is not … Once again the Jets goalie has been as shaky in post-season play as he was brilliant as the Jets claimed the Presidents Trophy which goes to the team with the best regular-season record … Other finalists: Tampa Bay’s   ANDREI VASILEVSKIY   and LA’s   DARCY KEUMPER , who went to the West Coast in a one-for-one deal for Thompson … revitalizing both careers … Although all  emphasis on the Capitals’ surprising dominance of the  East Conference has gone to   ALEXANDER  OVECHKIN   becoming the league’s all-time leader of  goals scored, without Thompson Washington was just  another team. Add  BOBBY HOLIK  to the NHL Rangers’ search for a  new coach. So, how ...

  It’s open season on NHL goaltenders. If there was  any doubt, New Jersey’s  TIMO MEIER  ran over   FREDERI C K ANDERSON  yesterday, knocking  the Carolina goalie into his net and out of the game  (possibly the rest of the Stanley Cup playoffs) … and  wasn’t penalized for it … I know, I know, the refs  checked the replay and decided Meier couldn’t help  it … that he was hit by a Hurricanes' player from  behind.  Except, he wasn’t … a stick around the skates isn’t  enough to let him off. No, Devils’ forward made  no attempt to avoid a collision with the goalie  owning the best save percentage (.943) in the first  round – all teams – to date. Meier should have gotten  something. Believe it or not … the Montreal Canadiens have  become hockey’s darlings because, I guess, they are  making their first Cup appearance in more than 10  years … That helps to explain, at least in part, why...

  Of all things … Say goodbye (It’s been good to know you.) to …  MIKE  PATRICK , one of the best -- and least egotistical --  national sportscasters, who died Wednesday. He was 80  … From 1978 to 2006, we wrote a radio-TV column fpr  The Times-Dispatch. And I can say, without reservation,  he was a delight … always pleasant … and seldom  without something interesting to say … We got to know  Patrick when he did ACC football for Jefferson-Pilot in  1984 (with  KEVIN KILEY ) and 1985 (with  HAVEN  MOSES and Richmond’s  KEN WILLARD ) … He later  spent 36 years with ESPN, probably best-known for  Sunday Night NFL Football until replaced in 2006 by  AL  MICHAELS  … Like Michaels, he did everything well  … Good man, Mike Patrick. R.I.P. Many thanks to The NFL Channel for this tidbit of  information … in the 1940 draft No. 11 overall was   GEORGE “SNUFFY” STIRNWEISS  by the Chica...

  Very Briefly Told (at least that’s the plan) … USL League One had better crack down … before  it’s too late … and someone not regulated by the  third tier soccer circuit takes serious objection. In  Saturday night’s match at City Stadium, Westchester  FC’s  JUAN CARLOS OBREGON  could have  sparked some nasty retaliation after scoring a goal  then rushing local fans (Red Army) and responding  with a gross gesture. What a game … Your Kickers managed a point in  the standings when  JOSH KIRKLAND ’s goal 90  plus nine into stoppage salvaged a 4-4 tie that  seemed almost impossible a few minutes earlier  when Obregon converted a penalty kick … that led  to the Honduras national team’s 30 year old acting  like a fool. After seven games Kickers are 3-1-3 for 10 points …  tied for third with Knoxville, four points behind first- place Naples FC. From Richmond (Deep Run High School), the 6-1,  185-pou...

  Here and There … mostly there ... While he hasn’t been as outspoken as  PK SUBBAN ,  former NHL defenseman, on TNT’s studio show,   MARK MESSIER  continues to ramp up criticism  of the New York Rangers. You don’t think he wants  to replace (a)  CHRIS DRURY  as general manager;  or (b) coach  PETER LAVIOLETTE ; or both, do  you? … The Hall of Fame forward, MVP of the  Broadway Blueshirts’ last Stanley Cup-winning team  (1993-94), was a formal candidate for GM when  Drury was hired five years. For whatever it is worth … Big Apple media thinks  Laviolette is a goner (any day now) while Drury will  live to fight another day … Also:  CHRIS  KREIDER  will be traded or released. His  teammates must think so, too. After he scored late in  Thursday’s season-ending 4-0 win over disinterested  playoff-bound Tampa Bay Lightning,  WILL  CUYLLE  retrieved the puck and ga...

What else can I tell you? Other than … New U.Va., basketball coach  RYAN ODOM  loaded  up on point guards. Now, one of them, Oklahoma  transfer  DUKE MILES , has decided he doesn’t  want to compete with freshman 4-star recruit   CHANCE MALLORY  and  DALLIN HALL , who  arrived via the transfer portal from Brigham Young  … and led to Miles’ decision to go elsewhere. You  don’t think that’s what Odom had in mind when he  signed Hall, do you? At 6-4, a junior with two years eligibility remaining,  Hall sounds an awful lot like  MAX SHULGA , the  point guard who came from Utah State with Odom to  VCU two years ago and led the Rams to a 28-7  record in 2024-25 when they claimed both the A-10  regular-season and tournament … Mallory, 5-10,  from Charlottesville’s St. Annes, Belfield private  school re- committed to Virginia when Odom was  hired, saying  how much he liked the VCU s...

Strictly short stuff … promise …. Come on, out with it … How much (money, that is) did  sophomore  BRANDON JENNINGS  get – legally, of  course – from VCU not to join former Rams coach   RYAN ODOM  at Virginia? That should always be the  first question asked nowadays in this age of the transfer  portal and NIL. If you’re wondering what a former Metro Player of the  Year, who averaged 2.7 points in 13.1 minutes off the  bench, is worth … how about $100,000 (says someone  who should know)? By the way … whatever VCU paid  MAX SHULGA  to  stick around for his final season certainly was money well  spent. The point guard from the Ukraine, who followed  Odom here from Utah State, was the glue that held the A- 10-champion Rams together … after changing his mind  and deciding not to transfer to Villanova. In case you missed it … Shulga had nine points and four  assists in the NABC all-star game as his East ...

  Sad but true … after 20 record-breaking years,  ALEX  OVECHKIN  still has trouble with the language of this,  his adopted, country. It was easy to overlook in the  euphoria of the Great Eight’s epic, historical weekend in  which he caught then passed  WAYNE GRETZKY  to  become the NHL’s all-time leader in goals scored.  The Washington Capitals’ scoring machine is, after all,  one of the good guys. Everybody says so. Therefore, it  must be true … and this was no time to go negative on the  39-year-old wunderkind … even though there have been  lingering questions about the native Russian’s oft-stated,  never-repudiated affection for homeboy  VLADIMIR  PUTIN  … and did that have anything to do with a well- documented … shall we say  sour  relationship with  countryman – and Pittsburgh Penguins’ super-star –   YVGENY MALKIN ? “ I told some friends … ‘I hope they don’t give hi...