Sports

As the 48-team World Cup gets under way, two headlines capture a central tension: can teams survive when their talismans misfire, and how much does a new coach’s swagger matter?

The 2026 Stanley Cup Final — Golden Knights vs. Hurricanes — arrives as the sport’s annual reminder that the calendar year belongs to playoff drama and national attention.

MLB and the players’ union have exchanged first proposals that put a salary cap and floor on the table, and with that comes talk of a lockout. It’s worth taking the threat seriously, but also keeping perspective.

The Knicks’ 2-0 edge over the Cavaliers arrived with a dramatic jolt and a surge of expectation. But in the playoffs, momentum is a mood, not a mandate.

The NFL’s 2026 schedule release is more than a calendar — it’s a first draft of narratives, fantasy targets and TV theatre. From Broncos‑Chiefs opening Monday Night to a Week 17 NFC showdown on Sunday Night, the games we’ll talk about all summer are already set.

The selection committees have pushed March Madness past its familiar threshold — both the men’s and women’s fields will expand to 76 teams — and now the sport must prove whether that extra room makes the tournament richer or just messier.

This week’s playoff shocks have turned a steady NBA script into a cliffhanger — and Nikola Jokić’s future is the subplot now driving the whole story.