NHL: What to expect from ex-Husky star Tage Thompson in year seven in the NHL.
Coming off a career season in 2022, Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson’s career has been a tale of two halves. In his first four seasons in the league (2017-2020), the former UConn center saw the puck go in the back of the net just 18 times over 145 career games. Since then, Thompson has scored 85 times and 77 assists in 156 games played, including a career-high 47 goals and 47 assists in 2022.
Thompson’s spectacular season earned him a top-15 finish for the league’s Most Valuable Player award but it wasn’t enough to push Buffalo into the final wild-card spot. This year, the 6-foot-6 center from Phoenix, Arizona is ready to lead the Buffalo Sabres back to the postseason for the first time in 13 years. Here’s what to expect from Thompson, who will be looking to break out and continue emerging as one of the game’s best centers.
Hockeyhacks.com predicts that Thompson will surpass 45 goals and 100 points in the 2023-2024 season. Last year, the Sabres center had the seventh-highest shots on goal per 60 minutes (SOG/60) with 12.3/60 SOG/60. With Thompson continuing to emerge as a star in the league, there is no reason for that high volume of shots to go down. On the power play, only two players across the league scored more goals than Thompson. On 82 shots on goal during the power play, Thompson buried 20 of them in the back of the net, which is good for a 24.3% power-play goals percentage.
At just 25 years of age, expect Thompson to take his game to the next level this season and help Buffalo make a push for the postseason..
WNBA: Stewart held in check as Liberty fall to the brink of elimination against top-seeded Aces.
The only hardware left for league-MVP Breanna Stewart to take home in 2023 is the WNBA Championship. Stewart has already won the league MVP in 2023 and now looks to lead the New York Liberty to their first-ever league title. The former UConn legend has already won four National Championships at UConn and two WNBA Championships in six years with the Seattle Storm. This past offseason, Stewart left Seattle with hopes of winning a WNBA Championship while playing for her hometown team, The New York Liberty. The Liberty dominated their way to the league finals, but dropped the first two games to the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces and now sit just one loss away from elimination.
After averaging 23 points and 9.3 rebounds on 46% shooting from the field in the regular season, Stewart has been limited to 17.5 points on 38% shooting in the first two games of the finals. MVP runner-up A’ja Wilson has been a match-up nightmare for New York with averages of 22.5 points and 11.5 rebounds on a scolding 63% shooting from the field. New York will have to win three consecutive games to capture their first-ever league championship. While it won’t be easy, they do have the league MVP and the next two games of the series on their home court.
