Russell Westbrook’s first season in L.A. was an unmitigated failure. He was plugged into a lineup of non-shooters including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and a confusing mix of ill-fitting pieces. Of Rob Pelinka’s misfit toys, though, nobody took last season’s debacle harder on the chin than Westbrook.

Westbrook’s inaugural campaign in L.A. resulted in his worst single-season shooting averages since his developing years as a pro. He made a lower percentage of two-pointers than he had in a decade, saw his vaunted assist and rebounding tallies per game dip below the double-digit averages he’d gotten used to since 2015, and he posted his worst player efficiency rating since he was a rookie.

It was especially jarring for a volatile point guard who had been on the move for the past three years through a variety of trades. As a rapidly devalued commodity whose pogo-stick athleticism was bound to decline as he entered mid-30s, teams have played hot potato with Westbrook for three years. The key has been to not get caught with a max-contract player with questionable decision-making and no residual trade value. Westbrook’s stock plummeted and L.A. got hot holding the bag. Things got so bad that he found himself being disrespected as “Westbrick.”

Westbrook’s downward trend continued early on this year, in the Lakers’ first four games. The team tripped out of the gates, going 0-4, and the Westbrick phenomenon reached its nadir with an 0-for-11 shooting performance against the Clippers.

Since getting relegated to the bench by Darvin Ham, Westbrook has flourished. In the first four games of the season, Westbrook’s shot selection and the release on his jumper needed an exorcism.

He tallied 10.3 points, and 4.3 assists while shooting under 8.3 percent on 3-balls and drained 29 percent from the field. Granted that small sample size was influenced by Westbrook heaving gutterballs toward the cylinder against the Clippers, but it’s safe to say not much had changed in the offseason to expect anything better from Westbrook. Playing off-ball in lineups with LeBron James, Westbrook was an anchor on the Lakers offense.

Since getting moved to the bench, Westbrook’s usage has jumped 7 points from 21.5 to 28.5. He has upped his field goal percentage to 47 percent, is remarkably shooting 45 percent from 3-point range, scoring 19 points a night while dishing nearly 8 assists per game, and has a new lease on his stint in L.A.

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that letting Westbrook operate against backups and in lineups without James. The offense revolves more naturally on its intended axis when Westbrook operates separately from LeBron’s gravitational pull.

Three of the Lakers best lineups this season in relation to plus-minus scoring differential feature Westbrook and Davis (plus Austin Reaves) on the floor without LeBron James. Those lineups have outscored teams by 35 points this season. Westbrook is the one who gets to operate in the pick-and-rolls with Davis. He’s the one who dominates the rock and initiates the offense. His bravado has returned even if the Lakers are still drowning in the standings.

Ironically, L.A. was considered the destination for Kyrie Irving in the offseason. While healthy and focused on basketball instead of his Amazon Prime account, Irving is the vastly superior point guard. However, Westbrook is doing enough right now to keep his trade value afloat while Irving has become Brooklyn’s albatross. Long-term, Westbrook won’t be a Laker. He’ll likely be whisked out of town by the trade deadline, but at least he’s revived the depressed market for his talents.

At the start of the fifth round UFC 281’s main event, the rapper with the Instagram handle @champagnepapi might have been ready to go get a ridiculously overpriced bottle. His $2 million bet on Israel Adesanya looked certain to be a winner.

Then with just over three minutes left in the fight, Alex Pereia cornered Adesanya, landed three flush punches, and a few seconds later the fight was over. A new UFC middleweight champion, who was losing the fight three rounds to one on every scorecard, and Drake lost big.

Drake has not been shy about placing bets, whether it’s at casinos or with other entertainers. He lost $60,000 to French Montana in 2016 when the Cleveland Cavaliers upset the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, and won six figures off of Gucci Mane when taking his hometown Toronta Raptors to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks.

He’ll still take a bet with his celebrity friends, but much of his wagering these days is done on an online crypto currency gambling platform. Stake announced a partnership with Drake in March, and that he had been using the platform for some time.

Through Stake, Drake has been dropping large amounts of money on European soccer matches, F1 races, and took in over $1 million in crypto winnings with bets that he placed on the Super Bowl in February. In May, he posted that he won $2.6 million on a three-leg parlay on some NBA and NHL Game 7s.

Stake, however, has been under some scrutiny. The Observer used a VPN to create and account place crypto wagers. It is illegal to place crypto wagers in Europe, and the Observer made the account after Stake claimed that it would be extremely difficult to use a VPN to bypass regulations. The platform pours a great deal of money into advertising in the UK, knowing that its citizens cannot place a wager on their site just by simply logging on.

Also, even though Drake placed a massive wager, cryptocurrency is in quite a questionable place following the events of last week. The world’s second-largest crypto exchange, FTX, has filed for bankruptcy. After one season holding the naming rights to the Miami Heat’s arena, the franchise has ended its business relationship with FTX. The $135 million deal that was signed was supposed to be for 19 years.

Drake may have actually lost in a major way twice on Saturday. Once when the referee stopped Adesanya’s championship fight, and again with the crypto market took a massive hit, leaving a lot of questions surrounding the industry. 

In the latest edition of “when trick plays go wrong,” we get Tom Brady falling flat on his ass while running a simple go route. Halfway through the third quarter of Tampa Bay’s game against Seattle in Munich, Germany, Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich decided to run a wildcat-looking play with Brady lined up at wideout. Only this time, instead of the quarterback playing the decoy role, running back Leonard Fournette passed the ball to TB12, who proceeded to slip and fall, allowing Seahawks’ Tariq Woolen to pad his stats with an easy interception.

At this point in the game, the Buccaneers were up 14-3 and just outside the red zone. So, running this play, on first and 10 from the Seahawks’ 22, is probably a decision Leftwich/Brady wish they could take back. Bucs fans probably won’t see that play again in this situation for quite a while.

You’ve got a running back taking the snap in the role of QB, then you line up a senior citizen (in football years) at receiver and ask him to go make a play on the ball. After analyzing this play, there were only two options/reads for Fournette.

1. If a running lane is there, Fournette keeps it himself and makes a play.
2. Fournette turns and throws to Brady, the only eligible receiver running a route on the play.

Passing the ball 10 yards downfield to one of the most unathletic QBs to ever play is never a good idea. The worst thing that could happen did happen. Tampa turned the ball over and swung the momentum in Seattle’s favor just a little bit. We’re talking about a guy in Brady who once took nearly 30 seconds to run a 40-yard “dash” at the NFL combine. It felt like 30 seconds. And that was over 20 years ago. Brady isn’t the player you throw to more than three yards downfield.

But of course, in typical Brady fashion, he came back and threw a touchdown pass the next time Tampa Bay had possession. And everyone will have a good laugh about Tom’s “slip n fall” this week since the Bucs held on to win, 21-16.

Damn, it was funny watching Tom terrific go down like that. Get ready for a week of Brady falling memes on the internet.

It you ascribe to the theory that this will be a truly goofy World Cup — that the short run-up, the injuries everywhere (not clear the amount of injured is all that abnormal but let’s go with it), the odd setting — and that some team from out of nowhere could make a run, you’re probably sizing up your betting/investment opportunities. There isn’t much money to be made from France or Argentina or Brazil. You want a bomber. The kind of score that sets you up for a couple weeks. Maybe even a month. One you remember forever. You want that 18-1 that closes hard on the outside to just get up at the wire to close out a Pick 4 for you at Santa Anita. The high we horse racing handicappers are constantly chasing.

So you may look at Denmark at 28-1, or +2800 if you prefer, and think, “Yeah, that’s the one,” and already picture the Wagyu steak you’re going to be getting on the night of December 18th (though given the 10 AM EST start time of the final, maybe it’s all the brunch, depending on how you swing).

Certainly there are tantalizing aspects of going with the Danes for such a price. Semifinalists at the Euros, where they took England to extra time at Wembley. They only capitulated thanks to an own goal and Harry Kane scoring the rebound off his own penalty. They have a unique togetherness, thanks to Christian Eriksen’s collapse and recovery during Euro 2020(1). And now Eriksen is back! They walked their qualifying group. And in their last “competitive” outing (how much the Nations League was really competitive is up to your judgment) they clocked France 2-0 in Copenhagen in September.

There’s a lot of good mojo here. They can also bounce through a couple different systems, flexing between a 3-4-3 or a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. They have a couple players who really come alive when wearing the national team shirt. Starting to see the boxcar payout, aren’t you?

Getting down to brass tax, yes, there’s a lot to like. The return of Eriksen is the biggest story, and he is still Denmark’s best and most important player. While they solved his absence in the summer of 2021 through a group effort, without him they can still be a bit blunt. And he helps solve one of their problems, which is the lack of a true, trustworthy striker in, that he can set up chances from open play or set-pieces that anyone can finish. And with Denmark, he gets a platform from Pierre Hojbjerg and Thomas Delaney/Matthias Jensen that he doesn’t get at Man United. He can go wherever and do whatever he pleases with Denmark. Again, with the short run-up, set pieces may be even more vital than normal and there’s few you’d rather have delivering them than Eriksen.

They sport one of the best defenders in Italy, Simon Kjær, the backstop to AC Milan’s Scudetto last season. They have an Atalanta full/wing-back in Thomas Mæle, and as we all know, having Atalanta full/wing-backs is a ticket to fun at all times, because what you really get is a wide-forward/winger/fullback all at the same time. Such is the way Atalatna play and such is the way of any player they deem worthy of one of their wing-back spots. Højbjerg is one of those players who just becomes something else when playing for his country. Let’s just say they know who they are.

But there are some red flags. The big one is that there isn’t anyone here they can count on to consistently bang in the goals. Their most likely starter is Kasper Dolberg, who scored against France in that win and netted at the Euros, but is barely playing with Sevilla at the moment. The wildcard is Jesper Lindstrøm, who has six goals in 13 appearances for Eintracht Frankfurt so far this season, but has never gotten a run with the national team (he’s just 22). You fear that for all of the great play Denmark can produce, they might run into a match where they just can’t finish it all off. And it only takes one of those to fuck up your tournament beyond repair.

In the back, Andreas Christensen isn’t a regular for Chelsea as he was when the Euros took place, but is in and out of the lineup for Barcelona. While Kasper Schmeichel has a big reputation, he’s 36 now and it’s been a few seasons since he’s been a plus-keeper. Maybe he can conjure one last lunge, but he doesn’t jump off the page in this state as a keeper who can go Patrick Roy ‘86 for a team.

And some of the past results that make them so tasty aren’t quite what they seem. While they did take England to extra-time, they were mostly kicked around in that match (2.7-0.2 in xG). They were somewhat lucky to even get past the Czechs in the quarters. Their qualifying group was pretty damn soft. Fair play to them, they trounced through it as a good team should do, but you can’t point to any huge results there.

And if they don’t win this group, it’ll be Argentina in the Round of 16, which…is a problem. Should they upset France and win the group, then it’s the hanging curve of Mexico or Poland or Saudi Arabia in the round of 16. Then it could be England or the Dutch or (tries not to pass out) the US. So yeah, there’s just a bit riding on their second match against the defending champs.

Ah, France. It hasn’t been a pleasant road for teams that won the previous World Cup in recent history. Germany threw up most of their intestines in Russia and went out in the Round of 16 to Russia on penalties in the worst display of tiki-taka in history. Spain didn’t get out of the group in Brazil. Neither did Italy in 2010.

And it hasn’t been exactly smooth-sailing in the build for Les Bleus, but it never is. After all, they’re a bit fuckin’ French. The midfield that won the trophy last time isn’t here at all, as both N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba won’t suit up. That leaves Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga to anchor the middle. Which is hardly the worst fate, given that’s the midfield that’s currently also anchoring Real Madrid as it leaves tire tracks all over La Liga. But they are inexperienced at this highest level, and there is very little depth there. Unless you trust Adrien Rabiot, and if you do, you probably have a crypto portfolio.

Ok but like, they still have that front line, where Kylian Mbappe can play off Karim Benzema and Antoine Griezmann and if that doesn’t work there’s Christopher Nkunku or Kingsley Coman to change things up if they need. So they have the best forward in France, the best forward in Spain, and maybe the best forward in Germany to call upon to get goals. Pretty easy to see how a dolt like Didier Deschamps won a World Cup as manager now.

The defense has a wealth of options too, like William Saliba who is currently anchoring the Premier League leaders. Or maybe Raphaél Varane or Dayot Upamecano is more your speed. Or maybe you’re a Presnel Kimpembe guy or girl. At fullback, there’s either Hernández (Lucas or Theo) and Benjamin Pavard. Throw a dart at a board and France will roll out a menacing defense and attack. It’s just a question if they can link the two.

While Australia are a neutral favorite simply by being outspoken about the ridiculousness of this tournament taking place in Qatar, it doesn’t feel like they’ll be around long to stage their protest. This is a squad made up of A-Leaguers and Scottish Premier League players, only one of which is on Celtic or Rangers. They failed to beat either Japan or Saudi Arabia in their qualifying group, the only real teams they saw. They needed penalties to get past Peru to qualify for the tournament. Know them early or don’t know them at all.

Tunisia show up as probably Africa’s weakest qualifier. The last time we saw them in a tournament, they were losing to Burkina-Faso in the African Cup of Nations quarter finals and then sneaking past Mali in qualifying, 1-0 over two legs. They will hope that the troika of Aissa Laïdouni, Wahbi Khazri, Youssef Msakni can send a thunderbolt into either France or Denmark (something like this) while maybe notching only their third ever win at a World Cup over Australia.

Manager most likely to get red carded

Australia’s Graham Arnold. Deschamps spends too much time just with a confused look on his face as he watches what goes on before him, Kasper Hjulmand is just too cool, so it’s between Arnold and Tunisia’s Jalel Kadri. We’re going with the Aussie to lose his cool.

Best jerseys

They’re the chalk in so many ways, but you really can’t go wrong with the understated France look.

Schedule

Tuesday, November 22nd – Denmark v. Tunisia (8am EST), France v. Australia (2pm EST)

Saturday, November 26th – Tunisia v. Australia (5am EST), France v. Denmark (2pm EST)

Wednesday, November 30th – France v. Tunisia, Denmark v. Australia (10am EST)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Los Angeles Chargers are a very good football team. Even in the absence of Keenan Allen and Mike Williams for parts of the season, the downfall of JC Jackson, and the abysmal play of Jerry Tiller on the D-line — thankfully he just got waived — the Chargers have played their way to a 5-3 record and are very much in the thick of a division title at the halfway point of the season.

This weekend, the Bolts play the San Francisco 49ers in SoCal in what looks like an entertaining matchup between two low-end Super Bowl contenders. In reality, though, San Francisco should absolutely wipe the floor with L.A. Not because the Chargers’ record is better than their actual performance, but rather because the 49ers match up phenomenally well.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room, the factor everyone is talking about — the Chargers’ run defense. It’s no secret that Los Angeles does about as well at stopping the run as the NFL does at enforcing roughing the passer. The offseason addition of Khalil Mack was supposed to mitigate this problem, since Mack had been one of the best edge defenders against the run for many years. He’s been good, but the rest of the D-line has been underperforming, and those struggles have been amplified with the absence of All-Pro pass rusher Joey Bosa. The Chargers are allowing the most yards per rush of any team in the NFL (5.7). They’re second in the NFL in EPA allowed per rush play as well, only ahead of the Cleveland Browns in that department.

Now, the Niners haven’t been an elite rushing team this year. In fact, they’ve been below average in terms of both EPA and total yards, but make no mistake, the 49ers’ identity is as a run-heavy team, and with Christian McCaffrey suiting up for his third game with the team, San Fran’s rushing attack could be too much for the Chargers to handle, even with the absence of left tackle Trent Williams.

Now, the 49ers’ secondary is a little suspect. While many of the Niners’ faithful were expecting cornerback Jason Verrett to return soon, he instead suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in practice this week. Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert should have an easy time dissecting that banged-up secondary, but with both Keenan Allen and Mike Williams missing this game, it could come down to Joshua Palmer, DeAndre Carter, and Gerald Everett to carry the L.A. passing attack. I don’t trust any of them to do serious damage.

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The Chargers’ rushing attack hasn’t been any better. While Austin Ekeler is one of the best backs in the league, he hasn’t been very efficient as a ball carrier. Rather, he’s done most of his damage through the air. That said, San Fran linebacker Fred Warner is one of the best in the NFL at following the ball out of the backfield and making open-field tackles. Ekeler could be in for heavy usage this game, but I wouldn’t expect him to get very far very often. Could he break one or two plays for large gains/touchdowns? Sure, but the 49ers are one of the best teams in the NFL at defending plays out of the backfield.

According to OddsChecker US, bettors disagree with my sentiment. Despite the betting line shifting in the 49ers’ favor over the course of the week — from +5.5 at opening to +7 today — 65 percent of moneyline bets have gone in favor of Los Angeles. This is the first time since Week 3 of 2021 against Kansas City that the Chargers have been a touchdown underdog or worse. Perhaps that solid track record is what is pushing bettors toward the Bolts. Or perhaps it’s the Chargers’ dominance over the 49ers in the 21st century. L.A. has won four of its last five against San Francisco. Still, past results do not indicate future outcomes. Brandon Staley wasn’t even the Chargers’ head coach the last time these two teams played.

With an emphasis on short passes, power runs, and efficiency out of the backfield, the 49ers are arguably the worst team the Chargers could face all year. Could they win? Absolutely. This is the NFL, and anyone can win on any given day. Also, I’m never going to be 100 percent sure of a bet against Justin Herbert, but by every measure imaginable, San Fran should win this game. While bettors seem sure that seven points are too many for the Chargers to lose by, I almost believe a double-digit loss isn’t out of the question. Then again, the 49ers have a knack for losing games they shouldn’t — just ask the Bears and Falcons — so maybe I’m reading too much into this. I doubt it though.

At the end of October, MLB announced their finalists for the Gold Glove awards. Every MLB fan collectively put palm to face at the sight of Juan Soto being named a finalist for the NL right field Gold Glove. Thankfully, he didn’t win the award. MLB coaches and managers dodged a huge bullet with that, because I don’t know how they could’ve explained a Soto Gold Glove win and kept the integrity of the award intact.

However, Soto’s inclusion was just the beginning, a small dose of what was to come. On Thursday, MLB announced the recipients of its coveted Silver Slugger Award, naming the best hitters in both leagues at every position. All in all, I couldn’t agree more with most of these decisions, but one recipient is such an abhorrently bad decision, I couldn’t help but complain through my computer screen: National League DH recipient, Josh Bell.

If you’ve followed my work before, you know my thoughts on Josh Bell’s 2022 season. While he was great with the Nationals, he was arguably the worst hitter in baseball after being traded to the San Diego Padres — alongside teammate Juan Soto. With San Diego, Bell slashed .192/.316/.271 across 53 games. That was good for a 75 OPS-plus, making him 25 percent worse than an average hitter with the Pads. Not very good for someone who’d already been named an All-Star.

Despite those horrid numbers, Bell still had a solid season overall, posting a total OPS-plus of 128, his highest since 2019. His 153 OPS-plus as a member of the Nationals would’ve been the highest of his career had he maintained his pace. However, that first two-thirds of the season does not absolve Bell of his abysmal final stretch, or his lack of time as a DH.

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Bell didn’t play as a DH much at all. Across 32 games (31 games started) as a DH in 2022, Bell accrued only 134 plate appearances. Here’s a list of every player in the National League with more time spent as a DH this year:

• Nelson Cruz
• Daniel Vogelbach
• Luke Voit
• Bryce Harper
• Andrew McCutchen
• Charlie Blackmon
• Marcell Ozuna
• Albert Pujols
• Justin Turner
• Garrett Cooper
• J.D. Davis
• Willson Contreras
• Ketel Marte
• Christian Yelich
• Tommy La Stella
• And a partridge in a fucking pear tree

Now, just because these guys spent more time at the position doesn’t mean they were better DHs. Let’s be honest. So, of all these names, here’s who also had a better OPS-plus in 2022 than Josh Bell (128):

• Harper
• Pujols
• Contreras (tied with a 128 OPS-plus)

Now, when you look at it like that, Bell’s selection doesn’t look that bad. Sure, Pujols probably deserved it more. After all, The Machine finished ahead of Bell in home runs, batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, and OPS-plus. He did all that at 42 years old while reaching 700 career home runs. That in and of itself should constitute a Silver Slugger, but I’ll look beyond that for the sake that it was close. Harper was undoubtedly a better hitter, but he only played in 99 games, so he’s void from the conversation. So, ultimately, yeah, Bell isn’t that bad a choice, right? Well…until you look at Bell’s stats as a DH.

See, Bell’s 128 OPS-plus was on the season as a whole. As a designated hitter, his numbers are far worse, slashing .235/.338./.339, good for a .677 OPS and 93 OPS-plus. With that in mind, let’s look at all the players from two lists ago who had a better OPS-plus as a DH:

• Harper
• Pujols
• Marte
• Vogelbach
• Davis
• Cooper
• Contreras
• Blackmon
• Turner

Amongst these players (as a DH), Bell had the lowest batting average, the third-lowest OBP, the lowest slugging percentage, the fewest plate appearances, and the lowest OPS. Bell was much better offensively as a first baseman and hurt his team offensively as a DH. There is no reason why he should’ve been given the award at that position. For someone to play less than a quarter of games at DH, yet win the award for the best player at that position, is infuriating. There were several better candidates who played better as their team’s DH, and a few who played better overall. When push came to shove in the final stretch of the season, Bell also disappeared, and although he re-emerged slightly in the postseason, that still doesn’t mean he deserved the hardware.

I could excuse when Soto was named a finalist for the Gold Glove Award, because he qualified but didn’t win. I can’t excuse this. Bell was not the best DH in the National League, not by a long shot, and naming him a Silver Slugger was an awful, awful decision.

A few days ago, the New York Mets officially re-signed closer Edwin Díaz to a five-year deal worth $102 million, the largest contract ever for a reliever, by a wide margin. The details of Díaz’s contract are as follows:

• Díaz will receive a $12 million signing bonus, payable as of January 2023.
• Díaz will earn a salary of $17.25 million in both 2023 and 2024.
• He’ll make $17.5 million in 2025.
• The star reliever will have an $18.5 million player option for both 2026 and 2027, but must decide on both before the start of the 2026 season.

There’s also a tidbit about how the Mets can also exercise a sixth-year team option that would pay Díaz $17.25 million in 2028. Should they forego that option, New York would owe their closer a $1 million buyout.

Now, with a normal contract, this would be the end of the discussion, but this is the Mets we’re talking about. According to reports, the Amazins will also be paying Díaz $26.5 million between 2033 and 2042 on top of his $102 million (potentially $118.25 million) contract.

If this sounds like it has happened before, it’s because it has. In 2000, the Mets infamously offered to pay Bobby Bonilla’s $5.9 million contract over 25 years with eight percent interest starting in 2011, hoping that the money they invested in Bernie Madoff would pay off enormous dividends. Spoiler alert! It didn’t. The infamous Ponzi scheme fell apart, and in the 11 years since they released the outfielder, Bonilla’s $5.9 million contract rose in value to $29.8 million. The Metropolitans are still paying that contract off today, and will continue giving Bonilla just over $1.19 million every July 1 until 2035. It is widely considered one of the worst contracts in baseball history.

Now, the circumstances surrounding this Díaz contract are different. Mets’ ownership isn’t heavily invested in some pyramid ploy as far as we know and there’s no promise of interest for Díaz, so the deferred payment arrangements should stay where they are through the length of the agreement. Still, why would the Mets feel the need to do this? Why not just pay Díaz in full? Maybe the Mets don’t want to spend more money right now. They’re already projected to have one of the highest payrolls in baseball, and adding that additional $26.5 million over the next five years ($5.3 million annually) would be too much for Steve Cohen. He has hinted that he doesn’t want to spend too much more than $300 million on next year’s team.

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However, that only makes this contract marginally better for the Mets. It’s obviously a great deal for Díaz, who will continue to earn $2.65 million annually for a decade after he’s likely been retired for several years. Maybe the tradition of Bobby Bonilla had become so ingrained in Mets fandom that they couldn’t let the meme die. Bonilla’s contract ends in 2035, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Díaz’s deferred payments start just a tad earlier. New York will now owe former players money every year through 2042. No other team is in a remotely similar situation. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I don’t think that’s an accident. This was planned. The Mets know it’s a bad deal, but they’re doing it anyway. That’s commitment to the bit, commitment to the Bonilla debacle, and if that’s truly the case, my respect for Steve Cohen just skyrocketed.

It’s not that the relationship between Jack Eichel and Buffalo Sabres fans will ever be good. Their union promised too much and delivered so little that there should be bitterness on both sides. The No. 2 pick the Sabres sold out for didn’t deliver them from the wilderness that they’ve been stuck in for over a decade now. The Sabres couldn’t rise to the level that Eichel sees himself at, and then fought him over how he wanted to treat his own body. Still, Eichel’s beef is with the organization, not the fans that pinned their hopes on the promise he failed to deliver for the team, or the team failed to deliver with him — however you want to phrase it.

The other thing, the bigger thing, is that demanding a trade and getting it means you’re supposed to have moved on to bigger and better things. You’re supposed to be playing a different game now. You’re on a contender, what you’ve always wanted, what you decreed that the original team you were on could never be. You’re supposed to be above all this, which is exactly why a player would demand a trade in the first place.

So yeah, Eichel can score a hat trick in his second return to Buffalo. He can soak in the jeers and bait them on afterward. He can be gleeful about it. Except it’s probably his crowning achievement in the NHL. It’s all he’s got. It’s the closest thing Eichel has come up with to a “big” performance in the NHL.

Because it’s important to remember that last April, when the Knights really needed him to scrape into the playoffs, when they needed him to pick up the rest of the team as their other stars were hurt, when they needed him to be THE GUY that the Sabres drafted him to be and the Knights traded for, he spit up a hairball the size of a watermelon. Two points in seven games, all critical to getting into the postseason. He got his lunch handed to him by the likes of Nic Dowd. Last spring was the first time that Eichel got to play games late in the season with something on the line. He inserted his thumb squarely in his ass.

So yeah, he can rub Sabres fans’ noses in it, with his hat trick in early November. They make Hall-of-Fame cases about what you do in the second week of November, right? He may think he’s gotten something over on someone, for the first time.

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But what most Sabres fans know is that Eichel needed this more than they did. This has to stand in for accomplishment. He has to make it a bigger deal than it is. There’s nothing else to put on his mantle. It’s why he has to soak it in so much, because there’s such a void to fill.

Oh, it may change. The Knights look back to their best. Eichel has played well. The rest of the division can’t seem to get out of their own way. Eichel may get to the playoffs for the first time. Maybe he’ll come alive there. That’s all possible in the near future.

But now? He has to exult in kicking a Sabres fanbase that’s still down, even with the promise of this team. He has no choice, because he has nothing else. It’s the closest thing to a true achievement he has. And deep down, he knows he’s as responsible for that as anyone. He has to be a sore winner, still wanting to brag when everyone else has moved on. High school is over, Jack. You’re supposed to have adult problems now. 

Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker was No. 1 in these rankings last week. But after running into a tough Georgia defense, he’s been knocked out of the top spot, just like the Vols in the AP Poll. Still, Hooker has had an incredible season in Knoxville, throwing for 2,533 yards, 21 touchdowns to just two interceptions.