Even after earning a victory in their series opener against the Colorado Avalanche, the Vegas Golden Knights remain underdogs according to the oddsmakers.

That is a heady concept considering that Game 1 victors historically have won more than 68 percent of Stanley Cup playoff series.

Yet, on the heels of Wednesday’s 4-2 road victory, the Golden Knights are expected to fall short in the Western Conference finals.

Even so, it makes sense.

Teams that win Game 1 on the road have a .572 series-winning percentage when the dust has settled.

Which means the Golden Knights are not free and clear against an Avalanche squad that came out of the gates strong, but could not maintain momentum until they trailed 3-0 early in the third period of the series curtain raiser.

But when the Avalanche found their footing and mounted a push, they made enough damage to get the Golden Knights and their faithful something to be concerned about going forward.

Noteworthy, the Avalanche were also without their dynamic defenseman, and Norris Trophy favorite Cale Makar for the series opener.

Whether Makar — who appears to have suffered some form of shoulder injury in the deciding clash against the Minnesota Wild last round — returns for Game 2 or even later in the series remains to be seen. His availability will be a huge boon for the Avalanche, who finished atop the league standings in the regular season.

On the flip side, the Golden Knights have a major injury concern of their own in captain Mark Stone. Stone was hurt in Game 3 of his team’s clash with the Anaheim Ducks last round. He skated in the morning of the game with the scratches, but the team has provided no timetable for his return.

A healthy return for Stone will aid the Vegas cause considerably.

As it stands now, here are predictions for the meeting: Both Makar and Stone will play before the series reaches Game 4, and the Avalanche rebound from losing the opener to claim the best-of-seven series in six games.

Looking to the other side of the continent, the oddsmakers — rightfully — have the Carolina Hurricanes heavily favored to dispatch the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference finals.

Sure, the Canadiens have become a great story in this year’s playoffs. Rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes has backstopped his team to two Game 7 victories to reach this point. Alex Newhook scored the winning goal in both deciding games. To top it off, the Canadiens are a young and exciting team that is more likely to play a high-scoring game as a 2-1 affair.

Yet for all their attributes, the Canadiens are facing a Mount Everest-sized task to knock out the Hurricanes, even knowing Montreal swept the regular-season series.

The Hurricanes, who finished atop the Eastern Conference and have swept their opposition in each of the first two rounds, are built to reach the Stanley Cup Final. Their relentless pace of play is at a level the Canadiens have not faced.

Carolina has the ability to stifle opponents, especially with its forecheck. And after working so hard to create a scoring chance, the Canadiens will need to solve goaltender Frederik Andersen, who has surrendered only 10 goals against in eight playoff games.

Then toss into the mix the fatigue factor. Sure, rust may be an issue for Carolina having waited a dozen days to resume game action, but the Canadiens have arrived to this point from the other side of the pendulum, needing seven games in each of the first two rounds.

Hull KR: Broadbent; Davies, Hiku, Gildart, Booth; Lewis, Hampshire; Sue, Lawton, Hadley, Whitbread, Martin, Minchella.

Interchanges: Litten, Amone, Luckley, Brown.

Wigan: Cartwright; Lowe, F Yeomans, O’Loughlin, Daniel; Marsden, C Yeomans; Eseh, Forber, McDermott, Daniels, Mason, Kerr.

Interchanges: Mago, McMillan, O’Connor, Rathbone.

Referee: Aaron Moore

Aaron Rodgers announced on Wednesday that this season will be his final year in the NFL.

Rodgers, who turns 43 in December, just inked a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are wandering the quarterback desert without a true long-term plan.

And that’s only part of what makes Rodgers’ retirement announcement feel somewhat unlikely. He’s entering his 22nd season in the NFL, meaning that he’s been in the league half as long as he’s been alive.

A retirement announcement seems expected. He’s going to be 43, he’s played for two decades and has made over $400 million in NFL contracts and bonuses. But Rodgers feasts on attention. Over the last few seasons, his free agency decisions have been long, drawn out processes. But the NFL gives Rodgers that attention that he might not be able to find elsewhere.

There’s nothing left for Rodgers to accomplish on the field. He’s one of the all-time greats, especially in this generation of quarterbacks. But off the field, stepping away from being an NFL player will dim some of the limelight that Rodgers seemingly desperately craves.

Of course, he could become a television analyst or podcast personality. He’s already had standing segments on the “Pat McAfee Show” that received tremendous ratings. But they delivered big ratings because Rodgers was an active player who wasn’t shy about voicing his hesitations about conspiracy theories including his hesitancy to accept the COVID-19 vaccination to play in the NFL.

Without the status of an active NFL player, Rodgers’ whole shtick turns into just another random ex-athlete with bizarre takes and beliefs. There are plenty of other ex-athletes doing this already. Rodgers being an active player is what made his schtick so unique.

There’s been no shortage of controversies surrounding Rodgers over the last few seasons. At one point, he was a mysterious figure that had a falling out with his parents. In recent years, we’ve seen him show dishonesty to the media surrounding his COVID-19 vaccination status and yearly threats to retire from the NFL in order to host “Jeopardy!”.

The league will have a void without Rodgers in it. Love him or hate him, he’s a polarizing figure that won’t be the same once he retires, even if he maintains an active voice in football conversation. The NFL has plenty of weird players, and even a few weird quarterbacks, but none of them have the allure and intrigue that Rodgers was able to manufacture over the last two decades.

Maybe the retirement announcement was another exaggeration. This time next year, maybe he’s signing another one-year contract with a Pittsburgh team stuck in neutral. But if it is the end, what a crazy ride it has been.

Destiny 2 will not be getting any more content after the scheduled Shadow & Order release in June 2026. One of the longest running looter-shooters in the market will no longer recieve new expansions and seasons, as Bungie announces that it will start working on next games, and focus turns towards a new beginning for the company.

The game has had ten major expansions from 2017 to 2025, with the Shadow & Order being the last content update the game gets. Much like Destiny 1, however, the Destiny 2 servers will also stay on, allowing players to hop onto older Raids, Dungeons, PvP, and other activities.

End of content service announced for Destiny 2 after June 2026

Renegades expansion’s only major update, Shadow & Order, is scheduled for June 9, 2026. However, this particular update will be Destiny 2’s final content patch ever, as Bungie have decided to stop services on this renowned looter-shooter title, after almost 10 years. On March 21, the official X account of the game uploaded their weekly blog, but only this time, it wasn’t the TWID.

Their blog is titled “Every End is a new Beginning,” with the the official post stating:

“As our focus turns towards a new beginning for Bungie, we will begin work incubating our next games. To that end, on June 9, 2026, we will release the final live-service content update for Destiny 2 to begin that new journey as a studio.”

The team further states that although any content development will stop in the meantime, the game will be left in a playable state, similar to Destiny 1.

With that in mind, however, players are hopeful for a Destiny 3 in the future, although no official announcement have been made from Bungie’s end yet.

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