ESNY’s Wednesday Morning Shootaround

02/23/2022

A big honor for Paulie and history for Big Z.

The Islanders picked up a nice win on the opposite side of the country late last night, and defenseman Zdeno Chara made a little history in the process.

We’re still waiting for Major League Baseball and the players to agree on a new CBA, which means there’s no active baseball to discuss at the highest level. Which sucks, because we’re ready for baseball to be here.

That doesn’t mean New York baseball wasn’t on our minds last night, however.

As we continue waiting for the NBA to return, here’s what we’re watching tonight:

NHL: Oilers @ Lightning — 7:30 PM ET
CBB: Xavier @ #11 Providence — 7 PM ET
CBB: Rutgers @ Michigan — 7 PM ET
CBB: #13 Wisconsin @ Minnesota — 9 PM ET

Chara makes history

With his appearance last night, Zdeno Chara moved into a tie for the most games played by a defenseman in NHL history. What an incredible achievement!

Zdeno Chara is skating in the 1,651st game of his NHL career, tying Chris Chelios for the most by a defenseman in League history. ?#NHLStats: https://t.co/zRtKrD8l8T pic.twitter.com/0vDYy9TyRw

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 23, 2022

Stroman throwing shade

Mets twitter was buzzing last night. Now with the Cubs, former Met starter Marcus Stroman weighed in on the new general manager of his former employer. Apparently he isn’t a big fan.

Marcus Stroman taking a shot at Mets GM Billy Eppler https://t.co/Ry1OXtKiUb

— Pat Ragazzo (@ragazzoreport) February 23, 2022

Paulie on Line One

After the Yankees announced his No. 21 will be retired this summer (assuming games are played), Paul O’Neill called into the Michael Kay Show to discuss the honor.

#21 will be retired on August 21st by the @yankees @pauloneillYES joined us earlier to discuss@realmichaelkay @rosenbergradio pic.twitter.com/JFWlglU1FP

— Kay Show on YES (@TMKSonYES) February 22, 2022

Two excited?

UConn’s game against Villanova got heated last night. And, in the view of the officials, Dan Hurley getting the crowd excited was worthy of a second technical foul — and ejection.

UCONN coach Dan Hurley got a technical foul then started pumping up the crowd… so he got another technical foul which resulted in an ejection pic.twitter.com/Iud0nFDMs5

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) February 23, 2022

Baby Beckham

Even though his game was cut short by injury, Odell Beckham, Jr. just won the Super Bowl with the LA Rams. And we guess adding babies to the family was a popular trend with the Rams’ receiving group, because after Van Jefferson announced yesterday that the son who was born immediately after the game we learned that OBJ added a little one to the family as well. Congrats!