On Sunday night, three members of the Chicago Cubs and one Chicago White Sox player were named MLB All-Stars and will participate in the 2018 All-Star Game on July 17th in Washington D.C.

The White Sox representative will be first baseman Jose Abreu. This will be Abreu’s second trip to the All-Star Game and his first since his rookie season in 2014. This season, Abreu has a batting average of .259 with 12 home runs and 50 RBI’s. He also has an OPS of .762.

The three Cubs players selected are second baseman Javier Baez, catcher Willson Contreras and starting pitcher Jon Lester.

This will be Baez’s first All-Star Game appearance. Baez has a batting average of .295 to go with 17 home runs and 65 RBI’s. He also has 16 stolen bases on the season.

This will also be Contreras’ first All-Star appearance. He currently has a batting average of .287 and an OPS of .838.

This will be Lester’s fifth All-Star Game and his second with the Cubs. In 18 games this season, Lester has an 11-2 record with an ERA of 2.45.

Montreal Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber will be out for an extended period of time to recover from knee surgery. The expected recovery period is five to six months.

Weber, 32, missed the final month of last season after having surgery to repair a broken foot.

In a statement released by the team, head physician Dr. David Mulder said the “damage to (Weber’s) knee was more serious than previously anticipated and the situation required a more comprehensive procedure to repair a meniscal tear.”

Weber has eight more years remaining on his current 14- year, $110 million contract he signed with the Nashville Predators in 2012. In June 2016, Weber was traded from the Predators to the Canadiens in exchange for defenseman P.K. Subban. The move was and continues to be heavily scrutinized by the hockey community due to Weber’s increasing age and Subban’s high skill set, and this news will most certainly increase the criticism the Montreal front office has received since making it. Last season, Subban was a finalist for the Norris Trophy for the NHL’s top defenseman while Weber missed significant time due to injury.

The knee surgery is expected to sideline Weber until mid-December.

Well this has been quite the day, hasn’t it?

A little after 7 pm Central Time, Klutch Sports Group sent out a tweet that changed the landscape of the NBA universe. The tweet contained a press release announcing that LeBron James has agreed to a 4-year, $154 million free agent contract with the Los Angeles Lakers.

This is the third time LeBron has joined a different team as a free agent. He left the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat in 2010, then left Miami to rejoin Cleveland in 2014.

The three time NBA Champion and 14-time All-Star spent the last four seasons playing for the Cavaliers, leading them to four consecutive NBA Finals appearances. In 2016, James helped the Cavs win their first NBA Championship in franchise history by defeating the Golden State Warriors in seven games.

Despite this success, the Cavs lost their three other Finals appearances to the Warriors, including getting swept by Golden State this past season. James’ relationship with Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has been rocky ever since Gilbert publicly bashed James when he left the Cavs back in 2010.

James owns two houses within the Los Angeles area, and many expected him to sign with the Lakers once his contract with the Cavs ended.

Now that they have signed LeBron, the Lakers are looking to fortify their roster further by adding another superstar. Kawhi Leonard reportedly wants to leave the San Antonio Spurs to join the Lakers, and the two teams have been trying to work out a trade to send Leonard to Los Angeles.

“I’m coming home. I’m coming home. Tell the world that I’m coming home.”

Earlier today, NHL superstar John Tavares announced he is leaving the New York Islanders to sign a 7-year, $77 million free agent contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Tavares is from Toronto and grew up cheering for the Maple Leafs.

Tavares released a statement on Twitter that ended with “The island, the fans, the organization, my teammates will always be special to me and my family but it’s time to live my childhood dream here in Toronto.”

The 27-year-old centre was drafted by the Islanders with the first overall pick in the 2009 NHL Draft. A five-time All-Star, Tavares has amassed 621 points (272 goals, 349 assists) in 669 games with the Islanders over nine seasons. He also served as the captain of the Islanders.

Despite the individual success for Tavares, the Islanders made the playoffs only three times during his tenure, and didn’t advance past the second round. The team has also experienced stadium issues in recent years. After moving out of the old Nassau Coliseum in 2015, the Islanders have played their home games at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which was designed to serve mainly as a basketball arena and has experienced ice and sight issues. The team has announced plans to build their own stadium near Belmont Park, which won’t be completed until 2021. Until then, the Islanders will split their home schedule between Barclays and the newly renovated Nassau Coliseum.

Tavares joins a Maple Leafs team that has made the playoffs the last two seasons and is already stacked with young talent with players such as Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. Last season, Toronto lost to the Boston Bruins in an intense seven game first round playoff series. The Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, currently the longest title-drought in the NHL.

As for the Islanders, all is not lost. This offseason, they hired legendary NHL executive Lou Lamoriello to serve as their President of Hockey Operations and General Manager, and Barry Trotz as their new head coach. Trotz won the Stanley Cup as coach of the Washington Capitals just three weeks ago.

The Islanders also have some young talent in Anthony Beauvillier and Mathew Barzal, who just won the Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year. They will need to fix their goaltending issues, however, in order to make it back to the postseason.

The Washington Capitals franchise joined the NHL as an expansion team for the 1974-75 season. They won only eight games total that year.

That is a stark contrast of the Vegas Golden Knights, who this year finished their inaugural campaign with a 51-24-7 regular season record and an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final.

Tonight was about the Capitals, however, and their superstar captain Alexander Ovechkin winning the franchise’s first ever Stanley Cup championship with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Golden Knights in Game 5 of the Final.

The game remained scoreless going into the second period. The Capitals struck first when 22-year-old Jakub Vrana wristed a shot past Vegas goaltender Marc Andre-Fleury to make it 1-0 at the 6:24 mark.

Three minutes later, former Capital and current Golden Knight defensemen Nate Schmidt deflected a shot past Washington goaltender Braden Holtby to tie the score 1-1. Just seconds after the goal, however, Vegas committed a penalty. On the ensuing power play, a slick pass by Niklas Backstrom found Ovechkin at the side of the net. Ovechkin buried the one-timer to give the Capitals the lead once again.

Vegas responded with a goal from David Perron at the 12:56 mark of the second to make it 2-2. The Golden Knights took the lead with just 29 seconds remaining in the period when Reilly Smith was able to bury a feed from Alex Tuch into the back of Washington’s net on the power play to make it 3-2 Vegas. The goal capped off one of the most memorable periods of playoff hockey in recent memory.

The Golden Knights needed to hold off the Capitals for 20 minuets in order to force a Game 6 back in Washington, but were unable to do so.

Halfway through the third period, a keep in by the Capitals in the offensive zone led to the puck finding Devante Smith-Pelly in front of the Vegas net. As Smith-Pelly was tripping, he was able to shot it into the net past Fleury to tie the score 3-3.

Two-and-a-half minutes later, a turnover in the Vegas defensive zone led to Brett Connolly having a wide open shot attempt in front of the Vegas net. The puck was able to sneak between Fleury’s legs, and Lars Eller was there to brush it into the net to give Washington a 4-3 lead with 7:37 left in regulation.

A furious effort by the Golden Knights to tie it again fell short, and the Capitals poured onto the ice and dogpiled on each other as the final horn sounded.

Ovechkin looked like a little kid on Christmas morning as he touched the Cup for the first time before raising it over his head and taking a victory lap with it around the ice.

Many people go to Las Vegas to try and make their dreams come true, and that’s exactly what Ovechkin and the Capitals did tonight.

On Monday, the Washington Capitals moved one victory away from their first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history with a 6-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of the Final.

The victory gave Washington a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Early on it was Vegas who was generating the best scoring chances and came close to capitalizing on a couple, including a few open net chances. The Golden Knights were unable to cash in on any of them, however, and the game remained scoreless until a Capitals power play opportunity led to a goal by T.J. Oshie to make it 1-0 Washington at 9:54 of the first period.

From that point on it was all Capitals, who were able to score two more goals before the first period ended to extend their lead to 3-0. The second and third Washington goals were scored by Tom Wilson and Devante Smith-Pelly.

The lone goal of the second period came from Capitals defensemen John Carlson on the power play to push Washington’s lead to 4-0 at the 15:23 mark.

Vegas was finally able to get on the board when James Neal scored his sixth goal of the playoffs to make it 4-1. 6:43 later, Reilly Smith added another Golden Knights goal to cut the deficit to just two.

They wouldn’t get any closer than that, however, as Washington defensemen Michal Kempny scored just over a minute after Smith’s goal to make it 5-2 Capitals with 6:21 remaining in regulation.

A Brett Connolly power play goal made it 6-2 with 1:09 left in the game.

Washington can clinch the Cup with a victory in Game 5 Thursday night in Vegas, but nothing is guaranteed. The Washington Capitals have blown the most 3-1 playoff series leads of any team in professional sports, doing so five different times. The Vegas Golden Knights haven’t lost four straight games this season and have won 3+ consecutive games 10 different times, including twice in these playoffs.

After a tense two games in Vegas, the Stanley Cup Final shifted to Washington, D.C. where the hometown Capitals took a 2-1 series lead with a 3-1 victory over the Golden Knights in Game 3 on Saturday night.

The first period saw quality scoring chances from both teams, but ended in a scoreless tie. The Capitals appeared to score the opening goal, but it was waved off after Devante Smith-Pelly was penalized for goaltender interference.

1:10 into the second period, Washington took a 1-0 lead thanks to a goal from Alexander Ovechkin. During a mad scramble in front of the Vegas net, goaltender Marc Andre-Fleury made a few saves but wasn’t able to cover the puck before Ovechkin backhanded his 14th goal of the playoffs into the back of the net.

At the 12:50 mark of the second, Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov, who suffered an arm injury in Game 2 and was questionable to play in Game 3, scored his 12th goal of the playoffs to give Washington a 2-0 lead.

Going into the third period, the Golden Knights desperately needed to catch a break, and that’s exactly what happened 3:29 into the final frame. While playing the puck behind his net, Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby blindly passed the puck to the front of the net. The puck deflected off of Vegas forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare’s stick and found the stick of Game 1 hero Tomas Nosek, who tapped it into the open net to cut the deficit to a single goal.

With 6:07 remaining in regulation, Washington’s Jay Beagle caused Shea Theodore to turn the puck over near the Vegas net. He passed it to Smith-Pelly in front of the net, who proceeded to roof a shot past Fleury to give the Capitals a 3-1 lead.

Washington was able to shut down Vegas the rest of the way to inch just two more victories away from their first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history.

Game 4 is Monday night in Washington and can be watched at 7 p.m. on NBC.

We have ourselves a series.

After dropping Game One 6-4 on Monday night, the Washington Capitals evened the Stanley Cup Final with a 3-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night. It was the first Stanley Cup Final win by the Capitals in franchise history.

The Golden Knights once again opened the scoring when a great individual effort from James Neal led to a goal that made it 1-0 Vegas at the 7:58 mark of the first period. Nearly 10 minutes later, Washington tied the score after Lars Eller wristed a shot past Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 1-1.

Five minutes into the second period, the Capitals were awarded a power play after Alex Tuch cross-checked Washington defenseman John Carlson. The play was similar to the controversial no-call on Ryan Reaves’ cross-check of Carlson in Game One that led to a goal for Vegas. In an instance of karma, the penalty on Tuch led to a power play goal for the Capitals as Alex Ovechkin one-timed a shot past Fleury to give Washington a 2-1 lead. It was Ovechkin’s first goal of the Finals and his 13th of the postseason.

Four minutes later, Washington defensemen Brooks Orpik deflected the puck into the goal to extend the Capitals’ lead to 3-1 with 10:19 left in the second period.

Vegas didn’t go down without a fight, however.

With just 2:13 left in the second frame, a power play shot by Knights defensemen Shea Theodore blew past Capitals goalie Braden Holtby to cut Washington’s lead to a single goal.

Vegas needed just one goal in the third to tie the game, but Holtby and the Capitals were up to the task. After Washington committed two penalties in just over a minute of each other, the Golden Knights were given a 5-on-3 man-advantage for 1:09. Despite a couple of great looks, Vegas was unable to break through on the power play.

With two minutes left in regulation, the puck took a funny bounce in front of Holtby and ended up on the stick of Vegas forward Cody Eakin. Eakin passed it over to Tuch, who had a wide open net. At the last possible second, Holtby stopped the puck from going into the net by using the paddle of his own stick, keeping the score 3-2 in favor of Washington.

Despite several chances, the Golden Knights were unable to find the equalizing goal before time expired.

The series will now shift to Washington, D.C. as Game Three will take place on Saturday night.