Sarni's Scrolls: Top Cats

Florida Panthers' exciting smash-mouth style is the talk of the NHL

ABC picked the perfect time to feature the Florida Panthers.

The Cats (40-16-4), who reached the Stanley Cup final last season, roared into Hockeytown, winners of 13 of their past 15, for Saturday's national TV game against the surging Red Wings, whose six-game winning streak ended on Thursday.

"They play smash-mouth hockey," said Mark Messier on the pregame show.

The ferocious Panthers promptly smashed Detroit 4-0.

"Is Florida the best team in the NHL?," play-by-play man Sean McDonough asked analyst Ray Ferraro.

"The Panthers have done something that every team wants to do, and that’s build an identity your team can play to," Ferraro answered.

"I don't think there's any secret to the way the Panthers play. They're really good. They're big. They're physical. They play fast. They're a tough team to play."

Florida leads the league with 86 points as it takes on the New York Rangers (84) at Madison Square Garden on Monday night. (NHLPP, ESPN+)

ABC has two more Panthers games, key clashes against Eastern Conference rivals, the Rangers and Bruins.

■ March 23: at Rangers, 8 p.m. ET

■ April 6: at Boston, 3:30 p.m. ET

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No "logo 3." No driving layup.

Caitlin Clark passed former Pete Maravich as the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball history, men’s or women’s, with a pair of technical free throws on Sunday.

A bit anti-climactic compared to the deep 3-pointer she sank on Feb. 15 against Michigan to become the Division I women’s basketball career scoring leader, sports history came with Gus Johnson’s famed voice on Fox.

"She does it with a foul shot!” Johnson said after Clark swished the second of her two free throws. “Caitlin Clark becomes the all-time leading scorer in major college basketball history."

Clark finished with 35 points (plus nine assists, six rebounds and three steals) in Iowa's 93-83 win.

Clark will continue to add to her career points total (3,685 and counting) as Iowa begins the postseason. 

The Hawkeyes have a bye into the Big Ten quarterfinals as the No. 2 seed, and will play their first game of the conference tourney Friday. After their run through the conference tournament, Iowa is set to host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament as a top-4 seed.

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LeBron James, who went over 40,000 points in the NBA on Saturday night, congratulated Clark on breaking Maravich’s 54-year-old record.

“CONGRATS @CaitlinClark22 on becoming the All-Time leading scorer!!” James wrote on X, adding 13 bucket emojis, as well as the salute and crown emojis.

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USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt puts into perspective James’ unprecedented accomplishment.

■ For a player to score 40,000 points in the NBA, it requires about 14,660 made shots, including 2,380 3-pointers and 8,300 made free throws in 55,600 minutes over 1,475 games while shooting 50.5% from the field over the course of 21 seasons.

■ For a commoner to score 40,000 points doing the Mikan drill on their driveway basket, they would need to make 20,000 shots, which would take about 17 hours of continuous shooting without a miss.

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Chris Mortensen, the consummate pro football insider, died Sunday morning at the age of 72.

Mortensen, who reported on the NFL for ESPN for more than three decades, was diagnosed with Stage 4 throat cancer in January 2016 and stepped away from his full-time role at ESPN last year to, he said, “focus on my health, family and faith.”

"Mort helped set the journalism standard in the early days of ESPN. His credibility, attention to detail and reporting skills catapulted our news and information to a new level," Norby Williamson, executive editor and head of studio production for ESPN, said in a statement.

 "More importantly, he was a great teammate and human being. He personified care and respect for people which became the culture of ESPN."

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ETC.

■ The USWNT advanced to the W Gold Cup semifinals with an impressive 3-0 victory over Colombia on Sunday in Los Angeles. Lindsey Horan, Jenna Nighswonger and Jaedyn Shaw scored. The Americans will face Canada on Wednesday. Brazil and Mexico play in the other semifinal.

■ The NBA-best Boston Celtics (48-12) posted their third-largest winning margin in franchise history, drubbing the Golden State Warriors 140-88 on Sunday. The Celtics are beating teams by an average of 22.1 points over an 11-game winning streak, the best point differential over a win streak of at least 10 games in a single season in NBA history.

■ No. 1 South Carolina completed its second straight perfect regular season with a 76-68 victory over Tennessee on Sunday. The Gamecocks (29-0, 16-0 SEC) won their 47th consecutive SEC regular-season game, their 57th straight at home.

■ Oklahoma's NCAA-record winning softball streak is over at 71 games. The top-ranked Sooners suffered their first loss in a year, falling 7-5 to Louisiana on Sunday.

■ Anthony Kim (+16) finished last in his return to competitive golf, 33 strokes behind LIV Jeddah champion Joaquin Niemann (-17) and 11 strokes behind the next closest competitor.

■ Austin Eckroat will carry a one-stroke lead into the rain-interrupted Cognizant Classic final round in Palm Beach Gardens on Monday. Eckroat stands 15-under total with 11 holes to play, one stroke clear of Erik van Rooyen. (8 a.m. ET, Golf Channel, Peacock).

■ Max Verstappen won Formula One's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, securing his 55th career win and his 18th victory in the past 19 races.

■ Carlos Alvarez defeated Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-4, 14-12 (10-point tiebreaker) to win the Netflix Slam at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on Sunday.

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■ End of the chain gang? The NFL tested optical tracking in two stadiums and the Super Bowl last season for line to gain rulings.

■ The core of the 12-man roster to represent Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics is, according to The Athletic: Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday and Devin Booker.

■ The 76ers will honor Allen Iverson with a statue at the Legends Walk.

■ The Kelce Brothers are shopping their "New Heights" podcast with industry executives forecasting an eight-figure deal.

■ Erin Andrews and Clarissa Thompson will host a special live episode of their "Calm Down" podcast during "Netflix Is A Jokefest," May 2-12.

■ Dallas radio host Sean Bass is celebrating the Texas Rangers' first World Series with a back tattoo of  the box score from Game Five.

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■ Former Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn has become a part-owner of the NWSL Utah Royals.

■ An All-Star Game for WNBA-eligible seniors will be played during Final Four weekend (April 6) for the first time since 2006.

■ Cheers to the growing trend of women’s sports bars: Portland’s The Sports Bra; Toronto’s Peaches Sports Bar; Minneapolis’ A Bar of Their Own; Seattle’s Rough & Tumble Pub, and coming soon, New York’s Althea's (named after Althea Gibson).

■ Just over two months into its inaugural season, the PWHL has already broken the all-time attendance record for a women’s pro hockey game…thrice. Combine that with impressive viewership numbers, historic partnerships, and an overwhelming sense of momentum around the sport’s new sustainable, cross border league, and it’s proof that if you build it, they will come. -- The Gist.

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■ It was hard to tell if young breakout movie star Sydney Sweeney is funny, but the first-time "SNL" host was engaging with an eye-popping body on Saturday's women-centric show. Sweeney got plenty of air time, and naturally, there was a Hooters skit. Cast members Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim were standouts in several sketches, including high-profile "Weekend Update" interviews.

■ U2 is wrapping up a 40-performance stint at Las Vegas's Sphere. During the first 17 shows, the band sold 281,000 tickets and grossed $109.8 million.

■ Season 3 of "Hacks" debuts May 2 on Max.

■ "The Notebook" musical opens on Broadway in March.

■ HBO has imposed a four-day delay in posting clips from "Last Week Tonight."

■ Jimmy Kimmel is taking the week off to prepare to host the March 10th Academy Awards.

■ Bill Hader recalls having on-camera panic attacks live in "SNL."

■ The Black Crowes' Chris and Rich Robinson are out with "Happiness Bastards," their first new music in 15 years. "A love letter to rock & roll." -- Chris.

■ "Blue Bloods" on Friday paid tribute to the late Treat Williams, who played Lenny Ross, the best friend and former partner of New York City Police Commissioner Francis “Frank” Reagan (Tom Selleck).

■ Merriam-Webster says you can end a sentence with a preposition... and the Internet goes wild.

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THEY SAID IT

■ “I thought Montgomery was coming with you.” -- Cubs manager Craig Counsell to agent Scott Boras prior to press conference announcing Cody Bellinger’s new three-year deal.

■ "It wasn't just the throwing. But obviously, you know, the throwing was a little bit of a tipping point." -- John Weber, SVP of Phillies ticket operations and projects on the team's scrapping of its famous $1 hot dog promotion.

■ "There’s a lot of respect for the Golden State Warriors. But we feel like it’s our time now.” -- Jaylen Brown on the Celtics' 140-88 victory over the Warriors on Sunday.

■ "It was an absolute joke we had to play today. It was one of the worst professional sporting events I've ever seen in my life." --  LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo after his team lost to Real Salt Lake 3-0 in a snowstorm on Saturday.