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2 days ago | 
defector.com | Lauren Theisen
It's the hottest week of the year in New York City, but the Mets have been ice cold. Leaders of the NL East by five-and-a-half games less than two weeks ago, the boys from Queens now trail the Phillies by 1.5 because of a putrid ongoing stretch where they've lost 10 of 11. That slide includes Tuesday night's fall-from-ahead defeat at home, where even the much-anticipated team debut of 29-year-old reliever Richard "Dicky" Lovelady didn't provide the fans any pleasure.
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1 week ago | 
defector.com | Lauren Theisen
I guess you could read that headline as some sort of condemnation of the Oilers' brass—that we're at Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, an elimination game for Edmonton, and there's still so much uncertainty surrounding a key position. But I mean it in the most literal sense possible. Kris Knoblauch presumably knows by this point who it will be, but if anyone tells you they know who's the better option, they're lying.
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1 week ago | 
defector.com | Lauren Theisen
The U.S. Open is a notoriously difficult tournament even under normal circumstances, but forcing professional golfers to play in the kind of weather that tormented the greater Pittsburgh area on Sunday was a televised exercise in humiliation.
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1 week ago | 
defector.com | Lauren Theisen
All across the United States and beyond on Saturday, millions of people got together and expressed—to put it in probably the most broadly acceptable terms to everyone who went—that Donald Trump needs to get out of everybody's business.
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1 week ago | 
defector.com | Lauren Theisen
Brad Marchand. Again. As if the Florida Panthers taking a 3-2 series lead in front of a passionate Edmonton Oilers crowd wasn't brutal enough, it had to be the NHL's premier pest who orchestrated the 5-2 win in Game 5 on Saturday night. After scoring the team's last two goals in Game 2's OT win and following that up with the play that kicked off a blowout in Game 3, the 37-year-old trade deadline pickup from Boston scored Nos.
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2 weeks ago | 
defector.com | Lauren Theisen
It's impossible for me to think about Brian Wilson, who died on Wednesday, without picturing myself awake in my teenage bedroom at some sort of goblin hour. I still have very late nights, but they look a lot different—healthier, more organized. If I lose sleep now, it's because I'm so busy. If I lost a lot of sleep then, it was ... well, I guess you'd just call it anxiety. I wouldn't be able to sit still, or relax my brain, because my body just didn't want to shut off.
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2 weeks ago | 
defector.com | Lauren Theisen
When the Panthers acquired Brad Marchand at the trade deadline, it kind of felt like putting a hat on a hat. Or a rat on a rat. This was a team already known and feared and hated for the way they relentlessly antagonized their opponents, and the division-leading defending champs had returned their top eight players by points from the previous campaign. It was unclear if Marchand, who'd just suffered an injury, would make all that much of a difference in his first stop outside of Boston.
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3 weeks ago | 
defector.com | Lauren Theisen
The Tony Awards are on Sunday, and that's as good an excuse as any for me to chat with you all about Broadway. Ask any questions you want about theater, or live performance more generally. Alternatively, if you don't have a question from that field, some other folks might drop in to answer any queries related to people named Tony. Please stay on topic in Tony Chat.
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3 weeks ago | 
defector.com | Lauren Theisen
After Viktor Arvidsson's slapshot beat Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky in the second period, cutting the Oilers' deficit to 3-2, the on-screen shots-on-goal counter had Edmonton leading 16-8. In any situation where you're doubling up a team in that category while still losing, it's natural to look to the goalie for blame. And Oiler netminder Stuart Skinner is a ready-made scapegoat.
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3 weeks ago | 
defector.com | Lauren Theisen
For the second straight year, the Florida Panthers are playing the Edmonton Oilers for the Stanley Cup. I'm not convinced that we can see their futures by looking at their pasts, but I think it's worthwhile to refresh ourselves on how we got here, and why this will be the rare Cup matchup that comes with a history. Who are these guys? All the way back in 1996, the recently established Panther franchise put together an underdog Cup Final run before getting swept by the Avalanche.
