Top 10 sports stories of 2018
By Dan Khavkin, Sports Editor
This past year flew by pretty fast right? Here are The Reflector’s top 10 sports stories that occurred during the 2018. They’ll remind you of the top moments in sports that sent chills down your spine, goosebumps down your arms and of the time that, spoiler alert, Tiger Woods might have made you cry.
1. Humboldt bus crash
Canada as a country had tragedy strike the nation in April of 2018 when a bus full of ‘Junior A’ hockey players and staff collided with a semi-truck that resulted in the death of 16 people, not including the driver of the semi-truck.
The Humboldt Broncos of the SJHL, were traveling on the road from a playoff game where late at night, a semi did not come to a complete stop at an intersection. As a result, over a dozen bodies flew out of the charter bus, killing 16, injuring 13 and even paralyzing others.
This event hit home for many Canadians such as myself who had experienced the comradery built when traveling with your team on the road. It’s hard to speak for everyone but it was during those road trips where memories and friendships are built that last a lifetime. When this tragic event hit, it tugged on the heart strings.
2. France wins World Cup
In the summer of 2018, the 21st edition of the FIFA World Cup took place in Russia, marking the event’s first time being hosted in Eastern Europe.
France reigned supreme, defeating tournament sweetheart Croatia 4-2, not losing a single game to claim their second ever World Cup since 1998 when they hosted the event on home soil.
This was the fourth consecutive time where a European country won the tournament in the 11th overall time being hosted in the European continent.
France proved to be dominant over the majority of the teams played, plowing through the tougher side of the playoff beating: Lionel Messi and Argentina, Luis Suarez and Uruguay, Thibaut Courtois and powerful Belgium, before being too much for the cinderella team, Croatia, to handle.
Host Russia exceeded its wildest of expectations by making it to the quarter-final after surviving a relatively weak group stage before stunning 2010 and world powerhouse, Spain, in penalty kicks before losing to eventual runner-up Croatia in the same fashion.
The events and politics heading into the World Cup almost spoiled the event. But, the most expensive World Cup in history turned out to be a huge success in the ratings and for overall entertainment value, with the expanded 32 team format and the introduction of the VAR, video assisted referee system.
3. Tiger’s win
When Tiger Woods made the final putt on the 18th during the 2018 Tour Championship, viewers went back in time.
Woods, 43, came into the tournament ranked 20th in the world and had a streak of 1,876 days since his last pro win in 2013. It’s hard to believe Tiger had a five-year drought without a major victory, but the former global superstar persevered and turned back the clock to pull off one of the most emotional comeback wins in all of sports last year.
After enduring mental health problems, fighting addiction, troubles with the law and four back surgeries that questioned the physical state of the now 14-time champion, this was a monumental story in 2018 that brought golf fans to the brink of tears.
4. Ovi slaying the Knights
After another entertaining 2018 NHL regular season that featured: the NHL’s newest expansion team Vegas, the Nashville Predators securing the President’s trophy as the league’s best team, both Montreal and Detroit missing out on the playoffs in the same season for the first time ever, along with Alexander Ovechkin and his Washington Capitals clinching their first Stanley Cup in franchise history over the Vegas Golden Knights in June of 2018.
In the playoffs, however, is where everything was different.
Vegas, with the fan support of the entire hockey world, fought adversity through a national tragedy in early October, and made their way through the rugged and physical Western Conference en route to the Stanley Cup Finals. Sweeping L.A., then beating San Jose in five games, the Golden Knights eliminated Cup favourites Winnipeg before getting eliminated themselves by the firepower of Washington.
Meanwhile Washington had its own road to glory.
Dropping the first two home games to Columbus to open their playoffs down 2-0, the Caps won four in a row to get into the second round. After three straight seasons running into arch rivals Pittsburgh Penguins, the Caps finally got past them and into uncharted territory before leapfrogging over favourites, Tampa Bay Lightning, before slowing down the fast-paced Knights who are the first inaugural team to make the finals since 1967.
Evgeny Kuznetsov lead the playoffs in point and scored the series clinching goal to get past Pittsburgh in overtime. But, it was captain Ovechkin who had the most goals, taking home the Conn Smythe MVP trophy.
No one will ever forget the sight of the silver fox finally getting his Stanley Cup ring, marking the second time a Russian has won in Washington.
5. Khabib versus Connor
After making millions of dollars getting beat up in the boxing ring by a washed up Floyd Mayweather Jr., Conor McGregor decided to follow the same game plan heading into his title fight with literal Russian animal, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
This fight was literally the Conor versus Floyd matchup, except everyone actually wanted to watch this.
McGregor followed the same tactics to the tee leading up to the fight — trash talking his way to fight night but took way more serious roasting measures.
The Irishman began to talk down to his opponent’s family and religion, that play hand-in-hand to a Muslim follower such as Nurmagomedov, his country and more.
He also had actions that followed his words such as attacking Nurmagomedov’s teammate’s bus when McGregor chucked a two-wheeled dolly to the glass which promptly injured many people, drank alcohol and kept offering the religious Khabib to have a drink with him to an offensive extent.
All the trash talk was put to bed by the Russian beast when he delivered on his promise of “smashing Conor” in the ring to the entire world’s pleasure.
Every Conor fanboy was silenced by the defending champion Nurmagomedov when he made McGregor say “uncle” and forced him to tap out at 3:03 of round four.
Not only did the epic trash talk and build up to the fight live up, the events afterwards shocked the sports world when Khabib pointed at Conor’s cornermen and jumped over the cage to give a piece of his mind to the trash-talking Irishman that stirred controversy for the next months that followed.
Both fighters had to be escorted out of the arena by police but Nurmagomedov was the ultimate winner, showing the world how to deal with bullies.
James is in his 16th season and many predict a slowdown in production, but the ‘king’ is still wreaking havoc in the league, still being the best all-around player in the world.
6. LeBron’s second departure
LeBron James is considered to be the second best NBA player of all time and some (mainly millennials) even consider him to be above Michael Jordan for his feats, such as accomplishing the greatest achievement in NBA history when he brought back his Cleveland Cavaliers from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the greatest regular season team of all time in 2016 in the NBA Finals.
Losing to those same Warriors the next season in the final, the 2018 edition and third meeting was painful (thanks to J.R Smith’s game one blunder that forced an ugly side out of LeBron out), the Cavs and Warriors rematched for a third time and second with Kevin Durant involved, Cleveland got bounced by the Warriors.
James subsequently took his talents to the sunny beaches of Los Angeles for the next three seasons and suit up in the purple and gold like the many legends before him such as Wilt, Kareem, Magic Johnson, Shaq and Kobe.
James is in his 16th season and many predict a slowdown in production, but the ‘king’ is still wreaking havoc in the league, still being the best all-around player in the world.
7. Fole-idelphia era dawns
Just as this article is being published, we take the time to reflect and pay respects to the year-long phenomena that was the Nick Foles era in Philadelphia. In February 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles backhanded the NFL GOAT, Tom Brady and the mighty New England Patriots in stunning fashion.
Both teams finished the season at 13-3 but had different roads to the final. New England traveled a bumpy road through the AFC that tends to roll over at the sight of the future hall of famer and top candidate for the greatest of all time conversation.
The Patriots took care of business against underdog Tennessee Titans 35-14 before forcing a choke job out of Jacksonville who had a 10 point lead in the fourth quarter but couldn’t shut down Brady and his genius, who held on to a 24-20 win.
New England extended their Super Bowl appearance record to 10 which was their third in four years heading into Super Bowl LI.
Philadelphia also had a bye heading into the playoff with their NFC best 13-3 record.
After barely squeaking by the Atlanta Falcons thanks to their great defence that held a final stand in their redzone, the Eagles flew over the Minnesota Vikings 35-7, led by Foles and an outstanding defensive effort which set the stage for Fole-delphia.
The Eagles served Brady and his Patriots with the ‘Philly-special’ with a 41-33 decision that saw the Super Bowl have its highest scoring game yet despite Brady reaching a Super Bowl record 505 passing yards.
8. Boston back on top
Boston defeated the L.A. Dodgers in five games to claim their first World Series in 15 years against the new ‘New York Yankees’ in the NL powerhouse.
L.A. finished the season with a 92-71 record.
For the second year in a row, the Dodgers broke their franchise record for most team home runs in a season. They entered the playoffs as a second seed and went on to beat the Atlanta Braves in four games in the 2018 National League Division Series and the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games in the 2018 National League Championship Series.
Boston won the AL East for the third-straight year and won the most games in a season since 2001. The 2018 Red Sox were highlighted by All-Stars Mookie Betts, Craig Kimbrel, J. D. Martinez, and Chris Sale.
Betts led baseball in both batting average and slugging percentage, while Martinez led in runs batted in. Despite injury, Sale tossed 158 innings with a 2.11 earned run average to go along with 237 strikeouts.
The Red Sox also became the second team to win the World Series one century apart as they claimed the title in 1918.
This was Boston’s ninth title in franchise history and the first with first-year manager and former Red Sox player Alex Cora, who also became the first Puerto Rican manager to win the World Series.
Cora becomes the fifth first-year coach to win a series in his inaugural season as bench boss.
9. 2018 Olympics
The 23rd Winter Olympiad was held in Pyeongchang, South Korea in the early months of 2018.
This was the first time that South Korea had hosted the Winter Olympics and the second Olympics held in the country overall, after the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
Norway led the way in gold medals and medals totaled with 14 gold and 39 medals in total. Host South Korea won five gold medals, finishing with a record high seven medals.
The Games featured 102 events over 15 disciplines in seven sports, with new sports such as: “big air” snowboarding, mass start speed skating, mixed doubles curling and mixed team alpine skiing to the Winter Olympic program.
2,914 athletes from 92 countries competed including the debuts of Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore.
Notable scenes from the games included the surprising U.S.A. men’s curling capturing gold, Scott and Tess’ final skate together, the Americans beating Team Canada in women’s hockey and the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR), participating with a batch of ‘clean’ athletes after over half the athletes federation was forced to trim athletes off the national teams amidst doping allegations. Russia won 17 medals and two golds, one of which was in men’s hockey that did not have NHL players for the first time since 1998.
10. Ronaldo bids Madrid ‘adios’
Los Blancos and one of the greatest soccer players of all-time in Christiano Ronaldo bid his Real Madrid career farewell when he opted out of his contract in July 2018 and signed a new four-year 100-million Euro deal with Italian giants Juventus, marking him the most expensive transfer in Italy and the most expensive transfer over the age of 30.
Although not as dramatic as Lebron’s exit to Miami, many speculated on his possible destinations, but the Portuguese superstar elected to sign with Juventus after a nine year career in the Spanish article.
Ronaldo enters Italy with five Ballon D’ors and 26 club titles including five UEFA Champions League titles. He has almost 700 career goals for club and country and so far, has 14 goals in 19 appearances for Juventus.
