The Christmas holidays are over, and the world of sports continues to intensify as playoffs and trade deadlines approach.
Currently, the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association sit second in the Eastern Conference and are about to begin a stretch of tough Atlantic Division games.
On Tuesday, Jan. 10, the rival Boston Celtics come to the Air Canada Centre. Then on Friday, Jan. 13, the Brooklyn Nets will look to gain ground in the division with a win over Toronto.
The Raptors’ week concludes with a Sunday matinée against the New York Knicks with Carmelo Anthony looking to continue a hot stretch of 20-point games.
The NBA-leading Golden State Warriors also have a pair of home games at Oracle Arena.
The Miami Heat will visit on Tuesday, and the Detroit Pistons will be in town on Thursday.
The following Monday, Jan. 16, the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers head to Golden State for their second meeting of the season. The Cavaliers beat Golden State on Christmas Day after point guard Kyrie Irving hit a game-winning three-point shot.
Cleveland also came back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Warriors in last year’s NBA finals.
The National Hockey League season is heating up with a little more than three months remaining until the 2017 playoffs. Several Canadian teams are also in the playoff hunt and are desperate for points.
The Edmonton Oilers, led by 19-year-old phenom Connor McDavid, have three home games this week as they face their greatest chance to make the playoffs in 11 years.
On Tuesday night at 10 p.m., the San Jose Sharks will visit Rogers Place, followed by a Thursday evening puck drop with the same start time as the New Jersey Devils will face the Oilers.
On Saturday evening, the storied Battle of Alberta intensifies, as Edmonton will play defenceman Mark Giordano and the Calgary Flames.
The Oilers are currently ranked second in the Pacific Division and are four points up on the Flames, while Calgary holds the second Western Conference wild card spot, so these two points are vital for both teams as far as playoff seeds are concerned.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a pair of weekend games with two Eastern Conference opponents. On Friday evening, Jan. 13, the New York Rangers host the Leafs at Madison Square Garden after a lengthy five-day break between games for the Leafs, who have a bye week from Jan. 8 to 12.
On Saturday night, Jan. 14, the Leafs head to Ottawa to reignite the Battle of Ontario with the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre. This is the first meeting between the Leafs and Sens since the opening night of the season, when Toronto rookie centre Auston Matthews broke a record with four goals in an NHL debut – despite Ottawa’s 5-4 overtime win.
The National Football League has four games on tap for this weekend after as many wild card games Jan. 7 and 8. The first and second seeds in the American Football Conference are the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs, respectively.
The Patriots will face the lowest-remaining seed after last weekend’s games. That squad will likely be the Houston Texans where star quarterback Derek Carr of the Oakland Raiders broke his leg on Christmas Eve in the Raiders’ 33-25 win over the Indianapolis Colts.
Kansas City will likely face the Pittsburgh Steelers. The National Football Conference will likely have the Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers facing off as the NFL playoffs begin.
