Here are a few tids and bits as we inch closer and closer to Memorial Day Weekend, incredibly just three weeks away:

First, we just need to keep learning the lesson that the regular seasons in at least three professional sports are meaningless.

In the National Hockey League, the Bruins went all out to set their regular season records, and then an epic collapse. There’s no more proof of the point than the Curse of the Presidents’ Trophy, something like two of the last 20 Trophy winners advanced to the Cup Finals. In the NBA, down go the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks. In MLB, two Wild Card teams last October, Philadelphia and San Diego, played in the NLCS. San Diego finished 20-plus games behind the Dodgers in the NL West and beat them in the divisional round.

Here’s where the regular season does matter: the National Football League. Sure, they expanded the playoffs, but the two teams in the Super Bowl were clearly the best in their conferences, Philadelphia and Kansas City. And the Patriots found out you win eight games and unless you’re in a bad division you’re not playing from mid-January on.

— Ahhh, nothing brings out more discussion among nerds than the NFL Draft, right? People make a living off the three-day monster. To try to analyze a draft days after is impossible, but it was strange that the Patriots didn’t try to grab a tight end or wide receiver in their picks through the fourth round.

But one guy they did get with pick No. 144 was UCLA guard Antonio Mafi, a 6-2, 338 pound guard, and we have some first hand knowledge of him courtesy of Nashua South alum Sean Holland, who played with Mafi this past season at UCLA.

“Maf is a great guy, a really super guy,” Holland said. “He was really welcoming to me when I came to UCLA and joined the team last summer. I texted him last weekend and congratulated him.

“He’s a really good player, and he certainly looks the part, a big strong offensive lineman, great talent for sure.”

And, as Holland noted, Mafi, from San Mateo, Cal., went to the same high school as a guy named Tom Brady: Junipero Serra High School.

“He’ll be a perfect Patriot,” Holland said.

Holland said it was fun to see a few of his teammates go in the draft, and a couple more should be signed as rookie free agents. By the way, while his football career is over, his athletic career continued this spring as he played club lacrosse at UCLA and the Bruins club team was able to play a game in the Rose Bowl. So he has played two sports in the Rose Bowl. Incredible.

—- Back to the other Bruins.What happened? The age of their centers? Their defense, or lack of it in the final couple of games in terms of getting the puck out of their own end? The coaching? Sure, it’s all part of that, but a big thing was whatever injury impacted Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark, and his awful brain cramp in the overtime of Game 5. He should have been done after the third game, but that didn’t happen. It’s still shocking that a team that was that good – and so close to winning it all with two overtimes and a Brad Marchand failed breakaway. Incredible.

—- Speaking of incredible, in case you missed it, Saint Joseph’s of Connecticut defender Jay Kajander was just trying a clear in the last coupld of seconds of the first half last Saturday in the Blue Jays’ GNAC quarterfinal upset of Rivier at Joanne Merrill Field. SJU was up 3-2, but under pressure, so after a save he picked up the loose ball near his own goal and heaved it in the air — and it landed in the Raider goal. Riv goalie Sawyer Gagnon was already heading toward the bench upfield and by the time he began to run back it was too late. National highlight stuff.

“I saw there were two or three seconds left, the ball was on the end line, and I picked it up,” Kajander said. “Our coaches coach us well, they tell us just to send it. I thought the whistle blew. … It was big, going into the half. … I didn’t expect it to go in.”

It did, and it was a big factor in the game, giving the Jays a 4-2 lead and they went on to win 8-6.

The one thing about the upset – that’s how far Riv coach Jay Delanoy has brough his program to the point where the sixth seed wins and it’s a an upset. This Raider group will have a good shot at the finals next year.

—- Yes, Memorial Day Weekend is just three weeks away, and you know what that means? The Futures Collegiate League and Nashua Silver Knights season is less than three weeks away (two-and-a-half).

Now that’s incredible.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.