Cam Neely annihilates Lindy Ruff. I find this wildly appropriate.
My thoughts on the playoffs so far, in bullet-point form:
So, Mr. Vanek, you and your fans and I need to have a little chat, and I’ll keep it short. Do not whine about what you think is a “cheap shot” from Johnny Boychuk when you clearly boarded Blake Wheeler in game 1 and didn’t seem to find any fault with that. I’m sorry you got hurt, but man up and get back on the ice.
Game two had 99 combined hits, with Mike Grier accounting for 15 of those. Vladimir Sobotka had 6 in the second period alone. This is awesome.
Around the league – I’m pulling pretty hard for the Coyotes (they’re just so ENDEARING) and the Blackhawks; if the two teams meet in a later round I’m not sure who I’ll cheer for. In the east, I have just about broken my brain trying to imagine possible matchups. The fact that every single game 1 was an upset was fantastic. BRANDON YIP’S FIRST PLAYOFF GOAL. If somehow the Preds advance and the Avs do too, and I get a matchup between Colin Wilson and Brandon Yip….I might possibly die. In the East, I hope the Pens crash and burn, and the Caps, too – really primarily JUST to see how NBC will react to having neither of their powerhouse teams in the semifinals. Should be interesting. I am in no way cheering for the Habs, though. No Habs no.
Not playoffs-related, but the Terriers named Joe Pereira and Chris Connolly co-captains for 2010-2011, and Dave Warsofsky (American Hero) will wear the A. Congrats, boys. I expect you to rescue the Beanpot from the end of the B-line next year, thanks.
As of right now, the Coyotes lead the Red Wings 2-1 in their series, thanks to a 4-2 game today on goals from these two guys. Go ‘Yotes go!
About eighty billion more hours of playoff hockey left today, epic game 3 at home tomorrow. Let’s do this. Go Bruins.
Over the last few days, it’s been well-documented by sources around the country that Joe Colborne was to arrive in Providence from Denver on Wednesday and begin training with the P-Bruins. Likewise, it was stated here on this blog that were Maxime Sauve to finish his season with Val d’Or in a timely manner, that he could be in Providence on a similar schedule. No one really mentioned Steve Kampfer, but as Michigan’s season drew to a close, it was assumed he’d head to Providence as well.
Brian Roloff was signed today. Devin Timberlake was signed several days ago. Colborne, Kampfer, and Sauve arrived prepared to play tonight. Providence is being flooded by new talent, and the kids have shown up in style.
In a 3-1 victory over Worcester, Sauve had two goals, both assisted by Colborne, and both coming on the powerplay. Another new face, Devin Timberlake (signed to a tryout contract before the last game) scored the third goal, assisted by Brian Roloff, the newcomer signed today from University of Vermont. Despite being outshot 49-26, the P-Bruins capitalized on their chances and leaned heavily on Dany Sabourin, who stood tall. The new kids are going to make Zach Hamill irrelevant, and indeed Hamill was a -1 on the night with only two shots on net.
The Colborne-to-Sauve connection is the P-Bruins’ new hotness, and if both of them stay in the AHL next year along with Caron, it’ll be safe to expect great things out of this club.
1. The NHL’s newest playoff preview video. We’ve already been treated to “What if Bobby didn’t fly?” and now this:
If this doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, then I don’t know why you’re reading this blog right now.
2. How’s your NCAA bracket looking? If you’re me, it’s looking drastic and unfortunate. I’d picked Denver (who was ousted in round one) and Michigan (defeated by Miami-Ohio last night) to go to the championship. Guess I’m done. The Michigan/Miami game was the story of the night, last night, going to 2OT before Alden Hirschfeld beat Shawn Hunwick to win the game. Hunwick, to his credit, stopped over 30 shots; the 5’7 junior walk-on is the reason his team was even in the NCAA tourney in the first place. Major props, and here’s hoping he gets the starter spot next season. Go little Hunwick go!
3. Tonight’s Bruins game is ridiculously huge. Tim Thomas vs. Ryan Miller. A chance to make the Leaf’s microscopic playoff chances officially nil. The potential to move into a tie for 6th place with the Flyers, with a game in hand on that team. And, possibly most ridiculous of all, there’s a magic number of goals allowed that could move us into the #1 spot for Jennings contention. Remember the Jennings trophy? Remember who won it last year?
Tuukka may not have a wife for Timmy to thank this year, but how epic would this be? As far as I can tell, a rookie has never won the Jennings. Keep sieve-ing it up, Marty Brodeur, the B’s want a trophy to take home. We may have the worst offense, but we make up for it with the BEST DEFENSE IN THE LEAGUE.
4. Eric Gryba signed with the Senators today. Although he will probably play in Binghamton, this is incredibly good news for the holder of BU’s single-season penalty minutes record.
We’ll miss you, Grybs.
It also means the dismantling of the 2008-2009 championship team is continuing on it’s merry way. Colin Wilson in Nashville, Matt Gilroy in New York, and Brandon Yip in Colorado have already seen significant ice time this year; Kevin Shattenkirk, Zach Cohen, and Colby Cohen are Colorado-bound (or at least Lake Erie, Colorado’s affiliate, where Zach has already seen ice time since BU was ousted from the Hockey East semifinals). John McCarthy, Brian Strait, and Jason Lawrence are tearing it up in the minors, and Nick Bonino leapfrogged over the AHL straight to the pros, where he’s already logged a game for the Ducks since leaving BU this year.
Life moves on, though; names like Warsofsky and Saponari and Chiasson will replace the Cohen, Gilroy, and Wilson of late. Goalie Kieran Millan will remain for at least another year before shipping west to Colorado. And the new incoming class of freshmen will bring a wealth of new talent and names we’ve never even considered. It’s not the end of the world, but there’s no denying it’s sad to see a team like the 08-09 Terriers break apart.
5. Game 6 of Rouyn-Noranda and Val d’Or’s playoff series ended in a 5-1 Huskies win. Jordan Caron leads the QMJHL in scoring (awesome) and Max Sauve’s junior career is officially over. Will we see him in Providence, now that the baby Bruins’ playoff hopes are all but quashed? Only time will tell. In other P-Bruins news, in the first game since Ned Lukacevic was released from his PTO, new signee Devin Timberlake scored in his first game out of Brown University, and ex-BU product Kenny Roche scored as well, although the Peebs lost in OT. It’s almost certain now that Providence will miss the playoffs for the first time since 1998. How depressing.
Not even talking about last night. Boston University just dropped a huge fat one to University of Maine. But you know what? Not gonna be a Debbie Downer.
The Providence Bruins, decimated at the beginning of the season by injuries to the Boston Bruins, are fighting for their playoff lives, and after dropping five in a row last week, they’ve got ten games left and a five-point deficit to climb in that time. Beating 11th-place Hartford on Wednesday was a start; beating 6th-place Lowell tonight in an incredibly impressive 4-2 decision keeps the ball rolling.
It was apparent this was going to be an exciting game when even in warmups, the teams were chirping each other; Louie Robitaille (Lowell) and Levi Nelson (Providence) each were the last men on the ice for their respective teams, taking cross-ice shots; Nelson decided to get in front of his net and block all of Robitaille’s shots before they left the ice at the same time. Chippy!
Providence got things started pretty quickly, drawing a penalty about six minutes in. Andrew Bodnarchuk, defenseman extraordinaire, snuck one past Jeff Frazee on the power play. The next one also came in the first period – Jordan Knackstedt from Cody Wild and Zach Hamill. New guy! (Who really actually lived in Providence for a few years before playing for Springfield!) Wild’s clicking pretty well. The P-Bruins took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission, and not only on the power of their goal scorers – those two goals only came on nine shots, while Dany Sabourin shut the door on 16 Devils chances. Sabuuuu!
Second period, Tim Sestito scored early. 2-1 hockey game. Big Mikko Lehtonen did not approve; he took a beautiful breakout pass from Old Man Trent, deked a few times – and tic-tac-goal, it’s 3-1. Those wer the only goals in the second, which is amazing since the P-Bruins were in the box for seemingly the whole period – three penalties and a lot of PK time. P-Bruins were again outshot 14-8 in this period. Not a lot of opportunities, but they took the ones they got and ran with them, which is so refreshing to see, considering….the game last night which we will not speak of again.
I’m not bitter, I promise.
Anyways! Andy Bodnarchuk, clearly not satisfied with one goal, got another to open the 3rd, putting the P-Bruins up 4-1. Yannick Riendeau, the highly-touted former star of the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the QMJHL, got his 3rd assist of the season.
This guy!
Riendeau’s struggled a bit with injuries this season, problems that started at the end of his season in the QMJHL, and he’s probably still adjusting to the level of play in the AHL. Still, it’s got to be a little disappointing to only have 3 points in 18 games, after putting up a 126-point season with Drummondville last year, finishing as a +41 (he is currently a +4). Anyways, another assist goes in the books tonight.
Lowell scored on another power play late in the game, but it was too little too late; the baby Devs couldn’t solve the enigmatic Sabourin (what?) who ended up stopping an unbelievable 46 of 48 shots. Jeff Frazee only stopped 18 of 22. It’s almost too bad, since tonight was Jeff Frazee Bobblehead night…..
Frazee, you just got pwnd. Sorry.
So the P-Bruins are on a teeny bit of a roll, fighting tooth and nail to get into the playoffs. Tomorrow they face the #2-seeded Worcester Sharks, and on Sunday they take on the Hartford Wolf Pack, who are only three points back of the P-Bruins. There’s a possibility Max Sauve (aka Frenchie) could join the team as soon as next week if his Val d’Or Foreurs lose to Bruins 2009 first-rounder Jordan Caron’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. Caron scored for the Huskies tonight but Val d’Or still won 7-4. That’ll be a good series for Bruins fans to keep an eye on as well, considering that Caron is expected to make it into the Bruins’ system for next season.
Here’s the deal: Bruins fans, if you’re feeling a little jaded about the team right now, it’s totally okay. You’re not alone. Solve the problem, though. Go check out what’s in the pipelines. There’s a lot to offer in the Bruins’ system right now, and the number of first-round picks we have over the next few years almost guarantees a Calder Cup, if not a more impressive piece of hardware, sometime in the next few years. Check out Providencebruins.com (there’s a 2-for-1 ticket special going on for the rest of the regular season – that’s two tickets for $18, you guys! How can you beat that? And here, some insider info – you can buy cheap tickets and move to the lower bowl, not that upper bowl tickets are even that bad.) and look at the schedule. They’ve got games against Worcester and Lowell at those two venues as well, which are even cheaper – $15 got me a seat three rows behind the Bruins’ bench today. Consider who was in the Providence lineup last year: Tuukka Rask. Vladimir Sobotka. Johnny MFing Boychuk. This year may suck as a Bruins fan, but at least two of these three guys show up hard to every game they play.
So give it a shot. Follow @ahlbruins on twitter. Keep an eye on the #PBruins hashtag. And if you want any sort of details about getting to a game/parking details/directions/what teams to look out for – you know where my email button is.
Okay, yeah, the Beanpot was disappointing, not even going to lie about that. I realized halfway through the game that I’d completely forgotten one of the Bruins’ prospects played for BC – not only that, but he was someone I’d taken notes on/checked out this summer. Whoops…anyways, here’s 2007 draft pick Tommy Cross!
Tommy Cross! That Bruins uniform does wonders for you, sir. Much better than the BC one.
Defenseman Tommy Cross got his start in the Connecticut hockey system, playing at Simsbury High and the Westminster School. In addition to racking up the points for his high school teams, Cross participated in the 2005 Under-17 Five nations tournament in Switzerland (USA won gold), the 2006 Under-18 Four nations tournament in Sweden, and captained his Under-18 team to a Silver medal at a tournament in Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 2006. He played two games with United States’ National Under-18 team at the IIHF tournament in 2007 in Finland, on a roster than included future cross-town rivals Kevin Shattenkirk, Colby Cohen, Vinny Saponari, and Colin Wilson, along with future NHLer James Van Riemsdyk and 2010 USA juniors star Danny Kristo.
His solid defensive performance in high school and in IIHF play got him notice for the 2007 draft, and sure enough, he was taken 35th overall, with the Bruins 2nd round pick – they traded their 2nd and 3rd round picks to the Chicago Blackhawks to snag Cross. Former teammate Van Riemsdyk went 2nd overall; Zach Hamill was the Bruins’ 1st round pick. Oh, and that skinny little dude who picked a fight against the Falcons a few weeks ago, Jordan Knackstedt? 189th overall. The 2007 draft was relatively USA-heavy, compared to prior and later years; 30% of the draft class was USA-born and only 20% European-born, compared to 28% from USA and 32% from Europe in 2006, and 20% USA/21% Europe in 2008. Post-draft, Cross played one more year at Westminster, tallying 28 points (8 goals, 20 assists) in 25 games. He also played 9 games with the Junior Blue Jackets, logging 4 points there (4 assists) before starting at Boston College as a freshman in the 08-09 season. It must have been nice, walking through the halls of a championship winning school in Fall 2008.
Tommy Cross is a Boston boy; his college decision came down to BU or BC, and although he made the wrong decision to go with BC and Jerry York’s system, sticking with two teammates from his youth hockey days (Cam Atkinson and Nick Petrecki), it’s good to see a star player from New England sticking with the region. He played 2/3 of his freshman season at BC before missing the last third with a knee injury; still, as a freshman, he registered 8 assists in 19 games, all against Hockey East teams, including one three-assist game against Maine.
Cross was invited to participate in Bruins’ training camp in 2009; he did not skate until the 3rd day of camp, participating only in off-ice exercises due to continued rehab. He’s back out there for Boston College this year; known for his stay-at-home defensive style, Cross has logged four goals and four assists. He’s mobile for his 6’3, 210lb frame, but needs to work on his offensive game a little more; on the Hockey’s Future Bruins’ depth chart he’s ranked higher than most of the P-Bruins’ defensemen, so he should give that team a solid boost on the blue line, eventually. Once he’s through with Boston College he’ll be due to at least star on the P-Bruins, with an eventual callup to the NHL probable, as long as he continues developing.
Tommy Cross. Come play for the Bruins soon, plz.
So enjoy your Beanpot, sir; you’ve got great things in your future. Besides, BU is winning it next year, so don’t get too used to having it around.
Ventured to Ristuccia today for the second day in a row. Got some happy news on the way over; apparently Andy Ference put some skating time in before the rest of the team came out for practice. Could we really be en route to having an entirely healthy team, soon? Consider this – Begin, Bitz, and Sturmface all skated today, participated in all drills. Granted, it was about an hour lighter than yesterday’s practice, focusing mostly on breakout drills, power play/4-on-4/4-on-3 situations, but these guys are almost ready to go, if not completely ready, as is Savard.
Ristuccia is a fun place to take in a practice. If you’ve never been, how it works is this – the bleachers are divided in thirds, two-thirds being open to the public, the other third reserved for media and Cam Neely and Peter Chiarelli (they watch from the bleachers a lot, lately.) The bleachers are at ice level; I know some other teams do it differently. The Blackhawks make you watch practice from a balcony above the glass – different perspective but not as great for pictures, and you don’t get that fun opportunity to watch your favorite players right through the glass. Another fun thing is getting to see the people you know so well from TV right up close – John Whitesides and Naoko Funayama were out and about in the public side today.
Plus, the coffee machine at Ristuccia has some beneficial issues. I definitely put the same dime in four times and it kept coming back out…$1.25 hot chocolate for $0.50. HECK YES.
My love for the Ice Box aside, the most fun practices to watch are the ones like today’s. While the atmosphere of yesterday was more serious, hard-working, and down-to-business, today was a bit more light hearted at times – makes sense, given that the team will immediately travel to Buffalo this afternoon. Mark Recchi was the only person not present today; the plan is probably for him to meet the team in Buffalo.
Rex was too busy being badass and carrying the Olympic torch in his hometown. AWESOME.
The team was all on the ice by 11:15, for an 11:30 start time; the work ethic is really giving this practice a positive feel. The team worked on a variety of drills, from below-the-blue-line special situations to breakout passes. Lines looked like this:
The Dad and the sister unit. Yes, that is peyton manning’s face on a popsicle stick, about to go into the fireplace. Don’t ask, 2007 was a rough year.
This is my Dad. And my sister, but this post is mostly about my Dad. Dad has been a Bruins fan since the late 60s, so basically forever. He’s played fantasy hockey since before it was cool; I actually have memories of wanting to get on the computer back in 1998, but not being able to because Dad was too busy with his Hockey Stuff. (Whatever, back then playing X-Wing was way more important to me than hockey, let’s be honest). Also, he runs a novice league at Ristuccia Arena! Basically, he’s awesome, and is the primary reason I got into hockey in the first place.
I had the opportunity to watch that abhorration of a Bruins game on Sunday night with my Dad; both of us, having been kicked out of the family room so mom could watch Peyton Manning stomp on the Jets (we have this thing in my family where we really hate Peyton Manning….it’s a deep-seated issue, and it’s best to just not ask and roll with it), retreated to the kitchen and turned on some hockey. As it got worse and worse, the gems my dad came up with got better and better.
“At least with every game the Canes win, there’s a better chance the Leafs will finish last.”
“At least Brad Boyes is playing lousy this year.”
So on and so forth, a few things about how Lucic doesn’t deserve $4M/year, some stories about back in the day – including an epic facefall when he found out Sergei Samsonov didn’t have any points (we missed the 2nd period).
Also for the record, he wants Aaron Ward back. I think.
ANYWAYS, we’re going to try to coerce The Dad into doing a feature on here once a week called Dad’s Mailbag! Send your questions to me by @reply on twitter, by email, or even in the comments to this entry, and my Dad the snarky Bruins fan will try to answer them in as opinionated a way as possible.
(Oh, and if anyone’s interested in joining a novice hockey league/school, let me know! The Hockey North America program he runs is still accepting participants for that!)
Not two weeks after coming back from injury, Marc Savard has signed a 7-year contract extension; rumor has it he’s taking a pay cut to stay with the club long-term. This is what makes a winning team – Lucic, Rask, and now Savard accepting fair, but not extravagant contracts, making staying with the club a priority rather than self-preservation and going to the highest bidder. These three are setting a great example to players like Wheeler who have yet to re-sign, taking the stress of free agency off the club and winning Bruins fans over with their loyalty.
Props, Mr. Savard. Here’s hoping the rumors are true – you’re stuck with us until 2016-2017!
IN 2016:
We’ll already have seen another ENTIRE presidential term past the one we’re currently in
The Winter Olympics will have happened TWICE
Savard will be 39
Possibly the world will end four years before this, so the contract won’t matter anyways! (I kid, I kid. 2012 is an awesome movie, by the way. Highly recommended.)
Hooray!
I wonder who they’ll re-sign next…? Leave guesses in the comments!
This week was difficult Tea Time-wise, seeing as how I am on vacation in Montreal and therefore am in no mood to do anything but sit on my ass and make snarky comments about Canadian television. And Sarah’s had a rough week too, in spite of the karma points she racked up from doing the Tea Time alone last week.
So we have Tea Time this week, but sadly it was done a few days ago, before a bunch of stuff happened that kind of changes what we talked about. Oops.
It’s also a pretty short and awfully distracted one.
Okay, you know what? It sucks. Everything about it. I don’t even know why I’m posting it. I’m going to go hide under a rock for awhile.
Or maybe I’ll go spend some time in the hotel spa and forget about the lot of you.
So you all remember a few weeks ago, where I was technically dead due to stress and fail? Well this week it’s MHC’s turn, so she’s cashing in the solo teatime I owe her.
“Sweet,” I thought initially. “ULTIMATE POWER IS MINE! I can talk about the Bruins for 75% of this thing, the Patriots for 20%, mention the Red Sox in passing and then randomly insert the word Celtics in there somewhere, just for completeness’ sake.” (I hear they’re doing awesome this year, they at least deserve a mention, I guess.)
Unfortunately, it then occurred to me that I really do rely on MHC for most of my witty banter.
Well, there goes that idea. So this morning, as I was outlining what to write about, I had a lightbulb moment – we’re just going to do the same thing she did when I was absent, which is pull in outside sources! Don’t think of this so much as Tea Time, think of it as a struggly conversation around the crappy coffee machine at work. Yeah, you know the one I mean, the one where the coffee tastes like sawdust and the machine spills half the pot every day. We’re talking struggly, here.
Yeah, it’s like that.
So just to get it out of the way, blanket declaration – yes, the World Series is over, and no, I don’t really care. Countdown to 2010 basball season is on, guys. The nice thing is that for the most part during this series, people realized this and have stopped giving us crap. Well, not stopped, I suppose, just slowed down. I guess the Yankees fans are too busy hating on the Phillies right now, and the rest of the world is concentrating their hate on the Yankees… not complaining. To test this, I turned to Kate, our ever-reliable (and somewhat smug) Yankees fan.
Me: Okay, so if I say to you “I don’t care about the World Series right now,” what is your gut reaction?
Kate: I can’t imagine why not… OH WAIT.
Me: Hmmm, appropriate. Okaym also: IN THIS MOMENT, disregarding every other moment, who do you hate more, Phillies or Red Sox? Chase Utley or Kevin Youkilis?
Kate: In this moment? I hate the Phillies more, but Youkilis most of all. I actually can’t quite hate Chase Utley, I’m really respecting the hell out of him. Which makes me hate the Phillies more, interestingly.
Me: Is there any Philly you hate more than Youk right now? (No is a perfectly acceptable answer here.)
Kate: No, honestly.
Conclusion from this: Yeah, yeah, take your 27 rings and shove ‘em, guys. 100-something days until pitchers and catchers report. Woo. I’ll be over here focusing on my current teams.
***
Which leads me to the Patriots this week. Good bye week, as I was out of town again! Perfect timing, boys.
We’re up against the Dolphins next week; my fantasy football league is tanking. More on them after they play next week, for sure. My brother had some input on this one – “The Patriots are going to be underrated until we beat Indy and the Saints, then everyone is going to be all over us.” I’m inclined to agree.
I guess the Celtics are playing, too? For information on this, I pestered Margaret until she finally yelled at me and told me to leave her alone to do her work and tossed me in the direction of her sister, Susanna, also a crazy Celts fan.
Me: Okay. I HEAR THE CELTS ARE DOING SORT OF AWESOME. A guy on the radio the other day said a 70-point season wouldn’t be unheard of?
Susanna: A 70-win season?
Me: Yes, what did I mean by points? Again, basketball impaired.
Susanna: And yeah, they’re doing just SORT OF FREAKING AWESOME. I don’t know if I’d say 70 games this early in the season, but I think it’s possible. I mean, Rasheed Wallace thinks it’s possible, and who am I to doubt him, right? And I think that if Rasheed says he thinks they can win X number of games, then it means he wants to… I don’t think Sheed is really one to not get what he wants. So while Radio Man may have jinxed the hell out of us (what can I say, I’m a Boston sports fan) I suppose I agree. 70 wins isn’t unreasonable.
Me: Nice. How many did they have the season they won the championship?
Susanna: 66… See? that’s why it makes me nervous to say 70.
Me: Yeah, that makes sense.
Tonight at the Garden, however, is not a Celtics game, but a game that may live in infamy (for me, for at LEAST three months).
Bruins vs. Habs. The Epic Rivalry game. Yeah, I’ve got a little bet going on this one, as you might have heard. With that in mind, I turned to my rival for this game, Julie Veilleux of metricjulie.com, to get her opinion on the also-tanking Habs.
Me: So I want a Habs fan perspective on this game. Like, set the rivalry aside for a few minutes, and let’s actually talk hockey here. Both of our teams are looking mildly craptacular, no?
Julie: Our defense SUCKS. Carey Price is being heavily judged but he’s just being thrown to the WOLVES, man. we’re able to bounce back sometimes and ALMOST WIN but we can’t always just STEAL games, either by our, like, 2-3 scorers or our goalie(s)… our silver lining is YOUR INJURIES & that’s pretty much all we can see that is positive going into tomorrow night’s game. MA Bergeron & Carle dont belong in the NHL, and Laraque is a piece of good for nothing…
Me: Wow.
Julie: Yeah. The other silver lining is that the Leafs still suck worse. Also, Price should start tomorrow in Boston.
Me: Pretty sure Timmy will get the start, too. So this might be the best chance we’ve had to score all year, if your defense is really that bad.
Julie: If they score the first goal, man, we’re done, that’s it. We might have Cammalleri and Moen scoring to play catch up the whole time but that’s at best, and we won’t win.
[At this point, Julie sent me a link to this tweet, right here, and proceeded to flip out.]
Me: So Gionta’s hurt?
Julie: Gionta received treatment today. He blocked a shot in 3rd period last night… probably hurt himself.
Me: Uh oh.
Julie: Saraaaaaaaah.
Me: OUR TEAMS ARE FAILY, JULIE.
I was completely justified in that last statement, too, when I woke up this morning to discover DAVID KREJCI HAS SWINE FLU. It’s official, our entire first line and part of our second line from last year are out. What the HELL. After crying into my morning coffee, I turned to Doug, who runs Blow Habs Blow, to make myself feel better. After talking about his Patrick Roy love affair and how the Avalanche are a weird link between the Bruins and the Habs, we launched into the really meaty stuff.
Me: Doug. Help me understand this. Why does the universe seemingly hate our team right now?
Doug: Because it doesn’t believe the “new” garden is capable of holding two 82-0 teams at once. Maybe the old Garden could, but not this one. So the universe takes precautions and instead only lets us be just barely good enough to win dual championships in a year.
Me: Ohh. That makes sense, weirdly.
Doug: In all seriousness though, we’ve hit a bad luck streak, it happens to the best of them – lucky for us though, we have it at the beginning of the season and not at the end. So as long as we stop having this junk happen, we should be good for a cup run.
Me: This is true – think of the Penguins’ start to their season last year.
Doug: Exactly, they were hurting but they pulled through, made sure they got in and then had the team to beat (or not beat I guess). We’re playing .500 hockey for the most part without our top line (and now parts of our 2nd line), once we have a top line back it will help significantly, they’ll just need to produce.
Me: I can’t wait. By the way, what do you think of Tuukka Rask’s new contract?
Doug: Rask’s contract has him making a little over 1mil/year. That makes sense, that’s a good deal that keeps us the top prospect goalie under wraps and lets us look to go with him for the long term as long as he plays well and doesn’t get injured in the next 2 years. From that point we hit two potential seasons of cap issues with Thomas being under contract, but hopefully we figure something out. Chiarelli is good at handling the players and contracts it seems – he’s much like the Pats, I think. There’s a certain value given to each slot and you look to fill it with the proper skill set and at the right price, so that you can build the most complete team possible. Then, you let other teams (cough cough TORONTO) overpay for players and never win.
Me: Speaking of Toronto…
Doug: Kessel hit?
Me: I think I’ve watched it about 20 times.
Doug: It’s pure awesomeness – I think its funny because I don’t think you see that hit happening if he’s in Boston, because whoever drops him like that gets immediately pounded on by Lucic. The second best thing about that hit, was seeing Burke’s face. God I loved that.
Me: As you should.
So basically, I’ve come out of this feeling a little better, and even a little saddened by the fact that tonight’s Bruins/Habs showdown will probably not be nearly as exciting physically as last year’s games. Weirdly enough, I miss Komisarek as a Hab. Who’da thunk it.
No more of this? Sigh.
Cheers to:
Brad Marchand, Vladimir Sobotka and Tuukka Rask: The new kids are stepping up, finding team chemistry, and the rookie goalie signed his contract for 2 years. Now we just need some goals, guys.
The Celtics. Margaret says: Not only are they on a 6 game winning streak to start the season, they have been scary good. Scary like other teams pee a little bit when they look at the schedule and see they’re coming to Boston. They’ve held opponents to an average of 81.5 points, and have won by an average of 18.3 points. Or offense comes in wave after wave after wave as our bench is performing like a second starting lineup, and our defense has some serious teeth. They’ll lose some games this season, but the 2009-2010 Celtics are for real.
Rasheed Wallace, Shelden Williams and Marquis Daniels: Again, I forced Margaret to do this one. The new guys on the Celtics have fit in beautifully with the squad, and the team is completely gelled. Welcome, boys. Keep putting up 20+ point games and we’ll love you forever.
A hearty round of jeers to:
The NBA refs: You still suck.
Anyone who flipped out about Rondo and Paul and their little bitch fight: Grow up. They were both being obnoxious, and they deserve each other. That being said…
Rondo: You are teammates with Ray Allen, one of the classiest guys in professional sports. It might behoove you to observe how it is done. You little punk. Talented as all get-out, but a little punk nonetheless.
The Habs: NO HABS NO. Today, we don’t need a reason.
The Yankees: Again, usually a reason isn’t necessary, but…ugh, how many days until pitchers/catchers report?
What I say is immensely important than who I am. Let the search be for the meaning and substance in my words rather than the intricacies of my existence.
As of right now, the Coyotes lead the Red Wings 2-1 in their series, thanks to a 4-2 game today on goals from these two guys. Go ‘Yotes go!
We’ll miss you, Grybs.
This guy!
Frazee, you just got pwnd. Sorry.
Tommy Cross! That Bruins uniform does wonders for you, sir. Much better than the BC one.
Tommy Cross. Come play for the Bruins soon, plz.
Rex was too busy being badass and carrying the Olympic torch in his hometown. AWESOME.
The Dad and the sister unit. Yes, that is peyton manning’s face on a popsicle stick, about to go into the fireplace. Don’t ask, 2007 was a rough year.
WELCOME HOME SAVVY.
