Hello, Hello, Hello. Been awhile, I know. I could blame it on a few things but let's just go with I was in an end of the winter slumber just like our Boston Bruins, as my excuse.
As we speak the B's are doing just fine, they have picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and are holding strong as the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference with the playoffs a week and a half away. But let's be honest it hasn't been an easy road..
From February 1st thru March 15th the Bruins went a pathetic 8-14, along the way they lost Rich Peverly to a knee injury (just returned 2 games ago), they lost Tuukka to a groin/abdominal pull (50-50 shot he returns for playoffs), Bergeron was banged up, Thornton had the flu for what seemed to be 2 weeks and Joe Corvo played like he was hurt but unfortunately he just sucks. Injuries are not to blame though, the Bruin's lost their focus, the only way this team can be successful is if they stick to coach Claude Julien's style, it's how they are built, they cannot rely on skill alone because they simply don't have enough. They are built to be a TEAM and if they don't play like a TEAM they will fall faster than an Iona 25 point lead in the NCAA tournament (sorry V, I had to). Now that we are on the topic of team I would like to quickly point out I still believe the Bruins lost their way when Tim Thomas went on his political campaign but for the sake of not repeating myself I will not go on another rant about it.
So what's to come..
Well the Bruins should wrap up the 2 seed shorty and if the season ended today they would be facing the Ottawa Senators in the first round. This is a great match up for our Bruins. Thomas has played in 16 of the last 17 games, so look for him to get a breather over the next couple weeks (assuming they don't start another losing streak), you may see Marty Turco get a few games or Khudobin from Providence and maybe even Tuukka before the season is out. Depending on how quickly the B's can wrap up the 2 seed I wouldn't be surprised to see Bergeron, Chara, Seidenberg, Ference etc. get a "maintenance" day or two.. Other than that we just wait, so until then.. strap on your seat belt, pull on your helmets, put on your foil, ready the troops, dust off your bear claws, if you are a bandwagon fan (Lane-o) hop on the bandwagon, hold onto your _____, and get ready to have your world rocked because it's almost NHL PLAYOFF TIME!!
So here is my take on the Tim Thomas situation.. I wouldn't call myself a person who is into politics, I watch some debates, I usually know the candidates and where they stand and I vote, that's about it. I will never pretend to understand what Tim Thomas was trying to prove yesterday because he clearly has much more deep rooted beliefs about politics than I do, but in my opinion yesterday had nothing to do with politics and Thomas chose to make it about that.
For any of you who do not know, The Boston Bruins were hosted at the White House by president Barack Obama on Monday. This is an annual event for the championship team of the 4 major sports. Tim Thomas decided because of his "beliefs" he was not going to attend this event even with the urging of the organization over the last 2 months leading up to the event. Here is what Thomas later posted about the situation on a facebook page..
"I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People. This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government. Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL."
Tim here is what I have to say to you.. You say it wasn't about politics and you say it wasn't about party (Thomas is a strong supporter of the Team Party), but then everything you said was about politics? But whatever, that is all fine and dandy and you are more than welcome to have your beliefs, butttt Mr. Obama invited the Boston Bruins TEAM and organization, he did not invite everyone as INDIVIDUALS. Mr. Obama did not invite the team to the White House to talk politics, share political beliefs or to support a campaign of his. It was a celebration of what you and your teammates accomplished this past year together. Yesterday you chose to not be a part of your team, a team comprised of players from countries all around the world and who I am sure disagree with how our government is run, but you decided you are better than everyone else, your beliefs are stronger than everyone else, you decided you didn't want to be a part of your team yesterday for personal reasons. And to that I say, wrong place wrong time.
I hope you understood what was going to happen when you made this decision. You have now stood up for your beliefs but you have also caused unnecessary negative publicity to surround your entire team that just won a Stanley Cup due to how "together" you guys are. You have forced your management team to have to tap dance around trying to defend your actions but at the same time saying they do not agree with them. You also forced them to decide to have you stay in your hotel room, probably the most notable player on the entire team while the rest of your "brothers" attended a charity event for the Boy and Girls Club of Greater Washington because they worried about how much negative energy you would bring to event through the media.
And to that I say I am sorry, I am sorry that you have brought this upon your team, I am sorry that the kids at the charity event didn't get to meet you because of your "beliefs". I am sorry that you couldn't see the event for what it was, a celebration for what you and your TEAM did on the ice NOT a celebration of what our government is currently doing.
I hope Timmy the Tank, I really hope, that your teammates just brush this off, the media let's it fizzle out and the effects of this situation do not trickle into the performance on the ice. But I hope you understand that the issue isnt with what you do did because of your beliefs, it is an issues because you let your team down and you let your fan's down.. And really, in the end, I am not sure what you proved??
I have already posted about the Bruin's vs. Canuck's game, I know but this part deserved it's own post. During the the latter part of the first period Bruin's tough guy Shawn Thornton challenged Vancouver "tough guy", Dale Weise to a fight. The reason Thornton challenged him is because Weise was one of the 7 guys punches him in the back of the head earlier on the period when it was 7 on 1 and then decided to pick a fight with the much smaller guy in Nathan Horton who was also recently coming off a major head injury, you know the one the Canuck's Aaron Rome gave him in the Stanley Cup finals last year? Anyways.. So Thornton challenges him as you see from the video above, Weise apparently agrees and the referee standing between them hears it all and gestures to them just to get set for the faceoff and then go about their business. Puck drops, Thornton drops his gloves, Weise pretends to drop his gloves and then skates away. BAHAHAHAHA!! Weise tried to "trick" thornton into taking a roughing penalty by getting him to drop his gloves and then skates away like a coward afraid to fight. The ref who heard the entire conversation knew Weise just disobeyed the ethics of the game and hit him with a 2 minute misconduct penalty to go along with Thornton's roughing penalty. Here is where it gets good..
Tony Gallagher, one of the larger Vancouver Canuck's media guys does an interview with Mike Felger on CSNNE earlier this week. Gallagher starts trashing Thornton saying that Thornton knows better than to challenge a guy to a second fight in the same period (it was also Thornton's second it happens often especially with enforces). What Tony doesn't know is that Thornton happens to be in the CSNNE studio so Felger asks Gallagher if he would like to have this conversation with Thornton personally, Gallagher agrees and this is what happens.. I will leave you with this tv interview gold..
HAHAHAHA.. Side note, Weise is 6'2'' 210 pounds according to the Canuck's official roster, NOT 170, NOT 180, NOT EVEN 190 Tony hahaha. Thornton is 6'2'' 217 according to B's official roster, so what was that argument again Tony? I missed it, can you tell me that again? Vancouver Canucks player's and media at its finest right there, try to defend their players with information that isn't even remotely accurate.
Oh wait I almost forgot, a day later the Canuck's coach held an interview whining about how dirty Marchand is, saying that if he continues to be a "rat" (like Vancouver's entire roster) then he is going to get hurt real bad some day. Fast forward to the 1 minute mark if you have already seen the actual hit.
I am just curious though, since Marchand is going to get his for that hit, COACH!! How do you feel about your own player's hit on Lucic last year? Is Hamhuis going to get his at some point too? Seriously though how is there not even a penalty called on that one again lucic but Marchand gets 5 games for his? I will admit I think Marchand's was dangerous and deserved a suspension but how does the league not even bat an eye at Hamhuis'?
We have a lot to catch up on here. It took me a while to get over the B's game this past weekend against the Canucks, but I think I am finally of sound mind to discuss it without being too biased. First off, if you are a hockey fan that game was hockey porn, yes even with the Bruins losing. You could just feel the hatred leading up to the game and it didnt take long for it to show during the game. If you dont mind I would like to run through the key moments in this game, give you my opinions and then hopefully you will share yours..
The 7 on 7 scrum (or as Jack Edwards says 8 on 8 but I count 7) 5 minutes into the game.. If any of you haven't seen it I have posted the video above which basically runs thru all of the key moments in the game there it's too much for me to touch on all of it.. So this pig pile led to following, Milan Lucic was ejected for the rest of the game for "leaving the bench to fight" and the Bruin's were short handed 2 men leaving the Vancouver with 2 full minutes of 5 on 3. Now watch the video again and tell me if that makes any sense. This all started with Thornton and Borrows going 1 on 1 and then turned into 7 on 1 as 6 other Canucks dove onto Thornton knowing that Borrows could never stand up for himself, after a couple seconds the Bruins responded they did their best imitation of superman flying into the pile to pull all of the Canucks off of the Thornton. The reason that there was so many players on the ice was because both teams were in a line change. Milan Lucic was one of the players that had just come on the ice during the line change right before the scrum started. When the scrum started he realized that in all of the confusion of the change and the scrum that there might be too many guys on the ice so rather than take a too many men penalty he went to step back into the bench. He didn't get all the way back in before realizing that there was also more than 5 Canucks player's on the ice so rather than leave his team short handed in the scrum he decided it was worth the too many men penalty and joined in. Unfortunetly, the refs didn't see it that way, they thought Lucic was never on the ice to begin with and just hopped the boards for the sole purpose of knocking someones face in. The Bruin's obviously protested but do to Lucic's tough guy reputation they weren't going to win that battle. Now if the league saw what the ref's thought they saw, Lucic would have faced an automatic 10 game suspension, fortunetly for the Bruin's the league knew the ref's made a mistake and immediatly following the game took back the call and did their best "whoopsie, sorry our bad" impression. So to sum this moment up, Thornton challanged Borrows, Canucks responded by trying to go 7 on 1 (with players also punching Thornton while they stood on their bench), the Bruins tried to protect Thornton and in the end the Bruins lost Lucic for the game and were penalized for 2 extra penalties leaving them down 2 men for a full 2 minutes.. hmmmm..
Moving on..
During the third period Brad Marchand joined Milan Lucic in the locker room for the rest of the game. Marchand was tagged for "clipping" a rule that does not often come up but nonetheless Marchand got the gate for it. I dont have much defense on this one, it looked questionable when it happened, it looked dirty on the replays and no matter how you want to chalk it up Marchand knew exactly what was going to happen when he decided to drop low to obsorb the hit. The league agreed, they hit Marchand with a 5 game suspension costing the Bruins a top 6 forward for 5 games and costing Marchand $150,000. Had Marchand not have just come back from a 2 game suspension for "slew footing" a guy it may have been a 2 or 3 games suspension but the more Marchand gets the attention of the league with borderline hits the longer the suspensions are going to be. Oh and yes the Canucks also went on a 5 minute power play, meaning it was a major penalty so no matter how many times they scored in those 5 minutes the Bruin's were going to be short handed for a full 5 minutes. Which they did score, essentially costing the Bruin's the game.
In the end the Bruins lost, Lucic couldn't play due to a ref's mistake, Marchand got suspended for 5 games and Borrows and the Canucks continued to look like the rattiest, punkiest pieces of shits in the entire NHL.
*I am very proud of myself for writing this post without turning it into an all out rant on how much I hate Vancouver players, coaches, media and fans.
To say 2011 was an eventful, newsworthy year for sports
would be an understatement. From the
disgusting, mind numbing actions at Penn State and Syracuse to the
championships of the Bruins, UConn, and Auburn.
We here at The Truth have put together a list of our top 5 sports events
of 2011. Now, these are our favorite
events, not necessarily the most newsworthy.
Leave your thoughts and opinions and give your own top 5. Also, we really appreciate you checking out
the blog and will continue to deliver entertaining and informative posts. Any ideas on posts or guest posts are more
than welcome. Without further ado let’s
get to the fun.
Dan: Dan-o starts
it up with a mostly video top 5.
5. LeBron Loses
Anytime Lebron loses in the finals after his "Not 1,
Not 2, Not 3...." speech it is a great moment.
4. Uconn Wins
Hey, I might not be the biggest UConn fan, but it isn't
because I don't like them. They are a New England team and I can respect that.
Go Huskies!!
3. Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is one of my favorite sporting events
every year. Betting on the winning horse always makes it better but win or lose
there probably isn't another sporting event that gives you this type of
atmosphere and lets you cheer for who you want year in and year out. Obviously
a Boston team playing for their championship like the Bruins in the Cup or the
Patriots in the Super Bowl is a different story, but that doesn't happen every
year. The Derby does, and every year it is different horses and every year you
get to the find the horse you want to root for. Maybe you are a person who
actually places bets and you like the horse's pedigree and chance to win or
maybe you are just a casual fan and you like his story, you like why it has a
certain name, you like who owns it, you like their colors etc. Every person can
find a horse they like and every year Churchill Downs brings you the same exact
stadium rocking atmosphere. This year we saw Animal Kingdom walk away as the
winner, jockey John Velazquez who is one of the most respected jockeys in the
sport got his first Derby win, who only got to ride Animal Kingdom because the
main jockey Robby Alberado was hurt earlier in the week, a good story.
2. Patriots Continue
Their Success and Bobby Kraft Ends the Lockout
Although we haven't won the Super Bowl the last few years
the Patriots continue to give us something to cheer for year in and year out
and that is something to be thankful for. We have fallen short in the last
month of the season the last couple of years but for the other 16-18 weeks of
the season the Patriots at least allow us to root for another Super Bowl chance
each year and that is a lot more than most teams can say.
However, that isn't the biggest success of the New England
Patriot's this year. Robert Kraft the best owner in professional sports who is
responsible for the reason we now have 3 Super Bowls and a successful football
organization that we can be proud of helped the NFL dig itself out of the
darkest days of the league and end the lockout. Because of Robert Kraft, his
wife and his influence he has within the league he helped bridge the gap
between the owners and players and is the reason we get to witness one of the
most exciting week 16's in NFL football history tomorrow on New Year’s Day and
why our Patriots are in position for another Super Bowl. Thank you Robert, thank you Myra and thank you
to the entire Kraft family.
1. B's win cup
If this isn't your top moment of 2011 get outta here!! Hit it..
V: Below are Matty V’s top 5 stories of 2011.
5 - Iona gets upset
in MAAC tourney title game: This
wasn’t a big surprise because they were such a young team last season. The
bigger surprise was it wasn’t an Iona vs. Fairfield matchup like everyone
predicted. Iona did its work in the tourney, but they ran into a hot St.
Peter’s team at the time. With another year of experience under their belt and
the addition of Momo Jones, 2012 looks promising for the Gaels.
4 - Pats acquire
Ochocinco and Hanyesworth: These
types of acquisitions usually benefit the Patriots well. We saw how Corey Dillon changed when he got
here, we saw the Randy Moss of old come out in a Patriots uniform. Ocho and
Hanyesworth haven’t panned out; they weren’t loud mouths or distractions like
they have been with former teams. Ocho
is my boy. I will never hate on the guy.
Everybody else can hate all they want and say he sucks. He
has not contributed a whole lot but he also hasn’t said a word to the media or
anyone for that matter. Say what you want, idiots, but he will contribute to
this team in the playoffs.
Hanyesworth came here fat and out of shape, plain and
simple. He sucked. Couldn’t get on the field because Kyle Love was/is
more dynamic than fat Albert is. Once
Brandon Deaderick got healthy and Gerard Warren started to contribute,
Haynesworth was out the door. The move was a low-risk high-reward moved that
just did not work out.
3 -The Red Sox
Collapse: Everybody talks about the Yankees blowing the 3-0 lead to the Sox
in 2004. I think this was worse. No words can describe this. Disgusting. Flat out disgusting. This makes me never want
to have fried chicken and Bud Light ever again.
2 - Robert Kraft
single handedly end the NFL lockout:
This man is by far the most respected owner in the league. The man loses
his beloved wife and has hated rivals giving him hugs on national television.
The impact the Myra has on this organization makes you think that this was her
way of saying “shut up and just play football.” We are extremely lucky to have
an owner like Robert Kraft for our hometown team. Let’s go win the Super Bowl
for MHK.
1 - Bruins Stanley
Cup Victory:
If you’re from Boston and love Boston sports, you are insane
if this isn't #1 on your list. This is big for me to have this as #1 because we
all know I’m not the biggest hockey fan. This team was special. I mean, they
have to be extremely special to get me to tune in and watch on a nightly basis.
From the experience of Recchi, to the excitement of Segs and Marshmont, this
team had it all. The scary part is they are even better this year. This isn't a
hockey team, it's a gang of brothers. Hockey wasn't like this a few years ago
in Boston. Times have certainly changed.
Matt:
This was one of the hardest things to come up with. My top 2 were easy choices, however I feel
like I will make some Bruins fans a little upset with the order of the top
2. I won’t ramble anymore, here is my
top 5:
Honorable Mention:
Butler back in the NCAA championship,
Brandon Bass trade, Heat Lose in NBA Finals
5 - Red Sox Collapse: Before people say “Hey, Hey, Hey, that’s
not a positive story for 2011,” let me explain.
This Red Sox team was flawed, even when healthy they were never the best
team ever, as the Boston Herald proclaimed.
This team was never going to win a World Series, so this collapse
expedited some of the changes that needed to happen. This team got boring to watch
and very complacent. Listen, I loved
Francona as much as the next guy but he needed to go, Theo was missing on a lot
of free agents of late, and players such as Wakefield and Varitek wore out
their welcome. My view is, after about
10 years, management becomes ineffective and needs new blood, and with this
collapse that new blood is now in charge.
Here is to hoping that new blood will help turn around a stale franchise
and lead us to really be the best team ever.
4 – Basketball is
Back: Everyone knows, basketball is
my favorite sport – both college and the NBA.
I hated the lock out probably more than most; however it turned out to
be a positive for both the NBA and NCAA.
First, college basketball had more players return for another year from
the likes of Thomas Robinson to Doron Lamb, from Perry Jones III to Harrison
Barnes, and from Jared Sullinger to Jeremy Lamb. When all these guys stay, it leads to a
better product for college basketball and you have seen that with so many
exciting games already. Moving on to the
NBA, obviously the lockout being lifted means I get to see my beloved Celtics
with the Big 4 one more year. Also, if
there was still a lockout you wouldn’t be able to see LeBron take 4th
quarters off like last year. Besides the
Celtics, watching Kevin Durant and the Thunder will be my favorite team to
watch this year. Let’s hope this year’s
playoffs are just like 2011’s.
3 – Records Fall: I’m only going to talk about Ray Allen
breaking the career 3 point record and Rob Gronkowski breaking the touchdown
record for a tight end, because well, I don’t really care about Drew
Brees. To watch Gronk this year is just
amazing. Gronk cannot be tackled by just
one guy, and sometimes two guys aren’t even enough. He is such a match up nightmare, especially
in the red zone where safeties and corners are too small while linebackers are
too slow to cover him. It really is
exciting every time he touches the ball.
“Me catch ball, me score touchdown, me spike ball hard.” Moving on to one of the best pure shooters I
have ever seen, Ray Allen. Watching him
shoot the ball is just a thing of beauty, I could not be happier to see him
break Reggie Miller’s record especially against the Lakers at home with Reggie
Miller in attendance. You could not have
written a better script for that record to fall.
2 – Bruins win the
Stanley Cup: I’m sorry Boston,
hockey is just my least favorite sport.
I will admit I was blown away by how exciting playoff hockey was. Tim Thomas really was unbelievable and single
handily kept the Bruins in many games.
Then to watch Krejci, Lucic, Bergeron, Seguin, Chara, Seidenberg, and
Marchand step up throughout the playoffs was special. You can tell this team really loves playing
together and should be exciting for years to come.
1 – Auburn wins
National Championship: Let me start
by saying this – WAR EAGLE!! What a
season this team had. From all the
controversy and trashing of Cam Newton, it was unbelievable to see this team
fight through it all and win the National Championship. Lots of people were picking the high flying
Oregon Ducks to win, but Auburn showed why they were the best team all
year. From the likes of Cam, Michael
Dyer, Nick Fairley, Onterio McCalebb, Josh Bynes, and Darvin Adams, this was
just an amazing season. With how good
Cam was, you could basically tell the defense what play they were running and
they would still get positive yards. Beating
Oregon, Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Georgia, and South Carolina (twice) really just
shows how strong this Auburn team was. War
Eagle all day.
Again, thanks for checking the blog and we hope that 2012
will continue to be a very fun and exciting year. Check for our bold predictions for 2012
coming Monday or Tuesday.
Happy New Year to everyone. Our Boston Bruins will be helping to take us into the new year tonight as they visit old friend Michael Ryder down in Dallas. 8 o'clock start time so it's little later than usual. However, the reason for this blog is to bring your attention to another hockey event that is currently going on up in Canada. The World Juniors tournament which brings together the top amateur hockey prospects from around the world is underway. Most of these teams from Canada, USA, Czech, Russia etc. are comprised of players who are already properties of NHL teams.
I have already made it clear how happy I am with our current Bruins team as well as how the Bruins management has put them in great position for the future. The B's who won the CUP last year and are currently 1st in the Eastern Conference again this year have a roster full of youth. 18 of their 24 players are under the age of 30 and 12 of those 24 are 26 years old or younger. So exactly half, yes half, are 26 years old or younger, mmmm that tastes gooood..
BUT, get a load of this!! As I mentioned, the World Junior Tournament is underway up in Canada and so far the two top teams are Canada and Russia, both are undefeated with 3 wins. So here is a little desert for you Bruins fans, helping to lead those teams are Bruins 1st round draft pick last year (9th overall, THANK YOU KESSEL), Dougie Hamilton, who has 1 goal and 1 assist and is a +4, not to bad for the young DEFENSEMAN (second youngest player on the team). I cannot wait to have him playing next to big Z. Helping to lead Russia to their 3-0 start is Alexander Khokhlachev otherwise known as "KoKo". KoKo has 3 goals in 3 games, oh and he is 3 months younger than Dougie!! Koko, was the Bruins 2nd rd pick (40th overall) but more on this part later.
Oh and that isn't it, the Bruins also had Jared Knight and Ryan Spooner invited to the Canadian tryout (Spooner probably would have made it but is sick with Mono) and Brian Ferlin is on the USA team but has not had much playing time. So what does all this mean?
The Bruins aren't going anywhere! Dougie Hamilton is the prize of the bunch, THANK YOU KESSEL, he recently signed his entry level contract with the Bruins which means we can probably expect to see him in Boston to start next season, he will have just turned 19 so obviously things arent set in stone but it's fair to say Dougie has done nothing but improve after last years draft. KoKo, well he may take a few more years to make it to Boston, he is a small guy 5'10'' at best but don't tell him that. He does a great job of blending his Russian puck handling skills with the physicality of the North American game. A lot of times NHL teams shy away from Russian prospects because they often decide to stay in Russia longer than prospects from other countries, however KoKo has already left Russia and currently plays in the OHL which is the top Junior League in Canada. Regardless, teams decided it was risk and KoKo slipped to the Bruins all the way into the 2nd round, according to scouts if it wasn't for the fact that he was a Russian player he should have been a top 15 pick! MMMM that tastes gooood..
So hold on Bruins fans, and for those of you haven't already it might be time to secure your seat on the bandwagon before they are all gone. Whether it is this year, next year or 5 years down the road the Bruins are going to give you something to cheer about.
P.S. The reason for my "Thank You Kessel Chant", the Bruins acquired the pick that allowed them to draft Tyler Seguin in the Phil Kessel trade but in addition to that they also received the pick that we used to draft Dougie Hamilton as well as Jared Knight. So again, THANK YOU KESSEL!!
I hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday season.. I also hope everyone has been keeping up on their sports most notably our Boston Bruins, Celtics and New England Patriots. The Patriots had to fight for their win on Sunday but none the less a win. The Celtics, well they did not win but it was still a good opener considering they didn't have Pierce and yes I will say Mr. Rondo looked pretty damn good, I still trade him for CP3 all day though. Most importantly, I would like to bring your attention to our Boston Bruins. In case you haven't been paying attention let me go over a few things with you..
Since November 1st the Bruins are 20-2-1, they have gone from last place in the Eastern Conference to 1st place in the Eastern Conference as of last night. They also only trail the Chicago Blackhawks by 3 points for 1st in the entire NHL and the Blackhawks have played 3 more games than the Bruins.
The Bruins players continue to lead the league in key stat categories..
Tyler Seguin (+26) and Brad Marchand (+25) are 1st and 2nd respectively in the Plus/Minus category. (For anyone who doesn't know what that stat is, it means the goal differential of when each player is on the ice, so the Bruins have scored 26 more goals than they have allowed while Seguin was on the ice)
Tuukka Rask (.944%) and Tim Thomas (.943%) are 1st and 2nd for goalies in the save% category. Tuukka (1.66) and Thomas (1.84) are also ranked 2nd and 4th in Goals Against Average. Timmayyyy is 2nd in the league with 4 shutouts and Tuukka is 8th with 2 after he recorded 2 in a row last week. **Tuukka is now on a 140 minute shutout streak. 2 U's 2 K's TUUKKA TUUKKA
As a team you ask?..
The Bruins continue to put up outstanding numbers in key categories
They score 3.52 goals a Game (1st) They allow 1.88 Goals a Game (1st) Plus Minus +44 (1st) They kill penalties with 88.9 efficiency (2nd) They score on the power play 19.4 percent of the time (10th)
With all of that said and all of the numbers laid out in front of you, my favorite thing about this team continues to be their chemistry and "pack" mentality. Everyone single one of those players has each others backs and they play as a whole unit not just individual players. Cam Neely and Peter Chiarelli have this team pointed in the right direction and I could not be happier. Go get another one fellas..
I need to get something off my chest here.. And I know The Boss already had his rant on the Sox but I need mine too. Our Boston Red Sox are in the midst of their off-season, so far we have seen Nick Punto and Mark Melancon join the Sox. Before I go on my rant here real quick, I kind of like the trade for Melancon, in my eyes we gave up next nothing for a guy who seems to have above average stuff and a set between his legs which is required to pitch in late innings for the Boston Red Sox. Now off I go..
As Red Sox fans, Pink Hats or non-Pink Hats, we just witnessed the worst, end of the season playoff push collapse of any team in ANY sport. So far, we have signed a mediocre util guy in Nick Punto and a "let's wait and see what we have" bullpen guy in Melancon. Oh and we have replaced Terry Franconca with the most interesting man on earth in Bobby Valentine. AWESOME!! That should do it Larry, Mo (Tom Warner) and Curly (John Henry), you have fixed our issues now. I am so glad you marched into Felger and Mazz's afternoon talk show on 98.5 the Sports Hub to show us how much you care, John Henry. It's funny though, we haven't seen you or heard from you since, unless you want to include that horrific dog and pony show of a press conference to announce Bobby V as new manager. To me, all I see is a group of guys looking to turn the most profit they can without causing a complete boycott by Red Sox fans. The other thing, is why are we tap dancing around this luxury tax limit all of a sudden if, its never been a real issue before but now all of sudden we cant go over it? We can sign John Lackey for 5 years at 80 million or JD Drew to a similar deal but we have no interest in CJ Wilson at 5 years for 77 Million? If you ask me I wouldn't mind slotting CJ WIlson into our 4 spot for the next 5 years. He may not have a great track record in the playoffs but he is dynamite in the regular season and in an ideal world he wont be pitching much in the playoffs anyways with Fried Chicken, Jon Lester and Clay in front of him. Let me stop myself there though, I don't want to turn this into a "We are the Boston Red Sox, we can out spend everyone and build an All-Star team" rant. That's not my style and I don't like that strategy. All I want is change..
I want a team that is going to go out there and grind it out every night, I want 3 Kevin Youkilis's, 3 Dustin Pedrioas and 3 Trot Nixons in my lineup and I want 5 Curt Schllings in my rotation and 7 Alfredo Aceves in my bullpen. I know that those guys will give me all they have every night, they wont sit cause they rolled out of bed and their hammy felt the slightest bit tight or because they have a blister on their finger or their favorite catcher isn't behind the plate. They will strap on their jock's, lace up the spikes, rub a little dirt on themselves and play ball. Obviously what you just read the last couple seconds was a pipe dream but you get my point now. But why can't we at least try? Why can't we send Beckett packing for a younger less proven pitcher who may not have the same stats or identical stuff to Beckett but at least someone who has the potential and the determination to become the best? Let's be honest would it really be hard to find someone to replace Becketts production from last year? So what, maybe we need to eat a little money or include a prospect or two to get someone worth while back but at least it's change, at least it will help to wash ourselves of the mediocrity our Boston Red Sox have become. See ya Timmy Crazyballs, its been fun watching your knuckleball flutter but it's time to step aside, see ya Tek love ya but it's time to spend more time with your new wife. We need to wash ourselves of the old and wash ourselves of the feeling of contentment, that we are the Boston we can just show up fat and slow and still win championships.
If you are serious about caring what the team looks like on the field John Henry then why aren't we doing anything? I am not asking to spend more money or field a full roster of All-Stars I am asking for change and not just the manager, I want new faces, I want a whole team of guys who care, guys with something to prove. Not fat pitchers who have already earned their millions and I use the term earned lightly, John Lackey, but players who are just content showing up doing their thing and being overpaid. The biggest shake up we have had is letting Papelbon walk, financial reason's or not he was not the change we need. I was just as sick of his attitude as the next guy but at least he put his attitude toward his performance, at least he took accountability when he sucked and at least he wanted the ball in his hand when it mattered. The way I look at it, we now have a team with less talent more holes and the same damn fat cat personality.
Thank you John Henry I am really glad you are showing us how much you care. Is Liverpool on tonight?
As previously stated I am huge supporter of Bruins 1A goalie Tuukka Rask. For those who don't know Tuukka was acquired by the Bruins from the Toronto Maple Leafs roughly 5 years ago when he was still playing in Finland and his rights were traded to Boston for Andrew Raycroft. At the time Tuukka was one of the top goalie prospects in the game but Toronto needed immediate help at the position and felt Raycroft was young enough and good enough to make the trade, huge mistake. 5 Years later Raycroft is nothing more than a journeyman backup and Tuukka is currently 2nd and 3rd in the league in the two statistics most often used to judge a goalies performance, Goals Against Average and Save Percentage. Yes you read that right. Tuukka Rask the Bruins "backup" goaltender is second in the entire league in Goals Against Average at 1.82 goals per game and 3rd in Save Percentage at 0.939 which is 0.001 behind Tim Thomas who is in 2nd at 0.940.
Thomas and Rask's success have led many people to discuss trading Tuukka.. Arguing that Thomas is showing no signs of slowing down and it is a waste to have Tuukka sitting on the bench when we could use him to acquire a top goal scorer. I will argue with everyone and anyone on this point until I am blue in the face. Here is why..
Tim Thomas plays a very unorthodox style, what he lacks in true goaltender form he makes up in heart, effort and compete level but that adds even more stress to his already ageing body. I love Tim Thomas, hell, he is the reason I got to watch and cheer as my Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup last year but because of his style and age his body is no guarantee. If you trade Tuukka, and Thomas blows out his other hip as he did 2 years ago then what? Who is playing goalie now? Even if he stays healthy, who is playing goalie in 2 years when Thomas eventually retires? Tuukka is the future and it may come sooner than many of you think. Why is having 2 of the top 3 goalies statistically in the game a problem? Why is that something we should change? Why do we need to trade our future star goaltender away to acquire a goal scorer when we are already 2nd in the league in Goals Scored per Game? This makes no sense to me. The majority of our forwards on the Bruin's roster, you know the guys responsible for that goalie scoring stat are under the age of 30 and Tuukka is 24. To me that sounds like a hockey team built for success for now and the future.
So lets do this, lets enjoy Tim Thomas while we can. He has displayed some of the best goaltending over the last 2 years that the league has probably ever seen. Tim Thomas is 37, most goalies, starter or backup, do not play even that long never mind for a couple more. But lets hang onto Tuukka, sure he will ride the pine for 60% of the games this year and maybe even next but soon enough it will be TUUKKA time!! That is what I am waiting for and I hope Bruin's management and all of you will do the same.. But hey, if you think we should rely on a 37 year old body at one of the most body abusing positions in the game that's your opinion.. But Tuukka has up to 10 good years left, Thomas has 2 or 3 tops.. I suggest we all sit tight and enjoy the best goalie tandem in the game. And I will leave you with this -
Before you read what I wrote I invite you to watch this 3 part story on the life and death of one of the most feared enforcers in the NHL, Derek Boogaard. You will find the tab for each video on this link.. Enjoy..
So, I got half way through this post and erased it all. It's a touchie subject. Fighting in hockey is something that is being heavily discussed right now. The New York Times recently released a 3 part story on the life of Derek Boogaard, a NHL enforcer, who suddenly and tragically passed away at the age of 28 in the midst of his NHL career this past year. Along with him, Ryan Rypien and Wade Belak passed away within a 4 month period, they also were NHL enforces.. There stories are tough to swallow, basically they grew up knowing that their only way to be successful in the sport they loved was to drop the gloves and endure broken jaws, broken cheeks, black eyes, loss of teeth and in the end life threatening brain injuries. But when you boil it down I just can't see how hockey can exist without fighting. I love fighting in hockey, it means more to me than two guys just trying to kick the sh*t out of each other. It means a guy going out there and saying I may not be a goal scorer, I may not be a great skater, but hell if you want to cheap shot my teammates that can do all those things I am going to rip your face off. Or let's go boys we are a little flat I will get some energy in the building by sacrificing my body.
It's a tough call, it really is.. I am not sure how to say what I want to say without writing an entire book. So I will tell you this, if you eliminate fighting altogether from the game of hockey you WILL have more cheap shots, you WILL have more head shots and you WILL have more guys like Matt Cooke ending more guys running around blind siding people and ending their careers like Marc Savard's. A few thousand dollars or a couple games DOES NOT mean anything to a guy like Matt Cooke all that matters to them is getting under the skin of the opponent and playing on the edge. The one thing they are afraid of is having to answer to the fists of an enforcer. The best punishment for a guy like Matt Cooke is having to answer to a guy like Shawn Thornton when Cooke takes a run at someone. You take that possibility away and now Matt Cooke probably isn't thinking twice when he skating full speed into a corner and all he can see is a guys back.
Maybe, we can find a happy medium? Our Boston Bruins have roughly an entire roster full of players who will drop the gloves to defend a teammate or themselves. Yes, there are exceptions like Seguin and Kreji, but that's about it. Of everyone else who is willing to drop the gloves only one of them would be considered an "enforcer", Shawn Thornton. He takes his spot on the 4th line every night, skates his lanes and protects his teammates. I would hate to not have Thornton on the Bruins, he is in my opinion the best enforcer in the game but for the sake of change, follow me.. You remove Thornton from our roster, a guy takes a cheap shot at someone and that guy now has to answer to one of about 20 guys, Lucic, Horton, Ference, McQuaid, Boychuk, Chara, Corvo, I could go on. Anyone of those guys is more than willing to drop the gloves and stand up for his teammates and they are more than capable of adding some new blemishes to a guys face if they are deserving. With that said none of these guys fight on a nightly basis, it may even be months in between some of their fights but when you have a group of guys that are willing and able you can spread out the responsibility and you lessen the amount of fists to one persons head. In turn you still have fighting but you have eliminated the same guy going out night after night taking punches to his grill.. I still don't love it but hey it's a compromise and the most beautiful sport on this planet doesn't need to change drastically.. Its better than the alternative.. If you want to watch a bunch of guys running around complaining that they just got slapped you can watch the NBA..
First of all, hello and welcome to "The Truth". Second of all, please excuse my friend "The Boss" he is a bit cranky but who wouldn't be when your favorite big 4 league is the NBA? Anyways, enough about that shmuck for now.. As previously mentioned in a post that probably wasn't worth reading, I was a Business Major, a Sport Management Major to be exact. I spent my college years studying why Billy Beane's MoneyBall strategy was or wasn't a sound strategy for the overall business plan of the Oakland A's and reading books like the Blindside. I can promise you that none of my posts will be grammatically correct but I can promise you my opinions will be The Truth and will be realistic and of a sound mind unlike you know who (read: The Boss). By the way, that whole "(Read:___)" bullshit, I have literally never seen it used like it was in the previous blog, by the end I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be reading because everything was telling me to "(Read:___) something else. I digress, more about me....
I am die hard Hockey fan and I do bleed Black and Gold.. I don't miss a game and I will never let you down on Bruin's or NHL knowledge. T-U-U-K-K-A is my homeboy and I cannot wait for him to be the B's number 1. Don't get me wrong Timmy is a bad mo-fo but let's be honest with ourselves, his body isn't going to hold up much longer with the style he plays and I am glad TUUKKA is waiting in the wings.. We can get into more detail on that later.. The Patriots are my second love, with the Red Sox coming in a distant third and limping in last are the Celtics. I do like the Celtics, I truly do, I just HATE the NBA, monkey's could run a league better than David Stern. I am not going to bother reposting my college teams again, The Boss already took care of that. I will add that UNH is my college hockey team.
So there you go, like it or hate it that's what I have to offer. I will be your one stop shop for Hockey on this blog and will contribute to Football as well as Baseball. I can assure you I will not talk basketball all that often unless it is college or I am trying to bring The Boss back down to earth, you will find that he likes to live in fantasy land when he talks about his Celtics (i.e. Rajon Rondo is a top 2 PG in the NBA), it's OK to laugh, he is used to it. One last note before I end this friggen fantastic introduction.. Our friend that you know as "V" aka Timmy Chomps, he is a Florida Gator fan. I would like to apologize on his behalf. I am not sure how it happened or why it happened all I know is that it's hard to look at him straight in the eye when I know he is probably day dreaming about Tebow doing his best naked tebowing pose. Don't let him fool you either, he will be have an "I love Tim Tebow" shirt under his Patriot's jersey this weekend..
This is way too long, read it again if you want more.. Oh ya one last thing, since Matt decided he was "The Boss".. you can just call me "The Truth" and not because I like Paul Pierce, makes no sense anyways he fakes more injuries than the Montreal Canadiens "The Truth" can't lie. You can call me The Truth because A) it is the only place you are going to find it on this blog and B) because my genius mind come up with the name.
Again this is way to long and The Boss is yelling at me to get a post up.. What he doesn't understand is you can't rush magic..
5:27 PM
DD
From February 1st thru March 15th the Bruins went a pathetic 8-14, along the way they lost Rich Peverly to a knee injury (just returned 2 games ago), they lost Tuukka to a groin/abdominal pull (50-50 shot he returns for playoffs), Bergeron was banged up, Thornton had the flu for what seemed to be 2 weeks and Joe Corvo played like he was hurt but unfortunately he just sucks. Injuries are not to blame though, the Bruin's lost their focus, the only way this team can be successful is if they stick to coach Claude Julien's style, it's how they are built, they cannot rely on skill alone because they simply don't have enough. They are built to be a TEAM and if they don't play like a TEAM they will fall faster than an Iona 25 point lead in the NCAA tournament (sorry V, I had to). Now that we are on the topic of team I would like to quickly point out I still believe the Bruins lost their way when Tim Thomas went on his political campaign but for the sake of not repeating myself I will not go on another rant about it.
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