NHL: He's baaaaaack!A day after blanking the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 on the road, the Bruins returned to the TD Banknorth Garden to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. And on Thursday night, they had Marc Savard back in the lineup for the first time in 23 games.
But Savard's return was almost an afterthought as the Bruins simply demolished the Lightning by an 8-1 final. Lightning netminder Mike Smith was pulled after allowing five goals on 21 shots faced and replaced with Dan Ellis- who allowed 3 goals in 10 shots faced.
Victor Headman got the only goal of the night from Tampa and Tampa's Steven Stamkos- tied with Sidney Crosby for the most NHL goals- was scoreless in his 4th straight game.
David Krejci opened the scoring at about the 11 minute mark of the first and had two goals and an assist on the night. Perhaps surprisingly given the high score, there were no hat tricks on the night. Dennis Seidenberg, Milan Lucic, Shawn Thornton, Blake Wheeler, Mark Recchi and Michael Ryder also had goals in Thursday night's rout. Tim Thomas even notched an assist while turning away 37 of the 38 shots he faced.
The Bruins will head north next to take on the last-place Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
OTHER NHL NEWS: Buffalo Sabres owner Tom Golisano is reportedly in talks with Pennsylvania businessman Terry Pegula regarding the sale of the team. Golisano founded payroll processing company Paychex [NASDAQ: PAYX] in the early 1970s and acquired the Sabres in 2003. In May of 2009, Golisano announced that he would be moving to Florida to escape New York's high taxes.
NFL: Love or hate him, the revival of Michael Vick's NFL career continued on Thursday night's game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Houston Texans.
Vick went 22 for 33 in passing with two TD's, along with a rushing TD and another 40 yards rushing in Philly's 34-24 home win over the Houston Texans. Although they trailed at halftime by a 20-10 margin, the Texans would pick up some momentum and take a 24-20 lead in the 4th before Vick rushed for one TD and found Owen Schmitt for an insurance TD with just over 4 minutes left in the 4th.
The win gives the Eagles an 8-4 record and puts Philly in sole possession of 1st place in the NFC East at the moment.
NCAA FOOTBALL: I did manage to tune in for this one, believe it or not. Although leading for awhile, the Arizona State Sun Devils were kept out of the end zone until well into the 4th quarter.
After taking a 6-0 lead into halftime, the Sun Devils trailed on the Arizona Wildcats first touchdown of the game and the 3rd quarter would close out with Arizona up 14-6 although the Sun Devils would cap off another drive with a FG to open up the 4th. Taking advantage of a Wildcats turnover mid field, the Sun Devils marched down the shortened field on a five and a half minute drive for their first TD of the game- and a successful 2 point conversion made it a 17-14 Sun Devils lead.
With 7 minutes left in the 4th, the Wildcats would turn it over again, this time failing to convert on a 4th and 1 at their own 29 yard line. However, they did manage to keep the Sun Devils out of the end zone. Arizona State had to settle for yet another Thomas Weber FG to put them up 20-14. The Wildcats would get the ball back with just under 3 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter and start off in good field position thanks to a 43 yard return from Travis Cobb. Arizona QB Nick Foles would then make a series of quick passes for gains of anywhere from five to 15 yards before scoring the game-tying TD with 33 seconds remaining in regulation, but Wildcats kicker Alex Zendejas missed the point after attempt, leaving the game tied at 20-20 and forcing overtime.
For the first overtime, the Wildcats and Sun Devils would trade field goals. Arizona State would lead off the 2nd OT with only their 2nd touchdown of the night, and while the Wildcats would respond in kind, Zendejas would miss the point after attempt for the 2nd time. Sun Devils win in double OT by the final of 30-29 and Airzona State is now bowl-eligible.
All in all, not bad for a Thursday night game. Slow start, but very interesting 4th quarter that I was able to catch thanks in large part to XM radio and ESPN3.
ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: The first official Bowl matchup of the 2010-2011 Bowl season has been announced, with the Navy Midshipmen taking on the San Diego State University Aztecs in the 2010 Poinsettia Bowl on December 23rd 2010. Since Qualcomm stadium is not even a few miles from the SDSU Campus and there are several Naval bases in and around the city of San Diego, this would almost be like having TWO home teams going head-to-head.
NBA: Ray Allen went 1-6 from 3 point territory on Wednesday night, but nailed one with 10 seconds left in regulation as the Celtics nearly squandered a 96-80 lead in the 4th quarter against the Trailblazers and hung on to win 99-95. Basically, that was a third of Allen's scoring on the night, since he went 3-12 and was held to just 9 points- still, timing is everything.
Paul Pierce led the scoring on the night with 28 points- including going 4 for 5 from 3 point range- for Boston's 5th win in a row.
The C's will play host to the Chicago Bulls next on Friday night.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NBA: Well....so much for LeBron James' much ballyhooed return to Cleveland. The flagging Miami Heat rebounded big time in their stopover at Quicken Loans arena on Thursday night, with ex-Cav James getting 38 points on the night. This one wasn't even close, with the Heat running away with it by a final of 118-90.
MLB: WGN Radio in Chicago is reporting that former Cubs 3rd baseman and current broadcaster Ron Santo has passed away at the age of 70. Starting in 1960, Santo played 14 seasons in Chicago and had a career .277 batting average with 342 home runs.
He began his broadcast career with the Cubs in 1990 and was an unabashed homer who would draw a following because of his emotion and enthusiasm rather than a polished or matter-of-fact broadcast style. In 1971, Santo revaled that he suffered from type 1 diabetes and by 2002, he had to have both legs amputated
WORLD CUP SOCCER: The small Persian Gulf state of Qatar was announced as the surprise winner for hosting the 2022 World Cup Tournament by FIFA- the sport's governing body- beating out the USA, Japan, Australia and South Korea.
Qatar would be the first Muslim country to host a World Cup tournament and the tiny emirate has pledged to undertake around $50 billion in infrastructure improvements leading up to the tournament.
OK....a couple of things. What exactly are the laws in Qatar regarding alcohol consumption? Also- Do you see these young women?
Are they going to have to cover up in accordance with Islamic law in some countries? Because if so, FIFA might as well have just shot themselves in the foot (both feet if Qatar plans on being 'dry' through 2022). It literally has taken alluring and sultry Latinas to coax me to even feign an interest in soccer long enough to humor them, and if the female fans are now required by the host country to dress up like Bedouin tents, then what exactly is the point? If I were so inclined, I might as well take in a 2022 World Cup game in front a jumbo public TV screen in Buenos Aires, rubbing elbows with Porteñas clad in powder blue and white paint and not much else. And I suspect there will be more than a few actual fans of the game asking themselves the same question and coming to the same conclusion.I know not every country in the Gulf reigon is as strict as Saudi Arabia, but this still begs the question regarding exactly how strict the rules are in Qatar.
[Hat tip to Marty McFly and Centaur of C2 for the updates of the Sabres and Ron Santo, respectively]
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