Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update- Bruins Make History on Long Island; Patriots Agree to Extension With Brady; Spring has Sprung In Fort Meyers

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
NHL- The Bruins wrapped up their road trip at Uniondale, NY and made some history in the process against the Islanders on Tuesday night. Adam McQuaid put the B's on the board in the first before Casey Cizikas tied the contest up at 1-1 later on in the period.

The Bruins took the lead for good with tallies from Brad Marchand and David Krejci less than 5 minutes apart in the second period, although the Islanders mounted a spirited counterattack in the 3rd period. However, Tukka Rask was up to the challenge and Gregory Campbell had an empty-net goal with 1:05 remaining for to the 4-1 win. Rask allowed one goal on 36 shots faced

The win on Tuesday night was the Bruins best 10-game road start since the 1929-30 team had a 9-1 road start to the season. This comes despite the fact that Boston has played the fewest games in the NHL. So far for the month of February, Boston have gone 7-1-1 and will return to the Garden for Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators. The Senators and Bruins each have 26 points although the Bruins have played only 16 games so far compared to the Sens 20 [currently, the Canadiens lead the Northeast Division with 29 points- NANESB!]

The puck drops at 7:00 ET for Tursday's Bruins home game and the contest will be televised on NESN.

NFL- The New England Patriots and QB Tom Brady have agreed to a three year contract extension this week. The 2-time Super Bowl MVP will receive $27 million, although with bonuses and incentives the deal reportedly could be worth as much as $33 million. The deal is also said to give the Patriots organization an additional $8 million in salary cap space.

Surprisingly [or perhaps unsurprisingly given how the most mundane things involving Tom Brady tend to draw out the spittle-flecked haters from all quarters- NANESB!] the relative bargain at which New England retained Brady's services has come under criticism from some quarters, claiming that this will be leveraged against other NFL QBs such as Joe Flacco or Aaron Rogers who are also seeking extensions.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- Former 49ers QB Alex Smith has reportedly been traded from San Francisco to Kansas City. The former 49ers starting QB missed time last season due to injury and was then benched in favor of rookie sensation Colin Kaepernick.

The move would have Smith as the latest San Francisco QB to go from the city by the bay to Kansas City, following in the footsteps of Joe Montana and Elvis Grbac. The Chiefs would reportedly relinquish a 2nd round pick in this year's NFL draft as part of the trade. Smith's arrival would displace former Patriots backup QB Matt Cassel as Kansas City's starting.

NASCAR- After a week-long buildup at Daytona that saw Danica Patrick make history and a Nationwide Series race ending in a massive wreck that injured dozens of spectators, it was Jimmie Johnson won the 2013 Daytona 500 on Sunday. The win came as no big shock to those who follow NASCAR while Danica Patrick finished a fairly respectable 8th after making history the week before by taking the pole for the Daytona 500- the first woman to do so for any NASCAR race.

RED SOX- For some reson, Spring Training kinda snuck up on me this year. Truck Day has long since come and gone and the Sox are already in Ft Meyers, FL with a 2-3 record so far.

On Thursday and Friday, the Red Sox will take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in "home and away" games at Bradenton, FL and the Red Sox facility in Ft Meyers.

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC- As it turns out, the WBC is almost upon us as well. For those who may have forgotten, the WBC is a little like the Baseball equivalent to the World Cup, with teams divided up by nationality playing in four pools comprised of four teams before advancing to elimination rounds.

Team USA will be playing in pool D in the Phoenix, AZ area along with Canada, Mexico and Italy beginning March 7th. Pool A gets started nearly a week earlier with Japan, PRC China, Cuba and Brazil getting started on March 2nd in Fukoka, Japan.

At least two Red Sox are scheduled to appear in the 2013 WBC- both in Pool D. Shane Victorino will be playing for Team USA while Alfredo Aceves will pitch for Mexico. The two teams will go head to head on March 8th at Chase Field in Phoenix.

No comments:

Post a Comment