After January's Winter Storm Juno largely failed to live up to the hype, Massachusetts has been walloped by a series of winter storms leaving much of the state under anywhere between 70 and 90 inches of snow, with two more storms expected to hit New England later on this week.
The earlier storms have hobbled MBTA service around Boston and already postponed the first round of the Beanpot College Hockey tournament. Now the city of Boston and other municipalities are running out of places to put the cleared snow. On Monday, Gov Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency as local officials contemplate dumping snow in Boston Harbor.
The big issue for us at this point is not just this storm but the cumulative impact of these three storms of the past two weeks, many places will now have had somewhere between 70 and 80 inches of snow having fallen in the past 14 days. On 'statewide roads that's probably manageable because they can push it off onto the shoulders," said Baker.
"But for municipal governments the big issue at this point is where to put it."
The state has 3,500 pieces of equipment currently working on roads and highways that Baker expects will go to aid cities and towns in the coming days.
Boston mayor Marty Walsh announced in a Tuesday press conference that the city has already spent double its annual budget for snow removal this month. So far, Boston has had a total of 77 inches this season. According to Gov. Baker, enough snow has been removed from state highways to fill up Gillette Stadium more than 90 times. Worcester seemed to bear the brunt of the most recent storms[apparently this one was named Marcus- NANESB!], earning the dubious honor of being the snowiest city in the USA (with a population of more than 100,000). Some estimates for accumulated snow in the central Massachusetts city put the total in excess of 90 inches. During the winter of 2012-2013, Worcester briefly held the honor of the snowiest city in America with a total of 108.9 inches before being surpassed by Syracuse, NY with more than 115 inches.
The commuter rail system will operate on a modified weekday schedule, making approximately 70 percent of the regularly scheduled trips. The trains will not serve Plymouth, TF Green or Wickford Junction stations on Wednesday. The Green and Blue lines will operate, but with fewer cars and less frequent service. Service will also be restored on the Red and Orange lines, but the level of service won't be determined until later on Tuesday. Buses will replace service on the Mattapan Trolley Line.
I swear, I'm not boycotting the Olympics- although a casual glance of this blog since the Winter games got underway in Sochi might lead one to that conclusion. On the other hand, Wyatt Earp of Support Your Local Gunfighter is keeping track of the compelling human-interest stories concerning the athletes competing in Sochi.
WINTER OLYMPICS- Despite the highly publicized gaffes such as reporters checking into hotels still under construction and a technical miscue during the opening ceremonies, the Winter Olympiad at Sochi got off and running last week.
US Snowboarder Sage Kostenburg won the first gold medal of the games in the men's slopestyle event back on Feb 8th. Well beyond the halfway point of the 2014 Sochi games, Team USA currently leads the overall medal count with 23 (7 gold, 5 silver and 11 bronze). Both Russia and the Netherlands trail the USA in the medal count by one while Norway has the most gold medals with a grand total of nine.
Of most interest to me is the Team USA Men's hockey- which got off to a stellar start with a 7-1 thumping of Slovakia on Feb 12th for their Olympic debut. On Saturday, the USA needed a controversial disallowed goal and OT to get past a heavily favored Russia team, with St Louis Blue Center TJ Oshie becoming something of a cult hero with his game-winning shootout goal to give Team USA the 3-2 win.
On Wednesday, Dustin Brown got the game-winning goal for Team USA as they cruised past the Czech Republic by a 5-2 final while host Russia was eliminated from medal contention by Finland in a 3-1 loss. Team Canada got by a very game Latvia, winning 2-1 to set up a semifinal contest with Team USA on Friday. The winner of the USA/Canada men's game will go on to face the winner of the Sweden/Finland men's semifinal game for the gold.
For those of you who can't wait until Friday for some good ol' USA-on-Canada puck action, the women's hockey gold medal game will feature the USA taking on Canada on Thursday at 12:00 ET for all the marbles. The game will be televised on NBC and streamed on the NBC Olympics website.
ELSEWHERE IN THE OLYMPICS- Lebanese downhill skier Jackie Chamoun has reportedly raised the ire of politicians in Beirut after topless pictures of her were circulating online. Lebanon's interim Sports Minister reportedly called upon the Lebanese Olympic Committee to launch an inquiry and 'take the required steps to avoid harming Lebanon's international reputation'.
Chamoun has her defenders both inside and beyond Lebanon's borders, and after condemnation from Islamic clerics and demand for a parliamentary inquiry, social-media savvy Lebanese took to twitter and Facebook- sometimes posting pictures of them topless or seminude- using the hashtag #StripForJackie.
NHL- Of course, all these NHL All-Stars mean that there's no NHL for nearly 3 weeks. In fact, we're still nearly a week away from the resumption of NHL play- and that is a single game between the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes that was postponed earlier in the year due to a blizzard before being rescheduled to Feb 25th.
Thanks to the Olympic break, the Boston Bruins have a grand total of five games in the month of February- including a Feb 26th matchup against the Sabres at the First Niagara Centre. After a quick 1-game road trip to St Louis, the Bruins returned home to the Garden to face off against the Ottawa Senators for the final game before the Olympic break. The B's jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first thanks to goals from Patrice Bergeron and Chris Kelly- and they never looked back, adding on to their lead with goals from Bobby Ryan, Jarome Iginla, Carl Soderburg, Brad Marchand and Milan Lucic to cruise to a 7-2 victory.
Although the Bruins head into the 3-week long break leading the Atlantic Division, they're still 5 points behind the Penguins for the Eastern Conference lead.
While we still have to wait for a whole week for the next Bruins game, the good news is that it will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network on Feb 26th with the puck scheduled to drop at 7:30 ET.
NCAA HOCKEY- For the fifth straight year, the Boston College Eagles are the Beanpot champions, having defeated Northeastern during the Beanpot Finals on Feb 10th.
Although Boston College got out to a 1-0 lead, Northeastern managed to tie the contest back up at 1-1 in the closing minutes of the second period. However, BC senior forward Patrick Brown would get what would prove to be the game winning goal with just under 5 minutes to go in regulation before the Eagles added on with an empty netter from Junior Johnny Gaudreau with less than two minutes to go in the game and another tally from Brown.
The 5-straight titles for BC is the first since the 1999-2000 season when the BU Terriers had won their 6th straight. Boston College came into the 2/10 Beanpot final ranked the #1 program in the USA according to a USCHO poll.
NCAA HOOPS- As awesome as a fifth straight Beanpot title for the men's hockey program might've been, the BC Eagles made headlines on Wednesday night when they toppled previously undefeated Syracuse in OT at the Carrier Dome. Sophomore Olivier Hanlon led BC with 20 points and three assists.
The Eagles went on a 29-12 run in the second half to take a 46-42 lead and Junior Lonnie Jackson had 10 points, making three out of his four free throws in OT to help BC go on to their 62-59 win. The win by Boston College means that the Wichita State Shockers are now the sole undefeated Division I men's basketball program in the nation.
NASCAR- Danica Patrick made history over the weekend by becoming the first woman to win the Daytona 500 pole on Sunday with a 196.434 MPH lap [and thus provided me with a contrived opportunity to post some swimsuit pictures of Patrick- NANESB!]. The closest anyone came to knocking Patrick off the pole was 4 time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, who quipped that at least he was the fastest guy on the track that day.
Prior to her 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut, Patrick became the first woman to win a major IndyCar race after she won the Japan IndyCar 300 series in 2008.
The Daytona 500- the first race of the Sprint Cup ciruit- will get underway on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 PM ET.
TRACK AND FIELD- In all honesty I didn't pay much attention to the track and field events during the 2012 London Olympics due to a combination of being distracted by the volleyball event and my disappointment that neither bouncy Aussie hurdler Michelle Jenneke or smoldering Greek fascist fangirl Voula Papachristos.
But I did hear about South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius- dubbed the 'Blade Runner' due to his prosthetic legs. Pistorius, a double amputee, was the first amputee runner to compete in the Olympic games and was the flag bearer for the South African team during the closing ceremonies. His limbs during the competition were carbon fiber prosthetics, leaving some to claim he had an unfair advantage over able-bodied atheletes.
On Valentine's Day, Pistorius was arrested by police for the shooting death of his girlfriend in their suburban Pretoria home. The Olympian allegedly fired a handgun at his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a closed bathroom door after a heated argument. Pistorius' lawyer insist that the shooting of Steemkamp was accidental.
The shooting death has shocked South Africans and many around the world who idolized Pistorius for overcoming adversity to become a sports champion, competing in the London Olympics last year in track besides being a Paralympian. Steenkamp, 29, was a model and law graduate who made her debut on a South African reality TV program that was broadcast on Saturday, two days after her death.
Nel said the couple had had a shouting match and Steenkamp fled to the bathroom, down a seven-yard passage from the bedroom, and locked herself in. He said the 26-year-old Pistorius got up from bed and had to put on his prosthetic legs to reach the toilet door.
Nel told the court the door was broken open after the shots were fired. Pistorius' lawyer insisted there was no evidence to substantiate a murder charge.
NHL- After a 2-game losing streak, including an overtime loss against the Rangers at home and their second regulation loss against Buffalo, the Boston Bruins travelled to Manitoba for the first time this season.
After the Jets got out to a 1-0 lead thanks to a Alex Burmistrov tally early in the second period, Tyler Seguin knotted things up at 1-1 midway through the second period. Winnipeg briefly took a 2-1 lead late in the 2nd on an even-strength Evander Kane goal, but with just 2 seconds remaining in the period, Danny Paille evened the score at 2-2.
The Bruins got off to a good start in the 3rd after Brad Marchand drew a tripping penalty on Ron Hainsley just 9 seconds in- after the game, Marchand said he thought he should've been awarded a penalty shot. With the man advantage, it was marchand himself who scored the go-ahead goal for the Bruins 25 seconds later. However, instead of pressing their advantage the Bruins ended up defending a late onslaught from the Jets with Tukka Rask turning aside 10 shots (out of a total of 24 that he faced) successfully to preserve the 3-2 win for Boston.
Monday, Presidents Day, was the Bruins’ day to do what they could to lift spirits in Newtown — bringing the Stanley Cup with them for an earlier session from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Head coach Claude Julien — fresh off a plane from Winnipeg that got the team in to Boston around 3:30 a.m. — came to town along with players Chris Bourque, Andrew Ference, Hamilton, Adam McQuaid, Daniel Paille, Rich Peverley and Tyler Seguin.
All wore black Bruins jerseys made specially for the occasion, with green Sandy Hook School ribbons over the right breast. They were to be donated to Newtown after the event.
In addition to the appearance in Newtown, the Bruins will honor Sandy Hook Elementary School Vice Principal Natalie Green Hammond at their game against the Montreal Canadiens March 3 at the TD Garden. Green Hammond, a lifelong Bruins fan, will drop the ceremonial first puck.
The Bruins played floor hockey with dozens of kids, signed autographs, took photos with kids and their parents and even ended the day by donning blue and gold Newtown High School Nighthawks jerseys for more photos. All around the room, people smiled a lot.
“I know that when the tragedy hit — I’m not going to lie — I cried like everybody else,” Julien said. “When you look at the faith and the strength of this town and how they bonded and support each other, that’s amazing.”
Ference, a Bruins defenseman who is the father of a 7-year-old and a 3-year-old, said that “everything that happened here ... hits close to home. ... It’s not that hard to imagine it happening to you. ... So it’s an opportunity as a sports team in New England where we can come down and obviously make a lot of kids happy and a lot of parents happy.
“So how do you not come down?” he said.
Asked what he hoped kids might get out of the visit, Ference said, “Hopefully, they’re just having fun. ... I just want the kids to have a good day and smile and have fun and hopefully have some good memories of today.”
The appearence, which was closed to the general public, also featured Bruins alumni Bobby Sweeney and Tommy Songin conducting hockey clinics along with the Bruins Youth Hockey Development team.
NCAA HOCKEY- The Boston College Eagles won their 4th consecutive Beanpot title- a first in the 61 year history of the Boston area collegiate tournament.
The final game featured the 17-7-2 Boston College Eagles against the Northeastern Huskies, who are currently dwelling in the Hockey East basement. Eagles Sophmore Johnny Gaudreau led the scoring with two goals and an assist while Senior Steven Whitney notched the game winner in Boston College's 6-3 win over the Northeastern Huskies last week.
Meanwhile, Harvard topped Boston university by a 7-4 final in a high-scoring Beanpot consolation game. The win was the Harvard Crimson's first win in nearly a month
NCAA HOCKEY: Not surprisingly, Monday night's Beanpot tournament had implications beyond the 60th annual Boston-are hockey tournament.
After Harvard's 3-1 win over Northeastern in the consolation game, the main event got underway with the #2 BU Terriers and #3 BC Eagles facing off in the title game for the 21st time in the tournament's history- and by #2 and #3, I mean nationally ranked. The NCAA released their hockey rankings on Monday and while BU slipped from #1 to #2, Boston College moved up from #5.
BC Junior Pat Mullane got the Eagles on the board in the first with a power play tally at the 8:54 mark.
Five minutes into the second period, the Terriers had just killed off another penalty when Sophmore Garrett Noonan beat BC goalie Parker Noonan to tie the contest up at 1-1. But the Eagles would retake the lead on a power play goal from Junior Chris Kreider about 3 minutes later. Shortly after the Eagle's go-ahead goal, Terrier's captain Chris Connolly was assessed a 10-minute misconduct penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Although Boston College seemingly had the momentum heading into the 3rd period, the Terrier's Noonan notched his second goal of the night 7 and a half minutes into the 3rd period to tie the contest up at 2-2, cashing in on a 5 on 3 power play.
The winner of the 60th annual Beanpot wouldn't be decided in the 3rd, so the contest headed to OT, which turned out to be a back and forth affair, although neither team seemed able to capitalize on the scoring chances made available. Things looked as though they were heading for a 2nd OT when BC Sophmore Bill Arnold ripped one past Terriers netminder Kieran Millan with 6.4 seconds left to give the Eagles the sudden-death OT win.
Millan allowed 3 of the 44 shots he faced in while Milner faced 42 and allowed 2 in Monday night's game.
Boston College head Jerry York coach credits the win to a visit from former Red Sox manager Terry Francona the day after their dismantling of Northeastern in the first round of this year's Beanpot. According to York, Francona discussed how players like 2B Dustin Pedroia everyone in the locker room to be better teammates and take advantage of built-up energy.
This is Boston College's 3rd consecutive Beanpot title and 17th overall in tournament history. Each team now has 6 regular-season games remaining on their schedule.
NHL: After a humiliating 6-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on the road, the Bruins returned home to face the Nashville Predators on Saturday afternoon. Patrice Bergeron got the B's on the board with a shorthanded goal in the first to give Boston the 1-0 lead.
Shea Weber would then tie the contest up at 1-1 with a power play goal in the 2nd period before a wild 3rd period that saw Boston re-take the lead on a Danny Paille goal before Thomas allowed two goals [including one to Mr Carrie Underwood- NANESB!]and Nashville to take the 3-2 lead with just under 3:30 to go in regulation.
However, with 1:07 left in regulation and Boston on the power play, Milan Lucic would beat Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne to force OT. After a scoreless OT, Tim Thomas stopped every shot he faced in the shootout and Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron would score for Boston in the shootout, handing the Predators their second OT loss in their last three games.
Tim Thomas stopped 19 of 22 shots faced while Pekka Rinne allowed 3 shots in on the 41 he faced. The Predators converted 1 of their 3 power play opportunities while the Bruins were 1 in 4 for their power play.
Boston will next take on the NY Rangers at the TD Banknorth Garden Tuesday night. Surprisingly, this matchup between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference won't be nationally televised on NBC Sports or the NHL network, but will only be available locally on NESN in New England and the MSG network in Boston. The puck drops at 7 PM ET.
OTHER NHL NEWS: The teams and venue for the NHL's next Winter Classic have been made official. The Detroit Red Wings will host the Toronto Maple Leafs at the University of Michigan's Big House in Ann Arbor, MI on New Year's Day 2013. The Original 6 matchup will be the first time a Canadian franchise has participated in the newly-established New Year's day tradition [altho' the concept stemmed from an outdoor game between Edmonton and Montreal in 2003 that was well-recieved- NANESB!]
This would not be the first outdoor hockey game at Ann Arbor's Big House. In December 2010, the Michigan Wolverines shut out cross-state rivals Michigan State by a final of 5-0 in what was called The Big Chill at the Big House.
NBA: In a nationally televised game on Sunday afternoon, the Boston Celtics managed to hold off the Eastern conference leading Chicago Bulls at home. Rajon Rondo largely carried the C's while recording a triple-double, 32 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds in the 95-91 win over Chicago.
The well-rested Celtics are now 15-12 and won't see any action until Wednesday when they host the hapless Detroit Pistons. The game tips off at 7:30 and will be televised on CSNE.
MLB- The Houston Astros have reached a 1 year, $1.15 million deal with former Red Sox SS Jed Lowrie, avoiding arbitration. Lowrie was traded to the Astros in December along with Kyle Weiland in exchange for reliever Mark Melancon.
The Red Sox and DH David Ortiz avoided arbitration with the slugger agreeing to a 1-year $14.75 million contract this weekend.
SUPERBOWL XLVI: Well, this was a tough one to take even though it more or less came down to the final play.
After the weeks of hype and speculation over seemingly everything but the actual game, it was at long last time to play the damn game on Sunday and Superbowl XLVI kicked off on time.
The Giants got the ball to open up the big game, but were unable to score on the opening possession- their opening possession, at least. After getting as far as the Patriots 42, the Giants punted and managed to pin New England deep in their own end. The Patriots offense would have to start off on their own 6 yard line and on the first play, a pressured Brady would be flagged for intentional grounding in his own end zone, resulting in a safety and a 2-0 Giants lead.
The Giants managed to take a 9-0 lead after starting off on their own 22 and capping off the drive inside the Patriots 2 with a pass from Giants QB Eli Manning to WR Victor Cruz.
On their next possession, New England managed to get on the board after getting as far as the Giants 11 yard line early in the 2nd quarter and having to settle for a Gostkowski FG to make it 9-3 Giants.
As the clock was winding down in the 1st half, the Patriots were once again pinned deep in their own territory, starting out from their own 2 yard line with 4:03 left. They managed to move the ball all the way down to the Giants 3 yard line in just under 4 minutes before RB Danny Woodhead caught a short pass from Brady to put the Pats on top with 8 seconds left in the half.
The second half got off to a promising start as well, with the Patriots taking their opening possession of the 2nd half and moving the ball to the Giants 12 yard line before Brady connected with TE Aaron Hernandez to put the Patriots up 17-9.
Although not as quick as the Patriots, the Giants methodically began chipping away at the Patriots lead, coming away with FG's from Lawrence Tynes on their next two possessions to make it a one-point game.
Things didn't start to get really strange until late in the 4th quarter when the Giants started out from their own 12 yard line with 3:46 and on the first play, Manning heaved the ball to midfield only to have it connect with WR Mario Manningham by the narrowest of margins for a pickup of 38 yards. The play was under review for several minutes before the drive resumed at the 50.
After getting the ball inside the New England 10 yard line with about a minute to go in regulation and the Patriots losing a timeout on that challenge, the Giants were content to run one more play on 2nd and goal before bleeding out the clock and bringing out Lawrence Tynes to put the Giants up by one with virtually no time remaining in the game.
Instead, on 2nd and goal, Giants RB Ahmad Bradshaw inadvertently stumbled into the end zone after trying to throw himself down on the 1 yard line and let the clock run out. Although it did net the Giants 6 points, giving them the 21-17 lead, head coach Tom Coughlin was well aware that it would give New England the ball back with just under a minute left in regulation.
With the clock ticking down, two passes from Brady were dropped and he was sacked by DE Justin Tuck with 48 seconds left to bring up 4th and 16. Normally, most people would be thinking 'it's ovah', but Brady found WR Deion Branch for 19 yards and Branch in turn found the sidelines to stop the clock with 39 seconds left. Brady then found Hernandez for another 11 yards with 32 seconds remaining before snapping the ball while the Giants were still getting personnel off the field, killing the clock and moving the ball up five yards.
With five seconds left in SuperBowl XLVI, there was enough time for a Hail Mary that Brady heaved from the 50 yard line into the end zone. Alas, there was no 'Hand of Myra' to be seen that would somehow miraculously save the Patriots at the penultimate second. Instead, the ball jumped harmlessly off the fingertips of some Giants defenders in the end zone and fell to the turf just out of the reach of Rob Gronkowski.
The Giants win their 2nd Super Bowl in 4 years, once again getting past the Patriots in a game that was decided in the final minute. Giants QB Eli Manning was named the Super Bowl MVP and, to the surprise of many, now has more titles than older brother Peyton.
NHL: Virtually undetected on Superbowl Sunday was a series of afternoon games in the NHL [so as not to coincide with the kickoff of the the Superbowl- NANESB!]. The Boston Bruins were on the road at Washington D.C.'s Verizon Center for the first time since Tim Thomas' snub of President Obama.
Unlike the Bruins last trip to D.C., Thomas was actually between the pipes on Sunday and the Bruins actually came away victorious in Sunday's contest. The Bruins got out to a 2-0 lead in the first thanks to goals by Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand. After a scoreless 2nd, Tyler Seguin put the Bruins up 3-0 in the 3rd before the Caps got on the board late with a tally from Marcus Johansson to make it 3-1. Rich Peverly would get the empty netter in the final minute of regulation to make it a 4-1 Boston final.
The Bruins next travel to upstate New York to take on the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday evening. The game will be televised on the NBC Sports network (formerly Versus) and gets underway at 7:30 PM ET.
NCAA HOCKEY: Well- one good thing about the Patriots losing the Superbowl is that we don't have to worry about traffic to and from the Beanpot getting snarled by the inevitable victory parade.
Hard to believe, but the Beanpot college hockey tournament turns 60 this year. The doubleheader got underway on Monday with the BU Terriers dropping Harvard by a 3-1 final while Boston College took care of Northeastern by a 7-1 final.
This sets up the 21st meeting between BC and BU for the Beanpot with the Terriers holding a 12-8 advantage in the history of the tournament.
NBA: Don't look now [Lord knows I haven't- NANESB!] but the Celtics have been able to string together a modest win streak to put them now at 13-10. After squeaking past the Knicks on Friday, the C's handled the Memphis Grizzlies pretty easliy by a 98-80 final at home on Superbowl Sunday. The Celtics have two games remaining in their lengthy homestand including a game against the Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday and Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday before hitting the road.
Two Boston sports institutions going up against arch rivals in the regular season, but with buzz- both before and after- more reminiscent of the postseason.
Did I already mention how fortunate I consider myself to be a New England sports fan at this point in history?
The undercard
NHL: If there was only one B's game to be nationally broadcast this whole season, Wednesday night's home game against arch rival Montreal would've been the one. Apparently last week's game against Dallas was just a warm-up. Nothing like some Original 6 brawling- and not just figuratively- to get the blood going, huh?
With Montreal starting to close the gap in the Northeast division, the folks over at VS network thought Wendesday night's game was important enough to be boradcast on their network coast-to-coast (even though they were just carrying the TSN feed).
A good chunk of the first period seemed to feature the Bruins spending a disproportionate amount of time in Montreal's end of the ice, but with Montreal getting the better shots on goal (however infrequent). My perceptions changed somewhat after the 13 minute mark in the 1st when Brad Marchand and Dennis Seidenberg each scored 22 seconds apart (Seidenberg's tally coming off of a high bounce that the Montreal defener tried to corrall by swatting at with a stick). So Boston heads into the 1st intermission with a 2-0 lead.
Now on most nights, you'd be in pretty good shape if you could manage to get two by Montreal's Carey Price- especially if your own backstop is shutting them out. Not so on Wednesday night. The following video clips say it much better than I could-
For those of you who want to jump straight into the fisticuffs, hockeyfights.com was thoughtful enough to archive the melee towards the very end of the 3rd.
Most teams have every reason to expect to come out on top in a contest where they get six past Tim Thomas, but not Wednesday night. Both teams combined for 14 goals and 182 penalty minutes- nearly twice what was assessed in last week's game vs Dallas. As you can see from the video evidence, it's no exaggeration when I say that Boston absolutely beat the Habs down by a final of 8-5. The brawl at the end was simply the exclamation point.
The save percentages of both Price and Thomas also took a beating, with the Montreal backstop stopping 26 of 34 shots faces and Thomas stopping 27 of 33 shots faced. Micheal Ryder had two goals (one of them on the power play) and Milan Lucic had two goals (one of them shorthanded) and an assist on the night while Marchand, Seidenberg, Nathan Horton and Adam McQuaid also had tallies for the B's.
The win gives Boston a little bit more breathing room against the Canadiens (still the next closest team in the Northeast standings), and the Bruins lead over Montreal in the Division standings after Thursday night was 3 points after Montreal lost in a shootout to the NY Islanders but still got the 1 point.
The original 6 mania will continue this weekend when the Bruins have a home-and-away series against the Detroit Red Wings, with the first half taking place in the TD Banknorth Garden on Friday night at 7PM ET and be broadcast on NESN and the NHL Network.
The second half of the weekend series will take place at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Sunday afternoon, 12:30 PM ET- this game will be nationally televised on Comcast's NBC network.
OTHER BRUINS NEWS: Marc Savard is expected to miss the remainder of the season with a concussion. Savard had been sidelined with another concussion after being hit by former teammate Matt Hunwick in the Jan 22nd game against Colorado. ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: Eureka! I think the Nashville Predators have devised one of the most devious and effective methods of luring NHL talent to Music City- it's even more effective than the Underpants gnomes' business model!
Phase one would be to send out fetching starlets along the lines of Carrie Underwood to romance forwards like....oh...I dunno....Mike Fisher. Then, after the wedding, honeymoon, and a few atrocious seasons in the division's basement playing in the Canadian capital, you're hot, popular and musically talented spouse gets it in your head that perhaps you would be better off elsewhere- maybe somewhere closer to where she spends a good deal of the year. Like....oh...say Nashville, TN. And since your team is dead last in the conference, and Nashville happens to have a team that's doing pretty good this season (trailing the Red Wings by 5 points for #2 in the Central divison and 5th overall in the Western conference) it sounds like to good a deal to pass up.
Well played, Predators.....well played. [Now all that's left is to convince them that Nashville is in dire need of lazy, talentless bloggers and I'm sure a stampede of country music starlets will be stampeeding a path to my doorway- NANESB!]
The Predators acquired Mike Fisher in a trade that will send a 1st round draft pick and a conditional pick to Ottawa. Fischer was tied for the lead in scoring for the Sens with 14 goals and 10 assists in 55 games this season, and the Predators are hoping he'll be ready in time for Friday night's game against Colorado.
NBA: I have to confess, I was intentionally holding off on doing another sports update until after Thursday night's Lakers/Celtics game- a move that didn't pay off despite getting off to a promising start.
Most noteworthy was Ray Allen surpassing Reggie Miller to become the NBA's all time career leader in 3 pointers, with 2,561 on Thursday night (see above). After hat, it was kinda downhill for the C's.
Although Boston took a 53-45 lead into halftime, Kobe Bryant scored 20 of his 23 points in the second half as LA rallied to come from behind after trailing by as many as 15 points in 1st. Pau Gasol had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers while the only player in green on Thursday to score more than 15 points was Ray Allen- with 20.
The lack of offense in the 2nd paved the way for a 92-86 Lakers win at the Garden. This is Boston's 2nd loss in a row after losing 94-89 at Charlotte on Monday night. The Celtics will next host the Miami Heat on Sunday afternoon at the Garden, 1 PM ET on ABC. The C's and the Heat are tied for first place overall in the Eastern conference.
NCAA HOCKEY: The 2011 Beanpot got underway on Monday, with Northeastern making their presence felt in a 4-0 thumping of Harvard in the opening game.
This was immediately followed by the BC Eagles getting by the BU Terriers in OT thanks to Eagle's Junior Tommy Cross scoring the game winner 3:17 into the extra period.
The games Monday set up a BC/Northeastern final for the 2011 Beanpot on Valentine's Day.
AHL HOCKEY: Following the lead of the NHL and the Syracuse Crunch, the Connecticut Whale (formerly the Hartford Wolfpack- the NY Ranger's AHL affiliate) has set up an outdoor rink at UConn's Rentschler Field in E. Hartford, CT. The rink will be used for outdoor junior and high school games as well as a Whalers/Bruins alumni game leading up to the Feb 19th game where the Whale will host the Providence Bruins.
OTHER AHL NEWS: A Connecticut judge has ordered an East Hartford man to apologize and 10 days of community service after he tackled and punched Pucky, the Whale mascot.
MLB: Never mind that rodent in Pennsylvania! Truck Day was this week, which means that Spring was right around the corner. The 'official' Red Sox truck (which, unsurprisingly, has a corporate sponsor) carrying the team's equipment left Fenway for Ft, Meyers, FL on Tuesday.
NCAA FOOTBALL: This video of UConn reserve quarterback Johnny McEntee has been circulating around the web. Heavily edited showboating or an appeal to get more playing time- what's your call?
No doubt most of you had caught the big game with the week worth of hype and media frenzy leading up to it. And it no doubt lived up to its hype the other day as Boston College held off a late rally by the BC Terriers to win the Beanpot 4-3.
While I'm thinking about it, that damn poll is STILL up. --> (Scott Boehm/Getty Images)
Oh yes....there was some sort of football game on Sunday, too. I actually had to work for a few hours during Super Bowl Sunday, but I caught alot of the pivotal plays later on in the game (as well as some of the ads being hyped).
Indianapolis came into the game as 5 point favorites according to the oddsmakers and not surprisingly, the Saints fell into an early 10-0 hole in the first quarter before kicking two field goals to make it a 10-6 game at halftime. Something tells me I didn't miss much by not seeing the halftime show. Now, granted I missed much of the third quarter, but I tuned in just in time to catch Jeremy Shockey haul in Drew Brees' short TD pass, the 2-point conversion attempt that was ruled incomplete and then reviewed by the officials and ruled a completion to put the Saints up 24-17. And wouldn't you know it- with the Colts driving, the man who had picked off Brett Favre to force overtime in the game that ultimately sent New Orleans to the Superbowl came through again when DB Tracy Porter picked off Peyton Manning and ran some 74 yards untouched to put the Saints up 31-17, which would be the final score.
So many clutch players for the Saints- a purportedly washed-up Jeremy Shockey hauling in the go-ahead TD, Tracy Porter making that pick 6 when Indy was putting together another long, methoidcal drive, Garret Hartley coming on mid-season to replace veteran kicker John Carney and making three FGs on three attempts; the closest of which was from 44 yards. But Drew Brees was 32-39 for 288 yards, 2 TDs and zero turnovers to garner the Super Bowl XLIV MVP award.
Congratulations, Crescent City. Put away those paper bags- you've got the best team in the NFl.
[I don't feel quite as bad about that beatdown the administered to New England back in November now- NANESB!]
After dropping a head-scratching 10 games in a row, the Bruins have been on a two-game mini win streak of late and it looks like we have Tukka Rask to thank for that. After shutting out the Canadiens 3-0 at Montreal on Super Bowl Sunday, Rask had 43 saves and was the shootout winner against the Buffalo Sabres at HSBC arena Tuesday Night. Danny Paille had both goals for the Bruins in regulation (both coming in the 1st period) while Derek Roy and Tyler Myers maaged to tie the game for Buffalo. Sabres netminder Ryan Miller faced 34 shots and gave up shootout goals to Marco Sturm and David Krejci, while Rask only gave up the one shootout goal to Jason Pominville to give the Bruins the 3-2 win. The Bruins will travel to Tampa to take on the Lightning Thursday Night.
The Celtics, on the other hand, are on a mini 2 game slide after losing to Orlando and on the road to New Orleans. Perhaps the highlight of Wednesday night's game was when coach Doc Rivers quipped that residents of the Big Easy might've mistaken Louisiana native Glen 'Big Baby' Davis for a Mardi Gras float when he went to see the Saints victory parade on Tuesday. Actually, no 'perhaps' about it, since the Hornets would go on to beat the Celtics 93-85. This was the last game before the All-Star break this weekend in Dallas. Kevin Garnett has been named a starter while Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce were also selected. After the break, the C's will travel to California's Capital to take on the Sacramento Kings.
Oh yes....and Truck Day is Friday!
Not Another New England Sports Blog! is unable to confirm at this time reports circulating that Lisa Kelly will in fact be responsible for moving the Red Sox equipment from Yawkey Way to Ft. Meyers.
Come to think of it, the last trucks I saw around Fenway were setting up for the broadcast of the 2010 NHL Winter Classic.
Also on Friday are the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
