Buffalo Springfield Sports Chowdah Update- Pats Put Damper on Coming Out Party for Bills New Onwership; Detroit Block City- Rask, Bruins Outlast Red Wings; Royal Festivities- Kansas City Parties Like Its 1985

NFL- A week after handing the last undefeated team of the 2014 NFL season their first loss, the Patriots travelled to western New York for Bills first game under new owner Terry Pagula. Pagula- a multimillionaire that made his money on the natural gas boom in the Marcellus Shale also owns the Buffalo Sabres and is a major donor to the Penn State hockey program- was approved by the NFL as the teams' new owner in an October 8th owners meeting. Pagula successfully outbid tycoon Donald Trump, rocker John Bon Jovi and Canadian interests who openly supported relocating the franchise to Toronto. Pegula, who promised to keep the franchise in western New York, purchased the Bills from the estate of the late Ralph Wilson earlier this year.

However, the key name to remember from Sunday's game was Patriots WR Brandon LaFell, an unheralded signing in the offseason earlier this year.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Patriots got the ball back with a shorter field when LB Jamie Collins intercepted a pass attempt from Bills QB Kyle Orton at the New England 39 yard line. Thanks to a Bills penalty, the ball moved to the Buffalo 1 yard line where Brady connected with TE Tim Wright for the first score of the game. After a three and out for each team, the Bills got the ball back on their own 33 yard line with 8:43 to go in the half. Orton kept the drive going for the Bills with a 28 yard pass to Scott Chandler to give Buffalo the ball on the Patriots 19 yard line. The Bills would tie the game up at 7-7 when Orton connected with Robert Woods on 2nd and goal from the Pats 7 yard line and the PAT was good.

Although the Bills got the ball back after holding New England to a 3 and out following the kickoff, DE Chandler Jones managed to break through and sack Orton and strip the ball, giving the Patriots the ball back on Buffalo's own 24 yard line. Although the Bills defense were able to keep the Patriots out of the red zone, the ball was still close enough for a Gostkowski chip shot FG to put New England up 10-7.

The following kickoff was a touchback and Buffalo actually lost yards when DE Rob Ninkovitch sacked Orton, pushing the Bills back to their own 13. While the Patriots had good field position at their own 42, they'd once again go three and out after Brady was sacked. After the Patriots kickoff, the Bills got the ball back on their own 30 yard line with 14 seconds to go in the half. On first and 10 for Buffalo, CJ Spiller rushed for 12 yards before he fumbled, which was recovered by Patriots DE Zach Moore at the Bills 42 with all of 6 seconds left in the half. With the clock ticking, Brady completed a quick 7 yard pass to Julian Edelman to give Gostkowski a slightly shorter field to work with for this FG attempt. As time expired, the 53 yard FG attempt was good and the Patriots headed to the locker room with a 13-7 lead.

New England got the ball back to start off the second half, and after a 3 and a half minute drive that started out on their own 20, the Patriots barely crossed into Buffalo territory when Brady connected with WR Brian Tyms for a 43 yard TD pass to put New England up 20-7. However, Buffalo would counter with a nearly 7-minute drive from their own 20 that was capped with a 1 yard Fred Jackson TD run to cut New England's lead to 20-14.

The Patriots replied with a drive that went all the way to the Buffalo 22, where New England had to settle for another Gostkowski FG to make it a 24-14 game. However, the Patriots began to pull away with their first possession of the 4th quarter thanks to an 18 yard TD pass from Brady to WR Brandon LaFell to make it a 30-14 lead. After a touchback on the following kickoff, Buffalo started from their own 20 and after the drive appeared to sputter on the Bills 40, Orton managed to convert a 4th and 2 thanks to a 35 yard completion to WR Robert Woods. With just under 6 minutes to go, Orton connected with Chris Hogan for an 8 yard TD pass to once again make it a 1-score game, with New England now leading 30-22.

However, the Patriots would strike back quickly and take a 37-22 lead thanks to a 56 yard completion from Brady to LaFell for his second TD of the afternoon with 2:39 left in the game.

That would be all New England would need, putting a damper on the celebrations for the start of the Pegula era in Buffalo. With talk of Brady's career being all but over after the Monday Night fiasco in Kansas City, Brady is now 23-2 against Buffalo in his career.

Turns out this is a short week for New England- they head home to take on the Jets for a Thursday night game. Kickoff is 8:25 PM ET and the game will be televised on the NFL Network and CBS.

NHL- It was a rather forgetful weekend for the Bruins- after winning the season opener, Boston dropped three straight to the Red Wings, Washington and Colorado [Washignton shut out Boston 4-1 while the Avalanche won in the final second of regulation- NANESB!].

On Wednesday night, the Bruins travelled to the Motor City hoping to break their 3-game skid and got off to a pretty good start when David Krejci scored a little over five minutes into the first to give Boston a 1-0 lead. However, Tomas Tatar got the equalizer about three minutes later.

The Bruins re-took the lead in the second when Reilly Smith scored an even-strength goal to make it 2-1. The Bruins would take their 2-1 lead to the 3rd period until Gustav Nyquist scored a power play goal just 2:56 into the 3rd. The power play tally was enough to force OT, and after a scoreless OT, the game would head to a shootout. The Red Wings would miss on both of their shootout chances while Krejci and Reilly Smith would score for Boston to give them the shootout win and snap a 3-game losing streak.

The Original Six action continues on Thursday night when the Bruins travel to Montreal for the first meeting of the 2014 season. Puck drops at 7:30 ET and the game will be broadcast on the NHL network.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- Buffalo Sabres announcer Rick Jeanneret missed the team's home opener this month after being diagnosed with throat cancer in July. The Sabres radio and TV play-by-play man- who has been with Buffalo since their inaugural season in 1971- received the diagnosis in his native Canada after doctors discovered a malignant golf-ball sized growth in his throat. Jeanarette will undergo treatment in the USA and was given an 85% chance of recovery.

ALCS- For the first time in 29 years, the Kansas City Royals are going to the World Series....and they got there by making quick work of the teams with the two best records in the American League.

After getting out to a 3-0 series lead against Baltimore, the Royals got out to a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first at Game 4 in Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday. All of the scoring for Kansas City came in the bottom of the first with a one out and runners on second and third when Eric Hosmer hit a ground ball between first and second for a fielder's choice. O's 2B Jonathan Schoop threw home to C Caleb Joseph as Alciedes Escobar slid on, but the throw went past the catcher and Nori Aoki immediately came home on the error to give Kansas City the quick 2-0 lead.

Although he would give up a solo homer to Baltimore's Ryan Flaherty to cut the Royals lead to 3-1 in the top of the 3rd inning, Kansas City starter Jason Vargas would throw 5⅓ innings and the bullpen would allow no additional runs by Baltimore. Despite allowing a leadoff walk to Adam Jones to start off the 9th, Greg Holland got Nelson Cruz to hit into a fielder's choice, erasing the potential tying run at second, before Delmon Young struck out swinging and JJ Hardy hit a groundout up the 3rd base line to finish off the series.

Kansas City has gone an impressive 8-0 this postseason, and have only trailed in a few innings between the Wild Card game, the Division Series and the ALCS. This performance has already drawn comparisons to the 2007 Rockies, who got off to a similar start as a Wild Card in the postseason [but because of inclement weather and a prolonged ALCS between the Indians and Red Sox never were quite the same once the World Series beagn- NANESB!].

The Royals await the winner of the NLCS between the St Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants- San Francisco is taking a 3-1 series lead into tonight's game five and the Cardinals will have to win three in a row if there's to be a rematch of 1985's "I-70" World Series.

NCAA FOOTBALL- A pretty good weekend, although not as turbulent and dramatic as week 6. As far as nationally ranked teams go, the big story would have to be Baylor's roaring-from-behind-in-the-4th-quarter win over Texas Christian to remain the only undefeated team in the Big Twelve conference. The #4 Baylor Bears came all the way back to beat the #12 TCU Horned Frogs by a 61-58 final on Saturday afternoon.

The Magnolia State continues to produce winning football as Ole Miss and Mississippi State are nearly done with the most difficult part of their respective schedules [Ole Miss hosts Auburn on Nov 1st while Mississippi State travels to Alabama on Nov 15th- assuming the two teams run the table, that sets up a matchup between undefeated Mississippi State and Ole Miss on Nov 29th for Rivalry Week- NANESB!].

As for Week 7, the #3 Mississippi State Bulldogs hosted Auburn and would go on to beat them by a 38-25 final while the #1 Runnin' Rebels ran out of College Station, TX with a 35-20 win over the Texas A&M Aggies.

MEANWHILE IN THE ACC- The Boston College Eagles came out of their off week looking pretty good, travelling to the Tarheel State and beating the NC State Wolfpack by a 30-14 final.

Tyler Murphy had 132 rushing yards and ran for two 2 TDs while passing for another 132 yards. John Hilliman and Sherman Alston also had rushing TDs on the day. The win is also Boston College's first against an ACC opponent this season.

This weekend, the Eagles once again return to host a ranked opponent at Chestnut Hill as they host #24 Clemson. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 ET and the game will be televised on ESPNU.

ELSEWHERE IN THE ACC- The game of the week- at least one involving an ACC team- will be a matchup between two undefeateds when #2 Florida State will host #5 Notre Dame at Tallahassee on Saturday. Both teams are sporting 6-0 records coming into Saturday's prime time matchup. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 PM ET and the game will be televised on ESPN.

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update- Mild Wings, Bruins Close out Series Against Detroit; Rays the Roof- Lackey Hurls Another Gem Against Tampa Bay; Cano Place Like Home- Cano Returns to Bronx as Visitor; Sterling Clipped- Audio of LA Clippers Owner Making Racist Remarks Results in NBA Ban

BOSTON BRUINS- It was a busy Saturday for Boston sports- besides the Red Sox heading north of the border to take on the Blue Jays for the first time this season, the Bruins had an opportunity to close out the Red Wings in Game 5 at TD Garden on Saturday afternoon.



Boston got on the board first thanks to a power play goal from Loui Eriksson just 3 and a half minutes into the first to make it a 1-0 game. Of course, no lead is as hard to maintain as a one goal lead and at the 14:41 mark of the second period, Pavel Datsyuk notched a power play goal to tie the contest up at 1-1. But with less than 5 seconds remaining in the second and the Bruins on a 4 on 3 power play, Zdeno Chara blasted one past Gustavsson to give Boston the lead back heading into the second intermission.

Just four and a half minutes into the 3rd, the Bruins added to their lead with a goal from Milan Lucic to make it 3-1- but the Red Wings weren't done yet. As the crowd at TD Garden started reserving seats for the Boston/Montreal series, Detroit pulled to within one after Henrik Zetterberg got one past Tukka Rask with 3:52 to go in regulation. Inside of two minutes, the Red Wings pulled Gustavsson for an extra attacker, but with less than a minute to go Jarome Iginla made it a 2-goal game once again when he tallied an empty-netter to make it a 4-2 game. Boston would go on to win by a 4-2 final and take the series 4 games to one. Tukka Rask turned away 31 of 33 shots he faced while the Bruins went 2 for 6 on the power play. For his part, Gutavsson stopped 29 of 32 shots faced while Detroit went one for seven with the man advantage.

This sets up another all Original-6 matchup as the B's will take on the Montreal Canadiens on May 1st. Puck is scheduled to drop at 7:30 ET and the game will be televised on NBC Sports and CBC.


ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- While the Canadiens made quick work of the Lightning, the same can't be said for three other playoff series.

Wednesday night will feature no less than three game 7s to close out the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. At 7:00 ET, the Flyers and Rangers will face off in Madison Square Garden for their decisive Game 7- that game will be televised on NBC Sports while Game 7 of the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche series gets underway at 9:30 ET from Denver- that game will be broadcast on CNBC. Things will wrap up on the West Coast when the Los Angeles Kings- who fell into an early 0-3 hole against the Sharks- will play a decisive Game 7 in San Jose starting at 10:00 ET (7:00 PT)- that game will be televised on the NBC Sports network and the CBC.

No matter who wins that Game 7, the next round in the Western Conference Semifinals will feature an all-California matchup. On Sunday night in Dallas, the Anaheim Ducks came from 2 goals down in the 3rd to tie the game with 24 seconds left in regulation to force OT, where Anaheim's Nick Bonino scored less than 3 minutes into sudden death overtime to give Anaheim the series win.

BOSTON RED SOX- After taking two out of three from the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre [I'm not sure what the bigger surprise was- Clay Buchholz settling down after giving up an early 3-0 lead and getting the win on Saturday or Lester and the bullpen getting lit up on Sunday- NANESB!] the Red Sox returned home to take on yet another AL East opponent in Fenway on Tuesday night.

Amid chilly temperatures and strong winds at Fenway on Tuesday night, the Red Sox faced off against the Tampa Bay Rays for the first time this season. With Lackey facing off against former Red Sox and Oriole starter Eric Bedard, the early innings had the makings of a pitcher's duel with batters struggling to reach base- or score on the few times they did get on base.

However, the Red Sox worked Bedard's pitch count up to over 100 in just five innings, forcing Rays manager Joe Maddon to go to the bullpen early. In the bottom of the 5th, Middlebrooks led off with a walk, followed by a Jackie Bradley Jr double. Pedroia lined out to 3rd thanks to a great play made by Rays 3B Evan Longoria, nearly catching Middlebrooks off-base as well. However, Shane Victorino hit a fly ball deep enough to center for Middlebrooks to come home on for the second out of the inning.

In the top of the 6th, the Rays would get on the board thanks to a 1-out Longoria sac fly to center to bring home Desmond Jennings and make it a 1-1 game After Napoli and Gomes walked to lead off the bottom of the 6th, Xander Bogaerts popped out to shallow left for the first out of the bottom half of the inning. With one away, AJ Pierzynski brought Napoli across home plate with an RBI single while Gomes came home on a Middlebrooks double. Jackie Bradley Jr then brought Middlebrooks and Pierzynski home on a 2-RBI double off of Rays reliever Juan Oviedo and advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch. Although Oviedo got Pedroia to ground out to short for out number two, Victorino came to the plate and his a ground-rule double to bring JBJ home and make it a 6-1 Red Sox lead. The Rays got a run back in the top of the 7th to make it 6-2 but Big Papi would hit a 1-out RBI single with runners on 1st and 2nd to make it 7-2 Boston.

However, after Mujica took the mound in the top of the 9th and Tampa got two more runs, John Farrell sent for Koji Uehara to close out the game, striking out Ben Zorbist to end the ballgame and give Boston the 7-4 win.

The two teams will go back at it tomorrow (weather permitting) with Chris Archer [2-1; 4.11 ERA] going up against Felix Doubront [1-3; 6.00 ERA] with first pitch scheduled for 7:00 on ESPN.

ELSEWHERE IN THE AL EAST- Amid completely self-unaware chants of "You sold out!", former Yankees 2B Robinson Cano returned to the Bronx for the first time since leaving for Seattle after signing a 10 year, $240 million deal with the Mariners.

Cano went 1 for 5 with an RBI, two strikeouts and a stolen base in Tuesday night's game as the Seattle Mariners rallied from a 2-0 deficit to go on and win by a 6-3 final.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS- Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper is expected to be out until July after tearing a ligament in his last week. Harper was batting .289 with a homer and 9 RBI so far this season. Harper underwent surgery on Tuesday and even tweeted a picture of himself from the hospital room.

On the road to recovery..Everything went great and I'll be back soon! Thank you to all the fans for the support! pic.twitter.com/66Wn7sxHQ9

— Bryce Harper (@Bharper3407) April 29, 2014

Harper made his MLB debut in 2012 at age 19 and has a career .273 batting average with 43 homers and 126 RBI in just under two whole seasons. Last week, manager Matt Williams benched Harper because he didn't run out a groundball to first.

NBA- Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has received a lifetime ban from the NBA and a $2.5 million fine from NBA commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday. Sterling was recorded by his mistress asking her not to bring black people to Clipper's home games and upset that she posted an instagram photo of herself and NBA hall of famer Magic Johnson. The recordings were made public by gossip website TMZ and have been replayed over multiple networks all weekend, sparking outrage and planned protests.

Former Celtics head coach Doc Rivers had reportedly declined a meeting with Sterling and was reportedly looking for ways out of his contract with the organization before Silver's press conference on Tuesday. Sterling, a California real-estate mogul, reportedly lost a civil rights lawsuit a few years ago in which the plaintiffs allege he discriminated against black and Hispanic tenants. Up until fairly recently, Sterling ran the Clippers on a shoestring budget frequently resulting in last place finishes, but savvy draft picks like Blake Griffin and key free agent signings like Chris Paul had reversed the Clippers fortunes in recent years.

On the hardwood, the Clippers returned to the Staples Center for the first time since the recordings of Sterling was made public, beating the Golden State Warriors by a 113-103 final on Tuesday night. Earlier in the series, Clippers players had worn their practice jerseys inside-out and donned black wristbands a s a means of protests when the recordings first came out.

Currently, the Clippers hold a 3-2 series lead over Golden State in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update- Everything's Jake for Red Sox in Toronto; OT in the Motor City

RED SOX- After Thursday night's embarrassing 14-5 home loss to the Yankees, the Red Sox needed to not only bounce back, but do it efficiently without burning through their bullpen.

Not only did Jake Peavy manage to do that with a solid outing, but the former Padres and White Sox starter got some run support early on. The Red Sox got on the board in the 2nd with runners on 2nd and 3rd and a 1-out sac fly from AJ Pierzynski to bring Napoli home. This was followed up by a Will Middlebrooks RBI single that plated Bogaerts, a Jackie Bradley Jr double and 2-RBI Dustin Pedroia single- all with two out- to give the Red Sox a 4-0 lead.

From there, Peavy seemed to cruise- throwing 7 innings, allowing just 5 hits, an earned run [on a solo homer from DH Juan Francisco in the bottom of the 7th- NANESB!] while striking out 7 and walking just two batters.

The Red Sox had much more luck against Jays starter Mark Buehrle- in addition to the 4 run uprising in the 2nd, Big Papi added a 1-out solo homer in the top of the 3rd to give Boston a 5-0 lead before Will Middlebrooks hit an RBI double and Jackie Bradley Jr drew a walk before Toronto went to the bullpen in the 6th. Neil Wagner came out of the pen to ground out to shortstop, however, everybody was ruled safe on Jose Reyes' throwing error before Victorino popped out for the first out of the top half of the 6th. Wagner then walked Big Papi to load the bases and then walked Napoli to bring Bradley Jr home to make it a 7-0 Red Sox lead.

Despite the 1-out homer Peavy gave up to Juan Francisco, he was able to get out of the inning without any further damage. Chris Capuano and Andrew Miller came out of the pen in the 8th and 9th innings to close out the ballgame for Boston, giving Peavy his first win of the 2014 season and a nice bounce-back against an AL East opponent after Thursday's fiasco against the Yankees. Friday night's game also marked the second game of the 2014 season for Shane Victorino and Will Middlebrooks also returned to the lineup after Daniel Nava was sent down to Pawtucket.

Saturday's game will get off to a fairly early start with Clay Buchholz [0-2; 7.71 ERA] going up against Brandon Morrow [1-2; 5.03 ERA] with first pitch scheduled for 1:07 ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

BOSTON BRUINS- The Boston Bruins staged a late rally after trailing the 0-2 to the Red Wings. Niklas Kronwall opened up the scoring for Detroit in the first with a power play goal at the 9:00 mark to give Detroit a quick 1-0 lead. Pavel Datsyuk would add to Detroit's lead around 4 and a half minutes into the second period.

However, the Bruins would finally figure a way around Red Wings goalie Jonas Gustavsson with a power play goal by Torey Krug with 9:46 left in the second. Just 1:15 into the 3rd, the Bruins got the equalizer thanks to Milan Lucic, tying the game at 2-2.

That would be all the scoring in the second and the contest would head to overtime where Jarome Iginla would get the game winner 13:32 into OT, giving Boston a 3-1 series lead. Tukka Rask turned aside 35 of 37 shots faced while Red Wings backup goalie Jonas Gutstavsson saved 37 of 40 shots faced. Detroit went 1-4 on the power play while the Bruins were 1-2....seemed as though the refs put away the whistle once the 3rd period got underway as there were no penalties after the last 5 minutes of the second period.

The series heads back to Boston for Saturday and the Bruins can close it out with a win [Montreal is awaiting the winner of the series after a 4-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning- NANESB!]. Puck is scheduled to drop at 3:00 ET and Game 5 will be televised on NBC Sports network.

Tar Pits of Fenway Sports Chowdah Update- Yankees Starter PINEda Ejected From Wednesday Night's Game; Bruins Takes Series Lead in Detroit

RED SOX- After Sunday night's late rally, the Red Sox attempted another come-from-behind win against Baltimore on Patriot's day after falling behind 6-0. Boston managed to cut the O's lead in half in the bottom of the 5th and a 7th inning David Ross solo homer made it a 2-run game. However, Baltimore would get a key insurance run thanks to a Ryan Flaherty RBI single in the top of the 8th to make it 7-4. Mike Napoli led off the bottom of the 8th with a solo homer to once again pull the Red Sox to within two. In the bottom of the 9th, Tommy Hunter managed to load the bases with one away, allowing an infield hit to Brock Holt, a double to Dustin Pedroia and an intentional walk to David Ortiz. Once again, Napoli was able to pull the Sox to within 1 after hitting into a fielder's choice that brought Holt home, but Mike Carp grounded out to first base for the final out of the ballgame.

The Red Sox lost by a final of 7-6 on Marathon Monday and things didn't get much better when the Yankees came to Fenway for the first time this season. Jon Lester- ostensibly the 'stopper'- was lit up like a Byung Hyun Kim-shaped Christmas Tree and the Red Sox would go on to lose by a 9-3 final.

It was up to Lackey to stop the damage and he got off to a good start, getting the first two batters out before allowing a single from Carlos Beltran before Yankees catcher Brian McCann flied out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the first, Grady Sizemore led off with a triple before Pedroia singled to bring him home and give the Red Sox an early 1-0 lead. After Big Papi flew out to center, Napoli singled and Pedoira moved over to 3rd. Mike Carp then followed up with a fly ball to shallow left center for the second out, but not deep enough to bring Pedroia home. With 2 away, AJ Pierzynski singled to bring Pedroia home and make it a 2-0 Boston lead.

In the 2nd, Lackey got Soriano, Teixeria and Gardner to strike out in order, but what happened in the bottom of the 2nd will have people talking about this game for weeks. After New York starter Michael Pineda got Holt and Jackie Bradley Jr to fly out, Red Sox manager John Farrell asked the umpires to check Pineda for a foreign substance....which turned out to be pine tar on his neck. Pineda was immediately ejected- this coming 10 days after he appeared to get away with using pine tar on a glove in a game against the Red Sox in Yankee Stadium. Clearly Farrell didn't object because Pineda wasn't confounding the Red Sox batters. David Phelps came out of the Yankee bullpen and managed to strike out Grady Sizemore on one pitch [Pineda had a 2-strike count against Sizemore when the umpires went to the mound- NANESB!].

Lackey- apparently unaided by foreign substances on his person- continued dealing in the 3rd. Despite allowing a leadoff single to Brian Roberts, Lackey got Kelly Johnson to hit into a fielder's choice, before getting Jacoby Ellsbury and Derek Jeter to strike out swinging.

Dustin Pedroia led off the bottom of the 3rd by reaching 1st on a throwing error by Jeter. Big Papi then managed to beat the shift employed against him and hit a single. With nobody out and two on, Mike Napoli then hit a ball that New York outfielder Brett Gardner couldn't find- turned out it had jammed itself into the padding of the wall in fair territory by the Pesky Pole for a ground rule double [Gardner initially thought it was still rolling around along the wall behind him- NANESB!]. That brought Pedroia home but Big Papi had to hold up at third. Carp then struck out swinging before Pierzynski drew a walk and Xander Bogaerts flew out to right field- but not deep enough to bring Papi home. However, Papi would come home on a wild pitch by Phelps to make it a 4-0 Red Sox lead.

Lackey's only blemish on Wednesday night came in the 6th when Carlos Beltran led off the inning with a double and moved up to 3rd on a Brian McCann groundout. Alfonso Soriano then hit a sac fly deep enough to bring Beltran home to put the Yankees on the board and ruin Lackey's shutout bid. Lackey then struck out Teixera to end the 6th inning.

The Red Sox got some extra insurance in the bottom of the 8th when Xander Bogaerts got on board and advanced to second thanks to a throwing error from 3B Kelly Johnson before coming home on a Brock Holt RBI single. Koji Uehara came on in the 9th and immediately gave up a single to Alfonso Soriano, but struck Teixiera, Gardner and Roberts out to end the ballgame and give the Red Sox the 5-1 win.

Lackey was nothing short of stellar on Wednesday night, going 8 complete innings, allowing 7 hits, one earned run, no walks and striking out 11 while improving his record to 3-2. Mike Napoli went 3-4 with an RBI [the foam wall by the Pesky Pole robbing him of at least one more RBI- NANESB!] and Uehara made an appearance despite this not being a save situation.

Of course, the biggest takeaway was the Pineda pine tar fiasco- however, subtlety was never the Yankees' strong suit [which makes Pineda a better fit with the organization than Yankees fans will admit- NANESB!]. Reaction was instantaneous as the topics 'Yankees', 'Pineda', 'Pine Tar' and 'Girardi' began trending on social networking sites like twitter immediately.

Tomorrow represents the rubber game of the 3-game series before the Red Sox head off to Toronto for their first meeting of the season against the Blue Jays on Friday. CC Sabathia [2-2; 5.19 ERA] will take to the mound for New York while Boston sends out Felix Doubront [1-2; 5.48 ERA]. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 ET and the game will be televised on NESN as well as the MLB network in some markets.




BOSTON BRUINS- The Boston Bruins have taken a 2-1 series lead over the Red Wings after Tuesday night's Game 3 from Joe Louis Arena. Most of the scoring took place in the first period and it was all Boston.

Dougie Hamilton got the Bruins on the board nine minutes into the first with a power play goal. With just over 4 minutes remaining in the first, Jimmy Howard couldn't get a glove on a Shawn Thornton rebound, but Jordan Caron was able to, beating Howard and putting the ruins up 2-0. Meanwhile, the Bruins defense managed to stymie the Red Wings and Tukka Rask ended up facing only 23 shots on goal- turning aside all of them.

With just over two minutes to go in regulation, the Red Wings decided to pull Howard for the extra attacker, but Patrice Bergeron was able to get ahold of the puck and score an empty-netter to give Boston a 3-0 lead. After going 1 for 3 on their power play opportunities, the Bruins take a 2-1 series lead as the series resumes Thursday night from Detroit. Game 4 is set to get underway from the Motor City at 8:00 ET and the game will be televised on NESN, NBC Sports as well as TSN north of the border.

Easter of Eden Sports Chowdah Update- Bruins Clip Wings to Even Series at 1-1; Red Sox Rally Late Against Baltimore on Sunday Night

BOSTON BRUINS- After stunning the home crowd at TD Garden on Friday night with a late goal in the 3rd period to take a 1-0 win over Boston, the Red Wings were looking to bring the series back to Motown by going up a commanding 2-0 lead over Boston.

Unlike Game 1, the Bruins didn't have to wait long to get on the board- Justin Florek caught Wings netminder Jimmy Howard out of position and he found the back of the net 7 and a half minutes to go in the first period. This had the distinction of not only being Florek's first NHL goal, but the Bruins first tally of the series.

About two minutes later, the Bruins would have a 5 on 3 man advantage for about 20 seconds with Detroit's Jakub Kindl being sent to the bin for interference at the 8:15 mark and Danny DeKeyser getting two for slashing at the 9:54 mark. Although Boston wasn't able to take advantage of the brief 2-man advantage, Reilly Smith put Boston up 2-0 with a power play goal 10:35 into the first period.



However, with 6:40 to go in the second, Detroit cut the lead in half on a goal that ricocheted in and was credited to Luke Glendening, making it a 2-1 game. However, Boston got the two goal cushion back in the final 1:45 of the second period on a Milan Lucic goal. In the opening two and a half minutes of the 3rd, Detroit's Kyle Quincey was given two minutes for roughing and Zdeno Chara would give the Bruins a 4-1 lead thanks to a power play goal 2:27 into the third.

The Bruins go on to win Sunday's Game 2 by a 4-1 final, sending the series over to Detroit knotted up at a game each. Tukka Rask stopped 34 of the 35 shots he faced while Jimmy Howard stopped 25 of 29 shots faced. The Bruins were also 2 for 4 on the power play on Sunday afternoon.


Game 3 is set to take place from Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday night with a scheduled start time of 7:30 ET. The game will be televised on NESN, NBC Sports and TSN.

OTHER STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF NEWS- The defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks will have to do without the services of Defenseman Brent Seabrook, who received a suspension from the NHL after a hit on St Louis Blues captain David Backes on Saturday.

Video of the game shows Seabrook targeted Backes' head and at least one skate was off the ice when the Blackhawks defender was setting up for the hit, which came with the Blackhawks leading by a score of 3-2 with less than 5 minutes to go in regulation during Game 2. Seabrook was given a game misconduct and the Hawks were assessed a 5 minute charging penalty. In the dying seconds of regulation, the Blues also pulled Ryan Miller from the net for an additional attacker and that strategy bore fruit when Vladimir Tarasenko beat Corey Crawford with 7 seconds to go in the game, forcing OT in which Barrett Jackman would score the game winner 5:50 into the first OT to give the Blues a 2-0 series lead.

RED SOX- Coming into this weekend's series against Baltimore, the Red Sox were looking to climb out of the AL East basement- even though all of the teams were separated by no more than 2 and a half games on Friday. The series got off to a rough start when the O's manhandled Lackey on Friday night and Baltimore cruised to an 8-4 win over Boston.

On Saturday, Big Papi broke a 1-1 deadlock in the bottom of the 4th with a solo homer. Brock Holt, who was only called up from Pawtucket on Friday, gave the Red Sox some insurance in the bottom of the 7th when he belted a 1-out triple with Mike Carp on first to make it 3-1. Jonathan Herrera then grounded into a fielder's choice, sending Holt home and making it a 4-1 game before Koji Uehara came out of the pen and despite walking Matt Weiters to lead off the 9th, got the next three batters to strike out swinging, ending the ballgame.

Sunday night's nationally televised game on ESPN also marked the 1-year anniversary of the first Red Sox home game after the Boston Marathon bombings, and there was a pregame ceremony to honor the marathon runners, first responders and medical personnel from that fateful day.

Jake Peavy took to the mound on Sunday night and gave up three quick runs to Baltimore in the top of the first- a Nelson Cruz solo homer, a Matt Weiters RBI single and a JJ Hardy RBI sac fly. Meanwhile, Ubaldo Jiminez confounded the Red Sox bats through the first five innings as the O's added to their lead thanks to a 2-out David Lough ground rule double with 2 runners on that made it 4-0 in the 5th while outfielder Adam Jones hit an RBI single with two away in the top of the 6th. That was enough to chase Peavy from the mound and Chris Capuano came in from the bullpen to retire Weiters and prevent any further damage.

However, things were looking promising in the bottom of the 6th after David Ortiz got on board with a 1-out single, followed by Mike Napoli drawing a walk. Johnny Gomes then took a 2-2 Jiminez offering and planted it into the Monster Seats to put the Red Sox on the board and cut the O's lead to 5-3. Zach Britton came out of the Baltimore bullpen to relieve Jiminez and got the next two batters out. Capuano would get the Baltimore batters he faced out in order to give the Red Sox batters another chance in the bottom of the 7th.

After Pierzynski struck out to lead off the inning, Brock Holt singled and then made it to second when O's SS Ryan Flaherty dropped the ball when transferring it from his glove to his hand while attempting the double play on a Grady Sizemore ground ball- something the Red Sox admittedly caught a break on. Dustin Pedroia then singled to load the bases up before Big Papi beat the shift Baltimore had employed against him all night and hit an RBI single to make it a 1-run game. With Evan Meek coming out of the bullpen to relive Britton, Mike Napoli hit a ground ball to 3rd, but instead of trying to get the easy out at first or third, O's 3B Jonathan Schoop attempted to throw home and erase the runner there, but the throw was wide and his error tied the game. Gomes then fouled out and Danielv Nava struck out to end the Boston threat, but the game was tied 5-5.

Baltimore had a credible threat going in the top of the 9th thanks to a leadoff double from Adam Jones, who advanced to 3rd on a Weiters groundout. However, 2B Lombrardozzi would ground out to Andrew Miller and Jones couldn't advance. With two away, Mujica came out of the Boston bullpen in relief of Miller and got outfielder David Lough to strike out on four pitches to end the inning and strand Jones 90 feet away from home.

For the bottom of the 9th, Brian Matusz came out of the pen and got Grady Sizemore to strike out to start off the inning. Dustin Pedroia then belted a fly ball that was just a few inches short of a homer that caromed off the Green Monster in deep left center field [thanks to some fan interference- NANESB!]. After the umpires huddled and the play was reviewed in New York, the call was upheld and instead of a walkoff solo homer, Pedroia was at second with one away. Pedroia then advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch by Matusz with Big Papi in the batter's box. After falling behind 3-0 to Ortiz, O's manager Buck Showalter had Matusz intentionally walk Big Papi before bringing Darren O'Day out of the pen. O'Day struck Mike Napoli in the kneecap with a pitch to load up the bases and John Farrell decided to have Mike Capr pinch-hit for Jonny Gomes.



For a second, it looked as though Carp would end the game with a liner to shallow left field, but O's outfielder David Lough tracked it down for out number two. As Pedroia was returning to 3rd base, Lough made a way offline throw towards home that rattled around the backstop and seizing the opportunity, Pedroia ran home for the game-winning run. The Red Sox come all the way back from being shut out 5-0 to win Sunday night's game with two outs in the bottom of the 9th.

Tomorrow being Patriot's Day, the Red Sox and Baltimore will get underway especially early- 11:05 AM ET- and the game will be televised on NESN. Wei-Yin Chen [2-1; 4.76 ERA] will go up against Clay Buchholz [0-1; 5.51 ERA] to wrap up the 4-game series against the birds. As it turns out, Thursday's contest against Chicago was the last time they'll face an opponent that doesn't call the AL East home until early May. After the Baltimore series, the Yankees will come into town for a 3-game series before Boston head to Toronto for a 3-game series next weekend. On April 29th, the Red Sox will host the Tampa Bay Rays- the first time the two teams have met this season- before hosting Oakland on May 2nd.

Auld Ang Syne Sports Chowdah Update- Winter Classic Big Time Hit in Ann Arbor; Fenway Freezes Over for New Incarnation of 'Holy War'; A Star for the Ages, Marine Veteran and Padres Broadcaster Jerry Coleman Passes Away at 89

My understanding is that there's been some football games of significance taking place lately- I'll get caught up on that as best I can, but for now here's some of what's happening with the non-pigskin sports.

Brian Babineau- Getty Images

NHL- As much as I'm not a fan of either team involved, I gotta say that the 2014 Winter Classic went off without a hitch.

Before a crowd of 105,491 at the University of Michigan's Big House in Ann Arbor, the 'home' Red Wings faced off against the Toronto Maple Leafs, kicking off 2014 with an Original 6 matchup.

After a scoreless first period, former Senator Daniel Alfredsson put Detroit on the board first with a goal about midway through the second period before Toronto's James van Reimsdyk got the equalizer for the Leafs in the dying seconds of the 2nd.

Less than 5 minutes into the 3rd, the Leafs took their first lead of the day on a Tyler Bozak goal to put Toronto up 2-1. With less than five minutes to go, the 'home' team got the equalizer in the form of a goal from Justin Abdelkader to knot things up at 2-2. With nothing resolved late in regulation or in OT, the Winter classic headed for a shootout for the second time in its history.

Pavel Datsuk got the first shootout goal of the game for Detroit, but Joffery Lupul and Tyler Bozak would get back to back goals for the Toronto shootout win. Toronto's Jonathan Bernier stopped 41 of 43 shots faced in regulation and OT while the Wing's Jimmy Howard faced 26 shots on goal and successfully turned aside 24 of them.

This game was actually slated to take place on New Year's Day 2013, but was cancelled due to the lockout and abbreviated season. Interestingly, this will be the first of many outdoor games scheduled for the 2013-2014 season.

In a move that was likely designed to offset the loss of the 2013 Winter Classic, there are at least five more games in four more venues scheduled this season in what's been dubbed the NHL Stadium Series. On January 25th, the LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks will face off in Dodger Stadium. The following day, on the other side of the country the New York Rangers will host the New Jersey Devils at Yankee Stadium. Three days later, hockey returns to Yankee Stadium when the Rangers and Islanders go head-to-head. On March 1st, the Stadium Series resumes at Chicago's Soldier Field when the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. The NHL's stadium series is slated to wrap up the following day north of the border in Vancouver when the Canucks will host the Ottawa Senators at the BC Palace in the 2014 Tim Horton's Heritage Classic.

As for the New Year's Day Winter Classic, the Washington Capitals are slated to host the game next year, although a venue or opponent haven't been formally announced. There has also been speculation since the inaugural 2008 Winter Classic that Beaver Stadium on the Penn State campus in State College, PA would host an outdoor matchup between Pennsylvania's two NHL franchises- the stadium boasts an even larger seating capacity than Michigan's Big House and is roughly halfway between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- Meanwhile, the Boston Bruins are getting off on the right foot for 2014. After a 3-2 win against Nashville at home the day after the Winter Classic, the Bruins hosted the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.

Although the Jets got on the board first thanks to a Dustin Byfuglien goal midway through the first, Danny Paille tied it up at 1-1 with a tally for the B's less than 3 minutes later.

The second period was all Torey Krug as he scored two goals a little over four minutes apart for what would turn out to be the game-winner, putting Boston up 3-1. In the 3rd, Reilly Smith would add to Boston's total midway through the period making it a 4-1 game....which would also be the final. Tukka Rask turned aside 35 of 36 shots faced and the Bruins are now in sole possession of first place in the Atlantic division.

The Bruins will hit the road and next play on the west coast on Tuesday night when they take on the Anaheim Ducks- a team that has yet to lose at home in regulation this season- from the Honda Center in Orange County, CA. This one is a pretty late start at 10:00 PM ET and it will be televised on NESN.

Frozen Fenway- the Holy War on Skates. Matthew J Lee photo via @BostonGlobe #NDvsBC #NotreDame #BostonCollege pic.twitter.com/JOvQg6yCxA
— Fenway Nation (@Fenway_Nation) January 6, 2014

NCAA HOCKEY- Ann Arbor's Big House wasn't the only outdoor hockey venue this week. With an outdoor rink set up at Fenway, America's Favorite Ballpark hosted an NCAA Hockey doubleheader over the weekend.

After a 1-1 tie between Providence College and Merrimack, #6 Boston College and #14 Notre Dame took to the ice for the Holy War (on skates!). The Eagles jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Brendan Silk and Johnny Guardeau before Mario Luca scored late for the Irish to cut the lead to 2-1.

The Irish tied it up early in the second with a power play goal from TJ Tynan- the only scoring that would take place in the second period. In the 3rd, the re-took the lead on a shorthanded goal from Bill Arnold, but less than 3 minutes later, the Irish's Bryan Rust tied it back up at 3-3.

Less than a minute later, Johnny Guardeau got his second goal of the night and Eagles netminder Brian Billett would hold off a furious late surge by the Irish for the 4-3 win.

Saturday's game is actually the first of two NCAA Doubleheaders at Fenway- UMass Lowell is slated to take on Northeastern on the afternoon of Jan 11th while Maine will take on the BU Terriers that evening.

Andy Hayt- Getty Images

MLB- Former Yankees 2nd baseman, WWII Marine fighter pilot and Hall of Fame Broadcaster Jerry Coleman passed away at a California hospital on Sunday at the age of 89. A California native, Coleman reported to the Yankees minor league affiliate in Wellsville, NY after graduating high school at the age of 17. At age 18, he joined the Marine Corps and was flying Dauntless SBD dive bombers on missions in the pacific theater in WWII.

After World War II, Coleman made his major league debut with the Yankees in 1949 and was named the AP's Rookie of the Year that season. Starting in 1951, Coleman missed the bulk of two seasons serving in the Korean war where he served alongside Ted Williams. Coleman, the only big-leaguer to fly combat missions in WWII and Korea [Williams served as a flight instructor during WWII- NANESB!] recounted a harrowing close call Ted Williams had, crash landing after returning from a mission over North Korea.

After returning to the Yankees, Coleman was beset by vision problems and broke his collarbone in 1955. His last season with the Yankees was in 1957, when the Bronx Bombers lost to the Milwaukee Braves in seven games in the World Series. After retiring as a player, Coleman worked in the front office for awhile before making his way to the broadcast booth.

In 1970, Coleman returned to California and broadcast games for the then-California Angels for two seasons. By 1972, Jerry made his way down Interstate 5 to San Diego and would work in their broadcast booth for the San Diego Padres every year except for 1980- which marked an uneventful stint as the Padres manager. The following season, he returned to the broadcast booth and remained there through the 2013 season, earning the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C Frick award in 2005.

The veteran broadcaster was known for peppering his play by play with phrases such as "Oh doctor!" and "You can hang a star on that one!" after a particularly impressive play as well as frequent malapropisms. In recent years, Coleman was working a reduced schedule, covering select daytime home games and doing pregame interviews with Padres manager Bud Black.

Coleman was admitted to a San Diego-area hospital around Christmastime with cerebral hemorrhaging and his condition had worsened over the next several days.



Prior to his being hospitalized, Coleman appeared in a video message filmed in front of the USS Midway  museum for Veteran's Day that was released by the San Diego Padres. Coleman is also one of only two people the Padres organization erected statues at PetCo Park to honor- the other being Hall of Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn.

Turkey Day Sports Chowdah Update- Patriots Buck Broncos in Historic Comeback; NHL Agrees to Massive Broadcast Deal with Rogers

Wow- very seldom does a marquee NFL game live up to the pre-game hype. Sunday night's Bronco's-Patriots matchup did exactly that, although you couldn't tell from the first half.

Steven Senne- AP

NFL- I'm not gonna lie to you. Part of the reason it took me so long to do a sports update is because Sunday night's game at Gillette left me at a loss for words (the good kind!). Sure preparations for Thanksgiving was part of it, but it's hard to summarize Sunday night's primetime Broncos-Patriots game in mere words, but here's my attempt-

To start off with, literally everything was going Denver's way in the first half at Foxborough. With just under 10 minutes to go in the first quarter, Stevan Ridley fumbled the ball which was promptly recovered by Broncos LB Von Miller and run back 60 yards for a TD to give Denver the early lead.

On New England's next possession, Brady was sacked and lost the ball on the Patriots own 28 yard line. Denver recovered and was able to punch it in from the Patriot's 10 yard line thanks to two carries by RB Knowshon Moreno to give the Broncos a startlingly quick 14-0 lead.

With Ridley benched, LeGarrette Blount came in at RB and on the 3rd play of New England's drive, fumbled the ball at mid-field. The Broncos recovered [starting to sense a pattern?- NANESB!] and Denver was once again in New England's red zone thanks to carries by Knowshown Moreno and Montee Ball. They got as close as the Patriot's 6 yard line before the Patriots defense came up with a huge sack of Peyton Manning, costing the Broncos 10 yards and forcing them to settle for a FG to make it a 17-0 game.

Denver added to their lead in the second quarter- although this was on a 70 yard TD drive engineered by Manning that started on the Broncos own 30- not capitalizing on a Patriots turnover (surprisingly). The drive was capped by a 10 yard TD pass from Manning to TE Jacob Tamme to but the Broncos out to a seemingly insurmountable 24-0 lead.

So- did you turn off the TV by this point? Either because you were a disgusted Patriots fan or were expecting a much better ballgame despite not being emotionally invested in either team? I gotta confess: I did- although I did end up tuning in for the 3rd quarter.

Brady broke Denver's shutout bid right out of the gate with a quick strike in the 3rd quarter. The Patriots started out from their own 20 to open up the second half and Brady moved the ball by passing to Kenbrell Thompkins, Rob Gronkowski and Shane Vereen before the Patriots got on the board with a 5 yard TD pass to WR Julian Edelman. This made it a 24-7 ballgame and the Patriots were down by a mere three TDs.

On the Broncos first possession of the second half, Denver got the ball as far as midfield before Montee Ball fumbled and Pats LB Brandon Spike recovered, giving New England the ball back on the Denver 32. With the short field, Brady got inside the Broncos red zone thanks to completions to Gronkowski and Vereen before RB Brandon Bolden was able to punch it in on a 1 yard TD run to make it a 10 point game with the better part of one and a half quarters of football to play. Those Patriots fans optimistic enough to be talking about a comeback at halftime were suddenly starting to look downright prophetic.

The 3rd quarter wrapped up the way it began- with a quick scoring drive from the New England offense. Thanks to an 11 yard return from Edelman (who had fumbled earlier in the game), the Patriots started out on their own 35 yard line. The drive began with a completion from Brady to WR Kenbrell Thompkins for 14 yards to put the ball at mid-field before Brady connected with Edelman for a 43 yard pass to put the ball on the Denver 8. With 19 seconds to go in the 3rd, the Patriots made it a three point game thanks to an 8 yard TD pass from Brady to Gronkowski to make it 21-24.

Starting out from their own 22, the Broncos were able to run exactly one play in their first possession of the 4th quarter before Peyton Manning was picked off by rookie cornerback Logan Ryan. Starting from the Denver 30, New England required just two passes from Tom Brady- a 15 yard completion to Gronkowski and a 14 yard TD pass to Julian Edelman to give New England a 28-24 edge, their first lead of the night and seemingly impossible scenario during halftime.

The Patriots were able to add to their lead thanks to a lengthy drive that started out from their own 47 that took just under 5 minutes- although the Broncos defense stiffened and forced the Patriots to settle for a 31 yard Gostkowski FG to make it 31-24.

However, the Broncos weren't done yet. After getting the ball back on their own 25, Peyton Manning led a drive down to the New England red zone where they were able to tie up the ballgame thanks to a 7 yard Demariyus Thomas TD catch to know up the game at 31-31 with 3:06 remaining in the 4th.

Both the Patriots and Broncos weren't able to able to do much of anything in the remainder of regulation, forcing OT. Interestingly, the Patriots won the coin toss but Belichick elected to give the Broncos the ball to start out the OT.

Just like the end of regulation, both teams weren't able to do much of anything with Denver getting the ball into New England territory before a 10 yard penalty forced them to punt. The Broncos were then able to pin the Patriots back inside their own 20 on the ensuing punt, and New England was able to get as far as their own 37 before they had to punt on 4th and 4.

This went on for awhile, and it appeared as though the NFL would have its second tie game of the day [earlier in the day, the Vikings and Packers played to a 26-26 tie at Lambeau Field- NANESB!] but when the Patriots punted with 3:01 left in OT. Former Patriots WR Wes Welker was set to field the ball inside the 20, but the ball made contact with Denver WR Tony Carter, making it a live ball that Pats Safety Nate Ebner recovered at the Denver 13 yard line. After two runs up the middle, it was decided to go for the chip-shot FG on 3rd and 10 with 2:00 left in OT. Gostkowski's kick was good from 31 yards to give New England the 34-31 OT win.

Tom Brady went 34-50 with 344 yards and 3 TD passes while getting sacked 3 times. Peyton Manning went 19-36 with 150 yards, 2 TDs, 2 sacks and an interception. Wes Welker had a total of 31 yards and was a conspicuous non-factor in his return to New England while Knowshon Moreno had 224 rushing yards and 1 TD for the Broncos. For the Patriots, Julian Edelman had 110 receiving yards on 11 catches with 2 TD receptions.

The comeback from 24-0 is the biggest in the history of the New England Patriots and the ratings were the highest for a November football game in 17 years and the highest rated contest since NBC began the Sunday Night Football telecast in 2006.


For this upcoming Sunday, New England will travel to the Lone Star State to take on the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon with a kickoff scheduled for 1:00 ET. The rematch of the 2012 Divisional playoffs will be televised on CBS.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- Since it's Thanksgiving, this means that both the Cowboys and Lions will be playing [Not each other, tho- apparently the universe will collapse upon itself if Dallas and Detroit ever play each other on Thanksgiving- NANESB!].

The Detroit Lions will host NFC north rival Green bay at Ford Field- that game is scheduled for a 12:30 ET kickoff and is scheduled to be televised on FOX.

Later on in the day, the Dallas Cowboy will take on the Oakland Raiders at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. The contest is set for a 4:25 ET kickoff and will be televised on CBS.

To wrap things up, the Baltimore Ravens will host the Pittsburgh Steelers for an AFC North matchup on a game that will be televised on NBC with a kickoff scheduled for 8:30 ET.

NHL- HUGE news out of Canada heading into the Thanksgiving break [ours, not theirs- NANESB!]. The National Hockey League and Rogers Communications [NYSE- RCI: TSX- RCI-A & RCI-B] have agreed to a 12 year, C$5.3 billion deal to broadcast NHL games in Canada, blindsiding competitors such as TSN and the state run Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

This isn't just Rogers getting a bigger slice of the pie- this is basically Rogers buying up the Marie Callendar's chain while TSN and the CBC were waiting for their waitress to bring them a slice of the pie and then telling TSN and the CBC that they've secured the rights to any pies sold for the next 12 years.

Under the deal, the CBC will retain their iconic Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts, but only after Rogers has already selected their first pick for that night's matchup on their networks.

The deal with Rogers- Canada's largest wireless and cable provider- also includes rights to the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Stanley Cup finals. Although no official announcement has been made, it's widely believed that Rogers will re-sell some rights to Bell Canada [NYSE- BCE]- Bell and Rogers are joint majority owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Curiously, ADRs of Rogers traded on the New York Stock Exchange were down slightly after the announcement.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- Wow...that was pretty embarrassing.

The Boston Bruins headed into the Thanksgiving weekend on the wrong end of an absolute beatdown at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings as the Bruins lost by a 6-1 final on Wednesday night at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. Jarome Iginla accounted for the lone Bruins goal (which came late) while the Red Wings got tallies from Justin Abdelkader, Tomas Tatar, Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall, Drew Miller and Gustav Nyquist.

The loss ends a 5-game streak where the Bruins managed to get at least one point and had won eight of their last 10 games.

The Bruins will return back to the TD Garden for a Friday afternoon for another Original 6 matchup when they host the New York Rangers. Puck is scheduled to drop at 1:00 ET and the game will be televised on NBC.

NCAA FOOTBALL- Big upset last weekend in the top 25 standings as the only undefeated team in the Big 12 was felled by a conference opponent late in the regular season- and it wasn't even close.

In Stillwater, OK, the Oklahoma State Cowboys managed to put up 49 points on the #3 ranked Baylor Bears on Saturday night, going on to win by a final of 49-17. At halftime, the Bears were trailing by a score of 14-3, but Oklahoma State came out in the second half to score three unanswered TDs in the 3rd quarter and won this one going away. Baylor slips to #9 in the AP standings while OSU vaults past them into #7.

So out of all the Top 25 teams, this leaves Alabama, Florida State, Northern Illinois and Fresno State as the remaining undefeated teams as they head into 'rivalry week' and their respective conference championships.

Perhaps the most compelling Rivalry Week matchup will be Saturday's Iron Bowl between #1 Alabama and a resurgent Auburn program, who comes into this weekend ranked #4. Kickoff from Auburn is scheduled for 3:30 ET and the game will be televised on CBS and can be heard on XM Channels 86 and 91.

Other Rivalry week matchups featuring undefeated teams from the BCS Top 25 include #16 Fresno State on the road against San Jose State on Friday- kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 PM ET on Friday afternoon and the game will be televised on CBS Sports network.

#2 Florida State, meanwhile, will travel to Gainesville, FL to take on the struggling Florida Gators, who are coming off a 26-20 stunning home loss to FCS Georgia Southern. To round out the BCS undefeteds, #14 Northern Illinois thumped the Western Michigan Mustangs by a 33-14 final on Tuesday night and will await the winner of Friday's Buffalo-Bowling Green State game for the MAC title game on December 6th.

To round out the BCS undefeateds on Rivalry Week, #3 Ohio State travels to the Big House in Ann Arbor, MI for The Game- that kicks off at 12:00 PM ET and will be televised on ABC and XM Channel 91.

While it doesn't involve an undefeated BCS title contender, another rivalry game of potential interest will pit #6 Clemson against #10 South Carolina, which kicks off at 7:00 ET and will be televised on ESPN.

BOSTON COLLEGE- No record-setting afternoon for RB Andre Williams, but the senior RB had a productive afternoon nonetheless on Saturday with 2 TD runs and 263 yards total against Maryland in the Eagles' 29-26 win over the Terps.

The final game of the regular season also happens to rekindle the old Big East-era rivalry with Syracuse as the Eagles will travel to the Carrier Dome to take on the Big Orange for the first time in three years and for the first time with Syracuse as a member of the ACC. This will be the Eagle's first trip to the Carrier Dome in 9 years and Syracuse needs a win to be bowl eligible while Boston College is looking to run the table and win their fifth straight game.

Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 ET and the game on XM channel 191 and will be streamed on ESPN3.

Wings N Things Sports Chowdah Update- Red Sox Jump Out to 2-0 ALDS Lead; Bruins Motor Past Red Wings; Eagles Come Out On Top of Joust With Black Knights

My my...the Red Sox, Bruins and Boston College all winning on the same day? Say- Did I mention already how much I LOVE this time of year?

Charles Krupa- AP

BOSTON RED SOX- In Friday's game one of the ALDS, the Red Sox went from being no-hit through the first three innings to scoring 12 unanswered runs to take the first game of the series by a 12-2 final and give Jon Lester his first postseason win 2008- also Game 1 of the ALDS.

Game 2 didn't get off the quite the promising start as Game 1, and Lackey was clearly struggling early on. The Red Sox gave him some run support early by getting an RBI sac-fly from Pedroia and solo homer from David Ortiz to make it a 2-0 Boston lead. Tampa Bay cut the lead in half in the top of the 2nd thanks to an RBI sacrifice fly from Delmon Young.


The Red Sox added to their lead in the bottom of the 3rd after David Ross led off the inning with a double before coming home thanks to an Ellsbury double. The speedy outfielder then advanced to third on a Victorino single. Pedoira then hit what looked like a sure double play ball to short, but Victorino took out Rays 2B Ben Zorbist with a clean slide- breaking up the double play and allowing Ellsbury to come home and make it 4-1. However, Rays starter David Price would get the double-play he was after when Big Papi came to the plate and did exactly that. The Red Sox added another run in the bottom of the 4th with a 2-out RBI triple from Stephen Drew.

In the top of the 5th, former Red Sox and Dodgers first baseman James Loney belted a 2-RBI double to deep center field to cut the Red Sox lead to 5-3. Pedroia would then get an RBI double to make it a 6-3 Boston lead. After watching Boston jump all over Tampa Bay for 12 unanswered runs, the crowd at Fenway was getting a little nervous when the Rays once again cut into Boston's lead with a Yuniel Escobar RBI single that chased Lackey from the mound.

David Price would stay in a bit longer but get yanked in the bottom of the 8th after giving up a solo homer to David Ortiz to make it 7-4 Boston. Price apparently objected to Papi standing at home plate and admiring the trajectory of his solo shot- this would actually be Big Papi's first multi-homer playoff game of his career.

The Red Sox bullpen (Bresolow, Tazawa and Uehara) held the Rays scoreless for 3⅔ innings, and although Lackey struggled for a bit, he stayed in the game long enough to get the win. Boston takes a 2-0 series lead in the ALDS as the series heads to Tampa Bay on Monday. Game 3's scheduled starters are Clay Buchholz [12-1; 1.74 ERA] will go up against Tampa Bay's Alex Cobb [11-3; 2.76 ERA]. First pitch is scheduled for 6:07 ET and the game will be televised on TBS.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB- Game 2 of the ALDS between Detroit and Oakland was an absolute pitching gem. Justin Verlander threw seven complete innings, allowing four hits and striking out eleven, but he didn't factor into the decision. Oakland starter Sonny Gray went eight complete innings, striking out nine. A's closer Grant Balfour got credit for the win after pitching a 1-2-3 top of the 9th before Oakland catcher Stephen Vogt drove in the winning run- the game's only run- with nobody out in the bottom of the 9th. This evens the series at 1-1 before the ALDS moves back to Detroit.

As a matter of fact, both series in the NLDS are knotted up at a game apiece. Game 3 of both the Dodgers-Braves series and Cardinals-Pirates series will get underway on Sunday from Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, respectively.

Joe Camporeale- USA Today Sports

NHL- As the Red Sox and Rays were getting underway, the Bruins and Red Wings were going head to head for the second game of the season at TD Garden on Saturday.

Torey Krug got the Bruins on the board early with a power play goal about midway through the first period before the Red Wings tied things up at 1-1 thanks to a Henrik Zettiberg tally.

Boston would take a 2-1 lead not even forty seconds into the second thanks to a Brad Marchand goal. Jordan Caron would add to the Boston lead at the 7:58 mark of the second and the scoring in the 3rd consisted of a Zdeno Chara had a power play goalto give Boston a 4-1 win. Tukka Rask turned aside 36 of the 37 shots he faced and the Bruins were 2 for 4 on the power play in their first Original 6 matchup of the season.

The Bruins next game won't be until Thursday night when they host the Colorado Avalanche. Puck is scheduled to drop at 7:00 ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

NCAA FOOTBALL- It was the game the Obama Administration didn't want played.

The Boston College Eagles have managed to surpass their win total from last season in a game that the federal government had threatened to shut down earlier this week- and on homecoming, no less.

Eagles RB Andrew Williams stood out with a 263 yard, 5 TD afternoon, tying a school record in Saturday's 48-27 win over the Army Black Knights. Williams came into Saturday afternoon's game leading the ACC in rushing at 515 yards and will tack Saturday afternoon's impressive numbers onto this season's totals.

The Eagles will have their work cut out for the next week when they head down to the Palmetto State to take on #3 Clemson in a nationally televised game. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 ET and that game will be broadcast on ABC or ESPN 2, depending on where you're located.