May Day Sports Chowdah Update- Sox Win Big With Bats and Feat of Clay; After Trailing Early Bruins Finish Game 1 Boston Strong; Back- But Not in Black, Celtics Showing Life in the Knick of Time

BOSTON BRUINS- After finishing the regular season seemingly with a whimper, the Bruins were set for their first round opponent- Northeast Division rival and fellow Original 6 member Toronto, who's fans had been waiting since 2004 for a playoff appearance. As the CBC points out, nobody had ever posted live updates about a Maple Leafs playoff game or live-tweeted one, since those social media platforms were still a few years away from being introduced.

Game one of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals got underway Wednesday night at the TD Garden. James van Riemsdyk got the blue and white on the board early with a power play goal less than two minutes into the first, but Boston would tie it up with a Wade Redden tally with less than five minutes to go and then take the lead on this Nathan Horton power play goal with 11.7 seconds left in the first period:



Horton's tally would turn out the be the game-winner, but the Bruins added two more in the second with even strength goals by David Krejci and Johnny Boychuk in the second period as Toronto scrambled.

The Bruins would go on to win Game 1 by a 4-1 final and Tukka Rask stopped 19 of the 20 shots he faced. Leafs goalie Jamie Reimer faced twice as many shots and allowed four goals in game one while David Krecji had a goal and a pair of assists Wednesday night.

Despite the lackluster finish to the regular season where they had lost seven out of their last nine, the Bruins are off to a good start in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Game two is set to take place on Saturday with the puck dropping at 7:00 ET. The contest will reportedly be televised on NESN, CBC and CNBC.

Nathan Denette- Canadian Press

RED SOX- Wednesday night's opening matchup of the Stanley Cup playoffs wasn't the only Boston vs Toronto matchup going on.

After Jon Lester was hung with his first L of the season in a high-scoring 9-7 loss to the Blue Jays, Clay Buchholz took to the mound on Wednesday night in Toronto.

Clay would get some run support early thanks to a two run home by Stephen Drew in the top of the second to give the Sox a 2-0 lead. As Buchholz was confounding the Toronto bats, allowing just two hits and three walks over seven innings worth of work, the Boston batters seemed to have Jays starter Mark Buehrle figured out as he gave up solo homers to Mike Napoli and Daniel Nava in the top of the 4th to make it a 4-0 Red Sox lead. With two away in the top of the 7th, Buehrle was pulled for Esmil Rogers who allowed Jonny Gomes to come home on a wild pitch to make it 5-0. With Dustin Pedroia on first base, the Jays decided to walk DH David Ortiz to get to Mike Napoli. That would prove to be a huge mistake as Napoli blasted a Rogers offering into the Sightlines Restaurant for a 3-run homer, breaking the game wide open with an 8-0 lead. Alex Wilson would come in in relief of Buchholz in the bottom of the 8th and give up a 1-out RBI triple to Brett Lawrie, but Boston would get out of the inning without any further damage and tack on two additional runs in the top of the 9th- including a Mike Carp solo homer to make it a 10-1 game.

The Red Sox would cruise to a 10-1 win thanks to the explosive bats and a strong seven innings by Buchholz, who is now 6-0 with a 1.01 ERA. Napoli would go 3-4 with two homers and 4 RBI while SS Stephen Drew would go 3-5 with a homer and two RBI.

Thursday night's game will have Ryan Dempster [1-2; 3.30 ERA] going up against the Jay's JA Happ [2-1; 3.86 ERA]. Despite the 1-2 record [along with some no decisions thrown in along the way- NANESB!], Dempster has 43 strikeouts in 30 innings pitched so far this season. First pitch is at 7:07 ET and the game will be broadcast on NESN and Rogers Sports Net.

Jesse D. Garrabrant- Getty Images

BOSTON CELTICS- After Sunday's win in the Garden to keep the series against the NY Knicks alive and stave off the sweep, the Celtics received some bulletin board materiel from the Knicks Kenyon Martin before Wednesday's Game 5. Martin had told his teammates to 'wear black- funeral colors' in anticipation of burying the Celtics at Madison Square Garden.

For Game 5, the Knicks got off to a torrid start, scoring 11 unanswered points to start off the game, but the Celtics would cut into their lead before halftime, getting their first lead of the night with 5:45 remaining in the 2nd quarter, leading 45-39 at halftime. In the second half, they started to pull away thanks in large part to Paul Piece's 10 points in the 3rd quarter.

From there, the C's would cruise to a 92-86 win, stunning the home crowd at Madison Square Garden. This would be Boston's second playoff win in the post Big Three era. Apparently some harsh words were exchanged after the game after C's reserve player Jordan Crawford [who didn't see a second of action in Game 5- NANESB!] got into a shoving match with Carmello Anthony and Ray Felton- although it was pretty mild in comparison to January's much publicized ballyhoo between Anthony and Garnett.

The somewhat unheralded Jeff Green led Celtics scoring on Wednesday night with 18 points, including going 2-2 from 3 point range. The remaining duo from the Big Three- Pierce and Garnett- had 16 points each while Jason Terry was once again productive coming off the bench with 17 points.

With the win, the series heads back to Boston for a Game 6 on Friday night, which will get underway at 7:00 ET and will be broadcast on ESPN. Boston is trying to become the first NBA team to come back from an 0-4 series deficit in a playoff series.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- After trading off their first round pick to the Minnesota Vikings, the New England Patriots had two second round picks and selected Southern Mississippi LB Jamie Collins and Marshall WR Aaron Dobson (52nd and 59th overall). Rutgers figures prominently in the Patriot's 3rd round selection when they chose former Scarlet Knights CB Logan Ryan and SS Duron Harmon (83rd and 91st overall). New England only had one pick on the 4th round- TCU WR Josh Boyce- and didn't have another selection until the 7th round where they selected Illinois DE Michael Buchanan and Rutgers LB Steve Beauharnais.

OTHER PATRIOTS NEWS- Former Sooners and Patriots head coach Chuck Fairbanks passed away in his suburban Phoenix, AZ home last month. The 79 year old, who coached Heisman winner Steve Owens with the Oklahoma Sooners and was coach when the Patriots earned their first playoff berth since the AFL-NFL merger, had been battling brain cancer at the time.

Fairbanks came to New England from Oklahoma in 1973 and within three years the Patriots were in their first playoff game since the 1963 AFL Championship. While he drafted popular quarterback Steve Grogan out of Kansas State, Fairbanks was sued by the Patriots for breach of contract when he told then-owner Billy Sullivan he wanted out of the remainder of his contract in order to become head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. Fairbanks had reportedly been recruiting for Colorado whole still New England's head coach in 1978. The dispute was resolved when a group of Colorado boosters bought out the remainder of Fairbanks' contract in October 1979.

After his coaching career- including a short lived stint in the USFL- Fairbanks dabbled in real estate and golf course development and consulted for NFL teams in training camp, including the Cowboys when former Pats and Giants head coach Bill Parcells was at the helm.

OTHER NFL NEWS- Former broadcaster and New York Giants kicker Pat Sumerall passed away at the age of 82 in Texas on April 16th.

Born and raised in Lake City, FL, Sumerall attended the University of Arkansas where he would play both tight end and placekicker for the Razorbacks between 1949 and 1951. Although drafted in the fourth round by the Detroit Lions, Summerall played for the New York Giants and put the first points on the board for the G-Men during the 1958 NFL Championship Game- dubbed 'The Greatest Game Ever' by some and considered by many to be the starting point of the NFL's ascendency [the Giants would go on to lose by a 23-17 final- NANESB!].

However, Sumerall is best known for calling NFL games in his smooth, calm voice. Initially that voice found a home on local stations in New York and then CBS Sports. However, by the early 1990s, upstart FOX sports surprised the broadcast industry by outbidding CBS for the rights to the NFC broadcast package [to this day, CBS maintains the rights to the AFC broadcasts- NANESB!]. At FOX, he was reunited with the loud and boisterous John Madden as his broadcast partner. The duo called three Super Bowls together, including their final game- the Patriot's surprise win over the heavily favored St Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans.

Sumerall's also did voiceover work for the NFL and lent his voice to appearences on The Simpsons and Family Guy as well as radio ads for True Value hardware and Dux Beds.

Boston Strong SportsChowdah Update: Lackey's Back....ey, Houston Runs into Texas-Sized Problems at Fenway; Senators Veto Bruins Chances At Clinching Northeast Division Title; Celtics Avoid First Round Sweep;

Marty Schwalm- AP Photo

RED SOX- After a promising start to the series, the Red Sox came into Sunday afternoon hoping to close out a 4-game sweep of the visiting Houston Astros. Sunday afternoon's game was also noteworthy because it was the first start for John Lackey since leaving the 5th inning of a game against the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre on April 6th. Since then, the Sox have shuffled the lineup using either Alfredo Aceves or Allen Webster as the fifth starter.

But with both Aceves and Webster sent down to Pawtucket, there would be no shuffling and Lackey would make only his second start since 2011 on Sunday. Although Lackey struggled somewhat out of the gate- allowing a 2-out RBI single from Ronny Cedeno for Houston to take the early lead- the Red Sox tied things up at 1-1 thanks to a Big Papi RBI single in the bottom of the first, although the Sox would leave the bases loaded to end the inning.

However, in the bottom of the 4th and with two away, SS Stephen Drew cleared the bases with an RBI triple to break the deadlock and give Boston a 3-1 advantage. That would actually be all the Red Sox would need for the day, but Dustin Pedroia and Mike Carp each had RBI doubles to give Boston a 5-1 lead.

Lackey struggled a bit in the 6th, allowing 3 straight singles with only one away, but the Astros were unable to capitalize after Lackey got the next two batters out. In the bottom of the 7th, Big Papi added to the Boston lead with an RBI double. From there, the Red Sox would cruise to a 6-1 win over Houston, sweeping the four game series at Fenway. Boston has now won 7 out of  their last 10 games and have already tied the club record for wins in April with a total of 18. They have a chance to surpass that high water mark on Tuesday night when they start a six game road trip with three apiece in Toronto and Texas.

Jon Lester [4-0; 2.27 ERA] will get the start on Tuesday night at the Rogers Centre against the Blue Jays Brandon Morrow [0-2; 5.27 ERA]. First pitch is scheduled for the somewhat random time of 7:07 ET and the game will be broadcast on NESN and Rogers Sports Net.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- Red Sox reliever Joel Hanrahan will return to the Red Sox lineup on Tuesday. Hanrahan last appeared in the 9th inning of the April 13th home game against Tampa Bay and was relieved by Koji Uehara after walking the first two batters he faced.

Hanrahan has reportedly lost out to Andrew Bailey as the Sox closer. Currently Hanrahan is 0-1 with 3 saves and an ERA of 11.57 on the season.

Steven Senne- AP

NHL- The rest of the NHL was waiting for the Bruins to finish up their regular season on Sunday evening in a matchup against Ottawa that was originally scheduled for Patriot's Day, but was postponed due to security concerns in the wake of the Boston Marathon bomings.

Despite the Bruins clawing back to tie Sunday's game at 2-2 in the 3rd period, the Senators scored two unanswered goals to give them a 4-2 lead and the win in the regular season finale. Coming into the game, it was already established that both teams would be in the Stanley Cup playoffs, it was just a matter of determining who they would face. With either a regulation win or overtime loss, the B's would have been facing either the NY Rangers or NY Islanders in the first round.

Instead, the Bruins finish up one point behind Montreal in the Northeastern division standings and fourth overall in the eastern conference- behind Pittsburgh, Montreal and Washington [despite having more points than the Capitals- NANESB!].

Either way, there was at least a 66% chance that the Bruins would be facing another Original 6 team for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The regulation loss on Sunday earns them a series with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Game one of the first round series between the Leafs and B's is set to take place on Wednesday night at 7:00 PM ET with the game being televised on NESN and the CBC.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- The complete first round matchups of the Stanley Cup playoffs will look a little like this:

Los Angeles Kings @ St Louis Blues- Game 1 starts on 4/30 at 8:00 ET

Minnesota Wild @ Chicago Blackhawks- Game 1 starts on 4/30 at 8:00 ET

Detroit Red Wings @ Anaheim Ducks- Game 1 starts on 4/30 at 10:30 ET

Toronto Maple Leafs @ Boston Bruins- Game 1 starts on 5/1 at 7:00 ET

NY Islanders @ Pittsburgh Penguins- Game 1 starts on 5/1 at 7:30 ET

San Jose Sharks @ Vancouver Canucks- Game 1 starts on 5/1 at 10:30 ET

Ottawa Senators @ Montreal Canadiens- Game 1 starts on 5/2 at 7:00 ET

NY Rangers @ Washington Capitals- Game 1 starts on 5/2 at 7:30 ET

NBA- Well, it took overtime, but the Boston Celtics managed to avoid a first round sweep at the hands of the New York Knicks on Sunday.

After taking the first three games of the series, the Knicks had managed to erase a 20-point deficit in the 3rd quarter at the Garden on Sunday afternoon to tie the game up at 84-84. Jason Terry- who was 7-10 in FGs and had 18 points on the night- helped Boston pull ahead with a crucial 3 pointer with about 50 seconds to go in OT.

The Celtics would go on to win by a final of 97-90 in OT, avoiding an embarrassing sweep at home at the hands of their Atlantic Division rivals. Despite going 9-20, Paul Piece led the scoring for the Celtics with 29 points while Jeff Green went 9-22 with 26 points on the night.

Game 5 is set to take place Wednesday night with a start of 7:00 and will be televised on TNT.

Spring Cleaning Sports Chowdah- Orange (County) Crushed, Sox Sweep Halos in 4; B's Negotiate Way Past Price in 2OT; C's Send Spike Lee Home Unhappy

MLB: After taking the first two games from the Angels, the Red Sox went for the 4 game sweep in Orange county. Not only did they manage to win the final 2 games of the series against the Angels, they got back-to-back shutouts from what many had considered the weakest part of Boston's 5-man rotation.

On Saturday night, Daisuke Matsuzaka brought down his ERA even further by throwing eight innings of one-hit shutout baseball and got run support from a Kevin Youkilis 2-run homer and RBI's from Varitek, Adrian Gonzalez and even Carl Crawford. After giving up a leadoff single to Erick Aybar in the bottom of the 9th (the Angels 2nd hit of the game), Daniel Bard got the next three batters in order to close out the 5-0 Red Sox win.

On Sunday, John Lackey went up against his former team and allowed 6 hits and a walk scattered throughout 8 innings of work while the Red Sox gave him some run support right out of the gate with RBI hits from Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz in the top of the first as well as another run coming in on a fielder's choice off the bat of Mike Cameron to jump out to a 3-0 lead.

The Red Sox would add to that lead on a Pedroia sac-fly, 2-run Carl Crawford homer and Adrian Gonzalez single to make it 7-0, and Dan Wheeler would come out in the bottom of the 9th for a 1-2-3 inning to close out the 7-0 win and sweep the long weekend series in Orange County, winning the final 2 games by a composite score of 12-0.

Boston is 5-1 on the Left Coast jaunt of their road trip and 8-2 in their last 10 games. Their road trip will bring them back a little closer to Boston on Tuesday night when they take on the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. Clay Buccholz (1-2; 5.31 ERA) is scheduled to get the start against Baltimore's Zach Britton (3-1; 3.16 ERA) with first pitch at 7:05 ET.


NHL: Both Tim Thomas and Carey Price were outstanding in net on for Saturday night's game in the Garden. The Bruins were unable to get anything by Price in the first two periods, but managed to take a 1-0 lead 4 and a half minutes into the 3rd on a Brad Marchand goal. With just under 6 minutes remaining in regulation, Montreal came back and found the back of the net on an even strength Jeff Halpern goal, tying the game and eventually forcing sudden death overtime.

The score would remain knotted at 1-1 through the first overtime, but with just under 11 minutes remaining in the 2nd OT, Nathan Horton would break the deadlock.
Tim Thomas stopped 44 of 45 shots faced in both regulation and OT while Carey Price faced 51 shots on Saturday, turning aside 49 of them.

The Bruins take the series lead for the first time by a margin of 3-2 and have the opportunity to close out the series on Tuesday night in Montreal. Game 6 from the Bell center will be braodcast live on NESN, the NHL Network and CBC with the puck dropping at 7:00 PM ET.


NBA: Despite the first two games not being decided until the final 20 seconds of so of regulation, the Celtics dispatched the Knicks in a particularly brutal and efficient fashion on Easter Sunday.

Even after Spike Lee's apperance in One Day at Fenway, I'm enjoying the schadenfreude. Or perhaps because of it. Either way...

The Celtics pretty handily won Game 4 by a final of 101-89 and swept the series with the Knicks.

Kevin Garnett had 26 points and 10 rebounds while Rajon Rondo had 21 points and 12 assists in Sunday afternoon's romp. Big Baby came off the bench for 14 points while Carmello Anthony led the Knick's scoring with 32 points in the losing effort.

After having taken care of New York so swiftly, the C's will now have to play the waiting game (unless they decide the waiting game sucks and play Hungry Hungry Hippos instead), awaiting the outcome of the Miami Heat/Philadelphia 76ers series to find out who their next opponent will be.

Good Friday Indeed Sports Chowdah Update- Sox, B's Working Overtime on the Road; C's Take 3-0 Series Lead on Knicks

MLB: As painful as it was to see some of the missed opportunities and stranded runners, the Red Sox have taken the first two games in a 4-game weekend series against the Angels out in Orange County. This makes it 3 straight road wins for Boston, who have won six out of their last seven after an atrocious 0-6 start.

Thursday night's series opener featured Josh Beckett on the bump throwing 5 innings of no-hit baseball (the bid for a no-no was broken up by an Erick Aybar infield single to lead off the bottom of the 6th). Beckett was working with a 2-0 lead courtesy of a 2-out, 2 RBI Jacoby Ellsbury single in the top half of the 6th. However, leading up to that point, the Sox had stranded 8 baserunners and the lack of production with runners on the bags came back to haunt them when Angels outfielder Torii Hunter belted a 2-run homer to center field off of Beckett in the bottom of the 7th.

Beckett went 8 full innings and threw 125 pitches- just under his career high- and got no decision in the Thursday night game. The game would remain deadlocked at 2-2 until the top of the 11th when Adrian Gonzalez had an RBI double and Jed Lowrie brought Dustin Pedroia home on a sac-fly to make it 4-2 Red Sox. Angels outfielder Pete Bourjos managed a 1-out bunt single off of Papelbon in the bottom of the 11th, but Papelbon managed to get the next 2 batters out to close out the 4-2 win in Anaheim on Thursday night- Bobby Jenks was credited with the win.

Friday night's game was a slightly different story, although Jacoby Ellsbury would start off the scoring in the 3rd by driving in Saltalamacchia. That was added to when a struggling Carl Crawford hit a fly ball to the 'Bermuda triangle' in medium center field that hit the grass as three Angels converged (the error was ultimately charged to Angels OF Pete Bourjos) while Jed Lowrie and JD Drew scored to make it a 3-0 game.

In the top of the 6th Jed Lowrie led off the inning with a double, but made it to 3rd on OF Vernon Well's fielding error. JD Drew then singled off of starter Dan Haren to make it a 4-0 game.

Jon Lester threw 6 innings and 11 pitches of shutout baseball, allowing 4 hits and walking two while striking out 8. The bullpen came precariously close to coughing up the lead, giving up a Jeff Mathis RBI single in the 7th followed by a Bobby Abreu RBI single (and then Abreu reaching home on a passed ball) in the bottom of the 8th.

Papelbon came on in the bottom of the 9th and after giving up a 1 out single to pinch-hiter Hank Conger, got the next two batters to fly out and strike out to close out the game in a paltry 9 innings. Boston hangs on to win by a 4-3 final, with the Sox winning 6 out of their last 7 games (and three straight on their West Coast road trip).

Saturady's game will feature Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-2; 6.43 ERA- and believe me, it was almost TWICE that before his Patriot's day outing against the Blue Jays) against Ervin Santana (0-2; 5.26 ERA). First pitch will be at 6:05 PM Pacific, 9:05 ET.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: 3B Kevin Youkilis left Thursday night's game after fouling a pitch off of his left shin. He missed Friday night's game but is expected to be in the lineup Saturday night.


NHL: Not only are the Bruins still alive after falling into an 0-2 hole to start off the series, but they managed to pull even with the Canadiens after winning two in a row in Montreal.

The Canadiens started off the scoring in the 1st with an even-strength goal from Brent Sopel. Early in the 2nd, the Bruins would pull even with a tally from Micheal Ryder.

Frustratingly, the B's would then go on to allow 2 goals in less than a minute from Micheal Cammaleri and Kostitsyn (both even strength) towards the middle of the 2nd to give Montreal a 3-1 advantage. However, the Bruins would claw back in the latter half of the 2nd period and get goals from Andrew Ference and Patrice Bergeron to tie things at 3-3 before the 2nd intermission.

Early in the 3rd, the Habs would re-take the lead with a power-play goal from PK Subban (the only power play goal for either side Thursday night), but Chris Kelly (who rejoined from Boston the team after undergoing examination for facial injuries sustained in Game 3) tallies the game-tying goal at the 13:42 mark of the 3rd. neither side was able to break the 4-4 tie in regulation, so the game went to OT- where Micheal Ryder quieted the crowd with a little something like this:


With two goals and an assist on the night, Micheal Ryder was named Thursday Night's Star of the Game (which I find pretty subjective most of the time, but appropriate in this case).

Tim Thomas stopped 34 of 38 shots faced while Montreal's Carey Price stopped 30 of 35 faced. Surprisingly, there was a grand total of 6 penalty minutes in Saturday night's game, with the B's going 0-1 on the Power play and the Habs going 1-2.

Game 5 is set to take place at the Garden on Saturday night- 7PM Eastern Time, 4PM Pacific. The game will be broadcast on both VS and the CBC [and if it isn't too late, then may I make the bold prediction of 'Whoever wins at home first wins the series?'- NANESB!]

OTHER BRUINS NEWS: Defenseman Andrew Ference was fined $2500 by the NHL for making an obscene gesture towards Montreal fans during Thursday night's games [in all honesty, I'm surprised the Montreal fans didn't call the Sûreté du Québec after said obscene gesture- NANESB!].

Ference, for his part, said the gesture was unintentional and that he was merely celebrating his 2nd period goal on Thursday night. I find that hard to buy because...well....have you ever met any Montreal fans? Now....imagine a whole building full of them. Yeah....middle finger is the kindest thing I can think of.



NBA: No last second heroics required for the C's on Friday night at Madison Square Garden- things were pretty much taken care of by the 3rd quarter.

Paul Pierce led the C's scoring with 38 points, followed by Ray Allen's 32 points while Rajon Rondo had 15 points and 11 rebounds in Boston's 113-96 win over the Knicks.

The C's have a pretty commanding 3-0 lead in the series and can close things out on game 4 Sunday afternoon at 3:30 PM ET, 12:30 PM Pacific. The Easter Sunday game will be broadcast on ABC Sports.

Pre Good Friday Sports Chowdah- Red Sox Bats Looking A-OK in 1st Road Win; Price is Wrong for Habs in Game 2; C's Survive Another Close Shave w/Knicks

RED SOX: After an impressive Patriot's Day rebound by Daisuke Matsuzaka in which he cut his ERA in half by going 7 innings & giving up one hit in Boston's 9-1 win against the Blue Jays, the Red Sox headed out west to Oakland.

The first game ended up with the Sox getting shut out 5-0 with Lackey allowing 1 run in six innings of work and the A's exploding for 4 more in the bottom of the 8th.

However, the Sox bounced back on the Wednesday day game. Although former Sox outfielder Coco Crisp put Oakland on the board first with a solo homer right out of the gate off of Clay Buchholz. Carl Crawford put the Sox on the board with a 2-out RBI single in the 2nd inning and Youkilis, JD Drew and Jed Lowrie homered to pad the Red Sox lead by a 5-1 margin. The A's would get a one back in the bottom of the 8th, but after giving up a 1-out Landon Powell RBI single in the bottom of the 9th Papelbon managed to get the next 2 batters to pop out for a 5-3 Boston win.

After the atrocious start, the Red Sox have won four out of their last five games- yesterday's win against the A's is their first road win of the season.

The Red Sox will head south to Orange County to take on the Angels tonight, with Josh Beckett (1.80 ERA; 2-1) going up against Tyler Chatwood (3.75 ERA; 1-1). First pitch is at 10:05 Eastern, 7:05 Pacific.

OTHER MLB NEWS: Commissioner Bud Selig announced that the league was stepping in to take control of the day to day operations of the LA Dodgers, citing uncertainty over owner Frank McCourt's uncertain financial situation and ongoing divorce proceedings.

McCourt released a statement saying that the Dodgers were in compliance with MLB financial guidelines.

MacCallum/Getty images

NHL: Unable to win at home, the Bruins instead got one on the road in Montreal Monday night. The Bruins got off to a 2-0 lead with goals from David Krejci and Nathan Horton in the first period, and after a Rich Peverly tally two minutes into the second, Montreal's Andrei Kostitsyn would get one past Tim Thomas to make it a 3-1 game heading into the 2nd intermission.

Montreal would make it a one goal game early in the 3rd with a Tomas Plekanec goal about 7 minutes in. However, after the Habs pulled netminder Carey Price with time running out in regulation, Boston's Chris Kelly would get an empty-netter to ice the game for the B's by a 4-2 final.

Kelly's empty-netter came after he was knocked down and hit his face on the goalpost earlier. He remained down for several minutes, but was kept in the game. While the team was staying in Lake Placid, NY prior to Game 4, Kelly was sent back to Boston to be examined for any facial fractures (although he is expected to be on the ice for Game 4 tonight).

Montreal still holds a 2-1 series lead, but the Bruins have the chance to even things up on Thursday night at 7PM ET, 4 PT.

Getty Images

NBA: A little closer than I would've liked, but the Celtics presently hold a 2-0 series lead over the NY Knicks after Tuesday night's game at the Garden. The win comes despite a 40 point effort for the Knick's Carmello Anthony- although Rajon Rondo was no slouch himself with 30 points and 4 rebounds.

Kevin Garnett sank the go-ahead basket with all of 14 seconds remaining in regulation, then managed to steal the ball back from the Knicks with 4 seconds on the clock in the Celtic's 96-93 win over the Knicks.

The series resumes Friday night at Madison Square Garden 7PM ET (4 Pacific) and will be broadcast on ESPN.

Pre-Patriot's Day Sports Chowdah- C's Pull One Out in Knick of Time; Sox Get 1st Back-to-Back Wins; B's 0-for-Postseason So Far

NBA: After a fairly lackluster couple of games in the final couple of games in the NBA regular season, the C's closed out the regular season on Wednedsday night with a 112-102 win at home against the NY Knicks.

The first round of the playoffs got underway on Sunday and would see Boston at home, hosting none other than....the NY Knicks. The C's would head into halftime down by a margin of 51-39, but would come storming back in the second half. Ray Allen would have 24 points on the night, but none more pivotal than the 3-pointer he nailed with 12 seconds left in regulation to put the Celtics up for good. But why tell you when the above video does a much better job of showing you? The Knicks had the ball back with about 11 seconds remaining before Carmello Athony's shot hit the rim as time expired, giving Boston the 85-87 win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Game 2 is set to take place at the Garden on Tuesday night at 7PM ET and will be televised on TNT.

NHL Ouch! After a much more spirited finish to the regular season than the Celtics (in my opinion, at least) the Bruins have come out and pretty much laid an egg against #6 Montreal so far. The series began on Thursday with Montreal shutting out the Bruins 2-0 and continued on Saturday night where the Habs bested a Chara-less habs by a 3-1 final in Saturday night, with Montreal getting their first two goals before the first 2 and a half minutes had elapsed.

Carey Price has allowed one goal (from Patrice Bergeron) in 66 shots faced in the series so far. If the B's hope to turn this series around, they'll have to do it on the road in Montreal starting on Monday night (7PM ET).
MLB: I kinda like this 'winning' thing [and not Charlie Sheen 'winning' either- NANESB!] although I feel I shouldn't have to wait until tax day for the Red sox to get their 3rd win.

After dropping two in a row to the Tampa Bay Rays (nature intervened to prevent a 3 game sweep, aparently), the Sox homestand continued Friday night when the sox played host to the Blue Jays for a 4-game series. On Friday, the Jays cruised to a come-from behind win despite having what was initially an Adam Lind homer overturned by replay. Toronto would go on to win by a 7-6 final on Firday night. On Saturday, Beckett's role once again seemed to be to stop the bleeding in any way possible, a task he handled masterfully in 7 innings of work, allowing one run on three hits while walking two and striking out nine during the 4-1 win.

Sunday afternoon marked the first time in the 2011 the Red Sox would win back-to-back games, with Jon Lester going 6 whole innings and allowing an earned run on 6 hits, 3 walks and five strikeouts. Lester was pulled in the top of the 7th with two on and nobody away before Daniel Bard came on and was able to get a double-play ball followed by a strike out to end the Blue Jays threat. Jacoby Ellsbury belted a 3 run homer and Jarrod Saltalamacchia had a 3 RBI day in Boston's 8-1 win. The final game of the homestand will get underway at 11:00AM Eastern Time with Daisuke Matsuzaka starting against Ricky Romero [I'm not even gonna post the respective ERA's- it's a tad depressing right now- NANESB!]. From there, the Sox will head out West to take on the Oakland A's beginning Tuesday night.

OTHER SOX NEWS: Just in time for tax day, the Red Sox and 1B Adrian Gonzalez have agreed to terms on a 7-year, $154 million contract extension. Most of the terms for the deal were established during a 2-day negotiatiting window back in December, but weren't finalized until talks between the Sox and Gonzalez's agent resumed a few weeks ago.

Sports Chowdah Update- C's Rally in the Knick of Time; Boston B-Devils Jersey; Madness Marches On; Manny Returns; NHL Dishes Suspension to Cooke

MLB: For those of you keeping track (which I'll admit I've been doing a piss poor job of) tonight's Sox-Rays game marked Manny Ramierez's first appearance at Ft. Meyer's City of Palms Park as a Tampa Bay Ray. The former Indians, Red Sox and Dodgers slugger went 1 for 1 with two walks and scored a run on Tuesday while on the mound, 2010 AL Cy Young winner David Price outlasted John Lackey, who gave up 5 runs over 5 ⅓ innings and was hung with his first loss of the Spring training for a 2-1 record, with the Rays winning 7-4. The Red Sox have tomorrow off and will next face the Florida Marlins at Jupiter, FL on Thursday with first pitch at 1:05 ET. OTHER RED SOX NEWS: The agent for 1B Adrian Gonzalez, John Boggs, has said that his client and the Red Sox are close to agreeing on a seven year contract extension for the former San Diego infielder. In his final year with the Padres, Gonzalez hit 31 home runs and had a .298 BA while playing half his games in the very pitcher friendly PetCo Park. NHL: After Saturday's disappointing 5-2 loss to the Maple Leafs in Toronto, the Bruins would head home and take on the struggling New Jersey Devils. Although the Bruins came into March riding an impressive 6-game road winning streak, the B's would then go on to win only two of their next eight contests (although they would garner a point or two for losses taking place in OT or the shootout- and curiously, they have yet to relinquish 1st place in the division this month). Tuesday night's game looked as though it would be more of the same when the Devil's Ilya Kovalchuck scored first to give New Jersey the 1-0 lead. Shawn Thronton would get the equalizer at the with just over four and a half minutes remaining in the first period. In the 2nd period, Zdeno Chara would put the B's up for good with a power play goal (the Bruins went 1 for 5 with the man advantage on Tuesday night) while Milan Lucic would score for Boston in the 3rd and Mark Recchi would get an empty-netter as the exclamation point in the Bruin's 4-1 win over New Jersey. Zdeno Chara came up big, for lack of a better term, coming up with the game winning goal and 2 assists on Tuesday night. Tim Thomas stopped 30 shots, not allowing a goal after Kovalchuck's power play goal in the 1st period. The win all but finishes off whatever postseason aspirations the Devils might've had to begin with. The Bruins next game will be on Thursday at home against Montreal. The 2nd place Canadiens are coming off of being shut out 2-0 by the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night. OTHER NHL NEWS: The NHL has decided to hand down a suspension to enforcer Matt Cooke for not only the final 10 games of the regular season, but also the first round of the playoffs after his elbow to the head against the Ranger's Ryan McDonagh on Sunday. Dennis Savard had his 2009-2010 season ended by a concussion after taking an elbow to the head from the Penguins cheap shot artist. NBA: Like the Bruins, over the last several games the Celtics have been looking like a playoff bound team by virtue of racking up the wins earlier in the season that didn't threaten to do much once they arrived there. After starting out their most recent road trip with a 93-77 loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday, the C's managed to bounce back with an 89-85 win over the New Orleans Hornets before heading to Madison Square Garden to wrap up their 3 game raod trip against the Knicks. Now, most of the time the Knicks are a punchline or laughingstock who's only claim to fame is having Spike Lee mouth off at the visiting players. Now although the recently made headlines by acquiring Carmello Anthony in a trade from Denver, the were at one game over .500 coming into Monday night's game against Boston. By halftime on Monday night's game, it looked as though Boston's March woes would continue, as the Knickerbockers headed into halftime with a fairly commanding 51-37 lead over the visitors. However, the Celtics would mount a spirited comeback in the 2nd half of what some would consider a possible playoff preview, with their defense holding the Knicks to just 35 points in the 2nd half, with Rajon Rondo putting Boston in the lead for good after hitting a jumper with just over 3 minutes left in regulation. Shortly after making the shot, Rajon and Carmello Anthony collided while 'Melo was attempting to steal a pass, resulting in a gash above Anthony's eye. Rondo came up with the ball and passed to Big Baby for a layup that but Boston up 90-86. Pierce nailed a jumper to make it a 6 point game before Ray Allen's dunk made it 94-86 with 40 seconds left in regulation before following ti up with two successful free throws. Kevin Garnett led the scoring for Boston with 24 points along with 11 rebounds on Monday night, followed by Paul Pierce's 21 points and 6 rebounds. The C's still are in first place for the Atlantic conference, although now they are a half point behind the Chicago Bulls for1st overall in the Eastern Conference. Interestingly, despite the .500 record and 3 game skid, the Knicks are still very much in the playoff hunt. The Celtics will return home on Wednesday night to take on the Memphis Grizzlies at 7:30 PM ET. NCAA HOCKEY: While everybody from the leader of the free world on down is keeping track of their March Madness brackets, just a reminder that the NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament gets underway this Friday. The schedule is as follows: Friday, March 25 3 p.m., East Region: Minnesota-Duluth vs. Union (Bridgeport, CT), ESPNU 5:30 p.m., West Region: Michigan vs. Nebraska-Omaha (St. Louis, MO), ESPN3 6:30 p.m., East Region: No. 1 Yale vs. Air Force (Bridgeport, CT), ESPNU 9 p.m., West Region: No. 1 Boston College vs. Colorado College (St. Louis, MO), ESPNU Saturday, March 26 1:30 p.m., Midwest Region: No.1 North Dakota vs. Rensselaer (Green Bay, WI), ESPN3 4 p.m., Northeast Region: No. 1 Miami vs. New Hampshire (Manchester, NH), ESPNU 5 p.m., Midwest Region: Denver vs. Western Michigan (Green Bay, WI), ESPN3 7:30 p.m., Northeast Region: Merrimack vs. Notre Dame (Manchester, NH), ESPN3 NCAA HOOPS: Perhaps to nobody's surprise, Kansas had sent to BU Terriers packing in the first round last week, while UConn- the sole remaining New England team in the tournament now- bested the Cincinnati Bearcats by 30 points. This sets up a match against the San Diego State Aztecs (who need double OT to get past Temple this weekend) at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA on Thursday night at 7:15 PM ET, 4:15 PM Pacific.

Quickie Cuppa Sports Chowdah- Free Agent Cliff Hanger; Ocean's River's Eleven; B's Hit w/Stafford Infection; WWII Vet, HOFer Feller Passes Away

Image: USA Today

MLB: WWII Navy Veteran and Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller passed away in a Cleveland area hospice on Wednesday night. The 92 year old was suffering from acute leukemia and pneumonia.

Feller, a first ballot hall of famer, first appeared with the Indians at the age of 17 in 1936 and stayed with the Indians his whole career. His career totals of 266 wins, 3,827 innings pitched, 2,581 strikeouts and 279 complete games remain a franchise record to this day.

The day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Feller enlisted in the United States Navy and ended up as a Gun captain serving on the USS Alabama until 1945.

"I'm proud of that decision to enlist," Feller said. "It was important to serve your country. I didn't worry about losing my baseball career. We needed to win the war. I wanted to do my part."

Feller never considered himself a war hero: "The soldiers that didn't come back were the heroes. It's a roll of the dice. If a bullet has your name on it, you're a hero. If you hear a bullet go by, you're a survivor."

Feller also was on the last Indians team to win a World Series title. Although he went 0-2 in the 1948 World Series against the Boston Braves of the NL, Cleveland would go on to win the series 4 games to 2.

Feller would retire in 1956 and go on be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1995, a museum in his hometown of Van Meter, IA opened up and in retirement, 'Bullet Bob' or 'The Heater from Van Meter'- as Feller was sometimes referred to in his playing days- was a regular fixture around Cleveland's Jacobs Field.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: Just when it was looking like highly prized free agent pitcher Cliff Lee had to choose between the Yankees or Rangers, the Philadelphia Phillies swooped in- seemingly from out of nowhere- and signed Lee to a 5 year $120 million deal.

In taking the Phillies offer, Lee leaves an estimated $30 million on the table that the Yankees were offering and leaves the Bronx Bombers scrambling to try and find any big-name free agent they could sign this offseason. I imagine this signing is a particularly bitter pill to swallow in the Big Apple, not only for the blow to the Yankees, but also the fact that the NY Mets are on the same division against a team that features a starting rotation of Roy Halliday, Roy Oswalt, Cliff Lee and....um......Joe Blanton? OK....you gotta admit the first four are pretty formidable.

*The Washington Nationals have signed free agent right-fielder Jayson Werth to a 7 year, $126 million contract this week. In his final season with the Phillies, Werth had a .296 batting average with 27 homers and 85 RBI

NFL: Brett Favre's streak of consecutive regular-season starts was snapped Monday night in Detroit when the Vikings home field was moved from the collapsed roof of the Metrodome to Detroit's Ford Field. The streak that began on September 13, 1992 on the road against Tampa Bay unceremoniously came to and end as backup QB Tavaris Jackson and the Vikings offense sputtered in their 21-3 loss to the NY Giants.

That was actually Game 1 of a rare late-season Monday Night doubleheader (although unless you had DirecTV or Sirius/XM, the Vikings/Giants game was only broadcast in NY and the Twin Cities). The regularly scheduled Monday Night game got underway in Houston's Reliant Stadium shortly after Favre's streak was snapped

And while I have not rooting interest in either team, the nationally televised Monday Night Football game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans got very interesting very late.

The Ravens took a 21-7 lead into halftime and almost immediately added to that with a 103 yard kickoff return by Baltimore's David Reed to make it a 28-7 game. At this point, the casual observer would've figured it was over, shut off the TV and found something else to do.....clean up around their place, go to a Christmas party, update their crappy blog.....anything but continue to watch this one-sided ass kicking.

In all honesty, I didn't tune in until the score was 28-13 Baltimore, but wouldn't you know it? That Reed kickoff return was it for the scoring for Baltimore in the second half. Texans QB Matt Schaub engineered two drives in the 4th quarter- including one from their own 5 yard line with 2:42 remaining in regulation- to tie the game with a successful 2 point conversion attempt with 21 seconds left in the 4th.

So on to overtime- Baltimore's offense gets the ball to start off the OT, but the drive sputters when Ravens QB Joe Flacco [who just happens to be a Colonial Athletic Association alumnus- NANESB!] was sacked for an 11 yard loss on 3rd and 10 from Baltimore's own 41 yard line. Texans get the ball back, but thanks to a pretty good punt and shoddy return by Texans special teams, they're pinned inside their own 10 yard line. Schaub's first pass attempt falls incomplete. His next pass attempt is complete to Ravens CB Josh Wilson, who runs the interception back 12 yards for the Ravens TD in a 34-28 OT win.

NHL: The only Sabre to get on the board against the Bruins on Wednesday night was returning RW Drew Stafford, but that's all Buffalo would need. Stafford injured his shoulder in a November game against Montreal, and while returning in a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Stafford re-aggravated the injury. The Wednesday night game would mark his first time back on the ice since Dec 3rd.

And apparently he decided to celebrate with a hat trick. David Krejci would open up the scoring in the first with a goal just two and a half minutes in, but Stafford got Buffalo on the board with a power-play goal to tie the contest up at 1-1 with less than 90 seconds left in the 1st. After a scoreless 2nd period, the Bruins briefly took the lead in the 3rd on a Micheal Ryder power play goal. Stafford would knot the contest back up with an even strength goal to make it 2-2 30 seconds after Ryder's tally and then put the Sabres up for good on his 2nd power play goal of the night midway through the 3rd with what would prove to be the game-winner.

Stafford scored his 3rd career hat trick and the Sabres win by a final of 3-2 at the HSBC arena on Wednesday night. Tukka Rask stopped 32 of 35 shots faced while Buffalo's Ryan Miller let in two on 34 shots faced.

This is the second straight loss for Boston, although they're still only two points behind Montreal for 1st place in the Northeastern division.

Speaking of Montreal, the Bruins will travel there for Thursday night's game. Puck drops at 7 PM Eastern time.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: The Glendale, AZ City Council approved a 30 lease agreement with new Coyotes owner, Chicago financier Matt Hulsizer.

The City council's decision comes a few weeks before a December 31st deadline to find a new owner for the team or have it relocated. The city also asked the council to authorize the sale of up to $125 million in municipal bonds to accommodate the terms of the lease.


NBA: Yikes...they don't come much tighter than that.

Instead of rolling over as they had done so many times before for so many teams, The New York Knicks put up an uncharacteristically tenacious fight on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

And since I missed most of the game, might as well fast forward to where it really counts, with Paul Pierce hitting what he thought would be the game winning with all of 0.4 seconds left in the 4th. However, the Knicks Amare Stoudemire immediately heaved a 3 pointer that was good, but after the referees reviewed the videotape, they determined that the ball left Stoudemire's hands after the final buzzer had sounded.

Boston hangs on to win this one by a final of 118-116 for their 11th straight win. The Wednesday night win brings to an end the Knicks own, respectable win streak of 8 games.

The Celtics will next take on the Atlanta Hawks at home on Thursday night. For the 2nd week in a row, the C's will be broadcast nationally on TNT at 8 PM Eastern, 5 Pacific.

Sports Chowdah Not Quite Opening Day Edition- Yankees Get One Back; Can B's Capitalize? C's Get Knicked in Embarrasing Effort; UConn Women Perfect

OK, I think I've got making fun of President Obama's embarrassing ceremonial first pitch out of my system. To those in the punditocracy who chortled at his throwing like a girl, allow me to say that saying the President threw like a girl is hardly fair to women like Team USA Softball Gold Medalist Jennie Finch.

After an off day Monday, game two of the season opening series between the Sox and Yanks got underway at Fenway on Tuesday night. From the bottom of the 5th the contest was deadlocked at 4-4 until the top of the 8th when Hideki Okajima took to the mound. Jorge Posada led off the innng for New York with a ground-rule double into the right field stands. After getting Swisher to ground out, Bret Gardner singled and Curtis Granderson flew out to center before Jeter gounded to Marco Scutaro for what would've been the 3rd and final out of the inning if it weren't for Scutaro's low throw that Youkilis had to dig out of the dirt. This was followed by the bases-loaded walk to Nick Johnson to finally bring Posada home and put the Yankees up 5-4.

The Yankees would go on to get an insurance run from Robinson Cano in the top of the 9th and Mariano Rivera would come on to close out the game and gave up a 1-out double to Marco Suctaro before retiring Jacoby Elsbury and Dustin Pedroia to close out the game an the 6-4 win for New York.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: The Red Sox and Josh Beckett have agreed to a four year contract extension yesterday. The terms of the deal weren't immediately disclosed.

NHL: Well.....I didn't hold out much in the way of high hopes for Boston's trip to Washington D.C. on Monday night- I mean an 8th place team struggling to hold on to their final playoff spot going up against the team with the best record in the league with less than a week left in the season.

But the Bruins surprised me (in the good way) with their effort against the Capitals on Monday, Even leading for 2-1 for much of the 2nd period on a Patrice Bergeron tally before the Caps got the equalizer from Mike Knuble with less than 30 seconds remaining in the 2nd. After a scoreless 3rd period, the Bruins held off a late charge by the Caps to send the game into overtime, giving the B's a very hard earned point. However, less than 20 seconds into the OT, the Caps got the game-winning tally from Brooks Liach for their 3-2 win over Boston.

Alex Ovechin was actually relatively quiet, with two assists (still leaving him tied w/Sidney Crosby at 46 goals) and from what I caught of the game, the Caps weren't simply resting their top players prior to the postseason; they seemed to be treating this like a regular-season game in November or December. Tukka Rask had 27 saves in he loss while Washington's Jose Theodore stopped 28 of 30 shots faced.

The Bruins will host the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night at the Garden. Meanwhile, Philadelphia shut out Toronto 2-0 and the Canadiens got a point from their shootout loss to the NY Islanders on Tuesday, Leaving Boston in 8th place with 85 points.

NBA: After hanging on to (barely) beat the Cavs on Sunday, the Celtics wet the proverbial bed against the New York Knickerbockers for some reason, losing 101-104....Ray Allen led the scoring for Boston with a whopping 17 points. Danillo Galliarni had 31 points, 5 rebounds and was 10 of 11 from the free throw line for the Knicks. The C's will travel to Toronto to take on the Raptors tomorrow night.

Good god...losing to the freakin' New York Knicks? That's just embarrassing....I'll have to hang my head in shame or something.

NCAA HOOPS: As some of you could probably tell during my March Madness coverage, my give-a-damn was irreparably busted. The final game featured Cinderella Butler against heavily favored Duke. Butler made it interesting, but in a championship as gratifying as watching the Yankees win the World Series or the Lakers win the NBA Finals, Duke held on to win 61-59, but only after a desperation half-court shot by Butler's Gordon Hayward rimmed out as time expired.

The UConn Huskies Women's hoops team capped another perfect season, beating Stanford 53-47 in the Women's championship game in San Antonio. That was actually a pretty close game by UConn standards, as they managed to beat most opponents in the 2009-2010 season by a margin of 8 or more points. I'm not a huge hoops fan, let alone women's hoops, but a monumental achievement like that deserves at least some comment from even the most ambivalent and dispassionate spectator.