BRUINS GROUND FLYERS

168 minutes, 57 seconds. That was the gap between multi-goal Bruin leads. It was March 6th on Long Island when the Bruins last held a 2+ goal advantage.

I'm going to bathe in this victory a bit. Not just because I hate the Flyers. Not just because I hate Philadelphians and Pennsylvanians. Not just because it was the B's first multi-goal margin of victory since February 7th. Not just because this was without Savard. Not just because the Bruins have a 5 point cushion over the 9th place Rangers (and a game in hand). Not just because Philadelphia is a playoff team.

But because it was the best Bruins game I've seen them play since... well, a long enough time. In a pre-game interview, Mark Stuart said the team was hoping for an "ugly win," simply wanting anything to get them 2 points. This win was far from ugly.

Normally, my Bruins' recaps are an airing of grievances, Frank Costanza on Festivus style. But this will be the opposite: a list of praise, because quite a few Bruins put in very good efforts last night.

Tuuka Rask got Daisuke Matsuzaka support from his offense, but he had an excellent game in his own right. He made a huge cross-crease save in the 1st when it was 0-0, and that certainly changed the dynamic of the game early on. He also made another athletic stop when it was 4-1, which essentially closed the door on the Flyers' chances of winning.

Patrice Bergeron had a goal and 2 assists in an excellent three-zone performance. The Bruins need his offense in order to consistently score goals.

David Krejci and his line looked like they did last year. Krejci-Wheeler-Ryder totaled 70 goals last season. They're only up to 41 this campaign, but they were outstanding last night. Wheeler's first goal was the end result of textbook hockey played in all three zones. Wheeler and Ryder harassed the Flyers as they tried to carry through the neutral zone. Then Wheeler forced a turnover, passed it up to Krejci, who carried it into the offensive end. Then Wheeler got it, and calmly made a slick move that beat Leighton and put the B's up 1-0.

Brad Marchand's stat line looks pretty dull. 11:02 on ice, 1 hit, 0 shots, 0 assists, 0 blocks, 0 PIM, etc. But that one hit was when he sent James van Riemsdyk over the dasher and into the Philly bench. Marchand had a solid night, didn't make mistakes, played within himself, and did what he could when he could.

The same can be said of Vladimir Sobotka, who was a bit busier. He made his presence felt, and I was actually surprised to see that he was only on the ice for 12 and a half minutes because he made so many solid plays with and without the puck.

A lot of people have whined that the "Bruins didn't do anything on deadline day." Tell that to Dennis Seidenberg. It's fun to watch him and Chara play on the ice at the same time. And it's a relief to have him on defense as opposed to Derek Morris. Seidenberg had his best game in black and gold. He had a clever assist, was a deserved +3, and blocked 4 shots. Maybe it's because he's from Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany, but he's quickly found a place in my exclusive Bruin Binky Club.

I'll give marginal credit to Dennis Wideman too. He had a good game, and was actually consistent for 60 minutes.

Mark "Crazy Eyes" Stuart scares me sometimes. Lucic and Thornton might be the brawlers on this team, but Stuart has the most rage. A pair of fighting majors and a nice display of intensity.

The Bruins are 7-2-1 in their last 10. Hard to believe.

Now, this is just one game, one mile-marker on a very long and harsh road. There's a big game on Saturday in Montreal that has lots of playoff implications. It starts at 7.

Source:
ESPN

NO SUSPENSION FOR COOKE

The NHL showed once again that it lacks testicular fortitude, as it allowed Matt Cooke's hit on Marc Savard to go unpunished.

Quick question: how many Matt Cooke shirts do the Penguins sell? Because I'm perusing the Pittsburgh Penguins' Pro Shop. I see lots of Crosby and Malkin shirts and jerseys. A few Fleury items. Bill Guerin, Paul Coffey, Chris Kunitz, and an old-time Ron Francis shirt.

No Matt Cooke gear.

I even searched eBay for Matt Cooke paraphernalia. All I found were token autographs and $1 trading cards.

Yet he's allowed to injure the Bruins' best player, a guy the B's signed to a long-term deal, and nothing happens.

The NHL is all talk when it comes to preventing head injuries. And it's not only morally objectionable, it's bad business. Do you think parents want their kids playing a game where hits like this are condoned? Do you think parents want their kids even WATCHING this game?

And what about the message sent by this inaction to all the goons out there? They've been given a license to kill. Instead of being pro-active, even tokenly so, the NHL has essentially announced that dirty hits, so long as they're disguised within the letter of the law, are hunky dory.

What if someone did this to Alex Ovechkin, or (heaven forbid) The Golden Canadian: Sidney Crosby. Would the NHL be so tolerant? Maybe it's time to find out.

And I'm not letting the Bruins off the hook here. They did NOTHING to police this situation themselves. And I hope that on March 18th, when the Penguins come to Boston, that Thornton, Lucic, Chara, and anyone on the ice with Cooke, forgets about hockey for a shift and focuses on shortening Matt Cooke's career, if not his life.

Or you know what, instead of trying to punish Cooke with physical torment, maybe a more fitting deterrent would be to go after Crosby. Most goons are tough/arrogant enough that they don't fear physical retaliation anyway. But if goons are put in a position where their behavior risks the health of their team's best players, they might clean up their act.

NOMAR'S BACK WITH THE SOX

In a very weird maneuvre, the Red Sox signed Nomar Garciaparra to a minor league deal, then he retired. The ex-Sox star said “I’ve always had a recurring dream, it was to be able to retire in a Red Sox uniform.” It's funny how that dream's importance diminished when the Sox offered him a 4 year, $60 million deal before the 2004 season.

After inking the minor league deal, Nomar announced his retirement, and declared his intention to work as a baseball analyst for ESPN. This brings Mr. Garciaparra full circle, as he was as vehemently anti-media as a player.

Red Sox CEO stated “When the history of the Boston Red Sox is written again, there will be a very large and important chapter devoted to Nomar Garciaparra.” Yes, Nomar played a key part in Red Sox history. After all, it was his departure which triggered the Sox' World Series run in '04.

I can just see the PR/merchandise machine that is the Red Sox Front Office deciding to retire #5 in a few seasons.

Long Live Orlando! ¡Viva Cabrera!



Source:
Bloomberg

WHY MESS WITH A PERFECT THING? PLEASE DON'T EXPAND THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

Would you want a plastic surgeon's knife mutilating Angelina Jolie's lips, Scarlett Johansson's chest, or Natalie Portman's eyes? Would you want Tom Brady to change his throwing mechanics, maybe go back in time and tell Ted Williams to try hitting right-handed?

The NCAA Tournament is as close to perfection as any sports contest can be. It's 65 teams, playing all over the country, non-stop, for a few weekends in March. EVERYONE in the country obediently watches. It's thrilling, compelling. You cannot NOT watch it.

Yet, the NCAA wants to ruin its own perfect baby. Why is it that they want to expand the field of the already massive basketball tournament (65 of the 347 teams in Division-I or 18.7% of all teams make the tournament), yet keep the college football championship field to 2 teams (2 of 120, or 1.7%)?

Adding 3 more play-in games wouldn't be a bad idea. The 16th seed teams are really awful, and this could raise the average quality of the field. But let's keep the changes small and gradual. Baby steps.



Who complains about the NCAA tourney? Who is out there screaming "We need more teams!" "96 or bust!" Why is it that millions bitch about the BCS and nothing happens. Then nobody says a bad thing about the basketball tournament, and the NCAA wants to tinker and toy with it.

And isn't the money enough for the NCAA and all the conferences? CBS pays $545 million to broadcast these games. Every year. Is that not enough this day and age?



And who's going to watch these extra games? An expanded field of 96 would dump most of the small conference champions together, eliminating half of them before the REAL tournament started. It would essentially create a boring, pre-tournament, that nobody really watched. Nobody wants to see IUPUI play Weber State. They want to see IUPUI challenge Georgetown. David vs. Goliath was interesting because Goliath was there.

I love the NCAA tournament. 80% of the college basketball that I watch in a season is in March.

Don't fuck with it.

BRUINS LEAF A POINT IN TORONTO

Just to put this season in perspective, the Bruins now have 70 points. Last year, they attained this 70 point level on January 15.

What they don't have much of is character. Or fire. Or grit. Whatever you want to call that intangible thing that gives winning teams an additional edge in a fierce battle.

After Savard went down on Sunday, the Bruins didn't retaliate. They tried to win their game. And that was acceptable to me at the time. They're in a playoff race, the points are vital, focus on winning. But the Bruins weren't focused on winning last night in Toronto, they were focused on playing just good enough to not get embarrassed.

Toronto sucks. You saw their goaltending, their defense. And even without Savard and Chara in the lineup, the Bruins are significantly superior to the Leafs. On paper.

Michael "appendix" Ryder is a completely useless waste of space. He serves no purpose. His linemates should get credit for short-handed time on ice, because he really is a great big nothing out there. -3 last night.

And why is it that whenever an opposing player scores a junk goal off a rebound, they always share the crease with Dennis Wideman? He looks like Hal Gill more and more every day. He's just a big screen in front of Thomas out there.

In the next week, the Bruins are at Philly, at Montreal, at New Jersey. That's the 6th, 7th, and 4th place teams in the East. This upcoming stretch is key.

Source:
ESPN

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn

SOMETHING GOOD FOR THE N.H.L.

As much as I like to dump on the NHL, there has been something decidedly positive growing in the American Midwest: The Chicago Blackhawks.

Chicago is the 3rd largest market in the country. It's a cold weather city, with 2.8 million citizens, and 9.8 million in its metro area. But colder than the weather has been the city's affection for its hockey team.

The Blackhawks, historically, suck. They've existed for over 83 years, and have only 3 titles, and their latest came before the Vietnam War. From 1998 to 2008, they made the playoffs just once.

But last year they made a serious run in the postseason, going all the way to the Conference Finals against Detroit. And this year, they have a stranglehold on the Central Division (haven't won a Division Title since '93), and are vying with San Jose for the #1 seed in the West.

They're averaging 21,174 in home attendance. That's 2nd behind the Canadiens.

So maybe instead of incessantly trying to develop the game of hockey in Florida, Arizona, Africa, and Nashville; maybe the NHL should try to bolster the big market Northern cities. They did a good job last year, awarding the Winter Classic to Wrigley Field. But more could be done.



I think the best way to reward big market teams that develop successful talent is to allow them to keep it. Sorry, Buffalo, but big market teams make the big market bucks. So they should be helped in keeping the big market talent.

We shouldn't let teams in New York, Chicago, Philly, Toronto, and Boston go out and BUY new talent like the Yankees. But if they develop their own guys, or even sign cheap talent, why not give the club some sort of cap exemptions to keep them?

To use the Bruins as an example, developed talent like Krejci, Lucic, Boychuk, Rask, these guys count as much against the cap as free agents like Chara, Sturm, or Seidenberg. And how about Tim Thomas, who the Bruins acquired cheaply, but now counts as $5 million against the cap. Why not reward teams for finding cheap, quality talent, by giving them a rebate on their cap numbers?

Chicago is a good team. I'd hate to see this burgeoning hope for the NHL in the Windy City blown away by lack cap space, just so the Islanders can afford to make their payroll.

SAVARD HAS CONCUSSION

So far, the C-word is the only word on Savard. He suffered a concussion yesterday, and will fly back to Boston this afternoon. There's no clairty on how severe the concussion is, and certainly no timetable concerning Savard's return.

Conveniently, the 30 NHL General Managers are having a scheduled meeting in Florida this week, and hits to the head will be the main issue of this conference.

I didn't think Cooke's hit was dirty. I thought it reckless, careless, no worry of consequences. Because right now, there are no consequences for Cooke. He wasn't penalized, the Bruins did nothing to make him pay (perhaps to their credit, as they had a 2-1 game to try to win), and the League has been inconsistent when it comes to punishing hits to the head.

The NHL's senior vice president stated the unfortunate truth: "It's like football: We have an issue with concussions, and the majority of concussions come from normal playing rules."

But certainly players shooting the puck deserve as much care and consideration as a punter, kicker, or QB in the NFL. And certainly when the shooter is so far away from the goal, and the hitting player comes from so far away the shooter (isn't that technically charging?), there's room for improvement, in the rule book, and with the on-ice officiating.

Sources:
ESPN
Boston Globe

Photo Credit:
Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

WILFORK GETS FAT

I'm pretty pleased that the Patriots doled out some money to Vince Wilfork, said to be $40 million for 5 years. You could make an argument that #75 is the 3rd or 2nd most important individual on the Patriots' roster, and perhaps the most important. His inhuman combination of size, strength and speed is one of the few sure-things in an extremely questionable defense.

Moreover, if the Patriots are able to get anybody else on the defensive line, or in the LB level who can rush the passer, they'll either be freed up by the double-team Wilfork absorbs, or they'll free up Wilfork and allow him to devour quarterbacks.

Thanks to a big piece like Wilfork, the Pats are only a few small pieces away from having a decent defense.

Source:
Hartford Courant