It Isn't a Stanley Cup Hangover

The term "Stanley Cup Hangover" will get thrown around a lot today and I just don't think that the Bruins are suffering from one. Why? Because they didn't win the Cup in 2010, and they still had stretches like this last season. This "hangover" notion is an excuse. They're simply not playing 60 full minutes of good hockey, the offensive guys aren't providing offense, they're not taking care of the puck, and their Power Play sucks.

Sound familiar? It happened last season. A few times. Two stretches in November, another in December, a long and painful one in March, it even happened in the playoffs. Games 1 and 2 against Montreal, for instance. And these lulls were not preceded by any Cup hoisting or parades. This Bruins team sometimes doesn't put in 60 minutes of effort, they have streaky players (Horton), and they are very vulnerable to a well-executed forecheck.

It's the player's fault. They have to play better. They did so in the 1st period. They sustained possessions in Montreal's zone. Then Price made an unforced error and it was 1-0. But the 2nd period saw less pressure, the 3rd saw next to none. We also saw the Bruins making casual passes with the puck in the 3rd. That led to Montreal's game-winning goal.

And if not for Price's mistake, the Bruins get shut out. The offense isn't functioning. Somebody besides Seguin has to score. He and Peverley lead the team with 3. They have 6, the rest of the team combines for 14. The Flyers and Jets scored more than that in one game last night (Winnipeg won 9-8).

Where is David Krejci? He had a great defensive play in this game but have you noticed him at all on offense? He has 1 goal and 0 assists. He and Horton are dragging this team down. The Lucic-Kelly-Seguin line is working nicely, the Thornton line started to show more energy last night, and while Bergeron and Marchand aren't scoring, they're at least getting shots on goal. Bergeron has more shots (29) than Krejci (12) and Horton (13) combined.

There are no pure scorers on this team. This offense succeeds when they get 2nd and 3rd chance shots on goal. When they stay in the opponents' zone for prolonged periods. Last night they struggled just to enter the zone. And then after the 1st, they struggled to keep the puck in. Even with their abundant Power Play opportunities.

It's frustrating. We've seen what this team is capable of when they decide to show up. Right now we're seeing giveaways, we're seeing careless neutral zone passes, we're seeing a pair of top line forwards competing with Shawn Thornton in the Shots on Goal category (Thornton has 10).

Maybe the Bruins feel like they can wait to turn it on when it matters most. But 1/9 of the season is over and the Bruins are 29th in the NHL. And they've already played 1/6 of their home games. You need points to make the playoffs, usually around 95. You need more points to win a division and get some home playoff series (the B's were 10-3 in home playoff games, 6-6 on the road), usually around 105 points. The Bruins have 6 right now. 6 points in 8 games with no injuries to any key players.

You can't just wait until January to turn it up. What if you're still in 4th place and you lose Thomas for 3 months? How do you dig yourself out of a hole then?

It's starting to get me concerned.

They should be well motivated Saturday night in Montreal. It's not a must-win. It's a must-show-me-something-so-I-can-relax.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Feasting on the Big East

It looks like West Virginia is headed to the Big XII. This will be the third defection of a Big East school to another conference this season, and the sixth this decade. That's not counting TCU's decision to move to the Big XII. With WVU, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh leaving, what will happen to the Big East as a football conference? Can it maintain its BCS standing, or will it become a "mid-major?" Or worse?

Louisville, Rutgers, South Florida, UConn, Cincinnati. Five teams. That's all the Big East has for football. That won't work in the BCS. The Big XII is the next smallest BCS conference with at least 10 teams (11 if Missouri stays). Meanwhile, the ACC will have 14, the SEC 13, and the Pac-12 and BigTen have 12 each. So the Big East must add at least 3 teams (preferably more) to remain in the BCS.

But who will they be? In '05, they added Louisville, Cincinnati, and USF to their football league. Back then, there were plenty of solid C-USA programs to invite. Then UConn promoted its football team to I-A. These newcomers claimed 4 of the last 5 conference titles.

But who is out there for the Big East now? That well has gotten very dry. Houston is 7-0 this year, but was 5-7 last year. The Big East wants to add them. UCF was 11-3 last year, they're 4-3 this year. They are a Big East target. SMU is 5-2, but they've barely reached bowl eligibility in recent years and were 1-11 in 2008. The Big East is interested. These are the teams that could replace WVU, Syracuse, and Pitt. That's hardly worthy of a BCS berth.

Oh, the Big East has also been prodding Villanova to bring its football program up to I-A. The Wildcats are 1-7 this year (they beat Penn) down in I-AA.

There have been rumors that the Big East wants to add Air Force, Navy, and even Boise State as football-only members. Obviously Boise State would dramatically improve the conference. But why would the Broncos do it? They've reached the BCS without an automatic bid. They'd have to figure out what conferences their other sports would play in. And do they want to play their road games in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Ohio?

And who buys a ticket to climb aboard a sinking ship?

This ESPN.com article describes a convoluted plan to merge the Big East, C-USA, and Mountain West together as one super-league, with around 30 teams in 4 divisions, a playoff, and hopefully the winner receiving an automatic BCS berth. I think it's a bit too harebrained to even attempt.

The Big East isn't out of danger, either. Louisville is a rumored target of the Big XII. UConn and Rutgers would accept invitations to the ACC in a heartbeat. And if that happens, the Big East is essentially dead. It'd be USF and Cincinnati. Maybe Houston, Navy, UCF, and SMU would join them. But they would certainly not be a BCS conference anymore. They'd fall somewhere between the Mountain West and C-USA.

It's kind of sad. But the Big East has always been a bit too weird. Intentionally so. It was founded as a basketball conference, with the football side forming more than a decade after its original founding. The other conferences were about regional and historical teams joining together to compete in multiple sports. The Big East was about TV revenue from the start. They just picked the wrong sport to focus on.

They snubbed Penn State in 1985, and they've been different from every other conference since then. The idea of 8 football programs and 16 basketball programs sounds nice and neat, but it's messy. The Big East has always been two conferences with one label. How can you let Notre Dame benefit from basketball revenue when they don't share football revenue? How must schools like Georgetown and St. John's feel now that their basketball league is being threatened due to football? It's a crazy mess and always has been. Conferences are supposed to organize and regulate chaos, not cause it.

And a football conference centered in the northeast was doomed to fail anyway. You do have BC, Syracuse, Pitt, and WVU up here. Also up-and-coming programs like Rutgers and UConn. But we've seen that these teams are not going to decline the opportunity to be a part of big time college football, which is based in the South and the Midwest. That's where the big games are, that's where the money is.

Big East football is on life support. And the basketball is severely crippled. 19 Big East football titles have been awarded. And 15 of those are in the trophy cases of schools that have joined or will soon join other conferences. If UConn, Louisville, and Rutgers depart, say goodbye to 2 more football titles, not to mention UConn's basketball programs, along with the 20,000+ fans that Louisville averages at their basketball games. Don't forget about completely losing the New York market once Syracuse, UConn and Rutgers are all playing in the ACC.

As unfortunate as watching the slow death of a conference can be, the moves by West Virginia and TCU almost guarantee that the Big XII will survive. One conference dies, another lives on. The Big East has become an unwilling organ donor, sacrificing its parts to make other conferences healthy again.

The Big XII was in jeopardy a few months ago, but now look very strong. And they can add teams if they want to, like Louisville. They could add Houston to bolster their numbers (as opposed to the Big East, who would add Houston to compete for conference titles). The Big XII can offer Boise State a BCS bid along with geographic convenience. Same with BYU. And the Big XII's monopoly on Texas high school recruiting is an enticement no other conference can match.

The Big East will not be a BCS conference. It will be fortunate to remain in existence as a football league. The Big XII is safe, and might even grow to 12 members once again. Maybe more.

Why the NFL Will Never Succeed in Britain

For the fifth straight season, a pair of NFL teams met each other in London's Wembley Stadium. And once again the game sold out. But don't expect a Super Bowl in London, certainly don't expect an expansion franchise across the pond, and don't expect American football to be any bigger in the UK than soccer is in the US. The Brits simply do not like it.

Why? Firstly, they have soccer. They obsess over soccer. They have their own leagues, plus they follow leagues in Spain, Italy, and Germany. Then they have international games. Soccer is their fall sport. It's as big as college football in Alabama.

Some of the British enjoy physically violent sports. Which is why they have rugby. And unlike American football, rugby has more flow to it. Our football stops after every play. Add TV timeouts and a 60 minute clock takes over 3 hours to run. The British don't like that. They like sports with few stoppages.

There are British fans, and NFL games are broadcast in England and get decent ratings. But if the NFL really wants to expand, they need to look beyond places that speak English. They need to go to Germany.

Germany was the only place where NFL Europe enjoyed any measure of success. Germany has already produced NFL talent. Germans don't have much rugby. Culturally speaking, Germans would like the start-stop format of NFL games. Their national soccer team is usually best at set-piece plays that are pre-planned. Germany has already embraced North American sports like basketball and hockey. They have no anti-US bias in what sports they follow. They already have a 14 team pro league in Germany.

Maybe the NFL should consider playing a game in Berlin or Munich (Oktoberfest) or in the Rhine-Ruhr region. Germans are very large people, they love sports and physical fitness, they love beer, and they love organized violence. Football is designed for Germany.

Bruins Giveaway a Game

The good news is that the mistakes that the Bruins made are easily fixed. That's also what makes them so frustrating to watch. San Jose came into Boston after playing 65 minutes in New Jersey the night before. The Bruins should have tried to grind a game out, play mistake free, and hope to outplay and outwork the Sharks in the 3rd. Instead, they made some stupid mistakes (especially David Krejci) early on and were playing catch-up hockey most of the night.

Pavelski's goal 72 seconds into the game was assisted by Joe Thornton, but Krejci deserved the second assist. He surrendered the puck in the Neutral Zone with a careless pass that had no chance of not being a turnover.

San Jose's second goal came when Krejci didn't cover the slot in front of Thomas. Instead, he kind of joined a 2-on-2 scrum for the puck on the boards behind the net (I say "kind of" because he didn't really do anything to help the two Bruins defensemen engaged). This left Logan Couture uncovered in front, and when the Sharks won the board battle, Couture made the Bruins pay for Krejci's absentmindedness.

I criticize Krejci for not being much of a scorer. The playoffs silenced that critique. But he's praised for his puck-possession skills. Turnovers and defensive mistakes are acceptable realities for guys who can score 40 goals. For someone who struggles to reach 20 goals, and who is supposed to do the smart, little things, Krejci's mistakes were intolerable.

He's -5 on the season and that's one of the reasons he's been taken off the top line. He's better than this. He'll play better.

The Bruins' play improved in the late parts of the 2nd and scored twice in the 3rd. Lucic's goal was pure effort and muscle. Seguin's goal was a bit cleaner, but still assisted by the strength of Lucic and Kelly. I'm liking the Lucic-Kelly-Seguin line.

But the Sharks got the game-winner thanks to a faceoff win, some food forechecking, and a bit of indecisiveness from Steve Kampfer.

The Bruins are successful when they do the little things right. ALL the little things. That's why they won the Cup, that's why they had a good start to the 3rd period. Overall in the game, though, the Bruins turned the puck over 23 times (San Jose had 6 giveaways) and didn't complete many of their passes.

We saw this routine last year. We even saw it a few times in the playoffs. The Bruins fell behind to Montreal and Vancouver because they didn't take care of the puck. This team can play better than this and I'm sure within the remaining 74 games, they will.

Big game Thursday as the Habs come to town. Montreal is 1-4-2 and this is a good chance to keep a divisional foe down.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Thank You, Kessel

The Leafs came into this game as one of the hottest teams in the NHL. But the Bruins were coming off an emotional loss on Tuesday, and Toronto would be playing for the second straight night. The Bruins added focus to their fire, and it showed from the 1st period on.

Thornton had his first fighting major of the season. Coming into this game, the B's were 32-10-8 when he fights. And he wasn't the only Bruins who showed up and played with energy.

Horton's Power Play goal was a great example of patience and poise as he waited for the best shooting opportunity. He got the chance because Chara had a chance to shoot from the point. Chara got that chance because Benoit Pouliot drew the penalty.

Pouliot drew another penalty and Chara scored the PP goal after sneaking into the faceoff circle. Tyler Seguin got an assist on the goal. Last year he barely played any PP minutes, but this year he's been a consistent presence with a man advantage. Seguin now has 2 points on the Power Play. He had 3 all of last season.

Chris Kelly's goal in the 1st was a great example of earning a loose puck. Lucic drove deep into the zone. Kelly didn't have much time or space to take a quality shot, but he earned two shots in the paint, and the second went in.

The Bruins did not let the Leafs come back. Only 7 third period shots for Toronto.

Seguin ended the game with a goal and two assists. Kessel had 0 points, which snaps a 15 game point streak. That's too bad.

The Bruins needed to get back on track. As frustrating as that last game against Carolina was, this team has a unique ability to turn pain on Tuesday into joy on Thursday. They really do rebound well. B's host Joe Thornton and the Sharks Saturday night.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Bruins Lose Tempers, Game

Give Carolina credit. They knew the Bruins would probably be frustrated, and the Canes took full advantage of that frustration. Cam Ward's goaltending didn't hurt either. The B's spent about a fifth of this game shorthanded. And when they weren't killing penalties, they seemed more concerned with killing Hurricanes than with scoring.

68 penalty minutes for the Bruins. And sure, the refs got a little bit over eager with their whistles, but can you blame them? Stuff like Horton pummeling Tim Gleason is simply ignorant hockey. Gleason was trying to goad Horton. And once Horton drops the gloves and Gleason refuses to fight, that has to be the end of it. Horton should have mocked Gleason by waving his arms John Wensink style, then skated away.

Maybe a little fire is what this team needs. The Peverley goal on the Power Play seemed to be a result of some of the sparks in this game. Then Horton committed his stupid penalty 30 seconds later, then the refs were a bit anxious and called Chara for high-sticking, then Marchand got ejected and Seidenberg was given a questionable boarding penalty. Things got a little out of hand.

And the throwing of objects onto the ice was sad. That's stuff that Montreal fans do. That's a whiny Canadian thing to do. You know what we do in Boston when we're pissed at the refs and the team for losing? We call up the Sports Grille, order a pizza, wait for the game to finish, then go drink. Beers are for drinking, not throwing.

Hopefully this team wakes up. But at the same time, they have to stay focused. They need to react with goals like Peverley's, not with penalties like Horton's.

B's host the 3-0-1 Maple Leafs on Thursday.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Defense Defeats Dallas

The Patriots' defense finally impressed us for 60 minutes last night. Which was good because their offense was absent for 58 minutes. If you'd told me before kickoff that the Pats would turn the ball over 4 times, lose the time of possession battle, and only score 20 points, I'd just assume that they'd lose the game. But the defense showed up, big time.

They made Romo uncomfortable (2 sacks, 4 hits), they didn't allow Dallas to mount any consistent running attack (apart from Romo's 17 yard scramble, the Cowboys averaged 2.6 per carry), they forced negative plays (7 tackles for loss), they shut down Witten (4 catches, 48 yards) they got off the field (Dallas was 4/12 on 3rd downs), and they went and got the ball (1 fumble recovered, 1 interception).

And they made the big plays at the big moments. That 3 and out in the 4th quarter won the game. The Red Zone stops and limiting Dallas to field goals kept the struggling Pats' offense in the game.

It didn't have to be so exciting. The Patriots turned the ball over 4 times. They turned it over 10 times all of 2010. Brady's first pick was a glanced ball and a bit of misfortune. His second pick was Favresque. He was throwing on the run and against his body to either to Welker in triple coverage, or Hernandez in double coverage. All on a 2nd down.

Then the fumbles. Slater's was too easy. The ball was just tapped and it flew out. And Hernandez continues to worry me with his occasional lack of grip on the ball. It's not a major liability right now (especially when he can also catch 8 passes for 68 and a TD), but of all the Pats on offense, he's the only one who regularly loses his handle on the ball.

The defense minimized the damage of these setbacks with turnovers of their own, and holding Dallas to field goals.

Watching the defense play this well was quite enjoyable. Typically, this defense is so shaky that late in the game I'd rather the Patriots be down by 4 points with the ball then up by 4 without it. They showed up Sunday, made a statement, and hopefully they can build something from this game.

Pats have a bye before travelling to Pittsburgh in two weeks.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Bruins Turn it Around in Chicago

It wasn't perfect, but the Bruins finally put forth a strong effort and tried to force their opponent to play Bruins hockey. They worked hard for every loose puck, they did make a few mistakes, but for the most part they valued the puck. And Tim Thomas being a freak of nature didn't hurt.

Ference's giveaway which led to a Chicago goal was a poor decision. As frustrating as it was, bad decisions are much better than bad effort levels.

Thomas and Seguin are the two best Bruins at the moment. Peverley is a close third. Boychuk's dump-and-chase move was exactly the kind of play that the defensemen need to make to help these forwards out. The Bruins forwards are not snipers, they're not ridiculously talented offensive forces. In order to confuse an opponent, they need a guy like Boychuk to make plays like that. That's how you force mistakes.

If Seguin isn't involved in every shootout the Bruins have this year, I want to know why. He's tailor made for that.

I only wish we got to play the Blackhawks more. Two big markets, two Original Six teams, two very good teams. And we won't see the 'Hawks for the rest of the (regular) season. It's too bad.

But hey, we get to see Carolina come to town on Tuesday.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo