So I've really been meaning to share my thoughts about the Super Bowl and the Beanpot and...Glee(?) - yeah, believe it or not, I have some things to say about that god-awful excuse for a show, but we'll hold off for now. The truth is, tonight was such a great night in sports that I felt it necessary to start there.
So let's start here...
That was by far the BEST Bruins game of the year tonight. I mean, talk about getting your money's worth if you were at the garden earlier. You got the hated Canadiens coming in to town - the B's being winless against the Habs this year - and the two teams stand between two points of each other at the top of the Northeast divisional standings. The match-up had drama written all over it from the start, and boy did it not disappoint. 14 total goals (including 8 in the 2nd period alone), 187 combined penalty minutes...and oh yeah, a goalie fight! Now although, it didn't quite seem like Thomas and Price were in it for blood, it's still always exciting when you get to see two goalies get together and drop the gloves. It's so rare these days, it's almost like seeing a safety happen in football. You know, once a team (granted not yours) gets pinned to their own 1 yard line, you feel yourself start to root for the fateful sack in the endzone, because let's be honest how weird does 2 points look on the scoreboard!?...But I digress...Such to say, no one does it quite like Patrick Roy used to do it. And so for that, I give you this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeF5XF8jxkQ and then this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl2xMXXOw4M. But in all seriousness, what a fantastic game tonight. And for the B's to get the W in a sloppy game like that is twice as huge.
And speaking of fighting and coming up huge, I have to quickly defend someone right now who doesn't get a lot of credit. And that person is Mr. Andrew Ference. A lot of people wrote this guy off early in the year this year because of history of injuries and occasional lackadaisical defensive play, but I'll tell you what, I'd take this guy as my teammate any day. I mean, did anyone see him go after Travis Moen tonight, a guy who is a solid 5 inches taller than him and probably about 20-30 pounds heavier? And he stuck in there pretty well. Earlier in the year, Ference went after (bigger guy) David Backes of the STL Blues for laying out elderman Mark Recchi, and then not too long ago Ference beat the absolute living daylight out of Adam Burish of the Stars during that heavymatch on Feb. 3rd - a fight that left Burish with several broken bones in his face [see video below]. Also recently, Ference took a lot of flak from two fellow former-Bruins alum, Don Cherry and Mike Millbury, for allegedly breaking an "unwritten rule" about not talking to the press about a teammate's physical play, referring to Paille's suspension-worthy check on Raymond Sawada. While I agree on the matter at hand, I really didn't see anything in this interview that suggested that Ference was "speaking out against" his teammate. In fact, in my mind, he was only trying to sympathize with Paille and relate to him in that situation, elaborating upon the difficulty of playing physical as a backchecking forward. Ference, you're ok in my book. Campbell, I'm still warming up to you...
Texas A&M - My New Haircut
So about two weeks ago, I bet my buddy Derek that I wouldn't cut my hair until I got a streak of 10 on ESPN's Streak for the Cash. I've only reached the 10 mark twice since the contest has been running (about 2 years now) so I figured it was quite the feat, but hey, I needed to get my Justin Bieber on for Friday's premiere of "Never Say Never" [Can I just say that I literally spit out my soda when I saw the trailer for this...I just, I just have no words for it. Sickening, maybe. C'mon America. Making a documentary of Justin Bieber is probably the lowest low this country has seen since the economy. Wait, isn't he Canadian?...] In any event, I somehow managed to rack up a streak of five over the weekend, and then methodologically mapped out my steps starting this week. I won't say all of my picks here, but just know that I called the BC BBall prop bet last night (BC 3-pointers vs. Clemson Win Margin). I knew it'd prob be a close loss for BC (as we've been accustomed to), yet I also knew for a fact that BC would take their usual 30-35 three-point attempts, making about 9 or 10 of them. And wouldn't you know... 9 three's, 8-point loss. Today, I was given a gift with a G'town vs. Syracuse prop (G'town 3's vs. 'Cuse Win Margin), taking the obvious Hoya side (I probably would've even picked them straight up - not because I like G'town, 'Cuse is just playing pretty bad these days). And then, I "accidentally" picked Texas A&M straight up against Colorado on the road. It's not a bad pick, looking at the records and RPI. But I REALLY wanted to take Duke: Single-Digit Win or Loss vs. UNC, who has been playing lights-out lately. But nope, I forgot to change it before the deadline passed as I was stuck with the Aggies. Thank the Lord for ESPN3.com so I could watch probably one of the most miserably agonizing games I've seen in a while. It was like someone told the Aggies I'd have to Bieber for the rest of my life if they blew the game. At one point, A&M turned a 1-point lead into a 6-point deficit - ALL IN ONE PLAY - because Freshman Roberson dropped an elbow to a players chest after the whistle. The player was granted 4 FT's and the Buffaloes got the ball back, in which they promptly nailed a three-pointer. I almost shut the computer off and put the clippers away. And then, as if the Basketball gods descended upon that arena in suburban Colorado, BJ Holmes did his best Acie Law IV impression and sunk a Jimmer Fredette-range treyball with 1 second on the clock to tie the game. I've never cheered so hard for A&M...well maybe since the Acie Law IV days. Aggies took care of business in OT and I'll take care of Bieber tomorrow. No really, that girly little muffinmuncher is going down...Enough is enough.
Other great games tonight:
- Rutgers beat #10 ranked Villanova 77-76 after being down by a baker's dozen late in the game and hitting a quasi-buzzer-beating threeball, a la Texas A&M. Instead of rushing the court, Rutgers fans rushed to the nearest White Castle and then rolled around in the landfill that is NJ for an hour as a celebration.
- BYU Jimmer Fredette's beat Air Force 90-52. No surprise there, the kid drops bombs. You see what I did there? Bombs. Because it's the Air F....no? Ok, we'll let that one slide.
- Cleveland Cavaliers lost their 26th game in a row. Apparently playing with 5 cardboard cutouts of LeBron James doesn't quite match 1 real LeBron James. Time for Plan B. Actually, 26 losses? It's really like Plan Z then. Hurry up and win Cleveland, you're running out of letters...
That's all. I'm sick. And tired. But not necessarily sick and tired.
Album of the week - The Decemberists "The King is Dead"
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