A Year in the Making

Well, I got my wish...so far.

The Black and Gold mustered up just enough determination and grit to squeak by the much-hated Canadian Dive Team in the first round in seven games - and I was there to witness it. I would say it was the happiest moment of my life so far...but in no way am I satisfied just yet.

As much as I'd like to dwell on the first round and rant about how amazing it was that we finally won a Game 7 for the first time in umpteen-something years, and how it came against a team that not only is the second-most hated team in Boston, but a team that in no way deserved to be on the same ice as the Bruins for the amateur and Sally-esque style of play that they possess...it's time to look forward- to the most hated team in Boston.

It only made sense that the Bruins would be matched up against the Flyers in the second round, right? I mean, I am convinced that there is someone up there scripting all of this. I imagine a round table in the clouds where the hockey gods (along with Steven King and maybe James Cameron) are sitting, brainstorming the best possible storyline for these playoffs...

And why not a story of revenge?

It'll go without saying what happened last year. Needless to say, May 14, 2010 was one of the worst days of my life...Now, a year removed, there is a chance for complete and utter redemption. So yeah, happiest day of my life? It hasn't happened yet. But there is potential...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVYlr848cVA&feature=related

Waiting for Nothing

Talk about being blue-balled.

I waited and waited and waited for this day to come. Since a week ago when the regular season ended. Since a month ago when the Bruins clinched. Since a year ago when....well, we won't go there tonight. I waited and waited and finally the day came. Game 1 of the 2011 NHL playoffs started tonight.

But even though the wait for this game felt like an eternity, the wait during the game felt even longer.

The Bruins spent 60 minutes piss-farting around the ice tonight and came up completely empty. Did Carey Price steal the show and win this game single-handedly for the Habs? Ehh Maybe, but I don't think so. Price did play well, but it was well enough. People are going to say that the Canadiens won tonight because of the stellar play of their young netminder and that the Bruins were doomed from the start. Falsetto McFalsenstein. If anything, Carey Price just prevented the Canadiens from losing tonight, but he really didn't need to do much. 31 saves, and most of them were in his chest. Many of the opportunities that the Bruins had to score (cough, Marchand) failed because the Bruins (cough, cough,) failed to finish the play - not because he made a spectacular save. I also think I counted 5 times when Chara shot the puck straight into the chestticles of Price.

I won't lie, the Bruins managed to keep the puck in the Montreal zone for much of the game. I'm sure the puck possession is something ridiculous - maybe even 2:1 Boston. The whole second period looked like it was a game of half-court pondhockey on Lake Montreal. Yet, the Bruins couldn't do anything but play grab-ass in the offense zone. Turnover after turnover. Missed shot after blocked shot after no-shot. Nothing. And let's be honest, the Canadiens were NOT playing offense and they were barely playing defense. Really, there was no excuse for a loss tonight, let alone zero goals...

If we learned anything from this game it's that Lucic may need to be benched. I don't know. I'm split on this decision. I'm usually against sitting one of your better players because of a slump. But I'm not sure Lucic is in a slump. I think he just might be getting lazy. I mean, if you're going to say that Carer Price single-handedly won the game for the Habs, you have to say that Lucic single-handedly lost the game for the B's. And I'm not just referring to the second goal (in which, he really did blow). He played like an donkey all night. Stiff hands, slow feet, poor stickhandling, marginal decision-making. Where's the 30 goal scorer we saw this year??? If we can't get him for the playoffs, can we at least get the balls-to-the-wall corner-crashing, slot-screening forechecker we saw before this year??? Julien sat Kessel in the '08 playoffs when he was playing like a donkey, so who knows...we may be seeing Seguin after all...

Looks like I'll have to wait a little longer to see some serious playoff hockey.

Location, Location, Location

Just a quick rant about college hockey before I put this season to bed for good...

Can somebody tell me who the HELL is in charge of organizing the Frozen Four?

Seriously.

I've never been more confused about a Division I college tournament bracket than I was about this year's Regional matchups. I just don't get it...

First of all, how does BC get an overall 3 seed, when they were just #2 in the nation last week and riding an 8 game winning streak that included a (1) a Hockey East regular season crown and a (2) Hockey East conference championship crown? Not only that but how did Yale earn the #1 overall seed??? Yale was ranked 3rd in the polls coming into the tourney, behind both BC and North Dakota and yet somehow managed to make a quantum leap over both schools. Am I missing something? Did Yale's ECAC crown really hold more weight over a Hockey East crown? I highly doubt that. I mean the only explanation is that they did it so that Yale could host a regional site, right?...

Ok so...

If that's the case that the committee fudged with the top seeds in order to match the top teams with the closest regional site, then can somebody - ANYBODY - tell me why BC had to play in St. Friggen Louis??? Especially when two of the four regional sites were in Manchester, NH and Bridgeport, CT!?

I understand that the regional sites are chosen way ahead of time and should have no bearing on which teams get chosen to play in each site, regardless of their proximity but....

Wait. I'm sorry? There IS a proximity consideration when selecting the teams for that region?

According to trusty Wikipedia (because the NCAA tends to be under wraps about this kind of stuff):

In setting up the tournament, the Championship Committee seeks to ensure "competitive equity, financial success and likelihood of playoff-type atmosphere at each regional site." A team serving as the host of a regional is placed within that regional. The top four teams are assigned overall seeds and placed within the bracket such that the national semifinals will feature the No. 1 seed versus the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed versus the No. 3 seed should the top four teams win their respective regional finals. Number 1 seeds are also placed as close to their home site as possible, with the No. 1 seed receiving first preference.

Oh really? So that's how it works? So, why - once again - did Boston College (a team from the Northeast) host a regional site located in the Midwest, while Miami of Ohio (a team from the midwest) was chosen to host a regional site located in the Northeast (Manchester, NH)?? Am I the only one who thought this was more than a little ass-backwards? Did the committee not have GoogleMaps up in front of them while they were making these seedings? Or was this an organized coup d'etat put in place to try to derail the defending champs?...

Conspiracy theories aside, my beloved Eagles lost - er, got crushed - in a game I'd rather not openly discuss about, and really there's no excuse for it. In the end, it's not so much about location as it is about coming in and playing your A game for 60 minutes - and BC just didn't do it. Which sucked, because they had been doing it all year long. Oh well...my hat's off to the boys. Championship or no championship, another fantastic and thrilling year of hockey on the Heights.

No but really, isn't it funny that the two #1 seeds playing away from home - BC and Miami (OH) - both lost in the first round? Just saying...

Tweeting the Blog Back to Life

I have officially done what I told myself I wouldn't do.

I've let too much time pass in between my last post and now. It's not that I haven't had anything to write about - it's actually the opposite. I've learned that the longer you hold off writing, the MORE you want to write about during that span of time. And then you just tweak yourself out deciding which topic to choose. And by the time you finally decide, it's too late, you're too tired, and you're distracted by the Speed Marathon on AMC. It happens.

[Fun Speed trivia: the guy who Keanu Reeves steals a car from to chase the bus down in the first Speed is the same guy Jason Patric steals a boat from to chase down Willem Dafoe's hydroplane in Speed 2: Cruise Control. Once again, something you'd probably only pick up on during a Speed marathon.]

So in the interest of feeling "caught up" and under the constraints of time and audience attention-span, I am going to attempt to briefly discuss everything that has been stirring around in my mindsauce over the past few weeks - in 140 characters or less....

NFL Lockout

Thx to sporcle I learned that ALL 32 NFL teams rank in the Top 50 Most Valuable Sports franchises IN THE WORLD.Tot=$33BIL...I mean, C'mon!

NFL Rule Changes (Kickoffs, Replays)

So you're changing the rules for a game that probably won't be played next year? Don't you guys have something better to do? (See above)

Bruins

Chara decapitates Pacioretty. Montreal police set bounty. Recchi calls out Pacioretty's toughness. B's kill Habs 7-0. Moral: Canada sucks.

Red Sox

Pedroia buys a hot dog during a spring training game and goes completely unrecognized...So we have that in common.

Celtics:

Watching the C's during the reg season is like watching Nenad Krstic's hair grow. When do the playoffs start?...

March Madness

Nominations for 1st born son: Jimmer, J'Covan, JaJuan,, E'Twaun, Shabazz...I should make a bracket. There's also these: click.

St. Patty's Day Parade

Nothing says SPD like bagpipes, green beer, 10' unicyclists, Justin Bieber working the sausage stand and pictures of people taking pictures.

The Adjustment Bureau

It's official. Emily Blunt is the ONE.

Charlie Sheen

Mr. Sheen beat out the Tokyo Earthquake for the most searched keyword on Google last week. Another sign of the apocalypse (no pun intended)

Apple Released the iPad 2

Now with stronger cloth lining for those extra tough times of the month!

Phew. I feel much more caught up now....

[Stay tuned for the much-awaited "Glee" post.]

Sexiled

Everyone has that one night in their lives that they'll regret forever. Right?

Maybe you had a few too many slippery nipple shots at the bar the night before and woke up in a blurry haze the next morning lying butt-naked in a public garden next to Lolita, the 4'5" Spanish midget from the local Foxy Lady. It happens to everybody. We make mistakes. We're only human.

But for Brandon Davies, being human may have just cost him his basketball scholarship.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Davies, the BYU sophomore forward out of Provo, UT, had been dismissed from the team indefinitely for his conduct off the court. At first, all the university would not go any specific details about the transgressions that led to the dismissal. Then on Wednesday, word finally got out that the sophomore had been released from the team and suspended from the school for breaking an "honor code" upheld at the institution. When I first heard this, my initial thought was that Colonel Jessup was in the building. Honor code? Did he give away Coca Cola's secret recipe or something?

As it turned out, Davies was dismissed from the team as a consequence to one of those nights he'll always regret. But in this case, there was no alcohol or public indecency or Spanish midgets. Brandon Davies was suspended and kicked off the basketball team for having sex...with his girlfriend.

Now I know BYU is supposed to be all uber-religious and strict and straight-edge when it comes to all this stuff but...really? The man has intercourse with his girlfriend and that's enough behavior to warrant a permanent dismissal from the team and possible dismissal from the school? The dude wasn't drinking, wasn't smoking, and really wasn't doing anything illegal. And yet, he gets one of the stiffest punishments I have seen given to a college athlete in a long, long time. It just doesn't make sense.

Yeah yeah, BYU is full of Mormons and Mormons don't believe in drugs, alcohol or premarital sex. But let's be honest here, this kid was probably going to marry this girl next week anyway. More than half of the kids walking around that school are married already and many of them have children too. And wait another year, I bet some of them will be married again. And again. I just don't get it.

Without trying to go into the logistics of the actual religion and its actual rules and beliefs, I'm just going to say that I think the thing that gets to me the most is the inconsistency this action

sets against the rest of the league. I mean, think about it. In the past year alone, how many times have we seen college athletes getting suspended just a couple games for recruiting violations and taking gifts from boosters and getting into barfights, etc? You'd be stupid to think that all college athletes are alcohol and drug-free. And you'd be really stupid to think that college athletes don't have premarital sex. Much of the time, their "destructive" behavior goes under the radar. And when they do get caught, it's usually only a brief suspension. Is it fair that BYU is 100 times stricter? No. But is it the risk you take when you choose to go to a college like that. I guess so.

And let's get to the real issue at hand. Because it's not like this happened to any little division III program in Chaunceyville USA. BYU was ranked #3 in the nation and coming off a huge victory over conference rival and #6 ranked San Diego State when this happened. They were almost a shoe-in for a #1 seed in the NCAA tourney in a few weeks. Now, they have to play without their 3rd leading scorer and best option inside the paint. Now all opposing teams have to do is focus on defending wonderboy Jimmer Fredette and they'll have a chance to win.

Exhibit A: tonight's game. New Mexico 82, BYU 64. (in Provo)

The only "honor code" being broken here is BYU giving away their own secret recipe.

A Trade With No Perks...

[Sorry to those who, for some reason, might've be expecting a post about Glee tonight...]

Say it Ainge so.

While most of the world was at work today, Celtics President Danny Ainge was working to...dismember the team? Wait a second. Let me try to get this straight. We ship out big man Kendrick Perkins and spark plug Nate Robinson - two proven playoff players - in exchange for a guy who has already proven not to work out for us, in Jeff Green, and a guy who's name looks like the letters I just picked up in scrabble, in Nenad Krstic. [For the record, if you haven't downloaded "Words with Friends" yet - basically a Scrabble knock-off - do it. Probably one of the most addicting games out there right now. Thank God I didn't discover this game in college.]

And as if losing Perk and Donkey wasn't enough, Danny boy ships out Semih Erden (another Scrabble player) and the Irish Cavemonster, Luke Harangody to the Cavs for...a second round pick?!?! Como say what? I mean, I've heard of making cap room, but this is straight up early spring cleaning. Why are we clearing out space for a team that can't even show up to practice without wheelchairs and crutches?

Now I'm usually a guy who tends to take the optimist side of mid-season trade involving my favorite team. I can usually understand the logistics and necessities that go into making moves through front offices and management and what-have-you. I try to look at the deal through the

GM's eyes. Heck, they must know more than I do, right? I mean, at first it was a shock, but after a while I could begin to understand why Belichick sent Randy Moss packing in exchange for a third round pick. Even the Manny Ramirez trade 3 years ago wasn't necessarily a blind-side hit. Yes, I weeped like a little girl when it happened, but it's not like I didn't see it coming.

There's only one real trade that's occurred from a Boston sports team that I never really understood or accepted. And that day was Dec. 1, 2005 when Bruins GM Mike O'Connell shipped out beloved captain Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks for Marco Sturm, Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau. Stupid. Stupid

stupid.

While this trade had at least some meaning in it - Jeff Green can spread out the floor and Krstic is, well, big enough - I just don't see how this trade makes the team any better. If anything, this trade was perfect for the Thunder, who needed a big presence inside like Perk. Yes, Perk has been injury-prone, but when he's healthy he's dominant. And nasty Nate is nasty Nate. You know, a guy who'll jump on your back during the playoffs. Literally.

Anyway, as I predicted, the Celtics-Nuggets game tonight was atrocious. Talk about a matchup between two teams who just look plain empty. The injury-laden Celtics barely had enough players to put out on the court (after the Big 4 - and even they didn't play a lot of minutes) and the new Melo-less Nuggets looked just as hollow. It was like watching pong. The two sides were just...there. It looked like neither team wanted to be there, and I'm pretty sure the Celtics just stopped playing after 3 quarters. 89-75 loss. Woo. Can't wait for the playoffs. Woo...

[Post-note: just found out Perkins was "very upset and emotional" about being traded. 8 years. Gone. Thanks Ainge. You meany.]

Beans, Beans, They're Good for Your Heart...

...especially on Valentine's Day.

I know it's been a little more than a full 24 hours removed since the big victory Monday night but I couldn't let another minute pass without expressing how fortunate I am to witness and be apart of a true dynasty (dare I say) in Division I college hockey. Boston College Hockey: three Beanpot Championships in four years, three Hockey East Championships in four years, and two National Championships in three years...and there's no sign of slowing down this season. Captain Whit and the boys are ranked #1 in the national standings this week and get a rematch of the recent Beanpot foe NU this coming Friday at home. Things are looking good. Again. I hate to say anything because of the fear of jinxing us, but I've never felt this confident in team to the point where I expect them to win every game since...well, a certain professional football squad in 2007. Our guys are doing some amazing things out there on the ice and that's all I really have to say.

Along the lines of the game itself, well, it wasn't the cleanest game of hockey I've seen, no. But as I said, I never lost the confidence that we would pull it off in the end. Even after the NU goal with a little over a minute left in regulation. This game had 2008 beanpot final vs. Harvard written all over it - a back-and-forth goal-laden affair with a few (un)fortunate bounces and a handful of defensive breakdowns. Throw in a few minutes of overtime and boom, 2008 beanpot deja vu - minus Nick Petrecki canoeing through center ice...

All in all, I couldn't be more proud of these guys. And at the same time, I couldn't be more proud of the BC fanbase. I don't know if it was just because this was my first time sitting 'outside' the student section portion of the bleachers but the fans looked great. A full four sections were filled, and there were plenty more overflowing just outside the main corner. It seemed like three or four years ago, there was half that number (something that still boggles my mind - who's not going to the Beanpot?). And yeah, people are going to make the argument that the place was louder when Northeastern scored then when BC did. You'd probably be right - but you have to take into consideration a couple things. A.) Any BU fans that were still there (you know who you are) were guaranteed rooting against BC (and not necessarily for NU). B.) Anyone else was either doing the same as BU fans or just rooting for NU because people who have no loyalty tend to side with the underdog - in this case, a team that hasn't won the tournament in 23 years. Can't really blame 'em, but then again, don't really feel bad for them either. As a colleague of mine likes to say, "haters gonna hate."

[Side note: I wanted to make a remark about lowly BU losing to an even lowlier Harvard in the consolation game, but to tell you the truth, I think that loss is embarrassing and humiliating enough for them. 4th place out of 4? Well, at least you can't get any worst next year, BU...]

Congratulations again to the boys for another absolutely amazing tournament victory. Two years in a row drinking out of that thing and that, my friends, is one thing that'll never get old...