No Playoffs, No Problem

It's Tuesday, which means there is no football. It also happens to mean an off-day for the World Series. Fear not sports fans, there are sports to watch. The Celtics travel to Philly to take on the Sixers starting at 7 (Comcast SportsNet) and the Bruins will have their hands full playing in Detroit.

For both the Boston teams there are some interesting storylines. The C's appear to be unstoppable and take on a team whose already given up 120+ points twice in three games. Despite this being the first of a back-to-back, traveling to Minnesota Wednesday, this game looks to be a winnable one for the green.

The Bruins, on the other hand, could be in trouble. With last year's leading scorer Marc Savard out, the black and gold have struggled mightily to score. It's been so bad they've managed just three goals in their last three games. They desperately need Patrice Bergeron, Michael Ryder and David Krejci to pick up the slack or their slide will continue. Not to mention their playing the Red Wings, who aren't too bad themselves.

SoCal Slaughter

One sports fans misery was another's delight on Thursday. It started in Boston and ended in Los Angeles, as the Ducks thoroughly embarrassed the Bruins in their own building and then the Angels dominated the Red Sox in Game One of their American League Division series.

The night started well enough, as the B's scored first and led 1-0 after the first 20 minutes. It all went to hell from there. Teemu Selanne potted two PP goals and Corey Perry added an even strength tally and it was 3-1 Ducks heading into the third. The Bruins looked uninspired and played like garbage on their way to giving up three more goals and losing 6-1. Certainly not the effort fans wanted coming off a 7-2 thrashing of the Canes and a four day lay off. Islanders are up next and may be the sacrificial goat the B's need.

The night ended in shambles. The Sox got four hits, all singles. John Lackey looked like a Hall of Famer. For all that went wrong, CB Bucknor is an ass hole, gotta hand it to the Angels. Torii Hunter has been a vocal leader for this team and backed it up with his bat last night, hitting a decisive three-run bomb to dead center. Other than that hit, Jon Lester pitched pretty damn good in his own right. If the Sox are going to win this series they have to have Game Two tonight (9:37 EST, TBS) and salvage a split before heading back to Fenway. It will be interesting to see if the bats get going against Jered Weaver who has been solid all season for the Halos. If Josh Beckett is healthy, he claims he is, and pitches like he has in the postseason, sans 2008 against the Rays, he could shut down the Angels and spare us from seeing Ramon Ramirez shit himself on the mound again.

Glorious Hub!

The Bruins are back! Literally. After a five day lay off the black and gold took on the team closest to them in the Eastern Conference, the Washington Capitals. As expected it was a hard fought game that went into overtime. The B's, who battled back twice from one goal deficits, were able to capitalize on a power play in the extra session and beat the Caps for the first time this season. More importantly, however, they got excellent contributions from Patrice Bergeron, Andrew Ference and Milan Lucic all returning after missing time. Bergeron (16 games) and Ference (21 games) had been out for so long, that when NESN aired re-runs of games from November it made you realize how well this team did without them. Regardless, until tonight they couldn't beat Ovechkin and his traveling wildebeasts. After tonight, things don't get much easier. The Devils and Rangers come to town before road games in Montreal, Philly and Ottawa which will be a true test of grit for this young(ish) team. As every great team knows, you can't win em all but if the B's can get hot out of the break, they may be playing after Maine thaws out. Which, incidentally, could be June at the rate we're going.