January 2, 2010

Bruins – Flyers Winter Classic 2010

Filed under: Blog — Tags: , , , , , , — Jimmay @ 4:47 am

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Wow. What an incredible game.

For 2-plus periods I was embarrassed to be a Bruins fan. I was watching the Flyers get all the chances, and miss. I saw Tim Thomas act like an idiot and cross-check a guy while the puck flew between his legs.

But then in the 3rd I saw the Bruins return to form. I watched them skate harder, get better scoring chances, and finally tie the game on a remarkable tip-in by Mark Recchi. All-in-all it was a magical game, and a magical event. I would have loved to have been there, but watching this game on TV was magnificent. I will find it hard to top this event in future years. The Bruins, the Red Sox, and the city of Boston have lots to be proud of. Off the charts.

April 22, 2009

This Week: Boston 6, World 0

Filed under: Blog — Tags: , , , , , , — Jimmay @ 10:22 am

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Well continuing the theme from Monday, Boston has another 3 win day on our hands.

Granted, this day only had 2 teams involved, but still a good day all around for our hometown boys.

The Red Sox got things started with a rout of the Twins in Game 1 of a doubleheader; a game which Tim Wakefield was sharp. He surrendered only one run over 7 innings. Rookie catcher George Kottaras had a good game, too, as he didn’t have any passed balls. A wild pitch on a Wakefield curveball was the only thing that made it to the backstop.

The Sox offense was more than enough as they pounded two-run home runs in each of the first three innings.

The bottom of the 7th saw 4 more men reach home before the tarp was called on the field with one out and men on 2nd and 3rd. This proved to be the way the game ended.

10-1, final.

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The second game I didn’t see much of, other than Papelbon getting a good outing in at the end of the game.

David Ortiz had a good day between the two games. He went 2-for-4 with a double in the first game, and went 1-for-4 with a double in the second game. His batting average is now .220.

Brad Penny went 6 innings surrendering 3 runs, while the bullpen has continued to be a real strength giving up 0 runs the rest of the way.

The Red Sox continue to roll; they have an off day tomorrow before they take on the Yankees this weekend.

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As for the day’s only playoff game, the Bruins, and American’s as a whole, were delighted to hear the crowd relatively quiet during the national anthems as they finally realized what ‘respect’ is all about.

Montreal scored quickly on the first shift of the game to grab the momentum quickly. Montreal fed off the energy of the crowd for the next couple of shifts before the Bruins managed to even out the momentum a little halfway through the period.

With under 3 minutes left a charging David Krecji stormed the net and forced Montreal to make a bad turnover right in front of Carey Price, and former Canadien Michael Ryder buried the shot over Price’s right shoulder to tie the game at 1.

With under a minute left in the period, the Krecji line again dazzled Montreal as Krecji won inside position on his defender against the wall just inside the offensive blue-line, to form an instant 2-on-1. He slid the puck over to Ryder, who hesitated, drew Price to his side, and fed the puck to a now wide-open Krecji who put the biscuit into the empty net to take a late 2-1 lead.

A mad scramble in the final seconds almost resulted in a Montreal goal as the Bruins were caught running around but Big-Z blocked a shot from the left point that was destined for a wide-open net as the horn sounded.

The 2nd period saw the Canadiens and their fans tense up a little. Phil Kessel took a penalty for slashing, which was subsequently expertly killed by the Bruins. Patrice Bergeron grabbed the puck just as Kessel stepped out of the box, and fed a beautiful pass off the boards to send in Kessel on a breakaway and he proceeded to pound the puck low to the right of Price to bring the Bruins up to a 3-1 lead.

With the momentum clearly in Boston’s favor, the next shift for the Krecji line saw yet another beautiful play that saw Ryder score off a beautiful pass by Krecji off the left circle only 45 seconds after the previous goal. This 4-1 lead was all they needed.

The third period saw the Bruins slow the game down at times, and handle Montreal’s pressure. Things got chippy as Mike Komisarek decided he was manly and went after Milan Lucic high with his stick, and was told to take a shower, as he was assessed a 5 minute major and a game misconduct.

The Bruins failed to score, but they managed to keep Montreal at bay as the nastiness wore out, resulting in the all-too-pretty handshake procession in the middle of the ice.

The Canadiens raised their sticks at the end of the game in thanks to their fans, but they were perhaps on the verge of getting run out of the building.

A good day. A very good day yet again.

Oh, and the Rangers won too. One more win for them and we will face the #7 team in the next round, and at the same time not have to worry about the Capitals. This night keeps getting better.

April 21, 2009

Patriots Day Massacre: Boston 3, World 0

Filed under: Blog — Tags: , , , , — Jimmay @ 12:40 am

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First things first I had to put up Game 2 of the Bruins-Canadiens series up since I missed it last time. Once again I poached this video off of ESPN.com.

I hope they don’t mind, since they make it more than possible to link to their videos and I am not passing these off as my own and I am not utilizing any of their bandwidth or storage space.

In regards to my post, though, today was a terrific day. The Red Sox had perhaps their best game of the season while they demolished the Orioles 12-1, the Celtics had a tough matchup with the Bulls once again, but held on for a dramatic 118-115 victory in Game 2 of their series, and the Bruins have grabbed the Canadiens by the throat in Game 3 and are well on their way to their first series win in 10 years.

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The Red Sox started VERY early, 11 am EST which is just ridiculously early in pacific time. I don’t think I even woke up until the game was over. But it seems as though, judging from that highlight that Justin Masterson was brilliant, and even Big Papi got in the mix and had a good game for the first time this season.

Big Papi has not looked good at all this season, and based on what I have read, it seems like it’s a mechanical issue. What do I think? I don’t know. I have never hit a home run in baseball so I haven’t the knowledge to see what is wrong. But if the team and David Ortiz are happy, I’m happy.

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The Celtics I didn’t get the chance to see either, but I guess it was amazing :) . My dad tells me it was an amazing shot, and it does in fact look to be quite amazing. I wish I had seen it, but I was just finishing up watching the Bruins and didn’t have the chance.

I hate to say it, but not having KG has really bummed me out. I didn’t think they stood much of a chance to win even with KG (Cleveland just looks SO good), but now without them, I’d be surprised if they win more than this series.

There is no guarantee they even win this series. It’s just a lot to hope for.

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As for the game of the night, in my opinion, Boston has all but clinched this series, and have looked dominant in the process.

While watching this game, I was disturbed to see (well, actually, hear) all those Canadians booing our national anthem. It’s honestly a disgrace to hear such a thing. I don’t know why they boo, I don’t know if they are trying to send a political statement, but the only thing it tells me is I should dislike Canadians.

So that got me started hating their fans from the very start.

Going forward, at the start of the game, though, those same fans got LOUD. I know the arena holds about 4,000 more people then the TD BankNorth Garden, but JEESH, they are loud.

But after Montreal scored forst, all 21,000 fans instantly shut up as Phil Kessel redirected a beauty of a shot to tie the game at 1 after a bad turnover by Montreal at their own blue line.

Turnovers seemed prevalent for the Bruins, as it seemed Boston turned the puck over at a staggering rate.

The Bruins survived the onslaught of the first period tied at 1, and proceeded to take a 2-1 lead on a terrific effort by the newly-inserted Byron Bitz (in for the suspended Milan Lucic, who had no right to be suspended in my opinion), as Bitz turned the puck around the back boards and found an open Shawn Thornton which proceeded to get buried in the top-left corner of the net.

In the second half of the period, the Bruins got caught running around a bit and took two bad icing calls, the second of which resulted in Montreal’s 2nd goal off the ensuing faceoff.

Rebounding from that disappointment, however, the Bruins had great side-to-side action as the Bruins had two shots from the point rebound to the opposite side of the net, the 2nd rebound leading to Ryder’s wide-open net to shoot at.

At this point I have never heard 21,000 fans so quiet. It was amazing to me just how loud they got when they thought a penalty should be called (namely, whenever a Montreal guy flopped on the ice, which was all the time), yet at the same time they shut right up after that Ryder goal.

They had a couple of “Let’s go Habs” chants, and a couple spells of boos for Zdeno Chara, but overall they seemed silent. I don’t remember the Bruins fans being that quiet during any of their games, and I can only assume Montreal fans were crying themselves to sleep. No other explanation.

In the end, the Bruins hung on and Chuck Kobasew iced the game with a well-deserved empty-net goal for a guy who brought his ‘A’ game. Chuck was a presence all night with high energy, physical play.

Overall I thought the Bruins did well as they performed a LOT better then I expected under the circumstances. I can remember many games where the atmosphere would crush the Bruins.

Perhaps the Bruins were just that good. Maybe we would have shut them out and the crowd earned them those two goals. Who knows? But either way, it’ll require a miracle for Montreal to force a Game 6. I don’t expect the Bruins to win Game 4, but there is no way the Bruins will lose at home after that.

It was a good day for a celebration. Celebrating the commencement of our Declaration of Independence, and doing it in style!

April 17, 2009

Bruins 1 – Canadiens 0 (Fans 1 – Alexi Kovalev 0)

Filed under: Blog — Tags: , , , , , — Jimmay @ 4:04 am

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The first game of this highly-anticipated 7 game series with Montreal was fantastic, to say the least. As a Bruins fan there were concerning moments but at the same time there were plenty of areas that stood out.

The Bruins had to weather the fist period jitters as Montreal started quickly. The first minute of the game belonged to Montreal offensively and they carried the play until Milan Lucic stepped on the ice and clobbered a Montreal player about 1 1/2 minutes in.

After weathering Montreal’s storm Boston scored two terrific goals in the span on 90 seconds. The first goal came at the tail end of a power play when Phil Kessel took the puck from the left circle and skated toward the net. Carey Price made the save, but David Krejci made a terrific tip under Price’s glove just before he could cover the puck up for a whistle and the puck squirted free to the left of the goalie where Kessel was there with a wide open net, and he buried it.

After the follow shift Milan Lucic’s line came out and as Lucic chased a soft dump to the right he quickly passed the puck to the side of the net, where Michael Ryder passed the puck in front to a wide open Krejci, who proceeded to beat Price high, who had little chance of stopping the puck.

After this however, Montreal had a nice cycle that culminated in Montreal having a man open to the left of Tim Thomas who had no chance to stop a wicked wrister to brin the Canadiens back within 1.

After the first period the Bruins’ real weakness emerged: the Bruins don’t seem to be any more skilled then your average hockey team. Perhaps above-average is a fair assessment. While their number one goalie is Vezina-worthy, the Bruins are simply deep, not the most skilled team in the world.

The reason this seems evident is that all through the 2nd period until 10 minutes into the 3rd the Bruins and Canadiens were essentially even. The Bruins normally out work, and out-hit their opponents, but having fallen off this trend, Alexi Kovalev found time and space a ripped a bomb of a shot that found it’s way to the top corner of the net to tie the game at 2 towards the end of the 2nd.

At 10 minutes into the 3rd, however, the Bruins managed to go on the powerplay thanks to some excellent work by P.J. Axelsson, and the Bruins subsequently went on the attack. Just under a minute into the powerplay Dennis Wideman ripped a shot that hit square off the post and almost ricocheted into the net off Price, but he managed to grab the puck just before it crossed the line.

Less than 20 seconds later however, Savard camped to Carey Price’s right side passed the puck to Chara who bombed the shot inside the let post to give the Bruins the lead for good.

The next 9 minutes were generally even, and with 17 seconds left in the game Lucic stole the puck at center and fed Phil Kessel who potted his second of the game into an empty net to ice the game.

At this point, however, Montreal decided it was an appropriate time to rough up the Bruins and they decided to cheap-shot the goal scorer-Kessel and a small scrum developed.

At this point, though, some comic relief was administered. Alexi Kovalev wanted some action in this scrum, but a brilliant fan grabbed his stick from him through the camera hole in the glass and proceeded to engage in a tug of war with the Canadien player.

The stick eventually broke, and the fan proceeded to taunt Kovalev. Not only did the fan take the stick, or at least prevent Kovalev from having it, he also removed him from the scrum that was going on.

Don’t mess with Boston. This city loves their team, and cheap shots like what was happening in that instance will only result in your losing a few parts and pieces along the way, if not your pride as well.

In the end it was a terrific first game of the series, and a good win for the Bruins. As for that fan who stole the stick, brilliant. My hat’s off to you!

April 12, 2009

Holy Crap! What a game!

Filed under: Blog — Tags: , , , , , — Jimmay @ 4:24 pm

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This video I grabbed from ESPN.com doesn’t even do justice to just how special a game which happened last night.

BU has been the best team in the country all season long, and the pressure had gotten to them. The entire game BU had for the most part been it’s own worst enemy. They took way too many penalties and simply couldn’t adjust to the way the referees were calling the game. They kept clutching and grabbing from behind and were all-around undisciplined around the ice.

At the same time, however, there were stretches where BU would seemingly skate circles around Miami’s zone, and had wonderful opportunities. Miami, for it’s part, had a terrific defensive game, and only gave up 1 goal for the first 55 minutes, after a bouncing puck was barely shoved in the net in time before the Miami goalie could cover it up.

Miami was resilient and weathered BU’s offensive storm, and at times had very effective counter-attacks. Miami tied the score at 1 on a third opportunity after the puck squirted from the left side of BU’s net to out front. Miami buried the rebound into the half-open net to tie the game at 1.

From this point until midway through the third period the game was tense. The game stayed tied until Miami scored on a very similar play. A shot from out front produced a rebound that lay right next to the goalie to the right, and an unchecked Miami forward pounded home the open puck.

After BU finished killing yet another penalty, Miami took the puck over just inside their offensive blue line, passed to an open player in the slot halfway between the blue line and the circles and they fired it home to make it a 3-1 game with just over 3 minutes left.

It was at this point that BU took their timeout and pulled their goalie.

Miami stayed true and did not attempt to clear the puck from their own end and risk icing the puck and their strong defense still kept BU off the board for over 2 minutes.

With one minute left, however, BU provided a bounce-pass from the boards behind the net and managed to shove the puck into the goal from the left side through a small hole the goalie left open next to the post.

This made it a 3-2 game with 59.5 seconds left.

After the ensuing faceoff BU pressured some more, and from the left circle BU passed the puck to the point, and the beautiful pass to the right circle completed the comeback as BU buried it to tie the game at three.

In overtime the game slowed down a bit. However around 8 minutes in BU fired a simple-looking shot from the point on the left side, which deflected off the defender and tumbled into the net, unseen by Miami’s goalie.

This must have been a heartbreaking way to lose a game. Being up by two goals with a minute left is usually a sign of victory, but on this night it was not to be. It was an incredible game to watch, and one I won’t soon forget.

I’m glad to see BU win this game, but disappointed for Miami with how close they came. Maybe next year.

December 13, 2008

Bruins 12/13/2008: vs Atlanta

Filed under: Blog — Tags: , — Jimmay @ 3:36 pm

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Michael Ryder has quickly progressed to one of the hottest players on one of the hottest teams in the NHL today.

Along with Phil Kessel, Michael Ryder led the way in Boston’s 4-2 victory tonight. Ryder scored 2 pretty goals, and nearly had an empty-netter, but time expired shortly before the puck went into the net.

The Bruins first goal came during their first power play of the game, when strong moves by Milan Lucic behind the net, and David Krejci on the near circle, fed a wide open Phil Kessel in front. Johan Hedberg made a terrific stop on Kessel’s first shot, but the youngster immediately collected the rebound and buried the buck between the goalie’s pads before the Atlanta defense could respond.

After Ryder scored on his backhand to make it 2-0, Atlanta managed to score with less than 40 seconds left in the 1st period, when the Bruins turned the puck over in their own end, and with traffic in front, Nathan Oystrick buried the puck from the blue line by a defenseless Manny Fernandez.

Fighting through sloppy play in the second period, both teams managed to increase the intensity, with the Bruins finally capitalizing on the power play at 18:16 of the second period. After cycling the puck for only a few seconds, Dennis Wideman fired a shot from the point and found the twine by a screened Hedberg.

The third period similarly started slow for the Bruins, while Atlanta carried the play for the first few minutes. The Bruins weathered this storm however, and during a stretch of 4-on-4 play Michael Ryder carried the puck along the left boards and carried it past two defenders, and fired the puck into a wide-open net as Hedberg had sprawled in an attempt to clear the puck off Ryder’s stick.

With slightly over two minutes left in the game, former Bruin, and BC star, Marty Reasoner, fired a puck from the slot and rifled it off the left post and in past a helpless Fernandez.

The Bruins are now 9 points ahead of rival Montreal, who sit in 2nd place with 37 points, 5 points ahead of Buffalo in 3rd.


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