Bruins Penguins preview by the numbers

	Bruins	Penguins
Games played	12	11
Goals scored	38	47
Goals allowed	28	27
Goals per game average	3.16	4.27
Goals against average	2.33	2.25
Combined save percentage of goaltenders faced	92.5%	92.5%
Win-loss-OT loss record	8-3-1	8-1-2

	Bruins	Penguins
Fights	4	2
Penalty minutes	62	67

I know I have said this time and time again over the past few days but the odds are stacked in Pittsburgh's favor.  Yet in Boston sports alone, we have certainly had our share of being the underdog and winning or being the favorite and being beaten by the underdog (I'm looking at you 2007 Patriots) meaning that , going into this terrifying series, Boston does have a chance, no matter how slim it may be.  

GO BRUINS!!

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Red Sox win 6-5 over Cleavelend: Jacoby Ellsbury hits walkoff

On April 15th, Shane Victorino hammered a walk off single deep to center field bringing light to a day that, less than 3 hours later would be subjected to a kind of terrible terrorism the United States of America had been able to avoid for over a decade. Over the next week, the Sox won 7 straight games and never looked back: kind of. By the end of the month of April, Boston was the best team in baseball yet once the calender turned to May so did Boston's luck.

Coming into yesterday's game the Sox were 12-12 in the month and has sunken down to 3rd in the division a position that they had been unwillingly been forced to become acquainted with. Yet while for 15 days after the Victorino walk off and the following marathon attacks, the Sox carried their dominated the leauge, when Jacoby Ellsbury completed a wonderful Red Sox comeback yesterday, one couldn't help but hope that that will kick off another streak.

Coming into the bottom of the 9th inning, the Red Sox were down 3 runs to Cleveland and had struggled to do well anything all game. Yet with their back against the wall and the driving motivation not to surrender yet another win to their former manager Terry Francona powering their engine, Dustin Pedroia came up to bat in the bottom of the ninth and skillfully milked a crucial walk out of Cleveland's pitching.  Now with with Pedroia on base and his mind, cleansed of any nerves of inhibitions up to the plate came David Ortiz desperate to prolong a game that at this point seemed like a lost cause. Swinging on the first pitch he was shown, Papi was soon sprung down towards first base as the ball exploded off his bat and soared hard off the left field "Green Monster". Jumping on his horse, Pedroia flew off the first base bag at first contact rounding second before the ball even got down. With Ortiz on his heals and the crowd roaring with delight, Ortiz let up at seconds as Pedroia raced for home beating the throw from left field without even falling into the slide.

Now things get interesting. 1 out, 2 runs down and with Ortiz on second base. David stinking Ortiz attempts to steal a base. With third unmanned, and the what seemed like the entire Cleveland team looking the other way, Ortiz took his chances breaking down the line and making it to third before anyone had even noticed him. David Ortiz, a 6 foot 4, 230 pound DH had stolen just his 13th base of his career, and mercy was this game getting interesting. As the inning went on, Johnny Gomes drove in Papi and slowly advanced towards third meaning that when Jose Iglesias stepped up to bat with runners on second and third and milked a walk to load the bases, the pressure was all on Jacoby Ellsbury.

"We were gonna fight to the end, heck, we got a lot of heart." Ellsbury said following the chaos of what happened next. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and the bases loaded, the acclaimed center fielder took a pitch over the center of the plate drilling it off the monster to give the Sox their first walk-off win in over a month.

On April 15th, the Boston Red Sox hit a walk off home-run kicking off a string of victories and dominating triumphs that carried their city out of the smoke filled tears of Copley square and gun shot riddled nights of the Watertown shootouts and ensuing lock-down, and brought their team  to the top of the league. Yet while all streaks must end, 40 days after a city united and followed their team to the high road, Jacoby Ellsubury drilled a 2 run double off the center field wall reviving a streak and filling ole Fenway with a cacophony of joy we hope to once against become acquainted with. 

 

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Eastern Conference finals: Who has the edge

For the second time in three years, the Boston Bruins are going to the eastern conference finals, and while with his team's advancement in the playoff bracket coach Clause Jullian's job is without a doubt safe, I think you would be hard pressed to find a person out side of Boston who believes that the Bruins could possibly get past their opposing Pittsburgh with any ease. Fact is, to win a playoff series, you need to win 4 games before the other team does, and, looking back at recent history the Bruins last win against Pittsburgh (back on December 5th 2011) was just their fourth since November of 2009 crazy.

In addition to that when you scan the playoff stat line's of the Bruins and Penguins, the Pens have the edge in almost every category. 47 goals scored trumps the Bruins 38. Yet even with that stat line set before them, the two starting goaltenders Pittsburgh has faced combined for a better regular season save percentage than the two Boston faced meaning that, long story short, Pittsburgh has faced better net minders yet scored more goals.  Then on to defense. 27 goals allowed, one less than Bostons 28 amounts to a 2.33 Pittsburgh goals against average. 

Yet when you look at these two teams and their stats, out comes a true example of when stats don't necessarily tell the truth. Even without the bias of being a Boston sports fan it wouldn't be that hard to off the top of your head defend the fact that going position by position the Bruins might be able to contend with this monstrous Penguins teams.

 Goal-tending: Tuukka Rask or Thomas Vokoun, not a very hard decision. Tuukka, a 4 year veteran, and a man who overcame adversity sticking with the Bruins through thick and thin on his way to a 66/45/16 career win/loss/OT loss record. Thomas Vokoun on the other hand, an ageing 14 year veteran player who over the past few years has bounced around the league like a volleyball at the Olympics. Montreal, Nashville, Florida, Washington, and Pittsburgh, all teams Vokoun has played for and, save for Pittsburgh, all teams who realized what he was and due to lack of performance dropped him.  

Defense: Say what you will, about Kris Letang but there is no way he can contend with Chara, Sidenberg, Boychuck and almighty Tory Krug, it just won't happen. 

Offence: Yeah this one would go to Pittsburgh, I mean Marchand, Jager and Seguin are great but no one can contend with the Wane Gretzky of our time x2 Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Makin. 

Make you picks as you wish but in my mind despite storming their way this deep into the playoffs, this Bruins team stands just a minor chance against one of the most offensively potent squads in NHL history. 

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Bruins move on to the Conference Finals: How did they do it?

About a half hour after the game came to a close, a sullen faced John Tortorella took to the podium looking to add to the annual renewal of the "Rangers coach attacks reporters questions show". Yet less than three days after requesting that the media kiss his a** Tortoralla neglected to use the press conference as an opportunity to vent his anger, actually answering the questions of the reporters gathered before him.

Now while some of those comments are debatable, one of his excuses that he insisted were not excuses was in fact correct. While Boston's stars exploded onto the stage, many Rangers did not, the most notable of which being Henrik Lundqvist. Throughout the series, King Henrik was one of the biggest roller coaster stories of the playoffs allowing 8 goals in the first 2 games before locking down and surrendering just 6 goals in the final 3 games of his second round loss to Boston.

Yet on the other side of the ice, pounding 4 of those combined 14 goals allowed past Lundquvist was a 22 year old rookie that, save for the scouts and intensely die hard Bruins fans, was unknown to the world.  But 10 days after the series began, Torey Krug has now become the first defense men in NHL history to score 4 goals in his first playoff series. Through thick and thin, Krug demolished both Lundquvist and his shot blocking defense on his way towards scoring in addition to those 4 goals an additional assist to account for 5 points and a plus minus of +3.

Between the struggles of Henrik Lundquvist and the scoring punch of the Bruins defense and point men, Boston pulled out 4 wins in 5 games to skate to only their 4th conference finals appearance seance 1987.

                    

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291 hours: the story of the 291 hours leading up to the biggest Bruins goal since Bobby Orr

10:02 PM. Overtime. Game Seven of the Bruins first round series with Toronto. Yet after twenty four of some of the craziest hours in the history of hockey, one man, one player stood at the center of it all, gleefully emulsified in the defining cheers of 17,000 screaming fans. For the third straight year, the Boston Bruins had needed overtime to decide their first round series, yet while in the end they would eventually come out on top, relishing the fruits of their overtime victory, it was how they got to that late night triumph that is the real story.

                                                                                                                    Game One-Game Five

  10 days and 3 hours goal- 4 days and 3 hours before Bergeron goal

Coming into the night of Game One, the Bruins were in a very uncomfortable situation. After finishing the season, just one point out of the division lead, Boston held in hand the fourth seed in the conference and the fith best win loss record in the league. Yet even after a forty eight game shortened season they were struggling.  After leading the league in penalty kill for the majority of the year even that dropped off as Boston allowed nine power play goals in the final eight games alone. But that was not all. As the season drew to a close even the most important part of the Bruins score card was falling apart: goals for. In that same eight game span, the Bruins were outscored twenty two to seventeen thus contributing to a minus five goals differential and a 2.75 goals against average.  Yet when things seemed as though they couldn’t get any worse; they did.

Although as a result of their early season success, the Bruins finished the year with the advantage of home ice through the first round after losing their season finale, (a game in which they still had the option of clenching the division) once their first round opponent was announced it truly was a head in hands moment. 

You see for the longest time, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins have been some of the most drastically different teams in the NHL. Boston: a hard hitting team with basically an entire line devoted to completely pulverizing an opponent’s players (the Krejci Horton Luchic line) yet then there was Toronto. Guys like Phil Kessel, James Van Riemsdyk, and Jeroffy Lupul all speed guys, and all skill guys yet all guys who could easily be knocked off their game with nothing more than a simple body check. That and only that was the game plan the Bruins needed to follow going into this series, chip the puck in towards the net, test James Reimer and knock Phil Kessel and company down with every chance you get.  This was the series that was about to commence and this was the series that you got the sense that history was in the making.    

Nonetheless through all this hype and media attention when Game One rolled around it was game on, sort of. Well for that Game One in Boston, while the Bruins were ready to play, the Leafs were not. While Toronto did in fact score first in that game Boston exploded towards the end of the first frame, as Wade Redden ended up ripping two different shots past Reimer in just the final four minutes of the period alone.

Going into the second period, Boston was relishing a two to one lead, and they never looked back. The Bruins won four to one that day and as they returned to their homes that night, they sent Toronto’s players back to their hotel flushed with questions and above all fearfully worrying what at this point seemed like a very lopsided series.  Yet even with the predictions of a sweep looming above their heads, Toronto pushed back, doing exactly what Boston did in game one, themselves. 

Long story short, even with a Boychuk goal scored midway through the third, the Leafs skated to a series tying 4-2 win, turning the tables and sending the series back to Boston for what would eventually be an eventful games Three and Four for the Bruins.  The B’s won both those games therefore flooding the landlocked street of Toronto with an ocean of doubt and distaste that has plagued them for nearly a decade now.

Boston was up 3-1 in the series yet even after pounding the Toronto net with 15 goals scored it was in game five, a game in which they could easily knock off the Leafs with a win, that the Bruins choked. Just four playoff seasons removed from a series in which they allowed the Flyers to fight back from a 3-0 deficit in the series all to win in game seven, Boston was now in a similar position botching their first chance at ending the series and sending the contest back to Toronto for a mega Game Six.  

Game	Bruins Score	Toronto Score
1	4	1
2	2	4
3	5	2
4	4	3
5	1	2

                                                                                                                                                                      

Game Six

                                                         1 day and 3 hours before Bergeron goal

            Sunday, May 12^th, and just after 7:30 on a starlit Toronto night. In Boston fans looked for the series win, yet for the 20,000 home fans in the Air Canada Centre and the near 70,000 more crammed into the Toronto streets as they watched the game on the big screens, Game Six was just one more elimination game, and should they manage a win, a chance to move one step closer towards what at that point had the possibility of becoming a playoff comeback of epic proportions.

Yet even with all this riding on the sixty minute game set before them, it took quite for some time for things to get going. Fact is through the first 40 minutes of the game, no goals were scored, only 34 shots had been let go and most of all neither team was engaged physically. But that was bound to change. Less than two minutes into the third period, a commanding fast break out of the zone and a mighty sin-o-rama pass from Toronto forward James Van Reymsdyke to winger Nazim Kadri put Kadri in a position to, so long as he could be Chara defensively deliver an imposing shot on net.

You notice I said beat Chara. And really, that is easier said than done.  With a little less than seven feet and almost 250 pounds of human mass to his name the thirteen year veteran of the league, is the tallest person to ever win a Stanley cup and has been widely regarded as one of the best shut down defensemen in the NHL for almost a decade now. He has played for three different teams all with drastically varying coaching staffs meaning that at this  point in his career, the man with what seems like a one way ticket to the hall of fame, is proficient in defusing almost every scheme any opposing forward can throw at him. 

Yet with all this to his name, Chara is human, and one of the most defining differences between man and machine is the fact that at times human screw up and, heck, it was at this point in time that Chara exhibited that characteristic.

With Kadri spinning towards the blue line, Chara retreated towards the crease allowing the Leafs winger to fire a forceful shot on and past Tuukka Rask, into the back of the net. But even with a metaphorical dagger thrust down the throats of Boston’s fans and roster members, the Leafs were not prepared to let up. Less than eight minutes after taking the lead, a Cody Franson shot into a scrum of players forming in front of the Boston net left Tuukka Rask panicking as he struggled to gain a view of the ricocheting puck. 11:05 to go in the game, and with that puck still sitting at the top of the crease and Tuukka Rask still with no idea where on the face of the earth it was, former Bruin Phil Kessell swooped in on the loose puck beating Rask before he even knew what hit him.

Riding their two goal lead, the Leafs coasted for the majority of the third period yet even with the game tilted in their favor, Toronto may have lifted their foot off the gas about twenty seconds early. With 37.2 ticks remaining on the clock a pass off the goal line from Jaromir Jager to mighty Chara all with the goalie pulled began to form the offensive passing presence they had struggled to develop for the majority of the game. 35 seconds now, Patrice Bergeron taking the pass from Chara turns to the goal and blats the slap shot in the general direction of James Reimer. After seeing the puck blocked in front yet then turned back into the crease, power forward Milan Luchic elected to cut in towards an empty pocket in front of the Toronto net. 25.6 to go now and with the puck now rotated back to Jager, the 41 year old future hall of famer slid the puck to the top of the crease where it was gleefully redirected into the back of the net, thus cutting Toronto’s lead to one and giving Boston a renewed breath of life. Yet twenty five seconds after that breath of life was given, the pesky game clock ran out clasping a hand around Boston’s throat and cutting off that breath for good: kind of.

Twelve days after the series began, Boston had blown out the Leafs twice, won once in overtime before allowing Toronto to fight back and put themselves on the brink of history. Coming into this year’s playoff season only one team had ever come back from a 3-1 series deficit to win in game seven and while Boston was not willing to go quietly, Toronto had proven that they were a far more formidable opponent then they at first seemed. 

Game	Boston score	Toronto score
6	1	2

 The Plane

21 hours before Bergeron goal

Bruins fans were panicking and with Game Seven then just over twenty hours way and Boston desperate to get back to their home town to prepare for the upcoming game, getting to Boston seemed would inevitably prove to, like almost everything else in this series, be easier said the done.  

            Just after ten PM, immediately following their gut wrenching Game Six loss, an unidentified malfunction on the team chartered private jet left the Bruins grounded in Toronto and sleeping in the South Canadian city for the eight hour duration of the night. 

Nonetheless after getting a few extra hours of sleep and after being exempt from the morning media circus that came with the game seven morning skate, the Bruins returned to Boston just after 11 o’clock in the morning and quickly prepared for the imposing game set before them.

Game Seven

3 hours before Bergeron goal - 0 seconds before Bergeron goal

Game Seven, Monday, May thirteenth and for a team playing its eighth game seven since 2007 the nerves, anxiety and rampant worry and mistakes that almost always come with an elimination game of that sort were all but absent from the minds of Boston’s players. As for the Leafs well that was a different story. Fact is on that Monday May thirteenth it had been over nine years since the Leafs had last played a game seven (that last game being an April twentieth a four to one win over Ottawa) and one could be assured that in the locker room before game seven there was quite a bit of sweating, anxiety and one of those roaring silences that people can very rarely comprehend. 

And while going into the game, one could draw their own conclusions as to how the nerves were effecting the Leafs, when, just over five minutes into the game, rookie defensemen Matt Bartowski broke through scoring his first NHL goal in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it was clearly evident that the Leafs were stumbling.

Yet it was at that point in the game that the Leafs began to rebound.  Just three minutes an 56 seconds after Bartowski’s go ahead goal, a high sticking penalty assessed to Bruins top penalty killer Zedeno Chara, would prove vital in the Leafs march towards a blowout, as with 12 seconds to go on the penalty kill Leaf Cody Franson would willfully snap one into the back of Tuukka Rask’s net.

With the puck down the in corner, Jeroffy Lupal was quickly forced to dump the pass off to his point man as he was forcefully hunted by D-Man Dennis Sidenberg. Now holding the puck on his stick, Phil Kessal blasted the shot in to the net front pile where like the eventual game winning goal in game six, Rask would lose sight of the puck. Bodies flew like ragdolls as all four Bruins penalty killers frantically laid out anyone within a ten foot radius of Rask. But even that was not enough. As Lupal crashed down across the mouth of the goal, the rampant stick of Cody Franson somehow reached through the eight bodies crammed into a four by eight foot rectangular goal crease and smacked the puck past Rask and into the back of the net, swinging the game in Toronto’s favor and giving them the momentum to do what they did for the next 2 periods or so.

Franson again, then Kessel, then Kadri, all Leafs, and all Game Seven goal scores. The Leafs pounded Boston, drilling shot after shot in the direction of Tuukka Rask and lighting the lamp four unanswered times. Boston was down three and even with all their experience, their backs were against the wall. Three goals, three goals against a team that had never gone away, 3 goals, impossible right? Wrong. Right as fans in and around the Bruins organization gave up on the game a marginal four on three break for Boston allowed the puck to be slid around the apron of the goal and given to winger Nathan Horton right at the right faceoff dot. James Reimer down, three bodies standing between him and the puck yet somehow through almost eight hundrud pounds of combined human mass, the puck got through everybody bouncing around before spearing its way into the net.

10:42 to go in the game, and even though their building was now rocking and their bench had sense been infused with life and enthusiasm, the Bruins would have to suffer through even more delayed gratification. Yet at this point in the game, the series and a dwindling career, one story about this game was over shadowed. Zedeno Chara.

Alright Chara is going to be in the hall of fame someday, and when you look at the stats, it would be safe to say that among all the players to come through Boston, Zedeno Chara is one of the best (and that includes Bobby Orr, Ray Borque, and Phil Esposito). Yet unlike Orr of Borque, Chara’s legendary qualities have not been surrounding his scoring. It has been his monster stature, his imposing playing style and terrifying strength that has carved his name into the stones of time and while “Big Zee” has made history many times in his career, he earned himself a new chapter in his career that day, playing a titanic thirty eight minutes of the game. By comparison it took rookie D-man Dougie Hamilton three games to even get a combined total number of minutes like that.

“I don’t  know if he plugs himself into a wall or something but he is amazing” Hamilton said after the game.

But back to the game. The clock was ticking away and slowly but surely time was running out on Boston’s chances at a comeback. 1:31 now left in the game, and with the Boston net empty, Zedeno Chara smacked a shot in on Reimer where the rebound came loose to Milan Luchic and was punched into the back of the net. Four to three now.

"We've been there before. We just relied on our experience to do the job," long time Bruin center Patrice Bergeron said following the game and really in this Game Seven with less than a minute and a half to go in regulation, it was experience that would ultimately win out.

Literally before  the Bruins in house announcer could finish calling Luchic’s goal, the Bruins continued to press pulling the puck out to the point with just over fifty six seconds left in the game. Once he had controlled the puck, point man Bergeron quickly slid the pass over to Jaromir Jager who after recognizing he had not shot put it right back to Bergeron. With five bodies directly between him and the goal, one of them being “Mount Chara” as NBC reporter Piere Mcguire said as he called the ensuing plays, Bergeron let the shot go, an heck, it went in. 

In the span of just under thirty seconds, the Bruins had scored twice with the goalie pulled and tied the game at four.  For Patrice Bergeron it was the biggest goal he had ever scored, but that was bound to change.  They had fought their way into overtime and while the Leafs were not willing to go down without a fight, the Bruins might have already given Toronto all the fight they could handle. The Maple Leafs were spent: the Bruins were not.

Six minutes into overtime, two hundred ninety one  hours after the series began over a week earlier, the Boston Bruins broke into the Toronto zone already with their home arena roaring with atmosphere. The puck worked to the corner, then fought to Bergeron who rifles it into the pads of James Reimer. The rebound: kicked out by Seguin and swung out to Bergeron by Brad Marchand. Reimer down and out Bergeron crashing in: for a split second, time seemed to stop. Seemed to. With the OT clock reading 13:56, Patrice Bergeron-Cleary’s stick made contact with the puck slipping it up and over the outstretched arm of James Reimer.

Reimer lay on the ice, his confidence shattered and his heartbroken image broadcast across the nation. His teammates, scattered across the ice as they were, stood, unmoved stunned by what had just happened. In Toronto, millions of die-hard Canadian hockey fans screamed profanity, stormed out of their bars sullen faced and verbally enraged. Yet for Boston their bench erupted. Claude Jullian Mr. no emotion himself jumped up and down in jubilation, Patrice Bergeron hopped off his skates and threw himself at the boards as Tuukka Rask rocketed out of his goal crease arriving at the celebratory pile in a matter of seconds. Across Boston, living rooms roared in excitement, heads were stuck out windows screaming to any who would listen. Video clips of local Boston restaurants as their customers reacted the to the goal circulated the news channels and the 17,000 fans packed into the TD Guarden screamed louder than many had ever heard before. And well, in my opinion, while it took Harry Potter eight movies to defeat Voldemort, Patrice Bergeron showed us he is a magician with the timeliness of his goal scoring and he would have had “he who must not be named” down in a heartbeat. 

Note: After winning game seven, the Bruins went on to face the Rangers in the first round and are currently up 2-0 in the series 

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NHL Power Rankings Round 2

1) Bruins

After pulling off what might very well be one of the biggest miracles in Bruins history, back in game seven of the Toronto series, the Bruins assaulted New York, riding the play of Tory Krug (among others) to claim a commanding 2-0 series lead.

2) Pittsburgh

Alright, as much as we hate to admit it, the Pittsburgh Penguins are a darn good hockey team. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, goals. same old same old. The Penguins are on fire.

3) Kings

Call it what you will but after winning the cup last year and nearly winning the Vesna Johnathon Quick has not let his fans down stopping 106 shots in just the first 3 games alone. the Kings are up 2-1 in the series.

4) Blackhawks
5) Redwings
6) Ottowa
7) Sharks
8) Rangers

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Five nothing over the Blue Jays: Perhaps the best game of Jon Lester's career

28 up, 27 down. After seeing his team play some of its worst baseball of the year,  Jon Lester took the mound last night downing each of the first 17 batters he faced before, after seeing his perfect game broken up by a 6th inning double, going on to drop the remaining 10 in quick succession.

“He had everything working tonight — fastball, changeup, cutter, curveball,” said a glowing Jarrod Saltalamacchia following the game. “My job was easy to be honest with you. Sit there, put a finger down and he’d throw it right where I put my glove. It was fun.”

Honestly for those watching last night, it WAS fun. Nonetheless, even after seeing his perfect game shattered midway through the 6th inning by a pinch hit Adam Lind double to left field, Lester refused to allow anymore than he already had, going on to beg the question, was this the greatest game the now 29 year old southpaw has ever pitched.  Looking across his near hall of fame career, coming into last night, a specific game in the May of 2008 stood alone on top of Lester's podium of pitching gems. 19 days into that month of May, a then 24 year old Lester was slated to make his 5th start of the year kicking off a 4 game home-stand against Kansas City. Over the ensuing 9 innings of that infamous ball game, Lester fanned 9 different batters walking just 2 and allowing no Royals players to register a hit. For the first time in his career, Jon Lester had snagged a no hitter. 

 With all due respect that 2008 Jon Lester no-no dazzled hitters and was really a turning point in a then struggling Jon Lester's young career. Nonetheless when comparing the way he played that night '08 to his output last night, in some aspects of the pitching line, Lester player with even more dominance than he had 5 years ago. Shocking right? 

First and foremost the biggest difference was amount of walks allowed and all around accuracy of his pitches. As said before, in 2008, Lester walked 2 batters as opposed to the big old goose egg in the same category last night. In conjunction with that, when looking solely at the number of base runners and at bats allowed, those two walks translated directly into 2 different base runners bumping Lester's at bat total up to 29 different batter faced. Last night on the other hand, with just 1 hit and no walks allowed, only 1 Toronto player reached first base forcing Lester to face just 28 batters, thus translating into the next major difference between the 2 games. Number of pitches. Once again, in '08 Lester threw just 130 pitches opposed to just 118 hurled in last nights game. 

You may draw your own conclusions but after looking at the stat sheets from both games, aside from the amount of hits allowed, last nights game was the best of Jon Lester's career. End of story. 

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Bruins game 4 recap: David Krejci catapults B's to a commanding 3-1 series lead

I am just going to come out and say it; David Krejci is a scoring powerhouse.

Still only 27 years old, the Czech Republic born lower line center has proven himself in nearly every period of each one of the 4 games this first round series with Toronto has seen, proving time and time again the fact that, whatever you do in the regular season, so long as your team makes the playoffs, it's what you do in that postseason tournament that really brings in the praise.

Nonetheless, while the night ended with Krejci's jubilant face accented by a stick in the air and a crowd of Bruins surrounding him, it did not begin that way. Not in the slightest.

With Joffrey Lupul kicking off the scoring less than 2 and  half minutes into the game Boston was instantaneously flushed with doubt meaning that even while going on to out-shoot the Leafs 15 to 8, they would in fact allow things to get worse before they got better. Yet by 19:39 of the 2nd period things would finally get better. After falling behind 2-0 on a Cody Franson goal, a strong power move by winger Milan Luchic saw Boston open up multiple passing lanes and successfully utilize the man advantage awarded to them a minute and 12 seconds earlier. Opting not to put to puck on net, Luchic spun around the goal crease coming up the right side boards right as center Patrice Bergeron fought for position in front of Toronto net minder James Reimer. Now with just 42 seconds remaining on the power play, Luchic dumped the pass off to the blue line where captain Zedeno Chara forcefully hammered the puck towards the net and in turn the waiting stick of mighty Bergeron. 41 seconds left on the power play, the shot, saved by Reimer and spun towards the top of the hash marks where Bergeron picked up the rebound and smacked it into the top corner of the net.

With the lead cut to 1, Boston surged scoring twice before the conclusion of the 2nd period to take the lead on the second goal before relinquishing that advantage less than 1 minute after gaining it. 38 minutes into the game, 6 goals had been scored and with neither goalie playing good hockey fans watched these two teams take the ice for the 3rd period assuredly expecting to see a flood of goals; they were wrong. It would take 33 more minutes for the game to be decided yet after being deprived of a goal for over a period and a half, David Krejci delivered once again thus bringing me and every other Bruins fan watching last night's game to our feet.

"It happened" Krejci said following his game winning goal and well, he didn't get that part wrong.

With 7 minutes and 3 seconds to go in the first overtime, Zedeno Chara poked a loose puck out into the left defensive corner of the ice. Chara was eventually able to work the pass over to teammate and imposing winger Nathen Horton. Continuing the play, Horton took a hit to make a play sliding the pass to Krejci before going down in an anguished heap. Luchic to his left, the 2 on 1 developing before him, and with Krejci rotating towards the boards he gave up on the pass to Luchic smacking the puck between the legs of a Toronto D-man, beating James Reimer, winning the game and taking a decisive 3 to 1 lead in the series.

Boo ya!!! :)

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NHL Power Rankings: with each series now in game 2 here are your power rankings of the 16 teams still alive

1) St Louis

The sheer fact that the Blues have been able to take a 2-0 series lead over a team that not only swept them out of last year's playoffs but also went on to win the cup, has really taken the league by surprise. 

1) Pittsburgh

Even without Crosby, the Penguins anihalated the Islanders in Game One putting the sting on John Tavares and company with a five nothing Game One win.

3) Bruins

The Bruins truly are a team. When they lose, they lose as a team, when they win they win as a team and even when they fight, they fight as a team. Boston destroyed the Leafs back on Wednesday asserting their dominance as a  contender for this year's cup. 

4) Chicago

5) San Jose

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John Farrell: The saving grace of the Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are on a season long tear. 11-5 at home, 9 and 3 on the road, 148 runs scored (that's tied for the most in baseball) 31 home runs hits by members of their team and the list goes on. 260 hits, 73 of which wen't for either for doubles or triples, and a team batting average of .273. For the first time in this new decade, the Sox stand alone as the best team in baseball.

Yet ironically through this 20 and 8 start, the craziest thing has not been the simple flood of wins, 1 month into the season the most mind boggling thing about this Boston team has been the sheer fact that in one off season the Red Sox came, without warning out of the doldrums of the MLB, leapfrogging the entire AL and NL on their way to the number one spot in the league. Or did they. Much like the Nationals did last year, the Red Sox entered the off-season desperate for a playoff berth and even as they tore up their roster last winter, not a single analyst or team payed any attention to them. Nonetheless the clues were there for those who looked, which with the Sox now holding 3 more wins than anyone else in the league, makes the job of figuring out how the Sox can keep this string of success going a lot easier.

First an foremost perhaps the biggest key to Boston's success this year has been it's pitching but ironically after last years overhaul the pitching staff was the part of the roster that changed the least. Looking back, perhaps the only thing that has changed with this starting rotation  with the exception of Ryan Dempster who really has not played all that well, has been the manager: John Farrell.

Now in his second stint with the Sox, Farrell, got his first taste of the Majors as a player. But after pitching for 9 years  Farrell saw his career as a starter threatened and eventually ended by a 1994 injury to his elbow. Yet even with the crushing truth of his demotion crashing over him, Farrell quickly made the decision to opt out of the big leagues turning away from the life of sweat and dirt that comes with being a player instead trading that in for the world of numbers and scrutiny (and some getting lost on your way to the clubhouse, looking at you Terry Francona) that comes with every managerial job on the face of the earth.

For 9 years Farrell bounced around, filling various coaching jobs across the board whenever they became available. First base coach, director of player operations and many others were all titles of John Farrell at one point. Yet it was a title not listed on that list that finally put Farrell on the map, and it was in Boston that that title was achieved. From 2006 to 2007, John Farrell was the pitching coach of the Sox guiding his pitchers to a high level of success and thus reinforcing the point made earlier that his presence  may be what drove guys like Lester and Buchholz the first time around and is infusing them with success this time.

It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out, weather it be Jon Lester or Clay Buchholz, both pitchers benefit greatly from Farrell's presence, as, for Lester he allows on average 1 fewer run per game and for Buchholz a little over .25 fewer runs per game.

29 games into his first year of managing the Red Sox John Farrell has dominated the entire MLB leading his team through nearly every opponent the Sox have faced this season. In the blink of an eye, the Boston Red Sox went from a team that finished 24 games out of a playoff spot to one better than any other in the league  and, looking across the board, one finds its difficult not to attribute this to the recent arrival of a man who in my mind is without a doubt the saving grace of Boston's beloved ball club. John Edward Farrell.

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When Segregation, Negro League Baseball and 2013 7th Graders Meet: The story of Rickwood Field

I sat in the back of a large 35 seat luxury bus. 3 days into a school trip I had been taking with my 25 other classmates, we were now stopped as a tall burly man at the front of the bus explained something about the steal history of the relatively modern city of Birmingham. I craned my neck, peering out the right side windows of the stationary bus, there much like several others seen scattered through the metro area of this city lay a small run down concrete building, overgrown with greenery and really appearing as not a great place to live or really do anything near. Turing my gaze away from the brick building I looked out the window immediately to my left, all the while listening yet not hearing a few minutes of the guides words. What caused this distraction you may ask? One word, baseball.

Situated in a city literally born from the ashes of the Civil War, the establishment of Birmingham Alabama lies chock full of a kind of brutal history one finds hard to even comprehend. Nonetheless, with just that simple glance at the captivating facade of this ballpark whose name is still didn't even know, I had no clue that even while they shared the same soil, the city of Birmingham and this simple ball field were livid with interconnections and underling shared stories and backgrounds, the most prominent of which being the bloody struggle for civil rights of the late early to late 1950's and 60's.

First and foremost, to understand the purpose of this ball parks the name of which I later learned to be Rickwood Field, one must understand the purpose and history of the unappreciated stories of "Negro Leagues" and in turn the hopelessly unjust laws of segregation or as known by the whites of that time, the "Jim Crow Laws". Named for a late 1800's southern comic caricature portraying a slew of inaccuracies and stereo types of black people, the New York based Jim Crow Jubilee quickly grew into a symbol of white america's unfair hatred of those with dark skin and as time went on even became the semi official name of the south's segregation laws, basically prohibiting African Americans from partaking in the same activities as their white countrymen.

For 98 years, everything was segregated: restaurants, drinking fountains, bathrooms, hotels, swimming pools, movie theaters, trains, buses, real estate rights, employment rights, voting, and yes even professional sports was as segregated as the rest. While it may be hard to believe, even in sports like basketball where the majority of athletes are now black it wasn't always that way, not even close. . In 1946 the first black player to hit the turf for an NFL team was announced to be Cleveland Browns D man Bill Willis yet it took til 1950 for the NBA's color barrier to be broken then broken by Pittsburgh native Chuck Cooper. Finally, 7 years after Willis, Bruins winger Willie O' Ree knocked down hockey's string of prejudice finally integrating the last of the nations big four professional sports. Yet one name is missing from that list, a name that even though he broke baseball's racial segregation a year after football became the first to involve integration, it was Jackie Robinson who stole the show, Jackie Robinson who endured more screams of "n****r" form his own fans, more bricks thrown at his skull, even bombs planted with the intention of taking his life, it was Jackie Robinson who became one of the greatest ball players of all time, and it was Jackie Robinson who played some of his first games on that very field I was first staring at from my seat on that bus and later standing on.

Yet even there, the story doesn't end. You see I took this trip over a week ago, but right as I was preparing to release this post a kind of news story we really haven't seen in decades was released. On Monday the 29th of April a 7 foot tall California free agent center named Jason Collins revived our belief in athletic bravery drawing himself into the same conversations with the names of Jackie Robinson himself. On Monday April 29th, Jason Collins told the world "I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay."

For over a hundrud years now, Rickwood field has been a symbol of both discrimination and acceptance in the wide world of sports and while over 60 years ago, Jackie Robinson took to the field as the first Black athlete in Major League Baseball, Jason Collins now sits as the one and only Gay man to ever play a North American big four sport.

The world is changing, and weather it be the commissioning of one of the first major stadiums intended only for black baseball or the long awaited integration of the MLB or the fact that for the first time in history, the United States of America will see a gay man in their big four sports leagues, sports is truly part of this planets culture, and while it's games have been played for thousands of years, for the first time in that grand (and sometimes discriminatory) history professional athletics can finally be a dream for literally EVERYONE.  

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Bruins 4 Maple Leafs 1: Boston leaves Toronto questioning themselves

It took an entire season for it to happen yet finally, 1 game into this season's playoffs Bruins fans were finally rewarded with what, for those watching Wednesday night's playoff opener was a pretty good hockey game.

We wanted to win (the) first game, there's really not much else to it." Bruins captain Zedeno Chara said following the game, and really that simple statement really embodied what likely served as a driving force in the Game 1 victory we now sit two days removed from. That fact was the will to win. 

As crazy as it seems, while in the end the Bruins came out on top, Boston was trailing for the majority of the 1st period.  That deficit delivered by a James Van Reimsdyke power play goal just over a minute and  a half into the game. 

"We knew we were gonna get scored against, and we knew we had to bounce back" Chara said later in that interview. While Boston would come back to tie the game, the nail bitingly awesome part of tying and tie breaking  goals were the time in which they were scored. With just about 3 minutes and 30 seconds to go in the 1st, Boston managed a quick line change dumping the puck deep behind the Toronto net. Sensing an opportunity, center Gregory Campbell raced back towards the boards, fighting to get the puck loose before rapidly working it over to winger Daniel Pallie. With both D-Men pinching in, Pallie swung around towards the net blasting the shot on Reimer thus earning a juicy rebound that allowed recent addition Wade Redden to skate in and rip a hard bouncer over the glove of James Reimer.  

Yet even as Redden slid around the back of the net sporting an ear to ear grin, the Bruins knew they weren't anywhere near done, and really when I say they were ready for some more scoring, I mean it. Merely 3 minutes went by before a minor penalty assessed to Toronto worked wonders for Boston proving that over the past few weeks, while Boston's penalty kill has pretty much fell out of the sky dead, their power play has exploded, thus contributing to, for the second straight game, a dramatic goal in the final seconds of a period.

With 14 ticks to go in the 1st period and 10 seconds to go in the power play, David Krejci slid across the blue line dropping the pass between his legs and feeding the easy pass to Redden who like he did 3 minutes earlier blasted the shot towards the net taking the lead for Boston.

Yet even then Boston wasn't done. With their notably subdued crowd now roaring with excitement and tumultuous cheers, the Bruins continued to press the Toronto net, breaking through once again with about 10 minutes and 20 seconds expired in the second period. with David Krejci along the boards, his 2 line-mates raced forward in support as they looked to help develop what at that point seemed to be at least a 2 on 1 with the possibility to turn into a 3 on 1 in the direction of Reimer. As the play continued to develop, Krejci cut off the boards as both his line-mates pulled up allowing 2 leafs to get back to try to defend yet all the while opening up both Hornton right at the hash marks and an easy shooting lane for Krejci. Opting to try to eliminate the shot option, both leafs players made a cut towards the net allowing Krejci a quick pivot to Hornton who by way of an ever present pressure from behind muffed the shot failing to get it past Reimer yet still leaving the puck just sitting on top of the crease. Still very much in the play, Krejci spun towards the net right as Milan Luchic won a stick race to the loose puck and with Hornton on the ground, slid it to Krejci who had already begun to turn to face Reimer. Rotating out to a position about 10 feet out of the net, and with 3 out of 5 bruins all within about one stride of each other, Krejci fired through a screen and like his two team mates before him tallied his first goal of the 2013 NHL playoffs and in turn his 1st playoff goal since game 2 of last year 1st round loss to Washington.

Yet while Redden, Honrton, and Krejci all put the sting on the Leafs, no goal plunged a more painful dagger into the hearts of Toronto's team and fans the one scored with just over 4 minutes to go in the game. With the puck right at the Boston blue line Milan Luchic slid forward loosing the pass along to Krejci who was then waiting just over the half line. Taking it into possession, Krejci, recognizing the pressure of two Leafs  defense men standing before him, and like he had for the Horton tip in earlier in the game, turned to his left simply leaving the puck for Johney Boychuk to skate into. From 60 feet out John Paul Boychuk slipped the shot off the cross bar blasting in Boston's 4th goal of the game and at that point sealing what was bound to be a decisive game on victory. But even then Boston was not done.

 All season the Bruins front office and roster had been preaching the importance of a 60 minute effort, and with the exception of a select few contests the most prominent of which being a near 100 shot game with Ottawa back in March, Boston had really failed to manage that elusive "good win". Yet in their 49th game since the conclusion of this year's lockout the Bruins were in a position to finally snare that "good win" and, heck, after Boychuk sealed the deal with 4 minutes to go in the game, Boston was certainly not going to settle for a 56 minute effort. They drove to the end and even when the horn sounded, Boston worked hard to keep true the identity they have worked so hard to build. Literally as time expired, a small brush up between Frazer McClaren and Adam McQuaid quickly escalated to the point where Bruin skill player Chris Kelley dropped the gloves and started trading blows with Leo Komarov. Five Chris Kelley punches, and a barrage of Komarov fists on the top of Kelly's helmet, later, all other players had cleared the area and Leo Komarov had his sweater pulled over his head and Kelley stood completely unfazed by his first bout since March 21st of last year.

Call is what you will but Boston gave a 60 minute effort last night taking a veteran approach to playing a team literally with no veteran experiences. The last time the Toronto Maple Leafs made the playoffs before this season, was 2003 and really even with them well entwined in this season's post season tournament the Bruins raised a worlds of question going into game two. Is Phil Kessel really all that he is built up to be? Is James Reimer really a NHL class goalie? And above all, do the Toronto Maple Leafs really deserve to be in the 2013 NHL playoffs? 

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Bruins vs maple leafs: 2013 NHL quarterfinals

I haven't really gotten around to writing about tonight's Bruins playoff opener against the Maple leafs but nonetheless, the Bruins seem poised for a run and heck i would love to see some summertime hockey taking place at the Garden.

Pregame Notes 

Maple leafs

• Toronto has not made the playoffs in 9 years as 15 of 20 Toronto players dressing for this month's series have never played in a playoff game.
• Tonight will make the first time since the trade that sent Tuukka Rask to the Bruins and the one that took Phil Kessel to Toronto, replacing him with the draft picks that turned out to be Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton  took to the place

Bruins

• Bruins finished the season, 1 point out of the Northeast Division title
• The Bruins allowed the 3rd fewest goals in the NHL, boasting the best power play in the leauge for the majority of the season. 
• Tuukka Rask has risen to the task of being the starting goaltender snagging and even 2.00 GAA
• Brad Marchand led the Bruins with  36 points as Boston had 6 player with more than 10 goals (2 with 15 or more)

Series prediction (all be it slightly biased), Bruins win in 7 games 

GO B'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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