The tree is up, the boy and I went to his band practice while Jen and the girl went Christmas shopping, then the girl and I went food shopping while Jen and the boy went Christmas shopping.
Now all three of them are playing Warcraft together. Know what that means? That means I get to watch me some Boston Bruins hockey!
The Bruins are in the Winter Classic this year. New Years Day against the Canadiens at Gillette Stadium. I’ve still never been to Gillette. New Years Day runs the risk of brutally cold weather, and that’s the main reason I didn’t look at tickets when they first became available.
Today though, I just looked at stubhub. The cheapest tickets they have are running about $220 each. The seats themselves though… I think they are closer to Rhode Island than to the actual ice.
Still… no, I can’t… but still….
When it comes to home run show boating and bat flips… this is pretty close to the best ever.
The game was tied in the top of the seventh. The Rangers had a runner on third. After a pitch, the catcher went to throw the ball back to the pitcher and the throw hit the batter’s bat and rolled down the third base line. The runner on third scored to give the Rangers the lead. Weirdest thing I’ve ever heard of in a baseball game.
Then in the bottom of the seventh one Ranger’s player (sorry for not being up on the names, I’m doing this from the slightest bit of memory) made three (3) THREE! errors to load the bases. A single brought in the tying run. Then…
Jose Bautista destroyed the ball and drove it into next month, stood at home plate to watch it go out, then gave the meanest, angriest, most pissed off bat flip ever in the history of ever. Obviously the Rangers were pissed and the benches cleared.
Normally I am on the side of act like you’ve been there before and don’t show boat, but in this case? Following the dumbest play in the history of the playoffs? You flip that bat, Jose, and you suck it up and deal, Rangers.
Now, to change the subject, I should probably wait until tomorrow to mention this, but three of the division series have ended and the team I picked won all three. If the Dodgers win tonight I will be perfect in picks for the post season.
Obviously I just jinxed it though, so if you’re a Met’s fan… you’re welcome.
Oh yeah, and the Bruins won last night! Can you believe it? The standings as of this moment: The Patriots have four wins with 12 games to go, and the Bruins have one win with 78 games to go. It’s gonna be close!
Today has been an emotional roller coaster.
First, the Supreme Court of the United States of America finally moved us one step closer to fulfilling the promise of the Declaration of Independence by bitch slapping bigotry and ruling that homosexuals have the right to be legally married. As if common sense and decency weren’t enough to show a civilized human that such rights are obvious and should never have needed a court ruling to point out to the country.
I have to say, I was pretty proud of my country when I heard the news.
Later, in infinitely less important news, the Boston Bruins dumped Dougie Hamilton for draft picks, followed shortly after by dumping Milan Lucic for more draft picks, and then they signed a bottom pair defenseman to a four year 2.75 million dollar per year contract. They ended up with pics 13-15 in the first round. The pain and suffering was mitigated by the hope that they would package some of these picks and either trade up for an impact prospect, or trade them for a current NHL player. They did neither. They used all three picks on people that the NHL pundits thought were not worthy of mid-first round selections.
Don Sweeney… the honeymoon is over. So very, very over. I don’t want to come right out and say that you suck as a general manager…
But it sure looks like you suck as a general manager.
Dark days are ahead for Bruins fans.
At least the United States did the right thing.
I took a half day off from work yesterday so that I could get into town for the Rush show early. I took a half day off from work today so that I could sleep late… although I didn’t sleep late. Dummy.
Anyway, before going to the garden I went to Harvard Square. I wanted to have lunch at the REAL Border Cafe on Church Street, as opposed to the imposter in Burlington. I also wanted to see if any of my old go-to used record stores were there. They weren’t. That is sad.
Here’s a couple of views from the roof of the parking garage on JFK street.
I don’t think I ever noticed the Prudential building in the distance from up there before.
As a Bruins fan, this is obligatory any time I visit the TD Garden.
“Behind the net to Sanderson, ORR!! BOBBY ORR!!”
While we were waiting in line to get into the Garden, this dude on the other side of Causeway street was snapping pictures of everyone.
Again, as a Bruins fan this is obligatory. 2011 is starting to feel like the long, long distant past.
The Bruins named Don Sweeney as their new General Manager today. This may be the first time a player I regularly used while playing EA Sports NHL games on play station has become a GM, but maybe not. I do expect, however, that he is now the NHL GM with the highest voice. Finally a soprano sits in the big chair.
All kidding aside, Donny. Let’s bring my team back to glory, okay?
The two NHL teams I hate the most, the New York Rangers and the effin’ jerkwads the Montreal Canadians are both losing in their second round playoff series. Wouldn’t it be something if they both got bounced in the same round.
It wouldn’t make up for the lack of post-season Bruins, but it would be pretty sweet.
Oh, and the Red Sox just took the lead in the bottom of the third.
I’ll enjoy all of this while I can.
The Boston Bruins have relieved Peter Chiarelli of his job as General Manager.
That’s one. What other moves will follow? Let’s hope the search for a new GM is a short one. We have a couple of months before the draft. We’ll need someone in place by then. I would imagine that Claude Julien’s days in Boston are numbered as most GMs would want to have their own coach in place.
As for players, Greg Campbell and Dan Paille were both told during their exit interview that they would not be resigned. Both of them have had shining moments in a Bruins uniform, but it’s probably time for them to move on.
We will have to wait for a new GM before the big player questions are answered. Lucic? Chara? Eriksson? We’ll see.
They were in third place in the division with three games left. In those three games they scored a grand total of four goals over those three games and went 0-3 with only one loser point. That loser point was earned after they were eliminated from the playoffs.
Had they won out they would have made the playoffs. Had they gone 1-1-1 they would have made the playoffs. They were pretty awful against Washington. They looked like a team that had already clinched the Stanley Cup and were just coasting along and they got their asses kicked. In Florida they came out on fire but when they hadn’t won after 10 minutes or so they looked as though they stopped caring. Prior to yesterday’s game they needed to beat Tampa Bay and they needed either Ottawa or Pittsburgh to lose. Ottawa beat Philly in the afternoon. That removed one opportunity to get into the post season. Pittsburgh’s game started 30 minutes before theirs so they got to scoreboard watch as the Penguins started scoring in the second period. They watched their season go down the toilet while still being unable to produce any offense at all.
When did the collapse really start though? It started over the first few days of free agency when they failed to sign Jarome Iginla. They let their top scorer from last year go and did nothing to replace him. Then they traded a top four defenseman and never replaced him. What did they expect? The team had no offense to speak of and the defense had no depth. Then injuries came along and no player will ever use that as an excuse, but they lost their top defenseman to an injury and he was never the same again. They lost one of their top centers and he was never the same again. When they finally found a bit of a spark with a line made up of two rookies and a Lucic the coach broke up the line with three games remaining in the season when wins were desperately needed.
The general manager needs to go. I just checked headlines on NHL.com and I was stunned that he hasn’t been fired yet. The coach needs to go. A select group of high profile players who grossly underperformed need to go. A select group of lower profile players who also grossly underperformed need to go, but no one on Earth will take them.
Blow it up. This is unacceptable. I am really glad I didn’t go to any games this year or buy any merchandise and give the team any of my money. This whole season was garbage from even before the start of the first game. Everyone responsible needs to be fired.
The Bruins are in the final Eastern Conference Playoff spot… barely.
They had a chance last night to put a little breathing room between them and ninth place Ottawa. They instead laid a goose egg. Literally. They have played Washington three times and never scored a single goal. Choke.
Tonight they are in Florida. We’re about half way through the second period and there is no score. Goose egg again, so far. Ottawa is in New York and last I heard they had a 2-0 lead over the Rangers. A Bruins loss and an Ottawa win drops us out of the playoff spot with only one game left to go. The Bruins can’t lose another game because the way things are going now, Ottawa sure has hell isn’t going to lose again.
This time of year should be exciting, but as a Bruins fan I have to say…
This sucks.
Inside the Red Head's Head 