Boston Brewin’: Some thoughts on the Cup

The Boston Bruins sent their city into a frenzy on Wednesday night when they dominated the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 in Game 7 to win their sixth Stanley Cup. Given Boston’s long sports history and its fans’ general fervor, it’s not surprising to read numerous accounts reminiscing on their personal relationships with hockey and the Bruins. The “Win it For…” thread on Sons of Sam Horn is chockablock with touching stories of parents, brothers, friends, and coaches who instilled in the forum’s posters a love for hockey and the Bruins. While not as long or quite as tragic as the Red Sox’s 86-year drought, the Bruins’ 39 years without a Cup inspired much of the same feelings in their supporters, and indeed, that thread is a homage to a similar thread in 2004.

I don’t have the personal connection to hockey or the Bruins that many others do. Not that I’m a bandwagon fan or anything—as with every sport I follow, I pay pretty close attention to the team and watch most regular season (and all playoff) games. But I never played hockey growing up, and I certainly feel like an outsider cheering along with guys and gals who got up early every day for practice and have been involved in rock ‘em sock ‘em battles of their own.*

While I can’t identify with the players who have worked their whole lives for the Cup, or the fans who wanted their Bruins to “Win it for” their die-hard father, mother, or Bobby Orr-idolizing grandfather, there are some qualities that this Bruins team embodies that everyone can admire.

Last year the Bruins became the first team in U.S. pro sports since 2004 and just the 4th of all time to blow a 3-0 series lead. While there were plenty of injuries for Boston—and Philadelphia was a very strong team in their own right (making at all the way to Game 6 of the Finals)—this was a huge disappointment, and many in Boston were calling for major changes. President Cam Neely and the rest of the Bruins’ front office stayed the course and kept the same coach, general manager, and the same core of players. At numerous points both in this year’s regular season and postseason, they faced adversity, and every time they responded. In the first round of the playoffs, they were down two games to none against bitter rival Montreal after captain Zdeno Chara had to sit out Game 2 with dehydration. They then scored the first three goals on the road in Game 3, winning it 4-2 to get themselves back in it. They were down 3-1 in Game 4 of that same series, looking at trailing the series 3-1. They won that game 5-4 in OT. In Game 2 of the next round against Philadelphia, they were down 2-0 after just ten minutes, but Tim Thomas saved the next 46 shots and Boston won in overtime. In Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, they gave up a three-goal lead and a chance to take a 3-1 lead against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but rallied to win the next game and eventually that series. And last, but probably most important, they fell down two games to none in the final and lost one of their best players, Nathan Horton, to an illegal hit, but rallied to win that game 8-1 and from that hit on outscored the Canucks 21-4.

As much as I’m inclined to disbelieve stories of motivation and leadership, it’s certainly believable that this team learned from adversity and made the extra effort and teamwork needed to win the Cup. Clichéd narratives like this make much more sense in a game like hockey where positioning, passing, and effort are so important, where there are players whose job it is to antagonize teams into taking bad penalties, or where teams will hit another guy just to make sure he’s tough enough. In hockey, if you don’t stand up for yourself** or have a teammate to stand up for you, you won’t last very long.

The Bruins’ teamwork, determination, and effort stand in stark contrast to their opponents in the final, who crossed numerous “hockey code” lines by diving, inflicting, or attempting cheap, dangerous hits and who blamed everyone but themselves for their failures during the series. The Bruins were able to remain smart and not get drawn into any wars of words, nor did they take any retaliatory penalties, even though it certainly must have been tempting. While they weren’t saints (Brad Marchand, I’m looking in your direction), they remained focused in a situation where a less driven team (and perhaps previous versions of the Bruins) may have lost their cool. And in the end, the team was rewarded and their fans can be proud.

*I think a big reason that hockey is such an insular game is that there’s a distinct difference between watching and playing it. The hardest part of the game for me to learn was the “code” involved in fighting, chirping, and post-whistle scrums. For someone who never competed on the ice, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that it’s OK for guys to simply throw down during a game, and I’m sure I still don’t comprehend the tremendous physicality involved in the game, as I’ve never taken a check or a slash. It’s another reason why hockey in warm-weather areas may just not work, as people in Florida didn’t grow up lacing them up every day (whether on a team or on the local pond).

**A really great anecdote from Elliotte Friedman’s always-interesting column: “It was 1996 when Chara first arrived in Canada, joining the WHL’s Prince George Cougars as a 19-year-old. Stan Butler, who coached that team, said the big Slovak was challenged to a fight three seconds into his first shift. He destroyed the guy. After he got out of the penalty box, someone else dropped the gloves. Chara won that, too. During the first intermission, Butler asked him if he’d ever fought before. The answer was no.” This illustrates both hockey’s unwritten rules and the toughness of Chara and the Bruins.

***Photo via Boston.com Big Shots by Mike Blake 

Picked Off: The NHL All-Star Draft

As I was driving around Boston earlier this week listening to the 98.5 (THE SPORTS HUUUBB!) I heard a commercial for the NHL All-Star game being played this Sunday. With only two Bruins in the game and Sidney Crosby boycotting like a child due to concussions despite sharing a locker room with the disgraceful Matt Cooke, I hadn’t been paying much attention. Then the final line of the commercial caught my attention: the teams this year would not be East vs. West, or even North America vs. The World (which I kind of liked) but picked by two captains (hometown rep Eric Staal and Niklas Lidstrom) like they were back in the schoolyard at recess. 

I went from a 1 to Girl Scout Cookie Delivery Day on the scale of excitedness. Not only were they picking teams (meaning someone has to be picked last) but they were televising the draft on Versus Friday night. Despite the fact that hockey players are generally an unsmiling, humorless bunch, this promised to be entertaining television.

The first thing I noticed is just that: captains, the already-picked, the waiting-to-be-picked —nobody looks like they want to be there. It’s as if Gary Bettman sat them down and said, “Look, our ratings suck, sure it’s gimmicky, but we need to try something, so get up there and dance for the cameras.” However, a moment later there is a sound bite of one Team Lidstrom’s players (already-picked) talking about Shea Weber’s slapshot, “He once took a clapper from between the dots…so fast…almost took my head off…I’m glad it didn’t take his head off.”

Maybe it really is just a lack of personality.

However, just as I think that, St. Louis Blues forward David Backes is interviewed and promises that if picked last, “whoever doesn’t take me is getting hit Sunday.” Like I said, this is the best idea the NHL has had since eliminating ties. There were also some amusing asides like Lidstrom deciding to pick stud Brad Richards because he texted him between rounds asking if he’d be OK playing wing instead of center, and Richards gave him the thumbs up; Flyer teammates Claude Giroux and Danny Briere betting who would be getting picked first (hopefully they wagered Sean Avery and Dion Phaneuf’s resident puck bunny Elisha Cuthbert); and a nervous Matt Duchene making an awkward “did we get voted off the island?” joke not once but twice as the remaining players available dwindled down to five. 

The part of the draft that delivered best, however, is the fact that Eric Staal, in front of his hometown fans, actually picked his team as if it was a middle school kickball game while Lidstrom gladly plucked up the more talented roster. Being a Hurricanes forward, Staal, with the first pick overall, goes with Cam Ward, the Hurricanes goalie AKA the mediocre best friend that gets picked way too early because the captain doesn’t want to hurt feelings.

Meanwhile, Lidstrom waited until the fifth round to select Bruins goalie and current league leader in GAA (Goals Against Average) Tim Thomas. He then went on to select Marc Andre-Fleury (fifth in GAA) and Jonas Hiller (league leader in wins). Where does top pick Ward stack up against these guys? Twenty-eighth in GAA! Twelfth in save percentage! Seventh in wins (behind all three Lidstrom goalies)! And while Staal was picking his buddy, Lidstrom used his first pick on Steve Stamkos, who only leads the league in both goals and points.

Staal (who afterward admitted to leaning towards the “hometown boys”) also picked teammate Jeff Skinner, who at 18 is the youngest all-star ever in the history of the four major sports, AKA the kid brother who mom (the Raleigh fans) made him take. Despite having a solid season with 40 points, he has been outscored by all but one forward Lidstrom selected after Skinner was taken, including Anze Kopitar and Loui Eriksson (both with 49 points), Matt Duchene (45) and Martin Havlat (43). To put some salt in the wound, while watching Skinner approach the stage, Lidstrom mused to alternate captain Patrick Kane that he has a kid the same age.

Lidstrom also somehow managed to take the far tougher team with defensemen Duncan Keith, Weber (who fired a puck through the net at the Olympics), Keith Yandle, Brent Burns, and versatile bruiser Dustin Byfuglien. Keep in mind that Lidstrom himself will be playing for them. The only defenseman Staal took in the first six rounds is Zdeno Chara, who, while large, is not a terribly physical player considering his size. Even the rookies knew better: when given the option of representing Team Staal or Team Lidstrom during the Rookie Skill Challenge, Taylor Hall didn’t hesitate to choose Lidstrom while an unimpressed Staal looked on quietly. Hopefully this leads to Hall getting put over the boards on his next trip to Raleigh.

A perfect cap to the evening was Mr. Irrelevant, former Bruin (and reason that Tyler Seguin and next year’s Toronto lottery pick will end up in Boston) Phil Kessel, walking on stage in a dopey daze, ignoring the announcer’s pleas to join him at center stage until he’s already sitting down with the team, then randomly being presented with a new car for being picked last while the rest of the players, Daniel Sedin specifically, stare in disbelief (mind you these are hockey players who make like 1/10th of what NBA or MLB players do).

Overall, just a satisfying hour and a half of television. Hopefully the game this Sunday lives up to the draft.

*Image courtesy of Library and Archives Canada/Jules-Ernest Livernois collection/PA-024066 via Wikimedia Commons

A Few of My Favorite Things: Part 2

You can find part 1 of my favorite little things about sports (my top 10 YouTube clips) here.

Before I get going on my favorite nuances of sport, I must confess having committed an egregious sin. I somehow managed to omit these two YouTube clips from last week’s post. One is inspiring and the other is just awesome; both involve wrestling. This is wrestler Kyle Maynard’s trip to Larry King’s show, and this is, well, this is…The World of the Warrior! By the way, he now speaks at colleges.

So this started as a list of my top ten favorite small details about sport that keep me watching and loving, but I found there were way too many, so I expanded it to a Top 20. Feel free to comment or throw your own in down below. These are in no particular order.

1) British Soccer Announcers—Here’s how an American announcer might call it: “Smith…with a nice cut around the defender…takes a shot…and wide. Too bad.” Here’s how a British announcer might call it: “Smith, oh, what dashing footwork to evade his man! He sets his sights goal-ward! Brilliantly taken! Oh, just slightly askew! And his dreams must be absolutely crushed right now along with those of the home side!”

2) Embarrassing Fantasy Trades—Fantasy games are great and have become a large part of the American sports scene, but the best part is when awful, competition-skewing trades take place and the rest of the league begins to riot. For instance, I am in a keeper league right now with expiring contracts yadda yadda—all you need to know is that someone thought it was a good idea to trade Josh Hamilton for Brennan Boesch. Let’s just say friendships were hanging by a thread for a minute. Fortunately, everyone else responded with their own terribly slanted trades (I myself made a few) but in our basketball league last year, one trade led to about 21 posts and one person quitting the league altogether because he’s a baby. Anyways, always entertaining to see grown men argue about something that isn’t even real.

3) Obscure Jerseys—I’m a big fan of not only random-ass jerseys, but going to a Red Sox game and see someone wearing a Troy O’Leary shirt, or seeing a Dodgers fan in the crowd that has “Valenzuela” across his back. My current collection includes a “Bulldog” Jim Bouton Seattle Pilots jersey, a Gerald Green Celtics jersey, a Roger Dorn Cleveland Indians jersey, and a Baseball Furies jersey from the movie The Warriors. A good friend of mine has a Johnny Utah Ohio State jersey which probably trumps them all.

4) The Spladle—Those who aren’t familiar with high school or college wrestling probably don’t know what this is, but let’s say it’s just about the most emasculating and painful way to pin your opponent. It also happens to be my favorite move. Rather than describe it to you, see for yourself here. Start the video at 0:40.

5) The Rex Grossman Story—I want to be clear about something: this is not a verified fact. This may have never happened. My only source was a University of Florida sorority girl that I met at Calico Jack’s in Manhattan after a couple cocktails. So if Rexy’s reps read this, it’s merely a rumor. But, God, I want it to be true. The story goes that while playing quarterback for the Gators back at the beginning of the decade, Rex was the BMOC. He was so much so that he refused to have sex with any LESS than two girls at one time. That means if an absolute ten supposedly approached him at the bar and propositioned him by herself, he would turn her down on the grounds that there weren’t two of her. Why do I want this to be true? Because it would be proof that he’s an asshole! He was one of my least favorite college players of the past ten years and I couldn’t have been more happy when he failed as a pro QB. Fair warning Tebow fans, Florida QBs don’t translate well to the NFL. Somewhere, Danny Wuerrfel, Doug Johnson, Terry Dean, and Chris Leak are nodding sullenly. Maybe he should’ve been double-teaming the playbook and weight room instead of Lillian and Jillian.


6) Rick Krivda’s Baseball Card—Rick Krivda was a middling Orioles pitching prospect in the mid ’90s who never did a heck of a lot as a pro, but seems like a good guy. Why do I remember him? Here you go, from the man himself. Now you will remember Rick too. Def my favorite baseball card growing up.

7) Latecomers to Bench-clearing Brawls Getting Caught on TV—I love when the benches clear and people are getting pushed around and words are flying, and finally things start calming down and…oh, hey, there’s the last guy out of the bullpen, still wearing his warm-up jacket trotting in like “hey, guys, you know I had your backs the whole time right? I was just making sure no one was attacking the outfield.”

8) Antonio Cromartie’s Kids—No, this is not a foundation. “I got a few three-year-olds…uh, I got a daughter…who was born…she’s two.” Eat your heart out, Shawn Kemp.

9) Camden Yards—I grew up near Boston and Fenway Park, where they announce at the beginning of each game that you are in “America’s Most Beloved Ballpark.” Now, I love the Sox, but that’s a load of bull. It’s an uncomfortable, archaic stadium where half the grandstand seats randomly face the bleachers instead of the field. Last summer, I took a roadtrip to Camden Yards. Wow. What a great baseball atmosphere. The easy to reach location, the cheap (for a ballpark) beers, no obstructed views. They even have the best sports bar I’ve ever been to next door called Pickle’s Pub. It was such an enjoyable experience that I bought a bright orange Nick Markakis shirt. Now, if they could just figure out that whole winning thing…

10) Mike Vrabel’s Career Receiving Statistics—My favorite Patriot of the dynasty era, hard-nosed linebacker, and the most lethal, yet underused offensive player in NFL history. Nine receptions for 12 yards—NINE TOUCHDOWNS. All he did was run four steps, turn around in the end zone, and an easy toss. How did teams not figure him out?

11) Any First Year Player Draft—Where do I begin? First, my favorite experience with a draft: I got free tickets through a friend to the 2006 NBA Draft where my Boston Celtics traded cash to the Suns to pick a mediocre guard prospect from the University of Kentucky named Rajon Rondo. Strangely, this wasn’t the high point of the experience. Being in New York to witness Knicks fans get worked up as they showed a montage of Knicks futility, then have Isaiah Thomas draft Renaldo Balkman (who no one else would’ve drafted even in the 2nd round) ahead of Rondo, then hearing the fans start to riot…it was pure comedy, especially for someone who dislikes the Knicks. As far as the NFL draft, I don’t approve of the decision to move it to three nights during the week because I used to plan an entire weekend around loafing on the couch and watching the draft, but I definitely support the shortening of first round picks from 15 minutes to 10 minutes per pick. Thank God. Did we really need to wait over 15 minutes for Oakland to draft Darrius Heyward-Bey? Either way, it’s the first time each year after the Super Bowl that we start thinking about pigskin again, and that’s all right by me. Also, check out the YouTube montage of awful New York Jets picks. This is why they should never move either NBA or NFL draft out of New York.

12) Converting Girlfriends’ Fandom—Man, this is sweet. Twice in my life I’ve been able to do this. You start dating a girl who likes sports enough that they want to have a team, but they don’t have the deep rooted investment that many of us guys have born within us or have instilled in us by our fathers. So they start hearing about your favorite team and learning about them and slowly start getting into them, and before you know it, a Phillies fan is now talking about her love for Johnny Damon. So it’s cool to feel like you can have that kind of influence over someone, even if to them the team isn’t really that big of a deal. The funnier part is if after the relationship is over, the girl INSTANTLY switches back to her “old team,” rooting for them harder than ever and acting like the affair with your squad never happened, like they can’t believe they lost control of themselves in such a manner.

13) Racehorse Names—”Pocatello Percy pulls ahead of Lady With a Rash, followed by Hitler’s Oyster and the Sound and the Furry!”…Where do they come up with this shit? Here’s a description from asking Google: The Jockey Club requires all American racehorses to be registered with a ‘unique’ name, meaning no other horse can have been registered using the name within a certain length of time, and “famous horse’s names” are off-limits forever. The name has to be under a certain number of letters with several other restrictions and several names must be submitted for each horse with the jockey club making the choice. So, “common” names have already been taken, and may not be used again, meaning owners need to get creative! Keep in mind that racehorses are not called by their registered names around the barn—their trainers and grooms will use a “barn name” for that. For example, Man O’ War’s “barn name” was “Red.” Also, many people want the horse to have a meaningful name—something powerful and appropriate for what they hope will be a winner. The names of the sire and dam of the horse and other famous horses in the pedigree are also taken into consideration and may be influential in the horse’s name…Well, then. I’d love to be hired to come in and just start naming critters. What if humans had to go by these rules too? Hustlin’ Custard Strum, coming to a cradle near you.

14) Overexcited Bench Players During the NCAA Tournament—Follow me if you will back to the first weekend of any NCAA tournament. The score is Big State 68, Hickory High 51. Big State looks half bored, half who-is-winning-the-Georgetown-game? Diminutive, yet scrapy white guard with a high GPA from Hickory drains a three from the corner. Sophomores with their warm-ups still buttoned all the way jump up and down in front of the Hickory bench, high-fiving and fist pumping, shouting to the rafters. Big State 68, Hickory 54. Big State ball.

15) Hockey Ice Girls—The cheerleader of the 21st century. Get with the times, though I’m probably biased. When I went to Hofstra, the Islanders played next door at Nassau Coliseum. I got to go to a lot of games, and found that a lot of the Islanders’ Ice Girls were fellow Hofstra students, which for some reason made them seem incredibly attainable. To this date, the number of ice girls I’ve spoken to in my life is the same number of NHL goals I’ve scored.

16) “Clay”—I haven’t been disappointed by an athlete named Clay in a long time. Clay “Fire Marshal Bill” Buchholz is my favorite current Red Sox player. The Dodgers Clayton Kershaw is a fantasy favorite of mine. Clay Matthews, Jr. is a stud linebacker in the making, much like his father. I even have a Clay Kirby baseball card from the early ’70s. (Kirby holds the career record for wild pitches for the Padres. Bet ya didn’t know that.) There’s Bucs wide receiver Michael Clayton, both Mark Claytons, and the D’Backs mustachioed relief pitcher Clay Zavada. Perhaps my all-time Clay was former Lions and Patriots safety “Big Play” Willie Clay. See? I bet you didn’t know you had so many prominent Clays in your sports life. You’re welcome.

17) First Round Quarterbacks—Much more specific than just the event of the draft above. Remember, at one point these were all real debates: Drew Bledsoe or Rick Mirer? Peyton Manning or Ryan Leaf? Heath Shuler or Trent Dilfer (no, not for Congress)? At one point, Donovan McNabb was grouped in with Tim Couch, Akili Smith, and Cade McNown; now I don’t think he’d share a cab with them out of fear their suckage would rub off on him. My favorite draft debate was in 2002: David Carr or Joey Harrington? I believe a pre-draft discussion between Houston GM Charlie Casserly and Lions GM Matt Millen might’ve looked something like this.

18) Not Doing the Wave—Listen, I’m there to watch the game. How can you be properly cheering if you’re busy waiting to see if the boob next to you is standing up and sitting down? This probably comes across as too cynical for this list, but I definitely get a kick out of how incensed people are that I won’t participate. It’s like I told them I left a floater in their toilet. But it’s the wave! Exactly. Sit down and watch the game, ya tomahawk choppin’ dork.

19) Adrian Beltre’s head—I don’t care who you are—his mother, his girlfriend, his priest—you DO NOT touch Adrian Beltre’s head. Doesn’t matter if he just hit a home run or struck out. Especially not you, Victor Martinez. You’re liable to get your teeth knocked in by the slugging third baseman.

20) Goalie Fights—Hockey fights are clearly great, but it would’ve been too easy to put them on here. What’s really great is when the goalie gets involved because it’s like the SWAT team just got called in, and yet it slightly resembles when people go to the carnival, put on those inflatable sumo costumes, and run into each other. Well, that is unless it’s the son of Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy. Sick ‘em, boy.

Bonus! Mythical Temple Defensive Backs—I couldn’t let this one go. M. Night Shyamalan’s movie Unbreakable is about a real life superhero discovering his powers that he never had, specifically, that he cannot be physically hurt. But that wasn’t what I had a hard time going along with. The first scene of the movie shows our hero, Bruce Willis, flirting with a woman on a train travelling to Philadelphia, where the movie takes place. The woman is a pro sports agent who is representing a talented young defensive back out Temple University. Okay, you lost me. An invincible superhero is one thing, but a stud D-back out of Temple? In 2000? Come on. There have been three defensive backs IN HISTORY drafted out of Temple, the most recent of which in 1985, and he only played one season! Temple football sucks! Now, I get it, the story takes place in Philly, but couldn’t he have been a hoops prospect for the Owls, or even played football for Villanova, which I actually would’ve believed more? I saw this movie for the first time when I was 18 and the minute she said whom she represented, I muttered to myself, “Well, that would just never happen.”

Honorable mentions that got dropped because this was already too long: West Virginia LB Grant Wiley playing a bowl game with his arm broken in half, QB blocks/Kicker tackles, Gus Frerotte’s TD celebration where he gave himself a concussion, Dan Hampton’s fingers, Tony Kornheiser’s attempt at MNF, Carl Lewis’s music video (yikes), Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame induction speech, Jack Morris, Pumps, Mike Alstott, Charles Barkley, and the time Jim Everett attacked Jim Rome for calling him “Chris.”

Optimism Reigns or Rain on Optimism?

Who is going to prolong Boston’s run of success?
Ahh, summer. If you’re not a baseball fan, it can be the slowest time of the year, the few month period where baseball is the only sport going on until NFL training camps convene and the season begins at the end of August. With the drafts now completed for the NBA and NHL, it is a time where fans who enjoy having three or four of their teams competing at the same time are forced to dwell on what could’ve been this past year and be optimistic about what is to come.

Boston fans still smarting from a Game 7 loss at the hands of the Lakers really have nothing to complain about. From 2001 to 2008, the city underwent an unprecedented run of success not just for Boston, but any sports city. We won six titles in eight finals appearances across three different teams. The Red Sox broke an 86-year string of disappointment only to repeat three years later, the Celtics won their first title since 1986, and the Patriots dynasty won the franchise’s first three Super Bowl titles. In the past decade, Boston teams have 25 combined playoff appearances, dominating other four-sport, four-team cities such as Phoenix/Arizona (13), Atlanta (13), and DC (10). Toronto has 14 and I even gave them the six postseason appearances of the Toronto Argonauts in the CFL.

These things go in cycles, of course. The nineties were a relatively down time in Boston sports with only the Bruins being a consistent playoff contender and never reaching the Stanley Cup. With the Celtics lost title, the Bruins historically embarrassing second round exit to the Flyers after being up three games to none, and the Patriots losing their first home playoff game of the Belichick/Brady era, there are ominous signs of lean years approaching. Both the Celtics and Patriots are led by aging veterans and the Bruins are starting to have the stench of perennial underachievers.

That being said, we still have a lot going for us, including four bonafide playoff teams, and as I said, ‘tis the off-season when optimism can reign supreme. The question is this: Whom am I most optimistic about for when the leaves turn orange and baseball goes into hibernation?

The case for the Patriots
First and foremost, we still have Brady and we still have Belichick. We also still have the veteran offensive line led by Logan Mankins, who may be the best interior lineman in the NFL, and rising tackle Sebastian Vollmer. Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo, and Brandon Meriweather are Pro Bowl caliber defenders. Randy Moss is still “straight cash, homey” and the Patriots have gotten a much needed infusion of youth in the past two drafts that should hopefully start to pay dividends this season. Specifically, I’m excited about cornerback Darius Butler and rookie linebacker Brandon Spikes, who’s got the leadership and instincts reminiscent of former Pats stud Mike Vrabel.

The case against the Patriots
There have been reports that Tom Brady is no longer seeing eye to eye with the coaching staff and other veterans, causing fans to worry if he’s gone too “Hollywood” on us. Mankins has requested a trade (never a good sign), and you have to wonder when that offensive line will go from being “veteran” to “old.” We have no idea what, if anything, we’ll get from Wes Welker, and the options to replace him are the gritty but limited Julian Edelman, second-year man Brandon Tate, rookie deep threat Taylor Price, and Torry Holt, who is entering the “Babe Ruth with the Braves” portion of his career. The scheduling doesn’t do us any favors with non-division games against Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Minnesota, San Diego, and Baltimore. Perhaps the biggest concern of all isn’t anything to do with the Patriots themselves, but the fact that the Jets and Dolphins have continued to get significantly better; they have better people in their front offices now than in the past, and have been huge players in the free agency market, with the Jets acquiring Antonio Cromartie, LaDanian Tomlinson, and Santonio Holmes, and the Fins picking up Karlos Dansby and Brandon Marshall. The Patriots could possibly go 10-6 again and not make the playoffs.

The case for the Bruins
Seguin! Seguin! Seguin! Thanks to the inept Maple Leafs trading two high first-round picks in successive years to the B’s for Phil Kessel, the Bruins drafted forward Tyler Seguin Friday night, one of two players in the draft to be considered star caliber. The Globe’s pre-draft coverage of Seguin detailed how following a playoff loss to number one overall pick Taylor Hall and a superior Windsor team, Seguin went into seclusion, working out and training with intense competitive fervor for sometimes ten hours a day leading up to the draft. Kid’s got moxie. The Bruins’ off-season will also look to be the most animated of the three teams; they’ve already traded playoff scapegoat Dennis Wideman, resigned hard-nosed young defender Johnny Boychuk, and acquired talented scorer Nathan Horton. Seguin’s arrival gives them a back log at center, but the kid can play some wing and the Bruins have promised more moves are on the horizon.

The case against the Bruins
How do you bounce back after coughing up a 3-0 lead in a Game 7 of a series you once led three games to none? The second round exit was a stain on the franchise and nearly wiped out the memory of the gutsy first round upset over Ryan Miller and the Sabres. In fact, it was probably the worst playoff loss after being up 3-0 since this infamous game. Scoring was the chief concern this year, and despite the talent down the middle, there is no promise that the Bruins will get enough from the wings to change that. Mark Recchi, the veteran leader, is a free agent-to-be, and there is concern about the sizeable contract of now backup goaltender Tim Thomas. At what point do we start calling former top sixteen picks Zach Hamill and Joe Colbourne busts?

The case for the Celtics
Out of the three, they’re coming off the most successful previous season, and the heart and soul of the team, Paul Pierce, should have a few good years left. Despite an erratic and sometimes downright puzzling finals, Rajon Rondo has established himself as one of the top five point guards in the league, and is locked up for the next five years. Rasheed Wallace, we hardly knew ye: the NBA career technical foul leader’s pending retirement, paired with some shrewd contract restructuring with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, could leave the Celtics enough money to pursue a second-tier big man, the likes of a Carlos Boozer, as well as set them up to have Pierce, Allen, and Garnett’s contracts all expire at the same time. Celtics fans will love rookie Avery Bradley—he fits the Celtics mold of an athletic, stud defender who should develop an offensive game and give Rondo (fourth in the NBA in minutes last season) and Allen (if he returns) a breather off the bench. It was only a year ago that Bradley was ranked ahead of top overall pick John Wall by ESPN scouts.

The case against the Celtics
Another year goes by, another hundred games of wear and tear on Pierce, Allen, and Garnett. I’d ask at what point the age starts to take its toll, but I think we already saw it this past season. The Celtics should still be good enough to be a top four team in the East, but their window of being a legitimate title contender may have just ended at the Staples Center last Thursday. Also, what happens with Doc Rivers? I have a feeling he’s going to leave, and it’s not easy to find quality NBA coaches. One thing that the Celtics have no control over is what the rest of the league will look like. LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki, David Lee, Joe Johnson…all available and possibly on the move. Personally, I think James is out of Cleveland, which will probably immediately drop them out of playoff contention. Orlando will certainly be around, and if talks to acquire Chris Paul go anywhere, they will be downright scary. But what if James joins Wade in Miami? What if he takes someone like Amare with him to Chicago to team with Derrick Rose? If he joins Jay-Z with the Nets, they go from a 12-win team to a suddenly intriguing squad with a scoring point guard in Devin Harris, two young big men with high ceilings in Brook Lopez and rookie Derrick Favors, and potentially solid role players in Terence Williams, Courtney Lee, and Yi Jianlian. Whatever happens, next season’s Eastern Conference should have a completely different look to it, and where the C’s fit in will largely depend on how they replenish themselves with youthful talent and how starting center and resident banger Kendrick Perkins comes back from knee surgery.

Ideally, I’d like to see all three teams at least continue to make the playoffs, and in truth, that’s what I expect of each. But the law of averages tells us that disappointment will eventually rear its ugly head and one or more of these teams will go through another rough stretch. So whom am I most optimistic about?

I promised myself when the Bruins were eliminated that I wouldn’t just go back to them, that they had to earn my trust back, like a friend who had lied to me. Their Game 7 loss made me want to reenact the shower and crying scene from Ace Ventura. However, I trust in Coach Claude Julien and I trust in General Manager Peter Chiarelli. I like the guys they’ve built this team around, and defensive stalwart Zdeno Chara is still in his prime. Injuries and inconsistency hurt the team this year and you got the sense that they never were operating on all cylinders.

I believe in the moves they’ve made so far, and the moves they’re going to make. I believe in Tyler Seguin. I believe in goalie Tuukka Rask. I believe that over the next few years, I will see the Bruins in their first Stanley Cup since 1990. I believe in the B’s.

*Photo of Tom Brady courtesy of Keith Allison via Creative Commons License
**Photo of Tuukka Rask courtesy of 4rilla via Creative Commons License

Explaining My Fandom

This is a topic that comes up pretty frequently among my friends. Fellow There’s No “I” in Blog writer Ian once asked me, “You don’t really have an NFL team, do you?” As recently as this weekend, I had to explain why I like the Colts now that I am living in Boston and am frequently faced with fervent Patriots fans. Also, I recently took a nice West Coast vacation over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, which included a trip to the Rose Garden to see the Blazers take on the 76ers and the Q&A session with the Mariners front office Joe wrote about yesterday. All of this got me thinking about my fairly scattered sports loyalties.

Yes, now that I live in Boston, I have become a Red Sox fan, much to the dismay of some of my family members. As much as I love the Mariners, I love the sports culture here much more than in Seattle, both in the stadium and in the city. Even when the Mariners won 116 games and were selling out the stadium, the place was so quiet you could easily have phone conversations. Sometimes it felt like the people that were there thought they had better things to be doing. That won’t fly in Boston. Fenway is all about the game. On big game days, everyone in Boston is a Sox fan. There’s something electric in the city that I love and that never happened while I was in Seattle. That being said, I’d still root for the Mariners over the Red Sox, and I’m very excited to see former Mariners Mike Cameron (and his kind of sideways hat) and Adrian Beltre (and his right testicle) join the Red Sox in 2010.

Living in Boston has also opened me up to the wonderful world of the NHL. I’ve always liked hockey, and it’s the only sport other than baseball that I get nostalgic about. Unlike baseball, I never played hockey, but like baseball, I watched it on television with my dad. He never seemed to care too much about basketball or football, but he always liked hockey, and I always liked watching it with him, even before we started making fun of the amazing mullets seen on Hockey Night in Canada. Now I own a Byron Bitz t-shirt and a Bruins jersey. I’ve been to a few games this season, and I cheer for Tuukka Rask because he’s good and has a ridiculously badass name. My original hockey allegiance is with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League. When I eventually move to Portland, OR, I will make it my mission to get Portland and Seattle NHL teams (Portland also has a WHL team, the Winterhawks). Both cities are great sports towns and are way more deserving of an NHL team than places like Phoenix and Nashville. I’m pretty sure Portland and Seattle would draw better attendance than those teams.

I also moved to Boston in time to jump on the Celtics bandwagon for their championship season. I was a Sonics fan (and would be in the future, if that ever happens), but by now we’re all aware of how the NBA allowed Oklahoma City to steal the team and give them a stupid name (seriously, the Thunder?). As a Celtics fan, I love Rondo’s alien-like wingspan, his crazy speed, and his ability to find passing lanes that few others can find. Brian Scalabrine also brings an underrated element into each home game. No matter what the score, anytime Scal comes into a game, the crowd goes wild for his curly redhead afro and cheers like nuts any time he touches the ball. How many players can get a crowd that into a game simply by standing up? Oh yeah, those other “Big Three” guys are pretty good too.

The other NBA team I’m a fan of is the Portland Trailblazers. This comes from living in Oregon for a few years. Portland is the city I want to live in, and the city I will hopefully move to in the (hopefully not so) distant future, so there’s that connection. On top of that, I like Greg Oden’s 55-year-old expressionless face and hope for him to get and stay healthy. I think Joel Przybilla’s nickname (Vanilla Gorilla) is one of the best in sports, and love the prospect of watching LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy playing together for a long long time.

And finally, I’ll close out this post by going back to those couple of years I lived in Oregon and attended Oregon State University. That’s right, I am a die-hard Beavers fan. I own more orange clothing than any adult probably should. On the rare occasion I see someone in Boston wearing Ducks green and yellow, part of me wants to yell “GO BEAVERS” at them. I’m not sure this needs a lot of explanation. Pretty much everyone I know, sports fans and non-sports fans alike, maintain a deep-seeded loyalty to their alma mater. Plus, if you’ve ever seen this blog, you’ve probably noticed that I like the Oregon State University Beavers.

*Photo of Squatch courtesy of Funktasm via Creative Commons License

Starters Triple Post: Three Bruins

As you may or may not be aware, hockey season started on Thursday. Perhaps because I grew up in Vermont, where the weather is already cold this time of year, or maybe simply because the game is played on ice, hockey season always signifies to me that it’s time to gather up nuts, store them under a tree, and hibernate for the nice, long New England winter.

For simplicity’s sake, already a fan of the other three major Boston sports teams, I have always rooted for the Bruins. Admittedly, I didn’t follow them closely until the ‘07-‘08 season, as the young team started to congeal, but this was a year before many more people joined the bandwagon as they tied for the best record in the NHL. Without further ado, here are my three favorite Bruins, in no particular order, and a few reasons why they are Starters:

1. Milan Lucic, wing.
Lucic is a beast. Drafted 50th overall in 2006, Lucic has quickly risen to be one of the leaders of the team with his ferocious style of play. Lucic can hit, fight, score goals, and isn’t afraid of anyone. Plus, he’s only 21 and has room to improve — he increased his points total from 27 to 42 in his first two seasons, and added nine more in ten games in last year’s playoffs.

Here’s a fight that established the Bruins as a team to reckon with last season: Lucic v. Mike Komisarek. And here’s the now-famous clip of Lucic hitting Mike Van Ryn through the glass: This is why there are so many #17 jerseys in and around the Garden.

2. David Krejci, center
Krejci was, like Lucic, another great second round pick for the Bruins who has blossomed into one of their best players. With both Krejci and Phil Kessel RFAs at the end of last season, it was the consensus among B’s fans that the team needed to lock up the multidimensional Krejci over the extremely talented but less versatile Kessel, even though the latter had just scored 36 goals in a 70-game season shortened due to mono. That they did, signing Krejci to a three-year deal while trading Kessel to Toronto.

Just 23, Krejci is as skilled as Lucic is powerful, and it’s a joy to watch him pass and shoot. Like Lucic, if he can improve even a little, he will be a superstar.

Here’s Krejci scoring a hat trick. The second goal is particularly brilliant, and typical of what he can do as a player.

3. Byron Bitz, wing.
First of all, Byron Bitz has a great name, and any reader of the site knows how important that is to us. But he’s also a very easy player to root for, for though he was an unheralded fourth round pick and has never put up big numbers on any level, he is a very “high-effort” player who goes all-out for you. While they don’t rely on him by any means, he took the chance he was given last year and ran with it, and has solidified a spot on the fourth line, which he is well-suited for.

*Photo courtesy of rubyswoon via Creative Commons License