A Message to Boston Sports Fans posted by Charles Bisbee

There’s been a lot of griping recently over the state of Boston sports, serving (for me) as another ugly reminder of the developing, spoiled and cocksure nature of fans in this area. Let’s take a quick look, shall we?

Despite not  having played superbly of late, the Celtics stand at 31-16 and hold a five-and-a-half game lead in their division over Toronto.  

The Patriots finished the season at 10-6 (and a perfect 8-0 at home) and lost in the conference semi-finals to Baltimore.

The line between the Red Sox and Yankees is becoming more blurred each year (I know, I know, blasphemous!). But the Sox pay more and more to rob smaller market teams of their best players. Last year they finished 95-67 and, again, made the playoffs.

The Bruins are apparently stinking up then Garden this year but last year made a nice push into the playoffs.

All this leading me to ask, “what the deuce is the matter with Boston sports fans?” Have we become so spoiled and jaded by the seemingly constant ticker-tape parades down Tremont St. that we’ve subconsciously assumed an unwarranted sense of entitlement traditionally held by Yankee fans?

Not to sound like some ornery, old folgie wannabe but do you remember the early-mid 90’s? Do you remember Carlos Quintana? Todd Day? How about Marty Conlan? Lets gain a little perspective and lose the sense of entitlement. Isn’t that what always has (and still should) differentiate us from Yankee fans?

Boston Boxing: Team Training on NESN packs quite a punch posted by Colin Linneweber

New England Sports Network (NESN) is in the midst of airing a six-episode reality television program titled, Boston Boxing: Team Training.

The series documents the teachings of a renowned local boxing trainer to 40 amateur pugilists with extremely varying skill levels over a span of 12 weeks.

Ed LaVache, the owner of the Boston Boxing Club in Allston, instructed these amateurs how to train and box in competitive teams.

“This series is special because it shows what type of gym we run,” said LaVache, who began boxing 20 years ago for exercise when he played football at Framingham State College. “We have a varying clientele. Some boxers are extremely competitive and others are mostly non-competitive. Some are males, and some are females.”

Among LaVache’s elite pupils are New England Amateur Welterweight champ Tommy Duchette of Waltham and Hector Hernandez of Boston.

Duchette, who is ranked 13th in the nation as an amateur in his weight class, is attempting to qualify for the U.S. Olympic boxing team and Hernandez is training with hope of capturing his Marciano belt and title.

“These people aren’t in it for the money," said LaVache. “They are fighting to improve and win.”

The idea for this series was spawned by filmmaker and President of Metropolitan Pictures, Scott Matalon.

Matalon, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., had recently finished filming his second movie and he was looking for another project to commence.

Legend Of The Goon Squad pt.2 posted by Goon Squad

Violence has been a part of hockey since at least the early 1900's. According to the book Hockey: A People's History, in 1904 alone, four players were killed during hockey games from the frequent brawls and violent stickwork. 

Early hockey in particular was noted for its extreme violence, to the point where two players were killed in three years during brawls.
In both cases, the accused assailants were acquitted, but these and other bloody incidents led to calls for the sport to clean up its act or be banned with the likes of cock fighting.

The worst of the violence waned, particularly with regulations for quasi-legal fisticuffs, though incidents continue to occur from time to time.

Billy Coutu was the first player banned from the NHL for life when, in 1927, he attacked referee Jerry Laflamme in a Stanley Cup game between the Bruins and Senators - in which several players complained about the officiating, supposedly at the request of Bruins coach Art Ross before starting an all-in brawl.
NHL president Frank Calder, the League's first president, expelled Coutu from the NHL for life on March 29th, 1929; the ban was lifted after five years, but Coutu never played again in the NHL.
Billy Coutu - an OG Supreme! (Original Goon)

Other incidents include the December 12th, 1933 event when Eddie Shore hit Leafs player Ace Bailey from behind.
Bailey never played hockey again.
Another OG.

Somewhat recently, controversy and criminal charges have resulted from violent attacks by Marty McSorley, Todd Bertuzzi, and Chris Simon.

Deep 86-ed posted by Randolph Charlotin

Pardon me while I go off track for a moment.

Last night I watched one of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentaries. It was “Without Bias: The Len Bias Story” or something like that. It didn’t blow me away as far as storytelling goes, but it was well done.

Near the end of the program, the documentary quickly reviewed what happened the year Bias died. In 1986, the New England Patriots were stomped by the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX. The Red Sox blew the World Series against the New York Mets. And though the Boston Celtics won the NBA Championship that year, Len’s June death began the 1986-87 season. A season the Celtics were unable to repeat as champions without Bias.

Not mentioned by the documentary was the Boston Bruins. The Black and Gold lost in the Division Semi-Finals in 85-86 and 86-87.

All in all, it was a very bad year for Boston sports.

Good Bye posted by Randolph Charlotin

After seven games played, the Patriots get a much deserved and needed break, thanks to the bye week. While it’s great for the players and coaches, it is sometimes tough for the fans.

Without the Pats playing this week, there’s no build up of anticipation for the weekly gratification of game day. Sure there are other games on, but for some, without the Patriots, a football weekend feels hollow.

Filling the void will be repeated over-analysis of the same concerns on a daily basis and human interest stories on the players. That’s like rice cakes for dinner.

For all the sacrificing the players make over the course of the season, fans should return the favor and make a sacrifice of their own. And no, I’m not suggesting fans sneak into the Gillette Stadium locker room, borrow the players’ pads and uniforms, and play a game of football for the Pats.

All fans have to do is just be patient. Whether following the NFL without the Patriots playing satisfies or distracting oneself with an overdue weekend project does the trick, don’t let the absence get to you.

Think of the benefits the Patriots gain from the week off. RBs Fred Taylor and Sammy Morris will get closer to returning to action, as will LT Matt Light. QB Tom Brady might have his hands full, thanks to his wife Gisele (lucky), but I’m sure he’ll sneak in extra work to fine tune his game.

Brady has already come a long way. He didn’t flinch when a Tampa Bay defender rolled towards his feet on Sunday. Brady stood and delivered a perfect strike for a completion.

Misprint Still has St. Louis Buzzing posted by Jeff Ponder

It's funny how one mistake on an online publication can put a few thousand people in an uproar.

“Phil Kessel Traded to Blues” was the headline on a story without any subtext included with it on Thursday evening.  The New England Hockey Journal, a well-respected hockey website, posted this error that sent the fans of the Bruins and Blues into a state of panic.  Bruins fans were terrified that they did not get a decent return while Blues fans were anxious over who had to be traded.  Online hockey message boards lit up with questions on how the deal went down and when the teams were going to officially announce the news.  The media bonanza even made it as far as ESPN.com when they posted “Rumors:  P. Kessel maybe headed to Blues.”

The publication that was the cause of this debacle finally released this statement to the world the very next morning:

“To our visitors:

On Thursday, a headline appeared on hockeyjournal.com indicating that Bruins forward Phil Kessel had been traded to the St. Louis Blues. There was no article accompanying the headline nor is any article of that nature planned. During an internal training exercise, a draft of a Web page that was never meant to be posted on the site showed up on the site due to a server problem. We are investigating how that happened.

We offer our apologies to Phil Kessel, the Bruins and any visitors who were misled by this erroneous posting, and will take measures to make sure a mistake like this does not happen again.
Continue reading "Misprint Still has St. Louis Buzzing"

Here we go posted by Johnny C

So we all know by now that the story ended the way it shouldn't have.  This was supposed to be the season that the Black and Gold would redeem almost three decades of inferiority to the Celtics, Red Sox and Patriots in terms of championships won--that's still not the case.  This blog will provide insight and analysis on the Bruins moves starting with this offseason as well as commentary, rumors and other interesting stuff that I can find.  Please feel free to comment and click on the ads!Continue reading "Here we go"

The Celtics Lose Game 7 and Boston Officially Loses it's TrophyTown Title posted by Hank Hill

This is just not the Celtics' year. Last night's game 7 looked like a game 4 in a 3-0 series. The Celtics came out without their energy, all out of sync. Clearly, they missed KG. Ray Allen, who we needed to step up, finally did, but he was the only one who showed up to play. Meanwhile, Orlando 21-13 from three point land, was just too much to handle and every shot they took led to me biting my nails off and praying for a comeback that never came. This game was a tough one for Boston to handle; we were losing all game and never made the run that they usually can.

And they just kept adding the pressure and smoking us making MIT, The Professor, Jr, G, Rach, Ro, Dato, KC, Jon, me, and even Murray, wanting to change the channel. But we didn't. We knew that we needed a miracle that just wasn't in the cards. The final score of 101-82 adds to the devastating losses in all of Boston sports. The Pats lost to the NYG in the superbowl; Sox lost to Tampa Bay in game 7; Bruins had an awesome season but just lost game seven last week in the same building as the Celts.

Back to the Celts, they had a good year but losing Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe pretty much ended the Cs season even though we still had a good run.  I believe we should have/could have won last night, as everyone says, but that's the pain of being a sports' fan. But we learned a lot this year--now we have some free agents the Cs need to sign: Big Baby Davis was impressive as was House, Powe, and even Marbury. So this year may be over, but next year you don't want to have the Celtics on your schedule. Off to the Sox.

Boston, you're still my home posted by Tony Rossi

Before I go into my “woe is me” mode for yesterday, let me just say that there was some incredible defense on both sides of the Sox-Angels game.  Although I was furious as the game concluded, I can’t say it wasn’t a fun game to watch.  Whether it was Nick Green cleanly fielding a bunted ball, or Jason Bay diving for a fly in left, the Sox made it clear (at least defensively) that they wanted to win yesterday’s ballgame.    And how about that play by JD Drew to keep the game scoreless in the 8th?  What a play. 

Also, as awful as it was to watch it, I couldn’t help but be in awe of the catch that Hunter made against Pedroia yesterday.  That was one heck of a play.  Sure I was angry in the 10th, but that was one of the best catches I’ve seen.  It wasn’t a diving catch, but it was a great one.  Props to you, Hunter.

Okay, now it’s time to be depressed.  If there was ever a bad day to be a Boston sports fan, yesterday was it.  As if it wasn’t frustrating enough to watch the Sox lose (after loading the bases with only one out in the top of the 12th), then we had to watch the Bruins lose in overtime.  I’m not going to go into a big thing about the Bruins because I don’t know nearly as much about hockey as I do about baseball.  But I will say that they put up one heck of a fight last night.  Great season, B’s, can’t wait to watch you next year!

Yes, I was depressed about both the Sox and Bruins last night.  Although I am not a Celtics fan, I flipped to their game a couple times during commercials for the Bruins and saw that there was yet a third Boston sports team that was not going to get a W.  What a day to be a Bostonian. 

Goaltender Options for the Flyers - Part 2 posted by Kevin Christmann

Part 2 of this series will include Restricted Free Agent options as well as possible acquisitions via trade.

In Part 1 of this series I covered some of the more realistic Unrestricted Free Agent options for the Flyers in their quest to acquire a starting goaltender. In addition to the Unrestricted Free Agent options, there are several viable Restricted Free Agent options. The benefit of restricted free agents is that they are all young…that is, after all, why they are restricted free agents. They are often times coming off their entry level contracts, and just haven’t played enough seasons to be eligible for unrestricted free agency. The bad part about restricted free agency is that, depending on how much the player is signed for, the team is required to pay some sort of draft pick compensation.

The compensation thresholds are dependent upon the salary cap ceiling for that respective season. Since we don’t know what the salary cap will be set at for next season, the compensation thresholds have not been set either.

Last year’s compensation was as follows:

-at or below $863,812 = no compensation

-$863,813 to $1,307,812 = One 3rd round pick

-$1,307,813 to $2,615,625 = One 2nd round pick

-$2,615,626 to $3,923,437 = One 1st round pick, one 3rd round pick

-$3,923,438 to $5,231,249 = One 1st round pick, one 2nd round pick, one 3rd round pick

-$5,231,250 to $6,539,062 = Two 1st round picks, one 2nd round pick, one 3rd round pick

-$6,539,063 or above = Four 1st round picks

Bruins snap 10-game skid, beat Habs 3-0 (AP)

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Bruins' skid up to 10, Canucks win in SO (AP)

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Habs win in SO, Bruins' skid reaches 9 (AP)

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Caps win franchise-record 11th straight (AP)

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Bruins D Stuart has surgery on finger (AP)

The Boston Bruins say defenseman Mark Stuart has undergone surgery on a finger injured during a weekend fight on the ice. Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said the surgery, performed on Monday by Dr. Matthew Leibman at Massachusetts General Hospital, was successful and Stuart will miss about four weeks. [read full article]

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