Miscellany

• Crypt-keeper Jeremy Jacobs came out of his Scrooge McDuck vault in East Aurora, NY to come to Boston and talk about how glad he is that the Bruins are raking in more revenues than normal. Pink hats, check out Ron Borges' article in today's Herald (then read the comments by angry, longtime fans). Remember, he owns pretty much everything involved with everything regarding the Bruins - the merch, the food, the Garden, the team, etc. Folks may wonder why I don't buy Garden concessions or wear Bruins flair at the games (or, really, ever), this guy is why. The team could win every single game for the next 100 years, I ain't giving JJ any more money than what I pay for my season tickets. So read Borges' article, then read it again.
• Sox are in first place. Huh?
• I could sell my game 3 ticket right now for about $500. dang.
  
• Bruins in 6.
  

B's win; onto Vancouver

I like winning. It's better than losing.

• Dennis Seidenberg is solid. 8 blocked shot last night. Pure solid. Dennis Seidenjesus.
• Buddy of mine next to me who is a bit more of a basketball fan than a hockey fan was stunned when Stamkos took that shot off the face. "Is he gone for the game?" I said, "nope, he'll go to the locker room, spit out a few chiclets, get some stitches, back on the ice in 5 minutes". And he was. This ain't the NBA, son. Any of these guys, TB or Boston, or really any team, would play through gunshot wounds to play in this game. You could behead Recchi and his body and his head would still play. Actually, you wouldn't want to behead Recchi because then you'd have to deal with 2 Recchis kicking your ass all over the ice. "The decapitated head of Recchi just scored a hat trick, all goals assisted by the body of Recchi. Unreal."
  
• NHL on the Fly. Why is Ryan O'Byrne on there? This punkass's hockey bona fides are pretty weak. Plus, since he's a former Hab, he's retardedly anti-Bruin. He picked the 'nucks in 7. Kelly Chase? He GETS IT. Chaser picked the B's in 7. Another enforcer in sportscasting. What's up with that? Something about the enforcer/goon personality that translates well to sportcasting, I dunno. Also, Ryan O'Byrne sucks.
  
• When I got home, my ears were ringing. I've never heard the crowd get that loud. When Horton scored, just pure bedlam. Bedlam. The game was just so intense. We were actually predicting 0-0 going into sudden death. Is there not a more apt description of overtime in a game 7 playoff hockey game than "sudden death"?
• Causeway St. was batshit, too, after the game. At one point, a buncha folks dancing in a circle chanting "Tim-my Thom-as". I'm not sure if any weirdness broke out or whatever, I left the area at about 11:30, but damn.
• Winning is good.

B's fill their diaper.

Ugh.

• Sure, you'd love to bench Boychuk & Kaberle ("Kaber-gay", we've been calling him; yah, we're adults.), but these are the ugly sluts that Claude brought to the dance, so he's gotta dance with them. So let's hope (ugh) that this team can figure it all out in time for tomorrow night's game.
• No time for Seguin on the PP last night, did I read that right? So they're trying the "chara in front of the net" move, and that's great and stuff, but Seguin's still gotta play on that "power" play, currently clicking at, uh, what, 8%?
• boston.com had a poll for unsung hero for the bruins in the playoffs. I voted for Seidenberg and so did most of those who voted.
• The B's, ya know, they really have got to stop giving these teams hope. They are 100% capable of pounding the piss out of TB, but everytime they get a chance to step on their neck with a skate, they back off. "Afraid to win", you hear some call it. I dunno. But the killer instinct is lacking. "don't know how to win", "not playoff ready", etc.
• US-born hockey player Doug Weight retiring after 19 years. 1238 games 278-755-1033 and a Stanley Cup. Not too bad.
• Are the Jets back in Winnipeg YET? sheesh. Gotta get rid of that Confederate Flag Hockey ya know. Florida Panthers, you're next.
  
• These 8pm starts are lame. I get home at like midnight 'n shit. It's like when the Sox were going all the way in '04 and no one was getting any sleep because the games were starting at 8:37pm.
• You realize, right, that in order to keep the Cup away from the hosers that either the B's or Tampon Bay has to beat Vancouver. Cup hasn't been won by a Canadian team since, what, 1993 when the Habs got it.
• The Mayor flew up from Austin to catch Game 7. "I landed, went to Dunks, bought a Herald". It's rumored that tonight he's headed to the Cape to get stabbed in the parking lot of Pufferbellies.
• That's right, Bill Belichick's been to the last 2 games. Last game, even stood up and waved the towel there. Also, Tom Brady crying and going down waterslides like a 7-year old girl. Patriots dynasty = over.
• What the hell were those noisemakers at the game last night? or something? It sounded like thundersticks, but more high-pitched. Horrible. They don't hand shit out like that in Boston, they know it'll get tossed onto the ice after the first bullshit call. A few years back they handed out minature Stanley Cups at the beginning of the year? or the playoffs? and Andrei Markov scored with like 10 seconds left in OT so MTL won, and all them shits got tossed onto the ice. Now, I think they do like, wind tunnel tests 'n shit on the free schwag to see if it can aerodynamically make the trip from the balcony to the ice. Y'know, mass, drag coefficient, critical velocity, windage, vectors, tensors, cross products, LaPlace transforms, etc. possibly the Large Hadron Collider's involved? When Bruins marketing goes thru the catalog of corporate-sponsored free schwag, each item probably lists its "projectile potential" on it or something. And who picks the schwag? Covidien or the Bruins? "let's give 'em towels" because they don't want the fans to brain Stamkos after he scores the series winner in OT.

B's Ground Lightning

I've been sitting on that headline for a few days.

• Thursday night the B's went into lockdown mode with the return of Bergeron, shutting out the 'Ning, 2-0.
• The Seguin Mafia was all over the airwaves on Wednesday after his 4-point, 1-period outburst on Tuesday. I can't blame them, but they were ready to put the kid into the Hall of Fame. I will admit, it was amazing stuff, but if it was followed by a disappointing performance, especially defensively, then it would be for naught. But the Seguin Show was pretty decent on Thursday night - the kid actually now seeks out not only the puck, but to hit, to engage opponents for the puck. Good stuff. Now we are rolling 4 solid, steady lines.
• Slowly, slowly - Kaberle is getting better. I think he had a good game last night. Scott Cullen of TSN correlated the B's best defensive performance of the series with Kaberle's (lack of) ice time. I think he is forgetting about the Bergeron factor, since what he does vs. Stamkos & Friends has more impact than anything Kaberle does. But Kaberle is starting to buy into the system, learn where he is supposed to be in Julien's system, and I think it's, again, slowly coming together for him.
• Confederate Flag Hockey leaves Atlanta and heads to Winnipeg. I don't know if the team will be called the Jets or what, I heard a rumor they were going to be called the Manitoba Moose, coulda been someone joking around. Probably so they could sell more merch - stuffed mooses and stuff. Can't exactly sell stuffed Jets to the kids. But at least hockey heads back to a place where there's actually snow and stuff. Florida Panthers/Phoenix Coyotes - you're next, probably heading to, what, I dunno, Quebec City and ? Hamilton? Hopefully those Crisco-eaters in Hartford are denied a hockey team.
  
• I wonder if Mike Lundin has repeating nightmares of getting bitched by Seguin in the open ice. Also nice to see Seguin undress both Hedman and Bergeron-concusser Randy Jones.
• Boychuk played less retahded last night, he was -3 in Game 2 I think.
• Seriously, does Paille wake up every morning and pinch himself? Picture this, you're Daniel fuckin' Pie-yay, you got nothing - no shot, no fists, no size, just a little speed - and somehow you were a 1st round pick. Now you're a role player on a pretty good team that is 6 wins from winning it all. He should give us money just for letting him hang with us.
• Didja see how huge Boucher's eyes got when arguing the Bergeron/Krejci hit/penalty at center ice? Creepy.
  

B's crap themselves

NHL.com's photo of Guy Boucher

60-minute hockey, folks. The Bruins went on holiday for a few minutes in the 1st period last night and fell behind 3-0 on some gift goals, going on to lose, 5-2.

• Seidenberg was an uncharacteristic -3 on the night.
• Krejci was 3 for 18 at the faceoff dot. Peverley was 6 for 16 on faceoffs. Bruins as a whole were 26 for 67 on faceoffs. They don't break down offensive zone vs. defensive zone faceoffs, but it felt like we won none all night.
• The "Seguin Mafia" will be out in full force on the radio dial. While I pretty much said, "omg" when he smoked the TB defense and beat Roloson for his first goal, it also is telling that he was on the ice for the first 2 goals when the Bruins really had a huge brain fart and gave up 2 goals in 19 seconds. Seguin also threw a hit, too. Skated like a madman into the corner and took out someone, can't remember who. Then the B's lost possession and that was that.
• Thomas had 2 retahded saves last night, one on LeCavalier who did the Forsberg move which Thomas saved with his glove, and Downie on a point-blank attempt that Thomas also snuffed out with his glove.
  

B's take out trash

Last night the B's finished the job, winning 5-1 to win the series 4-0 against Philadelphia.

• Still no word on Bergeron's injury. Just that Giroux hit him, he went down, we all saw him lying on the ice, but he got up and made his way to the bench and immediately to the locker room. So far this postseason, Bergeron's been Conn Smythe material, so no shit, everyone hopes he's okay.
• Kaberle has been improving, ever so slowly. I see, like, a 3% per game improvement with each game. Of course, this trend is too slow for the playoffs, but...last night he hit the blue line with speed, got hooked/tripped, and we got a power play. He needs to stop being scared and just play.
• Lootch actually skated last night, finally. He'd been kinda coasting still all postseason but last night he showed more willingness to get into 5th gear.
• Tampa Bay next. LeCavalier, St. Louis, Roloson, Gagne, Stamkos. Plus playoff stud Sean Bergenheim (what?)...last night Beers said that if there's anything that suspect on TB, it's their defensive corps, with Eric Brewer being the best followed closely by Hedman. So, duh, get pucks in deep and go from there.
• "What if"...the Flyers hung with Bobrovski for the whole series? And if Pronger didn't have a busted-up hand that probably got aggravated when he got beat on an icing by Paille (or the ensuing two-hand slash)?
• So yeah, nice win, keep it going, pretty much just riding the wave, going to enjoy the 4-5 days off from Bruins playoff hockey (lawn hasn't been mowed in forever) and recharge for Tampa Bay.
• SJ lost last night. Maybe there's still time for Joe Thornton to choke out of the playoffs.