Bruins vs Rangers game one recap

The Boston Bruins came into this series against the New York Rangers with the ultimate high, what’s the high you ask? well if you have been living under a rock for the past week the Boston Bruins came from 3 goals down to tie and eventually win the series in overtime 5-4 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Not to be outdone the New York Rangers came into game one also running on a high where they beat up on the Washington Capitals 5-0, so the stage was set, and the Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers were set to take on each other in what is said to be the most physical series yet.

The Boston Bruins captian Zdeno Chara striked first with a slap shot against Henrik Lundqvist, but the New York Rangers didn’t give up as Ryan McDonagh scored at 19:58 in the period to tie the game up heading into the 1st intermission.

Derek Stepan started the second period with a snap with only 00:14 seconds off the clock, at this point the New York Rangers were feeling good about themselves, until Boston Bruins rookie Tory Krug scored his first NHL goal, playoff goal for that matter, an so the battle raged on, blocked shots after blocked shots, finally sending the game into overtime.

Brad Marchand from the Boston Bruins has had pretty bad playoff season thus far, however Claude Julien kstill entrust in his guys, and lines, so as the game went on he decided to send out Brad “The Little Ball of Hate” Marchand. The Boston Bruins dominated the overtime period by making Henrik Lundqvist face 15 total shots in the overtime period alone.

Brad Marchand skated up the middle as Patrice Bergeron, and Zdeno Chara skated with him, as Patrice Bergeron passed it to Zdeno Chara he wound up and shot the puck leaving the tip in oppurtunity available for Brad Marchand, he scored and game one was in the books. I am hoping that this will spark the Boston Bruins and Brad Marchand into 2011 Stanley Cup form, and maybe they can shock the world once again.

In closing the goalie stats look like this-

Tuukka Rask-saved 35 out of 38 as a save point average of .943%

Hendrik Lundqvist -saved 45 out of 48 and has a save point average of .938%

Who do you think is going to win the series? and in how many games?

Red Sox Preview

The Boston Red Sox dropped the game Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays. Matt Moore gave up three runs in the first inning, but still managed to six innings striking out eight. Moore improved his record on the season to 7-0. David Ortiz accounted for all three runs with a home run in the 1st inning. John Lackey went four and a third innings, giving up nine hits and five earned runs. Lackey took the loss for the Sox.

Today’s match up is a great one and will be on ESPN, and part of their Wednesday Night Baseball. Jon Lester looks to stay undefeated, and puts up his record against David Price who is 1-3 on the season with a 4.78 ERA. The Rays have won six straight games.

So far this season for the Sox it has been the same story, if the pitching is good, then they will have a great chance to win the game. One would figure with Lester on the mound, the win would be almost certain, but Price is starting to come around after early season struggles.

The problem with the Red Sox is they are still striking out way too much, and not putting the ball in play. Price strikes out a lot of batters, but with having a 4.78 ERA, runs may be there for the Sox if they put the bat on the ball.

Tomorrow’s game will feature the struggling Felix Doubront against Rays’ pitcher Alex Cobb. Doubront is 3-1, but has a 6.40 ERA. Cobb is 4-2 with a 3.09 ERA. Friday the Red Sox head to Minnesota to begin a three game series with the Twins.

We Are Not Worthy… Game 7 Reaction

I’m catching a lot of flak for my initial reaction to what happened on Monday night.  When I saw that fourth Toronto goal go in with 14 minutes left in the third to put the Leafs up 4-1, I died a little inside.  I lost hope in the Bruins.  I was ready to jump onto the New York Rangers bandwagon and I will not hear the end of it for a very long time.  I was wrong, I’m sorry. I said what every other Bruins fan was thinking, sue me.  Stop yelling at me – I get it.  I’m just as emotionally invested in these Bruins as you are.  That’s probably one of the reasons why I was so upset going into the second half of the third period.

So… what just happened?  As Claude Julien has been saying for the last half of the season “Jekyll and Hyde” kind of game.  Even when the Bruins scored their second goal they didn’t think they were going to win – you could see it in their faces.  I still can’t fully comprehend what exactly I just witnessed.  Barry Melrose even said: “this is something that hasn’t happened before.”  When you’re down 3 goals playing against a great team in the third, you don’t think you’re going to win.  But it did.  It happened.  I can’t even begin to try to analyze what happened in the last 2 minutes of regulation.  After all the defensive and neutral zone lapses as well as the general lack of effort that we’ve been seeing since Game 5 – what we just saw was one of the most improbable NHL comebacks in recent history.

Tonight the Bruins became the 1^st team to win a game in NHL history to win a game 7 after being down 3 goals in the third period. They also became the 4^th team in NHL history to come back from a Game 7 after being down 3 goals.

This game will be on ESPN Classic for the next fifty years.  After letting the red hot Toronto Maple Leafs fight off elimination in Games 5 and 6 and play dominantly against the Bruins up until the second half of the third period in Game 7 – this was one of the most incredible and improbable comebacks that I’ve ever seen.  If someone told you after the Leafs went up 4-1 that the Bruins would come back and win, would you honestly believe it?

Bergeron clearly had a lot to do with this win.  Even with Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand being virtually nonexistent in these playoffs, he scored the game-tying and game-winning goals.  And I’m shocked that Lucic decided he wanted to play tonight – because he’s been lagging a LOT this season.  He has two goals and seven assists in seven games this postseason including the big goal that set up the game-tying bid for Bergeron.  David Krejci has also been a force with five goals and seven assists thus far in the postseason. The first line that was missing from the season is back, I hope.

There’s not much more to say.  We got outplayed for most of the last three games and found a way to still come out on top of the series.  I was in tears when we won, literally.  We’ll need to make adjustments going up against the New York Rangers – but we have a tremendous amount of momentum and I don’t doubt that the Bruins will be hungrier after being somewhat depleted for the last few games.  Coming off of two shutout games in Games 6 and 7, the Rangers also have a lot of hunger and momentum and will be an exciting match up for the Bruins. This will be the first time that the Bruins face the New York Rangers since 1973 and will undoubtedly be a great series.

Sorry for getting so depressed and pessimistic on Monday night.  I wasn’t expecting one of the greatest NHL game 7 comebacks in sports history.  It’s never over until it’s over.  That became a lot clearer for me tonight.  That was one of the coolest, most emotional games in recent Boston sports history and I’m happy I got to witness it.

Where Is Sox Pitching

So much for feeling good about getting back to Fenway Park. The Red Sox have hit a skid in the season, but like great teams in the past, it is how you bounce back. It has not been all bad, but what was the strength has now become the weakness lately.

Red Sox pitching has been getting blasted ever since the team made its way to Arlington, Texas. But now, the start to the home stand for the Sox has been even worse.

I do not want to belittle the Minnesota Twins in any way, they have two MVP award winners, Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. They have power bats in Ryan Doumit, and Josh Willingham. However, this is not a team that should come to Fenway Park and take two games of a series.

Monday, fans saw the Stephen Drew party, as he hit a walk off in the bottom of the ninth inning. But, with good comes bad, Clay Buchholz was roughed up for the first time all season, giving up 7 hits, and four earned runs. Buchholz did strike out 9 Twins, and the Sox remain undefeated in starts made by Buchholz.

Tuesday, the Sox got beat 6-1, getting bested by Scott Diamond. Ryan Dempster took the loss, his third of the year. Dempster struck out 8, giving up five hits, four runs, two being earned.

Now we get to Wednesday, probably the worst game of the season for the Sox. The Twins won the game 15-8, closer to a football score than baseball. This matchup featured two rookie on the mound, Allen Webster for the Sox, and Pedro Hernandez for the Twins. Both pitched like rookies, Webster getting hit harder and more frequently.

Webster gave up four runs in the top of the first, but was bested by Hernandez who gave up 5 in the bottom of the first, including a grand slam to Jonny Gomes. The second inning was unbearable, Webster went two-thirds of an inning in the second, before being yanked for struggling Felix Doubront. The struggling Sox’s youngster gave up a touchdown to the Twins in the second. The game finally ended, but with some glimmers of hope.

Shane Victorino hit a home run over the Green Monster, Gomes as mentioned hit his second as a Red Sox, Dustin Pedroia and Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit doubles for the Sox. Now the bad, David Ortiz’s hit streak ended at 27 games, dating back to last season.

Today, the Sox face off against the Twins for the last game of the four game series. The Red Sox send John Lackey to the mound, and he will face off against Kevin Correia. The hits are coming for the Sox, now the pitching has to come back for the team like it was earlier in the season.

Boston Bruins game 4 recap

Last night I saw two teams hungry for a game 4 win, and it all started with the Toronto Maple Leafs jumping out to a early 2 goal lead by Joffery Lupul (3 goals ), and Cody Franson ( 1st playoff goal ). Not to be outdone the Boston Bruins came roaring back in the 2nd period with 3 unanswered goals from Patrice Bergeron ( 1 goal ), and 2 from David Krejci ( 4 goals ). As quick as it was for the Boston Bruins to take the lead the Toronto Maple Leafs qucikly ended it with another goal from Clarke MacArthur.

 

The Boston Bruins, and Toronto Maple Leafs played end to end throughout the 3rd period into overtime where for most of the overtime period the Toronto Maple Leafs dominated, but at last David “Playoff” Krejci was able to get open and sneak one past Dion Phaneuf, and James Reimer to take the overtime victory, as awell as a hattrick.

 

Some Keys to take away from this game are the fact that Tuukka Rask saving 45-48 shots last night, *cough* why was he not nominated for a Vezina trophy?? anyways..

James Reimer faced 41-45 shots which isn’t bad at all.

The Boston Bruins dominated on the shot sheet during the first period with 15-8 but that was about as dominating as they got, as the Toronoto Maple Leafs out shot them 48-45 by the end of the game.

The Boston Bruins clearly are better in the faceoff circle because they won 41-34 wins in the circle.

It is clear to me that the Phil Kessel line has a fire in his pants to beat his former team, because Phil Kessel is playing some really good hockey, even against Zdeno Chara.

 

Do you think the Boston Bruins can close out this series on Friday night? I for one am hoping so, but leave me some comments and let me know why, and why not.

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter @sportsblaggah

Rob Gronkowski needs a fourth, and possible a fifth surgery

 

News came out today the New England Patriots Tight End Rob Gronkowski will need a fourth surgery to replace the plate in his forearm, the doctors are stating that the surgery cannot take place until the infection in his forearm clears up.  For the people out there that don’t know anything about this Rob Gronkowski injured his arm in the 4th quarter of game 11 of the regular season, he had immediate surgery to repair it and was back on the field for the playoff game against the Houston Texans only to re break that arm and have a second surgery to repair it.

During the offseason it was reported that Rob Gronkowski would need a third surgery to open his forearm up and clean out a infection, which still has yet to clear. This is the fourth surgery he needs to fix it, which can delay his start of the regular season and if a fifth surgery is needed who knows when he will be back.

On a lighter note Rob “The Gronk” Gronkowski will be turning 24 on the 14th of may so he will make a full recovery, or at least he will be back sometime this year..right?

What are your thoughts?

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Thursday 5/9/2013, 12pm!

So Thursday marks our 9th episode of Sports Blaggah radio, and how fitting it is that it falls on the 9th of the month!

Scott Bluni and myself discuss the Celtics lost in game 6 but of course we go a little of topic and end up talking about the possibility of the LA Clippers / Boston Celtics trade.

We also discuss the Boston Bruins and how they did in game 2, and 3. Not to be outdone we threw in the recent Terrell Owens chatter  of him possibly playing for the New England Patriots.

Here is the link —> http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fanjunkies/2013/05/09/sports-blaggah-radio–episode-9-fan-junkies

Please tune in and let’s make this episode the best result yet!