Monthly Archives: May 2011

May 31, 2011 · 5:07 AM

E-L-A-T-E-D

How does that old monster truck commercial go?

“Pay for the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edge.”

That’s pretty much how I was the entire game 7. But let’s start at the beginning.

I put on my Bruins jersey which I have to tell you would fit two sets of goalie pads under it, it’s so big on me now. Got in the car and drove over to pick up a couple pizzas but no beer as my buddy has a tap in his kitchen. Even better, it was Blue Moon on tap. Delicious.

I sat down right in time for Rene. For reference, all the folks hating on Rene, stop it. He’s an institution on the Boston sports scene. Specifically the Bruins. 35 years which is older than me and for reference when I go to the game and there’s some little girl singing the anthem or some Idol reject, I get pissed. Rene sings the anthem at Bruins games. Period!

On to the game.

I won’t bore you with any type of game recap. I know you watched.

Highlights for me…

StLouis taking a big hit about 3 minutes into the game. No penalty. In fact that there were no penalties called in the entire game. It was truly a game where the officials “let the boys play hockey”. The Bruins played a smart game and didn’t take any stupid penalties avoiding an abysmal penalty kill that sunk them in game six.

The breakaway by Lucic when he was stoned by Roloson. I feared that would be their only scoring chance of the game and that the Bruins would be beaten because of it.

Pay for the whole seat only need the edge indeed. My buddy’s house has a huge comfy couch, I was on the edge of my seat pretty much the entire game…then it happened.

With about 7:30 left in the third period the Bruins managed to get behind the “unsolvable” Tampa Bay 1-3-1 defense. Krejci fed Horton on the doorstep and Horton tipped it in for a 1-0 lead. At that point I could barely breath. The level of excitement was on par with the Sox in 2003 and 2004. Shock and awe, could this happen?

Side note. How AWESOME does the Wideman trade look? Wideman was a whipping boy last season and traded to Florida in the offseason for Horton and Campbell. Looks amazing! Great job Chiarelli. Again, AWESOME.

With Tim Thomas standing on his head and more importantly the defense playing very well in front of him the Bruins didn’t allow a goal into the net. The Bruins held on for the next seven minutes where I don’t think I exhaled, took a sip of beer, or anything. Then it happened.

They won! I flipped over to Facebook and updated my status to the headline you read today, ELATED! Looking at my friend’s statuses the next day, I must have “liked” about 45 different Bruins statuses.

Again, it’s been since 2004 that I’ve been this excited about a series. This is the Stanley Cup Finals! The BEST trophy in all of sports and the Bruins have a chance to win it for the first time in 21 years. More importantly their not running up against dynasty like Edmonton, they’re playing against a team they should match up very well with in Vancouver.

Now we wait till tomorrow night for them to drop the puck. Here’s hoping the underdog Bruins shock the experts and win the Cup for the first time in my lifetime.

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May 27, 2011 · 7:11 AM

Super Long Weekend

I’m taking the long weekend off. I’ll be back Tuesday with either one of the happiest columns in recent memory or one of the most scathing columns ever.

It all depends on how tonight goes. I know I’ll be glued to my TV tonight.

Go Bruins!

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May 26, 2011 · 6:50 AM

Tired Of Staying Up

After a nice pregame meal at the Tavern in Salem, we were home right in time to see the puck drop. So much for that 8PM start time. Puck dropped closer to 8:15.

Well the Bruins went down 1-0 again, this time 36 seconds into the game. Glad they listened to me and came out and played like their hair was on fire.

The managed to tie the game at one on a nice goal from Lucic on the breakaway. With the defenseman in his way he used him as a screen and went top shelf on game six starter Dwayne Roloson who apparently just needed game five off.

Lucic’s goal was followed up by Krejci’s first of three goals on the night. The Bruins had a 2-1 lead heading into the second period. This is where a hockey team looking to finish off their opponent would come out very hard in the beginning of the period and get that cushion goal.

Not the Bruins though.

Nope, instead of stepping on the Lightning’s collective throats with a goal they decide to get penalized twice and give up power play goals both times. Was this because in the pregame interview Claude said they had been pretty good on the penalty kill?

The team down 3-2 heading into the third period decided to play it like they played the first and give up a goal in 34 seconds besting the 36 seconds from the first. Of course this was another power play goal for Tampa Bay putting them a perfect 3-for-3 on power play opportunities at that point.

Krejci got them to within one but just 29 seconds later StLouis scored the cushion goal the Bruins were looking for at the start of the second. Krejci added another one for his hat trick but the Bruins couldn’t find that last goal.

Honestly at that point had they found the tying goal Tampa would have scored 25 seconds after the Bruins tied, right? I mean, 36 seconds, 34 seconds, 29 seconds, a nice 25 second goal seemed inevitable.

So it all comes down to Friday night. We’ve seen this team lose in the quarterfinals game seven to Carolina and Philly now we potentially could see them lose game seven in the conference finals to Tampa. Something about that sentence doesn’t seem right. Playing at home they should stomp Tampa.

Here’s hoping they find that “fire” before it’s too late.

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May 25, 2011 · 6:48 AM

Death Of The Madness

My brother and i started watching wrestling as far back as I can remember. We’d watch every Saturday morning. You’d get WWF Wrestling Challenge and that was followed up with WWF Superstars. The format was a lot different than what you see now on Monday Night RAW or other shows. Saturday mornings were “real” wrestlers taking on scrubs.

You’d get Greg “The Hammer” Valentine vs. “Iron” Mike Sharpe. Sharpe was one of those scrubs that basically went out and lost every week to make guys like Valentine, Koko B Ware, and others look like world beaters in order to set up pay per views.

They were also used to set up Saturday Night Main Event matches.

So a quick recap. Ted DiBiase “The Million Dollar Man” paid Andre The Giant to beat Hulk Hogan so he could get the belt. Andre beat Hogan and handed the belt to DiBiase but the commissioner Jack Tunney said he couldn’t do that and set up Wrestlemania IV as a tournament for the title. Hulk Hogan had held the title for what felt like 4 years at that point. It was time for someone new.

At this point I was probably nine years old and apparently the target demographic.

At Wrestlemania III a year earlier Macho Man Randy Savage had lost his Intercontinental Title to Ricky Steamboat. That match many believe still was the greatest ever. It lasted almost the entire 15 minutes and was all energy. As it turns out Steamboat and Savage had practiced the match countless times at Savage’s home ring to make sure it was perfect.

So at Wrestlemania IV, Savage won the title. This was where everyone else truly found out who the Macho Man was. He beat DiBiase in a the final and won the title. Of course Hogan’s mug was there but it was Savage’s time to shine with Ms. Elizabeth.

From there Savage and Hogan became the Mega Powers, an unstoppable tag team. They eventually split and at Wrestlemania V Savage carried Hogan in a match dubbed The Mega Powers explode. I remember we were at my grandparents and couldn’t get pay-per-view so my brother and I sat there watching it scrambled knowing full well when it was released on video we’d be able to catch all the action.

After that we knew Savage as the Macho King after beating Hacksaw jim Duggan in the King of the Ring tournament. We then knew him as a commentator. We didn’t think twice about the fact he was behind the announcer’s table and not wrestling. We took it for what it was.

Sure he left around the time Hogan went to WCW but that 1988-1989 stretch is the best time I’ll remember the Macho Man. Cutting the best promos, his Pomp and Circumstance entry music, his manager, and his incredible robes he wore to the ring. The Macho Man was wrestling in the late 80′s. RIP Macho Man.

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May 24, 2011 · 6:39 AM

Prophecy Fulfilled

No I’m not talking about how I predicted that Matzucrappa would get Tommy John surgery (he has an appointment this week to determine if he should). Nope, today I’m talking Bruins.

After blowing a 3-0 lead on Saturday and losing 5-3, Tim Thomas guaranteed the Bruins would win game five.

It didn’t start too good.

The Bruins came out flat, as they have so many times this playoffs. That led to the Lightning scoring just over a minute into the game. What stung a little was the fact it was Simon Gagne who scored. My Facebook and many others were on a disheartened note. WTF indeed.

Why do the Bruins keep coming out so flat?

Here’s my idea before game six in Tampa, the Bruins take a page from Matt Foley and drink coffee for four hours prior to the game or eat a few bags of chocolate covered coffee beans right before the warm up.

Or they take a page from former Lightning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and drink a pot of coffee right before the game. Just to make sure they don’t lose their edge slam a pot in between periods as well. Sure he ended up in the hospital with severe dehydration but he also led them to a Stanley Cup win.

Back to this game. The Bruins were flat in the first period. They managed a whopping four shots on goal. We all know you’re not going to win many games with only four shots on net. In a eerily similar circumstance to round two against the Flyers the Lightning went with backup goaltender Mike Smith in game five.

The Bruins came out a little stronger in the second period and managed to tie the game at one after a great one timer that Horton got from Lucic. They stayed tied for a about another 10 minutes till Marchand scored on a very nice pass from Bergeron. That gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead heading into the third.

Then, once again, it was the Tim Thomas show. After stopping nine shots in the second period, her stopped all 11 shots he faced in the third. The best one was the open net save he made with his stick sliding backwards. It was pretty amazing and has led almost all the highlights of last night’s game.

Thomas held on and the B’s added an empty netter to make it 3-1. They now lead the series again, this time 3-2.

They hope to wrap the series on Wednesday. Claude said that he doesn’t want to play a game seven. I think that if they come out like “[their] hair is on fire” they should be able to dominate the Lightning.

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