BOSTON SPORTS 2009

Where shall we begin? The Bruins? The Celtics? The Eagles? How about neither. We'll start this brief summarization with minor Red Sox and Patriots news. The Pats are licking their chops. No playoffs as hard as it's to fathom. They sit at 11-5, season over. They are clearly better than most of the playoff teams. They have a better record than 3 of the 4 teams that won during the opening weekend of the playoffs(Arizona, Philadelphia and San Diego). But it is what it is. Had they won the tiebreaker, it would've mattered little, as the Ravens trouncing of the hapless Dolphins(27-9) showed. Anyhow, reports are the Pats will franchise Matt Cassell tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if he or Brady will be the QB next year. Brady has the edge if healthy, and he almost certainly will be. Thus, Cassell will bring some draft picks in return when he signs with a new team this offseason. Oh yeah, The Red Sox officially signed P Brad Penny and C Josh Bard.
On to the Bruins. They played 3 games and won 2. The team defeated the Pens 5-2 in Pittsburgh to open a home and home series. Thomas looked solid and the team put up 40 shots. Wideman and Savard stood out with multi-points. The team had Fernandez in net 2 nights later in Boston, and he looked solid too. Axellson, Yelle and Savard had multi-points. Fernandez improved to 9-0 at home. But 2 days later, yours truly took in a Saturday matinee vs. Buffalo, and witnessed a loss that put an end to some lengthy streaks. The 4-2 loss ended a 14 game home winning streak and a 10 game winning streak. It was the first home loss since Oct. 13th! The 10 game streak was the best since 1973. The team sits at 29-6 and still holds nearly every possible team stats, most importantly being a 14 point lead over the 2nd place Habs'. The team has an opportunity to continue to put distance between themselves and everyone else during 3 home games this week.
The Celtics are struggling. It's shocking, but hey, every team goes through a stretch of losing. The team lost to Portland by 5, even though they led the whole game. Much like a loss earlier in the trip, the team collapsed down the stretch and got smoked in the final few minutes. Though the refereeing was pathetic and one-sided, the team was dealt a tough loss. The team ended the trip at a lowly 1-3, but bounced back and won 108-83 vs. the Wizards soon thereafter. But the win was short lived as the Celts lost to the lowly Knicks in NY earlier tonight. No excuses. The team led by 9 right before the half but got drilled the rest of the way. The team got outscored 28-15 in the 3rd quarter and a lead was gone in the 100-88 loss. The team has a lot of work ahead. But losses today by the Magic and Cavs kept the green in the top spot in the East. The team is 29-6, but the Cavs are right there at 27-6 and the Magic too at 26-8. The Celts go to Cleveland this week, where the Cavs are undefeated thus far at 17-0. But the team has games vs. the Bobcats and Rockets first.
Let's end on good and bad news for BC. The football team lost their bowl game late, 16-14 vs. Vandy. It ended a nation's best bowl winning streak at 8 games. It ended their year with 9 wins which ended a streak of 10+ wins. A shame it was. But the team will be back. Their QB and 2 RB's were freshman this year, so expect good things in the future. The great news is both basketball teams. The women are 11-3. The men, led by Rice, entered today's ACC opener at 12-2. Problem was they were facing the #1 team in the nation, the Hansborough-led 12-0 UNC Tar Heels in UNC. Guess what? The Eagles won, arguably the greatest upset in BC basketball history! Amazing!