INTO MAY 2009:BOSTON SPORTS EXCITEMENT

We are now in May. The Bruins are still playing. The Celtics are doing the same. That's good stuff! Game 2 of the Bruins/Canes' playoffs series will launch in a few minutes, so let's get right down to it all.
The Red Sox are not getting any front page news or radio chatter. Amazingly, they are just an afterthought. For this week, that was good news, because they stunk. The team entered the week on an epic winning streak. After a win in CLE on Monday, the streak ended. Penny blew a 7-3 lead and the Sox lost. They bounced back the next night by coming back from a 5-0 deficit to win in extras. Young call-up Van Every made a great catch, and came up with some big hits, including a HR. The team then headed to Tampa. Revenge was on every one's mind. Tampa beat our guys in the 7th game to go to the World Series last season, and when they came into Fenway for the home opener last month, they surprisingly took 2-of-3 and revenge was lost. They had a chance again this weekend in a 4-game series. Guess what? They stunk again. They got horrific pitching, no timely hits and lost 3-of-4. Inexcusable. They are now 2-5 against them this season. Ouch. The team heads to NY for the 1st time in the new stadium, then gets CLE and Tampa again. Interesting to see if they get some consistency. Thus far, the starting pitching had been horrible but the bullpen stout. The offense has been inconsistent, and Big Papi has been atrocious. He has not hit a HR this season. Not acceptable.
So, how about some good news? I have it. The Bruins waited, and waited, to see who will be their opponent in the 2nd round. Their are 8 teams left here in the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. After the Canes' shocked the Devils(by scoring 2 goals in the final minute of Game 7) the Bruins finally found out whom their semi-finals opponent would be. And that was a blessing. The Bruins bashed the Canes' in the regular season by winning all 4 games, and none of them were close. The style of the Canes' was perfect for the Bruins. Though respecting the Canes' is dire, they simply can't hang with the talented and well rested black-and-gold. The series will likely go 5 games. The Bruins won the first game 4-1. They dominated in all facets. Savard and Ryder stood out, but the whole team was impressive. Ference returned from injury as well.
Lastly, the Celtics. There is not enough space below to describe the series. It was simply epic. The astonishing series went 7 games! It is considered one of, if not the best, series in league history. The Celtics and Bulls were tied 2-2 as Game 5 kicked off. The game was a thriller, but the Celtics won 106-104. The C's expected to wrap it up Game 6 in CHI, but the Bulls had other plans. The game went into OT, for a record breaking 4th time! The game progressed to an unbelievable 3 OT. Despite a whopping 51 points from Ray Allen, the Bulls held on 128-127. Game 7 was a thriller too. Though the Bulls led big early on, the Celtics relied on a 22-2 run to close out the 1st half and led by 14. The Bulls fought back and pulled within 3 points late, but the bench(especially House) stepped up and the Celtics won 109-99. The series had everything: buzzer beaters, comebacks, OT, fights, missed FT's, hard fouls, technicals, poor officiating, death threats(Tony Allen), scoring errors and much more. Without KG, Pierce and Allen had to hold their own against a young and athletic Bulls club. Though they only won 41 games(as opposed to the Celtics 62 wins) they had nothing to lose. Gordon and Allen went shot for shot. Blood and violence was a factor, highlighted by Rondo/Hinrich shoving match, Miller getting swatted in the mouth in the waning seconds of Game 5, Rondo tripping Hinrich, Miller whacking Big Baby and Pierce leaving Game 6 with a bloody nose among other moments. For the Bulls, Miller brought toughness and nastiness, Noah brought athleticism and rebounding, Gordon was the scorer, Rose was the smooth shooting PG, and Salmons defended Pierce and hit some big three's. For the Celts, Rondo came into his own. He averaged a triple double throughout the series! Perkins stepped up and was great. Pierce battled and took some bad shots but did well. Allen was thee scorer and made a record 9 three pointers in one game. The bench was poor, especially Starbury and House. But House had a big Game 7. Though Moore and Scal did not play much, they looked solid. Lastly, Big Baby was amazing. He scored tons of points and stepped in admirably for KG and Powe. The team moves on to meet Orlando, who struggled to beat the 76ers in 6 games.