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Good Luck PATS!!
Wishing the best of luck to our fellow Beantown team looking to try and make their second apperance in the Super Bowl in as many seasons.
More Labor Talks Set For Tuesday
Well after another debacle of a Patriots Sunday it is making me miss hockey more and more. I don’t know why because I feel like I yell at the Bruins more than I do the Pats. But anyways…
The players and owners are set to meet on Tuesday to continue talks. In an article on ESPN, it lays out what might be planned for the Tuesday meeting.
ESPN — Labor negotiations between the NHL and the locked-out players’ association may resume Tuesday after a four-day break.
The location and the agenda have yet to be determined. The sides held two days of talks this week in New York without discussion of hockey-related revenue — the core economic issue that has prevented the NHL regular season from starting on time.
“Nothing firm. There is a potential for Tuesday,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email to The Associated Press.
The 28-day lockout already has wiped out the entire preseason and the first three days of the regular season. The NHL announced last week that all games have been canceled through Oct. 24.
The league and the union did little to close the gap, and the likelihood of any hockey being played in October is quickly fading. After five hours of talks at the league office on Wednesday, the sides got back together for nearly as long — in two sessions — on Thursday.
Daly estimated the NHL lost $100 million from the cancellation of the entire preseason and would be out another $140 million to $150 million with the regular-season losses
B’s Notes from January
After recovering from a hungover miserable state that was watching the Patriots lose, yet another, Super Bowl. It go me thinking that it isn’t all beer cans and blow jobs in this wonderful city we call Boston. Everyone loves to ride high when the team is winning and will find everything to complain about when a team can’t pull of a championship.
But the loss of this Super Bowl brought me down to reality. When the Sox blew a nine game lead in September to miss the playoffs, I honestly didn’t care because I was still on a Stanley Cup high and there was only a week until the Bruins started again.
The Pats losing brought me back to where I was at this point last season with the Bruins. That was picking them apart and pointing out every flaw and finding reasons/ways they will blow it in the playoffs.
The more I’ve thought about this over the past few days, I don’t think the Bruins will/can repeat. Everything worked out in their favor last year, a game seven OT win against Montreal, a 1-0 game seven win (essentially an OT game) against Tampa Bay and some of the dominant teams weren’t at their best. Pittsburgh without Malkin and Crosby, the Flyers goaltending issues and so much more.
So what does that mean for this season. If the season ended today the B’s would be the two seed and play Toronto, a series they should win. Chances are in the second round the Bruins could face Pittsburgh or Philly and if they get past that it is going to be hard for them to beat the Rangers, a team that with Lundqvist in net the Bruins have never score more than two goals in a game.
Claude is doing his best, he switched the lines around during the Capitals game on Sunday. Krejci got demoted to the third line and Kelly and Peverley were playing with Lucic.
The goaltending situation could be clearer. I’m sure a lot of people (especially Bruins fans) will say there is no way Thomas isn’t the playoff tender and that is probably true. But in the last month;
Thomas: 5-3-0 allowing 22 goals with a .913 sv% and 0 shutouts
Rask: 3-0-1 allowing 12 goals with a .921 sv% and 1 shutout
The numbers are still similar but the ladder part of the month Thomas was 3-2-0 but even in the games he won he still allowed ten goals. While Rask, who has lost three in-a-row (one of those is a game in Feb) his seven game winning streak was snapped in January.
What is the status of Nathan Horton (17 G, 15 A, +/- 0) his numbers haven’t been great this year he had 8 goals in the 11 games he played in January which was better than the 9 goals he had from October through December. But unfortunately he is out with a concussion and his status is unknown as to when he will return to the line-up.
Which means with less than a month until the trade deadline the Bruins need to make some noise. I think the best move would be trading for Milan Hejduk. Yes, he is 35 but the Avalanche left winger could add some depth to the Bruins front-end and he brings the leadership and experience similar to what Recchi brought to the team last season. Not to mention Colorado is still in rebuilding mode so it will not take much to lift the winger from the Av’s. Possibly a draft pick or a player like Zach Hamill and a draft pick.
Definitely A Porn Day
So I’ll be honest. I’m feeling real lazy today and don’t really feel like writing a whole bunch of stuff, ripping people and calling people out. So, I figured we could all just take this time to sit back, relax and watch some erotic video’s that might just make all the fellas watching go from six to midnight. Ladies don’t be discouraged to flick the bean to this as well.
See the rest of you assholes in the playoffs.
Just Focused on Next Week, Week 13 Picks
CANT WAIT FOR PATS v. JETS MONDAY NIGHT
Saints over Bengals
Bears over Lions
Packers over 49ers
Jaguars over Titans
Chiefs over Broncos
Dolphins over Browns
Bills over Vikings
Giants over Redskins
Chargers over Raiders
Colts over Cowboys
Rams over Cardinals
Panthers over Seahawks
Buccaneers over Falcons
Ravens over Steelers
Jets over Patriots
Bodden Staying?
Leigh Bodden, Patriots CB
It looks like someone has finally woke up Bob Kraft. Singing Wilfork, Neil, Banta-Cain, and possibly Bodden all in a week. It is exciting to see but in an uncapped year it would be nice to see the Pats try to throw some money at other big name free agents but major household needs are always important, you can’t buy the outdoor furniture before you build the deck. Well, you could, but you would have to use a patio, but patio’s suck i.e. San Diego Chargers. They have a lot of flashy things but you still look around and feel like something is missing
This does remind me a lot of the 2006 off-season, the season before the very forgettable 18-1 season. The Patriots spent a lot of money signing guys in-house; Richard Seymour and others.
Meet the 40 Million Dollar Man
It was Friday morning in the office of Robert Kraft, when he saw his check book laying on his desk and he decided he was going to write a bunch of checks for a whole ton of money.
First, Kraft called his nosetackle into his office and sat him down. He probably told him, Vince I have a check for $40 Mil in my hand, can you make one or two sacks next year and you can buy all the bugers you want with this money. At least thats how I think it happened.
Regardless, Vince Wilfork did sign with the Patriots on Friday, he signed a 5-year, 40Mill deal. According to the article on nfl.com Wilfork will recieve $25Mill guarenteed along with an $18Mil signing bonus. Vince Wilfork NT, New England Patriots
The same article from nfl.com also said the Patriots signed Tully Banta-Cain to a 3-year deal and re-signed Stephen Neal to a 2-year deal.
No Questions About It
Pats players did the same as the fans today, watched an ass kicking
The truth is, I expected it. I am not sitting around mopping about this loss because I did not think the Patriots were going to win. Even if they did win they were not going to win next week. Not that I said it on this site, but in conversations with my friends during the week I said the Pats would not have won today even if Welker was healthy. Which would have been the case.
The Pats this year were an average team at best. The record is deceiving at 10-6 but when you break down the wins and losses of the season the Pats had ZERO impressive wins. Of the 10 wins the Pats had only two of them came against teams in the playoffs, Baltimore & New York Jets. To make matters worse the Pats only faced four teams who made the playoffs.
To put the wins and losses into perspective, the combine record of the teams in the Pats ten wins was 57-71. While the combine record of the teams in the Pats six losses was 60-36.
The Pats need a lot of work for next season, especially on the defensive side of the ball. There are two positives I saw from the game today. Kevin Faulk was old reliable and did nothing different from what he has done in his entire time with the team. Also props to Julian Edelman who stepped into clown shoes to fill Wes Welker’ role. There was one play in the 4th quarter when Edelman caught the ball at the line of scrimmage, ran back two yards and then ran forward twelve to make the first down in just a true passion play to keep the game alive even though the play was negated due to a Pats penalty.
Still Best in the Division?
A frustrated Bill Belichick
It is obviously not helping the Patriots by losing these games because they are spoiling their chance at a first round bye and because of that there could be same result as the 2006 season, when the team lost to Indy in the AFC Championship. The Pats were a great team that season but in the end having to play three weeks in a row in the playoffs with the last two games on the road is never easy no matter who you are.
The Patriots have an easier schedule to end the season (Car, @ Buf, Jax ,@Hou) but the team is still probably going to have to run the table to finish 11-5. They could have afforded to drop one of those games had they beaten the Dolphins last weekend.
Going into this season I thought the Pats were a lock for the Super Bowl, and do not get me wrong, I am not counting them out by any chance, I mean they are the Patriots. I’m just not sold on the team having to play three playoff games just to reach the Super Bowl, games that will include having to knock off two higher seeded teams to reach the Super Bowl. Granted a lot can change in the last 4 weeks of the season. As of now I say the Pats are eliminated in the 2nd round or AFC Champ. of this year’s playoffs.
City of Champions, Version 2010
After living on top of the world from 2001-2008, Boston sports fans are starting to become concerned if the end of a decade could mean the end of the City of Champions. In a 2008-2009 sports season that saw the state of Pennsylvania taking three Championships, of the four major sports. Not to mention the Yankees are about to cash in, on their off-season shopping spree at Stop & Shop MLB.
The situation is very similar to the first time the Patriots won their first Super Bowl in 2001; the only difference is what fans are looking to get from the team now opposed to eight years ago. Granted Boston fans always want a Championship but going into the 2001 season for the Patriots people didn’t really know what to expect. The team was 5-11 the year before and did not look hopeful until the greatest thing the Jets ever did for the team, Mo Lewis knocking out Bledsoe to make way for the savior, Tom Brady. Cut to this season, after not having seen Brady play since the Super Bowl loss to the Giants, it was hard to tell, and still is, how Brady and the team perform. After a 3-2 start, the fans are just waiting for this team to find an identity and start rolling.
At the same time Bledsoe was getting knocked out of football, Boston fans still had a sour taste in their mouths from two consecutive seasons that never saw more than 85 wins and a 1999 ALCS loss to the Yankees. The Red Sox didn’t lose to the Yankees this year in the ALCS but they lost to them in the off-season with free agents. The Sox chose to gamble on aging veterans and players coming back from injury. At this point in Red Sox history the team and fans are expecting more than a sweep in the ALDS against a team the Sox handled for the entire 2000 decade. If it inspires Theo, maybe he should take some advise from Eddie Vedder and “When somethings broke, I wanna put a bit of fixin on it.”
The Celtics were the last team to bail the city out of Boston losing half its population in bridge jumps and alcohol related incidents. The Celtics put together the Big Three just in time, going in to the stretch run of the season with a loss to the Cavs; two days after the Pats blew Super Bowl 42. The Celts however were 36-9 after the defeat. As we all know they did go on to win the title that year and still give Bostonians something to hang their hat on.
Then there is everyone’s favorite topic, the Bruins. A team that has shown no life since their last Stanley Cup appearance in 1989-90 and when it looks like they have the team that could compete deep into June, they usually cave by the second round. Last season they had an amazing regular season that earned them the best record in the Eastern Conference. The team also coasted through the second half of the season, riding their 23-2-1 record through November and December. The only question that bears asking are has Peter Chiarelli put together another great regular season team. Everyone saw all the great teams Ottawa had during the regular season, then come playoff time the Senators were always an early exit.
With all of this stirring in the pot we call Boston sports, how will Boston get back on top. It is going to have to come from the Patriots. The Red Sox are done for the year so we just have to wait for them to retool and hopefully come back like a hurricane and wipeout the league next year. The Celtics have a strong team and Rasheed Wallace helped me in trying to prove my point that the Celts will win 70+ games. As for the hopes for the Bruins this year are high, they are not the team I would count on to win a championship. When it all comes full circles the Patriots have been solid ever since they won that first Super Bowl. Sure the outcomes every season are not what the fans or players want but realistically a team cannot win every year. It is a football season where Patriots fans do not know what to expect but all still believe hands down, they should be in the Super Bowl. A Super Bowl win that would cap off a great 2000s decade for Boston and because the Super Bowl takes place in 2010 it’s a good way to start a New Year and decade. A Super Bowl would also quickly shut-up Yankee fans if they do end up winning this season.
NHL Need's Gary Thorne 