Tag: Boston

Stanley Cup Finals Game Three – The Bruins Win

Here’s the NHL highlight video of last night’s game.  Give it a look.

Notice anything funny about that video?  Anything out of the ordinary?

I did.  It’s almost all Bruins highlights.  The Blackhawks highlights are few and far between?  Why is that?

It’s because the Bruins pretty much owned that game last night.  The Bruins got goals from Paille, again, and Bergeron, again.  Allow me to jump on a bandwagon and start calling Dan Paille by his new (censored) nickname:

Yippee Paille, muthaf*cker.  Heh heh, Die Hard meets Bruins.  Some how it fits.

The Bruins now have a two games to one lead in the Stanley Cup Finals.  Far be it from me to start feeling anything more than cautious optimism.  This is far, far from over.  Chicago is a fantastic team.  Don’t count them out.  Even though they threw the best they possibly could at the Bruins in game two and still ended up losing, and then came out in game three and seemed to play as if they were constantly hearing footsteps behind them.  The Blackhawks are not done.  Not by a long shot.

Boston is two wins away.  Two painfully difficult wins that we should not assume are ours for the taking.  No.  There is huge work left to be done by our heroic Bruins, but they are definitely up to the challenge.

Game four is tomorrow night in Boston.

Go Bruins!

Stanley Cup Finals Game Three: Drop the Damn Puck!

We still have more than six hours to go until the start of tonight’s game three of the Stanley Cup Finals between the glorious, brilliant, magical, majestic, kingly, heroic, noble Boston Bruins, and the douchey, pucky Chicago Blackhawks.

What do you mean, I am a homer?

Game one went to triple overtime and the Blackhawks stole the game from the Bruins. Game two included the single most one sided period of the entire post season as the Blackhawks dominated the Bruins in embarrassing fashion. The Bruins then won the game in overtime.

Two games. Both team won a game they had no business winning.

Now we come home to Boston for game three. I am hoping for a convincing Bruins win in regulation because frankly, with an 8:20ish start time, I don’t think I can make it through another overtime.

Six hours to go. I say we flip the bird to the television network and drop the puck right now. Who’s with me?!?

Go Bruins!

2013 Stanley Cup Finals Predictions

As always, before I make my prediction for the upcoming playoff round, let me recap my predictions from the previous rounds.

Considering that I correctly predicted the winner of 11 out of the 12 series in the first two rounds, the third round looks like I did a crap-tastic job.  In the Conference Finals I picked:

Boston over Pittsburgh.  Boston won.  I was right.  Oh thank the hockey gods and all that, I was right.
Los Angeles over Chicago.  Chicago won.  I was wrong.

Those damn Blackhawks.  They brought my winning percentage down!  I’m now a measly 12 out of 14.  Thanks to friggin’ Chicago my percentage dropped from about 91% all the way down to 85%.  The pukes.

I guess I’ll just have to move on and keep living life, day by day.

Right, on to the prediction for the Stanley Cup Finals!

Like there is any doubt who this Boston native is going to pick.  Hey, did you notice I changed the image in this page’s header?  What is it, you ask?  Well it’s just the ice at the TD Garden.  I took that pic just after warm ups on 3/15/2008.  The Bruins hosted the Flyers that day.  Gee… so who is Robbie picking in the finals?  I have a tough decision here.  Should I wear my black Bruins jersey tomorrow (because it’s better and it almost fits… sort of) or should I wear the white one (which is too small, but is the same color that the Mighty Boston Bruins will be wearing in game one tomorrow night)?

What was I talking about?  Oh yeah, predictions!

The Blackhawks vs The Bruins.  Chicago has been awesome this season.  Remember the way they started the season?  Damn, that was impressive.  They came back to the pack somewhat, but they still won the West and the President’s Trophy, easily.  They are an amazing team.

Sounds familiar, right?

The Penguins are an amazing team too.  On paper they beat up the Bruins in every measurable way.  Who won that series?  It kinda reminds me of another series, about two years ago, where the Bruins faced a President’s Trophy winner.  What happened in that series?  Well the Bruins beat the Canucks in seven games and won the 2011 Stanley Cup.  Yeah, sounds similar.

Let’s be honest here.  Given all of the strengths in the Blackhawks line up, they should beat the Bruins.  They really should.  Fortunately for Boston, you can’t go by that.  The Pittsburgh series proved that beyond a doubt.  If that series had been closer I might be ready to give up on my home town team, but the Bruins dominated the entire series.  Game one was close most of the way, but the Penguins just came unglued and acted way out of character.  The Bruins got under their collective skin almost immediately.  Game two was a joke.  Game three was better, game four was awesome, but was it ever really in doubt?  Was the series ever really in doubt from the moment Crosby poked Rask, or Malkin picked a fight with Bergeron?

The similarities are clear, and the Bruins came out on top before.  It will be more difficult this time, but there is no reason to think that they cannot do it again.  Rask is on fire like never before.  Two goals in four games against the highest scoring offense in the playoffs.  That’s an inhuman performance.  The Bruins defense was outstanding.  The offense came through when it was needed.  They were just amazing.

The Blackhawks were amazing too.  The Blackhawks are definitely good enough to win this series.  The Bruins, however, look like a machine that cannot be stopped.

I’m picking my Bruins.  I’m picking my Bruins to win the Cup for the second time in three years.  The Bruins will beat the Blackhawks.  It’s going to be ugly.  It’s going to be painful.  It’s going to be brutal.  For us, the fans, it’s going to be uber stressful.  The team, and the fans, are up to the challenge.

Go Bruins!
Go Bruins!
Go Bruins!

Double Overtime Hangover

I gotta tell ya… I have the worse case of the double overtime hangover.  I feel like I haven’t slept for days.

But what a game, eh?

You can watch the highlights here.

I was in the car when Krejci scored the first goal.  I saw the Penguins goal on TV.  There was still more than half a game to go at that point.  Before the third period ended I was listening to the radio.  I’d had enough of Pierre McGuire, and everyone in the house was asleep so I kept it quiet.  It seemed like four months went by waiting for one more goal.  The Penguins owned the third period.  The Bruins owned most of the overtime.  This was not a push over win like game two, this was playoff hockey at it’s most stressful.  Each time the puck came into our end I was panicked.  Each time it was in their end I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see who would be the hero.

The Penguins brought it for real last night.  The Bruins were not up to their level of play they showed in the first two games.  Still, the heavily favored Penguins could not find a way to beat the Bruins, and now Boston is up three games to none.  Game four is Friday.  Again, I ask, please please please please please put them away on Friday.  Memories of 2010 are still fresh.  You lost game four to the Rangers after winning the first three and there was pain and suffering in Bruins Nation.  Spare us more of that pain with a win on Friday.

Go Bruins!

Overtime

The Bruins scored in the first period.
The Penguins scored in the second period.
No one scored I the third period.

Off to overtime we go!

Did I mention that I HATE overtime?

The Penguins have been 1000 times better tonight, but Tuukka Rask has been HUGE in net for Boston.

Next goal wins.

Go Bruins!

Moment of Silence

I feel bad.  Boston observed a moment of silence today at 2:50 in honor of all of the victims of the Marathon bombing and their families.  At 2:50 we were parking the car in front of a restaurant and we missed it.  When we got to our table it was 2:53.  I wanted us to be a part of the moment even though were are like 500 miles away.  I feel like I let our city down.

They Got Him

They got him.  It’s been a long day, but they arrested him.

I’m already starting to see jokes about how if you want to escape in a boat it should be in the water, not in watertown.  Har Har.  I wish I’d thought of that.  I could print t-shirts.  Oh well.

I know he will be tried and convicted and put to death under Federal law.  I know.  I don’t like it though.  We’ve seen three innocent people die, one hero of an MIT police officer die in the line of duty, and one scum bag schmuck of a murdering putz die of criminal stupidity.  That’s enough.  I don’t want anyone else to die.  I want him to spend 60 years in prison having what he did pounded into him by his “neighbors”.  Death isn’t punishment for someone like this.  Killing him lets him off the hook.

My sincere thanks to all of the law enforcement people who worked so hard on this.  Hopefully there are no other accomplices   Hopefully they can all kick off their shoes and put up their feet and take a load off.

Good work, people.  Thank you.

Manhunt

As usual, all of the news is scattered, and probably inaccurate.  One of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects is dead.  The other is on the run.  They have killed one cop and injured another.  They were throwing explosives at the pursuing officers.

Some reports say that the dead suspect, a 20 year old Russian immigrant who was here legally, may have killed himself or he may have been shot or he may have had a suicide vest and tried to blow himself up or he may have had a bomb on him as a booby trap.

The two suspects are apparently brothers.  They may have been from Chechnya.  They have been living in Cambridge for a while.  Friends and acquaintances are starting to come forward and they are saying these guys were happy, social, normal, popular, American, kids.

Last night I was hoping strongly that the two suspects in the FBI videos were the actual bombers because I did not want innocent people targeted.  Now, from what we’re being told, there isn’t any doubt that they did it.  Why?

As we speak there is a standoff brewing on Willow Street in Watertown.  Armored trucks, cops on megaphones, helicopters.  They might have the guy cornered.  I sincerely hope they take him alive.  Partly because I want answers, but also because there has been enough death.

If you live in Watertown or in any town nearby, just stay home and keep out of the way.  Stay safe.

What the Hell?

I thought the situation was a confused mess before.

A store robbery, a dead MIT cop, a car jacking, a shot transit cop, a shootout in Watertown, a locked down neighborhood, a dead suspect, explosive devices thrown at cops.

All while we slept snug in our beds about 30 miles to the North.

Lets hope the police can get the other guy before he hurts anyone else.