If your eyes flit down the NHL results and see "NYR 1, BOS 0 (SO)", you might dismiss it as another tough loss in a month that's been full of 'em so far. In other words...rats, they lost, what's next?

But 1-0 doesn't tell the whole story. The B's were tired, they were drained after the Saturday slugfest with Washington, they were sans Zdeno Chara and Aaron Ward, and still scraped out a point in Manhattan. There are games you think you oughtta win, and there are some where you're happy just to survive. This was one of the latter. Alex Auld did yeoman's work in goal, allowing only a Nigel Dawes shot in the shootout past him. As long as the gulf between #7 (Boston) and #9 (Buffalo) doesn't shrink, they'll take whatever they can get.

All hell's breaking loose in Fort Myers. The Sox have lost six in a row and have plummeted to the Grapefruit League cellar. Josh Beckett's aching back might mean he'll skip the trip to Japan (we already knew Daisuke's impending fatherhood makes him iffy). And worse, Larry King showed up at the Sox-Dodgers game with a fourteen-person entourage. In other words, Larry King travels with two more people than Jesus did. That's more disturbing than any Red Sox woes.

Matt Walsh spent all of last week buying pants, so now his butt may be covered enough to go to the NFL and tell them everything he knows about the Patriots' nefarious reign of videotaping terrror.

Finally, a little schadenfreude involving New York, as top Post columnist Mike Vaccaro ranks the worst NY coaches of all time. Only the immortal Richie Kotite stands between Isiah Thomas and infamy. Good thing Isiah isn't likely to be fired anytime soon. Our informal, off-the-top-of-our-heads Boston Top 5: (5) Rod Rust, (4) ML Carr, (3) Pete Carroll, (2) Don Zimmer, (1) Rick Pitino. Anyone who wants to make the case that #1 and #2 be switched, be our guests; we were too young to really appreciate how badly Zim destroyed the summer of 1978.

(Photo by Ed Betz/AP)