Yesterday was a bad day for Boston teams to play in cities associated with French exlorers. First, we'll blame Samuel Champlain, who established a fur-trading post on an island in the St. Lawrence River in 1611. That post eventually grew into the city of Montreal, whose major industry changed over the years from fur-trading to Bruin-beating.

It was, truth be told, the best Bruins-Canadiens game of the season; the B's even escaped with a point in the shootout loss, the first point earned against the Habs all year. Marc Savard and Petteri Nokelainen scored for the B's, but it was Saku Koivu in the shootout who made the difference, getting Montreal its 3-2 win and putting the Bruins in a playoff pickle (they're now tied for seventh and eighth) with seven games to go.

Farther south, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville is the culprit; his city of New Orleans was responsible for beating the Celtics last night. Although, realistically, it was Hornets forward David West who really did the damage, scoring 37 points. The C's, to their detriment, played uncharacteristically sloppy ball, turning the ball over and missing shots aplenty down the stretch. This could be an interesting week for the Celts; they've beaten everyone in the league now except the Suns and Hornets, and both come to town this week. Revenge must be on their minds.

Dan Shaughnessy's been on fire: he files more notes from Japan, including Oakland fully aware that they're the Washington Generals of this trip, and Dustin Pedroia being fired up about heated toilet seats. Oh, and a shot at Schilling; guess you can't have everything. Meanwhile, Gordon Edes gives what he thinks are overdue props to Tito.

If Duke getting upset torches your bracket, is it a good thing or a bad thing? That's the dilemma millions of Duke haters faced when West Virginia popped the Blue Devils in the second round yesterday. We say it's still a good thing, even though we've gone through three red markers in the past 36 hours.

Image from Wikipedia.