Sports Redux: Another Night, Another Shootout

With all the practice the Bruins have gotten in shootouts this young season, you have to believe they're going to win one at some point. For the third time, they had to accept one point from the OTL while their opponent (in this case, Buffalo) got the extra. "You almost feel like Groundhog Day here," said coach Claude Julien, which makes us realize we haven't seen that in a while.

The B's grabbed an early lead, as Dennis Wideman put a shot through everybody midway through the first, and Phil Kessel's sixth goal came midway through the second. But the Sabres solved Manny Fernandez twice, tying it early in the third. David Krejci matched Buffalo's Drew Stafford early in the shootout, but Thomas Vanek's shot found its way past Fernandez for the game winner. Six games, four losses, three of them on shootouts. And Sonny and Cher on the radio every morning.

The Celtics closed out their preseason with a win over the Knicks. It was revenge for an earlier exhibition loss, and KG said they knew they had to play better defense: "We feed off our defense. We slobber at the mouth at the thought of playing defense." Maybe it's time to reiterate how much we freaking love KG. Marc Spears has a really good Globe column about the challenges of repeating. ESPN can't find anybody to pick against them repeating, at least in the East.

The Patriots are dealing with the sudden beginning of the post-Rodney Harrison era. His demolished quadriceps will take 8-10 months to heal, and nobody seems to think that there's light at the end of the tunnel. "It was difficult for all of us to watch Rodney get carted off like he did. We hope that goes well for him," blubbered Coach Belichick.

And don't let the lack of Red Sox stop you from watching what could be a real interesting, fun World Series. Scott Kazmir, who we know, goes against Cole Hamels, who we'll know for a long long time, in Game One. Lots of cool stuff from the Philly and Tampa Bay local perspective.