Sports Redux: Bruins Put Doubts, Sens To Bed Early

Imagine you're an Ottawa Senators fan, and you were late to the game last night because of Ottawa traffic. (Ottawa has traffic, right?) So you get to Scotiabank Palace late in the first period, you grab some poutine and a couple of Molsons, find your seat, look up....and see your team is already down 4-0 to the Bruins. How long until you leave to beat that postgame traffic? At least the poutine was delicious.

The Bruins knew they had to rally after Claude Julien chewed them out for a lack of effort: "We talk about a 60-minute effort, and we’re not getting it out of this dressing room so far and some guys have to pick up their game." It wasn't quite on the Mike Greenwell level, but it got the job done. Blake Wheeler scored twice, and Krejci and Recchi (those feel like they should rhyme) added goals as the B's built their 4-0 lead before 14 minutes of the first period had gone by. Tim Thomas was able to cruise to the 4-1 final, his 11th straight win over the Sens.

Afterwards, the team said they rose to the coach's challenge. "We came out ready to play," said Zdeno Chara. "It's about coming to the rink and playing every game like it's the most meaningful game of the year," added Wheeler. Sniffed the coach: "hopefully we can build on that and not go back to our old ways next game" (which is tomorrow vs. Chicago). The B's also got some OK news (Bergeron will be out, but only for a few games), some good news (Satan made his Boston debut, and if you've got any Rick Pitino jokes, we're all ears), and some bad (Andrew Ference got his bell rung early and never came back in).

Terry Francona says that even though the kid thinks it's a demotion, he's going ahead and moving Jacoby Ellsbury to LF for the time being. Tito says he knows Ellsbury's future is in center, but with Mike Cameron's years of experience, "this is going to be our best defensive team we've ever had." So we hope you like 2-1 games. Oh, and Casey Kotchman may well be headed to Seattle.

Tom Brady won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year. Shocking, we know, but Bill Belichick's emotional reaction had us reaching for the Kleenex: "He started off in the spring and did everything that everybody else did all the way through: the offseason program, spring workouts, minicamp, training camp, preseason, all of that. So he's had a solid year."

Paul Pierce says he's ready to come back, but Doc Rivers says both he and Rondo are gametime decisions for the C's game tonight in Miami.