Sports Redux: So Many Miroslav Satan Headlines to Choose From

He wasn't the man of the hour - we'll get to that - but we're not going to pass up a trip through the headlines on a night when Miroslav Satan scored the game-winner for the Bruins. The Globe: "Satan has a hand in Bruins' win". ESPN: "Satan scores lone goal in SO...". And probably more, but it's hard to Google his name without getting sucked into the Internet for hours.

But the B's are thrilled they made the deal with Satan (OK, we'll stop now), as he beat Toronto's Jean-Sebastian Giguere in the shootout to give Bruins fans something they hadn't seen since 2009: a win at the Garden. But it would be a mistake not to point out the best news of the day: Tim Thomas, who struggled with injury, confidence issues, and lack of playing time, came back and stuffed the Leafs most of the way and throughout the shootout. When he deflected Tyler Bozak's rifleshot in the third round of the shootout, he did a fist-pump and headed straight for his teammates, pouring onto the ice to welcome their old goalie back.

Thomas' night was particularly fun for Bruins fans because of his complete muzzling of Phil Kessel, who missed four shots - and by missed, we kind of mean shot them right where Thomas was expecting them - and came up empty in the SO as well. Coach Julien said that Thomas' funk wasn't going to get to him: "We told him the whole organization is behind him, and it was nice to see him respond." Said the goalie: "I was trying to show the team they could have some confidence in me, because they haven’t played in front of me in a while." It's a good start. The B's now go into a critical seven-game road trip, trying to claw their way out of the mob scene that jams up the Eastern standings between the sixth slot and playoff oblivion. It starts tomorrow at the Islanders.

It's a big day in the NFL, as the free agency period begins and there's no salary cap in place, which means all hell could break loose as teams like Washington and Dallas, with unlimited bucks, might go crazy, and as the Raider scour the 2001 Pro Bowl rosters to try to make a push for the top. The Patriots celebrated open season by cutting Chris Baker, leaving them thin at tight end for the moment, which is OK because the next game isn't for months and months. John Clayton tells us what to expect from this offseason.

The Sox played their first real Grapefruit League game, beating the Twins 2-1. Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon each threw a 1-2-3 inning, and the Sox' RBIs came from Pedroia and catcher Mark Wagner. Speaking of catchers, we don't know what to make of this in the aftermath of the steroids scandal, but it looks more like exposure to radiation that's caused Jason Varitek to grow to 100 times the size of a normal man. What you can't see in that picture is Pedroia clinging to the inside of the mask.