Results tagged “Tim Thomas”

Did you spend all day yesterday watching the rain pour down and hoping that at least things would end well with a Celtic/Bruin doubleheader? If you did, you probably wished you'd gone out and stood in the rain all day instead; you'd feel about the same.

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when Claude Julien said he was getting tired of hard-fought losses? Well, last night must have exhausted him.

Have the Bruins turned the proverbial corner? After a solid month of alternating ups and downs, followed by a couple of weeks of unqualified downs, the B's finally notched their first honest-to-goodness winning streak of the season, beating the staggering Penguins 3-0 last night at the Garden

Eleven games, and for better and worse, the Bruins still haven't been able to put together a two-game streak of any kind. They had a chance last night, and played pretty well, but came away short with a 2-1 loss to the Devils. "This is one of those nights throughout the course of a season where you lose a hockey game only because the other team got one extra bounce going their way," said Coach Claude Julien.

But that's kind of a big deal, since it matches their season high. The "team goes up...team goes down" Bruins survived a tough beginning to come back and win in a shootout in Ottawa last night, 4-3.

Sure, if you win the Stanley Cup, you get your name engraved on it, you get to take it home for a day to do whatever you want with it, and kids from Yellowknife to Halifax go to bed dreaming of it. But still, when your year is over, you usually have to give it back. Usually to the Red Wings.

"This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst." - John Blutarsky

Everybody's still alive. But for very different reasons. Bostonist covered the Celtics and the Bruins live, and they won. Now let's try to figure out why.

Act I, In Which We Are Rocked Like Hurricanes

Sometimes, you just have to tip your hat. And that's what we're tipping this morning, to Carolina goalie Cam Ward, after he survived 36 furious Bruins shots to shut out our home team and tie their series 1-1. It's too early in the series to tip anything else, but local packies are on notice.

Rust? Nah. Nine days after they dispatched Montreal, the Bruins only needed a little time to find their winning pace, and took Game One from the Hurricanes, 4-1. And by a little time, we mean 94 seconds, which is how long it took for David Krejci to tip in an Aaron Ward shot to go up 1-0.

David Ortiz, take a load off. Relax. Red Sox Nation needn't always turn its hopeful eyes to you anymore. There is a new Mr. Clutch in town - his name is Jason Bay.

We don't want to put any excessive pressure on the Bruins or anything, but today could be a pretty important day for the Black and Gold. If they win today during their showdown against the Rangers, they clinch the Eastern Conference title. Not only does it provide bragging rights and a healthy dose of confidence for the playoffs ("Playoffs? Don't talk to me about PLAYOFFS!"), they'd get home ice throughout Eastern Conference postseason play. We suppose you could say that it's kind of a big (epic, massive) deal, but we hope that the team takes on the challenge by lacing up the skates the same way they do every game and skating to victory the same way they've done 50 times this season.

The Celtics throttled the Oklahoma City Thunder (we had to look them up, too) last night, 103-84, but not before Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant split Glen Davis's head open during a third quarter scrum for a rebound. Big Baby, whose head needed 10 stitches, ended the game with his second consecutive double-double (19 points, 10 rebounds). It's an auspicious streak for a man who is starting in place of Kevin Garnett.

It's never a good idea when a hockey team turns introspective and scared. But that's what happed to the Bruins last night, as they lost a 2-goal lead, a game (in OT, and we'll take every point we can at this point) and almost any shred of confidence they have left after their nightmarish last few weeks.

We're running out of ways to say this. The Bruins are beyond hobbling. Beyond struggling. They've lost 46 out of their last 45 games (to be fair, that's a rough estimate) and not one of their 35 shots made it past goalie Steve Mason as the B's fell 2-0 to the Blue Jackets in Columbus last night.

We can't put Saturday's Bruins game into context any better than the Globe's succinct take: "It was a complete team effort, just when the slumping Bruins needed everyone to pull together."

Right after Christmas, you may remember, the Celtics struggled for a couple weeks, got their feet under them, then went on a blowout binge. Is that happening to the Bruins now? Sure looks like it.

Lots to talk about today! (Especially since we had technical problems yesterday. Sorry.) Let's go chronologically, based on yesterday's action:

Everybody's entitled to a night off now and then. Fortunately, the NHL provides each team with a firm schedule that allows them to plan those nights off ahead. Unfortunately, the Bruins seemed to think one of those nights was last night, even though there was a game scheduled and an opponent in town.

For all the Bruins' success this year, they hadn't figured out a way to beat Washington. The Capitals were 2-0 against our hometown heroes, and nipping (well...10 points behind) at their heels for top spot in the East.

People aren't going to the Garden to see basketball games these days. They're going to watch helpless individuals devoured by lions. Such was the fate of the Dallas Mavericks yesterday; they're a good team, not a great one, and were torn limb-from-limb by a hungry, determined, focused Celtics team. Thumbs down, Dirk Nowitzki, thumbs down.

Imagine for a moment that Zdeno Chara is standing in front of you. You are the only thing between him and a net. He's winding up for a slapshot.

Both our local winter teams were on the road yesterday. Let's join them, in spirit at least, because anywhere on earth must be more pleasant and hospitable than this poorly-located snow-choked city we call home.

Let's think about baseball for a minute. It's colder than the surface of Neptune out there right now, and it's nice to imagine, however improbably, that three months from now, the grass will be green, the sausages will be cooking...and Kevin Youkilis will be at first base (unless he's at third) and all will be right with the world.

There was playoff intensity at the Garden last night. Sure, the playoffs are months and months away, but when the Canadiens come to town, it's always lively, especially when the home team is playing the way the Bruins are playing now. (Which is kind of hypothetical, since the Bruins have never played this well in our fanlifetimes.)

Well, it had to end sometime. The Bruins' longest winning streak since 1973 came in emphatic fashion, as the boys were outworked and outplayed by the Sabres at the Garden yesterday. Buffalo scored twice early, and it was a hole the B's never got out of, as they didn't get a lot of shots on Justin Miller and flat-out missed some of the shots they did get.

The Penguins are a good team. Eastern Conference champs last year, home team of the young superstar of the NHL...it's not a bad gig. But in the 2008-09 version of the league, they're nothing but a road bump for the red-hot Bruins, who exploded again for a 5-2 win and their ninth straight win.

If you're going to have a triumphant homecoming, it helps when you're playing the Timberwolves. That's the lesson from last night, as Kevin Garnett played his first game back in his old arena, and clearly illustrated the difference between NBA Champs and a miserable team, as the Celtics cruised to a 95-78 blowout.

If there was ever any doubt that the Boston Bruins are the Rodney Dangerfield of Boston sports' Big Four (sorry, Revs), today confirms it. The black and gold dragged their exhausted selves onto the ice in Toronto on Monday night to face down the Leafs and continue a schedule that has them playing 10 games in 18 days. They won, 3-2, proving again the Boston hockey can consistently win. Phil Kessel, Matt Hunwick and Michael Ryde notched the goals for the B's.