We can enjoy another edition of "I Hate Phil Kessel" night when Toronto visits TD Garden tonight. But, Kessel isn't front and center for Bruins fans as a player not playing is generating interest. Shawn Thornton is sitting out tonight's game with 40 stitches and an impressive scar from Tuesday's game against Chicago. That scar is the only proof the Blackhawks participated in that game. Let's just say Thornton would play if Chicago was on the schedule tonight. Michael Ryder skates in place of Thornton. Steven Kampfer fills in for Johnny Boychuk. [WEEI.com], [Globe]
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Results tagged “philkessel”
After three straight losses, Bruins management seems upset. Peter Chiarelli got a new player and Claude Julien called their play "unacceptable." Part of the problem is that Phil Kessel, who had never scored a goal against the Bruins, scored twice, including the score that tied the game in the third, to power Toronto to a 4-3 win over Boston. Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell, and Patrice Bergeron scored goals in the loss. Tim Thomas allowed two late goals.
See? No offense, Eagles or Terriers, but the Beanpot needn't always be all about the BC/BU matchup. Monday's Garden double-header offered a pair of thrilling hockey matchups for Boston-area hockey fans, and while the Boston University community is wincing today, at least they can take consolation in knowing that they were part of an exciting installment of the area college tradition.
Six years ago today, most of us were tired, quite possibly very hungover, and hoarse of voice. The night before, we'd stared in disbelief as the ball bounced from Renteria's bat to Keith Foulke and then over to Doug Mientkiewicz for the single greatest sports moment most of us have experienced. And at this point, we were walking around in a happy daze, figuring out where we were going to position ourselves for the victory parade.
Phil Kessel's played two games in the Garden since became an ex-employee there. We wonder if he's wistful, since his Leafs were smacked around both times. Last night, he watched his old teammate build a 3-0 lead and hang on for a 5-2 win. Goals by Mark Stuart, Derek Morris and David Krejci built the lead, then after Tuukka Rask let in two, Mark Recchi took over and scored the insurance goal and an empty-net lagniappe to put the Leafs away.
Superficially, it looked like the old rivalry again. The Sixers have brought back the old logo, the old floor from the Spectrum (more or less) and uniforms that hearken back to the days of Dr. J and Andrew Toney. But the team that Philly put on the floor last night was no match for the early 09-10 Celtics. The '83 Sixers might not have been.
Sox beat Orioles, Bruins trade Kessel
The Red Sox beat the Orioles again. That's 14-2 in 2009. Clay Buchholz pitched well enough to keep the Orioles AAAA lineup in check. He threw for six innings and allowed just one run. Jacoby Ellsbury, Casey Kotchman and Jason Bay (home run) each drove in one run. Bay left the game early with flu-like symptoms, and should be available today.
After 1170+ days of waiting for Phil Kessel to be traded, Bruins fans can rest easy. The Bruins reportedly traded Kessel to Toronto on Friday for three draft picks. According to CBCSports, Toronto inked Kessel to a five-year, $27 million contract. ESPN also reported the deal.
After 2008, it seems odd to say that a September double-header against the Rays seemed anti-climatic, but there you go. We said it. The Red Sox took two games from the fading Tampa Bay team in a fashion that could only be described as "inevitable." The wins brought the Sox' record against AL East teams to 42-21, the best in baseball against a team's home division.
Bostonist is keeping track of the Hub's sports celebrities. While various contract issues contributed to Richard Seymour's stunning trade, contract intrigue keeps Phil Kessel in limbo and in the sportsworld's version the Track. Kessel is unsigned and in rehab mode. We assume he's rehabbing because the Globe's Kessel contract/trade reporting included no reference to how #81 is progressing after his offseason surgeries despite two separate stories saying essentially the same thing. Toronto, according to Kevin Paul Dupont, is lusting after Kessel and possibly preparing to make a contract offer. Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli has a bit of leverage and could sign him and deal him to Nashville or the New York Rangers, Dupont says.
As a wise man once said, "sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar, welll, he eats you." Yesterday, the bar ate the Red Sox, as they couldn't solve Jays starter Mark Rzepczynski and couldn't overcome an outing in which Brad Penny turned into Bad Penny. Throw in defensive miscues like the one pictured here, and it all added up to a frustrating 6-2 loss in Toronto.
When you think about it, the idea of JD Drew as a leadoff batter seems to make as much sense as putting Papi in that same spot. Sure, the guy can hit, but the quick-footed, nimble leadoff stereotype doesn't seem to fit someone whose back can go out when he sneezes wrong. Why would any manager put Drew up in the leadoff spot and let Jacoby "I'm faster than you'll ever be" Ellsbury take a place lower in the lineup?
Things are looking good in the sports world today, but they could always be better. And we're not saying that in the stereotypical Boston sports fan sort of way. This isn't us making up scenarios. In the cases of both the Celts and Bruins, there's good news and there's sidelined news.
Eddie House. Man. Does anyone really think that bringing in Stephon Marbury to take some little-guy minutes away from Eddie is a good idea right now? Anyone except Starbury, that is?
There will be time to discuss precisely why writers waited until not the eleventh hour, but 15-minutes-til-midnight to elect Jim Rice into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Writers seemed to feel that that time was during Rice's first post-announcement press conference (SI.com covers both sides of the debate), but we here at Bostonist say that the right time for such pondering will come further down the road. After this summer, when Rice is finally inducted into the Hall in Cooperstown, perhaps.
We hope you still love Mike Lowell and David Ortiz. Because the slow tango between the Red Sox and Mark Teixiera came to a sudden crash yesterday, as the Yankees showed up on the dance floor with a briefcase full of $1000 bills and took the slugger back to New York.
In a way, it's hard to believe that only one Bruins scored a hat trick last night. But in a game of shaky defense, multiple goalie changes, and an insane amount of offense, it was David Krejci who sent headgear flying, notching his first career hat trick as the Bruins outlasted Toronto 8-5.
Let's talk about Rajon Rondo. Everyone else is. Our plucky point guard is the lead story on ESPN, Bob Ryan goes into full gush mode, and the Herald mines quotes from his Celtics teammates.
"Did you see the Slovak on Slovak battle?" Single best remark we heard after the Bruins skated to another win at the Garden (their eleventh straight - the longest such Bruins home streak since any of us can remember) on Saturday night.
We like to imagine that a secret room exists within the TD Banknorth Garden. It is a room where Claude Julien and Doc Rivers met before their respective seasons began. In this room, they established some form of friendly wager over this season. Whichever Garden team proves to wind up with a better winning percentage by season's end wins some form of a prize. And sometime right about now, Julien and Rivers will take to this secret lair to settle into leather armchairs by a fireplace and congratulate each other on their general awesomeness.
Well, so much for that. BC's hopes of the ACC Championship and ending up in the Orange Bowl came crashing to earth yesterday, as the Eagles were pummeled by Virginia Tech 30-12 in the title game in Tampa. Hope the Music City Bowl is an acceptable substitute. Freshman quarterback Dominique Davis will rue this day, as he was sacked five times, threw two interceptions and fumbled. At least he'll get more chances.
Well, maybe not laugh, exactly. (Except that Claude Julien, asked to describe the pain that kept Dennis Wideman out of last night's game, said, "Does it have to be upper body or lower body? Let's go with middle body.") Bruins get hurt, new Bruins take the ice, and the Bruins win. It's been happening rather a lot lately.
If you were worried about the Celtics seeking motivation for a repeat, worry no more. Rajon Rondo blogged: "We have to repeat, because we have to go back to the White House to meet Obama."
Paul Pierce has been here through it all. He slipped to #10 in the draft, becoming such an obvious pick that even Rick Pitino couldn't screw it up. He survived a stabbing. He and Antoine Walker mad-bombed their way into an improbable Eastern Finals appearance. He played through the agony and misery of the dismal mid-00's, always giving it all, always wearing his heart on his sleeve, always waiting for the day to come when all the pain would be worth it.
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.
Well. This is fun, isn't it?
We're big microcosm fans here at the Bostonist Sports Department. So we're even more excited by the Bruins than we'd ordinarily be. The story arc for their whole season has been overachievement, resilience, and good old-fashioned grit. They weren't supposed to be in the playoffs. They weren't supposed to hang with the mighty Canadiens. And they sure aren't supposed to be heading back to Montreal for Game Seven.
We'd sure like to know what happened in the Bruins' locker room between the second and third periods last night. After two, the Leafs had tied the game 1-1, had peppered Tim Thomas with 18 shots, and had everybody at the Garden pontificating whether the game would be a microcosm of the entire season. Well, maybe not everybody.
It was about a week ago when we noted that the Bruins were in 6th place in the Prince of Wales Eastern Conference, which was a decent place to be, thus drawing the winner of the weak-sister Southeast Division. In that week, the B's have solidified the 6th spot, but are now officially in spittin' distance of bigger and better things. They've won blowouts this week, they've won shootouts, they've won at home, they've won on the road. They've done everything but beat Montreal. Now we see 6th place as little more than a nice springboard.
We don't like to think back to the final moments of Super Bowl XLII. If we could, we'd erase the name Plaxico Burress from our memory, and we'd focus on the good times we've had with Ellis Hobbs.