Sunday, April 18, 2004
Where Has Our Captain Gone?
So this is it. Game 7 of a series that should be over.
So what the hell happened? It's actually a matter of what didn't happen. And what didn't happen was number 19, the captain Joe Thornton, never showed up.
Through six games the Bruins best player has recorded the following stat line 0-0-0. That's zero goals, zero assists, and added together to make zero points. Quite frankly, the numbers are so shocking it's amazing the Bruins have even made it to a Game 7. Thank God Sergei Samsanov, Michael Nylander, and Patrice Bergeron decided to play well because this could have ended with the Bruins dusting off the golf clubs after only 5 games.
Let's just get this straight. The Bruins dominated Game 1; it wasn't even close. Then, they won an evenly played game 2 2-1 in OT.
(Understand this about hockey overtime. It's a 50/50 proposition. Because one lucky/unlucky bounce can end a game it's really only a coin flip as to who will win. The better team obviously has an advantage, but its so small it's almost negligible. So, in a series with two overtime games you would expect that each team would win one.)
Game 3, in Montreal, the Bruins were outplayed and lost. Game 4, they were outplayed for the first two periods, but managed to come back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game in regulation with 30 seconds left on a goal that crossed the line by about the width of french fry. Then, Alexei Kovalev literally handed the game to Glen Murray. Another OT win, this time in double OT, and the Bruins once again had a two game lead, up 3 games to 1 and going back to the FleetCenter.
(I still can't believe they won this game. It was pretty incredible. 3-1 leads in playoff hockey are kind of like 10-0 leads in baseball, especially when you haven't outplayed your opponent in the last 5 periods of hockey. Of course, 3-1 series leads in playoff hockey are even better, and we know how that has turned out.)
So, the Bruins come home up 3-1 with all the momentum in the world and what do they do? They play some of their worst hockey of the year for two straight games and let Montreal tie up the series. It happened so fast that you would have thought the games were played in one day. Poof. Gone. 3-3, series tied.
There are numerous reasons why this has happened. The Bruins defense, with the exception of Nick Boynton, has crumbled into a giveaway-the-puck, frightened crew of slow-footed fools. The Canadiens have played balls-to-the-wall why the Bruins have tightened up to the point they look like they are folding pocket aces (and being lazy while they do it). Coach Mike Sullivan has looked like a rookie coach too slow to make adjustments and too stoic to motivate his team.
Lackluster. Tight. Foolish. Those aren't the words that describe a second round playoff team, let alone Stanley Cup Champions.
And leading this effort is the captain himself.
I know Joe came into the playoffs with an "upper-body injury" (aka, a rib injury) but guess what. So what? It's playoff hockey, everyone is just about hurt. You strap them on, throw down some Motrin, and you go out on the ice and you forget about the pain and play. I have two scars on my shoulders for games that a 100 people saw for a team that never had much of a chance to win anything. Joe Thornton can tough it out for a chance to win the Stanley Cup.
Instead, he has disappeared. Actually, worse, he has taken up a regular shift and wasted it, taking Glen Murray with him. (Mike Knuble has still played well. The guy with the least talent on the line and he's the only one to play with any sort of heart.)
Maybe I am being harsh. Maybe Joe has a terrible injury and if we knew about it we'd understand. It's possible (although reports are he's almost over the injury completely) this will all make sense in 2 days. Why 2 days? Because that's most likely when the Bruins will be packing up their belongings down on Causeway Street following another first round playoff lost and another wasted year of every Bruins fans life.
Legends are made in the playoffs. Reggie Jackson is Mr. October, not Mr. July. Elway had the Drive, not the Week 8 three-touchdown day. Larry Bird is Larry Legend not because he was pretty good in December.
No one has yet asked Joe to become a legend, just to take that first step. And right now that first step would be a point against the Montreal Canadiens.
Great players make great plays in big games. An old cliché that I happen to buy. Well, for Joe Thornton there is no bigger game than tomorrow night. It's playoff time. It's time for Joe to show up and do something.
If he doesn't, Montreal will move on.
And we'll be left wondering why Joe didn't take that step.
So this is it. Game 7 of a series that should be over.
So what the hell happened? It's actually a matter of what didn't happen. And what didn't happen was number 19, the captain Joe Thornton, never showed up.
Through six games the Bruins best player has recorded the following stat line 0-0-0. That's zero goals, zero assists, and added together to make zero points. Quite frankly, the numbers are so shocking it's amazing the Bruins have even made it to a Game 7. Thank God Sergei Samsanov, Michael Nylander, and Patrice Bergeron decided to play well because this could have ended with the Bruins dusting off the golf clubs after only 5 games.
Let's just get this straight. The Bruins dominated Game 1; it wasn't even close. Then, they won an evenly played game 2 2-1 in OT.
(Understand this about hockey overtime. It's a 50/50 proposition. Because one lucky/unlucky bounce can end a game it's really only a coin flip as to who will win. The better team obviously has an advantage, but its so small it's almost negligible. So, in a series with two overtime games you would expect that each team would win one.)
Game 3, in Montreal, the Bruins were outplayed and lost. Game 4, they were outplayed for the first two periods, but managed to come back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game in regulation with 30 seconds left on a goal that crossed the line by about the width of french fry. Then, Alexei Kovalev literally handed the game to Glen Murray. Another OT win, this time in double OT, and the Bruins once again had a two game lead, up 3 games to 1 and going back to the FleetCenter.
(I still can't believe they won this game. It was pretty incredible. 3-1 leads in playoff hockey are kind of like 10-0 leads in baseball, especially when you haven't outplayed your opponent in the last 5 periods of hockey. Of course, 3-1 series leads in playoff hockey are even better, and we know how that has turned out.)
So, the Bruins come home up 3-1 with all the momentum in the world and what do they do? They play some of their worst hockey of the year for two straight games and let Montreal tie up the series. It happened so fast that you would have thought the games were played in one day. Poof. Gone. 3-3, series tied.
There are numerous reasons why this has happened. The Bruins defense, with the exception of Nick Boynton, has crumbled into a giveaway-the-puck, frightened crew of slow-footed fools. The Canadiens have played balls-to-the-wall why the Bruins have tightened up to the point they look like they are folding pocket aces (and being lazy while they do it). Coach Mike Sullivan has looked like a rookie coach too slow to make adjustments and too stoic to motivate his team.
Lackluster. Tight. Foolish. Those aren't the words that describe a second round playoff team, let alone Stanley Cup Champions.
And leading this effort is the captain himself.
I know Joe came into the playoffs with an "upper-body injury" (aka, a rib injury) but guess what. So what? It's playoff hockey, everyone is just about hurt. You strap them on, throw down some Motrin, and you go out on the ice and you forget about the pain and play. I have two scars on my shoulders for games that a 100 people saw for a team that never had much of a chance to win anything. Joe Thornton can tough it out for a chance to win the Stanley Cup.
Instead, he has disappeared. Actually, worse, he has taken up a regular shift and wasted it, taking Glen Murray with him. (Mike Knuble has still played well. The guy with the least talent on the line and he's the only one to play with any sort of heart.)
Maybe I am being harsh. Maybe Joe has a terrible injury and if we knew about it we'd understand. It's possible (although reports are he's almost over the injury completely) this will all make sense in 2 days. Why 2 days? Because that's most likely when the Bruins will be packing up their belongings down on Causeway Street following another first round playoff lost and another wasted year of every Bruins fans life.
Legends are made in the playoffs. Reggie Jackson is Mr. October, not Mr. July. Elway had the Drive, not the Week 8 three-touchdown day. Larry Bird is Larry Legend not because he was pretty good in December.
No one has yet asked Joe to become a legend, just to take that first step. And right now that first step would be a point against the Montreal Canadiens.
Great players make great plays in big games. An old cliché that I happen to buy. Well, for Joe Thornton there is no bigger game than tomorrow night. It's playoff time. It's time for Joe to show up and do something.
If he doesn't, Montreal will move on.
And we'll be left wondering why Joe didn't take that step.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
What? What's this? An update?
Over the last 2 months I have been very busy with the following things: school, a Steve Martin play, and going to the West Coast. Oh, also at one point I was in the middle of an entry following the A-Rod trade and it was lost because my sister was in a car accident. All of these things coupled with a disappointing lack of motivation to write here (I mean, I created this to FORCE myself to write, and I screwed that up) have made it so "Miracle" was my last entry. However, at no point have I stopped watching or thinking about sports. It's funny, over the last two months I have been extremely excited about sports (the Bruins big time trades and real, honest-to-goodness chances at winning the Stanley Cup have me downright giddy), but that just hasn't translated to this blog. If anyone cares, I am sorry. And since I do care about this blog and about improving as a writer, here are some thoughts fresh off a Bruins playoff victory and renewed belief in October Red Sox bliss.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- After watching Game 1 of the Bruins-Canadians game tonight, I remembered how exhausting playoff hockey really is. I mean, you have to win 16 games to win the Cup, and every game feels like it lasts 13 hours. One series can feel longer than an 82 game season, and if you do win it, you start all over again. I know the players have it tough, but do they understand how bad it is for fans? At least they get shifts off. I get a commercial break every once in awhile, and all that means is I check the Sox score.
Also, let me say this unequivocally: Hockey has the BEST playoffs. I don't care how much you like any other sport, nothing demands the toughness, fortitude, heart, desire, will, artistry, and beards as hockey. Do you know that Steve Yzerman played with a broken leg last year? A BROKEN LEG! And this isn't football where Steve McNair gets 6 days between games. The NHL playoffs are unrelenting. Hockey is the hardest of sports to play for the simple fact it is done on skates. Combine that with the skill, speed, and toughness is takes to play and you have the greatest game in the world - at least during the playoffs. Hockey is predicated on intensity, and you can't play at that level all regular season, you wouldn't make it more than three months. That's why the playoffs are as amazing as they are, because you get the greatest game played with the greatest intensity, night in and night out. Sixteen wins. That's what it takes.
The Bruins just got number one and I'm already exhausted.
And I can't wait for the next game.
--- Okay, no Nomar, no Nixon. Just imagine if the Sox can keep their head above water for the next month. They have an incredibly tough April schedule, and what happens if they come out of it in first or only a game or two back. These are the kinds of positive thoughts the entire Red Sox nation should keep. Why? Cause the alternative is focusing on Pedro causing problems during (not after) the very first game of the season.
Another reason: Curt Schilling
One more? Keith Foulke.
Please, if you take nothing else from these rants, remember that pitching wins championships. And Curt Schilling looks primed to win the Cy Young award. And for all the bad that his primadonna-ness brings, it also makes Pedro Martinez the greatest pitcher I have ever seen and every time you doubt him he just gets angry and gets better.
(If for some reason he ever reads this I would like to say the following to Pedro Martinez: Pedro, you are the best ever. Ever. Just because you do something I don't like, it doesn't mean I don't love you. Red Sox Nation loves you, Michael Walsh loves you, and George Steinbrenner does not.)
(I know some people want me to bash Pedro, but you know what, all of the things that make Pedro great, his passion, intensity, competitiveness, are the same things that cause him to be emotional and do things like leave the game early after a sub-par start. I won't take just the good. You take both and you get the best pitcher in baseball for the last 5 years, 91 mile per hour fastball or not.)
Was that really two parenthetical rants in a row?
---- I know this is REALLY late, but for the record Todd Bertuzzi wasn't fighting when he hit Steve Moore. Why that awful, gutless punch was a platform to ban fighting in hockey I'll never understand. And why people who don't understand hockey feel they can pass judgment on it is beyond me. Ban people who do stuff like that, not a part of the game that usually prevents that crap.
Also, and I know this was said by at least a couple of people, but what was worse, when Todd Bertuzzi sucker-punched Steve Moore in the heat of the moment, or when Roger Clemens thought and then hit Mike Piazza in the head with a fastball? I'm not defending Bertuzzi; I just want to know where the national outrage was then? Oh, I get it, those people like baseball but not hockey, that's why it was okay for the Texas Con-Man (that was Will McDonough's term) and not Bertuzzi. Fact is every sport has thugs and punks that put a pour light on its sport - hockey isn't any different. Don't crucify the game for the acts of one.
--- If I had filled out a bracket I would have had UConn winning. Same thing with Syracuse last year. The moral of the story? I only win money gambling when I don't gamble. That, and as always, I am a moron.
--- I know I only read a couple of days worth of papers from the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, but from what I saw, they don't get quite as passionate about sports as we here in Boston and there seems to be a little less negativity.
Well, duh.
And for the record, I wouldn't have it any other way.
--- I know the Celtics have been a general disappointment all year, and I know that rooting for losses so we could get a high draft pick seemed like the better route to take, but the team has played really well and really hard and congratulations are in order. Apparently Danny Ainge forgot to tell the players he was tanking this year. Just think about what could have been this year in the East with Antoine, Eric Williams, and Tony Battie. Thanks Danny, God knows we hate those playoff runs.
(For the record, I don't mind Ainge blowing the team up for the sake of making it better in the future, but I am just not sure the moves he made will do that. I really, really, really, really, really HATE taking on big-stupid Raef Lafrentz-like contracts. That being said, Ricky Davis has been quite the pickup. And no, I don't have a joke here.)
--- Seriously, playoff hockey beards are in the Pantheon of goofy gimmicks that people inexplicably love.
Over the last 2 months I have been very busy with the following things: school, a Steve Martin play, and going to the West Coast. Oh, also at one point I was in the middle of an entry following the A-Rod trade and it was lost because my sister was in a car accident. All of these things coupled with a disappointing lack of motivation to write here (I mean, I created this to FORCE myself to write, and I screwed that up) have made it so "Miracle" was my last entry. However, at no point have I stopped watching or thinking about sports. It's funny, over the last two months I have been extremely excited about sports (the Bruins big time trades and real, honest-to-goodness chances at winning the Stanley Cup have me downright giddy), but that just hasn't translated to this blog. If anyone cares, I am sorry. And since I do care about this blog and about improving as a writer, here are some thoughts fresh off a Bruins playoff victory and renewed belief in October Red Sox bliss.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- After watching Game 1 of the Bruins-Canadians game tonight, I remembered how exhausting playoff hockey really is. I mean, you have to win 16 games to win the Cup, and every game feels like it lasts 13 hours. One series can feel longer than an 82 game season, and if you do win it, you start all over again. I know the players have it tough, but do they understand how bad it is for fans? At least they get shifts off. I get a commercial break every once in awhile, and all that means is I check the Sox score.
Also, let me say this unequivocally: Hockey has the BEST playoffs. I don't care how much you like any other sport, nothing demands the toughness, fortitude, heart, desire, will, artistry, and beards as hockey. Do you know that Steve Yzerman played with a broken leg last year? A BROKEN LEG! And this isn't football where Steve McNair gets 6 days between games. The NHL playoffs are unrelenting. Hockey is the hardest of sports to play for the simple fact it is done on skates. Combine that with the skill, speed, and toughness is takes to play and you have the greatest game in the world - at least during the playoffs. Hockey is predicated on intensity, and you can't play at that level all regular season, you wouldn't make it more than three months. That's why the playoffs are as amazing as they are, because you get the greatest game played with the greatest intensity, night in and night out. Sixteen wins. That's what it takes.
The Bruins just got number one and I'm already exhausted.
And I can't wait for the next game.
--- Okay, no Nomar, no Nixon. Just imagine if the Sox can keep their head above water for the next month. They have an incredibly tough April schedule, and what happens if they come out of it in first or only a game or two back. These are the kinds of positive thoughts the entire Red Sox nation should keep. Why? Cause the alternative is focusing on Pedro causing problems during (not after) the very first game of the season.
Another reason: Curt Schilling
One more? Keith Foulke.
Please, if you take nothing else from these rants, remember that pitching wins championships. And Curt Schilling looks primed to win the Cy Young award. And for all the bad that his primadonna-ness brings, it also makes Pedro Martinez the greatest pitcher I have ever seen and every time you doubt him he just gets angry and gets better.
(If for some reason he ever reads this I would like to say the following to Pedro Martinez: Pedro, you are the best ever. Ever. Just because you do something I don't like, it doesn't mean I don't love you. Red Sox Nation loves you, Michael Walsh loves you, and George Steinbrenner does not.)
(I know some people want me to bash Pedro, but you know what, all of the things that make Pedro great, his passion, intensity, competitiveness, are the same things that cause him to be emotional and do things like leave the game early after a sub-par start. I won't take just the good. You take both and you get the best pitcher in baseball for the last 5 years, 91 mile per hour fastball or not.)
Was that really two parenthetical rants in a row?
---- I know this is REALLY late, but for the record Todd Bertuzzi wasn't fighting when he hit Steve Moore. Why that awful, gutless punch was a platform to ban fighting in hockey I'll never understand. And why people who don't understand hockey feel they can pass judgment on it is beyond me. Ban people who do stuff like that, not a part of the game that usually prevents that crap.
Also, and I know this was said by at least a couple of people, but what was worse, when Todd Bertuzzi sucker-punched Steve Moore in the heat of the moment, or when Roger Clemens thought and then hit Mike Piazza in the head with a fastball? I'm not defending Bertuzzi; I just want to know where the national outrage was then? Oh, I get it, those people like baseball but not hockey, that's why it was okay for the Texas Con-Man (that was Will McDonough's term) and not Bertuzzi. Fact is every sport has thugs and punks that put a pour light on its sport - hockey isn't any different. Don't crucify the game for the acts of one.
--- If I had filled out a bracket I would have had UConn winning. Same thing with Syracuse last year. The moral of the story? I only win money gambling when I don't gamble. That, and as always, I am a moron.
--- I know I only read a couple of days worth of papers from the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, but from what I saw, they don't get quite as passionate about sports as we here in Boston and there seems to be a little less negativity.
Well, duh.
And for the record, I wouldn't have it any other way.
--- I know the Celtics have been a general disappointment all year, and I know that rooting for losses so we could get a high draft pick seemed like the better route to take, but the team has played really well and really hard and congratulations are in order. Apparently Danny Ainge forgot to tell the players he was tanking this year. Just think about what could have been this year in the East with Antoine, Eric Williams, and Tony Battie. Thanks Danny, God knows we hate those playoff runs.
(For the record, I don't mind Ainge blowing the team up for the sake of making it better in the future, but I am just not sure the moves he made will do that. I really, really, really, really, really HATE taking on big-stupid Raef Lafrentz-like contracts. That being said, Ricky Davis has been quite the pickup. And no, I don't have a joke here.)
--- Seriously, playoff hockey beards are in the Pantheon of goofy gimmicks that people inexplicably love.
