The Bruins big gamble

You know what the best thing about October is? Hockey season begins again. And for the first time in at least 15 years, expectations for the Bruins are very high. After last season's surprise showing, the Bs are one of the favorites for the Stanley Cup.

Near the end of last season, the Bruins decided that their best chance to win a cup would be with Tim Thomas as their starting goaltender. So they went out and signed the then 34-year-old to a 4-year, $20-million contract. Well, I hope Bruins' management is right. Because they've tied themselves up in a salary cap knot for the next four years.

The problem with the Thomas contract is that the Bruins are hoping that he can do what almost no goalie has ever done before. Here's what I mean...

I've gone to hockey-reference.com and looked at every goaltender since expansion in 1966-67 to find those who started more than half of their team's games at age 34. There were only 28 goalies other than Thomas who met that criteria. Of the 28...

• At age 35, 19 were still their team's primary starter (appeared in more than half of their team's games).
• At age 36, 13 were still their team's primary starter.
• At age 37, 11 were still their team's primary starter.
• At age 38, 6 were still their team's primary starter.
• Of those 6, only three of them were their teams primary starter for every year between ages 35 and 38. (Ed Belfour, Tony Esposito, and Dwayne Roloson).
• Only two of the 28 won a cup as their team's starter between ages 35 and 38. (Patrick Roy at age 35 and Dominik Hasek at age 37).

Chances are at sometime over the next four years--if not for most of them--Thomas will be getting $5m to sit in the press box because he's hurt, or sit on the bench because his skills have atrophied. And because 8% of the cap is tied up in someone who can't play, someone else--Lucic, Savard, Wheeler, Rask--will be gone.

Obviously the Bruins felt that the best chance to win a cup in this window was to keep Thomas. Either they had to give him 4/$20m or they would have had to pay him $7m per year for a shorter deal. I guess they figured that it would be better to be hamstrung in '12 and '13 than to be short on money (or an experienced goalie) in '10 and '11.

But Thomas had better turn out to be Dominik Hasek (the only goaltender in the last 45 years to win his first cup over the age of 34--and even he missed half of his 35 season due to injury and did not play at all at age 38) or they'll be in trouble in the out years.

Rare Air for Bruins, Sox, and Celtics

Twice in the last four days the Bruins, Red Sox, and Celtics have all won games. Not only is that exciting (especially considering the dramatic fashion in which some of those games have ended), but it is very rare.

Over the 63 seasons in which there have been at least three major league teams in Boston--beginning with the 1946-47 Celtics--there have been only 24 occasions in which three Boston sports teams played and won their games. Three of them have been this spring--April 20 was the other day where we had three winners.

Only once before have we had three three-winner days in a spring. The last time it happened was in April 0f 1974. 1974 is also the last time that both the Bruins and the Celtics qualified for their league championship series in the same season.

19 of the 24 occasions saw the Bruins, Celtics and Red Sox all winning on the same day. On the other five occasions--including the first time on November 25, 1973--it was the Patriots that joined the Bs and Cs in the winners' circle.

I've posted the entire list below, but there are a few dates that stand out:

• On April 21, 2002, not only did the Bruins and Celtics each win their playoff games, but the Red Sox swept a doubleheader in Kansas City, making that day the only time that Boston has won four games in one day. That day is also one of just three where the Bruins and Celtics both played at hime on the same day.
  
  
• Another such day was April 24, 1983, which one might argue was one of the greatest days in Boston Sports history for sheer drama. Many remember that the Bruins beat Buffalo 3-2 that night in a game 7 overtime to advance to the Wales Conference Finals in one of the greatest Bruins games ever played at the Garden. But earlier that afternoon, the Celtics won their own elimination game as they ended a best-of-three series against the Atlanta Hawks with a 98-79 win. It appears to be the only time the Garden has hosted two elimination games on the same day. The Red Sox did their part wth a 4-2 win in Oakland.
  
  
• April 24, 1977 is the only of these occasions that two Boston teams have victimized rivals from the same city on the same day, as the Bruins beat the Flyers at the Garden and the Celtics defeated the 76ers at the Spectrum. The Red Sox were cruising that day in Toronto.

Here is the list:

DATE      BRUINS         CELTICS           RED SOX
5/12/09   W 4-2 @ CAR*   W  92- 88 v ORL*  W  4- 3 @ ANA
5/10/09   W 4-0 v CAR*   W  95- 94 @ ORL*  W  4- 3 V TB
4/20/09   W 4-2 @ MTL*   W 115-113 V CHI   W 12- 1 V BAL
4/25/02   W 5-2 @ MTL*   W  93- 85 V PHI*  W  7- 0 @ BAL
4/21/02   W 6-4 V MTL*   W  92- 82 V PHI*  W 12- 2 @ KC (W 8-7 @ KC)
4/7/01    W 4-2 V NYI    W 102-100 @ WAS   W  6- 2 V TAM
4/7/99    W 5-2 @ FLA    W 108- 87 V WAS   W  6- 0 @ KC
4/1/98    W 4-2 @ NYR    W  98- 87 @ ORL   W  2- 0 @ OAK
4/7/96    W 4-2 @ PHI    W  98- 97 V DET   W  3- 1 @ KC
4/24/83   W 3-2 V BUF*   W  98- 79 V ATL*  W  4- 2 @ OAK
4/11/82   W 5-2 @ BUF*   W 110-109 @ PHI   W  6- 0 @ BAL
4/14/80   W 6-2 V PIT*   W 138-121 @ HOU*  W  3- 1 V DET
4/13/80   W 8-3 @ PIT*   W 100- 81 @ HOU*  W  3- 1 @ MIL
4/8/79    W 6-3 V TOR    W 127-101 V NJ    W  7- 6 @ CLE
4/24/77   W 4-3 @ PHI    W 124-119 V PHI   W  9- 0 @ TOR
4/11/76   W 4-0 V LAK*   W 103- 99 @ WAS   W  6- 2 @ BAL
4/28/74   W 6-2 V CHI*   W  98- 93 @ MIL*  W  5- 4 @ KC
4/21/74   W 8-6 V CHI*   W  98- 91 @ NYK*  W  6- 5 @ CLE
4/14/74   W 4-3 @ TOR    W 113- 88 V NYK*  W  7- 5 V DET

DATE      BRUINS         CELTICS           PATRIOTS
12/28/08  W 2-1 @ ATL    W 108- 63 @ SAC   W 13- 0 @ BUF
12/20/87  W 4-2 @ CHI    W 124- 87 V PHI   W 13- 7 @ BUF
12/28/85  W 5-1 @ STL    W 110-108 @ UTA   W 26-14 @ NYJ*
12/16/79  W 5-1 @ BUF    W 115-112 @ NJ    W 27-23 V MIN
11/25/73  W 3-1 V LAK    W 107-101 @ CLE   W 32- 0 @ HOU

* - Denotes Playoff Game.

Tags: Celtics Patriots Boston Bruins Red Sox

Bruin and Stewin'

A couple of thoughts that have been swirling in my head since watching last night's Bruins-Canadiens playoff game:

That was as much fun as I've had watching a hockey game in a long time. It was a true, edge-of-your-seat playoff game right from the opening drop to the Bruins' goal in OT. End-to-end rushes, fantastic goaltending, and good hard hitting. While it would have been a bitter disappointment if the Bruins had lost, it still would have been worth watching. Even the Canadian press liked the game:

BOSTON - If you want to sell the National Hockey League, you don't need more scoring, bigger nets or smaller equipment for goaltenders. All you need are more games played with the same intensity as last night's war between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins.

Neither team gave an inch as they battled for more than 69 minutes before Marc Savard of Orléans scored on a delayed penalty at 9:25 of the first overtime to give Bruins a 2-1 victory.

This was old-fashioned playoff hockey which kept the sellout crowd of 17,565 on edge all night, and the victory gave the Bruins new hope in this series. They trail the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal two games to one, with Game 4 here tomorrow night.

Unfortunately, the Globe decided it was Dan Shaughnessy's duty to write the paper's column. You'd think he hadn't even seen the game in person:

The Bruins haven't been in the playoffs since 2004 (also a first-round loss to Montreal) and it felt pretty flat - especially given everything that's going on with the Red Sox, Celtics, and the Boston College men's hockey NCAA championship.

Perhaps he'd have rather spent four-plus excruciating hours at Fenway Park.

Milan Lucic is a budding star. There are those who have compared him to a young Cam Neely and anyone who watched lsat night's game understands why. He finished his checks--and finished them hard--he was aggressive in front of the net and in the slot, scoring the first goal of the game. He was the dominant player on the ice last night. Now, he doesn't yet have the scoring touch of a Neely (number 8 would have had a hat trick if he'd had the same two breakaway chances that Lucic was unable to finish) and probably never will, but he could be a dominant player for years to come.

I didn't mind the influx of Canadiens' fans, but I was put off that the Jacobs family ended up selling ad space on the boards to Montreal companies. I noticed at least three ads for companies that do business exclusively in Canada, including one which was written in French. I suppose the Jacobses can (and will) do anything for money, but you'd think that there would be a couple of companies doing business in New England that would like to buy ad space.

Tags: Boston Bruins Montreal Canadiens NHL

Did the Bruins win, NESN?

I heard a rumor this morning that the Bruins won last night. I was watching the debate and "Lost" so I didn't get to see the game (the DVR can only do so much) and I figured that since the game was on NESN last night, I'd go to NESN.com to get the highlights. I assumed the network of the Bruins would be a good place to get what I was looking for. Here's what I found:

I see eight videos about Spring Training and one interview with Bruin goalie Alex Auld about a shootout win. But the last game the Bruins won was also a shootout, so I have no idea if that's about last night's game, or Tuesday's game.

Please NESN, The Bruins are in a playoff race and the Red Sox don't even play a real game for six weeks. I understand that we'll be all Red Sox all the time all summer long. But can I at least get Bruins coverage while they are in season? Is that too much to ask?

Tags: Hockey NHL Boston Bruins Red Sox NESN