Quick question Red Sox and Patriots Nation what building houses the last two Boston sports champions simultaneously? Ding ding ding! Time’s up! Sorry Gillette but it’s not you with the Revolution and Patriots nor is it you Fenway Park with the Red Sox and the Liverpool whatevers but it’s you TD Garden!
The TD Garden suffered for years through a myriad of names ranging from the Fleet Center and multiple other random names including at one point when you could by the rights to name the stadium whatever you wanted for a day – fun fact. Finally (mercifully a better word?) though it’s two inhabitants, the Bruins and Celts, finally turned the corner from habitual first round exit and perpetual suckfest, respectively, and rewarded the Boston faithful with a Stanley Cup and an NBA championship. In the past 5 years the Bruins and Celtics are the only champions that the great region of New England has to boast about to those arrogant New York pricks. The Red Sox have come close in that 5 year window losing in game 7 of the ALCS to those loveable Tampa Bay Rays, I know I should hate them because they’re in the AL East but boy are they fun to watch and they just seem to do everything the right way, and the Patriots have made it to the biggest game on Earth twice as favorites only to be turned away by the fuckin’ Giants, sorry still a little bitter about Super Bowl XLII and XLVI, yet it’s only the Bruins and Celtics who have delivered the crowns upon which titletown USA was built: the Stanley Cup and NBA title. After watching the Red Sox win the 2010 offseason and subsequently drink there way to infamy during the 2011 baseball season and then turning their eyes and watching the Patriots go from a solid team who should win a playoff game or two to Super Bowl favorites only to be bested by Eli Manning it’s now time that Boston turns its sad eyes back to the Bruins and Celtics in hopes that they’ll quell that championship thirst.
The Red Sox turned out to be the ultimate paper champions when the shit hit the fan and the Patriots gave it a valiant effort but if you honestly thought that Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo and their band of misfits we’re going to stop Eli on that last drive after the Welker-Brady miscue then you’re a better fan than I can ever be. It was becoming more and more clear throughout that game that the defense was playing masterfully but the ball just wasn’t fumbling the Patriots way and midnight was bound to strike soon on the Cinderella defensive scheme, yet I digress. Back to the topic at hand which is the Celtics and mostly the Bruins carry on their shoulders the Boston fan bases hopes and dreams for being the sports elite and lately they’ve done a fine job of it. Time to take a glimpse at each team’s chances of restoring the peace in Beantown.
First up we have the Celtics who about a month ago didn’t appear anywhere near sniffing the second round of the playoffs let alone a shot at the title but recently they’ve started to gain some steam with no coincidence that they’re resurgence coincides with Paul Pierce getting healthy again and KG looking the best he has since the devastating knee injury of three years ago. Before KG blew out his knee against Utah 3 odd years ago the Celtics appeared poised to make it two rings in three years but since then they’ve still managed to make it to game 7 of the NBA finals against the vaunted Lakers before blowing a late lead in L.A. but last year they were bounced unceremoniously by the new Big Three in Miami.
The Celtics started the abbreviated 2011-12 year 0-3 and then 4-8 before ripping off 9 out of 10 with a 5 win streak currently in their midst. The shortened season tends to favor a team like the Celtics as long as they can get into the playoffs in the top 4 seeds. A shortened season favors older teams who are good enough to allow their old dogs a few games off here and there and still track down one of those top seeds. Home court has always been crucial for this latest version of the Celtics. The swap of big baby Glen Davis for Brandon Bass has looked like a stroke of genius on the part of GM Danny Ainge and another mind numbing mistake by Orlando GM Otis Smith. Bass has been a better offensive player and a better defender and rebounder than baby while playing alongside Garnett he’s done a great job of bringing out the firey defender in Garnett once again. When Garnett is defending like he has been lately while also pouring in between 15-20 points and grabbing roughly 10 rebounds the Celtics are on the right track. Ray Allen has been phenomenal all year and he’s the kind of guy who takes pride in staying in shape over the long haul. Pierce took the beginning of the year to get healthy and as long as he can stay in shape he’s a great offensive piece to center it all around. Rajon Rondo makes this offense tick and his health will be one of the keys to the Celtics making a run deep into the playoffs, just if he could shoot but oh well.
The true key in my mind will be whether or not Ainge is able to swing a deal for a body to defend the paint and chip in some offense because as good a player as he was in his hay day Jermaine O’Neal just can’t stay healthy enough to be a solid contributor over the long haul. Mikael Pietrus is a great wing defender and once he settles in he’ll be a huge piece coming off the bench down the stretch and the Celtics are all set backing up the guard spots with veteran Keyon Dooling and youngster Avery Bradley. Bradley has settled in nicely and is playing very good perimeter defense and taking care of the ball not much more you can ask for in a backup PG. The Celtics are a big body and possibly a wing scorer off the bench from giving the Heat, Bulls, Mavs, Lakers and anyone else one last run for their money. There is hope but don’t hang your hat on it rather I’d hitch my wagon to the latest Boston champion: the Boston Bruins.
As an abashed Bruins fan who watched and had my heart broken by the Spoked B my entire life watching them blow top seeds and get bumped out by the dreaded Canadiens habitually last years run to the Stanley Cup was absolutely orgasmic. For once the Bruins were the team who got ridiculously hot at exactly the right team and ran train on the rest of the league. The Bruins were the ones with the top goaltender, Timmy Thomas, who could stop mass quantities of rubber on command and lead his team to numerous 1-0 and 2-0 victories. The Bruins were also the ones with the annoying as shit guy in Brad Marchand and the gifted offensive talent who caught fire at just right the time in David Krejci. It was beautiful to watch the Bruins exile their past demons by coming back from a 2-0 hole against the Canadiens in round 1 and then sweeping the Flyers, who just the year before had sent the Bruins into the history books by rebounding from a 3-0 series deficit to advance, with beat down after beat down. They then leaned on 2-time, in 3 years might I add, Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas to carry them past the very gifted but goaltenderless Tampa Bay Lightning in 7 games. Finally in the Stanley Cup Finals the Bruins squared off their polar opposite in the savvy but weak President Trophy winning Vancouver Canucks and after losing the first two games in Vancouver rebounded to humiliate the Canucks and Roberto Luongo throughout the last 5 games by winning 4 and the Cup.
After a deep run in the playoffs and the retirement of the Bruins heart and soul Mark Recchi the Bruins understandably got off to a super slow start this year before rebounding in a big way. After the season’s first month and first ten games the Bruins were an abysmal 3-7 and looked brutal after losing a home and home to the Canadiens. I don’t know what Claude Julien did but he found a way to light a fire under his teams ass and watched them rip off 10 straight wins and points in 15 straight with their only non win point coming in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Western Conference leader Detroit Red Wings. That’s 29 out of a possible 30 points. Led by young sniper whiz kid Tyler Seguin and the league’s best goaltending tandem the Bruins found their stride and after dropping two in a row then won 7 more in a row. The Bruins have hit a little bit of a snag lately with some poor losses against some below par teams but have still been able to keep up the pace with the top team in the Eastern Conference: the New York Blueshirts.
Peter Chiarelli found a way to wrestle power and money away from the Jacobs family like no one has been able to before and he has rewarded the Hub of Hockey with one championship and a very real possibility of another one. The Bruins are loaded with young talent and depth up to wazoo not to mention the top goaltending tandem in hockey: Tuuka Rask and Tim Thomas. The Bruins already have a 20-goal scorer in Tyler Seguin and 4 other guys over 15 goals: Patrice Bergeron (15) Nathan Horton (17) Milan Lucic (19) Brad Marchand (19). With a reinvented power play (11th in the league at 18.5%, thanks to Tyler Seguin channeling his inner Marc Savard and being able to control the halfwall), the usual amazing penalty killing (7th in the NHL), a GAA of 2.2 (4th), and a GFA of 3.4 (1st) the Bruins are the envy of the NHL currently. On any given night Julien can move his ‘first line’ center David Krejci who has become more and more of a magician with the puck to the third line and bring defensive minded Chris Kelly up to the first line and still pull off a 4-1 win over the Southeast Conference leading Washington Capitals.
Defensively Julien’s system is better than ever and you can thank Big Z, Zdeno Chara, coupled with the emergence of Dennis Seidenberg, Johnny Boychuck, Andrew Ference and Adam McQuaid teamed up with his amazing backstops for keeping the Bruins near the top of the league in GAA. The Bruins have depth for days and 3 very solid lines that can score at will and a 4th line that is amazing at beating and battering the other teams top lines. All of this goes without mentioning the best reason why the Bruins have a very good chance of piecing back together New England’s broken hearts by making a run deep in the playoffs: the play of the Seguin-Bergeron-Marchand line. The Bruins second line has become one of the top 3 or 4 lines in the league and has been producing points at an unreal rate. In 51 games Bergeron has 46 points to lead the Bruins Seguin is a close second with 44 points and Marchand is pulling up the rear with 38 points. This line can shut down another teams top line while also putting a few goals up on the board what more can you ask for? The Bruins have a shot to repeat and win a title that New England feels it deserves after having the Super Bowl pulled from the grasp for the 2nd time in 5 years.
There you have it folks a few reasons why there is a legitimate shot that either the Bruins or Celtics will be able to deliver a championship in June 2012. If I was a betting man I wouldn’t hesitate to throw a few bones the way of the Bruins and maybe even grab the Celtics if the odds were right because if things break their way you never know what a few old dogs might be able to pull off. Until we cross paths again.
Geoff Jablonski
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