Weekend Preview

Well I hope everyone enjoyed their day off from Boston sports last night because this is shaping up to be quite a sports Saturday. The Bruins, Celtics, and Red Sox all play Saturday, not to mention the 136th running of the Kentucky Derby. Here are a couple of thoughts from each to get you started.

Bruins:
It seems as though the black cloud that was following the Bruins around all season might have finally lifted a little. Starting with a well played series by the Bruins in defeating the Sabres, to the improbably Bruins comeback to a comeback of a different kind, Marc Savard. For now at least, everything seems to be coming up Bruins.

However, all the good feelings could quickly turn to disappointment if the Bruins take the Flyers lightly. This series will be an outright battle. Both goalies come in playing exceptionally well, a little strange when you consider neither was the starter on opening day. The Flyers are a little banged up, they are missing their leading scorer among others, but the Bruins aren’t fully healthy but they are making strides in that direction. If the Bruins bring the same type of play they did in the last series, I think it will play out pretty similarly.

The pick: Bruins in 6


Celtics:
The Celtics like the Bruins, really seemed to hit their stride once the playoffs started. It may be that the instigations of Quentin Richardson was exactly what this team needed to jump start themselves. Now obviously, the Heat are a very different team than the Cavs because the Cavs are actually capable to consistently beating the Celts. The Celtics are really going to have to bring their A game all the time to be able to beat the Cavs in this series. This also includes Doc Rivers.

Personally, I have never been a huge Doc fan. Yes he did win a championship, but I still feel as though the Celts one that one despite him rather than because of him. He is really going to have to be on top of his game to combat the different lineups that the Cavs can throw out there. The Cavs have matchup advantages at a couple of different positions and it will be up to Doc and company to defend those matchups as well as exploit the mismatches on the other end of the court. Specifically, Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen must have a huge series for the Celtics to have a chance to advance.

That being said, the Celtics certainly have a chance. They might have a larger chance if this elbow thing of Lebron’s turns out to be something more than him trying to get some attention like a middle schooler. I don’t think that will be the case though. This just seems too much like Lebron’s year.

The pick: Lebrons in 7

Red Sox:
This is going to be very short and sweet. It’s the Orioles. They stink. Anything less than a sweep this weekend is really unacceptable. Although with Dice-K’s return on Saturday, anything can happen. As I’ve mentioned before, the next homestand is where we see if the Sox have started to figure it out.

Kentucky Derby:

I’m certainly not going to pretend to be a horse expert. I feel like picking horses is as much as a crapshoot as anything else though, which means I am just as qualified as ESPN’s Hammerin Hank Goldberg.

My picks:
1) Lookin at Lucky
2) Awesome Act
3) Devil May Care


Enjoy your weekend!

Good Luck!

Good luck this afternoon to the Emerson Lions who are riding high coming off their first ever GNAC conference tournament win in dramatic fashion over Lasell College Tuesday night at Maplewood Park in Malden.

They will have their work cut out for them today against the mighty Rams from Suffolk University. The game will be played at Adams Field in Quincy.

Good luck to the Lions...they will need it!

Red Sox righting the ship

With all of the playoffs action for the Bruins and the Celtics, the Red Sox haven’t gotten much time around here. This makes sense of course because I find it hard to put a lot of stock in early April baseball. I almost find it humorous when the talking heads on the different shows are hitting the full on panic button because the Red Sox started slow.

Obviously, every team wants to get off to a good start. The Red Sox struggles have also been magnified because of the very good starts that the Yankees and Rays have gotten off to, especially head to head against the Sox. But please people, relax. The Red Sox will be just fine.

Josh Beckett has been awful this year, which has created a big hole in the rotation. Slowly but surely though, the rest of the staff has come around to where people thought they would be. Both Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester last night threw absolute gems against the Blue Jays. This isn’t to say that the Blue Jays are world beaters, but it’s certainly nice to see the Sox win the games that they are supposed to, the way they are supposed to, with pitching and defense.

Finally, the Sox have gotten back to .500 and seem to be on a roll. Luckily, they get to continue to beat on the Orioles as they continue their road trip. Once they get home though, we get to see the real progress of this team. The Angels, Yankees and Blue Jays all come to Fenway on the next homestand. Everyone will get jacked up about the Yankees series, but the Sox have to be able to beat the teams they are supposed to beat. The Angels are not the same team they have been in the past, but are still a very good team. They could also be a team that the Sox would likely see in the playoffs if they were to get there, which is a long way down the road.

The good news is that the Sox seem to have righted the ship against the extended spring training competition of the Orioles and Blue Jays, but we will see next week whether or not this team is ready to make a run.

Celts not to be outdone; Advance to face Cleveland

Two days. Two Boston teams moving on to the second round of the playoffs. The Celtics took care of business last night and will be moving on to face the Cleveland Lebrons in the next round.

This was a pretty efficient effort last night from the Celts as they were in control for the majority of the game. The Heat, as all NBA teams do, made a second half run to cut what was a 21 point Celtic lead down to 6 at the end of the third quarter. The Heat were able to get as close at 3 in the final quarter, but were unable to get over hump. And as you often see with a team that battles all the way back, sometimes when they can’t get a lead, they’re often spent and can’t respond to any kind of run, which is what we saw last night.

This is pretty much what I expected from this game. The Celtics would come out strong and the Heat really would have no chance of walking out with a win. The Heat already had played their farewell game in Miami a few days earlier and this had the feel of a mere formality. A stepping stone on the way to King James’ Kingdom.

The Celts and the Cavs have battled all season long with the Cavs taking the upper hand in a few games. They are a force in the Eastern Conference and if the Celts have designs on getting back to the finals, the road will go through Cleveland.

One interesting note here is that Lebron has an elbow injury that as of last night, wasn’t quite diagnosed. He described it as a kind of dead arm. Now I don’t think he will miss any time at all, but it certainly will be something that we will be forced to hear about incessantly over the coming days.

I certainly had my doubts about the Celts after a rather lackluster regular season. I did think that they would be able to get by the Heat certainly, but I still do have my doubts about being able to play with the big boys, Cleveland, Atlanta and Orlando. There are some encouraging signs from this series as some of the defensive intensity returned and the offense moved very well at times. Rajon Rondo is the man who makes it go, and he will have to put together quite a series for the C’s to get past the Cavs.

Of course, as any veteran team that is full of clichés would tell you, the Celts just have to take it one game at a time.

Bruins Advance to Semis

Not a bad night last night for the B’s. They played one of the better games they have played all season and closed out the Sabres with a 4-3 win at the Garden.

I sometimes wonder what makes me happier, when the Bruins win or when Jack Edwards inevitably flips out when they win. Edwards nearly blew a gasket at several points during last night’s game, but at the same time I can’t really blame him too much. It was one of the most entertaining games that I have seen this season. There was a lot of back and forth action, plenty of hitting, great plays and even greater saves on both ends of the ice.

The key for the Bruins on this night was the special teams play. The Bruins killed all three Sabres power plays and cashed in on two of their own and really took control right from the start (for a change). The Bruins even generated some very good chances on the shorthand with the best chance being Marco Sturm ringing the post on the first Buffalo power play.

The Sabres did not go away easily though as they capitalized on two bad turnovers for their first two goals, one by the much maligned Dennis Wideman and the other by Michael Ryder. Bright spot for Boston College hockey fans as former BC star Nathan Gerbe potted the second goal for the Sabres.

The Bruins were able to bounce back from both of those mistakes on the strong play of a couple of crazy Euro’s, Rask and Krejci. Both were phenomenal throughout the game and the series. One has to wonder what Krejci could do if he actually had a sniper to play with. Food for thought there.

The Bruins were able to hold the lead late and advance to the second round. Another bit of good news for Bruins fans on this night also came from Canada where the Canadians downed the Capitals to force a game 7. Personally, there is no team that scares me more than the Caps so I would be quite alright the Habs took them out.

Today's No R Lifestyle Links

Couple of links to pass along. No R Lifestyle has been picked up by a couple of national websites, Boston.com and Gawker.com. Check it out for yourself

Boston.com

Gawker (They're just jealous)