Right off the bat, I must apologize for the lateness of this notice.  But, you know, I've done nothing but watch hockey for six weeks, I had to spend a little time with the kid and wife.

So, if you're anything like me, you're sick and tired of hearing how the Bruins won because they bullied teams, and they had all these intagibles that lead to victory.  It makes me sick.  Not to mention, I cannot stand the articles that outline more how the Canucks lost, rather than how Boston won.  So, I am going to lay out my argument as to why Boston was the most skilled team in the playoffs.

Now, to start, I am going to say that if you are going to acknowledge such a thing as offensive skill, then there must also be such a thing as defensive skill.  And, since very few goals are end to end, one man shows, an offensively skilled team must then be a team that puts a bunch of small pieces of offensive talent together to form one unit.  The same can then be said for defense, right?  If the team can be offensively skilled, then you must also allow a team to be defensive skilled, and not just defensively sound.  People always want to label defense as some second rate piece of the puzzle, well, this championship shows that it can drive a winner.

So, how are the Bruins defensively skilled?  Well, it takes an examination of the entire rink.  First, in the offensive zone.  Start right down below the goal line.  The Boston Bruins certainly play the body fiercely below the goal line, and cycle and control the puck better than most teams.  Obviously, each shift has a limit, and the longer you can rag the puck below the goal line the less opportunity and energy the other team has to make any offensive contribution on that shift.

From there, we move to the half wall.  The key when cycling the puck, is not just the man on the puck, but proper puck support.  This is going to be a concept you are going to read a lot in this post.  In fact, this whole post should be titled "Puck Support for President".  When the puck comes out of the corner, a centerman must be ready and waiting to take the puck and make a good play on it.  Or, and this is one the Bruins used a lot, a second option is to have your defensive pinch down to keep a play alive.  In order to do so, and to stay aggressive, you must again have strong centermen who can drop back and play the point and handle any breakout rush that may be created by the defenseman dropping down.  As evidence that pinching down is a defensive strategy, review the third period of game seven.  The Bruins were up 3-0, and trying to defend a lead, and yet, Boston continued to bring down those defensemen.  This strategy keeps the play alive, thus further tiring out forwards (might even lead to an icing), keeps teams from having easy breakouts (don't forget, the defensemen is coming down and forward on the opposing winger, as opposed to a centerman who would come at an angle), and stops the Bruins from getting complacent and sitting back.  All made possible by having skilled defensemen, and very skilled supporting centermen to play the point.

Now, we go into the neutral zone.  The Bruins here employ a trap, which is an invention of the last twenty years and is very effective at slowing down the rush of the opposing team.  I think everyone is very familiar with the trap, so I won't go into detail here, however, what I will say is that what the trap also does is it pushes teams to the outside to gain the zone.  Which is right where the Bruins want them.

Once in the zone, the Bruins employed good old fashioned Canadian defensive hockey (probably North American hockey, but I'm a homer).  Puck support, puck support, puck support.  If a puck is dumped into the corner, your defenseman makes his way down there, the centerman goes as well, but cannot jump into the scrum, he must hang in the near vicinity in order to grab any pucks that come lose, pick up any men that may come out of the corner with the puck to attack, or, if the defenseman wins the battle and moves the puck up the wall, be there to support that winger.

So, the puck comes up the wall.  Well, if the opposing blue-liner is pinching in, the winger must know to be lower on the wall in order to give himself a chance to handle the puck.  He can attempt to chip the puck past the defenseman, or move the puck to the curling and supporting centerman.  Marchand was unbelievable in this role through the finals.  I was harsh on him in the Montreal series for his play on the wall, but he was born again hard as the playoffs wore on.  Excellent work here.

On the far side, stands your other winger, (let's stick with the Bergeron line, so Recchi).  Now, this winger cannot get sucked down to low.  He needs to be playing what they call weak side high.  Recchi was excellent at this, by staying high, you prevent a defenseman from moving the puck d-to-d, thus reversing the flow and creating quick chances.  As well, you have the opportunity if the puck is run around the boards your way to make the same decision as Marchand on the other side.  Grab the puck high on the wall if the defenseman backs away, or drop lower to make a chip if he pinches.  If you are low in the zone, your only opportunity will be to take the puck low, thus probably guaranteeing that the defenseman will pinch.  Lucic was another player who played the weak side high very well throughout the playoffs.

The key for this entire run was this defensive scheme, and the ability of the centermen to provide proper puck support in all three zones.  Think back to how many times a puck came clear to the center of the defensive zone, looked to be an easy tap in for the Canucks, yet, Bergeron was there very time to take the puck first.  This is puck support, he is not overskating the play, nor is he playing out of position.  Heck, the same goes for the offensive zone, if you overskate the play, you miss rebounds, and end up behind the net leaving yourself behind the play on the breakout.

Bergeron, Kelly and (huge revelation) Campbell were fantastic puck supporters in their own zone.  I thought Krecji was the weakest of the bunch, however, they were also the most offensive line, and spent the most time in the other zone wearing down the team, thus he did not spend as much time having to play this puck supporting role in his zone.

So, I hope I have made my point that it was "defensive skill" that won this championship.  I look forward to a discussion on this topic

Alright, I'm just going to throw this out there, I'm scared crapless about pulling the darn Habs in the first round.  I've got too many Habs fan friends up here in Toronto to watch our Bruins fall to that no class bunch of jerks.  The other problem is, I tend to rub it in their faces a little too often how much I think their team is a bunch of sissy girl hockey players.

So, question is, how the hey are the Bruins going to beat the Habs in the first round if the current standings should hold?  What are we, 2 wins in the last two years against these guys?  Can someone who sees more games than I do please tell me what it is that keeps us on the losing side against this small little team. 

I'd love to gage the opinion of everyone on the site as to how they honestly think we would do in a first round matchup with the Habs.

Afternoon fellow Bruins fans,

Apparently on ESPNBoston there was an article around Seguin being sent to play for Team Canada in the World Junior Championships this month.  Has anybody heard anything else surrounding this?  Now, myself, as a rabid Bruins fan, but also a hockey crazed Canadian, am torn about this.  Or maybe not, I mean, sure, he would miss time with Boston, but it is regular season, and I don't know if he's at the point where he's the difference between wins and losses.  But, with the Maple Leaf on his chest, he would look great for a week and a half.  Have a chance to play some high tempo games (not that the NHL isn't, but the tournament gets pretty rowdy, especially in the medal round).  Plus the tournament is in Buffalo, so the atmosphere would be pretty special, and he's not travelling across the world and getting thrown off his game.

Who wants to see this happen?  Who's dead set against it?  I know the argument is he gets better competition at the NHL level, and I mean, who could argue, however, he would get high intensity, faced pace hockey, and lots of ice time, and lots of games over a short period of time.  Not to mention it could be a huge confidence boost if Canada won to his game.

I posted a good portion of this on the small piece about Lewis, but I don't know if anybody is still going there because it is a few days old.  So, I thought I would put it here and add.

I don’t watch as many games as most people here, but it seems to me that every time I see Lewis leading off and Escobar hitting second, good things happen for the Jays. In my perfect world the outfield is Lewis, Wells and Snider, Encarnacion never sees the field and Bautista plays third every day. I think for next year our best chance at a winner is to find ourselves someone to play 1B, and go with a lineup like below, EVERYDAY!!

Lewis LF

Escobar SS

Bautista 3b

Wells CF

Lind DH

Hill 2b

?  1b

Buck C (I’d love to see it be JPA)

Snider RF

I don’t see how this isn’t a winner.

Okay, so hopefully, nobody has done this in the last little while and I won't just be ticking everybody off.  But anyways, I am very excited about this teams future.  Now, I also admit to not knowing the minor leagues as well as so many of you, so I thought here, I would put down what I right now would love to see as the Jays of 2014.  Then, I want to see what people agree with and disagree with.  Who I'm blatently missing, or who definitely won't still be around.  So here goes, I've thrown in people's ages as well (as of 2014).  This is also a rough batting order, why not hey?

1 Anthony Gose CF - 24

2 Aaron Hill 3B - 32

3 Travis Snider RF - 26

4 Adam Lind DH - 31

5 Vernon Wells LF - 36

6 J.P. Arencibia 1B - 28

7 Yunel Escobar SS - 32

8 Adeiny Hechavarria 2B - 25

9 Travis D'Arnaud C - 25

Rotation:

Brandon Morrow - 30

Rickey Romero - 30

Shaun Marcum - 33

Kyle Drabek - 27

Bret Cecil - 28

I won't touch the Bullpen, maybe people can fill that in.  Can't wait to see what I get here.

So, Alan Muir has an article up on CNNSI saying that with the salary cap penalty levied on the Bruins, they are getting close to being in a situation similar to the Blackhawks where they are going to have to trade away some attractive pieces to stay under the cap.

He talks about dumping guys like Thomas or Savard, but says the Bruins would need to sweeten the deal with a guy like Hamill, and he talks about not being able to keep Stuart.

So, did the Bruins go wrong somewhere?  Where was the mistake?  Sure would suck to have to lose too many pieces before we get our cup.  I'm still of the opinion that the Bruins are set to be a really strong team over the next half decade, especially two to three years from now.  But, that would be hurt by giving up young guys on the way up. 

Dumping a Savard would be fine, but what if you have to give up a Krecji, or a Hamill, who they will count on in a few years.

Thoughts?  Be nice, it's my first time.

After fighting with everyone yesterday about Big Mac, here it is.

First, until yesterday, anything about Mac using steroids was speculation and hearsay, so, anybody arguing that he influenced kids is wrong. Pujols may influence kids to do steroids and he to everyones knowledge is clean right now. So, it's hardly Mac's fault. Now, if somebody yesterday went and picked up steroids for the first time, it would be on Mac. But nobody will do that, why? Because the face of an outed steroid user is one of shame. Plenty of motivation in what is going on for kids not to use steroids, wouldn't you agree?

As for he cheated or lied to us. I hope all these people aren't fans of Jimi Hendrix (acid), the Rolling Stones (everything), the Beatles (yes the Beatles), or any other musical act in the history of the world. Or I hope they have never laughed at Richard Pryor, or George Carlin, or Lennie Bruce, or Robbin Williams for god sake. All of these people lied to you too. But there, you don't seem to mind, because they are just entertainers. Well, good news, so are all these baseball players we are so concerned about.  How many people have all these entertainers influenced into starting up with drugs, and the road is a lot more painful and rocky there than with steroids (not to belittle steroids). 

Steroids are bad yes, you shouldn't do them, your kids shouldn't do them, but don't be surprised when athletes do them.

So who saw the video last night of the Red Sox and Tigers?  I gotta say I was disgusted at Youkilis throwing his helmet at Porcello when he charged the mound.  Now, I will admit, I don't like him at all, I can't stand the Red Sox, but shouldn't that warrant a big suspension?  Watch the video, Porcello is backing away, afraid to fight, and he throws a rock hard helmet at the kid.  He's how much bigger and heavier than him?

Remember the guy mule kicking the catcher, or Delmon Young throwing his bat at the umpire.  Sure, this isn't as bad, but it's gotta be outside the usual in baseball doesn't it?

I wanna hear all opinions on this one, and I know they will vary greatly!

Morning gang,

So, next year I turn 30, and I've never been to a Cubs game (except of course to every time they are here in Toronto).  So my wife has agreed to take me to Chicago next year for one maybe multiple games.  So, I have a few questions for you guys.

My problem is that with a newborn, and the way my wifes job works, I won't be able to plan well enough in advance to buy tickets when they first go on sale.  Where could I get great seats on short notice?  I'm willing to pay a markup of course.  (They still can't compare to Leafs ticket prices!)

Might as well throw this in there as well, where would you guys recommend we stay?

Good afternoon gang,

New poster here.  Tom Verducci on CNNSI picked his allstar team with no rules, and included no Cubs (no White Sox either).  What do we think?  Does anybody really belong.  I hate to see the Cubs as a team with a pitty invite.  When was the last time that happened to the Cubs?

I just had my first son, and albeit, it'll be a few years before he's ready to be a true Cubs fan, but as things stand right now, if he asked me who my favourite player was, boy, I would have no answer.