rician blast

The Flyers would be trouble, they're big and physical and deep. I believe their goaltending might be suspect, and they do take a ton of penatlies, that'll be their achille's heel, IMO. Caps are very much like the B's, only with a little less 'D' and goaltending and more explosive offensive players (Ovechkin, Semin, Greene). I've seen the B's win the conference and get bounced in the first round more than once in my day, so every opponent concerns me. That said, I do think they have a chance to win a couple of rounds, after that it's a crapshoot and anything can happen. If they get out of the first round relatively unscathed, watch out. If they get taken to 7 in a hard fought series, they could go into the next round in rough shape.

Oh, glad to hear he raised his average to .111, wouldn't want him drawing the ire of Yankee fans too soon.

Tex get a hit yet? Did he at least get the ball out of the infield?

No NL team is a such a perrenial threat becayse they don't have to be...no team in the NL has to battle the Yankees just to get into the playoffs...if the Sox and Angels and Tigers and White Sox didn't have to spend the money they do, they wouldn't. The Yankees spending is directly responsible for other AL teams either spending at the rate they do or running their organizations as they do in order to compete (what you term "tightly run"). One the other point, are NL Gm's less capable than AL? Hmm...not sure I buy that.

yankee SS dilemma...they don't have one

Why the sudden change?

Yes Sean, is a little awkward sliding into baseball season, particularly with it still cold and gray still, but somehow we muster up the energy, eh? Was in Boston this past weekend with my oldest, he'll be 17 Friday. I come home at 2:00 a.m. Friday, he's up playing XBox and talking with his girl and says "for my birthday, take me to the Rangers game tomorrow." You got it son...did the stubhub deal, got some nice corner loge seats, row 15, enjoyed the B's taking a tight game and watching that c*nt Avery run and hide. Hey I said tight and c*nt in the same sentence. Anyway, this is a great time of year, baseball starting up, the now relevant B's heading into the playoffs, the also-ran C's (this year I'm afraid that is their fate) doing their thing. Kicking things off with a poor performance by Sabbathia was nice yesterday. Hope all is well with you, sir. BTW, the rest of the old gang...they talking it up somewhere else? PM me if so.

Sir Blowsalot, take it easy, you're making the other 50,000 Rays fans in the world look bad.

I know why I missed that...I go into the site, and just click on my team, I never look at the league view so I don't see the weeks covered. One of the guys I picked up isn't even playing as far as I can tell.

Look around you next time you're at a game at Fenway. There are plenty of what Mr Crunchy calls the pink hat and cell phone crowd. Those "fans" are not there for the game, per se, but because being there is in vogue. Many fans know nothing about the game or the team history. Success has its trappings. As for the buzz and architecture, etc. all good stuff, and I too love the griminess and the S&P vendors and all that. But technically speaking it is not a great place to watch a game from a comfort/viewing perspective (RF grandstands face CF, seats are tiny, etc.)

Am I the only one who didn't realize that this final matchup was a 2-week deal? What the f***? I just dropped some of my best players thinking Sunday was the end of the season! What a huge f***up. f***, I'm done. Who friggin cares anymore.

Dude, I think you're fine...I have 5 players in a 0-0 tie right now...no goalie though. I'm tanking big time, menwhile you just pikced up a couple of goals from your detroit guys. You'll pass me in save % and goals unless my guys do something incredible tonight...I think the title is slipping out of my grasp!

I was at yesterday's B's - Rangers game. Great game, Thomas was huge in net. Avery was fairly quiet most of the game, he tried a few times to entice a cheap penalty, but didn't do much...then after looking over his shoulder to see who was around, he clips Thomas in the head with his stick...as Thomas goes after him he runs away, as is typical.

The contract is a bit rich, but there is a buyout option, I believe. As for who'll potentially be gone because of tightness vs. the cap, I'd try to move Bergeron...although his contract may be prohibitive, the B's could take back some salary in return, just not Bergeron's nearly $5m.

For comparison, here are some NHL goalies, their age and their 2009-2010 salary: Turco 32 5.4m Huet 32 5.6m Brodeur 36 5.2m Giguere 31 6.0m Vokoun 31 5.7m Kiprusoff 31 7.0m Backstrom 30 6.0m Based on his career body of work, $5.2m for 3 yrs for a 34 yr old sounds high. Factor in that he's having an outstanding year, and maybe it's not too bad. Factor in that apparently the contract includes a buyout feature that limits the Bruins exposure and it's probably about right...I'd still like to understand more how that buyout works and what it potentially saves the organization before calling this a good signing. Now the timing of the deal is something I don't quite get..I'd like to see Thomas win a round or two of the playoffs first...maybe the thinking was get this done, let him relax a little so there wasn't so much pressure on him to earn that next deal via the playoffs? Tell him he earned it already then let him go out and be confident? Not sure the motivation here.

OK, so Timmy stays on at $5.2, as compared to his current cap hit of $1.1m, an increase of $4.1m. Manny leaves and takes with him his $4.3m cap hit. Assuming Rask becomes the backup and spends the year on the NHL roster, he's a hit of $3m I believe. Looks as though this goalie activity will cost the Bruins $2.8m. Krejci, Kessel, Bitz and Hunwick are RFA's. I don't see the latter two commanding too much $, those deals should get done at modest increases. Krejci and Kessel are another story, they'll cost some $ to keep. Meanwhile Yelle and Axy, two of the better defensive forwards are UFAs. I believe Sobotka can fill one of those roles...the other I'd think they can sign at similar dollars to this year...Axelsson represents the greater cap hit...he might be the odd man out. My hunch is the B's will explore moving Sturm and his $3.5m cap hit or Bergeron ($4.75m hit). Somehow they'll get this done, be close to the cap limit and possibly suffer a little bit in terms of depth.

I think that's what I was saying...that you can't have a making $5.2m per year sit on the bench 30 times. That said, Rask is still deserving of reasonable playing time, and I'm afraid he won't get it. So what happens? Does Rask get pissed and want a trade? Then what if Thomas goes down? Will we have Vinny Riendau manning the nets? Maybe Jon Casey is available? As well as Thomas has played this year, I don't ever see myself thinking he's a Cup-capable goalie. Maybe winning, oh, say, a playoff series would make me more comfortable.

From the little I've seen of Rask, I think he deserves, at minimum, to play 30 games next year...but $5.2m is big bucks in the NHL..too big for only 50 starts? Could be. Rask has gotta be looking around the league and thinking that Rinne, Hiller, Mason and Quick have all gotten their shots...when will he get his? I'm happy they extended him, but wish they could have done so for a million $ less.

I'm down 5-4 right now, but I think it's worse when you consider: my opponent has 5 goalie starts remaining...I have only 3. He'll likely win the wins category, which means I have to win goals (I'm down by several) and PP points (also down). Unless somethign dramatic happens, i.e. MSU's goalies give up a shitload of goals or his best forwards don't score, I'm going down in defeat.

Orlando Pace is clearly on the back side of his career.

The real secret lies in his unique ability to simply drive by and discern that there is a schlong hiding under the skirt.

I saw an interview a while back where he said this...pisses me off. That venue is NOT a good place to watch a game by today's standards.

That's what I'm getting at with Ortiz...IF his wrist holds up...IF his knee is ok. Guys with that physique, when they start to experience injuries, seem to fall apart. As for the .270, yeah I could be a little low on that.