jung

3-1 Hawks now....Bruins went from skating in mud to skating in quicksand

2-1 Hawks in the 2nd. Bruins skating in mud tonight.

Jeez Salty did not think that was a strike?

Hawks Bruins tied 1-1 late in the 1st

No they are not for better or worse. Hawks are playing well within themselves. Bruins have been skating in mud though. They need to pick it up.

They gave Iggy an error on that throw in from Gomes to third base. Not sure I get that.

Dempster seems uncanny in his ability to give up a bomb early in games.

I may just be looking for a silver lining for tonights game but I think the Hawks gong balls to the walls may just play into the Bruin's hands. Some teams play great balls to the walls. Others...not so much. I think there is a pretty good chance that the Hawks will simply give up too much defensively playing balls to the walls hockey. I noticed that in the last game, when the Hanks really got to a point where they felt that they needed to go balls to the walls in an effort to dent Tuukka, they really started to give up a bunch of odd man rushes to the Bruins. So I am hoping for that if nothing else presuming the Hawks do end up going balls to the walls tonight.

Unreal bad move by Farrell. No earthly idea why he did not think Felix did not deserve at least a batter in the ninth. While you want him to be a glass half full kind of guy,,,it would not surprise me if Felix was asking himself what he would have had to do to have earned the right to at least get one batter in the 9th.

Peter and Don were just talking about Iggy who skipped winter ball this year to work out and build strength. Does make me wonder if Nava did something particular this winter as well. To me the biggest difference I see in his physical assets, last year to this is his bat speed. Nava looks to like like he has a much quicker bat than I remember him ever having.

Look who we have for going for the Rays...Punk Archer again. Wonder if he is going to kiss is bicep today. Surprised he can find it!

Come on Bruins.....I know we are not the "skating" team at least when compared to the Hawks but can we have the pre-game skate without wiping each other out? Lucic and Chara no less. That is like a Mac truck running into an Abrams tank! So far, not sure if Chara is OK as he skated off the ice and looked a little shaky doing it.

Notice what Jim Rice just said about WMB and the tape they just rolled. Jim Rice on the HR ball "WMB did not try to hit that ball to RF at all".

MMB DOES NOT routinely hit for power the other way. He takes a pitch in the up and out over the plate zone, a pitch that every power hitter that I know about offers at and hits and often deposits into the bleachers....and does the same thing with it. He got one in Minnesota a few weeks ago that was WAY wind assisted and one again today. Being able to hit that pitch does nothing to resolve WMB's problems from the belt line down and on the outer third and is not even relevant to the discussion.

Standing Room...look at the hot zones for dead pull hitters in this league and you will find that none of them ignore pitches up and out over the plate. Often you will find their hot zones are all three inner third zones and that zone up and away. That is exactly what I said weeks ago. What...you are going to tell me now that this is all about semantics? You think a dead pull hitter is a guy that ONLY swings at pitches on the inner third? You can't be serious. I said all of this weeks ago. The only difference and the reason I pulled Loney into the discussion is because he has done exactly what I suggest WMB should be doing as far his approach to the plate is concerned. The difference between Loney and WMB is that WMB CRUSHES anything in any of the three inner third hit zones. James Loney can't do that but has still completely turned his career around. WMB should do what Loney has done. He should be able to duplicate Loney's success at the plate and then some because WMB will take those inner third pitches and send them into orbit. If you STILL don't get it, I am exhausted explaining it to you!

I have not changed my stance one bit. If you go back to the discussion we had weeks ago I already covered pitches up and out over the plate. My stance has been that he should just ignore pitches starting below the belt to low on the outer third with less than two strikes as they are not good pitches for him to do much with even if he does hit them AND more often than not he just ends up swinging at air when he does offer at them as they are often headed off the plate. In swinging at them, he denies himself the opportunity to catch a mistake pitch anywhere on the inner third up, down or sideways as those are pitches he just crushes every time. I can't believe you still don't get it when we just left Loney in Tampa who has done EXACTLY what WMB should do and has turned his entire career around in the process. In fact Loney had one two pitch AB in Tampa that he would never have had before this and that simply said it all. First pitch....taken...strike 1 called....a pitch low and on the outer third. Second pitch.....strike on the inner third pounded into right center for a base hit. You guys insist that WMB can't be a good hitter unless and until he learns to handle that pitch that Loney now ignores and I insist that even more than Loney, WMB should just ignore them because Loney cannot do with pitches on the inner third what WMB can do with them. I am willing to see a called strike with less than two strikes on that s*** pitch heading low and outside in trade for a pitch WMB can crush on the inner third which has nothing to do with pitches up and out over the plate which are meat for almost anybody in an ML uni!

Oh come on Standing Room. Pitches UP and out over the plate is hardly WMB's problem at the plate and certainly not pitches he should let go by. Look at the hot zones for the pull hitters in baseball and you will have a hard time finding one that does not eat up pitches up and out over the plate.

I guess Gonzalez can't get away with stuff up and out over the plate either.

I have missed some parts of this game but it looks like the O's can't touch any of the stuff Jon is throwing up there that is down but everything up and out over the plate has found a soft landing in green somewhere.

I would be lying if I said I know the specifics of the rule. Do we know if they stopped play to check the time of the whistle vs the location of the puck or if they stopped play to get a clarification on the ruling from the league officials on the scene siting upstairs? I don't think we ever found out what they were doing during that period when the officials on the ice were talking to the officials upstairs. In any event, they did make it clear that the whistle blew first. So I have no idea what the Hawk fans are squawking about.

I remember the trap muscle comment but I did not see anything after Don and Eck discussing whether the Sox meant that the trap muscle issue was an extension of the original irritation to the neck or the play at 1st.

If somebody heard this different...please correct me. In his post game John Q said that the official told him that "He had intended blowing the whistle". What.....sorry I cannot imagine an official saying the goal did not count cause he had "intended" to blow the whistle. He blew the whistle....end of story...Jeez. If somebody saw the same post game and heard John Q different, I would believe that. But that is what I heard.

Yea.... I would go into mourning if the B's lost Horton to keep Peverly and Kelly.

I think seeing Lucic coming at you when you are wearing the other sweater in a game like this must be like seeing a mack truck coming that you know has no brakes. Time for a quick prayer and that is about it.

Ference did play like s***. He has been scary at times lately. But I do think the Bruins just flat outplayed the Hawks from the second period on. They deserved this game. I think that if the Hawks had won, they would have been guilty of stealing a game cause they were dominated through the end of regulation and into the OT. The ebb and flow is going to be crazy in this series; As soon as one team lets up mentally just the tiniest bit, the other team doesn't just take over marginally...the other team goes nuts!