Thursday 5/2/19
This is not important in the grand scheme of things or what I am trying to deal with here every day, but I wanted to get some thoughts up--a five minute diversion--before the start of the Bruins game and we will see how correct I was after. It is a pet peeve of mine when it's not an elimination game and someone calls it "must win," as everyone is calling this game for the Bruins. The opposition has only won half the number of games they need to win. This is being proclaimed must win as though Columbus was the dominant team. They play a very physical game--they remind me of the LA Kings of a few years ago. I like David Bacchus being back in the line-up, because he'll lay out some people and establish attitude. All of the talk, though, about Sergei Bobrovsky being this impenetrable fortress though is way off. The Bruins beat him a lot last game. I thought they carried the play. They just drew a lot of iron. Hitting the post isn't the goalie making a save. It's technically not a shot on goal, either, but when I was playing, I knew when I hit the post a few times in a short period of time, I was on track, and I was about to start potting a lot of goals if I kept shooting. This will be be a hard series to win, but the Bruins certainly can win it. Marchand needs to play like a borderline felon, but he has to stay out of the box with his dumb penalties. I feel like he's on the verge of pulling a nutty and becoming a problem, after not having been a nutty-problem all year. I think the Bruins win this game.
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Game is over, so I will update this. Bruins won going away, 4-1. As I expected, they beat Bobrovsky repeatedly. Rask--whom people I talk hockey with know I am no fan of--was, I thought, excellent. The difference in the game. I'm not confident the Bruins win Game Six, though I think this goes seven games. Pastrnak looks absolutely lost. He can't handle the puck cleanly. He muffs his stickhandling, he misfires on his shot, he is an odd man break factory. The Bruins power play is atrocious. They can't gain entry to the zone, and they nearly give up a shorthanded goal on every man advantage. They need to change it up. Put Krejci on the first unit. I'd like to see them DeBrusk's speed to open up that Columbus blue line, or even just dump it in and get it back--go to work.
Another hockey thought: Red Kelly died today. One of the, oh, fifty or so best players in NHL history. What was odd to me was that despite this man being his nineties, the Detroit Red Wings only just retired his number. He seemed like he was a wonderful man--was there bad blood there? This was not some borderline "should we retire his number or shouldn't we" guy. Let me put it a modern way: Yzerman is an all-timer Red Wing. Red Kelly was a better player.
Also pitched an op-ed to USA Today and The New York Times on women's hockey.
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