Connelly’s Top Ten - Marchand Licked Opponents

1. Red Sox - The $100,000,000 starting rotation is on a pace to go 0-121

2. Patriots - Tom Brady passing in overtime in postseason games 17 for 23 (74%)

3. Celtics are 16-3 when Gordon Hayward scores at least 15 points / 31-28 when he doesn’t

4. Bruins - Brad Marchand registered 100 points this week - team has had two players register 100 points in the last TWENTY-FIVE years - the 1970-1971 Bruins had FOUR 100 point scorers on just that team - Espo - 152, Orr - 139, Bucyk - 116, Hodge - 105

5. The best Japanese pitcher prior to World War II was Eiji Sawamura. During the war he was forced to join the service and was killed in combat. The Japanese Cy Young award is named in his honor and was won by eventual Red Sox - Koji Uehara, Hideo Nomo, and Dice K

6. Major Leaguers who hit 500 home runs and had at least one season hitting for an average of .350 or better:

* Manny / Frank Thomas / Mickey Mantle / Jimmy Foxx / Ted Williams / Babe Ruth / Albert Pujols / A Rod / Barry Bonds

7. Old School - The PGA in 1945: Golfer Byron Nelson won 19 tournaments and was paid $66,000 in war bonds / Sam Snead broke his wrist in the caddy softball game / Jug McSpaden came in second 13 times - years later he and his wife were found dead in their car in their garage

8. Amazing Stats - Combined winning % of the local coaches - the last three years

Bill Belichick……..38-10 (.792)
Bruce Cassidy…..116-50 (.676)
Alex Cora………..110-59 (.651)
Brad Stevens……155-88 (.638)

Total………………419-207 (.670)

9. Just a Little Bit Outside - Ray Bolger of Dorchester was originally cast to be the Tin Man and Buddy Ebsen as Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz

10. Randomocity

* In today’s day and age - cellphones should have an unbreakable plexiglass covers instead of fragile glass
* I guess I’m officially old - I’ve never heard of this famous guy Nipsy Hustle that was murdered (was he on Hollywood Squares?)
* Milk shakes - under-rated
* Its depressing watching a game played in Oakland
* I hate when the banana peel doesn’t come right off and you bruise the top of the banana
* Best pizza toppings - Sausage, buffalo chicken and hamburg
* Less than a week to the Masters

Boston Bruins Need To Tighten Up Their End Game Before The Start Of Playoffs

Boston Bruins have been playing excellent hockey of late. They have scored 4 plus goals in all of the last 5 games. Two of those games were against playoff teams. Opposite that is the Bruins still control the second seed in the Atlantic. The only thing nagging them is allowing those late game goals. 

The Bruins game against the Tampa Lightning was a loss due to a late goal from Anthony Cirelli with only 53 seconds left in the game. That is just an unacceptable goal being this close to the playoffs.

Not only did it happen against the Lightning it happened last night in the Rangers game. Now the Bruins routed the Rangers by a score of 6-3. It was that third goal scored by Mika Zibanejad with only 4seconds left. Only 4 seconds left and they gave up a goal.

Giving up a goal that late in the game is not the to cap off a 6 goal night, where there had been stellar D prior to the goal. This is the time of year to square that kind of stuff up and get ready for the playoffs. Boston should not be allowing the team any kind of leeway in the final minutes of the game.

We saw this last night and against Tampa especially the forwards push when they should stay back and the D try and be aggressive in areas they need to hold. This happened on the tying goal in the Tampa Game. Brad Marchand made a nice steal at his blue line and it was a 3-2 rush. Then Charlie McAvoy tried to get involved. Pastrnak fell down after his shot.

Now Andrei Vasilevskiy made a great save but that gave Tampa numbers going the other way. Nikita Kucherov was also able to make a great shot off the rush and tie the game.

That brings up the next point Tuukka Rask is going to have to make some of those saves. That was a great shot by Kuch but Vasy had just made a huge save on the other end. If the Bruins are going to go deep in the playoffs Rask is going to have to come up with those saves.

Hopefully, the Bruins can clean up their end game before the playoffs, If they do that against the Leafs they won’t make it out of the first round.

Boston Bruins If 100 Percent Healthy Have A Shot To Get To The Stanley Cup

The Boston Bruins currently lie solely in second place of the Atlantic Division. They are only behind an uncatchable Tampa Bay Lightning at 108 points, and who have already locked up a playoff spot. With Tampa untouchable at the top, we will be looking at a Toronto Boston match-up in the first round. The Bruins have all the right pieces to make it happen.

After the end of a 19 game point (second longest in franchise history) the B’s look like the real deal. Now the past two games they have had to deal with injuries (Jake Debrusk, Kevan Miller, Jake DeBrusk, and newly acquired Marcus Johansson).

Even with the plaguing injuries, the Bruins have been playing solid hockey. The best part is that they are doing so against other top teams. The offense has come alive as of late and the defense is playing the shutdown D we expect from them.

The issues lie with the B’s inconsistency in playing a full 60 minutes. This inconsistency is what brought their 19 game point streak to an end on Sunday. Boston came out flat and gave up two goals in the first, one of which was a shorthanded goal. This is the other area that has given the black and gold trouble at times is the PK. Boston has allowed 13 SHG. The Bruins are ranked 9th in PK at 81.4 percent.

The good part is that is the only issue with their game right now. There are plenty more pluses in their game. The goaltending of late, especially from Tuukka Rask, has been unbelievable. (Last night was an exception). Once the B’s get healthy they will be a force.

The biggest piece is Jake DeBrusk who has shown he can show up in big games. Toronto will be a tough first-round match but they have beat the Leafs before. This year’s team is better than lasts. They have proven it as their 5 on 5 game is much better this year and they are one of the best 5 on 5 teams in the league.

Also, the B’s have shown that they can beat the Lightning and they have also been a great bounce-back team after a loss. Also, they have shown resiliency( as seen last night) with many come back wins. Now it is hard to win playoff games when down 2 or 3 goals, although it is something that teams will have to be aware of in a 7 game series.

As long as the B’s can continue to receive secondary scoring as they had in the 19 game point streak they will be able to beat any team. We will see them testes again as they face a high-powered Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.