B’s, C’s, Pats: 3 Columns For The Price Of One
Monday, February 20, 2012
Here are three columns for the price of one:
BRUINS – They are still in first place in the NHL’s Northeast Division but they’re not playing like a first place team. The Bruins are struggling right now and aren’t playing like the defending Stanley Cup champs that they are.
Coincidentally, the B’s have been in a bit of a funk ever since Tim Thomas decided to make his political statement by not joining his teammates for a White House celebration with Barack Obama about a month ago. Did Thomas’ snub of Obama have anything to do with this team going into a bit of a tailspin? Probably not. But the fact is the B’s are 4-7 since that date and two of their victories came via a shootout. It’s a far cry from the team that won 21 games during a 24-game stretch this season and looked like the prohibitive favorite to win the Cup again.
But if we have learned anything from this Bruins team over the past year it is to not overreact. Remember when the B’s trailed Montreal 2 games to none in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals last year? Having dropped games 1 & 2 at home, most of us had the team exiting the playoffs in round 1 with Claude Julien getting fired. 16 wins later they were hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup above their heads in Vancouver.
Fast forward to the start of the 2011-2012 season when the B’s looked as if they were suffering from a Stanley Cup hangover. Boston was (3-7) through its first 10 games and in 14th place in the 15-team Eastern Conference. It was at that point the team caught fire.
With the trading deadline just a week away, it remains to be seen what Peter Chiarelli will do. Last year he added Rich Peverly, Chris Kelly and Tomas Kaberle before the deadline and the team took off. They certainly miss Nathan Horton who is out with a concussion. But, make no mistake about it, the talent is there for another deep playoff run this spring.
CELTICS – Kevin Garnett is attending to a family matter and Rajon Rondo has been suspended for 2 games by the league for throwing the ball at the ref in disgust. These are the least of the team’s problems.
The streaky Celts started the season (0-3), then they rattled off 4 straight wins. They followed that up by losing 6 of 7 and then winning 9 of 10. Now they have dropped 5 of their last 6.
Is this inconsistency due to their aging roster? Who knows? But that age certainly won’t help them challenge the likes of Chicago and Miami for Eastern Conference supremacy.
The one silver lining in all of this is that there is always a minimum of one day off in between postseason games which this team will desperately need if they make it to the playoffs. As a 6, 7 or 8-seed, they will likely have to go through both the Bulls and the Heat if they are to make it to another NBA Finals.
Don’t count on it!
PATRIOTS – There are two intriguing non-draft related stories regarding the Patriots, both involving wide receivers.
Former Patriots’ WR Randy Moss announced last week that he will be coming out of retirement this fall to play again in the NFL. Moss was fantastic in a Pats uniform scoring 50 TD’s in 52 games including his record-breaking 23 touchdown season in 2007.
The Patriots have not had a deep threat or someone who can stretch the field like Moss did since his departure in 2010 so it begs the question, should the Pats consider bringing him back? Don’t bet on it.
While Bill Belichick has only said nice things about Moss publicly, there was a reason why he decided to trade him 4 games into the 2010 campaign. Moss had become a bit of a malcontent concerned more about his next contract than he was about the team and that doesn’t fly in Foxboro.
The benefits of bringing him back beyond his talent would be that it would be a low-risk, high-reward type of proposition. Any team that signs him will likely give him very little guaranteed money opting for an incentive-laden contract where Moss would have to earn his pay. And, let’s face it, he knows the offense a heck of a lot better than Chad Ocho Cinco does.
Still, knowing how Belichick operates, don’t expect #81 to be wearing a Pats uniform this fall.
Now a more realistic option at WR might be the addition of free agent Brandon Lloyd. The former Bronco has made no secret of his fondness for Pats’ offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels for whom he played for in Denver. When asked by ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio about his desire to pay for New England, Lloyd said, “yes, I find that very interesting. I would like to entertain that and see where that goes. There is no bones about that. I’ve been very successful in Josh McDaniels’ offense. I really admire Tom Brady. I admire that organization and how they run things over there. I’d definitely be interested in hearing how I could possibly fit into that equation.”
Beyond getting on his knees and begging Bob Kraft and Bill Belichick to be a Patriot, I don’t know what else the man can do.
The only fly in the ointment might be Lloyd’s agent Tom Condon. He and the Patriots seem to have a tremendous amount of disdain for one another which dates back many years. However, Condon told the Boston Herald’s Ron Borges about the Patriots, “I may never like them and they may never like me, but I appreciate that they’re smart guys who usually get what they want. I usually get what I want, too, and what I want is what my client wants.”
If you read between the lines, it sounds as if there could be a pretty good chance of Lloyd being a Patriot in 2012.
Follow us on Facebook Twitter See It Read It Share It