Scott Cordischi On Sports: Another Boston-New York Battle
Thursday, May 16, 2013
They’ll drop the puck just after 7:30pm at the TD Garden Thursday night. It’s the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers. Another Boston-New York playoff match-up. Let’s hope it doesn’t go the same way as the Celtics-Knicks series.
So who rates the edge in this series? Tough to say.
The Bruins were the 4th-seed in the Eastern Conference, the Rangers the 6th. The teams met three times, all very early in the regular season. Boston won the first match-up 3-1 at the TD Garden. The Rangers then grabbed a 4-3 overtime win in New York. The Blue Shirts also grabbed a 4-3 shootout win in Boston to win the season series.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHere’s what we do know about these two teams. They are built from the net out meaning their stronger defensively than they are on the offensive end.
Boston has more skilled offensive players than the Rangers, but that advantage is mitigated by the fact that New York has Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes. The reigning Vezina Trophy winner is proving once again this postseason that he is the league’s top goaltender by registering back-to-back shutouts in games 6 and 7 of their opening series against the Washington Capitals.
To put it in terms that Bruins fans can understand, the Rangers have Tim Thomas on their side.
For Boston, a few things are going to have to happen if they are to win this series and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
First, their offense must produce more consistently and that starts with second liners Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin.
They will also need the Tuukka Rask from games 1-4 in the Toronto series to show up and not the Rask from games 5-7.
It also goes without saying that injuries have really hurt the Bruins on the blue line. The status of Andrew Ference (lower body), Dennis Seidenberg (undisclosed injury) and Wayne Redden (lower body) remains uncertain putting more pressure on captain Zdeno Chara and rookies Dougie Hamilton and Matt Bartkowski.
So what’s the pick? We’ll put the black and gold glasses on for this one and say Bruins in 7.
-Speaking of B’s-Rangers, there are surprisingly still tickets available for games 1,2 and 5 in Boston. The tickets available range from $145 to $600 per ticket based upon location inside the TD Garden.
-And how about the fine line between success and failure? The talking heads on both Boston sports radio stations Monday were discussing who should be fired (Claude Julien, Peter Chiarelli or both) and what roster changes needed to be made if the B’s lost game 7 to Toronto. Tuesday, everyone’s jobs were safe in those same hosts eyes because of their thrilling game 7 win. The moral of the story? Just win baby!
-Fans of the new Big East Conference might be a little nervous to hear that the ACC is “thoroughly investigating” the idea of playing its men’s basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York according to ESPN. Despite the fact that the new Big East and MSG signed a deal to hold their men’s basketball tournament there through 2026, MSG apparently has many “outs” in that contract should certain benchmarks not be reached. That ESPN report also claims that the ACC is looking into the possibility of using the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn as well. If the conference were to strike a deal with either one of those arenas it would be a huge win for new ACC member Syracuse which has always drawn extremely well in the Big Apple.
-Is it safe to say that the Boston Red Sox were the equivalent of “fools gold” in the month of April?
-Although Lester and Buchholz have been the real deal thus far.
-Despite the fact that they will not beat the Miami Heat, I admire the toughness, grit and determination of the Chicago Bulls despite the rash of injuries they have sustained. Their performance in the postseason has been very Celtic-like.
-Speaking of the Bulls, I will be the first to admit that I thought that Al Horford was going to be the prize Florida player who would dominate at the NBA level. And while Horford has had a nice career with the Hawks, I’ll take Joakim Noah on my team any day of the week. The man gets every ounce of ability out of his body and plays with a passion and toughness that all players should play with.
-Raise your hand if you had the Memphis Grizzlies possibly upsetting the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semis. Just what I thought - no hands.
-A month after the tragic Boston Marathon bombings, the One Fund has reportedly generated $30 million in donations.
-On a personal note, this writer and play-by-play broadcaster for Brown University was extremely saddened this week after hearing the news of the alleged unprovoked attack on Brown men’s basketball sophomore forward Joe Sharkey. The Norwood, Massachusetts native was apparently sucker-punched by a non-Brown student on Thayer Street and suffered serious head injuries as a result of that punch and subsequent fall. Like the marathon bombing, it is senseless acts like this that make me wonder why some people choose to do the evil and senseless things that they do? Knowing Joe personally, I can tell you that he is a fine, young gentleman in every sense of the word and is NOT they type of person who would be looking for a fight. I hope you all will join me in devoting your thoughts and prayers to Joe that he may recover from his injuries. I also hope that they catch the moron who committed this crime and that the person do hard time behind bars.
