Bruins and Red Sox stuff

The Bruins played last night against Los Angeles without Zdeno Chara.  Chara has a (we think) knee injury and missed his first game of the season.  The Bruins were so afraid of playing without their best defenseman that they sat their #1 goalie as well.  Oh, and they still beat the Kings 3-0.  They got Paille back from a mild concussion, but they were also without Gregory Campbell who broke his foot in the Columbus game.  The good news is Chara traveled with the team for tonight's game in Ottawa.  The bad news is that GM Peter Chiarelli said this morning that the chances of him playing are only 50/50.

As for the Red Sox, they have finally made a couple of moves after looking like a bloated behemoth since the last season ended.  We've lost our GM, our manager, and our closer.  We have already replaced the GM and the manager (with a circus clown) and now we may have replaced the closer too.

According to ESPN they traded Jed Lowrie and Kyle Weiland to the black hole that is the Houston Astros for closer Mark Melancon.  Melancon had 20 saves for a team that only won 56 games.  I, along with about a billion other Sox fans, expected Josh Bard to step into the closer role, but the circus clown has stated that Bard will get a shot at starting this year.  I'm hoping they aren't putting all of their 9th inning eggs into Melancon's basket.  He might turn out fine, but there is a big difference between being a closer on an abysmal Houston team and being the closer in Boston.  We'll have to wait and see.  I wish him all sorts of luck though.

I liked Jed Lowrie.  He was a decent player who could play anywhere in the field.  He was hurt a lot though.  He might have been the every day shortstop at one point were it not for injuries.  I'd like to say something about Kyle Weiland too, but I don't know anything about him.

The Red Sox also affectively ended the Boston career of Jason Varitek this week by signing Kelly Shoppach.  Shoppach hit under .180 last year, in fact his season average was about the same as Varitek's second half average so clearly it's an upgrade.   Ummm... Either way, Jarrod Saltalamacchia will be the #1 catcher next year.  I sincerely hope Varitek is offered a coaching job somewhere in the organization.  As far as my non-baseball-talent-evaluating eyes can see he's done as a player.  He can probably sign on somewhere and milk it for another year or two, but he can't throw runners out anymore and he can't hit anymore.  What he can do is run a pitching staff.  I would very much like to see him hired as a bullpen or pitching coach.  Maybe not for the big league club right away, but at least place him in the system somewhere so that he can learn the new ropes and be ready to come back to Boston in a couple of years.  Varitek is always going to be a hero around here, and I would consider it a shame if he went to another team.