Mixed Results

The Bruins scratched Chara, Bergeron, and Thomas last night and still beat the Senators.  The big story of the night was Anton Khudobin.  Holy crap!  44 saves.  He played out of his mind!  Just imagine if he really is as good as he looked last night.  Thomas, Rask, Khudobin... we'd be like goalie paradise!

The win gave the Bruins 100 points in the standings.  Remember when 100 points was impressive?  That was prior to the loser point for overtime games.  The Blackhawks have one game left.  If they either win or lose in overtime (the loser point) they will be the 10th team in the NHL to hit the 100 point mark.  That's one-third of the league.  Yeah, earning 100 points isn't what it used to be.

As for the Red Sox... well... opening day in Detroit pretty much went down exactly the way we feared it would.  John Lester and Justin Verlander were both lights out.  It was an awesome pitchers duel with both teams ace completely shutting down their opponents.  It was a great game to listen to.  By the time the starters were done it was 1-0 Detroit in the eighth.  Bring on Boston's bullpen.  Vincente Padilla comes on and gives up a second run.  That looked to be a painful development as Detroit's closer, Jose Valverde, didn't blow a single save throughout all of last season.  In the top of the ninth though, the Red Sox rallied to tie the game.  Then in the ninth Mark Melancon comes in and puts two runners on.  Then in comes "closer" Alfredo Aceves who hit the first batter he faced, and then gave up a game ending single to Austin Jackson.

Add me to the growing list of Boston Red Sox fans who are thinking that Daniel Bard needs to go back to the bullpen.  We can try the Bard-as-starter plan again next season.  We need a real closer right now, due to Andrew Bailey being out for at least three months, and he's the best option by far.  Let's be honest, he should have been named the team's closer the day Papelbon signed with the Phillies.

So once again we open the season with a painful loss.  Last year that lead us to the worst start in Red Sox history.  Here's hoping there really is nothing wrong with Josh Beckett's thumb, and the Sox come out on fire in game two tomorrow.

Go Bruins
Go Red Sox