Buckle Up!

It’s time for one of the most exciting stretches in professional sports, Boston sports fans.  The basketball and hockey playoffs are about to kick off.  So strap on that safety belt, we should be in for a fun ride.

The Boston Bruins have had a good regular season in which they were able to capture their division title and finish the year in the third position for the Eastern Conference playoffs.  Goaltender, Tim Thomas, has had a historically remarkable season.  His .9381 save percentage beat the previous single-season record held by Dominik Hasek (.937) set back in the 1998-1999 season.

This is a good sign, because, like Thomas is hoping to do, Hasek led his team all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals that year.  Thomas would like to one up Dominik once again and get a victory to bring Lord Stanley’s cup back to Boston.

They’ll face a very familiar foe in the first round.  The Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins have been bitter rivals since the very beginning as both teams are part of hockey’s “original six.”  The hatred has not subsided throughout the years and this season has certainly not been an exception.

Earlier this year, Zdeno Chara checked Canadiens player, Max Pacioretty, into the boards and he was unfortunately knocked unconscious and suffered a minor spinal injury.  The intent behind the hit did not appear to be malicious in nature, but Montreal fans and citizens would not agree with that assumption.  The Montreal Police actually launched a criminal investigation on the hit, which is absolutely absurd, but goes to show the intensity surrounding this rivalry, setting the table for a must-watch series.

While Boston lost the season series 4 games to 2, the most recent matchup was full of fist-fights and a flurry of Bruins offense.  Boston won the game 7-0 and looked like a much more complete team.  This series should not disappoint.  With home ice advantage, look for the Bruins to win a hard-fought, first round battle.  My prediction; I’m glad you asked.  The Bruins win it in five games.  As for the rest of the playoffs, look for the Bruins to avenge a heart-breaking defeat in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals against the Flyers and represent the great city of Boston in the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Boston Celtics have also won their division and, like the Bruins, have also claimed the third spot going into the NBA playoffs.  Their road has been a little bumpier though.  Similar to last season, they did not end the year well and appeared to be limping into the post season. 

 

They finished as the fourth seed, but managed to fool everyone, getting all the way to the finals, and, if Kendric Perkins doesn’t suffer a knee injury, the Boston Celtics would have most likely won their 19^th championship.  This year, they will have to try and do it without Perkins again, but for the entire playoffs, as he was traded away to Oklahoma City just before the trade deadline.

In their last 19 games, the Celtics are just 9-10 and have failed to display any sort of consistency on either end of the court.  In two recent games in which they really needed a victory, they completely fell apart, losing to both Chicago and Miami by double digits.  The Miami loss was incredibly disappointing, as it was dubbed as potential second-round playoff preview if both teams are to survive their first-round opponents, but ended up being their worst loss of the season.

The Celtics will face the sixth-seeded New York Knicks to open the playoffs.  Though Boston dominated the regular season series, 3-0, the Knicks acquisition of Carmello Anthony has made them a much more dangerous team offensively.  The Celtics do, however, have a distinct defensive and experience advantage, and those are two things that usually win out in the post season. 

 

The aging Celtics have been unable to avoid injuries this year and the health of two important players may determine just how successful Boston can be this post season.  In an unfortunate event, Delonte West re-injured his right ankle in the game against the Wizards.  The injury sidelined him for a couple of weeks earlier in the season.

 

West had really been playing well off the bench, and his presence allows Rondo to gain some valuable rest with not much drop off in production from the point guard position.  Doc Rivers indicated in the post-game press conference that no timetable has been set for his return.

Shaquille O’Neal had been fighting an Achilles injury for the last two months.  He finally returned to action last week and five minutes into the game, he suffered a calf strain on the same leg.  It was an incredibly deflating feeling, because he supposedly is the reason why Kendric Perkins was so disposable.

 

Without him on the court, the Celtics are lacking a legitimate low-post presence that has been such a vital part of their strategy for the past few seasons.  It’s really quite a dicey situation in Boston if our playoff hopes rely on the health of a 39 year-old center that has only played in 37 games this year. 

 

But, the Celtics somehow seem to pull it together in the face of adversity come playoff time, so let’s hope my ominous feelings are misguided once again.  The first round should not be a pitfall for the Celtics, and I think they should be able to pull it off in six games.  Beyond that, unfortunately, I cannot make any further promising predictions, but I’ve been wrong before.

I can sit here and make all the predictions in the word but as it’s often said in sports, “That’s why they play the games.”  Therefore, sit back and enjoy the show.  A lot of cities and a lot of teams are left with nothing to cheer for this time of year.  We have two teams with a great shot at making history, and despite the obstacles that they may face, in the words of our good friend, Kevin Garnett, “Anything is possible!”