Bruins slide out of playoff position...

After last years regular season domination, no one thought the Bruins would fall so low that they'd be bumping elbows with the bottom dwellers. Alas, the time has come. The B's stand 10th in the Eastern conference with 54 points, the same number as the Islanders....ouch. Who or what is to blame due to the recent 1-7-1 slide? On offense they have struggled to convert power plays. In the past 7 games they did not score a single power play goal and currently are last in the NHL in goals scored. Blame the injuries maybe? No Marco Sturm, Steve Begin and most damaging Marc Savard. Not according to NESN's reporter Kathryn Tappert:

The injuries? It’s part of the game. The Bruins, believe it or not, are among the league’s best for man games lost. Heading into Sunday’s game against Carolina, Boston was ranked 24th among the 30 NHL teams. Translation: 23 other teams in the league have more bumps and bruises and players missing due to injuries than the Boston Bruins. No excuses.

Tim Thomas is doing all he can, although is having a sub-par season in comparison to last year. He ranks 16th of all goalies in the NHL with saves. While back up goalie Tukka Rask has a save percentage of .925. Pretty good, but sees a significant less amount of ice time.

Numbers only go so far, if the team morale is down in the dumps they wont play well. Tim Thomas said this after Saturday's loss to Ottawa:

Maybe ‘frustrated’ is not the right word. It’s part of it. You know, I’m disappointed. I think as an overall effort from the team, we gave a real good effort. We’re just not getting the results that we need to.

What's eating this promising team full of potential? Whatever it may be, hopefully it will be shaken off soon and they bounce back into playoff contention.

NCAA coaches flee from respected schools under investigation

As of last night, Lane Kiffin stepped down as Tennessee head coach and took the place of Pete Carroll at USC. Carroll accepted a job with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks earlier this week. Although he denies running away from USC's ongoing investigation, it seems suspicious that he is bolting from a program he invested so much time and effort into building.

Carroll said [his depature USC] “not in any way” did it come as a result of USC’s impending troubles. Among the allegations are charges that former USC running back Reggie Bush took cash and gifts from recruiters, and later violated rules by helping Carroll recruit Louisiana running back Joe McKnight. -- FOX Chattanooga

Tennessee's football program is also under close watch due to allegations of recruiting infractions. Kiffin pretty much sent out some bombshell to convince some barely legal kid to come play football for his program. If that's not genius then I don't know what is, too bad it's against the rules.

Since Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin took over in December 2008 after being fired as the Oakland Raiders' coach, the Volunteers have committed at least six secondary N.C.A.A. violations — unintentional violations that provide minimal recruiting or competitive advantage. Interviews with multiple recruits and their family members revealed that the N.C.A.A. has strong interest in Tennessee’s use of recruiting hostesses, students who are part of a formal group at the university that hosts all manner of prospective students at campus visits, including athletes. It is not clear whether the university sent the hostesses to visit the football players. -- NY Times

These Nixonian exits are the American way, are they not? Tell 'em Lane.

Finally!

As of yesterday afternoon around 3, notorious slugger Mark McGwire admitted in a tear-filled interview to the use of performance enhancing drugs during his MLB career. We all know he did it, it just came down to when he was going to come clean (no pun intended) and acknowledge it. According to McGwire, the reason he used HGH and steroids was to recover from injury faster, "I did this for health purposes. There's no way I did this for any type of strength use." McGwire claims he was given a gift to hit a baseball, and the fact that he used these drugs did not assist him in smashing all those home runs.

Tony LaRussa McGwire's manager during most of his MLB career reaffirms McGwire's claims, stating that he is one of the hardest working guys in baseball and still is. LaRussa and the Cardinals opened their arms to the ex-hero of St. Louis in October, putting them on his staff as hitting coach replacing Hal McRae. This was an obvious cry for help from McGwire to baseball. After hired we all played the waiting game, it was just a matter of time until he admitted his wrong doing and we got on with our lives. For those of you that see McGwire as a talentless hack who cheated his way to the top, go try and hit a 95 MPH fastball over 350 feet, then and only then can you complain.

Random thought: Maybe Pete Rose should give Mark McGwire's PR agent a call.

Ali Tribute

I usually don't watch youtube videos that run over 2 minutes, but I made an exception for this. If you have even the slightest interest in Muhammad Ali you'll appreciate this.



ALI BOOMAYE!

The Hawk makes the Hall

Andre Dawson was the only player to be elected to Cooperstown in yesterday's voting. The Hawk recieved 77.9% of the votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America, surpassing the neccessary 75%. Although Dawson was before my era, I vaguely remember him on the Red Sox during his final years after leaving his glory years with Expos and Cubs. The one thing I can recall of him was he could absolutely mash the ball he swung out of his shoes every time he took a hack. Anyways, congrats Hawk.

Some other notables who missed the cut:

Bert Blyleven (74.2%) 13th year
Roberto Alomar (73.7%) 1st year
Barry Larkin (51.6%) 1st year
Edgar Martinez (36.2%) 1st year
Mark McGuire (23.7%) 4th year

There are plenty of other notables, it's the Hall of Fame ballot, emphasis on the fame. This list is a of guys eho are more my generation or who are getting robbed for not making it aka the only pitcher with 3,000 strikeouts who is not in Cooperstown.

Patriots postseason hopes comes to a screeching halt.

**Thanks to Boston Barstool for the images**

I, along with the entirety of New England, witnessed what could be the end of any hope of the Patriots making far into the postseason. In a freak accident the NFL's leading receiver in catches, Wes Welker, tweaked his knee tearing his ACL and MCL. Brady's go to guy this season is now out for the rest of the season and possibly part of next year. Who's to blame here you ask? Belichick for playing him in a meaningless game? Absolutely not, this is the definition of freak accident, the first quarter of a week 17 game and he tries to make a cut and his knee buckles. New England fans have to step up and face the facts, God hates us this season and gave us our time in the sun. Now he's playing a cruel joke with this stunt. Brady, who knows alot about knee injuries spoke on WEEI today:

You can't replace him, there's no doubt about that," Brady said Monday in an interview on Boston sports radio station WEEI. "There's nobody that can substitute in for Wes and think that they're going to be Wes. He is everything you ask for.

"We've got to move on and we've got to go out there and play, and everyone I think in different areas has to pick it up. I have to play better, Julian [Edelman] has to play better, Randy [Moss] has to play better, the offensive line, running backs, tight ends, we all have to do more. I think that's the commitment we have to make to one another."

These are some big shoes for little number 11 to fill.