Smitten

Spaz is the man, you all know that because I wrote about it on EagleInsider. Read all about it in posts by people smarter than me.

Now for an off topic posting of joy:

Seriously, I am just completely ecstatic right now because the Boston Bruins are amazing, and they just punk'd the Montreal Canadiens again. It was an incredible game and a thrilling 3-1 victory for the black and gold against the world's most loathsome professonal sports franchise.

VIDEO DUMP!

Watch here as Tim Thomas drops Andrei Kostitsyn like the bag of sh*t that he is after Kostitsyn cheap shots Aaron Ward - who appeared to be a bit shaken up and skating slowly on that shift BEFORE Kostitsyn decided to deliver an illegal blow. Kostitsyn got 5 minutes in the box, which later resulted in a B's power play which Zdeno Chara scored on. Thomas got 2 minutes, well worth it.

Now enjoy a fine example of "rough stuff" from the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs usually do their damage in cheap little wussy 5th grade schoolyard maneuvers, but sometimes they actually do face up and drop the gloves. Then, we learn why they generally resort to the little girl tactics: they usually embarrass themselves pretty badly in fights. Mike Komisarek, who is often praised for his 'toughness' and willingness to drop the gloves, had his face rearranged by Milan Lucic earlier this year and I love the excuse to re-post it:

Tonight, Chipchura decided to drop the gloves against Mark Stuart. Blake Wheeler flattened a Hab player with an admittedly questionable hit [although D'Agostino helped it along with a nice little belly flop] and Chipchura came to his teammate's defense... by fighting wearing a visor. What a tough guy! Stuart pounds on him anyway, and eventually succeeds in popping the helmet off. Then, watch what happens to the tough Mr. Chipchura. Literally seconds after the helmet comes off, he burrows into the glass and turns away from Stuart, and toward the linesman for assistance. It's almost as if I made this stuff up in my mind, how stereotypical Hab wuss it is. Fight with a visor on, then duck and cover as soon as it comes off. Amazing.

EPIC.

I need to find videos of the goals as soon as they're posted... a thunderbolt by Chara and a sweet Ryder-to-Krejci beauty were the highlights.

Bruins - Kessel - Sturm - Bergeron - Lucic - Fernandez > Canadiens... and the rest of the East in general.

Loving this team right now, which is very welcome since BC winter sports are a bit disappointing at the moment.

Scratching the hockey itch...

I'm finally done with finals [they went pretty well] and on break... and I'm already suffering from BC hockey withdrawals. No games until Jan. 2, no games that count until Jan. 9. 

Thankfully, I have the red-hot, first place Boston Bruins to tide me over. Last night, I attended the B's-Leafs game - a wild, 8-5 victory for Boston. 

Michael Ryder's goal makes it 7-5:

Adding a college hockey flavor to the night, Phil Kessel (Minnesota) netted two more goals to give him 21 on the year; Mark Stuart (Colorado College; sister attended BC) got into a nice fight in the first period; and Lee Stempniak (Dartmouth) picked up an assist for Toronto. The artist formerly known as "the rink rat," Elliot Olshansky, was in the house supporting Stempniak; I ran into him in the concourse after the second period.

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BC vs. Providence hoops tomorrow at 4 PM on NESN... as well as the start of bowl season. Wake Forest is in action against Navy at 11 AM.

In case you ever thought it might be

The politics behind the potential upgrades to and/or relocation of the Boston College T stop at the end of the B line is not particularly interesting, and I would not recommend choosing it as a paper topic.

Long story short, by the way: nothing's gonna happen. Hooray, the T!

Reason #12412313 why I love hockey

Going back to last night's Bruins game again, so slightly off-topic- but very much on the topic of what makes hockey so great.

Last night, late in the second period, the Habs were on a power play trying to pull back within two goals. Andrew Ference had his back turned to the play and was hit in the unpadded back of the knee by a bullet slap shot from the point. Ference hit the ice hard and couldn't get up for several seconds, giving Montreal a de-facto 5-on-3 in the offensive zone. Ference eventually mustered enough strength to pull himself up, then he stayed in position for the next :30 of the PK, essentially hopping along on one leg. 

With the puck in his corner and 10 seconds left in the power play, Ference took control of it and hummed it 200 feet down the ice, killing the penalty; he then limped slowly to the boards and left the game for good, but not before making a huge play that helped his team keep control of the game. What a warrior. He'll probably miss the next few games, but he still managed to make a great defensive play despite being in excruciating pain. When people say there aren't good role models in pro sports, it's obvious that they're not watching these guys.

And while toughness is a big part of hockey, the game can also be beautiful for its players' brilliance. Marc Savard, for example, is brilliant. Not only is he physically gifted with the ability to make astonishingly good passes, he's also so intelligent and makes such great decisions on the fly. The game is flying by at lightning speeds but Savard always manages to read it brilliantly and make the exact pass the Bruins need. And whether he is wide open, double covered, on his ass, on his stomach, or up against the boards,. Savvy's passes are almost invariably right into the tape of his target player's stick.

Last night was exhibit A. The first few seconds of this video show the B's 3rd goal against Montreal - Sturm from Savard with six seconds left in the first period. With 11 seconds left it looks like Montreal is about to clear the zone, but the B's keep it in; Ryder feeds a wide open Savard to the right of the net, who has a pretty clear shooting lane. 99 people out of 100 - myself included - are thinking SHOOT THE PUCK, the period's almost over! But Savard knows Price is in good position. He drags it back a little bit, drawing in two Canadiens defenders, then makes a perfect pass to Sturm crashing in from the point; Sturm bangs it past a hapless, out of position Carey Price. And this all happens within a matter of maybe 5 seconds, with the pressure of knowing there's less than 10 seconds left on the clock. Absolutely frigging brilliant play.

Liz McCartney for CNN Hero of the Year

Boston College alum Liz McCartney is one of ten nominees for this year's CNN Hero of the Year award. Voting is open here until Nov. 20.

McCartney is the co-founder of the St. Bernard Project, a non-profit organization aimed toward getting displaced New Orleans-area residents back into their homes. They have done incredible work so far. Read more about the St. Bernard Project.

Election Day

This is the time when I'm probably supposed to make some sort of happy non-partisan post about how we should all make sure we exercise our right to vote, regardless of who we vote for. 

But screw that. In all honesty, if you're a Republican, it would be fine by me if you just stay home. 

Go catch a movie, take your family out to dinner, or check out what's good on TV tonight. There's an interesting hockey game going on in Cambridge between Harvard and RPI... check it out! Tickets are only $8! Your vote isn't going to matter anyway, so why bother? :)

I kid (kind of). Obviously, whoever you are, you should get out there and vote. Your vote will matter, even in Massachusetts, because we face three very important ballot questions.

I have honestly been on the fence about all three, because the proponents and opponents of each have all made very convincing arguments and I can understand the logic behind voting either way on all three questions. I may even change my mind between now and the time I cast my vote.

For now, however, I'm pretty confident with my three choices: No, Yes, Yes. I think that when all is said and done, the winners will be No, Yes, No.

What do you think?

Off-topic: BREAKING NEWS!

Don't believe the tricks your mind is playing on you. The Boston Red Sox have never, ever, ever, in the entire history of the franchise, come from behind in an American League playoff series - especially from such a daunting deficit as 2-1 [shudder]. And particularly against such an experienced, fearsome opponent as the Tampa Bay Rays. Might as well cancel the rest of the games now.

Also, if the Red Sox get bounced from the playoffs (or should I say WHEN, since there's no way they could EVER possibly come back from a 2-1 deficit... EVER), fans should jump off the Tobin Bridge, since we have never seen this team (or any other Boston team, for that matter) win a championship. 

Commence mass suicide!

[Hopefully the moronic "YAHH DOOD, LET'S GO DOWN TO BEEAH WORKS GET PLASTEHD AN CHANT YANKEES SUCK" crowd gets this message and takes it seriously; that would significantly improve the Red Sox fanbase.]

For those who are reasonable, a reminder:

Weeee!

Earlier tonight, I was extremely ticked off about BC soccer's disappointing 1-0 OT loss to Duke despite dominating possession and shots on goal. But the combo euphoria of the Sox' game 2 victory over the Angels and the fact that it's the first HOCKEY GAMEDAY of the year make me not so upset anymore.

I'll be checking in this afternoon with some kind of epic live gameday thread chronicling the football game and the women's hockey game. Go BC!

Focusing on The Other Football

With the football team off this weekend, my focus turns to BC's soccer teams. I'll be at the women's game vs. Stony Brook tomorrow night at 7. After that, I'll try to catch the end of the BC @ Maryland men's game (start time: 8 PM) on ACC Select.

The Maryland game is an intriguing one - it's BC's first ACC matchup of the year after an up-and-down start to the non-conference slate. Maryland, coming off a 5th place finish in the ACC a year ago, is currently 3-1. BC is 2-1-1 after a tie against St. John's on Sunday.

The women finish the weekend with a Sunday afternoon tilt against Central Connecticut State at 1 PM in Newton.

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Meanwhile, my colleague and confidante Grant Salzano, a native of the New Haven area, will be at tomorrow night's BC @ Yale women's volleyball game and will report back with pictures. Thanks Grant!

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On the gridiron, there are a few interesting games to keep an eye on. The first one took place tonight ,as UNC dropped a bomb on hapless Rutgers, bringing me much delight. The only thing that could make me happier is if UVA somehow gets it together and beats UConn in Storrs on Saturday. You never know...

Maryland hosts a ranked opponent, #23 Cal, Saturday at noon. We'll have to hold our nose and root for TOBy as NC State travels to Clemson, while Georgia Tech heads to Lane Stadium to battle Virginia Tech in a game that will tell us a lot about the status of both teams. If GT entertains any ideas of making a run to Tampa, they need to make a statement in this game.

Toilet Bowl game of the week: Duke vs. Navy!


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Non-sports news: '08 BC grad Mark Desrosiers and his outstanding band, This Blue Heaven (official website), took part in this week's Boston Music Festival and hope to get enough votes to advance to the final performance at City Hall Plaza. Head over to ourstage.com and sign up for an account [it takes five seconds]. Then, go to http://www.ourstage.com/fanclub/thisblueheaven and click 'Become a fan' to vote for them to advance.

Eagles take action... :)

-JG

A perfect cap to the weekend

I had mixed emotions about attending the Bruins playoff game last night against Montreal. Don't get me wrong - I love the Bruins, I have since I was 3 years old. But I didn't want anything to dampen my enthusiasm from Saturday night, and the Bruins are very, very good at being buzzkills.

In the end, though, the Bruins game proved to be a fitting finale to an amazing hockey weekend.

I wore my beautiful, brand new national champs 2008 shirt to the game and got lots of comments for it. I was amazed by the amount of people in BC gear at the game - I even met someone who graduated from BC in '51 and knew guys from the '49 championship team. The Garden organ even played "For Boston" late in the third period.

And the game itself? Incredible. I've never experienced a more electric atmosphere at a pro game. It was an absolutely intense, carnival atmosphere, with the 6,000 or so Hab fans trying to take over the Garden and the Bruins fans fighting hard to drown them out.

The battle in the stands seemed to reflect the battle on the ice - the Habs clearly had more talent, seeming to glide down the ice and set up wave after wave of attack with relative ease, but the Bruins - led by Tim Thomas's outstanding performance in net - withstood the Canadiens' surge early in overtime, worked hard, and earned a game winning goal to pull themselves back into the series.

Marc Savard truly is an amazing player. In the 2nd period, he fed two absolutely gorgeous passes to Milan Lucic, but Lucic was unable to finish. I wonder how many assists Savard would have if he actually had people to pass to who could finish? It was only fitting that Savard finished this one off himself (with the help of a sweet feed from Dennis Wideman).

The march out of the Garden was awesome, with fans chanting, clapping, and ragging on Montreal fans all the way out the door. It was a small glimmer of what hockey in Boston once was - and, despite what the doubters say, could be again, if the Bruins become a contender over the next few seasons.

Championship rally tonight at Conte - pics to follow.

Savard's sweet game winner:

Even better than BC sports

BC tied BU last night 2-2, blah blah, lucky to earn the point, etc.

This morning, I got to do something even more fun and more rewarding than watching BC sports.

I volunteered at Admitted Eagle Day, the university's reception for students accepted early action into the Class of 2012.

I spent a few hours sitting down with accepted students, having breakfast , chatting, and answering questions. I eased some people's fears (no, you don't have to go to mass; no, not everyone is a J. Crew catalog model; no, not everyone is from Boston), gave a few people the truth even if it wasn't ideal (no, you can't have a car; yes, it gets cold here; no, we don't have a student union; no, we won't win the Beanpot), and gave them tips and hints on what to do if/when they matriculate (go to the hockey games [obviously, what else would I recommend], do community service, take the D line instead of the B line to go to Boston, eat at Roggie's your first weekend).

My biggest focus was just trying to have natural, relaxed conversations and let my true genuine enthusiasm for BC come through - and avoid cliches and statistics that every college in America tries to throw at prospective students. (It feels big and small! You're a name not a number!) One of the things I like best about the people who work for BC admissions is that there's a real sincerity to the whole process. This school sells itself, we just need to nudge people in the right direction.

I also like how enthused and passionate people are to talk about their interests here at BC. This really is a special place, and it rings through to a lot of these visitors when they get to sit down and have one-on-one conversations with us about the things we love to do and the opportunities we have here.

I tried to stress the idea of community, and being proud of fellow BC students and alums. That community is what makes BC special, and that network can be very helpful after graduation.

We have 3 or 4 more of these events coming up this year and I really can't wait. It's a lot of fun and it really brings me back to senior year in high school (although hearing "Class of 2012" makes me feel old).