By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
With just three games remaining and a likely playoff berth in the cards, it isn’t too early to assess a rollercoaster regular season for the Black and Gold. Here’s a look at some of the studs and duds of the 2009-10 season:
The Jack Bauer Award: Given to the player who best exemplifies mental toughness in the midst of crisis, standing out from the rest to deliver results in the clutch.
Recipient: Tuukka Rask
Runner-Up: Patrice Bergeron
Without a doubt the Bruins’ savior of the season, Tuukka has been cool as a cucumber while overtaking Tim Thomas as the #1 goaltender. Although the depths to which Thomas has sunk this season have been significantly overblown–he hasn’t been spectacular, but he certainly hasn’t deserved the magnitude of criticism he has received–Rask has clearly become the superior goaltender, leading the league in both goals against average (1.99) and save percentage (.930) despite having appeared in just 43 games. Often keeping the goal-starved Bruins in games with his calm aura and steady positioning, Rask has been positively Bauer-like in ensuring that this season isn’t bombed to pieces.
The Maurice Clarett Trophy: Because awarding something named the “Maurice Richard Trophy” to the highest-scoring Bruins player this season would be an insult to The Rocket’s legacy, it seemed appropriate to [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
It looked like the Bruins were in for a fresh start after the Olympic break. Winners of four straight heading into the layoff, they appeared to finally be gaining steam and getting healthy.
But five games later, it’s the same old story.
Injuries and inconsistency.
The same two factors that have plagued the Bruins through this entire season of disappointment and bizarre twists are unwilling to disappear. The Bruins are just 2-2-1 since returning from their two-week hiatus, and as usual, they pretty much look asleep at the wheel. They blew three separate one-goal leads to the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, eventually losing in overtime. Tim Thomas finally had one of his signature games, flopping left and right to make impossible saves, but per usual, the whole team couldn’t find its game simultaneously.
To make matters worse, they may have lost Marc Savard–their most valuable forward–for the season after he suffered a grade 2 concussion on a nasty hit from Pittsburgh forward Matt Cooke. Zdeno Chara also missed the Toronto game and has been listed as day-to-day with a minor lower-body injury.
Perhaps of equal concern is that the Bruins, in desperate need of scoring, virtually stood pat on [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
It’s tough to endure two Bruins-free weeks, especially considering how well they played heading into the break. But, as you all know, there’s still hockey to be watched. I present you with five reasons to pay attention to the men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament:
5) Because it’s so much better than the alternative
Yes, involving the NHL in the Olympics makes for a terrible regular-season schedule, replacing the short all-star break with a
two-week gap. Yes, the competitive nature of the tournament itself hangs a shadow of injury concern over every team sending their best players to participate.
But Olympic hockey in itself is pure entertainment–something that isn’t really offered in the all-star game, which currently serves no purpose other than to collaborate the league’s top talents for a series of cheesy interviews and a painfully dull two-hand-touch scrimmage. Players actually put forth effort in the Olympics–which of course makes sense, because so much more is on the line. And the fact that something is at stake creates a spectacle that captures the interest of the viewing audience.
4) Offense!
On most nights, putting the puck in the net has been as puzzling as rocket science for the Bruins, who still rank 30th in the league in scoring. So it’s a bit refreshing to see the [...]

By: Andrew Bruss, YawkeyTalkies Correspondent
Even with a 20-10 win over the North Carolina Panthers under their belt, all is not well in the world of the New England Patriots. True, Randy Moss has been underperforming, and word of Tom Brady possibly having a bad shoulder are concerning enough, but the real problem lies in the drama. In-fighting, trash talking, and baby-mama-drama have all contributed to a season that has many Pat’s fans worrying about post-season prospects in a way New Englander’s haven’t since the days of Drew Bledsoe.
Incomplete passes and interceptions have proven to play a big part of the problem on the field, but for a sport as combative as football, the moral of the troops is just as significant as the force of the blitz.  Herein lies the problem.
For every interception Brady has thrown, Pat’s fans everywhere have been asking, “What’s going through his mind?” With a pregnant wife at home, that question was answering itself.  Plenty of folks are hoping that now that Brady and Gisele are proud parents, the cornerstone of the Patriots offense will be more capable of keeping his mind on the game.
But aside from Brady’ attention span, clubhouse politics have taken [...]

By: Scott Jackson, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
After Sunday’s game versus the Dolphins, the Pat’s first half is officially over. After throttling the Dolphins, the team moved to 6-2, good for first in the AFC East and third overall in the AFC. Now it’s time to grade game eight.

Quarterbacks:
Tom Brady completed 25 passes for 332 yards, including a 71 yard bomb to Randy Moss. The duo might’ve hooked up for another score, but rookie corner Vontae Davis came up with a beautiful interception. Though his performance wasn’t as impressive as his last two before last week’s bye, Brady looks to be back. In the first half of this season he threw for over 2300 yards and nailed 16 touchdown passes with only five interceptions. Just double those numbers, and you’ll see that Tom is on pace to be truely terrific again.
My Grade: A-
Running backs:
Laurence Maroney averaged a respectable 4.1 yards per carry, and ran for a touchdown. Kevin Faulk caught four passes for 35 yards out of the backfield. Both of those numbers are highly respectable for a team that doesn’t emphasize the run. Unfortunately though, the grade is weighed down by BenJarvus Green-Ellis’ drop in the endzone.
My Grade: B-
Recievers & Tight [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Correspondent
Down 3-1 to the Senators with under two minutes to play, the Bruins’ fifth loss of the season was inevitable. In fact–loyal fan that I am–I turned off the TV and chucked the remote, feeling I had better things to do on a Saturday night than watch the clock run out on yet another setback in a season marred with perplexing inconsistency. I whined to my sister via text that the Bruins, now a sub-.500 team, were nearly halfway to their loss total from all of last season. After all, they hadn’t shown much fight through their first nine games, so what was there to indicate the possibility of a last-minute comeback?
Of course, being a mercurial, pessimistic Boston sports fan, I disregarded the Bruins’ uncanny ability to claw back into games–a quality that carried this team through so many brilliant stretches last season, but seemed to be absent thus far in the 2009-10 campaign. Some of that magic must still be lingering, though, as I received a text barely a minute later: Mark Recchi goal, 3-2 Ottawa with a minute left. Feeling slightly ashamed, I tuned back in to see if there was a faint glimmer [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Correspondent
While one game certainly doesn’t determine a season, the Bruins have their work cut out for them after a shockingly one-sided 4-1 loss to the Capitals on opening night at the Garden.
After ten minutes of close, up-tempo hockey, the remainder of the contest was all Alexander Ovechkin & co. The Russian superstar finished the night with a goal and two assists, out-skating and out-muscling the Bruins in their own zone to create ample scoring opportunities. The Capitals cashed in twice on the man-advantage, outshooting the Bruins 34-20 overall.
Patrice Bergeron accounted for the Bruins’ lone tally, scoring on a breakaway midway through the third period. Other than that, Boston’s supposedly well-balanced offensive attack didn’t put much of a scare into Washington netminder Jose Theodore. The Bruins managed just three shots in the third period, and the power play was abysmal, registering just one shot over the course of five attempts.
This offensive ineptitude is certainly unfamiliar to the Bruins, who led the Eastern Conference in scoring last season. Timing is partly to blame; key offensive cogs Marco Sturm and David Krejci are returning from injuries after minimal preseason participation. However, it’s still disconcerting that Boston’s top three lines [...]