Connelly’s Top Ten - I’m Back - Not Fooling

1. Red Sox - Atrocious Baseball

* Go under on Red Sox - Evoldi and Price five months away from having their arms abused, Sale’s MPH is down (never would have signed him), Price, Betts feeling pressure for big contract, brick hands at third, bullpen
* Average Game time of the four game series 3:34
* Red Sox starters so far this year - 13.20 ERA / Average 3 2/3 innings
* A $236mm payroll and their three hitter (Devers) is a lifetime .256 hitter
* Someone should do a documentary on Steve Wright called “Since Pinch Running”
* The entire Red Sox bullpen has combined for 16 career saves
* Who I wouldn’t follow into battle - Eduardo Rodriguez
* By the way a recent publication listed the top 150 baseball prospects - Red Sox have ZERO - Dave Dombrowski has sold his soul

2. Patriots

* If Gronk had a press conference then he was done - social media exit means see you in November
* All the bouquets being sent to Josh Gordon tells me the Patriots know that he will be eligible to be back
* If Bob Kraft was a rapper his name would be “Krafty Kraft”
* Edelman is due for a major injury
* Every other man arrested in Florida are huge Bob Kraft fans as the Patriot owners plows through the courts spending millions and setting precedents for his new fraternity

3. Celtics

* People relying on Aaron Baynes to come back to solve the Celtics problems is as ridiculous as Doug Mirabelli getting a police escort from Logan to save the Red Sox day
* Bring back Isiah Thomas as sixth man next year
* Al Horford with Celtics 13.4 points / 7.0 rebounds —- Dino Radja 16.7 points / 8.4 rebounds
* Ainge will rightfully pick Brad Stevens over Kyrie
* Everything went wrong for the Celtics including their four pending first round draft picks - Clippers overachieved moving that pick into the 20’s / the Kings overachieved and that pick is in the teens / And Memphis underachieved and that pick was top 8 protected / Celtics pick - right in purgatory

4. Bruins

* Bruins are 12-3 when Pastrnak is not in the line up / 5-0 when he plays less than 15 minutes
* Carlo, Krug, Moore, Chara, Grzelcyk, McAvoy, Miller and Clifton combined for 653 shots and 26 goals - shooting percentage 3.9%
* Bang for the buck - Tuukka first season he won’t start 50 games in six years
* By the way isn’t this Brandon Carlo annual injury week

5. Final Four

* Twelve different teams in the last three final fours
* I would not take Zion Williamson with first pick - too small
* Duke’s last three games decided by four points

6. In honor or Kyrie - Divas in Boston

* Babe Ruth
* Ted Williams
* Bill Russell
* Paul Pierce
* Pedro
* David Ortiz
* Irving Fryar
* Russ Francis
* Nomar
* Rick Pitino

7. Old School - July 14, 1946, Red Sox versus Indians

* Ted Williams hit three home runs and knocked in eight runs
* 21 runs scored - Red Sox 11-10
* There were five pitching changes in the game
* Game took 2:36
* Williams had 13 total bases in the game
* Indian shortstop Lou Boudreau had 12 total bases with four doubles and a homerun

8. Amazing Stats - Career NBA Assists

Bob Cousy……6,955
Rajon Rondo - 6,940

9. Just a Little Bit Outside - In 1946, the parking lot behind Tasty Burger Kenmore Square - 17,000 square feet / fit 200 cars - went up for sale for $12,000 - At an $100 parking fee a game that lot makes $20,000 a night

10. Randomocity

* Onion Soup most dangerous for burning your tongue
* You can watch the entire Red Sox game on YouTube the next day in 15 minutes
* MY DVR is getting full with all the Patriots Super Bowls saved on it
* Reason to DVR - end of basketball games - the endless time outs are painful
* In light of the college admissions scandal - If you’re a college aren’t you going through every student that was admitted on the word of their coaches and then checking rosters to see if these kids ever played
* RIP Joe Bellino - a true gentleman, an under-rated sports figure in these parts and a throw back to when grace, civility and respect was part of our culture

Boston Bruins Need To Tighten Up Their End Game Before The Start Of Playoffs

Boston Bruins have been playing excellent hockey of late. They have scored 4 plus goals in all of the last 5 games. Two of those games were against playoff teams. Opposite that is the Bruins still control the second seed in the Atlantic. The only thing nagging them is allowing those late game goals. 

The Bruins game against the Tampa Lightning was a loss due to a late goal from Anthony Cirelli with only 53 seconds left in the game. That is just an unacceptable goal being this close to the playoffs.

Not only did it happen against the Lightning it happened last night in the Rangers game. Now the Bruins routed the Rangers by a score of 6-3. It was that third goal scored by Mika Zibanejad with only 4seconds left. Only 4 seconds left and they gave up a goal.

Giving up a goal that late in the game is not the to cap off a 6 goal night, where there had been stellar D prior to the goal. This is the time of year to square that kind of stuff up and get ready for the playoffs. Boston should not be allowing the team any kind of leeway in the final minutes of the game.

We saw this last night and against Tampa especially the forwards push when they should stay back and the D try and be aggressive in areas they need to hold. This happened on the tying goal in the Tampa Game. Brad Marchand made a nice steal at his blue line and it was a 3-2 rush. Then Charlie McAvoy tried to get involved. Pastrnak fell down after his shot.

Now Andrei Vasilevskiy made a great save but that gave Tampa numbers going the other way. Nikita Kucherov was also able to make a great shot off the rush and tie the game.

That brings up the next point Tuukka Rask is going to have to make some of those saves. That was a great shot by Kuch but Vasy had just made a huge save on the other end. If the Bruins are going to go deep in the playoffs Rask is going to have to come up with those saves.

Hopefully, the Bruins can clean up their end game before the playoffs, If they do that against the Leafs they won’t make it out of the first round.

Boston Bruins If 100 Percent Healthy Have A Shot To Get To The Stanley Cup

The Boston Bruins currently lie solely in second place of the Atlantic Division. They are only behind an uncatchable Tampa Bay Lightning at 108 points, and who have already locked up a playoff spot. With Tampa untouchable at the top, we will be looking at a Toronto Boston match-up in the first round. The Bruins have all the right pieces to make it happen.

After the end of a 19 game point (second longest in franchise history) the B’s look like the real deal. Now the past two games they have had to deal with injuries (Jake Debrusk, Kevan Miller, Jake DeBrusk, and newly acquired Marcus Johansson).

Even with the plaguing injuries, the Bruins have been playing solid hockey. The best part is that they are doing so against other top teams. The offense has come alive as of late and the defense is playing the shutdown D we expect from them.

The issues lie with the B’s inconsistency in playing a full 60 minutes. This inconsistency is what brought their 19 game point streak to an end on Sunday. Boston came out flat and gave up two goals in the first, one of which was a shorthanded goal. This is the other area that has given the black and gold trouble at times is the PK. Boston has allowed 13 SHG. The Bruins are ranked 9th in PK at 81.4 percent.

The good part is that is the only issue with their game right now. There are plenty more pluses in their game. The goaltending of late, especially from Tuukka Rask, has been unbelievable. (Last night was an exception). Once the B’s get healthy they will be a force.

The biggest piece is Jake DeBrusk who has shown he can show up in big games. Toronto will be a tough first-round match but they have beat the Leafs before. This year’s team is better than lasts. They have proven it as their 5 on 5 game is much better this year and they are one of the best 5 on 5 teams in the league.

Also, the B’s have shown that they can beat the Lightning and they have also been a great bounce-back team after a loss. Also, they have shown resiliency( as seen last night) with many come back wins. Now it is hard to win playoff games when down 2 or 3 goals, although it is something that teams will have to be aware of in a 7 game series.

As long as the B’s can continue to receive secondary scoring as they had in the 19 game point streak they will be able to beat any team. We will see them testes again as they face a high-powered Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.