I like our chances

Okay, I know that you never hear anything like that from me, the mega-pessimist fan. But after tonight's Game 1 of Montreal and Pittsburgh, I actually almost like our chances:

1. Tonight's team was tired. Very tired. Not sure if they will be awake by Sunday. But bearing that in mind, the game wasn't so bad.
2. Halak was definitely tired. Maybe you start Price next time. Maybe just some rest will help. Either way, get him more on his game, and maybe things will be okay.
3. The injury to Markov: if they can get a player up from the AHL, they can replace the missing defenseman. Again, they were already playing tried, then missing a player would have made them even more tired. That's fixable.
4. There is time to study some tape. The Penguins did some good things in this game, especially on the powerplay and defending against the powerplay. But I was seeing adjustments in the third period. You make some more, you look over what happened in this game, and voila, that's a formula for winning future games.

I have to say that for the first time in years, I really feel invested with this team. I like them. They can skate. They can pass. They have that certain je ne sais quoi associated with the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge (I believe the actual term for it is 'finesse'). Most of all, they had the grit and determination to come back from a 3-1 deficit and win Round 1. Go Habs go!

(Seriously, I don't remember the last time I felt this optimistic about a team, except maybe right after the Patriots signed Joey Galloway. Hm. I see. Optimism ends in ouch).

Habs win Round 1. Rating: Guarded Optimism

Now, I know that I am the eternal pessimist fan and that I had little/no faith in this year's Habs. But then I saw them in Round 1 and they played well, well enough that I thought, 'Maybe there is a chance.'

Well, there is more of a chance because they won a nailbiter on Wednesday, 2-1, to go on to Round 2. I almost got a bit teary-eyed, I am the first to admit. Coming back from a 3-1 deficit against the #1 ranked team was, for me, almost impossible, but somehow they did it.

It started with Halak's incredible amazingness in net. And we just went from there. Who knows if we can repeat this round (we haven't made it past round 2 in 17 years, after all). But wow, I am actually turning into almost an optimist.

Almost.

I still think we lose in Round 2, though.

Your Belichick of the Week (off-season edition)

Yes, he got one in while discussing the draft. As usual, the master is...well, the master:

'When we look at the board, based on everything we want in a football player at that particular time, we evaluate them and take the player that fits best for our football team. That’s what we always do, and I think the last nine years we’ve put a pretty competitive team out there on the field every year.'

Let's see, in 9 years we have won 3 Superbowls, made 4 Superbowl appearances, and been in the playoffs 7 out of 9 times. Yeah, I guess we haven't been too bad, now that you mention it.

I blame Theo

Well, last night's game turned out to be an entire roller coaster of emotions. We won. You might be thinking to yourself, 'How is that possible?' I mean, I saw the game and I'm still asking myself that question. But we did win, and here are some of the key points:

• We still allowed 9 stolen bases
• Big Papi was benched -- more on this below
• Lowell and Tek were brought into the game and made positive contributions (Tek did with a double and a walk, Lowell had a walk).
  
• Darnell McDonald ('Who?' You may be asking yourself. And rightly so. He was called up from Pawtucket as a possible replacement for Ellsbury) hit not only a 2-run home run to tie the game, but also an almost-Monster home run in the 9th to bring in the winning run. Red Sox Nation, being what it is, has already christened him 'D-Mac.'

So back to Big Papi. Sure, he's had a bad start this year. There is no question. And he's not really hitting; in fact, his average is .146, which is just not okay for a DH obviously. But what we've been seeing this year is not a happy man. He's been frustrated from the start. I'm calling out Epstein on this one. In a press conference at the end of last season, he made it very clear that unless Ortiz started producing, there would no longer be a place for him on this team. Papi seems to have listened. He lost a bunch of weight coming into spring training and he seemed committed to it (and he was even hitting then). So what went wrong? I think the pressure of knowing that he could be gone is getting to him, hence the breaking of the bat over his knee. I didn't like when Epstein called him out and I don't think that this move has helped anything. So yeah, Theo, on this one, it's your fault.

Ignore previous entry. The time has come to panic.

Now I know that I vowed not to panic until the end of June. My logic was sound. My intentions were good. But all that has evaporated with the events of the past week.

First, the Rays swept the Sox at Fenway. At Fenway. In a four-game series. This is normally where we can play. Other parks are generally where we cannot play so well. Plus the weather was cold and the Rays were wearing stupid flappy hats to deal with the cold, including manager Joe Madden. They should get classy tuques, like the Patriots -- although admittedly, they would probably need them maybe once or twice per year.

Now, there was a glimmer of hope in Game 1 against the Rays. Beckett pitched well. It was 1-1 through 8.5, then the game was postponed due to rain. The next day, the game resumed and we went on to lose 3-1. The pitcher to blame was (not surprisingly) Delcarmen, so I guess he hasn't got 'it' back. Sometimes I wonder if he ever had it to begin with. Remember last season when he didn't suck? Did I dream that?

Then everything went pear-shaped. I don't want to think about how badly we lost. But like a good Red Sox fan, I thrive in the face of grimness. So the scores were: 6-5 (we got all of those runs late), 7-1, and 8-2. Yes, really. We were 0-30 with men in scoring position, or something like that (by which I mean we may have been 0-25. It was awful). In fact, we had last scored a man in scoring position on April 15 against the Twins, meaning that we almost went for a week without scoring a man in scoring position.

Now we are playing against the Rangers. They are not very good. In fact, their record is really not that much better than ours (they are 5-7, we are 4-9). But that's not even the bad part. We are in the 5th inning and:

• The Rangers are up 6-2.
• We have allowed 9 stolen bases. That's a record for the Rangers. That ties a record for us going back to 1913.
• Wakefield is a mess --> wasn't he good at some point last year too?
  

So yeah, you know what? It's okay to panic. Go right ahead. Remember last year when I proclaimed that the Red Sox were a freaking disgrace? We have moved into a whole different league of disgrace here. I've even gone so far as to bring out the 'Red Sox annual collapse' tag and it is only April.

He's earning his place on the roster

Guess which catcher came into today's game with a .500 batting average and has maintained that average with another home run?

Jason Varitek.

(Okay, so if you've been paying attention this season, you might have guessed that, but I'm pretty sure you would not have predicted that a month ago).

So far, V-Mart has not exactly been fab as a catcher. Maybe keeping Varitek was the right move? Could there be a fight for the starting position?

Need I point out that Varitek's first name starts with 'J'? Huh?

And while we're asking questions, why didn't we get someone up from Pawtucket to replace Bill Hall in outfield? Not only is his fielding a disaster zone, his batting average is .000. And he's already played in 3 games. Seriously.

Dare I dream?

I should really know better by now than to dream about the Habs and playoff success, but they played very well tonight. It was Game 1 of Series 1, which means that there is a whole lot of hockey left to go before the Stanley Cup -- they should be wrapping up by June-ish, just in time for World Cup.

(Hockey season is far too long).

They beat the Washington Capitals, who are ranked #1, by a score of 3-2. In overtime. In proper overtime, no less. None of this '4 skater' nonsense or shoot-outs like in the regular season. That is demeaning to hockey. I'll bet, somewhere, that old-time hockey heroes roll in their graves during shoot-outs. But now that we are back to the playoffs, we are back to sudden-death overtime, and that makes for some good hockey.

Plekanec scored a super nice goal to win the game. Halak was a monster in net, with 19 saves (!) in the first period alone. And Montreal actually was skating, passing...all the things that they have been attempting to do (and not quite doing) for years. I mean, this is not a revival of 70s Habs hockey or anything, but when they had it together, they looked pretty good. Line changes...not so much.

I love how since the Olympics, suddenly everyone pronounces Plekanec's name differently, although I still don't think that most of the announcers have it right.

Okay, dare I say it: Go Habs Go! Although if history is anything to go by, they will win Round 1, then keel over and die in Round 2 (see, most recently, 2007-08, but it's happened a whole lot of times over the past 17 years since they last won the Stanley Cup).

....now that is amazing, it has been 17 years since they last won the Cup. Yeesh.

The annual switch from Football Mode to Baseball Mode

I shall not panic until the Red Sox until early June. In any capacity whatsoever. Here is my logic:

1) In football, you really shouldn't start panicking until around 3-4 games in. Since there are 16 games in the season, that means 25%.

2) In baseball, were one to panic 3 games in, there would still be about 98% of the season remaining. So employing football panic logic, there is no need until around a quarter of the season has transpired, which would put you 40 or so games in. I've just estimated that this would be mid-May, so panic need not ensue until that time. And even then, there is an awfully long time to correct mistakes, unlike in football.

That being said, it's a bit hard sometimes to switch modes, particularly after losing 2 out of 3 to the Evil Empire. I could say that I want Papi to get it together. I could be unimpressed with our bullpen and name names (Okajima/Delcarmen/Ramirez). But it's too early for all of that.

(Right?)

I do have to say, it's hard to switch modes. We were wicked awful at the beginning of last season though, and we got it together in the end.