Posted by Jessica Camerato

Partially in thanks to Big Al, this became ...

Al Jefferson’s talent is old news to Celtics fans who watched him shine in the days of 18-game losing streaks and failed youth movements. After all, he was the main attraction for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Kevin Garnett deal.

But the spotlight doesn’t shine on the T’Wolves and Jefferson is overshadowed by big men on winning Western Conference teams. Until his squad is a postseason contender, Big Al will struggle to receive the same recognition as players like Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, and David West.

This season, though, one of Jefferson’s newest teammates is spreading the word of his talent. Rookie Kevin Love, who is blogging on NBA.com, is already advocating for more publicity for his mentor.

... this.

“Al’s great to me, especially in practice. There are people who like to say he’s not athletic, he’s a below the rim player, he can’t run, and that’s what some people say about me. But people focus on what he can’t do rather than what he can do. He’s going to come out and get 20 and 10 and in practice he works his butt off, he’s one of the hardest workers, if not the hardest. It shows on the court and on the stat sheet. You can’t really do much to stop him. He’s just a great player.”

Thanks to K-Love, Jefferson is getting the love he deserves.

Posted by Mike Petraglia

For the Bruins, Saturday night was alright for fighting and pounding the opponent into submission. Marco Sturm scored twice and the two teams combined to take 36 penalties for 146 penalty minutes, including seven game misconducts (Dallas 4, Boston 3) as the Bruins scored three third period goals to shoot down the Stars at TD Banknorth Garden.

Milan Lucic said while Sean Avery and Steve Ott were trying to draw them into a cheap game, the Bruins kept their cool.

Lucic said it was great to get Marco Sturm rolling with his first two-goal game of the season.

Mark Stuart, who scored in third period, said it was great to give Tim Thomas some support in net.

Bruins captain Zdeno Chara said it was a physical game.

Chara said the Bruins weren’t about to get pushed around in their building.

Posted by Joe Haggerty

The Sturm face was proudly on display in the first period

Prior to last night’s 5-1 thrashing of the Stars, Bruins coach Claude Julien asked Marco Sturm to “be involved more” following Saturday morning’s pre-game skate.

Sturm and the rest of his teammates were all heavily involved in a thrilling fight-fest that moved me to ask if this was the return of the Big, Bad Bruins – or at least as close as they’ll ever get in the kinder, gentler version of the NHL.

The B’s winger didn’t waste any time obliging — and he did so without any need for Draconian punishments like a punitive benching or a red-faced tirades from his hockey coach.

Sturm ended a seven-game scoreless streak with a slapper from the left face-off circle just 2:41 into the first period off a nice behind-the-net dish from rookie Blake Wheeler. The score was Sturm’s second strike of the season and the amazing ninth time this season in 12 games that the Black and Gold have scratched first blood.

The assist on Sturm’s first goal was also the first helper of Wheeler’s NHL career to go along with the three goals he’s scored over the first dozen games. Sturm added a third period tally to give him the two-goal evening, and the move to pair Sturm with David Krejci appears to be paying immediate dividends all around.

“It was nice. He needed to react, and not just react but find his game,” said a satisfied Julien after the game. ”I thought [Sturm] played better tonight and he was in the right spot, even on that last goal he was in the right place and he buried [his opportunities]. I thought he was a better player tonight.”

The B’s ended up taking the 5-1 decision over the Stars in a very chippy, conentious, entertaining Old Time Hockey-style game that featured Stars agitator Steve Ott twice refusing to drop both his stick and the gloves when Shawn Thornton and Shane Hnidy circled round looking for a fights — one after a hit aiming for Stephane Yelle’s leg that Lucic later termed “gutless”. Hnidy actually dropped his stick and his gloves to go with Ott, but the 6-foot, 193-pounder thought better of it each time and held his stick vertically to shield himself from his Black and Gold challenger. 

Eventually Andrew Ference and Sean Avery dropped the gloves after the Bruins defenseman — who earned the Third Star in the win and continues his impressive early season play – leveled Ott with a clean open ice hit in the third period. That hit also turned out to be a big turning point in a game that was still squarely in the close category in the third period. 

In the end, the combative game had 177 penalty minutes and seven misconducts and made many spectators wish these two teams played each other again during the regular season.

–The Bruins much-maligned penalty kill unit also looked better after six successful kills of Dallas PP’s throughout Saturday night’s game — a testament to the work they’ve put in to exert more pressure on the points while also just getting tougher aroun their own net.

Julien said before the game that the solution to the PK’s problems were pretty simple: “It’s just being proactive. The puck has to go all the way down [to the other end of the rink] and we’re soft on the puck when it comes time for scoring chances. These are the areas that I think will improve our penalty kill and will improve our goal production.”

For two periods Ott and Sean Avery attempted to draw penalties from annoyed Bruins skaters and their aggravating tactics actually allowed the Stars to gain some man advantage opportunities in the second period. But their agitating, sandpaper ways finally backfired on them and the rest of their Stars teammates in the third period. Avery leveled Milan Lucic from behind midway through the third in the final coup de grace of what been a pretty dirty production of hockey put on by both Avery and Ott all night – and all heck broke loose at that point.

Marc Savard came to the aid of the fallen Lucic and started pounding on Avery, and then both players worked over the Vogue intern while separate bouts involving Shane Hnidy and Mark Stuart took place. Savard, Lucic, Hnidy Mark Stuart, Ott, Avery, Matt Niskanen [how did a peace-loving Fin with zero penalty minutes headed into tonight get involved in all this?] were all done for the night when they each got 10-minute misconducts with less than nine minutes to play.

Apparently even some of Ott and Avery’s teammates had a serious problem with some of the underhanded things they were pulling out on the ice in the third period.

“Tonight it seemed to be idiotic,” said Stars elder statesman Mike Modano. “It’s stupid. It’s one of the more embarrassing things I have seen, on the ice and involved with the fans. In 20 years, I haven’t seen anything like it. If that’s what we’re going for, maybe I need to find myself an office job.”

The Stars were shaking their heads and dropping F-bombs in their locker room while the Bruins seemed a tighter, more resolute bunch after standing together and sticking up for each other.

“It was good to see everybody pile in their and come to my aid, but most importantly we got the win,” said Lucic. “In the end we all stuck up for each other and it’s only going to make us stronger going down the road. It was a good character game and a good character win for us. Savvy came in here after the game saying that he was a killer, but obviously it was nice what he went out there and did.

“Hnidy said to me as we were coming off the ice that it felt like a junior hockey scrum out there, so yeah it felt like Old Time Hockey,” added Lucic. “What we need to do is bottle this up and make sure we have some of it for Thursday [against the Leafs.]“ 

–Somewhat overlooked in a penalty-filled Saturday night flashback to the glorious days of the Big Bad Bruins was the work of goaltender Tim Thomas, who made 35 saves in the 5-1 victory and was again rock-solid between the pipes. The win was his fourth consecutive start for the Bruins and it would seem he has clearly wrapped up the starter’s role with the B’s. The All-Star goaltender mused that the sketchy Stars must have received the wrong scouting report on the Bruins when they attempted to pull the McFilthy and McNasty routine with penalty box buddies Ott and Avery.

“We’re a clean team, but we’re not going to let anybody push us around or play dirty with us,” said Thomas. “I think we did a good job of sticking up for ourselves and showing what kind of character we have. I don’t know what kind of scouting report they had on us, but I think they picked the wrong team to try to do that to.”

Flyers goalie Ron Hextall was one guy that never saw a brawl he didn't want to be a part of...

The B’s netminder actually thought he might get involved in the third period donnybrook when beleaguered Stars goalie Marty Turco skated out toward center ice following the Avery hit from behind on Lucic. Turco has had a terrible season thus far, and it could have been he was looking for the rare-but-always-entertaining goalie scrap. The Dallas goaltender stopped, however, once he saw Thomas make a move near the pile of skating pugilists.

“It’s actually some of the hardest games to play because you get your adrenaline going a little bit even though you try to stay as calm and even-keeled as you can be,” said Thomas. “When Fer [Andrew Ference] got hit and then stood up for himself I got a little excited, and it’s hard to finish out a game that way.

“I wasn’t going to let [Turco] into the pile. It looked to me like he was going to try to get into the pile, so that’s why I skated over to the other side of it,” added Thomas. ”I think he’s the one that made the suggestion by coming to center ice, and I just responded by getting over to the other side of the pile and saying ‘I don’t think you’re going to go any further’ and he stayed there. I can’t remember a game like that for a long time…maybe the AHL. I haven’t experienced  anything quite like that before.”

–Below I’ve included the transcript of Mike Modano’s comments provided by the crack Bruins media relations staff following Saturday night’s game. It seems that the longtime Dallas Stars forward was none too pleased with his team’s careless lack of discipline in a game that was still close in the third period. 

Modano and dumb penalties don't get along...

DALLAS STARS FORWARD MIKE MODANO
On the team’s identity

…
Tonight it seemed to be idiotic.  It’s stupid.  It’s one of the more embarrassing things I have seen, on the ice and involved with the fans.  In twenty years that I haven’t seen anything like it.  If that’s what we’re going for maybe I need to find myself an office job. 

On the physicality of the game…
Yeah, I mean it got out of hand, it was still a 2-1 game and then we find ourselves blowing it again, putting ourselves in trouble with dumb penalties and dumb situations.  That’s kind of the trend it’s been all season.

On the cause of the frustration…
There isn’t any mental toughness, that’s kind of one of the big things.  Everything we’re letting get to us.  We’re letting the refs get involved in the game with us.  We’re spending more energy on them than the details of winning the game.  It’s another thing that’s been a bad part of our game.

On the goaltending performance of both Tobias Stephan and Marty Turco…
They’re doing about as best as you can ask for them, but the quality of chances are just like doorstep goals and outnumbered rushes again.  You can put two goalies in there; those are still going to go in.  You allow those quality type of chances, I don’t care who you have in net.

On trying to fix the team…
Well, I don’t know if you can put your finger on something.  Moving the puck, I don’t know, practice skating, getting shots on the net, things like that.  Defending is probably first and foremost.  We come off a couple of hard practices and we have one of our best defensive games of the season against Minnesota.  Back to the same old.  Less is more sometimes.  Just getting the puck out and then getting it in.  Hopefully your forecheck can create something for you and go from there.  To look to create, there aint nothing there.

Posted by Jessica Camerato

Before even winning a championship last season, the Boston Celtics were targets every time they hit the road. The hype surrounding the Big Three was enough to make every game significant for their opponent and one in which they amped up their intensity.

After spending last week in the comforts of the TD BankNorth Garden, the Celtics are shipping out for their first road trip of the regular season. The three-stop tour will take them from Indiana to Houston and end in Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.

The defending champs don’t expect to be welcomed with open arms and explain why:

Kendrick Perkins: “This first game (of road trip) is key. I think we need to go out there and establish ourselves early and don’t give a chance for the fans to get involved and just go out there and play Celtics ball and we’ll be alright.”

Glen Davis: “My guess is that we’re the champs. We’re last year’s champs. We have a reputation to hold on to and the odds are going to be against us but hey, what do you expect?”

Leon Powe: “We’re just going to go out and play well and set the tone early. We are just going to stay within our rules and hopefully we can pull the game out. But we’ll come out with the same intensity we came out with tonight (Friday against the Chicago Bulls) and get the win.”

Eddie House: “I expect the same thing we’ve been expecting since last year. Everybody was gunning for us last year because people pretty much crowned us the champions before we actually went out and did it. People were gunning for us because we had the Big Three and stuff like that so I think that by us winning it, people are going to come out a little bit harder and I think we’re ready for that. One thing about that is they’re going to come harder but we’re going to come even harder.”

Tony Allen: “I ain’t really worried about that. We’ve got to go out there any play any how. They were tough last year, they were gunning for us last year so it’s going to be times two.”

Head Coach Doc Rivers: “Not very well, I would say (of the expected reception). But that’s fine. That makes the games better. I didn’t think we were received well last year in retrospect. Teams wanted to beat you and they should. That’s what it’s all about and that’ll be nice, that’ll be fun. It’ll be a new experience for our guys and it’ll be a challenging experience for our guys.”

Posted by Mike Petraglia

Well, we’ve made the point already here that these two teams are certainly not what they were last year and neither is playing the championship caliber football to which their followers have grown accustomed. But the Patriots do appear to be hitting their stride more and more with Matt Cassel calling the signals. Home field didn’t hurt in wins over Denver and St. Louis. But now, the task becomes much more formidable as the Pats take to Indianapolis and the brand new Lucas Oil Stadium for a match-up with the team that is a stunning 3-4 through seven games.

It may not be that much of a stretch to argue that Cassel is having a better year than Mr. Congeniality himself. Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Cassel has the better credentials or that Manning’s career doesn’t get him into Canton on the first ballot because clearly he’s on that path. But consider… Manning has 10 TDs, 9 interceptions, a QB rating of 79.0 and his team is 3-4. Cassel has 7 TDs, 6 picks, 84.6 rating, a team that is 5-2 and tied for first in the AFC East AND Cassel has taken over for the greatest quarterback on the planet. The only thing missing from Cassel’s resume is a Super Bowl MVP trophy and a gig on SNL.

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Here’s what to keep an eye out for as the Pats look to win three straight games for the first time this season.

1. Matt Cassel’s comfort zone on the road. He’s had it in certain stretches during road wins over the Jets and San Francisco but completely lost it in San Diego with the spotlight of Sunday night football glaring down on him.

Cassel says, in his mind, these Colts are no different.

2. Find out if the Colts secondary is up to the task. The Colts lost starting corner Marlin Jackson to a knee injury early in the week and another starter, Kelvin Hayden is coming back this week after missing the last three weeks with knee and hamstring issues.

Ellis Hobbs says Sunday night football is a crazy scene.

3. Hope that Patriots secondary is up to the task. While Marvin Harrison is fourth on the Colts in receptions (23) behind Reggie Wayne, Anthony Gonzalez and Dallas Clark, don’t forget that he is still one of the best big-play receivers on the field. Combine that with Gonzalez and Wayne, and you see the clear need to keep the receivers in front of you.

Dallas Clark says the Colts have been just off this year.

4. Bear down in the Red Zone. Ask defensive coordinator Dean Pees and he will tell you that the big plays that have really burned the Pats this year are the ones that have ended in touchdowns, including the 69-yard bomb to Donnie Avery last week.

“Jonathan Wilhite went airborne to make the tackle and we held them out the first time down there in the red area, so they came away with three points,” Pees said. “It’s kind of the same way on that play. Yeah, we gave up a big play, but had we just made the tackle, who knows, we might have been able to hold them there in the red area. That’s where you just can’t do it. That was the thing that killed us in San Diego, going all the way back there was, it wasn’t only a big play, it was a big play for a touchdown. A big play is one thing. We gave up one against Kansas City, remember, and then we held them in the red area. We’ve got to secure the tackle. But on that particular play they got us in man coverage and it was a good route and the safety bit a little bit and they knocked each other off.”

5. Apply the same principles to Peyton Manning that worked against Jay Cutler and the Broncos.

“The scouting report looks like a phone book,” Belichick said. “Offensively, we all know what the story is there.”  Manning is as good as we play.” They’ve gotten a lot better on defense the last couple of years.  You have to be alert on them every play of the game. Last year it was a 75-yard touchdown on a two-yard screen pass.”

Pees highlighted the fact that the Colts are similar to the Broncos in that they throw underneath a lot, looking for their skill players to make big plays out of small ones, like Belichick referenced above.

“Maybe even more so with Indy,” Pees said of the Colts’ ability to spread a defense thin. “The fact that-I think I’ve stated it once before-there are some quarterbacks that can make some throws. Not every quarterback can make every throw. Some guys can’t throw a 20-yard comeback, so they’re going to dump the ball down inside, dump the ball off to the backs, timing routes, things like that. They can’t just gun it in there. There are some quarterbacks that do nothing but just gun it in there, stare the receiver down and try to rely on their arm. The problem is with Manning is he is all of the above. He can throw a 20-yard comeback. He can put touch on it in the seam.  He’s thrown some passes-he threw one, I still remember, against us up there two years ago that was a seven-route, post-corner route, that the guy was catching it just as his foot was stepping right on the sideline and it was a rope. You didn’t even realize-it wasn’t like it was John Elway standing back there and you could just see how strong his arm was. It was just a tight spiral. This guy can throw every route, so you talk about stretching the field, this team can stretch the field better than anybody. Denver does it because of scheme; this [team] can do it because of the quarterback. He’s a great quarterback, he really is.”

Final Cuts:

Bill Belichick on not having Brady against Manning this week: “I know this is hard to believe but we never sit there and say if we had Jim Brown we could run this, if we had Tom Brady we could run this or if we had Willie McGinest we could run this (defense). (Manning) sure is (dangerous as ever) he really doesn’t have any weaknesses.”

Dean Pees on what to expect from the Colts: “I see the same thing I’ve always seen from the Colts. It’s not a lot different this year. They’ve got so many weapons in Reggie Wayne, [Marvin] Harrison, [Dallas] Clark, and [Anthony] Gonzalez and they can run the ball. This is an explosive offense and some of the things that they have maybe missed on this year they’ve missed maybe by inches, where maybe a year ago or something they caught a same pass and this year it’s been off by inches. But I see the same explosive offense and they’ve just got a lot of people to defend; that’s always been the problem with them. It’s not so much that you get multiple formations and all this kind of stuff like some of the teams you play against where you’ve just got all these different looks and every week it’s going to be something different. They do what they do and they do it very well.”

Final Take: There can be no mistaking that Indy is the more desperate team. And as was the case against the Chargers on Oct. 12, the desperate team usually plays like it on their own turf.

Colts 27, Patriots 21

Posted by Mike Petraglia

As the Celtics sit in Indianapolis standing 2-0 on the infantile season, let’s take a look back a defensive shutdown performance that had every fan of the Green seeing visions of last year’s title run dancing in their heads more than Gino on Halloween. (Great call, Jessica!)

Paul Pierce said the Celtics just took the heart out of the young Bulls early on.

Kevin Garnett told his teammates that this one was on him after going 5-for-15 in the opener.

Doc Rivers loved his team’s energy from the get-go.

Doc Rivers on playing with momentum going on the road.

Kendrick Perkins said it’s important to get the roadtrip off to a good start.

Posted by Joe Haggerty

I really don't need any excuse to just keep posting this picture...the Marco Sturm face says it all

One gets the feeling that changes are impending when a hockey coach says his team is “soft on the puck”, and that’s exactly what seems to be in store for the B’s tonight. Speedy Bruins winger Marco Sturm and centerman Patrice Bergeron have been broken apart, andthe streaky Sturm was paired with cerebral center David Krejci and rookie winger Blake Wheeler on the third line.

Sturm has only one single goal and four assists in the team’s first 11 games and hasn’t been nearly enough of an offensive force for a team that’s languishing in the lowest third of the NHL in terms of scoring — the B’s are 21st overall in the NHL with 2.64 goals per game. One year ago today, Sturm had 4 goals and 6 assists in the B’s first 10 games and was much closer to the player that potted 27 goals in each of the last two seasons and has been a work of German ingenuity on the man advantage. He did later go on to have an 11 game stretch in late November/early December without notching a lamp-lighter, and likely dipped into some of the bad habits and soft play that’s currently causing his offensive game to sag.

In coach Claude Julien’s estimation, Sturm hasn’t been fully involved physically and shown his typical steely determination over the first 11 games of the season and that’s played out statistically in his last handful of hockey contests. The 30-year-old from Dingolfing, Germany did register six shots against Edmonton in 15:51 of ice time on the first night of the Western Canada road swing, but mustered a pitiful grand total of one shot on goal in the games against Calgary, Vancouver and Atlanta. Sturm averaged close to 18 minutes of ice time through the first seven games of the season, but that’s been slashed by 2-3 minutes during his last spell of puck struggle.

What can Sturm do to get out of his funk?

“Everything,” said Julien. “He needs to get involved more. When he’s determined and when he’s involved, he wins races, he wins battles and when he’s determined he can play a physical game. That’s the thing that right now has to improve, his whole involvement. Once he gets that figured out and on track, the goals will follow.

“There’s some guys right now that still can be much better, besides [Sturm], there’s a few more,” added Julien. “Those are things that, in a way, you can only imagine how good they can be if we get all our guys playing the way they can. I guess this is a challenge that coaches have every year, trying to get everybody going.”

Sturm himself seems to understand this little bit of puck wisdom and when the 6-foot, 194-pound winger has both the speed and power packed together in a tight hockey bundle, he can be a handful in the offensive zone. He was saying all the right things in the pre-game skate prior to the game, and perhaps a pairing with the playmaking Krejci can fire up the spark inside of him and bring the unique post-goal “Sturm face” back to the Black and Gold lexicon.

“I’m just trying to get more pucks to the net and go to the net more,” said the struggling Sturm. “That’s where thing usually happen. It might have to be an ugly one — that first one — so I’ve just got to keep it simple, go to the net more and just get some stuff done around the net.

“Of course it’s in your head to try to do better and score more,” added Sturm. “That’s just the way it is. You’ve got to work at it and hopefully you get one or two and things start to open up.” 

It’s pretty easy to catch a glimpse of what Sturm looks like when he’s playing with the proper mixture of grit and skill, and all it takes is a simple youtube search for Marco Sturm and Game 6 — or better yet let Pucks with Haggs do it for you.