it has been three long and brutal years for Red Sox fans. After making the playoffs six out of seven years between 2003 and 2009, the Sox have failed to make the playoffs three years in a row. In 2010, a talented team was so overwhelmed by injures that they had a hard time staying in contention, but still managed a respectable 89 wins. Many hailed the 2011 Red Sox as one of the potential best teams of all time, but they stumbled to a 2-10 start. they eventually formed into the world beaters they were expected to be, going 66-32 over a 98 game stretch from mid May to Mid August. On September 1st, with one month left of the season, they were 10 games up in the playoff race, and whatifsports gave them a 99.999% chance of making the playoffs. Of course, from there they went on to one of, if not the most epic collapse in sports history. they finished 7-20, and lost a playoff spot on the last day of the season. The hangover from that finish in 2011, carried over into a disastrous 2012, where the red sox went 69-93, their worst season since 1965. Heading into 2013, Sox fans were prepared for a fourth straight disappointing season, but hopeful it wouldn't be as disastrous as the 93 loss season in 2012. 25 games in, and this new bunch of players has filled Red Sox nation with an optimism and joyfulness not seen in a long time. The toxic clubhouse cancers from the past two years are gone and here are new players who actually want to be here, and want to win rather than just collect their next paycheck. Its a new era in Boston, and lets see how the first chapter of that new era unfolded.
On Opening day the Red Sox traveled to New York to take on the arch rival Yankees. The Sox dismantled the Yankees for the first two games, by a combined score of 15-6. The Yankees salvaged the final game of the series in a pitching duel. Next the Sox traveled to Toronto, after winning the opener, they were shut out in the second game 5-0. In the rubber match they clobbered Toronto in a 13-0 drubbing. After 0-6 and 1-5 starts the previous two years, a 4-2 start was a breath of fresh air. in their home opener, Daniel Nava clubbed a homer in the seventh inning to propel Boston to a 3-1 win. The Sox would lose the next two games of the series to drop their record to 5-4. Next was the Rays in a 3 game series, a series which the Sox swept, with the help of two walk off wins, and a near no hitter by Clay Buchholz. Next up was a trip to Cleveland, another sox sweep, and a now 11-4 record. Boston then returned home for three games with Kansas City, winning the opener on a 3 run homer from Daniel Nava in a come from behind win. The next day they would be swept in a doubleheader to the Royals, dropping their record to 12-6. Oakland came in next, and the Sox won two of three, only losing the middle game, on a horrific start from pitcher Alfredo Aceves, in which he allowed nine runs. Finally, hapless Houston came to town, and the Sox easily swept that four games series by a combined score of 28-10. The Sox record now sits at 18-7, the best record in the league, and currently on pace for 117 wins. Here are the AL East standings through April
1. Boston Red Sox: 18-7
2. New York Yankees: 15-9 2.5 GB
3. Baltimore Orioles: 15-10 3.0 GB
4. Tampa Bay Rays: 12-13 6.0 GB
5. Toronto Blue Jays: 9-17 9.5 GB
Here are some highlights of the Red Sox April:
1. the resurgence of Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz: Last year Buchholz set a major league record giving up at least 5 runs in his first 8 starts. He got better but still only finished the year with 11 wins and a 4.56 ERA. Lester was bad the entire year and finished with a 9-14 record with a 4.82 ERA. So far this year both have been incredible, thanks in no small part to a new manager who has helped their form. Lester has a 4-0 record with a 2.27 ERA and Buchholz a 5-0 record with a 1.19 ERA.
2. Daniel Nava: This is Navas fourth year on the team, the previous three as a below average bench player, but this year he has gotten a chance to start and has taken advantage of the opporunity. in 2010 he hit .242 with one home run. In 2011, .237 with none. Last year, .243, but up to six home runs. So far this year, he is hitting .310 and has already hit 4 home runs. he has improved tremendously and has a lot of potential.
3. David Ortiz: It may be hard remember, but the Red Sox were in playoff contention last year until Ortiz went down with a season ending injury. When he came back this year, many wondered if someone at his age could still produce coming off an injury? so far the answer is has a resounding yes. in 8 games since his return, Ortiz is hitting .516 with two home runs.
4. Mike Napoli: Napoli leads the entire league in RBIs with 27. Hes also on pace for about 30 home runs.
Now some dissapointments
1. Will Middlebrooks: After hitting .288 with 13 home runs last year as a rookie, Middlebrooks was expected to make the leap to a .300 hitter with 30 HRs this year. He didnt disappoint early on, with a 3 home run game against Toronto as part of a 13-0 win. Since then, however he has struggled. His average has dropped to .202. Luckily, hes just in a slump, and appears to be getting out of it. Ill think hell be fine.
2. Stephen Drew: Unike Middlebrooks, Im not sure this will turn out ok. Drew is hitting .146 in 15 games. Considering he hit .223 in a full year last year, Im not overly optimistic he'll be much better than that. To make matters worse for Drew, his backup, Jose Iglesias, has hit .450 in his six games. The seat is getting warm for Drew.
Theres so much to look forward to over these last 135 Red Sox games. for the first time since 2009, Im confident in their playoff chances. Lets see how May goes before we hail these team as world series contenders though. Another hot month would make them hard to ignore.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Top 10 Moments of the Tampa Bay Lightnings 2013 Season
The 2013 season for the Tampa Bay Lightning was simply a disappointment, after a red hot 6-1 start in which the team scored 37 goals in those first 7 games, the Bolts stumbled along to a final season record of 18-30. Despite losing twelve more games than they won, the Bolts finished the season with exactly the same amount of goals scored as goals allowed, citing their tendency to blow out opponents in their wins, and lose by one or two goals in their losses. Looking deeper, the Bolts finished the season with a 12-12 home record and a 6-18 road record. they went 3-0 on the road in Carolina and 2-0 on the road in Miami, and 1-18 on the road everywhere else, the lone win coming in New Jersey in the middle of March. Despite the heavy disappointment, the season certainly had its exciting and thrilling moments. For starters, the Lightning finished the season with the top two point scorers in the NHL, in Martin St Louis and Steven Stamkos. It is the 9th time in NHL history that the same team had the top two offensive players in the league. Unfortunately, the previous 8 times it happened the team ended up in the playoffs, the Lightning are the first not too. 37 year old Martin St Louis will win the Art Ross trophy as the leading point scorer (Goals + Assists) in the entire NHL, the oldest player ever to win the award. The fact the Lightning had the top two offensive players in the entire NHL and still had such a poor record cites the awful defense and goaltending they got all season. Heading into April, Steven Stamkos had a three goal lead for leading goal scorer in the NHL, with 25 goals in the first 35 games, but hit a heavy slump in April, only scoring four times in the teams last 19 games, and finished 3 goals behind Alex Ovechkin. Stammer never admitted it, but it appeared he played with a shoulder injury for the entire month. The season will also be remembered for the large amount of rookie players the Lightning played down the stretch. Despite the poor record, the future of this team appears to be very bright with a plethora of young talent developing. Last year the Lightning minor league team set a record for any hockey league in the entire world with 33 straight wins, and now the players on that team are almost fully developed and will be stars on the Lightning very soon. So the Bolts should be a stacked team in the very near future, making a difficult season this year easier to swallow. Now on to the point of this post, the top 10 moments of the Lightning season. There were 6 or 7 that immediately stuck out in my mind, and the rest I had to dig a little deeper, but here they are.
10. Last Minute Magic Part One (Vs Canadiens February 12th): After a 6-1 start the Bolts were on a four games losing streak and needed to come up with points in the worst way. However, the first 50 minutes of this game against the Canadiens was an absolute dumpster fire. The Bolts trailed 3-0 and had no offensive attack whatsoever. With 5:56 left Hedman made it 3-1, and with 1:43 left Hedman tallied again to make it 3-2. Finally, with 43.3 seconds left on the clock, Sami Salo fired a shot from the blue line that made its way into the net to tie the game at 3. The Bolts then went on to kill a huge penalty in overtime. The game ended in a shootout loss, but it was still a hard fought point in the standings and a heart stopping comeback. It was also Victor Hedmans first career multi-goal game.
9. Caps Comeback (At Capitals April 13th): By this point the Lightning playoff hopes were basically shot, but they still wanted some bragging rights in their final game against the Capitals as a division rival (the teams will be in different divisions next year as part of the reallignment.) However the Bolts got off to an awful start and found themselves trailing 5-1 late in the second period. Tampa got one back with 1:13 left in the second, but still trailed 5-2 heading to the third. The offense then exploded in the third, finally tying it with 2:35 left to force overtime at 5 apiece. Once again, a valiant comeback would not lead to an overtime win, as the Caps scored at 2:59 of overtime for the 6-5 win.
8. two future Bolts stars get their first career goals (Vs Hurricanes March 16th): This was the point of the year where the Lightning infused their future talent into the NHL team, (leading to the popular TampaCuse nickname, infusing Tampa Bay with Syracuse, the Lightnings minor league city.) In no other game was this more evident than on March 16th. Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat both scored their first career NHL goals to stake the Bolts to a 2-0 lead, a game which they went on to win 4-1. In a stat that shows just how incredible the young talent in the Bolts system is, Tyler Johnson led the entire Minor League level in goals scored this season, despite spending over a month at the NHL level. The future is bright indeed.
7. Stamkos scores 200th career goal (Vs Flyers March 18th): The Lightning and Flyers came into the game tied in the standings, both desperately needing a win to get back in the playoff race. The loser would basically be dead in the water, the winner would stay alive for the moment. In a back and forth game the Bolts took the lead with ten minutes left thanks to Teddy Purcell 3-2. Then, Steven Stamkos delivered the dagger in the final minute for a 4-2 lead and his 200th career goal, in just his 5th NHL season. In doing so, he became the fourth youngest player ever at 23 years old to get to 200 career goals. Again the future is bright indeed.
6. Bolts mercilessly pour on 8 goal barrage (Ve Jets February 1st): The high point of the season in terms of optimism for the team. Coming into the game at 5-1, the Lightning humiliated the Jets with an relentless offensive attack. Goal after goal poured in, and just 26 minutes into the game they had staked a 6-0 lead. This game is also where many thing things started to go wrong. Up 6-0 with 34 minutes to play the Bolts understandably got complacent. they were outscored 3-2 over the final 34 minutes, and many think playing complacent for so long led to some bad habits that the Bolts had a devil of a time getting out of. They went on to lose 3-2 the next night, and were never the same since.
5. Conacher delivers the dagger on opening night with first career NHL goal (Vs Capitals January 19th): Of all the young talent that was talked about for the Lightning, the most highly hyped young player was Cory Conacher. Conacher had won the MVP award in the minor league the year before and opened the season on the NHL team. Late in opening night with the Bolts clinging to a 4-3 lead, Cory Conacher slipped one in on a 2 on 1, giving the Bolts a 2 goal lead with six minutes to play. Conacher would later go on to be traded to the Ottawa Senators for young goalie Ben Bishop. Despite the hype for Conacher it was a good trade as the Bolts traded a strength for a weakness, making the team overall stronger.
4. Last Minute Magic Part two (At Panthers February 16th): Coming into the game on a six game losing streak and the season slipping away, the Bolts were desperate for a win against their in state rival. A Back and forth game in which Both teams led for long stretches eventually led to a 5-3 Panthers lead with 13 minutes left. Stamkos cut the gap to one midway through the third, and with the season on the line, Teddy Purcell tied it at 5 with merely ten seconds left to send the game to overtime. Unlike the previous two comebacks on this list, the Lightning did end up with a win on this one, 1:19 into overtime Benoit Pouliot gave the Bolts a 6-5 win. At the time, it salvaged a season slipping away and kept the Bolts at .500
3. Ben Bishop Posts shutout in Lightning Debut (Vs Hurricanes April 4th): Remember highly touted prospect Cory Conacher? remember how I said they traded him for a goalie? well some people werent happy about the trade, but Ben Bishop couldnt care less. In his Lightning debut, just a day after being traded, still sporting his Ottawa Senators goalie mask, Ben Bishop got a shutout in one of the most impressive goalie performances in Lightning history. The shutout was the first for the Lightning franchise since October 29th, 2011, a span of 104 games, by far the longest drought without a shutout in the NHL, the team with the second longest was at 56 games. The shutout was not a simple little 18 save shoutout either, Bishop was shellacked with 45 shots, tied for the most saves for a shutout in Lightning history. The game gave Lightning fans hope that they now had the best goalie on their hands since Nikolai Khabibulin was between the pipes. Once again, the future is bright indeed.
2. Last Minute Magic Part three (Vs Devils March 29th): The Lightning had just fired head coach Guy Boucher, and brought in new coach Jon Cooper, and this was his coaching debut. The Lightning were starting to lose hope in the playoffs, but there was still some hope left if they could string some wins together. An electric sell out crowd filed in, eager to see the Bolts notch a win in their new coachs first game. However the Bolts quickly fell behind 2-0. They would show incredible fight however, something rarely seen under the previous coach, to tie it at 2. They would once again fall down by 2 however, and the score held at 4-2 midway through the third. Once again, they showed great heart, as Stamkos cut the deficit to one, then Stammer set up a beautiful play to Alex Killorn who shot one past Brodeur to tie the game with just fifteen seconds on the clock. The Lightning would then go on to win in a shootout 2-0, their only shootout win of the season. The game showed fans what kind of fight they could expect out of the team under the new coach, and once again the future is bright indeed.
1. Martys Hat Track Clinches Art Ross (Vs Maple Leafs April 24th): So many of these top 10 moments and so much of this Lightning season has been about the young talent this team has, how even though the wins werent there this season, the future is bright. How fitting is it then, that the number one moment of the season has nothing to do with a young gun, but with 37 year old Marty St Louis, the heart and soul of the team for the past 12 years, the engine that has kept the Bolts train rolling for over a decade. With just four days left in the NHL season, Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos, Alex Ovechkin, and Marty St Louis were all in the race for the art ross trophy, the award given to the player with the most points scored in the NHL. The former three were all young stars, all franchise players in their prime expected to be at the top. The other was St Louis, a still good player, but no one expected him to be competing with those guys for this trophy at this age. On this night, Marty delivered a performance that will long be remembered. Scoring three goals, the seventh hat trick of his career, Marty left the others eating his dust and all but guaranteed the art ross trophy, the oldest player ever to do so. St Louis finished with 60 points, three ahead of stamkos, and four ahead of Ovechkin and Kane. Congrats Marty, and thanks for giving your all for this team every game for the past 12 years.
10. Last Minute Magic Part One (Vs Canadiens February 12th): After a 6-1 start the Bolts were on a four games losing streak and needed to come up with points in the worst way. However, the first 50 minutes of this game against the Canadiens was an absolute dumpster fire. The Bolts trailed 3-0 and had no offensive attack whatsoever. With 5:56 left Hedman made it 3-1, and with 1:43 left Hedman tallied again to make it 3-2. Finally, with 43.3 seconds left on the clock, Sami Salo fired a shot from the blue line that made its way into the net to tie the game at 3. The Bolts then went on to kill a huge penalty in overtime. The game ended in a shootout loss, but it was still a hard fought point in the standings and a heart stopping comeback. It was also Victor Hedmans first career multi-goal game.
9. Caps Comeback (At Capitals April 13th): By this point the Lightning playoff hopes were basically shot, but they still wanted some bragging rights in their final game against the Capitals as a division rival (the teams will be in different divisions next year as part of the reallignment.) However the Bolts got off to an awful start and found themselves trailing 5-1 late in the second period. Tampa got one back with 1:13 left in the second, but still trailed 5-2 heading to the third. The offense then exploded in the third, finally tying it with 2:35 left to force overtime at 5 apiece. Once again, a valiant comeback would not lead to an overtime win, as the Caps scored at 2:59 of overtime for the 6-5 win.
8. two future Bolts stars get their first career goals (Vs Hurricanes March 16th): This was the point of the year where the Lightning infused their future talent into the NHL team, (leading to the popular TampaCuse nickname, infusing Tampa Bay with Syracuse, the Lightnings minor league city.) In no other game was this more evident than on March 16th. Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat both scored their first career NHL goals to stake the Bolts to a 2-0 lead, a game which they went on to win 4-1. In a stat that shows just how incredible the young talent in the Bolts system is, Tyler Johnson led the entire Minor League level in goals scored this season, despite spending over a month at the NHL level. The future is bright indeed.
7. Stamkos scores 200th career goal (Vs Flyers March 18th): The Lightning and Flyers came into the game tied in the standings, both desperately needing a win to get back in the playoff race. The loser would basically be dead in the water, the winner would stay alive for the moment. In a back and forth game the Bolts took the lead with ten minutes left thanks to Teddy Purcell 3-2. Then, Steven Stamkos delivered the dagger in the final minute for a 4-2 lead and his 200th career goal, in just his 5th NHL season. In doing so, he became the fourth youngest player ever at 23 years old to get to 200 career goals. Again the future is bright indeed.
6. Bolts mercilessly pour on 8 goal barrage (Ve Jets February 1st): The high point of the season in terms of optimism for the team. Coming into the game at 5-1, the Lightning humiliated the Jets with an relentless offensive attack. Goal after goal poured in, and just 26 minutes into the game they had staked a 6-0 lead. This game is also where many thing things started to go wrong. Up 6-0 with 34 minutes to play the Bolts understandably got complacent. they were outscored 3-2 over the final 34 minutes, and many think playing complacent for so long led to some bad habits that the Bolts had a devil of a time getting out of. They went on to lose 3-2 the next night, and were never the same since.
5. Conacher delivers the dagger on opening night with first career NHL goal (Vs Capitals January 19th): Of all the young talent that was talked about for the Lightning, the most highly hyped young player was Cory Conacher. Conacher had won the MVP award in the minor league the year before and opened the season on the NHL team. Late in opening night with the Bolts clinging to a 4-3 lead, Cory Conacher slipped one in on a 2 on 1, giving the Bolts a 2 goal lead with six minutes to play. Conacher would later go on to be traded to the Ottawa Senators for young goalie Ben Bishop. Despite the hype for Conacher it was a good trade as the Bolts traded a strength for a weakness, making the team overall stronger.
4. Last Minute Magic Part two (At Panthers February 16th): Coming into the game on a six game losing streak and the season slipping away, the Bolts were desperate for a win against their in state rival. A Back and forth game in which Both teams led for long stretches eventually led to a 5-3 Panthers lead with 13 minutes left. Stamkos cut the gap to one midway through the third, and with the season on the line, Teddy Purcell tied it at 5 with merely ten seconds left to send the game to overtime. Unlike the previous two comebacks on this list, the Lightning did end up with a win on this one, 1:19 into overtime Benoit Pouliot gave the Bolts a 6-5 win. At the time, it salvaged a season slipping away and kept the Bolts at .500
3. Ben Bishop Posts shutout in Lightning Debut (Vs Hurricanes April 4th): Remember highly touted prospect Cory Conacher? remember how I said they traded him for a goalie? well some people werent happy about the trade, but Ben Bishop couldnt care less. In his Lightning debut, just a day after being traded, still sporting his Ottawa Senators goalie mask, Ben Bishop got a shutout in one of the most impressive goalie performances in Lightning history. The shutout was the first for the Lightning franchise since October 29th, 2011, a span of 104 games, by far the longest drought without a shutout in the NHL, the team with the second longest was at 56 games. The shutout was not a simple little 18 save shoutout either, Bishop was shellacked with 45 shots, tied for the most saves for a shutout in Lightning history. The game gave Lightning fans hope that they now had the best goalie on their hands since Nikolai Khabibulin was between the pipes. Once again, the future is bright indeed.
2. Last Minute Magic Part three (Vs Devils March 29th): The Lightning had just fired head coach Guy Boucher, and brought in new coach Jon Cooper, and this was his coaching debut. The Lightning were starting to lose hope in the playoffs, but there was still some hope left if they could string some wins together. An electric sell out crowd filed in, eager to see the Bolts notch a win in their new coachs first game. However the Bolts quickly fell behind 2-0. They would show incredible fight however, something rarely seen under the previous coach, to tie it at 2. They would once again fall down by 2 however, and the score held at 4-2 midway through the third. Once again, they showed great heart, as Stamkos cut the deficit to one, then Stammer set up a beautiful play to Alex Killorn who shot one past Brodeur to tie the game with just fifteen seconds on the clock. The Lightning would then go on to win in a shootout 2-0, their only shootout win of the season. The game showed fans what kind of fight they could expect out of the team under the new coach, and once again the future is bright indeed.
1. Martys Hat Track Clinches Art Ross (Vs Maple Leafs April 24th): So many of these top 10 moments and so much of this Lightning season has been about the young talent this team has, how even though the wins werent there this season, the future is bright. How fitting is it then, that the number one moment of the season has nothing to do with a young gun, but with 37 year old Marty St Louis, the heart and soul of the team for the past 12 years, the engine that has kept the Bolts train rolling for over a decade. With just four days left in the NHL season, Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos, Alex Ovechkin, and Marty St Louis were all in the race for the art ross trophy, the award given to the player with the most points scored in the NHL. The former three were all young stars, all franchise players in their prime expected to be at the top. The other was St Louis, a still good player, but no one expected him to be competing with those guys for this trophy at this age. On this night, Marty delivered a performance that will long be remembered. Scoring three goals, the seventh hat trick of his career, Marty left the others eating his dust and all but guaranteed the art ross trophy, the oldest player ever to do so. St Louis finished with 60 points, three ahead of stamkos, and four ahead of Ovechkin and Kane. Congrats Marty, and thanks for giving your all for this team every game for the past 12 years.
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