I guess we shouldn’t be all that shocked, but now Boston sports radio and online columnists are taking their talking points from Montreal blogs?

Dive Files: The Bruins are the NHL’s uncontested emperors of embellishment

I’ve heard Felger and Mazz, Mike Mutnansky, Adam Jones and, over on Boston.com, Eric Wilbur tell us that the Bruins can’t talk about Montreal flopping because they do it just as much.

I guess that’s your storyline for this series, for them at least.

The series begins tomorrow night with game one at TD Garden at 7:30. The game will be seen only on the NBC Sports Network.

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Nice post from the Shaughnessy Watch blog on the latest from the Globe columnist.

Color Him Wrong

Comparing Adam Silver to Kenesaw Mountain Landis might not have been the best comparison.

Dennis and Callahan are in all their glory on the Donald Sterling story. There’s nothing those guys enjoy more than a good discussion on race. (Well, except perhaps talking about prison rape, but I digress.) Whenever Gerry Callahan can mention Al Sharpton’s name every five minutes, it’s a good day for him.

Briefly – Like just about everyone else, I was incredibly impressed with Adam Silver yesterday. Maybe my expectations were low coming in, but his authority came across in a strong way.  That press conference was a great moment for the future of the NBA.

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According to the network, Jerry Remy missed last night’s game due to “similar symptoms” to a stomach flu that a “few members of NESN’s Red Sox traveling crew have recently suffered from.”

While that could be completely legitimate, the red flags aways go up when Remy misses a game, and especially when the wording is a bit ambiguous like this was.

Steve Lyons filled in for Remy last night, and he was pretty much as we remember in the booth. He did seem to have some good chemistry with Don Orsillo, who has shown the ability to work with just about anyone. Lyons talks alot in the booth, which could’ve been an adjustment for Orsillo, but they worked pretty well together. They had some light moments, of which there actually haven’t been that many of thus far this season due to obvious reasons.

They said that Remy would be back in the booth for tonight, so we’ll keep an eye on that.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

31 thoughts on “Bruins Set To Flop Around Against Canadiens Tomorrow Night”

  1. I think the coverage of the Donald Sterling story has been akin to watching 6 year olds play soccer….there is a giant pack of kids chasing a ball like metal ball bearings being dragged by a magnet. Everyone has chosen to pile on. Story after story “It does not surprise me, Sterling has been a racist since…”. Of course none of these brave souls had been doing investigative work exposing a billionaire owner of a California NBA franchise as a racist prior. TMZ fell into the story and now everyone is mad.

    What I keep thinking is how does this end? Will Sterling go quietly and watch an $800 million asset be stolen from his family? Will the girl go to jail for illegally taping and releasing a conversation Sterling had every right to assume would be private? If it is found that the recording was made and distributed illegally can the NBA still force Sterling out? Even if it is legal in America can a private cooperative force an individual to divest based on “thought crime”? Will the NBA now use “Thought Crime” to force the owners of the Orlando Magic out because they are Anti Gay Marriage? Or will they use it to force out Mark Cuban because of his disdain for poor referring? Will Sterlings hiring record be used to counterbalance his thoughts…that is are actions stronger than words? He did make Doc the highest paid coach in the league. He has had no problem hiring Black execs who worked for him for long periods of time. By all accounts working for the Clippers is not a hostile work environ if you are African American.

    The press seems to be slow to all of these questions and many more. Its easy to say…Sterling is bad. What is harder to do is look at the nuances involved with the consequences of the proposed solutions. I agree, Bruce, Commish Adam Silver was decisive and did what he thought he had to do. I am not sure the consequences of said actions were well thought out and I think there is a lot more here that has to play out before this goes away. Of course Sterling could do everyone a favor and accept an $800 mill offer next week and be done with this whole mess…laughing in retirement in a beach front estate in Bora Bora. Somehow I don’t think he will.

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    1. I could reply to this point by point, but instead I’ll just note that “Thought Crime!” is the last refuge of people with no working understanding of the First Amendment.

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      1. Whereas I agree with you, I do realize that Thought Crime as persecuted by a private organization on one of it own is much different than Thought Crime as persecuted by the government. Just ask Bredden Eich how open Mozzilla was to a divergent opinion.

        I think this case has forces a lot of difficult questions to be asked, each with a fascinating potential answer. My criticism of the media is that in general they are not asking the questions and the answers scare the living crap of them.

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        1. I find it darkly amusing and instructive that many of the same people who love to go on about what a black mark it is on America that Communists were fired and blackballed by private enterprises (govt’l prosecution is a different story) are cheering for what happened to Eich and in fact want to see more of it.

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          1. Well, they’re already going after the Redskins and I would not be surprised if they use this to go after the owner of the Magic for his views on gay marriage (he’s for civil unions, I think). I disagree with him here but if you want to attack the owner of the Magic, I’d be more concerned about the fraudulent business model he operates with Amway.

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      2. Besides, Sterling isn’t being charged with a crime (unlike in those rental discrimination suits). Essentially, the NBA owners are accusing him of conduct detrimental, and the rules of their club allow them to kick him out. He gets to keep the money from the sale. I don’t think Sterling is being wronged at all. If it’s true that he knew he was being recorded, then even in that respect he has no ground to stand on. And I’m not sorry the ex-girlfriend baited and betrayed him like she did.

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        1. agramante…I think you have focused in on the single biggest dilemma in this entire process. You said:

          “Essentially, the NBA owners are accusing him of conduct detrimental, and the rules of their club allow them to kick him out. He gets to keep the money from the sale. I don’t think Sterling is being wronged at all.”

          I think Sterling would reply…”I do not want to sell. It is my asset and you can’t force me to sell it because privately in my own home I said words and expressed ideas that I would not say in public and that others might disagree with?” Further I think other owners in that league might be very uncomfortable with the league being able to force them out because a majority (or supermajority) has a philosophical or ideological difference of opinion. Where does the lie get drawn and by whom?

          I am not defending Sterling. As a Jewish person I am offended that he is Jewish and that he has these views. Its 2014 for gods sake. But as an American citizen who believes Liberty is one of if not the most important individual right we as American’s have, I can see how Sterling’s situation can get ugly fast and that forcing him out might has serious unintended consequences for others.

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          1. Where does the lie get drawn and by whom?

            I have to wonder about other owners in other sports who don’t happen to have views that conform with what the mainstream media deeps acceptable. I mentioned the owner of the Magic above who is on record funding initiatives against marriage being anything other than ‘traditional’. I haven’t gone through the list of all pro-sports owners here but have to think that you could fill a list, with at least a dozen, who have given money to causes or candidates that would fall under this criteria… That scares me, a lot.

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          2. You mean like Mike Illitch owner of the Detroid Red Wings and Little Caesars Pizza and one of if not the largest donors to Pro Life causes in the country? Or maybe Richard Devos, Owner of the Orlando Magic who supports anti gay marriage initiatives. Or maybe Mikhail Prokhorov owner of the Brooklyn Nets, supporter of Vladamir Putin and a harsh critic of the Ukrainian coop. Or maybe Daniel Snyder owner of the Washington Redskins…evidently that is a crime. Robert Kraft, NE Patriots owner and substantial donor to Israel in violation of the divest movement’s dictates. I could go on…

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  2. Mike Giardi (who I normally like) is the latest to pile on to the Bruins for the sake of piling on. The other night during the sports segment on NECN, he said “Like it or not Bruins fans, the narrative for this series is the Bruins can’t handle Montreal’s speed”. Way to go with the gripping in-depth analysis.
    I don’t expect these guys to be cheerleaders but it drives me nuts how more and more segments of the sports media feel the need to bash the local teams especially when they are having a successful run as the Patriots have had during the Belichick/Brady era and now with the Bruins in recent years. These guys seem to feel more and more that their job is to try to take any enjoyment away from the fans (supporting your team is now akin to loving puppies and unicorns). The ones that can provide objective analysis and reporting are fewer and farther in between and get drowned out by those who feel there has to be a narrative, and God forbid if any fan/caller/reader feel different.

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  3. Takes some balls for D&C to even pretend to talk about the Sterling stuff.

    METCO, anyone?

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  4. Granted, I’m not puckhead or anything like it but you know who I’ve been really enjoying when it comes to Bruins discussion on the radio? Dale Arnold.

    I wasn’t sad when he was first let go, I found him to be a very boring listen on the radio and a bit too milquetoast when it came to his opinions but lately he’s hitting the right pitch for me. He doesn’t yell at me. He doesn’t troll me. He doesn’t tell me everything sucks.

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    1. I unfortunately caught about ten minutes of @FelgerandMazz at the top and, surprise! surprise!, it’s doom and more doom for Mazz and Co. The rationale is nothing short of impenetrable. The Canadiens went out and got Bruins-killah Thomas Vanek at the deadline and the Bruins got nothing (not true, but whatever). If Vanek plays well, it obviously makes the Bruins look bad. Not exactly a #hotsportztake, but Mazz took it a step further to say that even if Vanek doesn’t score any points, but draws any attention from the Boston defense, which frees up a different Montreal forward, then the Bruins still look bad. How this is different from playing against any other top forward is beyond me, but according to Mazz, if Vanek takes the ice and doesn’t play well but someone else on the ice at the same time as him does play well, then Bruins/Chiarelli look like fools!

      Back to you, Dale …

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      1. Sometimes you listen and you just have to wonder how the Bruins even made the playoffs, let alone how they got a 1 seed.

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    2. Totally agree. It’s funny how the “fresh” voice is the old voice, isn’t it? The anti-dote for Hot Sportz Take-itis.

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    3. Agree, bringing back Dale & Holley was the right move. However, Entercom seems dead set on messing up the first good decision they’ve made in years with this new “third man in” initiative they’ve decided to saddle D&H with. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

      If they insist on employing this strategy, is it really necessary to have each guest on for all 4 hours, especially when the topic du jour has little to do with the guest’s particular area of “expertise” (if they even have one).

      Steve “Psycho” Lyons has been unlistenable from day one. I now switch over to the new Big Show every time I hear him on ‘EEI. I gave Lyons a try, but not even Dale can salvage this guy. His baseball talk is uninformed, and the interaction with D&H on all other topics is awkward. Not to mention Lyons’ alienation of a good portion of the younger audience with his day one proclamation that MLB and pro sports was “under attack by numbers geeks” (paraphrasing). If WEEI is aiming to tap into 98.5’s younger listenership, Steve Lyons is definitely not the way to go about it. I don’t know a single person under age 35 who finds him funny or gives a crap that he dropped trow during a game 25 years ago.

      Taylor Twellman seems like a nice guy, and maybe could grow into some kind of role with the station with some seasoning, but does it have to be for 8 hours a week during afternoon drive time while the Bruins are in the middle of a playoff run?

      The best third men I’ve heard on ‘EEI lately were Chris Mannix and Andy Hart, who both held their own on topics outside of the NBA and NFL, respectively. What happened to these guys? Why does EEI continue to scrape the bottom of the barrel with the likes of Lyons, Dickerson, and Thornton? Any of EEI’s own in-house (and woefully underutilized) staff writers like DJ Bean, Chris Price, et al. (just not Sox apologist/Ortiz spokesman Rob “@bradfo” Bradford) would be a huge upgrade. No idea why these guys get so little airtime, yet there’s endless hours of vapid player/coach interviews replayed ad nauseam throughout the week.

      Entercom management better wake up before they screw the pooch on yet another programming shakeup.

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    1. Except he’s wrong (or at least not complete in his analysis) on a significant point: Article 13(a) allows the owners to vote to terminate a member for “willful violation of any the provisions of the Constitution or By-laws”. That clearly encompasses violations of the Article 35A “morals clause” restrictions, if they are deemed “willful”. It’s not just financial/cheating issues tat.

      Also, I don’t think his article in SI notes that Members through the Constitution agree that disciplinary actions of the Board of Governors and/or Commissioner have the force of arbitration, which brings a whole new set of hurdles that must be overcome to challenge the NBA’s decision. Specifically, that changes what he’ll have to demonstrate w/r/t the willfulness of his actions. If this were an administrative decision, the trial court would have the clear authority to be its own arbiter of fact, and decide whether the conduct was “willful” or not as a factual matter. But because it’s arbitration, the court can probably only visit the factual issue of whether it’s “willful” conduct if there’s clear evidence that the arbitrator (i.e. Silver) was biased, or irrational in that finding of fact. That’s a much higher hurdle to clear.

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      1. I agree on the ‘him being wrong’ since it was his position from the start. They’re moving to do so. Doesn’t this setup a fascinating case on it?

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  6. “tell us that the Bruins can’t talk about Montreal flopping because they do it just as much.”

    It’s even worse than that Bruce, they tell us that the FANS can’t talk about Montreal flopping because the Bruins do it just as much. And the same goes for the Pineda situation (vis-a-vis Buchholz). Because as we all know, if the fans aren’t as objective as the most bland wire service reporters, all is lost.

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  7. Haven’t watched the Sox games much this year. Honestly, Remy is reason. Can’t support him or his family including his evil son.

    On a positive note, did enjoy Lyons last night and hope we see more of him.

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  8. This morning at 7:30, twin loudmouths Callahan and Toucher ranting identically against the “media” about the Sterling story. There is almost nothing funnier than a member of the media ranting about the media as if he or she is a complete outsider, a blogger in their mom’s basement, if you will. To me, they’re all MEDIOTS.

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  9. On flopping: Everyone does it. Everyone. Some do it more than others (Hi 2011 Canucks!), but everyone does it. The Canadiens do it. The Bruins do it. We bitch about those who do it against our team and silently smile when our team does it and it works. And in the end it doesn’t matter, because more often than not it evens out and the worst offenders (Marchand, P.K., etc) get reps for it. But it’s easy fodder for trolling/click-bait. Low-hanging fruit really.

    On Sterling-gate: There is no one who looks good in this, except for Adam Silver perhaps. The NBA should have done something along time ago. How could Doc Rivers go there? He HAD to know Fred! Donald Sterling is a horrible racist piece of you know what. This Stiviano woman set him up big time. Gold mine for moralizing anger radio. Just pick your favorite flavor of outrage and rant/troll away!

    On CHB being CHB: *yawn*

    On Lyons for Remy: Thought he was good, and if he’s the Remy fallout fallback guy…I’m OK with it. I have gotten over some of the Remy disgust I felt, but I still think in the end he’s going to go, sooner or later. It may be health, it may be the continuing bleep-storm with his son, but I would be shocked if he’s still there at the start of next year.

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  10. So the big issue facing the Sports world today, I am huge issue…evidently is the name Washington Redskins. The “Thought Police” were out in full force…but that I mean Harry Reid mentioned it by name…therefore D&C did at least 2 hours on it. The conversation is silly. Washington Wizards = good Washington Redskins = bad. Well…not quite. My next door neighbor is a very devout born again Christian. He and his family do not celebrate Halloween. They close up their house and go to a function with the other families of their church. I asked why and he said Halloween is the celebration of the occult. Wizards and Witches are the antithesis and mortal enemies of Jesus Christ and good Christians. He is quite offended by the name Washington Wizards. We have discussed it across the back dense before. He does not let his kids watch Wizards of Waverly place and he did not let them read the Potter books. (Yes I know he is a little over the top…but his lawn is better than mine so I am envious). I don’t think he is alone in his thinking. I do think he is bright enough to not make this an issue because he knows that what offends him might not offend someone else and it is not his place to fix the whole world in one lifetime.

    My point is…evidently everything offends someone. My bigger point…whoever is deciding what is offensive seems to be more dangerous than the word or image in question.

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    1. I assume that this is joke and not you are not really comparing a racial slur with fictional characters. A rational person, even a devout Christian, really has no claim to be offended by the Wizards name. Wizards aren’t real. If they were called the Bible-beaters or something derogatory about religious people then maybe he’d have a case. The key is not using a term that demean a certain group.

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      1. Nick…I wish I was joking. He really is offended by these things and has his family avoid them. He truly believes the terms “Witch” “Wizard” and “Wiccan” are as incendiary as a true ethnic slur. At no point did I argue he was rational…I only pointed out he has a better lawn than I do.

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