Sports Redux: A Winning Streak!

Have the Bruins turned the proverbial corner? After a solid month of alternating ups and downs, followed by a couple of weeks of unqualified downs, the B’s finally notched their first honest-to-goodness winning streak of the season, beating the staggering Penguins 3-0 last night at the Garden. Tim Thomas got his second shutout of the season, and the B’s held superkid Sidney Crosby to just two shots to earn the win. " It was a lot easier to focus on him, with a lot of the other guys out of their lineup," said Coach Julien, who knows from having a lot of guys out of the lineup. The game was scoreless until the refs decided that Matt Hunwick’s second period goal was, in fact, a goal. That stood until Daniel Paille gave them a 2-0 lead early in the third, and Patrice Bergeron put in an empty-netter to seal the game. It’s the second straight time the defending champs were shut out, and the B’s are very happy they caught them at the right time. Sayeth Julien:"If you want to be part of those elite teams, you’ve got to be able to compete with them. We did a good job tonight." They’ll go for three

in a row (!) tomorrow against the Panthers. The Patriots continue to prepare for this weekend’s epic showdown with Indianapolis, and the Globe reports that much of the preparation is alread prepared, since the Colts are so consistent. "We’re not going to go in here and install a new defense in the next couple of days and think that would be a good way to defend one of the best offensive teams, not only this year, but really in the last decade," says Coach Belichick, which surprises us, because we know how Bill likes to spring wacky surprises on his charges. Teams and agents continue to circle around one another at baseball’s winter meetings. We still keep hearing the names Matt Holliday, Roy Halladay, and Adrian Gonzalez as possible new additions to the Red Sox, but they’d like to see what the deal is with Jason Bay first. We’re also still waiting to see if Jason Varitek will come back in a diminished role, and frankly the idea of him plugging away for a year or two with the Padres or somebody like that makes us pretty sad. Let’s make it happen, guys.

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Sports Redux: A Winning Streak!