5-0-1. 11 points. Needless to say, the Boston Bruins are off to a hot start which is much needed in this shortened season. The Bruins came away with another win last night in a shootout, which nearly could have been a loss thanks to a drunk Bruins fan throwing a bottle at Hedberg during Tyler Seguin’s first shot. Last night was the first game this season that I think the Bruins were actually outplayed offensively. I think the Devils looked faster and had better scoring chances. This was the first back to back the Bruins have played and to walk away with 2 points after a back to back is going to be something that puts teams over the edge this season.

While the Bruins are off to an amazing start, and have looked really good offensively in all the games, although the puck hasn’t been going in the net all that much, I think they will be even better which is very scary. Tyler Seguin is by far their best talent offensively, and is still without a goal, well, with a goalie in the net, and he still seems to be trying to find his game. The Krejci/Lucic/Horton line has just flat out dominated games at times. Their puck possession in the offensive zone has worn teams down and resulted in big goals for the B’s. I still think Lucic looks slow and has gotten physically beat down low by smaller guys on many plays which I believe will change as he finds his legs too.

Defensively, it’s hard to find another team better than the Bruins. Dougie Hamilton has exceeded expectations and the sky is the limit for this kid. He was cool, calm and collected on his game winning assist to David Krejci the other night, and that isn’t something that you normally see from 19 year old’s in one of their first professional games. My only worry coming into the season was goaltending, and that still is my worry, but I think you can throw any goalie in our net and he shouldn’t give up any more than 3 goals in a game. That’s how good the Bruins are defensively. Rask has looked pretty good so far and I hope he can keep it up. I give the guy a lot of credit for signing a one year deal to prove himself to the organization and it is a win win for us. Either he plays well and if that’s the case there’s no way we don’t win the Cup. Or on the other hand, he sucks, we don’t resign him and go hunting in caves for Tim Thomas and get him back in net.

The game tomorrow has been circled on my calender since the new schedule came out. I think tomorrow night is going to have the feeling of the goalie fight against Montreal and the game against the Canucks last season. The Sabres are sick of being pushed around so they went out and signed John Scott and Steve Ott who always seems to start a line brawl when he plays against the Bruins. I’m actually excited that they aren’t a bunch of soft players now. The Bruins just physically manhandled them last year, and for no one to be able to stick up for your goalie being run, it says a lot about those guys as players. Tomorrow night is their chance to show some love for Ryan Miller and you know the Bruins are always up for a fight.

The Sixers fell to the Mavericks tonight in Dallas 107-100. OJ Mayo lead the way with 26 points for the Mavericks and Dorell Wright, yes you heard that right, Dorell Wright led the Sixers with 25. The game was close the entire way until mid-way through the fourth quarter when the Sixers defense completely fell apart, which has become a trend. The Sixers were missing Jrue Holiday for a third straight game, and have now lost four straight with another game tomorrow night in Houston. To say that Sixers fans should be extremely worried right now is an understatement. This team has no chance of winning with Jrue Holiday on the side lines, and their only real shot of coming together on defense is if Bynum inserts himself into this lineup.

Doug Collins has preached defense and smart play to his team over the last few seasons, and they have played exactly that way, until now. For some reason, these guys are not playing team defense. This could be a direct correlation to how they are playing on offense as well. You won’t win many games in the NBA relying on jump shooting from the perimeter as your main source of scoring. It worked for a few games, but now they have dipped under .500 and could possibly be 10 or more games under .500 if Holiday and Bynum are not back soon. God knows we can only take so many Thad Young 20 foot bricks and Evan Turner 4th quarter airballs.

The Atlantic Division is the toughest it has been in years, with four potential contenders being the Knicks, Nets, Celtics and the Sixers. Most years you could guarantee a playoff spot finishing the year at .500 but with the improvements of most teams in the East, I’m not so sure that will be the case this year. While there is still a long way to go in the season, this road trip is going to be a huge test for this team, regardless of who is in the lineup. Every team faces adversity during a season, and while most teams wouldn’t be able to win with their two best players out, the Sixers have been in positions to win in these games, because they play a different brand of basketball than most NBA teams, or at least they play stretches of good basketball. Tomorrow night is the time to turn this losing streak around and show a glimmer of what is to come in the next weeks. Will they remain in free-fall or pick themselves up?

Today, Andrew Bynum announced that he is “feeling much better”, and could possibly return to action soon. I think Sixers fans by now have learned to block these words out and stare down the realization that we probably won’t be seeing our savior this season. But a small part of me believe’s it this time. With the Sixers glaring at what could be a crippling schedule over the next month, the need for the prized center has never been greater. We all know the Sixers have the talent to win. The team they have right now can hang with any team in the NBA. They also can play some of the worst stretches of basketball imaginable. While we need to take Bynum’s knee status today with a grain of salt, his presence in the near future could pay huge dividends for the Sixers down the road.

So let’s say Bynum comes back by Christmas, or New Years 100% healthy. He has the ability to be playing as the center piece of an NBA offense for the first time in his career, and probably the healthiest he’s been in his career. To be honest, I would take Bynum at 60% right now. Here is a list of the best big men in the Eastern Conference: Garnett, Hibbert, Noah, Lopez, Varejao, Horford. What does that list have in common? Bynum could man handle each one of those guys with no problems. Some might argue that since he has bad knees, nobody knows how good he will actually be. In reality, he could be playing his worst basketball and still do more for this team than Lavoy Allen, Kwame Brown and Spencer Hawes could do combined. Just Bynum’s presence on the court will open up the 3 point line for Jason Richardson and Nick Young to feast on. Right now this team is pretty much forced to make their 3 pointers on fast breaks because their half court offense consists of Jrue Holiday or Evan Turner dribbling for 20 seconds and then taking a contested jumper. Bynum is a big guy who you can run an offense through or even just use as a decoy while he is getting back into game-shape.

The longer Bynum sits, the more angry the Sixers fans get. It almost would have been better to never have acquired Bynum because all it did was give false hope, especially if we don’t see him on the court at all this season. A lot of people are saying Bynum won’t even resign in Philly but I believe he will. He is on the bench for every single game, sitting his 7 foot self in those tiny chairs with his teammates. He could be lounging in the luxury box every night, but him being with the guys every game shows that he is happy where he is right now. Granted I would be happy getting paid millions to sit on the bench every game too. I think the uncertainty is what makes this whole dilemma so much worse. Had management or Bynum came right out and told us as fans what to actually expect, this would be easier. There are too many question marks, and while this team has shown it’s capable of winning, the thought of adding a star like Bynum to the lineup brings hope that the Sixers could make a run at a championship. The pieces are there, the question is when will they all come together.

The Bruins enjoy a day off today in preparation for the final three weeks of the season. The B’s will host the Toronto Maple Leafs tomorrow at the TD Garden as they head for the final stretch of the season. With 11 games remaining, the Bruins find themselves 10 points behind Eastern Conference leader New York Rangers. While the Bruins aren’t quite out of the race for the top spot, the Penguins have been closing the gap over the past month and are just two points behind the Rangers now as their eleven game win streak was snapped today by the Philadelphia Flyers. It is almost certain the Bruins will find themselves as the two seed in the East, which is very respectable especially seeing the struggles of the past month. These next three weeks will give us fans a hint at whether the Bruins have another Stanley Cup run in them or if they are looking at an early exit.

The Bruins finally got a much needed win yesterday on St. Patty’s Day against the Flyers in a shootout. Seeing as the Bruins looked like the spent more time at the pool than the rink in blowout losses to the Lightning and Panthers in Florida over the last week, many were suprised to see them put together a complete game. This Bruins team is the most unique team I have seen in a while. When they click, they are unbeatable, scoring at will and giving up nothing in their defensive zone. When they are off, they might as well not even have showed up. They struggle to keep up with other teams speed and forget that they should be the most physical team in the league. This all lands on the play of Lucic and Krejci. Lucic creates turnovers and odd-man opportunities with his aggressiveness and phsyicallity, but at times he looks like he has cement in his skates. Krejci can look like the top point scorer in the league at times, creating opportunities with unbelievable passes and dangles or picking the corners on any goalie.

It will be very important for the Bruins to start the week strong and take care of business against the Leaf’s tomorrow night. They have a West Coast road trip ahead of them visiting San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim. Look for strong play from Bergeron, Chara and Lucic in the upcoming weeks. If this team wants a chance at raising the Stanley Cup again this June, the veterans need to make their presence known so the rest of the team can feed off of their energy. I look for a big win tomorrow against the Leafs, with Thomas getting a shutout. My prediction, Bruins 6 Maple Leafs 0.

Seven goals and three fights. That is what happened in the 2nd period of tonight’s game in Toronto. It was the type of hockey that reminded us of what the Bruins are capable of, and how the Bruins were playing every period and every game a few months ago. They looked quick, confident, energetic, physical, basically everything you want your hockey team to be. The B’s fell behind early in the 2nd after a goal by John-Michael Liles, but quickly answered a minute and a half later with a goal by Tyler Seguin and 41 seconds later by Chris Kelly. The player who stood out the most tonight for the Bruins was Jordan Caron. Sunday he showed his first signs of life this season by tallying a goal and an assist, and let us all know tonight that he is the real deal. A little bit of confidence can go a long way in the NHL, and that is what Caron has right now. Caron scored two goals and had an assist tonight, giving him 3 goals and 2 assists in his last two games. He could very well be the key ingredient to a final push towards the playoffs. We all saw the spark young Tyler Seguin gave the Bruins in the playoffs last year, and the Bruins seemed to build off of Caron’s energy and excitement tonight. Through a year of ups and downs, literally, playing games in Boston then Providence and now Boston again, it is great to see Caron finally getting rewarded for his hard work.

While Caron’s play is very encouraging right now, Tim Thomas’s is not. He gave up another 4 goals tonight and has not been the same goaltender that we are used to seeing. We all know Thomas has the ability to get up for the big games so we can’t quite jump to the conclusion that he will keep this play up in the playoffs, but it needs to be assessed. There are only 17 more games left for the Bruins, and now is the time to start playing your best hockey. They need to bring the energy and nastiness every game from here on out. The Bruins will be host to Buffalo on Thursday who has been giving them trouble all season long. They know now that they can put up 5+ goals again so it will be interesting to see if that confidence can continue against Ryan Miller on Thursday. Look for that line of Caron and Campbell to be busy and for the Bruins to turn their luck against the Sabres around with a big win on Thursday night at the Garden.

The Bruins fell short tonight against the Ovechkin-less Washington Capital’s 5-3 in D.C. The B’s were coming off big games this weekend against the top seeded New York Rangers and rivals the Philadelphia Flyers. The first period ended 1-0 with the Bruins on top after a goal credited to Rich Peverley which was actually hit in by the Washington defenseman. The second period, however, was a completely different period. Bruins and Capitals traded goals back and forth in a period which saw 5 goals, and the score dead locked at 3 going into the intermission. Seguin capped off the scoring that period with a beautiful backhanded goal, and it seemed the Bruins were in a great position as they hold the best goal margin in the 3rd period in the NHL. However, their hopes of taking the 2 points were dashed by Mathieu Perreault who gave the Caps the lead 7 minutes into the 3rd period with his 3rd goal of the game, and ironically, the Bruins last chances were dashed by an empty net goal by former Bruin Dennis Wideman.

This was obviously a disappointing loss, seeing as the Capitals were without their best player and the Bruins are clearly the better team this season. However, the Bruins had an emotional weekend and it showed as they seemed slower and out of gas in the 3rd period which is usually not the case. The Bruins now have a week off thanks to the All- Star break which will also be Ovechkin-less, and look to start the second half of the season off with a win against the streaking Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, January 31st. This could be a playoff preview and should be a great game to watch.

Andre Miller scored 28 points and added 8 rebounds and 10 assists off the bench for the Denver Nuggets to end the Philadelphia 76ers 3 game win streak. Miller hit clutch shots down the stretch and eventually the game winner in overtime to put the Sixers away. Once again, the Sixers bench shined which has become a recurring theme this season, as Thaddeus Young scored 22 and Evan Turner added 20 points and 11 rebounds

The Sixers got off to a hot start in the 1st quarter outscoring the Nuggets 28-19, but struggled to score in the 2nd and found themselves in a 6 point hole going into halftime. The 2nd half was pretty even until about halfway through the 4th where the Sixers defense came up with key turnovers and transitioned those into points. Andre Iguodala had a chance to put the Sixers ahead with 4 seconds left in the fourth quarter but only converted one of two free throws which sent the game to overtime.

Overtime was headlined by an absolutely awful call on Evan Turner. Turner was driving with the game tied 104-104 and Nene stepped in front of Turner, clearly shuffling his feet and was called fo the offensive foul. There was no debating whether it was an offensive or defensive foul and the refs just missed that one which led to the Sixers downfall. On the bright side, the Sixers showed they could hang with a tough team, even without starting center Spencer Hawes who the Sixers could have used to defend Nene who seemed to be scoring at will in the 2nd half. The Sixers will hope to turn it around on Friday when they host another good team in the Atlanta Hawks.

The Bruins fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight 5-3. Dominic Moore’s goal with about 4 minutes left proved to be the game winner, despite a great last minute effort by the Bruins. The B’s have really struggled offensively in the absence of Brad Marchand who was serving the last of his 5 game suspension tonight (as a Boston fan I say struggling as in only scoring 2 or 3 goals a night). The Bruins have now dropped 3 of their last 6, and we all knew the B’s couldn’t keep up the pace they were at the entire season. Going into tonight’s game the Bruins had a goal differential of +70. Yes, you read that right, +70. That is an absurd amount, considering that is almost double the next closest team in that category (Detroit +43). The Bruins have certainly been finding it difficult to find the back of the net since Marchand’s suspension, but luckily he will be rejoining the team on Thursday when they face off against the Devils.

The game tonight meant a lot more to the Lightning than it did to the Bruins. The Lightning were on a 7 game losing streak coming into tonight, and found themselves with the fewest points in the Eastern Conference. If they wanted any shot at making the playoffs, they need to start winning games and what better way to boost your teams confidence than beating the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Thomas looked shaky most of the game, with 2 of the goals being very soft. Nathan Horton was the lone bright spot for the Bruins tonight. He was called out by head coach Claude Julien after last nights shootout win against the Hurricanes, saying that Horton needed to pick up his game. Horton certainly did tonight, scoring a pair of goals to keep the Bruins in it.

The Bruins will face off Thursday night in New Jersey to play the Devils. On the horizon is what could be an Eastern Conference Championship preview when the Bruins host the New York Rangers at the Garden on Saturday afternoon.

We are now a few weeks into the NBA season, and the 76ers are the surprise of the league, starting the season 10-3 and unbeaten at home. The question remains, can the Sixers keep it up? The schedule for the 76ers has been very friendly so far this season, with their highlight win of the season coming against the Indiana Pacers who were missing Danny Grainger. Their 7 game win streak ended last week at the hands of the New York Knicks, but it was the 3rd game in as many nights for the Sixers.

The Sixers hold the best point differential in the league with a +14.9 which is absolutely ridiculous seeing as the closest to them is at +8.5. The Sixers may be benefactors of an easy schedule so far, but they are taking it to these teams, winning by double digits in 9 of their 10 victories this year. They have one of the deepest, if not the deepest bench in the league, with Lou Williams, Thaddeus Young and Evan Turner tearing it up this season. It is very refreshing watching this team play, and their success has come from their ability to play like a team in an age where the NBA is dominated by 1 on 1 performances. This Sixers team is fast and young, and they are blowing teams out in the 2nd half of games because of their bench.

While their bench is playing outstanding, their starters aren’t doing too bad either. Elton Brand looks like he is 20 again which is what Sixers fans have been waiting for, and saw a little bit of near the end of last year. Spencer Hawes has come out and shown his ability to score so far this year, and he will be a huge factor in this teams success if he can stay healthy. Andre Iguodala looks more relaxed than he has been in his entire career, and it is showing on the stats sheets. He is explosive, can hit the outside shot, and can dunk over any teams biggest guy. Jodie Meeks got off to a slow start and is still playing pretty inconsistent, but when this guy is on he is on. This entire team for that matter can shoot the 3 ball making them that much dangerous. Lastly, Jrue Holiday is just clutch. Whenever this team needs a basket, he is the guy they look to. It will be exciting to watch this kid grow into an NBA star, and this year he looks much improved.

So the pieces are all there, and Sixers management’s move to keep the same team as last year and work with them is looking like it’s paying off right now. Doug Collins has done a spectacular job, and is possibly the most underrated coach in the NBA right now. I thought his name should have been in for Coach of the Year last year, leading that team on a hot streak after getting off to an awful start. This week we will see if the Sixers are for real or not. They play the Nuggets tomorrow, the Hawks on Friday and the Heat on Saturday. These are by far their biggest games so far in this young season, and now is the time to show the league that they are here to stay.