Posted by Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

Vs.

Glenn Murray gave the Bruins the 2-1 lead just 1:14 into the second period on a beautiful feed from Marc Savard.

Mike Comrie tied the game just about five minutes later.

Mark Stuart is not only fighting for a spot on the big club; he took on Bill Guerin for the second fight of the game.

Fernandez is back in net for the Bruins for the third period along with DiPietro for the Islanders.

Posted by Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

Vs.

David Krejci struck first giving the Bruins the early 1-0 lead just over five minutes into the period.

PJ Axelsson and Andrew Ference each recorded an assist on the goal.

Miroslav Satan beat Manny Fernandez to tie the game at one with just under three minutes to play in the opening frame.

Andrew Alberts took off the gloves and took on Brenden Witt after a clipping penalty was called; Alberts received a 10-minute misconduct for instigating and did not return until the second period.

Posted by Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

Vs.

Unfortunately, Zdeno Chara is not in the line-up as the Bruins take the ice against the New York Islanders today at the TD Banknorth Garden.

Line-ups based on warm-ups are:

ISLANDERS

Goaltenders

39 Rick DiPietro

34 Wade Dubielewicz

Defensemen

32 Brendan Witt – 24 Radek Martinek

25 Andy Sutton – 47 Marc-Andre Bergeron

4 Bryan Berard – 8 Bruno Gervais

Forwards

26 Ruslan Fedotenko – 89 Mike Comrie – 13 Bill Guerin

16 Jon Sim – 18 Mike Sillinger – 7 Trent Hunter

11 Andy Hilbert – 63 Josef Vasicek – 81 Miroslav Satan

15 Jeff Tambellini – 10 Richard Park – 27 Darryl Bootland

BOSTON

Goaltenders

35 Manny Fernandez

30 Tim Thomas

Defensemen

41 Andrew Alberts – 21 Andrew Ference

45 Mark Stuart – 44 Aaron Ward

48 Matt Hunwick – 38 Bobby Allen

Forwards

16 Marco Sturm – 91 Marc Savard – 27 Glen Murray

72 Peter Schaefer - 37 Patrice Bergeron – 12 Chuck Kobasew

11 P.J Axelsson - 46 David Krejci – 81 Phil Kessel

53 Jeremy Reich – 13 Glen Metropolit – 22 Shawn Thornton

Will be checking in as the game goes on....

Posted by Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

After stopping all 11 shots he faced in the third period against the New York Islanders in the preseason match-up Wednesday night, goaltender Frank Doyle has been placed on waivers by the New Jersey Devils.

The former Maine University goalie had a 20-24-4 record in 49 games last season for Lowell.

Also placed on waivers are defensemen Ian Moran and Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre; forwards Grant Marshall, Noah Clarke and Ryan Murphy. If any of the players clear waivers they will be assigned to Lowell.

Some familiar faces are returning to Lowell for the upcoming AHL season: goaltender Jordan Parise, Mark Fraser, Olli Malmivaara, Jason Ryznar, Barry Tallackson, Stephen Gionta and Petr Vrana.

Andy Greene, Niklas Bergfors, David Clarkson, Rod Pelley and Mike Mottau are all fighting for spots with the parent club.

Lowell is action tonight at the Tsongas for their preseason opener against Bridgeport.

The regular season for the AHL club gets underway on on Oct. 6 when the team travels to Portland to face off against the Pirates.

The Devils host Bridgeport in their home opener on Oct. 13.

Are you happy to see some familiar players returning to Lowell? What are your thoughts on Doyle? Did his play last season warrant him being placed on waivers?

I know, I know! In the grand scheme of things, you could say it was kind of meaningless. But you must admit, it certainly was fun watching the Red Sox celebrate their division championship, wasn’t it?

And I won’t say it was totally meaningless. Winning the division was important on a number of levels, not the least of which is guaranteeing at least one series of home field advantage in the playoffs. I think that will be huge against the Angels, and I’d still love to see the Sox go all out for the best record and home field throughout the playoffs. (Good luck to Terry Francona finding enough players who aren’t hung over today to win a ballgame!)

It was also symbolic, if you ask me. The Yankees dynasty has been pretty much dead anyway, but finally taking away their division crown is one less thing their obnoxious supporters can crow about. Though the Sox buried most of the ghosts in 2004, there were still whispers from a few souls out there about Boston choking in August and September and being unable to stand up to the Evil Empire. Well, the Red Sox held up quite nicely, thank you, and we can officially proclaim what we’ve been calling here since the latter part of spring;

The Boston Red Sox are the 2007 American League East Champions!

4-0!

The only victim last week was the point spread as our pigskin prognosticator too the wood to all the oddsmakers. Of course on this end, if you followed my advice and went against The Victim, you no doubt suffered a blow to the bank account. The only good news for believers in the system is that even with that stellar 4-0 mark, the season total is still in the 50-50 range, so a couple of losing weeks for our fearless football forecaster will have you right back on the plus side.

On with the picks (you can get the Monday night pick by listening in to SportsTalk Live):

Dallas (-13) over St. Louis
NY Jets (-3 ½) over Buffalo
Indianapolis (-9 ½) over Denver
Philadelphia (-3) over NY Giants

Last week: 4-0
Season record: 8-7-1

News Flash: The Red Sox announced today that rookie Clay Buchholz will not pitch again this season. The promising rookie, who tossed a no-hitter against the Orioles September 1st, is reportedly being shut down, not because of reaching an innings limit, but because strength testing revealed “fatigue” in his pitching arm.

View from Mt. Olympus: I’m not sure if I’ve heard a bigger bunk of B.S. in my life.

Theo Epstein and staff don’t want to jeopardize the kid’s future, which is understandable, but you mean to tell me a few post-season appearances would ruin him? Especially since he’s barely pitched at all this month? No wonder the kid’s arm is showing weakening…he’s barely used it to throw a ball in September!

It was almost comical listening to poor Terry Francona explain the situation. I’m willing to bet that this decision came from above, but the poor manager was the one left to answer the questions, many of which had nothing to do with game strategy and everything to do with organizational decisions and physical tests.

Tito said there’s no injury, just a fatigued arm, which is normal with lots of young pitchers. No kidding! Imagine that! A tired pitcher in September. Cause I’m sure the veterans are as fresh as spring chickens!

Contrast this to the Yankees decision this week to start pitching Joba Chamberlain on back-to-back days from here on out, due to the importance of every contest, and you have a stark contrast in philosophy. One team is going all out to win this year. The other would LIKE to win, but isn’t willing to risk the future.

I’m sure the sarcasm tells you what I think of this…what are your thoughts? Are you disappointed that perhaps the team’s 4th best starter and a potential weapon out of bullpen won’t be available during the World Series run? Or is this the right decision?

Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff

Monday night shapes up as a big, bit night for fans of SportsTalk Live. Not only will the show take place live from Hookslide Kelly’s (which, by the way will have WBCN in-house for a Monday Night Football promotion), but we have a lineup that’s sure to rock the house.

We start things off with a Monday Night Lights preview of the Wilmington-Masconomet High School football matchup. Both squads enter play this weekend undefeated, and could very well be 4-0 when they face the following week. Wildcats head coach Bob Almeida will dial in and he promises to bring a player or two with him, probably Ernie Mello, he of the 14-touchdowns on the season so far.

After that, we check in with our pro teams. Dave Pevear dials in to help preview the big Patriots-Bengals Monday Night contest. We haven’t checked in with Dave since pre-season, so there’s a lot to talk about including Cameragate, the Pats explosive start, and the rejuvenated Randy Moss.

Not to be left out, the Red Sox open the American League Division series next week, and we hope to have Chaz Scoggins check in to talk about Boston’s Boys of Summer and their hopes for the Fall Classic.

Finally, The Victim offers his “guaranteed” winner against the Monday Night spread. Coming off a 4-0 week, our pigskin prognosticator is sure to be feeling his oats.

So don’t be left out of the talk. If you can’t visit us in person, dial in to (978)364-8255 to offer your thoughts or to just listen in. Showtime is 7-8pm (if you’re chatty enough, maybe we’ll even work a little overtime!).

Talk to you then!

Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

Doc Rivers and Danny Ainge aren't the only ones with reason for great optimism and anticipation about the upcoming season. The business side of the Boston Celtics organization has also had a summer to remember.

For anyone planning on fighting the I-93 traffic or hoping to hop on the Commuter Rail and ride right into the TD Banknorth Garden, you'd better have your tickets already or have a solid plan on how to get them.

Celtics president Rich Gotham said yesterday afternoon that the team is projecting to sell out all of their home games this season -- with the understanding that club seats/suites are still available.

"Winning is the best marketing," Gotham said at the Celtics Waltham practice facility. "The hope of winning is the second-best marketing."

Season ticket sales have gone up by roughly 40 percent so far and now account for about 80 percent of the tickets sold, Gotham said. Individual ticket sales are already equal to the amout sold two and a half months into last season.

No game has more than 1,000 seats remaining, and most of the games not sold out are from late March and on.

Prices have stayed relatively stable. Fifteen percent of tickets have gone up in price (not to be confused with a 15 percent increase in prices), according to Gotham.

Despite the sales explosion, the Celtics plan to have 300 day of game tickets will be available after Ticketmaster windows close.

Posted by Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

Not only did the fans at the Tsongas get to see future Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur in net for the Devils, they welcomed back Hockey East and Boston College stand out Brian Gionta.

Gionta led the Devils to a 6-1 routing of the New York Islanders via the hat trick, two of which came on the power play.

John Madden (2 goals) and Travis Zajac added the other three goals.

Those in attendance were also treated to some old time, black and blue hockey as they saw four different Devils drop the gloves.

David Clarkson, Matthew Corrente, Arron Asham and Mike Rupp stepped up to the challenge as they threw down the gloves and took on Darryl Bootland, Tim Jackman and Gordie Dwyer

Jackman had a rough night considering he faced off against Corrente and Ashman.

Brodeur made 14 saves on 15 shots before giving way to Frank Doyle at the start of the third period.

Doyle was perfect in net stopping all 11 shots he faced.

Dwyer scored the lone goal for the Isles.

The Lowell Devils hit the ice tomorrow for their first practice before hosting the Bridgeport Sound Tigers Saturday night for their first preseason tilt at the arena; face off is 6:05 p.m.

Assistant Sports Editor Barry Scanlon will make his way to the rink for the Devils first practice on Thursday. Be sure to pick up The Sun or read his words on the Lowell Sun website and stay here throughout the season for all the Lowell Devils news.See you at the rink; until then keep reading here for Lowell Devil up dates.

Posted by Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

David Clarkson and Matthew Corrente both dropped the gloves for New Jersey in the second period as they faced off against Darryl Bootland and Tim Jackman respectively.

Brian Gionta scored his second goal of the night on the power play just 52 seconds into the period.

The Islanders finally got one past Martin Brodeur when Gordie Dwyer beat him in front of the crease.

Jackman is having a rough night for the Isles as he dropped the gloves against Aaron Ashman as time expired in the period.

Goaltending changes to start the third:
Joey MacDonald took over in net for the Isles to start the third and Frank Doyle made his way into the Jersey crease in relief of Brodeur.

Posted by Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

After 20 minutes of hockey, the Devils scored three goals on their first four shots of the game; the first coming off Brian Gionta's stick 35 seconds into the game.

New Jersey's other two goals came from John Madden and Travis Zajac.

Martin Brodeur faced 11 shots and stopped all of them, the only threat being a breakaway from Richard Park after he picked up a loose puck inside his own blueline.

Brodeur showed just how strong he is in net sliding post to post, sprawling on his back to make the leg save.

Posted by Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

Just a quick update from the Tsongas before the New Jersey Devils host the New York Islanders ...

Martin Brodeur led his team onto the ice indicating he would be playing at least one period.

Other notable New Jersey players on the ice for warm-ups are Zach Parise, Brian Gionta, John Madden and Sergie Brylin.

Some of last year's Lowell squad on the ice for warm-ups include: Frank Doyle, Mike Mottau, Barry Tallackson, Andy Greene, Nicklas Bergfors and Rod Pelley.

I will make updates throughout the game for those of you not in attendance.

Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

The hype is about to end, and the games -- even though it's preseason -- are quickly approaching. Celtics head coach Doc Rivers and Danny Ainge, general manager and director of basketball operations, are ready to get the season underway.

It's been an important off-season for the Celitcs. The entire outlook of the franchise was turned around, and that extends further than ticket sales and sports talk radio shows. Players and coaches have all of a sudden been injected with renewed fire and fervor.

Ainge said earlier today that his highlight of the summer was "to see the enthusiasm and rejuvenated spirit in the eyes of Doc (Rivers) and Paul (Pierce)."

For Rivers, entering his fourth season as Celtics head coach, this year will be both a process and an opportunity.

The "process" will include molding the team dynamic both on and off the court with a roster that features nine new players. Rivers openly admits it is still unclear exactly how much the additions of Kevin Garnett or Ray Allen will change Pierce's game. It will be one of the many details to be worked out in preseason and throughout the regular season.

The "opportunity" aspect of this season is pretty self-explanatory. Rivers has gone from coaching a team of developing players -- several who may only develop into serviceable NBA players -- to a coach with three established all-stars and several experienced veterans coming off the bench.

"Last year, when we had one of our first player meetings and you go around the locker room and you ask about goals, one of our young guys said 'I think we can win a world championship,'" Rivers said. "Last year, you would've said that's unrealistic. You know what I'm saying. This year, I don't think anyone's saying that. If someone says that (winning a championship), they wouldn't say that's unrealistic. For me it's just a great opportunity."

While Ainge put together the team that has uplifted basketball in Boston from the second-tier behind the Red Sox and Patriots, championship expectations and projections of success appear to have have left Ainge somewhat conflicted.

On the one hand, Ainge said a big concern is expectations of a team that "hasn't done anything." At the same time, he insists that the organization will not shy away from the expectations.

"I'm not afraid of high expectations," Ainge said. "I want our coaches to have high expectations. I want our players to have high expectations."

Posted by Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

Media day was anything but ordinary for the Bruins when Executive Vice President Charlie Jacobs introduced NHL Hall of Famer Cam Neely as Vice President of the club.

He may not be wearing a Bruin sweater this season or lacing up the skates, but having Neely in a front office points the franchise in the right direction.

"I understand what the fans are looking for as far as what they want from their team," Neely said. "I'd like to feel I can help in any way that they ask and get that back in this organization."

General Manager Peter Chiarelli said one of the things he likes most about Neely is his bluntness when he talks about the Bruins and hockey in general, the bluntness was apparent as Neely spoke to the media.

"Quite frankly, I'm not really happy with what's gone on," Neely said of the franchise.

Neely's role as Vice President will be mainly in hockey operations working closely with Chiarelli giving his advice and thoughts on personnel as well as assisting the Jacobs in different areas of the franchise as a whole.

Neely said he is ready to accept the challenge his new role with his former club will entail after spending a year as one of the Bruins' Ambassadors.

"When I accepted the role as the ambassador of the Bruins, Charlie was hoping I would be more involved then," Neely said. "But, unfortunately the timing wasn't right for me. Being an ambassador it allwowed me the opportunity to get involved in some what of a limited basis and I really got excited about being involved with the Bruins again.

"I feel at this particular time in my life I can commit more time to working with the organization. [...] I'd like to be able to try and help and get things back on track."
Neely echoed Chiarelli's words of the Black and Gold needing to be harder to fight against.

"One of the things (Chiarelli) has been stressing is the team needs to be harder to play against and I felt that for a long time," Neely explained. "I think the people that are fans of the Bruins expect that. They expect their team to play that way and it hasn't happened so much in the past. I think it's a big step in the right direction for the players to understand what it means to be a Bruin and understanding the type of work ethic that you have to have to play on this team."

Neely went back to his playing days when he said, "You may not play well every night, but you can work hard every night."

When asked if he thought the fans were disappointed, mad or taking a wait and see approach, Neely said it's "all of the above."

"I think for the most part (the fans) are dying to support the team," Neely said. "I think that's part of the process we're in right now. We need to take the time to show them that we understand what we have to do to get the team back to where we'd like. It's not going to happen over night but I think we're all heading in the rigth direction."

Neely said he knows the game has changed since he was a player, but the approach as a player should not.

"I think if you have the opportunity to take the body, you have to take the body," Neely said. "You can still hit in this league. [...] With what Peter's mantra has been, I think that's a great direction for the team to go in and as far as I'm concerned that's the direction we need to go in here. Right from your top player down to the guy that's on the fourth line. You got to take the body when you have the opportunity. You can't be afraid to take a hit to make a play; everybody's got to be accountable for those situations that are on the ice."

Is this simply another PR move by the owners of the Bruins, or is Neely the right person to help get this team back on track? Regardless, Neely will be welcomed by the fans, media and everyone in between.

Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

The 2007-08 NBA season just might feature a new Paul Pierce. At least that's what the Celtics captain seemed to be getting at in his comments this in a conference call this afternoon.

Pierce says he's prepared to score less and contribute more in other aspects of his game, whereas he has carried most of the offensive burden in the past few seasons. Several times made reference to "sacrifice" and pointed out that he knows he, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen won't each be able to average 25 points per game.

Last year's NBA champion San Antonio Spurs had just one player, Tim Duncan, average 20 points per game during the regular season, and the same can be said for the high-scoring Phoenix Suns and their up-tempo offense. The Washington Wizards trio of Gilbert Arenas (28 ppg), Antawn Jamison (19.8), and Caron Butler (19.1) couldn't all get past the 20-point hump.

Pierce averaged 25 points in an injury-plagued 2006-07 season. He led the Celtics in scoring, rebounding, and assists in 2005-06 season.

As has been the case in most of his public statements since the acquisitions of Allen and Garnett, Pierce seems to welcome the change. He's even made repeated references to a load being lifted off of his shoulders.

"I'm willing to do whatever I got to do to win a championship," said Pierce, who stated he felt like the Eastern Conference was wide open.

One specific area of focus this off-season?

"Probably just my defense," Pierce said. "I know I'm going to play a different role defensively."

Pierce added that he thinks he is an "underrated defender" and that he is preparing for the challenge of taking on some of the best players in the league.

Most, if not all, members of the Celtics have been working out together at their Waltham practice facility for the last two weeks, according to the Celtics captain.

The biggest goal for the preseason and training camp, according to Pierce, is simply going to be learning. That is learning the system the coaches want to put in place as well as learning the ins and outs of his new teammates' games.

The Celtics start training camp on Sep. 30 in Rome, Italy. The first preseason game against the Toronto Raptors is on Oct. 6 in Rome. The regular season opener will be against the Washington Wizards at the TD Banknorth Garden on Friday, November 2.

Posted by Teddy Panos

A busy sports day around these parts continues with news that Manny Ramirez will return to the Red Sox lineup for the first time since August 28th.

Manny will play left field (Jacoby Ellsbury is on the bench) and bat second, which I'm guessing is a move designed to get him an extra at bat before he's removed from the game. Ordinarily, players rehab in the minors and don't play a full game the first time back from injury, but since the Sox don't have any active minor league clubs to send him to, he'll rehab at Fenway.

Now, I don't mind the fact he's not going to play the entire game...no sense in getting him re-injured. However, this batting second thing is really silly. At most, he'd only play one more inning in the field if they didn't bat around to him the second or third time up (whenever he's going to be removed), and he very well could be removed in the same inning anyway. Shouldn't the most important thing be to win games right now?

I know there's a fine line between going all out to win the division and giving weary players enough rest heading into a playoffs they've already qualified for. But shouldn't winning the division and getting home field be the top priority as long as the possibility exists?

As for the idiot brigade accusing Manny of quitting on his teammates, please note that Ramirez returned in less than a month from an injury that typically takes 4-6 weeks to heal from without facing significant risk of re-injury. Depending on the severity, some return quicker, others take longer. Mike Timlin missed about 6-weeks with a similar injury earlier this year.

Update: In a senile moment, I completely forgot to mention the main reason why I posted this in the first place; The Red Sox were 12-12 in Manny's absence. Don't ever let anyone tell they're better off without him!

Hockey East’s pre-season coaches poll is out, and the UMass-Lowell River Hawks are picked to finish 9th in the conference.

Perennial powers Boston College(84-points) and New Hampshire(84) finished tied atop the poll, splitting the 10-first place votes evenly. As seems to be the case every year, Boston University(77) and Maine(61) round out the top four, coming in third and fourth respectively. The rest of the poll has Vermont(54) and Massachusetts(54) tied for 5th, Northeastern(43) 7th and Providence(39) 8th. The River Hawks(25) and Merrimack(19) round out the ten team conference.

The numbers show how tough a challenge Blaise MacDonald faces just to get his squad into the playoffs. There’s a pretty good sized gap between what the coaches think of the final playoff team (Providence) and the River Hawks. True, these polls don’t really mean anything once the games start, but it’s pretty safe to say the top four will finish that way in some order (don’t they always?), while Vermont and UMass are clearly better than Lowell right now. That doesn’t leave much margin for error, and the River Hawks are going to have to win as many games as possible against Northeastern, Providence and Merrimack. Squandering opportunities to pick up points against those teams will almost surely doom UML to another spring without playoff hockey.

That’s the view from Mt. Olympus…how do you see Hockey East playing out? Do you agree with the top of the poll? How about the River Hawks place in it?

Bruins media day featured a little more news today than the usual meaningless soundbites and photo ops.

Gayle Simone was at the event and phoned in to say the B’s named Cam Neely Vice President of Hockey Operations, essentially taking over the duties of Harry Sinden. Whether this means Peter Chiarelli will report directly to Neely as opposed to the Jacobs boys remains to be seen. Gayle spoke with the former #8 and will have a more detailed post as soon as she gets off the highway and in front of a computer. But since I have no life and live in front of my laptop, we figured we'd break the news to you ASAP…LOL!

Till then, feel free to chime in with your comments. The cynic in me sees just another PR maneuver by a team desperate to become relevant again. However, I'll wait to read more of what Gayle has to say before passing further judgment.

In our never-ending quest to bring you the best local sports coverage, here’s the debut of our newest feature…TheSunBlog Pigskin Party.

Each week, we’ll post some items about the previous weekend’s high school football games, a picture here or there, highlight outstanding performances, you know, stuff like that. You’ll also be able to see how your team is doing by visiting the standings page (to see them, just click on the “view full entry” link below.

But most of all, this is just another vehicle for you to show your school pride, boast about your team’s big victory, or just rag on your biggest rival. I expect those comments to fill up!

Stars of the week:
Ernie "The Fantasy Football Machine" Mello (Wilmington): In a 47-33 victory over Lawrence, Mello rushed the ball 41-times for 375-yards and 7...yes, I said 7...touchdowns. As if that wasn't enough of a workload, the senior running back also hauled in 2-receptions and returned two kicks. He now has 14-TD's on the season as Wilmington is off to a 3-0 start.

Derek "Catch this Sinkerball" Lowe (Tewksbury): A week after returning two kicks for touchdowns, Lowe broke loose for TD runs of 55 & 73 to lead Tewksbury to a big 23-3 win over Lowell. On the day, Lowe ran the ball 6-times for 156-yards and also caught 3-passes for 28-yards.

Questions of the week:
Can anyone stop the Bishop Guertin machine?
Is Billerica for real?
Can Tewksbury keep it going against Chelmsford?

The SunBlog
High School Football Standings

A few talking points while awaiting my invitation to address the Columbia University School of Journalism (must have accidentally been sent to Tehran);

Yesterday’s announcement by the Drug Enforcement Administration that 120-people were arrested as part of an 18-month international investigation into illicit steroid labs is going to send shock waves through the sports world. The DEA reportedly has more evidence than they know what to do with at this point, and the scope of this sting dwarfs the Albany, NY investigation that outed Human Growth Hormone users Rodney Harrison and Rick Ankiel, among others.

That collective gasp you hear is coming from locker rooms throughout the country. Athletes mistakenly thought they could get away with using HGH because they’re only required to take urine tests, assuming they’re tested at all, which can’t detect the substance. What they didn’t count on was the labs used to purchase drugs being busted and having their records confiscated.

If only they were smart enough not use their own names. Then again, the brain is one body part HGH can’t strengthen or heal!

For the record, I find Rodney Harrison to be one of the more interesting, eloquent and stand-up athletes I’ve ever covered. Despite finding out he made steroid purchases as early as 2003 (if not earlier), I still think he’s a good person, and an even better teammate. That said, any of you who’ve denounced Barry Bonds yet plan on applauding Harrison solely for the purpose of showing support are a capital H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E, no better than the San Francisco sycophants who cheer BALCO Barry’s accomplishments.

On a related note, a rather remarkable streak ended this weekend. I’ll bet only fantasy leaguers fighting for a championship cared that Hank Blalock hit a home run off Chad Bradford Saturday. (Of course, if you have either Blalock or Bradford on your fantasy team, chances are you aren’t competing for a championship!) I’ll also bet you didn’t know that was the first homer allowed by Bradford in 128-games, the longest such streak in 51-years.

How is that related to the steroid talk in previous paragraphs? Well, because Bradford’s accomplishment is even more remarkable when you take into account the rampant cheating going on in baseball these days. And yes, I fully realize pitchers are doing the stuff as much, if not more than hitters.

Speaking of fantasy sports, pretty solid advice I handed out about not expecting big things out of Randy Moss this year, wasn’t it? In my defense, I had Wilmington High’s Ernie Melo (7-rushing TD’s vs. Lawrence) and Tewksbury’s Derek Lowe (he sank Lowell with TD runs of 55 and 73 yards) in my schoolboy league. (Wink, wink)

That was a pretty classy move by the Boston College football team Saturday, standing behind Army during the playing of their song, then shaking hands with the Cadets and thanking them for their service. Shows me that head coach Jeff Jagodzinski gets it.

Barry Scanlon’s article a couple of weeks ago about Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel struggling since leaving Foxboro reminded me of a discussion I’ve had with a few friends about the Patriots success beings a “chicken or the egg” argument. Is it mostly due to Bill Belichick, who wasn’t exactly a “genius” until a certain 6th round pick appeared on the scene? Or should most of the credit go to Tom Brady, a relative nobody until a certain head coach got his mitts on him?

Try broaching that one next time you’re hanging around with friends and family. Or better yet, right here! Guaranteed, you’ll get an argument either way!

By Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

First of all, yes I am alive and secondly... is it hockey season yet?

While most of you are still following the Red Sox/Yankees race in the East or have already moved onto the Patriots; I am not so patiently waiting for opening night of the upcoming NHL season - I know most of you are probably thinking right now "I thought we got rid of this girl talking about hockey all the time" - sorry to disappoint, but that will never happen.

Wednesday night will be the first live hockey game for me when I attend the Devils/Islanders game at the Tsongas. I'm looking forward to seeing which players from New Jersey will play and also hoping to get a glimpse of this year's Lowell roster.

Selfishly, I am hoping to see Jordan Parise in net with his brother Zach playing in front of him since I have not had the opportunity to see the brothers play on the ice together.

Hope to see some of the regulars here at the game.

Even though we have hockey right here in Lowell, I am very much excited about the upcoming Bruins season, yes I think the Black and Gold will be fighting the other team on Causeway to be the number one Boston team this winter - to put it frankly, neither winter team is no longer irrelavant.

The Bruins made some good moves during the off season and even though they have not faired well in preseason play. Keep in mind the players taking the ice in preseason may or may not be on the ice come Oct. 5 when the team opens on the road in Dallas.

To put it in perspective, Marc Savard, Glen Murray, Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara and others have yet to play in the same game.

Either way, I am psyched hockey officially starts next week!

On a side note, I will be in the Sun Talk Live studio with Teddy tonight as we welcome Kevin Bartl of the Lowell Devils. So let's have some hockey fans out there call in and ask questions or listen to the show.

With that said, I look forward to discussing hockey with all of you again and hope to see a few of you at Wednesday's game. See you at the rink.

Final Score
Bills 7
Patriots 38

View from Mt. Olympus: Yawn! Ho-hum! Another day at the office!

Bring on the Colts. Let’s play a best of seven series, winner take all. Let the rest of the teams play out the schedule, minus the Patriots and Colts matchups, so everyone can make their money and give fans something to do. But I think at this point we all know the Super Bowl winner is going to be one of these two teams. So why mess around. Let’s get it on!

Seriously, this has been ridiculously easy. The Pats have scored 38-points in every game, but this week, the defense decided to change things up by holding Buffalo to seven, instead of the fourteen surrendered to the Jets and Chargers. It’s tough to find any negatives right now (though I think I have one…LOL!) and the positives are getting positively redundant.

OK, the negative; I’m beginning to wonder if Bill Belichick has lost faith in Stephen Gostkowski. Why else would the Pats go for it on 4th and 7, when clearly in field goal range? And it’s not like it would have been a 50-yarder or anything. The coach likes to say if you don’t have faith in your kicker, he shouldn’t be on the team. Well, what’s going to happen when the time comes (and you know it’s going to despite the recent blowouts) when a game comes down to a field goal situation and you won’t even try one in an early season game that turns into a blowout?

Now that I’ve written that, I have to say that if that’s the only thing to worry about right now, the Patriots are in darn good shape.

Shining Stars: As Yogi Berra once said; it’s déjà vu all over again.

3-games…a third star on the forehead for Tom Brady (23-29, 311-yards, 4-TD’s & 0-Int’s), Randy Moss (5-115, 2-TD’s), Wes Welker (6-69, plus provided the spark when the Pats were sleepwalking early) and the Offensive Line (only 1-sack allowed and big holes for the running backs). If this paragraph sounds familiar, it should. The same folks have earned honors in the previous two games.

However, this week we’re going to belatedly move Ben Watson to the front of the class for catching a TD pass in a 3rd consecutive game and Laurence Maroney for breaking the hundred yard barrier on only 19-carries (19-103 to be exact).

On the other side of the ball, it was another great team effort. Adalius Thomas led the way with 7-tackles, so he gets extra credit, as does Ellis Hobbs for a key early game sack/forced fumble and a pretty nice play to break up a long pass later in the contest. And finally, how about a career-achievement award to Junior Seau, who moved into second place on the all-time list for games played by a linebacker with 244. He passed BC Bill Romanowski, and now trails only Clay Matthews, who appeared in 278-games. Doubt Junior will top that mark, but you never know. The physical freak of nature puts a lot of younger guys to shame.

Quality Quote: "Nope. I haven’t overthrown him yet."--Tom Brady, when asked if he thought he'd overthrown Moss on the long touchdown

"I don’t think that was the best play that I’ve ever seen; let’s put it that way. When the players have the ball out there, they have to make the plays and it’s their job to do what they think is best. Being aggressive and trying to make plays is good. Being careless and not taking care of the ball is bad. I’ll talk to Wes about it and see exactly what he saw. I don’t think we want to make a habit of that. In that case, it worked out for a few extra yards. It’s hard to get on him, but we’ll try. We’ll get on him anyway."—Bill Belichick when asked what he thought about Welker’s lateral to Moss.

See. The coach has a much easier time coming up with negatives than I do!

That’s the view from Mt. Olympus…how do you see it? I’m half-joking about the Pats-Colts best-of-seven thing, but admit it; it would be awesome, wouldn’t it?