B’s Look Good Heading Into Bye Week

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ESPN – The NHL will work in a five-day “bye week” next season as part of the negotiation with the NHL Players’ Association to sign off on the All-Star format changes announced this week, according to sources…

[T]he league will build in a five-day bye week for each team into their schedule between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 next season, sources told ESPN.com.

Players will be completely off with no practice during this break. There will be practice permitted after 4 p.m. local time on the fifth day if there is a game on the sixth day; otherwise no practice will be allowed on the fifth day.

I won’t lie, I had no idea NHL teams had bye weeks until I heard it mentioned on the pre-game show last night. A quick Google search revealed that the NHL bye week is, in fact, new for the 2016-2017 season. A complete list of NHL bye weeks can be found on reddit.

With their 4-0 win over the Canadiens last night, the Bruins head into their inaugural bye week winners of three in a row, 3-0-0 in the Bruce Cassidy era. The Canadiens also have their bye this week after back-to-back losses over the weekend.

The Bruins got skewered for firing Claude the day of the Patriots parade and rightfully so. But maybe the timing of Claude’s firing wasn’t so bad after all. The Bruins have strung together three straight wins, and now have six full days off before opening a west coast road trip in San Jose Sunday night. They will play four games in California and Texas in eight days before returning to the Garden on February 28.

In the past, I always expected the Bruins to fire a coach after a disastrous west coast road trip when it was probably too late anyways. At least this year the Bruins made the move before it was too late. We’ll have a better idea in two weeks if it really made a difference, and if the Bruce Cassidy era will extend into May, June or beyond.

Friday Morning Randomness

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In case you missed it during the lead up to the Super Bowl, ESPN aired a terrific 30 for 30 on February 2, “This Was the XFL.” If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a great watch.

This opening scramble definitely took me back to early 2001. It’s a shame no one has figured out yet how to keep a spring football league going. There are dozens of independent baseball leagues and teams, why can’t someone do the same with football?

Anyway, enjoy the nostalgia rush that is the XFL. Too bad I can’t go down to Building 19 to look for a Memphis Maniax jersey today.

MLB to Get Serious about Speeding up Games

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ESPN – Is this the year baseball raises the strike zone? Is it the year the sport does away with the practice of lobbing four balls toward home plate to issue an intentional walk? Major League Baseball has made formal proposals to the players’ union to usher in both of those changes.

ESPN – MLB will test a rule change in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League and the Arizona League this summer that will automatically place a runner on second base at the start of extra innings.

The days between the Super Bowl and MLB Opening Day are the dreariest days of the year for sports talk. Even for the diehards, breaking down regular season hockey and basketball games every day can get tedious. Topics like MLB’s pace of play can get a lot of attention in February.

You gotta admire MLB’s attempt to steer the conversation on the pace of play discussion. “Games lasting longer three hours have nothing to do with endless Southwest Airlines commercials. Nothing at all. It’s all those intentional walks and extra inning games slowing us down! Yeah, that’s it!”

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Actually, only 7.6% of MLB games last year went to extra innings. Of those extra inning games, 40% ended after just 10 innings. Only 32 games went past 12 innings last year.

There were 932 intentional walks last season. That may seem like a lot, but that’s out of 2430 games played across the league last year. That works out to one intentional walk every two and half games or so. On a night when all 30 teams are playing, you might see about 6 intentional walks.

Speeding up extra innings and/or intentional walks does not seem like the best way to regularly speed up the pace of play or cut down game times significantly. I think if MLB wants to get serious, they’ll have to consider George Carlin’s rule proposals from 1986.

If that doesn’t work, maybe we can cut a few Southwest ads after all. I don’t know that many people need to fly from Manchester to Albany for 49 bucks any time soon anyways.

Patriots Super Bowl Parade Recap

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What a time to be alive. Another Super Bowl victory lap for the New England Patriots with millions of fans coming out in a bitterly cold and miserable day. And seeing 5 Lombardi trophies all together at once is rarer than getting all of the Dragon Balls together.

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Jacoby Brissett rocking the Tom Brady jersey, Gronk sacrificing and partying for the fans, every single RB shouting out James White, Ninkovich getting AFTER IT, Brady and Belichick cementing themselves as GOATs and the fans capping it all off with the chant of “We Want Six.”

Patriots Win 5th Ring with the Biggest Comeback in Super Bowl History

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“Its only fitting the greatest player in the history of the sport and the greatest team in the history of the sport had maybe the greatest victory in the history of the sport.”

Leave it to Michael Felger to start his show today with a statement that sounds like something your buddy says after a bakers dozen Bud Lights. But its not hyperbole. That was Tom Brady and Bill Belichick cementing themselves as the greatest QB and coach of all time in perhaps the greatest Super Bowl every played.

Down 25 points and on the brink of death the Pats just keep coming back. 28-3, 28-9, 28-12, 28-20, 28-28 and finally 34-28.

The Patriots are Jason Voorhees. No matter what you do, no matter how bad it is, the Patriots are never out of it. You cannot kill them. Down 20+ points, I was taking solace in the fact that the Falcons were burning timeouts like they were firewood, as my friends did their best to ignore my delusional rants.

But I keep coming back to how much this game reminded me of one from 2012 against the 49ers. It was a game the Pats ultimately lost 41-34, but similar to last night, after getting down 31-3 the Pats ripped off 24 points in the fourth quarter. So while I realized they were all but done, evidenced by the numerous Ari Gold gifs I tweeted out,

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it was hard to forget that Niners game. The Pats are better than anyone in the league at getting hot and turning a game on its head. And thats exactly what they did last night.

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In a game full of spectacular plays I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about one of the biggest of the night; Edelman’s circus catch in the 4th quarter. It may not have been a 4th down do or die play, but it was a huge gain that kept the Pats momentum going (and burned the Falcons final TO via challenge). Watching that last night I found myself thinking we *deserved* that play. After getting hosed by so many ridiculous circus catches over the years at the absolute worst time, David Tyree, Mario Manningham, Jermaine Kearse, we *deserved* this catch.

And holy shit was it close. Kept the drive going, Pats bang it in for the score, get the 2, OT, game over.

Now the Patriots are in rarified air; truly in a class of their own. We’ll enjoy the t-shirts, the hats, the parade, the Super Bowl DVD but then we’re on to Minneapolis and Super Bowl 52. On Feb 6th the Patriots are 6-1 favorites to win their 6th ring in Minneapolis. Drive for 5 and One for the Thumb were perfect for this year. But next season? Minneaposix

Drive for 5 is Complete. ROGER THAT

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What a game. What a comeback. What a night. First OT game in Super Bowl history. Biggest comeback in Super Bowl history. Most Super Bowl wins by a QB ever. Most Super Bowl MVPs ever. The Drive for Five. Fire Goodell. One for the thumb. And to cap it all off the absolutely nuclear commercial from Tom Brady. #ROGERTHAT.

Mariners Top Spring Training Cap Power Rankings

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A+ tweet, Mariners. The 300s can confirm that this hat is, in fact, 🔥.

I’m semiretired from the hat game. Bought a ton in high school, college and right after college. Sadly, real world expenses have put a real dent in my sports apparel budget. A few times a year, though, something new catches my eye. This Mariners spring training cap definitely passes the eye test for me.

MLB unveiled their 2017 spring training collection earlier today, and the new Mariners cap is definitely the big winner. The Mariners already had a solid “fauxback” cap in their rotation, which features their current logo in their old color scheme. This new spring training cap seems like the next logical step – their old logo with their current color scheme.

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Some other big winners today are the Cubs, who brought back their “angry cub” sleeve patch from the 80’s for their new spring training cap. The Mets continue to push Mr. Met back into the witness protection program and the Rays continue to push the limits of powder blue. The new Yankees cap might be the only swing and miss for me. Their pinstripes are iconic but seem out of place on the brim of a cap.

The whole 2017 Spring Training cap lineup can be seen on Chris Creamer’s SportsLogos.Net.

 

Isaiah Thomas Wins Eastern Conference Player of the Month Award; Next Up is MVP

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Isaiah Thomas just continues to play ball like a grown ass man. Another 44 points last night, with 19 in the 4th quarter to top the Raptors. Guy has scored 20+ points in every game but ONE this season. Got screwed out of the All-Star Game starting lineup, but today was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for January. The last Celtics player to win that award? That would be Paul Pierce in 2012. That’s five fucking years ago. Kids have gone through college without seeing a single Celtics player win a player of the month award.

So the fact that Isaiah at 5’9″ (allegedly) can continue to put up 40 burgers and carry this team you have to start wondering when is the MVP talk going to be taken seriously? It’s not hyperbole anymore guys. If you think it is, you’re not paying attention. He’s the best player on the No. 2 team in the conference scoring 30-40 points a night and the Celtics would probably be a 30 win team without him. What else can the man do? How about half-court shots that hit nothing but net?

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Would This Be Tom Brady’s Most Impressive Super Bowl Win Ever?

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So we talked about this on this week’s episode of The 300s Podcast, but would winning Super Bowl 51 be Tom Brady’s most impressive Super Bowl win ever? When you look around at his supporting cast on offense you have:

  • Julian Edelman (7th round pick)
  • Chris Hogan (undrafted lacrosse player)
  • Danny Amendola (undrafted)
  • Martellus Bennett (4th team in 8 years and acquired for a 4th round pick)
  • Dion Lewis (traded and cut by multiple teams)
  • LaGarrette Blount (originally acquired via trade for JEFF DEMPS and then resigned after he was cut by Pittsburgh)
  • James White (4th round pick)

If you want to go by what Keyshawn Johnson said this week, not one of these Patriots receivers would even make the 53-man roster of another NFL team. Bennett was an unwanted malcontent on a last place Bears team. Lewis and Blount were castoffs and White is Brady’s latest shotgun running back that he’s molded to his whims. It’s like he builds these guys in a lab somewhere with Ernie Adams.

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Oh and he also missed four games, which could have easily derailed the season or at the very least caused Brady to not be at the top of his game. But nope, he went out and played at an MVP level.

And did we mention that he doesn’t have his best weapon, one of the most most dominant players in the NFL in Rob Gronkowski? Name one other team that could stand losing a player of Gronk’s caliber, I’ll wait. Instead the Pats haven’t missed a beat and finished with a top 3 offense in the league.

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Brady’s done this his whole career with guys like Troy Brown, Deion Branch, Wes Welker, Shane Vereen, Danny Woodhead etc. The one time he had a Hall of Fame talent was with Randy Moss in 2007 and he threw 50 fucking touchdowns.

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So would winning a Super Bowl title without his best weapon, a stable of late round picks, undrafted players and castoffs from other teams all while missing a quarter of the season be Brady’s best ever? Without a doubt. Now hit the music.

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