It was a good night for the locals, as the Bruins beat the Rangers in overtime to take the first game of their conference semifinal series, and the Red Sox rallied from a two-run deficit in the ninth inning to beat the Tampa Rays.

Brad Marchand goal lifts Bruins past Rangers in OT – Steve Conroy has the Bruins doing a good job turning the page from their electrifying game seven win over Toronto.

Marchand finally looks himself with Game 1 goal – Joe Haggerty has the Bruins winger getting himself back to form last night.

Young blueliners don’t look green – With the Bruins down three veteran defensemen, Joe McDonald looks at the fine performance by the trio of Torey Krug, Matt Bartkowski and Dougie Hamilton last night. Kevin Paul Dupont has more on the young trio.

Nobody bigger than Zdeno Chara – Mark Daniels has the Bruins stalwart playing an immense 38 minutes last night.

Bruins fans made CSN studio scary – Chad Finn’s media column looks back at the scene in the Comcast SportsNet studio outside TD Garden after the historic game 7 win over the Maple Leafs.

So, let me get this straight, Mike Felger was scared, not of bodily harm, but about the quality of the broadcast? That’s why they called 911? Also, since when has Felger been worried about the quality of any broadcast?

Finn also mentions the Entercom employee satisfaction survey.

Jack Edwards’ winning Bruins call gains notice – Bill Doyle’s media column has Jack Edwards talking about his call of the winning goal in game seven.

The Red Sox were down 3-1 in the ninth inning, and the Rays had their closer on the mound to start the inning. The same closer who had struck out the side on Tuesday night. The Sox loaded the bases, and with two outs and two strikes, Will Middlebrooks emptied the bases, giving Boston a 4-3 lead which they held for the win.

Red Sox rally on Will Middlebrooks’ bat – Scott Lauber looks at the important win for the Sox.

Shane Victorino toughing it out for Red Sox – Nick Cafardo look at how important the outfielder has become to the Red Sox.

Bard’s control issues big concern in Double A – Sean McAdam looks at the struggles for the formerly dominant reliever.

Red Sox steal drama trick from Bruins – John Tomase looks at this one as a win that the Red Sox can build on.

Just how ridiculous (and transparent) is Mike Florio?

Patriots’ decision to cut Love looks like disability discrimination

Jaguars help Patriots, in a roundabout way

From the latter:

The Patriots’ apologists suddenly have gotten very quiet.

OK, so no one is defending the team any more. Then:

The team has not responded to a PFT request for comment, and no amount of off-the-record spin being espoused by writers covering the team regarding concerns such as Love’s performance slipping in 2012 and the addition of other players who may be better than Love changes the fact that the Pats cut Love not because of his performance or his competition but because of a medical condition.  We know this because the team released Love in the immediate aftermath of his diagnosis with the “non-football illness” designation.

So are the apologists quiet, or are the apologist writers covering the team actually making excuses for them?

While the Patriots may suffer no consequence or reprimand for a fairly blatant violation of Love’s human rights (because, you know, they’re the Patriots), the Jaguars deserve to be praised for ignoring a condition that can be treated and controlled. Many people operate successfully with diabetes, and every diabetic should be a fan of the Jaguars moving forward.

Excuse me, Mr Florio, but your slip is showing. What does this even mean? Is he saying they won’t be punished because the league looks the other way on the Patriots, or is he saying the Patriots make a routine habit of violating of the human rights of their employees?

On the matter of spin coming from the local media, I’m not seeing it. Tom E Curran wrote about it – More to Pats’ release of Love than meets the eye but Florio’s line seems to be more about retaliating for being called out than actually debunking anything Curran says. I’m not seeing other Patriots media rush to the defense of the team as Florio indicates is happening.

Then Florio runs this last night:

Krafts catch flak for favoring Patriots over Revolution

Included is this paragraph:

Still, a Sports Illustrated poll of anonymous players pegged the Krafts as the worst owners in the MLS, and players like Thierry Henry and David Beckham have balked at playing on the FieldTurf at Gillette Stadium.

Seriously?

Facing their own ghosts of the past, the Bruins just gave up last night, meekly submitting to the Toronto Maple Leafs as Boston completed its collapse from a 3-1 series lead. Appropriately enough, the Bruins were done in by Phil Kessel, as the former first round pick of the Bruins scored to make it 3-1 two minutes into the third period and then assisted on the final Toronto goal three minutes later which made it 4-1. The Bruins had no energy, could not generate scoring chances and at times appeared disinterested. Look for coach Claude Julien to pay for this epic collapse with his job.

How many columns with sentiments similar to the above do you figure were in the process of being written during the third period last night?

The Bruins instead pulled off a historic comeback, scoring three times in the third period, including twice in the final 90 seconds to force overtime and then won on Patrice Bergeron’s wrist shot in the extra period (Dave Goucher audio) to take the series four games to three and move on to face the New York Rangers.

It’s hard to imagine two more different scenes than the one right after the fourth Toronto goal, and immediately following the game. Dirt was being shoveled onto the Bruins grave, and then fans had Mike Felger calling for backup and fearing for his safety in the studio across the street from the Garden. There was also an F-bomb dropped on the air coming in from a break as they wondered if the window was going to be broken.

Bruins Win Overtime Thriller, Toronto Left Staring Into Nothingness  – Deadspin has the NBC video, the NESN video and reaction from the Toronto crowd. For some reason they also do a finger wag at NESN (New England Sports Net Switches To Toronto Feed In Ultimate Dick Move) for briefly showing the Toronto crowd. What Deadspin seems to miss is that NESN was showing those Toronto crowd shots all night long, especially after Maple Leaf goals. Many complained on Twitter after the game winner that NESN didn’t show enough of the Toronto crowd after things went bad for them.

Hope Was Lost Until The Bruins Restored It – Kevin Paul Dupont compares this game to Carlton Fisk’s home run in the 1975 World Series. (Except here, Patrice Bergeron  played the role of both Bernie Carbo and Fisk.)

Bruins display heart of champions in comeback – Joe Haggerty looks at the unlikeliest of game seven comebacks.

Bruins pull off epic turnaround – Joe McDonald has the Bruins making history again.

Bergeron delivers in face of mounting criticism – Stephen Harris has Bergeron delivering after his line had been criticized all series.

Leafs endure heartbreaking collapse in Game 7 overtime loss to Bruins – From North of the border, Bruce Arthur is as good as they come.

A snide comment from Kevin Paul Dupont last week suddenly looks prescient as the Bruins, once up 3-1 in this opening round series, find themselves fighting for their playoff lives tonight in game seven against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Bruins have lost wiggle room – Joe McDonald says that the formula for the Bruins is simple, they need more shots, more traffic, more players in front of the net to cause havoc.

B’s flaunting inconsistency to the end – Joe Haggerty says that based on this season, we have no idea which version of the Bruins will show up tonight. Haggs also notes that this band of Bruins are familiar with the pressure of a game 7.

Tuukka Rask hopes for best – Stephen Harris has the Bruins goaltender putting the 2010 playoffs out of his mind as he readies for tonight.

Undying loyalty to Seguin, Marchand might lead to Bruins’ early demise – Matt Kalman thinks that Claude Julien’s loyalty to his young duo might end up costing him his job.

Toronto got the better of Boston twice yesterday, as the Blue Jays pounded Ryan Dempster and the Red Sox 12-4 at Fenway Park. Boston has now lost eight of ten.

The Red Sox’ reality: The lineup’s problems, and potential solutions – Rob Bradford looks at how the Red Sox can turn things around as they now face a nine-game road trip through Tampa, Minnesota and Chicago.

May has brought lots of problems – Tony Lee notes that since the calendar switched from April to May, it’s been all bad for the Sox.

It’s getting to be a grind for scuffling Sox – Ron Borges looks at how things have faltered for the Sox as of late,  suggests they take  a lesson from the Mayans, and has a new nickname for Dan Shaughnessy.

David Ortiz is 1-for-17 since The Cooler asked him to defend himself because apparently 40 allegedly negative drug tests for performance enhancers weren’t good enough.

How much longer Ortiz struggles is anyone’s guess, but you don’t have to know much about baseball to understand he wasn’t going to continue to hit .450, because if he did, The Cooler wouldn’t be the only guy asking him questions about how that was happening.

Not bad, not bad. Whenever things are going well, we can count on Dan Shaughnessy going in to insert himself into the equation and foul things up however he can.

Of course, “the Cooler” is a phrase that Shaughnessy himself had some fondness for, as he used it in at least three different columns as a nickname for Adrian Gonzalez.

Celtics (0-0) vs. Philadelphia (0-0)
April 18, 1980
The Boston Garden

The Celtics began the  Eastern Conference Finals at the friendly confines of the Boston Garden against the Philadelphia 76ers.  The two teams split the six regular season meetings, with each team winning their home games.  Rumors that Philly could not win in Boston proved premature as the 76ers dominated the game’s third quarter and stole the opening game of the series, 96-93. [Read more...]

David Krejci seems to be a guy who steps his game up to another level when the postseason begins. During the Bruins 2011 run to the Stanley Cup title, Krejci was the leading scorer of the postseason. He’s on that pace again as he scored a hat trick, including the game-winner in overtime as the Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 to take a 3-1 series lead.

Krejci continues postseason heroics – Joe Haggerty looks at another big playoff performance for Krejci.

David Krejci on top of his game – Joe McDonald notes that “in 63 career playoff games, Krejci has 25 goals and 32 assists for 57 points, including a plus-26 rating. Those are some sick numbers and his teammates know it.”

Meanwhile, not everyone is happy with the victory and series lead. Kevin Paul Dupont tries out a little Dan Shaughnessy schtick to open up his column today:

The Maple Leafs are all but finished, although we only need recall Boston’s 3-0 series lead over Philadelphia in 2010 to remember that sure things can turn into dreaded, torturous black holes of despair in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Duly noted.

Also this morning, the noted hockey experts on the WEEI morning show were declaring that the Bruins trade of Phil Kessel to the Maple Leafs has now proven to be a bad deal, and it was noted that Kessel has outplayed Tyler Seguin in this series. A caller informed them of the following stats:

Kessel the last three seasons:  -33
Seguin the last three seasons:  +53

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Elsewhere, there continues to be some confusion over the status of Rob Gronkowski’s arm, and the number of surgeries needed. I was under the impression, and I’m not the only one, that the plate that is currently in Gronkowski’s forearm would need to be removed at some point, and so another surgery to take it out seemed to be a given. Thus when I see every outlet reporting that he might need a 4th surgery, I thought it was just hysteria.

I haven’t seen it clearly reported, (perhaps I’ve just missed it) but apparently the plan all along was that the plate would be left there permanently. Now, when the current batch of antibiotics runs its course, the arm will be evaluated for infection, and if needed, they would go in, remove the current plate and put another in, which of course would be a setback.

Whether that plate needs replacing hasn’t yet been determined officially.

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A few other links/items of note:

Celtics myths miss point – Steve Bulpett does a masterful job dispelling a number of myths surrounding the Celtics such as “they’re a better team without Rondo” and “the Celtics could’ve traded KG to the Clippers” and “the Celtics could’ve beaten the Knicks if they signed a true point guard after Rondo went down.”

It almost seems like Bulpett is taking aim at a certain 98.5 afternoon drive show…

Papi’s performance speaks for itself – Along the same lines of taking aim, Gordon Edes offers an alternate view of David Ortiz’s performance this season to that suggested by Dan Shaughnessy yesterday. (He must be on steroids!)

Speaking of Ortiz and Shaughnessy:

End of my hitting streak tonight the season stil going and l hope Dan shaugnessy is a happy man now… Not more 426 enjoy it✌

— David Ortiz (@davidortiz) May 9, 2013

The Red Sox spent a rough weekend in Texas, getting swept by the Rangers, including a walk-off loss yesterday at the hands of old friend Adrian Beltre.

The Red Sox offense fell silent this weekend, and Tim Britton notes that they’ve shown themselves vulnerable to most breaking pitches, especially the slider.

Clay Buchholz looks to play the role of stopper tonight against the Twins at Fenway Park. Alex Speier says the Sox need a strong (and long) outing from Buchholz to give some key bullpen members a bit of rest.

Despite the sweep, Michael Silverman says that the coming back optimistic and ready to get back on a winning track.

*******

LeBron James was named NBA MVP and it was revealed that he came one vote shy of becoming the first unanimous regular season MVP selection ever. Some speculation had Miami look-at-me radio star Dan Le Batard as the one who didn’t vote for LeBron, but instead, we found out today that it was none other than the Boston Globe’s own Gary Washburn who voted for Carmelo Anthony rather than LeBron.

Why my MVP vote went to Carmelo Anthony – Washburn explains his thinking, almost apologetically. He insists that this was not a “statement” vote and that he really didn’t think he would be the only writer in the entire country who didn’t vote for LeBron.

I’m really not sure whether Washburn should be admired or ridiculed for the vote. On one hand, writers in other sports have made picks that made headlines, yet were never revealed publicly. At the very least, Washburn deserves credit for raising his hand and saying it was him.

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It’s yet another spring where we’ve got the numerous “end of an era” columns written about the Celtics from the likes of Jackie MacMullan (who absolutely LOVES to predict dark days ahead for a franchise) and Dan Shaughnessy. It seems like these columns have been written annually since 2010, but this year, it seems like it really might be the end.

Maxwell: Doc, Garnett, Pierce won’t be back – WEEI Celtics radio analyst Cedric Maxwell went on CSNNE to say that it is his belief that Doc Rivers will leave the team, needing a breather, and that the Celtics will buy out Paul Pierce’s final year and that Kevin Garnett will retire.

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If you missed it last week, J.T. “The Brick” and his national show is back on overnights on WEEI starting today. The show airs from 1-6 a.m. weekdays and the program can currently be heard on approximately 260 affiliates across the nation.

Celtics (3-0) vs. Houston (0-3)
April 15, 1980
The Summit

The Celtics punched their ticket to the conference finals by sweeping away the Houston Rockets, winning the fourth and final game of the series, 138-121.

The C’s shot a scorching 63 percent from the field and featured four players in double-digits.  Larry Bird led all scorers with 34 points.  Bird, who also pulled down 10 rebounds and picked up 7 assists, came within just three assists of picking up his first playoff triple-double.  Even now, 33 years later, M.L. Carr still gushes when discussing playing alongside Bird.  In his recent interview with BSMW, Carr touched on the skills that allowed Bird to make an immediate impact in the NBA:

Larry’s understanding of the game made him so special.  Bill Russell used to say, “the game of basketball is not how high you can jump or how fast you can go, it’s how quick you can cut off angles because the game is a game of angles.”  Larry understood that probably better than anyone at the time.  He wasn’t a great leaper but he cleared out space for rebounding opportunities.  Defensively, he used angles to outsmart some of the quicker guys.  He had an incredible basketball IQ for a kid that young.  And put that together with his offensive skills, and I’m talking more than just shooting, because his ability to see the floor and pass were uncanny for a guy his size at that time.

Carr had a solid game of his own, coming off the bench to add 23 points in just 21 minutes.  Though the team was, both figuratively and literally, still centered by Dave Cowens, and the whole league was buzzing about Larry Bird, the Celtics were still very much Chris Ford’s team.  In just his his second season with the Celtics, the 31-year-old Ford had earned the trust of Bill Fitch.  Ford was no longer at the point where he could average 15 points in 4 assists per game, the numbers he posted during the 1979 season, but his gritty style of playbuilt a reservoir of  faith in his coach’s eyes.  Fitch relied on Ford’s steadiness, whereas the same could not be said for Fitch and Pete Maravich.  After enduring some miserable seasons with Detroit as well as a losing season in his first year with Boston, Ford made the most of his opportunity in 1980.

Carr explained Ford’s impact to the team:

We had an unbelievable bond among the guys, but I can still remember Chris Ford being one of our driving forces.  Chris had never been this close to a championship.  He was unbelievable, from the first day of practice to the first time on the bus, every time you saw him, he was all about winning.  He was the real driving force behind everything we did.

Ford was also the MVP of the series against Houston. 

The Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan touched on Ford’s two-sided play and overall effectiveness in the conference semis:

No Celtic has done his job better in this series, and thus far he’s the playoff MVP.

“His hands are moving all the time,” marveled Cedric Maxwell, “and if he isn’t stealing a pass, he’s deflecting one.”

“We all know what is on the line,” said Celtic guard Chris Ford.  “We know we have to do it right now.  This is a unique team and the guys are all unselfish.  You may stop one or two guys for awhile, but somebody else will take up the slack.

It was one of those terrific nights in Boston sports, as all three active local teams were in action – two of them in playoff games – and all three were victorious.

The New York Knicks ran their mouths often as they jumped out to a 3-0 series lead on the Celtics. Even after dropping game four in OT to the Celtics, they promised to finish out the series in game five, and Kenyon Martin even encouraged his teammates to show up in all black last night, to prepare for a Celtics “funeral.” Whether that suggestion was in poor taste to begin with given recent events is open to discussion, but when your franchise has not won a playoff series in 13 years, perhaps its best to just focus on closing things out, rather trying to humiliate your opponent and bring attention to yourselves.

The move backfired, as the Celtics erased an 11-0 start to the game, and defeated the Knicks 92-86 before a stunned crowd at Madison Square Garden.

Paul Flannery has a great column on this one – Celtics survive and push Knicks’ swagger into the grave.

Get all the Celtics coverage and stories from CelticsLinks.com.

For week, Bruins media and fans have worried about the team, and what version would show up for the playoffs. If last night is any indication, the Boston could be on an extended postseason ride. The Bruins suffocated the Maple Leafs in game one of their playoff series, beating Toronto 4-1 at the TD Garden.

Bruins start 2nd season right – Mick Colageo has Wade Redden as the first unlikely hero of the postseason for the Bruins.

Just like Bruins of old – Stephen Harris has the Bruins showing both the effort and confidence that made them champions two seasons ago.

Bruins flip the switch at just the right time – Joe Haggerty has the club able to turn things on last night.

Bruins flip a switch and must keep it on – DJ Bean says that if the switch is on, it needs to stay that way.

Bruins turn on energy – Joe McDonald credits the line of Paille, Campbell and Thornton with helping the team turn things on.

The Red Sox also played Toronto, and hit five home runs in beating the Blue Jays 10-1 behind Clay Buchholz, who improved to 6-0 on the season with an ERA of 1.01.

It’s finally safe to say Clay Buchholz is one of the best in the business – Rob Bradford looks at why the Red Sox righty is among the best pitchers in baseball.

Clay Buchholz hard to match – Gordon Edes has the start that Buchholz is on this season similar to that of another Texan who used to pitch for the Red Sox.

Long shots just Napoli being Manny – Michael Silverman looks at the monster home runs from the Red Sox first baseman last night, which brought back memories of Manny Ramirez.

It’s not online yet, but the 5/13 issue of ESPN The Magazine has a great feature on Tom Brady by Seth Wickersham. It’s about his drive to win another Super Bowl, and also to keep his kids grounded despite their extraordinary circumstances - This is not the way the rest of the world is.

No, the two parts of that headline are not related.

It was a rough night in Boston sports, as all three teams lost and looked bad doing it. The Celtics appear to be at the end of the line, (wait, are they really not better without Rajon Rondo????) the Bruins are disappointing, and Alfredo Aceves and the Red Sox bats both failed to show up last night. Let’s move on…

The Globe yesterday officially hired Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post as the replacement for Greg A Bedard, who is departing for Sports Illustrated at the end of this month.

So, I guess the cat’s out of the bag. It’s true — Next month I will be leaving the Post to cover the Patriots and NFL for the @bostonglobe

— Ben Volin (@BenVolinPBP) April 23, 2013

A Maryland native, Volin has been at the Post for seven years, and has covered the Dolphins for the paper for the last four years. He also covered the Florida Gators football team for two years, making him familiar with several current Patriots.

Note: We’ll be having a Q&A session with Ben sometime next week. If you’ve got a question you’d like us to ask him, please leave a comment below, or send Ryan an email at [email protected]

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Pete Sheppard continues to be publicly critical of his former employer. Some have asked for audio of the rant against Entercom that he went on during his debut show on Monday. 1510  has posted the segment online.

Also, he was a guest on FOX25 television on Monday night. Only 2 and half minutes were shown on the air, but the station posted the entire interview online:

Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

Quick Note: Shooting for another mailbag this week.  To contribute, either shoot me an email at [email protected], hit me up on Twitter @Hadfield__, or leave a response in the comments section of any one of my columns.

*****

“AGAIN, WITH THE TWEETS! IT’S ALWAYS THE TWEETS!”

Mike Francesa (still) hates Twitter. The rant above came after the AP’s Twitter account was hacked. Twitter is far from perfect and this certainly was a bad incident from a security standpoint, but focusing on one mishap fails to take proper context into its benefits and shows severe lack of perspective. Coincidentally, I actually wrote about athletes and Twitter this week in my column for Metro Boston.

This isn’t the first time the WFAN host has lashed out against the social media website. A year ago he infamously quipped “Do you know how inane some of this stuff is?”  

The irony of a sports talk radio host reprimanding the inanity of Twitter doesn’t escape me.

I’d make a joke about Francesa asking me to get off his lawn, but he seems like the type who’d ask me to mow it before leaving.

*****

Bob Lobel, meanwhile, is more progressive. He thinks that blogging thing is gaining steam and will be contributing to SuiteSports.com. The press release may or may not be riddled with hyperbole. The word “giant” was used to describe Lobel’s reach. So there’s that. I’ll let you decide, here is an excerpt:

Legendary Sports Broadcaster Bob Lobel Will Begin a Weekly Blog and Podcast with SuiteSports.com