We'll always have the Bruins

After what seemed like months (ok it was five days), a Boston team won a game last night, joy! The Bruins (30-7-4) held off the bottom-feeding Ottawa Senators (13-20-6), 6-4 at the Garden.

The B's got off to a hot start, scoring their first two goals in 4:15 seconds and later led 3-1 before Ottawa tied it at three. Boston sealed it with a trio of goals in the third before the Senators added a meaningless garbage-time tally.

Oft-injured but solid veteran defenseman Aaron Ward started things with his first goal of the season, from David Krejci and Michael Ryder.

Chuck Kobasew (7th) scored less than two minutes later, assisted by Dennis Wideman and Phil Kessel.

Chris Phillips cut it to 2-1 for the Senators, with help from teammates Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley.

Ryder's 15th of the year (that's looking like a nice signing, huh?) made it 3-1 B's in the second. Blake Wheeler and Marc Savard had the assists.

Ottawa scored twice in the second. First Chris Kelly found the back of the net (from Antoine Vermette and Jesse Winchester) and later Brandon Bell beat Bruins goalie Manny Fernandez (26 saves) with assists from Dean McAmmond and Chris Neil.

Krejci's (15th) great individual work was rewarded with a goal in the third. That kicked off the three-goal burst. Savard (14th) scored from Kobasew and then empty-net specialist P.J. Axelsson (3rd) put it out of reach at 6-3 after a pass from the omnipresent Savard.

Vermette (Chris Kelly, Winchester) had the final goal for Ottawa with 28 seconds left.

Fernandez improved to 14-3-1 with the win.

The Carolina Hurricanes come to town tomorrow afternoon as the Bruins try to erase the memory of their dud from last Saturday against the Sabres.

Well this is getting old

Nothing seems to be going right for the Boston Celtics as they lost again, 89-85 to the Houston Rockets at the TD Banknorth Garden last night.

It was the Celtics' (29-8) sixth loss in their last eight games and it was particularly costly as they lost the top spot in the Eastern Conference to the Cavs (who won). The Orlando Magic are also only a game back now from the suddenly vulnerable C's.

Playing without Tracy McGrady (captain of the NBA's all-overrated team), the Rockets (22-15) were just a little bit better than Boston.

Yao Ming led the way with a game-high 26 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Aaron Brooks had 19 points off the bench to spark Houston and Ron Artest managed 17 before fouling out. Journeyman Von Wafer had 12 points, including a huge 3-pointer in the fourth.

Paul Pierce had 26 points, five boards and four assists in the loss. Kevin Garnett added 18 points and eight boards while Ray Allen (13 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds) and Glen Davis (12 points off the bench) were the other bright spots.

Kendrick Perkins (0 points, 5 fouls) and Rajon Rondo (5 points, 5 assists) were beyond useless and not surprisingly, they're the barometers to the Celtics' success.

Houston shot better from the floor (48.6%-42.9%) which made up for nine more Celtics free throws (19-10).

The next game is going to be as hard as they come in the regular season as Boston travels to Cleveland to take on the Cavs, who are the NBA's only remaining unbeaten team at home.

Is it time to panic yet?

After such a ridiculous start, no game seems to be a given for the Boston Celtics at this moment in time.

A 114-106 overtime loss last night to the Charlotte Bobcats-one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference-proved that point.

The offense wasn't the problem for the C's (29-7) as Paul Pierce led Boston with 28 points and six rebounds. Ray Allen had 20 points and Kevin Garnett posted a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Rajon Rondo had 16 points, six boards, four assists, three steals but nine turnovers. Kendrick Perkins had nine points and 10 boards in the loss.

Once again, Boston's bench was the issue as they were outscored 34-19.

The Bobcats (13-22) combination of young, athletic players seemed to uncover the Celts' biggest matchup problem (just like the Hawks). Raymond Felton (25 points, 8 assists, 7 turnovers) and Gerald Wallace (23 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals) led Charlotte.

They also got solid contributions from Boris Diaw (15 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) and Emeka Okafor (13 points, 17 rebounds, 3 blocks).

Adam Morrison (with short hair) had 13 points off the bench but the key of the game was rookie D.J. Augustin, who had 20 points and five assists off the bench, including 12-of-12 from the line.

As a team, the Bobcats had nine more steals (25-16) than the Celtics.

The Houston Rockets come to the Garden tonight in an early season must-win for a Celtics squad looking to reestablish its identity.

Oh Jacques Lemaire, you old sailor you

For the first time in the 2008-2009 season, the Boston Bruins have lost two games in a row.

The Minnesota Wild (20-16-3) came to the Garden last night and executed their boring, defensive brand of hockey to perfection in a 1-0 shutout of the B's (29-7-4).

Minnesota got all the offense it would need in the second period as Marek Zidlicky scored a power-play goal from Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Krys Kolanos.

Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom made 28 saves in his fifth shutout of the season. His record improved to 19-12-2 and I feel like an idiot for sitting him on my fantasy team but I figured the Bruins would play well after the Sabres loss over the weekend. Not so much.

More than anything, I feel bad for my buddy that had to sit through this awful game. Sure coach Jacques Lemaire has proven that his trapping system can win in the NHL (just ask the Devils) but that's not to say it hasn't set the game back 20 years in the process.

Boston outshot Minnesota 28-24 but it was no matter. Bruins goalie Manny Fernandez had 23 saves in the loss.

The B's will look to get back to the win column as they host the struggling Ottawa Senators tomorrow night.

Would noted moron Stephon Marbury help the C's?

Yesterday was not a good time to be one of the top three teams in the Eastern Conference.

The Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic all lost-something which won't happen often on the same day for the rest of this season.

The Celts (29-6) lost for the fourth time in their last six games, this time submitting a flat 100-88 loss at Madison Square Garden to the improved but still mostly shitty New York Knicks (13-19).

Paul Pierce (31 points, 7 rebounds) did his best to keep his team in the game but he wasn't getting much help. Ray Allen (16 points) was the only other Celtic in double-figures. Kevin Garnett (6 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks) was shaken up late in the third when Knicks forward David Lee (14 points, 14 rebounds) inadvertently kicked KG in the calf.

Wilson Chandler led the Knicks with 31 points and eight rebounds while Al Harrington added 30 points and seven boards. Chris Duhon notched 12 points and five assists.

With reports swirling the last few days that the Celtics are interested in acquiring malcontent Stephon Marbury, I have to say that my opinion is quickly changing. At first, I thought it was an awful idea but now that I think about it, maybe it could work. The C's would have nothing to lose and they could ditch Marbury as soon as he started banging interns in his car outside a Boston club. Haha, but seriously he could add some scoring punch to our bench which right now is a real weak point of an otherwise championship-caliber team.

The Charlotte Bobcats host the Celtics tomorrow night as the Green look to get back to playing the outstanding basketball of the season's first 29 games.

What will it take to beat the Bruins? Uh, some guy named Matt Ellis apparently

It was bound to happen sooner or later, the Boston Bruins (just like the Celtics proved a couple weeks back) can't win every single game. It's just not possible as much as local bandwagon fans would like to dream while they sleep in their crisp new Milan Lucic jerseys.

Still, it was surprising that as the Bruins (29-6-4) fell 4-2 to the Sabres (19-15-5) yesterday afternoon at the Garden that the No. 1 star would be some bum named Matt Ellis (2 goals, 1 assist).

At 5:08 into the first, Buffalo had a 2-0 advantage as Ellis (Henrik Tallinder, Jason Pominville) and Thomas Vanek (power-play goal from Derek Roy and Pominville) both put pucks past B's goalie Tim Thomas (21 saves).

Phil Kessel cut it to 2-1 with his 24th of the season, on a power-play from Marc Savard and Milan Lucic later in the first.

The Sabres put it out of reach when Ellis scored again, this time in the second from Ales Kotalik and Daniel Paille.

Bruins enforcer Shawn Thornton scored on a wicked snap-shot (from Martin St. Pierre and Shane Hnidy) but Buffalo made it a two-goal lead again when Paul Gaustad (Andrej Sekera, Ellis) banked the puck off Hnidy's skate in front of Thomas.

The Bruins outshot the Sabres 11-2 in the third but they never seemed to have the normal jump in their skates that has become the norm this season. Plus, no shots were getting through to Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller (29 saves) or Boston simply had bad luck (like when Savard put a puck wide when half the net was empty).

It wasn't Boston's day clearly and as a result, the 14-game home win-streak is over and ditto for the 10-game overall win-streak.

The offensively inept Minnesota Wild come to the Garden on Tuesday night as the B's will look to start a new winning-streak.

I for one salute our new hockey playing overlords

Do you remember when the Boston Bruins defined mediocrity? When they played boring, defensive hockey and still didn't win many games? Those days get harder and harder to remember now as the B's continue to steam roll through the 2008-2009 season.

Boston (29-5-4) opened up 2009 with a 4-2 home win over the Pittsburgh Penguins (19-15-4) last night at the Garden. The Bruins have won 10 games in a row and 14 straight at home.

After losing to the Bruins two nights earlier in Pittsburgh, the Penguins were even more desperate to get two points. They apparently called the dreaded "players-only" meeting after Tuesday night's game but it didn't seem to have much effect against the cyborgs from Boston.

Only 2:59 into the game, the Pens got an early 1-0 lead as Dustin Jeffrey scored his first NHL goal, from Alex Goligoski and Tim Wallace.

The B's responded with three unanswered goals (two in the first and one in the second). 1:06 after the Jeffrey strike, David Krejci (14th) finished off a great rush up ice and passing sequence from Blake Wheeler and Michael Ryder.

P.J. Axelsson, who was recently moved to power play duty, made Bruins coach Claude Julien look like a fortune teller as he scored his second goal of the season at 9:24 of the first. Dennis Wideman and Marc Savard got the assists but Axelsson deserved most of the credit as he hit the puck out of mid-air and into the net.

Milan Lucic (11th) scored in the second period from his new linemates Chuck Kobasew and Stephane Yelle.

Pittsburgh had the territorial and shooting advantage for the game (32-26 shots) and they made it interesting when Ruslan Fedotenko scored in the third from Miroslav Satan and Evgeni Malkin.

Manny Fernandez (13-2-1) stood tall though in net for the Bruins (30 saves) and Savard put in an empty-net goal with two seconds left from Axelsson and Yelle.

Buffalo comes to the Garden tomorrow afternoon.