Last week, Hanley Ramirez became a Bruins fan. The Red Sox slugger attended his first hockey game, Game 6 between Boston and Toronto at Air Canada Centre last Monday.
On Saturday, before the Sox faced the Rays at Fenway, I asked Ramirez how he thought the Bruins would fare in Game 1 of a second-round playoff series against the the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“No!” he exclaimed. “Tonight is Celtics!”
It’s easy to get confused. Indeed, the Celtics were playing Game 7 against the Bucks at TD Garden Saturday night. They soundly defeated Milwaukee, 112-96, and earned a second-round matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers. Just not before the Bruins made a statement in Tampa with a 6-2 win.
These are heady times in the Golden Age of Boston sports. Over the weekend all four major sports teams were in action, with two playoff games, early season baseball games and the NFL draft.
Boston is the only city with teams still going in the second rounds of both the NBA and Stanley Cup playoffs. Philadelphia and Toronto came close, but both hockey teams lost in the first round. Minnesota saw both the Wild and Timberwolves suffer first-round defeats.
The Bruins survived an early round scare from the Maple Leafs, losing two straight games and trailing after two periods in Game 7. Then they exploded for one of the best periods of playoff hockey we’ve seen around here in a long, long time. The Bruins are young, exciting, and gaining valuable experience with these playoff games. They took three of four games from the Lightning in the regular season and seem to match up well with Tampa.
David Pastrnak, Jake DeBrusk, and Charlie McAvoy are all key players in Boston’s hopes for a Cup this year and beyond. And all are 21 years old or younger. Don Sweeney’s plan of accumulating young talent is paying off – and that payoff may come sooner than expected.
The Celtics also let things last a little longer than they had wanted in the first round, losing three games on the road to the Bucks. Yet they held court at home, and neutralized Giannis Antetokounmpo in Game 7. A lot of people think the Celts have overachieved by getting this far without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, the two key players brought in to turn this team into a contender.
Yet without those two superstars the Celtics still played great defense and survived the loss of Jaylen Brown in Game 7. They are a plucky team with one of the top coaches in the game. That’s a pretty good combination.
The good news is Marcus Smart is back after making a tremendous impact in the final games of the first round. They also began the Philadelphia series with home-court advantage after going 4-0 at the Garden against the Bucks. The 76ers are much improved but a Boston win isn’t out of the question.
While the Bruins and Celtics were winning crucial games, it was business as usual for Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots over the weekend. Belichick traded down, traded up, and made picks no one expected. It has worked well for him over the years, and we will continue to trust in the Hoodie until proven otherwise.
Meantime, the Red Sox were finishing off the month of April with the best record in the American League. The Sox avoided being swept for the first time this season with a come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Rays on Sunday. Alex Cora showed faith in light-hitting catcher Sandy Leon by not pinch hitting for him with two on and two out in the eighth, and that faith was rewarded with a game-winning RBI single.
Craig Kimbrel entered the game in the eighth inning for the first time this season, striking out two straight batters in the ninth with men in scoring position to win the game. The Sox have fallen back to earth a bit since starting the season 17-2, but they still began the work week with the best record in all of baseball.
When things are going well, the Red Sox provide a background soundtrack to our summer in New England. As we get our first taste of summer temperatures this week, that backdrop is part of a spring that has Boston sitting on top of the world. Two teams are in the second round, the Sox are in first place, and the Pats are making their plans for another AFC title run.
You know things are going well when you forget which playoff team is in action on a given night. And things are going very well in Boston.
Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.
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