Bruins Moves Make Them A Contender

      This past week has been a busy one for the men high up in management for the Boston Bruins. Peter Chiarelli has finally started to put together the pieces of a championship contender in Beantown. The Bruins front office started earlier this week making moves when the Bruins acquired Chris Kelly, 12 goals 11 assists 23 points, from the Ottawa Senators for a second-round draft pick in the upcoming 2011 NHL Draft. Kelly was well liked in Ottawa and was known as a high character player whom is very skilled in the faceoff circle. Kelly is also a player who has a lot of playoff experience including a cup finals appearance for the Sens in which Kelly had 5 points in the playoff run.

      Back at it again as if to signify the front office's drive to win now, the Bruins traded away disappointing young forward Blake Wheeler along with fan favorite defenseman Mark Stuart in exchange for center Rich Peverley and defenseman Boris Valabik. Peverley has had a solid season this year with 14 goals 20 assists 34 points after career highs in all 3 categories last season (22G 33A 55PTS). Peverley gives the Bruins more of an offensive punch than did the struggling Wheeler who has slid downhill after setting the bar high during his rookie season. Valabik has struggled to stay in the NHL as he has played his season with Atlanta's AHL affiliate. Valabik as some may remember was involved with his boyhood idol, fellow Slovakian Zdeno Chara, in an in-game tussle after Valabik laid a big hit on former Bruin Phil Kessel, where Chara came charging in to beat on his stunned opponent. Overall the Bruins are coming away as winners in the deal with the Thrashers, that's because as hard as it is to see Stuart leave, Wheeler is a welcome departure as Bruins fans will soon learn Peverley's offense will more than make up for the waste of space Wheeler was creating.

                                           (Valabik vs. Chara)
           Lastly is the most important trade in terms of short term contender chances go. After initial talks over 20 months ago didn't have Tomas Kaberle arriving in Boston, the recent talks have him playing in tonight's game against Ottawa in the black and gold. Some experts are saying that the price that the Bruins paid for Kaberle is too high as they traded away 2008 1st round draft pick Joe Colborne, and two future draft picks (2011 first-round pick and 2011 conditional pick). However, the reason that this trade was perfect for the Bruins is because they are playing for the here and now, as well as the fact that the lineup is stacked with young players currently and the draft picks were expendable. The knock on Kabs is that he doesn't play well in his own defensive zone and he doesn't play physical enough. Yet, the reason the Bruins brought him in wasn't to be the big bruising defenseman or to be a stay at home defender. Kaberle's offensive skill outweighs his defensive struggles, as so brought up by the experts. Kaberle is a 4 time all-star who played his entire career, until now, with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He is the #2 all-time leading defenseman in terms of points in Leafs history and the #11 all-time player in terms of points. Kaberle is a fantastic puck moving d-man as highlighted by his 35 assists so far this season.

       The piece that has been lacking the Bruins for so long may finally be in place and this years team seems that it can make a deep run into the playoffs. This may be the year that the Bruins break the 38 year Stanley Cup drought and finally bring the hardware back to Boston.

Celtics - Heat Showdown

There are HUGE playoff implications lurking in this regular season game between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, which will have the air of a playoff game from the get-go. Bragging rights and playoff seeding are both up for grabs in the East, well after the 2 slot that is. Sure both the Bulls and Magic may have legitimate chances to be a top two team in the East by season's end, but in reality, it seems almost crystal clear that the two best teams in the East will finish 1 and 2.

The only question remaining is which team, the Celtics or the heat will sit atop the conference standings and hold homecourt advantage.

The game on February 13th may be a huge telling point in whether the Celtics can reign supreme in the East or if the tide has turned with a younger Heat team. Age and health is a huge factor that will most likely come into the outcome of the season, and both will easily factor into this game. With the Celtics banged up and wounded, the Heat stand a very good chance of waltzing into Boston and escaping with a win. however, Boston has something called pride and determination and even with the health an issue on the bench as much as anywhere, the Celtics are able to win in a variety of ways.

Now that Ray Allen has his 3pointer record out of the way, the team can get back to focusing to the game itself and rid themselves of the distractions that occurred with the record. The Big 3 will have to step up in a big way starting with KG. Garnett is going to have to shut down Chris Bosh, maybe the most important piece of the Miami big 3. Pierce and Allen have to shoot the ball the way they can and Pierce needs to drive to the hoop and look to kick the ball out to Ray to find him open looks at the 3. Lastly, the Celtics need Rondo to just be himself, if he can dish out 15 assists the W should come easily for the Celtics.

The biggest question of the game for the Celtics may be: Who do you stop, Lebron or DWade? Personally, I believe that stopping DWade will be more of a key factor to a Celtics win than Lebron, however, I'm also just the one writing the blog and there's a reason I'm not behind the bench with Doc.

Whoever wins this game, the best team of the East will take one step closer to securing their spot atop the conference.