Merry Christmas to All

From all of us here at Ultimate Boston, we'd like to wish our readers a very happy and safe holiday weekend. Sure, it's a little bit lame that Christmas is on a Saturday -- worst case scenario for the working man -- but we'll take it with a grain of salt and enjoy the season regardless. I wouldn't expect that you'd be spending your Christmas time on Ultimate Boston anyway -- but if you were planning to, I believe our writers will remain on break for a little while. You might see an occasional one, but consider the blog to be in a mini hibernation mode. But, by all means, at those family gatherings for the holidays -- show your relatives, their friends, their dogs, their grandmothers, and anyone else who might be in attendance. We're looking to come out of the holiday break with a bang. The ULTY Awards will be distributed and the Boston sports seasons will kick it into gear. The Pats will head to the playoffs in search of their fourth ring in a decade's span. The B's and C's will look to enter the meat of their schedules and establish their dominance in their respective conferences. And hey -- in just a few months, pitchers and catchers will report to Fort Myers. There's plenty to smile about this time of year, so keep your chins high and your grins wide. Merry Christmas from Ultimate Boston!

State of the Boston Bullpen

Right after the Red Sox landed outfielder Carl Crawford in their second big free agent signing of the offseason, everyone was screaming and crying for Boston to address their final important concern -- the bullpen. Since then, Theo Epstein has brought in former closer Bobby Jenks and setup man Dan Wheeler. Wheeler has had a WHIP under 1.00 in two of the past three seasons, and he converted 51 of 63 save opportunities for the Rays over that span. Jenks, a two-time all-star with the Chicago White Sox and the MLB record-holder for consecutive batters retired (41), has stirred several rumors that Jonathan Papelbon may be on his way out of Boston. Could that actually be the case? Dustin Pedroia was asked the same question yesterday on WEEI.

“Everything is going to work fine,” Pedroia said. “Pap wants to win. And when he gets the ball in the ninth inning it’s his job to make that happen. Pap I know is kind of a colorful guy, says a lot of things, but the biggest thing on his mind is winning. I know some people don’t think so, but that’s the main thing he thinks about. The toughest job in baseball is being a closer, because you go out there and give up and we lose, everyone points the finger at one guy.”

Bicycle Boom

You really only have to watch the first goal on this video... I didn't even watch the rest of the goals. I couldn't find this bicycle by Sonck on YouTube because all the videos got removed for copyright or something. YouTube's cracking down on that stuff lately... they took down like 16 of my videos because they had NESN footage in them, videos I uploaded over the summer of the Red Sox games for UB. I'm thinking these copyright things gotta chill out. But anyway, rate this goal. Vote 1 for you've seen better and you do this move in your sleep. Vote 5 for you just fainted in amazement.

Struggles Continue for Bruins

The Bruins hosted the Ducks last night with a chance to build upon a Saturday night victory over the Washington Capitals, but they came out flat and dropped their fourth out of their last five games in a 3-0 loss to Anaheim. So what's the problem?

Reminding us all of last season, Boston has struggled to bury the puck in the back of the net of late. In their recent 5-game slump, they've scored just 9 goals -- a mere 6 goals in their 4 losses. If David Krejci or Marc Savard were still sidelined with their injuries, you might have a potential explanation. But all of Boston's forwards are healthy, so it we can't help but ask -- why are they struggling to score?

Teddy Bear Toss

Meant to post this last week, but I was busy with final exams and all that stuff. And then there was some Christmas shopping to do today, and then some more Patriot success to view via my television. So this is the first real chance I got to post the Teddy Bear Toss at the Calgary Hitmen game. I guess the Teddy Bear toss is now a common tradition in minor league levels of hockey as big charity events. All in all, one of the most awesome things ever.