The blues fuels moves in Boston

Having already endulged in a good five plus hours of sports news and with nothing on my palate but more sports news for the remaining hours of my work day, I figure it is time to take a break and summorize the recent frenzy among Beantown's teams.

The Red Sox, reacting to their dreadfull collapse in 2006, have officially posted the top bid ($51 million) to begin negotiations with Japanese pitcher and hero, Daisuke Matsuzaka, who will likely be inked to the Sox starting rotation by the December 15 deadline. Already having generated more news than the Bruins will all season long, Matsuzaka will come with some mighty high expectations that I can't help but believe will fall short. I could be wrong but instict tells me it will be more difficult for a pitcher to come over from Japan and dominate the MLB as much as star outfielders Matsui and Sasuki have been able to. Nonetheless, the 26-year-old does have nine pitchers, including some scientifically studied "gyroball," which seems like an attribute of a create-your-own-player in MVP baseball, not a Japanese superstar hurler. Read more about that in today's Globe article Dollars and hopes sky high already. But back to the $51 million the Sox gave Matsuzaka's Japanese team just to hold negotiation rights.

The Sox-Matsuzaka transaction is a perfect transition into the negotiations between Evgeni Malkin and his former Russian owner, team Mettelsburg. As detailed in today's article, Malkin's story is one of great illusion, dishonesty, scandal and bravery. I don't want to go into detail because it is all explained in great length in the article, but it is amazing to me what these Russians (Mogily, Federov, etc. and I'm sure other players as well) have had to do just to get out of Russia and into the NHL. If the Russians still possessed enough talent to compete with the NHL, I can only imagine what kind of rivalries would come out of a Russia vs. U.S. matchup with all the current animosity.

As for Malkin's continued dominance in the earlygoings of his NHL career, I watched the Pens beat the Flyers the other night, 3-2, after Evgeni's last-minue game-winning goal. Crosby carried the puck deep into the zone, attracted three opponents, freeing up Malkin, who spun around in a crowd of players along the top of the faceoff circle and ripped a one-timer past Nittimaki to the upper-right corner. It was an absolute blast, placed perfectly, that looked so easy. If the Pens do manage to keep these two together, and possibly pair the two on a line together, with Staal on another line, the team should win a Cup within five years if there is anything resembling a supporting cast in the Burg.

Two other Russians also guilty of defecting to the NHL illegally, Alexei Mikhnov and Andrei Taratukhin, will likely face future trouble with Russia's legal system, along with Malkin. Mikhnov, as I just found out, is a former first-rounder who possesses great size at 6'5 for a forward. He's only played about five minutes for the Oilers all year but some fine tuning and this kid could probably be a force somewhere down the line.

Continuing the Russian theme, the B's picked up Stanislav Chistov, a former first round (fifth overall) pick in the same draft that Kovalchuk went No. 1. I balk at this notion, but according to the article, Chistov was considered by one source to be the top talent of the draft. A local agent made comparisons to Ladislav Nagy, as Nagy also took time and a trade to ignite. Chistov's numbers certainly aren't anywhere close to supporting either of those statements. But I'm not going to lie...I'm pretty damn excited to see Chistov suiting up on our fourth line (with Tenkrat, who looked great and was a pleasant surprise in his first game with the B's against Ottawa) tonight against Toronto. He can only add offense there, and I can only hope he will prove to be half of what his original expectations were. The best part about the deal though was that Anaheim, too good and already with a full roster, couldn't use the underachiever anymore. Their organization admitted that "there is nothing wrong with this player." I'll be watching tonight game at Uno's, hoping the Bruins can win a seconss-straight game for the first time this season and move toward becoming Boston's most consistent team, with the Celtics, Sox and recently the Patriots all dissapointing.

Speaking of dissapointing, Northeastern (0-6-1 and last in Hockey East) lost once again, and once again by one goal in a game that should have been won. The Huskies did fore Thiessen to make 42 saves, but from what I have heard, it wasn't the best 42-save outing, and after going up 2-0, NU just can't afford to squander leads like it did in last night's 4-3 overtime loss at Providence.


Hobby Happenings-Player to Watch

Stanislav Chistov has not made a mark in the NHL yet, and as a result, his rookie cards actually dipped quite a bit over the last year or two. If Chistov emerges in Boston, as Nagy did under similar circumstances in Phenoix, his rookies could easily double in value and then some. Given Boston's lack of scoring depth, Chistov has space on this roster to make a move and it wouldn't be that shocking to see him on one of the top two lines by mid-season.