Mathematically, the Bruins WILL sneak in; And why Boston is my only spring break destination

That's right folks. Mathematically, that is, if the Bruins and the other teams contending for those final two playoff spots in the East continue on the same winning percentage as in the last 15 games, the Isles will remain at No. 7 and the Bruins will end up with that eighth seed and a likely first round exit at the hands of the mighty Sabres. As cited by Kevin Paul Dupont in today's Globe article "Bruins getting pushy," Boston has gone 10-4-1 (.700) over the last 15 while the Isles are 11-2-3. The Leafs are next at 7-5-3, while the Canes and Rangers are both at .500 over that stretch (7-7-1 and 6-6-3 respectively) and the Havs have been hapless at 5-10-0.

I don't know if I agree with Dupont in that the February/March Bruins have been the Bruins we had hoped for since the beginning of October. We have seen Brad Boyes and Belmont native Paul Mara leave town for players who are questionably limited in their potential. Both Mara and Stuart are good puck moving defensemen and yet, we went out and picked up Wideman, a puck moving defenseman. I'm not sure about the logic in these moves, but the play over the last two games has caught my attention.

And tonight, we will see another piece that came over in those recent trades. Chuck Kobasew, a former Boston College standout, will join Phil Kessel and Brandon Bochenski on the fourth line, a line that I think could be the Bruins best. Of course, I am making the trip down to the Garden for this one to see if these Bruins are as pushy as Dupont has found them to be.

Also this week, I am attending my first Celtics game of the season tomorrow as the C's face Yao, McGrady and the Rockets, but back to hockey. Speaking of Kobasew and B.C., the Eagles will kick off their best of three season with our own Huskies Thursday night. Those tickets as well as entrance to Friday and the possible tie-breaker on Saturday can be found at
tickets on Northeastern's athletics web site. Unforunately, I will have to miss the Wild in town on Thursday because that three game series just has too much potential to be a classic. NU played well down the stretch and is definately capable of knocking off the No. 2 Eagles.

So this is spring break week after all. And yes I was a little dissapointed about my failed plans for Vegas and Toronto, but would I really want to be anywhere else on this day, which according to weather.com feels like -10 degrees? Boston is a hockey town right now for at least another two or three weeks and there's no where, absolutly no where I'd rather be.