A.B. Nothing is more satisfying than watching these Toronto fans suffer the agony of defeat. I have no personal problem with any of these specific Leafs fans (in fact I respect their passion) but after seeing & hearing what the people of Toronto are capable of, I hope they never win the cup again.

Example #1: “Toronto Stronger” asshole.

Example #2: Marinus Calamari‘s comment on The Awesome Boston Google+ page: “So people are finally getting tired about hearing how Exceptionally Fantastic & Utterly Fabulous Boston is for surviving the smallest terrorist attack of that week. It’s about time for the trolls me thinks.”

Again, I know these are isolated idiots but it speaks to the overall lack of class in Toronto. If Canadiens and Yankees fans (actual rivals) can go out of their way to support Boston in a time of tragedy, there is no reason Toronto can’t follow suit. And if the situation was reversed, there is 0.0% chance that Bruins fans would have let a sign like that into the TD Garden.

H/T Barstool

A.B. Here’s a little background for those of you who don’t stalk the Boston Bruins like a few of the writers here do (online stalking only, of course):

For the past 3 years, the Boston Bruins have selected a unique fashion accessory to be worn post-game by the player of the game. The tradition started with a vintage Boston Bruins windbreaker during the 2011 Stanley Cup run and has since evolved into an industrial sized lock & chain last year and a Army Rangers jacket this year for the 2013 playoffs.

If you need background on what MFK is, you have come to the wrong place.

Bro Juneau‘s picks:

Marry – Bruins Windbreaker

This windbreaker will forever be the holy grail of Bruins playoff accessories. Not only was it the accessory that started this playoff trend and the first to be draped on Lord Stanley’s cup – it also nursed Horton back to health after he took a brutal season-ending hit from Aaron Rome in 2011. I love this jacket.

F*ck – Army Rangers Jacket

This jacket could one day become worthy of marriage but right now it’s the team bicycle – everyone gets a turn. This jacket has no loyalty, no regard for what happened the game before and it’s hot. Flashing its custom made Bruins sleeve patch and Bruins name plate – this jacket is just begging for any player to take it home.

Kill – Giant Lock & Chain

Any accessory that can’t make it out of the first round of the playoffs deserves to die. Boston has no patience for unsuccessful superstitions. Hopefully this thing is at the bottom of the Charles, sleeping with the fishes. Stick with the jackets fellas.

Honorable mention – 2013 regular season player of the game cock shirt.

Weigh in below:

Boston Globe:

Governor Deval Patrick’s administration has struck a deal to allow construction of Fenway Center, a $500 million mega-development in Boston that would transform scrubby parking lots near the storied ballpark into a bustling complex of homes, stores, offices, and parking.

If, as expected, a state board approves the lease next week, construction could begin by the end of this year. Fenway Center, one of the city’s most ambitious developments, would be the first major air rights project over the Massachusetts Turnpike since Copley Place in the 1980s.

Fenway Center’s five buildings would include 550 apartments, plus stores and restaurants, parking garages, and a 27-story office-retail-residential complex. Most would be constructed on weed-strewn parking lots between Beacon Street and Brookline Avenue that many Red Sox fans walk through on their way to and from the ballpark.

A.B. As if Boston doesn’t already have enough construction cranes dotting the skyline, it looks like by the end of 2013 there will be a few more. But I’m not complaining. Boston is caught in a catch 22 that I can’t help but love as a new 02127 homeowner.

Here’s the catch 22:

1) Boston offers incentives for companies to set up shop in the Seaport - creating a plethora of new jobs. These new employees need places to live and places to eat.

2) Places like Legal Seafood and Del Frisco’s open waterfront locations in the Seaport. Real estate prices in the Seaport and adjacent South Boston explode to the point where the market supply can’t even keep up.

3) The City of Boston takes in more revenue from all of the new business growth and real estate transactions. As a result, the City of Boston has the ability to offer more incentives in more areas of Boston which spurs further development in places like East Cambridge and the Fenway area. Repeat steps 1-3.

A.B. Post-playoff-series handshakes are one of the greatest parts of the NHL. After beating the crap out of each other for 7 straight games for the right to advance one more round closer to the cup, grown men put aside their hatreds and shake hands at center ice.

And as surprising as the Boston Bruins comeback tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs was, there was something even more startling. A post-playoff-series handshake junk ‘love tap’ by Milan Lucic on Dion Phaneuf.

Elisha Cuthbert is going to be pissed…

H/T @brantric2012

A.B. I started noticing it as a kid when my dad would stop for coffee on the way to early morning hockey tournaments. People coming out of Dunkin Donuts at 5am smiling ear to ear, going out of their way to hold the door open for every person entering like they were on crutches or pregnant. But the weird thing about these happy-go-lucky door holders is that if you cut them off on the highway 5 minutes later they would ram your bumper and then slit your throat in the breakdown lane. These were otherwise grumpy New Englanders in the dead of winter acting like patron saints.

As I got older and started drinking coffee myself, I noticed this trend wasn’t confined to my hometown D&D; it was a franchise-wide phenomenon. Without intending to, I fell in line. Whether someone had 1 coffee and a free hand or two trays full and a bag of doughnuts, I began holding that door like it was life or death.

However, on the rare occasion I would stop at  Starbucks or a local coffee shop, the happy-to-help attitude was nowhere to be found. At Starbucks people value their iced mocha Venti more than their own children.

I wish I had an explanation for this trend. I thought maybe it was because there is nothing better on a cold morning than a hot cup of coffee – but that doesn’t explain why it only exists at Dunkin’s. I thought maybe the cashiers were more friendly or better looking. Nope. I even wondered if D&D sprinkled a little crack in their coffee beans. The jury’s still out on this one.

So for now, the mystery of the Dunkin Donuts happiness remains. Next time you go, you’ll see for yourself.

Just don’t forget to hold the door.

Several Boston Bruins players (Tyler Seguin, Nathan Horton, Johnny Boychuck, Dennis Seidenberg, Brad Marchand, and David Krejci) kicked a soccer ball around prior to their afternoon practice at the ACC on Tuesday, May 7th.

A.B. There is something memorizing about watching these Bruins players kick & head a soccer ball around. I don’t know if I’m more impressed by the fact that some of them seem to have soccer skills or if I’m just not used to such a candid look at our hometown hockey heroes.

But as I have said before, the NHL & NHLPA are on point with their social media strategies. Never before could fans see so many behind the scenes pictures and videos with one click of the mouse. The more fans feel like they are part of the team, the stronger the NHL brand becomes. That is what you call a win-win for a league rebounding from a third lockout in 20 years.

Yahoo.com:

Yahoo! Sports’ own Jeff Passan found out what Boston Red Sox right-hander Clay Buchholz was putting on his arm recently. It wasn’t only rosin, as Buchholz claimed, and the reason it looks like sweat is because it goes on clear. And — depending on your definition of a spitball — it’s not something to help him throw illegal pitches, per se, as Toronto Blue Jays broadcasters Jack Morris and Dirk Hayhurst said.

It’s BullFrog brand sunscreen, something sources told Passan that “90 percent” of major league pitchers use to help them grip the ball in wet circumstances. Hurlers feel naked without the stuff, apparently. Gooey on it’s own, sunscreen mixed with rosin produces a roux, of sorts, that has glue-like properties. It acts like pine tar (which pitchers aren’t supposed to use, either).

A.B. Suncreen? Are we really talking about sunscreen? Is Clay Buchholz really being accused of cheating because of 3 perfectly legal MLB substances; sunscreen, rosin and sweat? Is it possible that this mixture gives Buchholz (and 90% of MLB pitchers) a better grip on the ball? Absolutely. Does that make it cheating? Absolutely not.

What’s really going on here is that Buchholz brought too much attention to the substance on his arm by excessively touching his body. It seems like everyone in the game, especially pitchers, knew about this trick for years; just another one of those things that usually stay within the confines of the locker-room… until you do something out of the ordinary and outsiders start to take notice.

Moreover, baseball just seems to be one of those games where fans/writers/opposing organizations like to cry wolf the very instant a player begins to over perform. No one does it better (that’s not a compliment) than the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy – as demonstrated yesterday when he wrote about David Ortiz’s recent success.

It was the perfect storm for the forces against Buchholz. The incredible start, the excessive touching and someone willing to blow the whistle on a common practice.

The result: #BullfrogGate

Boston.com:

Boston sports stars Jason Varitek, Matt Ryan, Rodney Harrison, and Dee Brown helped the Gwinnett Braves and Pawtucket Red Sox celebrate a Boston Strong Night on Tuesday at Gwinnett’s stadium in Lawrenceville, Ga.

All four have connections to both Boston and Georgia, and they threw out the first pitches at Coolray Field. A portion of ticket sales went to One Fund Boston, and a silent auction was held.

A.B. If you are curious (like I was) why there was a Boston Strong night in Georgia with a very random assortment of Boston sports icons, here is the breakdown:

- The Gwinnett Braves were playing the Pawtucket Red Sox, the Boston Red Sox’ minor league affiliate.

- The Gwinnett Braves are minor league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Atlanta Braves started as the Boston Braves up until 1953 when they moved to Milwaukee (and then Atlanta).

- Former Red Sox catcher & captain, Jason Varitek, played college baseball at Georgia Tech.

- Former Boston Celtic All-Star, Dee Brown, is CEO of EDGE Basketball, LLC – an organization that trains basketball players mostly in Florida and Georgia.

- Former New England Patriot, Rodney Harrison, lives in Atlanta, GA.

- Former Boston College quarterback, Matt Ryan, of course, is the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons.

A.B. According to Business Insider, “This year’s theme for the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is “PUNK: Chaos to Couture” and Tom Brady is embracing it.”

For a couple worth well over $500 million, if not double that, this isn’t a bad punk pose picture. Did we really expect them to arrive wearing ripped leather pants, Rancid & Ramones patches and “F^ck The Government” jacket pins? In millionaires’ world a light blue jacket and dark blue bow tie with a partially see through black dress IS punk.

And the inverse is true as well. When hundred-millionaires dress up, they derby-dress-up.

A.B. I haven’t been one to go overboard with the whole Boston Strong  movement. I put the Boston Strong donation banner on this site, bought a Barstool t-shirt with proceeds going to the victims and avoided posting any stories that gave terrorist #1 & #2 any credit for their cowardly actions. But other than that, I have just gone about my normal life – my own personal message to terrorist types that they will never make us live in fear.

Others in Boston have dealt with the bombings in a very different way. I saw a truck in Southie yesterday with at least 5 stickers with variations of the Boston Strong message. Some people still haven’t taken off their Boston Marathon jackets. Some flock the the various memorial sites and post pictures on social media.

People handle tragedy in different ways and that’s the way it should be.

But with all that said and to get to my point, this Maple Leafs fan holding a “Toronto Stronger” sign upsets me to my core. In all my years of watching sports I have never seen anything more disrespectful. Boston Strong isn’t about the Bruins or the Red Sox or any professional sports team. Boston Strong isn’t about telling the world our city is better than yours. Boston Strong isn’t some sort of advertising ploy that a sneaker company came up with to sell t-shirts.

Boston Strong is about a city joining together to never forget while at the same time moving on from the Marathon bombings that changed our lives forever. It’s about getting back to being bad drivers flipping the bird, freezing our asses off 9 months out of the year and sitting in 4 hours of traffic just to spend part of the weekend on the beaches of Cape Cod.

And what pisses me off the most isn’t just the sign. It’s that this ass-clown can now be seen all over the internet with his shit-eating-grin (ya, I know I just continued the cycle). He took a phrase that was started to benefit people who lost family members and limbs and turned it into a 1-up for a professional hockey playoff series.

One sign he will never be able to 1-up though; Boston Classier.

Sidenote - Why didn’t Mike from Breaking Bad turn around and knock this guy out?