What Has Become Of Daniel Bard?

Sometimes baseball and in turn life doesn't make any sense.

On a day when John Lackey actually pitched decently-one of his best outings of the season mind you-ace setup man Daniel Bard failed to protect a lead once again as the Boston Red Sox lost 5-4 to the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park in an afternoon matinee.

They dodged a bullet as the Tampa Bay Rays lost 6-2 to the Baltimore Orioles tonight at Camden Yards, meaning that Boston remains four games ahead of Tampa Bay in the AL Wild Card race.

Bard (2-8; most losses of any reliever in MLB) has had a disastrous week with three terrible appearances in a row. That is nothing but bad news for the Red Sox (86-62) who count perhaps way too much on him. With an already taxed bullpen (since the rotation is a mess), Terry Francona has little choice but to hope Bard somehow finds his control again and works out of his funk.

Summoned to protect a 4-2 lead in the top of the eighth, Bard allowed three runs (two earned) on a hit with two walks. It was his fifth blown save of the season. Jonathan Papelbon looked great in the ninth (in a non-save situation), going 1-2-3 with two strikeouts. It's time for him to do something that Francona avoids at all costs: go for saves that are longer than an inning.

The goodwill from Tim Wakefield's 200th win seemed to carry over to the series finale as Lackey pitched into the sixth and even left with a lead (3-2). He went 5.1 innings, allowing two earned runs on seven hits with a walk and four strikeouts. He is the punching bag of New England and I've already made countless negative jokes and comments about him this season but he didn't deserve that today.

Blue Jays (75-74) ace Ricky Romero (15-10) beat Boston for the second time in a week, a huge accomplishment for a guy that normally gets rocked Lackey-style (there it goes) when he takes the mound against them. Thanks to a low pitch count, he lasted eight innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits with a walk and four strikeouts.

Toronto closer Frank Francisco also normally struggles against the Red Sox but he put his career numbers aside today with a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts for his 15th save of the season.

The Blue Jays grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first on RBI singles by Edwin Encarnacion (2 hits) and Kelly Johnson.

Boston tied it in the second with ground outs from Ryan Lavarnway and Jason Varitek.

Marco Scutaro's sacrifice fly in the third (scoring Jacoby Ellsbury who extended his hit streak to 18 games with a triple) and Adrian Gonzalez's solo shot in the sixth (his 26th of the season; first at Fenway since July 7) gave the Red Sox a 4-2 lead. That's when everything quickly fell apart (a common theme lately with Boston).

First, Gonzalez left in the seventh with tightness in his left calf. Two walks and an error on Bard to start the eighth gave Toronto the bases loaded with no outs. J.P. Arencibia's ground out scored Encarnacion to cut it to 4-3 and then Adam Loewen delivered the key hit of the game: a two-run single.

There are 14 games left in the season and Tampa Bay comes to town tomorrow night for the start of a four-game series. The pitching matchups are Kyle Weiland vs. Jeremy Hellickson on Thursday night, Josh Beckett vs. James Shields on Friday night, Jon Lester vs. Jeff Niemann on Saturday afternoon and Tim Wakefield vs. David Price on Sunday afternoon.

As a Red Sox fan, do you feel confident about any of those? Beckett is making his first start in over a week after spraining his ankle and the Rays knocked Lester around last weekend at the Trop. The only solace is that they'll still be ahead when Tampa Bay leaves, barring a sweep at home and they won't see them again this year.

The good news is that eight of the last 14 games are at home and even better, seven of them are against the O's. If the Red Sox can't hang on to a four-game lead with 14 remaining then they have nobody to blame but themselves and they wouldn't go anywhere in the playoffs anyway. The next two weeks should be a real test of this possibly great team's character.

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Grandpa Wakefield Finally Records Win No. 200, Now Get Off His Damn Lawn!

It only took Tim Wakefield nine tries to get win No. 200 but he finally accomplished the milestone tonight and it couldn't come at a better time for the Boston Red Sox.

The 45-year old knuckleballer, MLB's oldest player, went six innings as the Red Sox (86-61) snapped a five-game losing streak with a 18-6 blowout of the Toronto Blue Jays (74-74) at Fenway Park.

Coupled with Baltimore's gift of a win over Tampa Bay, Boston moved back to four games ahead of the Rays in the AL wild card race. The Yankees held serve in Seattle with another win, New York leads the AL East by four games.

Since his last win took place way back on July 24, it was an honest question to wonder if Wakefield (7-6) would ever get to 200. Everything seemed to conspire against him: bad outings, the bullpen blowing it, tough luck, etc. The fact that it happened to be one of the most vital wins of the season for a team desperately trying to cling to a playoff spot is a feather in the cap of Boston's most professional athlete.

Wakefield went six innings, allowing five earned runs on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Staked to a 10-5 lead, Boston's bats continued to come out of their recent coma as they piled up a season-high run total.

Brandon Morrow (9-11) was his typical erratic, not very good self. In 5.1 innings, he allowed seven runs (five earned) on seven hits with a walk and two strikeouts.

Another great sign for the Red Sox is that Dustin Pedroia (5 RBIs, 4 runs, 4 hits) broke his cold streak with one of his best games of the season. Jacoby Ellsbury (4 runs, 4 hits, 3 RBIs), Jarrod Saltalamacchia (4 RBIs, 2 runs, 2 hits), Carl Crawford (3 runs, 2 hits), Marco Scutaro (2 runs, 2 hits) and Adrian Gonzalez (2 hits) all had multiple hits which made you quickly forget that David Ortiz was a late scratch with back spasms.

Toronto was competitive in the early innings as J.P. Arencibia hit a three-run blast into the Monster in the second inning and Jose Bautista (his MLB-leading 42nd of the season) added a two-run homer off Fisk's pole in the third.

Ellsbury (27th of the season) and Pedroia (19th of the season) went back-to-back to give Boston the lead for good in the fourth at 6-5. Pedroia padded his stats with a three-run shot in the sixth.

Alfredo Aceves locked it up for Wake with a scoreless seventh and eighth.

The record figures to skip tomorrow afternoon as John Lackey ushers out the last summer like day at Fenway with what's sure to be another unforgettable start. The Jays counter with Ricky Romero, who was great last week against Boston but typically struggles for some reason against the Red Sox.

One more time, give it up for Wakefield!

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A Laugher, Just What The Red Sox Desperately Needed

Let's be honest, yesterday's loss given the length (11 innings) and outside factors (Beckett getting hurt, Yankees winning) was one of the worst ones of the second half for the Boston Red Sox.

Their annual August choke job seems to have taken a vacation and begun a few weeks later, in early September. Therefore it was nice that for one night at least, thoughts of Beckett's ankle and Clay Buchholz's back were put aside for a moment as Boston (85-56) absolutely crushed Toronto (70-72) 14-0 at the Rogers Centre.

With Jon Lester (15-6) on the mound, the Red Sox were heavily favored especially with the Blue Jays countering with a bad reliever that they're trying to convert into a starter-Luis Perez (3-3)-does that ever work?

Lester's ERA has dipped below 3.00 (2.93) as he has really found a groove in the stretch run. He went seven crisp innings, allowing three hits with one walk and 11 strikeouts in 100 pitches. Rookie Kyle Weiland threw two scoreless innings, getting his feet wet for another start on Saturday (in Tampa Bay; for Beckett).

This was over almost immediately as Perez was tagged for eight earned runs on ten hits in 2.2 innings.

Boston put up two or more runs in each of the first five frames.

The offensive stars in the 20-hit, 14-RBI night included Marco Scutaro (4 hits, 4 RBIS, 2 runs), David Ortiz (4 hits, 3 runs, 2 RBIs), Adrian Gonzalez (3 hits, 3 runs, 2 RBIs), Kevin Youkilis (2 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, RBI), Jacoby Ellsbury (2 runs, 2 hits) and Darnell McDonald (2 hits, RBI).

Ironically, with all those runs (two touchdowns and PATs) the Red Sox only had two home runs. Jarrod Saltalamacchia (two-run; his 15th) and Josh Reddick (solo; 7th) had the honors.

Tim Wakefield faces Brandon Morrow in game three of the series tomorrow night.

As of this post, Boston trails New York by two games. Believe it or not, the Yankees are currently in the sixth (leading 3-2) vs. the Orioles. Their game started at 11pm in the Bronx due to the rain. Really. I'm sure the Bombers will pull it out, all you can count on from the Orioles is a whole bunch of losing.

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Beckett Sprains Ankle, Lawrie Hits Walkoff Homer in 11th

All I can say is thank God I was at the beach for all of today's game.



Well, to be specific, I listened to the first 10+ innings of the Red Sox-Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre on the radio and was walking back into our condo when Toronto (70-71) rookie Brett Lawrie (haha great picture by the way) hit a walk-off homer in the 11th against Dan Wheeler (2-2).



Why does that always seem to happen? You invest so much time into a baseball game and then it's over in one second when you're not paying attention.



The sting of a 1-0 loss in 11 innings for Boston (84-56) would have been much easier to take with the sun in the sky and the sand at my feet. Back home, the bleak reality set in. First, Red Sox starter Josh Beckett left in the fourth inning with a sprained ankle. He had been cruising, striking out six and only giving up three hits in 3.2 innings.



With Erik Bedard skipping a start due to his back and Beckett being sent back to Boston for a further examination, this is not the time for the Red Sox rotation to be falling apart.



Second, the Yankees beat the Orioles this afternoon meaning that New York is now 2.5 games ahead of Boston in the AL East.



As always, a rookie pitcher facing the Red Sox for the first time excelled. 21-year-old Henderson Alvarez went six innings for Toronto, scattering four hits with a walk and four strikeouts.



Charlie Villanueva (1 inning), Casey Janssen (1 inning), Frank Francisco (2 innings) all paved the way for Shawn Camp (3-3) who got a 1-2-3 top of the 11th.



Among other things, this loss wasted another outstanding effort by Alfredo Aceves. Summoned early, Boston's unsung hero went 3.2 innings, allowing only one hit with three walks and four strikeouts.



Daniel Bard got the last five outs in the eighth and ninth leading to Jonathan Papelbon who was sketchy (as always in a non-save situation) but was able to wiggle out of a bases-loaded jam in the 10th.



Josh Reddick and Marco Scutaro each had two hits in the loss.



Jon Lester and rookie Luis Perez will get the starts tomorrow night in the second of four in Toronto.



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Tim Wakefield As Your Number 2 Starter in 2011? So Far, So Good

With a season-ending injury to Daisuke Matsuzaka and trips to the disabled list for Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield (the oldest man in MLB) has gone from forgotten spare part to a key component of the starting rotation.

That's not an ideal situation but the Red Sox are riding this string of bad luck with injuries into the All-Star break so that they can regroup and hopefully get more healthy.

Last night, Wakefield (5-3) struck out a season-high seven as Boston (51-35) took two out of three from Toronto (42-46) with a 6-4 win at Fenway Park.

Wakefield lasted seven innings, allowing three earned runs on nine hits with a walk.

Daniel Bard got two outs in the eighth before there was a 28-minute rain delay. Dan Wheeler got the final out of the frame after the tarp was pulled off the field. For the second night in a row, Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon had a shaky outing (giving up a run) but he still managed to strike out the side for his 19th save of the season.

Blue Jays starter Ricky Romero (7-8) continued to mystify as he's a quality MLB pitcher against virtually every other team except the Red Sox. He went 4.1 innings, allowing six earned runs on nine hits with three walks and two strikeouts.

Jacoby Ellsbury (3 RBIs, run, stolen base) and Kevin Youkilis (run, RBI) both smacked three hits for Boston's offense.

Yunel Escobar went 4-for-5 for Toronto while Jose Bautista (2 RBIs) and Travis Snider added two hits apiece for the Blue Jays.

Bautista gave Toronto a 1-0 lead in the first as his single drove in Escobar.

Ellsbury quickly tied it up with a leadoff homer, his 10th bomb (a career-high) of the season.

Youkilis followed with his 12th homer of the season in the second inning for a 2-1 Boston lead.

The Blue Jays took one more lead in the third as Bautista drove in Rajai Davis with a sacrifice fly and Adam Lind plated Escobar with an RBI single, 3-2 Toronto.

The Red Sox put up a crooked number in the fourth with four runs. Darnell McDonald tied it with an RBI single, Yamaico Navarro had an RBI double and Ellsbury (who's had a great season thus far) knocked in two with a double of his own.

Escobar got the last Toronto run in the ninth as he hit an RBI single off Papelbon.

The Baltimore Orioles come to Fenway for the last series of the unofficial first half of the 2011 season. The four-game set starts tonight with Andrew Miller taking on O's youngster Jake Arrieta.

Baltimore is still one of the worst teams in the American League and baseball so three out of four isn't too much to ask despite John Lackey and Alfredo Aceves (not to mention Miller) all slated to start in this series.

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Red Sox Beat Blue Jays On Walk-Off Play At The Plate That Goes Their Way

One of the great things about baseball (and why people will put up with such long seasons) is that no matter how many games you watch it at any level, you always have the chance to see something for the first time.

Last night was one of those special moments as the Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 at Fenway Park.

After Blue Jays (42-45) infielder John McDonald (2 hits) hit a two-out single to left field off Red Sox (50-35) closer Jonathan Papelbon, Edwin Encarnacion rounded third with the possible tying run.

However, Boston left fielder Darnell McDonald threw a strike to catcher Jason Varitek, who blocked the plate, and the captain was able to put a tag on Encarnacion before he scored. It was an extremely close play (replays showed that he might have swiped the plate) but he was called out and that's all that matters. A walk-off outfield assist. Crazy.

The bigger news of the contest was that Red Sox starter Jon Lester left after four no-hit innings with a left lat injury. He was placed on the DL today and won't be able to return until at least July 22.

Alfredo Aceves will get Lester's scheduled start on Sunday vs. the Orioles, the last game before the All-Star break.

Called to duty earlier than usual, Matt Albers (3-3) threw two scoreless innings with two strikeouts for the win. Franklin Morales (seventh) and Daniel Bard (eighth) added scoreless frames before Papelbon did his best to blow it when he was handed a 3-0 lead in the ninth.

He allowed four hits, including a two-run bomb (a rainbow over the Monster) by Blue Jays uber slugger Jose Bautista (his 28th of the season) but was bailed out by McDonald and Varitek to get his 18th save of the season.

Brett Cecil (1-4) went the whole way (eight innings) for Toronto. He allowed three earned runs on seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

Boston pushed across two in the second on Varitek's RBI double which plated David Ortiz and J.D. Drew's RBI single which scored Varitek.

Batting in the cleanup spot-with Kevin Youkilis sitting-Dustin Pedroia hit his eighth homer of the season, a solo laser show in the third. You know that awesome phrase has jumped the shark when not only does NESN use it for his home run calls but also Sportscenter.

Adrian Gonzalez is out of the lineup tonight for the first time this season as Tim Wakefield takes on Ricky Romero who is a very good lefty that seems to always get knocked around by the Red Sox.

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What The Hell Should The Red Sox Do With John Lackey?

It has reached the point with the John Lackey experience that I honestly don't even know what the Boston Red Sox can do with him at this point.

He has the worst ERA (7.47) of any pitcher in baseball who has thrown over 70 innings. His ERA at Fenway this season is 9.17 with a 3-4 record. Lackey has lost his last three starts after yesterday's 9-7 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway on the fourth of July.

It was the shortest outing of Lackey's (5-8) career (2.1 innings) as he allowed seven earned runs on nine hits with two strikeouts.

The Red Sox (49-35) can either stick with him in the rotation, put him in the bullpen or place him on the DL. We've all seen what having him pitch every fifth day is like. I don't think remaking him as a reliever will work either since he's never done that. Finally, Boston loves cooking up fake injuries (there were reports last week that he needed Tommy John surgery) so I wouldn't put it past them to go with the latter option.

As much as I'd love to see them simply release him, they're stuck with him after giving him such a big contract in December 2009. Even John Henry can't absorb a $53.38 million dollar loss (yet), after all he's got a trophy wife to please.

The ironic and cruel part of yesterday's Lackey implosion was that the Red Sox almost rallied for a ridiculous comeback after trailing 7-0 in the third inning.

Jacoby Ellsbury (4 for 5, 2 RBIs, run, stolen base) led off the ninth with a single off Blue Jays (42-44) closer Frank Francisco and stole second base but Francisco proceeded to strike out Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez and Yamaico Navarro (who came in after Kevin Youkilis was hit in the back with a pitch in the fourth) to record his 10th save of the season.

Toronto starter Brandon Morrow (5-4) was his usual erratic self but when you're matched up against Lackey, anything better than the worst start of your career should get it done. He went five innings, allowing four earned runs on five hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

Rajai Davis (2 hits, run, RBI, stolen base) scored on Youk's error in the first for 1-0 Blue Jays lead. They tacked on two in the second on Aaron Hill's (3 hits, 2 runs, 2 RBIs) solo homer and an RBI single by John McDonald (2 hits, run, RBI).

Lackey's holiday was quickly over in the third as he gave up an RBI single to Adam Lind, an RBI single to Hill and a two-run double to Travis Snider (3 hits, 2 runs, 2 RBIs) that made it 7-0. I'm sure the crowd was filled with an extra amount of pink hats and goobers since it was the fourth but even they had the common sense to boo Lackey big time and cheer when Terry Francona emerged to take him out. Brutal.

The Red Sox started to comeback as they plated four runs in the fourth. Ellsbury started it with a two-run triple, Dustin Pedroia walked with the bases loaded and Adrian Gonzalez knocked in Pedroia with an RBI double off the Monster.

Dan Wheeler had by far his best outing in his brief Red Sox career as he got eight outs. He didn't allow a hit or walk anybody, it was good stuff after Lackey's latest turd salad.

Toronto got single runs in the seventh and eighth off Alfredo Aceves. Edwin Encarnacion scored in the seventh on Navarro's error and Davis drove in McDonald (Connecticut shoreline connection!) with an RBI double.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia provided another two-run triple, this time in the eighth and J.D. Drew knocked in Boston's final run with a sacrifice fly.

Two lefties duel tonight as Brett Cecil goes for the Blue Jays and Jon Lester takes the ball for the Red Sox.

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Red Sox unload on the Blue Jays one more time, ride longest win streak in MLB this season

When your favorite baseball team-the Boston Red Sox-wins nine games in a row-the longest streak in MLB this season-and polishes off a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays with a 14-1 win yesterday afternoon at the Rogers Centre, it's quite hard to not come off as the biggest honk in the world.

Boston (39-26) outscored Toronto (32-34) 35-6 over the three games. They have the best record in the American League and yesterday's starter Jon Lester (9-2) became the first nine-game winner in the AL. Only the Phillies (40-26) have a better record than the Red Sox. Finally, this is Boston's longest win streak in over two years (11 games, April 15-27 2009).

Lester submitted his best start of the season, going eight innings, allowing one earned run on two hits with a walk and eight strikeouts. For a guy that was really struggling with his control in May, the last two starts (14 innings, 4 earned runs, 16 strikeouts, 2 wins) have been what we've come to expect from baseball best lefty and one of the top starters in all of MLB.

Blue Jays rookie Kyle Drabek (4-5) had the unenviable task of trying to shut down the Red Sox attack that leads MLB in many offensive categories (1st in runs, 1st in batting average, 1st in OBP and 2nd in slugging percentage). He lasted only four innings, allowing eight earned runs on seven hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

When you examine Boston's current stretch of superb play, three hitters stand out above the rest: Jacoby Ellsbury (3 runs, 2 hits), Adrian Gonzalez (2 hits, 2 RBIs, 2 runs) and David Ortiz (4 RBIs, 2 hits, 2 runs). All three of those players are performing at an All-Star level and when you factor in the certainties that Dustin Pedroia (2 runs, 2 RBIs, 2 walks) and Kevin Youkilis (4 RBIs, 3 hits, 3 runs) will heat up more, this lineup is more stacked than Pamela Anderson in her mid-90s prime.

Gonzalez (9 straight games with an RBI) got the Red Sox out to their usual fast start with a solo homer, his 13th of the season, in the first. He added an RBI ground out in the third and Youkilis notched an RBI single for a 3-0 lead.

Jose Bautista hit his MLB-leading 21st homer in the fourth for Toronto's only run, 3-1.

Boston put up some crooked numbers with six runs in the fifth and three in the sixth to make it a complete laugher for the second day in a row.

Pedroia hit a two-run bomb, his fifth of the season, and Ortiz crushed a three-run bomb, his 17th of the season, in the fifth to stretch it to 8-1. Marco Scutaro (2 hits) added an RBI single in the fifth.

The good times continued in the sixth as Youk, Ortiz and Jarrod Saltalamacchia all put up RBI doubles to extend the lead to 12-1.

All that remained was a two-run shot by Youk, his ninth of the season, in the ninth and the fine folks of Toronto went home quietly.

Boston gets today off before beginning a three-game series in Tampa Bay tomorrow night, wrapping up their road trip (which is 6-0 so far) against divisional rivals. Tim Wakefield faces James Shields tomorrow night with the Rays four games behind the Red Sox in the AL East (Tampa Bay has a makeup game tonight in Detroit).

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The Red Sox freight train is coming down the tracks, good luck stopping it

Nothing can stop the Boston Red Sox at this moment, they are the hottest team in MLB as they won their eighth straight game 16-4 yesterday afternoon at the Rogers Centre against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Boston (38-26) climbed a season-high 12 games over .500 (remember the 2-10 start?) with an 18 hit attack.

Toronto (32-33) had no chance as they were held to only six hits in their second straight loss to the Red Sox.

John Lackey (4-5) got the win but he was about the last guy on Boston that you would cite in the win since every starter in the lineup had an RBI. It was a game that was all about the offense. Lackey went six innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits with two walks and eight strikeouts.

Blue Jays starter Brandon Morrow (2-4) has always had a great arm but he walks way too many batters and as a result, his pitch count always seems to get high early on. He lasted 4.1 innings, tagged for nine earned runs on 10 hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

Marco Scutaro led Boston with four hits and three runs. Dustin Pedroia had three hits, three RBIs and two runs. David Ortiz had two hits, three RBIs and two runs and Jason Varitek added two hits, four RBIs and three runs. J.D. Drew had two hits, two runs and an RBI while Jacoby Ellsbury notched two hits, a run and RBI.

Boston scored four runs in the third to take an early 4-0 lead. It was 5-0 in the fourth after an RBI double by Pedroia. Toronto got a two-run double by Rajai Davis to make it 5-2 but that was sadly as close as they would get.

Varitek and Ortiz had three-run homers in the fifth and the rout was on for the Red Sox.

Edwin Encarnacion hit a two-run homer off Lackey in the sixth but it didn't matter.

Boston will go for the sweep and its ninth straight win this afternoon as Jon Lester takes on rookie Kyle Drabek.

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Red Sox win their seventh straight

Everything is going well for the Boston Red Sox at the moment. They started out their three-game series in Toronto with a wire-to-wire 5-1 victory at the Rogers Centre.

Boston (37-26) got Clay Buchholz's (5-3) best outing of the season in defeating the Blue Jays (32-32).

Buchholz went seven innings, allowing one earned run on three hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

Jo-Jo Reyes (2-5), the same guy who was riding a two-game win streak after going 28 starts without a victory, took the loss even though he wasn't that bad by his craptastic standards. He went 6.1 innings, allowing four earned runs on eight hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

The Red Sox had 11 hits while the Blue Jays were held to just four. Jacoby Ellsbury had three hits and three runs, Dustin Pedroia had three hits, a walk, a run and an RBI while Adrian Gonzalez had two hits and two RBIs.

Boston scored two runs in the third on an infield single by Pedroia and a run scored when Gonzalez grounded into a double play.

Toronto got a run back in the fourth as Juan Rivera drove in Corey Patterson.

The Red Sox added two more runs in the fifth on Gonzalez's RBI single (scoring Ellsbury) and Kevin Youkilis' RBI single (which scored Pedroia.

Ellsbury came home once more in the ninth on Gonzalez's RBI double.

Daniel Bard pitched a scoreless eighth (with two strikeouts) and Jonathan Papelbon got a 1-2-3 ninth in a non-save situation (with a strikeout).

John Lackey opposes Brandon Morrow this afternoon in the second game of this USA vs. Canada matchup that comes at the same time as the Bruins battle the Canucks in the Stanley Cup Finals.

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