It’s that time again. That’s right! Time for another edition of my world famous This and That column. Sit back, get comfy, and let’s dive in to some topics from around the sports world.

Something Bruin?—Since the Boston Bruins have changed coaches, they have gone 6-2 and seem to be turning their season around.  Is all right in Bruinsville?  Not really.  Yes they have won 6 of 8 but they have only beaten the dregs of the NHL.  Detroit, The Islanders, Chicago, and the Canadiens are all bottom feeders and Utah is under .500.  The offense is a little better but again, it’s against bad teams.  Chicago is so bad, after losing to the Bruins, they fired their coach the next day.  What has really improved for the Bruins is their defense.  They are doing a much better job keeping the puck out of their own net which keeps them in games.  Their penalty kill, which was bottom 5 in the league under Monty, is at 95% under Sacco.  They have only given up 1 PP goal since he took over.  The power play is still horrendous. They are 3 for 25 in their last 8 games.  That’s 12%.  I think what we are seeing since Sacco took over is the Bruins playing up to their potential.  Coming into the season they were built like a team that would play good defense and get good goaltending but struggle to score on the other end.  They were struggling on both ends with Monty so this is an improvement.  But the Bruins are far from being a very good team or a real contender for the Cup and won’t be until they get some more offensive fire power.   

Holding Pattern—I haven’t written much about the Celtics so far this season because there isn’t anything to talk about.  They are really just slogging through the regular season waiting for the play-offs to start.  There was hope that the off-season stuff with the Olympics would inspire them to go on some sort of historic run but it did not.  They are having the season you would expect them to have coming off a championship.  As long as they stay healthy, they will finish as a top team in the league and make a real run at another banner.  Some notes, Tatum has won the player of the month for both October and November.  I think if he goes 6 for 6, they may have to give him the MVP.  Speaking of awards, Payton Pritchard is making a run at the 6^th man of the year award.  He has been great this season not only is he putting up good numbers but he is making big plays to help them win games.  They are not just hollow numbers or stat padding during blowouts.  Porzingis has returned to play and looks like he never left.  For the next 4 months it’s all about staying healthy and getting in the best position to repeat as champions. 

Time for an Exorcist?—The San Francisco 49ers’ season from hell continues.  Look, I can talk all day about the injuries and mishaps and bad breaks the Niners have suffered on the field but that’s not even the worst part of this cursed season.  This year, so far, the Niners have ha d a player get shot, another player lose their 1 year old daughter and this week we learned that Trent Williams’ son was still born, and this is after his twin had already died earlier in the pregnancy.  Forget the crap on the field, these is just devastating events.  I know Pearsall is fine but still he had to go through it all, as did the team.  I can’t imagine any team having such a retched season both on and off the field as the 49ers are going through this season.  It really can’t get over soon enough. 

Yankee Doodle the Right Moves—The Juan Soto sweepstakes seem to be coming to and end very soon.  Possibly before you even read this.  I was hoping, and I imagine the rest of MLB was as well, that he would make a decision before the Winter Meetings so that team can make other signings and trades during said meeting which begin in Dallas on Sunday.  This seems to be what is happening.  Now, obviously once he picks a team I will talk about it but for now I just wanted to say that I mentioned earlier that the Yankees had two paths to walk this offseason, the Soto path and the non-Soto path.  Well, I want to point out that just because they lose out on Soto and suddenly have the 50 or so million they were gonna pay him laying around, doesn’t mean they need to spend it just to spend it.  If they don’t get Soto the Yankees need to make very wise choices in the players they acquire to replace him.  Nothing can screw your franchise over more than signing a bunch of mediocre guys to big contracts.  Last years signing of Strowman would be a good example of this.  If the right guys aren’t available, they can’t just sign guys to sign guys.  They must spend wisely if they want to keep the team in World Series contention now and in the future. 

Some quick hitters…

–I was wrong about the new Celtics uniforms.  They are not good looking but they do work well on TV.

–The WNBA expansion draft is tonight.  The Mercury can’t lose anyone of consequence so I don’t really care about it. 

–Don’t get me started on the Golden At-Bat idea.  Just don’t. 

–Saturday is a huge day for URI athletics.  At noon the 8-0 Men’s basketball team take on their arch rivals the 6-3 PC Friars then at 2 the URI football team plays it’s second round playoff game against Mercer.  Go Rhody!

That about does it for now.  At least until Soto makes a decision.