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Poll: Who do you want Celtics to play in first round? 04.05.12 at 4:29 pm ET
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The Celtics sit in the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference standings Thursday afternoon and could realistically finish anywhere from third to seventh. (An important note: Winning the Atlantic Division doesn’t guarantee homecourt advantage in the first round. If the fifth seed has a better record — like the Magic do know — it would get homecourt in the series.)

Here’s how the standings look on Thursday:

3. Indiana 33-21
4. Boston 30-23
5. Orlando 32-22
6. Atlanta 32-23
7. Philly 29-25

Who do you want the Celtics to play in the first round

View Results

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  • http://twitter.com/jlec93 John LeClair

    The real question however is: Can Rask keep it together in the playoffs?

    • Troll Hunter

      Had some tough breaks tonight with Chara deflecting one in and another going off Seidenberg’s face directly to a Canadien. He has looked very shaky at times but the Bruins’ defense has turned the puck over a ton.

  • disqus_56EHBIkZcr

    NICE!!!!!

  • Troll Hunter

    Almost makes the third period meltdown bearable tonight(not really). Now just add a puck moving defenseman(easier said than done) and bring on the playoffs.

  • scott

    Big deal. Is this guy going to stop this team from chocking in the third period.

    • scott the idiot

      Yes…..

  • chad

    this guy sucks, hes an old man keving garnett, they need youth, not old man age

    • chad the idiot

      Yeah, the Celts have looked so fantastic without “keving” Garnett. Now go troll somewhere else douch e.

  • 123Star

    35 years old ? that’s the best they could get. Am I missing something?

    • Dillon

      yes you are. he is a veteran with proven help and durability. he is a sniper. and a confident scorer. he will allow horton to reinforce the second line with some size and send marchand to the third line for even more depth. he is the best thing on the market. a locker room character guy and an important need to this hockey team.

      • Chappy

        Marchand to the 3rd line???? – I want some of whatever you’re smoking…..Iginla would be a “this year” helper – a 1st round pick and 2 prospects?????? Steep price for a guy who will driving a Zamboni in 2 yrs…

  • bruins1

    yeah…uh…about this…he got traded to the penguins, not the bruins…sounds like aaron ward might be out of a job tomorrow

  • 12

    some f’ed up tonight

  • 12

    need to get Martin St. Louis now.

  • RobDX

    Blowin leads and blowin trades……

    • http://www.facebook.com/Brett.Traycheck Brett Alexander

      Not a blown trade. Iginla chose Penguins. Doesnt matter what the Bruins offered.

  • Troll Hunter

    Wow, talk about pulling the rug out from under you……Not sure Pittsburgh’s offer was as good as the Bruins but I guess he wanted to go to the Penguins. Next up?!?

    • D in ME

      Marty St Louis and Jagr

    • fab4ever

      While it was surprising to read this today, I’m not overly concerned because frankly, he wouldn’t make that big a difference from what I can see…The Penguins are clearly better as are the Canadiens…at this point…I know, I know. Anything can happen and I can’t be reciting dogma right now but come on…after this past month, how can any logical B’s fan think this team is ready to win a Cup? They’re good, real good, just not championship caliber…now that they lost Iginla, can they regroup and get some blue line help and another scorer? And even that might not be enough…..I’m also becoming disenchanted with Tuukka Rask….at some point, he’s got to steal a win in one of these games and he isn’t….and to those who think the B’s should trade their top draft pick in Malcolm Subban, keep smoking that weed…with goaltending at a premium, he’s almost untouchable….

  • Guest

    I wonder if Iginla decided on Pitt over Boston after he saw the Bruins blow tonight’s game in the 3rd period?

  • Trader..Lou

    So the Bruins weren’t able ‘Lou Gorman’ a ‘Bagwell’ into a piece of Krap like that washed-up Iguanna ….. or whatever. Sometimes fate saves even an idiot from shooting himself in the foot. Great news, the pirat.. err steel… err whatevers got fleeced.

  • Geetsolboy

    He obviously saw the Penguins as the more likely team to win a Cup with. Which they are.

  • bench warmer

    Is bill a bong running the Bruins as well.
    Cheap Bastards.

  • Shoe bottom

    Can’t blame b’s for not getting him but don’t give up on other deals. The only thing that can stop the pens is them they are way above any other teams in the east

  • tonymarini

    The B’s should have tried harder to sign Iginla. He’s a solid guy on and off the ice…and even at 35 he still has the skills that the B’s need desperately (you know, like scoring GOALS!) Now what???

  • dogma3

    Not every athelete in the world wants to play in Boston. Its a big world with many choices.Get over it and move on.

  • Deano42

    For anyone saying bring in St. Louis, you are wrong and don’t understand the salary cap at all. The NHL cap is going down almost seven million dollars next season and the bruins only have one amnesty buyout which they will use on Marc Savard, without using the amnesty buyout on Savard they will have barely enough to resign Tuuka.

    If the Bruins bring in St Louis they will have to let Horton walk as a UFA and they may not have enough cap room to resign Tuuka. It’s called math. Bringing in St. Louis or the rumors for Briere never made any sense because they make too much against the salary cap after this season.

    In my mind a 37 year old Martin St. Louis signed for the next two seasons at 5.65 million, to be a third line player is not only a stupid decision, it will hurt this team every year after this season badly.

    The Bruins needed to trade for a rental player because they do not have the cap space next season.

    • glenn88

      The cap is going down, but the Bruins are currently far under the 2012-2013 cap. Remember Ference and Horton are also coming off the books next year and Lucic is a RFA. Agree Tukka will cost you some $$ if he plays well for the remainder of the year, but does Horton look to you like a player Peter will sign for big money? I$5 million for one extra year of St. Louis is not a big deal. St. Louis makes your power play better and gives you some scoring punch in and out of the first and 3rd line. But, I think Clowe is a more likely scenario to play a line with Pev and the incoming Soderberg.

      • Deano42

        Glenn, you are dead wrong about the situation. Next year Lucic is not an RFA, in fact his salary increases from 4.08m to 6m against the cap. Seguin jumps up in salary, and Marchand does as well.

        The Bruins will have 6.16 million in cap room next year, 10.16 if they use amnesty buyout on Savard. None of the following NHL players will be under contract: Tuuka Rask, Nathan Horton, Jordan Caron, Andrew Ference, Anton Khudobin.

        If Bruins have St Louis (5.68m cap hit) they will only have 480K to resign their RFA’s and UFA’s. If they amnesty savard they will have 4.48 million to work with. That may not even be enough to resign Horton nevermind Rask. So St. Louis is not happening without losing a player off the current roster. So he is no real addition at all.

        Bouwmeester is even more idiotic, 6.68m, for three years. Meaning they will be over the salary cap starting next year, before they use the amnesty buyout on Savard. Bouwmeester is completely off the table.

        Clowe is San Jose’s Shawn Thornton. I mean if that is all you can get than fine, but Clowe will not help to improve scoring, and he is a third liner at best.

        • glenn88

          Dean, your math is wrong and I think you are double counting salaries like Rask (take him off the books before adding him back on) and forgetting how much the Bruins are currently under the cap this year. Rask is on the books for 3.5 this year. Horton, Rask, Ference, and Caron alone are around $10.5-$11 off the books. You have $6 million in roster increases, meaning you net $4.6 just on this exchange, then add back this year minus the salary cap reduction and some other UFAs (Pandolfo). That would put the Bruins around $12 million. So yes, you probably don’t resign Horton if you acquire anybody this year with a two year deal, but Horton may not be worth more than $3 mill on the open market next off season when everybody is looking to dump salary. You can always back load these new deals (Rask and Horton) to get around the 2013 cap drop or restructure other contracts. Basically, don’t worry about it, the Bruins are in far better shape than 90% of the NHL when it comes to the cap. They can deal to win this year and still work this out in 2013.

          • Deano42

            Hey Glenn, my math isn’t wrong because it isn’t my math. I got all my numbers from capgeek.com. Can’t argue with fact.

            Here are the facts, not up for debate. None of the following players are under contract for next season. Rask, Horton, Ference, Caron, Daugavins, Pandolfo, Macdermid, Ference, Aaron Johnson, or Anton Khudobin.

            Without signing a single one of the players above, the Bruins will have exactly 7,021,905 to spend. Or 7 million to resign all of the above players. Fact.

            If they use their ONE NHL Amnesty buyout on Marc Savard, they will increase their cap room to exactly 11,043,334 to spend on resigning the above players.

            “You can always back load these new deals (Rask and Horton) to get around the 2013 cap drop or restructure other contracts.” Dead wrong, the new NHL CBA disallowed backloaded deals. So sorry but that is no longer an option. Furthermore, backloaded deals only works with veteran players, because by the time you get to enough years to backload Horton or Rask you will be talking about a 8-9 year or longer contract.

            Rask is going to be asking for somewhere around 5.5 million per season ideally.If they sign him for 5.5 you have only 5,543,334 left.

            So with 5,543,334. The Bruins will most likely not be able to resign Horton, unless they are going to trade away someone else.

            Furthermore, If you had brought in St. Louis (5.68) or Bouwmeester (6.6) you would not be able to resign Rask. It is straight math, not mine, and there is no argument against it.

  • 123Star

    was not meant to be, and i’m glad. there are others out there, the young staters move faster.( look how well hamilton is doing ) seek and you find, without giving up so much.

  • Bruinsfan 43

    Just maybe, too much offensive talent in Pitt will be hard to assimilate. Are they really going to break up Crosby’s line (the best line in hockey), so Ignila can play with Sid? Hope that doesn’t work out. In the end he left Calgary with essentially not much in return and went for a first round pick. Save our prospects. We won a cup with this team. If Horton Lucic could step it up and we picked up a decent thrid liner we could still compete. Very dissappointed but I am getting over it!

  • backfromthedepths

    jeff suppan was good, i’ll give you that

  • al

    lol

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