The Boston Winter Teams need to wake Up

The year 2010 has not been a good start thus far for New England sports fans. The Patriots were 0-2 (including the playoffs) in January ending their season, the Bruins are 3-9-2 and the Celtics are 6-8. The most disappointing thing about it is each team had championship expectations coming into their seasons. They are either eliminated or are slumping badly.
It is so much harder to watch each game thinking they are going to win, but then lose in a heart breaker. The Celtics have lost two double digit leads to two quality teams (Magic and Lakers) and lost both of them on the last shot of the game. They also beat bad teams by four or six points when they should win those games by 15 or 20 points. Their offense is too inconsistent and their defense is playing like they are older by the minute. When they are on offense, they turn the ball over at a frightening rate (15.6 turnovers per game) and they are scoring at a mediocre 99.1 points per game, good for 17th in the NBA. At least they are 3rd in the NBA in field goal percentage with 48.3%. Their defense is good, but not a championship defense like it was two seasons ago. Their team rebound has been ghastly, good for 29th in the NBA with 38.82 and their differential is -0.93. That should not happen when you have three excellent rebounders in Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace and Kendrick Perkins. It means that they are not putting enough effort in boxing out their opponents on a miss. At least their are in the top tier with steal differential with +1.51 and they are 1st in points allowed per game with 93.7. It is nice that they have some good numbers, but it is not helping their recently underachieving play as of late.
The Bruins have just lost the ability to score. Last year when the Bruins missed out on the share of the President's Trophy (most points in the league) by one point, they led the league with 274 goals scored and +76 goal differential. This year, they are dead last in goals scored with 130 goals and are in the bottom half in goal differential with -6. Their tough, rugged defense is still keeping them in the playoff hunt, but it is too difficult to play great defense every night when their offense can't find the net. Their offense is just too finesse. They never crash the net. They always take terrible shots and the opposing goaltenders make easy saves and improve their numbers due to crappy Bruins offensive performances. In the last 10 games, they are at a 1-7-2 clip, which is even more unacceptable. Their leading scorer is Patrice Bergeron with 33 points (12 goals and 21 assists) which is pathetic. Hendrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks has 78 points is the leading scorer in the NHL which is only 13 points less than their top three scorers put together, (Bergeron has 33 points Zdeno Chara and Blake Wheeler each have 29 points equals 91 points). Tim Thomas has not been the same this year. He has good numbers with a 2.50 goals against average and a .916 save percentage, but he has been pulled out in two of his last four starts which is scary.
You know how to stop poor play? Shaking it up by making a big trade. The NBA trade deadline is on February 19th and the the NHL trade deadline is on March 3rd. If I was the general manager for both teams, I would make blockbuster trades. For the Celtics, I would trade Ray Allen for Monta Ellis straight up. It would be a terrible trade for the Warriors, but entirely beneficial for the Celtics. Allen has been garbage in the last eight games and he needs to go. The Celtics badly need a spark on offense and I think Ellis is the guy. He drives to the basket and scores a ton of points. He's not a true defensive guy, but if he can buy into the system, he will be fine. The Bruins trade Marco Sturm, Blake Wheeler and Dennis Wideman for Ilya Kovalchuk. He is a bonafide scorer and he would actually be a good fit into their offense. Just imagine Mark Savard dribbling the puck behind the net, searching for the player in the slot. He waits and then dumps a pass to Kovalchuk and he scores. It would be the ultimate move and the Bruins would be relevant again.
New England fans like myself are hoping for a quick turnaround. We are tired of mediocrity. We had this title until the 2000's and the New England teams started to win again and would like to continue that. I am starting to lose patience now, but it is not over until the fat lady sings.