Bedard's Daily Briefing 05.20.19: Bruins wait for another week, Sox avoid sweep, Game of Thrones thoughts

Good morning!

A few random thoughts while I wonder what I'm going to do now on Sunday nights until football season...

• Can't believe we have to wait another week for the Bruins to open up the Stanley Cup Final — even if the Blues close this thing out tomorrow night. Ugh.


• Actually, that might be the best-case scenario for the Bruins ... that would be a long layoff for the Blues, so it basically puts everyone on equal (rusty) footing to start the series. Even if it goes seven games there's a decent break.


• I'll leave it to the hockey experts, but it feels like the Blues would be the tougher matchup for the Bruins considering they have the better goalie, are healthier and are pretty talented themselves.


• Man, as a connoisseur of offensive defensemen (Hi Krug!), it is brutal watching Erik Karlsson play at like 60 percent due to a groin that's obviously shot at this point. Similar to Jose Altuve in the ALCS. You want to see the game's best at their best on the biggest stages. It's good for the game.


• Speaking of Altuve, the Astros didn't need him this time around to get the best of the Sox. But Boston just made a few critical mistakes, and that was that. At least they came back to salvage Sunday.


• This series sort of illustrated the regular-season Sox, and the postseason Sox. In the playoffs, there's no way Alex Cora even lets Rick Porcello sniff the eighth inning on Friday night. Probably seven, but likely six. Then Cora would bring in a starter to bridge to the ninth. So I'm not going to get all worked up about that game, especially after Cora admitted how big his error was. He was right.


• I had a very lengthy chat on Saturday/Sunday. Lotta good stuff in there. Worth checking out.


• Good take on Rozier from B-Robb.


• Good notes column this week from Price.


• On the series finale of GOT (don't worry, no spoilers): Like I pointed out in the chat, I'm very much a story/narrative guy. Must be the journalist/writer in me. Sure, I enjoy a cheap thrill ride like anyone else from time to time, but if I invest a lot of time in your show/movie, it better pay off in the end. It's like if I write or edit a major story ... it's great if the lede and info are really good, but you better bring it home or else a rewrite is needed. This GOT season — and, really, since the carefully, beautifully crafted source material ran out — was basically like a story from an inexperienced writer with an editor who didn't care and just wanted the copy. The first 2/3rds of Thrones was beautifully paced and rich in details. The last third, especially this final season, was completely rushed and all the underlying things that made Thrones great for so long were tossed aside because the writers didn't have enough confidence in their own ability to land the plane, or they wanted to get it over with and move onto their next project before everyone realized Martin was the sole genius behind this. I don't mind some of the final results for the characters, but they deserved much more justification and run-up time for us to understand them and feel them. I've watched this show since the start and I felt absolutely nothing this season — and I'm usually a pretty emotional guy when it comes to this stuff (Don't get me started on the end of Babe or Field of Dreams — even my kids rag on me). For me, that says it all about the final season. It was a great big nothing.

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