Boston, MA
PWHL Boston gets ready for first-ever playoff run
May is supposed to be a busy time for pro sports in Boston. If it’s a good year, both the Bruins and Celtics are occupied with playoff runs, as they are now. The Red Sox season is starting to hit its summer stride, as is the Revolution’s. Training camp is beginning to feel closer and closer for the Patriots.
And this year, there’s another squad to add to that packed schedule: Our local Professional Women’s Hockey League franchise.
On Thursday, Boston’s team — which, like every squad in the PWHL, does not yet have a name — will take part in the league’s first-ever playoffs. It comes on the heels of a pioneering season for the team and the PWHL, whose regular season got underway in January.
For members of PWHL Boston, the goal is to keep the momentum from a solid first-season going through a playoff run.
New season, big changes
For PWHL Boston forward Jamie Lee Rattray, this year has been a much-needed step forward for the game.
Rattray, a member of Canada’s 2022 Winter Olympics team, previously played in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League before it folded in 2019. She also played with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association.
She stressed just how professional the experience has been for the PWHL, with everything from the facilities they use to the product on the ice. She said pro women’s hockey hasn’t always received this kind of treatment.
“I think we are treated like professionals at every aspect. We have the staff in place and the support that we can just be hockey players, and I think that’s honestly the biggest thing that has changed over this year,” she said. “It’s been a ton of fun and I don’t take it granted one bit because I’ve seen the other side of it and it’s been a ton of fun just having that now at our disposal.”
The results have spoken for themselves: Nearly 400,000 fans were in attendance across the PWHL’s regular season. For PWHL Boston, it’s been of a bit of an up-and-down campaign. The team won 12 games and lost another 12. But the green and silver finished strong, winning four of its final five games. Over the weekend, they beat Montreal 4-3 to secure a spot in the playoffs.
Now the team wants to carry some of its late-season energy into the postseason.
“You know, it’s easier with the vibes in the room when you’re winning, right?” team captain Hilary Knight said this week. “So there’s definitely momentum. But at this point in the season, all teams have momentum if you’re one of the four teams that’s moving forward. But [I’m] really looking forward to puck drop and getting to work.”
A different kind of playoffs
The top four finishers in the PWHL’s regular season all earned spots in the league’s inaugural playoffs.
Usually, most pro playoffs are set up simply: The best regular-season team gets the top seed and typically plays the lowest-ranked opponent in its first matchup.
But the PWHL went a different route: Toronto, which finished with the best regular season record, got to choose its opponent between the third- and fourth-place teams, ultimately deciding on facing four-seed Minnesota. It adds a new layer of strategy that gives a fresh spin to playoff thinking.
That means Boston will face off against Montreal, the second seed. The teams split the regular season series 2-2.
Boston will be on the road in Montreal for the first two games of the best-of-five series. Game 3 will be on Boston’s home ice at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, as will Game 4, if necessary. Game 5 would be back in Montreal.
The four teams will all have their eyes on the Walter Cup, which is named after Los Angeles Dodgers majority owner and PWHL bankroller Mark Walter. And, of course, there are bragging rights on the line.
Now, as Boston and Montreal face off in a new twist on an old rivalry, Boston is hopeful it can keep the form it’s had following an international hockey break.
“I think it’s a new season,” said head coach Courtney Kessel. “We had a great ending, and we came out hot after Worlds, but this is playoff hockey. And anything can happen.”
Boston, MA
Mayor Michelle Wu orders preparations for ICE surge in Boston
Citing “chaos” on the streets of cities like Minneapolis and Lewiston, Maine, and referencing the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Mayor Michelle Wu announced a series of executive actions designed to hold federal officials accountable in Boston.
Wu said in an executive order Thursday that city departments shall “work with the Boston Police Department to publicly release video footage of violence or property damage by federal officials captured by Boston Police Department body-worn cameras or other City-controlled surveillance cameras.”
The hope, the mayor’s executive order says, is to deescalate any potential confrontations.
Wu’s order comes as speculation continues to swirl around the city that a surge of federal immigration officers is imminent. Last month, the Herald photographed the delivery of scores of new SUVs to an ICE operations center in Burlington.
Wu cited violent clashes between protesters and ICE officers in Minneapolis, noting the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in her order.
“In these deployments, federal agents have fomented chaos, violated residents’ constitutional rights, and perpetrated egregious acts of violence, including the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti,” Wu’s order states.
The mayor is also seeking to restrict federal officials from using city property without a court order or warrant, declaring that Boston property, parks or even parking lots cannot “be used as an unpermitted staging area, processing location, operations base, or any similar purpose in furtherance of civil immigration enforcement operations.”
The mayor’s order was issued during a press conference Thursday at City Hall.
– Developing
Boston, MA
Former Boston Celtics Teammates Reunited In Surprising Trade
One of the downsides to Boston’s incredible championship run was the need to break up the core of the team because of the new CBA and the second apron rule.
“We knew going into this year, regardless of how [last season] ended, that we were going to have some really hard decisions to make because of the penalties,” Brad Stevens said in the offseason. “That was part of making the decision to push in and put our chips on the table and go for it the last two years. But we’ve known for a long time that hard decisions were coming.”
Those hard decisions resulted in Jrue Holiday going to Portland and Kristaps Porzingis going to Atlanta in trades. Al Horford went to Golden State and Luke Kornet to San Antonio because they got more money than Boston could offer.
And while the Celtics are surprisingly good this season, tied for second in the East after their shocking blowout win over Houston, there’s always a little bit of sadness when thinking back at the championship run Boston made with all of those players, and that it had to be broken up so quickly.
But in a surprising twist before the trade deadline, two of those teammates will be reunited.
Kristaps Porzingis is going to the Golden State Warriors as part of a deal that sends Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to Atlanta.
According to ESPN, the Warriors pivoted to a backup plan because they received signals from the Bucks that a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade wouldn’t be completed by the Thursday 3 p.m. deadline.
The Warriors had grown desperate to move Kuminga after long, growing acrimony built up in the locker room over his role. It was clear that the relationship between Kuminga and head coach Steve Kerr wasn’t salvageable, so there was no turning back on moving him, even after Jimmy Butler was lost for the season to a knee injury.
It’s an interesting position for Porzingis, who has missed most of the season with an illness and Achilles tendinitis. If he can get healthy again for the Warriors, he’ll get another opportunity to be a major contributor to a team hoping to make a run to the NBA Finals.
The Celtics missed two opportunities to face off against Porzingis, as he missed both games in January due to the Achilles issue. Porzingis declined to meet with the Boston media in Atlanta and was not present in Boston when the Hawks visited last week.
Now, the team will get two more chances, the first coming on February 19 in San Francisco, where the Celtics begin their annual post-All-Star West Coast swing. There’s another chance for Boston fans to see Porzingis when the Warriors visit Boston on March 18.
Boston, MA
Man stabbed in fight over shoveled-out parking space in Boston, police say
An argument over a shoveled-out parking space in Boston, a week and a half after the city’s eighth-biggest snowstorm on record, turned violent when a man was stabbed, police say.
Enel Javier, 47, is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury. Police say the stabbing victim had discovered Javier’s car on Evans Street in Dorchester, “parked in a space [the victim] believed he had personally cleared of snow.”
An altercation ensued, and Javier allegedly stabbed the 41-year-old man in the hand with a knife. A woman who intervened was also hurt while trying to disarm Javier, police said.
Officers responded at about 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday to the scene. They found Javier with the injured man and woman, as well as blood on nearby snowbanks.
“Through further investigation by responding officers and District B-3 detectives, it was determined that the incident originated from a dispute over a shoveled parking space,” police said.
Javier was due to be arraigned in Dorchester District Court on Wednesday.
It snowed more than 20 inches in Boston on Jan. 25-26, and there has been very little melting since then thanks to a historic cold stretch that followed, making streets and sidewalks hard to navigate.
Space savers to hold a shoveled-out parking spot are only allowed in Boston for 48 hours after a snow emergency ends. The snow emergency from the most recent storm ended nearly a week ago.
Despite the rule, drivers who take a “saved” spot in Boston have previously been subject to threats and vandalism to their cars.
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