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Thursday's Sox-Tigers game switched to alternate channels by NESN

Because of a conflict with Thursday night's Boston Bruins playoff game, NESN is switching the Red Sox-Tigers game to alternate channels.

In Rhode Island, the alternate channels are:

On Cox Cable -- Cox3
On Verizon FIOS -- Channel 93
On DirecTV -- Channel 660
On the Dish Network -- Channel 444

The Bruins-Canadiens game will be broadcast on NESN.

Posted by Art Martone  at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Cox to televise Revs games, beginning tonight

Cox Communications today announced that it will broadcast 21 New England Revolution soccer games on Cox Sports (Cox channel 3) for the 2008 season. In addition, Cox will televise tomorrow's Red Sox-Tigers game, which will not be shown on NESN. The Red Sox' usual broadcast network will show the Bruins-Canadiens playoff game.

Brad Feldman and former Revolution defender Greg Lalas will provide play-by-plays or the Revs, while head coach Steve Nicol will be on hand for in-game reaction.

Coverage will include innovative side-by-side replays, and exclusive halftime features will give viewers an inside look at the team.

The 2008 New England Revolution broadcast schedule is as follows. (All games are live except where noted otherwise.)

Wednesday, April 9, 8 p.m. - at Kansas City Wizards
Saturday, April 12, 7:30 p.m. - vs. Colorado Rapids
Saturday, April 19, 7:30 p.m. - at New York Red Bulls
Saturday, May 3, 7:30 p.m. - vs. Chicago Fire
Sunday, May 11, 9 p.m. - at CD Chivas USA (tape delayed)
Saturday, May 17, 7:30 p.m. - vs. San Jose Earthquakes
Sunday, June 8, 3 p.m. - vs. FC Dallas
Wednesday, June 18, 7:30 p.m. - vs. New York Red Bulls
Saturday, June 21, 9:30 p.m. - at Real Salt Lake
Saturday, June 28, 7:30 p.m. - vs. Toronto FC
Friday, July 4, 10:30 p.m. - at Los Angeles Galaxy
Saturday, August 9, 7:30 p.m. - vs. Chicago Fire
Saturday, August 16, 10 p.m. - at San Jose Earthquakes
Wednesday, August 20, 7:30 p.m. - vs. D.C. United
Saturday, August 30, 7:30 p.m. - vs. Los Angeles Galaxy
Saturday, September 6, 7:30 p.m. - at Columbus Crew
Saturday, September 20, 9 p.m. - at Colorado Rapids
Saturday, September 27, 7:30 p.m. - vs. Columbus Crew
Saturday, October 4, 7:30 p.m. - vs. Real Salt Lake
Saturday, October 11, 8 p.m. - at Kansas City Wizards
Saturday, October 25, 7:30 p.m. - vs. Kansas City Wizards

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

P-Bruins' Gordon named AHL Coach of the Year

Providence Bruins coach Scott Gordon has been named the 2007-08 recipient of the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award honoring the American Hockey League’s outstanding coach. The award, voted upon by coaches and media members from the league’s 29 cities, was instituted during the 1967-68 season in tribute to Pieri, a long-time contributor to the AHL as owner of the Providence Reds.

Gordon, 45, is in his eighth season coaching in Providence and his fifth full year as the P-Bruins' head coach. Since taking over for Mike Sullivan late in the 2002-03 season, Gordon has compiled a record of 219-139-20-14-13 (W-L-T-OTL-SOL) in 405 regular-season games and has guided Providence to the Calder Cup playoffs each year, including a trip to the conference finals in 2005.

This season has been Gordon’s best behind the bench as Providence sits atop the AHL standings with a record of 53-16-3-4 for 113 points. With four remaining regular season contests, Providence can still eclipse its franchise marks of 56 wins and 120 points, both set during the club’s 1998-99 Calder Cup championship season. The P-Bruins are three points away from clinching the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the AHL’s overall regular season points-champion, which would give them home-ice advantage throughout the 2008 Calder Cup Playoffs.

On the year, Providence ranks second in the AHL in offense, averaging 3.55 goals per game, and the club is first in both shots on goal taken (34.24) and fewest shots allowed (25.55) per contest. The P-Bruins are also a perfect 32-0-0-0 when leading after two periods, the second straight year they have posted an unblemished record in that situation.

Gordon, the PlanetUSA head coach at the 2008 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Reebok, began his coaching career with the International Hockey League’s Atlanta Knights, serving as both the head coach and as an assistant from 1994-96. He also spent two seasons as both the head coach and an assistant of the IHL’s Quebec Rafales from 1996-98. When Gordon was named the head coach of the Knights on January 5, 1996, he became at 32-years-old, the youngest head coach in the league’s 53-year history. Gordon’s next move came in 1998-99, when he was named the head coach of the Roanoke Express of the East Coast Hockey League. He led the club to consecutive first-place finishes in the Northeast Division while compiling an 82-42-16 overall regular season record. The 1999-2000 Express set franchise records for wins (44), points (94) and fewest goals against (181).

Prior to entering the coaching ranks, the native of Easton, Massachusetts, enjoyed a four-year playing career as a goaltender for the Boston College Eagles from 1982-86, posting a 64-35-3 record over that span. He backstopped the Eagles to a NCAA Final Four appearance in 1985 and was named a Hockey East First-Team All-Star in 1986. Following the completion of his collegiate career, Gordon began his professional playing career in 1986-87 when he signed a contract with the National Hockey League’s Quebec Nordiques. Along with parts of six seasons in the AHL from 1986-92, Gordon appeared in 23 career NHL games, all with the Nordiques.

Providence last boasted a Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award winner when Peter Laviolette, now the head man on the bench for the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, received the award in 1998-99 en route to guiding the club to its only Calder Cup championship.

Posted by Art Martone  at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Travis Ford tours Dunkin' Donuts Center, meets with PC officials

BY KEVIN McNAMARA
Journal Sports Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Providence College's search for a new basketball coach has focused on Massachusetts coach Travis Ford.

Ford, 38, is in Providence today and meeting with athletic director Bob Driscoll. He and his wife just finished a tour of the Dunkin' Donuts Center.

There are no indications that an agreement between the two sides is complete but this is the strongest sign yet that the four-week search could be nearing an end.

"I have not scheduled any press conference for today.'' PC associate athletic director Arthur Parks said.

Ford met with Driscoll at the Final Four in San Antonio. On Tuesday, he issued a statement from his office at UMass that said he no longer wished to be considered for the coaching job vacancy at LSU.

"I would like to make clear that I do not want to be considered for the head job at LSU," Ford said in the statement. "There has been a lot of misinformation circulating about me and the job at LSU. I feel that it is necessary to state that I do not want to be considered for the job."

Ford's interest in other jobs was not addressed, however. UMass finished 25-11 this past season in Ford's third year at the school and the Minutemen lost the NIT championship game to Ohio State, 92-85.

Posted by Art Martone  at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Projo SoxTalk with McAdam: The opening day victory

Click the play button below to hear Sean's comments, recorded this morning. He discusses the struggling Tigers, Daisuke Matsuzaka, J.D. Drew and Bill Buckner.

Here are some excerpts from Sean's comments:

On the Tigers: "I think it's O.K. to get worried now, if you're Jim Leyland. When you go more than a week into the season and are still without your first win, then that spells trouble, particularly when you're in a division with a team that came within a few outs of the pennant last year -- the Indians -- and other teams that are kind of upstarts, like the Royals."

Matsuzaka attacking the hitters: "I think the problem last year came when he got himself in a situation where he fell behind so often that he was throwing the fastball on hitter's counts, and of course that spells trouble for a pitcher. But they clearly seem to try [this year] to get ahead more with the fastball and let other pitches do the work once he does that."

J.D. Drew's fast start: "If you go back and look at his April last year, the first two or three weeks were pretty good. And the hope if you're the Red Sox is that he continues that hot start this season, and doesn't dip the way he did last year."

On the Buckner tribute: "I thought the time to have Buckner back would have been for the 2005 ceremony, when you're trying to wash away all the sins of the past and put all the curse stuff behind you. To me, yesterday, it seemed out of place. I think the 2007 world championship that they were celebrating yesterday, and I don't want to classify it as just another championship, but it seemed to me that the time for that would have been a few years ago. And I think people forget that Buckner has already been forgiven, back in 1990 when he returned as a player for the second part of his career with the Red Sox. I thought it was a little bit of wallowing in the Red Sox' tragic past, when they should have put all of that behind them."

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 12:24 PM to Red Sox | Permalink | Comments 0

Download today's sports cover

On today's sports cover, Sean McAdam and Joe McDonald kick off our extensive coverage of the Red Sox' home opener, a crisp 5-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

Click here to download the file in pdf format.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments 0