It would be one thing if Doc Emrick were your play-by-play man for Game 1 of Bruins-Rangers on Thursday night. That of course that would be a very good thing indeed. Emrick is a terrific broadcaster, has that rare ability to understand he's not the story while still greatly enhancing the viewing experience. Also this: It feels like a big game when Emrick is announcing (as it did with Summerall and still does with Al Michaels). He's the voice of the sport. Emrick is one of those guys you have to pretend to enjoy even if you don't (and I do). He has about a 99.9999 percent approval rating. You never, ever, read or hear anything close to negative about Emrick, he's Vin Scully or Mike Gorman. Some of that is bandwagon stuff -- you feel smarter agreeing with the hockey intelligenica, right? -- but most is genuine. Bottom line: You'd sign for Doc Emrick as your game announcer every single day and four times on Sunday. It's a no-brainer. ButEmrick is calling Blackhawks-Red Wings, leavingDave

The Celtics are going to do this. They are going to become the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a postseason series. It's going to happen. They are going to win at home on Friday night (and I'll set the over/under of 2004 Red Sox at the game at 1.5 and take the over) and win at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon. You know how some columnists in this town -- every town -- will write something simply for a reaction, for page views or just to stir things up? You read it and you know they don't believe it, right? Well, I can see how this might be viewed that way, an easy headline and 1,000 or so words of disingenuous garbage. That's not the case here. Full disclosure: I gave the Celtics almost no chance of winning this series before it started, and kicked dirt on this team (probably for the 148th time during this Garnett-Pierce era, clearly I'll never learn) after a truly horrific loss last Friday night. With the C's down 3-0, I figured they'd go quietly on

The use of the word "courage" has been used, shall we say, quite liberally over the last couple of years. Movie stars have it because they take on a risky, non-commercial project. Musicians have it when they go outside their comfort zone in a new album. Journalists (yup, using that term loosely) nod and smile breathlessly as Matt Damon or Beyonce or whomever the flavor of the month is yaps on and on about how an artist cannot give into fear. And we sure see and hear it about athletes. Playing through pain, taking a chance hitting a 3-iron into an island green, diving for a loose ball. These things, we're told, take "courage." Well, it's not true. These things are admirable, I suppose, worthy of some praise and acknowledgment. But courage is something else, something real, something that has nothing to do with movies and music and basketball. We saw courage, indescribable courage, on Patriots Day and the days after from first responders and others in law enforcement,

Walk me through this. The Red Sox are 15-7, tied for the best record in the American League. There are of course very many reasons for this superb start, but somewhere close to the top has been the work of Andrew Bailey, a total wipeout in Year 1 in Boston but dominant so far in Year 2, saving five games (out of six chances) with a 1.59 ERA, 0.79 WHIP and 20 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings pitched. We're talking about a 29-year-old, a two-time All-Star and Rookie of the Year, acquired by the Red Sox about 16 months ago to be the closer of the future pitching exactly like the organization had envisioned when the trade was made with Oakland. Yes, Bailey was awful and injury-stuffed last season (7.04 ERA), but he has been brilliant so far this year in a role in which he has thrived before 2012. So why is there a whiff of a closer controversy? Well, Joel Hanrahan. The Red Sox, in no small measure due to the fact that Bailey was horrific last season, traded Mark Melancon (making $528,000 this