Bruins Defeat Blue Jackets, Advance To Eastern Conference Finals

For the first time since 2013, the Boston Bruins are going to the Eastern Conference Finals after defeating Columbus 3-0 in game 6 and 4-2 overall in the series. After going down 2-1 in the series, the Bruins kicked it up a notch both offensively and defensively which led to them winning the next three games, including 2 on the road. It wasn't easy for top 5 winger David Pastrnak early in this series as he kept turning the puck over wherever he touched it, but his luck soon changed in games 4 and 5 where he had 3 goals over the course of two games. The play of Brandon Carlo cannot go unnoticed, either. He has been a lock down defender who has gone under the radar throughout the entire playoffs, but one play stands out in particular. With the final minutes ticking off the clock in a tied game 5, Artemi Panarin came into the Boston zone with the puck on his stick, but not for long. Carlo hit and poke checked Panarin 5 times, one of the best stick handlers and natural goal scorers in the league, that forced him to give up the puck. He then sent an outlet pass on the money to Marchand which untimely led to Pastrnak's game winning goal.

Tuukka Rask was unflappable in this series. At one point, he saved 116 straight shots before letting in a goal that was deflected in off of his own defensemen. On top of that, he may have been the best Bruin on the ice in game 6. With a chance to go to his third Eastern Conference Finals in his short career, he rose to the occasion instead of hiding in the shadows. He saved all of the 39 shots that he faced en route to his first playoff shutout since 2013. The post was rung a couple of times by Columbus, but no harm no foul and Rask never showed any signs of letting that effect him. It will be interesting to see if Charlie McAvoy will be suspended for the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals. After unintentionally hitting Josh Anderson in the head, on what was only a minor penalty, McAvoy will have a hearing to see if what he did is warranted of a suspension. Regardless of if he plays or not, the Bruins will take on the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals with the date and time TBD.

My Blogging Experience

When most people think of blogging, one of the first things that they think of is someone sitting in their mom's basement typing away on his computer about whatever is going on with him that day. What they do not know is that they are most likely a blogger themselves. People often use their Facebook and Twitter pages to keep their friends or followers updated with what they are doing, which by the simplest definition is a blog. Blogging, for me, has allowed me to become a well-educated, functioning member of society. Or, at least more so than I already was when this semester started. This is because I was forced to keep up with the news every day to see if any interesting stories came out that I could write about. This happened every week, but the story that I found most interesting that I posted about was about how Facebook wants to become a "privacy-focused communications platform". The servers would not be completely private, though. Only the messaging portion of the social media website would be private while everything else, like posts and comments, would remain public for all to see. With all of the privacy issues that Facebook has had over the years, including countless leaks of their users private information, I just found the entire ordeal pretty comical.

Some things that I would recommend to future students is to actually go to class every time you meet. It's only once a week and the notes that are put on the board help out tremendously when you are doing the midterm quizzes. It is also just good information to have and understand so we all can become well versed on the protections and limitations of the First Amendment. Another thing that I would recommend is to keep up with your blog posts and do one every week. There is nothing worse than when the mid-term is coming up and instead of having at least the minimum of 6 blog posts up, you have 2 and need to get going on the rest in order to ensure that you can secure a good grade on it. This didn't necessarily happen to me, but nevertheless it is still some pretty good advice to have. One last thing that I would suggest is to try to have fun with it. Blogging isn't supposed to be something that you dread doing, it is supposed to be a fun activity that can actually land you a job somewhere, like Barstool, if you are good enough at it. Try to find articles that interest you and write about them passionately. Not only will this make time go by faster, but it will make the the assignment feel more like a hobby rather than homework. 

My Favorite Group Presentation

All of the groups did a great job presenting their terms and there was not one that did overwhelmingly better than the rest, but there was one term that resonated with me most and that was the illusion truth effect that came from group 3. This theory says that things that are repeated are more accepted and believed to be true. So, repetition makes things easier to understand and safer to trust even if what is being repeated is not 100% true. We see this used in politics where politicians who are running for office make claims that they cannot back up, but becomes a focal point of their campaigns. It is not only used in politics, though, because it is also relevant in my day to day life.

Whenever a new season comes around sports fans are always riding high and have tremendous hopes for their teams success. They say things like "I'm telling you, this is the year we go all the way" and "This team is so much different than last years you can feel it". Most of the time, they are wrong. However, they say these things  and repeat them so much that they start to believe it and when things go wrong, they are in absolute disbelief. For example, I live with 2 Washington Redskins fans and I have documented things that they have said. Last year, they said that they would win the NFC East. They did not, and when they didn't, they could not believe it and blamed it on the front office. The same people also said the their rookie running back Derrius Guice, who tore his ACL in the preseason and has never played a down in the NFL, is the best running back in the league. They say these things in order to make themselves feel good about themselves, but the fabrications soon become reality and that is what illusion truth effect is.