Boomtime in Beantown

With Bledsoe injured, Brady has shouldered the burden

By BBC Sport Online's Kevin Asseo

Winter was predicted to be particularly hard in Boston this year, and not because of the notoriously harsh New England weather.

Boston is a city that looks to its sports franchises for comfort during the long, cold winter months, and as the days grew shorter it appeared there would be little comfort to be had.

The city's three professional sports teams - the Bruins of the NHL, the Celtics of the NBA, and the Patriots of the NFL - were all destined for mediocre years, according to most "experts."

Then the unexpected happened. All three teams actually began winning. Frequently.

Suddenly the winter does not look so bleak to the people of Boston. In fact, if things continue along the same path, this could be one of the better winter sport seasons in recent memory.

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Bruins

Of the three, it was the ice hockey team, the Bruins, that gave supporters the most hope for a decent season.

Samsonov has been the Bruins team leader

Shortly before the season began, however, those hopes faded when the Bruins traded their best player, Jason Allison, to Los Angeles following a bitter contract dispute.

Despite suddenly being a young team without a leader, the Bruins have showed poise and promise in the season's early stages, and several players have filled Allison's shoes admirably.

The diminutive Russian, Sergei Samsonov, is enjoying the best season of his young career so far.

He leads the team in scoring and has displayed magnificent stick skills that have made him a favourite on the nightly NHL highlight shows.

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Celtics

Once the proudest franchise in the NBA, the Boston Celtics, winners of 16 league championships, had fallen on hard times recently, missing the play-offs in each of the past six seasons.

But that embarrassing streak may be coming to an end. The Celtics have surprised everyone with their outstanding play and are positioned near the top of their division table.

Tom Pierce is fast becoming an NBA All-star

Considering little has changed from last year's team to this year, why has this season been different?

The biggest reason is the emergence of Paul Pierce as one of the NBA's true stars.

Pierce has lit up scoreboards around the league this year, averaging almost 27 points a game, which puts him among the NBA leaders in scoring.

With greatly improved team defence, and Pierce and fellow scoring machine Antoine Walker leading the way on offence, the Celtics are inching ever closer to regaining their status as one of the NBA's elite teams.

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Patriots

As big a surprise as both the Bruins and Celtics have been, neither can match the shock that has met the success of Boston's football team, the New England Patriots.

This was supposed to be a "rebuilding" year for the Patriots, which is the nice way to say that most people, Patriot supporters included, expected them to be terrible.

Tom Brady has been the find of the season

The team began the season slowly and when star quarterback Drew Bledsoe was lost to injury, it looked as if things would go from bad to worse for New England.

That is when funny things started to happen. Tom Brady, a second-year player with virtually no NFL game experience, replaced Bledsoe and immediately began leading the Patriots to victories.

To complement Brady's superb offensive performance, the Patriots' defence began making big plays as well, and New England has unquestionably become the surprise of the NFL season.

Making the play-offs, a goal that seemed highly improbable at the start of the season, is now well within reach.

For a city that loves its teams, as Boston certainly does, it comes as a big relief that this will indeed not be a winter of discontent.