Matthew Slater has always served an invaluable role as a compass of sorts in the Patriots locker room. Choose your metaphor: unchartered waters, foreign territory, long and winding road, deep in the jungle, the Patriots are about to enter it…

In the opening minutes of Tuesday’s 30-minute conference call with Tom Brady, you could sense something was very different. There was a tone of uncertainty in the soon-to-be 43-year-old’s voice. It wasn’t that he was disappointed or disgruntled. He was…

I remember the first time I really paid attention to the name Tom Brady. It was a conversation with a team official in the week after Drew Bledsoe was injured by Mo Lewis on Sept. 23, 2001. I had been…

BOSTON – If this week was the calling card for a potential playoff encounter, the Bruins and Lightning, hockey fans can look forward to an intense, hard-hitting series between two teams who have now built up just the right amount…

BOSTON – Nothing like a David Krejci fight to break the Bruins from late-February slumber. When the second line center dropped the gloves with another veteran – Joe Pavelski – 11 minutes into the second period, the Bruins were tied…

BOSTON – Call it his “Welcome to Boston” moment. Nick Ritchie came barreling into the offensive zone where he sized up another big forward – and former Bruin – Milan Lucic between the circles. Lucic had just played the puck…