IT'S ALMOST UNFAIR TO HAVE THE BEST TEAM IN 4 DIFFERENT SPORTS:

Bruins, Celtics Bringing Spirit Back to North End, Primed to Give Boston Sports Fans a Spring to Remember (Tom Caron, Mar 3, 2011, NESN)

We are poised for the kind of spring-into-summer sports run we haven't seen in a while around here. The Celtics have been dubbed the team to beat in the East for months and made several daring moves last week. The Bruins, with fans still hesitant to climb aboard a bandwagon after last spring's historic collapse, have made several equally impressive moves and are home after their best road trip in decades.

Wednesday night at the Garden, Kevin Garnett showed the world that he is not that angry about the loss of Kendrick Perkins after all. He dropped a season-high 28 points on the Phoenix Suns, dominating for much of the first half. The Suns had beaten the Celtics by 17 points earlier this season in Arizona, and KG exacted his revenge in a big way.

Things got so bad for the Suns that Steve Nash, so frustrated by Rajon Rondo, sat and watched much of the second half. [...]

The Bruins, meanwhile, haven't been to the Stanley Cup Finals in 21 years. They face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night in a matchup of division leaders, and the Garden should be brimming with optimism. The team is back home after a 6-0-0 road trip, its best since 1972. Also happening in 1972? The B's hoisted Cup.

I'm not suggesting these are the Big, Bad Bruins of days gone by. To paraphrase Rick Pitino, Bobby Orr isn't walking through that door. Derek Sanderson isn't walking through that door. Yet Tomas Kaberle, Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley are walking through that door, ready to play a home game for the Bruins for the first time.

The B's roll back into town with two goalies playing well. They're playing with toughness, moving the puck well and scoring timely goals. The line of Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic and David Krejci scored nine goals on the trip. There were times last season when the entire team wouldn't score that many goals in six games.

Are the Bruins going to hoist the Cup in June? They could. They are certainly one of the two best teams in the Eastern Conference (along with Philadelphia) and should play deeper into the playoffs than they have in any season since the early '90s.

All of which should lead to the best run of two-sport playoff action at the Garden (old or new) in a very long time.

It's starting to feel like old times around here ... and that's a very nice feeling.