I had planned to share with you today my experiences in South Florida last week, taking in a Marlins game at Pro Player Stadium along with approximately 4500 other stalwart baseball fans. But I came to realize that it would be foolish to do a story about fan apathy in a passion-starved region rather than comment on the cavalcade of athletic shenanigans that soaked our region over the past two days. So the tale of John Henry’s old stomping grounds will have to wait, and let’s instead investigate the ballpark figures surrounding the weekend’s biggest sports stories, since all five of our local outfits got their names in the papers, and all were bathed in a positive spotlight. What a concept ...

• Bruins: our local icemen managed to even their playoff series with the Canadiens at a game apiece after an entertaining 6-4 home victory Sunday night. After roaring to a 4-0 first-period lead, the B’s nearly let the Habs back into the game, and only a P.J. Axelsson goal late in the second stopped the bleeding and prevented Montreal from coming all the way back. The Bruins played with a helluva lot more spirit Sunday and managed to keep their butts out of the penalty box much more efficiently than in Thursday’s game-one debacle. However, under the pressure of a must-win situation in game two, the team did what it had to do, salvaging the game and heading north with the best-of-seven series all square.

Perhaps the 5-2 loss in the playoff opener was the wake-up call that Boston needed, and its depth and firepower should ultimately prevail over a Montreal team that would have missed its fourth-straight playoffs had it not been for sterling goaltender Jose Theodore. The Bruins should be dominating this series in every phase of the game, and perhaps they eventually will, but to emerge victorious and move to the second round will involve more focus, more passion, and more restraint when it comes to the roughhouse tactics that the Canadiens use to lure the Bruins into retaliatory penalties. The successful Bruins teams of the late ’80s and early ’90s were much better at turning the other cheek, which often led to power-play opportunities and more scoring chances. This Boston squad, whose members are admirably quick to stand up for each other and not afraid to play a physical game, often finds itself exhausted by the end of the game because its penalty-killing units have spent way too much time on the ice. That was evident in game one, but was much improved in the sequel. Two wins in Quebec and fans of the Black and Gold will breathe a little easier. But don’t be surprised if goalie Byron Dafoe gets the quick hook in favor of John Grahame if things start badly at Le Centre Molson.

In the meantime, start rooting hard for Ottawa to knock off the Flyers in its quarterfinal series, since Boston — should it advance — does not particularly want to play New Jersey, the sixth seed, in the semifinals, and it most definitely doesn’t want to draw the fourth-seeded Maple Leafs. Let those two teams beat each other up in the next round while the Bruins take on what should be a bruised and battered Senators team playing way over its collective head.

• Celtics: so far, so good, for the local hoopsters as they impressively took apart the 76ers in their playoff opener Sunday afternoon. We had talked last week about our hopes that someone other than Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker would step up for Boston. It seems that Walter McCarty took those words as gospel and contributed mightily to Boston’s 10-point victory. No one other than those three players scored in double figures for the Green, but the defense held the Sixers to 38 percent from the floor and 15 percent from three-point range in shutting down the visitors and floor leader Allen Iverson, who scored 20 points but hit just four field goals.

It was obvious that the noise from the sellout crowd really boosted the home team, but game two on Thursday has "danger" written all over it, as a perhaps overconfident Celtics team could show up and have the game stolen by a proud and hungry Sixers team that just a year ago advanced to the NBA Finals. Without question, game two will be the critical game of this series for both teams, and I believe that Boston needs it to have any shot of advancing.

By the way, should the Celtics move on to the next round, there is no reason to believe that they can’t advance to the Conference Finals. Their toughest test is right here and now, and with New Jersey already in trouble to the eighth seed, Indiana, the road to the Finals is wide-open right now, once the 76ers are laid to rest.

• Red Sox: there is nothing wrong with getting excited about what this team has done so far. But remember: the Sox have played only one decent team thus far, and in that instance beat the Yankees in three one-run games at home. Boston doesn’t play anyone with a skill level equal to its own until May 7, when the Sox open a brutal stretch of Oakland and Seattle on the road, followed by the A’s, Mariners, White Sox, and the Yankees at Fenway during one 20-game stretch (with only one day off). Until then, the Crimson Hose had damn well better rack up a host of wins against division patsies Baltimore and Tampa Bay over the next two weeks before the iron of the schedule kicks in.

But let’s not read too much into Boston’s impressive record (12-4 going into Tuesday) until Memorial Day weekend is history.

• Patriots: most experts say that the Pats did pretty well in the weekend’s draft, strengthening a team that was already the best in football. In addition, by shuttling problematic Terry Glenn to Green Bay and favorite son Drew Bledsoe to Buffalo, the team has eliminated the two potential problem areas that might have clouded its training camp this summer. This should be a very exciting year in Foxborough in spite of the difficult season schedule, and the fanfare surrounding the opening of CMGI Field will only heighten the exhilaration surrounding every Patriots contest this fall. I think if there weren’t so much going on with all our other sports teams right now, the giddiness among Patriots fans would be palpable already — more than four months before that Monday Night Football kickoff.

And don’t forget: even if our gridiron heroes don’t repeat as NFL champions, a year from now we’ll still most likely be looking at two first-round picks and two second-round picks in the draft, courtesy of the aforementioned trades.

Just stay healthy, Mr. Brady.

• Revolution: I know, it’s easy to overlook our soccer brethren, particularly if you don’t care about the team or the sport. But the team took a big victory in Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend and is now just under three weeks away from christening CMGI with its home opener on May 11. The Revolution have an exciting team, and in a 10-team league, nearly anyone can win the MLS Cup this fall, even the championship game’s host team (guess who, at guess where). Add to that the excitement of the upcoming World Cup tournament in the Far East this summer, and it’s clear that local soccer fiends could be approaching spiritual nirvana in 2002.

* * *

Bruins in Montreal Tuesday and Thursday in games three and four of their best-of-seven quarterfinal series; Celtics in game two of their best-of-five match-up versus Philly at the Fleet on Thursday; Sox games for 13 of the next 14 days, all against the Orioles and Devil Rays; the Super Bowl champion Patriots perhaps continuing to wheel and deal; and the Revolution at Chicago next Saturday, the last road game before CMGI opens for business.

For New England sports fans, the rich get richer.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com.