Eeeee!

So...this morning I wrote up 10 pessimistic thoughts about this game. They were mostly to the effect that Ovie score and/or kill a Hab or two. And if it wasn't Ovie scoring then some other Cap would have a hat trick.

Well...

The Habs decided that my list was much too depressing to deal with and instead they decided to come out and play super well. Not only did they beat the Caps but they won in regulation. So... we can't beat the Whalercanes in regulation but we can beat the Caps? Myeh. A win is a win, right?

• Hi O'Byrne! We missed you!
• MAB.... what the hell are you doing on the ice at the same time as Ovie? 
• Turtle-Pleky for president!
• Okay.. so the Habs get off to great start and... the Caps score first.......... poop.......
• If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that Gorges is secretly trying to kill Price. He just dumped a Cap into the net.. 
• Was that Ovie who just tried to kill Patches? I TOLD you he would kill a Hab.... 
• MOEN! Tiiiiiiiiiiied gaaaaaaameeeeeee!
• We're not losing! 
• OMG we're winning! Turtle-Pleky! Bonus points to Andrei and Patches who didn't die afterall =p 
• Priiiiiiiiceeey!
• AIE. A PP GOAL? Seriously? Are we seriously leading this one 3-1?! Do I even dare.....?
• *bites fingers*
• Oh my god Price..... you are amazing... *nods* 
• Ahja\sdhkjadhkashdkajshdkajdshkjah now is NOT the time to implode! 3-2... 
• PK time with 2 mins to go.......... GREAT........... 
• *bites fingers*
• WE WIN. YAY! 
• The Caps fan side of me says: Caps need to go make up and beat the stuffing out of the Leafs tomorrow. Seriously. Hell, the Habs fan side of me says they have to beat the Leafs. BEAT THOSE LEAFS. 

In other news:

• My baby Juniors won 4-3 in a shootout! .....never mind that they were playing the worst team in the league. They win! They win! They win! Thank you Gooouuuuchiieeee!
  
  
• Stupid Voltigeurs just lost in a shootout too..... Baby Hab No. 1 had a goal during the game :D
  
  
• Oh and I really REALLY hate the Moosies. DIE MOOSIES. Can someone injure Luongo or Raycroft so they can call up Schneider so he won't annoy me so much? Myeh. Hammies lose 5-3. Moosies had two empty-netters o.<
  

Last night = Wiiiin

....meant to write this up last night but I didn't even stay up for the whole Hammies game......still sick.... GUH..... ANYWAY!

Team Q takes their mini-series against the Russians as they won 8-3 tonight! Whoooooooo!

• No baby Hab, which was pretty sad considering there was LOTS of smacktalk going on. Dumont would have had SO much fun. 
• I can't believe Team Q was actually losing this game after the first period. Crazy. 
• How's this for effective PP: 5 of the 11 goals were scored on the PP. 
• Okay. I admit it. I really like Sean Couturier. Can we tank our team for the next two years and draft Hall or Seguin and Couturier? I'm joking.... kinda.... Maybe we should just draft all the Voltigeurs (minus their faily goalies. Don't want Tardif).
• First time since 06 that Team Q has won both their matches against Russia
• I"m running out of creative things to say about this game because I've already kind of forgotten the finer details of it.... damn..... 

And what is better than waking up to the news that the Hammies downed those bloody Abbotsford Heat last night? Right now? Not much is better than that. 

• "The Heat make the Syracuse Crunch look like a bunch of angels". Flandersdude said something to that effect last night and if you know anything about the Crunch, you'll know that's not exactly a good thing. Put it this way, this team is probably the definition of truculent. 
• You know Flandersdude is sick when the Hammies score and he's like "and they scoore". That's missing about three gazillion Os. I wasn't even sure who scored at first. 
• Can we just all say that we love David Desharnais? He got the GWG (and of course Gluuuu got the first assist). 
• Thiessen makes Koharski look like a brilliant ref. I think it's safe to say that Flanderdude really doesn't like him :D 
• I wonder if Guy would have actually at least admitted the officiating was terrible if the Hammies lost last night. He wouldn't say anything about Tuesday's game. C'mon, if Barry Trotz can blame the arena clock operator, then surely Guy can at least say that the reffing wasn't great?
• That PA guy in Abbotsford sounds like one of those automated voices that you always want to punch....Ugh.
• Bring on the Moosies!

There is some really bad karma hanging around

Like REAL bad.

Wasn't it bad enough that we lost our MVP and only legitimate all star player for MONTHS?

Wasn't it bad enough that we then lost two more defensemen after that?

NO?

Well, we just lost Brian Gionta. Indefinitely.

(insert words that are not suitable for children here)

Price holds off Whalercanes

We're so lucky that Pricey is so awesome in shootouts. Seriously. And I'm too sick to make half decent sounding observations so.... 

• Habs did their best to lose this game. It was pretty brutal to watch. 
• Patches had a nice goal after Turtle-Pleky passed him the puck. 
• It's kind of sad just how nice the Whalercanes goals looked. The defense really went to sleep on those. 
• Hey, Andrei had a goal! I missed it because I was looking for my Hammies radio feed. 
• But really, Andrei wasn't too much of a zombie tonight
• Pricey had some real attitude in the shootout. I like this :D 
• You know, Martin, it wouldn't kill you to say that Price was really good in OT and the shootout. It wouldn't inflate his head to say that. 
• I don't like that the Habs ruined my attempt to listen to Boucher's interview before the game though. They could have at least ended the shoootout in round 1.... =/ 
• I'll take the 2 points regardless of how horrible the game was. Seriously people... stop griping. 

On to the Hammies game.... 

• I hate late night games
• Flandersdude is totally still sick.
• Revelation of the night: There is totally an Ontario accent. Totally. I've been saying it since I've been listening to Flanderdude, but I just heard Gluu too and he has a similar accent. It's interesting. I was telling my mom that I don't notice Boucher's French accent whatsoever (doesn't mean I don't notice the sporadic grammar fail) which is not surprising whatsoever but yeah.... There is an Ontario accent. 
• Wyman needs THREE root canals after being hit in the face the other night. 
• Argh... BS calls... goals going in off of pinball like plays.... annoying Heat goalies.... none of this is making me feel better. Heat up 3-0 after 2. Guy will NOT be happy. 
• So the Hammies's hotel caught fire last night, there was an earthquake this morning now they're losing 4-0..... Oh dear....Natural disasters abound.... 
• Oh hey, you realize I can hear Flandersdude during the commercials on this video feed? This is kinda funny actually...
• Daaaaaaviiiiid! We're not getting blanked! And at least the PP has something to show for itself tonight. 
• And Flandersdude has totally lost his voice. In his own words, he sounds like "a cat that has been run over". Ouch. 
• Umm I can still hear you during the commercials Flandersdude. I can hear you asking Operator Guy how bad that goal sounded (he means the one he called when David scored). Yeah.... it was pretty sad D: 
• Let's get this over with now: the Heat are a dirty team. 
• The Hammies are lucky that Martin doesn't coach them. He'd probably bag skate them all before they play their second game against the Heat tomorrow night (which would be stupid but still....)
• Whoever is referring this game.... He almost makes Koharski look amazing. Is that possible even?
• Positive thinking of the night: Weber has decided to hit people. If you're not going to score goals on the PP, might as well steamroller over the opposition, yeah?

8 things

aka random info day!

1. I have the flu. Or a cold. Or a cold AND the flu. I dunno what I have actually, but I'm siiiiiiick.....Boohoo.
   
   
2. If the Habs don't win tonight it will be a very sad day in Habsland. The Whalercanes are sitting at the BOTTOM of the league for crying out loud....But you know the Habs... if you've got a losing streak, we're more than happy to fix it for you.
   
   
3. Nikita Filatov has gone to Russia. Apparently he asked to be loaned to CSKA and the Blue Jackets complied. I'm kind of surprised to be honest. I know Filatov did not want to play in the AHL (which is fine by me. I don't need him scoring on my Hammies) and he said if he didn't get a lot of time in the NHL, he would look into going back to Russia. Still, I'm surprised that he's actually going back. Oh well. The loan is good for half a year so we'll see what happens.
   
   
4. Now I know why I don't listen to the radio.... Apparently someone called the Habs an AHL team after their dismal loss to the Preds and the guys on the Team 990 considered this is a "huge insult". Yeah, it's an insult alright. It's an insult to the really hard working AHL teams out there. Don't rag on the AHL.
   
   
5. Also... The Team 990 is advocating for the Habs to blow up the team and start from scratch (for real as opposed to just letting half the team walk and resigning new guys). Hate to say it, but the time to go for a top lottery pick was when Gainey first came in. Not now (mind you, it would be pretty sweet to have Taylor Hall). The thing is, I don't think there is a point in drafting good players if you're just going to ruin them by bringing them up to the NHL before they're ready. Not necessarily saying that the Habs do this (well, okay, maybe I am) but I'm not sure I have a ton of faith in the management right now to handle their draft picks (mind you, if they left Guy in Hammie-town and left the players with Guy... now THAT I have faith in).
   
   
6. Speaking of Guy.....I'm really digging Guy's whole idea of not coaching with a system but rather coaching the individual players and building a working relationship with the players. And he digs this whole communication with his players. I'm really thinking the Habs could use some of this philosophy (memo to Habs: this is NOT a plea for you to hire Guy as the Habs coach. Leave him in Hammie-town please).
   
   
7. Is it really obvious yet that I have a major crush on Guy Boucher? Not in THAT way... but I'm totally loving him as the coach of the Hammies...
   
   
8. Speaking of Hammies... the Spec says that Julien BriseBois has a plan in place in the event that the Habs don't send them another player or two for their up coming four game road trip (seeing as the Habs haven't given them another player.... I'm still waiting to see what this plan will be). EDIT: AHAH! So BriseBois was forced to sign a player (thanks Habs). The Hammies just announced that they signed Ryan Kinasewich to a professional tryout contract. He plays with the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL. When do all these college prospects of the Habs get to go to the ECHL so the Hammies would at least have the option of calling up Baby Habs from the ECHL instead of signing random people?
   
   
9. Hey, Taylor Hall is not first in the SUPER early OHL rankings. Tyler Seguin is. Hmm... I'm seriously betting that will change soon though. Oh and a baby Junior (Aubry) is also in the top rankings of the Q players.

Team Q vs the World

Or maybe just a tired looking Team Russia.

Tonight was the first of two games in the QMJHL part of the Super Series between Canada's top CHL players and what I'm assuming is some of Russia's top prospects. I almost bought tickets for the game in Drummondville but the schedule didn't work out. It was just as well because I'm pretty sick right now anyway. Still.... I would've liked to have been there live.

Team QMJHL was of course comprised of some of my least favorite players in the Q. But Jake got to start tonight and Dumont was playing so... I had to forgive the rest of the meanies who ruin the lives of my Juniors (more on that in a sec).

Russia came out really flat. Team Q really controlled the puck for most of the time although they forgot that you need to shoot the puck if you want to score throughout most of the first period. Still, Jake was only forced to bail out his team a couple of times when the defense imploded (yes, that's a nice break from the regular defensive implosions by the Juniors). Baby Habby tried to smacktalk with the Russians. It was kinda funny. It was a pretty physical and up-tempo game. I was kind of surprised.

The second period started off with Philippe Cornet (yes that meanie who scored two goals for the Huskies last week) scored about 11 seconds into the period. Gabriel Bourque added one a few mins after Team Q continued to press Zalivin after coming off the PP. About a minute after that, Kirkpatrick scored as well when the Russian goalie couldn't follow the puck (not strictly his fault considering half of Team Q was crowded in front of him). Now... I have no idea who let in Russia's goal near middle of the second period. I thought I saw Jake, but the stats say it was Roy (no, not that one. Olivier Roy) who was in nets. So.... I dunno.... Someone gave up the goal when Team Q had a defense fail (someone should ask the Voltigeurs to recount "The Tale of Complete Defensive Breakdowns That Was Sunday's Game Against the Remparts". It's not a pretty story).

The third period was pretty quiet in the goal scoring department. The Russians did spend more time in the other end though. Whether this was because Team Q took their foot off the gas pedal a bit or because the Russians really did want to at least put in the effort, I don't know. Probably both. Zalivin really did keep it relatively close. The score could have easily been 5-1 (okay, fine, 5-2. Kugryshev should have scored on that short handed breakaway in the second period but he missed the net entirely. I'm not getting along with him so nyah.... ) instead of 3-1.

Baby Habby almost had a last minute goal but Zalivin said no. Poop. Oh well. Team Q has decided that they're tired of being the faily of the three CHL teams versus Russian teams and they fully deserved this win. Good job guys! And thanks for making sure it was Roy who got smashed by the Russians and not Jake :D

Hammies chew up Crunch

This game was too cool not to give it its own post. I love the AHL and I love my Hammies.

Pre-game doom and gloom....

• OMG HI FLANDERSDUDE! I missed listening to you call a Hammies game! Seriously. It''s been over a week D:
• WHAT? DARCHE IS INJURED? YOU DID NOT SAY THAT. @#$%^&......... We. Need. Some. Players. Please. Bob, I'm totally glaring at you right now. 
• ....or maybe David can get Glu to score again? Hmm? HMM?! No really, what's happened to Glu, David and Maxwell?! D: 
• AND.... Sanford is STILL gone because his wife still hasn't had her baby yet.... Baby Sanford was supposed to come on Tuesday. So we're stuck with Teddy and Mayer. Guh. 
• No wait... this team is 2nd in shots for but 22nd in GOALS for? No more fluffy shots.... D: 
• Flandersdude said he's nearly electrocuted himself at the Crunch's building (they're playing in Hammie-town tonight but they were making remarks about the horrendous building in Syracuse because the Crunch and the Hammies used to be division rivals but not anymore, so now they only have to go to Syracuse once).
• Flandersdude: So I guess Glumac scoring was a silver lining to the game against the Americans? [that's Rochester's name] Guy:....... yeah.................... Sure...........  [completely paraphrased by me, but it's pretty clear that Guy was really unhappy with that game, Glu scoring or not]
• Guy doesn't like the Habs stealing his players D: That whole clip with Guy was also SUPER long at almost 20 mins... I missed something on Doug Harvey on the TV downstairs thanks to Guy. 
• Guy says he likes to have his different lines have different distinct characters. Apparently this makes it more difficult for other teams to play against.
• Dude.... this team is falling apart, Flandersdude is going to kill himself if he goes to call a game in Syracuse and Guy gets grumpy when his team loses.... *wails* 

THE GAME....!!

• Teddy is worse than Jaro at puck handling. Think about that. 
• UGH. PP goal for the Crunch. Hammies need to at least get the PK going again... PLEASE...... *curls up in a ball*
• AIEEEEEE Teddy saves the Hammies from getting scored on short handed. So much for the power-AHKJDHKJAFSH! GLUUUUUUUU scooooooooooores! 1-1!
• EEEEEEEE! GLUUUUUUUUUUUUUU AGAIN! 2-1! Guess who gets the first assist. GUESS. David! It's not even funny how much Glu missed David. Not. Even. Funny. May David never be injured again. 
• Ummm Koharski......fail...... Hammies back on the PK for no reason.....? 
• Teddy sounds like he's being less floppy-flambeish tonight. 
• EEEEEE! Glu shoots and either Daviiiiid or Brrrrock Trotter puts it in! 3-1!!!!!!!!!
• umm.. PAdude fail..... They gave the assists to Sergei and Subban. Um.... they weren't anywhere near the puck... Oh well. Daviiiiiiiid gets the goal! :D
• Erm goal light fail... went off when the puck went into the back of the net after the whistle had already been blown ages ago when the Crunch were offside. 
• Erm.... the doodad thingy keeping track of the shots seems to be broken. No way the Crunch have almost as many shots on goal as the Hammies....
• Oops. Crunch is bleeding. Clean up the glass while you're yapping at the ref, please (yes, he's fine). 
• Moron alert: someone threw something on the ice. Not cool. 
• AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE! Rrrrrrryan Rrrrrrrrrrrussel with a goal now!!
• UM WHAT?! RRRRRYAAAAAAAAAN RUSSSSEEEEEEL AGAIN?! Flandersdude was talking and Russel scores off the faceoff! Bwahahahahahahahahaha!
• That's two assists for Sergei now.  
• So. Glu. Russel. Who wants a hat trick? C'mon!
  
• Flandersdude: The Bulldogs now have a 5-1 lead. Me: Eh? When did that happen? *goes to count the goals* Oh yeah... it is 5-1. Bwhahahahahahaha......
• Broken Hammies alert: Wyman is missing part of a tooth from getting whacked earlier in the game and Neilson just skated for the dressing room (no idea what happened to him). 
• Game over! Hammies wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!
• C'mon Guy, you know you want to be happy with this game. Happy thoughts, Guy! Happy thoughts!

Post game stuffs (aka this is why we love Flandersdude and Co)

• Flandersdude says Guy says that he thinks the Habs might actually send a player or two down before the Hammies go on their western roadtrip. I'm thinking IF the Habs are going to send anyone back.. it won't be Whitey or Pysie. I'll take anyone not named Marc-Andre Bergeron.
• Replayfail. Flandersdude is having trouble remembering who scored what when. That's okay :D Awkward radio silences followed by confused for the win! (no really. It was funny).  
• Apparently Flandersdude has strep throat.... Can't be too bad right now because he was yelling away with as much energy as I've ever heard him. We can't have Flandersdude losing his voice. That would be awful D: 
• So far we've got ourselves a normal post game show.... 
• Duuuuuuude bookanalogyfail by Flandersdude now......!!!!!! We have this whole Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde analogy with the Hammies PP/PK. Only... he can't remember which one was the "bad" guy... Flandersdude says the bad guy is Dr. Jekyll, Al has no idea, Flandersdude's girlfriend says it's one guy and Operator Guy says it's the other. Okay..................
  
  Return to talking about the Hammies. Blah, blah, blah, Glumac and Russel find their inner Ovie, blah, blah, blah.....
  
  A few minutes later, Operator Guy googled it as says this whole Jekyll/Hyde thing is "mix". Which makes no sense whatsoever. Operator Guy semi-clarifies by attempting to say that Jekyll is the semi good guy.  Flandersdude says Operator Guy is wrong and he's right. I don't get to hear Operator Guy arguing with him but Flandersdude is insisting that he's right. And the main broadcasting dude (Flandersdude) is always right.
  
  More Hammies talk. Blah blah blah injuries... blah blah blah we really could use another player or two... blah blah blah....
  
  Oh Stats Guy calls in (he stayed home to watch the Leafs lose to the Flames) just to tell Flanderdude that he is wrong. All seem to agree that Stats Guy knows all, so he's right and Flandersdude is wrong. Stats Dude is now banned from Copps Coliseum (not literally of course).
  
  EP is DYING of laughter here. DYING. HILARIOUS. 
• In case you're wondering what they're trying to say here... they're trying to say that the previously dismal PP and the much better PK have switched places. Or something..... I actually have no idea where they were going with that analogy..... The least you need to know about the PP/PK is that the PK has been faltering a little bit while the PP has finally figured out how to score.
• For the records: Dr. Jekyll is the good guy *g*
• Oh! Sanford's wife had their baby! Barron... Baron... Baryn... wait.. no.... =/  Erm forgot how to spell it already. I think it's closer to the first spelling. ANYWAY. Sanford Jr. is finally born! Congrats to Sanford and Mrs. Sanford (I think her name is Melinda? Hey, I get all the great bits of info by listening to Flandersdude). Now we get our goalie back! 
• NOW we're talking about lattes? Oh wait. Not just ANY lattes. No fat lattes! Although apparently Al's latte had a pile of cream in it.... I want one of these magical no-fat lattes that keep  you awake for really late western games. I WANT. 
• errr now apparently we're talking about cigars....? Where did THAT come from? Something about new kids and cigars? How about Sanford just passes around baby Hammies jerseys? 
• Times to call it a night now, I think :D
• As Operator Guy is about to run the replays of the goals, Flandersdude reluctantly adds that he was right about the whole Jekyll/Hyde thing. This is pretty funny that they're STILL talking about this because this is the point where Flandersdude is supposed to go off the whole disclaimer stuffs (I'm not supposed to be re-transmitting this radio broadcast and all that stuffs. There was no mention of re-caps by insane bloggers not being allowed). 

I hereby designate Saturday "Hockey Day"

...hey not my fault that the NHL insists on scheduling NHL games in the middle of the afternoon and that CBC insists on having triple headers.... I originally had the Hammies game in here, but it deserves it's own post so just scroll up instead for the very awesome Hammies game.

Rags/Sens yawnfest

Yeah, I totally watched the Rags beat down the Sens in shootouts. I wasn't particularly impressed with the game but hey, it's the Rags and the Sens. There is a bright side to this though. I get to make snarky remarks about the Sens. Because I can. (hey, the Sens fans hate me too so it's all good).

So they had this Bond-esque commercial for the Sens. It was kinda cool actually. Until.....

Annoying computer-like female voice: Locating Scotiabank Place *cue fancy graphics trying to locate the building*
Me: *imitating the voice* Scotiabank Place located in the middle of a field. Shall we airlift them to the building?

Also... I love how they keep showing footage of Ottawa in-between games when in reality the Sens play in Kanata (yes, I am STILL harping on that).

Ron: We're here in the nation's capital.
Me: Erm... Ron? Kanata is not the capital of Canada. You know that, right?

...

What? I wasn't in a good mood and the Sens were just asking to have me make snarky remarks.

ANYWAY...............................

Juniors 

Starting with last night because I was too lazy to talk about my poor Juniors..... In short, they don't seem to like these back-to-back games against Rouyn-Noranda and Val-D'or. They lost a pretty close one to the Huskies last night. Taking a fair number of penalties against a team that has the third best PP in the league is not a good idea. After holding the Huskies off on a 5 on 3, the poor Juniors allowed a PP goal with just two seconds left on the 5 on 4. They did catch Audette sleeping in about a two minute period though. It was kinda pretty actually. But then the Juniors (damn do they ever need a good nickname. This name is horrible) went to sleep and Cornet scored two goals - one in the second and one in the third (when the Juniors didn't control the play after their only PP) put the Huskies on top. And that was pretty much that. The score probably would have been higher for the Huskies if Jake wasn't on top of his game for the most part.

Missed the entire Val-D'or game but the Juniors dropped this one as well. Juniors took a very early lead but then they allowed three goals over the rest of the game. The Juniors were probably dead on their feet *weeps*

Random info Part I: Oh hey, Guillaume Asselin got named one of the student players of the month.

Random info Part II: Er how can baby Xavi get named to Quebec's U17 team if he's still injured? Unless he's not injured anymore and I missed it? o.<

Baby Habs watch: Blah, blah, blah, Dumont had an assist as the Voltigeurs beat some other team. They're all about attack, attack, attack.... blah, blah, blah.... Waiting for some of this mentality to set in with the Hammies *coughs*  But duuuude, they're going to take on Roy and Co. tomorrow. I wanna follow that game!

Habs...

There was a game? All I saw was Price making 53 saves en route to a 2-0 loss. Seriously, I'm not going to talk about it because I'm in such a great mood from the Hammies game.