Um....

I'll start with the good news, I guess. The good news is this: Sergei Kostistyn* is finally scored a goal after being scoreless since the Habs beat the Maple Leafs at the beginning of the season. So everyone can stop complaining now that he hasn't done anything in a while, right? Yeah well, the bad news is that his goal, while it did allow the Habs to go to overtime against the Blue Jackets, wasn't enough to save them. So while we should all be happy that he can score a goal, unfortunately we're going to end up mulling over why we lost to a team that they probably should have beat if they had played well.

I can't help but think that the Habs would have done slightly better if they hadn't ended up in the penalty box so much (again!). They ended up with ten minutes worth of penalties in the second period, four in the third, and two in OT. Maybe I'm just missing something here, but it seems to me that you can't creat too many scoring chances when you're constantly at a one (or two!) man disadvantage. Okay, so they *did* get some nice scoring chances but for the most part nothing came out of them. Like when Josh Gorges came out of the penalty box and grabbed the puck, setting up a nice shot for Koivu which resulted in... the Blue Jackets' goalie stopping the puck. I'm not going to blame Halak because I think he did a good job. He had really nice saves and it wasn't like he was the one in the penalty box all night. The Habs really need to stay out of the penalty box. And less sloppy passing which results in the other team getting the puck might help a tad bit too. All I can say is I hope they can pull it together tonight when they play Toronto because, unfortunately for the rest of us who were hoping that the Leafs would end up bottom of the league, Ron Wilson is actually making them good. Sigh.

*One day I will try to get a better anglicization of his name. Yes, I have issues with names and proper pronunciation, and spelling. But I'll get back to this another time!

EDIT: I don't watch women's tennis too often but I have been following the year end title with interest and I have to say I'm surprised by the finalists. Venus Williams will play Vera Zvonareva for the finals of the WTA season ending title. Eighth seeded Venus made the finals after beating world no. 1 Jelena Jankovic while Zvonareva beat Elena Dememt'eva earlier. I've been saying for a while now that the William sisters are virtually unbeatable when they decide to come out and play tennis like they mean it, and I think Venus' win has to back up my claims at least slightly. I have to admit that I was expecting it to be Serena who went through instead of Venus, because of her win at the US open but after seeing how Venus completely beat her younger sister the other day, I'm not surprised that it's Venus in the finals.

I do feel slightly bad for Jankovic though because I think at this point she must be feeling like she has something to prove. While she consolidated her no. 1 spot with a series of wins this fall, she has yet to win a grand slam which is making some people wonder if she really deserves to be no. 1. With Sharapova out with injuries, Ivanovic going through a confidence crisis, and the William sisters only playing in a handful of tournaments, I do not see anyone else stepping up at trying to take the no. 1 spot and hanging on to it for more than a week. Yes, I know Jankovic was no. 1 for a week over the summer and then lost it. But she has since regained the no. 1 spot and has been playing more like a world no. 1. Jankovic certainly has the ability to win against these players (she's done it before) but maybe it's a matter of believing in herself more that she can do it. It should be interesting to see what happens next year when Sharapova comes back after being sidelined with a shoulder injury.