Komo finally dumps tie and suit

Finally! No more Coach K behind the bench. Not that I had a problem with him being there. It's just that now it's time for him to get back in the lineup and start skating again. Komisarek finally got cleared to play for today's game. He would have probably been cleared earlier but ironically the doctor was too sick to see him. Oh and Laraque will be back as well. I'm of the opinion that the Habs need all the help that they can get tonight when they take on the Flyers who have been unfortunately doing very well lately. The Halloween-coloured-team has recovered from their horrible start to the season and are looking to win their sixth straight. The poor Habbies are just trying not to lose their fourth straight in a row - apparently if they lose to night, this will be the first time in over two years that they've dropped four in a row. *wails* Komisarek's return means no more Ben Maxwell. Pity. He didn't seem to be doing too badly but it was hard to tell considering how well the last game went. Ahem, anyway.... Don't know what to say here. The Habs need to be really focused tonight and if they play like they're capable of then there should be no problem. But I've been saying that for how many games now...? Four? More? We'll see. I'll try not to get my hopes up too much here. I still think if stupid Columbus had beat San Jose we should be able to beat the Flyers, no.....?

HAAAAAABS WIIIIIIIN! FINALLY!!!!!!! Habbies 5 Flyers 1 1/2!

There was talk about if the Habs lost tonight then it would be the first time in two years that that they dropped four in a row. There wasn't too much confidence in the media about how the Habs would do either tonight. I mean, three consecutive losses to bad teams was not very acceptable from a team that clearly has a lot of talent and just can't seem to get it together. And then there was the little fact that the Flyers were coming into this one having only lost one in regulation time in the last 17 games. Yeah, funny what can happen in the stretch of 60 mins.

Habs won and they won playing good hockey. D'Agostini opened up the scoring on a mini breakaway (can he stay here, Bob? Please? Please?). That obviously proved to be a huge moral booster for the Habs who haven't scored first since.... the game against the Flames. Anyway, D'Agostini's goal was followed by one from Sergei Kostitsyn on the powerplay, which I missed initially because I was looking for something to eat, but I saw the replay and it was nice. I was just moaning over not having any food to eat when Begin got a goal in past Niittymaki as well. Yay! This was immediately followed by a not so nice goal by somethingrather Asham for the Flyers off the faceoff. He caught Halak half out of the net and got a goal in. Yuck. To make things worse, I still didn't find anything to eat. Blegh. Anyway, so the first period ended 3-1 for the Habbies which was good news. Finally. More good news was to come as Kovalev scored in the second period off another half breakaway. Dare I hope that he's finally woken up now? The Habs sort of went to sleep a bit in the third period and sloppy playing almost lead to a pile of goals by the Flyers. The Habs kind of got an own goal as... Boullion.... or someone tried to catch a shot with his hand but failed horribly as the puck pounced off his hand and past Halak. The Flyers then decided that they would like to try harder and they did but through a series of luck and skill from the Habs nothing happened except for this: Niittymaki gets pulled at the end. Flyers have the advantage. Flyers put Niitymaki back in for faceoff. Flyers get penalty. Latendresse scores on Niitymaki. Game officially over for the Flyers. Well, okay, so the Flyers made one last ditched effort and nearly scored but they didn't.

On a whole, I liked the game that the Habs played tonight. The powerplay worked. Though of course if you don't get a goal when the goalie is sprawled across the ice and can't do anything then you stink big time. But still. The effort was there tonight. There was some potential bad turnovers but they didn't amount to anything. Halak still seems to be having issues with rebounds and controlling the puck but I still think he did a good job tonight. The Flyers had exceptionally bad luck last night, hitting the post on numerous occaisions and they clearly weren't happy. I'd be more upset with the defensive end of their game if I was their coach. D'Agostini and Kovalev both scored after getting the puck past the defensemen and practically going in alone on Niittymaki. Anyway, that's their problem, not mine. Both teams had 31 shots on goal and while the Habs shot 5 goals past Niitymaki, the Flyers only got past Halak and the Habs gave the Flyers a Christmas present in the form of the other goal. Merry Christmas Flyers!

The good - Well, winning, right?

The bad - the own goal thing but we'll pretend that they were being generous to the Flyers tonight. If you saw Richards face after his team was offside for the who-knows-what-time, you would know that the Flyers needed a little help.

The ugly - cant think of anything yet..... the Flyers maybe?

The potentially not good - Considering that 1) the Habs obviously didn't want to lose four straight 2) it's the Flyers are normally the Habbies are pretty motivated to beat them (erm, minus that little fiasco the last time they played) oh and 3) the Habs almost always seem to be motivated when they play top teams (I suppose they realize now that Boston is a top contender), I'm still worried about how the weekend will go. The Habs completely die against loser teams and that is the huge problem for them right now. WAKE THE HECK UP AND GET SCORING! There's nothing wrong with beating your loser opponent 9-2. Just ask the Penguins ^___^

No more bi-polar behavior!

I think I spelled Niittymaki's name wrong throughout the whole thing... oh well...There's too many double letters!!!!

In other irrelevant news:

• Pittsburgh flattened Atlana 6-3 with Fleury back in nets again. Yay for Fleury!
• Boston won 8-5 against the Maple Losers... I can't believe Tim Thomas let that many... And Boston was up 5-1 or something. Oh well. Lucky Bruins that it was Toskala in nets on the other end.....
• Oh and Detroit won 6-0 against San Jose...!!!!!!! Umm, oops? That's incredibly embarrassing for San Jose. This is their first regulation loss since.... when? A long time. Not a nice way to break that streak. Also, this is the first time in... a while... that the Sharks have dropped two in a row. Oh well...
  

DID I MENTION THAT MATS SUNDIN IS A CANUCK NOW?

I know I said that I would never talk about Sundin but I'm going to say something now because this truly will be the last time. The indecisive Swede has finally decided that he wants to continue to play hockey and what's more he actually picked a team to play for. Thank the hockey gods! This whole saga thing began after the playoffs - if not earlier considering the Leafs didn't make the playoffs- and has been dragging on and on and on and on since then. And it's over now! Sundin will be a Canuck for a year now and hopefully when he's contract is up he will be a little quicker about making a decision. But anyway... Celebrate people because this whole overlong epic is over! YEEEEEEES! And thank goodness he's playing on the other side of the country so we don't have to put up with him a lot. YES! HUZZAH! No more talking about Sundin now! Yaaaaaaaay......Okay, I'm shutting up...