Sergei's out for tonight....and I'm not impressed

Seems Carbo's decided to try a new tactic to get Sergei Kostitsyn to work harder and that's to have him sit in the press box tonight. Latendresse and O'Byrne are also out. Oh well. I'm not complaining much (see below for what I'm not impressed with). Whatever works in Sergei's case...No word as far as I can tell on whether Komisarek's going to get another shot at "coaching/cheerleading" tonight.

Today's random useless news: 1) I wish I could see the Leafs play San Jose. It could be quite amusing. I wonder what kind of reception he will get? Hehe. It's gotta be tough to see your old team doing so well while you're stuck with the Leafs.... Oh well.... 2) Sean Avery has finally got suspended for off ice antics. About time!

Missing the game... be back later....

Later: I'm not impressed. At all.

The look on Carbo's face at the end of the third period pretty much summed up how everyone was feeling. In case you didn't see it: he wasn't looking pleased. And so he shouldn't be. Despite winning 5-4, the Habs played a dismal third period. They went into the third period leading 3-0 and promptly dropped three straight goals to the Thrashers. One was a little weird, and it looked like it bounced off one of their players somehow but whatever. The point is, you don't go into the third period dominating the entire game and then die because that gives the opposition hope and that in turn makes them work harder at trying to win. The Habs are quite frankly lucky to have escaped with a 5-4 win after the way they played in the third period. Andrei Kostitsyn snapped the stupid tie with 4 or 5 mins to go and then then Lang scored on an empty net on his second try - excuse me if I'm not completely jumping for joy at the moment. I admit that at the time I was relieved to see the goal but still, it's a bloody empty net. The Habs then somehow allowed a stupid goal by some Thrasher dude with 19 seconds left. If I were Carbo I would be giving everyone a lecture on why you can't all of a sudden stop playing hockey in the third period. You simply can NOT do it. The third period was sloppy for the Habs. And Price.... I will blame Price just as much for going to sleep in the third. Okay, so there wasn't a whole lot he could have done on the Thrasher's second goal because there were a pile of people practically on top of him, but there really isn't any excuse for the three other goals which he was sitting in the net for.....Obviously that first goal by the Thrashers was not cool in the least. I somehow failed to notice that Laraque failed to get out onto the ice for the line change and the Thrashers basically had a 5 on 4 advantage. At least we didn't score on ourselves again! Anyway, I don't know why Price was even in nets tonight. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to put Halak in. The guy plays for the Habs too and he should get a chance to play in front of the home crowd, yes? Yes.

Barring the ultra lame third period, the rest of the game went well. The Thrashers came out incredibly flat and the Habs dominated play like crazy. Matt D'Agostini recorded his first NHL goal tonight after Kostitsyn's shot rebounded off of the goalie who's name I already forgot. That was nice. Plakanec got a very nice goal - in the second I think - when he ripped the puck towards aforementioned goalie and it went right through his legs. He had no chance. Tanguay - I think - appeared to have a goal after this but it was discounted because Lapierre apparently was interferring with the goalie. Lapierre did NOT get a penalty and it really seemed to me like the goalie was actually holding him in which case the stupid goalie should have got a penalty and the goal should have counted. I wasn't under the impression that you could call a guy for goalie interference but not give him a penalty. I could understand if he had gotten a penalty but he didn't! But that's my very biased opinion. The stupid thing too was that the Thrashers then proceeded to do the exact same thing to Price, minus the actual scoring, and they got a penalty for obstruction. Anyway, Markov again came to the rescue and scored later on I believe it was the power-play for the obstruction thing but I can't remember exactly. If we just pretend that the third period never happened then I can look at this as a relatively good game. Not totally encouraging considering we're up against the Rangers next but hopefully they will have learned their lesson.

Note: Komisarek was behind the bench again. He's winning streak is now up to 2. Yay!

How the day went:

The good - San Lorenzo scored FOUR goals in the second half to clobber Huracan. The poor stinkers must have thought that they were doing well when they scored in the first 16 mins the other day before the game was stopped due to heavy rainfall. Well, San Lorenzo came roaring back and won beautifully. Now THAT is how to beat a loser team.

The bad aka how not to win a game- the Habs played a dismal third period which turned what probably should have been a resounding 4-1 game into a icky 5-4 game. Yuck. I don't care if most teams - including the Thrashers - would consider a win a win, but that was a totally dismal way to win when you're in 7th and your opponents are in 29th. It just shouldn't happen. At least they won. Heads would SO be rolling right now if they had lost....

The ugly - Christiano Ronaldo won the Ballon D'Or. Yes, yes, the guy is super talented but there should be a rule barring arogant idiots who play for Manchester United from winning it. Barcelona's Lionel Messi was in a distance second, followed by the one and only Fernando Torres in an even distant third.

The really stupid - the NHL charging way too much for their merchandise. I bought something as a gift and it cost me a bloody fortune. Well, almost. I actually bought it on ebay for about $10 cheaper (and had the economic situation been better and the Canadian dollar worth more than I would have saved a lot more!!!!!!!) because none of the sites I checked had what I wanted and there was no way that I was going to be able to buy it here....