"Yay", "Nooo" and "HAHAHA"

That's pretty much what I was doing tonight as I flipped through three different channels showing three different hockey games. How nice is that? I usually only get two channels of hockey.... My poor mom asked me if there was anything besides hockey on TV. This was when I was only flipping through the first two channels so I changed to another channel and saw the third game on. Guess not. Sorry mom!

We may not care a lot about the international hockey tournaments but...

I,for one, intend on watching the Canada's world juniors team this week. If the their three exhibition games are anything to go by, then Team Canada should have a very good chance at winning their 5th straight juniors title. Yes, I know, the only real competition that they had in these pre-games was from Sweden but they downed them pretty easily. So watching a bunch of teenagers isn't quite as exciting as watching an NHL game BUT it was still great to watch and I still think that Canada has a great shot at the gold again. Yes, I know, I know, how can I make that grand presumption when Team Slovakia just rolled over and died for Canada by getting blanked 7-0? Well, apart from Sweden, the only other team that can really make a serious bid for the gold other than Canada is the USA who's juniors are apparently better than their non-junior team - and for their sake, I hope they are better. Team USA was not good when they played here in the spring. Anyway, it should be interesting to see how Canada handles the games once there's pressure to do perform well. I think they should do okay. A few of the team members including Tavares have experience from last year. Tavares just needs to come up with a way to score that doesn't involve standing on the left side of the net all the time (but after that fancy bit of puck handling to get his second goal tonight, I guess I can't complain if he wants to stand there). Team Canada would have been a lot better if a pile of their good juniors were slugging it out in the NHL already (yes, I'm looking at poor Stamkos and Shehn). Anyway, I'm hoping for the junior team to have more sucess than the Team Canada that got beat in a power play goal in OT to Russia this spring *coughs*

Memo to self: remember to rant about why we don't put much emphasis on the world events in hockey...

Where have the Penguins gone? (this is the "nooo" bit)

Can someone answer that for me? Please? The Pens have won just five out of their last eleven which includes two wins in a shootout and OT. I would have to add that some truly bi-polar playing has gone on in this span. Lets' see, the Pens demolished the Islanders 9-2, then lost 6-3 to the Flyers, then won 6-3 to the Thrashers, which was then followed up by a 7-3 mauling by the Maple Leafs. Yes, the Maple Leafs. And the last two games have seen the Pens win 4-3 in OT and now tonight I am sad to say, the Sidney Crosby's Penguins have just been blanked 2-0 by... wait for it.... TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING! Yes, the very same Lightning that downed the poor Habbies a little while ago. Go figure. Coming off a decent game after getting killed by a truly loser team and with Ryan Whitney now finally back in the lineup, I would have thought that the Penguins would be on track to win tonight. Well, I guess not. The Penguins' offense was truly horrendous tonight and the defense wasn't really all that much better. A stupid turnover at the blueline allowed the the Lightning to grab the puck and after some moneuvering around the net, Matt Pettinger put the puck past Fleury. Oh, this happened in the second period by the way, when the Pens failed on a couple of good chances to score in the first period. It was to get worse though.

According to the stats, the Pens only had 15 shots on goal compared to 29 by the Lightning. Now, really, tell me the last time that the Lightning outscored their opponents. Especially a team as talented as the Pens. It felt like only 15 shots too. The Pens completely failed to keep the puck in the other end for any decent amount of time and bad passing lead to the Lightning taking another swipe at Fleury. That was truly a pathetic display of hockey from the Pens and I'm just praying that either 1) they keep this up until AFTER they play the Habs or 2) they continue the trend and beat the Devils then lose to the Habs. Sorry, Habs come first. Always.

And because I just loooove to see Toronto get beaten....(this is the "HAHAHA" part)

I just have to mention that the lowly Dallas Stars beat the Maple Leafs by a wonderful score or 8-2. Lovely. The only reason why this is so good - other than it's nice to see the Leafs lose - is because Dallas stinks and won't challenge the Habs for a spot. Yes, everything is indeed about the Habs.

Sharks are making mince meat out of Canucks

Before I called it night for the hockey, I did see ten minutes of the Sharks vs Canucks game. And honestly, the poor Canucks have no chance. In ten minutes, I'm not sure if the Canucks even registered a shot on goal while the Sharks scored less than five minutes into the game. Oh dear. It got worse though as the Canucks took three or four straight penalties and the Sharks continued to steam roller over them with two more goals. I know Vancouver got in late to the San Jose but seriously, I don't think that they would have had much of a chance even if they were in top form. Now, if Luongo was in nets maybe it wuld be different but I don't know.

Oh and Ottawa dropped yet another game. This time to the Flyers in their blindingly ugly orange jerseys....

I'm only mentioning this 'cause it just so happened to be on TV. I watched a bit of it inbetween watching team Canada, the Pens and chasing my rabbit around the house. It wasn't a terrible loss. 6-4. That sixth goal came on an empty net with 18 seconds left to go. I guess whatever John Stevens was scribbling on that white board thing of his that he likes to cart around with him, made sense to someone tonight. It's more than I can say for Hartsburg's supposed plan. The Sens could have had a shot at a goal if they hadn't turned over the puck to the Flyers in the most horrendous way possible. Oh well....

And finally: What is it with the Rangers and blowing big leads?

We all know about that game in which the Rangers held a 5-0 lead on the Habs and then promptly dropped said lead in the third period and ultimately lost in OT. C'mon, even I know about that game and I didn't see it. Well, tonight, ladies and gentleman, I offer you another game in which the Rangers blew another big lead. Tonight's game featured the Rangers versus Ovechkin's Washington Capitals. Well, okay, so it's a little unfair to say "Ovechkin's Capitals" because he hasn't really been doing that much. But moving on...

The Rangers came out firing and made Theodore's life very miserable for the first period. In fact, he was replaced with a sick Johnson mid-way through the first period after he allowed 3 goals in 5 shots. Oops. Johnson did not continue however, and Theodore was back in the second period and was to stay there for the remaineder of the game. The Rangers would have one more goal on the ex-Hab before they called it a night and dozed off to sleep. And that was when the Caps decided to come back starting with Ovechkin's goal in the second period. Still, going into the third, the Rangers had to be pretty confident. They were up 4-1 and it wasn't like Theodore was proving to be the top goaltender in the NHL or anything. Oh how wrong they were! The Caps came back with three more goals including the tying goal by... guess who... Yeah, Ovechkin. No Semin. I think he's still injured from something. Anyway, the game went to OT and then it was byebye Rangers. To finish off, a couple of quotes by the players after the game (taken from <here>):

"They stopped playing hockey. They probably believed 4-0 they'd win the game." Coming from the guy who got the first and last goals in regulation time. Someone will be partying tonight.

"We were looking forward to going into the (Christmas) break with two points. I definitely have to forget about this one and move on." A clearly unhappy Lundqivst. He's had quite a few games now that he should just forget about. Poor guy.