Holy $%^&, Canada, are you out to kill me?!!!!!!!

I thought I was going to be happy to just report that my lovely conference-leading Hammies demolished the Griffins by a beautiful score of 7-3 (and not 7-4 like I kept saying on twitter for some reason). It was a nice, nice, nice win as the Hammies came up from BEHIND only to score SIX UNANSWERED goals in the second period.

I thought I would be able to just dance around celebrating this lovely win and a nice win by my Habs - which I actually forgot about until right now. I mean, who the hell plays at 5:00?! Must have been one of those early bird specials for those elderly snowbirds. ANYWAY. The Habs win. The Hammies win (Sanford's injured). Misshy had a shutout. Niagara lost and Simila and the Finns got smoked by Sweden but on a whole, I was having a great night...

Until Canada played the US.....

Bloody freaking hell. It was a HORRENDOUS game for Canada. It was turnover city. It was like someone transplanted MAB's brain and put it into every single Canadian player. It was brutal.

It really didnt' get any better until Eberle saved the team (again). Man. I thought everyone was putting a lot of pressure on him by constantly bringing up that goal that saved Canada's hopes last year and that it was wrong to expect him to save them this year, but really... Eberle is awesome. Period. End of story. He tied the game at 2 for Canada and after Canada seemed headed for defeat after going down 4-2, he put Canada back to within one goal in the third. And hows' this for some poetic justice: after the Americans scored TWO freaking short-handed goals (I am not even kidding), Alex Pietrangelo scores shorthanded to tie the game.

I won't even mention that goal that should have been a goal but didn't count. I'll just instead make sure everyone knows that I don't like Kristo right now. Until he puts on a Habs and/or a Hammies jersey, we're not getting along at all. No really. He very nearly ruined my night on several occasions......... can't wait until he ruins the nights of some NHL teams though. 

The Canadians eventually stopped playing like MAB long enough to win the game. Over time was stressful and solved nothing and then we went to a shootout. In short: Eberle is awesome. We'll live with Kadri scoring a really nice one (tonight, he's a Canadian. Not a faily Leaf). We'll be very thankful that Kozun decided to be a Canadian at the WJC instead of an American. Ooh and we'll thank Jake for stopping Jordon Schroeder who had to score to keep the Americans in the game.

Jake did a victory splat afterwards. I was wondering what the hell he was doing and apparently he tripped on the puck on his way to celebrate on the bench. What a dork. It's okay, we love you anyway.

Canada probably shouldn't have won this game, but they did. And we're super pleased with this. Now, they just need to get their act together for Russians (or the Swiss). I am SO happy that they won't have to play Finland and then Sweden just to get to the finals. Last year's Canada/USA match was crazy, THAT semi-final match was just amazing. Tonight, definitely ranks up there. Amazing game.

P.S. I saw the Sweden/Finland game on some Swedish station. Very entertaining. They looooove Pajaarvi-Svensson. They had this interview with him in some Christmas setting thing. It was weird and funny. Especially when the camera kept zooming in on all the Christmas tree ornaments and fake presents and then proceeded to zoom in on his face. Whoever said zooming in on acne covered faces of 18 year olds was a great idea should be fired. Mind you.. .if you zoom waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out, he kinda looks okay. Hehehe.

(hehehe, I looked at my writeup when Canada beat Russia last year. It was all nice a well-mannered and here I am putting all bloggers to shame by my horrendous writeup this year. Sorry guys!).

Hockey night in EP-land: In which radio feeds die

Somethings' wrong in Ontario because my Hammies radio feed died, the AHL site died (okay, maybe it's not hosted in Ontario), the OHL site died.... all died midway through hockey hour!

Thankfully someone passed me along a video feed of the Hammies game. Only, I was stuck with the Amerks guy instead. GUH. Turned out to be good though because when I urned the feed on, Brrrrrrock Trotter put the Hammies up 3-1 on a shorty. Amerks guy wasn't pleased. I actually took a lot of delight in watching the Hammies destroy the Amerks by a final score of 4-1. I'm so amazed by how much I don't like this team *G* Anyway.... Hammies are now in first in their division. Again. Hopefully they will keep this lead now...!

Habs squeaked out another win. It's weird because I really felt they played a good game for the most part and yet it always seems like they're just squeaking out these wins.... *sighs* Pleky had a very, very nice goal to win the game in OT. Oh Turtle-Pleky, please don't leave at the end of this year......

Philippe FINALLY scored another goal! YAY! He had 2 assists as well. Yay. Voltigeurs win 5-4.

Andandandandandandand my Juniors wiiiiiiiiiiin. Parkes got the winner with 6 seconds left in the third period. Eeeee!

I'm amused because ex-Voltigeur-current-Rocket Cousineau is now a Sea Dog (guess Jake is going there after all?) and ex-Junior-turned-Cataracte, Toni Ritter, is now a... Voltigeur. I'm amused.

Oh Canada.........

Oh Canada
Our home and native land
True, you have talent, but why so many twerps?

With Pronger and Dany, it's enough to cry:
"Can't I just cheer for Koivu?!"

Ick to Staal and Perry,
Oh Canada, at least you choose Toews!

God, save my sanity, I just can't cheer for Sid
Oh Canada, why can't Ovie be a canuck?

Oh Canada, I think I'll cheer for Latvia!

.............

I'm going to get booted out of the country for this, aren't I.........?

You know you're getting picky when.......

So Canada won. Again. 8-2 this time against Slovakia.

Only... I'm not really happy.

I know, I know... but.....

I really, really, really, really, did not like all the penalties Canada was taking. They can't get away with this against the Americans or the Swedes or the Russians....

Cormier especially is annoying me a lot with his idiotic penalties. His needless stupid cross check to whichever Slovak guy that was cost Canada a goal. I don't care that Canada was already up by five or six goals. The point is the penalty was super dumb and this was not the first time that he's taken stupid penalties. Please stop this stuff right now. Or else.

Meh.... at least the Slovaks made a game of it despite what the score might say. Hrasko was smashing everyone.  Forget the Czech Bulldozer (Sobotka). Hrasko is out to flatten everyone (omg, can we draft him? Can we? PLEASE?).

Nice game for Taylor Hall though. Everyone starts complaining that he hasn't scored and bingo, he has 3 goals. Hehehe.

Speaking of Hall.... Pierre McGuire gets the quote of the day with this:

“See them making ice cream? That kid (Hall) doesn’t eat ice cream, he just scores goals.”

Um................no really.... what in the hell is that even supposed to mean...............?!!

Just for that, I want footage of Hall stuffing his face with ice cream. On second thought, maybe not........but... oh never mind... Can we all just agree that Pierre McGuire makes no sense whatsoever and this is just more proof of it?

................

Oh and thanks for nothing Russia......... You could've beaten Sweden but nooooooooo........ you had to lose 4-1. Booohooo... Only saw a few mins but Sweden was really dominating the game when I saw them...... Can Sweden and Russia both implode before the semis? please? PLEASE?

I want to be in charge of arranging my teams schedules....

No games yesterday, no games tomorrow but a packed schedule today? =/

Shut up! Oh my god, TSN.... you guys have to be the least original and creative play-by-play guys on the planet.....Yes, we know that the Flames got some lovely picks out of the Tanguay trade and Montreal is left with nada, yes we know that Brandon Kozun - like Tyler Myers last year - was born in the USA and could have played for them at the Worlds but choose to play for Canada instead, yes we know where Vancouver is, yes we  know that Eberle had the most awesome goal ever when he tied the game up with 6 seconds left against the Russians last year.......How do we know this? Why you mentioned at least five times today on top of the ten or or so times you mentioned it in the last two games! Oh and you fail at saying Schlumpf's name. The Voltigeurs guys say it so much better. Hehehe.

Oh and yeah, Canada won 6-0 over the Swiss! McMillan with the hat trick! Yay! Boy oh boy am I glad that the Russians are in Sweden's group this year.... We're still stuck with the Americans though....

Capsfail.... So happy I didn't see THAT Caps/Whalercanes game live. Caps lose 6-3. *sighs* This is what happens when you trade your captain on a game day!!!!

ARGHHHHHH At one point my teams (minus the Caps) were all up 2-1. Of course it went downhill from there..

Juniors lost it 3-2..... Really not impressed with this team right now.... I know they can be better than this. I really think they have a lot more potential. *sighs*

Voltigeurs went down 4-2. But then! The they decided not to fail anymore. And scored FIVE goals to win the game 7-4. HAHAHAHA. Brunelle's hat trick tied the game at 4. Philippe had two assists. Dumont had a goal and an assist. Sean potentially ruined the game by being in the box went the Cataractes tied it (before adding another one immediately after). Nice come from behind win for the Voltigeurs though. Nice to see them not blow a game to the Cataractes for once. AHEM.

Hammmies wiiiiiiiiiin! YAY! I was SO hoping that they would be mad after losing to the Amerks the other night and would want to come out and stomp on the Marlies. Well... didn't look like it at first. Marlies go on board first but PK SUBBAN tied it up. Sounded really awesome. Conboy put them up 2-1 and then they lost it.... and then Guy must have threatened them with a bagskate in the second intermission because totally dominated the third period. Weber finally scored again! And David had two (his second coming off a tip in from a shot by Weber). Too bad we didn't get to play the Marlies last week instead of the Amerks. Oh well. Hammies beat the Marlies so that's all that counts. The Marlies tried to start crap after they lost but nobody was paying attention to them. They lost.

Flandersdude keeps pointing out that the Marlies lost 7-0 at home the other night. He really doesn't like them, does he? *g*

Now Habs.... You are beyond frustrating right now. I think you must all be bi-polar because that was just a ridiculously stupid game. You had a fantastic start. Just like in Toronto. Squishy had the Habs 20,000th goal. It was a really nice one. But then  you sat on the damn lead and just like in the game in Toronto, you BLEW IT. And unlike in Toronto, you lost. Who thought sitting on leads was a great idea? WHO? And how thought that games could be won if they just rely on their PP and their goalie? It doesn't work! I repeat. It's a recipe for total disaster.

Don't blame Jaro for this one. No, he wasn't brilliant, but a team shouldn't need to rely on brilliant goaltending night after night after night after.... etc.... to win all the time.

This game was winnable. This game SHOULD have been won by the Habs. I'm particularly mad because it's the damn Sens. adjhaklsdhjaklsdhaklsdhaklsdhaklsj.......................

Three things about tonight

Numero Uno

Team Canada is out to demolish you. Especially if you're Latvian. Jake snored the whole game and the Team Canada routed the Latvians 16-0. Some of the goals were actually very pretty. Oh and someone please tell poor confused Nazem Kadri that he can't check people to the head in international tournaments. He's going to get in big trouble if he does that again. 

Nice way to start off the tournament though, Canada! 

Oh and as a side note: I hate that damn cheer. Eh-Oh-Canada-Go! is the stupidest cheer in the world. STOP CHEERING IT. I will drop-kick the next person I hear chanting it. Really. I will. Unless they're in a totally different city than me, in which case I can't just hop on a plane to go there and drop kick them. But you get what I mean. 

Numero Dos 

BAD HAMMIES LOSING THIS GAME. BAGSKATE. BAGSKATE. BAGSKATE. It was a huge division battle that also had All Star Game implications and what do you do? Oh! You leave Jeff Taffe along in front of the net not once but TWICE. TWICE. ARGH. ARGH. ARGH. Not impressed. Not. At. All. BAGSKATE! BAGSKATE! 

Ahem. Moving on.............

Amusing bit of the night: 

Flandersdude: I thought the Amerks mascot was a moose? 

Al: Yeah, it is a moose. 

Flandersdude: but I see a seagull down there in the stands.

Al: um that's an eagle, not a seagull. 

Flandersdude: *pause* it looks like a seagull........ 

.........And thought it was bad enough when we thought the Bingy Sens had a mouse for a mascot when in reality it was a lion (hey, it had no mane!)...... Oh Flandersdude.......  

Numero Tres

One day the Habs will have a nice convincing win. One day. Tonight was not that night though. After getting off to a great start, the Habs fell asleep and let Jaro do all the work. Poor guy....... I will admit it was pretty to see Burkie getting all upset after the first two goals though. And seeing Ron Wilson's presser afterwards made me smile. I take a lot of satisfaction in seeing Ron Wilson and Brian Burke get upset when the Leafs lose. 

We'll pretend that the Habs were trying to lure the Leafs into a false sense of security before they unleashed the Belarocket on them in OT. Bwahahahahahahaha. The Habs didn't have to be so generous by giving the Leafies the extra point though.. oh well. Komisarek was just sorta looking at the back of the net after Andrei scored in OT..... It was amusing. 

So what we learned today: Kadri could be too truculent for Team Canada, Truculence means nothing if you just stand there while the Belarocket blasts into the back of the net. And Flandersdude thinks the Amerks have a seagull for a mascot. 

Merry Christmas to me

I admit... I'm a demanding person. I asked specifically for the Habs to win tonight (the day that was supposedly all cursed for the team), for the Pens to demolish the Sens (I know, I know, but my gloating rights were at stake here), for the Caps to win in regulation time (with an Ovie goal in there too) and for the Leafs and Booins to lose for an early Christmas present.

Well... tonight my wishes were almost all  granted.

• The Habs had a resounding 5-1 over the Whalercanes. Of course they still got horribly outshot and Jaro was forced to bail the guys out on a few occasions but it was a good win. The PP is doing great on the road, Turtle-Pleky continues to be on fire (he actually very briefly had more points than Ovie tonight *G*), both Kostitsyn brothers scored, Metro had two, Markov had another one... So pretty!
  
  We'll ignore Gomez' double minor that resulted in a four minute PP (one for cross-checking and one for yapping at the ref) and the ensuing PP goal for the Whalercanes. It was but a small blemish on an otherwise nice win.
  
  Thanks for Aaron Ward the early penalty which gave the Habs a PP which then they scored on just 1:29 into the game! (and thank goodness Patches is okay).
  
  
• Oh boy, did the Pens ever demolish the Sens. Oh boy, oh boy. This would be absolutely gorgeous if it wasn't the Pens who demolished the Sens. Oh well. Can't have it all. We'll just be happy with a Sens loss! Should I apologize to the Sens relatives now? Because you know I might need to gloat a little bit about this. Just a little. Hey, they initiated it with the phone call, right?
  
  
• Caps win 5-2 thanks to goals from Pie, Greener, Morrison and.... Ovie!!! Such a pretty goal too.... Miller looked so cranky afterward (sorry, no love for you today, Miller). Very nice.
  
  
• Leafs got beat by Tavares. As long as the Leafs finish the season outside the bottom five, I'm okay (ie. please keep losing for now, Leafs).
  
  
• Thrashers almost came back against the Booins but ultimately they fell short and lost. Myeh. 

Yawnfest in Atlanta turns into a must-win for me

I got to be honest with you. Sometimes it's great to have a relative who routes for the enemy.

I was ready to yawn throughout the entire Habs game when checked my phone machine and got this lovely gem:

"I'm watching the Sens beat the Bruins and I think Atlanta is going to be playing the Habs so hopefully they win too."

I was just about to curl up with a pillow and snooze away. But nooooo. That's smacktalk! I couldn't just doze off now. No! I had to yell at the Habs to make sure that they woke up enough to win! It didn't need to be a beautiful win. They just needed to do enough to get the two points. I can't go into the holidays (and I know there's still one day left before I can relax completely) knowing that my Habs lost to the Thrashers while those horrible Sens beat the Bruins. Nuhuh. No way. No way.

Things were looking baaaaad though. The Habs were looking like they had just shoveled their way out of Long Island. It seemed like only Jaro had loaded up on the caffeine before the game. And thank goodness he did. Jaro's solid play early on coupled with the Thrashers inability to shoot the puck in a decent manner saved the Habs from going down 5-0. They did end up 1-0 after one though on a goal by Ilya (oh Ilya, we're just not getting along very well these days, are we?).  The second period was nicer when Turtle-Pleky and Andrei had two nice goals, thereby making Hedberg's save percentage look like absolute crap.

Of course that nice warm fuzzy feeling I was feeling didn't last. Of course not. A group effort in epic fail ensued in the third period when the Habs botched up the faceoff and Jaro botched up control of the puck and bingo! we were tied. It got worse too. Antropov threatened to ruin my night when the Habs obstructed their own goalie and helped the Thrashers score the go-ahead goal. News wasn't all that great in Ottawa either. There was STILL no score. Oh and the Leafs finally appeared to be beating Miller. GUHHH.

Of course MAB had to save my night. Couldn't have been Markov....nope. MAB tied it up on a super late powerplay and then MAB scored the game winner on a very sweet pass from Turtle-Pleky. Of course they had go and review the goal after the teams were already on their way out. Goal turned out to be good and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course it wasn't going to be enough if the Habs won. As much as I hate the Booins, they really needed to smack those Sens around. If they Booins were going to get blanked by the Leafs the other night (can we just say thanks for absolutely nothing, Boston?), then the least they could do was kick the Sens. They did just that as Marshmallow shut them out. Yeah, I know... I'm not celebrating a Booins win. Just a Sens loss. Different thing. Just like I'm not celebrating the Sabres come from behind win over the Leafs. I'm celebrating another Leafs loss. Thanks Miller!

In other news (and no, it's not minor league news so dont' run off yet)

• Chubby Marty FINALLY got his shutout record. Against the Pens too. Whooo! The Habs thank the Pens for being the sacrifices in the latest Chubby Marty record this time around. 
• Oh Philly.... I guess it wasn't Bub who was the problem, eh? they just lost again. 4-1 to the Panthers this time. 
• It's not a great night for Dubnyk and the Oilers.... the poor rookie goalie just let in 7 goals on 26 shots... ouch. 

Competitions everywhere and my players keep getting invited

To quote Benoit Brunet: Aye aye aye.....!

Stop with all these competitions, Canada! I can't keep up with who's been invited to which competition.

Aside from the WJC which only has Jake.... EDIT: erm sorry, Joonas Nattinen is also playing.... Several other guys from other teams have been invited to other competitions taking place in the next month or so.

I'm really throwing this out there for my benefit only, but you're free to tell me how stupid I am for trying to keep up with all of this *G*

The Under-17 Hockey Challenge is taking place between Dec. 29th and Jan. 4th. I find it slightly amusing that they call this an international tournament because of the 10 teams participating, 5 are from different parts of Canada. Oh well....  Apparently the Juniors have two players participating for Team Quebec. Only problem is I haven't seen itty bitty Xavi since he injured his wrist back in September and I've never heard of the other guy (Jimmy Oligny). Meh. I liked Xavi when I did see him so if he's actually playing, we definitely have to cheer for him.

The Petes and the IceDogs also have some players participating under Team Ontario. Mat Puempel and Dougie Hamilton (who I definitely noticed in the one IceDogs game that I heard *G*).

Anyway..... the CHL/NHL top prospects who didn't make the cut to the WJC are playing some thingy in Windsor next month. If only Windsor was closer... Wait, who am I kidding? Don Cherry is coaching one of the team. Yeah, no thanks. ANYWAY.

Aside from all those guys I can't stand in the Q because they're that good... IceDogs goalie Mark Visentin is going! Yay! He gets to be on Bobby Orr's team. Which is better than being on Don Cherry's team, I guess... I don't know?

Anyway... YAAAY! The WJC (of which I caught an exhibition game last night on the comp) is making me feel oddly patriotic. It's amusing.

Hammies finally down the Amerks!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Hammies beat the Amerks! EEEEE!

It wasn't pretty but they won!

• Guy sounds like he's got a cold.. that or he spent too much time yelling at the Hammies last night and the night before..... 
• Flandersdude: OH MY GOD. That was AWFUL. (re: the woman singing the national anthems in Rochester). If he says it's awful, it has to be awful (I missed most of it because I was trying to catch some of the Voltigeurs game). The bit I heard was awful...
• Ugh go away Salak. I don't like you at all. 
• Poo! Got his first goal as a Hammie. Yay! on the PP too! 
• Salak literally killed himself on that goal and now he's leaving... bring in... Beckford-Tseu. Neilson called him Becksy so we'll call him that too. 
• Ergh... Steiner tied it up....
• Guy's not going to be happy with this. Hammies outwork the Amerks and it's tied 1-1. 
• Hey ref, why is my team on the PK? I mean.. are they even on the PK? There's nobody in the box  but there's only four Hammies out there. FAIL. 
• WYMAN! 2-1!
• OMG DARCHE 3-1! And this is seconds later. 
• ARGH. Taylor on the PP (BAD WEBER). 3-2. 
• ASkjasdhakjsdhasj Johnson... 3-3..... RAR.........
• I smell a bagskate coming on... 
• I swear the Hammies would be winning this by a lot if Becksy wasn't being so good... 
• DAAARCHE! 4-3! 
• Okay, Hammies, you can do this. You can win this. You can... 
• EPIC FAIL. 4-4. Guy is probably going ballistic right now. That was awful, guys!
• you know it's sad that I said that Teddy has been good and Sanford has been awful and this weekend they decided to reverse everything. Sanford had a good night last night and Teddy is being all faily. 
• You guys can't lose to the Amerks again. You just can't... I won't stand for it!
• OMG no. Amerks score... @#$%^........
  
• Wait. Amerks don't score. People are booing. Teddy is getting angry and the ref isn't telling anyone what happened. 
• No goal for the Amerks! HAHA. Still no explanation as to why it's not a goal. It's Koharski so whatever...  
• We're going to OT though..... 
• DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARCHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! HAMMIES WIN 5-4! YAAAAAAY!
• I can hear Flandersdude in the commercial on the video feed saying that Neilson wrecked up his goal call of the last goal. Hahahaha....It sounded great with Neilson laughing at the Amerks.  
• We can rest with the knowledge that the Hammies still beat the Amerks and until said Amerks win on Tuesday, the Hammies are first in the division!

In other news nobody but me cares about... 

• IceDogs wiiiiiiiin! First time hearing one of their games and I keep forgetting how confusing it is to follow a team for the first time D: Oh well. Visentin was great in nets and the IceDogs won a game that they weren't supposed to win so yay! 
• Voltigeurs won too! Finally after blowing too many games to the Cataractes, they finally put this one away in a convincing 5-2 win. Dumont had his requisite goal. No penalty though (shocker, I know). Mr. Captain had an assist on Mr. Ovie of the Q's goal so I guess he wasn't dumped on the second line. Poor Philippe though.... He didn't score.... Vachon was becoming his BFF and now he can't play with his BFF anymore..... why is everyone so insistent on breaking up the BFFs? D: Dumont also had two more assists on Sean and Randazzo's goals =) 

So who's going to be Price's backup?

[this was supposed to go up on All Habs but I'm subjecting you guys to this first]

With Halak on the trading block, there has been a lot of discussion among the fans and the media over what the Habs will get in return for him. Some think it will be a second round pick, some want to see him packaged off with the rest of the team for Lecavalier. What people aren’t discussing is who’s going to be Price’s backup. Because I follow the Hamilton Bulldogs and I know a bit about the goalies in the system, I really think this should be up for discussion...

At first glance, it would seem that the Habs should be all set with regards to goaltending. At the beginning of the year, veteran goaltender Curtis Sanford was brought in to replace Marc Denis as the starting goalie in Hamilton. He was going to be backed-up by Cedrick Desjardins who finally got a permanent job in Hamilton last year. As an insurance marker, the Habs also have Robert Mayer who is spending his first pro-season in the ECHL.

When Sanford was signed in the off-season, many saw this a really good move. Marc Denis had struggled in his few NHL call ups and Sanford has had significant NHL experience with the Blues a few years ago. A lot of people felt at the beginning of the year that Sanford was brought in with the explicit purpose that he would become Price’s backup when Halak was traded (trade rumours start early around here!). Desjardins would take over as the starting goaltender and Mayer (who everyone forgets about) would be his backup.

I don’t know if that was management’s plan, but that was the plan made sense to the fans. Sounds good to you, right?

Well.. here’s where I think things could get interesting.

Desjardins has widely been overlooked in general - not surprising considering the Habs have had a multitude of goalies over the last few years. After getting shuffled around the ECHL and the AHL, he finally earned a permanent spot with the Bulldogs last year where he backed-up Marc Denis. After a slow start last year, he picked up his game and finished the season with some solid numbers.

This season, Sanford was definitely the undisputed number one goalie for the Bulldogs. He had some great numbers at the start of the season as the Bulldogs got off to a great start. Unfortunately, things started to go downhill a bit for Sanford. At first it was easy to contribute this to the birth of his latest kid. He missed about a week to be with his wife and I figured his drop in performance when he returned was because he lost his edge a bit after not playing at all for a week. Well, we’re now a good month past that and Sanford is still struggling. Luckily for the Bulldogs, but not so much so far Sanford, Desjardins has been playing some great hockey. Much like last year, Desjardins got off to a slow start but he has since picked up his game. And he’s picked it up a lot. He now has four shutouts in his last five game and has let in a grand total of one goal in that period.

With Sanford struggling and Desjardins putting up some great numbers, it would seem obvious that Desjardins should be the next call up. However, in my mind, there’s a few potential issues here. The first is that Desjardins has never played in the NHL before. The leap from the AHL to the NHL is a big one. I’m not saying that Desjardins can’t make that leap, I’m saying we don’t know if he can. There’s a lot of  players who do well in the AHL but can’t take that extra step and make in the NHL.

Which brings me to my second point. I don’t want to take away from Desjardins and what he’s done, but I really believe a some credit has to go to the rest of the team as well. The Bulldogs are much more committed to playing defence than the Habs are and this has helped their goalies out. In his string of shutouts, Desjardins has not had to stand on his head like the Habs have needed Price to stand on his head game after game. Again, I’m not trying to take away from what he’s done, but I don’t think it’s fair for anyone to think that he can put these type of great numbers up in the NHL right now - especially with a Habs team that continually leaves their goalies out to dry.

So why not just bring up Desjardins anyway, see how he does and if he fails, bring up Sanford?

I guess there’s nothing wrong in theory with calling up Desjardins anyway... maybe he’ll completely prove me wrong and he’ll be the saviour of the Habs. Maybe not. In the event that he does flops and Sanford comes up to play instead.... I’m going to have to be honest here, I’m not thrilled with the idea of Sanford being Price’s backup. At the beginning of the year when the Habs first signed Sanford, I expressed some concern over this. While it is true that Sanford has had NHL experience and his numbers were pretty good, his more recent NHL numbers are not wonderful. In two years with the Canucks, he only got to play thirty-five games. He was 4-3 with a .888 SV% and 3.18 GAA in his first year and 7-8 with a .906 SV% and 2.59 GAA. I think he probably would have played more with the Canucks when Luongo was out last year if it wasn’t for the fact that he got injured himself. He was eventually sent back to the AHL where he basically sat on the bench for the most part because the Canucks have a stellar goalie with their AHL team in Cory Schneider. Looking back at Sanford's career, you can see that he’s been plagued with a lot injuries. In fact, it looks like every time things seem to be going well for him, he comes down with an injury. His most recent issues have been back spasms which do keep him out of games. I’ve seen him once already this year have to leave in the middle of a game because of this. Not great.

So he gets injured. Send him back to Hamilton and call up Desjardins!

They can’t. Not unless they want to risk losing Sanford on waivers. The way the waivers work for Sanford right now is that he can be called up without any problem, but if the Habs want to send him back down to Hamilton then he will have to clear waivers. Unless the Habs really dont’ care about losing him or unless he really stinks while he’s here, once he gets called up, he stays. Desjardins isn't subjected to waivers this year.

As for Mayer....

From what I’ve been hearing from people who follow the Cyclones more than me, Mayer has been having problems finding some consistency to his game. He was initially splitting the goaltending job with Nasvhille Predators prospect Jeremy Smith (with Smith getting slightly more games). Without following the Cyclones more, I can’t give you more than that, but I’m not exactly jumping for joy at the news.

So really, in short.... Sanford has the NHL experience, but his recent play has been less than stellar to the point where I think he's lost his starting role in Hamilton for now. He's also quite injury prone and it looks like this year won't be any different. Waivers would ensure that once he's called up, he stays put. Desjardins has been playing great hockey recently but he has zero NHL experience. Whether he can maintain this play in the AHL even remains to be seen. Both goalies are aided by a Bulldogs squad that plays very solid defense so I think that's helped their numbers to some extent. And Mayer hasn't found his game in the ECHL yet which isn't a good sign for Bulldogs in the event that they lose Sanford or Desjardins to the Habs.

My personal take on this is that I really believe that the Habs will have to go goalie shopping if Halak leaves. I don't think that Sanford is a great choice for the long term. Healthy is going to be a big issue with Sanford. He's recent NHL numbers are not particularly encouraging for a team that needs to have solid goaltending. While I'm not sold on Desjardins, I think he has more potential. Again, though, I still don't believe he's technically sound. When I saw him play in Ottawa a month ago, his positioning was awful and he was scrambling all over the place. He could not handle the puck particularly well either (same goes for Sanford).

I guess none of this matters a lot if the Habs are going to take the same route as the Devils, Canucks and Rangers with their starting goalies (ie. Give them 70 + games a year and just pick up any guy as backup and never play him). I think that's a recipe for disaster but I'll save that ramble for another day.... Until the Habs play better defensively (or just plain play better), they're going to need solid goaltending if they are going to win games. I don't think they're necessarily going to get this out of Sanford and Desjardins.

eeeeeee!

WE MISSED YOU MARKOV!!!!! I was so busy multi-tasking tonight that I missed the finer points of Markov actually playing defense, but I did see him score twice. TWICE.

• Eeeeee!
• Metro had the other goal on the PP. I think Gomer heard us saying that he was pretty useless because he had the very nice assists.
• Squeaky Marty had no love whatsoever. The half empty building was filled with Habs fans and they were booing him all night. Ouch.
• YAY JARO! He played really solidly. I'm kinda sad that he's probably playing like this because he's ticked off. Oh well.... it was a nice win and he deserves the shutout very muchly.

Sanford wins a game!

• PK, Stevenson and Johansson were back after being healthy scratches last night. Tonight Gluu, Russel and Neilson sat out (more on Gluu in a sec).
• Valiquette kept robbing the Hammies of goals in the first period. Sanford sounded like he was finally getting back to being Sanford instead of  the AHL version of Vesa. 
• I'm sure Guy was ready to bagskate the Hammies after the first period. They got outshot in the first period (mainly because they spent too much time in the penalty box). 
• No seriously...Flandersdude said that he was telling Guy what a great period the Hammies had in the second period last night when they only allowed 3 shots on goal. Guy then said that he was yelling at them on the bench because three was too many shots on goal. Oh man........
• Anyway, after the first period, Gluu came to chat with Flandersdude. Poor Gluu. Flandersdude kept pointing out how bad he is when his BFF isn't playing. It was kind of sad. Poor Gluu. We all knows that he misses his BFF. Blame it on Poo.
• Caaaaaaarleeeee opened the scoring in the second! It was PA fail night in Hartford though. Apparently Carle's name is "Car-lay" now. Even Flandersdude was laughing.
• Dupont tied it up a few mins later....
• Daviiiiid "Des-SHAY-ness" apparently put the Hammies up 2-1 after that while the Hammies were on the PP. 
• I was hoping he'd say PK's name like the guy for the Lake Erie Monsters did  ("Soo-BAWN") but alas, no...
• they ended up outshooting the WolfPack 20-4 in the second period (see? that potential bagskate got them  going!)
• Russel was supposed to find his way to the press box but apparently it's situated in the middle of nowhere and so I guess he got lost because he didn't show up :D
• Annnnnnd Rrrrrrrrrryaaaaaaaan Whiiiiiiiiiite scored as he came out of the penalty box. PA guy got his name right.
• Sanford had a really good game tonight. His first good game in a looooooong time. So this is really good for him. Notice how they're saving Teddy for their matchup against the Amerks tomorrow. Assuming they make it there. The weather is apparently terrible down there. The Habs apparently only made it to the airport now.

And and and and and and

• The Petes downed the 67s 4-2! Yay Misshy!

Ho hum... another shutout....

So I was out tonight. Much to my dismay, I was stuck watching the Sabres/Leafs.

The highlights of the night go to Vesa and Elliot who decided to make Price's little mishap against the Devils look positively half decent. Thanks for making Carey feel better, guys. I know moral victories are supposed to suck, but it's the only type of victory that we're going to get right now.

ANYWAY... while I was simultaneously laughing and feeling bad for Vesa, the Hammies were busy getting another shutout. That would be their fifth in eight games. And yes, that would be Teddy's fourth shutout in five games (and we ALL know that he should have gone five for five, right Guy?).

The positives

• shuuuuuuuuuuutouuuuuuuuut 
• Stewie scored! 48 seconds into the game too. And it's his first goal of the year! 
• Brrrrrrrock Trotter had a shorty! 
• Daaviiiiiiiid! Assists go to his BFFs Trotter and Gluu (hey, wait, I thought Poo was supposed to be on the same line as David and Trotter? I think Guy realized that Gluu was feeling very left out because there is no way that Poo and David can be BFFs because Gluu is David's BFF). 
• And it sounds like Maxwell likes scoring when the PA guy is announcing another goal because he scored 21 seconds after. Whoo!

The not so positives (are these bagskate-able offenses?) 

• went 0 for 5 on the PP
• got outshot by a  huge margin of.... 26 to 23. 
• Poo had 1 SOG and a penalty in his Hammies' debut. And he tried to steal Gluu's BFF. THAT is a bagskate-able offense!
• PK sat the game out. I heard he was a healthy scratch but I don't know for sure if this is right. Bottom line is, he didn't play. Come back soon, PK? 

And in CHL hockey that nobody really cares about but moi.... 

• Voltigeurs fell asleep and lost to Gatineau by a score of 6-4. Gatineau went up by four goals before the Voltigeurs decided to not roll over and die. Dumont (OMG Philippe with an assist! and Mr. Ovie of the Q too) and Desnoyers (surprise, surprise, Dumont with the assist!) had two goals before Gatineau scored again. Dummont (gasp, no assist!) and Randazzo (oh Bergeron with an assist) put the Voltigeurs within one before the horrendous looking Olympiques put the game away with an empty netter.
  
  Random thoughts: 1) Gatineau has an ugly jersey but at least we're blessed with mostly good looking jerseys in the Q. This is more than I can say for the OHL. 2) I wonder if Vachon has been demoted from the top line? I thought he was the other night when he was playing with Philippe on the second line, but the lines were all haywire anyway...
  
  
• The Peterborough Petes are making me question why I decided to follow them. They're Misshy's team in case you wanted to know. Anyway, Misshy wasn't in nets as they took on the Ottawa 67s. And umm... I don't know how good Misshy's backup is, but he ended up losing the game 8-0. In their defense... well... umm... they played last night? nah, there's no excuse for this type of loss. Not even in the CHL. 

MARKOV

*points to news*

MARKOV.

Five things about tonight

First off....

I'm not buying this whole "oh but they were so tired" excuse. And yeah, it is an excuse. AHL teams have to put up with playing loads of back-to-back games and sometimes three games in a row. They deal with it. If NHLers are supposed to be the best hockey players in North America, then they should be able to deal with it too.

Everyone has a tough schedule this year because of the Olympics. The Habs aren't the only ones with a crappy schedule.

Don't blame the schedule on the team's losses.

Second...

If I say the Habs are doing badly right now, it doesn't mean that I'm a bad fan. The reality is that the Habs have some major issues right now. If you don't think they have issues, then you're watching a very different team from me. Saying they have issues, does not make me a bad fan.

Third...

The Habs do stink. At least tonight I can stop copying and pasting the phrase "stupid penalties cost them the game" and say "not converting on half their chances cost them the game tonight". If they had actually managed to convert on some of their many chances in the second period, they probably would have won. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

Fourth....

Can everyone shut up about Latendresse now? By "everyone" I mean RDS and the guys on the Voltigeurs radio. And speaking of shutting up..... Latendresse needs to shut up too. You were given EVERY chance to succeed here. More than anyone else. You were next to useless this year (and you've clearly prove that you could have fixed the main issues you had here). So please, shut up, and stop dissing the team.

Fifth....

A few post game thoughts from the guys....(courtesy of @MAGodin)

Martin says: "The morale of the team doesn't worry me. We worked better than in the last 4 of 5 games." Cammalleri says: "Moral wins suck."

Martin says: "Injured guys coming back will help"
Cammalleri: "We played better with a more depleted lineup."

In other news....

• Hockey in Montreal is failing all around these days. Juniors just dropped a 3-2 game to the Foureurs. I wonder how much better they would be if they had consistent coaching....  Oh well. 
• The Voltigeurs continued to beat up MAINEiacs. They won 7-3. Dumont had two goals (almost had a hat trick again). Philippe had a goal too. And it was a shorty! Yay! Second in a week now. I think he's waking up now =) Not sure what was going on with the lines in the third period. They were all haywire, but it seemed that if you played on a line with Mr. Ovie of the Q, you were going to score. He had four assists (three were primary assists as well).

Meh

I'm still yawning after that game.

Ugh.

There are only so many creative ways one can say "if the Habs hadnt' taken so many stupid penalties then perhaps they could have generated some offense and perhaps then they could have scored. As it is, they took too many stupid penalties, couldn't generate any offense and couldn't score."

Sorry. I take the last bit back. They did score. And shorthanded too (like they were going to score five on five? They were almost never at even strength in the first period). So at least we don't need to hear about how bored great Brodeur was when he shutout the Habs. Thanks Moen!

Oher than that.... it was meh......... Even for a Devils game it was particularly meh-ish.... which is hard to believe because Devils games are always meh-ish. ALWAYS. But this one was particularly meh-ish.

Meh.

The entire team lost the game tonight. Group effort in failiness.

In other news

• I hope Guy is bagskating those Hammies for that ugly loss to the Admirals last night. You don't hold a 1-0 lead for 40 mins only to completely implode in the third. Bagskate! Bagskate! Bagskate!
• I have to be nice to the Coyotes now. They kept the Leafies from catching up to the Habs. Thanks Coyotes. I think I kinda like Doan, by the way.
• There are too many ex-Habs in this Ducks/Canucks game. Schneider for the Canucks and Koivu and Chipper for the Ducks. Don't like it. And I don't like those creepy twins. They're creepy.
• Sabre lose! Yes! Unfortunately, the Sens win. Boo.

Now that I'm done being a sarcastic jerk myself...

... Can we have a round of "YAY!" for Jake Allen who made the final cut for Team Canada's roster? I know a lot of people were touting him as the guaranteed no. 1 way back in August even, but I had some doubts that he'd actually make the final cut. Good for him! He and Martin Jones will be backstopping the Canadians this year (nopers, Hackett didn't make it).

Go Jake! Please, please, please don't duck when the puck comes at your face.

And it looks like I'm going to have to get along with Scandella. He's made the cut. So have Luke Adam, Patrice Cormier, Jordan Caron and Gabriel Bourque from the Q. Whoopy....Oh and enjoy cheering for Nazem Kadri, everyone. It'll probably be the last time we can cheer for our poor ex-Habs-fan-turned-Leaf. Poor kid.....

And finally.....Can we please put down the pitchforks? There was no way that Louis Leblanc was going to make the cut. No way. Canada has enough depth to field at least two contending teams for crying out loud. There was no way that Louis, who's only played a handful of games with Harvard, was going to beat out guys who have played in the CHL for a spot on the team. They have a lot more experience and have had a lot more playing time than him. I'm not ragging on him or the ECAC, I'm just staying that there's no wide spread conspiracy here.

Halak is like, totally, such a jerk

Halak is clearly a jerk.

How else could you describe a guy who so very clearly wants to skip out of town right now? His intentions were made clear after a report surfaced from the always accurate and unbiased source from ruefrontenac. com. The reports (from the site's resident Gainey lover, Betrand Raymond) say that Gainey is shopping Halak around to different teams.

Shopping Halak?! But why would Gainey do such a thing?

Like I said, Halak's intentions were made clear after he was mobbed by the media after practice today. In his interview - and no, the media didn't harass him until he finally gave them an answer. Why would they do such a thing? This is the Montreal media we're talking about, folks -  he said that that the matter was "between his agent and Gainey and that he didn't want to talk about it". By saying this he clearly stated that he wants to be traded right now or else he sneak out in the middle of the night and join another team. He's clearly saying "I'd rather retire than be a backup goalie for the rest of my life".

What a jerk.

When he says that he "wants to play more", he's so obviously being a total ingrate. What do you mean you don't like sitting on the bench for two weeks in a row? What the hell is your problem? Jeez. Get lost! Lots of goalies sit on the bench. You know what this reminds me of? Scott Clemmensen. He was a real jerk too. Clemmensen played in a grand total of 13 games one season and 6 the next when he was a Devil the first time around. He skipped town to go play with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He ended up playing 40 games with the Marlies. What kind of cruel person steals the starting job from a great goalie like Justin Pogge? Heartless, I tell you. But it gets worse. Clemmensen goes back to New Jersey where he injures Brodeur so he could take over his job. How cruel! Seriously, Halak is like, so taking after Clemmensen here.

What an epic jerk.

All this time when he's just gone about his job without complaining, he was secretly plotting against Price and the Canadiens! Now the truth comes out! How long before reports come out saying that he's been paying Gorges to injure Price? I'm betting it won't be all that long to be honest. Just you wait! I mean really, why else would Gorges appear to be trying to kill his own goalie game after game?

When you hear Halak say that he's a "team guy" and that the team "winning is more important than who's in nets" he's getting it all wrong in translation in his little brain. What he really means is that "I want to be number one or else I'll throw a hissy fit. I hate Carey Price and I think Keith Ballard should take him out next time we play the Panthers".

Wow. What. A. Jerk.

Obviously he has huge issues speaking English and doesn't know to form a negative sentence in the language because when he says that he "likes Montreal" he means that he hates it and that he thinks the fans are horrible and he wishes he was back in Slovakia. It's amazing how long sentences become when you fully translate them from semi-English into full English.

And to cap it all off? He's totally diminished his trade value by publicly demanding for a trade. We could have had Briere! Or Claude Giroux! Or we could have packaged him off with those godawful Kostitsyn brothers for VINNY. But nooooooo.... now that he's so obviously proven to be a cancer in the locker room by publicly demanding a trade, his trade value has gone down, down, down, to the point where Gainey might only get a second round pick for him. Oh the horror of it all.

What a selfish jerk.

So now that we know what a jerk he is, let's all write up loads of articles and blogposts about what a moron he is and how he totally deserves to be dumped. Because dear people, Halak is CLEARLY out to destroy Price, he hates our city and he clearly whines and complains too much. Let's sick him on another team. Let them deal with this total jerk. Because clearly, Halak does not deserve to be a Hab.

[and you're damn right this was full of sarcasm. Just putting that out there in case anyone thinks other wise]

5 things

1. *curls up in a ball and points to the news* I will save the drinking for when he actually leaves....
   
   
2. They're holding a fundraiser in Kirkland for a kid who got injured in a hockey tournament in November. He's just 15 and is paralyzed after being checked into the boards. This really struck me really hard for some reason.... I can't really explain it..... There's a great article on him here.
   
   
3. Now THIS is a teddy bear toss. Wow, Calgary! Oh and apparently Guy got hit upside the head with a teddy bear the other night *G* I find that hilarious *G*
   
   
4. Seguin was among the first guys to be cut from Team Canada. I'm pretty surprised by this. Yes, he's only 17, but for a guy who's been touted as going first or second overall, it's kinda surprising. Actually, I'm pretty surprised that Louis Leblanc hasn't been cut yet. I've heard he's been struggling at camp - which is not surprising considering how few games he's up against guys from the CHL.
   
   
5. Sea Dogs finally lost a game. Their winning streak ended at 22 games. Insane. Now shoo.
   
   

Back off my Hammies broadcasters, Sabres!

We all know I'm a selfish brat when it comes to my Hammies. I like my Hammies in Hammie-town and I like my Hammies broadcasters in Hammie-town.

Which is why I'm not incredibly thrilled that the Sabres seem interested in Flandersdude.

This better not be the start of something here. I know everyone in Hammie-town dreams of going to the NHL but damnit! it's FLANDERSDUDE. The guy who got me to listen to the Hammies in the first place. I'll give up all the Hammies to keep Flandersdude in Hammie-town. YES. ALL OF THEM.

and plus, it's the SABRES of all teams.... At least it's not the Leafs... or the Booins.... or the Sens.... but the Sabres?! ewwwwww........ =/

I really do not approve of this and I hope it's only temporary. If not... I'm starting a "keep Flanderdude in Hammie-town" petition.

I'm baaaaaaaaack

Oh yes, your (relatively) free EP week is OVER. I'm back and I've just read up on a pile of scores so now you get to suffer while I squeee and RAR over what is now kinda old news.

1. So that imaginary bagskate must have worked because the Hammies shutout the Heat today! David had super awesome short handed goal to kick things off for the Hammies. Cue the teddy bear tossing! And unlike in Mooski, everyone was expecting these teddies. Well.... not David apparently. David was probably all like "um dude, I know it was nice to get the goal but I don't need stuffed animals..." Stevenson and Trrrrrrrrotter also had goals on the PP and a EN. Whooo!
   
   
2. BRING OUT THE BANNERS! Philippe has remembered how to score again! Just when I said that he's been stone cold... he goes off and scores a goal. Oddly enough, I also mentioned that if he played on the same line as the league leading goal scorer (Sean) and/or Gabriel and/or Vachon, he'd stand a better chance of scoring. It just so happens that Mr. "I'm the Ovie of the Q" and Mr. "I live in the penalty box" did have the two assists on Philippe's goal. Oh and Philippe also had an assist on Comtois's goal which kicked off the scoring in the game. That was a good night for the Baby Habs!
   
   
3. UGH Ilya. We're not getting along anymore.... Poor Habbies need to stop living in the penalty box.....
   
   
4. Baby Juniors lost 8-6 against Gatineau. Obviously it was a scoring fest and the goalies were pretty useless. That would be Berube and Clermont in nets if you're wondering. Not necessarily surprised that Berube let in 8 goals - more on that in a sec - but I am surprised that Gatineau allowed 6 goals... against the Juniors. Oh well. Good job anyway, baby Juniors!
   
   
5. Speaking of Berube and Jake.... I'm absolutely totally confused as to whether Jake's been traded or not. I heard one thing that said he was traded to the Sea Dogs (BOOOO) and that he was going to join the team after the WJC. A note was added later that nobody from the Juniors or the Sea Dogs wanted to confirm that the trade had taken place afterall. Whatever. The point is, the Juniors can't expect to go anywhere with Berube letting in 8 goals and baby Marcoux filling in as backup. So either smack Berube until he learns not to let in more than say... 3 goals in a game and if that fails,  better hope baby Marcoux has been practicing. A lot. COME BACK JAKE! D:
   
   
6. I love the security guys at the Canadian/US border. No really, I do. On the way down the guy was like "so what are you doing in DC?" And I'm like "Seeing hockey? And uhh the Smithsonian, I guess...." And then we started talking about how great the Bell Centre is for a game and I explained how amazingly awesome Ovie was and all that. It was great *G* On the way back explained what we did there. Saw a Caps game... and a broadway show, etc, etc, etc. And then guy is like "so I guess she liked the hockey game more than the broadway show, eh?" I think he was being slightly sarcastic because he looked totally surprised when I was like "OF COURSE". I guess I don't look like a typical hockey fan... Oh well xP

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS CAPS

*takes a breath*

CAAAAAAAAAAAAAPS!

Okay. Sorry. One sec. Still calming down. Hang on.....

OLEEEEE! Wait. Wrong team.

Okay.... in that case........

HOLY HOCKEY GODS, DO YOU KNOW HOW CLOSE I WAS TO OVIE? And Pie? And like... the rest of the Caps?!!!!!! LIKE SERIOUSLY? (I just wrote LAICH instead of LIKE. No jokes).

I'm kidding you not, look at my amazing seats courtesy of @nursebobbi1 and her hubby (THANK YOU SO MUCH! THANK YOU!).

Yes, that is ICE LEVEL. Excuse me while I go squeal with delight. One row back from the boards. I actually had no idea where my seats would be until I walked into the building. I was like "WUT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! (Was too excited to edit the photos so you'll have to live with dark pictures).

Can we dub this the Caps Group Hug of Wiiiin? CAN WE? CAN WE?

Okay. The game.. it wasn't the prettiest Caps' game in the world, but the point is that they won! Do know how pleased that makes me? VERY. VERY. VERY. VERY PLEASED.

The only slight blemish - and I mean VERY slight - is that the wrong Alex scored two of the Caps four goals. To be fair to A2, he had very pretty Ovie-cool goals. Especially his game tying goal with .6 seconds left in the second period. SO YAAAAAAY A2!

My only pic of A2.

FLASH had the go ahead goal. No pics of Flash. Because... well.... I dunno...I was kinda looking at Ovie...

And... Greener had an assist on...freaking Gleason's SHORTHANDED goal.

BUT!

He made it up by scoring game winner! Set up very nicely by DC's resident Cutie-PIE.

GREENER. We can't be mad at you when you won the game. I mean.. it's not like Guy Boucher is your coach. Hahaha.....

PIEEEEE! EEEEEEEEEEEEE!

So yeah.

Random notes:

• Those flipping Leafs continue to mess with me even when I'm in a totally different city, minding my own business. Jiri Tlusty had the first goal for the Whalercanes. You know.... The guy the Leafs traded to the Whalercanes last week or the week before. STUPID LEAFS. I HATE YOU. 
• I'm simultaneously amused and slightly annoyed that the Caps think it's cool to show highlights of their guys scoring on my Priceberg on their big screen. If it wasn't Ovie's supposed "goal of the year"(that one against King Hank in the playoffs was waaaaaaay better) against Pricey last year, it was Pie scoring the shootout winner in November (fine, so it was a nice goal). My poor Pricey D: 
• Hi Ward! When did you come back? Happy you're all un-injured and all, but it would've been nice if you had let Ovie score a goal, yes?
• Yes, I kinda waved to TK D: He looks so awful in a Whalercanes jersey...............
• Okay so there were these twerpy people in front of us. I won't go on about them but at one point their left their alcoholic drinks on the boards during the game. They provided a perfect example of why you don't leave your drinks on the boards during a game. Whalercane comes up to the boards. Cap smashes said Whalercane into the boards. Alcoholic drinks go spilling everywhere. EP dies of laughter. 
• Brind'Amour looks a lot worse close up. I kid you not. Oh and... Pikanen, I'm ashamed to admit, looks pretty good. Minus the Whalercanes jersey, of course. 
• Oh and yes.... If Ovie wasn't going to score, the least he could do was smash a Whalercane right? I mean, in a way that would keep him from being suspended of course.... Well, he smashed a Whalercane alright. Into the boards. Right in front of me. Eee! Almost as good as a goal :D 
• Pics are here. 

To sum it up....

Saw the Hope Diamond. Saw one of the original planes flown by the Wright brothers. Saw Ovie. Trip = success.

Notes from Hammie-town

No. I'm not in Hammie-town. I'm still in Capsland. I'm just trying to kill time before it's "Caps o'Clock". Yes, my idea of killing time is reading the Spec (Hammie-town's paper?).

I find this bite super entertaining for no reason. This was from after the Hammies beat the Heat 5-1.

A goal by Riley Armstrong at 14:46 of the third period ended Desjardins' franchise-record shutout streak at 212 minutes and 37 seconds.

It meant Desjardins fell 37 minutes and 14 seconds short of tying the AHL record of 249.51 set by Johnny Bower with the Cleveland Barons in 1957.

"Since 1957! Now I'm really ticked," said Bulldogs coach Guy Boucher when he was told how close his goaltender was to a record that had stood for more than 50 years.

"It was a breakdown in our end and the guys just got a little greedy. I want to be mad at the guys for that but I can't be because they played really well."

That's right, Guy. Bagskate those slackers for ruining Teddy's record attempt! BAGSKATE! BAGSKATE! BAGSKATE! RAR! HAHAHA...... yeah, I'm having a lot of fun laughing at the thought that he'd really bagskate them for that..... err....

Anyway... Poor Darche!

Mathieu Darche is not particularly fond of pastel blue hockey sweaters.

"It might as well be pink," the Hamilton Bulldogs forward was saying yesterday after practice as he stared at the sweater that he's hoping he won't have to wear for too much longer.

Hockey players are known for wearing their scars, cuts, and bruises as badges of honour. A pastel blue sweater, which injured players are forced to wear in practice, basically screams out "I'm hurt and I'm very fragile right now so please don't hit me."

Also...puffy blue sweaters basically scream out "Please don't hit me"? Funny... I thought it was the opposite. You know, smash a Puffle that dares to wear those horrendous puffy blue jerseys?

Okay Habs, what is going on? First you call White up. He gets to play all of 4 minutes before he's told "oops, sorry, your club didn't tell the NHL that you're playing today so you're not on the roster and thus, you have to get the hell off the ice". After that, you send him back to Hammie-town the next day. Eh? To top things off, Weber gets called up for one game and is promptly sent back the next day. EH? What is with this?

Annnnnnnnnd finally............

Poo is coming to Hammie-town for a conditioning stint. Behave yourself, Poo. Or else Guy will get mad. And nobody wants Guy to get mad.

Dear Teams: Why do you all win when I leave town?

So.... Teddy added a pile of minutes to his personal shutout streak (which is totally a franchise record) as the Hammies smashed up the Heat. Stupid Heat had to be a pain and end his shutout streak late in the third period. Oh well. Hammies won 5-1 so it's all good! 

Missed most of the game but it was all good. Johansson came back from being injured and scored a goal. Stevenson had what I believe is his first goal with the Hammies. Or is his second? No, it's his first. Just checked. It's Johansson's first too. Whoooooooo! Brrrrrock Trotter had a goal. And David had a goal. And Russel had a SHORTY. Second shorty for the Hammies this season! C'mon Guy, you have to be happy with that, yes?!

Kinda sad that Teddy didn't get the shutout though. I blame Flandersdude for saying the S word. He said it and then didn't want to say it. Then he said it again D: 

Amusing moment of the post-game.... 

Flandersdude: Someone has their TV on REALLY loud. It's blasting into our headsets.... 

Me: *turns down her TV which is blasting REALLY loud* sorry.... oh wait... it's not my TV.... 

........

The Voltigeurs took their anger out on the MAINEiacs and beat them 5-1. Gabriel has now upped his requisite one penalty a game to three penalties a game. Philippe still can't score.... D: 

And it should come as no surprise that the Juniors won tonight. Meanies always win when I'm not following them..... They squeaked by the Chicoutimi... Cucumbers? I always call them that. I have no idea what their real name is. Anywho, they squeaked by them 3-2! Thank you Parkes, GOOOcheeeee and Thorne! 

....

Oh and someone tell the Caps that being shutout by Miller is not fun. WIN ON FRIDAY! :D

HAHAHAHA I MADE IT ALIVE

After waking up at what I call an ungodly hour - 6:45 - and sitting on various trains for the next... 18 hours.. I AM HERE.

HAHAHAHAHA. YEAH!

Would TOTALLY not be announcing my arrival if it were not for the fact that I HAVE to mention a few things (and you were all looking forward to a break from me. Sorry).

• I passed through four hockey cities. Albany, New York, New Jersey (I see where you Devils play!), Philly... and I met someone in the taxi from Arizona. She said that nobody watches the poor Coyotes. She said they don't watch them 'cause they suck. As opposed to not watching them because nobody cares about hockey anyway. 
• OMG. LIKE WHO IS GOING TO GET SUPREME GLOATING RIGHTS WITH THE SENS RELATIVES OVER THE HOLIDAYS? ME! ME! ME! ME! Unless of course, the Habs go on a losing streak.... But right now I'm all like "Jaro is my hero right now! YAAAAAAAAY!". Did the Habs fans get to sing Ole? Do I have to sing it here in DC? 'cause I will. 
• oh and Habs.. don't think I see what you did tonight. You re-called Whitey and then didn't tell the NHL about it? And hence, they had to yank him from the game. JEEZ. 
• The Hammies are raffling off gift baskets made up by the players and containing their favorite things. Weber's will have a pile of Swiss chocolate! Eeee! I don't even like chocolate but I find that SO cute. And kinda cliched almost :D
• I kinda wanna be in Dundas to watch the Hammies community practice doodad thingy on Saturday.... D: who wants to go to Dundas, Ontario and report for me? Anyone? Why are there crickets chirping? Fine. Don't :D

Okay it's 2:30 in the morning and I'm exhausted do... Byebye! *runs off*

I like going away presents

Off to DC tomorrow (eeeeee CAPS!) and as a going away gift the Habs decided to win!

Eeeeee!

It was a whacky kind game.

• Local twerp Itty Bitty had a awful goal (re: it was probably nice if you were a Flyers fan). Habs initially looked to want to give the Flyers the win. I know the Flyers were ticked off, but the Habs were just... sleepy. 
• Local twerp Itty Bitty actually took a penalty for highsticking Hal Gill of all people, in the face. TWERP. 
• Have no fear! Super Pleky was there to save the day. Err kinda. He made a sweet pass in front of the net to give the puck to Andrei who was standing right in front of Boucher (nope, no Emery tonight). BINGO. Tied game! 
• Then it was back to botched up passes and zombie skating. From both teams. 
• RDS was being ridiculous again with some crappy comments about how Lapierre's botched attempt to get into the Flyers zone was Sergei's fault somehow. Peh. 
• You can only imagine then, how immensely pleased they were when Lapierre did some pretty sick work to get to the net and set up Squishy beautifully. Not use being spiteful to RDS here. Max-Not-Pac did a great job on that assist. 
• Oh and MAB pretty much proved that he's only useful on the PP. At least he is useful on the PP. He got the Habs third goal of the night!
• WHOO! 
• Oh and how did Briere get the second star of the night? Seriously? Should've given one to Boucher! Sheesh. I like Boucher by the way. He helped my team win last year when the Sharks came to town. And now he helped again! w00t. 
• Apparently that 3 goals in 13 shots (yes, 13 shots over the whole game) is a record. Cool! 

Okay. I will be gone until... well.... Late Sunday.....Will try to catch some stuff, but don't expect any awesome recaps of my really faily teams. Do feel free to cheer for the Habs, Juniors, Voltigeurs and Cyclones while I'm gone, okay? The Juniors especially always do better when I'm not watching them *G*

Eeeeeee!

It'd be funny if it wasn't so sad

I'm talking about the baby Juniors.

Someone has decided that they're not allowed to win when I come watch them.

They went to shootouts with the Remparts. And lost.

They held off the Voltigeurs for 50 minutes. Before imploding.

They did an admirable job against the Cataractes. Before giving up the go-ahead goal with 6 mins left.

And yesterday? Oh well, they had a second period meltdown and lost to one of the worst times in the league.

Seriously. What I have done to deserve all this fail? The ONLY time they won when I was there was waaaaaaaay back in August when they beat the PEI Rocket (quite handily too). Like I said, it'd be funny if it wasn't so sad.

Oh well. Suck it up, Baby Juniors, because I'm not not coming to see you play. It's still too much fun to watch you. So NYAH. Deal with it.

P.S. Jake... I'm fearing for your place on Team Canada's roster. I really am.

P.P. S. The Juniors need to do something about getting their own fans into the building though. I don't like sitting in a section filled with people cheering for the opposing team. Mind you, the Foreurs do have a lot of local guys on their team... but still... FIE on the opposing team's fans. FIE.

P.P. P. S. why was the Juniors bus sitting outside the arena? They're playing their next two games here. Unless you're trying to tell me that they actually bus the guys back home... that'd be funny :D

P.P. P. P. S. Who is number 9 for the Juniors? The guy's jersey says "Desharnais" but the roster online and on the paper that the people gave me say it's Hugo Roux. Mind you, the rosters keep saying that Xavi is playing and I haven't seen or heard anything about Xavi since his wrist injury a few months ago. I'm confused.

P.P. P. P. P. S. Nice fail against Shawinigan, Voltigeurs.... seriously..... I do believe this is karmic retribution for beating them in the finals last year. Damn karma.

P. P. P. P. P.P. S. Hey, Voltigeurs, the Sea Dogs just won 20 in a row. If you had won that shootout against them, this would not have happened..... grrrrrr!

Battle of Who Can Fail More

Preee-gaaaame stufffs

• RYAN WHITE is back. I guess this means Poo is going to be back soon? 
• And as Flandersdude said the Hammies are "dreaming of a Ryan White Christmas". Um, actually, he kinda sang it. I say "kinda" because I actually didn't recognize the melody. Hahaha. Poor Flandersdude. He can't sing..... 
• Trrrrotter was sick last night. Guy said he wasn't going to play but then he marched in before the game and said he was playing. So he played. Bwahahaha. 
• Teddy also has a franchise record for the longest shutout streak by a goalie (as opposed to the team). 
• Jeez, Guy, can't you just enjoy the three shutouts? No? I keep forgetting this is the same guy who hates losing. To the point where he hates losing at cards to his little kids. Ah dear..... 

The game 

• well.. it started off bad. The Marlies finished the first period up 2-0. Flandersdude says "we'll replay the  Marlies goals, but it will sound like nails on a chalkboard for the Bulldogs fans". 
• Fighty fighty fighty
• I think the Marlies are way more truculent than the Leafs. If truculent means "cheap hitting everyone". 
• fighty fighty fighty
• White wants to demolish a Marlie! Welcome back to the AHL!
• GLUU! 2-1!
• UGH. Marlie goal. 3-1 
• DAVID! 3-2!
• PA fail in Toronto. They can't run the PA system through the radio hence we can't hear the Marlies guy announcing the Baby Habs goal. 
• WYMAN! 3-3!! 
• Fighty fighty fighty! 
• UUUUUUUUUUUGH. Marlie goal........... 4-3.............*headdesk*
• Ref you suck!
• Omg, NEILSON with a goal? 4-4! HAHAHA. Wow!
• Fighty fighty fighty 
• I'm sure Guy is standing there going "guhhh". 
• ARGH ANOTHER BLEEPING MARLIES GOAL. 
• Flandersdude wonders if it's a battle to see who can lose this game 
• Rrrrrrrrrrrryaaaaaaan Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrusssssel! TIED AGAIN. 
• They keep changing the assists for all the goals..... 
• Fighty fighty fighty
• OT
• I hate Stalberg
• fighty fighty fighty
• Hammies PP fail 
• Trotter hits the crossbar.... 
• @#$%^ Stalberg wins it for the Marlies. I hate this guy. SOMEONE SMASH HIM. BAD GIVEAWAY, HAMMIES. *smashes the Marlies*
• And the stats guys in Toronto fail. BIG TIME. 

The Sean Couturier Show aka the Voltigeurs/Mooski game 

• he had a five point game as the Voltigeurs FINALLY won a game. They should be thanking the Juniors for tiring out Mooksi first. 
• Larabie, Brunelle and Randazzo had the three others for the Voltigeurs. Emond had the lone Mooski goal. 
• Baby Hab Dumont had his requisite penalty of the game (he thinks his home is in the penalty boxes, I swear) and he added a goal and two assists too. 
• Philippe doesn't know how to score anymore D: 

In other news...It's Scrum Night in Canada 

• Leafs got blown out by the Booins. If this trend of getting blown out by a division rival one night only to blow out another division rival the next keeps up, then the Leafs are due to blow out the Sens, who will then blow out the Sabres (who won't be blowing out the Habs again). Highlight of the game: The Czech Bulldozer smashed Komisarek. And here I was fretting over who would take over Looch's job.... Ah.... 
• Welcome back to the NHL, Laviolette. Caps blow out the Flyers 8-2 despite actually being outshot by the Flyers. What. The. Hell?! Anyway, who said the Caps need Ovie to score? Oh and Pie = awesome. 
• Puffles vs Peachhawks was boring as hell from the bit that I saw. I was hoping for a lot more from these two teams. Way too many scrums and either it was the crapp FSN feed coming in via RDS or something but the crowd was SUPER quiet. Boring. 
• Sharks and Flames are fighting already and the game just started... myeh.... 

One does not simply walk into the Bell Centre

.... especially not on the Habs 100th birthday!

Thanks to Number31 for reminding me of that quote from Lord of the Rings. How does that tie in? Why because Viggo Mortensen was there tonight! You know... Aragorn? Doesn't anyone remember when I said he was a Habs fan last year?

Anyway.. pre-game stuff

• Absolutely amazing pre-game stuff. Yeah, yeah, I watch the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, call me whatever you want after I complained last night that I wouldn't do it. It was way better than I thought it was going to be. It was really well done. Habs know how to throw a party. 
• I really loved the bit where they had all the old players coming out for a pre-game skate. Really awesome. I'm forgetting the finer points of the all the ceremonies. Hey, did start... 6 hours ago!
• No Koivu made me sad though.
• It was really great to see Lach and Bouchard's numbers retired. Probably the most touching moment of the entire thing. How cool is it to be like 90 something and have your number retired? SO cool. 
• O'Byrne is a super classy guy. he didn't need to change his number ahead of tonight's game but he did it anyway. 
• I hope they're going to sell that group photo of all the guys on the ice. Like in HUGE poster form. I would buy that.

The Game 

• I think the old guys should show up to every game because the Habs came out flying!
• Pricey with a saaaaaveeee!
• Head Pigeon! I thought it looked Patches got a stick on it, but I guess not. 1-0!
• Hey.. why is there a 5 on 3 for the Booins? I don't get it?
• KILL THE PENALTIES! KILL! 
• OMG they killed it off! 
• Pleky almost has a goal on the Marshmallow. Scrum in front. SQUISHY! 2-0. HELL YEAH. 
• Marshmallow decides to give Squishy a birthday present by coughing up the puck right in front of the net. Squishy scores. 3-0! 
• METRO! Gill gets the assist! Oh yes, that would be TWO ex-Booins who worked together on that goal. Karma, I tell you. No goals for Begin or Ryder. 
• Seriously, didn't Marshmallow have a broken hand? What's wrong with his glove hand? It's all screwey. Oh well. 
• Uhoh... Sergei injured?! Gomer lost his new best friend.... D: 
• Aaaaaaaaandddddddd haaaaaat triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick for Squishy!!!!!!! 
• We can forget about the rest of the game. The Czech Bulldozer ruined Pricey's shutout, but that was it from the Booins. Oh and the Milk Crate Thrower finished the game for the Booins. Marshmallow had to sit the rest out. 
• Patches is working his butt off tonight. 
• Oh noes! Habs fans at the BC are SINGING. And there's 8 mins left!!!! Shut up! 
• PRICEY! 
• Habs finish off the Booins. WHOOOOOO! 

Please note how I didn't stick it to the Booins fans on twitter. I was a (relatively) gracious winner.

Post game cake handouts! We'll just steal THIS cake from l'antichambre too! 

this is also from Number31. Yes, I'm stealing all of her stuff tonight

• Pricey gets five pieces because we're giving him one for every goal the Habs scored on the other team
• Sqiushy gets three pieces of cake for the hat trick!
• Gorges gets one piece for his great work tonight
• Patches gets one piece for working his butt off
• Sergei gets one because he got hurt
• Metro gets one piece for being Metro. And for scoring on the Booins 
• Head Pigeon gets one piece because he scored
• Marshmallow gets half a muffin because he made my team win. Thanks, Tim!
• Booins get to have the crumbs. If there are any left.

To cap off this great night......

Juniors beat Mooski 2-1 in a shootout. HAH! Last week they lost to Dupod in a shootout and tonight they exacted some revenge. Good job boys =) Although... can someone tell Chouinard that he can't live in the penalty box? I swear he takes at least one penalty a game. It's crazy. But yeah... WHOOOO!

HAMMIES WIN! HAMMIES WIN! And not just win, win. They won via another shutout. This is the first time in franchise history that they've had three consecutive shutouts (c'mon, Guy, you know you want to smile!). Brrrrrock Trotter, PK and uh PK again a had the Hammies three goals. PK's second came short handed when it put it into the empty net. First shorty of the year for the Hammies too. YAAAAAAAAAY! Lots of brawling too. Like, lots of brawling and loads of penalties.

Fail of the game: the ref tried to call a penalty on the Marlies for too many men on the ice only to realize that they had pulled their goalie. He should have called them when they had nearly ten players on the ice.

Best part of the game: Flandersdude ripping the Marlies and the Leafs. In a super polite, super nice sort of way. It was funny. And great.

And the Cyclones won too. Great night for the franchise! :D

Seriously, this must be the first time ALL of my teams have won when playing in the same night.

Leasfail reaches new levels of hilarity

So this interview with Filatov went up on Puck Daddy. I wouldn't be mentioning it at all if it wasn't for the really bizarre and hilarious bit at the end.

He's talking about some pre-draft interviews he did with various NHL clubs.

What question surprised you the most?

"I had interviews with many NHL clubs. But I was surprised when I came into Toronto's office. Their general manager was sitting there. I thought that some regular questions [would be asked]. But he tossed a candy on the table and said ‘If you take it you will be a millionaire, the best hockey player in the world, would win five Stanley Cups and two Olympics. But when you're 30 you will most likely have an accident. If you don't take it, you will live until you're 100, but would be an average player.'"

And what did you do?

"I took the candy..."

And went to that Phoenix interview from this odd one in Toronto?

"I liked Gretzky's questions better."

Uhh seriously? What is this? The Matrix? Hahahahahaha.............

Oh and the Flyers just fired Bub (John Stevens). Oops. And I was SO looking forward to beating the Flyers next week with him  behind the bench. Damnit. What? There's some serious hard feelings from the 08 playoffs....

Happy 100th Habs!

Happy birthday Habs! Despite the negativity surrounding this team right now, it's not everyday that you get to see your team turn 100. Let's just enjoy the.....super long ceremonies tonight. Okay fine. Enjoy some of it, because really... two hours is a looooooong time. Anyway, just have fun and don't jump off a bridge if the Bruins win tonight.

Go Habs Go

(not sure where this pic came from.. it was just floating around my comp)

6-2

At least it's not double digits, right? And at least it's not like the Habs were blanked. 

• I love hate how everyone's reactions towards goals are totally different depending on who's in nets. The defense routinely left the Sabres completely open. It was pretty sad.
  
  
• This whole effort tonight, was sad. I was at least hoping for some effort after that shallacking by the Leafs. But nope.
  
  
• Josh Gorges gets half a chocolate chip muffin for stealing a goal from the Sabres. He gets the other half for scoring a goal. Apparently he wants to stay on pace with Gomer (who had the Habs first goal courtesy of a beautiful pass from Sergei).
  
  
• I wonder if the Molson's are regretting buying back the team? Maybe just a tiny bit?
  
  
• Can we have a better effort tomorrow? Although I doubt it considering their record after sitting through random ceremonies.... Seriously, though, I'm not watching 2 hours of whatever they're going to do. I just won't do it. I've got Hammies and Juniors to follow. 

Speaking of 6-2.... 

The Caps won 6-2 over the Faily Panthers. Why is this great? Well first off, the Caps winning is great. Second, Salak was in nets for four of those goals. You know Salak as the jerk who rubbed the Amerk's win in the faces of the Crunch last week. Remind me to rant about him one day. Right now, I'm just going to sit back and really enjoy this Caps win. 

Oh and the Leafs would have won 6-2 if the Blue Jackets hadn't scored another goal. So they only won 6-3. Ugh. 

THIS is the team that keeps beating up my Juniors?

This team that has THIS record in it's last four games?

Is it just me or does that 10-2 loss really stick out? I think it's the double digits.

Since they beat my Juniors on the 10th of November they have gone 2-6-0-1. Their only wins have come against the worst team in the league and another team that is only three points out of being the second worst team. Two of those losses have come after they've held two goal leads at least once in the game too. Including last night. They had a two goal lead TWICE in the game. Worst bit? The GWG came short handed. Guh.

Remind me why I even follow this fail-team to begin with?

I can't figure my brain out sometimes.... I really can't......

[pssst.... the Moosies did something useful last night as they beat the Amerks 2-1. Thanks Moosies].

WJC selection camp by the numnbers

Because it interests me and I'm trying not to dwell on the fact that  the Habs are rapidly losing players that they drafted...

Random look at the selection camp doodad thing.

36 - the number of players invited to Team Canada's camp
10 - are from the Q (should I be slightly surprised that none of the Voltigeurs are there?)
9 - are prospects of Canadian teams (3 from Edmonton, 2 from Ottawa, 1 each from Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal)
7 - played for Team Canada last year (including Eberle. You know him as the kid who saved Canada's gold medal hopes with 6 seconds left in the third period against Russia)
5 - are LA Kings prospects (drafting high for so many years has it's benefits)
4 - play for Windsor (the most from one team)
4 - aren't drafted yet (yes, including Hall and Seguin)
3 - are born in 1992  (including Seguin)
2 - are Rimouski Oceanic players (boo Mooski)
1 - plays for the Juniors (Jake Allen)
1 - is a Habs prospect (Louis Leblanc)

I believe the Habs have two other prospects in Maxim Trunev and Danny Kristo who could also be playing for their countries.

Byebye Chipper....

[Yeah, like I'm really going to spend time and energy talking about the game last night. I think not. I'll just sob over Chipper leaving instead]

I was going to write something up about Chipper. I was telling some people that I felt incredibly bad for him. I thought he had a solid season last year with the Hammies. I didn't expect him to be kept up here with the Habs. While I was happy that he was going to be given a shot at the NHL, it became pretty clear that he was struggling a lot. I felt bad for him because it's hard to watch any of your guys struggling. I said I fully expected the Habs to waive Chipper once some of the other guys started coming back from injury. I thought at the very least he would be able to go back to Hamilton and get more than 5 minutes of ice time.

Well... clearly the Habs had other ideas.

Chipper is off to Anaheim and the Habs get a fourth round pick in 2011.

*sighs*

I wish Chipper all the best. I hope he gets more than 5 mins of ice time in Anaheim (say "hi" to Koivu for us!). If things don't work out, maybe he can come back to Hamilton? Please?

.........

So....Ovie decided to hit Gleason in the Caps/Whalercanes game tonight.

It ended up being a knee-on-knee hit.

He didn't put any weight on it as he left the ice.

He got a five minute major and a game misconduct for it.

So.

He's potentially pretty injured now. And if the injury doesn't keep him out for a while, there seems to be talk that Campbell might suspend him (I mean.. it is his second game misconduct in a week).

All I can say is...

This is really shitty timing, Ovie. Like, really shitty.

Thank goodness I actually like the Caps as a team and I won't be too cut up about it if Ovie doesn't play when I'm there.

But still..... this is HORRIBLE timing, Ovie.... Guh.

.................

In other news, Keith Ballard is a moron. Remember when Surovy tried to kill our poor little Slovak goalie when he hit him upside the head at the Worlds last year? Well, Ballard did the same thing tonight to his own goalie.... Only.... it was a lot worse.... Like.... Vokoun is in the hospital.

You can see the hit here if you haven't seen it already.

Let's hope Vokoun is okay. That was a really brutal hit and it was 100% unnecessary and stupid.

So I really don't do this football thing but....

I actually spent the entire Grey Cup complaining about the Voltigeurs actually. It's getting sad how obsessed I'm becoming with this team. I had to dig up their stats from last year to see if Guy had to suffer through a 10-2 loss last year. If you care to know, yes, he did. After the very same Voltigeurs were BLANKED by the Juniors, they played the Gatineau Olympiques and lost by a horrendous score of 10-2. That seems to be their biggest goal differential in terms of a loss....I can only imagine the fireworks that would have gone on after that. Well... Guy doesn't go Torts on his players, but I can imagine he would be exploding somehow. God help the Hammies if they ever lose that badly...

That would be awful....

ANYWAY. What was this post about? Oh yeah. The Als.

I did check out the very end of the Als game. I don't pretend to know what the hell happened, but the bottom line is that the right team won. The Als came in as the huge favorites, came THIS close to blowing the whole damn thing and finally they pulled out a win in the last few seconds.

Whoopy. Congrats. Yay........

Only mentioning this because.... this is proof that Montreal isn't that faily!

The Impact won their league doodad thing.

The Als finally didn't completely choke in the finals this time.

That just leaves the Habs.

...........

Speaking of the Habs... They sent Wyman back to the Hammies. Hammies say THANK YOU. This better mean that Mr. Moneybags aka Gomer is ready to come back. Maybe Dagger too?

Revenge of the Stuffed Animals

So.... the Juniors were in Mooski today. And well...... I`ll just leave you with my (slightly edited) twitter updates for the first period *G* I'm kinda liking these really long useless posts. Enjoy :D

first period

3:00 Juniors time! If they fail epically then I'll go yell at the Voltigeurs instead... but seriously... Juniors... Beat Mooski!

3:10 err "Delpoo"? I think I need to go look up the name of the Mooski goalie...Ohhh it's Dopud..... *cackles anyway*

3:12 man this game is slow.... stupid whistles.... *yawns*

3:14 Argh..... Émond scores and now it's raining stuffed animals. The hell, Mooski?

3:16 [announcers dude wondering if this should be a delay of game penalty] Damn right this should be a delay of game penalty. What the hell are those stuffed animals doing on the ice?

3:18 Haha. Everyone BUT the Juniors are cleaning up the stuffed animals. The MOOSKI players are even cleaning up the stuffed animals. Juniors want nothing to do with the freaky things. Good for you guys.

3:20 Stuffed animals apparently are mostly of the Mooski mascot. Although there are also "fake mascots" as well....

3:23 Dude on the radio is ticked off because he's going to miss the Als game because the cleanup of the stuffed animals is taking forever (doesn't help that people keep throwing them back on the ice).

3:24 The dude on the radio is like "Now that we know that they were going to throw the stuffed animals, it's too bad the Juniors couldn't have had a shutout to prevent the fans from tossing these things".

3:27 game back on. Damn stuffed animals.

3:32 Agh...... Mooski scores again....it doesn't appear to be raining stuffed animals this time. Phew!!!!

3:36 AAAAAARH The stupid Voltigeurs are failing too. ARGH *kicks them* GET IT TOGETHER YOU FREAKS.

3:37 w00t! Juniors scooore! So let me get this straight. I yell at the Voltigeurs and the Juniors score? Okay then.

3:39 Juniors get a PP. Second worst PP against the second worst PK. Okay. Who will be more faily?

3:40 WHAT? Idiots.... Too many faily Juniors on the ice.... FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.

3:42 WHOO! Asselin comes out of the penalty box and scooooores! Please note that I'm the only one yelling "and scooooooooooores" a la Flandersdude. Mr. Announcer was less enthusiastic. Boo.

3:44 ........... *kicks Cormier* or maybe I should be kicking Bérubé for being all sleepy on that goal? *kicks them both* 3-2 Mooski. Let's never say that the Juniors have the momentum again, okay, Mr. Announcer?

3:55 Announcer guys are still complaining about the stuffed animals in-between periods. Also, apparently there's a weird blimp thing flying around in the arena. Mooski is weird. Mr. Announcer guy says that it`s been a busy game for him with five goals and he`s not sure if he`ll have any voice left for later. I note that when  you just say `and they score` regardless of who scores.... you should have a ton of voice left. You`re not Flandersdude here. And Flandersdude STILL had a pile of energy even when he was sick. So there *gets all huffy*

Second period 

4:09 And they scoooooooooore! Aubry with a goal! 3-3! Why am I the only one getting animated here?!

4:12 Bérubé sounds like he`s more awake now. Good!

4:17 I`m having problems with Dopud`s name... it`s making me laugh. A lot.

4:20 And of course the refs have decided to send the Juniors to the PK again (second time already). Mooski has the 3rd best PP. Juniors are.... I dunno..... their PK is pretty good though.

4:22 What the hell is wrong with the Voltigeurs?! FAIL. FAIL. FAIL. Losing 4-1. You're going to blow this roadtrip aren't you? FAIL. FAIL. FAIL. I can't believe how faily this team is being. Fail. fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. UGH. Should I send Guy back to glower at you? Actually you know what? I think I will.

4:24 Apparently the Mooski fans are not impressed with the Mooski mascot. It's trying to get them to clap but no such luck. HAHA. Fail mascot! FAIL.

4:27 DuPOO is coming up with a good save for the Mooski things. Oh and the Voltigeurs are failing even more.....Fail.... Fail....... GET IT TOGETHER.

4:29 PP for the Juniors! Oh and the Voltigeurs are now losing 6-1. Maybe we shouldn't be telling Guy about this...We'll just let him enjoy the Hammies' to back to back shutouts......... Stupid Voltigeurs. I HATE YOU.

4:30 DuPOO can't stick handle the puck. The Juniors need to capitalize on this!

4:33 "Little Brenton"....? If Brenton is short... what is Eli? Eli is shorter. I think. He has to be. He's totally shorter. He's shorter than David.

4:35 I go to get something eat (chocolate chip cookies for the win!) and come back to hear the announcers saying that the Juniors should have had a goal. Mooski guys are already off to the dressing room. *waits* NO GOAL? GUHHHH.............. Stupid major junior hockey league...............

Third Period 


4:57 Icefail in Mooski. What is this, Hammie-town?

5:00 Gouchie just fell and started rolling around on the ice for no reason. He's fine. Probably really embarrassed. Sounds like he looked ridiculous. You know how bugs fall over and get stuck on their back? I don't know think Gouchie looked like that but I have visions of him looking like that.

5:01 ELI WITH A GOAL! Sounds like a very pretty one too. 4-3! Someone ask him how to say his first name please. Nobody knows how.

5:03 Mr. Announcer is still upset with the refs for the no-goal from before. He points out that he's allowed to be a homer. Well, yes, but....

5:05 icing's abound in Mooski. they wouldn't be icing if this was the NHL. CHL has a no-touch icing rule (which is a good idea but right now it's annoying).

5:07 why is Chouinard always going to the penalty box when I follow the Juniors? Sounds like Eli is trying to smacktalk with the Mooski. The mental image is funny.

5:08 "Oh no! DuPOO!". DYING laughing at this.......

5:10 BLOODY HELL VOLTIGEURS. BLOODY HELL. It's NINE to TWO. AND the twerps are outshooting their opponents. BLOODY HELL. AAAAARGHHHHHH!!!!!!! If you give us Gabriel and Philippe, I'll give you Jake. Maybe. Maybe not. But you guys need to get rid of Tardif. He's faily. BLEH.

5:11 Oh I'm sorry. The Voltigeurs are losing ten to two. Uhuh. Could you imagine what Guy would be doing if he was behind the bench right now? I'd like to think that they wouldn't be losing 10-2 if Guy was behind the bench but that's just my random crush on Guy Boucher speaking. But seriously... he would be dying right now......................

5:16 "Oh another interesting experience in puck-handling by DuPOO". I take this to mean that DuPOO is worse than Jaro and Teddy at handling the puck. Is that even possible?

5:19 GUHHHHH! Mooski scores....... =/ 4-4. Umm, the refs reviewed the goal? It was a clear goal. So they go review two goals. One that was clearly not a goal because it went off the post and one that was clearly a goal (this last one) but they don't go to review the one that SHOULD have been a goal (yes that one from the second period). Idiots.

5:27 Announcers aren't happy to be going to OT. They've decided to give updates on the kid clearing the ice on the rink instead.

Over Tiiiiiiime 


5:33 Juniors getting run around.... C'MON! DON'T DIE!

Shoooooout ouuuuuuuuut tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime GUH 


5:38 zamboni fail. They're running the thing but there's no water coming out - thus the ice is still going to be crap. "usually I find watching the zamboni to be a kind of peaceful thing but this is just frustrating". Uhuh. This guy is amusing (he's not the normal guy). Other guy says "does this zamboni have a purpose right now? It's just going around and around for no reason".

5:41 to 5:47

Straka fails. Asselin fails.
Lefrancois doesn't fail. Eli makes DuPOO look silly.
Caron doesn't even get a shot away. Gouchie can win it... and DuPOO saves it. Ugh.
Cormier scores. UGH. Parkes scores!
Mooski thing gets stopped. Chouinard doesn't get a shot away either. ARGH.
Fournier scores. Aubry.... is stopped by DuPOO.

Mooski wins. #@$%^&......... Juniors deserved better than this. Damn you stupid stuffed animals. Damn you stupid refs for not checking that goal. And damn you stupid zamboni that did nothing.

hdaskjdhaskjhdkasjdh......

5:57 apparently DuPOO's name is pronounced DEHpod. Myeh?