You are kidding me...Higgins for Gomez?

You know, I said I thought Vinny was a talented player but he wouldn't be a good fit for the Habs. I also said that I thought his contract would hurt the Habs big time.

Friday night, I was so worried that Bettman would get up on that stage and say "we have a trade. The Montreal Canadiens trade their entire team for Vincent Lecavalier".

He didn't do it.

I thought we were safe.

.....aparently I was wrong.

Bob Gainey has traded Higgins, McDonagh, Valentenko and Janik for Scott Gomez, Pyatt and Busto.

So we couldn't take Vinny and his large contract so we grabbed Gomez and his HUGE contract? I almost wished he had landed Vinny instead....

Bob, I'm just praying that you have something else going on in that brain of yours because if not... You just made Sather of all people look like a flipping genius. And that, Bob, is a bad thing.

No. No. NO.

From Habs Inside/Out

According to RDS, the Canadiens have extended a contract offer to potential unrestricted free agent Alex Kovalev, the second UFA to receive an offer from Bob Gainey after Mike Komisarek.

That means Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay will have to wait until after July 1 before receiving any offers from the Canadiens, the sports network says.

In other news, the Canadiens extended qualifying offers to restricted free agents Christopher Higgins, Tomas Plekanec, Guillaume Latendresse, Matt D’Agostini, Gregory Stewart and Kyle Chipchura.

I am going to cry....Not about Tanguay, honestly, I don't care if he leaves, but Koivu....

Nobody beats Robin Soderling 11 times in a row...

...good thing Roger Federer isn't a nobody.

Sorry, Robin.

Okay, this probably only makes sense if you know that Robin Soderling said after Roger beat him at Roland Garros that "nobody beats Robin Soderling 11 times in a row" after Roger beat him for the 10thtime in a row at Paris. He was half joking of course but still...Better make that "Nobody beats Robin Soderling 12 times in a row" now...

Post-draft calm

Okay so now that I'm no longer taking pictures, running around the Bell Centre and trying not to walk right into the flood of draftees that were leaving the Bell Centre on Saturday (I swear I almost tripped up some Thrashers pick by accident as I was rushing back to the Bell Centre at some point).... Time to take a look at just WHO the Habs drafted. I mean, that was the whole point of this, right? Right.

Well first off... while I was writing this up, apparently Guy Boucher got announced as the next coach of the Hammies. Didn't I say there was a rumor about this like.... a couple of months ago? Granted it was entirely a rumor at the time and we all know that if you spew about rumors, you're bound to get one or two right by accident. But still. There we go.

Second, apparently Gainey did try to get Vinny on Friday *sighs* I was SO afraid that Bettman was going to say "We have a trade. The Montreal Canadians traded their souls for Vinny Lecavalier". Please, Bob, no. No Vinny.

Now back to the future Habbies...

Louis Leblanc

Well, I'm sure you've had your fill of Louis talk by now. Bottom line is he's a local guy, he's played in the USHL, he knows Danny Kristo, and the Habs love him. It would be nice if he lived up to a bit of the hype. Just a bit, you know? There's no rush or anything. I don't want to hear another word about Vinny Lecavalier and if you start making a splash then I won't ever have to hear about Skinny Vinny. GO LOUIS GO! And don't get sucked into all of that Bruins stuff while you're down there... Those Bruins are bad news.

Joonas Nattinen

Despite what I heard earlier in the year about the Finnish talent pool drying up a bit recently, this guy seems to have had a solid year in Finland. Number31 really likes what she's heard about him which is always a good sign *g* I don't like that he apparently said he thinks of himself as a cross between Mikko Koivu and Jason Spezza. Koivu is okay but... Spezza?! We need to have a little talk about that....

Mac Bennett

He sounds like he could end up like a Mike Green. Which is totally fine by me. Anybody who wants to play like Greenie is cool in my books. It sounds like the Habs would like him to play in the Q but they won't force him to and he could end up in Michigan (which is okay, I guess. I'd prefer him in the Q). I also have to say that I saw a vid of the prep-school he went to. The facilities look awesome. Not that that has to do with anything... I just wanted to point that out *g*

Alexander Avtsyn

Seems the Habs are still willing to pick Russians despite all the issues they've had with others in the past. Which is totally fine by me because Avtsyn sounds really cool. If I liked the sound of Bennett because he's like Green, then I really like the idea that Avtsyn sounds a lot like Ovie. He's put some up great numbers in Russia's second tier league (and hey, he's actually younger than me! Huzzah for that! *g*). I'm happy so see that he actually wants to play here too. I would love him to play in the Q or somewhere over here for a bit so he knows what he's getting into somewhat (also if he plays in the Q I can see him play!!!).

Gabriel Dumont

I remember this guy... I remember hearing about him during the Q's playoffs and I'm pretty sure he was at the Memorial Cup stuff. He knows if he makes it, it will be as a third or fourth line shutdown/grinder type of players and he seems content with that. He could end up like a Max Talbot kind of guy. Which I guess I wouldn't mind so much if he played for my team... hehe...

Dustin Walsh

Can you like a guy because his junior team has one of the best jerseys ever? Take a look at their website and you'lll see what I mean. Best junior jersey ever. Right behind the best NHL jersey ever *g* But seriously, he's put up some great numbers so I'm not sure why he was left to so late but I hope to see some of him (I'd say "more of him" but I haven't seen him play at all so...yeah, I hope to see him).

Michael Cichy

Don't have much on him but apparently he's Danny Krist's roommate. So hello Danny Kristo's roommate!

Petteri Simila

We're apparently supposed to be thanking the Pens up and down for giving us the last pick of the entire draft for a future 6 round pick. Thanks Pens. All we seem to know about Simila is that he's Finnish, a goalie and the comes from the same guys that produced Pekke Rinne.

Draft day madness

Warning: the following contains Leafs hate, mild Gary Bettman bashing and lots of insanity. Viewer discretion is advised.

(a view from inside the Bell Centre. I could see better than this, but this is basically where I was sitting. The Habs table was third over from the first row nearest us)

Okay... let's see.... After agonizing over Roger's 3rd set blergh and eventual 4th set demolition of Kohlschreiber, I then spent most of the early afternoon shopping with Sarah from California, Dani and Kate. I finally bought a draft shirt and a draft keychain thing after wondering if it was possible to buy everything in the store. Yeah. I live here and I still go nutso for Habs stuff. After that we went out for coffee and then headed over to Ye Olde Whatsits pub where met up with more tweeps to get draft tix.

(so this is how Charlie Bucket from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory felt when he got his golden ticket.... awsomeness. Only, there was no awesome chocolate at the Bell Centre. Just Burke. And there's nothing awesome about him)

Sarah (the other Sarah from Boston) and I exchanged voodoo dolls for Sox socks and a Sox keychain. I AM UBER PLEASED with my lovely Sox stuff. UBER PLEASED. I'll get pics up soon.

At 6 we headed to the Bell Centre and I got mopey because the last time I was in there was when my Habbies were playing....First off the teams have to announce who's going to announce their picks. Silly it may sound, but it gave us the fans an opportunity to boo the crap out of the Bruins, the Leafs and the Flyers. And Bettman of course. At some point a very loud "Ole" song went up. Oh they must have known that those grumpy Ole-hating-Sens-fans were in the building (yeah, I'm still bitter about that Sensland! It's an AWESOME song to sing. Stuff it).

Huge cheers for George Gillet who said some stuff before the draft started.

(it was nice knowing you, George. We'll miss you!)

Booing ceased and then commenced when Bettman came back and announced that the Isles would get to pick. Lots of yapping ensued and then finally the Isles picked... Guess who? Me! Just kidding... They picked Tavares obviously:

(Tavares is thrilled and it's Hedman's "dream come true" to play for a crap team. Awesomeness)

Lots of yapping and crap then ensued again. I mean seriously, does it really take that long to decide who you're going to pick? You have a list of the guys you want for crying out loud. Pick the guy already!

I took the boring bits as an opportunity to look for GMs. I spotted Gainey and I could easily see Brian Burke's head (hmm, maybe it wasn't that hard to spot his huge head). Someone pointed out that the Caps peeps weren't drinking any of the stuff on their table which made me yell at them that we were only trying to poison Burke (JUST KIDDING. I would never actually want to poison Burke). I also spotted "Clod Joolee-ehn" hovering around the Habs table before the draft started. ICK. Sarah from Boston spent most of the time spying on the little kids that run around between the tables. Apparently the Bruins kid disappeared and the Hawks kid was offering brownies or cookies to the Bruins table. Traitor!!

I know Grrrreg has a "Gary Bettman Booing Index" and I want to say, we broke the scale. We flipping broke it tonight. Bettman announces who's getting what pick and all that crap and when the Coyotes come up he says "the 6th pick belongs to the PHOENIX Coyotes". Oh yes, Bettman emphasized the word "Phoenix". Twerp. Well, I booed him along with the rest of the building for that. And cries of "Hamilton! Hamilton! Hamilton!" soon followed. Can we all say "douche"? Jeez, you didn't think we'd notice that, eh, Bettman? HAMILTON! HAMILTON!

This was followed by HUGE boos for the Leafs. Even *I* booed Burke (this is coming from someone who won't even stand up when her team scores at a game). I couldn't even hear who Burke picked. Once I realized who they had picked, I was very sad. Nazem Kadri is a Habs fan. He cheered for when we an interview of him (from some point in time) where he professed his Habs love. And he was booed very loudly when he was announced as the Leafs 7th overall pick. Damn you Burke. I hate you. I felt SO bad for the kid because he looked absolutely miserable up there. Poor guy. It's okay.... should you ever leave the Leafs, I will like you. Until then, hope you get smushed up.

Oh and I loved those "1967" chants going on while the Leafs were busy doing their stuff. No sarcasm here. It was hilarious. Oh Montreal, how I love you....

FINALLY after almost 2 hours, my Habs got up and announced their pick. Couldn't hear at all who he was because the whole building erupted. Turns out we picked Louis Leblanc. Doing the no-homework that I had done, I don't know much about him other than he's a bit older than me and he'll be going to Harvard next year. No idea if he was the most talented player available, probably not, judging from what I've heard, but I know enough to know that the draft is a bit of a crapshoot anyway. So yeah, welcome to Montreal, Louis. It wasn't the nightmare I'd thought it'd be for you (just for poor Kadri). So it's good.

(welcome to Montreal, dude)

Not ignoring you, Roger

I noticed a complete lack of Wimby updates here. Oops. Well, there's two main reasons for this.

1. it's early in the week. That means boring matches
   
2. I have no desire to talk about Roger's weird getup for Wimby. It is strange. I think Nike has lost it.
   
3. Roger has been boring lately. Which is good. Because he's just flattened the opposition so far. Keep being boring in a good way, Roger.
   
4. No Nadal means nobody cool plays on the days that Roger isn't playing which means I"m not watching tennis too much on those days

(okay so that's more than 2 =p)

So a quick note to Roger for tomorrow

Thanks for playing first thing. Please win quickly so I don't have to agonize about you when I'm off to the tweetup. Kolschrwhatsits isn't anything too scary. You can SO win in straight sets.

And... Soxies... I can't believe I bought MLB tv for a month to watch you play...... Oh well. Please forget tonight happened and win tomorrow. Even if I'm not watching you.

Pre-draft ramble

Okay. After WEEKS of waiting, it's finally arrived. I think I'm more excited for the tweetup this weekend than I am for the actual draft but umm yeah. To be honest, I haven't really looked at any of the prospects. Mainly because I didn't want to be slightly disappointed when all these talented players headed off to crap or evil teams.... so you get a random list of random stuff.

• If I were the Habs picking, I'd take Hedman over Tavares.
  
• I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Isles actually pick Hedman first...
  
• If I were Tampa Bay and their dysfunctional management, I'd probably do something stupid like trade my pick to the Leafs. Because that's just how Tampa Bay rolls right now...
• Obviously, if I'm me, I'm hoping that the Islanders and the Bolts and everyone ahead of the Leafs, don't do anything stupid. Make Burke sad!
  
• Have I ever mentioned that I like Dmitri Kulikov? Too bad we won't be picking high enough...
  
• Watching guys who are the same age as you getting drafted to a NHL team is probably going to be really weird...
  
• If the crowd boos Montreal's pick, whoever he may be, I will go Torts. Do NOT boo the new kid. Do not it, Montreal. Whoever this guy may be, you need to cheer for him. This is going to be a huge moment in this guy's life and. If you don't want him to hate us before he even gets a chance to step out on the ice here, then cheer for him. Make this moment a good one for him.
  
• People you CAN boo: Gary Bettman (actually, if you don't boo him, I will go Torts. BOO HIM!). The Bruins GM. The Bolts GM. Brian Burke (BOOOO!). Heck, feel free to boo just about every other GM in the building. But please leave the kids alone.
  

Hey Gary!

I was reminded today that on June 24th 1980, the Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary and became the Calgary Flames. Let me repeat that. The Atlanta Flames of Georgia, USA moved to Alberta, CANADA.

Maybe a map would help?


See? We've got a precedent. You can SO move the Coyotes to Hamilton.

Ummmm Bob?

Would you care to explain why you haven't even really talked to any of the millions of UFAs on the team?

From Habs Inside/Out (because I couldn't find the article I read in the paper that had Gainey's exact quote. Which wasn't that much different anyway)

Gainey told Hickey that he's had some preliminary talks with some of the Canadiens' impending unrestricted free agents, but has told them he'll do nothing until after the draft.

Butbutbutbutbut Bob.... July first is kinda coming up soon, no? Do you seriously not want anybody back that much? I'm trying to figure out what's going on here. I know you're whole five year plan thing sort of didn't work out that well, but, is it just me, or are you seriously going to do this whole rebuilding thing again? If this keeps up, Bob, you know who's going to get the axe next, right? Let's just say it's not Youppi....

Might I add that there's issues going on in Tampa Bay with the stupid owners arguing and apparently trying to do the GM's job. Apparently they don't agree with some of his choices of players to resign. And yes, apparently one of the owners doesn't think they need Vinny. And YES, I just used the word "apparently" too many times. ARGH. They're getting Bettman to come in and help resolve their issues. Babies......I can see it now...

Gary: so explain to me what the issue is?

Koules (Bolts owner #1): the franchise is starting to look like a horror flick...

Barrie (Bolts owner #2): This idiot clearly has no clue about hockey...

Lawton (GM dude): they keep trying to do my job.

Gary: uhuh... can I ask you all something? Do you plan on selling the team to Jim Balsillie?

Koules and Barrie: No

Gary: okay then. We're done here. *walks out*

Umm byebye?

I'm quite surprised that Gainey let Lever and Wilson go. Maybe more so because Gainey was the one who decided to bring Lever here after Carbo went....

From thespec.com via All_Habs

Lever, Wilson dumped by phone

Garry McKay

The Hamilton Bulldogs will have a new coaching staff this season.

Don Lever, who is the franchise’s longest-serving head coach, and his assistant Ron Wilson, who has been here even longer, have been told by the parent Montreal Canadiens that their services are no longer required.

Although both were longtime employees of the Canadiens, the Habs told them by phone that their contracts would not be renewed. They weren't given a reason.

Both were, in effect, fired by Montreal general manager Bob Gainey who phoned them last week and said simply that “the organization is going in a different direction.”

Lever said he would like to have been given a reason for his dismissal.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Lever. “Somewhere along the line I must have done something wrong, but they didn’t tell me what it was.

“I just don’t understand how I can be called up and then discarded.”

When Gainey fired Habs head coach Guy Carbonneau late in the season, he summoned Lever to Montreal to help them in their drive to the playoffs.

Wilson was appointed interim Bulldogs head coach on March 9. They went 10-3-2-0 in the final 15 games and overtook Grand Rapids to finish second in the North Division but lost to the Griffins in a six-game divisional semi-final series.

That apparently wasn’t good enough for the Habs, nor was the fact that many of the players currently in Montreal were developed in Hamilton under Lever and Wilson.

....

Let the Guy Boucher to Hamilton rumors begin...

On the eve of Wimbledon, the biggest tournament of the year...

....EP is thinking about getting NHL Center Ice.

Oops.

But really, I've been thinking I need to find a way to watch my Caps and the Peachhawks next season so I'm thinking of getting it. It seems to be something like $169 or the year (I'm guessing that's American too) which sounds reasonable. Now, if I could just figure out this blackout crap thing and know for sure which teams would be blacked out, I wouldn't have to angst about this. I mean... there really isn't any such thing as TOO much hockey is there? No. There isn't. I think I shall have to get my hands on this.

Speaking of blackouts, I was also looking at MLB tv (I know, I know) and apparently ALL Jays games are blacked out in Canada. Contrary to popular belief, this is the greatest thing ever. Now, if only they could blackout all Leafs games too.. Canada would be so better off.

Anyway... Wimby.....

I will offer no predictions whatsoever. I refuse. But I will say this to Roger: I know in theory the pressure is off of you to win another Slam and all that jazz... In terms of that whole record thing, you've matched it. You've got a while to break it a few times over. BUT! it would be NICE if you won this. Who knows how distracted you'll be once Mini Roger comes along. It would be nice if you won this before you're up to your head in dipers...

Does this mean I have to drink beer now?

Because I really don't care much for beer....

But anyway. The Molsons are now the old/new owners of the Habs. Welcome (back)! Thank the hockey gods that it wasn't Quebecor that bought it. I look forward to seeing the Molsons back in control. Should be interesting. Although I kind of wished that King Gary wasn't so enthusiastic about it in his two second presser about it. Every time he seems enthusiastic about an owner, it doesn't end so well..... let's hope that isn't the case here!

And Gillett.... Thanks for everything you've done. I still don't believe you're a saint like you're often protrayed here. But thanks for what you've done for my team. We'd still be in the Dark Ages if you hadn't bought it and while we're not quite out of them yet, I think we're on the right track. Now please take good care of my Liverpool team too. They deserve some awesomeness too.

Sid dumps Teddy for the Stanley Cup.

Because I don't want to freak myself out anymore, you can see what I'm talking about here.

If you look closely, you can see Teddy beside the light in the pic. Yes, the Anointed One dumped Teddy for the Stanley Cup. How could you, Sid? After all the times that Teddy was there for you when Ovie kicked your butt during the season.... your idea of repaying the kindness is to go out and fall asleep with the Stanley Cup? That is just cruel! Poor Teddy...

By the way.... remind me to never ever touch the Stanley Cup. There's some serious germs on it. Maybe they should put it back at the bottom of Mario's pool?

Random info day =p

In hockey news....

Well, I can say for sure that was the least amount of fun I've had "watching" the NHL awards thing. I blame CBC for airing the thing an hour after it started. So I already knew who won via twitter before hand. Whoever was responsible for that messup should be waterbottled. Just saying. Also I predicted this over at A View From the Cheap Seats:

Hart - I’ll say Malkin… But I’d like to see Ovie get it. Obviously.

Pearson - Ovie! Ovie! Ovie!

Norris - Chara…..*sigh* (my Markov should be there)

Calder - Mason

Vezina - Thomas *sighs some more*

Adams - it should be Andy Murray but Julien is walking out with it *sighs even more*

Selke - Datsyuk although I’d take Richards winning the thing….

Lady Byng - Shorty Marty…. poor guy

......And was only wrong twice. In all honesty, I didn't actually see Shorty Marty getting the Byng thing over Turnip because... well, it's Turnip here (lesson learned: don't go against your gut feeling in this case). Not sure why I went with Eggplant over Ovie for the Hart though... That was just stupid. Probably to set myself up in the weird event that he actually did win it. So all in all, I was bored and annoyed with this whole thing last night. Mind you...some nice pictures came out of it.... I'm a sucker for pictures....ANYWAY... Congrats to Ovie for winning the Hart thingy and the Pearson thing and we already knew you were walking out with the Maurice Richard thing (how about we work on the assists and/or goals for next year so you can get the Ross again? *G*). And congrats to everyone else too (and someone please tell Chara that it's okay to deliver a short speech in the event that he wins something next time. I know the guy doesn't do anything short but really... I almost fell asleep!).

Two random things about the awards:

1. I loved Ovie's "it's too hot to touch" thing when he got the Hart
2. "I could really use two Stanley Cup rings to block out Roenick..." <-- Number31 last night on Twitter while Roenick was attempting to talk last night. She is a genius.

Not too much in the way of rumors in general and pretty much nada about the Habs. I'm not sure if I should be worried that there's nothing coming out of Habsland or if I should just be thankful that I don't have to think about insane rumors. The closest thing to a rumor I've heard from Habsland is that they're close to coming to a deal with Komi and there appears to be a big chance that Koivu's headed to the Wild. Meh. Heard that one about Koivu. Let me know if it actually happens (which I hope it doesn't).

The only other interesting thing I've heard is that those creepy Sedin twins want matching 12 year contracts worth 63 million.... Not that I care about where they end up or anything, but to me, 12 years is a long time and unless you front load the contract, you could end up with a b*tch of a time trying to get rid of them if you don't want them down the road.... I get that players want the security but as a GM, I'd be hesitant to do it.

In tennis news....

The biggest news is whether or not Rafa will be playing in Wimby on Monday. Apparently his knees are still acting up. I'm a bit torn on this. I'm ready to believe that Rafa is indeed in a lot of pain. I'm not making light of his injuries. I just wonder how it is that he didn't appear to be playing with a lot of pain a the French Open, still lost, and now we're hearing about this? Maybe he really was in pain throughout the French Open. Maybe it started afterwords. It's entirely possible. Honestly, I almost hope that he really is in pain and this isn't an attempt at trying to 1) soften the blow of his Roland Garros loss and 2) lessen the expectations for Wimbledon. I've heard before that Rafa is supposedly injured and then he plays and blows everyone out of the water for the most part. All this being said, I want Rafa to recover and play. I want him and Roger to play in the finals the way it's been for the past.... however many years *g* It wouldn't be a Wimby final without Rafa and Roger. I don't want Muzz and Roger. I don't want Nole and Roger. And I definitely do NOT want Muzz and Nole. GIMME A ROGER VS RAFA FINAL!

EDIT: He pulled out. *sighs* no Rafa. Messed up draw now.... I'm not very pleased with this. Not at all.

And in football/soccer and yes, baseball news....

I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto.

EP's version of the Awards Thing

Yeah. I was going to waste time predicting who was going to win what... but that sounded boring and I dont like half the candidates anyway. So instead, I'm going to steal the NHL's awards and hand them out as I see fit. Oh and I may or may not have changed around what the awards are for. I mean really...someone has to do something about that Lady Byng trophy. I die laughing at it every time... Sorry.. Anyway...... On with the show!



Hart - The player who's most responsible for EP's madness this season

• Ovie because those insane goals made EP go insane
  
• Kovy because all the time he hit the flipping post made EP go insane
  
• Puffy because he is talked about nonstop made EP go insane
  

After much debate, we chose Kovy. We think that EP wouldn't be half as insane if Kovy had actually put the puck into the back of the flipping net more often. We would like Gainey to resign Kovy so he can prove to EP that he can actually make the puck go into the back of the net.

Vezina - For the goalie that we wanted to hug the most for whatever reason *g*

• The Priceberg
  
• Jaro
  
• Simmy
  

After hours and hours and hours of debating... we decided to pick Price. He's had a rough year and we've pretty much wanted to hug him all season long. Mini hugs for Jaro and Simmy though!

Toskala - For the goalies who we've deemed to have failed epically in some respect

• Vesa Toskala for being a Leaf
  
• Squeaky Marty for being Squeaky Marty
  
• Cam Ward for that epic fail against the Puffles
  

So tough.... We really wanted to give all three of them it but as there can really be only one "winner", we decided that Toskala should get it. The thing is named after him after all.....

Norris - We're giving this out to the person who we deemed was significantly anti-Puffles this season.

• Semin
• Ovechkin
  
• Looch (fine, so he hasn't proven himself to be totally anti-Puffles yet. But in our imagination, he is crushing Puffy into the boards)
  

We really, really, really wanted to pick Looch. But like we said, Looch hasn't actually smashed Puffy yet. This makes us very sad and we hope that the Loochness Monster gives Puffy a Looching next season so we can give him the Norris. So instead, we're giving it to Semin. Those comments at the beginning of the year were funny. And we honestly do think he has a point. So yay for you Semin!

Calder- For the player who's attempt at a playoff beard we liked the most

• Puffy
• Peach Fuzz
  
• Captain Peachy
  

Well, as Puffy's wannabeard is just that pathetic, I'm disqualifying him. And Captain Peachy really only had those awful looking sideburn things. So Peach Fuzz wins. We like the fact that we can't actually see it very well on the TV. We do hope this changes when he can actually grow a beard but until then, we like what we see (or don't see).

Lady Byng - for the player who amused us the most for various reasons

• Shorty Marty (for just skating around and amusing EP for no reason)
  
• Squeaky Marty (for those epic fails)
  
• Boring Marty (for those epic fails against the Whalercanes)

Shorty Marty! He was very amusing for most of the season. EP found it very entertaining to watch him skating around. It makes no sense, no, but neither does this whole trophy thing anyway.

Selke - for the player with the lamest attempt at a fight

• Semin (vs StaalClone2)
• Puffy (vs Brett Mclean)
  
• Eggplant (vs Zetterburg)
  

This really wasn't much of a contest. Semin wins for that" bongo playing fight" against the StaalClone. Sorry to Eggplant who really did try to "fight" Zetterberg during the playoffs. It was a lame effort for sure, but not that lame. We think it would be a cool idea if Semin took on Eggplant next season.

Jack Adams - For the coach that annoyed us the most this year.

• Cory Clouston
  
• Ron Wilson
  
• Dan Bylsma
  

It was tough enough just picking these three (okay maybe not) and we really had to debate long and hard about which coach we would ultimately choose. Ultimately, we went with Ron Wilson because he has annoyed us since day one of the the NHL season, while Clouston and Bylsma only tortured us throughout the latter half of the season.

Bill Somethingrather - for the team that got smashed up the most and is not getting a top draft pick for it.

• Habs
• Habs
  
• Caps
  

HABS! Yes. We were smashed up probably more than most teams were and yet we STILL made the playoffs (unlike say, Dallas). We win! HAH!

Lester B. Pearson - For the player who had us screaming the most at their awesome goals

• Ovie
• Ovie
• Ovie

Hmm... Guess Ovie is winning it? *g*

Alex Ovechkin - While we wanted to swap places with this one and the Lester B. Pearson one, we decided to leave it as it. This is for the player who's name is apparently the most unpronounceable to the media.

• "Oh-vech-kin"
• "Buffsagwkjeagsdkjhf" (Byfuglien)
  
• "Pleh-ka-nec"
  

We had a whole host of people we wanted to nominate for this one. Including every French Canadian named Martin. Simmy will proably make it on this list next year but he's getting pass this time because he wasn't around much during the regular season. We're going to go with Ovechkin because we're very tired of hearing "OH-vechkin scooooooooores". He's RUSSIAN. Not Irish.

So I just watched the Habs '93 win...

Yeah, I nabbed the DVD from my library. No hockey and no tennis makes me a sad person.

Anyway... it was really bizarre and really awesome at the same time. Random notes because I can:

• I can't get over how young Carbo, Muller and Schneider look. I didn't see Breezer's face so I dunno what he looked like.
• I like Muller better as a player than a coach. A lot better.
• I was wondering what was wrong with Carbo... He was so quiet. And then he started getting angry at someone and then I knew this was indeed Carbo.
  
• Melrose looks more annoying in 1993 for some reason....
  
• There was exactly ONE Breezer play and it only ALMOST resulted in a goal. Let me repeat that: ONE Breezer play that only ALMOST resulted in a goal.
  
• Announcers in 1993 are just as annoying as they are in 2009
  
• How come I didn't know that Kelly Hrudey was the goalie for the Kings?
  
• Well, now that I do know, I can say that I loved seeing him let in all those goals =p
  
• What is with the ugly Wimbledon-esque sweaters worn by the trainers? Ew.
  
• The Kings one goal was very ugly. Bounced off multiple posts =/
  
• Seeing ex-coaches as players is still weird (hello Granato and Savard)
• Ties were ugly in the 90s (hello Demers and Melrose)
  
• The old Forum thingy looks pretty
• Habs fans chanting "Go Habs Go" made me shiver. Or maybe it was just the really cold water I was drinking...
  
• I'm pretty sure The Great One shook everybody's hands.....*coughs*
  
• Running over the Habs goalie - no matter what decade it is - makes me unhappy...
  
• When is Ron McLean going to retire? The guy has been around FOREVER and ever and ever and ever. PLEASE RETIRE! PLEASE!
• I wuvs my Habbies =)

(I know this is lame... I'm having trouble making my brain write out half decent things here)

Bettman's fantastically wonderful week

It was a good week for King Gary.

No. It was better than it. It was a fantastically wonderful week for the Supreme Ruler of the NHL.

It all started when Sidney Crosby won the Stanley Cup. Personally speaking, Gary was very much pleased when the Anointed One finally did something. Took him long enough, jeez. Just how long ago was the kid drafted? Four years ago now? Like they really had all day to wait for the Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Stanley Cup? It was getting to the point where Gary had to go and talk to the... uh.... talk to the secretary to find him some little stuffed Penguins for his kids. Yeah.... that was right... The kids loved the Penguins.

Anyway, that's pretty much neither here nor there now because the Anointed One did win the Stanley Cup and everyone could just go stuff it. Especially those pesky Red Wings.... Ugh... Gary took a lot of personal satisfaction from handing the Stanley Cup to Sid in front of all those Wings fans. A lot of personal satisfaction.

Of course the really good news came the other night. While Gary was busy re-watching the NBA NHL finals, he received news on his Blackberry iphone (he had broken his Blackberry last week - totally by accident of course), that the judge had rejected Balsillie's bid to move the team. The King literally jumped up and down around his office when the news arrived.

"YES! YES! IN YOUR FACE BALSILLIE! I WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN! YOU LOOOOOOOOSE!"

This continued on for a few more minuted before Gary got tired after so much physical exertion. He went back to his big puffy chair in his over-sized office and continued watching the NBA finals.

It was a good week for King Gary.

No. It was better than it. It was a fantastically wonderful week for the Supreme Ruler of the NHL.

The ultimate insult

Okay so last night I was playing pool with my dad. At one point I was complaining a little bit about the game (which wasn't exactly going in my favor at the time). Being the wonderful human being that he is, he turned around and said I was being the Crysob of pool.

EXCUSE ME?

Oh yes, he knew damn well what he was saying and he got what he wanted too: I shut up immediately.

So. I was thinking of ways to play next time that would ensure that I wouldn't be accused of being a Crysob (which for the records, I wasn't). I came up with a few ways:

1. After sinking the right balls, jump up and smash into the wall (reminiscent of Ovie's glass-slamming)
   
2. After a particularly beautiful shot, throw the cue (stick thing) down and pretend it's on fire
   
3. Declare that we're going to play pool and once the other person starts say "I WIN" and walk away.

I'm sure there's more I could do. I'll even take Markov's blank staring. Anything. I will NOT be called Crysob again. Not. Not. Not.

Oh and... does the sidebar looked totally stretched out? I had to modify it to add my magic countdown machine in....

Countdown begins

Huh.

I should offer my cursing skills to the other teams. I just cursed the Wings to a Stanley Cup loss.

No, I'm not taking this seriously. Just saying. It's funny. In a sad sort of way....

Being the semi-classy person that I am, I will now fully congratulate the Pens on their win. They deserved it. BUT I still hate Crysob. I can think he's talented and deserves it but still hate him. I'm not looking forward to hearing about him this summer or next year.... Damn you Crosby. I can't stand you or the media hype that surrounds you at all. But you deserve the win. So. Myeh.

And yes, I was born the same year that the Pens won their first Stanley Cup...Yup... There's your stupid fact for the day.

AND YES, I actually flipping predicted a Pens win in 7 games. First time I've ever gotten this stupid prediction thing exactly right.

Owch. I have a headache just thinking about this right now...

In better news....

The Baby Caps just won the Calder Cup thing =) Whoo for the Baby Caps!

Soon to be ex-seasons and Quidditch

For once I wasn't the person who started this randomness about hockey players playing Quidditch (you know, Harry Potter). That isn't to say that I didnt get in on the madness:

And tonight is the last night of the season. For real. After tonight, there will be no more NHL hockey for a loooooong, loooooooooong time. I'll try to enjoy it but it won't be easy.... I want those Puffles to go down SO much right now. *sighs* Oh well. For my first ever NHL season, it's been crazy. So thank you to my Habbies, Ovie and the Caps and Peach Fuzz for making it amazing. Oh and special "thanks" to Crysob, Squeaky Marty and the Sens for providing me with hours of easy entertainment. Maybe one day I"ll grow up and stop being mean to you but not right now.... Sowwy.

I was going to write up something more interesting but then my brain shut down on me so you're stuck with this lame crap. Sorry *g*

Goodbye Real Madrid

It was nice watching you but you know that things were going sour. Especially once you lost, it was hard not to notice that other exciting Spanish team. You know... the one in the ugly colours. I was already thinking of adding Barcelona into the ever growing group of teams that I've been watching... Of course winning that Champions League title over a certain English team with a certain whiner on it, helped a lot. I wasn't ready to give you up but then something happened...

Something truly awful involving the aforementioned whiner.

YOU'RE GOING TO GET HIM?!!!!!!!!!!! HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET HIM? AND WHY THE HELL DID YOU GET HIM?! WHY? WHY? WHY? DAMN YOU REAL MADRID AND DAMN YOU CRISTIANO RONALDO!

Seriously. It's over Real Madrid. I can't watch or cheer for you anymore. Sorry.

And I will still hate Man U. Goes with liking Liverpool =)

Make it seven! No wait, make it five....?

So you've probably heard of the Make It Seven campaign. Which is to bring another franchise (hello Phoenix) to Canada and thereby upping our total of NHL teams to seven. But why seven? That would be implying that we have six NHL teams now. Let's see... Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. That seems like five to me... Oh right... Toronto allegedly has a team. Right. Well, there's now a campaign to send the Leafs to the AHL. Have a look for yourself *g*

Anyway... the rumor mills are spewing "Heatley Wants Out" rumors. As long as he ends up on the other side of the continent, then I'm a happy person. Now if we could just find someone to take the whole darn team, I'll be a really happy person. Barring that, I'll settle for rehiring Hartsburg instead of Clouston. I had more fun when Hartsburg was in. And speaking of Ottawa and goalie problems, the Flyers signed Ray Emery!

All I can say is... Poor Squeaky Marty....

Perky Roger time!

Yeah, back to tennis. I hate hockey right now. But anyway, I found this really awesome interview with Roger when he was just starting out as a pro. He must've been like, 19 or something.



With the wonderful benefit of hindsight, it's kind of funny to watch this actually. Of particular interest to me where the bits were he said he got compared to Anna Kournikova because he hadn't won a title, he didn't think it was possible for another player to come along and dominate the game like Sampras did, he hoped to be number one one day and where he said he wanted to win a Grand Slam. "Maybe Wimbledon because it's my favorite one or maybe the US Open once".

Once? ONCE? How about FIVE times? Oh and let's throw in five Wimbledon titles, three Australian Open titles and the French Open too. As for that number one bit... yeah.... you were only number one for 237 CONSECUTIVE weeks. Now maybe I'm wrong here but to me, that sounds like a guy who's completely dominated the tour. But of course itty bitty 19 year old Roger wouldn't known that =p At least he's not being compared to Anna Kournikova anymore....

Imagining the Stanley Cup....

In my wonderfully emotional state today, I was actually imagining what it was like to watch that final between Montreal and LA. Given the date and my frame of mind, you can't blame me too much for wondering what it would've been like to see the Canadiens holding the Cup. It was pretty easy to imagine actually...

While the Wings and the Pens took to the ice, I was imagining that I was watching that final between my Habs and the LA Kings. I imagined that the butterflies I was feeling right then for the Wings would've probably been about ten times worse as I watched les boys take to the ice of the Forum. Instead of seeing Lidstrom, Datsyuk and Osgood out there, I would've been watching guys like Carbonneau, Savard, Roy taking to the ice. Heck was that really Breezer and Schneider out there too? Instead of Mike Babcock standing behind my guys, Jacques Demers would have been standing there. Instead of boring Dan Byslma I would have seen.... Barry Melrose? For real? These two guys? Maybe the reality of Babcock and Byslma currently behind the benches at Mellon Arena was a little easier to take.

I'm sure a billion thoughts would have been racing through my mind at that point as the refs were about to drop the puck in the Forum. First there would have been the immediate thoughts: Can we actually win this game? Can we seriously close out the series and win the Stanley Cup by beating the Kings? Would I actually be watching the Canadiens carry the Cup tonight? I would've run down the other games in my mind too just to remind myself just who it was that had a 3-1 series lead.

Of course that horrendously awful game one drubbing would've come to mind. The Great One would've definitely have bugged me much like the Anointed One continues to do now. I would've particularly remembered how it was Breezer who had caused a turnover that would've put the game out of our reach (some things, they just don't change, do they?).

Game two would've been remembered for that whole illegal curve thing with McSorely's stick. I would have probably have thought that Demers was insane for 1) asking to have the stick checked in the first place and 2) pulling Roy. I would've probably bitten my fingers with anticipation until finally! Desjardins scores! We're tied, baby! And then just like that, only 51 seconds into OT, Desjardins would score again, sending the Forum crowd, previously totally silent with the prospect of their team going down two games to nil heading back to LA, would've gone ballistic. It would've been insane. Would I have been able to sleep that night? Doubtful. I would've literally dreamed about Desjardins goals after replaying them in my mind for the rest of the night.

Games three and four would've been long, long nights. The cheering after the quick leads, only to be replaced with finger biting and screaming as the Kings fought back to force OT.... and then the elation as John Leclaire would score both OT winners to bring us back to Montreal again. Back for a chance to see our guys carrying the Cup.

Those OT winners in particular would've been fresh in my mind as the puck dropped in Game 5. I would've remembered to try to stay calm no matter what lead we took tonight. Goals can be scored and leads can turn into ties. Ties can be broken by the right team or the wrong team. We needed to play a full and complete game. We needed to win this one at here at home. We needed to send the Kings back to California. Let Kings have the Great One if they wanted him. We were going to win this one. We weren't supposed to be here but now that we were here, we sure as hell weren't going to lose to the Kings.

There would've been cheers that you could probably hear across the entire island as Paul DiPietro scored the first goal. Then there would've been finger biting again as both teams came close to scoring again. Would I have cheered on Roy like I cheered on Price and Halak as he made a save? Of course. Roy would've been my goalie. The end of the first period would've been the most wonderful thing ever. I would have had a chance to relax my tense muscles, try to calm down my frayed nerves. Maybe throw in a jibe or two at the Great One as well. Dissing the enemy was a great way to stave off the thoughts that the opposition could still score.

Period two would not get off to a good start. Marty McSorely with his now perfectly legal stick would've beaten Roy. Tied game. But before we could all moan too much about it, we'd get the goal right back. A much younger looking Kirk Muller than the guy I remember seeing behind the Habs bench last year, would've scored just 71 seconds later. There would have been a "thank the hockey gods!" prayer followed by more finger biting. Could we hold this lead? Could we actually win? We were winning now. But leads meant nothing before.... OH GOAL! Stephan Lebeau would score on the powerplay. Maybe I would've fallen off my chair at that point as I screamed with joy. Or maybe that would come a little more than half way through the third period when Paul DiPietro would give us what would turn out to be our last goal of the game to make it 4-1. FOUR TO ONE. Just under eight minutes to go. Could the Kings score 3 goals in that amount of time? Anything was possible, but was it probable? The Kings would've looked dejected by now. The Habs would've tasted blood and knew victory was in their grasp.

The remaining time would've been agonizingly slow. Every shot that came near Roy would've had everyone ducking for cover. Nobody wanted to see the Kings score. Not now. We needed our win. We needed the Stanley Cup. Finally, the last minute would've arrived. I would've counted down the seconds. 60 seconds..... 30 seconds.... 10..... 5.... 4...3...2...1. WE WON! There would've been even more shouting. Even more jumping up and down. Hugging too perhaps. It would've just been a blur of noise and total elation.

The Canadiens had just won their 24th Stanley Cup. WE WON. Not those Penguins who were supposed to come into these playoffs as the favorites and had gotten booted out in 7 games by the Islanders. Not the hated Nordiques. Not those pesky Islanders themselves who had taken out Mario Lemieux and co (I'm pretty certain that Lemieux would've annoyed me almost as much as the Great One). And definitely not the still highly touted Great One and his band of desert followers. No. WE WON. The Montreal Canadiens won.

I would've watched Carbonneau take the Cup. I would've seen the other guys, Muller, Schneider, Breezer and Roy hold it. Nobody would have cared too much at that moment that Roy had won the Conn Smythe trophy too. Sure it was nice. Sure he deserved it, but we would've watched him carrying the Stanley Cup around the Forum. I probably would have spared a small thought for the Great One but just a small one. And it would've been a "Hah!" type of thought anyway. Not particularly mature but someone had to win it and I was watching MY boys carry the Cup.

This time sixteen years ago we would have probably still been jumping up and down. We would've been talking about the game, the series, the playoffs and the season. We would've been talking about how we never expected to see it happen - but it did. We won. And we would've heard about the rioting... oh.... the rioting.......

Of course this was the point where the day dream faded away and I once again saw Sidney Crosby instead of Wayne Gretzky on the ice. Osgood replaced Roy. Instead of Breezer plays, I got Rafalski plays. Carbonneau, who I probably would have liked as a player, faded away to be replaced with Lidstrom. Babcock was back and was looking angry. Melrose's antics were replaced with boring Bylsma. Thanks to Kennedy, the Pens will be heading back to Detroit for game seven. On Friday night, one way or another, someone is walking out with the Stanley Cup. Another season over. The sixteenth now since Les Boys brought it home.

Maybe if I'm in the right frame of mind I can imagine the goalie holding the Cup on Friday is Roy or maybe even Price. Maybe for a split second I can see my Habs holding the Cup. I'm looking forward to the day when I don't have to imagine what it will be like to see my team win because like it or not, I will be there when they win. I will get to see them raise their 25th Stanley Cup.

[and maybe I should stop writing things at 2 o'clock in the morning... hmm... ]

Exactly 16 years ago....

Thanks to Kyle for reminding me of this. Actually, I didn't even know the exact date of their win. I'm bad, I know.



I've never ever seen this before. I've seen footage of the guys immediately after winning but that was it. I'll be honest and say I'm in flipping tears here watching this. I'm pretty emotional right now anyway so I'll just chalk it up to that.... and not... I dunno... the thought that this is the closest I might ever come to seeing my team win the Stanley Cup....Oh hell I need to go find a tissue right now...

Burritos vs tomatoes and olives

[with Roger's win, I can now go back to angsting about the Wings]

So the coach of the Puffles thinks that eating a Ancho Chile BBQ Burrito before games has actually helped his team win and that by eating one today, he will ensure a victory for the Puffles?

Apparently he doesn't know that every time *I* eat tomatoes and olives the Wings win.

Really. Throughout the entire Wings/Hawks series I ate tomatoes and olives except for game 3 where the Hawks won in OT and look what happened. Actually, I had to stop eating them before the finals, because the olives really had too much salt in them, but I have since learned that the house has been filled with tomatoes and olives again. Huzzah!

So we'll just have to see who's food propels their team to victory. And don't worry.. if it appears that my tomatoes and olives aren't doing the trick, I've always got plan B: cheer for the Pens. Worked like a charm last year when I cheered for them and they lost. And if that fails, I have plan C: voodoo dolls. Seriously, Bylsma's attempt at some good mojo has nothing on me and my cursing abilities. Nothing.

Roger is better on clay than Rafa?!

Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Technically speaking, yes, he is. Here are the points that both have accumulated during the clay season:

Roger

Monte Carlo (RD16) - 90 points
Rome (S) - 360 points
Madrid (W)- 1000 points
Roland Garros (W)- 2000 points

Total: 3450

Rafa

Monte Carlo (W) - 1000 points
Barcelona (W) - 500 points
Rome (W) - 1000 points
Madrid (F) - 600 points
Roland Garros (RD16) - 180 points

Total: 3280

Okay, so really Rafa really is better than Roger on clay. He's won more tournaments this year (mind you, he did play one more than Roger and he beat Ferrer in Barcelona). But Roger did beat him at Madrid and Roger won the most important event on clay. But for this year, by virtue of his win at Roland Garros, he is the better one on clay. Sorry Rafa....

One last thing about Roger...

Found this Netjet commercial. I think this is so cute and funny =)

Some random thoughts about the match

(Image from here)

Because...I'm still incapable of writing something epically awesome.

The match

The match itself wasn't much to write home about. Soderling did what I thought and hoped he would do: which was crumble under the pressure of being in his first ever Grand Slam Final. Kudos to the guy for not only setting a personal best at any Grand Slam event but for also playing some superb tennis in the process. But today it was the Roger Federer's day and he came out like it from the beginning. While Roger played solid tennis in the first set, he was helped out a bit by Soderling who's dangerous serving had completely left him. I figured some semblance of the Soderling I had seen before would show up and sure enough he did. It went all the way to a tiebreak. And wow. What a tiebreaker for Roger. 4 aces?! Jeez. He didn't give Soderling any chances whatsoever.

After that, you had to figure it was only going to be a matter of time before Roger won. Well, at least that's what I hoped. I was still thinking that in a best of five sets, we could still be in for a lot of tennis. Roger immediately broke serve and pretty much didn't look back until he had to serve for the match. Ah. The moment of truth. Would he choke? He already looked in tears before he had to start serving. Not a good sign. Then he faced break point for only the second or third time in the entire match. Some good serving put him back to match point and then... Sodering put it into the net to finish off the match. Game. Set. Match. And Roger wins his first ever Roland Garros title.

(credit goes to AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

What this means

So it took a little longer than expected, but he got his 14th title.

After what had to be a fairly bad year for Federer, there were questions about whether his time was up. In all honesty, the questions were fair. No, they didn't need to be talked about to the enth degree, but they were legitimate to some degree. Federer set a very high standard for men's tennis, and when he fell sort of his standards, it had the people up in arms.

But just like he did back at the US Open last year, this year Federer silenced his critics - critics who, especially since the Australian Open, had gotten very loud. He's now tied with Pete Sampras for the most Grand Slams won. He's now in a small list of people which doesn't include Sampras and Bjorn Borg, who have won all four titles in their career. This is pretty massive. Even Roger was having trouble concentrating:

But it was very hard mentally for me to stay within the match during the match, because my mind was always wondering, what if? What if I win this tournament? What does that mean? What will I possibly say? I don't know.

You can'thelp it but to tell yourself, you know, once you win you'll get all the time tothink about all these things, but they keep on coming back.

I was verynervous at the beginning of the third set because I realized how close I was. The last game, obviously you can imagine how difficult that game was. It was almost unplayable for me because I was just hoping to serve some good serves and hoping that he was going to make four errors. It was that bad.

So, yeah,it was an emotional roller coaster for me.

Why this win still counts

For some people, this win will mean less because he didn't beat Nadal. I think there's a few things here. For me, I dont believe that it would've be the same if Rafa hadn't participated in the tournament. If Rafa had pulled out and Roger had won, then there would be a legitimate case to say "well, yes, he won, but Nadal wasn't in the tournament so can we truly rank this win up there with say, his fifth Wimbledon win?". But the thing here is, Nadal was in this tournament. He did participate. And he lost. Federer didn't poison him. Federer didn't bully him into pulling out. Nadal lost to an opponent who played a hell of a lot better than he did in that match. Federer had no control over that match. So if the defending champ is going to play badly and goes out, then that leaves the door wide open for other players to take the title. This title doesn't mean less because he didn't beat Nadal. This win wasn't handed to him. He had to work for it. And he earned it.

(Image from here)

ROGER WINS THE FRENCH OPEN!!!!!!

(image from here)

Oh. My. God. He won. He actually won. He effing did it. HE WOOOOOOOOOON!

I'll be back with more thoughts later once I can actually stop running around like an idiot and actually calm down.

Blah, blah, blah, Stanley Cup finals, blah, blah, blah

Myeh, not in the mood for hockey. Let's talk tennis. In about 12 hours, Roger Federer will be making his 4th consecutive final appearance at Roland Garros. This time however, there will be no Clay Monster to stomp all over him. Instead, he will get the guy who beat Nadal.

Moving away from the whole pre-game analysis which I won't be able to do very well anyway.... I want to talk about what a big deal this victory would be.

First off, he has never won here. Winning this tournament would be great for that reason alone. When you've gone to the finals so many times it would be nice to just win the darn thing for once, right? Right.

Second, winning this would also put Federer into a small group of people who have won all four Grand Slams in their careers. That would cement his place in the history books as one of the best players ever (mind you, I still think Roger is the best player ever. But this would just be the final proof).

Third, winning this tournament would finally tie Roger's number of Grand Slam victories with those of Pete Sampras who has the most. Roger tried to tie the record back in at the Australian Open which as you might recall... didn't go so well. Roger had a meltdown and I had a metldown afterwards too (The Battle of the Cursed Barberpole Jerseys followed Roger's 4 o'clock in the morning match).

Fourth, should Roger win this, I think he'll be riding a huge confidence boost throughout the rest of the year. I think the Slams are what are important to Roger now and this win would give him a lot of confidence going into Wimbledon (there is also a chance that Rafa won't be making Wimbledon but I'm not too ready to fully believe that he won't be there). Yes, it's a different surface, blah, blah, blah, but winning this one is huge for the reasons I listed above and mentally, I think Roger will be good.

Allez Roger!

Roger gives me Halak-attacks...

There's nothing like eating a Roland Garros towel after you win a match =)

Seriously, I was ready to have a mental breakdown after the Fed went down 2 sets to 1 while looking absolutely horrendous doing so. I saw his poor father in the stands. He kept walking around nervously. Poor Mr. Federer...

Anyway... I was pretty surprised at how Stripey was handling himself. For his first semi-final ever he did well - and looked a lot better thanks to Roger's miss-hits. Early on he played strong and didn't seem like he was going to choke. I'll be honest though, I wasn't looking so much at Stripey. I was paying more attention to Roger's shots which seemed to not want to stay in the court lines. Finally the Roger woke up and Stripey started to make errors and after 3 hours of pulling out my hair, we had a Roger victory.

YAY!

For the... what... fourth time in a row now we'll see Roger in the finals of Roland Garros. The good news is that he won't have to face Rafa. The bad news is, he'll be playing the guy who beat Rafa and looked pretty darn good while demolishing Gonzalez. Okay. Back to chewing my fingers....At least he'll have the crowd backing him. Right people Paris-people? RIGHT.

"Yay! I WIIIIIN!"

"Wait... I didn't do that right... Let me try again...Wait for it......."

"HOLY COW! I'M GOING TO THE FINALS BABY! YAAAAAAY"

"C'moooon Roger...."

All images come from here.

Off season braindead-ness sets in....

It's almost the off season and with any luck the season wil be over by Saturday (right Wings? Right). To honor the braindeadness that comes with the off season I drew - and coloured! - another stick figure drawing. Of the Flyers.... err yeah....

To explain: I was talking to someone about their jersey colours. And we agreed that that orange is the same colour that you'd wear if you went hunting... But then I said that Itty Bitty couldn't possibly go hunting because he'd get hurt. He'd have to go butterfly hunting instead....

Click for bigger picture.

Of Roger, useless info and.... baseball?

So Roger will make his 20th consecutive Grand Slam semi-final appearance after downing Gael Monfils this morning. This makes him just 6 sets away from winning his first ever French Open title. I'm just hoping that's not the same thing as saying the Pens are only 3 wins away from winning the Stanley Cup (ie. not going to happen). He'll meet Stripey (Del Potro) who's never been this far in a Grand Slam before. Sadly Soderling the Rafa Killer is still kicking and will face Gonzalez. So yeah. I hope Roger is focusing on making sure HE can play well and not "omfg, I'm SO close to winning it and I MUST win it!". This is the problem without Rafa, Nole and Muz (Murray). Now Roger's the favorite and I'm worried it'll go to his head and he'll choke.

Speaking of Roger, Monfils and the French Open.... the first time I ever watched tennis was on a replay of the French Open semi-finals between Roger and Monfils. There was no hockey on and so I decided to watch it. All I knew was that the guy with funny name was the world number one. Oh yes, I was so stupid..

And yeah... I've got baseball on. Don't get how this thing works and really wishing I could watch hockey instead. I do not get this sport. Other than the obvious. Which is you try to hit the ball. But that's like saying the objective of tennis is to hit the ball. It's just a tad bit more complicated than that. And what's worse is that I have to watch the Toronto Blue Jays and the LA whatevers.... I kinda wanted to see the Red Soxs... *pouts* Stupid baseball.... stupid Toronto. I WANT MY HABS!!!!

So where's the fanfare?

I'm not talking about the royal treatment I didn't get when I got back from Sensland, I'm talking about the whole frenzy with the Habs new headcoach. Maybe I missed it. I mean, it's not like Sensland is big on hockey right now or anything... And I was going to mention this earlier but 1) I heard about the news JUST as I was leaving yesterday (thanks Bob for scheduling your presser at the most inconvenient times) and 2) I left my comp here. ANYWAY.

Jacques Martin.

Didn't know anything about the guy and after doing a quick Google search, I'm not sure I'm jumping up and down. Granted, what do you expect me to do when the guy apparently is has a personality that seems more boring than Bob's. If that's possible. No offense to Bob or anything... But oh well... a defense first type of mentality is a good thing. Especially for a team that really didn't seem to have any defense on most nights. And the guy technically has experience coaching. Unlike Tremblay, Vigneault, Therrien, Julien and Carbonneau did when they came in.

But I still can't shake the thought that "was he really hired because of his experience or because of the way his name sounded?" thought. Maybe I'm just really skeptical, but I still can't deny that was the first thing that came to my mind when I read the guy's name was "Jacques Martin". Especially with Boivin going around saying "we must have a French coach". I'm trying not to think that Martin was hired because he was the best option available under the Habs number one rule for hiring a coach "he has to be speak French" instead of the what should be rule number one "does he fit with the direction we want to take the team in? Regardless of where he was born, what he looks like, what language he speaks, what suits he wears, what he eats for breakfast, etc, etc".

We'll see. As long as he doesn't turn the team into the Devils I guess I can't complain too much (unless we get turned into the Islanders). And even if the Habs do get boring... I've got Mr. Exciting Goal Scorer to watch and Peach Fuzz. So I'm all set.

Oh yeah and we have no goalie coach... or strength and conditioning dude... Rollie got fired and the other dude who's name escapes my braindead brain is leaving......

Oh and... I have this crazy tradition of buying Habs stuff in other cities like Toronto, Quebec City and Ottawa. So naturally I had to go looking for stuff in Ottawa. You'd think that they didn't even have an NHL team there....there's like zero hockey stuff. I know their team is out but still... Quebec City puts Ottawa to shame in the department of selling useless hockey paraphernalia. But after hours of looking, I did find something!

You thought you could hide the Habs stickers behind all the Leafs and Sens crap, eh?! Well, I found them! And yes, I screamed like a little kid when I found them. The guy behind the cash looked so annoyed that I was buying a Habs thing. I'm starting to like these annoyed looks I get from people when I buy Habs stuff. It's fun. Anyway, I'm going to have fun trying to find places to stick my beautiful new stickers. I WIN MAJORLY TODAY! *walks away*

Stripes!

Hey guess what? Not only did a team I wanted to win actually win tonight, but I got to wake up to Roger winning in... well... 5 sets. That makes me 2 for 2 for once! Anyway, after watching Roger Del Potro came around and uh.. wow.. you thought the barberpole jerseys were ugly......?

(image from yahoo sports)

Just in case you want to compare to the barberpole jerseys...