Streak of different sorts

Bad streak be gone!

JUNIORS FINALLY WON A FLIPPING GAME! I was going to write about it last night, but I actually missed most of the game. They kicked Halifax over and won 6-4. I got stuck with the Halifax feed actually and it wasn't too fun. They called the Juniors the "Rocket" (that's PEI's team) at one point and totally forgot to call the Juniors 6th goal. And they were SUPER mopey when my team FINALLY ended their six game losing streak. Well, excuse me! Sheesh. Anyway, Baby Marcoux made the trip because Jake is apparently sick and had to stay put. Which means... Berube will probably do all the work on this eastern roadtrip. Which means..... eeeeek.....

The semi-good/semi-bad streak

The Hammies point streak lives on! They're continuing their new franchise record, however, nobody is happy because they've now dropped their last two games in shootouts. Something needs to be done about these shootouts. The Hammies record isn't getting too pretty right now.

You know what though? Abbotsford is a pain.They play tight on defense, don't care about flashy offense... they keep the score low. I dont' like them. Not. At. All.

If the Hammies could actually get a PP goal in the near future, I would be happy. I know Guy says he's been working on getting everyone used to the system and trying to figure out who would actually work on the PP, but...... it would be nice if everyone could figure it out sooner rather than later *G*

Flandersdude and Al think that Desharnais would really help Glumac who has completely forgotten how to score a goal this year. I hope for his sake - and the Hammies sake - that Desharnais is the answer to Glumac's problems. Speaking of David, he could be back for the Hammies game at the Bell Centre. I really hope this is true because I really like Desharnais and would LOVE to be able to see him play.

I hope Guy isn't yelling at them too much, but I really hope that this isn't the start of a losing streak. Hammies need to pull it together. And soonish, please.

The bad streak... 

Habs are now officially on a losing streak.

• I hope Dagger is okay after Ladd went head hunting.... If Richard's didn't get suspended for totally Booth then there's no way that Ladd is going to get suspended. 
• When did the D decided to not show up when Price plays? I thought they always showed up for Price but ditched Halak? Hmm... don't like either habit of leaving one of the goalies to dry.
• At least Squishy had a goal. And Moen too. 
• I think the Habs must be cabbie drivers in their spare time because they gave Peach Fuzz WAY too much space out there.
• Someone give AK46 a huge bucket of redbull before tomorrow' night's game. Maybe THAT will wake him up. 
• Price gave the team a chance to win the game. They didn't take the chance and burned him. 
• If Martin puts in Halak because Price lost night, I will go crazy. You know I love the little Slovak goalie but damnit, this was a game that Price deserved to win. But for all you Halak-haters out there... did you see Jimmy Howard last night against the Oilers in the first period? Be thankful that we have Halak and not Howard. That was some brutal goaltending. 

In other depressing news:

• Streit had the OT winner against the Caps
• Jackets imploded and lost to the Pens in a shootout after having a 3-1 lead. 
• Leafs lost in OT to the Sabres. Sad to say, the Leafs are looking a lot better. This isn't going to be pleasant tomorrow. 

Let's look on the postive side tonight

The Leafs (one game) winning streak is over.

Thanks Stars!

I know some of you (you know who you are *glares*) don't think that it's as much fun to make fun of the Leafs when the Habs have done equally as bad, but I disagree. It's ALWAYS fashionable to make fun of the Leafs. It's just not always fashionable to make fun of Vesa Toskala or Nazem Khadri (until the the latter scores on the Habs anyway). 

OMG. What is wrong with my fantasy teams?

Look. I suck at fantasy hockey. The main reason is probably that I keep forgetting about it. But also...I seem to be cursing players.

Between three different leagues I had:

Kovalchuk
Franzen
Markov
Lucic
Luongo

ALL of them are injured. Screw this,  I'm going to go make my team all Leafs and Penguins. THEN we'll see who's going to get injured. Bwahahahahahahaha...... I mean.. at least you can't pin Gaborik's injury on me. I didn't draft him and I can't believe that he's gone this long without an injury.

Anyway... I'll be missing the Habs tonight for some important lecture (really praying that the lecture is good) so... this is my post for today. Yay.

Okay, shootouts aren't the Hammies thing

Or maybe they just need to learn how not to blow two one goal leads in the third period. Barring that, at least don't blow a 2-0 lead in the shootout. SHEESH.

Because I'm still in a fantastic mood tonight, we'll just deal with all the lovely positives of this game:

• The boys are STILL unbeaten in regulation time. They've picked up a point in every game so far. Now they just need some of that awesome win it in OT thing. Like the Habs. They've picked up 5 of 6 points in this whole Texas roadtrip thing. 
• Their PK was solid (or the Aeros PP sucked. Didnt' sound like it sucked though). 
• Eric Neilson was sitting out tonight's game and he joined Flandersdude as the colour-commentator dude. Despite being boring to listen to (and not the cool type of boring like Steve was), he had some interesting things to say. Like, did you know that the Hammies call Cedric Desjardins "Teddy"? TEDDY? Where did THAT come from? Maybe "Ced" is too easy? 
• We all know that hockey players like to add "y" to names in a totally uncreative attempt to make it into a nickname. I heard Neilson say "Whitey" "Maxy", "Bellesie" and "Pie-sie" (White, Maxwell, Belle and Pyatt) tonight. 
• The Hammies say "Thank you for Pyatt, Mr. Sather". Pyatt is so awesome. 
• Weber had a goaaaaal! He's been a little absent in the scoring department lately. 

Okay.. I have to mention some negatives. I can't help myself.

• Glumac, where are you? I'm missing you and you're scoring abilities. 
• Do.Not.Blow.Two.One-goal. Leads. 
• Don't blow a freaking 2-0 lead in the shootout. DO NOT. 
• My goalies are having a competition to see who can create the scariest rebound without it actually resulting in a goal. 
• Myeh to Maxwell's shootout attempt that was stopped right on the damn line. 
• And double myeh to Gillies almost tripping on his way to scoring on Teddy. Teddy was probably all like "this guy is SO going to land on his face... wait, WTF? AGH." 
• Also.. .Texas... They have issues. Against the Baby Stars, it was the ice that was all screwy... tonight it was the glass. It came out, they fixed it and five minutes later, it came out again. Guh?

ANYWAY....

OOOOOOOOOOVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE! He was on my TV tonight. The Caps are NEVER on my TV. But tonight they were. Taking on those semi-yucky Flyers too. Ovie had two goals ('bout time) including a pretty sweet one while the Caps were down 0-2. Pie and A2 also had sweet goals. Mike Richards tried to make me like him by getting a sweet assist on Hartnell's goal but it didn't work. We're not getting along right now, Mike. Anyway... Jose had a great game tonight. He got little help from his teammates for a lot of the night (apart from the fact that they scored goals) and faced a Price-esque 43 shots tonight.

Y'know, a Flyers/Caps game would be an AWESOME Winter Classic matchup. Forget Penguins/Flyers, Penguins/Capitals, Bruins/Flyers or Capitals/Rangers. As Ovie would probably say, a Flyers/Capitals matchup would be "sick". It would be really sick.

ANNNNNNNNND

Pricey says that Jaro should play if the team is winning. Like Pricey really was going to say anything else....What else COULD he say? Still....

It's just dawned on me how epically awkward it must be between two goalies... there's the whole "he's here to take my job" kinda thing, y'know? it's kinda like:

Pricey: Everyone loves me!
Jaro: ... *pouts*
Media: PRICE = PATRICK ROY
Pricey: *flails under pressure*
Jaro: ....*scuttles into the net and wins the game* I win?
Media: HALAK FTW!
Jaro: Yay! Acknowledgement! *wins again*
Pricey: .....
Jaro: *wins another game* WHOO!
Media: GOALIE CONTROVERSY!!
Jaro:  I'm not trying to steal your job, Carey. Really.
Pricey: .....then suck so I can play!
Jaro: But I like to play too....
Pricey: *tosses a milkcrate at Jaro*
Jaro: *gets concussed*
Coach: Ummm... Guess Price is playing tonight.
Pricey: *wins a game* I WIN! YAY!
Media: PRICE = PATRICK ROY
Jaro: *pouts*

5 things

'bout time I did this again.

1. $%^&*(... the Leafs won a game. There go my hopes of them ending the season 0-82. I guess this just means that they'll end the season 1-80-1.
   
   
2. Martin is pretty much responsible for this goalie-controversy and I think it's hurting both goalies. Before you scream at me, yes, I think Halak should get more time to play and yes, I think that Price should have to work for his job. HOWEVER. There really hasn't been a "hot hand" in these wins. Justin Pogge could have won against the Islanders last week for crying out loud. Martin has basically put the goalies in a lose-lose situation. If Halak can't bail the team out against the Penguins, they're left with putting in a goalie who's going to be colder than a block of ice because he hasn't played in 4 games.
   
   
3. One thing that baffled and infuriated me about Carbonneau was how his lines would change faster than you say "Ovechkin scooores". I was hoping that Martin would be a bit more sensible, but so far no go. His lines have been all over the place.
   
   
4. Remind me again why the league does not have a "no hits to the head" rule? Mike Richards takes out David Booth and the league rules it a "clean" hit? Exactly what is clean about a guy going out cold BEFORE he even hits the ice? I've witnessed a few stomach churning hits last year - including two against the Habs. I have no idea why and how people can condone this.
   
   
5. There is no food in my fridge. 

It's like the 1993 playoffs

......minus the playoff bit *G* 

Habs take it in OT! Again! Turtle-Pleky had beautiful pass over a Isle's defenseman to Hammer who put it past a sprawling Squeaky Marty! 

• The Islanders decided to come to play tonight (and c'mon, they have been playing a lot better than last year). I decided that after the 08 playoffs, three words I never wanted to hear again were "Biron fait l'arret". When Squeaky Marty is all motivated against the Habs, it usually spells bad news for the Habs. Not that he's been THAT motivated since May of 08.. but still... He wasn't so faily tonight.
  
  
• Metro was sick but he showed up to play anyway. Boy, did he look really sick. BUT! he had a SUPER awesome assist on Spacek's goal. Super cool. I really hope that he doesn't give everyone else the flu though... that would be super UNcool.
  
  
• Gotta admit that Tambellini's goals in the second and third period (both on the PP) were nice. Sucked to be Jaro who got left out to dry by the D. Sucked especially to be Hal Gill who looked silly on Tambellini's first goal....
  
  
• Squishy had some nice work on Moen's goal. It was a bit of a weak one by Sqeaky but we'll take it!
  
  
• Either the Islanders were actually playing defense, or else the Habs offense was taking a bit of a break tonight, because that was all she wrote for the next two periods for the Habs. Probably both. The Islanders were playing a lot tighter D around Squeaky. To the point where you really couldn't even see Squeaky.
  
  
•  Jaro was really solid tonight. I'm really not sure why people insist on bashing him. Okay, so he did get super lucky on a very fast whistle by the ref, but it wasn't like the posts weren't being nice to Squeaky tonight either (sometimes I wonder if it takes more talent to hit the post than it does to put it past Squeaky. What say you, Mr. French Marshmallow?).Seriously... Jaro was solid tonight.
  
  
• The Habs really forgot how to count tonight. They took TWO too many men on the ice penalties.
  
  
• The refs also pretty much forgot that they're allowed to penalize the Islanders for most of the game. It took a whole 40 mins before the Habs would get a full PP (in which they fell asleep. Happens when you forget about what it;s like to be on the PP).
  
  
• Turtle-Pleky has been really good. He finished the night a + 1 had 3 shots, 3 blocked shots and  1 missed shot. Oh and he was %52 on the faceoff circle making him the third best tonight.
  
  
• Pigeon and Squishy were also on fire tonight in terms of shots. Both had four shots (Pigeon had another 5 shots blocked).
  
  
• Okay, who had Andrei with the most hits tonight? He had three.
  
  
• Not a bad game tonight. The real tests will be coming up this week though with the Pens on Wednesday, the Peachhawks on Friday and then those dratted Leafs on Saturday. The Habs will be tired and the Leafs will be super hungry on Saturday..... 

Team Canada goes green and EP pukes

Image from here.

From here

It’s the colour associated with Saskatchewan’s favourite sports team. And, soon, green will also be the colour of Canada’s National Junior Team. Hockey Canada announced on Saturday that Canada’s National Junior Team will wear green jerseys during the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championship, in honour of Saskatchewan’s love affair with the CFL’s Roughriders and as a salute to the province. Also, the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championship will mark the first time the tournament has returned to Canadian cities (Regina and Saskatoon) for a second time.

Why Canada? WHY?! AAAAARGH *pukes*

Finding new and creative ways to watch hockey

Pop Quiz! What do you do when your teams aren't playing hockey?

Answer: Go to your local rink and watch a pile of 10ish year olds play.

No jokes. And I thought I couldn't POSSIBLY be more obsessed with this nutcase sport.

Wow. 10 year olds are actually quite a lot of fun to watch though. Okay so they're super slow but they're fun (minus the coaches who insist on screaming in a building that just echoes their words into a pile of mooshy sound that nobody can understand). I stayed for two games. At this level, when they say an hour, they mean an hour. None of this "oh well, the game is 60 mins, but then we have to factor in stoppage in play, timeouts, breaks in-between periods, fights and god knows what else". They actually finish in 60 mins. ANYWAY, the first two teams were pretty good. They seemed evenly matched.

The next game however, was rather sad. I felt super bad for the team that I dubbed "the Fail Team". They were just super slow and I had no choice but to dub their goalies Mini Vesa and Mini Floppy. Poor things. The poor little Mini Vesa was SUPER tiny too. His head was only barely above the crossbar. As you can guess, Mini Vesa was faily and Mini Floppy wasn't helping his team's cause out either. Mind you, the whole TEAM was a fail today. Next time, the coaches need to remember to give the kids some candy before hand or something. Get 'em all hyper and crazy so they can speed down the rink. Actually, Not-Fail-Team's shutout bid was squashed as someone from Team Fail pulled move a lot like Squishy's last night in OT (only a lot slower) and "ripped" one past the Bored Goalie. It was pretty sweet actually.

After this I came home and discovered that a certain hated QMJHL team was playing..... I've decided that I hate the Voltigeurs SO much that I need to follow them in my spare time (read: blame it all on Dumont and Lefebvre. Damn you, Baby Habs). After screwing it up royally against Shawinigan last night, the Chubbies had a chance to exact some revenge today. They didn't seem to show too many signs of fatigue (it being their third game in as many nights) and ended up stomping on the Cataractes 6-3. If you didn't know that Vachon was the teams' captain before the game, you definitely knew it afterwards. Apparently you can't just call Vachon "Vachon". It has to be "le capitaine Vachon". Well, excuse me. Sheesh. The guy is on a roll though. Tallied two more goals tonight (he can thank Dumont for doing all the work on one of them though!) and had an assist as well.

it's LE CAPITAINE Vachon, to you! 

The Chubbies got into a HUGE scrum at the end of the game that took about 15 mins to sort out. It was hardly worth it as the Chubbies had virtually won it by then. Least you need to know is that they sent pretty much everyone off the ice. Sounded pretty brutal. So much for curbing fighting in the Q.  Not sure who was left to play the last 1 1/2 but whatever.

So yeah. That's how I spent my Sunday afternoon. Not that you care. But oh well :D

WHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, one day can we have a normal Habs/Rags game? Y'know, one where I don't go "OMFG I'M GOING TO DIE HERE?!!!!!" PLEASE?

No?

In that case.....

YAY THE HABS WIN! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

Ahem.

WHAT a show of character from the team tonight. We knew that the Habs would have their work cut out for them tonight. This other team in New York was definitely nothing like the other one that the Habs stomped all over. After Squishy had the first goal just 4 and something mins in, it looked as though the Habs would get blown out. Extremely awful defensive coverage by les boys allowed the Rangers to score three consecutive goals. It was a pretty awful period and we're not going to waste any time dwelling on it.

During the first break we were subjected to A LOT of Halak bashing. Apparently when the defense plays badly, you blame the goalie. Story of a goalie's life, I guess. Anyway, contrary to popular demand, Jaro returned for the second period.

The little Slovak goalie and co played a better second period. As I was yelling at the Hammies, I missed Max-not-Patches and Dagger literally crashing the net and scoring. Looked like a real mess on the replays though. Oh well. Messy goals will do!

The one goal lead didn't last all that long as someone Gaborik was still healthy enough to play and ended up behind the Habs D. When Gaborik is healthy he scores nice goals. And that's not great for the Habs. Hmm no... it made everyone look really BAD and it gave the Rags another 2 goal lead.

Have no fear! MAG made up for being largely responsible for the Rags second goal (try "I'll pass the puck to a teammate that isn't there. Oops, a Rag picked up the puck. Oops, they scored") and smashed one past Lundqvist. One goal game again! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand then 2 mins later Gio gets smashed up, passes the puck to Turtle-Pleky who then passes to Squishy who then rips it past Lundqvist. TIED GAME BABY.

You had to believe that the Habs would win it at this point. They didn't make it easy in the third though. Jaro was forced to come up with some big saves. They had quite a few good chances to take the game in the third but when Gui!'s got the puck.... it's not going to happen. Mind you, Gui! did force Hank to actually make a save at one point so we'll take that. Anyway, this game was going to OT.

Let's just cut to the chase and say that Jaro makes a save, Squishy picks it up, Squishy goes all the way down to the other end, Squishy goes around a few Rags and then Squishy puts it past Hank. HAAAAAATRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GAME OVER.

Few things

• We need to stop bashing the goalies. There is NO goalie controversy. So please, shut up and leave my goalies alone. Jaro was not terrible tonight. 
• MAG should not be allowed to do anything other than the PP. I was concerned about his abilities when he was going to be pressed (and boy oh boy did the Rags ever forecheck) and I had a lot to fear. 
• Dagger and Chipper had a good night. Patches looks a lot happier since he had that goal. 
• Spacek.. I wasn't impressed with him tonight. 
• Torts wasn't impressed with Higgy either. 
• Gui! wasn't totally useless tonight. He wasn't throwing his weight either. But he looked like he was at least attempting to hustle a little bit at certain points.  
• Bloody hell do the Rangers have a super aggressive forecheck! 
• I really liked that this Habs team didn't quit. Not when they were down 3-1. Not when they were down 4-2. They kept it up. Even if they had ultimately lost in OT or SO or whatever, I would have been really pleased with this effort. It was a good effort to battle back. 

GUESS WHO ELSE WON TONIGHT?! THE HAMMIES! They're the only team who hasn't suffered a regulation loss so far!

Missed a lot of it because the Habs forced me to watch and cheer them on, but I did catch the important parts. The Hammies had a very strong first period. They were all over the Baby Stars goalie but only had one goal to show for it. You know it's never going to be a good sign when the other goalie is stealing goals again. Kills the momentum for the team trying to score. This is what happened in the second period when the Baby Stars woke up and were ALL over the Hammies. Thankfully they too only had one goal to show for their efforts. The third period was a real parade to the penalty box and nobody go anything done. OT proved nothing and we were going to shootouuuuts!

I hate shootouts and Sanford isn't particularly wonderful at them either. BUT tonight he was loads better. A miss and three saves earned him and the Hammies another win! Darche and Tooooom Pyaaattt who Guy had just said had the best work ethic on the team, both scored.

Speaking of the Junuiors... Okay so we weren't but now we are!  I apparently I have to do everything around here. The Juniors's website has completely failed to mention that Jake has been invited to the super series between a pile of Russian prospects and CHL prospects. How it works is that the Russians come up with a pile of prospects and they play pretty much the best players from the Q, OHL and WHL. Um yeah, he was invited before he started DUCKING. Dumont is going too along with two other Chubbies. The Chubbies had a whole big thing about it on their site.... Oh and speaking of the Dummondville Chubbies... they imploded in the third period and let in 5 goals as they lost 7-3 to Shawinigan. Why couldn't you have messed up like that last night?! EH?!

In other news: 

• Drummondville is sitting on top of the WHOLE CHL right now. Well, they were before they lost to Shawinigan. This makes me feel a little better about my team losing to them last night. The Remparts and the Olympiques are also among the top ten in the CHL. 
• Leafs continue on the fail streak. They lost again. This time to the Canucks. So pretty. Maybe they should watch the Baby Leafs instead? They actually won, I believe. 
• Sensfail too. Blew a lead to the Booins and lost in shootouts. They were seconds away from winning the game too. 
• Mike Richards might be in HUGE trouble after concussing Booth. Booth was out cold before he even hit the ice. 
• Caps fought back in a tough game against the........... Islanders............ and won in OT. Um congrats? Laich and Greener had a big bromance moment after Laich had the winner. 

Okay... that's two long posts for me today...I need my sleep now D: 

A few thoughts about the Juniors as a franchise

If EP could single-handedly finance this team to keep it in Montreal, she would

So Grrreg was asking about the team. Mainly about our fans, the prices and all that jazz because he heard that major junior teams tend to fail here and it got me thinking that I really should write something up about this seemingly obscure team that I seem to have an affinity for.

Let me start off by saying that major junior teams do NOT do well in Montreal. We have had seven franchises here (not including the ones in Laval and Longeuil) over the years and all of them have failed. The most recent team we had was the Montreal Rocket and they left in 2003 to become the PEI Rocket.

Why have all the teams failed in a city that is so obviously obsessed with hockey?

I think it's probably because with a city that is so obsessed with the Canadiens, there is no room for another hockey team. In Montreal, we hold NHL hockey as the pinnacle of all hockey and everything else isn't worth watching. You see it time and time again about the AHL. "Oh it's just minor hockey. It's not worth my time." Here, the only hockey (err the only SPORT) that matters is the Canadiens, so it's difficult to get another team in there.

I think - and I don't know if this is true but I'm guessing anyway - that the previous QMJHL franchises here didn't try to market their team as a separate and distinct product. With the Q, you have something totally different from the NHL. If you just try to market it as just another hockey team, then you're sunk. You  need to raise the differences and admit that it's a different type of hockey.

Speaking about the Juniors specifically... I think thus far (and they're only in their second season) they've done a good job in promoting their team as something different. This isn't NHL hockey, but you're seeing future NHLers here. You're seeing kids who have either been drafted or will be drafted by the NHL. This obvious includes future Habs in Lefebvre and Dumont (the only prospects that the Habs have in the Q. Unless Avtsin would like to play for the Juniors next year).

We have a decent amount of fans. I think during the week there's an average of a 1000 or so. Not bad for a building that only holds about 5000 to begin with. There are definitely more people on Friday nights (I have yet to go for a weekend afternoon game so I'm not sure what the attendance is like then). A minor "problem" that I have seen is that if a team with at least a few players from Montreal come to play, their family and friends tend to pile in and take over the building. I don't have a problem with them coming, but I think it shows that the Juniors still need to work to build up their own fanbase (think it if almost like when the Habs go to play the Bolts/Panthers during the holidays. Maybe it's not THAT bad but, it's sorta like that sometimes).

I think there's two issues that could stand in the way for the Juniors right now. The first is their location. While Verdun is close to downtown Montreal, it has a reputation for being a tough neighborhood. It's cleaned up a lot in recent years, but it's still a very working class area. Now, really, there isn't anything wrong with that. I've never encountered a problem in the area when I've been there for games. But I have come out of a game once and walked by the police handling a domestic violence dispute. It wasn't pleasant. Not that everything is all great downtown, but when things like that happen, it doesn't help Verdun's image. I think there is still a bit of a stigma against the area. Not great if you're trying to pull in people not from the area itself.

The second is ticket prices. Compared to what we're used to with the Canadiens, the ticket prices for the Juniors are cheap. Starting at $15, it's a good deal. Except the problem is that's the starting price. The highest priced tickets go for around $50 dollars. This is WAY more than just about every other team in the entire CHL. Most CHL teams' tickets range from 15 to 20 dollars.  When  you're in an arena of working class families charging $50 for VIP seats is ridiculous because 1) there is no such thing as a bad seat in that building so designating a few seats around the player's benches as "VIP" is silly. Exactly why would I pay $50 to look at the back of Joel Bouchard's head during a game? Seriously. 2) they don't actually enforce the seating. So you can pay $50 for a seat and then realize that "oops, I could have paid $15 and moved over to the same "VIP" seat later".

Obviously getting a good team on the ice would go a long way to getting more attention, but that's not really the Juniors fault. It's hard to manage a major junior team. Players move around a lot more, they have limitations based on age and nationality. Player leave do to lack of interest. But the Juniors aren't especially awful. They're a good - albeit quite young - bunch of guys.

I think there is a place for major junior hockey in Montreal. It's a really different experience. I find it a lot more "fun" in general than watching the Habs. It's great to be in the Bell Centre (there's nothing more awesome than being in there when the crowd is in a good mood). From personal experience, I find the guys in the Q more enthusiastic in general than NHLers. The crowds are smaller but generally are pretty noisy. The atmosphere is definitely a lot more laid back the NHL There is no "I paid 200 + dollars to see you play so don't play like a zombie" attitude. The kids generally try their hardest out there. It's a totally unique experience and I really hope that the Juniors can survive here because I will definitely continue to go watch them.

That went on longer than I anticipated and maybe it wasn't quite what you were asking about Grrreg, but umm, yeah...

I hate Baby Habs

Phillippe and Gabriel are TOTALLY plotting against the Juniors. Well, Phillippe is. I think Gabriel is trying to figure out if he`s shorter than Philippe or not. 

There. I said it. It's the first time and it might not be the last if I end up seeing the Voltigeurs play again. The Voltigeurs have two baby Habs (Dumont and Levebvre) and of COURSE they both had to score tonight. I should be happy that potential future Habs did well tonight but it's REALLY hard to when I've decided to commit to the Juniors.... hdaskhqwiuorhy....

ANYWAY... The game...

Let's put it this way: the Voltigeur aren't on top of the whole flipping league for no reason and they have still retained a lot of that whole "ATTACK!" bit about them from last year (and cue the "DAMN YOU GUY BOUCHER" thoughts in EP's head). And either Dumont is just fast or the Juniors were REALLY slow tonight. Probably both.

Jake turned into a five year old during the intermission! Actually they had these adorable little kids played a quick `game` in-between periods. I`m sorry to say that this little guy had more saves than Jake did tonight. 

Poor Jake is not having a good week at all. More ducking cost the Juniors the first goal of the game. Juniors tied it on a 5 on 3 PP. They then went up 2-1 but then it all went downhill. A total garbage goal put the Voltigeurs up permanently in the third and from then they scored again almost right after. Juniors got one back and came close to tying it but then some Voltigeur not named Dumont or Lefevbre scored an empty netter. BOO.

Guhh.

We figured that the Juniors would have a tough last week. Their opponents weren't pushovers. Quite the opposite. Quebec, Gatineau, Moncton and Drummondville ALL lead their divisions. Tough luck for a team that was about average coming into that streak of games. They had a close game against the Remparts and against Moncton and it was pretty close tonight. But still, I know Guy is now coaching the Hammies and the Voltigeurs are quite a different team from last year (no Kulikov!) but I'm not a fan.

A few notes:

• The Voltigeurs look FAT. I was about to attribute this to the fact that they just wear huge equipment and all that jazz, but upon checking some stats... they really are fat. Well, on average, their team ranks third in weight. That's way ahead of the Juniors who are fifteenth (out of eighteen). Before you say it, the Voltigeurs are the second shortest team on average. Baie-Comeau is last and the Juniors are in fifteenth. So really, they are short and chubby. I might need to call them the Drummondville Chubbies. 
• I hope nobody is regretting picking Jake for the super series versus the Russians in November. Jake is better than this. He'll show everyone!
• I wonder what the Voltigeurs' PK record is. I'm sure it's good. In fact, I'll just blame the almost total non-success on the fact that the Voltigeurs are amazingly wonderful at the PK as opposed to the Juniors being god awful on the PP!
• HEY! Sean Couturier from the Chubbies was born in Phoenix! Whaddya know..... 
• Can I be the first to say that Lefebvre is IMPOSSIBLE to photograph??? Observe: 

Really..... I have a whole sequence of photos of him where he`s making all kinds of dorky faces. See here. He looks MUCH better as a Hab:

Still making faces though.....!

Oh and... Guy.... umm, I don't really hate you. How can I when the Hammies shut out the Rampage? Missed it all of course, but it's always sweet when the Hammies blank someone. So yeah... umm... keep it up, please Hammies? Do what Guy tells you to do. Unless he's telling you to cheer for the Voltigeurs. Then ignore him.

Copy that Juniors

Habs stomped on the Islanders!

Granted, the Islanders were pooped from winning last night.

But like I said before, I'm taking this win and running with it. A win is a freaking win.

The good: 

• The defensive effort by the Habs
• The Islanders were pooped
• Patches. Looked like a new guy out there once he scored. 
• Metro coming back. Wow, shows you how sad our third/fourth lines were without him
• MAG's shot. But all us cool people following the Habs knew he has one hell of a shot. 
• The PP tonight! Went 2 for 6!

The bad

• no epically awesome Squeaky Marty fail....
• Jaro fail....  (see below)

By the numbers: 

100% - Dagger's faceoff percentage. Okay, so he only had one faceoff but still!
62% - Richard Park's faceoff percentage. Felt like it too.
43 - the number of shots for the Habs. FOR THE HABS.
29 - shots blocked by the Islanders. Squeaky Marty says thank you for that. Kinda.
21 - Saves made by Jaro
18:15 - Metro's ice time. Think we missed him? Just a bit?
12:27 - Patches ice time.He had a solid night. Apparently he has heard me saying that he should be in the AHL.
10 - total of missed hits by both teams
6 - SOG for Gio. The most of everyone. MAG, Patches and Gomer had 5.
5  - Number of hits for Moen.
4 - Giveaways by Hammer
3 - The number of times the whole "Biiiiiirooooooon" chant started. Okay, so this is a totally made up stat. I have no idea how many times they chanted Squeaky Marty's name. Suffice to say, it was chanted and it's still cool to be mean to Squeaky.
2 - the number of PP goals for the Habs
1 - goals scored by Patches, Max and MAG. All their first goals of the season too!
1 - hits by Hal Gill. Yes, someone was standing still long enough to get hit by Gill. Unbelievable, eh? [edit: apparently he had 2 hits tonight. Not sure where the other one came in]
1 - Idiotic mistakes by Jaro. He's been talking to Huet or something about how to handle the puck. The twerp could have had a shutout tonight but nooooooo.... he had to go and give away a shorthanded goal for the Islanders. Poop. Jake, do NOT copy Jaro in that regard. DO NOT. Although, you might want to take note that Jaro isn't DUCKING away from the puck.
0 - the French Marshmallow's time on special teams. Also, I'm pretty sure he didn't throw a hit all night either....
-2 - Tavares' +/- for the night.

Oh and.... the most important:

5 - the number of goals scored by the Habs (Gomer and Squishy added to the whole Patches, MAG and Max tally).
1 - the number of goals given to the Islanders. Courtesy of Jaro.

Yay!

In other news:

• Booins lose in a shootout to the Flyers. Mike Richards looks hilarious in a toque. 
• Sens lose 6-5 to the Preds in a wild game that the Preds should've put away in regulation time
• Caps win 5-4 over the Thrashers. Pavelec wasn't about to rob any games tonight as he let in a 175 foot long goal.... umm yeah, Schultz was behind the blue line in his own defensive zone when he scored.... Simmy got an assist. Kovalchuk says "yay! I'm tied with Ovie for number of goals". 
• Sharks got mauled by the Bolts, losing 5-2. 

And in things I don't care about:

• Whether Ovie slew-footed Peverley or not and whether he should be suspended for it. He's not Artyukhin (who was suspended for actually slew-footing someone). Give it up. 
• This so-called "goalie controversy" in Montreal. There is no controversy. Baby goalie plays well in one game. Baby goalie gets to start again. Other baby goalie will get to have a stab at the Rags. No controversy. And no, we're not trading Jaro and bringing up Sanford. We're not. 
• the Devils 

Of Sergei, injuries and DUCKING

Okay Sergei. What is going on in that brain of yours? I was at a lecture about whether the Habs are a religion (seriously) and I check on twitter afterwards and see Habsland in an uproar over you getting suspended again.

I don't get it.

You were playing well with the Hammies. Everything was looking good. I was even suggesting that you should come back to Montreal. And what do you do? You skip out of Hammie-town and get suspended. THE HELL?

Look, I can accept that you were playing well because you wanted to get traded. I can accept that. What I can't accept is the Habs losing out on a crap trade because basically, you're worth zip in a trade. No team in their right mind would want to take you. But right now Bob may have no choice but to trade you for absolutely nothing... or I guess he could just keep you and just have you hang around taking up space.....

Why am I writing in the second person anyway? GUHHHH.

[edit: it would appear that the twerp ended up in Montreal but has now gone back to Hammie-town after talking to Bob.... you know what? I quit trying to figure this out. I quit. I hate you Sergei.... *sobs*]

Hell with that... moving on.....

Looks like Metro will be coming back really soon. I'm really happy about this. We could definitely use him on that third line. Hope those doctors clear him to play soon! He hopes to be cleared to play for tomorrow actually... but we'll see.

Am I allowed to take a small amount of pleasure in other teams being injured? A couple of teams in black are currently losing a few key players due to various injuries. Look, generally I dont' wish any team not playing in Toronto harm, but it's just sort of... a relief shall we say, to see other teams are actually prone to injuries. I was thinking the Habs were the only ones.

I think this week must be "opposing goalies stealing goals left, right and center" week. It's making me grumpy right now too. First it was Schneider stealing all kinds of goals from the Hammies. Then it was Pavelec stealing goals from the Habs and tonight, it's Domingue stealing goals from the Juniors. GUHH.

Speaking of Domingue and the Juniors.... Jake has not had a great last few games.... Lost in a close match to the Remparts, was on the losing end of a 3-0 blanking by the Gatineau whatevers and now he's suffering through an ugly Juniors/Wildcats game.

I noticed this last week and I really hope he stops doing this: Jake has a very bad habit of DUCKING when the puck comes at his head. Yes. He ducks. Apparently nobody told him that masks were invented so the goalie wouldn't have to worry about damaging his face. He did it tonight and got BURNED as the puck went over his shoulder. Jake, I love you, but that is a very bad habit. Very bad. You need to stop it and stop it right now. RIGHT NOW.

Well, to be fair, the faily game wasn't entirely his fault. The D pulled a Habs and left him all alone on a couple of those goals. And the forwards copied the Habs and couldn't finish. Story of the life of a Montreal hockey team: can NOT finish to save their lives.

GUH.

SHOW UP TO THE GAME ON FRIDAY, JUNIORS! OR ELSE I'LL FIND YOU AND KICK YOU (after I smack Sergei upside the head).

Thank you.

ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Don Lever AND Ron Wilson (no, not THAT Ron Wilson. The other one) got hired as the new coaches for the Chicago Wolves. In case you forgot, Don and Ron coached the Hammies before everyone freaked out that Don wasn't French and therefore, he couldn't POSSIBLY coach the Habs (not that Don was even coaching the flipping Habs. He was the ASSISTANT coach).

Thank GOODNESS this happened after I just stated that I love Guy Boucher, because I might be tempted to break down and sob. I really liked Don. *sobs anyway*

HELL YEAH

Hammies smash up the Moosies and Habs' finally end their losing extravaganza!!

Okay. Where to start?!

Pre-game

• Guy is SUPER competitive. To the point where he hates losing to his little kids at cards. Poor kids.
• I really like Guy's whole approach to coaching.... Really wish I could focus and tell you what he was saying in his pre-game interview but my mind is clearly on more important things *G*
• Impact dudes came to the BC and celebrated their trophy thingy. I think the Habs were just a tad jealous of the nice shiny trophy of doom.

First period

• Hammies wasted NO time their bid for some serious revenge on the Moosies. Like, try a goal by Darche just 23 seconds in. Schneider says "need. caffeine. to. stay.awake".
• Ketchup almost had a goal afterwards but it ended up being some other Moosie when the Moosies grabbed a PP....
• ...but nobody cared because then Rrrrrryan White had a goal a few mins later!
• While the Hammies were scoring and getting scored on, the Habs and Thrashers were having a competition to see who could end up in the penalty box more. Delightful.
• And if they weren't in the box, then their third line was getting run around in their own zone. WAKE UP HABS!
• Both Schneider and Pavelec were getting saved by some VERY obese goal posts tonight. Five words I don't ever want to hear again "and Schneider makes the save". GUH.
• Question of the night on Twitter: "All I ask for is a Yankees loss and a Habs victory. Is that asking for too much?"
• Just when I was about to say "yes", Gioooo scored for the Habs! HAH! He was clearly listening to us!
• Jaro thanks the Habs for a fairly easy first period.
• END OF FIRST. EP asks we can just call it a night at this point.

2nd period

• DING. Off the post. DING. Off the post. "And Schneider makes the save"..........Story of most of the second.
• Habs get cranky and start getting into scrums
• Meanwhile in Hammie-town, Darche says it would be nice to have 200 AHL goals instead of 199 like he currently has. So. He tips in a shot by Benoit and BINGO! Hammies up 3-1 and Darche has 200 goals in the AHL. Whooo!
• Habs and Hammies continue to get loads of chances on the PP, buuuuuuuuut.... by a combined effort of the posts, the opposing goalies and over all just bad luck/bad shooting/whatever, no PP goals. None. Zip. Nada.
• Schneider steals a Hammies goal. Pavelec steals a Habs goal. Too much stealing.
• Ketchup and a Hammie blamed each other for a messed up face-off. Ref tossed the Hammie.
• Somewhere in here Armstrong tried kill Bergeron. Lapierre then actually stood up for his teammate and BAM we had a scrum. 'cause like, the French Marshmallow wasn't going to do just stand there.

Third period!

• Of course you just knew that the Habs lead wasn't going to last.... Armstrong had an irritating goal much like Gio's from before....
• Quote of the period (from Habstwit): Bergeron: "what's my name? who am i?" Martin: "Andrei Markov..."
• Ced flops around and saves the puck!
• Lots of nail biting as the Moosies start pressing...
• Thrashers are picking it up too... Jaro says thank you for the defensive effort from the Habs tonight though. Where was some of this effort from the other night?!
• Ilya streaking down the rink scares the crap out of EP....
• With only 40 some odd seconds left, the Hammies get a PP! Flandersdude says it would be nice if the Hammies would score on the PP.
• ...well, considering their PP has been about as good as the Habs has been, nobody was hoping for a lot. Buuuuut Pyatt scooooooreeeees! EEEEEE! Hammies take it 4-1!
• Back to the Habs. This one is going to OT... hakjhdgkjaqyeiqwy....

OT

• Not-Viktor Kozlov tries to kill Gomer. Gomer goes down. Gets up and tries to pound Kozlov.
• Kozlov gets in big trouble with the refs and is given a very lengthy timeout.
• Maybe the Habs will score on the PP this time?!
• Squishy with the puck. He shoots, he... misses....
• AK46 with the puck. He shoots he.... shoots it off a defenseman....
• Gomer with the puck! He shoots, he.... gets robbed by Pavelec who makes some ridiculously stupid save.
• And Turtle-Pleky fans on an open net....
• And we're going to shootouts!
• EP says "poor little Jaro...."
  

Shoooooooootooooooooouuts

• Squishy is ready to go for the Habs. But wait! The ice isn't ready. Everyone off the ice so they can run the zamboni over it again. Squishy says "but I'm ready NOW". Squishy is so involved in his little conversation about the ice that he dumps the puck into Pavelec. Poop.
• Ilya's turn. EP says "noooooooooo.... poor Jaroooo"..... Only... Ilya kinda slides around Jaro and ends up around the net in some ridiculously dumb looking manner. Ilya and EP go "WTF?" EP adds that she's not exactly complaining that Ilya missed but still.... she was expecting a little more from the guy who has continually ruined her World Championship hopes.
• Gomer's up next. Lots of cheering! Will Pavelec stop Gomer like he did on that ridiculous flying save in OT???.... nope! Gomer goes glove side and puts it past Pavelec.
• C'mon Jaro! You gotta stop Peverley! EP can't look. Well, she looks anyway and sees Jaro stops the Thrasher-thing.
• Okay Gio! Time to finish the game. EP has one word for the outcome of that: wow. Gio's shooout goal was pretty! As Flandersdude would say: Brrrrrrriaaaaaan Gioooonta with the shootout winner!
• Jaro and EP say "THANK GOD".

A few thoughts:

• If we could all learn how to finish our shots, we wouldn't be worried about scoring, yes?
• Bergeron better not have a concussion or any concussion like symptoms.
• Third line got kicked around too much.
• Price wishes that the Habs would play defensively like that more often.
• EP wishes that Jaro would get some more time to play.
• For the 1249872198247 time: Patches needs to go to the AHL. Y'know I love him, but he would be MUCH better off getting some more experience in the AHL. There will be the opportunity to get more playing experience and he'd have way less pressure on him.
  
  Yesterday, Boucher was saying that he didnt' want to put Subban out in the last minutes of a game because if the other team scored a goal - and it wasn't Subban's fault - he would still feel bad about it and it would probably have a really negative impact on his game in the near future. Not exactly sure how this relates to Patches, but I was super impressed with Boucher for this. They don't expect Subban to carry the team defensively (he's an offensive defenseman anyway but that's beside the point). They're not rushing his development. They're giving him time to grow into the player that they're expecting him to be. Why can't people realize that there is no reason to rush Patches? We're seeing the negative impact that rushing Price to the NHL has had. Please, for the love of the hockey gods, don't ruin another solid and talented prospect.
• I was talking to goaliemom31 about chili. She put sherry and honey in hers and I said I had to try "sherry and hockey" some time. Yeah..... brain on auto-pilot....Should try sherry and hockey one day. Bet it wouldn't be as good as cider and hockey though...
• I wasn't the only one with some entertaining brainfail though. Al ended up saying I should check out the "bulldogs slobber house" instead of "cyber house" online....

Pooh. Schneider steals a win for the Moosies

I think I really don't like Cory Schneider. Call me sour grapes but I'm allowed to dislike the opposition' goalie. Especially when he was the difference tonight as the Hammies completely outplayed their opponents but the Moosies goalie turned away all but one shot.

Despite no goals throughout the first two periods, the game went back and forth a lot - with some really nice saves by both goalies. I feel bad for Sanford though. I know he probably really wanted to beat Schneider and the Moosies. But he ended up with some really bad luck tonight. The posts saved Schneider a few times but Ketchup's long shot hit the crossbar and went in. Sanford's night got worse as it sounds like he put the game winner in OT as he fell backwards. Ouch.

On the bright side, the Hammies lone goal was a beauty though. A four way pass between Benoit, Trotter and Russel made Schneider's head spin and Rrrrrussel put it past him.

Also the Hammies still earned a point, which extends their point streak to five games.

On the totally not bright side...... I think the Hammies probably would have been able to win the game if they had been able to convert on the powerplay tonight. Much like a certain other team (err teamS) that reside in Montreal, the Hammies had a lot of trouble finishing. They went at least 0 for 5 (although I think it was actually 0 for 7) on the PP.

Also, Flandersdude does not approve of Schneider getting the second star.... me neither - despite the fact that we're totally not getting along - but oh well....

Aaaaaaaand to finish up...... Apparently Flandersdude and Al want to call Ryan Russel "Jack" 'cause he's kinda like a terrier (Jack Russel, I'm assuming?). I'm not necessarily opposed to this.... It's better than being called "Ketchup" I guess.

5 things

1. I'd really love to have some of those Habs stamps that just came out. They sound cool.
   
   
2. I'm also seriously tempted to get tickets to the premiere of that Habs movie at the BC. The trailer made me cry buckets. Granted, I was sleep deprived at the time, but yeah... I don't know though. I'm not a movie person to begin with and I really don't like trying to watch a movie with a pile of noisy people. So I guess seeing it at the BC is a bad idea.... but maybe I should just make an exception for this movie? Meh. Maybe not...
   
   
3. Okay so the Habs and Juniors are failing, but the Impact actually won the USL title. Say what? You missed out on the big news too? Don't worry. It's okay. We all know everyone was busy downing copious amounts of alcohol because of the Habs. But yeah, Impact won. And beat last year's champions too. WHOO!
   
   
4. Forgot to mention this last night, but please, Stephen Harper, stop trying to grab votes in Quebec by appearing on RDS. Just stop it. Go cheer for the Leafies like you're supposed to. They could use the help.
   
   
5. Who designated Sunday "American/Canadian football day" anyway? Boo. Do. Not. Like.
   
   
6. Also, I know what's wrong with me and the Habs this year. Too tired to write about it now, but I might write it up tomorrow. If not... well, just ignore this item which shouldn't be here anyway as it's supposed to be "FIVE things" *g*

Hammies hang on for a win!

Wheeee! Hammies extend their winning streak to 3! Whoo!

Crazy game in Chicago tonight... Someone explain why the Baby Thrashers play in Chicago? I was really confused when I heard that Angelo Esposito was playing because he's totally a Baby Thrasher now. Poor thing.

First period was a real scoring fest. Wolves opened up the scoring with a PP goal from Kozek. Thankfully that didn't last too long though as Brrrrock Trotter got one back a few mins later. Now, Sergei got a goal next but Flandersdude missed it because they were on a commercial break. They indicated a commercial break but then they didn't actually go to a break so while I was listening to an add for vacuums, Sergei was scoring. Go figure.

Flandersdude was kinda upset by this whole thing but ultimately it didn't really matter 'cause Sergei had another one to open up the second period. He came THIS close to a hattrick but got robbed and Maxwell got the goal. He was totally on fire tonight. It makes me sad to think that he's doing this just so he can be traded though... bad Sergei! Anyway...This made it 4-1 for the Hammies but the Wolves came back with two goals. Which was then followed by a goal from Russel. This whole period took forever and ever and ever. There also seemed to be a lot of confusion with the people handling the whole commercial break thing (Flandersdude informed us after that this was because the guy they normally had was missing his first game in forever and ever and ever. Hence nobody knew what to do).

Anyway, Anderson (the Wolves one) made things complicated by scoring with 5 mins left in the third and put the Wolves within one goal. Flailing time! Frazzle time! Of course it didn't help that the Ref had gone to sleep for the entire third period. But the Hammies hung on and won. Whoo!

Ced was in nets and despite being bailed out by the posts a couple of times, played a really solid game. Two of the Wolves goals came from point blank range. That isn't too good. Hammies need to work on keeping the enemy anyway from the goalies. Special teams - in particular that infamous PP - was a bit of a bust tonight. I foresee lots of practice on those. There is a good reason why PK isn't playing here yet (besides the fact that even HIS enthusiasm will get crushed here). He's been playing somewhat undisciplined and sloppy hockey lately. I'm sure it's stuff that can be fixed but don't listen to anyone who says he should be playing up here soon. Someone who could be playing here soon is Marc-Andre Bergeron. He's been absolutely on fire so far.

So yeah. Back-to-back wins in back-to-back games. That's how you handle a roadtrip! Yay Hammies!

Three stars went to Sergei, Kozek (who had two of the Wolves' four goals) and Ryan Rrrrussel. Whoo!

In other news:

Novak doesn't have an answer to the Habs problems either. He's got enough problems to deal with.

• Apparently the Habs were playing tonight. Could've fooled me. After a dominate first period that produced pretty much nothing for 19 minutes, the Habs decided to call it a night despite going into the 2nd tied at 1. Seen this movie before. This loss gives us the third worst record in the East. Only the Isles and the Leafs suck more. Thank gawd for the Leafs though. 7 straight losses. I don't know what we'd do without them. [yes, I just relegated the Habs to the "in other news" section. I have nothing new to say about their struggles so they're staying here until I have something new to say]
• Speaking of who wasn't playing, apparently I forgot that the Juniors were playing too. They got blanked 3-0 by the division leading Gatineau somethingrathers. Oops....
• Ovie pretty much single-handedly dropped the Preds. He had the Caps two regulation goals and the only goal in the entire shootout. Thank you Ovie.
• Phoenix just totally beat the Bruins 4-1. Shocking, I know.
• Boring Marty had a shutout against the Whalercanes.... whoopy....
• Peachhawks lose to the Stars...

Derp, I'm 1 for 3 in the last two days

Rather irrelevant to the game (other than the fact that Levasseur played in it) but I thought it was funny. Reminds me of Peachfuzz and how he sticks out his mouthguard all the time.

So the Juniors pulled a Habs and lost 2-1. Right down to the strong first period but couldn't bury their chances, to the weaker second period, to the "OMG REF. Call the freaking penalty. Oh crap, the other team just scored on what should have been a bloody penalty!".

But all in all it was a really good game and somehow I feel a lot better about this loss than I do about the Habs loss.

The atmosphere in Verdun was really good. Way too many Remparts fans for my liking though. But it kept things noisy. Too noisy actually. I nearly tossed one of those horn things at the annoying kids who were blowing them all night. As much as I like the certain charm that the Verdun Auditorium has, it echoes. Like, way more than the Bell Centre can even dream of. And all the echoing hurts my ears. If it wasn't the music (that I'm sure they just stole from the Bell Centre *g*) it was the annoying sound making things or the kids with horns... Owwies.

Despite what I said about the "lousy" second period, I think it was more the fact that the Remparts stepped it up more than the Juniors taking their foot off of the gas pedal. I really expected the Remparts to walk all over the Juniors but they didn't. The Juniors did an admirable job keeping them away from Jake for the most part. And just they need to learn how t to convert on their chances more (hm, maybe it's a Montreal thing??).

Both goalies were great tonight. I'll be biased and say Jake was heaps better, although really, Gagnon played well too (although, really, if his stupid teammate hadn't bailed him out at the last split second, we would have won the game. MEH).

And... yeah.. shootouts... hate them. Hate them with a passion. Only one goal was scored and it was a Remparts player. Well, not any old player. It was Dmitri Kugryshev. You know him as a Caps prospect (also, I'm quite sure he's the guy who didn't put the puck into the empty net at the Canada/Russia world juniors final last year. Could be wrong though). Yeah. Just what the Caps need. Another Russian who can score goals. Oh boy...

Injury report: I think Xavi (Ouellet) is injured.... he smacked into the boards and got up about a minute later holding his wrist.....[edit: yup. He's gone for 2 months. Poor kid!]

On a rather random note: I love how the PA guys says Gouchie's name. It's like "GOOO-chee". Kinda like how the PA guy in Boston goes "WHOOOooooooo". Only with "Gouchie" instead of "Whooo". You know what I'm saying here?

In summary: Good solid effort by the Juniors. Now BURY THAT PUCK next time!

Like Weber did in OT for the Hammies.

Yeah, missed the whole thing, but the Hammies won in OT against... I have no idea. But they won. So YAY!

Pictures are over there *points to sidebar*

I am Patrick Roy. I am going to stand here in the shadows and glare at you. RAR!!!

(creative title regarding junior hockey goes here)

Oh noes! Our roster is changing faster than Ovie can score on Nabby!

I keep forgetting that in junior hockey, players move around a lot more. Like a lot more.

Like:

• We got Avtsin + a second round pick in the 2010 Import Draft in exchange for a first round pick in the same draft (there's two different draft things in the CHL).
• When the Juniors got David Stich, they had to release Evgeny Solomonov because they're only allowed 2 European players
• ...except that now they only have Stich because they traded Toni Ritter to Shawinigan for a fourth round pick
• Oh and they released David Foucher too.

Oh well. As long as 1) Avtsin actually plays here and 2) they keep Sherbatov, I'll be happy.

Where was the finish?!

Oh boys, you just HAD to fail when I was there, eh? You just HAD to.

• Me and metricjulie scored tickets for tonight's game (well, Julie scored them. I picked them up).
• The whole intro bit was awesome. Maybe I should just sit in for the intros from now on. They had a cool bit where they ran all the players' names along the ice (all the guys who have played over the last 100 years). They pulled up a couple of names like Beliveau's and ran some highlights. It was nice.
• Now that the Habs have established the whole "I am/je suis" part, I think they should move on to the second person. You know, "you are/tu es"...They've clearly mastered the first bit of their grammar lesson (although maybe not Andrei... mom said she didn't hear him say "je suis" before his name on TV... poor guy).
• MARKOV. Oh my god.... Everyone was screaming their heads off for him when he finally appeared on the screen for his grammar lesson. Didn't hear a word he said although apparently you could hear it on TV. WE MISS YOU, MARKOV. COME BACK!

The actual game... umm let's see, the positives:

• TURTLE-PLEKY WITH A GOAL!
• Stick handling was heaps better
• D wasn't totally non-existent tonight
• Pricey's new mask looked awesome from section 325
• Pricey looked awesome from section 325
• Belle had a solid night (not blaming that Avs goal on him)
• Chipper and Dagger seemed heaps better than when they were on that ghastly road trip

Negatives:

• "Ref you suck". The spectators don't chant that for no reason and they were chanting it loud and clear by the end of the game. I hope the ref has a police escort to get out of the building....
• Hammer's goal really shouldn't have counted. The puck was pretty much in the netting almost and the refs didn't stop the play (was trying to figure out why Anderson was whining during the game but apparently that's the reason). Mind you, they screwed up on that third Avs goal, so maybe we're even? Almost.
• Gui!.......... I'm not a fan.
• Hal Gill. Why did we sign you? He has become the next Breezer.
• Ref you suck.
• Second period, you sucked. Why did the Habs die in the second?
• Habs, why can't you finish a play? Total lack of finish finished you off tonight. Bury that puck into the back of the net. PLEASE. That was BRUTAL to watch the puck just go sailing by the guy who was camped out beside Anderson. BRUTAL.
• On the topic of Andrei not saying "je suis", the guy can barely speak English so forget French. Even if it's just "je suis". Apparently they asked Turtle-Pleky how he communicates with Andrei and he just laughed before saying "English, Russian, Czech, whatever works". I really think Andrei (and Sergei) have seriously communication issues. That shouldn't stop the guy from shooting the bloody puck though. That's going to be Andrei's new motto from now on: Shoot the damn puck. What is that in Russian?
• Oh and hey, Nordiques fans.... the Avs are the Avs. Not the Nordiques. Got it? The Avs don't even have any players who played for the Nordiques. Get over it.
• THERE WERE PEACHHAWK SCOUTS AT THE GAME. TWO OF THEM. Huet, you better smarten up so they don't come after my poor little Slovak goalie. If they do, I'm putting the blame FULLY on you, Huet. GOT IT? GOOD.

Edit: Umm what the HELL? How the hell did I miss this one? Count the Habs.

Uh yeah, that would be SEVEN of them out there. And we didn't even get called on that....Absolute proof that the refs are blind.

In other news:

• DAMN YOU OVIE. 2 freaking goals and 13 shots in the win over the Sharks?? DAMN. Don't be all Mr. "Watch me score a pile of goals in under 30 seconds" when I'm not watching. DAMN.
• DAMN the Sens beat the stuffing out of the Bolts. Not a good sign for Saturday.
• Juniors, get your act together before tomorrow night. Or else. I want a solid effort from you, even if you lose (although losing to Patrick Roy's team would make me sad).
• There was a really sweet article in the Hamilton news paper about PK. About how he's always perky and all that. My favorite bit was when they said Boucher calls him "Mr. Subban" because when he shouted "PK" the penalty kill unit jumped up. Oopsies.

The Society of Habs Fans Who Feel Bad for Vesa

The first and last time I will post a picture of Vesa

It's the job of every Habs fan to hate the Leafs. I learned to hate the Leafs before I even knew anything about the Habs from a parent who hardly watched hockey growing up. It's just in our blood as Habs fans to despise everything blue and white. As part of that hate, it's our job to laugh hysterically every time the Leafs lose and point out that "truculent" doesn't mean "head the puck into your own net".

However, there are times when even Habs fans must admit that a situation is just that sad that it deserves some sympathy (or at least empathy. Or something). The situation I'm talking about of course, is that of Vesa Toskala. For a long time now, we Habs fans have been able to take particular delight in the fact that Vesa is the king of the Failtenders (heck, I think Vesa spawned the term to begin with). Leafs fail is a beautiful thing to see and Vesa has been personally responsible for a lot of it.

But a strange thing happened between the Leafs losing 7-2 and 4-1 to the Rags and Avs respectively. Habs fans across the blogosphere displayed a certain... sympathy for Vesa. How this happened is cause for much speculation. Maybe it's because Habs fans feel bad dissing a team that is doing pitifully when their own team doesn't have much of a leg to stand on. Or maybe it's because it's just too sad to put the blame of 42 years of epic fail on one poor little Finnish goalie (although apparently it's okay to put 16 years of fail on a poor little Canadian goalie *coughs*). I mean, he wasn't even born when the Leafs starting failing for crying out loud. And he definitely was NOT in nets when Komisarek headed the puck into the back of the net for the Avs. Whatever the reason, the fact of the matter is that there plenty of Habs fans who feel bad for him.

That's where this society comes in. We are The Society for Habs Fans Who Feel Bad for Vesa. Basically we just hang around expressing our sympathy at the plight of the poor Finnish goalie.

Disclaimer: We do not have sympathy for the Leafs as an organization. We do not feel bad for or empathize with Brian Burke, Ron Wilson and everyone else who wears that horrendous logo on their jersey (for the most part anyway). We reserve the right to change our minds about Vesa should he suddenly turn into the next greatest goalie. We also reserve the right to bash Vesa should he be in nets for any game versus the Habs. We do not endorse Vesa's man-purse. It scares the crap out of EP.

8 more things

1. Confession: I feel bad for Vesa. I've spent so much time laughing at him that now I'm starting to feel bad for him. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels bad for the Failtender either. Hrm, you know it's bad when the HABS fans are feeling bad for a Leafs goalie....
   
   
2. I still love Leafsfail though. I DIED laughing at the Leafs 4-1 loss to the Avs. Especially when the puck bounced off of Komisarek's head and into the back of the Leafs net. Sorry, Leafs, but there's no sympathy for the rest of you.
   
   
3. Got bitten by my guinea pigs today. Down to 8 fingers that I can actually type with. I'm sure getting bitten by Ruutu isn't as bad as this.
   
   
4. Apparently the Juniors got some defenseman named David Stich (nice name, eh?) from the Seadogs... apparently they ditched Solomonov because they're only allowed two European players (Stich is Czech and.... I think Toni Ritter is the other European).
   
   
5. Why do NHL teams/arenas have stupid camera policies? Guhhh.
   
   
6. They say it's snowing but I don't see any snow.
   
   
7. It's officially hockey season when they put up the boards for MY hockey rink at my local park. Today, they put up the boards. Now we just wait it to be below zero so we can have ice.
   
   
8. Listening to the Habs I/O podcast.... Stubbs says "Gill is on the precipice of becoming the next Patrice Briseboise with the fans". I think he's fallen off that precipice for some fans to be honest.

8 things

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

1. 3-2 isn't a bad loss... I mean, yeah, they went down 3-0, couldn't get anything going on the PP and that 2nd goal was actually an own-goal by Edmonton, but at least Gio had a beautiful goal. Right? Right..
   
   
2. I don't like Hal Gill....and I don't like Hal Gill playing when there's an empty net and the Habs NEED a goal (although that is YOUR fault, Mr. Martin, isn't it? Hmm, right when I was starting to respect you, you go off and do something bone-headed like that).
   
   
3. I really wish Weber and Patches could get some more time in the AHL. Patches especially, hasn't had a lot of time in the AHL (or NHL). Please, please, please don't wreck the poor guy up because he came up too early.
   
   
4. In that vein, I wish Chipper and Stewie would be able to go back to the AHL without having to clear waivers (well, I actually wish they could both stay but I doubt that's going to happen). I don't want someone else kidnapping my guys....
   
   
5. The Juniors beat the Drakkar last night. 3-2. After being down 2-1 going into the third they came back with two goals from Gouchieeee and Parkes. YAY! (EDIT: aww they got blanked 1-0 tonight. Can't blame them though. They only had like 5 hours sleep)
   
   
6. Guess what? Vancouver is no longer the place where Montreal teams go to die lose. Impact won the first of half of the finals. Take that Vancouver!
   
   
7. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am going to sponsor a turkey.
   
   
8. And to further this whole Thanksgiving spirit a few things I'm thankful for:
   
   I'm thankful that the Leafs still suck. It means I can laugh at them while making lames jokes about the true meaning of "truculent" (judging by yesterday it means "have the puck stolen from you like you're standing still").
   
   I'm thankful the Habs aren't 0-5 to start the season. I'm thankful that Carey Price isn't Vesa Toskala (minus the obvious fact that Vesa is a failtender, his man-purse scares the crap out of me).
   
   I'm thankful that I have the Juniors and Hammies and Ovie to keep me happy when things don't go the Habs way.
   
   And I'm thankful I can tune out Benoit Brunet to the point where I don't even hear him.

So this is what the new monument thing looks like

Um yeah, being the lovely Saturday that it was (no really, it was lovely tonight) I had to spend my time in the car heading out to the Bell Centre to check out the new monumenty thingy that they put up.

I like it actually. I wasn't sure I was thrilled with the big CH logo on top, though. it would've been better if it was done in the same material stuff as the statues instead some weird coloured thing that looks too much like a the same thing they make those McDonalds' logos out of. But anyway, yeah, the rest is cool. And it's not like you can go too wrong with that logo anyway....

Huzzah! Finally a street name I can remember!

Season stats. Don't look at the last one *G*

The front. See what I mean about the logo? No? Meh.

The award stuffs.

The players.

Bigger versions of the pics can be seen here.

Now THAT is how you win. More or else anyway

Hammies wiiiiiiiiiiin. Err woooooooooon. And just not just any win either. In their home opener they won 3-0 against the Rockford IceHogs aka the baby Peachhawks.

• In a pre-game interview, Boucher says that Sergei has been cooperative with the Hammies. Said he would not have known that he didn't want to do be there judging by how he was working with the team.
• Kids shouldn't be allowed to sing the national anthems in big groups. They're squeaky and way out of tune. My ears were bleeding.
• The Hammies and the Baby Peachhawks were having a competition to see who could end up in the penalty box the most (not sure who won that but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the PeachHogs).
• Flandersdude REALLY wanted to call a goal, but no goals were forthcoming for almost 50 minutes of play (seriously).
• Hey Balsillie! How about you put some of your money into Copps Coliseum? They couldn't even freeze the bloody ice last night. They had people MOPPING up the WATER on the rink last night. Seriously. He was kinda getting rather sad about it too.
• Ask you and shall receive? I asked when the Hammies would actually score a goal aaaaaaaanddddd..... After futile powerplay after futile powerplay Ryan White FINALLY had a goal on the powerplay. Yes, Flandersdude was very happy. 49 minutes and 60 something shots in all later... We had a flipping goal! Cheers all around.
• At this point they were supposed to go to a commercial break or something, but the dumb refs forgot and play continued and Pyatt had a goal within 30 seconds (pardon me, 31 seconds to be exact). HAH!
• And Conboy capped things off with another goal a few minutes later. YAY!
• Crawford was doing a good job keeping the IceHogs in the game until White's goal. Then it fell apart kinda.
• Sanford kept the team in it with quite a few saves that should've been goals. Begeron had 2 assists. Sergei was quiet for most of the night.

8 things

1. Why is it raining? Why can't I have some snow? Please? Please? I would like some snow. At least that way my dogs wouldn't smell like wet dogs (and if you don't have a dog and don't know what that smells like, count yourself lucky).
   
   
2. I really, really, really want to take more hockey pictures. Need to go find a way to do this that won't cost me a fortune just to get into the rink. Or make me look like a stalker. I'm not a stalker *wails* Hmm... maybe my local rink will be kind enough to let me take pictures? Hrmmm.....
   
   
3. Wait.... Hartnell supposedly bit Letang's finger? Who does he think he is? Ruutu? Lesson learned: don't give someone a facewash....?
   
   
4. Speaking of violence.... Neil apparently got into a slashing match with Spezza and then he dropped the gloves. Spezza ran off at that point. I support that. Spezza running off, I mean.
   
   
5. Violence against innocent walls! Pricey punched the visitor's dressing room after the Habs lost in Vancouver. I'm thinking the defense should foot that bill. Mind you, I think the Priceberg punching walls isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's good he's angry. Now tell your team how you feel!
   
   
6. Um, I'm outta stuff already?! Oh well, I'll just go put on Chopin's "Funeral March" and enjoy the rest of my day before the Hammies prove they're better than all the rest of these depressing NHL teams (yes, Caps, that "let's imitate the Habs and lose to the Rags" last night counts as "semi-depressing if EP had decided to be depressed this year").
   
   
7. Oh yeah. That reminds me. I have a totally new attitude this year. Surprisingly after having three sleep deprived nights + crappy weather + my teams losing, I am still smiling like an idiot. No idea why. It's bizarre actually. I like it though.

On a losing streak? I've got a cue for you!

Is your team on a losing streak? Do they need a big confidence booster? Or maybe you just feel like smashing someone to bits?

Well, I have the answer for you! All you need to do is have your team play the Montreal Canadiens and "poof!" all your problems will be solved.

For the past two years, the Montreal Canadiens have been able to cure slumping teams. Notable starting the Philadelphia Flyers on a five game winning streak, making the Toronto Maple Leafs feel good by completely demolishing their main rivals and giving Team Canada's number one choice for goalie at the 2010 Winter Olympics renewed confidence after a less than desirable start to the season.

Call now at 1-800-069-1993 and book your time for the Habs to play your team. But hurry up, space is limited!

.....

I mean, I guess it could've been worse. It's not like we're the defending champs and got blanked by the Coyotes or something... And no, I don't have a fix for the Habs when they're on a losing streak.

You know you're in Habsland when... (part 12781)

.....you're mayor wants to rename the street in front of the Bell Centre from "rue de la Gauchetiere" to "rue de les Canadiens". During an election campaign no less (so says this place).

At least this way I'll actually remember what the street is called.... Yeah, I suck with street names.

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

A couple other random things:

• My goalie has a new mask and I can't find a decent picture of it. Do I have to hunt him down at a practice when they come back here? Because you know I will do that.
• I know I have Luuuu and a few other Canucks on my fantasy teams, but I'll be very happy to see them fail for just one more night. It's the Priceberg's homecoming (for real, yo) and while I'm aware of irony that is the goalie situations tonight, the Priceberg has to win.
• Oh and The Puppy (GusGus) has gone AWOL from the Leafs practice today, apparently.

Lalala...

Pre-game ramble

• Skirmish of Ontario is on. Seeing Komisaurus as a Leaf and Kovy as a Sen is funny.
• Oh looky. Caps vs Flyers. Okay. Let's watch this!
• Remind me why Ovie and Richards can't get along? They share SO much in common. Like, Crysob hate! C'mon, you two. Get along, damnit. For the sake of the Puffles Smashing.
• After going away to yawn, I come back to find out that the Flyers are leading tied. Ovie put on a show with that goal. Oh and Alfie scored on "The Puppy" while taking a penalty shot. Schenn was sulking majorly in the penalty box.
• A2!!!!!! He clearly doesn't want Ovie to have all the highlight goals tonight. That was like, Ovie awesome. Can Pie have a goal now? He wants a goal...
• ummm Richards with two more goals to put the Flyers up. Of course I say that I actually like the guy and he repays me by getting a hat trick against my Caps. Jeez, why do the Flyers work SO hard to make me hate them? Go get a hat trick against the Puffles, Mike. Seriously.
• By the way... this Skirmish of Ontario is really boring....I'm actually watching the Twins/Tigers baseball game right now (they're playing for a spot in the playoffs).

The actual game (keeping it short 'cause it's waaay past the time that I should be sleeping)

• We lose 4-3
• Okay, fine, let's get this over with right now: Jaro could've done better. Knowing that he's the type of guy that needs a few games to find his groove, this doesn't surprise me, but it doesn't please me either.
• Gomer had a beautiful goal
• Gui! had a nice one too!
• Turtle-Pleky can score goals like that any time. Even if it was an accident *G*
• Poop on all of those Flames goals.
• In the same vein... The Habs still need to learn how to clear the puck from their own zone. This is starting to cost them goals and it's not good.
• I actually feel pretty comfortable with this loss. The guys were behaving a lot more like a team. There was some great stuff going on.
• ... and then there was Andrei. While he looked slightly less dead, his brain is still not all there. Guhh...
• All in all, a failnight (Caps lost too), but a positive failnight for the Habs. Now just learn to clear the bloody puck from your own zone.

Tomorrow we're going to meet a very grumpy Canucks team so this could be interesting...if I can stay awake.

Oh and... I didn't see a lot of truculence going on in Toronto. Unless you call Schenn trying to kill Michalek "truculence"... and for the records, Michalek was awarded a penalty shot which Alfie took instead annnnd... byebye Gus "the Puppy".

I have announcement to make!

I can OFFICIALLY say that I've fallen asleep through a Devils game now! It happened around 9:15 EST. I was lounging on the couch, wondering why the NHL schedule was subjecting me such a boring game, when POOF. I fell asleep.

So now I can officially cross off "Really fall a sleep during a Devils' game" off my list of things to do.

WHOO!

......

Habs are taking on the Flames tonight. Both teams are 2-0-0 (although, I think we can thank Crabby Khabby for the Flames' last victory). Except the Flames aren't losing their defensemen faster than Ovie can score on Vesa Toskala....

So what I want tonight:

• OFFENSE! That means you, Andrei. If Sergei is really headed back to Hammie-town then it's time for you to smarten up too.
• No getting stuck in our own zone for hours on end. That means everyone.
• No more injuries! Give Andrei a smack upside the head if he's still sleep-skating, but other than that, leave everyone else alone. That means you, Phaneuf.
• No more 40 + shots directed at the poor Habs goalie. That means everyone.
• I'm sure there was other stuff but I'll leave that to Martin to lecture about.

Oh and did we mention that the game is IN Calgary? This is important because the city is a whopping TWO HOURS behind (which is not as bad as VANCOUVER but still). This means that we have to wait until NINE to watch the game. Did nobody ever tell these people that some of us have to sleep at night? Seriously! Maybe I'll pretend it's the Devils and go to sleep. ANYWAY, until the Habs game starts, I'll be debating whether I want to watch the Caps or laugh at the Skirmish of Ontario.

In other news:

• O'Byrne will be out for 8 weeks
• Sergei has indeed reported to Hamilton (or so says Bob and the Hamilton Bulldogs anyway)
• I want a cast iron tea kettle. Buy me one, pwease?

8 Random Things

1. FIE ON TORONTO sports teams. Marlies won in a shootout yesterday while I was suffering through dinner.
2. FIE ON STUPID RESTAURANTS. As a mostly-vegan I get that it's hard to eat out, but when a restaurant 1) only has like 10 things on a menu to begin with and 2) fills them with meat, I get ticked off. This has nothing to do with hockey but yeah.... I missed hockey so I could battle my way through a stupid menu and a poor newbie for a waiter and a not very pleasant time with the relatives. GUH.
3. FIE ON INJURIES. Desharnais has a broken foot (did I mention that already? Well, he does and it was about a week ago that he did it). GUH.
4. JUNIORS HAD A SHUTOUT last night. Missed the third period because, you guessed it, I was suffering through dinner. Gotta feel for their opponents though, because the Drakkar lost 9-1 the other day to the Remparts (guhh) and now they got blanked. Too bad. YAY JUNIORS!
5. FIE ON SHOOTOUTS. Out of curiosity, I had to find Sanford's shootout record (as he was rather um dismal last night) and his NHL totals appear to be 3-8 with a save percentage of .514. If you're wondering, our dear Priceberg is 8-8 with a save percentage of .702. Not dissing Sanford or anything, but please, Hammies, let's not go to a shootout again, okay?
6. Wait a second... Sergei is back in Belarus? HOW DID I MISS THAT ONE? Get your butt back to Hamilton, you twerp. Fie on whatever part of Sergei's brain isn't thinking here. EDIT: umm okay... now RDS is reporting that he will go back to Hamilton. What the heck? I give up....I don't know where Sergei is. but hopefully we all know where he will be on Tuesday - which is when he's expected to show up.
7. I really hope the Dalai Lama left some good mojo at the Bell Centre while he was there (and seriously, who gave him a Habs jersey?! That's nuts).
8. Oh and Mike Boone says Komisaurus and Beauchemin were on the ice or in the box during all of the goals scored against the Leafs thus far. Beautiful. FIE on the Komisaurus!

That was...... interesting

I can't say I loved that game. It was ugly. I'm not thrilled that we've potentially lost Metro and O'Byrne for.. .who know how long. Price was solid though which is good sign. The guys still don't play quite like a team yet but it's coming. And I mean, hey, it's only been two full games so I'm giving them time.

90% - time that the Sabres controlled the puck. Or at least it felt that way anyway.
35 - shots Pricey faced
26:18 - Spacek's total time on ice (most of anyone on both teams)
19 - penalties taken by the Habs and Sabres
17 - shots that Miller faced
3:24 - ice time for Stewie (the least of anyone)
2:42 - time of Gio's awesome OT goal
5 - SOG by Rivet and Hecht
2 - players lost to injury for the Habs
2- goals Moen now has
2 - days since we lost Markov
1 - the loan goal allowed by Price
1 - SOG by the Habs in the 3rd period
1.00 - Gio's batting average (yes, Gio batted the puck into the back of the net in OT)
.6 - the time it took for the Sabres to score on their first PP of the night

And the only numbers that matter in the end: 2-1 - the final score for the Habs.

Quote of the night: "Montreal Canadiens: Ruining home openers everywhere" - Number31

And the Caps...

Ovie scored with the first shot of the night and the Caps finished off the Leafs 6-4. A2, Laich and Morrison also had goals for the Caps. Pie feels all left out. The Caps made Komisarek and Beauchemin look pretty silly for most of the night. So awesome. And Ovie DUMPED Komisaurus on the ice. Smashysmashy

Around the league in 20 seconds (or more considering EVERYONE is playing):

• Peachhawks atoned for their S/O loss to the Panthers the other day and blanked aforementioned Panthers in Helsinki
• Wings almost atoned for their lost stupid loss to the Blues but then they... blew it again and lost. Way to go.
• Luu and the Canucks failed and got blanked by the AVS.
• Boston smashed the Canes. Apparently there was Whalercane blood everywhere.
• Flyers pretty much dumped the Devils
• Crysob ruined the Islanders home opener as the Stanley Cup champs won in.... shootouts... versus last year's dead last team. Oh and yes, Tavares had a goal.
• Clouston joins Wilson in trying to explain what happened to his team as the Sens lost 5-2 to the Rags.
• In games we don't care about: Thrashers, Columbus and Nashville beat the Bolts, Wild and Stars respectively
• Games still going on: Flames lead Oilers 2-1. Oilers had some crazy bagpipe stuff happening in their big opening thingy. Sharks decided to wake up and are beating the Dumb Ducks 4-0 so far. And that team in the desert is beating the Kings