.........

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

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

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

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

So.

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

All I can say is...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That would be awful....

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

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

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

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

The Impact won their league doodad thing.

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

That just leaves the Habs.

...........

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

Revenge of the Stuffed Animals

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

first period

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3:27 game back on. Damn stuffed animals.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Second period 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Third Period 


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Over Tiiiiiiime 


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

Shoooooout ouuuuuuuuut tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime GUH 


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

5:41 to 5:47

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

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

hdaskjdhaskjhdkasjdh......

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

Uhoh.......

So it's not secret that I'll be in DC in a little bit. And it's certainly no secret that my whole DC trip has been planned around a Caps game. So with all this excitement surrounding my trip to DC, it's kinda natural that I've been all about the Caps recently.....

So.....Basically my night went like this......

• FEHR! Didn't he score on us last time? Damnit.... 
• OOOOVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE oh wait...... I mean.... Oh crap. DAMN YOU OVIE. YOU EPIC JERK. 
• HEAD PIGEON! YAAAAAAAY!
• TURTLE-PLEKY!!!!!! WHOOOOOOO! 
• MAB! Wait.. .Looked like MOEN!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
• Are we going to win this?!
• No. We're not going to win it. Eric Freaking Fehr again. 
• Shoootouuuut!
• Pie scores the winner! I hate Pie. For now. We'll make up before I head off to DC. Don't worry. Pie is too adorable to hate. But really... DAMN YOU PIE. 
• Oh and Ovie sucks in shootouts. Let's not go to shootouts when I'm in DC, k? 
• I'll take the point even though I really think we could have had two. YES WE. You really think I would abandon my Habs so easily? 

YAY!

So....Guy and Flandersdude and everyone else kept saying that the Monsters were going to be all evil and that they'd come out and play really hard after being shutout last night.

Okay so the Monsters did come out and play well but....

TEDDY GOT A SHUTOUT AND THE HAMMIES JUST GOT THEIR 500th WIN!!!!!!!!!! YAY!

• It's hilarious how different Guy sounds if his team won the night before. He' takes losing very seriously and is always a lot happier when his team wins XD
• Heeey how come Sanford didn't get the shutout? Poor guy. He was okay enough to sit on the bench by the way. 
• There wasn't a whole lot to say about the most of the game actually. The first and third periods saw the Monsters pressing the Hammies but for the most part most of the shots were pretty harmless. 
• A three minute span saw the Hammies getting all the goals that they needed. 
• Daaaviiiiid scoooored! And everyone butchered his name. 
• And theeeen.... Rrrrryaaan Rrrrrruuuussel snuck in and scored while nobody was paying attention because they were all wondering why the PA was ruining David's name. 
• AND THEN.. Brrrrrock Trotter scored too! While almost getting knocked over. PA guy says: "Hamilton goal scored by Brock Trotter. Assists to be determined." Uh okay. 
• And just before David scored I asked for the Hammies to get it over with and score already :D
• Poor Monsters actually outshot the Hammies 32-22. Oh well. 
• I swear I've memorized these adds on the Bulldogs radio.... o.<

In which I try to follow three games at the same time

On the radio no less! It's called "procrastinating 101" :D

• First up is the Voltigeurs! You know how much they love me? They insist on blowing their games every. single. time. I listen to them.
• Oh hey... why is there no radio feed for Drummondville? Do they not know that the game is at 6:30 our time? Stupid time difference..... 
• So... I thought New Brunswick was the only bilingual province? How come these poor guys insist on calling Gabriel Dumont "DooMONT"? And who is "Peee-ette"? I have to re-learn who everyone is... o.< I'll leave Couturier's name alone considering he's not actually from Quebec. 
• Also... I like Piché a lot better than Tardif. A lot better. He's less faily. 

• Hammies time!
• You know this injury thing is a problem when Guy Boucher is saying that it's ridiculous. If Guy says it's ridiculous then it's ridiculous because Guy NEVER says stuff like this. 
• Maaaaan, Guy is really tough on his players.... He's all like "I won't tell the players this, but yeah, I think we played well enough to win" (the games that they lost against Rochester and Houston). Okay. 
• There are healthy scratches tonight! GUESS WHAT THAT MEANS?! We have HEALTHY players who can play. 
• Who's this guy doing the colour commentary? I know you mentioned who he is earlier this week, Flandersdude, but I wasn't listening when you explained it this time. I believe this guy's name is Wes. Hi Wes. 
• Oh hey is that a goal by Maxwell on the PP? Yes? No? Anyone want to check that? No?
• *waits* 
• Get the damn lines people out of the way!
• *still waiting* 
• Noooo.... PP coming up for the Monsters. Wait... NOW you're going to see if Maxwell had a goal? 
• AIEEEE MAXWELL WITH A GOAL! FINALLY! and this means no PP for the Monsters :D
• Hammies really pressing here. If they'd stop putting it off the crossbar they'd get another goal already. 
• YAY! Frederic St. Denis with a goal! He just came back tonight too! And "Soo-BAWN" had an assist. Seriously. SooBAWN? 
• Also... Weiman's name sounds too much like "Wyman" which has me confuzzled..... 

Okay *runs around changing radios*

• Oh hey.. the Juniors aren't losing to Gatineau! They're not winning either though... Apparently they were winning before.... Poop. 
• Hahaha... dude on the radio in Montreal says "There's nothing sexy about Gatineau. They're just a solid and disciplined team". It's true. There's nothing sexy about Gatineau. Nothing.  
• AHAH! I found the radio feed for Drummondville. Stinkers, you thought I wouldn't find it, eh?! I FOUND IT. Finally, someone who can say "Dumont" properly. 
• Voltigeurs aren`t scoring though......Myeh....... 

*runs back to the Hammies*

• CARLE SCOOOOOORES! And the PA was just saying that they were starting the second period. Stevenson gets an assist! 
• Umm do these people in Cleveland realize that their team is losing? Because they're cheering for no reason. Maybe they're secretly Hammies fans? 
• Oh it's free hot dog night....! That's why they're here.... 
• so NOW the refs are feeling bad for the Monsters? Give me a break. That was SO tripping. 

*runs off to check the baby Habs and baby Juniors*

• Oh crap... the Voltigeurs just let in a goal with a few mins left in the third. DAMN YOU VOLTIGEURS.
  
• OH! Chouinard with a goal! Juniors up 3-2!!!
• Oh and yes, the Cyclones are playing. And yes, it's a scoring fest there. And yes, Mayer is in nets. No, I'm not listening to the game. Twitter updates ftw!

*runs back to the Hammies*

• uhhh can we stop talking about rock and roll, please? 
• GLUUU scoooores! Did David get an assist? DID HE? He has to be on the ice. He has to be. Otherwise Gluu wouldn't have scored. 
• Hey...... hello? The dudes gave Murphy the goal? umm no... Murphy was ROBBED by Weiman. Then Gluu scored. I would like to know if David got an assist here. 
• Just checked... David wasn't even on the ice! Wow, Gluuuu! Still.... no David anywhere nearby = no goals for Gluu. David on the ice or on the bench = Gluu scoring. 
• Weber down. Please don't be injured..... please...... 
• HAHAHAHAHA. The Monster fans are STILL cheering. I don't think they know that their team is losing 4-0....

*mutes Hammies*

• Myeh. Voltigeurs lose. I hate you. At least Dumont had a goal. Where has Philippe been though? *sobs* Where has my dorky looking Voltigeur gone? He's disappeared from the score board!
• Juniors are off taking a break. Still 3-2. Please don't lose this one. 

*un-mutes Hammies*

• Shhhhhhh Flandersdude... Don't tell Lacroix that Guy said something good about him.... 
• Btw... Lacroix has a French accent. For reals. Unlike Guy who has this annoying accent that I can't place easily. I KNOW Guy went to school here and I know he's from some place waaaay up north in Quebec (anything north of Quebec City is WAAAY up north to me), but there's still something weird about his accent.......  /accent rant over. 
• Hammies are continuing to pressure the Monsters. 
• HEY WAIT. Why is Teddy out there now? Where is Sandford? Uhoh... he better not be injured.....
• There is no Sanford on the benches *freaks out* 
• Rar.... now the Monsters are getting a few good chances.....
  

*looks over at the Q's website*

• GUHHH! Someone broke the scoreboard on the Q's website. It won't update the Juniors score. UPDATE. *turns on radio* OH HEY it's 4-2?! The dude said it was 4-2 *listens* 
• THEY SCOOOOOOOORE! 5-2! Sounds like maybe Asselin? Whatever. THEY'RE GOING TO WIN THIS. 
• If they screw this up with 2 mins left.....
• and of course the Olympiques are on the PP now....
• PK over. JUNIORS WIN. HELL YEAH!
• Goooochiiieee had the fourth goal and Parkes had the fifth. Bwahahahahahah.

*rushes back to the Hammies*

• nooooooo David has no points in this game?! I'm going to be SUPER greedy and ask David to get a point. Yes, I can complain about this because the Hammies are still winning 4-0. 
• WHOOOO! Hammies wiiin! SHUUUUTOUUUUT! 
• I guess Sanford gets the shutout? 
• Err Mr. Wes-dude.... someone needs to teach you (and Flandersdude) how to say David's name properly. 
• I like Mr. Wes-dude though. Can we keep him for a while? (seeing as hiring Steve isn't an option).
• Sanford had back spasms. Here we go again with this..........get better soon!
• um Al fails at text messaging *G*

• Cyclones win 6-5 too.
• I like tonight :D
• Minus the Voltigeurs.... failures.... 

When tennis and hockey collide.... it's not pretty

from here.

Yes, that's Roger Federer on the left. All I can say is.....

OMG WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ROGER?!!!!!!!!!! HOW COULD YOU PUT THAT THING ON? HOW COULD YOU?! THE YANKEES SHIRT WAS BAD ENOUGH BUT NOW THIS?!!!! HOW COULD YOU?! BAD ROGER!!!!!!! GUH!

David's coming back!

Glumac can let out a sigh of relief now because David has been sent back to Hammie-town. 

Okay, you know, despite all my uncontrollable sobbing when the Habs re-called him, I'm kinda sad for David actually. I said some really positive things about David on All Habs and I really wanted to see him do well. Unfortunately, he didn't have a great first game (hmm could have something to do with the fact that he was on the ice at the same time as Sidney freaking Crosby at times!!!). I was really hoping he would have another chance to prove himself because I really do believe that David can have an impact with the Habs. 

yeah, yeah, I know should make up my damn mind about this, but you know at the end of the day I would never root against my Hammies when they came up to play with the big boys. I want them to do well! 

All this being said.... Gluuu and I are very happy to have David back. Gluu especially. Now all we need is for someone to get Maxwell to score..... 

Oh look someone did win last night

Hey.. you know it's bad when I'm checking up ECHL stats.... but I happen to be following the Cincinnati Cyclones on twitter and I couldn't help but notice that the Cyclones actually won last night.

They won 4-1 over division leading Kalamazoo Wings. Yay! (Mayer appears to be the backup so he wasn't playing).

Now someone make the Voltigeurs demolish the Wildcats. If Mr. Captain Vachon has to score all the goals then so be it..... I'm desperate right now.

*runs off*

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

...........

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

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

*sighs*

Is there a plan B?

I'm referring to the Hamilton Bulldogs because clearly, Plan B for the Montreal Bulldogs is working out just fine.

For the past week, the Bulldogs have been playing a man short. With a roster limit of 18 players, the Bulldogs have only been able to dress 17. Injuries to their own roster plus multiple call ups have resulted in a very depleted AHL team. With the recent call up of David Desharnais, the Bulldogs are now two under the roster limit.

My question is... is there a Plan B?

The Canadiens have a grand total of one player in the ECHL (which I'm still trying to get my head around) and he's next to useless right now because he's a goalie. If there's one thing the Bulldogs are just fine with, it's the goaltending.

So.... The Bulldogs have already signed three players. One to a SPC and two to a PTO. Unfortunately the guy signed to a SPC has to clear waivers before he can play and he won't be clearing them ahead of tonight's game. I'm thinking short of hunting down players in the ECHL (and I dunno who might be available who hasn't been signed to something by some team or other), the Bulldogs might have to start getting those ATO forms out. ATOs or Amateur Tryout Contracts are for... well, amateurs. Guys coming out of college or junior hockey.  Surely there are guys in college who can be signed to something? What about the pile of Habs prospects playing college hockey? Surely a guy like David Fischer is at least ECHL ready (and therefore marginally AHL ready)? Anyone?!

This is getting pretty ridiculous already. Thank god I'm not Julien BriseBois.

Montreal Bulldogs for the win!

Wasn't at all in the right frame of mind to write this up last night (re: too much depressing news out of Hamilton) and I've pretty much forgotten the details now but...

HABS WIN. Umberger loses. NYAH.

• Price = win 
• Garon = not win (sorry Mr. Ex-Hammie) 
• no goals for freaking Umberger! 
• *waves frantically to her Hammies* I SEE YOU ALL. 
• I swear I looked over at the TV at one point and thought the Jackets were on the PP.. Upon discovering that they weren't, I freaked out. Wake up Habs!
• Squishy = win! 
• Oh my god... how the hell did MAB have TWO goals? Bloody hell...... At this point we should just make him a forward. 
• Super Star Rule was out in full force... Stupid Nash.... 
• STUPID NASH. What is with all those pretty passes that go to people who put the damn puck into the back of the net?! GO AWAY NASH. 
• Day One of a Latendresse-free team: Max-not-Pac is actually looking alive! Nice goal to seal the deal. 
• Oh look... Poo does speak French..... oh boy.......................... we're never going to hear the end of it...... 
• Hey. Did the Habs seriously just win this game? 
• Best part: No Umberger scoring on the Habs. 
• Better part: I just won a bet with a Blue Jackets fan. NYAH. 

Too bad the real Hammies couldn't win *coughs*.... Although this is what happens when you only have 17 players! RAR!

In other news:

• Itty Bitty got suspended for hitting an Avs player. Why am I having trouble even picturing Itty Bitty hitting someone? What, did he get up on the bench and whack the guy upside the head with a stick? 
• Ouch... Laclaire has a fractured jaw after taking a puck to the face in the Caps/Sens game. Brodeur (no relation to Boring Marty) got called p. Wouldn't it be funny if there was a Brodeur vs Brodeur matchup?
• How come the CRUNCH and the BINGY SENS are involved in the AHL's first outdoor game? Shouldn't the Bears at least be involved? 

Oh hell....

Seriously what the HELL is going on with my week?!

I'm talking about this.

Specifically, I'm talking about Brian Burke the human being.

Damnit, he's actually a decent person! My mind is blown. Completely.

I think that's great that he's this supportive of his son coming out. I mean, it's Mr. Truculence we're talking about here. He's seriously the last person I thought would be supportive of gays. This is pretty awesome and I applaud his son for coming out in a very public way like this. And yes, I think I may just have some respect for Brian Burke the human being. Brian Burke the GM of the Leafs? That guy is still a jerk and I wish nothing but ill will towards that franchise, but Brian Burke the non-GM and surprisingly supportive father? He's a decent guy.

Excuse me while I go step on my Leafs voodoo doll.....

Now that I've had time to process this...

8 thoughts on this trade

1. Did we just trade one underachiever for another?
   
   
2. I hope Timmins is happy right now because he was the one who said the Canadiens would have drafted Poo if he had still been available (and I was just the other day going to write about how damn lucky we were not have Poo).
   
   
3. I really wish I could've known if Latendresse would've ended up any different if he had spent time in the AHL. It might have done his development some good to stay away from the Montreal media lovefest. Then again maybe not. We'll never know. I think while management didn't handle this one very well, they can't be blamed entirely for how Latendresse has turned out. He's been given every opportunity here. More than just about any other player. He hasn't done what's been asked of him this year (which wasn't that much to begin with). Essentially, Latendresse has nobody to blame but himself for this (but of course he's blaming management).
   
   
4. I wonder if the flags are at half mast at RDS?
   
   
5. I'm not liking the reports that are saying that Poo needs to work on the mental side of his game. Sounds like we just landed one of those "super talented but super lazy" players.... damn......
   
   
6. I hope Poo speaks French.... for his sake.
   
   
7. What the hell is a "jammed wrist" anyway? I have visions of Poo sticking his hand in a cookie jar and getting it stuck and now his wrist is all swollen. No jokes. 
   
   
8. Maybe I'll just cheer for Sergei.... although I'm betting his days are numbered too..... 

We got new Hammies

Seeing as they finally called up Sergei again ('bout bloody time too) we needed even more new Hammies.... *sighs*

As per the Hammies' press release:

HAMILTON, ON - Hamilton Bulldogs General Manager Julien BriseBois announced today that the club has signed forward Grant Stevenson to an American Hockey League contract for the remainder of the 2009-2010 season and forward Mathieu Curadeau to a Professional Tryout (P.T.O.) contract. As per club policy, financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed. Stevenson will not be eligible to play for the Bulldogs until he clears waivers on Thursday.

Stevenson, 28, played in 59 games with the Chicago Wolves last season recording 21 points (10 goals, 11 assists) and 31 penalty minutes. In 2007-2008, the 6-foot-1, 175-pound right wing led the Quad City Flames in points with 73 (30 goals, 43 assists) while also ranking second in the AHL in power play goals with 19. The native of Spruce Grove, Alberta played in 47 NHL games with the San Jose Sharks during the 2005-2006 season where he accumulated 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists) and 14 penalty minutes. Stevenson has played a total of 363 AHL games with the Wolves, Flames, Cleveland Barons and Worcester Sharks registering 227 points (89 goals, 138 assists) and 242 penalty minutes.

Curadeau, 24, played in three games with the Worcester Sharks this past weekend recording the game-winning goal on Sunday. In 11 games with the ECHL's Kalamazoo Wings in 2009-2010, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound centre currently leads the club in goals with nine while registering 13 points (nine goals, four assists) and 22 penalty minutes. Curadeau won the International Hockey League's 2008 and 2009 Turner Cup Championship with the Fort Wayne Komets. The native of Montreal, Quebec has played a total of 22 AHL games with the Sharks and Norfolk Admirals posting four points (three goals, one assist) and 23 penalty minutes.

Whoo........ *goes off into a corner and sobs* no really.. I'm totally happy for Pyatt and White.... totally happy....

Sometimes all you can do is laugh

... because the alternative isn't pretty.

Habs just traded Latendresse for... Benoit Pouliot.

BENOIT POULIOT?!!!! SERIOUSLY??

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...........HAHAHAHAHAHAHA..............HAHAHA.......HA.......... *chokes*

PK Subban dumps the Moosies!

Nyah!!!!! Hammies came back and squashed the Moosies in OT with a pretty goal by PK Subban. NYAH MOOSIES.

• Sanford talked Guy into letting him play after he was pulled last night (he was actually sick last night). Teddy was probably a little cranky about having to take the loss last night despite the fact that he faced no shots (the Moosies first EN goal was the winner so Teddy still gets the loss). 
• Thank goodness the Hammies won actually.... despite being up 3-0 and 4-2 those horrid Moosies kept coming back. If the Moosies had won.... oh boy.... stay clear of Guy! He would've gone crazy... Hammies please thank PK ensuring that you don't get yelled at by Guy :D 
• It was a scoring fest today... It went something like.... Carle, Carle again and not Benoit and Stewart as it looked like it could have been (chocolate chip muffins go to David and Sergei), Sergei on on the PP, Some Moosie (boo), another Moosie 38 seconds later (booo!!!!!!!), David on the PP (YAY! chocolate muffins for Sergei and Carle), Ketchup on a bloody breakaway (ahaskjdhakdsjhkasdhka) and another Moosie to tie it up. In face you're not counting that made it 4-4 at the end of 60 mins. 
• Maybe it was just the where the mics were but it sounded like half of the Moosies 13,582 fans were kids. Noisy things...
• Would poor Sanford EVER beat his former team?! He really wanted to win against the Moosies. Those evil Moosies have a great record in shooutouts and that was seriously the last thing I needed to suffer through....
• Before OT Guy was probably silently fuming behind the bench. The pressure to win was on! 
• And to quote Flandersdude on PK's goal "AND THEY SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE". Not kidding. There were that many Os. Someone was very excited. 
• Guy probably sprouted a few grey hairs after this *g* 

umm wait. That's not the Juniors. These were the adorable little kids skating in-between the first and second period. SO cute. 

Got to see my baby Juniors today. They played a solid game against the Cataractes. I really think they played well enough to win today, but a two on one rush with just two minutes left sunk them (oh yeah, of course it was former Junior Toni Ritter who had the game winner). Sigh. Cataractes then added an empty netter and that was that. I don't know what this team needs to do to finish. I think so many times they've been *this* close but they've fallen just short of a win. They need something. But I wuvs them. So... Yeah. Go check out the pretty pictures of the Baby Juniors :D

Habs.................

• First was those CA jerseys which were okay actually. Next were those white ones which were still okay. Then the barbepole jerseys came. Didn't like those on the guys. Really don't like the X-mas tree look and now...... the Habs decide to look like the Leafs. ENOUGH of the throwback jerseys. Just sell the things to the fans. Don't make the players wear these! o.< 
• If the Habs dump just two players, please let it be Laraque and MAB. Please. 
• Laraque is responsible for the SIX minute PP the Wings were given and I'm blaming him for the two Wings goals..... although in all honesty, nobody was going to do anything about Turnip's SICK goal......
• Pyatt got time on one of the gazillion 5 on 3 PKs! 
• Whitey dumped Kronwall before Laraque decided to kill him.... 
• The Habs were absolutely awful throughout the first period 
• and the second period was just booooriiiiiiiiiing (which is probably a good thing) 
• Squishy had two super nice goals to tie the game up. Chocolate chip muffins go to Turtle-Pleky and AK46. 
• Annnnnnnnnnnnnd...........yeah...... Habs couldn't get the win as they lost in the shootout. After the horrendous first period, I think they showed a lot of character to actually fight back. All in all, considering nobody expected the Habs would get any points last night and tonight, coming away with three is pretty nice. Nyah!!

In other news.... 

• Sean Couturier had a flipping hat trick as the Voltigeurs beat the Halfix Moosesomethings. 
• The stupid Caps lost in a freaking shootout to the freaking Leafs. GUHHHHHHHHHHH! Ovie had the Caps only goal.
• Kovalchuk does not take kindly to be slewfooted. He beat the crap out of Matt Cooke but the Pens still won (we'll say it's mostly because Kovalchuk was dumped from the game). 

Eeeee!

So...this morning I wrote up 10 pessimistic thoughts about this game. They were mostly to the effect that Ovie score and/or kill a Hab or two. And if it wasn't Ovie scoring then some other Cap would have a hat trick.

Well...

The Habs decided that my list was much too depressing to deal with and instead they decided to come out and play super well. Not only did they beat the Caps but they won in regulation. So... we can't beat the Whalercanes in regulation but we can beat the Caps? Myeh. A win is a win, right?

• Hi O'Byrne! We missed you!
• MAB.... what the hell are you doing on the ice at the same time as Ovie? 
• Turtle-Pleky for president!
• Okay.. so the Habs get off to great start and... the Caps score first.......... poop.......
• If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that Gorges is secretly trying to kill Price. He just dumped a Cap into the net.. 
• Was that Ovie who just tried to kill Patches? I TOLD you he would kill a Hab.... 
• MOEN! Tiiiiiiiiiiied gaaaaaaameeeeeee!
• We're not losing! 
• OMG we're winning! Turtle-Pleky! Bonus points to Andrei and Patches who didn't die afterall =p 
• Priiiiiiiiceeey!
• AIE. A PP GOAL? Seriously? Are we seriously leading this one 3-1?! Do I even dare.....?
• *bites fingers*
• Oh my god Price..... you are amazing... *nods* 
• Ahja\sdhkjadhkashdkajshdkajdshkjah now is NOT the time to implode! 3-2... 
• PK time with 2 mins to go.......... GREAT........... 
• *bites fingers*
• WE WIN. YAY! 
• The Caps fan side of me says: Caps need to go make up and beat the stuffing out of the Leafs tomorrow. Seriously. Hell, the Habs fan side of me says they have to beat the Leafs. BEAT THOSE LEAFS. 

In other news:

• My baby Juniors won 4-3 in a shootout! .....never mind that they were playing the worst team in the league. They win! They win! They win! Thank you Gooouuuuchiieeee!
  
  
• Stupid Voltigeurs just lost in a shootout too..... Baby Hab No. 1 had a goal during the game :D
  
  
• Oh and I really REALLY hate the Moosies. DIE MOOSIES. Can someone injure Luongo or Raycroft so they can call up Schneider so he won't annoy me so much? Myeh. Hammies lose 5-3. Moosies had two empty-netters o.<
  

Last night = Wiiiin

....meant to write this up last night but I didn't even stay up for the whole Hammies game......still sick.... GUH..... ANYWAY!

Team Q takes their mini-series against the Russians as they won 8-3 tonight! Whoooooooo!

• No baby Hab, which was pretty sad considering there was LOTS of smacktalk going on. Dumont would have had SO much fun. 
• I can't believe Team Q was actually losing this game after the first period. Crazy. 
• How's this for effective PP: 5 of the 11 goals were scored on the PP. 
• Okay. I admit it. I really like Sean Couturier. Can we tank our team for the next two years and draft Hall or Seguin and Couturier? I'm joking.... kinda.... Maybe we should just draft all the Voltigeurs (minus their faily goalies. Don't want Tardif).
• First time since 06 that Team Q has won both their matches against Russia
• I"m running out of creative things to say about this game because I've already kind of forgotten the finer details of it.... damn..... 

And what is better than waking up to the news that the Hammies downed those bloody Abbotsford Heat last night? Right now? Not much is better than that. 

• "The Heat make the Syracuse Crunch look like a bunch of angels". Flandersdude said something to that effect last night and if you know anything about the Crunch, you'll know that's not exactly a good thing. Put it this way, this team is probably the definition of truculent. 
• You know Flandersdude is sick when the Hammies score and he's like "and they scoore". That's missing about three gazillion Os. I wasn't even sure who scored at first. 
• Can we just all say that we love David Desharnais? He got the GWG (and of course Gluuuu got the first assist). 
• Thiessen makes Koharski look like a brilliant ref. I think it's safe to say that Flanderdude really doesn't like him :D 
• I wonder if Guy would have actually at least admitted the officiating was terrible if the Hammies lost last night. He wouldn't say anything about Tuesday's game. C'mon, if Barry Trotz can blame the arena clock operator, then surely Guy can at least say that the reffing wasn't great?
• That PA guy in Abbotsford sounds like one of those automated voices that you always want to punch....Ugh.
• Bring on the Moosies!

There is some really bad karma hanging around

Like REAL bad.

Wasn't it bad enough that we lost our MVP and only legitimate all star player for MONTHS?

Wasn't it bad enough that we then lost two more defensemen after that?

NO?

Well, we just lost Brian Gionta. Indefinitely.

(insert words that are not suitable for children here)

Price holds off Whalercanes

We're so lucky that Pricey is so awesome in shootouts. Seriously. And I'm too sick to make half decent sounding observations so.... 

• Habs did their best to lose this game. It was pretty brutal to watch. 
• Patches had a nice goal after Turtle-Pleky passed him the puck. 
• It's kind of sad just how nice the Whalercanes goals looked. The defense really went to sleep on those. 
• Hey, Andrei had a goal! I missed it because I was looking for my Hammies radio feed. 
• But really, Andrei wasn't too much of a zombie tonight
• Pricey had some real attitude in the shootout. I like this :D 
• You know, Martin, it wouldn't kill you to say that Price was really good in OT and the shootout. It wouldn't inflate his head to say that. 
• I don't like that the Habs ruined my attempt to listen to Boucher's interview before the game though. They could have at least ended the shoootout in round 1.... =/ 
• I'll take the 2 points regardless of how horrible the game was. Seriously people... stop griping. 

On to the Hammies game.... 

• I hate late night games
• Flandersdude is totally still sick.
• Revelation of the night: There is totally an Ontario accent. Totally. I've been saying it since I've been listening to Flanderdude, but I just heard Gluu too and he has a similar accent. It's interesting. I was telling my mom that I don't notice Boucher's French accent whatsoever (doesn't mean I don't notice the sporadic grammar fail) which is not surprising whatsoever but yeah.... There is an Ontario accent. 
• Wyman needs THREE root canals after being hit in the face the other night. 
• Argh... BS calls... goals going in off of pinball like plays.... annoying Heat goalies.... none of this is making me feel better. Heat up 3-0 after 2. Guy will NOT be happy. 
• So the Hammies's hotel caught fire last night, there was an earthquake this morning now they're losing 4-0..... Oh dear....Natural disasters abound.... 
• Oh hey, you realize I can hear Flandersdude during the commercials on this video feed? This is kinda funny actually...
• Daaaaaaviiiiid! We're not getting blanked! And at least the PP has something to show for itself tonight. 
• And Flandersdude has totally lost his voice. In his own words, he sounds like "a cat that has been run over". Ouch. 
• Umm I can still hear you during the commercials Flandersdude. I can hear you asking Operator Guy how bad that goal sounded (he means the one he called when David scored). Yeah.... it was pretty sad D: 
• Let's get this over with now: the Heat are a dirty team. 
• The Hammies are lucky that Martin doesn't coach them. He'd probably bag skate them all before they play their second game against the Heat tomorrow night (which would be stupid but still....)
• Whoever is referring this game.... He almost makes Koharski look amazing. Is that possible even?
• Positive thinking of the night: Weber has decided to hit people. If you're not going to score goals on the PP, might as well steamroller over the opposition, yeah?

8 things

aka random info day!

1. I have the flu. Or a cold. Or a cold AND the flu. I dunno what I have actually, but I'm siiiiiiick.....Boohoo.
   
   
2. If the Habs don't win tonight it will be a very sad day in Habsland. The Whalercanes are sitting at the BOTTOM of the league for crying out loud....But you know the Habs... if you've got a losing streak, we're more than happy to fix it for you.
   
   
3. Nikita Filatov has gone to Russia. Apparently he asked to be loaned to CSKA and the Blue Jackets complied. I'm kind of surprised to be honest. I know Filatov did not want to play in the AHL (which is fine by me. I don't need him scoring on my Hammies) and he said if he didn't get a lot of time in the NHL, he would look into going back to Russia. Still, I'm surprised that he's actually going back. Oh well. The loan is good for half a year so we'll see what happens.
   
   
4. Now I know why I don't listen to the radio.... Apparently someone called the Habs an AHL team after their dismal loss to the Preds and the guys on the Team 990 considered this is a "huge insult". Yeah, it's an insult alright. It's an insult to the really hard working AHL teams out there. Don't rag on the AHL.
   
   
5. Also... The Team 990 is advocating for the Habs to blow up the team and start from scratch (for real as opposed to just letting half the team walk and resigning new guys). Hate to say it, but the time to go for a top lottery pick was when Gainey first came in. Not now (mind you, it would be pretty sweet to have Taylor Hall). The thing is, I don't think there is a point in drafting good players if you're just going to ruin them by bringing them up to the NHL before they're ready. Not necessarily saying that the Habs do this (well, okay, maybe I am) but I'm not sure I have a ton of faith in the management right now to handle their draft picks (mind you, if they left Guy in Hammie-town and left the players with Guy... now THAT I have faith in).
   
   
6. Speaking of Guy.....I'm really digging Guy's whole idea of not coaching with a system but rather coaching the individual players and building a working relationship with the players. And he digs this whole communication with his players. I'm really thinking the Habs could use some of this philosophy (memo to Habs: this is NOT a plea for you to hire Guy as the Habs coach. Leave him in Hammie-town please).
   
   
7. Is it really obvious yet that I have a major crush on Guy Boucher? Not in THAT way... but I'm totally loving him as the coach of the Hammies...
   
   
8. Speaking of Hammies... the Spec says that Julien BriseBois has a plan in place in the event that the Habs don't send them another player or two for their up coming four game road trip (seeing as the Habs haven't given them another player.... I'm still waiting to see what this plan will be). EDIT: AHAH! So BriseBois was forced to sign a player (thanks Habs). The Hammies just announced that they signed Ryan Kinasewich to a professional tryout contract. He plays with the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL. When do all these college prospects of the Habs get to go to the ECHL so the Hammies would at least have the option of calling up Baby Habs from the ECHL instead of signing random people?
   
   
9. Hey, Taylor Hall is not first in the SUPER early OHL rankings. Tyler Seguin is. Hmm... I'm seriously betting that will change soon though. Oh and a baby Junior (Aubry) is also in the top rankings of the Q players.

Team Q vs the World

Or maybe just a tired looking Team Russia.

Tonight was the first of two games in the QMJHL part of the Super Series between Canada's top CHL players and what I'm assuming is some of Russia's top prospects. I almost bought tickets for the game in Drummondville but the schedule didn't work out. It was just as well because I'm pretty sick right now anyway. Still.... I would've liked to have been there live.

Team QMJHL was of course comprised of some of my least favorite players in the Q. But Jake got to start tonight and Dumont was playing so... I had to forgive the rest of the meanies who ruin the lives of my Juniors (more on that in a sec).

Russia came out really flat. Team Q really controlled the puck for most of the time although they forgot that you need to shoot the puck if you want to score throughout most of the first period. Still, Jake was only forced to bail out his team a couple of times when the defense imploded (yes, that's a nice break from the regular defensive implosions by the Juniors). Baby Habby tried to smacktalk with the Russians. It was kinda funny. It was a pretty physical and up-tempo game. I was kind of surprised.

The second period started off with Philippe Cornet (yes that meanie who scored two goals for the Huskies last week) scored about 11 seconds into the period. Gabriel Bourque added one a few mins after Team Q continued to press Zalivin after coming off the PP. About a minute after that, Kirkpatrick scored as well when the Russian goalie couldn't follow the puck (not strictly his fault considering half of Team Q was crowded in front of him). Now... I have no idea who let in Russia's goal near middle of the second period. I thought I saw Jake, but the stats say it was Roy (no, not that one. Olivier Roy) who was in nets. So.... I dunno.... Someone gave up the goal when Team Q had a defense fail (someone should ask the Voltigeurs to recount "The Tale of Complete Defensive Breakdowns That Was Sunday's Game Against the Remparts". It's not a pretty story).

The third period was pretty quiet in the goal scoring department. The Russians did spend more time in the other end though. Whether this was because Team Q took their foot off the gas pedal a bit or because the Russians really did want to at least put in the effort, I don't know. Probably both. Zalivin really did keep it relatively close. The score could have easily been 5-1 (okay, fine, 5-2. Kugryshev should have scored on that short handed breakaway in the second period but he missed the net entirely. I'm not getting along with him so nyah.... ) instead of 3-1.

Baby Habby almost had a last minute goal but Zalivin said no. Poop. Oh well. Team Q has decided that they're tired of being the faily of the three CHL teams versus Russian teams and they fully deserved this win. Good job guys! And thanks for making sure it was Roy who got smashed by the Russians and not Jake :D

Hammies chew up Crunch

This game was too cool not to give it its own post. I love the AHL and I love my Hammies.

Pre-game doom and gloom....

• OMG HI FLANDERSDUDE! I missed listening to you call a Hammies game! Seriously. It''s been over a week D:
• WHAT? DARCHE IS INJURED? YOU DID NOT SAY THAT. @#$%^&......... We. Need. Some. Players. Please. Bob, I'm totally glaring at you right now. 
• ....or maybe David can get Glu to score again? Hmm? HMM?! No really, what's happened to Glu, David and Maxwell?! D: 
• AND.... Sanford is STILL gone because his wife still hasn't had her baby yet.... Baby Sanford was supposed to come on Tuesday. So we're stuck with Teddy and Mayer. Guh. 
• No wait... this team is 2nd in shots for but 22nd in GOALS for? No more fluffy shots.... D: 
• Flandersdude said he's nearly electrocuted himself at the Crunch's building (they're playing in Hammie-town tonight but they were making remarks about the horrendous building in Syracuse because the Crunch and the Hammies used to be division rivals but not anymore, so now they only have to go to Syracuse once).
• Flandersdude: So I guess Glumac scoring was a silver lining to the game against the Americans? [that's Rochester's name] Guy:....... yeah.................... Sure...........  [completely paraphrased by me, but it's pretty clear that Guy was really unhappy with that game, Glu scoring or not]
• Guy doesn't like the Habs stealing his players D: That whole clip with Guy was also SUPER long at almost 20 mins... I missed something on Doug Harvey on the TV downstairs thanks to Guy. 
• Guy says he likes to have his different lines have different distinct characters. Apparently this makes it more difficult for other teams to play against.
• Dude.... this team is falling apart, Flandersdude is going to kill himself if he goes to call a game in Syracuse and Guy gets grumpy when his team loses.... *wails* 

THE GAME....!!

• Teddy is worse than Jaro at puck handling. Think about that. 
• UGH. PP goal for the Crunch. Hammies need to at least get the PK going again... PLEASE...... *curls up in a ball*
• AIEEEEEE Teddy saves the Hammies from getting scored on short handed. So much for the power-AHKJDHKJAFSH! GLUUUUUUUU scooooooooooores! 1-1!
• EEEEEEEE! GLUUUUUUUUUUUUUU AGAIN! 2-1! Guess who gets the first assist. GUESS. David! It's not even funny how much Glu missed David. Not. Even. Funny. May David never be injured again. 
• Ummm Koharski......fail...... Hammies back on the PK for no reason.....? 
• Teddy sounds like he's being less floppy-flambeish tonight. 
• EEEEEE! Glu shoots and either Daviiiiid or Brrrrock Trotter puts it in! 3-1!!!!!!!!!
• umm.. PAdude fail..... They gave the assists to Sergei and Subban. Um.... they weren't anywhere near the puck... Oh well. Daviiiiiiiid gets the goal! :D
• Erm goal light fail... went off when the puck went into the back of the net after the whistle had already been blown ages ago when the Crunch were offside. 
• Erm.... the doodad thingy keeping track of the shots seems to be broken. No way the Crunch have almost as many shots on goal as the Hammies....
• Oops. Crunch is bleeding. Clean up the glass while you're yapping at the ref, please (yes, he's fine). 
• Moron alert: someone threw something on the ice. Not cool. 
• AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE! Rrrrrrryan Rrrrrrrrrrrussel with a goal now!!
• UM WHAT?! RRRRRYAAAAAAAAAN RUSSSSEEEEEEL AGAIN?! Flandersdude was talking and Russel scores off the faceoff! Bwahahahahahahahahaha!
• That's two assists for Sergei now.  
• So. Glu. Russel. Who wants a hat trick? C'mon!
  
• Flandersdude: The Bulldogs now have a 5-1 lead. Me: Eh? When did that happen? *goes to count the goals* Oh yeah... it is 5-1. Bwhahahahahahaha......
• Broken Hammies alert: Wyman is missing part of a tooth from getting whacked earlier in the game and Neilson just skated for the dressing room (no idea what happened to him). 
• Game over! Hammies wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!
• C'mon Guy, you know you want to be happy with this game. Happy thoughts, Guy! Happy thoughts!

Post game stuffs (aka this is why we love Flandersdude and Co)

• Flandersdude says Guy says that he thinks the Habs might actually send a player or two down before the Hammies go on their western roadtrip. I'm thinking IF the Habs are going to send anyone back.. it won't be Whitey or Pysie. I'll take anyone not named Marc-Andre Bergeron.
• Replayfail. Flandersdude is having trouble remembering who scored what when. That's okay :D Awkward radio silences followed by confusion for the win! (no really. It was funny).  
• Apparently Flandersdude has strep throat.... Can't be too bad right now because he was yelling away with as much energy as I've ever heard him. We can't have Flandersdude losing his voice. That would be awful D: 
• So far we've got ourselves a normal post game show.... 
• Duuuuuuude bookanalogyfail by Flandersdude now......!!!!!! We have this whole Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde analogy with the Hammies PP/PK. Only... he can't remember which one was the "bad" guy... Flandersdude says the bad guy is Dr. Jekyll, Al has no idea, Flandersdude's girlfriend says it's one guy and Operator Guy says it's the other. Okay..................
  
  Return to talking about the Hammies. Blah, blah, blah, Glumac and Russel find their inner Ovie, blah, blah, blah.....
  
  A few minutes later, Operator Guy googled it as says this whole Jekyll/Hyde thing is "mix". Which makes no sense whatsoever. Operator Guy semi-clarifies by attempting to say that Jekyll is the semi good guy.  Flandersdude says Operator Guy is wrong and he's right. I don't get to hear Operator Guy arguing with him but Flandersdude is insisting that he's right. And the main broadcasting dude (Flandersdude) is always right.
  
  More Hammies talk. Blah blah blah injuries... blah blah blah we really could use another player or two... blah blah blah....
  
  Oh Stats Guy calls in (he stayed home to watch the Leafs lose to the Flames) just to tell Flanderdude that he is wrong. All seem to agree that Stats Guy knows all, so he's right and Flandersdude is wrong. Stats Dude is now banned from Copps Coliseum (not literally of course).
  
  EP is DYING of laughter here. DYING. HILARIOUS.
  
  
• In case you're wondering what they're trying to say here... they're trying to say that the previously dismal PP and the much better PK have switched places. Or something..... I actually have no idea where they were going with that analogy..... The least you need to know about the PP/PK is that the PK has been faltering a little bit while the PP has finally figured out how to score.
• For the records: Dr. Jekyll is the good guy *g*
• Oh! Sanford's wife had their baby! Barron... Baron... Baryn... wait.. no.... =/  Erm forgot how to spell it already. I think it's closer to the first spelling. ANYWAY. Sanford Jr. is finally born! Congrats to Sanford and Mrs. Sanford (I think her name is Melinda? Hey, I get all the great bits of info by listening to Flandersdude). Now we get our goalie back! 
• NOW we're talking about lattes? Oh wait. Not just ANY lattes. No fat lattes! Although apparently Al's latte had a pile of cream in it.... I want one of these magical no-fat lattes that keep  you awake for really late western games. I WANT. 
• errr now apparently we're talking about cigars....? Where did THAT come from? Something about new kids and cigars? How about Sanford just passes around baby Hammies jerseys? 
• Times to call it a night now, I think :D
• As Operator Guy is about to run the replays of the goals, Flandersdude reluctantly adds that he was right about the whole Jekyll/Hyde thing. This is pretty funny that they're STILL talking about this because this is the point where Flandersdude is supposed to go off the whole disclaimer stuffs (I'm not supposed to be re-transmitting this radio broadcast and all that stuffs. There was no mention of re-caps by insane bloggers not being allowed). 

I hereby designate Saturday "Hockey Day"

...hey not my fault that the NHL insists on scheduling NHL games in the middle of the afternoon and that CBC insists on having triple headers.... I originally had the Hammies game in here, but it deserves it's own post so just scroll up instead for the very awesome Hammies game.

Rags/Sens yawnfest

Yeah, I totally watched the Rags beat down the Sens in shootouts. I wasn't particularly impressed with the game but hey, it's the Rags and the Sens. There is a bright side to this though. I get to make snarky remarks about the Sens. Because I can. (hey, the Sens fans hate me too so it's all good).

So they had this Bond-esque commercial for the Sens. It was kinda cool actually. Until.....

Annoying computer-like female voice: Locating Scotiabank Place *cue fancy graphics trying to locate the building*
Me: *imitating the voice* Scotiabank Place located in the middle of a field. Shall we airlift them to the building?

Also... I love how they keep showing footage of Ottawa in-between games when in reality the Sens play in Kanata (yes, I am STILL harping on that).

Ron: We're here in the nation's capital.
Me: Erm... Ron? Kanata is not the capital of Canada. You know that, right?

...

What? I wasn't in a good mood and the Sens were just asking to have me make snarky remarks.

ANYWAY...............................

Juniors 

Starting with last night because I was too lazy to talk about my poor Juniors..... In short, they don't seem to like these back-to-back games against Rouyn-Noranda and Val-D'or. They lost a pretty close one to the Huskies last night. Taking a fair number of penalties against a team that has the third best PP in the league is not a good idea. After holding the Huskies off on a 5 on 3, the poor Juniors allowed a PP goal with just two seconds left on the 5 on 4. They did catch Audette sleeping in about a two minute period though. It was kinda pretty actually. But then the Juniors (damn do they ever need a good nickname. This name is horrible) went to sleep and Cornet scored two goals - one in the second and one in the third (when the Juniors didn't control the play after their only PP) put the Huskies on top. And that was pretty much that. The score probably would have been higher for the Huskies if Jake wasn't on top of his game for the most part.

Missed the entire Val-D'or game but the Juniors dropped this one as well. Juniors took a very early lead but then they allowed three goals over the rest of the game. The Juniors were probably dead on their feet *weeps*

Random info Part I: Oh hey, Guillaume Asselin got named one of the student players of the month.

Random info Part II: Er how can baby Xavi get named to Quebec's U17 team if he's still injured? Unless he's not injured anymore and I missed it? o.<

Baby Habs watch: Blah, blah, blah, Dumont had an assist as the Voltigeurs beat some other team. They're all about attack, attack, attack.... blah, blah, blah.... Waiting for some of this mentality to set in with the Hammies *coughs*  But duuuude, they're going to take on Roy and Co. tomorrow. I wanna follow that game!

Habs...

There was a game? All I saw was Price making 53 saves en route to a 2-0 loss. Seriously, I'm not going to talk about it because I'm in such a great mood from the Hammies game.

A regulation win! A regulation win!

Pre-game stuffs

• Laraque was at my favorite vegan restaurant today. The perks to being injured: You get to go eat awesome food and get stared at by everyone else in the building (well, I was facing the other wall, so I couldn't have stared even if I wanted to). 
• For the records: I have PROOF that I was in the Bell Centre when Komisarek got injured. So don't send your goons after me, Burkie. I didn't injure the guy. 
• I. Hate. Itty Bitty. 

The game!

• We've decided that Pricey won't send Shane Doan a X-mas card if the latter scores on him. Scoring on your cousin isn't nice xP
• There's a dude in a Hammies jersey there. Yuck. The Hammies want to stay in Hammie-town D: 
• Wait... is that Pysie's brother on the other team? 
• Who the hell is "Plektonic"? Apparently the announcers for the Coyotes were calling our Turtle-Pleky that. Plektonic..... okay.......
• *yawns*
• Oh hey MAB to the box. Can we leave him there all night and just send someone else in later?
• OMG Martin is wearing a puke-green suit. PUKE green. Ewwwww........
• No really, there isn't anything to say about this game. 
• Maybe we should just put Price on forward  and Jaro in nets.....? Anything to get some energy here..
• Oh hi Jaro.... man, you look awful in those hats...
• Why is "Plektonic" the only guy playing with some energy tonight?
• Fighty..... *yawns* 
• Gorges tries to take out his own goalie.... Seriously, Josh? 
• Oh wow.... it's one of those nights. Gomer is getting into a minor "fight" with Aucoin. Boring. 
• OH HI! Squishy with a goal! Turtle-Pleky needs bonus points for the assist. 
• um of course it was Lang who scored to tie up the game. Of course. Of course Mara had to whack Price in the face so he couldn't make the save..... oh and of course RDS is blaming PRICE for that. Seriously, what the flipping hell?
• FIRE MAB ALREADY. 
• No really, why does the defense have it in for Price tonight?
• *yawns* 
• And NOW who crashed into Price? Jeez.... Is it "squash Price" night or something? 
• Sorry. It's "trip up Doan and go to the PK" night actually. Second time a Hab goes to the box for tripping Doan. 
• Yote in the box for "tripping" Gorges. 4 on 4
• HOLY SHIT MAG! Habs up 2-1. Down side: "Operation: Fire MAB" just took a serious blow. 
• PP time!
• WHAA?! METRO WITH A GOAL?! Brygazlov was totally just sitting there going "where's the puck?  Help?"
• Seriously, did Turtle-Pleky get assists on both those goals?! 
• Awww, Bryzgalov is like "............omg..................." oh wait.... Bryzgalov and I don't get along after he helped beat Canada at the Worlds last year...... 
• I love Turtle-Pleky =)
• Two goal leads are made so the Habs can blow them. 3-2 now. Can pucks seriously stop going in off of people's skates? 
• So.... who is working tonight? Price. And Turtle-Pleky. Anyone else? No? Okay. Just wanted to check.
• And that's twice Upshall has interfered with Price and gotten away with it. 
• Ahakjsdhakjsdhakjsdh defense! Defense!
• Oh #$%^. Stubbs says Pigeon is injured. 
• Gio with the empty netter. We can breath now.
• Game over. 
• Price says "wut, I won? FINALLY."
• EP says "wut, a regulation win? FINALLY"
• Wait... WHAT? The media gave Bissonnette the first star? 
• Hey Bob: Please resign Metro and Turtle-Pleky. Oh and fire MAB. Please! PLEASE!

Lest we forget

To all the men and women who have served this country: Thank you.

Night of EPIC fail

Well, I am 1-2 at live games this week and a whopping 1-2-1 when I go to the Bell Centre. Ouch. ANYWAY...

Pre-game stuffs:

I went on a tour of the Bell Centre again. Word of advice: Dont' have the tour guide we had. Way too weird (and not in the good way).

Mind you... highlight of the tour: Martin walked in and stood yakking in the hallway while everyone else pretended to be interested in a door. The guy is capable of wearing something that isn't a suit. Amazing. No really, I can not picture him wearing anything other than a suit. But apparently the guy owns a pair jeans. Wow. Mental image of Martin watching TV on his couch at home in a suit SHATTERED.

The Game:

• From section 418, the Habs looked like the X-Mas Trees (the Wild). Only the X-Mas Trees won. There was some bad mojo going on from the minute they walked out in those jerseys.
• Offense! Offense! My kingdom for some offense!
• Oh wait no... better make that "defense! Defense! My kingdom for some freaking defense!"
• MAG! *headdesk* I could barely see his number from where I was sitting but damnit, I knew it was him by the way he was skating (or falling). I hate to pick on one person, but jeeeez.....
• FAIL JERSEYS! *headdesk* Shut out twice in a row in those damn things in different centuries!
• Damnit White, you keep impressing everyone as a Hab. DAMNIT.
• Squishy wanted to score on Kipper. He really did.
• What in the world is that ominous bell sound which is then followed by a very loud guitar noise that they play at the start of the second period? I ask this every time and it's freaky.
• Turtle-Pleky! I wuvs you.
• Poor Jaro......
• Wait... I thought we were supposed to be a "puck possession" team? I saw a "puck chasing" team tonight....
• Okay how about my kingdom for a team that isn't so passive?! Too many people just going "oo... looky. A pretty puck!! Me likey! Oh hey no... Flames dude has it now... awww...."
• GUH.

Btw... Jaro doesn't like what Walsh wrote about Pricey. Good. Now get yourself a new agent, Mr. Halak.

Moving on....

I freaked out when I checked the Hammies website and saw that Mayer had been recalled to Hamilton. After freaking out some more, I then checked Flandersdude's tweets and saw the Sanford's wife is going to have their third kid so he was staying with her. Hence the need for another goalie. Phew. No trades coming. Good luck to Baby Sanford and Mrs Sandford!

Anyway... no Sanford meant that it was up to Teddy and Mayer to take on the Rochester Americans. The previously sucky and now suddenly not sucky Rochester Americans. I think the Hammies were tired from their roadtrip because um they lost 4-1.......... Owww......... At least Glumac got the goal for the Hammies. That guy could not buy a goal to save his life so far. EDIT: DUUUUUUUUDE! Glu SO scored after taking a pass from David. This is totally proof that Glu needs David if he's going to score any goals this year. TOTAL PROOF. May David never break his foot again. Ever.

CAN WE HAVE WHITE OR PYATT BACK PLEASE? WE NEED OFFENSE!

And you know the fail doesn't end there, right? Because when one team fails, THEY ALL FAIL.

Damn you Voltigeurs, I hate your guts again. Comtois and Couturier have continued their scoring fest and had four goals each. Gabriel added one. Some other dude added one. Mr. Scoring Machine aka Vachon had two assists and so did Philippe. Myeh. If you were going to make it a scoring fest, the least you could've done was make sure Philippe had a goal too. Damn you. GOOcheeee and Bourgeois had the Juniors goals. Oh and you know what? The flipping Voltigeurs had 41 shots on goal to the Juniors 18. What is this? A Habs game? Jeez.

In other news:

• At the BC people cheered when they saw the highlights of the Leafs getting mauled by the Wild. Huge cheers when it was announced that Komisarek was injured. Nobody said we were a classy lot.
• Speaking of classy.... Burkie wants to have a draft in Toronto so Gainey can get booed in Toronto like Burkie was booed in Montreal. Oh wait so that little "Leafs fans would NEVER boo anyone like that in Toronto because they's classy" bit was a lie? Well.. I guess they have to have SOMETHING to make noise about seeing as the Leafs won't have a first round pick for a while....
• HAHA Pittsburgh.
• Um, so I guess Raycroft reverted to the goalie that we all know and love? Blues won 6-1. Ow.

Hammies vs Bingy Sens take 2: Revenge

Teddy had a shutout and the Hammies won 1-0 against the Bingy Sens! Whoo!

• jeez, why are the called the "Ottawa" Senators when they're in KANATA? And might I add that Kanata is in the middle of nowhere. Number31 and I would have been super early if it were not for the fact that Kanata is a further 15-20 mins from Ottawa. Poop. 
• I don't think this guy could sing the national anthems any slower if he tried.... at least he's not squeaky.... 
• There were under 5,000 people today. 2000 of them were Habs fans and another 100 were actual Hammies fans from Hammie-town.
• Seriously. We recognized a lady with her cool Hammies sign from Friday (err okay, we recognized the sign) and she asked us if we were from Hammie-town to which replied "umm nope...." she seemed genuinely surprised that people in Montreal would actually follow the Hammies (obviously she has no idea just how insane some of us are *G*). ANYWAY, she said a whole busload of Hammies fans came up to the games in Montreal and Ottawa (and some of them went to the Habs game on Saturday). I thought it was so cool that I got to meet actual Hammies fans. I mean, it proves that they do exist! Although, I wasn't sure what to make of the parting comment of "thanks for cheering for us". us?! US?! HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! D: I'm a Hammies fan too...... *sobs* I follow as many Hammies game as you do... *sobs some more*
• Bingy Sens got a taste of what it's like to be a Sens fan in Ottawa when the Habs come to play. ie. they got booed in their own building.
• I think I could see Flandersdude from where I was sitting. Wasn't sure where he was exactly, but I definitely saw where the media dudes were. All the way at the top.  
• Teddy... if you weren't being called Teddy and I didn't already have a Floppy Flambe... I would SO call you Floppy Flambe.... Ouch... SO much floppyness..... it was scary!
• What happened to Weber? He's been struggling so much D: 
• Glumac too. 
• We, the Hammies fans, would like to bring back Pyatt and White. Right now. 
• Henry was back and was wearing the C again! Guess he did clear waivers after all! 
• It was SO quiet in Scotiabank.... We initially sat across from the benches (right above the penalty boxes) and at one point I could hear Guy yelling. From across the rink. It was that quiet. Just like a real Hammies game. 
• What is wrong with the Hammies PP?! Seriously.... 
• And what is wrong with the scoring?! Oh right. We have NO PYATT OR WHITE! GUHHHHHH! And no David Desharnais. Glumac needs David to help him score. 
• Guy is pacing again. And talking. He does a lot of talking.  
• SERGEI WITH A GOAL!!
• Man, Teddy must have the world's luckiest horseshoes or something... how was that not a goal for the Bingy Sens? 
• WHOOOO! WE WIN! NYAH! 
• Sens fans in front of us are GRUMPY. My day is complete. Too bad I didn't sing "Ole" in their ears. That would've been funny.  

You know this gives me a 2-0 record at Scotiabank Place now? Bloody hell, I wish I had such a great record at the Bell Centre...... oh well. NYAH!

OMG my Juniors love it when I dont' follow their games!

They beat the Remparts 5-2. Fine so two of those were empty netters. And the Remparts just won a tough game against those evil Olympiques last night. TOUGH CRAP. My Juniors have now one two games in a row against tough opponents while I wasn't following them.

YAY JUNIORS! Watch out 'cause I've got more tickets and will be there some time this month :D

umm yeah... Baby Habs had one goal each too tonight as the Voltigeurs beat the Chicoutimi whatsits.... I keep wanting to call them the Chicoutimi Cucumbers... o.O I dunno why.. must have to do with Plante....

In other news...

• Jaro's agent is a moron and the only thing he's done so far is hurt his client. Bashing Carey Price on a public place like twitter - where you know damn well how the fans will take your comments (ie adding fuel to this non-existent goalie controversy) is very nonprofessional and it's only working against Jaro. 
• Speaking of the little Slovak goalie... he fails at taking shots. At the fan practice this morning, he flopped over on both his attempts at the hardest shot thingy. MAG won with a 104 mph shot. Pricey hit 85 mph on both his shots. Poor Jaro. 
• Squishy apparently tried REALLY hard not to score on this little peewee goalie at the practice but wound up scoring on him by accident anyway. Ouch. 

Operation Kidnap the Hammies

Flandersdude said the Hammies are staying for the Habs/Bolts game tonight before they head off to Ottawa tomorrow.

While it may look like the Hammies are just sticking around to watch this team that they all want to play for, the reality is they're sticking around for something much more important: they're going to kidnap the Hammies who have been captured by the Habs and they're going to bring them to Ottawa with them.

Yes.

If all goes well, they'll have not only Whitey and Pysie but they'll be able to take Chipper and Stewie back too! And maybe Dagger and Patches too.

Here's how it's going to work:

1. The Hammies are going to sit in the press gallery looking all innocent and happy. Obviously they won't be booing the Habs. They'll be cheering. Loudly. And making sure PK doesn't fall off and break his neck (somehow I have this mental image of PK falling off the press gallery).
   
   
2. After the game, they're going to follow Skinny Vinny out of the building.
   
   
3. They're going to kidnap Vinny and then demand that the Habs give them the Hammies back in exchange for Vinny.
   
   
4. The public will agree to this because they want Vinny and  they will cause massive protests until the Habs cave in. Hammies are returned and they head off into the sunset. Well, they would drive off into the sunset if it wasn't so cloudy out.
   
   
5. The Habs will keep Vinny for a while until the Bolts get around to hiring a lawyer to sue them (this will take a few months because the lawyers couldn't figure out if they were suing each other or another team). Vinny will then accidentally-on-purpose escape and will live out the rest of his life driving ferraris on the beaches of Tampa Bay.  

It's a total foolproof plan.

Take 1 ends in a small fail. Take 2 coming up next

Of course I was there to witness the Hammies losing their first game in regulation in person.

In their defense though, they were clearly not used to not-crappy ice, idiot fans and freaking fat posts (yes, it's official, the goal posts in Montreal are OBESE. Hammies put at least two off the post). The poor things looked really freaked out in the first period and they just couldn't recover (I'll be delusional and say that having White and Pyatt would've changed that *coughs*).

But admits the less than stellar game and tragic outcome, I was SO happy to see my Hammies. And I had such AWESOME seats too. Look:

It was kinda closer than it looks too. I had a pretty good view of the back of Boucher's head too :D He wasn't a happy camper tonight. Oh well.

A few other random and useless notes:

• Hammies games aren't quite the same without Flandersdude. I WANT FLANDERSDUDE :D
• Speaking of which, I couldn't see him because that huge screen was obstructing my view of where the media dudes are.... Unless the media dudes weren't where I thought they were.... whatever. I couldn't see him! D: 
• I bought a camera SPECIFICALLY for this game. I'm going through all 313 pictures now to see if any came out good.....EDIT: Pictures are here. 
• PK PK PK PK PK! had the only goal for the Hammies. Nice goal too =) 
• Boucher paces a lot
• Bingy Sens stink :D
• Ref, you suck. You suck a lot. 
• Boo birds you suck. Family friendly words do not describe my discontent with you
• Drunk guy asking me where the metro was after the game who then proceeded to walk in the opposite direction, you were hilarious. 
• My Hammeis are still more awesome than your AHL team
• Next up: Hammies vs Bingy Sens take 2 in Ottawa. EP will be there. 

Edit: MY BABY JUNIORS BEAT GATINEAU. YAY! This a big deal as Gatineau is a good team and has been beating the stuffing out of other teams. w00t. And no, the Juniors were not playing the Voltigeurs as stated by our lovely Gaztte in a blurby thingy. Voltigeurs are on Tuesday when yours truly will be at the Bell Centre yelling at the Habs.

Price wiiiiiiiiiiins!

Hark, what's this? We beat the Booins? Well, not us. Price beat the Booins. And Metro. WHOO!!!!

Pre-game pessimism:

• Me: We're going to lose. Why can't I go to watch Sweden's U20 team demolish Concordia? I saw some of these guys last year and I saw them get drafted... =/ 
• I don't have a picture of Pyatt?!!! I don't even know what Pyatt looks like... *rips out hair*

The game:

• That "Go Bruins Go" in the first period by the Booins was weak. 
• The Priceberg is back. And he's got some attitude!
• Metro. I wuvs you. 
• Whitey had an assist on Metro's goal *sobs* come back Whitey D: 
• Okay, we can sorta get the D to work but then the offense dies?
• I don't like Gomer. 
• LOL Chara gets sent off to dumping Gio. Yeah, dude, it's a little noticeable when the tallest guy in the NHL cross-checks the shortest guy in the NHL. Just a little. 
• No really, I know there were a gazillion shots on goal by the Booins, but the D was not as bad as they were against the Thrashers :D
• We would've won in regulation time if Marshmallow had not robbed Turtle-Pleky. 
• What the hell is Burke doing there? GO AWAY. GO AWAY. 
• Hell, we would've won in regulation time if they had played a stronger third period. There was too much sitting around. 
• Can we fire MAG?
• I hate that we give up super late goals
• Marshmallow clearly isn't Vesa. You're not going to beat him glove side twice in a row. Just once :D
• I liked the "CA-REY" chants though. Nice to see they're supporting our goalie *G* It clearly worked tonight!
• CAREY! Congrats on the 50th win!
• Oh and what the hell, Boston? You gave Squishy the first star? For doing what?! Price got the second star and Marshmallow got the third for.... being bored. 

Post game optimism:

• Dad is now chirping at me for saying that the Habs would lose. How would I know that the Booins would continue to suck? Jeez. 
• HAMMIES TOMORROW

OHL was right to suspend Liambas

Admits my little hissy fit at the Habs, I forgot to write something up about the suspension of Michael Liambas for his hit on Ben Fanelli. I wrote a very brief thing condemning the hit on the Kitchener Rangers' forward. The other day, OHL commissioner David Branch took a step in what I thin is a positive direction, by suspending Liambas for the season as well as any playoff games that his team might play in.

After the hit was aired and numerous news stations, I was surprised that most people saw nothing wrong with the net. Everyone agreed that it was legal, while some did acknowledged that it was dirty. Most said Fanelli should have done a better job to protect himself.  Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with this reaction. I was even less impressed when many called Liambas' suspension "too harsh".

Look, I get that Fanelli turned away, did not have his helmet properly secured and all that. I do not believe for a second that Liambas intended to seriously injure Fanelli. But this was not a freak accident like the puck hitting Fanelli's head or a skate slashing him. Liambas went full out at Fanelli and he could not have stopped even if he wanted to. The intent to hit Fanelli was there.

I'm not just blaming Liambas here. I think the problem runs deeper than this single hit. When over half of my twitter feed - filled with "normal" fans like me - actually say that Branch was wrong to hand down such a harsh "sentence" on Liambas, then there's a deeper issue. We're creating a hockey culture that endorses serious injuries. That would take too long to get into here, but I believe Branch was right to stand up for his players.

I wish the NHL would follow suit.  Bettman and Colin Campbell should not be standing aside while their players get concussion due to dangerous hits. As I said in my earlier blog post about this, the NHL should be setting an example for the rest of the leagues in North America. All other levels of hockey look to the NHL as their role model. I'm pretty sure if Campbell had decided to suspend Richards or Ladd for their hits on Booth and D'Agostini respectively, then there would be not be as big an uproar against Liambas' suspension.

Okay, really, what is wrong with this city?

I've come to the conclusion that all these defensive woes are not just the Habs fault. There is something either in the water or in the air in Montreal.

The Habs were the first to catch it and now the Juniors have come down with it too.

This mysterious illness causes players to forget how to play defense, give the puck away liberally in their own zone, leave the goalie(s) out to dry, and causes the forwards to either miss the net completely or give up fluffy shots on the opposing goalie.

Juniors dropped a 5-4 game to Lewiston tonight. Much like the Habs, they were battling the whole night to catch up to their opponents. Much like the Habs, the Juniors are either missing players or had players playing at half their capacity due to illness. Of course, much like the Habs, sloppy defense and weak goal allowed by the goalie (in this case Berube), killed the game (unlike Price, Berube wouldn't last past the first period).

Trevor Parkes was the equivalent of Turtle-Pleky. In other words, the only guy doing any work. He was rewarded with a hat trick actually.

Unlike the Habs, the refs completely blew this game. Hands down one of the worst games I've followed. Case in point: A Junior gets sent off for tripping when nobody actually tripped. The other guy didn't even semi fall forward - because the Junior didn't touch him! Nobody touched him. Apparently touching the puck = tripping.

This game was supposed to be the Juniors best chance at winning in their four game homestead. The next three teams that they will play are a combined 42-10-2-2. Err actually, I guess that's 42-11-2-2... as it was Fail Night In the QMJHL with the Voltigeurs getting blown up 5-1. Anyway, the point is, Gatineau, Quebec City and Drummondville all lead their divisions. The Voltigeurs were on top of the league before they lost tonight, but they have three games in hand over the league leading Saint John Sea Dogs.

So Juniors. Show up or risk getting demolished at home.

And please, for the love of the Stanley Cup, stop copying the Habs. It's sad already.

Okay Habs. Now it's personal.

Dear Habs:

I hate you. I am SO mad with you right now. Family friendly words do not describe how mad I am.

You called up Pyatt and White and now you've seriously handicapped this Hammies team for Friday and Sunday. SERIOUSLY handicapped them.

You called them up because you're freaking injured or because you're just that useless....

It's one thing if you want to tank your season. Go ahead. I'm seriously over that. But for the love of the damn game, why the hell do you have to ruin the Hammies too?! WHY?!!!!!!! WHY?!

Get your shit together and send my Hammies back to Hammie-town where things were going well.

Not-sincerely,

EP

P.S. Yes, this is my knee-jerked reaction to the news. Probably the only person in Montreal that is mad at the Habs because of this.

P.P.S. That being said, you know who I'm going to blame if the Hammies lose right? Regardless of how badly the Hammies might play?

P.P.P.S. Pysie and Whitey: Kick some butt tomorrow if you play.

P.P.P.P.S. this was a long time in coming actually. We were talking about what would happen if Martin is fired. Would the Habs call up Boucher and #$%^ that up? Not only am I super attached to this Hammies squad, but Boucher is in no way ready for the NHL. And yet, the Habs are totally the type to screw it up and make him the coach before he's ready.

that sucked

I was watching some of the Wings/Bruins game tonight. I missed a lot of it, but I did catch the last 5 minutes. The Wings were up 2-0. What had me actually watching the game was not so much because I was afraid that the Booins might score, but rather to watch the Wings play defense.

It was like watching a totally different league. In this league, players manage to control the puck in their own zone. In this league, players don't stand by and watch as the opposing team walks in and scores on their goalie.

It's a nice league and I wish the Habs could be in it. But nopers.

I'm too tired to complain too much about this game, but damnit, it was one of the worst I've seen by them this year. The defensive coverage is brutal. And it sucks because for the most part, Price played really well. He had some great stops. The team left him out to dry completely. Blergh.

Super Turtle-Pleky and Gio tried to make it close. Really. They did. Super Turtle-Pleky had a great goal to tie it up late in the third (only to have the D screw up and let in the game winner about a minute later).

Myeh....

I really want to see Sweden's U20 team play Concordia university on Thursday but it's my relative's birthday and I really should be present for it. Either way, I have a good excuse to miss what is probably going to be an embarrassing game for the Habs against the Booins. Booins haven't scored in two games and they'll be taking on a Habs squad that has given up what... 10 in the last two? Or 9? Whatever.

I hate the Booins.  I hate this defensive squad for the Habs. I hate the damn puck going in off of other player's feet. And I hate the time change thing. I'm still a wreck because of it.

I do love that the Leafs are becoming very reliable in their ability to lose a game though. They just dropped a 2-1 decision to the Bolts.

Hammies wiiiiiiiiiiiiin

I'm getting a bit tired of the Habs and the Hammies going to OT and/or shootouts. Like, really tired.

Thankfully the Hammies won 5-2 in regulation time! FINALLY.

• In the pre-game interivew, Guy says he probably made a mistake in having a practice the day before the Hammies lost in shootouts to the Heat. He attributes their loss to mainly be tired and out of it... He also kinda blamed the ice a bit. Which is a fair point because it really does suck. 
• Weber is finally getting back into the rhythm of things that made him super successful last season. He got the assist on both of Darche's goals. 
• Yeah, Darche had two goals. Putting him one up on Pyatt. His first goal was on a PP too! If the Habs suck on the PP then the Hammies are just as bad......They would go 1 for 3 tonight though. 
• Sanford momentarily forgot how to pokecheck and the Rivermen scored on basically an empty net...
• Brrrrrrrrock Trotter had a goal tonight! It was pretty awesome too :D
• ....then Armstrong tied it up. 
• The third period was delayed because the ice sucks and they had a swimming pool instead of an ice rink out there. If Balsillie is looking to spend all that money of his, he can make the Hammies a new arena. or at least do something to make sure they have ice instead of water to play on. 
• Glumac's elbow then connected with Armstrong's head. Sounded like he was just reacting and put his arm up as Armstrong came at him instead of actually elbowing him on purpose, but anyway... Armstrong went down, was totally dazed afterwards. Glumac then took a 5 minute major for... interference? Flandersdude went "what?!". I went "eh?" And just like that the Hammies chances of winning this thing looked  to be in serious jeopardy. There were 8 minutes to go in the 3rd at this point. 
• or not.... Darche is tripped up and then bingo we have 4 on 4. Good way to help kill off this huge Peoria PP. 
• DARCHE SCORES AGAIN. 
• And Wyman scoooooooooooooores while the announcer is still announcing Darche's goal. EEEEEE!!
• And then the Hammies go to the penalty box. 5 on 3 PP for the Peoria Rivermen........... *bites nails*
• PP over.... 
• OMG BELLE WITH A GOAL! That was the third time that the Hammies had a chance to score when coming out of the penalty box. And they finally convert! Nice pass by Rrrrrryan Russel =) 
• WOW. Nice win Hammies! =)

Hammies can win like this any day. Well... I'd prefer if they stayed out of the damn penalty box more. The Rivermen had way too many PP chances. Guy might want to tell people to stop putting candy in there so the players won't make a mad dash for the box at every opportunity.

Annnnnnnd

Juniors didn't get to play today because the Wildcats are all injured and sick. Sounds like maybe they have the flu or something. Instead of giving up the game to the Juniors by default, the game has been postponed to another date. Poop. Oh well, the Juniors could use the break anyway.

Edit: Oh TSN has the story. Wildcats only had 11 players who were healthy enough to play. Most were sick. Nobody has been diagnosed with H1N1. etc, etc, etc....

Ummm what. the. heck, Voltigeurs?! When I checked the score in the second period, they were leading Acadie-Bathurst 5-3. They ended up winning the game TEN to three. Wow. In all that scoring Lefrevbre and Dumont only had one assist each. Poop.