EAT THAT SHARKS!

Saturday, February 28, 2009

I'm still in shock here (I just wrote "shark" instead of "shock"). I can't believe that the Habs just beat the Sharks 3-2. In regulation time too. And after coming off a win last night in Philly.... wow...

I think I was in shock from the beginning, I guess, considering the Habs scored 3 goals in the first period. Markov got one when the Habs got their first and only powerplay. Gorges is finally not cursed when he scores a goal and he got went when D'Agostini did all the work getting the puck to the net. I really liked D'Agostini and Pacioretty tonight. And Koivu got a very nice goal when Boucher got caught way out of his net. Teaches him to stay put in his net.

I was not expecting that at all and I was just waiting for the Sharks to burst my bubble. They didn't totally disappoint. Within the first three minutes of the second period the Sharks got two goals. One on the powerplay courtesy of Komisarek and one 50 seconds later in some other fashion. Now THAT was the San Jose team that I was expecting in the first period. I wasn't happy to say the least and I spent the rest of the game freaking out and wondering when they'd score another fifty goals. Obviously they didn't and now I'm ready to go off and do my stick people. I forgot to do some for the Philly game mainly because I was too busy yelling at Niittymaki....even after the game had ended... hehehe....

Things I liked
  • WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • HAAALAAAAAAK! When will people stop dissing him? I know that the first goal against him was rather icky and the second wasn't pretty but at the end of the night he stopped 46 out of 48 shots against the top team in the league. That's good, right? Right.
  • D'Agostini and Pacioretty looked good, I thought.
  • I liked that Gorges scored and that the Habs didn't lose. When he scored I was like "Oh crap... we're going to lose because whenever he scores, nobody notices because the Habs always lose". Congrats dude!
  • Not quitting. Yes, I'm still dwelling on all those games that could have been won if the Habs had just tried to stay in the game.... *twitches*
  • Limited penalties. Granted the refs missed some on both sides but still... there were very few called because there were very few instanced when people did stupid things that would warrant a penalty. Can you imagine what would have happened if the Habs had take as many penalties as they did against Philly? *twitches at the mere thought*
  • I'm trying to think of something else but my brain is frozen....
Things I didn't like
  • effort in the second period. Momentum went the way of the dodo and the Sharks immediately took control of the game and I was doing my best not to rip out my hair....
  • defense.... horrible.....*twitches*
  • Hey, Carbo, guess what? Sitting on leads is never a good idea. Especially when it's against the Sharks!!! I hope he quits that idea of trying to sit on a lead right now....
  • Komisarek's penalty that lead to the Sharks first goal......You mister, need to work on your game. And fast.
  • getting outshot 48 to 21. While this IS the Sharks, it's still sad *twitches*
  • Thornton saying that the Habs couldn't "handle" and didn't know how to "play" the Sharks. Oh please... You may be "big and strong" and whatever else you said, but c'mon...You played like crap in the first period, Habs played well, Habs take 3 goals on your icky looking goalie (who at least had the decency to admit that Halak was amazing), Habs then fell asleep and you took over. Habs falling asleep is what they do best. It's not the Sharks being good. It's the Habs being dozy. And despite being dozy they still beat you....Get over it....! Man, I think I just dumped the Sharks as my Western Conference team to cheer for in the playoffs. I hope they lose in the first round ^__^ Why can't the top teams stop being arrogant twerps and admit that another team did well? Even *I* will grudgingly admit it if I think another team does well (please note that the Toronto Maple Leafs do not and will not count as an NHL team in my eyes). See side for comments by Claude Julien about the Caps. GAH! *twitches*
I'm sure there's more stuff but I've forgotten in my excitement....

Enemy watch:
  • Stinky Sens lost in OT to the Maple Losers. I'm very pleased.
  • Kovalchuk beat the Hurricanes. I'm uber pleased with this.
  • Rangers ruined my life by beating the Avs 6-1. Congrats on the win, Torts.
  • Islanders blanked the Sabres. Yes, I just said "Islanders" and "blanked" in the same sentence with the Islanders being the "doer" as supposed to the recipient. I guess the Sabres are in bigger trouble than we thought...
  • Semin sunk the Big Bad Bruins in OT in what most people are calling a "flukey goal". Habs fans are calling it "Tim Thomas returns to the way he used to play last year" and thoroughly congratulate the Caps for beating the Bruins.
  • Devils decimated the Panthers 7-2 in one sided game (put it this way, Brodeur should be ashamed of himself for only stopping 15 of 17 shots while Anderson faced a whopping 46 shots. What is this? The Habs vs just about any other team?!). Brodeur fails to earn his 100th shutout. Only the Devils fans are crying.
  • Not that I generally care about Detroit, but right now they're losing 8-0 to Nashville.... I don't even know where to start on this one... Edit: 8-0 win for the Preds. Un-bloody-believable. So glad I don't cheer for the Red Wings... that's just.... wow... I mean... wow...LOSERS!

Why the Habs have to win tonight...

Call me the shallowest person on earth, but I want bragging rights when I head into Sensville tomorrow to give a Sidney Crosby shirt to a relative (it's like a bad joke "So a Habs fan walks into Sensville with a Crosby shirt....."). I want to be able to say that my Habs are NOT tanking and they will be infinitely cooler than the stinky Sens. But I can't do that without everyone coming up with a major "BUT" if they don't at least make a go of it tonight (hey Maple Losers, you want to be nice and beat the Sens?). Look, Habs, I know you just came off a tight win over the much loathed Flyers and you're probably all drained but c'mon... We're not just talking a crucial points tonight. We're talking the mental well being of your fans. And that's obviously way more important than you're physical and mental fatigue. You can do it.

C'MON HABS!

Niittymaki gives Habs a win

Friday, February 27, 2009

Once again it was goaltending that determined a win for the Habs. Unfortunately, tonight it was the Niittymaki who gave the Habs a 4-3 win in over time.

Well, I didn't think I'd be in such a good mood after the game judging by how dismal the first 10 minutes were. Within 30 seconds the Flyers had scored when Halak couldn't control a rebound and Komisarek decided to do some serious interfering on his own goalie (or at least it looked that way to me). I was swearing and my mood wasn't improved at all when the Habs defense went to sleep and the Flyers scored again. And then Niittymaki decided that the Habs were going to win this and let in three goals in about two minutes. Pleky scored when the Flyers defense lost the puck right in front of Niittymaki. Niittymaki made things nice when Kostopoulos drove to net and while Andrew Alberts was fumbling with the puck, Niitty took his sweet time coming back to the net and whoopsies Tom puts the puck into the pretty much empty net. Oops. And finally, Kovy took a shot on Niitty who was pretyt fair out and it bounced off his shoulder and into the net.

Of course things had to get worse when the Habs came off a powerplay and Brisebois got knocked off the puck at the Flyers blueline and Gagne basically went in alone on Halak and scored. Yeah. At least they didn't get scored on while on the powerplay. Although there were a lot of times when that looked possible. Then again, this IS the Flyers we're talking about. They like to score shorthanded. I was more surprised that the Flyers failed score both on the powerplay (including on TWO 5 on 3 chances) and shorthanded. Schneider sunk the Flyers in OT when the Habs got a powerplay when Upshall got sent off for interfering with Jaro. He pulled an Ovechkin move and banged into the glass. I still think nobody does it like Ovie *G*

I'm still trying to figure out what's happened here. The whole game was bizarre even taking away from the fact the whole Metropolit thing. Carbo thought it was a good idea to put Glen Metropolit in the lineup despite the fact that only a few hours earier the guy was still a Flyer. The Habs had moments of absolute awfulness but on the other hand, the Flyers - with particular emphasis on Mr. Niittymaki - also had signs of signs of awfulness which lead to Habs goals. On a whole the Flyers played better and if they hadn't been so crappy on the powerplay then we'd probably seeing a very different game. The Habs did do well on the penalty kill (c'mon, we can't give all the credit to the Flyers for stinking) and they at least made an effort to win. They put effort into the game instead of throwing up their hands and quitting when the Flyers got two stupid goals on them. That is good. Now just do something about that defense....Brisebois is killing me, Komisarek is looking terrible...and I'm too pooped to continue with all the defense's problems...

All in all, it was a weird game but I won't deny for a second that I love to see the Flyers lose to the Habs. I love it. Sorry. Hope Danny was watching.

'nuff football. Bring on the Flyers!

Do I really need to say what a huge game this is going to be tonight for the Habs? Fine. Every game is big..... But this IS big. I mean, it's the Flyers darnit. You know... actual competition... as supposed to the Sens.... Habs took the last game after coming off a three game losing streak. If I remember correctly, Halak was in nets for that one too. I'll be sitting here scared to death during powerplays for both teams. The Flyers can score on the powerplay and a Flyer can score shorthanded. I'm hoping the Habs can stay focused and not take stupid penalties. Oh and forechecking is also nice. I also hope that they don't get outshot by a huge margin again. That's just getting sad and Halak probably can't keep the Flyers from scoring if they're going to get a billion chances.

I didn't bother to see if a certain short Flyer by the name of Daniel Briere will be in the lineup but I really hope not.... If he is then I have just one thing to say..... SQUASH HIM!!!!!!!!!!!

Edit: Missed the Habs getting Glen Metropolit off waivers from the Flyers....Apparently he's going to play tonight too. I wonder if he'll walk into the wrong dressing room by accident?

Olay...? Impact win 2-0 over random Mexican team

Wednesday, February 25, 2009



Well I sat through my first (and probably last) football/soccer game. For six bucks you can't go wrong, right? (Top that price Habs!). Let's see... I knew nothing about the Impact (Montreal's football team) and even less about their opponents (Santos Laguna from Mexico). I can safely say however, that I probably knew about as much or more about football than half the 55, 000 + crowd at the Olympic Stadium however. It was quite obvious that most of the people there were really only there because of the cheap tickets. But I digress. It was funny to listen to a bunch of people cheer and boo without really knowing what they were cheering or booing for.

The first half the game was great. Lots of excitement from the crowd and a beautiful goal by the Impact not even 6 minutes into the game. For the records, scoring is pretty much non existant in football (think watching the Devils play) so to have that goal early on was great. By the end of the first half, I was wishing that the game was over. It was nice and short (hey, in football when they say "45 minutes" they mean "45 minutes plus maybe a couple of extra minutes" non of this "well, a period lasts 20 minutes in theory but in reality we always go over" crap). Second half dragged on quite a bit but the fans were rewarded for sitting through it when the Impact scored their second goal with 13 or so minutes to go (if you're up 1-0 with 13 mins left in football you've virtually won).

So random points about the game coming from someone who doesn't know a lot about it...

  • After watching a football game featuring two of my favorite teams on TV it was very bizarre to then go and watch a live football game.
  • Football games are short and sweet compared to hockey games
  • Football games seem to start on time. Unlike hockey games. Half the people missed the Impacts first goal because they were still trying to navigate the horrendous building that is the Olympic Stadium.
  • Next time I hope that the crowd is better educated in football. It will make for a better game if you're seeing it live.
  • The people at the game clearly had ADD and couldn't sit through the whole thing. The people around me were having a popcorn fight while I was trying to watch the game. Like I really want greasy popcorn in the hair?!
  • Football is a very slooooow game compared to hockey. It takes forever to get to the net and once you get there, chances are that your opponent will kick it all the way back to the other end.
  • The Olympic Stadium is a terrible place to host something like this during the winter...
  • I want one of those Impact scarves *g*
Five signs that you're clearly a hockey fan while watching the Impact
  1. You think the "Ole" song is a hockey song. Singing "ole" never felt so right and wrong at the same time. It was right because well, it is technically a football song and wrong because I've now come to believe that it should be used exclusively as hockey song used to torment every non-Habs fan out there (yes, I'm starting particularly at you, Sens fans.)
  2. You're freaking out that your team won't win when there's 5 minutes left on the clock. Like I said, you've virtually won it if you're up by a goal with 5 minutes left.
  3. When you see the Impact goalkeeper make several huge saves and many other key ones, you instantly think of Halak against Vancouver.
  4. You boo the opposition like crazy. Hey, Santos Laguna aren't the Flyers, you know?
  5. You wear a Habs shirt to the game. Seriously. There were even some people in Nordique shirts... talk about being in the wrong decade...

That shutout has to hurt a lot...

While everyone was reveling in Halak's shutout last night, I can think of two people who weren't very pleased to say the least. First is Roberto Luongo, for obvious reasons, and the second is Carey Price.

There's this perception out there that goalies don't get along with their backups. Not having mind reading capabilities, I don't know if that's true but I can easily see why there wouldn't be much love between the two. I don't know what type of relationship Price and Halak have but I can imagine that on a personal level that shutout had to hurt for Price. Last night everything was about Halak. The guy who only a few months ago was just "the other goalie" earned himself huge praise last night and the starting postion at least until further notice. Apparently after last night's game Henri Richard went so far as to say that he had never seen better goaltending except from Jacques Plante. Wow.

That has to hurt just a little bit for Price. While the crowd was screaming Halak's name, he had to be just a little hurt, disappointed, saddened, maybe even angered that he wasn't the one in nets getting crowd's undying support. Don't forget, since he became a Hab he has been touted as the next Patrick Roy. It was supposed to be Price who was going to lead this team to their 25th Stanley Cup. Now he's been relegated to the benches and, at least for last night, no one was thinking about him at all.

I'm not trying to create a goalie controversey here. Quite the opposite. I think just because Halak has earned the startup spot doesn't mean that Price is doomed. He can recover. I think Price has two options right now. He can sit there on the bunch and mope or he can work hard to get the startup job back. I think and really hope, that he will chose the latter (not that I want to take anything away from Halak. It just hurts to see both goalies not performing well). While last night had to be brutal for Price, I think he'll end up a lot better for it in the long run. If anything, this year has shown us that he is not necessarily a bad goalie, but that he's a goalie who needs to work on the mental aspect of his game. Price is still a young guy (even in the world of hockey) and he's got a lot of growing up to do - whether it's learning to handle the pressure better* or learning to bounce back from a tough run of games. But he can do it. I believe in him and until he gets things worked out, I believe that Halak will help get the job done for the Habs.

* While I believe that there's been way too much pressure heaped on Price, he doesn't really have much of a choice but to learn how to deal with it if he wants to stay here.

JARO STEALS A SHUTOUT!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009




Okay, so honestly, that's not fair. Halak didn't steal a thing. He deserved this win and he more than deserved this shutout. Oh yes, it was the Jaroslav Halak show again tonight. While the rest of his team skated around like as though they were still asleep, Halak was busy fending off the big scary Canucks which included the creepy scoring duo of Henrik and.... what's the other brother's name? Daniel? Whatever. Halak stopped them all including a few oddman rushes and a breakaway on... one of the Sedin twins. The "Big Swede" himself had a great chance which he couldn't capitalize on. Yay for Jaro! Way to show those annoying Swedes who's the boss!

What can I say about the game? Hmm... Habs looked sleepy at times but they also had some good moments and some great moments (most of which belonged to Jaro. Yes, I'm being biased right now. Sue me!). Powerplay couldn't get a rhythm going except for in the middle of a five minute one in which Markov scored the team's second goal of the night. Penalty kill was perfect tonight - and Halak was the center of said perfection. I'm tempted to say that the defense was awful but that's not really true. They had some great moments - especially on a powerplay in which the Canucks started off with a four minute 5 on 4 and ended up spending half of that 5 on 3 - and some bad moments which thankfully didn't turn into anything. The end of the Canucks "amazing powerplay that did nothing" resulted in Koivu getting the puck to Plekanec who went in alone on Luongo and buried it for the Habs' first goal. That was great and I'm sure the Canucks were hitting themselves upside the head for that one. Lapierre would add an empty netter at the end of the game.

The bloggers seem to either think that Halak alone was great and the rest sucked or everyone put up a big effort tonight. I think it's somewhere inbetween. You can't deny that there were some costly mistakes by the Habs that should have turned into goals for the Canucks and if Halak hadn't been so with it.....The Habs seemed pretty dozy for a lot of it and most of the play was concentrated in the Habs own end. And c'mon, the Habs can't blame the refs for all of those penalties.... just a couple.
  • Stewart is sooo slooooow.... But I want to keep him because he's like a mini version of the Laraque that we wanted. Kind of. He hits everything and everyone in sight and he sticks up for his teammates. And he's not afraid to fight. Keeeeeeep hiiiiiiim.
  • Kovalev needs to stop hitting the post.....He would have made the score 4-0...... grrr.....
  • Two people that I would not want to be today are Luongo and Price. Luongo because his team dominated the Habs like crazy and yet he was the one who let in two goals. And Price because... well... At one point there was footage of the crowd bowing down to Halak. So. Yeah. No one was thinking of poor Pricey tonight. Poor guy.
  • I think while the offense was a little passive, the defense worked pretty well actually. Any time when the defense isn't obstructing their own goalie is good *g*
  • They did win a fair amount of faceoffs which is very good news.
  • the PP was pretty bad but the PK worked wonderfully
  • The crowd was noisy. Must have been insane there.
  • Sundin being booed is funny to listen to for some reason....
  • Someone should tell the Habs that you're supposed to hit the puck (you know, the little thing on the ice) not the other guy's face.
  • Oh and thanks Breezer for saving Halak's hopes of a shutout!
I need to sleeeeeeep now. I'm being very random now.... *g* On a whole the game probably was better than I keep thinking it was. RDS just replayed Pleky's goal and I'm all smiles again... so yeah... nice win to have.... love you Jaro!

Enemy watch: Caps died and Flyers beat them 4-2 (do I really need to rant about this one?!) Ducks didn't get shot down and won 4-3 over the Sabres. Sens did something useful and squashed the Hurricanes. Almost perfect. Stupid Flyers though....

Here come the Canucks. Again.

First thing's first though....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KOVY!

Anyway......

Maybe the Canucks will play like they did against the Maple Losers? I can always hope, right? But more importantly, I really hope that Carbo realizes that none of his goalies are going to have a good chance at helping their team if they continually have to face 50 shots a night. I love Halak. And I love Price a lot too. But really.... the rest of the team could be helpful and try to get shots on the other goalie too, you know? And I'm pretty sure that Price would have won if he had played against the Sens and think how much better he could be feeling about himself if he had won there? Anyway....Luongo better not be bored out of his mind tonight like he was last time (I'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought it was funny that the Habs were using a goalie from BC who was playing against a goalie from Montreal last time?). It's pointless to say "these are big points". They're all big now. Habs need to win. End of story.

Tonight cheer for Habs, Ovie err I mean, the Capitals (die FLYERS), Boston (yes, Boston needs to beat Florida), Anaheim (because the Sabres need to lose), and maybe the Sens because they have no hope of making the playoffs and the Hurricanes do. Am I hoping for too much for the Sens to beat the Hurricanes?

Bye Renney + I need to stop drawing stick people

Monday, February 23, 2009




Click the pretty picture to see full size. If you dare.

Say "sayonara" to Tom Renney as he just got the boot as the Rangers headcoach. I'm honestly pretty sad at this because now the new coach is going to try to kick the Rangers into action. I was just starting to enjoy them being bad. Anyway, Renney's firing is not a surprise at all and now I can officially say that all the coaches who went over to Europe have been fired. Hmm, watch out Mike Babcock and Joel Quennsomethingrather. You guys could be next!

So let's all hope that the Habs can win some games and the Rangers can stink for a bit longer so the Habs can gain some ground on a playoff spot.

Jeez, is it ever a slow news day....*snores* Bring on some interesting game... no, Sharks vs Stars isn't interesting...

Crosby's killing my love for the Pens

Sunday, February 22, 2009




bwahahaha.....

I'm serious. He's the single reason why I'm not liking them anymore....*sniffles* Ovie just decimated the Pens and Sid was so grumpy and immature about it. He got all upset because Ovie gave him a little push and he freaked out. And then he started whining about it after the game...Bah... I felt so bad for Fleury because he was quite frankly awful and he could have used a little more help (yes, Pens that means you stop beating up on Ovie and start trying to keep the rest of the Caps from scoring!)It wasn't that Theodore was better by the bucket load or anything. He was just lucky that the Caps played a lot better defense and were mowing down everything in their path while they were on the offense. On the other hand, having Garon and Theodore out there at the same time was funny because they both played together here in Montreal (anyone else want our ex-goalies?!)...Fun game to watch anyway.




I like youtube.

Twitter + I DID IT!

...I just joined Twitter. Whoopie..... *runs around like an idiot* I like to ramble....

After weeks of trying to figure out the greatest mystery since Kovy's lack of effort, I have figured out how to make this stupid layout have three columns.... I feel so smart....Hopefully no one thinks it looks too crowded now because I can't actually easily change it back so.... bow down to a great tutorial and my lack of HTML knowledge! Oh and my total spamming of this blog... I will get back to hockey soon. Promise.

Why couldn't he have done this in the playoffs?

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Last post for today, I promise. Buuuuuuuut I had to bring this up..... Biron... you made me look like a genius for saying that the Flyers needed a better goalie. Well, I would have looked like a genius if it wasn't for the fact that everyone else has been saying the same thing for a while now... But surely this is one for the highlight reels? In the bad way.... not in the Ovie greatness way...



By the way... how come no one told me it was hockey day in nowhere land err I mean Canada? So THAT is why all five and a half Canadian teams were playing each other..... I get it now.... But more importantly, am I insane for wanting to watch Ovie vs the Puffles tomorrow (evil TV permitting)?

Eat that Clouston!


Because I like to draw stick people....

Is Kovy feeling better? I would say so because man, that was team Kovy and Halak out there rocking it this afternoon. Not that the other guys didn't do anything. They were pretty much all working out there. But Kovy looked like... well, Kovy! And Halak after dying of boredom in the first period was solid again.

Okay fine so it was the stinky Sens who looked dazed. And the stinky Sens did get three goals in. And I still like Heatley about as much as I like Briere. But STILL! A win! A win! And a nice win too! Pleky got a pretty goal within the first couple of minutes on the powerplay. Which was followed by Kovy stealing the puck off of some Sen which was followed by Kovy sinking Elliot. He made it look so easy too.

Habbies would take two more goals on two more powerplays thanks to Schneider and Brisebois (eh? Thought it was Hamrlik who got that one?!!!) before the Sens dumped Elliot for Auld and struck back with two of their own goals (actually, I think they dumped Elliot after the third goal but whatever. Minor detail in the grand scheme of the Sens losing). Sens then controlled the rest of the period but my fear of a Sens comeback was banished when Dandenault got a very pretty goal past Auld.

Habs then refused to score any more goals and let the Sens control the game. And then I freaked out and screamed at them the Habs not to embarrass me completely and let the Sens crawl back into the game. Habs then took about half a dozen penalties and killed them almost all off. Heatley did get a goal in the dying seconds of a 5 on 3 PP. Good for you Heatley, getting a goal on while your team had a two man advantage....Not that it saved your team from losing....

It's hard to be too excited considering it's the Sens here....and in all honesty, I think Cory here is getting a tiny taste of what got Hartsburg fired..... but a win is always appreciated against any time but I especially like it when it's the Sens that get sunk. I'm just hoping that the Habs can battle out some wins against some very tough opponents coming up next week (see below for what we can expect out of the Flyers).

Things I liked
  • the effort for the first 30 minutes of the game
  • All five pretty goals.
  • Kovy's goal especially
  • Making Clouston upset. He's so boring to watch though. At least Hartsburg swore and waved his hands around. Clouston just frowns. Boohoo....
  • HAAAAALAAAAAAAAK!
  • Yes, I know he floundered a bit but the defense worked tonight which was great so Jaro doesn't go in the bad books today.
  • KOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
  • Did you see that goal? And was it just me or was there was nice PK and defensive work by him?!!!!
  • Was it just me or did they actually win a decent amount of faceoffs?
What I didn't like
  • the effort for the other 30 mins. If the Sens had been slightly more talented then they could have evened up the score
  • all those stupid penalties. There were way too many of those again.
  • no scoring in an empty net
  • Andrei Kostitsyn not scoring. Meh.
  • Stupid Auld robbing Higgy of a goal when he came out of the penalty box.....
  • Powerplay... wait... that worked today... it worked really well today. I'm so used to putting it here that I just automatically started typing here... Oh well... *g*
  • Apparently we just lost Bouillon for about a month..............
A quick word to the Flyers....
  • I saw that fifth goal by the Pens. What a great way to lose a game..... NOT!
And Penguins....
  • I hate to say this and I'll have to go clean my mouth out with soap or something, but Mike Richards' short handed goal was a thing of complete beauty. There. I just complimented a Flyer. Excuse me while I go off and puke now....You should NEVER have let that one happen. NEVER. Bad Pens! Bad!

Random look at the goalies playing today

So I'm still looking to kill time before the puck drops but I figured that I'd at least do something interesting and look at who's in nets today. I just noticed that some of my favorite and absolutely least favorite goalies are playing today.

Halak's getting the start today. I got to see him live when I went to Sensville and since then I've quite fallen in love with watching him play. If we're lucky he'll put up a good performance and the rest of the Habs will follow him. I'll keep on maintaining until he messes up badly that he's been solid for them on most nights and most of his losses haven't been totally his fault.

Haven't got a clue who's in nets for the Sens but I"m thinking that it's not whoever was in nets against the Canucks *g*

Fleury is currently enjoying a lot of success as the Pens are now up 3-1 over the Biron and the Flyers. Fleury has to be one of my favorite goalies for no real reason whatsoever so it's nice to see him doing well....even if the game is going the way I didn't want it to happen...On the other hand, I'm actually taking some delight in seeing Biron struggling big time. Serves him right for randomly being amazing during the playoffs against the listless Habs. When will the Flyers figure out that his performance in the playoffs was a bit of a fluke and that they need to find themselves a solid goalie?

And my least favorite goalie is also going to play tonight. Vesa will take on Sundin and the creepy twins in Toronto tonight. If Chris Osgood is the falling goalie and Tim Thomas is the flailing goalie, then Vesa Toskala has to be the goalie who forgot how big the net is. The amount of times I've seen him leave the net half open or actually fall completely out of the crease is crazy. I still think that Ron Wilson should put Luke Schenn in as the goalie. He does a lot better job of stopping the puck....

Ahem... Habs are about to play. Richards just scored a shorthanded goal on Fleury. Poor Fleury...

Excuse me if I'm not crying buckets here....

Anyone else read Dave Stubb's story about George Gillett? You'd think that we're all supposed to be crying buckets for the guy (hmm, buckets is such a nice word don't you think?) after reading that.

Oh come on....

I really wish that people would stop blaming the behavior of the players, particularly the the Kostitsyn brothers and Hamrlik. We have no idea when they were doing any of this and whether it actually affected their game or not. I want to be clear that I'm not defending their behavior necessarily. I think it's just as stupid as the next guy hopefully does. But I don't believe for one second that these three are the first people to blow their money on cars, booze and women. And I don't believe that they will be the last either. What do you honestly expect out of a bunch of young guys with a lot of money to burn in a major city like this? Did you honestly think that they'd donate their money to World Wildlife Fund and spend their free time in a soup kitchen? Look, I'm just saying that I think it's really silly that the media is jumping on these guys.

No one should be surprised that this is what they do. When those infamous pictures in Mexico were the scandal of the hour, someone pointed out that the media in Montreal is stuck in the last century. They don't get that a lot of guys - and not just hockey players with a lot of money to burn - do this all the time. Again, I'm not endorsing this type of behavior, but it's really not all that shocking and yet the media acts as though it is. Come back and tell me if the police lay any charges for illegal activity and in the mean time, stop acting like being stupid is a criminal offense. Because it's not.

Now even without all these non-scandals, we're supposed to be crying buckets for Gillett because the team that he poured a pile of money into is tanking big time. It's just oh so sad that the players care more about partying, drinking, smoking and generally just not listening to their coach for the heck of it, than they do about putting up a decent effort for their poor deprived owner.

Oh pleeeaaaase.

The only thing I'm going to do with that bucket is puke in it. While the Habs are tanking, Gillett is raking quite a lot of money. While I want to think that he cares more about this team than he does about the money that he makes, I can't easily believe that's the truth. I don't blame Gillett. Nobody in their right mind buys a team without at least hoping to make money off of it. Not even multi-millionaire businessmen who can buy these teams like you go out and buy bubblegum at the store. I just don't get why I should be feeling bad for him when he's happily making money regardless of how the team preforms.

If you want to feel for someone, feel bad for the fans. They're the ones who (usually) care about the team and have done so for a lot longer than Gillett has. They're the ones who are parting with large sums of money to go see their Habs put up epic fail after epic fail. They are the ones who for some unknown reason are readying to part with a lot of money to buy this overpriced merchandise crap.

I'm happy that Gillett bought the team and is doing all of this for whoever he's doing it for. I'm not saying that he's a bad owner either. I'm just saying, I'm not about to feel bad for him just because this year has been crappy.

[why yes, it is a slow news day and I've still got two and a half hours till the puck drops for the Sens/Habs game and am bored out of my mind..... I think I'll go clear out the dust bunnies under my desk while I wait....why hello little dust bunny. I'm going to name you Daniel Briere *tosses in garbage in the garbage can* byebye Danny!]

Saturday morning ramble

First sign that the world has turned upside down. It's Saturday and that usually means hockey. Today, I'm quite hyped about the game today. No, not the Stinky Sens vs. the Listless Habbies. I'm talking about Vancouver vs the Maple Losers. I know, I know.... I'm horrid.... but...but...but... if the Canucks behave nicely then they'll decimate the Leafs and there's nothing I like more than watching the Leafs lose. Except to see the Habs win but umm, I have a feeling that I'm going to get embarrassed beyond belief today. Anyway... Hey Sundin, I may for about two second, actually like you. For two seconds only. Maybe.

Second sign that the world has turned upside down. Anyone else see/hear the Hammies beating in the Marlies aka the baby Leafnuts last night? Hammies almost own the Marlies this season... Whoopie for the Hammies! Sergei, unfortunately failed to score.....C'mon Sergei.... show everyone that you're not the off-ice-partying nutcase that everyone thinks you are.

Third sign that the...etc.... Flyers vs Pens. Love you Pens (hate you Crosby) but for the sake of all Habs fans out there, please lose Pens. Yes, I said, please win Flyers. Wow....sowwy Pens.....

Fourth sign etc, etc...Avs smacked Ovechkin and the Caps upside the head and win 4-1 last night. Ovie didn't score and didn't even get a point. And this is coming from the guy who just scored what many are saying is the goal of the century? C'mon, Ovie.... you gotta back that goal up with something at least half as impressive.... sheesh....

Did you know....That of the four teams that went off to Europe last year, three have fired their coaches? If you remember that far back the Sens, Pens, Lightning and Rangers all went to play in front of a bunch of people who had no clue who they were. As you know, Barry Melrose, Hartsburg and Therrien are now jobless. Well, actually, Melrose isn't jobless technically, but since when does talking about hockey for ESPN count as a job? Anyway, Renney could be next if the Rangers continue on this path of horrendousness. Isn't that fun?

Fiftieth sign that the Habs are imploding...Kovalev appears to have been sick with something for a while now. He didn't tell anyone up until.....now? Bad Kovy. FREAKING TELL SOMEONE IF YOU'VE GOT A PHYSICAL PROBLEM! Bad Kovy..... very bad Kovy.....Who do you think you are? Roger Federer?! And look what happened to him last year.... Sheesh.....

Fifty-first sign that the Habs are imploding: Andrei and Hamrlik didn't get to talk to the hordes of media peeps that invaded the practice center. That's not cool. They should have been able to say something, yes? Even if it was a "I'd rather not comment" type of thing. Hiding 'em won't save them from the media....

Fifty-second sign that the Habs are imploding: My relative (Section 311) says that the Habs are looking like the Sens last year. What's next, someone will accuse the Habs of turning into the Leafnuts? The shame and horror of it all....!

And finally......

My dream day: Flyers edge out Pens. Habs decimate Sens. Canucks decimate Leafs. How hard is it for that to happen?!

What will probably happen: Flyers decimate Pens. Sens decimate Habs. Leafs edge out Canucks...... *sighs*

Osgood got sent home

Friday, February 20, 2009

I'm still waiting for the scandal to break out......

Oh wait.

There is no scandal.

Hmm.... makes me rethink the "Kovalev Situation".....According to Carbo, he's playing tomorrow by the way.

Am I cursed or something?



^ meant to put that up before.... don't ask why Pleky has a turnip for a head... No one ever said I could draw a circle....

You know, I watch the Habs for the first time ever last April and while they won the first game I saw, it went to OT and they lost the next one. They finally squeaked through past Boston and got dumped by the Flyers. Before my second choice of Pittsburgh got dumped by the Red Wings, Team Canada lost the gold medal game of the world championship thanks to Kovalchuk.

Fast forward to Euro Cup and my first choices of Portugal, Croatia and the Netherlands all get kicked out - fine, so Croatia and the Netherlands were never expected to do anything great anyway. What's Christiano Ronaldo's excuse? My fourth choice in Spain actually won but they weren't expected to do that....

Zip ahead to the tennis season and just about every guy in the top ten except for Rafael Nadal loses their matches when I watch them for the first time. Federer, Djokovic, Davydenko, Ferrer, Nalbandian.. etc.... I then turn Federer into my favorite guy to watch and BAM he's lost a lot of matches to people that he shouldn't have lost to and lost some real heart breakers to guys he could have beaten.

And NOW the Habs who did well for themselves last year, have gone a major losing spree coupled with some overblown "scandals" and will probably be heading for the golf courses soon. Oh and the Penguins could be joining them too. AND Toronto got themselves a decent GM and head coach.

Is there something wrong with me here? Is every team or guy I follow bound for crappiness? Should I go off and be a Flyers fan now so they can lose too? *wails*

Oh please....

Someone wake me up if this supposed "big story" that has the Kostitsyn brothers and Hamrlik linked to some guy who just got arrested and allegedly has criminal connections turns into a story at all.....In the mean time, I'm off to drown my sorrows in a nice big mug of green tea....

Hey Islanders fans...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Can I join you? I mean, at this rate I'll be joining you in April anyway.... But right now I'd give anything to be an Islanders fan because at least they never had any hope from the beginning that their team would do something. And that's actually a lot better than sitting here suffering through this bloody roller coaster ride to the golf courses......Islanders fans get to look forward to nabbing Tavares. But me? I get to look forward to hearing the media having a lot of fun at my team's misfortune. Great.

I want to say I'm stunned about this game but I can't after watching that.

I want to say that they fought hard through the whole game and the Pens eked out a win, but I can't because despite the close score, the Pens controlled most of the game (mainly because they weren't making stupid line changes and they could clear the puck, you know?)

I want to say that they're all tired from last night and that's why they lost tonight, but that just sounds like a bad excuse....

I want to say that they'll get through this and end up in the playoffs without having to play Boston in the first round, but I'm can't get my head around the idea that they won't go down faster than the Titanic at this point.

And I want to say that this is just a game and at the end of the day I don't care, but I can't do that either. I care - probably too much.

What? I've got this name for a reason you know!

I will say that I officially hate Crosby, Malkin looks like his has about as much emotion as a toothpick, Pleky and Andrei looked great, is that really Kovy coming back?!, I love Ottawa losing and I actually feel bad for Carbonneau right this second. The cameras caught him staring off into space with a resigned look on his face. I'd put Carbo down for the list of people who need a hug but it's rather long and I'm still trying to get my name down first....wait you're turn!

I want to watch Sweeney Todd now....That should be put in a better mood. Nothing like a little blood soaked musical to get you going again. And no, I'm not being sadistic... the lyrics are really hilarious which makes the whole thing so surreal....it's like watching the Habs... a bloody mess with some very dark humor moments.... hopefully the Habs won't end up like Sweeney did though...that was..... well... watch the movie yourself..

Don't you just love Sidney?

No. I don't mean Crosby. This is Sidney, my very talented rabbit. Yes, he was named after Crosby. NO I didn't want to name him that. Someone else did. Anyway, my rabbit says that the Habs will decimate the Pens tonight. And my rabbit is always right. Except when he's wrong, of course....


Random thoughts on Kovy

From the average dude who watches the Habs to the blogger to the main stream media, everyone has an opinion about "The Situation" right now. Today Guy Lafleur basically ripped Gainey and Carbonneau for keeping Kovalev at home. Yvan Cournoyer has similar thoughts and manages to get his point across without the media have to censor half his words. In the blogosphere everyone has a different opinion ranging from "Habs are much better without Kovy" to "We need him back".

For my part, it's a tough call. Without knowing exactly what has been going on behind closed doors, it's hard to say just what's been going on with these guys (because seems to be up with all of them). One thing I know for sure is that Kovalev is not completely to blame for this whole state of affairs. Kovalev was not to blame when the two goals started to imitate sieves. While Kovalev did turn the puck a heck of a lot, he wasn't to blame for huge lapses by the defense. Kovalev was not to blame when the guys on the other lines looked half asleep and couldn't score on the ice.

Yes, I have noticed that Kovalev's play does affect the other guys. When he does well, they all seem to do well. When he doesn't, they all seem to flounder. But either I'm missing something, or else Kovalev has that much of an impact on his team that they still play make bad defensive lapses and can't score to save their lives when he's sitting on the bench? (I'm talking about before last night, of course. I'll get to that in a second). I'm not excusing Kovalev's lack of effort, but I'm starting to feel a bit like they're using him as an excuse for their bad play. It's kind of sad when you think that they needed to sit out a player to get the guys to snap out of their fog. What happens if last night was a one game thing? Who do you sit next? Koivu? Again, I don't know what's going off the ice so maybe there is something else going on between Kovalev nd someone else (why does Carbonneau instantly come to mind as that "someone else"?). Maybe not. I don't know. I'm actually hoping that there IS something else here and that they're not just throwing Kovalev under the bus to save themselves because that's definitely no way to treat a player.

*sighs*

Why can't every just get along and make things work?!

I blame this loss on.......Gary Bettman!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

No, I didn't mean Kovalev or Guy Carbonneau or Price. I meant Gary Bettman because he was the turnip head that brought in the shootout. I hate shootouts. I disagree completely with the idea of the shootout. It's a cheap way to end a game that didn't need to see a winner tonight (and yes, I'd probably be saying the same thing if the Habs won. Once I got over jumping around like an idiot first that is).

Tonight the Habs extended Ovie and the Caps to shootouts. And when you consider just WHO is on this Caps team and consider just how BADLY the Habs have been playing, you have to say either the Caps didn't show tonight or the Habs played the first good game in a very long time. It was definitely the latter. Tonight, I felt the Habs were good enough for a win and if not a win, then at least a tie (which you can't have anymore!). They had so many chances to bury the puck but either they missed, hit the bar or Theodore stopped them. They played hard. They had three powerplay goals - say what? Surely my eyes deceived me! THREE goals on the powerplay? They didn't create too many turnovers. I can't think of too many oddman rushes for the Caps. The Habs looked like a team who bloody well cared. They wanted this win and they came very close to having it. After the first period they pretty much shut down Ovechkin and stopped some very close calls by Mike Green and just about every other Caps player. They could have - dare I say should have? - taken this game if not in regulation time, then in OT.

But because of Mr. Turnip head, the Caps will walk away with a win tonight.

Do they deserve it? Well....My whole point is I think both teams deserved to win tonight. The Caps could have easily won this one regulation or OT too. They battled just as hard as the Habs did. The Caps always battle hard. Well, every time I see them anyway so I can say those things. Ovechkin had a goal that you'll be seeing all over youtube in half an hour. Forgot who else scored but they weren't cheap goals. They worked for them.

I've never been so happy at a loss before and I think the Habs could be happy with themselves too. They do get to walk away with a point which is something they haven't been able to do lately. They raised their game and took it to Ovechkin. It's stupid that the game gets to be decided by one guy going in alone on the goalie when both teams put up a huge TEAM effort to make it 3-3 after 65 minutes of playing. Oh and get this: at the end of regulation time, the Habs and Caps both had 31 shots on goal. Yes, yes, my habbies, losers of 8 out of their 10 games in which they were outshot and outscored by a looong country mile, were tied with shots with Ovechkin and Co. Now that's a good sign, yes?

Now do it again. And come away with a win this time.

Random notes
  • I still can't believe that they scored on the powerplay three times......
  • And I'm totally shocked that they didn't score once while 5 on 5 or 4 on 4... there were SO many chances.....
  • Price looks to be back. He was the focused and came up with some huge saves. Poor Halak.
  • Kostopoulos got Kovy's "A".
  • Oddly enough, I didn't miss Kovalev too much.... only when the game was over did I go "Man... he's really not there....." and then I got all sad.
  • I still love Ovechkin. He's just so fun to watch. Gotta love guys who play with intensity and plenty of emotion. And just what the heck was he doing back on the ice after got hit by the puck when he decided to try to be a penguin and slide all over the place? Jeez... I want to kidnap him and force him to be a Hab. Please? Please? Please? I want Ovie!
  • Ovie wasn't happen when Pleky stole the puck from him.... he really wanted to score. Poor Ovie! Wait a second.......
  • Carbo really should have picked someone else to shoot in the shootouts. Pleky can't score to save his life in the shootouts, Lapierre shouldn't be as good as he is and Markov, by his own admission only has one move. Hello Carbo?! Put someone who in theory can score in the shootout!
  • NEED TO WORK ON FACEOFFS! Winning faceoffs = leads to a goal. Losing faceoffs = leads to other team scoring. As Benoit Brunet likes to say "ce n'est pas complique!". I've always wanted to quote Benoit...
  • The peeps who come up with the headlines at TSN are funny. The headline for this game was "The Misery Deepens". Evidently they weren't watching the game...... No one is miserable except for Ovie who only got one highlight reel goal tonight!

Can we please calm down?

Look. I know that the last 36 hours have been insane for all of us crazies. It's enough to make anyone's head explode. Including mine. But can we please just take a pill and chill out?

This is precisely why people think we're an insane bunch of whackos here. Because we go over board at the slightest bit of news. Everything little thing gets blown up into a huge news item when it really isn't.

O'Byrne and Sergei Kostitsyn get sent back to Hamilton? Time to freak out because O'Byrne totally does not deserve to go back to Hamilton this time around even if we were all screaming for his head earlier in the year. And clearly Sergei has been partying too much and doesn't listen at all to anyone so that's why he's out of here.

Schneider gets traded to Montreal? Time to complain because what's this guy who's a gazillion years old and has a huge contract going to do?

Unflattering pictures of a certain goalie that are a YEAR old? Time to moan and crab because he is SO clearly walking around the streets drunk now and that's why he's not performing well.

Kovalev stays home? Major freak out time. He's going to be traded. His days with the Habs are finished. He's clearly the source of all of our woes. Axing Kovy is like, da best thing eva!

This all must mean that there's no discipline going on whatsoever and it's all the Europeans fault! And the goalies suck too! And Gainey clearly has no clue what he's doing! Run for the hills! Man the life boats! It's the end of the world!

........Come on............

O'Byrne and Sergei went down because they're two of the few guys who could be sent down. Sergei has not been playing very stellar hockey lately so in all honesty and if it had to come down to either him or D'Agostini, I'd keep D'Agostini right now. I don't know anything about his personal life so I refuse to comment one or the other on the partying issue.

I'm also reserving judgment on Schneider until after he plays a few games. I'm not a huge fan of the idea of getting another ancient player with a huge contract but we'll see what he can do. Maybe he'll be the best thing to get this powerplay back on track. Maybe not.

You know my feelings about Price.

I really doubt that Kovalev is the sole source of all of this mess. It remains to be seen what the Habs will do next.

And you know how I feel about the whole European thing.

In all honesty, it's a real wonder that anyone wants to work for this organization at all. I can't blame guys for wanting to play somewhere else because they know that if they come here everything they do will be looked at, picked apart, analyized and scrutinized to death and then spun into some major and devastating story.

I'm not saying that what hasn't happened isn't news. Yeah. It's news. But everyone is taking this and turning it into something huge thing while adding their own spin to it. I'm not saying "don't talk about all of this" either, I'm saying stop fueling all the spin out there. It's not fair to the players and people involved. The upsetting bit is people claim to care about the team and yet at the first sign of something going wrong they freak out and jump on the next bandwagon that comes along. First it was the "powerplay sucks and that's why the Habs suck" bandwagon, then it was the "Kovalev can't score and that's why the Habs suck" bandwagon, next came the "Blame the Euros because they obviously suck" bandwagon which was followed by the "The goalies suck and Price parties too much" bandwagon. And that's leaving out the trade rumors bandwagon which rolls around quite frequently. Enough is enough.

There's only so far that we can blame the media because the media is only doing their job: They're giving people what they want. It's just really sad that what everyone wants to hear is a bunch of unfounded rumors and bits of news spun so out of control that it's not even funny.

There's really no need to go nuts. Have fun, discuss it, but please don't treat this like the future of world peace depends on the outcome.

Now if you all excuse me, I'm off to find out why Roger Federer has gone MIA......my tennis happiness depends entirely on his success this year *g*

So.... now what?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

I'm not sure whether I should be excited or scared about the Habs future right now. Maybe I should be both.

I should be excited because a big shake up like leaving Kovalev behind could be what these Habs need to get back on track. Sure they won't suddenly be Stanley Cup contenders now anymore than they weren't at the beginning of the year. But maybe this is the jolt that they need to get their heart working again. There's every reason to think that they'll wake up now and work hard. There's also reason to believe that Kovy could come back after this and perform better and the whole team will be the better for it.

Then again... this could all go to hell and the Habs could miss the playoffs altogether.

Look. Anyone who believes that Kovalev is the sole reason why this team is tanking needs to remember that being part of a team means EVERYONE needs to stand up and do their work. Yeah, I know he hasn't done anything productive recently, yeah I know that he doesn't done anything near what we all hoped he would be doing this year. Yes, I know that his up and down behavior and seemingly unwillingness to put in a good effort on a lot of nights is painful to watch.

But we've already seen what the Habs have done - excuse me, haven't done - without Lang and Plekanec in the lineup. Could you imagine the potential for disaster without having Kovalev on the ice? I think there have been nights when Kovalev has looked disinterested. I think there have been nights when he's tried really hard and gotten results. There's also been far too many nights when he's put up a good effort and has seen zippo in return for said efforts. What I'm trying to say is that it remains to be seen just how much or little an impact Kovy actually had on the ice. We won't know until the Habs take the ice against Ovechkin and Co and even then, Ovechkin may just obliterate the Habs anyway. Kovalev's absence could be fantastic for the team or he could leave a huge gaping hole that no one can fix and they'll skate around floundering like a bunch of fish on a the deck of a boat that are about to suffocate to death.

What really saddens me though, is the possibility that I just saw Kovalev as a Habs for the last time on Sunday without even realizing that this was it. There's every reason to believe that he's not coming back. If he's as proud as people - including Gainey - keep saying, then I could see him not returning. How do you face your team after this? I would be sad not to see Kovalev come back because he's been such a big part of this team but right now, I have to think that he's not coming back.

The depressing bit is, with or without Kovalev, these guys have given me zero reason to believe that they're motivated enough to play better. I honestly believe that this whole mini crisis could have and should have been prevented. Recently, I think their whole problem is all in their heads. And they just seem to unwilling to snap out of it no matter what comes their way.

This move could be the move that wakes up the Habs and sends them roaring into the playoffs.... Or it could be the move that sends them as far down the ranks as is mathematically possible. Oh and do I really need to say that Gainey's job probably rests on the outcome of what just happened today?

For everyone's sake, I hope this turns out to be a good thing.


And Roger Federer going MIA is not improving my sense of panic........

Thanks for the quick response, Bob

See? He was listening to me! Well, okay, fine, I didn't say "Hey Bob, send Sergei to Hamilton, call up Stewart and leave Kovalev at home while the rest of the team goes off to tackle Ovechkin and the Puffy Penguin". But now I can officially say "Bob is doing something other than trying to recreate the 1993 team". Ahem....

Thing is, I still don't get what's going to happen. I'm not totally surprised that Sergei has been sent back. I'm more surprised that the decision is coming now rather than before when it was clear that he wasn't getting his act together earlier. But whatever. I'm just praying that he won't go and sulk and will get back to being good so he can come back one day. What? I kind of like him. I like everyone. Sue me. And hopefully Andrei will snap out if his little funk too and get back to scoring. Speaking of funks... Bigger news is Kovy staying home. That's....big..... wow....

BOB WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! *runs around in circles* Man, I wish I could read this guy's mind...

Bob.... you're not desperate are you?

Look. I'm not going to bash Mathieu Schneider. I've never seen him play. I only found out that he existed last night. I don't know anything about him than he's rather ancient. But I have to ask the question.

Bob, is this a sign of weakness from you? I hate this ask this, but...Bob, are you in desperation mode right now?

Why did you just trade what will essentially come down to a second round draft pick for this guy? Yeah, the powerplay sucks majorly right now. But seriously, Bob.... Even if this guy saves our powerplay, I doubt he can single-handedly save our season. You're infinitely smarter than me when it comes to hockey, so surely you know this. Of course I can't read your mind, Bob, but to the rest of us mere mortals, this is looking like you just resorted to Plan K. Never mind Plan B. This looked like an act of desperation Bob. And that scares me.

Some of us mortals are wondering if the real reason why you brought in Schneider was because you wanted to show that you were doing something right now. They say that you wanted to appear to be doing something productive even if you basically just gave up what could be a valuable draft pick for a 39 year old guy who's going to essentially be a two month rental. Some of us think that you brought him in because you wanted to switch the focus away from Guy who quite honestly needs a long vacation. They say that you're just trying to distract us from the real problems going on. They're also saying that you're just trying to put a bandage on a gaping wound that's splurting blood from every direction with a tiny little band-aid.

Please tell me that this isn't the case.

I don't care that you didn't get Briere two years ago (especially considering he's been such a great model for the healthy hockey player this year). I don't care that you didn't get Hossa last year (he'd still be in Detroit this year). Heck, I don't even care that you didn't get Lacavalier either (oh wait, I didn't want him to begin with).

The thing that's saddening me right now is the apparent urgent need to change things up a bit in order to get the Habs going. If things had been going well up until now would you have gotten Schneider? If things had be going well right now would you be holding out for Kaberle? The problem is not necessarily that you got Schneider. The problem is the apparent reasoning behind it.

Bob. Please tell me that you're not in desperation mode. Please. Because if you're in desperation mode then the rest of us might as well go start drowning our sorrows in the beverage of our choice right now.

Habbies get a new player

Monday, February 16, 2009

Gainey just apparently traded two draft picks for defenseman Mathieu Schneider and a random conditional pick from Atlanta. Apparently the guy was with the Habs the last time that they won the Stanley Cup which makes him borderline ancient in my books but that's okay. As long as does something productive I'm happy. Oh and by productive I mean productive for the Habs. Giving the puck away to the other team and allowing them to score a billion goals is not the general idea of productive. Unless you're the opposing team.

Yes I know I just used the word "apparently" about a billion times.

Sorry Lang, you just lost your place as the resident oldie on the team. Don't worry. We still like you! And at least Brisebois can have some company.

And the Pens just lost in shootouts. To the Islanders. Brilliant.

I'm still in a good mood!

Jack Todd and I must be share the same brain wave

Well, not exactly. But last night I was writing up something about Price and I didn't finish it because my brain was dead and this morning I see that Todd has written pretty much what I wanted to say...in semi more coherent words too. Anyway!


man, I love playing with this

Can we please stop bashing Price too?


So it's the day after Valentines Day (well, it was when I wrote this anyway) and you'd think there'd be at least a little bit of that love wafting over into today. Well, you'd think wrong. Today I was treated to some more Price bashing in the paper. I completely forgot to mention yesterday that Price has also taken a lot of flak for the Habs’ recent performance. European. Goalie. Whatever. Same difference, right? They're all to blame for the losses.

In the eyes of a lot of the Habs fans, our number one goalie has gone from drop-dead amazing to well, just drop-dead. And I'm fed up of reading about this too.

I'll be honest. I like Price. He was one of the first players who’s name and number I actually remembered, so I've got a bit of a soft spot for the guy. That being said, I am keenly aware that his performance has dropped a lot since coming back from his injury. I'm not blind to what's begin going on. But what irks me more than the seven goals that he allowed against Edmonton the other night is the reaction of the fans. Today I read something where the writer believes that Gainey has made a mistake in drafting Price. If the author had more reasons for believing this than just going from Price's most recent performance then he didn't elaborate on them, which leads me to wonder if this is just another person jumping on the "let's bash the goalie because we can" bandwagon.

Maybe Gainey did make a mistake. Maybe Price can't handle the pressure of being a goalie in the NHL or maybe he just wasn't made to be a goalie in the most unforgiving city in the NHL. But how the heck are we supposed to tell if he can or can't cut it when he hasn't even played a full season in the NHL yet? Last season he started with the Habs before being sent back to Hamilton for a brief spell in January before being recalled a month later and pressed into being the starter. We could debate the wisdom of such a move by the management office and I'd love to if I had more time. But as it is, I’ll say that it probably wasn’t the smartest move to make in this city, especially given the fact that everyone knew that this season the stakes were going to be upped by a lot. There's the whole "the year thing" (and yes, Red Fisher, I will continue to believe that this label has caused a lot of problems for this team no matter what you think) but even if there wasn't, there'd still be a lot of pressure on Price because we all seem to think that he has to be the next Patrick Roy for some reason. And if we’re not comparing him to Patrick Roy we’re comparing him to Steve Mason (another point in which I feel the need to do the blasphemous and counter Red Fisher. Oh shock and awe!).

Many people seem to be fond of comparing Price to the NHL's newest goalie sensation. Many believe that if 20 year old Mason can handle being the startup goalie for Columbus and have a league leading 7 shutouts and GAA, then Price should be able to do that too. I think age has both everything and nothing to do with what's going on with Price. Everything in that everyone expects him to be great right now at 21 years old. They want him to be the best that he can be and make this team great right now (which is silly). And by nothing, I mean it’s unfair to even think of pressuring him to be the next “great one” right now and to make comparisons to “St. Patrick”.

Patrick Roy is Patrick Roy because not every goalie who plays for the Habs is going to carry their team to the Stanley Cup at age 20. This sounds obvious and yet everyone still seems to think (or is that "thought" now?) that Price can become the next Roy. Need I really say how unfair this is? And can I point out that goalies like Jacques Plante and Ken Dryden only joined the Habs when they were in their mid twenties? Which is supposed to be around the time when goalies start to mature (according to Olaf Kolzig anyway). And that Gump Worsley only won his first of four Stanley Cups (in five years) at 36? That sort of takes away from the notion that you need to be 20 years old to go down as one of the greats. And before you start on how the league is all different now and you need to be able to compete harder against so many other teams.... I took a look at the current leaders in the four categories for goalies. Everyone in the top five for save percentage, goals against, and shutouts (except for Mason) are 27 or older. And in the category for most wins Miller is the youngest at 28. Actually the second youngest player in the top TEN of all those categories is Jonathon Quick at 23. That's a full three years older than Mason.

Pretending that most goalies can mature at 18 years old, I will further mention that Mason isn't playing in the pressure cooker known as Montreal. Nobody is exactly expecting Columbus to get into the playoffs, let alone win the Stanley Cup. There is no real pressure on Mason to make his team good enough to be in the playoffs. Or at least there wasn’t until he got all of those shutouts anyway. You can have a gazillion shutouts but shutouts don't necessarily translate to getting your team into the playoffs or doing well in said playoffs. Maybe Mason could handle playing here in Montreal. Maybe not. At this point we’re not talking about talent. We’re talking about personalities and certain people’s abilities to deal with high pressure situations better than others. Now we’re getting into the area of speculation and I’m not overly fond of this. I also haven’t seen enough of Mason and Mason going through a series of bad games to know how he will react.

Maybe Mason really can handle high pressure situations better. Great for him. What one guy does or doesn’t do shouldn’t lessen what another guy does or doesn’t do. There is a lot of talk going on now about Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. For those of you who don’t know and don’t care about tennis, then let me just sum this up quickly: Roger Federer will most likely go down as one of the greatest players of all time. But right now his legacy is being challenged by Nadal who right now has the ability to take away some of Federer’s records at a younger age. If Nadal accomplishes some of the things that Federer has done while being younger than Federer, that’s great for Nadal. But that doesn’t, and shouldn’t, take away from what Federer has done in his own career. It’s pointless to compare these guys even now because we don’t know what they’ve got left to do in their careers.

Just like it’s pointless to compare Price and Mason. The bottom line here really is that it's pointless and unfair to compare Mason and Price not because of the totally different environments that they're playing in but because they're different people who react to situations differently. We don’t know what these guys will do for the rest of their careers. Maybe Mason will implode completely next year. Maybe he’ll go on to be the greatest goalie in the history of the sport. Maybe not. We don’t know and it’s WAY too early to tell. If Mason does goes on to win a Stanley Cup with the Blue Jackets this year then first off, I'll die of disbelief, but second, that win would make Mason the exception to the rule, not the rule itself. The rule being that not all goalies will take their team to win the Stanley Cup at age 20.

I have theories like the lovely people over at the blog Brodeur is a Fraud (see to your left) that it takes more than a good goalie to win games but those can wait. I think like this article pointed out, that Price is going through a serious confidence crisis right now. Just like the rest of the team is. The problem with being the goalie is you're always going to be the one who people look to at the end of the day when things go right or wrong. That's just part of the job and Price is going to have to learn how to deal with the pressure and the awful stuff when things go wrong. Was he awful in that game against Edmonton? Well, yes. But was his team backing him up? Not so much, no.

For a team to be successful it is indeed important to have good goaltending. But it’s just as important for a team to play well, as a team. Teamwork means every single guy has to work hard out there to win. Yeah, a goalie can steal a win for his team but there’s something seriously wrong if people both on and off the team expect the goalie to steal every game. It just won’t happen.

And finally. The latest argument that Price needs to go is that according to a bunch of pictures that surfaced on the net from last year, he spent his post-playoff vacation drinking and smoking and whatever else it was too. I haven’t actually seen those pictures and I don’t really care to either. What he does with his life is not really my business and I don’t care to make it my business either. I’m sure he’s not the first player to do something like that and I’m sure he won’t be the last. My issues with him are what he does or doesn’t do. Right now he’s playing like a guy who has lost all confidence in himself and maybe even in his team. This bad, bad, bad, bad. He needs to work on his own issues and start trusting in his team to back him up. And said team should start giving their goalies a reason to believe that they will actually back them up. And we need to stop treating him badly just because he’s going through a rough time of it.

I don’t believe for a second that Gainey will keep Price on this team if he doesn’t think he can handle it. Then again, I don’t believe for a second that Gainey is going to use this one little strip of bad playing as the basis for his entire judgment. What’s important now is for Price to get out of this crisis and for the fans to stop being so damn fickle when it comes to the player’s performance over a few games.

What would all this people be saying if Price got traded to Nashville and the next thing we all hear, he's leading the league in everything? Exactly. His contract is up next year so we'll see what's going to happen at that time. Until then, stop griping.

Twins are creepy

I don't care what sport you're talking about. Tennis, hockey, whatever. TWINS ARE CREEPY. I hope they get knocked out before the Canucks come to the Bell Center next because they creep me out completely....

Surprisingly my head is pain free considering the score finished 4-2 in favor of the Canucks.

I wish only the second half of the third period counted tonight. I thought there was a marked improvement in how they played for most of the third period compared to how they've been playing over the last month. They were skating hard, they were battling hard. They even got a goal!

Unfortunately 10 minutes of playing well doesn't make for a win.

50 minutes of bad playing equals four goals by the pesky Canucks (do the Canucks have a three letter or four letter nickname like the rest of the teams out there do?) and only one from the Habbies which amazing in and of itself considering they had all of.... well, it felt like two shots on goal but I think it was a couple more than that. Halak wasn't terrible and actually I think he came up with some huge saves to keep it from being 10-1 for the Canucks. I won't yap on about this loss because I feel that if the Habs continue from where they ended this game then we should be seeing some Ws soon. Then again the record setting Caps are up so we may in fact be doomed.

Oh well. At least I won't be up to some ungodly hour when they lose err play the Caps. Whoooopieeeeeee......Oh well. I've made my peace with this season so it's all good. Sorta. I may just be moving on to stage eight. And am taking it well considering my brain is dead. Whoopie. More coherent post coming in the morning.

Oh and byebye Therrien. I'm only slightly surprised that you got the boot but really, what did you expect after your team's latest embarrassing loss? One day someone will put the blame on the GM for some of this but for today it's all your fault. Sowwy.

To sleep I go. ZzZzZzZz......

Tomorrow:

What we learned from this game:
  • Odd man rushes are bad
  • Dozy offense that keeps getting run over is bad
  • not clearing the puck from your own end is bad
  • Not shooting the puck towards the goalie is bad
  • Brisebois is looking like a genius these last couple of games. That's insane.
  • Andrei Kostitsyn needs to shoot the bloody puck more. You are not Kovalev. I repeat, you are not Kovalev. SHOOT THE PUCK! Good things happen to be people you shoot the puck. Usually.
  • Kovalev came near to being the latest casualty last night. That's.... probably bad.
  • Refs are blind. There is no way that the Canucks didn't derseve at least one penalty last night.
  • Putting effort into the game gets you two well earned goals.
  • Not putting any effort into the game gets the other team four pretty much undeserved goals.
  • Sudin makes my knees hurt. I was pain free before he got onto the ice.
  • Lang's perky manner and Plekanec's work ethic that is good but never pays off are being missed a lot right now.
  • I still love Halak.

Can we dump the "let's dump the soft Euros" idea?

Saturday, February 14, 2009

So I'm sure by now you've all read or heard of at least one person complaining that the Habs woes stem from the fact that they have too many Europeans on the team. "Chuck all the Europeans and we'll be all set" seems to be "in" thing to say these days right after the "let's fire Carbo" phrase. This guy in particular seems to think that the Habs should get rid of the Europeans on the team.

I refuse to comment on the Carbonneau thing (for now anyway), but I feel I have to address this whole "the Habs have too many Europeans and that's why they're losing" issue. I'll get this out as plainly as I can:

Nationality has ZERO to do with why the Habs are losing right now. and in case no one noticed, a certain European dude just won the game for them last night. Oh right. Goalies don't count in this whole tirade. Okie then...I'll just go off and hug Halak by myself then.....

There are three main clichés when it comes to Europeans and why they are bad to have on your team. 1) They're soft and get banged around a lot 2) they're only in it for the money 3) they don't care about winning the Stanley Cup and that's why they underperform when they play.

This is probably slightly unfair, but I feel the need to say that when I think of soft players or players who are frequently accused of being soft, I always think of Crosby. I've witnessed enough games where Crosby gets banged around and it's not just because everyone's out to kill "The Favorite Penguin". I'm not saying that he's not talented, but you can be talented and still not play a very physical game. As a perfect counter to this, I have to say that Ovechkin is definitely one European guy who is not soft by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, Ovechkin is a perfect counter to any of the arguments that Europeans are soft, only in it for the money, and don't a give a damn about winning.

But let's focus on the Habs, shall we? First off, if you actually break down the nationality of the players on this team then we've got 13 Canadians (7 of which are from Quebec), 4 Americans, 2 and 1/2 Czechs (sorry, Lang, you only count as half a player now), 2 Russians, 2 Belorusians, 1 Finn, and 1 lone Slovak. So that's 17 North Americans and 9 Europeans if we're counting Lang and 15 to 8 if we're not counting any of the injured players (along with Lang, Tanguay and Latendresse are also injured). That's really no where near a European takeover. Not if you want to compare that to Detroit, which has almost as many Swedes as Canadians alone, never mind the rest of the "softy Euros" like Datsyuk and Hossa who hail from Russian and Slovakia respectively.

Back to the Habs.

If memory serves me right, most of our injured players this year were from North America. Komisarek (American), Higgins (American), Dandenault (Canadian), Tanguay (Canadian) and Latendresse (Canadian). These guys were all injured by other players while they were playing (hence the reason why I left out Price, Koivu and Laraque from the list. I also consider Lang's injury a bit of a freak accident so I'm leaving him out too). Komisarek was injured when he fought Milan Lucic who, though he was born and raised in British Columbia, is the son of two people born in Serbia. Tanguay was injured when Evgeny Artyukhin slammed him into the boards when the Habs played Tampa Bay back in January. Yes, people, Artyukhin was born in Russia. And yes, he seems to have a rap for playing rather dirty. I can't remember who injured Higgy, Dandy and Latendresse but it's pretty much safe to assume that they were all injured by Canadians as Higgy and Dandy were injured in the Habs tilt against Calgary back in December (and Calgary carries mostly Canadian players on their team) and Latendresse was injured by (Canadian) Chuck Kobasew when the Habs last played the Bruins. My point here is, does getting hit into the boards and sustaining serious injures make these guys soft? I thought only Europeans got bashed into the boards and sustained bad injuries? Or maybe a bad hit is just a bad hit no matter who's on the receiving end?

I find it hard to believe that all Europeans are just in it for the money, whether it's for themselves only or to support their “poor deprived families back home”. You have to be really obsessed with money to 1) want to work your butt off extra hard to become good enough of a hockey player to get noticed by NHL scouts in the first place (it's a lot harder to get noticed if you're a European player not playing in North America) 2) make the decision to leave your family at a relatively young age and go somewhere else where everything is really different, including the actual game, the language, the culture 3) and let's not forget that you have to put up really good numbers to actually be offered a big contract. No one's going to offer you a 50 million dollar contract if you can't do anything.

Like I said, you'd either have to be that obsessed about money or maybe, just maybe, the players are in it because they genuinely love the game. Why am I getting the feeling that most guys actually care about the sport? Yes, we do hear about the odd guy who scuttles off back to Russia when he gets offered a bigger contract and ends up in a mess because he's now technically signed by two teams. I've got my own thoughts about the KHL and the NHL and their need for a proper transfer agreement but that's a different issue. Just because one or two guys do it - and I don't think that we generally get the full picture about what they left and how they ended up in their situations- doesn't mean that every European player is like that. Sean Avery, I just unfortunately learned, is Canadian and yet we don't get people saying "well, all Canadian players must be super pains and shoot off the mouth and make idiots of themselves at every opportunity because Avery is Canadian and therefore all Canadians must be like him".

When I watch the Habs, I see a bunch of guys who care. So they put up a crap performance now and then (fine, so it's more "now" than "then" these days), but you can care a hell of a lot about the game and still put up a crap game. I think Plekanec has shown that he cares a lot and he works hard out there every night night. Sure, his work almost never pays off for him, but I'd much prefer that he actually try hard every night than just sit on his hands all night. You can't deny either that Lang has been a great part of the team. Not just in the fact that he could score goals and that he worked really hard there, but I'm getting the feeling too that he probably contributed at least a little bit in the dressing room if he was even half as perky in there as he seemed to be on the ice. I’m not sure it’s a total coincidence that the Habs have gone on this whole doom and gloom spree since Lang’s been out.

I think Kovalev cares too, even if it looks like he doesn't these days. It's not right or fair of me or anyone else really, to sit here and accuse him of not caring when I don't know what's going on in his mind. I know that there such a thing as trying too hard and that you often end up doing things that are more complicated or fancier than you would normally do and then it backfires on you. In Kovalev's case, I'm not necessarily surprised that he hasn't performed the way that he has last year. I think it's natural that after coming off a really good performance, you can often go through a slump. Do I wish that it could be different? Yes. Do I wish that he could find a way to come out of this and lead this team to the playoffs? Yes. But guess what? Kovalev is a human being. Shocking, I know. But it's true. He's human. He's prone to highs and lows like the rest of us. Thankfully, the rest of us don't have to go through a slump in front of a very scrutinizing, opinionated and unforgiving city. But Kovy doesn't have that luxury. He has to go through whatever he's going through in front of thousands of people.

No matter what type of slump Kovalev is in, I really don't think that it's true that he doesn't want to win the Stanley Cup and that's why he's playing like crap. Just because it's never been drilled into your head that the Stanley Cup is a must have if you want to be a hockey player when you were a kid, doesn't mean that you won't want to win it badly once you become a pro. If I can become obsessed with this team and wanting them to win the Stanley Cup badly almost overnight after spending my entire life not giving a hoot about hockey, then I think a hockey player - the guy who is the one doing the actual work on and off the ice - can grow to want to win the Stanley Cup. Just a little bit. I don't think there's really any player who joins the NHL with the intention of not giving it everything that they've got. That's ridiculous. No player is even going to make it into the NHL if they can't show some determination and a desire to play at their best. Somewhere along the way someone must have seen some talent in people like Avery and Darcy Tucker. No one brings a kid into the league simply because he's a super pain.

If a player has lost all his passion for the game than it has nothing to do with whether or not he grew up being indoctrinated that winning the Stanley Cup should be his only goal to pursue in life or not. There's a whole host of factors that go into why someone loses the will to want to try to play to the best of his abilities. And I'm not about to go and speculate on what those may be. There is a difference between caring a lot and producing good results and not caring one bit and not producing good results. We automatically assume bad or sloppy playing is coupled with the players not caring. It's not. Unless you can get into the mind of the players, you can't say for certain what's going on in their brains when they play.

Going back to that infuriating article, there was one bit where the author said that Carbonneau doesn't need to tell Kostopoulos or Begin to give 100% before a game. Carbo could attempt to pass on a message to a Russian like Sergei Kostitsyn, but the same message that whips up a Quebecois could have an reverse effect on a Russian (never mind the fact that Sergei is from Belarus and not Russia). Apparently this is "natural" because Carbo can't understand the mentality of a young European player whereas he'd be able to react better to a Quebecois because he's from here as well.

Now this is absolute rubbish.

If Carbo can't whip up all but the seven Quebecers on his team then he needs to be fired immediately. Nationality or coming from a certain background should have no bearing on whether a coach can inspire his players to perform the best to their abilities. If he can't "get" a player just because he grew up in a different environment than he did, then the only player that Carbo would be able to react properly to would be Brisebois because Breezer is only guy on that team who is remotely close to Carbo's age (there's about a ten year gap if you want to know) and they both grew up in the same province. No offense to Breezer or anything, but you do need more than one guy in his late thirties to play a hockey game. While I will concede that linguistic barriers are a realistic problem, I'd be pretty willing to bet a fair bit that Bruce Boudreau and Mike Babcock can't speak Russian and Swedish respectively, and yet somehow they get all those foreigners to play the way they want them to on most nights. Carbo should be able to exact what he wants out of his players regardless of what language they speak. I agree that the same thing you say to a Quebecois might not work on a Belorusian. But that's no excuse for why you can't get said Belorusian to be motivated to play. If Carbonneau has to send up smoke signals to communicate with his players and get them to work their butts off in a manner that produces results, then so be it. Whatever works.

I could write up an entire book on why I believe people throw out these blanket statements filled with generalizations that make no sense when you really think about, but I won’t. I’ll just say this: Stop bashing the Europeans on the team simply because they happen to be born in a different continent. Nationality has nothing to do with what’s going on right now. Blaming these guys like this is about the lowest form you can sink to. Even lower than calling out the goalie for an entire embarrassing loss. People here in Quebec (and the rest of Canada) are very knowledgeable when it comes to hockey and in particular when it comes down to the Les Glorieux. It's something that we take pride in. But saying things like this is not smart and no one should be proud of saying these things. Quite honestly, these sentiments are borderlining on bigotry. This is a fantastic game. One of my favorite aspects of it being able to share it with other people. There's no need to be selfish and hog it all to ourselves. If other people from around the world want to share in it, and be a part if it, then I believe that's fantastic and we should be more open. Thankfully just because a few people say stupid things doesn't mean that we all share those views.

Go Habs Go!

I hope Price saw this....

And by "this" I mean this here. And I really hope that this entire city is reading this too.

I feel bad for Price. He's obviously not having a very good time of it right now but I'm sure that he can come out of this. We haven't given up on you yet Pricey. *tears self away from the replays of some of Halak's brilliant saves last night* Honestly, we still love you Price!



^ Halak meets South Park. I was going to do my own but photoshop wasn't being all that nice to me so I just edited a character that you can randomly make over here. How can you hate Halak now? Don;t you just want to hug him to death right now?

Watch as I say this and he goes off and lets in 10 straight goals tomorrow....

......And congrats to Mike Green on the new record for most consecutive games in which a defenseman has scored a goal! You have nothing to do with my current woes (for now) but that's totally awesome that you got that record.