Winter of (dis)Content

I'm moving!

2010-02-26T11:57:00.000-05:00

I'm moving over to Wordpress finally. I've been threatening to do this forever and ever and ever and finally I've done it!

I'm still in the process of turning my new place into the awesome place that this is but yeah... please head over HERE. I guess if you want to enjoy the SILENCE that is me not squealing over epic Olympic hockey stuffs then you can stay put.... but yeah. Squealing to commence shortly over at my new place =)

GOLD!

2010-02-25T21:36:00.001-05:00

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

WAY TO GO LADIES. YOU ROCK MY SOCKS (which I'm not actually exactly wearing) OFF. WOW.

AND CAN I SAY OMG MARIE-PHILIP POULIN IS ACTUALLY YOUNGER THAN ME? o____O

AND SZABADOS IS LIKE FREAKING AWESOME.

And I want to hire Hayley Wickenheiser to be the Habs inspirational coach or somethin.... I WANT HAYLEY =(

Thank you USA!. You played a great game, you have a great team and a great bunch of women.

And whoohoo Finland! Great win over Sweden (you totally broke their poor hearts too D: ). I can't wait until Finland and Sweden get better in the near future. Finland wants to win gold in Russia!

Sappy note of the hour: the very first hockey game I watched was the women's final in 2002 in Salt Lake City =)

HALAK IT!

2010-02-25T10:56:00.000-05:00

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SLOVAKIA BEAT SWEDEN! THAT MEANS JARO (and I guess Chara....and Gaborik....and Hossa....) WINS! EEEEEEE! JARO.

WOW.

I hate you Canada though.... You smack down my second favorite player in a seriously embarrassing fashion and now you're going to try to smack my favorite goalie - my favorite player too - around?!?! BAH.

I don't approve. I don't approve at all. Not. One. Bit.

This was supposed to be a Hammies vs Marlies post!

2010-02-24T21:59:00.004-05:00

My Hammies/Marlies post turned into a total cluster..........uh..... something.......... yeah..... uh it just turned into a real mess. "Enjoy" trying to read it.

Pre-game stuffs for the Hammies

Don't know how long I'll be able to focus on this game what with that other annoying game going on TV (someone insisted on putting it on so yeah....)
Is this going to be the last game on this Oldies station? Because the music on this station really, really, really stinks. And it's not old. I listen to OLD music. Like 16th century music. That's old. This stuff on this station? It's just yucky.
Replays of Hammies goals from Sunday for the win! Wow. We were pretty loud on Sunday after all.
Butbutbutbutbut Teddy you can't break Jaro's shutout record with the Hammies...... I mean you can, and you probably will (and you should!) butbutbutbut it's JARO's record =(
Awwww Guy, you're so mean. You wouldn't let the Hammies go shopping when they arrived in Montreal? Actually, I found that whole phrase hilarious because now I have a mental image of Hammies walking around with fifty huge shopping bags each (while trying not to get run over by cars). Hehe. Oh for crying out loud, he didn't even go see his family before the game? Sheeesh..... o_O
hey... are we missing Al here?

Okay.... First period aka when it all goes down hill.....

GO CANADA GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OVIE CAN WIN THE STUPID STANLEY CUP INSTEAD.
Wait... Hammies. Yes. Hammies. GO SQUASH THOSE MARLIES.
I"m sorry..I can't focus on this game. I want to. But stupid Getzlaf just scored on Nabby. The DUCKS OWN YOUR SOUL NABBY.
FOCUS HAMMIES. FOCUS. FOCUS. DON'T GO OFF TALKING TO YOUR RELATIVES AND SHOPPING AND SCREAMING AT STUPID NABBY. Oh wait. I'm the one yelling at Nabby.
Poop, Reimer can start being awful any time soon.... FAIL REIMER FAIL.
I can't focus on anything. I don't know what's going on in any game right now....
COME ON HAMMEIS.
OMG BOYLE. You won't be talking to Nabby when you get back to San Jose!!!!
OMG NASH YOU OWE CAPTAIN PEACHY FOR THAT NICE PASS. 3-0 CANADA.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhdkjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjahdakjdh random Russian guy scores. 3-1.
WAKE UP CANADA. WAKE UP HAMMIES. AND WAKE UP VOLTIGEURS BECAUSE YOU ARE TIED WITH THE ROCKET?!!!!!!!
I can't handle this. Too. Much. Excitement. WAY. TOO. MUCH.
Morrow! I didn't even know you existed! 4-1!

Can. Not. Handle. All. This. Hockey. RAAAAAAAAAAAAR. Let's please all settle down for the second period, okay?! And watch out for OVIE.

SECOND PERIOD

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Patches scoooooooooooooooores! 1-0!
TWERPY PERRY. THE DUCKS OWN YOUR SOUL NABBY. And Markov.. you messed up on that. Boo.
Hammies are on the PP now. I said. Hammies are on the PP now.
OKAY. This Canada/Russia game is a freaking All Star Game. There is zero defense and a thousand goals. And Puffy and Ovie have been useless. This is boring.
Boooo! Marlies tie it up. Hammies need to have Twerpy on their team. He just scored again. It;s like... 7-2 for Canada right now.
Sanford is NOT behaving like Nabby tonight. YAY!
RRRRRRRRRRRRYAN WHITE! Or someone! 2-1!!! YEAH. GO HAMMIES GO!
Nooo White is going to the box. Poop.
Quote of the night from Twitter: If you had heard a Sharks player would absolutely choke tonight, who would have guessed it'd be Nabokov?

Second period intermission thing

and breath out....
Oh hi Dany Masse!
I think Dany is getting used to talking to Flandersdude instead of playing. I like him though. He's turning into the new Steve Gainey!
Oh yeah, he was a Voltigeur last year (another one who got injured in that final against Shawinigan. Sheesh, did Shawinigan try to literally kill the Voltigeurs to beat them?). Hey, feel like yelling at your ex-team to get them to beat the Rocket already?

Third period...

oh yeah.. stuff has been happening.... um Hammies going to the PP as are Canada because Russia can't count.
Hey, David... that should have been a goal, yes? Poop on you Reimer!
Haaaammmmiiiiiiiies! Come on! We need another goal!
WHAH. WHAH. Benoit just bailed out Sanford BIG TIME.
WHAAAAAHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...................... Hamilton - the player - gets a penalty shot?!! SANFORD YOU BETTER STOP THIS.
Whooooooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! He stops Hamilton!!!!
Canada wins! And I hate Boyle and Pronger (you jerk, back off Markov!). I want my world to go back to normal so I can cheer on Ovie and the Caps! Ovie and the Caps will win a Stanley Cup sooner rather than later.
MAXWEL SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORES! 3-1!!!!!!!!!!! YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. GAME OVER.
And nobody needs to get mad! Not that anybody was going to get mad. It's not Saturday. Guy only gets super mad on Saturdays.
Voltigeurs WIN too! 3-1!!!

Final notes:

Russia stunk. That's a fact. I was hoping for a lot more from Russia. Ovie needs to be super mad and come back to the NHL and beat everyone.
Hammies beating the Marlies is always lovely. Marlies not playing all truculent is great too. I like that.
Voltigeurs are on an 8 game winning streak.
I survived tonight!

There. Is. No. Canada/Russia. Quarterfinal.

2010-02-24T10:26:00.000-05:00

If you keep saying that over and over and over again then it won't happen.

There is no Canada/Russia quarterfinal. There is no Canada/Russia quarterfinal..... there is no...

BAH. Stupid Olympics. Stupid Hiller for sending the Canada/Switzerland game to a shootout. Stupid Brodeur and Co for eating all the pies and cupcakes in Vancouver before the Canada/USA game. ~~Stupid Jaro for beating the Russians in a shootout~~.

RAR. There is no Canada/Russia quarterfinal...There will be no picking between Puffy and Ovie. There will be no worries about having to hope that Chris "I'm going to elbow you to death" Pronger will have a better game than Andrei "he's the Habs freaking MVP" Markov. We are not going to cheer for Dany Heatley or Jumbo Joe over Alexander Semin.

RAR. At least I still hate Eggplant. And Nabby's mean to Pickles so maybe Twerpy Perry should just go ahead kick him again.

UGH. Crysob the Puffy Blue Penguin vs Ovie. This wasn't supposed to happen in the quarterfreakingfinals! UGH.

THERE IS NO FREAKING CANADA/RUSSIA QUARTERFINAL. I HATE YOU OLYMPICS.

.....

Hammies vs Marlies at 7:30. Should be another bloodbath. Can we borrow Pricey so he can whack JoeyMac upside the head?

Goalie abuse....!

2010-02-23T23:13:00.000-05:00

So the Juniors beat the MAINiacs 9-7 tonight..... Not a pretty night for the goalies - to say the least... It was pure goalie abuse. Berube has a history of stinking against Lewiston and he continued to prove that he doesn't like Lewiston by being stinky to the point where he was pulled before we even reached the midway point of the first period. So if Berube gets pulled... who do they put in? Poor Baby Marcoux! The poor BabyBenchWarmer has hardly played all season. He just gets to well, warm the bench..... I guess 4 goals on 26 shots is better than 3 goals on 4 shots (which is what Berube gave up). At least Berube got pulled. Lemay was stuck in nets for 8 goals (one was an empty netter). That was just.... not nice.... Poor guy.

ANYWAY........

I really couldn't follow the stupid game very easily. I was stuck with the MAINEiacs guys and they kept messing up EVERYONE's names...I was almost thankful that Berube got pulled because they kept calling him "BearoooBEE". Seriously. Bearoobee. I had no idea who my own players were anymore. That plus the fact that Lewiston does not seem to have a goal horn and the fact that the MAINEiacs guys reacted the same way to all 16 goals made it super hard to tell who scored..... Bearoobee...... seriously......

But in summary it was like:

First period: Lewiston scores just 44 seconds in..... Provost scores! Tied game! Lewiston scores. Lewiston scores again and Bearoobee is pulled for the BabyBenchWarmer....... Thorne scores! The play by play guys forgot to mention this.... that or I totally missed it because every goal sounds the same with these guys.

Second period: Lewiston scores...... Brenton scores!. Lewiston scores. Poopy. David Rose scores!!! Chouinard scores!!!!

Third period: Chouinard scores! We're leading! Lewiston scores....Tied.... Chouinard scores! Hat trick! We're leading again! Chouinard scores again. And again?!!!!!!!! Lewiston scores. Somehow I missed this goal entirely.

Did I get all the goals in there? There were like, only 16 of them in all.... Chouinard had FIVE goals in case you lost count....

....

Yeah, wasn't really going to write this up but it was just too hilarious to write all the goals..... =p

Mission Accomplished

2010-02-23T12:10:00.001-05:00

Okay so I kinda overheard my dad talking about hockey on the phone to someone. This in and of itself is a big deal because my dad is really not a hockey guy. He's only been watching it since I've been dragging him off to games. Anyway, I couldn't help but overhear him talking about the Q and how much he liked it and he even got all his facts about it right.

I'm so happy!

My total non-hockey father has finally voluntarily started talking about hockey to other (non-hockey) people.

All my lecturing has finally paid off! YAY!

Now if he can stop bringing up the WHA every time I mention the WHL, we'd be all set :D

Ovie doesn't need to score goals....

2010-02-22T00:45:00.000-05:00

....he just needs to SMASH Jagr....

...and let a2 and Eggplant do the rest of the work. Easy.

Picspam of EPIC win

2010-02-21T22:32:00.003-05:00

My week of hockey is officially over and instead of writing something about suffering through this ridiculous Canada/USA game that I really do not like right now, it's time for a picspam of my week of epic win! (After the jumpbreak thingy because the pics are taking up too much space otherwise).

First off was the 67s/Frontenacs on Monday. 67s failed epically after having a big lead after a period and a half. Poop.

Backup goalie Petr Mrazak.

67s celebrating one of their goals (before they totally imploded)

After that came the Juniors. I was super tired after coming back from Kingston but I loaded up on the caffeine and battled the traffic and headed off to see my Juniors win 6-2!

It's choke Chouinard day apparently

We win! We win! We win!

Oh and a random pic of Eli because I can.

After two days off, it was time to head off to Drummondville on Saturday. After a looking faily, they battled back and beat the Tigres 5-3!

Jake looked better in a Juniors jersey, but this is pretty cool too, I guess :D

I think this is hilarious. You think Sean is tall enough compared to Randazzo? =p

And finally.... HAMMIES!!!!!!! HAMMIES!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAMMIES!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAMMIES!!!!!!!!!!! Could the Hammies finally end their losing streak at the Bell Centre? The answer to that is HELL YES. Not only did they win today but they blew out the Phantoms. WHOOOOO!

DAVID!

Teddy en route to another shutout (seriously? Another one?)

PK! PK! PK!

Stevenson!

HUGEPILE OF EPIC WIN.

Attempted Hockey Week in EPland Part 4: HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-02-21T18:08:00.003-05:00

Okay so maybe all that excitement I was feeling after my Voltigeurs downed the Tigres was really because I knew that today was HAMMIES DAY!! HAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEES! EEEEEEEEEEEE!

Okay.... Um yeah.... Hammies got to play the Yucky Phantoms. I actually passed through Glenn Falls when I went to DC. Forgot to waive to the Phantoms at the time because I didn't even know that they played in Glenn Falls. Anyway....

HAMMIES. I went totally squealy. I admit it. I think I love my Hammies more than I did back in November even. THEY WERE RIGHT THERE. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

*calms down*

Okay. The game. It got off to a tentative start. The poor Hammies seem to get spoked when they have more than 2,000 people cheering for them. Poor things. The poor Hammies weren't shooting the puck and they just seemed to get stuck in their own zone throughout most of the first period (St. Denis tried to hide out in the penalty box early on in the first period). The SOG seemed to be perpetually stuck at 2 for the poor Hammies. I tried to see if I could hear Guy yelling at them but it was too noisy to hear. He was pretty animated though ;D If we were fearing a repeat of November's game against the Bingy Sens, we really feared for not. PYATT scored with a couple of mins left in the period. WHOOOO! (Pyatt doesn't want to get yelled at during the first break).

Second period was a kinda ugly. Trotter did score within seconds of the second period opening up which was SUPER great. But then it was a party to the penalty box. Maxwell, PK and Stewie all headed off to the box within a four minute span. It was very frustrating after seeing my Voltigeurs spend a lot of the night in the penalty box last night to see the Hammies hiding away in the penalty box too. Poop. Thankfully Teddy was super focused and the PK (THE PK not PK) was either on fire or the Phantoms' PP stunk big time because there were no goals from the Baby Yucky Flyers. The Phantoms made it nice though at the end of the second period though when they coughed up the puck to Trotter who really had no choice but to score (well, okay, so really, Mr. Flyer Goalie Guy should probably have stopped that one, but whatever. We take all the goals that we can get). There were a few posts in there. Really, the Bell Centre posts are fat. We like fat posts when it's the opposing team hitting them, but not so much when it's the Hammies ringing them off the iron.

Moving right along.... Apparently Gluuu went to the penalty box so Pyatt and Stevenson could look SUPER awesome on a short handed breakaway. Yup. Yup. Yup. I like short handed goals. well, when MY teams are scoring them. Not when the stupid Tigres are scoring them (AHEM). But yeah. It was a very pretty goal. Bwahaha... And really... when was the last time Stevenson scored? Oh... in their last game? Okay, but before that? And with five mins left, the Hammies got a PP and..... THEY SCOOOOOOOOOORE! Pyatt again! WHOOHOOOO! That's 5-0 in case you're wondering.

Ole ole ole! Ole! Ole! Hammies say "suck it losing streak at the Bell Centre!!! We win!!!!!"

Hugpile of EPIC win!

EP is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy that her Hockey Week got to end in total WIN. Actually, it was all WIN (except for the stupid 67s but meh on them). Picspam of epic win coming up soon!

RANDOM NOTES BECAUSE YOU KNOW YOU LOVE THEM:

Okay so I actually had to walk around the stupid huge scoreboard thingy to see where the media guys were sitting and after squinting a whole lot, I did see where Flandersdude was :D
I never realized how funny it was to watch the opposing team's coaches walking across the ice trying not to slip and die. Don't worry... nobody died....
I could watch Guy yell at the Hammies all day :D He's almost as entertaining to watch as the Hammies.
Pics are here.

Attempted Hockey Week in EPland Part 3: Yeah, I just went to Drummondville to cheer on the Voltigeurs

2010-02-21T01:19:00.004-05:00

Eeeeeeeeeeeeee! Eeeeeeeeeeeee! Eeeeeeee! VOLTIGEURS.

Can not say that I've been this hyped after a game since.... well, a while.

ANYWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back in April, EP was headed off to Quebec City for something totally unrelated to hockey. On the way there, she passed by Drummondville. She could not help but notice the huge sign that had been placed near the highway that said "Go Voltigeurs Go". Upon reading it, she then launched into a rant about the horrendous team that was the Drummondville Voltigeurs. The Voltigeurs were like the evil empire to EP. They were just so damn good it was so maddening. When the Evil Empire crushed Mooski and the Juniors and some other hapless teams in the playoffs, EP hated them even more. Guy Boucher was officially the evil Sith lord and the rest of the Voltigeurs were like those weird white clone doodad things.

Anyway, moving on from the whole weird Star Wars analogy.... As we all know, Guy got hired by the Hammies, the Habs drafted Dumont and Philippe was so great at the training camp that he got a signing contract from the Habs..... And somehow the Voltigeurs became EP's second team in the Q.

The whole point of this stupid story/analogy? If you had asked me back in April if I was going to trek out to the middle of nowhere in Quebec to see - and cheer for - the Drummondville Voltigeurs, I would have called you a bigger nutcase than me.

But of course I seem to continually prove to be a huge nutcase myself and tonight I went to Drummondville to cheer on MY Voltigeurs. Yup. Yup. Yup. Dont' ask how I ended up loving this team. I have no clue. It pretty much happened over night. It's weird. It's like somehow a combination of me really liking Guy as the coach of the Hammies plus the Voltigeurs having two Baby Habs made me like them. Weird. I know. Oh and DiDomenico is a baby Leaf.... =/

It's a pretty awesome building. It's super old - like Verdun Auditorium old - and the seats are super uncomfortable, but the atmosphere is pretty awesome. Oh and my view of the whole rink was pretty awesome too...

Yup that's ice level. Man, the whole boards really shake when someone gets flattened along the boards

Even though I love the look of the K-Rock Center, I would take the atmosphere of the Centre Marcel Dionne over the K-Rock Center. Atmosphere wins out over arena pretty-ness. And I'm used to enthusiastic, demanding and loud fans who swear in French. Not these super friendly and super polite Ontario people (no offense Ontario people. I love you all too. But you scare me with your friendly-ness).

So it was Victoriaville vs Drummondville tonight. If you recall, the Chris DiDomenico pretty much singlehandedly demolished the Tigres on Wednesday. In Victoriaville. Obviously the Tigres weren't happy with just demolishing the Juniors and they were looking to demolish the Voltigeurs too. Couple that with a big blowout win last night for the Voltigeurs and I wasn't expecting great things from the Voltigeurs in the first period. Good thing my expectations were nill because they came out flat as a pancake. All you need to know is that the SOG were 20-13 for Victoriaville but felt more like 100-2. Jake was fighting the puck the entire period, giving up ugly and untimely rebounds. Really, the first period was summed up with a shorty by Victoriaville. Bleh.

I think the coaches must have yelled at them or something because in-between hiding away in the penalty box for a lot of the second period, the Voltigeurs did manage to score 4 goals. Yes. 4. I was more surprised taht they actually came out with more energy than I was about the fact that they actually scored goals. This team scores goals. DiDomenico continues to prove to me that he's not a defenseman like I kept thinking he was and he scored the first goal just under 2 mins into the game. Lots of other tense moments on the PK followed and then Comtois scored (and yes, Chris had the first assist on it). And then! Desnoyers tried to make up for all of his dumb penalties and scored not once but twice! Because Jake was at my end of the rink when all of this happened, I got to see the Voltigeurs coming over to celebrate their goals with him (and he was kind enough to stand on my side of the rink too. Bwahaha). Jake was really solid in the second period, coming up with some great saves (the posts were also his friend tonight, but in general he had a great second period). 4-2 is a lovely score by the way.

Third period turned a potential repeat of the first period. The Tigres looked like they were on the PP for a huge portions of it even though they weren't. Former Rocket, Doyle scored for the Tigres making the score 4-3 now. 4-3 is not a pretty score. At this point, I was just staring at the clock, hoping it would hurry up and run out of time before the Voltigeurs imploded and allowed another goal. Thankfully though, Comtois scored and it was 5-3 and we could all breath a little easier. Kinda. The Tigres did get around to pulling Poulin and there was more nail biting. But the Voltigeurs hung on - err more like Jake hung on really - and so.... Nyah! Tigres loose. Voltigeurs win! We can all go home happy now. Well, not the Tigres fans who were sitting on the other side of the rink. They get to go home really unhappy.

We win! We win! HUGPILE OF WIN!

OLE OLE OLE! (Yes, they sang that).

A few random notes:

Funniest thing ever: the crowd was getting seriously annoyed with the refs for calling all kinds of penalties on the Voltigeurs (which they deserved most of, but the Tigres got away with a lot of crap). At one point a guy comes down to ice level and sticks a ten dollar bill in-between the glass. Presumably this was a sarcastic attempt to get the refs to call a penalty on Victoriaville. At least...we hope it was sarcastic and not a real attempt to bribe the refs.
Okay so they have huge pictures up from when they won the President's Trophy. For some reason I burst out laughing at the picture of Guy. There's something oddly hilarious about him looking so damn happy. Okay, so maybe at that point sleep deprivation had set in for me (I"m literally closing my eyes while typing this at this point....) so that's why I just started laughing for no reason, but yeah.... Loved the pic of all the guys (plus Chris in a wheelchair) with the cup thing. Too bad I hated their guts when they won it :D
Um was not loving the banner with Itty Bitty's name on it hanging from the super old rafters. Nor the big picture of The French Marshmallow hanging on some random wall. YUCKY. YUCKY. YUCKY.
I'm probably forgetting to mention something important... like how the baby Habs did or something (they were great by the way. Dumont was everywhere and hitting everyone and talking crap to everyone and Philippe was actually doing a LOT. Poor guy doesn't get any pretty goals to go with all his hard work though).
If Canada doesn't make it to the gold medal game on the 28th or if the Voltigeurs get around to changing the time of their game, I'll be back in Drummondville for a Voltigeurs/Juniors game! I bought the tickets forgetting that the stupid gold medal game is the same day.... =/
Pics will be up tomorrow because I'm falling asleep here.............

Hammies vs Griffins: A win! A win! YAY!

2010-02-19T21:37:00.001-05:00

Pre-game stuffs

To sum it up: 1) That game on Tuesday stunk. Let's forget about it and move on. 2) PK probably hasn't been too corrupted by Martin's "System" 3) we're not going to underestimate the Griffins and we're hoping we've recovered from being ZombieHammies. 4) we're not thinking about the game in Habsland on Sunday (well, I am thinking about that game!).

Period Numero Uno

..... hello why isn't this game starting? Is it starting? I hear Flandersdude talking, but I'm eating dinner and the computer is on the other side of the room and I can't hear.... Hello? Anyone? What's going on here? Anybody home? Oh, I hear national anthems! Okay. Game on! I still can't hear what's going -
WHOOOOOO I HEARD THAT! David!!! 1-0!! Okay, so maybe - just maybe - David is not a ZombieHammie anymore!
Okay guys... it's too early for Sanford to have to imitate Hiller in the Canada/Switzerland game...
Lesson of the night: headphones are necessary to listen to a Hammies game if you're sitting in the living room with your entire family babbling on about other random stuff (for example we are now having a heated discussion on whether these things are called headphones or earphones).
DAVID IS DEFINITELY NOT A ZOMBIEHAMMIE ANYMORE. WHOOOHOOO! 2-0! Yay David!
Nooooo stupid Griffins are playing one of my favorite songs (The Pretender by the Foo Fighters). Boohoo.. Now they're following it up by some crap version of "Ole"..... Ick.
Yay! Hammies now have as many SOG in this period as they did in That Fail Game.
Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 2-1. Why do we have some random guy yelling "Whoo! Whoo!"? And why is this PA guy in Grand Rapids so annoying? =/
Um no, you can't score if you shoot the puck off of Trotter's head.......I mean, you could in theory, I guess... but not in this case :D

Second period

EEEEEEEEEEEEE! DAAAAAAAAAAAAVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID! HAT TRICK! 3-1!!! Whoohooo!!!!
Is it just me or is Flandersdude losing his voice a bit here.....?
Um yeah, you can't just whack Gluuu like that.... Off to the box with you, Mr. Random Grand Rapids Guy. PP time. Let's see if this one is any more successful than the last one (apparently they're 0 for their last 9 PPs).
Flandersdude just said he's kinda sick - hence the lack of a voice.... Told you it wasn't just my imagination here.
Yeah.... that was a futile PP..... and now it's off to the PK......
Futile PP for the Griffs too. Yay!
...........hey, what is this "too many Hammies on the ice" penalty? Don't tell me the ZombieHammies are coming back.....
more futile Griffs PPs. I accept this.
I wonder if those Ricola throat lozenge things would help Flandersdude? Quick. Someone go get him some. He's going to die before the end of the third period D:

Third period

YAAAAAAAY! STEVENSON!!!!!!!! 4-1! And Flandersdude's voice is completely gone now....
Umm............ Hammies? What the hell was that? They just totally scored on themselves there. Specifically: Henry just scored on Sanford. Ick. 4-2
............4-3. Do not tell me that we're not about see a come back from the Griffins...........do not.......
Can we either 1) score another goal or 2) score another goal? Because I don't trust you guys to hang on for 6 more mins.
What is this? "Let's see how many times we can hit PK from behind" night? Jeez....
Empty net now. COME ON HAMMIES.
Phhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww......... Hammies WIN 4-3!!!! *falls over*
Flandersdude needs to not talk for the next day so he can have a voice for Sunday (not that I'll hear him, but yeah.... someone will hear him!).
See ya'll at the Bell Centre!!!! Eeeeee!!!! (really, really excited to see my Hammies again. Like, I just realized that Sunday is the day after tomorrow. HAMMIES. HAMMIES. HAMMIES.).

Waiting on the scores from my other games but so far it's....

Dumont has a hat trick and the Voltigeurs are up 5-1 over Roy's Icky Remparts. Mwahahahahahaha!
Tigres are predictably beating up the Juniors.. it's 3-0. Oh no, wait... Asselin scored. It's 3-1. Yay!
And Sudbury is up 2-0 over the IceDogs with 20 mins left... Poop.
And Turtle-Pleky and Co are beating up Latvia 4-2.

Jaro the chocolate milk drinking goalie

2010-02-18T20:12:00.000-05:00

Umm yeah..... Couldn't help it..... Yes, those are milk cartons sitting around.....

Attempted Hockey Week in EPland Part 2: Juniors wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin

2010-02-18T00:57:00.006-05:00

You didn't think a 2 hour train ride + getting home 12 last night + getting up and running around all day would keep me from going to see my Juniors, did you?

Something has happened to my team. They've gone from failing every single time I go to see them, to actually winning games when I go see them. It's a strange feeling.

The game kicked off with a.... fight..... yeah. A fight. Chouinard got into a fight right off the opening faceoff with Roussel. It turned out to be the only fight of the game but there was soooo much yapping during the game. Anywhoo, Poudrier kicked off the game for real when he scored just two mins in. Cue cheering! The people behind me with lots of noise maker things were so happy! At least someone was. I was happy too but my ears were not pleased in the least. OUCH. Parkes made it 2-0 near the end of the period. Any thoughts of a shutout went out the door 20 seconds later when the Juniors forgot that you need to clear the puck passed the blue line for it to be considered offside for the other team... a couple of nice passes later and it was 2-1. Oops.

Second period kicked off where the first one stopped ie. Cucumbers controlled the play. It's really annoying when the play is all down on the opposite side of the rink from you because you can't see very well and it's even more annoying when the Juniors photo guy comes over to my end of the rink and stands there and obstructs my ability to take pics. Oh well.... Nobody scored for what felt like forever (16:39 to be exact) until Parkes scored again! YAY!!! 3-1 is a nice score! And you know what's better than that score? 4-1! With the clock ticking down until everyone would jump up and head for the bathrooms or the snack places, Brenton got a breakaway of sorts and put the Juniors up 4-1! Berube got the first assist too! Hehe.

Berube likes getting assists on goals. Yes, he does.

Third period saw zero in the way of scoring until the end. With 4 mins to go, I figured I was safe from a third period melt down by the Juniors. Of course that was when the Cucumbers scored. Four mins left and they were now down only by two goals.

Someone must have told the Juniors that blowing this game would make some people very, very angry. They responded immediately with a goal of their own from Poudrier (yes, him again). Annnnnnnnd before the PA guy could finish announcing the goal, Brenton scored! Yes him again!

WHOOOOOO! 6-2!

And that was that. Juniors wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!

Couple of random things:

The BabyBenchWarmer has a new mask. Like, it's all painted and everything too!
The Cucumbers goalie is French. Like, France French.
Maybe it's just because we have guys like Eli and Brenton, but the Juniors looked like shrimps next to the Cucumbers. That's okay. They're super fast shrimps.
The itty bitty smaller-than-Marcoux goalie during the first intermission was hilarious. When his team scored he was sooo happy. When they were finished their thing, he left the ice waving his hands up and down because his team "won".
Some other tiny kids did this shootout thingy. It was funny because a couple of them were showboating after their scored and they both ended up falling flat on their faces :D

Oh and.... Welcome back Chris DiDomenico! He's been out for the Voltigeurs all season because he broke his leg in the playoffs last year... Well, he's back now and he just scored a goal and had three assists as the Voltigeurs sunk the Tigres (IN Victoriaville) 4-2.

I'd write more, but I'm super tired and I see JARO and Turtle-Pleky on my TV (yes, it's past 12). GO JARO. GO TURTLE-PLEKY. No to Chara. And no to Jagr!

Hammies vs Stars: My Hammies have turned into ZombieHabs

2010-02-17T01:14:00.000-05:00

Okay so I missed most of it because I was on my way back from Kingston... but yeah.... I just walked in and checked the score and.......

WOW. Hammies got blown out 5-0. I don't really know what to say here other than.... that's awful.

The explanation is simple though.

The Hammies turned into zombies.

No really.

Look, Jacques Martin is secretly a zombie come to turn all of Habsland into ZombieHabsLand. Seriously. It's a plot by the Sens to destroy Habsland because they're just jealous that nobody wants to sing a "stupid soccer song" when their team wins (the Sens tested their zombie on the Panthers first before getting the Habs to hire Martin). Seriously. The Cave is actually a secrete lab in which the Sens create Super Zombies. They put their arena in the middle of nowhere so people wouldn't go wandering by it randomly and notice all kinds of weird smoke spewing out of it.

ANYWAY.

As we've seen all year, Martin has slowly turned out Habs team into ZombieHabs. The Hammies have been safe in Hammietown but the Sens needed to find a way to infiltrate Hammietown too. So they knocked out a pile of ZombieHabs (and you thought I was wrong to hate Volchenkov!) so the Hammies would be forced to send their poor brave men off to fill the depleted ranks of the Habs.

When PK, David and Pyatt went up they got turned into ZombieHabs too. And now since they came back... Sundayish, they've had several days to spread their ZombieHabs Germs around. Now everyone has come down with it!!!!

Fear not though! The Hammietown is well equipped to deal with such zombies. That's why Guy was really hired. He's here to combat the ZombieHabs! Apparently that's what people learn at McGill... they learn how to combat Zombies! Or something. I've heard a good smack upside the head can help reverse the effects and restore the zombies back to their original state (provided they're not too far along in the whole turn-into-a-zombie-process).

Oh and apparently there's a strain of Toskala-itis in there too which Teddy and Sanford have come down with. It's a terribly contagious decease which affects only goalies. It is treatable though and goalies have been known to recover from it. Some can recover quite quickly.

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

If you really want to know the semi-good news in all of this.....

Let's flashback to the Voltigeurs season last year because I feel like it, plus one can still equate them with Guy. You know the season.... Voltigeurs pounded the crap out of everyone in the regular season and then proceeded to pound them some more in the playoffs. Blah, blah, blah, etc, etc, etc. ANYWAY. The team did have a (small) stretch of crap games. After squeaking by Montreal 5-4, they then lost to them 4-0 a few days later (oh yes, the one and only time I can remember my Juniors beating the Voltigeurs. I think it was a fluke to be honest), they followed that loss up with a horrendous 10-2 loss to Gatineau (yes, 10-2) which then was followed by a 5-4 shootout loss to Shawinigan. Finally Mooski came around and stunk and the Voltigeurs sorta kinda got back to winning again.

The point is?

5-0 is a horrendous score to lose by. I don't approve of it at all and I hope the Hammies get their act together before their next game. BUT it's one game in the grand scheme of a whole season. So we'll let this one slide (providing of course the Hammies get back to winning immediately or at least stop the spread of the ZombieHabs). WAKE UP HAMMIES! *SMACKS*

Attempted Hockey Week in EPland Part 1: Kingston here I come!

2010-02-15T22:13:00.006-05:00

The aim is to hit 4 games in 7 days in 3 cities. Yes, that sounds like a lot of hockey. It is a lot of hockey. I fully expect this to be almost the end of my live hockey games for this hockey season so you're just going to have to bear with me for this week. The plan - which might change - is: Frontenacs/67s on Monday, Juniors/Cucumbers on Wednesday, Voltigeurs/Tigres on Saturday and HAMMIES (HAMMIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and Phantomthings on Sunday afternoon.

Okay, now you know what to prepare yourselves for........

Kingston Frontenacs vs Ottawa ~~Blehs~~ 67s

Boy, this was a funny game in so many ways. First of all, I went to the game by myself. I've never actually been to a hockey game by myself because... it's not exactly all that fun to go to a game by yourself. But I went. After navigating Kingston, I found the arena and I found my seat.... which happened to be behind the 67s bench.....

Before we go any further, let me explain something: The 67s and the Fronts are in the same division as my Petes. I do not like the 67s and the Fronts just beat my IceDogs in a shootout last week. I came into this game not knowing who to cheer for. While I don't like the 67s, they're much further ahead of my Petes so it would have been beneficial for them to beat the Fronts. That being said, I didn't really want to cheer against the home team..... It just feels weird plus I didn't know if this crowd got hostile towards visiting team's fans or not.... and I mean, while it might be beneficial for the 67s to win, I still don't like 'em.

Moving on... so when I found out that I was behind the 67s bench - having forgotten where my seat was when I bought the ticket - I was a little dismayed to see that I was going to be with 67s fans. And not just 67s fans either. SENS fans 67s fans (and no, these ones weren't even from Ottawa. They were somewhere outside of Kingston). The shame and horror of it all, I tell you......

67s fan: Are you cheering for the 67s or the Frontenacs?

Me: uh neither. I'm a Petes fan! (thinking afterwards: D'OH. Great way to get hated by EVERYONE in the building, idiot.......).
67s fan: Oh that's nice....

The Fronts came out for the warmup in their ~~jammies~~ practice jerseys. I thought this was strange but then I realized what was happening. They were trying to make everyone forget that they're real jerseys look like this:

YES BOOINS COLOURS. BOOOOOOO! Suddenly I realized that I was supposed to be a Habs fan and that it was necessary to hate everything that looked even remotely like a Booin. Okay, it didn't go down that way, but I did I remember that I was supposed to be a Petes fan so I decided to cheer for the 67s. Sort of like how you cheer for the Booins to beat the Leafs, you know?

The game itself was kind of myeh at first. The 67s dominated the first period which kept the crowd really quiet. I mean, I could hear the 67s coach yelling (okay, fine, so I was right behind him. Still. It was quiet). The end of the first saw the 67s up 2-1. The second period seemed to pick up right up from where the first stopped. ie. the 67s were dominating the play. The Fronts goalie, Beskorowany is around 6'5 which doesn't make him Misshy-sized, but he's still really tall... which makes it funny that the first 67s goal went over his head and into the back of the net. Oops. There was a reason why I was bring up his height but now I forgot what it was.... darn...

Moving right along in that case......... things were looking relatively good. The 67s would keep the Fronts down, the annoying people behind me who would not shut up (more on them later) were annoyed and kids beside me were enthusiastic but in a good toned down sort of way. All this meant of course that the 67s would implode, right? RIGHT.

The 67s completely imploded. The Fronts would score 3 unanswered goals on the Penguin (Peruguni) the Penguin having a so-so game against the Petes was okay. It was not okay to have a so-so game - and a crap second period - was not good against the Fronts. It was like...

After the Fronts second goal: hmmm okay, this isn't too bad. 67s are still up 3-2.
After the third one which was scored pretty soon after: ........... okay, tied game.... 67s can still win this....
After the fourth goal: I hate the 67s....... what a stupid second period this is..... stupid Ottawa........

Sigh. The one and only time I needed the 67s to win a game, they lose. Typical.... Stupid Ottawa. Boohoo..

ANYWAY. A few random notes because your life needs random notes:

The K-Rock Centre is a lovely rink. If I've remembered right, it's also a very new rink. Only a couple of years at this point. I heard that there was a lot of controversy about it when they built it. Apparently nobody could agree on where or how to build it. Anyway, the naysayers stink and the building is gorgeous. If they don't want it, I'll take it for my Juniors :D
Playing "chipmunk" music (ie making voices super squeaky to sound like those chipmunks) does not impress me. It's annoying after a while..... It's also just plain weird.
Sean Avery apparently played for Kingston. UGH.
The Fronts have one of the most annoying looking mascots.... it's like some colonial looking guy and some graphic of it appears sporadically on the screen and starts trying to get the crowd to yell.
the people behind me were really annoying. They kept talking and the woman in particular was annoying. "What are they doing?", "No, go that way. Why can't they go that way?", "we need a goal like, now!" (even though the Fronts are stuck in their own zone and there is no way in hell that they're going to score). "OMG SKATE". "OMG why can't they skate?!" "Why are they stopping? Is that penalty?" (no, it was offside.....). And I swear she said "jeepers" at one point too.
You know where the rest of the pics are *points right*

Question of the day: Which backup goalie has the better hat? :D

Spencer Emery or Petr Mrazek?

6 things

2010-02-14T11:13:00.003-05:00

1) Thank you Habs for giving me back my Hammies! Now pwease let's get back to crushing the opposition.

2) Sven Kramer (the Dutch speed skater guy in the 5000 m) does NOT look like Puffy. Not. At. All.

3) Congrats to Jen Heil for winning silver. Hell with everyone who's complaining she didn't win gold. She gave what looked to this total non-expert a great performance. Unfortunately for her, Hannah Kearney gave the performance of her life last night (and we can be nice to Kearney because she has family in Vancouver). Seriously, the next person to grab and complain should grab a pair of skis and go down the hill themselves.

4) Ski jumping is the freakiest thing I've ever seen. Other than that luge/skeleton/bobsledding stuff.

5) I really want chocolate milk right now..... and I don't even really like it. Huh. Thanks Jaro... =/

6) I'm actually in the process of seeing how many hockey games I can go to this week :D I've got two for sure scheduled and I'm trying to schedule at least one more (hoping for two though). Hockey Week In EPland for the win!

Hammies vs Heat: we need video replay in the AHL already

2010-02-13T22:09:00.000-05:00

Hammies pre-game stuffs because you know I'm going to listen to it:

Um Hammies? Where are you? Why am I stuck listening to this singing? Oh... you directed me to the wrong radio station.... =/
AHAH. There's Flandersdude!
Guy doesn't like missing defensemen.... (Re: you better be having the best time of your life, Weber and PK because the Hammies are suffering without you right now).
Ummm the Hammies bus broke yesterday? See what I miss when I'm out drinking awesome cider instead of listening to my Hammies? My poor Hammies D:
You can see that I'm missing my Hammies by the fact that I'm saying the word "Hammies" over and over and over again. HAMMIES.
So how many Hammies do we have left? Stevenson is sick and Patches is injured now.....
Yes, we're all pleased that PK did well.... now please, Habs, send him back tomorrow. We need him =(

First period

HI AL! *waves*
Hi Gui's brother....! Where have you been all this time? You used to be a Hammie. A perpetually injured Hammie that is.....
SHAWN BELLE. 1-0!!!!!!!!
While explaining why Ryan O'Byrne is fighting Ian Laperriere, the Hammies get a delay of game penalty and the Heat score. I thought the Hammies were supposed to take advantage of the Heat being undisciplined? 1-1
Ah, there we go. Hammies getting a PP.
....are we still on the PP? Oh 8 seconds left....
Hmm that was uneventful save for a couple of attempted shots....
N'awww, I see PK's parents at the BC on the Habs TV. We wuvs PK!
There's a Sutter on the Heat? Is he related to the pack of Sutters?!

Second period

I really do not like the Heat. GET LOST.
Apparently the Heat think it's okay to send Trotter into the bench.
Of course the Hammies get the first penalty of the period when the Heat should have been called on two or three penalties already....
Oh, Hammies on the PP now. Thank you, Heat. Now score Hammies!
or not....
more penalties.... and no goals...
Trotter tries to score. No goal though. Sounded like a pretty attempt.
I'm getting seriously distracted by the two other games on TV....

Second period intermission aka break to figure out the scores for all the other teams

Habs getting beaten up by Flyers 4-1 now...............
Voltigeurs are tied 1-1 with the Huskies
Petes are losing to the Erie Whatsits 4-1
Niagara is up 4-2 over Belleville
and Slovakia's women's team is getting demolished by Canada. Oof. Jaro should offer chocolate milk to the Slovak goalies....

Third period

"It seemed like forever since Shawn Bell scored". Flandersdude speaks the truth.
agsjkssdhkasjdhkasdhkasdhaksdhakshd DAMN YOU HEAT. Soft goal... soft goal.... soft goal.......2-1.
Al is saying something about the icing rules... I admit to not getting a word of what he said....
C'mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaammies...........!
Not dont' go to the penalty box, you twerps!
Al: "There's one of those Sutters...." So he IS related to that pack of Sutters..... Sigh........
Bad Trotter... you missed the net! Oh, you got tripped so we're getting a PP. Okay.
.... this PP misses PK. And David.
...................
HEY. You don't run my Hammies like that.
HEY HAMMIES PLEASE SCORE.
The Heat just gave you a gift of a PP. PLEASE. PLEASE. Do something.
HOW DO YOU HIT THE POST?! TWICE?!
Hammies are arguing that they didn't hit the post. Of course there's no video replay in this damn league so we dont' know if it was a goal.
Hammies still arguing.
I think Saturday is "Guy Boucher gets super angry" night. Second week in a row he's gotten super upset about something..... He's angry that the ref wouldn't go over to the goal judge to check to see if it was a goal. Why can't we have video replay in the AHL? =/

In other news:

Habs lose by some yucky score to the Flyers.............................................................. send my Hammies back now, please?
Petes lose 7-1 to the Erie Whatsits.
Niagara WINS. Yes, Niagara WINS. 4-3 over PK's old team.
And the Voltigeurs needed 5 rounds of shootouts to beat the Huskies. Thanks Brunelle.

Quick note about last night

2010-02-13T13:00:00.002-05:00

I've blocked it out of my mind. All I know is that Itty Bitty looks worse closeup on a big HD TV. UGH.

At least the cider I had was awesome... Like, SUPER awesome.

Also.. who told the Hammies that if they won last night and tonight they would tie a franchise record? EH? WHO TOLD THEM? Because they LOST last night in a shootout to the Monsters. Meh. Oh well. Can the Habs please send my Hammies back after tonight? Hammies don't get a break and I'd like to see my poor team actually have enough players to play the bloody game. Thanks in advance.

Oh and Dumont and Philippe KILLED the Drakkar last night. Dumont had two goals and Philippe had 2 and the Voltigeurs demolished the Drakkar 8-1. Bad Jake, not getting a shutout :D Apparently the Drakkar have allowed 21 goals in their last two games o.O

EP's guide for who to cheer for at the Olympics

2010-02-12T09:50:00.003-05:00

What the title said!

Group A

Canada
Reason to cheer for: Uh, it's Canada. Even if they have next to no likable players on their team, if you're Canadian, you're probably going to have to cheer for them.
Reason not to cheer for: It's Canada. This is the country that brought you Crysob. And Heatley. And Twerpy Perry. And Richards. And Chubby Marty. And, and and..... I could go on here..... I guess if you're not Canadian, you're probably pretty sick of us getting a little obnoxious about our hockey....

USA
Reason to cheer for: ................. I guess if you're a Leafs fan there's always Kessel.................?
Reason not to cheer for: Burke made this team. Ron Wilson's coaching it. A lot of Americans don't even like their team.

Switzerland
Reason to cheer for: How can you not like the Swiss? And they have Weber too!
Reason not to cheer for: Just dont' root for them when they play Canada :D

Norway
Reason to cheer for: nobody knows anyone on the team and it feels good to cheer for teams that nobody knows about.
Reason not to cheer for: Who cheers for Norway anyway?

Group B

Russia
Reason to cheer for: OVIE. And Markov!!!
Reason not cheer for: Um it's Russia. They already have two world championship titles in the last two, they don't need a gold medal too, do they? Nope.

Czech Republic
Reason to cheer for: TURTLE-PLEKY!
Reason not to cheer for: The jerks left Hammer and Spacek off the team :D Also, you just KNOW they're going to ruin Pleky's name.... nobody ever gets it right....

Slovakia
Reason to cheer for: Jaro "I love chocolate milk" Halak.
Reason not to cheer for: It's tempting to say Chara is a good reason not to, but we love Jaro so much around here that we'll forgive Chara for being a Booin for the Olympics.

Latvia
Reason to cheer for: They're in a group with Russia, Czech Republic and Slovakia. That is a good reason to cheer for them.
Reason not to cheer for: Because you'll get a headache listening to the play by play guys botching up their names.

Group C

Sweden
Reason to cheer for: Pie. Pie. Pie. Pie. Pie.
Reason not to cheer for: Those Creepy Twins. Enough said.

Finland
Reason to cheer for: Koivu! And Younger Koivu!
Reason not to cheer for: Let's see... Pitkanen, the Ruutus, still don't like Hagman, Jokinen is freaky, Timonen is a Flyer, Niittymaki and Kukkonen are ex-Flyers....

Belarus
Reason to cheer for: Um they'll have Sergei?
Reason not to cheer for: Grabovsky isn't healthy enough to play, is he?

Germany
Reason to cheer for: Because they have more NHLers on their team than I thought so someone somewhere has to know some of them.
Reason not to cheer for: Wait.... Marco Sturm the Booin is German?!

The Random World of Squeaky Kids

2010-02-11T21:48:00.001-05:00

Tonight the IceDogs decided to bring in a squeaky kid to help out with the play by play. I'm sure someone thought this was a good idea at some point. And in theory it is a great idea. You know, you bring in a squeaky kid, you get the Squeaky Kid to talk a bit, everyone thinks it's cute and we're all happy, right? Well....... no.

My goodness! Squeaky Kid was so SQUEAKY and so chatty. I couldn't hear the actual play by play half the time because Squeaky Kid kept talking. It was kinda cute in some really strange way, but I think they should have stopped feeding him cupcakes in the first intermission (or they should have spiked the cupcakes so he would fall asleep). All that sugar probably made him more hyper.

In the spirit of the randomness that was Squeaky Kid tonight, the rest of this post will probably be totally random as well.

Squeaky Kid: and the puck is in the Oshawa zone................... now the puck is in the IceDogs zone. And and and and..........

Imagine what happened when the IceDogs scored.... !

Play by play guy who's name I forgot: and they score!
Squeaky Kid: YAAAAAAAAAAAAY! THEY SCORE *yells in the mic*

I think I suffered some serious hearing loss. Oh and now the kid just wished me "happy Valentine's Day". Um thanks. I think :D

Play by play guy: Andrew's has the puck...
Squeaky Kid: Andrew's has the puck and........... uhh........... now the puck is in the Oshawa zone........ And someone got hit into the boards and that looked that hurt, folks. And uhhhhhh... take it away!
Play by play guy: thanks!

And now the truth comes out!!! Squeaky Kid says that his parents tell him to not talk so much. Hahahahahahaha....... Poor kid. He sounds adorable in a very chatty kinda way. HAHAHAHAHA. They just cut to a commercial with the kid still chatting away. Oh dear me....

NO! DO NOT GIVE HIM MORE CUPCAKES D:

Play by play guy: do you know what it means when the ref puts his hand up like that?
Squeaky Kid: ummmm nope...... it means a faceoff!
Play by play guy: Yup. The Generals had an icing call called against them.

Squeaky Kid: and the puck is in the Oshawa zone......... and the puck is in the IceDogs zone...........

Apparently Agazzino's nickname is "Aggy".

Squeaky Kid isn't coming back for the third period D:

Play by play guy: He did a really good job. He was really on top of things.
Other guy: I don't even remember being awake at 9 when I was six.
Play by play guy: could have been all the cupcakes we gave him. Not sure his mom will be happy with us....

ALL the cupcakes? ALL? How many did you guys give him?????

Oh yeah, it's 2-0 IceDogs after 2.

And now there's something wrong with the power..... game is on hold...... and now we have no idea what will happen....... hmmm okay.......... This is what happens when you take away the Squeaky Kid. He was bringing good mojo to the team and now he and all the cupcakes are gone and the power goes out. It's a SIGN.

[wow, that whole post made no sense. too bad... I'm tired]

Now something we can all agree on.....

2010-02-11T10:01:00.001-05:00

.... Flyers hate!

I know the Habs don't play the Flyers until tomorrow, but I want to move on from last night's game and the best way to do that is to move onto something else and the best way to do that is to beat up on the Flyers! Bwahahahaha......

(apologies if there are any Flyers fans reading this. It's nothing against YOU personally. Just your team).

No comment

2010-02-10T22:42:00.001-05:00

We have no comments about the game tonight.

Well, okay, we do.

1) Hope Gorges is okay.

2) SIGN PLEKY ALREADY. DO IT NOW.

3) that "offside" goal wasn't offside because the Caps put it into their own zone. Not offside.

4) that should have been a goal for Ovie. Period. The puck went off of Gill. It was a goal. This crap rule where you can call players for interference, waive off the goal and then not give them a penalty, is crap. Not to mention the refs NEVER explained why the hell they waived the goal off after calling it a goal originally.

5) What happened to Neuvy? And while we're on the topic of goalies.... I dont' want to hear a word any ANY of the goalies. Not, about Neuvy unless you're going to tell me what happened to him, not about Price, not about Jose, Jaro or Simmy the Twitching Goalie. Dont' want to hear whining and complaining about the goalies.

6) REF YOU SUCK BIG TIME. All around, the reffing was BRUTAL. No many no-calls and sh!t calls... horrible....

7) hey, I'm watching the Oilers/Ducks game and I keep calling Bobby Ryan "Blobby". Anyone know why I'm calling him this? Because I have NO idea why and yet every time I hear his name I call him "Blobby Ryan". Bizarre. Also, the Ducks goal horn sounds like a dying animal....

Hammies fail at sledge hockey

2010-02-10T11:06:00.001-05:00

I just found the vid of their attempt to play sledge hockey this morning.

Yes, I kinda laughed at Anderson skating around in circles :D

We need to get more countries to participate so Canada's women's team can go to the Olympics *nods*

Hey guess what?

2010-02-09T19:50:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to bring up The Language Debate here.

I wanted to. I've started at least 5 posts about it. Today. But after thinking about while eating the most awesome recipe for cooked spinach with this killer sauce/dressing, I decided that I don't want to talk about it. Got it everyone? Good.

So it's going to be like one of those white elephant things. You know, one of those topics that everyone knows about, but nobody wants to talk about. Sorta like the topic of whether Mr. New GM Pierre Gauthier can sign Pleky, Pricey and Jaro for next year.

Vesa, I blame you!

2010-02-08T15:30:00.000-05:00

No, not for Gainey resigning today (although I guess we might as well blame Vesa for that too because we blame Vesa for everything around here), but apparently Saku Koivu had a manpurse when he was at the Ducks fashion show thingy. Seriously.

Look, I don't have a problem with manpurses (well, okay, I have a problem with Vesa's but that could just be because I have a problem with Vesa' sense of fashion to begin with), but really.....Vesa gets sent to Anaheim and the next thing we hear is their players are walking around with manpurses. Coincidence? I think not.

I just hope Koivu's looked a lot better than Vesa's...........

Apparently there was a football game on....

2010-02-07T21:55:00.001-05:00

Look. We don't do football around here. I really dislike the game with a passion. However, every year on Superbowl day my dad becomes an avid football fan (which is followed by forgetting that the sport ever existed). It's quite hilarious actually. Apparently he thought it was just as hilarious that I was completely ignorant of the game.

Instead of annoying you all with a post that would go something like "OMG OVIE. OMG CAPS. OMG YES"... here's an abridged and slightly edited version of our conversation throughout some of the game.

Dad: Was that a field goal attempt?
Me: You're asking me?? Dad, there's no fields in hockey...

....

Dad: isn't that a great play?
Me: what's great about watching a guy suffer potentially long lasting brain damage as he's being tackled to the fake grass?
Dad: *sighs*
......

Dad: So that's great, right? (referring to some conversion thingy or other).
Me: uh, yeah sure, a guy falling is great. Hey, did you see any of Ovie's goals?
Dad: *babbling about football* what?
Me: Ovie. Goals.
Dad: oh, were they nice?
Me: YES. Well, two of them were. The other was just exciting because it tied the game.
Dad: Nice *goes back to babbling about football*

......

Dad: C'MON. You're supposed to stay with the guy *swears in French*
Me: um dad?
Dad: *swearing away in French* yes?
Me: How about I show you Ovie's goals, yeah?
Dad: Sure. C'MON DAMNIT. Jeeeeeeeeeeeeez.
Me: *sighs*

....

Dad: So if it's an incomplete play the clock stops?
Me: um if Milan Lucic clocks Komisarek over the head, the clock stops. But if Blake Wheeler falls over on his own in a "fight" with O'Byrne the clock should definitely keep going because it's a huge waste of time.....
Dad: what?
Me: never mind...

....

Dad: this game is over.
Me: but there's 44 seconds left?
Dad: It's over. Do the math.
Me: uh what am I adding?
Dad: Touch downs. The Colts needed two touch downs to tie the game.
Me: Uhuh.... okay...... now, how about you watch Ovie's game tying goal? Or I could find Eberle's game tying goal with 9 seconds left to tie it up with Russia two years ago.
Dad: *off babbling about football again*
Me: HEY LOOK HOCKEY COMMERCIAL ON TV.
Dad: *still babbling about football*

...........

Me: *goes about checking Hammies stuff. Pauses. Looks up TV* oh wait, New Orleans won?! Oh that's good for them!!!

And that's how I spent my Superbowl Sunday. Fun, eh?

BRING BACK HOCKEY.

Hammies vs WBS Penguins err I mean Hammies vs Marlies

2010-02-06T22:00:00.001-05:00

Hey, you know I was thinking the other day what a pity it was that we weren't going to be able to play the Hershey Bears. Unlike in the NHL, the AHL doesn't seem concerned about teams having to play all the other teams at least once a year. Too bad, because I think it'd be a huge measuring stick for the Hammies to play the top team in the league. Anyway, upon checking the schedule it turned out that the Hammies aren't going to play the Baby Pens either... or were they?

Today's Habs/Pens matchup was really a Hammies/WBS Penguins matchup. Yup. The Pens had a pile of call ups too so it was really a battle of AHL call ups.

And guess what? My AHL team is better than the Pens' AHL team. NYAH. My Hammies kicked some serious tail feathers today. I'm so proud of my Hammies (even if I still wished that they could come back to Hammie-town). After a not great game when he was here the last time (coincidentally also against the Pens), it was super great to see David do well today in particular. I'm not necessarily sure that he can maintain a full position in the NHL, but he made me a very happy Hammies/Habs fan today.

Great job Hammies!

Now, I just hope that the Pens and Bruins exhaust themselves trying to get to DC and Montreal respectively. They're having a "snowmaggedon" down in the eastern coast apparently.

ON TO THE (REAL) HAMMIES GAME (it's also Juniors/Voltigeurs, Spits/IceDogs and Petes/Generals tonight as well).

Pre-game stuffs

Heeheee... Flandersdude: "whatever the H-E-double hockey sticks you want to call it (Toronto)". I should remember that one next time I attempt to do a podcast with All Habs...I think I actually said "hell" in our first recording....
Hammies may have lost a pile of guys to call ups but the Marlies are definitely worse off tonight. This is good news. It's not like the Marlies are getting their guys back either. The Habs are just injured. The Leafs are all in Calgary/Anaheim.
Weber is back! He'll be playing tonight too. Hope he's not too tired D:
Hark! What's this? Guy is HAPPY that the Hammies won a game? Is the end of the world coming? :D

First period

Um......... what is with these bad starts against the Marlies? 1-0 Marlies on a crappy PP...
Well, at least the Hammies are getting chances now.... although, I'd appreciate it if Wyman didn't miss the net like that D:
Hehehehe more subtle Marlies bashing. Flandersdude: Those aren't Joey MacDonald-like numbers are they? Al: he's not playing for a very good team.

Brief QMJHL break for a second

These Juniors guys are ticked off that the Voltigeurs are keeping the puck in the Juniors end for a long time. Uh guys... it's the VOLTIGEURS. They're going to destroy you.... D: Knowing our luck, it'll be a Baby Hab who does the destroying....
See? Dumont scores. 1-0. I told you so. Thanks for nothing, Dumont. Also, this is too confusing with Jake playing for the Voltigeurs now.

Back to the Hammies

the glass is broken. Fix it already so we can whack the Marlies.....
...... is this glass fixed yet?
*taps watch*
Okay, we're back.
Hammies getting a PP. We need a goal now.
I like that Pyatt is stepping it up today (and yesterday). We still don't have a goal.
WAIT. Hammies are outshooting the Marlies 11-1 and the score is 1-0 for the MARLIES? What the H-E-double hockey sticks?????
Patches is off to the box. I can picture Guy getting upset now.
Okay. No Marlies goal. Time for a PP for the Hammies now (see a theme happening here?)
and no goal............
Al and I agree that the periods in Toronto last forever..... hurry this game up already...
No... not another penalty.........Hammies going to the PP again.
and no goal. Someone's going to get lectured.
Let's hope for a second period
Flandersdude's optimistic thought of the moment (paraphrased by me): Guy was talking about the process being important and not the result. So at least the process is more or less going right so far (me: but he's still going to bagskate them for that goal against).

Second period

Second period is underway. Guess what this teams? More penalties!!!! Hammies getting a PP.
We're not capitalizing on the...
AND THEY SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE! GLUUUUUUUU! 1-1. Blocked Patches shot is regained by Patches which then goes to Russel and then to PK and then to Gluu. Or something like that. Glu gets the goal and we're tied. Guy can like the whole progress of that whole thing and I can like the end result =)
Never mind what I was going to say. Great work on that goal.
EEEEEEEEEEEEE! GLUUUUUUUUUU AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2-1!!!!!!!!!!! PK with the assist!

Quick Juniors/Voltigeurs break

And Brunelle scores. 2-0. So torn over this game..... I like Brunelle but I don't like that the Juniors aren't scoring.
Berube and Jake are playing well. Especially Berube. He's been robbing all kinds of goals from the Voltigeurs. And Jake just robbed Aubry.... Okay, Jake, do us a favor and let the Juniors score one. Just one.

Back to the Hammies

That was Gluu's third breakaway. He's 1 for 3 on the breakaways today. Haha.
Erm, Weber, I think the refs notice when you deck someone like that.....
Erm, every time Flandersdude wonders if the opposition is going to get a penalty, they never get one...
Boo.... you can't give Weber a 4 minute penalty. Pfft.
And the puck disappeared.
Congrats. 12 mins into the second period, Deveaux registers the Marlies first shot on goal (in the period). Now go away.
And the puck gets stuck in someone else's equipment. Can the puck stay on the ice?
4 minute penalty is over. Phewwww....
If I actually wrote out every time the ref missed a call, this post would be twice as long. Not even kidding.
Flandersdude: the Marlies usually have a lot of fight in them. Tonight they had it for five minutes and since then they've been kinda dead.
Me: that sounds awfully like a complaint or worse, sympathy. Shhhhh.... it's only 2-1.

THIRD PERIOD

Hahaha... Flandersdude and Al discussing what the Marlies coach could have said/done to get the Marlies to going. Flandersdude thinks that a cattle prod would be a good idea :D
This game has no flooooooooooooow............... *sobs*

Juniors/Voltigeurs break

Oops. So it's 4-0 Voltigeurs now. Palat and Levesque - who I guess didn't die when his own teammate hit him. Also... Philippe helped out on the Levesque's goal. Baby Habs have now ruined the Juniors night again.
Poor Juniors though... just can't can't score at all..... we should have traded Jake for a forward......

Back to the Hammies

Flandersdude: I feel bad for the Marlies play by play guy. How do you accurately call this game without getting fired?
Can you tell that this game is not exciting in this least right now?
Sanford's save percentage is .833 tonight and he's only allowed one goal. Ouch.
In more exciting news: Parkes scores. Juniors aren't going to get blanked.
WAKE UP HAMMIES. The Marlies are waking up due to those squeaky little kids squeaking "let's go Marlies". WAKE UP. WAKE UP. WAKE UP.
WAKE UP HAMMIES WAKE UP. WAKE UP. WAKE UP.
Bwahahahaha Al just completely butchered Guy's name. It was funny.
Thank you St. Denis for breaking up that 2 on 1 rush for the MARLIES. WAKE UP HAMMIES WAKE UP.
There's still 6 mins left? But it felt like 10 mins ago when you said there was only 8 mins left........
Gah.... Marlies getting a PP now.... jdkadhakjhdkjashdkjdshkhf............. we're asking for trouble here......
Longest. Penalty. Kill. Ever.
Gluu is 1 for 4 on breakaways now.
Marlies and Hammies are taking turns yelling at the ref for missed calls.
Hammies getting a PP.
Can we score? PWEASE?
Apparently not.
Oh looky, another Marlie to the box.
Okay this ugly game over.
Right? RIGHT? Conboy is yelling at either the Marlies or the refs now. UMMM HELLO?! Why are my Hammies' coaches yelling at the Marlies and the refs now? HELLO? This isn't pretty.....Seriously, you know it's ugly when Guy is yelling a lot too now..... Okay, now would be a great time for everyone to just leave the rink.......... EDIT: apparently JoeyMac of all people slashed Conboy after the play... Seriously? JoeyMac should go slash his own players........

Okay, I'll just leave Flandersdude and Al to give the refs hell.... I'm going to check on the final scores of my other teams..........................................

Voltigeurs ran over the Juniors 4-1. I'm not in a great mood today and listening to cranky play by play guys didn't help in the least. I should have switched the radio feed of this game to the Voltigeurs feed because this was annoying.

Petes rolled over the Generals 6-3. That sounded like an ugly game too. I mean... 56 minutes worth of penalties were given out? Ugly. Mishy gets the win though.

IceDogs only lose 5-2 to the Spits. This is good. Well, relatively speaking....

Special thoughts going out to Brian Burke and his family

2010-02-05T23:18:00.002-05:00

The Leafs released a statement about an hour ago that Burke's son, Brendan, along with another passenger died in a car accident in Indiana today. I really don't know what to say other than I'm incredibly shocked and saddened to hear this news. I remember reading about Brendan's story a couple of months ago and I was quite moved by how supportive Burke was of his son coming out. It was a very moving story. Brendan sounded like a great guy. This is incredibly tragic to hear. It really puts a lot of things in perspective for many different reasons.

Special thoughts going out to Brian Burke and his family. My entire hockey community on Twitter is supporting Burke right now too. It's pretty special. I've never seen anything like this before.

Hammies vs Amerks: Shhh don't wake the sleeping Amerks

2010-02-05T21:35:00.002-05:00

19 wonderfully awesome Hammies - 3 awesome Hammies + 1 Cyc and 1 Hammie enforcer = someone better spike the Amerk's water bottles or else we could be in trouble.

Pre-game stuffs

ummm I missed it all actually..... I KNOW. I KNOW. I forgot which time the game was on.....I know, I know................
I did hear Guy saying that they were a little off in their 4-0 win over the Rampage..... can't we please just enjoy the win? Even if the Rampage sounded like they were dead as a doornail? PWEASE....?

First Period. Let's not get demolished, okay?

We missed the national anthems! YES! YES! YES!
Okay, let's not die against the Amerks, okay? At least we can be happy with the fact that Salak isn't in nets..... right? RIGHT? RIGHT?
Hey, we're not dying yet!
Hey... no Al? Is he still sick? D: Wasn't he supposed to be here?
I see that attempt at a goal, Lacroix. It's nice to see you back here actually.
Patches down! He's apparently bleeding too..... Lengthy 5 on 3 PP coming up. Make it count!
WHOOOOHOOOOO! PYATT SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOORES. 1-0.
Yikes..... Amerks with a short handed attempt. Note the word "attempt". No goal.
I don't like Jeff Taffe. Just saying.
I'm trying to find a stupid excuse not to like Benoit Groulx too.... hmmm.... let's see... he used to coach the Gatineau Olympiques. I'm sure the Olympiques have beat my Juniors and/or my Voltigeurs. Do the Voltigeurs count though? 'cause technically I hated them last year.... Anyway, I'm sure my Juniors at least have lost to the Olympiques so I'm going to use this as a bad excuse to not like him. Bwahahaha...
Eeeeeeeeeeee! WYMAN! 2-0!!!!! That's two PPG tonight.
Booohooo... Stevenson off to the box now..
Okay, Teddy says "no" and the clock says "this period is over".

Period Numero Dos: Let's not give up the lead, okay?

Aside from one Hammies chance at a goal, all I've been hearing is "(insert Amerk's name here) gets a shot away on Teddy". Can we remedy this please, Hammies?
No, Benoit, going to the box isn't what I meant.....
Another Hammie to the box? Why am I picturing Guy getting mad right now? Why? Maybe because he is getting mad? Don't tell me he's happy with this.............
Yes, I know Taffe is a Hammie killer. Somehow the Hammies don't notice him standing in front of their goalies.
WHOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO! Pyatt again!!!!!! 3-0!!!!!!!!!!
WOW. 4-0!!!!!!!!!!!! WHO IS THIS TEAM?!!!!! Oh right. It's Guy "I'll bagskate you guys for not playing amazingly awesomely in your 4-0 win over the Rampage" Boucher's team. Hehehe.
Flandersdude said it was Gluu's goal (if so, Gluu is further proving that he's not BFFs with David anymore) and annoying PA guy in Rochester says it's Henry's goal. We accept either scoring.
Booo! Bagskate those horrid slackers for not scoring on a 3 on 1 rush! BAGSKATE. I mean... nice chance there, Patches. We still love you.
Shhhhhhhhh Flandersdude, we didn't want Salak in nets tonight. We're pleased that it's the backup dude in nets. We're happy that Salak is warming the bench right now. Also, shhhh don't say that the Amerks are sleeping. That is a sure fire way to wake them up. SHHHHHH.... don't wake them up.

In-between period random bit which was supposed to feature an interview with David or Trots

HEY. Flandersude... you can't just say "I have a great stat for you but just to be dramatic, I'm going to make you wait." That's not fair.
..........waiting............
....................waiting......................
...............................waiting.......................
Oh snap. I completely missed what Flandersdude was saying. Hahaha... something about five games in a row.... Also....... Hammies are trying to win more than 5 games in a row for the first time since that season in which they went to Calder Cup finals against the Aeros. Forgot what year that was and I'm not in the mood to go look it up. I think it was 03?

THIRD PERIOD. Let's go for the wiiiiiiiiiiin pwease

................ dhakjhdskjayrioqahfskjsncakjls................ Why were the Hammies in the penalty box and why did the Amerks score?! BAGSKATE. 4-1.
Guhhhhhhhhhhh...... I'd like the Hammies to spend less time in their own zone, please!
Numbers I like: 21 point turnaround from the Hammies who were 10 points behind the Amerks back in December. They're now 11 points ahead of them. Bwahahahahahaha. Hope this doesn't mean that the Amerks are due to win some games soon though..... =/
Why is there a kid screaming very close to the mic? Ick.
GUHHHHHHH............... 4-2. WE ARE NOT AMUSED. NOT AMUSED. You have 5 mins to not get scored on again. 5 mins.
2:09 left. Amerks get called offside. Why am I so relieved by this? Why am I afraid that the Hammies will pull a Leafs and allow three goals in the final three mins? (yes, the Leafs just did that and they lost in regulation time to the Devils).
Plante off to the bench. Empty netter, pwease?
No. You have to put it IN the net. Now it's icing........
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! PYATT WITH THE HAT TRICK! 5-2.
Longest winning streak for the Hammies since 02-03 when they won 9 in a row (this is what Flandersdude was trying to say before!!! Got it!).

Halak it!

2010-02-04T21:57:00.001-05:00

I don't care if that's been over-used to death. I don't care if you think I'm biased towards Halak (I'm not for the records). But Jaro just beat the Booins. JARO DID IT. And Gio helped with his shootout winner.

And the best part of this win?

Booins lose.

Again.

Hah.

Now someone make those stupid Sens lose. PLEASE.

no writeup because I'm tired and my Petes got a third of my attention tonight as well (Caps got the other third. Hey, they won 6-5 over the Rags. Bwahahahahaha). My poor Petes lost 5-4 after being down 4-0 after the first period. Just couldn't get the equalizer.

Hockey in Afghanistan!

2010-02-04T18:27:00.002-05:00

I was going to rant about Scandella and how he and Cormier are seriously wrecking up the Q's reputation with their ridiculously stupid headshots, but then I saw this article about hockey in Afghanistan. Seriously. It seems it's popular among the soldiers over there (mostly the Canadian ones, yes).

Article is from here.

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press WriterThu Feb 4, 8:51 am ET

KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – "Attack! Attack! Attack! Attack!"

No bombs nor rockets — just a spectator yelling during a tight game of the Kandahar Ball Hockey League, played Monday through Friday nights at NATO's biggest military base in southern Afghanistan.

There's no ice and no puck, but no matter. Canadian troops still get their ice hockey fix — even in the middle of a war.

Occasional rocket attacks, sudden deployments and other military operations don't stop the league, which is held twice a year to match six-month stints of Canadian troops who share the base with forces from the United States, Britain and other nations.

"Canadians love their hockey," said James Stark, a Canadian goalie.

The five-a-side teams, including a goalie in helmet, leg pads, chest pads and gloves, battle with a rubber ballon a concrete-floored rink with wooden sidings in an open slab of desert surrounded by the "Boardwalk," a walkway lined with stores, coffee shops and restaurants. It's a social scene, humming with commerce, where soldiers go to relax after a day on duty in the desert.

And maybe catch a little hockey.

There are more than two dozen teams drawn from different units in the league's two divisions, some of them coed and most of them Canadian. The U.S. Marines used to have a team. The Slovaks have one. Some team names are flamboyant — "Dust Devils" and "Desert Dogs" — while others are less so. One is called "Maintenance," after the Canadian military unit that fixes equipment.

"It's fairly close, with the way the ball rolls, to ice hockey," said Master Cpl. Mike Dobson, a "Maintenance" player. "This is just something to pass the time, more than anything."

The players keep it serious. Games have two stop-time periods of 15 minutes each, so they last about 45 minutes in total. On Wednesday night, referees in white- and black-striped shirts ejected players for two minutes for a variety of offenses: roughing, high stick, sticking and "unsportsman."

One referee with a whistle jammed in his lips wore camouflage trousers and military boots.

The Canadian military gym provides the equipment — "just bring your own pair of sneakers, and your own pair of (safety) glasses," says Dobson — and the rink is about two-thirds as big as a full-size one. The current league began in November and runs through the end of March or early April. After the playoffs, the winners get a trophy and a group photo.

Goalie Stark's Desert Dogs, a team comprising Canadian civilians that provide services to their nation's military, lost a hard-fought 4-6 on Wednesday. The cool conditions, though, were a breeze compared to the intense heat that players endure during the summer league, said Stark, who has worked in Afghanistan since April 2008.

Rocket attacks on the Kandahar base, though infrequent, are a troubling sign that the Taliban can still operate on the fringes of the huge base bristling with weapons and other hardware of powerful Western militaries. If an attack happens during a hockey game, it doesn't hold up the players for long.

In fact, the teams don't even leave the rink. As the warning siren wails, they hit the floor and press themselves against the wooden sidings. Goalies aren't very mobile anyway, Stark said.

"It would be a bit of a challenge to run to a bunker with all that gear," he said. "As soon as the 'all clear,' the game picks up again and away we go."

Thoughts going out to O'Byrne and his family

2010-02-04T11:20:00.000-05:00

I unfortunately missed this yesterday while I was gone for the majority of the day, but this morning I learned that O'Byrne's mom, Lorelei, passed away last week. We knew he had gone back home with be with an ill parent, but I didn't know that his mom was that ill... My thoughts and condolences go out to Ryan and his family in this difficult time.

Hammies vs Baby Yotes: Ho hum... another shutout.....

2010-02-03T22:15:00.008-05:00

Pre-game stuffs

Flandersdude says on paper the Baby Yotes shouldn't be able to compete with the Hammies, but apparently games are played on ice and not on paper. Why can't games be played on paper? At least the games in which my Hammies are supposed to be better than the opposition.......
Sheeesh.......the Rampage are on a 14 game road trip. The Habs have to leave in March because Disney on Ice comes to down (damn you Disney on Ice!!!) and the Baby Yotes have to leave because of some rodeo thing (damn you rodeo stuffs!).
Okay, why are we still talking about the Baby Yotes.....? Can we please talk about something else -
....WAIT POGGE IS WITH THE RAMPAGE RIGHT NOW?! (damn you, suspended Iowa Chops which have led to Ducks prospects being strewn across the continent!!). EDIT: OKAY NEVER MIND. HE WAS RE-CALLED WHEN VESA WENT TO THE DUCKS. YOU CAN ALL RELAX NOW.
Awww no Al tonight... He's sick D: (damn you crappy whether that makes people sick).
So if you have two goalies who play well in Hamilton, it's not a goalie controversy, but if you have two goalies who play well in Montreal, it's a flipping controversy. Gotcha................. (damn you Montreal media).

FIRST PERIOD

Oh squeaky kids in Hammie-town, you are so delightfully out of tune and adorably squeaky. I wuvs you.
Wait... did Flandersdude say "Hollweg". UGH. Go away Earwig..... Yes, it's been a while since the Hammies played the baby Yotes so I'm forgetting everything I didn't really know about them....
Hammies are trading PP chances with the Baby Yotes...... =/
Apparently this period is brought to me by some vacuum place......? My brain feels like it's being vacuumed out of my head.... I'm so tired...........
eh..... they're giving away chocolate at this Pink in the Rink thing? Did I hear that right? Man, if I ate chocolate, I'd be on the next buss to Hammie-town. While we're talking about pink......When you go to the Hammies site and this page thingy comes up and advertises for this Pink in the Rink thing, the page isn't pink. It's purple. EDIT: now the page is gone. Oh well.....
Why is David on a 11 game point streak? And why is Flandersdude making me wait until after this annoying commercial break to tell me......? What the heck was that commercial about anyway? All I heard was "blah blah blah David... blah blah blah gladiators... blah blah blah Upper James Street"... Makes me sense to me either....
Okay, Benoit didn't get an assist on PK's goal when he scored against the Admirals in their first game.... they gave it to David. Whoopy!
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrock Trrrrrrrrrrotttttteeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrr! 1-0!!!!!!!
Gluu is off to the box.....I thought Guy said he wanted the Hammies to stay out of the box? Speaking of Gluu... Gluu Junior isn't named David..... I find this sad..... mind you, Gluu Junior still has a nice name but it's not David...........

SECOND PERIOD (WHY AM I TYPING THIS IN CAPS?!).

What did I miss? What did I miss? What did I miss? I was trying to put anti-flea stuff on one of my animals (one of those preventative things.... no, I don't have fleas in my house). Apparently I didn't miss anything.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! GLUUUUUUU! 2-0!
Oops.. the ice is all dead again in Hammie-town..... Cue a break which will contain commercials that I have no idea what they're advertising for!
So here's how this game is working tonight: Rampage take a penalty, Hammies take a penalty, Rampage take a penalty, Rampage take another penalty, Hammies take a penalty, Rampage take a penalty....
HEY. What is with that shorty attempt by the Rampage? =/
WHOOOHOOO! Someone scores somehow! 3-0!!! Apparently it bounced off the crossbar, didn't go in despite the goal light going off, "bounced around like an Indian rubber ball" and THEN it went it... which apparently makes it Pyatt's or PK's goal and not David's (who hit the goal post)...... EDIT: it's PK's goal.
SMACK EARWIG. SMACK HIM LIKE A BUG. Seriously........ you don't whack a Hammie like that.... SMACK HIM.
Did you notice that I've had a recent love-affair with typing in caps (haha wrote "Caps" there) lately???

THIRD PERIOD (More caps!!!!)

Earwig is in the box for five mins. White is also in there for something for some amount of time I've forgotten....
Man...... I'm falling asleep here.......... you know what I'd like right about now? A nice goalie fight in the Sens/Slugs game I've got on the TV...
EEEEEEEEEEE! DAVID! 4-0!!! Never mind. This is a lot better!!! YAY! And Trotter now has four points on the night. "Another so-so night for Brock Trotter".
Okay, this game can end any time now! I'm pleased with this score right now. I mean, the Hammies can always score more goals, but I don't need the Baby Yotes scoring.
Hmm is that "Put Your Hands Up In the Air" I hear playing in Hammie-town?
hdkjahdkjhdkshjas stupid Earwig.........
Scrum! Scrum! Scrum! Scrum! Twerpy ex-Amerks guy is all ticked off because St. Denis hit him.
WHEEEEEEE! Hammies wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!

Brock Trotter is on a real hot streak right now. Actually, apparently he is "as hot as a firecracker. Maybe hotter depending on the type of firecracker."

........

Seriously. My Hammies are awesome. Unless you're a Bears fan, you can't say your team is as awesome as mine.

Speaking of the Bears... I really wish I could be a Bears fan but somehow I'm feeling some animosity towards them. Totally bizarre considering my Caps-love, I know, but it's the truth. Still, it's probably a good sign that I don't like them right now because I've disliked just about every team that I'm currently following :D

I am LOST

2010-02-02T22:10:00.000-05:00

I've come to the conclusion that watching the Habs is the same thing as watching Lost. Just when you think you've figured out what's going on, they go ahead and change it all up on you.

Seriously.

Last week, it was like the plane crashed (I mean that in the figurative sense with regards to the Habs) and this week it's all like "well, maybe we just messed around with reality so maybe the plane crash never happened" (I mean that figuratively in a "that down and out Habs team you saw last week? They never existed).

I'm losing it completely right now... I'm sooooo tired.......

Also... Whoooooooo! Caps just set a franchise record for most consecutive wins (and they beat the Booins to do it too!).

Big revelation of the day

2010-02-01T18:34:00.001-05:00

Did you know that there are two teams called the Admirals in the AHL?? Norfolk Admirals and Milwaukee Admirals? YOU DID KNOW THIS? Well, aren't you smart..............

I really had no idea until I saw something at InGoal Mag about Jaroslav Janus (who I somehow didn't realize was also playing in the AHL this year?). I mean.. somehow I knew there was a Norfolk Admirals and a Milwaukee Admirals but somehow it's this super big revelation that there are TWO teams in the SAME LEAGUE with the SAME NAME.

Go figure.

IN OTHER NEWS. Have you seen Jake's (and a little while ago) Berube's new masks?

Jake's is here and Berube's is here.

I really like both of them (especially Jake's but it's nice that Berube finally got a painted one too. There seems to be something with the poor backups being stuck with blank masks).

Oh. Em. Gee. The Leafs did WHAT?

2010-02-01T08:20:00.000-05:00

Forget Phaneuf. Forget the fact that they got Giggy.

THE LEAFS GOT RID OF VESA. Our Vesa. Our favorite failtender in conference (aside from Biron). DAMN YOU LEAFS. How could you?! HOW COULD YOU?

I'm actually going to miss Vesa. I won't miss that man purse though. That was creepy. But I'm going to miss Vesa and his faily-ness. I'm going to miss The Society of Habs Fans Who Feel Bad For Vesa. I'm going to miss watching him and simultaneously laughing at him and feeling bad for him when he flubs a perfectly stoppable shot. I'm going to miss my team facing Vesa and knowing that we instantly had the advantage over the Leafs (although, wasn't Vesa in nets for that 3-0 loss to the Leafs? Okay, scratch that last sentence).

Have fun back in California, Vesa. It was great to have you here in all your faily glory. You're still my favorite failtender. Even if you're off failing on the other side of the continent. Sorry Anaheim Koivu and Chipper, but your team just got a lot failier by default.

Byebye Vesa!!

Hammies vs Admirals: Puffy Blue jersey smackdown!

2010-01-31T19:39:00.001-05:00

But first....

How can a team who has a cool logo like this:

Put said logo on a jersey like this:

SERIOUSLY MILWAUKEE? What is with PUFFY BLUE colour? So ugly..... I mean, yeah, I'm biased against Puffy Blue jerseys... but ewwwwies.... So ugly...... You ruined a great logo by putting it on super ugly colour like this... We're not friends anymore, Milwaukee. Not that we were ever friends (even if the Hammies share an ECHL team with you) but seriously....

Pre-games stuffs

Andy Murray should be listening to Guy's little bit about the mental aspect of playing. It was SO applicable to his "plight".
Heehee... they had to persuade Guy to use PK and Belle in a shootout.

First period

Fight! Already??? o.O
PATCHES! 1-0!
Lucky Ads goalie... that was nearly another goal!
Ooo Ben Guite off to the box.... Hmmmmmm!
Yikes.. someone tries to kill Patches. 5 on 3 now.
Ping!
Hmmmph. Some nice shots, but no goal.
PK now...........
Another PK (not a bad idea to trip a guy in front of the net when he's about to score).
.......or not..... Ads in the box.....
"Rabbit gets a shot away" just sounds weird.... Rabbits shouldn't be shooting anything.

PK Interview!

LOL. Apparently PK's shootout goal thingy at the ASG had to be done twice. The first time he did it they were still on a commercial break, so they told him that he had to do it again. Hahaha..

Second period

more penalties.....? Is it just me or are there a lot of penalties being dolled out these days???
and they skate up the ice... and down the ice... and up the ice... and down the ice... and now the Hammies outshooot the Ads.... and..........
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROCK TRRRRRRRRRRRRRROTTTTTTTER! 2-0! WHOO!
I love how the audio on this video feed keep screwing up....Everything randomly goes wonky and sounds weird.... hard to explain but yeah....

Third period

Boohooo..... David gets robbed of a goal *kicks the goalie*
Erm........................ so..................... it's 2-1 now..................... DO NOT GO TO EXTRA TIME PLEASE.
Is where we wish that the Hammeis had scored on one of their PPs before........????
Why are the Ads sounding like they're shooting a pile of pucks into the Hamnmies end of the rink? Do. Not. Like.
That sounded awfully like Flandersdude was about to say "Hammies".........Do. Like.
PP! Can we make a good effort to put this game away now? Pwease?!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY! Brrrrrrrrrock Trrrrrrrotter again! 3-1!!!!!!!!!!
Aggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh TWO MINUTES WAS ALL YOU NEEDED. 3-2. As a spectator, I can complain about such things. hdakjdhakjsdhakjsdhaskjdh......................
AIE AIE AIE
AIE AIE AIE AIE AIE AIE
AIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's like dodging bullets... Kinda like in the Matrix :D
HAMMIES WIN. THANK YOU. *collapses*

And I think this deserves a crappy limmerick!

There once was a team called the Hammies

Who played team wearing their jammies

They walked into the rink

And won with a wink

Oh how we love that team called the Hammies

YEAH!

2010-01-31T06:33:00.001-05:00

ROGER WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS! 6-3 6-4 7-6 (11).

It's 6:30 in the morning, this sun is not up yet so I'm going to see if I can go back to sleep.

YAY ROGER! WHOOOHOOOOOOOO!

Will return for hockey in.... 6 or so hours. WHOO!

"Hockey Day in Canada": FULL DAY OF HOCKEY BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

2010-01-30T13:28:00.014-05:00

Well, I'm actually not all that entertained by this Hockey Day in Canada thing... Why? Well, because it's pretty much always Hockey Day in EPland around here. Last night I was following the IceDogs (they lost in a shootout), the Juniors (they lost in OT to those pesky Huskies AGAIN even though Berube was being awesome AGAIN) and the Petes (they lost 3-0 to the Bulls. Boohoo. Someone please send Richard Panik back to Windsor). I spared you all a lengthy post about it so be happy :D

However, I'm using today as an excuse to write up one huge post about hockey, hockey, hockey and Roger. Yeah. We're roughly 14 hours away from Frazzle O'Clock.

(and hey looky, they have these "Read more" jump breaky thingies in blogger! I had no idea until I looked it up!!)

1:30 okay, so maybe I'm watching a reply of the Aussie Open Women's final with Serena Williams and Justine Henin instead of random people looking frozen on some pond somewhere in Ontario. I think I really like Henin. Between her and Kim Clijsters, I may have to pay a little bit of attention to women's tennis.

2:00 : Habs Time. Coincidentally, I also have a headache right now. Hmmmm....

Habs vs Ottawa: Doooooooooooom, Doom, Doom, Doom, Dooooooom...........

First period.

Wow. We get the full orchestra version of our anthem today.
Hey Harper's there. Can he prorogue the game if the Habs are doing badly? Please?
I love that the "Go Habs Go" is ALWAYS louder than the "Go Sens Go" in The Cave.
Five mins in and I have nothing of note to say. Other than the Sens have had a few good chances to score so far.
Oh that Tim Horton's commercial thingy about hockey that originally had Crysob doing the voice over but now has some other guy doing it, is soooooooooooo touching. Awwwwww!!!!!
Side note of the day: #CheerUpEmoMG52 is the best hashtag I've seen on Twitter in the last two days. Poor Greener.
Lots of booing for Kovy. Are we sure we're playing in Ottawa Kanata today?
Can we please do something interesting so I don't have to sit here trying to find random things to say to make this writeup interesting?
Well, of course Kovy scored the first goal. Of course. And what is it with Ottawa/Kanata and horrible goal horns?? It literally sounds like: BLAAAAAAAAAAAARGH BLARGH BLARGH BLARGH.
Oh! Penalties coming up to O'Byrne and Michalek and Schmo is getting angry. YES. I really missed Hartsburgh blowing up at everyone when he got fired... so glad Schmo is getting angry now too.
First period over. That was quick and relatively painless.

Second period

WE GOT A SHOT ON GOAL! Is this the first one of the game? No? Felt like it....
OMG. We got another shot on goal!
.... of course this is then followed by what felt like five quality chances by the Stinky Sens.
So THAT is what Bob Cole looks like. Now I know he's not just some disembodied voice that's come to haunt me.
Blah, blah, blah, Sens get a shot away... and another... and another... and another.... blah, blah, blah, blah....
Depressing Thought of the Game: Habs are now past the 180-minute mark since last even strength goal. That's three games people (courtesy of @ArponBasu).
And there we go again... BLAAAAAAAAAAARGH BLARGH BLARGH BLARGH. 2-0 Sens.
I really hope my Sens relative is off skiing or shoveling snow or watching the non-existent grass growing instead of watching this game...... Maybe I'll make a preemptive strike and tell them that I won't cheer for the Sens in the playoffs?
CBC guy: the Canadiens' PP used to be ranked no. 1. Now it's no. 2. (he's saying it like it's now no. 30)..... I can't even come up with a sarcastic retort to this right now....
BENNYPOO. 2-1.
And NOW the CBC guys say "well, the Canadians's PP is no. 1 on the road". Please try not to sound too disappointed.

Third period

Oh... we're back?
... and the Habs are taking a penalty. Cue the commercial break!
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww it's THAT Tim Horton's commercial thingy again *sobs again*
I see Harper! You know he's a closet Leafs fan, right? RIGHT?
That short handed attempt was probably our best chance a goal in this period....
Sergei just smacked Spezza! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SQUISHY BETTER NOT BE INJURED. That looked like a horrible hit into the boards. Well, not the hit, but the way he went into the board, foot first. Ankle probably went smush.............. EDIT: or... it's his knee apparently.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Habs get a PP with 3 and something mins left. DO SOMETHING.
GIO!!!!!!!!! 2-2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sens get the 2 on 1 with 40 seconds left..... Jaro stops the puck.
Okay. Third period over. Habs will walk out with at least one point!

Apparently "go Habs go" + "go Sens go" sounds like "go Hens go" on my TV.......
Spezza should have gotten a penalty shot on that trip but we'll settle for a Sens PP instead. Kinda. Maybe. Why was Spezza getting a rush like that anyway? EH? EH?
OH SPEZZA is going to the box now? So it's 3 on 3 now? I want a 2 on 2. That'd be hilariously stupid.
Of course that means that the SENS score. I swear I will dismember that goal horn. UGH. 3-2 Sens.

5:00 okay so I have... two hours before the Petes take on Ottawa (speaking of teams with bad goal horns). Time to consider making dinner.

7:00 Petes time!

Petes are all broken.... No Spooner, no Walchessen, no Daley...no.... darn, I missed who else. But there's a lot of them D: Even Misshy is all injured too. And I think Watson is still gone.....D:
Petes guy just said that the 67s beat Montreal (instead of the Sens). Uhhhhhhh I really hope that the Habs didn't lose to an OHL team today!!! Yeeeeeeeesh.
oooo Petes get some brassband thingy doing the national anthem. This immediately eliminates the potential for awful singing. Although, it doesn't eliminate out of tune brass playing apparently... ooof....
Petes guys are talking about the 67s having some type of shutout thingy going on...
BINGO. No shutout for the 67s tonight! Puempel scores! 1-0.
I missed what happened next because I was off eating cookie dough...
WHOOOOOO! Petes score!!!! 2-0!!
Aww the newbie Pete hits the crossbar! D:
Oh major reffail in Peterborough...

7:30 okay, Hammies time. Sorry Petes!

Hammies vs Wolves: RAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

Pre-game stuffs

Variations on a theme of the Wolves being a better team than we think they are. Or something like that. I was trying not to burn chocolate chip cookies so I wasn't listening particularly well.
Guy says a pile of stuff that I wasn't listening to because I was off discussing linguistics and hockey with someone. Mainly how half my hockey is in French and half is in English.
Yeah, that was a crappy writeup.... oh well.. ON TO THE GAME WHICH WON'T BE CRAPPY.

First period

Well, after hearing SO many awful singers in the AHL it was kinda nice to listen to a not-bad rendition.
WHAT? Lehtonen is in nets?!! Booo.
Whaaah, it's loud in there....
A(nother) sign that my brain still isn't working: I heardFlandersdude say "Falafel" instead of "Holzapfel"....
Whaaaah, another fast paced game.... Slooooooooooow doooooooooown D: my tired brain can NOT keep up....
Aie aie aie...... nice to see Teddy isn't falling asleep here (unlike me).
ZzZzZzZzZzZzZz..... so tired... and I still have to get up at 3:30 for Roger's match...... ZzZzZzZz....
HEY! STOP TRYING TO KILL MY HAMMIES. =/
So... Gluu gets a penalty for being pushed into Lehtonen.............? Is Chelios going to the box too? Or some other Chicago guy?
And now someone decked Dagger. My brain can't handle all of this right now.....
BENOIT SCOOOOOOOOOORES! 1-0! Really, I need to break a couple of rules and record a Hammie scoring and use it for my alarm clock one day.... You can't sleep through a Flandersdude goal call...
Deh-HAIR-nay assisted on that goal apparently. Better than Mattoo Carlay, I guess.
Erm.... Benoit headed off to the box..... KILL KILL KILL ... the penalty I mean.

Second period

Hammies kill the rest of the Wolve's PP left over from before.
Oh, Hammies get a PP too.
Did David just hit Lehtonen in the head with the puck? Hehe.
Annnnnnnd Dagger gets a penalty for something........Okay........
Random Interjection: Canooks just tied the game after being down 3-0 to the LEAFS. Apparently Glenn Healy is heartbroken. Perfect!!!
Every time I hear Welch's name I think of Welch's grape juice.
Oops.... Wolves off to the box. Can we make this PP count? PLEASE? PLEASE? PLEASE?
I completely space out for a second and the next thing I hear is "Desjardins stops Chelios"....Yay Teddy?
Okay, Lehtonen needs to go back to Atlanta. Shoo! Shooo!!!
It's "Adopt a Dog Night" in Chicago? Can I adopt a few Hammies? No? Okay...
Why so many PPs? Wolves are on the PP now..........
Chelios needs to go somewhere else too. SHOO! SHOO!
This period has gone on FOREVER.....
OUI! RYAN RUSSEL! 2-0! Sounds like it bounced off a pile of guys. Or at least off of Lehtonen. Okay, maybe you can stay put if you're going to do that.
I really did shout "oui" when they scored too.. that's a new one for me o.O
Eeeeeeeeeeek Go Teddy go!

9:44 PETES WIN! PETES WIN! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Third period

Flandersdude wonders if the Bears will ever go into hibernation. I wish I could like the Hershey Bears. I'm a flipping Caps fan too for crying out loud, but I just haven't gotten around to actually liking them. Oh well......
Whoa... there's HOW many people at this game? Over 15k? o_O
UGH. 2-1. adkahkdnskjhaioj...........
Okay, Wolves fans, all 15K of you, shush!!!
Hey, nice timing on the Crown Royal commercial... Hopefully I won't need to find something alcoholic to drink after this....
AYEYEYE. St. Denis saves the day. For now. Say thank you, Teddy, to Freddy for saving you and the Hammies!
Frazzling.....
It's "hit Kari in the head with the puck" night. Hammies, you do know that you don't get points for that, right? Put the puck into the back of the net, please!!!!!
Someone hits the goal post...... Getting closer to putting it into the back of the net!
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmph I really, really do not like the automatic puck over glass = delay of game penalty. Stupid penalty.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHH 2-2.
Trotter...... off the goal post.... *wimpers*
No, it's not fitting if we go to OT or a shootout!! *glares at the radio* Unless the Hammies win of course. Then anything's fine.
Poop. We're going to OT. Let's hope this goes better than the OT from earlier today.......

Wrong side of the net, White!!
Ayeyeye.....! I don't need any pre-Aussie Open final stress!!!! FINNISH THIS GAME, HAMMIES.
I SAID HAMMIES. NOT WOLVES. ThankyouTeddyforstoppingthat!!!!!!!
dhakhdkjashdkasdh SHOOTOUT. I HATE SHOOTOUTS.

SHOOTOUT.

Well, I was going to type out the whole thing but I was too busy frazzling so we'll just cut to the end: HAMMIES WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN YAY!!!!! THANK YOU SHAWN BELLE!!!!!!!!
Hehe, the two defensemen score in the shootout (PK got the other one).

11:00 PM Okay! I would like to stay up and watch the Flames beat the..... Oilers, but I've got a tennis final to frazzle over in four an a half hours so I'm off to sleep!

Meanwhile in the tennis world.........

2010-01-29T19:43:00.002-05:00

Roger is going to the Australian Open finals! (and the sun comes up every day, yeah, yeah, I know, I know).

Sadly he will get to play Murray. You know... this guy:

Picture is from here.

Sorry, I saw this picture and I had to find a way to use it. Although, I think I'm going to have some serious nightmares over this now. I mean really, how can you cheer for a guy who looks like that? I mean... not that we're all about looks around here and not that Mandy looks like that normally.... but the point is... It's Andy Murray. We're not a fan of Andy Murray around here. Like, really not a fan. It doesn't help that Mandy took out Rafa (by way of default because Rafa retired) and Cilic (hey, I like Cilic) either. It also doesn't help that Mandy has looked super good in this Australian Open..... frazzle... frazzle... frazzle....

After last year's mess, I'm not sure I'm ready to watch another Aussie Open......of course now that I've said that it just means that I have no choice but to get up and watch Roger. I've only missed one Grand Slam final with Roger in it..... frazzle... frazzle... frazzle... frazzle....

GO ROGER GO.

Hammies vs Admirals: Whooohoooo!

2010-01-28T22:36:00.002-05:00

pre-game stuffs aka EP runs around checking the scores of her other teams

Voltigeurs score two early goals, including a nice shorty from Levesque (ooooo and Philippe just scored!!!)
Poop...Juniors are down 1-0 to the Huskies. BOO HUSKIES.
Bah. Petes and IceDogs are down 1-0 and 2-1 to Belleville and Erie as well. Meh.
Um no, Guy didn't say anything interesting tonight. What is he going to say after last night's game anyway? "Oh yeah, we totally just bagskated the team for those awful two on nothings"? Bagskate!

Hammies tiiiiiiime!

First period:

Ouch... I think that woman in Rochester just got outdid in "how badly can we sing the national anthems?" category by this woman in Milwaukee. Yes, I feel the need to chronicle these awful singing jobs in the AHL.
Sanford just bailed himself out after he misplayed the puck behind his net. Oh boy....
It's "blow the whistle for no reason" night, apparently.
Hey, how come Sanford is doing all the work tonight?! This ain't a Habs game, guys....
Dagger wants a goal (that will count). Hammies are forechecking everywhere. No goal though.
Flandersdude keeps trying to say something but the Hammies and Admirals keep trying to score while he's talking. Hehe.
Boohooo Conboy hits the goal post... D:
Dagger bear hugs Guite after the latter decks Trotter. Yay for Dagger standing up for his teammates! No yay for Trotter though........
And Guite gets 5 mins and a 10 min misconduct for decking Trotter (they're calling it a headshot). PP time!
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! PK SUBBAN! 1-0!
Hammies still on the PP.
WHOOOOHOOOO! Benoit! 2-0!
Poooo.... Dagger misses the half empty net (well, it went off someone's stick).
That was a good PP. Thanks for sacrificing your head, Trots! ;D

1st period intermission aka EP goes back to running around like an idiot!

Voltigeurs still up 3-1 but Piche's shutout just got ruined. Oh I'm sorry. It's 4-1. Sean just scored (everyone's favorite shit disturber in the Q got one of the assists, yes).
Parkes ties it up for the Juniors on the PP against the Huskies! 1-1!
.... Belleville is now up 2-1 on the Petes. Petes, seriously... I want a win after that crapfest in London! D:
And the IceDogs are tied 3-3! one of the Hamiltons scored. I think it was Freddie, but it could have been Dougie... (sorry, I really have a lot of fun saying their names for some reason).

Oh Flandersdude interviewed Patches earlier today:

Ooo Patches just totally said "it's nice to be down here with a team that's winning".
He doesn't seem to be too cut up about being sent down..... I think he realizes that it's the best thing for him right now.
Hahaha... Flandersdude did his interview with Patches while the other guys were playing soccer behind them and Patches got decked at the end of the interview.

Second period

Oh c'mon... Flandersdude is actually trying to look at that penalty objectively?! If it was a hit to the head, then they should have dumped Guite from the game (which is what they did).
dhakdhakjdhkasdh it's very windy outside my window. This matters because it's distracting me from listening to the Hammies game. Go away wind D:
GUHHH 2-1 now........
Yikes! Now the Ads just rang it off the post! Ayeyeye....
This game has gone back to being a fast paced one... sloooooooooooow doooooooooooown.
Eeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! St. Denis!!!!!!! 3-1!!!!!!!!!!!!
"D'Agostini took a high stick from Rabbit, who will be hopping into the penalty box". Sorry but... HAHAHAHA.
WHOOOOOO ST. DENIS AGAIN! 4-1!!!!
Wait.. I only realized now that there's two Santorellis in this game.. what's with all the brothers tonight?!
Oh Flandersdude, don't say that the Hammies have lost their last 5 games here in Milwaukee. That is just asking to tempt fate.
Pffffffft Hammies get a penalty for... playing hockey. Think of it as a gift, Ads.

Second period intermission aka... yeah, you guessed it! EP runs around checking the scores of her teams.

Poop. Petes lose 3-1 to the Bulls. Boohoo.
Philippe has remembered how to score again! Voltigeurs are up 5-2 now over the Cucumbers.
Did I mention how much it saddens me that Levasseur plays for Chicoutimi?
IceHogs are actually AHEAD 5-3. Freddie Hamilton has a hat trick!!! EDIT: erm that would be the IceDOGS....

annnnnd we get a Dagger interview too!

Dagger doesn't sound depressed either.
Dagger also likes the guys on this team. He really seemed to be hinting that it's a lot more fun in Hammie-town.
Apparently the Hammies can't afford to give their guys a knife and fork and instead give them two forks with their meal. At least that's what happened last night. Hahaha...

Third period

Oops... we're 8 mins in and I haven't had to say anything so far......
Here's something: All of the Hammies goals have been scored by defensemen. Also, Trots and David don't have any points yet. David needs a point because he's got an 8 game point streak going on right now. Or something.
Sanford's been really solid tonight. I like this version of Sanford. As opposed to the injured and faily version.
Flandersdude just insulted the Ad's mascot. He says it looks like a cross between Clifford, Youppi and an aardvark. Apparently it's super ugly. EDIT: okay, I found a pic of it. It is ugly.
Hahaha.... there's still a over a minute left in the game, but the guys in Milwaukee have already given Flandersdude the 3 star for the game.
WHOOOOHOOO HAMMIES WIN. First win in Milwaukee in 5 years!

Post-game stuffs aka.... you know what........

PHILIPPE GOT A HAT TRICK. Voltigeurs win 7-2!!! EDIT: apparently this is his first hat trick?! WUT? Well, congrats, dude!
Juniors lost in OT =( Berube stopped 40 of 42 shots...
IceDogs wiiiiiiiiiiiin 5-3!

And then they hugged and everyone was happy

2010-01-28T18:04:00.001-05:00

(photo credit: Pierre Obendrauf, Gazette)

Awww see? Pricey hugged Markov in practice. Then laughed at the media guys. Everyone's happy. For now.

All Habs has a great article on this big non-event.

Hammies vs IceHogs (what's an IceHog anyway?): Flandersdude is back!

2010-01-27T22:41:00.003-05:00

Hammies first!

Pre-game stuffs

FLANDERSDUDE IS BACK. Not that he was really gone, but yeah... You can't have him you horrible Sabres!!!!!
Guy says the Hammies have never been blown out this year. I think he forgot that 5-1 loss to the Amerks earlier this year........ I mean, it's not a 7-1 blowout like the Habs experienced, but still....
Dagger and Patches are back tonight. Hope it goes well!!!
They call the arena where the IceHogs play "the pigpen"? Okay then......

Period Numero Uno

Flandersdude is talking on and on in what I assume is a bid to stall for time while we wait on and on and on for the puck to drop.
Why do they insist on having squeaky kids who can't sing sing the national anthems? Brutal. Next time I want the band with the over zealous cymbals player doing my national anthem instead of the squeaky kids.
THEY HAVE COWBELLS IN ROCKFORD. COWBELLS. BOOOOOOO!
Awww, I forgot that Gluu's a daddy! Congrats to Gluuu and his wife.. I think her name is Melissa! (I'm going to know the names of everyone's wife's if they keep having kids).
Hammies sound like they're awake tonight. More than I can say for the Habs right now (more on them later).
DAGGER SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORES! Welcome back! 1-0
Erm.... Rockford guys gave the goal to Stewie......? Flandersdude before the commercial: "Despite what they announced, the Bulldogs are up 1-0 by a goal from Matt D'Agostini, unless I've completely lost it". Heehee...
What is a Klinkhammer......? And a Bickell....?
Dagger sounds like he's having a good night. At the very least, he's shooting the damn puck!
Flandersdude is insisting that Dagger had the goal.
Is it possible that the Hammies are actually catching a break on penalties that should be called against them but aren't, tonight?
I have a super craving for this super awesome Indian food wrap thingy I had in DC in DECEMBER. OMG it was so bloody awesome.......... D:

Second period intermission:

Flandersdude is STILL insisting that Dagger scored. Apparently everyone agrees that it was Dagger. Everyone but the ref. Poop.
Heeehee there was something super funny about the way that Flandersdude just said "Acadie" (he's talking to Danny Masse about the teams he played for in the Q).
Masse grew up a Habs fan. Whoohoo! That's what you get for moving from some place near QC to some place near Montreal. HAHAH.

Second period

Hey, Hammies, please don't go to sleep.
HOLY CRAP. Rockford on a 2 on 0 (YES ZERO) and they miss the net........... WAKE UP HAMMIES!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's a rugby match going on behind the Hammies net apparently.
Boo.. penalty coming up.
We're lucky that the IceHogs keep missing the net.
And the IceHogs miss the net again.
...........And again.........
........and again.......
Weber's turn to miss the net now.
Boy oh boy, a goal by the Hammies would be nice right about now....
STEVENSON SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORES! 2-0! WHOOHOO! That would be a month long scoring drought he just snapped. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Wow, Subban just got mauled and yet he still kept hold of the puck.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrock Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrotter 3-0!!!!!!!!!! (Flandersdude says the goal was godawful for Crawford, but we'll take it anyway).
Flandersdude is recounting the three gazillion time zones he had to cross through to get from Hammie-town to Vancouver and then from Vancouver to Rockford. Sounds confusing!
And he still thinks that Dagger should have had that goal.
Ayeyeye! That sounded like waaaaaaaaaaay too many IceHogs getting shots away on Sanford....
Nice to know that Sanford is on top of his game so far! Sheeshhhh!

Intermission number 2

I do believe Flandersdude is talking to Ryan Flinn right now. Hi Ryan!
I'd like to know how many teeth he's missing because he sounds like he's missing a few of them (that or he's been punched in the face).
Flandersdude: You should go into broadcasting when you're done playing hockey.
Flinn: there's not too many opportunities for that in Phoenix (I guess he moved to Phoenix?).
Flandersdude: Do they still have a team there? I know they're not in Hamilton!
Flinn: *mentions something about the current guys in Phoneix doing the broadcasting*
Flandersdude: maybe you should be like Tanya Harding while the other guy can be Nancy Kerrigan? (nice....)

Third period

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrock Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrotttttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 4-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Missed a few things whilst discussing Serena Williams and how I think that while she's an amazing athlete, I can't stand her personality.
IceHogs have missed the net once and rang the puck off the goal post in this PP.
Flandersdude is still dwelling on Dagger's goal which turned into Stewie's goal. HAHAHAHA. I find this funny... for no reason.
Skille got SUBBANed. SMOOSH.
CONBOY SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Didn't I say that the Hammies would score 5 goals for Flandersdude when he came back from Vancouver? DIDN'T I?!!!!!!!!!!!! Flashback to Monday night during the Sabres/Canucks game: "...........hmmm maybe the Sabres can have one more goal? Just one more? For Flandersdude? *smacks self* nononono Hammies will show their appreciation for Flandersdude by scoring at least five goals in Rockford on Wednesday and he can yell "and they scoooooooooooore" all night. Yes. Yes. Yes." SEEEEE?!!!!!!!!!!!
AYEYEYE. Rockford with their second two on ZERO rush............... Sanford stops them. BAD defensive lapses, Hammies. BAD. BAD. BAD.
GAME OVER. Shutout!!!!! WHOOHOOO! Sanford's first shutout since....... October? His second shutout over the Rockford IceHogs!

Post game stuffs

I bet you can guess what Flandersdude is saying regarding that first goal. Yup. Still insisting that Dagger got it. Really, I want to see the replay of this now.
Righto, so the Hammies had no PPs but Flandersdude still has to do his whole sponsorship add thingy. Hahahahaha.
Whooo! Hammies just set a franchise record for most shutout wins away!

Righto.. do I have to talk about the other shutout tonight? Like the one in which the Habs got SHUTOUT by the BOLTS......? Yeah, I don't like that shutout. I like the Hammies one better. GO HAMMIES GO!

54 rinks in 54 hours

2010-01-27T13:15:00.001-05:00

No not me!!! Although, I might be hitting up four rinks in seven days in February.... I'm talking about this super great cause going on in New Jersey this weekend.

If you're like me, you're probably wondering what the hell you were doing last night sitting in front of the TV watching the Habs snooze away another key game. I headed off to puckdaddy to see if there was anything there worth reading. Turned out there was a lot of crap that wasn't making me feel any less pessimistic about hockey but then I saw this. If you're too lazy to click the link, it's about... well, here, I'll just copy the important bit from puckdaddy:

On Friday, Jan. 29, as part of Hockey Weekend in America, EveryBODY Skates New Jersey will begin an ambitious journey through the Garden State: Visiting all 54 New Jersey ice rinks in 54 hours. The goal is to help convince those rink owners and operators that allocating just one hour of ice time per week to disabled hockey can make an enormous difference for this fledgling program and thousands of potential players across the state.

Obviously I don't play hockey at all, but I really believe it's super important for the people that do play hockey to be allowed to play. ESNJ is asking for the rinks to allow them the opportunity to pay for their rink them. It's easy to get down on pro-hockey sometimes (don't say you haven't gotten fed up with sometimes but you know you have), but hockey is still a great sport that can do a lot of great things for people.

I think this is a super great cause and I wish them the best of luck!

Well, that sucked....................

2010-01-26T21:57:00.004-05:00

ZzZzZzZzZzZz................

The only thing worse than a snoozer of a game is a snoozer of a game that the Habs lose. Oh and of course having a bloody Amerk score on you. Twice. adhskjshdkjashdoiashdfakjshdkjashdkj..............

At least the Caps demolished the Islanders.

Canucks vs Sabres: we're only following this because of Flandersdude

2010-01-26T00:33:00.001-05:00

What? I don't have any pics of him!

Okay so some random Sabres guy just called the Canucks the "Can-ooks". Canooks. Canooks. Canooks. Canooks. It has a nice ring to it. Canooks. Canooks. Canooks. Canooks. Canooks. Canooks. Canooks. Ca... you get the idea....
And............ the guy who does the anthems in Vancouver drives me nuts.
I do not like Sabres/Canucks games.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE FLANDERSDUDE ON THE RADIO. This is way too weird.
Oh... there's Moosies playing for the Canucks tonight. If Flanderdude doesn't get confused, I will for sure!
Seriously, the Canucks better win this game but damnit, I will personally scream at all of the Sabres if they don't score. For Flandersdude's sake, you know?
I'm still confuzzled. Gaustad is definitely not a Hammie...!! And Baumgartner is not a Moosie tonight....? Confuzzlement.... D: D: D:
I think I'm way too excited for this game. Seriously.....
I liked Flandersdude saying that the Hammies goalies were awesome better. I don't care if Miller is awesome. Guh....
"He missed by centimeters errr inches". Measuring system fail... Reason No. 327918732891 why Flandersdude should stay in Canada: so he doesn't need to learn the funny American measuring system.
You know Flandersdude is awesome when (part 23516781): EP is actually interested in this random Sabres/Canucks game and is actually considering cheering for the Sabres. Yikes....
These Sabres adds are kind of funny... especially when I was just memorizing the Hammies ones....
Oh for crying out loud, Luongo, just let in a damn goal. Just one!
Adding to the confusion (part 34567): commercial for some event on Niagara on the lake in ONTARIO. iayudiadyuoiaqduoaidhkasdhklahd!!!!!!!!!!!!
Miller is coming up with some big stops. Whoohoo! I mean.... Boohoo......!!! BAD MILLER.

What a confusing period.... o.< on to the second (gotta stay up until the Sabres score, right?).

I really hope the Sabres score quickly because it's getting late here and I'm tired.......
How many times is this other guy going to say that we've got two of the best goalies in the world playing tonight? This is like the 216873192 time he's said it already.........
Let's go Sabres, let's go! *clap clap clap*
I really wish Flandersdude could take over from Moffat. I feel so dirty cheering for the Sabres.
"AND THEY SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!"
WHOOOOHOOOOOOOO! GO SABRES GO! WE CAN ALL GO HOME HAPPY NOW. WHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.....................................I mean... freaking hell.. C'MON CANOOKS. TIE IT UP. TIE IT UP. NOW. NOW. NOW. Stupid freaking Sabres. Damnit. hfakjgdgdasdfrgtplkm............
Wait, why does TSN say that the game is tied?! My radio feed is behind?! HUH?! *waits*
.... waiting.....
.....waiting...............
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY TIED GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO CANOOKS GO.
...........hmmm maybe the Sabres can have one more goal? Just one more? For Flandersdude? *smacks self* nononono Hammies will show their appreciation for Flandersdude by scoring at least five goals in Rockford on Wednesday and he can yell "and they scoooooooooooore" all night. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Feel free to win the game now, Canooks.
Creepy Sedin Twin for the wiiiiiiiiiiiiin! 2-1!!!!! YEAH BABY. I mean... Flandersdude isn't overly pleased with this. Poor guy. Blame Miller. It's all Miller's fault. BAD MILLER.
CAN YOU TELL I'M STILL OVERLY EXCITED FOR THIS STUPID GAME?
GO SABRES GO. GO CANOOKS GO. GO SABRES GO. GO CANOOKS GO.
Luuu is robbing the Sabres. Whoohoo!
Sabres take a penalty and Flandersdude isn't happy. Stop being a homer.
OH C'MON YOU STUPID REFS! THAT HAS TO COUNT AS A SHORTY FOR THE SABRES. FLANDERSDUDE WANTS IT TO BE A GOAL.Baaaaaaaaaah..................... DAMN YOU FRASER.
Oh the bright side, the Canooks get a 5 on 3 power play out of it because the Sabres supposedly crosschecked a Canook. Go Canooks go!!! GO GO GO GO GO GO!
End of the second...

intermission notes: Wyshynski of puckdaddy tweets: "I just want to point out that based on the comedic tweets from the fan bases tonight, I want a #sabres vs. #canucks SCF more than ice cream." To which I immediately thought "but Taylor Hall doesn't eat ice cream. He just scores goals." Oh thank you, Pierre McGuire for coming up with completely random crap that I just can't forget.

Flandersdude is sounding good. I think Canada needs to apply pressure on the Americans to not allow him to get his papers to work in the USA. We need to keep him here!!!!
WHOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO AND THEY SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE for real!!!!!! Mr. ColoUr Commentator Guy interrupts Flandersdude before he can finish his whole "so and so does whatever to put the puck past whichever goalie it is" thing which follows the whole "and they scoooooooooooore" bit. Not cool.....
Also not cool, is the fact that the Sabres are pressing now. C'MON CANOOKS.
Someone scores for the Canoooooooooooooooks! 3-2! GO CANOOKS GO!
I have a major headache right now.... Boohooo.... no headache no!
Uhuh... Flandersdude, we don't want to know that the Pirates will be playing those Bloody Amerks at HSwhateverletterscomenext arena. Although... I'm SURE we can all agree on this: BOOOOOOOO AMERKS BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Bwahahahahahah *runs away*
I do believe Flandersdude is enjoying himself right now. It's quite the exciting game going on right now. Lots of action in this game.
blah blah blah Miller with a save. Blah blah blah blah Luongo with a save. Blah blah blah....
Flandersdude did a heck of a lot of research for this.... he's spewing random stuff about draft picks from a gazillion years ago now.
1 min left. GO CANOOKS. GO CANOOKS. I'M STILL A HABS FAN FIRST, DAMNIT.
YES CANOOKS WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Deal with it Sabres!
Good job everyone. Exciting game. Great job Flandersdude! Now get the next flight out of there and head off to Rockford!

Did I just write up a whole damn post on a Canucks/Sabres game? WOW...............................!

Good luck Flandersdude!

2010-01-25T17:33:00.001-05:00

He's going to be calling the Sabres/Canucks game tonight. I hope it goes super well! Just.... don't enjoy it too much because we don't want you leaving Hammie-town yet (especially not if he's going to the Sabres. GUH).

And read the thing The Spec had about this too. Especially the last line. Flandersdude's grandmother said she wanted to live long enough to hear him call an NHL game. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Getting all teary-eyed now...!!!

Do I even need to say how I feel about Patches being sent down?

2010-01-24T12:22:00.003-05:00

Seriously?

I know most people see this as a "demotion". I'm sure Patches isn't thrilled about being sent to Hamilton instead of going to enjoy the warm weather in Florida this week. But let's face it. He's been regressing since he got here. He had a great camp but it hasn't helped him a whole lot here. He's been looking more and more lost by the game.

Going to Hamilton (or actually, I think the Hammies will be in Rockford, Norfolk and Chicago this week) is the best thing for him. How anyone thought that he was ready to be an NHLer when he only had a handful of AHL games after coming out of college is beyond me. He should have started off the season in Hamilton. But I digress. This is the best thing for him in the long term. He's going to get his confidence back and hopefully he's not going to get whacked around as much. And he's going to help my Hammies win games again (once he gets used to The Real System (which is better than The System). Yup. Yup. Yup.).

Welcome back to Hammie-town, Patches. Please don't sulk.

EDIT: Oh look. We swapped Dagger for Maxwell. Boohoo. Good luck to Maxwell! Dagger's on a conditioning stint for now, so he would still need to clear waivers eventually if he's going to stay (I believe anyway).

I'm counting down the days until Patches and Dagger can get The Real System.

OMG JUNIORS! OMG HABS!!!! (and omg Hammies... but for a different reason)

2010-01-23T22:06:00.000-05:00

My Baby Juniors: 6
Number One Team in CANADA: 4.

YES. My Juniors beat the Sea Dogs today! YES! YES! YES! I love being wrong in this case. When I was debating which game to go to (last night's match or today's) I said that I'd prefer to watch the Foreurs because the Juniors were going to get demolished by the Sea Dogs.

I would do a whole write up but 1) I missed most of it because I was following the faily Voltigeurs play (and looooose) and 2) Flandersdude is talking now :D so here's the scoring summary of the third period which is the part I followed:

HOLY COW. What an end! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...............!

ANYWAY.... HAMMIES TIME.

Pre-game thoughts:

Flandersdude wonders why people would come out to see the Marlies when the Leafs are on TV as well tonight. My guess would it be because the Marlies will be slightly more interesting to watch lose than the Leafs.
Guy said a pile of stuff that I missed because I'm STILL squeaking about the Juniors winning.
Dany Masse played his first game last night!! Good because we lost Jojo. He's been reassigned to a team in Sweden who's name escapes me. Farjestad?
Gluu's wife is going to have a baby so Gluu isn't here. Apparently Gluu's baby is taking its sweet time to be born too D:

First period

Flandersdude says we're probably going to be in for a war tonight. Because it's ALWAYS war between the Hammeis and Marlies.
oh DAMN Marlies score. 1-0. Here we go again with the Marlies making my life hell. Bloody Marlies.
David might be injured now. Damn you, Andre Deveaux. White and Subban are trying to beat him up now. Guy is apparently going insane.
Deveaux just got kicked out for a while.
David isn't leaving so he should be okay for now.
hdakjhsakjdhakdhakjs Hammie going to the box. this is a freaking mess and it's only 5 mins into the game!!!!!!
dhakdshkdhkahdeiuqjdrfklqhfkjshfkahsdfkjahfskjashkashdl DAMN YOU MARLIES. 2-0.
Flandersdude: if I was Guy Boucher I might consider calling a time out.
Me: If I was Guy Boucher I would start whacking my players upside the head. .....................................or I could pull the goalie. Teddy is getting pulled for Sanford.
Flandersdude and Al are discussing why Guy would pull Teddy now. I still think Guy should start whacking his players to get their brains to work again.
Stewart is going to get into big trouble if he doesn't stop playing like an idiot.
Weber down and Henry and Simon go at it. I'm getting very sick of these truculent Marlies. And note that truculent means playing like bunch of $%^&ing morons.
Marlies PP. PK gets angry and sounds like Guy is ready to strangle his team right now.
What a freaking ugly period.

Second period

The Hammies respond to a shitty first period by........ taking a penalty.
3-0.
Can we just quit this game?
Stewie would prefer to get beat up by Stokes instead.I'm sure Guy will prefer that Stewie sits in the box for a while anyway.
BEN MAXWELL scores. 3-1
PK gets decked and there's no call? WTF?
Stevenson gets decked and no call?
4-1.
And PK gets decked again. No call.
I know I'm alone in this, but I'd prefer to swap scores with the Habs right now. Habs are up 4-0 and Hank is smashing stuff as he gets pulled for some guy called Zaba.
I want to enjoy this Habs 5-0 smackdown of the Rags but I'm still mad at the Hammies right now. hkajshdakjhdkajshdkjasdsjdhkj....................
Hammies... you suck tonight. I'm sorry. But you do and you're not helping yourselves at all.
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
DAVID! Hammies are only losing 4-2 now.
5 on 3 PP for the Hammies for once.
Ooooo another Marlie going to the box. Can we score? PLEASE? PLEASE? PLEASE?????
Damn, second period over.

Third period

SOMEONE SCOOOOOOOOOORED! I don't know who! 4-3!
Hammies are alive again!
Go Hammies! GO HAMMIES!
Okay... Hammies are dead.... Benoit off to the box....
C'mooooooooooooon HAMMIES!
haksjdhakjdhakjsdh Trotter... that was a super stupid penalty.........
WHAT? Trotter got a DOUBLE minor? shakjdshaskjdhkajsdhkdquiruqwifhyfakjfsAHKauwioqwued!!!!
dhakjdhqiorydqiwuyfiwshfsfhiewufhiquewfry Marlies win 4-3. BAAAAAH.
Not a smart game for the Hammies. Bad Hammies. Fix your brains before you get back on the ice.

Instead of collapsing in a heap of sobs and whatnot.. let's just move on to the Habs....

HABS WIN 6-0. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! It was great. Habs demolished the Rags, Jaro got a shutout, Torts went Torts. WHOOHOOO! I think I might have to start liking BennyPoo soon. He's a RFA too at the end of the year, eh? =( but anyway, WOW HABS. Nice win!

VIIIIIIIIIIICTOOOOOOORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

2010-01-23T00:54:00.004-05:00

MY TEAMS WIN. VIIIIIICTOOOOOOORYYYYYYYYYYY!

HUGPILE FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I headed off to Verdun tonight in the hopes that my Juniors would finally win a game while I was there. I wanted to hope that they would beat Val-d'Or considering how stinky Val-d'Or is supposed to be (while not forgetting what happened the last time I went to Verdun which also was a Juniors/Foreurs game).

ANYWAY.

The losing streak is OVER baby! WHOOOOOOO! Juniors stomped on the Foreurs by a beautiful score of 5-1. Oh yes. Sadly, my expensive camera with the decent lens decided not to work so I was forced to rely on the backup camera. Which is like relying on your backup goalie. It's nice and it does the job, but it's not as pretty as your starting camera. Did I just compare my cameras to goalies? Yeah, the meds are kicking in now (I'm still sick. Boohoo). But really... it's kinda true....

Butbutbutbutbutbutbut MY JUNIORS WON. It was horrendously loud at the Verdun Auditorium even for me who's ears were unbelievably blocked. They had guys whacking drums all night. never seen those guys there before and hoping I never will again. GUH.

Anyway!!!! There were all kinds of guys who I didn't know or hadn't seen before. Baby Marcoux got to be a Baby BenchWarmer tonight as Berube got to start (I miss Jaaaaake). David Rose was newish. Dillon Donnelly was new too (he was part of the Wall trade). Lapostelle was new to me too. I didn't even know this guy existed before tonight. Xavi was back with the team finally! Oh and I found out the mystery of the Hugo Roux/Desharnais. Hugo has two last names and they only put on on his jersey. His name is Hugo Roux-Desharnais. MYSTERY SOLVED. ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this was my first time seeing the Juniors in that red/maroon colour. The Q followed the OHL when they switched their home colours to the darker colours. This matters because red/maroon looks a lot better than white.

Moving on........... Scandella who I'm now back to hating now that he's not playing for Team Canada, got into a fight with Gouchie. I thought the Juniors ended up with a PP in there and then they scored immediately or maybe they didn't get a PP. Bottom line is that they got a faceoff near the goalie with the Turco goalie pads and Chouinard scored. Some not as interesting stuff happened and then David Rose added one late in the period. WHOOOHOO!

The Foreurs imploded in the second period. They got into loads of penalty issues mainly because the Juniors were pressing. They spent most of the first half of the period in the box. Brenton scored. He's linemates with GOOOcheee and Genest. At least at that point he was :D And AUUUUUUUBRRRRRRRRRRY back from the CHL Top Prospects thingy scored on the PP. YAY AUBRY. After Aubry scored the Turco looking goalie smashed his stick while his coach was yelling (couldn't hear him through all the noise) and slamming the door to the bench and all that. Bwahahahah.

The third period was a huge mess. The Foreurs changed goalies and put in another guy with a hyphenated last name. Not that it did any good. GOOOOOOcheeee scored which was followed by a pretty quick goal by the Foreurs. Don't know who scored, don't care. Got a good view of the goal. It was only a matter of time before the Foreurs scored. They were pressing pretty hard at that point. And yeah... the rest of the game was marked by everyone getting upset. I'm sure the Juniors were upset that they ruined JF's shutout and were now going to the box for all kinds of dumb things. On the other side, I'm sure the Foreurs were upset that their goalie turned into a sieve and they were playing like crap (I guess the drums disoriented them too).

Observe all the evil penalties:

Lots and lots of fighting. Made for a rather anti-climatic win in the end but it was a good win.

Good for me because my boys finally won a game for me. Good for my boys because it shows that they 1) they weren't dwelling on the massacre that Victoriaville inflicted on them on Sunday 2) they can indeed defeat a division rival.. Even if that rival is a lot crappier than they are (which is saying something).

Speaking of GOOD WINS............HAMMIES BEAT AMERKS 6-1!!!!!!!! And they chased Salak out too. HURRAY! HURRAY! HURRAY! Hammies knew that Guy would kill them if they didn't at least try tonight. Beating those Amerks in their own building is great. Chasing out Salak in the process is even better (still holding a grudge against him, yes). This was a big win and I can only imagine what Flandersdude was doing. He probably lost his voice at the end of the game :D Goals came from Trotter, Pyatt and Wyman in the first period... Trotter and White in the second... and Taffe (who somehow is always alone in front of Teddy or Sandford and scores) and WYMAN. Whoooooooo! Hammies even scored on the PP while not giving the Amerks anything on theirs. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Habs won 3-1 over the Devils. I'm told that Darche may have gotten a goal. WHOOOOOOOO!

Aaaaannnnnnnnnnd IceDogs win 4-1. Visentin is back from the CHL thingy too. WHOOOOOOOOOO!

I IS HAPPY!

And tired... stupid cold medication..............

Pictures are HERE.

Here we go again...Hammies are losing players left, right and center

2010-01-22T12:39:00.000-05:00

No more Darche obviously.

No more Carle for the rest of the season. He will need surgery on his shoulder.

No more Jojo either for... well, Guy wouldn't say. Jojo went back to Sweden to do with family issues and apparently Guy wouldn't say when or even if he would come back.

Quick, someone spike the water in Salak's waterbottle!!

3 things

2010-01-21T14:22:00.001-05:00

1. From what I've heard, Laraque isn't a bad person. I kinda liked Laraque the human being. Laraque the hockey player infuriated me to no end. I am not sorry to see him go. Not. At. All. When the goalie gets into more spontaneous fights than the supposed enforcer, you've got a problem. I know he's been injured for a good portion of the time (another issue entirely) but even when he was in the lineup he wasn't doing anything useful.

2. My boys did well at the CHL Top Prospects thing. Visentin (baby IceDog) didn't allow a goal in the first half of the game (Domingue got to be the faily other goalie). Spoooooner (the Pete who won the shootout last Friday) and Aubry (Juniors guy) both had goals and apparently Watson (former Spit turned Pete) had a really solid PK when Team Orr was on a 5 on 3 PP. WHOO =)

3. Ovie vs Puffy tonight. That is all.

Habs vs Blues - we've got a new enforcer of sorts

2010-01-21T09:59:00.007-05:00

So I took my mom to her first live game since.... whenever the last time she was in the old Forum was.... which was years ago..... After the first five minutes, I'm sure the whole Habs team and I were all going "FML". I was certainly hoping I wasn't about to witness a massacre... Thankfully that didn't end up happening and I still think my mom had a good time so it was all good.

We did have a great view of our new little enforcer though:

You tell him, Carey!! SMASHY SMASHY SMASHY! What? I was denied my imaginary goalie fight on Sunday! I wanted a goalie fight! SMASHY!

Personally, I think if the goalie goes out like that (and Carey had no choice because the D was nowhere to be seen) then he should be considered relatively fair game (ie I don't think Janssen should have ran him over like that but I think he should have been allowed to bump into him). That being said, I think if someone is going to ram the goalie in any capacity (including bowling him over), they should be punched out by the goalie's teammates (and the goalie himself). In other words, my only problem with what happened last night was that Carey wasn't allowed to punch out someone (not that I think Carey should have been allowed to fight Janssen. Conklin would have been a suitable punching bag, no?)... oh and the fact that the whole thing could have been averted if the defense wasn't on another planet

And Pierre McGuire is like "Why isn't Laraque in the lineup?!" Well, I'll tell you why he's not in the lineup, Pierre. He's not in the lineup because he does NOTHING when he's on the ice. NOTHING. Our goalie is willing to get into more fights than him. EDIT: apparently he's also not in the lineup because the Habs will buy him out.

Apart from Carey sticking up for himself (or trying to anyway) the other good thing was.... damn, I can't believe I'm saying this... BennyPoo. Yes, BennyPoo had a good night. At least I only remember the good parts about his night so if he did give the puck away during one of those blecky Blues goals, I don't remember it. Yeah. Sorry I ever said mean things about you, BennyPoo....

Also... I think I was the only one who cheered super loud when they showed Darche. Poor Darche.... D:

Anyway, no more Habs games for me this year. My lovely stash of hockey tickets is slowly diminishing..... Boohoo D:

I think I used the words "anyway" and "also" way too much in this post.

Major setback

2010-01-20T12:40:00.000-05:00

I saw the saddest comment yesterday when the news that Darche was called up by the Habs.

I don't even know this Darche

It's comments like these that make me realize that my plans to have the Hammies take over the hockey world are still a long way from coming to fruition..... *sighs*

On the bright side... PK and Teddy helped win the shootout for Team Canada over Planet USA. YAY!

And I should throw a book at the Habs

2010-01-19T18:02:00.003-05:00

Darche has been called up.

Darche needs to clear waivers to come back to Hammie-town.

Next time, tank on your own, Habs. No need drag the Hammies into your crapfest.

I'm getting mad at the Habs again. Well, I'm mad at them anyway right now. But still. RAR.

*tosses non-metaphorical books at the Habs*

Cormier should have the book thrown at him

2010-01-19T12:58:00.000-05:00

For the last couple of days I've been trying to think of something to say about Patrice Cormier's senseless hit to Mikhael Tam that left the latter convulsing on the ice. I think everyone knows by now that I do not like any type of hit that leaves a player concussed. Sometimes cases can be made that it was an accident. Players do turn at the last split second which puts them in a vulnerable position. That happens.

However, there are still far too many cheap and dangerous hits going around.

There are no excuses for hits like the ones that Kassian laid out in the Windsor/Barrie game last week or on the Cormier hit in the Rouyn-Noranda/Quebec game. Both were open ice hits on players. In Kassian's case, the other player did not have the puck and Kassian left his feet. Cormier's was a lot uglier. It looked an awfully lot like he targeted Tam when he came off the bench and he got his elbow up his face. If you're going to at least try to make a clean hit, you don't lead with your elbow. Cormier's hit was cheap, it was dirty and it was entirely unnecessary and pointless. Not only will Tam be the one who has to deal with the serious and long term affects of this hit, but Cormier's apparent reaction is almost as inexcusable. If we believe the Remparts, Cormier was smiling about the hit, argued with the refs and did not stick around to see if Tam was alright. I realize that perhaps a suspension should be based solely on the action (something that doesn't really happen though), but if Cormier really did react to the hit in this way, to me it indicates a player who doesn't see that he did anything wrong. If a player feels that way, then it's probably safe to assume that he wouldn't necessary be above doing it again.

I know people's main argument for not suspending Cormier is that they fear that it will take hitting out of the game because a player might think twice about delivering a hit. You know what? If a guy has to think twice before delivering a hit to someone's head, then so be it. I would much rather players think twice before hitting than to see another video of concussed players convulsing while being taken off on a stretcher. I have no intention of arguing that hitting has no place in hockey. Hitting has a place in hockey. But there are numerous ways in which a player can deliver a solid, clean hit. It's entirely possible to take a guy out of the play without taking him out of the game for weeks, months or possibly the rest of his life. Sometimes you can argue that it was an accident. Cormier's hit on Tam was no accident. He left the bench and targeted Tam. He lead with his elbow. There was no pretext of even trying to deliver a clean hit.

Like I said, Cormier's hit was cheap, it was dirty and it was entirely unnecessary and pointless. Tam is going to have to live with the affects of it. The least the Q can do is throw the book at Cormier.

Roger's baaaaack

2010-01-19T10:16:00.002-05:00

And apparently this is tennis' version of the barberpole jersey too.. (I personally thought it sort of resembled the Ottawa 67s jerseys a little bit. You know.. ugly and stripey?).

Picture comes from here.

Tennis has actually be underway for about a month now, but I just came to the conclusion this morning that the Habs have decided to suck right now so I can pay more attention to Roger and the Australian Open! Such considerate Habs! Anyway, I don't intend on blogging too much about Roger this year, but it's a slow hockey day so just enjoy making fun of Roger in his barberpole shirt :D

I think this sums up how I felt about the game

2010-01-17T20:33:00.006-05:00

Yup. All those fights in the second period were actually pretty entertaining. I wanted a goalie fight! Jaro could have totally channeled his inner-Emery and beat the crap out of Lundqvist.

Everything else sucked though.

Positive thought of the night

2010-01-16T22:26:00.002-05:00

Petes just won back-to-back-to-back games. Three games, three days, two different cities. Misshy was in nets for all three. Good job guys!

Also, Philippe had three assists tonight (and the Voltigeurs blew a three goal lead in the third period before eventually winning in a shootout).

Yeah... let's just deal with the positives, okay? 'cause we could be here all night if we wanted to be negative...

I do believe I love the OHL

2010-01-16T01:21:00.008-05:00

Alrighty, it was my first - and mostly last - OHL game of the year tonight. The purpose of said trip to Ottawa was to see Misshy. Yes, I trekked all the way to Ottawa to see a baby Hab.

But before we get to Misshy, you get to hear all about the game and all that lovely stuff!

First, no pics because I stupidly left my camera at home by accident. Yes, I had a fit when I realized it while I was half way to Ottawa.....

Second, I want to say that I LOVE this arena. I love it. It's a really nice arena. It's kinda weird because there's a short side and a not short side. Basically half of the building slopes away so on one half you only have a few rows of seating, while on the other half you have a ton of seating. Apparently they nicknamed the lower half "the asylum" because it can get a little crazy down there (I got to witness some of this when the Petes took a time out in OT and the fans behind the bench started whacking drums. I dont' get the point of this but it was amusing). I stayed on the not short side where the views are better.

Also, I have to hand it to Ottawa. At least for tonight, the 67s had a really solid number of fans. Was very impressed to see the turnout for the game. My Hammies and Juniors envy you (my Juniors also want to trade buildings with you). I guess it's easier just to go to a 67s game than to trek out to KANATA where The Cave is (yes, I just dissed the Sens). The atmosphere was great (was very entertained by the group of people behind me. I could tell how much they had been drinking by the number of swear words they kept adding to their conversation. Not to mention the conversation made no sense by the end of the game).

If all OHL teams have this kind of support - and I know a lot of them do - then wow... the OHL is awesome. It's up to you, Voltigeurs to restore my love for the Q in February. Right now, I'm loving the OHL. Anyone feel like funding a trip to Kingston to see the Frontenacs/Petes next week? Hmmmmm?

A few complaints though (because I'm me and I need to complain sometimes): 1) I hate their cheer. "Let's go Siiixiiiity-Seeveeens let's go!" (I can't even describe properly how annoying it was) is the most annoying and catchiest cheer around. GUH. 2) get those cheerleaders out of there. Even they looked embarrassed to be there. 3) They need do something better about their entertainment in-between periods. Having random kids "sing" for a reason that I couldn't understand because the MC guy was having trouble speaking was just annoying. As was the group of well....they weren't exactly "scantily clad" dancers, but they were on the ice in freaking heels and they were waving pom poms and they looked stupid. They kept falling on the ice too. For a team that makes their zamboni drivers wear helmets (not lying) letting these girls out there in heels is just stupid. Get them out of there.

Anyway....

The GAME

It was pretty funny looking at the goalies. Misshy is huge while the 67s goalie is... well.. not. Misshy could kneel down and still be at the same height as Perugini (and yes, I just now looked up Perugini's height. He's generously listed at 5'10). I figured if Misshy dropped the gloves with Perugini, he could just step on him and squash him.

Anyway, the game got off to a good start. It was evident that the Petes had played last night (they won 5-1 against Belleville at home). Their passes were a little off and they just seemed a little tired. Still, shots were even after the first period with the Petes enjoying a 1-0 lead. Heelis scored while Perugini was being obstructed by his own player. Hey, I can't help it if the guy's teammates want to help out the Petes.

It was really only a matter of time before the 67s scored though. And they did about 5 mins into the second period. Someone's head was in my way so I didn't get a great view, it but looked like Misshy wasn't hugging the post enough. That or he misplayed his angles and the puck went into the far corner. Like I said, someone's head was in my way and I missed the replay (oh yes, we get nice replays at the Urbandale Centre). I was also distracted by the incredibly ugly goal horn. I've never heard anything so ugly in all my brief time as a hockey fan. Hands down, the ugliest goal horn ever. ANYWAY.... A minute later, Breen got what looked like a kinda weak goal on Peruguni (I gotta be honest, I kept reading "Penguin" when I looked at the back of his jersey). The Petes were sort of controlling the play and one just shot the puck at the net. It must have deflected in or else Peruguni was totally not ready for that shot. Anyway, weak goal made it 2-1 for the Petes. Apparently holding leads is not the Petes thing however. Just a minute after that, the 67s score again. I really blocked this one from memory so I don't know what happened here. Pretty sure it went glove side on a pretty much half open net. I can tell you I was worried about the Petes at this point because they were looking drained. Officially, the 67s had outshot the Petes 18-9. Despite the two goals he let in, Misshy was making some big stops too. Essentially, he was the reason why his team was not losing.

In fact! his team started winning again in the third period. Larson had a gorgeous goal when Perugini imitated a penguin and flopped all around his crease and Larson skated around him and popped the puck into the back of the net. Whoo! Fast forward until the end of the game. There's just over two mins left. The Petes get a PP. Great chance to put the game away, right? Right. Well, it was PP fail night as neither team had scored on the PP and the Petes failed. No big deal. They still controlled the play and time was winding down.... Okay so the 67s got to pull their goalie. No biggie. Someone just needs to shoot the puck down the ice, hit the empty net and.... miss the net and get the icing call? Not what I had in mind, boys. So the 67s get an offensive zone faceoff with just 7 seconds left in the game. The Petes just had to hang on for 7 seconds. How hard would that be? Riiight, well, you see, the Petes weren't holding any leads tonight. It was amazing that they had held this lead for as long as they did. Well, the 67s won the faceoff, controlled the play,everyone crowded Misshy and he couldn't control the puck and............ blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! went that damn goal horn and it was a tied game. There went my hopes of leaving Ottawa early.

OT was stressful as the 67s enjoyed a PP. Thankfully some more PP fail and some nice defensive and Misshy kept the puck out of the net. Shootout time.

I didn't think that Misshy would do well. I'll explain more why after, but he's not great at this whole movement thing. Anyway, as it turned out, Misshy stopped two of the 67s players while another one shot the puck wide. On the other end Spooner scored and Perugini sorta stopped Daley. As Flandersdude would say: do the math and the Petes won the game.

YAAAAAAAAAAY! Ole ole ole! Ole ole ole!

My totally NON-expert opinion of Misshy

Obviously Misshy isn't a puny guy. He's a bloody giant out there. As such, it's not a surprise that movement is one area that needs work. He doesn't move as well as some the other guys out there. There were a couple of instances where he had to make a diving sprawl to get from one post to the other. Looked great, but it shouldn't have been needed. Yes, goalies get caught out of position, but Misshy was getting caught more often that I would have liked (hey, at least he gets support from his defense).

I wasn't happy with his puck control tonight. I'm not talking rebounds. I'm talking actual control. There were about half a dozen times when he had the puck, seemed in control, and lost the puck. This wouldn't be too bad if the puck wasn't somehow landing about a foot away from him. Picture that big mistake by Jake at the Worlds. Misshy has control issues like that. They didn't really cost him too much (well, I think if he had controlled the puck better at the end of the game, I wouldn't have had to stress out over OT and a shootout but that goal was not just his fault) but that's something to think about.

Also, I've never noticed a goalie where the pucks seemed to bounce off him and straight up into the air before. It's hard to explain but it seemed quite a few pucks bounced off him and went straight up, leaving everyone to scramble for it. I noticed on one occasion he tried to deflect the puck off his arm and instead of bouncing away, it went straight up and he was forced to catch it with his glove (rather reminiscent of baseball players catching the ball). I don't know if this always happens with him and I don't know how this can be fixed. If it happened once or even twice, I wouldn't be concerned. But it happened at least three maybe four times. It left everyone scrambling for the puck right in front of his net and on at least one of the times it nearly plopped into the back of the net.

While I think the second 67s goal actually went in glove side, Misshy does have a glove hand (unlike Vesa on most nights) and it did work. He had a few really nice glove saves.

Despite some of the technical issues, he kept the Petes in the game. Particularly in the second period where the 67s completely dominated the game.

YAY no Colts for me!

2010-01-14T20:33:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Grrrreg for alerting me to this article. The important bit:

Barrie also added goaltender Mavric Parks from the Kitchener Rangers shortly before Monday's deadline. Parks will battle with Peter Di Salvo for the starting job, but will watch from the bench Thursday as Di Salvo gets the nod against Windsor.

Finnish goaltender Petteri Simila, who was acquired as part of the Pietrangelo trade with Niagara, will head home. Dalton McGrath, who had been Di Salvo's backup, will join a Colts affiliate team.

So that eliminates one team for me. Also.. who calls their kid Mavric?

Hammies vs Monsters - We're sick and tired of this team already

2010-01-13T22:04:00.004-05:00

Pre-game stuffs

Guy sounds like he's been shouting a lot. Oh wait. He has.
I think I could've written this up before listening to this... Guy wasn't happy at all with the team, etc, etc, etc, etc....
Sad to say, but the Habs could use more of Guy's thinking that Martin's "oh yeah, everything is fine and dandy and if it isn't then I'm going to bagskate them all...." mentality.
Flandersdude speaks for all when he says he's sick and tired of the Monsters.

First period

Oh nooooooooo it's KOHARSKI reffing. We're already screwed.
Sanford and Carle are back tonight.
White already hits the post. This better not be the night of hitting the posts. On the bright side, at least they tried to score.
Observation of the night: If you add a "t" at the end of Stoa's name you get Stoat. You know... stoats are related to weasels...or ferrets... I always thought ferrets were kinda cute. Unlike Stoa.
Michael Busto was sent to the Elmira Jackals? Not the Cycs....? Oh and this is the first time I've heard anyone mention Busto's name all season.......
Uhoh... Guy is going to kill them...... Hammies standing around while some Monsters thingy rips it past Sanford.....*hides* 0-1...
YAY! Maxwell doesn't want to die tonight. He scores on the PP! (Flandersdude was too busy talking about something else to yell..... ) 1-1

Second period

Stupid observation of the night: Koharski sucks
hdjkhasdjkashjkashjkdashdkjh 2-1
Guy is going to kill the Hammies...
Weber is trying to die. He takes a ridiculously stupid penalty.
Hammies nearly score short handed. One of them gets clobbered. Koharski looks to call a penalty and then doesn't.
Maybe Guy will kill Koharski with his death glare?
Guy is going to kill the Hammies. 3-1 MONSTERS.
I know the Hammies are stinking it up right now, but damnit, all these no-calls by Koharski are killing the game for the Hammies.
Sad to say too... the Hammies have outshot the twerps too...
Ref you suck! Ref you suck!
Guy is still going to kill the Hammies...
Ref you suck! Ref you suck! Ref you suck!
This period sucked. Guy is going to kill them. If I don't kill them first. These sucky second periods are very annoying.

Third period

Apparently Koharski can count. Monsters get a penalty for too many men on the ice.
Hoping the Hammies score so the parents can hear Flandersdude go crazy.
(Bleeping) Weiman robs Darche...
Ref you suck!
Every time Flandersdude says Stoa's name say "FIE ON STOA".
Some wallpaper thing is sponsoring the third periods? That could explain a lot...........
Flandersdudeism of the night: Darche skates past that bouncing biscuit (really, "bouncing biscuit"?)
Carle injured???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay. PP. Make it count, Hammies.
... okay don't.
Damn, you know, this team needs Jordan Eberle if they have a hope in hell of tying this game up. WE NEED EBERLE.
Hammies are outshooting the Monsters 40-19. Yup. Guy is going to kill them.
Sure, give Trotter the penalty when you've missed like half a dozen infractions against the Hammies. Ref you suck.
OH BENOIT SCOOOOOOOOORES! 3-2!
guh............ Look, I know Sanford needed to play a game sooner or later... but he's let in two bad goals tonight..... 4-2 Monsters.
HOLY CRAP WHITE! 4-3!
Sanford is out of the net.
Guh. Empty netter. 5-3 Hammies say the Monsters were offside. They're giving the ref shit now.
Guy is going to kill them. At least the Bears lost too.
Oh and I hate the damn Monsters.
Final thought of the net: Hey, look Flandersdude does swear. At least in his mind anyway: "We'll play the highlights of the end of the game. It was kind of a cluster......um......something." Riiiiighto. Clustersomething. Uhuh. Al says it was a cluster of peanuts (some peanut thing apparently "sponsors" the plays of the game). Now I want to know what he's saying right now. Bet some of it isn't family friendly :D

5 things

2010-01-13T11:18:00.005-05:00

Well, it wasn't quite a bagskate... actually, it was probably a lot more productive than those stupid bagskates. Anyway, Guy gave the Hammies hell for being crappy the other night. He even kicked PK out of the practice at one point (lesson learned: never a break a stick and then to proceed to accidently almost hit your coach with the broken pieces of said stick. Particularly when your coach is in a very bad mood to begin with). For their sake, they better win tonight.............
Speaking of the Hammies... they're working on a new lease with Copps Coliseum. Boo. I actually think Copps Coliseum is probably waaaaay too big for them. I mean really, it seats 17,000 people or something and they only get 2 or 3 thousand people on most nights? If Copps Coliseum is anything like The Cave, then the atmosphere is probably deader than the Whalercanes playoff chances. Also, I don't like the NHL clause in the lease. The last lease said that if Hamilton was to get an NHL team, they could kick the Hammies out without any real notice. I really don't like that.....obviously.
I'm already getting tired of hearing about Taylor Hall and the Draft.....if my team doesn't have a chance of drafting him then forget it. I don't want to know.
You know that CHL top prospects thing that nobody is going to watch (including sadly, me because I will be watching the Habs lose in person)? Well, two of my guys will be there. IceDogs goalie Mark Visentin will be there as will Aubry! No idea why Aubry will be there, but he will be there so nyah!
Potatoes are the most awesome food in the world, okay?

Oh and... what the hell Bradley?!

Jeez..... I don't understand why Ovie can't fight (and the general thoughts from both the Caps and the Caps fan is that Ovie shouldn't be fighting). Hey, if The Crysob can "fight" then Ovie can too. Okay that was a bad example... hang on... okay, if Ilya can fight so can Ovie! Hey, I just noticed that in both examples it's a Panther getting beat up.

Hammies vs Monsters - are we done playing this team yet?

2010-01-11T22:17:00.009-05:00

Gawd, it feels like the Hammies have only been playing the Monsters and the Griffins lately. Oh wait.. four of the last six games have been against the Monsters or Griffins. And the Hammies are playing the Monsters again on Wednesday and the Griffins on Saturday (and those Amerks on Friday). Who did this stupid schedule?!!!! Guhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......... D:

First period

Hi Sanford warming the bench! Mayer was getting bored of sitting on the bench, I guess.
Someone scooooooores on the PP! Flanderdude says it's Darche. PA guy says it's Jojo. Darche appears to say it's Jojo. Al says it's Darche. Doesn't matter! Hammies up 1-0!
Oohhhh Monster down........ this could take a while to clean up.....
Stewie just steamrollered over a Monster. HAHAH. Don't worry, this one lived.
Oh looky. Another PP!
Brrrrrrrrrock Trotter!!!!!!!!! 2-0. Everyone agrees that it's Trotter :D
So.... Darche gets hit in the face and David goes to the box? Uhuh.... that's some flawed logic, yo...
"Lake Erie are shooting themselves in the foot again and again and again" - Flandersdude as the Monsters keep coughing up the puck to the Hammies in their own zone.
It's smash a Hammie in the face night, apparently. Monsters going to the box for whacking Trotter in the face now.
Stupid Weiman is keeping the Monsters in this game. GUH.
Wes O'Neill needs to be punched. It's only fair after he keeps trying to decapitate my Hammies.
Aie aie aie.... Teddy stops a breakaway.
Monsters should thank their goalie it's not 6-0.

Second period

oh wait... we're on the PK? How'd I miss that?
and now Henry is going off............. HEY WAKE UP HAMMIES.
hdakjsdhakjsdhaksjdhaksdh 2-1........
Hark! A penalty for the Monsters.
This is not a pretty period
Random thought of the hour: I have a new appreciation for food photography.
Flandersdude and Al would like to remind us how awful the jerseys are of the Monsters are. Apparently the numbers are screwey to the point where a 2 can look like an 8.
Most exciting thing thus far: Monsters almost score on themselves.
Posts have saved the Hammies TWICE now.
Is this period over yet? Guy wants to glare at the team now.
Teddy is giving the refs crap for not calling a goalie interference penalty. You tell them!
Darche with the Hammies first real attempt at a goal. Basically did all the work to almost get a goal and then got robbed. Boo.

Intermission doodad thingy

Neilson is a chatter box :D
I think he should totally get himself a career as a play by play guy when he retires.
Oh, Neilson played in Mooski with the Crysob?
...and he's STILL talking.... I'm not used to hockey players talking 1) without saying "uh" every two seconds and 2) talking this much.

Third period

guh... wrists are sore... making typing every amusing thing Flandersdude says very difficult D:
wake up Hammies... wake up!!!!!!!!!
no... not Monsters beat up Russel.... at least Benoit is standing up for Russel.
Al says Hammies aren't getting to enough lose pucks. Al is right.
I hate Stoa. 2-2.
apparently they don't cut to commercials on an icing call.
ummmm apparently this is going to OT.........

OT...

missed it because I was out walking the dogs............Monsters scored while on the PP. ICK. The Hammies probably deserve to lose it for falling asleep in the third period though.
Revenge time on Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!

Post-game thought

So apparently Abbotsford had their play by play booth thingy in the middle of nowhere. Then they moved it to a better location. Although apparently now Flandersdude will have to sit with a pile of other people. How'd you like to be the guy sitting beside Flandersdude when he yells "and they scoooooooooooore"? Hehehe.
Hark! Flandersdude isn't being pessimistic tonight. Must be because Al feels like being optimistic and it's rubbing off on everyone.

Voltigeurs on tv!

2010-01-10T23:32:00.003-05:00

The Voltigeurs made a super rare appearance on TV! Somehow their game against the Rocket got broadcasted on all the Sportnet channels and RDS tonight. Only thing is.. the Sportsnet AND RDS had the game on tape delay. Sportsnet because they were playing the stupid Sens game and RDS because they had some faily football game on. BAH. But I did get to watch the game!

Philippe: Hey looky! We're on TV!!

Dumont: I can't see.. your head is in my way...

Wow. Jake in a Voltigeurs jersey is weeeeeeeeeeeird. He still has his Juniors mask though, which made him look even weirder.
I see you Dumont playing on a line with Sean and.... hey, you're not Mr. Captain Vachon. Who are you? Brunelle is that you?
Drummondville now has two ex-Juniors. Jake and Toni Ritter (who is arrived in Drummondville from Shawinigan).
Well, that would have been a goal for Sean but Dumont knocked the puck out of Mosher's hands or something... no goal... pooh
Oooooooooof that could have been a brutal give away by Jake. Way too similar to that giveaway at the Worlds...
Ayeyeye... he's lucky the puck just skidded across the crease there. Poor Jake.
Is it just me or does Sean tower over most of the other players? He certainly seems to tower over Dumont.
PHILIPPE WITH A GOAL (that counts!). Seeeeeeeee? Jake did listen to me and he must have kicked Philipe when he arrived in Drummondville. YAY Philippe! Also... When did Mr. Captain Vachon get re-demoted to the second line? I like him playing on the same line as Philippe. Philippe manages to score goals when he plays on the same line as Mr. Captain Vachon.
This Mosher guy is annoying me. Let in another goal already....
Jake looks better now. Mind you.. he's bored out of his mind. Welcome to Drummondville, Jake. Home of the team that will outshoot opposition 40-10.
Still... the Voltigeurs are totally controlling the play for the most part. Almost enough to make you almost feel bad for PEI. Almost.
Very nice PK by Dumont and Mr. Captain Vachon. They spent the entire time in the Rocket's zone!
So I walked away for a bit towards the end of the second period and apparently I missed.. Dumont scoring!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOO! BABY HABS FOR THE WIN TONIGHT!
Um... I also missed the Rocket dude scoring. I think this is the guy who got his face smashed up by Hotte earlier in the game (and this is despite the fact that he was wearing a full cage on his helmet).
Comtois scooooooooooooores! 3-1 Voltigeurs now!
SCRUM! What the hell is Lacroix (PEI guy) doing though? He keeps whacking the face protector thingy of Landry's helmet. He's not punching it. He's whacking it with the palm of his hands. Kinda how people slam on a door or a window, you know? It's almost like he's going "hello?! Anyone in there?" Landry's is probably wondering if Lacroix took fighting lessons from Semin.... It's really hilariously stupid.
Oh dear...... Someone named Dylan C. Capstick (yes, that's his name) wants to fight Dumont now. Refs say no, but kick them both out anyway. Dumont's like "whatever".
Game over! Group hug for Jake. Whoo!
That sound you heard is Piche sobbing because he's now officially out of a starting job. Again.

In other news....

Juniors smash up The Acadie-Bathurst Titan(s) 6-1. Baby Marcoux gets the win. Apparently this is his second win of the season. I thought it was his first for some reason. I guess he must have won back when Jake was away for training camp? Good for him though! He finally got to stop being an itty bitty little bench warmer and got to be an itty bitty little goalie instead tonight. YAY!
Tardif is now failing in Quebec. Shawinigan beat Quebec 4-0. Domingue actually had to finish the game for Tardif. Heheheheh.....
Niagara (still following them, yes) lost a close one to the Kitchener Rangers. I would have listened to some of the game but both radio feeds decided not to work so I couldn't listen to the game. BOOO on faily Ontario radio feeds. BOO.

Enough with the Price vs Halak stuff

2010-01-10T19:03:00.000-05:00

If there is one thing that has been driving me absolutely up the wall these days, it's this Price vs Halak "arguments". I often see people blindly complaining or bashing one goalie while holding up the other as kind of saint. Quite honestly, it's stupid and I'm getting very tired of it.

I don't know when or why the fans divided themselves into Team Price and Team Halak. You don't have to like both goalies (personally, I like both of them a lot), but I dont' see any reason for people to mindlessly bash the other one. It's one thing to say that Halak is playing great. That's perfectly fine and true. But to call Price an AHL goalie in the same sentence is ridiculous. Price may not be playing up to the incredibly high standards that everyone has set for him, but he is not an AHL goalie.

Montreal is blessed to have two goalies who have been playing pretty solid hockey on most nights. Heck, on most nights the goalies have been the only ones to show up to a game and gave their team every chance to win. There's a lot of teams that can't say the same about their goalies. Ask the Flyers or the Leafs (particularly when Toskala is in nets). We should be happy to have two solid guys between the pipes instead of sitting here ripping one or the other on a nightly basis.

Hammies drop Griffins

2010-01-09T22:51:00.003-05:00

There is nothing nicer than beating the team that beat you in the playoffs. After that 7-3 pasting of the Griffins, the Hammies came back and pasted them 5-2. It was nice.

Gluuu FINALLY snapped his second? third? fourth? Fifth? goaless streak and scored two goals and ended the two with four points! And no, David didn't get one assist on Gluu's goals. I'm both shocked and totally happy for Gluu. Yay! Here's hoping his BFF isn't too upset about it.

Gluu came THIS close to getting a hat trick but he couldn't put it into the empty net so... Brrrrock Trotter who already had two goals put it in the empty net instead. Hat trick for Trotter! YAY!

Actually, the only ugly thing was Teddy coughing up the puck when he showed everyone that he can't really stick handle the puck. The gaffe resulted in the Griffins second goal... Someone please teach the goalies in the system how to stick handle the puck. PLEASE. Everyone in the system needs to have lessons. Except for Price.

On a whole it was nice. I just need the Hershey Bears to lose in regulation time so the Hammies can have a chance at catching up to them. Flandersdude and I agree that it would be nice if the Hammies finished the year on top of the league.

A few other things....

Juniors lose 4-2 to the Sea Dogs. We should be thankful that the score was this close. Thank you Berube. No thanks to the Sea Dogs play by play guys who annoyed the crap out of me.
Lake Erie totally own the Amerks right now.

5 things

2010-01-09T22:29:00.003-05:00

1) It's not officially a brawl unless the goalies get involved.... not that the goalies got involved in this one...

I mean.....it's still amusing to watch. But you need Emery to beat the crap out of Biron for it to be a brawl... I'm still entertained by that brawl.... And yeah, the game in Russia got suspended because they didn't have enough players to continue playing :D

2) So I saw this thing that was talking about attendance in the Q this year. Apparently the Remparts average over 11,000 per game.

I know Quebec had an NHL and an AHL team before. I know they want an NHL team back. I know Quebec City is situated on a cliff in the middle of nowhere.... and yes, I know Patrick Roy probably helps with attendance for the sheer fact that he is well, Patrick Roy.

But WOW those are a lot of people going to a QMJHL game o.O Before you say it, I know, I know. Most buildings don't have 15,000 seats. Verdun Auditorium only seats just under 4,000 people. But that's still an insane number. The Hammies' building seats 17,000 or so people and they're happy if they get 7,000 people (which they almost never do). Poor things...

3) What is what less confusing? Have Pyatt on the ice at the same time as Pyett? Or having Wyman shoot the puck only to have Weiman making the save?

4) your daily puke: "I've coached for 30 yrs, there's no question that Halak is the quicker, faster more agile goalie. Price is an AHL goalie" - someone calling into the Team990.

5) apparently over 100 players were traded in the Q between Dec. 19 to the trade deadline on...January.....6th was it?

What the dog err tired EP hears

2010-01-08T22:02:00.002-05:00

People like to joke around by saying if their dogs here when they talk is "blah blah blah food blah blah blah walk blah blah blah cookie blah blah blah walk blah blah blah..." Well, I promise you my dogs know more than that but getting to the point, this is how an exhausted EP heard tonight's Hammies game:

Blah blah blah Desjardins makes a save.. blah blah blah Desjardins makes another save... blah blah blah Hammies with a shot on goal... blah blah blah powerplay for the Monsters... blah blah blah Stoa to the box (sleepy EP note: what the heck is a Stoa? Sounds like a Moa.Only less scary).... blah blah blah first period over.... blah blah blah AND THEY SCOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!!!!! (not-so-sleepy-EP note: Dude, I should totally record Flandersdude yelling after the Hammies score and use it for an alarm. WOW). blah blah blah.... ZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZz...... blah blah blah penalty for the Monsters... Hammies hang on for about a minute to the puck without anyone blowing the whistle... blah blah blah... AND THEY SCOOOOOOOOORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (not-so-sleepy EP note: whaaaaa? YAY!!!!!!! *goes back to sleep*). blah blah blah EP note: did you know that Chad Anderson's nickname is Andy? Isn't that super creative? About as creative as Frederic St. Denis' being "Freddy". I like Anderson though. blah blah blah and they score...... (EP note: ooof..... you suck Monsters.... ). blah blah blah Desjardins is down (EP note: Who ran into my goalie?! WHO?! And who is the ref in charge of this game who sent the HAMMIES off for a penalty? Idiot). blah blah blah Flandersude: the end of this game is going to be great! Al: *yawns* (EP note: erm.... yeah... you and me both, Al.... *yawns*) blah blah blah Weiman gets pulled.... blah blah blah AND THEY SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!!!!!! (EP note: yay Darche! I think it was you Darche. I don't know. I just heard "and they scooooooooooore"). blah blah blah Game over! (EP note: YAY! *falls asleep*)

Oh and....

the Colts want everyone to know that they lost 5-1 to Kingston tonight.
Niagara had a third period implosion and lost to the Knights 6-3
Petes lost 4-3 to the Generals in OT.
Juniors demolished the Mooseheads 4-1. Yay!
Dumont had his requisite goal and a penalty and actually had another goal afterwards. Randazzo scored the OT winner. Voltigeurs win 3-2 over Scandella's team (and no, Scandella wasn't there).

Well, that didn't last long....

2010-01-08T15:29:00.007-05:00

Niagara traded Alex Pietrangelo, some other guy and SIMILA to the Barrie Colts today.

This is a huge pity because I was starting to like Niagara. They have some good play by play guys and their PA is a lot less annoying than the Pete's PA guy. Oh well. Simila going to Barrie means that we'll just have to follow the Colts instead of the IceDogs. I feel kinda bad (particularly because unlike everyone else, the Colts are actually a good team and I always feel guilty abandoning a bad team for a good team) but hey, the OHL comes second third fourth in my heart so I maybe I shouldn't feel too bad......? It's not like I'm cheering for Windsor or anything..... I mean... the Colts are only second in the OHL.... with... only 27 games above .500..... I mean... I know Niagara hasn't even won 27 games but..... yeah..... poor Niagara!!! I wuvs you little faily IceDogs!!! D:

Also... I just realized that we have a huge problem.

The Colts don't really wear red.

I mean.. they have a tiny bit of red.... like SUPER tiny......

So. Do I do I really have to dump the IceDogs for the Colts? D: D: D: I'll add a poll and you can vote. Depending on the results, I may or may not listen to you *G*

In which EP makes an important discovery

2010-01-07T23:32:00.000-05:00

Apparently I can't easily actively follow four teams at once. Really.

It started off okay with the Petes and the Caps on the radio and TV at 7.

Then the Habs and the Voltigeurs came on at 7:30.

Then I lost my mind because I didn't just turn off the Caps and the Petes. I kept switching back in-between periods.

Yeah.

At one point someone walked in and asked me the score. My response? "Habs up 1-0, Caps up 4-1 on a goal by Pie (danm, now I want the pie you can eat), Voltigeurs failing epically (well, no, not epically. They know now to fail epically for real but this isn't pretty either), Petes only down a goal now as opposed to two, Niagara losing...... wait... one sec.... hang on.... damnit, load you stupid OHL site! Okay! They are losing... 1-0... no.. 2-0... no, 2-1".

ANYWAY.

All this is to say... Don't ask for any great insights into the games.

Let's deal with these teams in order of least faily-ness.

Caps win 5-2

I think I hate the Sens almost as much as I hate the Leafs. Thus, seeing the Caps score 5 goals (and I did see most of them) was beautiful. Pie had two nice goals, Ovie finally scored on his third or whatever breakaway. Leclaire decided to put on a clinic on how to play your angles. Thanks Leclaire. I appreciate the demonstration actually.

Habs win 2-0

Of course right when I write up the generic writeup they switch it up a bit. They didn't get outshot, they didn't spend hours in the penalty box, they didn't blow the lead.... They weren't playing inspiring and exciting hockey either though. Whatever. Poo scored in the first period and the boys hung on to the lead until Gio put the puck into the empty net. Okay, Poo, so you're an upgrade over the French Marshmallow. So maybe... just maybe... we need to consider a new name for you. Maybe. Anyone got any ideas on what we should be dubbing Poo now?

IceDogs win 4-2

YAY!

Petes lose 6-3

Booooo. It wasn't pretty..... losing 6-3 at home makes it even uglier. D: I actually missed most of the third period because the radio died. The feed was fine but the radio died. Wonderful.

Voltigeurs lose 5-1

Well... at least they weren't at home? By the end the Drummondville guys were like "Where's Jake Allen?". Ouch..................... at least Dumont scored? And was sitting in the box for the go ahead goal............. GUH.

Holy hockey gods do they ever trade a lot in the Q

2010-01-07T14:45:00.002-05:00

I can't keep up with all the trades right now. Damn you trade freeze followed by the trade deadline which means all the trades only become official right around the deadline.

After they traded Jake, the Juniors also traded Dion to Cape-Breton (where yes, he did try to punch Gouchie last night), Wall to Moncton (Juniors get Dillon Donnelly) and Levasseur to the Cucumbers (for some draft pick).

A brief picspam of my baby Juniors who are off to potentially bigger and better things:

(Jake)

(Dion)

(apparently I don't have a better pic of Wall).

(I'm still amused by this pic of Levasseur. You might need to look at a bigger version to see how funny he looks with his mouth-guard sticking out of his mouth :D)

I'd picspam Tardif as well 'cause the guy was traded from Drummondville to Victoriaville to Mooski, but yeah, we're not friends so no picspam of him. Also, I should post a picture of me glaring at Team Roy because they look kind of scary right now. Booo Remparts. BOOO. Do. Not. Like.

I'm going to need to go see them when they get back from down east so I'll have a more updated version of their team (including a better picture of baby Marcoux).

Hammies: they understand the term "puck possession"

2010-01-06T22:59:00.000-05:00

......Which is more than I can say for Martin. Once again, he says it's "pretty obvious that we're trying to play a puck possession game". Obviously his idea of puck possession means the opposing team controls the puck in the Habs zone and get half a gazillion shots off.

The Hammies on the other hand, understand that "puck possession" means THEY have to control the puck. We have such a smart bunch of Hammies, I tell you. The completely dominated the first period - and had nothing to show for it on the scoreboard. They then looked like crap in the second period (which means yes, they gave up a goal. Oh the shame and horror!) before PK tied it up. I was almost sleep when Flandersdude started yelling. White or David scored a super ugly goal after that and then White put one into the empty net.

YAY! As nice as I'm sure it sort of was to see Don and Ron back, it's nicer to have the Hammies win! =)

And.... Flandersdude is getting grumpy. He managed to dis two teams while also taking a(nother) swipe at the lack of people at the game. And I accused the Screaming Eagles guys of being grouchy. Boo. Stop crabbing about the attendance. I know it sucks but stop crabbing about it.

.....

Hello Juniors! I've missed you D: Finally got to catch a bit of their game tonight. First time in a long time I've actually been able to catch one of their games.

By the time I remembered that they were playing, they were midway through the second period. Surprisingly enough, they were up 3-1 and GOOOcheeeee added another one. I was stuck with the Screaming Eagles guys. They're very negative and very grumpy. They also amused me by asking if Eli was one of the import players. They wondered if he was Russian. Having been there and done that, I can laugh at them. Dear people, Eli's name may sound Russian, but he's very muchly Israeli/Canadian. Thanks for thinking he's one of those awesome Russians though.

Oh and Xavi's back. Yay!

Jake's going to Drummondville!!!!!!

2010-01-06T12:00:00.004-05:00

Sorry, I'm just dying of laughter at this.

Drummondville gave up two first round picks for Jake.

Oh Voltigeurs. Oh Juniors. Excuse me while I continue laughing.......

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

My two teams actually traded with each other. Why do I find this so hilarious? SERIOUSLY?! Must be the sleep deprivation setting in now.

Okay. I'm done.

Obviously, the Voltigeurs listened to me telling them what epic fails they had for goalies. OBVIOUSLY. They traded Tardif to the Remparts already, which left me wondering if they were really going to keep Piche as their main goalie (and the Sea Dogs thing obviously fell through because they already picked up Cousineau from the Rocket a few days ago).

HAHAHAHA. Oh Jake. You'll probably enjoy being a Voltigeurs. They WIN games (sorry, Juniors. I love you too but you know... you don't win games). Say "hi" to my Baby Habs there! (and kick Philippe for me. He needs to wake up).

As a Juniors fan, I'm pretty unhappy though. Two first round picks are nice and all, but does mean we've already thrown in the towel for this year? Berube and Baby Marcoux can't carry this team. I know this is most likely Jake's last year in the Q anyway so the two picks are nice to have and all that stuff, but yeah... throwing in the towel for this year... meh.... mind you... the team still sucked with Jake in nets.... they just sucked slightly less...Poor Juniors!

Oh well...

This makes my trip to Drummondville in February for the Juniors/Voltigeurs game all the better. Pretty excited now!

One write-up to rule them all

2010-01-06T10:46:00.041-05:00

I've come to the conclusion that I keep saying the same things over and over and over again about each and every Habs game that has been played thus far. I'm running out of patience and creativity for my write-ups. So instead I'll just write one generic write-up which you can all just consult after each game.

(insert lame title that usually involves "*yawns*" or "meh" here)

Meh.

Habs get outshot and outhit by the opposition.
I fear for Patches' career. I really do. He should be in the AHL.
And Pricey/Jaro stands on his head again.......
...and again.....
oh and again.......
and one more time....
Oops. Couldn't stop that one. Mainly because he was being obstructed by his own defenseman! It's okay. The Habs still have 55 minutes to tie the game up.
And there goes Pigeon/Hammer/Gorges/Gomer/Poo/anyone else to the box.... PK time!
Goalie goes back to standing on his head....
...and again....
oh and again.......
and more one time....
How is it that the most average goalies in the NHL look brilliant when they play the Habs/ how come the good goalies super human against the Habs?
Have I ever said how much I hate Gomer's contract?
And there goes Pigeon/Hammer/Gorges/Gomer/Poo/anyone else to the box.... PK time!
Oh my god. We actually got a PP! YAY! Now go score!
Yeah! Tied game! Now let's get some freaking momentum going!
....not for the OTHER team.....
the goalie goes back to standing on his head... .
...and again... .
oh and again....
and one more time...
And there goes Pigeon/Hammer/Gorges/Gomer/Poo/anyone else to the box.... PK time!

Now if they play a good team then this will happen:

Hey looky, we're stuck in our own end
And there goes Pigeon/Hammer/Gorges/Gomer/Poo/anyone else to the box.... PK time!
and the goalie goes back to standing on his head.....
and again.....
and.... oh damn that went in. Where was the defense?
And there goes Pigeon/Hammer/Gorges/Gomer/Poo/anyone else to the box.... PK time!
Oooof another one.....
Do get a PP? No? Damn.
Man, I feel so bad for the goalie.....
Ooooooof. Okay, this game sucks now.
Gizmo will now tell the media that the Habs played a great game but were outworked in some key moments (this is despite the fact that the score sheet will say that the Habs were ousthot 50-10, out hit 23-2, spent twice the amount of time on the PK than on the PP and looked to be half dead for most of the game)

And if they play a crappy team:

We have the lead! YAY!
...and we're sitting on it... for like.... 40 mins........?
And there goes Pigeon/Hammer/Gorges/Gomer/Poo/anyone else to the box.... PK time!
And the goalie stands on his head.........
and again.....
and again.....
oh and again......
Maybe the Habs need some caffeine?
two mins left! Can we hold on for the win?!
Nope. Tied game. Whoopy.
OT time. I love giving out loser points to loser teams. My team is SO generous.
Oh looky. Someone scored. Game over. Thank you.
Gizmo will now tell the media what a great job they did and how hard they competed (this is despite the fact that the score sheet will say that the Habs were ousthot 50-10, out hit 23-2, spent twice the amount of time on the PK than on the PP and looked to be half dead for most of the game)

Danny, you have your entire Habs career to make it up to me

2010-01-05T23:46:00.009-05:00

Yup. Get your Habs or Hammies jersey on because you've got years worth of wins to make up for this. Can't wait to start yelling at cheering for him for real. We're going to have SO much fun yelling at err cheering for Danny. Oh yes. Bwahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahaha...hahahaha.............ha............ha................

Anyway........

Jake, I like you a lot, but you just channeled your inner Floppy Flambe from 04 tonight. Not good, mister. We still love you but yeah.. that wasn't great....

Eberle, you are f*cking awesome. I love you. Between you and Pajaarvi-Svensson, I may just be an Oilers fan in the future. Maybe. Maybe not. But still. You are freaking awesome, Eberle. Thank you for being Team Canada this year.

Taylor, you're talented, you'll probably go first overall. But Eberle is Team Canada. If we could clone, Eberle, and just make sure his clones never age, then Team Canada would always win gold.

Kadri - Nice to see you're practicing being a Leaf by being very inconsistent through the tournament. I'm sure you're making all those Leaf-haters very proud (what? Of course I'm going to bash the Leaf. It's called "being a grumpy Habs fan who just also saw her team lose to CAPTAIN Ovie and co).

Team Canada - hey, 9 straight finals and five gold medals isn't something to cry about. It's time to go to Buffalo next year and start a new streak! You're still awesome =)

Team USA - Congrats on the win. You really did deserve it!

Some of the USA "fans" who think it's okay to diss Canada - you're a bunch of trolls. Scram or else I'll start regretting every nice thing I said about your team and believe it or not, I said a lot of nice things about them. (to the great fans I ran into, you're awesome. Be super proud of your team!)

Oh and....

Pepsi? You're fired. You and you're freaking cheer are totally fired. Now get lost before the Olympics or else I'll start a "this cheer is cursed" rumor and then you'll be sorry. dhkjadhskjadhs, I hate that cheer.

Wishing someone hadn't poured my cider down the sink otherwise I'd go have a glass..... Guh....

Perpetuating the stereotype

2010-01-04T18:14:00.001-05:00

Obviously never having been a hockey fan growing up, I never played the sport. I never had a rink in my backyard and I only set foot on my local outdoor rinks to skate around in circles and crash into the boards (it was the only way I knew how to stop). And even at that, I haven't been on an outdoor rink since I was 8...

So I was out shoveling paths in my backyard the other night (another long story. Don't ask). It was a really nice night. Not that cold, a bit cloudy but it wasn't snowing anymore. While I was busy lugging snow everywhere, I had this sudden desire to build a hockey rink in my backyard and play hockey. Or at least be one of those poor kids who begs to stay up later so they can shoot pucks for another hour or so.

I know, it sounds insane.

Maybe it was a lot colder than I thought and my brains froze and stopped working. But I really, really, really wanted a rink.

Actually, as of right now, I still want a rink. REALLY BADLY. I really feel like I'm the only kid who didn't have a rink in their backyard growing up now (which isn't true at all as all of my neighbors never had rinks either but still!). I really, really, really want a rink D:

I guess I could just go to my local outdoor rink..... and get laughed at by the real stereotypical people skating around playing hockey...... maybe not....

Edit: Wow. Just went to my rink. Because I'm that much of a dork. One of the hockey organizations had a team of little kids practicing there. Seriously, there is nothing more awesome or stereotypically Canadian than watching these kids playing a shinny game. So bloody awesome. And so bloody cold. I'm sooo happy right now though! =)

yawns

2010-01-03T20:05:00.001-05:00

It would seem that everyone - including myself - left their brains somewhere else yesterday.

I nearly forgot the Hammies were playing at 4 and I completely forgot until two minutes ago that the Juniors and Voltigeurs were also losing playing today too.

I think I can be forgiven for not paying any attention to the Habs. I was busy trying to make arrangements for Anze the stray cat who's been living at my house for the past week. Doesn't really look like I missed a whole lot. Another snooze-fest in Habsland. I guess everyone exerted all their energy shoveling the snow out of their way just to get to the arena. In their defense, there was a lot of snow out there.

The Hammies seemed destined to blow this game. They trailed the Admirals four times throughout the game before the fear of the imaginary bagskate took over and they finally won. Stewie had two goals (thought he might have had a hat trick but they later credited his third goal to White), White had two goals and Maxwell had two goals. Pricey's backup in Tri-City didn't sound like his normal self. Last game he totally robbed the Hammies of a win. Not tonight. At the other end of the ice, Teddy was shakey too, which has me super worried because now we're stuck with a no longer hot Teddy and Mayer for at least two weeks while Sanford is rehabbing an injured shoulder (grrrrrrr Sanford! How can we stop you from being injured so much?!). hakjhadskjdh. Very pleased the Hammies didn't blow this one. A two game losing streak would not have been very pretty. Especially not when you keep giving up soft goals!

In other news

Canada downed the Swiss and blew them out in the last ten minutes of the game and won 6-1. Very anti-climatic. I was hoping the Swiss would make it a little harder. I'm not sure I have a lot of confidence in Team Canada and how they've been playing in the last two games. Oh well. Waiting to see who they'll play in the finals. Hoping it's Sweden and not the USA.
I know why Tardif wasn't sitting on the Voltigeurs bench the other night. It's cause he was sitting on a bus bound for Quebec City. He was traded for a fourth round pick. Oh well. Bybye Tardif! Voltigeurs must have been missing him or something 'cause their lost to Baie-Comeau 3-2. Poop.
Juniors lose to Rouyn-Noranda. Meh.

Sometimes I love CBC: Enter "Goose the Puppy"

2010-01-02T23:42:00.002-05:00

No really.

They're a fantastic inspiration for new nicknames for players. They brought you Ketchup as a nickname for Sergei Shirokov. Tonight, they bring you "Goose the Puppy". I know it makes no sense, but if you recall, I've been calling GusGus "The Puppy" because this whole "The Monster" thing is stupid. ANYWAY, I was catching some of the Leafs/Flames game and I promise you the CBC guys were calling GusGus "Goose-stuff-son". So now, I will have to call GusGus "Goose". Obviously I'm still going to call him "The Puppy" so officially he's "Goose the Puppy". I know that Gaustad of the Sabres is already called "Goose" but I didn't name him that so it doesn't count.

No, I'm not drunk. I named the chocolate éclair that my sister demolished on her plate "Komisarek after Looch has squashed him into the boards"! Really!

Anyway....

Hammies lost a snoozer to the Monsters. BAGSKATE. Even if you have to play tomorrow. BAGSKATE. BAGSKATE. GUH.

Flandersdude was calling out all the people who think that Hamilton should have an NHL team when they don't even show up to the Hammies games. Those poor Hammies. I feel so bad for them. They're one of the best teams in the AHL right now and they routinely only have about 2000 people in the building. Brutal. GO SEE THEIR GAMES, HAMILTON PEOPLE! GO! GO! GO! I would, but I live in the heart of Habsland and Hammie-town is too far away D:

Speaking of Hammies and nicknames.... I had no idea that Johansson's nickname was Jojo (pronounced: yoyo). Now I know!!! Jojo isn't terrible at interviews either! Whoo! I'm surprised that he said that he's never had major injury issues in Sweden. He's been routinely injured here. Poor guy.

Speaking of injuries... Sanford's gone for at least two weeks. Mayer better turn into the best goalie ever when he gets to play!

In CHL news:

Some Junior who I never knew existed before scored the shootout winner as they beat Scandella's team. NYAH.
Voltigeurs had some guy I've never heard of as backup goalie to Piche. I don't like Toni Ritter as much as a Voltigeurs but there we have it. He is one and he had a goal. Dumont had a goal (again) but no penalty. Weird. Oh well. Someone give Philippe some decent line mates please.... D:
Niagara wiiiiiiins! Poor Simila though. His country loooooooost to the Americans. He was wearing a cool toque with a huge fluffy pompom on it :D
The Petes blew a two goal lead and imploded in the third period. Boohoo.... Bad Mishy!

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

2009-12-31T23:42:00.005-05:00

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

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

Until Canada played the US.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2009-12-30T22:34:00.001-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh Canada.........

2009-12-30T15:41:00.004-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2009-12-29T23:12:00.004-05:00

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

Only... I'm not really happy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2009-12-28T23:04:00.001-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Three things about tonight

2009-12-26T22:57:00.000-05:00

Numero Uno

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

Nice way to start off the tournament though, Canada!

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

Numero Dos

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

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

Amusing bit of the night:

Flandersdude: I thought the Amerks mascot was a moose?

Al: Yeah, it is a moose.

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

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

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

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

Numero Tres

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

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

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

Merry Christmas to me

2009-12-24T00:06:00.001-05:00

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

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

The Habs had a resounding 5-1 over the Whalercanes. Of course they still got horribly outshot and Jaro was forced to bail the guys out on a few occasions but it was a good win. The PP is doing great on the road, Turtle-Pleky continues to be on fire (he actually very briefly had more points than Ovie tonight *G*), both Kostitsyn brothers scored, Metro had two, Markov had another one... So pretty!

We'll ignore Gomez' double minor that resulted in a four minute PP (one for cross-checking and one for yapping at the ref) and the ensuing PP goal for the Whalercanes. It was but a small blemish on an otherwise nice win.

Thanks for Aaron Ward the early penalty which gave the Habs a PP which then they scored on just 1:29 into the game! (and thank goodness Patches is okay).
Oh boy, did the Pens ever demolish the Sens. Oh boy, oh boy. This would be absolutely gorgeous if it wasn't the Pens who demolished the Sens. Oh well. Can't have it all. We'll just be happy with a Sens loss! Should I apologize to the Sens relatives now? Because you know I might need to gloat a little bit about this. Just a little. Hey, they initiated it with the phone call, right?
Caps win 5-2 thanks to goals from Pie, Greener, Morrison and.... Ovie!!! Such a pretty goal too.... Miller looked so cranky afterward (sorry, no love for you today, Miller). Very nice.
Leafs got beat by Tavares. As long as the Leafs finish the season outside the bottom five, I'm okay (ie. please keep losing for now, Leafs).
Thrashers almost came back against the Booins but ultimately they fell short and lost. Myeh.

Yawnfest in Atlanta turns into a must-win for me

2009-12-21T23:38:00.000-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Competitions everywhere and my players keep getting invited

2009-12-21T16:35:00.001-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hammies finally down the Amerks!

2009-12-20T20:56:00.000-05:00

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Hammies beat the Amerks! EEEEE!

It wasn't pretty but they won!

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

In other news nobody but me cares about...

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

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

2009-12-20T11:44:00.057-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As for Mayer....

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

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

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

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

eeeeeee!

2009-12-19T23:17:00.003-05:00

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

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

Sanford wins a game!

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

And and and and and and

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

Ho hum... another shutout....

2009-12-19T01:18:00.001-05:00

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

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

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

The positives

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

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

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

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

Voltigeurs fell asleep and lost to Gatineau by a score of 6-4. Gatineau went up by four goals before the Voltigeurs decided to not roll over and die. Dumont (OMG Philippe with an assist! and Mr. Ovie of the Q too) and Desnoyers (surprise, surprise, Dumont with the assist!) had two goals before Gatineau scored again. Dummont (gasp, no assist!) and Randazzo (oh Bergeron with an assist) put the Voltigeurs within one before the horrendous looking Olympiques put the game away with an empty netter.

Random thoughts: 1) Gatineau has an ugly jersey but at least we're blessed with mostly good looking jerseys in the Q. This is more than I can say for the OHL. 2) I wonder if Vachon has been demoted from the top line? I thought he was the other night when he was playing with Philippe on the second line, but the lines were all haywire anyway...
The Peterborough Petes are making me question why I decided to follow them. They're Misshy's team in case you wanted to know. Anyway, Misshy wasn't in nets as they took on the Ottawa 67s. And umm... I don't know how good Misshy's backup is, but he ended up losing the game 8-0. In their defense... well... umm... they played last night? nah, there's no excuse for this type of loss. Not even in the CHL.

MARKOV

2009-12-18T18:15:00.000-05:00

*points to news*

MARKOV.

Five things about tonight

2009-12-17T22:41:00.001-05:00

First off....

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

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

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

Second...

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

Third...

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

Fourth....

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

Fifth....

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

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

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

In other news....

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

Meh

2009-12-16T22:53:00.001-05:00

I'm still yawning after that game.

Ugh.

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

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

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

Meh.

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

In other news

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

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

2009-12-16T11:09:00.005-05:00

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

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

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

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

Halak is like, totally, such a jerk

2009-12-16T01:00:00.002-05:00

Halak is clearly a jerk.

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

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

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

What a jerk.

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

What an epic jerk.

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

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

Wow. What. A. Jerk.

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

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

What a selfish jerk.

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

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

5 things

2009-12-15T16:49:00.017-05:00

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

Back off my Hammies broadcasters, Sabres!

2009-12-14T13:14:00.003-05:00

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

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

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

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

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