And they wonder why I hate Christmas sometimes

Yes, the off-season has really ground to a halt right now (or rather my brain has simply refused to come up with a half decent post about Team Canada). So we're stuck with this crap.

Thanks to Capitals Kremlin for this one.

Yes, that's Crysob the Christmas tree ornament. Yes, I almost just puked.

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

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

Oops.

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

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

Anyway... Wimby.....

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

Countdown begins

Crysob has taken over the sports networks

(click for bigger version)

Crysob being Puffy.... That was a little too fun to draw...(and yes, I just noticed now that I butchered Sid's name up. I have no idea why there are two Ys in it.... Clearly I wasn't thinking).

I would like it to be October so I can actually talk about something interesting.... Yuck... This round of the playoffs isn't cutting it...

Oh and I'm renaming Fleury.

For the longest time Puffles' goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was simply "Fleury" to me. Then when I got into this whole naming spree I called him "MAF". Easy enough. Marc-Andre Fleury = MAF. Except... everyone was calling him MAF. So I added some extra letters and made it "Maffy". Still, I know I had failed when everyone knew exactly who I was talking about. It's not a crazy EP name if everyone knows who it is at first. No way. This made me sad, so I set out to find a new name for him. Among the choices were (thanks to the Tweeps who helped with the names(...

• Flurry
• Flurries
  
• Snowy
• Flurfy
  
• Mafly
• Flandre
  
• Flambe
• one that sounded like Furby
• Toothpick
  

In keeping with the food theme, I went with Flambe. Yes, pretend there's an accent on the e at the end. I'm lacking a keyboard with such lovely accents. Maffy is now Flambe.

Yeah, I am SO suffering from Habs and Caps withdrawal....

I don't get it....

As a Habs fan I admit I was angry at the Bruins season. I was angry that they had the dream season while my team decided it wanted to try being the Leafs for a year. I was angry that we had to play them in the playoffs - in the first round too. And I was angry that we got swept by them. We couldn't have been swept by say, the Penguins. No. It had to be the same Bruins team that we decimated only last year in the very same round. I was angry at the fans in Boston, knowing that each one of them was delighted beyond belief at the change in fortunes of the two teams. When the Bruins appeared to be struggling against the Hurricanes, I was pleased. I wanted to see them go down. I wanted to see them ousted from the playoffs. I wanted to see them pay for everything that they had done to my Habs.

When the Bruins were finally ousted last night, I swear every Habs fan was singing "Ha Ha You're Dead" by Green Day (it's a very catchy song if you want to know). The tweets coming in from the Habs fan were filled with "whooo"ing and "HELL YEAH". You could almost hear the sigh of relief around the city as the Habs fan all exhaled when the puck crossed the goal line.

And yet, I was sitting at my desk staring blankly at my computer screen, reading the tweets coming in from the shocked Bruins fans. I didn't see Walker's goal live but I could easily imagine the silence that fell at the Garden when the puck went into the back of the net.

I don't get it.

Despite some new-found love for some awesome Bruins fans, I could have easily been pleased at the misfortune of the team itself. As a Habs fan, I could have been pleased with the demise of the hated Bruins without being obnoxious. It could have been done. Privately, I could have been running around my house screaming at the Bruins untimely demise while not tweeting a word of it to the Bruins fans. And besides, the Bruins fans wouldn't mind. They were certainly excited to see their team beat my team, so I'm sure they would have accepted a little pleasure on my part. But either way, as a Habs fan, I could have - should have - been beyond pleased. And yet I wasn't.

I don't get it.

Seeing the Bruins lose was supposed to be the greatest moment short of the Habs or the Capitals winning the Stanley Cup. Seeing the team that had inflicted so much pain over the season and brought my Habs' post season to a very brief end in under a week, booted out in a rather unceremonious fashion was supposed be great. Seeing a look of what must have been shock and disappointment on Claude Julien's face was supposed to be bring a smile to my face. Seeing Thomas bolt from the net was supposed to make me jump around with joy. Hearing the dead silent arena filled with all those fans who had mocked my Habs in the previous round was supposed to be the best thing I had ever heard.

But it wasn't.

Sure it was a little nice to see the Bruins out, but it wasn't the greatest thing in my hockey life this season. I didn't feel the rush of exhiliration that comes with seeing my teams win a series or a game. Is it nice to know that they won't be lifting the Stanley Cup this year? Maybe. But my teams aren't coming back with it either.

I don't know. Maybe I'm still in shock or something. Or maybe I'm really not that bitter. Or maybe knowing that the Cup could very well be going back to Boston before it comes to Montreal is what's keeping me from being excited with this Bs loss. This Bruins team is good. Chances are, Boston will be raising that Cup years before Montreal gets anywhere near it. And that- despite me being all nice to people from Boston- is not a pleasant thought in the least for me.

Either way, when the Bruins meet my Habs next year, you can bet I won't be cheering for the bear, so don't worry. I may not be celebrating their loss now but I will be when my Habs get back to beating them. Bwahaha...

Here we go again....

This series is starting to drive me up the wall. Why the hell did the Caps have to draw the Pens?

I do not like Crosby. If you like Crosby, great.

I am not anti-Canadian because I don't like him.

Yes, I feel bad that Crosby has been handled, hounded and manufactured since he could skate.

Yes, I believe he is a very talented player.

Yes, I think he has been over-hyped and he has been shoved down my throat here.

No, I am NOT a bandwagon Caps fan.

No, I don't just watch the Caps because I like Ovie. I like a lot of the other players on that team.

No, I do not like Ovie because I hate Crosby. I like Ovie because he's Ovie. And I dislike Crosby because he irks me.

Crosby and Ovie are mentioned too much in the same sentence. One has zippo to do with the other despite what the media says.

YES, I am getting tired of this Sid vs Ovie crap.

YES, I hate the media. More than before.

No, I don't appreciate intolorant and narrow minded people. Sports shouldn't be political or nationalistic and no matter how much you hate a team, you shouldn't go off and be a troll towards other fans.

Basically, I'm getting real tired of having to justify who I cheer for and why. Leave me alone, damnit. It's a free country. YES, it's again hitting me that les boys won't be back on the ice for another FOUR months and it's making me sad and grumpy. I want MY boys back so I can cheer and whine and talk about them, while quietly routing for the Caps.

BRING BACK MY HABS! (and leave the media and the trolls in Greenland, please)

Haven't forgotten the Habbies

So I'm sitting here in a Caps shirt about to write up a post about what the Caps need to do to win tonight, when I remembered that this is supposed to be about the Habs. Not that I can't like the Caps too, but it's been surprisingly easy to forget about the Habs lately. The babble and obsession has died down, the minimal support in the form of flags, shirts and whatever, have mostly disappeared, the bandwagoners have crawled back into their little holes.... It's almost like we're ashamed to be a fan of our team because of how poorly they did in the post-season. While that's not my case right now, I've gone off and put my full support behind my second team. It's been Caps, Caps, Caps none stop now.

I felt kind of bad about that so to assauged said guilty, I went off to browse the Canadiens official site for no reason. Throughout the season I've been ignoring the "play off the week" thing on the Canadiens official site but last night I took a peek at the "plays of the year" thingy that you can vote for. Despite being in the middle of a Caps game, I looked at them all. As someone who actually saw all those plays either on TV or live (two of them were from the two games I saw live) - it really brought back a lot of the highs from this season.

Some of my favorites were... Lang deking out StaalClone3 en route to his second of three goals that night... Lapierre's cool shootout winner against the Sens (because I was sitting at the other end of the rink screaming at him to put it past Elliot so I could gloat about the Sens losing)...Sergei's last second goal against the Caps that sealed a win for us (because that game was freaking exciting. Forget Ovie vs Puffy).... any and all Priceberg saves (particularly the one on Ovie. If there is one thing I love more than an Ovie goal, it's my Priceberg robbing Ovie of a goal. Sorry Ovie). Okay so I liked them all.... =p The point is, while it's so easy to think that the year was such a huge bust, when I looked at those highlights, I remembered why I got excited about the team. I remembered why I loved them so much.

Sorry if this sounds sappy. I guess while it's great to back the Caps, they still aren't really *my* team and I'm missing my team a lot.