I like going away presents

Off to DC tomorrow (eeeeee CAPS!) and as a going away gift the Habs decided to win!

Eeeeee!

It was a whacky kind game.

• Local twerp Itty Bitty had a awful goal (re: it was probably nice if you were a Flyers fan). Habs initially looked to want to give the Flyers the win. I know the Flyers were ticked off, but the Habs were just... sleepy. 
• Local twerp Itty Bitty actually took a penalty for highsticking Hal Gill of all people, in the face. TWERP. 
• Have no fear! Super Pleky was there to save the day. Err kinda. He made a sweet pass in front of the net to give the puck to Andrei who was standing right in front of Boucher (nope, no Emery tonight). BINGO. Tied game! 
• Then it was back to botched up passes and zombie skating. From both teams. 
• RDS was being ridiculous again with some crappy comments about how Lapierre's botched attempt to get into the Flyers zone was Sergei's fault somehow. Peh. 
• You can only imagine then, how immensely pleased they were when Lapierre did some pretty sick work to get to the net and set up Squishy beautifully. Not use being spiteful to RDS here. Max-Not-Pac did a great job on that assist. 
• Oh and MAB pretty much proved that he's only useful on the PP. At least he is useful on the PP. He got the Habs third goal of the night!
• WHOO! 
• Oh and how did Briere get the second star of the night? Seriously? Should've given one to Boucher! Sheesh. I like Boucher by the way. He helped my team win last year when the Sharks came to town. And now he helped again! w00t. 
• Apparently that 3 goals in 13 shots (yes, 13 shots over the whole game) is a record. Cool! 

Okay. I will be gone until... well.... Late Sunday.....Will try to catch some stuff, but don't expect any awesome recaps of my really faily teams. Do feel free to cheer for the Habs, Juniors, Voltigeurs and Cyclones while I'm gone, okay? The Juniors especially always do better when I'm not watching them *G*

Eeeeeee!

Let the cuts begin! + bed time story. Kinda.

....because seriously, the Hammies need a team to send to Scotland, yes?! They have nobody to take with them right now. And how exactly do you beat the baby Leafs when you have no team in which to beat them? Exactly. YOU NEED A TEAM TO WIN. And you need those epically awesome Hammies to do it. Okay? Okay.

Now that we'ce settled that one......... Might I ask the lovely people of Montreal to PLEASE CALM DOWN. C'mon, it's a PRESEASON game. A game in which the Habs still haven't put their full roster on the ice. A game in which the announcers and Sens fans would LOVE to have count but won't count.

And do NOT tell me that the Booins beat us 8-0 in the preason and then decimated us in the regular season. Just don't say that. Yes, you Booins fans lurking around here. I MEAN YOU.

ANYWAY!

The few things that were downright ugly and I don't want to see being carried into the regular season are:

• odd man rushes. Seen enough of those last year. Didn't like them.
• Special teams fail. Seen enough of that last year too. Fix it.
• idiotic penalties. Who do you think you are? The Flyers?! Stop it.
• O'Byrne fighting. Don't do it. Please.
• I had no cider.

What I did like (and yes, there was stuff to like so stuff it and continue reading):

• Patches destroying Kovy. Patches has been smashing up his own potential teammates for the last two weeks. It was awesome that he finally got to smash up the opposition. And hey, Kovy is one of THEM now, so he's fair game.
• Johannson... Johansson... Johan... whatever. You know who I mean.
• um yeah... there might've been something else but I can't really think of it

And now.... Before I leave you all so you may go and do something more productive. Here is a bedtime story. Seriously. A certain sleepy Bruins fan demanded a story. So I obliged. Kinda.

***** BED TIME STORY ******

There once was a kid called Briere. He was a midget who thought he was so awesome. Not that midgets aren't awesome. I'm short. And awesome. Kinda. Maybe. Whatever. Moving on. One day he somehow found his way onto a team called the Flyers. We're not sure HOW he got on the team. Only that he did. He used his teammates as body guards when they were off the rink. ANYWAY. The only thing you need to know about the Flyers it that they're orange. And have a weird symbol on their shirts. ANYWAY. One day Briere the Midget decided that he wanted to take on the Evil Leafs of Toronto. It was a stupid idea because the Leafs had magically turned into goons over the summer. Kinda like how people turn into wolves at full moon, you know? But being the new dictator of the Flyers that he was, he 1) had no idea what he was talking about and 2) still abused his rights as supreme dictator of the Flyers anyway and made them all go on this little expedition.

When the Flyers arrived to face the Evil Leafs, they appeared to be well prepared. They fought long and hard with the Leafs. Throwing punches every which way. Seriously. In the midst of battle when all seemed lost, Briere the Midget found an open space (well, when you're that short, there's a lot of space) and grabbing the magic black disk of doom he threw it into the net behind The King of the Failtenders. At that moment it looked like the Flyers would have the victory. They looked unbeatable. The Leafs looked positively dejected. Ready to give up.

It was at this moment - right when Briere the Midget and his troops thought they had the victory - that their dear leader did something horrendously stupid. He tripped up one of the Leafs top generals. Of course it was a complete accident because the Leaf didn't see Briere running around his feet, but fall he did. And as he fell, he landed right on top of Briere the Midget. Squashing him to death.

It didn't take the troops on both sides long to realize that the Flyers leader was dead. And suddenly the Leafs found new energy. They attacked the suddenly disoriented Flyers. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! The Flyers fell one by one until only Boucher the Floppy Goalie was left. He didn't last long either. As Khadri came running towards him, he ran away, back to Flyers country to tell of what happened. And that was the end of the Flyers.

Now every town herald in the wicked land of Toronto will be proclaiming their victory and thinking they now have a shot at winning the much revered Stanley Cup. The Holy Grail of Hockey. The Shiny. With this victory over the Flyers, it would now only be a matter of time before the Shiny returned to Leafsland....

In their flipping dreams, maybe.

But yeah.

Whatever.

Leafs stink.

The lesson learned here is that if you're a Briere, don't get stepped on at the most inconvient time. Seriously.

The End.

***

In other news:

• Leafs beat the Flyers. Bet you didn't guess that one.
• BingySens beat the Wilksiewhatsits Pens.
• Caps beat the Hawks in OT. Missed it all.
• Juniors got beat up by the Huskies and their awful goal horn. Guh. Stop putting jet lagged goalies in nets. Jeez. And someone teach the guys on Team990 how to say Berube's name.

Squeaky Marty to the ISLANDERS?

Damn. I was SO hoping he'd go back to the Flyers so I could continue to make fun of him as a Flyer. BOO! This sucks. Now I'll just have to make fun of him as an Islander instead. Which won't be half as fun. He made such a great duo with Itty Bitty. Oh well...

My favorite Squeaky Marty fail. Which actually wasn't my favorite because it was against the Pens....but it was still....it WOULD have been hilariously stupid if it had been against any other team:



Altogether now: "Failtender!"

Niittymaki gives Habs a win

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

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

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

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

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

'nuff football. Bring on the Flyers!

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

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

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

Random look at the goalies playing today

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

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

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

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

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

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

I object! Wait.... no I don't....

I've got half an hour to go before the puck supposedly drops at the Bell Center (probably more because you know, games never start on time) and I was bored and hungry and so I went looking around on the net and I came across a survey on ESPN (yes, yes I know, I know....) where they asked random questions of the players in the NHL. Among the random questions like "which player would make the best president/prime minister" (Iginla got the most votes in case you didnt want to know) was the question "which team has the most disruptive fans?". As soon as I saw that question I just knew that us poor fans here in Montreal were going to get the highest vote. C'mon.. We're totally disruptive, right? We're terrible. Well, according to the 20% of the players who responded to the survey, we're not the most disruptive fans in the NHL. That distinction goes to the fans of the Philadelphia Flyers. I'm not saying that I want to be known as a disruptive fan but... but.. I object to the people thinking that the Flyers' fans are noisier than Habs fans.... No one is noisier than Habs fans......*sniffles* We just know how to manage our noise into a more orderly fashion which makes us appear less disruptive! Yeah! That's it..... Bwahahaha..... okay... yes... almost game time and I need food.... C'mon fans show me what you've got and boo the heck out of the Leafs!

Random info day again!

First off, I have to ask: Can one be "hockey-ed out"? Because I was bored stiff last night despite the fact that there were three different games to watch. Okay, so they just so happened to be the three most boring games on last night. I had the option of seeing if the Pens would put up their most embarrassing game to date by losing to Atlanta or if they would actually win one (they won), the Leafs losing to the Panthers (they did indeed lose) or the Sens try to find a way to win against the Sabres (they didn't). But anyway.... because I'm procrastinating on making lunch... a roundup of how yesterday went:

1. Pens finally stop their horrid losing streak with a resounding 3-1 win over.... the worst team in the league. Yay. Kovalchuk got the Thrasher's only goal in-between taking swipes at Malkin. What is it with Russian players trying to kill Malkin? I mean, maybe I can see Ovechkin doing it, but Kovalchuk? Weird. Didn't matter. Pens won. Not that I'm celebrating much. It's the Thrashers for crying out loud....
2. Sens lose. Again. This is getting old now...
   
3. Leafs lose. Again. Biggest surprise: they got two goals in!

And finally, it was the night of some interesting goalie stuff:

1. Wild are on a streak! Despite the silly name and the horrendous jersey colours, the Minnesota Wild appear to be back on track this month after a terrible December. Niklas Backstrom recorded his second straight shutout last night as the Wild beat the... wait for it... Boston Bruins. In Boston. Yay! It was the second straight loss for the Bruins who couldn't put the puck into a pile of empty nets against Miller and the Sabres earlier in the week.
2. Jose Theodore apparently was stellar for the Caps as they hung in and beat the Flyers in shootouts. After 65 minutes of play, the score was only 1-1 thanks to goals from Backstrom (no, he's not related to the Wild's goalie) and Coburn. Kolzov was the only one to score in the shootouts (*coughs neither Alex scored coughs*) but it was enough to see off the pesky Flyers. Too bad Ovechkin didn't score but oh well... as long as the Flyers lose.
   
3. Another former Habbies goalie, Huet, also had a good night as the Blackhawks stomped on the Coyotes 6-0. To quote headcoach Wayne Gretzky about the game "[the Blackhawks] are a pretty good team, first of all. They play hard and thank God we're done with them." As a random side note: the Blackhawks have outscored the Coyotes 20-4 in their matchups this season. Oopsies.
   
4. Unfortunately Steve Mason lost the battle of the goalies with Ty Conklin as the Red Wings recorded three goals in the third period to shutout the Columbus Blue Jackets. When does Filatov get to play full time with the Blue Jackets?!
   
5. And finally.... Evgeni Nabokov was pulled for the first time this season as the Flames burned the Sharks 5-2 in Calgary last night. Guess it was the night of the top teams losing.

And the biggest news of last night? The Sens' Jarkko Ruutu decided to made a serious bid for "the most annoying antics of the season" award in the game against the Sabres. Of course, he would have had to have done something really whacko to top Sean Avery. So what does he do? He bit Sabres forward Andrew Peters on the hand so hard that he apparently went through Peter's glove and broke the skin. I guess the designers of the gloves never foresaw that one happening..... Peters made a huge production of it before leaving the ice to be bandaged up. Um, forgive me if I"m not dishing out loads of sympathy here. If I were Peters, I would go to the doctors and ask for a rabies vaccine. Just in case.

Enough of that now. I have a rant to go on actually.

Can we please stop treating Halak like this, please?

I'm incredibly annoyed with how Halak is treated in the media right now. Today's paper had the headline "Carbo throws Halak a lifeline" or something along those lines. Look, I know the guy has not played well in the last two games but I have to say this: the whole mess in New Jersey was definitely not entirely. I don't believe that if Price had been in nets the Habs would have won playing like that. Maybe the score would only have been 2-1 or 3-1 but they still would have lost giving up all those breakaways and oddman rushes. I've already stated that I think the team feels more comfortable when Price is playing and they do not do as well when it's Halak which only makes everything else worse.

The thing is, Halak can be good. We know it (or at least we should). He knows it. And I think the whole team knows it too. Right now the last thing the media should be doing is treating him like he's a terrible goalie who can't save the puck if his life depended on it.

No, his numbers do not look good right now - he's 6-6-1 - but let's just think about a couple of those games, yes?

Halak was in nets in that game against the still Mason-less Blue Jackets which should never have gone to shootouts. Halak was in nets when the Habs played the Flyers for the second time this season. They lost 2-1. I think I remember saying that the entire game was pathetic from both teams. Nobody was playing well that night. Halak was also in nets when the Habs went AWOL in that shutout loss to the AHL-Filled-Washington-Capitals. Another display of crappy playing from the entire team there. Halak was in nets when the Habs got completely embarrassed by the Tampa Bay Lightning - a game in which absolutely no offense was produced whatsoever and the Habs let St. Louis and Lacavalier steal the show at home. Halak was in nets for the loss to the Washington Capitals in which I thought he was very good but the Habs fell down in the last few minutes and got burned. Could have happened to anyone in nets. And Halak was also in nets for one of the many debacles against the Carolina Hurricanes in which I think the Habs really need to sit down and wonder what it is about the Hurricanes that makes them play like crap.

Now Halak was also in nets for that 6-1 rout of the Maple Leafs (which is more than I can say for a certain other guy when the Habs fell 6-3 to the same Leafs), that 3-1 win over the Panthers at home for the first time in I dunno how long, that 4-1 blasting of the Calgary Flames, that big 5-2 win over the Flyers and that OT win on the Sabres.

Am I the only one who notices that when the Habs have something prove - they wanted to show that they could beat the Panthers at home, Tanguay wanted that win against the Flames badly, no one wanted to go down 4 games in a row by losing the hated Flyers, and they battled hard for that win against the Sabres - they win, no matter who is in nets? I could go on and on about some of the stinkers that Price has put up this season but I won't. When the Habs want a win they win. They look past who's in nets and they freaking find a way to win.

The media does not say "Price lets Panthers come back into the game" or similar type of things when it's Price in nets and he does terribly. They find excuses and blame the entire team for the loss. When it's Halak and they lose it's all Halak's fault. NOT FAIR. I'm not saying he's wonderful and none of it is his fault. He needs to take his share of the blame for the losses when he's in nets. Oh and his share doesn't mean 90% of it.

Does Halak need to prove that he can rebound from tough games and play like we know he can? Yes. But does the team also need to come out and support him (read: stop playing lame defense like they've been doing the last two games)? YES. Right now everyone needs to step up and support each other and find a way to win tonight. They're good enough to beat the Rangers but they need to work as a team to do it.

Rant over. Time to talk tennis.

I have yet to see a full match this season but hey, it's only Doha right now and it's just the beginning of the season. Still, I will try to see a full match soon. Again, I missed Nadal rolling over whoever it was that he took on today. I also missed Murray and most of Federer's matches but I did catch the end of Federer's match. He didn't look quite as good as yesterday and even though Seppi did well - okay, okay, even though Seppi had spurts of goodness amid lots of bad playing - I think Federer could have done a lot better than the 6-3 6-3 result. But I digress. It's still better than poor Nole did in Brisbane. I refuse to read too much into this whole thing so far because it's pointless and silly. But on the other hand, I can't help but feel that Federer would benefit slightly by giving a strong performance here in Doha. If only to prove that he's not dead or dying anytime soon.

Halfway there people!

Yup. It's the halfway mark - more or less - and I apparently have nothing better to do than to give random thoughts about the random teams in the Eastern Conference. Go me! Note i said the word "random".

Atlantic division - the closest division in the east so far because no one's taken the lead and run away with it. Yet. I'm betting on Philly finishing on top.

Philadelphia
The good news: Mike Richards has been solid for the team in the first half. Jeff Carter is taking a swat at being the top goal scorer of the year.
The bad news: Goaltending. Biron has been less than amazing after pretty much single-handedly knocking Montreal out of the playoffs last spring. Niittymaki hasn't exactly stepped up as the league's best goaltender either.
The great news if you're a Habs fan but really bad if you're a Flyers fan: It looks like Briere is about to be paid millions of dollars to play just a handful of games this season. Good news if you're looking to make a lot of money and not do a heck of a lot - and great if you're one of those people who doesn't want to see his face for a long time - but definitely bad news if you're the Flyers' GM.

Pittsburgh
Good but definitely not wonderful news: Well, umm... they still have a chance to turn around their season?
The really bad bit: A very disappointing start to the season following their Stanley Cup finals run. They have struggled time and time again to find their rhythm - in particular, less than stellar performances from Sidney Crosby, Miroslav Satan and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (who did sit out a number of games due to injuries) and at times Evgeni Malkin. The top players haven't been producing and it's hurting the rest of the team. They're missing players like Ryan Malone and Hossa more than they care to admit.
Intriguing bit: Do you think Hossa predicted the Pens implosion? Everyone was pegging the Pens at having a fairly easy run to the playoffs in the offseason, but Hossa ditched them and said he wanted to play with a team that had a chance at winning the cup (read: Pens don't have a chance). At the time of his signing, it looked like Hossa was just being opportunistic. But now....? Well, I'm not saying the Wings are going to win it but I highly doubt it's going to be the Pens either...

New Jersey
Good news: They can survive without star goaltender Martin Brodeur, thank you very much. Yay for them!
The intriguing bit: What will happen to backup goalie Scott Clemmensen when Brodeur gets back? Will they go back to using Brodeur who hasn't played almost all season and will most likely take a while to get his rhythm back or will they continue to use Clemmensen? Also, the Devils have been quite an offensive type team without Brodeur. Will they ditch all this once he comes back?

NY Islanders
The good: I'm not sure what's good about the Islanders. They're sitting at the bottom of the league right now.
Really good if you're the Islanders: At this rate they'll be getting John Tavares. Poor Tavares.
The bad: Well, they're bottom of the league? Oh wait... maybe that's good. See above.

NY Rangers
Good: uh... I'm sure there's some good here. I don't watch the Rangers so I'm totally out of the loop on these guys but sitting near the top of the league during the first half of the season is pretty good.
Bad: The reason why they were sitting at the top was because they got off to a good start and played a lot more games than the rest of the people in the league. Where they will end up at the end of the season remains to be seen. Also, goalie Henrik Lundqvist hasn't exactly been top of the league a lot of the time.

Northeast - despite having Toronto (and now Ottawa) in it, this division is still the best in the east, in my very biased opinion. In my unbiased opinion, I still think this division is very good thanks to two teams. I mean, c'mon, how are we supposed to have the best division when two and a half teams play terribly?

Boston
Good: Sitting at the top of the league. Well, second now that San Jose won. But still. They barely squeaked into the playoffs last year and now they're top. Goalies Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez been key to this abrupt turn around as have players like Milan Lucic, Philip Kessel and Somethingrather Wheeler. And I guess Ryder has been too.
Will this translate into playoff success? (finally?): It should be interesting to see how the Bruins handle themselves in the playoffs which is a totally different beast. I'm personally hoping for some imploding but I think this team has what it takes to go all the way...where they will then lose in 6 games to Detroit or maybe even San Jose (I wish!).

Montreal (in my totally biased assessment)
The good: They're still fairly high up in the rankings. Rookies that have been called up have been good. Especially the earlier stint that D'Agostini has had here. Also, players like Lapierre and Kostopoulous have really stepped things up. Price has had stellar performances and has stolen the game for the Habs on more than one occasion.
The bad: INJURIES. And especially inconsistency that has kept the team from gaining valuable points. I won't get into whether Carbonnneau has done his job properly or not but as an entire team they have had issues this half of the season. Yes, expectations were high coming in here. Too high. But there were some games that a team should win but ends up losing because they can't play a full game of hockey. And this team has gone and lost those games. Also less than stellar performances on the powerplay and from players like Kovalev have hurt the team at times.
The bright spot: They can climb out of this right now and dominate the rest of their season. Will they catch Boston? Probably not. But they can close the gap if they focus on playing 60 full minutes of hockey.

Buffalo
Again not one of the teams I follow regularly but it seems that they've struggled quite a bit so far. Consistency from the players has been an issue at times. Oh and a complete lack of effort from Maxim Afinogenov has been a real downer.

Ottawa
The bad: Well, let's see... 11 straight years of making the playoffs could be going down the drain this year. The Sens are going through a major crisis right now and the over emphasis on the top line of Heatley/Alfredsson/Spezza has finally come crashing down on the team. Oh and goaltending has been another issue this year, though instead of it being the antics of the goalies, it's been the performance of the goalies that has been a problem.
The good: Maybe now Ottawa will do something about not relying 24/7 on "the big three" and get themselves some other good players. Or maybe they'll just grab Toskala when he either goes on the trade market or goes free agent when Toronto dumps him.

Toronto.
The good: Luke Schenn. The kid has been the closest thing to a god send for the Leafs. And winning six games in a row. And surprisingly Grabovski seems to be liking life in Toronto. Funny how all of Montreal's ex players do better when they join the Habs' major rivals...Must have something to do with a mutual dislike of the Habbies (don't tell me that Ryder and Grabovski left with smiles and hugs while promising to send a postcard every week).
What they think is good: Ron Wilson and Brian Burke. Never underestimate the power of the Leafs' management problems. Ever.
The bad: The fact that they are the Toronto Maple Leafs and they're run by a corporation that couldn't give a hoot over whether they actually win or not. Oh you mean with the actual team? Well, take a look for yourself. I'm placing bets on them missing another playoff run.

Southeast - and arguably the weakest division which is why the Caps have a runaway lead.

Washington
The good: They've solved their goalie issues and Ovechkin seems to have snapped out of his slump (can't blame him entirely if his grandfather's health was bad. Family first, yes?).
The bad: Earlier injuries and bad goaltending from their goalies have stalled the team. Semin's previous scoring outburst seems to have stalled.

Carolina
Bad: lack of depth has hurt the team who keeps getting injuries.
Good news is: Um... I guess Cam Ward has been doing some stuff lately. When he's there he's been good when he's not, well.... hehe... byebye Hurricanes!

Florida
Intriguing bit: Someone tell me how Anderson has a good save percentage and the team is still sitting in 18th place? The team obviously needs to learn how to score more goals. And no, the Panthers getting five goals against the Habs doesn't count because the Habs got five goals on Anderson as well.

Tampa Bay
The bad: The owners, the management, the coaches, and the team. And hyping up Stamkos as something way more than he is. That is unfair to anyone but especially to an 18 year kid. I feel extremely bad for Stamkos.
The good: Um... I'm not seeing one other than maybe they'll get themselves another top player.
Can someone tell me...How Mike Smith has two shutouts?!

Atlanta
Don't follow these guys at all but obviously something's very wrong here. Kovalchuk keeps threatening to break out at any time but someone should tell him that now would be a good time to do it.

I love Christmas...with a couple of exceptions...

Apart from the nice happy holiday stuff (in which Santa Hab was very nice to moi), I like the Christmas presents that I got - albeit a tad late - from various teams. Let's see.....

1. The Islanders beat the Maple Leafs 4-1. I guess the Leafs are still on Holiday break. Oh well. Isn't that smashing though? Eat that Leafs!
2. Penguins shut out the Devils 1-0. Yay for Fleury. Yes, I'm still hoping that they all implode tomorrow. Sowwy. No idea what type of game that was.
   
3. Chicago beat the Flyers 5-1. Not a huge fan of the Blackhawks but yeah, it's always nice to read about the Flyers losing so yay!
   
4. Team Canada smashed the poor Czech Republic 8-1. They got off to a rocky start and the Czechs held them off until there was about 30 or something seconds left in the first period and guess who scored on the powerplay... with a really nifty goal.... Yeah, Tavares. And that, everyone, was the beginning of the end for the Česká republika. A whole host of players brought the tally to 5-0 after the second. Some point in here, the Czech's switched goaltender Tomas Vosvrda out and replaced him with Dominik Furch. Unfortunately, Furch did not do too much better than Vosvrda and by the the time the last three or so minutes came it was 8-0 for the host team. Their one goal was due to a mistake by Canadian goalie Dustin Tokarski who's attempt at clearing the puck resulted in the Czechs taking it and scoring on him before he was fully back in place. Minor blip over all, but something that team Canada may want to be careful of when they play next time - then again, if the Kazakh junior team is anything like their men's team then there really shouldn't be an issue. The Czechs hardly seemed to touch the puck al night. A perfectly sad example of that was when Tavares set up one of the goals. He took the puck off of one of the Czech players who was trying to get out of his own end like he wasn't even there, passed it, and there went another goal. It was nice if you were team Canada wanting to make an impression 'though I'm sure it was a reeaaallly loooong night for the Czechs.
   
   In other news:
   
   Canada wasn't alone in the mauling department. The U.S.A ran over the newly promoted Germany 8-2. That's to be expected and I expect another fairly high score when they take on the Czechs next.
   
   Russia downed Lativia 4-1. No scoring by Nikita Filatov although apparently he did well. A good start for the Russians for sure, though apparently their goalie could be a lot better. By contrast, Latvia's goalie kept the score from easily reaching double digits. Should be interesting to see how the Russians do against Finland next.
   
   Sweden is off to an so-so start after edging past archrivals Findland 3-1. That third goal came on an empty net. Apparently the Swedes didn't do so well after the first period. Oh well. Better news for Canada then. Mind you, I expect that the Swedes will aim for a better game when they take on Slovakia on Sunday.
   
5. Chelsea beat West Bromwich Albion with a nice score of 2-0. Then again, their opponents were sitting in the bottom of the premier league. But moving on...If the stats are anything to go by, the Blues were in complete control for most of the game with 25 shots on goal. Drogba and Lampard netted the ball in the 3rd (?!!!!!!!) and 45th minutes of the game. Lovely.
   
6. Liverpool remains at the top of the league, however, with a resounding 3-0 over tenth placed Bolton. Is it just me or have the Reds done something similar before? Oh yeah, they have. Anyway, I'm still waiting for Torres to get back into the lineup again before I really start taking a huge interest in Liverpool but as it is, I still love the Reds. So thanks Riera and Keane for getting those goals.

Random note: It just dawned on me that the colours for the three football teams that I follow are red, white and blue... like the habbies!

I was NOT happy to hear that the Habbies called up Max Pacioretty and Kyle Chipchura. I've got nothing against these guys in general, it's just that call ups mean injuries and that's bad. In this case though, I believe Chipchura is here to replace Maxwell - and it really should have been Chipchura called up instead of D'Agostini AND/OR Maxwell but he was injured at the time - and Pacioretty is just here in case Andre Kostitsyn can't play tomorrow night despite practicing with the Habs in Penguinville. I would much prefer a healthy and motivated Kostitsyn to Pacioretty at this point. Again, I've got nothing against Pacioretty but I wouldn't mind jump starting the rest of this season with a good win over the Pens and let's face it, Kostitsyn is more qualified for that job than Pacioretty is. We shall see what happens.... Oh and Laraque who probably would have sat this one out anyway, will be out again with more groin issues. Jeez, this guy is proofing to be worse tha Marian Gaborik is for the Wild. And at least Gaborik does something when he's on the ice!

"Yay", "Nooo" and "HAHAHA"

That's pretty much what I was doing tonight as I flipped through three different channels showing three different hockey games. How nice is that? I usually only get two channels of hockey.... My poor mom asked me if there was anything besides hockey on TV. This was when I was only flipping through the first two channels so I changed to another channel and saw the third game on. Guess not. Sorry mom!

We may not care a lot about the international hockey tournaments but...

I,for one, intend on watching the Canada's world juniors team this week. If the their three exhibition games are anything to go by, then Team Canada should have a very good chance at winning their 5th straight juniors title. Yes, I know, the only real competition that they had in these pre-games was from Sweden but they downed them pretty easily. So watching a bunch of teenagers isn't quite as exciting as watching an NHL game BUT it was still great to watch and I still think that Canada has a great shot at the gold again. Yes, I know, I know, how can I make that grand presumption when Team Slovakia just rolled over and died for Canada by getting blanked 7-0? Well, apart from Sweden, the only other team that can really make a serious bid for the gold other than Canada is the USA who's juniors are apparently better than their non-junior team - and for their sake, I hope they are better. Team USA was not good when they played here in the spring. Anyway, it should be interesting to see how Canada handles the games once there's pressure to do perform well. I think they should do okay. A few of the team members including Tavares have experience from last year. Tavares just needs to come up with a way to score that doesn't involve standing on the left side of the net all the time (but after that fancy bit of puck handling to get his second goal tonight, I guess I can't complain if he wants to stand there). Team Canada would have been a lot better if a pile of their good juniors were slugging it out in the NHL already (yes, I'm looking at poor Stamkos and Shehn). Anyway, I'm hoping for the junior team to have more sucess than the Team Canada that got beat in a power play goal in OT to Russia this spring *coughs*

Memo to self: remember to rant about why we don't put much emphasis on the world events in hockey...

Where have the Penguins gone? (this is the "nooo" bit)

Can someone answer that for me? Please? The Pens have won just five out of their last eleven which includes two wins in a shootout and OT. I would have to add that some truly bi-polar playing has gone on in this span. Lets' see, the Pens demolished the Islanders 9-2, then lost 6-3 to the Flyers, then won 6-3 to the Thrashers, which was then followed up by a 7-3 mauling by the Maple Leafs. Yes, the Maple Leafs. And the last two games have seen the Pens win 4-3 in OT and now tonight I am sad to say, the Sidney Crosby's Penguins have just been blanked 2-0 by... wait for it.... TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING! Yes, the very same Lightning that downed the poor Habbies a little while ago. Go figure. Coming off a decent game after getting killed by a truly loser team and with Ryan Whitney now finally back in the lineup, I would have thought that the Penguins would be on track to win tonight. Well, I guess not. The Penguins' offense was truly horrendous tonight and the defense wasn't really all that much better. A stupid turnover at the blueline allowed the the Lightning to grab the puck and after some moneuvering around the net, Matt Pettinger put the puck past Fleury. Oh, this happened in the second period by the way, when the Pens failed on a couple of good chances to score in the first period. It was to get worse though.

According to the stats, the Pens only had 15 shots on goal compared to 29 by the Lightning. Now, really, tell me the last time that the Lightning outscored their opponents. Especially a team as talented as the Pens. It felt like only 15 shots too. The Pens completely failed to keep the puck in the other end for any decent amount of time and bad passing lead to the Lightning taking another swipe at Fleury. That was truly a pathetic display of hockey from the Pens and I'm just praying that either 1) they keep this up until AFTER they play the Habs or 2) they continue the trend and beat the Devils then lose to the Habs. Sorry, Habs come first. Always.

And because I just loooove to see Toronto get beaten....(this is the "HAHAHA" part)

I just have to mention that the lowly Dallas Stars beat the Maple Leafs by a wonderful score or 8-2. Lovely. The only reason why this is so good - other than it's nice to see the Leafs lose - is because Dallas stinks and won't challenge the Habs for a spot. Yes, everything is indeed about the Habs.

Sharks are making mince meat out of Canucks

Before I called it night for the hockey, I did see ten minutes of the Sharks vs Canucks game. And honestly, the poor Canucks have no chance. In ten minutes, I'm not sure if the Canucks even registered a shot on goal while the Sharks scored less than five minutes into the game. Oh dear. It got worse though as the Canucks took three or four straight penalties and the Sharks continued to steam roller over them with two more goals. I know Vancouver got in late to the San Jose but seriously, I don't think that they would have had much of a chance even if they were in top form. Now, if Luongo was in nets maybe it wuld be different but I don't know.

Oh and Ottawa dropped yet another game. This time to the Flyers in their blindingly ugly orange jerseys....

I'm only mentioning this 'cause it just so happened to be on TV. I watched a bit of it inbetween watching team Canada, the Pens and chasing my rabbit around the house. It wasn't a terrible loss. 6-4. That sixth goal came on an empty net with 18 seconds left to go. I guess whatever John Stevens was scribbling on that white board thing of his that he likes to cart around with him, made sense to someone tonight. It's more than I can say for Hartsburg's supposed plan. The Sens could have had a shot at a goal if they hadn't turned over the puck to the Flyers in the most horrendous way possible. Oh well....

And finally: What is it with the Rangers and blowing big leads?

We all know about that game in which the Rangers held a 5-0 lead on the Habs and then promptly dropped said lead in the third period and ultimately lost in OT. C'mon, even I know about that game and I didn't see it. Well, tonight, ladies and gentleman, I offer you another game in which the Rangers blew another big lead. Tonight's game featured the Rangers versus Ovechkin's Washington Capitals. Well, okay, so it's a little unfair to say "Ovechkin's Capitals" because he hasn't really been doing that much. But moving on...

The Rangers came out firing and made Theodore's life very miserable for the first period. In fact, he was replaced with a sick Johnson mid-way through the first period after he allowed 3 goals in 5 shots. Oops. Johnson did not continue however, and Theodore was back in the second period and was to stay there for the remaineder of the game. The Rangers would have one more goal on the ex-Hab before they called it a night and dozed off to sleep. And that was when the Caps decided to come back starting with Ovechkin's goal in the second period. Still, going into the third, the Rangers had to be pretty confident. They were up 4-1 and it wasn't like Theodore was proving to be the top goaltender in the NHL or anything. Oh how wrong they were! The Caps came back with three more goals including the tying goal by... guess who... Yeah, Ovechkin. No Semin. I think he's still injured from something. Anyway, the game went to OT and then it was byebye Rangers. To finish off, a couple of quotes by the players after the game (taken from <here>):

"They stopped playing hockey. They probably believed 4-0 they'd win the game." Coming from the guy who got the first and last goals in regulation time. Someone will be partying tonight.

"We were looking forward to going into the (Christmas) break with two points. I definitely have to forget about this one and move on." A clearly unhappy Lundqivst. He's had quite a few games now that he should just forget about. Poor guy.

Komo finally dumps tie and suit

Finally! No more Coach K behind the bench. Not that I had a problem with him being there. It's just that now it's time for him to get back in the lineup and start skating again. Komisarek finally got cleared to play for today's game. He would have probably been cleared earlier but ironically the doctor was too sick to see him. Oh and Laraque will be back as well. I'm of the opinion that the Habs need all the help that they can get tonight when they take on the Flyers who have been unfortunately doing very well lately. The Halloween-coloured-team has recovered from their horrible start to the season and are looking to win their sixth straight. The poor Habbies are just trying not to lose their fourth straight in a row - apparently if they lose to night, this will be the first time in over two years that they've dropped four in a row. *wails* Komisarek's return means no more Ben Maxwell. Pity. He didn't seem to be doing too badly but it was hard to tell considering how well the last game went. Ahem, anyway.... Don't know what to say here. The Habs need to be really focused tonight and if they play like they're capable of then there should be no problem. But I've been saying that for how many games now...? Four? More? We'll see. I'll try not to get my hopes up too much here. I still think if stupid Columbus had beat San Jose we should be able to beat the Flyers, no.....?

HAAAAAABS WIIIIIIIN! FINALLY!!!!!!! Habbies 5 Flyers 1 1/2!

There was talk about if the Habs lost tonight then it would be the first time in two years that that they dropped four in a row. There wasn't too much confidence in the media about how the Habs would do either tonight. I mean, three consecutive losses to bad teams was not very acceptable from a team that clearly has a lot of talent and just can't seem to get it together. And then there was the little fact that the Flyers were coming into this one having only lost one in regulation time in the last 17 games. Yeah, funny what can happen in the stretch of 60 mins.

Habs won and they won playing good hockey. D'Agostini opened up the scoring on a mini breakaway (can he stay here, Bob? Please? Please?). That obviously proved to be a huge moral booster for the Habs who haven't scored first since.... the game against the Flames. Anyway, D'Agostini's goal was followed by one from Sergei Kostitsyn on the powerplay, which I missed initially because I was looking for something to eat, but I saw the replay and it was nice. I was just moaning over not having any food to eat when Begin got a goal in past Niittymaki as well. Yay! This was immediately followed by a not so nice goal by somethingrather Asham for the Flyers off the faceoff. He caught Halak half out of the net and got a goal in. Yuck. To make things worse, I still didn't find anything to eat. Blegh. Anyway, so the first period ended 3-1 for the Habbies which was good news. Finally. More good news was to come as Kovalev scored in the second period off another half breakaway. Dare I hope that he's finally woken up now? The Habs sort of went to sleep a bit in the third period and sloppy playing almost lead to a pile of goals by the Flyers. The Habs kind of got an own goal as... Boullion.... or someone tried to catch a shot with his hand but failed horribly as the puck pounced off his hand and past Halak. The Flyers then decided that they would like to try harder and they did but through a series of luck and skill from the Habs nothing happened except for this: Niittymaki gets pulled at the end. Flyers have the advantage. Flyers put Niitymaki back in for faceoff. Flyers get penalty. Latendresse scores on Niitymaki. Game officially over for the Flyers. Well, okay, so the Flyers made one last ditched effort and nearly scored but they didn't.

On a whole, I liked the game that the Habs played tonight. The powerplay worked. Though of course if you don't get a goal when the goalie is sprawled across the ice and can't do anything then you stink big time. But still. The effort was there tonight. There was some potential bad turnovers but they didn't amount to anything. Halak still seems to be having issues with rebounds and controlling the puck but I still think he did a good job tonight. The Flyers had exceptionally bad luck last night, hitting the post on numerous occaisions and they clearly weren't happy. I'd be more upset with the defensive end of their game if I was their coach. D'Agostini and Kovalev both scored after getting the puck past the defensemen and practically going in alone on Niittymaki. Anyway, that's their problem, not mine. Both teams had 31 shots on goal and while the Habs shot 5 goals past Niitymaki, the Flyers only got past Halak and the Habs gave the Flyers a Christmas present in the form of the other goal. Merry Christmas Flyers!

The good - Well, winning, right?

The bad - the own goal thing but we'll pretend that they were being generous to the Flyers tonight. If you saw Richards face after his team was offside for the who-knows-what-time, you would know that the Flyers needed a little help.

The ugly - cant think of anything yet..... the Flyers maybe?

The potentially not good - Considering that 1) the Habs obviously didn't want to lose four straight 2) it's the Flyers are normally the Habbies are pretty motivated to beat them (erm, minus that little fiasco the last time they played) oh and 3) the Habs almost always seem to be motivated when they play top teams (I suppose they realize now that Boston is a top contender), I'm still worried about how the weekend will go. The Habs completely die against loser teams and that is the huge problem for them right now. WAKE THE HECK UP AND GET SCORING! There's nothing wrong with beating your loser opponent 9-2. Just ask the Penguins ^___^

No more bi-polar behavior!

I think I spelled Niittymaki's name wrong throughout the whole thing... oh well...There's too many double letters!!!!

In other irrelevant news:

• Pittsburgh flattened Atlana 6-3 with Fleury back in nets again. Yay for Fleury!
• Boston won 8-5 against the Maple Losers... I can't believe Tim Thomas let that many... And Boston was up 5-1 or something. Oh well. Lucky Bruins that it was Toskala in nets on the other end.....
• Oh and Detroit won 6-0 against San Jose...!!!!!!! Umm, oops? That's incredibly embarrassing for San Jose. This is their first regulation loss since.... when? A long time. Not a nice way to break that streak. Also, this is the first time in... a while... that the Sharks have dropped two in a row. Oh well...
  

DID I MENTION THAT MATS SUNDIN IS A CANUCK NOW?

I know I said that I would never talk about Sundin but I'm going to say something now because this truly will be the last time. The indecisive Swede has finally decided that he wants to continue to play hockey and what's more he actually picked a team to play for. Thank the hockey gods! This whole saga thing began after the playoffs - if not earlier considering the Leafs didn't make the playoffs- and has been dragging on and on and on and on since then. And it's over now! Sundin will be a Canuck for a year now and hopefully when he's contract is up he will be a little quicker about making a decision. But anyway... Celebrate people because this whole overlong epic is over! YEEEEEEES! And thank goodness he's playing on the other side of the country so we don't have to put up with him a lot. YES! HUZZAH! No more talking about Sundin now! Yaaaaaaaay......Okay, I'm shutting up...

Just when you thought it was bad....

...it got worse. Higgins will definitely be out for at least four weeks. He's apparently got the same type of injury that Komisarek had. Speaking of Komisarek...there is a chance that he might be back on Tuesday with the Habs. This could only be good as long as he's fully recovered and doesn't get injured again and will be out for even longer. Koivu is going to be out for at least two weeks with some foot or ankle problem. No word on exactly what's wrong but it doesn't sound good. Oh, and Price got himself injured in practice and definitely won't be in nets tonight. In fact, it seems that he may be out until after Christmas. So it's going to be Halak back in nets tonight and it will be Halak in nets for a while now. Poor Halak. The last thing the poor guy needs is to start off his prolonged netminding term with a game against the Alexes. The one potentially bright spot to all of this is that the Capitals' goalie is Simeon Varlamov and he's never played in the NHL before. Okay, so maybe the AHL team he plays for is the best in the AHL thing right now but his save percentage is worse than Halak's who plays in the NHL. Not that it needs to be good when you've got the Alexes skating around.............

We're doomed.

Yes, this is the point where someone says "no digas nunca 'nunca jamas'" (never say never) and I calm down and stop cursing Ovechkin and all the people who can't say his name right.

In other sad and depressing news in my little sports world

It was lights out for Real Madrid today in Barcelona. Well, it wasn't actually lights out until there were about nine minutes left in the game. Then Barcelona had to go and score not once, but twice. Up until that point things had gone pretty well for Real Madrid. Not wonderful. Barcelona pretty much had pocession of the.. I was going to say "puck" but obviously that's the wrong sport... Ahem, Barca - the team with some of the ickiest home colours ever - pretty much had control of the ball for most of the game and it really was only a matter of when they would score and not if. It's too bad though. Casillas did really well up until then and had some great saves. The second goal was pretty pathetic from Real Madrid's point of view. Messi got the ball on a pass from....Thierry Henry who was pretty much going at the net alone until the Messi came along... and kicked it over Casillas' head. I was frankly susprised that Barca hadn't scored before then. The action was almost completely all at Casillas' end. So kodos to Real Madrid for not completely getting demolished by Barca. Now get to work on getting back up in the league standings and beat the... just beat Barca the next time around.

And as if that wasn't bad enough: The Flyers demolished the Penguins 6-3 which puts the Penguins at third in their division behind the Rangers and the Flyers.... I was hoping that the Flyers would continue along on their losing ways when they started the season losing their first six games. But noooo.....Ick...Fleury was supposed to start today but he didn't and Sabourin was in nets. I'm not a huge fan of Crosby but he really needs to get scoring again.

Ah well.... I just rented the Dark Knight so maybe I'll just depress myself more by watching that instead of the hockey game tonight...who am I kidding? I have to watch the hockey game now...Have to see if Maxwell can hold up against the Alexes...

Dare I even hope that this is the start to a good day?

So it's Davydenko vs Djokovic tomorrow and some ungodly hour in the morning for me!!!! Davydenko just delt Murray a nice straight set loss (7-5, 6-2) and Djokovic managed to edge out Simon (3-6, 6-4, 7-5). Don't know how the matches went so I'll have to wait for the replays (hopefully the lovely tv will be nice at play both of the matches. But I doubt it).

I would never have pegged Davydenko to be in the finals but there he is. Looking back I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. His group had two people who had never been in the masters cup before. Tsonga sort of squeaked through at the last minute because of a strong performance at the end of the season, and del Potro, as the youngest and definitely the least experienced player and probably the most distracted (davis cup!), was at a disadvantage. I know I said Tsonga was going through to the semis, but I thought that he would've had more momentum after winning in Paris and Davydenko did have a history of not doing well at this event. As for the whole Murray thing... well, I did say that it depended a lot on how Murray felt. He came out dead against Federer and I guess he couldn't recover enough to beat Davydenko. Next time Murray. Maybe...I still want Federer to win it again....

Liverpool beat Bolton 2-0 and I'm now waiting on Chelsea and Real Madrid to win too. In theory, they should be able to beat their opponents, considering Valladolid and West Brom are practically at the bottom....then again, everyone from Real Madrid seems to be all knocked up... but still.... they should win... in theory....I hate theory.

As the title of this says, dare I hope that this is the start to a good day? The Habs seem rather doomed on paper. Halak's in goal - nothing wrong with Halak, he can be good and he needs to play sometime. I just seem to be getting the impression that we're only using him tonight because Price bombed out against the Bruins - Komisarek's out with injuries from that fight with Lucic, Sergei Kostistyn is probably out as well (don't know what happened to him). I think I'm missing something here too but anyway... It's not like the Flyers' have the best defense around these days either. And it's not like I have to watch Briere who's out with some other injury again. And it's not like they're playing in Philly, though I doubt everyone is going to be pleased with them tonight. Oh and, Biron did let in a pile of goals against Pittsburgh (but then again, so did Fleury who got pulled at for the third period), so as long as he stays completely uninspired to do well against the team that he was completely inspired to beat in the playoffs (inspiration + Montreal + Biron = no goals by Montreal), we're okay. Oh and it would be nice if Lupul and Richards also forgot how to score goals too. Yeah, on paper, we're so dead. But as we keep learning, what's on paper doesn't translate to what happens. But for the sake of not having to avoid tomorrow's paper (and my Habs-hating sister), I really hope they win.

Later: Chelsea ran over West Brom 3-0. Well, they looked a little slow at first but then they scored all their goals within a ten minute period towards the end of the 1st half, which sort of deflated WB a little bit. They picked up in the 2nd but they didn't have too many good chances (and whoever the guy who wasn't Cech was stopped most of the good chances). So yeah. I'm pleased. Real Madrid lost. Which is sad, but at least it was only 1-0. I'll take Liverpool and Chelsea winning.

I'm waiting for the Canadian American football game (apparently my dad doesn't like me calling it American football because we play it differently in Canada than the US) to be over so we can get to the tennis already. C'mooon, people, I want to watch someone beat someone. I don't care if I have to watch Davydenko beat Murray, even though I would rather watch Djokovic beat Simon, just put the stupid tennis on like you said you would *wails* tennis! tennis! tennis! I'll even watch Murray for twelve hours straight before I have to sit through a football game.... I'm so going to have to eat my words in the future, aren't I....*prepares to get twelve hours worth of Murray matches to watch*

Even later: I got to see the second set of the Murray vs. Davydenko match. Davydenko was absolutely brilliant. He was chasing down practically every shot and just put so much effort into every point. Murray was definitely running around a lot even on his own serve and he definitely came out flat today. I think even if he had been at top form he would have had a really hard time against Davydenko. Davydenko made some fantastic shots to break Murray's serve for the second time, including the winning point which involved running up the net and out maneuvering Murray.

They also decided to be nice and the third set of the Djokovic vs. Simon match (some is better than none, I guess). I don't know how the first two sets went, but by the third they both looked exhausted and made quite a few errors. If I remember correctly they both had medical time outs in the second set. Anyway the third set: It went reasonably well at the beginning. Djokovic broke Simon's serve in the 3rd game but this was really more to luck than skill. He hit the net and it bounced lightly onto the other side, leaving Simon no chance to run to the net to hit it. At break point in the game, Simon hit the net and the ball went wide giving Djokovic the break. During Simon's next service game Djokovic held thriple break point but he then proceeded to make a pile of errors which allowed Simon to stay in the match. A little more troublesome was the fact that Djokovic also made a pile of errors when he was serving for the match at 5-4. He basically double faulted to give Simon a life line (which Simon didn't quite exactly capitilize on but that's beside the point). He's going to have to do something about that when he plays Davydenko.

On a whole I think I would like to predict a victory for Davydenko. Davydenko has been doing extremely well so far. Yes, he lost to Djokovic, but let's not forget that the set that Davydenko did win was won by a lot (6-0!). Davydenko seems in better physical shape than Djokovic. I like the type of shots that Davydenko has been making (he was able to mix it up quite well against Murray which says quite a bit) and he has so far shown a lot more determination than Djokovic to go for every shot and every point (which could do with the fact that he appears to be in better physical shape than Djokovic). With the final being the best of five sets, being in better phsyical shape means a lot. We shall see though. I'm probably going to be wrong...See what happens when Federer or Nadal don't make the finals? There's too much guess work....

On a random note: Djokovic and Simon are quite funny to watch when they get upset. Simon makes all these gestures and Djokovic either hits himself upside the head with his racquet or he looks like he's talking to himself (I'm asuming that he's talking to his coach but I guess you never know). It's quite amusing if you watch it.... okay, so I'm easily amused.... sue me...

Even later than before: ahem.... I suppose I'm asking for too much for the Habs to win. Currently down o-2 going into the third. Still lookinh flat, crappy passing, and they're getting knocked around by the Flyers big time (like hello? They're not that much bigger than you for crying out loud). Oh and Biron decided to be inspired tonight. How fun. Be back later if I don't get distracted in trying to make myself a new wallpaper for my computer....at least the Canucks are beating Toronto 4-0 for now. Go Canucks! And go Islanders who are currently beating the Senators. Yay! *dies*

The latest possible "later": Well at least we didn't get blanked.... 2-1.... Still not great playing though...I'm running out of creative ways to say that the Habs fell flat again. Kudos for not losing a billion to one but still, the offense was still dead-ish from my angle. And the defense was struggling. And the passing was still bad. How can you score when you can't even pass the puck to the guy who is almost at the net but who could be a lot closer? The Flyers didn't look that much more alive than we were, they lost the puck quite a bit and they missed out on a lot of good chances. But it's sort of like the Murray/Federer match The deader side lost.

In other news: Ottawa lost 3-2, Vancouver is on track to beat the Leafs 4-2, and the Penguins are losing to the Sabres with eight mins left.