It's like the 1993 playoffs

......minus the playoff bit *G* 

Habs take it in OT! Again! Turtle-Pleky had beautiful pass over a Isle's defenseman to Hammer who put it past a sprawling Squeaky Marty! 

• The Islanders decided to come to play tonight (and c'mon, they have been playing a lot better than last year). I decided that after the 08 playoffs, three words I never wanted to hear again were "Biron fait l'arret". When Squeaky Marty is all motivated against the Habs, it usually spells bad news for the Habs. Not that he's been THAT motivated since May of 08.. but still... He wasn't so faily tonight.
  
  
• Metro was sick but he showed up to play anyway. Boy, did he look really sick. BUT! he had a SUPER awesome assist on Spacek's goal. Super cool. I really hope that he doesn't give everyone else the flu though... that would be super UNcool.
  
  
• Gotta admit that Tambellini's goals in the second and third period (both on the PP) were nice. Sucked to be Jaro who got left out to dry by the D. Sucked especially to be Hal Gill who looked silly on Tambellini's first goal....
  
  
• Squishy had some nice work on Moen's goal. It was a bit of a weak one by Sqeaky but we'll take it!
  
  
• Either the Islanders were actually playing defense, or else the Habs offense was taking a bit of a break tonight, because that was all she wrote for the next two periods for the Habs. Probably both. The Islanders were playing a lot tighter D around Squeaky. To the point where you really couldn't even see Squeaky.
  
  
•  Jaro was really solid tonight. I'm really not sure why people insist on bashing him. Okay, so he did get super lucky on a very fast whistle by the ref, but it wasn't like the posts weren't being nice to Squeaky tonight either (sometimes I wonder if it takes more talent to hit the post than it does to put it past Squeaky. What say you, Mr. French Marshmallow?).Seriously... Jaro was solid tonight.
  
  
• The Habs really forgot how to count tonight. They took TWO too many men on the ice penalties.
  
  
• The refs also pretty much forgot that they're allowed to penalize the Islanders for most of the game. It took a whole 40 mins before the Habs would get a full PP (in which they fell asleep. Happens when you forget about what it;s like to be on the PP).
  
  
• Turtle-Pleky has been really good. He finished the night a + 1 had 3 shots, 3 blocked shots and  1 missed shot. Oh and he was %52 on the faceoff circle making him the third best tonight.
  
  
• Pigeon and Squishy were also on fire tonight in terms of shots. Both had four shots (Pigeon had another 5 shots blocked).
  
  
• Okay, who had Andrei with the most hits tonight? He had three.
  
  
• Not a bad game tonight. The real tests will be coming up this week though with the Pens on Wednesday, the Peachhawks on Friday and then those dratted Leafs on Saturday. The Habs will be tired and the Leafs will be super hungry on Saturday..... 

Copy that Juniors

Habs stomped on the Islanders!

Granted, the Islanders were pooped from winning last night.

But like I said before, I'm taking this win and running with it. A win is a freaking win.

The good: 

• The defensive effort by the Habs
• The Islanders were pooped
• Patches. Looked like a new guy out there once he scored. 
• Metro coming back. Wow, shows you how sad our third/fourth lines were without him
• MAG's shot. But all us cool people following the Habs knew he has one hell of a shot. 
• The PP tonight! Went 2 for 6!

The bad

• no epically awesome Squeaky Marty fail....
• Jaro fail....  (see below)

By the numbers: 

100% - Dagger's faceoff percentage. Okay, so he only had one faceoff but still!
62% - Richard Park's faceoff percentage. Felt like it too.
43 - the number of shots for the Habs. FOR THE HABS.
29 - shots blocked by the Islanders. Squeaky Marty says thank you for that. Kinda.
21 - Saves made by Jaro
18:15 - Metro's ice time. Think we missed him? Just a bit?
12:27 - Patches ice time.He had a solid night. Apparently he has heard me saying that he should be in the AHL.
10 - total of missed hits by both teams
6 - SOG for Gio. The most of everyone. MAG, Patches and Gomer had 5.
5  - Number of hits for Moen.
4 - Giveaways by Hammer
3 - The number of times the whole "Biiiiiirooooooon" chant started. Okay, so this is a totally made up stat. I have no idea how many times they chanted Squeaky Marty's name. Suffice to say, it was chanted and it's still cool to be mean to Squeaky.
2 - the number of PP goals for the Habs
1 - goals scored by Patches, Max and MAG. All their first goals of the season too!
1 - hits by Hal Gill. Yes, someone was standing still long enough to get hit by Gill. Unbelievable, eh? [edit: apparently he had 2 hits tonight. Not sure where the other one came in]
1 - Idiotic mistakes by Jaro. He's been talking to Huet or something about how to handle the puck. The twerp could have had a shutout tonight but nooooooo.... he had to go and give away a shorthanded goal for the Islanders. Poop. Jake, do NOT copy Jaro in that regard. DO NOT. Although, you might want to take note that Jaro isn't DUCKING away from the puck.
0 - the French Marshmallow's time on special teams. Also, I'm pretty sure he didn't throw a hit all night either....
-2 - Tavares' +/- for the night.

Oh and.... the most important:

5 - the number of goals scored by the Habs (Gomer and Squishy added to the whole Patches, MAG and Max tally).
1 - the number of goals given to the Islanders. Courtesy of Jaro.

Yay!

In other news:

• Booins lose in a shootout to the Flyers. Mike Richards looks hilarious in a toque. 
• Sens lose 6-5 to the Preds in a wild game that the Preds should've put away in regulation time
• Caps win 5-4 over the Thrashers. Pavelec wasn't about to rob any games tonight as he let in a 175 foot long goal.... umm yeah, Schultz was behind the blue line in his own defensive zone when he scored.... Simmy got an assist. Kovalchuk says "yay! I'm tied with Ovie for number of goals". 
• Sharks got mauled by the Bolts, losing 5-2. 

And in things I don't care about:

• Whether Ovie slew-footed Peverley or not and whether he should be suspended for it. He's not Artyukhin (who was suspended for actually slew-footing someone). Give it up. 
• This so-called "goalie controversy" in Montreal. There is no controversy. Baby goalie plays well in one game. Baby goalie gets to start again. Other baby goalie will get to have a stab at the Rags. No controversy. And no, we're not trading Jaro and bringing up Sanford. We're not. 
• the Devils 

What the heck? Del Potro beat Nadal?!

Yes, people, the hockey game was SO boring that I went off to look at tennis scores. And I did NOT like what I saw. I love Nadal despite the fact that he clobbered the Fed in Australia and now I'm very mad tha Mr. No. 1 won't be around to challenge Murray when he gets into the semi finals. BAH. I needed Nadal to get rid of Murray.

Anyway the Habs/Isles game.....I was awake for it. Really.

(credit for the photo goes to Isles-fan and queen of Twitter, Dani, who was at the game and snapped this picture of the buses loaded with Habs fans. She said she counted 13 of them!)

I swear the Isles have some weird power to screw with time. 1) the game started on time pretty much 2) After 15 mins, 10 mins were gone in the game..... 3) by the time the first period ended, it wasn't even eight 8:00 and it felt both like not that long and forever since the game started.

Aside from the weird time thing, I had the misfortune of losing my power for about an hour before the game. I was freaking out majorly but thankfully the guys put the power back on just at 7. I guess they got a lot of angry calls from all the Habs fans in my area =p I had the radio on though just in case...

First period, was so..... boring.....However, I could take comfort in the knowledge that my Habs were actually scoring. Koivu flew and went five hole on Danis. And then got squashed like a bug on the ice while Kovy went around celebrating. Nice Kovy. And Scheider got a goal after previously giving away the puck to the Isles and creating a two-on-one shorthanded chance. Andrei came close to making things even with me but failed. He still owes me.

Second period saw a beautiful goal by Tanguay, a nice goal by Markov on the PP and a bad goal by the Isles. I don't remember much more than that other than I was bashing the Staal brothers on Twitter....

Moving to the third period....I see an Islanders fan in the crowd! I see one! Do I get a prize for spotting the Islanders fan in the crowd? Do I? No? Fine. Komisaurus gets a goal after several guys take shots on Danis they bounced away. Mike's dad was on the radio so I hope he saw that goal. Kostopoulos gets a penalty shot and actually hits Danis. I thought he'd go really wide so actually getting the puck to touch Danis was a good thing. Umm... some other stuff happened.... a couple of close calls by the Isles which were stopped by Jaro....Andrei got his head bashed. This Kostitsyn's really seem to be a target for head bashing....

All in all the Habs weren't exactly playing as perky-ish as they were against the Blackhawks but they didn't need to. Isles had some moments of strong play which got them nowhere. Habs fans will take those two points and run and the Isles fans will be pleased to see their team continue on their Tavares Cup parade.... After all this they better win the lottery thinger.

The good:

• WIN
• All the Habs fans in Long Island
  
• Komisaurus getting a goal
  
• Finally a not lame game against the Isles
• Not being in 8th

The bad

• The boringness of the game at times...
• The ickyness of the game at times (give away after give away.... after......fine, so there weren't that many.... It just felt like a lot).
  

The ugly

• the prospect of the Panthers taking this away by winning....

Enemy watch

1. Amid my Staal brother bashing, I was not unaware of the fact that Eric was doing some work putting his team ahead of Marc's team which good for the Habs because we are no longer in 8th!!!!!!!!!!! We're in 7th by 1 point now and more imporantly, we're two - wait, three?! - points up on those pesky Panthers who play Kovalchuk tomorrow. C'mooon Ilya!
2. Sens couldn't beat Boston. Surprised?
3. Nobody else matters. Unless you count the Blues and the possibility that if they make the playoffs then the whole division goes to the playoffs.....
   

Isles- Habs pregame rant

Do hockey players not get flu shots or something?

Seriously. Price is apparently sick with the flu. Again. This is what, the third time this year that he's had it? Do I really need to say what a bad time this is to have the flu? Do I really need to say that now I'm concerned that it'll spread throughout the entire team now? Oh wait. A pile of guys already had it. Well, still! What if Kovalev goes Kovaflu again? Do I really need to say that the flu killed Jaro's chances of being cool??!

I'm not pleased at all with this. We needed the Priceberg to do his stuff tonight. I love Jaro but he's a terrible backup goalie because he usually takes several games to settle in. We don't have several games. Jaro, you have 8 hours to get prepared mentally for this game and you better bring it tonight. Forget all those crap games. Remember those really drop dead amazing games in which you tried to stop our crap-fest-streak (and pretty much succeeded too until that damn flu bug came around).

The Islanders, despite being second most boring team in the league and the bottom ranked team in the whole league, have not been kind to us. Not at all. Every game has been a damn struggle and for the most part we've come out looking like idiots. Right now, every game is a must-win and this is probably going to be the easier of the opponents of these must-win games. Easier doesn't mean they'll be a pushover. I think you all learned that. But they ain't the Bruins or the newly inspired Rags or Pens. They're the horrid Islanders who are in the Tavares Cup race.

Show me some of this great stuff you've doing and pound those Islanders. Please! And Andrei, you still bloody owe me for that crap display of hockey from the last Isles/Habs game. Do something about it and score a bloody goal, please.

Habs play badly but I get FREE stuff!

First off, I feel that, out of respect to my parents who paid way too much for these tickets, I can't talk about this game the way I would have if I had stayed home and watched it. I appreciate greatly what my parents did and dissing the Habs and the game feels really ungrateful to me (because, let's face it, nobody in their right mind would say that that game was good for anyone other than the Islanders).

The Bell Center was really nice
For once it had good ice
The Habs were bad
And made EP sad
But at least she got to see Price!

Hah. I love Price's is name sometimes... =p

Anyway....I'll leave the dissing to the people who stayed at home and I'll bring up the positives for me.

• First time going to the Bell Center in over ten years. Never saw a hockey game there before. I love the arena. I wish they could make the bloody tickets affordable so I could sit in there all the time.
  
• I liked the big screen =) We could argue that they shouldn't have spent all that money on it, but it's WAY better than that tiny little thing they have in Ottawa.... Plus, it allowed me to take some pictures of the guys because I couldn't see their faces from where I was sitting (yeah, I was that high up).
• Priiiceeey! He wasn't in Ottawa when I was there so I was very pleased to see him there.....Even if he was being a twerp and wouldn't stand still long enough for me to take a half decent picture... I mean c'mon... Even Halak cooperated during the warmup! You make me so sad sometimes, Price...
  
• Like I just said... I got to see Jaro too because I made it in time for the warmup thing. Yay! I would have hugged him if I wasn't a mile above ice level =)
• Some teams have ice girls with Gatling gun things to shoot stuff at people. We have.... crazy guys in a zamboni thing. Interesting.....
  
• I was sitting in the middle of nowhere but that middle of nowhere place was actually quite good because I was in the middle of building and could see the entire rink. Well, I could have seen the entire rink of the people directly in front of me didn't have huge heads and therefore obstructed my few directly below me. Someone should have given them ten minutes for fan obstruction.
  
• I got a free car flag thing. Actually two. I won't put it on the car but I like free stuff. They don't give out enough free stuff...I want free tickets next time damnit!
  
• I also got a keychain from my dad who came with me to the game as a belated birthday present. I love keychains =) I wish I had enough keys for all my keychains....
  
• When the Habs got their second goal I high-fived random people around me. It was kind of cool. I just hope none of them are sick though... If I get sick I'll be hunting them down....
  
• Screaming kids are a lot nicer when they're screaming "Go Habs" instead of "Go Sens"....And actually know the names of their own players. We have such wonderful and smart kids in this city.... =)
  
• The crowd was quiet which wasn't a bad thing when you consider I thought they were going to boo their own team to hell for various reasons....Okay so they did boo their own team at some point. I was ready to boo them too. Oh right. Positive thoughts... Positive thoughts...
  
• They showed a highlight of Ovechkin's goal against Philly. If kristin got a picture of Ovie, I promised to be nice to the Flyers until the playoffs (still waiting to see if I have to actually fulfill that) so instead of being mean to the Flyers, I'll just say "YEEEEEEEEEEEES! OVIE SCORED! OVIE SCORED!" Edit: She took lots of very pretty pictures of Ovie today!!!! YAY! So I have to be nice to the Flyers now. But Briere gets a pass. Good! I hope he was squashed like a bug tonight...... Maybe he could have fought with Semin? Semin would SO win that... =D
  
• I'm convinced that this jersey is cursed. I get it for my birthday and the Habs immediately suck and Carbo gets fired. I wear it today and the Habs suck. Then again.. I didn't have it during February.. so maybe it's not cursed after all....
  
• Had a great day until about a minute into OT. Other than that it was great!
• You can see the really awful photos here. One day if I ever fork over another mortgage loan to see another game live, I'll bring my better camera.....
  

Enemy watch - thank god things almost went the way I wanted them to

• Ovie beat the Flyers! Was glued to this score throughout the whole Habs/Isles game.
  
• Bruins stomped on Sens. Well, they tried to stomp on them but then they came back and then they flattened them for good. And to think it wasn't that long ago when everyone was talking about the SENS stomping on the BRUINS. Haha...Wait... yeah... HAHAH!
  
• Mason fended off the Pens. Even if the Jackets blew a 3-0 lead in the third period and had to go to OT. Was watching that score very closely tonight. Stupid, stupid, stupid, Jackets though... blowing a 3-0 lead in the span of what looked like five minutes....Edit: Oh wait, it was just over three minutes actually. Delightful.
  
• Stars actually beat the Hurricanes. YAY! Thank you Turco! And Begin scored too. Yay!
  
• The toothies beat the kitties. Thank you Buffalo!
  
• Bolts beat the Leafs. Congrats. I think.
• Flames rallied to beat the Red Wings in shootouts. I wouldn't be very pleased if I was the Mike Babcock right now...
  
• Stupid Nashville lost to New York's other team....
• Devils ran over Phoenix. I'm already betting that they'll blank the Habs on Saturday.
  
• San Jose lost 3-1 to the Blues?! Did I read that right? Guess the Blues figured out how to handle the Sharks...or at least Boucher... HAHAHA....Guess Boucher ain't so big and strong... poor Boucher.....Okay, I feel pathetic for having to reduce myself to bashing the Sharks... Meh... it's one in the morning... be nice to me....
  

Should I be embarrassed?

The last time I was at the Bell Center was over ten years ago when I went to see Disney on Ice....Yeah, the same show that ruined the ice for the Habs/Oilers game. Well, anyway, I'm about to fix that and I shall be at the game tonight! Whahoo. If only the Islanders could play like the dead last team that they are and lose nicely... I shall be happy. Then again, it's Yann Danis in nets and I'm guessing that he'll be making a big effort tonight considering he was a prospect for the Habs and all that jazz....I wonder if the crowd will boo Streit or Koivu more?

While I'm squinting down at the ice trying to follow the action, several other important games will be happening.

• Caps/Flyers. Obviously I'm hoping that Ovechkin and Co will get the job done in Flyers country (sorry Kristin!). An OT win over Nashville isn't exactly what I call inspiring and they need to get their act together right now. Yes, I'm looking at the crappy defense and the often less than stellar goaltending........And when was the last time Mr. Ovie scored?! Feels like a long time now.....But the Caps need to win, not just for my sake, but for the Habs sake too. C'moooon, Ooviiieeee......
  
• Pens/Jackets. Steve Mason needs to continue to kill teams and he needs to beat the Penguins tonight. It's really vital because the Pens are only one point behind the Habs. Plus, it's time for the Puffles to go down.
  
• Stars/Hurricanes. Hey Turco, is it really asking too much for you not to screw up on a clearing attempt or whatever and not get scored on in a stupid manner?! Stars must beat the Hurricanes for the same reason that the Penguins must lose. Plus, I don't like Eric Staal. And Cam Ward bugs me too.
  
• Panthers/Sabres. What's a Sabre anyway? Are they referring to the long dead animal or the tooth? We either have a panther versus a dead animal or a panther versus a tooth. Huh. Either way the Panthers have to lose.
  
• Rangers/Predators... Well, Rangers have to lose too.
• Oh and some teams called Boston and Ottawa are playing... Guess who's going to win that one?
  

So basically everyone but the Habs need to lose tonight... what are the chances? If I really had to pick, I'd settle for the Capitals and the Blue Jackets winning... and the Stars....

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!

Time to pick a new team!

I was actually going to say that I thought that the Habs did well tonight all things considered. "Was" being the operative word here. After leading the Islanders 3-1, the PK unit went to sleep tonight and the Islanders got in another goal. I could have lived with that if the Habs had either scored more or if they had just hung onto that tiny icky lead. But nooooo. The Habs had to make my hockey life a mess by losing. They somehow managed to completely ruin their chances of winning the match by promptly scoring on themselves. Price left the net when the Islanders were called for some penalty and they - okay, Ryan O'Byrne - promptly accidently scored on the empty net. I mean HELLO?! What in the name of the crappy ice was that? And yes, the ice seemed to be crappy again. I don't know what's going on there, but this is the third game that I've noticed them playing in the Bell Center where there seems to be something wrong with the ice. Either that or no one remembered how to skate and control the puck. I guess it's possible but I still think it's the ice. Doesn't happen when they lose err play in other arenas. Anyway, once that stupid event happened, it was lights out from then on as they went to OT and the lost in shootouts. There was no way that they should have lost that match - game, whatever. No way. Boston I can understand. They're second in the whole league now. But this???!!!!! And the way we lost it?!!!! I mean c'mon.... how stupid can you be to score on yourself like that? I know it was an accident and I refuse to put all the blame for the loss on O'Byrne. Accidents happen. That was not what cost them the game. The Islanders gave the Habs every chance to beat them 5-0 tonight. Every chance. But what do they do? Die in when the Islanders had a power play, miss the net a lot (there's only so much credit I can give to the Islanders for blocking shots) and roll over and die when a stupid accident happens. There should have been no need to go to shootouts....no need! I really feel for O'Byrne right now. He's going to get it a lot by a lot of people which isn't fair.

I thought for the most part the offense had it together (Tanguay looked dead though) and the defense was good until the Islanders got a power play. What happened to that great PK when we played the Wild? Okay, that was a while ago, but it was good. Tonight wasn't. If that whole little debacle hadn't happened at the end then I would have almost said it went really well. I mean, yeah they looked good for a lot of it but then again, we were playing one of the worst teams in the league... I think the effort was good on both sides. If the Habs could just fix the PP issue and pretend the PK didn't die, then I think this game could be looked upon in a fairly positive note.

All that being said, I think I may just have to skip what will probably be a totally mauling by the Red Wings...hockey is proving bad for my nerves! I wonder if it will end up worse than the totally stomping that San Jose gave to Washington. 7-2?! Against a team that has Ovechkin and Semin? Not cool....

Oh and before you start blasting me for the title, I was actually thinking of picking a team in the KHL to follow. I want to practice my non-existant Russian. Metallurg Magnitogorsk is looking interesting. They're sitting in 5th out of.. I think 25 or 26. Malkin played for them before splitting for the NHL. Maybe Dyanamo Mascow..... We'll see... Lugano plays tomorrow against Zug again. Haha, I love these European teams.