Ole?

Oleeeeeeeeeee!

Where to start......

• hockey is indeed more fun once you've had something to drink.
• The Habs HAD to win this one because Greg was at his first and only hockey game of the year.
• The ice looks awful.
• The Habs looked awful for the first two periods minus Gionta and Pricey.
• Okay so when they said the Habs were being kept to the perimeter for the most part, they really didn't want to mean that the Habs were being kept along the boards IN THEIR OWN ZONE. Can we please stop leaving the Pens RIGHT in front of Price?
• Price with a save!
• Gui smashed someone!
• At least we're not losing. But we're not winning either. Guhh.
• PRICE WITH ANOTHER AWESOME SAVE.
• Can someone smash Crysob? PLEASE? Don't make me throw something at him.
• Oh hey, Habs scored a goal. Gio with a goal! Oh.My. God. We're winning?
• Don't get all smiley yet, Gio.
• Gui smashed someone!
• Okay here comes the second period. Maybe the Habs will wake up this time?
• Erm maybe not. Was that Eggplant with a goal right after the Habs just finished their dismal power play?
• ERM HELLO HABS? Why are the Habs losing 2-1 now?!
• Oh yes.... now they're booing. Stuff it, idiots, it's a pre-season game.
• Mind you... .it is pretty bad. I think they've forgotten who they're own teammates are as they keep passing to the Puffles.
• Then again.... they're probably sleep deprived.
• I wonder how the Caps are doing? Guh, they're losing just to make me mad.
• Oh. Someone hit Crysob! YES! YES! YES!
• Erm... Carle is scaring me.... as is Belle.
• Umm can we please remember that the guys in RED are our teammates and not the guys in white?
• hello? Pass to the guy in the red. not the guy in the white.
• Price with a save!
• ...yawns....
• Some Hab in the box for smacking a Pen in the face....
• Wait. FOUR FREAKING MINUTES? Are you kidding me?!!!!
• Bring on the third period.... please!
• Okay... why are the Habs sucking? Oh. We're not sucking. We're on the PK. Right. Sorry.
• OH OH GIO! GOMEZ!
• SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!
• 2-2!
• Too early to be singing Ole.
• umm what's happening? Why are we all standing? Seriously?!
• GOAL?!!!! WHO? HOW? WHEN? OLE?!
• Oh Gui puts it over Floppy Flambe's Apprentice. Whoo!
• Hey, Andrei, I see you with the assist. Are you trying to make up for your awful game from last March when I was there? 'cause I'm STILL waiting for you to make it up to me.
• Seriously, I should be put in charge of playing the music at the Bell Centre. It wouldn't be half as deafening if I was in charge. Guhh.
• OH OH OH OH NOW WHAT IS HAPPENING?
• GIOOOOOOO WITH ANOTHER ONE?!
• NOW WE CAN SING OLE!
• ummm PP for the Pens?
• Ummm goal for the Pens with 3 mins left? Do not blow it Habs.
• AIE stop giving the dingbats the puck *closes eyes*
• Game over. Habs win. Ole ole ole. So awesome.
• OLE! Best. Song. Ever.

In other news:

• Habs finally assigned 17 players to the AHL so the Hammies can have a team as they head off to Scotland tomorrow. OLE!
• Habs also assigned Bell and Nielson after the game. Not surprised. However, I'm not sure why Carle is still there. He's scaring me in a very bad way.
• Mayer and Ced will be the goalies headed off to Scotland while Sanford stays put for now.
• Patches is injured.
• We (the Juniors) got Jake Allen back from the Blues. Thank you Blues.

Random recap of sorts of the last two games

... because I can. And I feel like being random. Whoo!

Game One

• boring first period for the most part. I thought the crowd at the Joe had died...
  
• Wings score off of Flambe's butt. Hmm... thought he was trying to avoid that?
• Pens reply when Osgood mishandles a rebound
• Wings score off of Flambe's foot. Oh dear...
  
• Ozzy some amazing saves. Is this really Ozzy?
  
• Wings get another goal. No hattrick for Flambe. Abdelkader the Denis Killer scores the goal.
  
• With an empty net, the Wings can't put the puck in for the fourth goal. Apparently they need Flambe's help that badly.
  
• Puffy tries to play physically. Gets called a "headhunter" and whacks some Wings around.
  

Game Two

• boring first period. Pens run around the Wings a bit. Nothing too serious.
  
• Oh! Bingo! the Puffles score first on the... PP! After a mad scramble inside Ozzy's net.
  
• Is this the night karma disses the Wings?
• No. Wings reply in the second with no help from Flambe this time
• Wings get another goal.
  
• And another one. This one courtesy of Flambe not paying attention really.
• Wings still haven't mastered the art of scoring on an empty net.
  
• I nominate Zetterberg for the Vezina trophy. He curled himself into a ball behind Ozzy and stopped Puffy from scoring. Forget Schenn. Zetterberg for the Vezina!
  
• Puffy actually works but nobody else felt like working
• It was "let's see how many players we can fit into the net" night
• Eggplant attempted to fight. Semin is still the master of botched up fights but we'll let Eggplant be number two.
• And I think the NHL forgot what "automatic" means. As in "automatic suspension if you instigate a fight at the end of the game" because Eggplant isn't getting some downtime in the press box.
  

So what do you know... maybe these finals are semi interesting afterall....

Whooo! Caps 3 Puffles 2

Wow. If this is what the rest of the series is going to be like then we're in for some exciting stuff here. And as long as we get the same result (a Caps win) I'll be happy. Ovie was great (Ovie goals are always great), Simmy was amazing, Pie and A2 had a solid game, I thought. And the Caps third (fourth?) line was rolling right along. On the other side, Mr. Puffy was great (sadly), Maf was stellar for most of the game. I thought Malkin was fairly quiet, but that could be more to do with the fact that I was subjected to highlights of Crosby doing something every two seconds. The problem was I had Blersus feed on RDS... which by the way, had Pierre Houde doing the announcing, which is such a welcome change from RDS's B team. Yay! Now if only I could shove a sock down Benoit Brunet's throat....

I need to find Simmy's brilliant save on Mr. Puffy. He completely robbed the Kid of a goal. That's probably the save of the series. Or the playoffs even.... EAT THAT CROSBY!

EDIT: Got it.



A couple of sticking points though...

• The Caps started off really shakey and the Pens took advantage early with a Puffle goal from Mr. Puffy.
• The Caps D was spotty at times
• Simmy needs to do something about those rebounds. If the D can't clear them, then expect the Puffles to take a huge advantage of those

Good start though =)

Oh and... rocking the red in a CAPS shirt actually worked this time! YEEEEEES!

And yes, I did spend most of the game coming up with random names for everyone...

So not liking Crosby makes me anti-Canadian, eh?

JT at the H Does NOT Stand for Habs brought up in an interesting topic the other day about our (least) favorite player. Apparently someone said that if she didn't cheer for the Penguins over the Capitals, she would be anti-Canadian. You heard it. Cheering for the Capitals over the Penguins makes you anti-Canadian. I've actually had similar if not quite so blatant statements from people myself, which always, without fail, puzzle me.

Let's be honest here. This series is between the Capitals vs. the Penguins. This is not a series between Russian and Canada. It's not even just about Crosby vs. Ovechkin, despite what the media tells you. It's the Washington Capitals vs the Pittsburgh Penguins. Two very talented teams in the National Hockey League who are based in the United States.

With most teams in the NHL comprising of players from many different nationalities, I find it hard to understand why people would associate a team like say, the Penguins as being Canadian? Sure they have a lot of Canadian players, but the team itself is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Capitals are considered "Russian" and yet they have more Canadians than Russians on their team. But I suppose because the Caps have a few high profile Russians, the entire team must be Russian and that's somehow a bad thing....Both teams however, are technically American.

Personally, I don't see why even defining the team as "American" or "Canadian" is needed in most cases anyway. The thing is, a player should be playing for the logo on the jersey (however ugly it is). They play for the team. In the NHL, that means they are not playing for their country and I'm not sure that most guys play for the city either. They play for the logo on the jersey. Nationality should have zero to do with it.

When I watch hockey, I watch it to see what the guys on the ice do. I want to see guys play with a lot of passion. I want to see guys who care. And I like exciting plays on most nights as a bonus. I dont' care what the guys do with their lives off the ice as long as it's legal. I don't pick my favorite players based solely on where they were born. That's ridiculous.

If I limited myself to only Canadian players, then I'd be stuck with people like Sidney Crosby, Danny Heatley, Jason Spezza, Eric Staal, Sean Avery and Martin Brodeur. Thanks but no thanks. I'm not saying that these guys aren't talented. I believe everyone I just named is capable of being talented at something (I wouldn't say that Avery is an extremely talented player. He's a talented pain though). But I can think that they're talented and still detest them.

Ovechkin meets my criteria for what I want to see in a player. He works hard, he cares and he's pretty exciting on most nights. I like him because of that. I don't like him solely because he's Russian. I don't care if he was from India or Australia. I don't like him because I don't like Crosby. All I care about is what he does on the ice. All I care about is what he brings to the game. And on most nights, I like what I see.

Crosby's seemingly lack of emotion in general, makes me snore. He doesn't make me interested in watching hockey. When I initially watched the Pens, I watched Malkin (until he disappeared). I watched Fleury. I didn't watch Crosby. Look, I feel bad for him. I think he's been manufactured and handled by various people beyond belief and that's resulted in this cardboard cut-out guy. I'm not going to say that he isn't talented or that he doesn't try hard. I think he's talented and he tries. But he doesn't interest me at all. I find him annoying now. I don't like his constant yapping and whining. I don't really like his new hobby of getting into cheap fights. I just do not like him.

I don't see how that makes me anti-Canadian if I don't like Crosby and would rather cheer for a team that interests me. If I said "I prefer Lidstrom to Avery" do you think many people would complain? I doubt it because we're talking multiple Norris winner vs major pain who got suspended for dissing his ex-girlfriend. But Lidstrom is from Sweden and Avery is indeed Canadian. If I said "I wouldn't cheer for the Leafs if they were the last Canadian team in the playoffs" would anybody care? No. They know I'm a diehard Habs fan and I would never cheer for the Leafs, even though the Leafs are a Canadian team.

So. If it's okay to prefer Lidstrom to Avery and if it's okay to not cheer for the Leafs under any circumstances, why the heck isn't it okay to cheer for the Ovechkin over Crosby? In case everyone missed it, the Cold War sort of ended a while ago.

Again, this isn't about Russia vs. Canada. This is about the Washington Capitals vs the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is about which team I prefer to watch. Nationality of the players notwithstanding.

Go Caps Go!

Penguins and I are done.

To continue the whole relationship theme (because I'm bored and annoyed), the Pens and I are finished. At the beginning of this year I tried to keep things going but gradually things changed. The beginning of the end happened when I watched the Pens/Caps game three games from this one ago. I was trying to like the Pens but I found I was getting more and more excited when the Caps scored. I think Ovie's first goal in eleven days against the Pens was the final straw. So there we have it. Pens are and I are finished.

C'mon Habs, you need to win tonight.... we need a wiiiin.... if these Puffleheads win today (and they're 3-1 with 20 mins left) then you'll be in 8th place.

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...

Hey Islanders fans...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don't you just love Sidney?

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

*pokes Hossa*

Who wants to bet that if the Wings fail to win the Stanley Cup, Hossa will split and join the next contender that comes up? (You think he's cursing himself for completely failing to predict that Boston would be drop dead amazing this year?)

Pens got blanked by the Wings in a mostly boring game. Maybe I was missing something but I though the entire first period was a really boring. No scoring, and everyone looked like they had just woken up and were still groggy. I went off to vacuum the carpet while the second period opened up. Things weren't looking bad for the Pens - in fact despite the fact that their powerplay was more ineffectual than the Habs' they had had some good quality chances at scoring a goal - until Datsyuk messed things up with a beautiful powerplay goal *sighs* Still it was only 1-0 going into the third but it was looking more and more like the Wings were going to take this one - I'm tired of this scene where my team is down by one goal going into the third and then they blow it completely.....this is so sad. Despite the fact that Hossa and Datsyuk scored two more goals, I thought Fleury played well. It wasn't like any of those goals were bad or cheap or anything...Hossa's goal should never have happened but we can all blame Staal for not knocking Hossa off the puck at the blueline for that goal. Bah....C'mon Pens.... you can do better than that..... that's just sad that Hossa gets to gloat about blanking you in your own building........

The sun did come up this morning...

....just thought I'd mention that in case anyone thought that the world had ended last night......

New day, not looking forward to tomorrow night when the Habs go off to Calgary and not really looking forward to the Pens vs Wings today but I figured I'd watch it anyway.

Let's see.... Wings are 5-4-1 in their last 10 while the Pens are.... 5-4-1 as well.... Wings are the winners of three games in a row now after coming off a five game losing streak (hey, at least the Habs haven't done that yet!) and the Pens are the winners of 2 in a row following some up and down play.

Wings are 3-2-1 when they get outshot and 31-9-4 when they do the outshooting. Pens are 13-15-3 when they get outshot and 12-6-1 when they outshoot you.

In terms of "goals for" the Wings are 1st and the Pens are 6th. The big difference is in goals against which has the Wings at 16th and the Pens at 27th.

It'll be up to the goalies to show what they've got and right now at least we can say that none of them are too hot these days. Ty Conklin has a .856 SP in his last 4 starts, Osgood is .860 in his last 5 and Fleury has a .864 SP in his last 5. Or at least according to my scrappy math, that's what Fleury should have.....

Wings have the best powerplay in the league which is oddly contrasted with one of the worst PKs in the entire league. Pens are ranked 23rd on the powerplay and 20th on the PK.

Last time these guys played the Pens won 7-6 in OT after the Wings had a major meltdown in the third period. We'll see if the teams can keep the scoring down at least somewhat today....

Thank you Pens!

Apparently there's a bigger difference between 4th (or 5th if the Rangers win) and 10th than I thought. The Pens looked for the most part dead on their feet while the Habs routinely stole the puck off of them and made poor Fleury's night miserable. For the first time in... a looong time, the Habs looked like a team. And they looked like a team who cared ('bout time!).

Mind you, things bad when the Pens scored first when there was a pileup in front of Price after a mere two or three minutes of play. Easy to score when the goalie has a million people on him, yes? The Pens lead wasn't to last as Fleury wasn't paying attention around him and he came out of the net to clear the puck only to have it stolen by Sergei who passed it back and there went Hamlrik to put it into the net. Oopsies. Second period showed just how bad the Pens PK was as they turned the puck over at the blue line which enabled Higgy to steal it and thanks to some nice manoeuvring by Koivu behind him to ensure the Pen's defenseman couldn't do anything, he put the puck past Fleury who was getting cranky now. Lapierre would add another goal a few minutes later when Pacioretty battled for the puck and put it in front of the net. Habs slowed down a little bit in the third and Malkin scored on the Pens PP making it close again. Thankfully the Pens then proceeded to score on themselves late in the third to help the Habs win. It was sort of a sad goal because Fleury looked to be stopping the puck with his stick but then Andrei Kostitsyn attempted to get his stick in there but replays seemed to show it was Caputi who pushed it in. Oh well.....

For the first time in... a looong time, the Habs looked like a team. And they looked like a team who cared ('bout time!). Wait... Didn't I just say that before? Well, I just said it again. I'm still torn on whether the Habs were playing that well tonight or if the Pens were really that awful. I think it's probably somewhere in between. In all fairness the Pens did generate some offense. And the Habs did make some silly errors that could have cost them badly. But they didn't mainly because the Pens couldn't do anything about it. A good team shouldn't be allowing the opposition steal the puck off of them routinely like the Pens were allowing the Habs to do. I was going to add that a good team shouldn't get scored on when they are on the powerplay but umm, the Caps allowed a shorthanded one tonight against the Devils and they still won so... go figure. Oh well. I liked the effort by the Habs and regardless of whether you think that all the credit should go the Pens because they were awful, the Habs needed this win. And I'm hoping that they can build on this and get back to some serious winning again.

The good if you are the Habs

• Win?
• I looooved Higgy's goal. Bonus points to Koivu for the help on that
• Lapierre's goal was nice too
• heck, everyone's goals were nice *g*
• effort was great. Best effort I've seen since.... well...... a long time
• the good side of Kovalev came out today and while he didn't score, he looked like the guy who we all like
  
• O'Byrne didn't look anything like the guy who made the ultimate mistake by scoring on his own net (okay so there was a wee bit of a mistake before the Pens scored first but whaetever). He looked good.
  
• no more ugly stripes... then again... I was kind of thinking that they did look kind of not so bad afterall.... I think I got hypnotized by them.... pretty stripes.... Okay fine..... They didn't look wonderful but I bet you that they'd look great on a scarf.... Hmm..... could make up for the AllStar game one that I didn't buy 'cause they were sold out....... hmm..... yes.... striiiiiiiiipes.....I should get myself down to the Bell Center...... striiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipeeeeeeees.
  

The good if you are the Pens

• Malkin scored. On the PP too.
  
• Game is over. Time to do some serious soul searching.
  

The bad if you're the Habs

• I didn't like all the penalties. Washington got their first two goals in their last two games on their first two PPs. If you play a team that has a good PP like that, you're sunk if you take that many penalties. Thankfully the Pens PP stunk.
  
• And I didn't like that they couldn't capitalize on the PP. Granted they weren't given many chances but still..... YOU NEED TO SCORE ON THE PP
  
• letting the Pens score twice. Bad Habs! You feel asleep and let them score. But hey, it's hockey. Someone's going to score at some point....I didn't like Malkin's goal though....
  

the bad if you're the Pens

• powerplay. Not only could they not score, they got scored on. That was a completely preventable goal and I think it was Letang who messed that one up at the blueline. That's not cool if you're the Pens (absolutely fantastic if you're a Hab though *g*).
  
• turn overs (great if you're a Hab)
  
• inability to control the puck (great if you're a Hab)
  
• being too protective of the Puffy Blue Penguin. C'mon... Malkin was the one who was getting beat up more than Crosby was....(yeah, like what was the deal there? The Habs hardly touched Mr. Puffy but when they did BOOM)
  
• scoring on themselves (great if you're a Hab)
  
• defense (mad things easy for the Habs)
  
• offense was pretty dead for a lot of the time too (great news for the Habs defense)
  
• Fleury could have used a little more help (poor Habs couldn't score more)
  
• Fleury should have been paying more attention when he was trying to clear the puck (ah yes, but instead Sergei gets to look good again)
  

Here goes nothing....

Okay, so we all know that the Pens are struggling these days. What is it now, two or four points out of a playoff spot? That's not cool from the former finalists who steamrollered their way into the finals. I could go on and on about why the Pens stink but I won't... It's clear that this Penguin team is not the same one as last year and their suffering from high expectations that come with being a finalist.

The point is, can the Pens win tonight? Ask the Habs. The Pens nearly came away with a win last time. Excellent penalty killing from Price and a hat trick by Andrei Kostitsyn ensued that the Habs won. Given everything that we've seen from the Habs, I don't know what's going to happen tonight. The Habs need to respond like they haven't been doing in the last five of their six games. They need to ensure that Crosby and Malkin don't come anywhere near the net. They need to ensure that their PP works. And they better put up some better PK than they've done before. Oh and some half decent offense would probably work quite a bit too. The Pens defense has been suffering all year round. More than ours even if you can believe that. The Habs won't be the only ones looking for a win tonight. The Pens lost to the Leafs - which I consider beyond sad and I believe they've only taken about four wins in their last ten games.

Well, we'll see what happens. Habs have shown that they can get through some tough times but the question for me is, can they keep it up? It's tempting to say that the injuries have killed the team this year but I would like to add that when the Habs were missing Price, Koivu, Higgy and everyone else, they were actually doing better than when they all came back. To me, that says that the Habs success is mostly in their heads. If they want to win they usually can, if they don't, then.... well... you've seen the results....

If the Habs decided to show up: 4-3 for the Habs
If they dont decide to show up: 5-1 for the Pens and Mr. Puffy Blue Penguin himself gets at least two of those... Yuck.

So I go away for a few hours and...

Andy Roddick's already through into the next round and the Habs send down Marc Denis. Well actually, I think I'm late to the party on the Denis news but whatever *g* As for Roddick...that was quick. He flattened his opponent, Bjorn Rehnquist - 6-0,6-2, 6-2.

I know I'm late with the predictions and wishes and all but I'll give 'em anyway before too many more people start hammering their opponents...

• I still think that the top 4 will be in the semis. I know this tournament is rife with upsets but I think given how these guys have been doing and/or should be doing, they'll be in the semis.
• Murray's making the finals and like I already predicted, he will win. I'm hoping to be proven wrong here.
  
• The young guys like Del Potro and Cilic will make some noise.
• Gilles Simon will be upset by someone
• Tsonga won't be repeating last year's success
• Richard Gasquet will continue to under-achieve.....
• Nadal will be the last Spanish guy standing by the quarter finals
• Nalbandian just might come out playing like he should be and start winning some good matches
• Or Nalbandian will come out and be the biggest underachiever since Richard Gasquet and lose in the first round
  
• Djokovic and Roddick will play each other again
• Djokovic is going to have some serious issues. Mainly concerning his racquet but also he'll be having a hard time with the pressure of being the defending champion
• Someone in the Djokovic camp will say something that will upset someone
  
• Wawrinka won't be playing Federer. Sorry Stan!
• Federer will get even more annoyed that he is not the undisputed favorite this time around
• Federer will also display some emotion (oooo!)
• The heat will get to someone
  
• Gilles Muller is going to play Del Potro in the third round and give him a run for his money. I'm sorely tempted to say that Muller may just beat Delpo too....
  
• David Ferrer won't be making the quarter finals
• I will miss Federer/Nadal and Djokovic playing for most of the tournament because the timezone difference makes it impossible to see them
  

Habs sending down Denis means we will either see some really random guy come up and act as Halak's backup or else Price is actually coming back this week. I sincerely hope it's the latter.

Alright......I meant to mention a couple of interesting things about the Penguins before but I forgot... can you blame me?

1. They blanked the Rangers today 3-0. Most accounts agree that the Rangers weren't very good today but Fleury came up with some good saves to earn his shutout. Penguins still haven't dumped their third jerseys and actually wore them today for their win....
   
2. Penguins made a weird trade that sent Dany Sabourin, an AHL player (Ryan Stone) and a 4th round pick in 2011 to the Oilers for goalie Mathieu Garon. So drop an okay goalie from Quebec along with an AHL player and a draft pick for another okay goalie from Quebec? This is the part where I wonder why all the okay goalies seem to be from Quebec and what the whole point of that trade was..... I will ponder this more as I go to sleep and continue to dream of an incredibly lame Senators team inbetween thoughts of the Habs decimating the Thrashers.....Sounds like a good dream.... Bwahahahahaha......
   

Of birds on skates and a Swiss tennis star or two

Saw most of the Pens and Ducks game. It was quite boring for the most part - I almost fell asleep! Nothing exciting happened really until Malkin decided to get into a fight with I think Corey Perry, maybe not, I forgot, at the end of the game.I missed the first period but stats say the Cooke scored at 19:39 in the first period and only two penalties were dished out for fighting. I had to wait all of 23 seconds for the Pens to score again in the second. Giguere completely lost sight and control of the puck and pulled a Toskala move and got caught completely out of his crease. So the empty net was there for Cooke to take (yes, yes, Cooke scored again). Pens outshot the Duckies 10-7 but they only had that one goal. Getzlaf would get a goal in on Fleury on the powerplay. It happened to be the only powerplay goal of the game. Penalties were again even in this period (2 each) and again, the only goal was Getzlaf's. The Ducks really had no luck on scoring and after coming off a lame powerplay, they got further burned when the Pens got a third goal off the face off in the Ducks's zone. And that was it. Well, actually, the Pens had at least two really good chances to score when Giguere again missed the puck entirely and it very nearly went in. Staal looked completely screw up on getting another goal in a half open net but video replay showed that the Ducks got a very lucky break when their defenseman turned at just the right moment and the puck deflected (safely) away from Giguere. Lucky!

Yes, I'm aware of the fact that if I was a die-hard Pens fan instead of the casual fan, I would be jumping up and down at the win. As it is, I'm just really pleased for the team who just proved that they don't need Sidney Crosby for every game.

Around the league in 30 seconds

• Blue Jackets lost 2-1 to the Devils. Apparently the game winning goal was just a tad controversial...
  
• Leafs wasted a 3-0 lead and get thomped by the Thrashers 4-3 in OT. I hope the Hurricanes weren't watching that game.... Silly Hurricanes can't win against the Leafs...
  
• Flyers eke out win in S/O over the Panthers who clearly stink in shootouts... Prospal didn't score so the Flyers were not treated to an insane victory celebration. Too bad.
  
• And Rangers squeak by Blackhawks in OT. Oo...
  

Oh let him at least get a point, Roger!

Poor Stan. I felt so bad for him. Federer came out and demolished him in under an hour with a score of 6-1, 6-3. In all honesty, Wawrinka really only deserved to win one of the games. But ah well. Federer just looked really good. Granted, there was no pressure on him, and he was clearly the best player in the entire tournament AND he was playing a tired Wawrinka.... but still.... he looked good! Poor poor Stan though.... and he could be facing Roger again at Melbourne!

Quote of the hour: "I wish I could play him more often" Roger in his vitory speech after the match. Yeah, Roger, we'll pretend that you meant that in the "I want to play him more often because it's cool to play someone I know well" rather than "I want to play him more often because I know I will win every time" *g* He kept apologizing for winning in his little speech thing. Poor Stan!

Random info day again!

Getting tired of these? Too bad. I have to ramble sometimes!

Tennis first.

• World no 3 Novak Djokovic has a chance to become world no 2 and what does he do?
  
  Blows it. After I just said that Djokovic was looking good again after what I thought was a freak loss to Ernest Gulbis and was ready to charge into the Australian Open, he goes and blows it big time in Sydney. He was downed by Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 7-6(3) who will now face a very good looking David Nalbandian. I'm hoping for his sake, that Nalbandian actually performs like he's supposed to in the finals and wins.
  
  I was just mentioning to my sister that Djokovic is getting ignored a bit in the leadup to the Australian Open. It's all Murray all the time and if it's not Murray then it's Federer and "can he win the Australian Open or is he finally finished?". And if there's no talk about those two then it's all Nadal because he's Mr. World No. 1. But no one really expects Rafa to win in Melbourne. While I'm tempted to think that it's really not that fair to be ignoring the defending champion here, Djokovic hasn't exactly been playing awe-inspiring tennis since... well, last year, I guess. He's had his moments, yes, but they haven't exactly translated into a lot of good results. Okay, fine so he won the Masters Cup thing. I think I said at the time that the whole tournament was a bit of a joke considering half the players were first timers and got there because of a couple of good resuls at the end, while the other half were riddled with injuries. Do I think Novak has what it takes to defend his title in Australia? Yes. I think he may actually have a good chance at it because despite the fact that he's the defending champion here, all the talk and pressure is on the other three guys to perform well. This could be his chance to (almost) quietly sneak up through the matches and come out with a good performance in the finals (if he makes it past Federer).
  
  
• Del Potro to meet Querrey in finals of Auckland
  
  Yup. Delpo breaks the curse of the Argentine people not making the finals of this tournament dating back to 1996 by squashing Robin Soderling 6-3, 6-4 to make the finals. He will face Sam Qurrey who squeaked by David Ferrer. Interesting note: Ferrer was reffered to in the media (in Spanish) ahead of his matchup with Sam Querrey as the "executioner of the Team Argentina in the Davis Cup final" which I found hilarious considering it was Ferrer (the top ranked player for team Spain with the absence of Nadal) who got run over by Nalbandian in the opening match. Oh well.
  
  
  
• Wawrinka overcomes Gonzalez in the semis at Kooyong. Guess who he gets to play now?
  
  Roger. I want to see this so badly.... even if poor Stan has no chance. This is apparently the third time that they will play each other and Roger has beaten Stan the two other times in straight sets. Poor Stan....I'm sure someone will be cheering for you Stan so don't worry, you're not alone. Of course no one really wants Stan to win.... that would be.... wow....
  
  
• Draws are in for the Australian Open
  
  The only guy of interest/importance that isn't here is Davydenko who pulled out early this week due to injuries.
  
  
  • Nadal gets Simon, Monfils and Karlovic, Gonzalez and Gasquet among others, in his draw. All could make some trouble for Mr. World No. 1 but I doubt any of them are taking away a win over him. Then again... Simon wasnt supposed to win over Nadal in Madrid and Monfils was definitely not supposed to beat him in Doha...And it remains to be seen which versions of Gonzalez and Gasquet shows up. Nadal has a 21-4 record against the seeded players in his draw. Yes, I just wasted a lot of time finding that out.
    
    
  • Murray got a fairly easy draw. The toughest opponent in his draw is/was probably Tsonga but he's looking really doubtful right now with a back problem. Mezler, Stepanek, Verdasco, Blake, Andreev, and Schuttler round out the seeded players in the draw. Murray holds a 13-3 against them and I doubt that any of these guys will be beating Murray.
    
    
  • Nole got Roddick in his draw again. Hopefully he doesn't say something stupid this time around. He really needs to work on the public relations aspect. The perpetually under-achieving David Nalbandian is also in this draw. As is Kohlschreiber, Robredo, Soderling, Fish (Fish!) and Mathieu. Nole has a 16-4 record against these guys.
    
    
  • Roger has some interesting people in his draw including Del Potro, Berdych, Cilic, Ferrer, Wawrinka, Feliciano Lopez (booo!) and Safin. I doubt Delpo and Cilic will be too much of a challenge if Roger meets either of them. Sowwy Delpo! Ferrer can play unbelievably well but I've never watched him win a single match. Every time I've seen him over the summer, he's lost. Wawrinka is doomed if he plays Federer. Berdych and Safin could be the real challengers here. In case you're wondering, Federer has a whopping 37-3 record against these guys. Should be interesting to see what they can do here.
    

Anyway....

You know, I like Bob Gainey, I really do. But....

This whole non-answer about this whole Lecavalier thing is annoying. Gainey gave a whole cryptic speech on not trading the whole team for one guy. Sounds like he doesn't want Lecavalier? Well, he didn't say that either. The main gist of the speech was that he wants to put the interests of the team above all else. That still indicates that he won't trade for Lecavalier. But again, he didn't say right out that he doesn't want to trade for him. What I took from it was "Yeah, Lecavalier could be great for the team and it would be nice to have him but no, we're not trading half our team for him". I don't know why he can't just come out say that whether they're interested or not. I don't see how it's helping the players by giving cryptic messages about what you're intentions are....but hey, I don't know what goes on behind closed doors or what goes on in the mind of Bob Gainey. Maybe he's more direct with the players. Maybe not. Who knows.

Wingless Penguins take on Sitting Ducks

Okay, so the Ducks are in a better position than the Pens. I like the term "sitting ducks" if it applies to Anaheim. Sue me. I may watch it - my TV will have it so I won't have to suffer through bad announcers in Pensville- or I'll try to catch Wawrinka being demolished by Federer. We'll see.

Stats because we can't live without 'em:

Penguins have gone 2-8-0 in their last ten games while the Ducks have gone 4-4-2. Both come into this game having lost their previous one.

Bad news for the Penguins is that they have one of the worst home records in the league going 9-10-2. Good news for the Pens is the Ducks are ranked 18th in their away record going 9-8-2.

Bad news for the Pens is that they're powerplay is 19th in the league (still better than a certain other team *coughs*) while they're PK is even worse at 24th. Worse news for the Pens is that the Ducks are 9th on the powerplay and 17th in PK.

Penguins are 10-6-1 when outshooting their opponents, but simply flailing away at the net won't help them because the Ducks actually do better when they are outshot going 14-7-2. Go figure. Pens are 10-13-2 when they are outshot and the Ducks are 8-11-1 when they outshoot the opposition. So the Pens have to get outshot to win.....?

Fleury - who I'm assuming is getting the start - is 3-7-0 in his last ten games while Giguere is 4-3-2. If it's Sabourin in nets then he's 1-8-1 in his last ten gams. Can we say "battle of the no-so-hot Quebec goalies"?

Infirmary list:

Well, this is quite lengthy. Officially the Pens are without Dupuis (knee), Fedotenko (broken hand), Gonchar (shoulder), Zigomanis (upper body) but they could be missing Talbot, Scuderi, and Crosby who were all injured in the game against the Caps as well.

Update: Yeah, Crosby's out for sure for tonight.
Update 2: Letang is also out!

Ducks aren't exactly the picture of a perfectly healthy team either. They are without Beauchemin (gone for the rest of the season), Festerling (knee), Huskins (foot), Larsen (hernia), Marchant (finger) and Selanne (quadricep injury). Four of those guys are on IR.

Ovechkin dumps Pens

Before I say anything about the game, I have a few things to say first.

1. I think I'm liking the Caps a bit more these days. Well, okay, not the Caps exactly. Just Ovechkin.... If Rafa wants to turn into a Federer clone then I'm going to need to find another guy that's got some emotion to watch.... And Ovechkin had plenty of emotion tonight *g*
   
2. Everyone's favorite guy was refereeing tonight. Oh yes, Chris Lee gets around a lot. And yes, he was absolutely pathetic again tonight, assessing penalties where there weren't any, stopping play when the wrong team touched the puck, etc.
3. I hate the announcers on whatever station I was watching. I think it was a channel from Pittsburgh and they were just driving me up the wall.... Oh RDS, why can't you show more of the Pens and/or Caps games? Why?!
   

Alright. The game. I thought the Penguins started off really well (quite honestly I'm getting tired of saying that I think my teams start the game off well and dont' finish well.... but I digress). They looked good up until Petr Sykora took a penalty for high sticking at 7:07 of the third period and then it went downhill. Up until that point the Pens were very much in the game. The first period was about equal with some nice chances but nothing really happening too much. Malkin got a powerplay goal at 5;45 with two Caps in the box - might I add that Brashear hadn't actually done anything to get a double minor for highsticking? the Penguin had gotten hit by his own player - but other than that goal, nothing happened. Yes, yes, it was a nice goal though. Yay for Malkin! If you thought that the Caps were taking that lying down then forget it. While I was off doing something else (what? This ain't the Habs playing the Caps) Kozlov scored for the Caps with Satan answering about 7 minutes later. Semin would also get a goal but I'm completely blanking on how he got it. So it was 2-2 going into the third period.

Things looked to be quite even going into the third but then the Pens began to drop like flies. Well, they were dropping before, but it was hurting them now. Scuderi went out after taking a puck to the face, Talbot went out with... I'm not sure... They lost Crosby for a bit after he took a lower body injury in the first period. He would come back only to leave again as he got tangled up along the boards in the third period. Kris Latang went out briefly after blocking a shot but he returned soon after. So no proper defense, no Crosby to get some moral going and it was byebye Pens.

The Caps took over when Sykora was sent off for high sticking off the faceoff, and Fleischmann put the puck in when Fleury couldn't control the rebound.... Up until that point it was 3-3 actually with Ovechkin finally getting a goal on his own rebound - might I add that he let out a yell of joy on finally getting a goal? (at least he didn't almost cry like Prospal did in the Habs/Lightning game) - and Whitney getting a superb goal when he hammered the puck from the blueline and past Theodore who had no clue what had just happened. Anyway, after the Fleishmann goal, Ovechkin would get credit for another one three minutes later when the puck went off... I think it was Whitney's skate and past Fleury. Schultz would be credited for the final goal which got put into an empty net all the way from the Pens' zone.

So it was a sad day for the Pens who should have been able to take more momentum from their win against the Flyers. For a lot of the third period they were just unable to get the puck to the other zone and the Caps were able to seize on Fleury's bad rebound control. There were a lot more chances to score from both teams. The Pens had a lot of high quality chances when they got the powerplay at the end of the game but it wasn't enough and it was much too late. Hopefully there's not any serious injuries on the Pens lineup and they can recover. I mean, I liked the effort. It was good but there wasn't too much to say for the last half of the third period. It wasn't good. Excellent effort from the Caps who have now ended their three game losing skid...

Unfortunately now the Habbies are going to really have to work to get back up there in the standings but we knew that.....*wails and kicks the stupid Bruins*

of injuries, Penguins + Rafa to turn into Roger

Long term injuries to be disclosed in the future

Yes, yes, Carbo and Co have decided to tell the media what's wrong with a player if they're expected to be out for a long period of time. That's.... nice... I guess.... Given that it's the middle of the season and it's not the playoffs, I really didn't get what the deal was with all the secrecy. I mean... I get it if it's the playoffs but when you're in the middle of the season and there's no real rush to get the guys back onto the ice until they're fully recovered anyway... what's the deal with the hush hush attitude? All it does is lead to lots of rumors which aren't true.

That being said....

Knowing what Price and everyone else have doesn't exactly help in speeding up the process of their return. Koivu has apparently done something bad to his ankle again and he won't be around for a little while longer. Carbo is now saying that Price may not be in the All Star thing at this point, which is pretty disappointing from a fan's point of view. Like we really want to watch Tim Thomas flopping around in the crease for 20 minutes.....? I don't think so.... Then again, I want to see how good the guy is without his great rescue team in front of him, so I guess I'll suffer through watching him.

Dandenault and Higgy were apparently on the ice today. But who ever said that you need your arms to skate....?

*sighs*

GET HEALTHY SOON YOU GUYS! I WANT YOU BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

ATP gets a new boss

I wasn't going to mention this because I mean... I personally don't find it that big of a deal worth mentioning. I'm still waiting for the day that NHL drops Gary Bettman and then I may consider bringing that up. But anyway, Adam Helfant was named the new executive chairman and president of the men's circuit the other day. What I find interesting about the guy is during his long and winding career (the guy is actually only 44 so I guess it cant be that long and winding) he also had a stint as an attorney for the NHL. And you said that hockey and tennis can't be combined somehow....

Yeah, that's all I have to say about him *g* Interesting eh? Didn't think so. No one ever said that I made any sense when I write.... Here's hoping his does a good job. And can I make suggestion for the guy? Move the Australian Open back a couple of weeks. 1) this gives the players more time to get ready for the big event and 2) because the players are getting back into the season slowly, it also allows for the fans to get more hyped up about the Grand Slam. I can't speak for the Australians but I personally am not ready for the Australian Open at this point...Nothing too much to be hyped about....

Say it isn't so! Rafa going normal?!

I guess I should have known that something was up when he appeared in that horrid shirt. I thought it was a weird one time thing that Nike messed up on. Well, I guess I was wrong. According to this little thing over here Mr. World No 1 is indeed making an attempt to be more uh.... normal. Aside from the changes he's supposedly making to his game - which include normalizing his forehand to some degree - his personal image is apparently undergoing a change. The main aim? Turning Rafa into a Rafa version of Roger. I kid you not. If the article is to be believed, Nadal will be attempting to "grow up" and behave less like the kid that he comes off as and more like.. well, Roger.

I don't know who's idea this is but I want to say this: DON'T DO IT. We love Rafa because he's Rafa. And we love Roger because he's Roger. If Rafa ends up acting - and looking - like Roger then that won't be any fun at all.

I think Nadal can attract way more people to the sport by being the way he is now. As much as I love Federer, I wouldn't be talking about this right now if it wasn't because of Nadal. What attracted me to the sport was watching Nadal. I loved that he just looked so different from everyone else on the court. His behavior too is way different. I don't doubt that everyone puts a lot of emotion into their game but with Nadal, you see it. You feel like you can empathize and sympathize with him more because he shows his emotions. When I first started watching the guy, I had no idea about tennis. Not a clue. But I watched him anyway because he was that interesting to watch. Federer, as amazingly good as he is, is harder to appreciate if you don't know a thing about tennis. You have to know what makes a good shot, a good play, and a good point, to appreciate just how amazing Federer is. With Nadal you know by the look on his face whether a play was good or bad. Nadal is special because he's Nadal. Not because he's Federer clone.

Please people, keep Nadal the way he is now. And please dump those stupid shirts. Roger looks a lot better in them than Rafa does. Sowwy....

Penguins and Capitals tonight!

While I would love to see this game, I'm still not sure if I'll be able to.... The TV wants a break from all the Habs stuff so it's showing something else tonight. And TSN is still clinging to the belief that it's viewers will see the Senators win a game. But that never stopped me from rambling about the Pens and the Caps, right? Right. Okay. So tonight's game should be fairly interesting. The Caps will be looking to not lose their 4th straight game tonight while the Penguins are looking to capitalize on their 4-2 smashing out of the Flyers and actually get some type of winning streak going again.

Random notes

• This is the second back to back game for both teams.
• While the media has been blowing this so-called issue between Malkin and Ovechkin, I think they should just be quiet. Malkin can (hopefully) fend for himself if indeed Ovechkin is on the warpath and wants to flatten him like a bug. Whatever little thing these two have going on - if indeed it's still going on like the media will have us believe - it's nothing like what Sergei and Grabovski have going on.
  
• Ovechkin hasn't scored in 11 days.
  
• As much as I like the Penguins, I wouldn't mind seeing Ovechkin finally get a goal tonight. And a nice goal too please. Not one of those stupid "oh whoops, it deflected off of me so I get the goal" type of goals that Semin and Fleischmann got against the Habs.
  
• Crosby hasn't scored in.... 4 days. Feels longer than that. I would much prefer to see Malkin getting a goal or two tonight. Well, heck, as long as ANY Penguin scores, I don't care who it is.
  
• And simply for entertainment value I want to see Crosby fight Semin. C'mon, you know you want to see that happen to!
  

Tonight's biggest challenge against the Capitals?

Getting Ovechkin's name right!!!!!!! I really hope that the Habs don't have to play the Caps too many more times because I'm going to go insane.... But on a different note that's more related to winning....

Pre-game rant

This is Halak's third time facing the Caps and I"m hoping that third time is the charm and they win. Obviously it takes something very special to blank the Ovechkin/Backstrom/Semin filled Caps and Steve Mason is just that good (I mean c'mon... SIX shutouts?) But I don't care if the Habs blank the Caps. They won't do it anyway. But I want a wiiiiin.

1. Obviously shutting down the offense is going to be key to winning tonight. No offense= no shots = no goals = no win, right? Right. I think the Habs were very close to winning or at least having a shot at grabbing a point in OT or shootouts last time, but a total lack of finish doomed them...
2. Which brings me to my second point. Remember people: YOU NEED TO PLAY SIXTY MINUTES!!!!!!!!!! Something which you didn't do against the Leafs.... it was still 59 minutes and thirty seconds. Yes, I'm still harping on that second goal....
3. Also, if the powerplay would be so kind as to work again tonight, we just may have a decent shot at winning. If I remember right, the Caps gave the Habbies something like eight powerplays last time which they completely failed to convert on. POWERPLAY NEEDS TO WORK.
4. Oh and definitely play a more disciplined game tonight than that mess against the Leafs. No giving the Alexes a chance to score on the powerplay.

Oh and don't forget:

1. Stay away from Semin as much as you possibly can. It's already painfully apparent that he won't have a career as a bongo player even if that's where he seems to be headed these days. There's no need to totally crush his not-so-secret ambitions.
   
2. And definitely stay away from the boards if you're anywhere near Ovechkin. Unless you want a concussion of course....Hey, maybe Sergei can get Ovechkin to knock out Grabovski for him? Actually I was more in favour of the idea of setting Jarkko Ruutu lose on him... but I digress....
   
3. And if it's Theodore in nets tonight... SCORE A PILE OF GOALS ON HIM! NO SHUTOUTS FOR THEODORE!

And you thought the Habs were creative losers, eh?

As a Penguins fan, I'm dying right now. Since the beginning of the new year the Penguins have been threatening to break out and soar to the top of their division where everyone thought that they would be long before now. I mean, after all a lot of the core members of last year's team are still around and they really do have some of the most talented players in the league on their team (comes from being horrid for a pile of years in a row which allowed them to grab a lot of good players in the drafts). Unfortunately, the Penguins have decided to do the exact opposite of what everyone expected of them. Yes, people, the Penguins have LOST AGAIN today! Looking at it just from this year - however short it may be so far - it's been awful. The Pens couldn't capitalize on a sub par offensive display by the Habbies (well, minus a very hot Andrei Kostitsyn who got himself a nice hat trick in that game*g*) and instead posted a sub par powerplay which did nothing at all to get the puck past a very good Price (sorry, Pens). They followed that up by getting rolled over by the Bruins in back to back games. They didn't show up against the Panthers at all. They did manage a win against the Thrashers, but um... it's the Thrashers, yes? And Kovalchuk was beating up on Malkin big time which was just plain sad. Somewhere in there the Pens also got blanked by the Rangers. Oh and the Pens were felled stupidly by the Predators who outshot them and crawled back into the game with FIVE unanswered goals.

And what happened today? THEY LOST AGAIN! To the injury plagued Avalanche... AvalancheS... the guys from Colorado. The good news - if there was any - was that we've finally got something from Crosby and Malkin who have been dead on the scoring department. The bad news is that the team didn't produce enough effort to keep them in the game. Getting one goal a period is okay only if the other team is scoring less. Sadly, the Avs got one goal in the first period, three in the second and one more in the third. Whahoo... so much for the Avs stinking big time without a pile of players.... Sabourin and Fleury have been taking turns getting the starting job and getting yanked half way through... this is getting really sad... I think the Pens should trade Staal for a defenseman who can actually do something. Staal's not doing a heck of a lot and I think it's partly because he hasn't had the opportunity to play with decent players enough.

Tennis Talk

MURRAY WON. It was 6-4, 6-2. Like you expected anything else once Rafa and Roger flamed out? At least Roddick almost hung in their for the first set. I actually liked how Roddick did at first but then... of course we all knew that Murray was just going to come up with some better shots than Roddick was and Murray was going to be able to move around the court better than Roddick too. Have no fear, we've only got.... Four or so months before Roland Garros rolls aroun and then someone we want to win will win for sure... maybe... hopefully? *wails* Boo.....

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.

Back to reality...

...and honestly, the reality of the situation for both the Habs and the Pens is very grim right now.

Let's start with the Pens because at least their situation is worse. Amid all the attention focused on the Juniors, I did indeed forget that the Pens were looking to end their four game loser skid last night against the Rangers at Madison Square Gardens. Not only did not they win, but they were shut out 4-0. This is of course terrible news for the Pens and I have no idea what needs to be done to get them back on track - and at this point, I don't think they know either. Obviously Lundqvist deserves a lot of the credit as well and he proved me wrong when I said he was on a downslide (well, until last night, he was!). Apparently he had some really fantastic saves on Malkin and Crosby. Pens will take on Atlanta next and if they can't pull out a win there then.... well... we'll deal with that one when and if it happens....

Now this whole shutout thing for Lundqvist has me exceptionally worried as a Habs fan because well, guess who we have to take on next! Why do we have to clean up after the Pens again?! The reality of the situation here is that we've got major goalie issues right now. There were hopes that Price could at least sit in as backup tomorrow and possibly play against the Leafs the day after but now it's looking like he won't be able to do either of those. And that people, is bad news. Halak is going through a major crisis here and right now no one has any confidence in him. Why anyone thinks that putting in Marc Denis is going to save the Habs against the Rangers and the Leafs is beyond me because he looked a lot worse than Halak. Halak may have been bad but at least he wasn't floundering around looking like he had no idea what he was doing in nets.

I don't know what the deal is with Halak because he's been stellar for the Habs before when Price had his last little bout of problems. But I still think that he should at least be given another try - hey look, if Pat Quinn can put in Dustin Tokarski for the finals even after he let in 9 goals in his previous two games and looked awful at some points, I think Carbo can put in Halak - and we'll just pray that the defense gets its act together and actually backs him up. The defense has been quite bad in the last two games and that needs to change.

Later: Halak will be in nets tomorrow. No news on when anyone is coming back other than Koivu who may just be back on Saturday. Although we all know how good Carbo is at giving estimates on when players are coming back.... *coughs* Weber apparently practiced with the Habbies today and I'm really hoping that he's given at least a shot at playing. I mean c'mon, what was the point of bringing him up if he's not going to play? If he's just there to sit it out in the press box, I think O'Byrne was doing that job just fine, thanks. We shall see... As long as 1) Lundqvist forgets how to play again and 2) no one pulls an Alexander Semin type of "fight", we have a chance at not being the laughing stock of the league tomorrow. Whooopie!

Okay, enough reality. It's depressing already. I'm going to put up a few random thoughts on the Juniors tournament last week.

Best moment - Winning the gold, right? Right.

Best goal of the tournament - Eberle's goal with 5.4 seconds left on the clock! Esposito's game winning goal against Sweden was also really nice. And Tavares had some nifty goals in the tournament too, but Eberle's is definitely the best.

Best save of the tournament - oh my.... I think Tokarski's save on Colin Wilson in the Canada/USA game was the best. Wilson was just standing there for what seemed like forever and it looked as though for sure he would put the puck into the back of the net, but Tokarski just grabbed it out of nowhere. Amazing. Okay so maybe he didn't know that he had it at first but whatever. He saved it!

Best game - Canada vs Russia. Like I've said repeatedly, that one is one for the ages.

Best team - Canada. Russia, the USA and Sweden all had some very talented players on their team but in the end Canada played the best as a team. They had their moments though. There were times when they looked like a bunch of guys who had just been plonked together about a week ago. There were times when it looked like all was lost. But they pulled through as a team and won it.

Most surprising team - Slovakia. Expectations were that they would get relagated but instead they posted one of the best performances in years from their team.

Most disappointing team - Team USA. They had a strong team and were definitely medal favorites and were even in a strong position to make the finals. Unfortunately they crashed out of the tournament and ended up fifth.

Best forward over all - Nikita Filatov. I love the skill that both Tavares and Filatov brought to this tournament but there's something really awesome about watching Filatov. He just moves the puck so well and he's incredibly fast too. His two goals against Slovakia were amazing. The one where he stole the puck off the Slovak defenseman and scored reminded me of the goal that Dastyuk got on Huet in the Winter Classic. Beautiful stuff there.

Best defense over all - I'm going to say.... I dunno *g* The Swedes had some excellent defenders as did the Russians. Goncharov and Backlund are coming to mind...

Best goalie over all - I'm going to say Jaroslav Janus. He carried that team to fourth place and came really close to bringing them to the finals even. He was amazing. Halak should be taking some inspiration here!

The team I really wished could have done better - Kazakhstan. Those poor guys didn't really have a chance but I wished that they could have at least not get run over by every single team that they played. Oh well...

Because it's always summer somewhere.... it's tennis season again!

We may have half a meter or more of snow here in Canada, but in Doha, Qatar, there's no such thing as snow so it's back to playing tennis, baby! Yesterday in marked the official beginning of the tennis season. And today saw Federer and Nadal finally take to the courts again! Finally! I didn't know that they were playing actually and I missed Nadal steamrollering over Fabrice Santoro (which was okay) but I did catch the end of the Roger Federer show today. And let me this: Roger is off to a great start! He looked really good at there against... whoever the poor Italian guy was. There were some typical great Federer shots going on and the poor Italian had no chance at all. I thought Federer just looked sooo much better than when he was in Shanghai. Hopefully the food poisoning stuff and back problems are over for now and he can make a serious bid for the Australian open. Yay for Roger!

Oh and poor Nole got beaten by Ernest Gulbis in Brisbane. Not a great start to the season obviously, but there's plenty of time for him to get his act together and beat Murray in the future.