JARO STEALS A SHUTOUT!!!!!!!!

Okay, so honestly, that's not fair. Halak didn't steal a thing. He deserved this win and he more than deserved this shutout. Oh yes, it was the Jaroslav Halak show again tonight. While the rest of his team skated around like as though they were still asleep, Halak was busy fending off the big scary Canucks which included the creepy scoring duo of Henrik and.... what's the other brother's name? Daniel? Whatever. Halak stopped them all including a few oddman rushes and a breakaway on... one of the Sedin twins. The "Big Swede" himself had a great chance which he couldn't capitalize on. Yay for Jaro! Way to show those annoying Swedes who's the boss!

What can I say about the game? Hmm... Habs looked sleepy at times but they also had some good moments and some great moments (most of which belonged to Jaro. Yes, I'm being biased right now. Sue me!). Powerplay couldn't get a rhythm going except for in the middle of a five minute one in which Markov scored the team's second goal of the night. Penalty kill was perfect tonight - and Halak was the center of said perfection. I'm tempted to say that the defense was awful but that's not really true. They had some great moments - especially on a powerplay in which the Canucks started off with a four minute 5 on 4 and ended up spending half of that 5 on 3 - and some bad moments which thankfully didn't turn into anything. The end of the Canucks "amazing powerplay that did nothing" resulted in Koivu getting the puck to Plekanec who went in alone on Luongo and buried it for the Habs' first goal. That was great and I'm sure the Canucks were hitting themselves upside the head for that one. Lapierre would add an empty netter at the end of the game.

The bloggers seem to either think that Halak alone was great and the rest sucked or everyone put up a big effort tonight. I think it's somewhere inbetween. You can't deny that there were some costly mistakes by the Habs that should have turned into goals for the Canucks and if Halak hadn't been so with it.....The Habs seemed pretty dozy for a lot of it and most of the play was concentrated in the Habs own end. And c'mon, the Habs can't blame the refs for all of those penalties.... just a couple.

• Stewart is sooo slooooow.... But I want to keep him because he's like a mini version of the Laraque that we wanted. Kind of. He hits everything and everyone in sight and he sticks up for his teammates. And he's not afraid to fight. Keeeeeeep hiiiiiiim.
  
• Kovalev needs to stop hitting the post.....He would have made the score 4-0...... grrr.....
• Two people that I would not want to be today are Luongo and Price. Luongo because his team dominated the Habs like crazy and yet he was the one who let in two goals. And Price because... well... At one point there was footage of the crowd bowing down to Halak. So. Yeah. No one was thinking of poor Pricey tonight. Poor guy.
• I think while the offense was a little passive, the defense worked pretty well actually. Any time when the defense isn't obstructing their own goalie is good *g*
  
• They did win a fair amount of faceoffs which is very good news.
  
• the PP was pretty bad but the PK worked wonderfully
  
• The crowd was noisy. Must have been insane there.
  
• Sundin being booed is funny to listen to for some reason....
• Someone should tell the Habs that you're supposed to hit the puck (you know, the little thing on the ice) not the other guy's face.
• Oh and thanks Breezer for saving Halak's hopes of a shutout!

I need to sleeeeeeep now. I'm being very random now.... *g* On a whole the game probably was better than I keep thinking it was. RDS just replayed Pleky's goal and I'm all smiles again... so yeah... nice win to have.... love you Jaro!

Enemy watch: Caps died and Flyers beat them 4-2 (do I really need to rant about this one?!) Ducks didn't get shot down and won 4-3 over the Sabres. Sens did something useful and squashed the Hurricanes. Almost perfect. Stupid Flyers though....

Speaking of shutouts.....

... I found this lovely bit of information while wasting time at the Canadiens' website (over <HERE>).

486 - Regular season shutouts recorded by Canadiens goaltenders since 1909.
309 - Consecutive minutes that Bill Durnan held off the opposition in 1948-49.
54 - Times the Habs have blanked the Toronto Maple Leafs, making them the club’s favorite shutout victim. Second best? The Boston Bruins, just one shy of the Leafs’ total.
41 - Times the Canadiens have held their opponents off the scoresheet in at least two straight games.
36 - Canadiens goaltenders who have recorded a shutout, beginning with Georges Vezina and going all the way to Carey Price.
22 - Whitewashes registered by George Hainsworth in just 44 games in the 1928-29 season.
6 - Seasons in which a Habs netminder has notched at least 10 shutouts over the course of the campaign. Ken Dryden was the last to realize the feat, doing so in 1976-77.
1 - Goaltenders to have blanked the opposition and scored a goal in the same game. That honor goes to Jose Theodore, who did so against the New York Islanders on January 2, 2001.

I kind of like the blanking the Leafs stat... And the one about Theodore. Haha, I would have loved to have seen that one...

Tennis stuff: Apparently I completely miscalculated who was going through into the semis in the second group. It's going to be Djokovic and Davydenko. del Potro kind of got run over by Davydenko today. Davydenko was just hitting most of his shots really well - there were a couple of Federer-type shots in there - and del Potro kind of has movement issues (tall guys seem to have issues moving around the court well), hence the 6-3, 6-2 result. Oh well. Next year del Potro! I'm sure you can get better at hitting it better but in the mean time you have to go and win the silver salad bowl.

And Tsonga...at least you finished off your trip to Shanghai with a(nother) win over Djokovic. I mean, it's too bad you lost to Davydenko and del Potro but that's okay. You really have to wonder who the world no 3 is (*coughs Murray coughs*). Trying not to freak out completely about Federer though. Stepanek and Federer need to win if Federer wants to go through. I'm sure Stepanek can beat Simon. He's much better...kinda....*wails*

Football stuff: Liverpool died against Tottenham (again!) and Chelsea got booted out of whatever the cup thing is that they're playing in, by Barnley or something that sounds like that. I would cry because Liverpool and Chelsea are supposed to be a lot better than that, but I won't....they can win at one of the billion other things that they play in...

Victory at last!

FINALLY! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! So sad that I have to get excited over one game....But yay! We won! I ended up missing part of the first period. Apparently I got the time wrong. By the time I turned it on there was 8 something left in the first and Higgins had already scored. Sad, I know. Here's how the rest of it went:

(times may be off because the lovely clock on the TV goes backwards. While this is great if you want to know how much time is left, it's not great when you want to know when something happens. Me trying to do math on the fly = beyond bad).

13: something - Oh they're playing? How come I didnt know? *kicks TV*
16: something - Gorges gets a penalty for... something.... Shouldn't the Senators dude get one for hooking? Oh well. Senators get power play. Lots of agony. Price makes nice saves. Spezza forgets how to score.
19: something - Prices makes a nice save, Ruutu or Spezza... I think it was Spezza, falls on Price. People go flying. Don't people know that you're supposed to put the puck into the net and not the opposing players?
20: something - First period over. I go to ponder why the time got messed up and I missed the goal by Higgins....

2nd period

1-3 - something - Ottawa tries to score. Fails. We also try our hand at knocking the opposing net around. Hey, maybe we should make that part of the game: whoever can knock over the net the most wins!
4-6 something - waiting for something to happen....anytime now....
7 something - do we want Ottawa to score??!!!! the other end people! you can't score unless the puck is at the other end!
8 something - penalty to Ottawa. Lots of cheering. Okay, time to score people!
9 something - .....hello.....? anyone there? ......x-x
10 something - guess not....
12 something - penalty for us
13 something - are we trying to score???! HAHAHAHA...Ottawa can't score....we almost score again! Hahahahaha......
14: 11 WE SCORE!!!!! Well, not we. Higgins! I love you Higgins! And I love you Sergei and Ryan o'Bryn for assisting! 2-0 for us!
15 something - we're singing. it's like a freaking football match... hahah...we're getting noisy for the first time all night.
15:39 - WE SCORED AGAIN! OH! OH! WE SCORED AGAIN! On the face off practically! HAHAHAHAH! Latandress, you rock tonight too! And yay for Lang for assisting. Bwahahahaha.......Silly Senators.....!
16 something - no dying now! Wake up! Score again! C'mooooooon.......!
18 something - When I said score, I didn't mean the Senators score....stop the puck, stop the puck! Price saves.. Let's all try to beat each other up now that the play has stopped....*dies* 4 on 4
18:41 - Spezza goes off for hooking. 4 on 3 for Montreal. Spezza looks unhappy. Sowwy.
19 - 20 - we almost score but don't....Oh well...End of second.

3rd period

1 something - Ottawa almost scores.... HELLO MONTREAL?! WAKE UP!
2 -3 something - oops what was that? some poor Hab got whacked. Fight.... Not a good time.... 4 on 4? What are you saying Koivu? Can't lipread, you know! It's 4 on 3?! We have the advantage? Yes? No? Someone tell me! Yes. We have the advantage. Now we should score, yeah?
5 something - guess not. no more penalty.... waah....
6 something - hello? Price, can you grab the puck? I know you can't see what's going on, but please try to grab the puck. Please. Thank you! Now the rest of you stop fighting!
8 something - was that a freaking breakaway for Ottawa? No scoring, no scoring... I can't watch! Oh! Price blocks it! You idiots are so lucky to have Price!!!!!!!!!! We love you so far Priiiiice!
9 something - We really love you now Price for saving that one too! Where's the defense though?!!!! waaaake up!
10 something - Why is Price getting such a bloody workout???!! Can we put the puck at the other end please?!
13 something - penalty for Komisarek... too bad.....
14 something - Dandenault - can't spell his name- almost scores! You should have had that one. You were all alone! Yeah, you should be looking upset over that. Dont worry too much though. We're still winning, yeah.
15 something - Ottawa almost scores AGAIN.... but Price saves... AGAIN. Can the game just finish now, please, please, please?
16:30 something - Wait, never mind, Higgins has the puck. He's pretty much alone
16:30 something - HIGGINS I LOVE YOU FOR REAL NOW! THIRD GOAL FOR HIGGINS! Dude, we looove you!
19 something - almost done. Almost done... c'mooooon...... let's goooooooooo people......
20:00 - YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! SHUUUUUUUUUT OUUUUUUT! Bwahahahahahahahahahaha! 4-0 for Montreal! EAT THAT OTTAWA! I want to read the Ottawa papers now. Hahaha.... I think I had too much caffeine....Oh well.... I'm not acting like we just won the cup... really.... i'm just... hyped up on too much caffeine.....

My mom's cousin is complaining that no one threw their hats when Higgins got his third goal. Apparently you have to throw your hat when a guy scores a ha trick. Hence the reason why they call it a hat trick. Too bad no one decided to wear hats to the Bell Center.....*pokes people* WEAR A HAT DARNIT! Halak could have thrown his hat.... he looks terrible in it. Kinda like Andy Roddick in those hats he wears while playing INDOORS. Sorry Roddick! You're still awsome at interviews... =p EDIT: Apparently hats were thrown. Obviously all I could see was Higgins' face so I couldn't tell if anyone threw 'em or not. I still think that Halak should have thrown his!

I was going to say that it's too bad the Penguins didn't win tonight but... guess what? THEY WON! 7-6 in OT! OH! EAT THAT WINGS! I almost wish I could have seen that (who decided to schedule as the same day as Montreal vs Ottawa?! *wails*). I'll definitely have to see the highlights tomorrow. Jordan Staal you are the Penguins hero for those two goals at the end.... Mwahahaha....

My night will be perfect if the Flames beat Toronto but I won't know till tomorrow what the results are for that so myeh. I'll take Montreal shutting out Ottawa and Pittsburgh winning over Detroit at the last second. Bwahahahaha.....

Oh and about tennis...Novak won against Davydenko. In three sets. The set that Djokovic lost was pretty sad (0-6 ?!!!!) but he won the match. Apparently Davydenko died in the last set. If Federer goes out I think I may just cheer for Djokovic... or del Potro if he goes through. del Potro still has a chance after beating Tsonga. Sorry Tsonga...I'm really hoping that Roger wins tomorrow morning....you can beat Roddick no problem... in theory....i'm going to stop talking in theory....it's getting sad now....*sniffles*