Habs vs Blues - we've got a new enforcer of sorts

So I took my mom to her first live game since.... whenever the last time she was in the old Forum was.... which was years ago..... After the first five minutes, I'm sure the whole Habs team and I were all going "FML".  I was certainly hoping I wasn't about to witness a massacre... Thankfully that didn't end up happening and I still think my mom had a good time so it was all good.

We did have a great view of our new little enforcer though:




You tell him, Carey!! SMASHY SMASHY SMASHY! What? I was denied my imaginary goalie fight on Sunday! I wanted a goalie fight! SMASHY!

Personally, I think if the goalie goes out like that (and Carey had no choice because the D was nowhere to be seen) then he should be considered relatively fair game (ie I don't think Janssen should have ran him over like that but I think he should have been allowed to bump into him). That being said, I think if someone is going to ram the goalie in any capacity (including bowling him over), they should be punched out by the goalie's teammates (and the goalie himself). In other words, my only problem with what happened last night was that Carey wasn't allowed to punch out someone (not that I think Carey should have been allowed to fight Janssen. Conklin would have been a suitable punching bag, no?)... oh and the fact that the whole thing could have been averted if the defense wasn't on another planet

And Pierre McGuire is like "Why isn't Laraque in the lineup?!" Well, I'll tell you why he's not in the lineup, Pierre. He's not in the lineup because he does NOTHING when he's on the ice. NOTHING. Our goalie is willing to get into more fights than him. EDIT: apparently he's also not in the lineup because the Habs will buy him out.

Apart from Carey sticking up for himself (or trying to anyway) the other good thing was.... damn, I can't believe I'm saying this... BennyPoo. Yes, BennyPoo had a good night. At least I only remember the good parts about his night so if he did give the puck away during one of those blecky Blues goals, I don't remember it. Yeah. Sorry I ever said mean things about you, BennyPoo....

Also... I think I was the only one who cheered super loud when they showed Darche. Poor Darche.... D:

Anyway, no more Habs games for me this year. My lovely stash of hockey tickets is slowly diminishing..... Boohoo D:

I think I used the words "anyway" and "also" way too much in this post. 

More random info

Can't help it....

On the Habs front:

• Price is coming back! Finally! It feels like forever since he's been on the ice - no, I'm not dissing Halak at all. I just missed seeing Price. He should be playing in one of the two games before the All Star thingy and sitting as backup for the other.
  
• Higgy and Koivu should be back after the All Star thing. Good news for the team, obviously bad news for the Hammies who have been doing wonderfully.
• Dandenault is skating some more. He shouldn't be back until February but seeing him skating is good news.
• Tanguay should be back in February too
  

Update: Koivu and Higgins are making the trip to Atlanta and New Jersey. No word on whether they'll actually play though.

And today's lesson is:

• Never ever stop watching/listening to a hockey game midway through. Even if it's the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues and the Bruins are leading 4-2 with a minute and whatever left in the game. Why? Because you miss the Blues getting two goals in - the second of which came with .8 of a second left in the third period - and ultimately beating the Bruins in shootouts. I switched to watch the Caps/Islanders game which wasn't nearly as fun as watching the Blues get those goals in would have been... Boohooo......
  

On the tennis courts... Italians make Roger and Nole cranky

• Federer decided to go with the Novak Djokovic strategy of blinding your opponents with an awful coloured shirt and looks to be wearing purple for the entire tournament. Yuck. The colour didn't seem to affect Seppi too much though and he challenged Federer enough to make you go "Uh.... I hope this isn't a sign of what's to come". Federer won 6-1, 7-6, 7-5. Apparently Roger was just not looking too good out there for a lot of the match but after a particularly unpleasent mistake, he woke up and finished off the match. While it wasn't the resounding victory that would have been nice, it was still a straight set win.
  
• Djokovic got stuck out in the hot Australian sun for two hours as he downed Andrea Stoppini 6-2, 6-3, 7-5. The world no 220 made life dificult for poor Novak, breaking serve in the second set at one point and actually having a 4-0 lead in the third set. Eventually Novak showed who was the world no 3 and defending champion and won the match in straigh sets. But still... I think this match will be one of those that you would rather Murray and Federer not see....
  

A victory! And... Andy Murray is everywhere!!!!

At last, the Habs win! Okay, so from what I saw (and I only saw the end of the second period and the third period) it wasn't a particularly good game again. More stupid passing, defense still seemed a little dead, they got too many penalties again, oh and there's still the problem of scoring on the power-play (when was the last time we scored on the powerplay?), and the problem of scoring in general, AND they had to go to shootouts which was icky (man, I'm starting to sound like a broken record), but still: they technically won. Thank the hockey gods for that. And thank Price for saving all three shots. And Kovalev for scoring on the Habs third attempt (I thought he wasn't supposed to be good at shootouts?). Now, maybe that will pick up the Habs and get 'em winning again. Maybe. Hopefully. They're obviously very capable of being good. Now just forget about all those stupid loses and get to winning again, darnit! The Hurricanes are coming up on Tuesday so we shall see what happens.

I've been reading some critisism about Carbonneau lately. I don't know enough about hockey still to form a proper opinion on his coaching abilities but I will say this 1) if we're complaining based on how the last couple of weeks went then I think we should just calm down and wait and see what happens 2) we could have been stuck with Barry Melrose instead. 'nuff said.

Random note: I can't seem to escape Andy Murray these days. There was an Andy Murray on the Blue Jackets' team last week, there's of course *the* Andy Murray who is everywhere now - you win a few big matches and suddenly you're everywhere, and today I learn that the St. Louis Blues' head coach is named Andy Murray. Andy Murray is everywhere I tell you!!!! *dies*