Ummmm Bob?

Would you care to explain why you haven't even really talked to any of the millions of UFAs on the team?

From Habs Inside/Out (because I couldn't find the article I read in the paper that had Gainey's exact quote. Which wasn't that much different anyway)

Gainey told Hickey that he's had some preliminary talks with some of the Canadiens' impending unrestricted free agents, but has told them he'll do nothing until after the draft.

Butbutbutbutbut Bob.... July first is kinda coming up soon, no? Do you seriously not want anybody back that much? I'm trying to figure out what's going on here. I know you're whole five year plan thing sort of didn't work out that well, but, is it just me, or are you seriously going to do this whole rebuilding thing again? If this keeps up, Bob, you know who's going to get the axe next, right? Let's just say it's not Youppi....

Might I add that there's issues going on in Tampa Bay with the stupid owners arguing and apparently trying to do the GM's job. Apparently they don't agree with some of his choices of players to resign. And yes, apparently one of the owners doesn't think they need Vinny. And YES, I just used the word "apparently" too many times. ARGH. They're getting Bettman to come in and help resolve their issues. Babies......I can see it now...

Gary: so explain to me what the issue is?

Koules (Bolts owner #1): the franchise is starting to look like a horror flick...

Barrie (Bolts owner #2): This idiot clearly has no clue about hockey...

Lawton (GM dude): they keep trying to do my job.

Gary: uhuh... can I ask you all something? Do you plan on selling the team to Jim Balsillie?

Koules and Barrie: No

Gary: okay then. We're done here. *walks out*

Zap! Zap! Zappity!

That sound you hear is either Evgeny Artyukhin after he smashed into the boards on his own or Rick Tocchet after he blew up at his team. Anyway....Tonight the Bolts went ZAP and fell down dead. Habs took it 3-2 in OT which they really should have won 10-0 in regulation. But I digress because the end result was what I wanted.

• Battle of the Careys/Karris in 31 tonight. I didn't realize that Karri Ramo was also in 31....
  
• Habs dominated the Bolts throughout 50 minutes of play. They actually OUTSHOT their opponent tonight. I repeat: HABS OUTSHOT THEIR OPPONENTS TONIGHT! At the end of the first it was 11-2 or something similar.... for the Habs..... And it was only 1-0.... Yuh.....
  
• Which brings us to... RAMO (am I the only one who thinks "Rambo" when I see his name?) He was the only Bolt playing tonight. He saved the Bolts' butts tonight. Was not too pleased with that because my wonderful Habs couldn't score!
  
• Posts were 3-1 for the Habs tonight. Grrr....
  
• Shorty Marty and Skinny Vinny looked pretty invisible for a lot of the night and when they were visible they just couldn't connect on anything.....
  
• Shorty Marty was only semi-noticeable because he was this little short guy zipping tripping around on the ice....I never realized just how short he is... he makes Briere look like a giant... then again... I'm shorter than both of them so I guess I can't talk.....
• But really... Marty looked hilarious out there. And I think his face was made to attract pucks or something. He leans down for some stupid reason and gets blasted in the face with the puck. I don't think anyone taught him that you score with the stick normally, not your face....
  
• Kovy had a beautiful goal on the first or second or third of.... eight or so Habs powerplays.... The Habs then forgot how to score on the PP.... Uhuh.... that's why you got burned!
• speaking of burned.... I was burning up with what I'm sure is a mild fever even if the stupid thermometer says no while the game dragged on and on and on and on and on and on and on........ Bolts didn't know what offside was and they just loved our penalty boxes so much that they kept putting themselves in it. Really. I knew our building was awesome but I dind't know that we had penalty boxes to die for.....
  
• Just when I thought that the Habs would never score again (this was after we went into the third period without a single goal in the second), Latendresse scored on a beautiful wraparound. Good thing he didn't hear me screaming at him to shoot the puck.
  
• And then the Habs got burned when they let in two goals. First was after they basically obstructed their own goalie and the second was when the puck deflected off of Schneider. Wonderful.
  
• Koivu saved us in OT though when the Bolts obstructed their own goalie. Like we cared that they were obstructing Ramo.... In the words of Number31 "Hey if the Bolts can score with the Habs screwing Price, then the Habs can score while the Bolts screw over Ramo". Not how I'd put it but that's the truth!
  
• So at the end of the day, we got the result we needed and Tampa can't make the playoffs anyway so they can keep their point.
  

The good

• Wiiiiiiiin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Outshooting the opposition
  
• Gui's goal. Beautiful
• Koivu's winner in OT
• Markov was really good too =)

the bad

• Those two Bolts goals
• I'm sick.....
  

The not so nice

• Hmm going 1 for 8 on the PP or whatever it was...
  
• going to OT
• the fact that the Habs only got two goals past Ramo

What we could be happy about....

• Artyukhin tried to take out Komisaurus who then moved out of his way and Arty smashed into the wall. SPLAT! Apparently he's all banged up now. Before you call me sadistic, you may want to remember that Artyukhin was the one who took out Tanguay when he smashed him into the boards.......Yeah, I ain't feeling so bad for the guy.....
• Also that the Bolts were truly horrendous tonight. They were like zombies on skates....
  

What I almost wish could have happened...

• Prospal scored and went insane with happiness. Yeah, I'm still dwelling on that little meltdown of joy when we played them in January.... It was so funny.... and so stupid at the same time.
  

The hilarious

• Just saw replays of the Pens/Flames game from the other night.... Like how stupid do you have to be to repeatedly miss the open net? That was hilarious.... I know... That had nothing to do with the game tonight but it was hilarious..... really....
  

Anyway.... Enemy watch:

• Hartnell's hair couldn't win it for the Flyers and despite what sounded like them outshooting the crap out of the Panthers, they lost 4-2. Normally I'd bash you all to the next continent but I said I wouldn't. But I'm letting you know that if I hadn't said I wouldn't then I would. Biron you su..... those rebounds sucked. I hate y.... the fact that you all lost. Thanks for nothing. And Carter, stop scoring please so Ovie can stay ahead of you by a long mile. I said PLEASE!
  
• The Thrashers recovered nicely from being thrashed by the Habs and after getting thrashed by the Rangers, they came back and thrashed them in shootouts. Interesting moment came when Avery collided with Kovalchuk who then threw him on the ice. Despite all their claims of loving Avery, not one Rag came to his defense. I guess nobody told them that Ilya isn't Ovie and they could have beaten him to a pulp in seconds. Maybe the perrywrinkle coloured jerseys that the Thrashers have scared them.... They scare me.
  
• Flames went down in... well, flames and have now not scored once in two games. In their defense they were playing the king of the shutout so yeah...... But letting in five goals ain't so cool for the Flames. Oh well. Who cares. It's the western division so.... nyah!
• I sure other people were playing but I don't remember who. Oh well...
  

Zap... zap... zappity zap....zap.......

That's the sound of the Habs as they lie sizzling on the ice after being zapped by the Bolts in case you weren't wondering.

What am I supposed to say here? That was a pathetic effort for the Habs. Again. I'm trying desperately to wrap my head around what the heck just happened here but my brain is drifting towards women's tennis right now. You got me. I'm watching one of my least favorite tennis players on the planet right now. At least the effort that Serena Williams is putting out is actually an effort. She may not be playing very well right now but she's trying.

I just don't get what happened here tonight for the Habs but from the outset it looked like this was going to be bad. I lost complete track of who scored for the Bolts and I don't care to go revisit it. But what happened to all that talk of playing a full game from the Habs? Eh?! Oh and staying out of the penalty box? I lost count of the number of times that the Habs ended up in the freaking box all night. You absolutely can't get anything going if you're constantly a man down...The thing I really didn't like was the Habs giving up. They looked like they were ready to quit by the middle part of the third period. This is really not the team that I like to see. It's sad and downright frustrating when such a talented team, like this one is, gets burned because they just don't bother to show up for whatever reason..... I could almost understand if the Habs were a bad team like... Ottawa.... but.... but..... Why do you torture me like this? Why? I'm not saying that you should win the Stanley Cup (which would be nice but I don't see it happening). I'm not asking you to blank Boston next week (the flailing goalie's team are just that good). I'm not asking for you guys to turn into a team like the San Jose Sharks or the Detroit Red Wings (because who wants to be the Wings when they lose to Rick Nash). I'm just asking for a good effort for sixty bloody minutes....Is that really too much to ask for? (apparently so). I don't care if Carbo thinks the refs are against him. Tough it out and don't do stupid things to get penalties anyway. The Habs could have won tonight. No, they should have won. Yes, the Bolts overachieved in the second period. But don't tell me that the Bolts get full marks for that period. The Habs made it easier for them.

I just hope that things change for their game against the Panthers..... Mind you, I've been saying and hoping for the Habs to do better for what seems like forever now....

.......I'm off to watch more tennis now.........

In this case, being wrong is great

My predictions for the Australian Open have officially been shot down. Murray went out to Verdasco and now Djokovic pulled out against Roddick. So. That leaves Roddick to face Roger. The real Roger hopefully. Mr. no. 2 simply crushed Del Potro with a score of 6-3, 6-0, 6-0. I'm still waiting on the highlights but I'm putting credit on Federer for being great instead of Del Potro being bad. Tomorrow morning we'll see if Simon can stand up against Nadal (I'll say 'no') and if Tsonga can repeat last year's success (I'll say 'yes'). If the Fed plays like he should then he should be into the finals and then it's only a matter of beating Tsonga or Nadal.......granted, a very good looking (I mean playing-wise of course!) Nadal....and a still looking good Tsonga.....Blergh.....

Now if only my Habbies could be as good as Roger.....

These are two big points coming up people. We should have had at least two points from before the break. Tampa Bay has been on a roll as of late - sadly - and Florida hasn't exactly been dead either. In other words, the Habs need to stay focused and play 60 minutes of hockey... When they try hard they can beat almost anyone. When they don't everyone beats them. So people. SIXTY MINUTES. Please!!!!!!!

I'm not going to get into this one too much because every time I try Tampa Bay always plays better than they're supposed to - or the Habs just plain stink. So.... onto the prediction stuff....

A 4-3 win for the Habs. And I'll go as far as to say that Prospal gets a goal and breaks down completely into tears (you didn't think that I was letting that go, did you?). It' would almost be worth it to see him break down..... almost.....

If there was ever a time for TSN to be wrong...

Later

NOW WOULD DEFINITELY BE THE TIME! I'm just praying here that Bob McKenzie is so wrong on this whole Lecavalier thing that it's not even funny. Now the elusive "sources close to the club" are saying that that whole Plekanec, Higgins, GORGES, PK Subban and whatever the heck else they want are actually being discussed to some degree of seriousness. Well of course we all know that those "sources close to the club" may in fact just be some random people who have no clue what they're talking about and I really hope that this is the case. Call me stubborn and stupid but I don't Pleky and Higgy or Gorges to go anywhere. Especially not Gorges. And I really want to see Subban in a Habs uniform. Sorry but the guy really grew on me in the Juniors even thing. I don't want to see Subban as a Lightning. That would be... awful...

Gack.... this is.... no.... BOB DON'T DO IT! Please! It's not worth it! Your epic fails in signing Briere, Hossa, Sundin and whoever else you wanted were a good thing! Do we all really want Briere's over large contract now? No. Aren't we glad that Hossa dumped the Pens instead of us? Yes. And Sundin... well, don't get me started on the big hypocritical Swede.... Bob, you have to keep those guys here. Lacavalier is NOT the answer. Pleaaaasseeee Bob... don't do it.... the Habs were just starting to get some chemistry going and were WINNING! Imagine that? They're fourth in the conference without Briere, Hossa, or Sundin.... Now, I know you're saying "but look where they could be with one of those guys". But....but....like I said, it's a good thing we don't have those guys right now! Pleaaseee Bob... don't mess with the chemistry. Please!!!!!!

Someone please step in and offer the Lightning an even better deal. PLEASE! Save Bob from the allure of the over hyped impact forward who probably doesn't want to be here anyway! ANYONE! C'mon Toronto.... Ottawa... you guys could use Lecavalier. Please save the Habs from themselves. OFFER THE GUYS IN TAMPA BAY SOMETHING! Toronto could deal half their team, nab Lecavalier, and no one would notice there was any difference. Ditto with Ottawa. C'mon guys! Do it! Do it!

*collapses*

You know, after all this, it's going to turn out to be just a stupid rumor and Vinny's going to be staying put. *keeps saying that over and over again*

Earlier

Well okay, so either way we'll have an answer on this Lecavalier thing by March, so it's not going to be another Mats Sundin Saga. BUT already I'm seriously annoyed with this whole thing. I don't know why but I'm not liking the idea at all of getting this guy. I don't know why. I don't pretend to know a ton about hockey but I think I know enough about it to say that even if we do get the guy he won't necessarily carry this team to a Stanley Cup win. Anyway.. because I'm more awake now than I was last night when the news got out here's something a little more coherent.

Pros to signing Lecavalier

• Well, obviously he's talented
• he has WINNING experience

CONS

• SALARY CAP. Maybe I'm wrong on this one, but I feel that keeping Price and Komisarek here is more important than having Lecavalier. And with Lecavalier's huge contract, Gainey's going to have to skimp on other contracts which is not cool. Just ask the Flyers' GM on why spending a pile of money on one guy isn't a good idea. He's looking at some serious problems right now with the imminent return of the perpetually annoying player.
  
• The guy just signed an eleven year extension worth 85. million dollars. Refer to point one why this could be a problem
• his winning experience hasn't exactly helped his team that much in recent years.... but then again, the whole team has gone down the drain for multiple reasons that aren't exactly his fault. But still.....
  
• What will the cost be for getting this guy? And will the cost in terms of which players/prospects/picks be too much for one or two guys? The question really is: Is Lecavalier really worth three or more players and several prospects/draft picks? I'm not saying that he's not good but.... I think Montrealers tend to have an over inflated view of players from this province and they all seem to think that he's worth it.... but... is he really?

And the speculatory (even if that's not a word) notes

• Does he even want to play here? Obviously we can't get into his brain but I'm inclined to think that he wouldn't mind avoiding the pressure cooker that's Montreal. As a guy who's from not only this province but who's exactly 15 seconds away from this city, there will be a lot of attention on him. So Gainey goes to all this work to get him and he doesn't perform well and instead of helping the team, makes them worse.
• What about this whole deal with his agent saying that the management doesn't want to trade him? Then again, if the rumors are true then the management people haven't exactly agreed on whether or not they want to trade him.
  
• Why does Tampa Bay even want to trade him? If they resigned him with the idea of trading him then they were really stupid in signing him to an ELEVEN year contract worth a gazillion dollars. That makes it really unattractive for other teams to want to sign him.
  

And finally...

• Can it really be true that Gainey wants Lecavalier? We know he's been looking for that big impact forward and has failed just about every time. I'm not saying that he's quit on that idea now, but I think the Habs are actually finally getting things going and by messing with all of that now who knows what's going to happen to the team? In other words: Why mess with a good thing? Unless that good thing could be an even better thing but um... I think the Penguins have proved what happens when you go all out for one good thing and that good thing turns around and bites you before taking off (I think Hossa would be out of there one way or another even if his contract had lasted longer when he was dealt to the Penguins). And also... I thought Gainey's been shopping around for that extra defenseman? Just how much tinkering is he going to do here?

I would rather know that Gainey's stopped this silly habit of not signing people till the end of the year and has come up with a way to sign Komisarek and Price rather than listen to all this talk about Lacavalier.

Lacavalier coming to Montreal?

Just when you had enough of the Mats Sundin thing something else comes up. In-between snoring through the Edmonton/St. Louis game (and it really was a boring) and the Golden Globes thing, I opened up one eye when the dudes at TSN mentioned the words "Is Lacavalier about to be traded?" and then I promptly opened up both when they continued by saying "there is apparently a lot of talk between Bob Gainey and the dudes in charge in Tampa Bay". Okay so I paraphrased that one slightly. I'm also notoriously late to the party on this type of news... apparently the rumors have been going on for a while. Eh.

Point is, it's mainly all speculation right now, but apparently there is some credence to the rumours that there are some in the Tampa Bay management office that want to trade Lacavalier. TSN peeps went so far as to say that there has been some talk between Montreal and Tampa Bay. Of course the TSN dudes had to go and bring up the usual names in Habstown when the word "trade" comes up. Higgins, Plekanec, and... possibly PK Subban? Well that was even more speculation on the peeps part so I won't even take that one seriously. We all know that everytime the word "trade" and "Montreal" come up it's always "Higgins' is going!" so I'll ignore that bit. BUT! I have to wonder... is Gainey actually still shopping around for that big impact forward? We know he had some epic fails on that front (*coughsBriereHossaSundincoughs*).

So the questions now are 1) do the Habs even need Lacavalier? I think Lang's just proved that we don't need Sundin or any other guy that resembles Sundin 2) More importantly.... will Lacavalier even want to play here? If Tampa Bay is going to trade Vinny here then they have to do it sooner rather than later because apparently his no-trade clause kicks in in the summer. From what I've heard, he would much prefer to stay out of the spot light for the most part so if they dudes in the office want to get rid of him, then they may want to do it on their own terms because there is no way that Lacavalier is going to want to come here if he prefers the quiet(er) life. 3) And then the really important but no so fun one: Is he even going to be avaiable? Vinny's agent says "no, management says he's staying put". Managament says "....." to the public from what I can tell. All that money that they spent on Lacavalier seems to indicate that he's staying put because the seize of that contract will make things difficult for teams what with the salary cap and all and therefore not a very attractive option. Seems to my tired brain that a team has to be pretty desperate to want Lacavalier. And besides... I still think that Vinny's been one of the better things for Tampa Bay this season so I don't see why they want to get rid of him.....

Okay enough of that now. My brain is shutting down big time at the moment and this is starting to sound like a mini Sundin saga again.... *runs away*

TENNIS!!!!

The beauty of time zone differences is that I don't have to suffer through potentially non interesting finals but still get to read about the results when I wake up. Lovely. Of course there's a downside to that too but I'll be whining about that next week during the Australian Open. *coughs* Anyway... So we all know that Mr. Murray had to go and win his first title of the year. Yeah, yeah. Very nice. But let's not forget that other people were playing too!

• With Nole crashing out in Brisbane the finals were pretty much anyone's for the taking. Surpringly it was Radek Stepanek and Fernando Verdasco in the finals. Well, considering that Verdasco was the third seed in that tournament maybe him being there wasn't all that surprising. But still.... this is Verdasco we're talking about. Anyway, Stepanek in all his horrendous fashion style glory ended up downing Verdasco in over 2 hours today in the finals. Not bad for a guy who just turned 30. Now if Stepanek can just dump the horrid purple plaidish farmer look we'll be all set.
  
• Verdasco continued to have bad luck in Australia as he also lost in doubles to Tsonga and... whoever Tsonga was partnered with. Oops.
  
• CILIC WINS! Everyone's favorite guy from Croatia won his second title and first of the year in India. He was up against no. 202 Somdev Devvarman. Yay for Marin though! I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do this year.
  

Habs zap Bolts in SO

Pre-game rant:

Now. I know what happened last time I compared the teams on paper so I'm not going to do it this time. Let's just say this:

• despite stinking big time, the Lightning are looking for their FOURTH win in a row. That's still two more than the Habs can say for themselves (thanks stupid game against Carolina) and considering the losers are in 28th place....they shouldn't be stringing that many wins in a row. You can thank a pathetic display of hockey from Pittsburgh and Florida for those.
• The Lightning completely embarrassed the Habs in Habsville last time these two met. I personally would like to see revenge taken. And I'm hoping the rest of the team wants that too.
  
• If the Habs win, it would go some ways to trying to consolidate their place (4th) in the conference. Let's not forget that the Bruins still have over ten points on us.
  
• While the Habs just played last night, the good news is Tampa Bay is a lot closer to Sunrise than say... Newark is. Less travel time is good. I'm still hoping that they'll be motivated to win tonight.

Later:

Habs sweep Florida. Kinda.

Well... that wasn't quite what I had in mind but I guess a win is a win. Then again, the fact that the Habs had to go to shootouts against a team ranked 28th in the league is not very nice. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was clear that the nice warm Florida weather had done something to the Habs brains from the moment that they stepped on to the nice. They were severely outworked by the Bolts for most of the game. The first period was an absolute mess with both teams taking four penalties. Oh and the plexiglass or whatever it's made of wall things around the arena are clearly not made to stand up to people being slammed into them - I believe it was Tanguay who got rammed into the boards and then promptly didn't show up for the rest of the game - and one fell out 'causing a loooong delay which had me screaming. Actually, what really got me screaming was how awful the Bolts goalie was in the first period. He must have provided the Habs with at least a gazillion chances to score which included losing the puck on a clearly attempt and leaving a WIDE OPEN NET for the Habs to promptly not score in. He gave up a lot of rebounds which no one picked up on either. Of course who lets in the first goal? Why not the terrible goalie but Price! And how does Price let in said goal? You tell me. Malone - aka the guy that Pittsburgh should have kept - takes a shot or whatever... or a pass... which ends up on the stick of Prospal who is standing ALONE in front of Price and a half open net. Score.

Well, no matter. the Habs wonderful offense will get another goal or five and flatten them, right? Wrong. The offensive was sleepy and the Bolts defense was actually good. This resulted in the Habs seemingly being unable to keep the puck in the other zone. I had to sit through forty minutes and forty six agonizing minutes before the Habs finally punished Smith for not so good plays and put the puck over him and into the net. Oh and yes, that was Latendresse who got the goal whith the assists going to Lapierre and Kostopoulos. That was it from the scoring department however. I will say this though, the third period was a lot better for the Habs. A lot better. They had every opportunity to win the dumb game in regulation and OT. They only took one penalty and seemed more focused. Could have had something to do with that goal... See what no penalties and scoring goals does for your moral? You should do that more often!!!!!!!!

Anyway, over time solved nothing and it was shoot out time. Now, given how Smith had been for most of the night - okay, okay, so in the third period he came up with some big saves. Yeah, yeah. - and given the Bolts track record in shootouts (2-6 before tonight), I wasn't completely worried but shootouts give me a heart attack anyway. Memo to self: write up a rant on why shootouts should be gone forever. Jokinen went first and put it past Price in what I have to admit was nice enough goal. Thankfully Kovalev put the cheers from the poor Floridians to rest with a nice goal past Smith. Why couldn't you have done that earlier in the game?! And from there on it was all over for the Bolts. Price stopped Prospal who kind of shot the puck right at him while Lapierre sank Smith and effectively ended the game. Well, okay, so Lacavalier could have been the hero and extended the Bolts chance at winning but Price stopped him too so it was byebye Bolts.

And Carbo and I could finally breath a sigh of relief and be happy that the Habs escaped with this win. Now. Get some rest. And come back and put up a much better effort against the Devils. You're going to need it.

The good:

• Um... the shootouts? And I guess the effort was better in the third period.
  
• I like the effort put worth by the Lapierre/Latendresse/Kostopoulos line. I've heard people talk about how Lapierre makes up for his lack of skill by the incredibly effort he just puts in almost every game. Now, can you imagine what type of team the Habs would be if the "more talented" guys put in the same type of effort?
• I liked how Markov single handedly stopped a three on one attempt at a goal by the Bolts. Why it was three on one, I'm not sure... but yeah. Yay for Markov.

The bad:

• I'm too tired to list them all. The whole effort from the Habs for most of the game could have been better.
  
• the power play is non existent again. Carbo, please do something about this. I lost count on how many times the Bolts nearly got a shorthanded goal.
  
• the penalties hurt the Habbies too.
  
• Brisebois. 'nuff said.
  
• Tanguay leaving the nice with a possible injury. NO MORE INJURED PLAYERS PLEASE!
  

The interesting:

• Someone thought that it would be a good idea to hit Smith. I seriously can't remember who it was. Latendresse maybe? I don't think so. Well, he promptly got beaten to an almost pulp for that. Though I suspect that if the roles had been reversed and someone had done that to Price then they would be in the hospital right now. C'mon... If Plekanec can go insane over the mere fact that someone tried too hard to get the puck off of Price can you imagine what he would do if someone hit him? Yeah. Lights out.
  
• I didn't notice this last time but tonight the Bolts seemed to play a very physical game almost Flyers-like. Well okay... not quite.. but yeah....
  

The very strange:

• Did anyone see Prospal's reaction when he got that goal past Price? He looked like a guy who had been playing for twenty years and had just scored his first NHL goal. For the records, that was his seventh this season. He must have been so devastated when his shootout attempt failed miserably.
• Speaking of reactions.... Price pulls a Roger-Federer-at-the-US-Open and displays some emotion after winning! Isn't that awesome?
  

IN OTHER NEWS THAT YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT!

• Wings blank Blackhawks. Not good news for that whole outdoor thing but maybe the Blackhawks will put up a better effort, yes? I would hope so.
  
• Leafs actually win one against... the Thrashers. Wow. I'm so impressed. Yeah, I get (more) sarcastic at 12:00 at night.
• Poor Dustin Tokarski - you know, the guy who's one of Team Canada's goalies - just got signed to a 3 year entry level thing by the... Bolts.... well, they could use a good goalie I guess. I haven't seen Tokarski fall on the ice while he was just standing there doing nothing.
• Bruins skate over Pens. Not very cool but not exactly unexpected. Can someone though, please tell me where Crosby and Malkin have gone lately? The only Pens to score were Sykora and Dupuis (who's goal I saw. It was really nice). I've said this before but for the sake of being uncreative I'll say it again: I'm no fan of Crosby but he needs to step it up if the Pens have hope in hell of not finishing fourth in their division.
  
• Team USA routs Team Kazakhstan 12-0. Canada did better.
• The Hammies aka the Mini Habbies blanked the Baby Leafs the other day. Nyah!
  

"Yay", "Nooo" and "HAHAHA"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sharks are making mince meat out of Canucks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lightning win 3-1 *dies a horrible death*

To sum it up in one word: Abysmal. I'm sure there were moments that weren't awful. I just missed most of them.

Carbo's got quite the list of embarassing games going on now. Funny enough - or maybe not - these games all involve the Habs playing loser teams. There's something going on with the Habbies and their inability to string a few really good performances together. I don't know exactly what's going on with that but I have a suspicion that it may involve letting the opposing team's ranking or reputation affect them. Take for example that little debacle in Toronto. The last time the Habs beat them 6-1. Easy. Then whoops, they come out and play like crap and they get beaten 6-3. They follow that up with a shutout against Ottawa which was then followed up with a horrendous display of hockey against Boston who they had routinely beat last year. Bi-polar tendancies? I was just getting started. After beating the defending Stanley Cup champions 3-1, the Habs then lose 3-0 to an AHL filled Capitals team. It goes on and on and on...The Habs need to stop letting the rank and reputation of the other team affect them and they need to just get out there and play their game. I think it was Josh Gorges who said before the game that they needed to just stick to their game plan. Well, I'll bet you anything that losing like that was not part of the game plan.

First period. I sincerely hope that this is not a sign of how the rest of the game is going to go. After Brisebois scored about five or so minutes in - on a power play I may add, just to make things sound better than they are - it was all Lightning for the rest of the period. Martin St Louis and Vincent Lacavalier scored on Halak while the Habs snoozed. St. Louis's goal in particular was unbeliveably stupid because he was pratically going at Halak alone while everyone else was in another city. It was back to playing stupid with Halak in nets while the Lightning clearly were trying a heck of a lot harder. The Habs did exactly what I thought they would do tonight and that was to take the Lightning lightly and the result is now a 2-1 lead for the stupid bottom ranked team. I hope they wake up soon and get scoring. The good news at least is the Lightning held a 2-0 lead on the Sabres then other night and they ended up losing 4-2. As we're in theory supposed to be better than the Lightning..... we should be able to pull out of this and win. If we
wake the heck up.

Second period. Well, that sucked big time. Not only can the Habs not score on the powerplay they give up goals on their powerplays. A huge mistake by the defense allowed St. Louis to grab the puck and get a breakaway and promptly scored. I'm beginning to despair at how badly the Habbies are being tonight. As they say, it's not over 'till it's over or some grammatically incorrect form of that...

Third. Now it's over. 3-1 for the Lightning. Oh boy, I really don't want to read the papers tomorrow... I missed the last six minutes because my dogs insisted that I remove myself from the TV but from the 14 mins that I did see, it was terrible. The Lightning completely shut down the Habs who just couldn't keep it together and out of their own zone. The Habs made a lot of stupid errors that gave the puck to the Lightning.

The whole game from start to finish was terrible except for that one goal on the powerplay which was beautiful. The rest was ugly. Everything from the gazillion penalties to the dozens of fights that kept breaking out to the stupid officials who were completely blind tonight to the idiots who can't properly report on what time the game starts (luckily I was feeling really lazy last night and turned on the TV at 7 instead of 7:30 like the game was supposedly going to start at). Again, I can't help but feel totally bad for Halak right now. He's a good goalie. He deserves a much better effort in front of him than what he got. Okay, so maybe he wasn't as good tonight as he was against the Flames but honestly, what are you supposed to do when a guy gets a breakaway like that?

The Habs went into this thinking that they could come away with an easy win and instead they got handed a 3-1 loss that was completely preventable. Ick. I think the Habs were hurting too with the losses of Komisarek, Dandenault and Higgins tonight. The defense was pretty icky tonight. The offense was not very good either though they did create a few good chances (unfortunately, a few chances wasn't good enough). And apparently Koivu will possibly be out now too with some injury. I would say we're borderlined doomed at this point but then again... what do I know about this game? I do know that with three people named Alex (didn't you know that they pulled up a guy called Alexandre Giroux and he scored against Boston?) scoring goals for the Capitals like crazy, I'm seriously concerned about how things are going to go Saturday. Forget Saturday, the Habs could be in serious trouble right now with possibly four of their good players out.

In complete contrast, the Penguins beat the Islanders 9-2. See? That's how you beat losers. I love you Pittsburgh.... kinda... though I still wish that the Habs could have borrowed a couple of those....

Is tonight the night that the Lightning end their losing streak?

I hope not. In theory there should be no reason whatsoever why the Habs should not completely obliterate Tampa Bay. Let's take a quick look at how the poor team has done.

• Tampa Bay has played 28 games so far this season which included two games in Europe against the Rangers (they lost both of them)
• They have won exactly six games with their last win being on Nov 21 against Nashville.
• Since that win they have gone on a nine game losing streak
• Apparently it's been around eight years since they last lost ten games in a row
• They are sitting not only at the bottom of their division but also at the bottom of the entire league
• Oh and they fired their first coach just 16 games into the season. A month later and he's began blasting his old team saying that he hopes that they never win another game. Well, as long as they don't start winning tonight, I'll be happy, but the point is there is all that junk to deal with mentally.
• Apparently they had flight issues and aren't expected to arrive in Montreal until 1:00 today. Me thinks someone's going to be tired tonight.

Now compare that to the Habs.

• The Habs have played 27 games going into tonight's game
• They've won 16 games with the last win coming last Tuesday against Calgary
• They've won four out of their last five games all of which were at home
• Apparently this seven game home thing is some kind of franchise record
• While the Habs are not on top of their division, they're sitting in fifth in the whole league and would be higher if the Rangers hadn't played a whole pile more games than them
• Habs still have Carbo and after all the talk about whether he was actually qualified for the job or not, the Habs have picked it up recently and all that has died down
• As the Habs kind of live in/around Montreal they shouldn't have to worry about getting to the Bell Center, unless the snow removal continues to be stupid and not remove the snow therefore making it impossible to drive downtown (I was downtown last night and it took a bloody long time to get anywhere because the streets hadn't been cleared properly).

I can see several problems tonigth for the Habs however.

• They have shown a tendancy to slack off against bottom ranked teams. St Louis Blues, Islanders, Washington (okay, so they aren't the bottom of anything but they sure weren't playing like an NHL team when the Habs got blanked by them), and Atlanta to name a few. Slacking off tonight is NOT an option.
• Higgins and Dandenault are out with injuries which means they're getting replaced with Latendresse and O'Byrne who haven't played in... a while which could disrupt all the chemistry that has been developing despite the whole musical lines thing. Plus, there's a reason why these two have been sitting out for a while *coughs*
• Tampa Bay has got to be pretty desperate for a win - though I expect that they've been desperate for quite some time now - and if the Habs slack off it could be lights out

In theory though, there should be no reason why the Habs don't win. O'Byrne wasn't doing terribly before his little break and we can survive Latendresse as long he doesn't end up playing on the same line as D'Agostini who needs to extend his scoring streak even more. The Habs also need to catch up to Boston and if they win tonight then they would only be within three points of them.

No word yet on who's going to be in nets. Apparently Price has got a cold but even if he was healthy, I think Halak should be in nets again. He did really against Calgary and he deserves to play more than once every two weeks. As long as the Habs stay wide awake and play well, then there be no problem with Halak in nets. I want Price in good health and wide awake when the game against the Capitals because they're looking good again. Unfortunatley.

Bottom line is: If the Habs lose tonight I will scream and die. No, not for real. I like my voice too much and I can't complain about the Habs if I die. But you get the idea.

Someone shoot me, please

I asked last night to be shot after the crappy loss by a certain Habs but then I decided to wait to be shot until after Federer played. Well, he played and lost 6-4, 6-7(3), 5-7, so shoot me right now please. After winning the first set, Federer went down fairly early in the second. By the time I tuned in it was 5-2 on Federer's serve. Thankfully Federer broke serve a couple of times (Murray apparently had temporary amnesia) to take it to a tie break but he eventually lost that and subsequently there was the beginning of the end of the match. I missed the tie-break entirely because my dog needed to be walked, but judging by the many, many errors from Roger, I'm actually surprised he held on as long as he did. I think if he was a normal person, he would have pulled out of the competition before. His back was clearly giving him a lot of trouble and I have no idea how you can even focus with all that pain. He definitely put in a good effort, probably better than anyone else in that type of situation (try that game in the last set when Murray was up 5-4 and it went to 10 deuces before Federer sent it to 5-5). Ultimately the errors killed him and basically handed the match to Murray at the end. This is obvsiously quite tragic for everyone who doesn't want Murray to win but hardly unexpected. Federer needs to go and take a nice long vacation, recover, and come back in January and beat everyone. again I honestly don't believe "his time is up" like people keep saying (dude, you would think that he's going to die by the way everyone is talking) and I'm fairly confident that he can maintain his spot in the top 2 next year if 1) he doesn't get sick 2) his back doesn't give him problems.

As for Murray...I don't know what Murray's excuse for doing badly was. He made almost as many errors as Federer. He came out completely flat today and he is very lucky that Federer just so happened to be in worse shape. And now Murray's going to win the stupid thing... unless Djokovic can remember how to play brilliant tennis... which he hasn't just yet....*goes off to find a Serbian flag* you're my only hope right now, Novak....!

More whining about tennis set to come up in the near future....

Near Future aka later at night: Okay, now that I've had time to be depressed about real unrelated issues and have been able to put things into perspective, here is how I see the semis going.

Murray vs. Davydenko. In theory this should be a no contest. Yes, Davydenko can play well. He's been making some very nice shots this week and if he can be consistant than he can at least give Murray a run for his money (which if Murray wins the cup thing, will be a lot of money) if not more. If he can make those nice Federer-type of shots then he has a chance. The thing is, Murray is a better player. In theory anyway. He's been doing his homework on his opponents and it's been working so far (granted Nadal and Federer have not been playing their best tennis since the US open but that's slightly beside the point). I have no doubt that Murray's already got a plot worked out. The one issue here though would have be how tired Murray will be. As I said before, he did not play brilliantly against Federer and he looked downright exhausted by the end (then again, Murray always looks more wiped out than he actually is but I think this time it was real). Davydenko has had a day to rest while Murray had a late match against Federer so we will have to see just how much that took out of him. I would still like to declare Murray the favorite though *wails*

Djokovic vs. Simon. Again, in theory this should be a no contest in Djokovic's favor. Simon has shown that he can be good. His brilliant showing in Madrid against Nadal proves that if he really wants it he can be a very dangerous player. On paper however, you would think that Djokovic would have a huge edge, being the Australian Open champion and the world no 3. The thing is, Djokovic hasn't won a title since May. I've seen him all summer, and except for his showing at the US Open, in which he kind of bombed out against Federer, he hasn't been doing particularly well. I haven't got to see him at Shanghai (thank you Canada for not really broadcasting the last tennis tournament of the year!) so I don't really know exactly how he's been doing, but he has to be feeling confident with how he's done to the semis in Shanghai. Hopefully he's got some type of rhythm going again and he can come out like the world no 3 that he's supposed to be.

On a completely different random note: Apparently the Tampa Bay Lightning have fired their coach, Barry Melrose. After having only coached 16 games, he fired today and is to be replaced by their assistant coach. I'm not completely surprised but I'm not sure why anyone thought that they were magically going to go from 30 to 1 in the space of 16 games. Yes, you got new owners, new managment, new players, and the top draft pick this year, but seriously.... did you honestly think that things were going to go really well this soon? I don't know anything about Melrose and what type of coach he is (although I have to wonder why a team that needed to change things around for the better picked a guy who hadn't coached in 13 years), but I really hope that they don't think things will immediately change right now. Oh well. We'll see. I've got a certain other team's issues to worry about, yeah?