Danny, you have your entire Habs career to make it up to me

Yup. Get your Habs or Hammies jersey on because you've got years worth of wins to make up for this. Can't wait to start yelling at cheering for him for real. We're going to have SO much fun yelling at err cheering for  Danny. Oh yes.  Bwahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahaha...hahahaha.............ha............ha................

Anyway........

Jake, I like you a lot, but you just channeled your inner Floppy Flambe from 04 tonight. Not good, mister. We still love you but yeah.. that wasn't great....

Eberle, you are f*cking awesome. I love you. Between you and Pajaarvi-Svensson, I may just be an Oilers fan in the future. Maybe. Maybe not. But still. You are freaking awesome, Eberle. Thank you for being Team Canada this year.

Taylor, you're talented, you'll probably go first overall. But Eberle is Team Canada. If we could clone, Eberle, and just make sure his clones never age, then Team Canada would always win gold.

Kadri - Nice to see you're practicing being a Leaf by being very inconsistent through the tournament. I'm sure you're making all those Leaf-haters very proud (what? Of course I'm going to bash the Leaf. It's called "being a grumpy Habs fan who just also saw her team lose to CAPTAIN Ovie and co).

Team Canada - hey, 9 straight finals and five gold medals isn't something to cry about. It's time to go to Buffalo next year and start a new streak! You're still awesome =)

Team USA - Congrats on the win. You really did deserve it!

Some of the USA "fans" who think it's okay to diss Canada - you're a bunch of trolls. Scram or else I'll start regretting every nice thing I said about your team and believe it or not, I said a lot of nice things about them. (to the great fans I ran into, you're awesome. Be super proud of your team!)

Oh and....

Pepsi? You're fired. You and you're freaking cheer are totally fired. Now get lost before the Olympics or else I'll start a "this cheer is cursed" rumor and then you'll be sorry. dhkjadhskjadhs, I hate that cheer.

Wishing someone hadn't poured my cider down the sink otherwise I'd go have a glass..... Guh....

Holy $%^&, Canada, are you out to kill me?!!!!!!!

I thought I was going to be happy to just report that my lovely conference-leading Hammies demolished the Griffins by a beautiful score of 7-3 (and not 7-4 like I kept saying on twitter for some reason). It was a nice, nice, nice win as the Hammies came up from BEHIND only to score SIX UNANSWERED goals in the second period.

I thought I would be able to just dance around celebrating this lovely win and a nice win by my Habs - which I actually forgot about until right now. I mean, who the hell plays at 5:00?! Must have been one of those early bird specials for those elderly snowbirds. ANYWAY. The Habs win. The Hammies win (Sanford's injured). Misshy had a shutout. Niagara lost and Simila and the Finns got smoked by Sweden but on a whole, I was having a great night...

Until Canada played the US.....

Bloody freaking hell. It was a HORRENDOUS game for Canada. It was turnover city. It was like someone transplanted MAB's brain and put it into every single Canadian player. It was brutal.

It really didnt' get any better until Eberle saved the team (again). Man. I thought everyone was putting a lot of pressure on him by constantly bringing up that goal that saved Canada's hopes last year and that it was wrong to expect him to save them this year, but really... Eberle is awesome. Period. End of story. He tied the game at 2 for Canada and after Canada seemed headed for defeat after going down 4-2, he put Canada back to within one goal in the third. And hows' this for some poetic justice: after the Americans scored TWO freaking short-handed goals (I am not even kidding), Alex Pietrangelo scores shorthanded to tie the game.

I won't even mention that goal that should have been a goal but didn't count. I'll just instead make sure everyone knows that I don't like Kristo right now. Until he puts on a Habs and/or a Hammies jersey, we're not getting along at all. No really. He very nearly ruined my night on several occasions......... can't wait until he ruins the nights of some NHL teams though. 

The Canadians eventually stopped playing like MAB long enough to win the game. Over time was stressful and solved nothing and then we went to a shootout. In short: Eberle is awesome. We'll live with Kadri scoring a really nice one (tonight, he's a Canadian. Not a faily Leaf). We'll be very thankful that Kozun decided to be a Canadian at the WJC instead of an American. Ooh and we'll thank Jake for stopping Jordon Schroeder who had to score to keep the Americans in the game.

Jake did a victory splat afterwards. I was wondering what the hell he was doing and apparently he tripped on the puck on his way to celebrate on the bench. What a dork. It's okay, we love you anyway.

Canada probably shouldn't have won this game, but they did. And we're super pleased with this. Now, they just need to get their act together for Russians (or the Swiss). I am SO happy that they won't have to play Finland and then Sweden just to get to the finals. Last year's Canada/USA match was crazy, THAT semi-final match was just amazing. Tonight, definitely ranks up there. Amazing game.

P.S. I saw the Sweden/Finland game on some Swedish station. Very entertaining. They looooove Pajaarvi-Svensson. They had this interview with him in some Christmas setting thing. It was weird and funny. Especially when the camera kept zooming in on all the Christmas tree ornaments and fake presents and then proceeded to zoom in on his face. Whoever said zooming in on acne covered faces of 18 year olds was a great idea should be fired. Mind you.. .if you zoom waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out, he kinda looks okay. Hehehe.

(hehehe, I looked at my writeup when Canada beat Russia last year. It was all nice a well-mannered and here I am putting all bloggers to shame by my horrendous writeup this year. Sorry guys!).

You know you're getting picky when.......

So Canada won. Again. 8-2 this time against Slovakia.

Only... I'm not really happy.

I know, I know... but.....

I really, really, really, really, did not like all the penalties Canada was taking. They can't get away with this against the Americans or the Swedes or the Russians....

Cormier especially is annoying me a lot with his idiotic penalties. His needless stupid cross check to whichever Slovak guy that was cost Canada a goal. I don't care that Canada was already up by five or six goals. The point is the penalty was super dumb and this was not the first time that he's taken stupid penalties. Please stop this stuff right now. Or else.

Meh.... at least the Slovaks made a game of it despite what the score might say. Hrasko was smashing everyone.  Forget the Czech Bulldozer (Sobotka). Hrasko is out to flatten everyone (omg, can we draft him? Can we? PLEASE?).

Nice game for Taylor Hall though. Everyone starts complaining that he hasn't scored and bingo, he has 3 goals. Hehehe.

Speaking of Hall.... Pierre McGuire gets the quote of the day with this:

“See them making ice cream? That kid (Hall) doesn’t eat ice cream, he just scores goals.”

Um................no really.... what in the hell is that even supposed to mean...............?!!

Just for that, I want footage of Hall stuffing his face with ice cream. On second thought, maybe not........but... oh never mind... Can we all just agree that Pierre McGuire makes no sense whatsoever and this is just more proof of it?

................

Oh and thanks for nothing Russia......... You could've beaten Sweden but nooooooooo........ you had to lose 4-1. Booohooo... Only saw a few mins but Sweden was really dominating the game when I saw them...... Can Sweden and Russia both implode before the semis? please? PLEASE?

I want to be in charge of arranging my teams schedules....

No games yesterday, no games tomorrow but a packed schedule today? =/

Shut up! Oh my god, TSN.... you guys have to be the least original and creative play-by-play guys on the planet.....Yes, we know that the Flames got some lovely picks out of the Tanguay trade and Montreal is left with nada, yes we know that Brandon Kozun - like Tyler Myers last year - was born in the USA and could have played for them at the Worlds but choose to play for Canada instead, yes we know where Vancouver is, yes we  know that Eberle had the most awesome goal ever when he tied the game up with 6 seconds left against the Russians last year.......How do we know this? Why you mentioned at least five times today on top of the ten or or so times you mentioned it in the last two games! Oh and you fail at saying Schlumpf's name. The Voltigeurs guys say it so much better. Hehehe.

Oh and yeah, Canada won 6-0 over the Swiss! McMillan with the hat trick! Yay! Boy oh boy am I glad that the Russians are in Sweden's group this year.... We're still stuck with the Americans though....

Capsfail.... So happy I didn't see THAT Caps/Whalercanes game live. Caps lose 6-3. *sighs* This is what happens when you trade your captain on a game day!!!!

ARGHHHHHH At one point my teams (minus the Caps) were all up 2-1. Of course it went downhill from there..

Juniors lost it 3-2..... Really not impressed with this team right now.... I know they can be better than this. I really think they have a lot more potential. *sighs*

Voltigeurs went down 4-2. But then! The they decided not to fail anymore. And scored FIVE goals to win the game 7-4. HAHAHAHA. Brunelle's hat trick tied the game at 4. Philippe had two assists. Dumont had a goal and an assist. Sean potentially ruined the game by being in the box went the Cataractes tied it (before adding another one immediately after). Nice come from behind win for the Voltigeurs though. Nice to see them not blow a game to the Cataractes for once. AHEM.

Hammmies wiiiiiiiiiin! YAY! I was SO hoping that they would be mad after losing to the Amerks the other night and would want to come out and stomp on the Marlies. Well... didn't look like it at first. Marlies go on board first but PK SUBBAN tied it up. Sounded really awesome. Conboy put them up 2-1 and then they lost it.... and then Guy must have threatened them with a bagskate in the second intermission because totally dominated the third period. Weber finally scored again! And David had two (his second coming off a tip in from a shot by Weber). Too bad we didn't get to play the Marlies last week instead of the Amerks. Oh well. Hammies beat the Marlies so that's all that counts. The Marlies tried to start crap after they lost but nobody was paying attention to them. They lost.

Flandersdude keeps pointing out that the Marlies lost 7-0 at home the other night. He really doesn't like them, does he? *g*

Now Habs.... You are beyond frustrating right now. I think you must all be bi-polar because that was just a ridiculously stupid game. You had a fantastic start. Just like in Toronto. Squishy had the Habs 20,000th goal. It was a really nice one. But then  you sat on the damn lead and just like in the game in Toronto, you BLEW IT. And unlike in Toronto, you lost. Who thought sitting on leads was a great idea? WHO? And how thought that games could be won if they just rely on their PP and their goalie? It doesn't work! I repeat. It's a recipe for total disaster.

Don't blame Jaro for this one. No, he wasn't brilliant, but a team shouldn't need to rely on brilliant goaltending night after night after night after.... etc.... to win all the time.

This game was winnable. This game SHOULD have been won by the Habs. I'm particularly mad because it's the damn Sens. adjhaklsdhjaklsdhaklsdhaklsdhaklsj.......................

Three things about tonight

Numero Uno

Team Canada is out to demolish you. Especially if you're Latvian. Jake snored the whole game and the Team Canada routed the Latvians 16-0. Some of the goals were actually very pretty. Oh and someone please tell poor confused Nazem Kadri that he can't check people to the head in international tournaments. He's going to get in big trouble if he does that again. 

Nice way to start off the tournament though, Canada! 

Oh and as a side note: I hate that damn cheer. Eh-Oh-Canada-Go! is the stupidest cheer in the world. STOP CHEERING IT. I will drop-kick the next person I hear chanting it. Really. I will. Unless they're in a totally different city than me, in which case I can't just hop on a plane to go there and drop kick them. But you get what I mean. 

Numero Dos 

BAD HAMMIES LOSING THIS GAME. BAGSKATE. BAGSKATE. BAGSKATE. It was a huge division battle that also had All Star Game implications and what do you do? Oh! You leave Jeff Taffe along in front of the net not once but TWICE. TWICE. ARGH. ARGH. ARGH. Not impressed. Not. At. All. BAGSKATE! BAGSKATE! 

Ahem. Moving on.............

Amusing bit of the night: 

Flandersdude: I thought the Amerks mascot was a moose? 

Al: Yeah, it is a moose. 

Flandersdude: but I see a seagull down there in the stands.

Al: um that's an eagle, not a seagull. 

Flandersdude: *pause* it looks like a seagull........ 

.........And thought it was bad enough when we thought the Bingy Sens had a mouse for a mascot when in reality it was a lion (hey, it had no mane!)...... Oh Flandersdude.......  

Numero Tres

One day the Habs will have a nice convincing win. One day. Tonight was not that night though. After getting off to a great start, the Habs fell asleep and let Jaro do all the work. Poor guy....... I will admit it was pretty to see Burkie getting all upset after the first two goals though. And seeing Ron Wilson's presser afterwards made me smile. I take a lot of satisfaction in seeing Ron Wilson and Brian Burke get upset when the Leafs lose. 

We'll pretend that the Habs were trying to lure the Leafs into a false sense of security before they unleashed the Belarocket on them in OT. Bwahahahahahahaha. The Habs didn't have to be so generous by giving the Leafies the extra point though.. oh well. Komisarek was just sorta looking at the back of the net after Andrei scored in OT..... It was amusing. 

So what we learned today: Kadri could be too truculent for Team Canada, Truculence means nothing if you just stand there while the Belarocket blasts into the back of the net. And Flandersdude thinks the Amerks have a seagull for a mascot. 

Now that I'm done being a sarcastic jerk myself...

... Can we have a round of "YAY!" for Jake Allen who made the final cut for Team Canada's roster? I know a lot of people were touting him as the guaranteed no. 1 way back in August even, but I had some doubts that he'd actually make the final cut. Good for him! He and Martin Jones will be backstopping the Canadians this year (nopers, Hackett didn't make it).

Go Jake! Please, please, please don't duck when the puck comes at your face.

And it looks like I'm going to have to get along with Scandella. He's made the cut. So have Luke Adam, Patrice Cormier, Jordan Caron and Gabriel Bourque from the Q. Whoopy....Oh and enjoy cheering for Nazem Kadri, everyone. It'll probably be the last time we can cheer for our poor ex-Habs-fan-turned-Leaf. Poor kid.....

And finally.....Can we please put down the pitchforks? There was no way that Louis Leblanc was going to make the cut. No way. Canada has enough depth to field at least two contending teams for crying out loud. There was no way that Louis, who's only played a handful of games with Harvard, was going to beat out guys who have played in the CHL for a spot on the team. They have a lot more experience and have had a lot more playing time than him. I'm not ragging on him or the ECAC, I'm just staying that there's no wide spread conspiracy here.

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.

My top 10 events for this year

...or half the year. I only came to this whole thing in April. Talk about late to the party...Anyway. The list. It's late because I was waiting to see what Team Canada could do.

1. Wimbledon final between Roger and Rafa. What can I say?It was one heck of a fantastic match that had me permanently hooked on tennis.
   
2. Spain winning the Euro Cup. That was really cool for Spain, who hadn't won in over 40 years. I was screaming for a while *G*
   
3. Canada vs. Russia in the World Junior Hockey Championship semi-finals. That was a game for the ages. Canada came very close to losing the tournament and seeing their four gold medal streak come to an end. But Jordan Eberle had a different idea and with just 5.4 seconds left in the game, he tied the goal. Canada ultimately won it in shoutouts but man... that game will be one for the ages!
4. Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. Pittsburgh showed a lot of determination in extending their stay in the finals. Sykora getting that goal in the third period of OT was really awesome. Okay, so I was actually asleep when he scored and missed the party but yeah.... sue me...
   
5. Federer winning the Olympic gold medal with Wawrinka. I've never seen the guy so incredibly happy after winning a match before.
   
6. Rafa winning the Olympics gold medal. That was a great way to pretty much finish off his amazing summer. Two grand slams, an Olympic gold medal AND the no. 1 spot? Come on...!
   
7. The Canada/US game in the round robbin stage of the Junior World event thing. Great hockey. Better than a lot of NHL games I've had to sit through...
8. That match in the round-robbin stages of the Tennis Masters Cup between Roger and Murray. Too bad Roger was again on the losing side of that one but it was a really good match nonetheless and it completely tired out Murray *g*
   
9. The Davis Cup final. Okay, so I didn't want Spain to win but you have to admit that it was quite the feat for the Rafa-less team to beat the odds and win it. Yes, it's very tragic for Argentina but hopefully that can get things together and win it another time.
10. Team Canada winning the Junior World Championship for the 5th time in a row and 15th time overall right here at home in Canada. Fantastic stuff!
    
11. Game 2 of the Montreal-Boston series in the Stanley playoffs. No, the game itself wasn't particularly amazing but I wouldn't be hear writing any of this stuff if it wasn't for that game. So it's SPECIAL *g*2
    

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(thank you TSN for the picture)

The Americans built a team specifically to stop them. The Russians came within 5.4 seconds of beating them. And the Swedes boldly stated that they would be the ones to finally put an end to their winning ways.

But in the end, Team Canada came out on top to win their fifth straight gold medal in the World Junior Championship and fifteenth overall. Tying the same amount of gold medals that the Soviet Union, CIS and Russia have won together. Looking at it purely from only currently existing countries, none come close to Canada.

Now enough with that. On to the game itself.

Man oh man, the road to the finals were tough. There were a lot of questions coming into this game against the Swedes. How would Tokarski fair? How would Canada's defense hold up against four strong Swedish scoring lines? And could Tavares and co get the puck past Jacob Markstrom who put up the best goaltender numbers throughout the tournament with a below 2 goals against average?

The answer? Magnificent, amazing, and you bet! Canada took the game 5-1 tonight in Ottawa.

Right from the start they looked good. Within 22 seconds they had forced a penalty for the Swedes and it was PK Subban who got the first goal past the Swedish goalie and lit the entire stadium on fire. I honestly can't wait till this guy can play in the NHL because I think he's going to be fantastic (of course I would say that considering a certain team that starts with M drafted him...). I loved how Canada played in the first period. They played very well defensively (which was the huge question coming in here), they put the Swedes completely out of their comfort zone by taking away their strong defensively-minded play, and Tokarski... well, he was great in the first period and he was only going to get better.

The second period saw things get messy for the Canadians. Starting right off the bat things got ugly quickly. Markstrom came out of the net and tried to clear the puck but Esposito tripped him. Now, it looked like a complete accident because Esposito was going to fast he couldn't have not hit the goalie. Anyway, Markstrom freaks out completely but no penalty was given to Esposito or Markstrom who also got in on the whole spat (and none was given to Hedman for trying to take Esposito's head off). Well, Esposito didn't have to wait that long for revenge. At 24:04 of the game he a got a very nifty goal past the Swedish goaltender. And then the penalties started coming. Esposito was the first to take one with high sticking. Patrice Cormier was technically next but as the call was made, Markstrom left the net. And at this point Della Rovere decided to hit him. Markstrom really got upset this time and hit back, so all three of them took penalties. Team Canada and especially Tokarski were amazing on the penalty killing and they were going to need to be because no soooner had the penalties to Cormier and Della Rovere ended then Aulie and Subban were to take penalties at 37:20 and 39:06 of the game. So the Swedes had 5 on 3 opportunity but nothing happened as Canada was brilliant on the penalty killing. Of course the highlight to this was that Backlund was also given a penalty at the very end of the period which was to put Canada on the powerplay for two minutes in the third period.

As it turned out Canada only needed 33 seconds into the period and the powerplay to score. Hodgson got his 4th goal of the tournament today as he ripped a shot at Markstrom which rang off the post and into the net. Oh man, why can't that happen to Kovalev?! He would have a billion goals by now. But anyway, the mess of penalties continued later in the third period but again Tokarski saved the day. Unfortunately, his shutout bid was snuffed out at 48:30 into the game when Andersson put one over his left shoulder. It was a beauty of a goal and for a while it gave the Swedes some momentum. For a while. It wasn't enough to stop Canada and when Markstrom was pulled at 57:19 it was only a matter of time before someone scored on an empty net. Eberle did what Klopov didn't in the semis and skated up and put the puck into the net, effectively ending Sweden's gold medal hopes. A minute later, Markstrom again left the net and this time Hodgson put it in. 5-1 Canada.

It was a fantastic way to the end the tournament if slightly anti-climatic, given what this team had to do to get here. But honestly, the Swedes didn't bring their "A" game tonight. From the start they didn't look dangerous - starting with Markstrom - and not being able to capitilize on the multitude of powerplay chances offered them hurt them big time. The momentum was almost always with Team Canada even when they had the man disadvantage. They just looked awesome out there. Better than I've seen them all tournament. Tokarski smashed any question marks anyone had about him away. Esposito proved that he belonged in this tournament after being cut three years in a row. Tavares may not have scored today but he had a lot of quality chances and it didn't mean that he didn't work really hard out there either.

This is the closest thing to hockey success that Ottawa's going to see for a while so they may have well enjoyed it. The packed house of 20k fans made it one wild night. They took a serious disliking to Victor Hedman as well as Markstrom and booed Hedman every time he touched the puck (which made me wonder if he wasn't actually Briere in disguise and this was actually Montreal. But I digress). It was great to see these guys so happy with the win. They deserved it. They started off shaky against the Americans but they roared back and took it. They came within 5.4 seconds of being kicked out of the tournament but Eberle fought back and scored a goal to send it to OT and eventually shootouts where he, Tavares and Tokarski shone. It was a amazing and I"m happy for myself too because my hockey curse has finally been lifted *g* Habs lost in the playoffs, my second choice of the Pens also lost. And inbetween that Team Canada fell to Russia in overtime. Nikita Filatov said it was like god was on the side of Team Canada when they won in the semis. Well, maybe it was just the hockey gods, but it would definitely seem like they were shining down on Team Canada this tournament.

The great:

1. Tokarski. Tokarski. Tokarksi.
   

The good:

1. Well, most of the game for Team Canada. I loved how they played in the first and third period. They did everything that they needed to to win.
2. Penalty killing was stellar

The bad:

1. I thought Markstrom came off as immature tonight. He took stupid penalties, over played his (seemingly) non-existant injures when he was whack a few times, and lost his cool on mutiple occaisions. The thing is though, just because he plays in one of the best leagues in the world still doesn't take away that he's still just a teenager. I found I really had to step back and go "wait a sec... he's still just 18 years old for crying out loud. No wonder he hasn't got full control of his emotions." I think he'll mature more but it was sort of not very cool to see how he did tonight.
   
2. Victor Hedman has obviously not recovered from his shoulder injury. He looked like a shadow of the player he's supposed to be. This was too bad for him and everyone else who wanted to see him do well.
   

What I wish I could have seen:

1. Tavares get one more goal. He was close tonight!
   
2. Sweden put up more of an effort. They didn't look like the team that had dominated their half of the tournament. Or maybe Tokarski and the PK unit was just that good tonight?

What I wish I didn't have to see:

1. all the penalties.
   
2. the guys singing "Oh Canada". Love the enthusiasm but man... the singing was terrible *g*
   

And finally:

1. Like the linguistically challeneged announcer said: "I don't think 'Whoo' was part of the lyrics of the national anthem but it is now."
2. CONGRATULATIONS YOU GUYS! That was one heck of a tournament!

I will return tomorrow with random thoughts on how I thought this tournament went. As if you didn't already know *G*

Canada vs Sweden and Russia vs Slovakia for bronze

Russia vs. Slovakia

Pre-game rant

Russia will be looking for some serious redemption today. I hate to keep bringing this back up, but they really did have the game in their control but a complete lack of finish in the last 30 seconds doomed them. You MUST play SIXTY minutes of hockey to win. Not 59 minutes and 30 seconds. I don't see Slovakia taking this one from the Russians. No one pegged Slovakia to even be here. I'm not saying that they're bad, they obviously have a lot of heart and they do have some great talent, but the Russians are a way more talented team. They simply have more talented players. Of course we did say that about the Americans when they played the Slovaks. I think this time though, the Russians will walk out with the win because quite frankly at this point it's a matter of pride - and right now they're pride is hurting a lot. Losing to Canada may have been one thing but to Slovakia? It's the Russians' game to lose but with their huge offense and really physical style of play they should win. If they give even a hint of the same effort that they did against the Canadians they will get it.

Post game musings

Well, it was Russia. 5-2 with one coming in on an empty net. Filatov was brilliant in getting two goals that just showcased why he's going to be the next great Russian player in the NHL. I didn't think the result was particularly nice for Slovak goalie Jaroslav Janus who was just incredible this tournament but the Slovaks have nothing to be ashamed of. And neither do the Russians. The Slovaks were pegged for possible relagation this year and yet they showed unbelievable will. I believe this was one of their best results in 10 years. Good for you guys. And Russia... it may have not been the colour that they wanted, but it happens. They have nothing to be ashamed of. I think it won't be too long before Filatov starts worrying about how the playoffs will go for his team (face it, the Blue Jackets are headed for their first playoff run sometime in the near future). Good job you guys!

Canada vs. Sweden pre-game rant

Well, I've been looking forward to this a lot more than any of the NHL games I've had to suffer through this last week - and believe me, I was doing a lot of suffering as both a Habs and a Pens fan. I'm sure no one will be giving much attention to the Pens vs Rangers game tonight and with good reason. Tonight it comes down to the wire with a gold medal on the line for two very talented teams.

These teams were pegged as being this years' finalists and they haven't disappointed. While Sweden showed some weakness early in the competition (they struggled against Finland at the start), they sailed right into the finals with a blanking of Russia in the round-robin part of the tournament and a well deserved win over upstart Slovakia in the semis. Canada meanwhile has had a bit more difficulties in the latter part of the tournament with tough wins over the USA and especially Russia.

So who's taking home the gold tonight in Ottawa? Good question. On paper the Swedes look to be the favorites tonight. They have a very good offense and a solid defense and a very solid goalie in Jacob Markstrom - which is a huge plus for them. There's a fair number of younger guys on this team which is quite interesting. Another interesting note is that the Swedes quite honestly thought that last year's game should have been theirs. They lost to Canada in OT and I think that will fuel them today. They will be looking to do to Canada this year what they did to Canada last year. Canada was denied a bye into the semis last year by the Swedes and they came back and beat them. Team Canada said that their loss showed them where they needed to be and helped them want to beat Sweden. Look for Sweden to do the same tonight.

Of course games are never played on paper. Just ask the Habs *coughs*

Canada has a good chance at taking this medal home if they can play better defense. Quite simply their defensive play has not been good and it nearly cost them this trip to the finals. They HAVE to put up a better defense if they want to get past Sweden. And Tokarski simply has to be better. There were too many softies in the last couple of games and that has to stop. I've seen him put up brilliant saves and he's going to have to do that all night tonight. If Canada can play a simple, defensively strong game the I think they will have a chance.

The one really good positive that I saw from that game against Russia was that though the Canadians were definitely frustrated, they didn't take very many penalties because they did something stupid (because they were frustrated). For the most part they kept things cool which allowed them to get back into the game with 5.4 seconds left. They'll need to find a way to play well and find their rhythm - create a new one if you have to! - no matter what the Swedes throw at them. Russia did their homework on Canada and threw off their powerplay big time. Fine. Canada still found a way to claw back into the game. You can bet that tonight there won't be as many powerplay goals from Canada either. Fine. Just stay focused and come up with a way to get the puck past Markstrom. It doesn't have to be pretty. We don't care how it goes in. Just make it go in.

Eberle saves Canada's hopes for 5th straight gold!

When I said that I believed Canada could win, I didn't think that it would be this way. Only a few days after producing what was touted as the best World Junior game ever against the United States, Team Canada provided another epic game to top all epic games. I haven't been this freaked out during any game that I've watched since July 6th (for the records, that was the Wimbledon final).

I said that the Russians could win this if they played a physical game and took advantage of the lapses that were going to come from Canada. And they came within 5.4 seconds of doing it. Yes, people, Canada was 5.4 seconds away from being knocked out of the competition. But thanks to a last ditched effort by Tavares and Eberle, Canada is now back to the finals for a 8th straight time.

In all honesty, Canada did not play as sharp as we've grown used to seeing them. They gave up turnover after turnover after turnover to the Russians who seized on every chance. It was supposed to be a do or die effort from both team but it looked like the only ones doing the doing was the Russians. Every time Canada got a goal the Russians responded within minutes - or seconds at some point - with a goal of their own. Credit goes to the Russians for sure for coming up with answers to Canada's killer powerplay. Credit also goes to the Russians for playing a very physical game and generating a lot of offense. And maybe credit should go to the Russians for rattling the Canadians as well? I can't say how much the Russians affected the Canadians's mental game. I think they came in here mentally faitgued from the game against the Americans which was a real show stopper. I think they also came in here thinking that the Russians wouldn't be as good as they were. This proved to be a very dangerous mix and the Russians seized on it completely.

Evander Kane put a goal past Vadim Zhelobnyuk just over two minutes into the game. This was followed by bad pass and a turnover and goal by Goncharov for Russia. This was to be a theme that we would see all night.

7:04 of the first saw Patrice Cormier get another goal by the Russian goalie. This time the lead lasted just 16 seconds as another turnover by the Canadians lead to yet another goal. This time from Dmitri Klopov who was set up by Klyukin.

A rash of penalties then followed. 1 for Canada and 3 for the Russians. Canada's so far amazing powerplay was shut down beautifully by the Russians and there was no more scoring in the first period.

The second period was a mess penalty-wise. The Russians took four straight penalties. With Chudinov off for high sticking, Canada now had a 5 on 3 chance to grab a goal. Eberle was finally able to get a goal past Zhelobnyuk just one second after the first penalty had been called. So it would now be 5 on 5.

Canada's lead lasted all of 51 seconds into the third period as Grachev again took advantage of bad playing by the Canadians and put one past Tokarski.

Would Canada ever have the lead? As it would turn out, no. Not until the shootouts.

While Angelo Esposito got an amazing shorthanded goal, it again, wasn't enough for Canada to stay ahead. Less than a minute later PK Subban was sent off for tripping and the Russians again took a goal.

And the scary bit was yet to come. With less than three minutes to go, the Russians somehow managed to get a goal past Tokarski. This one was a little weird as a loose puck floated near Tokarski. Suddenly there's a lot of action around the right side of the net and someone manages to squeeze the puck past Tokarski and into the back of the net.

I seriously thought that it could be over here. I knew of course that it was only over once the last second died away but this was not good now. The Russians had clearly come up with almost all the answers to Canada's game and now, surely, they could hold on to the lead?

With time running out, the Canadians pulled Tokarski for the extra player. Obviously the danger of this is that you've got an open net now. And with the amount of turnovers that they had been making, surely the Russians would score? Klyukin (or was it Klopov?) must be killing himself right now because with literally seconds left in the game, his stick found the puck and he had the space to skate down the rink and put the game away for the Russians. But he didn't. He stayed in the Russian zone and took a shot. And he missed the net. A goal would have sent the Russians to the finals for sure. But no. His missed shot kept hope alive and with less than 10 seconds left, Tavares battled for the puck and took a shot on goal. It was blocked a Russian defensman who's name escapes me but Jordan Eberle took it and put it past Zhelobnyuk with just 5.4 seconds left. Oh man, I know I wasn't the only one sitting there, setting myself up for disappointment tonight. The 19,000+ fans went berserk when Eberle got that goal in. Simply beautiful.

The Russian coach would later say that that goal simply crushed the Russians and I believe it. A 10 minute over time saw some very high quality chances for Canada but though they dominated, they couldn't capitilize and it was to shootouts we went. Now, I hate shootouts. I think they're a cheap way of determining a winner. I could make a convincing case for both teams going through. But in the end, someone had to win. And before midnight too.

Eberle and Tavares both put the puck past Zhelobnyuk. They made it look easy. On the other end, the guy who I thought would be the weaker of the two goalies in shootouts stopped both shots by the Russians. Tokarski did get lucky on Dmitri Kugryshev's shot which actually hit the post but he takes full credit for stoning Pavel Chernov.

It was a dramatic way to end a very dramatic game and I kind of wish that this was the finals. Canada won't be able to top the drama of their last two games against Sweden on Monday, or at least, I'm hoping for a fairly easy win. No more dramatic games, please. I can't take any more!

Now, if you excuse me, I have to fix my thermostat thing becuase my sister broke it while freaking out over the shootouts. For a person who hates the Habs and doesn't really like hockey all that much, she was very into this game.

I'm going to steal a quote that was posted on the Habs Inside/Out site. Technically I'm actually stealing it from Seneca but whatever. It goes: "Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men."

You wanted adversity. There it was. Well, actually, I didn't want adversity at all but who said that life was easy? Team Canada faced their toughest test of the entire tournament. And they came through it. I hope the Hammies filled Habbies team were watching that game. Because that was one amazing effort.

Now they just have to do it one more time.

The Saturday morning ramble.

It's Saturday morning and I have nothing to say right now. So I'm going to ramble about nothing.

Jean Beliveau is going to announce the lineups in the All Star thing. Shouldn't really be a surprise unless random people got a gazillion votes randomly in about five minutes. Crosby, Malkin, Kovalev should be the forwards with Komisarek and Markov getting in for defense and unless Fleury got a flurry of votes at the last second, it should be Price in nets.It's kind of fun. Obviously they should stop calling it the "All Star" thing because I truly believe that none of those forwards are the best in the East. Take a look at the Pens right now and honestly tell me that Crosby and Malkin deserve to be there. They don't. I would've actually liked to have seen Ovechkin in instead of Malkin or Crosby but hey, not my fault that his fans didn't vote 24/7 for him (like I was going to vote for him? C'mon...).

I'm not going to get into the whole debate on whether this thing is just an entire embarrassement to the whole league and the "real" fans or not. I feel that it's a kind of fun event and that they really ought to change the name of the thing. I think "The event in which the NHL lets fans vote for random people to participate in a game that really serves no purpose other than to promote the NHL itself" is a much more appropriate name.

Whatever it is, just let everyone enjoy it. I haven't heard any players gripe about not wanting to participate in it - I've heard mainly the opposite, actually. So what does it matter as long as everyone's enjoying themselves (and stays healthy!)?

Crosby explodes as Pens fall to Panthers. After seeing how the Pens showed what they could do in the playoffs, I never thought that they would come out and implode during this year. Yeah, I know the supposed "runners up curse" thing. Up until now I could have defended the Pens and talked about how expectations were maybe too high for them and they were definitely a different team than they were last year. But honestly, I'm not about to defend the 6-1 mauling that they suffered against the Panthers today. I didn't see a single minute of the game because... well, no one cares about the Pens here and the only games I get to see are the Habs and maybe the odd late night game that features... well, whoever happens to be playing in the West. But the scoring and penalty summary, I think says something about what happened today.

First off, when I checked the score after the first period it was 2-0 for the Panthers. Kind of acceptable until I noticed that it they got those goals on five shots. FIVE SHOTS? The Pens, for the records, had twice the amount of shots and nothing to show for their efforts. The second period seems to have been a mess too as four goals were scored (three by the Panthers) and 13 penalties were dished out.

Like the title says, it was explosion time for the usually self contained Crosby. With the Pens down 4-1, Crosby went well, for lack of a better word, berserk and got into only his second NHL fight with Brett McLean off the faceoff. The Pens captain earned himself 19 minutes worth of penalties for that one - 10 for misconduct, 5 for fighting and two each for unsportmanlike conduct and instigating a fight. Apparently the refs thought that Crosby randomly attack McLean out of the blue. The Pens captain later said that he asked McLean to go and the latter said yes, but apparently didn't take him seriously. I can't blame McLean that much. I mean, it's Crosby, not Milan Lucic for crying out loud. For the records, McLean said he missed Crosby's "invitation". Whatever. The point is: Crosby went insane.



Florida further embarrassed the Pens by adding one more goal early in the third period.

Want to know the really embarrassing bit though? The Pens outshot the Panthers 30 to 24. So that's basically one in every four shots on goal went into the back of the Pens' net (it was actually worse than that).

Fleury got dumped after a pathetic first period for Sabourin who didn't do any better and allowed a further three goals on twelve shots. He was promptly yanked for Fleury again in the third, who obviously didn't do a lot better this time around. For the records, both goalies allowed 3 goals in 12 shots. Still think Halak was awful in Newark last night? Watch the replays of this game. Panthers made mince meat out of both Pens goalies.

I think it's time for another Penguin meeting.... in a language that everyone can understand...

Sabres down Bruins

At last! Someone beat the Bruins! Finally! And at home too. Yay....I don't want to be the Bruins next opponent though...That would be the Wild, right? Oh man, they're doomed....

Senators are going to take on the Leafs tonight. I almost want to see that.... Almost.... I will be watching Canada vs Russia though. Much more important. You know... if they keep up these wonderful displays of hockey then the next time they play each other they could be battling it for last play in the division, the conference and the league. Then again, I think the Islanders/Thrashers/Tampa Bay might actually beat them out for bottom of the league... too bad...

Later: Sens fall 3-1. Toskala gets rewarded by Toronto press with first star. Proof that the host team's press shouldn't be dishing out the stars.

Canada vs. Russia Part 250 pre-game rant

The Canadians fended off one rival, now it's time to face another. I actually have very little to "rant" about today so I'll just leave a few notes.

Russia

Pros: Offense. Physical style of play.
Cons: Goaltending, goaltending, goaltending....Where's the under 20 version of Evgeni Nabakov when you need him?
Can win if: stay out of the penalty box. Take advantage of the defensive lapses by Canada. Take advantage of their own strong offense.

Canada

Pros: Offense, particularly on powerplay. Also, Dustin Tokarski has shown that when things get tough he doesn't roll over and die. Good news.
Cons: Defensive play has to be better. 5 on 5 has to be better.
Can win if: they shut down the Russian offense. Generate good 5 on 5 offense too. And don't get knocked around by the big Russians. Filatov is only a danger when he attempts to score. He's not going to knock too many people around, I don't think *g*

I think Canada can do this. Especially if Russia's goaltenders are as shaky as they've been over the tournament. I'm thinking that Russia will get the first goal tonight and it will take a bit of time for Canada to settle into the game. They will win though.

Sweden edges past Slovakia 5-3 to make finals

That score is completely misleading in terms of how Slovakia did. Up until the third period they were leading Sweden 2-1 and it was a series of three goals in a row that put Sweden past them. Slovakia had an amazing run here and I hope that unless they're playing Canada, they end up with a metal because they deserve one. By the way, that fifth goal was on an empty net. The Slovaks gambled a lot by taking out Janus quite a bit, including at the 4 minute mark. That gamble paid off with a goal but the second (or third?) time didn't pay off and the Swedes got a goal. Janus was simply put brilliant throughout the tournament. He's definitely a big reason why this team made it this far. In the end, the Swedes showed why they were the favorites, but man oh man, it wasn't easy for them at all. Great job Slovakia. You have a lot to be proud of.

You need adversity? Take this!

But first, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the family of Don Sanderson.

Don Sanderson died today, three week after suffering a concussion when his head - without a helmet on - struck the ice following a fight. Sanderson, a York University undergrad, was just 21 years old and played for the OHL Whitby Dunlops team. I was just talking today about NHL players and how you never know when your career can suddenly end. I was referring mainly to concussions that while they were potentially life altering and definitely career ending were certainly not life ending. I never thought that I would come home to read about someone actually losing his life after suffering a concussion during a game. This is very sad and tragic accident that could and maybe even should have been avoided or prevented. My thoughts and those around the hockey world are definitely with Don Sanderons' family in this difficult time.

Pre-Game Rant

Simply put, we all know that the Habs perform better when they play good teams. It's just something weird in their brains that they feel like they can only put a solid effort out against good teams - okay, okay, so they look like they may have changed that now. We're getting off topic now. Moving on. Even though the Devils are ranked behind the Habbies, they're still a very good team who only needs three points to catch up to them. The Habs lack of a finish last time these two teams met doomed them and it was the Devils who took away the win.

Tonight I want to see the Habs working really hard. We need this win. And I think it can be pulled off provided everyone puts in a solid effort. Everyone includes you guys on the top line! I really don't like the fact that this time is filled with Hammies but said Hammies have been doing well so it's just a matter of them not freezing up tonight. We also need a solid effort from Halak which I know he is capable of giving provided he gets enough help up front. The Habs have already proven that they can put up a wonderful effort in front of Halak (against the Flyers and the Flames).

The lineup for tonight seems to be thus:

A. Kostitsyn - Plekanec - Kovalev
S. Kostitsyn - Lang - D'Agostini
Latendresse - Lapierre - Kostopoulos
Begin - Chipchura - Pacioretty

Markov - Komisarek
Hamrlik - Gorges
Boullion - Brisebois

Halak
With Denis acting as the back up back up goalie

So no Weber tonight. Let's hope Brisebois is up to not getting knocked around tonight...

Post Game. That was pathetic.

Oh man.. where do I begin with this one? I had hope tonight but I guess I was putting too much hope into a team that is barely holding together at this point. In all fairness, the Hammies didn't even get to practice with the rest of them until what.. this morning? Yeah, you're really going to get stuff working in a few hours. Yes, it's sarcastic hour again. And the Devils are obviously coping without Brodeur just fine, thank you very much. I'm too tired to do something that looks like a proper write up so I'll just list random notes.

• On the outcome: Habs fall 4-1 in Newark. Isn't that also the name of a city in England?
  
• What happened to my plea for the rest of the team pulling their weight? I really didn't like what I saw out there tonight. I'm probably exaggerating slightly here but to me it seemed like the only guys I saw really making an effort were the usual Lapierre/Latendresse/Kostopoulos line and the fourth line of Begin/Chipchura/Pacioretty.
  
• Proof that only a few people were working: In fact it was the Hammies who scored. Pacioretty got his first goal in the NHL on his first game and it was the Habbies who screwed up and allowed those Devils' goals. Markov is usually very good but that lame attempt at clearing the puck lead directly to the third or whatever number it was- goal by the Devils. We can thank Josh Gorges for the fact that it wasn't 5-1 when he saved the puck from being pushed in by Denis.
  
• Why the Devils scored so much: There were just too many two on one/three on one/god knows what else rushes towards the net by the Devils. It was getting to the point where I was freaking out every single time they came near the net.
• On goaltending: Clemmensen was being Clemmensen and did well. I can't say spectacular because he wasn't given the opportunity to be spectacular. I don't understand was Halak was pulled for the third period when it was only 3-1. Yes, he should have stopped a couple of those goals but then again there shouldn't have been any odd man rushes by the Devils. I have no idea why Carbo put in Denis. He was clearly floundering a lot more than Halak was. Also, how wonderful can you expect the guy to be when he doesn't get to play that much?! Of course he's going to be rusty. And yes, Carbo, I know, should have been better but honestly....How were those lame passes up front, the lack of any real attempt at a shot on goal and all the odd man rushes, Halak's fault? Halak takes the blame for the soft goals but everyone else takes their share of the blame for the lack of effort up front. And Marc Denis is clearly in the AHL for a reason. I want Price back *sniffles* GET BETTER SOON CAREY! Your team obviously can't handle your absense (you realize that we're like the Devils were supposed to be without Brodeur tonight?? The irony of the situation is killing me).
  
• I have run out of things to say about the powerplay. You know... after seeing the Bruins run over the Pens, I couldn't help but notice how they just pepper the net with the puck when they have the powerplay. They don't waste time passing it around and trying to get that one good shot like a certain other team I could name right now. Sure, that type of play can be dangerous and it can lead to an attempt at a short handed goal but more often than not it leads to an inevitable goal. In theory the more shots you take the higher your chances are of scoring. We all know how theories work but in this case the Bruins are proving it right. I find it very ironic that the whole idea of the penalty expiring for one side once the other side scores was brought in because the Habs supposedly had too good of a powerplay in the '50s. The irony kills so much right now.......Oh wait, I'm already dead from the previous incredibly ironic incident. Right... *dies again anyway*
  
• So now what? We freaking regroup and smash the Panthers and restore our winning ways. They can regroup from this. They can come out with the guys they've got now and beat almost anyone out there.
  
  Wow, there I go being the incredible optimist now. Something is clearly very wrong.
  

SLOVAKIA BEATS THE USA

I only caught the end and I nearly fell off my chair in shock when I saw the score. I can't believe this at all. I was pegging the US to run over Slovakia and even give the Swedes a run for their money in the semis. Well that really makes things interesting now. It will be Canada vs Czech Republic or Russia (I'm still going with Russia) and Sweden vs Slovakia in the semis. Wow...

Looking forward to the semis. As long as I survive tonight *g*

Canda gets Russia tomorrow

Russia 5 Czech Republic 1. I saw some of it and it was boring as the Habs power play. Russia did not dominate the game at all until the end. There was a lot of hitting in the game and lame attempts at goals. Particularly from Russia earlier on. It really looked early on like it would be pretty close. The Russian goalie is quite frankly awful and you have to give full credit to the Czechs poor offense for the fact that it wasn't closer earlier. But then of course the Russians turned it up and it was byebye. Canada's going to have to do some work in trying to shut down the offense of the Russians. I think once they get to the net whoever, things shouldn't be too bad. If the Russian goalie plays like he did tonight against the Canadians then Russia could very well be doomed. But we shall see.

I think I may just have to see how Slovakia holds up against Sweden tomorrow.

Day of random info. Plus Hammies get called up

Future Habbies participate in Canada/US showdown

Anyone else completely die watching that Canada/US game last night? I was freaking out completely. And I missed most of the really painful bit. Throughout most of this competition we haven't really seen any really hard playing games from any of the teams. Both Canada and the US have completely run over every team that they've come across so far. So how would the two teams fair when they met up last night? Well, judging from the beginning of the game, it looked like the US would flatten team Canada as they got three goals past Dustin Tokarski without the Canadians doing too much. It was at this point that I had to go eat dinner so I missed Tavares and co tying the game. By the time I came back to the game it was 4-3 for Canada with the US promptly scoring. Oopsies. I really liked how the two teams played though. With a couple of exceptions. I didn't like Canada's defensive play too much. There were too many times when the Americans just came and stood in front of Tokarski. Take for example Tokarski's amazingly good save. In theory, he shouldn't have had to make that save. Someone should have done something about the guy who was just standing in front of the goalie. Not cool. But apart from that, the game was great.

Anyway....

My idea of a nice relaxing afternoon is watching a game that doesn't feature the Habs (I said relaxing, remember) - in this case it's the Winter Classic thingy - while not listening to Don Cherry by voting in the All Star thing... Yeah, I know, I know... but... I can't help myself...and as much as I like Fleury... I dont think that he should be there.... *sniffles* Oh and I've myself a nice bag of chips that have been lying around for I dunno how long...Hehe... they still taste okay =p gotta enjoy the last bit of the holidays, right? Right.

*yawns*

Well, Detroit just had to go and make the game really boring today, didn't they? First they didn't show up in the game and it was all Chicago all the time. I was wondering if maybe the Blackhawks would actually win it - you know, they got blanked before...and were playing at home (sorta) this time. Guess Pavel Datsyuk had another idea. He gets a really nifty goal which completely showcases why we should stop remembering him as the guy who can't speak English at that awards thing but instead why he's a really good hockey player. Go look at the highlights. And make sure you get a view from above. And then it was all Detroit all the time. And then I got bored and went to sleep.

I'm clearly not a die hard Red Wings or Blackhawks fan.

Price out, Hammies in for tomorrow's game against the Devils

Yes. Price is out for tomorrow. He could be back for the game against the Panthers but Halak might as well be playing in that one too anyway - even if Carbo has a thing for putting Price in when they play at home. But I won't get into that one right now. Anyway, no idea exactly what's wrong with him but apparently Mr. No. 1 Goalie didn't tell Carbo that he had a problem when they were playing against Tampa Bay. And now look what we've got. Oh and to top that off Sergei Kostitsyn didn't practice today in the new place in Brossard. There's no news right now on whether he can slug it out tomorrow against the Devils or not, so I'll asume for now that he's in Newark or wherever the Devils play right now with everyone else.

As expected, Hammies got called up. Chipchura and Pacioretty are back again and I'm pretty sure that Chipchura at least will be in the lineup. Marc Denis is back to backup Halak though I'm just praying that Halak and co do well and they won't have to use Denis. Yannick Weber - you know, the Swiss guy that everyone liked in the exhibition games - came as well. There are some
indications that he will get some time on the powerplay. Could be interesting.

So there we have it. The team's looking like it's got more wholes than the non-existant Swiss cheese in my fridge. But we all know that what's on paper doesn't always translate to what happens. I just hope the Devils come out snoring tomorrow. I'll will say just one more thing on this whole topic:

CAN THE INJURIES PLEASE STOP NOW?!!! This is getting ridiculous!

Bruins squash Pens again

While we're on the topic of things being ridiculous. What the heck in going on in the brains of the Penguins? Something is obviously going on in the scoring department and it's not cool. Okay, okay, so I didn't see the whole game and it's unfair to judge how the Pens did when they're playing the Bruins. Or is it? With the win tonight, the Bruins are now sitting on top of the league. ON TOP. Yeah. Ahead of San Jose. Ahead of Detroit. Ahead of everyone. The Pens are now sitting twenty points behind the Bruins, which makes the Habs twelve point trailing of said Bruins look good. What is the deal here....??? At least they can hopefully look forward to beating the Panthers and the Thrashers. If they can't win those then they've got serious issues. I'll let someone else figure that out while I go and worry about the Hammie filled Habbies team.

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!
  

3000th win + a hat trick = YAY!

Apparently it's the week of the hat trick. Just three days after Andrei Kostitsyn got his first hat trick against the Pens, it would seem that he had the rest of the team wanting to get one too.

I actually liked how the Habs started out the first period. They seemed like a team who wasn't about to slack off like we all feared. They seemed like a team who had enjoyed a little bit of the overly nice Floridian weather. Well, they had me screaming when a stupid pass in the Panther's zone lead to a goal by.... wait... his name is coming to me... give me a sec.... Frolik who got the pass from Mclean who was the one who took the puck in the first place. In all fairness - not that I like to be fair or anything - it was a nice goal. Mclean looked as though he was going to rip the puck when instead he passed it to Frolik who was pretty much alone in front of Price and bingo. Goal. Was this a sign of things to come, I couldn't help but wonder. Don't forget, I'm the eternal pessimist. Anyway, my mood wasn't exactly improved when the Habs got a lucky goal off the skate of one of the Panther's guys. Oh and it was 5-3 for the Habs so of course that wouldn't have been very cool if they hadn't got a goal. Right? Right. So it was a weird goal that had everyone wondering just who had scored it. Was it Tanguay who seemed to get the pass from Kovalev? Was it Lang who looked perky as ever when the puck goes into the net? Turned out later it went to Kovalev. Whatever. A goal is a goal. Yahoo! But still.. the Panthers were playing like a team who desperately wanted a win while the Habs were playing more and more like a team who would like a win but wasn't quite ready to battle it out for it.

With a break after the first period, I was hoping that the Habs would realize that the Panthers wanted this win badly and that they would wake up and get working. Well.. Within 37 seconds Komisarek was set off for holding and the Panthers were enjoying a power play. Guess they didn't get my brain signal. Actually I won't have anyone saying that the Habs are no good on the power play. They were excellent on the powerplay this time around. It's just almost too bad that it wasn't their own powerplay. But this was better. Plakanec chased down the puck as it sailed into the Panhers' zone and promptly whipped it over Anderson's head. 2-1 for the Habs. Now, the Habs decided to make their lives incredibly hard as Sergei Kostitsyn made the stupidest passing attempt in the world in front of Price which gave the puck to Booth who scored. If I was screaming before, I was murdering the desk now by pounding it. This was stupid. Two completely preventable goals given away because of stupid passing. YUCK! Another stupid thing about the second period was the rash of penalties. There were five for the Habs and four for the Panthers. The Habs actually ended up playing three on five for a while due to some stupid plays from Plekanec and Komisarek. Begin was already in the penalty box for fighting. They should build those things bigger 'cause the three of them looked really squashed in there. Anyway, all this happened but there was no more scoring from the Panthers. Obviously not for a lack of trying. When the penalties finally stopped, Lapierre managed to get a goal in on Anderson with four minutes to go in the second. It was kind of a stupid goal from Florida's point of view actually. Lapierre went to the right, Anderson follows him. Anderson thinks he's going to around the other way and pass the puck to someone up front, Anderson sprawls across the ice, Lapierre goes around to the left, sees a whole open net because Anderson is playing dead, so he puts the puck over him and scores. Oops.

The Habs looked a lot better in the third period and showed in only two minutes and forty seconds in as Lapierre gets another goal past Anderson who really should have had that one. The puck seemed to slide right passed him. I dunno if he thought that the defenseman was going to get it or what but he missed it. At this point Anderson got pulled for Vokoun. The end of the period was a little not so nice. The Habs took a penalty for delay of the game with 30 seconds left to go. By this point Florida had already pulled Vokoun and had the man advantage. Things didn't go their way at all however, when the Lapierre stole the puck back at the Panther's blue line - I guess the Habs had tried to clear it before - and put it away in the empty net. HAT TRICK! There was a lot of Habs fans there actually so hats did get thrown. I'm still waiting for the day when Halak will throw his hat.

So.

The Good:

• The hat trick was nice.
• Price was good again.
  
• I liked how the Habs bounced back from a sloppy second period and really took more control in the third. They had the same number of shots in the first and third periods as well as the same number of penalties, and yet, the third looked a lot better in some ways. Even when they were up 4-2, they didn't pull the same stunt as when they were in Pittsburgh where they just rolled over and let Price do all the work.
  

The Bad:

• The slew of penalties in the second period.
• Those two stupid passes that lead directly to Florida goals.
  
• The powerplay wasn't looking too hot tonight. Don't try and tell me that 5 on 3 goal was pretty. It wasn't. It was still nice though *g*
  
• Where did D'Agostini go? I haven't seen him do a heck of a lot in the last couple of games. Dont' die now!
  
• ... on second thought, that whole Tanguay/Lang/D'Agostini line could have been a little more impressive....

The interesting:

• Plekanec going crazy and attempting to beat the heck out of Radek Dvorak for some reason. I honestly didn't get what Dvorak did to deserve that other than maybe he tried too hard to get the puck off of Price - which failed miserably, in case you want to know. I dunno. That was just insane.

And finally, some things to consider:

• Why Maxwell is still on the roster when Chipchura is healthy and can play? I'm still trying to figure this one out. Maybe I'm missing something here but I haven't seen Maxwell make too much of an impact here.
  
• Brisebois wasn't looking very good tonight. Again. Either reduce the guy's ice time or give O'Byrne another shot. As long as Price stays in the net, he can't score on himself, right? Right.
  

Now let's see if the Habs can put up a similar, if not better, game against the Tampa Bay Los....Lighting.

IN OTHER NEWS

Team Canada had a little bit of a problem tonight, winning only 5-1. I'm sure most people looked at this matchup with the often relegated Germany as another walk over. Well, the Canadians didn't play a very clean game, taking a total of NINE penalties. The offense seemed to have trouble getting going from the little bit I saw but it obviously wasn't dead and from I could see the German goalie was miles ahead of the poor guys that Kazakhstan has. First off, Grubauer was not pulled at all which says something right there. And second, he stopped 44 of the 49 shots that he faced. That's better than the 12 of 13 shots that Pickard stopped. I'm not dissing Pickard at all. He's here because he's good. But hats should definitely go off to the German goalie tonight. I think this bit of adversity is good for them. The result was really never in danger. They've gotten more of a work out than they have had in all the official bits of the tournament. This should help them against the U.S.A. as long as they learn not to take so many stupid penalties - what are you, the Habs?!

Oh and if you saw Evander Kane's goal... you hopefully saw all the work that PK Subban did in getting the puck to the net and getting a really good shot on the goalie which allowed Kane to get the goal. I'm very happy that Montreal signed him *G*

So...

Math time! If the Germans beat the Kazakhs 9-0 and the Germans previously lost 8-2 to the Americans, how much will Canada beat the Kazakh's by? Answer: an embarassing 15-0.

Yeah, it was a scoring fest in Ottawa today. The big question coming into this game was whether the Kazakhs could match shots on goal with goals scored by the Canadians.

But let's be honest here. Were all those goals really necessary? Once you were up even 6-0 surely that was enough to prove your point? I missed the entire game but I did see the faces of all the players after the game. No one was happy. While I like Canada winning, I don't like winning like this. Sure they weren't rubbing it in their faces by the end but the stats are there for everyone to see. Well, not on TSN. I had to go looking for them elsewhere. For the records:

Goals

Canada: 15 Kazakhstan: 0

Penalties

Canada: 1 Kazakhstan: 9

Shots on goal

Canada: 69 Kazakhstan: 11

Isn't that sad?

Oh and Russia beat Finland 5-2. Filatov is showing why Columbus should have kept him and not have let him come here *g*

I love Christmas...with a couple of exceptions...

Apart from the nice happy holiday stuff (in which Santa Hab was very nice to moi), I like the Christmas presents that I got - albeit a tad late - from various teams. Let's see.....

1. The Islanders beat the Maple Leafs 4-1. I guess the Leafs are still on Holiday break. Oh well. Isn't that smashing though? Eat that Leafs!
2. Penguins shut out the Devils 1-0. Yay for Fleury. Yes, I'm still hoping that they all implode tomorrow. Sowwy. No idea what type of game that was.
   
3. Chicago beat the Flyers 5-1. Not a huge fan of the Blackhawks but yeah, it's always nice to read about the Flyers losing so yay!
   
4. Team Canada smashed the poor Czech Republic 8-1. They got off to a rocky start and the Czechs held them off until there was about 30 or something seconds left in the first period and guess who scored on the powerplay... with a really nifty goal.... Yeah, Tavares. And that, everyone, was the beginning of the end for the Česká republika. A whole host of players brought the tally to 5-0 after the second. Some point in here, the Czech's switched goaltender Tomas Vosvrda out and replaced him with Dominik Furch. Unfortunately, Furch did not do too much better than Vosvrda and by the the time the last three or so minutes came it was 8-0 for the host team. Their one goal was due to a mistake by Canadian goalie Dustin Tokarski who's attempt at clearing the puck resulted in the Czechs taking it and scoring on him before he was fully back in place. Minor blip over all, but something that team Canada may want to be careful of when they play next time - then again, if the Kazakh junior team is anything like their men's team then there really shouldn't be an issue. The Czechs hardly seemed to touch the puck al night. A perfectly sad example of that was when Tavares set up one of the goals. He took the puck off of one of the Czech players who was trying to get out of his own end like he wasn't even there, passed it, and there went another goal. It was nice if you were team Canada wanting to make an impression 'though I'm sure it was a reeaaallly loooong night for the Czechs.
   
   In other news:
   
   Canada wasn't alone in the mauling department. The U.S.A ran over the newly promoted Germany 8-2. That's to be expected and I expect another fairly high score when they take on the Czechs next.
   
   Russia downed Lativia 4-1. No scoring by Nikita Filatov although apparently he did well. A good start for the Russians for sure, though apparently their goalie could be a lot better. By contrast, Latvia's goalie kept the score from easily reaching double digits. Should be interesting to see how the Russians do against Finland next.
   
   Sweden is off to an so-so start after edging past archrivals Findland 3-1. That third goal came on an empty net. Apparently the Swedes didn't do so well after the first period. Oh well. Better news for Canada then. Mind you, I expect that the Swedes will aim for a better game when they take on Slovakia on Sunday.
   
5. Chelsea beat West Bromwich Albion with a nice score of 2-0. Then again, their opponents were sitting in the bottom of the premier league. But moving on...If the stats are anything to go by, the Blues were in complete control for most of the game with 25 shots on goal. Drogba and Lampard netted the ball in the 3rd (?!!!!!!!) and 45th minutes of the game. Lovely.
   
6. Liverpool remains at the top of the league, however, with a resounding 3-0 over tenth placed Bolton. Is it just me or have the Reds done something similar before? Oh yeah, they have. Anyway, I'm still waiting for Torres to get back into the lineup again before I really start taking a huge interest in Liverpool but as it is, I still love the Reds. So thanks Riera and Keane for getting those goals.

Random note: It just dawned on me that the colours for the three football teams that I follow are red, white and blue... like the habbies!

I was NOT happy to hear that the Habbies called up Max Pacioretty and Kyle Chipchura. I've got nothing against these guys in general, it's just that call ups mean injuries and that's bad. In this case though, I believe Chipchura is here to replace Maxwell - and it really should have been Chipchura called up instead of D'Agostini AND/OR Maxwell but he was injured at the time - and Pacioretty is just here in case Andre Kostitsyn can't play tomorrow night despite practicing with the Habs in Penguinville. I would much prefer a healthy and motivated Kostitsyn to Pacioretty at this point. Again, I've got nothing against Pacioretty but I wouldn't mind jump starting the rest of this season with a good win over the Pens and let's face it, Kostitsyn is more qualified for that job than Pacioretty is. We shall see what happens.... Oh and Laraque who probably would have sat this one out anyway, will be out again with more groin issues. Jeez, this guy is proofing to be worse tha Marian Gaborik is for the Wild. And at least Gaborik does something when he's on the ice!

"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.