Excuse me while I die of shock

No. Ovie wasn't traded to the Puffles. And no, Del Potro didn't win the US Open. Mind you, Kim Clijsters is now in the finals of the US Open. Which is amazing considering she just came back from a two year break. Then again, all anybody's going to remember is Serena Williams smashing her racket and swearing at the linesperson. ANYWAY.

I am now the happy (but poorer) owner of two sets of Habs tickets for the regular season+ one pre-season game.

Excuse me while I go off and die of shock that 1) I got into the waiting room and 2) affordable tickets were actually available.

Unbelievable. I'm still in shock. Seriously. THIS IS AWESOME!

Do I dare push my luck and try to get out to Brossard again this week?

Random whatever day it is

Because I said so.

• I hate mornings, trains, really any form of public transit and I hate not having caffeine when I wake up. However, I dealt with all of those to head off to see the rookies. Yeah, I'm such a martyr. NOT. But it was great to go out there again (thank you to All Habs for helping this poor girl without a car get out there).
  
  
• Byebye Gillet. It was nice having you around and I'm sorry you had to sell the Habs because you really didn't think it through before buying Liverpool. You helped turn my team around to the point that I will now risk my sanity to go buy tickets for. Thank you! I mean it. Thank you.
  
  
• Hey, what's this? Boivin getting all uppitty because reporters were saying that the Habs don't have enough French peeps on their team? Interesting. You tell them, Pierre! I think. Maybe. I dunno.
  
  
• I'm trying a new tactic this year. It's called: Pretend the media doesn't exist.
  
  
• Apparently Air Canada has been banned from making mutiple stops within the USA. This affects hockey in that our teams use Air Canada to travel to the desert and the beach. Great.
  
  
• Another round of legal stuff in Phoenix. Seriously, I wish I could've been there when King Gary took the stand.
  
  
• Speaking of Phoenix.... and Toronto....and this supposed veto power they have to keep other teams out of their area... There was an interesting conversation on the Fan 590 about what it would take to get another team into Southern Ontario. Not necessarily Phoenix, but any franchise. The basic premise being that the Leafs could demand a huge sum of money to allow a team into their area.
  
  
• They should put a roof over Arther Ashe stadium at the US Open so matches won't get rained out for days on end.

I go to see baby Habs and guess who shows up instead?

Allow me to go fangirlish on you for one second...

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HABBIES GOALIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay.

Really. I was kinda hoping that they would show up for an informal practice but I wasn't counting on it but umm yeah.. they showed up. Right as I was about to watch the baby Habs. Baaad timing. Oh well. I'm sure the babies won't mind as I kinda already took pics of them on Monday. Added incentive to make it to the NHL: People won't abandon you're practice for the big boys' practice. ANYWAY.

A few thoughts:

• Shawn Belle was there... which I'm only mentioning because I wasn't expecting him to be there? Why is he here? And why wasn't he with the rookies?
• Stewie and Dagger were there.
• I didn't see either Andrei or Gomer there. Although maybe I didn't recognize Gomer. I was a hell of a time trying to remember who the heck was who (no names, no numbers on the practice jerseys).
• Pricey looked perky. Haven't seen him look perky in a while. It was nice.
• Gionta is short. For real. I'd love to see him standing next to Misshy (Missiaen). Just for the heck of it.

More pics here. And yes, they are mostly of Price and Halak. Sue me.

Rookie camp!!

So as you all know by now, rookie camp started today. Pretty much everyone from North America that was at the prospect camp earlier in the year was here so I knew pretty much all of them.

• I stupidedly decided to head out to Brossard on Labour Day - which was dumb as everyone and their cousin was there.... Never go on a day when everyone is off from school/work. Never.
  
  
• This was the first time I had actually seen Cedric Desjardins. Hearing how the guy does on the radio and actually seeing him are totally different. Naturally as the most experienced goalie at the camp, he looked the best (not that I saw Mayer that much, but I think it goes without saying that Ced would look the best).
  
  
• Did Missiaen and Simila grow over the summer? Seriously, they look taller than before even...!
  
  
• Wyman was pretty amusing as he was practicing with two of the baby goalies. They were doing drills were someone would skate right in front of them and try to score. Except that Wyman kept hitting them instead of putting it away. Sounds sad, but it was actually amusing. He was laughing about it too.
  
  
• Missed this part, but apparently in one of the drills, Patches ended up checking PK behind the net. Dunno why this is relevant. People seemed to find it amusing though.
  
  
• Speaking of amusing... a woman behind me was talking about the Jumbo Goalies and she was like "look at how tall he is. He's like... over 5 feet!" Umm.... even I'm over 5 feet tall!
  
  
• PK does NOT stand still for more than a second. Seriously. The guy was zooming around the whole time. If he was standing still, he was making faces. When can this guy play for a team that I can actually follow?!
  
  
• my brain is tired from editting 200 + photos so it can't think of anything else to say right now...
  
  
• more pictures here.

oh yeah, there is tennis going on...

We'll take a quick break from hockey (and I mean quick) to talk about tennis... because umm there is a major event going on, yeah?

The least we need to know is:

• Roger is lucky to have survived that match against Hewitt in 4 sets. He looked like he had been up all night with the twins the night before that match. UGH. Also... Roger had a weird fall which had me screaming because I thought he had rolled his ankle. Apparently though he "thought the ground was closer to me foot than it actually was"..... Yeah.. okay.. whatever, Roger. Glad you're okay.
• Rafa looks all injured but he still beat some other Spanish dude. The crowd seemed to appreciate Rafa changing his shirt mid-way through the match. Yeaaaah...
• Andy Roddick lost to John Isner in an epic 5 setter. It was a pretty awesome match. For Isner. Not awesome for Roddick.
• Nole is all struggly. But that goes without saying.
• Muzzy isn't struggling too much. Poop.
• Are there seriously any top ranked women left in the draw not named "Williams"? Dementieva, Safina, Jankovic, Azarenka. All out.
• Err scratch bit about the Williams. Venus just lost to Kim Clijsters in a really weird match. So that just leaves Serena (2), Kuznetsova(6), Zvonareva(7) and Pennetta(10) as the top seeded players.
• Can Muzzy please lose?

Top 10 things I don't want to hear about this season

I'm sitting here bored out of my mind while I wait in this stupid waiting room to get Habs tickets so I figured I might as well write something... Top ten things I don't want to hear about this season with regards to the Habs:

1. The Habs are smurfs. Guess what? Someone did some number crunching and on average, the Habs are the same size as the Bruins. In our division, the Sens are actually the biggest team. Yes, the Sens. Go figure.
   
   
2. The Habs need a captain. When Martin thinks he's found a captain, he will pick one. Not before. Hopefully not after.
   
   
3. Trade Halak for a big center. And umm just who will be Price's backup? I've already said, I do not believe that Sanford would be a wonderful choice. And anyway, it's BOB's decision whether or not to trade Halak (unless our little goalie asks to leave). So if you're name isn't Bob Gainey and you're not the GM of the Habs, quiet.
   
   
4. Trade all of Hamilton for Kovy! Hahahahahaha..... you're kidding right?
   
   
5. Omg the Leafs are like, so amazing! Yeah... sure they've gotten better on the blueline but who's going to score? And I'm seriously thinking it's going to take some time for Allaire to get Vesa to actually stop a puck...
   
   
6. The Habs don't speak French! And you don't speak their language. Guess you're all even.
   
   
7. The Booins are going kick the Habs to Phoenix. Wouldn't it be more useful to kick the Coyotes to Hamilton?
   
   
8. Vinny! ..will be showing Tanguay all the best places to lounge around on the beach while waving his NTC around.
   
   
9. Gomez's contract ....sucks. Yes, we know. Blame Sather. Gomer is here now and there isn't anything you can do about it.
   
   
10. I hate the Habs! *smacks*

Random Wednesday.... err Thursday!

Whatever day it is today...! We take a break from all the sarcasm to bring you random information around the league! YAY!

• So I'm late to the party on this one, but I'd like to say a quick "byebye" to Tanguay. I for one, am really not going to miss him. I was never particularly fond of him from the start and unlike Lang who ended up growing on me a lot, I never got to like Tanguay a whole lot. He never excited me as a player and he just ended up irking me a lot. I hope he enjoys his time on the beach with Skinny Vinny and Shorty Marty....
  
  
• Puckdaddy has the latest on the NHLPA mess. Including some theories on why Kelly was fired. There are some reports that "he was allegedly caught reading a transcript from a confidential meeting between the union's advisory board and 30-member player executive last June." Interesting...
  
  
• Also while we're all SO fascinated by this implosion, here is Glenn Healy's resignation letter. He was part of the NHLPA and resigned after that meeting in Chicago.
  
  
• The Habs FINALLY have info about the upcoming training camps (I've been waiting days and days and days for this. Not necessarily pleased to see Louis won't be at the rookie camp though). Now I need to figure out for sure if they're letting us mortals in or not.
  
  
• My political science course books are TOTALLY Canadian. One said something to effect of "helping a candidate or party win an election can be as exciting as being part of a winning hockey team". The other was dicussing the use of the word "power" and how we see the word a lot. "this person has power, that person is seduced by power, another person is on "a power trip," while Forbes trucks have more power and Sidney Crosby has perfected the power play". Great job, textbook. We're no talking for a while...
  
  
• The baby goalie that I saw at the Juniors pre-season game is apparently not even 16 yet. I say this with much surprise because while I thought he looked like a baby, I didn't think he was THAT young. Jeez, now I feel really old.
  
  
• And in US Open news...Apparently the top ten men have yet to lose a set in the tournament. This is great news and makes it all the more sad that two of the top 5 women are already out of the competition. Women's tennis is NOT in a happy place these days...

Gauthier wanted to be a Hab?

I think Bob Gainey must have lost his mind.

I really do.

Apparently Denis Gauthier wanted to play for the Habs and Gainey said no.

Seriously, what is going on, Bob?!! How could you say "no" to signing Denis Gauthier?

Betrand Raymond wrote the other day that Gauthier's agent approached Gainey during the Draft and asked if he would have a place on the team for Gauthier. Gainey being Gainey initally said "We'll talk later". Then when the free agency period came up, the agent called him up and really politely asked if Gainey had considered signing his client.

And do you know what Gainey said? Do you know what he said?!

"Keep calling other clubs".

Oh my god. How could you say such a mean thing, Bob? That is just so... so... cruel!

Gauthier is perfect for this team. He's a local guy, he speaks French, he loves the public and he wouldn't go around St. Laurent street at weird hours. What more could you want?

Oh you mean he has to be able to play hockey too? Well he does! He's had 2 goals in his last season with the LA Kings. That's 2 more than he had during his two year stint with the Flyers. And he had 2 assists. How many did that Russian Markov have last season? Exactly! Gauthier also had 90 PIM and god knows how many suspensions. Plus he turned Josh Gorges' brains into jelly.

So you see, there really is no reason why Gainey shouldn't have signed him. He's perfect for the Habs.

Seriously. Gainey has lost his mind. Next thing you know, Stephen Harper will be appointing Jacques Demers to the Senate.... Oh wait.....

[note: yes, I am being 100% sarcastic in this post. Do not think for a second that I would actually want Gauthier here. Because I don't.]