Merry Christmas to me

I admit... I'm a demanding person. I asked specifically for the Habs to win tonight (the day that was supposedly all cursed for the team), for the Pens to demolish the Sens (I know, I know, but my gloating rights were at stake here), for the Caps to win in regulation time (with an Ovie goal in there too) and for the Leafs and Booins to lose for an early Christmas present.

Well... tonight my wishes were almost all  granted.

• The Habs had a resounding 5-1 over the Whalercanes. Of course they still got horribly outshot and Jaro was forced to bail the guys out on a few occasions but it was a good win. The PP is doing great on the road, Turtle-Pleky continues to be on fire (he actually very briefly had more points than Ovie tonight *G*), both Kostitsyn brothers scored, Metro had two, Markov had another one... So pretty!
  
  We'll ignore Gomez' double minor that resulted in a four minute PP (one for cross-checking and one for yapping at the ref) and the ensuing PP goal for the Whalercanes. It was but a small blemish on an otherwise nice win.
  
  Thanks for Aaron Ward the early penalty which gave the Habs a PP which then they scored on just 1:29 into the game! (and thank goodness Patches is okay).
  
  
• Oh boy, did the Pens ever demolish the Sens. Oh boy, oh boy. This would be absolutely gorgeous if it wasn't the Pens who demolished the Sens. Oh well. Can't have it all. We'll just be happy with a Sens loss! Should I apologize to the Sens relatives now? Because you know I might need to gloat a little bit about this. Just a little. Hey, they initiated it with the phone call, right?
  
  
• Caps win 5-2 thanks to goals from Pie, Greener, Morrison and.... Ovie!!! Such a pretty goal too.... Miller looked so cranky afterward (sorry, no love for you today, Miller). Very nice.
  
  
• Leafs got beat by Tavares. As long as the Leafs finish the season outside the bottom five, I'm okay (ie. please keep losing for now, Leafs).
  
  
• Thrashers almost came back against the Booins but ultimately they fell short and lost. Myeh. 

Hey wait... I thought the Habs/Bruins series was over?!

As a Habs fan, I can sadly say that I saw this movie before. It's called "Why the heck are we imploding like this?". I swear the Habs/Bruins were out on the ice at Mellon Arena tonight. Guess who the Habs were.

Oh yeah.

I couldn't believe it.

It was just like the Habs/Bruins series. The great goalie gets zero support from his team and they go down to the big bad team in black and gold. The great forwards can't seem to find the back of the net. The defense was dead. The powerplay was dead. The fans were obnoxious. The opposition was intorable. I swear the PA guy even did a little "whooOOOoooo".

At least the Caps actually scored more than two goals. They had three. Including a shorty. But then they forgot how to help out their goalie andhe couldn't save them tonight.

What does this mean?

Do we panic? Is it the end for the Caps? Do we freak out completely now because the Pens look just that good now and the Caps look just that bad?

Well, unlike the Habs against the Bruins, I believe the Caps are more than capable of taking out the Pens. They need to stay focused, they need to stay out of the penalty box, they need to play better defense, they need to back up their goalie and they need to remember that a game is 60 bloody minutes long. I really dont' think that's too hard to implent really. The Caps have what it takes to win. They aren't an inferior team to the Penguins. But the Penguins have been playing like a team and battling harder for longer throughout the games than the Caps have. The Caps must match that. Tonight, they looked dead on their feet. Tomorrow, back home in front of their amazing fans, they need to bring it. They need to bring that crazy Ovie intensity. All of them.

The fact that both teams are the only ones to have one their home games so far (waiting on the Whalercanes game tonight), seems to indicate that home ice advantage seems uber important. They must take advantage tomorrow tonight. Both teams will be tired from tonight but the Caps need to take the support from their crowd and use it to get back ahead here. I could also seeing this going downhill completely if the Pens grab momentum early. But I'm trying to be positive here for once *g*

Bruins... Bruins... Bruins....

What's going on? Going down to the Whalercanes ain't so nice. Because let's face it Habs fans, it's the Whalercanes with the StaalClone1. Do we really want a Whalercane/Puffles series???! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Oh Colin and your magic boxes of suspending powers

I may be biased here - okay, I am being biased here - but I honestly do not believe that Ovie meant to kill Poke2's knee. Did he mean to hit him? Well yes, Ovie did mean to hit Gonchar, but I really don't think he meant to hit his knee... I still think you'd have to be really stupid to collide knee on knee with someone on purpose. If only because the potential to ruin your own knee is too great.... please don't pull our your stupid boxes of randomness and suspend Ovie.

Oh and....

Bettman. Just give the guy the damn team already. This whole "we're committed to keeping the team in a place where they don't have enough fans to keep it running" is ridiculous already. Not saying I like Balsillie or anything but Bettman being stubborn like this is silly.

Today we're waterbottling....

1) The Dirty DUCKS for winning in TRIPLE OT. I started watching the game while eating lunch and by the time it was over, I had to go and make dinner.

That was quite the game though. It's too early for an epic marathon though! I think the Wings need to step it up another level. They were really struggling at some points in the game which wasn't cool. Ozzy in particular scares me whenever the puck comes near him. And the Dirty DUCKS need to stop playing dirty.

2) The people on Nothing But Crosby - because TSN couldn't hire anybody to do their own announcing for some reason. At leas I didn't have to listen to Milbury.....

3) The refs in the Boston/Whalercanes game. There's a very simple reason why the Bruins don't get a lot of penalties. It's because the refs are blind and they miss just about every Boston penalty.

4) the morons in Toronto who called the 3rd Carolina goal not a goal. I don't see how they could have said that it wasn't a goal. Then again.... we imagine that the guys in Toronto are related to Colin Campbell. The puck was over the line...Even I - on my 5 x 5 fuzzy screen - can see it over the line.

Halfway there people!

Yup. It's the halfway mark - more or less - and I apparently have nothing better to do than to give random thoughts about the random teams in the Eastern Conference. Go me! Note i said the word "random".

Atlantic division - the closest division in the east so far because no one's taken the lead and run away with it. Yet. I'm betting on Philly finishing on top.

Philadelphia
The good news: Mike Richards has been solid for the team in the first half. Jeff Carter is taking a swat at being the top goal scorer of the year.
The bad news: Goaltending. Biron has been less than amazing after pretty much single-handedly knocking Montreal out of the playoffs last spring. Niittymaki hasn't exactly stepped up as the league's best goaltender either.
The great news if you're a Habs fan but really bad if you're a Flyers fan: It looks like Briere is about to be paid millions of dollars to play just a handful of games this season. Good news if you're looking to make a lot of money and not do a heck of a lot - and great if you're one of those people who doesn't want to see his face for a long time - but definitely bad news if you're the Flyers' GM.

Pittsburgh
Good but definitely not wonderful news: Well, umm... they still have a chance to turn around their season?
The really bad bit: A very disappointing start to the season following their Stanley Cup finals run. They have struggled time and time again to find their rhythm - in particular, less than stellar performances from Sidney Crosby, Miroslav Satan and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (who did sit out a number of games due to injuries) and at times Evgeni Malkin. The top players haven't been producing and it's hurting the rest of the team. They're missing players like Ryan Malone and Hossa more than they care to admit.
Intriguing bit: Do you think Hossa predicted the Pens implosion? Everyone was pegging the Pens at having a fairly easy run to the playoffs in the offseason, but Hossa ditched them and said he wanted to play with a team that had a chance at winning the cup (read: Pens don't have a chance). At the time of his signing, it looked like Hossa was just being opportunistic. But now....? Well, I'm not saying the Wings are going to win it but I highly doubt it's going to be the Pens either...

New Jersey
Good news: They can survive without star goaltender Martin Brodeur, thank you very much. Yay for them!
The intriguing bit: What will happen to backup goalie Scott Clemmensen when Brodeur gets back? Will they go back to using Brodeur who hasn't played almost all season and will most likely take a while to get his rhythm back or will they continue to use Clemmensen? Also, the Devils have been quite an offensive type team without Brodeur. Will they ditch all this once he comes back?

NY Islanders
The good: I'm not sure what's good about the Islanders. They're sitting at the bottom of the league right now.
Really good if you're the Islanders: At this rate they'll be getting John Tavares. Poor Tavares.
The bad: Well, they're bottom of the league? Oh wait... maybe that's good. See above.

NY Rangers
Good: uh... I'm sure there's some good here. I don't watch the Rangers so I'm totally out of the loop on these guys but sitting near the top of the league during the first half of the season is pretty good.
Bad: The reason why they were sitting at the top was because they got off to a good start and played a lot more games than the rest of the people in the league. Where they will end up at the end of the season remains to be seen. Also, goalie Henrik Lundqvist hasn't exactly been top of the league a lot of the time.

Northeast - despite having Toronto (and now Ottawa) in it, this division is still the best in the east, in my very biased opinion. In my unbiased opinion, I still think this division is very good thanks to two teams. I mean, c'mon, how are we supposed to have the best division when two and a half teams play terribly?

Boston
Good: Sitting at the top of the league. Well, second now that San Jose won. But still. They barely squeaked into the playoffs last year and now they're top. Goalies Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez been key to this abrupt turn around as have players like Milan Lucic, Philip Kessel and Somethingrather Wheeler. And I guess Ryder has been too.
Will this translate into playoff success? (finally?): It should be interesting to see how the Bruins handle themselves in the playoffs which is a totally different beast. I'm personally hoping for some imploding but I think this team has what it takes to go all the way...where they will then lose in 6 games to Detroit or maybe even San Jose (I wish!).

Montreal (in my totally biased assessment)
The good: They're still fairly high up in the rankings. Rookies that have been called up have been good. Especially the earlier stint that D'Agostini has had here. Also, players like Lapierre and Kostopoulous have really stepped things up. Price has had stellar performances and has stolen the game for the Habs on more than one occasion.
The bad: INJURIES. And especially inconsistency that has kept the team from gaining valuable points. I won't get into whether Carbonnneau has done his job properly or not but as an entire team they have had issues this half of the season. Yes, expectations were high coming in here. Too high. But there were some games that a team should win but ends up losing because they can't play a full game of hockey. And this team has gone and lost those games. Also less than stellar performances on the powerplay and from players like Kovalev have hurt the team at times.
The bright spot: They can climb out of this right now and dominate the rest of their season. Will they catch Boston? Probably not. But they can close the gap if they focus on playing 60 full minutes of hockey.

Buffalo
Again not one of the teams I follow regularly but it seems that they've struggled quite a bit so far. Consistency from the players has been an issue at times. Oh and a complete lack of effort from Maxim Afinogenov has been a real downer.

Ottawa
The bad: Well, let's see... 11 straight years of making the playoffs could be going down the drain this year. The Sens are going through a major crisis right now and the over emphasis on the top line of Heatley/Alfredsson/Spezza has finally come crashing down on the team. Oh and goaltending has been another issue this year, though instead of it being the antics of the goalies, it's been the performance of the goalies that has been a problem.
The good: Maybe now Ottawa will do something about not relying 24/7 on "the big three" and get themselves some other good players. Or maybe they'll just grab Toskala when he either goes on the trade market or goes free agent when Toronto dumps him.

Toronto.
The good: Luke Schenn. The kid has been the closest thing to a god send for the Leafs. And winning six games in a row. And surprisingly Grabovski seems to be liking life in Toronto. Funny how all of Montreal's ex players do better when they join the Habs' major rivals...Must have something to do with a mutual dislike of the Habbies (don't tell me that Ryder and Grabovski left with smiles and hugs while promising to send a postcard every week).
What they think is good: Ron Wilson and Brian Burke. Never underestimate the power of the Leafs' management problems. Ever.
The bad: The fact that they are the Toronto Maple Leafs and they're run by a corporation that couldn't give a hoot over whether they actually win or not. Oh you mean with the actual team? Well, take a look for yourself. I'm placing bets on them missing another playoff run.

Southeast - and arguably the weakest division which is why the Caps have a runaway lead.

Washington
The good: They've solved their goalie issues and Ovechkin seems to have snapped out of his slump (can't blame him entirely if his grandfather's health was bad. Family first, yes?).
The bad: Earlier injuries and bad goaltending from their goalies have stalled the team. Semin's previous scoring outburst seems to have stalled.

Carolina
Bad: lack of depth has hurt the team who keeps getting injuries.
Good news is: Um... I guess Cam Ward has been doing some stuff lately. When he's there he's been good when he's not, well.... hehe... byebye Hurricanes!

Florida
Intriguing bit: Someone tell me how Anderson has a good save percentage and the team is still sitting in 18th place? The team obviously needs to learn how to score more goals. And no, the Panthers getting five goals against the Habs doesn't count because the Habs got five goals on Anderson as well.

Tampa Bay
The bad: The owners, the management, the coaches, and the team. And hyping up Stamkos as something way more than he is. That is unfair to anyone but especially to an 18 year kid. I feel extremely bad for Stamkos.
The good: Um... I'm not seeing one other than maybe they'll get themselves another top player.
Can someone tell me...How Mike Smith has two shutouts?!

Atlanta
Don't follow these guys at all but obviously something's very wrong here. Kovalchuk keeps threatening to break out at any time but someone should tell him that now would be a good time to do it.

Habs to play Hurricanes in a blizzard

Or is it a blizzard in a hurricane? I think I'm sleep deprived already. Anyway, I actually don't see so much snow coming down right now but we'll see how it goes later on. But moving on to the real point now: the Habbies are to take on the Hurricanes for their last game before the holiday break - which may or not be much of a break depending on how tonight goes. After that little fiasco last time they played, I'm hoping that the Habs feel motivated to come out and beat the Hurricanes tonight. The last two games have been a real turnaround for the Habbies and I would greatly appreciate if they kept it up and crushed the opposition tonight. I'm just hoping that Price is actually fully recovered and won't pull a braindead stunt like Fleury did last night.

We shall hope and squash our new habs pillows that the Habbies win tonight. Otherwise I'll be hitting those sherry bottles stored in my grandmother's cupboard for the holidays.

Time to hit the sherry bottles

What is it about the Hurricanes that makes the Habbies play like crap? I personally wasn't too impressed with the game tonight. Despite outshooting the Hurricanes - huh? it really didn't feel like they outshot though but whatever - the Habs dropped 1-0 after the end of the first period. Here we go again. There was hope though. Even when the Habs were tied 1-1 on D'Agostini's pretty goal, they dropped another one. Still there was plenty of hope. The Habs technically evened the score with around eight minutes left but it was disallowed because the Hurricanes got a penalty. Like hello?! You don't give the idiots penalties all nigtht but you give them one NOW? So it was to the powerplay which had been stinking all night and what do you know... Lang gets the puck past Ward. Whooopie. To OT we then went. The stupid Hurricanes shot the puck at Price who looked like he had it but it dribbled past him and while it wasn't it then someone pushed it into the net. Byebye Habs.

*sighs*

I'd whine about the power play that pretty much wasn't and all the penalties that Carolina didn't take and the stupid officiating (AGAIN) and why I hate Eric Staal but I won't....*sighs again*

Did you know that sherry's from Spain? And that the name is apparently derived from the word "Xeres" which was the Arabic name for the area that the stuff comes from?

Liiiiiveeerpooool you tied with Arsenal.

By accounts however, this wasn't a bad thing. It was better than those ties with all those not so good teams. That being said, apparently the Reds had a lot of good opportunities to come away with two points. But a draw isn't terrible. Then again... I believe the door is now open for Chelsea to take a one point lead if they win against Everton tomorrow. Hmmm....!

Well....desperate people will turn to desperate measures...

In my case I watched Djokovic sing "The twelve days of Christmas" along with a few other players (including Murray!). Well, I actually should say "attempt to sing" because he really can't sing. But he made up for his awful singing by being incredibly funny by messing up the words to the song and making up new words as he went. Ah, Nole, I know you're trying to be taken more seriously but that video really did not help that. Oh well, it's great if you want to take your mind off the Habbies. It's really too bad that they couldn't force Federer to do it. That would have been truly hilarious. Oh well...Next time they should offer 1,000 atp points to whoever shows up and does this *g*

Is it tennis season yet?

...because I can't watch too many more hockey games like last nights.

I don't know about you but I'm finding it a bit difficult to come up with the worst game of the season so far. I would like to nominate tonight's game however, as one of the worst for the Habs. They can thank the Hurricanes for being an awful team too for the reason that the game was only 3-2 at the end. The Habs took a total of 11 penalties tonight which severely limited their ability to score. Granted, at least one of those penalties shouldn't have been called but I think most of them were fairly called. I guess. Carolina should have taken a couple of penalties that they didn't... Anyway, all three of Carolina's goals came on power-plays which started with Staal scoring two in the first period. If you stand in front of the net you're bound to get a goal in at some point. And Staal did just that when he was presented with a half open net not once, but twice. I was hoping that things would get turned around in the third period and it sort of did. In between all the penalties that they got, the Habs were presented with a penalty shot which Latendresse took. I was kind of nervous here and wasn't expecting a lot, but he shot over Cam Ward's shoulder and into the back of the net. Things seemed to be doing okay later on when Kovalev finally got a goal after a face off in the Hurricanes end. But then things imploded and the Habs played lame hockey and took more penalties and it was lights out. Oh and of course Carolina scored again. It was some guy that wasn't Staal. What, you expect me to remember all the names of the players on the other team?

Oh well... I'm starting to be calm about this whole 'let's go on a losing spree' thing.

The good - Montreal's two goals plus Halak. Again, he looks like an idiot because the Habs went to sleep on him. He came up with some really good saves tonight. Okay, okay, he wasn't perfect. He's got issues with the rebounds and whatnot but seriously, you're telling me Cam Ward was a lot better?!

The bad - the rest of the game

The ugly - 11 penalties! That adds up to 22 mins that the Habs were at a disadvantage. That's over one whole period.

The stupid - Cam Ward leaving the net when a penalty was called.....not the Habs but for Carolina. Can't really blame him though, he was on auto-pilot and was just doing what he had been doing all night.

*sighs*

Good news: They scored on a powerplay finally. Bad news: They still lost the game. I'm starting to wonder if this is what it's like to be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. When I brought the subject up to my dad however, he said that I wasn't indifferent enough when they lost, so I guess we're still not at that point yet. Still....it's a tad frustrating (it's probably a lot worse to be a member of the team, so I'll shut up about that). I guess they didn't come out too dead tonight. I thought the beginning went pretty well. They had some nice chances. I mean, it could have been worse. Carolina had a lot of really good chances but completely failed to make the most out of a lot of them. Actually, it was pathetic how ineffectual the Hurricanes were at trying to score. They had way too many really good chances where they completely missed the net. But moving on... I'm not liking the fact that the Habs couldn't get the puck out of their own end for a lot of the game. It seemed to be perpetually inside their end, but my aching head is probably remembering this worse than it actually was. I mean, losing 2-1 isn't that bad. It could have easily been 5-1 or 4-2.... Montreal had some nice chances too and plenty of good blocks. Oh well...I think I have to suffer through another game on Thursday before I get to watch Argentina clobber Spain in the Davis Cup and then the tennis season will truly be over *wails* I think I'll be watching a lot of replays...I always wanted to sit through that Wimbledon final for a second time....and yes, I'm being slightly sarcastic here! Being sick + Habs losing = a very grumpy me