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!

Chelsea's through and D'Agostini rocks right now

First thing's first. The Blues are survived the first round of the Champions League. Yes, you would have thought that would be a given, considering they were the finalists last year and were leading in the Premier League. Well, then things changed and Chelsea went on a losing streak that was no fun at all and suddenly they got knocked out of the top spot in the Premier League and they're future in the Champions League was in danger. So it was almost do or die today for the Blues as they hosted something-that-involves-a-lot-of-letters-and-numbers Cluj. A win would gaurantee a safe passage into the next round while a tie would have been acceptable as long as Bordeaux lost to Roma. Considering how Bordeaux and Roma have been playing the Champions League, I think there was little doubt that Chelsea could have survived on a tie. But who wants to say that they went through into the next round due to the results of the other game in your group? Nobody. Especially not last year's finalists.

I didn't think that Chelsea exactly came out running. In fact I was concerned that Cluj would actually capitilize on all their chances to score. As it was, things turned out differently, starting when Chelsea pulled out the first goal in the 40th minute of the first half. Kalou took advantage of a penalty shot (is that what you call them in football? I'm so hopeless with sports terminology) that came sailing into a large crowd of players and kicked the ball into the back of the net. Absolutely beautiful. The happy feeling didn't last too long into the second half however. Cluj's Panin made a brilliant pass across the field which was headed into the back of the net by.... Kone...I think... I dunno the names of all the players. Anyway, after that goal it looked for a bit like Chelsea was going to die but then they picked things up again and Drogba netted another goal for the Blues. It looked for a while like the goal was actually kicked in by one of the Cluj defenders but a different camera angle seemed to show that Drogba did indeed hit it in. Yay! It was pretty much smooth sailing to the finish line. Chelsea could have gone to the next around anyway as Roma trounced Bordeaux just like we thought they would. Pooh.

My TV and newspaper decided to be exceptionally mean to me today because I didn't even know that Liverpool was playing until the station that was showing the Chelsea vs. Cluj game said that someone from Liverpool had scored. I wasn't too pleased with that. But the Reds (these poor English teams really need to come up with better nicknames for their teams!) ran over PSV after they woke up and decided that you can't lose to a team named PSV. I always think of TVP when I see that team. TVP is "textured vegtable protein" in case you didn't want to know. Anyway, Liverpool was already through and it was just a matter of seeing how many points they could end up with. They finished on top of their group. Yay!

Anywhoo.... The Flames are trying to run over the Habs right now and it's almost working... be back later...

Later: So much for the Habs getting run over by the Flames. Habs 4 Flames 1. I'm liking how the Habs are playing lately. I don't know what's going on but I would have to say that the addition of Matt D'Agostini has to play in there somehow. I don't know if it's how he plays or if it's just the mere fact that he's there and trying that's getting everyone going, but whatever is happening it's working so far. I really hope this whole thing continues into the new year and through to the playoffs.

Anyway....I missed most of the first half of the first period which included Lang's goal (which after seeing the replay, technically went off the skate of one of the defense dudes but whatever. A goal's a goal) but when I tuned in, I got to see the Habs looking like they were getting run over by the Flames. There's a reason why Calgary has been on a roll which included blanking the Rangers the other night, and I was seriously concerned about how the Habs would do. It seems to me that lately everytime they put Halak in nets it's because they feel like they're going to get an easy game and then they play horribly and Halak looks like an idiot. From what I saw the Flames were all over the Habs in the first period. Halak and Kiprusoff were just amazing in the first period. It didn't look like anything was going to get past Kirprusoff. That was until Matt D'Agostini got a breakaway early in the second period. He put the puck around the goalie who had come out and was lying flat on the ice, and scored. Dude, I hope this guy keeps this up because he's now got four goals in the last four games. Fantastic.

Sadly, much like the Chelsea vs Cluj game however, the happy feelings didn't last too long. Two minutes later the Habs attempt to score but the Flames pick up the puck and race down the ice. Iginla makes a nice pass to... Boyd who puts the puck over Halak's shoulder. I wasn't too pleased with that one considering how none of the Habbies seem to notice that Iginla was waiting practically behind them to be given the puck. Boo. I had then had to suffer through a pile of almost shots until Lang came to the rescue. Thanks to a pass from.. Kovalev, I think...doesn't matter too much, anyway, thanks to the pass that came as Lang was conviently standing in front of the net, he puts it over Kirprusoff and it was then 3-1. The scoring finished with a goal by Markov from the blueline in the middle of the third period. And that was practically that, despite the fact that the Flames made a really good effort to score more towards the end of the third period. Actually for most of the third period it was mostly the Habs looking good. Which was nice. The end of the game got messy when it looked like Markov tripped a Flames dude. A fight immediately ensued between a pile of people for no real reason because it wasn't like Phaneuf was hurt or anything - and people were sent off the ice. Calgary also got a penalty for "abuse of officials" which seems to me like it involved Keenan who complaining an awful lot. It didn't matter because the Flames couldn't score and Halak didn't look like an idiot at all. Yay!

The good: Habs beat the Flames who have been on.. well, fire, lately. They did a good job of keeping them from getting too many really good chances at scoring. And of course D'Agostini has been great lately. And Komisarek is still standing behind the bench as the Habs official cheerleader. You go dude!

The interesting: Minus D'Agostini's goal, the Habs goal's involved Lang, Kovalev, Markov and Tanguay. Kovalev looked good out there tonight and I think it' shouldn't be too long before he gets another goal. With Tampa Bay sitting in the bottom of the League, this should be a good opportunity for the Habs to get a pile of goals. In theory.

The bad: Higgins and Dandenault went off the ice with injuries. This is the second time in as many games that Dandenault has gone off with injuries. The last one wasn't serious and I'm really hoping that neither of them are serious this time around.

The really bad: Apparently Dandenault has suffered a broken arm. Great. He'll be sidelined for at least a few months now. I suppose Carbo will be considering calling up another defensemen-dude......No news on Higgins yet.

The sad part: Tanguay didn't score against his old team. He had a good chance in the first period but got stoned by Kiprusoff. At least he did well and his old team didn't try too hard to kill him (although Calgary did take a penalty after someone rammed Tanguay into the boards from behind).

About that powerplay.... It was actually good tonight. Well, compared to most nights anyway. They came up with a lot of good chances which were stopped by a really good Kiprusoff. Same goes for the Flames on their powerplay chances: good chances but they ultimately didn't do anything. Oh well. Tonight's really not the night to be whining about the powerplay.

*taps fingers*

A roundup of how the football went this weekend: Real Madrid lost to Getafe 3-1, Chelsea forgot how to play again and lost to Arsenal 2-1 and Liverpool tied with...West Ham.... What kind of name is West Ham anyway? Bleh. That was icky. And no, I didn't see any of it. Good thing too.

In slightly better news... While the Baby Habbies (that would be the Hamilton Bulldogs) lost 5-3 to the Bingysomethingrather Senators at the Bell Center last night, apparently Yannick Weber (did you know that he's Swiss? *G*) and Max Pacioretty put up a really good game, which is good news. Yes, you heard a lot about them at the training camp thing and the pre-season stuff. They were the last to be sent back to Hamilton and a lot fans wished that they had stayed. Anyway... I didn't end up going because.... I had no money but yeah, apparently it was fun for the Bulldogs because they don't get to play here usually and the fans here are rapid even if it's not the Habs playing... so yeah... Hopefully the Ickle Habbies will get back to winning and make the other Habs want to win too... because c'mon, let's face it, you don't want people telling you that your AHL affiliate is doing a million times better than you... even if it's the AHL....

My hockey crazed side is trying not to think about how the Habbies will do tomorrow against the very lowly Thrashers tomorrow. I'm of the opinion that if they really want to start winning they have a golden opportunity to start right now. The Thrashers quite simply stink right now. What the Habbies need to do is not die against the Thrashers, but instead come out and show them why the Thrashers are sitting in 29th place and the Habs aren't, by beating them by a lot. Compared 29th, 7th looks really good, no? Good plan, no? We've played one less game than San Jose but are currently ELEVEN points behind them........!

Time to find my good luck squirrel....

Chelsea died against Bordeaux. They tied 1-1. They just came out so flat and got themselves so many yellow cards. *wails* Stupid Chelsea pulled a Habs move and went to sleep! So now Chelsea has to win against... Cluj, I think they have to play next, and Bordeaux has to lose to Roma. There is no reason why that shouldnt happen.... right? Right. Poor Cech. He was the whole team for most of the game. And then Bordeaux gets a corner kick and Chelsea fall asleep and the ball goes in. *wails again* Liverpool won 1-0 against Marseille. I didn't see any of it because my stupid TV stations all decided to play the same game! How stupid is that? Anyway, I think Gerrard scored for Liverpool so at least that's that (okay, so I wanted Torres to score but I always want Torres to score).

Habs vs Red Wings tonight. This promises to be a disaster for the poor Habbies. I'm just hoping that they'll at least come out try their best instead of coming out and dying. I think I should go find my good luck squirrel now.... I named one of the squirrels that comes around my house Hab (what? He didn't look like an Andrei or an Alexei. His sister got named Carey *g*). Maybe I should find him and hope that he brings 'em good luck. Okay, so it didn't work in the playoffs (in his defense, he was just a baby at the time) and he's been shirking on his good luck charmish duties in the last few games but we shall see what happens! I just have to go looking around in all the trees now for him....

Later: Now do that again! Habs win 3-1 over Red Wings

I couldn't find the lucky squirrel but it turns out I didn't need him anyway. The Habs decided to surprise me by actually winning in regulation time over the Wings. I'm quite surprised by this whole outcome. Look, I know that there will be those who will say that the Detroit didn't come out with their best game and if they had then the score would probably be 5-0 in the Wings's favor. Fine. I accept that. Kind of. The Red Wings did indeed appear to come out somewhat flat tonight. But that is totally beside the point. The point is that for the first time in a long time the Habs actually looked like a team instead of a bunch of talented guys who all can't work together for some reason. On top of that they looked like a team that was ready to pull together and work really hard to not get blanked by the Wings. They had something to prove after that loss to the Islanders. And they proved their point: You snooze you lose. I mean that. I don't know what was going on with Detroit but if they were looking for a win after that little episode in Vancouver, they should have done better. I was really impressed with how the Habs did tonight. I seriously don't care if the Wings were the worst team in the league. What matters is how the Habs came out tonight and performed.

I was actually happy with how the first period went. 0-0 meant that the Habs hadn't been demolished by the Wings right away. I thought the Habs' defense looked pretty alive and perky (perky? I thought only Roger Federer could be perky!) tonight. Which is good. Especially when you're playing Detroit. Price made a really risky save as.... some Red Wing guy got an almost breakaway. Price skated way out of the net and pushed the puck away. Don't want to imagine what would have happened if that had gone awry.

Obviously the second period was fantastic. Do I care that two of the goals were helped in by the Wings themselves? Hardly. Goals like that - and worse! - happen. We should be happy that one of 'em was on the power-play. And that we actually got three. I was just sitting there amazed that they were actually able to keep the puck in Detroit's end for that long. Very nice.

We can pretty much forget about the third period but I'll pretend that the offense didn't do anything because they were more concerned about making sure that Detroit didn't score. Which they did actually... but at leas they were limited to one goal. It was a really nice goal by Franzen who outmanoeuverd O'Byrne and a couple of other players to get a shot past Price. Totally not O'Byrne's fault. Franzen is definitely one of Detroit's best players even if he gets over shadowed by people like Hossa and Zetterberg. And he showed everyone why tonight.

I was not impressed with the refs tonight. I thought they missed a lot of stuff on both sides. And no, I'm not just talking about Brad Stuart flattening Tanguay (I did say "both sides", yes?). There quite a bit of tripping by the Canadiens among other things and there was quite a bit of passing with the hand on both sides. At least Detroit has nice ice.

So now what? Well, unlike the last time they played really well and then promptly died, I'm just praying to the hockey gods that the Habs will keep this great display up and beat Washington (did I mention that Ovechkin got himself a hat-trick tonight? Seems he's woken up) and Buffalo (who beat the Bruins tonight).

Oh and Penguins beat the Islanders 5-3. While it sounds like the Penguins decimated their opponents they really only woke up in the middle of the third period to beat the Islanders. Someone should remind the Penguins that you are allowed to score earlier in the game.