Now that's a game and a half!

I had a feeling that this game had the potential to be a high scoring one. We all know what the Caps can do and we know too that the Habs have been on a scoring high as of late. And with one team not really having a very good goaltender and the other team relying on their backup (I'll just pretend that we all know that the latter is Halak) it was definitely looking like a high scoring game.

The final score was 5-4 for the Habs. Both teams had 35 shots on goal and almost had the exact same number of shots per period. The only difference is, while the Caps evened out their scoring over the entire game, the Habs exploded in the third period and got four of their five goals in it.

Semin got the first goal of the night. I believe it was Mike Green who took a shot from the point and it somehow deflected off of Semin. So Green does al the work and the Alex gets the goal. Eh. The Caps victory celebration lasted all of a minute and twenty-seconds as the Caps didn't stay on top of Komisarek and Kostopoulos trying to clear the puck and the next thing you know guess who has the puck on a breakaway and puts it past Johnson? Pleky! I was just reading a thing about how the poor guy has had serious bad luck this year. He works so hard out there but has very little to show for it. Well, guess he saw the article and decided to finally get a goal. If I remember correctly, Plekanec's last goal was short handed too...Kind of cool if I've remembered right! Anyway, that was all for the first period. Habs had one chance at the powerplay which was blown completely and the Caps had two chances which failed miserably. During the first period I thought both goalies looked good - well save for both Johnson and Halak doing a little Toskala imitation at one point which could have allowed both teams to get goals on empty nets but they didnt thanks to good defense and good luck Hmm...

Second period was interesting. Caps took five penalties while the Habbies took two. No one scored on the powerplay and I was wondering if it was time to despair again. Maybe the Caps have a good penalty kill but I mean... for a while the Habs just looked awful on the PP. but the awfulness of the powerplay was NOTHING compared to what was too happen at 13:04. Someone has to tell Gainey or Carbo or anyone that it's time for Brisebois to go. He couldn't clear the puck and actually loses complete control of it right in front of Halak with Semin standing right there. Semin takes the puck, Halak moves down, Semin pops the puck over Halak. And it's 2-1 for the Caps. Oh and Semin tried to hug the glass behind the net after the goal - you know, where the guy flies face first into the glass. I've seen Ovechkin do that too. It really looks stupid. Anyway, it was a lovely goal for Semin but a real mess for Brisebois. Time to call it quits me thinks. That was it for the scoring although the Habs did have 13 shots on goal in that period which was the most in the game and was one more than the Caps had in that period.

Now. The third period was where things got interesting. There was a lot of talk after the Habs/Leafs game that the rivalry was in effect dead. One of the high points of the rivalry a long time ago was apparently both teams' desire - and ability! - to win the game. Whatever the cost. Judging by the way the Leafs' have been in the last... forty years... it's clear that at least until Brian Burke gets around to making some changes, the Leafs still have the inability to compete with the Habs when the Habs feel like competing. I missed out entirely on the Habs/Leafs rivalry (wasn't born *g*) but I think tonight's game showed a little bit of what things were like between the two teams.

The Habs entered the third period with a powerplay courtesy of the baby-faced Backstrom. The Habbies weren't looking too hot on the powerplay but Sloan decided to give them a nice gift in the form of a hooking penalty before Backstrom's had expired. So the Habs had a 5 on 3 advantage and within twenty odd seconds who gets the goal? Lang! I have to stop disliking the guy for no reason at all. That goal was nice - even if it apparently hit the guy's arm on the way into the net *coughs*. I thought he was just going to stand there and play hot potato with the puck for the rest of the powerplay but nooooo! He moves up towards Johnson and puts the puck around him. Look at the replay. It's hard to explain. But it was nice. Because Backstrom's penalty wasn't over it was still powerplay time for the Habbies. And they didn't entirely disappoint either. The one issue that seems to creep up with the Kostitsyn brother playing on the same line is that they had a tendency to pass only to each other. This a pain because there are other guys out there on the ice. But anyway, Sergei made an attempt on Johnson's left. On his way back to try to cover the crease, Johnson gets tripped up by his own player which leaves the net open which leaves Andrei to put Sergei's rebound in, which makes it 3-2. Nice!

Fleischmann made life not so nice when he put one past Halak who looked rather unprepared for that one. Well what can you do? Even the best goalies let in flukey goals *COUGHS* But this was really a bad time for that one. Order was momentarily restored about 15 seconds later however when Pleky struck again and scored after taking a pass from Pacioretty (and getting a mini breakaway). Johnson looked just like Halak did 15 seconds previously. Hehe. Well, Nylander almost dashed my hopes of winning this game in regulation time at 12:21 when Ovechkin's shot deflected off several people like a pinball machine and past Halak. At first glance it looks like a stupid easy goal that Halak should have got, but he really wasn't expecting that deflection. Stupid Nylander. I almost feel bad that Ovechkin didn't get the goal. Almost.

Anyway, with the seconds dying and it looking more and more like I would have to suffer through OT and maybe even shootouts, the defensemen get tangled up just inside their own zone with Sergei Kostitsyn who goes to the net, gets further tangled up with the defensemen and pulls an Ovechkin type of move and gets a fairly decent if not slightly weak shot on Johnson... And Johnson..... stares blankly as the puck slides past him. By this point Sergei's been tripped and he's celebrating the goal by lying on the ice. 5-4 Habbies. I should mention that the Habs did get an icing call against them with 12 seconds left to go and Ovechkin did hammer a shot at the net which went just wide... if that had gone in.... well, never mind that.... Can we say "Oh my god, I can't believe that Sergei's goal went in and we actually beat the Caps?" Good.

So.

The gooood

1. WIN. Especially a hard fought win like this one. It's good for the Habs.
   
2. I still think that the powerplay was good....I mean... considering that it worked at all is still amazing....
   
3. Plekanec scoring TWICE! Now why can't he do that more often?
4. No odd man rushes...
5. I think Halak had to come up with better saves than Johnson did... and he looked pretty good out there again minus a couple of shaky moments but c'mon, he's not freaking superman here...
6. 59 minutes and 39 seconds of playing time gets you a win
   
7. No fights with Semin!
   
8. Actually.... no fights at all!
   

The BAD

1. BRISEBOIS. I'm sorry, but that total give away to Semin was just plain awful. It's going to take a lot of work to erase that mess out of my mind. Can't we please find a better guy to play on defense? Make Weber learn how to play defense better so we can get him instead of Brisebois. I can't stand too many more of these horrendous displays of hockey...
2. everyone is still ruining Ovechkin's name... *sighs*
   

Question of the hour

1. How will the Habs do against the Bruins now? Surely we wont' lose 6-1 on Tuesday.......?

Question for the next hour

1. So much for vacation. Carbo was going to go to Florida for a mini break during the All Star thingy but since the Habbies beat the Caps in regulation time, the Habbies apparently have a better winning percentage which means Carbo's going to the All Star Game as assistant coach to... Erm.. Claude Julien. Do you think Carbo and Julien will get into a shouting match this time around? I'm guessing what happens on Tuesday may have some affect on that outcome....
   

Around the league in two minutes

• FILATOV GOT A HAT TRICK. A HAT TRICK! In his sixth NHL game. Mason was in nets again to help squash the Wild 4-2. Can you imagine where this team could be in a couple of years with Mason and Filatov on the team? Scary....Did I ever mention that I love watching Filatov play? *g*
  
• Leafs lose. Again. Surprised yet? Me neither. Flyers beat them this time. And people wonder how the Flyers got all their points... Why they beat teams like Atlanta and the Leafs on a regular basis that's how! Ooo! Yeah, it's sarcasm hour again.
  
• Sens get blanked. At home. To the Rangers. Surprise of the game? They called up a newbie to be the goalie. No it wasn' Schenn. Poor newbie did the best he could but the Rangers still beat them. Not the newbie's fault that his team got blanked.
  
• Florida won 8-4 against the Thrashers with a five goal scoring palooza in the third period.
  
• Nashville beat the Blackhawks 4-1. I guess the Blackhawks didnt really show up to the game...
  

Random info day again!

First off, I have to ask: Can one be "hockey-ed out"? Because I was bored stiff last night despite the fact that there were three different games to watch. Okay, so they just so happened to be the three most boring games on last night. I had the option of seeing if the Pens would put up their most embarrassing game to date by losing to Atlanta or if they would actually win one (they won), the Leafs losing to the Panthers (they did indeed lose) or the Sens try to find a way to win against the Sabres (they didn't). But anyway.... because I'm procrastinating on making lunch... a roundup of how yesterday went:

1. Pens finally stop their horrid losing streak with a resounding 3-1 win over.... the worst team in the league. Yay. Kovalchuk got the Thrasher's only goal in-between taking swipes at Malkin. What is it with Russian players trying to kill Malkin? I mean, maybe I can see Ovechkin doing it, but Kovalchuk? Weird. Didn't matter. Pens won. Not that I'm celebrating much. It's the Thrashers for crying out loud....
2. Sens lose. Again. This is getting old now...
   
3. Leafs lose. Again. Biggest surprise: they got two goals in!

And finally, it was the night of some interesting goalie stuff:

1. Wild are on a streak! Despite the silly name and the horrendous jersey colours, the Minnesota Wild appear to be back on track this month after a terrible December. Niklas Backstrom recorded his second straight shutout last night as the Wild beat the... wait for it... Boston Bruins. In Boston. Yay! It was the second straight loss for the Bruins who couldn't put the puck into a pile of empty nets against Miller and the Sabres earlier in the week.
2. Jose Theodore apparently was stellar for the Caps as they hung in and beat the Flyers in shootouts. After 65 minutes of play, the score was only 1-1 thanks to goals from Backstrom (no, he's not related to the Wild's goalie) and Coburn. Kolzov was the only one to score in the shootouts (*coughs neither Alex scored coughs*) but it was enough to see off the pesky Flyers. Too bad Ovechkin didn't score but oh well... as long as the Flyers lose.
   
3. Another former Habbies goalie, Huet, also had a good night as the Blackhawks stomped on the Coyotes 6-0. To quote headcoach Wayne Gretzky about the game "[the Blackhawks] are a pretty good team, first of all. They play hard and thank God we're done with them." As a random side note: the Blackhawks have outscored the Coyotes 20-4 in their matchups this season. Oopsies.
   
4. Unfortunately Steve Mason lost the battle of the goalies with Ty Conklin as the Red Wings recorded three goals in the third period to shutout the Columbus Blue Jackets. When does Filatov get to play full time with the Blue Jackets?!
   
5. And finally.... Evgeni Nabokov was pulled for the first time this season as the Flames burned the Sharks 5-2 in Calgary last night. Guess it was the night of the top teams losing.

And the biggest news of last night? The Sens' Jarkko Ruutu decided to made a serious bid for "the most annoying antics of the season" award in the game against the Sabres. Of course, he would have had to have done something really whacko to top Sean Avery. So what does he do? He bit Sabres forward Andrew Peters on the hand so hard that he apparently went through Peter's glove and broke the skin. I guess the designers of the gloves never foresaw that one happening..... Peters made a huge production of it before leaving the ice to be bandaged up. Um, forgive me if I"m not dishing out loads of sympathy here. If I were Peters, I would go to the doctors and ask for a rabies vaccine. Just in case.

Enough of that now. I have a rant to go on actually.

Can we please stop treating Halak like this, please?

I'm incredibly annoyed with how Halak is treated in the media right now. Today's paper had the headline "Carbo throws Halak a lifeline" or something along those lines. Look, I know the guy has not played well in the last two games but I have to say this: the whole mess in New Jersey was definitely not entirely. I don't believe that if Price had been in nets the Habs would have won playing like that. Maybe the score would only have been 2-1 or 3-1 but they still would have lost giving up all those breakaways and oddman rushes. I've already stated that I think the team feels more comfortable when Price is playing and they do not do as well when it's Halak which only makes everything else worse.

The thing is, Halak can be good. We know it (or at least we should). He knows it. And I think the whole team knows it too. Right now the last thing the media should be doing is treating him like he's a terrible goalie who can't save the puck if his life depended on it.

No, his numbers do not look good right now - he's 6-6-1 - but let's just think about a couple of those games, yes?

Halak was in nets in that game against the still Mason-less Blue Jackets which should never have gone to shootouts. Halak was in nets when the Habs played the Flyers for the second time this season. They lost 2-1. I think I remember saying that the entire game was pathetic from both teams. Nobody was playing well that night. Halak was also in nets when the Habs went AWOL in that shutout loss to the AHL-Filled-Washington-Capitals. Another display of crappy playing from the entire team there. Halak was in nets when the Habs got completely embarrassed by the Tampa Bay Lightning - a game in which absolutely no offense was produced whatsoever and the Habs let St. Louis and Lacavalier steal the show at home. Halak was in nets for the loss to the Washington Capitals in which I thought he was very good but the Habs fell down in the last few minutes and got burned. Could have happened to anyone in nets. And Halak was also in nets for one of the many debacles against the Carolina Hurricanes in which I think the Habs really need to sit down and wonder what it is about the Hurricanes that makes them play like crap.

Now Halak was also in nets for that 6-1 rout of the Maple Leafs (which is more than I can say for a certain other guy when the Habs fell 6-3 to the same Leafs), that 3-1 win over the Panthers at home for the first time in I dunno how long, that 4-1 blasting of the Calgary Flames, that big 5-2 win over the Flyers and that OT win on the Sabres.

Am I the only one who notices that when the Habs have something prove - they wanted to show that they could beat the Panthers at home, Tanguay wanted that win against the Flames badly, no one wanted to go down 4 games in a row by losing the hated Flyers, and they battled hard for that win against the Sabres - they win, no matter who is in nets? I could go on and on about some of the stinkers that Price has put up this season but I won't. When the Habs want a win they win. They look past who's in nets and they freaking find a way to win.

The media does not say "Price lets Panthers come back into the game" or similar type of things when it's Price in nets and he does terribly. They find excuses and blame the entire team for the loss. When it's Halak and they lose it's all Halak's fault. NOT FAIR. I'm not saying he's wonderful and none of it is his fault. He needs to take his share of the blame for the losses when he's in nets. Oh and his share doesn't mean 90% of it.

Does Halak need to prove that he can rebound from tough games and play like we know he can? Yes. But does the team also need to come out and support him (read: stop playing lame defense like they've been doing the last two games)? YES. Right now everyone needs to step up and support each other and find a way to win tonight. They're good enough to beat the Rangers but they need to work as a team to do it.

Rant over. Time to talk tennis.

I have yet to see a full match this season but hey, it's only Doha right now and it's just the beginning of the season. Still, I will try to see a full match soon. Again, I missed Nadal rolling over whoever it was that he took on today. I also missed Murray and most of Federer's matches but I did catch the end of Federer's match. He didn't look quite as good as yesterday and even though Seppi did well - okay, okay, even though Seppi had spurts of goodness amid lots of bad playing - I think Federer could have done a lot better than the 6-3 6-3 result. But I digress. It's still better than poor Nole did in Brisbane. I refuse to read too much into this whole thing so far because it's pointless and silly. But on the other hand, I can't help but feel that Federer would benefit slightly by giving a strong performance here in Doha. If only to prove that he's not dead or dying anytime soon.