EAT THAT SHARKS!

I'm still in shock here (I just wrote "shark" instead of "shock"). I can't believe that the Habs just beat the Sharks 3-2. In regulation time too. And after coming off a win last night in Philly.... wow...

I think I was in shock from the beginning, I guess, considering the Habs scored 3 goals in the first period. Markov got one when the Habs got their first and only powerplay. Gorges is finally not cursed when he scores a goal and he got went when D'Agostini did all the work getting the puck to the net. I really liked D'Agostini and Pacioretty tonight. And Koivu got a very nice goal when Boucher got caught way out of his net. Teaches him to stay put in his net.

I was not expecting that at all and I was just waiting for the Sharks to burst my bubble. They didn't totally disappoint. Within the first three minutes of the second period the Sharks got two goals. One on the powerplay courtesy of Komisarek and one 50 seconds later in some other fashion. Now THAT was the San Jose team that I was expecting in the first period. I wasn't happy to say the least and I spent the rest of the game freaking out and wondering when they'd score another fifty goals. Obviously they didn't and now I'm ready to go off and do my stick people. I forgot to do some for the Philly game mainly because I was too busy yelling at Niittymaki....even after the game had ended... hehehe....

Things I liked

• WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• HAAALAAAAAAK! When will people stop dissing him? I know that the first goal against him was rather icky and the second wasn't pretty but at the end of the night he stopped 46 out of 48 shots against the top team in the league. That's good, right? Right.
• D'Agostini and Pacioretty looked good, I thought.
• I liked that Gorges scored and that the Habs didn't lose. When he scored I was like "Oh crap... we're going to lose because whenever he scores, nobody notices because the Habs always lose". Congrats dude!
  
• Not quitting. Yes, I'm still dwelling on all those games that could have been won if the Habs had just tried to stay in the game.... *twitches*
• Limited penalties. Granted the refs missed some on both sides but still... there were very few called because there were very few instanced when people did stupid things that would warrant a penalty. Can you imagine what would have happened if the Habs had take as many penalties as they did against Philly? *twitches at the mere thought*
  
• I'm trying to think of something else but my brain is frozen....
  

Things I didn't like

• effort in the second period. Momentum went the way of the dodo and the Sharks immediately took control of the game and I was doing my best not to rip out my hair....
  
• defense.... horrible.....*twitches*
  
• Hey, Carbo, guess what? Sitting on leads is never a good idea. Especially when it's against the Sharks!!! I hope he quits that idea of trying to sit on a lead right now....
  
• Komisarek's penalty that lead to the Sharks first goal......You mister, need to work on your game. And fast.
  
• getting outshot 48 to 21. While this IS the Sharks, it's still sad *twitches*
• Thornton saying that the Habs couldn't "handle" and didn't know how to "play" the Sharks. Oh please... You may be "big and strong" and whatever else you said, but c'mon...You played like crap in the first period, Habs played well, Habs take 3 goals on your icky looking goalie (who at least had the decency to admit that Halak was amazing), Habs then fell asleep and you took over. Habs falling asleep is what they do best. It's not the Sharks being good. It's the Habs being dozy. And despite being dozy they still beat you....Get over it....! Man, I think I just dumped the Sharks as my Western Conference team to cheer for in the playoffs. I hope they lose in the first round ^__^ Why can't the top teams stop being arrogant twerps and admit that another team did well? Even *I* will grudgingly admit it if I think another team does well (please note that the Toronto Maple Leafs do not and will not count as an NHL team in my eyes). See side for comments by Claude Julien about the Caps. GAH! *twitches*
  

I'm sure there's more stuff but I've forgotten in my excitement....

Enemy watch:

• Stinky Sens lost in OT to the Maple Losers. I'm very pleased.
  
• Kovalchuk beat the Hurricanes. I'm uber pleased with this.
  
• Rangers ruined my life by beating the Avs 6-1. Congrats on the win, Torts.
  
• Islanders blanked the Sabres. Yes, I just said "Islanders" and "blanked" in the same sentence with the Islanders being the "doer" as supposed to the recipient. I guess the Sabres are in bigger trouble than we thought...
  
• Semin sunk the Big Bad Bruins in OT in what most people are calling a "flukey goal". Habs fans are calling it "Tim Thomas returns to the way he used to play last year" and thoroughly congratulate the Caps for beating the Bruins.
  
• Devils decimated the Panthers 7-2 in one sided game (put it this way, Brodeur should be ashamed of himself for only stopping 15 of 17 shots while Anderson faced a whopping 46 shots. What is this? The Habs vs just about any other team?!). Brodeur fails to earn his 100th shutout. Only the Devils fans are crying.
  
• Not that I generally care about Detroit, but right now they're losing 8-0 to Nashville.... I don't even know where to start on this one... Edit: 8-0 win for the Preds. Un-bloody-believable. So glad I don't cheer for the Red Wings... that's just.... wow... I mean... wow...LOSERS!
  

Why the Habs have to win tonight...

Call me the shallowest person on earth, but I want bragging rights when I head into Sensville tomorrow to give a Sidney Crosby shirt to a relative (it's like a bad joke "So a Habs fan walks into Sensville with a Crosby shirt....."). I want to be able to say that my Habs are NOT tanking and they will be infinitely cooler than the stinky Sens. But I can't do that without everyone coming up with a major "BUT" if they don't at least make a go of it tonight (hey Maple Losers, you want to be nice and beat the Sens?). Look, Habs, I know you just came off a tight win over the much loathed Flyers and you're probably all drained but c'mon... We're not just talking a crucial points tonight. We're talking the mental well being of your fans. And that's obviously way more important than you're physical and mental fatigue. You can do it.

C'MON HABS!

If Boston makes the finals, I know who to cheer for

ABB. Anybody But Boston. And right now, I'd love that anybody to be San Jose. Going into last night's game, I had never really watched the Sharks for more than 10 minutes (the last night I saw them they had 3 goals after less than 10 minutes against... I think it was Vancouver). I'm not even a Sharks fan at all.... BUT I couldn't help but see what they could do against Boston and I have to say that I loved how they played last night. And I loved how they played in the third period in particular. Boston was up 2-1 after the first period thanks to some whacko called Milan Lucic (I was half hoping he'd be injured for the rest of the year) and the score stayed that way until the third period when San Jose unloaded completely on the Bruins with 4 unanswered goals. Fine, so one of those goals went off Joe Thornton's toe and one was into an empty net. Big deal. It wouldn't have gone off of Thornton's foot if he hadn't been right at the net and it wouldn't have gone into an empty net if they Sharks hadn't been up 4-2 on the Bruins. The Bruins could have - ahem, SHOULD have - scored when they had a 5 on 3 powerplay but their powerplay sucked all night going 0 for 5 (Sharks went 1 for 1). I just loved how the Sharks pretty much completely shut down the Bruins in the third period. It was borderline beautiful hockey. Something I haven't seen in.... oh.... well..... a long time.....Boston had no real answers for them in the third.... Oh I know it's pathetic that I have to take this much pleasure in a Bruins loss but too bad... I can't help it... And San Jose was just so good in that period......

Ahhh......this could very well be the year that the Sharks actually get past the semis............ *dreams of seeing Detroit and Boston get creamed by San Jose* Oh San Jose you are my only true hope at playoff happiness this year...... *stares off into space*

someone snap me out of this when the Habs go to play the Oilers... actually on second thought.... maybe not..... I like this dream a lot....It's almost as good as the one where the Habs went bowling instead of practicing and after pretending that the bowling pins were every team in the league who has given them problems, they magically came back, cured of all ills, and decimated everyone in sight........

you know things are bad when....

...I start talking about Andy Murray. Sue me. I had to go and read about something other than how badly every other team I follow is doing. Anyway, so there was this thing that appeared in the Telegraph thing and Murray was talking about some of the things that he can do to improve his game and all that jazz. Apart from being more fit, Mr. Murray also wants to add a few pounds/kilos/whatever before things start going again in January. His plan for obtaining aforementioned objective?

"If I'm going to put on six pounds or so I'll have to eat loads, because I'm training for five hours a day," he said. "I'll be eating sushi, drinking protein drinks, eating those bars you have after a match. Mind you, my gran is cooking Christmas lunch, so I don't think that will be sushi." [taken from over here]

Either I'm missing something here or Murray actually thinks that he's going to gain weight by eating sushi. Dude, I'm living proof that you can't get fat by eating sushi.... Maybe he's planning on just putting it all on during his grandmother's Christmas meal? I know I'll probably pack on a few pounds on Christmas. Or maybe not. I'm still pushing for my grandmother to get sushi for Christmas but I doubt I'll be getting that either. Ah well...Murray's still got a while to go before he can keep up with Rafa.

Enough about Murray. I've finally got around to looking at the upcoming matches for the Davis Cup in March Here's who's going to play who:

Czech Republic vs. France
Argentina vs. Netherlands
U.S.A. vs. Team Roger Federer
Croatia vs. Chile
Sweden vs. Israel
Russia vs. Romania
Germany vs. Austria
Spain vs. Serbia

Should be fun as long as Argentina, Team Roger and Spain get through. Oh and Croatia too because I like Cilic. I think that France, Argentina, Croatia, Russia and Spain will be through for sure. I would like to see Team Roger get through, though I expect that the U.S. would have to be the favorites. And I have no idea about the Germany/Austria and the Sweden/Israel matchups. I didn't know that Israel even had any singles players...

In case you didn't want to hear about hokcey: Columbus beat San Jose in OT!!!! Like hello?! The BLUE JACKETS beat the SHARKS?! That's insane.... And of course it just HAD to be Umberger who got that OT goal... *rolls eyes*