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...
  

Tonight's biggest challenge against the Capitals?

Getting Ovechkin's name right!!!!!!! I really hope that the Habs don't have to play the Caps too many more times because I'm going to go insane.... But on a different note that's more related to winning....

Pre-game rant

This is Halak's third time facing the Caps and I"m hoping that third time is the charm and they win. Obviously it takes something very special to blank the Ovechkin/Backstrom/Semin filled Caps and Steve Mason is just that good (I mean c'mon... SIX shutouts?) But I don't care if the Habs blank the Caps. They won't do it anyway. But I want a wiiiiin.

1. Obviously shutting down the offense is going to be key to winning tonight. No offense= no shots = no goals = no win, right? Right. I think the Habs were very close to winning or at least having a shot at grabbing a point in OT or shootouts last time, but a total lack of finish doomed them...
2. Which brings me to my second point. Remember people: YOU NEED TO PLAY SIXTY MINUTES!!!!!!!!!! Something which you didn't do against the Leafs.... it was still 59 minutes and thirty seconds. Yes, I'm still harping on that second goal....
3. Also, if the powerplay would be so kind as to work again tonight, we just may have a decent shot at winning. If I remember right, the Caps gave the Habbies something like eight powerplays last time which they completely failed to convert on. POWERPLAY NEEDS TO WORK.
4. Oh and definitely play a more disciplined game tonight than that mess against the Leafs. No giving the Alexes a chance to score on the powerplay.

Oh and don't forget:

1. Stay away from Semin as much as you possibly can. It's already painfully apparent that he won't have a career as a bongo player even if that's where he seems to be headed these days. There's no need to totally crush his not-so-secret ambitions.
   
2. And definitely stay away from the boards if you're anywhere near Ovechkin. Unless you want a concussion of course....Hey, maybe Sergei can get Ovechkin to knock out Grabovski for him? Actually I was more in favour of the idea of setting Jarkko Ruutu lose on him... but I digress....
   
3. And if it's Theodore in nets tonight... SCORE A PILE OF GOALS ON HIM! NO SHUTOUTS FOR THEODORE!

And you thought the Habs were creative losers, eh?

As a Penguins fan, I'm dying right now. Since the beginning of the new year the Penguins have been threatening to break out and soar to the top of their division where everyone thought that they would be long before now. I mean, after all a lot of the core members of last year's team are still around and they really do have some of the most talented players in the league on their team (comes from being horrid for a pile of years in a row which allowed them to grab a lot of good players in the drafts). Unfortunately, the Penguins have decided to do the exact opposite of what everyone expected of them. Yes, people, the Penguins have LOST AGAIN today! Looking at it just from this year - however short it may be so far - it's been awful. The Pens couldn't capitalize on a sub par offensive display by the Habbies (well, minus a very hot Andrei Kostitsyn who got himself a nice hat trick in that game*g*) and instead posted a sub par powerplay which did nothing at all to get the puck past a very good Price (sorry, Pens). They followed that up by getting rolled over by the Bruins in back to back games. They didn't show up against the Panthers at all. They did manage a win against the Thrashers, but um... it's the Thrashers, yes? And Kovalchuk was beating up on Malkin big time which was just plain sad. Somewhere in there the Pens also got blanked by the Rangers. Oh and the Pens were felled stupidly by the Predators who outshot them and crawled back into the game with FIVE unanswered goals.

And what happened today? THEY LOST AGAIN! To the injury plagued Avalanche... AvalancheS... the guys from Colorado. The good news - if there was any - was that we've finally got something from Crosby and Malkin who have been dead on the scoring department. The bad news is that the team didn't produce enough effort to keep them in the game. Getting one goal a period is okay only if the other team is scoring less. Sadly, the Avs got one goal in the first period, three in the second and one more in the third. Whahoo... so much for the Avs stinking big time without a pile of players.... Sabourin and Fleury have been taking turns getting the starting job and getting yanked half way through... this is getting really sad... I think the Pens should trade Staal for a defenseman who can actually do something. Staal's not doing a heck of a lot and I think it's partly because he hasn't had the opportunity to play with decent players enough.

Tennis Talk

MURRAY WON. It was 6-4, 6-2. Like you expected anything else once Rafa and Roger flamed out? At least Roddick almost hung in their for the first set. I actually liked how Roddick did at first but then... of course we all knew that Murray was just going to come up with some better shots than Roddick was and Murray was going to be able to move around the court better than Roddick too. Have no fear, we've only got.... Four or so months before Roland Garros rolls aroun and then someone we want to win will win for sure... maybe... hopefully? *wails* Boo.....

Mikhael Grabovski the goalie jabbing street figher!

Not that I'm one to dwell on things or anything but I couldn't help but bring this up again. Especially considering what the guys said to the media afterwars. Okay so I'm looking for something else to do because Federer keeps making stupid unforced errors against Murray. ANYWAY! Not only did Mikhail Grabovski get the Daniel Briere treatment here in Montreal, but as you all know, he also had a spat with Sergei Kostitsyn (again) which lead to the two of them taking a 10 minute misconduct penalty at the end of the third period. I suspect that at least one of them may be getting fined or suspended for knocking around the officials too. (EDIT: Yup, Grabovski got suspended for three games. Sergei doesn't seem to have gotten anything.) The reasons why the fans hate Grabovski could fill a small book but evidently Sergei had a different reason to go after him.

“He talks too much in the Russian papers about me and my brother,” Sergei said after the game.

So now it's not enough that the two of them have to go at it in Belorussian on the ice. Now they have to diss each other in Russian too? Why the Russians even care about what these guys have to say about each other is beyond me.

For his part, Grabovski had this to say about the whole thing: "I think he is not Belarussian now, he is French because I never fight with Belarussian guys. I don’t know why he wants to fight with me. If he wants to fight, we’ll go in the street and every minute of every day I’ll wait for him and we’ll fight.” He also added why he's only got an issue with the younger of the two brothers: “He’s not smart, because the older Kostitsyn, Andrei, he never fights with me and he never will fight because he plays hockey, he plays the game. I think it’s stupid.”

Oh and he had to this to say about the fans reactions to him “Everyone in Montreal hates me now because I play for Toronto. Enjoy if Montreal wins the Stanley Cup this year, but I’m happy to stay in Toronto; it’s my team now and I don’t care about Montreal."

If I may point out one tiny correction as a fan and that whole "everyone hates me because I play for Toronto now" thing: Everyone hates you because 1) you up and left the team before a game because you didn't like the fact that you didn't get enough ice time 2) you joined another team. Fans don't really care which team it was. You could be playing for the Dallas Stars and the fans would still hate you 3) you jabbed Carey Price last time you played the Habs 3) you got a goal an assist in that game which was a complete embarrassment for the Habs and the fans hate it when the Habs get totally embarrassed. Especially when it's to the Leafs. 4) You play for Toronto. Minus all that other stuff, you're still going to get hated because you play for the Leafs. And now 5) you say stuff about the Kostitsyn brothers to the Russian media. The fans may not speak one word of Russian but they hate the idea of someone dissing their players. Don't you know the rule? Only the fans can diss the player. Current or otherwise.

Anyway.... moving on to something else....

Price is still not ready to come back. While I'm liking the direction that Halak is going in this time around, I still want Price back really badly. Especially considering the Habbies are playing the Caps and the Bruins next....

I also really don't get the deal with the staff not telling everyone what type of injuries the players have. I don't see how it helped or hurt anyone by not saying what type of injury Koivu had (it just annoyed the heck out of the fans). It's apparent that it was fairly serious. Serious enough to keep him off the ice for a couple of weeks. He's still not ready to play and won't be around tomorrow for the Capitals game here at home. *sighs* With Koivu and Higgins returning to the lineup soon it will be time to start considering which Hammies get sent back. But my brain is too tired to think about that now.

And the day wouldn't be complete without a mention about tennis.....

1. Roger lost to Murray. Not exactly unexpected but the 6-7, 6-2, 6-2 loss was kind of.... not so cool... The amount of unforced errors was just not fun. And maybe it was just me but Federer just didn't look into the match for a lot of it - minus the first set obviously. Which featured some great tennis from both of them. I fully expected and I continue to expect Murray to be the one guy who lights up the tour from now until at least the clay court season. What he can do after that remains to be seen. Obviously I'm not going to read too much into the first tournament of the year. Too early. I'm finding it hard to get excited over the Australian Open right now. I think it's the weather difference. When we're buried in a meter of snow here and they have to worry about dying of heatstroke in Melbourne it's hard to relate.... *g*
   
2. Andy will now take on... Andy.... I'm expecting the same results from Shanghai. Murray wins but loses second set. Roddick did look good out there against Monfils but he has no chance against Murray. Unless whatever back problem Murray had today is worse for the finals.
   

Now tell me you didn't like that game

Go on. Say it. What was there not to like? The Habs squashed the Leafs. Halak was good. Ron Wilson looked ready to go off and die....

Oh, you thought I was talking about the Penguins/Predators game? Well, that was awful, yes. Pens should never have allowed 5 consecutive and completely unanswered goals against them. Sheesh.

As the NHL site thing so nicely put it "six different Canadiens found the back of the net en route to a chippy 6-2 dismantling of the Maple Leafs". Chippy? Is that like perky? Yeah, I guess someone was perky after that totally nice game.

Okay fine. So the penalties sucked. The fact that the second period dragged on for twice as long was annoying beyond belief and was making me wonder if all this effort was worth it - especially for the Leafs who were just delaying their inevitable defeat. And what's the deal with Sergei Kostitsyn and Mikhail Grabovski? I thought the whole thing with Malkin and Ovechkin was silly but this definitely tops that. Almost makes you want to speak Belorussian so you can know what insults they're throwing at each other. Almost. But the important stuff is that 1) the Habs squashed the Leafs. 2) they did it with Halak in nets and 3) Ron Wilson looked ready to go off and die.

Let's start from the beginning, yes? The game got started oh so late because the Habbies decided that they wanted to honor the long standing rivalry that the two teams had. Lots of nice applause, especially for Jean Beliveau. Very nice, yes, but can we please start the game now? We're already running almost half an hour behind and I would like to go to sleep at a decent hour tonight!

I want to say that I love Toskala. He made so many errors tonight that it was impossible for the Habs not to capitalize on at least... 5 of them. I'm only slightly kidding here.

Sergei opened up first of many goals tonight when Toskala was caught half way out of his net trying to... I have no idea what he was trying to do, honestly. He was obviously paying more attention to Brisebois and Andrei but Sergei takes the puck which I think rebounded off of Toskala when Andrei took a shot at him and plonks the puck into the half empty net so nicely provided by Toskala. Oh and this was technically a powerplay goal by the way. Another plus of the night. Lapierre then took a stupid penalty for interference and the Habs were able to kill it. As soon as Lapierre got out of the penalty box he took a pass from Hamlrik and put the puck over Toskala's shoulder. 2-0 for the Habbies. Unfortunately Weber was soon to take another bad penalty and within seconds of him being in the box, Kaberle rammed the puck from the blueline and put it past Halak. 2-1. That would be the last time until the end of the third period that the Leafs were going to score though. We'll just pretend that it wasn't Weber in the penalty box, okay? He wasn't awful tonight. I mean.. he wasn't brilliant beyond belief but what were expecting? The hockey gods in disguise as Weber? Jeez.... Anyway, at this point I was wondering how many times Toskala was going to provide the Habs with a chance to score a goal as he kept getting caught leaving half of the net open. Well, just as I was voicing my complaints, there was a huge gathering in front of the net, Toskala gets caught off balance again and Latendresse put the puck away. And that people would make it a lovely 3-1 going into the second period.

By all accounts the second period was a mess. Well, okay it started beautifully. Kovalev decided that it was high time to stop hitting the posts and he finally got a nice goal into the back of the net. Oh wait. He had one last night too. Maybe this is the start of something good? Anyway, it was nice. Anyway, after that nice goal, it became a mess. 14 penalties were dished out in all. Yes, yes, 7 each. Finger went off for roughing, after Boullion had gone off for tripping. They were followed by White, Blake, Plekanec and Sergei who all got 10 minutes for misconduct. I completely missed the big deal there. And they were then joined by Kostopoulos and Mayers who got into a fight and about two seconds later Boullion and that new guy that the Leafs got joined them too for fighting. Oh and apparently the Habs "abused the officials" at some point in there and they took a penalty for that. AND THEN! Grabovski went and took a high sticking call about thirty seconds after that. Just when I was hoping that the game would get back on track, the Leafs get a penalty for too many people on the ice. And guess what? The Habs scored on the powerplay. Lang does all the work getting to the net, he either attempts at a pass to Andrei or else he actually takes a shot at Toskala but either way, Andrei is right at the net by this point and the puck touches his stick as it goes. It wasn't pretty but it was a nice goal to have. Oh and to complete the penalties, Latendresse took a hooking call with less than a minute to go in the second. Bah. In case you were wondering about Halak... he came up with some big saves in the second period. I think he's looking good again.

After what could only be called an exhausting second period, things toned down a lot in the third. By this point everyone was tired and ready to go home and Toskala had been yanked for Joseph. In all fairness to Joseph, he did fair better than Toskala. Mind you, some of it was luck. Latendresse had a shot on a half empty net that rang off the post. So sad. Lapierre had a swipe at him which deflected off his arm or something. But guess who finally put the puck past Joseph? Pacioretty. He was standing in front of the net when the puck deflected off a sprawling Joseph and he put it nicely away. Okay so his stick also broke in the process but no one cares about that as long as the puck went in. Poor D'Agostini had a great chance a goal but got robbed when Mitchell took a swipe at him. Mitchell went off for slashing after that. Meh, they should have just awarded a goal to D'Agostini. It wasn't like the Leafs were escaping with a win tonight. Poor Matt.

The end of the period was another mess and Grabovski and Sergei had another go at each other. I guess it was too much to hope for that they were just going to call it quits for the night. I dunno why Sergei got ten minutes for misconduct when it was Grabovski that was the one skating around swearing in some language or other - I wish that there were mikes down near the ice - and pushed the refs around. It's kind of sad because there can't be that many players from Belarus and these two end up fighting every time they see each other. Kind of sad. Kinda. Lapierre and some other guy from the Leafs were also sent off for two minutes for something. Didn't matter. Stajan got a weird flukey goal in past Halak but no one cared that much. It was 6-2 for the Leafs and there was thirty seconds left. For Halak's sake, I wish that the goal hadn't gone in, but he really couldn't have done anything on that one with a pile of people blocking his way. It was a minor blemish on an otherwise very good night for him.

SO!

The gooood -

1. 6 -2 win for the Habbies. It was a nice way to avenge that embarrassing loss. I like the Habs when they are motivated. Can we be motivated all the time now? Please?
   
2. Halak. You know the Leafs actually outshot the Habs 32 to 29? Now tell me that you still hate Halak. Go on. Just tell me also where you live so I can come and shout at you.
   
3. Is it wrong to say that I take imsense pleasure in seeing Ron Wilson upset? I just do. I'm sorry. I can't help it.
4. I liked that six different Habbies scored
5. again, the powerplay wasn't awful tonight. 2 for 7 isn't bad for a team that's 27th in the league on powerplay goals... *coughs*
   

the baaaad

1. penalties
   
2. penalties
3. penalties
4. I guess the Habs just couldn't put up a repeat performance of the very disciplined play that they had in Madison Square Gardens? WHY THE HECK NOT?! It's a waste of effort to get into fights with the Leafs. They can pick as many fights as they want. It didn't help them one bit in scoring last night. Not one.
   
5. letting the Leafs get two goals in. Especially that last one.
6. that the Habbies didn't win 8-2. They could have done it! I'm joking... 6-2 is still great.. but still... when I think of all the open nets that Toskala left for them.... oh man.... the potential to be an even bigger washout was so there..... *sighs*
   

the interesting

1. The Habs have now technically scored 18 goals in their last three games. I say technically because that one against Florida was went to shootouts. Although, I guess it still would count as six goals as Markov was the only one to score... hehe... Anyway,18 goals is a lot of scoring, yeah?

I got a proposal for Brian Burke (in all my grammticaly incorrect glory)

1. Trade Toskala for a forward who can make it to the net and score. Oh and there's no need to put in Curtis Joseph as goalie. You've got Luke Schenn who is clearly a heck of a lot better than Toskala is at keeping the puck out of the net. I mean c'mon... that goal would have SO gone in if the guy hadn't been there to stop it with his foot.....I mean helloooo? Who's the goalie here? Toskala or Schenn? 'cause if I remember correctly it was Schenn in the nets and Toskala looking lost again.
   

There was something else I wanted to say but my brain is dying right now and I can't remember what it is.... but I do have to mention a couple of other things before my brain totally freezes...

TENNIS!

1. Nadal is out. Lost to a very chippy Gael Monfils. It was kind of sad but Rafa really got out of his comfort zone today. And a Rafa out of his comfort zone is a very bad Rafa.... Seriously... He made a lot of errors at really bad times whereas Monfils was the opposite. Errors, erros, errors, ooo big moment coming up! Time to get a winner! Also.. what the heck is with this shirt that Rafa's been wearing in this tournament? It looks like something Federer would wear. I mean, look at it. It has SLEEVES! And a COLLAR. And funny STRIPES. The only explanation that I have is that Nike thinks that Rafa is Roger now that he's no 1 and gave him the wrong shirt to wear. YUCK!
2. Speaking of Roger and clothes...Have I ever mentioned how much I detest this latest outfit that' he's got? I hated since I first saw it in Shanghai and I still hate it now. Moving on... I was not a huge fan of that second set of Federer's against Kohlscreiber or something that's spelled similar to that. The first set was good for Federer and terrible for the Gemand but then Federer started making errors and the German dude started picking it up and the next thing you know, it's 5-1 on in the tie break for the German. Well, Federer put to rest any thoughts that this was going to a third set and he started playing like the future no 1 that he is. So it was byebye Mr. German guy and hello to the semis for Federer.
   
3. The semis will see Roddick and Monfils on the top half of the draw and Federer and Murray (who ran over some poor Ukrainian guy in the quarter finals). I think we'll see Murray and Roddick in the finals. Boohoo.... Not that anyone cares about Doha. We're all waiting for the Australian Open!
   

Breaking news: Halak doesn't implode against Rangers!

For everyone who had question marks about Halak and the Habs coming into this game in Madison Square Gardens I have one thing to say: HAHA!

Not only did Halak play a billion times better than he did in the last two games, but the rest of the team actually played really well tonight too. Among the nicer moments of the game were TWO powerplay goals from the Habbies (forgive me for getting excited, but I would have been happy with just one powerplay goal. Something we haven't seen since... uh... a while....) and a hat trick for Lang who now leads the Habbies in scoring. Not bad for a guy who just turned 38 a couple of weeks ago. On the night that Mats Sundin (finally) made his season debute with the Canucks, it was nice to see the previously considered "after-thought" proving that the Canadiens don't need the big Swede in their lineup.

But I'm getting ahead of things now. I dunno if it was just me or what, but people in New York are not big on the cheering department. At least not tonight anyway. It was really quiet in there tonight for the most part and it got a lot quieter when Lundqvist made a big error that cost his team their first of six goals tonight. He came behind the net to clear the puck but Kovalev got in the way and so Mr. Goalie clears the puck in the other direction and it lands on the stick of.... Max Pacioretty who may have grown up being a Rangers fan but tonight he was a Hab. And a good one too. He then passed the puck back to Kovalev who had now circled back and was standing in front of an empty net. No way Kovalev was going to hit the post this time. That would take some real skill not to get the puck in there. So in the puck went. Up when Lundqvist's shoulders in annoyance and it was now Habs 1 Rangers 0.

The Habs were looking good until 17 minutes into the game, when the Rangers decided to play 'let's see how many people we can knock around without taking a penalty' around, and consequently Halak got booted out of the net and Markov went down and the Rangers scored on basically an empty net. Yeah. Being the biased person that I am, I thought that the Rangers should have taken a penalty for knocking either Markov or Halak but anyway... call it a consolation goal. Hamlrik and Latendresse were to put away any thoughts of this period ending in a tie. Hamrlik ripped the puck at Lundqvistl. It rebounded quite far off him and lookie who was there to grab the rebound and sink the puck into the back of the net. Oh yes: Latendresse. Habs 2 Rangers 1.

By all accounts the second period was pretty good for the Habs too. Even though the Rangers woke up some more, the Habs were still getting the puck to the net and registering some good shots on goal which were all stopped by Lundqvist. Halak came up with some brilliant saves but Callahan finally put one past him. I think of all the goals this was the one that probably had people thinking "Oh great. Here we go again... Habs are going to crumble". Well, they didn't. It was the only goal of the entire period. The Habs did have one powerplay in here but it was so awful that I won't even say anything about it. So it was Habs 2 Rangers 2

Hard to imagine that the Habs would record four more goals before the night was out but they did. Early in the period Voros was sent off for hooking. Now here's the great part. Voros gets sent off at 2:39. Three seconds later - I'm serious - Markov gets the pass from Plekanec and ripped it past Lundqvist. And that people was a glimpse of the powerplay of Christmas past. Uh... don't know where that came from...and maybe that goal would have gone in no matter how many Rangers were on the ice. BUT WHATEVER! Anyway, it was a very pretty goal and it was nice to see a goal on the powerplay for once. It got better though. Callahan was sent off for hi-sticking and he was soon joined in the penalty box by Gomez. So it was 5 on 3 now for the Habbies. Andrei Kostitsyn and Markov take a couple of swipes on the left side of Lundqvist before the puck winds up on the other side of the net where Lang is pattiently waiting for the puck. In the puck went. First goal of the night for Lang. And second goal on the powerplay. Nice.

Rozsival had to go and make things not so nice when he took a quick pass in front of the net from Zherdev and ripped it past an unready Halak. Can't blame Halak for that one. There was no way he was getting that one. Someone should have been on top of that. There was mild cheering in MSG but I think everyone had a feeling that the Rangers weren't coming out the victors in this one. I mean, they tried. They really did. But it was no use. After a brief scuffle behind the net, Boullion and Zherdev were sent off for something and it was now 4 on 4. After trading some shots back and forth, the play finalyl made its way back to the Ranger's zone. Lang grabbed the puck, skated around Marc Staal like he was just standing still, and put the puck over Lundqvist's shoulder. 5-3 for the Habbies!

At this point the Habs decided to make things difficult for themselves as they took two straight penalties from Hamrlik and Komisarek. So because it was almost the end of the game, Lundqvist was pulled and the Rangers enjoyed the extra player(s). The Habs played excellently on trying to kill the last bit of time for the most part. The Rangers almost got themselves a goal. But thanks to Kovalev and Halak, the puck was stopped right on the line and play wasn't even stopped - and the refs who had been a little sleepy all night were standing right behind the net to see it not go in. At this point Lang again got the puck and this time he put it away into the empty net with 37 seconds to go in the third period. Habs 6 Rangers 3.

I liked this game a lot. Not only because of the scoring but I liked the effort. I like what the Habs do when they put in the effort and work as a team. It makes me love them again! The thought of where this team could be sitting in the league if they put up efforts like that every night scares me. Well, it doesn't really. But you know what I mean. Right? Right. Anyway, no matter what you say about Halak and the goals that did go in, I'm going to think positively for once and remember the goals that did NOT go in. I mean, c'mon people, would you rather Halak had played like Lundqvist? Of course not. Give the guy some credit. Stopping 36 out of 39 shots is good. Especially when you compare that to 19 out of 25 shots......

What concerns me at this point is what are the Habs going to do when they play the Leafs tomorrow? Barring the fact that they will be tired, my main concern is that they won't be motivated to beat the Leafs. I would hope that they are considering what happened last time they played, but we all know that the Habs have a huge tendency to go off and die against weaker teams. They have to come out and try as hard as they can against the Leafs. They just have to. It's the Leafs!!! But I'll whine about that tomorrow.

The good -

• H-A-L-A-K.
• POWERPLAY! For once!
  
• The Kostitsyn brothers + Lang
  
• Speaking of Lang... Lang's hat trick was a nice way to squash the Rangers
  
• Kovalev showed signs of life for real this time tonight. I think Pacioretty being really motivated to play tonight might have helped. Or maybe it was that early goal (is it just me or do Russians have a thing with needing to get a goal early to stay motivated? Malkin is the exact same) Whatever the reason... Kovalev was awake. Good.
  
• Chipchura had a couple of good moments out there even though his line was not really that active.

The bad -

• Um... There wasn't that much that was bad. There were almost no stupid turnovers. No powerplay goals against them. I guess Callahan's goal should have been stopped but I guess you could say that all of them should have been stopped....
  
• I didn't like those two penalties at the end. It was a really bad time to get them and it could have resulted in things turning out not so nice.
• The quiet fans. Early on it looked as though the players were having trouble getting into the game. I think a noisier crowd would have gotten them going earlier.
  
• I'm guess Lundqvist is going to add this one to the (large) list of games that he would like to forget. It's kind of a pity from his point of view, considering that the Rangers just came off of a 4-0 blanking of the Pens. But oh well... that's only bad if you're a Rangers fan.
  

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.

Back to reality...

...and honestly, the reality of the situation for both the Habs and the Pens is very grim right now.

Let's start with the Pens because at least their situation is worse. Amid all the attention focused on the Juniors, I did indeed forget that the Pens were looking to end their four game loser skid last night against the Rangers at Madison Square Gardens. Not only did not they win, but they were shut out 4-0. This is of course terrible news for the Pens and I have no idea what needs to be done to get them back on track - and at this point, I don't think they know either. Obviously Lundqvist deserves a lot of the credit as well and he proved me wrong when I said he was on a downslide (well, until last night, he was!). Apparently he had some really fantastic saves on Malkin and Crosby. Pens will take on Atlanta next and if they can't pull out a win there then.... well... we'll deal with that one when and if it happens....

Now this whole shutout thing for Lundqvist has me exceptionally worried as a Habs fan because well, guess who we have to take on next! Why do we have to clean up after the Pens again?! The reality of the situation here is that we've got major goalie issues right now. There were hopes that Price could at least sit in as backup tomorrow and possibly play against the Leafs the day after but now it's looking like he won't be able to do either of those. And that people, is bad news. Halak is going through a major crisis here and right now no one has any confidence in him. Why anyone thinks that putting in Marc Denis is going to save the Habs against the Rangers and the Leafs is beyond me because he looked a lot worse than Halak. Halak may have been bad but at least he wasn't floundering around looking like he had no idea what he was doing in nets.

I don't know what the deal is with Halak because he's been stellar for the Habs before when Price had his last little bout of problems. But I still think that he should at least be given another try - hey look, if Pat Quinn can put in Dustin Tokarski for the finals even after he let in 9 goals in his previous two games and looked awful at some points, I think Carbo can put in Halak - and we'll just pray that the defense gets its act together and actually backs him up. The defense has been quite bad in the last two games and that needs to change.

Later: Halak will be in nets tomorrow. No news on when anyone is coming back other than Koivu who may just be back on Saturday. Although we all know how good Carbo is at giving estimates on when players are coming back.... *coughs* Weber apparently practiced with the Habbies today and I'm really hoping that he's given at least a shot at playing. I mean c'mon, what was the point of bringing him up if he's not going to play? If he's just there to sit it out in the press box, I think O'Byrne was doing that job just fine, thanks. We shall see... As long as 1) Lundqvist forgets how to play again and 2) no one pulls an Alexander Semin type of "fight", we have a chance at not being the laughing stock of the league tomorrow. Whooopie!

Okay, enough reality. It's depressing already. I'm going to put up a few random thoughts on the Juniors tournament last week.

Best moment - Winning the gold, right? Right.

Best goal of the tournament - Eberle's goal with 5.4 seconds left on the clock! Esposito's game winning goal against Sweden was also really nice. And Tavares had some nifty goals in the tournament too, but Eberle's is definitely the best.

Best save of the tournament - oh my.... I think Tokarski's save on Colin Wilson in the Canada/USA game was the best. Wilson was just standing there for what seemed like forever and it looked as though for sure he would put the puck into the back of the net, but Tokarski just grabbed it out of nowhere. Amazing. Okay so maybe he didn't know that he had it at first but whatever. He saved it!

Best game - Canada vs Russia. Like I've said repeatedly, that one is one for the ages.

Best team - Canada. Russia, the USA and Sweden all had some very talented players on their team but in the end Canada played the best as a team. They had their moments though. There were times when they looked like a bunch of guys who had just been plonked together about a week ago. There were times when it looked like all was lost. But they pulled through as a team and won it.

Most surprising team - Slovakia. Expectations were that they would get relagated but instead they posted one of the best performances in years from their team.

Most disappointing team - Team USA. They had a strong team and were definitely medal favorites and were even in a strong position to make the finals. Unfortunately they crashed out of the tournament and ended up fifth.

Best forward over all - Nikita Filatov. I love the skill that both Tavares and Filatov brought to this tournament but there's something really awesome about watching Filatov. He just moves the puck so well and he's incredibly fast too. His two goals against Slovakia were amazing. The one where he stole the puck off the Slovak defenseman and scored reminded me of the goal that Dastyuk got on Huet in the Winter Classic. Beautiful stuff there.

Best defense over all - I'm going to say.... I dunno *g* The Swedes had some excellent defenders as did the Russians. Goncharov and Backlund are coming to mind...

Best goalie over all - I'm going to say Jaroslav Janus. He carried that team to fourth place and came really close to bringing them to the finals even. He was amazing. Halak should be taking some inspiration here!

The team I really wished could have done better - Kazakhstan. Those poor guys didn't really have a chance but I wished that they could have at least not get run over by every single team that they played. Oh well...

Because it's always summer somewhere.... it's tennis season again!

We may have half a meter or more of snow here in Canada, but in Doha, Qatar, there's no such thing as snow so it's back to playing tennis, baby! Yesterday in marked the official beginning of the tennis season. And today saw Federer and Nadal finally take to the courts again! Finally! I didn't know that they were playing actually and I missed Nadal steamrollering over Fabrice Santoro (which was okay) but I did catch the end of the Roger Federer show today. And let me this: Roger is off to a great start! He looked really good at there against... whoever the poor Italian guy was. There were some typical great Federer shots going on and the poor Italian had no chance at all. I thought Federer just looked sooo much better than when he was in Shanghai. Hopefully the food poisoning stuff and back problems are over for now and he can make a serious bid for the Australian open. Yay for Roger!

Oh and poor Nole got beaten by Ernest Gulbis in Brisbane. Not a great start to the season obviously, but there's plenty of time for him to get his act together and beat Murray in the future.

My top 10 events for this year

...or half the year. I only came to this whole thing in April. Talk about late to the party...Anyway. The list. It's late because I was waiting to see what Team Canada could do.

1. Wimbledon final between Roger and Rafa. What can I say?It was one heck of a fantastic match that had me permanently hooked on tennis.
   
2. Spain winning the Euro Cup. That was really cool for Spain, who hadn't won in over 40 years. I was screaming for a while *G*
   
3. Canada vs. Russia in the World Junior Hockey Championship semi-finals. That was a game for the ages. Canada came very close to losing the tournament and seeing their four gold medal streak come to an end. But Jordan Eberle had a different idea and with just 5.4 seconds left in the game, he tied the goal. Canada ultimately won it in shoutouts but man... that game will be one for the ages!
4. Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. Pittsburgh showed a lot of determination in extending their stay in the finals. Sykora getting that goal in the third period of OT was really awesome. Okay, so I was actually asleep when he scored and missed the party but yeah.... sue me...
   
5. Federer winning the Olympic gold medal with Wawrinka. I've never seen the guy so incredibly happy after winning a match before.
   
6. Rafa winning the Olympics gold medal. That was a great way to pretty much finish off his amazing summer. Two grand slams, an Olympic gold medal AND the no. 1 spot? Come on...!
   
7. The Canada/US game in the round robbin stage of the Junior World event thing. Great hockey. Better than a lot of NHL games I've had to sit through...
8. That match in the round-robbin stages of the Tennis Masters Cup between Roger and Murray. Too bad Roger was again on the losing side of that one but it was a really good match nonetheless and it completely tired out Murray *g*
   
9. The Davis Cup final. Okay, so I didn't want Spain to win but you have to admit that it was quite the feat for the Rafa-less team to beat the odds and win it. Yes, it's very tragic for Argentina but hopefully that can get things together and win it another time.
10. Team Canada winning the Junior World Championship for the 5th time in a row and 15th time overall right here at home in Canada. Fantastic stuff!
    
11. Game 2 of the Montreal-Boston series in the Stanley playoffs. No, the game itself wasn't particularly amazing but I wouldn't be hear writing any of this stuff if it wasn't for that game. So it's SPECIAL *g*2