Now you've done it Colin

You've enraged the Bruins fans.

You thought you could only anger the Habs and the Caps fans by dishing out lame and unfair suspensions, eh? (and I suppose the Canucks fans were a little ticked off when you didn't suspend Ben Eager for his hit on Rick Rypien in the playoffs).

Well, you failed.

Congratulations.

Walker punches out Ward (the Bruins D-guy) and what do you do? Nada! Oh no. Ward was just standing there and Walker punches him for no reason (fine. So Walker claims that he was anticipating a fight. Wow. Right now, I'm anticipating blood flowing in Raleigh tomorrow). And Colin, this would have been a great time to show that you're not as inept as people have been claiming all playoffs long. But nooooo, you just want me to change your name to "Colin the Inept", eh? Well, I think you just may have done it now.

I'm sitting here loving every moment of this actually - in a pathetic, angry, sort of way. This whole playoffs has just proved to me, how inconsistent you have been in suspending players. It's pretty ridiculous really.

At least I know that you're not just biased against the Habs. You're just totally inept. That makes me feel slightly better. Sorta. Although if Komisarek had punched Ward like Walker had punched Ward, then he'd be suspended for life. As it is, you fined Walker a few thousands dollars and enraged the Bruins fans. Yeah, all three or four of them.

Great job, Colin.

Here we go again....

This series is starting to drive me up the wall. Why the hell did the Caps have to draw the Pens?

I do not like Crosby. If you like Crosby, great.

I am not anti-Canadian because I don't like him.

Yes, I feel bad that Crosby has been handled, hounded and manufactured since he could skate.

Yes, I believe he is a very talented player.

Yes, I think he has been over-hyped and he has been shoved down my throat here.

No, I am NOT a bandwagon Caps fan.

No, I don't just watch the Caps because I like Ovie. I like a lot of the other players on that team.

No, I do not like Ovie because I hate Crosby. I like Ovie because he's Ovie. And I dislike Crosby because he irks me.

Crosby and Ovie are mentioned too much in the same sentence. One has zippo to do with the other despite what the media says.

YES, I am getting tired of this Sid vs Ovie crap.

YES, I hate the media. More than before.

No, I don't appreciate intolorant and narrow minded people. Sports shouldn't be political or nationalistic and no matter how much you hate a team, you shouldn't go off and be a troll towards other fans.

Basically, I'm getting real tired of having to justify who I cheer for and why. Leave me alone, damnit. It's a free country. YES, it's again hitting me that les boys won't be back on the ice for another FOUR months and it's making me sad and grumpy. I want MY boys back so I can cheer and whine and talk about them, while quietly routing for the Caps.

BRING BACK MY HABS! (and leave the media and the trolls in Greenland, please)

Not done yet

The Caps aren't out of this yet.

Despite what I have to call a heart-breaking loss last night in OT, the Caps aren't out of this yet. They came back from a bigger deficit against the Rangers. Granted this Pens team is better. Way better. But the Caps only need to win one game to send it back home to Washington for a game seven. One game. Sixty minutes or more if needed. That's all we need to think about it. We don't need to think about "oh god, we're down 3-2 and the Penguins can win it at home tomorrow." No. We need to think "we only need to win this game to force a game 7. And then we'll think about that when it happens."

The second we think we're out of this then we are out. I believe the Habs thought this way after game 3 of the Bruins series. I think the series effectively ended with that loss in game 3. Not in game 4.

The Caps can do this. History and all those stats crap that the TV keeps spewing out will mean nothing tomorrow. We don't care if Ovechkin had five hits in the last game. We don't care if Crosby had 22 minutes of ice time in game three. None of that matters now. Game 6 will be a new game. Anything can happen in 60 minutes. The Caps have what it takes to win this game and this series. They need to make it happen and hope that luck or karma will be on their side.

GO CAPS GO

Haven't forgotten the Habbies

So I'm sitting here in a Caps shirt about to write up a post about what the Caps need to do to win tonight, when I remembered that this is supposed to be about the Habs. Not that I can't like the Caps too, but it's been surprisingly easy to forget about the Habs lately. The babble and obsession has died down, the minimal support in the form of flags, shirts and whatever, have mostly disappeared, the bandwagoners have crawled back into their little holes.... It's almost like we're ashamed to be a fan of our team because of how poorly they did in the post-season. While that's not my case right now, I've gone off and put my full support behind my second team. It's been Caps, Caps, Caps none stop now.

I felt kind of bad about that so to assauged said guilty, I went off to browse the Canadiens official site for no reason. Throughout the season I've been ignoring the "play off the week" thing on the Canadiens official site but last night I took a peek at the "plays of the year" thingy that you can vote for. Despite being in the middle of a Caps game, I looked at them all. As someone who actually saw all those plays either on TV or live (two of them were from the two games I saw live) - it really brought back a lot of the highs from this season.

Some of my favorites were... Lang deking out StaalClone3 en route to his second of three goals that night... Lapierre's cool shootout winner against the Sens (because I was sitting at the other end of the rink screaming at him to put it past Elliot so I could gloat about the Sens losing)...Sergei's last second goal against the Caps that sealed a win for us (because that game was freaking exciting. Forget Ovie vs Puffy).... any and all Priceberg saves (particularly the one on Ovie. If there is one thing I love more than an Ovie goal, it's my Priceberg robbing Ovie of a goal. Sorry Ovie). Okay so I liked them all.... =p The point is, while it's so easy to think that the year was such a huge bust, when I looked at those highlights, I remembered why I got excited about the team. I remembered why I loved them so much.

Sorry if this sounds sappy. I guess while it's great to back the Caps, they still aren't really *my* team and I'm missing my team a lot.

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

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

Oh yeah.

I couldn't believe it.

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

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

What does this mean?

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

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

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

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

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

Oh Colin and your magic boxes of suspending powers

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

Oh and....

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

Putting those voodoo dolls to good use

It's one of those games that you just HAVE to step on a voodoo doll. And stick him in the oven. And throttle him. I need an Eggplant one now.

A few questions about this whole team in Ontario thing

Let's pretend for a second that Balsillie does get to become the new owner of the Coyotes and as such he gets to moves them. Now what?

1. Exactly WHERE is he going to put the team? "Southern Ontario" covers a lot of area. Hamilton and Kitchner have been named by various people as potential places, but I haven't heard the guy who wants to buy the team actually say "this is where we're putting the team if we move it". Does he actually have a specific city in mind?
   
2. If he puts it within a certain distance of another NHL, I believe he will have to pay money to Maple Leafs and/or Sabres. How much money is that going to eat up? Is that going to hurt the franchise?
   
3. If he puts it in Hamilton, what will become of the Hamilton Bulldogs? Yes, I have a vested interest in my Baby Habs. I really don't think Hamilton can support both the Bulldogs AND this hypothetical NHL team. What is going to happen to my Hammies?
   
4. Of course putting another team in Ontario seriously messes with the divisions. How is that going to work exactly unless we ship the Islanders or the Thrashers off somewhere else?
   
5. Exactly what makes Balsillie think that Southern Ontario needs an NHL team anyway? He says there is an unserved market there. Looking at a map, I see Toronto, Detroit and Buffalo all nearby. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see an unserved market there.
6. Is this whole Gretzky thing going to be a major sticking point at some time? I seem to be the only person who doesn't think that he should be coaching but apparently someone decided that he is the face of the Coyotes. Will this be a problem in the move? Are we going to be stuck with a lousy coach because he's so heavily involved in the franchise in Phoenix?

Which brings me to a slightly off topic question:

Do we really need 30 teams in the league? Would the league be better off with less but more talented teams set in markets that can support them?

Jim Balsillie vs King Gary Take 3

Here we go again. I have no idea what he's done to tick King Gary off, but Balsillie isn't quitting apparently. Nope, when the Nashville bid failed, he didn't simply go home and cry about it. Well, maybe he did. I wouldn't know. But he's back now and he's trying to buy the Coyotes this time. 

This is turning into one of those tragic comedies, isn't it?

I don't get why King Gary doesn't just give him the damn team if he has the money to buy and sustain it. Even if it means the team will move to a half decent market for once, so what? God forbid the team might actually stand a chance of operating if it moved to another city... Sometimes I wonder if King Gary is just being stubborn about keeping NHL teams in the cities that HE wants them to be in....

As long as Balsillie doesn't put the team in Toronto, I'm all for having another team in Canada. C'mon, Gary. It's supposed to be our sport. Can't you let us have another team? Please?