...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*
Is it tennis season yet?
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
...because I can't watch too many more hockey games like last nights.
I don't know about you but I'm finding it a bit difficult to come up with the worst game of the season so far. I would like to nominate tonight's game however, as one of the worst for the Habs. They can thank the Hurricanes for being an awful team too for the reason that the game was only 3-2 at the end. The Habs took a total of 11 penalties tonight which severely limited their ability to score. Granted, at least one of those penalties shouldn't have been called but I think most of them were fairly called. I guess. Carolina should have taken a couple of penalties that they didn't... Anyway, all three of Carolina's goals came on power-plays which started with Staal scoring two in the first period. If you stand in front of the net you're bound to get a goal in at some point. And Staal did just that when he was presented with a half open net not once, but twice. I was hoping that things would get turned around in the third period and it sort of did. In between all the penalties that they got, the Habs were presented with a penalty shot which Latendresse took. I was kind of nervous here and wasn't expecting a lot, but he shot over Cam Ward's shoulder and into the back of the net. Things seemed to be doing okay later on when Kovalev finally got a goal after a face off in the Hurricanes end. But then things imploded and the Habs played lame hockey and took more penalties and it was lights out. Oh and of course Carolina scored again. It was some guy that wasn't Staal. What, you expect me to remember all the names of the players on the other team?
Oh well... I'm starting to be calm about this whole 'let's go on a losing spree' thing.
The good - Montreal's two goals plus Halak. Again, he looks like an idiot because the Habs went to sleep on him. He came up with some really good saves tonight. Okay, okay, he wasn't perfect. He's got issues with the rebounds and whatnot but seriously, you're telling me Cam Ward was a lot better?!
The bad - the rest of the game
The ugly - 11 penalties! That adds up to 22 mins that the Habs were at a disadvantage. That's over one whole period.
The stupid - Cam Ward leaving the net when a penalty was called.....not the Habs but for Carolina. Can't really blame him though, he was on auto-pilot and was just doing what he had been doing all night.
I don't know about you but I'm finding it a bit difficult to come up with the worst game of the season so far. I would like to nominate tonight's game however, as one of the worst for the Habs. They can thank the Hurricanes for being an awful team too for the reason that the game was only 3-2 at the end. The Habs took a total of 11 penalties tonight which severely limited their ability to score. Granted, at least one of those penalties shouldn't have been called but I think most of them were fairly called. I guess. Carolina should have taken a couple of penalties that they didn't... Anyway, all three of Carolina's goals came on power-plays which started with Staal scoring two in the first period. If you stand in front of the net you're bound to get a goal in at some point. And Staal did just that when he was presented with a half open net not once, but twice. I was hoping that things would get turned around in the third period and it sort of did. In between all the penalties that they got, the Habs were presented with a penalty shot which Latendresse took. I was kind of nervous here and wasn't expecting a lot, but he shot over Cam Ward's shoulder and into the back of the net. Things seemed to be doing okay later on when Kovalev finally got a goal after a face off in the Hurricanes end. But then things imploded and the Habs played lame hockey and took more penalties and it was lights out. Oh and of course Carolina scored again. It was some guy that wasn't Staal. What, you expect me to remember all the names of the players on the other team?
Oh well... I'm starting to be calm about this whole 'let's go on a losing spree' thing.
The good - Montreal's two goals plus Halak. Again, he looks like an idiot because the Habs went to sleep on him. He came up with some really good saves tonight. Okay, okay, he wasn't perfect. He's got issues with the rebounds and whatnot but seriously, you're telling me Cam Ward was a lot better?!
The bad - the rest of the game
The ugly - 11 penalties! That adds up to 22 mins that the Habs were at a disadvantage. That's over one whole period.
The stupid - Cam Ward leaving the net when a penalty was called.....not the Habs but for Carolina. Can't really blame him though, he was on auto-pilot and was just doing what he had been doing all night.
Blues waste chance to grab top spot
Sunday, December 14, 2008
No, not the St. Louis Blues. I'm going to bet you everything I have that they will not end up top of the league this season. They'll never make the top of their division either. Anyway, I'm talking about Chelsea here. After Liverpool made an almost come back against Hull City which fell flat and ended with a tie, the Blues had a great chance to grab the top spot in the Premier League by beating West Ham (they're sitting in 16th out of 20 teams). It had been quite some time since Chelsea had lost the top spot to Liverpool but since then they had only been trailing the Reds by one point. So, what does Chelsea do with this great chance? They blow it and tie. I didn't see the game but judging by the stats, Chelsea dominated the game with 31.. I was going to say shots but I guess that's not what they are...is it? Maybe. I guess. Whatever they are...the Blues basically peppered West Ham with the ball but only managed one goal. By contrast, the West Hammies got 6 shots and 1 goal. 6 shots! *sighs*
At least Man U tied with Tottenham. HAH!
Higgins' is slowly becoming a true Montrealer
S0 Christopher Higgins has reportedly been having technical difficulties since injuring his shoulder. In an article that appeared in the newspaper this morning, Higgy is having trouble turning on his turning signal in his car as well as having trouble keeping his balance on the icy sidewalks downtown because of his arm has been in a sling. Why the first bit is a problem, I'm not sure, because no one turns on their turning signal things on here anyway. As for the second, Higgy should know by now that it's way too dangerous to walk on the sidwalks when it's icy - even downtown - and that it's almost safer to walk on the roads. I think he's realized that he's slowly assimilating into the culture here. By the time he can use that shoulder again, he'll be a true Montrealer *g*
At least Man U tied with Tottenham. HAH!
Higgins' is slowly becoming a true Montrealer
S0 Christopher Higgins has reportedly been having technical difficulties since injuring his shoulder. In an article that appeared in the newspaper this morning, Higgy is having trouble turning on his turning signal in his car as well as having trouble keeping his balance on the icy sidewalks downtown because of his arm has been in a sling. Why the first bit is a problem, I'm not sure, because no one turns on their turning signal things on here anyway. As for the second, Higgy should know by now that it's way too dangerous to walk on the sidwalks when it's icy - even downtown - and that it's almost safer to walk on the roads. I think he's realized that he's slowly assimilating into the culture here. By the time he can use that shoulder again, he'll be a true Montrealer *g*
Caps 2 Habs 1. No scoring by the Alexes.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Why the heck couldn't we have had that effort against Tampa Bay? Surely this type of play would have resulted in a win against the loser team? Considering it's Washington tonight, the effort tonight wans't quite enough for a win. I've got a serious mental block on how Backstrom got his goal and I have no desire to revist it right now. It wasn't lame though and Semin and Ovechkin picked up assists on it. The seconnd goal came on an defense erorr by the Habs that left Nylander in front of a half open net. That was bad. Brisebois scored for the Habbies in the second period when he ripped a shot at newbie goalie Simeon Varlamov which went through his legs. There was a lot to be happy about though.
- The Caps only won 2-1. Their goals came 10 mins into the first and with just 2 left in the third.
- None of the Alexes scored despite a couple of break aways/ half breakaways by Semin and Ovechkin. Semin did try to murder Halak however when he got a breakaway and ended up flying into the net, taking Halak with him. Thankfully he was okay and they didnt need to put in Denis.
- Halak was good tonight. That effort was a lot better than the mess the other net. He came up with a lot of amazing saves against the Alexes and other people who's names escape me. If he keeps this type of play up then we shouldn't have to worry about losing Price for a while.
- Maxwell seemed to do well from what I could see. He was definitely not terrible.
There was stuff to be unhappy about though:
- Powerplay reaches new level of awfulness. If there was anyone who thought that it was horrid before tonight, there will be no doubts tonight. The Caps got a pile of penalties including Ovechkin who got himself a 4 min one! The Habs promptly did not score and on of the the powerplays it looked like one of the Alexes was going to score on Halak. Halak saved it though. Yay for Halak.
- Kovalev........he seriously needs to score. This is getting really bad right now.
- While we're on the topic of goals, the Habs have been limited to 2 goals in two games. Not cool. Full credit to Varmalov for being fantastic tonight but there were way too many times that the Habs should have been able to put the puck into the back of the net and didn't. Both of those goals have been from Brisebois. All of the people on the team who should be scoring goals, Brisebois isn't the guy. Am I happy he scored? Someone had to do it. But the whole point of having forwards is that they are supposed to score.
- No one can say Ovechkin's name right which is driving me up the wall. AW-VECH-KIN. AW!!!!!!!!!
On a whole it could have been a lot worse for the Habs so we shouldn't whine. The Caps definitely played more aggresively and if it wasn't for all the penalties that they took then the score would have been worse. I'm still not sure what the deal is but I have to wonder how much Carbo's to blame in all of this inconsistant playing. You can't continuely blame the players who are obviously talented but can't seem to get it together for more than three games at a time.
Oh and who's idea was it to play Christmas music as RDS cut to commercials???? Yuuuuck...
Prize for the worst singer at these NHL games who sings the national anthem: The guy who just sang right now in Edmonton in the Oiler/Canucks matchup. It was about as good as Barca's home colours....
Just when you thought it was bad....
...it got worse. Higgins will definitely be out for at least four weeks. He's apparently got the same type of injury that Komisarek had. Speaking of Komisarek...there is a chance that he might be back on Tuesday with the Habs. This could only be good as long as he's fully recovered and doesn't get injured again and will be out for even longer. Koivu is going to be out for at least two weeks with some foot or ankle problem. No word on exactly what's wrong but it doesn't sound good. Oh, and Price got himself injured in practice and definitely won't be in nets tonight. In fact, it seems that he may be out until after Christmas. So it's going to be Halak back in nets tonight and it will be Halak in nets for a while now. Poor Halak. The last thing the poor guy needs is to start off his prolonged netminding term with a game against the Alexes. The one potentially bright spot to all of this is that the Capitals' goalie is Simeon Varlamov and he's never played in the NHL before. Okay, so maybe the AHL team he plays for is the best in the AHL thing right now but his save percentage is worse than Halak's who plays in the NHL. Not that it needs to be good when you've got the Alexes skating around.............
We're doomed.
Yes, this is the point where someone says "no digas nunca 'nunca jamas'" (never say never) and I calm down and stop cursing Ovechkin and all the people who can't say his name right.
In other sad and depressing news in my little sports world
It was lights out for Real Madrid today in Barcelona. Well, it wasn't actually lights out until there were about nine minutes left in the game. Then Barcelona had to go and score not once, but twice. Up until that point things had gone pretty well for Real Madrid. Not wonderful. Barcelona pretty much had pocession of the.. I was going to say "puck" but obviously that's the wrong sport... Ahem, Barca - the team with some of the ickiest home colours ever - pretty much had control of the ball for most of the game and it really was only a matter of when they would score and not if. It's too bad though. Casillas did really well up until then and had some great saves. The second goal was pretty pathetic from Real Madrid's point of view. Messi got the ball on a pass from....Thierry Henry who was pretty much going at the net alone until the Messi came along... and kicked it over Casillas' head. I was frankly susprised that Barca hadn't scored before then. The action was almost completely all at Casillas' end. So kodos to Real Madrid for not completely getting demolished by Barca. Now get to work on getting back up in the league standings and beat the... just beat Barca the next time around.
And as if that wasn't bad enough: The Flyers demolished the Penguins 6-3 which puts the Penguins at third in their division behind the Rangers and the Flyers.... I was hoping that the Flyers would continue along on their losing ways when they started the season losing their first six games. But noooo.....Ick...Fleury was supposed to start today but he didn't and Sabourin was in nets. I'm not a huge fan of Crosby but he really needs to get scoring again.
Ah well.... I just rented the Dark Knight so maybe I'll just depress myself more by watching that instead of the hockey game tonight...who am I kidding? I have to watch the hockey game now...Have to see if Maxwell can hold up against the Alexes...
We're doomed.
Yes, this is the point where someone says "no digas nunca 'nunca jamas'" (never say never) and I calm down and stop cursing Ovechkin and all the people who can't say his name right.
In other sad and depressing news in my little sports world
It was lights out for Real Madrid today in Barcelona. Well, it wasn't actually lights out until there were about nine minutes left in the game. Then Barcelona had to go and score not once, but twice. Up until that point things had gone pretty well for Real Madrid. Not wonderful. Barcelona pretty much had pocession of the.. I was going to say "puck" but obviously that's the wrong sport... Ahem, Barca - the team with some of the ickiest home colours ever - pretty much had control of the ball for most of the game and it really was only a matter of when they would score and not if. It's too bad though. Casillas did really well up until then and had some great saves. The second goal was pretty pathetic from Real Madrid's point of view. Messi got the ball on a pass from....Thierry Henry who was pretty much going at the net alone until the Messi came along... and kicked it over Casillas' head. I was frankly susprised that Barca hadn't scored before then. The action was almost completely all at Casillas' end. So kodos to Real Madrid for not completely getting demolished by Barca. Now get to work on getting back up in the league standings and beat the... just beat Barca the next time around.
And as if that wasn't bad enough: The Flyers demolished the Penguins 6-3 which puts the Penguins at third in their division behind the Rangers and the Flyers.... I was hoping that the Flyers would continue along on their losing ways when they started the season losing their first six games. But noooo.....Ick...Fleury was supposed to start today but he didn't and Sabourin was in nets. I'm not a huge fan of Crosby but he really needs to get scoring again.
Ah well.... I just rented the Dark Knight so maybe I'll just depress myself more by watching that instead of the hockey game tonight...who am I kidding? I have to watch the hockey game now...Have to see if Maxwell can hold up against the Alexes...
When the Habs depress you......
Friday, December 12, 2008
....You start to look at tennis stuff again even though the season finished a while ago. Or at least that's what I do. Makes me feel better. Kinda. Anyway...Because I've discovered that I loooooove stats - but I hate math. Go figure - I've got this interesting bit of info on Federer (taken from the ATP site).
All Time Top 10 Year-End Ranking Leaders
In 2008, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick extended their year-end Top 10 finishes to seven consecutive years, the best among active players on the ATP World Tour. They are among 13 players to finish in the Top 10 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings at least seven years (since 1973). Of the group, all but three players finished the season at No. 1 during their career.
Andre Agassi and Jimmy Connors have each finished in the Top 10 a record 16 times followed by Ivan Lendl (13) and Pete Sampras (12). In 2008, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick ended the season in the Top 10 for a seventh consecutive time. Of the 109 players who have finished in the Top 10 (since 1973), Federer and Roddick are only the 12th and 13th players to join this distinguished group.
Isn't that neat? The cooler thing is that Roger was no 1 for half of his time in the top 10. I'd post the list but I'm having technical difficulties with the photo ruining the code or something with the rest of the post... Just click the pretty link above.
In other news
At least I can almost take comfort in the knowledge that the Habs are slightly better off than Real Madrid right now. The problem-filled management and injury plagued team is about to take on the top team in the Spanish Premier League thing. Should I mention that I think that Barcelona looks like a strong contender for the Champions League as well? To make things worse for Real Madrid, they have a long and storied rivalry with Barcelona which would make a loss tomorrow really awful for everyone who wants Barcelona to lose. It would be like.... Montreal having Tampa Bay's problems coupled with Washington's injuries taking on a Toronto Maple Leafs who were playing like San Jose. Okay, so that last bit is hard to imagine but you get the picture. Real Madrid is going to need a little miracle to win tomrrow. As it is, I just hope that they don't get totally murdered....
Later. Apparently I spoke too soon about the whole Habs injury thing...
It would seem that the Habs really want to copy everything Real Madrid does minus the management stuff (and don't hold your breath that there won't be more moaning about that to come). The list of injured players just went up and tomorrow's game is going to be missing a lot of people. Koivu is definitely out for tomorrow and possibly for a while longer. He has apparently suffered a foot related injury. Higgins has been reported to have some type of shoulder injury that will sideline him for at least a month. As you know, Komisarek has been out since that little mess against Boston, but should be back soon, and Dandenault is gone for a while with that broken arm of his (I still can't believe he finished his shift after suffering that injury....That is crazy). Did I mention that Laraque didn't practice today? Same old stuff going on there. Oh and Price is reportedly still sick. The Habbies responded to this by calling up Ben Maxwell and Marc Denis from Hamilton. The thought of having Denis in nets while Ovechkin and Semin are out there on the ice is really not very comforting at all. Officially there's no word on whether or not Price will be okay to at least sit in as backup to Halak but obviously no one's feeling too confident that he will be healthy if they've called up the goalie from Hamilton.
With six mins left to go in the third period, Caps are beating the Sens 3-0. Er 4-0 actually. The NHL's little boxscore things can't add. It says the Caps got 1 goal in the first, 2 in the second and 1 in the third and yet it gives the total as 3. Haha...And yes, Semin and Ovchkin scored... yahoo......erm by the time I finished this stupid post the Caps won 5-1. Yes, Mr. Ovchkin got one of those last two.... *sighs*
All Time Top 10 Year-End Ranking Leaders
In 2008, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick extended their year-end Top 10 finishes to seven consecutive years, the best among active players on the ATP World Tour. They are among 13 players to finish in the Top 10 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings at least seven years (since 1973). Of the group, all but three players finished the season at No. 1 during their career.
Andre Agassi and Jimmy Connors have each finished in the Top 10 a record 16 times followed by Ivan Lendl (13) and Pete Sampras (12). In 2008, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick ended the season in the Top 10 for a seventh consecutive time. Of the 109 players who have finished in the Top 10 (since 1973), Federer and Roddick are only the 12th and 13th players to join this distinguished group.
Isn't that neat? The cooler thing is that Roger was no 1 for half of his time in the top 10. I'd post the list but I'm having technical difficulties with the photo ruining the code or something with the rest of the post... Just click the pretty link above.
In other news
At least I can almost take comfort in the knowledge that the Habs are slightly better off than Real Madrid right now. The problem-filled management and injury plagued team is about to take on the top team in the Spanish Premier League thing. Should I mention that I think that Barcelona looks like a strong contender for the Champions League as well? To make things worse for Real Madrid, they have a long and storied rivalry with Barcelona which would make a loss tomorrow really awful for everyone who wants Barcelona to lose. It would be like.... Montreal having Tampa Bay's problems coupled with Washington's injuries taking on a Toronto Maple Leafs who were playing like San Jose. Okay, so that last bit is hard to imagine but you get the picture. Real Madrid is going to need a little miracle to win tomrrow. As it is, I just hope that they don't get totally murdered....
Later. Apparently I spoke too soon about the whole Habs injury thing...
It would seem that the Habs really want to copy everything Real Madrid does minus the management stuff (and don't hold your breath that there won't be more moaning about that to come). The list of injured players just went up and tomorrow's game is going to be missing a lot of people. Koivu is definitely out for tomorrow and possibly for a while longer. He has apparently suffered a foot related injury. Higgins has been reported to have some type of shoulder injury that will sideline him for at least a month. As you know, Komisarek has been out since that little mess against Boston, but should be back soon, and Dandenault is gone for a while with that broken arm of his (I still can't believe he finished his shift after suffering that injury....That is crazy). Did I mention that Laraque didn't practice today? Same old stuff going on there. Oh and Price is reportedly still sick. The Habbies responded to this by calling up Ben Maxwell and Marc Denis from Hamilton. The thought of having Denis in nets while Ovechkin and Semin are out there on the ice is really not very comforting at all. Officially there's no word on whether or not Price will be okay to at least sit in as backup to Halak but obviously no one's feeling too confident that he will be healthy if they've called up the goalie from Hamilton.
With six mins left to go in the third period, Caps are beating the Sens 3-0. Er 4-0 actually. The NHL's little boxscore things can't add. It says the Caps got 1 goal in the first, 2 in the second and 1 in the third and yet it gives the total as 3. Haha...And yes, Semin and Ovchkin scored... yahoo......erm by the time I finished this stupid post the Caps won 5-1. Yes, Mr. Ovchkin got one of those last two.... *sighs*
Lightning win 3-1 *dies a horrible death*
Thursday, December 11, 2008
To sum it up in one word: Abysmal. I'm sure there were moments that weren't awful. I just missed most of them.
Carbo's got quite the list of embarassing games going on now. Funny enough - or maybe not - these games all involve the Habs playing loser teams. There's something going on with the Habbies and their inability to string a few really good performances together. I don't know exactly what's going on with that but I have a suspicion that it may involve letting the opposing team's ranking or reputation affect them. Take for example that little debacle in Toronto. The last time the Habs beat them 6-1. Easy. Then whoops, they come out and play like crap and they get beaten 6-3. They follow that up with a shutout against Ottawa which was then followed up with a horrendous display of hockey against Boston who they had routinely beat last year. Bi-polar tendancies? I was just getting started. After beating the defending Stanley Cup champions 3-1, the Habs then lose 3-0 to an AHL filled Capitals team. It goes on and on and on...The Habs need to stop letting the rank and reputation of the other team affect them and they need to just get out there and play their game. I think it was Josh Gorges who said before the game that they needed to just stick to their game plan. Well, I'll bet you anything that losing like that was not part of the game plan.
First period. I sincerely hope that this is not a sign of how the rest of the game is going to go. After Brisebois scored about five or so minutes in - on a power play I may add, just to make things sound better than they are - it was all Lightning for the rest of the period. Martin St Louis and Vincent Lacavalier scored on Halak while the Habs snoozed. St. Louis's goal in particular was unbeliveably stupid because he was pratically going at Halak alone while everyone else was in another city. It was back to playing stupid with Halak in nets while the Lightning clearly were trying a heck of a lot harder. The Habs did exactly what I thought they would do tonight and that was to take the Lightning lightly and the result is now a 2-1 lead for the stupid bottom ranked team. I hope they wake up soon and get scoring. The good news at least is the Lightning held a 2-0 lead on the Sabres then other night and they ended up losing 4-2. As we're in theory supposed to be better than the Lightning..... we should be able to pull out of this and win. If we
wake the heck up.
Second period. Well, that sucked big time. Not only can the Habs not score on the powerplay they give up goals on their powerplays. A huge mistake by the defense allowed St. Louis to grab the puck and get a breakaway and promptly scored. I'm beginning to despair at how badly the Habbies are being tonight. As they say, it's not over 'till it's over or some grammatically incorrect form of that...
Third. Now it's over. 3-1 for the Lightning. Oh boy, I really don't want to read the papers tomorrow... I missed the last six minutes because my dogs insisted that I remove myself from the TV but from the 14 mins that I did see, it was terrible. The Lightning completely shut down the Habs who just couldn't keep it together and out of their own zone. The Habs made a lot of stupid errors that gave the puck to the Lightning.
The whole game from start to finish was terrible except for that one goal on the powerplay which was beautiful. The rest was ugly. Everything from the gazillion penalties to the dozens of fights that kept breaking out to the stupid officials who were completely blind tonight to the idiots who can't properly report on what time the game starts (luckily I was feeling really lazy last night and turned on the TV at 7 instead of 7:30 like the game was supposedly going to start at). Again, I can't help but feel totally bad for Halak right now. He's a good goalie. He deserves a much better effort in front of him than what he got. Okay, so maybe he wasn't as good tonight as he was against the Flames but honestly, what are you supposed to do when a guy gets a breakaway like that?
The Habs went into this thinking that they could come away with an easy win and instead they got handed a 3-1 loss that was completely preventable. Ick. I think the Habs were hurting too with the losses of Komisarek, Dandenault and Higgins tonight. The defense was pretty icky tonight. The offense was not very good either though they did create a few good chances (unfortunately, a few chances wasn't good enough). And apparently Koivu will possibly be out now too with some injury. I would say we're borderlined doomed at this point but then again... what do I know about this game? I do know that with three people named Alex (didn't you know that they pulled up a guy called Alexandre Giroux and he scored against Boston?) scoring goals for the Capitals like crazy, I'm seriously concerned about how things are going to go Saturday. Forget Saturday, the Habs could be in serious trouble right now with possibly four of their good players out.
In complete contrast, the Penguins beat the Islanders 9-2. See? That's how you beat losers. I love you Pittsburgh.... kinda... though I still wish that the Habs could have borrowed a couple of those....
Carbo's got quite the list of embarassing games going on now. Funny enough - or maybe not - these games all involve the Habs playing loser teams. There's something going on with the Habbies and their inability to string a few really good performances together. I don't know exactly what's going on with that but I have a suspicion that it may involve letting the opposing team's ranking or reputation affect them. Take for example that little debacle in Toronto. The last time the Habs beat them 6-1. Easy. Then whoops, they come out and play like crap and they get beaten 6-3. They follow that up with a shutout against Ottawa which was then followed up with a horrendous display of hockey against Boston who they had routinely beat last year. Bi-polar tendancies? I was just getting started. After beating the defending Stanley Cup champions 3-1, the Habs then lose 3-0 to an AHL filled Capitals team. It goes on and on and on...The Habs need to stop letting the rank and reputation of the other team affect them and they need to just get out there and play their game. I think it was Josh Gorges who said before the game that they needed to just stick to their game plan. Well, I'll bet you anything that losing like that was not part of the game plan.
First period. I sincerely hope that this is not a sign of how the rest of the game is going to go. After Brisebois scored about five or so minutes in - on a power play I may add, just to make things sound better than they are - it was all Lightning for the rest of the period. Martin St Louis and Vincent Lacavalier scored on Halak while the Habs snoozed. St. Louis's goal in particular was unbeliveably stupid because he was pratically going at Halak alone while everyone else was in another city. It was back to playing stupid with Halak in nets while the Lightning clearly were trying a heck of a lot harder. The Habs did exactly what I thought they would do tonight and that was to take the Lightning lightly and the result is now a 2-1 lead for the stupid bottom ranked team. I hope they wake up soon and get scoring. The good news at least is the Lightning held a 2-0 lead on the Sabres then other night and they ended up losing 4-2. As we're in theory supposed to be better than the Lightning..... we should be able to pull out of this and win. If we
wake the heck up.
Second period. Well, that sucked big time. Not only can the Habs not score on the powerplay they give up goals on their powerplays. A huge mistake by the defense allowed St. Louis to grab the puck and get a breakaway and promptly scored. I'm beginning to despair at how badly the Habbies are being tonight. As they say, it's not over 'till it's over or some grammatically incorrect form of that...
Third. Now it's over. 3-1 for the Lightning. Oh boy, I really don't want to read the papers tomorrow... I missed the last six minutes because my dogs insisted that I remove myself from the TV but from the 14 mins that I did see, it was terrible. The Lightning completely shut down the Habs who just couldn't keep it together and out of their own zone. The Habs made a lot of stupid errors that gave the puck to the Lightning.
The whole game from start to finish was terrible except for that one goal on the powerplay which was beautiful. The rest was ugly. Everything from the gazillion penalties to the dozens of fights that kept breaking out to the stupid officials who were completely blind tonight to the idiots who can't properly report on what time the game starts (luckily I was feeling really lazy last night and turned on the TV at 7 instead of 7:30 like the game was supposedly going to start at). Again, I can't help but feel totally bad for Halak right now. He's a good goalie. He deserves a much better effort in front of him than what he got. Okay, so maybe he wasn't as good tonight as he was against the Flames but honestly, what are you supposed to do when a guy gets a breakaway like that?
The Habs went into this thinking that they could come away with an easy win and instead they got handed a 3-1 loss that was completely preventable. Ick. I think the Habs were hurting too with the losses of Komisarek, Dandenault and Higgins tonight. The defense was pretty icky tonight. The offense was not very good either though they did create a few good chances (unfortunately, a few chances wasn't good enough). And apparently Koivu will possibly be out now too with some injury. I would say we're borderlined doomed at this point but then again... what do I know about this game? I do know that with three people named Alex (didn't you know that they pulled up a guy called Alexandre Giroux and he scored against Boston?) scoring goals for the Capitals like crazy, I'm seriously concerned about how things are going to go Saturday. Forget Saturday, the Habs could be in serious trouble right now with possibly four of their good players out.
In complete contrast, the Penguins beat the Islanders 9-2. See? That's how you beat losers. I love you Pittsburgh.... kinda... though I still wish that the Habs could have borrowed a couple of those....
Is tonight the night that the Lightning end their losing streak?
I hope not. In theory there should be no reason whatsoever why the Habs should not completely obliterate Tampa Bay. Let's take a quick look at how the poor team has done.
- Tampa Bay has played 28 games so far this season which included two games in Europe against the Rangers (they lost both of them)
- They have won exactly six games with their last win being on Nov 21 against Nashville.
- Since that win they have gone on a nine game losing streak
- Apparently it's been around eight years since they last lost ten games in a row
- They are sitting not only at the bottom of their division but also at the bottom of the entire league
- Oh and they fired their first coach just 16 games into the season. A month later and he's began blasting his old team saying that he hopes that they never win another game. Well, as long as they don't start winning tonight, I'll be happy, but the point is there is all that junk to deal with mentally.
- Apparently they had flight issues and aren't expected to arrive in Montreal until 1:00 today. Me thinks someone's going to be tired tonight.
Now compare that to the Habs.
- The Habs have played 27 games going into tonight's game
- They've won 16 games with the last win coming last Tuesday against Calgary
- They've won four out of their last five games all of which were at home
- Apparently this seven game home thing is some kind of franchise record
- While the Habs are not on top of their division, they're sitting in fifth in the whole league and would be higher if the Rangers hadn't played a whole pile more games than them
- Habs still have Carbo and after all the talk about whether he was actually qualified for the job or not, the Habs have picked it up recently and all that has died down
- As the Habs kind of live in/around Montreal they shouldn't have to worry about getting to the Bell Center, unless the snow removal continues to be stupid and not remove the snow therefore making it impossible to drive downtown (I was downtown last night and it took a bloody long time to get anywhere because the streets hadn't been cleared properly).
I can see several problems tonigth for the Habs however.
- They have shown a tendancy to slack off against bottom ranked teams. St Louis Blues, Islanders, Washington (okay, so they aren't the bottom of anything but they sure weren't playing like an NHL team when the Habs got blanked by them), and Atlanta to name a few. Slacking off tonight is NOT an option.
- Higgins and Dandenault are out with injuries which means they're getting replaced with Latendresse and O'Byrne who haven't played in... a while which could disrupt all the chemistry that has been developing despite the whole musical lines thing. Plus, there's a reason why these two have been sitting out for a while *coughs*
- Tampa Bay has got to be pretty desperate for a win - though I expect that they've been desperate for quite some time now - and if the Habs slack off it could be lights out
In theory though, there should be no reason why the Habs don't win. O'Byrne wasn't doing terribly before his little break and we can survive Latendresse as long he doesn't end up playing on the same line as D'Agostini who needs to extend his scoring streak even more. The Habs also need to catch up to Boston and if they win tonight then they would only be within three points of them.
No word yet on who's going to be in nets. Apparently Price has got a cold but even if he was healthy, I think Halak should be in nets again. He did really against Calgary and he deserves to play more than once every two weeks. As long as the Habs stay wide awake and play well, then there be no problem with Halak in nets. I want Price in good health and wide awake when the game against the Capitals because they're looking good again. Unfortunatley.
Bottom line is: If the Habs lose tonight I will scream and die. No, not for real. I like my voice too much and I can't complain about the Habs if I die. But you get the idea.
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