Still rocking the red...!

Ahem.... The highlights from last night. I'm half tempted to get myself a video editing program and add some really drop dead amazing music to it but I'll spare you all for now =p

HUGE WATERBOTTLE FOR SUROVY

I only just now saw the footage of Tomas Surovy hitting our poor Jaro upside the head after the Slovaks tanked in a 8-0 loss to the Czechs in the World Championship. For the records, Surovy was playing on the same team as our little Slovak goalie. How the hell is he supposed to do anything when you're giving him a concussion by whacking him upside the head?! I sincerely hope that none of the Habs players tried this in practice.....



I am now in the midst of trying to acquire a waterbottle large enough to take out Surovy for good.

Poor Jaro. He's always getting abused....

EDIT: Habs Inside/Out says Jaro was "Avery'd" (remember Avery did a similar thing to Marshmallow?). To quote Alour: So you're going to pull a Torts on Surovy because he Avery'd Jaro? At least the Rangers are good for some new lingo!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE

Forget caffeine to keep you awake. Watch Ovie. He. Is. Freaking.Awesome.

I've been running around like an idiot right now....=p

OOOOOOOOVIIIIIIIIIIIIIE = AMAZING

If saying that makes me anti-Canadian, then fine. I don't care. Ovie makes me smile every time he scores. Well.... minus that highlight reel goal against Pricey.... but almost every time!

Yes, I haven't been this excited over a game in.... a long time.... WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

So awesome that this calls for another lame limmerick!

We just can't get enough of Ovie
He just loves to score so much - sowwy
He came out to play
And made them all pay
What would we ever do without Ovie?

I'm too hyped to even think properly about the game. I can't even type in a coherent fashion....Can't you tell? THIS WAS AMAZING!!

Despite the LAME start to the game which saw yet another Puffy goal in the first period... the Caps came back with... an Ovie goal to tie it up in the third period. Simmy and Maf - Simmy in particular - were amazing again. The Ovie goal was followed by a Puffy goal later which brought us to 3-2 going into the third period. Dino (see "Dictionary of EPisms") tied it on some icky Pens playing. And then Ovie scored on the PP - which was amazing because the Caps hadn't done anything on the PP before and semi-sad because Eggplant decided to not show up to the playoffs- which had me in absolute fits. And then again he gets a mini breakaway and puts it away. HAAAAAAAAT TRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK! That sound you heard was the Verizon Center roof coming off.

And then Jurcina decides to make a bid for my Hate-You-Right-Now list by taking a penalty with 2 minutes to go. Pens pull Maf and guess who the heck scores on the PP? OH YES. PUFFY PUTS IT OFF OF SIMMY'S HEAD AND INTO THE NET WITH 30 SECONDS LEFT TO GO! Like seriously.... Puffy topped off my Hate-You-Right-Now list because it wrecked an otherwise wonderful ending to the game.

And yes. Ovie AND Puffy had hattricks. Apparently it's the first time in 13 years that two players have had hattricks in the same game in the playoffs or something. I dunno. Bettman must be freaking now. Oh and yes, only Puffy showed up tonight. Maf got no help from the Pokemon or the Vegetables or the Vampires tonight. Poor Maffy. I felt bad for him.

Kinda. I wished he played somewhere else.... =(

but anyway....

Funniest moment of the night: The Sens relative calls. The mother picks it up. He started watching the game later so he's behind where I am (I've got it on live). He hears me screaming and thinks it's because Mr. Puffy scores (the Sens relative likes Puffy). I hear something about some chants about "Sidney" (glad he remembers my rabbit's name *g*). I'm too busy dancing around to point out that it was the "Hated-Ovie" that scored the goal to make it 3-2 and not the Puffy. I will have to remind the relative that the Wonderfully Amazing Ovie's hat trick won over the Puffy's hat trick when I see him next =)

Quote of the night:

Boudreau: If this were tennis, we've held serve.

Dude. This guy is brilliant. Yes. The Caps hold serve to take the first set! Hell yeah!

Oh wait! More quotes. Crosby apparently has a problem with other people getting a hattrick....

"People kept throwing hats. I was just asking if he could make an announcement to ask them to stop. I mean, the first wave came and then I think they were all pretty much picked up, and then more started coming. So for us, we just wanted to make sure we kept kind of moving and kept the game going, wanted to try to get back in it. So wasn't complaining about anything."

I'm thinking this is the cue to start throwing hats at the beginning of Game 5 - assuming there is a Game 5. Puffy is just jealous that he only got one hat.... Pfft....

And what does the Anointed one think of Simmy?

"I mean, yeah, he's made some timely saves. I still think we can do a better job of burying the puck and capitalizing on our chances. The difference is a few inches, but he battles and he competes, and there's times where he's out of position but he finds a way to get a piece of his body on it. So as a shooter you have to make sure that you bear down, and we have to really correct that quickly. I mean, there are times when he's kind of swimming in the crease and we've got some loose pucks and we've got to put them in."

Does this remind anyone of Jumbo Joe's comments about Jaro being "good" when he beat the Sharks? Uh how about "yeah, he was amazing"?

And finally, Mr. Puffy comments on Ovie's hattrick

"When it comes down to it they got a big goal there on the power play when it counted, and that's the difference. I don't see anything else but that. We had opportunities, I mean, the last two games we can honestly say we did some really good things but we made a few mistakes that have hurt us. That can be a good thing to look at as well, knowing that we're that close and these are things that we can easily and change quickly. But we have to do that."

Read: Hattrick? What hattrick? I got one too, remember? Hello? I GOT ONE TOO DAMNIT!

Ovie says:

Sick game. Sick goals by me and him.

We liked yours better Ovie.... really.... =p No, I have no shame whatsoever in saying that.....

GOOOOOOOOOO CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPS!

Today we're waterbottling....

1) The Dirty DUCKS for winning in TRIPLE OT. I started watching the game while eating lunch and by the time it was over, I had to go and make dinner.

That was quite the game though. It's too early for an epic marathon though! I think the Wings need to step it up another level. They were really struggling at some points in the game which wasn't cool. Ozzy in particular scares me whenever the puck comes near him. And the Dirty DUCKS need to stop playing dirty.

2) The people on Nothing But Crosby - because TSN couldn't hire anybody to do their own announcing for some reason. At leas I didn't have to listen to Milbury.....

3) The refs in the Boston/Whalercanes game. There's a very simple reason why the Bruins don't get a lot of penalties. It's because the refs are blind and they miss just about every Boston penalty.

4) the morons in Toronto who called the 3rd Carolina goal not a goal. I don't see how they could have said that it wasn't a goal. Then again.... we imagine that the guys in Toronto are related to Colin Campbell. The puck was over the line...Even I - on my 5 x 5 fuzzy screen - can see it over the line.

The Wonderful World of Colin Campbell Part 2

Colin paced around his room. He was anxious. His phone was ringing off the hook. He dared not pick it up though. No. He was too tired to deal with the hordes of angry people who were calling him up wondering why he had decided not to suspend Ben Eager and Mike Brown.

Didn't these people get that he had already dished out his suspension for the week when he suspended Donald Brashear? Jeez, did these people really have no idea how hard it was suspend a guy? It wasn't easy reaching into those two boxes and coming up with appropriate pieces of paper.

Colin rubbed his head. He had such a headache right now.... He was about to go and lie down when his cell phone rang. Only two people had that number. His wife and the boss himself. Ignoring either was not an option. Sighing, Colin picked up the cell phone and flipped it open.

"Hello?"

"Colin." It was King Gary. "What the heck is going on here? The phones have been ringing all day."

"Not really much I can do about that." Colin mumbled.

"Well, how about you start by explaining why you didn't suspend those two guys for those head shots? Give me something here, Colin. I have to tell the press something."

"Why?"

"Because as King of the NHL, it's my job to give press conferences." the king snapped. "Now give me something or else you're being demoted."

Colin wracked his brain. The pieces of paper weren't that specific. Think... think... he had to think of something. There was no way that he was going to be demoted over this. No way. "Well.... Rypien and Hudler didn't suffer any injuries, sir...and uh.... you know... if you don't suffer any injuries then there's no problem."

"But the press will say that they were still hit on the head."

"So? Lot's of people get hit on the head...."

"They'll argue that it's serious."

"But it's not. Hudler got back on the ice."

"They'll make some spiel about long term injuries." King Gary said. "Something about multiple hits to the head or something.. I dunno. People don't do this in basketball."

"It's not my problem what the media says!" Colin burst out. "They come out with such crap. Like the other day, they were actually suggesting that Ovechkin was better than the Anointed one. Can you believe that?! What crap.

Look. Hudler is a tiny guy anyway. He was asking to get run over. I have a perfect method for suspending people. It's tried and tested and it's been proven to be successful. I know what I'm doing here.

And short guys are just asking to get it anyway. I can't help it if someone's elbow is at the same height as his head. I mean look at Zdeno Chara... he's probably over twice the height of Hudler! He could practically step on him! Am I supposed to suspend him for that? That's being mean to tall people....right?"

There was silence on the other end.

"Your majesty?" Colin ventured after a few more seconds.

"What? Sorry. I was watching the Toronto Raptors. We should put another NHL team in Toronto...." King Gary said.

"Did you hear what I said before?"

"Yeah, yeah. If Chara's foot is larger than Hudler and he steps on Hudler than it's not a suspension...."

"That's not quite what I was saying though...

"Whatever. You're making me miss the game."

Before Colin could say anything else, King Gary hung up the phone. Colin shrugged. The King seemed to know what he was doing so that was all that mattered really... He sighed a sigh of relief and went off to go to sleep. It had been a hard day and he needed to catch some rest.

Meanwhile... the Aliens from Mars a la the Simpsons, could only stare at each other in confusion. This whole conversation that they had just witness made zero sense to them. Humans were so stupid sometimes....

Whooo! Caps 3 Puffles 2

Wow. If this is what the rest of the series is going to be like then we're in for some exciting stuff here. And as long as we get the same result (a Caps win) I'll be happy. Ovie was great (Ovie goals are always great), Simmy was amazing, Pie and A2 had a solid game, I thought. And the Caps third (fourth?) line was rolling right along. On the other side, Mr. Puffy was great (sadly), Maf was stellar for most of the game. I thought Malkin was fairly quiet, but that could be more to do with the fact that I was subjected to highlights of Crosby doing something every two seconds. The problem was I had Blersus feed on RDS... which by the way, had Pierre Houde doing the announcing, which is such a welcome change from RDS's B team. Yay! Now if only I could shove a sock down Benoit Brunet's throat....

I need to find Simmy's brilliant save on Mr. Puffy. He completely robbed the Kid of a goal. That's probably the save of the series. Or the playoffs even.... EAT THAT CROSBY!

EDIT: Got it.



A couple of sticking points though...

• The Caps started off really shakey and the Pens took advantage early with a Puffle goal from Mr. Puffy.
• The Caps D was spotty at times
• Simmy needs to do something about those rebounds. If the D can't clear them, then expect the Puffles to take a huge advantage of those

Good start though =)

Oh and... rocking the red in a CAPS shirt actually worked this time! YEEEEEES!

And yes, I did spend most of the game coming up with random names for everyone...

So not liking Crosby makes me anti-Canadian, eh?

JT at the H Does NOT Stand for Habs brought up in an interesting topic the other day about our (least) favorite player. Apparently someone said that if she didn't cheer for the Penguins over the Capitals, she would be anti-Canadian. You heard it. Cheering for the Capitals over the Penguins makes you anti-Canadian. I've actually had similar if not quite so blatant statements from people myself, which always, without fail, puzzle me.

Let's be honest here. This series is between the Capitals vs. the Penguins. This is not a series between Russian and Canada. It's not even just about Crosby vs. Ovechkin, despite what the media tells you. It's the Washington Capitals vs the Pittsburgh Penguins. Two very talented teams in the National Hockey League who are based in the United States.

With most teams in the NHL comprising of players from many different nationalities, I find it hard to understand why people would associate a team like say, the Penguins as being Canadian? Sure they have a lot of Canadian players, but the team itself is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Capitals are considered "Russian" and yet they have more Canadians than Russians on their team. But I suppose because the Caps have a few high profile Russians, the entire team must be Russian and that's somehow a bad thing....Both teams however, are technically American.

Personally, I don't see why even defining the team as "American" or "Canadian" is needed in most cases anyway. The thing is, a player should be playing for the logo on the jersey (however ugly it is). They play for the team. In the NHL, that means they are not playing for their country and I'm not sure that most guys play for the city either. They play for the logo on the jersey. Nationality should have zero to do with it.

When I watch hockey, I watch it to see what the guys on the ice do. I want to see guys play with a lot of passion. I want to see guys who care. And I like exciting plays on most nights as a bonus. I dont' care what the guys do with their lives off the ice as long as it's legal. I don't pick my favorite players based solely on where they were born. That's ridiculous.

If I limited myself to only Canadian players, then I'd be stuck with people like Sidney Crosby, Danny Heatley, Jason Spezza, Eric Staal, Sean Avery and Martin Brodeur. Thanks but no thanks. I'm not saying that these guys aren't talented. I believe everyone I just named is capable of being talented at something (I wouldn't say that Avery is an extremely talented player. He's a talented pain though). But I can think that they're talented and still detest them.

Ovechkin meets my criteria for what I want to see in a player. He works hard, he cares and he's pretty exciting on most nights. I like him because of that. I don't like him solely because he's Russian. I don't care if he was from India or Australia. I don't like him because I don't like Crosby. All I care about is what he does on the ice. All I care about is what he brings to the game. And on most nights, I like what I see.

Crosby's seemingly lack of emotion in general, makes me snore. He doesn't make me interested in watching hockey. When I initially watched the Pens, I watched Malkin (until he disappeared). I watched Fleury. I didn't watch Crosby. Look, I feel bad for him. I think he's been manufactured and handled by various people beyond belief and that's resulted in this cardboard cut-out guy. I'm not going to say that he isn't talented or that he doesn't try hard. I think he's talented and he tries. But he doesn't interest me at all. I find him annoying now. I don't like his constant yapping and whining. I don't really like his new hobby of getting into cheap fights. I just do not like him.

I don't see how that makes me anti-Canadian if I don't like Crosby and would rather cheer for a team that interests me. If I said "I prefer Lidstrom to Avery" do you think many people would complain? I doubt it because we're talking multiple Norris winner vs major pain who got suspended for dissing his ex-girlfriend. But Lidstrom is from Sweden and Avery is indeed Canadian. If I said "I wouldn't cheer for the Leafs if they were the last Canadian team in the playoffs" would anybody care? No. They know I'm a diehard Habs fan and I would never cheer for the Leafs, even though the Leafs are a Canadian team.

So. If it's okay to prefer Lidstrom to Avery and if it's okay to not cheer for the Leafs under any circumstances, why the heck isn't it okay to cheer for the Ovechkin over Crosby? In case everyone missed it, the Cold War sort of ended a while ago.

Again, this isn't about Russia vs. Canada. This is about the Washington Capitals vs the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is about which team I prefer to watch. Nationality of the players notwithstanding.

Go Caps Go!

Waterbottle him!

Tonight, EP brings you a list of people who need to be waterbottled based on tonight's actions. That is, people who deserve to sit in the benches and have Torts throw a waterbottle at them.

1. TSN and RDS for being so pro Boston and Anaheim
   
2. Brown of the DUCKS for hitting Hudler in the head. The hit was dirty.
   
3. Colin Campbell for whatever his decision on this hit will be. We're anticipating on not agreeing whatsoever with his call.
   
4. The rest of the Dirty DUCKS for being... Dirty DUCKS....
   
5. Cam Ward for being a failtender
6. Milan Lucic for being Milan Lucic
   
7. TSN for mentioing the words "Crosby and OHvehckin". We don't want to hear about Crosby and AHvechkin. We want everyone to shut up while the players get on the ice and start playing hockey.
   
8. TSN for being a failstation
   
9. Major League Baseball for hijacking my television. I WANT HOCKEY!
10. The Whalercanes and their logo that makes no sense