My irrational thoughts about Komisarek the Leaf

See this? This is EP's hate-meter. It took about 5 seconds to think up. ANYWAY. As you can see, the Leafs rank the highest on the hate-meter followed by the Pens and then the Bruins (not sure what to do with the Flyers as their recent roster changes have made me slightly rethink how I felt about them last week.

Do you know what this means, Komisaurus?


It means, should Milan Lucic fight you when the Bruins and the Leafs play each other, that I will have no choice but to support Looch. I'm sorry, Mike. But I can't cheer for you. I can't. Leafs hate trumps everything. Everything.

I wished that you could've stayed. I really do. I liked you. A lot. I think you didn't live up to your potential this year, but not many players did. You're one of my Habs and I wished that it could've stayed that way. As it is, I'm kinda feeling a tad betrayed here. You could've picked so many teams. They told me that around TEN teams were interested in you. But you picked Toronto. You picked the Leafs. And in my very irrational state of mind right now, I'm very hurt by this. I respect that you're a free agent and have the freedom to chose whichever team you want but damnit, Mike, why the hell did you pick the Leafs? Damn.

I wish I could wish you the best of luck with your new team, but I can't. I'm sorry.

And Gainey.... I'm not happy with you right now. Not at all.

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to change my mind should Komisarek ever choose to leave Leafsnation. I also reserve the right to change my mind slightly once this has sunk in somewhat.

No words...

Komisarek is a Leaf.

And Begin is a Bruin.

And we have Gomez, Spacek, Cammalleri and... Hal Gill.

No news on our other UFAs/RFAs.

okay, I'm going to get sappy for a second here

Look, we all know that this is only my second time going through free agency. The first time, the only major player that we lost was Streit and I didn't know enough about the Habs to care that much.

This time is different.

This time I've watched these guys for a whole season. Especially after the season that we've had, I feel like they're almost family at this point - sounds silly, but remember I've watched them almost every night, talked and wrote about them every day. I know I say I'm a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, but in truth, right now, I'm a fan of the guys on the ice. It may sound like a slight difference, but it's totally different as I'm sitting here, less than one hour away from when most of our 2008-2009 Habs are about to walk away as free agents. I know it's all part of the whole thing, but it's still making me sad right now. These are the guys that made me love this team. For me, this guys were the Montreal Canadiens.

I'm sure I'll get over this at some point, but right now, I'm just sad....

You are kidding me...Higgins for Gomez?

You know, I said I thought Vinny was a talented player but he wouldn't be a good fit for the Habs. I also said that I thought his contract would hurt the Habs big time.

Friday night, I was so worried that Bettman would get up on that stage and say "we have a trade. The Montreal Canadiens trade their entire team for Vincent Lecavalier".

He didn't do it.

I thought we were safe.

.....aparently I was wrong.

Bob Gainey has traded Higgins, McDonagh, Valentenko and Janik for Scott Gomez, Pyatt and Busto.

So we couldn't take Vinny and his large contract so we grabbed Gomez and his HUGE contract? I almost wished he had landed Vinny instead....

Bob, I'm just praying that you have something else going on in that brain of yours because if not... You just made Sather of all people look like a flipping genius. And that, Bob, is a bad thing.

No. No. NO.

From Habs Inside/Out

According to RDS, the Canadiens have extended a contract offer to potential unrestricted free agent Alex Kovalev, the second UFA to receive an offer from Bob Gainey after Mike Komisarek.

That means Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay will have to wait until after July 1 before receiving any offers from the Canadiens, the sports network says.

In other news, the Canadiens extended qualifying offers to restricted free agents Christopher Higgins, Tomas Plekanec, Guillaume Latendresse, Matt D’Agostini, Gregory Stewart and Kyle Chipchura.

I am going to cry....Not about Tanguay, honestly, I don't care if he leaves, but Koivu....

Nobody beats Robin Soderling 11 times in a row...

...good thing Roger Federer isn't a nobody.

Sorry, Robin.

Okay, this probably only makes sense if you know that Robin Soderling said after Roger beat him at Roland Garros that "nobody beats Robin Soderling 11 times in a row" after Roger beat him for the 10thtime in a row at Paris. He was half joking of course but still...Better make that "Nobody beats Robin Soderling 12 times in a row" now...

Post-draft calm

Okay so now that I'm no longer taking pictures, running around the Bell Centre and trying not to walk right into the flood of draftees that were leaving the Bell Centre on Saturday (I swear I almost tripped up some Thrashers pick by accident as I was rushing back to the Bell Centre at some point).... Time to take a look at just WHO the Habs drafted. I mean, that was the whole point of this, right? Right.

Well first off... while I was writing this up, apparently Guy Boucher got announced as the next coach of the Hammies. Didn't I say there was a rumor about this like.... a couple of months ago? Granted it was entirely a rumor at the time and we all know that if you spew about rumors, you're bound to get one or two right by accident. But still. There we go.

Second, apparently Gainey did try to get Vinny on Friday *sighs* I was SO afraid that Bettman was going to say "We have a trade. The Montreal Canadians traded their souls for Vinny Lecavalier". Please, Bob, no. No Vinny.

Now back to the future Habbies...

Louis Leblanc

Well, I'm sure you've had your fill of Louis talk by now. Bottom line is he's a local guy, he's played in the USHL, he knows Danny Kristo, and the Habs love him. It would be nice if he lived up to a bit of the hype. Just a bit, you know? There's no rush or anything. I don't want to hear another word about Vinny Lecavalier and if you start making a splash then I won't ever have to hear about Skinny Vinny. GO LOUIS GO! And don't get sucked into all of that Bruins stuff while you're down there... Those Bruins are bad news.

Joonas Nattinen

Despite what I heard earlier in the year about the Finnish talent pool drying up a bit recently, this guy seems to have had a solid year in Finland. Number31 really likes what she's heard about him which is always a good sign *g* I don't like that he apparently said he thinks of himself as a cross between Mikko Koivu and Jason Spezza. Koivu is okay but... Spezza?! We need to have a little talk about that....

Mac Bennett

He sounds like he could end up like a Mike Green. Which is totally fine by me. Anybody who wants to play like Greenie is cool in my books. It sounds like the Habs would like him to play in the Q but they won't force him to and he could end up in Michigan (which is okay, I guess. I'd prefer him in the Q). I also have to say that I saw a vid of the prep-school he went to. The facilities look awesome. Not that that has to do with anything... I just wanted to point that out *g*

Alexander Avtsyn

Seems the Habs are still willing to pick Russians despite all the issues they've had with others in the past. Which is totally fine by me because Avtsyn sounds really cool. If I liked the sound of Bennett because he's like Green, then I really like the idea that Avtsyn sounds a lot like Ovie. He's put some up great numbers in Russia's second tier league (and hey, he's actually younger than me! Huzzah for that! *g*). I'm happy so see that he actually wants to play here too. I would love him to play in the Q or somewhere over here for a bit so he knows what he's getting into somewhat (also if he plays in the Q I can see him play!!!).

Gabriel Dumont

I remember this guy... I remember hearing about him during the Q's playoffs and I'm pretty sure he was at the Memorial Cup stuff. He knows if he makes it, it will be as a third or fourth line shutdown/grinder type of players and he seems content with that. He could end up like a Max Talbot kind of guy. Which I guess I wouldn't mind so much if he played for my team... hehe...

Dustin Walsh

Can you like a guy because his junior team has one of the best jerseys ever? Take a look at their website and you'lll see what I mean. Best junior jersey ever. Right behind the best NHL jersey ever *g* But seriously, he's put up some great numbers so I'm not sure why he was left to so late but I hope to see some of him (I'd say "more of him" but I haven't seen him play at all so...yeah, I hope to see him).

Michael Cichy

Don't have much on him but apparently he's Danny Krist's roommate. So hello Danny Kristo's roommate!

Petteri Simila

We're apparently supposed to be thanking the Pens up and down for giving us the last pick of the entire draft for a future 6 round pick. Thanks Pens. All we seem to know about Simila is that he's Finnish, a goalie and the comes from the same guys that produced Pekke Rinne.

Draft day madness

Warning: the following contains Leafs hate, mild Gary Bettman bashing and lots of insanity. Viewer discretion is advised.

(a view from inside the Bell Centre. I could see better than this, but this is basically where I was sitting. The Habs table was third over from the first row nearest us)

Okay... let's see.... After agonizing over Roger's 3rd set blergh and eventual 4th set demolition of Kohlschreiber, I then spent most of the early afternoon shopping with Sarah from California, Dani and Kate. I finally bought a draft shirt and a draft keychain thing after wondering if it was possible to buy everything in the store. Yeah. I live here and I still go nutso for Habs stuff. After that we went out for coffee and then headed over to Ye Olde Whatsits pub where met up with more tweeps to get draft tix.

(so this is how Charlie Bucket from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory felt when he got his golden ticket.... awsomeness. Only, there was no awesome chocolate at the Bell Centre. Just Burke. And there's nothing awesome about him)

Sarah (the other Sarah from Boston) and I exchanged voodoo dolls for Sox socks and a Sox keychain. I AM UBER PLEASED with my lovely Sox stuff. UBER PLEASED. I'll get pics up soon.

At 6 we headed to the Bell Centre and I got mopey because the last time I was in there was when my Habbies were playing....First off the teams have to announce who's going to announce their picks. Silly it may sound, but it gave us the fans an opportunity to boo the crap out of the Bruins, the Leafs and the Flyers. And Bettman of course. At some point a very loud "Ole" song went up. Oh they must have known that those grumpy Ole-hating-Sens-fans were in the building (yeah, I'm still bitter about that Sensland! It's an AWESOME song to sing. Stuff it).

Huge cheers for George Gillet who said some stuff before the draft started.

(it was nice knowing you, George. We'll miss you!)

Booing ceased and then commenced when Bettman came back and announced that the Isles would get to pick. Lots of yapping ensued and then finally the Isles picked... Guess who? Me! Just kidding... They picked Tavares obviously:

(Tavares is thrilled and it's Hedman's "dream come true" to play for a crap team. Awesomeness)

Lots of yapping and crap then ensued again. I mean seriously, does it really take that long to decide who you're going to pick? You have a list of the guys you want for crying out loud. Pick the guy already!

I took the boring bits as an opportunity to look for GMs. I spotted Gainey and I could easily see Brian Burke's head (hmm, maybe it wasn't that hard to spot his huge head). Someone pointed out that the Caps peeps weren't drinking any of the stuff on their table which made me yell at them that we were only trying to poison Burke (JUST KIDDING. I would never actually want to poison Burke). I also spotted "Clod Joolee-ehn" hovering around the Habs table before the draft started. ICK. Sarah from Boston spent most of the time spying on the little kids that run around between the tables. Apparently the Bruins kid disappeared and the Hawks kid was offering brownies or cookies to the Bruins table. Traitor!!

I know Grrrreg has a "Gary Bettman Booing Index" and I want to say, we broke the scale. We flipping broke it tonight. Bettman announces who's getting what pick and all that crap and when the Coyotes come up he says "the 6th pick belongs to the PHOENIX Coyotes". Oh yes, Bettman emphasized the word "Phoenix". Twerp. Well, I booed him along with the rest of the building for that. And cries of "Hamilton! Hamilton! Hamilton!" soon followed. Can we all say "douche"? Jeez, you didn't think we'd notice that, eh, Bettman? HAMILTON! HAMILTON!

This was followed by HUGE boos for the Leafs. Even *I* booed Burke (this is coming from someone who won't even stand up when her team scores at a game). I couldn't even hear who Burke picked. Once I realized who they had picked, I was very sad. Nazem Kadri is a Habs fan. He cheered for when we an interview of him (from some point in time) where he professed his Habs love. And he was booed very loudly when he was announced as the Leafs 7th overall pick. Damn you Burke. I hate you. I felt SO bad for the kid because he looked absolutely miserable up there. Poor guy. It's okay.... should you ever leave the Leafs, I will like you. Until then, hope you get smushed up.

Oh and I loved those "1967" chants going on while the Leafs were busy doing their stuff. No sarcasm here. It was hilarious. Oh Montreal, how I love you....

FINALLY after almost 2 hours, my Habs got up and announced their pick. Couldn't hear at all who he was because the whole building erupted. Turns out we picked Louis Leblanc. Doing the no-homework that I had done, I don't know much about him other than he's a bit older than me and he'll be going to Harvard next year. No idea if he was the most talented player available, probably not, judging from what I've heard, but I know enough to know that the draft is a bit of a crapshoot anyway. So yeah, welcome to Montreal, Louis. It wasn't the nightmare I'd thought it'd be for you (just for poor Kadri). So it's good.

(welcome to Montreal, dude)