Taberquack? Ducks rain on an already rainy day

Dunno, I found this somewhere. It makes me laugh every time.

Well that was a cross between CURSE OF THE FRANCO-GOALIE and a skanky game and a good game (for the wrong reasons). Actually, ya, I don't know what to make of it. First loss in regulation since the beginning of the year isn't too bad. However, Price has been sick in bed puking up everything for 3 days. What's the excuse for the rest of the team who were actually practicing all week?

The Good: J.S Giguere stops 47 of 51 shots. What? He's not on our team? Ya, that's the Curse of the Franco-Goalie, and probably why the Habs try to get them all before they go to other teams. Well, to the team's credit, most shots launched his way were rather superfluous teases, but he did make a few steals. Should have been the first star though. Corey Perry? Whatevs. Wait. I'm supposed to be talking Habs, not Quacks.

Josh Gorges has become the love of my life. This has been building since he started playing more last year. Even if his picking up the puck in the crease after Price pooped it to prevent it from going goal lead to a penalty shot, no problem. The Priceberg is so big, he freaked out the Duck to completely miss. Saku Koivu gets another goal! That's #4 in four games now, and I'm freaking out. Tanguay pots two because he did what more people on the team should do: sneak in and send those rebounds to the bank. The other love of my life, Tom Kostopoulos gets Flukey Goal of the Game award. I really have no idea how that went in, honestly, but it did, and it put the team ahead by one at the start of the 2nd period.

The Bad: Well, he wasn't necessarily bad, but he didn't look too hot out there, even in warmup. Halak let in 4 of 12 shots and got switched with Price midway 2nd perioid. What got the better of him were his rebounds that he just couldn't contain, or no defense help, or decided going down was better instead of staying up.

Offense should take notes. Stop shooting directly at the goalie and pick the waterbottle to aim for. Tanguay seems to be doing that, seems to be working. I don't know if I should put the Defense in this category though, because the shotblockers were excellent.

The Ugly: Actually, I'll put Defense here. Hello? What have you learned all week? I don't know who's errors were worse defensively, forwards doing the turnovers and not getting back faster or Breezer's. If Rhino was sitting in the pressbox eating cookies with Dandy, maybe it was a good lesson for him. "See, watch Breezer down there, that's what we want to avoid doing." Also, Markov, stop falling down please.

I'll put the refs in here too. I seriously believe the Ducks' game plan consisted of "how many times can we cross-check Kovalev and get away with it". And yea, tripping penalty usually goes to the guy who trips a player, not the one who gets tripped. Just making that clear.

Closing Notes: I'm leaning from not-minding to actually actively campaigning for Bob Gainey's suggestion to generate more offense by making it illegal for players to "sweep" with their bodies on the ground as they attempt to block shots. Habs did not sweep, blocked lots of shots. Ducks did sweep way too much, or went completely horizontal in front of Giguere, blocked and annoyed the piss out of me. If anything, Habs proved you can block shots without kissing the ice.

Anyway, my friend had fun tonight. He took my brother's ticket, as I was bugging him about seeing a game in hockey-crazed Montreal. (Only previous exposure to live hockey was Boston/Providence). Says the Bell Center is awsome and he was very impressed with how explosive the Canadiens could be. How they would be quiet, cycling the puck and then suddenly speed down to the net and attack. Too bad they didn't win it, though. Oh well, at least the Ducks didn't get an empty netter at the end, so the boys saved some face.

Next up: Hartford Whalers, er...Carolina Hurricanes.