Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy! Habs 6 Leafs 2

Fail. It's what you do best.

Especially this time of year...
- The pregame ode to the Mounties with some cop sneaking down from the rafters was ...stupid.
- I gotta say to the idiot reporter yesterday who brought up the thing about the email to hold the safety report on the boat where Gainey lost his daughter, you sir are a douchebag. Double douchie for pressing the matter after Bob said he knew about it already. Anyone got a hockey question?
- Oh. My. Kovalev. My brother: "How the hell did he find a hole there?!" He just does. That is The Kovalev. 1-0
- If the second line can't get anything done, there's always Fruit Punch's line! No one saw Gui walk right in to the net. He's kind of hard to miss! 2-0
- May picks his moments to be a bad ass when frankly he's just a jerk. Could have used another Laraque smackdown. Schneider with a mysterious upper-body injury. Ooooh wonderful...
- Loved seeing Stewie jump the third man to help out BGL though. Excellent game by Laraque tonight. It seems he flourished under the Gainey Regime.
- Gui! is now 2-1 on penalty shots. Too bad.
- 11/13/27 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
- Yea, Tango's got his Cash. Nice tip in. 3-0
- Gerber is such a baby. Not only was Pleky pushed into him first, the second was accidental as he made his way into position. Higgy finally scores, while Gerber throws a hissy. Never mind how many bumps Jaro took on the other side and didn't cry once. Take your .739 save percentage and maybe pay attention. 4-0
- Lucky tip. (According to my brother). I didn't see it 'cause I was in the WC. 4-1
- Kovy never leaves the ice when it's a powerplay. And why not throw in Gui! and Fruit Punch. Max sneaks in backdoor 5-1
- Excuse me while I have a heart attack but GORGES SCORED FOUR GOALS THIS YEAR NOW! 6-1
- Tango lost his mind. And hands. I was asking for a short handed goal, but I wanted the Habs to score it. 6-2
- Fuck you, Grabs. Second time he gets tossed. And Markov is pissed off on his way to the room for "repairs". He better not be hurt...
- After Markov got hurt, the Habs kind of got wonky. Until Kovy got annoyed, took the puck, went the whole length of the ice, got a shot on net, took the puck back and continued playing until he was forced off the ice for a line change.
- Kovy's night: 1 goal, 3 assists.

Conclusion: No more fucking Leafs til next year. CBC is annoying. First the Habs were killing time and playing lead protection. Second, they were keeping the Leafs to the outside and making sure they stayed there when they were in their zone. And third, go find a new team to cheer for, homers. Also Al Strachan, don't read the gossip papers from Quebec please. Roy never said he wanted to coach the team, he said maybe but not right now. And to cap it all off, Bob should stay coach. He's just amazing to see behind the bench. Muller too.

Bulldogs report!
Dogs put the smack down on the bRed Wings in back to back games. Friday was a 6-3 ass kick with Desharnais getting a hat trick and Brrrrrrrock Trotter scored 9 seconds into the game. And today was a 4-2 win with Trotter scoring the first goal again, and Yanick Lehoux finally scoring and breaking a 15 game goaless streak (though he has scored on shootouts!) as he was behind the net, on his knees and just shot the puck towards the net only to have it bounce in off Jimmy Howard. LOL. Yannick Weber scored in both games. Yay! He's making a new record for a Bulldogs defenseman, and now has 16 goals this year. Ryan Russell scored short handed.

Still in 7th. Yey.
- Fucking Whale, 3-2 OT. Pens get a point though, but the Whale must be stopped!
- Bruins beat the Rags 1-0. Yawn. And Avery is back to his usual self. I wonder how Torts will sounds after having to deal with the guy for an entire season...
- ZOMG Dallas beat the Blues 5-4 in OT. Turco is injured by the way, so ECHL goalie Matt Climie got the tap ahead of Stephan. He takes number 33~!
- Sens beat the Flyers in a shootout. Niittymaki was pissed off.
- Buffalo sees the end is near. Devils win 3-2. Question: How did Kevin Weekes get injured if he's never playing?

The Bob and A Shitty D: Habs 3, Rags 4 (SO)

Leave your torches at the door and give Price a green beer. Before you attempt to jump on the kid for the loss, look at the shots clock: 42-29 RAGS. Apparently the meaning of life is 42, right? Third period 16-5 Rags. Outplayed and outgunned, and the Rags had the better chances. Technically Lundqvist didn't stop anything in the shootout either. (AK46 missed wide, as usual. Someone stop letting him on shootouts please). Had the Priceberg not been solid all game, I don't even want to speculate the score...

It's called "shit happens", story of our lives:
- 1 point courtesy of your goalie.
- Defense, you're doing it wrong...
- I actually feel the defense is more like a spectator sport. They were ok in the first and half of the second but then went to shit the rest of the time. Yet again they have their quadrants and refuse to enter the other quadrant if the puck is loose there before the other team gets it and no one on their team is there.
- Hesitation = death. I don't know how many times Gainey has to tell it to these guys. Komo holding the puck for longer than he should = more problems for Price.
- Best of Komisaurus tonight was destroying the camera in the penalty box. But even that he didn't break in the end. C'mon DOOM! DESTROY!
- Pretty much also lucky that Lundqvist is usually terrible against the Habs.
- Kovy eats the Rags for dinner. Scored while falling on his ass again. Roof of Daddy in the shootout. Had to play DEFENSE for a Breezer error.
- Yes Breezer is back to his two wrongs with every right.
- Oh the children! Patches and Dagger's best game yet. Caused all sorts of problems for the Rags.
- Apparently there's a 5 penalty quota now? The Rags aren't afraid of penalties because they're the best PK unit or whatever.
- Fruit Punch! He's got the touch! What a move.
- Koivu, win some faceoffs please?
- If we could clone Markov... defense might be better. And his face on his goal was of "Eh? I scored?". See the benefits of just throwing a puck at Lundqvist?
- Gui! is back, a beast on the boards.
- Rags are brimming with confidence. Habs are their polar opposites. Yet both teams are fairly equal...
- People ragging on Price for dropping too quick? Gimme a break. Look at Lundqvist... Saying Price can't make the key saves? HELLO? Did you even WATCH overtime when Breezer knocked Kovy out of the play right when he had a good scoring chance and Price had to make 2 huge saves? Is it because he doesn't fall all over himself like Tim Thomas? Price is huge. His size makes it look like he's not moving a lot when in fact he is.
- Well well well, Markov pulled a different move from his usual for the shootout. But Lundqvist's 5-hole was pretty open then, so I'm pretty sure his usual would have worked too...
- Price at the end was not pleased at all. I give hugs.

Conclusion: Can't fault him, he did his job. The rest? Offensively was OK, but not consistently. Rags completely outplayed the Habs tonight. Lang, get a new leg and get your butt out there please? Habs need one huge four leaf clover. Oh and Carbo is supposed to talk to the public tomorrow at 2pm. Live on CJAD. Wee...

Bulldogs report! Tonight they faced the Iowa Chops. Yea the bDucks are Pigs. The Pork Chops opened the scoring with two goals and then it was all Bulldogs. Flinn of all people opened the scoring. Then Glumac, who is now one shy of 30 goals. Then Aubin on the powerplay. Then little Desharnais on another powerplay. And Chipper with the empty netter. (Chipchura has 14 goals and most of them are empty netters). Both Brock Trotter and Sergei picked up 2 assists (Desharnais also got an assist). Chipchura also got into a scrap with someone.

Another day another milestone...
- And Brodeur rides those Devils happily for his 552nd win, making him the benchmarker.
- Apparently people suddenly realized Ovechkin is inconsistent and apparently people only now realized what his +/- rating is? I've seen him give up on backchecking way more than a slow player out-skating Breezer. The Caps were kind enough to shutout the Panthers, but Ovie is still looking for goal #50, and picked up an assist for an empty netter. But wow, 19 saves for Theo for the shutout? Somewhere, Price is thinking "19... yea that would be nice".
- Atlanta... you BREATHE inconsistency. No stopping the Pens now.
- Ottawa, we can always count on you to beat down the Slugs. Now be kind and lose Thursday? We need the points more than you, ok? A quiet night for Elliott, he only face 13 shots (11 saves). That's one good period for the Habs...
- Detroit woke up and stopped the Flyers from gaining more ground above. Not that it matters right now...
- It annoys me when the Leafs pull more wins out of their ass than the Habs.
- Dallas, Canucks, tied at 1.

Elliooooooooott! Habs 5 Sens 4 (SO)

Trying to right this ship, at least in the backend...

I only managed to catch the game from the 3rd period onwards and then got the rest off Express as I was out for a lovely dinner amongst some rather annoying relatives of my mother (ie. my aunt and uncle) so my take on the game is rather thin... My dinner was good though, save for those annoying relatives. Grr...

You aren't helping that save percentage...
- Fan favourite and gritty, fearsome prospect Greg Stewart got to play tonight. He picked up an assist on D'Agostini's goal and did some excellent yeoman's work along the boards and generally annoyed the oppositioin in the checking line. As he grows I see him as our farm-grown Kostopoulos, except he wins more fights.
- Actually I can say all lines are clicking relatively well. Kovy's line is feeding off Patches (what a kid!), Lang and the brothers still going strong with AK46 becoming more and more that power forward Carbo was talking about, Lapierre's line still the same hardworking core.
- Defense is ok but I get queasy as I see Breezer paired with Cube...
- That piece of the wall Komo hit was padded right? God that could have been a broken arm in the making...
- Heater is a 50 goal scorer. He was ZombieHeater for the first part and rose from the dead in the 3rd, but Jaro needs to learn to deal with those kinds of play like Carey does. (See, Gorges is covering the other two well enough so all you need to do is take care of the shooter, but not while on your knees...at least not when you're shorter than Price).
- Bet he wants that second Heatley goal back.
- Could say the same for Elliott on Kostopoulos' goal.
- Markov is the General by how he controls the tempo of the game like a certain defensman of Habs yore, but sometimes I fear he thinks way too much when on the powerplay.
- ZOMG AK46 ninja scores: 5 goals, 5 games in a row
- Lang had two assists tonight: more points! Now he leads the team with points (36). So ya, fuck you Mats.
- Kovy in the John Tavares spot on the powerplay: bing!
- Bob Cole is pro-anything else when it comes to games that include the Habs. Sounded like we killed his dog whenever something good from the Habs happened, even wondering why the Habs fans that invaded were OleOleOle-ing in a one-goal game. (Memo to Cole: we Ole anytime). I mean this is the guy who actually said "The goalie stopped it! How come?!" when Price stopped Shane Doan on a sure goal earlier this year. RDS may get all giddy over Latendresse, but they give credit where it's due and are equally excited over any other team's brilliant play.
- Jaro in shootouts is usually more 50/50 than anything in that he just seems to hope they all miss, but good save on Alfie.
- Kovy is the magical beastie. Getting ready for the All Star Game eh?
- I think we should send Fruit Punch to the ASG next year for the skills competition alone. Who'd have thunk it! And it was a different move from the first one too. So that's 2 for 2.

In conclusion: I had chicken stuffed with goat cheese in an apple cranberry sauce, and it was good. This game was also good. Sens wanted a point, and they got one. Habs wanted two and a win, and they got one. Carey come and plaaaaaaaaaaaaaay...!



While I was eating:
- WOOT! Bruins lost to the Caps 2-1
- WOOT! Carolina lost to Buffalo 3-1
- WOOT! Tampa Bay lost to the Panthers 4-3
- WOOT! Price really wants to be in that All-Star Game and might just make it. Hey, I won't stop him. Doing so may depress him as he looked depressed about the idea of maybe missing it. A happy Price makes a happy Canadiens team!
- Um...Atlanta scored 7 goals to crush Nashville who only managed 2? Jaro best be ready if Price doesn't play Tuesday.
- Pens traded Sabu (along with some other things) for Garon. Now they have that ex-Habs goalie curse as a secret weapon for when we play them next. Crap!

The Bolt Pose! Habs 2, Bolts 1 (SO)

I feel tired and sweaty from just watching that game, though maybe I'm hot because I've been sitting here in my sweater with my heater on, but you get the point. Crazy roller coaster of a game. For what looked like 60 minutes of speed skating around the rink, the BOLTS got one tip in goal from a crowd and the Habs got one on a first minute of the 3rd rush by Gui! and his buddies working the zone. And what better way to end an obvious goalie duel than with a shootout? Habs scored two in a row, Jussi Jokinen was the only one to beat Price. (Though what was with the fist pump? A bit much for a shootout goal. Then again, I'm so used to the guys not really reacting to it unless it's the game winner. Dude, you were the FIRST shooter. And the goal wasn't really anything special either).

Hell of a way to kick off 2009!
- Who knew Fruit Punch was such a sniper? After Kovy scores his trademark Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am shootout goal, Lapierre follows suit with nearly the same shot! And he almost had a few goals tonight. Good on the kid! He's got the taste for goals and looks like he wants more.
- Scare of the evening was when that truck of a Russian, Evgeny Artyukhin checked Tanguay into the glass and popped the glass pane off. Tanguay went off the ice and down the hall. JUST WHAT WE NEED! Another fucking shoulder injury... Maybe 13 wasn't so good for Tanguay after all.
- As Begin was sporting a nasty blackeye from yesterday, Kostopoulos took it on himself to take on the giant Russian that hurt Tanguay. Though the big man wouldn't take off his visor, so TK had nothing to punch at. Still, give the little guy props for trying.
- Power play was obviously not going to work with dump ins when you've got the two best young puck moving goalies on the ice. Mike Smith tossing those pucks right at Price, who tossed them back to his teammates. Repeat.
- Oh Vince, when did you become such a wanker... Whining at Komisaurus when he checked you. Whining at Komisaurus when you crosschecked him behind the play and as they dragged you to the penalty box...
- Heh, someone tried to fight Breezer for slidding into Smith while he was playing the puck. Not his fault Breezer just sucks. Come on, don't hit the old man!
- I was watching the Lightning feed off my computer and their announcers had the hots for Price. But I gotta say for the Sunshine State, they sure did impress me with their textbook dissection of a few good plays. Especially enjoyed the "how awesome are the Habs defensively on these odd man rushes" ones. If you get them together with RDS' Joel Bouchard, you could teach everyone hockey from the comfort of their homes.
- Kovy got a post. Hit it LOUD.
- D'Agostini almost scored but a bounce off Smith and then the post out was all it did. Danger Man!
- Maxwell gave some BOLTS stars fits with his shadowing.
- I noticed the BOLTS play like the Flyers now. Guess that's Tocchet's game. Wonder how long they'll last playing like that, though.
- Andrei Kostitsyn nearly ended the game with 3 seconds left. He's always leaving the best for last. But again, bounced off Smith's glove and then the crossbar out.
- Probably the greatest part of the game was the finish. Lecav VS Price, if he scored then Habs would have to hope Gui! scores to end it. Price stones Lecav, and does the Usain Bolt Pose right in Vince's face. Vince sulks off the ice, Habs rejoice.
- Carbo looked like he just won the playoffs. Wow was he a happy man! And good choices for the shootout. I bet Gui! would have scored too.

In conclusion: Habs rock. And the winner of the goalie duel: Price. Though Smith should be on the All Star list. Not his fault he's got a team of crap in front of him for most of the season. (Just give Denis a call, kid. He'll tell you ALL about it).

Train...say your prayers...take vitamins and believe in yourself

Bulldogs report!
Bulldogs have also ended 2008 with two game in the win. There was a come from behind shootout victory against the Rochester Americans. In that one, the BabyPanthers scored 3 in the first period and then it was all Bulldogs. Marc Denis got his confidence back as the game went on. Desharnais, Pacioretty, and Weber scored in regulation while Lehoux, Glumac, and Desharnais again took the shootout. Denis only allowed one goal in the shootout and was having fun the whole way. (AHL has a best of 5 thing for their shootout). Mike Brodeur (no relation) was phenomenal though. He had 40 saves on 43 shots! Panthers may like him one day...

And while the Habs were kicking the BOLTS in a Floridian shootout, the Dogs shutout the Baby Leafs 4-0! Pacioretty scored again! Chipper opened the scoring all by himself! Carle on the power play and Russell took the other goals. Jancevski assisted on every goal with an assist! (Too bad he's Dalla property, I like that guy). This was Denis' third shutout of the season.

News you may care about
- Boo! Leafs win. Actually Cujo's first win of the season. Against Atlanta. Ho hum. They took it 4-3 in regular overtime.
- SHOCK! Sens beat the Oilers 3-2. Though last time I saw the Oilers they looked like they had no idea how to skate. (Yet somehow won that game I saw with a shutout over the Canucks). So...make with that what you will.
- Boston pwns the Penguinos 5-2. Ya, keep voting Fleury guys so we can see his All Star coverage of angles and short-stopped laterals. Also noticed Therrien is losing more hair as the season progresses.
- Detroit warmed up for the Winter Classic (weather permitted) by a 4-0 smackdown on the Hawks.
- Meh, Flyers beat the Canuckleheads 3-2. They haven't lost to them in 20 years (not saying how many times they FACED each other in 20 years but whatever). Canucks had two backup goalies playing. Gagne got injured again...
- GAS WAS 69 CENTS! Now those fuckers raised it to 78. Bastiches!
- I'm almost done painting my new appartment. I'm so sick of painting...

Oh my hats! Habs 5, Panthers 2, 3000th regular season win

Because zombies eat BRAINS, zombies can score

Holy shit what have they put in the Habs water these days? Fruit Punch gets a hat trick and we get free wings, and ZombiePleks has risen from his grave to not only score one of the sickest shorthanded breakaway goals I've seen this side of Jonathan Toews' WJC shootout goals, BUT ALSO PUNCHES A MAN FOR DIGGING ON PRICE! The little girl who could barely get an empty netter earlier this month jumps a man for messing with his goalie and punches him. Ends up with an unjustified 4 minutes roughing penalty (meh, old man ref) but still, this is usually the work of Komisaurus. Begin also had a pretty good fight. He got the worst of it (the dude was twice his height for crying out loud) but Begin jumping to punch the guy was quite a sight to behold. And then he did the take down. The home crowd sure got a show. Wait, this was Florida! The place was sold out thanks to the Habs fans either living there or on vacation (hell, if I didn't just buy my condo, I'd have totally gone for that trip). Another city, another Carey chant.

The question of the day: When was the last time Habs had consecutive hat-trick games? From two players, notching their first career hat tricks?

Memo to the Panthers: Get a bigger penalty box. It didn't fit four Habs at once!

Also it ain't over until we see a classic McCabe and boy was that classic on Fruit Punch's steal for his final goal on the empty net.

That said, Breezer is our McCabe. Thank god there are other people out there able to cover for his errors, but Carbo needs to get him off the powerplay... You can keep Kovy on the powerplay though 'cause that goal was pure math.

Conclusion: Tomorrow is Tampa Bay. Time for SuperPleky to get his revenge on Lecav for that unpenalized spearing.


In other news
- Jean Béliveau is said to be doing well after a drop in his blood pressure sent him to the hospital. Stay healthy, Monsieur! (Actually he was released from hospital already).
- WJC Team Canada beat Germany 5-1 and Subban did his Bobby Orr to give Evander Kane a goal.
- Here's a shock: DiPietro is injured again. Oy.
- Um, Sharks signed Claude Lemieux (yes, THAT Lemieux) to a two-way contract. He's currently in the AHL trying to make a comeback.

Habs 6 Rags 2, free wings the 2nd night in a row, and I can finally go back to the forums without being overly annoyed!

When the Canadiens show up, they show up. Finally, for the first time this season all 4 lines were scoring and everyone was doing their job. Case in point, the 2nd Rangers goal was a result of someone unable to catch their man. But you're allowed a mistake or two when you play the way they did tonight.

Happy 99th Birthday
- Original 6 salut to the Rangers and the ghosts must have been happy to hear the old Forum singer back. Hope they bring him back for future games, like the playoffs and such. His voice is just AMAZING and I do miss the old version of our anthem.
- Love the old sweaters and LOVE LOVE LOVE Price's retro-styled gear. Also noticed he's wearing the Team Roper helmet. Wonder what happened to his Garth Brooks one...
- People will say the Rags played to a shootout last night against the Penguinos. People will say they were tired. I honestly didn't see anything different from when I caught earlier Rangers games, really... The "we were tired" excuse was supposed to be Boston's reaction that one night when they KOed Les Habitants 6-1.
- 3 goals in the first, 1 in the second, two in the third and Tom Renney looked like he wanted to throw up.
- Habs trap system is great. It's almost like an offensive game of chess. They push and push and patiently wait and then explode.
- This was maybe the least amount of shots Price faced in his life? Held the Rags to only 19 SOG and they could only score on a screen powerplay deflection and a textbook rush after someone failed to cover their man while coming back late after a fall. Other than that, he was always in position, even catching a backhander from Breezer.
- The fourth line continues to burn true to the fact that all four lines are offensive threats as much as they are defensive one. Laraque got 2 points on assists! Lapierre a goal and assist! Begin a goal and assist!
- Lundqvist totally didn't know what happened when Tanguay scored. Neither did the rest of his team.
- Tom Kostopoulos is flashing the moves the more he plays with Super Pleky and Tanguay.
- AK46 flying in and landing on his backside for the opening goal is textbook Kovalev.
- Gordie Howe Hat Trick for Fruit Punch!
- Powerplay would have worked on a goalie that wasn't Lundqvist. He was doing all he could for his team but they just weren't interested.
- Kovalev is a presence no matter what he's doing, but people have to realize he's trying more to set up his linemates with chances and it worked well enough tonight.
- Dandy's fine back on defense. He was, afterall, a defenseman. Breezer is just terrible lately on the powerplay though as he can barely hold the blue line and can barely skate after the puck that slips by him... But I'm not as worried with these guys as I am when Rhino's out there.
- I do believe D'Agostini is staying. Another goal, and an assist.
- I'm missing Sergei! Hopefully seeing these few good games will inspire him to join the attack.
- Lang's 900th game, Hammers 1,100th game.
- Captain Koivu versus Captain Gomez. Gomez whacked Koivu in the head at the faceoff, and Koivu ran after him basically saying to man-up instead of continuing with his cheapshots. Koivu with the takedown and they both go off for roughing. Lapierre was already in the box and went on yapping at Gomez next door who went on immitating him. Then Koivu told Lapierre to drop it and he did. When the Captain speaks, everyone listens!
- Coach Komo now 3-0!
- Habs victory glomp on Price was like a playoff win. I love these guys!

Conclusion: This has been a full sixty minutes!

Bulldogs!
Well the Dogs have lost their 3rd straight since Dag came up to play, but it isn't like they're struggling. A 5-4 loss to the Milwaukee Admirals is just a hard fought battle that could have gone either way. Captain Chipper and Patches got 2 assists, Mike Glumac got two goals, Ryan Russel with another goal, and Dan Jancevski got his first goal of the season (and another in the books for assists). Maxwell, Desharnais, and Stewart got assists as well.

And That Was Boring...

I've heard that Jacques Lemaire coaches teams to a boring, solid T but I never saw it live. Now I have, and I concure. Maybe it's a tactic to bore the piss out of your opponents?

Anyway, final preseason game sets a 3-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild, where Koivu's bigger little brother Mikko got a small cheer from the crowd as the announcer mentioned him in the opening lineup. Gaborik played nicely too, despite Risebrough saying they're not going to sign him an extension eventhough he wants to stay there. Huh? What? Can we take him, then? Trade?

As the team goes on vacation without him, Carey Price wonders how well they'd play with Denis in nets
Of the Habs that managed to stay awake were (thankfully) Carey Price, who was rather spectacular and if he had fallen for the sleep-trap, it would have been 5-0 Wild in the first period. Rolling his eyes after making a flurry of point-blank close ranged saves after once again saving his defense's ass...well, that really said it all about the game. Maxim Lapierre, Tom Kostopoulos, and Steve Begin were the only offense with life. The powerplay stank about as bad as the metro (it smelt like skunk from Snowdown to Namur) and all the other lines just cycled the puck around for 3 hours. It got so bad that by the mid-third period the entire crowd yelled "SHOOT!!!" which they did, ever so lightly, right at Backstrom for an easy save. Begin also had a fight with some guy who came after him once the game was over. Dunno what that was all about... I know Begin checked someone, and it was rather clean. He got elbowed earlier too, which he already returned with a small tussle and a cross-check, but was that the reason?

There are fans who suck, and fans who suck more.
I also told some kids behind me to stop booing 'cause they were driving me up the fucking wall. Glad that isn't my normal seat... (I was stuck under the kid's zone.) And people who leave losing games at the last 5 minutes of play, you all suck!

Habs 3, Cats 2 (SO), 1 Misconduct, 10 Spin-o-Ramas, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

I need to ask but are all exhibition games usually this crazy? Do fans always take them in like they're watching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Championships? Against the Flordia Panthers? Wait, do I need to ask? I love this city.

If we like you, you will know
Gotta feel bad for Dandenault. He's an ok forward, has the speed, surprised me a few times with some puck-stealing ability and out-skating guys 10 years his junior...however, he's listed as a defenseman and hasn't really played a lick of defense, and when he does, he's rather...bad at it. All in all, when his reel shows up on the jumbotron, no one cheers. Then again, it didn't help him that much that last year, he was outspoken and whiny about not playing. I don't blame him though, he's a veteran with a few Cup rings and therefore kind of has the right to wonder why he's making that much cash to sit in the pressbox when he wants to play (unlike Grabs, who had maybe 20 games before going all petulant child). It's kind of mean though. I gave him some applause, but I felt like I was the only one. I though Kovy had the longest reel, but Price does. And the loudest applause too.

Dueling Goaltenders
The game's 1st and 1st star should have been a tie between Price and Vokoun. I realize the Cats have come off a long week of meaningless games, bounced from Alberta to PEI, and Vokoun entered with a 5.93GAA but he was a wall. Then again, the kids didn't really give him too many troublesome shots. One would hope a 15-year veteran could stop those, however he robbed Kovy and Kostitsyn plenty. On Price's side, well, the team has spent most of the week figuring who's going to be his back up, so he only got to play 2 periods in Detroit (and was fantastic). Sunday, defense took a walk and the forwards fell asleep, leaving a rusty goalie looking for his comfort zone and mostly all alone. Thankfully a dangerous 5-on-3 penalty kill went without incident. The first goal allowed took a weird bounce off his pad and over his glove (the laws of physics were extremely out of whack on that one) and the second was after making a flurry of close-ranged saves with no one helping to clear it out. But then it was good old Price, growing back to form, poking and proding Panthers blocking his view, generally pissing them off, and stoning Nathan Horton on a penalty shot. These two goalies made the game: Vokoun trying to rebound from a bad game, and Price trying to regain his regular season form. The evidence are in the shots, which remained equal after every period. The game ended in a shootout, with Price taking the prize.

The best official is the one you don't notice
I've heard this from people who have experience in refereeing hockey games, but those guys out Sunday night were either the biggest douchebags ever, or one of the Habs must have run over their puppy. Questionable calls from a guy leaning into Kovy's stick is interpreted as "holding" by Kovalev, to O'Byrne trying to avoid a collision on an abandoned bodycheck after realizing his teammate was going to do it became "charging", to letting the mid-3rd and overtime go to the crapper until it came down to one Panthers player practically shoving his stick down Beauregard's shorts to make a hesitant call. (I'll give them the 2nd and early 3rd as fair calls, even Fruit Punch's fight). Markov? Hooking and unsportsmanlike misconduct for bitching at the ref? Markov doesn't even SPEAK, and the hooking was his stick on the ice making a pokecheck and the tired Cat not being able to skate properly (I'll get to that). How about tripping Price twice who was trying to get up and go back to his net after making a cross-crease save and gets an armfull of Panthers? Thought I was watching the women's hockey game in Salt Lake City for a minute. It's not much of a big deal because it's an exhibition game, but it was troublesome as to how many trippings, slashings, and holdings one can ignore before someone gets injured while every minuscule motion is called on the other team. (And lets not forget who's on the roster here, 4 juniors and a stew of Bulldogs). A man sitting in the row below me yelled "This is the fucking NHL! Let them play already!" When a ref dictates the play, it's not a game anymore.

Maxim Lapierre's best punch is, according to him, "fruit punch"
Ok, he had a fight. Are people happy now? I think he did ok in it. Looked more like a wrestling match with Fruit Punch tugging the guy's sweater over, old school style. Bouillon's was weird. He did a clean check (and the guy didn't even fall down) and then another guy twice his height chased him down a minute later. What's with O'Byrne and Panthers, too?

Legs don't bend that way
These Panthers started out strong, but their fatigue got the better of them when one skater going for the puck suddenly found his left skate going one way while his right skate went the other as he crashed into the boards, hard. Price gave the ref his stick after the guy managed to drag himself to the bench. Moments later two more Panthers nearly did the same (plus the fumbled play around Markov that looked like "hooking"). I think the NHL needs to rethink their preseason schedule next year. Too many people are getting hurt, it seems...

Paging Serge Savard
P.K. Subban did about 5 Spin-o-ramas with one nearly going to the net. Markov tried some too that didn't work too well. The kids are rubbing off on the vets. But Subban won more fans tonight with his superman save, puck possesion puck moving skills, and afterburners. And Weber further solidifying his Stret 2.0 status. This could be the powerplay of 2010.

All in all, crazy game. (And another free pair of tickets for me)! The corporate Reds looked a bit empty, but we normals in the Greys and Blues were packed and cheering. The FUCKING wave went around the bowl 3 times, and we all shouted for CAREY! CAREY! CAREY! Seriously, including the shootout, that's about 40 saves there, a little less for Vokoun. Guys were robbed that star. Kovalev got the shootout win because he wanted to go home and see himself on some TV show. Ahhh...we love him.