Tailor made: Habs 3, Caps 4 (SO)

Here we have two teams that are similar, only one is flying with confidence, the other is taking baby steps to return to form. The fact one point was obtained despite a good solid effort in which they truly deserved the two points is exactly what The Bob ordered. Though without Kovalev to save your arse in a shootout, I'm thinking Carbo should have picked the natural goal scorers instead of the defensive hard working guys. You know, they wear the 67 and 36 and 21 and 46... But that's his choice so he'll have to live with it.

My dad's random fact of the evening: Schneider means "tailor"
- Happy to be back? Why thank you Bob! It's nice to see a solid veteran on the top line that doesn't Breezer his way through a game. One assist, solid ass-saving defense, blocking shots... Makes Chelios proud to see his stolen number is being put to good use. (No offense to Henry).
- It was the 6 000th game for the Habs since 1909. (Included games for the NHA).
- The lineup is weird without Kovy...
- Sergei too... (Gonna pay attention to Friday's game against the Marlies and see how he is).
- Stewart is a gem.
- Ovechkin is so much fun to watch. Giving Price credit for the crazy catch early on in the game. Flying over for a weird goal. Then near the end of overtime, absolutely steaming mad when Pleky stole the puck from him.
- Ha... well, he's a defensive forward but the Canadiens news recaps called Chipper a defenseman when he tried to cover for Hammer's super error on Ovie on the crazy goal.
- Speaking of Price, told you there was nothing to worry about. That last goal would have been a miracle save if he had gotten it, and it was really close to being a high stick.
- Powerplay was 3-for-4, while 5-on-5 was back to fanning and shooting wide, but they had good chances either way. PK was good, as the Caps were 1-for-3.
- Holy Markov might have turned over the puck a la Vodkov during the weaker powerplay, but he picked up 3 assists on the others!
- And no goal(s) for Mike Green.
- TK IS WEARING KOVY'S A!!!
- But good work for TK. He fell and still held on to the puck in the neutral zone while the Caps where gunning for offense. Too bad he's got hands of clay...
- Work on faceoffs ok please thanks. Fruit Punch once again takes the highest percentage on the team at 63% (5-8). Lowest was Pleky at 47% (8-17).
- My only annoyance was that Ovie tried twice to take Price's head off with the puck. Meanie!
- I hope Kovy was watching.

Conclusion: Good solid effort as seen by all. As they gain more confidence, we'll see the speed coming back, because right now they're overly concerned with causing any errors. And tomorrow, another team that's like ours, and in a similar fuck as well. We say hello to Pittsburgh and see how their new coach can change them. For the record, I was absolutely flabbergasted that Therrien got a contract extension way too early, especially since watching his Pens was like watching his old Habs, only he didn't have the two top players in the league up here... My brother is also one who believes they reached those Cup finals because of who was on the ice, not who was behind the bench. Then again, other than those two players, he doesn't have much to work with. (Kind of like his old Habs).

At work I'm in project limbo, so I'm currently milling through some downtime. Using it to get my creative juices back, as they can get really stale when you do the kind of work I have to do (it's all part of the job). I've got a large "sheet" opened in my photoshop and I'm just making random heads. Here's my Kovyhead that I made this morning.

Cap 2, Habs 1: I didn't see it

Didn't get to see tonight's game because I was setting up my new apartment for some painting tomorrow. I was at the gas station filling my tank when the Kovalanguay line buzzed Varlamov's net and could do nothing more than freak him out by hitting the goal post twice. Got home in time to see AK46 battle a neutral zone trap all by himself in an attempt at breaking forward so that Halak could leave for an extra attacker. Too little, too late! But it's the bad decisions that are just killing the team. Like why would anyone slapshot a shot while right in front of the net instead of tap it in. Again, Breezer was the only one who could score, and I'm torn with forgiving him for his own bad decisions on defense to praise him or to just continue chewing him out for those bad decisions on defense. Hmm... what to do...

Ben Maxwell has joined the crew though. He's a pretty impressive rookie from what I've seen of him in camp and with the Bulldogs. I wasn't expecting much from his first actual NHL game so maybe the next one will earn him some points, but the little I caught at the start of the game before I went off to my apartment... well, he was aggressively covering his man like mad!

I'd like to see Greg Stewart up here though.

The major bummer though is the clinic is filling up. Koivu, Higgins, Dandy, Price... Komisaurus is coming back soon though. Thankfully these are happening NOW instead of a week before April. Nevertheless, it's still a downer. Get healthy soon, boys! And give Price some flu shots! Or at least some chicken soup. That's a guaranteed cure-all.

For dessert...
I just caught a bit of the Oilers-Canucks game. First shot on goal and it's a goal for the Oilers. The Sandman doth look shakey. I hear Luongo isn't doing very good with that injury of his either... And there were two fights already. Upon seeing Stortini in the box for his fighting major, my brother said "Where'd they find this guy, frozen in the ice?" Grog pass puck!

And Roloson skates funny.