Big day, Habs fans!
You can stop freaking out now that Josh "JORGE!" Gorges is signed up for the year and avoids arbitration. Thank god because I was sick of hearing all your hand wringing crap over how the team is probably going to sign some old veteran instead and how he's NOT in the Habs plans. (No, because Gorges is the not-old veteran they wanted). Now that that's done, you can start bitching about the fact it's a standard one-year 2.5 million dollar deal--which is a pretty sweet raise from what he was making before. And judging from my Twitter feed, most of the unreasonable media types (hello Brian) are pulling the "I can't believe this team! What a horrible message to send to a heart and soul guy! He doesn't want to stay here long-term anyway! He's totally gone next season!" crap speculation without even talking to the guy. The fans, well, like I said, they always freak out about everything. Remember Price's contract last season? Our defense has a lot interesting questions and new people entering. This year, we'll see some tinkering going on and we'll see how Emelin does with the game over here. And after sitting out for half the year, I can only picture Gorges like a caged animal, ready to bust out and show Gauthier that he could be worth a Marc Methot deal.
Remember, when Jorge scores a goal it's a glorious day!
Coaching team is set. Randy and Randy move up, and Clément Jodoin takes over Hamilton. I'm very happy Pascal Vincent buggered off to the Jets as an assistant coach 'cause I did not want him in Hamilton. Jodoin (who was an assistant coach with the Habs for a bit) has over 30 years of experience and quietly quit the Rimouski Oceanic for a bigger challenge. He was actually thinking about taking jobs in Latvia, guiding their national teams of various levels. Instead he decided to stick around here. Meanwhile, having the Randys up here is so fucking awesome you have no idea. This is awesome news for the kids as they now have someone in their corner that Martin knows to help get them off the bench when he starts pulling the veterans card. Also Cunneyworth knows Martin's system but knows how to integrate a proper fourth line with it.
Winnipeg Jets new logo! Kind of cool, I guess. Though I would feel like I'm basically wearing the jersey of an army team since it's combining the RCAF logo and a Hornet. Here I was thinking they'd trot out in Blue Bombers gear with a puck instead of a football.
Congratulations are in order for Max Pacioretty, who married Maxim Afinogenov's tennis playing sister today. And to my boy Eli Sherbatov, who actually found a job playing pro hockey in the Netherlands! Yay! Power to the 5'4" hockey player with skills up the wazoo.
And on this day with the horrible news comming out of Norway, all I can do is hug my puppy Ziggy. He was more than happy to hug back.