Coconuts

I do wish I were there right now... I have family in Florida. My mom's semi-estranged sister and her family have lived there for I guess nearly 30 years now. We used to visit them often, and then things went bad between us concerning their late mother (long story). But on this sunny Sunday, the only waterfront I get to see is the icy shores of the St-Lawrence river.

We went skating yesterday on it!

Sadly for Max Pacioretty, the only waterfront he'll get is the smokey, factory strewn shores of Lake Ontario, as the Habs finally sent him down into the warm, welcoming arms of Guy Boucher to fix our lost and wandering first round manapult. You're in good hands, Max! And a welcoming edition to your former linemate Ben Maxwell, who's been heating up recently.

Edit! Holy crap! Maxwell is now up with the Habs! And Dagger's back down with the Bulldogs too for conditioning. What took you so fast, Habs? Help us, Obi-wan Guy Boucher! You're our only hope!


It's currently a lovely -5 degrees celcius here, and I'm going to stuff my face silly at Verses tonight (part of the Happening Gourmand). It's 24 degrees celcius in Flordia, and maybe good for the Habs in that there's supposed to be a few rain storms hitting the area to keep them focused. Just because you're on the beach doesn't mean you get to forget the lovely display of team hockey you showed us the past two days!

Front seat view of Bettman's Empire

It takes the same amount of time to drive to Myrtle Beach as it does to drive to Sault-Ste-Marie.

I have one more day to fry upon the sandy shores of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, while the Pens and Wings fight to the not-death for Lord Stanley's glorious silverware. And as I try to reconnect myself with the Northern portion of this hemisphere for some relevant news, I've learned a few things about The South.

For one, apparently there's a lot of Pittsburgh Steelers merchandise around and this is confusing me.

But as I stand just South of 'Canes Country (even though I'm pretty sure South Carolina has way more hurricane activity than North Carolina), I can count on one hand the things I've seen related to hockey. And TV isn't one of them.
- A kid in the lobby was wearing a Crosby shirt.
- A guy seated in the chinese restaurent was wearing a Red Wings jersey (and I think it was his own name too).
- A car had a lame attempt to decal itself with a painted Go Redwings (sic) on it.
- A guy working at some Surf and Board shop in a fancy new marketplace was apparently a Caps fan.
- A car parked at the Cracker Barrel had one of those Hurricanes fan plates on for the front of the car.

When the finals kicked off, Versus was showing rodeo. Television sets were tuned to football or baseball, hell I even saw soccer, while the Pens made a series out of the series. By the time I even find NBC's awful feed the games are already over. (Nevermind it took me the entire week to find a decent radio station). The "sports" section at the local Barnes and Noble doesn't even have The Game let alone anything that related to the legends or history of hockey but there sure was plenty of baseball. I have no idea what the newspapers are like. They're mostly about Obama's day anyway, which is a step up from last year being mostly about Britney Spears I guess.

Bravo, Gary Bettman. You're plan to expose and convert the Southern sun-fried bible-thumping masses was apparently a smash hit!

I'm kind of sad to be leaving on Sunday, as I hear the weather is beyond shit back home and the seperatists are starting up yet again with more stupidity, and Mario Tremblay is rumoured to be coming to the Habs as assistant-coach-gag-me-with-a-spork... but school's out finally around here and the kids have all gone insane. Kids apparently have a curfew too, so they try to go insane just before it's time for bed. So in a way, I'm thankful to be heading home soon before some idiot launches a firecracker from the beach into my room. Also this humidity is ruining my hair.

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...

Lesson in Futility? Part 2: Fuck you, Metro

Murphy's Law states that things move slower when you want to get somewhere on time, right? That's the way the Montreal Metro rolls. I managed to hop on the metro at 7am after the train on the opposite track sat there for a good 5 long minutes. Of course, the service had apparently slowed on the Orange Line. Bottom line, public transportation sucks. Technically, I hate when I needed to depend on someone else to get somewhere... Unfortunately, there's no other way for me to get to work.

Despite being thwarted by the STCUM (as usual), I did manage to enter work at 7:30 and made up for the lost time by "working" over lunch. (I put that in quotes because there's nothing to do right now, since we're pretty much finished the project). So I did get to the Bell Center at 4. And wow, people love sitting out in the hot hot sun all day. Thank god there was a strong wind around the corner. Never the less, I'm bracelet number 1256 out of 1500. Mission accomplished.

Will N31 get a good place in the lottery to get those tickets she's hoping for? Or will this debacle end in tears? Stay tuned...