Happy Dance!

Who got two tickets to the Habs/Stars game in January? *points to self* Yo.

CANADA GOLD!

NUMBER 5 IS ALIVE!

After 60 minutes of watching Swedish goalie/Panthers prospect Markstrom dive, the boys of Team Canada take the gold with an absolutely inspiring and awesome 5-1 effort, a complete ownage of Team Sweden, and a Tokarski who finally showed what he was made of (ie. the Tokarski we all saw last year in the Memorial Cup). And they didn't even need to smack talk the boys in yellow before the game. Espo with a goal of justice! PK Subban for Prime Minister! (Or at least future captain of the Canadiens).

A beautiful win.

"We came to Ottawa as one team, one nation, and one mission." He's not even 20 yet, but he speaks great words of wisdom.

He usually wears number 6. This year he wore number 5 (relinquished his number in honor of Luc Bourdon). With the Habs, he's currently using 76. Watch this kid. When I see him play, I see a burgeoning Bobby Orr with a mix of Serge Savard.

Habs vs Sens: SHUTOUT!

So are you done panicking yet? Man the forums have been annoying these days...

Who would have thunk it that Chris Higgins, the man of many posts, would get the first hat trick this year. Actually Sergei almost came first, which was also pretty cool. But Master Higgins is back my friends! Double-whammy goes to Carey Price, shutting the door on the Sens for the 2nd straight game he faced them. The last one was 3-0 last season, this time it's 4-0. One more and there would have been free wings. Ah Dandy...if only that glove had not flicked so quickly eh? And after everyone blames him for everything, Gui! shoots a quicky from a won faceoff by Lang for the other goal. Gorges is still the love of my life, Rhino needs to stop throwing pucks over the glass. I know he means well, though! Triple whammy was Laraque patrolling, while mini-Cube fights Ruutu for elbowing Fruit Punch. I love these guys.

Besides the elbowing and backflip over Price, Jarkko Ruutu is still my favourite idiot. He even waved goodbye as he was thrown out.

Memo to Hartsburg: What's up with Sputza? Only time I noticed him was when he hooked Kovy right in front of the ref. I swear he's see-through... Perhaps he needs to yell again.

League-wide faceplants:
- As various members of the press continue vilifying Kostopoulos like he's some mad dog, the master of actual cheapshots from behind Ryan Hollweg thinks he should have gotten 10 games. Pot, meet kettle! Douche. Remember, Sergei has a good memory...
- Wilson is also full of hot air. Keep on jabbering. Any of the journalists dared to ask him about Mr. Hollweg? So by his suggestion the Leafs should be down to what 13 and 2? And how long will he hide his Hollweg for fear of what the children might think when he purposedly pounds an unsuspecting rooking into the glass from behind, as he does time and time again...
- Hey look, someone who's actually not sipping Leaf Juice in Leafs Nation! Oh surprise, the comments are full of bile.
- Penguins beat Red Wings 7-6 in OT. Um...last time I looked that was 5-2 Wings. Collapse much?
- Calgary beat those silly Toronto comeback kids 4-3 even with the flu and Phaneuf nearly lost an eye last game.
- Still waiting to see if the Stars can beat the Kings. It's tied at 2 now. You can do it, Marty!

Habs 5, Sens lose, I get a free game

Best preseason game ever? And I thought listening to Les Boys beat the Wings with a shootout and a greenhorn in nets was exciting! Of course it's extra special for me because this was my first live game ever. I have never seen the Canadiens play except on tv. I can't really count that Old Timers game either. All I remember about that: it's was boring, I saw Lafleur, it was in the Forum. Of course I've been inside the Bell Center, when it was called the Molson Center. Had my graduation on the ice. Saw the Tragically Hip and the Rheostatics play live. For a hockey game? Let's just say you don't know live hockey games until you've gone to the Bell Center.

How do we start off? Warm up skate, the crowd's cheering, the music is rocking. Start of the game, a full house is signing the anthem loud and proud. (Suck on that, Bloc). Then the boys warmup in the first, and proceed to slaughter the competition with a 5-0 shutout. As mentioned before, I have my tickets in the Grey section, which is actually a bit higher than the banners. I'm literally in the rafters. However the view is just phenomenal. Here I was thinking I'd need a radio to understand what was going on, or would need altitude pills. But no, players are a good visible size and I can ever see their numbers and almost read their names. Even though it's a preseason game, the whole place was electric. To Montreal, every game counts.

Here are some of my impressions of tonight's performance:
- Halak really needs to work on his puck handling... Oh my god, it got to the point where every time he wandered out I was cringing, hoping nothing bad would happen. (Usually missed the pucks anyway). Other than that, looked better in nets, didn't go down too early in the butterfly this time, though the few shots he faced were mostly pretty easy to save anyway.
- Desharnais won a lot of faceoffs from what I could see. (63% according to the stats, highest on the Canadiens side, who are usually pretty bad at faceoffs anyway). I like this little guy! He buzzes round, gets to the net, gets into the play. And he's 5'5".
- D'agostini, equally impressed, NHL ready and will probably get called up more.
- Pacioretty was also impressive. Will definitely need to be seriously considered next year should his AHL experience go well.
- Weber is Streit 2.0
- Stewart almost had another fight in the same place he pummeled McCabe. He was good too. If he's not on the team by opening night, definitly one of the first to come up, should definitely be on the roster permanently next year (unless something happens).
- Kovy was playing but look strained, hopefully he can work that minor injury out. But he still pulled the moves! Denfensive ones too!
- Alex Henry doesn't really play, he just fights. Would be happy in Philly.
- P.K Subban played a pretty good game until he got into a big fight (and whoever was the loser that started a fight with Subban, congratulations, you just got OWNED by an OHLer), and then was off the rest of the night. It was weird, but I saw he knew it. He looked pretty frustrated with himself everytime he gave the puck away. But he's young, he'll only benefit from the experience.
- Tom Kostopoulos rocks.
- O'Byrne was good tonight too. More diciplined. No penalties from what I can remember.
- Josh Gorges is great! Wow. Seriously, thank you Rivet!
- The Kostitsyns were on fire, Plekanec too.
- I will continue to call Spezza "Sputza". Reverse midos touch on this guy. It's an observation that has continued from last year's playoffs and IIHF games.
- Heatley was also playing, but I didn't really notice.
- SENS SUCK 5~~~O~~~ (That's what the guys behind me were yelling).

There's a new goal song too. No more U2 "Vertigo". I don't like Simple Plan, but hey, at least it's a Montreal band so the stupid press can shut up about it. Thank god it's not Arcade Fire (zzzzzzzzzz). I couldn't really hear the lyrics, just the music, but it's apparently specially written for the team. It works well with everyone screaming. Very rocking .

And the new scoreboard is lovely.

Lesson in Futility? Part 3: The First Round Pick

The first number picked by Youppi was 1245. Yes, that's right. Almost ten numbers before mine. I was ushered into the first round with a few other happy Habs fan. And what a day! The traffic was nice, the Metro worked, the weather was...ok (hot, humid, grey...my hair was not happy so I shoved them into braids). So, pessimism aside, I got my two tickets in the Victory Pack which will be split between myself and a family member (mostly my younger brother Ben, who's birthday falls on the home opener). This will also be the first time I have ever seen the Habs live. I mean the last time I went to a game was an Old Timers, and that was at the Forum! I felt so lucky I went and bought a 649 lotto ticket! Let's go 04-19-20-26-29-42! I even high-fived Youppi I was so happy. So if the Habs win a game while I'm there I get a free ticket of their choice. The pack itself included two pre-season games (Senators and Panthers) and three regular ones (home opener with the Pooh Bears, and then the Islanders and Sabres). The last ticket is the day after I get my condo too so I might have to miss the Bulldogs game.

Soon I will be able to present a "View from the Greys", which I assume will be a lovely sight of the 24 Stanley Cup banners and retired numbers. Section 316 here I come!