It's PK Time Already

So let me rant for a minute here. I completely understand why PK Subban was a healthy scratch following his disastrous third period against an energetic Edmonton Oilers squad. Subban was twice caught trying to force the play, and it burned the Habs, ultimately costing them the point.

Now not all that surprisingly, the Habs wiped the floor with the New Jersey Devils sans-Pernell to the tune of 5-1. Yannick Weber, Subban's replacement, was more than adequate in the blowout win but by no means a deciding factor either way.

Saturday afternoon, the Habs rolled to a relatively easy matinee win against the visiting San Jose Sharks. Subban sitting for a second straight game raised some eyebrows amongst fans and media alike, but I gave Jacques Martin the benefit of the doubt, assuming he'd be back in against Ottawa on Tuesday night.

Now I'm mad. Tonight the Habs struggled mightily on the powerplay, and desperately missed PK's offensive prowess and powerful shot on the point in nearly seven minutes of wasted opportunity in the second period.

Had the Habs not roared out of the gate in the third period, the talk of the town in Montreal would be PK's extended pressbox vacation. Now Jacques, Ottawa is not Detroit. PK Subban absolutely has to play Friday night, no questions asked.

For the love of PK, it's time.

Habs at the 21% mark of 2010

Okay Habs fans. Andrei Markov is out with possibly a season-ending injury. The playoff saviour, Jaroslav Halak has been dealt for a prospect. If I told you in September that through 18 games the Canadiens were 12-5-1, how hard would you have laughed?

The Four-Game Winning Streak

Coming into the previous week, many pundits said the Canadiens fortitude would seriously be put to the test. They were on the road in Boston, who was red-hot (8-3) and then home to Vancouver, who was riding a six game winning streak and is highly-regarded as a top-five club in the NHL. So what do the Habs do? Take a hard-fought 3-1 win in Boston, and then completely stifle the Canucks at home in a shutout victory.

Fast-forward to Saturday night at home, with the mediocre, but upstart Carolina Hurricanes visiting La Belle Province. The Habs roared out to a 2-0 start, but in the second stanza the Canes potted two quick goals emptying the Bell Centre air. What do the Habs do? Score five goals.

This Tuesday, for me, was the most impressive victory of the season. News of Andrei Markov's injury put Alexandre Picard back in the Habs lineup with the vaunted Philadelphia Flyers rolling into town. Carey Price stood on his head, posting a 41-save shutout, his second in four games.

All is well in Habs-Land, folks. Let's enjoy it while we can. Oh, and did you see Halak's goal?

Arena Adventure: Olympiques de Gatineau

One of the things that excited me most about living in Ottawa was the abundance of live hockey to attend in the area. Of course you've got the Sens, but their games are ultra-lame unless Montreal or Toronto's in town, but aside from that, I happen to live in perhaps Canada's best junior hockey city. Here we've got the Ottawa 67's who have provided the NHL with the fourth most players in Entry Draft history, and across the river on the Quebec side we've got Les Olympiques de Gatineau who as recently as last year were crowned QMJHL champs.

Tonight was the third game of the year I went to, and it was game five of their second round series against Les Cataractes de Shawinigan (home of none other than our former prime minister Johnny Crouton). It was a do or die game, with the Cats being up three games to one. The O's would fall 4-2 in the contest, but it wasn't without its' excitement. The arena is called Robert Guertin Arena, but locals affectionately refer to it as "Le Bob".

The games are loud, passionate, and an unfriendly family atmosphere much opposite of the Ottawa 67's crowd. Beers are sold for a reasonable $4.75, and you can always count on a friendly horn or two to wake you up if you're heading to the game straight after a long day's work.

I look forward to attending plenty more games next year. Go O's Go!

Playoffs, Habs vs Bruins?

Why are we surprised? Sounds like it'll be Habs Bruins round 1, game 82 pending. I've never been so pumped with an OT loss. GO HABS GO! The drive for 25, is now officialy, alive.

What to Say?

Screw you Mikhail Grabovski. If the Habs miss the playoffs, you think you're hated by us now? You ain't seen nothin yet chief. Your "questionable" hit on Markov, came at a point in a game being broadcast on national TV which featured your Leafs being bent over to the hands of the almighty Habs. It was unecessary, and exactly the type of play that is not needed in hockey.

Now, you Mr. (and I use this title loosely) Grabovski, are not responsible for the Habs laying an egg against the dismal Ottawa Senators or the playoff-hungry New York Rangers. You are responsible for causing us to be without our leading scorer, quarterback on the powerplay, oh and just possibly our most defensively-stable defenseman. Name me some NHL teams who could afford to lose that player. Get back to me on that.

And for the morons who feel the need to blame Carey Price for every loss, go take some lessons in hockey. I fail to see how Price is solely to blame on the game winner tonight where he bumped into Komisarek behind his net. Some will say "the goalie shouldn't leave his crease". That shows a level of hockey ineptitude which blows my mind. The goaltender HAS to leave his crease, to prevent the dump-in attempt from ringing around the boards to a winger, setting up an easy one-time play to the slot. Now, what is supposed to happen is someone calls for the puck. It's quite similar to a centre fielder waving off a fellow outfielder on a fly ball.

This little, but crucial, bit of communication obviously had a breakdown. Who is to blame? Without hearing both players' microphones on the play, it's impossible to know. But the Montreal media will instantly go to blame Price, because he's a talented goalie not hailing from the province of Quebec. That's right, I went there.

Bottom line, this team is going to make the playoffs whether they win another game this year or not. Are we going to do well against Boston? I think the Habs will do fine, and I'll be here to say I told you so the whole time. If not, well at least I'm not a bandwagon-jumper.

Enjoy the game Thursday, Boston - you suck.

Marc and Stefan's Venture to the Bell Centre

Monday morning, a good buddy of mine (Marc, a creature also commonly referred to as a Senators fan) and I saddled up and drove the 200km's northeast to the Bell Centre for the Habs game against Ottawa. First, a little background. My friend had never been to a game outside the confines of Ottawa, be it the Civic Centre or Corel Centre, Paladium, Scotiabank Place whatever they call it this year. I have been to the Bell Centre on numerous occasions, as well as every other arena in the Northeast Division save for Boston.

I'm always excited to show off the pride of Habs fans, which is a home game in our cathedral. Upon explaining some Habs grammar to my buddy, such as "Les Canadiens" when referred to as the franchise as a whole are known as "Le Canadien", and our jersey being known as "Le Sainte Flannelle" (The Holy Flannel), we were ready to embark towards the beauty on De Le Gauchetiere.

So you know what means, pre-drinking on the Metro:

Upon our arrival, I had to let him in on what it's like to sit down in the 100 level. I found an usher kind enough to allow us in to take a picture, momentarily ignoring the absolutlely ridiculous policy of 100 level ticket holders ONLY being allowed down there, EVER.

Once the lights when down for the intro with 13 minutes to puck drop, it's game time. Anybody who's a Habs regular knows the feeling. After watching the numerous intro videos on the glorious monstrousity of a new HD scoreboard, the Habs came out onto the ice in their always-intimidating intro to the background of a not intimidating in the least band, Coldplay. Once it was time to award Patty "The Breeze" Brisebois with his silver stick for his 1000 games, presented by none other than Henri "Pocket Rocket" Richard to the usual plentiful standing ovation, Marc leans to me and says "Shit, this place is loud." You're telling me?

When we sat in our seats, much to the delight of Marc was a large native man attired in a Wade "Cokehead" Redden Senators jersey. It was their old goofey (but not goofier than the current) third jersey. So Marc figures he's got support nearby, which is a bonus. Turns out the moron is a Habs fan wearing a Senators jersey? What a cross-dresser. I hope to god the guy wasn't wearing women's undies too. But ya, he wins tool of the game - easily.

Well him, and Mikhail Grabovski for ruining the Habs offensive game completely with the removal of Andrei Markov from our lineup. But that's another story (see story above...). All in all, a great time was had and I hope I showed the Bell Centre proud to my guest.

The greatest compliment I was paid was when Marc told me Habs goals were "one of the most intimidating experiences ever". His words couldn't be true enough, it's always fun to watch your team on the road in a good environment, but when that team happens to have good fans it can be quite the experience seeing your team get scored on, in any sport. Being used to games in Toronto and Ottawa, where you're lucky if three out of every four fans stands to cheer for a home team goal, the Bell Centre can be quite a culture-shock.

I almost forgot to mention our seats were sick (view pictured above), we sat in row CC whites which is the third row of the upper level balcony. The Bell Centre has very steep seating and as a result, it feels like you're almost sitting on top of the play. It's a great way to take in a game.

Anyways, other than the Habs 38 second brain fart which saw Jailbird Heatley score twice for the tying and winning goal, it was a great time. I look forward to doing it again.

Go Habs Go.

Hammer One New York, Pass Another

Man that was nice. Two easy wins in a row! First a 4-1 win against Cristobal Huet "the Cristo-Wall" and the Chicago Blackhawks, now a ridiculously easy 5-1 hammering of the brutal New York Islanders. Oh, and the Habs passed the other New York team to move into 7th place in the East.

This one wasn't even close, it was over about 25 minutes in when the Habs had raced out to spot themselves a 4-0 lead. This was a stat-padders dream. Kovey lead the way with three points, Markov had a goal and an assist, Koivu had two assists and Schneider sniped yet another power play bullet.

Bring on the dismal Leafs on Saturday. If the Leafs had any balls they'd play Pogge.