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.

Twin Ontario Killing

So with last night's convincing 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, the Habs eliminated both the Ottawa Senators AND the Toronto Maple Leafs. Feels nice, doesn't it?

Olé Olé Olé, Explained, Explained

If you're a Habs fan, chances are you love it. And if you're not, you probably say it's "Sooo Gay, sooo gay, so gay, so gay". You get the drift, it's the Habs upper level anthem, also known as Olé Ole.

It got me to thinking though, how did the tradition start? When did it start? There isn't much definitive proof on when it started, but I know it's a fairly recent thing. Back in the early 90's, the Habs produced what they hoped to be a crowd sing-a-long in the form of "Les Canadiens Sont La". That tune is still sung at games, but it tends to only be in the last minute or two of a victorious effort, and it always needs to be pre-cursored by a video and audio prompt on the scoreboard during a stoppage of play.

My personal theory? The Ole Ole was a chant that could easily be sung when Habs fans were in a happy state and it's not French, nor English. Everybody gets it, everyone knows the lyrics, it's easy, it's catchy. And sure it may sound goofey, but let me ask you this - if you're not a Habs fan, what do YOUR teams' fans do that's unique at their games?

Hockey is a sport that lacks unique crowd traditions. Other than the Red Wings playoff octopus throw, and the Panthers rat attack which have both been outlawed by the NHL since, there really aren't many others to think of. Perhaps Calgary's "C of red" during their playoff runs, but again - all these things are just playoff things.

I for one, love the Ole Ole. Though most opposing fans and broadcasters alike (wrongly) think it's a victory song, it is nothing of the sort. People seem to forget the Habs victory song is "Na Na Na", another tradition started by you guessed it - the Habs upper level choir. In the mean time, I'll leave you with a video of how awesome it can sound in full force.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beWKml7IlPA