Eye of the Tiger

TONIGHT: THE PREDATORS BECOME THE PREY. (i know, original eh?)

Big Tits vs. Little Tits, the first encounter of brotherly love since sergei got traded.

Halpern and Georges both did not participate in practice yesterday, instead taking the day off for physio. They will both be in the lineup tonight.

Price is hotter than ever after making 41 saves look like an "easy" night on tuesday.

Our PP has seem to have risen from the dead, even with the lack of Mr. Bean on the ice. Also risen are Gomer and (somewhat) Gio. BRING THE HEAT.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T!!!

... the title explains this post entirely.

Also putting up some cheese on tuesday's game.

Baby when you're gone...

Still no word on the Marky situation. FML. habsinsideout.com state another site saying 8months-a year. BALLS. TSN saying 3 months... honestly we will not know until PG or JM stepup to the mike and give us the news. for the life of me I do not understand why they must keep us in the dark. but such is the life of a habs fan.

That being said... There is already a gaping hole in my heavy habs heart that cannot possibly be filled. I miss Mr. Bean. He was starting to get back into the motions of the game, a little less rusty on each shift. the PP was looking stronger.... i dunno. those are some big holes to fix.

GRANTED. we no longer rely on our PP to produce all our offense. last game we went 3-6, but before that it was like finding popular kids at a high school dance(or leafs fans at a playoff game)... pretty much non-existant. We weren't below .500 for the games w.o. him, so the team seems to have matured to the point of not having to rely on one guy.

but we were stronger with him. alot stronger. FML.

We'll miss you for now, Marky... hoping for good news.

THE RISING

Ok so bruce springsteen isn't from Philly, but close enough.

These last few weeks have had me bolted to my desk frantically trying to cram MEANINGLESS mathematical/scientific facts into my brain (personally I believe a Habs game is more meaningful)... and I have therefore neglected this blog.

MY APOLOGIES.

However, our BELOVED habbies are still sitting pretty at the top of the NE division, 4 points ahead of Ottawa, 6 ahead of Boston (though they still have 3 games in hand). This past week has been an emotional rollercoaster. Euphoria reigned on saturday night until we hit the 14 min mark of the 3rd period, where we saw Markov go down in pain........ Anyone who's watched enough hockey to see that it looked bad. Rumors suggest 3 months... I'm praying it'll be less but on verra.

Ups:

-Price haters can shut the f*ck up now that he's proven himself. Granted, I was never a hater, just a realist that could see this season start at either end of the spectrum (I don't see Price as an average goalie--he's either brilliant or he can't stop a beach ball). I'm proud to see he has become quicker, more agile, and more concentrated on his game. Definitely a whole different Carey than who we knew last year.

-Are Gio and Gomer finally coming out of their slump????? This remains to be seen, but it was nice to have a blow-out go our way for once and have that many different guys score.

-Pleks is the MAN.... not to mention a steal at his salary and with the way he's been playing.

-Garfield (Spacek) has finally picked up his game and is no longer making blunders that would make a AA midget team look good.

-The checking lines (ie: young up-and-comers) have really been an amazing supporting cast thus far, some nights even casting a shadow over our "stars".

-The PP has FINALLY started to click... though with the loss of Markov it'll remain to be seen if we can keep it up. going 3-6 on saturday was a RELIEF!!!!

-The PK is still f*cking AWESOME.

-I can't get enough of Halpern. haha i want his babies.

-Laps' goal and Price's save on saturday are definitely highlight reel material. Price could potentially make the final reel of the year.

Downs:

-Markov's injury. This guy's just snakebit but that hit was just awkward, nothing dirty just bad luck.

-Gomer STILL being under-productive (even given his recent play)... this stemming mostly from his GROSSLY overrated salary.

-TSN's commentary on games.... seriously?

Either way, I'm GOING to the game tmrw night (good thing this isn't in Philly--last time I was there I got tossed) HA.

GHG!!!!!!!

PS: love the intensity that Pleks just played with. and gionta's sweet move at the blue line. "D'un coup sec."

SCREAM!

ARGGGGGH 4 minutes left and a PENALTY!?!?!?! you're killing me guys, you're KILLING ME!!!! the refs did miss a big one on gomez though....

still. and YA.

one more thing: ENOUGH WITH THE RANDOM SHOTS ON NET FROM A RIDIC ANGLE!!!! slow down the play, cycle it, pass it, push it. do something PRODUCTIVE! throwing it on net does nothing but make us lose the puck. Maybe it works on a goalie that gives off the big, juicy rebounds, but Giguere is NOT that goalie tonight.

ugggggggh...

Bring the Noise

So i'm lying on my couch at home with a 38.5C fever... things I've missed:

-joel bouchard's eyebrows

-joel bouchard's purple shirt

-pierre houde's classic cliché one liners

-benoit brunet's "oyoyoyoyoyoy's"

ok back to serious stuff. I'm liking a lot of things... but as always a lot of things to work on. definitely dirty goals (except for one). a goal's a goal's a goal... but wow this was one heck of a scrappy encounter thus far. Guys are still trying to find their season form...no worries, those rusty wheels will be well oiled soon.

I'm really like what i see out of eller. really nice forecheck, throwing the body around, and making clean, crisp passes and setting up plays. price has been decent. a few good saves though he was definitely weak on the first and third goals. (mostly on the first).

MacArthur has been strong for the leafs... but the key player for the evening was definitely JS Giguere.... what amazing saves left right and center. really.... the leafs definitely upped their value with this guy.

Side note: ok so our PK has gotten much better than the pre-season, something that is quite expected (though note that the leafs did NOT have the most coherent PP).... as i mentioned the passes were a little all over the place. That being said: I will say one more thing time and time again: UGH PENALTIES!!!!!!!!!! Stupid delay-of-game, slashing, hooking.... the list goes on. too many penalties will come back and bite you. you can only keep a 1.00 PK for so long. so PLEASE please PLEASE pretty please habs, work on not getting as many penalties. you lose all your momentum and it puts you on your heels.

thanks, love, sophie.

oh ya, one more thing.... we HAVE to work on our discipline and checking along the boards. Sometimes on the 5-on-5 we look like we're on the PK in our own zone. whaaaa? that shouldn't happen. the leafs were free to cycle the puck without much attack from the habs along the periphery. Meanwhile we had a very difficult time doing the same in the offensive zone.

9 minutes left in the game--i'm *HOPING* they'll find a way to bury that 3rd goal.

PPS: damn refs missed SO many penalties!!!! eller was just hooked on a semi-breakaway. ugh.