Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Morning Skate for Thursday, October 14th

Bullet points for what you missed while dreaming of getting rescued form a Chilean mine...
  • Well that was... unpleasant? Disappointing? Frustrating? All of the above? Habs lose the home opener 4-3 in overtime. TFS was great, he deserved better. Fans throwing stuff on the ice in response to refereeing has inspired the TSN Sportscentre Top 10 this morning, but really, the Habs were outplayed for a lot of this game. They were a disaster in the defensive zone, and were undisciplined. Not to mention attempting to nurse a 2-goal lead for 40 minutes, which is dumb. More later today;
  • To make you feel worse, the Leafs are now 3-0 after denying the Pens their first win;
  • The Devils were up to 16 skaters last night, but when you've got Marty Brodeur that is often enough as he shut out the Sabres 1-0;
  • Ryan Getzlaf gets four points in the Ducks first win of the season, 4-3 over the 'Nucks.
Sigh. Anyway, the real highlight of the game was the Habs circlejerk of introductions:


22 comments:

A Concerned Citizen said...

The Habs are going to be just fine. Their breakouts were awesome, and their defensive zone coverage wasn't nearly as bad as you're making it out to be. One of the biggest contributors to the shot differential was the abundance of phantom penalties the Habs were called for.

They created speed through the neutral zone off the breakout, and they were able to counterattack very quickly out of the neutral zone.

I for one really liked what I saw last night (form Montreal), and the only treason they lost was because of a phantom slash against Subban, and a blatantly biased non-call in the crease where Gomez was tripped.

The Leafs, on the other hand, are going to collapse like a house of cards right around February. They have two really good first lines, and two ECHL-level bottom two lines. They're going to be demolished over the course of the long season. Take it to the bank.

Howard said...

Good to be back! It was painful to watch Gio do the introductions. They should just let Mee-shell La-cwaw do what he do best. He takes pride in the name pronounciations and is fluent in both languages. The marketing department went out of their way to illustrate (pun intended) the diversity of the team in the pre-game video. As long as Darche doesn't dress it's Tribe 2 - Francophones 1. They should change the name to Les Habitorahs!

Unknown said...

TSN was reporting today, as per an interview with Giant, that the flubs (Justin Boyd, Maxime Laperrière) were done on purpose... I don't know if that's just trolling, or if Habs marketing thought that intentionally mispronouncing St. Lapierre's name was a good idea...

As much as I'd like to chalk up yesterday's loss to fail refereeing and such, there will be phantom calls all season. Habs have to learn to play in spite of them. That being said, there's lots of good after yesterday's loss. Can't wait for Friday!

Habsfan10 said...

Leafs are off to their best start in a decade, and the first post on PPP is about Carey Price. Obsess much, boyos?

Steve said...

Cant win them all, best not to peak in the first week. Tits and Gomez are worried abut the AHL and played much better.

Now over in laff land, the Sushi crowd saw Phoofer wondering where his car keys where for the first time, and just like in Calgary it resulted in a gimme for the other team. Oh Phoofer get a mental keychain before you join the Finger in the AHL.

moeman said...

leaf fans, including the media hacks at tsn and hnic, aren't hockey fans, they're leaf fans. I say let them enjoy their October Stanley Cup as they have little else.

Habs Laughs said...

New nickname for Lars Eller: Euro Staal

lawyergirl77 said...

I'm with HF1993 - the game last night wasn't that bad to watch. The first period was amazing, but then we got outcoached, which led to desperation penalties. When the shite reffing started, it became a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

But, for the first time in a while, I'm actually encouraged by the TEAM I see on the ice. In spite of the shot differential. Fuck, if Chocula is able to evolve (if only for one period), ANYTHING is possible.

Hypnotoad said...

A lot of them aren't even leafs fan either, they just hate the habs. It's a sad pathetic little existence they lead. I wish I could put appropriately into words how much I enjoy watching them joylessly crawl toward their graves like that. Alas, I am no poet so pointing fingers and shouting HA HA! will have to do.

Le Douze said...

It's a weird looking glass world today: TFS was our best player, AK46 looked sharp almost all game (saw him make a mistake in the 3rd and realized that was the first one I'd seen him make all game), Mad Max look quick when he wasn't trying to kill Bolts, and PFK looked lost, even when he wasn't picking up penalties for phantom infractions.

On the other hand, Spatches ... sigh, some things don't change. And Chicken still has the knack for being in the right place at the right time and still fucking it up.

Anyway, I agree with HF1993, at least some of the way - there's some room for optimism. It looked more like a decent team with a few mental miscues than a hopeles cause. Still not a great game from the boys, but I can imagine much worse.

wv: Mad Max is gonna "sticu", and if that doesn't work he's gonna blindside you headfirst into the boards, but it's gonna be ok because he will be smiling when he does it.

Le Douze said...

Crap, everything I wanted to say was already posted much better by LG77. The team's not "hopeles", but I am. SIgh.

Le Douze said...

Actually, Spatches is doing a much better job of getting his shots off than he did last year. But when is he going to HIT THE FUCKING NET?

L Dude said...

Shh. They're watching.

For Lars Eller, I say we go with Duke. If(hopefully when) he turns into a great player, we add the Marma prefix.

Don't blame the referrees. That's a Leafism. Bottom line they were outshot nearly 2 to 1. Failure to clear the defensive zone has been this team's weakest link for years. How fucking hard is it to flip the puck up and out of the zone like EVERY other team seems to do.

I don't know if it's my new hate for the Pens, but I was kind of glad to see them lose to the Leafs.
It's a weird feeling. But I'd love a playoff series against them. It'd be epic as they say.

Can't say enough about Price. Can't fault him for any goals last night. We'll probably see Big 'n Bald on Friday night with Price in against the Sens on HNIC on Saturday.

I don't speak much French, but my daughter's in Immersion. She was walking by when Gionta was introducing somebody - Hamr maybe "Kar-ant cat". She cringed and said "OMG he's worse than you!" And yes, sadly she actually said OMG.

bea.habs.fan said...

I had tons of things to say about last night's game but was without internet connection at work all morning.

I discovered 2 things:
1) I need my FHF morning fix more tghan I need coffee
2) nothing gets done when you have no internet!!!

soperman said...

It's a work in progress. They have to win more close games than they lose, but I am more confident this year than last year. Cardiac city last year.

kevincrumbs said...

Let's never do a season opening team introduction like that again, please.

Johnny Bertolo said...

Why do the Habs pay Michel Lacroix? I know Gio's getting $30 million, and you want to get more bang-for-your-buck especially during this "harsh economic climate", but this is ridiculous!

Hopefully, the "James Wisniewski's" (cock-suckers) of the Habs upper management never let this happen again.

P.S. The Maple Laffs monumental start is reminiscent of a 10-year old prepubescent boy shooting his load at the very sight of "side boob".

Anonymous said...

i liked the intro!!! nothing wrong with it and thought Gionta did a great job!

the Baruch said...

Boucher schooled Martin last night 'tis true alas.

Orangeman said...

First of all, I love your avatar pic, LG77. Love cats, and orange to boot!

Second, I'm not going to freak out over an OT loss on the 3rd game of the season. Price was good again and that's really encouraging. Don't forget we're missing our best D-man out there, too.

And I hope the Leafs keep on winning. It's getting old watching Leaf fans put up with the same terribleness each season. I want to see those expectations rise before they come crashing CRASHING down. I want them to be declared cup champs in November. I want them to freaking lead the league at Christmas. And then...BOOOOOM. Oh god, I think I just climaxed thinking about that collapse.

Kate said...

@ the Baruch,

Well if Boucher "schooled" Martin in his third game as head coach in the NHL, we're well and truly fucked. As a matter of fact, so is every other team in the NHL.

Number31 said...

That first period was brilliant. Gotta stay out of the box though. Cammy needs to calm down too. I felt bad for Rhino when he tossed the puck over the glass but he played a pretty good game. He's comfy with Hamr. And the mistakes they made are fixable. Even though I'd love to ship Pouliette back to Minny for Cal Clutterbuck, I'm happy AK46 seems more awake than he usually is this time of year. Cafouillage~!