Little People Can Do Big Things - Habs 3, Caps 2 (OT)

So the gang over at MYFO discovered the secret about how the Habs managed to win last night. Thanks to some secret spies they must have, their Habs-Caps preview was able to transcribe a meeting at Hurleys between the four HF's prior to Game 1 (this is all pretty meta, I know). But MYFO's spy missed the follow-up meeting at Hurleys this morning. Here's what transpired.

HabsFan29: Hair of the dog, bitCHes. If there is an Irish invention that has had as much success around the world as Irish coffee I'd like to hear it.

HabsFan4: Bono's pretentiousness?

Habsfan10: Hey where's Panger?

4: Calgary?

10: No there he is down there. Hi little buddy!

Panger: Fuk offf.

10: I love the way he typo-talks. So cute.

Panger: Luk, if it wasn't for the littel peeple last night Habs would have been blownn out of the water.

10: You got that right Panger (well, sort of). Did you see the Mexican on the tying goal? Isn't that the type of thing Ovie usually does? End to end rush, the defense backs off, make a nice move then a nice play? That was fucking incredible.

4: Brought tears to my eyes. All the haters of the little people can suck it. And speaking of Ovie, damn our little adventure with him yesterday really worked. No shots. Zero! Zip! Nada! Bubkis!

29: Not sure if it was the strippers that brought about the rumours of him being less than 100%, or if was the work of Jaro 2.0, but shutting down Ovie like that was a dream come true. It probably was a dream. We suck.

Panger: Hey can sombudy passmy bear? I can't reech.

10: Here ya go little buddy [pats Panger on the head]. Truly the little people are triumphing. So amazing to see Squid get off the schneide just at the right time and fire that bullet on the PP. And to see our Jaromir Plekanec get the OT winner against notMiller-notMarty was the highlight of the playoffs so far.

29: [takes meth hit] I'm sure it will be the only highlight for the Habs.

4: Isn't it a little early for that 29? And why can't you fucking be positive for change? Anonymous commentors will take us to task. We can't have that.

29: Fuck the anonymous commentors. This was one fucking game. Sure it was great, sure I'm high it was a high, but there is still a ton of work to do. And I don't trust anyone.

10: But all of a sudden we have a head coach! When the fuck did that happen? He must have really made some adjustments during the first intermission because we blew chunks in the first, when Jaro kept us in it. He did a great job getting matchups on the road. And he actually called a strategic timeout after an icing to rest tired players! And he even showed some sort of emotion, I think it was "slight concern," on that total non-call on Gio on a partial breakaway in OT.

Panger: Can sumwon pass mee a napkin pleese? I spillt some beer.

10: Here ya go little buddy [pats Panger on the head]. And 29, shouldn't you be impressed with the way all four lines seemed to work hard? When was the last time we saw that? We need to give serious props to Laps, DarCHe, Little Tits, all of those guys. They put in quality minutes and helped to tire out the Caps D.

4: I agree with that. This was the best team effort we've had since the good run right after the Olympics. And not just the forwards. The D as a squad was pretty solid too,especially after the first. Yeah, we let up a bunch of shots, but overall they played well. Even The Urologist! And the signing of Hal Gill's 8-foot stick is paying dividends.

29: I'm not convinced.

Panger: zzzzzzz

10: Aww, so cute. The little guy is all tuckered out after a half beer [pats Panger on the head].

4: Let's hope the Habs' little guys have more stamina than Panger.

29: We'll find out tomorrow.

Late afternoon update for no apparent reason - thx to commentor moeman for finding this, it deserves to be posted:

Little People Can Do Big Things Playoff Preview: The Forwards

Little People Can Do Big Things Playoff Preview: The Forwards

Playoffs!!! Ovie!!! Backstrom!!!! Our very own Lollipop Guild!!!! Brooks Fuckin Laich!!!! Travis Moen!!!! The possible return of Metro's powerplay goals!!!!

That's a lot of stuff to get through in the forwards preview, so we better get to it.

Look, we dropped a house on that bitch with the shoes, we sure as hell can score on Jose Theodore: The Habs are going as far as the Lollipop Guild and the rest of the runts take them, right? I mean, Jaro can be Jaro, the defence is expecting to get swamped, but they need to get to Theo/Varlamov and score goals to win this thing. Gainey's big makeover resulted in roughly two million "Hobbits/Munchkins/Ewoks/Roloff family" jokes from opposing fans this year but to paraphrase Norman Dale, "these are your forwards". Oh, and these are your Big Red Machine opponents forwards too:

Lollipop Guild vs Ivan Drago and friends: Gomez and Gionta, Cammy and Pleks, random assorted wingers (usually Chicken and Big Tits respectively, but sometimes Little Tits gets on the Pleks line, sometimes Travis Moen wanders up from the depth chart, even Metro when healthy is found mucking along a wing. I think Dominic Moore too.) These are the little, speedy wagons the Canadiens hitched their playoff lives to. Pleks started the year on fire and finished as leading scorer, almost pricing himself out of town, but since the Olympics has slowed considerably and might be tired. Cammy was full-value for his contract until he got hurt and had 26 goals despite missing 17 games, but has struggled since his return (2 assists in 11 games.) Big Tits is the new enigma: talented enough to be drafted ahead of (roll call) Zach Parise, Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, Dustin Brown and Brent Seabrook, but daft enough to zone out for weeks. An engaged Big Tits and on-target Cammalleri would go a long way to re-energizing Pleks. Gomez and Gionta found a perfect fit with Benoit Pouliot and the Giant Mexican Chicken produced some excellent hockey. Gionta is rapidly becoming every non-110% fans favourite for his guts, goals and leadership. 29 says slap the C on him now. 29 is right. Gionta missed 20 games with a broken foot and scored 28 goals ... tell me a full year of him and Cammalleri doesn't add a few more wins to the ledger. If the Habs top two lines can find the chemistry they both had at various points this season, and can add Metro back to fire away on the power play, they can score on the Caps. Which is a good thing because they are facing:

Ovie (50 goals, 109 points). And Backstrom (33 goals, 68 assists). And Semin (40 goals, 84 points). And Brooks Fucking Laich scored 25, Mike Knuble opened up more space for Ovie and Backstrom and potted 29, and Thomas Fleischman added 23. This is not your father's Dennis Maruk lead Capitals. The top two lines are fast and skilled and strong. On the plus side, Ovie was relatively quiet in the regular season versus Montreal. On the minus side, well, look at the freaking numbers up there.

Advantage: Unless the Habs all find their scoring touch at the same time, the top two lines are in tough trying to match Ovie and the rest. The Laich line is definitely not a pushover for whomever lines up against it.

The Rest: The bottom two lines of the Caps shouldn't really scare anyone ... unless the Habs bottom two lines play the rudderless mess they sometimes can. Maybe familiarity breeds confidence, but I don't see how the likes of a washed-up Brendan Morrison, Eric Belanger, Eric Fehr (his 21 goals notwithstanding), Jason Chimera, Matt Bradley and David Steckel are that much better than Dominic Moore, Metro, Travis Moen, workaholic Mathieu Darche, Mad Max (the good Mad Max, mind you) and the wild card, Little Tits. Sergei might be the key; there isn't anyone in either team's bottom six with anywhere near the talent he has, and if he can make plays, set Metro up in the slot, and offer some menace in the offensive zone, the bottom six of the Canadiens could cause some trouble to the Caps shaky d. I think.

Advantage: Having seen very little of the Caps this year, I'll say Montreal. But it won't matter if Ovie and Backstrom are playing Cheka to the Habs "enemies of the people" upstairs.

Other stuff: The Caps powerplay is lethal; the Habs powerplay (despite a protracted slump) finished second in the league to Washington. But Moore, Metropolit, Pleks, Gomez and Moen are far better at killing penalties than the Caps. Dominic Moore's speed in particular might go a long way to neutralizing some of the Caps big guns a man down. Something to think about.

Mike Green: Yeah, TECHNICALLY he's a defenseman. But I'm technically a Catholic and look where that gets you. Green sometimes looks like a fourth Caps forward since he skates like the wind, scores a lot, and sometimes neglects his own zone, so I'm talking about him. If the Caps are playing with Green as a de facto forward, the advantage goes way up.

Game Day Skate (Holiday Edition) for Monday, December 28 2009

Good morning Habs fan!

While HF29 is in the land of 56k modems, I'll be keeping you company in the mornings for a few days. Don't worry, he'll be back soon. Let's review what happened while you and I were sleeping and/or recovering from a turkey coma:

• Might Mite Martin Raymond gets his first career hat trick in the Canucks 5-1 win over the Flames. Let's hope it's a preview of a future Bobby Lou-Kipper match-up in February.
• Leafs beat the Pens 4-3; Boston and Buffalo also win. Wasn't it supposed to be the Northleast Division? Let's hope this isn't a sign of things to come.
• Pat Kane has a pair in the Hawks 4-3 win over the Preds. Let's hope he cools off before February.
• Swedes name their Olympic roster, notably absent: I'd say no one, but apparently Mikeal Samulsson doesn't agree. Way to support your country, douchebag.
• Not only do the Russians name Markov to the team, but another Habs draft pick who never moved West in Konstantin Korneyev. Fuck me the Russians have a scary offense. No Kovy or Bulin Wall, though. Let's hope that comes back to bit them (unlikely).
• Can you tell we're starting to get pumped about Olympic hockey?
• Speaking of international puck, over at the WJC: if you missed Canada hammering Latvia 16-0 on Boxing Day, there will probably be another lopsided score in today's game against Switzerland. Let's hope the Americans haven't figured out how to win at the WJC as the USA is now 3-0.

Last but certainly not least, The Little Giant may be back against Ottawa tonight! FYI, Scott Gomez just splooged reading that sentence. Check back for a real game preview later.