We're not fucking with the winning streak - Rangers Game Preview and Open Thread

This is what you get when you type "Rangers girls". Uh, we think there may be a disconnect on this one. Are we in Glasgow?

We're taking Crash Davis' advice pretty seriously. Two games in a row we've done our Google Image searches and just thrown the info out there and we've won. We're doing it again.

Rangers visit the Phone Booth tonight at 7:00, not the usual weeknight 7:30. That's because it's a special Original 6 matchup thingy, with guests at center ice and the whole thing is on the CBC. Like we said, Habs have won two in a row. Rangers have won 4 of their last 5, including last night in a shootout over the Pens. They once again lead the Eaastern Conference, thought the Broons have a million games in hand. The last time the Habs played the Rangers was that epic 6-5 comeback win. That won't happen again. Hey, I wonder what our old friends at The Blueshirt Bulletin are up to?

Well, at least we've got some Habs warming up. Big Tits broke out with 3 points in the Thrashers game, and Pleks played well too. We hope he's coming around. Captain K still a rock. Let's throw The Dagger in there, 'cause we love the way he may dump Gui! out of the lineup forever, because he knows HOW TO GO TO THE FUCKING NET. On the cold side, Kovy's goalless streak is now at 14 games. Higgy pointless in 3.

For the Blueshirts, Henrik Lundqvist has been outstanding, 4-1-0, 2.27, .931 in his last 5 games. Gomez and Zherdev leading the way for the offense. Chris Drury has cone cold.

Carbo sticking with the exact same line-up that beat the Thrash. We always say, coach, your best moves are the ones you don't make. Does this mean that we may never see Little Tits again?

Since there's not much left to say, here are some NHL topics for you to comment on this afternoon while we wait for the game - Avery apologizes, 'Canes welcome back Paul Maurice after axing Laviolette, Joe Sakic will be out 6 weeks with a back injury, Danny Brière out 4-5 with a groin, and the Raptors fire Sam Mitchell. Wait, what?

The Game Day Skate Invites You to FHF's 1000th Post Party

Holy fuck. 1000 posts. Well, technically HFF33akaP's post yesterday was the 1000th, but with all the meth, it sort of slipped our minds.

So join us in thanking all our awesome commentors and readers for their support through these 1000 posts. It's proof of... something. Like, we have no lives.

God help us we celebrate with a win over the Rangers tonight.

It Can't Get Worse that Blowing A Three Goal Lead to Suck-Lanta. Right?

I had hope. For the first 2 periods they had me going. Seemed like last year, with rookies chipping in (BTW, we like Matt, a lot. Buh-bye Sergei.) and our best players leading the way. Several players - far too many - who looked completely uninterested all season finally looked interested. Big Tits drove to the net and -surprise! - was rewarded. Pleks worked hard as usual, but I saw some dipsy-doodling, which he does when he's got confidence, and was rewarded. (It's interesting that this is unlike Kovy, who does it when he's slumping. Someone needs to remind him that to score you need to shoot.) Markov played like he wanted to take the Norris from Nik Lidstrom. Carey played like everyone but brain-dead Carolina fans think he can.

[Interlude: Which reminds me, take a look at your goalie there, buddy: People with Cam "Flop" Ward in their crease shouldn't be throwing stones at any other team with a young tender. Especially when your young goalie is being outplayed by a guy who wasn't even good enough to make our minor league team. OK, rant over.]

Then hope evaporated again. Turned from liquid to gas in 59 seconds flat. 59 seconds out of a Three Stooges movie. Or Laurel and Hardy's "Who's on first?" bit, except it was "Who's On Thornburn?". You could see even calm-as-a-Hindu-cow Price was pissed on that third one.

Carbo kinda/sorta at least thought about calling a time-out, then didn't. And you know what? I hope Koivu - or Kovalev, or whomever is supposed to be the leader on this sinking ship - whet to Coach and said something like this:

"Don't call a timeout, we need to kicked these fuckers' teeth in. Guys, what the fuck are we doing not winning against the Thrashers? A team that is in LAST PLACE in the NHL. A team with lame-ducks owners and a hopeless GM. A team who's best player will be traded within the year because he's certain to leave that crappy franchise when he's a free agent. A less talented team than us, and a team we should be beating in our sleep!"

I hope they said something like this, and I hope that blowing that lead was a turning point, a wake up call, a "insert cliche here", because Atlanta sucks. I can't stress that enough: Atlanta sucks and there is no good reason to blow a three-goal third period lead at home when you are firmly in control.

But I have hope, that they'll turn it around, play interested, play as a team, win. My most cherished hope at this point, though, is hope that the above picture isn't prophetic.

TMS wakes up to some sloppy seconds for Wednesday, December 3rd

Bullet points for what you missed while dreaming of TMS finding a lame excuse to post hot chicks...

• Habs try desperately to lose in one really bad minute but end up winning, 5-4 over the lowly Thrashers. Big Tits had a 3-point night and Matt "The Dagger" D'Agostini (we're working on it) looked more at home than Gui! ever did getting in front of the net for his first NHL goal. More later today;
• The NHL suspends Sean Avery indefinitely for his "sloppy seconds" comment about the lovely Ms. Cuthbert and Dion Phaneuf, so he didn't play in the Stars' 3-1 win over the Flames. Damn we were hoping to see Phaneuf try to kill the douchebag, and we're thinking he's done alot worse things to get suspended;
• Ron Wilson's return to San Jose doesn't go to well as the Leafs fall to the Sharks 5-2;
• Flyers ride the force of their old-school orange jerseys to a 4-3 OT win over the Lightning.

Blog you may not be reading but should be
If you haven't yet checked out FHF regular commentor Copyranter's Habs Fan in NYC, do it now. He hates stuff, which is obviously right up TMS' alley.

Fuck we'll do anything for a winning streak - Thrashers Game Preview and Open Thread

This is what you get when you type "Atlanta Thrashers Girls." Fine with us.

In our neverending quest to find something that will bring on a winning streak, we're just recreating what HF10 so skillfully accomplished Saturday night. So I'm just gonna throw the info out there and hope that the equally sucky Thrashers suck more than us.

Your waiting in line details are that the game starts at 7:3o and is on RDS. But you knew that already I'm sure. Habs coming off the 3-2 win over the Sabres that we never reviewed, so it's like it never happened. Atlanta has lost 3 in a row. Do the Thrashers Have Large Talons? is a good quality Atlanta blog with a great name.

Hot Habs? Checking, checking... Carey Price has won his last two. Then there's uh, uh, uh... right. On the chilly side, how about Kovy and Lang. Kovy hasn't scored in 13 games. Yeesh. Little Tits may be in a category by himself, and may find himself in Hamilton pretty soon. Still on the limp ar DOOM, BGL, and Tangy, though those last 2 may play tonight. UPDATE RDS is reporting that Gui! and Little Tits will sit tonight. Habs I/O reports that BGL and Tangy and d'Agostini are all in. If we hear some lines we'll update more later. DOUBLE SECRET UPDATE - RDS now has the lines as:

Tangy - Pleks - Kosto
Big Tits - Koivu - D'Agostini
Higgy - Lang - Kovalev
Begin - Mad Max - BGL

Holy fuck, Carbo may have done something right for a change. I almost like those.

Kovalchuk and Kozlov lead your list of hot Thrashers. There's a suprise. Good ol' Ron Hainsey and some crappy goalies are keeping the cold side cold, and leading to the fact that the Thrash are second to last in the league in goals allowed. I'm sure the Habs will be the cure for that.

Since we have nothing more to say, we'd like to take a moment to remember Ted Rogers. Please complain about your cable bill in the comments.

The Game Day Skate for an indeterminate weekday, December 2nd

Bullet points for what you missed while having nightmares of getting arrested for shooting yourself...

• Stajan! Grabs! Toskala! The Leafs powerhouse heads West to beat the Kings 3-1;
• In the battle of real superpowers, Wings beat the Ducks 2-1;
• Buffalo continues their come back down to planet Earth with a 2-0 loss to the Preds.

Atlanta in town tonight. They suck, right? We have a chance?

Carbo's thinking again. Uh oh.

So RDS is reporting that at practice today, Carbo was playing "whose line is it anyway?" again. See if you can play along with these super-sized combos:

Saku with Big Tits and Matt D'Agostini
Pleks with Higgy and Bégin
GBL with Gui! and BGL
Mad Max with Kovy and Little Tits

Didn't we actually win our last game?

The Morning Skate for Monday, December 1st

Bullet points for what you missed while having nightmares of another BCS mess...

• Modano gets his 1300th point netting the winner in the Stars' 4-3 over the Oil;
• Panthers' Craig Anderson (who?) makes 37 saves in a 4-0 shutout over the Rangers;
• New Leafs GM Brian Burke looking to pilfer other teams' front offices.

Big thanks to HF10 for his filling in last week (including Saturday!). No question he brought teh funneh way more than me.

It's Sunday. Happy Sunday. Enough with Star Trek.

This is not your game review, that comes tomorrow.

We're quasi-impressed with the Habs' performance last night.

But we're not ready to admit it yet.

We were almost feeling like this again, as November draws to a close.

But we're not ready to say so yet.

We love Star Trek, but the Vulcan hype on this blog has seriously slighted that other other galactic saga we all know and love.

This is an old clip, by internet standards, but I am bold enough to say that it's in my all-time top 5 internet videos.

Fuck, we're running out of ideas to fix this - Sabres at Habs Preview and Open Thread

This is what you get when you type in "Buffalo Sabres girls". Fine with us.

Alright, I give up. We go with Emma and free-form verse and win against the defending champs, we go with Emma and lyrics from KISS and turn in a putrid performance in Washington. I'm just gonna throw the info out here, hope that the almost-as-schizo-Sabres take their turn to blow tonight, and probably avoid watching altogether.

Waiting in line details: Habs coming home to start longest homestand of the year, seven games that will go a long way to determining how the season goes. Rumours of CBC coverage, plus the ever-faithful RDS. 7:00 pm start. Habs coming off last night's Theo shutout; Sabres won last two versus Pens and Bruins. Oh.

There are no hot Habs. Don't even pretend. No one, and I mean no one, deserves the "hot" label. Fuck em. Everyone looks terrible, even if they don't. Some people (Greek Lightning, Gorges, Koivu) are playing hard, but everyone else is brutal. Okay, Price and Halak are playing fine, but it might be time for them to steal one to right the ship.

For the Sabres, Tomas Vanek may never be worth his crazy contract, but he has twice the goals of Montreal's leader Tanguay. Drew Stafford and Derek Roy are very talented co-pilots. Maxim Afiniganov is currently trade bait. Ryan Miller is one of Bettman's poster boys, a smart, well-spoken American ... but he's been terribly average in almost every way this year.

Is there a better blog name than Die By the Blade? I think not. Go there for all your Sabres needs. Go to Buffalo Bill's near the old Forum if all this Buffalo talk has produced a hankering for wings. Don't worry if they don't serve beer. Bring them into your favourite downtown pub; our buddy the Chibougamu Cowboy used to bring McNuggets into pubs "because they don't serve McNuggets here". Waitresses never questioned his logic.

Thoughts, memories of grand Buffalo sporting triumphs, still harbour a burning hatred for John Van Boxmeer or Bob Sauve? Let's hear it in the comments.