This is a Sheldon Souray Post We Swear

Any chance to post an Angelica Bridges photo...

Thanks to Anonymous* for pointing out to us that TSN is reporting that Sheldon Souray is out indefinitely. This was only supposed to be 3-4 weeks, now he's out for a while. I would guess the new year at the earliest. Weird, because shoulder injuries are usually not that bad. Too much work in the sack maybe? That's a good way to get injured I'll tell ya.

Mmmm that's good schadenfreude.

*Now dubbed HabFanatic. Nice name.

Puck Bunnies Woohoo!

You know I am really loathe to make a new post just for the purposes of linking to someone else's post. But when the topic of that someone else's post is puck bunnies, well, fuck, I just can't help it.

Be sure to check out the fine folks at Dear Lord Stanley and their quality post about the hottest puck bunnies. Though as I mentioned in the comments, any list like that that doesn't include FHF obsession Angelica Bridges is totally incomplete. Admittedly, she hasn't been in the news recently the way the others on the list have (and that was the alleged reason for the post), but her absence is still noted.

BTW the posting of an Elisha Cuthbert photo does not mean the FHF endorse that francophone-hating douchebag Sean Avery. It just means it's been at least 4 days since the FHF posted a photo of a hot chick.

Souray moves to West End (of country)

So what seems like the longest free agency period ever has finally ended for the Canadiens former Mr Big Shot, Sheldon Souray. After all the "he's not coming back, his wife wants him in LA or Anaheim, he's definitely going to the West Coast, LA is a done deal, the Habs signed Hamrlik, now he's definitely not coming back, buy your Souray Kings jerseys now!" chatter, Sheldon has indeed gone west. To Edmonton.

A guy making that much money couldn't afford a direct flight from Montreal to LA? Oh, he has family there ... so he's just visiting for the summer? Wait, what? He signed there? I see.

So there's a bunch of ways to look at this. One might be tempted to pull the old "see, nobody wants to play in front of those hatchet men in the Montreal media ... they'd rather go to goddamn Edmonton than face that ... Edmonton, the team that threw money at everyone and couldn't get any interest until they tried to pay Tomas Vanek the GDP of Bolivia." One might be tempted to say "look at the friggin' money they gave him ... it's not the GDP of Bolivia, but it's close. Of course he went." You might be a big softy and say "oh, he wants to play near his family like any good Western boy. That's lovely." And you know what? You might all be right.

Playing in Montreal isn't easy. The fans are demanding, the media can be a little too enthusiastic, there's apparently a language thing I keep hearing about. There is talk of ghosts and Stanley Cups as a birthright, and guys like Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur are walking the halls at the Bell Centre. There aren't many more pressure packed sporting environments in North America. That's a fact. And while it must be a fascinating experience there's no doubt it could wear on a man. Sheldon has been here for seven years. Maybe it was time for a break.

That is a lot of money for a 30-something defenseman with some (ahem) "defensive issues" and a reconstructed wrist. By all accounts, the Habs made a solid offer, but Sheldon's looking at his last big payday. He did what most people would do and took the highest-paying offer from a decent employer in his field. Good for him.

Family and home counts for some guys. Sheldon probably grew up an Oilers fan, and he'll probably get a big thrill out of pulling on that jersey and stepping out on the ice that Gretzky, Messier, Kurri and Coffey made famous. Don't forget, the Oil ain't exactly slouches in the "wildly successful dynasty" competition.

Still, you wonder how bad Sheldon wants to win. While the Habs aren't world-beaters at the moment, there are a bunch of promising kids, soon-to-be stars like Higgins and Price, and solid to spectacular talents like Kovy and Saku and Markov for the next five years. And while the Canadiens are going to have to live with Oilers2.1 in Pittsburgh, the Sens, the big spenders in NY and Philly and the like, I don't see the Oilers as having an easier path past the Ducks, Wings, Avalanche, Sharks, and Flames over the next few years. Just throwing it out there.

I for one wish Sheldon all the best. He won me over the first time my dad pointed out he didn't play like he was on peyote (like the big, mega-talent-mega-head-case Russian he got traded for ... God, I loved watching Vlad play when he was on. When he was off ... yeeesh.) He played hard, scored some timely bombs, stuck a dagger in the Leafs with that beauty shootout goal, was immense in the upset of the Bruins a few years back. I hope he gets a huge ovation when the Oilers next visit Montreal (which, judging by the NHL's scheduling genius, will be as an assistant coach in 2017). He didn't leave on bad terms, he didn't go to a hated rival. He just went. That's fine. I just hope the lucky guys blogging for the Oil appreciate Mrs Souray like we did.

Mrs. Souray's Last Goodbye

Well it's oficially over. Angelica Bridges is gone, taking her husband Sheldon with her. TO EDMONTON. Edmonton!?!? To quote Simmons, I don't even have a joke here. 27 mill over 5 years.

We'll digest this in the morning.

The Morning Skate for Tuesday, July 3rd

Bullet points for what you missed while dreaming of the Habs playing in the second round of the playoffs. Man our expectations have been lowered...

• The author of The MS is on vacation and thus The MS will be a little late this week, or not posted at all, depending on the hangover level;
• You've time-travelled back to 1996. Scroll down to the next post if you don't believe me;
• Apparently, Souray refused a four-year, $22 million offer from the Habs. Insert Mrs. Souray or child support joke here;
• Nylander to the Caps, Lang to the Hawks, Handzus to the Kings, Bertuzzi to the Ducks. We're getting down to the dregs now for the Habs.

Alrighty we're still waiting for Bob to find some scoring. Check back for all the FHF snark when we decide Pierre Turgeon is the anwer to all our problems.

Goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Souray, Montreal Will Miss You

A kind reader sent along this video in response to our Angelica Bridges post on Wednesday. As you know by now, she's the wife / ex-wife / estranged wife / reconciled wife (seriously which is it?) of soon-to-be L.A. King Sheldon Souray. Apparently she is a singer as well as an actress/model (multi-talented!), and this is her pop group, Strawberry Blonde. Heh.

While there is no nudity per se (FHF has a no nudity policy, who knew?), there are definitely plenty of NSFW moments for the boys on a Friday afternoon. Goodbye, Sheldon and Angelica. Your surgically-repaired wrist firing cannons from the point and hot bod, respectively, will be missed.

Not Much Time Left To Post This Picture

So much talk around here about Sheldon Souray, so not enough talk about his hot wife / ex-wife / estranged wife, whatever. Anyway you slice it, she's hot.

Obviously she is the one second from the left. If you don't know, she is Angelica Bridges, and her IMDB profile is pretty D-list. But screw it, she's hot and was on Baywatch. And she's sort of married to a Hab, for a few days at least. Here's her official site. Rowr.

This picture won't make any sense when Sheldon signs with L.A. on Sunday, so I wanted to get it up now. I know there are three other hot hockey wives in the photo, but I wanted to focus on the estranged Mrs. Souray, because Panger loves the redheads.

We'll get to the others in the future. For some reason, I feel the FHF will be posting about HHWs (Hot Hockey Wives) a lot. Call me Kresgin.