The Morning Skate for Monday, October 6th

Bullet points for what you missed while dreaming of being a Redskins fan. Seriously, the Redksins are good now? Our football pool epic fail knows no bounds...

• Sens beat Pens, take 3 of 4 points in Sweden. We think that answers the questions about the Sens. Well, except for perhaps a goalie controversy;
• Rangers pull out the brooms in Prague;
• The Gazette's Dave Stubbs reviews the Habs' pre-season. Does it include pretending Saturday night never happened?

Big week at FHF headquarters as we, uh, finally get our season preview going full steam. The season starts in 5 days, so yeah, we guess we better do some work.

The Weekend Open Thread of Love Dies an Early Death

Next weekend the Habs will be playing games that matter, and we guess we'll get back to, you know, actually previewing and reviewing games. So the weekend open thread of love dies after a mere two weeks. But damn, we had fun searching for pictures for those two weeks.

Lots going on this weekend for your comments. HOLY FUCK THE SEASON STARTS TODAY!!! If a season starts in Europe, does anyone hear it? Shit we think we used that joke last year. Pens take on the Sens in Stockholm while Rangers and Lightning go at it in Prague, and that one is on RDS starting around noon. Can't seem to find Pens-Sens on TV, in Canada at least. UPDATE: We stand corrected, anonymous tells us both games are on CBC. Wait, CBC shows hockey now?

Also on tap is the Habs' final pre-season game tonight against the Wild at the Phone Booth. It's on RDS, so we'll probably be around watching and commenting.

And feel free to discuss any non-hockey topics. OJ Simpson is GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY. Ah, beat a murder rap only to get caught on robbery and kidnappng. Putz. The Impact suddenly can't lose at the right time. We'll even welcome baseball playoff comments, but we won't respond, 'cause baseball sucks. Well, only since Jeffrey Loria.

Let's hear your dirty thoughts in the comments.

Coach Carbo to screw with lines for years to come

Guy Carbonneau has signed a contract extension. We would love to tell you for how long and for how much money, but Bob has refused to disclose any details. Sure, money I understand, but not to give the length of the contract? Why don't you just fire him now? Shit that's just weird.

Also buried in the TSN story is that Max Pack is headed to Hamilton. No surprise, but it's still disappointing.

"I'm really not an asshole all the time" - Sean "Douchebag" Avery

OK, last mention of PJ Stock we swear. Yesterday while we were shooting the shit during a commercial break, we discussed the Sean Avery interview on CBC's The Hour with George Stromboloupoloupopos. HF4 dug it up on YouTube, and it's well worth 12 minutes of your time on a Friday. What else you gonna do, work? Some choice quotes, beyond the title of this post, include:

Re Don Cherry - "he really does not know shit about hockey"

"Open up a magazine and see my track record, I don't think I'm that gay"

"(Toronto) didn't want me, can you imagine that?... Did I want to play in Toronto and be in last place for the next three years?"

Gold, Jerry, gold.

The Morning Skate for Friday, October 3rd

Bullet points for what you missed while having nightmares of being a Cubs fan...

• Bonding time! Habs hit the St. Jovite Mont-Tremblant area in the Laurentians. TMS has a cottage up there and has actually skated on that St. Jovite ice many times. We're like a Hab! Oh, and if they want to bond, they need to head to Le P'tit Caribou to dance on the bar or to the Faucon Bleu to uh, get some dances;
• The NHL hits Europe, as the Sens win in Sweden and the Pens win in Finalnd. We feel like this bullet point should have some umlauts.

Big thanks to PJ Stock for being a truly gracious host to yours truly and HF4 at The Team 990 yesterday. He didn't even try to fight us. As thanks to him, we're linking to his new CBC blog post. For a former goon, it's suprisingly lucid.

Meh, that save was OK

When a Habs video makes it to a notoriously hockey-averse site like the awesome With Leather, it seems like it should be posted here, no? Anyway, here's TFS(tm)'s save from the other night, which Maguire now famously described as "the save of the year and it's not even the year yet."

It's a decent save. Had he made it while getting a lap dance then we really would have been impressed.

The Morning Skate for Thursday, October 2nd

Bullet points for what you missed while dreaming of a little hot debate action...

• Habs win! Yay! Breezer is the first star! Booo! Habs get 3 PP goals to beat the B's 3-1. TMS was there and the new scoreboard really is quite something. A fine evening was had with HF4. But really, did Montreal fans have to boo Michael Ryder? That was just dumb. Jaro was fabu. Koivu-Tangy-Higgins has a little work to do;
• Matt D'Agostini, Gregory Stewart and Ben Maxwell were all sent to Hamilton after the game. Thanks for playing kids!

Don't forget HF4 and yours truly tangle with PJ Stock of the Team 990 today at 1 PM. Here's the link to listen online. Consider this post an open thread to mock us mercilessly.

"This season may be Montreal's best chance to make a run for a championship" - TSN

Even though we've (finally!) started our own preview, we thought we should do one last review the previews. Here's the "biggie", TSN.

As part of their "30 Teams in 30 Days " series, TSN finally got around to Nos Glorieux yesterday. We would say it's actually quite accurate. It does a good job pointing out the negatives, like how will the loss of Streit may hurt the PP, will Kovy drop off (they say he won't), and all the impending UFA's and RFA's. There's also plenty of praise, for the offense, for the goalies, for the moves, for Gainey's stockpiling of young talent. We want to be critical, but fuck, we gotta admit on occasion TSN knows its hockey. Until they delude themselves that the Leafs are good.

Speaking of the Leaves, we are embarassed to say we've been blogging for the enemy, if you're looking for some, you know, actual original material from us. We feel dirty.

Lap dance to Robert at EOTP for the photo. Man we love us some black and white.

FHF to take the gloves off with PJ Stock

HabsFan4 and myself are hitting the mainstream! Well, as much as local sports radio can be considered mainstream. Tomorrow at 1 PM on The Team 990, we'll be talking strippers and the Habs with the one and only PJ Stock on his show The Stock Exchange. Here's the link so you can listen on your computer while you're stuck at work. Fuck shit bitches dickhead. Sorry, I had to get that out of my system now before we get in trouble for doing it on air.

The Game Day Skate for Wednesday, October 1st

Bullet points for what you missed while dreaming of smoking a little green on your off-week...

• WOW! All we can say is WOW. The first game we watched all year and WOW. Habs beat the Wings 2-1 in a shootout, but that ain't the point. The point is WOW. What an entertaining game for an exhibition. Max Pack was the story (WOW what a shootout move), along with Price (WOW what a stick swinging save), with maybe some Chips thrown in. On the dark side, Max Weber lost any chance of making the big club and Breezer was Breezer;
• Luongo is named captain of the 'Nucks. Okaaay. There's a reason the NHL doesn't let goalies wear a "C".

The B's hit the Bell Centre ice tonight, and HF4 and myself will be there to check out the new scoreboard and boo.