Montreal vs. New York

Notes on the third:

-Just calculated that the only one of the six starting defencemen from October who hasn't been beat up or missed serious time with an injury is the Breeze. I don't know what that means, in the grand scheme of things.

-Hey, maybe Komisarek has a future as a goalie. That was a helluva save he made on Antropov.

-I think I'd trade Andrei Kostitsyn for a less-talented but steadier player. I'd rather have 25 goals in the bank than the eternal potential of 40.

-I'm starting to believe I'll never hear "et le buuuuuuuuut" again. This is some sad-ass offence this team is generating.

-When does desperation start to kick in? It's obviously slower-acting than caffeine because if Gainey had juiced them up on Red Bulls they'd have shown more energy than this.

-WHY do they pull the goalie when they're two goals down and have about as much hope of scoring as Sadaam Hussein has of going to heaven? That's just asking for salt in the bleeding wound they've just inflicted on us.

-Is it prophetic that the clock in my living room struck eleven at the same moment the game ended?

-Well, the chances of beating Boston or Pittsburgh with this team and this kind of effort are nil. The season's done, and yet I'm compelled to keep watching. I'll be doing it while away for the long weekend though, so I don't know if there'll be notes for those games. Keep the faith my friends. There will be another edition of this team and maybe it'll be The One.


Notes on the second:

-If hockey doesn't work out for Andrei Kostitsyn, I hear there's an opening on Broadway for the lead in Hunchback of Notre Dame. Then again, he appears uninterested in working in New York.

-Price is playing some very unsteady hockey, and if the Habs lose this game, it will be because Bob Gainey insists on going back to him at every opportunity. Yes, he could be a great goalie one day, but he's had a LOT of problems this season. One of them being his difficulty in finding his groove after missing a few games. Problem is, there's not time left to indulge him.

-Things that are like 2007: A desperate post-Christmas slide, little toughness or decent D, having to beat the Rangers in the last week to make the playoffs and failing to do so. Add missing the playoffs to the list on Saturday unless someone decides to take the team by the jocks an haul them in singlehandedly. This is just not good.

-One thing I hope to see next year is a heart transplant. Only, who would have to die to provide a viable organ?

-I don't know what you'd pay Komisarek, but right at this moment, I'd pay him to go away.

-Habs look like they were getting ready to believe in miracles until Markov and Schneider went down. Now they know Fate's out to get them and they're just playing out the string.

-Gainey's resurrected Carbo's Line-O-Matic. And the fourth line is the best one on the ice. It's as though the Carbonneau Era never ended.

-Speaking of the lines...I know Markov's loss is a blow of epic proportions, but that doesn't explain why the hell the first line has suddenly vanished altogether. These guys are supposed to be able to adjust, right?

-The bad old days are back, and I am NOT expecting a miracle in the third.



Notes on the first:

-Should we say the PP's stifled because the Rags are the best PK team in the league? Yeah...that's what we'll say to make us feel better, okay?

-Price's handling the puck like it's crawling with smallpox. Thanks to Breeze for the save on the giant stinking brain fart in the first five minutes.

-During the last good stretch I worried that the first line was only playing like a first line on the PP. I hope that was misplaced worry, but I'm starting to think not.

-I love the Metro line though. Those guys work like oxen. I never thought I'd say it last year, but I wouldn't mind seeing Dandy back. I think he should get a trophy for scoring the Habs' first goal of the season on a desperation backhand too. It just goes to prove, if you put the puck on the net...ah, you know the rest.

-The D is doing more pirouettes in their own end than the Royal Canadian Ballet. Unfortunately, our guys are doing it because they can't find the puck, not because Tchaikovsky wrote it that way.

-Speaking of D, I think fans thought they were actually voting for "league's worst stickhandler" when they voted Komisarek into the All-Star game. His play on the Rangers goal was a particularly fine example of pokey-stick.

-The team played decent hockey in that period, but I'm afraid the tank is going to run dry against the fresh Rangers in the third.