Jackets vs. Bulldogs - The Ouchie Edition

Notes on the third and OT (sorry, out of habit):

-Benoit Pouliot on RDS looks like the prom king next to Jacques Demers' big fat shop teacher.

-Metropolit is worth his weight in opium. Which six other GMs must have been smoking when they let him go.

-The second Bergeron goal was truly a team effort. Every Bulldog on the ice had a smack at it, until Daddy took over with the big-league shot. And for the people who rag on me for slamming MAB (you know who you are) he didn't suck on D tonight. Mara was worse.

-I keep thinking Pyatt's "94" is Latendresse. I guess there actually will be a little adjustment after all.

-Speaking of which, the departed one's bosom buddy is playing MAD. Good on ya, Lappy!

-Price is going to have to find himself an unmarked panel van and a good fence for all the games he's stealing.

-If the Pleks/Cammy/AK line was a Queen song, it'd be "It's a Kind of Magic."

-What a great win by the depleted troops! It makes me fear tomorrow a little less.


Notes on the second:

-I guess if the team managed to gel after the first twenty games, it's now a bowl of jello salad with all the injuries.

-How can the Columbus first line NOT be killing the Habs? They've got a superstar in Nash, a francophone who used to cheer for the Habs growing up, and Umberger. It's Habs kryptonite.

-The reffing in this one is really atrocious, and I don't often comment on the reffing. But there's something wrong when the calls suddenly start favouring the second-most penalized team in the league. The Mara one was the only good call against the Habs so far.

-Nash goes through Gorges like a dose of salts.

-Price seems to be better at the splits this year. Maybe he's joining Laraque for post-tofu shake yoga sessions. It'd be easily 5-2 without him in there.

-I'm not one to advocate Carbo-copying, but MAB could be a fourth-line LW and still use the shot without scaring the crap out of us on D.

-Lapierre is starting to play like he doesn't want the next ticket to ride.

-White is turning out to be that rarest of commodities: a smart grinder.

-The thing I like best about Cammalleri is that he always keeps going forward. When most guys get the puck taken from them, they stop chasing it. Cammy never stops going after it. That trait alone gets him ten goals a year.

-Sergei looks like he's finally getting the diesel fumes out of his head.

-Well, someone took the paddles to the Habs and jolted them to life in the last five minutes. Let's see if they can keep breathing long enough to get at least a point.

Notes on the first:

-I don't know why everyone thinks Sergei's return will spur AK on to greater heights. Not all brothers are best friends. A friend of mine actively can't stand his brother and would probably ask to be traded if the two of them had to play together.

-Random scary thought of the night: I bet you anything Martin Brodeur will either tie or beat the all-time shutout record on Dec.16, when the Habs are in town. Grrr...I hate him and his Habs-killing.

-It's good you can hear the boys shouting at each other on the ice. That "lead your blindfolded partner around with voice commands" thing they did at Teen Ranch could come in pretty handy, when you consider number of strangers in the lineup.

-O'Byrne might not crush people as often as we'd like, but he *is* getting a lot better at using his size to help him retain possession of the puck instead of freaking out and giving it away every time.

-Cammalleri is hot as the earth's molten core.

-Mara looked like Jack Tripper on the sitcom zone clearance attempt just before the Nash goal.

-It's official. A textbook hip check is now a penalty in the "Head Shots R Us" NHL.

-I think Pacioretty is getting it.

-White shirts are on just about every loose puck first, and if they're not, they just shove the red shirts aside and take it anyway.

-The coaches need to make sure the Habs know they're actually allowed to be in the middle of the ice and don't have to ALWAYS clear around the boards.

-That was not an encouraging twenty minutes, but hopefully it's the worst period of the night.