The Sultan of Swank

Youtube QMJHL Brawl or something like that. It happened in one of the Canadian junior league playoff series'. Ok so, I showed these to Be, he thought they were clever, I'm picking these two up... I also thought this one was clever...

Oh man the way he went after the other goalie who clearly didn't want to fight. What a fucking jackass. I just realized that Montreal is the first team in the East to clinch.

oh man. I guess if you give up 7 goals in 40 minutes, you've gotta show something for it. Ottawa made a hell of an effort to make up for 40 minutes of complete ineptitude. Honestly, through the first two they sucked. In the third, Montreal sucked. Obviously Ottawa was going to push hard to at least make it respectable in the third, and Montreal has such a young team, it's gotta be hard to stay focused when you're beating Ottawa of all teams by 6 after 2. I think that the game was a good confidence boost for the team but Ottawa came close enough for everyone to know that like the Rangers learned earlier this year when they blew a 5-0 lead in the second to us... no lead is safe and no team is unbeatable.

April 5th I'm going to be heading to the Habs/Leafs game. If the Leafs can hold on long enough, maybe we can try to spoil their season. I might be up in the press box for most of the remaining home games. I'm getting an internship with the Habs radio broadcast and apparently I'm going to have to be a good little errand boy during the games... I'm kinda excited.

MPH... I think the closest thing to a Habs game as far as atmosphere goes is a game in Edmonton. Did you get into the ole chants?

No question. Honestly the teams I fear playing in the series most are Jersey, Rangers, Ottawa and Toronto. The first 3 make sense. The last, I've said it before, it doesn't matter who's in first and who's in eighth. Montreal and Toronto always, always put on the most intense hockey ever seen. A playoff series would honestly be a coin toss either way in 7 games... 5 or 6 of em probably in OT.

8 and fucking 0 against Boston this season. That's slightly less than 20% of our wins. Toronto is making an expected push for the playoffs. I think they're doing the same thing Montreal did for the first half of the season. Everyone picked Montreal to be even lower than the Leafs right now and there was almost this nearly unspoken need to prove everyone wrong. After the first 20-25 games, people went, oh it's still early, they'll fail. After Christmas people started to go, well they do have a pretty good team, and after a span in Jan and Feb where we took something like 19 of 26 possible points in a month, people went, ok, these guys are for real. Everyone, including myself had counted Toronto out, because, not to bash any teams or anything. They played like shit for about 65 games... no question. Now, Toronto is still in a very tight spot. They're gaining ground on 8th (you're welcome by the way), but so are the other 3 teams ahead of them. They've got to get past the Caps, Sabres and Panthers, all of whom are in the same situation as Toronto. To say that Toronto wants it more than any of those teams is sort of ridiculous, so it's going to be interesting to see which of those teams can build enough momentum and maintain it longer than any of the other 7-12 teams to sucessfully make that mad dash for the playoffs. Toronto to me, is pretty much in the wildcard slot for that. They're close enough in points, but have the most teams to get through. Once the playoffs hit, it certainly is a sort of 'anything can happen' second season, but out of the teams seeded 7-12 the only ones I personally feel have what it takes to do any sort of damage isare Washington and maybe the Flyers.

Montreal blows one to the Blues. I can excuse the first period, there were some seriously bullshit calls and non calls, but the second we just didn't show up. The third we played well and just couldn't get it done. We get a 3 point lead on Ottawa which makes things ever so slightly more comfortable, but we're not going to surpass Jersey for the conference. They've got 2 games at hand and there's no way they're losing both of them.

Toronto's done... really. 6 points out with 9 games left. I mean, not only Philly, but Buffalo, Washington and Florida all need to epic fail for Toronto to get in. Montreal has a chance to re-take 1st in the East(at least for 1 night) tonight. It's awfully important that we win this game against St. Louis. Halak should be getting the start tonight. Should be a fun game to watch.

Maybe they'll take pics together. Tomorrow night is one of the most important games of the year for the Habs and the Sens. A Sens win puts them atop the Habs as they'll draw even in points but have more wins IIRC. A Habs win puts 4 points between themselves and Ottawa, allows for pretty much, a single slip up. It's going to be an intense game. Montreal a team that has been counted out since the beginning of the season has proven a lot of people wrong, but we've been hearing that all season. The facts are that a team that on paper looked to get worse has gotten far better. Production from 4 lines, 5 players at 50+ points and 2 more at 40+, great goaltending from Price since the Huet trade, a stellar season from Kovalev who while he shouldn't win it, should be considered for the Hart. A super turn out from all the youngsters and a defensive corps that I would go so far as to call the best in the East. Ottawa is clearly the fallen champion in this storyline, apparently the buzz in Ottawa is just as big as it is here in Montreal so this is going to be a massive game. Ottawa has won 8 of the last 9 against the Habs and their most recent win against the Habs was the Habs worst defeat of the season. This looks like it's going to be a high scoring affair. The problems for Montreal become how do you shut down a line that put up 11? points against you the last time you played them. Pretty much, if you stop the top line, you have a very good shot at beating Ottawa. Likewise for Ottawa the goal becomes shutting down the Kovalev-Plekanec-Kostitsyn line. While all 4 of the Habs lines are producing, this one has been one of the most electrifying lines to watch all season. Whoever scores first is going to get a huge boost out of it. I'm willing to predict that whoever scores first wille eventually win the game. If it's the Habs who strike first, they have 21,273 fans who will turn the Bell Center into the loudest place in the world for the next 60 minutes. If it's the Sens, they shut up the loudest building in the league and crush the confidence of a very young team. No doubt, it will be an amazing game to watch.

Montreal dismantled Jersey last night. The shots may have read 38-33 Jersey, but they had maybe... 3 scoring chances all game. All their shots were perimeter shots. Also, Sergei Kostitsyn, has got Kovalev-esque hands, and wow. The two plays he set up for the Koivu and Lapierre goal along with undressing one of the defenders to get Koivu another great opportunity, amazing game from him. Price was just downright intimidating last night. Also, I like the way he clears the area in front of his net on his own. He's not quite Ron Hextall, but RDS was talking about it and showing some replays... he can be a little vicious. If we can beat Ottawa on Thursday, I'll be pleased.

I'm sure that Price would like... 3 of those goals back. But man that was the worst officiated game I've ever seen... I thought Fraizer and Mcgeugh were bad, but apparently the West Coast has it even worse.

What is this gayness. 10:30 Eastern start time, hasn't the west coast learned that the league just doesn't care about them, stop trying to schedule according to your time zone. If Montreal pulls 3 of 4 wins on the coast, I'll mark them down as a contender, anything less, they're just a good eastern conference team.

I am not digging this log jam atop the Eastern Conference, plus Boston is really only 5 points back with 2 games at hand haha. It's going to be a fun finish to watch.

#1 in the East... how long it'll last is highly suspect haha, but at least we're there right now. That was a seriously improbable win, but Montreal played a pretty good game against the Devils and just took what chances they were afforded. The Devils only goal, that was a cocksucking goal.

Wow, Montreal totally dominated the Sabres last night. Hopefully that sort of game will come out from the Habs when they play the #1 Devils tonight. A 1-2 showdown at the Bell Center against a team we've only beaten twice in the last 6 years... :S Maybe we're just not meant for #1. There were thousands of Habs fans at the HSBC arena the other night. What I don't understand is that announcers... especially on TSN seem to think the Ole chants that we love are to sorta serenade the opposing team like those goodbye chants. I say nay nay, they're just a bunch of really excited Habs fans and we seem to think we're at a footie match. It was hilarious to watch on tv last night hearing the Ole chants and Go Habs Go chants, The Sabres fans fought back on them in the first and second, but by the third it was just about the Habs arena. Although I really do think there must have been many quizical looks on the faces of Sabres fans when the 'We Want Free Wings' chants started (For those not in the know, in Montreal whenever the Habs score 5 goals or more in a game, the franchised sports bar La Cage Aux Sports gives out 8 free wings to everyone in the bar and if you go the next night they'll give you them then also). Onwards against New Jersey.

Montreal leads 5-1 after 2. Buffalo's only goal was a big flukey one, puck hits the crossbar, goes off the glass, comes back, hits Price in the back of the helmet and in... looking back, it's pretty hilarious... I say that only because we've fucking raped Buffalo thus far. Oh also, Latendresse fucked up some poor Sabre. He didn't beat him badly or anything, just a straight shot to the nose and he went down.

So is Myself, SDM, Hyperchicken and Gabe the group we wanna go with? If so, let me know the best times on Sat or Sunday for you. I'll see if hopefully it all can coincide.

Well whoever's interested I'd want. There's no one... other than Plubby that I wouldn't want to do this . Gimmie a ring on msn: Bashaass@gmail.com that or PM me. Anyways, I was hoping to do it this weekend, obviously once we have 4 people we'll arrange the optimal time to do it. I was thinking a round table discussion on a few topics, most definately the playoffs. I'm pretty much looking to have a good time with it, so if you're interested just PM me and when we have 4 we'll get the ball rolling. Any ideas or suggestions are always welcome.

Well if Montreal keeps playing this .500 bullshit like they've done all February, it just might. I'm thinking that this weekend I'd like to do the first of what hopefully will be a few EWB PuckCast's. I'd like to have maybe 4 people including myself in on some sort of a roundtable discussion unless someone has a better idea. To be honest I'm hoping SDM, and Gabriel(whatever name he's under now) want to take part in this because I find them to be the most... sanely knowledgable fans on the board. Ruki I like too. Just people like myself, and Clawson clearly have trouble seperating blind love for our teams with reality

Would it make the most sense to do it over Skype and record it?

essentially yes.

I want to organize some sort of a puckcast. Anybody interested?

Price makes a pretty good case for himself tonight. Habs take it 5-1. Interesting little stat I learned tonight. Montreal is the only team in the league with 7 40 point guys.

I respect Bob for not betting the farm on a Rental, but still, contingency plan Bob! Plan fucking B!