So the Habs are back to their sucky ways after losing a Super Stinker on Super Bowl Sunday.
Is anyone surprised? Guy Carbooneau reminds me of the dad from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." He has one simple solution to any problem that comes his way:
The team isn't scoring. "Mix the lines up."
Our players are standing around. "Mix the lines up."
The power play sucks ass. "Mix the lines up."
I have a pimple on my wedding day. "Mix the lines up."
Fortunately, I have found a way to cope with my grief. John Cleese once said that in order for comedy to be effective, one must have some degree of contempt for the main character. Well, I have moved on from the days when this team could do no wrong, and am now in a much darker place where I see a general manager who sat on his ass while opportunity pounded on the door and rang the bell and finally left in frustration at last year's deadline, where I see a coach who is consistently outmaneuvered, where I see a defenseman who has no right to play and yet keeps on getting opportunities to fuck us all over. Granted, Breeze-by didn't play yesterday, but he is symptomatic of this team's self-deception. Bob Gainey deluded himself into thinking that last year was not the time to strike a red-hot iron. He failed to recognize that the time to make a Cup run was not this year, but last year. The coach has somehow convinced himself that he knows what he is doing when he puts ill-conceived lines together and never allows teammates to develop any chemistry.
I most assuredly have contempt for the Montreal Canadiens, despite my undying love for them. As the saying goes, I love them, but right now I don't particularly like them. It makes it easier to handle watching the games (which I do less and less these days), and when I see them give up yet another awful goal I don't yell, I just roll my eyes and say something sarcastic. I'm not particularly fond of the management or some of the players in Montreal these days, but I will always love the team. I hope they'll let me know when they plan on being GOOD.
That said, I have made a vow to the Hockey Gods that if Montreal wins the Stanley Cup this season, I will customize my blank Montreal jersey with "Brisebois". God help us.
5 comments:
Is there some sort of feud going on between Alex Kovalev and Saku Koivu? I was reading something on TSN that there might be something to that and I wanted to know if you know if anything is going on there? Makes things really interesting as these are two of their top 3 players in my opinion.
Also those jerseys are probably the worst in sports nevermind the NHL. On the Bruins broadcast, Jack Edwards finalized the game yesterday by reciting the score as "The Boston Bruins 3 - The Inmates 1." I got a little bit of a chuckle out of that even though I despise Jack Edwards and I am starting a petition for Dale Arnold to come back.
I got to see the CBC broadcast (small miracles, right?) so I missed Jack Edwards' microphone stylings. That is a funny comment though. Those jerseys are probably the worst in all sports. I'm torn: I like that they're paying homage to the team's heritage, but damn those things were fugly. At least it was just for one game.
We get wind of a supposed feud between Koivu and Kovalev from time to time, and it usually crops up every season at some point. If there is a conflict, it's been going on since Kovalev came to Montreal (if you believe everything you read). This time it may be true, but this is one of those rumors that doesn't seem to go away, like the one about me and the one time I went....
I'd disregard the rumor at this point, but who knows.
Edit: After reading the article on TSN, it seems they're taking Carbonneau out of context. What happened was, someone from TSN asked Carbonneau if Kovalev's performance dropped after Koivu came back because Kovalev lost the Captain's "C". Carbonneau responded by belittling the question, not in verifying the rumor.
From TSN:
"I hope that's not the truth or we're in trouble because I'm not taking the C off Saku - that's the bottom line," said Carbonneau, who plans to speak to Kovalev. "If anyone needs a letter to perform on the ice, I have trouble with that. That's not professional at all.
"Alex is not a rookie. Right now, he's struggling, but we need him (if we're going to) go far."
I think TSN is reading far too much into this and making connections that don't exist.
TSN acting like some fans do on various forums/message boards and jumping to conclusions. Who would have thunk it ;)
I liked those sweaters... the SOCKS rocked. Price looked cool in it with his vintage pads too.
The game wasn't that shitty though, just the outcome in the loss of Lang for the rest of the season...I'm so depressed about that...
@31: I can definitely see the appeal those sweaters have for some folks, but I think they're something you either absolutely love or hate. I'm glad you liked the uniforms.
And you're right that the game could have gone either way (those who don't read thenotwithstandingclause should). My problem is that watching Lang go down has basically made my mind up that Montreal won't get past the first round this spring. My frustration is knowing this is the case, and that we were in a MUCH better position last year than this one. Granted, we somehow went into the All-Star break with more points than last year, but Montreal is not dealing from a position of strength as far as injuries/momentum go.
The vintage pads rock. I really think Price should keep 'em. I was bummed out when Hannu Toivonen decided to get rid of the vintage pad look along with the commemorative Slapshot movie goalie mask at the beginning of the '06 - '07 season.
By the way, Geoff, you were 100% right about Toivonen. Is he even still playing in the NHL or AHL anymore? I hope to god that Tukka Rask is everything that they say he is. The Bruins have a tendonacy of overhyping their goaltending prospects a lot more than what they really are (SEE Toivonen, Hannu, Raycroft, Andrew).
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