the second ten games

christopher higgins of the new york rangers looks like kurt cobain of the living dead. he's only smiling because the RDSman asked him which of his former teammates trashed talked him most. ANS: gorges. couldn't have been all that much though, higgins sat on the bench for the entire third period.

—halak plays until he loses, which is four wins and a loss. since then CP#31 has won two anf YH#41 has won one. habs haven't won two in a row since the end of the first homestand
—george laraque has been on IR since the alcoholic energy drink controversy, he re-injured his back off-ice, somehow..
—halak's agent starts a twitter controversy when he (somewhat erroneously) suggests that CP#31 is 10-32. a disappointed and twitterless bob gainey thought it was a " 'My dad is bigger than your dad,’ kind of thing."
—SK#74 tries to bail on hamilton again, but somehow gainey talks him back into riding the bus. meanwhile, tom pyatt, ryan white, gregory stewart, maxime lapierre, guiaullme latendresse & andrei kostitsyn all can't score at all.
—hal gill is injured. suddenly, his play is missed.
—glen metropolit is a point-per-game player through his first eight games. his answer: "Well, it's an Olympic year!" GM#15 still gets nice slice of PP time, minutes more than AK#46 or GL#84
—plekanec and cammalleri are the best habs and aren't even scoring a point per game. SG#91 hasn't scored a goal in 11 games and is on course for a fifty-point season.
—brian gionta is injured. gomez's play is greatly effected.
—carey price stops 53 of 55 shots on a silly saturday night game in pheonix, two shots shy of the record for most shots ever faced by a montreal goaltender.
—the consensus from the talking heads is that CP#31 or YH#41 have to be MVP candidates in order for the habs to make the playoffs. the english radio is screaming for gainey's head. so is cyberpresse.
—maxime lapierre is on the fourth line, latendresse a healthy scratch. but then 30 minutes before game time GL#84 is told he'll play in phoenix. according to guy, he's still in bed at the hotel at this point.

mike komisarek doesn't really get it

1.

"I guess if they didn't love me when I was here they wouldn't be booing, so I must have done something right when I was here,"
—mike komisarek

2.

i wasn't at the game, but i would have booed my brains out if i was. my boos would represent a great many things, none of them being boos of appreciation for the things MK#8 did as a player here.

one loud boo for taking the money and ditching the team. another one for joining the hated leafs. but the majority of my boos are boos of disappointment, shock and disbelief: who do you think you are, mike komisarek?

you lost your edge somewhere between attacking XXX? in 2003 and "fighting" milan lucic in 2008 and gainey was Still willing to give you $4 mil+ a year. because you were part of the team, man. you could have been captain here one day. you've changed.

3.

the boo is the inverse wave of the cheer. for every cheer we have leveled at the exploits of mike komisarek we are now due one boo. our fandom and enthusiasm have been betrayed and we exposed as simpletons, fools who thought far too highly of a player who took the first paycheck out of town at the earliest possible instant like a frontier-town whore.

my years of cheers and HOPE embarrass me now, as if i was taken in on some bunco swindle, i was sold a bag of rough diamonds and was left with only charcoal. or not even: i was left with only the empty bag.

mike komisrarek is a selfish swindler and perhaps the biggest turn-coat in habs history. he had no known enemies on the team like corson or souray or patrick roy and no grand scandal dangling over him like kovalev or theodore or even chris higgins and still evacuated the island instantly that warm summer morning of july the first, 2000 & 9.

he deserves to be booed in montreal until the end of his time and beyond.

ex-habs watch

FOR THE NIGHT OF OCTOBRE 21 2000 & 9

—stephane robidas had an assist and was +3 playing 22 minutes in a 4-2 win over anaheim, while teammateexhab mike ribeiro also had an assist and four shots.

—saku koivu had no points and was -1 with two shots and 21 minutes for anaheim.

—frankie boullion played almost 23 minutes and had 2 shots and a -1 in a mashvile loss to boston, while jason ward had two shots and was -1 as well.

—michael ryder tied the game for boston and steve begin won it in overtime. ryder had three shots, begin two, and even mark recchi shot once and played 15 minutes.

—sergei samsonov had one shot and was -1 in 15 minutes in a 4-3 carolina overtime loss to NYI. tom kostopolous had six shots and was even in ten minutes of ice-time.

—mark streit for NYI was even and had three shots and two penalties over 27+ minutes in the win.

—craig rivet (captain rivet?) had one shot and was even in a 5-2 buffalo win over FLA, playing 19 minutes.

—darcy tucker had a goal and was plus one with two shots in a 3-2 colorado overtime loss to minnesota

koivu looks forward to wimp-free future in LA?

1.



former star player saku koivu tells jim rome how it is on the day he was named an alternate captain in anaheim before the season opener:

you had some options, why did you wind up with the ducks?

SK#11: "well, first of all in montreal i'd been there for a long time, at this part of my career i felt that i needed a new challenge, i wanted something else, something different... the long winter... a lot of snow, cold... and when anaheim came into the picture and they showed some interest we felt—my family—that this would be the perfect fit, for the family but for myself as a hockey player, you know, i want to win."

let's talk about the pressure and responsibility that comes along with wearing the "c" if you're a member of canadiens...

SK#11: "you gotta talk to the press quite often and and you're under the microscope pretty much 24/7.... you kind of—.... i got used to it. but at this point i'm going to wear an "a" but not a "c," and it feels good, i can more focus on my own stuff and lead by example and help my teammates but ugh you know you don't have to explain everything—what's going on in the practice, or if something happened wrong in the game."

you had been "the" guy for so long, the guy that everybody looks at—are you looking forward to being one of "them", one of those guys that can blend in?

SK#11: "absolutely. you know that was the one thing i kinda wanted to get into a market that you can breeze easily and enjoy life a bit more but at the same time i wanted to get into a place where i can win and be successful and like i said that's the reason why i came to anaheim."

it seems to me like there's so much less pressure: you're not wearing the "c," you're not in the fishbowl... but as we start a new year, and you're on a new team with a new artillery—are you nervous at all?

SK#11: "absolutely. i haven't felt excited, i haven't felt deserved in a long long time—but that was a good thing. but ugh ugh yeah ... like i said i wanted to find that spark again that i was kind of missing the last couple years, i have to go out there, i have to prove—to myself but also to my mates and coaching staff—that i deserve that icetime and this part of the team ."

west-coast koivu pt 1

from mike v's anaheim "celebrity" blog (yeah, who? apparently some musician and stuntman) on nhl.com:

"Last night I attended an Anaheim Ducks Foundation charity event at RA Sushi in Tustin that featured Anaheim Ducks players Mike Brown, Saku Koivu, James Wisniewski and Scott Neidermayer in a head-to-head sushi rolling competition. Each player teamed up with a sushi chef and then went about creating and preparing their very own signature sushi roll for the RA Sushi patrons and Ducks fans in attendance to sample and judge. A panel of judges was also assembled, of which I was one, and our combined votes were to crown one roll and one chef the victor, which would see that player’s roll become an actual menu item at RA Sushi for a limited time.

...Saku’s roll had all of the elements -- taste, compatibility of ingredients and an eye-pleasing appearance. But I wasn’t quite sure it had what it took to best “The Big Wisniewski.”

no pictures yet. no tan. no sellout.