Habs get ready to kiss 5th goodbye...

Last night's game was brutal to watch. It's not so much that the Habs were bad (they were) but that they were boring. It didn't help that the "play by play" guy on the NHL network was boring and didn't really understand the meaning of the phrase play by play. Here's a summary of his calls:

"5:24 remaining here in the first period"
(silence. the players skate into the zone and he has nothing to say)
(bill clement makes some random comment about how someone is "dialed in" tonight)
"well, with 4 minutes remaining in the period, it looks like the Thrashers are finally putting some pressure on."

I'm serious. I don't think he called an actual play. There were huge lapses in conversation. At one point, when he did call a play, he was about 20 seconds behind the play. It was weird.

The other part that was strange was Kovalev's intermission interview.

Gary Green: "You had really good jump in the first 10 minutes of this hockey game, but since that time the Altanta thrashers have really had the edge."

Kovalev: "Well I uh, I wouldn't say that. I mean we still played a pretty good game uh I think the difference be that we had to play a lot shorthanded, a lot of penalties that cost us. But we still uh...5 on 5 it's a different game, we played pretty well."

Wow, he thinks they are playing well. I guess they were playing better than the game at Buffalo, but playing well? Not so sure about that. Perhaps I am crazy though.

Price was better. You could see his confidence growing with each great save he made, even though he still seemed to be out of position a lot.

Today could (will?) be the last time the Habs are in 5th place. With wins today, Florida could pass the Habs, and Carolina and Buffalo could pull even. FLORIDA?!?!?! THE FREAKING PANTHERS?!? Are you kidding me?

Why don't you just rip my heart out and serve it to me for dinner?

I know it's early for UFA rumors, but Smith to the Devils? Just kill me now....

let the downward spiral begin

Okay, okay, it's not that bad. Except that I totally remember last October's game against the Panthers. For me, that game marked the beginning of the end for last season. Sure, we already sucked by that point (we had only won one of our first seven games) but this was the turning point of the season...the one game that summed up how the rest of the season would go.

And it was all Jokinen's fault. Him and that stupid forehead of his.

Anyhow, enough about the season that shall not be named. I took a page out of Nadine's book (almost literally) and made a few notes. Well, at least for the first period and part of the second. After that, I gave up and started reading photography books. Gah!

First Period

• The roaring Panther sound effect. Really?

• Lupul is up on the first line again. Cmon Stevens, I thought we were on the same page about Knuble here. Well...moving Mike to the 2nd line got him a +2 for the night, which helps with my fantasy team, but still...don't even think about making this permanent.

• First period...guys have their lead skates on again. And apparently, blindfolds now too.

• What on earth is up with this broadcast....there is an eerie fluorescent blue cast to the entire screen. It is making my eyes annoyed. Maybe that is why the Flyers are blindfolded.

• I hate Jokinen. He really is the one person in the NHL that I would punch.

• They should have pulled Marty 10 minutes in...

2nd period...

• insane PK work by Richards, Smith and Kapenen to kill off the four minute Eager penalty.

• The pass from Richards to Lupul was incredible...Lupul positioned himself perfectly

• The Carter/Umberger goal was totally insane too...

• What the heck is Bernie Parent doing in the crowd?

Third period:

• The photographic triangle is fascinating...is that where all my good pictures go?

• I wonder how my fantasy team is doing....oh good, Brind'Amour is having a good night

• If Jim Jackson says "here come the Panthers" one more time, I am going to punch someone.

I think maybe Marty lost this one on purpose, in order to build Nitty's confidence for tomorrow. Whaddya think?

Noooooooooooooo! Please, no!

See that seat, right next to the guy in blue with the bald spot? That is where I sometimes sit for Flyers games. Right next to the goal judge, who depending on the night is either a really nice guy who likes to talk trash or an old dude who steps on your feet when getting in and out of his booth.

Now, the Flyers (and everyone else) have removed the goal judges and banished them to the press box (poor guys, they had the best seat in the house)! In removing the goal judge seat, they freed up room for luxury seats. According to Tim Pannaccio of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The new leather seats are deeper than other seats and have waiter or waitress service.

But there's a hitch. The seats are packaged with the lease of a suite for both Flyers and Sixers games. A midlevel suite and six goal-judge seats would cost $225,000, according to Shawn Tilger, vice president of marketing and communications for the Flyers.

Among the several changes this fall offered to season-ticket holders, this one affects the fewest but will be the most noticeable.

"The majority of our suites are sold," Tilger said. "What was intriguing to us was you could entertain clients in your suite, then rotate back and forth to the goal-judge seats."

Great, so now these seats are going to be owned by suits and used to entertain clients. I just loooooooove sitting next to those assholes. For a playoff game last year, the only ticket I could score was in a suite/box/whatever you call it. I wanted to kill myself. People there were not even aware that there was a playoff game going on. They were on the phone, or they were up and down 5 million times, or they sat with their seatmate and talked about TPS reports and sales figures and real estate. Hello! You are at a freaking hockey game! Watch some hockey! When I am at a game, I don't want any discussion. Even if I am there with you, I need you to shut up and watch. 9 times out of 10, if you engage me in conversation, I miss a goal being scored. Honestly! Talking is for intermission!

And with these seats, the up and down factor is going to be even worse: "you could entertain clients in your suite, then rotate back and forth to the goal-judge seats," according to the Flyers spokesman in the article. Ack! Please don't encourage these assholes to be up and down. Or at least make sure they wait until a stop in play.

*sigh*

Hockey weather!

Oh man, this cold rainy dreary weather is killing me because it seems like October but it's not!!! But it does give me a good excuse to throw on my favorite jersey and take a nap.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz...wake me for the home opener.....