THE COB WEBS ARE OFF

OK so the goaltending did not live up to its hype. Concern? Problem? Not at all. As Carb put it so perfectly last night, it is more than normal that both goaltenders wee a bit edgy and nervous. Price has had all this media attention and expectations, whilst Halak was outperforming everyone in training camp and no one was talking about him.

In my opinion it is blessing in disguise that the “heebee geebeezz” got left on the ice last night. Now they can get back to doing what they do best.

Remember the epic moment in Rocket Richard’s career when the team pulled in to New York after being notified that the home team would ensure Maurice would leave the game in a stretcher. He took matters into his own hands and made a clear statement that “we will not be pushed around”. Well I couldn’t help but think of that event when I watched Latandresse cream a Pens jersey on to the boards behind their net, following a head hunter hit on him in his previous shift. Not that I comparing a grand and majestic moment in Rocket’s career to a pre-season game event, but the attitude Guillaume brought to the ice last night shows a promises that the upcoming young corp might provide this attitude of “not being physically intimidated” to a team who has desperately lacked it in the past decade or more. I’m not advocating having goons on a team to push the other guys around, but a clean retaliation like the one Guillaume dished out following a shoulder to the head will make a team think twice about getting into a physical battle with our HABS. As we all know this has been a down fall for our team, and last year we lost most of our games when the opposing team was fore-checking hard and hitting our D behind the net. If Latandresse, Cote, Lapierre, Begin, Komisarek, and others begin to lay a few solid and legal hits in response, I recon any offence will be more hesitant in entering the game with a sense of physical superiority resulting in less confidence. Like Kirk always like to yell across the ice “STOP AND GO BOYS!! STOP AND GO!!”

THE BEGINNING:

It seems the summer wasn't long enough for Syd the Kid to mature. The Crosby show is still plentiful, and the acting remains terrible. I find it unfortunate that such wonderful raw tallent is, at the least in my eyes, tarnished by diving and exaggerate. Crosby will undoubtedly break most records and establish him self as one of the best to ever play the game, but his childish behaviour and sense of entitlement is a real downer. In my opinion, his coach is to blame. Michelle either has to grow up him self and tell Crosby that if he fakes being hurt to draw penalties his hair will fall out, he’ll go blind and he'll loose his left dingle berry. The alternative is to teach him how to better draw penalties and improve on his 70 adult industry film calibre acting. This is one hockey fan that wants to cheer on Syd the Kid, and is convinced that one day he will. But that won't be till such date where Crosby will own up to being
outplayed some times and not try to rectify his errors by pulling a....dare I say Ribeiro?

Kovalev is...well Kovalev. I have been both a believer that he costs the team a lot in turn overs and a lack of effort, however I have also been a supporter of him in that he is a strong player, great tool for the coach and not to take anything away from Shelly, but him and Markov were the quarter backs of the power play. He him self probably said it best: "I make mistakes. It's not my first and won't be my last. But I make good plays 70% of the time". It's hard to argue with him when he puts up performances like last night. In fact more often than not, when he is given the ice time (even after he pulls a brain fart) net net he ends up contributing to the team's success in a positive matter. Perhaps the coaching staff and especially the fans have to accept the fact that he is a 3 step forward, 1 step back kind of guy, and hold judgement till the end of a stretch. I'm not sure if I'm ready to accept failure in the short term to gain success in the long term, but maybe that's my shortfall as a rabid HABS fan. At least I have the piece of mind that I don't have to make such decisions. That's left to a management team and coaching staff that has proven through out their careers to possess a knowledge of the game at a level beyond any armchair GM (including yours truly) who would be willing to tar feather and parade the whole team down St Catherine in their privates following a three game loosing streak, and replace the players with Chimps in skates arguing that at least the entertainment value will be worth our time to watch $8.50 we pay for our beer.

On a closing note, was I the only one who was more than disappointed when Vertigo hit the sound waves following our first goal? In its fourth year now, that song is as fitting in a hockey arena as a Britney/Paris duet with Frank Sinatra.