HERE IS THE UPDATE YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR

It is with great honour, and distinct pleasure that I present you with this update you’ve all ben waiting for, not only over night, but since over a decade. HABS are at the top of the pecking order, and it the playoffs start today we have home advantage and we play the Flyers (whom we’ve more or less dominated).

It was quite the spectacle last night, watching the goaltending dual. One of Price’s qualities that we have all loved and admired, and which incidentally was a big part of the win on Friday and last night is his puck handling skills. By stepping out behind the net, intercepting the dump, and making a play for a quick and devastating transition play leaving 2-3 players deep in our zone while our offensive line is charging through the neutral zone is not only a good way to keep the puck out of our zone and frustrate the opposing team to no degree, but it also allows for more than a few odd man rushes in our favour.

On the other side of the ice of course Mr Brodeur, the greatest puck handling goalie of all times had to show his moves right. Not only would he intercept, and make plays, but he cleared the zone during a PK. What could be more valuable to a Penalty Kill unit when your goalie can clear the zone while you keep the warm bodies from converging towards the back of the net? Well ask that to our boys, because cucumber boy (as in cool as a) was so calm in his demeanour once more, that he wouldn’t be intimidated by the infamous Brodeur. No…Price, in turn, returned the favour when we were killing a penalty and dumped the puck out of our zone. And unless I’m mistaken, with Price’s intervention, our PK last night was better than it has been in recent times.

But it was not all Price. The team, although not very lucky with bouncing pucks, played a solid, safe game, speedy and hard along the boards, and didn’t give too many odd man rushes. We were defensively sound and offensively had many chances. Our transition game was superb and EVERYONE did their job. The moment I’m going to remember the most from the game that got us to the top seat (other than Price emulating one of his idol goaltenders on the PK) is the final shift (or second to last rather) of Smokes and Mad Max. Those 30-40 second they won in the offensive zone was key, and was a reflection of how well this team is playing, not in style or strategy, but as a team. When players accept their roles and thrive to do it to the best of their abilities, things always seem to work out.

If we keep doing this till the end of the season, there is no reason we can’t finish where we are. Especially when your goaltender is 3-0 with a 1.33 GGA and a .956 save percentage since his first defining moment in the NHL. Who could have foreseen that such a blatant vote of confidence on the part of the management and the coaching staff could have catapulted Price into his “zone”? :rolleyes:

So for today enjoy the moment, we’re officially #1 both in NL and in points. Tomorrow I’ll bring you all back down to earth and remind you how fragile the standings are, not that you haven’t noticed one NL brings us to a tie and as far down as seventh.

The battle is far from over, but today and tomorrow, the fact of the mater is WE’RE NUMBER ONE!!!!!!

PS HTL please let us know if there are any HABS fans in the TML fan forums bringing to light that we’re on top and they’re fighting to stay out of last. That should make for some lame excuses and humorous posts I’m sure.