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.