Plus/Minus: Andrei Markov's birthday edition

We didn't exactly write very much this week, but finals and 50-hour workweeks will do that to a blogger. I'll do my best to cover the week that was. Geez, I'm posting this later than usual too. I suck.

Plus

+ Apparently it's better to give than to receive, and our #79 gave us a present for his birthday, which is today. (Don't they do that in Lord of the Rings? Thank you, Viggo!) Not only did he come back, but like a movie hero, he went all "Yippee-ki-yay" on the Islanders. I know I'm getting too excited too quickly, but I missed him so much that I very nearly did cartwheels when I found out he'd be playing against the Islanders... except I can't do cartwheels. Sorry, Marky.

+ I'll give an additional plus to our win over the Islanders. They deserve it. Marky might have been John McClane, but not even McClane can do everything on his own.

+ Andrei Kostitsyn had a great week.


Anything but peace on earth and goodwill toward men

- So we lost quite a few games this week. Yes, it sucks, and yes, it doesn't make sense when our team is composed of such outstanding players. But I hate it when journalists try to look for someone to pin the blame on if there isn't anyone, and suddenly change their tune if anyone in particular doesn't save the team's ass (because that's not always going to happen). And guess what, people? Losing is just as hard on the players as it is on the fans, and constantly asking them what went wrong just makes it suck more. For me.

- Wow... so the same people who very nearly cried when Guillaume Latendresse was traded, decided to boo him upon his return to the Bell Centre? I know booing is fun, but it didn't really make sense.

- So, is this like a revolving door of defencemen, that we get Markov back in the same week that Roman Hamrlik is injured?

- I always thought it might be entertaining, or at least somehow funny, to have a gossip mill for hockey like TMZ or Just Jared cover Hollywood, but let's be honest. It's filthy when gossip rags talk about movie stars (or reality TV personalities), and it's at least that bad when people try to cover hockey the same way. If we ever try to start a rumor, or get all TMZ up in here, someone please slap us.