Plus/Minus switches its CH for a Team Canada jersey

Earlier this week Tom Pyatt said "There's lots of action going on here in Montreal." That was pretty accurate - the last week or so has definitely given us a lot to talk about. Now that changes for a couple of weeks. No Habs games means I have more time to watch Lost. It also means less Roman, less Carey, less Metro... but it also means more Kim St-Pierre. 

Plus

+ to #14 for ending Washington's 14-game winning streak.
+ Our Hamilton callups were a huge part of the team this week, both literally and figuratively. They were fantastic - all thirty-five of them.
+ Scott Gomez was great this week. Two goals, plus he didn't back away from Chris Pronger after Friday's game.
+ to one of our favourite bloggers, JT from The H Does Not Stand For Habs, whose comments section became a minor firestorm of francophone backlash this week after she commented on this city's need for a French-speaking GM. Some people apparently weren't very happy with her, and it was ridiculous criticism for one of the most level-headed and knowledgeable amateur journalists this team has. I'm not going to go into it any further because talking about the language issue as it relates to the Canadiens is like hitting on a gay guy: I can say whatever I want but it's not going to change anything.

+ She looked a little disappointed that she didn't win gold, but I'm still proud of Jennifer Heil's silver in moguls, and of all our Olympians so far, including skier Alexandre Bilodeau who just made history by becoming the first Canadian athlete to win a gold medal in Canada.
+ Team Canada!!! Watching Olympic hockey is part of what got me back into watching hockey, so I'm looking forward to the next two weeks. Hayley Wickenheiser is so awesome.

The biggest + of the week A plus and a big thank you go out to all the readers who made comments this week and increased my donations to the Canadian Cancer Society, to those of you who will comment after I type this, and to everyone who's helped spread the word and to everyone who's going to match our total donation. So far that's only one person, but it still makes $4 for every comment! This plus is also for NHL Arena boards poster bMac for designing the "Comments = Donations" graphic mere hours after I asked for it.

He's from Ontario and he's not even a Habs fan but he helped the cause regardless of his allegiances, so a Hal Gill-sized thanks goes out to him.
I had originally said that the charity drive would end with this Plus/Minus, but you've got until midnight on February 15th instead so say anything you want until then!


Minus

- Geez, what's with the head injuries? It's bad enough that we've already got a variety of injuries on this team.  Two Habs were carted off the ice this one week bleeding from the head... I have my suspicions as to why the injury fairy's been going crazy on us lately, which I might share when the time is right. But Gorges and Spacek get a plus within this minus for picking themselves up and not missing the next game, just because they're badass like that.

- I don't like giving minuses to players, but it kind of hurt to see our goaltenders not playing as well as we know they can against the Flyers. This isn't necessarily a minus to them (there's enough hate directed our goalies as it is) but rather to the way that Saturday's game turned out.

- I already expressed my anger about Michael Leighton taking up with P.K. Subban after Friday's game. Stupid, unsportsmanlike, and completely useless to mess with a guy after his first NHL game, because there's no way Leighton could have any beef with him.

I'm not used to seeing the Habs calendar only half-full, but it is. So, go Canada, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the world brings to the table.