And the winner is...: Game preview 07-3-2010

Hopefully the Habs did not get distracted by beautiful celebrities after their brilliant win in LA last night, because they'll have to travel a whopping half-hour to pay the Anaheim Ducks a visit on Oscar night. (Technically in California it'll be 5:00 PM, which is still daytime, but I won't split hairs about it. It'll be primetime in Montreal, so that's good enough.)

What will RDS say now?

Is the outcome of this game Up In The Air? Will the Ducks behave, as they sometimes do, like Basterds? Will the Habs play with the same kind of Crazy Heart they've had lately? Will Jacques Martin dress like A Serious Man?

By the way, yes, puns is what happens when Rookie previews a game, especially around Oscar time. I should've warned you.

• On the Habs side of things, I'm a little worried that fatigue might set in, especially for the players who had major ice time yesterday
• The Ducks in general might be quite hungry, and angry and violent, after losing two out of their last three games, including a shutout in Phoenix.
• Jonas Hiller was great at the Olympics, and Ducks management clearly had enough faith in his abilities to trade Giguère away, so maybe we should be worried about that or something.
• If you put a jersey on an Oscar statue, it kind of looks like Team Canada forward Ryan Getzlaf, who has as many points as Tomas Plekanec. (But clearly our Pleks wins, with a better haircut and extra turtleneck points.)
• Hello, Mr. Chips: Part one of the former Habs revue is going to be about Kyle Chipchura, who as far as I can tell has been playing more in Anaheim than he was in Montreal. Whether he got more ice time because he got better, or if he got better as a result of the bigger ice time he needed, isn't a question that I can answer. But at least he's probably got less haters.
• Oh captain, my captain: If I was home the picture on this post would have been of my old Saku Koivu T-shirt. It's the first Habs shirt I ever owned, purchased right before the first hockey game I ever went to, and the screen printing is cracked and the cotton shrank to the point that my wearing it would just look funny, but there's no way I'd get rid of it. I'd have worn it if I was going to the game, despite my confusion at all the people this season who busted out their Kovalev jerseys for Sens games. Since he hasn't been replaced, I still kind of consider him my captain and I miss him a little.

I've got an Oscar party, which prevents me from going to the game (shame, because I've got a friend who I just found out recently moved to Orange County) but I wish I could be there.