Two years old!

I'm posting this a little late (as usual) but a couple of weeks ago, Hab It Her Way celebrated its second anniversary. Somehow, this little blog is two years old. How time has flown by.

To be honest, I'm a little freaked out that this little side project is half as old as the just-retired Four Habs Fans. (Good night, sweet princes. And LG77, whose arrival made Four Habs Fans even better than it was. I think I'll miss you most of all.)

Two years later and Czechtacular and I still have a soft spot for captain Saku Koivu. We're still flailing over Czechs and exclaiming at every brilliant save by a certain cowboy goalie.

But some things have changed. People have started reading the blog and asking our opinions on things. (Or, at least, pretending to.) I seem to know stuff about stuff. We've found ourselves a whole network of brilliant hockey girls who think like us and laugh with us. All the film nerds I know call me a big sports girl. (Because I'm big on sports, apparently.) They're all welcome changes - that is, until those same film nerds say "She loves hockey" in the same tone that I would say "She loves tofu," but always ask me if ever I have a spare ticket to a Habs game can they come?

Five years ago I would have never imagined being the blogger I am today: addicted to Twitter, watching loads of hockey, writing about it, owning two Habs jerseys, dating the epitome of a sports guy... But I enjoy all of this so much more, precisely because it was so unexpected. I'm happy that two of those years have been spent writing.

Thanks for reading! I hope the Canadiens have a great season so I'll have lots to write about.

The 2011 Mostly-Stars Game!

Uh, this is the roster? Really? Usually I really like the All-Star Game. This year, I'm not sure.

What's a Michael Grabner? And why is he one of many roster selections that left me asking that ageless question: "Who's DIS guy?"
Yup, just when I thought I had maybe learned a few things, the All-Star Game comes along and leaves me just as confused as ever.

WHO'S DIS GUY: Defencemen
I mean, by now I've figured out that Duncan Keith is probably not a singer. He won lots of things last year, so it makes sense that he'd be voted in to the ASG.

Brent Burns?

I thought I had watched a couple of Thrashers games this year, but I seriously have no idea where Tobias Enstrom came from. So far I have learned that his name is Tobias and he plays defence in Atlanta.

I've heard Erik Karlsson's name a bunch of times before, but this is the first time I find out he's actually good for something. (Also, I guess, because someone fell off their chair laughing when someone suggested Kovalev should be at the ASG this year.)

WHO'S DIS GUY: Forwards
David Backes was at the Olympics. Uh, clearly I know very little about St. Louis because I thought he played for the Devils.

Who's Patrik Elias? No, I'm serious. Is his name Czech for "everyone on my team is having a godawful season"?

Will I finally find out what Loui Eriksson actually does, other than be a hockey player in Dallas, and make me wonder whether people meant to talk about Jonathan Ericsson?

I think I've finally learned that Ales Hemsky is a person, not a font or a fine brandy. But... Ales Hemsky? Somehow I think that (for once) there are other Oilers who are generating more buzz than he is. Oh, look at that, they've been herded into the rookie ghetto. Okay, cool.

I know I'm supposed to care about Corey Perry, but if someone feels like making a sales pitch that's cool.

I KNOW DESE GUYS: Goalies
No selection here that really confuses me, which makes all the omissions even more frustrating.

WHO'S DIS GUY: Rookies
The good news about the rookies is that I probably get a pass if I don't know everything about them.

Which is good, because what's a Michael Grabner? Is Evgeny Dadonov real? Is Jeff Skinner old enough to be in the NHL? Because he looks about 9 years old.

Oh, and by the way, this year's All-Star jerseys look like this and we won't know who wears which one until the last minute:

Picture yoinked from Puck Daddy, who has yet to answer my eternal question: "Has there ever been a nice All-Star jersey?"

Mystery players who come out of the woodwork. Jerseys that could probably have been better-designed. Whatever. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that Carey Price earned his spot on the All-Star roster, right?

This one goes to #11

So. Scott Gomez has decided to wear number 11 on his jersey next season.
No use writing him strongly worded letters, or wondering if we can bribe someone at Reebok to keep making him #91 jerseys. Looks like it's a done deal. Signed, sealed, delivered, it's his.

In case you were wondering, no, Gomez didn't check with the fans first. He asked Pierre Gauthier about the number change, and in a rare moment of action, our GFM gave him the green light. Either Scotty (ever the wordsmith) spun a lovely phrase and talked his way into it, or Gauthier is really looking for anything to help him dig in his heels about re-signing Carey Price.

I keep thinking this might be a really lame attempt at a joke, or an April Fool's Day prank that's three months late. But it's not Gomez's style. One thing I really like about Scott Gomez is his comedy. He's too funny to do something like this as a joke, so unfortunately it looks like he's serious.

Scott Gomez never played with Saku Koivu. They're contemporaries, sure, and Gomez has been in the NHL for Koivu's entire tenure as Canadiens captain, but Montreal is the kind of hockey city that you have to spend time in to truly know. Gomez was never here at the same time as Koivu, not during his battle with cancer, not even during the messy last season. Koivu, as a captain, hasn't yet officially been replaced. As a player, he'll be even harder to substitute. His name was on the back of the first Canadiens shirt I bought for a reason. (Many reasons, actually.) Gomez taking number 11 a year after Koivu joined the Anaheim Ducks, trivializes the effect that the seasoned captain had on this city. Some fans won't take issue with this, because they don't see Koivu as a hero of the post-Roy era. Those are probably the same fans who chided Koivu because of his poor mastery of a third language, spoken by people in this city too stubborn to learn a second.

Koivu proved himself to be a patient leader. So far, Scott Gomez has proven himself to be a pretty nice guy and an 8 million dollar Gionta magnet. (A "Giontagnet," if you will.) What does it say about him, that his most impressive accomplishment was reeling in a teammate, without whom he is unspectacular? I'd be more okay with this if Gomez's hefty salary paid for the amazing power forward I'd been promised last July. But our highest-paid player was not our highest scorer. Anyone who wants to bring back Koivu's number had better be supernatural. This season, Gomez was only human. He wasn't really one of the players who tried to fill the sentimental hole left by my captain's departure. Don't get me wrong, he grew on me as the season progressed, but not to the point that I can easily be happy with this. Sorry.

Ace journalist Dave Stubbs broke the story and usually he can sell me on anything. However, in an interview regarding this change, Gomez doesn't sound as personable as he usually does:

" 'I've been disappointed that I haven't gotten to wear No. 11 in the NHL...' "
You know who else is disappointed? All the guys who never made it to a decade in the NHL. I've also heard he said that not wearing #11 was the worst thing in his life, but without sources, I'm going to hope it was a misquote, because he's either the most hyperbolic man alive or he's living a truly charmed life.


" 'I'm stuck with 23. Who wears 23?... I didn't know much about Bob [Gainey].' "
From what I've heard, they started handing out the Selke Trophy specifically so that Bob Gainey's talent could be recognized. But I haven't been playing hockey my whole life, so what do I know?
I hope Scott Gomez never told Gainey this story, unless he really wants to get called a throw-in in the Tom Pyatt trade, or any of the nicknames I came up with in rough drafts.

"He wanted No. 11 in Montreal last fall..."
Wow, to even admit to this is either very brave or very stupid. It would have been an even dumber and more disrespectful move to wear the 11 then, than it is to change his number now. I guess we believed Gomez a little too easily when he professed his love for Montreal like a regular Cyrano de Bergerac on skates.

or should this be a picture of Pinocchio?

I have no doubt that wearing the 11 will make Gomez very happy, and maybe that satisfaction will give him a sense of identity and make him feel more like the player that he is. (Or that he's paid to be.) I can only hope that we'll see the result of this on the ice. And, obviously, I can come up with some kooky ideas about all this number 11 business:

• Maybe he doesn't want to be one of those rare NHL bigshots with a high number. Of course, why would he want to take anything away from Crosby? (It goes without saying, though, that if Crosby got traded tomorrow, not a single Penguin would ask to wear #87.)
• Maybe, now that his biggest worry as an NHL player is taken care of, he can lighten our load and worry about his fans' problems, so that we can concentrate on our wardrobe issues too!
• Maybe he takes a pay cut to go with the lower jersey number. Eleven dollars a point? I'll start making my Stanley Cup party plans.
• Maybe Gomez should take Mike Komisarek's old number instead. 11 may remind him of his youth in Alaska, but 8 reminds us how much he costs.
• Maybe we all need to remember that the CH on the front of a jersey is more important than the number on the back, and the man wearing the jersey trumps both.

I hope Scott Gomez makes me eat my words.

So... what did I miss?

Lucky for me, there was no game yesterday, because I'm currently enduring a blogger's worst nightmare.

The wrath of angry Ryan Miller fans? No. (I played nice while I was in the States.)
Stuck in an elevator with Réjean Tremblay? Oh dear god no. Let's hope that's avoidable.
Someone stealing my content? Um... maybe a little.

If it's none of the above, then it's clearly a lack of internet.

So until my wireless fixes itself, I'll be updating from my desk at lunch (as long as I'm still here) and trekking to my basement to use my slow, virus-ridden, battle-scarred desktop.

Things I missed this week:

• A chance to watch my first full episode of Grey's Anatomy in over a year (what? I promised a friend I'd watch it with her, I swear), bumped by the two-hour midseason return of FlashForward. I haven't yet finished the first half of the season, so my apologies go out to whichever Fiennes brother is on that show. (I'm going to guess it's Joseph.)
• Some Paul Mara news! Seriously, the last time I saw his name anywhere was in LA, outside the offices of this Paul Marra. He needs shoulder surgery, which will happen on Tuesday, so at least now we know for sure that he'll be out until next season. If the rest of the team don't compensate for his absence with awesome playoff beards, I'll be very disappointed.
• Guy Carbonneau turned 50, and all the people who love the Habs this season and were bashing everything about last season recently changed their tune and now appreciate the good that came out of it.
• In case you also missed it, in the same vein is a great article by Brian Wilde about Bob Gainey's contribution as GM.
• On the "who's dis guy" front, the Habs signed free agent Hunter Bishop, who, apparently, exists. I didn't know teams were allowed to straight-up buy players after the trade deadline, but you learn something new every day. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to find out who this Hunter Bishop is, and whether he has a first name. Two-year contract, and he's is currently with the Bulldogs.
• I just realized that "Hunter Bishop" and "Hamilton Bulldogs" have the same initials. Someone, quick, turn #HBFTW into a Twitter trending topic!
• Conflicting reports about Mike Cammalleri's return, which will be soon but not immediately. Probably next week. Everyone seems to agree that he's close to form.

11 games left, busy stretch coming up for the Habs, and hopefully I'll have Internet sometime before the end of the season.

pretend there's a relevant photo of the Canadiens in this space, since I'm working with limited resources here.

+/-, week two: good guys finish last?

Hmm, okay so maybe we Canadiens fans didn't have the most spectacular week, but you take the good with the bad, right?

PLUS

+ No insane injuries this week. Wow, that's actually a plus? Is this really the kind of week it's been?

+ Gomez & Gionta taking over for what used to be called the Kovy's Kids loge. Jose Theodore and Alex Kovalev were total gentlemen for giving kids a chance to have a fun Bell Centre night when life wasn't so great for them, and I think it's a great move by two new guys to show that they're committed to not only the team, but the city. If I were a little kid given the opportunity to see a game at the loge, I'd be excited not only about the experience but that I was being given that chance by Brian Gionta.

+ For the second week in a row, Tomas Plekanec. Maybe this isn't the best streak he's had, but if some people's opinions were right and Pleks was our most problematic player, then, um, we wouldn't be on a losing streak. And also for this from the Canadiens homepage earlier this week, which is awesome in many ways:

+ The kids who opened up the Bell Centre ice before our home opener. I already mentioned the little goalie who tripped but tried not to show any potential embarrassment. (I'd have been mortified until I saw players falling on the ice during that same game.)

+ The Gazette for running an article on Chris Chelios' drive to play some games in the NHL this season. After reacquiring Mathieu Schneider for the end of last season, I figured we might as well leave the doors open to whatever veterans want to come back, and I think it's awesome that Chelios still has some fight left in him. (And to be honest, I wouldn't mind a little extra push on the blue line.)

+ I know which stamps are going on my Christmas cards this year! It's a shame I don't really know anyone in Toronto or Boston.

+ This Twitter update from Dave Stubbs, which is a tad meaner than he usually is but as brilliant as he always is: "#Habs team photo tomorrow. Smiles to be inserted with Photoshop?"

+ For the ticket sales on the 15th of every month, allowing us a do-over from a hideously unsuccessful ticket sales day in September. 

MINUS

- Special teams. Dear Scott Gomez: Since when is "power play" synonymous with "pass the puck to Spacek instead of shooting it"?

- I know this is usually what fans say when their teams lose, but biased reffing. We endured some pretty useless penalties and were deprived of at least a couple of well-deserved power plays.

- People whose loyalty to a player outshines their loyalty to their own team. Since WHEN do you cheer like that when your own team loses? Which, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see Kovy again and I'm glad that he still loves the city, so much so that he's a good sport even when asked to model a suit best described as Beetlejuice Chic...

- The team generally fading as the game progresses... two consecutive third periods that left me a little disappointed, to say the least.

- 2 Oh yeah, and more losses in games that I believe the team could feasibly have won. I almost made another minus for "no Tuesday game" until I realized that it probably wouldn't have gone down so well.

And, in not yet plus or minus news, we'd like to welcome Marc-Andre Bergeron to the city, as he's presumably ready after some victories in Hamilton, and I guess Shawn Belle can't be our guest anymore for a while.

Preseason jitters (yes, it's a long post)

Quite a few things are happening with our Habs in these final days leading up to the regular season, and it feels like fans need to train and psych themselves up just as much as the players. (That’s in part because we know winter’s coming. Get out your throwback jerseys and your snow tires, ladies and gents, the season’s changing.)

So here's a little overview of a few hot topics that have been peppering fans' and journalists' discussion of the team as the clock winds down to our season opener.

THE NEW GUYS. We’ve done a pretty good job of welcoming our newcomers so far, just as they’ve done more than their share of singing the city’s praises. (Seriously, Scott Gomez, any more singing and you’d be joining the cast of Glee.) It’s a good thing that Montrealers follow their hockey so intensely... can you imagine being a casual Habs fan and seeing a picture like this: 

We’re basically going into a season of Who’s Dis Guy?*

This season is going to prove whether or not we were all right: Should Bob Gainey have cleaned house as obsessive-compulsively as he did? Are guys like Gomez and Gionta a little too eager to play in front of the most intense city in the league, before they’ve even seen our dark side? Were we, the fans, right to turn our backs on the Habs who disappointed us? Everyone’s been jumping the gun and answering these questions lately, but personally I think we need to wait it out until we know for sure.

THE LINEUP. Today five more players were cut from Montreal and sent to play for the Bulldogs. Definitely a gain for Hamilton, and maybe not a huge shock to us. It was pretty obvious that a player like Curtis Sanford was signed to back up and support young up-and-coming players who could use an experienced, big-brother figure.

Cutting Sergei Kostitsyn was a bit of a shock to me, since I had assumed (or, at least, hoped) that he’d be back this season and rarin’ to go. That wasn’t entirely the case. Still, the cut was Jacques Martin’s call to make, and as fans all we can hope for is that the coach’s decisions are in the team’s best interests. Which reminds me...

THE COACH AND THE CAPTAIN. We’ve got an experienced coach, a man carefully chosen by team management out of a vast ocean of, um, available francophone coaches. I’ll be honest and admit that I didn’t exactly know much about Martin before he was hired, so I’m going into this season a little blind.

I don’t doubt that he knows what’s right for the team, and I tend to lean toward trusting coaches and team management more than the average armchair coach (if only because I’m aware that they’re standing behind the bench and I’m sitting on my couch with my cat). However, I’ve got to comment on this decision to appoint a team captain. Last time I checked, this was Canada and 2009. How about a little democracy? If you want a guy to lead this team, this half-new team recovering from a season of fail, why not ask the guys who are in that team? To me, an election seems like the most logical process, although I’m hoping that whatever method Martin is employing to make his decision will make sense.

As for the identity of this as-yet-unnamed captain? I’m not too sure about who I think it SHOULD be (maybe because, as I mentioned, the lineup changed too drastically, and we could maybe wait until the regular season starts), but as for who it WILL be, if I were a betting woman I’d put money on Scott Gomez. I don’t quite know why - chalk it up to female intuition, I guess.

In any case, we’ll find out by the time les boys are done with their retreat. Which reminds me...

THE PRESEASON RETREAT. None of the players seem to be pulling a diva fit or criticizing Teen Ranch in Ontario, so why is everyone else so scandalized? Some local anglo sports reporters in particular can't seem to say enough about it.

I don’t care where the retreat takes place, as long as the guys get to practice and rest and bond. Isn't that what matters? The only thing I’m worried about was a joke by canadiens.com writer Manny Almela implying that guys like Ryan O’Byrne might look like this if they sleep on bunk beds:

And I’m only worried about that for two reasons:

I know the importance of a good night’s sleep, and I hope O’Byrne, Gill and their teammates of all sizes have been getting their share of shut-eye

It’s a hilarious sight gag that I kind of wish I could see for myself

So, in these final hours, I hope that the team’s preseason enthusiasm doesn’t fade as fast as their idealism probably will.

*If you were wondering, ”Who’s Dis Guy” is a running joke between your bloggers, usually alluding to a player whose face you cannot recognize.

Photos used in this post are not our property. They belong to habsinsideout.com and Warner Brothers.