There's no room for nice

Yes, your resident Czech-loving blogger is alive, but probably not for long.

Two days ago I mistakenly believed I had walked into an ideal win/win situation. My friend the Sens' fan and I have yearly trips to Scotiabank Place and in his entire history even before this he has failed to witness a win by his team. After I bought last year's tickets online I started getting promotions in my inbox, and usually disregarded them except for the one that I couldn't refuse, much less ignore.

Guilty pleasure for me, last place team for him. Topped off by wallet-friendly promo codes because I'm such a special customer and all. Sounds perfect, y/y?

(The other "anticipated match-up" was against the San Jose Sharks, but fortunately for Dany Heatley's ears, Thursdays didn't work for either of us.)

My purchase looked better over the weekend as the Oilers had lost all but three in November and fell by a score of 4-3 to those same Sharks on Saturday night. Despite their shortfalls, however, Edmonton takes everything minute-by-minute and know very well what's expected of them, which they do try to surpass game in and game out.

Monday was an example of that. The Sens got on the board first, much to the delight of my friend, but after failed Ottawa powerplay opportunities and a lot of back-and-forth including breakaway stoppages on both ends, Tom Gilbert (of all people) tied the game with the man advantage late in the second period, and Andrew Cogliano and Gilbert Brule teamed up in the third to give Edmonton a 3-1 lead, topped off by Taylor Hall's first NHL empty-netter with 1:55 to go.

I was treated to death metal on the two-hour ride back home, so you can guess what kind of mood my friend was in.

Dear Habs: don't make the same mistake as me. Don't sit back and be nice, because the Oilers can and will walk all over you if you're not looking. Take advantage of any and all opportunities that present themselves, because you can very well end up on the wrong side of the coin, just like the Sens did. It's all too easy to look at where you are in the standings, but it's even easier to play like the opposite of what they state in print. (see: Florida Panthers.)

Boxers
(I'm uncomfortable with briefs)
The last two tête-a-têtes between the two teams have been decided by one goal. Both teams are coming off wins. Goalies have been red-hot for both teams, which is significant for the Oilers who traveled to Montreal with three.

The Who

Brian Gionta may be Captain Mini but his presence in the win over Buffalo was huge. Rookies Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle are both up on the leaderboard in rookie scoring, the former with 5 points in his last 6 games. Ales Hemsky is back in the lineup tonight after being out with one of those nagging LBI's.

I'll be at this one too. Pray I'm not some Oilers' good luck charm or something.

What I did on my blogging vacation

...Well, I didn't get a truckload of hours at work like I would have liked. Oh well. I took a little bit of time off because I needed a little break from blogging, and recharge, so to speak. I didn't think it would be so lonely.

It would have been stupid to take a week or two off from the blog during the playoffs, so I waited until there were no more Habs of which to speak. Suddenly everything was very quiet. I even started to miss the scalpers on Avenue-des-Canadiens... yes, the scalpers. That's how bad it got. Heck, I even joined Twitter when I was supposed to be on a break - that, kids, is what we call "taking a page out of the Mike Cammalleri playbook."

I pretty much jumped at the first chances I got to do anything Habs-related: I stared in awe at game-used sticks and equipment at the end-of-season Habs Zone sale. I picked up some merch for myself. I laughed at the teenager and his mom who stared at skates, bewildered: "How are you supposed to know which ones are your size?" I combed my house for exact change for the South Shore buses on the first two days of development camp.

By the way, how does a development camp differ from a scouting combine?

So I hopped on the 90 bus, for the first time since last July, when I spent most of my bus ride on the phone, getting hired for my first real grownup job (which, despite the economy, I fortunately still have and love). But that's a story for another day.

It's a pretty nice bus ride, compared to the loud, hot, smelly, jerky STM buses

You'd think it had been months since there was live hockey in Montreal. ~czechtacular and I dressed for the occasion, chose our seats, and settled in, preparing for an afternoon with no cell reception or WiFi.

Best seats in the house

Considering that my knowledge of each of these prospects is somewhat limited, I spent most of my afternoons watching the drills as a form of hockey catharsis, having snacks, and snapping endless pictures of Kirk Muller. I don't know why.

ok, maybe I do know why. Who doesn't love Kirk?

We even had a Guy Boucher sighting despite reports that he'd miss camp on Tuesday due to "family matters." And by now, we've figured out that these family matters were in Ohio and that Rick Nash was probably Steve Urkel.

Boucher, pictured here with a pink-shirted Jacques Martin and an unidentified bald man

Kids, there's nothing like spending a hot summer day inside a cold arena and finding every opportunity to make a pun on "Hunter Bishop." And, to be honest, Tanner House too. You very narrowly escaped seeing a picture of House captioned "It's not lupus." (But maybe sometime in the future.)

It's good to be back.

HABS WIN!

I watched the whole game. I watched the postgame interviews. I watched the recaps and the fans flooding the streets to celebrate (and let me tell you that I've never seen that many people, ever, on Ste. Catherine and Crescent, not even during Grand Prix weekend... so racecar drivers can now know for sure that they take a backseat to hockey in this town). The Canadiens have won another Game 7, this time against the Pittsburgh Penguins and their captain, the other best player in the NHL. (Or so they say.)

And they won. I'm having trouble believing that this is actually true. Yes, me, one of the most positive Habs fans on the planet.

The Canadiens will play the first game of the Eastern Conference Final (!!!!) on Sunday. Get ready to hear from us a lot from now until then... It might take me a while to actually believe this is happening.

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.

Plus/Minus: A new century

There was no Gordie Howe or Viggo Mortensen this week. There wasn't even a hat trick this week, although AK46 came close enough last night. What was there to talk about, then? Plenty, with four games in six days and more of the same this week. Oh, and a family Christmas party at the Bell Centre!


PLUS

+ Somehow, we haven't yet mentioned how great Max Pacioretty has been in the last few games. I know, we're idiots for it. Please accept this Plus as our apology.
+ 3 The Kostitsyn brothers and Marc-André Bergeron have also been playing very well on their respective lines.
+ This week's injuries didn't seem to be as serious as we feared they'd be.
+ I guess heartburn is cool now, because I learned this week that Ken Dryden used to have terrible indigestion. I wonder if I can get the recipe for Dryden's magic green goo.
+ PJ Stock gently ribbed his co-panelists on L'Antichambre this week, and it was probably the best thing RDS has given me in a very long time.
+ We're assuming that Benoit Pouliot will be ready for the CH pretty soon.
+ Andrei Markov skated for almost an hour a few days ago. Some people are expecting him to come back as soon as this week, and as much as I miss him, I don't care when he comes back, as long as he's 100% ready to go. The mere thought of Andrei Markov getting better is enough for me.
+ More love for Cammy and Pleks: it was another very good week for team points leaders Tomas Plekanec and Mike Cammalleri, who we want to see on Team Canada.


MINUS

- Dave Stubbs, Dane Cook fan? Say it ain't so.
- The return of Carey Price's Mask of the Red Death. I don't hate it, but I liked the Centennial one. And the Remembrance Day one. And maybe the horsie one.
- Not so good with the Hamilton callups this week, eh, Bob?
- Didn't we already give this a minus? Alain Crete wore his fug brown-ish suit jacket again on Saturday. Do we need to find the stylists at RDS and personally ask them to stop assaulting our eyes?
- I know that there's no easy solution to our two-goalie situation, but if Halak gets traded, I'll miss him (to say the least). My views on the potential trade aside, I think that whoever leaked this story is a moron. Things didn't go so well last season after everyone heard that a few players were apparently being shopped around as part of trade packages. Morale dropped and fans' gums started flapping. Jaro deserves better.
- Chris Nilan admits he's had substance abuse problems but, like the fighter he's always been, is taking them on and has been sober for a few months now. We wish him all the best.


And outside of hockey... (Musical TV Edition!)
+ A delightful 13th episode of Fox's Glee, with enough great songs to tide me over until the show comes back in April.
- Flight of the Conchords announced that their HBO series will not have a third season and, thus, is over. At least the band will live on in real life.