12 Things I Liked In 2012

In no particular order:

Carey Price at the All Star Game.

P.K. Subban being a celebrity off the ice: from his appearance on Strombo to his fundraising efforts to his new job as a SportsNet analyst. All of it.

NHL players making their yearly holiday visit to children's hospitals despite having no obligation to do so.

Saturday Night Live knowing both when and how to be serious: the children's choir singing Silent Night in honour of the victims of the shooting in Connecticut, the adorable send-off for Kristen Wiig, and the simple memorial for the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch after he died: just a clip from a past episode where they performed "Sure Shot," in which he calls out the hip-hop world on their disrespectful treatment of women.

The second season of Episodes, which could have been a disaster but was just as awkwardly funny as the first, and a welcome change from most other summer TV programming.

The time I met Jack McBrayer. (Not so much met, as saw him, walked past him, said "Hi welcome to Montreal I'm a huge fan" and he thanked me and walked away and I freaked out a little.)

The time I met Adam Baldwin. (I don't think I met any hockey players this year. Sadly.)

The fact that I got to see this Key & Peele sketch performed live, and now everyone knows how funny it is.

The Habs drafting Alex Galchenyuk, and then the 2012 NHL Draft ending promptly after that, and the Bruins didn't draft anyone. (For the sake of pageviews, I'll mention his name a few more times. Galchenyuk. Alex Galchenyuk, good Gally miss Molly.)

The opening scene of the Mindy Project's pilot episode. A bunch of people didn't like it, and then begrudgingly admitted in, like, DECEMBER that the show was getting better. Clearly they didn't see the same pilot I did. (Honourable mention to Ben & Kate, which did actually have an awful pilot episode, but won me over when I gave it a second chance.)

The AHL games at the Bell Centre that brought Ben Maxwell and J.T. Wyman back to town, and introduced me to my new silent enemy, Eddie Pasquale.

Knowing that I'd see hockey, even if there was a lockout, even if I was out of the country. Two of the first things I saw when I arrived in Italy in October: a guy wearing a Detroit Red Wings track suit, and a store whose windows were dressed with pictures of the Vancouver riot couple. I am not making this up. (One of the first things I heard was a Chuck Berry song on the loudspeakers at a train station. Italy is a weird and wonderful place.)

Oh, and a 13th for good luck: Basketball.

Wow, when I look at it this way, 2012 wasn't a complete bore. Then why am I so glad that this year finally moved its lazy ass out of my way?
Best wishes to all of my readers (all one of you) for a happy and, most importantly, healthy new year.

Lost Halloween Costume Ideas

Thanks a lot, NHL lockout. There are so many things I could have dressed up as this year, probably, if there had been NHL hockey right now:

A scalper - worn an ugly jacket and just stood outside my friend's party the whole night murmuring "Tickets... tickets... Need tickets?"

A California-based celebrity, pretending that I know what hockey is because the Kings won the Stanley Cup (or so my agent told me.)

Whatever a hockey player complained about on Twitter, other than the lockout. What would have been this season's Dan Ellis vs. money? Or this season's "This game is longer than Brad Marchand's nose"?

This season's new Big Bad! You know, if this whole thing about Matt Cooke being a good guy kept up, I'm sure someone would have stepped up to take his place.

I could have attempted to replicate, stitch for stitch, a recent P.K. Subban outfit.

But I didn't get to do any of those things. Like the Great Pumpkin, the NHL season just won't show up, no matter how long we wait for it or how much we believe. (Which probably isn't very much anymore.)


Instead, I might just dress up as Gary Bettman as The Wizard of Oz: You know, a guy who pretends to be scary and powerful, but is mostly just smoke and mirrors, spending his time hiding so that he can continue to intimidate people who would otherwise see right through him.

Happy 314 Day!

It's our annual celebration of our love for Pleks and Carey. Love you guys!
Not even Pleks could miss this day. He showed up to work late, but he still showed up, because it's a special occasion.

Plus/Minus: The most wonderful whine of the year

Hockey was kind of frustrating, and there was a holiday to celebrate, so this Plus/Minus is a little erratic. Then again, what isn't erratic about Habs Nation these days?

NICE

+ Jerome Simpson's flip (and perfect landing) is the coolest thing I've seen since... last week, I guess, when Al Montoya jumped over Petteri Nokelainen.
+ San Francisco 49er Braylon Edwards gave $10, 000 scholarships to 79 college students. That's about equal to the salary that he made this season. Amazing.
+ Basketball is back!
+ Scratching P.K. Subban, even though the team lost to Winnipeg, was a good call. The poor guy needed his rest, and will probably benefit from the perspective he got by watching the game instead of being on the ice for half of it.

+ I've been thinking for a while about how sports fans tend to let their love for a team supercede other things, and if being one of those people makes you a good fan. So Dave Stubbs tweeting "Life is what matters, Habs and hockey are just a game" really hit home with me. And the girl who attended this week's Green Bay Packers game holding a "My Cheating Ex-Boyfriend Is Watching From Couch Instead" sign just made me laugh.
+ Christmas is about so much more than children and toys, but if you'll allow me a brief "kids and toys" moment: The little girl in this video is so adorable, and so right. I may have liked pink princess toys when I was a kid, but I still know exactly how she feels.



NAUGHTY (and not in a cheeky way)

On Wednesdays we wear pink

- Le Journal de Montréal continues to be pulpy, prejudiced, and just downright stupid when it comes to talking about hockey these days. Oh, crap, did I just write that in English? Désolée, J de M.
- Why on earth would one of the NHL's most lucrative franchises need to start selling ad space on its practice jerseys?
- ESPN's In Memoriam montage didn't include any of the hockey players that passed away this year? The only consolation is that hockey fans mourned them, and will continue to remember them.
- I know that fans are upset with the Canadiens, but there should be a limit to just how angry we (as fans) get with our own players and team. I wish there was a way for everyone to be angry without being ridiculous.

- First of two 24/7-related Minuses: Peter Laviolette was really frickin' upset with a game official when the Flyers were in Montreal last week. That happens all the time - but accusing him of being biased toward the Canadiens, and stupidly calling it "typical Montreal"? Can someone explain that to me? Laviolette knows that every referee makes bad calls, and that every team thinks that the refs are biased against them? And that, as far as I know, the referees work for the league, not the city they're working in that night?
- Second 24/7-related Minus: Why doesn't Jaromir Jagr want to eat lunch with Ilya Bryzgalov? Are we in high school again?

- Every player in the NBA looks like he forgot to shave his lockout beard. Why are all these lockout beards the same weird shape? Am I behind on the latest facial hair trends? Don't answer that.

Here's hoping that this year's World Juniors are as exciting as ever, and that Habs fans are even more rested than the players after Christmas break.

Merry Christmas, everyone

Graphic from Pucks and Pixels

I hope you all get whatever makes you happy. Tell your families that you love them, and tell your hockey players that you won't give up on them.

Happy 314 Day!

Only a few hours left in it, but today was an unofficial holiday: March 14th, aka 3/14, is 314 Day, where Czechtacular and I celebrate two of our favourite Habs. (314 is the best "Brangelina"-type mashup name I can think of for Carey Price and Tomas Plekanec.)

Some people might argue that their bromance has been intercepted by teammates and triple low-fives, but let's all take this 314 Day to remember how great it is to see our Habs hug each other after they win.

Happy anniversary, Josh

Wow. Today marks the 4-year anniversary of the trade that brought Josh Gorges to the Montreal Canadiens. Four whole years. That's a long time. Am I supposed to know everything a grown-up hockey fan knows by now? Please say no.

Anyway, when Josh became a Hab I couldn't even be called "Rookie" yet. I was, at best, a draft prospect. I couldn't even have told you that the freshly traded Craig Rivet was assistant captain, or that that was what it means when there's an "A" on someone's jersey. I only found out after hearing all the complaints from people I knew that assistant captains shouldn't be traded away for no reason. While I may still think that the concept of trading hockey players is a little cruel and kind of barbaric, I didn't really get why all the frustrated fans, already missing Rivet, were already complaining about what the Canadiens got in return. All the "we don't even know who this guy is!" and comments of the like just seemed hurtful. Here was a guy that no one knew anything about, and they were already writing him off. Being the kind soul that I am (when it comes to Habs) I told everyone to give the new guy a chance, and I tried to lead by example. It worked out pretty well for me, I think.

He came to the team at about the same time as I did, so obviously I'm sort of attached to him. I told people not to hate on the new guy. I cheered when he (finally) scored his first goal as a Hab. I gasped when I saw him pick a fight with Dion Phaneuf. I was inconsolable when he took a puck to the head. I smiled when I saw media outlets and teammates saying he'd make a great captain for the greatest franchise in NHL history. And I really, really wish he wasn't missing most of this season.

Happy anniversary, Josh. Here's to four more years (or more, hopefully).

(Also a very happy anniversary to the Canadian Olympic women's hockey team. One year ago today, they won gold! I couldn't be prouder.)

No place like HIHW for the holidays

Some hockey-themed holiday reading, if you're not one of those people who gets into the Christmas spirit by listening to awful pop covers of Christmas standards. Or, heaven forbid, Christmas songs written by former Beatles:

Do you remember last year's HIHW Holiday Gift Guide? If you don't, here are Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

More on gifts: I broke down my most recent awful merchandise finds into Gifts I Don't Want and Gifts I Won't Give.

The Active Stick's Christmas list might just be better than my fake Christmas list. (More on that later.)

Habs Laughs has New Year's Resolutions for the Canadiens.

And, finally, I've got to admit that I just don't have what it takes to make a Puck Daddy-worthy Christmas card. So, I made, um, postcards.

This one's for Czechtacular.

You can send this one to the friend who loves HockeyFights.com more than oxygen

Habs haters might like to make a short joke out of this, but Gill and Gionta are my favourite sight gag and also I love them.

This is one of the only LA Kings pictures I have on my computer, I swear

This one is for your older sister. It's a proven fact that most big sisters love Christopher Higgins, no matter what team he plays for.

This one's for puckbunnies. (Even though I'm usually against them... it's Christmas.) It's also a reference to my Christmas list.

So... the fake Christmas list I've been alluding to? It started with my brother's promise that this year's Christmas present would be one for the ages. "You'll never guess," he keeps saying, "and you're going to freak out." I have no idea what it could be, so I wrote a list of the most improbable, but awesomest things I could think of. Here is that list.

Now go get ready for the holidays, spend your Christmas bonus on an outfit for your ugly sweater party, or bake some cookies or something!

Giving Thanks: Montreal Canadiens Edition

Right now everyone in Canada is tired and lazy thanks to a belly full of turkey, and maybe sitting in front of a football game. I don't have much time left to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.

So here's my Thanksgiving post. Hopefully it's better than the half-hearted "I'm thankful for... Twitter" I squeaked out yesterday, not long before perusing my Twitter feed in an attempt to avoid the anti-Glee dinner conversation. (It's a SATIRE!) After all, I am a hockey blogger in the biggest hockey city on Earth... so there are a couple of things to be thankful for.

I'm thankful for my team, obviously. The spectacular goaltending, the scrappy fighters, the incredible goals, and the wicked wins. I'm thankful that the five Canadiens on the cover of Elle Quebec don't look ridiculous despite the bizarre fashions they were dressed in. I'm thankful that our highest-paid players are going to earn every cent of their salaries this season. I'm thankful that we have an excess of talented prospects.

I'm thankful for everyone who reads and supports Hab It Her Way. I appreciate all the support and feedback that Czechtacular and I have had from the blogging community. It's always good to know that there are other female fans who know their stuff and are trying to kill the puckbunny stereotype.

Lastly, I'm thankful for the people who stress me out. I know it may sound strange, but if I didn't have villains and nemeses, there would be so much less to write about. I'm grateful that there are idiots out there who'll hate Carey Price no matter what, and people who think the world can't be a better place unless the NHL comes back to Quebec City. If I didn't have people to criticize, I would have so much less to write about. I'd have lower blood pressure, that's for sure, but the blog would be boring. So... it's a tradeoff, I guess.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope you all had lots of pie!

A whole year? Really?

A little over a year ago, we celebrated Czechtacular's birthday by rounding up a bunch of hockey girls and heading out for drinks. It was the same day that Canadiens tickets had gone on sale, and none of us (seriously. not a single one.) had managed to get tickets after an insane, endless wait in the virtual waiting room. We were so dejected we couldn't even talk about it. But, even before our drinks were ordered, she and I decided to finally start that hockey blog we'd joked about for a few months.

I had always said "I have no idea what I'm writing about."
She had always said "I'd never write."

Within a few weeks we'd decided on a name for the blog (yes, that took a few weeks) and figured out a couple of regular features and what we wanted our readers to know about us and our hockey obsession. My unofficial first post was written the day after we decided that Brian Gionta was even better than we were told he'd be, and we knew we were in for a great season of #21. A year later, GG is thisclose to captaincy, and we're writing for an ever-growing, responsive audience and still having a blast.

So thank you, everybody. I really appreciate your readership and support. I can't even put it into words without being really cheesy about it.

Go Habs Go!

Thanks for your comments!

Our Comments = Donations week has come to an end. I'm declaring the charity drive officially closed.

A big thank you goes out to those of you who commented... I was ready to donate even more money. If there's any excuse to go broke, it's to help people who need it. It's not like we can do much to support Ryan O'Byrne's family during this difficult time, but I wanted to make a small gesture and see how many people would help out (after all, our Habs do an awful lot for this city on the ice three nights a week). We even tried to write just a little bit more often to give you all more content to talk about, and obviously, having an eventful week was quite helpful.

You'll hear more about my actual donation soon. Thanks again!

And happy Mardi Gras now that it's officially Tuesday. Last year on Mardi Gras, I was at the Bell Centre, stuffing my face with soon-to-be-forbidden candy while watching Jaroslav Halak post a shutout against homeboy Roberto Luongo's Vancouver Canucks. It was a great night and I'm looking forward to eating something unhealthy and watching some hockey again. You should too! Go out, get your fill of delicious meat and beer and Canada-themed donuts while our Canadian men's hockey team tries to prove they're just as good as the ladies. Go Canada Go!

Andrei Markov and Yannick Weber will also see some action with their national teams.

Hockey Day In Canada: like Canada Day but colder

It's Hockey Day In Canada time again... all the Canadianness of Roll Up The Rim, plus all of the hockey you could hope for, stuffed into ten hours of Ron McLean. (It all sounds wonderful to me except maybe that last part.) It's much more kickass, and much briefer, than a Hockey Day In America would be.

So in honour of this great day, I'm going to try and make this post as Canadian as possible. What's in store for this, the national holiday that isn't Canada Day or Victoria Day or those other ones?

(Randomly selected Canadian-born player) Travis Moen and our Montreal Canadiens will start the day off playing against Mike Fisher and the Ottawa Senators. The Habs will win because because I'll be at work for half the game and I want them to come home and watch them win.

The primetime slot this year goes to Nolan Baumgartner* and the Vancouver Canucks, who unfortunately have to hang out with the Leafs and Luke Schenn. But hey, they'll get as much attention from CBC as they could ever possibly want!!

Late-night honours go to the Battle of Alberta, which I'm guessing will be the game with the most punching. If any is allowed during Hockey Day In Canada. Brandon Prust** and the Flames are going to engage in some punching with Taylor Chorney's Oilers.
Yes, if Stephen Harper shows up in a Flames jersey (or at all), you are allowed a tantrum.

But what to eat?

It's a long day, and you're going to get hungry, and maybe you'll get bored of all the little kids' teams they interview during the day, or maybe I'll need to leave the room if anyone brings up Crosby, who does not play in Canada (again, no Hockey Day In America). So here are some snack suggestions if you're not out someplace:

Only Canadian beer. You can have a Stella or a Heineken another day.

Maple baked beans, or other cabane a sucre treats. If you feel like curing a ham in beer and brown sugar, be my guest. No, literally. Some homemade ham sounds pretty delicious right now.

Actually, anything maple. Especially those extra-sweet gooey candies or anything you can put maple syrup on.

Tim Hortons. But that kind of goes without saying.

Poutine. Oh, the cheese... (Be warned, if you're ordering in, make sure it's not one of those places that gives you barbecue sauce instead of gravy.)

Snack cakes. You know you want the bad fats. I know Kate Moss thinks that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels, but all my pants are too big for me and I know what a Jos Louis tastes like.

Alberta beef, anyone? Raised by the best cowboys on earth!

Happy Hockey Day, everyone! (Especially those cowboys. I'm trying to get in good with them in the hopes of getting a free hat.)



* Seriously you guys, for all I know I took the metro with Nolan Baumgartner today and I'd have been completely oblivious. He's my randomly selected player because a few of the other guys seemed too obvious.


** You know I came thisclose to writing "Jarome Iginla" in giant letters right there. Instead I gave a Brandon Prust to ~czechtacular as a reward for blogging this week.

Goodbye 2009...

As the new year opens with an epic Winter Classic in one of my favourite sports venues between two of my most hated hockey teams, I'm getting ready to say goodbye to 2009, The Year That Hurt. Too many injuries and too much to stomach. Sure, this was also the year that we got hired for jobs in sports and media, and the year that we started this blog, and the year that we used our hockey knowledge to get ourselves on TV and radio, and then used the blog, TV, and radio to prove a point: that smart female hockey fans exist... but we and the team could probably benefit from the fresh start that everyone associates with a new year, so, goodbye, old year.

Goodbye, injuries that cost players a game, a week, a month, or half a season.
Goodbye, nasty newspaper rumours.
Goodbye, stupid trade rumours.
Goodbye, everyone else complaining about the centennial logos. (One of them really isn't so bad!)

Goodbye, hardworking homeboy who's spending his New Year's Day outdoors, behind enemy lines.
Goodbye, guy who played like one game as a Hab who I don't even know anything about.
Goodbye, guy who played like six games as a Hab but wasn't really needed enough for more than that.
Goodbye, New York's biggest Habs fan.
Goodbye, defenceman who could have been captain someday.
Goodbye, star forward who could bring the city to its feet with a single flick of his wrist.
Goodbye, veteran d-man. Some team will be lucky to have you for the second half of the season.
Goodbye, Bulldogs who got put on waivers, even though no one's snatched you up yet.
Goodbye, energetic francophone forward. Thanks for the assists.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Goodbye, veteran Czech with a surprisingly great head of hair.
Goodbye, former fan favourite.
Goodbye, forward/d-man/forward/d-man and back and forth again.
Goodbye, TKO.
Goodbye, Breezer. Happy trails... or racetracks.
Goodbye, little defenceman that could.

Goodbye, captain. We never gave up on you.

Happy 2010.

The Game That Wasted A Perfectly Good Sign

Picture quality nonwithstanding.

Tonight's game, much like the last five, have given me no reason to wish for anything but starting the entire team from scratch and/or hiring hitmen to discreetly take out as many opposing players as possible to make a team forfeit because they're wondering "how did we suddenly lose so many players?" Actually, one hint may be this weather, but according to all reports (at least 21, 271 of them--yes, the two seats next to me were actually empty) no members of the Minnesota Wild perished from frostbite. Shame.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have at last erupted from my academic coma. It is not to announce great things, however. The Habs have lost their last five in a row and tonight was just one of those examples where everything went wrong, and no one was good enough no matter how desperately they pushed at the net (or from it). The recluse of the penalty box was not as prominent an option to avoid the pinball-puck waiting for every man wearing a CH this time around, but boy was it noticeable that Hamrlik wasn't there. So few powerplays leave the frightening reality that goes by the name of Marc-Andre Bergeron. Not that I can pin the blame entirely on him (as much as I'd enjoy that). The Habs never typically do well around this time of year, and as much as this year would love to be different, it hasn't. (And all I can hope for in my temporary long distance from my mini-calendar is that we don't have the fateful December 23rd game this year. Please tell me we don't. Please. I can see the RDS montages now.)

The only thing that warranted any laughs were the Annie Villeneuve-chants. He's no Sidney Crosby or Mike Komisarek to the Bell Centre crowd, but there's definitely no shortage of ways to pick on LaTender.


Either the best or worst thing happens now. A ridiculously long roadtrip. The maybe not-so-good thing is the "inferior" (for now) teams the Habs will face along the way. They tend to save their best for Ovechkin, or centennial games that I miss because I'm at a game of my own, or something. But here's hoping the CHristmas cheer will extend far enough to break out of this slump. Spike the eggnog, ring the bells, tear the wrapping paper, find some W's, and climb those standings, boys! It's my new CHristmas wish. One I'd like to share with all Habs' fans.

HIHW Holiday Gift Guide: Will you make it on your own?

Hanukkah has started, and Christmas is coming up fast (as is Festivus, you Seinfeld fans) and we hope that our gift suggestions in the first and second parts of our Holiday Gift Guide have at least given you some new ideas. But we also know what it's like to shop for your loved ones during the holidays. It's time-consuming, it's stressful, and it can get pretty expensive. It's enough to make anyone wish they were six years old again so that they can make paper snowflakes for their loved ones instead of buying gifts.

We get it. Maybe you're better at arts and crafts than you are at waiting and shoving, or maybe you're a bit pressed for cash or you have lots of people to buy gifts for. We're big on the homemade gifts, as long as they're made with love. And at the end of the day, you love your fellow Habs fans, right? Even if you don't have millions to spend on them?

This idea came about because of Paul Mara's ginger beard, the awesomest beard in the NHL. If you're wondering why I drew extra icing on his arm... it's my weak attempt at drawing a sling on a cookie.

Glen Met looked like he'd make a great gingerbread cookie.

Part III: Let's get crafty, like #14 near a goalpost
... Scott Gomez gifts on a Matt D'Agostini budget

Cookies! Making the above Photoshop (of questionable quality) inspired me to make special Habs cookies if I get the chance. Put jersey numbers on your gingerbread men! (If you're feeling really artistic, give them home, away, and vintage jerseys.) Make chocolate chip cookies, using red and blue M&Ms or Hershey's Kissables!


Cheap frames and shadowboxes are available at dollar stores and Winners. (You can also check at craft stores but their prices are usually a bit higher.) Make a one-of-a-kind memorabilia frame! You can use anything:

• Postcards or hockey cards
• T-shirts and flags
• Press clippings
• Game tickets
• Photographs (if you don't have a superfancy photo printer, take a photo file to a print shop or a photo printing kiosk at the pharmacy or wherever - I'm pretty sure that it's illegal or frowned upon to print a photo that you didn't take, but you can take a chance)

Buy a piggy-bank painting set (I saw them at the dollar store!) and customize it for your giftee. Some ideas: "Bell Centre Beer Fund!" "Season Ticket Fund!" "[Insert player name here] Fund!" (Ovie doesn't come free, you know) "Blue Retro Jersey Fund!"

Burn a CD for your giftee! Use their favourite player's "My Playlist" if the giftee hasn't already got all the songs on a playlist of their own, or make them a Bell Centre playlist (Vertigo, Seven Nation Army, Blitzkrieg Bop, that Coldplay song, and whatever else you hear pretty often during games).

Did you ever make those little reindeer by attaching pipe-cleaners and googly eyes to a candy cane? The Bell Centre Habs Zone has Canadiens-themed candy canes. Just thought you might want to know.

Make Christmas tree ornaments out of... anything. keychains, mini-sticks, those tiny t-shirt things for car windows... Use your imagination.

Go crazy at a print shop! Make a customized shopping bag, pillow case, or mouse pad.

For the really crafty: you can buy sticker paper and print hilarious hockey stickers. Some of the best types of special printing paper (like iron-on transfers and all kinds of stickers) come from a brand called Avery, which probably reminds Scott Gomez of his dark days in a blue jersey. Blech. But still, kids of all ages love stickers, right? One sticker that you can make in multiples and give to all the Habs fans you know: a white letter C. We don't know who the next captain is going to be, but whenever he gets the job, there will be T-shirts that need altering. A "C" sticker will be a good temporary fix until you feel like busting out the fabric paint.

Take it a step further and use these stickers in some kind of customized gift, like a calendar or something! Find a cheap datebook or calendar and stick pictures of current and former Habs on the dates of their birthdays. One piece of advice, though: do your homework and make sure that all the pictures you stick in after July are of guys that will definitely still be Habs at the end of the summer. I had a pocket calendar for this year (an official one, not a wicked sweet homemade one) and most of the pictures in it are depressing now: Komisarek in October, Bégin on the cover... you get the idea.

Do you have wicked good Photoshop skills? Or at least, better than mine? Put your loved ones on the ice with the Canadiens... who wouldn't want to pretend they were there to hug Mike Cammalleri after one of his multiple hat tricks this season?

Use our ideas or your imagination, and we're sure that you'll make something great.

Merry CHristmas!
And Happy Hanukkah!
I know I'm not original at all by embedding this of all videos, but it's the best:

HIHW Holiday Gift Guide: more ideas!

I hope you read enjoyed Part I of our Holiday Gift Guide, in which two female twentysomethings attempt to become personal shoppers for an entire legion of hockey fans. (Our parents always told us to aim high.) We already covered official Habs merchandise, but there's more to give, isn't there? We've got you covered.

Please accept this somewhat cheesy graphic in lieu of what I would have liked to Photoshop... maybe something like your favourite Habs dressed up as elves. Sorry.

Part II: The Scoring Bonuses
... stuff that isn't officially Habs-related, but will still tickle most fans


Brownish-yellow gloves. I can never seem to find the right pair of winter gloves, because they're too warm or not warm enough. Plus, if you've got a couple of different coats like I do, you need gloves that can match anything. If there's anything I've learned from the Habs on old-school jersey nights it's that dark yellow gloves apparently match everything!

Tickets to a U2 concert in July. In my opinion, U2 is the unofficial band of the Montreal Canadiens (the Bell Centre brought back "Vertigo" for a reason) and a chance to see them outdoors in such a huge venue just can't be passed up. You'll have to try your luck with eBay or scalpers, unfortunately, since the shows sold out so quickly.

A country-western style shirt or belt for the Price, Moen, or Gionta fan in your life. Yes, admit it, our team is slowly becoming Club de hockey Cowboy de Montreal. It could be worse - at least it's not Club de hockey Cheesy Overproduced Euro Dance-Pop de Montreal! Then we'd all be wearing metallic bodysuits to games. Ew.

Hamilton Bulldogs merch, these days, is pretty much the same as buying Habs merch anyway, and they've added a few items to their store since last season so it's worth looking at if you haven't recently. A few standouts: women's zip-up hoodie (please, Santa Claus? I've been extra nice this year!), the women's long-sleeve shirt (it's less busy than the kids' T-shirt I have), and the rally scarf.
 I should have bought last year's cards and book, but I didn't and now I regret it. That's what cousins in Hamilton get bribed to do, I guess.

Be nice! Make a donation to the Canadiens Children's Fund or to a charity that one of the players supports.

Speaking of charity, Alex Kovalev's got a second training DVD. The first one was a very hot holiday gift - most stores couldn't keep them on the shelves for more than a few hours. The second one's probably just as good, and just as watchable, and since some proceeds from the first one were donated to research into children's diseases, I can only hope that it's the same the second time around. Win-win-win.

Olympic merchandise! I'm crossing my fingers that a certain Mr. Yzerman was paying attention to the newly improved wicked good Carey Price during that Capitals game, so we can cheer for a Canadien on Team Canada. Otherwise... um, what's the Czech equivalent of the Hudson's Bay Company?

NHL 2K10 - you know, the video game with Ovechkin on the cover. We're endorsing this one over EA Sports' NHL 10 with its coverboy Patrick Kane. 2K9 probably costs about 20 cents less.

Shameless self-promotion.  I have another side project: I design and make jewelry, and at ~czechtacular's urging, I'm using the blog to promote one of my favourite creations: the Canadiens bracelet.

It's the official jewelry of Hab It Her Way! Made with Swarovski crystals in the shades closest to the real bleu-blanc-rouge (well, technically, it's bleu-clear-rouge), it's both sparkly and simple and goes well with almost any outfit. I hate to toot my own horn, but I've been wearing mine for almost two years and it still looks great (especially when high-fiving people after awesome goals at the Bell Centre). I get a lot of compliments on it, too! Contact me if you'd like to buy one and we can work things out (my Etsy store is still being set up, so for now I'm kicking it old-school and doing all my sales person-to-person). As you can see in the above photo, you have your choice of a primarily white, red, or blue bracelet, and I can make simple earrings to match!

Stay tuned for more holiday goodies, and don't forget to gift-wrap!

Introducing the HIHW Holiday Gift Guide!

When we were little girls, we'd write letters to Santa (postal code HOH OHO) and tell him what we wanted for Christmas. Then we were told some horrible, terrible news about the man in red, and Christmas (in a commercial sense) was ruined forever. So now we just spend our Decembers shopping and wishing evils upon other December shoppers who walk slower than us or forget to take out their wallets when they approach a cash register. Ever since we entered our twenties, one of our biggest holiday responsibilities is not only to find gifts for those we love, but also to help those we love find gifts for others. So, in keeping with that idea, as well as the awesome gift guides I've seen for pop culture junkies, Hab It Her Way will try to help you find the best gifts for your favourite hockey fans this holiday season.

Dear readers: If you can come up with a better name than "Gainey Claus," I want to hear it. All suggestions welcome. This year, we're asking Gainey Claus to re-up Tomas Plekanec's contract early.

Part I: The Merch
... because there's a sea of Habs merchandise out there, but December is not the month to be buying a CH bathing suit unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere.


After an inexplicably long wait, the NHL online shop has FINALLY made it possible to customize a selection of clothing items, thus saving us the extra effort of playing around on Photoshop and getting ourselves to Bang-On to print our own shirts.

Get creative! Sure, you can write in your own name, or you can get original. Make a shirt with your favourite player's nickname on it. ("Roster players are currently unavailable," according to the website, so you can't use their actual names.)

Engage in some wishful thinking, because players on other teams' rosters seem to be acceptable.

I stole this idea from a guy at the Bell Centre who was thinking about different ways to customize his Komisarek jersey.

Or support a favourite prospect, if he's not a Hab already.

PK, we love you, and we hope that we'll be wearing this shirt with our fingers crossed for a long time. Don't come to Montreal until you're good and ready to win the Calder Trophy like we know you can.

Throwback jerseys. It goes without saying that a retro jersey makes a great gift. Knit hockey sweaters that look like the jerseys are equally available (but not in women's sizes, of course).

We at Hab It Her Way recommend the teal blue jerseys, even though we lost to the Red Wings while wearing them. They're a great colour, a great way to (almost) wear a piece of hockey history and we really, really like them. The women's jerseys are a steal at $89. (Can't forget those in this year's letter to Santa... what? who said that?)
Alternate: The red and green ones look like Christmas, so if you're giving the gift early it's the perfect sweater for a Christmas morning of opening presents.

Very soft and cuddly Habs blankets are available at both Jean Coutu and Wal-Mart.

Want to keep your favourite lady fan warm? I'd wear this sweatshirt on sick days, or out shopping, or to games, or on chilly summer nights. I'm not much of a sweatshirt wearer but I'd wear this one out.

If it weren't just a tad more expensive than I like paying for cheap purses, I'd own the jersey purse already. I've had my eye on it for over a year now. (If you're lucky, you might find one for $30 on eBay, otherwise it's to the NHL online shop or Hockey Experts we go!)

Are you shopping for an amateur skier, hockey player, skateboarder, snowboarder, or roller derby wannabe? Helmets just became cool.

A bar stool for 20 dollars? Awesome. Throw in some beer glasses and folding side tables (at pharmacies and WalMarts and stuff) and your basement is good for game time.


Hockey Fights Cancer stuff is still available, and you probably know someone who can use a snazzy new tie. (Scarves, shirts, and Dream Capsule Kits are also up for sale, but I like the tie best.)

Tons of player shirts are available, so if you're really hard-pressed to find a gift, just go for a past or current Habs hero.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Mortensen.

I think I also remember recently seeing the Patrick Roy goalie mask T-shirt that was introduced around the time his jersey was retired. Apparently there are other legendary goaltenders (like Ken Dryden!) that got the same T-shirt treatment. There's space in everyone's drawer for another Habs T-shirt, right? Which reminds me...

If there's a Sergei Kostitsyn fan on your list, they're lucky, because his shirt is on sale. Unpredictable behaviour? Bad for his career, good for your wallet.

Come back another time to read the rest of our Holiday Guide, and keep an eye on the NHL Online Shop for their daily deals.

Merry CHristmas!