Montreal Canadiens vs. Florida Panthers

Musings and In-Game Scribbles

My English is as good as yours, I just write these in a stream-of-consciousness mode that I insist excuses me from small things like rules of grammar or general etiquette. Let’s call it conversational English, hopped up on beans. You know what kind of beans (no, Carl Mellesmoen, not the magic ones).

Montreal Canadiens (36-30-8) host Florida Panthers (30-31-11)

Thursday, March 25, 2010
Game Seventy-Five (score posted following scribbles)

Missed it? Musings capture the game in writing. Based on the RDS telecast, Musings take about 20 minutes to read. More detailed than an article, fresher than a looping highlight and good with morning coffee.

Tomas Vokoun and Jaroslav Halak are the goalies tonight.

First Period

Stephane Auger and Buddy (whatever) Devorski are the referees tonight. Plekanec spits on the ice prior to the faceoff which he loses.

Panthers begin a rush from their blue line and are unable to corral the puck for a possession. Some mid-ice dithering and the Canadiens are defending again.

Lines change.

Panthers retrieve in the corner to Halak’s left. Michael Frolik. Turnover.

Moen line is on. He is wearing a visor. (He took a skate to the forehead last game; very close to his eye)

Hal Gill and Josh Gorges are the defence pairing. Fleet Tom Pyatt is on offence. They chase. Yeah, he’s that fast. He gets a Skip Walker word.

Halak stops the puck behind his net.

Crowd is murmuring and the echoes remind me of a curling bonspiel.

Breakout pass is intercepted by Panther David Booth. Steven Reinprecht’s subsequent pass is intercepted and the Canadiens are able to dump it down for another line change.

Scott Gomez line.

Florida’s Bryan Allen intercepts. Up for Nathan Horton. Moves around Montreal’s Markov. To the front of the net. Forces Halak into a spread. Halak survives. Horton was unable to raise the puck.

Faceoff results in more turnovers and then a slot chance by Florida.

Panther defenceman Jason Garrison retrieves and passes to Keith Ballard. No possession results.

Josh Gorges has it at home. To Gill.  Up. Moen. To Dominic Moore. Shot from close but covered. Stopped. Faceoff.

Habs win it. First successful point pass. Shot can’t be taken.

Matinee Max Lapierre is back in the lineup and applies a hit under his end line. What good are hits that don’t result in turnovers? What good are hits that occur after the puck has left your team’s control?

Hits. Bah.

Gomez is in. From Gionta. Drops it for Benoit Pouliot.

No shot results. Canadiens trip. Florida will go to the man-advantage.

Faceoff to Halak’s left. Won by Florida. Three perimeter passes and then a force-out. No shots.

Panthers are prevented from advancing on the left by Moore.

Twelve seconds and the Panthers are still looking for an opening to get into Montreal ice.

Florida defenceman Bryan McCabe retrieves it behind his net. Moves it up. Puck is sent in but Halak is able to trap it for a faceoff.

Capital satire; McCabe is wearing the letter “C”. What might that stand for, I wonder.

Faceoff to Halak’s left is lost by Moore.

Shot by Weiss from the point. Wide.

Clear by Montreal. Pouliot is back on the ice and the penalty is over.

Moore circles back, Cross-cutting with purpose. Rises out of the zone. Turns again. Now Cammalleri has it.

Missed pass in the Florida zone leads to a retrieval by Hamrlik.

Canadiens re-enter. Plekanec on the right side. Shoots wide.

Florida forward Michael Frolik has it on the right side. Sends the puck to the high slot. Halak falls and gets up slowly; old man escaping a deep couch.

Florida controls down low. Bitz surveyed by Gorges. Gorges comes up with it after three seconds.

To the other end. No possession results. Panthers pass it back and another whistle goes to stop play.

Colour man Benoit Brunet and play-by-play dean Pierre Houde comment on some Moore stats that indicate that he has been a late-season acquisition, a hired gun, for other teams, too.

I’ll take Gilmour, thanks.

Just under nine minutes in the period.

Canadiens are stopped twice from leaving their zone. They maintain possession and a third attempt results in a long turnover which McCabe retrieves behind his net.

Cretin?

Horton picks up a puck on the boards under the Montreal blue. Scraps along but loses the puck.

Pouliot has it in the neutral zone. Drops it back. The enter from the other side.

Pouliot picks it up crossing the slot. Backhander high. It’s in. Over Vokoun’s left arm.

Florida didn’t defend it well. Three Flow Cats within six square feet.

Montreal 1, Florida 0

Moen, Moore and Sergei Kostitsyn follow.

They are ahead of the play now. Better enthusiasm. Board control on Florida ice. Gorges moves up to keep it going. Lasts about seven seconds.

Finally Florida moves it out.

Kreps works the low boards and back boards for about four seconds. Canadiens clear it.

Florida entry is stopped.

Gomez advances.

Three on near-three. Gomez shoots while covered. Gets his stick on the rebound. Puck is hidden. Stoppage soon afterward.

Clod?

Commercial(?)

Crony?

Faceoff to Halak’s left. We missed something. Or the application of some vague vogue rule leaves me bumbled.

Kostitsyn Senior enters leaning to his right, straight up and has the puck taken off his stick.

Montreal ice(s).

Behind the net. Gorges holds forward Shawn Matthias oh so briefly. Now he stands guard to the right of Halak as the puck is moved up and out along the right boards.

Markov gets a long shot from inside the blue line. Disc is wide and they’re back in the neutral zone.

Next entry results in a goal. Gionta. Right side. Quick slapper from the side boards. Five hole. Vokoun should have had it. Brunet says it’s a gift from Florida defender Dvorak and a gift from Vokoun.

Montreal 2, Florida 0

Just under three minutes in the period.

Pouliot line stays on as a reward. They leave the ice about thirty seconds later.

Long puck gets past Gill and Halak comes up to play it; prevents a Florida forward from seizing it.

Moen has it in his left corner. Waits too long and nearly causes a turnover.

Moore line. Moore enters. Shot. Deflected.

Puck stays in.

One gets the sense that Moore will work as hard as he can as it’s his ticket to continue his NHL tour and get the hole outta Rodge. Bell outta Bodge.

Uh, to leave Montreal.

Vokoun is shot on. Doesn’t know where it is. Whistle.

Faceoff to his right. Puck is exited. Canadiens resume. Plekanec line.

Loft lob from Cammalleri from inside the blue line. Vokoun freezes. Houde chuckles.

Lines change. Gomez.

Loses the draw.

Puck is carried around the Florida net and sent up to the neutral zone.

Florida bozer and defenceman Keith Ballard is trying to start something with Pouliot. Neutral zone.

The rest are down in the corner to Halak’s left.

Ballard is of low character. Slams Pouliot in the face prior, two gloves, as we see on the replay. Who says that anti-Franco bias is dead? Who dares deny it. Watch and see mes amis. Watch and see. I recommend Excel spreadsheets for tracking purposes.

Montreal leads on shots 10-6.

Florida isn’t snarling. And Bitz doesn’t deserve Jokinen’s old number.

First Intermission
Montreal 2, Florida 0

A La Une.

Discussion is on the board hits. The NHL’s latest sip of the liquid lunacy they hope will go away. Big carafes. And the league refuses to remove them.

There was a communiqué from the NHL today and Francois holds it up and says that Toews said that it was his own fault as he should have had his head up. Francois says that the NHL’s statement included a phrase saying that the history of the league is important and that it is a contact game.

So let’s keep the dining car bum-patting pale-blot coots happy. Guffaws from the caboose. Fetch me another pint. India Pale. India.  Because we’re the colonialists here.

I’m sure many slave-owners thought that history and past precedent were important, too. Logic of the blunderbuss. National Homogenous League. Keep it bland, keep it quo.

Every secret isn’t safe. Some pints are crimson.

Gagnon continues and says a few more smart things. He should have been a poet.

If the leagues were super-villains, the NFL would be Doctor Doom, the NBA would be Lex Luthor, MLB would be the Rhino and the NHL would be Solomon Grundy.

National Holding League. We’re in a holding pattern. Don’t hold us to progress. Nationalista.

Oh, the CFL? Probably Kraven the Hunter.

Demers and Bouchard have their orange papers again. Crete’s papers are white.

Joel tells the truth; Florida has nothing left to play for as a team and the motivation will be individual agenda and love of the game. And so forth.

Dozens of television sets stayed on. Telling the truth has more impact than playing Emperor’s New Clothes, Gov’nah. And Quebecers are, as a group, more receptive to such honesty. A culture that has better texture and context for independent thinking. Bravo!

Second Period
Montreal 2, Florida 0

Hamrlik falls, carrying the puck out. Stops, goes back and gets the puck.

Spacek nails Booth. Elbow. Booth is nearly motionless. Face down.

Replay shows it was a shoulder.

Brunet says that Booth’s head was down. They reference the recent NHL cave-song lyrics.

So the message becomes target the heads-down guys.

Booth is lifted by the trainer and a linesman. He is very slow getting to the bench.

Brunet says two or three times that the hit was legal. It was. So was owning Kunta Kinte.

Once.

We resume.

One way to measure an exceptional coach is to see how a team that is doomed to miss the playoffs does during that period of knowing pre-exile.

Gill’s pass leads to a turnover.

Florida forces Halak to dive left to slather a puck with his body.

Faceoff to Halak’s right.

Plekanec wins it.

Cammalleri enters down the left side.

Vokoun is pushed into his own net. Whistle. Plekanec is called.

“Martin ne semble pas tres, tres heureux de ce pénalité.” Replay shows that Ballard shoved the centre into the goalie. Ballard, Ballard. Change your name, joke.

Florida goes to the power-play.

Change yer name cuz ah cain’t po-nounce it.

One sequence. Exit.

Change yer name or go back to Eurafrica. Whatssa matta? Can’t speak French-English-Mathematic?

Second sequence results in a shot. McCabe.

McCabe controls for most of this one.

Now he gives one away. Oh, big black puck, you look like three. Two-on-one. Right side. Pass. Looks certain. Vokoun makes the save of the game so far.

The pucks morph. They’re one again.

Penalty ends with no remaining shots from Florida.

McCabe has no regard for turnovers. Perhaps he is like Nealon Greene who could only see one side of the field. Perhaps he is like Webster; a little naïve. Perhaps he is like Tar Baby, a little dim.

Replay of the two-on-one was a brilliant fake shot from Gionta that led to a very late pass to the crease. It was a near thing.

Florida is called.

First entry is repelled quickly.

Andrei K has it on the left hash. Up and then back. Now to the slot.

Two on three. Weiss. It’s a slow incursion and they are happy to make mild puck punctuation and tea-clock.

Canadiens next entry is rebuffed.

Same with the next one.

With thirty seconds left, Gomez carries it over the red line, over the blue, past the hash and then loses it.

Bad pass from behind our end-line nearly causes a turnover.

Just like last night the team is at 2-0 and not scoring on their power-play and other opportunities. Buffalo won in the overtime shootout as a result.

Sometimes one must be self-referential. Rather than deferential. Hey, I learned it from Grundy.

Penalty ends.

Whistle.

Faceoff is in the neutral zone outside the Florida blue.

Weiss loses it and Montreal dumps it in. Gill works on the left side but loses it inside the Florida blue.

Two on two results but the pass is caught in a skate and the Canadiens cruise out.

Along the boards.

Andrei K has it. Shot from the right high circle. Rebound. It’s all covered and forested. Whistle soon afterward.

Faceoff is to Vokoun’s left. We see Plekanec wincing and talking with the trainer on the bench.

Halak allows a puck to go around his net to Markov on the opposite hash.

Markov’s long pass results in an eventual turnover.

Bitz gets a good puck to Halak’s right but has to reach behind him and is too slow to effect the move. Puck is shelled soon afterward. Turtle shell. Not the MacArthur kind.

Shoot-in is taken directly on a Florida stick. Long pass. Florida turnover.

Moore and Moen work behind the Florida net.

They lose the puck after five seconds of back and forth.

Re-entry. Cammalleri has it on the hash. Sends a pass to the blue line and didn’t see a sneaky linebacker. Intercepted. No breakout.

Seconds later a successful Florida exit ends in a puck out of play.

Moen’s visor is a good size. And saying that Koivu was injured despite having a visor is like saying that seat belts should be removed from all vehicles because they have occasionally failed to save lives.

Logic of the willful unseeing. Gorillas with guns. Chimps with charts. The Canada Cup half out of the sand. (It looks huge to ants)

Whistle after some slot action from Gionta on Florida ice.

We resume outside the Florida blue. Lapierre decisions his man and the Canadiens get the puck about twelve feet away. Fire-in results in a similarly failed Florida fire-in.

Florida’s apathy is infectious. The air is yellow.

Then Moen and Lapierre burst a few bags of spice. Fracas and fragrance. Three shots and two skirmishes. Moore is playoff seasoned.

Stoppage.

Montreal wins the faceoff. Quick entry. Plekanec down the column. Shot. Huge rebound. Vokoun is down. Two Habs miss the puck. So do two Floridians.

Panthers survive.

Just over six minutes in the period.

Cammalleri moves it in.

Andrei K works in the high slot. Now on the boards. Taken down. Crowd boos. It looked like a missed call. Houde believes it wasn’t.

Gomez has it now behind Halak.

Exit. Now Hamrlik turns it over.

Halak makes one great save and one good one. Puck stays in play. Crowd begins cheering as a result. They stay somewhat animated. About a five. Sound rises as play is stopped.

Florida’s Rostislav Olesz’ entry off the Hamrlik’s mistake is shown. Halak’s save was of the spread snowman, starfish slide variety. Have players gotten worse at raising the puck? Or what.

We resume.

Boardwork on Montreal ice to Halak’s right. One-on-one battles wipe the boards, a judo and stick smile along the end boards. It’s all clean.

Puck is exited and then back in.

Both teams are waiting. Mailing.

Gill works Weiss on the end boards now. Gill is called. Holding. Brunet says that Gill’s left arm was seen holding Weiss.

Gomez and Gionta are the first pairing.

McCabe runs the offence. The other guys probably don’t have a choice.

If you’re going to have one guy on the power-play blue line running things he better not be prone to turnovers.

McCabe, uh, is prone to turnovers. Bad ones. Planet of the japes.

First segment is shotless.

Puck is sent out.

They re-enter. Reinprecht is deep on the right of Halak; in the corner. O’Byrne is called. Interference.

Legit call. But they don’t call it much against smaller players. Again, O’Byrne is a victim of optics. Bigger players have to be more careful. It isn’t right but it’s how the generally small minds that make the calls work.

There are some good ones, there are some good ones.

We go to a five-on-three advantage.

Shot of Florida head coach Peter DeBoer is shown.

Plekanec is the lone forward.

Florida wins it and keeps it in.

McCabe stays on. Stillman is also on the blue line. He’s a forward.

Stillman runs the power-play much better than slo-mo McCabe.

A shot results in a three-on-one exit for Montreal. It results in chuckles as the final pass is for a gassed and gigantic Hal Gill huffing down the right side. But I love the effort.

Penalty continues with another Montreal clear. Siren goes.

Brunet says it wasn’t a bad period but that the Canadiens lacked the aggressivity to go and get the third and fourth goals.

Shots are 8-7 for Montreal for an 18-13 total.

Second Intermission
Montreal 2, Florida 0

Ah. It all makes sense now. Randy Sexton, Florida general manager; born in Ontario. Florida head coach Peter DeBoer; born in Ontario. Florida captain Bryan McCabe; born in Ontario. I leave the extrapolation and data-streaming to you, dear reader.

Good ole Johnny.

The Queen is dead.

The dominant ideology may not survive. Does it ever?

Demers has white papers only, now. Joel’s papers are orange. Crete has three sets of papers but two sets are shunted to the right and nearly out of view.

Bouchard reviews some film.

We were five Arry Potter’ skating against five udder Arry Potter’. Den Bryan Dursley came on de hice an’ ’e said, “I am da Kaptain now. Puck me. Dat’s all you need to do. Puck me.” So we were all hafraid of ’im so we let ’im be de captaine.

It’s satire. [the alley-bash continued on loud-com] … how about you suspend Coulter instead?

Should Calgary be permitted to issue university degrees?

Goals are harder to come by when shooting long.

Some scores. Columbus has an 8-2 discovery score against the Chicago Indian Faces. I mean Black Hawks. (Yes, I know where the real Indians are)

Wow. Eight to two. Chicago is in first place in the West. While Columbus is just another Ontario farm team.

A real non-sequitur, then: Brian Dudley was a rookie defensive back with the Montreal Alouettes in 1986. He wore number fifteen and played defensive halfback. I lied [Ali accent] it ain’t non.

Well, if you want me to stop, then get rid of the commercials.

Lavoie interviews Moen. Moen says he feels good and that it’s about keeping it simple. He says he can live with scars. There is no mention of starting to wear a visor. What a failed opportunity for Tray-Viss.

Lavoie translates and he seems to be holding back his true thoughts. Crete also doesn’t mention it. Elephant wearing a visor.

Third Period
Montreal 2, Florida 0

Montreal is in seventh place but they have one less game to play than the teams nearest them.

Florida is irregardless, ok? Ok?

Sorry about that but I just wanted to underscore need and irrelevance, simultaneously. Yet, if a word is used often enough, it will make it into the dictionary.

Irregardless is not a word, in case a growing majority was wondering.

The days of signage are near. (That wasn’t a word for many decades, as well. Perhaps centuries.)

Irregardless.

Florida and Montreal are about as finished as wrapped tenderloin. All ready to leave the store.

Icing. Vapid chase. Icing. Moot faceoff. Vain go-team-go cheer.

Weiss line is on. Bergeron dumps it in for Montreal and returns to the bench.

Kreps fires one in. Gionta line exits. Left side. Gionta’s pass to the hash from the corner is intercepted. Rare.

Shoot-in by the Habs allows the Lapierre line to enter. He loses the puck in the corner and delivers a hit. Thanks for the turnover, he says. Oh wait. That’s what I said.

Florida adds a player to their attack. Three guys under the end line. Fourth guy comes up to the hash. They get some pressure from it. But it’s not more than seven seconds and no quality shots result.

Moen responds with a lead and shot of his own. He stays on the ice for the subsequent faceoff.

Moore and Moen win it and the puck is gentled to the blue line for a pass and a shot that goes wide.

Habs keep it in. Kostitsyn falls turning and playing the puck near the blue line. Light, brief booing. Houde says it wasn’t callable. Panthers exit.

They control along the boards. Delayed call. To the point. Shot. Not a hard one. Whistle. Montreal will be going to the penalty-kill.

Montreal can easily lose this game. Does Don Cherry still expound on the dangers of the two-goal lead? I wonder. I’m not really asking.

Hamrlik was crosschecking his guy in the slot. In that light hate way that defencemen have. It’s all impersonal. Finally his man fell. So a penalty against Roman.

Halak falls. Stops it. Off a long shot.

Plekanec takes it out. Fires it down and leaves the ice.

Gomez and Gionta are next. Gionta whacks at a puck and stick; Stillman’s and the puck goes up and over.

Gionta is well-respected in this league.

Florida enters on the left. Diagonal pass from the middle propelled the entry. Puck is out quickly.

Sergei makes one of the best plays of the game. It’s subtle but he falls as he maneuvers between two Panthers behind the Montreal net and golfs the puck while falling. And succeeds.

Montreal gets an exit. Even-man rush. Shots. Nothin’.

Now a penalty. Two of them. One for diving. Markov is called for the dive.

Or so my downloaded and imprinted colonialist mind assumes. Four-on-four.

Gionta and Gomez are the first pairing.

Wild pass by McCabe results in a brief Montreal exit.

Florida is back in. Cammalleri and Plekanec are on.

Long shot from McCabe. Halak makes a good save. High glove on one knee.

Faceoff to his left. To the point it goes. Horton. To Weiss. Back to Horton. Horton is turning and moving all the while. Shot on Halak. Stops it. Clears the bouncer away one-armed; stick arm. Some hockey players come from cans; just add water and draft.  Er, select.  The mélange is about as good.  Horton-water bean juice.  Yuck.  Pas pour moi.  Nor any other self-respecting, uh, Quebecker.  Or not.  If I can’t speak for Québec then you can’t speak for me.

Florida continues to control. They have trouble staying ahead of the Canadiens but manage one more decent shot.

Now Vokoun makes an easy shot look difficult. I’m sure it was hard.

Really.

Action continues. Markov from behind his net. Dual penalties have ended. Up for so-and-so.

Puck is on the boards. Now it’s being carried out by Ballard.

Neutral zone interruption. Lapierre line is on. Chase, chase, chase. No puck. Dogs on hold. Oh wait. The elephants are. Ah, whatever, eh.

Kulikov carries it up the right side. Eventual turnover.

Andrei K carries it down the right side.

Florida’s natural competitive pride is rising. Like bad bread gone fast.  Yeah, it can go fast.

Canadiens match. Moore is on.

He’s over the left side. High, hard shot. Wrister. Vokoun captures it.

Sixty percent of viewers believe that Alexander Ovechkin will be the first NHL player to reach 50 goals this season. Twenty-five think Crosby. And the rest picked Stamkos.

Whoo-whoo-whoo. Gravy brain.

Canadiens win the faceoff. Moen gets a bad-angle shot chance. Delayed call. Against Florida.

DeBoer chews his gum open-mouthed and looks over the ice. Kreps is called.

Gomez wins the faceoff nicely. Right to the point. Pass. Shot. Bergeron. Nope. Cleared.

Bergeron carries through the neutral zone and then passes it to Gionta on the left to complete the entry.

They set up.

Five passes. Gomez’ pass from the right point to the high hash for Markov is too live. It bounces away and is cleared.

One minute left in the penalty. Five and a half minutes in the period. Third entry.

Passes along the blue; Hamrlik and Spacek. Plekanec on the left hash. Cammalleri has it on the right hash. Turns, moving. Shoots. Vokoun traps it.

Florida wins the faceoff but turns it over. Shot and a shot and a shot. Slot and crease. And a long one to start it. The second two were more hacks at a corpse goalie than real shots. Vokoun holds on and is impressive on this sequence.

Canadiens win it. To the point. Penalty comes to an end shortly after the point shot.

Canadiens retrieve.

Houde says that Gionta has no lack of courage. He was hurt on a shot-block, I think. Leaves the ice and no further word.

Ballard rounds his own net.

Carry-in. Over the blue line. Pass to the slot. Houde yells. It’s a goal. And a nice one. Ballard’s pass was well-placed for Dvorak to tip it in back-handed.

Montreal 2, Florida 1

Houde says that Ballard has played a pearl of a game and twenty-five minutes besides.

Andrei has an invitational goal-attempt now. From the side, just walks in, unimpeded and nearly puts it around Vokoun’s pads as he crossed the crease.

Canadiens continue to control but can’t produce another fright. Now Vokoun traps a puck at the side of the net after a Gomez pass fails from the side-boards.

And keep in mind, Coors owns Molson’s. They just call it Molson-Coors to keep the perception good in Canada. Spin duckters.

Faceoff is to Vokoun’s right. Montreal loses it. Quick exit. Twos. Puck goes out of play. Montreal had good coverage.

Faceoff is to Halak’s right. Vokoun is on the bench. Extra attacker for Florida.

Florida wins it.

They pass along the perimeter.

Penetration pass is intercepted and cleared.

McCabe is on the blue. Good. We can count on a turnover and an empty net goal.

They scrum on the blue. Something happens.

Plekanec exits. Chased closely by McCabe. High shot. Net and nothing but net.

Montreal 3, Florida 1

Brunet’s tone becomes one of “the game has been won” and the credits are rolling.

Just over a minute.

Faceoff outside the Florida blue line. No replay so I don’t know how that puck got out.

Canadiens start another rush out of their zone. Net is still empty and the crowd gets a bit “my-son-has-the-puck” but a pass by Sergei in the neutral zone is intercepted.

Stoppage.

Forty seconds left.

Florida gets control. On the blue line. McCabe’s point. Other point. Hash. Cross-back pass to McCabe.

Puck leaves elsewhere and down the right side it goes. Around the back of the net. Puck goes in the net. Gionta. Stole it from Ballard. Another careless thug turnover, eh.

Montreal 4, Florida 1

The game ends soon afterward.

The team congratulates Halak. Price comes out maskless and holds Halak’s mask for show. Murmurs something.

Montreal 4
Florida 1

HDS Stars: Tomas Vokoun, Dominic Moore, Stephen Weiss

The final score has nothing to do with individual accomplishments. Um. Yeah.

RDS Stars: Jaroslav Halak, Brian Gionta, Dominic Moore

Faded dolt-boy goatee. Guess who.

Ah. The C is for Croma-Donna.

Bergeron brings up a point worth interrupting my edit: “Here we go again, the NHLPA (National Hockey League Players’ Association) against the league on another issue; this time head shots. What does the [casual American fan] guy in Columbus think about a specific kind of hit being a penalty in one game and not in another?”

He implies that the league appears bush to the more sophisticated sports fan.  And he’s right.

I’m paraphrasing. But it’s a good point. Worth making again.

Bush. Bush. Bush. All three. It’s why the NHL will remain Solomon Grundy. And, hey, in this case, loveable is not a good thing. Loveable means icy Duk Koo Kim. A hockey version head-shot coma and death. How many can you count up before you fold your drunk gambler cards and go home to beat your kids and rape your wife? I’m waiting.

Yeah, it’s that serious.

Related posts:

1. Montreal Canadiens vs. Washington Capitals (Game Five)
2. Montreal Canadiens vs. Philadelphia Flyers
3. Montreal Canadiens vs Ottawa Senators
4. Montreal Canadiens vs Boston Bruins
5. Montreal Canadiens vs Philadelphia Flyers
6. Montreal Canadiens versus Florida Panthers