Les Nouveaux Habitants – Judging, Judging, Look At The Baby

www.icanhascheezburger.com -- Always hilarious.
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So, The hockey pot has continued to bubble since I last mentioned it, with the Montreal Canadiens continuing to demonstrate their endless wealth, and my beloved Islanders continuing to sign players by pointing at random pages in the phone book.

Paul Mara and Travis Moen have been added to the Canadiens line-up, I assume because Gainey felt an immediate Les Habitants backlash after signing three talented oompa-loompa’s to contracts after July first.  Never hurts to chuck a little sandpaper into the line-up.

And, all the sudden, the Habs roster looks pretty good.  Look at the new names headed there:

Mike Cammalerri, Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, Travis Moen, Jaroslav Spacek, Paul Mara and Hal Gill -- Pretty decent twin towers to have backing up the three one-level-ranchers on forward.

I retract some (but not all) of my previous Hab-trashing.

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A quick run down of a few free agents that are still “free”:

Miroslav Satan: Well past his best-before date.  Isn’t going to be a legitimate help to any cup contending team.  What’s gonna happen is, some team that needs to make it look like they’ve made changes to get better is going to sign him to appease their fan base.  If your free agent bio on NHL.com reads “didn’t mesh with Crosby or Malkin in the Penguins line up”, go commit Hari Kari.  Kelsey Grammar on roller blades could mesh with those guys.

Mike Grier: Does anybody else feel like this guy’s played on 52 NHL teams?  I just checked, and it’s only been four.  I can’t keep track of this guy.

Brendan Shannahan: I was always super-opposed to the play-until-the-league-ushers-you-out theory, like you’re some guy on Mystery, Alaska, that the town needs to take aside and politely say “stop it” to, but for some reason it doesn’t both me with Shanny.  It fits how he’s played all these years, with that one dimensional “I’m a hockey player, so I play hockey” mentality.  Plus, he doesn’t Favre-flop, so it makes it easier to to deal with.

Mats Sundin: I hope the Rangers or Oilers sign him.  Maybe the Hurricanes.  He’s a year away from using his stick as a tripod to stay standing.

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Glad everyone seems to like the new site!  I sure do.  It’s made it super easy to add all sorts of media.  And you know what that means…

The Dramatic Chipmunk is back!

Oh, and PS:

Its still my at-bat song. Feel it. “Hopped up out the beeeeeed, turn my swag onnnn, took a look in the mirror, said what’s up”.  God it’s awful good.

The Players of Playoffs

A few short hockey thoughts prior to today’s action:

1.  Let me preface this thought by saying this is completely unfounded, it’s my own speculation, and it’s not rooted in any fact. 

The first thing I saw when I saw Shawn Thornton running around in the Habs/Bruins game was: “that guy’s on steroids”.  NHL steroid testing is slightly better than non-existent, and I played with a couple kids who openly used while I played.  Don’t think guys don’t - we’re not baseball by any means, but I’d speculate a guy per team.

And in all likelihood, Shawn isn’t one of them.  In fact, as a reader recently pointed out (and not in the kindest way), I was thinking of (and comparing him to) Scott Thornton in his early days.  Totally different player.  But it doesn’t change facts.  Players use, and the league’s testing policy is not all that stringent.

2.  Just cleaning out a few hockey notes here:  Are you serious with that Fleury save on Carter?  It’s not even like Fleury got all the way across the net, it looked like Carter took a moment to savour it, which let Fleury get halfway there (which was an exceptionally feat in itself).  Then Carter compounded the nightmare (score and the series is 1-1) by sliding it mid-net.  That was the series turning point.

3.  Okay, Scott Hartnell, the hair isn’t exactly trendy or cool now that you’ve done it long enough for us to think you’re serious.  Now you’ve just been making a bad decision for way too long.  You look like Sideshow Bob.  Or Anderson Varejao.  Which brings me to today’s picture comparison center:

, Mats Sundin’s eerie Terminator black eye: , And Luongo / Jon Decaro (my college goaltender, both 6’4” and Italian):

3.  Lastly, for now, I saw Marty Havlat’s interview yesterday, and thought he sounded like a Newfy pirate.  Great player and all, and more than likely just French, but yeah.  Newfy pirate.

Okay!  Caps/Rangers is underway, battle of the Red, White and Blue!  See you back here tonight!