I’m extremely happy to tell you that this blog is paying huge dividends! Today, I had the great surprise of receiving a super gift in the mail! Yeah, you read that right, I received a present! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Alix, formerly from the Humming Giraffe, and now from the Canucks Hockey Blog, sent me this:

Thank you SO MUCH Alix, this made me really laugh. And I’m sure those bags will come in handy for… uh well, for the next situation when I need loot bags! Yeaaah!

(For those of you who have no idea why someone would send me Curious George loot bags, here is the explanation: this is a reference to my favorite hab, Josh Gorges.)

Merci merci merci Alix!

As you know, the nhl is fed up with goalies using huge pads to stop more pucks, so they’ve tried to implement new rules, reducing the size of the goalies equipment. I’m all for reducing the size of the pads, rather than increasing the size of the nets. I mean, I really wouldn’t want to see this :

But the new pads regulations don’t seem to be enough, because some goalies are still not allowing enough goals to get fans excited (this does not apply to Turco).

So Bettman and his friends have decided to push things a little further.

Here is the proposed new goalie equipment for next season:

Bettman: “Ah! Let’s see how many shutouts they get now, those bastards!”

Seriously, Josh Gorges cracks me up. Just look at him…

Note: If you’re a Montreal fan, I know you’ve probably already seen this pic on Habs I/O.  I promise I won’t post pictures every time Gorges and Price do something funny during a practice, but that one was just too cool. I swear, I tried to resist, but I just couldn’t…

Yesterday, Montreal played 59 minutes of good hockey, and let Atlanta score three time in the remaining time of the game. Like the game against the Islanders last week, this is a game they should have won easily. The habs dominated the thrashers during the two first periods, scoring three unanswered goals. The new lines seemed to work: D’Agostini got his first nhl goal, Koivu and Kovalev had two points each, Plekanec scored a nice goal, Andrei Kost had a 3 points night.

But there was this weird minute. A bad line change, a PP goal, and a thrid goal only 7 seconds later… Ouch! Once again, the team confidence is obviously still fragile after a difficult stretch of games in November. I’m an optimistic guy, so I want to see this bad minute as one of the last manifestations of this fragile confidence. The fact that the team did not completely choke after allowing those three goals is something positive.

Curious Gorges: 1 Assist

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Also playing with fire: Sean Avery.

I won’t be too long on that one, since virtually avery single hockey blog spoke about his suspension.

His quote was moronic, and it’s just another manifestation of his complete lack of class. I also understand that the league is probably fed up with his antics, like most of the fans are. I’m just not sure Avery’s comments can really damage the league reputation that much. Everyone who follows hockey knows what kind of player Avery is. As far as I know, the nhl doesn’t really have a history of terribly controversial or offensive quotes. When the nhl image takes a hit, it’s usually after an ugly on-ice incident.

Some believe that the nhl suspended Avery precisely to avoid such an incident. If this is the case, then fine, that was the right thing to do. But that’s not what the nhl said. What they said was more like “Shut up Sean, you’re just embarrassing yourself, and the rest of the league.” The rest of the Stars, yeah, probably. The rest of the league? I don’t think so.

Anyway, honestly, I won’t lose any sleep over it. If you want to read more on this, Ken Campbell, from The Hockey News, wrote the most interesting article I read today.

First things first, there was a game tuesday night in Carolina.

Here’s the recap.

worth a thousand words

I wanted to make a nice summary of the game, but then I found this picture of Plekanec and Ruutu on Habs inside/out, and suddenly there’s not much else I can say that hasn’t already been said. The face of the guy with the blue jacket in the background sums it up nicely.

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More importantly, I feel like I have to adress a crucial point today: the curse of Gorges

Josh Gorges may very well be my favorite hab. I tend to like the players that go relatively unnoticed, those who have to fight to keep their spott on the team, the unlikely heroes. Gorges is the perfect example of this. He was one of the feel-good stories of the last season. He arrived in Montreal as a part of the trade that sent Rivet to the sharks in 2007. Last year, he wasn’t supposed to play much but his work and his consistency slowly made him an important part of the team, on and off the ice. Because off the ice, Gorges really seems to be a fun guy. He’s always smiling, often joking, and some of his interviews let appear a slightly self depreciating humor that I really like. I also suspect he’s BFF with Price, which can only reinforce his presumption of awesomeness.

And last but not least, since day one something is very obvious to me:

Gorges

George

Josh Gorges is the hockey incarnation of Curious George.

But there is something wrong with Curious Gorges. He doesn’t score. At all. In 86 games with the Canadiens, he has 12 assists, and zero goal. So Tom Kostopoulos and Price had a little discussion about it, and tried to solve the mystery. Kostopoulos came up with the obvious explanation: “He thinks my stick is cursed and that’s why I haven’t been able to put the puck in the net,” Gorges said to the Montreal Gazette.

So they decided it was time for a sacrifice, to appease the Hockey Gods. Yesterday, Price and Kostopoulos actually cut Gorges stick into pieces, and “then placed the pieces at each corner of the rink at the RBC Centre in an attempt to break the curse.”

We’ll see how it goes, and if the Hockey Gods are now satisfied, but I think it was more than time for the players to take things into their hands. Next time, I would just suggest them not to forget to burn Latendresse devil-possessed skates, and to put some garlic into O’Byrne’s jockstrap (he may not be cursed, but hilarity should ensue).