Fun with numbers

Halifax 3 - Gatineau 2 = 2 pts for the Mooseheads.

updates soon

Sugah

Let's get the painful part out of the way - Moose lost 5-2 to the Gatineau Olympiques last night. This is the Moose's 5th loss in a row. We are currently pointless - the worst team in the whole CHL (well, the Lethbridge Hurricanes are 0-4-0-0 and the Brampton Battalion are 0-3-0-0). Exhale! Inhale!

News links:
Lineup: Olympiques at Mooseheads
Winless Moose fall to Olympiques

Early-season home games scarce for Mooseheads
This injury packs a pungent punch
Lots of shots, but Mooseheads need to crash the net

Mooseheads lose again

Right man for the job - A Brunet Story

Showing patience - A Pelletier story

The game in point form:
1) Well that was boring. Was it the lack of crowd or the boys?

2) The first period should have been re-named 'Mooseheads fall down, go BOOM'.

3) Some people say that they do not see Linden Bahm. I always see Linden Bahm. We are neighbors. For you see, Linden has four homes - all of them in corners. I also live in a corner. Linden frequently drops by and is all like "hey neighbour can I borrow some sugar?" and I am like "I only have raw sugar" and he is like "I will take what ever sugar you are willing to give me"...then we make out.

Also, if you didn't see that breakaway, the speed, and that fancy footwork then you are fucking blind.

4) Gabriel Desjardins gets so excited for goals. I like that enthusiasm. I want to get on the ice with him and jump around like a girl. He assisted on Bety's goal, the Mooseheads first goal of the game. He was more excited than Bety. Give him cookies.

5) Nice try Lemieux. Lemieux was one-on-one with Gatineau 'tender Tait, when Tait had to come out to play the puck. Faceoff. Tait got to the puck first and Lemieux could have made it to the puck with the net empty - had he not fallen down and crashed the net. It is not the falling that charms me (I do that all the time - you should see my wrist - it is FUCKED UP) but the effort and the fact that the Moose had that opportunity. We need these opportunities and we need to take advantage of them. Maybe next time.

6) I was about 3 seconds from calling for Cheremetiev's head. Between the stupid cross checking penalty on the power play and his general lack of production I have been, in my brain, requesting a trade for Alexandre Leduc (Sea Dogs). There have got to be better 20 year old players out there - ones that can play that role - the one Yuri is supposed to play. You know the role- goal scorer. Then Yuri got a goal. This buys him 2 more games until I declare him "not boyfriend potential" again.

7) oh Jessyko. I like you.
If only. Why is this game filled with so many "if onlys"? You got knocked down breaking onto the 'piques zone and somehow you ended up with a hooking penalty.

8) Lower on shots but good on hits. So many lovely lovely hits. Come-on babies continue to rock my world.

9) There were more boys in front of the net. This is a good thing. Keep it up.

10) Gerrad Grant- wearing a playing cast, was back in the game. Peeps are all like "wow he hasn't played in months and yet he could play on the top line and on the PP. Yes he can, anybody can of you put them there...then technically they are doing it. The real question is - should he have been playing on the top line and in the PP? Even he has admitted that his hands are not quite back yet.

“I’ll be in top shape, but my shot won’t be there,” Grant said. “I’m hoping (to produce offence), that’s what I’m planning on doing, but it probably won’t happen right away.”

11) Matty- arrrrrrgggggg. Four goals in 17 shots.

12) I forget. Scratches were Clarke, MacDonald (baby come back), Stoddard and Costello. I hear that Clarke was chattin' up the ladies in the concourse - wear a condom.

13) Completely incomprehensible (and hot) Travis Randell intermission interview posted on my facebook page.

You collapsed....just like my banana bread

It was all uncooked in the center. I mean, if this is how I do banana bread, then can you really trust my cookies? I think Paul Byron ruined my banana bread.

Mark Yetman starts in nets for the Moose, Marc-Antoine Gelli-donuts is in nets for the Olympiques. Matt Boland has recovered from a shoulder injury so he's back in the line-up; while Alex MacDonald, Ned O'Brien, George Dunn and Guillaume Pelletier (knee) are out for the Moose.

Desjardins, the young rookie forward who has gotten first line ice time with Knotek and Stransky is off the line....despite the fact that there was just a big news story published only 3 days ago about how he played hard to get on that line. As usual this line pairing goes the way of all line pairings in Mooseland. Gerrad Grant has now moved up to play with Knotek and Stransky. Sluttiest line in the CHL.

1st:
In only 31 seconds Jan Stransky gets the Moose on the board with the very first shot of the game. I was not paying attention.

The Moose get a power play but can't get the puck out of their own zone. Pender tried to make a pass to his defensive partner but Paul Byron intercepted to get a 2 on 0 breakaway. Yetman made the most beautiful glove save to shut him down. Why does this all seem so familiar?

How can I learn to hate Yetman if he plays well? I want to be like everyone else and hate him in a bad way!

Louis-XVI took on Ouellet in a feisty scrap and basically nailed him. The removal of his helmet revealed just how luxurious Louis-XVI's hair has become.

2nd:

Moose are up 1-0 going into the second. I missed half of the second because I got so excited by the first period that I started baking.... as any good girlfriend would. I got back just in time to see Gatineau get their first goal, by Touchette, on a rebound shot.

Pender had a breakaway but the tiniest little Olympique player (I will call him TugBoat) just moved Pender off of his shot and towards the boards.

Knotek and Stransky had a breakaway…but instead of shooting Knotek tried to pass. It hit Delisle’s skate. Knotek only had one shot all game. He must have developed a fear of shooting.

Gerrad Grant gets a goal on the wraparound by shooting it low into the corner. Assists were by Knotek and McDonald. This is his 9^th of the season.

Knotek is doing weird things. He was carrying it down the center and he passed it to Stransky who was covered by two guys and skating down into the 'piques zone along the boards. That just doesn't make sense to me.

Bahm makes a huge hit which results in some Olympique retaliation. In the end Bety ends up fighting Domingues…and Bety ends up getting killed.

Bona got hit in the face with a stick which resulted in a Moosehead power play – Jan Stransky gets his second goal of the night- his 19^th of the year, after Knotek passed to Stransky across the slot and he one timed it. Amyot gets the other assist.

At some point Gelli-donuts was replaced by a Chubbeh bunneh in nets.

3^rd

Touchette heads to the Mose net a 2 on 1, but Yetman gets a piece of the high glove side shot. Ben was the defenceman covering it but he was not on Touchette, he was covering the other guy, or an invisible guy, or his own shadow....not sure.

Shortly after that Byron gets around Bona and makes another shot on net which Yetman saves, but he is unable to stop the rebound shot by Chabot. Current score Moose 3: Piques 2.

Penalty called on Stransky. I have got to say, the Moose have been disciplined tonight. We are into the third period and are only now seeing our second penalty kill. I would hate to see them fuck it up now.

The PK was VERY SCARY (Scarier than the Friday the 13thmovie I watched after the game... I am more a fan of the Halloween series). Yetman went down after a shot. He has been down a lot, throwing his body over the puck. The 'piques were not able to opportunize and eventually the Moose got it and carried it out of the zone.

After lots of pressure in the Moose zone Bernard carries it down ice but Piette ends up getting a delayed penalty on a hook in the Gatineau zone. O’Connor and Bona gave Goulet a bit too much room and he made it past them but luckily Yetman, who was well out of his crease, made the save. Bah - too hot.

Unfortunately the defence are slow to clear the puck and Goulet ties it on a PP goal in a shot from the slot. Tied 3:3

Fuuuuuck Pender (look at me, I am my seat neighbours). At the blue line Pender fumbles on the pass from McDonald - Byron steals it, makes a breakaway, and goes high on Yetman to get a goal.

aaaand that is it. Moose lose 4:3

• Paul Byron is the bain of my existance.
• Knotek played funny but still got 3 assists and was a killer at the faceoff.
• Pender is sleeping on the doorstep tonight. If he is hungry he can go next door to the pizza place and maybe find some old crusts in the garbage.
• Piette will be helping him scavenge for old pizza crusts because of his stupid penalty.
  
• Yetman allowed 4 in 32 for a 0.875 sv% but still played well and made some huge saves. If it were not for him it could have been worse - like Drummondville vs Cape Breton worse.
• So while the Moose did not get a point tonight, neither did Val D'Or or Lewiston.
• WTF banana bread? You were in the oven for an hour! I did the stick test, there was no goo! You were crusty on top! Am I a bad baker? Where did we go wrong?
  

The three stars are :

1. GAT - Byron, Paul
2. GAT - Chabot, Jean-Philip
3. HAL - Stransky, Jan

*Edit- News Links
Willy Palov - Third Period Collapse Costs Moose
Game photos from the non-official Olympiques website

Getting to know my team: the Chad Earle edition

Bad girls get no hockey. Nope...no hockey. None. No Whitey, no Fullerton, no Yetmen, no Clermont - NOTHING. She just sits on her sofa being bitter and eating "turtles" cookies. mmmm self loathing. The problem here is she cannot figure out what she did wrong to be abandoned and thus deprived of hockey.

The Mooseheads faced off against the Gatineau Olympiques and won by a score of 4-2 .

Chad Earle is nice. I demand you be kind to him. He is the Moose brass's attempt at a Whitey replacement: blonde - check, St. John's native - check, zombie like - check, shifty eyed - check. Today he was also very hard working, especially through the first two periods.

Kiss Chad Earle...KISS HIM!!!

Mooseheads goals were scored by Alexis Piette (from Pender), Charles Bety (from Chad Earle). Tomas Knotek (from Travis Randell and Gabriel O'Connor) and finished off with a shiny breakaway bauble by Yuri Cheremetiev (from Bety and Knotek). Gatineau potted two: including a controversial goal by Hugo Laporte (assisted by Touchette and Croteau) and a power play marker by Stransky (from Byron).

Mark Yetman faced 25 shots, making 23 saves for a 0.92 save %. In the nets for Gatineau was chubbeh bunneh Maxime Clermont who made 23 saves on 27 shots for a 0.85 save %.

If Newfies are not your thing you may also kiss Tomas Knotek for winning 15 of 23 faceoffs.

Game Stars were:
HAL - Knotek, Tomas
HAL - Piette, Alexis
GAT - Stransky, Jan

Olympiques vs Rouyn Noranda game 5: done

How appropriate that I spend my drunken fun evening with a boy who is the spitting image of Claude Giroux - the 'Piques win the President's cup by defeating the Huskies 7-3. I called that boy Claude all night...I do not think he appreciated it. More later. For now check out QMJHL for all the scoring details. Game 5 photos are also available for viewing at the Huskies website.


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Another interview with Ryan Mior is available online at St John's The Telegram.

The telegraph journal also has an article discussing the Sea Dogs Alexandre Picard-Hooper's acceptance to McGill and his role next year with the Redmen.

Olympiques vs Rouyn-Noranda Game 4: This is for the Ds

What can I say? - the ‘piques are on a roll. They have defeated the Huskies 4-1 and now lead the series 3-1 heading back to Rouyn-Noranda for a game on Friday. I can even see an evolution in their game from when they were playing in Halifax at the Metro Centre during round three, as compared to their games now. They are playing smoother as a unit, their passing seems better, pucks are connecting tape to tape to tape, and there seems to be less stupid turnovers in the neutral zone (but that could just be due to the larger size of our ice surface). They are still keeping it tight in front of their net.

I am not going to comment too much on the game since I was not really paying attention, but Byron (yeah!!! again) had 1 goal, 2 assists. Unfortunately, I have very few pictures of him, either because he is too small to see behind all of those other players or he is too fast for my camera. Instead I will give you a picture of Byron WITH Matthew Pistilli – who was a getter of 2 assists during last night’s game.

It is hard to tell who is who when you are watching the Telus feeds, especially with no volume (I was TV multitasking) but when the volume was on, one name I did hear over and over was that of Joey Ryan. Oh Joey Ryan, I don’t know how wonderfully defensey you were being to make your commentators scream with joy like that, but if I do say so, it sounded good for them. Was it good for you?

Tell Ryan Mior he can read to me from his text books or throw me up against a wall anyday. All that puck handling and a 0.966 save% not only gets him A) the flinging of my panties in his general direction, but he can also exchange his game winning puck for B1) a coffee date, B2) a romantic walk along the water front, B3) extensive cooing with the fluffy hair smelling, the seductive breathing in the ear, and the neck caressing, B4) things I dare not say on this blog in case P-O or Travis Fullerton find out I have been making advances on goalies other than them.

Dear Ryan, don't tell my other goalies I said rowwwrr.

Halifax seems to have forgotten that there is a QMJHL final going on. They are not covering this in our newspaper. However, there are some good stories to be had where hometown boys are concerned:

Saint John NB’s newspapers have had some write-ups concerning the finals (game 3), as well as a story about Brad Tesink of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan

Ryan Mior has an interview with the St John’s Nfld newspaper- I am loving his down to earth attitude and winning ways. Does anybody know which university he is enrolled with and if he will be playing in the Maritimes next year?

Cape Breton loves the Huskie’s Brett Morrison and Jarrad Struthers, as such the Cape Breton Post have been covering this last round of the playoffs from day 1 - See here for a story on Morrison and Struthers and here for a write up on Game 2.

Olympiques vs Rouyn-Noranda Game 3: the doughnut game

Oh My. The Gatineau Olympiques were at it again. If the Moose thought we did poorly in Gatineau’s barn at least we can say we did not get a load of double digits to the face. The Olympiques defeated the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 10-4 and now lead the series 2-1 heading into a second home game at the Centre Robert-Guertin.

I have been such a bum this week. Getting dumped is no fun. I have been drunk dialing my Mooseheads boyfriends at 2:00am and yelling at them. Then I ask them to take me back. Then I yell some more, then I hang up. Drink and repeat. I swear I can hear another girl in the background, giggling, mocking me, calling me pitiful. I will have no more of it. I knew I had hit my low when I had no sleep on Sunday night, and then on Monday I had poutine for lunch with a Boston-cream donut chaser. I desperately need a haircut, I haven’t exercised since the Seadogs were booted and I have had the worst drunken headaches.

I must thank IPB for a swift kick in the ass. In an attempt to counteract my slum, I dug out my playoff goggles, put them on and actually watched the game last night to help get me out of the QMJHL stupor I have been in since losing my team. Mind you, prior to the start of the game I had two martinis. This was followed by my typical exercise routine...albeit a slightly more drunken version. It is all so pitiful, especially since I was watching hockey in French, a language I barely understand.

I have to get ready to get back on the scene – Canada has called and I have accepted a date for May 12^th. It is going to be fab.

If Byron (#20) was a kick in the shins to the Mooseheads, then for all intents and purposes he is the Huskies' poutine and Boston-cream donut. I wonder if they are left with any self esteem at all after that game. Last night Paul Byron had 4 goals, 2 assists, no penalty minutes, and finished the game a +4. If 3 goals is a hat trick, what is this quadfecta? What should we throw? Not panties - I reserve throwing my panties for goalies. Throwing him a copy of “What’s going on down there?” seems perfectly appropriate. This wee Byron kid is blowing my mind – I don’t know how he does it – at least two of those goals were break away goals. Is he so light and feathery that even the breathing of the defenseman chasing behind him is enough to propel him forwards? He is made of 99% pure hydrogen with just a touch of the Ether all wrapped in a fleshy coating. That’s 32076 moles of hydrogen…and still I am forced to ask - why is nobody trying to break Byron?

Buffalo drafted Byron because they wanted to make Ryan Miller feel fat.

Giroux received 4 more points in the form of 2 goals and 2 assists. All in all, the ‘piques racked up 29 points this game. If you look at overall playoff stats for this season, look up, way up, you can see Giroux at the top with 46 points (15, goals, 31 assists), followed at 27 points by Byron (20 goals, 7 assists) and Prokop (2 goals, 25 assists).

Philly drafted Claude Giroux because they wanted a Danny Briere. Then they went out and bought Danny Briere. Now they have two.

Also, why was Gougeon not pulled after the first 5 goals (all scored in the first period on 14 shots)? It left me thinking – “does this team have so little faith in Pucholt that they will not even try him in nets”? I got my answer in the final minutes of the third when Pucholt allowed 2 goals on 6 shots in 15 minutes. You could tell Rouyn were back to playing desperate hockey, since they were back to taking stupid penalties, and even went so far as to run Mior in the third, possibly in an attempt to phase him for game 4 (just as Shawinigan had done in round one). Not that Mior was fantastic, he allowed 4 goals on 22 shots, but he did make a nice stretchy pad save, and he also did something else exciting when I was not paying attention. Hey, I was drunk and exercising…how much attention span do you think I have? I ultimately blame the live Telus feeds and their lack of replays.

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I have been nagging my girlfriend about how she should know more QMJHL players from Cape Breton, if for no other reason than the fact that she is age appropriate and her boyfriend played hockey for years (although she refused to acknowledge this as she hates hockey). We already know about her encounters with BS, but I needed to know if she knows more boys so I started naming names. It turns out that one of her friends from school is Michael Kirkpatrick's sister, she remembers baby Kirky. The next time she goes to CB I am sending some cookies for him, as well as a certificate for his parents to sign which will allow for the transferring of all parental rights over to me.

Rouyn-Noranda vs Olympiques Game 2: Sorry Huskies, I did you wrong

I have been slow at writing my Q update because of IIHF fever, NHL fever and oh, yeah, that pesky hour long presentation I have been preparing for Monday - the only thing not getting done is the presentation. I sit here mid-Stars vs Sharks (after the second OT) trying to rejuvenate my mind with a little shot of Brett Morrison. Brett is a wee spriggin' looking fellow who has been tossed around the Q (Gatineau, PEI, Rouyn-Noranda) and passed over for two drafts before getting a tryout with the oilers and finally being taken fifth round in the 2007 draft by Anaheim. Brett looks good for a boy from Cape Breton, so spriggin' (like Kirky), so clean, so fresh and so tidy - thus so much different than boys like handlebar 'stache Swan, Joey Haddad, Murd MacLellan or Ryan Sparling (who, although he looks clean, you just know he is pure evil). Yes Brett is from Cape Breton and he has pixie face - it is possible.

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies did a complete 180 and defeated the Gatineau Olympiques 6-2. Brett was the playingest player with 1 goal and 3 assists. Michael Debuc also potted 2 goals and 1 assist. The Huskies scored 5 unanswered goals in the first two periods, driving Ryan Mior from the nets. Mior is a mad man, he could do anything. Is he angry, will he be back with a vengeance, have the Huskies been slaughtered in their sleep? We will not know until May 6th.

Gatineau were finally able to respond with two goals in the third by Prokop and Chabot, before pulling my new 'baby boyfriend' and 'cuddling partner' Maxime Clermont from the nets in the final minutes of the game. Huskies finished them off with an empty net goal by Debuc. The Olympiques then had to put 'Cuddly Clermont' back in nets because they knew they were boned. You can check out the scoring recap at the QMJHL website. Pictures can be seen at the Huskies website.

I was also wrong by saying that the Huskies would not be able to keep their penalties down, but they only allowed 4 and killed off all of them. In the meantime they got 4 of their 6 goals on the power play with a 80% pp efficiency. I am going to have to give props to 'the Gouge' for his 0.935 save % and the fact that he had an assist. Mind you he only faced 6 dangerous shots. Props come in the form of a picture - a picture from his days as a Volt because I have no good pictures from his visit as a Huskie.

Maxim Gougeon is seen here lookin' like a Volt but he is really a Huskie. I call this seeing the world through Volt coloured glasses.

We should all still be trying to guess what the 'piques secret weakness is.

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Dear Carey Price
I still totally heart you. How could a girl stay angry at a boy with those sad puppy dog eyes? Do you want to cuddle, because I would totally be down with that. No, keep the gear on!!!

Rouyn-Noranda vs Olympiques, Game 1: Just as I predicted.

In all the fuss over the IIHF, I almost forgot about the QMJHL finals. I am lying, I could never forget about the QMJHL finals especially since I saw half of my returning team last night at the Metro Centre watching IIHF hockey when I was hoping to see them in Rouyn Noranda actually playing hockey. Well no, actually I was hoping to see Saint John in Halifax, but that was hoping for a lot.

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies faced off against the Gatineau Olympiques at the Arena Dave Keon. The Huskies lost 6-2 on home ice. Photos are available through the Huskies official photographer - Michel Fortin's site.

I mean geeze Huskies, at least we lost in OT on home ice. You are going to have to do better than that. Unfortunately they cannot, Gatineau have some big snipers, and despite all the fuss about how well 'the Gouge' has been for the Huskies in these playoffs, he was not really that good against Saint John and I don't expect much more from him facing the Olympiques.

Captain Jean-Philip Chabot had a hat trick and Squirrels Giroux netted one goal and had three helpers. Paul Byron and Gerrit Fauser rounded out Gatineau's scorers. Pistilli, Prokop, and Labrie helped out with a number of assists. Hubert Labrie also has a quick hits interview that you can read on the QMJHL sight right now.

Claude Giroux is a rabid squirrel, nibbling and clawing his way to the top of the Q with 41 points, 15 points more than his nearest competitor. This is why Philly fans should rejoice.

Tyler Hawes and Yannick Riendeau scored for the Huskies. The Huskies PK did not look so good as they allowed the Olympiques to get 4 goals on 6 powerplay attempts. They are either going to have to get back to shutting down the opposing team's power play or smartening up and not taking so many penalties (not likely). If their pride is the offensiveness of their defense and not the defensiveness of their defense...the Huskies are screwed. However, I was looking over the game photos and it does look like they were smart enough to hurt Byron. The Piques are wee tiny things and should be easy to break. Was Groulx being literal when he leaked that his team have a weakness.

Gougeon allowed 5 goals on 34 shots (0.85 save %) whereas Mior allowed only 2 goals on 27 shots (0.926 save %). Mind you, Gougeon is not as easy to dislike with a full beard,when compared to his normal meticulously groomed cornucopia of hair-douchebaggery, but I will stick with Mior because he still looks as wonderfully psychotic as ever.

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Team USA cannot afford name plates on their jerseys, or matching gloves, or team USA helmets and pads for their goalie. That country is just Ghetto. This is war time people, America must conserve its resources. It was fun not having a game schedule and trying to guess the team USA players by face alone (many did not have their usual team numbers). Like I am going to recognize someone from the St Louis Blues - HA. Boyfriend was useless, he has no idea what Paul Martin looks like. Neither of us knew who David Backes was (sorry Backes). We still managed to recognize 3/4 of the team by face alone. Here is the USA roster.

Moose vs Olympiques: Game 4. Pride, Heart, Determination?

Hello
Is anybody there?


Me - "Oh Colby. Hi, how are you? What is that? You are looking for the rest of the team? Have you found anybody yet? "

Colby - "Yeah I think I see Whitey, maybe Knotek. Yeti got here a little late. You would think he could have shown up about an hour and a half earlier since he runs on Nfld time."


Me - "Good ol' Whitey. He always shows up doesn't he. Thank God I chose him as my favorite forward, other wise I might be let down by the high expectations but low production of our 'stars', you know, if I was the kinda girl who was into 'stars'. So who assisted on your goal?"

Colby - "Two big birds."

Me - "Pender and Swan?"

Colby - "Yeah, those guys."

Me - "How was Whitey?"

Colby - "Up to his old tricks."

Me - "Good Puppy."

Colby - "I got a goal yesterday too."

Me - "Good for you. Did you know that my girl CG finds you attractive? It must be the character thing. We have such very different taste. I like my boys to be very soft looking"

Colby - "Is she single? Is she French? French girls are nice!"

Me - "I feel the same way about French boys. As for CG, her husband is half French...France French. Sorry!
Speaking of French boys, how is Pier doing?

Colby - "Pier has shaved. That beard really wasn't working for him. Other than that, he has become quite good at pine surfing, door opening, gum chewing, and fingernail examining. He also feels more relaxed since he no longer has to worry about the quality of the ice in his crease. Man he gets so paranoid about the ice in his crease....or at least he did when he had a crease."

Me - "Gee, did any of the Halifax boys actually make the trip to Gatineau? "

Colby - "Halifax boys- let me think? Well I know Bona was here at some point because he assisted on my goal yesterday and he was a -1 for both games, which considering that we lost 6-1 and 5-2, is not half bad. He didn't even take a penalty. PEI was rocking it - Logan helped a bit. Damn it feels good to be an island - I mean, from an island"

Me- "Like Newfoundland, PEI or Cape Breton. Home sweet home. But I do not think that PEI reps combining for 6 minutes of penalty time is exactly RAWKING. Do you think Whitey will let me hug him?"

Colby - "He could use a good nuzzle!"

Me - "Excellent"

Colby - "Just be careful, he is a little angry and he's been biting. He doesn't think that being told to wear a wig or shave your beard is actually an effective coaching strategy for winning playoff games."

Me - "The two of you would have been excellent on a shut down line. You know, if we had a shut down line."

Colby - "Tell me about it."

Moose vs Olympiques: Game 3. Shut down lines. We don't need no stinking shut down lines!

Moose lose 6-1. Yeti was pulled with about 15 minutes remaining in the third. P-O got his chance in nets, he let in no goals. Go Go P-O. I am glad you got some playoff minutes in, in this, your last year in the Q. Something about your standing at the net just makes me feel right.

From the mouth of the inexperienced:
Russell, on matching lines: "Typically, your matches are, you want to have your top defencemen out against the other team's top lines, but forwards against forwards, we don't get caught up in that much. You could have a coach where every offensive faceoff, he would put a line on that would make us take our top line off. We trust all our forwards to play against any line out there."

Paul Byron and Claude Giroux were kicking our asses again. The only Moose goal was scored by Colby Pridham from MacMillan and Bona. White and Pridham had 4 shots on net each, Voracek only had one, Marchand had none. I don't want to talk about it. I watched the first two periods and then had plans to go out with a friend. I will watch the end of the third tomorrow to catch my glimpse of P-O. There is no way a team of this caliber that makes it to the semi-finals should get swept unless ....

ps. high quality Telus feeds suck. They keep freezing. It is not worth the money

Moose vs Olympiques: Game 2. No goalie, don't go.

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Mooseheads vs Olympiques: Game 1. Meh.

The Gatineau Olympiques defeated the Halifax Mooseheads 2-1 in overtime. There I got that off of my chest. You can read Wuest' s game blog at the Metro. I am ready for game two. I don’t think Gatineau outplayed us, but I also do not think that the Moose gave their hardest fought effort. Maybe it is just that both teams are really rusty from being off for more than a week and they were also testing out the waters, since we have only faced each other twice this season.

The three stars were Byron, Giroux and Yetmen who had a 0.94 save %.

Gatineau opened the scoring at 8:28 into the second with a goal by Byron from Pistilli and Giroux. Pistilli sounds delicious; I assume it contains pine nuts and wild mushrooms in a cream sauce with port. Voracek responded for the Mooseheads ten minutes later with a goal on the powerplay. Then I had to sit there and watch as we did nothing 5 on 5 for the rest of regulation except throw the puck to the side of the net. Byron finished us off in OT.

If you think the things I say about Travis Fullerton are bad, you are lucky that I don’t say what I think about the Moose goalies – so nuzzley sweet. My feelings for P-O can be likened to Michael’s crush on the Chair Model in a recent episode of the office. It is just that sad. There was a feature on the goalies in this week’s team program and this, of course, got me sooo excited that my Lady balls dropped.

Neither the Mooseheads nor Gatineau forwards actually wasted their time challenging the goalies – 33 vs 36 shots in 74:15 minutes of play. I think Yeti was challenged by the forwards moreso than Ryan Mior. Gatineau had a couple of breakaway chances that Yeti handled with aplomb. Thank the Gods for Yeti. So while Yeti faced only a few more shots than Mior, they were more dangerous shots. I don’t know how many times our forwards missed the net. Mior must wear a puck repelling cologne or he is a very lucky bitch.

I must give credit to the Ds for keeping the puck away from the net. Go defense go. More specifically go O’MacMonabonaenderchuk. I am not saying Go Go Gatineau Ds - I would not do that. Our defense helped with killing off a full 4 powerplays and kept that squirrely Giroux away from the net. Now all we have to do is try to avoid falling down in OT followed by standing around in shock as Byron skates by with the puck, gets into our zone all alone, comes face to face with Yeti, and gets a goal. It made Andrew White so angry that Byron stole his move (except Byron went glove side on Yeti, not blocker side like White did with Roy) that he tried to smash his stick on the boards right in front of me.

Hooray for me. I managed to resist stealing Claude Giroux and putting him in my pocket and taking him home. I secretly love him and I want to keep him in a cage with a wheel. I promise I will give him fresh food and water everyday. He is growing a little goatee thing. Awwww he thinks he is men. Clermont is pretty adorable too, such chubby little cheeks. I am also an orange junkie, which means that while I don’t really like his pads because they are gaudy and I like white pads, I still kinda like his pads. The orange is a bold choice. Did I mention his chubby cheeks?

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news links:
Gatineau wins Game One.

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Special message to Carey Price:
What the fuck Carey!!! I don't just love you because you are pretty, I mean it helps, but come-on guy - pull it together. You got a shut out with a big pimple on your nose, and yet when you look good - nothing. 10 goals against in two games. You and Fully are up in the same abysmal tree. Get out of that tree, back onto the ice, and play like you have never played in your life.