Another Game for Milos!

This is how I feel right now.




Another game, another win.  I can get used to this!  Our beloved torch holders gave another solid effort last night.  It's interesting to see that we've been able to win games start to finish.  We've dropped 2 goal leads and won in OT and we've dropped 2 goal leads to find ourselves down by one just to come back and win in regulation. Me likey.

Couple of notable things: It was nice to see Bourque & Cole get on the score sheet.  What a shot by René.  He's been playing well all year and it finally went in for him last night.  After seeing that one timer, it makes you wonder why this guy doesn't put up 30 a year.  Carey was good.  A little soft on a couple, but he stood tall in the 3rd when it mattered most.  The refs must have been on crack for giving Prust that diving call.  Granted he went down like a bullet severed his spinal chord but he did get pushed from behind.  And in typical 2013 Habs style, 5'7 Desharnais went nose to euh... chest with 6'6 Antropov.  You gotta love that team spirit.  And last but not least, the Gals came out to play last night.  What a wrister by Gallagher while using the Dman as a screen and Galchenyuk continues to skate hard and create chances.

Therrien has himself a nice little problem trying to figure out how to integrate PK in the mix.  Logic tells you that Kaberle is the odd man out, but it's never easy to mess with a winning lineup.  Hopefully he'll take a puck off the throat and make it easier on everybody.  I kid, I kid.

Back on the ice in Ottawa tonight.  They played last night too so no excuses.  That's what I love the most about lockouts.  When they do come back, we've got 4 games a week!

Oh, and it's my birthday.  35 sucks Gomez balls.

Please send me a gift in exchange for the gold I've been posting on this site.

Signed at last, signed at last, thank god almighty he is signed at last!

Praise Jesus!  The kid finally smartened up and made millions of Habs fans very Happy.  Not only that but he also assured the survival of this blog for another 2 years!

It was announced just a few hours ago that PK signed for around 5.75M over 2 years.  Basically, the same exact offer that has been on the table all this time.  I have to admit, I was sweating it a bit over the weekend. I even made a bet with HF4 that it wouldn't get done.  So now we have ourselves a team.  I give it 4 games before he and Markov drop the gloves in practice and he demands a trade.  I kid, I kid.  I have a feeling PK just took a huge bite of humble pie.  He was forced to sign a deal he thought he was worth more than and he saw his team flourish without him.  And to top it all off, he comes back to work for a hardass coach that isn't gonna take any shit from him.  PK, you know I love you, but this was the best thing for you.  Now go out there and earn your 7 million per in 2 years.  We'll all be happy to give it to you.  Especially given that it's not our money.

But now, let's give a HUGE pat on the back to Marc Bergevin.  The guy stood his ground.  Didn't move an inch and when several GMs would have caved, he dug in there and came out on top.  What a message this sends to the rest of the team.  Love it!

We here at the PKists have always found a way to get privileged info from negotiations.  We're the wikileaks of the low budget hockey blogs.  So don't ask me how I did it but here is a cable with the negotiations over the last few months between the team and PK.

Bergevin:  PK, you're a huge piece of this team and we want you around for a long time.  But you're just starting out so we think 2 years at 5.75M is a fair deal.  Perform and you'll get the monster contract after.

PK: Donnie says I can get more.  Crosby, Stamkos, Ovechkin, they all got big contracts right after their entry level deals.  I want 6 years at 6 million per.

Bergevin: Nigga please.  Did you just compare yourself to those guys?  They're the top three forwards in the league.  Well maybe not Ovechkin anymore but he was when he signed his deal.  How about 5.75M over 2 years?

PK: That's crazy.  I played 28 mins a game.  I'm calling the NAACP.  How about 6 years at 5M per?

Bergevin:  It's still a bit rich.  I'm thinking more like 5.75 over 2 years.

PK: WTF Marc?  Aren't you gonna negotiate?  I have rights you know.

Bergevin: What rights?  You're a 23 year old turning down over 5 million dollars to play hockey over 2 years.  Call Jesse Jackson for all I care.

Season starts.  Habs Lose 2-1 to the shitty Leafs

PK: Pay up!  You guys can't win without me

Bergevin:  OK PK.  I'll go up to 5.75 M over 2 years.

PK: Motherfucker!  We both know this team is shit without me.  Your powerplay sucked, you can't move the puck, and nobody in that locker room can dance for shit.  You need me.  5 years, 5 million per.

Bergevin: I have a good feeling about Markov.  I think he'll make up for your absence.  He might even score 4 goals in the next 3 games, 3 of which will be game winners, one of them in OT.  I just get that feeling.

PK: That old one legged Russian can't replace me.  He'll never score 4 goals.  Not even all year.  5 years, 4 million.  That's my final offer.  If you don't take it, I'm gonna sign somewhere else.

Bergevin: I gotta go, Californication is starting.  5.75 over 2 years.  Think about it.

Habs go on a tear, win 3 in a row on the back of one Andei Markov

PK: Ok Marc, you made your point.  How about 4 years, 4 million per.

Bergevin:  You know what PK, I actually like the team the way it is.  Everybody seems to be getting along, the team is winning... I'm not sure I wanna screw with that right now.  Let's talk on Valentine's day.

PK: OK OK!!  You win.  5.75 over 2 years.

Bergevin: Who's your daddy PK?

All jokes aside, this kid is the real deal.  If it took this whole episode for him to realize that the NHL is not at his feet just yet, then it was well worth it.  So tear it up PK.  We're all behind you.

You're the man Mr. Bergevin!

Habs score 4 on Brodeur, stain his hall of fame career forever.

We all knew it had to eventually all come crashing down.  Martin Brodeur's stellar career has been destroyed.  The 58 shutouts he posted on Bell Center ice have been forgotten.  We won.  We scored 4 times.  The last time he let in 4 goals in Montreal was in his first pee-wee game.  Marty, or as I like to call him, Lucifer, has caused us enough pain.  It was time for him to be put down.  The exorcism had to happen.




Although Lucifer let in 4 goals, it's hard to blame him for his team's loss.  The Habs once again played well.  The goals were pretty much unstoppable.  Nobody likes to see a 2 goal lead evaporate, but as Therrien put it, they beat the defending Eastern Conference champs who had not yet lost a game this season.  Hard to find something to bitch about there.  You gotta love to see a guy like Ryan White, who leads the entire league in PIMs by the way, get his name on the score sheets.  Proving the old adage, crash the net and good things will happen.  The Gals (I'm trademarking that) got into it also with Alex feeding Brandon with a perfect pass that he roofed on Lucifer.  Now there's a story for Gallagher's grand kids.  Prust bats one out of the air and who else but the naturalized Canadian citizen scores in OT.  The guy has 3 game winners in a row.  It's like he went into PK's wallet and stole 6 million dollars.

Seriously, could you have imagined a worse scenario for PK?  The guy holds out because he wants #1 defenseman cash just to watch the actual #1 defenseman tear up the fucking league as he sits on his couch.  4 goals in 4 games, 3 game winners, PP clicking.  That's it PK, just sign the damn deal and get back on the ice to help these guys.  And learn some Russian while you're at it.

Food for thought

DC has asked if I am going to blog more.

So that's about it.

Habs beat Caps. Adam Oats thinking of going on gluten free diet.

Well that was unexpected!  After a solid performance against a, let's face it, flat Panthers team, the Habs came out firing on all cylinders last night.  They made the Caps look tired and unorganized.  Something us Habs fans got to see first hand all of last year.  Everybody did their job.  I'm loving how Therrien is coaching the kids.  He's not throwing Galchenyuck and Gallagher out there at every chance he gets.  He picks his spots and gives them the best chance to succeed.  Perhaps the guy learned a thing or two while coaching a young Sidney Crosby.

But my favorite part about last night, was Prust sticking up for Boullion.  The game was pretty much over at 4-0.  The hit wasn't even that bad.  But he stepped up almost out of principle to say: "Back the fuck up off my guy".  You gotta love that.  Not because of the message it sent to Matt Hendricks, but because of the message it sends to the whole league.  You wanna take liberties with our guys?  Go ahead.  But there's a price to pay.  1st period, 3rd period, up by 4 or down by 1, you're gonna pay.  We haven't seen that here in a loooong time.  This is exactly what Therrien means when he says he wants to run a team that's tough to play against.  This means that the other side is always thinking about the consequences of their actions.  And that messes with their minds, and affects their game.  Clearly this team will go 47-1 this year.

And lost in the last 2 wins is Carey Price.  I say that because the magnifying glass on this goalie is a hell of a lot smaller when he has a 3 goal lead.  He didn't have to be great the last 2 games, but he was anyways.  He's only let in 1 even strength goal this year and it was a meaningless goal to spoil his shutout.

So, to put things in perspective, so far so good.  I know it's only 2 wins, but in this shortened season, 2 wins is like 4 wins.  Next game will be a good test to see if we can exercise the demons of our past.  Brodeur comes to town on Sunday.  If we win, we're off to the races.  If we lose, fire the coach.

Enough already.

At first this PK thing didn't seem to be a big problem.  He'd sit out the one week training camp and would sign on game day and everything would be fine.  But now it has taken on a life of its own.  Both parties keep saying it's business, but this thing seems to go deeper than that.  Don Meehan has been in this business longer than PK has been breathing.  He knows full well what the kid is worth and in my mind, he has advised him to take a deal because sitting out an entire season will definitely not improve his market value.  PK seems to be making a point.  Like he doesn't want to cave.  The problem is that the love and admiration he gets from the fans is, pardon the pun, on thin ice.  I'm a perfect example.  I love the kid.  I write for a blog that was created in his honor.  He's the player on the Habs that I am most likely to pay to see.  But that was when his enthusiasm and charisma was based on what I thought was a pure love of the game.  It made him that much more appealing.  I equate it to the way Ovechkin played in his first few years.  You watched him and knew that nobody out there was having more fun than him.  It made him human and charming.  And the million dollar smile didn't hurt.

But now PK claims it's only business.  Well that's a double edged sword.  If it's just business, then the fans will treat you as a business partner.  If you play well, all is good.  But if you have a few bad games, you can forget about having a little extra slack from us.  When Martin benched you for a few games, we welcomed you back.  When you had a slow start, we were all cheering for you to get better.  But now, we just want results.  No more patience, no more understanding.  You think you're worth 5+ million?  Well then you don't get a break.  You cough up the puck and cost us the game?  We'll come down hard.  How hard?  Ask the Breezer.  I'm sure he told his shrink how nasty we can get.

So PK, think about what you want.  A short 2 year deal might seem like a raw deal to you, but if you get that big contract after (like we all think you will), you will have earned every cent.  But by doing this, your already fragile reputation in your own locker room will take yet another hit. And for the love of god, stop saying it's out of your hands.  It's ALL in your hands.  The agent works for you, not the other way around.  And don't think for a second that we believe Donny Meehan is encouraging you to fuck up your career.

So think long and hard.  By my estimation, you've got 4 or 5 days of "sympathy" left.  After that, you're just another spoiled kid who thinks the world is at his feet.  You may be a great hockey player, and that's thanks to your talent.  But this city will make you a legend.  If you don't see the value in that, sign an 8 year deal in Columbus.

You have the city in the palm of your hand.  Be careful before you flush it down the toilet.

These are the days of our Habs

The season is one game old and the line juggling is already starting.  Bourque gets a promotion, Gallagher gets a shot, Galchenyuk gets to play center and Eller gets the shaft... and those are the days of our Habs.

I can already foresee the soap opera type drama unfolding this shortened season.  You ready for it?  Here goes...

Bourque gets an undeserved promotion, which triggers a series of events.  First, in a fit of rage, Eller decides to flex his danish muscles and build a replica Lego Bell Center that he smashes with his hockey stick.  A broken piece of Lego flies onto the ice and Galchenyuk skates over it, causing a major wipe out that severs all ligaments in both his knees.  The doctors decide to amputate.  The shock of this news sends an already fragile Tomas Kaberle in a downward spiral.  He goes missing for 4 days.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (Brossard), Carey Price is branding cattle in between practices.  He mistakes Colby for Bessy.  Now Armstrong has a big "CP" on his ass.  This wouldn't be such a big deal but his wife thinks CP stands for Christina Punani , his Indian porn star ex-girlfriend.  She obviously divorces him and falls madly in love with Josh Gorges.  Gorges, who has a girlfriend, is now caught in this love triangle that results in him having a threesome in Bergevin's office.  Bergevin catches them in the act and decides to offer PK unlimited threesome access as part of his deal.  PK thinks this is a sweet deal and signs an 8 year deal.  On his way to his first practice, he is distracted by a naked Kaberle roaming the streets.  He crashes his Prius (shocking, right?) into a fire hydrant and the airbag deploys into his face and destroys his money making smile, killing all his endorsement deals.  With PK injured, Markov regains the #1 defenceman tag.  While at his Russian Citizen Anonymous meeting, he breaks down and admits he can't take the pressure.  He also says he prefers Quebec's Poutine to Vladimir Putin.  He is found dead the next morning with cheese curds where his eyeballs used to be.

All that because fucking Bourque is on the second line.

And they say Montreal is a tough place to play.

Post game review: We'll let you know if the Habs ever show up

Well that was anti-climactic.  After months and months of waiting, this is the vile show we were given.  2.5 periods of garbage followed by 10 minutes of slightly less horrible garbage.

Bright spots:  4th line

Shit: Our 1st line, discipline, Kaberle, powerplay, No PK (Pernell), Kaberle, trapping when down by 2 goals, Kaberle and also Kaberle.

Things I heard while watching this display:  "Gomez! Gomez!" "We want PK!"  "Is the lockout over?"  "No amount of free beer can undo this"

Ok, now that I got that out of the way, let's regroup.  Yes, that was a sorry excuse for an effort.  It may have been the first game, but it was also the first game for the shitty Leafs and they were on the road.  So enough with that excuse.  They sucked balls.  Big balls.

Two more of these stinkers and PK might as well ask for 14 million a year for 16 years.  Next up are the Panthers and their recently acquired Russian superstar Alex Kovalev.  Who by the way is on pace to score 48 goals this year.

T'was the night before puckdrop

Well, we're finally here.  I feel like a teenage boy about to lose his virginity.  I'm nervous, excited but also a little disappointed that the girl I really wanted (PK) is not the one I'm about to make sweet love to for 2.8 seconds.  That analogy made less and less sense as I wrote it.

Nevertheless, the shortened season is upon us.  Time to put our frustrations aside and enjoy what is left of the season.  Could the Habs have planned it any better?  Just as it's getting bitterly cold and we all want to commit suicide, they show up like the knight in shining armor to talk us off the ledge.  We will finally have something to talk about at the office, at school, in stripclubs, etc..

First team to feel the wrath of our 7-9th place team is Toronto.  We can always count on them to help us feel better about our situation.  If the Habs are going nowhere, then the Leafs have already been there for 7 years.  Despite our underachieving teams, we always get a good show when they come to town.  I still remain hopeful that PK will surprise us all, sign a 6 year 1.2M deal, and make it on the ice for the pregame skate.  Here's hopin'...

So.  Let's get ready for a great season and, god willing, some springtime hockey in a few months.

Go Habs Go!

Sign PK.  Now.  Do it.

T minus 102 hours till puck drop. Still no black guy in sight.

So am I the only one nervous about this whole standoff thing between Bergevin and PK?  I mean, the kid wants a long term deal (let's say 6 yrs) and the Habs would rather give him a 2yr deal to have him cement himself as an elite Dman before they make him the best paid player on the team.  Seems to me like there is plenty of room to negotiate.  Unless of course Bergevin and Meehan take their compromising lessons from Bettman and Fehr.  If that's the case, then expect PK back sometime in April.

Something is definitely fishy.  Does the kid really want to stay here?  If he did, would he not take a 4yr deal? I mean the Habs can't afford to lose him, but I can understand a reluctance to sign him to 6 or even 8 years right away.  Don Meehan has done this often enough to know what the kid is worth and that holding out into the season is bad for everyone.  Maybe there's more to this story.  Perhaps Meehan slept with Bergevin's wife while PK videotaped it and now it's awkward.  Or maybe they all went to see Django together and Bergevin got carried away and started dropping N-Bombs.  Because if everything was honky dory, there's no way it would take this long.

If this was a regular year with a full camp and endless preseason games, I wouldn't be freaking, but is this guy supposed to sign and suit up the next day without so much as a full practice?  I know black guys are way better athletes but this might be pushing it!

I guess this is Bergevin's first test.  Don't fuck this up buddy, or you'll see how fast we'll all turn on you.  And as long as I'm giving advice, how about we don't wait so long to sign the guys we all know are cornerstones of the franchise.

Just sign him.  Now.

Go home, Gomez

Well this is interesting.  Are we trading Scott?  Of course not.  There is not enough acid on the  planet to get another GM to take him off our hands.  Are we sending him to Hamilton?  Nope.  Why would we infect another dressing room with his presence.  Are we buying him out?  Wrong again!  Buying him out now would make no sense since the amnesty clause of the new CBA only kicks in after this shortened season.  So the solution?  Go home.  Not only will we pay you in full and have your elephant sized salary on our books all year, but you can sit on your couch from now till April to earn it.  You know a team doesn't want anything to do with you when they would rather pay you to leave them alone.  That's like a guy paying a hooker not to sleep with him.  Here's $500, go away.

Hard to argue with the move. I just thought new management would want to see for themselves what the Alaxican sensation was made of (Ice and black beans apparently).  Supposedly Scott took it well.  No shit!  If my boss called me in tomorrow to tell me he would continue to pay me but he would rather I stay home, I'd be pretty damn psyched about it.  And to top it all off, he will get an handsome buyout at the end of the year to earn his freedom to sign with another team.  And let's get something straight, he will sign.  I know the poor bastard is hated by everyone on this island, but at 1 million a year, i'd take him.

So after this deal was finally reached last week, it was a pretty bitter sweet feeling across the board.  Happy that it's over but annoyed it had to get to this.  I think the owners have the right to dictate their terms.  It is after all their money.  But I did feel for the players after they got "destroyed" after the 2004 lockout.  But let's get something straight.  If there is an owner out there willing to give this guy one penny more than a million bucks a year, I will hunt him down and murder him with my bear hands.

Eat my ass Glen Sather.

Well well well. Look who decided to take their heads out of their asses.

Holy shit.  They did it.  They saved the season.  Very early Sunday morning, Gary and Donny finally stopped being two little pricks and made a deal.  Now all they have to do is convince their respective sides to sign on the dotted line. So assuming they do (and with their track records, I won't hold my breath), we should be looking at a 48-52 game season starting around Jan 19.

I gotta tell you I'm a little torn.  Obviously I'm happy hockey is back.  The 12 cents a year this blog produces  is essential to my survival.  But even without my financial stake in this, a little part of me was almost hoping to watch the whole thing burn down.  I was so turned off by this mess that I wanted to put the jerseys away and start figuring out the rules of curling.  But, let's focus on the positive.  Saturday nights will get way more interesting (for us married folk) and god willing, some playoff hockey will make this whole thing a distant memory come April.

So enjoy your Sunday and get ready for the Scott Gomez buyout!

Oh and PK better already be in Bergevin's office.