RECAP of fun-ness!

So many things to recap right now so prior to my must-see-holiday-movie-list that I am working VERY hard on- I wanted to blog about a few things that have happened in the past week or so.

First: It is game day meaning one of 2 things.- tomorrow Habs fans will be planning where they will be watching the Habs win the Cup or tomorrow Habs fans will be calling for Carbonneau’s head on a platter, claiming Gainey is an idiot and discussing the merits of a non-French speaking captain. The team looks like they seem to have gotten past the lack of confidence problem that was making it hard to win game and Sergie Kostitsyn looks like a good fit for the Koivu top line. How long will it last… who knows?

Second: Melnick remote at Mechant Beouf

I have to be honest, I normally do not love doing remotes because they make me really nervous. It always turns out better than I expect because of all the wonderful people that take time out of their day to come down and hang out, participate in the show and of course come over to say hello! This time was no different. A big thank you to the Resto/Hotel and everyone who stopped by. Also due to the lovely folks working homeland security we got to spend more time with Bill Lee who was in fine form at the show.

TEAM 990 Staff Party

Our party this year was at Irish Embassy. A first time there for me and it was great! As usual with the TEAM 990 get-togethers it was a total sausage fest so I brought along some girls that do my show TOTALLY BROAD (on hiatus till January) which I am sure upped that bar bill significantly. A good time was had by all and I think most of us were suffering for it the next day!

Bring on the Bruins

Yes Yes the movie list is coming. Hold your horses! I just had to write in today following that abysmal loss to the Wings last night. The Habs had 16 shots on net last night and won 40% of the face-offs. You don't need to look at a stat sheet to see that they are having problems. I think it is important to remember however, before everyone panics, that the team looked SO much better at the beginning of the season. If they were good then, they can be good again in my opinion. The problem for the Canadiens as I see it is simple. They can win games against top teams when everyone contributes and the effort is there on every shift. However you get a few passengers or fall behind and say goodnight Gracie.

How do the Canadiens now find themselves so low on confidence that they can not manage a come from behind win? How does Andre Markov suddenly become a glaring weakness on the team? How does Micheal Ryder suddenly look like the second coming of Sergie Samsonov? What happened to Francis Boullion? There are a lot of unanswered questions right now for the Habs. Lets hope that Maxim Lapierre and Ryan O'Byrne have some answers.

Do they do this on purpose?

How many times have the Habs let a goal sneak in with under 20 seconds to go forcing overtime? I mean my goodness, I think I am going to have to send my massage therapy bill to the Canadiens for all the undue stress they have caused me! We are supposed to be impartial but I cant help but hope for the win especially with a 4-3 lead on the Leafs. Those late goals are just killers but I have to confess, I love overtime and most of the time I love the shootout. I am sure all the hockey purists are groaning out loud but I can't help it I love seeing the different moves especially when I am expecting something and they do something else. Perfect example; Alex Kovalev last night. I thought for sure he would pull some kind of deke and instead he roof s a beautiful shot over Toskala.
Feelings on OT and shootouts??

Also as the holidays are approaching I am in desperate need of a new book to read. Its so hard to choose books, I get way too overwhelmed in bookstores and every good book I have read is from a recommendation. So, here are mine for you:
BEST easy reading: The Curious incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by: Mark Haddon or Save Karyn By Karyn Bosnak

Just damn good books:
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Papillion by Henri Charriere
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (read it quick before they make it into a movie!!)

OK thats all you get for now! Send me in your top pics. Im also a bit of a movie snob so I will be putting together a list of must-sees that you can check out on vacation!

I have been relegated to: 'Sister to Myshka'. - Myshka is a dog.

Has anyone else's parents inched closer to insanity with retirement or is it just mine? I was met at my parents house this weekend with a cry of "Myshkaaaaa! Your sisters are here" Which would not be all that strange except for the fact that Myshka is a Black Lab/Rottweiler who has somehow usurped my sister and I as my parents favorite child.

It was a wonderful long weekend on the heels of a week rife with discussion of Hall of Fame entries and who should and should not go into the Hall. To be honest I have a hard time when we talk about the Hall of Fame because more often than not the contenders are a little before my time and I did not see them play with my own eyes. All I have to go on is usually whatever is on the record about the possible inductees, and as I have realized over the past few years is that, at times the pundits get it wrong. This I do know however; the HOF should be reserved for those that were way out in front of the rest in the era they played. Not great player, hell of a guy etc etc but the truly exceptional. Otherwise why bother. I think Mitch put it best when he said something along the lines of - "If there is a debate over whether or not they go in, you have your answer." I like the simplicity of this rationalization. It reminds me of another story making the headlines this week; What is the future of Jim Pop as head coach of the Alouettes.

All knowing (with curiously svelte legs) Herb Zurkowsky wrote in the Gazette today that Owner Robert Wetenhall has plans to meet with three offensive veterans: Ben Cahoon, Bryan Chiu and Kerry Watkins about the strengths and weaknesses of Popp, the team's general manager and head coach. I think if it gets to the point where there appears to be so many malcontents on the team that the owner needs input from the players to try and get the real story.... you already have your answer. I hate to qualify an opinion but I will say that I respect everything that Jim Pop has done as a GM with the Als and he has never been anything but friendly and forthcoming with me, however I do not think having a GM as Coach is ever really a good idea. In some cases it works but I think there is a conflict of interest there that can have a disastrous outcome on the club. That being said, we must remember the Als were dealt a few significant blows this season, not the least of which being the injury/D-listing of Tim Strickland and Anthony Calvillo making the absolute right decision by leaving to be with his sick wife. So the Als will not win the Grey Cup- but who cares? The Habs are going to win the cup!

Poor Andie and stupid journalists with a personal mandate

Hi guys! First I want to thank all the folks who took time to email me telling me that I am right and Mitch is wrong. No better way to start the day! I won't draw out this topic but I do think that my point was slightly misunderstood by Mitch and Pierre. I am the last person to focus on the negative regarding the Canadiens. I agree that Carey Price is a great goalie, future of the Habs etc.. but lets not get ahead of ourselves.. we should be just as critical of his play as we are of Cristobal Huet. Thats all.

That being said; as much as I appreciate the emails talking about how hard Mitch is on me sometimes, one of the great things about Mitch is that you can have a heated discussion/disagreement with him and nothing is ever personal. I enjoy the challenge of working with Mitch, if nothing else he keeps me on my toes and expects nothing but the best from the people he works with and tries to do the best possible show every single day. Don't feel too bad for me. I'm scrappy, I can take it.

Another topic I don't want to dwell on but I have to mention is the yearly visit from the TVA contingent showing up at practice and wasting everyones time with inane questions to Saku Koivu and Coach Carbo. First of all it would be lovely if these bozos had enough class to remain quiet after they get their xenophobic questions out of the way for the rest of Carbos press conference. I know its a lot to ask, but you just made all the reporters sit in the room while you beat a dead horse for 10 mins the least you could do is not screw up the rest of our audio with sounds of you taking down your camera, dropping tapes then conversing with your token English speaking (barely) reporter you brought along while Carbo is still talking. Second of all if it is such a cinch to learn a new language, why don't you learn some English? I love the irony of a uni-lingual French speaker telling another Bi-lingual person that they should learn French. ARRG! And they wonder why young people are leaving Quebec. Its no mystery to me. We are fed up with this. I love being Bi-lingual. It is truly an asset for anyone but its a choice. Even for the Captain of the Canadiens. He owes you nothing more than giving his all on the ice and being a good leader for his team.

Am I missing something here?

Well despite the fact that lovely listener 'lynch mob' enjoys commenting on my blog about how I should stick to 'weather and traffic' I will risk embarrassment once again and write about sports. And BTW Lynch Mob- Rod does traffic and weather. I do sports updates.

So after yesterdays practice that had 5 guys wearing the dismal gray jerseys we arrive today at practice to find that not only will Guillaume Latendresse sit this one out but so will Steve Begin. STEVE BEGIN??? The guy who is throwing himself in front of pucks in the pre-season? Steve Begin the guy who is sporting a chrome dome for a young fan going through chemo that he doesn't want to feel like an outcast? Steve Begin the heart of the team that leaves it all out on the ice every single time he laces them up?
I understand that Begin is not the number one point getter on the team but he has certainly not been a disappointment after 3 games of the regular season. And if there was something that Carbonneau saw that he did not like does Begin not merit a least a sit down for some constructive criticism before he rides the pine?
Begin found out he was not playing this morning by showing up at practice and noticing that his name was conspicuously absent from the wipe-off board.

After Carbonneau pointed out in the off-season that communication was one of the areas of his coaching style that needed improvement it is a bit surprising that a Canadiens workhorse would not get a personal word from the coach before hand that may have made the disappointing news a bit easier to swallow.

And here is why I love Begin. His response: 'I am going to do whatever I have to do to make sure that this never happens again.' Now that is a player you want on your team.

Where will the Habs finish

I am not going to pretend that I am enough of a hockey analyst to accurately rate how the eastern conference is going to shake out before even 1 game of the regular season is played. What I do know is that there is more to a team than a power-forward or a bona fide enforcer. For me successful teams usually have more to do with how the players jive together than individual strengths. I am calling the Canadiens to finish 7th and I feel justified in doing so because:

-The Habs missed the playoffs last year by a mere 2 points and they managed that with; the Samsanov soap opera, questionable goal-tending that got them down early far too often, a team wide flu, the Kovalev factor, Higgins injury, and a defense that let WAY too many goals make it to the goalie.

-Carbonneau will be better this year

-5 on 5 will be better (can't be much worse)

-Carey Price. Carey Price. Carey Price.

-Red Fisher called it and he knows everything.

As to where everyone else will finish I know the Flyers got way better but they lost 48 GAMES LAST SEASON! So I'll go:

1. Ottawa, have to admit Spezza, Alfredsson & Heatley pretty much kick ass
2. Carolina-can't downplay experience
3. Pittsburgh- If Crosby can pull his panties up
4. Flyers- they will be so amazed to not suck they'll finish strong
5. Sabres- I loved them last year...despite losing Briere and Drury they still have a lot of talent in Pominville, Afinogenov, Connolly etc..
6. Rangers- Avery is far too annoying to put them above 6th
7. Canadiens
8.Leafs- barf but hey it makes sense.

I have no clue about the west but I am rooting for the Red Wings cause they took Aaron Downey and he plays the game cause he loves it and is grateful for every day hes out on the ice.