Kenny

Well, that's it. Number 29 now hangs in the rafters of the Bell Centre, where it belongs. Kudos Kenny, and thanks for everything. I may have been two when he retired, but his hockey legend lives on. Eight seasons, 6 Stanley Cup Championships. Who can beat THAT? OK, the 1970's Canadiens might have been the best team to ever grace the sport of hockey, but without a goalie of Dryden's caliber, things might have been very different. Dryden is a true hockey legend and also one of its greatest chroniclers. Read his magnificient book The Game and you'll know what I mean. In fact, I might pick it up again, it's been years since I've read it.
Thanks Kenny!

As for tonight's game, all I have time to say now is that David Aebischer was clearly inspired by Dryden tonight. What saves!

I'm still there

Don't despair, my friends! I have not decided to unceremoniously abandon this newborn blog. It's just that, as the french say, shit has hit the fan. Work is keeping me busy busy busy. Too busy to write anything these days, but I shall be back, perhaps after the next Habs game on Saturday. See ya all soon!

My Body is a Cage

Même si je n'en peux plus d'attendre jusqu'au 6 mars pour entendre le prochain album d'Arcade Fire, Neon Bible, je m'étais juré de ne plus télécharger de pièces échangées sous le manteau, question de ne pas complètement diluer le plaisir d'écouter cet album tant attendu d'un bout à l'autre, comme il se doit. Malheureusement, la curiosité a eu le dessus et j'en ai téléchargé une autre, My Body is a Cage. Merde. Je m'en vais de ce pas l'écouter.
Vous ne pourriez pas me dire ou je pourrais trouver "Ocean of Noise", par hasard...

Mise à jour: Oubliez la dernière phrase. Je l'ai trouvée. Quelle belle pièce...

Vancouver debacle

Vancouver 4, Montreal 0.
I'm not going to waste what little free time I have to watch such a lousy spectacle on RDS' late night game rerun. I'd be better off watching another episode of Heroes.
It's official: we suck.

Puppy

David Carr of the New York Times has an interesting definition of what a blog is:

"For those of you who don’t have a blog yet, think of one as a large yellow Labrador: friendly, fun, not all that bright, but constantly demanding your attention."

Smart. The rest of the article is also a good read. Alex, you'd like his Oscar blog too...

Babel

Babel, le film sublime de Alejandro González Iñárritu, vient de remporter le Golden Globe du meilleur film dramatique remis par le Hollywood Foreign Press Association, un titre tout a fait mérité pour le film qui m'a le plus marqué cette année. Avec Babel, Iñarritu réussit le tour de force de paufiner les thèmes introduits (la mort, la peur de l'inconnu et de l'autre, la méfiance, l'échec de la communication menant à des malentendus tragiques mais surtout l'amour, l'amour fraternel et charnel qui donne à ses films une humanité hors du commun) dans ces deux précédents opus, Amores Perros et 21 Grams et de les amener vers les sommets. Bref, il réalise ici son film le plus ambitieux et le plus déroutant jusqu'ici. Et vous savez quoi? Mes espions me soufflent que le film vient de prendre l'affiche en Espagne. Al., Nat, ne le manquez pas...

Showdown at the Joe Louis Arena (we got shot)

Pow.
One more. Gawd, is this gonna end one day? Nos Glorieux played better tonight, but it wasn't enough to beat one of the best teams of the league year after year, Detroit. Abby played at decent game but was weak on the two goals he allowed. Since the beginning of the season, Montreal's power play has saved the day more than once, but that foutain of goals seems to have gone dry. Tonight, the Red Wings mocked our power play. That right, mocked. Chelios, an ex-Montreal captain, and Lidstrom, the Swedish international (close to 2700 games experience between the two of them) crushed our hope of getting close to Hasek's net. I can't recall the last time we won a game without scoring at least a power play goal. Everyone in hockey now knows the awful truth: Montreal just can't score at even strenght. Simple as that.
And to think we are playing Luongo and the Canucks next? Gawd help us.

The "gastro" excuse just ain't gonna cut it anymore...

Part of the reason for starting this blog is to fulfil a promise I have made to a friend over the holidays. Well, here it is, buddy, here it is. One of the things I promised to blog about are my beloved Habs.
So, what up with those Habs, you might ask?
Nothing too good, I'm afraid.
After four months of great hockey since the beginning of the season in September, things have taken a turn for the worst. Let's face it, Montreal is playing quite bad right now. They've lost six of their last eight, and have been so dismal against Ottawa on saturday, that I just don't see any way out of this slump right now. Huet's an All-Star, great, but boy was he bombarded last game... Hope this blow doesn't leave too many scars. Last week, players have blamed their poor performance on the "gastro" virus currently spreading in Montreal, which I know from personal experience is no joke, but now they have only themselves to blame for their poor standing on the ice. The Eastern Conference is highly competitive and it wouldn't take much for lower ranked, hungrier teams to sink their teeth into the Canadiens current lofty position in the overall standings.
But what needs to be done, one could ask? That one's for coach Carbonneau to answer, but if I may offer my two cents, I would suggest scrapping the real overall standings and replace them with the ones I have been able to build for the Montreal Canadiens over the last four months of devoted hard core gaming on my Playstation. In EA Sports NHL 07, my beloved Habs are the number one team in the league, well above anybody else! Go Habs Go!
That's unless YOU have a better idea. Anyone?

Ah! comme la neige a neigé... euh, pas vraiment...

Après un autre weekend sans neige, Montréal commence vraiment à me déprimer. Habituellement, ça fait longtemps que j'ai sorti mes skis ou ma planche. Rien au monde ne me fait plus plaisir qu'une journée sur les pentes, mais cet hiver, nada. Je n'irai pas me faire chier sur des pistes glacés ou découvertes, et il ne semble pas que je sois le seul. Mais bon, je garde espoir qu'une bonne bordée de neige frappera tôt ou tard le Québec (on en attend un peu demain, youppi!). On se voit sur les pentes en fin de semaine prochaine?

Mise à jour: Il neige! Enfin, une première bordée de neige digne de ce nom. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Attache ta tuque Gustave

Bon, j'suis pas très doué pour les mots de bienvenue, et comme il se fais tard je m'en tiendrai à l'essentiel: bienvenue, lecteur égaré. Je suis bien heureux que tu aie trouvé cette page ou j'entends bien disserter sur tout et sur rien afin de vous divertir et de me tenir en forme, car le muscle de l'écriture, il faut le faire travailler ou bien on le perds... Faut bien commencer quelque part, n'est-ce pas? Flaubert serait bien d'accord... Alors bienvenue, bienvenido, welcome, willkommen... OK, bon, c'est assez. Ciao!