Montreal Series

[RuthlessBurgher]

I thought we outplayed them in game 2, but Halak stole the game as if this were still the Caps series. Too bad we couldn't go 4-for-4 on the power play again, eh?

It was definitely odd not seeing Staal out there since he hasn't missed a game for us since entering the league. Too bad his Iron Man streak had to end, but I did like what I saw out of the Dupuis-Talbot-Cooke line. If they keeping things up, I wonder (assuming Staal is able to come back following the surgery to the tendon on the top of his foot) if they will keep this line together for a little while instead of re-uniting Kennedy-Staal-Cooke immediately. We could move Staal up to Malkin's line instead, hopefully to give the reigning Conn Smythe winner that boost that we haven't seen from him in the playoffs thus far.

The lines could go something like this:

Kunitz-Crosby-Guerin
Ponikarovsky-Malkin-Staal
Dupuis-Talbot-Cooke
Kennedy-Adams-Rupp (or Fedotenko)

[RuthlessBurgher]

Random thoughts after watching game 3:

Great to see Malkin with the Power Play Goal after a scoring drought.

Great to see Fleury with the shutout and Dupuis with the empty net clincher in their home province (hopefully, we can get similar results out of fellow Quebecois Letang and Talbot tomorrow as well).

Great to hear that Staal was able to take part in the morning skate so soon after tendon surgery on his foot (and practiced in full gear with the team today).

Does anyone else get freaked out a little bit by those Bell ads on the corner boards in both Ottawa as well as Montreal (you know, the one with the guys chin that grows a beard as the game progresses?)

[Jigawatts]

(Jigawatts chants) Fleury Fleury Fleury


Ruthless, are you talking about the guy wearing what appears to be a Habs jersey?
He already freaked me out, but now that I'm aware that he's progressively growing a
beard as the game goes on, I'm doubly freaked.

[Jigawatts]

Here's another billboard question or two.

Pizza Pizza - Is that advertising Little Caesers or is there actually a place called Pizza Pizza?

Tim Hortons - What can I say, but the billboard is doing it's job. I've never been to a Tim
Hortons and every time I see an advertisement I want to take a trip to the Niagara Falls area.
They did have one at Nationwide Arena when I attended a Pens game, but I figured it
wouldn't be the same.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Here's another billboard question or two.

Pizza Pizza - Is that advertising Little Caesers or is there actually a place called Pizza Pizza?

Tim Hortons - What can I say, but the billboard is doing it's job. I've never been to a Tim
Hortons and every time I see an advertisement I want to take a trip to the Niagara Falls area.
They did have one at Nationwide Arena when I attended a Pens game, but I figured it
wouldn't be the same.

Pizza Pizza is it's own place. I asked the same question when first visited my buddy Ian in Ottawa back in the mid-90's. Apparently, they have one phone number nationwide that connects you to a call center, which forwards your order to the local Pizza Pizza joint.

Tim Hortons has excellect doughnuts (I don't drink coffee, so I can't comment on that). Within the past year, former Penguin tough guy Dennis Bonvie opened up a bakery near where I work in Wilkes-Barre. At the Grand Opening, I asked him why he didn't just bring a Tim Hortons franchise down here, and he said that it would have cost him much more in franchise fees and the like than it would to just open an upstart business. He said that to make the franchisee investment worth it, he'd have to open multiple Tim Hortons throughout the area (which would have certainly had been cool for me), but he wasn't ready to fork over that kind of dough at that point.

Now you've made me hungry for Canadian cuisine. Need to make a run for the border (the other one) for some poutine.

[Jigawatts]

The Dennis Bonvie place is giving me mental images of Stan Makita's Donut's from
Waynes World. Anyway, I found a Tim Hortons in Calcutta, Oh, which is only
about 30 minutes from here. I can have my mom pick up a dozen the next time
she goes to Mountaineer to bet on the Ponys.

[RuthlessBurgher]

(Jigawatts chants) Fleury Fleury Fleury


Ruthless, are you talking about the guy wearing what appears to be a Habs jersey?
He already freaked me out, but now that I'm aware that he's progressively growing a
beard as the game goes on, I'm doubly freaked.

The mystery chin is behind the net in each of the following pictures:

Clean-shaven:



Bearded:



Now you aren't going to be able to pay attention to the hockey tonight. You'll be too focused on the boards as that freaky chin grows a five o'clock shadow.

[RuthlessBurgher]

The Dennis Bonvie place is giving me mental images of Stan Makita's Donut's from
Waynes World. Anyway, I found a Tim Hortons in Calcutta, Oh, which is only
about 30 minutes from here. I can have my mom pick up a dozen the next time
she goes to Mountaineer to bet on the Ponys.

Now that I think about it, there my be a slight resemblence between Dennis and Ed O'Neill as Glen the manager of Stan Mikita's Donuts.

[Jigawatts]

I could see that coming from a mile away. The Habs weathered the storm time and time again as
the Pens failed to put a third goal on the board after countless opportunities. Chris Letang fans on
what was pretty much an open net, then he kicks in the go ahead goal in between the wrong pipes.

[RuthlessBurgher]

It felt like we should have been up by 4 goals with how one-sided the action was through 2 periods. Being only up one, you just knew that they would blow it by trying to sit on that miniscule lead instead of continuing to be aggressive. We had our chances to tie on several occassions at the very end, but it wasn't to be. It's nice that we've had 11 goals scored by 11 different players, but now it is time for the Sids and Genos to step up and just take things over.