Canadiens' History

This day in Canadiens' history.

March 4, 1981: Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens scores his 1,000th point against Winnipeg.

And only a fleeting 23 years later:

March 4, 2004 - Acquired center Jim Dowd from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for a fourth-round selection in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.

I have nothing to say. Everything is put in perspective with those two lines.

Chelsea's first silverware

First the bad news. We lost to Newcastle in the FA Cup, 1-0, thanks to an early goal by their Dutch import, Patrick Kluivert. We managed to not score the entire game although we had them against the ropes for the entire time. We also lost 2-1 to Barcelona away to them, after some shocking decisions by the ref, sending Drogba off needlessly. But, it's only halftime there, we play the return leg at home on Wednesday, and we're going to be firing.

We did win the Carling Cup, beating Liverpool 3-2 in extra time. After 'pool scored 44 seconds into the match, we pressed and pressed, but it wasn't till Stevie G., their talismanic captain committed his blunder for the New Year by heading into his own net (he couldnt have done it better if he'd planned it) that we drew level. Drogba and Kexman both scored for us in the second half of ET (shambolic prod-ins at the goalmouth) and Nunez pulled one back for the Reds at the death, but it was Chelsea's well deserved victory that day. Fantastic stuff. Long live online streaming feeds of soccer games from Europe. Otherwise, the option was Champs and their $10 cover, which in my current financial state was a non-occurrence.

You Heard It Here First. RIP: The 2004-2005 NHL Season

Remember, you heard it here first. I'm pre-empting TSN, Sportsnet, the NHL, the NHLPA and all those other organizations by declaring this season over before it ever began. Ashes to ashes, ice to ice.

If ever you asked yourself why they just didn't say it was over in September instead of being puckteases for the last 6 months, I have your answer. If they declared it over then, there would have been no pressure on them to try and get a season underway before September '05. This way, even though they full knew nothing was going to happen, they still maintain the pretence of trying to find a solution, as if saying to us, "Look, we're still trying, we're working hard for you". No, you're not.

Because, at the end of the day, it's not the players who suffer (because they made however many millions they made the previous years, and they're all playing in Europe anyway), or the management (because they're rich to begin with, hell, they own a frigging hockey team), and it's not the average fan (except from a happiness point of view), but the entire support industry, the Zamboni drivers, the beer sellers, the touts, the waittresses at bars and the cabbies who depended on the average fan spending 50 bucks during a game. I personally couldn't give two hoots about the season, I saved about a 50 bucks in hockey related non-expenditure, but for them, I feel truly sorry.

And for my Canadian friends, its going to be a longer winter than you think without the Playoffs. Time to start supporting a Premiereship side whose name begins with a "C" and there's an "helsea" in there somewhere. We're only 9 points ahead of MunchUs now, and we play the Toffees on Saturday, a game I might have to miss in case I go to Carnival in Quebec. Sacrilege, tabernac.

On this day in Canadiens history, February 11, 1971 : Jean Béliveau of the Montreal Canadiens scores his 500th goal against Minnesota. He shoots, he scores!

Robben's Broken Foot and AdSense

So I apologize for the ads at the top of the page - I just wanted to see how this stuff works, and so I signed up for it.
Robben broke his foot against Blackburn and Chelsea dropped their first points on 14 games when they drew Man. City 0-0. I missed the game, but apparently we pummelled their goal and were dreadfully unlucky not to score, with City defending admirably and David "Calamity" James pulling off some tremendous stops.
In the meanwhile, the Patriots won the Super Bowl (in which you take the Super Dump after the Super Chili) beating the Eagles quite handily in what was a pretty dull affair. The scoreline was close, not the game.
As for hockey, Montreal beat Quebec 5-4 in overtime in the 5th game of the 1993 quarter-finals. Kirk Muller scored the winner (I think). Time warps are for Michael J. Fox and hockey fans in Canada.

Amazing Stuff

So this is one of the best ads I've ever seen, and also testament to the fame of, and regard with which, Mahatma Gandhi is perceived around the world. Here.
Also, Chelsea won again today, a grinding 1-0 against Blackburn.

The Greatest Story Ever Reported

This is the greatest story ever reported. It beats news of democracy arriving in a previously dictatorial country by a mile. If you're Canadian, or fond of beer (notice the cultural observation I sneak in there), you should most certainly read this.

Grudge Match

Tuesday, 3pm ET, is the final instalment of the Premiereship's best Grudge Match. Arsenal plays Manchester United in Highbury, the home of the Gunner scum. A little background: earlier on in the season, ManUre stopped Arsenal's record undefeated streak at 49 games, via a non-penalty after Wayne "I'm such a thug" Rooney blatantly dived in the box, thereby proving that pretty much all professional sports persons are cheats. ManUre also scored a second in the dying moments of the game (or kick-fest since that's what it was), but by then it was all over bar the foodfight in the tunnel, the post-match diatribes in the press, the months of bad blood, and Chelsea running away wih the title in the middle. Ha.
Speaking of Chelsea, I was right to expect a snore win against Birmingham this weekend, and we obliged, turning it on for a total of 10 out of the 90 minutes. But 2-0 to us, and a fifth round draw at Newcastle will do nicely.
Hockey: Lock Bettman and Goodenow in a room, tell them that you'll reopen the door in a week, and if there's no agreement, there'd better be only one man left standing. And once the season restarts, shoot them both anyway.