Avery Kaput!

...and there was much rejoicing.

There just wasn't enough room on the bristol board for this fan to include "with my 12 gauge." It's implied.

~~~

Now, last night in Buffalo... Hickey describes the Habs' 1st period as 'tepid,' which is nowhere near strong enough. Try rank, rancid, and icky. After 20 minutes they were down 2-0, and could have been much worse. Things were pretty much even after that, but the damage had been done. In the 3rd, Souray was put on another poster by Briere (whose name, it must be noted, is tantalizingly close to biere, the French word for beer).

The Sabres swarm. They have no big-name stars (although Afinigenov and Briere have mucho talent), but they put fourth an excellent effort and they support one another. They gang up on you. You may be able to out-muscle, out-hustle, or out-skill one Sabre, but it is not easy to beat two or more. It seemed like every time a Canadien handled the puck for a couple of seconds, he was immediately surrounded by four men in black. Only on the occasions that the supreme talent of Kovalev (as much as Pierre McGuire dissed him) beat two or more Angry Goat Heads were they able to create anything.

~~~

Three of the top four teams in the East - Buffalo, Carolina and the Rangers - have blueline personnel that I would instinctively consider inferior to the Habs'. That should tell you something about instincts and the 'new NHL.'

Obviously, penalties are bad. So are hits. Perhaps the two are related? Also bad: Takeaways. Who knew.

Playing a low-risk, gentlemanly, inconspicuous game is the key to good defense. Let the forwards take care of the offense, never mind trying to make pretty passes, and for goodness sake, don't hit anyone 'cause you'll just get smacked with a penalty.

~~~

After a year without salary, a pay cut due to CBA, a pay cut due to his old age, and a pay cut due to Canada's taxes... is it really that surprising Darren McCarty filed for bankruptcy? I, for one, am shocked that there haven't been more stories like this.

~~~

Grammar/Medical jargon rant OTD: A 'hip flexor' is a body part, not the name of an injury. The correct description of the injury would be 'hip flexor strain' or something similar.
Saying a player is on the DL with a hip flexor is like saying "he's out with an ulna," or "he's scratched because of a coccyx" or "we won't be seeing Chris Pronger tonight because he has a left nut."

~~~

Ooooookaaaaay... found this while searching for an embarrassing photo of Sean Avery. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.