Things that have happened since the last Dec 23 Road Win for the Habs

Here's a slice of things that have happened, or how the world looked the last time the Habs had a road win on Dec 23.
It's been a little while since we last won a road game on the 23rd of December. Our last WIN on this date was at home to Pittsburg... in 1995.
I'll stick to the big ones, mostly related to hockey.

- The internet became widespread because of...

- Every powered computer ever developed was manufactured.

- The television gained widespread acceptance, switched to colour, and changed resolutions half a dozen times. It's moved from vaccuum-tube'd implementation with a cathode ray tube display to liquid crystal displays, plasma output screens, and OLED LCDs.

- As an addenum to that, the NHL went from being primarily radio-driven to being televised, with the addition of white ice

- The Montreal Canadiens won 20 more Stanley Cups, while the Leafs won 7.

- The NHL Expanded from 6 to 30 teams.

- Every major Rock, rap, and rnb star's career has occurred since that game.

- It occured during the first season that a player scored 50 goals in 50 games. That very player along with Elmer Lach lead the Habs to a win that night against the Bruins.

- Every retired number in the Bell Centre except Howie Morenz was retired after that game.

- Both Bob Gainey and Jaques Martin were not born when the game took place.

- Since that game only two playersi n the NHL have been goaltenders named captain of their team, Bill Durnan two years later, and Roberto Luongo 63 years later.

- Some players had not yet returned from the Second World War.

- Newfoundland became a Canadian province, Nunavut a Canadian Territory.

- Toronto overtook Montreal as the most populous Canadian city.

- Rosa Parks had not refused to stand, Martin Luther King had not had a dream, Malcolm X had not yet caused controversy, and the civil rights movement had not yet happened.

- The Berlin Wall had not yet fallen.. actually the Berlin Wall had not yet been built.

- Russia was run by Stalin, Spain by Franco, and Cuba by Ramón Grau (also known as "someone not named Castro")

- In the amount of time that has gone by, Hal Gill could complete four full laps around the rink.


1945 was a long, long time ago.

Jacques Martin twitter

It appears Jaques Martin has discovered twitter! And.. is typing in English!

A picture tells a thousand words

I could write a long post about Martin's screwups last night (Laraque out on the ice with four minutes left needing a goal) and the bad officiating (allowing a goal while someone was checking players with a broken stick) but a picture really does say a thousand words that sums up both problems perfectly

(you'll need to click this for its full width and thus the full impact of the image)

Repeat after me; it's only the pre-season

We've seen all three faces of the Canadiens now.
Their first game was defensively minded, offensively talented, and netted us a win, with Carey Price doing his job.

The second featured our defense not focusing enough but our talent preserving a win.

The third was reminiscent of the last two years when occasionally we just forget to skate defensively.


I guess the priority here is to stay calm. Even at our worst there was silver lining, Spacek got a goal, and there is certainly some talent buried there.

I'll be in the corner my gin. Lots of gin.

But as I drink, at least i know that only half of our team was on the ice, and Martin still has a chance to beat some life into the team if this happens again.

Martin and Advertising Fail

One last post about our pickups. Jacky Martin, as well as a different kind of scam.

Jaques Martin. Solid coach. No, really.
He turned an incompetent Ottawa team into a conference leader, and turned some decent though not stellar talent into superstars. While some would argue his brand is not exciting, I'd disagree, especially given he has a speedy front line to work with and, trying to avoid the cliche, knows what it takes to win. He was strong with Ottawa and St Louis, and.. er.. lets not talk about Florida, but Florida doesn't have the player pool Montreal has.




Now kids, I'm going to talk to you about a special kind of scam.

You all may be familiar with hockeybuzz.com?
No, this isn't a "EKLUND LIES!!1111" post.

I read hockeybuzz. I'm a huge fan of Eric Engels, and Howard Berger is at the very least entertaining.
I do not like the autoplay videos. I actually realize I spend so much time there I paid for a season ticket to avoid them.
But Eklund, please do not pretend they are necessary for anything more than selling season tickets.

Eklund claims he needs the autoplaying videos to pay for his site. Advertisements do not work that way - there is no premium for having the ad play automatically, and seeing how high Hockeybuzz is on alexa [coupled with how weak the server is judging by how it crashes on important dates], he should have no trouble "keeping his site afloat" (ignoring the fact that hockeybuzz makes frankly hilarious amounts of cash).

Hey, feel free to beg for money, but please don't pretend the inconveniences you give us are out of any kind of necessity other than trying to get us to pay you $20.