The game's number one star.
posted by habsbloggergirl
So I just got back from my first (and most probably last) game sitting in the Molson Ex Zone at the Bell Centre.
When my friend got these tickets, I was excited! We had actually seen Florida a couple of times in past years, but still, they always tended to be somewhat interesting games.
Tonight was an experience to say the least, but I’d hardly call what happened on the ice tonight interesting. To be honest, it was actually a pretty boring game.... Or rather it would have been, had we not been sitting where we were.
We were actually in the 300-level seats so it was equivalent to grey, which was great, or so we thought. I was at the end of the row, which I liked, although sometimes it’s annoying since you have to get up so many times to let people through and miss parts of the game.
Anyway, the game starts and this girl comes and sits on the steps right next to my seat, and unpacks a bag of signs and Habs memorabilia. Of course, she was one of the Molson Ex people... and had the goal of getting everyone up and screaming. Before she got there, our area was relatively quiet. I mean there were a few loud people and everyone was cheering, but nothing too intense. However, that soon changed. First, the two guys behind me would not stop screaming, booing... you name it, they did it. Second, Molson Ex lady was giving away things to people who were loud, so of course these two guys got even louder. And to top it off throughout the entire game she was smashing around a tambourine (part of the job description unfortunately). I can’t tell you how many times I looked over, wanting so badly to take that tambourine and throw it at the two guys behind me.... and I seriously don’t think I was alone in that line of thinking.
You’d think during the breaks in game, we’d get a break too... but in fact, just the opposite occurred. Every single break was filled with that damn tambourine, followed by more screaming.
It wasn’t all bad... We actually saw Bob Gainey right above us walking (I got a blurry picture!), the goaltending was fabulous on both ends of the ice, and I’m happy my section was a little bit enthusiastic at least (though it went way overboard at times).
Back to the goaltending, it pretty much led to all the highlights of the game. Jaro was amazing, and definitely earned his shutout, and Vokoun did a stand-up job as well, so much so that it could have gone either way. Luckily Pouliot got a goal, because honestly had it been 0-0 until the end I’m not quite sure we would have won in OT.
The rest of the team was abysmal. Markov really did not have a good night (though he did made some a few nice defensive moves (I mean, he’s Markov!) but there were some defensive errors), and Plekanec and Cammalleri looked completely out of sync. Speaking of line #1, during the game, I turned to my friend and said something I thought I’d never say: “I miss Kostitsyn”. Not that I’m not a fan, I actually really like Andrei, and he’s been doing great this year, it’s just that he seems a little space-y on the ice, and I know that he can do even better. However, perhaps I was wrong... maybe this space-iness allows for Plekanec and Cammalleri to have more time (I’m just grasping at straws here), but without him they were the ones who looked “dans la lune”, so I’ll be glad to have him back ASAP.
Laraque was really bad tonight too... It made me miss Kostitsyn (Sergei this time) because honestly, anyone could have done a better job than he did. I still rue the day that Gainey gave him a no trade clause (or a 3 year, 4.5 million dollar contract for that matter). When he came he told us he was a good fighter who would help protect our team and that he also was skilled hockey-wise. I’ve yet to see him perform in either of those categories and the three years are almost up...
The three stars were predictably Halak, Vokoun and Pouliot. Why? Because there was actually no one else. Every other player was either invisible, or doing something wrong. I just hope that we can get our acts together, and quickly. We are very fortunate because Halak and Price have been playing well of late, but that doesn’t give the rest of the team the right to put in absolutely no effort.
On that note, I think I’m going to get to bed since I’m still hearing tambourine sounds in my ringing ears. Hopefully sleeping it off will do the trick, though I doubt it will be erased from my memory anytime soon.
So we’d better hope for some stellar goaltending Saturday night against Jersey... and someone’s gonna have to get a puck past Marty B., and to be honest I have no idea who that will be. We seem to be lacking in scorers lately. Either way, it should be an interesting one.
