Seems the flying V still works

So... yeah I don't really have much to say about last night's game. Well, I was really excited to see Milan Lucic featured in the Pop Culture segment during the 1st intermission (awwww, Armageddon makes him tear up!), and also to see him featured so much because of his BIG FAT CONTRACT extension. And it was nice to find out Mark Stuart is the new player rep in the NHLPA for the B's - after Andrew Ference declined to repeat as team rep (fueling further speculation that he might be on his way out after this season?). But other than that, uh, well, I was discouraged to say the least. Jack Edwards put it best when he said the B's didn't lose ONCE at home last season by more than 3 goals, and 3rd game in, they lost by 5.

I saw a lot of problems with the play, and maybe it's due to the new guys adjusting to the system, but in a lot of cases, it was the team veterans who were out of place. No one was in front of the net to direct in a bounce, no one was there to catch a pass, no one was there to crash the net, passes went into the wild blue yonder, and for the love of the lord, why did Looch or Thorty not drop the gloves with SOMEONE at some point in the third? I mean, hello? What's another expression for a fight? "Momentum shifter." That was desperately needed by the middle of the 2nd, let alone through the 3rd. So what happened? Who knows. Four days off after a great win. A lot of hub-bub surrounding Looch's extension, the Sox playing the Angels in the playoffs (OK OK that game didn't start til 9:37, but isn't it kind of ironic that both the hockey and baseball teams were playing the Anaheim teams?). No idea.

Hopefully Julien is currently instituting his kind, loving, fatherly manner of gently nudging his players back onto track, and helping them find their zen, their groove, their asses with both hands. Let's be real, hopefully he gave them a double practice today and tomorrow's game-day skate's mandatory. Because that shit on ice last night was unacceptable from this team. Apparently 2/3 of the team forgot the system they've been playing for the past 3 years, and they damned well better remember by tomorrow night.  And despite them being pretty good friends, I kind of hope that John Tavares' "Welcome to the NHL" moment comes from Milan Lucic pounding him into the boards during that game.


I'm starting to think I really am a jinx. When I make it public that I like a team, they just start to suck. We'll see how it goes, but maybe I should just give up on hockey blogging and stop publicly admitting my love for a team - any team. We''ll see how it goes.

Anyway, here's some pictures from last night (photos courtesy AP, Getty, or whomever. All Rights Reserved.):

And cause I totally love burning images on peoples' brains... may I present to you Zdeno Chara, naked:

Because I'm an equal opportunity believer in sharing naked (or mostly naked) photos of great hockey players, I was going to oblige all three of my readers with a great mostly-naked photo of Looch, who, by the way, has a body that would put Z to shame. However last time I backed up my computer, I archived the photo and took it off the hard drive. Tear.