The Time is Upon Us

It's fall, there's a chill in the air, and your new-look Montreal Canadiens are about to start their 2009-2010 season (if this opening ceremony ever ends!)
Will they be better this year? I don't know. I hope so. But I hope so every year. Either way, I'm ready (I have been since 3 weeks before training camp) to become a hockey fanatic again. The season is upon us. Yay!

Retirement Ceremony deep breath

It's sports weekend in Montreal. Tonight, the famous and infamous Patrick Roy will have his jersey retired by the Montreal Canadiens. Tomorrow, the Grey Cup, the Canadian much much much poorer cousin to the NFL's super bowl, is being played here between the Montreal Alouettes and the Calgary Stampeders... needless to say, my attention will be on tonight's hockey game.
The habs have been playing awful hockey lately, (scraping by with some wins, but not really deserving them) and they tend to play even worse on ceremony nights, so deep breath here... and in the words of the always hilarious Mike Boone:
The only thing that might mar a magical evening at the Bell Centre is the possibility, given the volatile nature of the honouree, that Patrick Roy Night could become the first jersey number retirement to degenerate into a lectern-clearing brawl. But we're probably safe. No one wearing a tuxedo has thrown a good punch since Frank Sinatra.

Why July First is so Important

The other reason, because the first reason is that it's Canada's birthday, of course:
NHL Free Agency begins July 1st. Everyone knows its the most interesting time in hockey after the playoffs. Bob Gainey has some interesting things brewing. Will he be able to sign the always-hated-but-boy-would-he-look-good-in-one-of-our-jerseys-Maple-Leafs-Captain Mats Sundin?
Will he go after Marian Hossa if he can't?
Will he let Streit walk?
Will he manage to sign AK 46 (as we Habistanis fondly refer to Andrei Kostitsyn)?

The insanity begins tomorrow. Stay tuned...

Hockey Night in Canada now available in your native language

I love this country. I always tell any visitor to Canada that there are two things that they'll find quintessentially Canadian: Hockey and Timmy's. Well, Hockey Night in Canada (that great Canadian institution, if you forget about the whole "Don Cherry" part) is now being broadcast in both Mandarin and Punjabi. Check it out here.
I hope one day there's an Arabic broadcast. I would watch out of curiosity, just to see how certain phrases like "faceoff" and "he shoots, he scores!" got translated, but in the end, I know I'd switch back to the hockey broadcast I grew up on, or at least the RDS one that shows me the Habs games when CBC insists on airing the Leafs.

One more title? and wedding season continues

Canada is one win away from another world title today, although they do face the mighty Russia, so it won't be easy. One of Les Boys, Andrei Markov, is playing for team Russia, and although there are no Habs on Team Canada, my alleigance definitely lies with my country.
Go Canada Go!

On a separate note, M and I seem to have beat the rush when we had the wedding in February. Last night we were at our second wedding in three weeks, and there are at least two more to come in the next month and a half. A quick shout out to all the lovely couples: May Allah swt Bless you with long and happy lives together (and for those to come, if you need anyone to vent to about how stressful or time consuming wedding planning is, you know where to reach me - that's you Suad!)

The Habs Are Out

but we should look on the bright side...

Crushed!

A few days ago, my Montreal Canadiens were leading their first round series 3-1... After last night, they come home to play the crucial seventh game of the series tied 3-3. Needless to say, I'm on the verge of nightmares. I've decided it's in my best interest to brace myself for the worst, so that on the off-chance they manage to pull off a win and proceed to round two, I'll be pleasantly surprised, and should they complete the self-anihilation they started so convincingly last Thursday, I'll have been expecting it...
Of course, I know that no matter how well I prepare myself for failure, I'll be crushed. Any self-respecting Habs fan suffers with every failure the team fails, and glories in every victory. It's our nature: we can't be cool, calm, or collected... this is Hockey, and this is the most storied franchise in its history, and no matter how true it might be that it's only a game, it's also a culture and a passion. My brother-in-law yesterday suggested I should follow his approach:
"I used to care about the Egyptian national team," he told me, "and they always lost. It was once I stopped caring, that they finally started winning."
And as right as he is, I'm just incapable of turning off my obsession with hockey, or of the Habs in particular. I just wish they weren't so determined to give me a heart-attack, and had more concern for my poor nerves.

First Canadian Team Eliminated

The Pens swept Ottawa 4-0, and my hometown is now out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and though I love my city, I've never actually been a Sens fan, so my only real sadness about the whole situation is that Canada now only has 2 teams left: Montreal and Calgary... If betting wasn't haraam, I'd put my money on my Habs of course, and that's where I'm putting my support...
1 more win tomorrow night and we're on to round 2. Pray for me that our new antenna starts picking up CBC's tv signal from over the mountain...
g'night!

FYA (For Your Amusement)

A photo from the scene outside the Bell Centre last night on my way home. Taken around 8 p.m., game was already well underway, so things were quiet outside:


And on a completely different note, If you liked Lord of The Rings, check this out:

Where are the words?

I've always been better at writing it down than saying it but
today, I can't do either
can't find the words to put to paper to screen to mind to ear to dream
because each time I dream the words I find myself looking for a way to forget
them to replace them
with easier words
like 11 degrees and sun
like 1st place like water like rain slush spring
all happy words while parting is a sad one
and the word that I try to forget becomes a sentence a page a book
and my eyes are half open half closed and my brain is lost somewhere
between waking and sleep
hoping and dreading -remembering
and forgetting

I've always been better at writing it down than saying it but
today
I can't write or say or think

Clinched!

With their 3-0 win over the Sens last night, Les Boys can finish the season in no less than 2nd place and have clinched their first division title in 15 years! So proud of my team. Now, if only Saku Koivu can figure out a way to play on that broken foot, and Komi and Hamr can come back healthy, we'll be good for at least a round of play-off action...
I always get funny reactions walking around with my Habs scarf in Ottawa... More on that in a future post...

Snow snow snow

I was so proud of myself for being able to deal with the cold during my first three days back in Canada last week, and then.... Wednesday happened. On Wednesday, I waited outside my parents' house in Ottawa at the bus stop 40 minutes with cold wind pushing blowing snow straight at me, before an almost-totally-full-bus finally came by to take me to work. Welcome home, right?
We're supposed to be having another storm today and tomorrow, and in Montreal, we're fairly close to breaking the record for the city's snowiest winter. At least I get the same weather regardless of which city I happen to be in.
I took this photo a few days before leaving for Egypt.


In other news, I returned from Egypt to find Les Boys on the verge of becoming 1st in the conference, and now they are. As I'm mentioned previously, Bob Gainey is a genius. As a Habs' fan, I'm sitting back and enjoying...

'Tis the Season...

To be congested (fa la la lala lala lala - Sing it!) My little angela has a viscious head cold and has managed to share the love with all in the family (parents, grandparents, baby brother, and your's truly - Auntie Noha). This morning I woke up unable to breathe. I'll spare you the details, but winter has definitely arrived. It's 20 below zero (celsius) with the windchill factor in Ottawa today. Winter has MOST definitely arrived.



On the bright side, Les Boys won 4-3 in Shootouts against those poor Toronto Maple Leafs last night, despite being horribly outshot and deserving to lose. I'm starting to really like our rookie goalie (46 shots, and no panicking). but the team needs to play better 5 on 5. Wow, I sound like such an arm chair coach

Are we good?

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry for the last week plus of neglect. I know I got your hopes up with constant writing and then kinda just left you hanging with no explanation. I know your number of hits have suffered as a result and there was little you could do without my getting back to it. I guess the following is a series of excuses for my erratic writing behaviour.

• Wedding planning: A couple of months ago, M and I sat down and came up with everything we needed to do, and then saw that we had "so much time" left to do it all and Ramadan was coming up, and in general things were just busy on other fronts so… we let it slide a little. And rightfully so. But now, the wedding is not getting any farther away and the stuff still needs to get done. It's fun, but very very time consuming (and I like to think we're keeping it pretty low-key and I'm not being an insane Bride-zilla, but it's just something that takes A LOT of time)


• I can't wear my hijab because WHAT?: So, lucky for me, I'm a federal government and not a provincial government employee. The Quebec provincial government is considering passing a law to disallow "ostentatious religious symbols" a la France, in public life. So my fellow hijabi's would be told to take off their hijabs or not come to work. Same with Orthodox Jews who cover their heads. Same with Sikhs. Same with Christians wearing crosses. Oh wait, what's that you say? Christians with crosses are welcome to keep wearing them? Well, then, I guess this isn't about keeping society secular after-all… Needless to say, I've very very concerned, upset, hurt about this whole debacle. I'm not sure what's so threatening to Quebec society about little old me in a headscarf, (or any other piece of clothing for that matter) or how it would interfere with my ability to do my job as a public servant, teacher, etc… And whatever happened to a woman's right to choose what she wore? Why doesn't forcing me to take off my hijab equate to oppression the same way forcing someone to wear one would? ... So, I've been trying to let as many ppl know to write their MPP's about it if they live in Quebec, and just generally to spread the word and stay on top of the issue.


• Hockey: Ramadan is over, and the hockey season is young, and for a Habs fan like me who's been starving for good old Canadiens' hockey since that dreaded game last April (which they lost, resulting in their missing the play-offs), the time is NOW to catch up on what Les Boys are up to. So far so good. We have a young team (note the use of "we". I often talk as though I, not Guy Carbonneau, am the coach of the team) and we're still making lots of mistakes, but our young guys are a year more experienced, our overall level of effort is much more consistent than last year, and our newbies (rookies and free agents) are turning out to be an overall improvement over the bunch that left at the end of last year. Overall, I like the class of 2007-2008, though I wish Carbo would stop giving Kostopoulous so much ice time.


• Rain, Baaaaaaah!: Yes, I know this is a lousy excuse, but I'm anti-rain, and when it rains I lose all creative/expressive abilities… and we've been getting a lot of rain lately, so…

I hope these excuses are enough for you to sort of forgive me. I don't really promise I'll be writing all the time any time soon again. And I'm sorry if I mislead you with my little spurt of posting pre-Eid, but time is just gonna continue to be tight for a while… Are we good?

The Breezer is Back!

All fans in Habs Nation are currently either pulling their hair out and screaming frustration, or welcoming back one of Montreal's most damaged hockey sons in recent years. Consider me of the latter grouping:

Yesterday the Canadiens announced the signing of Patrice Brisebois, who left 2 (3? Can't remember) years ago via free agency after the boo-birds at the Bell Centre made this guy's life so miserable, he developed an irregular heartbeat from their merciless treatment. Breezer, as he's called (or Breeze-by as the crueler fans call him), didn't exactly light it up in Colorado, with his (then) new team, and as his back problems acted up again, he only played about 30 games last season. Even so, Gainey has signed him to a one year, $700K deal, and he'll be used sparingly in Montreal on even-strength and saved mostly for time on the power play.

I'm happy to have him back for the following reasons:

• We, the Montreal fans, always complain that no one wants to come play here. Well, here's a guy who does, even though he knows first hand how abusive and vile we can be all under the guise of our love of hockey
• Last time Breezer played here, he was being used as the #1 D. And he's NOT a number one D. He was playing against the other teams' top lines. This time, Markov, Komisarek, Hamrlik and probably Streit are all above him on the depth chart, with even Dandenault and Bouillon likely to get more ice time on even strength if they play well again. Montreal's D is drastically improved from the corps that once included Patrick Traverse playing regular minutes. Brisebois will not be expected to play the hard minutes, and used in a limited role, he should be effective
• The fans are constantly complaining that we don't have enough D who can make that first outlet pass. Last year, with the exception of Markov and maybe Streit, none of our D did it. This year, we've added both Hamrlik and Brisebois, who can. This is the key to getting out of our zone and getting on offense, so DON'T underestimate.
• Our biggest (read: only) weapon on the power play (ahem, Souray) has gone and signed in Edmonton. Brisebois may not have Souray's crazy slapshot from the point, but he's always been a very effective power play point getter.
• Our poor memories convince us fans in Habs Nation that Breezer had TERRIBLE defensive numbers his entire 14 seasons in Montreal. We go on and on about the -31 we all had to watch. In fact, this happened ONE season, the season he was played on his wrong side the whole year. Otherwise, he never came anywhere close to that level of disastrous Defensive play, and in fact, was reasonably adequate on D and quite solid for points offensively.

I hope other fans are willing to give him another chance when the puck drops this October. Those who bemoan the 5 steps backward the Habs have just taken by signing Brisebois should remember, this isn't Breezer at $4.5M a year playing first pairing minutes against the other teams' top lines, this is Breezer at $0.7M playing third pairing....

Draft Day

and by Draft, I'm of course referring to the NHL player draft taking place this weekend, starting tomorrow night... I'm nervous for my Canadiens because a) I think there's a big trade coming (always happens when all 30 GMs are in the same place, and there are rumours Patrick Marleau could be a hab when all's said and done), and, b) I think my Habs are going to pick Angelo Esposito with their first pick, and rumour has it he's another Mike Ribeiro, and I'd much rather they pick a defenseman...
It'll be interesting to see how things have played out on Monday. I'll be biting my nails...

Summer Hockey Talk

If you don't care about hockey, stop reading now. This is an unabashedly hockey and habs-specific post... I'm not going to bother explaining much. It's only out there if you just can't get enough about the Habs over what has been our long, slow off-season, and because, as a Habistani, I need to vent...



It's going to be a painfully slow summer for Habs fans, who are dying to know who goes, who stays, and whether there will be big changes at forward (will we be able to get rid of Sammy? will Kovy finally be quiet and just play, hopefully better than last season? will we get a #1 or #2 centre to help out our poor Captain K? will Chips, Kosty, and Grabovski move to the big club permanently, or stay on the farm?) at D (we got Markov (YAY!!!) now will the Habs brass go after Souray? Or will they try to pick up a Hannan/Rafalski/Timonen instead? Maybe none of these? Maybe a trade? Can we get Emelin over from Russia? Even if we do, will he be ready?) and at Goalie (this was the only position where we THOUGHT we knew what would happen: Huet the starter, Halak the back up, but then Carey Price had to go all Patrick Roy on us out of Junior and lead the farm team to the Calder Cup title... not that I'm complaining, but this could result in an earlier call up for the kid...)



The most interesting and pressing issue for the Habs is our D (I'm certain that if every other position is not improved, but the D gets an upgrade, we could still be a MUCH better team next year)... and of course, the most interesting question on D is the Souray question: To Souray, or not to Souray? Over at A theory of ice, I found a great article on this very subject. Enjoy, fellow habs-fans!

How to break a sports fan's heart

How could you, Les Boys? I believed in you. I thought you could do it, and you lose to the Maple Leafs during the last game of the regular season and surrender 8th place.
For all my loyalty, I will get no play-off hockey this year, not even a first-round loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
On behalf of Habs fans everywhere tonight: Ugh!

Total Disbelief

THEY DID IT! 6-4 and back in 7th place in the East!

****************************************************

Is this actually happening?
Are my Habs actually leading the Rangers 5-2 halfway through the hockey game? According to Boone, they are!

The pessimist in me is still still bracing for a possible loss when it's all over.

Hang in there, Habs Fans!

The realist in me says to let it go...
The optimist in me says they can do it...
The pessimist in me says there's no way (but really this is just the emotionally wounded part of me making sure that I'm not let down in case it doesn't work out)...

Tomorrow, my Habs play their latest "Must win" of the season. Against the red hot New York Rangers. Win, and they could potentially move into 7th; Lose, and they could end up in 11th or 12th...
I'm not watching tomorrow (not the whole game anyway). Too many other things to do, not to mention too painful (I could easily be someone who dies of a heart attack one day, not due to high cholesterol or any of the "regular" ailments, but from the stress watching the Habs try to make the playoffs each year induces. I will, however, be following along on Boone's Blog. The man is utterly hilarious, and I feel like he expresses all the angst we poor fans experience.