cartoon birdies and spinning stars

it could be that the Carey Price era is beginning. Montreal is a tough hockey town and if Cristobal Huet struggles then i wonder how good Price's french is. i still maintain that Price is an excellent G3 option right now and the potential is there for him to become your best goalie on the season. i saw him play live in the AHL playoffs last year and it made me sick to see that the Habs (ptui) were on the verge of having another franchise goaltender in their mix.
you may wonder what my team is, i make no bones about it. i have 2 favourite hockey teams; Toronto and anyone playing Montreal. let me add a PBBBBBBLT for good measure too.
Jonathan Toews (good Winnipeg boy that he is) scored on his first shot in an NHL game. people talk about how smallish Toews and Patrick Kane are, and they are, but i seem to recall that Denis Savard wasn't exactly big and cut himself a pretty good career in Chicago before moving on to Montreal. Savard used to make everyone look stupid as he did his little waterbug thing on the ice. Toews might be better compared to a guy like Steve Yzerman in my opinion and how could he fail to succeed if he's in that mold? i think that Patrick Kane is going to be a goalscorer and may not be as shifty as Toews is so the danger of an NHL trainwreck as he gets into the sights of someone like Jesse Boulerice.

speaking of Boulerice, did you see the highlights of the Philly/Van game last night? nice segue ian. thank you dear reader. so a year ago the Flyers signed the Canucks' Ryan Kesler to an offer sheet that the Canucks matched. last night in the first game that the two teams have played since Kesler takes a defenseman into the end boards and comes out chasing the puck only to get lambasted into watching cartoon birdies and stars by a cross-checking Boulerice. neither guy has any fantasy value right now but nevertheless Boulerice will spend some suspension time over handing Kesler his chicklets like that. i wonder if someone like the Canucks who could use a nice young forward would be interested in making an offer to a restricted FA like Mike Richards or Jeff Carter when they get there? you've got to know that they're biding their time for the right opportunity to make the Flyers overpay for their mistakes just like Vancouver is overpaying for Kesler. Kesler is no Mike Richards or a Jeff Carter either so if in the end the Flyers decide not to match then that's a huge bonus for a team like the Canucks. Richards had a 4 pt night against Vancouver and Bobby-Lou got yanked like he was playing for Mike Keenan again. Curtis Sanford fared no better in net by the way.
Naslund is -6 after 3 games, that's not the bounceback you were hoping for Markus. Bieksa is -6 too. and it's not even cold out yet. Ryan Shannon has hit the lottery for now and gets to line up as the 3rd twin, he can only hope to stay there. i remember saying to a friend that i don't like Joffrey Lupul this season but i'm changing my mind. he doesn't have to be the big name on the Flyers nor score copious amounts of goals like he needed to as an Oiler and i guess i'd be willing to take a flyer on a Flyer like him.

Miikka Kiprusoff looked silly on one giveaway goal last night, don't worry about him though they were in Detroit, Calgary is awful off of home ice and Detroit is a pretty good team. it's difficult to express sarcasm in print so let me just say that Detroit may just be the best team in the league and that's a little better than "pretty good". Holmstrom got himself another garbage goal last night, i'm telling you go trade for the man and just pocket the 30 goals and 70 pts.

i'd like to give the goalie of the day award to several guys including Price and Pascal Leclaire (who shutout the Yotes) but how about Rick DiPietro holding back the high powered Rangers? DiP doesn't get enough pimping for how good he actually is. there aren't many good things to point to on the Island and yet who's that leading the Atlantic Division? the NYI boys.

Milan Michalek scored 2 last night. he gets forgotten when people look at Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Jonathan Cheechoo but he finds twine. he got himself 26 last year and added another 40 assists and i certainly wouldn't be surprised to see him with 40 within this season or the next.

JS Giguere didn't start. i was expecting him to start and he didn't. i joined this one league where you represent a certain team in the NHL (i'm the Ducks) and you can only roster guys from that team on your roster so that we see who has the best rotisserie NHL squad. i really need Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne for that team. anyway, Giguere was in the lineup for that game and then he doesn't start. Bryzgalov gets the win and i don't get credit for it on my fantasy team. that blows. Sammy Pahlsson was activated yesterday and if you recall from the playoffs he's a big lad who can help a team at crunch time. he's probably only C4 worthy in terms of fantasy hockey though and the league would have to be REALLY deep.

Mike Ribeiro can contribute to a fantasy team. he gets PP time and if guys like Brendan Morrow don't step up and contribute then somebody has to score for them.

Eric Johnson got hurt last night. the Blues list him as DTD with a fractured right foot. he only had D5-6 consideration with me anyway but still injuries can decimate. Brad Boyes will be heard from and looks to be clicking with Paul Kariya.

i was thinking that the Sens should trade Martin Gerber to Tampa Bay for Marc Denis and a draft pick but then i saw this kid Brian Elliott hold off Atlanta all night and i thought, they don't need Denis, trade Gerber for a 1st round pick. i'm not saying that's a viable rumour or anything, i'm just spitballing. Ilya Kovalchuk did manage to fire a laser into the top corner to beat him the only time on the night and if Elliott can hold down a backup spot then why not maximize things as soon as Ray Emery is ready to go.

Brent Burns got another goal last night and was on the ice almost a full 25 minutes. he definitely bears watching.