And Matt Cassel makes three (if you count Pioli)

Matt Cassel was also traded to the Chiefs as part of the Vrabel deal. We got their second-round pick in return.

I know, I was 34 minutes slow on this story. That's what happens when I do work.

You might be asking, 'That's it?' I know that I was. Here is Reiss to explain. One thing to bear in mind: there is no guarantee that Cassel will step up at the same level. Somehow I don't think that we can forget he had Wes Welker and Randy Moss in New England (even if he wasn't throwing to Randy so often, it did mean other teams had to compensate for him in their defensive coverage). So yeah, now let's use that 2nd round pick for Good and not Evil. Or maybe just for a corner.

And here's Mark from NH with a parting thought:

"Ye of little faith. Do you think there is no master plan in place, not yet disclosed.
In Bill we trust. Come on you cranks, he didn't get to the top of the food chain being stupid."

This time in overtime

The Habs won! Again! 4-3 in overtime against the Flyers!

Now let's watch as Montreal fans everywhere start getting all excited again about how this could be the year...

Oh, and Halak was in net. Again!

A few hockey trades for good measure

The Habs also were busy:

1) They traded Bégin (forward) for Doug Janik (defense). Janik comes from the Dallas Stars and is going straight to the farm team in Hamilton. Which makes me ask, 'Huh' as well.

2) They picked up Glen Metropolit from the Flyers on waivers. He is a center and has 'lots of experience.' He's already been put on the fourth line.

According to Bob Gainey, the Habs really needed a center to bring everything together, hence the Metropolit acquisition. Also, if you read between the blog, it would seem that almost everyone is demanding to be traded...fabulous.

Whoa! Vrabel traded, yet another RB signed, bye-bye to Gaffney

Okay, that was unexpected. Vrabel was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs. Wow. Speculation runs rampant by Reiss on this one, but I think that the main train of thought remains, 'Huh?' Most comments range from, 'That was unexpected' to 'Wow, that was really unexpected.' My gut says that this is bad, but as others are also pointing out, we don't know what we got in return yet. So I shall save judgment until that time (unless it is another running back).

Speaking of which, the Patriots signed running back Fred Taylor, formerly of the Jacksonville Jaguars (remember when everyone thought they were going to tear up our D during the 2007 playoffs? One of those guys). This means that we now have, like, 87 running backs. Okay, I exaggerate, but not by a whole lot: LaMont Jordan, Lawrence Maroney, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Fred Taylor, Sammy Morris, and Kevin Faulk. This begs the question of who is going to leave from our side, because I don't know that you need 6 RBs. However, considering how quickly we seem to go through them, maybe you do.

Finally, Jabar Gaffney has gone to the Denver Broncos. Okay, he was the third WR, and he did do his job....but not always.....*coughing* COLTS GAME. So perhaps it is his time to go.

And all of this took place in 1 DAY of free agency. Fun!

We're not still pretending he's the back-up, right?

Montreal won! Again! Yes! Two in a row! Amazing, I know.

Jaroslav Halak got his first shut-out of the year in the 3-0 win against the Canucks (take THAT!). I would say that he has now earned his starter title, almost like he replaced the quarterback. I mean, he's clearly on the game, Carey Price is not.

Apparently Montreal players should be associated with purported organized criminals more often? I don't know. But keep up the turn-around!

The announcers noted that there was a key play by Patrice Brisebois to keep the shut-out intact near the end of the third. Also, does anyone else find it sad that the announcer at the Bell Centre says 'third' in a normal, English way now? It just destroys the whole fun of it really. Au moins on a toujours les Thrashers.

They won

Okay, hurray for a temporary stop to the implosion. Montreal beat Ottawa 5-3 today, despite all of the craziness that ensued over the past week. Kovalev, having returned from his Gainey-imposed time off, had a goal and two assists. All seems well -- for now -- with the Habs.

For now...

Good news, everyone! (More trouble in Habland)

Good grief (or 'tabernac' if you prefer en français):

'The French-language daily La Presse reported Friday that Andrei Kostitsyn and Sergei Kostitsyn had social ties with Pasquale Mangiola [only 2.5 letters away from Mangini!], who was arrested Feb. 12.

“We’re very concerned,” Montreal general manager Bob Gainey said at a news press conference at the team’s suburban practice facility. “We’re very concerned because we know that this person who became involved with these players, he’s not the only person who wants to find a place to enter the inner area of the hockey team.”

La Presse said none of the three players is suspected of any criminal activity.'

Awesome. Apparently Bob Gainey sat everyone down and said that associations with, you know, those involved with organized crime are a bad idea. He also noted that "it doesn’t reflect well on our team, it doesn’t reflect well on the individuals, it cannot be extinguished as a possible inhibitor to our performance." The third (or 'turd') player in question was Hamrlik.

Quit imploding! Now! Come on!

There was some University of Alberta study a few weeks ago that showed the Habs still have a 95% chance of making the playoffs. I wonder how that number changes from day to day.

Habs vs. Sens: Saturday at 3pm

Okay, what is this? How is Montreal not playing two weeks in a row on a Saturday night? Last time I checked, Saturday night was hockey night in Canada.

Dude.

I have been away for a long time, clearly.

Kovalev scandal

Alex Kovalev, one of the key elements in last year's success, did not join the Habs on the road. GM Bob Gainey announced that it was due to his poor attitude as of late. He made this announcement in French, which seems odd seeing as there is a major complaint from xenophobic Montreal fans that not enough players are French.

Guy Lafleur -- swearing in true Montreal fashion -- put in his two cents.

The question is: will he be traded or not? Conflicting reports are currently emerging on the situation.

(How did I miss this? It scares me that I need to spend more time in front of the computer. Eek).

Also, not to keep you in suspense, the Habs lost last night to Washington but it was at least in a shoot-out, so they kept it close.

Best possible news story of the week

'New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady says his recovery from knee surgery remains on schedule and he doesn’t see any reason he won’t be ready for the 2009 opener.' -- from an AP story.

Please, please, please, please, please let this be true!!!

I hate to say, 'I told you so,' but...

Yeah, I so said this back in August:

'The Jets had gambled on salary-cap hell for one small window of a Super Bowl opportunity. At the time of the conversation, the GM suggested the Jets could be as much as $15 million-$20 million over the cap when the offseason arrived. And if the wager on Favre didn’t end in a serious run at a championship, the Jets would be in significant trouble. Why? Because the entire gamble would hang on Favre’s unpredictable and emotional nature at the end of a season. The free agent gluttony and willingness to put the team’s future into the hands of Favre was the NFL version of the Battle of the Bulge – one desperate and risky head-on run, hoping to break through to a championship. If the risk failed, it would mean imminent disaster.

Well, here the Jets are, coping with a veteran roster that has them pressed firmly against the salary cap, and with Favre’s retirement, no franchise quarterback in sight.'

I'm dying to know who they will actually get as QB. Rumors have suggested Jeff Garcia but that can't actually happen, right?

The Patriot Way

Here' s a little insight into why the Pats are just such a good football team with an example that makes the Jets look bad. So you knew I was going to post it:

'There is a laundry list of players who get drafted higher than their college production dictates based upon their physical prowess. The New York Jets selected physical wunderkind Vernon Gholston with the sixth overall pick last year based more upon his freakish combination of size and speed than his inconsistent production at Ohio State. The Patriots, on the other hand, took Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo with the 10th pick. He was the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Gholston was a non-factor.'

If they've named a whole approach to scouting after you, you know you're good.

Habs so bad they require their own franglais

Franglais is the native Quebecois art of melding French and English in a way that creates new functional words (for example, 'j'ai parké le truck' -- I parked the truck) or just appropriating words from English (i.e., coach, game, etc...). From reading a summary of last night's game from the French newspaper La Presse, I discovered a new franglais word this morning: choker, as in, 'to choke.' After last night's 4-1 loss to the Canucks, it was pretty popular.

Here is one of my favorite uses of the word:

'J’aime bien Kovalev mais là il faudrait lui mettre un C sur son chandail. Un C pour Chokeux!'
[Translation: I like Kovalev, but there needs to be a C on his sweater. A C for Choker!]

The Habs: what the hell?

Okay, this post is slightly late seeing as Montreal did actually win last night, but in general let's think this over. Since the All-Star Break, they are 3-9 although they do tend to be pretty streaky -- there was a good stretch in the start of January. There was a front-page story on the webpage for the Montreal Gazette the other day (bless sports towns) and now there are a slew of comments, most of which want to blame head coach Guy Carbonneau. But is that really the problem? I mean, he did take them to a conference championship last year (they then choked Manning-style in the playoffs), so it's hard to think that he is the sole problem. The article claims that Montreal is now 'playing scared' instead of just playing, which seems like a lousy answer. It's hard to know without being able to actually watch a game...I haven't been as good this year and feel a bit behind.

Whatever it is, get your collective acts together!

As a further 'What the hell' how is Montreal not playing on a Saturday night? Is there some national Canadian event I am unaware of?

Précis of why I dislike the Colts

Note the key component here:

"More often than not, when a coach retires amidst success and his replacement is found within the staff, many of the other assistants will remain in place. [Jim] Caldwell has only partially stuck to that formula of continuity, with defensive coordinator Ron Meeks and special teams coach Russ Purnell having left the staff. Purnell wasn’t a surprise, but Meeks’ departure was interesting. With an overwhelming amount of money invested in the offense, Meeks’ units were typically pretty good as long as they remained healthy. Injuries to the defensive line and Bob Sanders hurt the Colts now and then over the last few years, but that also speaks to the lack of financial investment in defensive depth. Now, Meeks is replaced by Larry Coyer, an intriguing veteran coach who had a very respectable run as the Broncos defensive coordinator from 2003-06. But Coyer also had a wealth of highly paid defensive stars on those teams. With Peyton Manning eating up an absurd $21.2 million of the Colts’ salary cap, there won’t be any major defensive additions this offseason." This is from a Yahoo article about the AFC off-season generally.

So Tom Brady's salary is $14M (he and Matt Cassel together are taking up $28.5M of the Patriots' salary cap combined...yes, due to weird franchising logic, Matt Cassel is technically worth $0.5M more than Tom Brady right now. Don't think too hard about it). Apparently, Peyton Manning is worth 1.5 Tom Bradys. The irony being, of course, that Tom has 2 more Superbowls than Peyton.

In case you're wondering, Colts fans, that extra $7.2M could buy you some nice defensive players, which would pay off when Peyton is in the middle of his traditional playoff choke.

Superbowl

Wow, I am being very academic about this and taking my sweet time recording my thoughts.

So Superbowl. I thought that it was a very good game with two teams that wound up being well matched. The Harrison interception to end the first half was pretty awesome and was probably the highlight of the game. I missed most of the commercials because we were watching the game with friends and we socialized in between, but I did see most of the game. It was nice to be somewhat detached emotionally from the results this year.

Apparently, Roethlisberger played with broken ribs. Ow!

And thus football ends until the summer. Thank goodness the NFL has provided us with combine, draft, franchising, free agency, and everything else for between then and now.

NOTE TO SELF: complete sports analysis closer to event, that way you will remember more of what happened.

Brett Favre retires

Yes, apparently for really this time. He has not yet has his teary press conference but his agent announced that he is retiring. I'm sure that there will be a teary press conference to follow.

I wonder who the Jets will get as a QB? Please not Cassel, I don't think I could stand that.

Guy Carbonneau unhappy with Carey Price

(I know, Superbowl was a week ago. Later today. It's been a hectic week, what with Bad Mormons in my crib and all).

The Canadiens are on the verge of a complete collapse, having lost 7 of their last 9 games. Not to mention that last night's loss was to the Leafs, which is clearly not okay. Guy Carbonneau seems to have one person in mind to blame from his quotes yesterday:

First, “we need everyone to play, and that includes our goaltenders,” said Carbonneau.

Then later, “Where do you want me to start? He gave up five goals.” (in response to a question about what he didn’t like about goaltender Carey Price’s performance against Toronto.).

Please tell me that we can get a 'playoffs?' rant soon with a Québeçois accent, because that would be awesome. (If you're curious, Jim Mora, coach of the Indianapolis Colts, was bitching about Peyton. Yes. Really.)

Incidentally, 'backup' goaltender Jaroslav Halak was supposed to start, but was sick.

Rodney Harrison's Superbowl prediction

From yesterday's NBC pregame show:

"Unlike last year's Super Bowl, this year's Super Bowl will be won by the best team and that's the Pittsburgh Steelers."

You might be wondering by now if I even watched Superbowl or have any comments about it. I do and I will. Right now, though, I need to play a lot of work catch-up (although that Montreal uniform could not go without comment).

What not to wear

The Montreal Canadiens donned some seriously ugly uniforms this weekend in honor of the 1912-1913 season. I don't think that this uniform really needed to be honored by any stretch of the imagination.

They also lost yesterday to the Bruins (there was hockey? Wasn't it Superbowl Sunday? Is there anything else that happens in the North American sporting world than Superbowl Sunday? If so, what is the point???). I'm kind of amazed that they did seeing as if I were the Bruins, I think that the striped pattern would have been horrifically distracting. Maybe the Habs were trying to hide in shame instead of concentrating on the game.