$5.5 million? Really?

It's the greatest time of the year. The Braves are about to win the World Series, soccer has started, football is about to start, and hockey preseason is only 2 weeks away..... my wife, however, disagrees. But that's another story.

Getting back to hockey for a moment, my team, the Montreal Canadiens, have gone through a wee bit of turmoil over the off-season. If you'll remember from last spring's playoffs, they entered as the 8 seed and knocked off the #1 and #2 seeds before falling in the Conference Finals. All because of smart defensive play and their wonder goalie, Jaroslav Halak.

A week later, they had traded Halak to St. Louis for a new Zamboni and a bag of beans. The fans were shocked. Outraged! Halak had beaten Carey Price for the job, and almost taken them to the promised land, only to be dumped.

What's even better is that the genius braintrust did all of this BEFORE they had Carey Price under contract for next season. Oops. Can you say leverage boys and girls? Yeah. So Carey and his agent held out, waiting for Montreal to come to them.... and waited.... and finally Montreal caved. $5.5 million for the next two years. Antii Niinema only got $2 mill, and he won the freaking Stanley Cup!

Now do you understand why I hate the french?

Anyways, in honour of my team finally getting a goalie under contract 7 days before training camp begins... I created this.

A 1972/73 OPC Carey Price.
The shade of green is off a bit, but Paint.net doesn't have the right one. I thought about doing one of those Birth Year cards that WhiteSoxCards does.... but that would mean i'd have to work with a 1987 card........ and that depresses the hell out of me.


*can you tell I have no money for actual cards, so I just spend my time inventing them instead?

Draft Day Edition of TTM Success - Dan Bouchard!

On the day of the 2010 NHL Amateur Draft in which all fans feel hope for the future of their favourite team, only to have their hopes dashed when their team drafts someone who shouldn't be drafted in the first 3 rounds with the 18th overall pick just because they speak french and not because they have any real tangible hockey skills only to go and outright refuse to play in the QMJHL instead choosing to toil away for 18 games a year at the hockey hotbed of Harvard university while collecting paycheques and laughing all the way to the bank while his team mates bust their asses in a tremendous playoff performance and be rewarded by having their playoff hero uncerimoniously traded a few days later to St Louis for a bag of pucks.

Where was I? Ah yes... my TTM success. Dan Bouchard!!! Dan was drafted 27th overall (see? it all ties together) by Boston in the 1970 Amateur Draft. He never played for Boston, instead being left unprotected and drafted 3rd overall by the Atlanta Flames in the 1972 Atlanta/NY Islanders expansion draft.

Dan signed and personalized the 8x10 photo I sent him...
along with 3 cards.

Next time I have to find some cards of Dan in his Quebec Nordiques uni.... Dan played for Atlanta, Calgary, Quebec, and Winnipeg. But I don't think there are cards of him in a Calgary or Winnipeg uniform....

If you'll notice, Dan also included smiley faces and an inscription PS139. Either he's a former UBoat Captain, or it's a bible verse. One or the other.....

5pm is draft time... The sobbing you'll hear will be me laying in the corner cursing the 5'9" French Canadien winger that Montreal just drafted.....

Somewhere Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Somewhere the leprechauns are smiling as France was eliminated from 2010 World Cup action. The defending champions ended up finishing at the bottom of Pool A with a single point.
For those of you not familiar with the situation, during qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, it came down to a tie-breaking game between Ireland and France to see who advanced to the Big Show.
In extra time, French striker Thierry Henry emulated the biggest cheater of all, Diego Maradonna, and used a handball in the penalty area to put the ball in the back of the net. And on top of that, two French players were offside. Let's just say that it came close to war. Seriously. LINK to a news story.