Adrian Wyld
Well what more is there to say after the thrilling playoff debut of our boy P.K. Subban?
An assist, some decent hits, scorch marks on his hockey pants courtesy of Alex Ovechkin - might want to file that one away - and a generally assured and rambunctious performance.
Although we take back all that guff about Jacques Martin's newfound boldness, Subban should have played more than 10 minutes and change.
As tempting as it is to wax poetic and do an entire posting about the Rexdale Kid, there are other fishies to fry on the eve of game seven, and miscellaneous thoughts to be dispensed. So let us riff through them, bullet-point style (hey we're waiting for a flight in Philadelphia, this ain't exactly French Immersion's comfort zone - plus, we're lazy).
Bullet the first: Jaroslav Halak is a hockey genius who may never give up another goal, ever again. He was, simply, brilliant last night. Best performance since Roy in '86, harrumphed the Gaz's estimable Red Fisher, who has seen a few puck-stoppers in his day. Okay, fair enough, but - and you knew this was coming - what if another dose of flying rubber scuffs the fairy dust off tomorrow night? Raise your hand if you think it's a good idea to let the Capitals (who are admittedly feeling the yips) do the bombs-away thing from the slot all night. Oh, and can we wait for the series' final result before breathlessly comparing Jaro (0 Stanley Cups, 0 series wins) to Roy (4 Cups ) or, God help us, Ken Dryden (6 Cups)? Think either of those guys went through a spell in the playoffs where they gave up 8 goals on 30 shots? Jaro-lovers send your hate mail to the usual address.
Secondly: Hockey players and coaches like to use war metaphors when it comes to the playoffs - laughable if you ask us. But the competitive endeavour does reveal certain things about a group's character. We were thinking about this last night at the end of the second period. As a Cap (which one it was escaped our eagle eye, it may have been Knuble) jousted with Roman Hamrlik and a couple of other Habs in the corner at the siren, the rest of the Washington players - absent Mike Green, who half-heartedly piled in - were already filing across the ice to the dressing room. Nice show of solidarity, chaps. We reckon you need to show a little more stick-togetherness than that if you want to win a championship. This team, seems to us, has serious flaws. Which brings us to another point. The American Kennel Club may soon have to recognize a new breed: the Standard Flailing Semin. All that talent, zero will and zero production in the playoffs, Alex Semin is a mangy dog, pure and simple (although as a rule, we like dogs). Which is probably why he'll score five goals in the first period tomorrow. Meh. This team may beat the Habs - in fact, we're pretty sure they will - but you read it here first folks, the Capitals will not win the Stanley Cup this year. And no, we're not willing to make some outlandish promise that we'll eat our Brian Engblom rookie card or somesuch nonsense, if we're wrong we'll just pretend like it never happened. Being a cardholding member of the media is cool that way.
Thirdly: Neat piece of info that didn't make it into our game story last night: the Pyatt brothers are now two-for-two in forcing game seven this year. Taylor had a more central role in Phoenix's game against Detroit than Tom, scoring a goal, but hey, little brother played his part too, particularly on the penalty kill. The boys from Thunder Bay texted back and forth on Sunday after the Phoenix game, and before last night's tilt, Tom told us "guess it's my turn to make it happen tonight." Yup, it was.
And finally: We once got roped into covering an MMA event at the Bell Centre, which, rather astonishingly, was the loudest we've ever heard that particular building. Until last night, that is. Place was heaving, as electric and fevered as the old Forum of blessed memory. Someone on the press rail mentioned that the decibel reading reached an all-time high. We can't be bothered to actually check out that piece of information, but it sounds reasonable to us. Mike Cammalleri, who has played in the Michigan-Michigan State game in a 100,000-seat outdoor stadium, seemed impressed: "that was crazy . . . that's what I came here for." Oh, and apropos of the maroons who continue to boo the U.S. anthem, the Canadiens went to unusual lengths to avoid international embarrassment by prefacing the Star Spangled Banner with an announcement that it is the anthem of Hal Gill, Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta and Paul Mara (does he get a playoff share?). Didn't really help. There were some scattered boos during the song, and Gill alluded to them after the game when asked about the mad cheering: "we still had trouble with my anthem, but we'll work on it." Translation: please, pretty please, with maple syrup on top, stop booing the frickin' anthem.